Chapter 64: You Don’t Know Anything (3)
Translator: hwarang
Editor: coyo
Jo Byuk’s face darkened as he saw the interior of his shop.
The situation was much worse than he had expected.
From what he heard, he believed that a guard that followed one of the old men caused a scene. And he also learned the Three Rogues were there, so he believed that they would be able to bring the situation under control since they would be able to handle most experts.
However, after seeing their corpses lying on the ground and seeing the old men lying on the ground half-dead his face looked grim.
And in the middle of the room there was a man he had never seen before.
“Where are you from?” His voice was full of nervousness. Since even he was unable to beat the three of them when they were working together. In other words this person was stronger than he was.
“I came into this dirty place by chance.”
The reason why I answered like this was for later. Since it was important to make them believe that a Kang Ho-in that was just pa.s.sing by caused this scene.
Since Jo Byuk was desperate he tried using this method to save himself.
“Do you know whose backing I have?”
I answered him with a grin, “Does he know that you run this sort of dirty place?”
Jo Byuk’s face froze at this moment. If Sa Ma Chun knew about this place he would be in big trouble. The profit from this was pretty good and if Sa Ma Chun learned of this place he would try to take everything from him.
I laughed at him as I stared at him.
You don’t know anything. How deep is the anger I have against you?
You don’t have the right to trample these girls’ future. Your existence is no better than the dust on those girl’s feet.
I was angry at the fact that he kidnapped these innocent kids and sold them into slavery. I was even more angry about the fact that he was going to act against Baek Pyo and his family.
If you can’t help those girls then you should just let them go about their business not kidnap them.
“What do you want? Is it money?”
This was the limit of his thought process, since if he attacked a place like this, the thing that he would ask for was money.
Seeing that I didn’t say anything, he thought I was giving him some signal.
“I can give you a part of the profit. Ten percent? Thirty? I’ll give you what you want. Look at those kids!”
He was pointing at the girls. I could sense that they became afraid from just one of his stares. I got a sense of what he did to them.
“There are a lot of kids like that in Kang Ho. Also, there are a lot of old men who want those kids. We could make millions.”
I remained silent.
He smiled trying to lighten up the mood, “I’ll give you the best opportunity to experience them when they are freshly caught. I could give a few of them to you whenever they are caught.”
These people are the worst of the worst.
I answered him with a smile, “Did you ask me what I wanted?”
“Just tell me, anything I can do.”
“The thing I want is… It’s hard to tell with words, so I’ll show it to you personally.”
I approached him slowly. Realizing that I wasn’t getting close to give him a handshake, he drew his sword.
“Son of a b.i.t.c.h! You should have just taken the opportunity that I gave you! Just die!”
Shiing!
He charged at me swinging his sword. His attack was fast and deadly, worthy to be called Sa Ma Chun’s right hand man. But I simply dodged using the footwork taught in the White Crane Art.
There was a definite difference between my personal technique, the Ashura Soul Chasing Art, and this White Crane Art. Thus, I was experimenting the differences as I was fighting him right now.
Since I allowed Jo Byuk some room he grew arrogant, “You aren’t much.”
Then he started going all out, using all of his strongest attacks. I would have wanted to experiment the White Crane Art against him a bit more if we were alone, but since I was afraid that the girls could get hurt I ended this quickly.
I dodged the blade and got close to him.
Smack!
His face turned the other way after I punched him.
As I was about to throw another punch he sprayed something that he held in his hand.
Some powder landed on my face.
Jo Byuk stepped back a couple of paces. Seeing that he was holding his breath, it must be a very potent poison. With a single breath I sucked in the powder since I was afraid that the girls might breath it in.
Jo Byuk had a satisfied look on his face, “You idiot! Do you know what kind of poison that is? You are going to die a painful death… but how come ... How come you are not dying?”
Seeing his laughter stop, this time I laughed at him, “You must have bought a counterfeit.”
I was now certain that I had achieved the poison-immune physique. Since that poison it was no better than flour against me as it didn’t disturb my flow. No, flour might have blinded me for a second.
I flew next to him. But this time he revealed his killing intent and threw three hidden weapons.
Swoosh, Swoosh, Swoosh
I deflected them with my bare hands. The three daggers were now stuck on the wall. Being able to deflect swords and throwing weapons barehanded without getting hurt was also part of the White Crane Art.
He tried to stab me again but I knocked the blade off his hand.
Break!
His wrist twisted the other way.
“Ahhhh!” He was screaming while he grabbed his broken hand.
I followed up with an attack on his ribs with my knees.
Smack!
His scream grew louder.
The girl’s faces were brighter than ever. Seeing their expression, I understood what sort of hardship they went through.
Yes, you wouldn’t be satisfied with just this. Watch carefully.
Smack! Smack!
My first punch found its mark on his nose as it broke and the second one landed on his jaw knocking out the rest of his teeth.
“… Please spare m…”
He tried begging but I wouldn’t let him off like that.
Crack!
This time I stepped on his shin and broke it
“Ahhhhh!”
Everyone could hear what sort of pain he was going through.
I wanted to make him suffer as much as possible right now since I wanted the kids to remember this.
Smack!
With my elbow I dislocated his jaw completely.
He probably wanted to fall down but he couldn’t and I continuously hit him.
Punch! Smack! Punch! Smack! Punch!
Since it was so fast the girls couldn’t see it properly. However, every time I made contact a part of him broke.
He finally fell down as more than half of the bone in his body were grounded into dust and the light in his eyes was almost dim. Then I took a step back and delivered the final blow
Boooom!
With this final blow his face became completely disfigured. (TL note: man that’s brutal. This is even worse than the tokyou ghoul torture scene where kaneki says he is going to half kill him.)
“You should share your profits with the devil in h.e.l.l.”
Of course his profits will be punishment and torment.
Then something caught my eyes. There was something around his neck. So I picked it up.
It was a necklace with the shape of an arrowhead. When I turned it I was able to open it and there was a small piece of paper inside of it. It had numbers and words that I didn’t understand, meaning it was some sort of a code. Although I didn’t know what it was, I was certain that I was important.
The girls were alternating their glances between me and the corpses. Whenever they looked at me they had a thankful look, whereas whenever they looked at the corpse they had a look of disgust.
I walked toward the table and gathered the bags that were full of money. It seems that these old men brought that money for the auction.
Then I distributed them to the girls. They received the money with a scared look on their faces.
“I am not giving you this to forgive theù, I am giving it to you since it belongs to you.”
Then one of the girls said, “It’s dirty money.”
“It is not dirty, money is just money.”
“I don’t want it! Seeing this money brings back bad memories.”
She threw the money on the ground. Then I picked it back up and placed it in her hand.
“No, even if you don’t receive this money you will still remember it.”
Regret filled her eyes and she started crying.
Yes, how can they forget about this place?
Human emotions are a very fragile things. Once something happen to them, they would never be able to forget it.
“Just take it. If you don’t want it right now you can bury it for later. And if you still don’t want it then you can throw it away.”
I was certain that this money would be of use to them in the future.
They stared at me and started gathering around me.
“In your life you will meet good people and you will meet bad people. You just met the bad ones first. You are bound to meet good ones in the future.”
I just wanted them to get over their pain and be able to live a better life in the future. As an adult I felt sad and bad for these children since I couldn’t do anything for them when I was still alive. If there was a heaven I hoped that it would help these children.
Half an hour later, I watched on top of a tree as members of the Alliance moved into the area. The girls will be taken back home and those old fools will be taken into custody. This was too big of a crime to get out of using their money and influence. Although Ma Bong Gi was rotten to the core the Alliance was not. This was the Alliance that I created after years of hard work. Since Ma Bong Gi became the new Mengju for less than a year he wouldn’t have had the time or the influence to change its roots.
Sa Ma Chun wouldn’t investigate further into the death of Jo Byuk. Rather than investigating he might even become disgusted at Jo Byuk for doing something like this behind his back.
Through this I was able to secure the safety of Baek Pyo and his family.
*****
A few days later, under the darkness of the night a man dressed in full black jumped over a wall. This place was Jo Byuk’s secret auction place and this man was the very man who was conducting the auction. He was able to enter this place using the secret pa.s.sage a couple of days after the people from the Alliance left.
The broken furniture and dried blood on the floor reminded him of what happened that day.
He left the main hall using one of the backdoors and entered a room. This room was where brooms, mops and other cleaning supplies were stored. Since it was dirty and had a nasty smell he believed that no one would enter this place.
Then he pushed one of the boxes and opened the secret door on the wall. There was some sort of lock on it but he opened it with ease.
He was laughing as he entered this place, “HAHAHA, now everything is mine.”
This place was the secret storage where money and various of other precious materials were stored.
The man’s expression darkened and he slowly turned his head.
His face turned pale and he couldn’t do anything but be scared since the person behind him was me.
“… You expected me to come here…”
I just nodded as I stood behind him.
“Jo Byuk probably didn’t have time to count all of this right?”
Since Jo Byuk was busy doing all sorts of things for Sa Ma Chun he probably wouldn’t have time for it. He probably wouldn’t come here everyday to collect money but come once a month to collect a large sum. So that’s why this secret storage was created since he needed a place to store the money that he received. And he must have had someone trustworthy to handle this place.
“He usually takes it every two months.”
Of course he would. He wasn’t someone who would trust anyone.
“Please spare me.”
“Spare you?”
“Yes”
“If you weren’t greedy and didn’t come here you could have lived for another fifty years.”
Stab!
My sword struck his chest and he fell without a word.
“Your reward for showing me this place is a painless death.”
I knew that he was going to come back to this place so I didn’t kill him back then and waited for his return. Was I the sort of person who wasn’t thorough when taking care of business?
There were all sorts of things here. I collected all the banknotes first. There was a total of eighty thousand nyang. He probably hid the rest somewhere else. And the necklace must be a clue to that place.
Since everything here was done under the table, the currency that they used here was all traceless bank notes, so I knew I could use them without repercussion.
There were some items that caught my attention like some throwing knives. Seeing that they were in good condition I picked them up and put it in my bag. Since I mastered the White Crane Art there weren’t many occasions where I would need to use these, but I was going to keep some of them just in case.
The next thing that I picked up was medicine. It was the best of the best that there was. I thought, ‘He really know how to treat himself.’
Since I had enough medicine for myself from the time that I looted Ma Jung Soo I planned on giving this to Kw.a.n.g Du and the rest.
Counting the money that I already had in the bank I now had two hundred and eighty thousand nyang.
Now my financial situation has become stable, not only that I also achieved the Poison Immune Physique, my internal energy had risen to nearly a hundred years’ worth and I had mastered some new techniques.
I was only getting stronger.