Light Novel: Volume 23 Episode 9
Manhwa: N/A
Pyo-wol stepped outside.
He could see a small river flowing lazily, mountains surrounding the basin like a folding screen, rice fields terraced along the hillside, and villagers working in them.
It was a picturesque scene.
It was a secluded village not too far from Poyang Lake.
Considering its proximity to the tumultuous Poyang Lake where the great battle of Jianghu was occurring, it was hard to believe how peaceful the village was.
The village was so small and unrelated to the martial world that it didn’t receive much attention.
There were only about forty people in the village, and they all made a living of farming rice and catching fish from the river.
While it couldn’t be called a very rich life, they at least managed to put food in their mouths and make ends meet.
With little interaction with the outside world, the villagers were mostly simple.
“To find a safe house in a place like this…”
Pyo-wol felt new found appreciation for the Elder Assassin’s abilities all over again.
Not too far from Poyang Lake, yet completely hidden from the attention of the powerful clans.
It was truly the perfect hiding place.
For the first time since coming here, Pyo-wol was able to relax.
“Ah, handsome big brother!”
“Wow!”
As Pyo-wol stepped outside, the children playing nearby ran up to him.
They circled around him, laughing and chatting, seemingly not at all afraid of Pyo-wol.
Pyo-wol slightly furrowed his brow.
He was not used to such commotion.
“Where are you from, brother?”
“What’s it like outside?”
The children surrounded Pyo-wol, chattering like sparrows.
Pyo-wol shook his head slightly and kept walking. The children followed him like chicks following their mother chicken.
The children, unafraid of the unfamiliar outsider, laughed and chattered.
Pyo-wol frowned slightly.
Had they been martial artists trained in martial arts, they would have felt a serious threat from just the change in Pyo-wol’s expression. But the innocent children did not understand the meaning behind Pyo-wol’s changing expressions, so they laughed and chattered all the more.
“Hmm?”
Pyo-wol suddenly looked down. Then, he noticed a young girl, about five or six years old, holding onto his finger.
When their eyes met, the girl said,
“Give me a hug!”
“……”
“Hug me!”
When Pyo-wol didn’t respond, the girl repeated her request and shook his hand.
Pyo-wol stared at the girl. The girl also stared back at Pyo-wol.
It was Pyo-wol who averted his gaze first.
For some reason, he couldn’t look into the girl’s innocent eyes for long.
He had never averted his gaze in the face of any powerful opponent, but Pyo-wol found the girl’s gaze strangely difficult to bear.
Pyo-wol asked,
“Do you want me to hug you?”
“Yes! Hug me!”
Pyo-wol carefully picked up the girl and held her. Then, the girl spoke again.
“On your shoulders.”
“You want to be lifted up?”
“Yes!”
The girl nodded.
Pyo-wol placed the girl on his shoulders. This caused her to smile broadly, seemingly pleased.
“Wow! I can see so well!”
With the girl on his shoulders, Pyo-wol walked towards the riverbank.
The other children naturally followed behind.
The farmers working in the terraced fields also saw this scene.
One might expect them to worry about their children following a stranger, but there was no sign of concern on their faces.
The girl, sitting on Pyo-wol’s shoulders, whispered.
“Pretty!”
“Hm?”
“Brother, you’re so beautiful! I’m going to marry you!”
“……”
The girl’s bold statement left Pyo-wol momentarily lost for words. But it was only for a moment, as Pyo-wol soon he shook his head.
“I don’t think that’s possible.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not from here.”
“So you’re going to leave?”
“Yes.”
“No!”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t live here.”
Tears welled up in the girl’s eyes at Pyo-wol’s indifferent response.
Pyo-wol wiped her tears away with his hand.
“Everyone has their own life to live, and a place like this doesn’t suit me.”
“Why not?”
“Because we are born differently. If I stay in such a peaceful place, it too will become disturbed.”
“That’s hard!”
“The world is like that. It’s complicated. You’ll understand when you grow up.”
“I don’t know! I just want to marry brother!”
Pyo-wol unwittingly smiled at the girl’s stubbornness.
It was then.
“That’s a nice sight.”
A hoarse voice suddenly said.
Pyo-wol turned around, not surprised.
The Elder Assassin had appeared, standing there.
Pyo-wol put the girl down, saying,
“Go play with your friends now.”
“Okay!”
The girl ran to her friends, who were playing nearby.
Pyo-wol watched her for a moment before turning his gaze back to the Elder Assassin.
“You came back quickly.”
“I have something urgent to report.”
“Urgent? Is there a problem with Thunder Eye or Ye-seol?”
“No. They are faithfully carrying out the mission you ordered. We should receive news that they’ve completed their mission soon.”
“Then?”
“There’s been a disturbance at Poyang Lake.”
“A disturbance?”
“Yes. It seems like the Imperial Yuan Merchant Group… has been attacked.”
“By whom? Was it the Golden Heaven Society?”
“No. It was Gu Jin-wang who attacked the Imperial Yuan Merchant Group.”
“The Wolf King?”
Pyo-wol’s eyes turned cold.
For a moment, the Elder Assassin felt a chill run down his spine and flinched.
Pyo-wol asked,
“And the damage?”
“Fortunately, the merchants and workers managed to escape unharmed, but the damage to the martial artists was severe. Half of the Imperial Yuan Merchant Group’s martial artists were slaughtered by the Wolf King. Fortunately, the family head of the Imperial Yuan Merchant Group also managed to escape with the help of his followers, but…”
The Elder Assassin couldn’t continue.
Pyo-wol, looking at the Elder Assassin’s face, said,
“Looks like someone else died instead.”
“Yes!”
“Was it Noh… Tae-tae?”
“That’s correct.”
Pyo-wol closed his eyes.
From the moment he heard the Imperial Yuan Merchant Group had been attack, he had suspected that might be the case.
His ominous premonition has never been wrong. But he had hoped that his intuition would prove to be incorrect this time.
Even for someone whose time had nearly run its course, he still wished for her to close her eyes in peace at the end.
The Elder Assassin continued,
“Noh Tae-tae made sure that the family head escaped safely and behind till the end. She stood her ground until the end, despite Gu Jin-wang’s constant threats—”
“So she protected the Imperial Yuan Merchant Group’s reputation with what little life she had left.”
“Yes, she was truly remarkable woman. Even in such a dire situation, she managed to calculate that far. Although their warehouse was looted, the financial damage was not too great.”
A merchant group of the Imperial Yuan Merchant Group’s size would never store all its assets in one warehouse. They would spread them across several warehouses.
Although the Imperial Yuan Merchant Group fell to the calamity that iwas Gu Jin-wang, her death preserved its dignity.
Not only did she protect the organisation’s pride, but also the lives of her son, Ju Jang-hwan, and other family members. And she did so in such a way without facing dishonor.
Although the merchant group suffered significant damage because of Gu Jin-wang, the Imperial Yuan Merchant Group will surely be splendidly rebuilt.
“Any trace of Gu Jin-wang?”
“Shall we track him down?”
“Yes.”
“Understood.”
The Elder Assassin responded promptly, without hesitation.
Zzzz!
The Elder Assassin’s skin suddenly tingled as if he’d been in contact with a lightning bolt.
His master showed no change in expression. But the Elder Assassin could tell.
How angry his master was and how immense his murderous intent was.
The tingling sensation he felt now was evidence of his master’s rage.
Pyo-wol went straight back to the safe house.
He took off the ordinary clothes he had been wearing and changed into a set of black martial attire.
Around his waist, he fastened a leather belt made by Tang Sochu and concealed two daggers within it.
After putting on a pair of gauntlets on his forearms, he finally put on the robe that Tang Sochu had also made for him.
When he finally stepped out, with his preparations complete, the Elder Assassin was nowhere to be seen.
He had left the village ahead of time to carry out Pyo-wol’s command.
Pyo-wol glanced back at the village for a moment.
It was a picturesque landscape, with the sounds of children playing.
He murmured to himself.
“What a shame! Just when I was getting used to it…”
He will probably never come back to this place again.
Pyo-wol walked out of the village.
“Brother!”
Just then, he heard a girl’s voice.
Looking towards the source of the sound, he saw the girl waving her hands vigorously.
“You have to come back!”
The girl shouted at the top of her lungs, but Pyo-wol did not respond.
After looking at the girl for a moment, Pyo-wol walked out of the village.
He quickly walked along a secluded mountain path.
After an hour, he joined the main road.
After walking through the main road for a while, he saw a familiar landscape in the distance.
It was Poyang Lake, a lake so vast it could not be taken in at a single glance.
Upon arriving at Poyang Lake, Pyo-wol headed straight for the Imperial Yuan Merchant Group.
Having visited once before, finding the Imperial Yuan Merchant Group wasn’t difficult.
There were many martial artists guarding the exterior of the Imperial Yuan Merchant Group.
Pyo-wol recognized them as martial artists from the Silver Lotus Society.
‘It seems Ju Seolpung has arrived.’
It wasn’t strange at all for him to be here.
Although he had severed ties with the Imperial Yuan Merchant Group to operate in the Silver Lotus Society, it didn’t mean he had completely cut off his familial affections.
Noh Tae-tae provided substantial support to Ju Seolpung from the shadows, allowing him to thrive and fully expand his influence.
Ju Seolpung, too, was very fond of his great-grandmother, Noh Tae-tae, and never stopped worrying about her well-being.
Thus, upon hearing that the Imperial Yuan Merchant Group had faced a disaster, he was the first to rush here.
Pyo-wol looked at the martial artists surrounding the Imperial Yuan Merchant Group for a moment before flying off.
Even with the numerous martial artists guarding the place heavily, no one noticed Pyo-wol’s intrusion into the Imperial Yuan Merchant Group.
Landing without a sound on the courtyard of the Imperial Yuan Merchant Group like a burglar cat, Pyo-wol looked around inside.
He could see a straight line of destruction from the main gate to the interior hall.
It was the path Gu Jin-wang had taken when he had broken in.
On the ground, vivid bloodstains that had not been cleaned up remained.
The red bloodstains showed how cruel Gu Jin-wang’s handiwork had been.
Pyo-wol walked along the roofs of the halls towards the interior.
The further he went, the stronger the traces of destruction remained, and he saw bodies that had yet to be cleared away.
Even in death, their faces were vivid with expressions of pain and despair.
It was evident how much fear they had felt before dying.
Passing by the corpses and moving further inside, he saw a group of people.
They were Ju Jang-hwan and his relatives, who had managed to avoid the brunt of Gu Jin-wang’s attack.
Their faces were filled with grief and indignation as they looked ahead.
Pyo-wol quietly descended from the roof of the hall and joined them.
In front of Ju Jang-hwan and his relatives lay a row of bodies covered in white cloth.
Among them was the body of Noh Tae-tae.
“Hik…. Mother! Ahhhh!”
“Grandmother!”
“Hic!”
They shed thick tears as they looked at Noh Tae-tae’s body.
Even though she was no longer breathing, Noh Tae-tae still had the same gentle expression as when she was alive.
Were it not for the tragedy surrounding her, one might mistake her expression for that of someone peacefully sleeping.
Pyo-wol looked at Noh Tae-tae without saying a word.
At that moment, a man quietly approached his side.
Standing beside Pyo-wol, the man said,
“Fortunately, she died in just a single blow. She wouldn’t have felt much pain.”
There was a dampness in the man’s voice.
Pyo-wol didn’t have to turn around to recognize the man’s identity.
“Ju… Seolpung.”
“Master Pyo!”
The man was indeed none other than Ju Seolpung, the great-grandson of Noh Tae-tae.
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