At that same moment.
Hae Chul was in his office.
He’d only had an office made because the other manor lords had one and he didn’t want to be the odd one out. In truth, he hardly ever used the place.
He left most matters to the Chief Administrator, after all.
He ate when he wanted, played when he wanted, and wasted his days in idle comfort.
The only reason he was in his office now was the box resting on his desk.
Inside the box was a lump of something so dark it was almost black.
‘So this is an elixir?’
He had handed over the elixir, just as the man who promised to settle his debt had asked.
But there was no way they knew how much elixir there had been in the first place.
It hadn’t been several pills, just one solid lump.
Elixirs were expensive.
That greed got the better of him, so he secretly skimmed off half. And the man who had approached him accepted it without the slightest suspicion.
“Hm…”
He briefly considered selling it for cash, but quickly dropped the idea.
If he sold the elixir and got caught, Shaolin Temple would come after him.
And if the people who had approached him found out, they might demand their money back too.
‘Hm… what am I supposed to do with this?’
Come to think of it, the man who had given it to him had said something.
If you took this, a martial artist would gain sixty years’ worth of internal Qi, and even someone who knew nothing about martial arts would still develop internal Qi.
Since he lived in a village near Shaolin Temple, he often saw Shaolin’s martial monks and other martial artists.
Whenever he watched them soar through the air or run faster than horses, he couldn’t help envying them.
Of course, he knew those abilities didn’t come for free. They were earned through bone-grinding training and endurance.
But he wanted to use martial arts without going through any of that.
‘Right, he said this would give me internal Qi!’
He had heard enough about the martial world to know that you needed internal Qi to use martial arts.
In the end, he made up his mind.
‘Yeah! I’ll take it myself!’
Once he decided, he ordered his attendants not to let anyone in, then secretly began eating it.
Normally, taking an elixir required extreme caution, but greed had already swallowed him whole. That thought never even crossed his mind.
‘Why does this… taste like this?’
The flavor was strange, but he just assumed that was how elixirs were.
If he had asked even one of his guards whether it was a real elixir, he never would have eaten it.
Monk Jong O from the Guest Hall asked me to wait a little longer.
I readily agreed.
I had no idea what was taking so long, but it wasn’t as if I had anything pressing to do.
Honestly, the longer I stayed here, the better for me.
I had dealt with the Unorthodox Sect bastards targeting Venerable Blood Staff Star Monk’s remains, but that didn’t mean everything was over.
I also had to wrap up the matter of Hae Chul, Monk Ji Sang’s maternal uncle.
They say you can kill two birds with one stone.
This time, I planned to deal with Hae Chul and make sure those people could never lay a hand on Venerable Blood Staff Star Monk’s remains again.
Two days passed, then three.
But the people who had promised to bring 30,000 taels still hadn’t shown even a trace of themselves.
As the deadline for repaying his debt loomed right in front of him, Hae Chul started sweating bullets.
“Damn it! Damn it! Why the hell aren’t they here yet?”
Just then, one of his attendants came to see him.
“M–Manor Lord, a guest has arrived.”
“A guest? Who is it?”
“He said you’d understand if I just told you 30,000 taels.”
“…!”
At that, Hae Chul shot to his feet.
“Bring him in immediately!”
“Yes, sir.”
He hurried to the reception room, and after waiting only a moment, a man entered.
But it wasn’t the same person who had come before.
“Are you Manor Lord Hae?”
“Y–yes, I am. But where is Great Hero Yeon…”
“Ah, that man is dead.”
“What?”
“He failed to handle things properly. He didn’t notice that half the elixir taken from Blood Staff Star Monk’s corpse had disappeared.”
“…”
“So I came myself. No matter how I look at it, you seem like the one who swallowed half that elixir.”
The calm eyes fixed on him made Hae Chul’s pupils tremble.
‘They noticed I skimmed off the elixir!’
According to the man, the one who had approached him had died because of him, but Hae Chul didn’t feel a shred of guilt.
‘That idiot got caught because he was careless! Damn it! If he was going to die, he should’ve died alone. Why drag me into this too?!’
The unknown man in black robes and a bamboo hat spoke coldly.
“That look on your face tells me I was right.”
“T–that’s…”
“You were the one who broke faith first. Still, we’re merciful. So I’ll give you one more chance. Bring me that elixir. But if you waste this last chance, you lose your life.”
The 30,000 taels didn’t matter anymore.
His life was on the line now.
‘Wait. If I already took that elixir, doesn’t that mean I can use martial arts too? At least a little?’
And if that was true, maybe he could subdue the man standing in front of him instead!
Thinking that, he whipped out an ornate dagger and lunged.
“Hyaah!”
Wham!
But he had been dreaming far too big.
Before his dagger could even touch the man in the bamboo hat, he was kicked away.
Boom!
“Ghk!”
The kick slammed into his stomach and sent him crashing into the wall hard enough to make him cough up blood.
“Manor Lord!”
The guard at the door rushed in after hearing the noise, but he was thrown right back outside before he could even draw his sword.
The man in the bamboo hat dragged Hae Chul over and threw him to the floor. Then he planted a foot on his head and spoke.
“You’ve got nerve.”
“P–please spare me. I think I lost my mind for a moment.”
“I see what happened. I was wondering where that sudden confidence came from. So you ate the elixir.”
“…”
“You idiot. That thing doesn’t even start taking effect until at least a month has passed. Though this is inconvenient…”
He continued.
“Should I slit open your stomach and take it back out? That elixir doesn’t digest for a month. It stays in your belly and slowly melts into your body.”
At those words, Hae Chul’s face turned deathly pale.
“P–please spare me! I’ll do anything! Please, just spare me!”
Hae Chul was so terrified he was barely in his right mind.
“Fine, let’s do this. Slitting open your stomach and pulling it out would be a hassle for me too. So bring me an elixir of the same grade instead.”
“What? The same grade?”
“A Golden Essence Fruit, a Nine-Leaf Purple Ginseng, something like that… that should do. Elixirs that grant sixty years’ worth of internal Qi in one shot aren’t exactly common.”
“…”
“I’ll give you two days. Bring me an elixir within that time, and I’ll spare you. But… if you fail to bring one by then, I’ll split open your stomach and take that elixir out myself.”
“A–all right! I understand! I understand!”
Hae Chul nodded frantically.
There was only one thought in his head now.
He had to send the interest payment off as fast as possible and run.
Just then, the man in the bamboo hat pulled out a pill from his sleeve. He grabbed Hae Chul by the collar, shoved the pill into his mouth, and pressed a spot on his throat.
Gulp!
The pill went down whether Hae Chul wanted it to or not.
“This is our organization’s special Tracking Pill. It’ll let us find you no matter where you go.”
“…”
“If you think I’m lying, then by all means, try running. Next time, I won’t just kick your stomach. I’ll cut it open.”
Thud.
The man in the bamboo hat let go, and Hae Chul’s body dropped limply to the floor.
“Then I’ll see you in two days.”
I sent a Voice Transmission to Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am as he came out of Hae Chul’s house.
– Well done.
Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am had done even better than I expected. One of his specialties was changing his voice, which made him perfect for this job.
– I’ll make sure no one’s tailing you. Wait at the meeting place.
– Understood.
My group and I kept watch on Hae Chul’s house. Hae Chul sat there pale as a sheet, completely out of it.
Too bad for him. This was only the beginning.
I asked Escort Guard Jin Yu to keep an eye on Hae Chul, then headed to the meeting place.
Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am had already removed all his disguise and changed clothes.
“Wow, your acting is incredible.”
At my words, he chuckled.
“The truth is, when I was younger, I was part of a famous theater troupe.”
“A theater troupe?”
“Yes. My parents came from a traveling theater troupe. I also learned how to change my voice from one of the men in the troupe when I was a child. But I guess my parents didn’t want me staying in that life, so they placed me in a martial school.”
“I see.”
So his acting talent ran in the family.
Then again, it really had been a chilling performance. The theater world had lost a truly promising talent.
Worked out great for me, though.
“But why did you demand an elixir?”
At Escort Guard Lee Pil’s question, I gave a bitter smile.
“Because other things would be useless to Monk Ji Sang.”
Hae Chul needed to atone to Monk Ji Sang.
But would a man like that sincerely apologize? No chance.
And an apology without sincerity would only mock the person receiving it.
So he ought to make amends with something tangible instead.
But Monk Ji Sang was a disciple of the Buddha.
By principle, he owned no personal property and lived on a tiny monthly allowance.
I’d even heard he saved from that and gave it to Hae Chul.
Wow…
That was lower than low.
Anyway, land and money would be useless to a monk like him. Even if I gave him those, Monk Ji Sang would just donate them.
That wouldn’t mean anything.
So I settled on an elixir.
One of the few things a martial monk could truly keep for himself was internal Qi.
Of course, making him take the elixir and helping him after that mattered too, but that was something to think about later.
For now, I planned to strip Hae Chul for everything he had left.
“But my lord, was what you fed that man earlier really Tracking Pill?”
“No. It was just a lump of mud.”
Horse dung, mud… maybe it’d give him a stomachache, but it wouldn’t kill him.
Honestly, he had no right to complain even if it hurt.
Because of him, how many people had lived with the pain of having their hearts torn apart?
.
.
.
Two days passed.
According to Escort Guard Jin Yu’s report, Hae Chul had made a desperate, tearful effort to obtain an elixir.
But in the end, he actually got one.
As promised, two days later, Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am headed back to Hae Chul’s house.
Unlike before, the manor now looked half empty.
Which made sense. I’d heard he’d sold anything he could to secure the elixir and even dismissed his servants.
I made sure the people who had suddenly lost their jobs received a bit of compensation.
If they were diligent, it should be enough to keep them fed until they found new work.
I slipped toward the reception room through a gap between the rooftops.
“What about what you promised?”
“H–here it is.”
Hae Chul respectfully held out a box.
Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am accepted it and set it on the table.
Then he opened it.
A purple ginseng with nine leaves.
Nine-Leaf Purple Ginseng.
Unlike ordinary ginseng, this kind grew between cliff faces and sprouted one leaf every hundred years.
Once it reached ten leaves, it dissolved into Qi and returned to nature.
Which meant nine leaves was when its medicinal effect was at its peak.
A single root of this usually granted sixty years’ worth of internal Qi.
– Is it real?
– It looks real.
I examined the ginseng closely, then answered Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am through Voice Transmission.
The Qi coming from the Nine-Leaf Purple Ginseng was genuine.
This thing was ridiculously expensive.
Expensive enough that selling off his household and dismissing his people to get it made perfect sense.
“Hm, it’s authentic.”
Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am closed the box and stood up.
“Th–then what about the 30,000 taels…?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Didn’t you say you’d repay the 30,000 taels for me?”
“I did. But once you stole half that elixir, didn’t that promise already become void?”
“What?”
“And I said I’d spare your life if you brought back the elixir you stole or one of equal value. I never said I’d give you 30,000 taels.”
“…”
Now that he thought about it, that was true.
He wore an expression like his entire world had just collapsed.
“Well then, I’ll be on my way. Try not to cheat anyone else again. Live like that, and you won’t live long. Hahaha.”
“W–wait, just wait…”
He tried to grab Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am, but Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am’s movement technique was too fast.
As a result, he couldn’t even catch the hem of Yeo Eung-am’s robe and instead went sprawling face-first.
“N–no…”
He sat there in a daze, wearing a hollow, lost expression.
Then a group of people entered his manor.
They were dressed in green.
The moment Hae Chul saw them, all the blood drained from his face.
“Are you Hae Chul, the manor lord of this estate?”
“…”
“No, you don’t have to answer. We came here already knowing your face.”
They were called the Green-Robed Ghosts.
They were the ones who seized the property of those who borrowed money from the Geumsan Money House and failed to repay it.
.
.
.
That day, the Geumsan Money House’s Green-Robed Ghosts confiscated every last bit of Hae Chul’s property.
In a way, it was only fitting. He had squandered the wealth built on his younger sister’s sacrifice on food, drink, and indulgence.
Because he had even emptied out his emergency stash to obtain the elixir, he was truly penniless now.
I’d heard that before all this, he hadn’t even owned a single patch of farmland, so in the end, he had simply returned to where he started.
But if he stayed here, he was exactly the kind of man who’d go crawling to Monk Ji Sang for help.
So I needed him gone, somewhere far away.
“Palgap, can you find out where Manor Lord Hae’s in-laws live?”
–TL Notes–
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