Chapter 105. Five Dragons Fight for a Pearl
Woo-Moon’s eyes grew cold.
“Where’s the last place Ryeong-ie was seen? Take me there.”
“Okay, Uncle!”
Jeong-Woo ran so fast it was like he was flying, and Woo-Moon chased after him while gritting his teeth.
Although the finals were going to start soon, and the sparring ground was in the opposite direction, Woo-Moon didn’t pay any mind to it.
‘If someone had an issue with me, they should have come for me personally. That way, the problems could’ve been solved between us. If you dare ’
Of course, there was a chance that this was the work of someone with a grudge against Baek Ryeong herself. However, the possibility of that happening was extremely small, and Woo-Moon had a strong feeling that it was related to him.
Eventually, they arrived at a yard near the quarters where Baek Ryeong was staying.
“Uncle!”
Baek Yo and the other young ladies of the Distinguished Swords came running over in tears.
“What happened? Tell me step by step.”
“We were going to go out, but Ryeong-ie said that she wanted to sit in the yard for a while. So, I waited and waited, but no matter how much time passed, she didn’t return. I went to look and found her missing. And there’s this note...”
Don’t tell anyone about this. Just wait patiently. As long as you wait, you’ll see her before the sun sets.
The handwriting was a mess.
“Wrote with left hand. On purpose,” Ma-Ra said after reading the letter.
Woo-Moon nodded in agreement. The kidnapper was a rather thorough person. They had written the letter with their left hand, fearing that someone would recognize them through their handwriting.
Ma-Ra turned from the letter and peered around the yard with a chilly gaze.
She bent down and inspected the grass and the surrounding terrain before pointing in a direction.
“That way.”
“Let’s go.”
Woo-Moon followed Ma-Ra’s lead.
“Don’t follow us, and don’t tell anyone about this! Just wait for us to return!”
Jeong-Woo and Baek Yo stopped in place, while Woo-Moon and Ma-Ra quickly tracked down the person using whatever faint traces they could see as clues.
‘Please, Ryeong-ie has to be safe. No...why am I praying? You’re the one who needs to pray. If anything happens to her, only a god can save you.’
There was a grim, murderous look in Woo-Moon’s eyes. It was so terrifying that if anyone were to match his gaze at the moment, they would freeze, feeling as if their body had fallen into a glacier.
Suddenly, Ma-Ra put together the clues and raced forward with Woo-Moon not far behind.
***
“How dare you do something like this?! Aren’t you afraid of what the Justice Coalition and the Iron Sword Baek Family will do in retaliation?”
As Baek Ryeong shouted, the middle-aged man with a face full of wrinkles who had captured her shook his head and smiled slyly.
“What are you saying? I’m just someone of small status. Of course, I’m afraid of what they would do. How could I not be scared of such important people?”
Baek Ryeong’s acupoints had been pressed, paralyzing her from the neck down. However, she finally felt a glimmer of hope through her fear at the man’s words.
“Then let me go! I’ll pretend none of this ever happened.”
“Is that so? It would be a relief if you could do that. But... what if there’s a different, better solution for a nobody like me?”
Anxiety started to creep back into Baek Ryeong’s mind.
“W-what is it?”
The middle-aged man aimed the end of a skewer toward Baek Ryeong’s chest.
“Of course, two people can keep a secret if one is not breathing! As long as you die, there will be no way for you to identify me, right?”
The middle-aged man smiled. His smile was full of joy and pleasure, if he was genuinely savoring the situation.
Baek Ryeong had goosebumps all over her body.
‘T-this bastard!’
Something she had heard before came to mind—that there were some people in the gangho who simply enjoyed killing. It brought them actual pleasure.
The man licked his lips with his particularly red tongue. A murderous smile still stretched across his face. He had wanted to kill her from the moment he had planned the kidnapping. Now that the long wait was over, the man was almost unable to contain his joy.
“Now, why don’t we have some fun, pretty girl.”
“The hell you mean, fun, you perverted bastard?”
“Huh?!”
The middle-aged man was startled by the interjection of a third party. He quickly threw aside the iron skewer he used when he wanted to enjoy his kills and tried to draw the javelin from his belt.
Squelch!
'Huh?'
There was a strange squishy sound.
‘Where’s the javelin?’
Confused as to why he couldn’t find the handle of his javelin in such an urgent situation, the middle-aged man quickly checked his waistband.
“AGH!!!!”
Terrible pain began to radiate as he noticed that the handle was right where it should have been; rather, the problem was that his hand had been cut off cleanly at the wrist, so he had nothing to grab the handle with.
Despite having just cut off someone’s hand, Woo-Moon’s sword didn’t have the slightest trace of blood on it.
With his right foot, he directly kicked the back of the man’s knees.
Although it seemed as if he had only tapped each knee, the middle-aged man’s bones completely shattered, disintegrating from the inside. As the man screamed in pain again, Woo-Moon viciously stabbed at his acupoints.
“Shut up!”
“Uncle!”
Baek Ryeong had frozen the moment Woo-Moon had shown up, and was now staring at him with her eyes wide as saucers.
“There, there. It was scary, wasn’t it?”
As soon as Woo-Moon unsealed Baek Ryeong’s acupoints, she latched onto him with eyes filled with tears.
“Uwaaaahhhhh, Uncleee!”
She had really thought that she was going to die here.
Although she had been born into the world of murim and was raised a martial artist, she was left absolutely terrified by the experience. It was the first time in her life that she had been captured and left unable to do anything other than helplessly wait for death.
Woo-Moon looked startled momentarily when Baek Ryeong burst into tears but then began patting her on the back. He couldn’t imagine just how scared she must have been. He smiled to himself, thinking her childish outburst was cute.
When she finally seemed to have calmed down, Woo-Moon carefully helped her to the side and stood up. He walked over to the middle-aged man who was groaning and thrashing in pain. Grabbing his head, Woo-Moon forced the man to look him in the eyes as he unsealed his acupoints.
“There’s still the bone I have to pick with you. You know what I’m going to ask next, right?”
“W-will you let me live if I tell you?”
“How dare you try to bring up conditions with me?” Woo-Moon shouted as he grabbed the middle-aged man’s shoulders. Beginning to put strength into his grip, Woo-Moon started to press down, causing the man’s bones to crunch with a terrible sound.
“AGHHHHHHH”
“Talk.”
The middle-aged man nodded desperately, not wanting to suffer anymore.
“I, I-I will! The Red Blossom Bank sent me to aid Young Master Yu!”
Yu Cho was the young master of the Red Blossom Bank.
“Just as I expected. Then, was it Yu Cho’s orders for you to kidnap Ryeon-ie?”
The middle-aged man’s gaze quivered momentarily before he nodded.
“That’s right! It was all an order from Young Master Yu.”
Woo-Moon smiled.
“Good. Because you answered all of my questions, I’m going to let you go this one...”
Squelch!
The tip of Woo-Moon’s sword pierced through the middle-aged man’s back.
“Cough! Cough, cough.”
“I can smell blood from you. I can sense your bloodlust even now, when you’re shivering in pain and fear in front of me. Even if all of your actions were only the result of you following orders, I can’t leave you alive.”
“Y-you damned...”
In the end, the middle-aged man who sadistically enjoyed killing people, especially young women, found himself dying in agony. Strangely enough, he didn’t seem to enjoy his own death as much as he enjoyed other people’s.
Woo-Moon hadn’t bothered to ask his name, so he searched the man’s sleeves and took out an identification plaque.
“Ju Moon-Hwi? What an ill-suited name.”[1]
Woo-Moon put the identification plaque in his sleeve and helped Baek Ryeong up.
“Let’s go back now. Everyone is worried.”
Baek Ryeong began to cry again, thinking of how anxious her cousins would be.
“Okay! Okay, Uncle. Let’s go now!”
Fortunately, he had tracked and rescued Baek Ryeong in the nick of time due to Ma-Ra’s aid. However, just thinking about it again sent a shiver down Woo-Moon’s spine.
If he had been just a few seconds later, he may never have been able to talk to Baek Ryeong like this again.
When she returned to the Justice Coalition, Baek Ryeong had a tearful reunion with her sisters, while Jeong-Woo approached Woo-Moon.
“Uncle, what should we do? Should we report it to the Coalition?”
Woo-Moon shook his head.
“No, it’s fine. Leave it alone for now. I’ll take care of it.”
Jeong-Woo continued with a dark expression.
“Yu Cho was appointed captain of the Righteous Warrior Squadron in your absence. Hmpf, to think someone like that bastard got the role. That bastard wouldn’t even be able to last a single second under your sword. Oh, by the way, who was the kidnapper?”
Woo-Moon thought for a moment before answering.
“I don’t know for sure yet. I’ll let you know after I investigate further.”
“Understood.”
***
As the day passed and night fell, Yu Cho was happily returning to his quarters. Due to Woo-Moon being absent and therefore considered to forfeit, he had been chosen as the Righteous Warrior Squadron captain.
Thud!
‘...!’
Something suddenly hit his forehead before falling to the ground.
Startled, Yu Cho looked down to see a white piece of paper. He couldn’t help but feel dumbfounded.
‘How could this tiny piece of paper fly at me so quickly that I couldn’t react properly? Moreover, to think the one who threw it had enough control over their skills that they were able to dissipate all of the power imbued in the paper before it hit my forehead...’
No matter who was to have thrown it, it was clear that they were an incredible expert.
Yu Cho quickly unfolded the paper and looked at what was written inside.
“Song Woo-Moon...!”
The message told him to come alone because they needed to discuss something. Although Yu Cho thought about ignoring it, the name “Ju Moon-Hwi” written on the note made it impossible for him to do so.
Yu Cho nonchalantly looked down to check if he was wearing his sword properly before leaping forward and running to the meeting place.
***
“Why did you call me all the way here?” Yu Cho asked.
Woo-Moon’s eyes were so cold and deep that it was impossible to see how far the depths of his gaze were. He suddenly clasped the hilt of his sword.
Shing!
Yu Cho’s eyes widened at Woo-Moon’s sudden draw. He hastily reached for his own hilt and tried to draw his sword. However, before he could do so, the sharp tip of a sword brushed his throat.
“What the hell is this? You dare sneak attack me?!”
Woo-Moon sneered at Yu Cho’s words and lowered his sword.
“To think you’d call it a sneak attack. Fine, if you really think so, I’m going to attack you again, so try to block it this time.”
“What?”
Shing!!!
As warned, Woo-Moon’s sword flashed once more. It was the same movement as before as the tip of his sword headed for Yu Cho’s throat.
‘Do you really think I’d let that happen again?!’
This time, Yu Cho had prepared in advance and had already drawn his sword. However, the result was the same.
Although Yu Cho already knew that there was a significant difference in skill between Woo-Moon and himself, he could never have imagined it would be this severe.
With eyes full of rage and self-hatred, Yu Cho looked down at the blade touching his throat.
“All of you bastards are always the same. Always ranting about sneak attacks or unfair whatever, making excuses after excuses. And when you run out of excuses, you start harassing juniors who can’t defend themselves.”
Sparks flew from Yu Cho’s eyes.
‘Fine, I admit that I’m weaker than you. But...’
“Don’t you dare insult me!”
Woo-Moon bared his teeth and scoffed at Yu Cho’s outburst.
“Hahaha. Don’t insult you? Did you really think you had any honor or character that could be insulted? Some bastard who couldn’t think of any other method but to kidnap a young girl to satisfy his own ambitions?”
Yu Cho’s expression turned blank for a moment before distorting with rage.
“What bullshit are you spouting? What do you mean kidnap? How dare you accuse me, a disciple of the great Mount Hua Sect, of something like that?!!”
Watching Yu Cho’s reaction closely, Woo-Moon drew an identification plaque out of his sleeve and threw it at him.
“Does this tell you anything?”
Yu Cho’s hand tingled in pain as he caught the plaque. He frowned and looked down, confirming that it really was the identification plaque of Ju Moon-Hwi, just like Woo-Moon had said.
Yu Cho’s eyes wavered.
‘Kidnap... and Woo-Moon suddenly didn’t appear in the finals... Ju Moon-Hwi!’
Originally an expert of the Black Hand, Ju Moon-Hwi had pledged his loyalty to the Red Blossom Bank Director Yu Ho-Sang, Yu Cho’s father, as a favor for saving his life.
Yu Cho closed his eyes tightly without even realizing it as he remembered Ju Moon-Hwi’s blind loyalty. Scenes of the man doing the dirty work of the bank cycled through his mind.
“...Who did Ju Moon-Hwi kidnap?”
“Does it really matter?”
“You’re right. That isn’t the important part. They had to have been someone close to you anyway, seeing how you even gave up the Righteous Warrior Squadron Captain position for them. I won’t make any excuses. What do you want? The captain position?”
Woo-Moon ground his teeth at Yu Cho’s words.
1. Ju Moon-Hwi’s name literally translates to “of high status.” ☜