Chapter 180 : Mujin, Sweeps

Chapter 180: Mujin, Sweeps

 “Please, at least spare my daughter!”

In the wrecked yard of his own home, Mr. Im clung to the trouser leg of a man.

“I am not killing her even if you tell me to, so stop worrying.”

The man looking down at Mr. Im with an irritated face was the Mad Dog of the Great Tiger Society, known as the Rabid Hound. The Great Tiger Society was the largest black society in the area, and they did every rotten thing under the sun.

“Agh! Father! Help me!”

Mr. Im’s daughter, Yeon, was dragged out into the yard by the men.

“Yeon! Yeon! Please, I beg you! Leave my daughter alone!”

Mr. Im clung to the man even more desperately. If the Rabid Hound were the sort to grant such pleas, this would never have happened in the first place.

“I am not killing her, I said I am not killing her! Why would I kill a pretty thing like this?”

The Rabid Hound stroked Yeon’s cheek with a sooty hand.

Yeon trembled with fear. It felt like a caterpillar crawling across her face. But she could not shake off his hand.

The Rabid Hound, who had been caressing her face, suddenly grabbed her chest. She was shaking with terror and screamed.

“Aghh!”

The Rabid Hound spoke in satisfaction.

“A solid chest, so there will be plenty of customers.”

Startled out of his wits, Mr. Im clung to him and begged through tears.

“Please show mercy! My daughter is still a child.”

“Then you should have paid your debt on time.”

“I will repay every coin no matter what it takes.”

“Repay it together then. You sell your soul and pay the principal. Your girl sells her body and pays the interest.”

The Rabid Hound stared at Yeon with a lewd gleam.

“It’s a body you will throw away anyway, so offer it to me.”

One of the men moved to drag Yeon into the room. The Rabid Hound meant to rape her.

Mr. Im’s eyes flipped for an instant.

“You damned bastard! Just kill me instead!”

He leaped up and grabbed the Rabid Hound by the collar. The Rabid Hound kicked him without mercy as Mr. Im drew back a fist.

With a thud Mr. Im went flying and rolled across the ground.

“I really was going to let this bastard go quietly.”

The Rabid Hound rushed in and stomped him without pity.

Thud! Thud!

“Die! Die then! If you borrow money, you pay it back, you beggar bastard!”

Yeon tore free of the man’s grip and threw herself over her father.

Only then did the Rabid Hound stop kicking.

“Save my father, I beg you.”

Yeon’s face was streaked with tears. Mr. Im had already lost consciousness.

The Rabid Hound yanked Yeon by the hair.

“This all happened because your father refused to pay. You can’t resent me over it!”

Yeon clenched her teeth and spoke.

“You say the principal doubled in five months just from overdue interest. How does that even happen?”

“You must be too young to know, but we are the honest and fair ones. The White Snake Sect next door doubles it in three months.”

Tears rolled down Yeon’s cheeks again. She knew it was useless to talk to these wolves. She felt her life was finished. Since it had come to this, she could only pray her father survived.

‘Heaven truly is cruel.’

Most of the time that line proves true, yet not for her now.

A voice came from behind.

“Not three months, it was two months to double.”

Startled, the Rabid Hound turned. Two men were stepping in. The one in front was Mujin. With him came a warrior of Virtuous Heroes.

Seeing the swords at their waists and confirming they were martial artists, the Rabid Hound released Yeon and stood.

“Who are you?”

“You bastard, can’t you tell at a glance? Elders from the Murim Alliance of course.”

At Mujin’s reply, the Rabid Hound’s face twisted for an instant, then stretched into a forced smile.

“Aha, I see. I failed to recognize you. It is an honor to meet you.”

“Good.”

“But I have not seen you before.”

“Of course not. I arrived in this village today.”

“For what business?”

“Because of scum like you. Word that people are suffering under filth like this reaches us ten times a day.”

The Rabid Hound chuckled and stepped closer.

“Hahaha, this is a misunderstanding. We follow the laws on the books and run a legitimate business.”

Mujin looked at Yeon. She stood there terrified and drenched in tears.

“That does not look right, does it?”

Mujin stepped to her and asked.

“Young lady, these moneylenders bullied you, right?”

Yeon looked between Mujin and the Rabid Hound, then shook her head.

“No. You misunderstand.”

Mujin lifted a shoulder.

“That is what they all testify. Law is far away and fists are near.”

The Rabid Hound laughed loudly like it was nothing.

“Hahaha, I told you that you misunderstood. Here, come over here for a moment.”

“Who are you ordering around, you bastard. If you want to come, you come.”

Even as he spoke, Mujin drifted closer.

The Rabid Hound pulled a payment chit from his coat and shoved it into Mujin’s chest.

“Have a drink with your companion.”

Despair flickered across Yeon’s face as she watched.

She resigned herself at once. Most of the officials and Murim Alliance warriors she had seen were like that. She clenched her hands to endure the misery.

Whether he understood her heart or not, Mujin smirked and counted the chits.

“How much is this?”

There were three chits for ten silver coins each.

“Do not take it out here. Look at it quietly later.”

The Rabid Hound made a helpless face.

“Oh ho, thirty silver coins? You must be raking it in.”

“That is not money.”

“Then what is it?”

“It is my respect for a great hero such as you.”

“Not the blood and tears of those people?”

“How can you say something like that? I told you, you misunderstand.”

Mujin looked back and asked the Virtuous Heroes warrior who had come with him.

“Tally what we have already.”

The warrior answered.

“Three years for an illegal usury racket. Add one year for bribery. Four years in total.”

“What about attempting to rape the girl?”

“He did not act yet.”

“So only four years because of that? A pig like this walks out in just four years?”

“Yes.”

Listening, the Rabid Hound laughed.

“Haha, what kind of frightful joke is that?”

“I’m not joking?”

When Mujin answered dead serious, the Rabid Hound scowled.

“I understand. I understand.”

He stuffed a few more chits into Mujin’s chest.

“Let us go. I will guide you to our pleasure house. I will send in the prettiest girls. Enjoy yourselves to the hilt tonight.”

Mujin looked again at his subordinate.

“And that makes?”

“Habitual bribery, we can add two more years.”

“Two years, but that’s still six years huh? That’s still too short.”

Sensing this was going wrong, the Rabid Hound set his face and asked flatly.

“Are you being serious right now?”

“You bastard, of course I am. Do I look like a man who trades jokes with trash like you?”

The Rabid Hound’s already ugly face hardened further.

“Do you even know who we are?”

“Who are you?”

“We are the Great Tiger Society.”

“I do not see a big tiger, but I do see a few craven dogs.”

The Rabid Hound’s eyes went feral. He was attached to a black society, yet his skill was enough to handle several ordinary Murim Alliance warriors alone.

“Your chief takes our money too, you know.”

“But I am the chief here?”

“You crazy bastard!”

Mujin smiled and replied.

“Add foul language, one more year.”

The straitlaced warrior said that did not apply, and when Mujin frowned he shut his mouth.

In the end the Rabid Hound drew his sword. There were only two on the other side. He had brought seven men.

“Cut these bastards down and bury them where neither mouse nor sparrow knows!”

Better still if they got scared and changed their tune.

The men around them drew their blades as one.

Only then did Mujin smile and speak.

“Murder and extermination carry a heavy sentence, no? Well. What do you think? I can execute him on the spot, right?”

The warrior hesitated and spoke.

“That is true.”

“That’s good enough for me then. We’ll stop there.”

Mujin turned his head, and his eyes went cold.

Swish.

With a flick of wind, Yeon crumpled. Mujin had sent a gust that pressed her acupoints and put her to sleep.

Startled by that one move, the Rabid Hound flinched. He had never in his life seen someone put to sleep with a pointing finger.

Realizing he had messed with the wrong guy, he blurted.

“Spare me!”

“You do not seem the sort to heed other people’s pleas. So you can’t expect others to heed yours.”

Mujin’s sword split the air.

Swish! Thunk! Thunk!

He drove his blade into the Rabid Hound’s chest without mercy. The Rabid Hound toppled dead on the spot.

The moment their collector died, the other men tried to run.

Mujin did not let them go. He sprang and cut down every last one.

The Virtuous Heroes warrior spoke with a trace of disapproval.

“You intended this again.”

“Intend what?”

“You meant to kill them all from the start.”

In the last village too, Mujin had handled it this way. He had wiped out everyone who served under the White Snake Sect.

“Why? Can I not do that?”

“Is it not a bit excessive?”

“What is excessive?”

“You should proceed under the Murim Alliance’s statutes.”

“I did, didn’t I? I killed men who intended murder and extermination, right?”

The warrior did not look convinced.

Mujin lifted the sleeping Yeon from the ground and carried her into the room, then asked.

“If this girl were your little sister, could you say the same thing?”

“That’s!”

“Just answer that. Would you kill them? Or do it by the law you love?”

“...I would have killed them.”

“So you can’t forgive if it is your family, and if it is someone else, you follow the law. That is a selfish yardstick, is it not?”

The warrior said nothing, then lifted Mr. Im and laid him on a pallet.

When he came back out into the yard, Mujin spoke.

“The law is soft. Too soft. Oh and another thing, if you leave these moneylenders alive, someone else will fill the gap in a few months. Then the same hell starts again. Are you going to stay here every day and protect these people?”

“…”

“What about the rumors? If we let him live, people will say we stepped in. Then the black society will all go into hiding, won’t they? Can you really find every last one of them? Even if some do hide, if we wipe them out clean now, do you think they’ll be tempted to pull this crap again?”

Point by point, the words were sound, so the warrior held his tongue.

“Call the cleanup crew and have them remove the corpses.”

“Understood.”

Mujin was carrying out Lee Jaseung’s order. It was a command to stabilize the lives of the common people.

After Lee Jaseung became the Black Way Alliance’s Leader, he issued a single strict order to every fighter under the Black Way Alliance.

They were forbidden to touch ordinary folk.

So the organizations under the Black Way Alliance did not lay hands on the common people. In the Murim Alliance’s jurisdiction, where the Black Way Alliance’s influence did not reach, the black societies still ran wild.

Lee Jaseung meant to rip them out by the roots.

Mujin dispatched Virtuous Heroes units everywhere to eliminate black societies before rumors could spread. He put in front the hot-blooded men who could accept his orders as given.

Only after most of the black societies were annihilated did the story spread far and wide.

Everyone praised the Murim Alliance Leader. Until now, many Murim Alliance warriors had taken bribes from the black societies, and at times had done worse than the black societies themselves.

Now the Murim Alliance showed a new face.

A ruthless sweep of the black societies. It was the simplest and most effective way to show the Alliance had changed, and at the same time it helped many people.

For a time, a rumor ran through Jianghu.

In the new Murim Alliance’s prison, there was no empty cell waiting for the wicked.