Chapter 84 : Chapter 84

Chapter 84. The Beggar (6)

Listening to the man’s pained scream, a laugh escaped me without my realizing it.

“Hehehehe.”

At the same time, blood trickled from the corner of my mouth.

It was the price for the internal injury I suffered from being pushed back in the power struggle, and on top of that, for recklessly executing the Azure Heaven’s Hidden Smile, which I was not yet familiar with.

But despite the twisting pain in my stomach and the reflux of blood, my laughter did not stop.

“Hehehehe.”

I had suffered an internal injury trying to recklessly execute a martial art.

It was not even perfect. I had intended to cut off both his wrists, but I only succeeded in cutting off three fingers on his right hand.

But what did it matter?

Even if it was not perfect, even if I suffered an internal injury, I had succeeded in executing a martial art on my first attempt in a real battle.

Thanks to that attempt, I had cut off that trash’s fingers.

That was enough.

What was the reason I learned martial arts?

Wasn't it to clean up the trash?

Choi Cheol, who had been screaming in pain, turned his eyes towards me.

Red eyes, full of blood vessels.

“I’ll kill you!! I will kill you!!”

The man let out a furious roar and thrust his spear with only his left hand.

I also gladly closed in on him.

“I’ll make you beg for death.”

After he started gripping the spear with only his left hand, Choi Cheol’s movements, which were already shaking violently, became even clumsier.

Was it because he did not want to admit that fact?

Choi Cheol poured even more ki into his spear and swung it randomly.

The trajectory was clearly visible in the air, so from my perspective, it was just pathetic.

After dodging the spear with minimal movement and waiting for an opportunity for a while.

I swung the Restoring Name Sword at Choi Cheol’s defenseless left arm.

Swish!!

Right after a clean cutting sound echoed, a dull thud and a metallic clang resounded.

Thud.

Clang!

It was the sound of the severed left arm and the spear it was holding clattering to the ground.

“Kuaaaargh!!!”

I closed in on Choi Cheol, who was screaming with bloodshot eyes.

Pababat!

I drew up all my remaining internal energy and struck Choi Cheol’s paralysis points in succession.

The man’s immense internal energy was still visible to my eyes.

I could clearly see the writhing tentacles pushing back my internal energy.

It seemed that if I did not press down on his acupoints with all my strength, the suppression would be released in an instant.

Pababat!

Right after striking his paralysis points again and completely subduing him, the trajectories that were visible in the air vanished like melting snow in the blink of an eye.

The black tentacles that had been writhing in his body were no longer visible either.

“Hoo.”

While I took a deep breath to calm my churning stomach and rising killing intent, Nam Geon and Junior Sister Baek Hyang approached me.

“B-Bro. Are you okay?”

“You’ve worked hard, Senior Brother.”

“I’m fine.”

After giving a brief reply, I turned my head to survey the battlefield.

The Choi Manor martial artists were all scattered on the ground.

It seemed that while I was subduing that man, the others had subdued everyone else.

Just then, Dang Sopyeong came over and waved his fingers in front of my eyes.

“How many do you see?”

“What are you doing?”

When I asked, looking at him as if he were a madman, Dang Sopyeong replied with a similar look in his eyes.

“You laugh like a madman every time you fight, so I was checking to see if you had fallen into Qi Deviation.”

Seeing him overlap with the Poison Immortal of my past life, a chuckle escaped me.

“Why? Were you worried?”

“Ptooey. Ugh. Don’t say such unlucky things. I was planning to kill you with my own hands if you had gone mad.”

Even as he replied with a look of disgust, his eyes were examining my body. The blood on my lips, the color of my face, and so on.

That too was a kind of chronic disease.

If I was a neat freak who was anxious to clean up whenever I saw trash, he was a madman who wanted to examine any patient he saw.

Either way, it seemed a physician was a physician.

After assessing the situation, I turned back and approached the subdued Choi Cheol.

“Where did you get that cursed object?”

“Grrgh. I will kill you! I will definitely kill you!!”

He had already fallen to a Mental Demon and become more beast than man, so he could not understand human speech.

I gladly plunged a knife into his unharmed left leg.

“Ggggh.”

“If you want to die comfortably, answer my question. Where did you get the cursed object?”

After a few stabs, the man finally opened his mouth obediently.

As expected, a beating was the best medicine for those less than beasts.

“Grrgh. It was a gift from a noble person.”

“A noble person?”

I wondered what kind of crazy talk this was, but I listened to his story first.

He said he had a dream one day. A dream of becoming a martial artist who commanded the world.

One day, while wielding power and enjoying a life of debauchery in his dream, an old man came to him.

“That old man asked me. If I wanted the power to make this dream a reality.”

This man gladly accepted the offer.

Soon after, when he woke up from the dream, a sinister cursed object and a booklet were lying by his bedside. The booklet explained how to use the sinister cursed object.

“So did you find out who that old man was?”

At my question, Choi Cheol shook his head.

“Tsk.”

Although there was some disappointment, my thoughts were more or less sorted.

After discovering the cursed object this man was using, two possibilities had come to my mind.

The first was one of the Seven Evils I was chasing.

A man who would later become infamous for his evil arts.

The leader of a sinister group that followed a strange doctrine, the Heavenly Emperor Cult, and a member of the Four Demons who would later be called the Teaching Demon.

But the more I heard, the more I felt it was strange.

That man was a piece of trash who used evil arts to enslave people.

He was not one to move in this way.

Of course, the cursed object this man used could have been a trap set by the Teaching Demon.

By implanting a special curse, whoever used the cursed object would become a slave who followed his orders.

That was his method in the first place.

But there was a subtle difference.

The Teaching Demon enslaves people with evil arts. Those who become his slaves could exert much greater power than their original strength.

Just as this man had done in the fight just now.

The problem was that the Teaching Demon's known method was to forcibly draw out the slave's 'innate ki' to amplify their power.

It was not a method of absorbing natural ki with evil arts like this man.

In addition, this man’s end was also somewhat strange.

After becoming stronger by absorbing natural ki, he went berserk and died while trying to absorb the surrounding area.

It was a strange flow of events for someone who was supposedly enslaved by the Teaching Demon.

The old man Choi Cheol saw was the same.

The Teaching Demon was indeed an old man. But, that was at the time I regressed.

Now, he would probably be middle-aged.

Well, since he had deluded this foolish hypocrite with sorcery, he probably wouldn't have shown his true form.

The possibility of it being the Teaching Demon's doing had not disappeared, but there was a somewhat subtle feeling.

Naturally, the scales tipped more towards the other possibility.

The second possibility was related to the information I had heard from the Lust Demon I killed in Huaihua in the past.

There are madmen who distribute the Absorption Art to those in unfortunate circumstances.

Although the situation was clearly different, their methods and what this man had experienced seemed to strangely overlap.

Trash who obtained the Absorption Art from unknown individuals, became Lust Demons, went on a rampage, and died after falling into Qi Deviation.

Choi Cheol, who obtained a sinister spell from an unknown old man, plundered natural ki, and died after falling into Qi Deviation.

It could have been the work of unrelated people, but it was suspicious in many ways.

In the first place, teaching the Absorption Art or evil arts to strangers as if doing a charity was a strange thing to do.

Was it the Teaching Demon? Or was it those unknown individuals?

If it was the latter, what was their purpose?

With such questions in mind, I continued to stab Choi Cheol's body and break his bones, hoping something would come out.

“Kuaaaargh.”

But, only screams were repeated, and no new information came out.

“Tsk.”

As I clicked my tongue lightly, So Honggae, who had approached at some point, spoke to me.

“You seem to have suffered an internal injury, so go back and rest. Our Beggar’s Gang will handle the interrogation of the remaining martial artists.”

I pondered for a moment and looked around.

The subdued Choi Manor martial artists all had terrified expressions.

Come to think of it, there was no need to kill all of them.

Those who knew that Choi Cheol had dabbled in sinister spells, and those who had condoned it.

If those trash were excluded, the rest were just protecting the common people of Chimju.

“Then just make sure to find out who was involved with this man.”

“Don’t worry. Since it’s a serious matter, our Beggar’s Gang has no intention of just letting it go.”

At So Honggae’s words, I nodded. Then, I swung the Restoring Name Sword and cut off Choi Cheol’s head.

Swish.

As blood spurted from Choi Cheol’s neck, for some reason, So Honggae was looking at me with a horrified expression.

***

After Jin Yuseong and his party returned to the beggar village.

The members of the Beggar’s Gang continued the interrogation.

Was it because they learned the truth about the manor lord they served, or was it because they had personally witnessed the terrifying scene of Jin Yuseong interrogating Choi Cheol?

They were terrified and cooperated actively with the interrogation.

Thanks to that, the investigation ended without much difficulty.

Except for the young master and one of the hall masters who commanded the martial artists, everyone else knew nothing.

While the Beggar’s Gang was continuing the interrogation and cleanup.

Jin Yuseong’s party, who had returned to the beggar village, was not just resting comfortably either.

Those who had drunk the river water that had rotted due to the sinister cursed object.

They were moving rather quickly to take care of the patients who had not yet fully recovered.

A strong stench emanated from the patients.

Other beggars also smelled bad, but it was nothing compared to the patients.

With a lack of food and being sick, they had no energy to move, so feces and urine were smeared all over their bodies.

With a lack of water, there was naturally no luxury of washing.

Dang Sopyeong rushed towards those filthy patients.

He was anxious that the patients’ conditions might have worsened while he was away at Choi Manor.

He went to each patient, checking their pulse and condition, while chattering nonstop.

“Bring water from upstream! If it’s this dirty, even a healing sickness will return.”

“Grind these and boil them into a decoction!”

Following his instructions, Jin Yuseong, Nam Geon, and Baek Hyang ran around, while Dang Sopyeong placed acupuncture needles on the bodies of the patients he had finished examining.

The excrement on the patients’ bodies smeared onto Dang Sopyeong’s clothes.

For some reason, Dang Sopyeong did not feel disgusted at all.

With each treatment, the breathing of those who had been moaning with dazed faces gradually stabilized. Their bodies, which had been as hot as fireballs, cooled down a little.

Every time a patient’s condition improved, he felt as if somewhere inside his body was being filled.

Dang Sopyeong suddenly had a thought.

‘Is this what they call ‘blood can’t be denied’?’

Dang Sopyeong thought of his maternal grandparents, whom he had never met.

Seeing Dang Sopyeong taking care of the patients with a rewarding look on his face, Jin Yuseong chuckled.

‘This is much better to see.’

It was a scene that was a stark contrast to the reclusive image of the Poison Immortal who had been holed up in the mountains.

***

Jin Yuseong and his party stayed in Chimju for a few more days after that.

Dang Sopyeong focused on the patients, while the rest of the party procured food for the beggars or handled miscellaneous chores.

In the meantime, the members of the Beggar’s Gang were also busy.

Some of them took care of the beggars with Jin Yuseong’s party.

So Honggae and some of the other members went back and forth between Chimju, visiting the common people.

They were going around explaining.

They informed them of the evil deeds committed by Choi Cheol and cleared the names of the Beggar’s Gang and Jin Yuseong’s party.

It was not that difficult to clear up the misunderstanding of the common people of Chimju.

Thanks to Jin Yuseong’s interrogation last night, there were plenty of witnesses anyway.

They also brought water from upstream and showed them directly how the water rotted when Choi Cheol’s sinister cursed object was placed in it.

In addition, the members of the Beggar’s Gang seized all the wealth that Choi Manor had accumulated while acting as the local tyrant.

“Innocent people have become beggars due to Choi Cheol’s atrocities, so shouldn’t they be compensated!”

It was a very plausible pretext.

The members of the Beggar’s Gang used the wealth they had taken from Choi Manor effectively.

They would buy food from places a few days away.

After a few days of this, all the beggars were able to recover their strength to some extent.

Once things seemed to be more or less settled, Jin Yuseong went to see So Honggae.

“We have kept our promise. Now it’s your turn to keep yours.”

For the information about the Black Market they were chasing. And above all, to find out Hyeok Ilso’s location.

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