Dropped into Murim with an Instant-Kill Skill - Chapter 15

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Chapter 15: In the Jianghu, One Cannot Control One's Fate (4)

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Heat, meaning hot.

Cauldron, meaning a cooking pot.

The name Heat Cauldron literally meant "hot cauldron."

Heat referred to the warmth of the innate true qi bestowed by heaven and earth, while a cauldron referred to the body of a child who had turned six that year.

A six-year-old child had not spent long exposed to turbid qi, so they still possessed hot, pure innate true qi. If the child was given the right spiritual elixirs at the proper times and trained in a special inner cultivation method, their energy center could serve as a cauldron and boil down the innate true qi within their body.

After nine rounds of refinement over nine stages and nine months, it would reach completion. Once the cauldron was opened, it produced a thumb-nail-sized lump of thick golden liquid with a rich floral scent. It was a peerless spiritual elixir infused with innate true qi.

Taking it extended one's lifespan and deepened one's internal energy cultivation. It was called Flower-Life Paste.

"...What? What did you say?"

Yeon Sowol jerked his head up.

Yi Yubaek did not answer.

With sorrow in his eyes, he searched through a distant memory that had never faded.

* * *

Five years ago.

Yi Yubaek had not yet been called the foremost man in Shinheung, and Windflow Martial Academy was not yet Shinheung County's leading sect.

Back then, the Heat Cauldron Sect was Shinheung County's leading sect, and its leader, Ki Baekseon, was considered Shinheung's greatest master.

Ki Baekseon had already passed seventy, yet his martial arts showed no sign of decline.

The Jianghu was full of strange things, but unless one was a legendary master who had achieved Fivefold Return to Origin, it was hard to believe someone could remain at the height of their abilities after turning seventy.

Yet Ki Baekseon, the leader of the Heat Cauldron Sect, had retained both his vigor and martial arts from his younger days. The sect's prosperity never waned.

Yi had simply accepted it then.

He had only thought it was something curious.

Then one day, Yi saw a child crying in the street.

A six-year-old girl dressed in silk.

"Hey, little one. Did you get lost?"

Yi knelt and wiped away the child's tears.

The moment his fingers touched her cheek, he thought it felt strangely hot.

Then the child spoke.

"Mister. It's too hot. My stomach hurts so much. Grandpa and Grandma keep saying it'll be okay, but Hye hurts so much, and it's so hot, but they just keep saying it'll be okay. So I came out in secret. It hurts so much, Mister."

"Huh?"

As if she had been waiting for him to ask, the child burst into louder sobs and collapsed to the ground.

"Your stomach hurts?"

Yi lightly pressed the back of his hand to her lower abdomen.

His face stiffened.

This was not ordinary heat.

"...Cultivation Deviation?"

It was an unnatural heat radiating from an innate flame, not simple body temperature.

The kind of heat felt only when something went wrong during cultivation and someone fell into Cultivation Deviation.

"Over here! We found her!"

"Damn it... This is why. Can't we just tie all the little brats up?"

Yi pricked up his ears.

The voices had been lowered, but Yi, who had lit his True Flame years ago, heard every word clearly.

"That's... If we're too forceful, the spirit grows timid and turbid qi builds up in the cauldron..."

"I know, damn it. I'm saying this because it keeps happening. Look at that. Someone's already latched onto her."

"I'll handle it at once."

"Yeah. Quietly. Let's keep it quiet."

Yi's face chilled as if someone had thrown ice water over it.

Spirit. Turbid qi. Cauldron.

Those three words alone told him everything.

It was an atrocity worthy of beasts and demons.

Footsteps approached from behind him.

"Oh, there you are. She's the young lady of our household. You've been looking after her, haven't you? Thank you. My master insists on rewarding people for things like this. If you don't mind, we'd like to invite you to his residence for a moment."

Yi turned around.

The man smiling warmly had an ordinary face and was dressed like a servant from a wealthy household.

Then he flinched as he recognized Yi's face.

"Windflow Sword?"

Yi answered.

"Yeah. It's me, you fucking bastards."

Flaaap!

True Flame surged through his qi-blood.

Hot innate true qi roiled through the Eight Extraordinary Vessels, and blazing True Flame spread through the Twelve Regular Meridians and Twelve Collateral Channels.

Under that scorching pressure, veins bulged across his skin, his sleeves fluttered, and heat haze rose around him.

Crunch!

The head of the warmly smiling man shot into the air.

The area was still quiet.

Before anyone could notice the blood spraying through the air and the flying head, before anyone could scream,

Boom!

Yi crushed the ground beneath his feet and launched himself forward. The veins on the back of his hand stood out as it trembled atop the hilt of his sword.

* * *

"That's what happened. I fought until the sun rose the next day. If your uncle, Hang Inwoo, the leader of the White Dragon Gang, hadn't come to help, I would've been the one who died."

It was a victory.

In another light, it might have been a heroic tale to take pride in.

Yet there was not the slightest joy on Yi's face, and Sowol could not begin to guess at what he felt.

"I couldn't save that child. When I found her after the fighting was over, she had already stopped breathing. I... I couldn't even stay with that poor child until the end."

"...Father."

Yi shook his head, as if telling him not to say anything because he was fine.

He stared up at the sky in silence for a moment, then changed the subject.

"Anyway, you can erase item number two now. It seems there were many merchants who suffered harm without knowing why. It's a sad thing."

Flip. Flip.

"And let's see... I saw that one earlier too."

He flipped through the pages of the Shinheung Danger-Avoidance Manual and pointed to a passage.

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If you find someone sitting blankly in the grass beside the road through Heavenly Road Mountain, turn back the way you came at once.

No matter how much you stand to lose, do not cling to it. Run.

Otherwise, the person sitting there next time may be you.

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"This one still hasn't been dealt with."

Sowol felt as if someone had wrapped a hand around his throat.

"Is that... also something people are doing?"

"It is. The bandits of Cheonro Mountain Stronghold."

* * *

The bandits of Heavenly Road Mountain came up with an ingenious way to keep close watch over the vast mountain.

It was simple.

First, they captured people. As many as possible.

They snatched unlucky travelers passing along mountain paths. Sometimes, they even brazenly came down to Shinheung County at night to abduct people.

After gathering more than a hundred people bit by bit, they fed them Dream-Soul Powder until they became addicted.

They called the addicted captives tiger ghosts.

The bandits scattered the tiger ghosts throughout Heavenly Road Mountain and tied them down with thick ropes so they could not escape.

Beside them, they left a little food and water.

And one thin cord that ran far into the distance.

There was no Dream-Soul Powder.

Abandoned in the grass, the tiger ghosts wasted away and died.

The food was nowhere near enough, but hunger was not what they thought about.

All they desperately wanted was Dream-Soul Powder.

After spending days in agony, dying in the grass, a tiger ghost would suddenly spot a group coming over the mountain path in the distance and be overcome with joy.

They would twist their bound body and desperately pull the cord.

Jingle. Jingle.

A bell rang somewhere far away, and the bandits at the stronghold knew they had visitors.

The tiger ghost would now receive a day's worth of Dream-Soul Powder.

* * *

"..."

Sowol moved his lips.

He could barely speak, but finally forced out a sound.

"That... hasn't been dealt with?"

"That's right."

"Then there are still people on Heavenly Road Mountain..."

"There are. Poor people."

"..."

Sowol could not understand it at all.

"What about the government troops?"

Yi's lips tightened slightly, then relaxed.

"Heavenly Road Mountain is vast. Vast enough for the bandits to hide easily, even if every soldier in Shinheung County were mobilized to search it."

Sowol still could not understand.

'Isn't that just an excuse?'

People were dying miserably.

'If they don't have enough soldiers, they can ask a higher command for reinforcements. If Heavenly Road Mountain is too large, they can seek help from herb gatherers who know its mountain paths well.'

No matter how he thought about it, there were plenty of ways.

"Haven't I always told you that how a martial artist conducts himself matters? Bandits conduct themselves in their own way."

Sowol looked at Yi with unsteady eyes.

Yi spoke.

"Surprisingly, the bandits of Heavenly Road Mountain cause less harm to the people than other bandits do. It isn't enough of a problem to make a larger force move. Along the coastal towns, whole villages are disappearing one by one to Wako raids."

"That's..."

"On top of that, those bandits shower gold on many officials under the county magistrate. Even if the magistrate resolved to root them out, information would pour out from those beneath him."

"..."

Sowol's insides boiled.

'What kind of bullshit is this...?'

The absurd injustice.

The helpless rage of knowing that nothing could be done despite it.

He was furious.

He wanted to shout.

But.

'Hold it in.'

He tensed his body and restrained himself.

'What's the point of getting angry in front of Father?'

Sowol knew that complaining about the world in front of adults rarely earned a good response.

He had felt all sorts of frustrations throughout middle school, high school, and his teenage years.

Why was the world such a mess? Why was it so irrational? How could it be so unfair?

He had exploded with complaints in front of adults more than once, but they never took those words well.

Back then, Sowol had thought those adults were disappointing and cowardly.

Then one day, he saw his father come home from work, slump down without a word, drink just one glass of soju, and sit there silently for a long time.

That changed his mind.

'Isn't getting angry and blaming adults for no reason just as cowardly?'

Looking back, the root of his feelings had been, 'Do something.'

You are the adults, so get it together.

But when he saw his father's weary shoulders, he suddenly realized something.

'What could a dad like that do?'

Adults were always fighting their own limits.

Everyone was too exhausted for him to demand they do better. To ask them to change things.

He understood then.

He understood why adults had always responded so lukewarmly when he poured out his complaints in front of them.

That was just how the world was.

It wasn't easy.

He was young, after all.

He understood why they said such things.

Adults were also weak people, struggling under burdens that were too much for them.

Yes.

He understood.

He knew that well.

The twenty-first century had been like that.

How much worse could this barbaric land called the Jianghu be?

But.

Sowol.

Even knowing all that.

Could not hold it in this time.

He spilled his surging anger before Yi.

"Then... this isn't okay, is it?"

If one person did that to another.

"People holding government posts... If they are that incompetent and irresponsible... Isn't that wrong?"

It was wrong.

They were in those positions to protect the people. If they acted like that.

"When children die like that, and innocent people are captured by bandits and made to suffer that way, but they make excuse after excuse, sit around warming their asses in comfort, and say nothing can be done..."

It was wrong.

It could not be allowed.

It was simply wrong.

That kind of world was a fucking awful world.

Sowol lowered his head.

'Damn it.'

Self-loathing surged through him.

Why was he throwing a tantrum like this at Yi Yubaek?

'It isn't like Father did anything wrong...'

Yi watched Sowol with a completely impassive gaze.

"Sowol."

"...Yes."