WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Oblivious
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◈ Murim in my Hometown ◈
Chapter 28: Traitor
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As soon as we entered the mountains, the moonlight vanished. Pitch-black darkness covered everything around us.
I raised a hand to stop the group behind me and hid behind a boulder.
I concealed my presence and even hushed my breathing, keeping only my eyes and ears open as I stared into the inky forest.
Dense branches blocking out the sky swayed in the gentle breeze, making eerie sounds.
The footsteps of a black-clad figure walking through the undergrowth drifted to my ears on the wind.
I could roughly judge the direction, but the figure blended completely into the darkness, leaving no visible outline. When the wind died down, the footsteps receded as well.
After I remained crouched there for some time, Dang Hyeseo finally lost patience and tapped my shoulder from behind.
When I showed no response, she moved closer. The fresh scent of grass and a sweet fragrance softly wrapped around my face.
“Why aren't we going? We'll lose them at this rate.”
I pressed an index finger to my lips and waited until my eyes adjusted to the deep darkness.
The black-clad figure did not seem to have noticed we were following, but we could not rule out the possibility of a trap.
No matter how urgent things were, one had to prepare thoroughly before entering somewhere dark, whether it was a forest, an underground passage, or an enclosed room.
Rush in carelessly, and it was all too easy to end up with holes all over your body.
Won Seogang understood that as well, so Won Seogang silently focused on the darkness. Dang Hyeseo clenched and unclenched her fists anxiously, but she did not press me further.
Gradually, the shapes within the forest became distinguishable. Once my eyes had adjusted enough to respond to an ambush, I rose.
“Let's go.”
The overgrown mountain path where the black-clad figure had disappeared led to an abandoned shrine.
It was fairly large, with roof tiles and all, but the walls had crumbled in several places, likely because no one had visited for a long time.
Dim light leaked from a window opening where the shutters had fallen away. I sensed people inside and heard low voices.
I silently gripped my long saber and rose onto my toes. Moving one step at a time, I approached stealthily and pressed myself against the outer wall.
The man's voice from inside sounded familiar. I peered through a fist-sized hole and became certain.
A small lamp was lit inside. The middle-aged man still wore his conical hat, and half his face was swallowed by darkness, but it was enough to recognize him.
Dang Hyeseo did not look surprised at all. It seemed she had known the black-clad figure's identity from the start.
Considering she had told us to prepare to leave at night, she had clearly expected this to happen.
“How far do you intend to run?”
Dang Dohun asked in a coaxing tone.
“As far as I can. So please stop pursuing us here. If you do, I will leave quietly.”
At the woman's reply, Dang Hyeseo's eyes gleamed like a cat's.
The woman sat with her back turned, so I could not see her face, but Dang Hyeseo seemed to know who she was.
I thought I knew as well.
The Tang Clan traitor the Tang Clan members were pursuing.
I did not know why Dang Dohun had secretly slipped out in the middle of the night to meet her, but Dang Hyeseo had said four days would be enough. This must have been what she was after.
Dang Dohun clicked his tongue mockingly.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Do you not know what a pursuit-and-execution squad is? This will only end when you die. The clan has likely already sent reinforcements. It is not something I can resolve simply by turning a blind eye.”
“Then why did the clan let me leave in the first place?”
Dang Dohun's voice dropped heavily.
“I merely felt momentary sympathy after hearing the sad circumstances of a young man and woman, so I brought disgrace upon the clan. Do not expect leniency twice.”
“Is that really all? You did not encourage us to turn our backs on the clan?”
Dang Dohun's brow furrowed deeply.
“Your delusions are severe. Every result has a cause, and every action carries responsibility. You ran away on your own feet, so you must bear the responsibility for it yourself.”
The woman did not yield.
“What result did you expect when you gave us the Soul-Severing Powder?”
“Are you trying to blame me again for what you stole?”
“Is that something that could simply be stolen? Did you not deliberately leave it where I could take it?”
Dang Dohun glared at her. A cruel light deepened in his eyes, but the woman continued.
“At first, I thought it was a favor from the Deputy Hall Master. But before I had even left Chengdu, I heard that I had stolen the Tang Clan's exclusive secret art and fled. Soul-Severing Powder is certainly a useful poison, but it is not an exclusive secret art.”
Dang Dohun shook his head.
“You two were the ones who ran away in the night after falling for each other. Why are you questioning me? Where is Gyeongjae? Why have you come alone?”
“I am enough by myself.”
“Tsk, tsk. What a pathetic fool. Is he hiding to save his own skin after abandoning his spouse? And he calls himself a man.”
“If we came together, you would kill us both to silence us, would you not?”
“You are doomed either way. You know that, do you not? Better to die than be dragged back to the clan.”
“I was ordered to bring the Tang Clan's traitor back alive.”
“You bitch... Don't tell me...”
Dang Dohun tilted his head at the woman's meaningful words, then suddenly widened his eyes in shock. The corners of his eyes twitched, and his pupils trembled.
“...So it was no accident that Hyeseo let you go in Sichuan? I see... So that was it. I thought something was strange from the moment that sly wench coaxed the sect master into letting her join the pursuit-and-execution squad. Was she the one who ordered you to poison the bandits as well?”
“Wouldn't you have answered my message only after deciding that I had exhausted all my resources? Like you have now.”
“I'll take that as your last words. Farewell.”
Dang Dohun rose and drew his sword. Dang Hyeseo raised her left arm and fired the sleeve arrow hidden within her sleeve.
Thwang!
Clang!
A sleeve arrow flew through the small hole. It was a perfectly timed surprise attack, but Dang Dohun blocked it easily as though he had been waiting for it.
He glared at the hole the arrow had come through, then smiled nastily.
“So you were there. You rat-like bitch.”
Dang Dohun kicked off the ground and leaped through the window. The instant he landed outside, he flicked his left sleeve in our direction.
Won Seogang, Dang Hyeseo, and I all sprang away from the outer wall at once, leaping in opposite directions.
Fwip! Fwip! Fwip!
More than a dozen hidden weapons buried themselves in the wall.
Pheee!
The woman who had followed him out blew a whistle. Dang Dohun stopped his attack, looked behind him, and retreated some distance.
The forest behind the shrine shook, and three martial artists carrying sabers ran out. One of them saw Won Seogang and recoiled in shock.
“W-Wait, what is Hero Won doing here?”
“I came to make money. What about you, Brother Dong?”
“Do I look like I came to admire the moon? If I want to keep food on the table, I have to work hard. But are we... on the same side?”
A middle-aged wandering swordsman with a prominent scar across one cheek swallowed nervously and watched the situation.
Won Seogang turned to Dang Hyeseo. When she nodded, the wandering swordsman openly let out a relieved sigh.
“Phew, that is a relief. Let us work well together.”
The saber wielders took out familiar bamboo shields slung over their shoulders and stood in front of the woman.
“Saber wielders?”
“That is right. Mayflies who spend their days loitering around the Wandering Swordsman Inn.”
Dang Hyeseo approached the woman behind the shields.
“Sister Seyeong, you've been through a lot.”
“You are the one who has suffered, Hyeseo.”
Dang Dohun surveyed the people arrayed before him with a haughty gaze.
Me, Won Seogang, Dang Hyeseo, Dang Seyeong, and the three saber wielders.
He was vastly outnumbered, but as befitted the Tang Clan's Deputy Hall Master, he showed no sign of being intimidated.
Dang Hyeseo fixed Dang Dohun with a fierce stare.
“Deputy Hall Master. What happened to the exclusive secret art you smuggled out?”
“I have no idea what you are talking about. Is the traitor not standing beside you?”
“The Iron Armguard.”
Dang Hyeseo mentioned the rare artifact, and Dang Dohun's eyes twitched savagely.
“Where is it?”
“Ask that pair of scum.”
“If Sister Seyeong and my brother-in-law had fled with the Iron Armguard, they would have used it when we met in Sichuan. All they had were a little silver and the Soul-Severing Powder you gave them. Sister Seyeong has neither the authority nor the ability to enter the Secret Hall. How could she have smuggled out the Iron Armguard?”
Dang Dohun snorted coldly.
“Is that your basis for suspecting me?”
“There is a witness who saw the Deputy Hall Master enter and leave the Secret Hall recently. The Hao clan has also obtained evidence that you met someone several times in Chengdu. Shall I go on?”
“...Does the sect master know as well?”
“Whose orders do you think I came under?”
Dang Dohun stared silently at Dang Hyeseo before sheathing his sword. He took a bamboo tube from his robes, raised it toward the sky, and pulled the cord beneath it.
Fwoooosh! Boom!!
A firework shot from the bamboo tube, trailing white smoke as it rose into the night sky and burst into orange flames.
Whatever he had done, the fire did not go out. It continued burning as it slowly descended.
“Half a quarter-hour.”
Dang Dohun lowered both arms, radiating a sinister aura.
“The Detoxification Hall members will arrive within half a quarter-hour. If you are still alive by then, I will give you the answers you want.”
Dang Dohun's sleeves fluttered.
“Watch out!”
No sooner had Dang Hyeseo shouted than hidden weapons tore through the darkness.
Fwip! Fwip! Fwip! Fwip! Fwip!
I ducked behind the nearest tree.
There was no possible angle from where Dang Dohun stood that should have allowed the weapons to strike me, yet they flew toward my face with chilling sounds.
Startled, I hurriedly bent backward and knocked it aside with my long saber. The hidden weapon did not lose any force. It flew the other way and embedded itself in a bamboo shield.
What the hell was that...?
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end, and a shiver ran through my entire body.
I was not the only one struggling with the bizarre trajectories and ricochets of the incoming hidden weapons.
Won Seogang was also moving frantically between the trees, swinging a sword.
Dang Hyeseo, watching for an opportunity from the flank, was working up a sweat as she warded off the hidden weapons.
The others hiding behind the bamboo shields could not even properly raise their heads.
I examined one of the hidden weapons embedded in a tree. Its shape was unusual.
A hidden weapon made by cutting a strip of iron into the shape of a bat.
It was a Bat Dart, something I had only heard about.
Bat Darts were not hidden weapons that simply flew straight. Like Golden Thread Darts, they curved this way and that with the wind.
Even when knocked away with a saber, they did not fall to the ground, instead flying off in another direction...
Those lunatics obsessed with hidden weapons had truly come up with something this insane.
Fwip! Fwip! Fwip! Fwip! Fwip!
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Fighting someone who used hidden weapons in the dead of night was as bad as fighting river pirates in the middle of the Yangtze.
How was I supposed to fight when I could not see anything...?
We had more people, but the fierce hidden weapons swarmed like hornets, making it impossible to get close.
Dang Hyeseo and Dang Seyeong fought back by unleashing hidden weapons of their own, but Dang Dohun's hidden-weapon techniques were clearly several levels above theirs.
Without the shields, we would have been wiped out long ago.
No matter how many weapons he had concealed inside his sleeves, Dang Dohun's supply seemed endless.
“Urgh!”
One of the saber wielders was struck by a Bat Dart that had bounced off a shield and collapsed.
The wound was not deep, but the dart was surely poisoned. He was as good as dead.
A chill ran down my spine.
At this rate, we would be finished one by one. We desperately needed a way to turn this around.
Thwang!
Dang Hyeseo, who had been hurling flying dart after flying dart, launched a sleeve arrow. Dang Dohun used Footwork to evade it, then mercilessly showered us with hidden weapons.
At that moment, something flashed through my mind, and I felt around inside my left sleeve.
There it was. The bamboo tube I always carried.
Without hesitation, I untied the knot, pulled it out, and removed the cap. Then I swung it with all my strength as though throwing it toward Dang Dohun.
White powder scattered widely from the tube. I braced my core and shouted.
“Seven-Step Soul-Severing Powder!! Everyone, get back!!”
One of the Tang Clan's Eight Great Poisons, so deadly that if one inhaled it even once, or got it on the skin of a hand or face, they would cough blood and die before taking seven steps.
At the mention of that terrifying poison, not only Dang Dohun but Dang Seyeong and the saber wielders all recoiled in horror.
For a moment, we faced each other across the unidentified white powder, which asserted its presence even in the darkness like a mist of death.
Dang Hyeseo stared at me from the other side with a bewildered, displeased expression.
Won Seogang grinned as Won Seogang approached and lightly patted my shoulder.
“You certainly have a talent for startling people. So you had something up your sleeve. Where in the world did you get one of the Eight Great Poisons? Do not tell me Miss Dang...”
“It is just Lime Powder.”
“What?”
Won Seogang let out a disbelieving laugh.
“Heh heh heh. You madman...”
Dang Dohun, who had retreated some distance away to watch the situation, finally realized he had been tricked.
“As expected of bottom-feeders. You have nothing but petty tricks. Fine. I will show you what real poison is, poison that burns flesh and melts bones. Keep your eyes wide open as you go to hell.”
Dang Dohun radiated murderous intent as he pulled his hands from his sleeves. Dozens of hidden weapons held between his fingers gleamed ominously like a beast's claws.
Just then, running footsteps came from the mountain path leading to the village. Emerging from the forest into the moonlight were Dang Hyeseo's subordinate and the monk.
Dang Dohun looked behind him and immediately unleashed the hidden weapons in his hands.
The subordinate hurriedly threw themself behind a tree. The monk charged straight ahead, swinging a precept saber.
Even in the dim moonlit night, the monk blocked every hidden weapon. The monk perfectly struck down even those that curved bizarrely and came back around.
It seemed the monk was not seeing with their eyes, but reading the flow of air with sharply honed senses and reacting to it.
It was clearly a saber technique, yet the monk's movements had reached a realm where they seemed to be drawing lines rather than cutting.
The monk was an astonishing master beyond common sense.
The Nine Sects, with their centuries of tradition, were probably crawling with monsters like that.
There was a reason the Tang Clan remained shut away in Sichuan instead of becoming the greatest under heaven, despite their outstanding hidden-weapon techniques and terrifying poison arts.
While the monk and the subordinate fought Dang Dohun, Dang Hyeseo loaded and fired a sleeve arrow.
Dang Dohun turned after locating the shot by its sound, and a hidden weapon thrown by the subordinate struck his shoulder.
Almost at the same time, the monk's precept saber slashed Dang Dohun's thigh.
Dang Dohun collapsed to one knee. Bracing himself against the ground with both hands, he began retching.
The hidden weapon appeared to have been coated in a fast-acting poison.
The monk retreated, shook the blood from the precept saber, and spoke indifferently.
“Benefactor Dang. This is as far as you go. Do not resist any further.”
Detoxification Hall members came rushing down the mountain path the monk had taken. A tall, unfamiliar man accompanied them.
Dang Dohun recognized the man and widened his eyes.
“Gyeongjae, why are you with the Detoxification Hall members...?”
The Detoxification Hall members saw their Deputy Hall Master grievously wounded after being attacked, and murderous intent rose in their eyes.
“Everyone, remain calm! Do not act rashly...”
“Move!”
When Gyeongjae tried to stop them, a senior Detoxification Hall member shook him off and drew a sword.
“Rescue the Deputy Hall Master!”
Before the Detoxification Hall members could react, Dang Hyeseo intervened.
“Everyone, stop! The Deputy Hall Master is a traitor to the clan! Anyone who sides with him will be treated as an accomplice!”
“Do not be fooled! Those bastards are all in league! By the Deputy Hall Master's authority, I command the Detoxification Hall members to execute the traitors!”
The contradictory orders left the Tang Clan members at a loss.
The Deputy Hall Master had authority to command the Detoxification Hall members, but they could not casually harm someone of Dang Hyeseo's high standing.
As the Detoxification Hall members hesitated, Dang Hyeseo stepped forward. She took something from her robes and shouted.
“Members of the Tang Clan, heed the Sect Master’s Command Token!”
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