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◈ Murim in my Hometown ◈

Chapter 51: A Blessing in Disguise

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“Are you heading to Seochon?”

“Yes?”

“Could I catch a ride with you?”

“Hmm, wait a moment.”

Tang Hyeseo disappeared from the window. After speaking with someone, she returned.

“Get in.”

“Thank you.”

The carriage's rear door opened. As I stepped inside, a wave of warmth enveloped my whole body.

Tang Hyeseo sat across from a familiar guard. A middle-aged woman with graying hair held a book.

Only the three of them were inside the spacious carriage.

I cupped my fist in my palm and bowed to the middle-aged woman, who looked to be the most important person here.

“Thank you for letting me ride with you. My name is Jeong Daecheon.”

The woman scrutinized me, then asked Tang Hyeseo, “Is he a wandering martial artist?”

“He's a guest retainer of the Hao clan, Aunt. He helped me before.”

“A wandering martial artist, then.”

The woman turned back to her book as though she had lost interest.

The rear door closed, and the carriage set off again.

I sat near the entrance and placed the bundle of clothes with a sword thrust diagonally through it at my feet.

Tang Hyeseo silently asked what it was with her eyes. Perhaps because her aunt was present, she refrained from speaking.

I shrugged and pretended not to know.

Though the weather was chilly, I had climbed mountains and fought, sweating heavily in the process. There was probably still smell of blood on my clothes.

Fortunately, one window had been left open, either for ventilation or because they were staying alert.

The small braziers placed on either side kept the carriage warm.

As my body thawed, I finally felt human again.

I was about to take out my water flask when I realized I had left my bundle in the Hao clan's carriage.

I considered asking for water, but after reading the room, I simply kept quiet.

When the carriage rounded the foot of the mountain, the mountain I had entered while pursuing the opium merchant came into view. There was no one around.

Geuk Hwan and Bok Hagyu had probably dealt with Pyo Holdeuk's two remaining subordinates long ago, and everyone had returned to Seochon.

What had happened to the enormous quantity of opium, worth tens of thousands of taels of silver?

The Black Night Gang did not deal in opium, so the Hao clan had probably taken it.

I felt through my clothes. The Martial Alliance Inspector's identity plaque and seal were still there.

If I made a deal with Bok Hagyu tomorrow, this would open a path to meeting Jeok Chuyeong.

The inspector had turned out to be a fake, and the deal had nearly fallen apart. Still, it seemed things would somehow work out, and a sigh of relief escaped me.

With the carriage's swaying, my eyes slowly drifted shut as though I were melting away.

“We're here. That's Seochon.”

Drawn by Tang Hyeseo's clear voice, I raised my head without thinking. Through my sleepy vision, Seochon's familiar streets came into view.

I blinked blankly, then came to my senses when I saw the bundle of clothes and Pyo Holdeuk's sword at my feet.

If I entered the Hao clan carrying these, they would realize I had Pyo Holdeuk's identity plaque and seal.

“I'll get off here.”

Tang Hyeseo stopped the carriage. After thanking her and her aunt once more, I gathered my things and climbed down.

Having been drunk on warmth, the late-autumn chill outside felt strangely bleak, as though it clawed deep into my heart.

I watched the two carriages disappear between the buildings, then turned away.

No one welcomed me home, but only then did my heart finally settle.

I bolted the front gate and set my spoils and long saber on the wooden floor. After washing my hands, feet, and face, I lit the brazier and boiled water for tea.

In the warmly heated inner room, I blew on hot tea as I eased my hunger with jerky and travel rations.

After roughly filling my stomach, I sat cross-legged and examined my dantian.

The emptiness I felt for the first time since forming my dantian made my vision swim.

I had barely 45 percent of my inner energy left.

I had used up a full 55 percent of my precious inner energy just to kill that damned demon.

How was I supposed to fill it again...

I sat there in a daze before taking out the pills I had hidden away so carefully.

Twenty pills made by medicinally preparing the Sun-Seeking Ginseng Herb Geuk Hwan had obtained for me.

I had rationed them so sparingly that I still had nineteen pills and a fifth of one left.

I would have to replenish my depleted inner energy with these first.

I put one pill and a fifth of another into my mouth, chewed them thoroughly, and swallowed.

Drawing up my inner energy, I absorbed the Sun-Seeking Ginseng Herb's natural qi from the pills into my dantian.

There was not much of it, so it did not take long to circulate energy and regulate the breath. I gathered my qi and checked my dantian.

I had recovered barely more than 5 percent of my inner energy.

I had heard that although the Sun-Seeking Ginseng Herb was a spirit herb, it could not compare to the Snow Ginseng.

Twenty pills might seem like a lot, but they had merely been made from one Sun-Seeking Ginseng Herb.

Surely I would not need to eat them all to recover completely...

The pills were so precious that I could not bring myself to take more.

Did I really need to fill my inner energy completely?

After agonizing over the pills for a long time, I nodded.

I did.

I never knew when I might need inner energy again. No matter how carefully I saved the pills, they would end up in someone else's hands if I died.

I boldly tossed three more pills into my mouth, then proceeded to circulate energy and regulate the breath to replenish my inner energy. Even then, it was still insufficient.

Two more. Then three more...

Each time a pill disappeared, my blood ran cold as though my lifespan were being shaved away.

But I did not stop.

Only after taking ten more pills did my dantian become full of inner energy again, just as it had been before I left home that morning.

Only five pills remained.

As I stared at the nearly empty wooden case, my hands and feet trembled like an addict's.

“Where am I supposed to get another spirit herb... Should I go back to the Black Market?”

I took out Pyo Holdeuk's money pouch and checked its contents.

There were five bank drafts worth ten taels of silver each.

The large pouch contained only assorted belongings. There was nothing worth selling.

I had thirty taels of silver. Added together, that made eighty taels.

It was a considerable sum, but nowhere near enough to buy a spirit herb.

I had only been able to buy the Snow Ginseng for a hundred taels because I knew the seller was desperate and had driven a hard bargain. It would be difficult to expect such luck again.

Come to think of it, Ban Hoyang, the person who had sold me the Snow Ginseng, was now with the Black Night Gang.

Should I ask Bok Hagyu to put in a word? See whether there was more Tianshan Snow Ginseng?

On second thought, that would not work either.

Ban Hoyang had been so enraged over selling the Tianshan Snow Ginseng cheaply that he hired ten bandits to kill me and take it back.

If we met, he would probably try to kill me again instead of giving me a spirit herb.

Geuk Hwan had also firmly stated that spirit herbs were difficult to obtain and expensive.

I thought back to my fight with Pyo Holdeuk in the mountains.

If I had killed Pyo Holdeuk in one swift blow as quickly as possible, I would not have wasted so much inner energy.

Only now did I understand in my bones why Do Hoengil had told me to use inner energy only for a lifesaving ultimate technique.

A lifesaving ultimate technique was, as the name implied, an exceptional move that saved one's life.

It had to be short and powerful.

Like the terrifying consecutive sword strikes Pyo Holdeuk had shown.

I had been fighting reasonably well, only to get caught in that chilling sword light and take a slash to the shoulder.

If the consecutive attacks had continued, holes might have been punched through not only my arms and legs, but my torso as well.

Pyo Holdeuk had possessed less inner energy than I did. How had Pyo Holdeuk been able to pour so much of it into those techniques?

The greatest amount of inner energy I could send from my dantian through my limbs and into a technique was about as thick as eight silk threads.

How much could Pyo Holdeuk send? Ten silk threads, perhaps even more.

Pyo Holdeuk had probably surpassed me in both the density and depth of inner energy as well.

Yet it was Pyo Holdeuk, not me, who had lost his head and become wolf food.

That was because Pyo Holdeuk's inner energy had run dry while continuing those consecutive attacks.

If Pyo Holdeuk had possessed more inner energy than I did, I would have died.

If Pyo Holdeuk had committed from the start and unleashed that ultimate technique of consecutive attacks, I would still have been cut to pieces before I even had a chance to use inner energy.

Pyo Holdeuk's fatal mistake was underestimating me and trying to enjoy driving me into a corner.

The lesson from today's battle was clear.

From now on, whenever I use inner energy, I have to finish things in a single blow.

I had to keep finding spirit herbs and preparing them medicinally, while increasing the amount of inner energy I could channel into a technique. I also needed to raise the density of my inner energy and the efficiency of circulating it.

I needed to condense inner energy into my techniques and create a trump card, a lifesaving ultimate technique that could rival the storm-like consecutive attacks Pyo Holdeuk had shown.

The conclusion was endless training.

Even as I lay in the warm room, the exchanges from the day's battle would not leave my mind. I got up and picked up my long saber.

After I circulated energy and regulated the breath several times, much of my fatigue had already faded.

I went out into the yard with my long saber and slowly reviewed my fight against Pyo Holdeuk from the beginning.

Beneath a cloudy sky that darkened without even a sunset, I endlessly slashed and thrust through the air against the dead person's sword.

*

Was this what they called a blessing in disguise...?

Walking north along the mountain road, the opium merchant Yi Rim sank into strange thoughts.

When Yi Rim had stabbed the Tianshan bastards in the back, seized the carriage loaded with opium, and fled, he had felt as though they possessed the whole world.

Then the damned packhorse missed its footing on the night road and collapsed, toppling the carriage onto its side. Yi Rim had nearly died far from home.

There had been no one in Seochon willing to trade when he entered the village to sell the opium and buy new horses. These damned country bumpkins did not know the taste of opium, so he could not sell it at all.

Then members of the Black Path captured him and beat him senseless.

When Yi Rim saw the Tianshan bastards disguised as Martial Alliance Inspectors again, his vision went black.

He truly thought he was dead, but then, out of nowhere, a group of martial artists ambushed them in the mountains.

While the bastards fought each other savagely, he desperately watched for an opening and untied their ropes.

Everyone had been too busy fighting, so Yi Rim had even managed to take a generous amount of opium.

He checked the item inside their robes and smiled triumphantly.

With this, he could return to Gansu and try to get back on their feet. That place was full of Unorthodox Faction martial artists and wandering martial artists, and opium sold as soon as it appeared.

Yi Rim had traveled this route when coming down from Gansu, so Yi Rim moved quickly without getting lost.

Unlike then, he had neither a packhorse nor a carriage full of opium, but having escaped death by a hair's breadth, Yi Rim's steps were lighter than ever.

After passing barren stone mountains and descending into a valley, something blocked his path.

It had the air of a wolf, but it was not a wolf. It was a martial artist wrapped in a long robe, their face hidden beneath a long-brimmed conical hat.

“Who the hell are you?”

The moment Yi Rim saw the saber at the stranger's waist, he swiftly drew their sword.

“Were you the ones who plundered an escort shipment in Xinjiang?”

Yi Rim flinched at the deep voice of a middle-aged figure.

This was not some bandit or robber. This was someone who knew who Yi Rim was and what he had done, someone who had come after him.

Damn it...

Why was this blessing in disguise turning on him so quickly? How long had it even been since he escaped? Why was someone already coming to catch him again...

“Why did you come to Seochon? Who did you meet?”

The middle-aged figure seemed to have many questions.

Yi Rim kept his mouth shut and gripped his sword with both hands.

There was no way the figure would let him go just because he obediently answered the questions. Yi Rim had to cut his way through.

He had not dared think of challenging the Tianshan bastards, but in Gansu, he had spent years honing his blade as a skilled killer.

When words failed, the middle-aged figure drew an Ox-Tail Saber.

Yi Rim rushed in. He kicked dirt into the figure's face and swung their sword mercilessly.

The middle-aged figure hastily dodged to the side and counterattacked. Yi Rim easily deflected the saber strike and cheered inwardly. The opponent was more pathetic than expected.

After pushing the figure back a few more times, an opening immediately appeared.

Yi Rim's eyes gleamed as he thrust his sword at the figure's vital point. As if waiting for it, the middle-aged figure thrust the Ox-Tail Saber forward.

Saber and sword met in midair.

Just before colliding with the sword, the saber tip deftly tilted inward. It hooked around the sword blade and pressed it down, then thrust straight ahead.

The sword blade spun around, twisting Yi Rim's wrist. His elbow and shoulder curled inward as well, and the saber headed for his neck.

Horrified, Yi Rim released their sword and twisted away. The middle-aged figure lunged in and kicked Yi Rim in the chest.

He rolled across the ground and coughed.

“*Cough, cough.* Threefold Spear Technique? What kind of spear technique is that, using a saber...?”

Yi Rim's face twisted with pain and confusion as he stared at the middle-aged figure. Then his eyes suddenly widened.

“Don't tell me you're from the Northern Army...”

Thwack!

The kick the middle-aged figure delivered snapped his head aside, and he lost consciousness.

“Get some sleep while you can. You'll be talking all night.”

The middle-aged figure sheathed the saber and took a rope from the back of their waistband. They tied his limbs and stuffed a gag into his mouth.

As the figure dusted off their hands and stood, a man in a bamboo rain hat came hurrying from the mountain path ahead.

The middle-aged figure turned and asked, “What happened?”

Looking troubled, the subordinate answered in a shrinking voice, “...The Hao clan took the goods.”

“What were the gatekeepers doing that they responded so late?”

The middle-aged figure raised the brim of the conical hat. Under that cold, merciless gaze, the subordinate trembled and quickly lowered his head.

“F-Forgive me. They have not been here long, so their judgment is still slow.”

“How can I leave my post in peace if this is how you handle things? Tch. We are taking this one back.”

The middle-aged figure lowered the conical hat over their face and headed toward the mountain path. The subordinate quickly hoisted Yi Rim over his shoulder and followed.

Someone waved from a carriage waiting below the valley. The two descended toward it.

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