WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Oblivious
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Murim in my Hometown ◈
Chapter 58: Hell
──────
Among the countless martial families and sects under heaven, how many possessed an Internal Energy Method?
The Nine Great Sects, the Five Great Families... Beyond that, I did not know.
Internal energy was that rare and precious.
Of course, they strictly forbade it from being leaked outside.
Bok Hagyu had poured an enormous fortune into acquiring this. The Blood History Gang Leader had drooled over it so much that he brought destruction upon his gang, and Choi Sadeuk had even hired Hoyeongeom to intercept it.
It was something people could not even be allowed to know you possessed, yet Bok Hagyu readily handed it to me.
After reading it, I understood why.
‘Great Void, yin and yang, supreme ultimate, five elements, eight trigrams...’
What the hell was this supposed to mean? I could not understand a single line.
I flipped through the pages, skimming them. Even after staring until I felt dizzy, I could not tell which sect's Internal Energy Method it was.
Neither the sect nor even the name of the Internal Energy Method was written anywhere in the book. It seemed to be a secret manual left for descendants of the clan rather than outsiders.
Once I reached the section on circulating internal energy, I could not keep reading.
‘From the Meeting of Yin acupoint, immerse into the deep, clear current of Rib Pursuit; follow the Dark Pivot acupoint; at the Wind Mansion acupoint, separate impurity from purity with utmost care; and take the Lesser Yang of the Foot and the Yang Linking Vessel as the courtyard...’
It was filled with all kinds of acupoints and meridians I had never heard of, without a single illustration. Nothing but words.
There were many Chinese characters I had never seen before.
I understood why Do Hoengil had said Internal Energy Methods were passed down through true qi guidance.
If I tried to learn internal energy by studying this, I felt like I would develop qi deviation even if I had never had it before.
With a sigh, I handed the book back. Bok Hagyu gave a snort of laughter at my troubled expression.
“Can you make sense of it?”
“I can't. Have you made any progress, Squad Leader Bok?”
“No. I don't want to.”
Bok Hagyu shook his head as though sick of it.
“I am looking for a physician well versed in acupoints and meridians. If I leave it with one for a few days, they should be able to draw the circulation route onto a body chart. If I send it to a Martial Alliance sect that the Black Night Gang has connections with, someone there will recognize it.”
“One of the Nine Great Sects, I assume?”
Bok Hagyu neither confirmed nor denied it.
Which sect did Jeok Chuyeong have connections with?
Shaolin, Wudang, Huashan, Zhongnan, Kongtong, Emei Sect...
Every one of them was a great sect teeming with masters as lofty and dazzling as stars.
“Is this really the Internal Energy Method of the absolute master who used Hidden Force?”
“It is.”
“How can you be so sure?”
Bok Hagyu crossed his arms and stared at me.
“The higher-ups confirmed who the murderer that used Hidden Force was. I can't reveal the entire process, but... this is the Internal Energy Method of the sect that bastard belongs to.”
Why was he so certain? As I pondered it, I clicked my tongue after realizing something.
“Did you buy this from a Black Inn?”
A Black Inn that specialized in hunting martial-world masters could certainly possess an Internal Energy Method. They had most likely taken it by force, or learned it through kidnapping and torture.
Judging from Bok Hagyu's reaction, I was right.
“Are you confident you can handle the consequences?”
Bok Hagyu let out a cold scoff.
“Hmph. It was already over the moment that bastard sent Hidden Force at our Gang Leader.”
I looked down at the mysterious Internal Energy Method manual again.
Perhaps Do Hoengil could get something from it.
If Do Hoengil were nearby, I would go find Do Hoengil, but I had no idea where Do Hoengil was now. Do Hoengil would not return until next spring.
Then something I had briefly forgotten came to mind.
Before the year ended, Won Seogang and I were supposed to climb over the Black Night Gang's walls.
“Has Gang Leader Jeok improved at all?”
“Not significantly.”
“I'd like to see Gang Leader Jeok once.”
“That will be difficult for now.”
“Let me at least see his face. To make sure Jeok Chuyeong is really alive.”
Bok Hagyu's eyes sharpened.
“Don't you trust me?”
“Even Squad Leader Bok can't deny that my help has been considerable. Now it's your turn. Give me reason to trust you.”
I could not blindly rely on Bok Hagyu.
If he kept delaying without end, I would have no choice but to climb over the walls with Won Seogang and see Jeok Chuyeong's face for myself.
After thinking for a long time, Bok Hagyu accepted my demand.
“Fine. I'll make an opportunity soon. But do you have the nerve to enter the Black Night Gang?”
“What could possibly happen?”
I answered calmly, but I needed to prepare thoroughly.
Fortunately, Jin Seokman, the brewery worker, knew the Black Night Gang's internal layout well.
If I met him again and secured an escape route in advance, I should be able to get out even in the worst-case scenario.
Thinking of entering the Black Night Gang reminded me of someone I would not want to encounter inside.
“Is there a martial artist named Ban Hoyang in the Black Night Gang?”
“Ban Hoyang?”
When I gave him a rough description, Bok Hagyu nodded.
“I think I've seen him once or twice. That bastard is not my guest.”
“Then?”
“He is a guest retainer employed by Im Jageon.”
“The Mad-Breaking Squad Leader?”
“You know him?”
“I've heard the name.”
Im Jageon was one of Jeok Chuyeong's three closest lieutenants.
Another was the Five-Phoenix Squad Leader, Seondo Mu.
Both had entered Jeok Chuyeong's service in Hunan alongside Bok Hagyu and risen quite high within the Black Path.
They must have shared life and death together, but Bok Hagyu did not seem to think much of them.
“You don't seem close to the other Squad Leaders.”
“What would be the point? Sooner or later, we'll all get along just fine in hell.”
“Hell...”
If the moral standards of the afterlife resembled those of this world, martial artists who had killed many people would not be allowed into paradise.
They would surely fall into hell or somewhere similar, but I did not know which hell awaited them.
Bok Hagyu sounded certain. That made me curious.
“What hell do you think martial artists fall into after they die?”
Bok Hagyu sank into thought for a long while before answering in a dull voice.
“Wouldn't each fall into their own nightmare? Or perhaps nothing happens at all. We'll only know after dying. In any case, it's a great relief that I swallowed the Blood History Gang without asking those bastards for help.”
The unexpected information left me stunned.
“Do you mean you attacked the Blood History Gang alone, leading only the Fierce Poison Squad?”
Bok Hagyu gave a calm, amused laugh, as though it were nothing remarkable.
“The Blood History Gang was nothing... I only needed myself and my people. I don't need people who can't work together. They only get in the way.”
Though the Blood History Gang's strength had weakened, it had still been a Black Path gang with considerable local influence.
For a single combat squad to finish them off, the Black Night Gang's hidden strength seemed formidable.
If Won Seogang and I ever had to climb over its walls, I would need to take that into full account.
After speaking with Bok Hagyu a little longer, I rose from my seat.
* * *
“...Stop. Cough, cough.”
Ha Jonggeon, the young gang leader of the Blood History Gang, did not stop.
The fierce pounding of the horse's hooves against the dirt and the creaking of the wagon were loud, but that was not all.
In a single night, he had lost both his family and his gang.
He was driving the wagon as he fled, yet he had no idea where to go.
Only after Ha Eulsan, the chairman of the Martial Combat Tournament, struck the side of the wagon with all his strength did he come to his senses.
He hurriedly pulled the reins to stop the horse, then climbed down into the cargo bed.
“Uncle... are you all right?”
Ha Jonggeon knelt on one knee to check Ha Eulsan's condition, and his face twisted in despair.
The bandages wrapped around the shoulder stump where Ha Eulsan's left arm had been severed had begun bleeding again, blood dripping from them. Blood also continued to seep from his lower abdomen, which had been caked with Gold Wound Medicine.
His wounds were so severe that it felt miraculous he was still alive.
Ha Eulsan himself knew well that he did not have much time left.
His face pale and drained of all color, he opened his mouth.
“That Bok Hagyu bastard... His skill was only fit for working as an inn cook... Yet the Black Path's front blade was brought down by its rear blade. Cough, cough. We should have dealt with the Black Night Gang long ago. I was too complacent... Cough, cough. Give me some water.”
His nephew held a waterskin to his lips and tipped it up.
After slowly taking a few sips, Ha Eulsan let out a heavy sigh filled with regret.
“I was born a man and lived a life without regrets. But... I don't think I will be able to close my eyes even in death if I leave my younger brother's murderer unavenged.”
Moving his only remaining hand, Ha Eulsan took out a rust-red iron plaque.
“Take this and go to Wiseong-ri. Once you get there...”
Ha Eulsan struggled to explain what he had to do there.
Ha Jonggeon listened to his uncle's final instructions, his brow furrowing in doubt.
“Would a place like that accept an assassination contract?”
“You'll know when you get there.”
“Are they not merely martial artists from the countryside? It would be better to hire swordsmen at the wandering martial artists' market...”
Ha Eulsan forced his dimming eyes wide open.
“Do not underestimate it because of its shabby signboard. It is an assassination group run by an assassin from the Assassins’ League.”
Only then did his nephew's eyes widen.
As the heir to his father, the Blood History Gang Leader, Ha Jonggeon had walked the cruel path of the Black Path since childhood. There was no way he could be unfamiliar with the Assassins’ League's reputation.
The Assassins’ League was famous for contract killings not because it killed people so secretly that even mice and birds would not know.
It was considered the best because it would kill its target no matter the means or method.
If someone had broken away from the Assassins’ League, at least the money would not be wasted.
“The Blood History Gang has fallen. Will they still accept the contract?”
“If we offer them Silver Brilliance Tower, they will gladly accept it even if the target is the Black Night Gang. That person is greedy...”
“Is that not too much for the contract fee?”
“Those assets will fall into the Black Night Gang's hands if we leave them alone anyway. It must be that much for Oh Sal to truly commit. Cough, cough. I want to rest. Help me lie down...”
Supported by his nephew, Ha Eulsan lay down on the uncomfortable floor of the wagon.
With no roof overhead, the cold descending from the pale autumn sky seeped into his bones.
As he trembled in an old, foul-smelling cargo wagon and faced a helpless death, he ground his teeth in bitter resentment.
Even while enjoying the Martial Combat Tournament at Silver Brilliance Tower, he had never imagined he would fail to survive that night.
He had only calculated the betting money as martial artists died or were injured atop the fighting stage. He had never imagined his own death would be so close...
They said life was lived without knowing what lay even an inch ahead...
His body grew limp, and the pain slowly dulled. His vision blurred, and the brightening sky vanished.
A face flickered in the hazy darkness.
Was it his parents, who had died decades ago? Or the child he had lost several years ago?
The moment the face that had come to greet him became clear, he snapped awake.
A distrustful, petty-looking middle-aged person.
The Gang Leader of Hunan's Great Deer Gang, So Silgang, whom he and his younger brother had ambushed and hacked to death from behind in their youth.
It had been more than forty years ago.
He had never felt guilt, and he had forgotten that person's face long ago.
So why had So Silgang appeared now, at the brink of death, to disturb his eternal rest?
White brain matter flowed down So Silgang's face with blood from the head that had been half-split by an axe.
Despite that horrific appearance, So Silgang was smiling. As though happy to see him again. As though So Silgang had known they would meet like this again.
You damned bastard...
Driven by the urge to stab that grinning face with a sword, he groped across the floor. He could grasp nothing.
Several more faces flickered over So Silgang's shoulder. They were all people he had killed.
He could feel that they had waited eagerly for this day.
So Silgang flicked out a long, snake-like tongue and wrapped it around Ha Eulsan's neck. Before he knew it, So Silgang resembled a hellish warden wearing a horn-shaped cap.
The others, dressed similarly, clung to his body and limbs.
As he struggled, his gaze fell on a distant place someone was pointing toward.
A vast mountain, shining brightly as it rose majestically through the clouds.
From its foothills to its summit, the entire mountain was densely covered in long, chilling blades. It was a Mountain of Blades.
If they dragged him there, he would have to climb that terrifying mountain while being whipped.
Endlessly, unable to die no matter how much he was stabbed and cut, unable for the pain to ever grow dull...
It was the perfect hell for a martial artist who had harmed people with blades and swords throughout his life.
He would suffer for countless ages, then begin life anew as an insect or beast.
‘Get away! I will not be taken by idiots who died by my hand! Let me go! Let me gooo!’
Ha Eulsan desperately thrashed and looked around.
There was no family anywhere to help him. Even his younger brother, who had gone ahead only a few hours earlier, was nowhere to be seen, as though he had already been dragged away.
His floating body helplessly left this world and headed toward the Mountain of Blades.
“Let... go...”
With his eyes wide open and his face twisted in a vicious grimace, Ha Eulsan breathed his last.
Ha Jonggeon closed his uncle's eyes, which remained filled with resentment, then gathered the weapons and luggage.
He unhitched the horse from the wagon and placed a saddle on its back.
“Uncle, forgive me for being unable to lay you to rest properly. Please wait a little longer, until I return after offering you vengeance.”
Leaving Ha Eulsan's body in the cargo wagon, Ha Jonggeon mounted the horse and turned away.
He rode without rest toward Wiseong-ri, seeking the assassination group led by a contract killer from the Assassins’ League.
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
