WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Order
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◈ The Heaven-Slaying Sword ◈
Chapter 16: Chapter Three - Companions, Ghost Valley (1)
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The third day of their journey.
A market in a small village somewhere in Jiangxi Province.
Dang Hwa-seo humbly admitted it.
‘...I was wrong.’
She should never have agreed to travel with him.
Her pity had made a mess of things.
Only now did the reality of the situation make Dang Hwa-seo fully realize it.
‘A country bumpkin!’
Mok Ri-won was a country bumpkin.
Worse, he was a primitive man from the mountains with not a scrap of common sense.
She should have anticipated how someone like him would react amid people and civilization.
Dang Hwa-seo was certain that the most vicious words in the world were none other than, “Miss! What is this?”
“Miss! What is this?”
And there they were.
He had asked that question dozens of times a day for the past three days since they left Suyang County.
“...Candied fruit.”
“Candied fruit! I know about this! In Chapter Three of Tales of Martial Heroes, the protagonist, Mountain Hero, trained in fist-and-kick arts with candied fruit in his mouth!”
“Yes, I’m sure you do.”
Dang Hwa-seo let out a deep sigh.
Before her stood Mok Ri-won, his eyes sparkling as he looked at her.
What happened next was no different from every time before.
“Shopkeeper, give me one candied fruit.”
“Ooh...!”
If she put something in his mouth, he would at least stay quiet while eating it.
With that thought, she took out some coins. Mok Ri-won cheered loudly.
“Thank you, Miss! But aren’t you having any?”
“I don’t enjoy sweet things.”
“Mmm...! I see!”
Dang Hwa-seo glanced at him.
He had already stopped looking at her and was staring fixedly at the candied fruit.
‘If he weren’t so handsome...’
Wouldn’t she find even the sight of him unbearable?
That thought crossed her mind.
Put another way, he was so absurdly handsome that she could forgive him even while he made the back of her neck throb.
‘...This isn’t the time for that.’
The thought drew another sigh from her.
There was a month left before the Dragon Phoenix Gathering, and even if she rode hard, the venue in Anhui was three weeks away.
They should have passed through this village yesterday, yet they had only arrived at noon today because she had indulged Mok Ri-won’s curiosity.
At this rate, they might miss the Dragon Phoenix Gathering entirely, and her plan might go awry.
“It’s sweet! I’ve never eaten anything this sweet in my life!”
Hearing Mok Ri-won’s exclamation, Dang Hwa-seo looked over at him.
‘He really is so innocent.’
A hollow laugh slipped from her lips.
What was there to be so happy about over one piece of candied fruit?
“Are you enjoying it that much?”
“Of course! Ever since I started traveling with you, Miss, I’ve seen nothing but new things. Every moment has been fun!”
Flinch.
The sudden words struck home, and Dang Hwa-seo jerked before fanning her flushed face.
“W-what are you saying...?”
His face.
His face really was the problem.
With that face, saying things like that, he made her acutely conscious of him.
Still deeply flustered and unable to calm herself, Dang Hwa-seo spoke to Mok Ri-won.
“Enough flattery. Let’s go. We can’t waste any more time in this market.”
“Mm! All right!”
Mok Ri-won crunched down on the candied fruit and swallowed it.
Then he asked Dang Hwa-seo, “Are we getting horses here?”
“Yes. If we want to travel quickly, there is no other way.”
“What if we run using movement arts...?”
“Why needlessly exhaust ourselves? And if you sprint through mountain paths, how do you plan to find the way?”
It was a point Mok Ri-won, lacking common sense, had failed to consider.
His lips pressed tightly together.
“Just follow quietly.”
Mok Ri-won nodded.
* * *
At last, they reached the stable.
Dang Hwa-seo, greatly flustered, asked the owner again.
“You’re saying there are no horses? Not even one?”
“T-that’s right... A merchant guild passed through here the day before yesterday and rented every horse we had...”
“No, who would do something so horse-brained...!”
“T-the All-Heaven Merchant Guild...”
Stiffening, Dang Hwa-seo stopped moving.
Watching her carefully, the stable owner continued in a stammer.
“I-it’s because they were offering ten times the market price. They bought every horse and mule they could find to carry supplies.”
It was an absurd situation.
The merchant guild that had bought every horse in the village for ten times the market price was ridiculous, as was the village that had sold them all at that price.
Yet Dang Hwa-seo could say nothing further.
‘The All-Heaven Merchant Guild...!’
After all, the All-Heaven Merchant Guild was the one that had pulled off such a horse-brained feat.
“Miss, what is the All-Heaven Merchant Guild?”
“The largest merchant guild in the Central Plains. More precisely, it rose rapidly over the last fifteen years and became the greatest merchant guild on the continent.”
“They bought all the horses?”
“Yes. All we can say is that we were unlucky.”
Dang Hwa-seo let out a long sigh.
Her face was twisted into a deep frown.
‘This is the worst.’
The next village was at least three days away.
It was even smaller and poorer than this one, so there was no guarantee that it would have horses either.
In other words, if they could not obtain horses here, they would be stranded and her plan would collapse.
“The merchant guild should return in about a week. By then, I could sell you...”
“That is far too late.”
“Then what can I...”
The stable owner scratched the back of his head and smacked his lips.
No other solution seemed to come to mind.
As the mood sank lower, Mok Ri-won looked between Dang Hwa-seo and the stable owner before speaking.
“Then, Miss, why don’t we take a shortcut?”
“A shortcut? There’s one?”
Disbelief appeared on Dang Hwa-seo’s face.
This country bumpkin, who knew nothing of the martial world, was mentioning a shortcut even she did not know.
Yet someone here understood what Mok Ri-won meant.
“W-what? Don’t tell me you mean to go through that valley?!”
The stable owner cried out in horror.
“No! That place is Ghost Valley! Make one wrong step there, and your life will be cut short!”
The words, spoken with a deathly pale face, made Dang Hwa-seo’s brow furrow.
“So there is a route? Tell me about it in detail.”
The stable owner clamped their mouth shut.
Everything about the owner made it clear that no explanation would be given.
‘Ghost Valley?’
Wondering what that meant, Dang Hwa-seo looked at Mok Ri-won.
“Young Hero, where is this shortcut you are talking about?”
Since he had brought it up, she assumed he would know.
Mok Ri-won grinned.
“The Valley of Meager Blood!”
He shouted the answer.
The stable owner let out a shriek of terror, while Dang Hwa-seo stared blankly.
Still cheerful, Mok Ri-won nodded and continued.
“That’s right! It is the valley where the senior figures of the orthodox martial world fought during the war against the Blood Heaven Cult!”
* * *
There were a few things Mok Ri-won, ignorant of the world, knew about the Central Plains.
They were the stories of past righteous deeds Mok Seon-o had told him.
Mok Ri-won still remembered.
It had been a rainy night, when the thunder had been especially fierce.
He remembered the tale Mok Seon-o had told to put his seven-year-old self to sleep.
“The Valley of Meager Blood?”
“Yes. Long ago, countless heroes of the White Path stood there with desperate resolve to stop the Blood Heaven Cult. It is a mountain valley north of Jiangxi Province, not far from here. My younger brother and I were there that day as well.”
“Your younger brother was the Beggar King, right?”
“You remember.”
“Hehe...”
The hand that stroked his hair as he smiled had been so warm.
And Mok Seon-o’s playful tone had made the story so exciting.
“A great deal of blood was spilled. The Valley of Meager Blood was the fastest route from Jiangxi to Anhui, and if it had been occupied, Anhui might have fallen to the Blood Heaven Cult as well. That day was terrible. Every commoner who lived in the Valley of Meager Blood fell victim to the Blood Heaven Cult, and even the Martial Alliance’s masters lost their lives to the saber art of the Evil Heaven Blood Fiend.”
“S-so what happened?”
“What happened...?”
Mok Ri-won remembered the lightning that struck as Mok Seon-o drew out the words, and the words that followed.
“...This master of yours slew every last one of those villains.”
He remembered Mok Seon-o’s magnificent smile, seen in the room as the lightning flashed bright.
* * *
After leaving the stable, Dang Hwa-seo went to a nearby inn and looked at Mok Ri-won with a grave expression.
Thin noodles and Bamboo Leaf Green liquor.
Seated opposite Dang Hwa-seo, Mok Ri-won had ordered them the moment he entered the inn. He was now eating as though inhaling the food, smiling all the while.
‘The Valley of Meager Blood.’
Dang Hwa-seo knew the place well.
She had not known it lay farther along this route, but she knew what had happened there and why it was called Ghost Valley.
‘How does he know about it?’
How could someone so lacking in common sense know about the Valley of Meager Blood?
‘A master? Yes, most likely his master.’
His master might have been one of the previous generation’s experts who had fought in the bloodshed.
After all, the martial arts she had glimpsed from him carried pure, formidable internal energy.
She suddenly became more curious about his master, but Dang Hwa-seo did not ask.
‘This man talks so much, yet he has not said a single word about it.’
It was probably right to assume he was concealing his master’s identity.
It was not an uncommon thing.
Those who had learned martial arts from retired masters often moved about without revealing their origins.
‘What matters more right now is...’
Her path ahead.
Dang Hwa-seo thought of the Valley of Meager Blood again.
‘It is true that I can leave Jiangxi quickly if I pass through the Valley of Meager Blood.’
The mountains were rugged and there were few suitable places to rest, but that was no concern for martial artists at their level.
The problem, though, was this.
‘Traces of the bloodshed still remain in the Valley of Meager Blood.’
No one had entered the valley since that war, leaving it full of corpses and deathly energy.
Rumors even said that evil spiritual creatures had settled there because of the deathly energy that had seeped into the land.
‘The spiritual creatures are nonsense, but the deathly energy is real.’
If spiritual creatures truly existed there, the Valley of Meager Blood would not have been left abandoned for so long.
The rumors that commoners entered and never returned likely existed because those who went in had been saturated with deathly energy and died.
‘I will be fine.’
The process had been dreadful, but she had still attained Immunity to Ten Thousand Poisons.
No matter how vicious the poison, this body would turn it all into nourishment. There was nothing to worry about.
But the man before her was different.
“Hm? Miss, does the food not suit your taste?”
“No. I have something to consider.”
Dang Hwa-seo adjusted her posture before continuing.
“Young Hero Mok, may I ask you something?”
“What is it?”
“Have you learned anything about detoxification during your training?”
Mok Ri-won blinked.
Then he nodded.
“I know enough to expel poisonous energy with internal energy. I also have several poison-repelling beads that my master gave me.”
Mok Ri-won pointed to his bundle.
“But why do you ask?”
“Because it seems we must go through the Valley of Meager Blood.”
“Oh!”
Mok Ri-won’s voice rose.
Naturally, all eyes in the inn turned toward him.
“Ah...”
A dreamy, yearning voice drifted from somewhere.
The moment he made his presence known, someone else had fallen ill with lovesickness.
Dang Hwa-seo ignored it.
At first, it had shocked her, but she could now dismiss such reactions without concern.
With her usual expression, Dang Hwa-seo nodded and spoke.
“The Valley of Meager Blood will likely be overflowing with deathly energy. It has been left abandoned for more than twenty years, and the stench from the corpses has polluted the earth. Merely passing through could harm your body with poisonous energy. Prepare accordingly.”
“I understand! Today, I must devote myself even more to internal-energy circulation and breath regulation, and keep my internal energy in order!”
For some reason, Mok Ri-won was delighted. He slurped down the last of his noodle broth, sprang to his feet, and headed for the inn’s second floor, where his room was.
Dang Hwa-seo narrowed her eyes.
‘Will he be all right?’
Seeing Mok Ri-won so excited made unease rise within her.
Footnotes:
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