Episode 153

Chung Myung licked his lips and looked behind him.

“Ah, let’s go!”

“Ugh. I need to take all of them.”¹

“Why are you being so greedy, you bastard! You’re a rich man!”

“No matter how much money we have, we can never have enough! Do you know just how much it costs to feed Mount Hua? It costs hundreds of thousands of coins just to dress and feed them! A Hundred thousand! I’d rather have cattle and beggars under me!”

Chung Myung looked at the night stone lamps with greedy eyes.

“Ah. How much will those be?”

And then he looked at Hong Dae-Kwang.

Hong Dae-Kwang was avoiding the gaze of Chung Myung, who kept glaring at him. If the ceiling hadn’t collapsed because of his actions, he would have surely picked out all of them to earn more gold, but now that he had been through that, he wouldn’t dare to touch it again.

Tears of blood flowed from Chung Myung’s eyes, who had to walk away from the night stone lamps without touching them. To him, it was like losing gold that was right in front of his eyes.

“Beggarrrrrr….”

“…”

“I will never forget this disrespect.”

“Wait… what did I even do?”

‘I did nothing!’

“Move! Let’s move out quickly!”

Before he did anything else, Baek Cheon and Yoon Jong quickly dragged Chung Myung out of the place. And the rest sighed as they followed.

“Wah?”

And everyone looked around in shock as they reached the next place.

‘Such a place was made underground?’

The place which opened up in front of them was a huge square-shaped space.

As soon as they entered the place…

Rumble.

“Um?”

Hong Dae-Kwang shook his head. Immediately after they passed, large stone walls descended from above.

Thud!

The walls caused dust to rise in the room. Hong Dae-Kwang frowned as he realized that the path that they came from was blocked.

‘This isn’t good.’

Well, even if they did try to go back the same way they had come, they wouldn’t be able to exit the Sword Tomb since the hallway had collapsed. Still, it was a pity that a path was cut off.

But now, what Hong Dae-Kwang was more concerned about was what he saw ahead rather than the blocked path behind him.

Because in the middle of the square, there seemed to be a group of people.

‘Who?’

They wore different colors.

And they didn’t seem like a group.

Hong Dae-Kwang thought that they were all people who met up here by chance and were sharing information. But that wasn’t the problem.

The real problem was…

“There’s something here.”

“I think we’re almost done now. It’ll be better if we just deal with them and move on. They might be planning to get the weapons as well, and not just the pill.”

“Right.”

Hong Dae-Kwang’s face hardened.

‘The smell of blood.’

The smell of blood was coming from one side of the room. Only then did Hong Dae-Kwang turn to see the bodies which were lying at the side of the room.

Hong Dae-Kwang then narrowed his eyes to look at the opponent and said,

“Mak Hwi, the Giant Great Axe.”

“Kuhahaha. Looks like it’s someone who knows me. Tell me who you are!”

Hong Dae-Kwang frowned at the opponent’s huge size and looked at the axe, which was larger than the human himself.

“The Sam Sal-Gwi, Dae Ra-Geom² and Yangtze’s Black Blade, Cho Myeong-San! Are you also in on this craziness?”

The other man in black gently raised his head. It was Cho Myeong-San.

“Now that I look more closely, you are Hong, right?”

“Yes! It’s me! I thought that at least you were a man who had manners! How could you slaughter innocent people without guilt! What horrible things have you done!”

“Without guilt?”

Cho Myeong-San smiled brightly.

“Hong, you are making a mistake here. Don’t forget what kind of world we live in. Trying to obtain this treasure for oneself is a sin. And aiming for it is also a sin.”

“You…”

Hong Dae-Kwang’s face turned red.

“I hoped that you would have at least known about chivalry!”

“Of course.”

Cho Myeong-San said while looking at Hong Dae-Kwang.

“If I manage to get the weapons, I will be stronger. Then I will show people the chivalry which suits my strength.”

“I am talking about the dead people who you are trampling on!”

“I cannot help it… because these aren’t the people whom I have to protect or look after.”

“… crazy bastard.”

Cho Myeong-San shrugged his shoulders.

“I thought you would understand me since we came from the same roots.”

“There is no way I can understand a crazy man! If I could understand you, that would mean that I am the same as you.”

The disciples of Mount Hua were now looking at Hong Dae-Kwang in a new light.

Up until now, they considered him a half-smart person, but his current actions shed new light on the Beggars Union in their eyes.

Hong Dae-Kwang gritted his teeth and said,

“You have been blinded by the treasure. But no matter how greedy you are, there are things you can and cannot do!”

“Hehehe. This beggar speaks quite well.”

The giant man in the back mumbled.

“Then do you want to talk? From the moment everyone jumped into this place, they have thought of killing their opponents to get their hands on the treasure!”

“You don’t need to kill someone to subdue them! I mean, look at how you killed everyone! There is a degree to how far horrible deeds can be done!”

“Then it…”

Dae Ra-Geom raised his voice and said.

“Isn’t it different for each person, beggar?”

“Dae Ra-Geom…”

“There is no need to talk further. You will die here.”

“… what is the reason you are doing something like this?”

“Hahaha. You are asking such an obvious question. There is no need to drag things out and drain my energy later. You people know it as well, right? This place is full of traps. Those who take the lead and go ahead will obviously take more damage than the others. We also need to leave behind people to slow down others to keep them off our backs. One wary glare, and people will kill you. So, I chose a slightly different yet more efficient method.”

Hong Dae-Kwang grunted his teeth.

The Wudang Sect’s people must be ahead. And they were chasing after the Wudang Sect. Their plan was to wait for Wudang to exhaust themselves and then to take them down and snatch the treasure.

So far, it was a good strategy with no holes in it.

But…

Hong Dae-Kwang slowly turned his head. In the square, he saw doors he hadn’t noticed before. It seems like they didn’t notice them because they were all blocked by the stone, just like the path they had taken to come here.

Now, there was exactly one exit from this place.

“Do you get it now?”

“… what do you mean?”

“We are just following the path of the Untraceable Seizing Sword. The roads which had split have again become a single path, and there is a huge square here. And there is only one way forward. In other words…”

Dae Ra-Geom smiled.

“It means we will kill each other here or die trying.”

Hong Dae-Kwang’s body trembled at those words.

‘What the hell was Yak Seon thinking while making this place?’

With such a structure, people who were blinded by the treasure would definitely meet. And those who managed to break through the traps and reach this place would be the strong ones, and they would be on edge after realizing that there were others following them.

If such strong people with anxiousness rising inside them suddenly faced each other, a fight was bound to happen.

“So, is there any problem with dying or killing? It is just that now, it was us that ended up in the position to kill.”

Dae Ra-Geom drew his sword and raised it.

The sword still had blood on it that hadn’t been wiped off. Hong Dae-Kwang’s eyes trembled when he saw the blood.

“For such a trivial reason…”

“Don’t act so naïve, beggar. Don’t you know it as well? Until now, whenever the name ‘Sword Tomb’ appeared in the world, there wasn’t a single time when blood wasn’t spilt. Even for the fake Sword Tombs, there was blood that was split. Hahaha, did you really believe that people would just get along?”

Hong Dae-Kwang didn’t answer.

Actually, what he said wasn’t wrong. Because Hong Dae-Kwang also came here prepared to see blood.

Until now, he didn’t have to deal with such means since the disciples of Mount Hua subdued the people who appeared in front of them, and because their path was different from others. Regardless, even Hong Dae-Kwang wouldn’t simply shy away from spilling blood.

But…

‘But it isn’t done like this.’

Killing people who were visibly weak.

There was no reason to kill people when they could just be subdued. But to catch and kill every single one of them, to slaughter them just because they ‘might’ create trouble… Hong Dae-Kwang couldn’t ignore this.

“So, you will kill me too?”

“Is there another way?”

“Then there is no need for words.”

Hong Dae-Kwang clenched his fist. The Beggars Union disciples quickly lined up behind him.

“Hmm… The Beggars Union. It will be burdensome to deal with you. But here, with no people to spread what happened, you are just normal beggars.”

Dae Ra-Geom shrugged.

Hong Dae-Kwang also knew that it was their weakness here. The opponents were strong people who couldn’t be ignored. Since such people had banded together in a group now, he couldn’t do anything to them with his own disciples.

So…

“Disciple Baek Cheon. Please help us.”

“Of course, we will.”

Baek Cheon drew his sword and stood next to him. Behind him, Yoon Jong, Jo Gul, and Yu Yiseol stood with their swords drawn.

“I am not someone who prides himself on following rules, but I don’t like seeing people cross the line.”

The disciples of Mount Hua nodded their heads.

There were at least 20 corpses here. In other words, there were more than 20 people who were needlessly dragged and killed here.

Looking into the eyes of Mount Hua’s disciples, Dae Ra-Geom smiled.

“This… the disciples of Mount Hua. Recently, the name of Mount Hua has been going around a lot. Unfortunately, you will find out that you aren’t that strong in Kangho.”

“Shut up!”

At Baek Cheon’s yell, Dae Ra-Geom burst into laughter.

“This is why it is fun to see the ones out of the lakes and mountains for the first time.”³

“There’s no need to waste more time. Let’s quickly deal with them and chase after Wudang.”

“Hahaha. I get to taste blood again.”

One by one, people drew their weapons to take down the disciples of Beggars Union and Mount Hua. Hong Dae-Kwang’s expression darkened.

‘Will all those bastards work together?’

Among those who had come to Nanyang, the people who were revered as ‘Masters’ were all gathered here. It wouldn’t be easy to take them down even if the Wudang Sect was facing them. And now they were expected to do it?

It was dangerous. Even when he looked at this with a calm heart, he realized that it was impossible for the Beggars Union and Mount Hua to deal with them. No, there was a higher chance of them being pushed into a corner.

“Hong. Don’t blame me for this. This is how the world usually works.”

Hong Dae-Kwang bit his lip.

‘I need to create an opening so that we can escape through the exit which is behind them.’

It was the moment he was thinking.

“Have you said everything that has to be said?”

A strange voice pierced his ears. It was a low voice with no emotion.

Hong Dae-Kwang turned his head to see from whom the voice had come.

Chung Myung.

He had an expressionless face as he walked past Hong Dae-Kwang.

“Um?”

A subtle light shone in the eyes of Dae Ra-Geom, who saw him walking towards them.

“Who are you?”

“You don’t need to know.”

“… what was that?”

Chung Myung stared at Dae Ra-Geom and spoke in a cold voice.

“The world usually works like this, was it?”

“…”

“I will show you what true heartlessness looks like.”

And Chung Myung pulled out his sword from its sheath.