Abolition of the Wicked - Chapter 99

Jang Mandok, who looked startled, ran and tried to take a look, but Geom Woo-bin stood up. “Priest Zhang, I’m fine. Iron-Blood Ball has crossed the Eight Castles. I can bear this enough.” 

She said this, but the pain in her trembling shoulder did not go away. She wanted to keep doing secret dance, but that ended up just being the greed of Geom Woo-bin. Woo-bin bowed respectfully toward Seong-tak. 

“Thank you for teaching.” 

“Awesome. It looks like it will surpass me in the next three years.” 

“It’s still a long way off.” 

“I didn’t understand why the Moorim people were so obsessed with martial arts. But I think I can understand a little bit of that feeling today. Let’s do this often.” 

When Jang Mandok made a ferocious expression on his face, Gong Seong-tak said, ‘I’ll do it with care.’

“Whoa! It is still unsatisfactory.” Jang Mandok put his face in front of Geom Woo-bin. 

“Yeah. I’m that greedy. However, you have to get stronger so that the priests don’t have to worry. Yes. I know. I love you too.” 

When Geom Woo-bin was hugged, happiness bloomed on the other person’s face.

* * * 

“Isn’t Mandok going to be having a good time with the death penalty alone by now?” Seo Seok-san burnt his will at the words of Yeon Ji-hong in front of Goryeong-san. 

“Let’s quickly get a napkin and go back. Mandok before that scoundrel gets even closer to the death penalty.” Goryeong had an unusual shape with nine peaks in one mountain. The peaks were high, the valleys were deep, and the mountains were steep, so even hunters and herbalists would not feel motivated to explore it. 

“There were a few Hwajeon villages around, so let’s go around and ask questions about the secret village.”

 However, after two hours, the three returned empty-handed. Among the eight villagers of Hwajeon around the mountain, no one even knew the name of Bihwagok.

 “Now all that remains is to search all those mountains.” 

“According to the information of the meeting, if there is a secret song there, there will be no ordinary buildings. If there was a building, it would have already been noticed by anyone.” 

“Then you could be in a deep valley or underground?” 

“I think those two are the most likely. I think I am underground.” 

At Do Pyeong-su’s the two of them looked at them with a ‘why?’ sort of expression. 

“They are sneaky bastards.” 

Although not very related, they decided to start a search with the underground in mind. Because the forest was thick, it was impossible to find a secret facility underground if one were to search with a watermelon licking method. 

“The best way to get water out of the reservoir is to block it and pump it out.” 

Very rarely, this time they also followed the advice of Do Pyeong-su. So, the trees were plucked from the hard-to-reach areas. It was far better to search for sure from the beginning than to waste time wandering around looking for it easily. No matter how huge a tree was, it was pulled out with a single use of force, and small things began to float into the air with a single gesture. The trees in Guryongsan disappeared remarkably quickly.

The people who were most surprised by the change in the mountains were Hwa Jeon-min. This was because the hometown of the slasher was at the bottom of the mountain, there was no real change in their life. However, the shape of the mountain that changes after sleeping and waking up made people tremble in fear. 

“What is going on in that mountain? Does anyone know?” 

“The shaman in the village below said that the mountain spirit was angry with something?” 

“A mountain spirit? Why?” 

“I don’t know. They seem to be collecting money to hold an ancestral rite.” 

The women chatted while working in the fields, and, as always, supernatural phenomena were easily believed. Soju-daek, whose belly bulged out due to pregnancy, was also one of those people who easily fell for that belief. She lived in Suzhou and came to be called the Soju House, and she had four daughters, two of whom were twins. 

Her mother-in-law, who had a strong preference for boys, made the Soju house uneasy by secretly and sometimes overtly revealing the intention of kicking her out to her parents’ house if she couldn’t have a son again this time. However, an existence called a mountain spirit that could do things that were unavoidable as a human has appeared. She couldn’t stand to see the only lure she could hold on to her.

As soon as the day dawned, the Soju house abandoned the field work and climbed toward the top of Mt. Guryong. The closer one would get to the top, the more…

Boom! Thud! 

The sound rang out loudly. Even the loud sound was terrifying, but when a huge tree fell to the floor and the vibration was transmitted, the fear grew even greater. However, the opportunity to meet the mountain spirit would not come again in this lifetime. With this in mind, she made her way through the forest, pushing her fears over her whole body. 

In addition to this, she finally found traces of the mountain spirit. She couldn’t help but look at her when she came all the way here. The uprooted trees were piled up like hills here and there, and the ground was torn apart. It looked like a huge civil engineering work was being done. 

Koo! A huge tree fell to a place less than ten leaves away. She out a piercing scream involuntarily. After a while, someone appeared in front of her like a ghost. With big eyes and a rough beard, the long-haired man looked far from the mountain spirit she knew. However, there could be no existence other than the mountain spirit that could exist here. 

The woman knelt down on her knees and shook her head. “God! Please have pity on this little, ignorant bitch!”

 Do Pyeong-su, who believed that the Soju House was a mountain spirit, only looked down at her. 

‘What are you asking me to have pity on?’ 

In the past, he would have thought about whether or not to kill him because he would be disturbed, but now he was thinking of finishing the business and leaving. “I got married here from Suzhou when I was 19 and lived there for ten years!”

The Soju House talked about the life he had lived. It wasn’t long enough to talk about ten years. This is because there was nothing special about the life of a slash-and-burn citizen. “If I can’t have a son this time, I will be kicked out! Please, have pity on this lowly girl, and have just one son!” 

The Soju House was begging for Do Pyeong-su to show his abilities that he couldn’t possibly have. It didn’t seem like she would leave easily if she didn’t take her son. “Yes. The child you give birth to this time will be a son.” 

The Soju woman raised her head with an expression as if she had conquered the world. “Is that really true?” 

“Did you see me lying?” 

“Thank you! thank you so much! God!”

 “Once your business is over, let’s go. I have work to do.” 

After thanking him profusely, she went back down from the mountains. 

“What are you doing?” When Yeon Hong, who was listening from behind, asked a question, Do Pyeong-su merely shrugged. 

“It’s either a son or a daughter after all. Would a woman ever give birth to a dog?” 

“So you pretended to be a mountain spirit?” 

“I told you to speak right even if your mouth is crooked. It’s not a scam because I didn’t take any profit.” 

It was not really wrong. He seemed to be getting smarter these days, though he didn’t like it. Seoksan Mountain, where all the trees on one side of the mountain were plucked, came to their place. 

“It seems that this is not the peak.” 

Only the monstrous beasts had lost their nests. “Then we must move to the next peak.” 

Either way, the three of them didn’t even think about giving up in the first place.

* * * 

Bihwagok was a venerable organization with a history of two hundred and fifty years. However, they were not even classified as a Moorim group. 

This was because he didn’t do anything like this to Moorim. However, it was neither a merchant nor a legislative group, and it was not an ordinary place from the beginning. 

In fact, the truth of the story was that it was just a gathering of people who were afraid of death. Just as Qin Shi Huang had found a medicine for immortality, they also gathered to make a medicine for immortality. There were surprisingly many such people in the world, and as the years had passed, the number had become a total of three hundred. 

Most of them were self-sufficient, and what could not be solved by self-sufficiency was covered by selling the elixir made while researching. Because the drugs were unusual, the name Bihwagok was unintentionally known to the world, and because of that, Bihwagok managed to make a nest here in Goryeongsan, where there was hardly anyone for one hundred and fifty years ago. 

It was a peaceful day to spend every day as a study. He had no greed for anything other than eternal life, so he was satisfied with his life in the wild. The only two concerns were that they could not make the immortality drug and that someone might try to steal their secret. 

The cave, located deep in Goryeongsan Mountain, was an excellent hiding place for them. However, the three suddenly arrived and were on the verge of breaking their peace into pieces. “Are you sure you are looking for us?” 

Elder Jo Suk-chan answered the question of Hwang So-san, the gokju brewer of Bihwagok. “The intelligence group toured four villages of slashers to gather information, and they said they asked about our story.” 

Hwang So-san patted his white beard as usual and let out a sigh. “Uh-huh! It is a peace that has been kept for one hundred and fifty years, but that peace was placed on the windmill.” 

“Based on their momentum, it seems that they will not give up until they find us. What should I do?” 

“I’m going to move.” 

“Yeah? Abandoning this good place?” 

The natural and artificial caves had holes through which sunlight and wind could enter, so it was a blessed nest. 

“It’s quite a pity, but wouldn’t it be better than being caught by evildoers from the outside world?”

“Then, first, I will have the Gokdo Islands at Seungryongbong withdraw. It’s where they are closest.” 

* * * 

Seo Seok-san, who was pulling out a tree, found a cave behind the plucked tree. It was well hidden by the bushes and would not have been found if the trees had not been plucked. 

At the entrance of the cave, traces of human entry were clearly visible until recently. Seo Seok-san shouted and called for Yeon Hong and Do Pyeong-su, and then went inside. Discarded wooden utensils and clothes and shoes were also seen. 

“You ran away in a hurry.” Do Pyeong-su, who had entered the cave, looked around as he spoke. He also picked up the children’s clothes that had fallen on the floor. 

“I think there was a baby. How many people exactly, I’d say, enough?” 

“Didn’t you say that there are between one hundred and five hundred people based on the information the dung fly knows?” 

Little was known about it, so there was a large variance in the numbers. “Looking at here, I think there were about thirty to fifty at the most. It means there is another place to live other than here.”

Seok-San’s words were received by Jeong Yeon Hong. “And the important thing is that he ran away without us knowing. We couldn’t catch those who were here, so we could miss those who are elsewhere. If we can’t find the secret song this time, we’re done.” 

Do Pyeong-su spoke as he left the cave. “Then I will have to cut down the tree without even sleeping.” 

“Isn’t it better to negotiate than that?” 

“Are you negotiating? We need to find a secret story, and then we do the negotiation.” 

“Why don’t secret songs bring us back?” 

“How?” 

At this, Hong took out Oh Seon-ju and a brush from the pocket on his waist. “If we stay quiet, we might come back here.” 

With that, he wrote and placed a small bottle of stave on top of the correspondence. “Will that work?” 

“They don’t want to leave the house they’ve been hiding from for so long, after all.”