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It was far more serious than he had thought.

Until he heard the report, he had assumed that one of the bodyguards accompanying the old men had caused trouble. Having heard that the Three Shadows were there, he expected them to have subdued the troublemaker.

After all, the Three Shadows could easily handle most experts.

But those Three Shadows were now sprawled out as corpses, and the old men were groaning, half-crippled.

In the middle of it all was a man he had never seen before.

“Who might you be?” Cho Byeok’s voice trembled. Even he would find it difficult to handle a combined attack from the Three Shadows. In other words, this opponent was stronger than him.

“I’m someone who happened to pass by and discovered this filthy place.”

I answered like this for later purposes. It would be most convenient if this place was dealt with as having been swept clean by an unnamed righteous swordsman who was just passing by.

Cho Byeok attempted the most low-grade but often effective method.

“Do you know who’s behind me?”

At his threat, I smirked and said,

“Does the person you say is behind you know about the existence of this filthy place?”

For a moment, Cho Byeok froze.

If Sima Cheon learned about this place, it would be disastrous. Moreover, he had pocketed all the profits from here. Sima Cheon would probably try to tear him apart.

I was smiling as I looked at him.

But you don’t know.

How angry I am.

You are someone who has no right whatsoever to violate these children. You are less than the dirt under these children’s toenails.

I was so furious that these pure souls had been trampled by such a bastard. I was angry that Baek Pyo and his family had almost been put in danger because of this scum.

If you can’t protect and look after children, you should at least not harm them.

“What do you want? Money?”

The imagination of these bastards only goes this far. If they were to raid a place like this, it must be for money.

When I didn’t say anything, he seemed to take it as a positive sign.

“I’ll give you a share of this place. Two-tenths? Three-tenths? I’ll give you as much as you want. Look at those children!”

He looked towards the young girls. Just his gaze was enough to terrify the children. It was clear how he usually treated them.

“Children are abundant in the martial world. So are old men who want children. We can make a fortune, I tell you!”

I still said nothing.

He smiled cunningly and said,

“On top of that, I’ll give you the chance to taste them first when new children are acquired. It will make you young and vigorous again, sir.”

This bastard is the lowest of all the villains I’ve encountered.

I grinned.

“Did you ask what I want?”

“Just name it!”

“What I want is… a bit difficult to explain in words, so I’ll show you directly.”

I strode towards him. Realizing that I wasn’t going for a hug or handshake, Cho Byeok cursed and drew his sword.

“You son of a bitch! If you don’t like the chance I’m giving you, just die!”

Swish!

Cho Byeok lunged forward, thrusting his sword. It was a fast and deadly attack, truly befitting the right-hand man of Sima Cheon.

I dodged the incoming sword using the footwork of the Immortal Crane Secret Art. The Immortal Crane Secret Art was markedly different from my existing martial arts. I clearly recognized this difference as I employed the technique.

After allowing him the first few moves, Cho Byeok became arrogant.

“You’re nothing special, you bastard!”

He unleashed the most powerful attacks he could muster.

If we had been alone here, I might have used him as a practice opponent for a bit longer, but I was worried that he might unleash sword energy that could harm the children.

Dodging his sword that was aiming for my vital points, I closed in on him.

Thud!

My fist connected with Cho Byeok’s face, spinning his head around.

As I was about to throw another punch at the staggering man, Cho Byeok suddenly scattered something he had been hiding in his hand.

Whoosh!

A handful of powder was thrown into my face.

Cho Byeok retreated a distance. Judging from his desperate attempt to hold his breath, it must have been a deadly poison.

I inhaled, actually sucking in the powder. I couldn’t risk it spreading to the children.

Seeing this, Cho Byeok smiled with satisfaction.

“You fool! Do you know what kind of poison that is? It’s a poison that blocks all your qi and blood, killing you painfully with just one breath… But… why aren’t you dying?”

As the smile faded from his face, it was my turn to grin.

“Seems like you bought some substandard goods.”

I finally felt the reality of becoming immune to all poisons. That poison just now hindered my fighting less than flour would have. At least flour would have obstructed my vision.

I lunged towards him.

This time, he threw several hidden weapons in succession.

Shik, shik, shik!

I deflected the flying daggers with my bare hands. Three daggers embedded themselves in the wall. This technique of deflecting flying hidden weapons without injury using the back of my hand was also part of the Immortal Crane Secret Art.

He thrust his sword at me again, but it wasn’t as sharp as before. He had lost his confidence after seeing me deflect the daggers with the back of my hand.

Easily avoiding his attack, I twisted his wrist.

Crack!

His wrist twisted completely, turning in the opposite direction.

“Arghhhhhh!”

He screamed, clutching his mangled wrist.

I immediately jumped up and struck his side with my knee.

Thud!

His pelvis twisted, and his screams grew louder.

A flicker of joy crossed the faces of the watching girls. For them to have such expressions at this cruel sight, it was clear how much they had suffered.

Yes, this won’t resolve everything, but watch carefully.

Thud! Thud!

The first punch caved in his nose, and the second shattered what remained of his teeth.

“…Please… spare me…”

Cho Byeok pleaded with slurred speech, but it was a plea that would never be granted.

Crunch!

I stomped on his shin, breaking it.

“Arghhhhhh!”

His scream was filled with excruciating pain.

I was inflicting as much pain as possible. I wanted the children to remember this moment clearly.

Thwack!

My elbow smashed into his jaw. His broken jaw dangled loosely.

He probably wanted to collapse, but he couldn’t. My fists continued to rain down on him.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

It was too fast for the children there to see clearly. But with each punch that landed, bones broke, and each time, Cho Byeok had to feel the pain.

With all the bones in his body shattered, he became limp like an invertebrate.

The light was fading from his eyes.

I stepped back once, then rushed at him.

Whoosh!

This was the final blow.

Thud!

With this well-placed strike, his face caved in.

He slowly fell backwards. By the time he hit the floor, he was already a cold corpse.

“Share your profits with the demons of hell.”

Of course, the content of those profits would be divine punishment and suffering.

Just then, something caught my eye. A necklace that had been hidden under his clothes was now visible.

I tugged it off and held it up.

It was an arrowhead-shaped necklace, with the tip of the arrowhead designed to be twisted open.

When I twisted the arrowhead, there was a small rolled-up paper inside. Numbers and letters, a cipher that couldn’t be understood at a glance.

Not knowing what it was but sensing its importance, I pocketed it separately.

The girls looked back and forth between me and the corpse. When they looked at me, there was gratitude in their eyes; when they looked at the corpse, there was satisfaction.

I walked over to the drinking tables. On the five tables, there were piles of promissory notes that the old men had brought for the auction.

I gathered them all and distributed them among the girls.

The girls received the money with frightened faces.

“I’m not giving you this money to forgive them. I’m giving it to you because it’s your money.”

Then one of the girls held the money back out to me and said,

“This is dirty money!”

“Those men were dirty. Money is just money.”

“I don’t want it! When I see this money, it will make me think more about this past I want to forget.”

The girl threw the money on the floor.

I picked up the money again and pressed it firmly into the girl’s hand.

Looking into the child’s eyes, I spoke in a gentle tone.

“No. Even if you don’t take this money, you’ll keep thinking about the past.”

Tears welled up in the child’s eyes, full of resentment.

Yes, how could anyone forget what happened here?

Humans are beings who can’t forget even the tiniest things if they’re etched in their hearts, let alone something like this.

“So take it. If you really don’t want to use it now, bury it somewhere. If you still don’t want this money when you’re grown up, you can throw it away then.”

Surely this money will help the children in their future lives. This money was a just and rightful compensation for the pain and wounds the children had suffered.

The children gathered around me.

“In life, you’ll meet both good people and bad people. You just happened to meet the bad ones first. From now on, good people will be waiting for you.”

I only hope that these children will overcome these wounds and live well. If there truly is a heaven, I pray it will watch over these children from now on.

I felt sorry for the children. As a fellow adult, I was just so sorry.

Half an hour later, I was watching from a distant tree as the people from there were being escorted by Martial Righteous Alliance martial artists.

The girls would be sent back to their homes, and the old men would be imprisoned in the dungeon.

It was too great a crime to escape using money and power. The Alliance rules, which I had established with the firm resolve never to forgive crimes against those who don’t know martial arts, especially children, were very strict.

Ma Bonggi might have been corrupt, but the Martial Righteous Alliance wasn’t yet. This was the Martial Righteous Alliance I had nurtured for decades. Ma Bonggi had been the Alliance Leader for less than a year.

Sima Cheon would absolutely not investigate Cho Byeok’s death. Far from investigating, he would be trembling with fear of being implicated and seething with a sense of betrayal that Cho Byeok had secretly operated such a place without his knowledge.

With this, Baek Pyo and his family were safe.

***

A few days later, on a dark night when even the moon was hiding, a man climbed over the wall of an estate.

This was Cho Byeok’s secret pleasure house, and the man was the very one who had conducted the auction two days ago.

The same man who had alerted Cho Byeok about the intruder, and also the only survivor among the pleasure house’s swordsmen that day.

After the Martial Righteous Alliance’s investigation was over, this place had been closed, but as the one who had managed this place, he skillfully went down to the basement through the secret passage.

In the main hall, broken tables and dried blood on the floor reminded one of what had happened that day.

He passed through the hall and went out the back door. He entered one of the rooms in the corridor. It was a place for storing all sorts of brooms, mops, and other miscellaneous items. The floor and walls were dirty, and there was a frown-inducing smell.

The man pushed aside some boxes piled to one side. When he touched the wall, it opened. There was a door inside, with a mechanism made of an abacus attached to it.

When the man entered some numbers, the door opened.

The man who entered grinned.

“Hehehe. Now it’s all mine.”

This was the secret storehouse of the pleasure house. It was where money and various valuable items were kept.

The man’s satisfied smile gradually stiffened. He slowly turned his head towards the back.

His face turned pale. He couldn’t help but be terrified.

Because I was standing behind him.

“…Did you know I would come?”

I nodded at the man’s question and stepped inside.

“Cho Byeok couldn’t have settled the accounts every day.”

Cho Byeok was busy doing this and that as Sima Cheon’s subordinate. So he couldn’t have come every day to take the profits made here.

Whether it was once a month or once every two months. He would have come on set days to collect the money.

That’s why I thought there would be a secret place here. Because they would have needed to store the money. Naturally, someone would have been able to open this place.

“He took the money once every two months.”

Of course he would have. Cho Byeok wouldn’t have completely trusted someone and left it all to them.

“Please spare me.”

“I already spared you once, didn’t I?”

“What?”

“If you hadn’t been greedy and had left this place, you could have lived for another fifty years.”

Swish! Thud!

My sword pierced his heart.

The man fell dead on the spot.

“As a reward for opening this place, I’ve given you a painless death.”

Of course, I had anticipated that he would return here. That’s why I had been waiting here.

If not, I would have killed him that day. Did you think I would spare the man who conducted the auction?

Inside, there were various items and promissory notes. I gathered the promissory notes first.

The total amount of money there was 80,000 taels.

In just two months, they had earned as much as 80,000 taels. He probably had more money stored somewhere else.

The cipher in that necklace might be a clue leading to that place, or he might have hidden it somewhere else.

For now, I packed all the money into the leather bag I had brought.

Being an illegal establishment, the promissory notes were all small denominations that I could safely use.

There were also a few miscellaneous items.

There was a nice box of hidden weapons. They were throwing knives, very well-made. Moreover, they had no unique markings of the maker or user.

I took those too. Now that I had learned the Immortal Crane Secret Art, I wouldn’t need to use throwing knives much, but it was reassuring to carry a few as a precaution.

The next useful items were medicines for internal and external injuries. True to his nature of taking excellent care of himself, the medicines were top quality. I took them all.

I had enough medicine for myself from what I had obtained from Ma Jeongsu’s safe last time, so I thought I could distribute these medicines to Gwang-du and the other Sword Squad members. They were such expensive medicines that they couldn’t afford to buy them with their own money.

I had 200,000 taels before, so now I had 280,000 taels. This amount, approaching 300,000 taels, was by no means a small sum. Moreover, this was excluding the money managed by Gong Su-chan.

It wasn’t just money. I had become immune to all poisons and my inner energy had increased. I had learned a new martial art, and new people were appearing around me.

I was getting stronger.