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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: Zhuul Village
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The path leading upriver was rougher than expected. There were no signs of human passage.
"This place doesn't seem like anywhere people would come."
"Unless you're an herb gatherer deliberately seeking out remote spots, there's no reason to. And there's no other village upriver anyway."
The three scanned their surroundings as they walked on in silence.
Every now and then, the cry of a wild beast echoed through the air.
Grrr—
The low, guttural rumble suggested it was a fairly large animal.
A remote backwater, teeming with wild beasts, and treacherous terrain to boot. No wonder there was no village upriver from the stream.
How long had they been walking when a strange smell wormed its way into their noses.
At first, it was faint enough to question, but as they pressed upriver, it grew sharper and more distinct. Dang Mujin wrinkled his nose.
"Is this smell just me, or...?"
"I was wondering about it too. Should one of us go ahead and check where it's coming from?"
"No need. It seems to be in the same direction. Let's keep going."
The stench intensified until they had to pinch their noses. Even Ma Jeon-gae and Hong Geolgae, accustomed to foul odors, shook their heads.
"I've never smelled anything this bad. Even the rotting manure in a midsummer pigsty isn't this intense."
"Something's causing it, that's for sure. Let's press on."
A short while later, they pinpointed the source where the smell was strongest.
An open clearing by what appeared to be an ordinary streambank.
Yet the odor faded both upriver and down from here.
No need for Qi Circulation and Breathing to confirm it. This was the origin of the unidentified evil energy.
But nothing was visible to the eye.
Hong Geolgae turned to Ma Jeon-gae.
"Master, do you know where this smell is coming from?"
"No clue at all. It's so overpowering my head hurts. Vile stuff."
Dang Mujin scanned the area and spotted something odd. A spot swarming with blowflies, where the earth bulged unnaturally.
"Looks like something's here."
"I'll dig it up."
"Let's do it together."
They hadn't brought shovels or hoes.
But the thick brown leaf mold piled with fallen leaves suggested the ground wasn't too hard-packed.
The three dug in with their bare hands. Fortunately, their senses of smell went numb, freeing them from the stench's torment.
About three feet down, deep enough for an arm to nearly vanish.
Hong Geolgae felt a strange sensation at his fingertips. Something soft and squishy, an unsettling give.
He yanked his hand back on reflex.
"Ew, gross!"
At Hong Geolgae's exaggerated reaction, Ma Jeon-gae asked,
"What? Find something?"
"Something squishy touched my hand."
"Squishy?"
They peered into the pit. Something peeked through the dirt, but it was too covered to make out. The three widened the hole a bit more.
Moments later, the squishy thing revealed itself. A half-rotted animal corpse.
A variety of species: wild boar, mountain goat, fox, dogs and cats, mountain birds, and more.
"What the— so many?"
"Not something you could count on ten fingers."
Not just varieties, but numbers too. Corpses littered every spot they'd unearthed.
Hong Geolgae stomped beside the pit, over another slight bulge in the earth.
"Feels off here too. Probably more buried underneath."
The situation was clear now. The evil energy and corpse poison from these bodies had seeped into the stream, poisoning the villagers.
Corpse poison was among the most insidious toxins.
Unlike herbal or mineral poisons that could kill with a speck, corpse poison carried foul evil energy that inflicted all manner of strange ailments on those nearby.
Villages avoided burying graves inside for just this reason—to evade corpse poison and evil energy.
Hong Geolgae looked puzzled.
"Why bury all these corpses here?"
"Look over there."
Dang Mujin pointed to one corner of the pit.
A pig's leg lay there. The issue was the clean, sharp cut—not from animal teeth, but a blade.
"...Someone buried them."
Who did it? Unknown.
But dumping them by the stream served a clear purpose. A profoundly malicious one. Like wiping out Zhuul Village, for instance.
Ma Jeon-gae and Hong Geolgae's faces hardened. Ma Jeon-gae trembled with barely contained rage, his beard quivering.
"What kind of bastard would do this?"
"First, let's unearth the corpses. Now that we know it's corpse poison, we can make an antidote."
The three silently dug out the bodies and tossed them far from the stream.
For any passing wild beasts to devour.
Even if the beasts ignored them, at least the poison wouldn't leach into the water, letting them dry out instead.
Yet no matter how many they pulled up, the pit seemed bottomless.
"Just a bit more effort."
As they diligently exhumed more, someone clicked their tongue. Tsk.
A small sound, but too clear to miss.
The three turned toward it. A man stood there, round-faced with a thin goatee.
"Huh. Someone went to the trouble and expense of burying those, and here you are digging them up without a care."
A stranger's face. But Ma Jeon-gae and Hong Geolgae seemed to recognize him.
"Yeom Physician. This your doing?"
"The beasts didn't dig their own graves and die, did they? So yes."
Yeom Physician—the village doctor, apparently. Dang Mujin clenched his fists, glaring.
Ma Jeon-gae, still incredulous, pressed him.
"Yeom Physician, why the hell would you do this?"
"Why? Can't spend my life stuck in these hills forever."
"If you wanted to leave, just leave! Who was stopping you?"
"No one stopped me. But I put in the work here, so I have to take what I can get."
"Take what, exactly...?"
"What else? Money, naturally."
Wi Rip's words suddenly flashed through Dang Mujin's mind.
-The herbs don't grow around here, so we have to buy from merchants, and it's not cheap.
-At first, the physician gave medicine cheap, but now he charges. Gotta stock up before the next merchant comes.
-Lately, even he only treats those who can pay.
Dang Mujin spoke in a hollow voice.
"So the money you took from people... it wasn't for herbs. All straight into your pocket."
"I saved their lives with my medicine. That's fair compensation."
"Fair? You created the disease! And you talk of fairness? At the very least, you should've cured them properly!"
Yeom Physician chuckled darkly.
"You look like a physician yourself. Guess you don't know how to make real money."
"How to make real money?"
"Keep 'em barely alive, teetering on the edge. That's when they cough up every last coin. Healthy folks and corpses don't pay."
A monstrous idea. Dang Mujin's blood boiled.
"You're no physician. Not even human."
Enraged, Ma Jeon-gae gripped his staff and stepped forward.
"Mountain folk aren't rolling in wealth! How much could they have? Killing dozens just to line your pockets?"
"That's just side income. The real money's elsewhere."
"Money, money to the end! Let's see if you're still talking cash when you're beaten to death!"
"You think I'd come unprepared?"
As Yeom Physician sidestepped, two men emerged from behind him.
One with a sword, the other an axe.
Both had vicious faces and murderous eyes, like seasoned killers.
But their confidence didn't last.
The moment their gazes hit Ma Jeon-gae and Hong Geolgae's waists, they retreated half a step.
"Hey, Yeom Physician. You said the village was full of small fry? Why are a Three-Knot and Four-Knot Beggars' Sect member here?"
"Three-Knot? Four-Knot?"
"You idiot... Didn't you see the knots on their waists?"
"So what?"
"Three-Knot's a branch leader, Four-Knot's a protector... Damn it, why am I explaining this?"
The mood turned awkward. The two men hesitated again, backing up further. They looked ready to bolt.
Sensing the shift, Yeom Physician yelled,
"What, you gonna run? If you don't cover my gambling debts, you're dead anyway."
"Shit."
The two conferred briefly, then advanced.
"A branch leader in a backwater post like this? We can take him."
"Fine for the branch leader, but what about the protector?"
"Damn it, how should I know?"
Their knees knocked visibly.
From the vibe, Ma Jeon-gae and Hong Geolgae were the superiors. Relief welled in Dang Mujin's chest.
Emboldened, he turned back.
"Ma Jeon-gae senior! Hong Geolgae! Take them down!"
But in that instant, Dang Mujin saw what he shouldn't have.
Ma Jeon-gae's knees shook harder than the two thugs'.
'What...?'
Before Dang Mujin could process, the sword-wielding thug charged with a roar.
"Behold the might of the Ja-yang Twin Killers!"
A tacky nickname tied to their turf. And a duo act, no less.
Dang Mujin knew little of the martial world. But he knew such nicknames marked middling riffraff.
'Please!'
As the sword thug closed to three zhang, Ma Jeon-gae's eyes bulged. His trembling stopped for a beat.
White beard flying, Ma Jeon-gae strode forward powerfully. His right arm flowed like water, raising his wooden staff.
"Fierce Dog Furnace!"
Like blocking a feral dog's fangs, the staff intercepted the Ja-yang Twin Killer's sword.
The blade bit into the thick, sturdy wood but couldn't cleave it in one stroke.
"Damn!"
The swordsman yanked back, retreating. Then the axe-man lunged.
"Hah! Die!"
A lateral axe swing, this time at Hong Geolgae.
Hong Geolgae dove aside, rolling to evade, then sprang up fluidly and snap-kicked the axeman's flank.
"Fierce Kick!"
"Urk!"
The axeman clutched his side, stumbling back.
After the brief exchange, the Ja-yang Twin Killers and the two Beggars' Sect men glared at each other.
A short silence.
Then the axe-wielder ventured cautiously,
"These bastards... don't seem like much after all..."