Tangmunjeon - Chapter 318



Only Noblemtl

Episode 318: The Members of Parliament

Before we could even leave the village along the green forest road of Jamsanchae, Hyeon-gong appeared.

Hyun-gong did not ask Tang Mu-jin to explain what had happened. Instead, he observed Tang Mu-jin’s behavior.

A few drops of blood on Dang Mu-jin’s clothes. And the old man standing in front of Dang Mu-jin, and the fear on his face.

Even with just that much information, Hyun-gong could guess more than eight times what had happened to Dang Mu-jin.

“Seeing you go out of town, it looks like the two council members have been taken away somewhere?”

“okay.”

“Let’s go together.”

Dang Mu-jin and Hyeon-gong headed into the mountains under the guidance of Nokrim-do.

Nokrimdo often glanced around to find a chance to escape, but of course, he could not escape from Dangmujin and Hyeon-gong.

“It’s better not to try something stupid from the beginning. There’s no one to die for you now.”

“Yes, yes···.”

After walking for quite some time, a village hidden between low hills appeared.

In fact, it was too small to be called a village. It was just a few houses that were too old and dilapidated to be there. It was probably the base of a squatter’s camp, or one of several bases.

There were many signs of life in the village. Dang Mu-jin lightly put his arm around Nokrim-do’s shoulder.

“I hope you don’t think this is bait.”

“Yes… How could that be?”

In fact, it’s not like Nokrimdo didn’t have such feelings at all.

But just looking at the relaxed attitudes of Dang Mu-jin and Hyeon-gong, it was clear that it was a vain hope. Both Dang Mu-jin and Hyeon-gong were walking without any hesitation.

Several men sitting near the crumbling shack discovered Dangmujin and Hyeon-gong.

“What? Who did you bring? Who are you?”

Hearing that voice, green forests appeared here and there.

Instead of answering their questions or actions, Dangmujin asked Nokrimdo, who was acting as their guide.

“Where are the two congressmen?”

Nokrimdo’s finger pointed to a building. It was the most shabby and small of the many buildings, and it was more like a warehouse or a storehouse than a building. It was not a place where many people could stay.

Hyun-gong immediately realized how he should act.

When Hyungong unfolded the Jeunjong, the essence of the Mudangpa Gyeongsin method, Hyungong’s body appeared to stretch out like a long stick of taffy.

Soon, Hyun-gong blocked the building where the two members were and drew his sword. This was an action to prevent the two members from being taken hostage.

The green forest people of Jamsanchae were greatly embarrassed when they saw that sight.

“This, this… Chew!”

You don’t necessarily have to draw your sword to gauge your opponent’s skills.

The strange and fast method of Hyun-kong’s regeneration. The attitude of Dang Mu-jin, who is not at all afraid even when facing opponents who are much more numerous than themselves.

On the other hand, the group that guided the way while being gripped by fear. Just from that alone, you can guess the opponent’s skills.

Several green forests were seen looking at each other. If even one person ran away, it would be uncontrollable.

At that moment, one of the Nokrimdos, who had grown a rather decent beard, pointed at Dangmujin and shouted.

“You can win! Even if you run away, run through that side!”

As if a waterway had been opened in a dam on the verge of bursting, the hesitant Jamsanchae Nokrimdo rushed toward Dangmujin.

It wasn’t an action to save my comrades. It was just that Dang Mu-jin seemed easier than Hyun-gong, who had shown a clear method of renewal.

Dang Mu-jin watched the Nokrimdos rush in while spinning two flying wheels in each hand. The Nokrimdos who had already seen the power of the flying wheels trembled.

Dang Mu-jin’s two hands turned pale, and the rings on his fingers disappeared.

After a short time, the heads of the four men flew into the air. The distance between them and Dang Mujin was still more than fifty paces.

“uh···?”

It was an incredibly embarrassing situation for the Nokrimdos. The head of the person in front of them fell off at a completely unexpected time and a fountain of blood gushed out.

Soon the steps of the Nokrimdo stopped. This was because they did not fully understand what was happening.

There was no way to advance, and no way to escape. Then, the wheel that had returned to Dangmujin’s hands disappeared again, and the heads of the four people fell off again.

“Ah, euaaaah!”

The Green Forest members realized the situation too late and started to run away in all directions. They realized too late that running away through the Dangmujin was not the way out.

However, Dang Mu-jin’s Bi-ryun aimed at the green forests that were scattered in all directions as if they had eyes. From the beginning, there was no way out for them.

Hyun-gong watched the scene from a little distance.

Here and there, the light shines and blood spurts out.

Screams filled the surroundings in an instant, and soon the smell of blood slowly rose and pushed out the screams.

Hyun-gong thought.

‘As expected. Completely different.’

The martial arts of the martial artist are for one-on-one confrontations with strong opponents. The martial arts of the martial artist, each method, the sword method, the spear method. All martial arts are like that.

The ultimate dream of a martial artist is to stand tall and become the best in the world.

However, Dang Mu-jin’s martial arts had a different direction.

There are three main martial arts that Dang Mu-jin has mastered: swordsmanship, poison techniques, and dark techniques.

The only skill needed to deal with one of them is the swordsmanship that his master taught him.

If we compare Salsu’s dark technique with Dangmujin’s dark technique, the difference becomes clearer.

The secret of murder takes a person’s life quietly and secretly. However, the secret of Dangmujin seems to be splendid at first glance.

But the biggest difference is not the glamour itself, but what lies behind it. Dangmujin’s Biryun is specialized in dealing with many people.

‘A martial art that can deal with multiple enemies.’

Although it may not have been Dang Mu-jin’s intention, the path that Dang Mu-jin takes is different from any other martial arts that have existed up to now.

The situation was resolved while Hyun-gong thought for a moment.

Among the Nokrim Island, only one person survived. The middle-aged man who guided Dang Mujin and Hyeon-gong to this point.

Hyun-gong put the sword he had drawn back into its scabbard without even swinging it. Dang Mu-jin roughly rubbed the blood on the dead man’s clothes.

Squeak-

Only then did Hyun-gong open the warehouse door and look inside.

A familiar figure appeared, lying unconscious. Just by looking at the back of the head, I could tell that it was Assemblyman Yeom.

And behind Rep. Yeom, there was a pile of wooden plaques tied with leather straps, like a pile of firewood.

Hyun-gong approached Assemblyman Yeom, looked at his face, and frowned. The method by which the Nokrimdos knocked Assemblyman Yeom unconscious was not very good.

Dang Mu-jin, who had come close to Hyun-gong, showed a similar reaction.

“I don’t think it was a blood clot.”

“What’s with those guys’ skills? They probably don’t even know how to do acupuncture.”

Congressman Yeom’s body was covered in bruises.

His lips were cracked and blood flowed from his nose.

Phew-

Dang Mu-jin let out a deep sigh.

And he asked Nokrimdo, who had been acting as a guide.

“Why did you beat up someone like that? It’s not like Rep. Yeom committed a crime.”

Nokrimdo answered with a sigh.

“···You have to beat him up to make him listen to you.”

As Dang Mu-jin’s expression distorted, Nokrim-do hurriedly explained.

“It’s not my opinion, it’s something Chae-ju often said! She said that if you beat someone until they beg for mercy as soon as they come to their senses, there won’t be anyone who won’t obey!”

“Really? Where is your Chaeju?”

Nokrimdo pointed outside the warehouse. There was a corpse there.

It was the guy who had been shouting to clear the way in Dangmujin’s direction. Dangmujin was thinking about kicking the corpse, but changed his mind.

“Why did you bring Representative Yeom?”

“···There was talk that the new council member who came to town was very capable.”

The answer was so plain that I had nothing to say.

“It seemed like you were dealing with outsiders. There was no need to bring you here like this.”

“···This is simple. It doesn’t cost any money. This is not mine, it’s Chae-ju’s-”

Nokrimdo hurriedly tried to come up with an excuse, but Dangmujin couldn’t hold it in any longer and kicked Nokrimdo’s shin.

Dang Mu-jin felt Nokrim-do’s shin breaking through the tips of his toes.

“Ahhhhhh!”

Nokrimdo fell down, hugging his shins. He kept gasping for breath as if he was in so much pain.

However, Dang Mu-jin could not feel even a little bit of relief, because something very ominous remained.

Two congressmen were captured. However, only Congressman Yeom was in the warehouse.

Yes, Representative Yang is not visible.

Dang Mu-jin asked.

“Where is the other one?”

“Ugh, ugh!”

Nokrimdo responded to Dang Mujin’s story even though he was unable to come to his senses due to the pain. This was because he knew that he had to somehow match Dang Mujin’s mood to have a chance of survival.

However, Nokrimdo gave an answer that was a bit different from Dangmujin’s question.

“I, really. I. Said not to do that!”

Dang Mu-jin spoke while stepping on Nokrim-do’s healthy shin.

“That’s not what I asked.”

“Over there, over there!”

Nokrimdo pointed with his finger to a well a little distance away. It was a covered well.

My breath was caught in my throat. I think I know what’s going on.

But we need to check what happened. Dang Mu-jin and Hyun-gong went to the well and opened the lid.

Congressman Yang was found dead and thrown into a dry well. It seemed that Congressman Yang was not the only one who ended his life in the well, as there were quite a few human bones piled up underneath.

“ha···.”

Hyun-gong let out a sigh full of regret and crawled down the well.

And then, carrying the corpse of Assemblyman Yang, which had rotted to the point of flowing water, he crawled out of the well and carefully placed it on the bottom.

Dang Mu-jin and Hyeon-gong looked at the body of Representative Yang.

There was a large hole in Rep. Yang’s stomach. Because all the blood had drained out, Rep. Yang’s face, which was extremely blunt for a member of the National Assembly, was extremely pale.

The peculiar smell of rotting corpses lingered. It was only this bad because it was a season with a cold wind blowing. If it had been summer, it would have been a truly hellish stench.

Hyun-gong was about to dig up the ground with the intention of making a grave, but he shook his head. It was because he thought that making a grave for Assemblyman Yang in a place like this was not a good choice.

Hyun-gong asked Dang-mu-jin.

“Congressman Yeom. Should I wake you up?”

Just as you can knock someone out by touching acupoints or wake someone up by touching a blood transfusion point, you can also wake someone up semi-forcibly by touching acupoints. However, Dang Mu-jin thought that this method was not a good idea.

“No. Let’s wait until you wake up.”

People faint when they encounter a situation that is too difficult to endure. In Dangmujin’s experience, it is much better to let a fainted person wake up naturally.

Dang Mu-jin quietly looked at the only remaining green forest.

The old Nokrimdo sensed his fate and crawled to Dangmujin, grabbing his trouser leg.

“Please, I’ll do whatever you say! Just spare my life!”

Dang Mu-jin was about to break Nokrim-do’s neck, but he shook off Nokrim-do by lightly shaking his leg.

And I approached the warehouse. That’s because when I found Rep. Yeom in the warehouse earlier, I found a pile of wooden tablets behind Rep. Yeom.

“Why is that wooden tablet here?”

Nokrimdo answered Dangmujin’s question.

“This is something I brought when I captured the congressman in the past, hoping it would be helpful to him!”

“Is that what you brought from the village below?”

“you’re right.”

Dang Mu-jin opened the wooden tablet and checked its contents. It was full of medical information.

However, Dang Mu-jin’s interest was in the back of the wooden tablets. As expected, Ma-ui’s diary was written on the back of several of the wooden tablets.

[Rep. Shim told me to learn martial arts. It seems he is thinking of pairing me up with Miss Yeo-hye.]

[The skill of the person who would become my teacher was not impressive. I did not expect him to be a famous master, but the person who would teach me martial arts was Jeong, a potter. From what I heard from people, Jeong was a second-rate martial artist when he was young.]

[I tried to learn hard, but Elder Jeong didn’t seem to like me. After teaching me for about two weeks, Elder Jeong told Assemblyman Sim that my skills were lacking. Thanks to that, the matter was settled. I didn’t feel too bad. What use would it be for an Assemblyman to learn the skills of killing people?]

Dang Mu-jin looked at the wooden tablet. The story ended there. There wasn’t much to learn.

Just as I was about to leave after dealing with the surviving Nokrimdo, Nokrimdo shouted again.

“Diary! Are you interested in diaries?”

Dang Mu-jin stopped his hand and answered.

“Do you know anything?”

“The guy I caught before said that it was a diary he wrote! He was about the same age as me at the time, so I talked to him for a bit.”

“If you know anything about what happened after the diary, tell me.”

“···When Jamsanchae first settled in this area, the owner of Jamsanchae planned to capture Assemblyman Shim.”

The older Nokrimdo continued his explanation as slowly as possible, searching his memory.

It seems that he thought he wouldn’t die while talking. Dang Mu-jin didn’t rush him either.

“I almost caught Rep. Shim, but I accidentally killed him when he resisted violently. Rep. Shim’s daughter was already half-mad from being treated so harshly.”

It seemed like I knew how he had been treated so harshly without even having to hear it. It seemed like Nokrimdo had no intention of explaining his evil deeds.

“So I tried to bring in that guy who kept a diary to use it. I left him in this warehouse for almost a month. I also brought these wooden tablets with me at that time. You need to have medical skills to use them properly…”

“Did you kill all the villagers back then?”

Nokrimdo shook his head.

“No. The villagers didn’t resist, so there was no need to kill them. They were all cowards, so when they saw us, they would hide inside their houses, put their heads down, and tremble. It was the same when misfortune befell my neighbors.”

“···Then, how did the person who was said to have been captured escape?”

“The person who taught him martial arts for a while… That is, a middle-aged man called Jeong Do-gong came secretly, killed Jamsan Chae-ju and his two subordinates, and rescued him. Jamsan Chae-ju, who died today, is the cousin of Chae-ju at the time.”

“It seems that Jeong Do-gong was a master who hid his skills?”

“He wasn’t first-class, but he seemed to be quite skilled among second-class people. He was very good at using a sword. Although not as good as Nari…”

Come to think of it, when I killed Zhang Shangchaiju with Hong Jie in the old days in Chongqing, Zhang Shangchaiju’s skills must have been first-class. If he was the leader of a small mountain village, I think his skills would have been second-class.

Nokrimdo realized that Dangmujin’s interest was focused on Ma-ui, who had been brought in, rather than Jeong Do-gong and Jamsanchaeju at the time.

“The guy who was brought in at that time… I think his last name was Hwang. Anyway, I heard that guy Hwang suffered more when he was rescued than when he was captured. I heard that he cried for three days and nights.”

You can guess what the situation was.

Jeong Do-gong, who was supposed to teach martial arts to Ma-ui, wasn’t a very skilled person. But on the other hand, that meant that even just that level of skill was enough to stop the Nokrimdo.

But Ma-ui didn’t even have that level of skill, so he lost his father-in-law and wife. He must have suffered from a greater sense of guilt than losing his family to a great master.

“What happened after that?”

“It disappeared. And a few months later, someone poisoned a nearby well, killing all the villagers. In the chaos, only a few of the Nokrimdo members of Jamsanchae died, and I remember rumors going around that it was the Hwang family that did it.”

The rumor was probably true.

It was a sad and frustrating story.

A villain with terrible skills, and a young man who couldn’t even stop his terrible skills.

Dang Mu-jin and Hyeon-gong now realized why Ma-ui had fled west. Ma-ui could not forgive his neighbors who had turned their backs on him in the face of calamity.

*

“Hmm···.”

As the sun was setting, Rep. Yeom woke up, stirring.

Congressman Yeom looked startled and looked around as if he had no idea why he was out of the warehouse.

And not long after, he discovered the rotting body of Congressman Yang and looked bewildered.

Dang Mu-jin approached Assemblyman Yeom and bowed his head. Even though he knew it wasn’t his fault, he couldn’t hide his guilt.

Since Rep. Yeom didn’t say anything for a while, the party staff asked Rep. Yeom.

“What happened?”

“After staying in the village for a few days, bandits suddenly appeared and took me away…”

Congressman Yeom spoke slowly, taking his time and holding his breath.

“And that Yangga guy was quick-witted. He figured that only one of them could survive, so he got up first and started a fight with the bandits.”

The results are obvious even without looking at them. Representative Yang and Representative Yeom were learning martial arts, but their achievements were at best at the level of third-rate gangsters.

It would have been difficult to do anything meaningful among the numerous green forests.

Congressman Yeom looked at Congressman Yang’s body for a while, then looked around.

There were a great number of corpses of the Green Forest people around, and blood was flowing out of the corpses and seeping onto the floor. The smell of blood was thick enough to make your head hurt, and it enveloped the surroundings.

And Assemblyman Yeom looked at Dang Mu-jin and Hyeon-gong. There wasn’t even a drop of blood on Hyeon-gong’s clothes. Dang Mu-jin’s clothes had a few drops of blood, but there was not a single wound. There really wasn’t even a small wound.

“Ugh, ugh···.”

Congressman Yeom cried endlessly.

I felt so sorry and sorry for my friend who died in my place.

Dang Mu-jin was resentful of himself for not being able to do anything in front of the rascals that could kill them all without a scratch. His own helplessness was painful.

It was even more painful because it didn’t require as much force as Dang Mu-jin or his friends.

Dang Mu-jin and Hyeon-gong sat in front of Assemblyman Yeom without saying anything and watched him.

“···.”

I looked at Rep. Yeom Dang-mu-jin, but other memories flashed through my mind.

First, the story of Ui-seon came to mind. Ui-seon, whose son was killed by a martial artist, became a medical practitioner.

And I thought of the council members who had been running around here and there to avoid the martial artists during the last Jeongsa War.

Then, I thought of the old woman who was murdered by the Ssanggeukhyeolong. The old woman who developed the golden elixir and saved countless people. However, the old woman had to meet a meaningless death.

Finally, I thought of the story of the magician who lost everything and became frustrated.

Why do lawmakers have to live like this?

Why should we fear the ill will of people and run away from them while harboring good intentions and doing favors? Why should we die from those who heal us and from those who hold no grudge against us?

Dang Mu-jin looked at Rep. Yeom again.

Congressman Yeom cried for a long time and then slowly stopped crying.

And he said to the party leaders.

“The head of the party.”

There was a wet, desperate tone in his voice. Dang Mu-jin nodded and answered.

“Please speak.”

“Teach me how to use a sword. Even if I have to give up medicine, I must learn martial arts.”

Dang Mu-jin shook his head.

“It wouldn’t mean much. You are too old, and you don’t have any special talents.”

“ah···.”

Rep. Yeom hung his head in frustration. However, the party secretary sat down in front of Rep. Yeom and looked at him at eye level.

“But it’s not like there’s no way. I’ll teach you something other than a sword.”

“What is it?”

“It’s poison. Poison can be handled to some extent even without martial arts talent.”

The answer wasn’t something that Dang Mu-jin found.

It was discovered decades ago by a young man. A young man who lost everything and became a villain.

For lawmakers without power, what better option could there be?

Dang Mu-jin ended the story by breaking the neck of the last surviving member of Nokrimdo.

“From now on, all doctors who visit Danggajang will learn how to handle poisons along with medical skills.”