Tangmunjeon - Chapter 332



Only Noblemtl

Chapter 332 of Tangmunjeon: The man with the thick beard of hometown, Wang Xiaoping, was greatly embarrassed.

If he had blocked or dodged the sword with his weapon, I would have been less surprised, but he grabbed the blade with his fingers.

Even though we hadn’t even crossed swords, my stomach started to churn as if I was going to throw up at any moment. The gap in skill was clear.

Wang Xiaoping’s eyes turned white.

‘I thought you were just some worthless beggar···.’

Not long ago, even when fighting the terribly strong Cheongseongpa masters or Amipa nuns, I had never faced such a skilled swordsman.

‘This fucking-‘

The beggar asked again, not knowing Wang Xiaoping’s true feelings.

“Where have the villagers gone?”

The murderous intent behind that question is palpable.

Wang Xiaoping realized that although he was not yet dead, his life was effectively over.

It’s a mortal sin to swing a weapon at a master, but doesn’t this beggar even seem friendly with the villagers?

Any other person might have trembled and bowed his head, but Wang Xiaoping considered himself to be a very strong person.

That is why Wang Xiaoping shouted in anger.

“Where are you going, you beggar! I sent you all to the afterlife!”

The very next moment, Wang Xiaoping saw the club swinging towards his head.

That was the last sight Wang Xiaoping saw while alive.

Wang Xiaoping felt his skull being crushed.

*

Hong Geol-gae swung his weapon almost reflexively and broke his opponent’s head.

This was an uncommon occurrence, as Hong Geol-gae rarely took the lives of his opponents.

Even in the Jeongsa Daejeon, Hong Geol-gae often broke one or two of his opponents’ limbs and moved on rather than killing them.

But now, Hong Geol-gae felt anger rising in his chest. It was true that he resented the people of Jueul Village, but he did not wish for them to die.

‘It could be a lie. It could be that he was just talking nonsense while swinging his sword.’

Hong Geol-gae looked around as if he was going to ask the same question again.

The people around them flinched in surprise and stepped back when their eyes met with Hong Geol-gae’s.

One of them raised his hand and spoke.

“I told you not to kill!”

My mind was spinning. I thought it was an excuse, but it was also a definite confirmation that they had massacred the people of Juulchon. My head was spinning.

Hong Geol-gae held his head with his left hand and tapped the floor with his club.

The question Hong Geol-gae asked next was just one word.

“why?”

It was a question that was easy to misunderstand, but the man understood exactly what Hong Geol-gae was asking.

It wasn’t ‘Why didn’t you kill him?’ but ‘Why did you kill him?’

But the man hesitated and couldn’t answer right away.

Hong Geol-gae took a deep breath, then rushed at the men and began swinging his club. It wasn’t an attack with the intention of not killing his opponents like usual.

Those who suffered only a few broken limbs were extremely lucky. Many people died from a broken head, and many others were in a worse situation than being hit in the neck or back.

In fact, even if they survived like that, they wouldn’t be able to live long because Hong Geol-gae struck them down again and killed them.

Because the gap was so overwhelming that anyone could see it, the group that had been settling in Juulchon was unable to attack Dang Mujin and his party and began to run away.

As people began to run away, Dang Mu-jin took out his sword and considered killing all the runaways, but decided against it. He thought that if he needed that kind of help, Hong Geol-gae would have said so himself.

But since he wasn’t sure, Dang Mu-jin looked at Hyun-gong.

When you feel unsure of what to do, follow the example of Hyun-gong and you will not run into any problems.

Fortunately, Hyun-gong did not raise his sword and remained still.

Congressman Yeom quietly watched Hong Geol-gae running wild. And he realized anew what kind of people he was accompanying.

They may seem like just a bunch of playful young men in normal times, but in reality, each of them has more power than the leaders of any of the other large sects, or even the authors who claim to be the sect leaders. It may sound a bit unrealistic, but it is true.

Hong Geol-gae ran wild for a while, and only after the heat from his head had died down a little did he grab the wrist of one of the people running away.

The captured man screamed at the top of his lungs.

“Please save me! Please save me, Your Majesty!”

“I have a few questions to ask.”

There was no reply saying they would spare his life.

But since he was caught, he had no choice but to answer with a glimmer of hope. The man who had his wrists grabbed nodded his head several times in a cowardly manner.

Hong Geol-gae asked.

“What are you?”

“We’re just a bunch of losers! Seriously!”

“A defeated soldier? What defeated soldier?”

“We are just fools who came along to fill the numbers and act as a screen in the Jeongsa Daejeon!”

Hong Geol-gae looked around. He couldn’t see anyone who could be called a master, whether dead or escaped.

“Why are those guys in this town?”

“Not long after entering Sacheonseong, nuns from the Amipa came out and caused chaos. After clashing with them several times, even the Taoists from the Cheongseongpa showed up. In the end, unable to break through Sacheonseong, we scattered and fled, and when we found this village, we came in. We treated our wounds and filled our bellies…”

“So. Where are the villagers?”

“···.”

When there was no immediate answer, Hong Geol-gae’s hands tightened.

Crunch. The man’s wrist is broken.

“Ahhhh!”

The man screamed in excruciating pain.

It wasn’t a very pleasant sight to see her panting, clutching her wrists, with tears and a runny nose running down her face.

But the man with the broken wrist knew that if he hesitated a little longer, his head would be cracked this time.

He pointed to the center of the village with his unbroken left wrist.

“There it is, there it is!”

There was a well where the man pointed.

As far as Hong Geol-gae could remember, it was a well in the center of the village that had dried up long ago and was no longer in use.

Because the well was not functioning properly, people living on the west side of Juulchon used the stream water, and people living on the east side used the well.

Hong Geol-gae could guess with some certainty why the man had pointed to the well. Hadn’t something similar happened not long ago?

Hong Geol-gae approached the well and opened the lid. As expected, there were piles of corpses at the bottom of the well.

It was a hassle to bury it, and I didn’t like the smell of it dying and attracting bugs, so I just threw it down the well.

“Why did you kill him?”

Hong Geol-gae approached the man with the broken wrist with brisk strides and asked, his eyes seemingly burning with anger.

“I came into the village to get food and treat my wounds, but there were people who resisted and refused to share what they had. I was just trying to get a little bit of food, but a few impatient guys…”

What will follow is nothing but lame excuses and self-justifications. Hong Geol-gae swung his club at the man’s head.

Bam!

With a loud, almost cheerful sound, the man fell down with his head cracked. Red blood flowed out of his nose.

Hong Geol-gae approached the well again and looked down into the well.

I remembered a story I heard a while ago. It was the story of Assemblyman Yang who was said to have been thrown into a well while dead. It was dizzying.

This time, different thoughts filled Hong Geol-gae’s head.

It was the story of Daepunggae. It was the story of Honggeolgae’s great fortune slowly reaching its peak.

There were already a lot of things I felt lately. Starting with losing money in a simple dice game, there were many big and small misfortunes surrounding Hong Geol-gae.

Hong Geol-gae sat down on his seat and looked up at the sky with a bewildered gaze.

*

Dang Mu-jin, Namgung Myeong, Seol-hwa, and even Assemblyman Yeom joined forces to dig a hole in a sunny spot on the outskirts of the village.

It was winter so the ground was quite frozen, but since there were several shovels, digging the ground wasn’t that difficult. Everyone in the group had learned martial arts and their physical abilities were excellent.

While others were making graves, Hyun-gong went down to the dry well and pulled out the villagers’ bodies.

Instead, the dry well found a new owner. Dozens of dead Sapa martial artists were entangled in each other’s ways, filling the dry well to the brim.

Hong Geol-gae spoke to Dang Mu-jin.

“Mujin-ah. Can you give me some Hwagolsan?”

Hong Geol-gae didn’t like the idea of ​​these guys being buried in the same village where Ma Jeon-gae was sleeping.

Dang Mu-jin understood Hong Geol-gae’s feelings and obediently handed Hwagol-san over to Hong Geol-gae. Hong Geol-gae poured almost half of Hwagol-san into the well.

Although the amount of smoke from the well was not large, it was not long before smoke began to pour out like crazy from the well.

Dang Mu-jin and Hong Geol-gae closed the well’s lid only halfway and retreated. Those corpses would soon disappear without a trace.

Even though the martial artists with outstanding physical abilities worked hard to create dozens of tombs, it took a whole day. The work was finished around sunset the next day.

The group quickly washed themselves in the icy water of the stream and disappeared to sleep. There were so many empty houses that it was not difficult to find a place to sleep.

Instead of looking for a place to sleep, Hong Geol-gae headed south of the village.

There was the grave of Hong Geol-gae’s teacher, Ma Jeon-gae. Hong Geol-gae quietly looked at his teacher’s grave.

“···.”

The mound of the devil was made by Hong Geol-gae alone.

Since it was made with only bare hands and a stick, let alone a shovel, its shape was not very good. It was short, bumpy, and unstable, as if it would be swept away at any moment if it rained.

But now the shape of the burial mound of the Magaengae had changed.

It was a mound made by compacting the soil well and making it round and high. It wasn’t just high. Its shape was also round and straight.

Even on the mound, grass of an appropriate length had grown beautifully. Anyone could tell that the tomb had been carefully built and well-maintained.

It was only then that Hong Geol-gae realized. The villagers did not hate Hong Geol-gae and Ma Jeon-gae and treated them poorly.

In order to maintain the village, they had to drive out the killers from the village, but they still had feelings of gratitude towards Ma Jeon-gae and Hong Geol-gae in their hearts.

That’s why they rebuilt Majeongae’s tomb even though they knew there was no reward, and they took good care of Majeongae’s tomb for years even though they knew no one would notice.

For some reason, tears came to his eyes. Hong Geol-gae started sobbing, then sat down and cried.

But like other tears, Hong Geol-gae didn’t know what he was sad about.

It seemed like he was crying because he was sorry for realizing the townspeople’s feelings too late, and it seemed like he was sad because he lost his hometown. Maybe he was disappointed that his plan to show off to the townspeople had gone down the drain. Or maybe he just wanted to cry.

While I was crying like that for a long time, I felt a presence.

I knew who it was. Only one person knew that the burial mound of the demon was located south of the village.

When I turned my head, it was, as expected, Dang Mu-jin.

Hong Geol-gae just roughly wiped away his tears. It didn’t seem like Dang Mu-jin would notice even if he tried to ignore it.

Dang Mu-jin asked.

“Are you sad?”

Hong Geol-gae nodded silently.

Then Hong Geol-gae remembered that he had something to say to Dang Mu-jin. The story that Dae-pung-gae had told him.

In this situation, I didn’t want to go into detail and complain.

That’s why Hong Geol-gae cut off all the pros and cons and said only one thing.

“My teacher said that I was born with the fate of dying young. However, I survived the crisis and gained great fortune, and now my luck has run out.”

“okay?”

Dang Mu-jin nodded absentmindedly. He liked that light-hearted response.

Hong Geol-gae spoke again.

“Did I contribute to the deaths of my people? Did the townspeople die because some unfortunate man decided to come here?”

Dang Mu-jin did not answer hastily and thought for a moment.

And then he answered again.

“You could think of it the other way around.”

“In what way?”

“Juulchon may have been a village that should have disappeared much earlier. It’s not a place where a perfectly good village would have been established, by anyone’s standards.”

“···.”

“The fact that the village survived despite its precarious and impoverished circumstances, that it was not attacked by bandits or martial artists, that many people survived despite the plague, and that the village survived thanks to the luck of meeting me and the evil old man. It could all have been thanks to that great fortune.”

“Maybe not.”

“In times like that, you just have to think positively.”

That’s true. My stuffy heart felt a little bit lighter.

Hong Geol-gae smiled awkwardly and changed the subject.

“I shouldn’t go to the saints.”

“Why again?”

“I don’t know if it’s just that my luck has run out or if I’m just bringing bad luck with me. If it’s the latter, I’m afraid that bad luck will spread to me.”

Although it was a story that Hong Geol-gae had thought long and hard about, Dang Mu-jin waved his hand as if he had heard a ridiculous story.

“That’s nonsense. You came all the way here and you’re going back? And you don’t have to worry about luck.”

Hong Geol-gae glanced at Dang Mu-jin’s complexion. He really didn’t seem to care.

Hong Geol-gae asked.

“why?”

“If the clouds follow me over my head, I won’t wander around uninhabited places. I’ll find a house with a sturdy roof and rest comfortably. That’s the judgment of a normal person.”

A house with a sturdy roof would naturally be talking about the owner of the house. Hong Geol-gae asked again.

“What if it’s not just a cloud?”

“A strong wind and rain may blow over the rice stalks and blow away the thick thatch from the thatched-roof houses. However, even when the wind and rain come, the rocky mountain will not collapse. And Danggajang may not be a rocky mountain, but it is a fairly sturdy hill. It will not collapse from mere wind and rain.”

Dang Mu-jin stood up from his seat, speaking calmly.

Hong Geol-gae realized that the friend he had been with until now had become an adult and the head of a household.

The party leader said.

“We’ll leave early in the morning, so go to bed early.”

Dang Mu-jin glanced at Hong Geol-gae, smiled, and walked away to find a room where he could rest for the night. The red sunset seemed to burn Dang Mu-jin’s side face bright red.

Dang Mu-jin walked about fifteen steps, then suddenly stopped and looked back.

“Honggeolgae.”

“why?”

“I’m telling you this just in case, but don’t tell Hyeon-gong about it. He might secretly try to abandon you.”

Hong Geol-gae burst into laughter. Of course, that would be what Hyeon-gong would do. The red-hot Dang Mu-jin took another step and disappeared somewhere in the red-hot Ju-eul village.

Hong Geol-gae got up from his seat after Dang Mu-jin had disappeared for quite some time and brushed the dirt off his pants.

And looking at the teacher’s neat and well-organized mound, I thought about the generous hearts of the people of Juulchon Village.

People who, while poor themselves, fed the two poor people in the village for twenty years.

People who built a beggar’s grave and maintained it for several years.

Hong Geol-gae headed to the place where the villagers’ graves were made. Dozens of graves were crowded together to form a new village, a new hometown.

‘I’ll come back later.’

Hong Geol-gae bowed his head to them with a grateful heart and turned away.