Chapter 37. Hegemonic Tiger Gang (3)

Ignoring the evil sect members around me, I moved in a straight line toward the Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader.

The terrified ruffians kindly cleared a path for me.

“Nam Geon! Clean up the rest of them!”

After appropriately assigning the small fries to Nam Geon, I thrust my sword toward the Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader’s neck.

“You little brat!!”

The Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader shouted and drew his sword to deflect mine.

Clang!

A heavy force was transmitted through the clashing swords.

I dodged the Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader’s subsequent swing using my footwork.

By using the Eight Trigrams Flying Stream Steps, a footwork technique I had also obtained from the Steel Sinew Sect, just like the Great Swallow Nest Building Divine Art.

The things I had trained on my way from Shaoyang to here were not just the Flying Stream Sword Art and the Great Swallow Nest Building Divine Art.

I had trained the Eight Trigrams Flying Stream Steps every day while traveling with my movement arts or dueling with Nam Geon.

As a result, I naturally came to realize a few things.

The Eight Trigrams Flying Stream Steps was a footwork technique with the purpose of freely moving between the eight directions as if flowing like water.

However, it was not a high-level martial art like the Great Swallow Nest Building Divine Art or the Flying Stream Sword Art.

This was also the reason why the Flying Swallow Sword Art of Cha Hui, the leader of the Steel Sinew Sect, and the Flying Swallow Sword Art of the Danmok Clan's young master, which I had seen before my regression, were subtly different.

The footwork that the Danmok Clan's young master had learned was not the Eight Trigrams Flying Stream Steps.

It seemed that Cha Hui had just grabbed whatever she could during the process of stealing the books.

Come to think of it, there wasn't a single person in the Danmok Clan who had learned the Iron Blood Golden Skin Art.

It meant she had stolen an external art that had been neglected even within the Danmok Clan.

It was amazing that she had managed to steal the Danmok Clan’s direct lineage martial arts, the Flying Swallow Sword Art and the Great Swallow Nest Building Divine Art, in the process.

In any case, although inferior to those two martial arts, the Eight Trigrams Flying Stream Steps was a useful footwork technique.

At the very least, it was superior to the Five Elements Steps I had originally learned.

I had been repeatedly training to incorporate what I had learned into that Eight Trigrams Flying Stream Steps.

Swish.

And at this moment, that effort paid off.

After easily dodging the Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader’s second strike with just my footwork, I unleashed a quick sword strike at his side.

The Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader showed a slightly surprised expression, then quickly twisted his body to narrowly avoid my quick sword.

Subsequently, the sword I thrust again clashed with the Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader’s blade.

Clang!!

The pressure from the sword, and his movements.

He seemed to be of a similar skill level as Cha Hui, the leader of the Steel Sinew Sect.

For some reason.

When I fought Cha Hui, it was so dangerous that my life was on the line.

Clang!

But now, I didn't feel particularly in danger.

It was the power of the Great Swallow Nest Building Divine Art and the Eight Trigrams Flying Stream Steps.

Thanks to my internal energy flowing through my acupoints much faster and more smoothly than before, I could move faster and stronger.

If only I could get rid of the subtle discomfort I felt due to the turbidity.

It was to the point where I wondered if this was why everyone was so desperate to learn high-level martial arts.

Swish!

While dodging his blade again with the Eight Trigrams Flying Stream Steps, a thought came to me.

Perhaps I could now face him competently without the help of my eyes.

“Damn it all.”

A curse escaped me on its own.

“It will become harder to open my eyes.”

“What kind of nonsense are you spouting!”

I let the foolish man’s shout flow in one ear and out the other.

Yes. There's no need to be hasty.

A positive mindset.

“Now I can clean up even more trash!”

Clang!

“Th-this crazy bastard!”

The Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader, who had narrowly deflected my quick sword, cursed.

I unleashed another quick sword at the head of the Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader, who had become accustomed to my quick sword.

And at the moment he quickly swung his blade to block my sword.

Swish!!

The sword, which had sharply changed its trajectory, cut off his left knee.

It was the Flying Swallow Sword Art.

“Aaargh!!”

While the man screamed in pain from his severed leg.

I swung my sword again, this time cutting off his right arm that was holding the blade.

Slice.

I wanted to kill him immediately, but there were many things to ask.

About the slave trader, and what kind of item these guys were trying to buy.

So I thrust my fingers toward his acupoints.

Pak.

It was obvious that if I left the man with a severed arm and leg, he would die from excessive bleeding.

Right after I had moderately subdued the Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader, the refreshing sound of something being crushed cleared my ears and mind.

Crack!!

It was the sound of Nam Geon crushing someone.

Was it because even the Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader had been defeated?

The evil sect members of the Hegemonic Tiger Gang finally began to flee one by one.

“I'll join you.”

I shouted to Nam Geon and willingly used my movement arts to chase after them.

***

After cleaning up all the remnants of the Hegemonic Tiger Gang.

I approached the Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader, who was crawling on the ground trying to escape somehow, despite having lost an arm and a leg.

I had definitely pressed his paralysis points.

“You seem to have a lot of internal energy.”

After entertaining a minor thought, I stomped on the remaining foot of the Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader, who was crawling like an insect.

“Aaargh!”

Seeing him scream, it seemed he was finally ready to talk.

“Wh-why did you suddenly attack us!!”

I spoke to the Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader, who asked with a face full of rage.

“I'm the one asking the questions. How have you been contacting the slave trader until now?”

For some reason.

The Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader, who had been furrowing his brow at my question, soon shouted as if having a seizure.

“You bastards!! You came for the Azure Spirit Pill!!”

I wondered what kind of nonsense this was, but I soon realized something.

“The reason you raised the protection money recently was because of that Azure Spirit Pill. And you plan to buy the Azure Spirit Pill from the slave trader.”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know! You came to stop me! From breaking through the wall of the pinnacle, didn’t you! No! Who is it! Who sent you assassins! I-I'll give you double the money, so kill him!”

He seemed to have lost his mind, perhaps from losing too much blood.

Just then, Nam Geon asked with a puzzled expression.

“Big brother is strange.”

“What is?”

“Big brother said. That Big brother is the one asking questions. But that bad ahjussi keeps asking.”

“Hoh.”

Nam Geon had become quite smart.

“You’re right.”

After giving Nam Geon a word of praise, I put internal energy into my left foot, which was stepping on the Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader’s foot, and pressed down.

Creeak.

“Aaargh!!”

I asked the Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader again, who was screaming from the pain of his broken toe bones.

“Just tell me the method of contact with the slave trader. Where and when are you supposed to buy that Azure Spirit Pill?”

“Keheheuk. My arms and legs are already gone, and I've become a cripple. Why should I answer your question?”

To the Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader, who answered with another question, I answered with my body.

Creeeak.

This time, I shattered one of the fingers on his remaining hand, and the man screamed again.

“Hmm. If you can endure until every bone in your body is crushed, then endure well.”

Before the man could say anything else, I tore off his fingernail with my grip strength, and then, on that exposed red flesh, I rubbed sand as if women were applying powder.

I briefly pondered how to torment this trash further.

“F-five days later. O-on the night of the f-full moon. Th-they are scheduled to c-come.”

For someone who had been so defiant, he seemed to have no tolerance for torture.

“Exactly where and when are you supposed to meet?”

“I-if you travel a little e-east from D-Dongin, there is a place called M-Ma'anshan. We promised to meet at the ownerless shrine at the entrance of that mountain, around the beginning of the Hour of the Rat.”

I spoke to the man who had answered in detail.

“You're good at it when you try, yet you dragged it out unnecessarily.”

A promise was a promise, so I kindly cut off the man’s head.

I had no aversion to torturing villains, but torture was not my hobby.

Slice.

I looked away from the Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader’s head, which had fallen with a thud, and looked east.

The moon, about two-thirds full, emitted a faint light, casting a shadow on the distant mountain.

It seemed that mountain was Ma'anshan.

“The Azure Spirit Pill.”

It was a spiritual medicine I had also heard of by name.

A spiritual medicine famous for its effect of purifying the turbid energy in the body, though it didn't drastically increase internal energy.

Aside from being quite an expensive item, it was an exceptionally difficult spiritual medicine to obtain in the first place, as the South mountain ridge Medical Family only made a few pills a year.

I didn't know how the slave trader had obtained that item, but I thought it was for the better.

“Killing two birds with one stone, I guess.”

Taking care of the slave trader, and even getting a spiritual medicine that can wash away the turbid energy in my body.

“Hmm. Since I can find out about the Black Market too, it’s killing three birds with one stone.”

I nodded with a satisfied expression, but there was also a downside.

“The problem is what to do for five days.”

With the lecher, being two days late was the problem, but this time, being five days early was the problem.

Slap.

I slapped my own cheek.

“Bi-Big brother?”

Whether Nam Geon next to me was surprised or not, I had to fix my complacent mindset.

“If I had come faster. If I had come during the previous transaction, I could have killed the Hegemonic Tiger Gang and the slave trader earlier. There can be no such thing as being too fast when it comes to dealing with trash.”

I wouldn't have gotten the Azure Spirit Pill then, but it didn't matter.

Cleaning up the trash was the priority over spiritual medicine.

Was it because I had slapped my cheek to wake myself up?

I thought of what I had to do for the next five days.

“First, let's search the Hegemonic Tiger Gang's place. The money they collected to buy the Azure Spirit Pill must be hidden somewhere.”

They must have amassed a huge amount of money.

The problem was that the task of distributing that money to the residents of this place remained.

“Tsk. I wonder if there’s a ledger.”

The thought that I should have kept a few of them alive to clean up and then killed them came to mind.

***

In the dead of night.

A single carriage was making its way through the moonlit night.

It was a strange sight.

Usually, carriages would have markings indicating the escort agency or sect they belonged to.

The absence of a marking meant that they either had no affiliation or were people who found it difficult to reveal their affiliation.

These people belonged to the latter group.

Inside the carriage.

A middle-aged man fiddled with a box in his hand and smiled slyly.

“They are nothing but foolish bastards. To think they could obtain such an item with their meager skills.”

At the man’s mutter, the man sitting opposite him bowed his head.

The man who bowed his head was the slave trader who had been dealing with the Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader until now.

“Thanks to the foolish Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader’s unnecessary greed, it seems we will be able to make a lot of money, Captain.”

The middle-aged man, called Captain, nodded his head.

“Your contribution is also excellent. Thanks to him, not only have we consistently earned profits, but we are also able to make a large income this time.”

The slave trader. He had no intention of selling the Azure Spirit Pill to the Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader from the beginning.

It was the way of the evil sects to be able to stab a comrade in the back at any time.

Handing a spiritual medicine to such a person was no different from handing over a knife and showing them your back.

However, the part about planning to buy the Azure Spirit Pill from the Black Market was true.

As the slave trader glanced at the box in the Captain’s hand, the Captain smiled faintly.

“Do you want the Azure Spirit Pill?”

The slave trader was startled and shook his head.

“N-not at all! I-I was just wondering where we would be selling the Azure Spirit Pill.”

The Captain, who had been looking at the slave trader as if testing him for a moment, soon burst into laughter.

“Hahaha. Well. It is indeed a task to find people who will pay a high price for this.”

The Captain had no intention of selling the Azure Spirit Pill to the Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader, but he also had no intention of using it himself.

He was just looking for people who would pay a much higher price.

For the Captain, selling the Azure Spirit Pill was more valuable than consuming it himself.

The slave trader, who found it burdensome to make eye contact with the Captain, discreetly turned his head and looked out the dark window.

‘Farewell, Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader. The money you have worked so hard to scrape together will be ours.’

He inwardly bid farewell to the Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader, who had been a regular customer.

He wasn't worried about losing to the Hegemonic Tiger Gang.

The Captain sitting with him in front.

He was a master who had already stepped into the realm of the pinnacle.

The very realm that the Hegemonic Tiger Gang Leader had desperately sought to reach, so much so that he was willing to stake his life on the Azure Spirit Pill.

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