< Episode 57 Water Ghost (1) >
“I don’t think there will be any problems if we continue the mission now.”
‘Oh no!’
For a moment Meng Muyak’s expression hardened.
He was secretly thrilled that he had regained feeling in his severed arm.
But there was something he had forgotten.
When this happened he had to go to work on neck cultivation and confidential missions without any hesitation.
‘Damn it!’
Using his injury as an excuse he must immediately return to Cheonjihoe and tell his father Buhoeju about the danger of this bastard but that plan has gone awry.
Mok Gyeong-un told him who was embarrassed that he had forgotten.
“ah! And I have one more gift for you.”
‘gift?’
When Mu Kyung-un said he would give something to the troubled court Meng Wuyak looked at him with a face full of doubt.
Then Mok Gyeong-un took something out of his arms.
It was a bracelet made of chain.
‘huh?’
Are you really giving a gift?
Mok Gyeong-un raised the corner of his mouth and said to the puzzled Mong Muyak.
“It’s nothing special I wish I could wear this.”
* * *
-Shoot!
Late afternoon with heavy rain.
An officer with a spiky mustache was leading someone through a thick forest.
That someone was wearing a bamboo raincoat and a bamboo hat on his head and in one hand he was holding a black sword that looked like it had been charred.
The official glanced at this unidentified man and stuck out his tongue.
I didn’t show any sign of fatigue even though I had been hiking in muddy conditions due to heavy rain for over an hour.
‘Unmanned vehicles are different.’
“Haa…haa….”
On the other hand even though he was a native of this place he was exhausted and was breathing heavily.
The weather was chilly so my breath was full.
Hiking on a day like this was nothing short of crazy but that damn money was worth it.
‘How much is the silver coin?’
It was difficult to count the silver coins in her man’s pocket.
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes because the official salary of a government official was barely enough to fill my mouth.
Simply put it was too much money to refuse.
furthermore
‘There’s nothing I can’t do to get this much money for just telling you a place.’
The car went further into the forest.
The officer said after seeing pieces of red cloth tied to several trees.
“Here I am I will get better.”
The official said pointing to a spot where no grass had grown between the trees where a piece of red cloth was tied.
It was truly a strange place.
The color of the ground was dark red and it was eerie everywhere.
Although the sun had not yet set it was my first time coming here when it was dark enough for heavy rain to fall.
Maybe that’s why it sent a shiver down my spine.
Then his man said.
“Dig the ground.”
“yes? Shall we dig up the ground?”
“I see.”
“Hey I just went to the place where the dead prisoners were buried….”
“I’ll pay you more.”
Hearing the man’s words the officer saw the ground soaked with rainwater and lumpy like mud.
Wet ground was more difficult to dig than dry ground.
Moreover there was something strange about digging up the ground where the body was buried by oneself.
however
‘Eh I don’t know.’
It was difficult to resist the temptation of silver coins.
For about an hour the officer dug the ground.
Since it was a place designated by the government office as a place to bury the bodies of prisoners there were things like pickaxes nearby so there was no need to do it with bare hands.
‘Civil.’
It’s really too much.
Although it was a job he did for silver it would have taken a long time for him to do it alone so he was a government servant who thought he would be able to help him a little.
But all he did was watch with his arms crossed.
In the end he did it all by himself.
-Park!
‘ah!’
The officer who struck down the pickaxe swallowed the dry saliva.
The feeling just now wasn’t dirt.
It wasn’t long before several corpses appeared.
“Wow.”
I felt like I was going to throw up.
Even though it wasn’t raining I was even more shaken by the rotting corpse.
‘How can you recognize anything until the body has rotted like this?’
Eventually a man with bamboo hair who had been watching with his arms folded approached and looked at the rotting corpses.
If it had been in a coffin the decomposition would have been less but since they were prisoners they were just buried in the dirt and the condition was unrecognizable.
“hmm.”
Nevertheless the man continued to examine the bodies.
Then he stopped at a body.
Unlike other corpses it was the only body with only a head.
As expected the face was so rotted that its shape was unrecognizable.
Jukripin looked at this and asked.
“Why is this body only a head?”
“ah….”
The officer who saw the body hesitated as to what to do.
That was a body that had been kept in silence by order of the prefect.
Since what he was asked to do was guide the way to this place and dig up the dirt he had no obligation to reveal secrets that needed to be kept secret.
“I’m sorry but I don’t know that either.”
“You don’t know? It hasn’t been a few years it’s only been a month and a few days at most. “I don’t remember that…”
“I really don’t know. “You guys are just low-ranking government officials…”
-Sigh!
“omg!”
Before he could finish speaking a black sword touched his neck.
He was on the verge of creating a hole in his neck with even the slightest stab.
The official taken aback by this spoke hurriedly.
“What is this?”
“Have you ever had a hole in your neck?”
“Tongue…the wise spirit told me not to talk about it.”
“I see. But I have to listen. So tell me.”
“If you threaten a government official like this…”
“I don’t think it will be a problem if your body is mixed in among the prisoners’ bodies.”
The life that flows out with those words.
‘Hi!’
The official who was terrified by those words soon told the truth.
“I will tell you.”
“Do it.”
“Four… Among the death row inmates a vicious man called Humbled Ghost came in.”
At those words the corners of Juklipin’s mouth slightly rose.
He finally found it.
His traces.
He has no relatives around him and seems to have wasted a lot of time looking for a government official who could provide him with money.
Jukripin said to the official.
“so?”
“But the day before the execution an accident occurred in Geumok.”
“accident?”
“yes.”
“What accident?”
“His head was cut off last night probably due to someone who had a grudge against him.”
“…He was dead?”
“Yes but at that time not only the head but the entire body disappeared.”
At those words Juklipin’s eyes narrowed.
Suddenly someone came into the coffin’s gold cell and killed the death row inmate.
But the body of the death row inmate was missing except for his head?
This was not something that could just be overlooked.
“But why did the government agency just overlook this?”
“Well he was going to be executed anyway and this became known for no reason…”
“iced coffee.”
Jukripin waved his hand.
He didn’t need to hear any more.
The position of the county government responsible for this would have become difficult.
Therefore he must have kept quiet about the fact that someone broke into Geumok and committed such a crime.
This information had no meaning to me anyway.
What’s important is
He ‘didn’t even take his head he took his torso. That means…’
There was still enough room for doubt.
Now if you just investigate Yeonmokgeomjang you will find the answer to this doubt.
At that time the officer who was scared spoke cautiously.
“Ugh you can only give me the silver coins you originally planned to give me so please…”
“Ah. Is that a joke?”
“yes.”
“Yes I will give it to you.”
“iced coffee!”
The officer’s face brightened.
He was worried that he might just take his wages and leave but it was a good thing.
however
-Poof!
“Oops!”
The black sword pierced the officer’s neck.
As the sword was pulled out with a deathly scream the staggering officer fell into the hole he had dug with an expression filled with pain.
-with a plop!
The pit was full of muddy water and before I knew it it was turning red.
“I’ll give you some money for the afterlife.”
-Ting!
Jukripin bounced a silver coin and it fell into a pit.
And then he quickly left.
* * *
-Shoot!
The rain was so heavy that visibility was difficult.
It was truly a torrential downpour.
There were three men moving north through the rain.
They are Mo Kyung-un and the third guard of the Cheonjihoe main building Seopchun. And it was Mong Muyak the son of Vice Lord Buhoe.
The rain that had been falling since the day before yesterday has already continued for three days.
It was not easy for even martial arts experts to move in this heavy rain.
Mong Muyak who was performing a light attack at the very rear glanced at his splinted left arm.
Gradually his senses returned and his fingers moved properly.
‘Whoa.’
But now I wasn’t particularly happy about this.
In a way he was like giving medicine to the sick and as his severed arm healed he was forced to continue his mission without hesitation.
‘shit.’
It might have been better for him to have his arm cut off.
If he had done so he would have gone back and reported all this to his father Buhoeju.
This guy was scarier than any human he had ever seen.
Not only was he not human-like but he was even more fearful because he was mastering all kinds of magical tricks in addition to martial arts.
A representative example is
-Sigh!
It was this chain bracelet worn on my right wrist.
[Now that you have decided to be loyal I would like you to wear this chain on your arm and swear to me.]
At that time he was a bit suspicious but he thought there would be no problem with wearing a bracelet so he followed suit.
But after he took that oath he realized.
The fact that I could no longer refuse anything from Mok Gyeong-un’s words.
He thought about trying to run away but the moment he made that decision the chain cut into his flesh and he almost lost his right arm.
As a result Meng Wuyak was unable to even harbor impure thoughts.
Now he was nothing but a slave to this guy.
‘Damn it.’
All that came out was cursing.
It was a time when I was grumbling inside and pessimizing my situation.
Mo Gyeong-un and Nyeop-chun the leaders who were moving forward through the heavy rain suddenly stopped in their tracks.
I looked ahead wondering why
“ah!”
A sigh mixed with embarrassment flowed from Meng Wuyak’s mouth.
As expected a river overflowing from heavy rain appeared in front of them.
-Shoot! Quarrrrrrr!
Nie Chun opened his mouth in an expression of embarrassment.
“This… It must be difficult to cross the river.”
Looking at the current of the river it was not at a level where I could swim even though I had learned martial arts.
It wasn’t a distance that could be swam in the first place.
Because the size of the river was not as vast as the Yangtze River it could have been crossed by renting a ferry or raft if the river had not flooded due to heavy rain.
But now I was in danger of being swept away by the current and causing an accident.
“I was worried because it was raining a lot but I don’t think it will be difficult to cross the river right now.”
“I see.”
Mo Gyeong-un also nodded in agreement with Nie Chun’s words.
Before the providence of Mother Nature even the martial arts master was just a human being.
“First of all my lord I think we should rest in the nearby village over there and wait for the rain to stop.”
Meng Wuyak intervened in Nie Chun’s words.
“hey. “Have you already forgotten?”
“huh?”
“The most important thing in this mission is to meet the deadline for reaching the rendezvous point. “Even if there is a delay of just one day it will be difficult to meet the due date until the meeting point.”
Hearing these words Nie Chun sighed and said.
“Yes but by what means are you going to cross the flooded river?”
Floods and river overflows were natural disasters not man-made disasters.
In the first place it was not a problem to be solved with manpower.
however
“…We have to find a way to cross.”
Meng Wuyak’s stubbornness was clear.
As expected the time given to reach Annak Henam Province was 10 days.
Ordinary people would never be able to travel within 10 days but for those who were experts above the peak level it was barely possible if they practiced diligently and took minimal rest.
“So by what means?”
“Uhm that’s…”
-Sigh!
Meng Muyak soon looked at a nearby village not far from the riverside.
Usually the main occupation of people living in villages located near rivers was related to the river.
Mok Gyeong-un who was staring at the place said.
“You can see the ferry boats anchored at the entrance of the village. And that ship over there….”
I saw a large boat anchored on the side of a flooded river.
It wasn’t the size of a ferry boat.
“It looks pretty big. “Wouldn’t a boat like that be able to cross the river?”
“ah! “I think it might be possible.”
Mong Muyak nodded and said he agreed.
The current was so strong due to the heavy rain that it seemed impossible to cross with a small ferry or raft but it seemed possible for a boat that large to cross by being pushed downstream by following the current.
But there was another problem here.
This was raised by Seopchun.
“But my lord. “I don’t think a ship of that size could be operated without boatmen and workers.”
If it was an ordinary raft it was possible to row it across as skillfully as the boatmen even if it was difficult.
However that ship seemed difficult to control with their own strength.
In the end the help of the boatman who would become the owner of the boat was needed.
“I don’t know if the owner of the boat will sail that boat in this weather.”
“I’m going to have a boat like that to make money anyway so if I pay enough for it I’ll launch it.”
“well….”
Nie Chun responded to Meng Wuyue’s words indifferently.
I brought enough money for travel expenses and had enough money to pay for the ferry.
However the rain was so strong that the river overflowed and the current was so fast that if you were unlucky your boat could capsize and become shipwrecked.
“No matter how good the money is would you want to easily gamble with your life at stake?”
Mok Gyeong-un smiled and said in response to Nyeop-chun’s question.
“I will.”
“yes?”
Why is my lord so sure?
I’m wondering
“It’s better than refusing and being beheaded so let’s launch the boat.”
“…..”
It was Mok Gyeong-un who was already planning to launch the boat under the threat.
< Episode 57 Water Ghost (1) > end
ⓒ Hanzhongwolya
