Chapter 168. Even If I Have to Paint Myself with Lacquer or Swallow Charcoal (14)
Although children were considered free labor around these parts, there still weren’t many villages that would accept orphans.
There was a superstition that orphans were considered bad omens, and it was common not to accept them for fear that they carried some kind of disease.
When Woo-Moon saw the body of that boy earlier, he thought that the boy was the younger sibling. That was why it was heartbreaking to hear Yu Yu explain it was the other way around. Despite being so young, the boy must have been so focused on feeding his younger sister that he never had the chance to eat properly himself.
Woo-Moon stood still and waited for Yu Yu to stop crying.
After a while, Yu Yu wiped away her tears.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
Like Eun-Ah, Woo-Moon also felt sorry for Yu Yu.
The Blood-Horned Poison Serpent had died and there would be no more human sacrifices in this village, but it was only natural for Yu Yu to want to leave as soon as possible. How could she live in a village that killed her brother and tried to feed her to a giant snake?
That was why Eun-Ah wanted to give Yu Yu the neidan and empower her.
“What do you think about following me?”
As expected, Yu Yu also understood the gravity of the situation she was in, completely at a loss as to what to do next. Thus, when Woo-Moon, someone she thought she could rely on, asked her to come with him, she nodded without much hesitation.
“C-can I? I would love to! If it weren’t for you, Mr. Warrior, I would have died anyway.”
“Good. But please don’t think about dying anymore, alright?”
“Okay!”
Woo-Moon thought about whether it would be a good idea to take Yu Yu as a personal disciple or have her join the Baek Family as a warrior. By absorbing the Blood-Horned Poison Serpent's neidan, she had reached the Peak stage within moments, and if she worked diligently on her cultivation, she could reach the Transcendent stage in very little time.
Woo-Moon descended down the mountain with Yu Yu and Eun-Ah.
‘... I can feel the aura of people from the murim.’
When Woo-Moon came down the mountain and arrived in front of the village, he encountered some unexpected people.
People of the murim of various ages, wearing robes—the disciples of the Kunlun Sect.
One of the Kunlun Sect’s Daoists, who were in the midst of an investigation and questioning the villagers, turned to Woo-Moon, eyes blazing.
“Are you the criminal?”
Hearing the word “criminal” completely soured Woo-Moon’s mood.
“And what crime did I commit for you to start throwing accusations around?”
The younger Daoists surrounded Woo-Moon, Eun-Ah, and Yu Yu, forming a sword wall. Then, a middle-aged Daoist with a neat appearance, who had been speaking with the village chief, turned to look at Woo-Moon with a chilly gaze.
He was Ki Yeon-Oh, a first-generation disciple of the Kunlun Sect.
“What a detestable little bastard you are.”
Respect was only returned when respect was given. Moreover, Woo-Moon wasn’t the type of person to tolerate rudeness, even when it came from an elder.
“Detestable bastard? It doesn’t seem appropriate for someone wearing Daoist robes to spit out such crude insults to someone they’re meeting for the first time. From my perspective, you’re the detestable one.”
The Kunlun Sect disciples started shouting.
“Y-you dare! How dare you speak so rudely without knowing who you’re speaking to!”
“How dare some wicked bastard insult our Senior Brother?!”
Woo-Moon suddenly looked at the sky and sighed.
“Daoists are just Daoists. Is there really any need to distinguish who is who when we all pursue Muhwi Jayeon?”
The other Daoists fell silent at the unexpected retort. The middle-aged daoist with the clean-shaven face looked slightly surprised, but then, his expression hardened.
In Woo-Moon’s memory, the Kunlun Sect was on the good side. His impression of them was good, mostly because of Jin Won-Myeong and Do-Ah.
Of course, he had also met a certain Yu Mun-Gwang afterward, but on account of his good relationship with Jin Won-Myeong, he had decided to ignore that misadventure. Now, however, it looked like Yu Mun-Gwang was not the only rotten apple in the bunch—to Woo-Moon’s dismay.
Another disciple of the Kunlun Sect came running from far away.
“I-I’m sorry for being late, Master.”
‘Well, well, speak of the devil! Who would’ve thought!’
It was actually Yu Mun-Gwant himself!
“Just how far behind are you in your lightness arts?”
Yu Mun-Gwang’s complexion darkened, and he lowered his head.
“I’m sorry, Master...”
To be fair, it wasn’t that Yu Mun-Gwang didn’t have an excuse. His struggles were because he had suffered severe internal injuries after being struck by the Palm Martial Emperor and had just recently recovered.
While Yu Mun-Gwang hadn’t seen him yet, Woo-Moon was rather conflicted internally.
‘My identity will be revealed when Yu Mun-Gwang sees me. If that happens, Martial Heaven might strengthen their defenses. However... if I want to get help from the Kunlun Sect, it’ll be difficult to hide my identity.’
As Woo-Moon worried, Yu Mun-Gwang finally saw him.
He was startled. The first impulse was to act as if he knew Woo-Moon; however, he quickly remembered what he had done at the Leebi Merchant Guild and immediately clamped his mouth shut.
If his master learned about that incident, it would become a big issue.
‘It looks like he hasn’t revealed his identity yet. If he says something about me, that’s one thing, but I’m not going to say anything.’
Seeing Yu Mun-Gwang knew when to shut up, Woo-Moon didn’t pay much more attention to him. Yu Mun-Gwang may not know it, but to Woo-Moon, he was nothing but a small fry now.
The brief interlude caused by Yu Mun-Gwang’s appearance thus concluded, and his master turned to Woo-Moon again, resuming his interrogation.
“What nonsense are you saying? Shut up and pay for your crimes!!”
“Pay for my crimes? And what crimes exactly are you accusing me of?”
“Are you planning on denying it until the end? The villagers have already told me about all the heinous things you have done!”
Woo-Moon laughed. What in the world had they told him?
“Oh, is that so? My memory is rather poor. Pray tell me about all the heinous things I did,” he said coldly as he scanned the village chief and the other villagers.
Considering they hadn’t learned any martial arts, he had shown them mercy, even though they had killed so many people. Yet his only reward was being stabbed in the back.
The villagers flinched at his cold gaze. However, they felt that the situation had already gotten under control. They held their heads high, believing in the immortals of their mountain, the Kunlun Sect’s Daoists.
“Wasn’t it you who joined together with that bitch who stole and even committed murder before crippling the arms of the good people of this village?!” the village chief shouted.
Then, Yu Yu, who was hiding behind Woo-Moon, and hadn’t come out to the public yet, couldn’t hold back her anger and came forward.
“Stealing? Don’t lie! What on earth did my brother and I steal?”
When Yu Yu appeared, the villagers were surprised to see that she had changed so much, while the Kunlun Sect Daoists nodded their heads pompously at her question.
‘That bastard probably was seduced by her beauty and attacked the villagers.’
The village chief, cunning like an old snake, also sensed the mood and thought hard about how to spin things in his favor.
At this time, Ki Yeon-Oh looked at the village chief.
“Chief. Can you provide evidence that that child stole from you?”
The other disciples of the Kunlun Sect nodded to themselves, thinking that Ki Yeon-Oh was being righteous by asking for evidence. After all, listening only to the opinions of the villagers could cause anyone to be biased.
“The jade pin that shameless bitch is wearing on her head right now has the character ‘Ju’[1] written on it. It’s the last character of my wife’s name, and considering it’s the only memento I have left of my wife, who left this world five years ago, how could I have ever given it to someone else?” the village chief said while shedding hot tears.
As Yu Yu heard those words, she was shocked and felt an extreme sense of betrayal, her face turning pale.
“T-this... this is a gift you gave me on the first day I came here! You told me you felt sorry for me!”
Yu Yu’s words were true.
Of course, the chief had intended to take it back after offering her as a sacrifice. He had only given her the jade pin so that the orphaned siblings wouldn’t suspect their intentions.
Then. one of the women from the village pointed viciously with her finger and shouted.
“You, you shit-covered bitch! Our poor little village took in you orphans who had nowhere to go out of pity! To think you’d do something like this! Our village is a place where people can barely make ends meet. Who would believe that the village chief gave you something so precious!”
"That's right! That bitch is lying!”
“You must not be fooled by the words of an evil bitch, Sir Daoists!”
The Kunlun Sect Daoists also seemed to have come to believe the villagers' words as the mood of those organizing the investigation became more sinister.
“Hand over the jade pin. Let’s check if that character really is engraved on it,” Ki Yeon-Oh’s junior brother said.
Woo-Moon found this current situation to be laughable. He wanted to shed all pretenses by this point but held himself back.
“Can you tell me how you will determine the authenticity of the story by seeing a character? Maybe the character can tell you that the jade pin belonged to the village chief, but how can it prove whether it was stolen or given as a gift?”
Ki Yeon-oh had no intention to respond to Woo-Moon’s logical words.
“Hmph! Who would give something like that as a gift to an orphan girl?”
“Oh, so you’ve already made your decision! Okay, fine. Then why would this girl wear her stolen items in front of the villagers? If she really was a thief, wouldn’t she try to hide it?”
“How would she know that we would come here? These villagers don’t know any martial arts. Even someone mediocre like you could strut around here all day and they couldn’t do a single thing about you, so what did she have to fear as long as she was with you?”
As Woo-Moon was reining in his aura, Ki Yeon-Oh didn’t think very highly of his martial skills. In his eyes, Woo-Moon seemed to have a Second Class or Third Class cultivation at most.
By this point, the only one who knew Woo-Moon's identity, Yu Mun-Gwang, secretly hoped that things would eventually devolve into a battle and that Woo-Moon would be attacked and killed.
While he was treating the internal injuries that he suffered under the Palm Martial Emperor, he heard a rumor that Woo-Moon had become incredibly strong. However, he didn’t believe that Woo-Moon could have gotten strong enough to break through the barrier that Ki Yeon-Oh and the other disciples of the Kunlun Sect had set up.
Sadly for him, he really had been in seclusion for way too long and he only knew a couple of things. Otherwise, he would’ve changed his opinion rather quickly.
“If you truly believe that, there’s nothing I can do. I guess the only way is to exchange moves,” Woo-Moon said.
However, Ki Yeon-Oh shook his head.
“No. I still need to investigate some more. Why are you saying that the villagers are falsely accusing you? You must have a reason.”
Woo-Moon was inwardly conflicted. He didn’t feel like Ki Yeon-Oh would believe him anyway, and telling a story like this would be a blow to his pride, making him feel as though he was making lame excuses.
Still, since he was in a position where he needed to seek help from the Kunlun Sect, Woo-Moon ended up telling them about the Blood-Horned Poison Serpent.
As it turned out, even the villagers themselves didn’t know exactly what was going on. They were also surprised to learn that the thing they had revered as the Guardian God was actually a spirit beast called the Blood-Horned Poison Serpent. And they were even more surprised and flustered when they found out that Woo-Moon had slain it.
Moreover... Woo-Moon noticed Ki Yeon-Oh’s eyes narrow for a split second when he got to the point where he slayed the beast.
After listening to everything, Ki Yeon-Oh spoke up.
“Then let’s go up and check it out. If it’s as you say, the body of the serpent should still be there.”
This was entirely fine as far as Woo-Moon was concerned, so he nodded in agreement.
1. 株, meaning “tree root.” ☜