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Chapter 12: Do You Take Us For Fools? (3)
The atmosphere inside the hall turned frigid.
In particular, Heuksu…whose entire livelihood was built on sheer pride, had his face contorted in a terrifying mask of rage.
A maggot? It was a humiliating comparison he would never forget for the rest of his life.
If Wang Gon was an old maggot, it meant that he was a young maggot.
Unless he was the type of person who could laugh it off over drinks saying, ‘At least I was a young maggot,’ Heuksu was someone who would obliterate anyone over a single jarring slip of the tongue.
Heuksu’s killing intent, packed with clear intent, swirled through the hall. Everyone present could tell, Heuksu had firmly decided to kill Baek Socheon.
Wang Gon had no need to get angry himself. Heuksu would exact punishment on his behalf anyway. Even if he tried to stop him, Heuksu wouldn’t listen…not that Wang Gon had any desire to stop him in the first place.
‘Arrest us? Maggots? This crazy bastard!’
Right, now that the word ‘maggot’ had been thrown around, a corpse would be necessary to settle this.
Regardless of the rapidly escalating situation, Baek Socheon remained entirely composed.
“It seems we won’t be able to leave this place unless we arrest these fellows now.”
No, there was still another way: dropping to his knees right now and begging desperately. Then he and Beon Saeng might emerge unscathed. But Baek Socheon would never do that.
To let Baek Socheon die just so he could save himself?
Even if Baek Socheon had been prickly, even if he had rattled Beon Saeng, and even if they had known each other for only a few days…no matter what, Lim Chung couldn’t let him die.
But what if he ordered the arrest?
There was no way Heuksu or Wang Gon would quietly allow themselves to be arrested, so they would carry out the threats they had uttered earlier.
Lim Chung knew that his decision would determine both his life and Beon Saeng’s.
‘Let’s fall to our knees and beg. Let’s beg them to spare Baek Socheon as well.’
Reason transmitted its command to his body.
However, his knees disobeyed that order. Rather, the message never even reached his knees. Emotion intercepted and blocked the command. Emotion had been screaming from inside for a while now:
‘Never surrender to these damned bastards!’
Lim Chung looked at Baek Socheon.
‘You truly shake up my entire life.’
Yet today’s incident had clearly been sparked because of him. These two men had come to rescue him.
Staring at Baek Socheon, Lim Chung slowly nodded.
“Arrest them.”
At the same time, Lim Chung’s heart screamed,
‘This is insane.’
Still pinned under Heuksu’s foot, Beon Saeng’s mouth fell wide open.
‘Ah, we’re all dead now!’
Even so, Beon Saeng also pinned his last thread of hope on Baek Socheon.
‘Brother, please save us! I haven’t even slept with a woman yet!’
And that was despite being twenty-six years old. He felt that if he revealed this secret, which he hadn’t dared tell anyone…Baek Socheon might just save him. Truly, if it were just the two of them, he would have shouted it out loud.
Baek Socheon stepped forward to address Wang Gon and Heuksu, then turned back to look at Lim Chung.
“Ah, what are their names?”
“Hall Master Wang Gon of the Myth Sect, and martial artist Heuksu.”
Baek Socheon spoke to the two in a sharp, clear voice,
“Hall Master Wang Gon of the Myth Sect, martial artist Heuksu of the Myth Sect. You are under arrest on charges of assault against a Murim Alliance martial artist, uttering threats, and attempting bribery.”
Wang Gon looked back and forth between Lim Chung and Baek Socheon, shaking his head.
“There’s no choice now. Right, sometimes hypothetical assumptions do become reality.”
Looking at Heuksu, Wang Gon issued a cold order,
“Let’s see what kind of maggots crawl out of that bastard’s body.”
It was an order to kill Baek Socheon first.
In his heart, he wanted to kill all three, but doing so would make the aftermath too difficult to handle. There was a huge difference between one martial artist dying and an entire branch master being wiped out along with his men.
He intended to kill Baek Socheon first, then force the remaining two into absolute submission. If he forced Lim Chung to turn a blind eye to his colleague’s death and cover it up, he could use that weakness to enslave Lim Chung for the rest of his life.
‘In fact, this worked out for the better.’
Heuksu lifted his foot off Beon Saeng’s chest and walked toward Baek Socheon.
Stopping a few steps away, Heuksu aimed his sword at Baek Socheon.
“I’m going to cut off your arms and legs first. Speak up, where should I cut first?”
Instead of showing any sign of fear, Baek Socheon added another charge to the list.
“Adding attempted murder to assault, threats, and bribery.”
“Attempted murder? What to do? It won’t be an attempt…you’ll have to apply a murder charge instead.”
At Heuksu’s mockery, Baek Socheon smirked and said,
“Regrettably, it’s just an attempt.”
“Crazy bastard!”
Heuksu suddenly closed the distance and thrust his sword forward.
Swish.
It was fast, precise, and packed with a clear, lethal intent to kill. It was an attack that possessed all three elements perfectly.
As the blade swept toward Baek Socheon in an instant, Lim Chung screamed,
“No!”
Even as he shouted, Lim Chung felt immediate regret.
‘What on earth have I done?’
Did he not know Heuksu was a master of this caliber? He knew! It was precisely because he possessed Heuksu that Wang Gon acted so arrogantly. He must have been temporarily possessed by something. Just as Beon Saeng had been, he too must have been bewitched by Baek Socheon for a moment. He should have begged no matter what so all three of them could survive.
Thwack!
A crisp, heavy impact echoed through the hall.
Baek Socheon and Heuksu were pressed close against each other.
“Ah!”
Confirming the status of the two, Lim Chung, Beon Saeng, and Wang Gon gasped simultaneously. For two of them, it was an exclamation of joy; for one, a gasp of utter shock.
Heuksu’s stray sword was thrust past Baek Socheon’s turned torso, while Baek Socheon’s elbow was planted squarely into Heuksu’s face.
As if time had stopped, both of their movements froze.
Clatter.
Heuksu’s sword fell to the floor first.
Thud.
Immediately after, with his nasal bone completely shattered, Heuksu collapsed backward, stiff as a board.
It took only a single move.
He had subdued him using purely physical force without even using internal energy.
Everyone watched the scene without breathing. No one had imagined Heuksu would be taken down in a single move.
Because everyone was focused solely on the outcome of the fight, they failed to notice the weighted training guards strapped to Baek Socheon’s wrists.
Even while wearing these heavy weights, Baek Socheon had dodged Heuksu’s attack and knocked the man out with a single blow.
Beon Saeng scrambled over to inspect Heuksu.
“He’s not dead, right?”
Fortunately, Heuksu was not dead. As much as he wished the guy were dead, killing a martial artist of the Myth Sect would invite retaliation from their main sect. Killing someone and making an official arrest were two entirely different matters.
Fearing Heuksu might wake up, Beon Saeng quickly suppressed his internal energy.
Wang Gon was half-dazed, having never imagined Heuksu would be subdued in a single stroke.
‘What… what is this?’
Baek Socheon walked toward him with slow steps.
Wang Gon took a step back. Though he was a Hall Master, Heuksu’s martial skill was several levels above his own. If Heuksu had been taken down, attempting to fight back himself was out of the question.
Having lacked talent in martial arts from the start, he had believed it was better to learn schemes and trickery rather than spend time practicing martial arts.
“Stay back! Come any closer and I’ll kill you!”
He deliberately raised his voice, but his subordinates did not come.
Wang Gon regretted meeting Lim Chung in this place.
Thinking they would be discussing secretive matters, he had chosen the most remote reception hall and deliberately sent all subordinates except Heuksu far away.
Then again, even if he had summoned them, it wouldn’t have mattered much when Heuksu had been knocked out in a single hit.
“If you touch me, the main sect won’t stand by! You know that much, don’t you?”
“Of course they won’t stand by. Won’t they start by replacing the Hall Master who caused the trouble?”
In an instant, Wang Gon’s heart sank. Baek Socheon had said it casually, but he had accurately predicted his future.
The Sect Master of the Myth Sect was someone who would quietly replace a Hall Master rather than cause trouble to avenge a subordinate.
Wang Gon shouted again:
“Even without the Myth Sect, if I mobilize all the connections I know, you’re all finished!”
“Connections… connections are great. But what to do? Assaulting, threatening, bribing, and attempting to murder a Murim Alliance martial artist. You’ll probably have to be locked in a dungeon for thirty years.”
“Thirty years!”
At the realistic figure of thirty years, Wang Gon’s face twitched violently.
“Will you even be alive by then? Connections? Do you really think you have connections willing to stand against the Murim Alliance just to save you? I reckon there’s only a pile of shit around you that matches a maggot.”
Wang Gon couldn’t deny it. He himself had no one he would protect to the point of standing against the Murim Alliance. If he was like that, the same held true for others.
He felt a terrible reality he had never considered surging over him like a giant tidal wave. Feeling his head spin, he eventually reverted to shouting the very first thing he had relied on.
“Don’t make me laugh! I am Hall Master Wang of the Myth Sect! The Myth Sect, I say!”
“Hey, Hall Master Wang.”
At Baek Socheon’s frigid gaze, Hall Master Wang flinched.
“Just because you act like a king in some backwater corner, do you take the Murim Alliance for fools?”
It was spoken in a flat, indifferent tone, yet it came across as far more terrifying than a harsh threat to kill him.
Perhaps it was because of those eyes looking down on him as if he were an insect. Wang Gon knew better than anyone what emotion was contained in that look. It was the exact look he used when looking at the weak, the look right before crushing someone underfoot.
“You heard the rumor about Taejeong dying, right? Guys who get hit by me strangely happen to have bad luck quite often. Shall we see how good our Hall Master Wang’s luck is?”
“Ugh… Get away from me, you bastard! Get away…”
Crack!
Baek Socheon’s fist landed squarely on his face. Half out of his mind, Wang Gon couldn’t dodge that single punch.
Wang Gon’s face twisted violently as broken teeth flew into the air.
His head snapped to the side, his body spinning along with the momentum before he collapsed flat on his back.
Thud.
Baek Socheon dragged his fallen body across the floor and set it down in front of Lim Chung. Wang Gon lay unconscious with his face in total ruin.
“I have arrested the two men as ordered.”
Silence hung over the hall.
Lim Chung and Beon Saeng felt as though they were dreaming in this surreal scene.
“You…”
Lim Chung couldn’t think of what to say to him.
He was grateful, yet at the same time felt a sense of dread. What lay ahead of them now was incomparably bigger than arresting the Taejeong Faction or Taejeong’s death.
They had arrested the head of the Myth Sect’s southern region and his right-hand man.
Simply taking these two into custody wouldn’t be the end of it.
Wang Gon would use every excuse, pretext, and scheme imaginable to wriggle his way out of this. Furthermore, the Myth Sect might step forward in earnest.
On the other hand, Lim Chung was merely a backwater branch master with no backing whatsoever. He had no idea if this was something that could even be resolved.
Whether he recognized those worries or not, Baek Socheon spoke to Lim Chung:
“Coming here alone out of anger was a remarkably foolish thing to do, but refusing the bribe was well done.”
Having said what he wanted to say, Baek Socheon walked out first.
Watching his departing back, Beon Saeng spoke quietly:
“Branch Master, would you like to become brothers with us too? We need one more person to swear an oath of brotherhood…”
“You crazy bastard.”
“That’s right, I’m crazy. How can I stay sane in a situation like this?”
Looking down at the unconscious Wang Gon and Heuksu, Lim Chung added a sigh of his own.
Yet inwardly, one thing felt immensely refreshing.
The words Baek Socheon had just said to Wang Gon were the exact words Lim Chung had wanted to say every time he saw Wang Gon or Heuksu looking down on them so terribly.
…Just because you act like a king in some backwater corner, do you take the Murim Alliance for fools?
When those words were uttered, he felt as if something stuck in his chest had been thoroughly unblocked.
Despite the mountain of worries about what would follow, that was the reason he didn’t feel bad right now.
Lim Chung looked down at the fallen Wang Gon.
‘Right. My position might be laughable, but the Murim Alliance has never been a joke.’
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