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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: TushChen
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Yesterday was a truly exhausting day for Hwang Geum-seon as well.
Fighting Dog Tang Do-gyeong suddenly came, and in the midst of that, Yeo Il-ye abruptly barged in.
With two people like bombs about to explode, some strange outcast was causing a commotion outside.
The fact that Tang Do-gyeong had barged in was just bad luck.
It was nothing unusual for that infamous fighting maniac Fighting Dog to come rushing in to have a duel with Yeo Il-ye.
Unfortunately, he had used a letter from the Hwang Gold Clan as an excuse to enter Sacheon.
It could also be considered bad luck that Yeo Il-ye had barged in when Tang Do-gyeong had.
Still, Hwang Geum-seon had been expecting and preparing for Yeo Il-ye to visit the Hwang Gold Clan someday.
Because Yeo Il-ye’s recent movements had been unusual.
Still, Tang Do-gyeong and Yeo Il-ye were within the range that Hwang Geum-seon could comprehend.
But what was with the sudden sorcery performance by a Sacheon outcast?
Why was a Sacheon outcast suddenly causing trouble in front of the Hwang Gold Clan?
To understand this incomprehensible situation, Hwang Geum-seon summoned Hwang Geum-go Bu-rin.
Hwang Geum-go Bu-rin, summoned by Hwang Geum-seon, was trembling.
Among the outcasts, intermediaries were not to be trifled with.
When Hwang Gold Clan’s Bu-rin was mentioned outside the family, everyone would bow their heads at the family’s prestige.
Outside, Bu-rin was a person from a prestigious bloodline who earned considerable money and had an inflated ego.
But inside the Hwang Gold Clan, he was a weakling with nothing to boast about.
Among the Hwang Gold Clan’s surnames, he was an insignificant branch family member.
Moreover, he was incompetent and sold the family’s honor to make a living.
That was how the Hwang Gold Clan evaluated Bu-rin.
Bu-rin had no choice but to spill out all the information he knew in front of Hwang Geum-seon.
Who the outcast Ho Cheon-an was, and what he had been up to.
The incident where Yeo Il-ye barged into the Outcast Inn and gave Ho Cheon-an a gratitude plaque clashed with Yu Sa-Yeon, and even the recent incident where he pocketed the request fee from the Gyeongsu Market.
Bu-rin just trembled and spilled everything.
“Ho Cheon-an…”
Hwang Geum-seon muttered while stroking his beard.
‘Yeo Il-ye’s recent movements have been unusual. Has she gained enlightenment and had a change of heart?’
Yeo Il-ye, who had gained enlightenment from Ho Cheon-an and had her inner self established, had stopped catching and tormenting outcasts indiscriminately and started delving into the essence of the incident.
Who was the mastermind behind the destruction of the Yeo-ga Mountain Villa?
She had begun wandering in search of the true enemy of the mountain villa.
Although it had been over fifteen years, Hwang Geum-seon always felt uneasy whenever the Yeo-ga Mountain Villa was mentioned.
At that time, Hwang Geum-seon was merely the insignificant third son of the Hwang Gold Clan.
The clan and the trading company itself did not have the same status as now, and how much power could the third son of a wealthy merchant clan have?
When he was busy seizing control of the Hwang Gold Clan, the aftermath of the Yeo-ga Mountain Villa had no choice but to be put on the back burner.
‘Retribution is coming because of those idiotic bastards.’
When Hwang Geum-seon heard that Yeo Il-ye had entered the Jeomchang Sect, his heart sank.
However, the business partners at that time did not want to touch Yeo Il-ye, who had already entered the Jeomchang Sect’s shadow.
They thought the young Yeo Il-ye would be unable to investigate the incident at the Yeo-ga Mountain Villa.
They had only occasionally exerted their power to erase the traces of what had happened at the Yeo-ga Mountain Villa.
‘After consistently working on it for 15 years, there should be no traces left of the Yeo-ga Mountain Villa…’
Hwang Geum-seon was confident there was no evidence to prove that he had a hand in the Yeo-ga Mountain Villa’s destruction, but there was always a one-in-a-million chance.
Fortunately, thanks to the 15 years of work, Yeo Il-ye had no evidence.
Yeo Il-ye’s reaction yesterday gave Hwang Geum-seon the conviction that she had no evidence. It was evident that she had come to probe him blindly.
“People are all the same.”
Bu-rin flinched, but Hwang Geum-seon was lost in thought without even glancing at him.
How foolish was human nature that there were frequent cases of people deceiving themselves?
It wasn’t just Yeo Il-ye.
One must make thorough preparations and charge in to accomplish a great matter, but even that might not be enough.
But in a situation where such preparations would barely suffice, how many people deceived themselves, saying, ‘If we prepare like that and go, the opponent will be prepared,’ and then barged in without any preparation, trying to eat them raw?
Foolish people mistakenly think they are strongmen who can make the impossible possible, even though it is impossible to build a mountain overnight and equally impossible to destroy it overnight.
The Yeo Il-ye that Hwang Geum-seon saw was also just one of those arrogant strongmen.
To indeed destroy a mountain overnight, what is needed is not a strongman.
It’s the masses.
Even a strongman who can easily lift a hundred cattle is no match for hundreds of people moving several cattle each.
The Jongnam Sect, which had loftily repelled any master, chose voluntary closure in the face of the anger of the people of Sacheon.
If it became known that someone had committed evil deeds in Sacheon while wearing the disguise of an outcast, even if it were not the Hwang Gold Clan (黃金家) but the Hwangbo Clan (皇甫世家), they would not be able to avoid destruction.
“Ho Cheon-an… Ho Cheon-an…”
He had already heard about the content of the bizarre performance through the warriors.
Claiming to be a sorcerer who wields the power of Jeon-gwi from the Saw Bone Hell?
Wasn’t it too meaningful to be called a setting?
Bu-rin had said that Ho Cheon-an had caused this incident by making him spit out the request fee, but Hwang Geum-seon didn’t think so.
Hwang Geum-seon took it as a criticism of the Hwang Gold Clan’s inner workings itself.
“Bu-rin, how much did you pocket as your share?”
“Uh, it’s 30 silver taels. It’s customary for the intermediary to take 20-30% of the request fee implicitly! The amount I took is a very ordinary percentage!”
Hwang Geum-soon silenced Bu-rin with a glance, spilling out information that wasn’t even asked, fearing he might be blamed.
’30 silver taels…’
It’s not an insignificant amount.
But to cause a commotion in front of the Hwang Gold Clan just to receive that much money?
And even touching the taboo of intermediaries?
This was as good as intentionally picking a fight.
If money was indeed the only purpose, it would have been enough to kidnap Bu-rin like a Sacheon outcast, hang him up, and give him a taste of pain without leaving any evidence.
A merchant’s weapon is their face.
Thick skin and a boastful mouth are a merchant’s weapons.
A martial artist’s weapons are pain and fear.
Lightly touching Bu-rin without leaving any evidence would have been an easier way to get money than causing a commotion in front of the Hwang Gold Clan, and it would have been the method a martial artist would choose.
‘Sorcery…’
Hwang Geum-seon let out a hollow laugh.
It felt like such tricks could break him.
Thus, Hwang Geum-seon felt threatened.
The crowd gathered today was, at most, a few hundred people.
If that performance continued tomorrow and the day after, how many people would gather in front of the Hwang Gold Clan?
The bizarre flyer.
The snacks.
The display of sleight of hand.
The methods of gathering people were ridiculously absurd, but the consequences would be no laughing matter.
‘He gave enlightenment…’
The enlightenment information would have been tempting if he were a martial artist, but Hwang Geum-seon was a merchant.
Hwang Geum-seon focused on not such a baseless rumor but the fact that Ho Cheon-an and Yeo Il-ye were connected by a gratitude plaque.
In the end, didn’t it mean that this Ho Cheon-an could manipulate Yeo Il-ye?
A person who held both the masses and a strongman in his hands.
He was sufficiently a threat if Ho Cheon-an harbored malice and tried to oppose the Hwang Gold Clan.
‘However… I don’t know the nature of the grudge.’
The fact that he had caused a commotion in front of the Hwang Gold Clan itself was an aggressive attitude, so there was a high possibility that he was someone who held a grudge.
However, Hwang Geum-seon had no clue about Ho Cheon-an.
Hwang Geum-seon sighed.
Where did the Hwang Gold Clan not have shady corners?
Although not as big as the Yeo-ga Mountain Villa incident fifteen years ago, the faults they had accumulated since then were not few either.
They had consistently erased the evidence of such incidents, manipulated public opinion, and sprinkled gold on martial artists to maintain friendly relationships.
But how the resentment left in the victims’ hearts had blossomed was something even Hwang Geum-seon had no way of knowing.
‘Should I meet him in person…?’
Hwang Geum-seon, who had been considering meeting Ho Cheon-an directly, shook his head.
Hwang Geum-seon was the clan leader of the Hwang Gold Clan.
It was already undesirable for an outcast to enter the Hwang Gold Clan.
Still, a rumor that the clan leader would directly meet an outcast had to be avoided.
“Bu-rin, maintain a clean relationship with this Ho Cheon-an. And report his every move.”
“Un-understood!”
Hwang Geum-seon looked down at Bu-rin with disapproving eyes.
He didn’t expect much, but he would bring back at least some information since he was sticking close.
It’s a rule that you must know your opponent to devise a way to deal with them.
Hwang Geum-seon decided to investigate Ho Cheon-an first.
Along with Hwang Geum-seon’s decision.
The three characters ‘Ho Cheon-an’ began to flow in the darkness of Sacheon.
What is fate (運命)?
It was something formed by a mixture of passing coincidence (偶然), inevitable necessity (必然), and accumulated karma (業報).
The coincidence of Yeo Il-ye meeting Ho Cheon-an, the inevitability of Tang Do-gyeong seeking out Sacheon to have a duel with Yeo Il-ye, and the karma accumulated by the Hwang Gold Clan and Hwang Geum-seon.
All of those things met and became fate.
Ho Cheon-an, who happened to be at the intersection of all of them, had no choice but to be entangled in that fate.
Was it fate that Ho Cheon-an was entangled in luck (幸運) or not?
Where the result of the luck that slightly twisted even the scales of heaven would lead…
It could only be known at the end of Ho Cheon-an’s journey.
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Ah poetic
I guess he will get the money