The Protagonist is the Martial World’s Nemesis – Chapter 13

—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Vine
—————————————————————–

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

“Sanyeo.”

“What’s wrong?”

The dawn light was faintly shining through the hazy smoke. Stars were still sparsely visible in the blue sky, and I was facing Sanyeo with a tousled face. Sanyeo was staring with wide eyes as if she hadn’t slept a wink, and she was hugging her knees with her shackled hands.

She was barefoot. I looked back and forth between the shoes I was wearing and her bare feet. Sanyeo wriggled her toes and said,

“I’m okay.”

“I know.”

I had no intention of giving her my shoes, so I accepted Sanyeo’s refusal as it was. Sanyeo narrowed her eyes and looked at me, and I pretended not to see her gaze and said,

“So, where should we go now? Should we just go to some village and depend on them?”

I had brought some money with me while escaping, but it wasn’t enough to live luxuriously. Now that we had one more mouth to feed, I had to save money more. Sanyeo, after seeing the money I had taken out of my pocket, closed her eyes and said,

“Let’s go to that village with the Hongryun Sect for now. The important thing is to secure a foothold.”

I also knew of the Hongryun Sect. It was a sect that the leader would occasionally mention. They were a malicious sect who made a living by taking entrance fees from young men who wanted to learn martial arts and exploiting them. The leader would talk about the Hongryun Sect as an example, saying that if he hadn’t come to the camp, he would have set up a sect like that and scraped money.

[If I hadn’t become the leader, I would have become a man like that sect leader of the Hongryun Sect.]

Even if he left the camp, he was still a petty man whose ambition was only scraping money as a third-rate sect leader, even as I look at him now, what a man with such a lack of imagination.

I stopped thinking about the Hongryun Sect and asked Sanyeo,

“From what the robbers said, they don’t seem like good people. Are you sure it’ll be okay?”

“That’s even better.”

Sanyeo said that. I didn’t know why having low-quality men was good news. Masters who had deep inner energy seemed to look at the world in a different way from ordinary people.

Anyway, I didn’t have any other specific destination other than where she wanted to go, so I followed her as she led the way towards the village. As she walked, her steps were very light and fast, as if the dirt floor was not even there.

Although she had been trapped in the camp, she seemed to know exactly where the village with the Hongryun Sect was located. I asked Sanyeo, who was striding ahead without hesitation,

“Do you know where you’re going?”

“Of course. The camp had been making deals with the Hongryun Sect sometimes. In exchange for a fixed amount of money every month from the Hongryun Sect to the leader, this camp wouldn’t attack the merchants with the Hongryun Sect’s banner. The Hongryun Sect would sell their banners to merchants.”

“That means that the leader of the Hongryun Sect is about the same level as the leader here?”

“I don’t know. Even if they’re a master who could crush the leader, they could still choose to coexist depending on their skills in business. It’s annoying to mess around in these mountains even if you’re a master. Moreover, if they just catch one leader like that, they’ll only get a few taels of silver, but if they let him live and use him in business, they can make a few times more than that, right?”

Sanyeo stopped talking there and looked back at me. Her eyes were shining red, and she quickly scanned my whole body as if she was trying to figure out my intentions.

“What do you think? About making a living with this kind of business.”

I chuckled and replied,

“Are you testing me?”

Sanyeo didn’t answer. She just kept smiling and staring at me. We made eye contact, and I shook my head and said,

“That’s no fun. Since we’re living anyway, we have to grasp greater power. Making a living by stealing a few coins from the robbers in this rural sect, how could that be a life.”

That wasn’t life. Life should be about devouring others, and devouring others until there were no others to devour, before sitting down on the top of the mountain. Grasping power was my goal, and sitting down on a chair at the top of the mountain was my dream.

“We need to use it as a foundation, and then move forward, devouring everything as we climb higher.”

One sect was too small to satisfy my ambition.

“Yeah. That’s not a life.”

Sanyeo turned her body again. I looked at her back and then began walking again. Because she was a woman whose intentions I could never understand.

[Hongryun Sect]

A worn sign made from a plank of wood was guiding us even before we entered the village. It seemed like it meant that the area past that sign was in the Hongryun Sect’s domain. Sanyeo told me after seeing the roofs that were slightly poking out at the end of the path that followed the sign,

“Look over there. There’s a village.”

“But, is it okay to go in as you are? It’ll draw attention.”

Sanyeo shook her head and then lowered her wide sleeves. Then, the sleeve cuffs fluttered and covered her hands, making it seem like she was walking with her hands together. Sanyeo showed me that and said,

“How is it?”

“It’s fine.”

After seeing her walking lightly in front of me, there surprisingly wasn’t any discomfort. Sanyeo smiled with a satisfied expression and gestured with her head after I nodded.

“I’ll go later, you go first.”

I stiffened my back and took a deep breath. Now that the leader of the Green Forest camp was dead, and the camp was destroyed, everything I had analyzed so far had disappeared. I needed time to analyze the Hongryun Sect from scratch.

“What’s that?”

But I couldn’t just go ahead of Sanyeo.

“Hurry up! Move faster!”

A group of people were running quickly toward us. They were sweating profusely, or were hurriedly pointing at the smoke and making a fuss.

In the middle of the group, a man with a beard that was as long as that of a cult leader was making a troubled expression with a red *quan* in each of his hands. He showed his discomfort very actively and went past me.

Only after everyone passed did Sanyeo, who had been hiding in the shadows of the forest, take a step forward and say,

“The man just now must be the leader of the Hongryun Sect.”

That was a rare instance where she spoke without any certainty. I asked with doubt,

“Have you never met the leader directly?”

“He’s never come to the camp directly. They might have met each other before I came, but that doesn’t matter now, right? Even then, he’s wearing clothes with the Hongryun Sect’s insignia, and he had the highest level amongst that group, so he must be the leader or someone in a similar position.”

It was meaningless to know whether she knew the dead man. Sanyeo gestured towards the direction that the group had left and asked,

“Don’t you think we should go take a look?”

I agreed with her words. The village was right in front of us, but it also seemed like it would be good to see what kind of actions the leader of the Hongryun Sect would take in the camp. I could get more information just by seeing the opponent directly than by hearing about them from someone else.

“What was the level of that bearded guy just now?”

“He just barely reached the second-rate level. He’s a bit stronger than the leader.”

One of the techniques I had learned in the cave in two years was to hide my energy and presence, so no matter how sensitive they were, they would not be able to detect me at my level from afar. I quickly started walking in the direction that they had disappeared.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

The camp that we had returned to was like a scene from hell. The collapsed buildings with the fire still burning had charred and bloody robbers lying everywhere, and a few of those with intact limbs were sitting on the floor, letting out ragged breaths.

The warehouse where they kept their loot, and the leader and vice leader’s tent, had also collapsed and were unrecognizable. The corpses that had been lying down, face to face as if they were bowing to each other, were now charred and were hard to recognize.

The smell of burnt corpses and the smoke were so toxic that I couldn’t help but frown. The people of the Hongryun Sect looked around, clicking their tongues.

The leader of the Hongryun Sect stroked his beard, made a troubled expression, and said to a robber who still had intact limbs,

“What is this mess? How could the camp be destroyed in just one morning? Did you guys get possessed or something?”

The robber shook his head. He was blinking as if he were truly possessed. His face was stained with ash and blood, and he was covered with wounds. The members of the Hongryun Sect were all getting into their stances and grabbing their weapons, being wary of whether he might make a sudden move.

But the robber only said in a drained voice like a person who had reached enlightenment,

“….I don’t know. It just became like this in one night, as if we were possessed by a ghost.”

“You all killed each other?”

“….I really don’t know. The leader and the vice leader suddenly started fighting each other, then the vice leader died, and suddenly the leader was killed by our guy. Then, they all started fighting each other to become the leader, and the guys who were quick-witted took the valuables and ran away.”

“That’s something only a ghost would do.”

The leader of the Hongryun Sect frowned and clicked his tongue. I could feel a deep sense of regret and frustration in his gesture. The robber looked at the leader with empty eyes and said,

“Please save me. I’m hungry….”

But his words did not continue. As the leader swung his hand quickly, light flashed, and the robber’s neck was cut diagonally. The other robbers’ eyes widened and they looked at the leader, and the leader threw the *quan* he was holding with all his might as if it were a boomerang.

The *quan* spun around and cut the necks of the robbers, who were sitting or standing, one after another.

The robbers didn’t even know what was happening until the necks of the robbers nearby were cut, and the leader was just standing there with his hand stretched out, as if he knew where the *quan* was going to return to.

As if it was connected by a string, the spinning *quan* precisely attached itself to the handle in the leader’s hand, and the heads of the living robbers fell down like harvesting fruit.

The leader brushed the blood off his weapon and said,

“Take all the things that are worth money.”

His subordinates were searching the corpses as quickly and precisely as the bandits. The leader tilted his head and began talking to a large man.

The large man said in a low voice,

“What do we do now, Leader? Our business will also be affected if there are no robbers.”

The leader shook his head and said,

“It was never going to be a long-term business anyway. How long do you think we can continue our business with guys who haven’t even reached the second-rate level? I need to talk to those on top, so I think I’ll have to leave this place for a while.”

“Are you going to take your daughter with you?”

At those words, the leader frowned as if he was disgusted and then shook his head and said,

“How can I go anywhere when that bitch is managing the ledgers? Make sure she’s under tight watch so she can’t run away.”

“Yes, I understand.”

My eyes sparkled.
He had a daughter?