Reaper of the Drifting Moon

Bo-kyeong looked at Seongam who still held his collar.

“Senior… brother!”

“Tell me! Who is it?!”

“I don’t… know yet.”

“You don’t know? No idea at all?!”

Seongam pressed Bo-kyeong like an angry lion.

Bo-kyeong teared up while hanging from Seongam’s large forearm.

But his appearance only made Seongam even more angry.

“How dare you cry when you did such a poor job?!”

“Keuheuk! I’m sorry!”

“Stop it, Seongam! That child is upset about this either.”

Only when Un-hae intervened did Seongam release Bo-kyeong.

“Heuk!”

Bo-kyeong fell to the floor and wailed loudly.

For the past few days, his heart rotted as he guarded Seong-un’s corpse alone.

He suffered from the thought that if he hadn’t been away, Seong-un wouldn’t have died.

His heart demon tormented him every day, and the anger inside of his heart continued to grow.

When his agony reached its peak, Un-hae and Seongam came.

“You did a good job.”

Un-hae gently patted Bo-kyeong on the shoulder. But that only made Bo-kyeong cry even more.

The rest of the Shaolin Temple disciples who just arrived became solemn at the sight of Bo-kyeong crying.

Un-hae opened the Ice Jade Coffin. Then he saw Seong-un laid down.

“Amitabha!”

Tears welled up in Un-hae’s eyes the moment he saw Seong-un’s body. He tried to hold back his tears as he touched Seong-un’s body.

“Why are you lying here, you punk? How dare you go before me? You bastard!”

Un-hae scolded Seong-un as if he were still alive.

He tried to regain his composure and didn’t speak for a while.

When he calmed down to some extent, he carefully examined the wound on the back of Seong-un’s neck. He took out a silver acupuncture needle from his bosom and stabbed it all over Seong-un’s body.

Only the silver needle stabbed on the nose and neck area of Seong-un’s body had turned black. The rest of the needles remained unchanged.

Seongam stood by and watched Un-hae conduct an autopsy.

After examining the body carefully, Un-hae carefully laid Seong-un’s body back down.

“How is it, Senior Brother?”

Seongam could not stand it any longer and asked.

“It’s true that he was killed by an assassin. Judging by the concentration of poison in his nose and mouth, the poison must have gone through his respiratory system.”

“Poison?”

“Yes. The poison is not actually strong enough to take his life. It’s just enough to distract him for a moment.”

“Then the assassin must have attacked Senior Brothen when he was disoriented.”

“That’s right. The wound looks light, but all the arteries are cut off. It’s a technique that pursues extreme efficiency. Assassins mostly use this type of techniques.”

“Assassin!”

Seongam bit his teeth.

Killing intent flashed in his eyes.

Seongam’s gaze turned to Bo-kyeong.

“Who is it?”

“W-What?”

“I heard there’s an assassin in the Jin family? Who is it?”

“Pyo… It’s Pyo-wol.”

“Pyo-wol?”

Seongam gnashed his teeth.

“Don’t act rashly. We have no proof that he killed Seong-un.”

Un-hae tried to calm Seongam, but his voice didn’t reach Seongam.

* * *

Seuk! Seuk!

Pyo-wol painstakingly sharpened his phantom dagger on a whetstone.

The blade wasn’t cracked or broken, but it’s quite damaged. He had used it quite frequently after all. If Tang Sochu hadn’t made the daggers with special care, it would have been destroyed right away.

Each time Pyo-wol grinded the blade on the whetstone, the dull blade slowly sharpens. Since he had ten pieces of phantom daggers, it would take him quite a bit of time to clean them all.

When he finished perfectly sharpening the last blade, he wiped the daggers with a dry towel and then stored one dagger at a time in his leather belt.

Pyo-wol then checked all the various hidden weapons and equipment he had hidden inside his Black Dragon Robe.

He took out his hidden weapons, silver wire, and poison one by one. After scanning all of his other weapons, he put all them back in his robe.

When Pyo-wol had finished his inspections, all of a sudden,

“Brother!”

“Brother Pyo!”

Jin Siwoo and Namgung Wol suddenly entered his residence.

They both had stiff expressions on their faces which was unusual.

“What’s going on?”

“It’s a big deal. People of the Shaolin Temple have come!”

“So?”

“I think they’re suspecting you.”

Jin Siwoo’s face as he spoke was filled with an urgent light.

Namgung Wol continued,

“The atmosphere is quite serious. It would be better for Brother Pyo to avoid them in the meantime.”

“They think I’m the culprit, don’t they?”

“That’s right. No matter how much you say it’s a misunderstanding, they won’t listen. Nothing good would happen to Brother Pyo if you bump someone from the Shaolin Temple. It would be better for you to leave and avoid them for now. We’ll take care of this.”

Namgung Wol spoke out of genuine concern for Pyo-wol.

If he had come publicly, he would have intervened under the name of his sect, the Heavenly Guardian Association. But since he came to help on his own, he could not just throw around the weight of his sect carelessly. If he did, then the moment something goes wrong, his sect’s relationship with the Shaolin Temple could be ruined.

Namgung Wol had no choice but to have a narrow range of movement.

“There’s no need to face the rainstorm head-on. You can go and explain to them once they’ve calmed down. It still wouldn’t be too late then. So better avoid them for now.”

“That’s right, brother! They just can’t make a cool judgement right now since they’re furious, but as time goes by, I’m sure they’ll realize that you’re not the culprit. So, you should go ahead for now.”

Jin Siwoo also recommended for Pyo-wol to avoid the Shaolin Temple.

Having personally greeted the monks from the Shaolin Temple, he was well aware of how serious and solemn their atmosphere was.

Pyo-wol said,

“I think it’s already too late.”

“What?”

Bang!

At that moment, the door to Pyo-wol’s room bursted open.

Someone had blown it away with a punch.

When they turned their heads to look at the destroyed door, they all saw a huge monk with his fists outstretched in their direction.

It was Seongam.

He also came with other monks.

Un-hae, who hurriedly followed behind him, tried to dissuade him,

“Stop it, Seongam!”

“I’m fine with accepting punishment for violating Senior Brother’s order once we return to the Shaolin Temple. But please don’t tell me to be patient when the assassin is right in front of me.”

Seongam glared at Pyo-wol with ferocious eyes.

A terrifying and formidable energy rippled through his body.

Even Un-hae didn’t have the confidence to fully subdue Seongam. For Seongam to be subdued, one of the two of them would have to be seriously injured. So even though Seongam disobeyed his orders, he didn’t have it in him to subdue him.

Perhaps his anger toward Pyo-wol had already laid dormant in his heart.

On the way there, he heard some people talking. They might have thought that others wouldn’t hear them, but they couldn’t fool Un-hae’s ears.

“I heard that he killed monk Seong-un.”

“There’s a rumor that he’s an assassin.”

“They say he’s a famous assassin.”

Most of them were just groundless speculations.

Un-hae knew about this, but he is also a human. He couldn’t help but be bothered.

But most of all, one of the reasons Un-hae couldn’t actively stop Seongam was because of Pyo-wol himself.

The moment he saw Pyo-wol, he felt his body run cold without even realizing it. His body felt an instinctive sense of rejection towards him.

When his eyes met against Pyo-wol’s black eyes, he couldn’t read through him at all. Pyo-wol reminded Un-hae of a huge snake.

Snakes, whether they’re poisonous or not, make humans feel disgusted.

The same was true for Un-hae.

Even though he is a monk, he also felt an instinctive repulsion towards snakes.

That was the reason why he couldn’t stop Seongam with conviction.

As Un-hae was hesitating, Seongam burst into a lion’s roar,

“Come out! You Assassin!”

Heung!

His lion’s roar shook the roof tiles of the room.

He had formidable internal energy worthy of his gigantic size.

“H, Hold on for a second! There seems to be a misunderstanding!”

“Get out of the way, Young Master!”

Jin Siwoo hurriedly intervened, but Seongam pretended not to hear.

Namgung Wol also tried to approach Seongam, but was blocked by the other Shaolin Temple disciples, including Bo-kyeong.

“This—!”

He couldn’t understand the current situation.

The fact that Pyo-wol is an assassin is a secret known only to very few people in Jianghu. But somehow, rumors started to spread in the Jin manor that Pyo-wol is an assassin.

It was if someone intentionally spread such rumors.

All of this happened in just a few days.

Namgung Wol tried to find out the source of the rumor, but ended up failing.

Seongam once again roared out.

“Come out! You assassin!”

After his cry, the whole area started to shake.

Pyo-wol came out holding the Black Dragon Robe in his hand.

When he came out, the monks of the Shaolin Temple surrounded him.

Pyo-wol only looked at Seongam while ignoring the rest of the monks.

“What’s going on?”

“Are you asking because you don’t know?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking.”

“You bastard! How dare play tricks with the Shaolin?”

“Tricks?”

“That’s right. Aren’t you pretending to be innocent after killing Senior Brother Seong-un?!”

“Do you really think so?”

Pyo-wol’s eyes sank deeply.

Seongam felt that Pyo-wol’s eyes were somewhat creepy, but he soon dismissed it.

His head is full of anger right now that he can’t afford to make rational judgments.

“Who else but you can harm Senior Brother Seong-un?!”

“Why would I kill him? Do I have anything to gain from it?”

“Who knows your nefarious intentions? Well, I don’t want to know! But if you really didn’t kill Senior Brother Seong-un, you should still kneel down and surrender! We’ll take you to the headquarters and make a fair judgement then!”

“Are you always like this?”

“What?”

“No, you don’t have to tell me.”

“What do you mean? You bastard with a pale face!”

“Looking at you, I can see why the Shaolin had to be in closed isolation for so long.”

“You dare—!”

In an instant, Seongam’s anger exploded.

As with the Wudang sect, the word “closed isolation” itself was taboo for the Shaolin. This is because it reminds them of their shameful history.

In order to avoid extinction, they had no choice but to close their gates. This in turn made them lose a lot of influence in Jianghu.

While they were able to recover their power to some extent, they did not manage to regain it back to its unrivaled status.

This is because the Two Factions had already occupied the status and glory that the Shaolin Temple had enjoyed long ago.

The sense of loss felt by some members of the Shaolin Temple was very great. It was as if they were demoted from their unrivaled number one position to second place.

Seongam was one of those people.

For that reason, he couldn’t hold back his anger at what Pyo-wol said.

“I’ll break that mouth–!”

Kwaa!

Seongam threw a punch at Pyo-wol.

The Great Vajra Palm.1

This technique is was known to be one level more powerful than Shaolin’s representative palm fist, Hundred Step Divine Fist.2

However, despite its formidable power, the complicated operation of qi in between the steps makes it difficult to use in real combat.

For that reason, many people opted to learn the Hundred Step Divine Fist instead of the Great Vajra Palm. However, Seongam succeeded in learning the more difficult technique, the Great Vajra Palm. He also had mastered it at a stage where he could freely use it in a fight.

Each of his steps were naturally connected like flowing water.

Kwak! Boom!

At the place where Pyo-wol was standing, a series of attacks struck.

The floor made of azure stone cracked and debris scattered in all directions.

However, there was no sign of Pyo-wol anywhere.

He had backed away in time.

“Do you think you can escape?”

Seongam shouted loudly and followed Pyo-wol.

In his hand was a rod made out of steel.

Demon Subduing Rod.3

Kwaaaaa!

A storm-like energy swept toward Pyo-wol.

In the meantime, the Shaolin monks strengthened their siege around Pyo-wol. Even nearby warriors rushed in and helped in surrounding him when they heard of the disturbance.

“Kill him!”

“Surround him so he can’t get out!”

The warriors cheered for Seongam.

It didn’t matter why Seongam attacked Pyo-wol. They knew that Shaolin monks do not attack without reason, so they cheered for them heartily.

This shows the power of the Shaolin Temple.

The fame and virtue they have built up in Jianghu for over a thousand years made the warriors naturally lean in favor of the Shaolin.

Pyo-wol is the public enemy here.

Mob mentality points towards Pyo-wol as the enemy.

A white smile bloomed on Pyo-wol’s lips.

He finally has a clear understanding of Lee Yul’s intentions.

“You want me to become a public enemy? Then I will gladly do so.”

SoundlessWind21’s Notes

It’s Pyo-wol vs the world again. Anyway, thank you for reading!

The Great Vajra Palm. Raws: Daegeumgang Kwon, 대금강권(大金剛拳). 大 dà, dài, tài – big, great, vast, large, high 金 jīn, jìn – gold; metals in general; money 剛 gāng – hard, tough, rigid, stron 拳 quán – fist; various forms of boxing Hundred Step Divine Fist. Raws: Baekbo Shinkwon, 백보신권 (百步神拳). 百 one hundred; numerous, many 步 step, pace; walk, stroll 神 spirit, god, supernatural being 拳 fist; various forms of boxing Demon Subduing Rod. Raws: 항마신장(降魔神杖). 降 jiàng, xiáng, xiàng – descend, fall, drop; lower, down 魔 mó – demon, evil spirits; magic power 神 shén, shēn – spirit, god, supernatural being 杖 zhàng – cane, walking stick