novelraw Chapter 52 : Chapter 52
Chapter 52 : Chapter 52
Chapter 52 - We Hit the Jackpot
“The Diancang Sect……?”
He had heard that name in the past.
Before the Tiger-Bear Stronghold took control of Diancang Mountain, there was a Murim sect that had its main headquarters here.
As with all things in the world, Absolute Protector hadn't paid much attention to the Diancang Sect.
He just thought that one of the prestigious sects had fallen.
He thought he would never hear that name again.
“What…… do you mean by that?”
Absolute Protector asked, breaking out in a cold sweat.
A terrible pain was surging from his side.
He felt it would be more comfortable to be unconscious.
“It’s just as I said. You are to protect the Diancang Sect from external invasions. And if there are any bastards who tarnish the sect's honor, go and crush them.”
Absolute Protector, still lying down, shook his head slightly.
“I have no reason to do so.”
Wi Sung, who saved him when he was about to starve to death.
And Biyoung, who saved him when he was stabbed with a sword.
If Absolute Protector were to protect someone, it would be only one of the two.
Even if Biyoung were to say, ‘Protect me from now on,’ a hundred concessions later, he would have been willing to listen.
He could still clearly feel the pure internal energy and the vitality of the spirit pill he had been given.
“If it were you, perhaps.”
At those words, Biyoung’s eyes lit up.
“That sounds good too, but it’s basically no different from my proposal.”
“No different……?”
“The Diancang Sect is me, and I am the Diancang Sect.”
“……!”
“Without the Diancang Sect, there is no me. If the Diancang Sect were to be annihilated again, the last person standing would be me.”
Absolute Protector did not readily understand.
A life of completely identifying oneself with a sect?
“Don't think too complicatedly. Just consider protecting the Diancang Sect as protecting me.”
“………….”
At first, he thought it was different.
But upon closer look, Biyoung’s life did not seem all that different from his own.
A life of protecting a single person, and a life of rebuilding a single sect.
In a larger framework, Biyoung and Absolute Protector could be seen as walking the same path.
Absolute Protector closed his eyes for a while, lost in thought.
Just when it seemed he had fallen back asleep or fainted again, he opened his closed eyes.
“I have one request.”
“Instead of agreeing, you’re suddenly making a request?”
“Please save the Great Mother.”
“Hmm?”
Biyoung’s gaze shifted to the middle-aged woman sitting beside him.
“You want me to save this person?”
“Yes. She ended up living here by chance, but the Great Mother has done nothing other than cook and tend to the injured.”
“So, you’re asking me to spare her because she didn’t engage in plunder or killing?”
“Yes.”
“Hmph…… this fellow.”
Biyoung let out a low sigh as if in disbelief.
“The ones this Great Mother cooked for and fed were all bandits, weren't they? After eating, they must have gone out plundering with renewed vigor. Just because her actions were not sinful does not mean she is without karma.”
“……!”
Absolute Protector’s pupils trembled slightly.
The Great Mother sitting next to him, on the other hand, had an expression that was hard to describe.
After observing their reactions, Biyoung suddenly grinned.
“But. I am different from that Wi Sung fellow you protected. I am neither a murderer nor a tyrant. The way to deal with sin is not only through punishment but also through atonement.”
“Atonement……”
“Yes. From now on, the Great Mother will be in charge of the household affairs within the Diancang Sect. Her work will be the same as before, but its meaning will be the exact opposite.”
From the beginning, Biyoung had no intention of punishing the Great Mother.
He had felt something from her kind impression, her rough hands, and the way she cared for Absolute Protector.
Unlike the other bandits, this person was not evil.
Before Absolute Protector woke up, the Great Mother had been told by Biyoung that she could continue to live here.
That was why she had made such a strange expression a moment ago when Biyoung tested Absolute Protector, talking about ‘karma’.
After looking at the Great Mother for a moment, Absolute Protector finally nodded his head.
“I will protect the Diancang Sect.”
“Good.”
A deeply satisfied line formed on Biyoung's lips.
The answer was short, but it was no exaggeration to say that the vow he made contained the entirety of a man's life.
Think about the way Absolute Protector had protected Wi Sung.
Though of a different grain from the next-generation disciples he met in Simao, the Diancang Sect had gained an exceptionally loyal and promising new force.
“Then what should I do from now on?”
‘Hah!’
Biyoung could not help but be impressed by Absolute Protector’s words.
Despite having just come back from the dead (?), he was already trying to move for the sake of the Diancang Sect!
Where in the world could one find a more loyal subordinate…… no, a disciple!
It was truly a gratifying matter.
“First, get plenty of rest and focus on recovery. That is the first thing you must do for the Diancang Sect.”
“……I will.”
As soon as Biyoung’s words fell, Absolute Protector closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
Seeing such a mechanical demeanor, one would naturally think he was not a person but a Jiangshi(Hopping corpse).
‘No. He’s not a Jiangshi.’
Biyoung’s satisfied gaze turned to the Great Mother sitting beside him.
He had heard from her a little while ago about how Absolute Protector had lived.
Extreme experiences in childhood make a person's personality peculiar.
The reason Absolute Protector’s personality was so unusual was probably due to that.
But even so, there is always a true nature that cannot be hidden.
Unlike with Wi Sung, hadn't he asked for the Great Mother to be saved, for whom there was no reason to protect?
That itself was undeniable proof.
Proof that a warm heart still remained in Absolute Protector.
***
“Heave-ho!”
“Hup-sha!”
Under the sun hanging high in the sky, the energetic shouts of sturdy young men echoed through Diancang Mountain.
Eung Gajin and Uma were diligently gathering broken rafters and wooden pillars together.
“Pant. Pant. Damn it. This is ridiculously hard.”
“Tell me about it. I think it was more comfortable fighting the bandits.”
Eung Gajin wiped the sweat with the back of his hand and grinned.
Before the thrill of reclaiming Diancang Mountain had even faded, numerous tasks appeared before them.
“Damn it. Just as you’d expect from a place where bandits lived.”
Uma spat once and trudged towards another pavilion.
Most of the pavilions were in need of maintenance, the messy training ground floor needed to be cleaned, and the utensils used by the bandits had to be thrown away.
“Uooooooh!”
“Senior Brother Gajin. You’ll get hurt at this rate.”
Eung Gajin was moving pillars that seemed to be three times his size, carrying them in his arms.
Watching him, Jeong-i smiled pitifully.
However, her own condition was not much better.
Assigned to the detailed work that the rough men could not do, her hands, once like delicate jade, were stained black with grime.
“What does it matter if I get a little hurt.”
Eung Gajin put down the wooden pillars in one place and grinned.
“Isn’t there a saying, ‘When the mind is at peace, the body's hardship seems not my own’? My mind is at ease, so the physical difficulty doesn't feel like my own trouble.”
The joy of reclaiming the main headquarters was something everyone gathered here shared.
But for Eung Gajin, the grandson of the sect leader, it was bound to be even more special.
The sight of Eung Gajin looking around the main headquarters, beads of sweat forming on his brow, was truly reliable and reassuring.
It was a scene that made one understand why the exiled people regarded Eung Gajin as their spiritual pillar.
However, Eung Gajin’s brilliant smile vanished with the arrival of Uma, who was carrying a large pile of baggage.
“Well, well. Wasn’t it you who was just grumbling about how damn hard it was?”
“Ahem. Hmm. You brat. Is that any way to talk to your senior brother?”
“Did I say something wrong?”
Uma replied bluntly and put down his load.
‘This brat and that brat…….’
Was it just his imagination that his juniors’ attitudes were becoming more and more disrespectful?
Although Uma’s impression was originally rough, he used to be a guy who was scrupulously polite.
Eung Gajin felt a strange wind of change blowing within the Diancang Sect.
“What is this, I’m not a carpenter. I’m dead tired. Where are the other two and what are they doing?”
“Danseol is up on the roof doing repairs, and Solbo is moving the small luggage outside the mountain gate.”
Uma felt it was unfair that only he and Eung Gajin seemed to be doing manual labor, but he had no choice but to accept it.
He was neither as skilled with his hands as Danseol, nor as fast a runner as Solbo.
“This must be why people say you need to learn a skill.”
Uma said, as if spitting out the words while swinging his arms around.
To others, it was a rather threatening scene, but Jeong-i just giggled.
“By the way, where is that guy and what is he doing?”
The guy Uma mentioned.
Jeong-i also knew very well who he was referring to.
“I'm not sure. A little while ago, he said he was going somewhere with the person called the Great Mother……”
“Damn it. While his senior brothers are working their butts off, the youngest one is……”
In Uma's imagination, the face of Biyoung appeared, slacking off while eating scorched rice in a corner.
‘Ehehehehehet!’
“Damn bastard.”
It was when Uma had just erased the sound of Biyoung's laughter echoing in his head.
“Ehehehehehehehet!”
“!”
The laughter he had imagined was actually ringing out in reality.
It was a very worldly, and very joyful-sounding voice.
“Hahahahahat!”
At the laughter that seemed to shake the pavilion, Eung Gajin’s face contorted.
“Isn’t that Biyoung’s voice?”
“Yes, it is.”
“What is he doing and where, to be that excited? If he has nothing to do, he could at least lend a hand.”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
While Eung Gajin and Uma were grumbling back and forth, Danseol and Solbo also arrived before them with puzzled faces.
“What is that noise?”
“I don’t know either. Only that Biyoung seems to be very happy……”
“Ehehehehehehehehet!”
As the frivolous laughter was heard again, Danseol pricked up his ears.
“Seeing as the laughter is getting closer, it seems he is coming this way.”
Danseol’s judgment was accurate.
From a distance, a figure was approaching rapidly.
“Heeheehet!”
While continuously bursting out with frivolous laughter.
“What on earth is going on for him to be so happy? He seems happier than when we reclaimed Diancang Mountain.”
Eung Gajin frowned and watched the approaching Biyoung.
“Hmm?”
But.
Biyoung's appearance was quite different from usual.
The fellow who usually carried only a single sword, saying that troublesome things were a hassle, now had square chests tucked under both arms, from who knows where.
“Hey, senior brothers!”
“Hey senior brothers?”
At Biyoung’s greeting, Eung Gajin’s face crumpled like a piece of tissue paper.
Yes.
It was that guy.
The strange wind blowing inside the Diancang Sect……!!
It was all brought by that guy!
“Watch your tone……”
Thud!
Before Eung Gajin could finish his sentence, Biyoung threw two chests onto the ground.
Hearing the thudding sound, it seemed that quite heavy things were contained inside.
“Do you know what this is?”
Biyoung was smiling.
Not just an ordinary smile, but a wide grin that looked like his mouth would tear.
Sensing something strange, Danseol quickly crouched down and opened the chest door.
“?!”
“Ah……”
“What?!”
The next-generation disciples of the Diancang Sect were each expressing their shock in their own way.
Biyoung looked at them and let out a voice as sweet as sugar.
“We totally hit the jackpot.”
Gold and silver treasures, so bright they could blind you.
The chests Biyoung had brought were packed with all kinds of wealth.