Reaper of the Drifting Moon - Chapter 218

When Pyo-wol came down to the first floor of the guest house the next day, he saw Heo Ranju and Daoshi Goh having a meal. 

Sitting in front of the two was a tall middle man whom Pyo-wol hadn’t seen yesterday. 

Pyo-wol recognized the other person’s identity at once.

‘Hyulseung.’

He, like Heo Ranju, is also a member of the Black Cloud Corps.

Pyo-wol had already exchanged hands with him in Chengdu.

“Amitabha!”

Hyulseung’s eyes shone when he saw Pyo-wol.

There was an indescribable and complex emotion in his eyes. 

A combination of animosity, hesitation, and fear.

His shoulders flinched as if he was going to jump at Pyo-wol at any moment. But in the end, he couldn’t move. It was because Daoshi Goh and Heo Ranju had each of their shoulders pressed on his.

Hyulseung was rarely agitated by anything, but here he is quickly being agitated the moment he sees Pyo-wol. That just shows how deep the wounds Pyo-wol inflicted on their minds were.

Hyulseung gently closed his eyes, trying to calm his agitation. It took him a while before he regained his original calm composure. Once he did, he opened his eyes and said, 

“Amitabha! Long time no see.”

“Right.”

“I really didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Me too.”

“If you have any bad feelings toward us because of that incident, I hope you will forget about it. It’s nothing personal.”

“I don’t think it’s me who needs to shake off his emotions, but you.”

“I’ve already cleared it all out.”

Hyulseung put on a calm expression. However, unlike the words, his jaw muscles were twitching.

Pyo-wol looked at his figure for a while and then sat down.

Hyulseung’s words confirmed Pyo-wol’s speculations.

It was clear that they had been commissioned by someone. Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense for them to put up with him like that.

The Black Cloud Corps lost three-quarters of their forces to Pyo-wol in Chengdu. Such resentment was not something that could be forgotten with a few words. 

Even if they were a pushover.

Moreover, they were in Jianghu. They are warriors who valued grudges and resentment more than anyone else. If such people were able to suppress their fierce resentment, then it was clear that something, much more important than their resentment, happened.

If it is something important to people like the Black Cloud Corps, then it must be a request great enough to be related to their future.

Although Pyo-wol was curious about the request they received, he decided to stop paying them any more attention at this point. Similarly to them, he had his own urgent matters to take care of.

He had already wasted a lot of time by unexpectedly going through various things on the way to this place. He wanted to refrain from wasting any more time.

Pyo-wol called the waiter and ordered a simple breakfast.

In the meantime, the three of them finished eating and got up from their seats. They left the guest house without saying goodbye to Pyo-wol.

Pyo-wol opened the door and looked at their backs silently.

The chances of them meeting like this in Jianghu, which is so wide, is as unlikely as the chance of being struck by lightning while walking. 

Nevertheless, Pyo-wol knew that he met them like this because the ill-fated relationship between them and himself hadn’t ended yet.

Pyo-wol ate, thinking that he might see them again.

He went out after breakfast.

When Pyo-wol arrived at the stable, the old caretaker immediately recognized him and brought him his horse. But as soon Pyo-wol saw the horse, his eyes changed.

“That’s not my horse.”

“That can’t be. This is definitely your horse.”

The caretaker jumped and denied Pyo-wol’s words.

“Do you think I won’t recognize the horse I was riding on?”

“This horse is definitely the horse that your lordship rode. I remember it clearly because I just placed it in the stable yesterday.”

The caretaker continued to insist that Pyo-wol was wrong.

Pyo-wol’s eyes grew cold.

He was not the kind of person who was disturbed by such affairs. 

It didn’t matter to him if he had a horse or not. But he couldn’t stand someone else playing around with his possessions.

Pyo-wol pulled down the scarf that covered his face and said,

“Are you sure?”

At that moment, the old caretaker’s face turned white.

The moment he saw Pyo-wol’s inhumanly beautiful face, he instinctively realized that he made a mistake.

A person with such an appearance could not be an ordinary person. In particular, his eyes were so cold and sharp as if they were piercing his chest.

Gulp!

The old caretaker involuntarily swallowed dry saliva.

He only did what he did because he was tempted, but he was afraid of the aftermath once he faced Pyo-wol. The old caretaker turned his head away from Pyo-wol’s eyes.

His actions made it clear. 

The horse brought by the old caretaker was not Pyo-wol’s original horse.

The two might be similar in size and appearance, but Pyo-wol didn’t feel the unique lively vitality and ferocious eyes. And the dynamic muscles of his horse were nowhere to be found.

The old caretaker changed it to a similar looking one and brought it to him.

“Where is my horse?”

“T, That—”

The old caretaker stuttered.

Eventually, the old caretaker became unable to withstand the pressure. He knelt down and wept,

“Heuk! I’m sorry—! I’m so sorry! This old man is blinded by money—”

“You sold it.”

“I swear I didn’t mean to sell it at first! He was the one who got greedy first after seeing the horse.”

“Who is it?”

“Well—”

“I asked you who it was.”

“A group of guests came in last night…”

The caretaker lowered his head and explained what had happened last night.

* * *

“Good!”

A man in his early twenties rode a horse with a satisfied smile.

Behind him was a group of people who raised a flag with the Chinese character for gold1, written on it.

It may not mean anything in other regions, but in Henan, this flag held quite a lot of prestige. This is because this is the symbol of the Golden Mountain Manor2, the richest family in Henan.

Golden Mountain Manor was located in Runan3 near Tianzhongshan. The scale of the manor was so large that it was known to surpass other great sects in Jianghu.

The man riding the horse is Geum Woo-sin, the captain of the Golden Mountain Manor defense corps.

As the nephew of the patriarch, Geum Shin-chung, he studied in Shaolin from a young age and was known for his strong martial arts.

Geum Shin-chung entrusted Geum Woo-sin, who had returned from learning martial arts from the Shaolin Temple, as the captain of the defense corps of the Golden Mountain Manor.

The defense corps is an armed organization that escorted the Golden Mountain Manor itself.

The power of Geum Woo-sin, who became the captain of the defense corps, was so powerful that even birds flying in the sky would fall.

Except for Geum Shin-chung and his daughter Geum Suryeon, there was no one with more power than him in the Golden Mountain Manor.

Geum Woo-sin was in a good mood.

It was because of the horse he was currently riding.

The moment he saw the horse in the stable, he realized that it was a good horse that was difficult to find.

The horse he was previously riding on was fine, as befits the captain of the Golden Mountain Manor defense corps. But it didn’t catch his eye. He tried several times looking for a good horse to purchase, but he didn’t find anything he liked. 

Then he found this particular horse in a stable.

When he asked the caretaker, he said it was the horse that a guest came on. He said that the guest had come alone and stayed in a guest house.

He considered paying the full price to the original owner, but he thought it would cost too much. It was much easier to bribe and give the old caretaker a few coins for him to swap their horses.

He was a regular customer of this place and had a close relationship with the owner.

The horse he rode was similar in size and appearance to the horse in the stable. 

‘He wouldn’t realize that I swapped with his horse, would he?’’

The old caretaker hesitated in exchanging the horses, but he eventually succumbed to Geum Woo-sin’s threats and bribe.

So Geum Woo-sin got a new horse.

The new horse was to his liking.

The tactile sensation itself from the saddle was different.

Even the horse’s gait was smooth, as if it had rhyme.

The most satisfying thing is that it costs him very little to acquire this new horse.

One of the mottos of Golden Mountain Manor was that to have money coming in, but no money going out.

Geum Shin-chung not only ran a merchant association but also took advantage of usury. As a result, even though there was money coming into the Golden Mountain Manor, there was almost no money flowing out.

Since he grew up watching his uncle’s stubborn behavior, Geum Woo-sim was also greatly influenced by him. So, he desperately saved what he could save by using all kinds of means.

When Geum Woo-sin was smiling while tapping the horse’s neck,

“Master!”

All of a sudden, a man from the top of the lake called to him.

“What’s the matter?”

“There’s a guy standing in the way.”

“What?”

Geum Woo-sin raised his head and looked at the front. Then he saw a man standing with a horse.

At that moment, Geum Woo-sin recognized the man’s identity.

‘It’s him.’

I couldn’t help but notice the horse standing next to the man.

It was the horse he was riding until last night.

The horse was frothing as if it had run with all its might.

It was clear that the original owner of the horse he was riding now had appeared.

‘What a fool.’

He cursed at the old caretaker.

He immediately placed the blame on the caretaker for failing to keep a secret, without thinking about his own fault. He thought that he would have to punish the old caretaker the next time he stopped by. 

He then said,

“Who are you to stop the procession of the Golden Mountain Manor?”

Geum Woo-sin deliberately brought up the name of the Golden Mountain Manor.

Whenever he mentions the name of Golden Mountain Manor in Henan Province, it usually solves most of his problems, so it’s become a habit of his to do so. 

But the person who stood in his way was Pyo-wol. He was not from Henan, nor did he know the prestige of the Golden Mountain Manor.

Pyo-wol opened his mouth,

“You took my horse.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The horse you are riding is mine.”

“You’re an idiot who speaks nonsense. Do you know who I am?”

“How about you? Do you know who I am? For you to switch our horses?”

“Ho! I’m sure you’re a mercenary anyway.”

The moment he answered inadvertently, Geum Woo-sin muttered, oops.

He realized that his answer was the same as admitting that he was the one responsible for swapping their horses.

“So you thought I was a mercenary and switched our horses.”

“Hong! You must be crazy to talk such nonsense.”

Geum Woo-sin decided to be completely consistent with his ignorance. His pride would not allow him to admit that he had exchanged horses with the person in front of him. 

His opponent was alone anyway, and he was with the defense corps of the Golden Mountain Manor. He had no reason to give way to the opponent.

“If you keep talking nonsense without proof, I won’t let you go.”

Geum Woo-sin glared at his opponent with fierce eyes.

He thought that if he had done this, the opponent would step down on his own. 

Most of his problems had been solved by doing this before. But unfortunately, the person who was blocking his way was not a person that could be understood with common sense.

Pyo-wol pulled down his scarf and said,

“I really hate it when someone messes with mine.”

“Hmph! I feel the same way. So get out of here. You scoundrel.”

Geum Woo-sin made a disgusted expression at Pyo-wol’s true appearance.

He firmly believed that a man should have a manly appearance. A man who looked like a girl was an object of contempt.

“Keuhehe! The guy’s face looks like a girl.”

“If I had that face, I would have killed myself right away.”

The other members of the defense corps laughed at Pyo-wol’s real face.

The subordinate’s values ​​were very similar to their master, Geum Woo-sin.

“No more talking.”

Puck!

At that moment, a sound came from the shoulder of the warrior who was making fun of Pyo-wol.

A small dagger was lodged in his shoulder.

It was Pyo-wol’s phantom dagger.

“Crazy!”

“You bastard!”

The warriors were surprised and pulled out their weapons.

Puck!

Puck!

At that moment, phantom daggers were pierced on the shoulders of the warriors in succession.

All of them had laughed at Pyo-wol. 

Geum Woo-sin was surprised and tried to pull out his sword.

“You madman! How dare you—”

But he couldn’t finish his sentence.

He couldn’t even draw his sword completely.

It was because Pyo-wol was already standing in front of him before he knew it.

Pyo-wol stepped on the horse’s head like a ghost and looked down at Geum Woo-sin. But even then, the horse did not seem to feel any weight.

‘I messed with the wrong person.’

In an instant, cold sweat ran down Geum Woo-sin’s back.

Even with his eyes wide open, he couldn’t even detect when Pyo-wol had moved.

There weren’t many people in Jianghu who could move like this.

To think that the opponent he looked down on and tried to exchange horses with was a rare master in Jianghu.

‘Unlucky!’

Thank you for reading!