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| Chapter 308 |
Haeryongbang leader Janghamun was pacing back and forth, unable to sleep even though it was time to do so. His mind was too troubled to rest, as he walked around in contemplation.
"Ha!" he let out a sigh involuntarily.
What Seonghak had brought back from the journey had been bothering him. After much deliberation, he headed towards the warehouse behind Haeryongbang.
The warehouse behind Haeryongbang was incredibly small. It was built during the early days of Haeryongbang and was useful at the time, but it was no longer in use now. There were larger warehouses than this one, so it was being used for Janghamun's personal use.
Just a few days ago, the warehouse was completely empty. Since there were no important items, no one was there to guard it. However, things were different now. Two unmanned guards were standing in front of the warehouse.
"Lord Jang!"
"What brings you here at this hour?"
The guards recognized Janghamun and lowered their guard.
"Is everything okay inside?"
"We caused some trouble during the day, but it's all fine now."
"Is that so?"
"Yes! It seems genuine."
"I'll go in and take a look."
"Do you mean directly?"
"Yes!"
"Understood."
The unmanned individuals opened the door to the warehouse.
Janghamun entered while holding the torch handed to him by them, illuminating the path ahead.
The warehouse was so dark that without the torch, it was impossible to see even an inch ahead.
Inside the warehouse was a room made entirely of large metal bars. It was like a prison cell.
The cell contained a bed and a small table. And in one corner, someone was crouching and sitting.
The person crouching and sitting was a very skinny prisoner.
His emaciated body was covered in scars.
His eyes had lost their focus, and saliva was dripping continuously from his mouth. It was obvious that he had been through a great deal of suffering.
He was the prisoner brought by Lee Sung-hak.
Lee Sung-hak had rescued the man from the sea while he was floating naked and completely exhausted. He had tried to restore the man's strength by giving him food, but the man had gone mad and was impossible to control.
The skinny man was so strong that even Lee Sung-hak had trouble subduing him, and the unmanned individuals who were on board also got injured in the process.
Desperate, Lee Sung-hak forced the man to take Monghondan Pill and locked him in a metal cell, bringing him here.
Even after arriving here, the man's condition did not improve.
He had seizures several times a day, and every time he had a seizure, the unmanned individuals of Haeryongbang had to suffer. Eventually, like Lee Sung-hak, they had no choice but to lock him in a metal cell.
"Ugh!"
Meanwhile...
Taemusang sat on one side of the harbor and looked out at the night sea.
The place where he was sitting was not where regular cargo ships or large vessels came in, but mainly where fishing boats anchored.
Even calling them fishing boats was a stretch, as they were so small that they could only hold two or three adults tightly. Even a high wave could easily capsize and sink them. In fact, several boats could not return from the sea every month, flipped over and lost.
Naturally, fishermen on board became guests of death.
If you stayed here, you would occasionally see a swollen corpse floating in the water. They were the bodies of fishermen who went missing after going out on a boat.
Seeing such corpses here was a daily occurrence.
Everyone was risking their lives to board a boat.
Taemusang's father was one of the people who lost his life that way. The only difference was that Taemusang's father never ended up being pushed here.
His mother died of a disease, and even the little bit of property he had was divided among his relatives.
After that, Taemusang became alone.
Having lost everything, Taemusang drifted into a poor neighborhood and naturally became the leader of the children.
Taemusang had never done anything to harm the children.
He had stolen and pickpocketed before.
Once, he was beaten to death by a stranger.
After surviving many brushes with death like that, he became very bold. He could now face anything without blinking an eye. But even for him, yesterday's memory was too shocking.
The nine pouches of daggers floating around Poyol vividly came to mind.
He had never even imagined a martial art that could unleash the nine pouches of daggers without touching them.
"I want to become strong too."
It was the first time he had such a strong desire.
He had seen countless wanderers, but had never thought that way.
Pyowol's martial arts had shocked him that much.
He didn't know Pyowol's identity.
He didn't even know why he was staying here. But he wanted to learn his martial arts.
"If even a small part of his martial arts can be learned, it will allow him to save many more children and live a much more prosperous life than now.
"Hoo! To do that, I must first obey his commands well."
Even now, his siblings were scattered, monitoring the activities of Tarha and Yurayon.
Although they were young, they didn't worry much because they had such sharp intuition like ghosts.
Adults didn't regard young children as a target of caution. Taemusang's siblings knew how to use this weakness.
It was when Taemusang was getting up after patting his butt.
"Hmm?"
Suddenly, an odd expression came over his face.
Several ships were seen entering the port.
"At this time of night?"
No matter how experienced the fishermen in the area were, they would never sail out after the sun had set. Because the rocks were lurking everywhere.
If a small boat like a fishing boat sailed on the night sea, they would all face death if they met a reef. Especially at night, it was almost impossible to navigate in such a small boat like a fishing boat.
Even the fishermen who were familiar with the Sea of Haemun did not stay in the port at night. But someone was coming into the port at night without even lighting a fire. And there were several ships.
This was not at all typical.
Taemusang felt uneasy and bowed his head.
The fishing boats docked in a dark part of the port.
People jumped off the moored ships.
There were as many as twenty people. They filled a small fishing boat with people.
Gulp!
Taemusang swallowed dry saliva.
Even from a distance, the atmosphere of the people who got off the boat was not normal.
Even in the darkness, their eyes seemed to flicker.
Taemusang knew what such a gaze meant.
"Bandits!"
And not just any bandits that can be seen in the Sea of Haemun.
The chilling gaze that he had never seen in the bandits of the HaeRongbang or the Red Banner Group
"What the hell is happening in the Sea of Haemun?"
Taemusang instinctively realized that something was not right.
It was the instinct of someone who survived at the bottom.
Such a level of unmanned people sneaking into the Haemun itself with twenty people was not a common occurrence. Taemu-sang watched the people who got off the boat with bated breath, especially the last man with white hair who he had been watching closely. The man's hair was so white that it shone brightly in the darkness.
The gaze of the white-haired man was terrifying, unlike anything Taemu-sang had ever seen. Even though he was watching from a distance, it felt like his heart was sinking.
Gulp!
As soon as Taemu-sang saw the man's gaze, he swallowed dryly again.
And then it happened.
Suddenly, the white-haired man's gaze turned towards the place where Taemu-sang was hiding.
Taemu-sang realized that the man had noticed his presence.
"Damn it!"
He instinctively stood up and ran away.
At that moment, one of the unmanned people who had been with the white-haired man began to pursue him.
Pop!
He closed the distance between himself and Taemu-sang in an instant.
Taemu-sang bit his lip and ran. He could tell from the speed at which his pursuer was approaching that there was no way he could get away by normal means. He would be caught by them before he could even reach the alley.
"Who said I'll just surrender?"
The back alleys of the Haemun were like his backyard.
He skillfully navigated the maze-like alleys, but he couldn't shake off the pursuer.
"Argh!"
"I don't know what measures they were using, but the pursuer was following his movements like a ghost.
It was impossible to get rid of the author in an ordinary way.
In the end, Taemu had to make a decision.
His choice was the underground passage where sludge flowed through the slums.
The underground passage, where all kinds of filth flowed, had a strong stench that most people couldn't bear. However, not all of the underground passage was filled with filth.
There was a clean area in the middle like an island, where there was almost no foul smell, and it was a place where children and he occasionally stayed as a hideout.
The path was straight to the hideout, but after that, it was complicated like a maze. The back alleys on the ground were so complex that people who came here for the first time were almost guaranteed to get lost.
In fact, there were many people who came here without knowing and lost their way and died.
If he could only get to the hideout, he could shake off the pursuer.
Thinking that way, Taemu ran through the underground passage.
"Huff, huff!"
When his breath was about to run out, Taemu finally arrived at the hideout.
"Oh, hyung-ah?"
"What brings you here at this time, hyung?"
But there were some children in the hideout.
"Why are you guys here?"
Taemu's eyes shook.
Playing here was only allowed until sunset.
Leaving here when the sun sets was the rule among them. That's why they came here.
"Just because you guys won't play with us..."
"I'm sorry! Big brother."
The children responded with a defeated expression, knowing that they had done something wrong.
"Dammit! Come follow me."
"Big brother, why?"
"Stop talking back and come on, now!"
Under Tae-mu's angry shouting, the children realized that they had made a mistake.
"Dammit! Dammit!"
Tae-mu ran ahead, cursing continuously. The children followed behind, their short legs moving as fast as they could.
Thud! Thud!
The sound of their pursuer's footsteps grew closer and closer behind the children.
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