Chapter 17
Book 1 Chapter 17: The Owner of Elixir Already Exist (3)
Translator: Hwarang
Editor: Jay
The person who came out of the Tasteful Market was an old man.
“Why have you come here?”
I answered him casually. “What do you think I came here for? I came here to play.”
“You’re a new face.”
“I was introduced by Mr. Kwak.”
“Which Mr. Kwak?”
I put my hand on my cheek and started rubbing it. I was just imitating the scar that Kwak Do Su had on his wanted picture. If this old man didn’t recognize who I was imitating, then Kwak Do Su must have on a disguise or something. At that time, I would say his name and wait for his reaction. If he was here, then his name would most likely work.
The old man smiled and relaxed. “Follow me.”
He led me through the back door of the Tasteful Market. As he led me through, he told me some of the rules which could be summarized in one sentence: If I caused any trouble inside, I most likely would not be able to come out in one piece.
The Tasteful Market was in a pretty big building with fairly high fences and walls. Every few yards, I could sense someone hiding. If it was me from before, I would not only be able to tell how strong they were, but also be able to tell what they are doing. However, right now I could barely sense they were there.
Without the old man knowing, I was making note of everything from the building, terrain, and even the placement of the hidden guards. I was calculating the most efficient escape route that I could use.
I sensed that the two guards at the entrance seemed decently skilled. One of them held out their hand. “Give me anything that can be considered a weapon.”
I gave him the sword that I had. I bought a fake sword beforehand, since I expected this to happen, therefore I had no regret giving this sword away.
Then he checked whether I had any hidden weapon. As he was checking, I sensed that he was using his internal energy sense mine. Everything was resolved fairly smoothly.
One of the benefits of having this body was that since it wasn’t fully developed and only had five years’ worth of cultivation, I was able to pass security checks this with ease.
The guard said after opening the door, “Go straight in.”
I went through a dark and narrow corridor. If they had the inclination, I was sure they could kill someone without anyone noticing. Without my weapon and with a mediocre martials arts, if I was attacked here I wouldn’t even have a chance to retaliate. At the end of the corridor was a door. As expected, there was an expert guarding that door was well. This was a place that could easily afford these people, since they had the money.
When the guard opened the door, there was a grand hallway. The difference between the corridor and the hallways was like heaven and earth. In comparison to the dark and narrow corridor, the hallway was brightly lit and full of life. The hallway had multiple beautiful waiters pouring alcohol, the band playing music, and many people gambling. There were multiple big tables that were laid within ten spaces of each other. There were at least a dozen people to a table.
The atmosphere here was completely different than the one outside. The people here had more expensive and fancy clothes than those outside. These were the people who could not be found on the outside because they were the biggest gambling addicts. They were the people who lived on the thrill of gambling. So they visited this place, since there were no restrictions. They could earn inside, up to ten thousand times what they could earn outside.
I casually walked around looking around at the placement of the tables, the exits and other various things. After locating everything, I started looking for Kwak Do Su.
I found him right away. Even though he had unkempt long hair and a goatee, I knew it was him. He was gambling fearlessly without hiding his scar.
‘Well look at him. Isn’t he fearless?’
But I knew why he was so nonchalant. There were around ten guards posted every few tables and five of them were near Kwak Do Su.
At first it seemed as if they were watching him, but they were actually there to protect him.
Did this bastard set up this gambling parlor or what? On second thought, he probably couldn’t have. If he had, Kong Jong would have told me about it.
It most likely meant that he had some sort of dealing with the owner of this place. Either Kwak Do Su promised to kill someone for the owner or somehow help manage this parlor. So that’s the reason why he could act fearlessly in this place.
So, how should I proceed?
Just kill him and cut down everyone that gets in my way? Killing him wouldn’t be hard, but escaping this place with my life would be very difficult. Some expert could show up, preventing me from making my escape. If this turned into a big fight, some of the bystanders could get involved.
So I put this option in the back of my mind and thought of some other method.
At that moment, someone who was sitting at the table near Kwak Do Su got up, cursing his bad luck. As I looked at him I thought to myself. ‘Someone with good luck in these places couldn’t be a good person; they know when they need to stop.’ Anyway, I took a seat where the man had been seated.
I wasn’t trying to hide my presence. Rather, I wanted to get noticed by others, so as soon as I got to the table I took out everything I had.
“I was prepared to give up my life before coming. So, before someone dies, no one will be able to leave.”
My tone of voice sounded like someone who usually loses everything. Kwak Do Su who was sitting across from me smiled.
“What if you lose your life?”
The other mercenaries who were sitting at the tables started laughing as well.
I wasn’t the one to lose in this so I said it even louder. “Hmph, who says I’m going to lose my life? Let’s play and see who lose their life.”
At this table, rather than using regular flower cards, (花牌) they used the sword cards (劒牌). Rather than matching the pictures in the cards together, this game matches the famous sword arts and cultivation techniques together.
(Translator Note: In Korea there is a card game called Hwa Tu or go-stop which is like the Korean version of Poker. The objective of this game is to match the most amount of picture together to gain points. The person with the highest point to say “GO” to extend the game or “Stop” to end the game. There are many tricks involved in this game..)
These were the cards that were usually used in Kang Ho-In. But, there were some different cards like saber card (刀牌), the spear card (槍牌), the combination of everything the Mu card (武牌) and even the different sects within the alliance, Alliance cards (盟牌). There were various cards and each had their differences.
Kal Sa Ryang once said to me that one day my Ashura Soul-Chasing Art and Heavenly Protection Cultivation Technique would make its way into these card games. At the time I laughed at the thought of it, but now I was smiling.
I started losing the money that I brought. These mercenaries were very skilled in gambling. The money that I brought, which was three thousand Nyang, may have been a lot in other parlors but here it was nothing. If you weren’t lucky, you could have lost everything in almost four or five rounds.
But luckily, I learned how to gamble from the best gambler in the Murim Alliance. Baek Sung Won, who was the Danju of the Blue Dragon Sect, taught me some basic tricks that I could use without the use of energy.
His tricks helped me here. I lost three rounds and won once. This repeated for some time. Just as I first got here, I didn’t hide my presence.
“Man, I can’t get the cards that I want.”
One of the person next to me replied, “There are good days and bad days. That’s just life.”
Then I made a show. “Hey, Who are you trying to lecture? Say that to your children!”
“Hey Hey, don’t get my family involved in this.”
“You old man.” Everyone started laughing, but I knew that they were all pretending as they all had the eyes of a predator.
All of the crimes that Kwak Do Su committed were murder. Even though he was a cold person, in front of a gambling table he acted like a normal person.
About two to three hours passed and I lost about half of the money that I brought; however, their suspicion for me decreased. Kwak Do Su got off his seat, saying that he had to go to the latrine. I stood up with him and said.
“Brother, I’ll go with you. When we come back we can change our seats.”
“Brother? There are no brothers in this table. These are people who are trying to take your money or vice versa.”
I looked around and said, “Ugly SOB, Old SOB, Dumb SOB, …”
They were all staring at me as I was going around calling them names. Then I got to Kwak Do Su.
“SOB with a scar.”
Then Kwak Do Su said with a troubled face, “Don’t curse at others because you lost some money.”
“Lost some money? Is that all that you can say!?” As I got close to him, one of the guards grabbed me and halted me.
“What are you doing! Let go of me!”
The guard in front of me said, “Take it easy”
“Hey punk! Do you know who I am? I am a regular customer here!”
“I said take it easy.”
He released his killing intent and I took a step back reactively.
“Why don’t you stab me with that sword of yours and take all of my money? Hmph! I can’t stand this!”
I took all of my money from the table and was ready to leave. But, I was certain that they wouldn’t let me go just like this, since I still had money.
“Hey punk! Why are you causing so much trouble for our important guest?”
After saying something to the guard, Kwak Do Su said to me in a friendly face.
“Brother, didn’t you say that you wouldn’t leave until someone died?”
“I don’t want to leave but… people have feelings.”
“Now Now, relax. What do those guards know?”
Kwak Do Su patted my shoulder and grabbed my hand. As he grabbed my hand, he was checking my energy. He relaxed after feeling my energy. At the same time, I was able to see through his energy as well. He was proficient enough see through others energy.
“Didn’t you say you wanted to come with me?”
“No, I am fine brother. Please go by yourself.”
“No, let’s go together. After we come back we can change our seats. Since you aren’t doing well I will change seat with you.”
He grabbed me and dragged me along as I pretended to be dragged.
“Now brother, let’s start fresh after going to the latrine.”
Half an hour later one of the Guards looked back to where the latrine was. Then the supervisor of the guard said, “Aren’t they a bit too late?”
“Send some men over there.”
One of the guard approached the latrine and he caught a scent of blood.
“Shit!”
As he went into the latrine, he saw something that he never thought would happen. There was a headless corpse on the ground.
“So this punk finally got what he deserved after causing all that trouble.”
But as he was inspecting the corpse he shouted.
“This corpse is Mister Kwak.”
“What?” Then the head guard quickly checked the body.
“Where is the punk? Hurry up and find him.”
Some of the guards quickly left the latrine.
“How did he behead him?” This wound couldn’t have been caused by hand. His neck was cut so cleanly. Then one of the guard froze.
“Oh!”
“What’s wrong?”
“Sir, the sword…”
Then the head guard looked down to his side. The sword that he kept for self-defense was gone.
“When …Oh!”
He suddenly remembered when he stopped him from getting too close to Kwak Do Su. During that short moment of interaction, this punk was able to steal his sword. He was against someone who had great skill, since he was able to take his sword with everyone watching.
Then one of the guard came rushing in.
“Sir the ones who were guarding the backdoor have already been done in. I think he already escaped.”
The head guard said in an angry tone. “Hurry! Send everyone and catch that punk!”
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