Chapter 163:
Pursuit
After the initial skirmish with the bandits.
Mu-jin and his group moved with Ling-ling hidden securely among the pile of luggage in a corner of the carriage.
“Ling-ling! This is a game of hide and seek. You must hide very well, understand?”
Fortunately, Mu-yul managed to trick Ling-ling well, so she stayed nestled quietly among the luggage without making a sound.
However, it seemed the bandits were moving in earnest now, as they blocked the path whenever they passed through the mountain roads starting the next day.
“The order is from Chongpyo Paja! To pass through here, you must first undergo inspection!”
They managed to get through a couple of times without Ling-ling being discovered, but occasionally some madmen thoroughly searched the carriage, even rifling through the luggage.
“Attack!!”
“Kill them!”
Each time, Mu-jin and his party had no choice but to engage in battle, and after another day, the insane bandits began to leave the mountains.
They were blocking the road in every direction, whether it was open fields, plains, or mountains, not just the main roads.
While not all of them searched the inside of the carriage, whenever one of them did, Mu-jin’s party had to fight.
By the time another day had passed.
“There they are!”
Now, instead of searching the carriage, bandits appeared who were definitely pursuing Mu-jin’s group.
It felt as if they were trapped in a net created by the bandits.
“Hoo.”
After quickly dispatching roughly twenty bandits, Mu-jin sighed lightly.
“It seems like we’re fighting more frequently.”
Mu-gyeong muttered as he wiped the blood splatters off his face.
Mu-jin seemed like a blood-soaked monk from a novel, except he wasn’t crazed.
‘No, it’s impressive that he’s not crazed despite fighting so bloodily.’
Thinking back to Mu-gyeong’s childhood, it was indeed a significant improvement.
“Yes. It’s only around 3 to 5 PM, and we’ve already fought five times.”
“At least the bandits aren’t very skilled.”
“For now, yes.”
“What do you mean by ‘for now’?”
“The bandits we’re encountering now were already settled around here. They’re spreading out to find us.”
“Oh… So you’re saying bandits from farther away will start coming?”
“Yes. Plus, since our location is confirmed, the scattered ones will continue to gather here.”
Those listening to Mu-jin’s response showed various expressions.
“Haa. My internal energy won’t last.”
Mu-gung, who was already exhausted from using additional internal energy to treat Baek Ga-ryeong during breaks, looked gaunt.
“Why are there so many bad bandit uncles?”
“Ook! Ook!!”
Mu-yul, looking puzzled, tilted his head while facing Ling-ling.
“…So, you disguised as slave traders to avoid this situation. Amitabha.”
Having somewhat overcome his inner demons, Cheongsu Dojang murmured, finally realizing something.
“And I understand now why you said we need to improve our skills. If my skills were much better, we wouldn’t need to hide our identities and could cut through the bandits and the black market.”
He added a rather grim comment.
Lastly, Baek Ga-hwan, who had been watching the battles, spoke to Mu-jin with a guilty expression.
“I’m sorry, Kang So-hyeop.”
“What do you mean, suddenly?”
“I couldn’t come up with a better plan because of my shortcomings. And I’m sorry that we’ve put you all in danger.”
“The bandits chasing us have nothing to do with you.”
To Mu-jin’s answer, Baek Ga-hwan shook his head.
“Regardless, the fact that you saved us doesn’t change. And even now, if it were just you escaping, you could have used your light footwork to get out of here much faster, couldn’t you?”
Baek Ga-hwan felt a sense of powerlessness as he looked at the battles that had been happening since two days ago.
During the skirmishes with the bandits, he couldn’t do anything.
Instead of helping, whenever a bandit rushed at him or the children in the carriage, one of Mu-jin’s party had to quickly intervene to protect them.
Moreover, their pace was slow because of him and the children, particularly his sister Baek Ga-ryeong, which made him feel even more guilty.
They couldn’t increase the carriage’s speed because of Baek Ga-ryeong’s poor health.
Mu-jin spoke to Baek Ga-hwan, who looked like a criminal.
“You don’t need to think that way. Thanks to the plan by you and Baek So-jeo, we managed to come this far to Jiangxi Province without trouble. If we hadn’t disguised as slave traders, we would have been pursued by bandits since Guangdong Province. We might not have made it here at all.”
“But still…”
“Don’t worry. We’ve struggled a bit to get here, but if we travel just one more day, we’ll reach Jeongan-hyeon. And there, we have people who will help us.”
* * *
As time passed, the bandits’ pursuit intensified, so Mu-jin’s group couldn’t rest even at night.
They drove the carriage through the night and finally arrived at Jeongan-hyeon around noon the next day.
In the process, they had six more skirmishes, and the number of bandits Mu-jin’s group either maimed or killed exceeded a hundred.
“Hoo. I’m exhausted.”
Arriving at Jeongan-hyeon, exhausted from continuous fighting without proper rest, they looked at Mu-jin.
“Where do we go now?”
At Mu-gyeong’s question, Mu-jin looked around before moving to speak to a nearby passerby.
Although they had a destination, he didn’t know its exact location in Jeongan-hyeon.
“Eeek…”
“I-I’m sorry!”
But as Mu-jin approached, the passersby’s faces turned pale.
‘Ah.’
Come to think of it, his appearance was terrible. Constant fighting while traveling had left his clothes stained with blood everywhere.
Something seemed to have caused a misunderstanding, but Mu-jin, pressed for time, had no choice but to ask a frightened passerby for the location of their destination.
“Let’s go quickly.”
When Mu-jin, having grasped the location, returned to the carriage and shouted, Mu-gung asked,
“Why? Is there something urgent?”
“No. If we stay on this main street any longer, I feel we’ll soon be dragged away by the patrol guards.”
“Patrol guards? Why?”
“Look at our appearance.”
At Mu-jin’s words, they turned their heads to reexamine their state and finally uttered a collective “Ah…” in realization.
To avoid being taken to the authorities, they hastily moved the carriage.
Despite being scared, the passerby who had given Mu-jin directions had done so quite accurately, allowing them to reach their destination without much difficulty.
[Musculoskeletal Treatment Clinic]
The place Mu-jin sought help from was a branch of the Musculoskeletal Treatment Clinic.
This town, Gilan-hyeon, was one of the larger towns in the central region of Jiangxi Province, housing both a branch of the Cheonryu Sangdan and the Musculoskeletal Treatment Clinic.
“Who… who are you?”
When the menacing group appeared, the martial artist guarding the entrance of the clinic stuttered and asked.
Instead of explaining, Mu-jin simply presented a pre-prepared identity token.
“Please deliver this to the branch chief here.”
The identity token Mu-jin presented was a fake one prepared by Ryu Seol-hwa.
The man guarding the entrance, looking puzzled, took the token inside.
Shortly after, a middle-aged man with a shaved head hurriedly rushed out.
“I am Heo Seok, the master of Beobeumun, a branch of the Shaolin Temple managing this Musculoskeletal Treatment Clinic. Who is Choi Kang-hyuk?”
“That would be me.”
Mu-jin answered the urgent question from the man.
Though the martial artist guarding the entrance looked surprised at the respectful attitude shown, it couldn’t be helped.
Ryu Seol-hwa, a precious member of the Cheonryu Sangdan overseeing the Musculoskeletal Treatment Clinic, had issued instructions to all clinics on the continent.
If a person using the identity token with the name “Choi Kang-hyuk” appeared, they were to fulfill all his requests.
Additionally, a detailed confidential report about his visit was to be sent.
Though it was unclear who exactly Choi Kang-hyuk was, it was evident from the instructions that he was a highly significant individual.
“You all seem to have gone through some hardship. Please come inside first.”
Master Heo Seok guided Mu-jin and his group to an empty pavilion.
“If you need anything, feel free to let us know. I will assist you to the best of my ability.”
“Thank you. We will ask for help if needed.”
When Heo Seok performed a respectful bow and retreated, the children and women began to alight from the carriage and enter the pavilion, soon falling asleep.
“They seem very tired.”
“Running all night while being chased by bandits would do that. We did the fighting, but they were constantly tense inside the carriage.”
“Right. It must have been impossible to sleep in such a situation.”
After briefly conversing while watching the children and women sleep, Mu-jin and his group began discussing their next steps instead of resting.
“So, what’s the plan now?”
“How about staying here to hold out? The bandits won’t easily infiltrate the town, right?”
“It might be difficult, but the longer we stay, the more bandits will gather around us. Eventually, high-ranking bandits might sneak in at night.”
Mu-jin countered Mu-gyeong’s suggestion, and Baek Ga-hwan, listening nearby, nodded in agreement.
This time, Mu-gung supported Mu-gyeong’s opinion.
“But we can request support, can’t we? We can ask for help from Shaolin or Cheonryu Sangdan.”
“That’s not a bad idea, but the problem is that the bandits will gather faster than the reinforcements from Shaolin or Cheonryu Sangdan can arrive. In the worst-case scenario, it could lead to a war.”
“War?”
“They don’t know who we are yet. They’re just here to catch us because we caused a disturbance. But if it’s revealed that we’re Shaolin disciples, it becomes an issue between Shaolin and the bandits.”
“Shaolin disciples? What do you mean?”
Baek Ga-hwan, who had been listening quietly, asked with a puzzled expression.
Mu-jin answered nonchalantly.
“Oh, sorry. I forgot to mention. We are Shaolin disciples. My Dharma name is Mu-jin, and these guys are Mu-gung, Mu-gyeong, and Mu-yul. This one is a disciple of the Wudang Sect’s Cheongsu Dojang.”
Normally, there would be no need to reveal their identity if it was just a one-time encounter, but Mu-jin considered that Baek Ga-hwan, who would be accompanying them as a guide, needed to know.
However, Baek Ga-hwan felt dizzy upon learning Mu-jin’s group’s true identity.
He had suspected they were disciples of a righteous sect due to their mannerisms and intolerance of evildoers.
But he had also seen them eating meat and drinking alcohol, leading him to believe they were disciples of a secular family.
“Ah, by the way, our identity as Shaolin disciples is a secret. It’s a sensitive issue.”
Mu-jin gestured with a finger to his lips, and Baek Ga-hwan, half-dazed, nodded.
Indeed, it was a secret that wouldn’t be revealed unless he spoke up. Who would guess they were Shaolin disciples based on their behavior?
“Enough with the introductions. Let’s get back to discussing our next move. As I see it, staying here is a bad idea for the reasons mentioned earlier.”
Mu-jin redirected the conversation.
Baek Ga-hwan, recovering from the shocking revelation, asked,
“So, you’re saying the goal is to leave this place as soon as possible rather than seeking external help?”
“Exactly.”
“Then it’s simple, isn’t it?”
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