Chapter 159

The Boss of the Wind Thunder Room, Lee Yul-san, was a level-headed man.

It was he who had predicted the demand for Wanderers and established the Wanderer’s Market in Dalju, and it was also he who had developed it to this extent.

His martial arts were profound, but what made him stand out above all else was his sharp mind, which could read and predict the flow of the times.

Before he became the Boss, the Wind Thunder Room was nothing more than the ruler of a small area called Dalju.

It couldn’t even be compared to the sects that dominated Sichuan Province, and its influence was also minimal.

Lee Yul-san wanted to break through the limits of the Wind Thunder Room. What he came up with was the Wanderer’s Market.

By creating the Wanderer’s Market in Dalju, he intended to expand the influence of the Wind Thunder Room. His gamble paid off perfectly.

By systematically managing the rough and wild Wanderers and connecting them to trading companies or escort agencies in need, the Wind Thunder Room earned immense wealth. As a result, it came to exert tremendous influence not only in Dalju but also in the surrounding regions.

Although it was still far from matching the traditional powerhouses of Sichuan Province, it was significant that he had created a foothold to challenge them within the next few decades.

Though it was already evening, Lee Yul-san had forgotten to eat and was reading a booklet containing the trends of the Wanderer’s Market.

Who had hired how many Wanderers, and how much they had paid, were all recorded in detail in the booklet.

Just by looking at this one booklet, one could see the trends of not only the Wanderer’s Market but also the trading companies and escort agencies coming and going through Sichuan Province as if reading one’s own palm. For that reason, the Wind Thunder Room updated the information in the booklet once a month and treated it like a treasure.

Bang!

“Boss! We have a huge problem.”

Just then, someone violently threw open the door and rushed inside.

The man with the goatee was Steward Yoo, who oversaw the management of the Wanderer’s Market for the Wind Thunder Room.

Lee Yul-san frowned and looked at Steward Yoo.

“What is it? I thought I told you not to disturb me at this hour.”

“It’s a huge problem. They say our boys are being killed at the West Wind Inn right now.”

“The West Wind Inn? Isn’t that right next to the Wanderer’s Market? Are the Wanderers causing a ruckus again?”

“No. It’s not some Wanderer…”

Steward Yoo trailed off, stammering.

Seeing his face, which had turned deathly pale, Lee Yul-san sensed that the situation was more serious than he had thought.

Lee Yul-san closed the booklet and stood up.

“Gather all the disciples you can mobilize. We’re going to the West Wind Inn at once.”

“Yes! Boss.”

Steward Yoo hurriedly gathered the disciples within the Wind Thunder Room.

Excluding the disciples who were out on external business, a whopping fifty disciples gathered.

With this much force, they should be able to easily handle any ordinary danger. Lee Yul-san asked.

“What’s the situation?”

“The report is that all the disciples who went to the West Wind Inn are dead.”

“All of them?”

“Yes! All five of them are dead.”

“The culprit?”

“They say it’s one man and one little kid.”

“Just them?”

“Yes! We only found out because a Wanderer who was near the West Wind Inn saw the carnage and reported it urgently.”

“Hmm! Five of them are dead, you say?”

Lee Yul-san’s expression turned grave.

If five men, not just one or two, were killed without being able to put up a fight, it meant the culprit’s martial arts were anything but ordinary.

However, Lee Yul-san was not overly worried.

Dalju was the territory of the Wind Thunder Room.

He could receive help not only from the martial artists of the Wind Thunder Room but also from the Wanderers, and the trading companies and escort agencies he usually did business with.

With this much power, he wasn’t afraid of even the great sects of the Jianghu.

But the moment he opened the door to the West Wind Inn, Lee Yul-san instinctively knew his thinking had been wrong.

“……”

There were clearly many people inside the inn, but not a single breath could be heard.

If Lee Yul-san had entered leading his subordinates, there should have been some kind of reaction, but they were frozen like stone statues, not moving a muscle.

The faces of the people inside the inn were ashen.

Lee Yul-san read the terror etched on their faces.

At least half of the people in the inn were martial artists who had learned martial arts.

Martial artists were not the type to be easily intimidated anywhere they went.

The more you pressed them down, the more they would push back; that was a martial artist. But right now, not a single martial artist in the West Wind Inn was showing any sign of defiance, their heads bowed low.

It meant they were that crushed by terror.

“Hoo!”

Lee Yul-san took a deep breath and searched for the source of the terror that was pressing down on the martial artists.

It was not that difficult to find the one who dominated the room.

While everyone held their breath, unable to lift a single finger, he alone was using his chopsticks.

Clatter!

Every time he moved his chopsticks, a sound came from the plate.

The hand holding the chopsticks looked exceptionally white and long, like a woman’s delicate fingers.

The moment he confirmed the man’s face, Lee Yul-san stopped breathing.

It wasn’t simply because of his appearance, which was more beautiful than a woman’s. He was not foolish enough to judge a person solely by their looks.

He was startled because the man’s appearance reminded him of the legend of terror that dominated Sichuan Province.

‘Pyo… Wol!’

The man who single-handedly forced the Qingcheng Sect and the Emei Sect to become closed-off.

Recently, an unbelievable story was circulating that he had even subjugated the Small Thunder Sound Temple, a legendary sect of Tibet.

Others might not know, but Lee Yul-san, who was responsible for a sect, had already confirmed through various channels that such legends about Pyo Wol were not false.

It was unbelievable, but the stories about Pyo Wol were all true.

The martial arts academy masters in Chengdu he had secretly contacted had repeatedly warned Lee Yul-san.

To be careful if he met a man more beautiful than a woman in Sichuan Province.

That he was the one who brought death.

From the moment he instinctively realized that the man before him was Pyo Wol, Lee Yul-san’s fingers began to tremble.

Regardless of his will.

Next to Pyo Wol sat a little kid.

The moment he saw the baggy clothes, the disheveled hair, and the seven wheels hanging around his neck, Lee Yul-san was certain his guess was correct.

At the kid’s feet, his five subordinates were sprawled out.

Having become Blood Humans with no rise and fall in their chests, it was clear they had already expired.

Even without seeing it with his own eyes, he knew what had happened.

‘These vermin.’

The ones who had become corpses were famous within the Wind Thunder Room for their lechery. They had caused several problems because of it. The reason he had kept them around despite that was because they knew how to efficiently handle the rough Wanderers.

He had thought they would cause a big problem someday, but he never imagined they would cause such a massive incident.

He couldn’t regret more the fact that he hadn’t warned his subordinates, thinking it unlikely that Pyo Wol would come to a place like this on the edge of Sichuan Province.

‘If that man is truly the Reaper, I must never resist.’

Lee Yul-san swallowed dryly.

Just then, Soma, who was sitting in his chair playfully swinging his feet, opened his mouth.

“Can I kill them all?”

In an instant, the air in the room froze solid.

It was because they had just witnessed the disaster that one phrase had brought about.

Everyone looked at Pyo Wol’s face.

The fate of Lee Yul-san and the martial artists of the Wind Thunder Room depended on how he answered.

Pyo Wol put down his chopsticks and said.

“Wait a moment.”

“Okay!”

Soma answered without pestering him a second time.

Pyo Wol turned his head and looked at Lee Yul-san.

“Judging by your eyes, you seem to know me?”

“Yes! I do.”

Lee Yul-san answered honestly.

“Then this will be easy. Those men tried to molest me.”

“I apologize. It is all my fault.”

Lee Yul-san knelt.

He made no excuses.

His subordinate’s fault was his fault.

This problem had occurred because he had failed to control them.

There was no room for excuses.

“I will take full responsibility. Please, I beg you, let it end with me. The other members are innocent.”

Lee Yul-san gave up his own life.

Not only did he have no confidence in handling the man before him, but above all, he wanted to save the other disciples.

Just then, Steward Yoo knelt.

“Great Hero! Please forgive our Boss. Our Boss is innocent. Please kill me instead.”

“You, step back.”

“What’s the point of me living alone after losing the Boss? I will share the same fate as the Boss.”

Despite Lee Yul-san’s attempts to stop him, Steward Yoo did not back down.

The sight of the two of them was even tear-jerking.

“If you keep talking, I will kill not just the two of you, but every single person in the Wind Thunder Room.”

The cold voice of Pyo Wol that came at that moment jolted them to their senses.

“Huk!”

“No.”

They hurriedly bowed their heads.

They knew very well that Pyo Wol was not a man who made empty threats.

If he put his mind to it, the Wind Thunder Room would be annihilated in an instant.

Pyo Wol asked Lee Yul-san.

“Will there be any problem with me staying here?”

The moment he heard Pyo Wol’s voice, Lee Yul-san realized that he did not want to escalate the problem any further.

Thud!

“There will be no problem at all.”

Lee Yul-san answered, slamming his head on the floor.

His forehead split and blood flowed, but he paid it no mind.

“Tch!”

At that moment, Soma’s voice was heard.

The moment he saw Soma’s genuinely disappointed face, Lee Yul-san felt the blood in his entire body run cold.

If his answer had been even a little late, a storm of blood would have surely swept through the inn.

‘Even the child by the Reaper’s side has a demonic nature.’

He solidified his resolve that he must not get on Pyo Wol’s bad side, even if it meant death.

Pyo Wol waved his hand.

Lee Yul-san understood what his gesture meant.

“Thank you. I will take measures to ensure there are no problems during your stay.”

“Handle it.”

“Yes!”

Lee Yul-san answered vigorously.

He felt as if he had just barely returned to life after dipping his foot into the pit of death.

Pyo Wol rose from his seat and went up to his room.

As Soma followed him, he kept looking back with a disappointed expression. Each time, the people in the inn felt their hearts shrivel.

“Haa!”

“Hoo!”

Only after Pyo Wol and Soma’s figures had completely disappeared did sighs of relief flow from all over the inn.

It was as if time, which had stopped, had begun to flow again.

“Who in the world is that man, to be so murderous?”

“To think he’s a being that the great Boss of the Wind Thunder Room can’t even touch.”

Most of the guests in the inn didn’t even know Pyo Wol’s name, let alone his identity.

This was because mentioning Pyo Wol’s name itself was taboo in Sichuan Province. It wasn’t that someone had ordered it, but such a tone had been tacitly established.

In fact, Lee Yul-san had not once said Pyo Wol’s name either.

Because of this, the curiosity of the people who came from outside Sichuan Province could only grow.

Just then, Lee Yul-san shouted at the martial artists of the Wind Thunder Room.

“Hurry up and clear away these bastards’ corpses, and gather all the members and the Wanderers in the market. I’m going to properly educate them tonight.”

Fierce killing intent radiated in streams from Lee Yul-san’s eyes.

He was furious to the tips of his hair for almost having his sect annihilated due to his subordinates’ mistake.

The martial artists of the Wind Thunder Room foresaw their fate for the night and squeezed their eyes shut.

Finally, Lee Yul-san spoke to the people in the inn.

“I apologize for causing a disturbance due to our sect’s oversight. Our sect will compensate for the damages. All expenses during your stay here will be covered by our sect, so please rest at ease. And I say this out of an abundance of caution, but it would be best not to speak of that person. If anyone in Sichuan Province speaks of that person, I, Lee, will personally lead my subordinates to find you.”

It was both an apology and a threat, but no one objected.

Even without Lee Yul-san’s words, there was no one with enough nerve to dare gossip about Pyo Wol and Soma.

The Wind Thunder Room collected the corpses and went outside.

Only then did the guests in the inn begin to talk amongst themselves.

Among them were a beautiful girl who looked to be just seventeen or eighteen, and a young martial artist in his early twenties.

The girl spoke with a frightened expression.

“That was scary. To think such a person existed. Are there many monster-like beings like that in the Jianghu?”

“If there were that many people like that, the world would have become a hell long ago. People like that are by no means common.”

“That’s a relief, at least. My current situation is already hard enough, but if I were to become an enemy of someone like that, I really wouldn’t be able to bear it.”

“Don’t worry, Ga-hye! I will somehow get you to the Heavenly Eunuch Clan safely.”

“Mu-geom Orabeoni!”

The girl looked at the young martial artist with sad eyes.

Her name was Mok Ga-hye.

The young martial artist before her was Sin Mu-geom, her escort warrior.

“Are you really okay? For you to personally take me to the Heavenly Eunuch Clan?”

“That is the order I received.”

Sin Mu-geom replied, avoiding Mok Ga-hye’s gaze.