Murim Troubleshooter Dan Mujin

Chapter 110: His Interest

The garden of the Princess’s Palace, where brilliant spring blossoms bloomed in profusion.

In the flower garden filled with fragrance, a noble lady quietly lifted her teacup.

“Is that so, the Royal Guards to my elder brother…….”

A bitter shadow crossed her fair and delicate face.

“Seeing how someone like Wang Jinggong managed to dispatch even three masters…… we must assume that a considerable number have already gone over to his side, Princess Peach Blossom.”

At Cheon Sugong’s report, the Princess’s slender fingers gripped the teacup more tightly.

She had sent people to the Seomok Clan’s Head in advance to prevent such a situation.

But in the end, they had been a step faster, and one of the great pillars of the Imperial Palace now seemed to be under her brother’s influence.

“By the way, Cheon Sugong, to have defeated three Peak Masters without showing even a hint of disturbance, you must have made great progress recently.”

With a soft smile, as if in praise, Princess Peach Blossom began to speak.

Cheon Sugong hesitated for a moment, then shook his head as if correcting a misunderstanding.

“Your Highness, it wasn’t me who subdued the Royal Guards.”

“Mm? If not you, then who…….”

“It was that man I mentioned before, Dan Mujin.”

The Princess’s lips parted slightly in surprise.

“That young man—why did he suddenly appear there of all places?”

Her doubt was only natural.

For a troubleshooter to suddenly appear in the midst of a tense standoff between the Eastern Depot, the Royal Guards, and the Seomok Clan—utterly out of place.

“It was because the Seomok Clan Head had been sneaking back and forth each night, weighing the conditions of both sides. His wife suspected him of having an affair, so she hired a troubleshooter to investigate……. Ahem.”

In short, he had come to investigate infidelity, only to bump into Wang Jinggong—whom he happened to know—and was unwillingly forced to face three Royal Guard masters.

“Chuk chuk.”

Hearing this, Princess Peach Blossom could not suppress her laughter.

Lately, her face had stiffened from nothing but bleak matters, yet now, for the first time in a while, her shoulders shook with genuine amusement.

“He truly is a man who appears out of nowhere.”

“Indeed. I wonder what he normally does with himself.”

Clicking his tongue, Cheon Sugong muttered about how, despite possessing such martial ability, he always managed to get involved in the strangest of things.

“Cheon Sugong, didn’t you say last time that it would be best not to keep such a man close, since one never knows what kind of trouble he’ll cause?”

“Yes, I suppose I did…….”

Recalling his own words, he gave a small nod before continuing.

“Still, having seen him in action myself, I must admit his skill alone is worth recognizing……. So I gave him a small gift, as a way to continue the connection.”

It was said to be a gift in recognition of his high potential and for saving Hwangbo Gong.

For someone as sparing with his evaluations as the leader of the Eastern Depot to change his view after merely three meetings was unusual.

“Interesting. Before, you said no matter how skilled, his nature made him unfit to be kept close.”

“That still displeases me, Princess. That is why I intend to give him a task—to see whether he is worth drawing in or not.”

Cheon Sugong’s brows furrowed deeply as he replied, as if even the thought was distasteful.

But as she quietly observed his reaction and expression, Princess Peach Blossom suddenly broke into laughter.

“Fufu.”

This time, it hadn’t even been a particularly funny story.

“Your Highness, why are you laughing……?”

Cheon Sugong looked at her in puzzlement.

“Do you not realize, Cheon Sugong?”

“What is it?”

“Every time that young man Dan Mujin is mentioned, your expression becomes terribly amusing.”

“…….”

The cold and ruthless master of the Eastern Depot, whenever that name was spoken, would flush red, grin faintly, or even flare up in irritation.

A sight rarely seen from him—an unexpectedly entertaining spectacle.

“Fufu, truthfully, it seems you are rather fond of that fellow, aren’t you?”

“……Absolutely not! That ill-mannered colt of a man—he needs at least a hundred years of lessons in etiquette!”

As Princess Peach Blossom had said, Cheon Sugong jumped up in denial far more violently than necessary.

Her smile only deepened.

“Seeing you react this way makes me all the more interested. Hurry and bring him here for that so-called test.”

“That is……! I shall make the effort.”

Satisfied, she raised her teacup to her lips.

Then, as though the garden’s colors had been drained until now, the blossoms finally came alive before her eyes in vivid hues.

A man who, by mere mention, could lighten her worries, if only for a moment.

Princess Peach Blossom quietly looked forward to that youth passing the trial and becoming a member of the Princess’s Palace.

The affair-investigation commission that had dragged on for weeks ended in a rather peculiar way.

Normally, catching an affair ideally concluded with: ‘Ta-da, it turns out there was nothing after all!’—that was the cleanest ending.

Of course, in this case, that ‘nothing’ had turned into three Royal Guard masters suddenly appearing, and I ended up getting stabbed all over in the middle of it……

“Actually. The more I think about it, the more pissed I get?”

The client was relieved it hadn’t been the affair she feared, but what about me?

Truly, even in my past life, whenever I took on this sort of job, bad luck seemed to cling to me.

I should really refrain from taking such requests in the future, even if commissions dry up.

“Hup!”

With that thought in mind, I swung my Dog-Beating Staff once more.

My body, tattered and full of holes from near-fatal wounds. And the faint insight I’d gained while facing three Peak Martial Artists.

To consolidate it, and to rehabilitate my body, I had come to the Trading Company’s training ground for the first time in a while.

“Keukeuk, every time you step out, you return with holes poked through your body.”

Even after so long, Hwang Geolgae was still guzzling rice wine and stumbling about drunkenly.

It seemed he had just finished guiding Ilhong in martial arts, and now lurched toward me as if performing Drunken Fist.

“Strange, isn’t it? I think so too.”

I answered as I brushed the scars restored by the Heaven-Slaying Star.

Without that ability, I would already have long since taken the road to the underworld.

“They say you fought three Peak Masters this time?”

Apparently, Ilhong had already told him the rough story while I was training earlier.

“Yes, something like that.”

“It must’ve been hard to hold back your hand. Did you kill them? Killing karma?”

“No, I just cracked their skulls. Someone else delivered the finishing blow.”

The Eastern Depot master had claimed their lives and dragged along even Wang Jinggong, whom I had intended to beat to a pulp. He had left behind a ‘gift’ as well, if it could be called that.

“Kehkeh, and where exactly did you stir up trouble this time, for three such masters to appear?”

My master seemed amused by his disciple’s knack for clashing with powerful figures wherever he went.

Gulping down wine, he asked for the tale as if it were a drinking snack.

“The Royal Guards.”

At that, Hwang Geolgae froze in mid-swig, the gourd of wine raised halfway.

“You crazy bastard!”

Smack!

The base of the gourd bottle, wrapped in inner qi, came crashing down onto the crown of my head.

“Aagh!”

“How many times have I told you! Not to get involved with those Imperial bastards!”

I hastily unfolded the Hundred-Knot Divine Fist to deflect the gourd, but it slipped at a strange angle and kept pounding on my skull.

“Hey! You think I got involved because I wanted to? What was I supposed to do when they came at me?”

“Even so, you lunatic! How could you beat down three Royal Guard masters?!”

Smack!

Even though I had reached Peak Realm and was protecting my body with inner qi, whatever that penetrating force was, my head rang with every strike.

Seriously, Cheon Sugong and these old men—why do they all keep whacking me on the head? Huh?

Do they even know what’s inside this skull?

“In all my life, I’ve never had a disciple as disobedient as you……!”

Despite his repeated warnings, hearing that I had gotten involved again, Hwang Geolgae seemed utterly furious this time.

He looked about ready to break my legs in half. Not that it mattered, since they would just regenerate anyway.

“You son of a……”

In a panic, I stepped onto Whirlwind Steps and hid behind Ilhong, who had been training by herself.

“L-Leader?”

She froze mid-swing of her sword when I clung to her back.

“You bastard, what kind of man uses his subordinate as a shield?”

Chasing after me as if to kill me, Hwang Geolgae stopped in bewilderment.

As expected, the old man was particularly weak when it came to Ilhong. It was like watching a father looking at a daughter left behind after her rival company had collapsed.

“Then what about the old man who calls it training while beating her black and blue every day?”

“Hey now, I told you—it’s training. Training.”

“Training, my ass. This is why I don’t come here often, you know?”

All I remembered from here was being beaten senseless.

And beaten by an old man who once told me that if the Heaven-Slaying Star ever devoured me, he’d personally put me down.

“Hah, a disciple who doesn’t know how to treasure his subordinates.”

“I do treasure her, actually.”

I never missed paying her salary on time, and recently I’d even handed her a tool that allowed her to wield the Pavilion Master’s Authority of the Mysterious Pavilion, not to mention helping her with martial arts. I’d been looking out for her in all sorts of ways.

“Hoo, to think I’d end my years with such a nerve-wracking disciple.”

Looking drained, Hwang Geolgae guzzled down more wine and shook his head.

“So, if you avoided Killing Karma, did you at least build up a lot of Good Karma?”

Since I had to fight three Peak Martial Artists, he must have thought I’d gained quite a bit.

But not really. It hadn’t been a case of smiting evil for the sake of good, just a misunderstanding and me being dragged into nonsense.

For how desperately I’d risked my life, what I gained was meager.

“Instead, I got this.”

From my robe, I pulled out a pill radiating a strange energy.

“Oh? And what’s that?”

Hwang Geolgae, too, seemed to sense its unusual aura.

“The Golden Emperor Divine Pill.”

The answer came not from me but from Ilhong, who was in front of me.

Wiping sweat from her brow, she explained like the living encyclopedia of Murim she was, describing in detail what kind of spiritual medicine it was.

Apparently, it was a precious elixir, made by blending things like Thousand-Year Polygonum, Snow Ginseng, and countless other beneficial ingredients in an exquisite balance.

Gulp.

Even as she explained, her eyes were full of envy.

In this world of Murim, power was truth. Naturally, even she, upon seeing such an elixir, couldn’t help reacting as a martial artist.

Especially her—having lost everything due to her lack of strength, unable even to avenge herself—such things must have tempted her all the more.

“Kehkeh, so this is the elixir you kept pestering this old man about, asking if I had anything hidden away.”

Far beyond anything like Hundred-Year Polygonum. From the side, I felt the stare of a certain girl boring into me.

‘Absorb Qi.’

The Heaven-Slaying Star urged me to seize more power.

“Here, you take it.”

I tossed the so-called Golden Emperor Divine Pill to her as casually as flicking a bead of air.

Startled, she hurriedly caught it in midair.

“Uh, huh? Why?”

Since she herself had said how precious it was, she couldn’t understand why I’d just hand it over.

“For me, taking it would be like adding a ladle of water to the sea. It’ll be more effective if you take it.”

For me, it was more efficient to accumulate Good Karma and drain inner qi from portable elixirs.

And right now, what I needed wasn’t more inner qi, but a small enlightenment.

“B-But it’s an elixir! One that can increase inner qi by half a rank, a rare treasure……”

“And?”

“Normally…… people draw blades against even their closest friends for something like this.”

Having suffered betrayal and fallen into mistrust, she couldn’t understand how I could just give something like this away so easily.

“You sure talk too much. If an elder gives it, you just say ‘yes’ and eat it.”

So I shoved it on her in full old-man mode.

When opportunity knocks, you bow and say thank you—that’s how it should be. She was overthinking it.

“U-Um, okay……”

Though I had only given it because it wasn’t that useful to me, Ilhong, not knowing this, seemed dazed.

She held it with both hands as if it were the most precious thing, her expression clouded with complex thoughts.

“Master, why are you looking at me with such warm, cozy eyes?”

Sensing the strange gaze nearby, I rolled my eyes and asked.

“You’re a funny brat. I’ll look however I please. Kehkeh.”

As if it were the best drinking snack, he gulped down his wine.

With a loud “Kya!” Hwang Geolgae slammed down his gourd.

“So, who gave that to you?”

It seemed the question had only now occurred to him while drinking.

“A man named Cheon Sugong of the Eastern Depot.”

At that, Hwang Geolgae’s face twisted into something like a murderous demon.

“You crazy bastard! You’re tangled up with both the Royal Guards and the Eastern Depot?!”