Chapter 48: When Three Walk Together, One Must Be My Teacher (2)

As Hwang Chun fell into the latrine hole, he thought.

He thought of the story of the latrine ghost he had heard as a child.

The story that when you are defecating in the latrine on a dark night, the ghost lurking beneath the feces pit stretches out a white hand to stroke your buttocks.

‘Shall I give you a red straw rope, or shall I give you a blue straw rope?’

The latrine ghost who, if asked for a red straw rope, would scratch your face wildly with fingernails to dye the straw rope red with blood, and if asked for a blue straw rope, would strangle you with the straw rope to turn your face pale blue.

However, the latrine ghost Hwang Chun met now was a bit different from the one in the story.

…Crunch!

The ghost was strangling Hwang Chun’s neck as if to crush it.

Furthermore, it was solely with pure grip strength.

‘Wh-What kind of strength is……’

Hwang Chun felt like he was going to pass out, but he barely managed to pull himself together.

Did not an old saying go that even if you are bitten by a tiger, you will survive if you keep your wits about you?

However, the ghost did not leave Hwang Chun to maintain his sanity.

Plop!

The latrine ghost began to plunge Hwang Chun’s head into the night soil water.

“Gah! Cough! Ack! Keke-ack! Ugh-heck! Cough!”

For a long time, Hwang Chun could not pull himself together.

Having his hair grabbed and his head plunged into the night soil water, struggling to come out, and then plunged into the night soil water again, dozens of times.

During that time, Hwang Chun could not even breathe properly.

Because he unconsciously shut his mouth for fear that the night soil water would enter his mouth, he missed the chance to breathe the moment his head came out of the night soil water.

However, the desire for respiration was stronger than disgust.

As a price for hesitating to breathe, Hwang Chun eventually had to swallow several gulps of night soil water.

Gulp— gulp— gulp—

The thick night soil water went over his throat and into his lungs.

It was heavy, thick, salty, sour, and nauseating.

“Bleeegh!”

Hwang Chun could not even scream and vomited.

Vomiting, inhaling breath, swallowing night soil water along with the breath, vomiting again, and coughing from choking was an infinite repetition.

Before long, the latrine ghost let go of Hwang Chun’s neck.

…Splash! …Splash! …Splash!

Hwang Chun barely found his balance and stood up in the swamp of night soil water.

As he touched the stone wall and turned his head, he saw two men standing like ghosts on top of the night soil water.

The tall man and the short boy were sticking their upper bodies out of the night soil water.

Neither of them had any change in their expressions, so they were eerie like ghosts.

Chui and Oh Ja-woon.

The two quietly looked at Hwang Chun and spoke.

“Who will do it?”

“I will do it.”

At Oh Ja-woon’s words, Chui stepped forward.

Hwang Chun asked falteringly.

“Wh-Who are you? Are you a person or a ghost?”

Chui did not answer Hwang Chun’s question.

He only came close to him and asked.

“I want to make you my teacher.”

“What? What does that mean……”

“From now on, I will ask you things I do not know, and if you teach me well, we can stop seeing each other in this dirty state.”

Chui walked through the night soil water, wading through it, and stopped.

And he looked into Hwang Chun’s face and asked.

“Whose funeral is this funeral?”

“Fuck you, you crazy bastard!”

Hwang Chun immediately threw a punch.

Although he had left his sword behind, he had the confidence to beat a frail-looking boy like the one before his eyes to death with a single fist.

Of course.

Slap!

That confidence was shattered by a single slap that followed immediately, however.

“Gah!?”

Hwang Chun, who was slapped by Chui, hit the wall of the latrine.

The moment he was struck once on the cheek, he could immediately intuit it.

‘He is not my match.’

A strength that felt as if it would crush his skull to pieces.

This did not come merely from physical strength.

Feeling the internal energy transmitting tinglingly through his skin, Hwang Chun judged that the boy before his eyes was at least a first-class expert.

Compared to himself, who was merely a second-class warrior, it would be a difference like a giant and a child who had just learned wrestling.

Hwang Chun screamed with all his might.

“I-Is there anyone outside! Some bastard is here……!”

However, he could not ask for help outside.

Squeeze—

Chui firmly grabbed Hwang Chun’s hair.

And pressed his face against the rough stone wall of the latrine.

Crack!

Hwang Chun hit his head against the wall with his mouth wide open.

Because of that, several of his front teeth were broken raw.

Pressing down……

Chui pressed Hwang Chun’s face against the wall and pushed it sideways.

Screeech!

As the skin of Hwang Chun’s face was ground away, a long red mark was left on the wall of the latrine.

“Aaack!”

Hwang Chun struggled and screamed.

Every time he did, Chui plunged Hwang Chun’s mouth into the night soil water.

Hwang Chun had to swallow several more gulps of night soil water in gulps after that.

“Blegh— bleeegh—”

Even though his face was throbbing and hot, he kept vomiting.

Hwang Chun could no longer distinguish whether what was flowing down from his face was blood, sweat, tears, vomit, or feces.

Around that time.

“If you do not want to speak, you do not have to force yourself.”

Chui whispered softly.

“There are plenty of others who will come to take a shit even if it is not you.”

“I-I will speak. I will speak. Please…… Blegh!”

Hwang Chun wept while constantly retching.

Before long, he answered each of Chui’s questions.

“Wh-What did you ask earlier?”

“This. Whose funeral is it?”

“Y-Young Master Do’s funeral! This funeral is Young Master Do’s funeral.”

“Young Master Do? Do Jwa-yoon?”

“Yes.”

Hearing Hwang Chun’s answer, Chui and Oh Ja-woon looked at each other.

Oh Ja-woon asked.

“Did you kill him?”

“Hmm. I have no such memory.”

Chui stroked his chin.

In the past, when he burned Fuchai Pavilion, Chui had crippled Do Jwa-yoon after beating all of the Six Tigers of the Hegemon Society to death.

“Although I disabled his limbs and crushed his crotch with a hammer, I did not kill him.”

Then Hwang Chun’s eyes widened as if they would tear.

“Y-You were the ones who made Young Master Do like that…… the t-t-two of you?”

“Yes. Since I even left him in a place far away so that he would not burn to death, there is no way he died.”

Chui had spared Do Jwa-yoon.

It was because of the request of his confidant, Il-do.

Yet, despite that.

“Young Master Do passed away the day before yesterday. It was a decision he chose himself.”

Do Jwa-yoon had taken his own life.

Since he had become a disabled person with his limbs useless and even lost his internal energy, he seemingly had no more joy in life.

Oh Ja-woon nodded.

“Indeed. Since his limbs became useless and even his lower body was crushed, it is understandable. Was not the one named Do Jwa-yoon originally a lecher?”

“None of my business.”

Chui urged Hwang Chun once again.

“What about Hae Baek-jeong of the Yangtze River?”

“S-She is in the inner house where the distinguished guests stay. I heard that an expert named Three Calls of the Yellow Springs who came from another province had a conflict with the water bandits of the Yangtze River…… and the investigation showed that he is the same person as the culprit who assassinated Young Master Do…… If so…… you are the Three Calls of the Yellow Springs?”

At Hwang Chun’s words, everything became clear.

Hae Baek-jeong of the Yangtze River Water Bandit Union had joined hands with Do Mak-saeng of the Hegemon Society.

In other words, the two were enemies.

“I see.”

Chui nodded.

With this, all the necessary information was obtained.

Hwang Chun rolled his eyes and asked.

“Are you sparing me?”

“No.”

“Did you not say earlier that you would take me as a t-teacher? Then how……”

“I did.”

Chui nodded.

And he continued in an indifferent tone.

“It is out of respect for my teacher. Bite your tongue and commit suicide.”

“……Pardon?”

When Hwang Chun asked back in embarrassment, Chui answered shortly.

“You cut out the tongues of innocent people in the tavern. So it is only natural that your tongue should be cut out too.”

“…….”

At those words, Hwang Chun’s pupils trembled wildly.

“Y-You bastards! You intended to kill me from the beginning!”

Hwang Chun shouted angrily.

And then he threw his cloak toward Chui before his eyes.

“Aaahhhh!”

He kicked the night soil water and ran up the stone wall.

He planned to climb up the latrine, open the door, grab his sword, and fight.

And soon, Hwang Chun succeeded in escaping the feces pit and soaring above the latrine.

‘Yes!’

The door of the latrine was visible before his eyes.

Now, if he only opened it and went out, there would be the sword he had stood up in front of the door.

After that, he just had to grab it and make a fuss by wildly executing the Thirteen Consecutive Tyrant Blade Strikes, which was the strongest blade technique he could perform.

Then, the guards on shift who were drinking far away would run over upon hearing that sound.

‘Here I go!’

Hwang Chun stretched out his hand with all his might.

And he opened the wooden door of the latrine and kicked his way outside.

……If only he had his hands attached properly, he would have.

‘Huh?’

Hwang Chun was flustered.

The firmly closed door of the latrine did not open.

No, he did not even have the hand to push it open.

Even so, he could not bow his head to look down and see where that hand went.

Because he was currently in a state where only his head remained, floating in the air.

‘……Ah.’

Hwang Chun, who was decapitated with only his head remaining, fell back down.

Into his fading vision, many things entered.

Chui standing with an indifferent expression.

Oh Ja-woon putting the sword he had swung back into its sheath.

And his own body collapsing before his neck did.

…Plop!

With that as the last, Hwang Chun’s head slowly sank like a lump of feces into the golden night soil water.

It was an end quite suitable for his nickname, ‘Gold Bug.’

* * *

The guards of the Hegemon Society were in the middle of eating.

“Hey, there is pressed meat but no salted fish.”

“Go bring something to dip it in.”

“The youngest should go for this kind of thing.”

“Where is Hwang Chun?”

They were enjoying a simple drinking table before their shift.

At that moment.

“Aaahhhh!”

A faint scream was heard from far away.

The guards stopped eating the pressed meat and turned their heads.

And then they burst into a loud laugh.

“Is that not Hwang Chun who went to the latrine?”

“He said he had trouble from the cloudy wine he drank during the day.”

“Idiot. What kind of shit does he take with such a battle cry?”

“He should show that much motivation when collecting money. Tsk tsk—”

They thought Hwang Chun was shouting as he put strength to defecate.

However.

Creak—

When the door of the latrine opened and two other people, not Hwang Chun, came out from inside, the guards’ expressions stiffened.

A guard drew his sword and asked.

“You will not be mourners. Who are you?”

Then the two answered briefly.

“Three Calls of the Yellow Springs.”

“Death Plum Blossom.”

Chui and Oh Ja-woon formally drew their staff and sword.

Chui looked at the guards’ drinking table and spoke.

“Did you say there was nothing to dip the pressed meat in, how about this?”

Chui wildly splashed the buckets hanging at both ends of his staff.

Splash—

Dark and yellow night soil water was poured over the guards’ drinking table.

“Ack!?”

They were horrified by the night soil water sprayed in the air and tumbled over.

Simultaneously.

Crack!

The head of the guard at the very front was smashed.

Because he focused all his attention on the night soil water sprayed from the buckets, he did not see the end of the staff where the buckets were hung, which was the cause of his defeat.

…Thud!

Night soil water and blood mixed and sprayed over the white screen, painting an ink wash painting of exquisite colors.

Since they obtained the information and identified all those who had to be killed, it was time to move.

Chui and Oh Ja-woon looked at each other and spoke.

“West.”

“Then I will go East.”

The destination was the innermost pavilion of the Hegemon Society, where the Hegemon Society Leader, Do Mak-saeng, resided.

Unrivaled Spear Ghost