Chapter 278

The beautiful two-story house had been transformed into a haunted ruin.

If the dozens of layers of defensive barriers hadn’t absorbed part of the Flame-Extinguishing Divine Fist’s impact, the entire place would have been reduced to ash.

Just then, I sensed someone approaching from behind, and a quiet voice sounded in my ear.

“Mr. Jin Taekyung.”

I had been sitting on a half-charred sofa. Turning my head, I answered,

“Yes.”

Team Leader Choi, Butler Kim, and Song Song stood behind me.

Their expressions were complicated as they looked at me. Considering they had seen the bodies strewn miserably across the garden, it was only natural.

Being drenched from head to toe in blood probably didn’t help my appearance, either.

Song Song cautiously asked, “Did you… kill all of them?”

“Yeah.”

“……!”

“I’m kidding. I spared the ones who surrendered.”

Then I added gently, “For now.”

The answer was for Song Song, but the warning was meant for Team Leader Choi and Butler Kim.

Team Leader Choi asked with concern, “Are you hurt anywhere?”

“As you can see, I’m fine.”

“What about the survivors?”

“I gathered them in one place.”

“Without taking any other measures?”

“Of course I did. For the next few hours, they’ll be no different from corpses that can still breathe, so don’t worry.”

The personal measure I had taken was a Pressure-Point Strike.

After striking their Mute Acupoints, Paralysis Acupoints, and Sleep Acupoints, I had stacked the Black Hunters neatly inside the only room left standing.

I had used force to subdue them, but I wasn’t some blood-crazed murderer who intended to kill even those who surrendered.

More importantly, they might prove useful later.

“You did well. But…”

Team Leader Choi’s gaze shifted to the man sprawled at my feet.

“Who is that?”

“The owner of this house.”

I rolled him over with my foot, revealing a man in his forties.

Im Yeongjun, the homeowner and leader of the Black Hunters.

His entire body was so drenched in blood that he could easily have been mistaken for a corpse, but he was very much alive. In fact, there wasn’t a single wound left on him.

Butler Kim examined him and muttered knowingly, “You used potions. Several times, at that.”

“Yes.”

“Did you torture him?”

“You have sharp eyes.”

“It was common during the Great Cataclysm. There were plenty of people worse than Black Hunters.”

Song Song’s expression darkened at the word torture. But after a faint sigh, she placed a hand on my shoulder.

“That couldn’t have been easy.”

It was only natural for her to be repulsed. Even I, accustomed as I was to the ways of Murim, didn’t feel comfortable about what I had done.

But Im Yeongjun had been far more tight-lipped than I had expected. Ordinary threats would never have made him talk.

“These aren’t ordinary opponents. Someone had to do it,” Team Leader Choi said.

“If you hadn’t, Hunter Jin Taekyung, I would have,” Butler Kim added. “Don’t take it too much to heart.”

They were right. Someone had to do it. My hands were already stained with blood, so there was no reason to balk at torture now.

I shook my head to clear away my troubled thoughts, then opened my mouth.

“There’s no physical evidence. Apparently, they deleted all the relevant information the moment I broke in and the alarm magic went off.”

“All of it?”

“Yes. There weren’t even any computers in the house. Only two people, including Im Yeongjun, had cell phones. Even those were burner phones with no identifiable source.”

I showed them the remains of the cell phone I had collected beforehand.

Even someone as hopeless with technology as me could tell that recovering anything from it would be impossible. Every component had been crushed, and they had burned the SD card.

Team Leader Choi clicked his tongue when he saw the wreckage.

“Thorough. At this point, there’s no way any documents would have been left behind.”

“They didn’t.”

“What about the other Black Hunters?”

“Ten survived, but none of them knows anything. I killed the one who was effectively their deputy. Im Yeongjun personally recruited and trained everyone here.”

From what I had gathered, they operated as a thoroughly compartmentalized organization.

Everything involving the Black Hunters—from laundering their identities to paying them—had gone through Im Yeongjun.

“It’s fortunate that Im Yeongjun survived, at least. What did he tell you?”

“That…”

I suddenly stopped speaking.

The one sentence he had screamed like a howl after experiencing Tendon-Splitting and Bone-Twisting three times still echoed in my ears.

“M-Myeongdong Guild! I said Myeongdong Guild!”

A major Guild that might not rank among the country’s top ten, but easily placed within the top twenty.

And…

Jihoon.

It was also the Guild where an old friend I had met again recently belonged.

After some thought, I spoke again.

“Could you give me a little time?”

“……?”

“There’s something I need to check personally.”

Team Leader Choi studied me for a moment, then nodded.

“We’ll start cleaning up the scene. Look into it and let us know.”

“I will.”

“Let’s get started right away.”

At Team Leader Choi’s words, Butler Kim swung the staff he had been using like a cane.

The tightly shut door opened. The ten Black Hunters whose acupoints I had struck floated into the air and filed out of the house one after another.

Im Yeongjun was among them, of course.

“Everyone, stand back.”

After delivering the warning in a low voice, Butler Kim began chanting.

Mana surged. Enormous flames engulfed the two-story house, which had barely managed to retain its shape.

The fire swept through the garden and would not stop until it had erased everything.

Fwoooosh!

A cloud of acrid smoke billowed up with the flames.

Yet the quiet rural village surrounding the mansion remained peaceful.

With magic blocking all sight and sound, the mansion wouldn’t be discovered until much later.

“Will this be enough?”

“More than enough. Even if we left it alone, they would step in and erase every trace of this place themselves.”

People had vanished overnight, and a house had burned down. But that was all.

The villagers would talk about it for a while, but nothing would come of it.

That was how monsters with power and authority operated.

There was only one thing I wanted to know.

Garam Middle School Classmate Park Jihoon

Which side did the owner of the number saved in my phone actually belong to?

The darkness had yet to lift when Park Jihoon dressed and left his house at dawn.

A uniformed chauffeur was waiting for him at the entrance with a limousine.

“You’re here, sir.”

“What’s going on? Why am I being picked up out of the blue at this hour?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know. The Guild Master only instructed me to collect you from your home.”

Fair enough. What would a mere driver know?

Clicking his tongue softly, Park Jihoon climbed into the car. Perhaps because of the early hour, the roads were deserted.

Some time later, the limousine glided to a stop in a part of Hannam-dong lined with luxury apartments and villas.

Before them stood a massive mansion.

One of the guards stationed along the stone wall ran over and bowed to Park Jihoon.

“He’s waiting inside.”

Park Jihoon passed through iron gates reminiscent of a European nobleman’s estate and crossed a garden larger than an athletic field before finally meeting the man who had summoned him.

“Have you eaten breakfast?”

The man was in his fifties, with hair that had gone half gray. His age belied his imposing physique, and well-developed chest muscles showed beneath his white robe.

Park Jihoon bowed his head.

“Not yet.”

“Then come eat. The beef-and-radish soup turned out especially well today.”

It was barely six in the morning. No one would welcome breakfast this early, especially after being dragged out of bed.

Nevertheless, Park Jihoon thanked him and picked up his spoon without complaint.

“Aren’t you eating, Guild Master?”

“I’ve already eaten. Don’t mind me. Finish your meal.”

The man casually unfolded a copy of that morning’s newspaper.

The front page featured a photograph of a middle-aged man in a suit bowing his head solemnly.

Park Tae Seop, Guild Master of Myeongdong Guild, visits the wake of the late Hunter Jung Hyunwoo. “My heart is filled with grief. I bow my head and apologize to the bereaved family.”

Only then did Park Jihoon understand why he had been summoned.

The old geezer’s pissed.

The man, identical to the one in the color photograph, asked without looking up from the newspaper, “How’s the picture? Did I come out well?”

“Yes. You’re naturally handsome.”

“That’s your problem. No matter what you say, it always sounds like empty flattery.”

“I mean it.”

At the unhesitating answer, the middle-aged man—Park Tae Seop, Guild Master of Myeongdong Guild—raised his eyebrows.

It was a sign that his patience had run out.

“Jung Hyunwoo. Why did you kill him?”

Here it comes.

Park Jihoon quietly set down his spoon.

“I caught a whiff.”

“Then you should have stopped at covering your nose.”

“That was Myeongdong Guild’s job. Mine is to wring the necks of anyone who catches the stink before they can go blabbing about it.”

“Without my permission?”

“Do I need permission, too?”

Bang!

Park Tae Seop slammed his fist into the dining table. The table shattered with a splintering crack, sending glass and food flying in every direction.

“Guild Master!”

The guards who came rushing in were met by a furious roar.

“Get the hell out, all of you! Don’t take another step inside until I give the order!”

“……!”

They froze for a moment, then bowed and withdrew.

Park Jihoon calmly pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the soup splashed across his face.

“What a shame. It was delicious.”

“You insolent brat, still stinking of your mother’s milk…”

“We both reek of something rotten anyway. A little milk on top won’t make any difference.”

“I built this Guild with my own blood! And a little shit like you kills one of my Guild members without even telling me?”

“Come now, Guild Master.”

Park Jihoon’s smooth, unlined brow furrowed.

The handkerchief in his hand dropped onto the shattered remains of the table.

“What else was I supposed to do?”

“What did you say?”

“Don’t you know how troublesome it gets when people who catch the stink start talking? One spark, and the whole house burns down. If it were only your house at risk, I wouldn’t have said a word. But the fire would spread to our side, so I stepped in.”

“Even so, you—!”

“And I’d appreciate it if you got one thing straight. You’re a war hero who fought and bled during the Great Cataclysm? I’ll give you that. But claiming that Myeongdong Guild belongs to you is a bit…”

Park Jihoon let out a short laugh and rose from his seat.

“Thank you for breakfast. Though I barely managed a few spoonfuls.”

Park Tae Seop trembled as he watched him.

“Sit down.”

“If you have anything else to say, call me. If you keep this up, I’m going to lose my respect for a great senior like you.”

“I said sit down.”

The air around them churned violently.

Park Tae Seop, Guild Master of Myeongdong Guild, was a hero forged by the Great Cataclysm and one of the country’s highest-ranking rankers.

But Park Jihoon knew the man couldn’t lay a hand on him.

“I’ll see you next time.”

He bowed politely and was about to turn away when Park Tae Seop spoke again.

“The sparks you scattered are about to burn the whole house down. You didn’t know that?”

“What are you talking about? I handled Team Leader Jung’s matter thoroughly enough to prevent any loose talk.”

“The Black Hunters. I heard they recently went after a D-rank Hunter from the Peace Guild.”

Park Jihoon’s face stiffened.

He instinctively realized that something had gone seriously wrong.

“……What is it? What happened?”

At that moment, the phone inside Park Jihoon’s coat pocket began to vibrate.

As though possessed, he pulled it out and stared at the name filling the screen, his eyes darkening.

Jin Taekyung