Murim Troubleshooter Dan Mujin-Chapter 115 : Reeling In

Chapter 115: Reeling In
“Ilhong.”
“Yes, Hyung.”
A pretty boy looked up at me with a beaming smile in response to my call.
“This is a bit much... Back off a little.”
People were staring holes into us as we walked down the street arm-in-arm.
Their faces—young and old alike—were filled with unabashed shock.
“Good heavens.”
“What in the world…”
Apparently, in this era, two men linking arms and walking around was scandalous enough to be considered revolutionary.
It wasn’t just attracting the public’s attention—it felt like we were drawing the eyes of the entire Central Plains. The people of Goan, who had gathered after hearing the rumors, were scrutinizing us like we were rare spectacles.
“Was it really necessary to lock arms like this?”
“Did you forget? We got paid to be scandalous.”
Maybe it was because this was such a peaceful and uneventful city.
It wasn’t just attracting people of that persuasion—it felt like we had become the town’s newest sideshow.
“My face is getting more exposure than I expected. Should’ve worn a Human-skin Mask or something.”
“But then your handsome face would be covered, Hyung.”
Ilhong replied as if that would’ve been a tragic waste and a hindrance to the commission.
A soft-contoured face, delicate features, skin like white jade—and this pretty boy was the one saying that?
“Looking at your face, doesn’t seem like much would’ve been hidden anyway.”
That one had gone and changed their entire gender, yet it didn’t seem to dull the glow one bit.
In fact, people of all ages kept sneaking glances as they passed by.
“...Boss, you haven’t seen me without the disguise lately, have you?”
“Hmm, now that you mention it.”
At first, it was to avoid the Hao Sect’s surveillance, which we didn’t even know existed.
Then, after I started commanding the Mysterious Pavilion, she doubled down on the disguise, saying spies were everywhere.
I couldn’t help but wonder how she might’ve changed under that Human-skin Mask these past few years. The thought made me a little nervous.
“Anyway, back off. Someone might recognize us here in Beijing.”
I said, slipping my arm out of hers.
Sure, Beijing was packed to the brim with people, making it unlikely anyone would notice, but you never know.
“...You didn’t pull away when it was Juwol-a.”
She seemed oddly fixated on that lovely courtesan. Always bringing up what happened at Cheonhwa Pavilion.
And then came the usual grumbling.
“You’re so mean to me, Hyung. You always treat me like a tomboy.”
“Mean? Come on. I treat you like a little brother, yeah? I take good care of you, don’t I?”
Even when the Troubleshooter Office’s funds dried up, I still made sure her salary got paid on time.
And if she pulled her weight during a commission, I split the reward money with her fifty-fifty.
A boss like this must be rare in the Central Plains. She should really appreciate that.
“That ‘little brother’ treatment is exactly the problem. I’m all grown up now. I’m not some little kid anymore…”
Grown up, huh.
Sure, she might meet the legal definition of an adult in this era, but to me—someone from modern times—she was still just a kid. Nothing more, nothing less.
“Fifteen is peak kid age. What are you talking about?”
“Ugh! I’m only one year younger than you, Boss! Yet you keep calling me a kid!”
When I replied as if she were talking nonsense, she stomped her feet in frustration.
“There’s a difference in mental maturity.”
“Whatever. I’m going to the inn first.”
Then she turned around with a huff and stomped away, clearly sulking.
“Haah…”
One moment she was grinning like a goof, the next she was fuming. Her mood swings were something else.
Wasn’t she supposed to be the heir to the Hao Sect, burning with vengeance?
The girl who used to whisper the name of some ‘Black-whatever’ every night, vowing to kill them?
What was with this sudden adolescent moodiness, like a teenage girl?
‘傻逼 (idiot)’
And that little punk kept cursing me out every time he got bored.
I waved my hand and swept the crimson critter away with the Starfall Heart Cultivation Method.
“Oh my, looks like they had a fight.”
“Lovers’ quarrel, maybe?”
“Between men…?”
After we separated, the onlookers began murmuring.
My ears were burning. The moment our presence spiced up this boring, peaceful city, everyone seemed giddy with excitement.
「Young Hero Dan Mujin, I’ve spotted a suspicious man secretly tailing you. Looks like he’s made his move.」
Then came a voice whispering directly into my ear.
I’d learned this recently while sparring with Hwang Geolgae and Lee Gallin—it was clearly a case of telepathy.
“So, a suspicious man’s been stealthily following us.”
And the martial artists from the Peng Clan, hiding themselves while secretly observing, had caught him.
Seemed like the bastard had taken the bait. Now was the time to draw him into a secluded area and act.
“But where did she go again?”
Looks like old Hwang had taught her that body movement technique real well. Ilhong had vanished in a flash.
Sha-shak. Sha-shak.
I could see the rooftops and shadows of nearby estates rustling in the wind.
The hidden Peng Clan martial artists were on the move, chasing the target.
Well, if I followed them, I’d eventually find that pervert.
Ta-at.
I began running after their presence and aura.
“Tch, always treating me like this. I bet Boss still sees me as the same street urchin I was.”
A pale-skinned youth with a sword at her waist grumbled as she turned into a narrow alley.
It was a shortcut to the inn. The gazes on the main street had grown too piercing, and she didn’t want to bump into the boss along the way—so she’d found this route.
“And always pretending to be the elder. Acting all grown-up. We’re just one year apart, you know.”
If her family hadn’t collapsed, she would’ve been of age to enter a political marriage by now.
But Boss Dan Mujin never acknowledged that. He just kept treating her like a younger brother.
“Though, I’ll admit, sometimes he does seem a bit mature…”
Except when he went nuts with his bouts of madness, he could keep his emotions in check and make rational decisions.
He never acted like some fool doing good for the sake of it, nor did he indulge in greed—he had a knack for keeping things balanced. That part was kind of cool.
“Still… treating me like a kid is just…”
She stomped her feet harder, as if trying to shake off her frustration.
And then—from the opposite end of the deserted alley—a man stepped out.
“Well now. I saw one of you break away, so I followed… Looks like I got the small one, not the big guy. Hm.”
He looked like a noble young master from a prestigious family—charming if you wanted to put it nicely, greasy if you didn’t—as he blocked her path.
He smiled, but there was something off about the expression on his face.
“Hmph, I’m not thrilled it was someone with heavy Yin energy, but that face… Huh, it’s exactly my type.”
Ilhong immediately sensed something off from the man’s aura.
“Fine then, I’ll take you instead. Though you seem a bit lacking in Yang energy.”
The man nodded in great satisfaction at Ilhong’s pretty face, then began emanating a menacing aura.
As he approached with steady steps, Ilhong flinched and stepped back.
“You’re not…!”
“Yes, it is I—your dear husband!”
A blur tore through the air.
Papatpak!
A palm strike burst through the air, followed by a Grab Technique aiming for her shoulder.
Ilhong barely twisted away to dodge the man’s grasp. But only just. The lecher before her kept throwing out relentless palm techniques.
Ta-at.
Ilhong hurriedly widened the distance using the Beggar’s Union footwork she’d learned from Hwang Geolgae. Drawing a thin sword, she instantly retaliated.
Shik! Shishik!
Wherever the lecher’s hand reached, a glinting sword intercepted it.
Unable to get through easily, the man frowned deeply and took a step back.
“They say you’re a Second Rate Martial Artist… but are you First Rate?”
He clearly hadn’t expected the dainty-looking youngster with such a delicate face to be a First Rate Martial Artist.
But instead of backing down, the lecher—Gui Myeon-gak—grinned, releasing even more intense bloodlust.
“Hah, I wanted to capture you without a scratch. But so be it.”
He drew his sword from his waist, and a sharp Sword Qi erupted from it.
The kind of skill that could slice a common steel sword like Ilhong’s in one strike—truly a feat of a Peak Martial Artist.
“Damn.”
As Ilhong grimaced, Gui Myeon-gak’s eyes gleamed wickedly.
“But don’t worry, I won’t harm your face. I just love the expression men make when their Yang energy is drained, kekeke.”
His vile laughter echoed through the alley.
Shwik!
With a thud, his sword shot forward, slashing through the air like a viper’s strike.
“Haha, be a good boy and—!”
Boom!
Just then, something rained down from the front—by the dozens.
Tadadadadang—!
With almost unbelievable Peak-level reflexes, Gui Myeon-gak barely swatted away the poison needles.
His face clearly showed he hadn’t expected a hidden weapon ambush.
“You bastard! Who the hell are you to use Tang Clan hidden weapons…?!”
Then he threw something from his hand, and a white powder filled the alley.
As the smoke obscured vision and the sound of fleeing footsteps echoed beyond it, Gui Myeon-gak clenched his teeth and darted forward.
Thud.
But on the ground within the smoke, he spotted a small iron ball—one with an extremely short fuse, much like a Thunderburst Bomb.
“Son of a—!”
With a blast, thin metal shards scattered in every direction.
“Graaagh!”
But it wasn’t enough to kill a Peak Martial Artist. Gui Myeon-gak burst through the smoke, blood pouring from lacerated skin.
“You cowardly little rat!”
Upon spotting Ilhong’s tiny face, his expression twisted into a demonic snarl as he charged down the alley.
“The coward here is you—attacking a lone youth in an alley!”
“Shut your mouth!”
Tatata!
Even the Peng Clan martial artists were left behind by the ghost-like Body Movement Technique surging from the alley’s entrance.
Ilhong tried her best to dodge by emitting internal energy through her toes, but after just five steps, her arm was caught.
“Kuh!”
“I was going to let you taste bliss before death…! But forget it! Hand over your Yang energy and dry up on the spot!”
The man clamped his hand onto Ilhong’s Acupoint, pouring in an eerie energy with terrifying force.
Ilhong, body restrained and overwhelmed by the unexplainable sensation, couldn’t even speak.
“P-please, stop…”
“Keh, now you’re scared? This is a technique modified to suit my constitution—Yin-Yang Harvesting Technique. A martial art designed to avoid women and extract only men’s Yang energy.”
Gui Myeon-gak proudly explained, saying he’d customized it to avoid the danger of women.
Like giving a lecture to the dead on their way to the afterlife, he grinned smugly.
Swaaa—
At the alley’s entrance stood a youth with arms and Acupoints gripped, body writhing under the Yin-Yang Harvesting Technique.
But strangely enough, it wasn’t Ilhong who grew pale and trembled—it was Gui Myeon-gak.
The energy flowing into him wasn’t Yang—it was something else. His eyes twitched.
“Ugh… What is this?!”
Something had gone wrong. Now it was Gui Myeon-gak who writhed in agony.
The padding used to alter Ilhong’s figure had fallen off during the intense fight—and at last, Gui Myeon-gak realized something as he stared at her face.
“You! You weren’t a man—! Graaaagh!”
It wasn’t just a man with heavy Yin energy—she was a woman. Gui Myeon-gak was horrified.
His martial art, which absorbed Yang from men and Yin from women, combined with her constitution that absorbed incoming energy completely.
Despite the warm weather, Gui Myeon-gak exhaled cold breath, shrouded in Yin, and began to collapse.
“No… I can’t… die… like this… not like this…”
His face went ghost-white. Eyes wide in disbelief, Gui Myeon-gak rolled across the ground.
“Urghh… gghhhh…”
He had stood in this alley intending to drain a man’s screams and Yang energy as always—but this time, having absorbed Yin instead, the infamous lecher Gui Myeon-gak was dying a ridiculous death.
Tatata!
Then, people rushed toward the explosion site.
It was Dan Mujin and the Peng Clan experts who had been chasing the man.
“Ilhong! I heard an explosion—are you… huh?”
Seeing Gui Myeon-gak foaming at the mouth and collapsed, Dan Mujin fell silent in disbelief.
He peeled off the man’s Human-faced Mask with a zip, then nudged him with his foot.
“Ilhong, who’s this guy?”
“Gui Myeon-gak.”
A notorious lecher who had reached Peak level and concealed his identity like a ghost.
“…Don’t tell me you took him down?”
“Uhh, probably?”
And behind her, the Peng Clan martial artists arrived, murmuring in shock at the scene.
“Isn’t that Gui Myeon-gak?”
“Why is he down…?”
“Could it be… that small young hero?”
Their stunned gazes simultaneously locked onto Ilhong.
She silently sheathed her fallen sword at her waist.
“See? I’m not just some kid anymore.”
Though the enemy had pretty much self-destructed. Still, what did it matter?
Ilhong, mimicking Dan Mujin’s usual tone, puffed herself up proudly.