Chapter 138

Chapter 138

Slash-and-burn farmers who cultivate by burning fields generally relocate their villages periodically.

The reason is clear when looking at the method of slash-and-burn farming. Slash-and-burn farming is a cultivation method that burns forests and uses the ash to increase soil fertility. After exhausting the soil fertility once, it could be said that moving locations is normal.

That would be a typical slash-and-burn farming village.

“The village has been in the same place for several years?”

Seonwoo Gang, who had been walking and asking Choil various things, asked back as if incredulous. Then Choil nodded as if it were nothing.

“Yes. I haven’t been in this village for long, but……at least I heard that the village hasn’t relocated for nearly five years. Is that strange?”

“Strange…….”

Going into slash-and-burn farming means you’re poor enough to need to avoid the state’s eyes.

Such people couldn’t possibly conduct proper cultivation by spreading fertilizer. Human excrement is far from enough to use as fertilizer, and they wouldn’t have enough livestock to use livestock excrement either.

“How do they replenish the depleted soil fertility?”

“Isn’t it because the land itself has abundant fertility? I heard there are such lands.”

“That could be, but…….”

Seonwoo Gang, who had pondered Seomun Cheok’s objection for a moment, shook his head.

“No matter how I think about it, that’s not it. No matter how fertile the land is, it takes a long time for depleted soil fertility to return without special measures. Unless it’s a place like Sinseon Valley where dragon veins sprout.”

“Dragon veins?”

“You didn’t know? The reason demons flock to Sinseon Valley is because of that. Dragon veins.”

Land where earth energy flows especially strongly—dragon veins.

Such land would make sense. In such land, soil fertility isn’t replenished but rather flows in. No matter how much humans draw from a river, as long as they don’t block it, would the river dry up?

However, dragon veins, besides their characteristic of good cultivation, are hard to find because they’re abundant in internal energy and other things. Known dragon veins are already occupied by those who need them, and unknown dragon veins are usually in treacherous places unreachable by human hands.

“Of course it’s somewhat hidden, but……it’s hard to see a slash-and-burn village with this kind of accessibility as having dragon veins. If it were dragon veins, other people would have already found it.”

“I see.”

At Seonwoo Gang’s explanation, Seomun Cheok, convinced, stroked his spear shaft. The more he heard, the stranger the village became.

‘Preventing people from going outside could happen in closed-off places, I suppose……’

The fact that despite being slash-and-burn farmers they haven’t moved their base for several years, the village rule that suddenly appeared five years ago, and the fact that despite demons swarming, the village suffers no damage at all.

They might be overly suspicious, but there were more than one or two strange points. Probably there was a high chance of some connection to the series of incidents.

—We need to be careful. This isn’t normal.

“We’ve arrived.”

At the lips that moved, receiving the voice transmission from Seomun Cheok, Seohwa didn’t answer and just quietly nodded. Because the outline of the village was already visible before their eyes.

“This is…….”

Sheer cliffs and towering strange rocks.

Confirming the wide clearing formed between them, Seohwa let out a murmur. When she heard Choil’s words, she thought at best there would be about twenty households, but this was a slash-and-burn village with more scale than expected.

“Come to think of it, it’s a village closed off enough not to send people outside, but is it okay to let outsiders in? I know slash-and-burn farmers live avoiding official eyes.”

When Baek Risan brought up the question that suddenly occurred to him, Choil shook his head.

“Hehe. Of course it’s not okay. However.”

“However?”

“Well, if I say I had no choice but to speak because they said they’d kill me if I didn’t tell them, wouldn’t that work……?”

“Uicheonmun doesn’t use such vicious methods.”

“It’s just an example. An example. Anyway, as long as it’s a situation where I had no choice but to speak.”

Choil, glancing sideways at Jinwoong’s burly arms, grinned.

“From what I see, if that uncle there just flexes his arms, they’ll be convinced. Like, ah, he spilled the village’s location because he’d die if he got hit even once by those arms.”

“……Cunning fellow.”

“An orphan alone has to survive at this age, so the only thing that grows is your tongue. Well then. Ahem.”

Choil, who had already approached the entrance, cleared his throat loudly and shouted.

“Village people—! Choil, who left the village two days ago, hasn’t died and has returned—! Choil, who runs the village’s best inn, has returned alive—!”

“Please open the door! I brought guests too! At this rate I’ll die!”

A moment of silence. And a moment of waiting.

“They’re not coming out. Uncle. Try flexing your arms. Make it bulge. So you look exactly like a skilled martial arts expert.”

“Like this?”

“Wow, those arms are as thick as my waist. That should work.”

While Jinwoong raised both arms to show off his muscles at Choil’s banter, all the companions placed their hands on their weapons. Because it seemed they had no intention of coming out.

‘The clue is only here.’

Didn’t they hear that Gyoryongpa had been conducting searches for several months?

Though Seonwoo Gang, Seomun Cheok, and Baek Risan had received search training, it was just shallow knowledge at the level of academy students that they’d never used in actual practice. They couldn’t catch up to Gyoryongpa’s months of investigation in just a few days.

‘To grasp a clue, we need to enter the village.’

If there’s a variable in the disappearance cases, it’s only here. A place that hadn’t been revealed until now, and perhaps wouldn’t have been revealed in the future.

“If they really won’t welcome us…….”

We’ll break in.

Seohwa, having hardened her resolve, exchanged glances with her fellow disciples and nodded. And then.

Shortly after.

“Choil. Stand back.”

At the response that didn’t return, Seohwa, who had decided to force the plan, stepped forward, and at that moment.

“Impatient guests.”

Along with the voice, the door began to open.

Geugeugeugeuk—!!!

A heavy sound.

The sound of pushing by hand a wooden fence that was clearly not meant to be easily opened was loud. The view gradually revealed beyond the opening wooden fence.

“This is……a slash-and-burn village?”

Baek Risan, who had muttered involuntarily at the appearance so different from what he’d imagined, realized his mistake and closed his mouth. Easily two hundred households or more were visible.

Because there was a village with a scale large enough to be included on maps already circulating in the world.

“You brought uninvited guests. Choil.”

“Village Chief!”

When Choil shouted seeing the elderly man who appeared as the wooden fence opened, the old man raised the staff in his hand and swung it broadly.

“It’s not Village Chief, it’s Village Chief-nim. Cheeky fellow. Bringing outsiders to the village without a word. From the looks of it, you got caught stealing and brought them to extend your life.”

“Well, something like that. Is there a problem?”

“Shameless fellow. If the guests disappear, I’ll gather the village men and have you whipped.”

“If you can catch me, feel free to do so.”

At Choil’s rather dignified response with his chest puffed out, the old man clicked his tongue and slowly stroked his beard.

“Martial artists? I can’t say welcome even as empty words. You must have heard on the way, but this is a slash-and-burn village created to avoid official eyes.”

“In that case, shouldn’t you actually welcome us? If you earn our hostility, even things that could pass won’t pass.”

“Hehe. Hostility.”

At Seohwa’s question, the old man tapped his staff on the ground and shook his head. The answer that followed.

“When you live to this age, you develop eyes to see the world whether you like it or not.”

“What do you mean?”

“You folks came here with Choil guiding you, yet you deliberately didn’t borrow the government’s power. That means ultimately you have business with us. Whether simple or difficult.”

“The good don’t come seeking, and those who come aren’t good. What’s the point of treating well those who didn’t come with good intentions anyway? I’d only waste my mental energy.”

Not reasonable but firm conviction.

Seohwa, convinced that the Village Chief’s attitude wouldn’t change no matter how much more they talked, sighed inwardly and spoke.

“If you just answer what we ask, we won’t report this place to the authorities. We won’t enter inside the village either.”

“Let’s hear it. What do you want to ask?”

“Recently there have been frequent disappearance cases in this vicinity—do you have any idea about them?”

“Disappearances.”

The old man, who had thought for a moment, shook his head.

“At least they haven’t come here. Probably wandered around at night and got eaten by demons.”

“Demons?”

“Don’t play innocent. You must have heard on the way.”

The old man, who had paused, quietly spoke.

“When the sun sets in this vicinity, demons roam. The entire vicinity is like that.”

“……Just from hearing you talk, it sounds incredibly easy to find.”

“It is easy. If you walk just five hundred steps from this village’s wooden fence when night comes, you can meet eyes with demons.”

Five hundred steps.

A long distance if long, but far too short a distance to be with demons. Don’t they say demons with developed senses can smell beasts from ten li away?

“With demons swarming like that, how is this village…….”

“Do I have to tell you that too?”

“There are many suspicious points after all.”

“Well now, suddenly appearing and treating people like criminals. It’s because this is a domain.”

“……Domain?”

“That’s right. A domain. People don’t matter, but demons alone cannot invade.”

Is it already night?

The old man, stroking his beard while looking at the sky for a moment to gauge the time, tapped his staff on the ground with an expressionless face. And the proposal that followed.

“You seem to want to know a lot.”

“I’m the Village Chief, so I have much to do. If you’re that curious about so much, come inside and look for yourselves. Anyway, if you return at this night, you’ll have your limbs torn and die at the hands of demons.”

“Is that really okay?”

“Should I let you die to the demons instead?”

No matter how much outsiders, as long as they’re people, he can’t let them die.

The Village Chief, having said that, turned his back and spoke. The voice moving away.

“Don’t expect hospitality. The people of our village aren’t kind to outsiders. If you have things to find out, run around with your own bodies and find out.”

‘He seems to know something……’

Seohwa, who had been watching intently as the Village Chief walked inside after finishing his words, sighed. Even if the Village Chief knew something, unless they used threats, there was no way to force him to divulge it.

“Don’t be too discouraged, Fourth Sister. Just being able to investigate is sufficient gain.”

“Fellow disciple. Don’t you find that part suspicious too? He’s curt yet strangely cooperative. Looking at the rules, it’s a very closed-off village, and the Village Chief is the head of such a village, but…….”

“Is there a need to think deeply? Young Heroes.”

Jinwoong, seeing Seohwa showing signs of contemplation, opened his mouth rather cheerfully.

“If he said to investigate, we just need to investigate and go. Weren’t you planning to investigate for just one day and return anyway?”

“That’s true, but…….”

“I agree it’s suspicious. But standing here won’t accomplish anything, will it?”

It’s better to move as quickly as possible.

At Jinwoong’s words, Seohwa, who had let out a murmur, nodded. And confirming that situation, Choil raised his voice.

“Then, let’s go to my house first. Everyone needs a place to stay tonight anyway.”

“There are quite a few people—is there space for everyone to sleep?”

“It’ll be fine. Because.”

“Because?”

At Seomun Cheok’s question, Choil grinned, rubbed his nose, poked himself with his thumb, and answered.

“It’s the only inn in this village that I own.”