Genius Martial Arts Trainer

The newly captured men Mugung had dragged in did not need much time to adapt to the atmosphere of Mount Tianling.

The greatest reason was the presence of the party members who had already been working there before them.

Was it not said that those in the same plight sympathized with one another? Having gone through the same process themselves, they guided the newcomers while acting as seniors in their own way.

In addition, the conversation that had taken place while the Party Master and his wife were away served as excellent lubrication.

“Think about it. In times of war like these, where else could you possibly find a place like this?”

They fed them three meals a day. They even taught them martial arts.

The newly captured men also realized that they had no reason to complain.

After that, whenever Mugung judged that the newcomers had adapted to some extent, he would leave the mountain with Baek Garyeong once again.

A few days later, he would return with men strung together in a row with a thick rope, just as before.

After gathering every last bandit from the mountains surrounding Mount Tianling, slightly more than forty bandits had ended up assembled on Mount Tianling.

However, the total number of bandits who had occupied the mountains in this area had not been forty, but more than seventy.

The reason more than thirty of them had disappeared was simple.

As was always the case in the world, there were bound to be men whose greed went too far.

Some of them began coveting the enormous bundle from which Mugung always took out money for meals or various supplies, as well as the beautiful Baek Garyeong.

Among them were even a few who had already learned a little martial arts before Mugung began teaching them.

Those bastards conspired together, enticed the greedy ones, and more than thirty of them rose in rebellion all at once.

And those bastards were no longer people of this world.

When more than thirty bandits revolted.

The party members who had opposed the rebellion or had chosen to watch how the situation unfolded came to truly understand.

Just how terrifying their Party Master was.

When the Party Master swung that enormous axe once, the bodies of more than a dozen bandits were split cleanly in two, and blood sprayed through the air.

The enormous axe moved so quickly that they could not even properly see it.

However, the true scene of hell unfolded afterward.

A few of the bandits, terrified by that single move, charged toward Baek Garyeong to take her hostage.

The Party Master’s eyes flipped at the sight, and he swung his axe like a madman.

Crack!!

The bloody masses, chopped into dozens of pieces as though they had been sliced a thousand times and hacked into ten thousand fragments, burst in every direction.

“Ugh.”

“Blergh.”

Though they had chosen banditry, the sturdy young men had lived ordinary lives in villages for decades, and they began vomiting at the horrific sight they had never once witnessed in their lives.

“I am unharmed, so please calm your anger now.”

In that atmosphere, the calmest person was instead the Party Master’s wife.

Even though the men who had charged at her to take her hostage had been reduced to chunks of meat right before her eyes.

It was the moment the fact that the Party Master and his wife who were making them work were no ordinary people was completely engraved into the minds of the party members.

***

After the day the rebellion took place.

Despite the considerable reduction in their numbers, the road construction instead proceeded extremely smoothly.

The reason was simple.

Every remaining party member was now highly loyal.

They were the kind of men who knew how to be grateful that there was nowhere else that cared for them as well as this place did, and thanks to the terrifying sight they had witnessed the previous day, they could no longer even think of defying him.

Perhaps it was because more than forty men had now begun the construction in earnest.

The speed at which they cut a path through Mount Tianling and laid the road increased considerably.

Of course, from Mugung’s perspective, even that pace was frustratingly slow.

The work only progressed as quickly as it did because Mugung advanced at the very front, smashing apart on his own every section of the path that could not possibly be cleared through manpower alone.

Though he was teaching the others martial arts, it would inevitably take at least a year before they could make proper use of them.

“Even so, there is no need for you to be so impatient. Before long, we will have opened every road through Mount Tianling.”

When Baek Garyeong soothed Mugung, who appeared impatient, he replied in a regretful tone.

“That is because our goal is not merely Mount Tianling, my wife.”

“The beginning is the difficult part. Once one or two of them accumulate internal energy, we will be able to expand dozens or even hundreds of times faster.”

“That is what worries me. By the time these bastards become useful, I fear the war in the north may already be over.”

“That may be so. But would it matter? Bandits operated without issue even before this, did they not? There was even an openly formed federation known as the Seventy-Two Strongholds of the Green Forest.”

At her words, Mugung nodded.

Even though the imperial family had plainly existed, it was he and the Zhengmu League who had disbanded the Green Forest federation of bandits and dealt with its leader, the Chief Bandit Commander.

“If the imperial family does not go out of its way to persecute our Foolish Old Man Party, then we can simply continue the enterprise.”

“If they do persecute us, then we will have to flee as planned.”

“Yes. After all, our true purpose was never to build roads.”

The two had two major goals.

Privately, for Mugung to leave Shaolin and live together with her.

And publicly, to reform the young men who had wandered astray and begun banditry, and guide them onto the proper path.

Cutting roads through mountains was nothing more than a means to achieve those goals.

Of course, since Mugung had already begun the work, he wanted to bring as many men as possible into the Road Party and guide them.

“Excess is as bad as deficiency, and one should do one’s utmost and await heaven’s will. Rather than growing greedy, would it not be better to first save only those whom we are capable of saving?”

At the advice of his wise wife, Mugung was able to cast aside his impatience.

***

Even after that, the construction on Mount Tianling continued.

Since their manpower had increased, they initially divided the workers, assigning one-third to construction of the mountain stronghold and the remaining two-thirds to road construction.

After some time had passed and the mountain stronghold had taken proper shape, they all focused on the road construction together.

Naturally, since Mount Tianling was still a mountain that saw a fair amount of traffic, rumors about them spread to the nearby villages and county.

“Have you heard the story? Apparently, there are some strange fellows cutting a road through Mount Tianling.”

“Ha. It is the Foolish Old Man Moving the Mountain all over again.”

“Hahaha. Have you not heard? Those fellows call themselves the Foolish Old Man Road Party.”

“Puhahaha. To openly declare themselves fools. What ridiculous bastards.”

The amusing thing was that no one feared the Foolish Old Man Road Party.

Even though more than forty men had gathered on the mountain.

The greatest reason was that they did not steal money.

Even those who had initially been afraid eventually regarded them as nothing more than amusing fools once they realized they would not attack anyone.

Some more time passed in that manner, until one day.

“Good grief. To think they truly built a road.”

An escort captain who was crossing Mount Tianling on his way to Seohwa County after a long absence muttered as though he could hardly believe it.

Rumors had spread that the bandits in the area had been completely wiped out, so despite the dangerous times, he was crossing the mountain with peace of mind.

The reason the merchant association had hired armed escorts to pass through this area despite the complete disappearance of the bandits was simple.

They were traveling a considerable distance, so they needed the armed escorts elsewhere even if they did not need them here.

“I heard all the stories about the Foolish Old Man Moving the Mountain and the Foolish Old Man Road Party, but I never expected them to have truly built a road.”

“Indeed, Escort Captain. At this rate, we should bring horses and wagons next time.”

While the escort captain and armed escorts were exchanging such remarks.

More than a dozen men suddenly appeared and blocked the road.

Clang!

“Who are you bastards!”

With the escort captain at the front, the armed escorts drew their weapons and shouted, whereupon the bear-like man standing at the center answered with his arms crossed.

“This is a road our Foolish Old Man Road Party spent several months laboring to build. If you wish to use it, pay the toll.”

“You bastards! So you finally reveal your true colors!”

The escort captain, who had let down his guard because they had not engaged in banditry until now, shouted furiously.

“What dogshit are you talking about? If you wish to cross the mountain, then cross it. However, use that forest path over there. We built this road, so you cannot use it unless you pay.”

“.......”

At Mugung’s answer, the escort captain looked to the side with a speechless expression.

Perhaps because he had climbed from the entrance along such a comfortable road.

The thought of moving through the dense forest beside them now felt suffocating.

The escort captain asked in a reluctant tone.

“Is the entire road laid all the way to Seohwa County? Like it is here?”

“We plan to expand it further, but for now, yes.”

“......Then, how much is the toll?”

After hesitating for a moment, the escort captain asked. If they demanded an absurdly inflated sum, there would be no reason to hear any more, but he decided he might as well ask first.

And the answer he received was quite reasonable.

“Five nyang per person. Ten nyang for a horse. Twenty nyang for each carriage or wagon.”

“Why is a horse more expensive than a person, and why are carriages and wagons more expensive than horses?”

“Do you think we are doing business while playing around? The heavier the load passing over the road, the more the road gets gouged and damaged, so we must carry out that much more maintenance. We charge according to the work. According to the work.”

Since Mugung’s reasoning was sound, the escort captain ultimately decided to pay and use the road.

“Boys. Guide them to Seohwa County.”

“Yes, Party Master!”

Whether they were bandits or the Foolish Old Man Road Party. Whether they were good men or bad men. It was impossible to tell what sort of fellows they were.

After traveling for some time along the smoothly packed road under the guidance of two party members.

Around the time they had crossed halfway through Mount Tianling.

A building appeared before them.

A building with a signboard reading [Tianling Inn].

While everyone stared at the inn with dumbfounded expressions, one of the party members guiding them casually asked.

“No matter how well the road has been laid, walking through the mountains must still be tiring. How about stopping there for a bite to eat and something to drink?”

It was blatant solicitation.

“What kind of place is that inn?”

“What else would an inn be? It is a place that sells food and drink.”

“......Since when was there such a place halfway up Mount Tianling?”

“Why, naturally, our mistress had it built. Hahaha.”

The inn was Baek Garyeong’s work.

Rather than merely finishing the road and leaving it at that, she had created an additional source of income to generate profit.

It was an idea she had been able to conceive thanks to the experience she had gained helping Liu Xuehua while briefly staying at the Tianliu Merchant Association.

“I do not know what they sell, but let us stop by for now, Escort Captain.”

At the words of the armed escorts, who were beginning to feel hungry anyway, the escort captain nodded.

The man assigned to work as a waiter approached them and said.

“We have only just opened for business, so we currently sell only simple food such as noodles, cloudy rice wine, and green tea.”

Even that had only been possible because Baek Garyeong had used the miscellaneous books she had studied beforehand to begin cultivating inexpensive green tea, brewing alcohol, and raising livestock.

The problem was that since they had not yet found a proper cook, they had been forced to appoint whichever former bandit among the party members knew the most about cooking.

Baek Garyeong had said.

There was no point serving food they could not cook properly and spreading only bad rumors, so they should sell only the dishes they could prepare reasonably well.

At the waiter’s explanation, the escort captain clicked his tongue in disappointment, glanced over the people who had entered with him, and asked.

“How much is a bowl of noodles?”

At the waiter’s answer, the escort captain considered it for a moment.

'It is slightly more expensive than the market price, but not so costly that we cannot afford it.'

A subtle price that seemed inflated and yet not quite inflated. Considering the location of the sole inn halfway up the mountain, it was an extremely appropriate price range.

In the end, after pondering for a while, the escort captain ordered one bowl of noodles for each person.

Beginning with the armed escorts and merchants who became their first customers, the Foolish Old Man Road Party steadily collected tolls from those traveling through Mount Tianling.

In the midst of that, the inn’s revenue proved just as profitable as the tolls.

Naturally, everyone came to the same conclusion.

If they found a proper cook and merely increased the varieties of alcohol and tea, they could truly make a fortune.

At the same time, another thought also occurred to them.

Even if they earned that much money, it had nothing to do with them.

After all, the Party Master and his wife would take the money.

A strange atmosphere inevitably began to form.

They had been satisfied because they had been taught martial arts and provided three meals a day, but no matter how one looked at it, they had been worked like dogs without pay to build the road.

And yet, even after all that backbreaking labor, they would receive no money.

Because they had witnessed the Party Master’s terrifying martial arts, they did not dare say anything aloud, but little by little, resentment began accumulating in each man’s heart.

“This is your pay for this month.”

“!!!!”

Amazingly, the Party Master and his wife distributed wages to them.

“This is the amount left after subtracting the cost of food ingredients from this month’s total profits and dividing the remainder by the total number of people. The accounts will be settled this way every month. You have all worked hard building the road.”

The moment Mugung finished speaking, sobbing erupted from all around.

“Hngh.”

“Th-thank you, Party Master.”

They were men who had fled into the mountains to avoid conscription and had even chosen banditry because they did not want to starve to death.

And yet now, they were carrying out respectable work and earning money.

On top of that, they had even begun learning martial arts as an added benefit.

However, not everyone was shedding tears purely from emotion.

'So this is what all that backbreaking labor was for.'

'Ha. They say earning another man’s money is difficult, and they were right.'

They were tears of realization from men who had come to fully understand just how difficult it was to make a living.

At that moment. One tactless party member who lacked both sentiment and realization opened his mouth.

“But °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° how are we supposed to spend this money?”

They had fled to avoid conscription, so regardless of their banditry, they were already criminals.

They were in a position where entering a village carelessly was dangerous. Of course, they could sneak in secretly, take care of their business, and leave, but there was still a clear risk of being conscripted or dragged off to prison.

As the party members whose emotional moment had been ruined glared sharply at the man because of that tactless remark.

“Do not worry. I have already thought of a way.”

After saying that, Mugung turned his gaze in a certain direction.

'The first bead has been threaded properly, so it is about time we went to find that place.'

The direction Mugung was looking toward was where the Southern Heavenly Society was located.