Murim Troubleshooter Dan Mujin

Chapter 34: The Woman from Sichuan

Beijing Branch of the Wanderers' Guild.

All the working wanderers had gone out, leaving behind only loafers guzzling cheap takju.

A middle-aged man with a long scar was inspecting a shiny silver coin.

“This is strange. The scar definitely throbbed earlier.”

The silver coin was the intermediary fee given by two new wanderers.

Contrary to his ominous intuition, the boys had returned after resolving their second task with ease.

Just to be sure, he had asked them if anything had happened during the request, and after a brief pause, the boy named Dan Mujin had shouted, “Nothing happened…!”

“That can’t be right… could it really be true…?”

Gam Un kept rubbing the scar on his aching face.

Like the elderly who felt pain in their joints before it rained, his large scar always throbbed ominously when something foreboding loomed.

That scar had a high accuracy rate, helping him survive countless trials as a wanderer and reach where he was today.

“Click, seems my senses have dulled with age. Good for those boys, perhaps?”

As with last time, the scar only started throbbing after he’d already dispatched them on the task.

But since they’d returned unscathed from the previous one, perhaps these worries were unfounded this time too.

In other words, both the Giant-Slaying Blade and Gam Un, known for escaping misfortune, were now past their prime.

“Cluck cluck, good thing I retired before my luck ran out.”

So, even this ominous throbbing pain must be a mistake.

They’d probably return without a hitch this time too.

Relieved, Gam Un guzzled alcohol like the other wanderers.

“Khuh, good drink.”

Standing before me was a girl small in stature but exuding a presence that couldn’t be ignored.

Her skin was pale like rice paper, her eyes sharp, her nose high, and her lips red like pomegranate seeds.

With dark green-tinted, sharp fingernails, she pointed at us.

“Neungsam, I told you to summon wanderers, not brats.”

Her tone, thick with disappointment, scolded someone.

A man with a sack slung over his shoulder stepped out from between the bushes.

“Judging by the wanderer tokens at their waists, they seem to be wanderers.”

“…Hm? Seriously? These little kids?”

The girl raised one eyebrow and scanned us up and down.

What a harsh world. Kids struggling to survive don’t even get a bit of sympathy.

“She’s a kid herself.”

She must’ve heard my muttering—her eyes flared wide.

“Hah? What’s this about an eighteen-year-old maiden, huh?!”

It was hard to believe. No matter how strange Murim could be, claiming adulthood with that face and height?

“Ahem, Miss Tang Yeo-hye just consumed poison by mistake as a child. She truly is an eighteen-year-old maiden.”

Seeing my skeptical expression, the man named Neungsam stepped forward to clarify the misunderstanding.

What kind of household feeds poison to a child instead of a tonic?

But Ilhong, who was listening nearby, suddenly shrieked.

“Tang Yeo-hye…?! Don’t tell me… Tang Yeo-hye of the Venomous Sparrow's Blood?!”

So she even had an alias. Ilhong’s eyes went round as saucers.

“Hmph, at least one of you has some eye for greatness.”

Now that someone recognized her, Tang Yeo-hye seemed rather smug.

Her face, wrinkled from earlier, slightly relaxed.

“Ilhong, who is she?”

“Ah, I told you to memorize aliases. She’s the second daughter of the Sichuan Tang Clan, a master of claw techniques and poison arts who turned dozens of Green Forest Bandits from Muhochaae into a puddle of blood with a single sweep.”

Murim’s filled with countless masters—how’s one to remember them all?

Still, I had heard of the Sichuan Tang Clan before.

I’d seen them in those wuxia-style novels a few times.

They were known for using poison and placing great value on family and grudges. Most characters I remembered from there had nasty personalities.

“I see. So she really is a grown-up.”

The mysteries of Murim—or perhaps human biology.

It’s a world where you can’t believe what you see.

“Therefore, wanderers, please refrain from remarks like earlier. Though she pretends not to, the young lady is extremely sensitive about her childlike appearance.”

Neungsam warned us that it was her sore spot and to tread carefully.

“…You bastard! You didn’t have to tell them that!”

Sometimes, excessive kindness can make people uncomfortable.

Tang Yeo-hye, her secret exposed, turned red and began kicking Neungsam’s back with her foot.

“Ow, that hurts, young lady.”

“Shut up! You deserve to hurt, you useless servant!”

It was a scene of middle-aged abuse.

But seeing how a master with an alias was carefully holding back her strength, they must just be close.

“She wasn’t like this before. Must be the poison’s influence making her ill-tempered… I, Neungsam, worry deeply, young lady.”

“Bullshit! That’s exactly how I feel, so shut your damn mouth!”

Maybe it wasn’t the poison. Maybe she was just plain rude?

People around her kept treating her like a kid, so she turned out twisted.

“Nggh, anyway, I’m Neungsam, the servant who has served the young lady since birth. I look forward to working with you.”

“Ah, I’m Dan Mujin.”

“Call me Ilhong.”

We exchanged clasped hands greetings with him. Somehow, he felt easier to talk to.

“So, what’s the reason you called us?”

I’d heard from the Chairman it was to find medicinal ingredients, but now she suddenly wanted deadly poison?

“You heard me earlier, right? I’m here to find toxic substances. Are your ears clogged?”

Has poison reached her brain too? What a nasty way to talk.

If you want poison, go scour the jungles of Yunnan. Why come all the way here?

“There’s a particular type of mushroom that grows in this mountain range.”

She sounded quite confident, for some reason.

Tossing the collecting sack toward us, Tang Yeo-hye continued.

“It’s called Black Pine Fungus. A mushroom with horn-like protrusions. Pitch black, and its surface oozes pus.”

Aside from the color, the description reminded me exactly of the red stag antler mushroom that was said to be fatal at the slightest touch.

Even when starving and evading potential family pursuit, I never touched mushrooms that looked so suspicious.

That would be a shortcut to the afterlife.

“Are you sure? I’ve never seen a mushroom like that near Beijing.”

“Yeah, pretty sure. I heard a blood boar appeared around here a few months ago.”

She explained that a blood boar was a crimson, monstrous boar that grew by consuming toxic herbs, insects, and mushrooms.

Split open its belly, and you’d likely find a poison pill inside—making it almost a spiritual beast.

“That beast has a real thing for Black Pine Fungus. So if you know where it’s been, you can roughly guess where the mushrooms are.”

Kind of like using a trained pig to find truffles.

“But what if we run into that Blood Boar while picking those poisonous mushrooms?”

Scuffling with a spiritual beast—this wasn’t a task suitable for new wanderers.

Didn’t seem like it’d stack much good karma either.

“That won’t happen. That thing never stays in one place for long. It’s probably long gone by now.”

Apparently, it was the kind that wandered off coolly in search of the next place after devouring everything in its path.

And while it was big, it was also slow, so using movement techniques to flee would suffice.

A statement showing no regard for Ilhong or her own servant.

“More than that, worry about bumping into wild beasts or bandits while gathering mushrooms. You call yourselves wanderers—handle at least that much on your own, will you?”

“Yes, yes.”

I’m the guy who beat down dozens of bandits and thieves in the last request, remember?

“Then hurry up, grab a sack, and stick with Neungsam to lend a hand. We’ve got a lot to do today.”

And so, the sudden mushroom-gathering quest began.

Tang Yeo-hye also pointed out the appearances of toxic herbs and insects along the way, telling us to collect those too if we could.

She said she’d pay handsomely per piece or creature.

“Oh, and for the record, even if you find Black Pine Fungus, don’t touch it, okay? That thing releases poison if you so much as brush it.”

This was the kind of request that made you want to just head home.

If I made it back this time, I’d definitely criticize the Chairman’s lousy intuition.

In my past life as a troubleshooter, I’d experienced all kinds of wild jobs.

All-nighter stakeouts, diving into lakes for corpses, undercover work in manufacturing plants, even scaring off bullies pretending to be a scary uncle with temporary tattoos.

Sometimes I felt like a detective, other times I wondered what kind of dog work this was.

Ironically, here in the Central Plains doing wanderer work, I was feeling that exact same way.

“Foraging for wild greens now, huh? Really doing it all.”

Still, I was a proper registered wanderer with personal martial strength.

But to these noble clans, I seemed no more than a grunt who was easy to order around and ignore.

When I first stepped into this line of work, I thought my life would constantly be soaked in blood.

Aside from my aching back from all the foraging, everything felt surprisingly peaceful.

“Not the bamboo shoot-looking one, the one next to it is the poisonous herb, you idiot.”

Except for that one woman from the Tang Clan who wouldn’t shut her mouth.

While some of us dug around like trappers, eagerly collecting, she strolled behind us with her hands behind her back, spouting criticisms.

I grabbed a handful of poisonous herbs and stuffed them into the sack, then tapped Ilhong on the shoulder.

“Ilhong, is that woman strong?”

“Oh, incredibly. She can project her internal energy externally, and you see those dark green fingernails? That’s Seven-Finger Poison—just a graze and you’ll puke blood and die.”

Ha, shit.

I’d better not get cocky.

Suppressing my temper, I quietly kept picking herbs and mushrooms, tossing them into the sack.

Working diligently, I soon had it filled to the brim.

“Hey, Boss. Isn’t this a shiitake mushroom?”

It’s a reflex among former beggars to react when they spot something edible.

It’s a survival habit.

“That? Not a shiitake, but it’s edible. Used to be one of my main food sources.”

Light brown and somewhat like an oyster mushroom.

It was a precious nutrient source that became a beam of hope while I was starving on my way to Beijing.

I had kept walking, plucking those along with some unknown berries, washing them down with river water.

“There’s actually quite a lot of edible stuff out here.”

Ilhong, daughter of the Hao Sect leader and a city girl, said with genuine surprise.

“Right?”

Unlike the city, which was like a desert if you had no money, the mountains had plenty of edible wild things.

Though, there were also wild animals like tigers and bears—and bandits who hunted people too.

Still, since we’d found some, maybe we should grab a few to eat?

“Hey, are you crazy? That’s a poisonous mushroom. Drop it.”

As I plucked what looked like an ordinary mushroom, Tang Yeo-hye suddenly shouted.

“…But this is an edible mushroom?”

“What nonsense. That’s a Fire Mirror mushroom. It’s used in execution poison.”

She slapped it from my hand, saying that eating too much would paralyze limbs and organs.

Wait, what?

You mean I’ve been stuffing myself with this thinking it was edible?

That explains the red glows that flickered before my eyes every time I swallowed it.

Back then, I didn’t know what that glow was and felt no stomach pain, so I’d happily scarfed them down.

“I overheard earlier. How much of this stuff did you eat?”

“Uh, back then it was a do-or-die situation, so I just ate everything I could see.”

Anything in sight, anything I could grab. I wasn’t in a position to be picky, so I’d shoved in everything from bark to random plants.

“…You’re insane. How are you still alive?”

Good question.

To be totally fine after eating execution poison? Maybe I’m amazing.

“Boss’s incredible. You must have a glutton spirit inside you.”

“Ilhong, that was a compliment, right?”

I guess the Heaven-Slaying Star in my head saved me.

If I died, it’d have to wait centuries for the next Heaven-Slaying Star to emerge.

So it had a vested interest in keeping this body alive.

At the same time, it was always lurking, ready to snatch control of my consciousness.

“Wow, you’re really something… You were totally fine?”

Then suddenly, a searing stare grilled the side of my face.

Maybe it was the poison arts, but her green-tinged eyes stared directly into me.

“Hey, wanna take on another request? It’s simple—just try the poisons I make now and then and tell me how they feel.”

“No thanks.”

Tang Yeo-hye grinned as she made a highly suspicious suggestion.

Her eyes lit up like she’d found something fascinating.

“I’ll pay you handsomely. You won’t want for anything.”

“No need.”

“You were just saying earlier you were so poor you ate poisonous mushrooms.”

“From now on, I’ve decided to just stay poor.”

You want me to do clinical trials in this barbaric Central Plains?

And not just for anyone—for a Tang Clan master who can reduce people to blood puddles?

Even the Heaven-Slaying Star shouldn’t touch this with a ten-foot pole.

“Don’t worry. I’m the Poison Claw Blood Artist—won’t kill you. Just trust this noona, okay?”

“No interest.”

Not dying isn’t the point. Who knows what kind of side effects I’d suffer?

“You’re acting like it’s some precious commodity. It’s not like it runs out.”

She grumbled while scratching her cheek.

It does run out, you lunatic.

I hugged myself with both arms and slowly stepped away from someone much smaller than me.

“…Lady! Lady Tang Yeo-hye!”

Just then, a voice pierced through the vegetation, along with firm footsteps.

“What? What’s going on?”

“Huff, huff! I found a place where Black Pine Fungus is growing! Please, come quickly!”

The voice belonged to none other than Tang Yeo-hye’s loyal servant and my savior, Neungsam.

“Tch, fine. Got it.”