‘Humor comes out best when a person is a bit crazy.’

Cheon Woo seemed to have expected some mysterious strategy.

But he doesn’t know. Even his master, who employs such mysterious strategies all over the place, simply cracks heads when he finds it bothersome.

‘Seriously, do they think I’m some kind of trick bag… why is everyone like this?’

Jin Cheonhee was beginning to understand his master’s feelings.

The expectations and image people placed on the Zhuge Clan.

That image of seeking mysterious strategies while ignoring the easier path!

‘But neither I nor my master has the personality to care about such things.’

Jin Cheonhee naturally melted into the darkness.

Among the miscellaneous martial arts learned at the White Dragon Medical Pavilion, there was one that, while insufficient to be called a concealment technique, allowed movement without sound.

Combined with the methods of movement taught by Ilkana from the outer world assassins and his Three-Elements Stride refined to the extreme, it would be difficult for anyone but a highly skilled master to detect Jin Cheonhee.

Through these means, attaching himself to the roof of the village chief’s house where the County Magistrate was staying was very easy for Jin Cheonhee.

Using Hwanggu to locate the County Magistrate, he moved to the roof above his room and lay flat.

‘Life has led me to do such things… this is actually quite fun?’

In Supreme Heavenly Demon, Yeo Ha-ryoon also occasionally engaged in such covert operations.

After becoming the Heavenly Demon and fully walking the path of tyranny, he would crack heads without question, but before that, he often had to uncover his opponents’ conspiracies and schemes.

‘I’m not as cool as Yeo Ha-ryoon, but I’m still pretty impressive.’

For the sake of his middle-aged pride, he would never say this aloud, but a little self-admiration at times like this couldn’t hurt.

Just then, voices rang out.

“Aish, damn it! Why did that young White-Robed Divine Dragon have to appear and interfere!”

“County Magistrate. It’s not all bad. Their demand was simply not to take the cargo, wasn’t it? Just by stalling for time, we’ve accomplished what we needed to.”

The voices of the County Magistrate and village chief echoed.

‘Village chief, somehow you remained unharmed.’

In this chaos, only the village chief and his family were unscathed.

Of course, amid the chaotic battle, one could think this might be coincidental.

However, the largest tiled house in the village. Obviously full of things worth looting, yet the bandits left it untouched?

‘It’s sad to have my suspicions confirmed this way.’

Today, the village chief had helped with the funerals of the deceased as the village representative and spent money to bring in morticians.

He had embraced coffins and wept together with the mourners.

-Oh, Manseok! Didn’t you promise me you’d live to see your son’s wedding! You heartless man…

Seeing this, some villagers had wiped away tears.

And this village chief was the cause of the bloodbath?

The villagers could never have imagined it.

In fact, Jin Cheonhee himself found it difficult to understand.

In a village like this, people typically know even how many spoons their neighbors have.

When going out to work in the fields, they would take turns, with one villager responsible for looking after all the children.

In modern terms, it would be like neighbors functioning as daycare centers.

Who would have thought that people who lived face-to-face, sharing their lives, would suddenly change and contribute to the massacre of their own families?

“The problem is that you lack forethought! If done well, we could have swallowed up the cargo and disposed of it!”

At the County Magistrate’s rebuke, the village chief groaned “Kuung” and then responded.

“I’m… I’m terribly sorry… but it was beyond this humble villager’s control. That White-Robed Divine Dragon gave no openings…”

“Aish. How can such a young bastard be so cunning? Even when I offered reasonable justifications, he countered with even greater ones…”

“If even you, County Magistrate, couldn’t manage it, what could an ignorant village chief like me do?”

Jin Cheonhee fell into thought.

‘I think I’ve heard enough. This was ultimately a rigged game involving the County Magistrate, the village chief, and the Green Forest bandits. Of course… things couldn’t be resolved so easily.’

In most people’s minds:

The protagonist, a so-called hero, saves people in distress and exterminates bandits.

Afterward, people cheer “Long live the great hero!” spreading his reputation far and wide.

That “great hero” says, “This? This is nothing. No thanks necessary,” and leaves without accepting a single coin.

Everyone praises the heroic spirit of the hero who came like the wind and disappeared like the wind, and the story ends.

‘But is reality like that?’

Jin Cheonhee, a real martial world physician who faithfully pays taxes to the government, knows reality.

New bandits emerge where the old ones were exterminated, and these new bandits will attack people again.

To avoid such attacks, people will have to pay money to bandits under the pretext of protection fees.

Just as good flows naturally, so does evil.

That’s the way of the world.

Meanwhile, what does the government do?

This bloodbath is on a different scale from simple smuggling, prostitution, or assassination.

In this era without phones, internet, or social media, it’s infinitely impossible for imperial law to reach such a remote corner.

‘That’s why there are inspectors like me.’

But even such inspectors need luck to discover corruption.

If Jin Cheonhee had arrived a few days earlier or later, he would never have discovered these circumstances.

‘I was lucky.’

A smile crept onto his face, but his heart was still boiling.

‘So people died because of bastards like these…’

The County Magistrate continued speaking.

“What about the smuggled goods from the merchant group?”

“Don’t worry. They’re well stored. You can use them as much as you need.”

“Hey, do you take me for a drug addict?”

Hmm, there are no opium fields in this region.

If there were, Noe-jin would have notified him long ago.

That means they were also acting as intermediary transporters.

‘Village chief, you’ve been quite busy.’

During the day, handling all village matters; at night, scheming and plotting while extorting money and lives from villagers.

‘I could ambush them right now and reveal my inspector’s token, but I’d prefer some evidence…’

This is the problem with a world without voice recorders.

They’ll certainly wail about being wronged.

Though I could suppress them with the inspector’s authority, it would be better to have something decisive to report to superiors more quickly…

‘Should I wait leisurely from above?’

For a behind-the-scenes operation of this scale, there must be account books.

If they’re discussing money and making future plans, they’ll have to open those books at some point.

‘Plus, in martial arts novel terms, these guys are minor villains.’

Unless they were the Golden Blood Chamber or under the Demonic Cult.

They don’t have the scale or brains to plan things so meticulously.

Jin Cheonhee watched their actions leisurely.

It required no special strategy or mysterious prediction.

Eventually.

Finally, the County Magistrate spoke.

“Shouldn’t we prepare a secret vault soon? That Police Bureau Chief is quite strict, so we should make preparations.”

“Ah, you mean that Jin Seungbae fellow? If we’re thinking about business expansion, we certainly should. However… this…”

It seems the Police Bureau Chief wasn’t part of their gang after all.

The village chief rubbed his hands while trailing off.

The County Magistrate clicked his tongue.

“Aish! I’ll provide the funds. We can hire workers claiming to repair places destroyed by the bandits.”

“Heheh. That’s right.”

“Bring out the ledger now.”

At those words, the village chief takes out a grimy book from a hollow space behind the bookshelf in the wall.

“Hey, get a new ledger with fresh paper. It’s too filthy.”

How thoughtful, even bringing out the ledger on his own.

My, how kind.

At that moment. Jin Cheonhee’s figure dropped down.

Whack!

Jin Cheonhee’s body landed on the County Magistrate’s thick shoulders.

“Kueeeek!”

The County Magistrate screamed and tumbled forward with a crash.

‘This guy hasn’t trained in martial arts either.’

According to imperial law, government officials receiving imperial salaries should at least practice basic martial arts for self-defense and health, if not proper martial arts.

It’s law, but that doesn’t mean inspectors will hold a “World’s Best Official” competition where they crack each other’s heads—it’s more like an imperial decree for cultural refinement.

Regardless, in this barbaric era, a County Magistrate should at least be able to draw his sword and flee when necessary.

‘Too busy collecting bribes to think about anything else, I guess.’

The County Magistrate shouted.

“Who are you?!”

Jin Cheonhee pulled out his bracelet as if he’d been waiting for this.

“Imperial Inspector!”

“What is that…?”

Ah, I pulled out the wrong bracelet.

“…”

He had taken out the Demonic Cult artifact that Yeo Ha-ryoon had given him.

Jin Cheonhee put the Demonic Cult artifact back and this time took out the genuine inspector’s token with a blinging golden dragon.

“Imperial Inspector!”

Only then did both the village chief and County Magistrate freeze, their eyes wide.

“Is Police Bureau Chief Jin Seungbae outside?!”

After shouting loudly with internal energy mixed in, Jin Seungbae burst through the door shortly after.

“What’s going on… Huh… an inspector’s token!”

Jin Cheonhee picked up the ledger they had dropped and said.

“Having discovered evidence of the County Magistrate’s corruption, Police Bureau Chief Jin Seungbae shall immediately arrest these individuals!”

“Yes! What are you all doing outside! Arrest these two criminals at once!”

At those words, the County Magistrate and village chief shouted in panic.

“Please spare us! Please spare us, my lord!”

“I’m innocent! This was all the village chief’s scheme, and I just learned about it now!”

The County Magistrate’s voice was truly filled with indignation.

If one didn’t know better, they might be fooled.

Even when the village chief embraced the villagers’ corpses and wept openly, Jin Cheonhee had worried whether he was wrongly suspecting an innocent person based merely on circumstances.

But now, he felt that justice had been served.

“Whether there are wrongful accusations will be investigated from now on. I will reveal the truth clearly and unequivocally!”

With this king-god-general vintage ledger and the mountain bandit leader’s head, any hidden secrets will be revealed.

‘Of course, the head needs to be still attached to a living body.’

When resolving such matters, truly classic martial artists sometimes cut off heads, pack them in salt boxes, and deliver them to government offices.

Wang Gak-yeon once did this, creating a dark history for herself.

That’s a very inefficient method.

Though Jin Cheonhee himself aims for non-killing, separate from that, a person’s tongue needs to move to testify, right?

‘Phew, I’ve captured the suspects and evidence, so I just need to gather the bandit leader to complete the three-piece set.’

My collector’s blood is boiling!