Gratitude and Grudges
In a great house, the clan head’s word came first; in a sect, the sect master’s command outranked everything.
When Tang Hye-seo produced the sect master’s token and gave the order, the Jeodok Hall members finally dropped to one knee and answered in unison.
"Yes, ma'am!"
The senior Jeodok Hall member at the front didn’t lower himself. He didn’t even sheath the sword he’d already drawn.
He bit his lip as he looked at the fallen deputy hall master, then kicked off the ground and charged straight in. His blade came for Tang Hye-seo.
As if she’d been waiting for exactly that, Tang Hye-seo drew her sword in a flash.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
In just five exchanges, she carved another traitor across the shoulder and drove a hard kick into his lower abdomen.
"Ugh!"
Almost at the same time, one of her subordinates hurled a hidden weapon that buried itself in the senior man’s back.
"Bind the traitors!"
The Jeodok Hall members rushed in and took control of the senior man and the deputy hall master.
They gagged them, twisted their arms behind their backs, tied them at the waist, then wrapped the ropes around their whole bodies and legs until they were bound tight as cocoons.
It was obvious they’d done this sort of thing more than once; their movements were smooth and practiced.
Tang Do-hun, eyes wide, couldn’t put up the slightest resistance. The hidden weapon he’d been hit with had probably been coated in a paralyzing poison.
Once the traitors were subdued, Tang Se-yeong let out a relieved breath. Gyeong-jae came over and held her gently.
Tang Hye-seo sheathed her sword and stepped in front of the two of them.
"Sister Yeong, brother-in-law. Come back to Sichuan with us."
"To Sichuan?"
Tang Se-yeong looked up at Gyeong-jae from where she stood in his arms. Gyeong-jae met Tang Hye-seo’s gaze with a stiff expression.
"...Is that really all right?"
"The sect master has agreed to recognize your marriage. You’ve earned that much by helping expose the Tang Clan’s traitors."
Once they heard the answer, the young lovers’ faces lit up.
"Let’s go home now. Back to Sichuan."
"Yeah. Let’s go. Home."
The Jeodok Hall members who had finished binding the prisoners put on gloves and went into the forest to recover the hidden weapons Tang Do-hun had scattered everywhere.
Gyeong-jae, Tang Se-yeong, Tang Hye-seo, and their subordinates cut branches with their swords and made a stretcher.
While everyone was busily moving about, Tang Hye-seo came over to me.
"Is it over?"
"It has to be."
Tang Hye-seo fixed a cold look on the awkwardly standing wandering swordsman.
Of the three wandering swordsmen hired from the tavern, two had been hit by poisoned hidden weapons and died in the chaos. Somehow, one of them had survived.
The middle-aged swordsman Won Seo-gang had called Brother Dong.
Tang Hye-seo stared at him for a long moment, then drew her sword again. It was the inevitable next step. Since he’d been dragged into Tang Clan business and seen things he shouldn’t have, she couldn’t very well let him live.
This was just how wandering swordsmen who worked for money ended up. Bitter as it was, it wasn’t my place to interfere.
"W-wait. I fought like my life depended on it, and this is how you repay me?"
"I’m not asking for your understanding."
As Tang Hye-seo took a step forward, the swordsman clenched his teeth and grabbed the hilt of his blade. But his hands only trembled; he still couldn’t bring himself to draw it.
Tang Hye-seo had subdued the senior Jeodok Hall member with no trouble at all. The swordsman probably sensed that if he drew his weapon, he’d die the instant it left the scabbard.
He backed away and looked around frantically. Then, catching sight of me, he turned to Won Seo-gang.
"Brother Won. Isn’t there any way I can live through this?"
I’d expected Won Seo-gang to ignore him, but he said something I didn’t expect.
"Would you do anything?"
"Huh? Y-yeah, anything! Just say the word!"
"Then join the Haomu Sect. That’ll save your life."
The swordsman’s eyes went wide.
"The Haomu Sect? You’re with the Haomu Sect?"
"I’ve got one foot in it."
"Ah, I see. Then I’ll join the Haomu Sect. Please take care of me."
Once the swordsman grabbed onto that lifeline, Tang Hye-seo asked,
"Are you vouching for him on the Haomu Sect’s side?"
"I’ll mediate. Go to Seochon and speak with the branch leader. Brother Jeong here and I both witnessed this, so it won’t make much difference if there’s one more witness."
"Is this man tight-lipped?"
"He’ll be tight-lipped. If not while he’s alive, then after he’s dead. I can guarantee that."
The terrified swordsman desperately defended himself.
"Tight-lipped! So tight-lipped it’s like Mount Tai! Maybe I’m getting old, because my eyes are bad at night and my memory’s gone, so I can barely tell what I saw. I’m not even sure where we are or who I am, so..."
Tang Hye-seo sheathed her sword.
"Then go to the Haomu Sect branch and explain it there."
Watching all this, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t really someone else’s problem.
That swordsman’s fate was the same as mine right after I’d heard about Lou-zhu and Yi Yun-jae’s secret.
If he slipped up and said the wrong thing even once from now on, he’d be found as a corpse in some back alley before long—right beside everyone else who’d heard the secret.
From Tang Hye-seo’s point of view, killing him would’ve been the easiest and safest thing in the world, so her decision to step back surprised me a little.
The Tang Clan and the Haomu Sect seemed to cooperate much more closely than I’d assumed.
And if they weren’t especially close, why had Won Seo-gang gone out of his way to save that swordsman? One wrong move could bring trouble down on him too.
The Jeodok Hall members who had recovered all the hidden weapons gathered together. They loaded the two bound traitors onto the stretcher and returned to the inn as a group.
The memorable night passed with me experiencing both the Tang Clan’s famed hidden-weapon techniques and its surprisingly flexible attitude firsthand, and by morning, day had broken.
Without even eating breakfast, we hurried onto the carriage and turned back the way we’d come yesterday.
By the time we reached the gorge where we’d wiped out the bandits, the stench under the blazing sun was so foul it stabbed straight into my nose.
Flies buzzed like a swarm of angry bees, and the wolves that had buried their muzzles in the corpses and torn into them greedily lifted their heads at the sound of the carriage.
They stared at us with their tongues hanging out, licking blood from their snouts.
Their openly greedy expressions made my hand drift to my saber before I even realized it. I wanted to set the whole place on fire and be done with it, but wasting time on beasts was pointless.
Sitting in the carriage with my arms folded, I was out of that hellish mountain range and onto the official road before long.
After pushing the journey without rest, we finally made it back to my long-missed hometown of Seochon in the early afternoon.
Since the commissioned job was finished, I stopped by Simhyangru for a moment before heading straight home.
It was an empty house with no one in it, and I’d only been gone one night, but it still felt so warmly, painfully welcome that my chest tightened.
I put down my saber and bundle, then sprawled out on the veranda. A pleasant breeze came drifting by, and drowsiness rose over me like a soft fog.
The rustle of bamboo leaves far away felt like a hand beckoning from beyond memory. In the warmth of that dreamlike haze, I made the same vow once more.
I’m not leaving my hometown again.
The Tang Clan members shut themselves away in the annex. Two days later, the Tang Clan’s rear party that had left Sichuan arrived at Simhyangru.
"Tang Do-hun. Where is the stolen Iron Arm Armor?"
At the inner hall elder’s question, Tang Do-hun, bound to a chair, answered without emotion.
"I sold it."
Having gone days without washing, Tang Do-hun looked rough and filthy.
People said Tang Clan methods were brutal, so I’d expected them to start by ripping out his fingernails and searing him with hot irons, but there wasn’t a single sign of torture.
For people who specialized in poison, there were far more effective methods than that.
A confession drug made by mixing opium with Mihonsan. One bottle of that and there wasn’t a mouth in the world that stayed shut.
So Tang Do-hun’s answer was probably the truth.
The elder asked in disbelief,
"Sold it? One of the Tang Clan’s three great divine treasures? What kind of ungrateful bastard are you?"
"Hahaha!"
Tang Do-hun burst into wild laughter. He laughed long and hard enough to make the underground interrogation room ring, then fixed the elder with hazy eyes.
"You hand out things no one ever asked for on your own, then call it kindness. That’s very Tang Clan of you."
"Have you forgotten that you’re one of the Tang Clan too?"
"I’m not Tang. My father was a Jo. I’m Jo Do-hun."
"Your father received the Tang surname through the Tang Clan’s grace. And your mother is a Tang daughter. How can you deny your own bloodline?"
Tang Do-hun bared his bloodshot eyes.
"I hate the Tang Clan. Being looked down on because I was born into a collateral branch, being forced to swallow horrible poisons from the age of seven in the name of building internal poison resistance, the suffocatingly closed-minded family rules... I hated all of it. I liked my main family better. The Jo family clinic in a quiet rural village. It was the only escape from that savage, merciless Tang household."
The elder frowned, as if something had just come back to him.
"I loved the smell of simmering medicinal herbs. Every time I visited for the holidays, I understood it more deeply. I wasn’t suited to poison that killed people. I was better off with medicine that saved them..."
Little by little, killing intent began to seep into Tang Do-hun’s voice.
"That ended when I was about twelve. Everyone in the main family was suddenly slaughtered. They said it was the work of bandits, but I learned the truth later. The culprit was one of the Tang Clan. My grandfather’s new prescription for some strange epidemic was the problem. The previous sect master, who happened to realize it weakened the effect of the Eight Great Deadly Poisons, made a move in a hurry. In a very big hurry. Huuuuu..."
After letting out a long, collapsing sigh, Tang Do-hun went on.
"He could have just warned them not to produce it. Instead, he wiped them out completely. He must’ve been terribly panicked. Well, poison is the Tang Clan’s power. If even the slightest bit of information leaked, he probably thought it would be dangerous. That’s when I decided it— I’d get revenge on the Tang Clan... And that’s why I joined Jeodok Hall, the hall that specializes in detoxification..."
The elder, who’d been listening in silence, finally spoke.
"Who did you sell the Iron Arm Armor to?"
"I don’t know. I handed it over to a black-market broker, so go ask around. Hah-hah-hah."
"If the Iron Arm Armor falls into the wrong hands, disaster could strike the Tang Clan. Will your remaining family be safe then?"
Tang Do-hun shook his head with a detached expression.
"I only did what I was taught. Kindness is repaid double, and grudges are repaid tenfold. I paid back kindness twice over while I worked in Jeodok Hall. Now it’s time to repay my grudges tenfold..."
Standing behind him, Tang Hye-seo watched the interrogation with a complicated expression.
No clan or sect was immune to traitors. It was as inevitable as weeds growing in a field.
I’d seen traitors rooted out many times since I was young, but this was the first time a big shot at the deputy hall master level had been involved.
Tang Do-hun had come from a collateral branch, but he’d been unusually promoted to a high rank because of his talent for hidden weapons and poison arts.
He’d also had a mild temper and never mistreated his subordinates, so he was well liked and had many people who followed him.
No one could say for sure how many other traitors and supporters Tang Do-hun had working with him.
If they moved too hastily, there was a real chance blood would be spilled among kin in Chengdu.
When Tang Do-hun had pinned the theft of the Iron Arm Armor on Tang Se-yeong and left Sichuan leading the pursuit team, they’d decided to turn that against him instead.
After he was outside the main text, they would arrest him.
Because they couldn’t trust even other Tang Clan members, they’d brought only one subordinate and borrowed the Haomu Sect’s help.
And yet Tang Do-hun really was a traitor.
If that fact became public, the shock and turmoil that would hit the Tang Clan would be even worse than what Tang Hye-seo had already experienced.
They’d have to report it to the sect master, but officially Tang Do-hun would be recorded as having died while carrying out an outside assignment.
The Jeodok Hall members who had been on site would be sent to the Tang Clan’s prison for retraining until things settled down.
The whereabouts of the Iron Arm Armor remained unknown, but thankfully the other deadly poisons and hidden weapons hadn’t been leaked.
Without the poison and hidden weapons meant to be mounted inside it, the Iron Arm Armor was nothing more than an annoying shield you strapped to your arm and carried around.
After the interrogation ended, the elder and Tang Hye-seo went back upstairs. Once they came outside, one of the Tang Clan members waiting there hurried over.
"Elder. A homing pigeon has arrived from the main sect."
After taking the small tube and checking its contents, the elder’s face darkened.
"What is it?"
"While checking the inventory in the vault, they confirmed that some of the poisons were missing from the Manpo Hall."
"Don’t tell me it’s one of the deadly poisons?"
The elder stroked his beard with a troubled expression.
"Sinseonpye and Gun jasan."
Tang Hye-seo blinked in confusion.
"Aren’t those both qi-dispersing poisons? What about the others?"
"Fortunately, nothing else was leaked. The vault’s security is so tight they must’ve taken whatever was easiest to grab..."
Of all things, they’d stolen the qi-dispersing poisons just because they were comparatively easy to take. It didn’t make any sense.
Though Sinseonpye and Gun jasan were nominally among the Eight Great Deadly Poisons, they had no poison properties of their own.
As the name qi-dispersing poison suggested, they merely interfered with internal energy and scattered it, preventing a martial artist from gathering it.
To ordinary martial artists without internal energy, they were less dangerous than the lime powder Jeong Dae-cheon had thrown a few days ago.
Martial artists were scattered everywhere like grains of sand along a riverbank, but among them, only a tiny number had truly mastered an internal cultivation method.
Absolute experts who could fuse profound internal energy into their forms and transcend human limits were rare enough to count on one hand.
And among all the poisons they could have stolen, they took only qi-dispersing poison...
Following logic and cause and effect, Tang Hye-seo suddenly shuddered.
Someone was targeting absolute masters. With Tang Clan poison and weapons.
Just imagining Iron Arm Armor equipped with Sinseonpye and Gun jasan being used against an absolute expert made my head spin.
The leaders of the orthodox sects, the martial alliance leader, the heads of the other five great families...
Whoever it was, if they were ambushed by qi-dispersing poison and the Tang Clan was traced as the source, the entire sect could be dragged into a bloodbath.
In the worst case, they could even be declared enemies of the martial world.
The Nine Orthodox Sects and the great families already found the Tang Clan unpleasant. Even if the stolen weapon turned out to have been taken from them, they wouldn’t miss the chance to wipe them out.
I’d thought once Tang Do-hun was captured, everything would be over. What a foolish mistake.
This had only just begun.
Before returning to Sichuan, Tang Hye-seo came looking for me.
"About that Seven-Treasure Soul Dispersal Powder..."
I flinched. Was she going to accuse me of impersonating a Tang Clan deadly poison?
"It is a powder-form refined poison, yes, but it’s light yellow, not white. Keep that in mind."
"...That’s why you called me over?"
"If I’m going to say something, I want it to be exact. It was dark, so you were fooled. If it had been daytime, there’s no way. See you around."
We probably wouldn’t see each other again. They still had to check for more traitors and track down the stolen Iron Arm Armor, so the Tang Clan would be busy for quite a while.
Of course, that had nothing to do with me.
As payment for cutting down the bandits and surviving that murderous storm of hidden weapons, ten taels of silver ended up in my hands.
Four taels added on top of two days’ wages as a bonus for my trouble meant the Tang Clan’s spending wasn’t all that bad.
"By the way, what exactly is the Iron Arm Armor?"
Won Seo-gang poured tea and tilted his head.
"No idea. It seems like a device made by the Tang Clan, but I’ve never seen it myself. Considering there aren’t even any proper rumors about it, I’d say the people who have seen it didn’t have time to tell anyone about it."
They probably all died. Dead men tell no tales.
"Why’d you save that Brother Dong or whatever his name is? Could cause trouble for us later."
"Do you mean Dong Ho-sak? That fellow’s pretty useful. Too valuable to be killed and buried."
"What’s he good at that makes you say that?"
"The ability to get over walls. By his own account, he’s a self-proclaimed divine thief who’s never met a wall he couldn’t climb."
"A thief?"
"Aren’t all martial artists thieves in one way or another? I saw him before; he really can clear a wall like a snake. Apparently he once got bold enough to try robbing the Namgung Clan, only to barely survive after taking a blade across the face, and that’s how he became a wandering swordsman. I was thinking of breaking him in slowly myself, but now that he’s fallen under the Haomu Sect’s shadow, it saves me the trouble."
"You’re planning to use him against the Black Night Gang?"
Won Seo-gang smiled faintly.
"If he survived the Namgung Clan and came back alive, infiltrating the Black Night Gang should be no problem. If he’s lying, then he’ll pay for it there."
There it was. He hadn’t gone out of his way to save a wandering swordsman he barely knew out of pity after all.
After talking with Won Seo-gang in the annex for a while, I went home.
I was idly chewing dried meat while watching the sunset when someone began hammering on the front gate. I went outside and found Gu-sam.
"I told you not to come for deliveries today."
"M-mister! Mister! It’s urgent! Please open the gate, fast!"
"If you need to take a dump, go up the mountain."
"That’s not it! Someone’s looking for you, sir! They even came to the inn and showed a sketch of your face!"
My ears perked up. Once I opened the gate, Gu-sam rushed inside. He was breathing so hard from running that he was practically wheezing.
"Who’s looking for me?"
"An old man who looks like a Daoist... huff, huff... He came to the inn, ordered a meal, and asked if anyone had seen this person while holding out a wanted sketch. And get this—the face on it was obviously you, sir."
"So?"
"I told him I didn’t know who it was. Then I pretended to be busy with something else, slipped out, and ran here as fast as I could."
"Figured as much."
That wasn’t me speaking. Someone else pushed the half-open gate and came inside.
It was an old man with white hair, dressed in a white Daoist robe.
"Eek!"
Gu-sam yelped and stumbled backward, landing on his backside.
The old man studied my face closely.
"Close enough."
"Who are you?"
Whether I was wary or not, the old man said only what he came to say.
"You, didn’t you learn saber techniques from a one-armed man in Hangzhou?"