Wolves
The Haomu Sect didn’t hand the opium smuggler over to Pyo Hol-deuk right away. They dragged him to another detached house first and gave him a quick interrogation. Beaten half to death by the Black Night Gang, the dealer had become so cooperative he would spill ten answers if you only asked for one.
His name was Yi Lim, a martial artist from Qinghai. He had worked his way up through the usual filthy ladder of crime—petty theft, murder, robbery, banditry, and finally opium smuggling. A proper textbook scoundrel.
He had been caught in Gansu while heading back from Xinjiang after a deal with an opium smuggler there. When the Martial Arts Alliance’s inspectors stumbled onto him, steel came out, his companions were all killed, and he barely escaped alone, shaking off his pursuers and running for his life.
Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Hubei were full of righteous sects tied to the Martial Arts Alliance, so he had dodged and dodged until he washed up here in Seochon. He claimed the opium on him was everything he had left.
In the middle of the questioning, a commotion broke out outside. Pyo Hol-deuk, having somehow gotten wind of it, came storming over with his face red and his voice rising in anger.
“This is intolerable! Why is the Haomu Sect interrogating an opium smuggler the Martial Arts Alliance is already hunting? When I return to the Alliance, I’ll raise this as a formal complaint!”
Geuk-hwan handed over the smuggler and soothed him with a few polite words, and only then did Pyo Hol-deuk reluctantly return to the detached house.
After the opium matter was settled, I went straight to the Rogue Inn. If I wanted to keep Bok Ha-gyu from pulling any tricks, I had to wrap up the deal while Pyo Hol-deuk was still in Seochon.
“It’s all over, so keep your promise.”
“The branch master... is not in good health.”
“You’re changing the subject now? The Martial Arts Alliance inspector is still here with the Haomu Sect.”
Even with a naked threat hanging in the air, Bok Ha-gyu calmly filled his own cup. “Ask the Haomu Sect. See whether the branch master has shown his face recently.”
That reminded me of what I’d heard from Geuk-hwan. Two years ago, Jeok Chu-yeong had suddenly vanished. So that had been because of illness?
“Then when can I see him?”
“Wait a little longer. He’ll need to recover his strength before he can talk to you.”
Bok Ha-gyu didn’t promise anything outright. Still, the way he said it, flat and stubborn, was probably the truth.
If I got angry and drew my blade, he looked like he’d be perfectly willing to face me anyway. It wouldn’t open the door to the branch master’s quarters, though.
He was brazen to the point of being hopeless, but he still seemed better than the kinds of men who dressed up lies in pretty words.
Empty-handed, I walked home through the dark streets, my thoughts unsettled now that I had no idea when I’d be able to see Jeok Chu-yeong. A servant sent by Geuk-hwan was waiting outside my house.
When I followed him to Simhyangru, Geuk-hwan dropped a piece of news that was almost absurd enough to be funny.
“It appears that inspector is an impostor.”
I didn’t feel much either way. It was already over, so what did it matter now?
No... come to think of it.
If Bok Ha-gyu found out, he might not only refuse to let me meet Jeok Chu-yeong, he might even draw his sword in outrage, furious that I’d dared mock him by producing a fake inspector.
My head started to throb.
“Has there been any contact from the Haomu Sect headquarters or the Martial Arts Alliance?”
“No. Nothing yet.”
“Then the real Pyo Hol-deuk showed up somewhere else?”
“It is true that a Martial Arts Alliance inspector named Pyo Hol-deuk disappeared in Gansu while pursuing an opium smuggler with the Kongdong Sect martial artists.”
“Then on what grounds did you suddenly change your mind?”
Geuk-hwan explained in a tone full of quiet certainty.
“The Pyo Hol-deuk who took the smuggler received full payment and said he would depart early tomorrow morning. He paid quite generously, too—by draft.”
“Could the drafts have been fake?”
“They were genuine.”
“Then?”
When I looked at him in confusion, Geuk-hwan gave a faint smile.
“The Martial Arts Alliance’s officers never open their own money pouches. Most of them simply use Alliance funds. They try to pass everything off as official expenses somehow—formal assignments, meals, drinks, even their entertainment in the pleasure houses.”
Embezzlement was common in every organization. I’d seen more than a few gangs’ hired blades living off the public purse while I was working for different factions. As long as the amount wasn’t too outrageous, people usually looked the other way in the name of morale.
“The Haomu Sect and the Martial Arts Alliance do business on credit. Alliance officers present their identity plaque and seal, sign their name, and can draw a set amount of funds on account. The Martial Arts Alliance settles everything in bulk twice a year. I’ve dealt with plenty of their men, but not once have I ever seen one pay with drafts or silver.”
That was information only an insider would know. So that was where Pyo Hol-deuk had been caught.
“Asking the Haomu Sect for help in seizing the smuggler was obviously an official matter. No matter how upright and incorruptible an officer may be, the rules say it should be handled through public funds. I tested him carefully, and he didn’t even know that such funds could be used. A real inspector could never be that ignorant.”
“Are you going to catch Pyo Hol-deuk and hand him over to the Martial Arts Alliance?”
Geuk-hwan shook his head. “The loss would be greater than the gain. Our sect is an intelligence organization. The branch master’s order is to avoid conflict, follow them once they leave Simhyangru tomorrow, and report where they go.”
“How far are you planning to tail them?”
“Messengers have already been sent to all the nearby branches. No matter which direction they take, we only need to follow them until another branch can take over the surveillance.”
Who would the Haomu Sect sell this information to? Probably the Martial Arts Alliance. The man had committed a grave crime by killing an inspector and stealing his identity. If the Alliance wanted to save face, they’d need to send out an execution squad and make an example of him.
“Will you come along?”
“As part of the request?”
“Yes.”
I couldn’t meet Jeok Chu-yeong right away, and I didn’t have anything more urgent waiting for me either. Pyo Hol-deuk clearly knew martial arts, but he didn’t seem like some earth-shattering master. If all we were doing was tailing him, as Geuk-hwan said, the risk shouldn’t be too high.
While I was scratching my chin and thinking it over, Geuk-hwan brought up something out of the blue.
“Did the Sun-forgetting Ginseng I recovered for you help at all?”
“...Probably. I didn’t use it myself, so I can’t say for sure. There was someone who needed a spiritual herb, so I sent it over.”
“I see.”
Geuk-hwan let the conversation dangle on purpose, then took a casual sip from his teacup. After a moment of pretending not to care, I asked, as if by accident, “Do you happen to have any more spiritual herbs?”
“That would be difficult. Spiritual herbs are rare. The one I gave you before was already very hard to obtain. That was how the Haomu Sect showed its goodwill and sincerity toward you, sir.”
“So from now on, I can’t get any more?”
“Nothing is impossible. It only takes time, and the price is high.”
“Hmmm.”
In other words, there would be no more freebies. If I wanted to keep up this damn internal energy training, I’d have to keep making money, and lots of it.
“...When do we leave?”
“We’ll move about two hours after Pyo Hol-deuk leaves tomorrow.”
The next morning, Pyo Hol-deuk and his guards loaded the opium smuggler into a carriage and left Simhyangru.
Exactly two hours later, the carriage we rode in set off after them.
Once we were clear of the quiet morning streets, wide fields and low hills covered in white frost spread out before us. The wind blowing in through the open window was so cold I could see my breath.
“I’m not sure I should be riding in this thing.”
Across from me, Hwang Hae was still wearing an expression of stunned disbelief as he stared out the window. Getting out of Seochon without the Black Night Gang noticing wasn’t easy. If he tried to leave on foot, they’d catch him immediately.
So when we brought the opium smuggler to Simhyangru, Hwang Hae came along in the same carriage. We’d planned to send him off in a freight wagon bound for another city once the situation looked right, but the chance came sooner than expected.
Geuk-hwan, sitting beside me, spoke in his usual calm voice. “Since we’re on the way after them anyway, I’ve simply given one empty seat to someone in need. Don’t worry about it. Come to think of it...”
He leaned slightly toward me and lowered his voice to a murmur.
“This is the first time, isn’t it, that Sir Jeong has traveled with me?”
“It is. But is it really all right to leave the branch unattended?”
Ye-hyang was Hong-hui’s successor, but the closest person handling affairs in her stead was Geuk-hwan. On top of that, he was also the mistress’s bodyguard.
“There’s no helping it. Master Won and the other guests all have business elsewhere, so I have to go.”
“What about guarding the mistress?”
“There are plenty of capable disciples at the branch besides me. They’ve all received great kindness from the sect. Their martial skill is excellent, and they’re devout and loyal enough that they’d happily throw themselves in front of a blade for the mistress.”
Devotion, he’d said...
I supposed there were loyal souls even among the people who scraped by at the bottom of the world, but I still couldn’t quite make sense of a word like that.
The road was empty. Before the sun had even risen, there were no travelers and no carriages. Pyo Hol-deuk’s carriage had vanished somewhere ahead.
Far off near the foothills, a Haomu Sect disciple on horseback waved his arm. The driver steered our carriage in that direction.
Once we rounded the foot of the mountain, I spotted a familiar carriage far ahead of us.
If they were going to the nearest Martial Arts Alliance branch, or even all the way to Henan where the Alliance headquarters stood, heading toward Hubei was the quickest route. Pyo Hol-deuk’s carriage, however, was moving not toward Hubei but toward Shaanxi.
“So he really was a fake.”
The carriage racing along the road suddenly veered off and entered a mountain thick with trees.
At the intrusion of these uninvited guests, the howls of wolves echoed long and hard through the forest.
“Did they notice the tail?”
Geuk-hwan narrowed his eyes and fell into thought. Hwang Hae, who had been watching with us, seemed to remember something and hurried to speak.
“If you go into that mountain, there’s an old mountain path.”
“You’ve been there?”
“Yes. I’ve cut firewood in these parts before; there isn’t a single mountain here I haven’t entered. From outside, that path looks blocked, but it connects to the mountains behind it and stretches north. Since the road was built, it’s been abandoned. Only people who know about it still use it.”
“North means they’re heading into Shaanxi.”
Geuk-hwan clicked his tongue softly. “They’ve caught us completely off guard.”
Following someone into the mountains was extremely dangerous. There were too many places to hide, and you could easily lose them—or find yourself ambushed instead.
After weighing the plan for a moment, Geuk-hwan shook his head. “Let’s only check the entrance to the mountain path, then withdraw.”
Our carriage also left the road and headed into the mountain. After I, Geuk-hwan, and Hwang Hae got down, the driver hid the carriage in a dark ravine.
Awooo.
Awooo, awooo.
As soon as we entered the mountain, wolves that had caught the scent of people began howling from every direction.
We moved slowly and silently, keeping watch on the brush to either side.
Before long, we saw a carriage stopped ahead. Beyond it lay a freight wagon overturned with its wheels in the air.
The horse that had been pulling it was also sprawled on the ground, dead. Flesh had been torn from it in several places, leaving white bone exposed.
Awooo.
Those wolves had probably been the ones who tore into it.
Two guards in Martial Arts Alliance clothing were taking crates out of the freight wagon. Once they set them on the ground, Pyo Hol-deuk stepped forward, threw open a lid, and bent over it. He pulled out something wrapped in paper, unwrapped it, and checked the contents.
A small lump black as mud.
“Is that... opium?”
“It appears so.”
When Pyo Hol-deuk confirmed the goods, he was so overjoyed he could hardly contain himself, shouting with wild delight.
“Hahaha! You bastard Yi Lim. You hauled the stuff all this way and hid it here, didn’t you? You miserable dog! You thought you could betray me?”
After kicking the opium smuggler to the ground and beating him thoroughly, Pyo Hol-deuk shouted through his rage, “Get everything out and load it onto the carriage!”
“Yes, sir!”
There were more than ten crates in the freight wagon. To think all of that was opium...
How much was that worth in silver?
The opium Hwang Hae had bought was only about the thickness of a finger joint. If I valued all the opium in those crates based on what he had paid for that tiny amount, it would probably come to tens of thousands of taels.
Watching crate after crate being loaded onto the new carriage, the whole picture finally snapped into place in my head.
Yi Lim, the opium smuggler, and Pyo Hol-deuk’s group were accomplices.
In Gansu, the real Martial Arts Alliance inspector Pyo Hol-deuk and the Kongdong Sect martial artists had ambushed them while they were smuggling opium out of Xinjiang.
During the fight, Yi Lim must have escaped alone, driving away with the wagon full of opium.
After killing Pyo Hol-deuk and the others, they stole their clothes and identities and came all the way to Seochon in pursuit of the traitor.
Yi Lim had dragged the wagon through the mountain path to avoid the road, and somewhere along the way a horse must have fallen or the cart had overturned.
Maybe it happened while they were moving at night. Or maybe the horse had simply been overworked until it dropped dead.
He couldn’t just abandon so much opium and run.
So Yi Lim took part of it with him and slipped into Seochon. He’d planned to sell the opium, buy new horses with the money, and flee again with the carriage.
Horses were expensive. Even an old draft horse would cost at least two taels of silver.
And opium was something only people who already used it would seek out. It wouldn’t have been easy to sell.
He had probably been circling around clinics, looking for a buyer, when he happened to meet Hwang Hae, who was desperate for something to ease his mother’s pain, and sold it to him.
Not long after that, the group posing as Martial Arts Alliance inspectors had visited the Haomu Sect branch in Seochon.
Seen that way, everything that had happened until now fit together perfectly.
Woo-woo! Woo-woo!
Startled by the birdcall someone had cleverly imitated from behind us, Geuk-hwan glanced back and lowered his voice.
“Someone’s coming. Let’s move.”
We rose quietly and circled around the forest to higher ground. We hid beside a rock that gave us a clear view of the scene below.
Five martial artists with black robes draped over their heads and bodies came up the mountain path and approached Pyo Hol-deuk’s group.
Pyo Hol-deuk stepped forward and shouted, “Stop right there!”
The martial artists halted and took off the robes covering their heads. The faces beneath them were familiar.
They were Bok Ha-gyu and his subordinates from the Black Night Gang.
What in the world was he doing here...?
Pyo Hol-deuk looked down on Bok Ha-gyu with an arrogant expression and let out a contemptuous snort.
“You lot, do you know who I am? How dare some black-market scum talk to a Martial Arts Alliance inspec—”
“Cut the bullshit!!”
Bok Ha-gyu barked the words like a whip crack.
His voice thundered through the mountains, carrying a thick, murderous intent. For a brief instant, it was so chilling the wolves even stopped howling.
“Two years ago, you bastards dared to enter our branch and use assassins against us. Ever since then, the Martial Arts Alliance hasn’t come anywhere near Seochon. And now some little inspector, not even an elder or a unit leader, has the nerve to come here and bark orders? If you’re really a Martial Arts Alliance inspector, then I’m the Alliance master.”
Bok Ha-gyu drew his sword and pointed it at Pyo Hol-deuk.
“Hand over the clothes, identity plaque, and seal you’re wearing. Then I’ll kill you cleanly and without pain.”
Pyo Hol-deuk’s face turned cold as he drew his own sword. His underlings followed suit.
Awooo.
Awooo, awooo.
The wolves, already smelling blood, began howling even more fiercely.
In just a little while, someone would die and become food for those wolves.
But none of them cared. The ones dying here would not be themselves.
Paang!
The two groups of martial artists kicked off the ground and charged at each other.
Awooo!
The forest shook violently under the howls of starving wolves.