Chapter 62
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 62
Chapter Title: Interference (2)
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* * *
Go Ung, head of the Honam Merchant Guild, found himself awake.
It felt as though his sleep grew lighter with age.
“Hmph.”
He was looking around, thinking about his thirst.
That was when he noticed someone standing right beside his bed.
“Who’s there!”
He quickly rose from his bed and created some distance, but the person standing beside it didn’t move at all.
“Will you not identify yourself?”
“Keep it down. Shouting like that won’t do you any good.”
The intruder, Jinmyeong, said while cleaning his ear.
“From your voice, you sound quite young. Reveal yourself!”
“No one will come, no matter how loud you yell.”
Go Ung, who had been shouting loudly, flinched at Jinmyeong's voice.
The calm tone made it seem as if his entire family had truly been killed.
“Oh!”
Go Ung’s despairing expression brightened because of the person who had just burst through the door.
“Guard Wi!”
It was the guard he had hired for a hefty price.
He must have heard his shouts and come inside.
“Hurry and deal with this intruder! You have to earn the money I've paid you.”
Even after Go Ung finished speaking, his guard didn't move at all.
The motionless guard only moved when Go Ung was about to speak again.
“Guard Wi…”
Suddenly, his guard collapsed to the floor with a thud.
Seeing the guard fall forward, Go Ung's expression turned to one of shock.
“Looks like it’s not over yet.”
A woman appeared from where the guard had been standing.
“It will be over soon.”
Jinmyeong spoke simply to the entering Shin Yehyang, then perched on the edge of a table.
“Have a seat.”
“What did you say?”
“I’m showing you my face. You know what that means?”
As Jinmyeong lit a lamp, Go Ung could see the intruders’ faces.
“It means I’m deciding whether to kill you or not.”
“Hngh!”
At the nonchalant threat, Go Ung was able to quickly grasp the situation.
The guard he had trusted was collapsed on the floor, and the woman who seemed to have taken him down was staring at him with a blank expression.
“You know why I’m here, right?”
“Y-Yes, I know.”
“‘Know’? That’s a bit blunt.”
“Kuaaaargh!”
Go Ung screamed at the pain shooting through his foot.
He saw that a sword had pierced through his foot and was now embedded in the floor.
“Nngggh.”
“I didn’t come here to play games with you. Even if I’m an intruder, you should know how to read the room, right?”
As Go Ung continued to scream, Jinmyeong’s voice cut through the noise.
Go Ung clamped his hands over his mouth, trying to stifle the screams that threatened to erupt.
“You have a rough idea where I’m from, don’t you?”
Go Ung’s mind raced at Jinmyeong’s words.
He had no idea who could have sent him.
“Seeing you dart your eyes around like that, it seems you’ve made more enemies than I thought.”
“N-No, I haven’t.”
Although he denied it, he had in fact made many enemies.
He had often obstructed merchant groups that didn't join his guild and had taken more money from the individual merchants who were part of it.
He wondered if they had pooled their money to hire an assassin to kill him.
“If you don't talk, you really won't remember, will you?”
Jinmyeong sighed.
“I’m from Myeonghwa Pavilion.”
“M-Myeonghwa Pavilion?”
Of course, he knew of Myeonghwa Pavilion.
After all, he was the one who had pressured the merchants dealing with them.
“Why did you mess with them?”
“Th-That is…”
“Speak clearly. Who was it?”
“…”
Go Ung couldn't open his mouth.
“Don’t tell me you did this on your own.”
“N-No, I didn’t!”
“I heard you asked them to send over their star courtesan.”
Jinmyeong recalled what he had heard from Yang Jeon.
Go Ung had offered to pay a hundred silver taels to have Yuran sent here.
Naturally, Myeonghwa Pavilion had refused.
There was no telling what might happen to Yuran outside the pavilion.
“Did you do this because you were upset they rejected your offer?”
“Absolutely not!”
Go Ung quickly shook his head.
Of course, that wasn’t entirely untrue.
When he received the proposal to harass Myeonghwa Pavilion, that was precisely the reason he had accepted it without hesitation.
“Who was it?”
“Pardon?”
“Tell me. Then I’ll let you live.”
“Th-That is…”
“If you don’t want to talk, you can just die.”
Jinmyeong approached Go Ung and swiftly pulled out the sword pinning his foot.
“Gack!”
As the sword was suddenly yanked out, a wave of pain washed over him. Go Ung let out a scream before hastily covering his mouth with his hands.
“Nngggh.”
He bit his own hand to hold back the screams, but Jinmyeong didn't hesitate, swinging the sword down toward Go Ung’s head.
Seeing the sword that looked ready to split his head open, Go Ung squeezed his eyes shut and shouted.
“I-I’ll talk!”
Did he shout in time?
Feeling no pain, Go Ung cautiously opened his eyes.
“Heek!”
The gleaming blue blade was stopped right above his head.
“If you were any later, your head really would have been split in two.”
“Y-Yes!”
That was a lie.
Jinmyeong never intended to cleave Go Ung’s head.
If he had, Go Ung wouldn’t even have seen the sword move and would have been dead before he could shout that he would talk.
Jinmyeong had swung the sword incredibly slowly so that Go Ung could see it coming.
“Who was it?”
“It was Wolseol Pavilion.”
“Wolseol Pavilion?”
He had heard of it.
Although it couldn't compare to Seongha Pavilion, whose owner was the Underworld Sect's Honam branch chief, it was a fairly large establishment in Dongting Lake.
“But wasn’t that place already going under before Myeonghwa Pavilion started doing well?”
“Th-That’s right, but…”
As Jinmyeong sheathed his sword and stepped back, Go Ung’s face brightened.
“You don’t think this is the end of it, do you?”
“O-Of course not.”
“I’ll be waiting. For compensation.”
“Yes, of course! You will be satisfied.”
Go Ung nodded his head vigorously in response.
“Don’t try anything stupid. Make sure I don’t have to come back here again.”
Even after Jinmyeong and Shin Yehyang disappeared out the window, Go Ung remained frozen in place for a long time.
“Ugh.”
Meanwhile, his guard, who had been lying on the floor, opened his eyes.
“Hmm? Master? Why am I here?”
“…”
It seemed his guard had been knocked out without even realizing there had been intruders.
“Guard Wi.”
“Yes?”
The guard, still dazed, answered blankly.
“Go downstairs and check if everything is alright.”
“Pardon?”
“Just do as I say!”
The guard, who kept talking back, finally got up and went downstairs when Go Ung got angry.
‘Useless bastard. Should I hire a new guard?’
Go Ung sighed as he watched the guard’s retreating back with a dissatisfied expression.
While he was angry that the expensive guard he hired had been taken down without even noticing the intruders, he also developed a new sense of caution toward Myeonghwa Pavilion.
“Let’s head straight back to Myeonghwa Pavilion.”
“Yes.”
After finishing his business at the Honam Merchant Guild, Jinmyeong headed not to the Namga Merchant Group but to Yuezhou, where Myeonghwa Pavilion was located.
“That was boring, wasn’t it?”
“…”
Jinmyeong asked as they headed to Yuezhou, but Shin Yehyang didn't answer.
In truth, she probably knew it would turn out this way.
‘She must have been really bored.’
She spent many days just passing the time at Myeonghwa Pavilion.
Just as she’d said, she felt like her body was getting stiff, so it seemed she’d come out for some fresh air after a long time.
As if to prove it, Shin Yehyang’s footwork felt incredibly light as she used her movement technique.
Despite her expressionless face, she somehow seemed pleased.
“Don’t tell me you’re going to Seongha Pavilion now?”
“That’s right.”
Jinmyeong wasn’t heading toward Myeonghwa Pavilion.
He was going straight to Seongha Pavilion, where the Underworld Sect’s branch chief was.
“Welcome.”
O Seonha showed no sign of surprise, even as Jinmyeong entered through the window.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you like this, Lady Shin. I am O Seonha, the Honam branch chief of the Underworld Sect.”
“I am Shin Yehyang.”
After a simple greeting, O Seonha looked back at Jinmyeong.
“What brings you here? So suddenly.”
“You already know.”
Jinmyeong’s way of speaking changed.
Unlike before, he was speaking down to her, yet O Seonha remained composed.
“The matter with the Honam Merchant Guild? Aren’t you just coming back from there?”
“That's right. I just came from there.”
“And you came straight here.”
O Seonha let out a small sigh.
“Wolseol Pavilion. You knew, didn’t you?”
“If you’re asking about the establishment called Wolseol Pavilion, then yes, I knew of it. But if you’re asking if this was their doing, then no, I did not.”
Even for the Underworld Sect, they didn't handle every piece of information like this.
More accurately, such useless information didn't reach O Seonha's ears.
“I need information on Wolseol Pavilion. And I hear some of the Underworld Sect's establishments were also involved.”
“…So you knew.”
Few people knew that Myeonghwa Pavilion belonged to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
Even within the Underworld Sect, not everyone was privy to that information.
And it was because they didn't know that several establishments had accepted Wolseol Pavilion’s proposal.
‘Should I have warned the other owners?’
She regretted not having warned them to avoid getting entangled with Myeonghwa Pavilion, but it was already too late.
“May I resolve this matter?”
“How? Are you going to bring me their heads?”
“That is…”
The Underworld Sect’s establishments didn’t act as directly as Wolseol Pavilion.
All they did was speak ill of Myeonghwa Pavilion to the customers who visited them.
“It wasn’t as bad as what Wolseol Pavilion did, but we still suffered some losses because of it.”
The number of customers had dwindled.
“What will you do? Should I pay them a visit myself?”
“No. I will handle the establishments belonging to the Underworld Sect. I will prepare compensation that will satisfy you, Young Master.”
It might have seemed like she was bowing too low to Jinmyeong, but she couldn’t let her relationship with him crumble over such a trivial matter.
“Is that so? Then will you tell me about Wolseol Pavilion?”
“Yes. I will send the detailed information to Myeonghwa Pavilion.”
“Thank you.”
“Be careful. Wolseol Pavilion is connected to the Black Tiger Gang.”
“The Black Tiger Gang?”
Jinmyeong looked puzzled at the name.
It was the first time he had heard it.
“It’s a common name.”
“Indeed, there are several Black Tiger Gangs in the Central Plains. And there is one here in Yuezhou as well. They’re an underworld faction.”
“An underworld faction?”
“You can think of them as a group of thugs.”
Simply put, they weren't properly trained martial artists.
They were third-rate, with their strongest members being second-rate or first-rate at best.
They were the ones who collected money from merchants under the guise of protection fees.
Since there were no martial sects in Yuezhou, the underworld factions held sway.
“They aren’t strong, but their numbers are large, so things could get troublesome.”
“Is that so?”
“To be precise, the Black Tiger Gang isn’t the problem; the Black Dragon Gang is. They’re the largest underworld faction here in Honam.”
“Am I supposed to be afraid of them?”
Only after hearing that question did O Seonha remember who she was talking to.
The New Demonic Sword Controller, Jinmyeong.
The young master of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult who had appeared out of nowhere.
And one who, despite being barely of age, was said to have already stepped into the realm of divinity.
“You’re right. I was mistaken.”
And who were his companions? Shin Yehyang, the only daughter of the Vice Cult Leader, the Mad Demon, and the grandson of the Great Elder, the Sword Demon.
The one she should be worried about right now might not be Jinmyeong, but the Black Dragon Gang.
“I will send you the information on Wolseol Pavilion, the Black Tiger Gang, and the Black Dragon Gang as quickly as possible.”
“Thank you.”
The next day, Jinmyeong received the information sent by O Seonha.
As Jinmyeong read the information, committing it to memory, a smile never left his lips.