A Stone on the Huangdu Board
Upon returning to Yeomga Manor, Ouyang Qiangang made straight for the main hall of the inner residence, where Sangguan Wan'er and Yeom Pung awaited.
A heavy silence hung over the room, thick with the old master's suppressed fury.
"Damn it all. If not for that Haomen woman, I could have wrung that broker's neck until he gave up whoever stands behind this..."
Anger and frustration warred across Yeom Pung's face. He spoke to Ouyang Qiangang in a grave voice.
"Young Master, I've learned the identity of the thief I let slip. The man was Yawol — the one they call the Shadowless Thief here in Huangdu."
"Yawol..."
"He belongs to no particular sect. From what I hear, he takes work only through a job broker."
Ouyang Qiangang's eyes gleamed.
"Then Yawol may not even have known who commissioned him. Everything would have passed through that broker alone."
"Just so. Yawol never left Huangdu — he went straight to the third floor of the Cheongun Pavilion. At first I couldn't fathom why..."
"The broker was there."
"He was. I raided the third floor of the Cheongun Pavilion with Yawol and that man both inside."
Yeom Pung gave a bitter smile and let out a low sigh.
Ouyang Qiangang said, "Judging by your expression, Great Hero Yeom, matters did not go smoothly."
"They did not. And somehow they knew — the Haomen Branch Master of Huangdu herself appeared on the spot."
"Haomen?"
Ouyang Qiangang's eyes sharpened.
"Indeed. As it happened, that broker was the Branch Master's own elder brother."
Yeom Pung clicked his tongue.
"She offered to owe me a single favor if I would only leave her brother untouched. An offer she could only make because she already knew every detail of tonight's affair. Haomen's intelligence network is truly something to behold."
"So you withdrew?"
Yeom Pung glanced at Ouyang Qiangang, as if uncertain of his own decision.
"...I did. Yawol had already fled Huangdu, and the Branch Master took her brother into her own custody. I have no face to show you, Young Master."
But far from looking disappointed, Ouyang Qiangang smiled.
"On the contrary, Great Hero Yeom. You did well."
When Yeom Pung looked at him in puzzlement, Ouyang Qiangang went on.
"Would the Branch Master have come alone to save her own brother? Haomen's elites were almost certainly lying in wait all around her. It was the prestige of Myriad Gold Mountain Manor that let her withdraw under the pretense of owing you a favor. Had you stood your ground, an unnecessary battle with Haomen would have erupted on that very spot. Your judgment was sound."
Only then did relief surface on Yeom Pung's face.
"Hearing you say so, Young Master, this old man's heart feels a good deal lighter."
Sangguan Wan'er, who had been listening in silence, spoke in her calm, measured voice.
"Uncle Yeom's judgment was right. Haomen is a sect even my father hesitates to cross. Turning their intelligence network against us would cost far more than it would gain. Besides — did she not leave Uncle holding a favor? That deserves praise, not reproach."
Ouyang Qiangang nodded along with her words.
"You did well, Great Hero Yeom. There is no sect under heaven that would gladly make an enemy of Haomen."
A faint smile touched his lips.
"Having their Branch Master owe you a favor may yet prove worth more than unmasking the hand behind all this."
Yeom Pung's expression remained dark, however.
"Even so, failing to wring the client's name out of Yawol was a grave blunder on this old man's part. In the end, I let slip the one thread that might have led us to the mastermind."
At his self-reproachful words, Sangguan Wan'er too sighed in regret.
Ouyang Qiangang's voice rang with quiet strength.
"There is no need for regret. We may have lost the rats, but we have learned the name of the master who raised them."
He laid upon the table the half-burned scrap of document he had recovered at Cheongsong Garden, bearing the two characters for Spider.
"Th... this is!"
Yeom Pung's and Sangguan Wan'er's eyes widened at the same instant.
"I salvaged it from their stronghold."
Yeom Pung muttered, eyes blazing fiercely.
"Only one organization under heaven takes the spider for its emblem. Spider Blood... the blood of the spider."
"So you know them, Great Hero Yeom."
"I do. True to their name, they say that once you're caught in their web, they drain you to the very last drop. They are the darkest, cruelest shadow of Gold Pagoda Mountain Manor."
"As I suspected..."
"You expected this?"
"Gold Pagoda Mountain Manor holds the fiercest desire of anyone to destroy my innovative salt-refining method — or steal it outright."
"That may well be... but Young Master, you must not underestimate Spider Blood."
"They are an organization under my maternal grandfather's command, so I imagine they're no ordinary outfit."
"If only that were all. Over the past several decades, more than a few trading companies and sects have vanished without a whisper at their hands."
Ouyang Qiangang considered for a moment before speaking.
"There is something I would like to ask you, my lady."
"Ask away."
"Was the Great Merchant League not founded as an alliance? However threatening they may be, it seems strange for Gold Pagoda Mountain Manor to attack you — a member of the same league through Myriad Gold Trading Company. Could this matter not be brought before the League?"
Sangguan Wan'er answered with a wry smile.
"Bring it before the League? Not a chance."
A bitter note crept into her voice as she continued.
"There is no evidence anywhere that Gold Pagoda Mountain Manor attacked us. They will deny any connection to those who raided the warehouse, thoroughly and completely. And the League's rules are explicit — without undeniable proof, it never involves itself in disputes between member companies."
"Doesn't Myriad Gold Trading Company keep a Huangdu branch of its own, just like theirs? Surely they would hold a great deal of information on Spider Blood..."
At that, Sangguan Wan'er revealed her inner heart for the first time.
"No doubt they would. But they... will not help me."
"Why not? You are the treasure of the manor, my lady."
"I thank you for thinking so highly of me. But I am only my father's youngest daughter. Above me stand three elder brothers and an elder sister, each of whom already commands attention within the manor."
"Hmm..."
"Until the spirit pill business is firmly established, the elders of the main house will see me as nothing more than a lucky youngest daughter who happened to be born to the right parents. Backing me now would be, in their eyes, a wager with no chance of winning."
Her voice carried the deep loneliness of one born an heir to a great trading house.
Ouyang Qiangang said nothing for a moment.
In Sangguan Wan'er's eyes he saw both that loneliness and a fighting spirit that refused to break beneath it.
Meeting her gaze directly, his eyes shimmering with keen light, he said,
"Then, my lady — allow me to turn that losing wager into the surest investment you will ever make."
At his words, a fierce light kindled in Sangguan Wan'er's eyes, dispelling the loneliness within them.
It was the morning after the bloody battle at Yeomga Manor's warehouse.
Having settled his business with Yawol and Spider Blood's Huangdu branch, Ouyang Qiangang was walking the main road toward the warehouse when something strange and wildly out of place caught his eye.
There, in the middle of the sparsely traveled road, where rice paddies and farm fields stretched out on either side, stood a gorgeous canopy more than ten feet across. Beneath it sat a table and chairs of the finest red sandalwood — and upon the table, a tea set stood in perfect readiness, steam curling gently from the pot.
Ouyang Qiangang's gaze settled on the strikingly handsome young man of twenty-odd years seated in one of the chairs, leisurely drinking his tea.
Clad in a long robe of fine silk, he sat as comfortably as a man taking the air in his own private garden.
Behind him, two old men stood rooted in place like mountains, watching Ouyang Qiangang approach with divine light blazing in their eyes.
Their aura alone made it plain at a glance that neither was a man to be taken lightly.
Ouyang Qiangang understood at once that they had been waiting for him.
As he ambled closer, the young man spoke first.
"Young Master Hahu. A fine, cool spring day like this — won't you stop and share a cup of tea on your way?"
Ouyang Qiangang asked in an even tone.
"Do you know me?"
"How could I fail to know the young marvel who, single-handed and in a single night, annihilated the Fourteen Dark Shadows — Spider Blood's Huangdu branch elites — and blew the branch itself to pieces?"
"You know me, then. But I don't know you."
"I am called Yeon Sa-hyeok, of Gold Mountain Tower."
At those words, Ouyang Qiangang's eyes deepened.
Not Gold Pagoda Mountain Manor — Gold Mountain Tower...
Without hesitation, he dropped into the chair across from Yeon Sa-hyeok.
The whole while he had approached, the crushing aura radiating from the two old men had pressed down on him, yet he had passed through it as lightly as a spring breeze.
Yeon Sa-hyeok spoke with evident interest.
"No surprise at the sound of my name, I see."
"Was I meant to be surprised?"
"Hmm... well, if you expected me to come calling, I suppose there would be no reason to be."
"I expected that someone would come. I simply didn't expect one of Gold Mountain Tower's leading successors to call for a meeting in so wide-open a place."
Every word of it was true.
Ouyang Qiangang had anticipated that some power or other would attempt to approach him — but he had not imagined they would do it so publicly. A meeting of this kind would obviously reach the ears of Sangguan Wan'er, and of Gold Pagoda Mountain Manor, within a few hours at most.
In that respect, Yeon Sa-hyeok was a man who knew how to pierce the blind spot in an opponent's thinking.
"Oh ho!"
Yeon Sa-hyeok nodded in genuine admiration and went on.
"Thanks to the appearance of Young Master Hahu, a most intriguing stone has been placed upon the Go board that is Huangdu. I came here only to learn whether that stone will prove a white stone — or a black one."
His mouth was smiling. His eyes were not.
In those cold, sunken depths, a killing intent sharp as a blade lay coiled.
Ouyang Qiangang lifted his teacup and savored its aroma.
"Excellent tea. Wuyi rock tea, if I'm not mistaken?"
"A discerning palate indeed. Of Da Hong Pao, it is from the Mother Tree cliffs themselves."
"To drink tea this precious in a roadside field... Gold Mountain Tower's affluence is remarkable."
Yeon Sa-hyeok smiled.
"Affluence, is it...? Well. It may be that I came out here precisely because I am pressed for time."
"Pressed for time?"
"Young Master Hahu, last night's affair shook the balance of power in Huangdu. Spider Blood's Huangdu branch no longer exists."
Ouyang Qiangang set down his teacup and pushed back.
"And what concern is that of Gold Mountain Tower's?"
"No direct concern, certainly. But indirectly... the relationship is rather tangled."
Yeon Sa-hyeok poured fresh tea into his guest's cup as he continued.
"Spider Blood was the organ that handled Gold Pagoda Mountain Manor's intelligence and its dirtiest work. With them gone, Gold Pagoda Mountain Manor will be forced to act in the open."
"Then you've come to me to help check Gold Pagoda Mountain Manor, Young Master Yeon?"
"Check, you say..."
Yeon Sa-hyeok feigned a moment's thought.
"Or should I say, cooperate? It is quite plain that you and Gold Pagoda Mountain Manor stand in opposition."
"You seem to overestimate me. I am nothing more than a humble craftsman."
"Curious, then, that this 'humble craftsman's' revolutionary salt-refining method is turning Huangdu on its head. And that this same craftsman annihilated Spider Blood's Huangdu branch single-handedly... truly a craftsman of many talents."
Ouyang Qiangang's expression shifted, ever so slightly.
Yeon Sa-hyeok had pieced together a considerable amount of information.
"Your intelligence network is impressive."
"Gold Mountain Tower is the finest trading company in the Great Merchant League. And yet, where you are concerned, much remains unknown to me. Why you joined hands with Lady Sangguan, for instance. And..."
Yeon Sa-hyeok smiled, the smile full of meaning.
"Just who — or what — you really are."