The Watcher's Interest
The annex of Sangsan Inn, counted among the Ten Great Inns of the Imperial Capital, lay bathed in a soft glow as moonlight filtered through the lattice windows.
The place was famed as the most secure inn in all the Imperial Capital. Between its thick walls and the labyrinthine layout of its halls, outside surveillance or eavesdropping was all but impossible.
Within one of its rooms, a middle-aged man in scholar's robes, his bearing anything but ordinary, was delivering a report to Cheon Un-gi.
"Divine Venerable, you seem to be showing rather excessive interest in this Ouyang Qiangang—a man not yet even twenty."
The middle-aged man spoke with careful deliberation. He was a confidant who had served Cheon Un-gi for decades, the sort who never let emotion touch his face—yet today was different.
"Dissatisfied, Amhon?"
Cheon Un-gi tipped back his wine cup, smile still in place.
"Less dissatisfied than… bewildered, I would say." Amhon hesitated before going on. "In all the decades I have served you, Divine Venerable, I have never once seen you take such a deep interest in any one person. And that the object of it should be the heir of a fallen clan—the Ouyang Clan, no less…"
His voice was as calm as ever, but an unmistakable doubt ran beneath it.
"I suppose you would think that. And yet you investigated the boy's background without my ordering it?"
"It seemed you preferred otherwise, so I did not dig deep. Thus far I have merely collected what rumors circulate among the public."
"Then I'll allow it. Watch the boy more closely from now on."
"As you command."
Cheon Un-gi set down his cup and gazed out the window. Moonlight caught his profile, which was lit with a curious blend of interest and anticipation.
"That boy has any number of fascinating sides to him. You'll see for yourself soon enough—watching him is genuinely entertaining."
"What is it about Ouyang Qiangang that draws your interest so, Divine Venerable?" Amhon asked, more carefully still.
Cheon Un-gi grinned and countered with a question of his own. "How long do you believe the boy has been training in the martial arts?"
"According to our intelligence, not even a full year yet—"
Mid-sentence, Amhon's expression froze. Something about it had struck him as wrong.
"I see you've caught on." Cheon Un-gi's eyes deepened. "It has been less than a year since he began training in earnest. Do you know what realm he has reached in that time?"
Amhon swallowed before answering. "The reports say… his strength already approaches the Transcendent realm…"
"Not approaches—he has already arrived. Does that make any sense to you?"
"Hmm…"
"How long has it been since you first took up martial training? Fifty years or so?"
"Seventy-four years."
"Has it truly been that long already? Since your Metamorphic Bone Transformation, you hardly seem to age at all."
"You are hardly one to speak on that score, Divine Venerable."
"Hm? Now that you mention it, I suppose not." Cheon Un-gi chuckled and pressed on. "And what realm is your martial arts at now?"
"…The Superior Transformed Realm."
"And how long did it take you, from your first lesson to reaching the Transcendent realm?"
"Twenty-eight… years."
Amhon bowed his head, faintly ashamed.
"No need to redden over it—it was no failing of yours. That is the norm. No, if anything, you were quite fast by the murim's common sense. But that boy…"
Cheon Un-gi paused and took a sip of wine.
"Ouyang Qiangang was an incurable patient, ravaged by Nine Yin Severed Meridians. And he has not even been fully cured yet."
"…!"
Amhon's eyes went wide.
"Then, by some trigger I have yet to fathom, about a year ago he abruptly began to change. His illness started to recede, and his martial arts began climbing at a breakneck pace—until he stood as a Transcendent master."
"Is such a thing… even possible?"
"I could not believe it at first either. But I confirmed it with my own eyes. It is true."
"For years I believed you were simply drowning in wine and women in Nanchang. You were watching Ouyang Qiangang all that while?"
"I do love Nanchang's beauties and its delicacies, but 'drowning in wine and women' is a bit much, wouldn't you say? Anyone overhearing would take me for a debauched tyrant."
"My apologies."
The apology said, Amhon remained perfectly composed—which said everything about how far his bond with Cheon Un-gi stood from any ordinary lord-and-vassal relationship.
"Just when did you begin keeping watch on him?"
"From his stay at Bamboo Forest Manor. The things he got up to there were utterly fascinating. There was no way not to take an interest."
"Ah…!"
"Amhon, the history of the murim has produced genius after genius born with talent for the martial arts beyond imagining. Yet not one of them ever reached the Transcendent realm within a single year of first taking up the sword."
Cheon Un-gi gazed off into the distance before continuing.
"Even the man hailed as the peerless greatest of past and present—my rival for this lifetime—never matched the pace of Ouyang Qiangang's progress."
"And measured against you, Divine Venerable?"
"Even I fall short of him."
"…!"
"Do you finally grasp how utterly unprecedented that boy's growth is?"
"…I do. If he sustains his current pace… could the day come when he surpasses even you, Divine Venerable?"
"What? Hahahahaha!"
Cheon Un-gi threw back his head and laughed. "However remarkable the boy may be, between him and me lies a river of long years that cannot be crossed."
"Then it is impossible. That is a relief to hear."
"You've grown old, Amhon—nonsense comes out of your mouth far more often than it used to."
"…My apologies for growing old."
Amhon pressed on. "What is it you hope to gain through Ouyang Qiangang, Divine Venerable?"
A meaningful smile curved Cheon Un-gi's lips.
"That boy may be able to help me with the matter I have carried alone in my heart all these long years."
"I do not take your meaning…"
Amhon pressed for a fuller explanation, but Cheon Un-gi only shook his head.
"The time is not yet ripe. If you cannot understand, then simply watch. You will come to know on your own."
He drained his cup and rose.
"But remember this one thing. Ouyang Qiangang is not yet our enemy. And perhaps he never need be."
"Then what would you have me do going forward?" Amhon asked his final question.
"Keep watching the boy. You may lend him a hand if he needs it. But never step into the open."
"As you command, Divine Venerable."
Amhon bowed deeply.
"Then… might I ask one last thing?"
"What is it?"
"If Ouyang Qiangang ever walks a path other than the one you expect of him—what will you do then?"
Cheon Un-gi considered a moment, then smiled. "That will not happen. My eyes do not err. But if it ever did…"
His gaze turned to ice in an instant.
"I would simply remove him."
"Understood, Divine Venerable."
Amhon departed the annex.
Left alone, Cheon Un-gi looked out upon the night. The evening panorama of the Imperial Capital spread beneath the moonlight, lights leaking from countless homes glittering like a field of stars.
"It looks to be an interesting age," he murmured to himself, and emptied his cup. The moonlight carved deep planes of light and shadow across his face.
The headquarters of Spider Blood, deep within Gold Pagoda Mountain Manor.
It was a separate building tucked into the manor's depths. From the outside it looked like any ordinary pavilion; within, it was another world entirely.
Cai Wencheng—Blood Master of Spider Blood and right arm of Dong Hyeon-do, Lord of Gold Pagoda Mountain Manor—burned the report he had just finished reading with Samadhi True Fire.
Fwoooosh—
As the report crumbled into ash, his eyes grew colder by the degree.
Beads of cold sweat dotted the forehead of the man prostrate before him—Ma Eung.
"With Sa An and Jeok Gwi dead, the Imperial Capital branch is as good as dismantled."
Cai Wencheng's voice was level, but Ma Eung could feel just how vast was the fury folded inside it.
"That is correct, Blood Master."
"The culprit?"
"A man called Hahu Gang."
"The physician mentioned in the last report."
"Yes, Blood Master."
Cai Wencheng leaned slowly back in his chair. A chilling killing intent seeped from his every movement.
"Hahu Gang… so the physician who joined hands with Sangguan Wan'er to build the salt trade is the one behind this…"
Then he fixed Ma Eung with a stare sharp enough to flay skin. "No man kills Sa An and Jeok Gwi and razes the Imperial Capital branch to the ground alone. Did Yeom Pung aid him?"
Ma Eung bowed his head. "No, Blood Master. He annihilated the entire branch single-handedly."
"Single-handedly?"
Cai Wencheng's face hardened.
"Sa An, Jeok Gwi, and the dozen-odd warriors garrisoned at the branch—all of them?"
"Yes. There were no survivors."
Cai Wencheng's eyes turned glacial.
"Ma Eung. Tell me everything we have managed to learn about this Hahu Gang."
"Thus far we have confirmed no direct tie to Myriad Gold Mountain Manor. He is known only as the man who supplied Sangguan Wan'er with a new salt-refining technique."
"Thus far?"
"Yes. But judging by this affair, he must have been concealing considerable martial skill. The problem is that not one of the main Blood Hall's intelligence networks holds any record of a young master named Hahu Gang."
"An unidentified Peak Realm master appears out of thin air and starts a salt business? Absurd. Someone is standing behind him—that much is certain."
Cai Wencheng sank into thought. In his mind, possibility after possibility was being computed at blistering speed.
"Issue orders to every branch. Intelligence on this Hahu Gang is now our highest priority."
"Understood, Blood Master. And how are we to handle the man himself?"
A cold smile touched Cai Wencheng's lips.
"He must learn, carved into his very bones, what end awaits those who touch Spider Blood. Ma Eung—dispatch the Spider Wraith."
Ma Eung flinched at the unexpected order, then, realizing his lapse, hastily bowed his head.
"Yes, Blood Master."
"Taking him alive comes first. I will deal with him once his identity and his backer are confirmed."
It was a bright, clear spring day.
Warm sunlight spilled into the warehouse, wrapping gently around the shoulders of Ouyang Qiangang, wearied from long hours of inscription work.
He had just finished inscribing the solar-energy integrated circuits of the Heavenly Fire Radiant Flame Formation Art—a full shichen, two hours, at full output—and was taking a brief rest.
Then, all of a sudden, Ouyang Qiangang dug a finger into his ear and cocked his head.
"Akasha, something's odd. My qi perception seems sharper than usual."
"What do you mean, Doctor?"
"…It feels as though someone, from very far away, is flinging unseen needles at me."
Ouyang Qiangang furrowed his brow. As his realm had climbed, he seemed to have begun detecting subtle currents he had never sensed before.
"I detect nothing in the data. However, I believe I can offer one rather interesting hypothesis."
"Such as?"
"The attention and chatter of countless people directed at you, Doctor, may be forming a kind of 'causality'—something you are now sensing. Now that your mental strength has reached a considerable level, you may be beginning to perceive what lies beyond physical distance…"
"So those bastards are cursing me out right now, is what you're saying."
"I find that difficult to endorse—but if such people exist, they are surely Gold Pagoda Mountain Manor. The annihilation of their Imperial Capital branch would be more than enough to enrage them."
"If anyone gets to curse anyone, it's me cursing them. They're the ones who tried to kill me."
Just as Ouyang Qiangang shrugged and rose to his feet, footsteps sounded at the entrance of the warehouse.
He turned his head—and saw Sangguan Wan'er and Yeom Pung walking in together.