Pingwei Powder for Indigestion
Though her complexion was as wan as a patient's, Baek Seol carried herself with a quiet, lofty grace.
"These are the people who protected the Mount Hua Sect even as my brother lost his arm. I intend to give their counsel even greater weight."
The moment Baek Seol stepped forward, Daoist Gojin clasped his fists in a formal salute.
"Gojin of Qingcheng pays his respects to Young Miss Baek. You would do well to consider these men's origins. It is not proper to take the word of unorthodox martial artists over that of fellow righteous practitioners."
He spoke as if an adult were scolding a child, and the anger Seo Joo-cheon had been holding back finally spilled over. Perhaps it was Po Un's rage as well.
"Daoist Gojin. If the brotherhood of the righteous martial world means as much to you as you keep insisting, why did you not help when the Mount Hua Sect fell into crisis?"
Daoist Gojin's eyes bulged. He exploded.
"What are you talking about?"
Even his speech had dropped to a rude, chopped-off register.
Seo Joo-cheon snorted.
"Did you think no one would know that the Qingcheng martial artists were staying at another inn, a single street away from here? Do you truly believe a Mount Hua disciple came to this inn alone to ask for help? They would have gone to the Un-hyu Inn as well, where your people were lodged. And yet only the martial artists staying at the Namcheon Inn came to Mount Hua's aid. What, exactly, is the reason for that?"
"Where do you get off spouting such nonsense?!"
Seo Joo-cheon remembered the original plot well. After Jang Hyeon-nam had already fought at the Namcheon Inn, the Qingcheng martial artists had shown up late and made a show of themselves.
"Is there anyone here who went to the Un-hyu Inn to ask for help?"
Even if no one answered, it wouldn't have mattered. He only needed to seize the mood of the room.
"This disciple went to the Un-hyu Inn and asked for aid."
A third-generation disciple who had been tending the wounded stepped forward, almost reluctantly.
I never wrote that kind of fine detail. I thought there might not be anyone. I didn't expect there actually would be.
But following the chain of cause and effect, it was only natural that someone had.
"Why did you ignore a Mount Hua disciple's request? As fellow members of the righteous martial world."
At Seo Joo-cheon's words, Daoist Gojin's face flushed a deep, burning red.
Well. He probably meant to wait until the fighting was over so his Qingcheng disciples wouldn't die. They came here for a different purpose, after all.
He had skimmed Daoist Gojin's Character Search for a moment and drawn his own conclusions. The man was described as viciously narrow-minded and selfish. In short, he possessed every last trait a frustrating supporting character was supposed to have.
Gojin's mouth snapped shut. Seo Joo-cheon felt as if he had just taken a dose of Pingwei Powder.
Hahaha. If what comes to mind isn't a cold, crisp soda but Pingwei Powder, Po Un must have been just as stuffed with frustration. Pingwei Powder, of all things.
Pingwei Powder was a four-herb remedy of atractylodes, tangerine peel, licorice, and magnolia bark, taken for overeating or a badly stuffed stomach.
The atmosphere had grown so taut that blades seemed about to leave their scabbards, and Jang Hyeon-nam offered a compromise.
"Then let us do this. We split our people. I will take a group toward the Suo River, and the rest will follow Great Hero Po. If we track them from both directions, that should suffice, should it not?"
Truly the protagonist. Even in a situation like this, he had put forward a proposal Daoist Gojin could not easily refuse.
The problem was that if they did it that way, every hardship would fall on Seo Joo-cheon. When a supporting character did the work the protagonist was supposed to do, that was no longer the main scenario. And at Seo Joo-cheon's current strength, rescuing Baek I-jin would be difficult. Vice Commander Mi-u of the Blood Sky Troop would not be the only one waiting there. The Macheon Chong experts who had already joined him would be crawling all over the place.
This was a moment that called for a protagonist of indomitable will.
Jang Hyeon-nam spoke to Seo Joo-cheon, who looked somewhat at a loss.
"If we select from among Great Hero Sang, Young Miss Dang, and the chivalrous martial artists gathered at the inn, and they go with you, that should be more than enough, should it not?"
It was Jang Hyeon-nam's consideration, offering him the strongest force he could spare.
"We'll have the Qingcheng Sect with us. That will be enough."
Jang Hyeon-nam was making it clear that he would take the troublesome Qingcheng people himself.
Gojin's eyes flashed with a meaningful light.
"I cannot trust a party made up of unorthodox martial artists alone. This humble Daoist will join that side. There ought to be at least one righteous practitioner present if the work is to be done properly."
Seo Joo-cheon understood at once why Daoist Gojin had sat so quietly through Jang Hyeon-nam's proposal.
Look at this bastard. So my words might actually be true, and Qingcheng wants a foot in both camps.
The man meant to skim profit from both sides.
A cunning little calculation. But for me, it isn't a bad choice at all.
A certain thought occurred to Seo Joo-cheon, and he smiled without letting Daoist Gojin see it.
"Our sect's disciples will go as well."
When Baek Seol spoke, Seo Joo-cheon nodded.
"We would be grateful for the support."
"I can only apologize that our sect cannot take the lead in rescuing my sister."
"If you mean to help, you see it through to the end."
Baek Seol answered with a faint smile.
"I will hold Great Hero Po's aid deep in my heart."
"If Daoist Gojin and Young Miss Dang are joining our tracking party, it would be best if Great Hero Sang went to assist Young Hero Jang."
Seo Joo-cheon looked at him with a gaze full of trust, and Sang Ryo nodded.
"Very well. I'll go with Young Hero Jang."
Jang Hyeon-nam would need a card of his own.
Daoist Gojin asked Seo Joo-cheon,
"Where do you intend to go?"
Seo Joo-cheon answered with open indifference.
"That is not something I can say here. There may be a Macheon Chong spy among us. Revealing their hideout would be a fool's errand."
Put another way, it meant that the man asking the question was the fool.
Daoist Gojin's lips twitched.
Once they had entered the heart of Weinan, Seo Joo-cheon paused to put his force in order.
Five third-generation disciples of the Mount Hua Sect formed one unit, four Qingcheng warriors another. Seo Joo-cheon, Ham Cheon-yeong, and Kang Chu-mi made a third. Five martial artists gathered from the inn composed a fourth, and Dang Seol-yong with her escort warrior the fifth. Five units. Twenty people in all.
"Judging by how large you've made this tracking party, the place we're looking for must be of considerable size, no?"
Daoist Gojin had the gall to sidle up beside Seo Joo-cheon and ask.
"It is."
"Hmph. There had better be Macheon Chong demon artists there. If there are not, I will hold you responsible for everything. In the name of the Righteous Alliance."
Watching Daoist Gojin invoke even the Righteous Alliance, Seo Joo-cheon blew a quiet raspberry.
A character who really does take being insufferable to the very end.
Dang Seol-yong had been listening in silence. She spoke at last.
"Daoist Gojin, you give the distinct impression of hoping Young Miss Baek's rescue will fail."
"Young Miss Dang, what is that supposed to mean?"
Gojin raised his voice.
"Well, don't you? All you've done so far is talk about who's responsible. You haven't given a single thought to how you might actually help."
"Ahem. Ahem. This humble Daoist, too, earnestly hopes Young Miss Baek can be saved."
"You'd better. In the name of the Righteous Alliance."
The words didn't entirely make sense, but hearing them did make him feel a little better.
Seo Joo-cheon stood looking at a three-story inn when Daoist Gojin threw another wrench into the works.
"Surely you aren't about to tell me that inn is their hideout? I have used that establishment for a very long time. If it were their den, this humble Daoist would know."
Seo Joo-cheon, in the mood to needle him, said,
"And if even the waiters in that inn were all Macheon Chong demon artists? What then?"
"What?"
"If they had been playing the part of inn staff for a long time and using the place as an intelligence post, even you would never have noticed, Daoist Gojin."
"That's impossible…"
One of the inns Seo Joo-cheon had written into the setting was run in exactly that fashion. It simply wasn't in Shaanxi.
Why wouldn't it be possible? I wrote it, so of course it's possible.
Seo Joo-cheon spoke quietly.
"Fortunately, the place where I witnessed the disguised men was not that inn."
"Then why are we hiding here?"
Gojin asked, fishing for something to seize on.
"Do you see the manor behind that inn?"
Anyone who knew the inn well could hardly fail to know the famous estate in its shadow.
"That's the Gwak Family Manor. Wait. You don't mean…"
Gojin broke off mid-sentence and stared at Seo Joo-cheon with a look of open disgust.
"I do. That appears to be their hideout. I witnessed disguised Macheon Chong martial artists coming and going from that place on several occasions."
"Stop talking such rubbish. Do you even know who the lord of that manor is?"
"I do."
"And you still say this. How very suspicious."
Dang Seol-yong had been listening to the two of them. Growing impatient, she asked,
"Who is the manor lord, that you're carrying on like this?"
Seo Joo-cheon answered before Daoist Gojin could.
"Gwak Sim, lord of the Gwak Family Manor, is a lay disciple of the Mount Hua Sect."
"What?"
For once, even Dang Seol-yong had nothing to say in Seo Joo-cheon's defense. Ham Cheon-yeong and Kang Chu-mi, who had been listening from the side, stared at their Big Brother as if they could not believe their ears.
Seo Joo-cheon only smiled, a little bitterly.
That was my setting. Macheon Chong planted spies by having them enter the Nine Great Sects as lay disciples from childhood.
So he could not be wrong.
"Whether the manor lord is a Mount Hua lay disciple or not is beside the point. The problem is that disguised Macheon Chong martial artists have been coming and going from that place."
"It's possible the manor lord fell into their hands and was replaced with an impostor."
Dang Seol-yong turned the matter over and offered a version of events that might hold.
Gojin grinned.
"I have the distinct feeling of watching a man sink deeper and deeper into a pit he cannot crawl out of."
The remark, of course, was aimed at Seo Joo-cheon. Gojin was convinced the man had completely missed the mark. He could already picture Seo Joo-cheon dying under the wrath of the Mount Hua Sect before much longer.
"Very well. Let us go and see, then. We'll have to sneak in, I assume?"
Watching Daoist Gojin, who seemed oddly delighted by the prospect, Seo Joo-cheon shook his head.
"First we watch. From the rear gate."
The party moved as one to the rear gate of the Gwak Family Manor. Along the way, Kang Chu-mi spoke to Seo Joo-cheon in a voice thick with discontent.
"Big Brother, I don't know if we really need to be doing this."
"Doing what?"
"Whether we need to risk our necks to save Young Miss Baek. Third Brother has his reasons, I'll grant that. But this doesn't feel right."
Ham Cheon-yeong made no move to stop her. Which meant he shared the complaint.
Seo Joo-cheon looked at the two of them and smiled.
"This is something that might even restore Third Brother's arm."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"For now, trust me and follow."
"We trusted you. That's how we ended up here."
"Then see it through."
"It isn't that I don't trust you. I just think it would be better if we knew what we were doing."
Kang Chu-mi was trying to change her footing.
"You two just follow my orders."
As Seo Joo-cheon directed, the party flattened themselves against the roof of a house across from the rear gate of the Gwak Family Manor. The ordinary martial artists waited behind the house, in a position from which they could strike the manor the moment the command was given.
Kang Chu-mi leaned in and whispered against Ham Cheon-yeong's ear.
"Second Brother. Big Brother was always clever, but was he clever enough to startle people like this? Or am I the only one who didn't know? The Qingcheng warriors and even Dang Seol-yong, the famous talented young lady of the Tang Clan, are following Big Brother without a word of complaint. Doesn't that seem strange to you? Am I the only one who feels this disconnect?"
Ham Cheon-yeong looked at her and smiled faintly.
"Fourth. Big Brother has only ever been with us, that's all. Doesn't it occur to you that he was always an extraordinary man? Surrounded by people like this, he stands out. That's how large a vessel he always was. We simply never had the chance to see it."
The change in their Big Brother was strange, yes, but Ham Cheon-yeong chose to read all of it in the best possible light.
"It's like… it's like…"
"Like what?"
When Ham Cheon-yeong asked, Kang Chu-mi brought her mouth even closer to his ear.
"It's like he's carrying himself as a hero of the martial world."
Ham Cheon-yeong barely swallowed a burst of laughter and answered, chuckling.
"Big Brother always had a hero's bearing."
"Did he? Was I the only one living with a different person?"
"Chu-mi."
When Ham Cheon-yeong called her name, Kang Chu-mi looked at him with sudden seriousness.
"Yes, Second Brother."
"Does it feel to you as if Big Brother's heart toward us has changed?"
"That hasn't changed at all."
"Then maybe we're the ones who have changed. Maybe we've changed, and that's why Big Brother looks different to us."
"And what is that supposed to mean?"
"I started thinking that Big Brother was always the image of a hero, and that living with the likes of us, who fell short, he simply became more like us."
Heard that way, it had the ring of truth, and Kang Chu-mi fell into thought.
"So we have to keep striving, keep catching up, so that Big Brother can show what he's capable of. That's the kind of person I believe you are, Chu-mi."
At those words, Kang Chu-mi's face brightened like a flower opening.
"When it comes to potential, there's no one like me."
Seo Joo-cheon's voice dropped low across the roof tiles.
"Watch the ones coming out the rear gate. Carefully."
Several figures emerged from the Gwak Family Manor, and sure enough, black-crimson tassels hung from their swords.
Then a startled sound slipped from Dang Seol-yong's lips.
"That man…"
Her eyes found Seo Joo-cheon. He looked at her and nodded.
"I believe you're right."
"That is the expert who exchanged blows with Young Hero Jang."
Dang Seol-yong had marked Vice Commander Mi-u of the Blood Sky Troop well during the fighting, and she recognized his face at once.
"If that man is coming out of the Gwak Family Manor, then whatever the reason, there can be no doubt the manor is a Macheon Chong hideout."
When Dang Seol-yong said it with such certainty, Daoist Gojin made a pained sound.
Seo Joo-cheon answered as if he had noticed nothing.
"Once we go in, we'll know how things stand."
"Then shall we storm the Gwak Family Manor as we are?"
Dang Seol-yong, true to form, was nothing if not direct. Seo Joo-cheon looked at her and smiled.
"Before that… don't you think it's time to show them what Tang Clan poison can do?"
At Seo Joo-cheon's words, Dang Seol-yong's eyes curved in a deep, knowing smile.