Chapter 11 (3)
Chapter 11 (3)
Jincheon returned, fully prepared to deal with information manipulation and everything else if they had stolen the bandits' accumulated wealth and run off, but the bandits were quietly waiting in their hideout.
"Boss-nim! You've arrived!"
"This is a bit unexpected. I thought you'd all run away."
"Hehehe, we're nothing without loyalty!"
'I'd like to see if that loyalty holds up in front of pursuers.'
In reality, they had held an internal meeting to wait a day or two, and if he didn't return, they would split the loot and scatter, since his return meant they were dead anyway.
Jincheon had a rough idea of this, but since they were parting ways and all going to die within the year, he didn't bother pressing them.
"Well then, let's see if those experts were really after this carriage."
"Yep! Guys!"
"Yeah!"
"I'll handle this one."
Jincheon lifted the box wrapped in chains and checked it separately.
"Hup."
Ujik!
With just the strength of his fingers, he snapped the chains and checked the contents of the box.
"Huh?"
Inside the box was nothing but a broken blade, 3 cheok (90.9cm) long, thick, and seemingly designed for crushing rather than cutting.
'To think they'd kill and die for something like this...'
Jincheon, dumbfounded, touched the blade, and his face stiffened instantly.
'Th-th-this is...!'
"Boss, what are you doing?"
"Boss?"
Jincheon froze in the position of checking the box, and the other bandits began to take interest, wondering if there was something important inside.
Luckily, his mask hid his expression, and after confirming they hadn't noticed, Jincheon quickly composed his gaze.
"Hah, seriously. I'm dumbfounded. They killed and died over a broken blade like this?"
"Huh? Just a broken blade?"
"Look."
"I think you might have mistaken it for something else?"
"Yeah."
Jincheon held the blade and shook the box upside down, rattling it.
When nothing but dust came out, the other bandits lost interest and opened the other boxes.
'My instincts are telling me. This thing is Black Iron!'
Black Iron, a metal extracted from a meteorite that fell from the sky.
A fantasy mineral of the Murim world that, when mixed in even a little while forging a weapon, grants it a hardness that ordinary steel swords cannot even scratch.
'But this entire blade is Black Iron! A solid Black Iron sword! What kind of madman would do this...'
Jincheon checked the blade from various angles to confirm its identity, as it wasn't just plated or mixed, but made of pure Black Iron.
Jaerae (Descent) Gunlimcheonha (To rule the world) Cheonmagangbok (Descent of the Heavenly Demon)
And upon confirming the characters engraved on the blade, Jincheon was shocked once again.
'This... it looks like the Heavenly Demon's blade...?'
The blade of the Demonic Cult, broken in the past, and still sought after by the cultists with bloodshot eyes.
He had heard that the righteous faction had hidden the other half, including the hilt, but could not find the blade. Why was that blade here?
The front part of Jaerae likely had the word 'Heavenly Demon' attached to the blade on the hilt side.
'No way?'
The Heaven-Breaking Association is up to something.
It might be a stretch to automatically link everything to the Heaven-Breaking Association whenever a doubt arises, but that was the conclusion Jincheon reached after his own reasoning.
'According to them, the Demonic Cult has been stirring up the righteous faction here and there while I was training, trying to find the other half of the Heavenly Demon's sword. But that, too, started to lose steam, and the frequency began to decrease.'
With the Demonic Cult quiet, the Shadowless Divine Thief's treasure map for the Shaolin's Yeokgeun-gyeong was discovered, turning the Murim world into something akin to a Warring States period where even the righteous and evil factions couldn't trust each other.
If the other half of the Heavenly Demon's sword were discovered in this situation?
A situation where the God of Dogs would be grinning ear to ear would unfold.
Among the attackers Jincheon killed, there was a peak expert from the Gangjupa, an evil faction that rivals the Wudang Sect.
Whether that peak expert was with the Heaven-Breaking Association or not, it was clearly a setup to reveal the other half of the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword to the world.
'Screw it. Whatever the Heaven-Breaking Association's plot is, finders keepers in this business!'
A thick 3-cheok blade made of solid Black Iron!
This is enough to ditch his current gauntlets and make new ones.
With the power of Black Iron and Jincheon's technical skills, he could create gauntlets that are even thinner yet far stronger.
'As expected of the protagonist. Only a protagonist could stumble upon such a fortuitous encounter.'
Jincheon wrapped the broken blade in cloth, packed it into his bag, and spoke casually.
"Looks like it's made of some good ore. Should fetch a decent price at a smithy. I'm taking this."
"Yes, do as you please."
"Well, as long as you give us our share."
They finished looting the last carriage, and once they had gathered everything that could be turned into money, Jincheon decided to split the loot and part ways.
"Whew, it's stifling."
Jincheon took off the iron mask, which was designed to fit his face tightly using internal energy, and revealed the rugged face he had when he first met the bandits.
He wanted to show them his real face one last time.
"Alright, let's split the last of it."
As promised, Jincheon took 80% of the wealth and handed the remaining 20% to the bandits.
Although there were several of them to split the 20%, Jincheon made them an offer they couldn't refuse.
"And the stuff buried in the ground, I don't care about that. If you can find a way to sell it later, go ahead."
"Huh? Are you sure?"
"If we can sell this, the price alone would be huge..."
"I'm doing this because I need quick cash, but if I had time, I could make money more reliably. Can't you tell by my skills?"
"True..."
"With the Boss's archery..."
The bandits, who knew how outstanding Jincheon's archery skills were, all nodded in agreement.
Jincheon took the bag containing the gold and silver, put it in his pack, and stood up.
"I'm leaving now, so handle the cleanup yourselves. Like I said before, scatter. Don't leave any traces."
"Huh? Boss-nim, are we parting ways like this?"
"We came this far, at least have a drink..."
"My sect was destroyed, and I've been training alone for years. But I couldn't take on the enemies who attacked my sect alone, so I needed money to hire ronin, which is why I teamed up with you. Now that I have the target amount, I can't delay even a second."
Jincheon fed them false information he thought of on the spot.
Now, the pursuers chasing them would analyze this, looking for survivors of a sect destroyed years ago, missing persons, or someone who had recently hired a large number of ronin.
"Oh... um..."
"In that case..."
"Then goodbye."
Seeing Jincheon speak of such heavy matters, the bandits couldn't ask him to have a final drink, and Jincheon walked into the forest with a final farewell.
'I need to change the shape of this bag or hide it somewhere.'
While there are peddlers who carry loads in this era, there are no backpacks like this, so it would stand out.
Far from the bandits, Jincheon changed his face back to its original form, wrapped the bag in the cloth he had put inside, and tied it into a bundle.
'A bit uncomfortable.'
The bundle hung low, which was quite uncomfortable.
Still, thanks to his external martial arts, his physical abilities surpassed those of an ordinary person, so it was only a minor inconvenience.
'Can't be helped. Since the bag is so distinct, the pursuers will look for this feature. Next, let's go to Agyang.'
Jincheon's next destination was Agyang, the city of Dongting Lake, known for its elegance and pleasure.
The reason was that there were many people.
And where there are many people, he can get involved in various events.
'To find the Black Spot...'
With a plan in mind, he disappeared deep into the forest, hoping the bandits would scatter as far as possible.
Once Jincheon disappeared, the remaining bandits were left bickering, struggling to figure out how to dispose of the remaining money and goods.
"Search! Even the smallest thing is fine!"
A group was busily checking the road.
They were checking the ground and the surroundings, as if looking for something.
"Found it! It's faint, but there are traces of movement this way!"
At that moment, when someone shouted they had found something, everyone rushed over.
"They moved on a different path than a normal carriage. Track this direction."
"Yes!"
The group carefully followed the traces someone had discovered, and after some time, they were able to find the remains of a campsite.
"So they were here. The ones who interfered with our plans."
"There are many traces left here and there, but it seems quite some time has passed since they left. Roughly... 4 to 5 days."
"And there are signs of something buried in the ground."
"That's when contact with Gu Seo-chan was lost. Put the buried stuff aside for now. What about their traces?"
"It seems they scattered and left."
"Scattered and left?"
The head of the leader of the group became complicated.
'A deception? No, they really scattered. Why did they scatter? Who were these people in the first place? How could they interfere with the Association's plans? I have to find them.'
They were members of the Heaven-Breaking Association, aiming to rule the Murim world by destroying the righteous, evil, and demonic factions.
They had originally planned to reveal the other half of the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword to make the righteous and evil factions, who were already fighting each other, actively involve the Demonic Cult as well.
Since people wouldn't believe or would be suspicious if they just said the other half of the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword existed, they had planned to create various incidents to make the sword reveal itself.
When they lost contact with Gu Seo-chan, the warrior of the Heaven-Breaking Association who was supposed to act as the transport agent for this job, the Association realized something was wrong and hurriedly sent people to assess the situation.
"I will contact the Association and request support. You each follow one trail. We must find out the identity of those who dared to interfere with our work! And one of you stay behind with me to check what's buried!"
"Yes, sir!"
As Jincheon expected, the pursuers followed the false information he left behind and began tracking in different directions to find the bandits.
When they eventually find the bandits, they will feel baffled as they learn how they interfered with the Association's work, and then they will be even more frustrated as time passes due to the false information they have about Jincheon.
If Jincheon had chosen to kill all the bandits and erase the traces, they would have somehow tried to find the traces Jincheon left behind, centering on this campsite, and they might have discovered a very small trace that even Jincheon hadn't thought of.
Erasing traces vs. leaving countless traces through false information to confuse the investigation.
It's hard to be certain which is better, but at the very least, Jincheon's choice was enough to waste their time.