Chang'an Infiltration (3)
"Gwanghaengbang is the ward in Chang'an's one hundred and eight districts where the most merchants and trading caravans pass through."
Song Hyeon led the way into the brothel as he spoke.
"It's a place where vast sums of money change hands, so the interior is more labyrinthine than anywhere else."
The infiltration team grasped his intent.
Even by day, the eight-story brothel's grandeur was imposing, but at night, it would blaze with red lanterns hanging thick from the eaves, flaunting its splendor even more fiercely.
The idea was to hide in the most chaotic spot, evading the revenants' eyes.
Still uneasy, Wang Yi Sam turned to Seo Baek.
"Ain't we walkin' right into a field of revenants on our own two feet? You sure about this?"
"Lady Joo's talismans block the living aura, don't they? Even breathing and talking like this, they can't detect us. No need to worry."
"Hidin' in a brothel, though. And with the Shaolin abbot here, no less."
Wang Yi Sam mumbled an excuse, dragging Shaolin into it—something he'd never mention otherwise in his life.
The sight of Chang'an's streets, people shuffling past with blank faces, was eerie enough. But inside the brothel, maids and attendants gliding by with equally expressionless visages stirred an odd discomfort.
Reading Wang Yi Sam's thoughts, Yi Gang cackled.
"What? Cravin' a roll in the sheets, revenant or not?"
"...Pass."
Song Hyeon issued another order to the team.
"From now on, keep all emotion off your faces. We can't afford to catch a Commander's eye."
Commander.
A revenant with the power to manipulate the minds of others.
Meaning one of these maids or attendants could be under a Commander's control—who knew?
Wang Yi Sam swallowed hard but caught himself at Song Hyeon's warning and held back.
The eleven members of the infiltration team moved silently through the brothel's opulent, raucous interior.
Cheon Ryung paced the grand hall, arms crossed.
"They entered Gwanghaengbang? Do they know the city's layout?"
Gwanghaengbang was a must-pass for any merchant caravan entering Chang'an.
Especially with its packed buildings and twisting narrow alleys, it was one of the most congested wards.
Cheon Ryung's suspicion was natural.
"So Cheon, where are the rats now?"
So Cheon tilted her head, listening, then replied.
"They entered a building in Gwanghaengbang."
"Which one? Coordinates?"
"Jang eight-five, An four-six. And Gwang two-ninety-three, Haeng one-forty-five."
Hearing So Cheon's report, Cheon Ryung snatched a long scroll from the shelf beside the table.
Laying it over the Chang'an map, it revealed a detailed chart of Gwanghaengbang's buildings and streets. The shelf held maps of every ward and sector in Chang'an.
Cheon Ryung traced his finger across the map to the coordinates So Cheon had given.
"Here. Gyeong Seung, mobilize!"
"As you command."
"You know the drill? Turn every last one into a revenant!"
"......"
"Then drag them before me. I'll interrogate the rats myself!"
Gyeong Seung bowed without reply and exited the hall.
Turning them into revenants first, then interrogating?
It flew in the face of common sense, as far as Gyeong Seung knew.
Beheading and implanting a Blood Thread Worm to make a revenant was simple enough.
The problem was the risk of them becoming mindless Blood Ghosts.
Martial artists with deep internal energy cultivation were less likely to turn into Blood Ghosts. But it wasn't guaranteed— the odds varied wildly from person to person.
Unlikely as it was, if all the intruders became Blood Ghosts?
Interrogation would be pointless. Blood Ghosts felt no pain, rendering torture useless.
But Cheon Ryung hadn't considered that possibility at all.
Gyeong Seung swallowed the advice rising in his throat. Cheon Ryung wasn't one to listen.
Especially not from his adjutant.
'Best to capture them alive and interrogate.'
In the end, Cheon Ryung's order to behead and infest stemmed from his habit of mocking and belittling foes.
Gyeong Seung regretted that flaw in his superior.
Even before becoming a revenant, Cheon Ryung had been a brilliant strategist.
Yet he trusted his own mind too much, leading to rash actions. In a full-scale war, his limits would show, likely costing a major defeat.
Lucky for him, it wasn't war but the revenant outbreak in Chang'an that earned Seo Bul's favor.
Becoming a revenant hadn't changed Cheon Ryung—he remained arrogantly self-assured.
'That habit of underestimating enemies will bite him someday.'
Crossing the bamboo grove out of the compound, Gyeong Seung found the Silver-eyed Soldiers already mounted and waiting.
Three hundred elite cavalry!
"To Gwanghaengbang."
As the Silver-eyed Soldiers bowed, Gyeong Seung mounted up.
They wore dao at the waist, halberd and bow on their backs.
And the armored warhorses they rode gleamed with the same eerie light in their eyes—the beasts, too, had been turned into revenants.
"Hyah!"
Gyeong Seung spurred his mount forward, and the three hundred Silver-eyed Soldiers followed.
Thud thud thud thud.
Leaving the ward and hitting the main avenue, the Silver-eyed Soldier right behind Gyeong Seung blew a horn.
Bwooooooo.
In old times, high officials or marching troops announced themselves with such horns to clear the way.
The revenants on the streets, driven by ingrained instincts from life, parted left and right, kneeling and bowing to the ground.
With the path open, the Silver-eyed Soldiers thundered down the street like arrows loosed from bows.
Gyeong Seung and the Silver-eyed Soldiers arrived at Gwanghaengbang swiftly.
'They might've slipped out already.'
Gyeong Seung glanced at the watchtower, and Hwang Po-in waved black-and-white flags in signal. An order from So Cheon in the compound, relayed via watchtower.
The intruders are still in Gwanghaengbang.
Every ward and building in Chang'an had precise coordinates.
'First, the spot So Cheon mentioned...'
Gyeong Seung recalled the coordinates and led the Silver-eyed Soldiers into Gwanghaengbang.
But upon spotting the destination, he frowned deeply.
'A brothel?'
The intruders' plan seemed plausible at first glance.
This brothel was the largest building in Gwanghaengbang, teeming with people—plenty of places to hide, they must've thought.
But it was a mistake.
'They overlooked that it's broad daylight.'
The brothel wouldn't be bustling with customers yet. Just attendants and maids, mostly.
Eleven martial artists in obvious traveler garb would stand out sharply.
This time, Gyeong Seung agreed with Cheon Ryung's "rats" label.
'Walked right into the trap themselves.'
Gyeong Seung ordered two hundred Silver-eyed Soldiers to surround the brothel on all sides. Then, leading the remaining hundred, he entered.
Attendants and maids bowed and cleared paths at the sight of the Silver-eyed Soldiers.
He could've asked if they'd seen suspicious martial artists, assuming the intruders weren't Blood Ghosts.
But Gyeong Seung didn't.
'They slipped past the city gates undetected and entered Chang'an. Whatever method they used, they've masked their living auras.'
Gyeong Seung dispersed the Silver-eyed Soldiers to comb the brothel.
Guest rooms, attendants' and maids' quarters, kitchens—nothing left unsearched.
After time enough for a cup of tea, Gyeong Seung had to accept the nagging suspicion.
'Gone.'
They'd scoured every floor, but no intruders.
Gyeong Seung leaned out a window, exchanging glances with the ground-level Silver-eyed Soldiers.
Their leader shook his head toward Gyeong Seung.
No one had left the brothel.
'Qimen Dunjia? They mask living auras—who knows what other tricks they have.'
Gyeong Seung ordered strict vigilance, then signaled the watchtower from the brothel window.
Hwang Po-in in the tower relayed Gyeong Seung's message to other watchtowers.
Having found rare entertainment, Cheon Ryung paced the hall in excitement.
"I'll praise your guts for slipping through the south gate on foot. But you rats know nothing of true stealth!"
Chang'an's ironclad security meant detection was only a matter of time.
They should've moved fast to shake pursuit.
Yet here they were, holed up in a Gwanghaengbang building?
Cheon Ryung's mockery was justified.
Then So Cheon listened intently and reported the incoming signal.
"From Gyeong Seung. The intruders have vanished."
"...What?"
Cheon Ryung stood blankly, thinking he'd misheard. Then he snapped to.
"Vanished where?"
"The building's surrounded—no one's exited, but still no sign of them."
"Impossible! Three hundred Silver-eyed Soldiers can't search one building?"
Cheon Ryung exploded in rage.
Suddenly, something struck him—his face hardened.
"Wait. The place they entered... don't tell me..."
He checked the Gwanghaengbang map on the table, tracing to So Cheon's coordinates.
His brows twisted fiercely.
"A brothel?"
Thinking he'd misread, he double-checked. No mistake—the coordinates pointed to a brothel.
Chang'an housed a million souls across one hundred and eight wards, each vast as a Central Plains village.
A city of one hundred and eight villages. Imperial palace wards dwarfed others.
Thus, wards varied: lowly haunts like those of beggars, bustling commerce like Gwanghaengbang.
Gwanghaengbang's brothel was famously massive—eight stories tall.
The oversight: that height!
Cheon Ryung slid his finger sideways from the brothel. Next door: a five-story building.
His jaw dropped.
The riddle solved: intruders scaled to the brothel roof, leaped to the adjacent five-story roof.
By the time Silver-eyed Soldiers encircled it, they'd vanished over rooftops...
Maps were flat; buildings varied in height—easy to forget.
A ruthless strike at Cheon Ryung's blind spot!
Crunch. Unable to contain his fury, he crumpled the map.
"These damned rats, toying with me..."
So Cheon's emotionless voice cut through his rage.
"One of the intruders knows Chang'an's layout intimately."
"Hmph..."
"They haven't gone far. I'll order all watchtowers to scan rooftops for intruders."
"Good! Hurry!"
Before Cheon Ryung finished, So Cheon murmured an incantation.
The infiltration team had climbed to the brothel's eighth floor, then leaped to the adjacent five-story roof.
By the time Gyeong Seung's Silver-eyed Soldiers stormed in, they were already hopping rooftops, fleeing afar.
'We dodged the immediate threat. But we haven't shaken the Commander's gaze completely.'
The towering watchtowers were the real issue.
To evade the watchmen like Hwang Po-in, they'd need to hide indoors. But that halted progress to the target.
Dodge watchtowers and reach the goal—a double bind.
'Hard to avoid the watchtowers. Then...'
Song Hyeon prepared the next phase of the plan he'd devised before entering Chang'an.