The Black Merchant Sect of Henan
The Black Merchant Sect.
Luoyang in Henan Province. An ancient capital, one of the great cities of the region alongside Chang'an.
The Black Merchant Sect made its home at the border of Shanxi Province, northwest of that very city.
Draw a straight line between Mount Hua and Shaolin, then complete an equilateral triangle with that distance as its side—the sect sat near the northern vertex.
Before the Righteous-Demonic Great War, it would have been difficult to even call them a proper sect.
Shaolin, the undisputed Taishan Beidou of the righteous path.
And Mount Hua, which, alongside Wudang, formed one of the two great mountain ranges of the prestigious orthodox sects.
Sandwiched between those two giants, a mere unorthodox faction could hardly be considered a real sect at all.
More like a gathering of lowlifes and thugs with bad attitudes.
They didn't even dare raise their banner openly. They slunk about in the shadows, barely acknowledged by anyone.
Which was perhaps why, when the Righteous-Demonic Great War broke out, they had charged Mount Hua and Shaolin with suicidal fervor.
Places they would never have dared look at directly under normal circumstances.
Places where even the lowest disciple would have been untouchable.
Yet they had swarmed in behind the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult and the other unorthodox factions, unleashing every ounce of their pent-up cruelty as if finally given permission to bite.
Of course, the Black Merchant Sect suffered catastrophic losses.
But to them, those losses became badges of honor.
Among those with nothing to lose, reckless bravery looks like courage.
Savagery and brutality become marks of prestige.
A heavy toll simply meant they had charged at the very front.
It meant they had contributed the most.
By the final stages of the Righteous-Demonic Great War, after Mount Hua had been annihilated and Shaolin had sealed its gates, they had managed to claim quite a few prizes.
First, they had eliminated every nearby threat. Their exploits during the war remained on record.
On top of that, they had seized vast empty territories, enormous wealth, and a mountain of captured spiritual herbs and secret manuals.
Twelve years had passed since the end of the Righteous-Demonic Great War.
Thanks to those achievements and spoils, the Black Merchant Sect had grown into something formidable.
It now ranked as the fifth-largest faction among all unorthodox groups, both in size and influence.
Yet something about them was distinctly odd.
No matter how you looked at it, their behavior didn't match that of a typical unorthodox faction.
To an outsider, they would appear to be a neutral sect rather than a demonic one.
The Black Merchant Sect never acted ostentatiously. They refrained from arbitrary tyranny.
They did not oppress civilians.
The human trafficking and loan sharking that were basically mandatory for unorthodox factions? Nowhere to be found.
They didn't kill indiscriminately, harm the innocent, or drive people to ruin.
In fact, whenever disasters or accidents struck, the Black Merchant Sect was often the first to roll up its sleeves and provide support.
Some people even spoke of them favorably: "The Black Merchant Sect? They're actually pretty decent."
Truly strange fellows. Impossible to read.
What exactly were they after?
From everything I had observed so far, they seemed solely focused on steadily expanding their power.
Every visible action appeared dedicated to increasing their weight class.
But what they hid in the shadows was even greater than what they showed in the light.
They had reached the point of controlling every single business interest in Luoyang.
And they did it through numerous proxy organizations rather than the sect itself.
Extremely suspicious.
After dealing with the blatantly rotten Mount Tai Sect and the outright garbage that was the Crimson Sect, encountering the Black Merchant Sect made their difference stand out even more sharply.
An unorthodox faction engaging in image marketing? Surreptitiously devouring commercial districts through shell companies?
They were definitely plotting something.
If they weren't, that in itself would be abnormal. It simply didn't make sense.
Therefore, I continued to watch. At the moment, that was all I could do.
Fortunately, the Tang Family had provided detailed information, so simply cross-referencing their data was enough.
All I needed to do was remain hidden, undetected, and observe what they were up to.
After three days of surveillance, I had already uncovered several key facts.
First, unlike a typical unorthodox faction, the strongest person in the Black Merchant Sect was not the sect leader.
In righteous sects, that was possible.
The positions of sect master, family head, or patriarch weren't always held by the strongest cultivator.
Sometimes those roles went to people skilled in politics and diplomacy, those with sharp business acumen, or individuals with great personal reputation.
Or perhaps a disciple or peer who showed greater martial talent might rise instead.
But unorthodox factions didn't work that way.
These people attacked anyone they disliked, even their superiors, as a matter of course.
That was why the sect leader was usually the strongest.
They would monopolize nearly everything that flowed into the sect and only distribute enough to their subordinates to ensure no one became a threat.
The Black Merchant Sect was different. Their leader, Sa Gyeong-won, was merely a late-stage Super Peak expert in his prime years.
The one who truly caught my eye was the Outer Hall Master working beside him—Jeong Gwang.
He didn't seem to have reached Transformation Realm, but he was clearly no weaker than the sect leader.
Yet he excelled at concealing his presence.
To anyone else, he looked like nothing more than a first-rate scholar who had dabbled a little in martial arts.
I could see through it. Almost no one else would have noticed—probably not even within the Black Merchant Sect itself.
Another discovery was that almost none of the original members who had charged forward during the Righteous-Demonic Great War remained.
When I examined the information provided by the Tang Family, far too many of the records seemed artificial.
Why were there so many supposed accidents? So many illnesses?
Of course, twelve years was not a short time.
And the probability of revenge killings was certainly high.
After all, even the White-Haired Demon roamed freely these days.
There must be righteous practitioners who still harbored grudges against them.
Even so, this was excessive. It almost seemed as if they weren't being protected at all.
Or rather, it made me wonder if the sect itself was responsible for the deaths.
The more I learned, the more curious I became about what exactly they were plotting.
A cleanup of their past?
That was possible, but grudges between sects didn't vanish simply because the members had changed.
Especially not while Sa Gyeong-won—the Vanguard Blood Ghost himself—still remained.
His nickname had been earned by leading every charge, drenched in blood, swinging his blade like a vengeful demon.
No amount of whitewashing would work on him.
If they truly wanted to erase their past, they would have removed the sect leader and changed the sect's name. Even that probably wouldn't have been enough.
At any rate, I had found suspicious elements. I would focus my attention there.
Sa Gyeong-won, the sect leader. And the suspicious Outer Hall Master, Jeong Gwang.
If I kept watching them, something would surely surface. So I continued my surveillance.
Fortunately, the location was close to Chang'an, making travel convenient.
I could come and go as if commuting to work, observe for a suitable amount of time, then return.
Since Qing Mountain wasn't far either, I decided to monitor this place personally for now.
I currently lacked both manpower and other resources. This was the best I could do.
And so winter passed.
A season whose cold I couldn't feel, so it didn't seem particularly harsh.
Sometimes I thought that becoming impervious to both heat and cold might be the very first ability one should acquire.
Though of course, not just anyone could obtain it.
Every three days or so, I observed both Qing Mountain and the Black Merchant Sect.
I watched with a satisfied smile as Seolha, Yeon-ha, and So-hye's internal energy grew larger by the day.
When I saw how much faster Yang Cheon-hak was progressing, I offered him a word of praise.
That simple boy would then beam with joy and start moving even quicker.
A simple soul. Yes, that was probably his greatest strength—not overcomplicating things.
I deliberately left Yueyang alone. I couldn't personally micromanage every single detail.
Connecting the Song Family Sect with the Tang Family's medicine hall would allow me to receive real-time updates, but I chose not to.
The Song Family Sect and the Blue Tiger Sect needed to exhaust every ounce of their own potential.
If they knew the Tang Family stood behind them, they might grow complacent.
So I didn't make the connection. That could be done anytime.
Besides, even if something major happened, I could learn of it within a day through the medicine hall. Nothing there seemed critically urgent.
And so winter continued to pass in leisurely fashion.
The Qing Mountain Sect Master and Namgung Hwi were still engaged in their innocent, budding platonic romance.
When would that boy finally become a man? When would that woman stop hiding her feelings?
When would the two of them accept each other and step beyond the boundary of master and disciple?
The Black Merchant Sect remained the same.
They continued devoting everything to expanding their power.
The Outer Hall Master Jeong Gwang, who hid his true strength, showed no suspicious behavior whatsoever.
He simply looked like a scholarly administrator being harassed by his unorthodox superiors.
Was he an actor? His performance was flawless.
What a strange fellow. I wondered what it felt like to endure such scolding when he could easily defeat everyone who berated him.
And the fact that someone in an unorthodox faction would tolerate it only made it harder to understand.
He must want to drive a judge's pen through the skull of whoever annoyed him.
That only made me more curious.
What was his true identity? What was he aiming for? Why was he acting this way?
In my opinion, even if I broke every bone in his body, he wouldn't reveal what he knew.
A man who could endure such humiliation wouldn't spill everything just because he was tortured.
I had considered trying to recruit him, but that seemed difficult as well.
For one thing, I had no idea what bargaining chip I could possibly offer him. It seemed hopeless.
So I simply continued to watch patiently. At least until this winter came to an end.
Then, after another two months had passed and March arrived, just as the biting winds began to soften, I discovered something incomprehensible elsewhere.
Chang'an. A city with no particularly notable factions now that the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult had withdrawn, save for the remnants of the Hao Family.
There, I detected members of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult moving about once again.
When I first sensed it, I was genuinely taken aback.
What the hell are these guys doing? The question rose unbidden.
Chae Ji-gyu had left an unmistakably clear final will.
I still remembered it perfectly.
"I pass my position to Noyeop. Abandon the Chang'an expansion and withdraw the branch."
His final words.
And indeed, after his death, they had withdrawn from Chang'an in perfect order.
Yet now they were loitering around again? What exactly were they trying to accomplish?
I held Chae Ji-gyu in high regard.
He was the first person in this world I had genuinely thought was a shame to lose.
That feeling had not changed.
Because of that, I had slightly raised my evaluation of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult members who had respectfully accepted his final wishes.
But this... this was unacceptable. It was disappointing.
Therefore, I decided to devote a little more time to this matter.
I needed to find out what wind had blown to make them behave this way.