The Black Market Reckoning
“Customer? What’s the matter?”
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
Cheong quietly set the book down. Of all the colors it could have been, a golden martial arts manual had suddenly appeared right in front of her. That was far too suspicious. The non-manual merchant, Shintu, narrowed his eyes. But since his eyes were already narrow slits to begin with, narrowing them further produced no meaningful change anyone would notice.
The girl who usually just skimmed the titles and tossed books aside was now carefully aligning the book before setting it down. That alone was suspicious.
“Hmm? Why are you acting like that? Ah, Chunpungmuyoung. To recognize this, your eye for quality is truly impressive.”
“Recognize it or not, I haven’t even opened it.”
“Did you notice something? It’s the legendary Chunhwa collection by the Golden Painter. You recognized it. Come, come, take a look here. How about it? Quite arousing, isn’t it?”
Shintu arbitrarily opened the book and thrust it forward. A vividly detailed illustration of intertwined men and women in an intense sexual scene spread across both pages.
Shintu had expected one of two reactions: either she would search for the mnemonic verses with serious focus, or blush in embarrassment and not know what to do.
But Cheong’s reaction was neither.
“This is an old-fashioned Eastern art style. You’d need quite a bit of imagination to get excited by this.”
Well, this was the ancient East, so that was only natural.
“What do you think, Uimae?”
“How are you supposed to hold both thighs like that and insert it? That would require the thing to be over a ja long… Plus, the knees would get destroyed. Not usable.”
“Hmm, customers, don’t you feel anything?”
“Not really?”
Shintu drooped his shoulders in disappointment. He muttered something under his breath, and Cheong, who had been wary of the unknown Harmonious Realm expert, caught the words clearly.
Weird. I thought she recognized it. Maybe not. Damn it, I’ll grow old and die before I find a successor.
Cheong immediately thought, Ah. I can’t stay here any longer.
She fiddled with the books to pass the time. She couldn’t stay, but she might as well check thoroughly in case there were other martial manuals. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be any proper secret manuals left.
In the meantime—whether thanks to Cheong’s advertising effect or not—the merchant managed to force-sell several more volumes and earned quite a bit of gold raw. Watching that, the successor didn’t seem so bad after all. If it weren’t for her master, she might have become the successor herself. But what would being a successor even mean? Successor to a shady merchant? The fact that he had been granted energy through good deeds suggested he wasn’t a bad person, though the forced sales had reduced his negative karma by two since she first saw him.
“An hour’s passed, right? I can go now, right?”
“How about staying just one more hour? I’ll double the payment.”
“That’s still only four coins……”
“Then ten times?”
“That’s still only twenty coins. Hmm. Twenty coins for an hour isn’t bad, but I have things to do, so I should go. If I have time left after finishing, I’ll drop by again.”
“Alright. Thanks to you, I sold quite a bit. Here. A bonus for good performance.”
Shintu flicked a coin toward her.
“Come on, you wouldn’t even give a beggar one coin. If you’re going to spend, spend big. No point wasting a precious coin and just getting cursed at.”
“If you know the value of a coin, you’ll soon become wealthy. Farewell~”
Shintu waved his hand in a pretense of seeing her off. Only after the three figures disappeared into the crowd did he mutter quietly.
“A woman possessing both the Heavenly Realm’s peerless beauty and the Boksinjeok. The one behind her—was he a servant?”
The coin Shintu had given carried a special tracking scent. Once held, it allowed tracking from a distance. Since there was no use for coins in Heuksi, where even basic goods were overpriced, as long as she didn’t throw it away, it wouldn’t end up with someone else. From their conversation, she didn’t seem the type to discard coins either.
“But the Boksinjeok… A treasure no previous Shintu has ever obtained.”
Shintu grinned. And yet, he was the Shintu who didn’t even realize his own martial arts had been stolen.
----
They were supposed to meet at the designated spot, but the two companions seemed to have fallen into a shopping trance. In truth, the time Cheong had wasted was only about an hour, caught by that strange merchant selling martial manuals. The other two were probably still deep in selecting poisons and antiques. No need to wait—better to handle her own business first. As she wandered around, Na-meun finally proved useful for the meal she’d bought him.
“That’s the man. The one who bought the old man’s grandson at the market is that guy right there.”
Cheong smacked the back of Na-meun’s head.
“Let’s speak properly. You didn’t buy him—he sold him, right? Weren’t you the one standing there saying you’d sell him?”
“Y-yes, that’s right……”
Cheong approached the market vendor Na-meun pointed out. He was a menacing-looking man with burn scars covering half his face. If this had been before she entered the martial world, she might have been intimidated, but the current Cheong was far too strong to be frightened by someone’s face alone. At the very least, the opponent would need to be at the Harmonious Realm for her to tuck her chin in, lower her shoulders, and start being cautious.
Unfortunately, his negative karma was about half again higher than other human traffickers—the most wicked of the lot. She couldn’t understand why that foolish unorthodox bastard had sold the child to someone like this.
“Hey, you with the scar. Human trafficker.”
“You calling me? These days, girls have no fear? Hmph, why? Here to sell your body? If you’re offering, I could pay top price—maybe even ten gold coins in a chest.”
“Then I’d need at least fifty thousand coins. Anyway, I came to get back the young man you bought.”
She’d thought “the old man’s grandson” meant some little kid, but apparently it was a sturdy nineteen-year-old youth. Since he wasn’t yet an adult, she could still call him a child. Though martial artists married late, for commoners, having a nineteen-year-old grandson when your hair was completely white was indeed young. At that age, one would be waiting for great-grandchildren or watching them show off.
Anyway, at Cheong’s words, the scarred man grinned.
“Well, as long as the money’s good, there’s no problem.”
“He’s called Ban Ja-gwon, grandson of Cheolbang. About a bit shorter than me, thick eyebrows, dark complexion, lots of moles.”
“Why don’t you tell me when you sold him first?”
The unnecessary emphasis on the last word was childish, not even worthy of a ten-year-old.
“Hey, when was it?”
“About ten days ago.”
“What, ten days? That’s ridiculous. We’re not running a charity for the poor. Why would we feed and house merchandise for ten whole days?”
Cheong frowned. Damn it, of course it wouldn’t be that easy.
“You already sold him?”
“If it’s the Cheolbang’s son, I remember. Even though he only learned a bit of ironwork, he still fetched a decent price.”
“Who did you sell him to?”
The scarred man wagged his finger.
“Customer information must be protected. The national law prohibits slavery—if I went around revealing who bought whom, how could I do business in this line of work?”
“Hmm. How much would it take? Ten gold coins?”
It was a bargaining tactic. If she offered ten, maybe he’d counter with twenty. She had plenty of gold from the old man, so she might as well use it.
But Cheong’s plan collapsed immediately.
“Didn’t you hear me? If I sold a customer, this whole market would be finished. You think there’s an idiot who’d throw away their life for pocket change?”
“Pocket change? Ten gold coins isn’t pocket change.”
“Even if it were ten thousand gold coins in pure gold, it wouldn’t work. I told you—my life would be on the line. We have rules in this business.”
“Rules? What rules do vermin who sell people have? Even a passing dog would laugh itself to death.”
“This bitch’s mouth is really—”
“Whatever. A life’s price, then. You’ll take payment for a life?”
At that, the scarred man’s eyes changed.
“Payment for a life, hehe. I see now—you’re quite the distinguished guest. As someone with some backbone in this industry, I’ll have to charge quite handsomely.”
“Yeah? How much?”
The scarred man should have looked more carefully at Cheong’s expression. Her pupils had shrunk to pinpoints, and a faint violet killing intent bloomed at their centers—utterly wicked. Combined with her mouth stretched ear to ear in a wide grin, her expression was nothing short of vicious.
“First, if I could just step back for a moment—ack!!”
The scarred man, who had been speaking obsequiously, suddenly screamed. Anyone would scream mid-sentence after being kicked in the groin and sent flying a jang into the air.
This was the legendary strike of the Absolute Witch that all of Sacheon’s soldiers feared, the one that left even eyewitnesses unable to sleep at night from psychological trauma—the blow that ended bloodlines.
The scarred man, launched vertically, fell back down according to basic scientific principles. Cheong grabbed his ankle mid-fall and crushed it with a grinding sound.
“Aaaagh!!!”
“You’re overacting. Just because your balls got crushed and your ankle’s a bit broken, you’re screaming like that? And you call yourself a man? Cut off your dick. Cut it off. Hmm? Not a man anymore?”
“Kuh, kuhk.”
“Not coming to your senses? I was going to leave you one side, but being a cripple on two broken legs is much better than sitting around, don’t you think?”
Cheong spoke while repeatedly kicking the scarred man, who was clutching his groin and curled up. But with the pain of his crushed ankle overwhelming everything, how could he regain his senses after just a few dozen kicks?
Just then, a flurry of footsteps and the rustle of clothing echoed as black-clad martial artists surrounded Cheong.
“What is the meaning of this! How dare you cause a disturbance in Heuksi!”
“Dare? Do you serve the Emperor or something? You’re just the night market management. What ‘dare’ are you talking about?”
Their martial prowess was mediocre—three first-rate and two peak experts at most. Nothing to fear.
“The bounty’s generous, right? Put it up. My name is Eon Yeonyeong of the Jinju Eon Clan, and she’s unrelated.”
“Huh? Uimae, but—”
“It’s fine. I have a plan. Anyway, they only watched, so it doesn’t matter, right? Now, Seonyeong, step back for a bit. Give me the flute. Na-meun, you’ve finished your business too, so you’re free. Go.”
Gyeon Po-hui hesitated before finally drooping her shoulders and walking away. Surprisingly, the Heuksi guards stepped aside without resistance—whether because they were reluctant to put up multiple bounties or because they were following the rules, she couldn’t tell.
If they hadn’t let her go, Uimae would have become Seomun Cheong, disciple of the greatest woman in the Central Plains. Apparently, that wasn’t necessary.
“Good. Now that you’ve finished your business, get lost. I have things to discuss with this guy. Hey. Still not coming to your senses?”
“Kuh, crazy, crazy bitch. Picking a fight with Heuksi……”
“Yeah, this Eon Yeonyeong is crazy. So if you’d just talked for ten gold coins, you wouldn’t have become a eunuch. I really don’t understand. Ten gold coins versus becoming a eunuch—and you chose the latter.”
“You’re already a dead woman, aagh!!”
Cheong stomped on the scarred man’s hand. The secret technique of the Heavenly Demon Sovereign Step was infused in the blow, and the sensation of the bones beneath her foot shattering like grains of sand was exquisite.
At this, a Heuksi guard shouted.
“S-stop! What are you doing!”
“I don’t want to. You’re going to put up a bounty anyway, right? So why should I stop here? If this Eon Yeonyeong stops, will you cancel the bounty?”
“You truly look down on Heuksi!”
“Yeah, yeah. Eon Yeonyeong thinks Heuksi is very laughable. Why should the young lady of the Jinju Eon Clan fear a group that gathers nothing but trash like beggar’s undergarments and runs a night market?”
“How dare you!!!”
“If you’re upset, come at me.”
The Heuksi guards hesitated. The fact that she was openly provoking a fight made them reluctant to attack.
“Or just watch.”
Cheong waved her hand dismissively and casually stepped on the back of the scarred man, who was trying to crawl away.
“So, where did you sell that young man?”
“I’ll talk! I’ll talk, so my life—”
Only then did Cheong grin.
“I already told you. I’ll pay the price for your life.”