The Sect Alliance’s Human Brokerage Office
Lee Kang slowed his pace as he looked at the girl huddled in the corner, pretending as best he could that she held no interest for him at all.
Then he turned his head toward the merchant from the Sa-do Alliance who stood nearby.
Calm down.
Lee Kang told himself he was the sort of man who lurked in the shadows and preyed on others. Head-on collisions were not his style.
A beast that bared its teeth the moment it spotted good prey would not live long.
A true hunter hid. He waited. And then, in the instant no one noticed, he reached out and took.
The girl before him had the aptitude for Transcendence, the Realm of Transformation. Exactly how extraordinary that was, he still couldn’t quite feel in his bones.
But one thing was certain: right now, she was weak.
She wasn’t the body of some seasoned master overflowing with inner energy. She wasn’t a warrior’s frame honed into steel. Her crouched posture and the angle of her fingertips were good, but that was all.
In terms of raw strength alone, she was far below even Lee Kang.
That meant there was an opening. He had to take her now.
Before anyone else realized her true worth. He had to steal her away in secret.
The easiest way to protect a winning lottery ticket is... to keep it secret!
Lee Kang muttered to himself.
The problem was money.
His entire fortune at the moment was 800 nyang.
The girl’s price was 850 nyang.
He was short by 50 nyang.
But Lee Kang didn’t see that as a serious problem.
He had almost never bought anything at full price in the first place.
Let’s see if I can butter up the Sa-do Alliance merchant somehow.
Could he call it so filthy with mud that it was hard to inspect its condition?
Could he say it looked like a modern-day slave but was priced too high?
Or maybe... theft was also an option.
What should he do?
Just then, a voice boomed from behind him.
“Oho! And who might this be!”
Lee Kang’s shoulders stiffened ever so slightly.
It was the kind of voice that made one tired just from hearing it.
“Could it be the Black Moon Sect Leader!”
Lee Kang slowly turned around.
A giant of a man was approaching.
He wasn’t merely tall; he was enormous in every direction.
His neck was thick, his shoulders broad as a set of doors.
His forearms looked thicker than most men’s thighs, and each time he moved, the muscles beneath his clothes rippled.
This wasn’t a fat body. It was a body forged by martial skill.
He was the sort who bulked himself up, hardened his bones and sinews, and stacked internal energy over his flesh like armor.
Lee Kang knew him.
Jang Ori, Sect Leader of the Golden Sect.
The name sounded ridiculous, but the man himself was anything but funny.
Jang Ori laughed heartily and started to slap Lee Kang on the shoulder, then stopped his hand in midair when Lee Kang took a half-step back.
“Still as cautious as ever! Truly the Black Moon Sect lives up to its name, outward softness and inward steel!”
Outward softness and inward steel, my ass.
Lee Kang swallowed the curse in his head.
The phrase meant soft on the outside and strong on the inside, but Lee Kang was weak on the outside and weak on the inside.
“Sect Leader Jang.”
Lee Kang lowered his head.
“What a coincidence to meet you here.”
“Hahaha! I came after hearing about the auction! But it seems you didn’t come just to browse, either.”
Jang Ori’s gaze shifted toward the corner of the iron cage.
The mud-covered girl.
Lee Kang felt his heart sink once.
Jang Ori chuckled.
“As expected of the Black Moon Sect. You spotted this talent at once?”
Lee Kang did not answer.
“A talent, you say?” Lee Kang replied, deliberately indifferent. “I only noticed because the price tag looked strange.”
“850 nyang, isn’t it?”
Jang Ori stroked his chin.
“I was thinking of buying her myself. She stands out. Filthy, sure, but somehow too strange to just pass by.”
Dammit.
Lee Kang grit his teeth inwardly.
Jang Ori probably hadn’t seen her aptitude. But his instincts were sharp.
Jang Ori laughed again.
“Still, there’s an auction going on today. I’ve been wondering if I should save my money. If I buy that one, I’ll likely lose out at the auction; if I don’t, it’ll still be a shame.”
“An auction?”
“You didn’t know? I heard the Sa-do Alliance is putting out some rather large items today. That’s why the place is so crowded.”
Lee Kang looked around again. There really were a lot of people.
It was his first time at a slave market, but instinctively he could tell.
It felt like looking at the streets of a market before the apocalypse.
Then another voice cut in.
“Are the two of you planning to fight among the Sa-sa Alliance again?”
It was a cool voice. Lee Kang and Jang Ori both turned their heads.
Beneath a red lantern stood a woman.
Beautiful, but not in a gentle way.
Her face wore almost no makeup.
Her eyes were sharp and slightly raised.
Her hair was tied up neatly, and a thin sword hung at her waist.
Her features were cold, her expression severe.
Cheong Jangmi, Sect Leader of the Justice Sect.
The moment Lee Kang saw her, he let out a silent sigh.
Why her of all people?
Cheong Jangmi glared at Jang Ori.
“Golden Sect Leader. If you’re going to keep meddling and stirring up trouble over another Sa-sa Alliance item, then stop now.”
“Meddling? That’s quite the misunderstanding.”
Jang Ori raised both hands.
“I was merely praising a friend’s discernment.”
“Friend?”
Cheong Jangmi’s brow twitched.
Jang Ori grinned shamelessly.
“Why not? The Black Moon Sect Leader, Lee Kang, and I are comrades of the Sa-sa Alliance, are we not?”
The Sa-sa Alliance.
The Alliance of the Four Minor Evil Sects.
The name sounded grand, but in truth it was nothing more than a loose gathering of petty sects in the Mangwon area, formed so they could survive together.
They had originally been people who lived with one another in mutual indifference.
But as time passed and the other modern factions around them were wiped out one by one, they naturally began to interact.
Each sect was small enough to be embarrassing if called a proper sect at all. Still, they granted one another the courtesy of treating them like sects.
Cheong Jangmi cast a single cold glance at Lee Kang.
Lee Kang lowered his head as if nothing were amiss.
“Sect Leader Cheong.”
“Please call me Cheong Jangmi.”
Her voice was stiff.
“Be careful in places like this. If you spend your time with loudmouths like the Golden Sect Leader, you’ll end up drawing attention for no reason.”
“Hahaha! That’s a bit much!”
Jang Ori clutched his belly and laughed.
“If you’re that worried, why don’t you just confess already?”
Cheong Jangmi’s face turned red in an instant.
“What nonsense are you spouting?”
“No, I’m just saying, every time you see the Black Moon Sect Leader, your nagging gets louder. Well... do I need to spell it out further?”
“Golden Sect Leader!”
Cheong Jangmi’s hand flew to the hilt at her waist.
Jang Ori shook his head without the slightest trace of fear.
“Tsk, tsk. So much shame in such a grown woman.”
“Do you want to die?”
“Isn’t everyone just waiting for the day they die anyway, with the world the way it is now?”
While the two of them bickered, Lee Kang quietly looked back toward the girl.
But his thoughts only grew more complicated.
Jang Ori.
Cheong Jangmi.
Both of them were here.
This is strange.
Lee Kang narrowed his eyes.
Could it be.
No way that person is here too.
The instant that thought crossed his mind, a voice came from farther away.
“Hoho. Did everyone come after hearing about the auction?”
Lee Kang wanted to close his eyes.
An old man with a sparse white beard was walking over with a cane.
His clothes were worn but clean.
His back was a little bent, and his steps were slow.
But Lee Kang knew.
That old man was the strongest person here.
No Hyeonjin, Sect Leader of the Iron Hand Sect.
The oldest of the Sa-sa Alliance, and the one with the highest actual martial skill.
A second-class martial artist. A practitioner of the orthodox Iron Hand Three Ultimate Palms.
No Hyeonjin wore a kindly smile on his wrinkled face.
“This old man also has some interest in today’s auction items, so I came to broaden my horizons as well.”
Jang Ori clapped his hands.
“Ha! Now the whole Sa-sa Alliance is here! What cruel trick of fate is this?”
Cheong Jangmi furrowed her brow.
“It’s an ill omen.”
No Hyeonjin laughed softly.
“Why so sharp, all of you? If people from the same alliance meet, you should be glad. Where else would you find such a coincidence?”
Lee Kang sighed inwardly.
Damn it.
He deliberately looked away from the girl.
He couldn’t keep glancing that way.
Instead, he needed to change the subject.
He had to turn everyone’s attention toward the auction and make them forget the girl’s existence entirely.
Lee Kang opened his mouth as naturally as he could.
“By the way, what exactly is this auction?”
All three of them looked at him.
“I’m hearing about it for the first time. I did think there were more people in the market than usual today, though.”
“Hoho.”
No Hyeonjin stroked his beard and smiled.
“It seems the Black Moon Sect Leader doesn’t often visit places like this.”
“That’s right. I’m not used to markets like this.”
That much was true.
It was his first time at a slave market, after all.
No Hyeonjin went on with his explanation in a kindly tone.
“At Mangwon Market, an auction is held regularly. It’s a place where they gather things managed by the Sa-do Alliance that are too good to be placed on ordinary stalls and sell them separately.”
“Like manuals or elixirs?”
“Those come up too. Old manuals, elixirs, weapons, treasures, loot that slipped out of sect hands. The varieties are many.”
No Hyeonjin’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“But today’s headline treasure is a person.”
“A person?”
Lee Kang pretended to be surprised.
No Hyeonjin seemed pleased with his reaction and nodded.
“They say a special slave is being brought out.”
Jang Ori laughed heartily from the side.
“That’s why everyone’s flocking here! Just look at the market today. Isn’t the atmosphere fantastic?”
Cheong Jangmi frowned with visible displeasure.
“Your choice of words, calling a person a treasure, is hardly admirable.”
“Hah, Sect Leader Cheong is still righteous with her mouth, I see.”
No Hyeonjin chuckled as he stood between them.
“No need to stir up trouble among the same alliance. In any case, it is true that the slave being auctioned today is special.”
Lee Kang asked cautiously, “What kind of slave is it?”
No Hyeonjin lowered his voice.
“From what this old man heard, she’s a girl from the Heavenly Mountain Sect.”
Heavenly Mountain Sect. Lee Kang fixed the name in his mind.
He didn’t know exactly what sort of sect it was, but from the name alone, it didn’t sound like some ordinary minor faction.
No Hyeonjin continued, “But apparently that girl was born with the Nine Yin Severed Meridians.”
“The Nine Yin Severed Meridians...”
Lee Kang had heard the term before, vaguely.
A constitution with too much yin energy in the body to live long.
In martial-fantasy novels, it was usually either a fatal illness or the seed of a great chance encounter.
That was all he remembered.
No Hyeonjin said, “For an ordinary person, it’s little different from a curse. Yin energy gathers in the body and blocks the meridians, and as the years pass, it freezes the internal organs. They usually don’t make it past their forties.”
Cheong Jangmi said coldly, “Putting such a girl up for auction is disgusting.”
Jang Ori shrugged.
“How many businesses in this world aren’t disgusting? Don’t you go around killing people yourself?”
“The weak dying is only natural.”
“Hah, you’re the scariest one here, in my opinion.”
No Hyeonjin paid no mind to their argument and calmly continued.
“Still, for those who cultivate certain methods, the matter changes. The yin energy of the Nine Yin Severed Meridians is poison, yes, but if handled properly, it becomes medicine. If one practiced yin-based internal arts, dual-cultivation demonic arts, or certain special methods from the heretical schools, one could raise one’s martial skill tremendously through that girl!”
Lee Kang said nothing.
Cheong Jangmi glanced at him once, then shook her head toward No Hyeonjin.
“Surely you didn’t come here aiming for that, Sect Leader No?”
“Hoho. This old man is far removed from such methods. As I said, I merely came to broaden my horizons.”
“Broaden your horizons,” Cheong Jangmi repeated, not sounding convinced in the slightest.
No one here believed it.
After a moment, Cheong Jangmi looked at No Hyeonjin and said, “That sort of chance encounter isn’t something just anyone can enjoy. Unless it’s a famous orthodox sect or a powerful heretical faction, no one can touch it. If some half-baked fool gets greedy, the girl will die and the living will end up suffering qi deviation.”
She kept circling back to the point, as if she were trying to warn No Hyeonjin.
“Hoho. You’re right.”
No Hyeonjin seemed not to care much for her warning.