Subjugation Army Departure: D-1
"Haaah! Hah!"
Only after barricading himself inside his own chambers did Yu Ji-gyeong, master of the Seongrak Pavilion, finally manage to catch his breath.
A pleasure house of wine, women, and gambling was never short on trouble. Last night's uproar had been a bit larger than usual, but incidents of that sort were common enough at the Seongrak Pavilion.
At least, they were — until the warriors sent out to seize that rich young upstart all came back beaten to a pulp.
Once the warriors had been reduced to paste, last night's disturbance became a rather serious affair. So when word arrived that the same young man had shown his face again, Yu Ji-gyeong leaned out from the top floor, thinking he might as well take a look.
And there she was. Yeo Il-ye.
Yeo Il-ye, disguised as a bodyguard, walking into the Seongrak Pavilion.
"Master! Master, are you all right?"
"You—you! Are you blind, you useless dog?!"
Yu Ji-gyeong bellowed at the chief steward, whose face was pure startled confusion. The man bowed on reflex at his master's hysterical outburst, but he had no idea why Yu Ji-gyeong looked so terrified.
"Do you know who that bodyguard is?! That's Yeo Il-ye! Yeo Il-ye!"
"Pardon? You mean Yeo Il-ye of the Jeomchang Sect's Ten Later Disciples?"
The steward's tone was thick with incomprehension.
"Why would the Red Bamboo Hero — that fierce, prideful Yeo Il-ye — be working as a mere merchant's bodyguard…?"
"…Damn it all."
Yu Ji-gyeong squeezed his eyes shut. The steward had no way of knowing that his master was one of the enemies behind the Yeo Family Mountain Villa bloodbath, so of course he couldn't believe Yeo Il-ye would stoop to playing bodyguard for some rich young master.
Yu Ji-gyeong shook his head hard, forcing himself to focus. The steward wasn't what mattered.
Run. I have to run.
He abandoned every dream of becoming the Night King, abandoned the Seongrak Pavilion itself, and started calculating his escape. Even if he threw every resource the pavilion possessed into the fight, nothing would stop Yeo Il-ye from walking straight up to the top floor and taking his head.
For a fleeting moment he considered throwing himself on the mercy of Hwanggeum-seon and Gae Myeong-bu — then he shook his head. Gae Myeong-bu had never bothered to hide his contempt; the man wouldn't lift a finger to guarantee Yu Ji-gyeong's safety. And Hwanggeum-seon? Entrusting himself to Hwanggeum-seon was twice as dangerous as going to Gae Myeong-bu. That man would quietly murder him and swallow the Seongrak Pavilion whole without anyone ever knowing.
"From this moment on, stop spreading the rumors entirely!"
"Yes, understood."
"And those people! Leave them alone — let them run wild!"
"Sir?"
"Are your ears plugged?! I said leave them to it! If they come back tomorrow, leave them alone again! If the special clients complain, pay them off and be done with it!"
"B-but the losses—"
"Damn it! I don't care how much we lose — just leave them alone!"
If the Seongrak Pavilion could buy him time to flee, a little damage was nothing.
The steward, cowed by his master's ferocity, nodded.
"I'll be away for a few days!"
"Master? Master!"
Ignoring the steward's desperate calls, Yu Ji-gyeong took only two bodyguards he trusted completely and slipped out of the Seongrak Pavilion in secret.
"A carriage! Find me a carriage! We're getting as far from Sichuan as possible!"
"Yes, sir!"
I've done everything I could! I spread the rumors, but all anyone talks about is the Prefect's proclamation — what more am I supposed to do?
Hwanggeum-seon's plan was already in ruins. If things had gone according to that plan, the bandits should never have been subjugated at all.
The idea had been simple enough: rattle Sichuan's sects and merchants just enough, then tip off the bandits the moment the great sects formed a subjugation force. The bandits would grab only the compact, high-value treasures and vanish. After that, soothe the frustrated great sects into settling in Sichuan and live under the protection of their power — that had been the core of the scheme.
First, get out of Sichuan and hide somewhere safe!
The plan was already broken, so Sichuan was no longer safe. Hide somewhere secure and watch how things developed. If Hwanggeum-seon cleaned up the mess, he could reappear and demand compensation for recent losses. If not, he would simply flee somewhere far away. He had already siphoned off a portion of his fortune to a safe location long ago. With that money, he could run to Tibet or India — even Yeo Il-ye wouldn't be able to do much about it then!
Clop. Clop.
Huuu…
Yu Ji-gyeong finally exhaled as the carriage carried him out of Sichuan.
Thud!
The carriage jolted hard, as if it had struck a rock. Yu Ji-gyeong bounced in his seat, rubbing his backside with a snarl of irritation.
"Damn it! Can't you even drive a carriage properly?!"
No answer came.
When Yu Ji-gyeong looked forward, he saw that both bodyguards on the driver's bench had slumped. The two men had been completely subdued without a single sound or trace. If the carriage hadn't bounced over that rock, their postures would never have broken at all.
A chill ran through him. He sprang to his feet.
"Ah. Caught me."
"Aaaaagh!"
I could have finished this cleanly and silently — of course the carriage had to hit a rock right then.
Thinking that, Heukmyo drove a palm strike into Yu Ji-gyeong's gut. His cultivation had once been at the entry of the Peak Realm — fifteen years ago. After amassing a fortune, he had never trained again. He couldn't even put up a proper fight before he was coughing blood.
Crack!
Even so, Yu Ji-gyeong didn't simply take it. Using the rebound of the blow, he smashed through the carriage railing and tumbled free, forcing himself through the pain into a defensive qi stance.
Whinny! Whinny!
The horses screamed and the carriage lurched to a halt. Yu Ji-gyeong's nerves stretched taut as he watched the vehicle warily. Who was this? It wasn't Yeo Il-ye — so why attack him?
"Who are you?! Who dares ambush me?! Do you even know who I am?!"
Before the words had finished leaving his mouth, a palm strike slammed into his side. As his body folded and flew sideways, he barely managed to catch a glimpse of a figure.
A human shape, perfectly dissolved into the black of night.
But the form he had sacrificed a rib to glimpse vanished without a trace before he could even blink.
Yu Ji-gyeong roared, blustering through the fear.
"Guh—gahhk…! You bastard! Do you know who I am?! I am Yu Ji-gyeong! The man who rules the nights of Sichuan!"
"A man scurrying off like a rat under cover of darkness… calls himself the king of the night?"
The giggling laugh raised gooseflesh across his entire body. Where? Where was the voice coming from? The stealth was so nearly perfect he couldn't catch even a hint of a trail.
"Remember this."
Yu Ji-gyeong felt a hand touch his chest and tried desperately to thrash with his arms and legs —
But Heukmyo's dark energy struck his body first.
"The night belongs to the cat."
Thud.
Confirming that the collapsed Yu Ji-gyeong was fully unconscious, Heukmyo gave a light whistle. Moments later, Jeon Hu-dam appeared with a series of grunting, laboring sounds.
"Oof… oof…"
"Good work. Now that we have a carriage, we won't have to drag the Golden Family's messenger around anymore."
"Damn it! How filthy generous of you!"
Jeon Hu-dam, who had been walking around with a grown man on his back, dumped the Golden Family's messenger into the carriage and let out a long sigh.
Last night, Heukmyo had, in a single day, either co-opted or silenced every information network in Sichuan. Temporary measures only, of course — the condition she had set was three days of cooperation.
She had then poured every scrap of that gathered capacity into surveillance of the Hwanggeumga, the Jambong Sect, and the Seongrak Pavilion.
Neither the messenger carrying the letter that would decide the Golden Family's fate, nor Yu Ji-gyeong of the Seongrak Pavilion — who had chosen flight the instant he saw Yeo Il-ye — had escaped that net. The moment they left Sichuan, their collars were seized.
The night belongs to the cat, she says…
Jeon Hu-dam shook his head. Whether it was a cat's hour or not, he couldn't say.
But in this moment, Heukmyo ruled the night of Sichuan.
"Hahaha."
"Whoa~ Good heavens! I've never seen this much cash in my life!"
Two hundred seventy-three gold nyang.
That was the total haul from yesterday and today. The moment we stepped one foot outside the pleasure house, ambushers had drawn weapons and charged us, and we'd had a rough time putting them all down. Most of the rough work, of course, had fallen to the other two.
"T-truly remarkable…"
Hyeok Gi-rin — back to a masculine manner of speech because Dang Do-yeon was present — murmured in awe as she stared at the tower of gold. None of us were exactly short on money, but seeing a mountain of gold piled right in front of your eyes was a different matter entirely.
Heukmyo just waved her hands around, looking thoroughly delighted.
I rearranged the gold pieces, spreading them across the tabletop like a blanket. She'd earned some special treatment after last night's feat of catching the fleeing Yu Ji-gyeong and Hwanggeum-seon's messenger.
"Please, lie down, Heukmyo."
Heukmyo flopped down without hesitation.
"Mmmmm~"
She rubbed her face against the gold with an expression of pure bliss.
"Nangin Ho. Might I try lying down as well?"
"Of course."
Apparently Dang Do-yeon also wanted a turn on that magnificent golden bed. A line formed behind Heukmyo as she luxuriated in the "feel" of the mattress. When Hyeok Gi-rin quietly slipped into place behind Dang Do-yeon, it was clear she wanted a turn on the gold-nyang bed too.
"Heukmyo, when you're done playing, put it all away neatly in the vault!"
"Got it!"
I left the noisy vault behind and headed down into the government office's basement.
The prison.
The place holding Hwanggeum-seon's messenger and Seongrak Pavilion's Yu Ji-gyeong, both captured yesterday. I passed the ordinary cells on the first level and continued to the second basement floor. Being a government prison, it was fairly large with plenty of cells, but finding the one holding Yu Ji-gyeong was not difficult.
Yeo Il-ye was standing in front of it.
She gripped her sword hilt as she stared into the cell where the unconscious Yu Ji-gyeong lay. The feeling that she might draw her blade at any second and cut through the bars and the man together made me speak up in a hurry.
"Thinking of cutting him down?"
Yeo Il-ye turned toward me. She looked at me for a long moment, then shook her head.
"…No."
Watching her hand slowly leave the hilt was a small relief.
"I could not forget the teaching Benefactor shared with me in a single day. I have come to understand that killing alone is not the answer."
"Mm."
In the end, the greatest enemy in Sichuan was Hwanggeum-seon. Yu Ji-gyeong of the Seongrak Pavilion was a creature of the shadows — someone whose head could be taken whenever the moment was right — and Gae Myeong-bu, elder of the Jambong Sect, was simply a martial artist weaker than Yeo Il-ye.
"I will strip the masks from these men, make all the world know the evil they have committed, and tear down everything they built atop the blood of the Yeo Family Mountain Villa. And then…"
Yeo Il-ye fell silent without finishing the thought. Well… perhaps the path after that had not yet been decided.
"You remember the plan?"
"Heh. Of course. I remember that tomorrow is the critical day. I should swing my sword a while and tune my body."
I thought it was safe to stop worrying about Yeo Il-ye now. The risk of her acting on sudden emotion seemed gone.
I let out a breath of relief and was leaving the prison with her when I ran into Tang Do-gyeong.
"Hey, brother — I've got some things to discuss about today's briefing. Have you got a moment?"
"Of course, Brother Tang."
Busy, busy, busy.
Yesterday we had accepted individual applicants for the subjugation force. Today was the day we would hold a briefing for the sects joining the volunteer army and receive their resources.
Tang Do-gyeong and Sama Yeom apparently had matters to discuss with me on that subject.
"First, individual participation has already exceeded our targets, so we'll set that aside. Sect participation will be decided by today's briefing, of course, but…"
"I hear Gae Myeong-bu of the Jambong Sect has already declared he will not attend."
"Mm."
Gae Myeong-bu, already in league with Hwanggeum-seon, would have been promised his reward through that channel — so of course he wouldn't join a bandit subjugation.
"We already expected as much, didn't we?"
"Hahaha, of course. The subjugation itself should proceed smoothly enough… but one must always prepare for the unexpected. If Hwanggeum-seon or the Jambong Sect has already recruited even one more Super-Peak expert from Sichuan, the other sects' participation will inevitably drop."
I understood what Sama Yeom was driving at.
Sichuan's individual martial artists had gone wild for this bandit-subjugation event. It was effectively the first achievement monument in the history of the Murim. A stele of merit rising in Sichuan with your name carved on it? Unthinkable to miss. And limited-edition goods as participation rewards on top of that? Worth risking your life for.
But from the perspective of a sect leader, there was far more to consider.
"If Hwanggeum-seon or Gae Myeong-bu has bought off Super-Peak experts from other sects, things could get complicated."
"We are confident we can subjugate the bandits, but if the mountain stronghold's top experts are scattered, the casualties will be considerable. That worries me."
Their concern was that if Super-Peak masters showed reluctance to participate, other sects would take the cue and participation would plummet.
"So we need a second plan prepared for that contingency, don't we?"
"It's fine."
Tang Do-gyeong and Sama Yeom looked slightly flustered by my flat dismissal. Clearly they hadn't expected the suggestion of a backup plan to be shot down.
"Do you remember what I said last time?"
"The dead make it difficult to verify merit, so points are awarded only for live captures. Capturing a chieftain: fifty merit points. Capturing a vice-chieftain: thirty. Peak Realm experts: ten. First-rate: five. Bandits below that: one point each. Correct?"
Tang Do-gyeong picked up the thread.
"The five sects with the highest total scores receive a platinum plaque for their signboard. The top twenty percent receive gold plaques. From the top twenty-one percent through forty percent, silver. Through sixty percent, bronze. The remaining forty percent, iron. The victory parade proceeds in order of total score."
Sama Yeom and Tang Do-gyeong both wore expressions that said, Is this level of benefit really enough to draw voluntary participation from the sects?
"Hahaha. Just go deliver the briefing. You'll understand."
The system was so foreign to these two that they simply couldn't picture its impact yet.
The problem was that both of them had started life at the absolute top. The Tang Clan and the Sama family — both born with diamond spoons in their mouths. Neither had ever suffered an unfair evaluation.
In this Murim, there was no clear standard for ranking sects. Just rough, slapdash judgments based on abstract criteria and reputation: lots of experts, a large sect, plenty of useful techniques…
Sichuan's sects were the greatest victims of that slapdash system. No incidents meant no chance to shine. In a place like Sichuan, where even individuals struggled to make a name, when would an entire sect ever get to display its full strength?
So the reputation of Sichuan's sects sat at the extreme end of that rough-and-ready evaluation. With no opportunities for glory, their standing could only remain abstract. That was how a single well-staged performance could send people like the Taegyeong Sect or Gang Jun rocketing upward.
Sichuan's three great powers… this sect is better than that one… every sect in Sichuan carried resentment and a sense of injustice under those abstract public judgments.
And now a stage had opened with a clear evaluation standard called merit points.
A ranked game that could sort sects into Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum! The placement test was open.
"They will stake everything their sects have to join this subjugation."
Would any sect hold back strength or leave reserves in this ranked game — no, this bandit subjugation war? They would scrape up every last scrap of power stuck to the floor of their compounds and throw it all in.
"So don't worry about a thing. Just handle the briefing."
A placement test was something you risked your life to ace.