A Tang Family Member Learns Gambling from a Nangin -5
"How many lives do you even have?"
"Haha. Of course not. That's why I brought Pungyeong Daeju on board. Please make sure no assassins come calling in the middle of the night."
Pungyeong Daeju's face twisted into a look of pure disbelief.
"Hehehe... Fine, I understand. Just don't go spreading any rumors about it."
Honestly, I hadn't expected Pungyeong Daeju to accept the proposal at all. Even so, I never truly believed the head of an orthodox faction would send assassins after me. But the fact that Pungyeong Daeju took the offer made me think there might actually be something to the idea.
Hmm. My neck was starting to tingle. From now on, I'd better not touch any tea or snacks that came out of the clan head's hall.
Chatting about this and that with Pungyeong Daeju, we arrived at the guest quarters where outsiders stayed within the Tang Family compound.
"Ya-hyung!"
The very Tang Do-gyeong in question was waiting for me.
"Haha, I heard from Do-yeon that Ya-hyung had arrived, so I've been waiting."
"Haha, Brother Tang. It's been a while."
Tang Do-gyeong looked sharper than ever after our long separation. The leather straps across his shoulders were packed tight with throwing daggers, and the heavy weight of his belt made it obvious he was carrying any number of hidden weapons.
Pungyeong Daeju took the room next to mine. Once our quarters were assigned, I faced Tang Do-gyeong properly.
"I'm sorry, Ya-hyung. Because of me, you got dragged all the way to Sichuan."
Tang Do-gyeong had a better grasp of the situation than I'd expected.
"This Tang of mine is ashamed to admit I never paid the slightest attention to family affairs. When the clan head summoned me, and when that wager between us took place, I simply failed to understand what any of it meant. Only after my father tore into me did I finally grasp the truth—and by then, I'd already dragged an innocent Ya-hyung into the mess."
"So?"
"Haha. Even so, how could I half-ass a match? I'd rather return the hidden weapons to the clan head myself than insult him with a deliberately soft wager."
Hearing the guy who started this whole disaster spout righteous principles made my blood boil, but he wasn't wrong. He'd already flaunted every scrap of his gambling skill in front of the clan head without a shred of tact. Going easy on him now wouldn't make any sense.
Still, the fact that Tang Do-gyeong had finally caught on and was eager to clean up the mess was good news in its own way.
"We'll talk later. There's something I need to check right now."
"What is it?"
I laid out the board. How much gambling was I going to do in a single day?
"First, let's play a round."
The most important thing was confirming just how good Tang Do-gyeong's gambling skills really were.
Tang Gwang-ryeol rubbed his forehead.
That stings.
When was the last time he'd felt pain like this? Ten years ago? Not since the bloody battles to drive the unorthodox sects out of Sichuan had he felt anything that could truly be called pain.
Heh. Even this Tang Gwang-ryeol is getting old.
Tang Gwang-ryeol looked over the neatly arranged family heirlooms and smiled. The urge to hunt down Ho Cheon-an—the man who had toyed with him—rose for a moment, only to die the instant he remembered that final yabawi mixed with inner energy.
He had poured every scrap of his eye technique and lightning force into the game and still lost to a man who hadn't used a drop of internal energy.
Tang Gwang-ryeol had no choice but to acknowledge the gap between himself and Ho Cheon-an. Once he admitted he had lost, and lost again, on a board where no internal energy was used, the words he himself had spoken came back to him and he couldn't help laughing.
He had claimed that learning a few tricks would let him beat Tang Do-gyeong easily. How absurd must that have sounded to Ho Cheon-an?
I'll learn.
Tang Gwang-ryeol settled his heart and lifted his head. Morning sunlight was already streaming into the clan head's hall.
It was early, yet the sight of Pungyeong Daeju and Ho Cheon-an entering the hall made Tang Gwang-ryeol nod.
No matter how he looked at it, getting flicked on the forehead was not something he could simply forget.
And then... I'll hit him back.
He would learn and learn until he could repay Ho Cheon-an with a forehead flick of his own.
With that thought, Tang Gwang-ryeol spoke.
"I'll be in your care, Teacher."
Ho Cheon-an's gambling lessons began.
Tang Gwang-ryeol threw the doors of his mind wide open and absorbed every explanation and demonstration Ho Cheon-an offered. One day passed, then two. The longer the lessons continued, the more Tang Gwang-ryeol lamented inwardly.
I really was a frog in a well!
How to read an opponent's psychology. How to provoke instinctive reactions. How to exploit the narrowed field of vision that psychology created.
Especially when Ho Cheon-an spoke of the blind spots in human vision, Tang Gwang-ryeol felt his head bow of its own accord. The systematic analysis of how the eyes and brain process information was every bit as vast and difficult as martial arts itself. Tang Gwang-ryeol realized he had been nothing more than a child running wild on raw strength, and the shame of it burned.
He had strutted around like the greatest gambler under heaven on the strength of the petty wagers that took place inside the little well called the Tang Family. Only after tasting real gambling and losing to Tang Do-gyeong did Tang Gwang-ryeol finally accept the truth in his heart. Tang Do-gyeong had been a frog who realized the world was wide and that he himself was lacking. Tang Gwang-ryeol had been nothing more than a frog who had lived his entire life inside the well of the Tang Family.
The world of gambling that unfolded through Ho Cheon-an's mouth and hands was broad and deep.
Human psychology and instinct. Blind spots in vision. Delicate sleight of hand. Even those three foundations alone were no easy matter, yet from Ho Cheon-an's mouth and hands poured knowledge and experience of the synergistic effects and applications those three elements created—like a dam bursting.
Have I been looking at the world through such a narrow lens all this time?
Tang Do-gyeong had talked himself hoarse about "Ya-hyung," but Tang Gwang-ryeol had dismissed it as mere humility. Gambling techniques? Creating a martial art from something like that? He had been certain it was simply Tang Do-gyeong's talent shining through—that the boy had drawn inspiration from mere gambling tricks. Yet the longer Ho Cheon-an's lectures continued, the more clearly Tang Gwang-ryeol understood what Tang Do-gyeong had been trying to say. Ho Cheon-an's gambling techniques contained the Tang Family Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method. No—parts of Ho Cheon-an's gambling techniques had been woven into the Tang Family Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method.
Principles far clearer and more precise than anything Tang Do-gyeong had explained or demonstrated while performing the Tang Family Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method came leaping from Ho Cheon-an's mouth and hands.
Tang Gwang-ryeol threw himself into the gambling techniques without reservation.
By day he learned theory and hand techniques from Ho Cheon-an. By night he reviewed the theory and drilled the hand techniques until they were second nature.
He felt himself growing, and for the first time in a long while he lost track of time, drunk on the pure joy of progress.
A full week flew by like an arrow. Ho Cheon-an nodded and spoke.
"I believe the time has come."
"So it has."
Tang Gwang-ryeol nodded in return.
At that same hour, Tang Do-gyeong found himself in a difficult position.
"Come now, Do-gyeong! Why won't you take a wager?!"
He was paying the price for having greedily cleaned out every last hidden weapon from the direct-line cousins' pockets.
"I'm sorry, Elder Brother. My condition hasn't been good lately..."
"You've been using that excuse for a whole week already! Even so, I can't let it slide today!"
Tang Do-gyeong had been refusing hidden-weapon wagers for some time. He had tried deliberately losing once or twice, but he was not yet a gambler skilled enough for that. He could deceive an opponent with everything he had, yet he could not deceive them so thoroughly that they never even realized they had been fooled. The moment they caught on, the situation only grew worse.
And so he had no choice but to avoid the wagers entirely. One excuse after another, he had postponed them for a full week. Now the direct-line cousins, their patience finally exhausted, had swarmed in demanding a match.
If Tang Do-gyeong had only taken one or two hidden weapons, the cousins might have written them off as gifts to a junior just beginning his study of throwing techniques. But when he cleaned them out of their main weapons, they could not simply back down.
"Elder Brothers! The clan head has summoned Brother Do-gyeong!"
"Wait just a moment, Do-yeon. I need a firm answer today!"
"Our hidden-weapon training is falling behind! How long do you intend to dodge a match?!"
Dang Do-yeon smiled and held the blood relatives at bay.
"As it happens, the clan head summoned Brother Do-gyeong precisely because of these hidden-weapon wagers. Please let him go."
The direct-line cousins had no choice but to release Tang Do-gyeong. When the clan head himself declared he would settle the matter, no mere cousin could argue further.
"Whew. The clan head called me at just the right time."
"Because the nangin is with him, of course."
Following Dang Do-yeon into the clan head's hall, Tang Do-gyeong turned over the past days in his mind. Ever since he had gained enlightenment and created the Tang Family Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method, any number of things had happened within the Tang Family. The demonstration of the Tang Family Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method. The way that single demonstration had instantly made him a central figure of the clan. The training in throwing techniques under the guidance of the Tang poison masters and the Do-generation seniors. And the gambling matches wagered on hidden weapons.
I'm sorry to the clan head and to Ya-hyung, but I have no intention of going easy.
When he had tried to lose deliberately against his blood relatives, Tang Do-gyeong had felt his own heart clearly. He did not want to lose while using the gambling techniques Ya-hyung had taught him.
At first he had thought he simply got carried away because gambling was fun. But that was not all. In Tang Do-gyeong's heart, Ya-hyung's gambling techniques were the greatest under heaven, and he had no desire to do anything that would bring shame upon those techniques.
I don't want to lose.
Even if the opponent was Tang Gwang-ryeol, clan head of the Tang Family—who had learned the same gambling techniques from the same Ya-hyung—he still did not want to lose.
Dang Do-yeon knocked on the door of the clan head's hall with a bright smile, certain that the untimely hidden-weapon gambling fever sweeping the Tang Family was about to be resolved. Tang Do-gyeong, however, drew a deep breath, steeled his heart, and prepared himself for the match.
Inside the clan head's hall, three people and a gambling board were waiting. Ho Cheon-an. Pungyeong Daeju. And seated at the board, Clan Head Tang Gwang-ryeol.
"You've come, Do-gyeong."
"Yes, Clan Head."
"A week ago I lost every last hidden weapon to you in our wager, so this is all I have left to stake."
Tang Do-gyeong swallowed dryly. Embroidered on the hidden-weapon pouch Tang Gwang-ryeol had placed on the board were the characters for Clan Head. The pouch alone was enough to convey Tang Gwang-ryeol's resolve.
"I'm sorry to both the Clan Head and Ya-hyung, but I intend to give this everything I have. Of course, even if I win, I will return every hidden weapon belonging to the other blood relatives."
"Hahahaha. Do-gyeong, that speech will still be fine after you've won."
Tang Do-gyeong burst out laughing. Yes—he was right. It wouldn't be too late after winning.
Tang Do-gyeong took his seat across from Tang Gwang-ryeol.
"Since I am the one being challenged, I will deal first."
"Good."
Pungyeong Daeju clenched his fists. Tang Do-gyeong, who had swept up every hidden weapon inside the Tang Family for lack of any equal. And Tang Gwang-ryeol, who had been crushed by that same Tang Do-gyeong yet had spent a full week under the special tutelage of Ho Cheon-an—possessor of divine gambling techniques—honing his skill to a razor edge. Their clash could be nothing less than the decisive battle to determine who held the greatest gambling skill within the Tang Family.
Who will win?
Pungyeong Daeju fixed his eyes on the board.
Tang Do-gyeong versus Tang Gwang-ryeol. Tang Gwang-ryeol versus Tang Do-gyeong. The match began.