Chapter 210
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 210
Chapter Title: 58. Face Pursuit Armor Unit (1)
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Eighteen hours before the Face Pursuit Eul and Jeong Units arrived at Zhangye County—that is, around the time they were crossing the Yellow River.
In the office of the Myriad Stallion Escort Agency, located on the northern plateau of Shaanxi Province far to the southwest, Face Pursuit Squad Leader Gwak Nan-hoe was holding down the fort that early morning. It wasn't that she had risen early; she had stayed up all night wrestling with her troubles. She had even downed a bottle of liquor in the process, leaving her quite disheveled—an extraordinary sight compared to her usual impeccable self, which didn't have a single gap for even a needle to slip through.
The problem confronting Gwak Nan-hoe was that serious.
Can I really just pretend not to know and let it be?
Or... if not, what the hell should I do now?
Officially, the word was that Gwak Nan-hoe hadn't returned to Face Pursuit Headquarters yet because wrapping up affairs on the northern plateau was taking time.
It was true, to an extent.
But if she had really wanted to go, she could have done so ten days ago. She had simply chosen the most opportune moment. A person of her position and status carried weight in every move she made. So, her plan had been to return in glory after her achievements, staging a triumphant homecoming with all the proper fanfare.
But then, right before her scheduled return, a massive incident erupted between Zhao Family Manor and Heavenly Autumn Spear Yeo Hoe, forcing her to postpone. With the entire martial world fixated on that mess, no one would have paid attention to a low-key return ceremony—and she had no interest in that.
That was when her plans started to go awry.
She couldn't delay her return indefinitely, so Gwak Nan-hoe had readjusted the date as best she could and prepared to head back. But this time, a truly grave matter exploded.
The Face Pursuit Armor Unit!
It was an organization that had been operating even before she took over the Face Pursuit Squad. And afterward, it had continued to move independently, outside her direct control. In other words, it was a separate entity hiding under the shield of the Face Pursuit Squad.
So perhaps...
The very purpose of creating the Face Pursuit Squad might have been to shield the shady dealings the Armor Unit had done in the past—and would continue to do—from the eyes of the world.
Gwak Nan-hoe had a rough idea of the situation. She had simply turned a blind eye to this uncomfortable truth for as long as she could.
But she never imagined that the group causing all the recent uproar with their Face Ghost antics was that bunch. Had they gone rogue? This was clearly beyond their authority. They had crossed lines that both sides were supposed to respect, encroaching into her own territory.
Damn it all.
If she couldn't handle this properly, it would be a fatal poison that could topple the tower of achievements she had painstakingly built in one fell swoop. A mere return ceremony was nothing compared to this!
So what should she do?
An alarm blared in Gwak Nan-hoe's mind, and the very day she heard the news, she had gathered a few subordinates and prepared to rush straight to Face Pursuit Headquarters.
That had been four days ago.
Then why was she still holed up in the Myriad Stallion Escort Agency's office?
***
"Leader, you mustn't go. You can't go."
Gwak Nan-hoe was stunned by the advice—or thinly veiled threat. It came from someone unexpected.
Iron Mountain Boar Jeong Sa-jeong.
The deputy leader of the Face Pursuit Squad, who had quietly supported her from one step behind all this time, now stood blocking her path.
"Are you... threatening me right now?"
"Threatening? This is an order."
"What? Who the hell do you think you're ordering?"
"Why ask something so obvious? Who could possibly dare to give the young lady an order?"
"Don't tell me..."
"That's right. It's an order from the Lion Hall Leader, the Martial Qin Alliance Chief, and on a personal note, the young lady's father."
Jeong Sa-jeong was the father's man, so in hindsight, it made sense.
But Gwak Nan-hoe was confused. She had only learned of this herself less than an hour ago—how had her father, off fighting a war in some distant province, known to issue such an order? She hadn't even considered it, and now she doubted the intent behind the words.
Reading her thoughts, Jeong Sa-jeong offered more explanation.
"To be precise, it was an order given in advance for just such a contingency."
"'Just such a contingency'... what exactly do you mean?"
"If his eldest disciple and current acting Lion Hall Leader, Narakdo Ho Yeon-sang, shows suspicious movements or surfaces openly. If my daughter tries to act in a way that causes conflict then, step in and relay this message."
"What message?"
"'Watch. And wait.'"
"...!"
Gwak Nan-hoe mulled it over and was surprised for a different reason.
"Wait, hold on. We're talking about a rebellion by the Face Pursuit Armor Unit, and this is about a problem with my senior brother? Not Heavenly Autumn Spear Yeo Hoe?"
"It is a problem with Heavenly Autumn Spear. But it's also a problem with Narakdo. More precisely, Yeo Hoe is moving like a pawn on a board set by Narakdo. So if you act now, you'll get dragged into it too."
"So you're saying there might be a clash between me and my senior brother, and you stepped in early to prevent it?"
"Yes. But don't misunderstand. This isn't about worrying for your safety—it's because you're too clever, and we're concerned you might complicate the board."
"Complicate it? What do you mean?"
"If I had to guess, it means the picture the elder envisioned might get distorted. But that's just speculation. Neither I nor Mu Hyeon-bo, who's guarding headquarters now, knows the full details. As I told you before, we're just his blades."
"Hm."
"So I trust the young lady will act accordingly. Some people will arrive here in the next two or three days to escort you separately."
As he spoke, Jeong Sa-jeong rattled off a list of about a dozen names who would guard—or surveil—Gwak Nan-hoe for the time being. It was surprising. They were all renowned figures in the martial world, names even she, his only daughter, found bewildering upon hearing them—people known to have no ties to Lion Hall.
In other words, they were the hall leader's private pocket aces. Aside from the leader and a handful of his confidants, they had no contact with anyone else in Lion Hall—not even his eldest disciple, Ho Yeon-sang.
The implications were huge.
Gwak Nan-hoe let out a sigh and asked,
"Deputy Leader Jeong, what if I insist on acting against my father's will despite your dissuasion?"
"My apologies."
Apologies for what?
It was all too obvious, and as Gwak Nan-hoe's expression turned icy, Jeong Sa-jeong looked troubled and asked back.
"I don't understand. Why are you so obsessed with this?"
"Why? I'm the leader of the Face Pursuit Squad, aren't I? And this is about rebels from the Face Pursuit Squad. Need I say more? If they hadn't crossed the line, maybe—but now someone's trying to splash filth on everything I've accomplished. Should I just sit back and take it? Even if it's my senior brother?"
Jeong Sa-jeong sighed. Seeming genuinely sorry, he tried to placate her.
"Leader Gwak, if I may overstep, allow me one piece of advice. It must sting to think your achievements might go to waste. But look further ahead. There's a saying: 'The wise know when to yield.' I believe this is such a time."
"So in the end, you're telling me to just watch?"
"See the big picture. Let them sort themselves out. Leave them to clean up their own mess. Then, when the board resets, won't it naturally usher in your era again?"
"...!"
***
In the end, Gwak Nan-hoe stayed at the Myriad Stallion Escort Agency, following Jeong Sa-jeong's words—not as Face Pursuit Squad Leader, but as a member of Lion Hall.
That didn't mean she did absolutely nothing as squad leader. On the contrary, she inferred much from the deputy's words and pored over the intelligence reports she had ignored for so long, piecing together facts and hypotheses.
One. Lion Hall had long maintained a special unit dedicated to dirty work: assassinating rivals, plundering others' wealth, and other two-faced deeds.
They were the "Red Claw Brotherhood," led by the so-called Brain Devil, one of the Four Evils of Shaanxi.
One. The "Brain Devil," treated as a major player in Shaanxi's underworld, was fictional. Not a single person.
So the current "Brain Devil" was probably her senior brother, Narakdo Ho Yeon-sang—not Heavenly Autumn Spear Yeo Hoe. Yeo Hoe might be a member of the Red Claw Brotherhood, but he wasn't someone the Lion Hall Leader would entrust with such matters. Given the secretive nature, he'd need at least a disciple he could trust.
And hadn't Jeong Sa-jeong just said Ho Yeon-sang was the one who set this board?
Her guess was that the previous "Brain Devil" was likely Iron Mountain Boar Jeong Sa-jeong himself. Or perhaps the other deputy at headquarters, Yi Yang-jo. Maybe even both.
It just felt right.
One. In any case, they had laundered their identities to infiltrate as the Face Pursuit Armor Unit. So what had they done as the unit?
Cleaning house, so to speak.
Erasing or fabricating evidence of their past crimes. Lion Hall had unified Shaanxi, becoming the province's undisputed top righteous sect—a far cry from their old dirty tricks. This was them scrubbing away the traces.
Ironically, while the Face Pursuit Squad was created to wipe out criminal groups lurking in Shaanxi, the Armor Unit had used that as cover to operate even more brazenly.
One. But why stage this ghostly farce and stir up trouble on purpose?
Several hypotheses came to mind, but it was undoubtedly a provocation aimed at Zhao Family Manor on Ye Mountain.
And one more thing.
The Armor Unit wasn't following orders right now. They were rampaging. And for some reason, the higher-ups knew and were letting it slide.
'Maybe they even induced the Armor Unit to go rogue. Didn't the deputy say? Let them sort it out themselves.'
The phrase "when the rabbit dies, the hunting dog is cooked" sprang to Gwak Nan-hoe's mind. Lion Hall had reached the point where it no longer needed the hounds that caught the rabbits—a transitional phase.
Then what did Jeong Sa-jeong mean by worrying the board might tangle or the picture distort?
And what was the role of her senior brother, Narakdo Ho Yeon-sang, the current acting Lion Hall Leader?
Her thoughts chased each other in circles.
Was Ho Yeon-sang truly the innermost advisor to her father, Lion Hall Leader Gwak Bu-ui? Or was he the biggest dog they planned to boil in the pot alongside the rest?
Gwak Nan-hoe didn't have enough time or information to figure that out yet.
But...
'Whatever the case, I have no reason to get involved in this game!'
That was her conclusion.
Even so, as Face Pursuit Squad Leader, she had agonized through the night because even if she abandoned her hard-won achievements, sitting idle gnawed at her. Ignoring it when she knew full well was cowardly, trampling not just on duty or propriety, but her pride and self-respect.
What was it?
The Face Pursuit Jeong Unit, led by Jin Ga-yong, was marching into the jaws of death alongside the Eul Unit!