Monopolizing Fortunes (32)
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Monopolizing Fortunes (32)
The masked figure looked at Jang Jeong-baek. The wavering eyes found their focus. A certain will could be felt in those eyes.
Namgung Seol-rin drew a long breath. She had already heard from Do Tong-dal that torture would be necessary.
It wasn't that the Namgung Clan had never used torture. Do Tong-dal was living proof of that. But it had never been Namgung Seol-rin's role.
She had seen it, but never done it. Cutting a bound person, slicing them, searing them with fire—Namgung Seol-rin didn't think she could do such a thing.
Yet the torture she had thought impossible had now become her task. Do Tong-dal had told her to do it, and she hadn't been able to say she couldn't.
Do Tong-dal had only told her to do it; he hadn't even asked if she could. As if it were naturally her job.
Well, since Namgung Seol-rin was Do Tong-dal's arm, it was only natural to him that she would do it.
Behind the mask, she bit her lower lip until it bled and swung her fist.
Thwack!
"Ugh—!"
The fist buried in his stomach forced a stifled scream from Jang Jeong-baek. Striking a bound opponent is a disgraceful act for a martial artist.
'I'm not a martial artist! I'm not a martial artist!'
Repeating the same words to herself, Namgung Seol-rin kept punching. Her fists rained down indiscriminately on his stomach, chest, and face.
This wasn't torture; it was a one-sided beating. She seemed intent on simply beating him to death, but Do Tong-dal let her continue.
In truth, it didn't matter much whether Jang Jeong-baek revealed the location of the Mind-Reading Art. It would be in one of two places—his house or his office—and nine times out of ten, it would be the office.
Since he didn't carry it on his person, the office was the only place where he could reach out and grab it at any time.
"O... office..."
It was unclear when he had started saying that. In any case, Do Tong-dal heard Jang Jeong-baek's words.
But Namgung Seol-rin's fists didn't stop. She was punching like a high monk striking a wooden fish in a state of self-abandonment.
"Stop!"
When Do Tong-dal shouted, the startled Namgung Seol-rin finally stopped hitting him.
Do Tong-dal asked Jang Jeong-baek.
"Where in the office?"
"S... spare me. Then I'll t... tell you."
"Tell me. Then I'll kill you right away."
Jang Jeong-baek only gasped for breath. Do Tong-dal then spoke to Namgung Seol-rin.
"Draw your sword."
Namgung Seol-rin drew the sword from her back.
"Cut him just above the knee, one chi deep."
"Wh... what are you doing?"
"Experience the terror of blood slowly draining from your body."
Do Tong-dal didn't know that terror either. He had just said something that sounded plausible.
"Desk drawer! Th... there's a secret compartment under the third drawer!"
Do Tong-dal stared at Jang Jeong-baek. Every kind of fear was visible on Jang Jeong-baek's face, which was even drooling blood-tinged saliva.
He wouldn't lie with that face. If those words were a lie, he'd have to be acknowledged as the greatest liar under heaven.
Do Tong-dal turned and said to Namgung Seol-rin.
"Kill him and bury him in the mountains."
"S... spare me! Please, I'll do whatever you—gah!"
When he glanced back, he saw Namgung Seol-rin's back as she drove her sword into the left side of Jang Jeong-baek's chest.
As he climbed the stairs out of the basement, he heard the sound of Namgung Seol-rin retching. The Namgung Clan's treasured jewel becoming a thug's arm was never going to be an easy process.
Do Tong-dal didn't accompany her to the burial site. Namgung Seol-rin moved to a secluded alley and then headed into the mountains, where she chose a suitable spot deep in the forest and buried the body.
Do Tong-dal waited for Namgung Seol-rin and then went to the Seo-ung Branch. Five thugs on the first floor hurriedly rose to greet him.
"Where's the Branch Chief?"
"He went out a while ago and hasn't returned yet."
"Is that so?"
Since he was still the Deputy Branch Chief of the Seo-ung Branch, his visit was nothing unusual.
There were two thugs on the second floor as well, but they didn't stop him from entering Jang Jeong-baek's office.
"Search."
As soon as Do Tong-dal spoke, Namgung Seol-rin approached the desk.
"It's locked."
"Break it."
Crack!
Namgung Seol-rin broke the lock and pulled out the drawer. The secret compartment wasn't hard to find. It was just a single board added to the bottom.
After exposing the board, Namgung Seol-rin took out a book with 'Mind-Reading Art' written on the cover.
Namgung Seol-rin held the book calmly, but Do Tong-dal's heart pounded fiercely.
The Mind-Reading Art—the thing he had regretted most even at the moment of his death in his past life—had finally come into his hands.
His heart raced the entire way home.
'What kind of book could it be?'
In his past life, Jang Jeong-baek had seemed like a ghost. With just a few exchanged words, he could discern a person's character, family relations, hometown, and even their most secret affairs.
The reason Jang Jeong-baek had talked to Do Tong-dal about the Mind-Reading Art was because Do Tong-dal had been too insignificant a presence. Of course, it was also because Jang Jeong-baek had been so drunk he couldn't remember anything the next day.
Jang Jeong-baek had said at the time that he only understood about fifty percent of the Mind-Reading Art. If that was what he could do at that level, then once fully mastered, the title 'Mind-Reading' would certainly not be an exaggeration.
He made Namgung Seol-rin wait outside the room. A secret art is most effective when fewer people know of it.
As soon as Do Tong-dal opened the book, he was completely absorbed in its contents. The inconvenience of turning pages with his tongue was something he could accept without complaint.
"Ingenious. Truly ingenious."
The person who wrote the Mind-Reading Art must have been a genius born once in a hundred years, and must have spent their entire life studying people.
The content demanded deep contemplation, so his page-turning was slow. At times, it took him over half a shichen to read a single page.
"Master!"
At the sound of Namgung Seol-rin's voice, Do Tong-dal snapped back to his senses. Judging by the sharpness of her voice, she must have called him several times already.
"What is it?"
"You were so quiet."
He could gauge the passage of time by the pitch-black window.
"Go to your room and rest. I won't be going anywhere today."
"Understood."
After sending Namgung Seol-rin to her room, Do Tong-dal immersed himself in the Mind-Reading Art again.
It was a difficult book. Not only did he need to understand the meaning, but he also had to memorize most of it to properly execute the Mind-Reading Art.
Jang Jeong-baek had claimed to have mastered about fifty percent in his past life, but in Do Tong-dal's judgment, he hadn't even reached thirty percent.
He stayed up all night. By the time the eastern sky brightened, Do Tong-dal hadn't even read half of the Mind-Reading Art.
Merely reading it consumed this much time and mental energy. To understand and memorize it, this was not a secret art that could be mastered in a month or two.
He wanted to devote himself entirely to the Mind-Reading Art, but Do Tong-dal was still the Deputy Branch Chief of the Seo-ung Branch.
He couldn't abandon reality just to learn the Mind-Reading Art. It wasn't something that would take ages, nor was it a seed sprouting in sand. He could take it easy, enjoy life, and proceed at his own pace.
* * *
Jo Chi-un, who had been leisurely receiving a massage, abruptly sat up.
"What? Boss got out of prison?"
"That's right."
"So where is he now?"
"We've only received word that he entered Hangzhou."
Jo Chi-un had an instinctive fear of his older brother, Jo Gwang-un. The ferocity of Jo Gwang-un, who had been called the Human Butcher, was pure terror to Jo Chi-un, who was ten years younger.
The intensity had lessened compared to his childhood, but the fear remained, etched into him like a tattoo.
"Find him quickly! Hurry!"
He had been in prison for a full ten years. If Jo Gwang-un hadn't gone to prison, the position of Red Tiger Society Leader would naturally have gone to him.
Jo Chi-un grumbled as he put on his clothes.
"Fuck, why couldn't that bastard just die in prison instead of crawling out and making everyone worry?"
He was fifty-six now, so his former brutality must have softened. And after ten years in prison, his health was surely not what it used to be.
"I'll just give him enough money to live out his old age..."
"Aaaah—!"
A woman's scream suddenly came from outside. The sound of something breaking and occasional shouts suggested a fight had broken out.
"Find out what's going on."
He sent a subordinate out and was tying the strings of his outer garment when the door suddenly shattered. The man who tumbled into the room along with the door was the subordinate who had just left.
"Hey! Little brother! Long time no see!"
"B... Boss!"
He had thought his brother would have aged a lot. He had believed that after rotting in prison for ten years, the Human Butcher of old would be gone.
But he was exactly the same. His broad shoulders, solid chest, narrow waist, and thick thighs were by no means those of a fifty-six-year-old.
"The saying that even mountains and rivers change in ten years wasn't wrong. Hangzhou has changed so much I couldn't tell where anything was. I almost ended up going toward the Black Dragon Society. Hahaha!"
That hearty laugh, thrown back so wide you could see his uvula, was also unchanged. Two men who looked to be in their late thirties appeared behind Jo Gwang-un.
"I'm taking these guys to a pleasure house for a drink, so spread the word."
"Wh... what word?"
"No charge for the drinks, and plenty of courtesans."
Smack! Smack!
Jo Gwang-un slapped Jo Chi-un's cheeks.
"Little brother, let's live with some sense. Did you forget how to read the room while you were playing king in my absence?"
Jo Gwang-un whispered into Jo Chi-un's ear.
"The king has returned, so the fox should step aside."
Jo Gwang-un left behind Jo Chi-un, who stood there with a blank face.
"You son of a bitch, does he think I'm still his little brother from back then? I'm the Red Tiger Society Leader! The Leader!"
* * *
In a single night, three pleasure houses under the Red Tiger Society's protection were wrecked. No one could stop Jo Gwang-un's group from running wild.
It wasn't that there were no thugs guarding the pleasure houses. Some places couldn't stop him because he was the Society Leader's brother, while thugs who faithfully did their duty were beaten half to death.
Jo Gwang-un's rampage didn't end with that one day. During the day, he went around making a mess of places under the Red Tiger Society's protection. At night, he made the rounds of the pleasure houses again.
It was only natural that the merchants under the Red Tiger Society's protection complained bitterly. There was no reason to pay protection fees when they weren't receiving any protection.
On the third day, Hwang Seon-jung stepped forward.
"I'll go and talk some sense into him."
Hwang Seon-jung was the Red Tiger Society's greatest martial artist (excluding Do Tong-dal), so he could be trusted with the task.
"Just in case, take plenty of men with you."
"It would be embarrassing to go in a group against an old man."
Still, Hwang Seon-jung took eight subordinates with him. On the way, he received a report that Jo Gwang-un's group was at Seonghwang Pleasure House.
They had already put one pleasure house out of business before moving on to Seonghwang Pleasure House.
Jo Gwang-un's plan was obvious. He intended to destroy the Red Tiger Society's credibility among the merchants who paid protection fees.
If a business was damaged, resentment would inevitably pour out not only toward Jo Gwang-un, who directly caused the damage, but also toward Jo Chi-un, the Red Tiger Society Leader.
Actual income would fall, and the Society Leader's authority would plummet. No matter how traditional an underworld society was, if it lacked power as its foundation, its very roots would be shaken.
Jo Gwang-un was trying to shake the tower called the Red Tiger Society to make Jo Chi-un fall from the top.
Of course, to do that, he needed the martial force to withstand Jo Chi-un's attacks.
"What do three of them think they can do?"
Hwang Seon-jung dismissed Jo Gwang-un as insignificant. In the beginning, he could cause a disturbance using his status as the Society Leader's brother and a bit of force, but it was a truth of the back alleys that one fist cannot withstand ten fists.
Unless one was a master of the martial world, three men could not withstand hundreds of thugs.
Of course, Hwang Seon-jung didn't need hundreds of thugs. The eight following him were enough, and the reason he had brought them was for testimony.
Testimony about how magnificently he had subdued Jo Gwang-un's group.
As soon as he arrived at Seonghwang Pleasure House, Hwang Seon-jung heard a woman's shrill scream. A moment later, people came pouring out of the building.
"What kind of business is this pleasure house running!"
"Exactly! They can't even stop those bastards from causing trouble!"
The customers, who had been pointing angrily at the pleasure house, hurriedly fled from a chair that smashed through a second-floor window and fell toward them.
The courtesans also ran out barefoot, many of them half-dressed.
"That old man's still got some strength for his age. Tsk!"
Hwang Seon-jung climbed the stairs to the second floor. The doors to the rooms lining both sides of the hallway were all open, and all the customers had fled, leaving no one behind.
* * *