Monopolizing Fortunes (86)
Monopolizing Fortunes (86)
"No."
"You're carrying a bladed weapon, though?"
Do Tong-dal stared blankly at No Song-guk for a moment before speaking.
"We need to be going now. Do you have anything else to say?"
No Song-guk wasn't rotting in a place like this for three years because he was incompetent. On the contrary, he had been too competent, and so he had grown arrogant, and the result of that arrogance had made him what he was today.
"You really are full of confidence. I suppose that claim of knowing the Southern Barbarians better than anyone must be true as well. Since you're going to the Yeosan Tribe anyway, may I ask a favor?"
"Let's hear it first."
"Six of our soldiers are being held there. Please rescue them."
"They'll already be dead. The Yeosan Tribe doesn't keep hostages alive for very long."
"Still, we have to make the effort."
"Then I'll need at least ten soldiers to go with me."
"Ten? Would that be enough to fight the Yeosan Tribe?"
"To fight, it'd be hopeless. Ten would only be bait. They won't die, of course. But they'll need to be fast enough not to slow us down in the jungle."
No Song-guk's gaze shifted to Hwang Tae-min.
"Pick out the ten fastest soldiers in the jungle."
"Deputy Commander, are you really going to entrust the rescue of our soldiers to civilians?"
"Whoever catches the rat, all that matters is catching it. Hurry up. Those two look like they're in a rush."
For some reason, Do Tong-dal found himself liking No Song-guk.
"You don't seem like someone who should be rotting away in a place like this."
"Thank you for saying so. Life is like a maze—no matter how clever a person is, they end up wandering."
"I hope you find your way soon."
"And I hope you make it back alive."
While they were talking, Hwang Tae-min had picked out nine men.
"I'll go too."
At that, Song Ji-bong, who had been hit by Hwang Tae-min, shoved one soldier aside and took his place.
"We're going to rescue my subordinates, so of course I should go too."
It was unexpected that Seol In-seok, who had stood against Hwang Tae-min, stepped forward.
"I'll go as well."
Do Tong-dal addressed the ten men who had been selected.
"As long as you don't do anything stupid, you won't die, so don't worry. Someone lend me two jungle blades."
One soldier brought two jungle blades shaped for cutting through undergrowth.
Do Tong-dal handed one to Namgung Seol-rin and said.
"Never go ahead of me."
"Got it."
They entered the jungle. Only when the thick green, the glue-like humidity, and smells so vivid they seemed visible caught at their senses did it finally feel real that they had come to the Southern Barbarians.
Do Tong-dal sharpened every sense in his body.
"Don't take a single careless step. Snakes are usually above your head, but sometimes they crawl along the ground too. Especially watch out for insects."
Someone's muttering—"Is there anyone here who doesn't know that?"—went in one ear and out the other. People made mistakes even when they knew better.
They walked in silence for about half a shichen. The only sound was the monotonous swish of jungle blades cutting through undergrowth too dense to see even an inch ahead.
Do Tong-dal stopped when he saw vines winding up a tree.
"This is called seomokcho. If you get bitten by a venomous insect, eat a bite of this, mash it up, and spread it on the wound—it'll help."
Hwang Tae-min asked with a puzzled look.
"Is that true?"
"It's a wonder you're still alive not knowing even this."
After going about another one ke, Do Tong-dal stopped and said to Namgung Seol-rin.
"Look at the color of the ground here. It's getting darker and browner. That means a swamp is coming up soon."
After moving about ten more steps, Do Tong-dal picked up a stone and threw it ahead. The ground looked no different from any other, but the thrown stone slowly sank out of sight.
"Most of the swamps here have blood leeches living in them. Even if you manage to climb back out, the blood leeches will drain all your blood and kill you."
Namgung Seol-rin glanced back. The ten soldiers following were nodding with expressions that said, "Ah, I see."
Do Tong-dal hadn't deliberately spoken to Namgung Seol-rin to teach her. It was information she had no need to know, since she would never come to the Southern Barbarians again.
He was speaking to Namgung Seol-rin but giving the information to the soldiers. Whenever there was something unusual, Do Tong-dal kept explaining it.
He chattered on about what to do when bitten by a venomous snake, which plants were edible and which were poisonous, the types of mushrooms, how to take in moisture when there was no water, and tips for spending a night in the jungle.
Anyone watching would have thought Do Tong-dal was a chatterbox, but each and every word was a method for surviving the jungle.
The soldiers kept up better than Do Tong-dal had worried they would. They were panting as if about to keel over at any moment, but at least they didn't slow anyone down.
If Do Tong-dal's memory was right, they were almost at Yeosan Tribe territory.
"Let's rest for one ke."
The moment Do Tong-dal finished speaking, the soldiers collapsed to the ground and gasped for breath.
While they rested, Do Tong-dal moved deeper into the jungle. People thought the jungle was the same everywhere, but even in the jungle there were separate paths that people could travel.
Paths with fewer wild beasts, venomous snakes, and poisonous insects—relatively safe routes—existed even in the jungle.
Even for the Miao people who had settled in the Southern Barbarians, not every part of the jungle was as comfortable as home. To them too, the jungle was dangerous, so they had their own separate paths.
'It's this way.'
Twisting a vine twice and tying it into a knot—vines that could be found anywhere in the jungle—was a Yeosan Tribe marker. After confirming a marker with four knots, Do Tong-dal returned to where the soldiers were resting.
"Let's move out. From here on, you take the lead."
"What? Us?"
"Scared?"
"There's nothing to be scared of, but......"
"Let's see how well you listened to me on the way here."
When he called it a kind of test, the soldiers moved forward. Namgung Seol-rin, who had been sticking close, whispered to Do Tong-dal.
"Is it really a test?"
"No. They're bait."
"Bait?"
"You'll see in a moment."
It really was only a moment. Before Seol In-seok, at the very front, had taken even ten steps, something suddenly shot up from the ground.
Old fallen leaves burst into the air, and the soldiers standing on top of them were flung upward too.
"Aaaagh—!"
What had snatched the soldiers was a huge net. Packed together like fish caught in a net, the soldiers couldn't so much as twitch.
Namgung Seol-rin, startled, moved to rescue them, but Do Tong-dal stopped her.
"Not yet. This way."
Do Tong-dal led Namgung Seol-rin behind a tree to hide.
"Wh-why aren't you...... rescuing us...... what......"
The soldiers could barely speak. Breathing was so hard they looked as if they might die on the spot.
"In a little while, the Yeosan Tribe will come to collect them. We're going to catch those people."
"When are they coming?"
Do Tong-dal thought for a moment, then shrugged.
"We'll just have to hope they come soon."
"What if they're late?"
"Then we wait."
"Those people look like they're about to die."
"People don't die that easily."
"At the very least, they look miserable enough to be dying."
Fortunately, their wait didn't last long. From the undergrowth emerged Yeosan tribesmen wearing clothes made of animal hide that covered only their lower bodies.
They wore ornaments made of animal bone in their noses and ears, and their entire bodies were covered in tattoos of unknown meaning.
There were seven Yeosan tribesmen in all. Two of them pulled blowpipes from their waists. They were weapons that fired darts to subdue an opponent, and the darts were usually coated in poison.
Just as the two Yeosan tribesmen were about to fire darts at the soldiers trapped in the net, Do Tong-dal moved.
He pressed the Gyeonjeong acupoint of the nearest Yeosan tribesman to disable his arm, then subdued the next one's Huha acupoint to knock him unconscious.
The method of subduing acupoints was something Won Dae-yeon had taught him on the side while passing on the Internal Energy cultivation method.
Do Tong-dal, moving first, subdued four of them, and Namgung Seol-rin knocked out the remaining three.
Do Tong-dal said to the soldiers trapped in the net.
"You made excellent bait."
Namgung Seol-rin called to Do Tong-dal.
"Come here and hold the net!"
If she cut it right away, the soldiers dangling a full jang in the air might fall and get hurt. Do Tong-dal grabbed the rope, and Namgung Seol-rin cut the line tied to the tree.
As the weight of ten men transferred to him, tendons stood out on his forearms and his feet were dragged across the ground. If he hadn't learned the Internal Energy cultivation method, he could never have borne the weight of ten men.
Do Tong-dal slowly let out the rope and set the soldiers safely on the ground.
"You could have given us a warning beforehand."
At Song Ji-bong's grumbling, Do Tong-dal said while clearing away the net.
"It had to look real for the enemy to fall for it, didn't it? Go tie those fellows up."
The soldiers bound the fallen Yeosan tribesmen like dried fish strung together. Even Do Tong-dal didn't know the location of the Yeosan Tribe's main village.
At most, he remembered only a few small villages scattered here and there in the jungle.
In his past life, he hadn't needed to know the main village's location, but now he had to go there.
Because the go could only be handled by the Yeosan Tribe's chieftain, and the chieftain would naturally be in the main village.
Do Tong-dal and Namgung Seol-rin woke the unconscious Yeosan tribesmen. The awakened tribesmen shouted something at them, but Do Tong-dal was the only one who could understand the words.
It was all curses, but there was no reason to feel offended just because he understood them. Do Tong-dal waited for the Yeosan curses to end, then opened his mouth.
"I'll give you a chance to live."
"You can speak our language."
"You should be asking how you can live."
"We do not fear death!"
At one Yeosan tribesman's words, the other six nodded with resolute expressions. In truth, the Yeosan Tribe, who believed in reincarnation, did not fear death, belying their instincts.
But Do Tong-dal knew there was one kind of death they did fear.
"If you don't fear death, then I suppose I can throw you into a blood-leech swamp."
The moment those words left his mouth, the faces of all seven went pale. The Yeosan Tribe believed that blood leeches sucked out not only blood but also the soul.
Having one's soul drained meant being unable to reincarnate, so it was the death the Yeosan Tribe feared most.
"You cruel bastard! How could you do such a thing!"
"I only want to meet your chieftain. I swear I mean you no harm."
"And you expect us to believe that!"
"I swear it on Jeopmasin."
The Yeosan Tribe revered Jeopmasin, a horse with butterfly wings, as their highest god, and an oath sworn on Jeopmasin had to be kept no matter what.
"Y-you're not even one of our tribe!"
"Even if I'm not one of your tribe, a sacred oath to Jeopmasin is not broken."
"Wait a moment."
The seven tribesmen whispered among themselves, exchanging opinions.
"Hey, you there, the one who looks like a monkey."
As expected, people's eyes saw things similarly. The man with a Jeopmasin tattoo on the back of his neck turned around.
"Me?"
"Yeah. You're the one who's going to decide anyway. So let's hurry it up."
"How did you know that?"
"The Jeopmasin tattoo isn't something just anyone gets."
"You really do know a lot about us. Why do you want to meet the chieftain?"
"You don't have the right to hear that. If you don't decide before the sun moves a single notch, I'll throw you all into a blood-leech swamp and find my own way, so keep that in mind."
The mere mention of the blood-leech swamp was enough to make their terror plain.
"Fine. We'll trust the oath you swore to Jeopmasin. You know what happens if you break it?"
"My soul will be ground to powder and burn in the fires of hell for eternity."
The man with the Jeopmasin tattoo looked satisfied.
"You do know. Let's go."
The tribesmen didn't even make the basic request to have their ropes untied. They had the wisdom to face their situation squarely.
Do Tong-dal marked the trees with his knife without the tribesmen noticing. Since they were winding around and around through the jungle, the soldiers wouldn't be able to return to their unit without the marks.
'They really do circle around.'
With a route like this, even if someone knew the main village's location, they wouldn't dare try to attack it.
They walked for nearly four shichen. The sun had begun to set over the western mountains, and the soldiers were exhausted to the point of collapse. Even Namgung Seol-rin clearly looked worn out.
The jungle's rough paths and heavy humidity corroded even steel-like stamina with ease.
Do Tong-dal whispered to Namgung Seol-rin, who had plucked a large leaf and was using it as a fan.
"Don't let your guard down."
* * *