Episode 12 — King of Beggars
"Big Brother! I'm baaack..........!"
The moment Yang Jeong vaulted over the fence, he shouted out loud and bright. When no answer came, he peeked into the kitchen first, then pushed open the door to the room.
Inside, more than twenty weapons he had never seen before lay piled up in a heap. Among them, one blade immediately caught his eye — a saber as wide as a man's thigh.
Shriing...
As he drew it out, the snow-white blade dazzled his eyes. Even at a glance, it looked like one of those rare legendary sabers the world seldom saw.
"Ooh........ now that's a fine blade. Where'd this come from?"
So absorbed was he in the saber that he finally set it down on the floor and stepped outside.
"Big Brother.....! I'm here! Your little brother is........."
Shouting as he searched for Jiang Zhou, Yang Jeong glanced up at the roof of the pavilion.
"What are you doing up there, Big Brother?"
Jiang Zhou looked down at him and asked in a low voice, "Why are you so late?"
Hahaha.......
"I'm sorry, Big Brother. Mother kept grabbing onto me, so I couldn't slip away from home."
"Where's the cart?"
Yang Jeong's bright grin turned awkward.
Ha.... ha.....
"It must have been too old.... it fell apart on the way here. But I brought some haws and snow ginseng, and some gongcheong oil too, Big Brother!"
Hurriedly, he pulled out the bundle and wooden bottles, hoping to divert Jiang Zhou's gaze. But Jiang Zhou wasn't looking at the bundle or the bottles at all.
His eyes were fixed, calm and unblinking, on the stallion grazing away as if nothing had happened — and on the mare pressed close beside it. The stallion was as gaunt as ever, yet he carried himself with far more swagger than any warhorse on a battlefield. As if the stallion were simply adorable, the mare kept rubbing her own head against his neck, over and over.
"B-Big Brother. Look at this, will you? These are haws and snow ginseng, about a thousand years old. And I've even brought a little gourd of gongcheong oil."
Yang Jeong threw every ounce of effort into turning his brother's eyes away.
"You............ what did you feed that horse?"
But Jiang Zhou was already certain.
"Feed him? Big Brother, why would I feed that stallion anything?"
Yang Jeong feigned complete innocence.
"I never said it was the stallion, did I?"
Ahaha........haha.........
Faced with the chill in Jiang Zhou's eyes, he laughed awkwardly.
"Want to die?"
"W-well, the truth is, the stallion was so wobbly and weak that I gave him a bit of the haws."
In the end, Yang Jeong laid out what had happened, honest at last.
"And the cart?"
"That crazy beast ran so wildly that it shattered. And whenever he got a chance, he'd climb onto the mare's back, so........."
"You ate some too, didn't you?"
When even Jiang Zhou's voice turned icy, Yang Jeong waved his hands frantically.
"No! I absolutely did not eat any! The stallion ate it all!"
The frost in Jiang Zhou's eyes melted back to normal, and his voice softened.
"I'll forgive you — so tell me the truth."
Yang Jeong drew half a broken piece of the haws out of the bundle and held it up.
"Big Brother, look at this. If I'd been sneaking bites, I'd have eaten this whole haw down. But see? Exactly half of it is left, isn't it?"
"Confess right now, if you want to keep breathing."
When his lie failed to land, Yang Jeong grew desperate inside. Of course Big Brother wouldn't believe me anymore — I've lied every single time I stole a spirit herb.
He asked with wary eyes, "Do you really promise to forgive me?"
"I said I'd forgive you, didn't I? What's done and eaten can't be undone."
Coaxed along gently by Jiang Zhou, he finally spilled the truth.
"I ate half of half the piece. I was originally going to feed the other half of the half to that beast, but when I came to my senses, the remaining half of the half had somehow found its way into my mouth."
"Well done. Very well done."
Hehehe...............
"The surge of power was so strong that I nearly climbed onto the mare's back myself."
Jiang Zhou stared quietly at Yang Jeong's face. Is he joking right now?
"And why didn't you?"
"How could a human being do something fit only for beasts? That was a joke, Big Brother."
At those words, Jiang Zhou let out the long sigh he had been holding back.
Hooooo.................
In that very instant, Yang Jeong's lightness skill flickered into motion.
PAANG....! Whooooosh...............
His movement cleaved the very air, shot him out of the estate in a blink, and carried him over the fence.
Jiang Zhou started to give chase, then stopped his step.
"Honestly, that rascal's instincts are sharp as a ghost's."
He would be back in less than half a shichen anyway.
Sin Pung-gae (神風丐) was the Chief of the Beggars' Sect, the leader of a full hundred thousand beggars. Of course, not all hundred thousand of them belonged to the sect proper, but even the unaffiliated ones lived in circumstances where they obeyed his commands.
Sin Pung-gae had possessed lightning-fast lightness skill since his youth. Because he was so fast, he could roam far and wide, and he saw much with his eyes and heard much with his ears. And because he saw and heard so much, his nose for other people's business had grown just as broad.
Trekking along step by step with his wooden staff in hand, he suddenly halted and bulged his eyes wide. A distant, flickering silhouette had come hurtling right up in front of him in the blink of an eye.
PAANG....!
The figure split the air as it shot past right beside Sin Pung-gae.
Whiiish.........
The fierce wind arrived a beat late and lashed across his face and his whole body. Sin Pung-gae stood there dumbfounded for a moment, then turned his head back.
He had stopped his lightness skill the instant he heard the boom of displaced air and hurried his steps along, but the blurry silhouette was already speeding away toward the village.
'What....... did I just see?'
It had all happened in the space of an eyeblink, so he assumed his eyes had played tricks on him. Yet the shape shrinking into a tiny dot was unmistakably a human figure.
'Who on earth is that?'
PAANG.......!
Sin Pung-gae too split the air, unfurling his own lightness skill to chase the dot that was vanishing into the distance.
In his day, his speed had earned him the epithet "Divine Wind Beggar" — among the five fastest in all the jianghu. No, in truth, he privately prided himself on being within the top three. And yet the lightness skill he had just witnessed looked fast enough to be no different from his own.
Whooooosh............
He pushed his movement art to its very limit, but the distance refused to close.
'Truly a remarkable fellow.'
Just as Sin Pung-gae was marvelling inwardly, the figure running ahead toward the village abruptly halted. When it did, the wind around it swirled and eddied.
Whoooosh....
Scratching his head, Yang Jeong looked back along the path he had come.
"Ahh. I ran off for no reason."
At that moment, a gust of wind swirled, and a beggar of an old man appeared a dozen paces in front of him.
'Who........?'
He stared at the old beggar with eyes taut with tension.
No other martial art could match his Big Brother's — but in lightness skill alone, Yang Jeong had always prided himself on standing shoulder to shoulder with the man. Yet that old fellow's footwork was nothing to scoff at either.
'A fast-footed old beggar........ the Beggars' Sect?'
Having guessed the man's identity, Yang Jeong played utterly ignorant and began walking toward where the old man stood. As he passed by him, a heavy, weathered voice drifted over.
"Were you one of the Murim Alliance's rising prodigies?"
Sin Pung-gae opened by asking who he was. But Yang Jeong was no easy mark either.
"I beg your pardon? Who might you be speaking to, sir?"
When Yang Jeong countered with a question instead, Sin Pung-gae turned his head with a face stiff as stone.
"I saw it plainly with my own two eyes, so don't think of hiding it. Were you a rising prodigy of the Murim Alliance?"
Judging that stonewalling would get him nowhere, Yang Jeong gave a slow nod.
"Yes. You saw correctly."
Hardly anyone knew the faces of the Alliance's prodigies — let alone its leader — but this was no time to quibble over such things. If he wanted to avoid being dragged into a tiresome affair, the right move was to simply agree with whatever the man assumed.
"Just as I thought. What is your name, and which family do you hail from?"
"Why would you want to know that?"
Yang Jeong had no desire to reveal who he was. All he wanted was to escort caravans for his family's escort agency and wander the length and breadth of the jianghu. And if he could roam it together with Big Brother while doing so, nothing in the world would be finer. Eating something delicious every day while touring the martial world — that was his dream and his fondest wish.
"Do you know what this is?"
Sin Pung-gae raised the staff he had been carrying. It was the Dragon-Headed Staff, the very symbol of the Beggars' Sect's Chief.
Yang Jeong was no outsider to the jianghu either. The only ones permitted to carry a staff while moving among the sect's beggars were its elders, its protectors, and the Chief himself. And a staff carved with a dragon's head marked the Chief above all.
The beggars of the sect needed especially swift lightness skill, for they had to carry information to distant places. They often used carrier pigeons, but for matters of importance, beggars moved in person — the pigeons carrying letters were forever vanishing into the bellies of hungry hawks, so crucial news had to travel by human hand.
'So this old beggar is the Chief of the Beggars' Sect.'
Just as the thought clicked into place, the man opened his mouth.
"Perhaps you'd consider joining the Beggars' Sect? Become my disciple, and I'll raise you into something truly great."
The moment he heard those words, Yang Jeong's heart plummeted like a stone.
'What horrific nonsense is this..?'
He had not the slightest intention of becoming a beggar's disciple.
"No thank you. Go find someone else."
Sin Pung-gae's heart burned with eagerness at the refusal. Surely no one else in this jianghu could unfurl lightness skill of that caliber at such a young age. On top of that, the boy's face was so handsome that one could comb the whole world over and never find his equal.
The world was not fair. A handsome fellow could sit on his backside and beg his meals purely on the strength of his looks.
'That boy was born to be a beggar. No — he could become the king of all beggars.'
"Now, now, don't rush — think it over carefully........."
PAANG............!
Before Sin Pung-gae could even finish speaking, Yang Jeong split the air and fled. And the direction he chose was neither the Murim Alliance nor the village, but a mountain thick with trees.
Ho-ho.......
'Sharp-eyed as well, is he?'
Sin Pung-gae found himself liking Yang Jeong all the more.
PAANG.........!
He too split the air and gave chase on his lightness skill.
Yang Jeong did not return until deep into the night.
Creeeeak........
"Why, you little wretch."
Jiang Zhou had waited for him, grinding his teeth.
Neiiiigh.......! Whinny.........!
From the backyard came the cries of the stallion and the mare.
Hooooo.......
The moment he heard that keening, Jiang Zhou heaved out a furious sigh.
'All they do is stuff their faces and breed, day in and day out.'
Speak of the tiger and he shall appear — as the saying went, Yang Jeong came slinking across the Stone Bridge, glancing about warily.
"Big Brother....................."
In both hands, as he stepped cautiously through the fence, he carried a raw chicken and a sizable cut of pork.
Jiang Zhou said nothing at all. He simply glared at him with icy, dangerous eyes.
Thud.
At that, Yang Jeong set the meat down on the table, dropped to his knees, and prostrated himself on the ground.
"Forgive me, Big Brother. I will never steal a spirit herb again. If I ever steal another one from this day forward, may I be a dog instead of a man."
Seeing him go this far, even Jiang Zhou's heart softened a little.
"So how far did you wander before dragging yourself back at this hour?"
Lifting his head, Yang Jeong beamed an easy grin.
Hehehe...
From the tone of that voice alone, he could tell Jiang Zhou's anger had cooled considerably.
"That old beggar chased me down, so I fled three hundred li clear out of here — I'm only just now on my way back. He's probably still wandering around in the mountains searching for me as we speak."
"An old beggar?"
"Yes. Seems he's one of the Beggars' Sect, but the man talks pure nonsense. Told me to join the sect as his disciple — his disciple! I'm a little late because I've been dodging that mad old man."
Jiang Zhou stared straight at that grinning face. Even if this fool were reduced to begging, that face would keep him from starving to death. No — some wealthy widow would snatch him up in a heartbeat.
"Magnificent. Truly magnificent, you little rascal."
"I'm starving to death, Big Brother. Hurry up and feed me."
Jiang Zhou shot him a disgruntled glare, then set about cooking with the meat he had brought.
Whinny..........! Neigh...........!
When the stallion and mare cried out yet again, the fury Jiang Zhou had been holding back finally exploded.
"Do something about that heat-crazed beast.......! All day long it's nothing but that one act — I'm going out of my mind, out of my mind, I swear...!"
Yang Jeong fielded the outburst with perfect calm.
"Big Brother, I think you're saying that only because you don't know any better, but the wisest course when horses are mating is to stay well away. If you go loitering nearby for no reason, you'll take a kick to the ribs and end up with broken bones. Land wrong, and you could even die."
"Why, you........"
Shffft.......
The instant Jiang Zhou grabbed the kitchen knife, Yang Jeong darted nimbly back over the fence.
"They're doing it because they love each other — so what exactly do you want me to do about it?"
Aigoo.........
Letting out yet another sigh, Jiang Zhou set down the kitchen knife he had been brandishing. Still, thanks to that rascal's return, the inn had grown loud and lively again — and truthfully, his mood wasn't half bad.