Chapter 70: Sichuan Tang Family (6)
Chapter 70: Sichuan Tang Family (6)
"Beheading Blood Wolf, Peng Hyeon-hwi!"
Wait.
Why am I even famous?
Sure, Divine Spear Yang Jeok-yo was a peerless master, but still. Is my reputation really so formidable that it would shock an elder of the Sichuan Tang Family? It felt a bit ambiguous.
Even the fact that I’d taken the head of Eon Hyeong-shin—the strongest of the next generation and the future 'Fist Under Heaven'—was currently classified as internal secret information. The Orthodox factions shouldn't have the slightest clue.
The village of Cheongheon-hyeon had been so thoroughly wiped out that not a single civilian survived. No matter how wide the Beggars' Sect's reach was, they couldn't possibly know what happened there.
As far as the world was concerned, the White Lotus Cult had caused a bloodbath, and the matter had simply been resolved. It wasn't an environment where my name could have spread.
Regardless.
"Yes, I am Peng Hyeon-hwi."
"Even if you kill me, you will never achieve what you desire!"
"No, wait."
Why does he keep saying such gruesome things?
"I think there’s been a misunderstanding."
"Threatening us in the names of the Peng Family and the Hao Clan, then trying to lure me with sweet words to attempt an assassination... The deviousness of you Unorthodox bastards is truly...!!"
"I mean, the first half is correct."
I did do all those things.
But I have no intention of killing him.
Why is a man who has reached the Super Peak Realm acting so cowered?
I put on my most harmless expression and slowly interlaced my fingers.
"I requested this meeting to offer my assistance to the Poison Lord."
"Assistance?"
"Yes. Are you not currently in a difficult situation?"
At my words, Tang Mok-han’s face froze.
Ah, for the record, the 'assistance' I mentioned didn't mean I would safely extract him from the hands of the Hebei Peng Family or the Hao Clan.
The 'difficulty' these Sichuan Tang Family friends were facing wasn't caused by us in the first place.
It was likely orchestrated by those eunuchs.
"How much do you know?"
See?
This man, Tang Mok-han, who was stuttering in fear just a moment ago—he was now staring at me with chilling composure.
It made my heart race. The killing intent of a Super Peak master... it felt like my very senses were being distorted.
First, let’s look at the facts that are clearly known.
One: The Eunuch Bureau is trying to reorganize and relaunch the Western Depot.
This needs no further explanation. In truth, if they just wanted to hang a new sign on the door, the Western Depot could be established at any time. They could just dispatch a few useful martial artists from the Eastern Depot and recruit new personnel.
But if they did that, it would be nothing more than a second division of the Eastern Depot. There would be no reason to go through the trouble of a fresh selection.
So the question is: Why create the Western Depot?
To inspect the noble families near Beijing.
To manage and supervise the martial artists of the Hebei region.
To conduct intelligence activities for the Imperial Court and the Eunuch Bureau.
To serve as a convenient assassination organization that secretly handles dirty work like assassinations, terror attacks, and sabotage.
If that was the goal, the Eastern Depot was already sufficient. That was exactly what the Eastern Depot did on a daily basis.
In other words, the creation of a new organization with a similar character meant it had to perform tasks that the Eastern Depot could not do.
Now, here is a clue.
The original Western Depot attempted to recruit masters from the Assassination Pavilion and the Five Poisons Sect.
They tried to build a new organization by inviting the best assassination group of the Unorthodox Faction and the best poison experts of the Outer Martial World.
This meant the organization would primarily be utilized in those two fields.
It would occupy almost the same position as the existing Eastern Depot, but it would have to do something the Eastern Depot would never do.
When I reached this point in my thoughts that night, I felt a chill run down my spine.
'Something the Eastern Depot would absolutely, never do.'
Something that those who would smile as they accepted even death at a single word from the Emperor would 'never' do.
There was only one thing.
'Assassinating the Emperor!'
My thoughts fell into place instantly.
The current Emperor has only one legitimate successor.
The current Crown Prince, born to the Noble Consort.
Every other direct imperial descendant was murdered by the Noble Consort’s hand. More than ten years ago.
Except for Ju Woo-rin, who barely managed to survive, they were all gone.
From what I’d heard, the Crown Prince suffered from a severe illness before he turned two. It wasn't known what the illness was, but the story that he was cured by the power of a certain 'Taoist' was widely known among the commoners.
Let’s assume that Taoist was from the White Lotus Cult. Then all the puzzle pieces fit together quite nicely.
From that point on, the Noble Consort, who had devoted herself to the White Lotus Cult, began to seize control of state affairs backed by the Emperor's favor.
However, ten years have passed, and the Emperor is still going strong. He’s even quite active.
The White Lotus Cultists have made little progress in the face of the Emperor's prestige, and they’ve even been half-driven out of Beijing due to the war with the Peng Family.
'The White Lotus martial artist I met in Tianjin didn't recognize the Heavenly Silkworm Purple Blood Tear.'
This meant the Western Depot was an organization outside the White Lotus Cult's sphere of influence.
That was evidence that the Noble Consort wasn't just being dragged along by the White Lotus Cult, but was rather using them.
In such a situation, why would she rebuild an organization for the purpose of assassinating the Emperor?
'Because the White Lotus Cultists near Beijing have been uprooted by my family.'
The cultists planted in the Hebei Dragon Slaying Alliance headquarters in Tianjin had also been weeded out.
The final attempt to control the Hebei Dragon Slaying Alliance through my eldest brother had also failed.
From the Noble Consort's perspective, this was a golden opportunity to escape the White Lotus Cult's grasp.
She would take advantage of the situation to assassinate the Emperor, place her son on the throne, and then hold the initiative even if the White Lotus Cult returned later.
Since she wouldn't have taken the throne through the power of the White Lotus Cult, but through her own strength.
'And the tool she chose for that was the Sichuan Tang Family.'
They could handle everything the Assassination Pavilion and the Five Poisons Sect could.
Furthermore, they were a Han Chinese sect.
On top of that, they belonged to the Orthodox Faction.
If she employed them heavily in the future, she could even draw a picture of ousting the Hebei Peng Family.
If she could influence the massive martial power of the Orthodox Martial Alliance, as was the case with the Black Path Demonic Alliance, blocking the White Lotus Cult wouldn't be a major problem.
Then, there was only one problem left.
'How did she persuade the Sichuan Tang Family?'
The answer to this was simpler.
Only one part of this intelligence brought by Brother Baek Seo-ui was wrong.
The last sentence.
They didn't contact the Tang Family instead of dealing with the Five Poisons Sect.
They exploited the long-standing grudge between the Five Poisons Sect and the Sichuan Tang Family. Predicting that if they gave firearms to the Five Poisons Sect, they would surely use them against the Tangs.
They backed the Sichuan Tang Family into a corner and then blackmailed them.
We won't provide any more firearms to the Five Poisons Sect.
So, add your strength to ours.
That must have been the gist of it.
"Everyone in the family opposed it."
Hearing my words, Tang Mok-han slowly gripped his teacup and looked at me.
"The Family Head opposed it as well. Do you know that any sect that joins hands with the government is destined for ruin?"
"That might not always be the case."
"It is. One might even say it is inevitable. The government is a den of vipers, and no matter which line you hold, power does not last a single generation."
This was true to some extent.
No powerful official or favorite of the court could enjoy authority for more than a generation. This country belonged to the Emperor, and the Ming Dynasty was a state where the imperial power was the strongest in Han history.
In the history of the Ming Dynasty, no Emperor allowed a favorite official who could threaten his authority to live. Even if they didn't face total extermination, the Emperor's favorites could not fully transfer their power to the next generation.
And when the next Emperor ascended, new favorites and powerful officials would appear. Those officials would inevitably bring about the downfall of the previous generation's favorites.
It was a structure of power that circulated endlessly, like a snake biting its own tail.
A structure designed so that no one could stand at the peak. A structure of power where everyone monitored and tore at each other, all for the sake of one person.
The noble families sought authority and favor for just a single generation within this structure.
The Pure Stream faction wished to break this structure and create a nation where the ruler was weak and the ministers were strong.
The Martial World wished to escape this structure entirely, so that their martial lineages could continue forever through history.
Therefore, the nobles stepped into politics, the Pure Stream faction hid imperial descendants to prepare for a coup, and the martial artists stepped away from politics.
This was the sum of what was happening in Beijing right now.
The Tang Family was also a martial family. They ignored the Eunuch Bureau's overtures.
I’d say they had both the justification and the ability to do so.
The current Tang Family Head was the Poison King, one of the Fifteen Lords of the Central Plains.
If the Eunuch Bureau deployed its full strength, they could certainly exterminate the family, but they could never capture and kill the Tang Family Head.
Only one of the Fifteen Lords can kill another of the Fifteen Lords.
Therefore, unless they wanted to live the rest of their lives in fear of the Poison King's grudge, the Beijing Imperial Court could never destroy the Sichuan Tang Family.
With that belief, the Tang Family Head rejected the Eunuch Bureau's proposal.
The Five Poisons Sect had caused significant damage using firearms, but as long as the Tang Family Head himself stepped in, the Five Poisons Sect's offensive could never reach a fatal level.
That should have been the end of the story.
Until the Noble Consort directly intervened.
"On the day of the Five Poisons Sect's final raid, the outer wall of the Tang branch was breached once. The situation was resolved before the Family Head could even step in, but..."
Tang Mok-han fell silent for a moment, slowly organizing his next words.
Soon, he closed his eyes and shook his head.
"There is no point in hiding it now. Yes, if you know the whole situation, receiving your help would be the wisest course. That day, an intruder from the Five Poisons Sect planted a Gu in the Young Lord's body."
"Excuse me...?"
"It is a secret technique of the Five Poisons Sect. The Heavenly Scale Twin Gu (天鱗雙蠱). If we attempt to extract it, the Young Lord will surely die. If we don't, he must live as a puppet of the Five Poisons Sect."
The moment the establishment of the Western Depot fell through. The situation where the Assassination Pavilion completely withdrew from Beijing.
At that time, they needed a way to rebuild the Western Depot without incurring the wrath of the Peng Family Head and without leaking internal information to the Black Path Demonic Alliance.
By inviting Orthodox figures to rebuild the Western Depot instead.
To achieve this, they used the Five Poisons Sect.
Exploiting the deep-seated grudge with the Sichuan Tang Family, they planted a Gu in the Young Lord's body to drag the Tang Family in.
I couldn't help but be impressed. What a bold and clean method. To successfully use poison against the Sichuan Tang Family, the masters of all poisons in the world.
Indeed, if it was the Five Poisons Sect, who had spent hundreds of years agonizing and training to oppose the Tang Family... yes, they must have had at least one trump card.
Along with the authorization to drive out the Tang Family and take their place in Chengdu, the wealthiest land in Western Shu.
And the result of fervently encouraging them by generously providing firearms for that purpose.
It was a plan seven years in the making. And that long-winded, bold plan had, surprisingly, succeeded perfectly.
"The Tang Family Head intended to kill the Young Lord. And..."
"The Poison Lord could not allow that, I see."
"Yes, I defied the Family Head's orders and left for Beijing. Leaving a message that if I failed to return, he should execute the Young Lord then. So, little brat of the Peng Family."
Tang Mok-han's eyes flashed chillingly.
"How can you help me?"
I had to seize the Gu that would be in the Noble Consort's grasp.
The Eastern Depot couldn't help directly. Attacking another government official without justification would be considered treason.
The Tang Family couldn't help directly either. The moment they made such an attempt, the Gu would kill the Young Lord.
I also rejected the involvement of the Peng Family and the Hao Clan. For now, we had to avoid becoming direct enemies of the Eunuch Bureau in Beijing.
In other words, this task had to be accomplished independently of all those groups.
I discarded Plan A, which was simply to persuade the Tang Family to leave.
It was time for Plan B.
"I need to confirm a few things."
"Speak."
"Is that Heavenly Scale Twin Gu something that someone other than a martial artist of the Five Poisons Sect can control?"
"No. If that were possible, we would have been able to break it. It is a venomous creature that can only be manipulated through the secret techniques of the Five Poisons Sect."
"Then there must be at least one martial artist from the Five Poisons Sect stationed here in Beijing."
"Most likely. Under the protection of the Noble Consort."
"No."
That couldn't be right.
"What ruler in the world would keep a foreigner who handles poison close to them and cherish them?"
Strictly speaking, the Five Poisons Sect did not belong to the Ming Dynasty. They were foreigners located somewhere in the dense Hundred Thousand Great Mountains below Yunnan.
Southern Barbarians. In other words, people from Vietnam.
No matter how far gone the Han Chinese Imperial Court of the Ming Dynasty was, would they let foreign masters who handle poisons into their inner chambers?
Hardly. What a ruler fears most is not the blade before their eyes, but the poison in their teacup.
Therefore, it meant that a 'small number' of Five Poisons Sect masters were located 'outside the Forbidden City' within Beijing.
And there weren't many places where they could hide Five Poisons Sect masters while avoiding the eyes of the Hao Clan and the Eastern Depot.
Even the secret location where the Tang martial artists were hidden hadn't escaped the Eastern Depot's notice.
After filtering everything out, only one place remained.
'The headquarters of the Western Depot.'
The ruins that had been smashed to pieces seven years ago.
That was the most likely place for the Five Poisons Sect masters to be hiding.
Therefore.
"Do you happen to have any Heavenly Silkworm Purple Blood Tears to spare?"
With this, I would put the Tang Family in my debt and earn the favor of the Eastern Depot.
On top of that, it was an opportunity to spread a new achievement for the Hebei Peng Family and the Hao Clan.
If I missed this, I’d have to hand in my 'possessor' card.
I was definitely going to milk this for all it was worth.
If Ju Woo-rin ascended the throne in the distant future... and if I was ruling the Hebei Peng Family then...
When we stood tall as the world's greatest family with the Emperor's authority at our back...
At the very least, the Murong Family and the Sichuan Tang Family would support our family within the Orthodox Martial Alliance.
This would be the starting point for us to remain the greatest martial family throughout the history of both the Orthodox and Unorthodox paths.