This Is Mount Hua’s Land, Part 1
“Will this be all right, Senior Brother?”
“What?”
After the gathered men had dispersed, the youngest of the Seven Killers of Jiangxi, One Smile, One Kill Tan Hae, cautiously spoke up.
“It feels like things are getting too big.”
“You’re the youngest.”
“Yes, Senior Brother.”
“Things become troublesome when you make them too small.”
Gal Cheon-lip smiled faintly.
“People can’t simply stand by and watch a small disaster. If a house catches fire, everyone in the neighborhood rushes over to put it out. Even if they don’t especially like the owner of the house, it’s human nature to at least run to the well and see what can be done.”
“Yes.”
“But if the fire spreads into the mountains and starts burning everything to the ground, people simply stand aside and watch. When they see something they can’t control with their own hands, even if they carry buckets of water, they won’t dare move.”
Tan Hae nodded as if that made sense.
“Still, I can’t help worrying. They’re on the righteous side, are they not? Shaanxi and Henan aren’t that far apart, so if Shaolin or the Beggars’ Sect come rushing over…”
“That won’t happen.”
“Pardon?”
Gal Cheon-lip smiled with a vile curl to his lips.
“The reason those Nine Great Sects bastards are making such a racket right now is because they’re badly poisoned, that’s why. It’s like they’ve got filth smeared all over their faces, so they can either hide where no one can see them or act as if nothing’s wrong, can’t they?”
“Yes, Brother.”
“But that doesn’t make the shame go away. When someone has been disgraced, there are only two things they want: an opportunity to wash that shame away, or else…”
The second of the Jiangxi One Kill, Yama Axe Ko Song, gave a snort as if he understood.
“Make sure the others get dragged through the same mud.”
“Exactly.”
Gal Cheon-lip slowly nodded.
“Do you really think those bastards will try to stop Mount Hua from suffering? They may look sorry on the outside, but inside, they’ll be applauding.”
“...Still, they’re supposedly righteous sects.”
“Tsk, tsk.”
Gal Cheon-lip muttered righteous sects as he crooked a finger.
“Call them righteous sects or whatever you like—they’re still people. The so-called righteous are not born reciting sutras or Daoist scriptures from the womb. Their guts are just as black as ours.”
As he chuckled through the words, Tan Hae nodded silently.
Truthfully, he didn’t understand all of it, but if Gal Cheon-lip had gone this far, he couldn’t press him any further.
They were sworn brothers, but even among them, Gal Cheon-lip was a frightening man. There was no benefit in angering him.
“But, Senior Brother.”
At that, Ko Song spoke in a tone of clear dissatisfaction.
“It’s fine to make a big mess of things, but are you really going to give those guys a cut?”
“Of course.”
“...Really?”
“Didn’t I say so? It’s best to keep the math clear. But only if—”
Ko Song and Tan Hae looked at him with eager eyes.
“—only if they’re the kind of men who still want to follow us after all this is over.”
When Gal Cheon-lip smiled wickedly, doubt flickered in Ko Song’s eyes.
“Follow us? You don’t mean you’re planning to take them in?”
“I do.”
“Until now, the three of us brothers have gotten by just fine without recruiting subordinates. So why bother now?”
“Gotten by just fine?”
At once, bloodshot veins burst across Gal Cheon-lip’s eyes.
“If you got by so well, then why are we all the way out here in this godforsaken northern land wasting our time?”
“...”.
As thick killing intent began to seep from his body, Ko Song and Tan Hae turned pale.
“That son of a bitch Jang Il-so became the hegemon of the south while I became a worm in the north. What exactly am I lacking compared to that bastard that I had to end up like this?”
“...Brother.”
Gal Cheon-lip ground his teeth.
“It all comes down to power. I can deal with Jang Il-so, but we can’t deal with Maninbang. And as for Saperyeon, there’s no need to even mention them.”
Ko Song nodded as if that was reasonable.
“That’s true enough. If we had the power, we wouldn’t be being harassed by those bastards from the righteous sects now.”
“And we wouldn’t have had to flee north in the first place.”
Even among evil men, pride still existed. No—compared to the righteous sects, who were willing to bend their pride for the greater good, evil men had little reason to bow their heads at all.
“I thought that if I had power, I could live as freely as I pleased. I thought there’d be no need to bother managing underlings or building an organization. But… I was wrong. That bastard was right. I’m going to drag every last one of them under my banner.”
“But those bastards…”
Just as Ko Song was about to say something negative, Tan Hae spoke as if he had understood.
“So you’re planning to make things even bigger.”
“Hmm?”
Gal Cheon-lip looked at him with interest.
“Why do you think that?”
“If you steal some money and flee to Qinghai, they can scatter in all directions and evade pursuit. But if you start a mess so large it simply can’t be resolved, then to avoid being hunted to the ends of hell, they’ll need a roof over their heads.”
“Hahahahaha! As expected of the youngest. Exactly.”
Gal Cheon-lip burst into loud laughter.
“First, we’ll rob the Eunha Merchant Guild and secure the funds. And then, instead of heading straight to Qinghai, we’ll turn Shaanxi into a wasteland.”
“Shaanxi…”
“Then Zhongnan will have no choice but to lift its closure and come out. Those Zhongnan bastards are persistent, so they’ll try to track down and execute everyone involved in this. That means those men will need someone to shelter them.”
“If they’re scattered, they’ll die under relentless pursuit, but no matter how stubborn Zhongnan is, they won’t be able to bring their full strength into Qinghai. Saperyeon would get in the way.”
“Exactly. That damned Jang Il-so will be helping us without even realizing it.”
Gal Cheon-lip’s expression twisted. Just hearing Jang Il-so’s name seemed to irritate him.
“Anyway, all we have to do is subdue the lot that’s left with no path back to the Central Plains. And then…”
He stopped speaking for a moment, baring his teeth like a starving beast.
“We’ll wait for Saperyeon and the righteous sects to tear each other apart, then march back into the south. That’s what coming home in triumph really means.”
Ko Song looked at Gal Cheon-lip with admiration. He’d thought the man only spent his time idling around with courtesans, but apparently he had been thinking of things like this all along.
“But those guys will have some sense of caution…”
“They’ll be on guard. They’ll try to move exactly according to plan. But…”
Gal Cheon-lip let out a low, ugly chuckle.
“That’ll only last for a moment. How long can a dog wait with meat right in front of its nose? There’s no need to drive them onward. Once we start by cutting down a few of them, they’ll only grow more excited and run wild. By the time they come to their senses, it’ll already be over.”
“Well…”
That was what evil men were like.
Tan Hae frowned.
“But, Senior Brother… will those men who wouldn’t even listen to Saperyeon really listen to us? It’s not that we’re lacking compared to Maninbang; it’s that those bastards don’t listen to anyone to begin with.”
“Leave that to me. I am the Heartless Ghost Blade.”
“Yes, Brother.”
Now the coordination was done.
“How many years has it been since we were called the Seven Killers of Jiangxi?”
“At least fifteen years.”
“Good. Then it’s about time this name started to feel stale. We should change it soon. If we’re going home, wouldn’t it look better if we were called the Seven Devils of Qinghai rather than the Seven Killers of Jiangxi?”
Gal Cheon-lip rose from his seat and strode lazily toward the window.
Looking down at the peaceful streets of Luoyang, he twisted his mouth into a grin.
“If the world is burning, then we should throw in at least one spark of our own. Let’s make it perfectly clear that Saparyeon is not the only evil force in this world.”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The next morning.
Outside the gates of Luoyang, in a dry and deserted field with no one in sight, Iron Ghost revealed himself.
He quietly looked around, then frowned.
There wasn’t a single soul in the field. Just to be sure, he stretched out his senses to see if anyone was hiding nearby, but there was nothing.
Iron Ghost, who had been looking around anxiously with a nervous expression, soon clenched his teeth.
“...Damn it, was it just talk after all?”
He had come a little early, but he had never imagined there would be no one at all.
For a moment he wondered if he had misunderstood the location, but he soon shook his head.
“Damn. Seven Killers of Jiangxi, my ass.”
He was just about to turn around, thinking he had wasted his time, when—
“Hm?”
Something caught his eye: a few figures walking in from far away.
“...So not all of them are cowards.”
But even this many would be hard-pressed to rob anything beyond a roadside stall, let alone the Eunha Merchant Guild…
Iron Ghost was muttering under his breath when his mouth slowly fell open.
One. Then another.
Against the rising sun, countless figures began to emerge, their numbers growing more and more visible by the second.
At first there were only a few, but as time passed, more and more kept gathering. The sinister killing intent they radiated was enough to make even Iron Ghost tense up and break into a cold sweat.
This... this is more than I expected.
He had thought maybe fifty at most would show up…
“Whistle.”
Just then, someone whistled beside Iron Ghost. Startled, he turned—and saw Gal Cheon-lip, who had appeared without him noticing, grinning with bared teeth.
“Looks like more of them showed up than I expected.”
“...I didn’t think they’d gather this many, Senior Brother.”
“Is that so?”
Not only that, but the Seven Killers of Jiangxi had all appeared by now, moving to greet the men who were approaching.
“Good. Looks like my name still has a bit more weight than I thought. Isn’t that right, Iron Ghost?”
“...”.
Cold sweat gathered on Iron Ghost’s forehead.
Who here didn’t know how cruel this man was? Even standing this close to him was enough to make one’s bones turn cold.
But fortunately, Gal Cheon-lip no longer paid Iron Ghost much attention. He merely looked at the approaching men and grinned with satisfaction.
It seemed he had underestimated the evil path. To think so many had gathered, eager to see blood no matter what.
“Ha, what a bunch of lunatics.”
Which meant there were that many evil men suffering under pressure from the righteous sects.
Tan Hae shrugged.
“Seeing this many gather from the very start, I’d say there are probably more who still haven’t arrived.”
“Doesn’t matter. They’ll join us.”
The direction was already set, so there was no need to wait for everyone. If he wanted to achieve what he intended, it would be better to move before that sharp killing intent dulled.
The gathered men glared at Gal Cheon-lip with bloodshot eyes.
Finding that ferocious energy pleasing, Gal Cheon-lip nodded.
“Well done, trash.”
He considered saying more, but decided against it. Right now, it was time to show them with action, not words.
“We leave at once.”
A sinister voice slipped from his lips.
“We’ll turn Shaanxi into a hell of fire. I’ll give you wealth, blood, whatever you want.”
At that, the evil men gathered there bared their sharp teeth and laughed, unable to hide their excitement for what was about to begin.
“Let’s go.”
A pack of starving wolves began racing westward in a great mass.
Toward Shaanxi, where Mount Hua stood to the west of Luoyang.