Go Ahead and Try to Swallow This, Then. (4)
Orthodox sects lead their disciples with fellowship and values.
But the unorthodox were those who scorned such hollow pretense. The only thing that could move them was profit.
Of course, Jang Il-so currently ruled the Four Hegemons Alliance through sheer intimidation, but even that had its limits. When the food ran out, didn’t people even rise up against emperors?
“...So you’re saying we cut off the teat.”
After understanding the situation, Ho Gamyeong bit his lip lightly.
Even when they had first considered handing the island now called Maehwado over to Mount Hua, he had never imagined things would turn out like this. At most, he had thought it would become a tool to drive a wedge between the Nine Great Sects and the Heavenly Alliance.
But that deranged Plum Blossom Sword Hero had kept inflating the matter until it had become this.
“But, Alliance Leader. Isn’t this a bit strange?”
“Strange?”
“Yes. Maehwado only has meaning if the Yangtze is blockaded. If the Water Bandit Sect lifts the blockade on the Yangtze, doesn’t the island become meaningless? This isn’t a scheme.”
“If you looked at it from common sense, then yes.”
Jang Il-so let out a faint laugh.
“If that pig bastard, the Black Dragon King, were planning to lift the blockade on the Yangtze, that is.”
“...Pardon?”
Ho Gamyeong tilted his head, clearly not following.
“Doesn’t the Water Bandit Sect already suffer from a lack of funds because of Maehwado? That’s why they’ve repeatedly asked us to let them attack the island.”
“That was when Maehwado belonged to someone else.”
Jang Il-so’s face twisted.
“That bastard sword nut and that consumptive wreck turned that insignificant little island into the hub for all trade along the Yangtze. Just by loading and moving cargo at the right time, they hauled in so much money that the Water Bandit Sect’s plunder looked like pocket change.”
“That is... true.”
It had been a board laid in part by the Four Hegemons Alliance, but the fact that Mount Hua had not merely seized it and run with it, but had expanded it far beyond their expectations, was unquestionably their own ability.
“If you were the Black Dragon King, what would you do?”
Jang Il-so’s mouth curled high at the corners.
“Would you destroy Maehwado and try to return things to the way they were? Or would you keep things as they are and try to take Maehwado for yourself?”
Ho Gamyeong’s eyes wavered.
“Well, o-of course the greater profit lies in taking over Maehwado. But the reason Maehwado was favored in the first place was because the people running it were Mount Hua, wasn’t it? If the Water Bandit Sect occupied it, who would trust them enough to hand over cargo? It’d be like leaving fish in a cat’s care.”
“Who was actually running Maehwado?”
Ho Gamyeong shut his mouth.
It was a question he did not want to answer, but that did not mean he could ignore Jang Il-so’s words.
“The Green Forest...”
“And you were so willing to entrust your cargo to bandits.”
Jang Il-so snorted.
“Ordinary commoners might not know any better, but merchants, by nature, don’t care whether they’re dealing with water bandits or mountain bandits. Besides, what are merchants? If their safety is guaranteed, they’d do business with ghosts, never mind bandits. If the Water Bandit Sect simply forbids plundering on Maehwado, then before long everyone and his brother will start using it again.”
“...”
“Or they could just put forward a proxy of some kind. They’ll be suspicious, sure, but what other choice do they have?”
“Do you really think the Black Dragon King would consider things that far?”
“Of course that pig is lazy and full of greed. But he’s not stupid.”
“...”
“Especially when it comes to profit, his calculations are faster than anyone else’s.”
Jang Il-so clicked his tongue.
“Up to that point, we could still manage things somehow. The problem is that the one eyeing Maehwado isn’t just the Black Dragon King.”
“...”
Ho Gamyeong understood immediately what Jang Il-so was trying to say.
“It’s an affair involving massive profits. There’s no way the Hao Sect and Black Ghost Fort wouldn’t move.”
“Indeed...”
Ho Gamyeong nodded heavily.
The more he thought about it, the more painful the situation became.
For the past three years, Jang Il-so had worked tirelessly to seize complete control of the Four Hegemons Alliance. But what he had actually taken into his hands were the parts excluding the Water Bandit Sect, the Hao Sect, and Black Ghost Fort.
The internal power of the Four Hegemons Alliance, led by Maninbang, had grown immensely compared to the past, but no matter how formidable Jang Il-so was, it was not easy to crush and absorb the forces of the Five Hegemons of the Jianghu, whose systems had remained solid for decades, in one fell swoop.
So this was, in the end, a powder keg that was bound to explode within the Four Hegemons Alliance sooner or later.
“If the pigs that had been crouching and waiting for a small trigger suddenly began to move?”
“...The fuse could catch fire.”
“Tch. That’s why I’ve been so careful until now.”
Jang Il-so shook his head, clearly displeased.
If they had withdrawn slowly from Maehwado, perhaps there would have been time to prepare. But Mount Hua had pulled out of the Yangtze too abruptly.
Where balance collapses, a struggle begins to create a new one. They had struck precisely at the fact that the enormous profits would cause trouble inside the Four Hegemons Alliance.
“...But.”
Then Ho Gamyeong asked, his expression hardened.
“Couldn’t this also be an opportunity, Alliance Leader?”
“An opportunity?”
“Yes. An opportunity.”
He nodded with weight and said in a clear voice,
“We were going to clean them up sooner or later anyway. It’s true that leading them into war while they were harboring other schemes was a burden. Come to think of it, the timing isn’t bad.”
“Tsk, tsk. Gamyeong, Gamyeong.”
But Jang Il-so immediately shook his head.
“For some reason, whenever Mount Hua comes up, your field of vision narrows. It was the same before.”
“...What do you mean?”
“What do you mean, what do I mean? Don’t you understand what it means to occupy Maehwado?”
Jang Il-so extended a finger and pointed at Maehwado.
“Cargo moves from the land, through the island, and across the river.”
When the tip of Jang Il-so’s finger slowly moved from Maehwado to the opposite riverbank, Ho Gamyeong understood what he was trying to say.
“Ah!”
“Occupying Maehwado necessarily means occupying the wharf across the river as well. And this place is...”
“...the northern bank.”
Ho Gamyeong’s face stiffened.
“What’s on this land?”
“...A huge city. A city that has grown to an absurd size in just three years.”
“Exactly. You really think those pig bastards would gain control of Maehwado and not covet that place?”
Impossible.
Maybe if it were only the island, but once they crossed over and secured the wharf, would they simply leave the city connected to it alone? That would be no different from a martial artist obsessed with strength standing before a peerless divine skill and still choosing to learn only third-rate techniques.
“Taking Maehwado means advancing into the northern bank. Whether they like it or not, problems will arise. Problems I can’t control!”
“...”
“And yet... the Heavenly Alliance backed away cleanly, after setting things up so that no one could pull out, no one could look away. As if telling the Nine Great Sects and us to go on and fight it out ourselves.”
Cold sweat began to trickle down Ho Gamyeong’s forehead.
How could such a simple move lead all the way here?
At first, he had thought it was merely a foolish move that threw away enormous profit with his own hands. But the fool had not been Chung Myung—Ho Gamyeong had.
Because what mattered was not what they gave up, but how much they gained in return for that sacrifice.
By relinquishing the vast profits Maehwado brought, Mount Hua had created internal conflict within the Four Hegemons Alliance, and that conflict had even laid the groundwork for the alliance’s collision with the Nine Great Sects.
What was even worse was that, knowing all this plainly, they still could not withdraw.
They were now facing the worst possible situation: one where they had no choice but to walk straight into a place they knew would kill them.
What in the world is this...
He understood this vicious scheme perfectly in his head, yet at the same time he felt so confused, as though he understood nothing at all. And rightly so—
How could such a simple move lead this far?
Chills raced across his spine.
“Interesting. So very interesting. Hahahahahahaha! This is the first time in three years I’ve felt this way! Truly interesting! Hahahahahahaha!”
Jang Il-so threw his head back and laughed thunderously. Then, as if he could no longer contain himself, he covered his face and let out strangled chuckles.
But in that instant, Ho Gamyeong saw it. Through the long white fingers covering his face, he saw Jang Il-so’s eyes.
That chilling gaze.
“Gamyeong.”
“Yes, Alliance Leader.”
“Even I am feeling some regret. Should I have made the effort to kill him back then?”
Jang Il-so licked his red lips.
“Everything’s getting jumbled. The plans I set in place are collapsing in an instant. It’s irritating, truly irritating.”
What displeased Jang Il-so most of all was that he was being dragged into a board he had not drawn himself.
This was not his taste. He was the one who dragged others into his board, not an actor dancing on someone else’s stage.
“...Do you really think that Plum Blossom Sword Hero predicted and moved through all of this? For three years?”
“Impossible.”
Jang Il-so answered lazily.
“No human could do that. It’s probably just a coincidence that all the pieces happened to fit.”
Ho Gamyeong nodded. That was his own thought as well.
“But...”
However, what came next differed somewhat from Ho Gamyeong’s expectation.
“Even if we hadn’t been able to use Maehwado as a means, the result would not have been any different.”
“Pardon? What do you mean by that?”
Jang Il-so chuckled.
“People who like to chatter think that a shocking tactic is the result of genius. They call it an amazing idea born from an expansive view and quick thinking that can see what no one else can.”
“...Isn’t that true?”
“No. No, it isn’t.”
Jang Il-so waved a hand dismissively. The ornaments hanging from his wrist struck one another with a clear jingle.
“If you were truly that outstanding, you wouldn’t need to create a situation where you had to come up with some dangerous, bizarre trick in the first place.”
“...”
“A tactic isn’t the tool of the strong. It’s the tool of the weak. It’s what someone who can’t win by ordinary means agonizes over and over until they squeeze it out.”
A ghostly smile spread across Jang Il-so’s lips.
“Sticky. It’s sticky malice. A scheme that reeks of nothing but the desire to splash filth in my face, no matter what it takes. A man like that would have found some way to drag me into hell even if the situation had been different.”
“...”
“Heh heh. What a damned bastard.”
Jang Il-so tightened the hand gripping his own face.
“Then...”
With a face drained white, Ho Gamyeong forced the words out.
The words a military strategist never wanted to say aloud.
“...What do you intend to do?”
At that, Jang Il-so sank back into his chair and leaned into the backrest.
His expression was languid from one angle, indifferent from another. He looked like a child whose favorite toy had been taken away, or like someone burdened with an annoying chore.
“We’ll let them play.”
He nodded slowly.
“When you fall into a swamp, if you thrash around trying to escape clumsily, you only sink deeper and deeper into the mire. Sometimes, the best course is to let yourself be taken in for a while.”
Jang Il-so’s expression regained its ease in an instant.
“If the news has reached even our ears, then the Black Dragon King is already moving, and there’s no way the Hao Sect is slower than us when it comes to information, so they must be moving too. That leaves only Man-geum Daebu.”
As though he had already sorted everything out in his mind, Jang Il-so waved his hand.
“This is a headache. Everyone, get out.”
“Yes.”
As the attendants quietly withdrew, Ho Gamyeong also rose from his seat. He knew that even he was no longer needed here.
Once he stepped back so as not to disturb the man’s thoughts, Jang Il-so was finally left alone. He lightly tapped the tea table with his fingers.
“Plum Blossom Sword Hero...”
A terrifying killing intent erupted from Jang Il-so’s entire body as he bared his teeth.
“That’s a bit much for a greeting after three years. This time, you got the better of me. I’m starting to wonder what I should give you in return to make it even...”
As he tapped the table with a steady clack, Jang Il-so soon seized the edge of it hard.
“But...”
Slowly, very slowly, his expression softened.
Then a strange look appeared on his face. As if he were mocking someone, or perhaps worrying, or maybe just toying with them.
“You don’t know. Not yet. You don’t know how vicious human malice can become. Hahahaha. Hahahahahahahaha!”
The shadow over the chamber seemed to ripple in time with Jang Il-so’s laughter, as though everything were being pulled deeper and deeper into an endless darkness.