Life and Death Decision
Lord Seok Ji-sung’s reasoning was sound. In merchant trade, the indispensable means of transport and the route itself were, more often than not, the waterways.
The reason Hebei’s commerce had flourished was also thanks to the vast Great Hyehwa River, so for merchants of Seokga Manor to think of the waterways was only natural.
“To be honest, I thought neither Young Master Seok Geum-ryong nor you would have considered the waterways.”
The Water Ghost Gongson Ban looked over at the Scholar in Blue, Gong Sang-pil, as if surprised.
He had assumed that because Seok Geum-ryong was so young, the idea of traveling by river had come from Gong Sang-pil.
“I did not think of it myself, but... Young Master Geum-ryong showed remarkable insight.”
“What? Is that true?”
When it turned out to be the opposite, Gongson Ban was shocked out of his wits.
Since he oversaw the waterways and ships inside Seokga Manor, he was comparatively ignorant of the latest news. So it was only more surprising to hear that the timid, naïve-seeming Seok Geum-ryong had shown such foresight.
“Then where is Young Master Seok Geum-ryong?”
“Ah!”
Just as Gong Sang-pil and the others were rejoicing, Gongson Ban’s question drew a chorus of groans from everyone at once.
Gong Sang-pil’s face in particular went pale.
Young Master Seok Geum-ryong went with Shin Dan-woo, the Shadowless One, taking the decoy route over land alone, hoping to meet up with the main force from the manor!
But if the support force from the main house had come by river instead of land...
“Young Master is in danger! We must disembark at once and find Young Master Seok Geum-ryong, who is traveling overland!”
Gong Sang-pil, always calm and gentle, shouted with a gravity more severe than anyone had ever heard from him before.
The desperate battle was not yet over.
“What became of the group that chose the waterways?”
After an exhausting, bitter clash, Seok Geum-ryong had finally and miraculously brought down the Mad Horse Elder, Ma Gwan-pil, by the thinnest of margins.
For a brief moment, he thought of the river group.
“Who knows? They may still be locked in a fierce pursuit with Jeokma-dang’s massive ship.”
Shin Dan-woo said that not knowing the river group had already joined the support force dispatched from the main house.
“Ugh!”
Seok Geum-ryong hurried to move, but pain shot through his entire right arm, a savage agony as if from the depths of hell, and he let out a cry before he could stop himself.
“Are you all right?”
Shin Dan-woo was worried about Seok Geum-ryong and was about to go into the nearby town to find a clinic when...
Swish, swish, swish.
All at once, he sensed movement nearby.
And not just one or two people, either. A number of presences surged in close, and both Shin Dan-woo and Seok Geum-ryong went rigid with alarm.
“Now this is truly astonishing. To think you managed to bring down that monster of a chief administrator.”
The forces that emerged from within the woods, where the fierce battle with Ma Gwan-pil had taken place, were none other than Gui Zhongyue, the chief of Jeokma-dang, and the men under him.
Those two actually took him down?
Gui Zhongyue stared at the exhausted Seok Geum-ryong and Shin Dan-woo, dumbfounded.
Even if Ma Gwan-pil had been careless, it was still hard to believe that he had been defeated by the current Seok Geum-ryong, who had no Peak expert at his side.
“How on earth did you bring him down?”
Gui Zhongyue asked out of genuine curiosity.
By contrast, Seok Geum-ryong and Shin Dan-woo looked at one another, both searching for a way to survive this new crisis.
If it were only that bloated Jeokma-dang chief...
Seok Geum-ryong looked past Gui Zhongyue and at the other formidable man standing guard beside him, the eldest of the Ten Red Horses, Jin Sa-jun, whose title of Golden Big Brother carried the sense of someone as rare and impressive as gold itself. Jin Sa-jun’s eyes were burning with menace.
Golden Big Brother Jin Sa-jun. That man must be at roughly my level, or perhaps half a step above it.
Shin Dan-woo grimaced at Jin Sa-jun’s formidable aura.
Even in perfect condition, he would have found such an opponent difficult to defeat one-on-one. And now? He had already pushed himself to the brink in the miracle of bringing down Ma Gwan-pil.
What was more, while he himself had already burned through much of his internal energy and stamina, the master he served, Seok Geum-ryong, was now in a dangerous state, poisoned and with his right arm dislocated.
“Heh. Keeping it a secret, are you? Well, it doesn’t matter. Losing Chief Ma is unfortunate, but... compared to four thousand gold pieces and a few Blood-Sweating Horses, I think we still came out ahead.”
Gui Zhongyue smiled with a sinister curl of the lips and encircled Seok Geum-ryong with Jin Sa-jun and a great many other fighters.
The ring was so tight, and the numbers so overwhelming, that even two men with exceptional lightness skills could not bring themselves to run.
“Still, it’s an astonishing feat. You chose the waterways, shook off countless unorthodox fighters and wandering blades, and then split into two groups on the river to throw us into confusion.”
Gui Zhongyue spoke as he calmly retraced the earlier events.
He was merely savoring victory in a measured way.
No matter how wildly Seok Geum-ryong struggled, in the end the final winner would still be him.
“But... Young Master Seok Geum-ryong, making yourself the bait was far too dangerous. Look at you now. You’ve ended up in my hands and can’t move at all.”
“...”
Seok Geum-ryong said nothing in response.
He lowered his head, and for a moment it almost seemed as though he had given up on the situation.
“Any last words? If you tell me where you seized those Blood-Sweating Horses, I’ll make this end more quickly and with less pain.”
Gui Zhongyue felt the deep pleasure of knowing that the final victory was his, and he offered what he considered to be his last mercy.
With a swish, Jin Sa-jun, the outstanding warrior with superb martial skill, stepped forward and drew his dao.
He was an exceptional dao master who had reached the Super First-class level.
Jin Sa-jun was, at that moment, no different from the guillotine held by Gui Zhongyue.
If the Jeokma-dang chief gave the order, Jin Sa-jun would sever Seok Geum-ryong’s and Shin Dan-woo’s heads without a hint of hesitation.
He was ready at any time.
“Could you... give me a little time to think?”
Seok Geum-ryong asked politely, as if he had never once acted boldly in his life.
Grin.
Seeing that submissive posture, Gui Zhongyue laughed again, taking fresh pleasure in it.
Just as I thought.
However exceptional or gifted he might be, in the end a boy was still a boy. It was a self-satisfied laugh, too, one born of seeing through him.
And just as he was about to bathe completely in the feeling of victory...
BOOOOM!
Something astonishing happened once more.
Unbelievably, a separate force suddenly appeared and hurled arrows and hidden weapons toward the Jeokma-dang group that had surrounded Seok Geum-ryong, rushing in to support him.
“W-what? What on earth is going on?”
Gui Zhongyue, who had never doubted that he was the final victor, saw his face twist with alarm the instant this sudden development unfolded.
And the truly infuriating surprise came next.
“Shin warrior! Now!”
“Yes!”
Seok Geum-ryong and Shin Dan-woo darted out from before Gui Zhongyue and Jin Sa-jun as if they had been waiting for this very moment, sprinting madly in the direction from which the support force had come.
Shadowless Movement Technique!
Their swift lightness skill succeeded in putting some distance between them and their enemies.
If not for the mysterious force appearing and the fact that Jin Sa-jun had been caught off guard, it would have been impossible.
Young Master Seok Geum-ryong’s telepathic message was true!
Meanwhile, Shin Dan-woo was crying out soundlessly.
Before the support troops appeared, the two men had exchanged a look, but it had not been a look meant for escape.
Seok Geum-ryong had sent a transmission with utter confidence.
Soon, someone will come to support us.
That had been the content of the telepathic message he sent while Gui Zhongyue was still believing victory was his.
You mean support from the main house?
Shin Dan-woo had also assumed that the support would be from Seokga Manor’s main force, but Seok Geum-ryong had remained silent.
In truth, the support from Seokga Manor had set sail by river rather than by land and had joined up with Gong Sang-pil’s group, so it could not have been that.
“Who in the world is it?”
Gui Zhongyue shouted as he was unexpectedly pushed onto the defensive by the counterattack.
As he said, who was this mysterious force suddenly helping Seok Geum-ryong?
WAAAAA!
In the blink of an eye, red-clad martial artists were slaughtering the Jeokma-dang men while commanding a large body of troops.
There was something oddly familiar about their clothing.
“Could it be... the Blood Ghost Sect?”
Gui Zhongyue stared hard at their garments for a long while before asking in shock.
Unbelievably, the group that had thrown in every available fighter to rescue Seok Geum-ryong, all while dressed in red martial garb, was none other than the Blood Ghost Sect, a long-established unorthodox faction from Shanxi.
“The Blood Ghost Sect!”
Now that the Blood Ghost Sect had been identified, even Shin Dan-woo was shocked speechless.
It made sense. The Blood Ghost Sect and Seok Geum-ryong were hardly on friendly terms.
The Blood Ghost Scholar, Gun Gyeong-mun, the young master of the Blood Ghost Sect, had targeted Seok Geum-ryong and died an utterly pointless death. They were practically sworn enemies.
So why had the Blood Ghost Sect stepped in to save Seok Geum-ryong, and when in the world had they received his secret order and come as support?
It had been exactly when Seok Geum-ryong’s group was securing a boat in the fishing village. Seok Geum-ryong had hurriedly made contact with the local Hao Clan underlings and then sent a single letter to the Blood Ghost Sect.
If you help me, I will overlook the crimes committed by your young master, Gun Gyeong-mun, the Blood Ghost Scholar.
The message was short, but powerful.
In other words, since the Blood Ghost Sect had dared to covet Seokga Manor’s property and lives, if they now saved Seok Geum-ryong, he would forget their past transgression and remember only their current merit.
The sect master of the Blood Ghost Sect, Gun Wi-han, the Blood Ghost Demon Sword, had agonized over that letter again and again.
Part of him wanted to avenge his son, but in practical terms it was impossible. If Seokga Manor were to mark them as enemies, they would not be able to get by in Hebei, let alone Shanxi.
Above all, it had been his own son, Gun Gyeong-mun, who had first committed the harm and spilled blood without restraint.
All the justification lay with Seokga Manor. Rather than be alienated by Seokga Manor and sink into hardship, he chose the path of cooperation.
And then there was one more thing.
If you help me, I will make sure your reward is substantial.
Seok Geum-ryong had promised a generous return, and for the Blood Ghost Sect, which had lost its heir, this was a case of clinging to even a rotten lifeline if it meant survival.
“Now then, martial artists of the Blood Ghost Sect! We will aid Young Master Seok Geum-ryong of Seokga Manor and... wipe out the utterly despicable Jeokma-dang!”
Seok Geum-ryong had once stood on the edge of catastrophe.
But as the saying went, if you prepare in advance, you have nothing to fear. By choosing the waterways, he had already prepared for danger.
His last line of defense on the river was not dividing into two groups. It was, rather, a form of using one enemy to check another: employing the Blood Ghost Sect.
The support from the main house may head straight for the waterways.
Seok Geum-ryong’s insight was truly formidable.
He shared a deep common thread with Clan Head Seok Ji-sung, which was also why he had chosen the waterways as his main escape route.
At the same time, if the main house’s support force came by river, he might be in danger. So he had quietly secured the Blood Ghost Sect as an ally and prepared a second line of defense in advance.
What if the Blood Ghost Sect had refused?
Then I would have used whatever it took, even if I had to spend gold as precious as my own life, to ask the Hao Clan for support or assistance.
For Seok Geum-ryong, who was living a second life, not once but twice over, there was always another way.