The Gamblers' Gate, Part 3

"You want to become the Branch Master of the Tu Gate for just one day?"

Before meeting the other branch heads, I had gathered the senior cadres of the Tu Gate to lay out my plan for securing the antidote.

"Yes. The Branch Master of the Do Gate will never hand over the antidote unless Young Lady Ha-yeon nominates him as Mangju. To deceive that bastard and bring this whole affair to a close, I absolutely require the authority of the Branch Master."

If we wanted Je Jong-mo to relinquish the antidote willingly, we needed a variable he could never possibly foresee.

"Becoming the Branch Master of the Tu Gate isn't something that can happen overnight," one of the cadres replied, clearly troubled.

"The sun hasn't risen yet. We can finish it before morning even arrives."

A ferocious storm had swept through the area, but the eastern horizon remained dark. It was entirely thanks to Young Lady Ha-yeon buying us precious time.

"It may be technically possible, but still..."

"I am also the Shadowless Divine Thief," I pressed. "Didn't Young Lady Ha-yeon, as well as all of you, acknowledge that the two of us together make up the Shadowless Divine Thief? Furthermore, I am the sworn brother of the previous Branch Master and have mastered the Shadowless Body Art. For all intents and purposes, you could consider me the legitimate successor of the Tu Gate."

"One does not simply become the Branch Master of the Tu Gate just because they wish to be."

"What do you mean, 'simply wish to be'? Every single cadre of the Tu Gate is gathered right here. All it takes is your collective consent."

Never in the history of our sect had conditions allowed for such rapid decision-making.

"..."

The cadres traded wary glances, keeping their mouths shut. As expected, they weren't eager to bite. In that case, I had another card to play.

"I am in favor."

That's my Brother Wang. The moment I shot him a desperate signal for help, Brother Wang, who had remained silent until now, finally stepped forward.

"Former Branch Master!"

"However, merely securing the antidote won't bring an end to this," Brother Wang said, approaching me with an uncharacteristically grave expression. "You have another plan in mind, don't you?"

"Yes. Securing the antidote is merely the first button we must fasten to see this through to the end."

It was only the preparatory step for the final settlement. I hadn't brought this up merely to bargain for a single vial of medicine. I spoke with absolute conviction.

"Then we must help him," Brother Wang said, turning toward the cadres with a voice dripping with pointed subtext. "What else can a useless father who couldn't even protect his own daughter do? Isn't that right, everyone?"

The former Branch Master is giving his blessing—are you lot, who couldn't even protect your current master, really going to refuse?

Just moments ago, they had been weeping and begging for death, claiming it was all their fault. They couldn't possibly play dumb now.

With Brother Wang's explicit endorsement thrown onto the scales, the cadres huddled together and began murmuring frantically among themselves.

"Isn't this mess our fault for failing to protect the Branch Master in the first place?"

"Even so, this is—"

"He said he'd step down voluntarily afterward! Besides, the former Branch Master has given his recognition."

"If we stay like this, the entire Hao Sect will be torn apart!"

It didn't take long for them to reach a consensus. The representative of the cadres stepped forward, took a deep breath, and spoke.

"...Is one day truly enough?"

"Once today's business is finished, you may go right back to addressing me as Constable Kang Yunho."

And the very first person I'll arrest will be the bastard who just argued against me.

And so, my tenure as the Branch Master of the Tu Gate for a single night was decided.

"You? The Branch Master of the Tu Gate?"

The Branch Master of the Do Gate stared at me, his face twisted in utter disbelief.

"You are not the Mangju," I said, casually shrugging my shoulders like a phantom thief confessing a harmless parlor trick before a grand audience. "Since I am the Branch Master of the Tu Gate, Young Lady Ha-yeon's declaration from moments ago carries no legal validity whatsoever."

"Are you playing word games with me right now?! Kuh! Did you think I'd just cry out, 'Oh no, I've been foiled by your petty trick!' and yield to you?!"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Je Jong-mo bared his teeth, screaming as if the situation were too absurd to fathom.

"Hasn't a nameless cur who doesn't even know his own origins been throwing this exact temper tantrum for the past ten years just to claim the Hao Sect's most exalted seat of Mangju? All for the sake of some flimsy, word-game justification."

He seemed thoroughly enraged. But what could he do? The justification he sought had always been nothing more than a mirage. I smirked, letting out a sharp snort.

"Khehehe. Right. That may be true. But tell me... don't I still hold the hilt of the blade?"

When Je Jong-mo raised his hand, the martial artists gathered in the corner drew their weapons in unison.

Their blades were aimed directly at Young Lady Ha-yeon, who was currently expelling the poison, and Brother Wang, who was assisting her internal energy circulation from behind. So that's how you want to play it.

"Go ahead and try, if you have the guts," I said, the smile never leaving my lips.

"What did you just say?"

"The moment you kill my sworn brother and Young Lady Ha-yeon, any chance of you becoming Mangju vanishes into thin air. So what will you do then? Just keep swinging your swords?"

"If necessary."

"It's not necessary. You'd only be doing it out of spite."

"What?"

"Do you think the disciples of the other branches will ever submit to you after watching you butcher their kin before their very eyes? Not a chance in hell! We will fight you to the bitter end."

I gestured toward the martial artists standing behind me, shouting with resolute authority.

"When it's already painfully obvious who the victor will be?"

"Do people call a man who builds a mud hut over scorched earth a victor these days?"

"...Khehehe. Men on the verge of death always love to spout such hollow bluffs."

"Is that why you're bluffing right now?"

"..."

"What you should be doing right now isn't making empty threats. You should be racking your brain desperately, asking yourself: What does he want?"

I tapped my temple with a finger, gesturing for him to use his head for once.

Perhaps realizing that room for negotiation still remained, the Branch Master of the Do Gate shifted his expression.

"...What do you want?"

All I need is time to loosen my tongue.

"I have a question for you."

"If that's all, I'd even tell you my lover's undergarment size."

Taking a calm, steady breath, I looked toward the triumphantly grinning Branch Master of the Do Gate and asked:

"Why are you a member of the Hao Sect?"

"What?"

The opening I had been waiting for finally arrived. Without giving him a fraction of a second to answer, I pressed forward immediately.

"The Hao Sect... It's truly a fascinating organization. What kind of sect accepts anyone as a disciple simply because they share the same lowly trade, without even a proper master-disciple lineage? Hey! Move!"

I strode forward boldly, snapping at the armed guard blocking the path toward Je Jong-mo.

"B-Branch Master?"

"Let him through."

That's more like it. At Je Jong-mo's command, the Do Gate brawlers parted to the left and right, opening a straight path between us.

Right into the dead center of enemy lines. Every gaze in the room converged on me. Because this situation was completely unprecedented, it would take them a moment to decipher my intentions.

Good. Thanks to my one-night tenure, I've managed to secure the stage I needed.

The enemy couldn't afford to strike me down recklessly. This was the optimal moment to run my mouth. From here on, it was a battle of momentum.

I rallied the internal energy within my body. My actions would remain casual, but my bearing would carry immense weight. Channeling the Soyun Mind Image Art, I projected my voice across the entire floor.

"Back in my younger days, there were times when I wished I could just eat a single decent meal a day. But how many choices does a lowborn mongrel have to make a living? Hey. Isn't that right?"

I stepped off the path and turned to a Do Gate grunt who looked barely old enough to grow a beard.

"Pardon?"

"Didn't you join the Hao Sect just to put food on the table?"

"Th-That's... correct."

Having secured his agreement, I swept my gaze over the rest of the Do Gate men. Perhaps uncomfortable with being questioned, every single one of them nodded in unison under my piercing stare.

Agreement secured. Time for the next step.

"Why else would we belong to the Hao Sect? Isn't it a sect formed by people in despised, vulgar trades banding together just to make sure we don't starve? Ah! Forgive me! The Branch Master of the Do Gate started out from the very beginning as the former master's disciple, so he probably wouldn't understand such lowly concerns, would he?"

I subtly drove a wedge between him and his men, framing Je Jong-mo as someone who had always been well-fed and privileged from the start.

"Get to the point," the Branch Master of the Do Gate spat, his displeasure plain on his face.

"If you've endured for ten years, you can endure a few moments longer! Where was I again? See, you made me forget. Hey, you there! What was I just talking about?"

I pointed at a thug in the back who had been trying to look elsewhere.

"M-Me? You said... people in vulgar trades banding together..."

"Right! Exactly that. You were listening well. Everyone, give him a round of applause! Come on, clap!"

In the dead silence of the brothel's top floor, the sound of my lone clapping echoed through the stale, oppressive air.

"..."

What are you all doing? Not going to clap?

"Humor him," Je Jong-mo muttered with a nod, and his subordinates began clapping with thoroughly bewildered expressions.

"Splendid. From now on, I'll be testing whether you're paying attention, so keep your ears open! At any rate, the Hao Sect is truly peculiar. In any other sect, if a disciple is killed, the sect avenges them. But have any of you ever heard of the Hao Sect launching a blood vendetta because a single tavern waiter was murdered?"

Announcing an unexpected question naturally sharpens the focus of any audience. Every pair of eyes in the hall was now glued to me.

"No, we haven't."

"Of course not. Why would people who gathered merely to scrape together a bowl of rice form sacred bonds of family? Protecting our own rice bowls—that is the life of a Hao Sect disciple."

A master, a junior, a senior... in ordinary sects, disciples became kin forged through shared teachings. But the Hao Sect was fundamentally different.

Because we gathered purely out of mutual self-interest, fellow disciples rarely shared the warm, unbreakable bonds of true family.

"You talk too much."

I looked back at the increasingly agitated Branch Master of the Do Gate. I continued stepping closer to him, but he was not my true target.

"Then let me ask again. Why are you a member of the Hao Sect? No—why are any of us members of the Hao Sect?"

Spinning around, I addressed the assembled martial artists of the Do Gate once more.

"...?"

Redirecting a question posed to their superior back to the entire rank and file turned their collective gaze into a single, shared curiosity.

"We stepped through the gate, yet we forged no familial bonds. We joined merely to eat well, which makes us little more than retained guests at best. Yet, precisely because we are guests, there are rules that must be upheld."

"What nonsense are you babbling now?"

Bearing the weight of their gathered attention, I turned my gaze back upon the Branch Master of the Do Gate.

Why are we members of the Hao Sect?

What principle must we, who are merely retained guests rather than family, uphold within this sect? What separates those who have entered through this gate from the beasts outside?

"Those who enter through this gate—the Hao Sect—shall never harm one another."

"...!"

"You butchered the families of fellow Branch Masters! You slaughtered countless disciples and dragged the entire Hao Sect to the brink of ruin! How can you claim to be a disciple of the Hao Sect?! You, who treat men gathered merely to earn an honest meal as disposable pawns—how dare you call yourself the Branch Master of the Do Gate?!"

How could someone who slaughtered his fellow disciples be considered one of us? What made him any different from the wolves outside the gate?

"Khehehe. So you're determined to see this through to the end, are you?"

Unable to take it any longer, the Branch Master of the Do Gate closed the distance between us.

"All you will inherit is a barren wasteland! All you will drink is muddy water! No, even that will eventually be stripped away by the hypocrites of the Orthodox factions!"

"Dead men can't even drink muddy water."

Exactly. That's the entire problem.

"You might manage to swallow some muddy water. But what will your subordinates drink? Will they be forced to endure weeks on a single crust of stale bread all over again? No. Most of them will end up dead in a ditch, so I suppose being alive to eat stale bread would be considered a blessing, wouldn't it?"

My words were spoken toward Je Jong-mo, but they were not meant for his ears.

In the victory Je Jong-mo envisioned, his name might be recorded, but theirs never would. They were nothing more than gambling chips tossed onto his table. Knowing that, do you truly intend to follow him?

I silently asked the martial artists of the Do Gate.

"Hey. Black hair."

Je Jong-mo stepped right up to my face, thrusting forward a visage slick with madness.

"What is it, gambler?"

Did you think I'd flinch at something like this? I met his murderous aura head-on, refusing to yield an inch of ground.

"What? Do you really think this changes anything? Did you expect them to break down in tears and drop their swords?"

With a contemptuous sneer, the Branch Master of the Do Gate pointed at his subordinates. Realizing the tide of the room had grown perilous, the disciples' hands had already drifted toward the hilts at their waists.

He wasn't wrong.

Things had gone far too far to resolve through sentiment and cold calculation alone.

No matter what silver-tongued rhetoric I spun here, they weren't going to drop their blades on the spot. However...

Smiling, I glanced toward a corner of the Do Gate's ranks.

"No. Shaking their resolve was more than enough."

All I really needed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was time.

"What the hell does that—"

"Guh! Block them!"

Perfect timing. A startled shout erupted from the corner.

Instantly channeling the Shadowless Body Art, I vaulted into the air. In a flash, two figures snatched me mid-flight, carrying me clean out of enemy lines and straight back into the center of our formation.

There were only two people among us capable of such otherworldly agility.

"Are you unhurt?"

"Light as a feather."

Her complexion restored to its usual healthy radiance, Young Lady Ha-yeon greeted me with a bright smile.

"...You were just stalling to divert our attention?" the Branch Master of the Do Gate demanded, his face contorting as he realized he had been thoroughly played.

"Consider it a two-for-one deal."

Did you really think I drew all those eyes just for fun?

"Fine. Then that leaves only one solution between us."

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠martial artists of the Do Gate glared at me as if ready to pounce at a moment's notice.

"No. There is one more."

Like I said: I needed time to shake their resolve.

I studied the faces of the Do Gate fighters. If we plunged into an all-out civil war now, nobody could predict who would walk away alive. Unlike before, their expressions were now heavily clouded with hesitation, fear, and simmering discontent.

The crack had undeniably been formed.

"What did you say?"

Now, what must be done?

Young Lady Ha-yeon was safe. All that remained between us was civil war. Was there truly no way to avoid mutual destruction? Was there no path to settle this once and for all?

After exchanging glances with the Branch Masters, my eyes met Young Lady Ha-yeon's steady gaze.

—Do as your heart desires.

There would be no war.

Because today, at long last...

Every single card had gathered into my hand.

"I, the Branch Master of the Tu Gate, hereby nominate the Shadowless Divine Thief, Lim Hayeon, as the Mangju of the Hao Sect!"

Dropping to one knee, I roared our declaration of victory for all to hear.

"Wh-What?!"

Amidst the paralyzing shock echoing across the hall—

"Fufufu. To think the child raised by our Gi Gate is being nominated as Mangju. What an auspicious day."

The Gimun Hyangju stepped toward Lim Hayeon with a radiant smile.

"Who are you calling a child of the Gi Gate? The boys of our Si Gate call her their sister-in-law! She practically belongs to the Si Gate."

"Whatever the case, it is infinitely better than the Do Gate."

The Simun Head and the Mamun Head also approached Lim Hayeon, warm, approving smiles gracing their weathered faces.

"Branch Masters..."

What was about to unfold was an event unprecedented in the entire history of the Hao Sect. With a resolute expression, the Shadowless Divine Thief, Lim Hayeon, stood before the elders.

Ordinarily, ascending to the seat of Mangju required the endorsement of a majority of sub-branch chiefs alongside the consent of two Branch Masters. Yet even that method was merely an expedient shortcut established by the Supreme Master because no one had ever achieved the true requirement.

There was only one way to become the undisputed Mangju, recognized by every soul in the province.

"I, the Branch Master of the Gi Gate, nominate the Shadowless Divine Thief, Lim Hayeon, as the Mangju of the Hao Sect."

"I, the Branch Master of the Si Gate, nominate the Shadowless Divine Thief, Lim Hayeon, as the Mangju of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Hao Sect."

"I, the Branch Master of the Ma Gate, nominate the Shadowless Divine Thief, Lim Hayeon, as the Mangju of the Hao Sect."

The unanimous consent of all four Branch Masters.

Before her, the four Branch Masters sank to one knee in unison.

"Wh-What is the meaning of this?!"

"The consent of four Branch Masters... Th-Then could it be?!"

"The Sh-Shadowless Divine Thief is the Mangju?!"

Neither seals nor sub-branch chiefs were needed anymore. Nothing in the world carried greater authority than a solemn proclamation delivered by the Branch Masters before the assembled elite of the Hao Sect.

Petty schemes and violent coercion were utterly powerless before this.

"Greetings, everyone. I am Lim Hayeon, the Shadowless Divine Thief... and the Mangju of the Hao Sect."

The woman standing before their eyes was now the absolute, undeniable master of the province.

As the first woman in the history of the Hao Sect to ascend to the seat of Mangju through the unanimous blessing of the Branch Masters, she delivered her decree with regal composure.

"Loyalty!"

Excluding the Do Gate, every single member of the Hao Sect dropped to their knees, roaring from the absolute depths of their lungs.

"C-Congratulations to the Mangju of the Hao Sect!"

"Long live the Mangju!"

One by one, the martial artists of the Do Gate—whose resolve had already been shattered by Kang Yunho's words—began sinking to their knees as well.

A new Mangju had been born.

This was no mere shift in momentum. The entire conflict had reached its absolute conclusion. For the woman standing before the Do Gate's men was now the true, legitimate sovereign of all Hao Sect disciples in Hubei Province.

"As the Mangju of the Hao Sect, I shall now issue my very first command."

Her eyes burning with cold resolve, Lim Hayeon pointed a finger toward a single man.

If the Branch Masters were the retainers of the Hao Sect, the Mangju was its sovereign lord. And no retainer in existence possessed the right to defy their master's command.

"CUT THE BULLSHIIIIIIIIIT!"

A roar choked with rabid fury erupted from his throat. Yet no master ever trembled simply because a dog barked.

There was only one command a new master could give to a rabid hound that failed to recognize its owner.