The Beggar Chief’s Secret
With every step I took, the scenery changed rapidly.
If I kept this up, I’d reach Mount Song, where Shaolin stood, before long.
As I ran for quite some time, something came into view.
“What are those bastards?”
Five martial artists were hurrying ahead in a rush. At a glance, all five seemed to have barely reached first-rate level.
I was curious why they were moving so frantically, but I soon decided to let that curiosity go. Everyone had their own circumstances.
Then, after running a little farther, I saw an old monk and a group of children. They, too, were hastening their steps, so it looked as though the martial artists from before were chasing them.
I climbed a tree and watched them from there.
“Why are there so many children?”
There had to be at least twenty of them. Their faces were filled with fear.
In another moment, the martial artists would catch up. I hid my presence and kept watching.
“Old man! You dare steal my property?”
Sure enough, the martial artists caught the old monk and the children in an instant. Then they drew the swords at their waists and started advancing on the monk.
The children trembled and clung to the old monk. He hid them behind him and stood in their way.
“Amitabha... What crime have these children committed? Please, let them go. Take me instead.”
“Is an old monk’s life worth that much?”
“They’re pitiful children. Couldn’t you show them a little mercy?”
“Go ask your precious Buddha for mercy!”
With that shout, the martial artist’s sword fell toward the old monk’s neck.
“Amitabha......”
The moment the monk’s voice rang out, my shadow surged forward. Then I seized the man’s wrist.
The martial artist flinched, then shouted in an angry voice.
“...Who the hell are you!?”
“You don’t need to know who I am. I don’t know what’s going on, but why not try speaking with your mouth instead of your sword?”
“Who are you to tell me what to do? Hah. I get it. You look like some righteous sect’s young master pretending to be a chivalrous hero. Why should I give way just because you said so?”
“You don’t have to.”
I twisted his wrist. His body spun once in the air before slamming into the ground.
“Elder. Could you explain the situation?”
The monk looked at me and spoke.
“Those men are the sort who live by selling children. These children are their goods. By the Buddha’s will, I was able to flee with them.”
“So they’re human traffickers.”
My gaze shifted to the trafficker. His eyes were full of killing intent as he shouted,
“Ugh! What are you idiots doing? Kill this bastard already!”
As the man rolling on the ground yelled, the other four leapt toward me.
“Kids, can you close your eyes for a second? Absolutely do not open them before I say so.”
I turned and looked at the children. Then the monk turned his body, knelt down, and gathered them close, murmuring in a low voice.
“Everyone, close your eyes for a moment.”
At that, the children’s eyes slowly shut.
I gave a light swing of my sword and released sword energy.
The sword energy split into four in an instant and sliced through the men’s bodies as neatly as if someone were cutting vegetables. The man on the ground stared blankly in disbelief.
“A master...? Spare......”
“A little late, isn’t it?”
I smiled and brought my fist down on his head.
Thud.
I turned around. One child had apparently cracked his eyes open and seen the men die. I lifted the child into my arms, patted his back lightly, and sealed his acupoints to lull him to sleep.
“Everyone, turn around and keep your eyes shut. Move!”
The startled children didn’t obey right away. The monk then rose to his feet.
“Children. Let’s listen to the hero’s words.”
The monk’s warm presence began to envelop them. Slowly, the children turned around.
“Now open your eyes and walk forward. Move!”
At my command, the children started walking. I began walking with them, together with the monk.
“I don’t know who you are, benefactor, but thank you. Amitabha.”
The old monk extended a hand to me. I handed the child in my arms back to him.
“I’m just a passerby.”
The monk lifted his head slightly and looked at the sky. Weariness showed on his face.
I looked at the monk and the children and curled one corner of my mouth.
“These children were lucky.”
“Yes. Because you passed by here, they were able to live. Thank you.”
“No. It’s more that they were lucky to meet you, monk. Otherwise those children would have died, or been sold.”
“Amitabha......”
“So where are the children headed?”
“To Shaolin.”
“Then I’ll go with you. I was headed for Mount Song anyway.”
“I’d be grateful if you did. There must be a reason the Buddha brought you and us together. Amitabha.”
The old monk joined his palms and bowed his head to me. I returned the gesture, and together we started walking toward Mount Song.
After walking for quite some time, we reached the village at the base of Mount Song.
“Benefactor. I’ll never forget that you saved me and these children.”
“You mean to climb Mount Song right away?”
“Yes. That’s my plan.”
I glanced at the children. To me, it was obvious that children this exhausted from a forced march had no business climbing Mount Song immediately.
“The children look far too tired already. You should at least eat before you go up.”
“But...”
The monk’s face darkened. He probably didn’t have enough money to feed all of them right now. I looked at him for a moment, then turned to the children.
“Aren’t you hungry?”
“Yes. Mister, we’re hungry.”
“Mister? I’m not that old. Call me big brother.”
“Big brother, we’re hungry!”
Their cries grew louder. I smiled faintly, took one of the children by the hand, and started walking.
“Let’s go eat.”
“Yes!”
“Benefactor! Right now, the money......”
“There’s probably a reason the Buddha arranged for these children and me to meet.”
The place we stopped at was an inn called the Great Continent Inn.
What made this inn unusual was that it had seven floors, and you could use them according to how much you paid.
The higher the floor, the more expensive it became, and the better the food and environment grew in return.
I seated the children on the first floor and ordered food. Then I paid for a room where they could rest and settled the bill for the meal. The monk looked apologetic.
“I don’t know how I could ever repay such generosity......”
“I didn’t do it for you. I did it for those children.”
“May peace follow all that you do, benefactor... Amitabha......”
“Well. I have other business to take care of, too.”
I exchanged farewells with the monk and made my way to the upper floors of the inn. I had come here to feed the children and let them rest, but this inn had been my destination from the beginning.
With each floor I climbed, the guests’ clothing became more and more luxurious. And when I passed the sixth floor and reached the seventh—
A clerk blocked my way.
“I’m sorry, but the seventh floor is off-limits.”
“Why is that?”
“Is this your first time at our inn?”
“It is.”
“We only operate up to the sixth floor. The seventh floor is the inn owner’s private quarters.”
“Then there’s no problem. I came to see Yeom Do-un.”
“......”
The clerk’s expression sharpened at once. Behind him, two massive men approached.
“Would you wait here a moment?”
“Go ahead.”
The clerk’s Adam’s apple bobbed rapidly. After a short while, he lowered his head and led me inside.
On the seventh floor of the inn were one man and six courtesans. It was strange to see courtesans in an inn, but they were definitely courtesans.
Ping.
The interior was so lavish it no longer felt like an inn at all. Musicians filled the place with melody, and the courtesans danced to it.
And among them was a handsome man in extravagant clothes, swaying his body as he drank with the courtesans.
He was gulping wine straight from the bottle, rocking to the music as he pleased.
Then he shot me a sideways glance.
“And who might you be? Looking for me?”
“......”
When I didn’t answer, he raised his voice in irritation.
“As you can see, I’m busy. If you don’t have business, could you get lost?”
“Heh. Who would’ve thought? The underlings downstairs are begging for their meals, and their boss is up here drowning in pleasure. Who am I, you ask? You’re in the information trade and don’t know that?”
At my words, the man stopped swaying to the rhythm. In that instant, the musician’s melody cut off.
“You’re a rude little brat.”
The man lifted the wine bottle and poured the rest into his mouth. And the moment the bottle dropped away from his lips, it shot toward me at terrifying speed, while his hand reached for my neck.
I raised my arm and caught his wrist. The man’s lips curled with a thin smile.
“The name of the Star-Melting Sword wasn’t an empty boast, then.”
“Is that so? I’m a little disappointed, actually. For the chief of the Beggars' Union known as the Thousand-Mile Eared Ghost, I expected better.”
“Watch your mouth.”
His faint smile gradually turned savage. Qi began gathering in his hand.
He sent a chill through my spine.
This was the chief of the Beggars' Union, Yeom Do-un, the Thousand-Mile Eared Ghost. Most people would think, a beggar chief? Isn’t he just a beggar?
That was right. A beggar. The beggar with the greatest information network in the world. But that prejudice was precisely the Beggars' Union chief’s greatest weapon.
The Beggars' Union was the largest intelligence organization in the Central Plains, including the righteous sects. The information they held could bring enormous gains or losses to sects and noble families alike.
Which meant plenty of people in the righteous sects wanted the beggar chief’s head, too. That was why the Beggars' Union chief’s residence was always kept secret.
“Star-Melting Sword. How did you find out I was here?”
“That’s a secret.”
“Even if I could kill you right this second, it’s still a secret?”
“You’re a guy who lives off information. Would you really kill me just because I didn’t sell you mine?”
“There isn’t any information I can’t get.”
“Sure, I guess you can’t have everything. What can I say... you had that stale, sour beggar smell.”
“Stale, sour smell...”
Yeom Do-un calmed his momentum and brought his arm up to his nose. Then he started sniffing.
“There’s no stale smell, only the scent of a perfumed sachet. Fine. If you don’t want to speak, then don’t.”
Yeom Do-un glared at me, as if his mood had soured, then turned around and sat back down where the liquor was laid out.
“What brings you here?”
“Why else would I come to the Beggars' Union? To buy information.”
“For a trivial matter like that, go to one of the Beggars' Union branches.”
“The recent list of missing persons from the Nine Orthodox Sects and the Five Great Clans.”
“The Nine Orthodox Sects and the Five Great Clans......”
“You have it?”
“Of course I do. But you won’t be able to buy that information. It’s pretty expensive.”
Yeom Do-un looked at me languidly and lifted the wine bottle again and again.
“How much?”
“Hmm... maybe... a thousand gold ingots?”
“......”
Yeom Do-un’s eyes curved into crescents. That expression was clear enough. He was playing with me. Information worth a thousand gold ingots? In other words, he had no intention of giving it to me for free.
That was inevitable. Information ran on trust in the end, and even the Beggars' Union couldn’t simply hand over the Nine Orthodox Sects and Five Great Clans’ intelligence so easily.
“No money? Then you should leave. Boys, the guest is leaving. See him out.”
“I’ll heal Yeom Pa if you give me that information.”
“What?”
At my words, wine spilled from Yeom Do-un’s mouth. His eyes were full of surprise. No, maybe suspicion.
“How the hell do you know about Yeom Pa’s condition?”
“The life of the Beggars' Union’s young master. That sounds about worth a thousand gold ingots, doesn’t it?”
“......”
Yeom Do-un said nothing. He turned his head slightly, and the door to the room beside him opened.
He gestured for me to come closer.
What appeared before my eyes was one lying martial artist, or rather, one lying beggar.
“If what you say about being able to cure him is true, prove it. But if I don’t see any improvement, you’ll regret coming here today.”
I took Yeom Pa’s pulse. Well, in truth, I already knew his condition without checking his pulse.
Yeom Pa. Young master of the Beggars' Union.
Yeom Pa would die before long. He had in his past life, too.
But the truly important thing wasn’t Yeom Pa’s death. The real problem was the event his death would trigger.
“Can you fix him?”
When I didn’t move for a long time, Yeom Do-un asked. He must have been frustrated. Right now, he probably didn’t even know what internal injury Yeom Pa was suffering from.
But I knew. I knew exactly what had damaged Yeom Pa’s body.
The White Flame Demonic Art of Cheol Yeomgun, the Sixth Demonic Path Lord among the Eight Demonic Paths of the Demonic Cult.
Right now, Yeom Pa’s dantian was burning. He just couldn’t feel it himself.
The White Flame Demonic Art was a special technique.
Ordinary yang-based martial arts burned the outside, but the White Flame Demonic Art let demonic qi invade the body and begin burning from within.
And in the end, the fire inside rose outward and turned its owner to ash. It was a vicious demonic art.
Because the technique itself was so unusual, it was hard to identify its symptoms in the first place. And the bigger problem was how to treat the internal injury it caused.
There were only two known methods in the world.
Kill the martial artist who had cast the White Flame Demonic Art, or receive the care of the Heavenly Demon, who had reached the peak of demonic arts.
Neither was possible now.
However, I knew a third way.
Extreme yang qi was burning through the human body. So how did one treat it?
The method was simple.
Use extreme yin qi to neutralize and suppress the extreme yang.
I took the thousand-year Frost-Li inner core from my chest and swallowed it.
I felt an enormous amount of yin qi surge into my dantian. A chill spread through my entire body, and my heart seemed to freeze.
“Hoo.”
Without attempting to contain the qi, I pushed the surging force in my body into Yeom Pa.
The first reaction was violent trembling. Not long after, blood began flowing from his seven apertures.
“Kuaaaahhh!”
“What’s happening!?”
As Yeom Pa screamed like a madman, Yeom Do-un’s sharp voice rang out. But I didn’t stop; I kept forcing the qi in.
“It’s hot...! My body feels like it’s on fire!”
The more yin qi I drove in, the more violently the yang qi left behind by the White Flame Demonic Art raged.
It was dangerous.
Unless it was me.
Yeom Pa’s body trembled like a tree in a gale. But soon, the motion began to lessen. The violently heaving of his chest gradually slowed.
And then it stopped completely.
Yeom Pa’s breathing had ceased.
“What is this supposed to mean?”
“......”
“Aren’t you going to answer me? What happened to Yeom Pa!?”
“You’re awfully impatient.”
Smack!
I struck the left side of Yeom Pa’s chest hard. He jerked his eyes open and gasped for breath.
“Done.”
With my declaration, Yeom Pa’s breathing began to settle.
Seeing this, Yeom Do-un quickly checked Yeom Pa’s pulse.
“He really is healed... No physician in the Central Plains could cure him, and yet......”
He turned and looked at me. I raised the corner of my mouth and held out my hand.
“The information.”