The Green Forest King
After finishing the cleanup with Yeobhwa, Cheonhwa made his way toward a building set in a corner of the stronghold.
The moment they stepped inside, the first things that met their eyes were wooden cages. Inside them were people the bandits had seized and locked away. Jo Man-gu, who had arrived ahead of the two of them, was already working with Myeonghwa to free the captives.
"We've arrived."
"Welcome back. Is everything outside settled?"
"Yes. How are things here?"
"Almost finished on this end as well."
"Have you found your father?"
At Cheonhwa's question, Myeonghwa answered not with words but by turning his gaze toward a corner of one of the cages. Following that look, Cheonhwa found a middle-aged man. The silk robes that ought to have been immaculate were filthy with dust and grime, and his face was gaunt—clearly he had not been properly fed during his captivity.
"He's not in good condition, but I confirmed he's alive. I also found others from the merchant group besides Father."
"I'm glad he's safe."
"Yeah. Truly."
Myeonghwa's expression had softened with relief. Confirming his father's safety had finally loosened the tension that had held him taut.
While Cheonhwa spoke with Myeonghwa, the last of the cages was opened, and the group helped the captives out into the open air.
"Thank you! Thank you!"
"I thought we'd never see home again. You heroes saved our lives!"
The freed people wept as they poured out their gratitude. At a glance there were more than thirty of them, men and women of every age. What the Yeonggang Stronghold had been thinking, kidnapping so many people, was anyone's guess.
While Cheonhwa, Yeobhwa, and Jo Man-gu were surrounded by the grateful crowd, Myeonghwa was reuniting with his family.
"Father…"
"It's been a while. Have you been well?"
"That's what I should be asking you. How in the world did you end up kidnapped by bandits?"
"Bad luck. We paid a generous toll, and still they weren't satisfied—they attacked us. Even with all the money in the world, there's no dealing with men who refuse to understand plain speech."
Jang Son-pyeong, head of the Cheongun Merchant Group, let out a long sigh. Myeonghwa gave a short laugh and nodded at his father's words.
After that, Cheonhwa's group meant to take the rescued people and head straight for Hanzhong. There was no telling when the bandits who had been out would return, so they wanted to leave the stronghold as quickly as possible.
That was when Merchant Lord Jang Son-pyeong stepped forward.
"Before we run, what do you say we empty the ledger and the vault where they've stashed their wealth?"
"How do you know about that?"
"The stronghold master was remarkably careless. Whether he simply didn't see captives as people or not, he used the vault right in front of me, so I watched carefully and memorized it."
A cool smile touched Jang Son-pyeong's lips. He looked every bit a man who had found a chance to settle the grudge of being seized by bandits.
At the mention of a ledger—if not the wealth itself—Cheonhwa followed Jang Son-pyeong's directions and located the hidden vault. Sure enough, it held books that looked like ledgers, along with a vast private fortune the stronghold master had amassed.
"We'll take the books. As for the wealth, let's use it for the people who were held here."
"A fine idea."
"It's a shame about the money, but the captives will have nothing left to their names."
Yeobhwa readily nodded in agreement with Cheonhwa's proposal. Myeonghwa looked a little reluctant, but he too set the wealth aside out of consideration for the people's circumstances.
Afterward, the group loaded goods and people onto the Cheongun Merchant Group's wagons from the warehouse and left the stronghold. With more than thirty people moving at once, their pace was far from swift. Jo Man-gu volunteered to go ahead to Hanzhong and summon support.
"I'll go to Hanzhong first, report the situation, and bring reinforcements to wipe out the remaining Yeonggang Stronghold bandits."
"We're counting on you, Senior Jo Man-gu."
"Not at all. I only watched while you heroes did the fighting. The least I can do is take on a role like this."
Perhaps it was because he had witnessed with his own eyes the feat of bringing down the Yeonggang Stronghold. Jo Man-gu's manner toward Cheonhwa had become distinctly respectful.
The group saw Jo Man-gu off as he departed first for Hanzhong, then set out with the rescued people themselves.
The return to Hanzhong took far longer than the journey to the stronghold. Their numbers had swollen, and many had grown frail during their captivity under the Green Forest. Even so, they stopped at villages along the way to rest now and then, and the wealth taken from the Yeonggang Stronghold proved a great help.
Two days later, they met the support force of the Beggars' Guild and the Zhongnan Sect that had set out from Hanzhong. Among the reinforcements were faces Cheonhwa knew.
"Senior Uncle Muwol!"
"You've all done well."
Muwol and other second-generation disciples of the Zhongnan Sect had come after receiving the call for aid. The support force included members of the Medical Hall to examine the captives, as well as escorts to protect them. Thanks to that, Cheonhwa and his companions could finally rest with peace of mind.
The reinforcements left only a portion of their number to care for the freed people and pressed on at once toward the Yeonggang Stronghold. From that day forward, stories of the Yeonggang Stronghold's outrages were heard no more.
After the Zhongnan Sect and the Beggars' Guild had swept away even the remnants of the Yeonggang Stronghold, Gu Pung, branch master of Hanzhong, and Muwol spoke together inside one of the stronghold's buildings.
"I had a vague sense of it the moment I saw the contents of the ledger Cheonhwa handed over, but the affair has grown larger than expected."
"Indeed. I never imagined the Silent Merchant Guild would be mixed up in Green Forest business."
The reason the Yeonggang Stronghold had been able to grow so rapidly in the short span of a single year was simple: a separate major unorthodox faction—the Silent Merchant Guild—had given them massive support.
The Silent Merchant Guild was a gathering of dark merchants, an unorthodox society that would do anything so long as it turned a profit. The fact that the Yeonggang Stronghold had committed atrocities without discrimination was connected to that as well.
"To think they were kidnapping people for human trafficking…"
"That so many were held at the stronghold, and that they committed such endless outrages—I never imagined both were to fill demand at the Silent Merchant Guild's request."
"I wonder whether the Green Forest King knows of this…"
When Gu Pung mentioned the Green Forest King with a grave face, Muwol's expression darkened as well.
The Green Forest King—a Peerless Expert who had raised what had once been mere toll-collecting bandits into a proper major unorthodox faction. It was no exaggeration to say that the Green Forest's present standing had been built by the Green Forest King alone. He was a man who had imposed order on the disorderly mountain bandits and lived to uphold his arrogant declaration that every stronghold in the Central Plains answered to him.
"The Green Forest King was once known by the epithet Mountain Gallant, and his nature is open-handed and bold. Had he known of this, he might well have smashed the Yeonggang Stronghold with his own hands."
"The Silent Merchant Guild can hardly be unaware of that. What were they thinking, supporting a single stronghold and having it aid human trafficking?"
"There is only one reason the Silent Merchant Guild would pull a scheme like this. It means the profit is that great."
"Human trafficking profitable enough for the Silent Merchant Guild to throw itself into it… We'll need to investigate."
Having already crushed one stronghold, a clash with the Green Forest was all but certain. The one silver lining was that the Green Forest King was a man who understood the proper way of things. Once he learned that the Yeonggang Stronghold had committed its outrages for the sake of a deal with the Silent Merchant Guild, there was a good chance he would dismiss it as the reaping of what they had sown.
We only went looking for a missing secular merchant lord. How did it come to this?
Muwol felt a throbbing headache at the thought of a major incident that now entangled not only the Green Forest but the Silent Merchant Guild as well. He even had the premonition that this affair was only a prelude—and for a moment the thought crossed his mind that it might be connected to the storm that would overturn the entire jianghu, the one he had heard about at the elders' council.
I hope this ill omen is wrong.
Muwol exhaled a long breath and began organizing in his mind what he would report to the main mountain.
And so the case of the Cheongun Merchant Lord's disappearance came to a close—only to give birth to a new problem.
After resting, Cheonhwa, Yeobhwa, and Myeonghwa each found work to do. Myeonghwa devoted himself to attending his father, while Cheonhwa and Yeobhwa cooperated in protecting those who had been kidnapped by the bandits.
Thanks to the treatment of the physicians from the Zhongnan Sect's Medical Hall, the people slowly recovered their strength. Once fully healed, they received a share of the Yeonggang Stronghold's spoils and set out on their own roads.
"Thank you. You saved our lives!"
"We will never forget this debt!"
Those who departed did not stint in their gratitude toward Cheonhwa's group. In their eyes, the three might as well have been saviors. They had been rescued from a pitch-black future in the bandits' hands; their wasted bodies had been healed; and they had even been given the bandits' wealth so they could make a fresh start. It was only natural that they felt a debt beyond words.
Cheonhwa and Yeobhwa saw them off. When the last of them had passed from sight, Yeobhwa spoke.
"I never expected to receive thanks like this for helping people."
Yeobhwa looked down at his own clenched fists. Countless traces of hard training stood out in ridges across his hands.
"Using the martial arts I trained to become the foremost fist master of the Zhongnan Sect in order to help people… it leaves me with a strange feeling."
"I feel much the same."
In truth, Cheonhwa's group had saved the captives only as a consequence. They had moved solely on their sect's orders to recover a secular affiliate. Yet people still praised them without reserve as chivalrous heroes.
"To be honest, I was glad. I felt, for real, that I could help someone with my martial arts. At the same time, I was afraid—afraid I might grow blind with a thirst for renown and commit some wrong."
"This may sound cold, but even that seems to me a luxury only the living can afford."
"A luxury only the living can afford?"
"Yes. If we had been weaker than the bandits, we would have been lying cold on the ground without even the chance to worry over such things."
Thinking about the reasons one used force was not a bad thing. On the contrary, such restraint—refusing to swing power about recklessly—deserved praise. But that, too, was only possible if one had strength and was still alive. The jianghu of the martial world was a forest of blades and swords. To survive with life and death always at hand, one needed to become strong.
"To see through to the end what you believe is right, both body and mind must be strong enough for it."
"That brings back an old memory. Junior Brother Cheonhwa once said that such a person is what you call a true master."
"Yes. To me, a master is someone strong enough to carry a thing through to the end."
"Which means, of course, one must keep training."
Yeobhwa spoke with a wry smile.
"You've grown strong enough that even the finest prodigy of the Flower Generation cannot easily overcome you, and still you keep striving. Junior Brother Cheonhwa truly is remarkable."
"I'm not strong because I'm remarkable. What's truly remarkable is the martial learning of the Zhongnan Sect."
Cheonhwa answered with complete sincerity. He had been able to grow this strong thanks to various opportunities, yes—but fundamentally it had only been possible because of the Zhongnan Sect's martial arts. Without the path the previous generations had laid down, he never would have reached this height. That was all the more reason he could not afford to spare any effort and had to keep training.
At that answer, Yeobhwa clicked his tongue in amazement.
"In this humble one's view, that very quality is the secret of Junior Brother Cheonhwa's strength."
He had risen from the very bottom to become the senior disciple of the Flower Generation and held that seat for years; arrogance would not have been strange. Yet far from growing arrogant, he remained humble and never ceased his effort. That quiet, steady stride was precisely why the third-generation disciples trusted and followed Cheonhwa.
"Speaking of training—I heard you perfected the Vast Heaven Qi Art. Do you plan to learn a new inner art next?"
"Yes. This time I intend to learn the Dark Heaven True Qi."
The Dark Heaven True Qi carried the nature of Water among the Five Elements, and so it paired well with the Vast Heaven Qi Art, which held the nature of Metal. Following the principle of Metal generating Water—after Earth generating Metal—it would aid his training. Moreover, the energy of the Dark Heaven True Qi excelled at recovery and was outstanding at defending against internal injuries, so learning it would be convenient in many ways.
The problem is that the Dark Heaven True Qi is a method that handles extreme yin energy. In many respects it differs from the methods I've cultivated so far.
Fortunately, by the principle of Earth overcoming Water, the Balanced Heaven Qi Accumulation Art should be able to suppress the problems of cold yin energy. Combined with the bodily observation he had gained by perfecting the Vast Heaven Qi Art, he should be able to learn the Dark Heaven True Qi more easily.
Once this matter is wrapped up, I should be able to rest for a while. I'll take my time and focus on cultivating the method.
Cherishing that small hope, Cheonhwa looked forward to the day they would return to the Zhongnan Sect.
Boom!
At the Tiger Forest Stronghold on Green Forest Mountain in Hubei Province, a vast wave of qi surged and roared. Its master was a giant of a man seated in a chair draped with tiger skin. His expression was twisted every bit as fiercely as the qi that rampaged around him.
"…So you're telling me the Yeonggang Stronghold in Shaanxi has been smashed to pieces?"
"That is so, Grand Chief."
"And who was responsible for destroying the Yeonggang Stronghold?"
"There were two attacks in total. The ones who first half-destroyed the Yeonggang Stronghold were three third-generation disciples of the Zhongnan Sect."
At his subordinate's report, the giant called Grand Chief flashed eyes like a wild beast's.
"It seems I shall have to meet them myself."