A Deal Sealed in Blood and Silk
Inside Ak Mookyeol's office.
From beyond the door came the distant, ragged voices of subordinates carrying out the wounded.
Ak Mookyeol stared intently at Namgung Cheon, who sat calmly in his seat.
It had been barely ten days since they'd first crossed paths in Hefei. And yet the man before him had become something entirely different from the one he'd met then.
His realm has risen again, in that short a time?
The growth rate was simply beyond belief. But the groans of his men drifting in from outside proved that it was real.
And with that realization came another thought.
If it were me……
Could I have subdued the Black Wind Squad so effortlessly, even after they deployed the Black Killing Sword Formation?
Granted, the forces remaining at headquarters now were barely three in ten of their full strength. Moreover, most of the true elites were away carrying out missions.
Even so, the men groaning out there are Black Wind Squad soldiers all the same.
Men who trained to the death and walked the edge of the grave on every mission. And Namgung Cheon had subdued every last one of them without taking a single life.
Subduing a man alive is far harder than killing him.
The moment he admitted that truth, a cold line of sweat trickled down Ak Mookyeol's spine.
That was when it happened.
Namgung Cheon, who had remained in silence, spoke in a low voice, as though he had read the man's very thoughts.
"Have you found your answer?"
"……What do you mean?"
"The answer to whether you could beat me."
At those words, the composure Ak Mookyeol had struggled to maintain froze on his face for an instant. But he was a pillar of the Ten Directions Array, commander of the Black Wind Squad. He quickly gathered his emotions and struck back coldly.
"You seem to have forgotten that this is Anhui."
Killing intent flashed in Ak Mookyeol's eyes.
"I'll grant that you're strong. But the moment you step out of this room, every member of the Black Wind Squad will tear you limb from limb. Would that arrogance of yours survive even then?"
Killing intent poured from every inch of Ak Mookyeol's body.
A naked threat. Yet Namgung Cheon, absorbing that killing intent with his whole being, answered without changing his expression in the slightest.
"Do you still believe I came here to fight?"
Namgung Cheon rose from his seat. He walked to the window—from which the Black Wind Squad members outside were clearly visible—and stood there.
"If I had wished it, not a single man out there would still be breathing."
"……"
"The only reason I spared them is that I have business to discuss with you. When we spoke before, I took you for a man who followed reason over emotion. It seems I was mistaken."
With that, Namgung Cheon turned away as if truly to leave.
At that moment, Ak Mookyeol spoke.
"……Sit down."
It was a voice with fury ground down beneath it.
A faint smile touched Namgung Cheon's lips as he returned to his seat.
Ak Mookyeol swallowed dryly and came to the point.
"Speak. Why on earth did you come looking for me?"
Namgung Cheon answered as he settled back into his chair.
"I've come to propose a deal."
"A deal?"
"Yes. One concerning your Nambyeok Merchant Troupe."
"……What?"
Ak Mookyeol doubted his own ears. It was absurd enough to wring a hollow laugh out of him—he storms into the Black Wind Squad's headquarters, and now he wants to talk about merchant guilds?
"……You've lost your mind. This place has nothing to do with the Nambyeok Merchant Troupe. If you intend to keep spouting that nonsense, then leave."
Ak Mookyeol's brow twisted viciously. But Namgung Cheon only shook his head.
"No. I didn't come to speak with the commander of the Black Wind Squad. I came to speak with a senior commander of the Four Black Alliance."
"……"
"Someone, moreover, who is willing to talk even with a young master of Namgung—when it serves the Alliance's interests."
The interests of the Four Black Alliance. At those words, Ak Mookyeol's anger cooled somewhat.
"……Go on."
At his visibly softened manner, Namgung Cheon leaned forward and spoke.
"The Nambyeok Merchant Troupe's maritime trade goods—they sell remarkably well in Jiangnan, do they not?"
Ak Mookyeol glared at him for a long moment, then slowly nodded.
"And?"
"Have you ever considered how much the profit would grow if those goods could be sold in full across the Yangtze—the lands called the Central Plains?"
For an instant, Ak Mookyeol's eyes wavered at the question. The Nambyeok Merchant Troupe was already amassing a mountain of wealth. If they could stretch their hands north of the river as well—
The profit would be beyond imagining.
But then—
"And your righteous sects would simply stand by and let it happen?"
A cynical rebuttal. In response, Namgung Cheon pointed a finger at himself.
"Which is precisely why you need me."
"……What do you mean?"
Ak Mookyeol regarded him with puzzled eyes, and Namgung Cheon continued.
"The Nambyeok Merchant Troupe hands its goods to Namgung's Baekcheon Merchant Troupe. And we sell those goods north of the river under the Namgung name."
"……!"
"It's a very simple arrangement. You profit by selling your goods, and we take our margin in the north."
Namgung Cheon pointed to his own chest once more.
"And there's no fear of the trade route being severed. No one among the righteous sects would dare block a merchant troupe bearing the Namgung name."
It was an offer with no reason to refuse. No—it was an offer that could not be refused. And yet Ak Mookyeol felt one matter had to be raised first.
"One thing. What if word of this reaches the Murim Alliance? If it becomes known that a great righteous clan has joined hands with the unorthodox path, things will get very noisy."
For a famous orthodox clan, dealing with the unorthodox path was a flaw that could prove fatal. But Namgung Cheon shrugged as though it were of no consequence.
"That's our affair to manage. It's nothing for you to concern yourself with."
At that nonchalant attitude, Ak Mookyeol let out a hollow laugh.
After a long silence, he finally spoke.
"……For now, I will report it to the Alliance."
At that, Namgung Cheon rose from his seat.
"Return home and await my answer."
"No. The answer has already been decided."
At Ak Mookyeol's firm words, Namgung Cheon paused mid-stride. Ak Mookyeol continued.
"I will send a merchant troupe leader to Hefei to negotiate the specific terms of the contract. You choose the place."
In lieu of an answer, Namgung Cheon walked toward the door. And just before his hand touched the handle, he tossed out his final words without looking back.
"Ten days from now. The top floor of the Geumokru, in Hefei."
With that, Namgung Cheon left the Black Wind Squad without the slightest lingering attachment.
Alone in the office, Ak Mookyeol stared wordlessly for a long while at the empty chair where Namgung Cheon had sat. Then he murmured quietly to himself.
"……Truly, that man is mad in every possible way."
At the border between Anhui and Jiangxi, in the office of the Baekcheon Merchant Troupe's leader.
The young troupe leader, Baek Jungseon, was buried beneath a mountain of account books. His bloodshot eyes, as though he had gone sleepless for nights on end, traced blankly down the rows of deficit figures lined in red ink.
Another failure, then.
His brush slipped lifelessly from his fingers and rolled across the floor. Crumpled pages lay strewn about—every one of them the fruit of the long, agonizing nights he had poured into the past several months.
He had done everything in his power to revive the troupe his father had left behind. Only days ago, he had even gone to the main estate of the Namgung Clan—hoping to meet the Third Young Master, Namgung Cheon, who had been ordered to save the troupe. He had carried a vague flicker of hope, built on the unbelievable rumors that had been circulating about the young man of late.
But—
I couldn't even get an audience.
A hollow laugh escaped him. The very young master whom the clan head had personally dispatched wasn't even in residence at the clan.
Not so much as a message left behind, either.
So he had reached his conclusion: the Namgung Clan—and that newly arrived young master—had not the slightest intention of saving this troupe.
Better to stop hoping.
It would all end the same way it had when the Second Young Master, Namgung Jin, came—plenty of noise and commotion, then departure and nothing more. Baek Jungseon bowed his head with a deep sigh.
That was when it happened.
Creeeeak—.
The door opened with a groan of old wood. No one should have been calling at this late hour. And certainly not this quietly.
Baek Jungseon turned toward the door with eyes full of wariness. The figure stood with the moonlight at his back, his face swallowed in shadow, yet there was no mistaking who he was.
Fine silk garments, and two swords hanging at his waist. The Third Young Master of the Namgung Clan—Namgung Cheon.
Baek Jungseon could only stare at him, dumbfounded.
So you finally come, now of all times.
There was no joy in it. But he was still the troupe leader of Namgung. His gut might rot and fester, but he could not forfeit courtesy before the blood of Namgung.
Baek Jungseon rose from his heavy seat and bowed with all formality.
"Baek Jungseon of the Baekcheon Merchant Troupe, in audience with the Third Young Master. I visited the clan seeking you on matters of the troupe, and had but just turned back when I could not find you…… I confess I never imagined you would come all this way in person."
"No matter. Sit."
Namgung Cheon accepted the greeting lightly and stepped inside. His gaze swept slowly over the room—the traces of failure that filled every corner of it. Then, motioning with his chin at the tallest stack of ledgers on the desk, he said:
"Digging through that pile of papers will get you nowhere. Your method itself is wrong."
"……!"
The single sentence hollowed out Baek Jungseon's pride. Every ounce of his desperate effort had just been denied.
"You say it's all wrong—"
The moment Baek Jungseon tried to respond, Namgung Cheon cut him off.
"I have read the Baekcheon Merchant Troupe's ledgers and plans."
"…Pardon?"
Instead of answering, Namgung Cheon reached out and picked up, with unerring precision, the oldest-looking ledger on the desk. A ledger from thirty years past—the era when the Baekcheon Merchant Troupe had stood at the height of its prosperity.
"Your predecessor was a merchant of rare brilliance. Taking risks no one else would, he forged direct ties with the maritime powers of the Southern Sea, released goods into Jiangnan that no one else could obtain, and piled up an enormous fortune."
He turned the pages, then opened the ledger covering the period when Baekcheon's decline had truly begun.
"But then his successor did nothing but try to guard the road his father had opened. While the Nambyeok Merchant Troupe was carving out new routes and eating away at Jiangnan, you only kept repeating the foolishness of building your fence higher."
Namgung Cheon's eyes glinted coldly.
"Your opponent has more money than the Baekcheon Merchant Troupe, and a wider web of information besides. Yet you still insist on fighting on the same ground, in the same way. How could you possibly win?"
Baek Jungseon was left speechless. Namgung Cheon saw through his failures with perfect clarity, as though someone had stood at his side observing everything for the past several years. It was the reality he had wanted to deny—yet could not help but acknowledge.
"……Then what am I to do?"
Desperation soaked Baek Jungseon's voice. To that question, Namgung Cheon answered quietly, as though he had been waiting for it.
"You must begin anew, must you not?"
"……Pardon?"
Baek Jungseon looked up at him with bewildered eyes. But Namgung Cheon offered no further explanation; he simply delivered his business with crisp concision.
"Ten days from now, at the hour of the Pig, come to the top floor of the Geumokru."
"……"
"You will hear the details there. The fate of your troupe will hang on that meeting—do not forget."
Leaving only those words, Namgung Cheon turned away without a backward glance. Left alone, Baek Jungseon stared blankly at the spot where the man had vanished—appearing like a storm, leaving only cryptic words behind.
Outside the troupe's grounds, Namgung Cheon looked up at the night sky and considered his next move.
The fundamentals are in place now. But this alone is not enough.
His gaze turned toward the northern sky.
I will need those who can guarantee this deal.
Namgung Cheon turned his body toward Hefei.
To write the two letters that would set his course for Shandong.
The Heavenly Demon of Namgung
Author | Baek Rihaeng
Publisher | Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Managing Editor | Editorial Department
Published by | Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. — Dreambooks
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ISBN | 979-11-7306-734-1
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