My Money Is Mine to Find
Wenxiang House fell as silent as a tomb. Places like this — pleasure houses with powerful patrons standing behind them — were usually safer from violence and brawls than the streets outside. But murder? Murder was another matter entirely.
And the dead man was none other than Lord Seong. The man who had been acting as the true master of Wenxiang House had been slain in his own stronghold.
Blood crept down the edge of the table in slow, dark rivulets, and the dead man's eyes — wide with disbelief — stared at nothing.
Lee Yeok spoke to Madame Ma with perfect composure.
"Pour me some wine."
Madame Ma's face had gone white. She had lived as a famous courtesan, and after retiring had spent decades leading the girls of the house through every storm imaginable — yet even she could neither move nor speak.
"You weren't afraid of the living. Why scare yourself over a dead head?"
Lee Yeok said it with a sneer.
In that instant, Madame Ma realized who the two troublemakers who had raised havoc at the lord's residence really were — Lee Yeok and Yeogwi. She forced a smile onto her lips.
"If such a handsome young master asks, of course I must pour."
Lee Yeok accepted the cup she offered and, with a slow smile, raised it toward Lord Seong's severed head.
"Cheers."
The other patrons began edging toward the exits, but in a moment the doors on all four sides burst open and the house's guards came flooding in.
"What's going on here!"
"That man... he dared to kill Lord Seong...!"
Lee Yeok paid them no mind at all. He simply poked through the side dishes with his chopsticks.
"Turtle, you need to wrap this up. Or do you need my help?"
"Shut up and drink. This won't take long."
Yeogwi came down the stairs, her teal robes spattered with blood here and there.
While Yeogwi cut through the guards, Lee Yeok didn't spare them so much as a glance — he just kept washing down the wine and food Madame Ma poured.
"Ugh...!"
When the last guard collapsed, Lee Yeok stretched and yawned.
"No point wasting any more time here. Boring. Wenxiang House has quite the reputation, but the quality is abysmal."
Madame Ma managed a strained smile.
"How embarrassing."
Yeogwi walked over, snatched the wine bottle right out of Madame Ma's hand, and drained it in one gulp.
"That loosened me up a bit."
Lee Yeok snickered.
"You villain. Born never to die a peaceful death, are you?"
"I only did my job. If you'd actually been paid your fee up front, we wouldn't have had to rush like this."
"How much was it?"
"Two thousand nyang of silver. Seems he'd made enemies all over the place."
"Your blade's gotten quicker, though. Eighteen changes of stance in a single exchange — are you showing off?"
"I thought you were just drinking. So you were watching the whole time. Sly bastard."
Lee Yeok gave a long yawn and rose to his feet.
"Let's go. If you hadn't caused such a mess here, I was planning to spend the night."
"With what money?"
"I've liked noisy places like this ever since I was little. Guess you get used to it."
The two of them walked out of Wenxiang House, leaving behind the corpses of the guards and Madame Ma, who was still trembling in her shoes.
All across Jinseong, an uproar was brewing as people hunted for the pair. Yeogwi, whistling as though the whole affair had nothing to do with her, asked:
"So what now?"
"First, we go collect my fee."
Yeogwi's eyes gleamed.
"So you've decided. Want me to scout the place for you?"
"Not necessary."
"It's not for your sake. I have to collect my own fee too, don't I?"
Without waiting for an answer, Yeogwi slipped into the shadows and vanished without a trace.
Lee Yeok strolled along at an unhurried pace, as if out for a night walk, until he reached the lord's mansion.
The mansion was quiet. Most of the guards had already poured out to search for the troublemakers from the daytime — they'd heard something had happened at Wenxiang House, concluded it was surely the same pair, and were rushing there in force.
Meanwhile, Lee Yeok sat perched atop the mansion wall, eyes glittering.
As always before starting a job in earnest, he swept his sharp gaze across the entire estate.
In a wealthy house like this, even the servants lived in luxury. Failing to grasp the layout properly meant wasting time searching servants' quarters — a rookie's mistake he had no intention of making.
Vaults were almost always hidden in secret chambers. In his experience, there was a thirty percent chance such a chamber connected to the master's bedroom, and a fifty percent chance it connected to the study.
Anything else meant the house followed no ordinary layout at all, and only the Silver Soul Divine Binding would find it.
Lee Yeok closed his eyes and expanded his ki sense, probing deep beneath the mansion.
The structure was ordinary enough — except for one room that even the Silver Soul Divine Binding could not detect. Someone had clearly taken special measures to block searches made with the power of the soul.
"Clever little trick. But not against me."
He opened his eyes and slipped into the shadows, moving fast.
Before long he stopped in front of a shabby privy that, by the look of it, had never once been used.
"Impressive. If I hadn't learned the trick from the old man, I'd never have found it."
Lee Yeok ran his fingers along the walls on all sides, and soon his fingertips found the sensation he was looking for.
Having located the secret door, he eased it open about a hand-span, slipped inside, and shut it behind him. Not a sound.
The space beyond was completely empty, but Lee Yeok wasn't fazed. He rapped the protruding stone on the ceiling once, and the floor split open to reveal a hidden passage.
He dropped down lightly, and the secret chamber he'd been hoping for unfolded before him.
"Wow."
Lee Yeok let out a genuine whistle of admiration. There was more wealth and treasure than he'd imagined. The lord of Jinseong evidently wielded far greater power than he had guessed.
But there was no way to take it all — the sheer bulk and weight saw to that. Lee Yeok frowned.
"The old man said the immortal sects have a ring called the Qiankun Ring. A pocket of independent space inside — you could stuff anything into it. It'd be nice to have one of those..."
Clicking his tongue at what he couldn't have, Lee Yeok gathered only what was compact and light — gems, silver coins, banknotes.
As he scanned the chamber for anything else worth taking, his gaze snagged on an old box sitting in the corner. Inside lay a scroll made of iron-hide leather.