Slacking Off, Aren't You, Sanzang
Sun Wukong watched the courtesans' song and dance with a thoroughly serious face.
Beside him, Ojeong's shoulders bounced with delight.
"Whoa. Now that's some dancing. Graceful as you please. Am I right?"
Ojeong let the admiration spill out of him without a shred of shame. Sun Wukong swept his gaze across the hall. The beautiful figures turning through the air had stolen every eye in the room, and he clicked his tongue inwardly.
The dancing's impressive enough, I'll give them that...
But a monkey who had been waited on by the celestial maidens of Heaven was hardly going to be moved by mortal courtesans. Still, judged on their own level, they were clearly a cut above. Almost everyone in the hall was staring as if their souls had left their bodies.
And almost meant that a few had not.
A voice brushed against Sun Wukong's mind.
"Quite the captivating performance, wouldn't you say, Teacher Sun?"
Sun Wukong's eyes found the seat of honor. Namgung Jinbaek was clapping along with a good-natured smile, and their gazes met. Sun Wukong snorted.
Sly bastard.
Behind that smile — so thoroughly drunk on the dance, to all appearances — his eyes were cold and perfectly still.
"Those courtesans were brought from Shandong by the Hwangbo Clan. The finest in the province — booking them is like plucking stars from the sky. The Hwangbo Clan went to considerable trouble to bring them here, so of course the dancing is superb, no?"
Sun Wukong's gaze shifted to Hwangbo Yong. Hwangbo Yong looked equally vacant. His mouth hung slightly open, as if he might start drooling at any moment.
So among humans, the Namgung Clan really does stand at the top.
Namgung Jinbaek was not the only one unmoved. A handful of Namgung elders wore uncomfortable expressions, sensing a wrongness they could not name. A few of the guest retainers seemed to have noticed as well.
That martial artist they call the Black-Faced Iron Sword...
The dark-faced old man was staring at the courtesans with a killing frost in his eyes, as if he meant to cut them down where they stood. Beside him sat the old scholar who had been quietly conversing with Jegal Seoseo.
Chae Gong. Formerly a Hanlin Grand Academician.
A blind man. Sun Wukong smirked. It was not that the old scholar lacked interest because he could not see. The reason everyone else was so intoxicated had nothing to do with the dancing itself.
And Muhwa... hmm.
His face was somewhat flushed, but he was tilting his head as if he had caught a wrong note in the air. Sun Wukong's gaze drifted naturally toward Muyoung and Seowol.
Now that's unexpected.
He had briefly crossed blades with Namgung Seowol in a spar. Her attacks had carried a sharp killing intent, but his assessment had been cool and precise.
About on par with Hon-am-do — that is, Honse-mawang.
Namgung Muyoung beside her would not be far off either.
Surprisingly, they're both fine.
Namgung Seowol seemed barely interested in the performance at all. Instead she kept glancing at Sun Wukong, almost glaring. He gave her a little wave. She turned away as if annoyed, and he followed her gaze. Namgung Muyoung sat as upright as ever. His face, as he watched the courtesans, was perfectly calm.
Sun Wukong found it rather remarkable.
It's not that their inner energy is particularly deep. They ought to be susceptible. Is it that the walls of their minds are just that strong?
And where does willpower come from? From the soul itself. And where does the soul reside?
The Upper Dantian.
The brain. The gate that communes with Heaven. Every renowned Daoist and every Buddhist monk of great spiritual power had a well-developed Upper Dantian — those who possessed lofty, unyielding souls. Like Sanzang, for instance...
Sun Wukong shook his head. Unfortunately, Namgung Jinbaek, Muyoung, Seowol, and even Muhwa had all resisted the enchantment, so it proved nothing. This was not a matter that could be judged by willpower alone.
"It's close to a form of Charm Arts. Hahaha. I'd heard that certain famous courtesans practiced a bewitchment technique similar to the Charm Arts. I believe these are the ones."
Sun Wukong looked at Namgung Jinbaek. Why was the man sending him these transmissions?
Namgung Jinbaek, reading the meaning in his gaze, looked straight at him and smiled.
"You don't look the least bit surprised, Teacher Sun. It seems you already know something."
Honestly, Sun Wukong raised his private estimation of Namgung Jinbaek by a notch right then.
The man's observant, I'll give him that. Sly bastard.
Which meant Jinbaek had been watching him all along, whether he had noticed or not. Sun Wukong smiled wryly.
What a great demon of a man.
If the thread of fate between them had not been pure white — if it had been red — Sun Wukong would have been certain this man had been a great yaoguai in a past life.
He sent his meaning back to Namgung Jinbaek.
"Based on what?"
Namgung Jinbaek's eyes went round. The hearty laughter he had been wrapping himself in all evening crumbled, and a look of genuine incomprehension crossed his face. Some time passed before he managed to send another transmission.
"That wasn't a sound transmission. How did you convey your meaning?"
"A man ought to have at least one hidden talent, don't you think?"
Sun Wukong deflected the question lightly, and Namgung Jinbaek did not press further. He took it as some concealed martial art that Wukong preferred not to reveal.
"You possess a great many remarkable talents. Then — do you have any thoughts regarding those courtesans?"
"Why would you think that?"
"The others only felt a vague unease, a sense that something was off. But you, Teacher Sun, looked as though you already had a theory — as though you knew something. And you couldn't have known they came from Shandong."
Sun Wukong did not answer.
The red thread of fate he had read between himself and the courtesans. Not as thick or as bitter as the ones connecting him to that serpent, or to Honse-mawang — but a karmic bond all the same.
"Well..."
As Sun Wukong let the words trail off, Namgung Jinbaek chuckled softly.
"So you don't have certainty yet."
Sun Wukong laughed inwardly.
Don't have certainty yet, he says.
As if the man already knew what he was going to do. Sun Wukong decided then and there to be careful of Namgung Jinbaek's powers of observation.
Sanzang was observant too.
More precisely, he had been observant only when it came to Sun Wukong. He could tell exactly what mood Wukong was in just by looking at his face. And whenever Wukong was up to something on the side, Sanzang would catch him like a ghost and give him a proper scolding.
"Then, once you do have certainty, would you share it with me?"
Hmm. He wanted to share information?
"And any noise that arises in the process, the Namgung Clan will take care of."
Sun Wukong cackled. Namgung Jinbaek was no ordinary man.
So he's figured out that I've already got a bead on those courtesans, and he wants to use me to dig into them.
It was not an order or a command. He had simply observed that Sun Wukong intended to make contact with the courtesans, and then offered terms tailored to Wukong's tastes. Of course there would be noise if someone started digging. Retrieving those interests from the Azure Chivalry Guild had not exactly been a quiet affair either. Every eye in the room had been on them. Handling things discreetly was not Sun Wukong's way.
And since the courtesans had been brought by the Hwangbo Clan, it was reasonable to suspect they had a special purpose. A clash with the Hwangbo Clan was more than likely. If Namgung Jinbaek stepped in himself, the matter would explode into a public incident — that much was obvious. Awkward, for a man who needed to bring the Five Great Clans together.
So instead, Sun Wukong would do the digging, and if problems arose, the Namgung Clan would sweep them under the rug somehow. It was not a bad offer from Wukong's perspective either.
And even if he did dig...
Doesn't mean I actually have to tell him anything.
Oh? And what was he going to do if Wukong just didn't say a word?
Sun Wukong grinned and nodded.
By the time he and Namgung Jinbaek had finished their secret exchange amid the courtesans' dazzling dance, the performance itself had come to an end. A delicate silence settled over the banquet hall. Faces still lost in the afterglow, unable to pull themselves free.
From within that lingering haze, Hwangbo Yong sprang to his feet, stepped before Namgung Jinbaek, and offered a cupped-fist salute.
"The Hwangbo Clan prepared this performance in the name of friendship between the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering and the Five Great Clans."
"It was excellent."
"They call them the Seven Flowers of Shandong — the finest in the province. The pleasure houses of Anhui might as well bolt their doors."
Sincere praise poured in from every direction. Of course, there were also quite a few people staring at Hwangbo Yong with peculiar expressions. Sun Wukong filed those faces away carefully. They were the most skilled people in this hall, after all.
Meanwhile, watching Ojeong cheer with drool at the corner of his mouth, he let out a sigh.
You... you're hopeless unless you're underwater, aren't you.
Should he just throw a bucket of cold water in the man's face? He had given him some advice, but he could not tell if any of it had sunk in.
Hwangbo Yong pressed on.
"Though it cannot compare to the dance of beautiful women, we cannot let this atmosphere fade here. The Hwangbo Clan has prepared a sword dance. Might we be permitted to present it in this hall?"
The words sword dance sent a ripple through the crowd. Not the arts of courtesans — a sword dance performed by martial artists. Sun Wukong grasped the meaning underneath.
They're going to put their martial strength on display, just like that?
He cackled inwardly.
Ah, you humans. Just have a proper fight and be done with it.
Refusing would not have been appropriate given the mood, in any case. Hwangbo Yong and a group of young warriors took the central stage. The courtesans, having withdrawn to one side, began to play their instruments, and the sword dance commenced.
"Hah! Hat!"
The shouts the warriors loosed were full of force. The Hwangbo Clan's swordsmanship — famed for its boldness and speed — unfurled across the stage. It was certainly of a high level. But to Sun Wukong, who had a rough sense of the Namgung elders' martial prowess, it was not particularly impressive. The significance lay in the fact that most of them were young martial artists with their futures still ahead of them...
Ah. So that's it.
Sun Wukong clicked his tongue inwardly.
The Namgung Clan has almost no young blood.
Muhwa, strictly speaking, was not of Namgung blood. That left only Namgung Seowol and Namgung Muyoung. Namgung Cheonyeong, the master of Myeong-i-dang, was relatively young, but he was clearly a generation above the two children. More like a young uncle.
The Namgung Clan may be strong now, but the future belongs to the Hwangbo Clan and its promising young warriors. Is that the message?
Sun Wukong was not the only one who caught the implication. The faces of the Namgung clansmen gradually hardened. Sun Wukong found it all rather entertaining.
Ah, you humans. Every last one of you is so damn sly.
Looking at what they got up to, it was almost cute. As an outsider, he was thoroughly enjoying the spectacle. Watching a fight was always fun. This was refreshingly new.
He was smiling his way through the sword dance when his brow furrowed, just slightly.
Well, look at that.
The courtesans' music was threading into his ears. His keen senses caught an unnatural current in the sound. The instant he noticed it—
"Hahp! Hap!"
The warriors roared and thrust their swords. Someone shot up from their seat and shouted.
"Look out—!"
"......!"
One of the warriors lost his grip. The sword, still carrying the full momentum of the thrust, flew straight toward Namgung Muyoung.
A harsh metallic shriek split the air.
A deathly chill settled over the hall. Namgung Muyoung knocked the blade aside, his face set and unflinching.
A silence so heavy it could have been a tomb. In that stillness, like the eye of a storm, Sun Wukong's gaze found the courtesans — who were wearing frightened faces, as if they hadn't the faintest idea what had happened.
This was their doing.
The sword dance had been performed to the music. But at some point, it was no longer the dance leading the music — the music had begun to lead the dance. The melody and the rhythm had been controlling the movement of the swords. And in the instant that blade flew, the music had shifted as well.
Sun Wukong had caught it.
They were trying to provoke a conflict between the Hwangbo Clan and the Namgung Clan.
I thought the Hwangbo Clan was using these courtesans to bewitch or corrupt the Namgung Clan.
But from the looks of it, the Hwangbo Clan had been unwittingly bewitched by those courtesans themselves. Sun Wukong let out a silent, incredulous laugh at the sheer cunning of it.
Somehow, humans seem even more devious than they used to be. Sanzang.
You stepped onto the path of reincarnation to enlighten all living beings. So why is it that these humans have only grown more cunning, more treacherous?
Tsk. That's why he had said they should've just stayed in Heaven together.