When a Problem Occurs...
Haomun Leader Cheon Wolhyang pressed her fingers hard against her forehead as if she had a splitting headache after listening to Cheon Ryeonghwa's story.
"That was a thoroughly un-Haomun thing to do, Ryeonghwa…"
"I'm sorry, Leader."
"You shouldn't be sorry. You should be ashamed. Among our kids there are ones who've fleeced men, but ones who've handed everything over to a boy are rare enough that it's almost impressive."
"That too… I'm sorry."
"I don't remember raising you into this kind of child. Haa."
"About Sahukryeon… will it be all right?"
Sahukryeon—the unorthodox alliance built for money alone.
As the hosts of the black market that sold everything under heaven, Heuksi, each of them held a carefully separated domain. The Yangtze Water Bandits handled transport; Heuksabang handled mercenary work; Haomun handled information. Six groups of roughly equal standing formed the coalition called Sahukryeon.
Their only purpose was profit. Yet because their territories overlapped in awkward, messy ways, the alliance existed in a delicate state that always seemed about to snap and somehow never did.
A dispute exploding at a time like this could easily become a spark that set everything ablaze, so Cheon Wolhyang watched the trembling Cheon Ryeonghwa before her and let out a long sigh.
"If you were going to shake this hard, you shouldn't have stirred the pot in the first place."
"I'm sorry."
"If the word 'sorry' comes out of your mouth one more time today, I really will sell you to Heuksabang."
"…Yes."
"The underlings can worry about underling business. I'll deal with the Heuksabang Leader myself. Get out. Use the back door—don't go out the front."
Cheon Ryeonghwa, who had been kneeling, rose from her place. A short while later—
With a tremendous bang, the door flew off its hinges and Heuksabang Leader Dokgopae strode in.
"Where the hell is that bitch Cheon Ryeonghwa?"
"I didn't think you were so stupid you didn't know how to open a door, Heuksabang Leader."
"Hand over Ye Hajun and that Cheon girl who let him escape. Both of them. Now."
"You're the one who lost him and now you're coming here to beg for favors?"
"I'm not here to play word games—hand them over!"
"Sit. Let's talk first."
As she spoke, Cheon Wolhyang rose from her seat, took out a bottle of wine, and gave it a little shake.
"Daughter's Red. Your favorite, isn't it?"
"I already said I'm not in the mood to drink."
Ignoring Dokgopae's snarling, Cheon Wolhyang leisurely took out cups and poured.
"What I'm offering isn't wine. It's blood. If you'd rather spill some of your own, don't take it."
She drank first herself, proving it wasn't poisoned, then refilled the empty cup and held it out.
"Will you take it? Or knock it over?"
"Damn it."
With an irritated sigh, Dokgopae finally sat. Smiling, Cheon Wolhyang passed him the cup.
He knocked it back in one go, set the cup down, and said,
"Another."
"Sure, sure. It's expensive stuff, so drink as much as you like."
After another round, Dokgopae had calmed a little and asked,
"So what about the Ye Hajun business?"
"Let it go."
"Why the hell should I?"
"The black market is about to open. It wouldn't look good if word got out that you lost him, would it?"
"That's why I came to borrow Haomun's hands in the first place."
"Exactly…"
Cheon Wolhyang perched on the edge of the table and continued,
"So the Heuksabang Leader lost a single slave who never even learned martial arts, threw every underling he had at the problem, still couldn't catch him, and now has to come begging Haomun for help?"
"I'll catch him soo—!"
"If even a rumor starts circulating, who would ever hire martial artists from Heuksabang again? You're the face that guards the black market, no less."
"…"
"This isn't just about you. It's a question of the entire black market's credibility. I'll prepare a corpse on my end; we'll announce it was Ye Hajun. If we mess the body up enough, no one will be able to tell who it was."
"And the actual boy?"
"If he has any sense, he'll change his name and live like a dead mouse out of sheer terror of you. Even if he doesn't, how many people with the same name are there under heaven?"
"Damn it."
"It just happened to overlap with the black market schedule. We let it go this time."
Dokgopae let out a heavy breath and nodded.
"Fine. Then what about Cheon Ryeonghwa?"
"She's our kid, so we'll handle her on our side. She was the one closest to Ye Hajun anyway—locking her up for a while works out conveniently."
After a stretch of silent thought, the Heuksabang Leader opened his mouth again.
"Get me a living body to turn into Ye Hajun's corpse. I'll make the corpse myself. And in exchange, we take the security contracts for the three new pleasure houses you're opening."
"Two is as high as I'll go."
"Fine. Two it is."
When the conversation ended, Dokgopae stood. Watching him, Cheon Wolhyang wore a seductive smile and tempted him.
"Why not stay and play a while? I'll lend you some of the girls free of charge tonight."
"Every one of your women is only thinking about milking me for information. Forget it."
With that, Dokgopae left. Alone, Cheon Wolhyang began tallying the accounts.
Security for two pleasure houses is something I was going to hand over anyway, and finding one corpse is no work at all.
In the end, the only real cost had been a single bottle of Daughter's Red.
In return, the Haomun Leader had gained both Ye Hajun and Cheon Ryeonghwa.
A child who had gritted his teeth and refused to break for three years under a master who crushed every scrap of pride and ruled solely through absolute, terror-enforced obedience—such a child would have spine.
Will he survive and become the thorn stuck in Dokgopae's throat? Even if he never comes back, I've put Ryeonghwa deeply in my debt, so she'll be loyal to me for the rest of her life.
It had been a rather profitable transaction.
Draining the last of the Daughter's Red, Cheon Wolhyang thought of Ye Hajun, the starting point of the whole affair.
Don't die too easily, Ryeonghwa's little friend. You've got to live long enough to make the investment worthwhile. Heh heh.
"Huuah… this is the life."
How many months had it been since I'd sunk my whole body into hot water?
In the middle of a bliss so intense I felt I might pass out at any second, I was savoring this long-awaited bath for all it was worth.
Stopping at an inn was the right call.
After crossing the border of Sichuan, the first tiny village I entered had an inn. I never expected luxury like this.
"Blood Cult Master, old man—any real sign of an ambush coming?"
"None that I can see. I've got eyes on about ten li around us, so don't worry."
Ten li… that was roughly four kilometers.
At that range I could truly relax.
I let myself sink completely into the heat again—then a sudden curiosity struck me.
"What are the other gallery folks doing right now?"
"You'd know if you checked the gallery. They're busy crafting the mind method they're going to make for you."
Ah, right—they'd said they were building a mind method.
Nearly a month had already passed. Wondering how far along they were, I opened the gallery—and froze.
A hundred and twenty-seven thousand comments?
When I actually opened the post, it was still ongoing—walls of jargon I couldn't even begin to parse.
More importantly, naming a mind method "Armband Heart Method" was kind of mid.
That was when I noticed the Blood Cult Master sitting completely at ease while everyone else was drowning in work.
"Come to think of it, you said you weren't originally a martial artist, right?"
"That's about right."
"Then what brought you down to the lower world, old man?"
"Mmm…"
Huh? That was a more complicated question than I expected.
"Well, Juddak will find out eventually, so I may as well tell you now. As I said before—my disciple is the Blood Cult Master."
"Yeah?"
"Most of the problems in the jianghu… if you just point at my disciple, you're roughly correct."
The Blood Cult Master let out a long sigh and clutched his head with both hands.
"I came down with the others when they asked because I was worried what kind of disaster my child might have caused this time. Besides, I'm the only one who can use the Daoist arts that peek into the lower world."
"Ah… ha."
So he'd come down because he was worried about his troublemaker disciple.
But if this old man was the master's master, that put him hundreds of years in the past—and he still felt responsible for the disciple's disciple?
While that thought was still turning over, the Blood Cult Master asked,
"While we're on the subject, I've been wanting to ask—have you heard any rumors about the Blood Cult lately?"
"I haven't heard a thing. Just that they were a huge deal a long time ago."
"That's a relief. Anyway, that's the reason. My child left so many messes behind that this is a form of atonement as well. Most of the evil arts that child used were derived from what I taught."
"…So you really are an evil-arts specialist."
"Bah! Those crude evil arts and true Daoist magic are completely different things!"
"Did you just say 'bah'? Pfft—hahaha!"
The thoroughly un-Blood-Cult-Master-like reaction made me crack up. I laughed for a long time, and eventually the Blood Cult Master started laughing too at the sight of me.
After we finally settled down, he spoke again.
"Juddak. If anything I do for you ever feels like it has been a help—though of course I'll try to make sure it is—I have one request."
"That if I ever find a problem involving your disciple later, I try to solve it?"
"Embarrassing as it is… yes. If that would be inconvenient—"
"I'll do it. You already saved my life once. We'll call it even with that."
Hearing that, the Blood Cult Master bowed his head in gratitude.
"You've lightened the weight on my heart a little. Enjoy the rest of the time alone. I'll keep a careful watch on the surroundings."
With those words, the Blood Cult Master faded away like smoke.
Maybe the talk of his disciple had unsettled him.
Thanks to that, I was truly alone. I savored the solitude for the first time in ages and luxuriated in the blissful bath.
After more than a month of sleeping rough, I spent a dreamlike night under an actual roof. The next morning, as I prepared to leave—
"Excuse me—are you heading straight to Chengdu like this?"
Before I could leave the inn, the innkeeper suddenly stopped me.
Why is he asking about my route?
Haomun often had ties to inns, so I wondered if he was one of theirs and hesitated. Then the innkeeper spoke again.
"If so, avoid the road this way and take a bit of a detour."
"Why?"
"Well… monsters appear."
"Monsters?"
"If you follow that mountain path, you'll reach a small village. Not long ago the place was completely wrecked. Word is it was the work of monsters, so I thought I should warn you."
So that was it.
In a case like this, simply going around seemed like the smart move—until the Blood Cult Master's words from yesterday suddenly surfaced in my mind.