The Green Forest (10)
The Green Forest (10)
"Sannyeo."
"What is it?"
The early dawn light shone dimly through the acrid smoke. Stars still dotted the blue sky here and there, and I met Sannyeo's eyes with my disheveled face. Sannyeo's eyes were wide open, as if she hadn't slept a wink, and she sat hugging her knees with her manacled hands.
She was barefoot. I looked back and forth between the shoes I was wearing and her bare feet. Sannyeo wiggled her toes and spoke.
"I'm fine."
"I know."
Since I had no intention of putting shoes on her, I took Sannyeo's refusal at face value. Sannyeo narrowed her eyes and stared at me, and I pretended not to notice her gaze as I spoke.
"So, where are we supposed to go now? Should we just find some random village and impose on them?"
I had grabbed a bit of money on my way out, but it wasn't an amount I could throw around recklessly. With one more mouth to feed, I actually had to be more frugal. Seeing the money I had taken from my pocket, Sannyeo closed her eyes and spoke.
"For now, let's go to that village where the [Crimson Ring Sect] is. What matters is securing a base."
I knew the Crimson Ring Sect in broad strokes too. It was a sect the chieftain occasionally mentioned—a corrupt sect that made a living by charging entrance fees to young people wanting to learn martial arts and then exploiting them. The chieftain used the Crimson Ring Sect as an example, often saying that if he hadn't joined the stronghold, he would have set up a sect like that and scraped money together.
'If I hadn't become chieftain, I would have ended up a bastard like that Crimson Ring Sect Leader.'
Even after leaving the mountain stronghold, his ambition capped out at being a third-rate Sect Leader who stole pennies from snot-nosed kids. Looking back, he really was a man with a poverty of imagination.
I stopped reminiscing about the Crimson Ring Sect and asked Sannyeo.
"From what I've heard from the bandits, those guys don't seem like quality people. Is that going to be okay?"
"That makes it even better."
That was what Sannyeo said. I couldn't fathom why the fact that they were low-quality bastards was good news. It seemed that high-level masters with profound inner energy saw the world in a different way than ordinary people.
Anyway, since no destination of my own had been decided apart from where she wanted to go, I followed her as she led the way toward the village. Walking in long strides, she moved her bare feet across the dirt so smoothly and swiftly it was as if the rough ground meant nothing.
Though she had been holed up in the stronghold, she seemed to know exactly where the village with the Crimson Ring Sect was. I asked Sannyeo as she pressed forward without hesitation.
"Are you sure you know where this village is?"
"Of course. This stronghold occasionally did business with the Crimson Ring Sect. The Crimson Ring Sect paid the chieftain a fixed sum every month, and in return, this stronghold didn't attack merchant guilds flying the Crimson Ring Sect's flag. The Crimson Ring Sect sold their flag to the merchants."
"So that means the Crimson Ring Sect Leader's level is about on par with the chieftain's?"
"Who knows? Even if he's strong enough to crush the chieftain in a fight, depending on his business acumen, he might choose coexistence. No matter how skilled you are, it's a pain in the ass to root around these mountain paths. Besides, if you kill a chieftain like this, you get a few silver nyang at best. But if you keep the chieftain alive and exploit him for business, you can rake in several times that much money, can't you?"
Sannyeo stopped talking there and looked at me again. Her eyes glowed red, and she quickly scanned my entire body as if trying to read my true intentions.
"What do you think? Living off a business like this?"
I let out a hollow laugh and retorted.
"Are you sounding me out?"
Sannyeo didn't answer. She just kept staring at me, maintaining her smile. Our eyes met, and I shook my head as I spoke.
"That kind of thing is no fun. You only live once. You've got to seize greater power. How can you call it a life, eking out an existence in some backwater sect, snatching chump change from a bunch of thieves?"
That's not living. Life, as it should be, is about devouring others and climbing higher and higher until there's no one left to devour. The dream was to set up a chair at the very top of the pagoda and sit on it. Seizing power was my goal.
"We use it as a base, but we push forward, tearing off pieces and moving toward higher places."
A single sect was far too small to satisfy my vessel.
"Right. That's no way to live."
Sannyeo turned her body away again. I stared at her back for a moment, then started walking again. She was truly an unfathomable woman.
[The Crimson Ring Sect]
Before we even entered the village, a signpost made of old planks guided us. It seemed to mark that from this point on, we were in the territory of the Crimson Ring Sect. Following the path that branched from the signpost, Sannyeo spotted roofs starting to peek out at the end and spoke to me.
"Look over there. There's the village."
"But is it okay to go in looking like that? You'll draw attention."
Sannyeo shook her head from side to side, then let her wide sleeves hang down. As she did, the hems of her sleeves fluttered and covered both her hands, making it look as if she was walking with her hands clasped together. Sannyeo showed me this appearance and asked.
"How is it?"
"Not bad."
Seeing her walk lightly before my eyes, it surprisingly didn't feel out of place. When I nodded my approval, Sannyeo made a satisfied expression and jerked her chin.
"I'll go in later, so you go first."
I straightened my back stiffly and took a deep breath. The chieftain of the Green Forest stronghold was dead and the stronghold was smashed to pieces, so everything I had grasped up until now had essentially vanished. I needed time to start from scratch and gather information about the Crimson Ring Sect.
"What the hell is that?"
But the matter of leaving Sannyeo behind and going ahead never happened.
"Hurry up! Move, move quickly!"
It was because a crowd of people was busily running toward us from the direction we were headed. They were either dripping with cold sweat or urgently pointing at the smoke and making a fuss.
In the center of the crowd was a man with a beard grown long like a cult leader, holding a pair of red rings in both hands and wearing an expression as if he'd just chewed a bug. He radiated displeasure as he brushed past my side.
Only after all the people had passed did Sannyeo, who had been hiding in the shadow of the forest, take a step forward and speak.
"That man just now was probably the Sect Leader of the Crimson Ring Sect."
It was a rare moment of uncertainty in her tone. I cast doubt on her conjecture.
"You've never met the Sect Leader in person?"
"He never came to the stronghold in person. They might have met each other before I arrived, but that kind of thing is meaningless now, isn't it? Still, he was wearing clothes with the Crimson Ring Sect's emblem, and he had the highest realm among that group, so he's either the Sect Leader or someone in an equivalent position."
Whether or not he had ties to the dead was meaningless. Sannyeo nodded her head in the direction the party had left and asked.
"Wouldn't it be a good idea to go check it out?"
I agreed with her. The village was right around the corner, but it seemed like a good idea to see what kind of action the Crimson Ring Sect's Sect Leader took at the stronghold. Simply seeing an opponent in person could yield far more information than hearing about them from the side.
"That long-bearded bastard just now, what level was he at?"
"He's just barely reached second-rate. A little stronger than the chieftain."
One of the techniques I had mastered over two years in the cave was hiding and concealing my presence, so no matter how sensitive one's Qi Sense was, someone at that level couldn't detect me from a distance. I hurried my steps in the direction they had quickly disappeared.
******
The stronghold, upon our return, was a scene straight out of hell. The buildings, collapsed as the fire had spread, were strewn with burned and bloodied bandits, and among those whose limbs were intact, a few sat slumped on the ground in exhaustion, just panting heavily.
The warehouse where goods were stored, along with the tents of the chieftain and the Deputy Chieftain, had all collapsed beyond recognition. The corpses that lay as if bowing to each other were charred black and nearly impossible to identify.
Even from a distance, the smell of burning corpses and the smoke was so toxic I couldn't help but frown, and the people of the Crimson Ring Sect clicked their tongues as they turned their heads this way and that.
The Sect Leader of the Crimson Ring Sect stroked his beard with a frown, then looked at a bandit whose limbs were still intact and spoke.
"What in the world is all this chaos? A stronghold smashed to pieces overnight—was a ghost involved or something?"
The bandit shook his head. He blinked, his face wearing an expression as if he were truly bewitched. His face was smeared with ash and blood, and his whole body was covered in cuts. The members of the Crimson Ring Sect each took a stance or gripped their weapons, tense in case the bastard made any sudden moves.
But the bandit just spoke in a listless tone, like a man who had attained enlightenment.
"....I don't know. It all just happened overnight, like I was possessed by some ghost."
"You're saying they all just killed each other?"
"....I honestly don't know. Suddenly the chieftain and the Deputy Chieftain started fighting, the Deputy Chieftain died, and then suddenly the chieftain got killed by one of our kids too. Then they all fought among themselves to be the leader, and the quick-witted ones grabbed everything of value and ran."
"Enough to make a ghost wail in disbelief."
The Sect Leader of the Crimson Ring Sect frowned and clicked his tongue. His tongue-clicking was thick with both regret and irritation. The bandit looked at the Sect Leader with vacant eyes and said.
"Please, let me live. I'm so hungry...."
But the bastard's words didn't continue. As the Sect Leader swung his hand at high speed, a flash of light glinted, and the bandit's throat was cut diagonally. The other bandits widened their eyes and stared at the Sect Leader, and the Sect Leader hurled the ring he was holding with all his might, like a boomerang.
The ring spun round and round, sequentially slicing the throats of the bandits who were either sitting or standing.
The bandits didn't even realize what was happening to them until the throat of the bandit right next to them was cut. The Sect Leader stood still with his hand outstretched, as if he knew exactly where the ring would return.
As if guided by a thread, the spinning ring flew precisely handle-first into his hand, and the heads of the bandits still alive tumbled to the ground in a cascade, like fruit being harvested.
The Sect Leader shook the blood off his weapon and said.
"Pack up anything that can be sold."
His subordinates were rifling through the corpses as swiftly and precisely as the bandit crew themselves. The Sect Leader tilted his head and began talking with a hulking giant of a man.
The giant spoke in a low voice.
"Sect Leader, what do we do now? Without the bandit group, our business is going to take a hit."
The Sect Leader shook his head and said.
"It wasn't a business meant to last long from the start. How long can you run a business with a bunch of guys who haven't even reached second-rate? I'll need to talk to the higher-ups, so I think I'll have to vacate the area for a bit."
"Will you be taking your daughter with you?"
At those words, the Sect Leader grimaced as if disgusted and shook his head from side to side.
"That bitch manages the account books, so where would she go? Keep a tight watch on her so she doesn't run off somewhere."
"Yes. Understood."
My eyes gleamed.
He has a daughter?