Yellow Dragon Castle (2)
Yellow Dragon Castle (2)
"It's been a while."
As I sat in a garden chair, savoring the moment in quiet leisure, a voice came from behind. A man disguised as a merchant, his face hidden beneath a low-pulled bamboo hat, emerged from the shadows. It was a movement unnoticed by the patrolling guards and by Seon-go, who was trimming the garden trees.
I stared at the bastard and said,
"Good to see you. Did you miss me?"
"Have you found a way to bring down the Beggars' Sect?"
The Hao Sect Leader had no interest in jokes or small talk. When my question was met with such a curt reply, I clicked my tongue. Even in the face of my exaggerated reaction, the Hao Sect Leader concealed every emotion behind the human-skin mask that covered his face.
"...Do you know who the leader of the Eight Trigrams Association, Hwang Ryong-seong, is?"
When I asked, the Hao Sect Leader nodded and said,
"He's the most famous rising star in Hubei Province. I know his name, and I know his face."
"Do you also know that the bastard is the son of the Beggars' Sect Leader?"
The Hao Sect Leader didn't answer. Emotion betrayed itself beneath the face hidden behind that rigid mask. His head, shaded by the bamboo hat, tilted this way and that; his fingers twitched and trembled. Then he said,
"Go on."
"The Beggars' Sect Leader, Chu Wang Pae, has been embezzling the sect's wealth to let his son play the young master. I intend to use this to strike the Beggars' Sect where it hurts, but I can't do it alone, can I?"
The Hao Sect Leader asked,
"...What exactly would you need me to do? You aren't asking me to move on a single piece of information, are you?"
He hadn't hidden his surprise at my information, but he wasn't going to be swept along blindly. He was demanding a more detailed plan. That was the condition under which I had agreed to cooperate with the Hao Sect Leader. One piece of information—that Hwang Ryong-seong was the son of the Beggars' Sect Leader—wasn't enough to get the Hao Sect moving. I said,
"Of course. If I lay out the plan, will you follow my lead? I'm not thinking of cutting down Hwang Ryong-seong alone. I'm thinking of shaking the very roots of the Beggars' Sect."
"...I'll listen first, then decide."
To me, those words were no different from agreeing to join the plan. Because the moment he heard the full story, that bastard would be smiling so wide he couldn't hide it even behind that human-skin mask.
*****
Mu Ji-gi (無支祁) Chu Wang Pae.
He was a man who started at the very bottom of the beggar horde, built his skills and connections, and rose all the way to the position of Sect Leader—a figure worshipped and revered like a king among the beggars of the Beggars' Sect.
"Is the seed of kings and nobles really different?"
He loved this saying. He had entered the Beggars' Sect at the lowest rung, yet in the end he seized the chieftainship and built his own faction. If he could rise from a bottom-feeding beggar to the leader of all beggars, then nothing was out of reach.
But a beggar was still a beggar.
No matter how much Chu Wang Pae spread his name and cultivated his strength, compared to the prestigious clans of the Nine Sects One Gang, he remained nothing more than the head of a rabble of beggars. Other sect leaders and masters never openly mocked him as a beggar, but Chu Wang Pae could feel it clearly. Those men valued the information and tribute money the Beggars' Sect brought, yet they treated the existence of the Beggars' Sect itself as lowly.
If he lived and died like this, in the end, both he and his son would be remembered as nothing but beggars in history.
"This is the conclusion I came to after thinking it over countless times. There is no distinct seed of kings and nobles."
Even if Chu Wang Pae himself lived as a beggar, he refused to let his child remain one. He had never once lived for the purpose of becoming a beggar. He had joined the beggar collective to survive, climbed higher to earn more money, and before he knew it, he had simply become the leader of a beggar horde.
Chu Wang Pae knew full well that he could not pull himself out of the Beggars' Sect. The Beggars' Sect had originated from a beggar collective formed so that everyone could live well together, for otherwise they would all die. If he tried to walk away now, saying he had learned martial arts and life was good enough to leave, he would earn their bitter, drowning resentment.
Behind the words "live well together" lurked the clinging desperation of a drowning ghost: "I won't let you live well alone." Chu Wang Pae thought that at least his son had to escape this burden. He wanted to prevent him from being dragged into the terrible swamp of the Beggars' Sect and left to rot as a beggar.
"Your name is not Du-pal. You are not part of the Beggars' Sect. You are a martial artist who learned martial arts from a reclusive sage."
So Chu Wang Pae had hidden Hwang Ryong-seong away. He raised the child in secret and made him conceal his name. He told the truth only to a few colluding elders and poured every kind of spirit medicine and martial art into him, striving to raise his son as a genius.
In the future, he wanted Hwang Ryong-seong to become a proper martial artist and lead the Murim Alliance. He wanted him to hide his Beggars' Sect origins, build his own power base, and carry on the authority of the Nine Sects One Gang. He wanted him to become not the leader of a beggar horde, but a great hero respected by all—a man who could walk through life with pride and dignity.
"It won't be easy, will it, brother? The kid's a bit smart, just like you. But he doesn't have the talent to lead the martial world or anything like that."
But there was a problem. The talent of Hwang Ryong-seong, whom he had raised hoping he would one day become a great man, was not all that impressive. He would certainly stand out if he entered the martial world, but he was not material to become a leader of the martial world. The growth of his inner energy, his comprehension of martial arts—it was all mediocre.
"If his inner energy is lacking, can't we just increase it?"
But Chu Wang Pae could not back down now. There were plenty of ways to raise inner energy. The martial world was ruled by the strong. In the end, the ruler was not decided by who was smarter or who had realized more profound truths. The strongest bastard overwhelmed the world with sheer power and led by force.
Even without demonic martial arts, there were countless methods to forcibly elevate one's realm or make even a dullard look like a genius. If the methods stayed hidden from prying eyes, he would become a genius.
******
"What is this?"
A month later, the Hao Sect Leader laid a stack of thin papers before me. It was a list densely written in small characters and a map of the entire continent. Each entry on the list was categorized by symbols, and those symbols were placed on the map.
"As you instructed, we disguised members of the Hao Sect who are skilled at spreading rumors as beggars and inserted them into the Beggars' Sect. I haven't given them any separate orders yet, so they will need time to adapt to the sect."
"Well done. What about the other parts? Were you able to find out what martial art Hwang Ryong-seong learned?"
The Hao Sect Leader nodded. He spoke in a flat tone.
"About ten years ago, the Beggars' Sect Leader, Chu Wang Pae, visited the Shaolin library and took out a manual for the Celibate Cultivation Art. It was around the time he already had a child, and since there isn't a single Beggars' Sect leader without woman troubles, the purpose of taking the Celibate Cultivation Art is obvious."
There was no flaw in the logic. As he said, there was no reason the Beggars' Sect Leader would have borrowed the Celibate Cultivation Art to give to someone else. The only one who could have learned it was Hwang Ryong-seong. No one in their right mind recommends something like the Celibate Cultivation Art to their disciples or acquaintances.
"Impressive. As expected of the Hao Sect Leader. But how did you find out that Chu Wang Pae borrowed the Celibate Cultivation Art from the Shaolin library? Did a record remain in the library?"
The Hao Sect Leader shook his head and said,
"He missed the agreed-upon return date, so Shaolin lodged a protest with the Beggars' Sect. The incident was quite big, causing a brief stir in Henan Province. A subordinate from Henan recalled the rumor about the Beggars' Sect Leader. He said there had once been a commotion because the Beggars' Sect Leader borrowed a martial arts secret manual from the Shaolin library and didn't return it. We tracked down that rumor and matched the stories near Shaolin Temple, finally obtaining the information that it was the Celibate Cultivation Art he had borrowed."
"......"
I had expected some intense, thrilling intelligence war, but the trail had been left simply by failing to meet the return deadline. Unsure what to say in such an awkward situation, I could only nod with a somewhat deflated expression.
"I see. The Beggars' Sect Leader couldn't even keep a return deadline. That's probably why he's headed for such a miserable end."
"So, what should we do next?"
"Please wait. I'll call for you when everything is ready."
I now knew Hwang Ryong-seong's true identity, and I knew that the martial art he had learned was the Celibate Cultivation Art. The Zhuge Family and the Embroidered Uniform Guard were tracing the flow of the beggars' funds, working hard to secure proof that their tribute money was heading to Hwang Ryong-seong.
Now all that remained was to wait.
Until the Embroidered Uniform Guard and Zhuge Yeong-yu secured the evidence.
Until we could definitively punish that filthy Eight Trigrams Association, which ran wild and grew its power throughout Hubei Province.
******
"It seems we've tracked the flow of funds."
And then, after a considerable amount of time had passed once more.
Zhuge Yeong-yu announced confidently. As I stared at him with wide, surprised eyes, Zhuge Yeong-yu leaned diagonally against the table, sent me a playful glance, and asked,
"...After all this hard work, don't you have anything to say?"
"...You've worked hard?"
Zhuge Yeong-yu laughed at those words. He smiled brightly, like a child who had just been praised, and began his story while tousling his own hair.
"The law-enforcers of the Beggars' Sect from each region come to Hubei Province and offer tribute money to the elders. Then an elder sends a portion of this tribute money to the Murim Alliance. But the money that arrives at the Murim Alliance is never documented—it simply changes carts or purchases valuables and goes straight to Hwang Ryong-seong's residence."
I asked,
"Is there proof?"
Zhuge Yeong-yu shook his head at that and said,
"Why would we need proof?"
When I tilted my head in confusion, Zhuge Yeong-yu added,
"Didn't you say that the bastards who command the beggar collectives from all over the country gather in Hubei Province on that day?"