Sichuan Tang Clan (3)
Sichuan Tang Clan (3)
An empty coffin meant that no one had ever been buried in it.
But while that might make sense for Tang Ui-gyeong's daughter, what did it mean that Tang Ui-gyeong himself had not been buried?
"It means Tang Ui-gyeong is alive. No matter how much Tang blood flows in a man's veins, a noble tomb would be too lavish for a mere snake-catcher. The way I see it, the dealings between Tang Ui-gyeong and the Tang Clan were anything but cordial."
Tang Ui-gyeong was a snake-catcher whose entire family had suddenly been annihilated by snake venom of unknown origin. At the time, the Sichuan Tang Clan had taken charge of the investigation, concluded that 'death was caused by snake venom,' and buried everyone in a single grave. Yet the tomb contained neither Tang Ui-gyeong's body nor his daughter's.
"We must find Tang Ui-gyeong."
If they had no intention of burying him, they would not have built a tomb at all.
I closed my eyes and tried to reconstruct the situation. There had been some sort of negotiation between the Tang Clan and Tang Ui-gyeong, but Tang Ui-gyeong had refused. Desperate to obtain something Tang Ui-gyeong possessed, the Tang Clan devised a plan to attack his entire family with poison and abduct his daughter.
But Tang Ui-gyeong, who should have died from the poison, managed to escape. The Tang Clan's plan only half succeeded, securing nothing more than his daughter.
"This Tang Ui-gyeong is quite impressive. After all, we're talking about the Tang Clan. He evaded a covert strike from the Tang Clan and got away, did he not?"
"He must have known some technique passed down only within the Tang Clan. Or someone may have tipped him off."
The merchant raised the possibility of a traitor within the clan. I nodded and stared at the empty tomb. To my eyes, this tomb had been a warning to Tang Ui-gyeong, whom they had failed to find at the time—a warning that, as far as the Tang Clan was concerned, he was already dead and should not show his face. Tang Ui-gyeong was unquestionably alive.
The merchant spoke.
"But even if Tang Ui-gyeong is alive, how would we find him? If he was burning with vengeance, the Tang Clan would have tracked him down and killed him long ago. If he fled and is in hiding, there is no way to find a mere snake-catcher."
And indeed, as the merchant said, there was no way to find Tang Ui-gyeong. He was not even a man of the martial world, and he had to live in deliberate hiding. On top of that, we did not even know his appearance or attire, and the Central Plains was far too vast to simply search for one man.
"Without someone helping him, a man with no backing and no skill beyond snake-catching would have had no way to survive without drawing attention. We would need more detailed information about the incident at the time to learn anything further."
It was vague. So maddeningly vague that I could not tell where to even begin. Not 'Tang Ui-gyeong is alive right now,' but 'Tang Ui-gyeong might be alive somewhere right now.' 'He might have had an accomplice.' 'He might still harbor a grudge against the Tang Clan.' Everything I had inferred was riddled with 'might,' making it impossible to pin down a clear direction and move forward.
If Tang Ui-gyeong were to suddenly pop out from somewhere, everything would become clear — but I had no way to make him pop out.
"There is nowhere left for more information to surface."
The merchant said this, frowning. His words set my mind spinning again. Was there really none? Was there truly no way to track Tang Ui-gyeong down? If a man whose daughter had been abducted by the Tang Clan—a man who bore a grudge against them—was still alive to this day, was there really no way to lure this deeply hidden man out?
"And it would be difficult to reopen a case that the Tang Clan has already buried."
"It seems you have dug as thoroughly as possible, yet this is as far as it goes."
The merchant clicked his tongue as if disappointed. It was a more favorable reaction than when he had looked down on me before, but his tone still carried a note of 'still below expectations,' which stoked my temper slightly. Was there really nothing? Was there truly no way I could find to locate Tang Ui-gyeong?
"Give it up."
The merchant spoke firmly.
"If he has holed up in the mountains like Tang Yeong-hwan, cultivating the Dao, there is simply no way to find him."
Tang Yeong-hwan?
At those words, a different thought surfaced in my mind. The Tang Clan did seem to place some value on family bonds in their own way, and Tang Yeong-hwan was the brother of Tang Yeong-ju, the current head of the Tang Clan. Would even the Tang Clan truly not know Tang Yeong-hwan's whereabouts? Unlike Tang Ui-gyeong, Tang Yeong-hwan had trained in the Tang Clan's main house, knew about the poison arts, and had been a martial artist of such caliber that he had competed with Tang Yeong-ju.
Would the Tang Clan really leave such a skilled martial artist unattended just because he was cultivating the Dao alone in some place no one knew? If he were to suddenly change his mind, appear from somewhere clutching a deadly poison, and wreak havoc, they themselves would be in danger. Even if no one else knew, wouldn't the Tang Clan be keeping track of his location?
"....Just wait a moment. I may not know Tang Ui-gyeong's location, but I think I can find someone who knows about the incident at the time."
Using this, I might be able to find him.
If these bastards valued family bonds, then exploiting that point was the way.
******
"And how, exactly, do you plan to find Tang Yeong-hwan? If he has hidden himself away in some rugged mountain, there is no way."
The Hao Sect Leader was every bit as skeptical as the merchant had been. Unlike a market town, mountains offered no way to gather information by asking around, and there was the risk of running into eccentric hermits or Green Forest bandits and losing your informants entirely. One also had to consider factors like wild beasts and traps, and if there was a small sect near the mountain, the danger of needless disputes.
It was why, since ancient times, whenever things started going wrong, everyone invariably fled into the mountains.
"Calm down. We don't need to enter the mountains. We won't be the ones wandering lost through the hills — the Tang Clan will do the locating for us."
"The Tang Clan will?"
The Hao Sect Leader looked puzzled. I nodded and continued.
"I'm not certain, but isn't the Tang Clan's third son about to come of age soon? By then, it will have been well over ten years since Tang Yeong-hwan turned his back on everything and vanished into the mountains. From Tang Yeong-ju's perspective, having his own brother living out there all this time must weigh on his mind — wouldn't he at least try sending a letter when such a major family occasion arises?"
There were no certainties in this world. Especially in this affair, where there were no clues whatsoever, the only option was to bank on the highest probability. This was a clan that valued family bonds enough to enjoy leisure gatherings and host feasts when a member came of age. It was highly likely that this reflected the will of the current clan head, Tang Yeong-ju.
A man who placed such importance on family bonds might well use his own third son's coming of age as a pretext to send his brother a single letter.
The Hao Sect Leader seemed to find my reasoning fairly plausible. From behind the human skin mask, he made a 'Hmm' sound, nodded his head, and then spoke.
"Then what do you intend to do?"
"This time, we will track every dispatch the Tang Clan sends that is not headed for a city center and is carried by a clan insider. Surely they would not entrust a letter destined for the deep mountains to an outsider? A Tang Clan insider will personally move, so tracking them should be easy."
The Hao Sect Leader stroked his chin and said,
"A decent notion. I shall attempt it. Do not get your hopes too high."
"If it fails, I'll just have to call it fate and accept it. At that point, we'd have no choice but to scale the walls and search the inside of the Tang Clan complex."
Of course, entering the Tang Clan compound by mistake could mean coming back out as a corpse, so that was a method reserved only for the very last resort.
*******
And so time passed. Until the Hao Sect Leader returned with good news, there were only two things I could do: stay close by Hong Ye's side to learn martial arts, and go into a room with Hong Ye to share passionate love.
The advanced stage of the Taijiquan training had now grown somewhat familiar, and I had managed to reduce what once took over ten minutes down to about one minute. Hong Ye praised my progress until her mouth was dry.
"As expected of my husband. Your growth seems far faster than I anticipated. In that case, let us make things a little more difficult."
Of course, praise did not mean the training suddenly became easier. As soon as she saw me growing somewhat adept, she brought out a new task, calling it the next step.
"What is it this time, and how does it work?"
"Up until now, you knew when and how the inner energy would enter you, did you not? But the flow of inner energy is not so regular. This training was merely a basic exercise for learning to handle inner energy. It diverges from real combat."
Hong Ye spoke with her hand still pressed against my back.
"From now on, I will not tell you when the inner energy will come, and you will not know through which side it will enter. Of course, I intend to inject only an extremely minimal amount of inner energy, so even if you make a mistake, you will not be hurt."
"...I'm still tense."
I said this and tightened my lips. I intended to succeed impressively and show off in front of Hong Ye. Just as I thought her face looked especially lovely today, she glanced sidelong at me with a beaming expression and blinked.
"Huh?"
Before I knew it, inner energy had entered my body and scattered before I could even enclose it. I simply stood frozen in an awkward stance, having failed to react in any way. Hong Ye withdrew her hand and said,
"The instant external inner energy enters, you must already be practicing enclosing it. It is only natural for everyone to be flustered when first reaching this stage, so you need not be so disappointed."
"...It's difficult."
"You truly must be able to enclose the inner energy and expel it in the blink of an eye. Then let us try again."
And she placed her hand on my waist. I closed my eyes, feeling her touch.
"Ah...."
"...It seems you are unable to concentrate."
"...No, no, that's not it."
With my attention drawn to the tips of Hong Ye's fingers, it truly was hard to focus.
*******
And so time passed.
Just as I was growing accustomed to the new training,
I found a slip of paper in my hand, delivered by someone I did not recognize.
[Tang Yeong-hwan has been found.]