Deception (2)
"Things have gotten complicated, and my head is pounding. I need to sort out my priorities."
The closer I moved toward the eye of the storm, the more problems multiplied exponentially. Even now, plenty of issues demanded my attention. For instance, finding Tang Ui-gyeong. Seon-ah was a Poison Human—a talent who could prove useful in countless ways down the line—and she was my woman. I had promised to find her, so I was currently searching for Tang Ui-gyeong through the Hao Sect.
"Does anything else about the elder come to mind?"
"I was young, so my memory isn't clear, but... he had a scar on his hand. I remember touching it a lot as a child because my father's hand looked strange."
The Central Plains were vast, and far too many people had scars on their hands. I hadn't gotten a handle on this problem yet, so until a clue surfaced, it had to be pushed down my list of priorities.
The second problem I had to wrestle with was my vengeance, carried out alongside Sannyeo. After the Zhongnan Sect and the Beggars' Sect, I had dealt the Tang Clan a fatal blow as well, but the world was vast, and there were many more sects to crush.
"So, where do we go now? Do we just charge into the Murim Alliance and lop off the Alliance Leader's head?"
"If I'm going to wipe them out, I'll wipe out the entire Namgung Clan. That Alliance Leader gave the order to massacre Sannyeo Valley—how could I let him die peacefully? I'm going to obliterate his entire family, and I'm going to see that bastard kneel at my feet and beg."
First, there was the Namgung Clan, the family of Alliance Leader Namgung Gi-hwan. As the man who ordered the Sannyeo Valley massacre, he could not be excluded from the list of targets.
"That is an exceedingly difficult task. The Alliance Leader wields considerable political power in martial world. Taking him down the way we've been doing things will be hard."
But Namgung Gi-hwan was the Murim Alliance Leader. He held sway over the Nine Sects One Gang, and if it served his ends, he was the kind of cruel, ruthless bastard who could wipe a minor sect or a village off the map, just like the Sannyeo Valley incident. To eliminate him would require a far more meticulous and wide-ranging plan than before.
Charging at the Namgung Clan right now was bad timing, and my forces were inadequate. I stroked my chin as I spread out a map and asked.
"Are there any others? Does it end with the Beggars' Sect, Venerable Geumbok, the Namgung Clan, and the Tang Clan?"
Even these alone were formidable powers. The fact that I had crushed most of them with my own hands put me in a rather good mood. Sannyeo wore a somewhat refreshed expression while hearing the names I listed, but then she shook her head.
"There are a few more. But I wasn't able to investigate the other sects on my own. I even infiltrated the Murim Alliance to learn more about the sects connected to Sannyeo Valley back then, but the infiltration failed."
Sannyeo said that and held up her manacles. The sturdy restraints gleamed with an especially beautiful light today.
"You managed to survive even with shackles on. If it was that desperate a situation, shouldn't you have died on the spot?"
If a master like Sannyeo ended up in shackles, it definitely meant she was outmatched. Fights between masters are decided by a single move, so how did she survive once the manacles were on her? Sannyeo answered like this:
"A man from the Namgung Clan spared me."
"A man from the Namgung Clan?"
It was truly puzzling. That someone from the Namgung Clan had spared Sannyeo, who was hell-bent on vengeance against the Namgung Clan—did that mean there was, besides me, another man who had cast his lure toward Sannyeo? Seeing my face darken, Sannyeo lifted the corners of her mouth and spoke with a sly smile.
"Oh my, don't worry too much. It wasn't because he cherished me or was a righteous man. It's no romantic melodrama driven by feelings like love, either. As you know, my eyes are so pretty, aren't they?"
There was a story that the people of Sannyeo Valley were born with crimson irises, and that the few who survived to this day were sold off like slaves or collectibles. Recalling that story, I let out a sigh, and Sannyeo nodded and continued.
"Namgung Gi-hwan's second son is a notorious lecher. As it happened, he had business at the Murim Alliance the very day I infiltrated. And when he saw me, outnumbered and subdued by the masters, he got the idea to collect me and use me as a plaything."
"Notorious as a lecher? How does he compare to me?"
Sannyeo tilted her head at my words and said this.
"Competing over a strange thing, are we? He's a bit different from you. You're a deviant who only picks and devours other men's women, but he's a deviant who drags any woman at all into bed without discrimination. From what I hear, the Namgung Clan considers him a troublesome little nuisance."
I had plenty to say about being called a deviant who only picks and devours other men's women, but this was not the time to debate it, so I kept my mouth shut.
"So, in a situation where you should have been killed, that bastard threw a fit and insisted on taking you with him."
"That's right. Honestly, I was half out of my mind at that point, and I thought I was going to die. Then suddenly, the masters surrounding me withdrew, and someone brought manacles and fastened them onto my wrists. The moment the cold metal touched my wrists, I snapped wide awake. So I seized the chance, mustered every last drop of my inner energy, and fled."
A rough picture formed in my mind: the masters who had converged at the Murim Alliance, Sannyeo collapsed on the floor. And of all people, the passing Namgung Clan's son catches sight of Sannyeo's crimson eyes and shouts not to kill her, declaring he'll make her his plaything.
Unable to handle him roughly because he was the Alliance Leader's son, they found themselves in an awkward position. They grudgingly held off finishing her and put shackles on her, when suddenly the intruder, who had been at death's door, mustered her inner energy and fled.
If I had been one of the masters guarding the Murim Alliance at that time, I would have wanted to wring that Namgung Clan brat's neck.
"That must have been a colossal incident for the Murim Alliance. Is that why you hid out in a bandit den?"
"I drifted here and there, wandering around. I was wondering what I should do now, and then, by good luck, I met you."
I pointed at the manacles and said.
"Can you still not undo those manacles?"
"I can't undo them with my own strength. Look."
As if to show me, Sannyeo coiled inner energy around her arms and then pulled with all her might to both sides. Even gritting her teeth and exerting so much force her body shook, the manacles didn't so much as spark, nor did they budge in the slightest.
"They look thick, but maybe the reason you can't get them off is that you're just trying brute force?"
"I've tried every other method too. I held a sword with my feet, concentrated sword energy, and then scraped at them hoping to cut through the manacles, but they didn't even get a scratch. I've heard there are holding areas beneath Shaolin and the Murim Alliance for captured demon heads—these seem to be the kind of manacles used in such places."
In truth, whenever I was bored, I had struck them with an axe myself, but far from getting scratched, the only thing that ended up hurting was my own arm. I rubbed my chin and said.
"How about bringing Seon-ah and having her corrode them with poison?"
"Eugh."
Sannyeo grimaced in disgust at my words and took a step back. Then, with her face scrunched up, she said.
"I'm not exactly immune to ten thousand poisons. If we created a poison strong enough to melt these and applied it, even inhaling the fumes would probably be dangerous. If the entire manacle corrodes from the poison, my wrists might fly off along with it. And besides, with a poison that potent, who knows how far it would spread?"
It seemed even Sannyeo wasn't confident about facing the extreme poison that a Poison Human could spew. I myself had barely taken a sip of the uncontrolled poison Seon-ah had emitted, and I'd been sick in bed for days. I couldn't begin to gauge what level of destructive power a genuine, all-out release of poison would have.
Trying to get a pair of manacles off could well turn an innocent master into a cripple. And since she was refusing so adamantly, there was no need to force a dangerous experiment. I nodded and said.
"In that case, I'll have to look into it slowly. If I end up going to the Murim Alliance or Shaolin someday, I might be able to find out how to unlock these kinds of manacles."
"I'll ask that favor of you then."
I looked toward the main gate. Aside from the problems regarding Sannyeo and Seon-ah, an important issue stood before me.
"First, I need to settle the Je Gang problem definitively, so I should focus a bit more on that."
"You're talking about that commander? The one who tried to kill you."
It was the matter of Je Gang's whereabouts, which the Zhuge Family and the Imperial Household were searching for, working tirelessly until their feet were soaked with sweat. I had laid the bait, but Zhuge Yeong-yu was a shrewd man. He might find a gap I hadn't even considered, interpret my planted clues in a completely different direction, and uncover proof that I had killed Je Gang.
"He'll come looking for me again before long. Whether the Zhuge Family turns against me or continues to be on my side will be decided by how I act."
Je Gang, who had suspected me, was dead, but those who had suspected me alongside Je Gang would still be in the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Based on their testimonies and my inconsistencies, Zhuge Yeong-yu might draw the wrong conclusion and misunderstand me.
Therefore, I needed to guide Zhuge Yeong-yu toward the truth.
The Jinju Eon Family, which had ties to the Tang Clan for unknown reasons.
And Je Gang, who had been investigating the Tang Clan's closure, went missing in Hebei Province and was then made into a Jiangshi in the Jinju Eon Family's underground.
In that case, who killed Je Gang?
What did I need to do to make Zhuge Yeong-yu reach the right conclusion?
When I looked at the sky, the face of Je Gang came to mind, bleeding out as he died.
[Lady Yeong-yu....]
The last words Je Gang left behind struck a chord in my chest.
When I meet her this time, I should start by touching her ass.