The Valley of Sin
The Valley of Sin.
A place where not a single government soldier could be found, where the Sword Family shut its eyes and kept its silence.
The site manager for the Fourth Young Master’s Valley of Sin project was a middle-aged man named Tang Baek.
“…”
Beneath the usual expressionless mask of his face, Tang Baek felt the skin grow hot with nowhere for the rage to go.
It was an honor beyond measure that his lord, the Fourth Young Master, had appointed him as proxy.
Not a single day since then had the Valley of Sin been anything less than the absolute worst—yet today was especially so.
Dozens of people clung to buckets and fought the blaze, yet the flames roared with a force so fierce it was almost embarrassing, as if they meant to set the night sky itself ablaze.
Tang Baek glared into those flames as though he could hold them inside his eyes, then turned away.
[Reporting.]
One of his subordinates appeared at close range with ghost-like movement arts and spoke through sound transmission.
[We seized the destitute man considered the prime suspect, but he proved to have no connection to the arson.]
Tang Baek swallowed a sigh without letting it touch his blank face.
[Other suspects?]
[At present…]
He waved the man off, exchanged a single glance with him, and stepped into the temporary command tent that had been pitched clear of the fire.
“Captain Tang Baek!”
The moment he appeared, civil officials from the Fourth Young Master’s faction rushed him like a pack of dogs.
As always, they would only raise their voices at one another and run on parallel tracks that never met a conclusion.
“The fire is urgent, of course, but we must rescue the personnel at the forward base in the mid-valley first!”
“As things stand, three underworld groups—the White Bone Faction, the Black River Gang, and the Three-Five Tong-bang—are fighting for control of the mid-valley! To reach the forward base we would have to punch straight through their war! If we peel off that many troops, what happens to the fire?!”
“That is exactly why we must extract them before the blaze grows worse, and also—!”
“The Compassion House directors and staff are trapped there as well, so rescuing them first has merit. But first we should secure cooperation from the relevant Luoyang administrative offices and—!”
“Enough.”
Tang Baek released a thread of killing intent and cut their endless debate short.
“Putting out the fire takes priority.”
They looked ready to argue further, but the keen edge of his presence sealed their mouths and sent them retreating.
They were only the beginning, however.
No—the civil officials were preferable.
“We’re out of emergency herbs for burns! Bandages are gone as well!”
A physician from the Compassion House, the support officer, was shouting in every direction, desperately calling for aid.
“There are too many patients! If we don’t expand the safe zone right now and take them in, they’ll all die in the streets!”
“To expand the safe zone I’d have to pull my men off the fire lines and put them on guard duty! Do you honestly think that makes sense right now?!”
The young Compassion House doctor responsible for treatment and transport was locked in a shouting match with the mercenary captain hired to secure the project site.
“North! Flames are spreading north!”
“The southeast blaze is under control, but we don’t have the manpower to push beyond it!”
Runners kept bursting in without pause, driving the civil officials who were already frantically updating the fire-status boards into even greater frenzy.
“My, my. Tonight has completely lost its mind.”
A woman with half-lidded eyes approached Tang Baek, wiping sweat from her brow.
She was Tang Ye-rin, the strategist who, like him, stood among the Fourth Young Master’s innermost circle.
“…”
Tang Baek’s eyes narrowed at the sight of someone who could still look so composed in the middle of this.
“Don’t look at me like that. I was sharing information with Hyeonwol Pavilion.”
Indeed, in the direction she had come from, Hyeonwol Pavilion analysts were sweating rivers as they processed the field agents’ reports.
“According to them, the suspects have been narrowed to four categories.”
Tang Baek gave a low snort.
“Arsonist, lunatic, suicide seeker, idiot… and enemy. My analysis makes five.”
“There you go again with the sarcasm.”
Tang Ye-rin sighed at his cold reaction to Hyeonwol Pavilion.
“They are the First Young Master’s people and our partners. A little more trust would—”
“Where is that Yang Tong fellow, Hyeonwol Pavilion’s Valley of Sin chief?”
“That I… don’t know either.”
Yang Tong was currently riding in Yeon So-hyeon’s carriage, but Hyeonwol Pavilion agents were never going to volunteer that fact.
“There is no intelligence organization in the world worth trusting. A strategist ought to know that much.”
Tang Ye-rin folded her arms at his words.
“Coming from you, Captain Tang Baek—someone who trusts no one in this world except our lord.”
“…”
A man who fundamentally distrusted people had nothing to say to that.
“Let’s return to the four categories of suspects.”
Having sealed Tang Baek’s mouth, Tang Ye-rin began.
“First: the Demon-Suppression Evil-Extermination Unit under the Third Young Master of the Sword Family—the ones who tear through every slum in Luoyang looking for Demonic Cultists.”
Tang Baek’s eyelid twitched. The unit’s fanatical hatred of the Demonic Cult was legendary.
“Second: an underworld organization trying to stop our intervention while the struggle for the mid-to-upper valley intensifies. In that case it would be the White Bone Faction, currently leading the power struggle.”
The White Bone Faction was a new group that had risen after the Black Bone Faction had been wiped out by the unknown figure known as Amcheonjonza.
“Third: it could actually be the work of real Demonic Cultists.”
“…Real Demonic Cult.”
“You yourself said you’d seen Demonic Cultists with your own eyes since coming here, didn’t you, Captain?”
Tang Baek only nodded. No whites to their eyes—only pure black orbs. The worst and most vicious fanatics. Even in Sichuan, near the Hundred-Thousand Great Mountains that had once been their stronghold, they had been little more than rumor. Only after arriving in the Valley of Sin had Tang Baek finally seen them for himself.
“At first I thought it was a joke, but over the past few weeks the sightings of people with pure black eyes have spiked.”
“…And how is that connected to the fire?”
Tang Ye-rin stroked her smooth chin.
“Some kind of ritual? Ceremony? That’s the talk, and they say it might be linked to setting fires. Even Hyeonwol Pavilion doesn’t know the details. They told me to ask the Compassion House instead.”
“Next?”
“Last…”
Tang Ye-rin frowned.
“It could be the work of shamans, Taoists, or some other kind of cultivator.”
She lifted her sleeve to cover her mouth.
“In this day and age, still believing in superstitions… Whether it’s Sichuan or here, there are still enough people who put faith in that nonsense to make it profitable, so these outdated—”
She cut herself off.
She had belatedly remembered that Tang Baek had once been a patrolman of the Sichuan Tang Family’s Tea Horse Road.
“Hmm.”
Tang Baek’s gaze settled on her.
He had traveled the jungles and highlands of Sichuan and Yunnan and witnessed the primitive sorcery and twisted faiths of every tribe imaginable.
“Deciding something doesn’t exist simply because you haven’t seen it yourself is naïve.”
At his low voice she shrugged.
“…Fine, I’ll take the naïve role for now.”
As a woman from a Sichuan city, stories of the uncivilized world were beyond her comprehension. And yet here we are talking about superstition in the middle of Luoyang, a city larger than any in Sichuan.
She was about to continue after a sigh when a runner and a Compassion House worker tumbled in together.
“Looting! The poor have gathered in huge numbers and are looting!”
“Too many to count!”
“They’re hitting the market streets for now, but we don’t know when they’ll come this way!”
The murmurs of panic swelled. Tang Baek poured internal energy into his voice and roared.
“Leave only essential personnel! Everyone else, go deal with it!”
The people inside the tent clenched their teeth and charged out. Under Tang Baek’s fierce glare the civil officials snatched the hexagonal clubs kept by the entrance, and even Hyeonwol Pavilion’s intelligence agents armed themselves and left the tent.
While the crowd poured out, someone came in the opposite direction.
“Heh. Honestly, I almost miss the days of clashing with Yue’s elite regiments in the jungle.”
An elderly woman in a headscarf, leaning on a cane, clicked her tongue and approached Tang Baek and Tang Ye-rin.
“Elder Gwak.”
At Tang Baek’s greeting the old woman called Elder Gwak nodded.
“So both of you are here.”
She was one of the Fourth Young Master’s closest aides and a strategic advisor who, despite her age, was only ever seen in the field.
“They estimate twenty to thirty thousand people in this single valley. Even for Luoyang, that’s past the limit.”
She clicked her tongue again.
“That’s why the moment something explodes in the mid-to-upper reaches, the lower valley gets swept up with it.”
“…Do you believe the fire was caused by the underworld factions fighting up there?”
“Of course that plays a part. But other causes are acting at the same time.”
She rapped her cane on the floor and snorted.
“In a neighborhood this tangled, a disaster this large—and you thought there would be only one reason?”
“…”
Tang Baek hummed thoughtfully. Tang Ye-rin’s face tightened as she sank into thought.
Elder Gwak shook her head at the acrid air that reached even inside the tent.
“As for the forward base isolated in the mid-valley…”
She swallowed the rest.
“No. Right now the fire comes first.”
“Yes. I was thinking of taking only elites and going myself, but…”
At Tang Baek’s words Elder Gwak smacked her lips bitterly.
“Even if you reach them, the real problem will be how to escort them back.”
If they had enough elite troops they could simply slaughter every underworld fighter approaching the forward base. But the majority of their elites were currently deployed against the Great Immortal Merchant Group and would have to stay there for the time being.
“…Even if the First Young Master is called a genius of strategy, I can’t help thinking he bit off too much this time.”
“…”
Elder Gwak’s wrinkled brow furrowed deeply.
“Our project site is in the lower valley—why plant a forward base in the mid-valley in the first place…?”
Tang Ye-rin voiced the same unease she had been carrying.
“I also feel the attack on the Second Young Master’s Great Immortal Merchant Group came too early.”
Only Tang Baek kept silent. Not that he particularly disagreed with the two women.
“…This may just be an old woman’s worry speaking, but do you two truly believe this alliance will produce good results?”
This time Tang Baek answered first.
“It doesn’t matter. Our lord said it clearly that day. When the First Young Master becomes Family Head, the ones standing closest to him will be us.”
His tone was absolute.
“If that is what our lord desires, then making it so is our duty.”
Tang Ye-rin’s voice was equally firm.
Elder Gwak sighed and shook her head.
“That isn’t what I meant. I simply think it’s a waste. Our lord’s talent is more brilliant than any I have ever seen.”
Even Elder Yu of the Luoyang Sword Family’s Fourth Young Master faction—who clashed with her at every turn—shared the same opinion of the Fourth Young Master’s gifts.
“The reason I bring this up now is this.”
She produced the slips of paper she had received from both the Fourth Young Master’s people and Hyeonwol Pavilion agents.
“Word is that the First Young Master, having finished his business on Mount Beimang, and our lord, having heard the situation here, are both heading this way.”
Only then did Tang Ye-rin catch the old woman’s concern and knit her brows.
“Isn’t this the first time either of them has stepped onto a battlefield this chaotic?”
“…Indeed.”
Tang Baek, a beat slower, also scowled.
Elder Gwak’s voice filled with worry.
“If both of them flounder a little on their first real field, that would be fine.”
“But if, while the First Young Master flounders, our lord displays outstanding command…?”
“Then true chaos will visit this alliance.”
Tang Baek stroked his beard.
“Our lord cherishes the First Young Master. Won’t he deliberately match the First Young Master’s pace?”
“If he does, others may never know—but doubt will take root in our lord’s heart.”
“…”
They all knew of the feats Yeon So-hyeon had performed on Mount Beimang. They could not know the exact terms of the deals, yet merely having negotiated with the famous former Family Heads of Mount Beimang was achievement enough. Still, bargaining with people one could talk to and handling a field in the middle of total chaos were entirely different matters.
Just then a runner burst in.
“The First Young Master’s carriage procession is approaching from the valley entrance!”
Hearing that, Elder Gwak clicked her tongue and tapped her cane.
“I only hope he can display even half the command ability of those divine strategies of his.”
Or at the very least, leave the practical work to the practical staff and not show them a floundering face—so thought Elder Gwak.
The intersection in front of the temporary command tent.
The night sky that should have been dark was painted a deep red, and sparks large and small rode the heat upward into the air. The acrid smoke made breathing difficult.
Yet the men waiting behind the barricades they had thrown up across the intersection dared not even cough. Cloths soaked in water covered their noses and mouths; every one of them gripped a club or other non-lethal weapon and stared across the street with tense eyes.
“Th-there…!”
The looters appeared on the far side. First one or two, then dozens. For a moment the dozens milled about, directionless and confused among themselves. But the instant a few of them looked toward the command post and started running, the rest became a wave of flesh on land. In the blink of an eye their numbers swelled past hundreds.
“W-we have to stop them! No one falls back!”
The Fourth Young Master’s warriors spat on the ground.
“Damn it.”
They would have loved nothing more than to cut every last one of them down, but that would throw their lord’s project into chaos.
Then, just as the destitute, eyes rolling white, surged to the very edge of the intersection—
The ground began to tremble as if in an earthquake.
“…”
The unknown vibration halted the feet of the madly charging poor. Some tangled and tumbled over one another; some simply sat down where they stood; others scattered in every direction under a sudden wave of unease.
The shaking grew stronger. From the lower end of the intersection a long, beast-like roar rolled forth.
And then a steel carriage so massive that the word “heavy” was insufficient came leaping over the rise as though the hill itself had been kicked aside.
The brakes locked onto the steel wheels, scattering sparks and a noise that scraped the eardrums. One after another, black armored carriages followed, each bringing more noise and vibration into view.
“Th-the steel carriage…?”
At someone’s whisper, an elderly Compassion House official’s face lit with joy.
“Isn’t that the Ironclad Fortress that Lady Yak once rode in?! Then could it be…?!”
As if answering the cry, sharp commands rang out and the repeating crossbows mounted on the carriage roofs fired in unison.
Iron bolts tore through the air, their shrieks cutting above the din of the street. They passed over the heads of the poor with terrifying force and slammed mercilessly into the building walls. Bolt after bolt buried itself in stone façades, spraying dust and sending spiderweb cracks racing. One building’s pillar sheared clean through and collapsed; the precarious wooden upper stories, added and rebuilt time and again, shattered completely.
At the signal the firing stopped. A brief silence settled over the street.
“U-uwaaaaah!”
“Run!”
The looters who had pressed their faces to the ground scattered in every direction.
Clunk.
The heavy steel door of the Ironclad Fortress swung open, and a slender youth stepped out. The black silk-thread outer robe draped over his shoulders snapped roughly in the wind.
“Everyone looks rather stupid.”
Under the concentrated gazes of all present, Yeon So-hyeon, First Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Family, wore a deep smile.
“Is this everyone’s first time in a situation this chaotic?”