Checkmate
“Indeed…”
It was Kang Ho who spoke.
“Ever since the Grand Family Head collapsed, Grand Madame Ouyang—”
His expression soured the moment he uttered the name of the Second Young Master’s mother. Of all those who lived in Luoyang, how many could ever welcome the sound of that woman’s name?
“According to the materials I have verified, she has been siphoning enormous sums from the main family every year.”
Yeon So-hyeon had secured the cooperation of the head of Geomga Jeonjang. He had uncovered the corruption of the Yeon bloodline itself. And at the same time, he had also traced the vast currents of capital moved by Grand Madame Ouyang. Every last scrap of that intelligence now resided in Kang Ho’s mind—down to the smallest numeral.
“And it appears she has been laundering those funds through the Great Immortal Merchant Group.”
The Second Young Master’s faction ruled Luoyang’s underworld. Thanks to that dominance, the Great Immortal Merchant Group possessed every tool necessary for laundering money—from legitimate art auctions to illegal gambling dens and the black market itself.
“Although… decisive proof is still lacking.”
Kang Ho bit his lip. The mere fact that money had left Geomga Jeonjang was not, by itself, conclusive evidence.
“If we are to force Sapaecheon into a bargain over Grand Madame Ouyang’s life—exactly as the First Young Master’s strategy requires—one absolute precondition must be met.”
His eyes narrowed.
“We must possess irrefutable proof of her guilt. That is why the simultaneous raid on the Great Immortal Merchant Group by the Inner Court and the Central Investigation Department is so critical.”
“Indeed it is.”
Se-a, Master of Hyeonwol Pavilion, smiled.
“But that particular point, Young Master Kang, is something you need not worry about.”
“Why is that?”
The smile on Se-a’s face deepened.
“The very manner in which Grand Madame Ouyang has chosen to respond to the investigation of the Great Immortal Merchant Group already proves it.”
In this room, no one except Yeon So-hyeon himself understood the Great Immortal Merchant Group more thoroughly than she. Until mere days ago, she had been locked in a brutal intelligence war against them.
“Their response…?”
It was the Fourth Young Master who answered.
“Simple enough, if you think about it.”
Yeon Bi’s face was still flushed with excitement at the vast design his elder brother had laid out, yet when he spoke of the Second Young Master’s faction his expression turned cold as steel.
“The Inner Court and the Central Investigation Department are among the most powerful organs inside the Sword Family. And yet they chose to resist them with force.” He shrugged. “Is that not the very picture of a cornered rat lunging at the cat?”
“Ah…!”
Kang Ho struck his own palm with a fist.
“That response tells us there are documents inside the Great Immortal Merchant Group that simply cannot be denied!”
“Exactly. Had there not been…” Yeon Bi ground his teeth. “A woman like her would have calmly pinned every crime on her subordinates and washed her own hands of the matter long ago.”
When he said “that woman,” his eyes flashed a deep, venomous green and a sharp, acrid scent of poison rolled through the air. It was the killing aura of a Poison Man, pure and unmistakable.
“In the end, it will unfold exactly as Eldest Brother planned. Even if she somehow slips free of the investigation and preserves her life, she will still be thoroughly battered by the storm before then.”
Setting aside the unnatural hatred Grand Madame Ouyang and the Second Young Master harbored toward Yeon So-hyeon and Yeon Bi, she remained one of the greatest sources of rot festering inside the Luoyang Sword Family.
“Even so… that alone is still not enough.”
Though the killing aura had drained the color from his face, Kang Ho pressed on stubbornly.
“Will Sapaecheon truly agree to exchange Grand Madame Ouyang’s life for permission to expand and dredge the lower Yangtze?”
South of the Yangtze—the region commonly called Jiangnan—stood, alongside Luoyang, as one of the twin pillars of the Central Kingdom’s overseas trade. The Yangtze waterway expansion project would allow massive merchant fleets to sail past Jiangnan and push all the way into the upper reaches of the river.
“Sapaecheon has long monopolized overseas trade from Jiangnan and grown fat on the profits. Why would they ever allow such a project to proceed?”
“That is precisely why the First Young Master—” Kong Dam-ung spoke with difficulty, “—is offering the life of Sapaecheon’s Lianzhu’s own daughter in exchange, is it not?”
No matter how enormous the monopoly profits in Jiangnan might be, a father’s flesh and blood still held weight.
“Surely that alone carries enough value to—”
“No.”
Se-a cut him off without mercy.
“Sapaecheon’s Lianzhu is not a man who will ever be swayed by blood ties.”
Once again he had misread the board. Kong Dam-ung clicked his tongue in frustration.
“Then why does the First Young Master believe the exchange is possible at all?”
Even Se-a fell silent at the question.
“It is not simply because she is his daughter.” The answer came from Yeon Bi. “It is because she is the Grand Madame of the Sword Family.”
Kong Dam-ung tilted his head, half understanding, half lost—until Kang Ho suddenly cried out.
“I see it!”
“Grand Madame Ouyang is the only remaining channel through which Sapaecheon can directly exert influence over the Sword Family!”
Yeon Bi nodded.
“To them, the Second Young Master is a ball that could bounce in any direction. Until now he has carefully avoided open conflict with Sapaecheon. But the moment his mother’s leash is cut, no one can predict what he might do.”
“In that case…” Kang Ho wet his dry lips. “We need one final contingency. We must prepare for the last desperate thrashing Grand Madame Ouyang will make once she is driven into a corner.”
“Precisely.”
Until that moment Kong Ryang had merely listened. Now the old man finally spoke.
“She will mobilize every political weapon still within her reach.”
Everyone swallowed hard. Kong Ryang bared his teeth in a thin smile.
“Our opponent is the daughter of Sapaecheon’s Lianzhu and the Grand Madame of the Luoyang Sword Family—an individual who wields staggering influence both inside and outside Luoyang. The scale and ferocity of her final struggle are beyond ordinary imagination.”
“Even so,” Kang Ho murmured, rubbing the nape of his neck where the hair stood on end, “we can at least narrow down her likely targets.”
Se-a spoke first.
“The Yongbongjihoe Arena construction site can be ruled out.”
Kang Ho nodded.
“Although the First Young Master holds administrative responsibility there, the site is effectively bound to the prestige of the entire Sword Family. Strike it, and the family itself will not sit idle.”
“Then…” Kong Dam-ung forced his thoughts into words. “What about the House of Compassion? It is practically the First Young Master’s living symbol—”
“Not the House of Compassion either.”
Se-a shook her head without hesitation.
“If the Second Young Master’s faction lays a hand on the House of Compassion, the poor of Luoyang will not remain quiet.”
Yeon Bi gave a bitter laugh.
“The riots and uprisings that once flared at the arena site would erupt across the entire city.”
“I… see.”
Kong Dam-ung wilted.
“The First Young Master’s allied houses are also unlikely targets,” Kang Ho said, pushing up his glasses. “Even if they poured everything into destroying them, the damage to the First Young Master would not be fatal. Then the next possibility—”
“No, wait.” Se-a raised a hand. “This method will never end. We should start from the opposite direction—identify the single most critical point on our side.”
“You’re right!”
Kang Ho nodded vigorously.
“The place where a blow would hurt us most…”
Yeon Bi muttered the words, then let out a dry chuckle.
“It is right here.”
“What?”
He spread his arms, encompassing the room and everything beyond its walls.
“This place. The Valley of Sin.”
“Ah… of course.” Se-a sighed. “Without question, the core of our entire enterprise is here.”
The success or failure of the Valley of Sin project would not end with the valley itself. It was the foundation stone for every vast undertaking still to come.
“That is why Eldest Brother has gathered so many ‘friends’ on the outside…”
The First Young Master had even drawn the two district magistrates who administered the valley onto his side. He had gone so far as to deploy catapults and eradicate the underworld forces that once held the upper reaches. All of it because the Valley of Sin remained, for all its importance, a place of profound vulnerability.
“Could they attempt a physical assault?”
Kang Ho shook his head at once.
“That would hand the Second Young Master’s faction far too large a justification. They would be torn apart from every direction.”
Yeon Bi folded his arms.
“Then a political offensive after all…”
“Almost certainly,” Kang Ho agreed.
“At this very moment the highest-ranking officials are quiet, their ears strained toward news from the imperial capital,” Se-a added. “But if Grand Madame Ouyang offers them a price they cannot refuse, there is no telling what they might do.”
Yeon Bi shuddered, remembering the early days of the project when bureaucratic harassment of every imaginable kind had nearly drowned them.
“She is fully capable of promising astronomical rewards and binding even the elders of our own family to her cause.”
Kang Ho frowned.
“Has the Valley of Sin project not already become financially independent of the Sword Family?”
“In terms of funding, yes.” Yeon Bi clicked his tongue. “But what if they claim the project harms the family’s interests? The elders could erase it with a single stroke, independent enterprise or not.”
“That is forced logic.”
“It depends entirely on how high a price that woman is willing to pay. If—”
“That is enough.”
Kong Ryang, who had listened to every word, let out a soft chuckle.
“It is true the Valley of Sin is our weakest point, and any blow landed there would send the greatest shock through us.”
Every gaze turned toward him.
“But,” he continued, a knowing smile curving his lips, “it seems you have all forgotten the lesson.”
Kang Ho looked puzzled.
“The lesson…?”
Kong Dam-ung wore the same blank expression—until Yeon Bi struck his own forehead.
“A king creates the future…!”
And he had also spoken of the vision and mindset required to move the world.
“Eldest Brother has already moved the world itself!”
Until that moment Yeon So-hyeon had sat in perfect silence. Now he finally opened his mouth.
“Correct.”
The Imperial Palace.
“…A holy land, you say?”
The Emperor’s question was met by Gang Sang’s firm affirmation.
“Yes, Your Majesty. Although the Fairy Cult has long been recognized as an official religion within the Central Kingdom, it still possesses no holy land of its own.”
Gongsun Na-gang smoothly took up the thread.
“Therefore, Your Majesty need only proclaim the Valley of Sin as the holy land of the Fairy Cult. It is a power inherent to the throne. Simply gather the ministers of the court and issue the proclamation.”
To hear Gang Sang and Gongsun Na-gang—once bitter rivals—speak with one voice was a strangely unsettling experience for the Emperor. There could be only one explanation.
“This is the First Young Master’s request, is it not?”
The man who had sent them to the Emperor’s side could only be the First Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Family.
“…It is so.”
Gang Sang’s manner as he answered seemed almost awkward. A man of such unbending integrity that he had once stripped naked and walked out of the palace rather than compromise had never before known how to deliver a petition.
“Heh heh, Your Majesty.” Gongsun Na-gang seized the opening at once. “In these present days the Fairy Cult has grown so vast across the Central Plains that its followers can no longer be counted. Moreover, they take the lead in relieving the poor and caring for the destitute. Even those who do not share the Fairy faith praise the name of the Fairy Cult.”
A lifetime spent as a eunuch had made him peerless at spinning words sweet enough to melt in an emperor’s ear.
“If Your Majesty bestows a holy land upon them and thereby rewards their merit, the myriad people under heaven will acclaim Your Majesty’s virtue—”
“Enough.”
The Emperor raised a hand, cutting the old eunuch short.
“What We require now is not flattering rhetoric designed to please the ear, but frank counsel born of true loyalty.”
Gongsun Na-gang flinched; Gang Sang tensed.
“Moreover…” The Emperor smiled. “Do you intend to make Us appear ungrateful?”
Gang Sang’s face brightened.
“Does that mean…?”
The Emperor gave a vigorous nod.
“At first light tomorrow We shall gather the ministers of the court and issue the proclamation.”
“Your Majesty!”
“Your boundless grace is beyond measure.”
“We wish to maintain a long and excellent relationship with the First Young Master. This small effort is nothing.” The Emperor waved a hand and asked, “A holy land—like Mount Song of the Shaolin Temple, or Mount Emei of the Emei Sect?”
“Exactly so.”
Gang Sang expanded on the point.
“Once a place is declared a religion’s holy land, all administrative authority over that territory is entrusted entirely to the religion in question.”
In other words, a holy land became an enclave administratively independent of the local government.
“…Magnificent. Truly magnificent.”
The Emperor smiled as understanding dawned.
“The First Young Master intends to transform that Valley of Sin into a domain no one else can touch—into his own absolute stronghold.”
He laughed with genuine delight.
“As expected of that man. Every single move transcends common sense!”
Luoyang.
“…The holy land of the Fairy Cult.”
For a long moment no one could find words. Then Kang Ho let out a short, incredulous laugh.
“A truly exquisite move.”
A holy land. A method of defense no one had imagined—a single stroke that nullified every political attack the enemy might launch.
“Come to think of it…!” Realization lit his face. “With this… it is checkmate.”
The pieces Yeon So-hyeon had set in motion had completed their defensive preparations. Their keen spear-points now rested against the throat of the enemy’s king—Grand Madame Ouyang herself.
“Indeed.”
Yeon Bi nodded and turned his gaze to the window.
“…At last, the end of this war is in sight.”
The sun was setting.