85. Journey Through the Martial World (1)
Journey Through the martial world (1)
85. Journey Through the martial world (1)
It had been a while since I came down to the village. On the off chance the main house had sent a letter, I stopped by the inn. I was now a full-fledged second-rate master. Even without the Flame Emperor's help, using Flame Blossom Steps, I could reach the village in an instant. But there was no letter from Jilin. Instead, Yongrim Escort Agency's Escort Captain Jeon had left a letter of thanks, saying the ceremony went well now that he had taken a wife.
"Hey. You heard the story about that Wang fellow, didn't you? The man would rather die than trust the White Tiger Sect, so he insisted on the mountain path. This time, a wolf bit his leg, and he ended up running into bandits who took his whole bundle."
The men at the table beside me. Their faces were already flushed from drink, presumably having finished their trading. They were talking about an unlucky colleague.
"He should have stopped being stubborn. That route takes five days, while going through the White Tiger Sect takes only two. Paying them two taels of silver and making twice as many round trips is far better."
"And that Yeongsan Lodge. After tasting the food there, doesn't the food at inns like this feel terribly lacking? According to the rumors, that cook of theirs—back in the White Tiger Fortress days, the fortress chief barely managed to kidnap a cook who worked for high officials and nobility, they say?"
The woman who supplied the cooking at Yeongsan Lodge was from a servant background in a great house. Rumors like that often contained a tiny grain of truth, even while being wildly off base.
"Hey, no way. If that were true, would the Martial Alliance have left the White Tiger Sect alone as they have? Anyway, I'm worried. Now that it's winter, camping is absolutely out of the question, and using the mountain fort costs seven silver taels, doesn't it?"
"Even now, it costs four silver taels. Using the mountain fort means free meals, so it's a three-tael difference in the end. And according to Old Man Jang, you get incredible hospitality if you use that mountain fort. What kind of hospitality it is, the man refuses to tell even on his deathbed."
"Hmph. What a stingy fellow. Anyway, I've visited Yeongsan Lodge several times, and Lodge Master Ban personally poured me a drink. What do you make of that?"
"Really? Lodge Master Ban herself? Well, now. I visit Yeongsan Lodge every month too."
This village had changed as much as Yeongsan Sect itself. The White Tiger Sect's emergence had altered the local traffic and logistics, and even commerce was now flourishing.
"Still, weren't they part of the Eighteen Green Forest Strongholds until just a short while ago? Aren't you worried?"
At that moment, a man from another table interjected abruptly.
"Worried, my foot. For people like us, the White Tiger Sect is far more comfortable. Think about it. Remember the Seven Fingers Sect that used to be in this area? Pretending to be martial artists, they'd go around throwing their weight around, and we had to watch our step constantly, didn't we? The White Tiger Sect is comfortable in that regard. They're people who serve us so long as we pay. However, they're martial artists beyond compare with the Seven Fingers Sect, so you absolutely must not cross the line.
"Not long ago, Old Man Kang grew arrogant while drunk, put his hand on Lodge Master Ban's backside, and asked how much she charged for a night. White Tiger Sect martial artists dragged him outside and beat him senseless. He was barred from using their services again and eventually had to leave for another region."
A solemn warning from the man. Actually, the one who did that wasn't a White Tiger Sect martial artist; it was me. At the time, Ban Ho-jeong was clicking an abacus in her head, thinking of squeezing one gold tael out of him. As settlement money, not a courtesan's fee, of course. Ban Ho-jeong, too, and our own Lee Eun-ha—why was it that such capable people rated their own worth so low?
"But is it true that if you pay silver, the White Tiger Sect will carry your heavy loads for you?"
A question from the man at the next table.
"True enough. Among us traveling peddlers, there's one fellow who deals in heavy ceramics. His shoulders hurt so badly that he screwed up his courage and gave it a try. He says he thought the money was too precious, so he loaded up three times his usual cargo, and they lifted it with one hand and carried it over."
"Then, could they manage a person?"
"A person?"
"My mother wishes to visit her maiden home. But her legs aren't sound, so the mountain path is absolutely out of the question. If we asked the White Tiger Sect, could they really do it?"
"You'd have to go and ask. Are we the White Tiger Sect?"
The merchants laughed as they finished speaking. I'd have to give the fellows at the reception post a heads-up on my way back. I paid for my drinks, rose from my seat, stopped by the marketplace to buy ten pieces of sugar candy, then returned to Yeongsan Sect. I stopped by the White Tiger Sect's reception post, where they now had people lining up to wait, and relayed a message: if that man came, they were to carry his mother on their backs. Then I unfurled Flame Blossom Steps and climbed the mountain path.
"Junior Brother!"
Cho-ryeong spotted me from a distance and greeted me joyfully. The moment I slowed my Flame Blossom Steps, the little girl charged at me with fearsome momentum. She was still unbelievably cute, but now she was a sprout with a heavy impact force that could lightly send an average grown man flying. The girl who once conjured thoughts of a pretty bell, as her name suggested, now called to mind a hammer you'd see at a construction site. She used to come flying into my arms with a poof; now she came flying with a bang, still beaming her bright smile.
Truly, this was a perilous world where if you neglected your martial training, a child's embrace alone could kill you.
Once the medicine hall was completed, the descendant of the Medicine Immortal, Lee Eun-ha, had taken the medicinal ingredients looted from the Heavenly Wolf Sect and the already completed spirit pills and turned them all into new elixirs. As a result, even this little Cho-ryeong now possessed twenty years' worth of internal energy. Even if the elixir contained all sorts of precious ingredients on par with a finished spirit pill, twenty years from one dose? It wasn't some mass-produced Small Reversion Pill. The Medicine Immortal wasn't called the Medicine Immortal for nothing. The only regret was that elixirs created resistance. This was true even of the Medicine Immortal's elixirs, so you couldn't keep taking them repeatedly to raise your internal strength. Had that been possible, the possessor of the greatest internal energy in the world would have come not from Wudang or Shaolin, but from the Imperial Household or a merchant magnate.
At any rate, Cho-ryeong now possessed internal strength far exceeding her age. Moreover, thanks to Geo Am's utmost devotion and her own outstanding aptitude, her Vajra Art was gradually reaching completion. Cho-ryeong had already surpassed the Second Stage and now had the Third Stage in view. She couldn't yet manifest Sword Qi, but a third-rate martial artist's blade couldn't so much as scratch her body. And because of the Vajra Art's properties, her smooth, glossy skin elevated Cho-ryeong's cuteness several times over.
"Ooh! Sugar candy!"
Cho-ryeong was absolutely delighted at the sight of the candy I was carrying. When she looked like this, she was still the same little sprout she'd been in the beginning. But if a children's martial arts tournament were held under heaven right now, wouldn't Cho-ryeong rank among the very top?
"You're back? Junior Brother?"
While everyone else was bundled in thick padded clothes, Jeong-hyang still wore her light, flowing Formal Martial Attire. The same was true of me. One might think a practitioner of the Flame Blossom Art, naturally immune to burns, would become resistant to heat but vulnerable to cold. Yet circulating even a little Flame Blossom Art surrounded me with pleasant warmth, allowing me to spend all four seasons comfortably. Jeong-hyang, who cultivated the Ice Soul Divine Art, likewise possessed passive resistance to cold and, where heat was concerned, functioned like a personal air conditioner with an active ability. During summer, everyone in Yeongsan Sect wanted to sleep beside her, so for a while I had been unable to enjoy her company. Perhaps because of the Ice Soul Divine Art, her already pale skin had grown even whiter, like a snow blossom.
"What about the others?"
"Master is discussing something with Sect Leader Byeokgeum. Junior Sister Son is in dreamland, and Junior Sister Lee is cooking."
Well, about the same as usual.
They had grown terrifyingly strong at a pace beyond my expectations. Spirit pills and peerless martial arts—I had known that those two things would make them powerful eventually. Yet disciples of prestigious sects enjoyed the same advantages. There was one thing about true great sects that even I, raised at Baek Clan Estate, had never understood: intensive instruction from a master. The masters who taught martial arts in great sects were certainly excellent teachers, but they were martial artists themselves and had to devote time to improving their own skills. They could not pour every hour into their disciples. Moreover, martial artists on the level of the Four Heroes would rank as elders senior even to the sect leader of a supreme first-rate sect. Such exalted figures would never personally guide young disciples from their very first steps. In family clans such as Murong or Baek Clan Estate, master and disciple were at least a generation apart. In most ordinary sects, Yeongsan included, the master might be only ten years older and was still merely a young martial artist herself.
After holding Cho-ryeong briefly, I slowly made my way into Yeongsan Sect. I'd been able to visit the village at this hour because the afternoon sessions of dynamic vision and fear-overcoming training had ended last month. I had finally visually grasped all twelve stages of the Moonlit Divine Sword. Even when faced with Geo Am's Mount Tai Strike, I could now watch it calmly, like an intensely gripping movie. Of course, blocking it with my own hands was still absolutely impossible. But since the Flame Emperor and Heosan were training my body on auto-mode, someday, I would at least be able to block Moon Immortal and Geo Am with my own hands, so long as they used only Sword Qi and not Martial Aura.
"Reporting. A new disciple has joined the White Tiger Sect. Sixty-one disciples now serve the Yeongsan Sect Leader."
Byeok-geum spoke in a booming voice. Hearing that men ten times our number were serving us, Master looked very troubled.
"You've worked hard, Sect Leader Byeok. They aren't doing anything bad, are they?"
"Of course not. Hahaha! They haven't the time for wrongdoing. We've now expanded our operations, and Seongsan Inn has begun business. They lack the Steward's cooking, but women with nowhere to go have come and are managing the kitchen. Around these parts, whenever the White Tiger Sect is mentioned these days, nothing but praise can be heard."
"I think that's a wonderful thing. Thank you for your hard work, Sect Leader Byeok."
Byeok-geum beamed brightly at Master's praise. Older than Master, he had likely never received such kindly praise before, so the man came to report to Master every day like an elementary school student. Honestly, I thought the matter of Seongsan Inn was well handled, too. The village maidens who had been dragged off to the Heavenly Wolf Sect that day—those besides our Yeongsan Sect members and Ban Ho-jeong. They had been able to preserve their chastity and return home safely. But those women, who had been taken by the wicked Heuk Cheon-gyeon, received not a welcome but disgust upon their return. They lacked a Chastity Mark. Naturally, the villagers and their families, assuming they had come back as violated playthings, persecuted them. Some even resented them, claiming the village had been attacked because of their presence.
In the end, unable to endure the persecution, the women put their faith in the rumors about White Tiger Sect and in the connection they'd formed with Ban Ho-jeong while imprisoned together in that dungeon. With no other plan, they sought out White Tiger Sect, and Ban Ho-jeong skillfully placed them at the newly opened Seongsan Inn. I'd heard that two of them, lonely and hurting, had fallen for men of White Tiger Sect now that the sect's income had become stable. But as many as five, disgusted by the unreasonable demand that they remain chaste, had quietly entered prostitution. It wasn't a perfectly happy ending.
"Hey, why're you bothering our Master again?"
When I spoke, Byeok-geum smiled at me cheerfully.
"A system of reporting is important. The Yeongsan Sect Leader will command many subordinates in the future, so we, as the first among them, must establish discipline now."
"Discipline? Don't make me laugh. What did you go and hit the Jeokseong Association for, then? Are they our subordinates, too?"
"No, you see, those bastards said it, didn't they? That it's a relief the White Tiger Sect moved into Yeongsan after that beggarly Yeongsan Sect collapsed and even the Seven Fingers Sect vanished. How could I stay still after hearing that?"
The White Tiger Sect had become the strongest power in this neighborhood. The Jeokseong Association, an unorthodox sect from the next area, had shown up to pay their respects, treading carefully. They'd offered one clumsy attempt at flattery, and now the Jeokseong Association had become Seongsan Inn.
"Aren't they unorthodox anyway? Trampling unorthodox bastards is the family business of your clan, isn't it, hyung?"
"You were unorthodox, too, not long ago. And if you're going to smash unorthodox bastards, smash the bandit types, not the ones quietly running a pleasure house. You lot ought to be good at finding well-hidden mountain fortresses."
"That's a little difficult."
Byeok-geum scratched his head.
"Why, got some sympathy left over since you're from the same trade?"
"That couldn't be. When you're bandits, it's essential to clear out the surrounding powers, isn't it? Baek Clan Estate does the same, don't they?"
"You cheeky bastard, you're treating Baek Clan Estate like bandits again?"
"Honestly, isn't it much the same? I learned by watching you, hyung. Even when doing the same thing, it's more comfortable to do it from the Orthodox Faction's side. Anyway, if we clear out the ones around here, who's going to use the White Tiger Sect's mountain path? We're doing this to earn a living, so please understand, hyung."
The more dangerous the local bandits were, the more people used the White Tiger Sect's services. He had a point. A paltry sense of justice mattered less than the local commercial ecosystem.