Flies Gather Where There's Dung
As I'd mentioned before, just as flies swarm to where there's dung, people swarm to where there's money.
The same held true for Beom-jin.
He had already formed a contract with the Ju family long before I was born and faithfully transported their gold.
As befitting a merchant, he was exceptionally sharp with calculations.
After transporting gold several times, he discovered a critical flaw in the entire structure.
Namely, that the Ju family was far more ignorant about business than anyone would have expected.
Beom-jin had sweet-talked the miners of the Zhushan Archipelago and turned them to his side.
He gradually began hoarding gold, converting it into money, and piling up enormous wealth.
The gold mines of the Zhushan Archipelago were vast beyond imagination.
So vast that even if he skimmed for over a decade, no one would notice.
Using that foundation, he even brought the warriors of the Red Dragon Unit to his side.
The miners were happy to earn more money, and the Red Dragon Unit was more than satisfied with the juicy side income.
It was a situation where everyone was content.
Of course, as long as the Ju family never caught on.
The regular warriors of the Red Dragon Unit rotated frequently through personnel changes and shift work, but the unit leaders remained constant.
The man currently fighting Muyoung was someone who had essentially settled down on the Zhushan Archipelago.
Yet not everyone had sided with Beom-jin.
There were those whose consciences pricked them.
People who felt self-reproach for embezzling the Ju family's money while working under their banner.
Such individuals had begun to appear.
Beom-jin had no choice but to silence their mouths.
If he wanted to survive.
If the Myo-ak Trading Company wanted to survive.
“So what exactly is this silencing you keep mentioning?”
It had been a long-winded explanation.
Even from the rough outline, it was clear that a significant number of people were involved in this dirty business.
There was no need for further detail.
“W-well, that is… to say…”
Beom-jin hesitated.
The way his eyes kept darting toward Muyoung told me he was staking everything on the outcome of that fight.
If the unit leader won, there would be no reason to tell me anything.
“Why? You think you’re going to win?”
“……”
At my words, Beom-jin’s eyes shook violently for a moment.
“You’d better wake up from that dream.”
Muyoung’s sword rushed in like a streak of light.
Fast. Heavy. Accurate without the slightest gap.
Clang! Clang-clang!
Sparks flew ceaselessly between the clashing blades as the two men exchanged a frantic barrage of strikes.
Swish!
The unit leader couldn’t regain his composure against Muyoung’s whip-like sword strikes.
Just who the hell is this bastard?
He couldn’t even consider attacking and could only focus on parrying.
The moment he let his guard down even slightly, blood lines would be carved across his body in an instant.
Ju Woo-jin’s guard.
The watchdog of the family’s notorious idiot, the family’s trash, possessed martial prowess of this caliber?
It made no sense.
He himself had stood at the Peak realm for roughly three years now.
By contrast, even the most generous assessment placed Muyoung at the extreme of First-rate.
Yet he could not break through Muyoung’s sword strikes.
“Your sword tip is trembling, unit leader.”
Muyoung spoke in a voice thick with killing intent.
His eyes were utterly calm and ice-cold.
It meant the momentum had already shifted entirely to his side.
It was then.
A certain memory suddenly surfaced in the unit leader’s mind.
Could this guy be…
It was several years ago, wasn’t it?
There had been a very famous anecdote within the family.
One that circulated often even among the Red Dragon Unit members dispatched from the main house.
They said an absurd monster had joined at barely twenty years of age.
It’s him. That guy became the youngest young master’s guard.
They said he possessed frightening tenacity.
So much so that even when the Ju family’s law enforcement unit tried to recruit him for his exceptional skill, he had chosen to guard Woo-jin—a position little better than a dead-end post.
Of course, the reason was unknown.
What the unit leader remembered was that the man was a genius coveted by the law enforcement unit, and that this genius had willingly crawled into a cesspit.
So that’s why they wanted him.
The unit leader realized with each passing moment that the fight was turning increasingly against him.
That monstrous stamina.
They had been exchanging blows for nearly half a shichen, yet Muyoung’s breathing remained perfectly steady, without the slightest tremor.
His own breathing, by contrast, was growing rough.
Strangely, Muyoung found the fight easier than expected.
The unit leader was clearly a practitioner treading a higher realm.
Even considering pure physical strength alone, one could not step into the Peak realm without perfect harmony of mind, energy, and body.
Yet an anomaly was occurring right now.
After following the young master around…
The opponents he had faced were all overwhelming monsters.
It had been the same with Kunlun’s Dogon, and the same with the Cheongsu-in he confronted while capturing the Blood Hand Poison Emperor.
After being beaten black and blue by such beings, it seemed his combat sense had sharpened far more than he realized.
A blue current coalesced at the tip of Muyoung’s sword. The blue sword qi struck the unit leader’s blade and sent it flying in a single blow.
“Keuk!”
In the end, one of the unit leader’s knees buckled.
He stared up at Muyoung with eyes full of disbelief.
Crunch!
Muyoung immediately drove his sword down through the back of the unit leader’s hand, pinning it to the ground.
“Damn it……”
The unit leader realized he had been utterly defeated without even being able to lift a finger.
Even though the unit leader had fallen, it wasn’t over.
This was the Myo-ak Trading Company.
When a commotion erupted in the office where the company head himself resided, the warriors naturally came running.
The reason these men possessed such high martial skills compared to other trading companies had roughly revealed itself.
They had been committing dirty deeds in the shadows; this was the bare minimum preparation for such work.
However, they could not rush forward.
Beom-jin, his face deathly pale, had blocked them from stepping in.
Soon afterward, Beom-jin confessed everything.
When promised that he could at least keep his life if he simply told the truth, he had spilled everything without hesitation.
The words that poured from his mouth were truly appalling.
What else could silencing mean?
Dead men tell no tales.
Beom-jin and the Red Dragon Unit members aligned with him had eliminated every single person who might interfere with their scheme.
The problem lay in the method.
The black path forces that had appeared so frequently on the Zhushan Archipelago—if their movements had been deliberately orchestrated by Beom-jin all along?
“These crazy bastards.”
Muyoung spat out the curse, his anger surging without restraint.
Weren’t these people worse than the black path itself?
No, the black path might even deserve pity in comparison.
Muyoung immediately loaded the unit leader and Beom-jin into separate prepared carriages.
He intended to escort them back to the Ju family.
Even after the escort preparations were complete, I could not easily leave the place.
Why?
For what reason?
The contents of the diary Sa-an Gwi-gun had left behind continued to weigh on my mind.
Victims.
Perhaps the one who had created the monster known as Sa-an Gwi-gun was… our Ju family.
It was a day filled with far too many thoughts.
The Ju family had been thrown into complete turmoil.
Even the elders had all gathered inside the Sword Soul Hall.
I recounted every detail of the atrocities committed by Beom-jin and the Red Dragon Unit’s leader, whom we had captured the previous night.
“……”
Beom-jin and the unit leader knelt and prostrated themselves in the center of the Sword Soul Hall.
Before them stood the Sword Sovereign, Ju Tae-sung.
“You have disgraced our family.”
“The gold mines of the Zhushan Archipelago belong to the family. Restore them to their original state at once. If anyone dares to embezzle for personal gain after this… their head will be severed.”
After a long period of contemplation, Ju Tae-sung finally spoke.
Shing!
When he reached out, his cherished blade—the Tiger White Pointed Sword that hung upon the wall—flew into his grasp.
Using the marvelous art of seizing objects through empty air, Ju Tae-sung grasped the sword and immediately beheaded the unit leader.
Slash!
Blood splattered across the floor of the Sword Soul Hall.
It was a merciless execution.
The great elder shook his head at the sight.
Ju Tae-sung then issued a furious warning to the elders.
The power contained in his calm voice carried an absolute authority that no one could defy.
By executing the unit leader in a single stroke, he had suppressed any internal unrest before it could grow noisy.
So that no further words could leak out.
But… I was not satisfied.
“Is that the end?”
I had been called to the meeting as a witness.
At my words, every gaze in the hall turned toward me.
My second uncle glanced at the other elders and tried to restrain me, while the rest of the elders wore deep frowns.
“Where do you think you are right now!”
“What do you mean, is that the end? How dare you question the family head’s decision…!”
I let out a small sigh.
“An individual has embezzled the family’s property. The grudges of those who died in the process… cannot be revived or undone, can they?”
“Hah, so this boy is simply taking the word of a mere merchant as truth and recklessly running his mouth!”
“Recklessly? Why are you becoming so agitated? Perhaps this elder was the one who gave the orders?”
I directed a cold stare at the elder who had spoken—Ju Tae-geon.
He belonged to the faction that openly and strongly supported Ju Sang-jin.
Naturally, our relationship could not be amicable.
“Hah, how dare you! To insult the elders during this sacred council! There is a limit to the leniency granted simply because you are young!”
“If it is not true, then it is not true. Why are you getting so worked up?”
I asked with a mocking smile.
Ju Tae-geon’s face flushed crimson.
Since my words rang true, he could only stutter in confusion without offering any real response.
I turned my gaze back to my father.
“So what do you believe we should do?”
It was unexpected.
Ju Tae-sung asked a question in return, as if he had been waiting for it.
“We must root them out. Find out exactly how many died there and how much wealth was embezzled. Investigate everything and—”
“And after that?”
“Pardon?”
Ju Tae-sung let out a small sigh.
“I asked what you would do after that.”
“Well… after catching them, we should punish them, should we not?”
“What if those opponents are the family’s elders… and blood-related kin?”
At those words, the elders’ expressions twisted.
I spoke with an even colder tone.
“If it were me, I would punish them even more decisively.”
As I spoke, I glanced toward the unit leader who lay dead and bleeding.
It meant that, depending on the situation, I would not hesitate to kill.
Petty justice?
No.
This was no different from betrayal of the family.
I already knew how catastrophic the consequences of an internal traitor could be.
Therefore, I had no desire to experience it again.
To be blinded by mere money, steal the family’s assets, and eliminate everyone connected to the crime?
This was proof that such people could betray again at any moment.
“Ahem. Do not presume that one of us committed this act.”
Ju Tae-geon’s predictable words.
“It is reckless to corner us based on the statement of a trading company head who has already committed grave crimes.”
The elders’ reactions were uniform.
“Is this the justice of the orthodox path you believed in?”
In the end, Ju Tae-sung stepped forward and cut the discussion short.
“Justice?”
Laughter burst from me the moment I heard the word.
“Does something like that save my life?”
“What?”
It must have been an unexpected answer, for Ju Tae-sung’s brows furrowed.
“I have no interest in justice or any such thing. Only…”
I swept my gaze across the elders.
“Traitors must die.”
“……”
The hall fell silent.
These people did not know the Demonic Cult.
They did not yet understand its terror.
The family must stand united, grow solid and fierce.
Even then, it was uncertain whether we could oppose the Demonic Cult.
Yet it was already rotting from within.
If pus is left alone, it spreads to the surrounding flesh.
Therefore, it must be squeezed out quickly and the wound sutured.
“I share the same opinion, Lord.”
At that moment, someone opened the door to the Sword Soul Hall and entered.
A familiar voice.
It was my eldest brother, Ju Seung-hyeok.
He looked at me and smiled gently.
Then, after offering a polite fist salute before the family head and the elders, he stood at father’s side.
“What is the meaning of this…!”
Just as elder Ju Tae-geon was about to erupt again, father spoke first.
“From now on, the eldest young master will participate in all elders’ meetings, family head meetings, and every major unit-level conference within the family.”
“……”
At those words, the elders stirred all at once.
Only the great elder Ju Sang-geon—who had shown no interest in internal power struggles or political fights—nodded with a glint in his eyes.
“Any objections?”
There could be none.
The Sword Soul Hall fell as silent as a grave.