Third-Rate (21) — A Bet When You're Bored (3)
Thud!
A chilling sound escaped the masked man's throat. Buried in his neck was the Red Thunder that Jin Yigang had received from the old woman Yu Bong-ji.
'The first thing you do when you stand up to take a piss isn't attacking, kid — it's pulling your pants up.'
Jin Yigang wiped the blood from his dagger and slid it back into his coat.
'But, hmm...?'
He tilted his head. The martial artist's movements were slow — far too slow. He could see plainly what move the man would make next.
'Gul Han-so's bastards — better off not showing up at all. Anyway...'
He shook his head and moved on.
"Anyway, when do we leave? Might as well head to the river first."
Jin Yigang turned toward the water.
"Everyone, rest where you are — don't scatter. And Mak Hong, Vice Chief Na, come here a moment."
Na Seok-jin and Mak Hong came over to Je Hayeong.
"That route looks like it'll be trouble."
Je Hayeong pointed toward the danger.
"Shall I look for another path?"
Na Seok-jin asked.
"Yes. Scout the rear and see if we can take a different route."
"Understood."
Mak Hong and Na Seok-jin shot off toward the rear with the scouting party.
"I'll go take a look at something big myself."
One of the seated men rose and left. These were among the newly joined recruits — and he wasn't the only one. Claiming they needed to relieve themselves, seven more stood up and drifted away.
The first man to leave glanced back at the Heavenly Physician Wagons, then walked to the riverside. Once he confirmed no one had followed, he sprinted straight for the water.
A short while later he reached the sandbank and ran upstream.
After a long run, a small boat came into view — a skiff flying a white flag bearing the character for Ran.
A curtain hung across the middle of the boat, hiding whoever was aboard. The boatman held his oar in the water, doing nothing more than keeping the craft from drifting with the current.
The man leapt straight for the boat.
"Sa-sun, my lord."
He bowed the moment he stepped aboard.
"Report."
A low voice came from within. The one sipping tea inside was the Ghost King, Eum Gu-yeo.
"Roughly two hundred have joined the convoy."
"I know that. Are there any martial artists among them worth watching?"
"Men who appear to be the Absolute Five Venerables have joined, as well as the Three Monsters."
"The Absolute Five Venerables, you say?"
Eum Gu-yeo's eyes widened as he raised his teacup.
The Absolute Five Venerables: the Demon Venerable Na Hu-jeok, the Blood Venerable Nang Baek, the Evil Venerable U-mun Heo, the Spirit Venerable Yu Bong-ji, and the Death Venerable Si Mu-yeong — five legends of the jianghu.
They had last appeared fifty years ago. In barely a single year, all five had climbed into the ranks of the Ten Great Masters of the martial world, claiming the title of Venerable — an honor supposedly reserved only for the eldest of masters.
Then, as if by a lie, they had vanished. Ten years after their rise. Countless theories swirled about their disappearance, but nothing was ever confirmed.
"Yes."
Sa-sun nodded.
"...Say nothing about them to anyone."
"Understood."
"Anything else to report?"
"Je Suryong — Je Unseong's adopted son from the Geomseonin — fell behind during the retreat."
Sa-sun reported on Jin Yigang because Eum Gu-yeo had ordered him watched.
"If he fell behind, then he's somewhere in this gorge?"
"Yes."
Death was a possibility, of course — but that was a judgment for his lord Eum Gu-yeo to make, not Sa-sun's place.
Eum Gu-yeo's gaze shifted to the Iron Lioness, Yu Ran.
"Shall I order him captured alive?"
Yu Ran asked.
"Mm."
"Understood."
Yu Ran went outside.
Shortly after, she returned with a message slip in hand.
"I've dispatched the order to take him alive. But this just arrived."
Yu Ran held up the slip.
"Who sent it?"
"His Highness the Great King."
She held it out. The slip was sealed, and the tool used to press the wax bore the Great King's seal.
"So he came in person, did he?"
Eum Gu-yeo broke the wax.
Come upstream.
— The Great King
The slip bore only a few short words.
"Let's go up."
Eum Gu-yeo called out.
"Yes, my lord."
The boatman rowed at once.
"Sa-sun, return to your post."
"My lord."
Sa-sun bowed, drew back the curtain, and stepped out. The boat was drifting slowly upstream.
"My thanks for the ride."
Sa-sun saluted the boatman and leapt away. In a single bound he covered ten zhang and landed on the riverbank.
"If the Great King himself has moved, then everything must be ready?"
Eum Gu-yeo asked.
"I would think so. He may well have invited all the others too."
After rowing upstream for about the time it takes to finish a meal, an enormous structure that looked like a pavilion came into view. Several small boats had been lashed together side by side, planked over to make a flat deck, with a great tent raised on top. Eum Gu-yeo stood before the skiff, hands behind his back, gazing at the tent. Armed guards stood watch around it.
"Impressive."
He smiled faintly.
Only the Great King Namgung Won-mu could have managed this, he thought. He did not move until the boat arrived.
"Welcome, Your Highness."
As the boat docked, an armed man approached and bowed. The man, in his mid-forties, was one of Namgung Won-mu's closest aides — the Azure Sky Immortal Demon Sword, Namgung Ji-yong.
"The Great Commander's presence grows more imposing by the day."
Eum Gu-yeo studied Namgung Ji-yong quietly.
The Namgung Clan he knew was a sword clan, one of the Five Great Families, as renowned as the Wudang or Mount Hua Sects — no, it had produced even more famous swordsmen than either. The prevailing wisdom in the jianghu held that had the Namgung Clan become a sect instead of remaining a family, it would have grown into a power greater than Wudang or Mount Hua alike.
Befitting a man of such a house, the aura Namgung Ji-yong carried was formidable.
"You flatter me."
"Skilled as you are, and humble on top of it — I have nothing left to say. If the Great King ever treats you poorly, come find me anytime."
"......."
Namgung Ji-yong only bowed his head in silence.
"Am I the first?"
Eum Gu-yeo asked.
"Everyone has arrived."
"Just as I thought. My thanks."
Eum Gu-yeo waved a hand and went inside.
Eight people sat within the tent, drinking tea. Eum Gu-yeo swept his gaze over them quickly. He was gauging their martial cultivation.
'Nothing has changed.'
A faint smile touched his lips and vanished. No one seemed different from the past.
'Well, they've already reached the summit. It would be stranger if they had changed.'
"It has been a while."
Eum Gu-yeo offered a cupped-fist salute.
"Welcome."
A man who appeared to be in his late thirties greeted him with a smile. A remarkably handsome man — the Sword God, Namgung Won-mu, first disciple of Hwonwon Chiguk and the Great King. Hailed as the finest talent the Namgung Clan had ever produced, he was a great swordsman who had earned the title of Sword God despite his youth.
In the old days they would have spoken down to one another, but having become Kings — the highest rank beneath the Emperor — they now used a half-formal register out of mutual respect.
"It has been a while indeed."
After Namgung Won-mu, a man of medium build greeted him. Not tall, but radiating a ferocious aura — the Light King, the Small Heavenly Sword King, Xuanhuan Man-so.
"You've been at it rather hard, I hear."
Eum Gu-yeo said.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Word is you train your martial arts without so much as pausing for breath."
"Kukukuk! Clever folk like you can afford to coast, but I can't, can I? A bad mind has to be made up for with effort."
"Wear your body out like that and you may not live to see the good world come."
"If I fail to see it, it won't be my body's fault — it'll be yours lot's."
"You think we would harm the Light King?"
"Isn't it only natural?"
"That will never happen — but if the chance ever came to the Light King, what would you do?"
"I would never let it slip away."
Xuanhuan Man-so let a flicker of killing intent show.
Swaak!
The killing intent became the Desolation Breaking Fist and shot toward Eum Gu-yeo.
Seuseuseu!
But before it reached him, it melted away like snow.
'Huh?'
Xuanhuan Man-so's eyes went wide. He stared at Eum Gu-yeo with a look of genuine surprise.
"I haven't merely been idling either."
Eum Gu-yeo smiled faintly and turned to the woman seated beside Xuanhuan Man-so. A woman whose entire body radiated demonic bewitchment — the Enchanting King, the Nine Heavens Mysterious Maiden, Xuanhuan Byeok. Her face remained hidden behind a veil.
"Just when do you intend to show us what's under that veil?"
Eum Gu-yeo asked.
"When you are ready to throw your life away, then you may ask to see it."
A voice with an eerie resonance, as if echoing from deep inside a cave, drifted out from behind the veil.
"I'll content myself with the voice, then."
Eum Gu-yeo shifted his gaze to the woman across from Xuanhuan Byeok.
"It's been a long time."
A woman as radiant as a flower in full bloom greeted him first. Clad in clothes that clung to her body, her voluptuous figure on full display — the Flower King, Flower Peak, Dang Chwi-ryeo. Her backing was, if anything, greater than Namgung Won-mu's own.
The Sichuan Tang Clan was a single family, yet so formidable it was called a sect in its own right. In poison, it was second to none under heaven. The Tang Clan had two defining traits: its matriarch was always a woman, and its grudges were repaid with a thoroughness that dug all the way to the grave.
So thorough, in fact, that a saying arose: you may make an enemy of the whole world, but never earn the Tang Clan's hatred.
"The Flower King seems to bloom more fully by the day."
"Not blooming — wilting, more like."
"What a harsh thing to say..."
"And the Ghost King grows more alluring by the day, it seems."
"Well, perhaps so......."
Eum Gu-yeo shrugged.
Then his gaze moved to the remaining four. The man with the air of a brewing storm was the Battle King, the Battle Divine Demon, Jeok Sa-in; the pure, elegant beauty was the Wisdom King, the Phoenix Divine Maiden, Ji Yak-ran.
Ji Yak-ran was also the next matriarch of the Phoenix Divine Maiden Sect. The giant beside her left was the Power King, the Giant Spirit God, Sam Gwang-ho; and the wretched, disheveled man seated next to Sam Gwang-ho was the Wild King, the Saber Ghost, Gul Han-so.
If forced to name the single most dangerous of the eight gathered here, Eum Gu-yeo would not hesitate: Gul Han-so. With nearly everyone else, you could read something of their inner workings — with Gul Han-so, you could read nothing at all. Not even his origins were known.
That was why he had long since marked him as the first to eliminate should they ever become enemies. He exchanged greetings with the others and took his seat. The moment he sat, tea was served.
"Greetings are done, so let's get straight to business. I called you all here for two reasons. First......."
"Let's do the light matter first."
Eum Gu-yeo cut in.
"Very well. Then let's start with the Geomseonin."
"You mean Je Suryong?"
Xuanhuan Byeok asked.
"So you know of him. Yes. According to my intelligence, that man Je Suryong is one of three people who may possess the Invincible Fist King Great Earth manual that went into the convoy."
"That much everyone here already knows. But I know one thing more."
Xuanhuan Byeok said.
"What?"
Namgung Won-mu asked.
"That he placed first in the Imperial Examination."
"First in the Empire?"
Every eye turned to Xuanhuan Byeok.
"Yes."
She nodded.
"First in the Empire, you say?"
Xuanhuan Man-so spoke with scorn in his voice.
"To pass the final examination, one must break through odds of three thousand five hundred to one — and then among the four hundred who cleared that hurdle, he took first place. If a man like that isn't a great talent, who is?"
"Call him a talent all you like — he's still nothing but a bookish scholar who knows no martial arts. Catching such a fellow is easier than flipping your palm."
"Hmm. I see it differently."
"Then how about we make a wager of it?"
Sam Gwang-ho proposed.
"A wager?"
The whole company turned to him at once.
"A million nyang apiece, on the table. Then whoever catches the bastard takes the nine million for himself."
"Well now — I was just getting bored. Perfect timing."
Xuanhuan Man-so broke into a wide grin.