The Alliance (2)
News of the Jecheon Medical Manor convoy's departure was relayed to the other Kings almost immediately. The first to receive it was the Ghost King, Eum Gu-yeo.
"Is that so?"
Eum Gu-yeo sat where he was, lost in thought.
"How many were lost last night, you said?"
After a long silence, he lifted his head and asked.
"Half of them are dead."
"……."
Eum Gu-yeo frowned without a word.
His household was the Wuying Demonic Palace, one of the Four Mysterious Powers. The Peerless Red Flame Troop he had brought with him was the palace's elite. And that elite force of over a hundred hadn't even died fighting—they'd simply been killed.
It was enough to make him want to throw everything away in sheer irritation.
"How many are left?"
He wasn't asking because he didn't know.
"A hundred remain."
"Revenge with them is impossible, I take it?"
"The Jecheon Medical Manor wagons are under the escort of the Wisdom King and the Iron Phoenix Troop."
"So because they're being escorted, you're telling me to give up on revenge?"
"Not to give up, my lord—only that we should proceed with greater caution."
"How?"
"With our current hundred, it's too difficult, so we request reinforcements from the palace. Only, when they attack the Heavenly Physician Wagons, they'll disguise themselves as some other faction—not as Wuying Demonic Palace warriors."
"So we're merely cleaning up after what they've done?"
"Yes."
"Contact the palace at once and have them send the Mad Blood Shadow Troop."
"Understood."
Yu Ran nodded.
The Mad Blood Shadow Troop was so secretive that hardly anyone within the Wuying Demonic Palace itself knew of it. Rumors swirled—that it was composed of criminals, or of those who had gone mad failing to overcome the final stage of demonic cultivation—but nothing was known for certain. Outsiders didn't even know it existed. For this operation, it was the perfect organization.
"Until the Mad Blood Shadow Troop arrives, follow the Heavenly Physician Wagons quietly."
"Yes."
Yu Ran bowed her head and withdrew.
Before long, Yu Ran and the Peerless Red Flame Troop sped off after the Heavenly Physician Wagons. They were not alone. The forces of the other Kings, too, readied their full ranks and followed in the wagons' wake.
The first night passed with sentries posted until dawn, but no one attacked. They rose, ate at once, and set off immediately. The Jecheon Medical Manor warriors and the wanderers followed the wagons warily, eyes darting all around.
The most relaxed member of the entire company was Jin Yigang, the one man who knew no martial arts. He sat on the driver's seat, humming to himself as he whittled away at a stone.
Yu Bong-ji watched him with a look of utter disbelief.
"What?"
Sensing her gaze, Jin Yigang looked up. Even as he looked at her, his hands never stopped. He'd whittled so steadily by now that he could do it without watching. He dropped the finished stone into the box he carried everywhere for just this purpose.
"Everyone's wound tight as a bowstring, and you look like you're on holiday."
"Must be a difference in enlightenment."
"Enlightenment?"
"I've finally accepted that nothing in life or death goes the way I want it to."
"……."
"It means I let things take their course. Not that I've given up."
"Then what?"
"I'll struggle with everything I've got. That's why I'm making these, too."
Jin Yigang held up a stone.
"And if you die anyway, after all that?"
"Then so be it."
Jin Yigang nodded, all while whittling away without pause.
"Anyone watching would think you were peeling potatoes, you brat."
Yu Bong-ji said with a laugh.
"Didn't know I had a talent for it myself."
Jin Yigang grinned.
The wagons rolled on without rest. That night, too, there was no attack. Nor the night after.
Three days slipped by, and the fourth began.
"Two days left until the entrance to the Funiu Mountains, right?"
During a rest stop, Jin Yigang asked Ji Yak-ran.
"That's right."
"Right when it starts."
"You think they'll attack tonight?"
"By tomorrow, the ones being attacked will figure they only need to hold out one more day, so it gets hard. Yesterday or today was the ideal day, and since they didn't come yesterday, they'll come today. By the way, are you close with any of the Kings?"
"I am."
"Who?"
"The Flower King and the Enchanting King."
"Both women?"
"The Flower King is the next matriarch of the Sichuan Tang Clan, and the Enchanting King is the Emperor's cousin."
"Go ask to meet them."
"Meet them?"
"Yeah."
"They're not the sort who come running just because I ask."
"What if you offer them a quarter of the money riding on the bet?"
"A quarter?"
"Four people, so we split it four ways."
"It's three of us. Why four?"
"I'm here too, aren't I?"
"You?"
"Thanks to me, eight million nyang exists at all. My share should obviously be the biggest."
"……."
Ji Yak-ran stared at him, dumbfounded.
"Troop Leader Du!"
Jin Yigang called out to Du Cheon-hwa, who had been listening to their conversation nearby.
"What?"
Du Cheon-hwa said.
"Go set up the meeting!"
"You little……"
"If we don't hurry, we all die."
Du Cheon-hwa looked at Ji Yak-ran.
"Go on, then."
Ji Yak-ran nodded.
"As you command."
Du Cheon-hwa bowed her head and departed.
Word came back from Dang Chwi-ryeo and Xuanhuan Byeok about half a shijyeong later.
Using the rest period as cover, Jin Yigang and Ji Yak-ran slipped away from the wagons as casually as if stepping off to relieve themselves.
"You think there are spies?"
Jin Yigang asked, noting how covertly they were moving.
"We should plan assuming every single move we make reaches their ears."
Before long, the two arrived at the agreed meeting place. Dang Chwi-ryeo and Xuanhuan Byeok had each brought only one close attendant.
"Check whether anyone's hiding nearby."
At Jin Yigang's words, Ji Yak-ran spread the Thousand-Li Hearing Art and scanned the surroundings.
"No one but them."
"Let's go."
The two walked up to Dang Chwi-ryeo and Xuanhuan Byeok.
"I have a proposal."
Ji Yak-ran led the conversation.
"So you're offering us two million nyang?"
Dang Chwi-ryeo asked after hearing them out.
"Yes."
Ji Yak-ran nodded.
"Giving up the chance to keep it all for yourself can't have been easy?"
"Life matters more than money. What will it be?"
"Very well."
Dang Chwi-ryeo accepted without hesitation.
"I'm in as well."
Following Dang Chwi-ryeo, Xuanhuan Byeok nodded too.
"Six to three. If only we could pull in one more……"
Jin Yigang murmured under his breath, then looked at Ji Yak-ran.
"There are no more."
"What about the others?"
"Men don't much care for women who outshine them."
Ji Yak-ran said.
"Pathetic bastards. They all came out of a woman's belly, and yet……"
Jin Yigang clicked his tongue softly.
At that, Dang Chwi-ryeo fixed him with a long, steady stare. Their eyes met.
"You didn't become a King on your face alone, did you?"
"Oh my! Listen to this brat talk!"
"No, wait—if they'd picked you for your pretty face, you'd be Emperor, not a King."
"Ha—!"
Dang Chwi-ryeo, who had been glaring at him, broke into a wide smile.
"Hehehehe! You've got quite the eye for people, don't you?"
"Thanks to five years of taking the X-Ray Vision Pill, I can see every ant crawling through a forest at midnight."
"Ugh!"
Ji Yak-ran's face twisted.
"Your eyes, I acknowledge! I acknowledge!"
Dang Chwi-ryeo smirked at Jin Yigang.
"My lady."
A woman who looked to be in her late sixties barked sternly. She was Dang Mun-ok, Blood Slaughter Granny, Troop Leader of the Sichuan Tang Clan's Poison Sword Troop.
"This brat really is frighteningly clever, isn't he."
Dang Chwi-ryeo said.
"Fifty men of the Poison Sword Troop died because of him, my lady."
"Granny! Have you lost your mind? How was that my fault?"
"If you hadn't set that fire, they would not have died."
"Did you see me set it, Granny?"
"……."
Dang Mun-ok had no answer.
"Nobody knows who set that fire. Could've been me. Could've been the granny."
"You set a fire knowing our own people would die?"
"That's why they call it the bitter-flesh stratagem. And the Wisdom King here didn't lose a single subordinate. Doesn't that make her a very likely arsonist too? No?"
"Why are you dragging me into this, you brat!"
Ji Yak-ran snapped.
"If you're going to pin a crime on someone, you bring evidence. That's called the principle of evidence, and it's the foundation of governance. Convicting people by brute force with no proof—that's tyranny. Rule the world that way, and before long you'll be coughing up everything you now hold."
"The old Emperor's remnants lack the power to drive us out."
Xuanhuan Byeok, who had been listening, said.
"The ones who'll drive you out aren't them."
"Then who?"
"The common people."
"Commoners with no martial arts are going to drive us out?"
Xuanhuan Byeok asked, incredulous.
"You didn't know that much yet?"
"Anyone who comes at us dies."
"Then no one will be left to call you Kings. And in the end, the Empire itself will fall."
"……."
Xuanhuan Byeok could not answer.
"On the surface, it looks like a single hero carries the world on his back. But that's only true when the commoners—the ones you call dogs and cattle—acknowledge that hero. If the commoners refuse, a hero can never become their master. So the hero begins to oppress them. At first, oppression works. But once there's nothing left to concede and nowhere left to retreat, they begin to resist. It's what you'd casually call anger. From that moment, the angry commoners become one, and the most terrifying force in the world. A mob of the enraged can never be broken. Know why? Because they're people with nothing left to lose."
"……."
"Now, let's discuss where they'll strike. I'm going to declare that tonight's camp will be Jehu Ridge. So then……"
The four of them talked it through.
When the discussion ended, Jin Yigang and Ji Yak-ran returned to the wagons—by separate routes, so as not to be seen together.
"Let's go."
Jin Yigang climbed onto the wagon.
"We move out!"
"We move out!"
As Jin Yigang mounted his horse, the troop leaders shouted the order to their soldiers. Everyone at rest rose and formed up around the Heavenly Physician Wagons.
"Hyah!"
Jin Yigang cracked the reins.
Neigh!
With a whinny, the wagons surged forward.