The Treasure Calls the Warriors (3)
"They have set out."
A man in gray bowed his head and made his report. Before him stood a devastatingly handsome figure dressed in black from head to toe, hands clasped behind his back.
The man looked to be in his mid-to-late thirties.
From that tall, striking, well-proportioned frame — the very picture of the charming fellow next door — an immense energy radiated, one that utterly crushed everything around it.
It was no ordinary aura, but something dank and dark. Demonic qi.
"Who is escorting them?" the handsome man asked.
"Those known as the Nine Kings."
"You mean the disciples of Hwonwon Chiguk are escorting the Cheon-uigeo?"
"Yes. Roughly two thousand strong."
"Their destination is Mount Laojun, I take it?"
"It is."
"Have you confirmed the Immortal Jade Decree?"
"We could not. But it is certainly among the goods they carry."
"And the ones who destroyed the Five Vices of Heavenly Cripples?"
"Paegon Maja Mu Daebo, and a man called Je Suryong."
"Who is Je Suryong?"
"The adopted son of Je Unseong, patriarch of the Jecheon Medical Manor."
"Adopted son?"
"Yes. They say he took an adopted son for the sole purpose of sending him on the punitive expedition. The man's true name is Jin Yigang."
"D-did you just say Jin Yigang?"
A monstrous energy erupted from every inch of the man's body, and jet-black qi spread in all directions like a burning sunset.
"Krrruuugh!"
The reporting man was driven backward, doubled at the waist. A moment later, the man reined his energy back in.
"Jin Yigang... so the man who handed me, Danmok Cheon-ri, my first-ever defeat has now become a man of the jianghu?"
Astonishing words.
Danmok Cheon-ri.
The eldest son of the Heavenly Pivot Danmok Clan, the greatest family in Beijing, he had been hailed a prodigy from childhood, and by the age of ten he had already earned the epithet Heavenly Pivot's Number One Brain. At twenty, those around him pressed him to sit the imperial examinations, but he refused, claiming his studies were still lacking. That, however, was not the real reason.
He had never once doubted he would place first.
What Danmok Cheon-ri and his father desired was to pass all seven examinations — the county, prefecture, annual, academy, provincial, metropolitan, and palace exams — every single one in the top grade.
Only one man in the entire Yuan dynasty had ever swept all seven examinations in first place, and no one had managed it in the new empire.
And so, each time the examinations drew near, he scouted for geniuses, and whenever someone exceptional surfaced, he postponed his own sitting. When a prodigy took the exams, word traveled fast, so ferreting them out was never difficult.
He delayed thus for ten years — and then the perfect opportunity arrived.
The result was exactly as he had foreseen.
He passed the county, prefecture, annual, academy, and provincial examinations, every one in first place. He heard rumors of another who had swept every exam in first place just as he had, but paid it no mind. The metropolitan examination, the final hurdle, could be turned into a first-place finish whenever he wished with the power of the Heavenly Pivot Danmok Clan behind him.
But the bastard seized the zhuangyuan — the top spot — and he himself was relegated to second place, the bang'an.
That even his clan's power could not overturn the ranking meant one thing: the gap between their scores had been considerable.
It was the first true setback of his life.
So crushing was that frustration that he had even welcomed the world being turned upside down.
"This time, I will not lose. Never again."
Danmok Cheon-ri clenched his fist with all his strength.
"Nine Demons!"
Danmok Cheon-ri spoke quietly toward the darkness at his back.
"Yes."
With that answer, nine figures emerged and closed in around him. The energy rolling off their bodies was no less than Danmok Cheon-ri's own. No — in raw power alone, it was greater still.
Good heavens... the Nine Demons of the Demonic Cult.
The reporting man groaned under his breath.
— The Orthodox Path has Imperial Heaven; the Demonic Path, the Demonic Cult; the Heretic Path, the Blood Cult.
In the Orthodox Path there was Imperial Heaven; in the Demonic Path, the Demonic Cult; in the Heretic Path, the Blood Cult. No one could say precisely when those words first spread through the jianghu, but they had been passed down without interruption ever since.
Of the three powers, the most famous was the Demonic Cult — for it was the sect that had produced the Heavenly Demon, revered as the founding ancestor of the demonic path. The cult had waned after the Heavenly Demon's day, yet it had endured unbroken through the generations, ever producing absolute masters, and the Nine Demons of the Demonic Cult stood among them.
The Nine Demons above all were absolute powerhouses, spoken of as the strongest to emerge in five hundred years.
And such men had appeared here.
Ma Ya, Shin Gon, Jon Ma, Noryong, Sayu, Bi Geom, Dok Ji, Hyeolsu, Eunjo — the nine known by these names had blazed briefly across the world before vanishing like a mirage.
Of the Nine Demons, the three elders Ma Ya, Shin Ma, and Jon Ma could be called their leaders.
Ma Ya, the eldest, had a face so densely packed with wrinkles and age spots that he looked to have lived several hundred years. Shin Ma, from his robes to his every gesture, evoked a proud, noble scholar — a stately, dignified figure in middle age. Jon Ma was the largest of the Nine Demons, an old man with a thoroughly masculine bearing; compare him to an animal, and he was a brown bear. Noryong wore his hair in wild disarray, and his explosive, volatile presence suited that unruly mane perfectly. Sayu was quiet, barely there at all.
Bi Geom looked sharp and nimble, while Dok Ji had a long face and a high-strung, irritable air. Hyeolsu was the shortest and smallest of the company, and Eunjo was a woman wearing a bird-shaped mask.
"You say the Nine Kings are escorting the Cheon-uigeo. No — not the Cheon-uigeo itself, but the ones carrying the cargo loaded aboard it."
"And we are to destroy them and recover the treasure map and the goods?" Ma Ya asked.
"Just so. The Nine Demons will take the south. The north belongs to our Heavenly Department."
Danmok Cheon-ri nodded.
"How shall we communicate?"
"Word will pass twice a day through the Flying Bird Unit."
The Flying Bird Unit was one of the special detachments under Danmok Cheon-ri's command, charged with communications.
"The first operation will unfold at Cloud Ridge."
"What manner of place is Cloud Ridge?"
"Cliffs of a thousand zhang on either side, open ground between them. The field is fifty zhang wide and two hundred long."
"We simply conceal ourselves there?"
"Correct. Some of you will hide there, while the rest lure the Nine Kings far away."
"Understood."
Ma Ya nodded.
"And if at all possible, you must take at least one of them alive."
"Who?"
"The fellow called Je Suryong."
"Do you know what he looks like?"
"He is the youngest of the Jecheon Medical Manor party."
"I shall try, but I cannot promise."
"That is why I said 'if at all possible.'"
"It shall be done."
Ma Ya nodded again.
"I leave it in your hands."
Danmok Cheon-ri departed with his subordinates.
"We move as well."
At once, the Nine Demons of the Demonic Cult launched themselves into the air. As they shot away, black-clad figures all around rose silently and followed in their wake.
A short while after every last one of them had gone, the soil stirred, and a single man rose from it. The goateed figure was Jang Cheon-ik, leader of the Hao Secret Sect.
"Hiding in the dirt, and I've fished up quite the whale."
Jang Cheon-ik gazed quietly at the spot where the Nine Demons had vanished.
"The Nine Demons themselves, and even the Demonic Shadows, the elite of the Demonic Cult..."
He stroked his beard.
"This game keeps getting bigger... Now, to whom should I sell information on them for word to spread that I drove a masterful bargain?"
"How about us?"
"Huh?"
The woman's voice, coming from nowhere, made Jang Cheon-ik start. He whipped his head around, instantly on guard.
Three zhang away stood a woman dressed in layer upon layer of sheer gauze. With every movement the fabric offered teasing glimpses of the flesh beneath, and pinned at the center of her chest was a single red rose — an exquisitely carved artificial rose.
"The Lust Demoness..."
Jang Cheon-ik murmured the name.
Cheonyo, Miyo, and Saekyo — the three most bewitching women in all the Central Plains, known together as the Three Demonesses of the Central Plains. And the woman before him was none other than Saekyo Mihwan, whose signature was the red rose pinned at the center of her chest.
"That's right."
"I heard you'd taken a position at the Jecheon Medical Manor. Have you quit?"
Jang Cheon-ik recovered his composure in an instant.
"As expected of the Hao Secret Sect. And here I thought no one knew..."
She was Yuk Daemo, who until recently had served at the Jecheon Medical Manor. She had infiltrated the manor because of the rumors surrounding the treasure map of the Invincible Fist King Earth. Seducing Jin Yigang had had nothing to do with the map — the first time they shared a bed, it had been to confirm the inner core.
She had heard he'd been diagnosed with a tumor, but she had needed to verify it firsthand. The second time, she had wanted it for herself. In truth, Jin Yigang's virility was as formidable as any man's. He was a spring that never ran dry.
Had anyone asked whether she would care to sleep with him again, she would have answered, "Gladly."
"No need to worry. I have no intention of selling that particular piece of information."
"Wise choice. Now then — I'd like to buy what's in your head at this very moment. What's your price?"
"Three hundred nyang for exclusivity. One hundred if you merely want the information."
"Then it must not amount to much."
He said it only because the sum seemed so modest.
"It is not that it amounts to little — it is that the truth will out within days regardless."
"How about a drink at the Mirage Pavilion?"
The Mirage Pavilion was the most exclusive establishment run by the Huansa Sect, the faction to which she belonged.
"A drink at the Mirage Pavilion starts at five hundred nyang... Isn't that asking a bit much?"
"You could simply provide us with information worth the price."
"Heh! Not bad at all. Very well — you shall have it."
"Then we have a deal. Talk."
"The Nine Demons of the Demonic Cult are on this mountain."
"Those old fossils are still alive?"
Yuk Daemo's eyes went wide.
"Alive and kicking."
"Is their purpose in breaking sixty years of seclusion, by any chance, the treasure map of the Invincible Fist King Earth?"
"It is."
"And who holds the map now?"
"The prime suspects are the sisters Je Hayeong and Je Chuyeong, and Je Suryong."
"Je Suryong, you say?"
Yuk Daemo tilted her head. As far as she knew, Jin Yigang had nothing whatsoever to do with the treasure map.
And yet he was a prime suspect?
"He is."
"Is that information solid?"
"Je Suryong is on the move at this very moment with the Jecheon Medical Manor's sisters Je Hayeong and Je Chuyeong. And Je Suryong is also the one the Nine Demons want."
"Why would the Nine Demons want him?"
"Because their superior ordered them to take Je Suryong alive."
"The Nine Demons have a superior?"
"They do. A very young one."
"What sort of person?"
"I laid eyes on him for the first time today, so I have yet to find out."
"And you'll tell me once you do?"
"Of course."
"Will you sell the information to others as well?"
"The Hao Secret Sect buys and sells information. That is what we are."
"True enough. What sort of players have entered the Funiu Mountains?"
"The Orthodox Heaven Bureau, the Demon Jade Bureau, and the Literati Bureau have all come in — and I have just confirmed the Huansa Sect."
"Hohohoho!"
Mihwan laughed aloud — for the Huansa Sect was her own sect.
Urgh.
Jang Cheon-ik groaned inwardly. Mihwan's laughter had left his insides churning.
He hastily drew up his internal energy and forced himself calm.
At the sight, an odd light flickered in Yuk Daemo's eyes.
She had laced that laugh with eighty percent of her power. Yet the leader of the Hao Secret Sect had absorbed it as though nothing had happened. Which meant Jang Cheon-ik was a far stronger master than she had imagined.
Well, there's no law saying a strong one can't head the Hao Secret Sect.
She nodded to herself and spoke.
"They'll all be concealing their identities, of course?"
"Naturally. If there's nothing more, I shall take my leave."
"Thank you for the information."
"No need for thanks — it was hardly free..."
Jang Cheon-ik's figure melted into the forest in the blink of an eye.
"Jin Yigang... you fool. With barely a year left to live, he should be living out his days in quiet... why would he come to a place this treacherous..."
Yuk Daemo clicked her tongue.
"Well. We may yet meet again."
Whoosh!
She murmured softly — and then she was gone.