The Mad Dog Inspector of the Martial Alliance

On a bright summer day. The children were playing in the sunlight. They were playing with a ball made by Cook Heo by putting air into a good-quality pig's bladder. Jang So-gil, who was flicking the abacus, using that sound as a comfort, let out a groan.

"Huuuum, huuuuum."

The abacus beads went up and down with a "charuk, charuk" sound.

Jang So-gil, who had recovered his energy by resting for a month, refraining from physical activity other than practicing the Sama Divine Art, which was close to a life-nourishing method, and handling only paperwork and simple tasks, was moving the abacus more intensely than at any other time he had seen.

Yang Gwan, who was watching that, asked.

"What on earth are you calculating?"

"The amount of damage caused by the Diancang Sect's crazy act. To be precise, it's the total amount of damage to the other merchant groups."

"Wasn't the Diancang Sect matter all over?"

"As for our work, it's over."

Physician Go Danyeong had brought back some good information from the Diancang Sect. The patient was none other than Guyang Su of the Ten Thousand Li Solo Journey. Under the overwhelming pressure and the burden of not being able to trust anyone, Guyang Su had collapsed really quickly, belying his title. As his true qi was damaged and his energy waned, he had been hit head-on by the wind of time that he had been blocking with the power of his martial arts. The initial symptoms of Bell's palsy, where the mouth is slightly twisted, had appeared. So he had called Physician Go Danyeong, and the physician had quickly relayed that fact to Jang So-gil.

If the will weakens, the body weakens. If the body weakens, the will weakens even more. Accordingly, a bad cycle where the body gets worse had begun. So Jang So-gil had thought that Guyang Su would give up soon, and he had put a little more pressure. Then, as expected, Guyang Su had begged for his life.

"He was a truly insignificant person."

"And yet he was an elder of the Diancang Sect. It's a strange thing."

"The Diancang Sect is like that because the influence of the Gu family is too strong."

Unlike his fame, Guyang Su was not a supreme master, nor was he a person who traveled ten thousand li alone as his title suggested.

He had quickly surrendered and had signed the debt transfer agreement that Jang So-gil had written. Instead, he had pleaded for him not to touch him, and since he had settled the debt relationship, Jang So-gil, who had no reason to see Guyang Su anymore, had gladly granted his request. The debt amount of the Diancang Sect's Four-One Group, which was composed of the Seven Star Squad, the Big Dipper Squad, and the Mysterious Squad, was transferred from the Martial Alliance to the Diancang Sect. So his work should have ended here.

But as a month passed, the problem flared up in a different direction.

"I never thought the Diancang Sect would do that."

"How could they say such a thing?"

"To dine and dash..."

The sect leader of the Diancang Sect, Gu Hakmyeong, was said to have said this to the person from the Galyeop Merchant Group who had run to him with the bond.

[Money? I can't give it! No, I won't give it!]

It was an unprecedented declaration. At those confident words of not paying back the money he had borrowed, the creditor of the Galyeop Merchant Group was said to have fainted while standing. It might have been an exaggeration, but martial artists tend to speak with qi in their words. If an ordinary person had received the momentum of the supreme master Gu Hakmyeong, which was like that of a lion, head-on, it was plausible that they would faint. It was a surprisingly credible story.

Yang Gwan gave that supplementary explanation and then clicked his tongue.

"Aren't the Diancang Sect Taoists? I don't know how a man who is a Taoist by name can do such a thing."

"What's so special about a Taoist? If you think about it, there are no guys with a blacker heart than a Taoist."

"You're saying such a thing that will bring divine punishment again..."

"You're saying that because you don't know. Do you even know why the Taoism that the Taoists talk about came into being?"

"Ah, since I'm a lay disciple of Shaolin, I know about Buddhism, but I don't know much about Taoism..."

"The origin of Taoism is the Five Pecks of Rice Sect. It's a religious group that you can join if you give five pecks of rice. So what do these guys gather people for and preach? They preach how to eat well and live well."

"You mean the art of life nourishment?"

"Yes. The doctrine itself is originally based on the art of life nourishment. 'Value people and cherish life.' This is the value they hold most dear, and to put it simply, it means, 'Let's really eat well and live well.' The reason the guys called Taoists practice martial arts is no big deal either. Their ultimate goal is to attain the Tao, achieve enlightenment, and become an immortal. So their goal is to live well and, not being able to do that, to live well forever. They are a lump of desire."

Yang Gwan's eyebrows furrowed. It was because it was a radical statement.

"Isn't that an opinion with too much of your prejudice, Guild Master So?"

"Prejudice or whatever, isn't that the reality now? I'm not blaming them for aiming to eat well and live well. They said 'value people and cherish life,' but they don't value people and don't cherish life. I'm angry because the guys who know the value of wealth are trying to get it for free. If you've spent money, you have to pay it back. If you don't pay it back, doesn't that mean the merchant guild should go bankrupt? What do you call it when you take someone else's wealth and live well yourself?"

"A thief."

"Yes. So those guys are not Taoists, but thieves. They are bastards who say, 'Let's all eat well and live well,' but mean, 'Only I will eat well, and only I will live well.' They shouldn't be left alone."

Money is a demon. If you are careless, you will be eaten.

How scary is money? It never lets you go bankrupt alone.

"The money embezzled by the Diancang Sect is a little less than sixty thousand taels in total. To be precise, it's fifty-nine thousand eight hundred and seventy-six taels. Do you know what happens if you embezzle and run away with nearly sixty thousand taels?"

"Uh, the merchant guild will go bankrupt."

"That's right. But it doesn't just go bankrupt. It goes bankrupt in a big way. There are ranks for merchant guilds and merchant groups. They are called A, B, C, and D in order. A-class merchant guilds refer to large merchant guilds that dominate the commercial power of a region, like the Geumho Merchant Group we saw before. B-class are small and medium-sized merchant guilds that are in charge of distribution under such large merchant guilds. C-class are merchant guilds that subdivide the distribution under the B-class, and D-class refer to local merchant guilds that do not go beyond the scope of a village."

"It's complicated."

"Don't think of it as difficult. It's just dividing the ranks according to size."

Jang So-gil gave an example to help Yang Gwan understand.

"Now, let's say you ate a Korean ginseng to nourish your body. You bought the Korean ginseng from a merchant for about a hundred silver taels. To you, that's all there is to it."

"I suppose so. Is there more to it?"

"By the time the Korean ginseng comes into your hands, it has passed through the hands of at least twenty people."

"Yes?! That many?"

"A ginseng digger in Joseon dug up a Korean ginseng. He would have sold the Korean ginseng to a D-class merchant who was doing business locally. The D-class merchant would have evaluated the quality of the ginseng and judged that it could get a high price, and would have sold it to a C-class merchant. It's better to sell a luxurious item like Korean ginseng to a foreign country than to sell it in Joseon. He probably sold it to a C-class merchant in nearby Liaodong. The Liaodong merchant could sell it to Ming with a little effort, so he contacted a B-class merchant guild in Ming and sold the Korean ginseng. The B-class merchant guild would have obtained the goods like that and stored them, and then would have met an A-class merchant guild that had received your purchase request and handed it over to him. And he would have met you and finally handed over the Korean ginseng for a hundred taels."

At the long story, Yang Gwan forgot to breathe and listened, then let out a cry of admiration and nodded his head.

"That's amazing. I never knew there was such a story behind the Korean ginseng I bought and ate."

"And this is a very simplified version. In between the goods coming and going, an escort agency gets involved, and the escorts hired by that escort agency get involved, and a government office for customs clearance gets involved, and the story becomes even more complicated. So when you buy a high-class item that martial artists need, you can assume that at least twenty people are involved in any item."

"Hah..."

"Now, then, how many people's lives did the Diancang Sect's refusal to fulfill the sixty thousand tael debt ruin? And how many sects will it ruin?"

If several A-class merchant guilds go bankrupt, countless B, C, and D-class guilds under them will also go bankrupt.

The seed of distrust was sown by the Diancang Sect's refusal to fulfill the debt. Now, no merchant guild would be able to trust a martial arts sect.

Jang So-gil said bitterly.

"In fact, the sixty thousand taels that have been floated in the air by the Diancang Sect's declaration this time is money that is not needed right now. Because it is money that was invested based on the credit of the Martial Alliance."

You give the goods first. You receive the payment later. Usually, you wouldn't accept such a transaction, but because there is credit, because there is trust, you let it go, thinking it's okay to receive the money later.

"But what happens if the money that should come in the future disappears? The thing called money is a demon, so if it eats fear, it spews out poison in all directions. Fear is contagious, and the poison becomes even more powerful."

Trust collapsed with the Diancang Sect's declaration that they would not give the money. If this happened, they would have to get their hands on anything, whether it was the Diancang Sect's money or goods, and somehow make up for the empty money. Only those who recover it first will survive, and those who move late will go bankrupt. It was a matter that would make all the merchant guilds rise up at the same time.

"I hope the worst-case scenario doesn't happen."

"What do you mean by the worst-case scenario? Can it get worse than this?"

"The worst-case scenario is nothing else. What do you think the merchant guild that couldn't get the money will do?"

"Normally, they would run to the government office, but the government and the martial world are inviolable. Isn't it the same for the merchant guild? The government won't intervene from the moment they trade with a martial artist."

"That's right. So what will they do?"

Yang Gwan racked his brain as much as he could. He recalled his own experiences and the words of the elders of the Shaolin Temple. Suddenly, he remembered the story of an escort who had frequently knocked on the door of the Shaolin Temple.

"Won't they hire ronin and protest?"

"That's right. There's no other way. The affairs of the martial world must be resolved by the martial artists, and if the opponent says they won't give the money, you have to beat them down with force. But, do you think a large sect like the Diancang Sect, which is one of the Nine Sects One Alliance, will lose to ronin?"

"That's absurd."

"And do you think the Diancang Sect, which has been treated like that, will endure it?"

"Don't tell me!?"

"That's the 'don't tell me'. The thing I'm worried about is nothing else."

Jang So-gil said with contempt.

"The annihilation of the merchants by the Diancang Sect, and the extortion of money and goods, and killing to silence."

The dead cannot speak. The corrupt martial artists have no hesitation in using force.

Jang So-gil had learned of Gu Hakmyeong's declaration through Guyang Su's slip of the tongue. Guyang Su was in Luoyang, and Gu Hakmyeong was in Yunnan.

This was information after the time it would take for a carrier pigeon to make a round trip.

"Even if we go down to Yunnan from now, it's already too late."

* * *

The headquarters of the Diancang Sect is on Mount Diancang in Yunnan. The province of Yunnan, located at the edge of the Central Plains, is far from the central power, so its development is slow. Compared to other regions, the merchant guilds are small and insignificant, and the power of the government office is also weak. Yunnan was an abandoned land.

The era is a peaceful era. But because it is a peaceful era, there are groups that cannot live well.

Ronin, thugs, wanted criminals. People who cannot live in a respectable world.

For such people, Yunnan is a land chosen for escape, and a final destination.

The merchants and ronin, who were experiencing the worst crisis of their lives, gathered at that final destination.

"At this rate, we'll have all our money taken away. Didn't you hear? That confident bullshit!"

"We have to strike first."

"But do you think we can win? The opponent is the Diancang Sect!"

"Even if we can't win, if we go in strong, the opponent will have to bend. They are a famous Orthodox sect!"

"If we rashly carry out this great undertaking, relying on the name of a famous Orthodox sect, we will be in trouble. In the first place, if they were a proper famous Orthodox sect, they would have paid the price!"

"Ughhh. Then what do you want us to do?!"

"Let's wait for the Martial Alliance. Since it's their own shit, they'll help us clean it up."

"Are you saying we should just wait for them to come all the way from Luoyang to Yunnan? Cut the crap! We'll all go bankrupt while waiting for them!"

"Then what-!"

The last merchant's words could not continue.

It is called the Sun-Shooting Sword Technique because it is said to shoot down the sun.

The unique martial art of the Diancang Sect, famous for its extreme speed, pierced the merchant's head.

"Hyaaaaaaaah-! Help me!"

A small hole was pierced in the forehead of the merchant who was screaming in terror. The hole in the front of the forehead was small, but the hole in the back of the head was large. Fragments of flesh scattered from the back of the head, and brain matter was splattered. Many people became the same one after another.

In the midst of that slaughter, Gu Hakmyeong burst into a mad laugh.

"When you see the Heavenly Venerable, tell him this. That you died because you were too greedy. Hehehe.”

(End of Chapter)