The Mad Dog Inspector of the Martial Alliance

Jang So-gil and Baek Yugyeong, who had come down the long and winding stairs in the pitch-black darkness, saw the flame that Yang Gwan was making in the deep bottom, in the dark cavity.

The red flame hanging from the tip of the spear swayed like a lantern. It drew a circle, and then suddenly jumped in a straight line.

Unlike ordinary martial arts, the Yang Family Spear Art was created with war in mind. Yang Gwan's spear art, which basically assumed a fight against many, would suddenly stab and come in at an unexpected moment.

If he had been on a horse, he would have been twice as strong as he was now.

"The Hot Yang Art is really good."

It was enough for Baek Yugyeong to admire. Every time the flame hit, the jiangshi was burning up like firewood.

Although it was also thanks to the fact that the jiangshi were weak to the Hot Yang Art, the firepower itself was much stronger than when he usually used it on humans. It was probably because Yang Gwan, a disciple of Buddhism, had an instinctive aversion to the act of burning a person.

Around Yang Gwan, there were jiangshi that were burning and dying down, and jiangshi that had already become ashes. It seemed he had burned at least a hundred of them.

Yang Gwan, who had subdued a group of jiangshi in an instant, caught his breath and then shouted loudly.

"Young Master So, be careful! It's a jiangshi! My goodness, a jiangshi really existed!"

"Stop making a fuss. I saw them all on my way here."

"...I-I see. But isn't the one next to Young Master So that ruffian from the daytime?"

"I'm accompanying him for a reason. Since he's the Young Lord of the North Sea Ice Palace, treat him comfortably."

Twitch, Baek Yugyeong's brow twitched.

"Wait. That's strange. If you know I'm the Young Lord, shouldn't you treat me with respect? I'm a pretty high-ranking person."

"Even if you're high-ranking, you're just the son of a feudal lord in a rural corner of the north, so what's so great about that? The person who works with Yang Gwan is the Young Lord of the Nan Yue Beast Palace. It means it's not the first time I've met a Young Lord of the Three Great Heavens of the Outer World."

"Ah, damn it. If you put it that way, I don't really have anything to say."

"Gwan-ah, don't mind this fellow. First, let's share information."

Yang Gwan, who had been looking at Baek Yugyeong with a suspicious eye, soon turned his gaze away.

Although he was a suspicious man who could not be trusted, there were more urgent matters to attend to than that right now.

"I was waiting for Young Master So at an inn called the Yeonhwadang. It looked like an ordinary inn, but when it was time for dinner, they served rice mixed with a sleeping drug."

"You didn't eat it, did you?"

"Of course I didn't."

Jang So-gil nodded with satisfaction.

The final goal of So and Yang Gwan was the Sichuan Tang Clan, which was famous for its poison. Since they had been continuously training in how to distinguish and avoid poison, it was only natural that they could easily see through something like a sleeping drug.

"When I saw what the inn guys were doing after feeding the sleeping drug, they started carrying the sleeping travelers like luggage. But as soon as I jumped out to save them, I was attacked. It was the waiter who had been feeding the horses during the day and the young lady who had been recommending that I buy chrysanthemums at the flower shop next to the inn. Both of them had bloodshot eyes and seemed to be out of their minds."

"So. Did you kill them?"

"I didn't kill them."

"But why is your expression like that? I thought for sure you had killed them."

"They didn't faint with a light blow, so I ended up using too much force. At least a couple of bones must have been broken. Did you happen to see them on your way here?"

"I didn't. They either got up and went on their way, or someone cleaned them up."

"Is that so? I hope they're safe. Anyway, after that, I couldn't find the traces of the kidnapped people and was wandering around when I was attacked by a jiangshi, and I followed the continuously appearing jiangshi and came here. That's all my story."

Although it was short, it was a rather magnificent story. Because it meant that he had been fighting numerous jiangshi all by himself all this time.

Jang So-gil, who had nodded his head, this time told his own story. The story from the time he had met Baek Yugyeong until he had come down to the bottom of the shrine was briefly conveyed.

Yang Gwan, who was listening to the story, had a question.

"I would have already eliminated the jiangshi in the shrine. How did they appear again?"

"Ah, about that. The path down here looked like a single path, but in fact, there were passages connecting to other places in the middle. It would have been hard to notice because it was a fork in the road that went in the opposite direction of the direction of progress."

The answer came from Baek Yugyeong. Jang So-gil and Yang Gwan turned to look at him.

"It seems that some of the forks are connected to the jiangshi manufacturing caves that I had confirmed before. They must have sent the jiangshi to the shrine through that way. And the underground space we are in now is not directly under the shrine we just entered. It's in the middle of those caves that are spread out in all directions, and in terms of the location of the entire village, it's near the center. So I think this is the gathering point of the jiangshi."

To be able to grasp the overall terrain, including the ground, in such a dark and deep underground place. It was a great spatial perception.

Baek Yugyeong, who had felt the gazes of the two who were marveling, slightly shrugged his shoulders.

"What's with those eyes? It's an application of the method of finding a way in a maze, don't they teach that in the Central Plains?"

"Why do you guys learn that?"

"A snow-covered mountain has a similar corner to a maze. If you don't know how to look around and read your current location, you'll get lost and die."

"It seems the only thing people from the North Sea can be proud of is the strange knowledge gained from a harsh life. But it was helpful."

"Good grief, you never know how to say thank you readily. So what are you going to do now?"

Even while they were talking, jiangshi were suddenly appearing from somewhere. As Baek Yugyeong had said, this place seemed to be a place where they gathered the jiangshi.

The scale of the matter was gradually growing. It was difficult to estimate how many more jiangshi there would be, and he still knew nothing about the other forces of the Maoshan Sect besides the jiangshi.

It was not unreasonable for Baek Yugyeong to implicitly urge a retreat. Since he had also rescued Yang Gwan, now was the right time to retreat if they were going to.

But Jang So-gil did not easily speak. Baek Yugyeong, with a frustrated heart, said again.

"Don't tell me you think the three of us can take on the Maoshan Sect. Or do you think that if you meet the sect leader of the Maoshan Sect, you can sit face to face and have a frank conversation while drinking tea?"

"Of course not."

"Then why do you keep hesitating? A retreat should be as fast as a beam of light."

"Because something is bothering me."

"You were like that at the shrine too. What is it this time?"

"The reaction of the Maoshan Sect is strange, isn't it? We're running wild like this, but what's the reason why their reaction is still lukewarm?"

"That's..."

Baek Yugyeong, at a loss for words, closed his mouth.

The Maoshan Sect had already crossed the line. Once you cross the line, that's the end of it. After that, all that's left is to run wild uncontrollably.

They had been caught by the inspector of the Martial Alliance with their army of jiangshi, and a fight had broken out, and they had lost more than a hundred jiangshi. The inspector's subordinate had also witnessed the scene of them kidnapping travelers.

And yet, the Maoshan Sect had no response other than to continuously send out the jiangshi.

Jang So-gil, tapping his thigh as if flicking the beads of an abacus, said.

"There's no such thing as a reasonless event. I'm curious about the reason why the Maoshan Sect is staying so still."

It was certainly a topic worth thinking about.

Baek Yugyeong, after contemplating for a moment, opened his mouth with an unconfident tone.

"They're just... looking down on us, aren't they?"

"Looking down on us? Us?"

Although the party was only three people. But it was one peak master and two transcendent masters?

In front of Jang So-gil, who was looking at him with an incredulous eye, Baek Yugyeong shrugged his shoulders once.

"Who would know that? Even I didn't know you were a transcendent master."

It was known that the inspector of the Martial Alliance had become a peak master in just over a year of practicing martial arts.

Since it was such an absurd speed, and rumors were usually exaggerated. So even Baek Yugyeong, who had resolved not to be careless, had predicted that Jang So-gil's martial arts level would be at most similar to the rumors.

"And as for me, well, since I'm not very well known in the Central Plains, I could be looked down on."

"I see. So you think they thought that among the three of us, the only one to be wary of was the Fire Dragon?"

"Yes. Don't you think they expected that a wheel battle of the jiangshi would be more than enough to stop him?"

"That's quite plausible. Not everyone in the world is smart and has good judgment. Since it's a rather foolish thought, it's actually more credible."

"You really have a pretty way with words. Let's see each other in the North Sea sometime."

"What, it was a compliment for once."

It was a reasonable opinion. Jang So-gil, who had heard Baek Yugyeong's opinion, this time turned his gaze to Yang Gwan.

Yang Gwan was tilting his head. It seemed he had something to say but couldn't organize it.

But since it was not a situation where he could wait slowly, Jang So-gil immediately asked, as if to press him.

"Just say what you're thinking. You don't need to explain it logically."

"Um, yes. You see, at first, I said that I had come out of the inn chasing the kidnapped travelers."

"You did."

"I heard the guys who were moving the travelers urging each other. They said they had to hurry for the ritual."

"A ritual. A ritual. That sounds very suspicious."

To talk about a ritual while kidnapping travelers in Maoshan, the holy land of Daoism.

In this situation, could there be a more suspicious word than this?

Jang So-gil, combining the words of Baek Yugyeong and Yang Gwan, put together the outline of the story.

"Then let's summarize. The Maoshan Sect is trying to perform some kind of ritual by kidnapping people. This ritual was the most urgent and important thing for them, and since they were looking down on us, who were few in number, they had no response other than to send out the jiangshi until now. Is that about it?"

"It would be like that. But really, what on earth are those guys trying to do?"

A ritual performed by dragging living travelers. No matter how he thought about it, he only knew that it would not be a very good ritual anyway.

At Baek Yugyeong's muttering, Yang Gwan replied with a serious expression.

"That's right. It's definitely not a proper ritual, so we must stop it."

"What? By what means? If it's such an important ritual, it's obvious that all the guys from the Maoshan Sect will be gathered there, and you're suggesting the three of us rush in there now? Don't talk nonsense."

"But we can't just stand by and do nothing. We don't know what will happen to the kidnapped people while we're doing this."

"That's why I'm saying, the guys who learned from a bald monk are no good. They're probably all dead by now. You have to give up what you have to give up."

"If so, we must at least retrieve their bodies. I don't know what kind of ritual it is, but if their bodies are used in an evil ritual, the deceased will shed tears of blood even after they die."

"When you're dead, it's all over, what tears of blood from a dead person. If you're going to be so picky about this and that, go find them alone and chant some sutras or something!"

Baek Yugyeong's realistic reaction, who had no loyalty or obligation to get deeply involved in the affairs of the Central Plains. And Yang Gwan's heart, who was angry at the sight of the unorthodox way and was worried about the safety of the common people, drew a parallel line.

The two, who were glaring at each other, simultaneously turned to look at Jang So-gil.

In the end, the decision was up to Jang So-gil.

"What will you do, Young Master So!"

"Don't tell me you're thinking of throwing your life away as that fellow says?"

Like fire and ice, the two seemed to be people who could not get along.

Jang So-gil, looking at the two excited people, clicked his tongue.

"You foolish fellows. Can't we just do both?"

"What? Both, you say?"

"You're going to stop the ritual while running away at the same time? What are you going to do?"

Yang Gwan and Baek Yugyeong looked at each other with expressions that said they had no idea.

Jang So-gil, with a face full of smiles, tapped his chest.

"As it happens, I have just the thing."

* * *

As if thousands of angry horses were galloping over the earth, the entire Maoshan shook.

Jang So-gil and Yang Gwan, who had returned to the inn where Cheongwol and Yanghwangbijeon were tied up. And Baek Yugyeong was looking at the shrine where they had been just a moment ago.

The explosion that had started from the underground had completely collapsed that large shrine. The disorderly flying sparks had spread to the debris and had soon turned into a raging wildfire.

"Wahahahaha! Good, good! It was worth using up all the remaining Byeokryeoktan."

Jang So-gil, standing with his arms spread towards the blazing flames, laughed like a madman.

(End of Chapter)