Chapter 11
The day had grown dim.
In the pitch-black night, without so much as a bonfire's glow, the one who slipped out of the Cult Grounds in secret was Elder Bang-rip.
He was the live-in son-in-law of Heavenly Demon Hyeok Je-un, and throughout this day, his face had been unusually expressionless.
…….
And for good reason—he had watched the Hyeok family strengthen their bonds of kinship, conspicuously leaving him out.
When the children were born, why had they been named Hyeok Jang-ho and Hyeok Mun-ha? They could just as well have been Bang Jang-ho and Bang Mun-ha.
And even the third child was named Hyeok Jeong-min, not Bang Jeong-min.
No matter how much he had pleaded.
This was the scheme of Heavenly Demon Hyeok Je-un, who was wary of Bang-rip's influence. He likely had no wish to leave the disgrace of the Bang name on Tianshan.
I know it all. Of course, it is true that I came as a live-in son-in-law having agreed to those terms from the very beginning—and yet.
There was no helping the fact that it stung.
Was this household Hyeok's alone? What of the Bang? Was the Bang name to die with him?
There was no other man left in Bang-rip's line.
You should have considered me as well. That is a great wound to me, Father-in-law.
By the time the third child, too, had failed to carry on the Bang name, Bang-rip had already severed whatever attachment he'd had to this Hyeok family.
He was a martial artist once called the Wily Fox Swordsman in his youth—of course his pride was wounded.
Bang-rip gnawed at his lip as he surveyed his surroundings. Surely no one was around.
When his eyes had grown accustomed to the dark, he drew something white from within his robes and gave it a sharp puff of breath.
Flutter!
A carrier eagle came soaring from afar and folded its wings, alighting atop Bang-rip's left hand.
"Deliver this."
—Screeee.
The carrier eagle seemed to understand, and received the white something in its beak.
It was a worn slip of paper.
The message read:
—To all of the Martial Alliance. The Heavenly Demon Cult has gone mad. Join forces and come swallow Xinjiang.
It was sent to the one with whom he had long been in communication.
The Martial Alliance had been laying plans to march on Xinjiang and devour Tianshan before long.
They simply had not yet found their moment. The Central Plains were in disarray as well.
Bang-rip sought to plant one foot in those plans—so that once the Heavenly Demon Cult fell, he too might claim a seat for himself.
I have received a promise.
Hyeok family—you looked down on me far too much.
The Seventy-Two Forest Bandits were said to be throwing their full might at them before long, but separate from that, Bang-rip was entrusting the fate of the Heavenly Demon Cult to the hands of others.
"Hmph."
The man's pride had been scraped raw. It was past saving.
Of course, Bang-rip was unaware that this so-called pride of his ultimately stemmed from nothing more than his own envy of others.
Watching the carrier eagle vanish into the distance, Bang-rip slipped back into his room without a trace.
A perfect crime, he thought. No one could have seen.
He must surely have believed that as he drifted off to sleep.
"……."
Jeong-min waited until Bang-rip had gone inside before stepping out.
Then he leapt toward the direction the carrier eagle had flown and, not far off, found it.
"Sorry, but—fare thee well."
Crack! Screeee!
He wrung the carrier eagle's neck. Leaving it alive would only make it Bang-rip's eyes and ears going forward—there was no other way.
He dug up a bit of nearby earth, buried the carrier eagle inside, and paid his respects.
"Rest in peace. I'm no Taoist, but."
Suddenly, Jeong-min thought of the one who had driven him to the Madness Curse in his past life.
Crooked-Nose Taoist. The day I kill you is not far off.
Step by step. One foot at a time.
But those steps would never be slow.
After checking the contents of the letter the carrier eagle had been carrying, Jeong-min considered burning it—but decided to tuck it into his robes for now.
The contents are… as expected. I'll hold onto it for the time being.
This would serve as solid evidence when the time came to call the Martial Alliance to account.
Should he report Bang-rip's treacherous conduct now? The thought crossed his mind, but the time was not yet right.
When everything became certain—then.
With that thought, Jeong-min turned his gaze to the distance.
"Now then. Let's head down to the Qinghai Escort Bureau."
What he was about to do next was something his family knew nothing of.
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Jeong-min came down from Tianshan without using his internal energy. And so by the time he reached the bottom, the sun had already risen fully.
No sooner had he descended than he stepped into the Qinghai Escort Bureau, which occupied an entire village on one side.
"?"
There was no one guarding the entrance of the Qinghai Escort Bureau.
This was merely an escort bureau, not a martial sect. Hence, neither guards nor sentries were posted.
Even so, there were Spear Hands loading escort goods from early in the morning, and they simply tilted their heads at the sudden appearance of Jeong-min, wondering who on earth he was.
"Can I help you?"
At last, one of the Spear Hands approached and asked, eyeing young Jeong-min.
Jeong-min looked at him with a faint smile and thought.
Should I try Bae Hang-yeop's way?
Huuup—a deep breath in.
Exhale.
"Bureau Chief Cheong Jin-gang, get out here this instant!!!"
The thunderous shout, laced with demonic energy, was enough to strike the eardrums of Cheong Jin-gang, who had been asleep on guard duty inside the bureau shot up at the sound, grabbed his sword in fury, and stormed out—bumping into several things along the way, still half-asleep.
And then he stared at the young boy standing boldly before the bureau's entrance—a boy who looked barely past Coming of Age.
Taking in the shabby clothes, Cheong Jin-gang had a guess as to who it was.
"How dare some mountain-dwelling nobody—"
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In contrast to that fierce opening, Jeong-min was treated to a degree of hospitality.
Inside a reception tent within the bureau, Jeong-min was given a cup of tea. He took a sip—and warmth spread through his chest, his mind growing calm.
"Good tea."
"It's one of the escort goods. We're inspecting cargo before heading out on an escort run."
Seated across from Jeong-min was Cheong Jin-gang.
And the Escort Fighters of the Qinghai Escort Bureau stood with sharp eyes and drawn blades.
Are these Escort Fighters or street-corner wanderers?
If I were a client, I wouldn't trust them with my goods. You'd mistake them for bandits.
Jeong-min chuckled softly to himself and studied the faces of Cheong Jin-gang and the others.
Every single one of them was dressed in blue.
"……."
As Jeong-min was thinking, Cheong Jin-gang spoke first.
"You're the Heavenly Demon's grandson, I'm told. I don't recall seeing you on the last trip up the mountain?"
Jeong-min had no reply worth giving and simply ignored him.
As he went about picking at his ear, Cheong Jin-gang swallowed his anger and asked again.
"So then—what brings you all the way out here?"
"……Haven't the news reached you yet?"
"What?"
It seemed word hadn't arrived yet about the Escort Fighters being beaten on Tianshan and fleeing.
Which meant those Escort Fighters hadn't returned to the Qinghai Escort Bureau—they had simply run off.
So it's a looser organization than I thought.
While Jeong-min was thinking this, Cheong Jin-gang seemed to sense something was off and murmured to a nearby Spear Hand.
"Go check on what became of the ones who went up Tianshan last night."
"Yes, sir."
Jeong-min let the words drift past him and, seated across the table, said what he had come to say without ceremony.
"We're both busy, so I'll cut straight to the point. You have the land deed for Tianshan documented somewhere—hand it over."
Cheong Jin-gang blinked at Jeong-min's brazen attitude, momentarily failing to grasp what had been said—then burst out laughing.
He set the sword he'd been holding, sheath and all, down on the table with a thud.
"Spouting such nonsense so openly—do they not teach manners in the Hyeok household?"
"Watch your mouth."
"A greenhorn who hasn't even dried behind the ears, daring to face me, Cheong Jin-gang, and making a racket at the crack of dawn? Do you want to die?"
"Mind what you say."
Slurp—Jeong-min took another sip of tea.
Even while admiring its deep, full flavor, he set the cup down. He thought it might taste even better if left to cool a little.
"The land deed for Tianshan. In other words, the title document. Bring it. Don't make me say it three times."
"We're the ones planning to bore a tunnel straight through Tianshan. Walking alone into the tiger's den of your own accord—you've lost your mind."
"Calling it a tiger's den when there are no tigers."
Jeong-min looked over Cheong Jin-gang and the Escort Fighters one by one.
Their faces were rough, looking as though they had lived hard lives—yet in truth they were feeble, their energy hollow.
And so, though the Escort Fighters stood like load-bearing pillars, Jeong-min felt no fear.
Cheong Jin-gang, for his part, was displeased by Jeong-min's composed bearing.
A boy raised on a mountain who doesn't know the fear of heaven. Never been cut by a blade—doesn't know what pain is. Have you even seen a tiger in the flesh?
Should he reason with him and send him on his way?
No. Letting someone who walked in of his own accord leave quietly would only make the Qinghai Escort Bureau look weak.
Should he feign magnanimity and use this as a pretext to strike the Heavenly Demon Cult?
Yes—that was better.
"Stop making unreasonable demands and withdraw. I'll overlook it this once. If you don't step back, I'll bring it up formally with the Heavenly Demon Cult."
Say this much, and a child would surely tuck his tail and flee. What age is it where a grandfather's scolding hurts the most?
But contrary to Cheong Jin-gang's expectations, Jeong-min was not the least bit frightened.
"That's a nice line. I'll say the same: if you don't hand over the document right now, I'll destroy the Qinghai Escort Bureau."
"……That's not even remotely the same thing."
Cheong Jin-gang sneered, and one of the Escort Fighters stepped forward.
He gently pressed the enormous blade in his hand against the back of Jeong-min's neck.
Shing—the sensation of a blade's edge coming to rest against his skin. It had been a while.
"Cold."
"You said your name was Hyeok Jeong-min? Let me tell you a little story."
Jeong-min nodded, and Cheong Jin-gang began with an air of self-importance.
"Long ago, a master of Go encountered a middle-aged man on a mountain. The middle-aged man introduced himself as the world's second greatest Go deity. But the master of Go played a game against him and won with ease. He realized the man was not a Go deity at all—but a complete novice. He thought it must be some kind of joke—when suddenly the middle-aged man brought his teacher down from the mountain peak. The teacher called himself the world's first greatest Go deity. But this time too, the master of Go beat him as easily as handling a child, and the two Go deities were so shaken they shut themselves away in the mountains forever."
"Hm. Amusing. I'd toss you a coin if you held out a hat."
"Do you know the moral of that story?"
Jeong-min tilted his head, and Cheong Jin-gang, saying just as I expected, sneered and said:
"A frog in a well! A frog at the bottom of a well thinks it's extraordinary. The Heavenly Demon Cult, stuck on Tianshan and chasing after martial arts—they're nothing but frogs in a well. Our Qinghai Escort Bureau is made up of martial arts masters gathered from every corner of the land. What I'm saying is, you lot are not in the same league as us."
"Ah. I see. I had no idea what you were going on about."
Jeong-min nodded.
So in short—the Qinghai Escort Bureau was superior to the Heavenly Demon Cult? He'd rambled on at great length just to say those few words.
He could understand the desire to make that claim, but—
"Then simply put: consider negotiations broken off."
Without a show of force, words alone lacked persuasion.