Chapter 125 : Chapter 125
Chapter 125 : Rogues' Guild
Kwang—!
The heavy main gate of the Moyong Clan Merchant Guild fell backward with a sound like a scream.
Through the thick dust, Moyong Cheong, carrying a great sword on his shoulder, strode in confidently with dozens of warriors.
He seemed to have already half lost his reason.
"Moyong Geum! You bastard son, you've finally gone crazy! Daring to embezzle the clan's cold iron and offer it to a bloodline of the Demonic Cult? Today, I will prove with your blood that the clan's laws are still alive!"
At Moyong Cheong's roar, the guild workers scattered in panic.
Moyong Geum broke out in a cold sweat while hiding the Rogues' Guild informant behind him, but the figure standing in the middle of the yard with hands behind his back didn't even flinch.
"Your greeting is on the rough side."
I threw a word indifferently and raised my head.
My gaze, shimmering purple, clashed head-on with Moyong Cheong's fighting spirit.
Flinch-
Facing me, Moyong Cheong flinched for a moment, but perhaps trusting the number of people behind him, he drew his great sword.
Soon, Moyong Cheong rushed in, scraping the ground with his great sword.
As if his position as Young Clan Head wasn't just for show, the enhanced qi he emitted carried quite a heavy pressure.
But I only placed my hands on the hilts of the twin swords at my waist, not even taking a stance.
"That sword met the wrong master."
My hand moved like lightning.
Clang—!
What was drawn first was the Blue Sword, harboring ice qi.
In an instant, white frost settled on the guild's yard.
Since I had received Extreme Yin Qi through Seol Ye-rin before, emitting ice qi through the Blue Sword was possible for me too.
As the blade of the Blue Sword lightly struck the side of Moyong Cheong's great sword, the heavy trajectory of the great sword soared into the air like a sheet of paper.
"W-What?!"
Flustered, Moyong Cheong tried to hurriedly pull his body back, but I had already dug into his bosom.
This time, the Red Sword in my right hand was drawn, emitting purple flames.
"Purgator"
Kwareung—!
Purple flames exploded along the trajectory of the Red Sword.
Moyong Cheong instinctively blocked by raising his great sword, but the destructive power of the Red Sword, refined with Ten Thousand Year Cold Iron, exceeded imagination.
Crack, snap!
"M-My sword!"
Cracks began to form like spiderwebs on the great sword, which he took pride in as a famous sword of the Moyong Clan.
I lightly tapped Moyong Cheong's wrist acupoint with the Blue Sword.
The great sword fell to the floor from Moyong Cheong's numb hand.
"Keuheuk!"
I drove the pommel of the Red Sword into Moyong Cheong's chest just like that.
Thud—!
"Uwaaagh!"
Moyong Cheong, who flew backward like a cannonball, stopped only after crashing into a stone statue in a corner of the guild.
The warriors who followed him froze like statues upon seeing their Young Clan Head defeated miserably in just two exchanges.
I lightly shook off the Blue and Red Twin Swords once and put them back into their sheaths.
"The sword resembles its master's nature, ignorant. It only knows how to put weight behind it, not how to read the flow."
I approached Moyong Cheong and bowed my head.
A cold voice settled in the ears of Moyong Cheong, who was trembling in fear.
"So let's continue the story we were talking about earlier."
At my words, the Rogues' Guild informant who was behind Moyong Geum slowly poked his head out again.
***
Cho Gun was an informant who had rolled in the Rogues' Guild Liaoning Branch for ten years.
Having grown up in the gutters of back alleys, he prided himself on not blinking an eye at the battle of nerves of most experts.
But now, he felt his crotch getting chilly as he sat on the floor without realizing it.
'……He's not human. That's a monster wearing a human mask.'
Moyong Cheong, the Young Clan Head of the Moyong Clan who had been emitting spirit as if to plow the earth just a moment ago, was embedded in a stone statue like a piece of meat after just two flashes.
Moyong Cheong, who would be sad to be called third in martial power in Liaoning, couldn't even protect the wrist holding his sword, let alone launch a proper counterattack.
Cho Gun swallowed hard and stared at the toe of Hyeokryeon Yeom's shoe that approached his feet.
As Hyeokryeon Yeom's eyes turned downward, a pressure as if a giant mountain range was crushing him wrapped around his entire body.
"Ah, yes…… T-That is……."
Cho Gun barely squeezed out a trembling voice and continued.
"I mean the Sound Gathering Pavilion. The Sound Demon Blood Group bastards who occupied that place are no ordinary folks. Their captain, the Heavenly Sound Witch, is a vicious one who makes a hundred strong men go crazy and bite each other with just the sound of a zither."
There was no change in Hyeokryeon Yeom's expression.
He just fiddled with the handles of his newly worn twin swords.
Even that indifferent touch sounded like a warning to Cho Gun that he could cut his throat at any time.
"I heard they are trying to open an underwater cave. Then do you also know what is inside that cave?"
Cho Gun scanned the surroundings.
The warriors brought by Moyong Cheong were already suppressed by Hyeokryeon Yeom's spirit, holding even their breaths.
Cho Gun recited very low, as if whispering in Hyeokryeon Yeom's ear.
"According to legend…… that cave is a tomb where something is imprisoned. The Sound Demon Blood Group is trying to wake up that sleeping something and offer it to the Saphaeryeon. That's why they are trying to create a specific resonance by plucking the strings of the Heavenly Cry Zither."
Hyeokryeon Yeom's eyebrow twitched minutely.
A tomb and a sleeping power.
-Kukuku, a tomb, you say. The probability that there's something else other than the Ice Emperor's legacy is higher.
-If resonance starts through the Heavenly Cry Zither, the entire Liaoning Province might be engulfed in hallucinations. We might not have much time!
The purple flames emitting from Hyeokryeon Yeom's entire body began to thicken further.
Cho Gun intuitively realized.
That the night of Liaoning would now be stained with blood and screams.
Watching Cho Gun's pupils trembling finely, I stared quietly at Cho Gun.
Eyes that showed a strange vitality when pouring out information even while terrified.
Judging from my experience of handling countless spies in the Demonic Cult in my past life, this guy wasn't a snitch moved by money.
'An informant of the Rogues' Guild Liaoning Branch, he'll be useful.'
If the Sa Ma Clan's token was the key to shaking Sa Ma-ui's roots, this informant named Cho Gun was the thread to navigate through the complex maze called Liaoning.
Guys who know the value of information and ride the boundary of life to sell that information become more capable than loyal dogs if recruited well.
I withdrew the shimmering purple fire qi and instead took out a heavy gold nugget from my bosom and tossed it at Cho Gun's feet.
"Hiiik!"
Cho Gun stepped back in surprise, but as soon as he saw the nugget emitting a golden light on the floor, he instinctively swallowed his saliva.
"This is an advance payment. Guide me to the fastest way to the Sound Gathering Pavilion. And from tomorrow, I want to use the Rogues' Guild's information network in the way I want."
"W-What do you mean by that? This humble one is just an informant who came to deliver information at Young Master Moyong's call."
"It means stand behind my shadow, not Moyong Geum's. Report everything happening in Liaoning to me first. Whether it's the Sa Ma Clan or the Saphaeryeon, even the number of times they breathe."
I added in a low voice to Cho Gun, who couldn't even grasp the gold while terrified.
"If you become my enemy, you'll end up like that stone statue just now, but if you become my person, your rank in the Rogues' Guild will change. What will you do?"
Cho Gun looked alternately at Moyong Cheong groaning stuck in the stone statue and the gold at my feet, then as if determined, banged his head on the floor with a thud.
"Master! This Cho Gun will become Master's loyal dog from today and fetch all sounds of Liaoning! I will become ears not for the Rogues' Guild Liaoning Branch, but only for Master!"
It was a satisfactory reaction.
As expected, money that cannot be refused was great.
I turned my head to look at Moyong Geum.
He was making a blank expression while watching Moyong Cheong's miserable defeat and the process of recruiting the Rogues' Guild informant.
"This guy will take charge of the map and guidance. You reorganize the guild and assist Miss Seol and Miss Seong. I will go to the Sound Gathering Pavilion alone."
"Big Brother! It is dangerous alone. The Sound Arts of the Sound Demon Blood Group are……."
"I'm not alone."
I lightly tapped the Blue and Red Twin Swords at my waist.
The advice of the Sword Venerable and the Demon Queen, and the weight of the Ten Thousand Year Cold Iron that was just starting to get used to my hands, felt reassuring.
Above all, I was too curious about the something said to be sleeping in the underwater cave.
Vibrations as if calling me were being transmitted little by little through the divine items.
"Cho Gun, guide me. Before the night of Liaoning gets deeper, I must cut the strings of the Sound Gathering Pavilion."
"Yes! Master, this way!"
Cho Gun took the lead excitedly and crossed the guild's wall.
Just as I was about to cross the wall following Cho Gun, a chilly cold, hot heat, and a strangely sharp scent of medicine caught my ankle from behind simultaneously.
"Going alone. I will pretend I didn't hear what you just said."
Seol Ye-rin blocked the front while adjusting her grip on the ice sword.
A stubbornness colder than the blizzard of the North Sea lingered in her eyes.
She usually respected my decisions, but she didn't seem to have any intention of sending her lover alone before the foreign threat called Sound Arts.
"Miss Seol is right. The Sound Arts of the Sound Demon Blood Group aren't solved by blocking your ears. Since the waves ringing the eardrums must be canceled out with the heat of the Extreme Yang Body, I have to be by your side."
Cheon Deung-jin also took the spot next to me while shimmering red energy.
The gazes of the two women clashed with a spark in the air, but a strange alliance was formed under the justification that they couldn't send me alone.
As I rubbed my brow as if troubled, this time Seong Sang-ah approached with a languid smile and tapped my sleeve.
"Young Master, you seem to have forgotten, but didn't you say that place is perfect for falling for hallucinations right now? It's a perfect place to go crazy and bite each other, yet you say you'll go without the Clear Mind Pill I prepared and cotton balls to protect your ears. As the granddaughter of the Divine Physician, I cannot permit this."
Seong Sang-ah was already taking out a purple bottle from her medicine box and shaking it.
Her eyes were soft, but inside contained a firmness that couldn't be refused.
"It is because it's dangerous. Sound Arts are a martial art that even I have never perfectly countered. If you ladies get swept up, I won't be able to concentrate……."
At my persuasion, Seol Ye-rin took one step closer.
"Then all the more reason we should go. We can do better at clearing out the small fries around and disturbing the sound field so the Third Young Master can concentrate. Do you not trust us?"
"That's right! While the Young Master solves the secret of the underwater cave, we will deal with that woman called the crazy witch or whatever."
At Cheon Deung-jin's spirited shout, I eventually raised the white flag.
If I insisted further here, another storm would rage in the guild yard before we even got to the Sound Gathering Pavilion.
-Kukuku, it's not luck with women but trouble with women. But what those wenches say isn't wrong. Sound Arts are easier to counter with numbers.
-If the energies of the three women combine, we should be able to break through most Sound Arts.
As even the Sword Venerable and the Demon Queen chimed in, I was about to make a decision.
"Then what should we do?"
The Small Snow Squad members asked me.
"You guys, go visit the Rogues' Guild for a bit."
At the word Rogues' Guild, Wi Ji-yeong tilted her head.
"Rogues' Guild?"
"I think I'll need quite a bit of information in the future."
Since I bribed Cho Gun with gold, I thought it would be good to find out where within the Murim I could acquire information about the Ten Venerables under the Heavens and the Demonic Cult.