Chapter 433
The Youngest Son of the Eunhae Trading Company Chapter 433
Chapter 433. Maternal Grandparents' House (2)
In his previous life, the Martial Alliance somehow managed to take the initiative in this situation.
However, they only took the initiative and did not enter the sword fight alone.
Therefore, although they were able to enter first, they inevitably suffered great damage.
This was because, despite being made by monks, the sword fence was equipped with vicious traps.
However, there was nothing left inside.
Actually, there was something left.
The body of what was presumed to be the monk who had entered nirvana while sitting in the lotus position.
The angry crowd searched the place thoroughly, but what could they find?
In any case, from the Martial Alliance's perspective, it must have been maddening.
They suffered the most damage, but they gained nothing, and they had to pay the promised compensation.
Come to think of it, there is one good thing about going to Gansu.
I will be able to see the Martial Alliance's anger with my own eyes.
“Huh! Young master! Why are you acting so strange?”
“What?”
“You just had a very unpleasant smile. It was as if you were gloating over someone else's misfortune...”
How did he know?
This guy is impossible to fool.
“Hmm, you're right. Don't worry. It's not you.”
“Hee-hoo! I'm glad to hear that.”
“You're my servant, after all.”
Seo Woo-musa said with a smile.
“Anyway, it's a dangerous place, but you're saying you'll make it as safe as possible, right? I understand.”
Yoo-eung-am-musa continued.
“Well, our Liege is not the type to deliberately put himself in danger.”
“Isn't the problem that you often find yourself in dangerous situations?”
Everyone nodded at Lee Pil's words.
That... is a problem.
If the emperor hadn't ordered me to, I would never have gone to Gansu.
Suddenly, he felt a presence.
Rustling.
I didn't sense the aura of the Black Dao, but just meeting someone on a road like this was enough to make me nervous.
The orthodox sects that led the White Dao martial artists did not take lives for personal gain, but they despised merchants even more than the Black Dao.
The figures that soon appeared were...
Huh?
Monks?
“Amitabha Buddha, we apologize for disturbing you, but may we borrow some fire?”
With one arm raised and dressed in monk's robes, they were monks from Shaolin Temple.
We stood up, and I greeted them with a clasped hands greeting on behalf of the group.
“It is an honor to meet the famous monks of Shaolin. I am Eun Seo-ho, the captain of the Eunhae Trading Company. Isn't it fate that we met in the middle of the night like this? You may borrow it as long as you need it.”
The monks' faces lit up, and the one who seemed to be their representative expressed his gratitude.
“Thank you.”
Soon, they sat down next to us and lit a fire with the embers they borrowed from us.
Even in summer, it gets cold in the forest at night.
There were ten Shaolin Temple monks in total.
The one who seemed to be their representative was in his fifties and appeared to be at the peak of his powers.
The rest were a mix of first- and second-class warriors.
In other words, they were all monks.
At that moment, a sound came from someone's stomach.
“Growl.”
Hearing the sound, one monk's face turned red, and another monk next to him bowed his head and said,
“I'm sorry. I...”
“Hmm...”
“It's okay.”
“It couldn't be helped, so don't worry about it.”
Judging from the situation, it seemed that they had not yet eaten dinner.
Ordinary samurai could catch fish or wild animals like us to eat, but they couldn't do that.
In that case, they would have to find something to eat, but it would be difficult to gather food at this late hour.
I got up from my seat and approached them.
“If you don't have any food, would you like some jeonbong?”
“Jeonbong...?”
“Yes. We have more food than we thought. Palgag!”
At my call, Palgag quickly got up from his seat, took some jeonbong from his bag, and distributed them to the monks.
“It's just flour kneaded and baked, so it doesn't taste very good, but if you roast it over a fire, it's quite tasty.”
To preserve it for a long time, I had removed as much moisture as possible, so naturally, it was very hard.
Still, in these times of famine, even this was precious food.
However, they hesitated, perhaps because they couldn't easily accept something from a stranger.
So I took the jeonbong out of my bag and showed them how to bake it over the fire.
“Bake it like this...”
Crunch, crunch.
“You can eat it like this.”
When they saw me eating it, their faces lit up.
“Thank you so much for sharing your precious food with us.”
“How can we ignore the difficulties of those around us?”
Even though they had no food, they had tea, so they boiled water in a pot.
Then they lightly roasted the rice crackers I gave them and began to eat.
Crunch, crunch.
Slurp.
Crunch, crunch.
Slurp.
Seeing them eat rice crackers and drink tea, I smiled to myself.
They must have been very hungry.
One of the most grateful people is someone who gives you food when you are hungry.
Shaolin Temple is one of the most prestigious sects.
So, if we owe them a favor, they will not ignore us later.
It's not like we don't have enough food.
To be precise, we had prepared food as usual, but we had less time to travel due to the flood, so we had some food left over.
“Where are you going?”
Perhaps because we had shared our food with them, the monks completely let their guard down and asked us.
“We are on our way to Gansu Province.”
“Gansu Province? Excuse me, but may I ask why you are going there?”
“My maternal grandparents live in Lanzhou. I haven't been there in a long time, but I have some time now, so I'm going to visit them.”
“I see.”
“Where are you going?”
“We are going to Lianji Mountain in Gansu Province.”
“We have a similar destination. But why don't I see any food bags?”
And there was another strange thing.
If they had left from Shaolin, they could have taken a boat from Luoyang and gone straight to Lanzhou.
So why were they here, halfway between the two places?
“Actually, there is a reason.”
He scratched the back of his neck and continued.
“While traveling by boat, we accidentally dropped our food bags into the river.”
“Oh no!”
“So we got off the boat to get more food, but unfortunately... we left the bag with most of our travel money in it...”
It was truly a case of misfortune piling upon misfortune.
“I'm so sorry. I'm truly sorry.”
The monk knelt down and bowed his head to the ground in apology.
So he was the one who made that huge mistake.
Now I understood why they hadn't eaten dinner yet.
And why they had devoured those hard rice cakes.
“I see what happened.”
I put on a pitying expression, but inside I was smiling triumphantly.
What a stroke of luck!
Monks from Shaolin Temple in trouble!
Not all Shaolin disciples spend their entire lives at Shaolin.
Many of them leave the mountain to do various jobs.
Some open small martial arts academies, some work as bodyguards, and some work in fields unrelated to martial arts.
In other words, they have connections throughout the empire.
Furthermore, when Shaolin Temple said, “Please take good care of them,” no one would say, “No, we won't!”
Therefore, if we help them out, it will definitely be beneficial for me and the Trading Company.
“It seems that you are going to ask for help from the sects in this area. Is that correct?”
“Yes, that's right.”
“They will help you as much as they can, but given the current situation, they are not in a very good position either.”
It is now the end of July.
It is the time when the granaries should be full of wheat, but due to the continuous crop failures, the wheat harvest is not good.
“And if you ask them for help, won't it damage the reputation of Shaolin?”
“You are right. But we have no other choice.”
“In that case, Sir, may I offer you some money for your journey?”
“Money?”
“Yes.”
I nodded.
“Have you heard of the Eunhae Trading Company?”
“We use their writing brushes extensively at the Shaolin Temple.”
So he knows about them.
“We are quite wealthy, so we can lend you the money.”
The monk looked troubled.
I could guess what he was thinking.
As a merchant, he was probably worried about what I would ask for in return.
“Don't worry too much. Just send someone to repay us when you return to Shaolin.”
“How much interest will you charge?”
“No interest is necessary.”
My answer made him look even more suspicious. I could tell that he was not an easy person to deal with.
That must be why he was entrusted with the important task of leading his disciples to Gansu.
At that moment, a monk cautiously asked,
“Excuse me, are you Master Xinglong, the hero of the Dragon and Phoenix Duel?”
My bodyguard next to me answered the question.
“That's right! Our young master is Master Xinglong!”
“Ah! I see! You look very similar to the portrait in the book I saw, so I asked.”
That's right.
The book called Thirty-Six New Heroes of the Dragon and Phoenix Duel.
That book has a portrait of me.
Damn it.
Then, the expression on the monk's face brightened, and he nodded.
“Indeed! Now I understand that the title Seonhaengmi-rang is not in vain.”
Thank you for misunderstanding me.
It's a little embarrassing, but I really appreciate this title.
“Very well. I will accept Seonhaengmi-rang's offer.”
So I lent them money for their journey and gave them all the money we had.
We exchanged names, and the monk's name was Jeong-myeong.
“By the way, may I ask why you are going to Gansu?”
Jeong-myeong thought for a moment and nodded.
“It's no secret, so I'll tell you.”
The sword of Yeonji Mountain was no longer a secret.
It was the emperor's order to monitor the Royal Guards dispatched to Yeonji Mountain that was a secret.
“Actually, the sword of the Grand Master of the Blood Sword was found in Yeonji Mountain in Gansu Province.”
“What?”
“The sword of the Grand Master of the Blood Sword?”
Everyone looked shocked at his words.
Hmm, it seems our group did a good job of acting.
“Could you tell me more about that?”
Jeong-myeong the monk responded with concern to my question.
“Are you planning to go there? It is very dangerous right now.”
“No, I have no intention of going there. I am a mortal who values my life greatly. I just need that information so that I can warn my family and be careful myself.”
“In that case... I will tell you.”
His explanation was not much different from what I already knew.
“Although Grand Master Hyukgon is already excommunicated from our Shaolin Temple, we cannot allow anything belonging to Shaolin to fall into the hands of others.”
“Yes, you are right.”
As I agreed with him, I became curious.
“But wasn't he excommunicated for his bloody deeds in his later years? Then why is he still called ‘Grand Master’?”
The monk Jeong-myeong answered my question.
“Although he was officially excommunicated, everyone at Shaolin still calls him Daoist Master. It is a sign of respect for his lifelong dedication to destroying evil.”
Something was strange.
No matter how bloodstained he was, he was still a respected figure at Shaolin, enough to be called Daoist Master.
Such a person was expelled?
And at the peak of his career?
Not because he was stained with evil, but because he was stained with blood?
He spent his entire life fighting the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, and now this happens in his twilight years?
This puzzling question led to another.
The technique of the sword gun was too cruel and ruthless to be considered a technique of a disciple of Buddhism.
Because of that, countless people lost their lives and became crippled.
At that moment, something flashed through my mind. It was something that Blood Demon said when he made the sword gun.
He said that he made the sword gun with the determination that even after his death, his soul would continue to fight against the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
Those words were not just a promise. What if he actually carried out his plan?
If the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult had entered the trap, they would have suffered the most damage.
Xuegong Sheng made himself break his vows as a precaution. That way, Shaolin Temple would lose its rights to the sword. In other words, it was a plan to protect the disciples of Shaolin Temple.
However, the foolish Martial Alliance was blinded by greed and ruined Hyukgon Seung's final plan.
At the time, Shaolin was the sect that suffered the most damage, so it was a huge mistake.
“Why do you say that?”
I must have looked serious without realizing it, because Monk Jeongmyeong tilted his head.
“I'm sorry. I just suddenly felt that sword case was ominous.”
“You mean the sword case of the Great Master Xue Gongcheng?”
“Yes.”
“Why do you say that, sir?”
A slightly sharp response.
Even though I had never seen him before, if that was his wish, I felt I had to fulfill it.
And if they avoided danger and saved their lives because of me, the money I lent them would be returned to me twofold.
“What I'm saying is just speculation, so you can ignore it if you want.”
Of course, I said it was speculation, but I was personally convinced.
When I combined my memories from my previous life with the information I had learned now, that was the only conclusion I could come to.
I began to explain.
“In my opinion...”
But as I was speaking, the monk Jung-myeong suddenly knelt before me.
“Amitabha...”
Wait, no. Why are you doing this suddenly?