Chapter 582
Chapter 582
Chapter 582. Backroom Deal (3)
At my words, Young Master Ji Gyeonghwa blinked and said,
"What do you mean by that? The ones who left first…… Huh!" (Ji Gyeonghwa)
Soon realizing what I meant, he asked me,
"Do you know where they are?" (Ji Gyeonghwa)
It was not that I knew where they were right now. My guard warriors were tailing them.
But if it was them, they would be following them well.
Instead of answering that question, I urged him to return.
"For now, there may be their eyes watching, so please return to your residence. Then I will come find you, and we will draw up the contract then." (Eun Seoho)
After sending him back like that, I immediately asked Geumryeong to chase after Martial Artist Jinyu.
"But, Liege." (Myeongjong)
Martial Artist Myeongjong asked me.
"Is it all right to just let him go like that?" (Myeongjong)
"It is fine. Since everything that had covered his eyes and ears has already been stripped away, he will no longer be swayed by their words. And did I not agree to repay his debt?" (Eun Seoho)
I smiled.
"Now I am their lifeline." (Eun Seoho)
Soon, I arrived where Martial Artist Jinyu was.
"You have come?" (Jinyu)
"Yes. Where is that man?" (Eun Seoho)
At my question, Martial Artist Jinyu pointed ahead.
"He went into that cave." (Jinyu)
When I looked at the place Martial Artist Jinyu pointed to, I tilted my head.
"A cave?" (Eun Seoho)
"If you look over there……." (Jinyu)
I had not noticed when just looking normally, but it really was there. I had not known because the entrance was hidden so cleverly.
"What will you do?" (Jinyu)
There was no reason to hesitate here.
"We go in." (Eun Seoho)
Just in case, Martial Artist Myeongjong and Martial Artist Ipil decided to remain outside.
We went quietly inside while making as little presence as possible.
Inside, there were no animals at all, not even bats.
That meant there was a being inside that could give them fear.
How long had we walked inside the cave like that?
I raised my hand.
At my hand signal, the guard warriors stopped.
I sent a telepathic message to everyone.
* I can feel energy ahead. Suppress your presence even more. (Eun Seoho)
We advanced carefully, and I felt the area ahead growing brighter.
I concealed my body behind the wall as much as possible and looked ahead.
A campfire was burning in the middle of the cavern, and several people could be seen around it.
And I heard their conversation.
"Since we failed with the Ji Clan, what should we do?" (Unknown Man)
"What do you mean, what should we do? We should say we will give them another chance." (Unknown Man)
"Did you not say earlier that you would not give them another chance?" (Unknown Man)
"I did. That was only to make them desperate. Finding another helper at this point would be annoying, and would require too much effort." (Unknown Man)
"That is true." (Unknown Man)
"By now, they must be so anxious that they do not know what to do, so they will readily accept our words that we are giving them another chance. No matter how dangerous the condition may be." (Unknown Man)
"But they have already been eliminated from the friendly martial arts competition. Is there anything they can do?" (Unknown Man)
"You do not need to worry about that. There are plenty of ways to make use of them. To put it bluntly, we could even feed poisoned tea to another participant and have them enter as a substitute." (Unknown Man)
From that conversation, I could tell that they would not stop until they achieved their goal.
In other words, if I had felt relieved and let it pass just because I had saved Jinho Hyung by making him wear the breastplate, I would not have been able to prevent the accident that would follow.
Cold sweat flowed just from thinking about it.
I knew that I could not prevent every accident in the world. But if possible, I wanted to prevent at least the accidents that happened right in front of my eyes.
Because the people who would be caught up in the trouble they caused were precious people around me.
I examined their energy.
There were five of them in all, and three among them had reached the peak realm, but with our level, we could sufficiently subdue them.
By the way, mixed within the disgusting energy I felt from them was the scent of blood.
That meant they were probably remnants of the Blood Cult.
After encountering Blood Cultists so many times already, I began to question whether the Blood Cult had truly been destroyed at all.
But subduing them came first.
Only then could I learn their identity and purpose.
I gave the guard warriors the plan, and everyone moved in perfect order.
Shuk!
Psssh.
The first thing we did was put out the fire.
"Wh, who are you?" (Unknown Man)
"Light, light the fire!" (Unknown Man)
When one’s vision suddenly became dark, one would panic, and one’s ability to respond to a crisis would decline.
As expected, they fell into confusion.
Each of us charged at the enemies we had targeted.
Chang!
Chaechaeng!
Slice-!
Seuk!
They hurriedly raised their weapons and resisted us, but they did not last long.
Because the difference between their strength and ours was considerable.
Chang-!
"Keuk!" (Unknown Man)
We subdued all of them in an instant.
I took out a night pearl, and the surroundings became bright in an instant.
"I know that you threatened the Ji Clan and tried to see blood on the duel stage." (Eun Seoho)
"Pfft! Blood? What blood are you talking about? Hasn’t plenty of blood already been spilled on the duel stage?" (Unknown Man)
Martial Artist Yeo Eungam’s fist struck the face of the man feigning ignorance hard.
Pukeok!
It was a warning that he should not speak nonsense.
I said coldly,
"You know that the blood I am talking about is not that blood, do you not? And I already heard the conversation you exchanged, so do you intend to keep denying it?" (Eun Seoho)
"……." (Unknown Man)
"So, why did you try to kill someone on the duel stage?" (Eun Seoho)
"……." (Unknown Man)
Still silent.
Well, I had expected it.
When something was asked of people like this, the cases where they answered obediently could be counted on one hand.
When I nodded, Martial Artist Yeo Eungam raised his sword, stabbed that man’s thigh, and twisted it as it was.
Puk!
"Kkeuaaaak!" (Unknown Man)
After screaming, he gasped for breath and said,
"Huek, huek, do you think that will make me talk?" (Unknown Man)
"So that is how it is……." (Eun Seoho)
I gave a faint laugh and looked around.
Judging by the traces, they seemed to have stayed here for quite a long time…….
In my long experience, those who had spent a long time in the Black Path did not trust one another.
It could not be helped, because it was a place where people gathered for their own purposes or profits, so betrayal according to need was common.
He had probably made himself an escape hole, so where would that be?
After looking around for a while, I soon grinned.
There it is.
I approached that place and slipped my hand into the gap between the rocks above.
Soon, a letter came out grasped in my hand.
At the sight of it, the eyes of the five Black Path men wavered.
I unfolded it.
[There must be an accident that leads to death on the duel stage during the duel. Through this, we will induce debate over whether the friendly martial arts competition should continue to exist.]
I folded the letter again and asked,
"It seems you intend to abolish the friendly martial arts competition." (Eun Seoho)
"Heuheuheuheuheu." (Unknown Man)
At my words, one of them said,
"Do you think the friendly martial arts competition will disappear just because many people die on the duel stage? Think about it." (Unknown Man)
Hmm, he’s speaking informally.
But it does not matter.
I pondered carefully.
Induce debate over whether the friendly duel should continue to exist?
For what purpose?
In my previous life, when Young Master Ji Gyeonghwa killed Martial Artist Joun, the Ji Clan and the Zhongnan Sect came to be at odds.
From the Zhongnan Sect’s perspective, it was something that would make them extremely angry, but according to the precedent that accidents occurring in the course of a duel would not be punished, Young Master Ji Gyeonghwa received no punishment at all.
But I heard that because of that incident, the relationships between sects and clans worsened.
Once I thought that far, the purpose of this matter became visible.
"Ah……." (Eun Seoho)
I understand. What the purpose of this matter is.
It is to make the empire’s sects and clans turn against one another.
If fierce debate broke out due to an incident like this, their feelings toward one another would be hurt, and things that touched their pride would occur.
If that happened, in the end, they would become enemies of one another.
Thinking about it, this was quite a serious problem.
If their relationships cracked like that, then even if something happened, it would not be easy for them to join forces.
Even if they somehow ended up joining forces, noise would never cease in the process, and they would be unable to display proper strength.
If the matters until now were also considered along that line, their purpose converged into one thing.
If they weakened the forces of various sects and clans and worsened the relationships between them, when something major happened in the murim in the future, they would be unable to respond properly.
That meant the Blood Cult was plotting something unusual, did it not?
I furrowed my brow and glared at them.
"Hoo, it seems you are trying to prevent the various forces of the murim from joining forces. What do you want to do by doing that?" (Eun Seoho)
"That cannot be said." (Unknown Man)
"I know that you are people of the Blood Cult." (Eun Seoho)
"……!" (Unknown Man)
"Where is the Blood Cult’s main base?" (Eun Seoho)
They soon controlled their expressions and answered calmly.
"We do not know that either." (Unknown Man)
At those words, Martial Artist Yeo Eungam put a knife wound into another man’s thigh.
"Kkeuaaaak! I do not know. Uwahahahaha! How would I know! Kkeueuk! I have never even been there." (Unknown Man)
He had never been there?
At this, the Black Path man beside him said,
"The reason we devoted ourselves to the Blood Cult is not because we went to them, but because those people came to us. And later, on the day the true world of the Blood Cult arrives, we will come to know where the main base is, and if we go there then, we will receive the reward that follows." (Unknown Man)
"Then who sent this letter?" (Eun Seoho)
"We do not know that either." (Unknown Man)
"Hoo, I see." (Eun Seoho)
I shook my head and let out a sigh.
They know absolutely nothing properly.
Well, if they were people who plotted something like this, there was no way they would tell foot soldiers the details.
Then should I be satisfied with having learned this much?
While looking around the cave again, I secretly sent a telepathic message to Geumryeong.
Seeing that my sleeve had been getting a little damp since earlier, it seemed there was something expensive or a lot of money here.
* Geumryeong. (Eun Seoho)
* Kkui! (Geumryeong)
* There is a lot of money here, isn’t there? (Eun Seoho)
* Kkui! (Geumryeong)
* Do you know where it is? (Eun Seoho)
* Kku, kkui! (Geumryeong)
Geumryeong slipped only her tail out of my sleeve, and pointed in one direction with that tail.
I slowly moved in that direction and arrived at a wall.
Then Geumryeong slipped her tail back in.
It means it is here. If so…….
Tuk tuk.
I kicked the wall with my foot.
Unlike an ordinary stone wall, there was a sound as if the inside were hollow.
At my action, the faces of the five Black Path men, who until now had shown their conviction with an utterly baseless firm faith and secretly mocked me, turned deathly pale.
As expected of Geumryeong.
I took a dagger out of my sleeve and dug directly into the rock of that wall.
Puck! Puck!
Thanks to the sword qi coating the dagger, the rock broke easily.
And a moment later.
Jjaenggeurang.
Jwareureureureu.
Oh!
Money poured out through the hole in the rock.
How much is all this?
With this amount, it was probably the money the Ji Clan had been scammed out of and lost through gambling.
They must have shaken down the gambling house completely before destroying it too.
This much should be about four or five million nyang of silver, right?
It was exactly the amount I had expected.
I had told Young Master Ji Gyeonghwa that I would repay the clan’s debt, but I had not said a single word about whose money I would repay the debt with.
That was because there was a high possibility that the money still remained in Luoyang.
There was no way people committing something like this would have entrusted that money to a bank.
With an amount like this, they could not avoid it becoming known during the process of depositing it at a bank, and they could also be suspected over its source.
For those reasons, I expected that these people would still have that money.
Ah! This is good! Very good!
Then with this money, I could gain the Ji Clan’s cooperation while taking all the credit.
I sent a telepathic message to Martial Artist Seowu, and he struck the heavenly spirit points of the subdued Black Path men.
The five men died instantly.
The reason I did not show them mercy was simple.
It would be troublesome for our identities to become known, and I did not feel any need to keep them alive either.
The fact that the scent of blood was that strong meant they had killed quite a lot of people.
"Geumryeong! Gather every last coin!" (Eun Seoho)
"Kkui!" (Geumryeong)
.
.
.
A short while later.
We came out of the cave and joined the two martial artists who had been waiting outside.
"Did anyone perhaps approach this area?" (Eun Seoho)
"No." (Myeongjong)
"Good. Then shall we go now?" (Eun Seoho)
Before we came out, we burned the corpses of those Black Path men, and after coming out, we collapsed the cave.
To erase our traces completely.
.
.
.
A short while later.
We quickly returned to Yeonpung Inn.
"I’m back." (Eun Seoho)
"Yes, you have returned?" (Eun Seoho’s Father)
Seeing the bright expressions of my parents and the Chief Administrator, it seemed Hyangok Noona had succeeded in persuading Jinho Hyung.
Well, he could not possibly be stubborn after hearing that venomous tongue.
"What about Hyangok Noona?" (Eun Seoho)
"She just returned." (Eun Seoho’s Mother)
"What about Jinho Hyung?" (Eun Seoho)
"He is in his guest room." (Eun Seoho’s Mother)
"I will go see Hyung for a moment." (Eun Seoho)
"Do that." (Eun Seoho’s Mother)
I headed to Jinho Hyung’s guest room.
"Jinho Hyung, are you all right?" (Eun Seoho)
I opened the door to the guest room and was about to enter, but without realizing it, I stepped backward.
Because Jinho Hyung, sprawled out on the bed, lifted his head, and he looked completely out of it.
When he saw me, Jinho Hyung’s senses returned, and soon tears of sorrow welled up in his two eyes.
Just what had happened…….
"Did you have to……." (Eun Jinho)
"Hm?" (Eun Seoho)
"Did you really have to do that? No, there are so many ways to persuade someone, so why…… why…… Hyangok…… Keuk!" (Eun Jinho)
And as tears dripped down, he continued speaking.
"For me, to hear such words from Hyangok, kheung!" (Eun Jinho)
I approached Jinho Hyung and patted his shoulder to comfort him.
"Hyung, are you crying over that?" (Eun Seoho)
"You don’t know because you’ve never been scolded by Hyangok." (Eun Jinho)
"Then why did you do something to get scolded?" (Eun Seoho)
"……." (Eun Jinho)
"If you had said from the start that you would forfeit, this would not have happened. Right?" (Eun Seoho)
"……." (Eun Jinho)