I gave a small snort of laughter and praised Geumryeong.
“Nice job.”
“Kui?”
“Wondering if you really did that well? Yeah. You did really, really great.”
“Kui. Kui!”
“Don’t just want praise, you want silver taels too? Asking if I have any idea how hard you worked?”
“Kui!”
R–right. That’s Geumryeong, all right.
When I handed Geumryeong one silver tael, it shook its head and scratched numbers on the ground.
Oh, since there were a lot of White Blood Ducks, you want three?
Yeah, I should give that much.
I let Geumryeong bite down on the silvers, then lifted my head to look at Young Palace Lord Bing Hae-rin.
“That escort’s grown a lot faster than I’d expected.”
I could plainly see how embarrassed he was.
So she’s not as good at controlling her expression as I thought.
“That’s true. Still, it’s a relief. Otherwise the damage would’ve been a lot worse.”
Fortunately, no one had died.
“This place is soaked in blood. It’d be better to move a bit and treat the wounded somewhere else.”
“I feel the same way.”
So we moved for about an hour, then picked a suitable spot and began properly treating the injured.
In the meantime, I had something I needed to do.
I had to track down that mysterious Unorthodox Sect warrior who’d been watching us earlier.
“I’ve got something to take care of, so I’ll be stepping away for a bit.”
“In this North Sea?”
Brother Jin-ho tilted his head.
He was a bit simple, but his instincts were pretty sharp.
“Hey. Spit it out for real.”
Judging from how he was grilling me like he smelled something fishy, anyway.
“What else? I’m going to train my martial arts.”
I continued.
“My martial arts are ice arts, and in terrain like the North Sea, their power changes. So I’m going to see just how different it is.”
I went on talking.
“Not checking that earlier made things harder than they had to be.”
At my words, Young Palace Lord Bing Hae-rin nodded.
“I see. That makes perfect sense.”
With her backing me up, Brother Jin-ho reluctantly nodded too.
“Then fine, just come back in one piece.”
“Yeah.”
I moved away from the group and called for Geumryeong.
“Geumryeong. Come out.”
“Kui!”
At my call, Geumryeong slipped out from my sleeve.
“Did you enjoy that silver I gave you earlier?”
“Kui!”
“You did? You’d like more silvers, right?”
At my words, Geumryeong’s eyes sparkled.
“You remember the scent I told you to memorize earlier, don’t you? Lead me to where that person is.”
He didn’t have a name.
Because as far as the world was concerned, he was already officially dead.
For convenience, though, the higher–ups called him Chueo, because he resembled a loach.
It wasn’t only because he looked like a loach that they called him Chueo. Whenever he took a job, he’d finish it and then slip away like a loach, vanishing cleanly. That was his specialty.
That was why the higher–ups had gone so far as to fake his death and bring him in, promising him immense wealth and martial arts in return.
By now, the jobs he’d taken numbered no less than several dozen.
And he hadn’t failed a single one.
Thanks to that, he’d been entrusted with a very weighty mission this time.
To make North Sea Ice Palace’s food situation difficult.
“Of course, completely starving North Sea Ice Palace to death is too hard. But what do you think will happen if we quietly feed the Palace Lord, who’s lost precious disciples, a hint about who’s behind it?”
In short, they wanted to use North Sea Ice Palace for their own purposes.
They couldn’t completely cut the palace off, but they fully intended to make food hard to come by and plant resentment.
“The Palace Lord of North Sea Ice Palace will break that silence and come out sooner or later. Then it’s only a matter of time before the whole martial world turns into a sea of blood.”
He didn’t know why, but it was clear what the higher–ups wanted: chaos in the martial world.
He didn’t know what they hoped to gain from that chaos…
‘I don’t need to know that part.’
He just had to complete the mission given to him and collect his reward.
He first approached the one called Cho Seok.
Then, under the pretext of teaching him how to take revenge, he egged him on.
As expected, Cho Seok immediately hired Mercenaries and headed for Liaoning.
To slip away from a job like a loach, having a frontman to pin everything on was essential.
Only then could he dump all the blame on that person and slither away.
Cho Seok, using the fake Elixirs Chueo had supplied, pushed North Sea Ice Palace into a severe food shortage.
Everything seemed to be going smoothly.
But… a problem arose.
He’d planned to auction off the real Elixirs and wipe out all trace of them…
“What? He sent fakes to the auction at Phantom Market?”
“Yes. So right now, Phantom Market’s side is absolutely furious.”
“…”
When he heard that from the contact he’d planted in Phantom Market, he realized it.
Things weren’t just tangled. They were completely, hopelessly tangled.
If Cho Seok ratted him out, it would be a disaster. He’d never be able to slip away like a loach then.
No matter how big the rewards in wealth and martial arts were, his own safety came first.
He left Liaoning without a second thought and soon heard that there was a merchant group moving to support North Sea Ice Palace.
If the food they were carrying reached North Sea Ice Palace, this whole operation would be a complete failure.
He didn’t have time, so he couldn’t even spare a moment to report to the higher–ups before rushing into the next plan.
The backup plan he’d prepared in case the first one failed.
To use the White Blood Ducks.
They were spirit beasts that were vicious and wild, moving in packs, very troublesome to deal with.
On top of that, they had huge appetites and would devour all the food.
‘It’s a shame about that food, but there’s no helping it.’
He secretly stole one juvenile White Blood Duck from the flock, then used its blood to lure the merchant group straight into the path of the White Blood Ducks.
In the face of danger to their young, White Blood Ducks never backed down – they only grew more savage and brutal.
So the merchant group and the White Blood Ducks met, and a battle broke out.
He’d been happily watching the fight unfold when, somehow, the battlefield started getting closer and closer to where he was hiding.
In the end, he had no choice but to leave that spot.
“I should really go check how it turned out…”
He muttered with a troubled expression.
Right then.
“So it was you.”
“…!”
He turned his head toward the sudden voice beside him, and flinched in shock.
Someone wearing a smiling mask was standing there, staring at him. The mask looked so creepy he nearly wet himself.
“Wh–who are you? If you’re a person, get lost! Even if you’re a ghost, get lost!”
“Are you startled because you did something bad? Or are you just surprised by how I look?”
“…”
On instinct, he drew his sword and slashed at the masked person.
Whoosh–!
But the one in the smiling mask easily slipped past his attack and countered.
“Urgh!”
And the strength behind that counterattack was much fiercer than he’d expected.
‘His martial arts are above mine! This’ll cost me more than I gain!’
In that case, there was only one answer.
The Thirty–Sixth Stratagem: run for it.
‘They say of the Thirty–Six Stratagems, running away is best! I’ll flee now and seek another chance later!’
Bang–!
Chueo immediately popped a smoke bomb.
It was a smoke bomb he’d developed himself, completely blocking visibility for roughly ten meters in every direction.
But there was something he didn’t know.
That there wasn’t just one person wearing a smiling mask – and that even with their sight blocked, catching him would be no problem for them.
Thud–!
“Guh!”
He took a blow to the back of the head and blacked out on the spot.
I drew my Qi up and swept away the smoke around us.
Then I walked over to Escort Guard Seo Wu, who’d subdued the target.
“You’ve worked hard.”
“Not at all. I only did what I was supposed to do.”
There was no way Brother Jin-ho was going to let me go off alone. So before he could say anything, I’d asked Escort Guard Seo Wu and Escort Guard Jin Yu to come with me.
The two of them would be more than enough help.
And thanks to them, we’d quickly caught the one behind this incident.
“Let’s tie him up.”
“Yes.”
“Understood.”
At my order, the two Escort Guards bound the man tightly. They took the poison pill out of his mouth and stripped every last weapon from his body.
Then they dug into the snow and buried him, leaving only his neck above the surface.
There was so much snow piled up that it was easy to cover his whole body.
And then,
Smack–!
I slapped his cheek to bring him around.
“Gasp!”
“Are you awake now?”
Realizing the situation, he spat out a curse.
“Son of a…”
“So, where are your higher–ups?”
“I don’t know what you’re hoping to hear, but I won’t say a single word!”
“Suit yourself.”
“What?”
“To be honest, I am curious who ordered something like this… but even then, your higher–ups will have their own higher–ups above them.”
“…”
Judging by his expression, I’d hit the mark.
And I had no intention of digging any further than that.
If I got in their way, they’d show up in front of me sooner or later on their own.
The whole reason I hunted this guy down was because I was worried he’d interfere with our journey going forward.
“Asking where your higher–ups were just now was more to set the mood. Hoo, it’s cold.”
I joked as I spoke.
In truth, I wasn’t cold at all.
“Well then, goodbye.”
“Wh–what? Where are you going?”
“We’re going on our way.”
“Wh–what about me? What am I supposed to do?”
His voice trailed off.
“You don’t want to say anything, so I’ve got no excuse to dig you out. If you’d at least said something, I was thinking of getting you out. Don’t worry. This stretch of road isn’t on any spirit beasts’ path. No spirit beast is going to rip your scalp off.”
I went on.
“Of course, people don’t come through here either.”
“So I’m supposed to starve or freeze to death!”
“You’ve cultivated martial arts, haven’t you? So I’m guessing you’ll starve to death first.”
“N–no…”
“Why not?”
I let out a faint chuckle.
“Is it unfair, having done to you exactly what you were trying to do to North Sea Ice Palace?”
“…!”
My words filled his eyes with panic.
I pretended not to notice and waved my hand.
“Anyway, that’s how it is. We’ll be going now.”
As we really started to leave, he shouted in a panic.
“S–save me! I–I’ll talk! I’ll answer everything you ask, just please save me! I’m not meant to die like this!”
There was no need for bloody torture.
The smarter someone was, the better they understood their own situation.
“Well then, where are your higher–ups?”
“T–that’s…”
“If you’re not going to talk, don’t waste our time.”
I turned and started walking again without a shred of hesitation.
“Aaagh! I–I’ll talk! They always wore masks when they met me, so I don’t know who they are! But I definitely saw something once! They… they had a tattoo on the inside of their arm, shaped like a red tree leaf!”
A tattoo shaped like a red tree leaf…
These were people bold enough to move against North Sea Ice Palace itself. That meant they were quite high up.
We’d just gotten our first clue about them.
“And?”
“They seemed to want North Sea Ice Palace to throw the martial world into chaos with this incident. I don’t know what they plan to gain from it, but…”
“And?”
“I–I don’t know anything else…”
“Really? Then we’ll be on our way.”
“N–no! I’m sorry! I–I know something!”
After reeling him in and letting him go a few times like that, he ended up spilling absolutely everything, down to the tiniest detail.
From the way it sounded, he’d really said everything he knew.
“All right. Then dig him out.”
At my words, Escort Guard Seo Wu and Escort Guard Jin Yu dug him out with shovels.
Thud!
“Argh!”
“Ah, sorry.”
There was a minor accident where they jabbed him with the shovel, but in the end he barely managed to get out of the snow.
“U–urgh…”
He shivered, probably from the cold. Honestly, it might have been warmer inside the snow than outside.
Snow blocked the wind, so it was always a bit warmer underneath.
But his body had stiffened while he was buried, and he couldn’t move well.
“Let’s go, then.”
“Wh–where are we going?”
“You’re going to North Sea Ice Palace, of course.”
“T–that’s not what you promised! You said you’d let me go!”
“When did I? I said I’d dig you out of the snow, not that I’d let you go. Now, let’s move. The Palace’s disciples are waiting.”
At my words, his face went pale, and he suddenly tried to bolt.
Come on, did he really think that would work?
Thud!
He didn’t even get away for a few seconds before he went sprawling backward.
But we weren’t the ones who tripped him.
“So, who the hell is this bastard?”
Uh…
It was Brother Jin-ho.
“How’d you get here?”
“What do you mean, how? I can tell you’re scheming something just by looking at your face.”
“Hahaha.”
“So who is this bastard?”
“He’s the one who made North Sea Ice Palace go hungry.”
“What?”
At my answer, Brother Jin-ho’s face twisted into a vicious expression.
“Say that again. Who did you say this bastard I’m going to tear apart is?”
Judging from him using words like “bastard I’m going to tear apart,” he hadn’t misheard and asked again.
But I was a good younger brother, so I slowly repeated myself.
“He’s the one who starved North Sea Ice Palace’s people, your mother-in-law, and Grandmother. I caught him and got his testimony.”
Smack–!
Almost before I finished talking, Brother Jin-ho’s fist slammed into the man.
Smack!
Thud!
Before he even reached North Sea Ice Palace, he was getting beaten so hard by the enraged Brother Jin-ho that dust would’ve flown even on a snowy day.
“Hey, Brother! You know you can’t kill him, right?”
“Don’t worry. Hoo, I think I finally get why you told me to use my head and distribute my strength when I fight. It was so I could take my time and beat scum like this even more miserably, wasn’t it?”
Uh… no, that’s really not what I meant.
–TL Notes–
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