Cheongmyeon chose the fastest route to the Baekgye Merchant Guild. As a result, camping out became unavoidable.
They had to hunt and make dinner, start a campfire—Ian was busy with one thing and another, and in the end, unable to keep watching, I stepped in.
“If you want a campfire to burn well, you set the wood up like this.”
Surprisingly, Ian had never once started a campfire before. It was her first time coming this far from the cult.
“Now, this time I’ll teach you how to dress the meat.”
With practiced hands, I dressed the pheasant and rabbit we had hunted.
“Young Master, you’re really good at this. When did you learn all that?”
“I’ve always been good with my hands, haven’t I?”
Geugak Soma, sitting with his back against the carriage wheel, watched us in silence. Cheongmyeon stood a short distance away from him, keeping guard over Geugak Soma.
I skewered the dressed meat on branches and began roasting it over the campfire.
“Keep a close eye so it doesn’t burn. You may let an assassin get away, but you must never burn the meat!”
“Yes!”
Perhaps she found roasting meat fun, because Ian grilled it with great enthusiasm.
I sincerely hoped that, tense as she must be because of Geugak Soma and Cheongmyeon, even a moment like this would become a good memory for her. It was her first journey, after all.
Once the meat was done, I offered some to Geugak Soma.
“Please join us.”
“I’m fine.”
“Aren’t you hungry?”
“I’m all right.”
After Ian cut the meat, rubbed it with salt and seasoning, and wrapped it in paper, she brought portions to Geugak Soma and Cheongmyeon respectively.
“Please keep it and eat it later if you’d like.”
After handing the meat to the two of them, she came back.
She was terribly afraid of Geugak Soma, but she was still the sort of person who took care of what needed taking care of.
“Then we’ll eat first.”
Ian and I cut up the meat and ate.
We also drank the liquor we had bought when we stopped by a village.
“I’m all right.”
Even when I told her to have a cup, Ian adamantly refused. It seemed she truly did not even want to imagine getting drunk in front of Geugak Soma.
Watching that, Geugak Soma suddenly said,
“No matter how I look at her, she isn’t pretty. What exactly is supposed to be pretty about her?”
Ian flinched at once. Just from those words, Ian would be able to tell what kind of conversation had passed between Geugak Soma and me.
It was a rude thing to say to her, but in a way, it was also a remark made for my sake. It was as good as informing her that I had said she was pretty.
Instead of answering, I looked far off into the darkness.
“Over there, under the rock thirty zhang away. Do you see the weasel?”
Not only Geugak Soma, but Ian and Cheongmyeon as well looked where I pointed, but there was only pitch-black darkness spread out before them.
“If you find it hard to believe, go check.”
Geugak Soma sent Cheongmyeon a look. Cheongmyeon shot off toward that place.
A short while later, Cheongmyeon returned carrying a weasel.
Geugak Soma was startled.
“You truly saw that?”
“My eyes can see what you cannot, Lord Soma.”
Of course, rather than that, I had noticed it because the qi emission training I had learned from Father had reached a certain level.
“The beauty of my guard is visible only to my eyes.”
Ian quickly shook her head as if to tell me not to say such things, then lowered it deeply in embarrassment.
Geugak Soma said with a sneer,
“For a grown man, you are quite good at saying embarrassing things.”
“If something ought to be said, then it should be said. Not left unsaid because it’s embarrassing, not left unsaid because you’ve already said it once. Not left unsaid because saying it too often might become a burden. Not left unsaid because you’re busy. Not left unsaid because it might make you look pathetic.”
That last part, about looking pathetic, was aimed at Geugak Soma. After all, he had described eating beneath a mask as looking pathetic.
“Isn’t a man of character someone who says what must be said?”
As I said that, I looked at Ian. Whether because of the campfire or because she was embarrassed, her lowered face was burning red.
Be proud, Ian!
Without you, my life would not even have begun.
* * *
Two days later, the carriage arrived at the Baekgye Merchant Guild.
As he got down from the carriage, Geugak Soma asked me,
“Have you finished thinking about how you will stop me?”
“The answer was not inside the carriage, nor was it inside my head. I suppose I must find the answer in there.”
I looked up at the large signboard of the Baekgye Merchant Guild.
Cheongmyeon and Ian took the lead, while Geugak Soma and I followed behind them.
I wore a mask here as well. Going around with Geugak Soma while wearing a mask did have its conveniences. If I wore one alone, I would stand out too much, but with three of us wearing them, people would simply assume we were the sort who originally went around in masks.
When Cheongmyeon knocked on the door, a man who looked to be a steward opened it from inside.
One might expect him to be startled at the sight of us in masks, but he was calm, as though he had known we would come.
“The guild master is waiting. Please come this way.”
I had thought that perhaps hundreds of martial artists would be waiting in the training yard, but there was no one there.
I emitted my qi to examine the surroundings, but there was not a single ambusher. It was a wise choice. If they clumsily provoked Geugak Soma, it would only have produced needless victims.
The man guided us to the main hall.
There, nine people were waiting for us.
First, the head of this place offered a greeting.
“I am Seo Jeongtae, guild master of the Baekgye Merchant Guild.”
“Geugak.”
Geugak Soma treated Seo Jeongtae with the utmost coldness. He had never liked members of the unorthodox factions to begin with, so how displeasing must the Seo Jeongtae before him appear in his eyes?
“It is an honor to meet a Demon Venerable of the Divine Cult.”
Seo Jeongtae, on the other hand, was courteous. Calm and composed, he did not fear Geugak Soma, and it was clear that the reason lay with the eight experts lined up behind him. They also explained why there were no other martial artists present.
All eight experts had pulled bamboo hats low over their heads to hide their faces, but as if to prevent unnecessary conflict from the start, they were wearing clothing that revealed their identities. On their chests was drawn a wolf with its savage fangs bared wide.
The fierce wolves of the Evil Dao Alliance, said to tear dragons apart and rip tigers to shreds.
They were none other than the Thirteen Wolves of the Evil Dao, absolute experts of the Evil Dao Alliance, of whom it was said that any two together could face a single Demon Venerable. And as many as eight of those Thirteen Wolves of the Evil Dao had come.
Even after recognizing them, Geugak Soma was not frightened in the least.
Rather, he exuded a faint Lesser Evil Heart and seized control of the surroundings.
When that Lesser Evil Heart began to affect Seo Jeongtae, the other side did not stand idle.
As if by prior agreement, the eight experts all released their auras at once. Their evil energies instantly pushed back the Lesser Evil Heart and erected a wall before Seo Jeongtae. Their evil energies were rough, yet orderly. Without truly entangling, they seemed to interweave, complementing one another and revealing an impregnable momentum.
A contest of pride through force had begun.
Though he pressed forward with the Lesser Evil Heart, the wall of evil energy instead advanced. No matter how formidable Geugak Soma was, he could not bear the internal energy of eight of the Thirteen Wolves of the Evil Dao.
I did not want to see Geugak Soma being pushed back by martial artists of the Evil Dao Alliance either, so I secretly emitted demonic energy.
When my vast internal energy was added to the Lesser Evil Heart, the power struggle between the two sides settled into an even standoff.
When Geugak Soma did not yield, they pressed with even stronger internal energy, but as I drew up more of my martial power, we instead pushed inward once.
Just as they, angered, were about to raise their internal energy even further—
Because it would not be easy for us either if things went any further, Geugak Soma and I withdrew our demonic energy at the exact same time, as if we had agreed upon it.
Ending it the moment we had briefly won—Geugak Soma had achieved a perfect victory in the battle of momentum. Indeed, irritation could be felt from the eight experts.
Geugak Soma sent a sound transmission.
—I had no idea the Second Young Master’s internal energy was this profound.
—It must be because the Lesser Evil Heart is so formidable. My demonic energy merely lent a hand.
—If you lend a hand twice, those wolves will be wagging their tails. As expected, it was you who killed the Soul-Subduing Demon Venerable.
—Lord Soma, look ahead, not at me. Our enemies are not over here; there are nine of them right before us.
Geugak Soma’s gaze turned toward Seo Jeongtae, the guild master who had first introduced himself.
“You seemed to have been waiting for me, so you must know why I came. You had best choose your words carefully.”
“If the Demon Venerable desires my life, then I should gladly offer it, but at the very least, please hear me out first.”
“I am listening, so speak.”
“I will be direct. This guild intends to expand its business in Guizhou for the next eight years. And in the eighth year, we will close all our businesses and withdraw.”
Two years had already passed, and if eight more were added, in other words, the Evil Dao Alliance meant to hold him responsible for the massacre and make money by doing business in Guizhou for ten years.
“You mean to gnaw at my flesh and blood for ten years?”
“The ones the Demon Venerable killed have already had their flesh and blood rot away, leaving only white bones.”
Though displeasure filled his expression, Geugak Soma did not act rashly. It was not solely because of the eight Thirteen Wolves of the Evil Dao.
When it came to handling matters, he was not a rash man. One could tell from the fact that, after leaving the cult, instead of venting his desires, he went straight to meet the guild masters first.
At last, Geugak Soma said to Seo Jeongtae,
“You, too, belong to an organization, so fine. I will make a concession as well. From this very moment, exactly one year. If, after one year, you are still loitering around Guizhou and doing business there, I will take it to mean that you wish to go visit your friends who have become white bones.”
Even in the face of that blatant threat, Seo Jeongtae firmly shook his head.
“One year is a condition we absolutely cannot accept.”
“Then decide it by fighting, martial artist to martial artist. If you’re afraid, you may all come at me together.”
Geugak Soma knew. The Thirteen Wolves of the Evil Dao were also men with pride, and would not attack all at once.
Seo Jeongtae appeared to be lost in thought, but with the Divine Eye Art, I noticed his lips trembling faintly. He was conversing by sound transmission with one of the eight experts behind him.
At that moment, Geugak Soma also sent me a sound transmission.
—You must be disappointed. We should have had a proper clash.
—Disappointed? I get to witness Lord Soma negotiating with people of the Evil Dao Alliance firsthand? This is an experience I will not have again in my lifetime. This sight is a hundred times more thrilling than watching you exchange blows with them. If the world you see right now seems boring, then the original world must have been one that was asleep.
Geugak Soma laughed through sound transmission. It was the first time I had heard Geugak Soma’s laughter through sound transmission, and it sounded different again.
—What will you do if they do not accept?
—I suppose I will kill them all and be confined for about ten years. You take three. I will take four. Let Cheongmyeon and Ugly Heart take the remaining one.
I laughed through sound transmission as well. Of course, the part about fighting was a joke, but what made the joke funny was not that—it was the fact that he called Ian Ugly Heart. He was subtly the type to hold a grudge.
Then Seo Jeongtae spoke firmly.
“It is absolutely impossible.”
Of course, I had known they would come out like that. The unnecessary emotional sparring ended here. Now it was time for me to step forward.
“I would like to hear it directly from the one who decided that it was impossible.”
When I, who had remained silent until now, stepped forward, everyone’s gaze focused on me.
“What do you mean by that? And who are you, to step forward in such an important meeting?”
At Seo Jeongtae’s question, my gaze turned toward one of the men standing in the back.
“Stop playing leader from the shadows and come forward to settle the situation.”
The person I spoke to was the man standing in the center of the eight martial artists.
“You must know Lord Geugak Soma’s temperament well, so it would not be strange no matter what happens here. Will that be all right? Even if the successor of the Evil Dao Alliance is swept up in a fight and dies in a place like this?”
At my words, not only Geugak Soma but even Ian and Cheongmyeon were shocked.
Chaaang!
The seven men, excluding the one I had pointed out, all drew their swords at once and formed a formation. It was a sword formation meant to protect the man.
As expected of peerless experts, they revealed an overwhelming force. It was an aura incomparably more intense than when they had built the wall of evil energy earlier. In terms of our cult, it was almost as though four Demon Venerables were protecting the man.
The man standing in the middle of the sword formation slowly removed his bamboo hat. He was a young man whose face was covered in scars. If Jangho’s scars were impressive, this man’s scars were hideous.
Cut, crushed, distorted. His appearance alone was enough to send a chill through one’s heart, and his atmosphere and aura were likewise dark and heavy. Amid all that gleamed a pair of cold eyes.
“How did you recognize me?”
Perhaps his vocal cords had also been injured, for his voice sounded like a nail scraping against metal.
He was none other than Bi Sain, the official successor of the leader of the Evil Dao Alliance. Since he had been wearing the same clothes as the Thirteen Wolves of the Evil Dao, the fact that I recognized him was tantamount to saying that a secret had been leaked.
“Who are you?”
At Bi Sain’s cold question, I answered,
“I am someone whose death would be a problem, just as yours would be.”
I lifted my mask up onto my head and said,
“It is our first meeting. I am Geom Mugeuk, second son of the Heavenly Demon.”