“Please spare me!”
The Third Immortal helped the young man, who had fallen to his knees and was pleading, to his feet.
“You’re making me feel terribly uncomfortable.”
“How am I supposed to pay you back if you suddenly demand the money?”
The Third Immortal let out a sigh.
“It’s an order that came down from the guild, so there’s nothing I can do. You know how it is, don’t you? People like us can only do as we’re told.”
“But I can’t sell my house. If we have no house, where am I supposed to care for my parents?”
This young man’s weakness was his filial devotion. The Third Immortal kept stabbing at that weakness.
“You’ll have to take them to a relative’s house or something.”
“What relative would welcome two old people at the end of their lives?”
The Third Immortal sighed.
“That’s why I told you not to borrow more money.”
The young man sighed as well.
“I didn’t know it would come to this.”
The dream of this young man, who had gone out into the world to learn martial arts and then returned home, was to open a martial academy in his hometown. As he worked desperately to earn money and make that dream come true, the Third Immortal had approached him, offering to lend him an Immortal Loan.
Of course, the young man had been suspicious at first.
But there had been nothing strange about the promissory note. On top of that, the Third Immortal had been exceedingly kind. He had treated him like a true elder brother.
He had not even forced him to borrow money until the very end. He had advised him to borrow another time, saying that having too much debt at a young age would be difficult.
Then, when the Third Immortal tried to lend the Immortal Loan to someone else, the young man grew anxious. In the end, he borrowed the money that day.
He bought an old estate and began construction to remodel it into a martial academy. But then there was an accident in which the workers were injured. Construction was delayed, and he had to borrow more money to pay for their treatment. After that, materials were stolen. So he had to borrow again.
Even so, he had meant to somehow open the martial academy, run it steadily, and pay the money back. But this time, the completed academy caught fire.
The young man truly felt as if the heavens had collapsed. And then, to make matters worse, the Third Immortal came and told him to pay back the money. He told him to sell the house where his parents lived.
“I’ll do anything. But I absolutely cannot sell the house!”
“Anything? Are you saying you’d even kill someone? Don’t say such useless things.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’ll try to plead with the guild somehow, so let’s discuss it together.”
“Thank you. Truly, thank you.”
“Then I’ll see you again.”
As the Third Immortal turned away after parting from the young man, a smile formed on his thin lips.
‘It’s about time.’
Once he made the man commit a crime, that would be the end of it. The moment he dipped his foot in, they could use him for the rest of his life. Especially if he was kind, innocent, and deeply filial toward his parents like this young man, it was as good as free prey.
Ambition, dreams, hope, youth, family…
These bright and warm things were the bait that led young men into hell. Push forward with spirit! You should dream while you’re young. Hold on to hope! You’re still young! Think of your family! How could hot-blooded youngsters possibly avoid such things?
With a cold smile, the Third Immortal climbed into the carriage that had been waiting.
He asked his subordinate on the driver’s seat.
“Next?”
“He’s someone who wants to borrow money for the first time.”
“What does he do?”
“They say he is the son of the sect master of Jeonggwonmun.”
It was a sect he had heard of before.
One might wonder why the child of such a well-known sect would need to borrow money, but in his experience, the people who truly needed money never borrowed it, while those who did not need it were the ones who borrowed.
The Third Immortal leaned his head against the carriage. These days, he was so busy he scarcely had time to breathe.
The Dark Merchant Alliance was being run by four sworn brothers who had committed all manner of wicked deeds. When they began this venture, they abandoned their own names and became the First Immortal, Second Immortal, Third Immortal, and Fourth Immortal.
The First Immortal, who had first created the Dark Merchant Alliance, was cunning and merciless. Sympathy for others had never existed in him from the moment he was born.
Then, out of nowhere, he had obtained a vast sum of money and proposed this venture. He never told them where he had gotten such money. There had to be a separate financier who had provided this enormous capital.
In any case, one thing was certain. Once that ruthless First Immortal set his mind on making money, they would make a tremendous fortune.
To maintain secrecy, they kept the number of subordinates to a minimum and selected only elites, while dividing the work thoroughly.
The Fourth Immortal led elite martial artists and moved only when force was needed. If the Fourth Immortal was the fist, the Second Immortal was the foot. The Second Immortal’s role was to find the people who would become their victims.
The First Immortal decided where to use these prey. He made them do all kinds of things. Not only assault and murder, but also stealing martial arts manuals from relatives or acquaintances. If it looked as if a secret might be leaked, he killed them while disguising it as suicide.
And if the First Immortal was the head, then the Third Immortal served as the mouth.
The Third Immortal went around caressing and comforting them. If they endured just a little longer, a better life would come. In that sense, whenever the four of them gathered, they often joked that the Third Immortal was the biggest son of a bitch among them.
“We’ve arrived.”
The meeting place was an inn.
His subordinate pointed to a young man sitting in a corner seat and said,
“That’s him.”
The Third Immortal walked over to him, while his subordinate waited a short distance away.
The Third Immortal sat down with the young man and greeted him warmly.
“Sorry. Did you wait long?”
“It’s fine.”
The young man answered in a low voice. Usually, young men who came to borrow money were tense and stiff. But rather than tense, this young man gave off a dark, gloomy impression.
“What is your name?”
“Jeong Yang.”
The person who introduced himself as Jeong Yang was none other than Geom Mugeuk.
“I heard you were the heir of Jeonggwonmun?”
Jeonggwonmun was a sect that truly existed not far from this place. Its youngest son was also named Jeong Yang.
Of course, this sect was one affiliated with the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult and managed by Tongcheongak. If someone actually went to investigate, they would learn that there was a son who looked like Geom Mugeuk.
Like Seodopa, which had been used during the Murim Alliance’s martial competition, the Little Dragon Tournament, Jeonggwonmun was also a cover sect created to prepare for cases like this.
“Why would someone like you need money?”
The Third Immortal asked, probing him.
Instead of answering, Geom Mugeuk asked,
“I heard you lend money without taking interest.”
“That’s right. The Immortal Loan does not take interest.”
Geom Mugeuk raised his head and looked at the Third Immortal. Unlike his usual self, Geom Mugeuk was putting on a despondent air.
He could have acted arrogant and overbearing, or he could have behaved like the scion of an extremely prestigious family. But Gowol had required him to deal with the opponent in this manner.
“How much can you lend?”
“How much do you need?”
“One hundred thousand taels.”
The Third Immortal was startled. This was the first time someone had asked to borrow one hundred thousand taels at once.
“What do you intend to use such an enormous sum for?”
Geom Mugeuk lowered his head and said nothing.
“Look here. It is your freedom to decide where you use the money you borrow, but one hundred thousand taels is truly a large sum. Shouldn’t I at least know what you plan to use it for?”
The Third Immortal thought inwardly.
‘This doesn’t feel good.’
He had just decided that he should not lend the money.
As if unable to contain his anger, Geom Mugeuk suddenly thrust his fist down at the floor from where he sat.
Even though his fist did not touch it directly, the floor of the inn sank inward.
The Third Immortal was shocked. What was even more surprising was that it had made so little sound that the people at the next table did not notice. For his age, his internal energy was profound.
“Forget it. Let’s pretend this never happened.”
When Geom Mugeuk tried to leave, as if regretting having come at all, the Third Immortal stopped him.
“Wait! Why are you so hasty?”
Geom Mugeuk acted as though, even at this moment, he was torn between whether he should borrow or not.
“Now, sit down first.”
The reason the Third Immortal held on to Geom Mugeuk was because of his skill.
‘He’s the kind of man the First Immortal is looking for!’
The First Immortal had been searching for an expert to use in a major job. Orders had even come down that if a skilled master was caught, they must seize him without fail.
“Fine. I’ll lend you the money. Since where you use it is your personal affair, I won’t ask any more.”
A faint joy flickered across Geom Mugeuk’s face.
“I’m lending you such a large sum, and you don’t even say thank you?”
Then Geom Mugeuk said in a voice barely audible,
“Where in this world is anything free? Later, you’ll use the fact that you lent me money to get something out of me.”
Geom Mugeuk glared at the Third Immortal with eyes that seemed to say he could not be deceived.
Among all the people the Third Immortal had met until now, this was the first one who gave off this kind of feeling. He was somehow unsettling, yet strangely drew people in. He seemed like someone who would cause a great incident—and that meant he was also someone who would earn them a great deal of money.
“Good! Let’s write the promissory note.”
Geom Mugeuk examined the promissory note this way and that.
“Just as I heard, there really is no repayment date.”
“If we were trying to make money, we would have invested in a merchant company. We are investing in your youth.”
At the word youth, Geom Mugeuk snorted and continued inspecting the promissory note.
“If I soak this in water, the contents of the note won’t change, will they?”
“If you’re that suspicious, then check for yourself.”
Geom Mugeuk really did splash water on it, then brought over a lamp and applied heat. But the promissory note showed no change at all.
This time, the Third Immortal snorted inwardly.
‘He’s suspicious, too.’
Did that make him difficult to use? No. Suspicious people had their own easy aspects. Once they got past their suspicion, they tended to show faith with even greater certainty. If one set out to deceive someone, the other party’s personality was no problem at all.
After examining the promissory note for quite some time, Geom Mugeuk nodded.
“If you give me the money, I’ll put down my handprint.”
At the Third Immortal’s command, the subordinate who had been driving the carriage brought over bank drafts. After receiving the money, Geom Mugeuk left his handprint on the promissory note.
“Then I’ll see you again.”
After pocketing the money, Geom Mugeuk walked out without looking back, and the Third Immortal gave an order to his subordinate.
“Release the surveillance team and find out where he uses the money.”
“Understood.”
After the two men left the inn, they boarded the carriage and departed.
Geom Mugeuk and Gowol were watching the two of them leave from an alley by the building across the street.
“You did well.”
Geom Mugeuk had created as dark and gloomy an atmosphere as possible, just as Gowol had instructed.
“It was good that you checked the promissory note.”
Sprinkling water on it and applying heat had been Geom Mugeuk’s spur-of-the-moment judgment. He had thought that someone approaching with malicious intent would not cause such a fuss while inspecting a promissory note.
“Strategist Go, wouldn’t it be better to just grab that bastard and torture him? Wouldn’t he spill where the others are?”
At Geom Mugeuk’s question, Gowol shook his head.
“The one who planned this is a clever man. If we mishandle this, he will cut off his tail and go into hiding.”
“Then what do we do now?”
“Use the one hundred thousand taels you borrowed to buy one item.”
“What kind of item?”
Gowol smiled as if he already had everything planned and said,
“An item that will give them quite a shock.”
* * *
Three days later, the subordinate returned and reported to the Third Immortal.
“Jeong Yang took the one hundred thousand taels to a shadow merchant in this region and bought poison.”
Shadow merchants were those who sold hidden weapons, arms, and poisons banned by the Murim Alliance.
“He bought poison? What kind of poison?”
“He bought Formless Poison.”
The Third Immortal was startled. Formless Poison was extremely expensive and not easy to obtain.
“Can it be bought with one hundred thousand taels?”
“It seems he bought only enough to use once.”
“Who in the world is he trying to kill?”
When his subordinate answered that he did not know that much, the Third Immortal was at a loss. Until now, the money they had lent had been used in all sorts of places, but no one had ever bought Formless Poison. It seemed the unsettling feeling he had gotten that day had been because of this.
“I have a bad feeling about this.”
He likely had not bought it for that purpose, but it was also possible that he could use that Formless Poison on the Third Immortal himself.
“How did he even deal with a shadow merchant?”
“There is a capable information broker in this area. It seems he made contact through them.”
“Damn it! Tell that bastard I want to meet him again.”
“Yes.”
The Third Immortal let out a sigh. He truly enjoyed this work. The pleasure of gently coaxing someone and leading them to ruin gave him greater delight than lying with a woman. On top of that, even as they died, the other party relied only on the Third Immortal.
The Third Immortal thought there was no pleasure more destructive and primal than this. As long as lunatics like this did not occasionally appear.
The next day, the Third Immortal met Geom Mugeuk again.
“Why did you ask to see me?”
Now that he knew Geom Mugeuk had bought poison, he looked even gloomier and darker.
“There is one thing I want to ask.”
“What is it?”
“Where did you use the one hundred thousand taels I lent you?”
Geom Mugeuk frowned.
“Did you not say you wouldn’t ask that?”
“I did. But a strange rumor is going around. They say someone bought Formless Poison with one hundred thousand taels.”
In that instant, Geom Mugeuk flinched. It was a reaction so obvious there was no need to press him.
“It wasn’t me.”
“Then show me the money. Or tell me where you used it.”
Geom Mugeuk could not say anything.
The Third Immortal spoke in a gentle tone, as if soothing him.
“The moment you bought that, we ended up in the same boat. If you cause an incident with that poison, we’ll be in trouble too. So tell me. If there is anything I can do to help, I will.”
“You can’t help.”
“Who in the world are you trying to kill? If you use Formless Poison, the Murim Alliance will come to investigate. I’m saying the problem will grow. If you want to kill someone, it would be better to hire an assassin…”
Then a name he could never have imagined came out.
“Is there an assassin who can kill the Fist Demon?”
“!”
The Third Immortal was truly shocked. He was so shocked that he wondered if he had ever been this startled recently.
“Surely you don’t mean the Fist Demon of the Demon Cult?”
“Why wouldn’t I? That bastard who deserves to be torn to death.”
For a moment, the Third Immortal forgot what to say. He felt that he had gotten involved with the wrong person.
‘Ah! This bastard is insane. Properly insane.’
If they became entangled with the Demon Cult and things went wrong, all of them would die.
“Why are you trying to kill the Fist Demon?”
“The Fist Demon touched my woman.”
“Why would the Fist Demon touch your woman of all people?”
After hesitating for a moment, Geom Mugeuk revealed his family’s secret, as if he had already gone too far to turn back.
“Our Jeonggwonmun belongs to the Demon Cult. It was a place under the Fist Demon’s charge.”
The Third Immortal nearly screamed. They were already entangled with the Demon Cult. This madman was exposing such an important secret so easily? But there was a reason his eyes had gone mad.
“The Fist Demon, who sometimes came and went from our house, saw my fiancée and violated her. Damn it! Even after my father learned the truth, he told me to endure it.”
Geom Mugeuk revealed his rage with blazing eyes that seemed ready to cast caution to the winds.
“I will kill the Fist Demon.”
The Third Immortal was making the same resolution. He quickly sent a sound transmission to the subordinate waiting behind him.
—Contact the Immortals. We need to get rid of this madman first and leave quickly.