The next morning, before setting out, I went to see Geugak Soma.
“What is it?”
“Only Soma and I need to go to Cheonhwa House.”
The fact that Geugak Soma had a personal relationship with the Cheonhwa House Lord was an exceedingly private matter. I believed it was a secret that ought to be protected.
But Geugak Soma gave me an unexpected answer.
“There is no need for that. Let us all go together and proceed with the matter according to the original plan.”
“You need not force yourself to do something you do not wish to do. Military Advisor Go and the others can cooperate from outside.”
“That is not the reason.”
There was an unexpected reason he wanted us to go together.
“I want to introduce you to the Cheonhwa House Lord.”
The Poison King, Seo Daeryong, Go Wol, and even the Pungcheon Cult Leader.
“The Cheonhwa House Lord is an ambitious person. But because of me, she has been restraining herself from pursuing many of the things she wishes to do. Meeting and associating with these people will be of great help to her.”
I could tell that Geugak Soma genuinely cared for the Cheonhwa House Lord. And I could also tell that he looked upon her with feelings greater than mere affection.
“And above all, they are people Second Young Master Yi trusts, are they not? So it is fine.”
I thought Geugak Soma’s decision was wise. There were times when it was best to keep things well hidden, and times when it was best to bring them out into the world. This was likely the latter. At the very least, I did not believe any of us would bring harm to the Cheonhwa House Lord. We sealed the decision with a smile exchanged between us.
When I left Geugak Soma’s residence and entered the courtyard, Go Wol was preparing to depart, loading baggage into the carriage. He seemed to have many worries weighing on his face.
“Military Advisor Go. Do not worry too much—enjoy yourself. As a military advisor, you will have to devise countless plans throughout your life, but the chance for me, Soma, and the Poison King to carry out those plans will not come often. So enjoy this situation.”
Go Wol bowed his head with a grateful expression. The Pungcheon Cult Leader beside him did not neglect to offer a jealous remark.
“The points I earn with a hundred words, you always earn with just one.”
“Please trust Military Advisor Go. I will give you one point and the Cult Leader a hundred.”
Thus, after soothing both my one and only military advisor and the cult leader’s feelings, I shouted loudly,
“Now, we depart!”
* * *
It was a lavishly decorated room.
The specially made bed was large enough for ten people to lie down on with room to spare, and the furnishings filling the spacious room were expensive and precious, crafted by master artisans. The ceramics and paintings displayed throughout went without saying—even the doorknob was expensive enough to startle anyone.
In the middle of this vast and splendid room, more than ten women sat kneeling. They wore thin garments that revealed their flesh. Their ages varied, as did their beauty. But their expressions were all the same.
Despair.
They stared down at the floor with eyes containing all the despair in the world.
And seated in the center of the women lined up to either side was Yeo Bulgae. His hair was white and his face was deeply wrinkled, but his eyes still radiated passion no less intense than a young man’s.
Yeo Bulgae was reading a dispatch.
Not long after Jisaeng had died, news had arrived that Aech’a had died as well.
His wrinkled hand clenched the dispatch, crumpling it, and he threw it at the head of one of the women. The woman picked up the dispatch after it fell from her head and burned it in the oil lamp.
“What do you think of this?”
In response to his question, Hwang Yeom, seated directly in front of him, answered respectfully.
“They never showed it openly, but they were people who subtly looked down on us for dealing in women.”
In other words, he was indirectly saying that it was good they had died. Hwang Yeom was Yeo Bulgae’s right-hand man, and knew his master better than anyone.
Sure enough, Yeo Bulgae felt the same way.
Jisaeng and Aech’a had been insignificant people with nothing but pride, forever looking down on others. He had never once seen them greet him first. Therefore, what concerned him more than their deaths was this:
“I mean, what if someone from outside is attacking us?”
“It would be best to rule out that possibility.”
“Why?”
“According to the investigation, it is certain they died because of internal conflict. The higher-ups must have investigated with their senses fully alert as well. If someone had the ability to deceive them, would we still be alive?”
The wrinkles on Yeo Bulgae’s forehead deepened further.
“Are you anxious?”
“I could be the next target.”
He did not know that a single wish filled the eyes of the women bowing their heads on either side of him.
Please, let it be him next!
“Just in case, I will summon every expert we can mobilize.”
Yeo Bulgae nodded. Normally, he liked to make this joke:
“Even the Yama of Hell wouldn’t accept me. He’d say I would dirty the place.”
But it was a joke he made only when he was certain he would not die. Now that he actually sensed danger, he reacted to death more sensitively than anyone.
“Just in case… contact the Yin-Yang Ghosts as well.”
Hwang Yeom flinched at the words “Yin-Yang Ghosts,” but soon replied obediently,
“Understood.”
In the past, such a matter would have required several exchanges. It would cost too much money to mobilize those men, and if they were unleashed upon the martial world for no reason, they might cause an incident. The higher-ups would not be pleased with that. But now, it was convenient that such deliberations could be skipped.
Hwang Yeom knew him so well that Yeo Bulgae sometimes felt as though he possessed another body. To put it simply, Hwang Yeom could identify the woman Yeo Bulgae had chosen from among dozens simply by looking at his master’s eyes.
“I am not afraid of dying, but I have yet to achieve all my dreams.”
Yeo Bulgae’s dream was to establish his pleasure houses throughout every corner of the Central Plains.
Until now, he had used every method imaginable to expand his pleasure houses across the Central Plains. Sometimes he built them himself, and sometimes he seized those belonging to others.
Every possible method had been employed in the process. He sent thugs to cause disturbances, spread groundless rumors, drugged the food and made the guests ill, and even set fire to the pleasure houses.
One might wonder whether such crude methods could work, but they were unexpectedly the most effective. He damaged their reputations, drove competing pleasure houses out of business, and bought up their establishments for next to nothing. Whenever he saw a pleasure-house owner take his own life in the process, Yeo Bulgae felt a rush of pleasure.
“You must cling to life and achieve your dream. Here, this is the new dream you will pursue, Lord.”
Hwang Yeom handed him a document. It contained information about Cheonhwa House. Since it was the most famous pleasure house in Guizhou, where they intended to expand, they had decided to seize it first.
As Yeo Bulgae looked through the contents, greed shone in his eyes.
“The projected profits are enormous.”
“It earns more money than any place we possess in the Central Plains.”
“Are the courtesans beauties?”
“That is part of it, but it is said the Cheonhwa House Lord is highly capable.”
“I heard the Cheonhwa House Lord is a woman?”
“That is correct. She handles the courtesans well, and she handles the guests well too. Even the martial artists under her command respect her.”
“Whatever she is, she is still just a worthless bitch.”
His contempt for women was an innate part of his nature. He despised and loathed them so intensely that Hwang Yeom suspected Yeo Bulgae had suffered severe abuse from his mother or some other woman in his youth. His pathological lust clearly stemmed not from affection, but from hatred.
“How beautiful is she?”
“I hear she is exceptionally beautiful.”
Yeo Bulgae’s eyes grew languid as his lust surfaced. His gaze turned toward the women. All of them had once been pleasure-house owners. To the outside world, they were believed to have disappeared or died.
They were women who had handed their pleasure houses over to Yeo Bulgae one morning and vanished somewhere. No matter how desperately their families and friends searched, they had never been found.
Yeo Bulgae had been abducting and collecting the more beautiful women among the owners of the pleasure houses he seized. It was a deed that would make Heaven and humanity tremble with outrage, but the truth had never become known outside. Even if someone had learned of it, no one dared face Yeo Bulgae.
“Now the balance will finally be right.”
There were nine women in all. He meant that when the Cheonhwa House Lord arrived, there would be ten.
Hwang Yeom nodded with an expression that told him not to worry. It was a signal that once the matter was finished, he would send the Cheonhwa House Lord to Yeo Bulgae’s chamber.
“The Black-and-White Twin Blades have already gone.”
The Black-and-White Twin Blades were Yeo Bulgae’s hands and feet, though they were not well known in the martial world. Their martial prowess was formidable, but from a young age they had been raised as merciless blades trained to carry out orders without question. They were men who possessed no human emotions.
In the case of Cheonhwa House, clumsy schemes would not work, so they had sent in the Black-and-White Twin Blades immediately.
They intended to abduct the House Lord personally and force her to stamp her seal on a contract. The nine women here had all suffered the same fate.
“Tell them to bring her back safely without laying a finger on her!”
It was the worry of a lecherous old man who never changed.
* * *
“A precious guest will be arriving today.”
From early morning, Cheonhwa House Lord Yeo Jeong had the residence and inner courtyard cleaned. She applied her makeup and dressed with greater care than usual.
The maids and servants bustled about diligently.
They had learned from experience that whenever the Cheonhwa House Lord said a precious guest would arrive, a guest always came that day. At first, they assumed she knew because she had received prior notice, but after realizing that many guests arrived without warning, they all understood that the Cheonhwa House Lord was an extraordinary person.
But today, even she seemed to have been mistaken.
The people who entered the inner courtyard were not precious guests, but uninvited intruders.
The Black-and-White Twin Blades had burst in, dressed in black and white long robes.
The Cheonhwa House Lord sent the servants and maids inside. At the same time, the martial artists guarding the inner courtyard revealed themselves.
They greatly outnumbered the intruders, but the Black-and-White Twin Blades showed no fear whatsoever. Rather, the momentum of the two overwhelmed everyone present, and tension spread across the faces of the Cheonhwa House’s martial artists.
The Cheonhwa House Lord asked calmly,
“Where do you gentlemen come from?”
The Black Blade among the Black-and-White Twin Blades spoke to her.
“Our master wishes to see you. Come.”
His tone was cold and blunt, devoid of all emotion. In one sense, he sounded like a child; in another, like a piece of wood that had learned to speak.
“Who is your master?”
“You will know when you come.”
“I am sorry, but a precious guest is arriving today, so I will have to postpone this until another time.”
Of course, such words did not work on the Black-and-White Twin Blades.
“There is no one more precious than our master.”
With that, the two men strode forward. Of the eight martial artists from Cheonhwa House who blocked their path, four launched themselves forward at once. The remaining four surrounded the Cheonhwa House Lord.
Swords and blades clashed rapidly.
The masters who had guarded Cheonhwa House until now were formidable, but the Black-and-White Twin Blades were stronger.
Before they could withstand even ten exchanges, two of the four who had charged forward collapsed, their arms and waists slashed deeply.
At the very moment the Black-and-White Twin Blades raised their blades to finish them off, the Cheonhwa House Lord launched herself forward and blocked their path.
“If you want to kill these men, you will have to kill me as well.”
Since their mission was to bring her back, the Black-and-White Twin Blades lowered their blades.
She pressed the blood-sealing points of the injured men to staunch their bleeding.
“Treat them and wait here. I will be back.”
“You cannot do that, Lord!”
The other martial artists stepped forward to stop her, but the Cheonhwa House Lord firmly restrained them.
“Everyone, stop!”
At her command, the martial artists halted. They all knew that if they continued fighting, they would only die pointless deaths. Since Cheonhwa House had been founded, never had such powerful intruders appeared.
“If you lose your lives here for nothing, I will carry the guilt for the rest of my life and never be able to live properly. Withdraw and protect the establishment. A precious guest will be arriving today, so tell that person what happened.”
She forced the martial artists back, then approached the Black-and-White Twin Blades. She showed no fear whatsoever.
At her appearance, the Black-and-White Twin Blades glanced at each other and tilted their heads. They had abducted many women until now, but they had never seen one remain so calm.
The Cheonhwa House Lord stared intently at the two men.
“I am quite good at seeing people’s futures. But the futures of the two of you are so pitch-black that I cannot see them clearly.”
The Black-and-White Twin Blades gave a cold laugh and strode toward her.
Just as the Black Blade reached out to seal her pressure points—
A thread of finger force flew toward them as swiftly as light.
Pheeing! Ppeok!
The incoming attack pierced the back of the Black Blade’s hand, leaving a hole through it.
At the very moment the Black Blade let out a short cry and tried to staunch the wound—
Pheeing! Ppeok!
This time, the elbow of his other arm, the one he had been using to stop the bleeding, was pierced through.
“Ugh!”
The moment the Black Blade instinctively hunched his body—
Pping! Ppeok!
His shoulder was pierced. The attack had flown too quickly for him to evade.
The instant he turned toward the place from which the finger force had come, more streams of finger force flew toward him in succession.
His abdomen, waist, and knees were pierced one after another. The finger force poured down like rain, shredding his body completely.
“Aaaaaaaagh!”
The Black Blade screamed desperately, as though he were finally giving voice to every scream he had suppressed throughout his life.
Pheeing! Ppeok!
At last, his forehead was pierced, and he crumpled to the ground.
The finger force had flown in such rapid succession that all anyone saw was him dying. Even the White Blade could only stand there and watch the Black Blade die, unable to comprehend the unexpected turn of events.
Only then did everyone’s gaze turn toward the place from which the finger force had come. A bright smile spread across the Cheonhwa House Lord’s lips.
Geugak Soma, wearing a white mask, was walking toward them with steady steps.