That powerful temptation did not work.
Because Seo Danmyeong answered in a low voice.
“You cannot sweep them away.”
Geom Mugeuk was curious. Just who was the client, for him to say such a thing?
In any case, he had pushed him hard enough; now it was time to gently draw him back in.
“True. Force cannot solve every problem.”
Geom Mugeuk persuaded him with a gentle gaze.
“Justification is good, and principles are good, but shouldn’t you live first? Net-Knotter. I quite like that name. I hope you’ll continue weaving splendid nets in the future. And when you have time, help us with our work as well.”
The choice on the other side of this was death, so how could Seo Danmyeong’s heart not waver?
Jaein, who had been listening, stepped in to support Geom Mugeuk.
“How can we trust that you’ll spare us?”
That question was surely the very thing Seo Danmyeong most wanted to ask.
“Because it is the Young Cult Leader’s promise.”
Seo Danmyeong looked at Geom Mugeuk. He knew better than anyone that there was nothing more foolish than trusting a demon.
But if he refused even after the Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult had gone this far, he would end up dying by the Demonic Cult’s hand first.
Jaein, too, looked at Seo Danmyeong with desperate eyes. Shouldn’t we live first?
When Seo Danmyeong still said nothing.
“Then just die.”
Leaving behind that low remark, Geom Mugeuk was about to open the carriage door and leave.
In the end, the name of one place slipped from Seo Danmyeong’s mouth.
“Baekgye Merchant Guild.”
The moment he heard those words, Jaein tilted his head. He had expected a far more grandiose name, but it was merely a merchant guild? Then why had he said the Demonic Cult could not sweep them away?
“Who are they, for you to say such a thing?”
Geom Mugeuk answered his question for him.
“Because the Sado Alliance is behind them.”
Baekgye Merchant Guild was a place Geom Mugeuk knew as well. He had come to know of them when he first left the cult with Geugak Soma in the past. They had advanced into Guizhou with the Sado Alliance’s full support.
Come to think of it, the place where he had first met Bi Sain had also been Baekgye Merchant Guild.
Afterward, once he had told Bi Sain what he wanted to know, they had withdrawn from Guizhou, where they had been making money in Geugak Soma’s territory.
And now that Baekgye Merchant Guild had appeared again.
“That’s right. I knew full well the Sado Alliance was behind Baekgye Merchant Guild, so I could not refuse their request.”
At Seo Danmyeong’s words, Jaein asked with a startled expression.
“Then does that mean the Sado Alliance plotted this affair?”
Seo Danmyeong did not answer, but that silence was clearly an affirmation.
Now they could understand why Seo Danmyeong had tried to carry out this matter even while overreaching himself. And why he had hesitated until the end to reveal the client.
They could also guess why he had mobilized Goeak, one of the Seven Great Masters of the Sado Alliance, at the very end. He must have thought they were on the same side.
“Who came from Baekgye Merchant Guild? Did the guild master, Seo Jeongtae, come in person?”
At Geom Mugeuk’s question, Seo Danmyeong shook his head.
“The vice guild master came. He and I know each other.”
Seo Danmyeong spoke to Geom Mugeuk with a tense gaze.
“This is all I know. Will you keep your promise to spare me?”
Geom Mugeuk nodded.
“Of course.”
The very moment the tension began to ease from Seo Danmyeong’s face.
Someone’s question came from outside.
“Is it done?”
Seo Danmyeong’s eyes widened, wondering what was going on. Jaein had heard that voice before, so he hunched in on himself.
“It’s done.”
The moment Geom Mugeuk’s answer ended.
A sharp sound of wind came slicing through the air.
Thud!
A Blood Calamity Finger pierced through the carriage wall and blew a hole through Seo Danmyeong’s face.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The finger winds that kept flying in struck his body one after another.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
The Blood Calamity Fingers that continued to fly in and embed themselves even in a body already dead showed Geugak Soma’s rage.
When the finger winds stopped, the carriage was riddled with holes. Through those holes, they could see Geugak Soma standing ahead with his back turned.
Thinking that he would be next, Jaein, who had been clutching his head, raised it. His face was filled with fear and anger.
“You promised you’d spare him!”
“I did.”
The moment he sent the Ghostslayer Unit to Cheonhwaru, his fate had already been decided. There was no way Geugak Soma would ever spare someone who had tried to kill the master of Cheonhwaru.
Jaein looked at Geom Mugeuk in terror.
“Are you going to kill me too?”
Beyond the holes, Geugak Soma still stood with his back turned, looking up at the sky.
“Do you want to die?”
Jaein answered in a trembling voice.
“No. I want to live.”
“Then live.”
Geom Mugeuk opened the carriage door and went outside. The one who was more surprised was actually Jaein.
“Why are you sparing me?”
His was a life that could be ended with the slightest twitch of a finger.
Geom Mugeuk looked back at him and said,
“I told you I’d spare you if you helped me, didn’t I?”
If Geugak Soma had not been satisfied unless he killed him too, there would have been nothing he could do, but Geugak Soma ended the punishment with Seo Danmyeong’s death.
“And you said you were still learning, didn’t you?”
Geom Mugeuk’s gaze turned toward Seo Danmyeong’s corpse.
“If you live like that man, you’ll end up like that someday too. Learn how to weave nets directly from the world. Only then will you weave your own net.”
Jaein could feel it. The Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult was giving him one chance.
Then Geugak Soma, who had been standing a distance away, turned toward them. The moment Jaein’s eyes met Geugak Soma’s, he lowered his head deeply. His heart pounded as if it would burst.
How much time had passed?
When Jaein raised his head again, the two of them had vanished before he knew it.
With the relief that he had survived, Jaein let out a long sigh. Only then did he feel as though he had been freed from the other man’s net, but soon he thought.
Perhaps the chance the Young Cult Leader had given him again was itself part of an even larger net.
* * *
When Geom Mugeuk and Geugak Soma returned, Cheonhwaru was operating normally.
Aside from a small number keeping watch over the surroundings, the Faceless Guests rested in the guest hall in the rear garden and did not show themselves.
“Baekgye Merchant Guild commissioned it?”
Yeo Jeong, too, looked surprised, as if it was unexpected.
As the one who ran Bihwa, she was well informed about many things. Naturally, she also knew about Baekgye Merchant Guild, which had been connected to Geugak Soma.
“Something is strange.”
On the way back, Geom Mugeuk and Geugak Soma had discussed the situation, and Geom Mugeuk had told Geugak Soma that Yeo Jeong, being a sharp-minded person, would surely see through the circumstances.
“At a glance, it looks like Baekgye Merchant Guild is taking revenge for the losses they suffered when they withdrew from Guizhou, but something is strange.”
The point she focused on was this.
“If they were an ordinary martial household, perhaps that would make sense. There may be no one who knows as well as I do how much martial artists stake their lives on empty pride. But Baekgye Merchant Guild are merchants. The losses they suffered then were monetary losses, so they would accept even greater losses just to take revenge for that?”
At that, Geom Mugeuk looked at Geugak Soma and said,
“As expected! Sister-in-law is wiser than anyone.”
At the word “sister-in-law,” Yeo Jeong’s face flushed slightly. Even after forming a bond with Geugak Soma, she had never once heard that word. Who would she have heard it from? This relationship itself was a secret. To be honest, she felt pleased.
Geugak Soma was also slightly flustered. But he knew very well with what intention the Young Cult Leader had said those words. The Young Cult Leader was continuing to be considerate of her and think of her. How could he not know for whose sake that consideration was?
Breaking the brief silence, Yeo Jeong continued.
“It’s not because I’m particularly wise, but because I know something about Baekgye Merchant Guild. Seo Jeongtae, the master of Baekgye Merchant Guild, is a man who values making money above all else. The reason he joined hands with the Sado Alliance was to maximize their profits. I cannot understand people like that spending such an enormous sum to settle an old grudge.”
Yeo Jeong smiled as she looked at the expressions of the two men.
“You have already discussed this part, haven’t you?”
Geugak Soma looked at her and said with a smile,
“Do not forget who we are with.”
It meant that, being with the Young Cult Leader, how could he have missed something like that?
In truth, when Geugak Soma first heard the name Baekgye Merchant Guild, he had been unable to think properly because of guilt and anger.
But through his conversation with Geom Mugeuk, he was able to calm himself, and he came to understand that this matter was not so simple.
Geom Mugeuk agreed with her words, giving a straightforward reason.
“That’s right. If the murim is thrown into an uproar, merchants suffer losses.”
And yet they had said that Cheonhwaru was plotting something that would throw the murim into an uproar.
“There seems to be some other hidden story behind this matter.”
Yeo Jeong revealed her honest feelings.
“To tell the truth, I had been greatly troubled, wondering who could harbor such a deep grudge against me.”
At that, Geugak Soma opened his heavy mouth.
“How could that be? Grudges are things suited to people like us.”
Geugak Soma hoped that the ultimate target of this grudge would be himself. He hoped Cheonhwaru or Yeo Jeong would merely be something that brushed past briefly within a great conspiracy, literally a fleeting journey.
“First, we must find that vice guild master of Baekgye Merchant Guild. I will send word to Tongcheongak and have them discover his whereabouts.”
It was then. From outside, one of Yeo Jeong’s subordinates announced that a guest had arrived.
“A guest has come and wishes to see the tower master.”
A guest had come at a time like this, of all times? After glancing once at Geom Mugeuk and Geugak Soma, Yeo Jeong asked her subordinate,
“Who did he say he was?”
“He says he is the vice guild master of Baekgye Merchant Guild.”
At the subordinate’s report, all three were startled.
Yeo Jeong asked the two men with her eyes what she should do.
Geom Mugeuk left the decision to Geugak Soma. After all, this matter was one in which he was protecting his woman.
Geugak Soma gave Yeo Jeong a single nod. The person they were looking for had come on his own feet; he was not someone to avoid him.
“Escort him to the main hall.”
* * *
Ping Wei, the vice guild master of Baekgye Merchant Guild, entered the main hall where the master of Cheonhwaru was waiting.
Ahead of him sat the master of Cheonhwaru, and about twenty paces away from her, a seat had been prepared for him. He thought that somewhere in the space between them, a martial artist protecting her was likely hidden.
“You are quite cautious.”
At his first words, which sounded somehow curt, Yeo Jeong welcomed him with a smile.
“Being a woman dealing with drunken guests has made me timid. I ask for your understanding.”
Their gazes passed back and forth, each probing the other.
Yeo Jeong knew the basics about the vice guild master of Baekgye Merchant Guild.
He was said to be the person Seo Jeongtae, the master of Baekgye Merchant Guild, trusted most, and he was known to possess considerable martial prowess. She also knew him to be a man whose pride was as strong as his martial skill.
Indeed, he displayed sharp eyes and an air that would not be easily dealt with.
“To what do we owe the visit of such an honored person?”
She now knew that Ping Wei before her was the one who had commissioned the Net-Knotter to kill Chohui, but Yeo Jeong showed none of that emotion.
“I came because I have a proposal for Cheonhwaru.”
“Please speak.”
“At the beginning of next month, an honored guest will come. We wish to rent out all of Cheonhwaru to entertain that person.”
It was common for murim sects to entertain martial artists at pleasure houses. But renting out an entire pleasure house as large as Cheonhwaru was not common.
“To rent our entire establishment would cost a great deal of money.”
Ping Wei’s eyes intensified, and the corners of his mouth rose slightly.
“I misspoke.”
Yeo Jeong politely bowed her head in apology. Only then did Ping Wei soften his gaze.
“Do not worry about money.”
“What sort of guest do you intend to entertain?”
“I cannot tell you.”
It was a firm answer.
She could sense it instinctively. This was the very event that would throw the murim into an uproar.
Yeo Jeong spoke to him politely.
“I am sorry, but as a matter of principle, we cannot rent out our entire establishment for a guest whose identity we do not know. If you truly wish to keep it secret, we will receive them in a special room.”
For an instant, Ping Wei’s expression twitched. He might have emitted killing intent to frighten her, but instead, he brought out something more powerful than killing intent.
“I will pay ten times Cheonhwaru’s daily income.”
Does he know how much we earn, to offer ten times that?
In any case, it did not work on Yeo Jeong.
“There are things more important than money.”
Ping Wei’s gaze sank.
Yeo Jeong could read his thoughts from that gaze. A mere woman running a pleasure house is talking about things more important than money?
“If the secret leaks, your life may be in danger. Do you still wish to hear?”
Even at Ping Wei’s threat, Yeo Jeong silently nodded.
“A principle is a principle.”
When he sensed that Yeo Jeong would absolutely not back down, Ping Wei finally yielded.
“Very well. Then I will tell you. But the secret must be kept without fail.”
“Do not worry. Did you not come here in the first place because you trusted our establishment’s credibility?”
After staring at her in silence for a moment, an astonishing person’s name came from his mouth.
“We will be receiving the young alliance leader of the Sado Alliance.”
Yeo Jeong was shocked. She did not hide that shock. To Ping Wei, it looked as though she was shocked by the fact that the young alliance leader of the Sado Alliance was coming, but Yeo Jeong’s shock was different.
‘They intend to kill the young alliance leader of the Sado Alliance that day!’
The murim would be thrown into an uproar, and she would be made to bear the blame for it.
“Are you satisfied now?”
“No, I regret it. I should not have asked the name and should have refused to the end.”
Ping Wei smiled faintly. Her feeling burdened was only natural. And the moment she heard the name, refusing became impossible.
“If you need anything, contact us.”
“I will.”
Ping Wei rose from his seat and left the main hall.
Once he had completely departed, Geom Mugeuk and Geugak Soma opened the secret door at the rear and walked out.
“No wonder that frightening face has kept coming to mind lately.”
Geom Mugeuk was speaking casually, but Geugak Soma and Yeo Jeong could tell. His gaze had grown cold.
“We were planning to gather everyone together once anyway.”
Geom Mugeuk smiled and said to Yeo Jeong,
“Well then, are you ready to turn the murim upside down?”