Chapter 156. Murong, Murong, Murong, Mr. Bai.
In the suddenly quiet inn, I polished off the dumplings, tangcu liji, and wine with Murong Bai. Once the liquor went in, Murong Bai’s usually composed air relaxed a little, and he said to me,
“Sect Leader, thank you for the meal.”
I nodded and asked,
“Doctor, how was it, eating this sort of thing after so long?”
Murong Bai replied with a silly grin.
“Well, it wasn’t bad.”
The inn’s food was not exactly junk food, but for some reason I felt as if I had forced Murong Bai to eat junk food.
In truth, the physician Murong Bai I knew was far too gentle a man.
I do not particularly like people who are helplessly naïve.
Murong Bai of my previous life was, in fact, gentler than average, and that was probably why he became a man more ruthless than anyone else.
He carried a single sheet of paper in his heart; one side was pure white, and the other was pitch black.
Unlike me, he had not been a rotten bastard since childhood.
The Great Rakshasa had flipped that sheet of Murong Bai’s over in one blow, and for that reason, many people died.
So I intended to smear a little filth, bit by bit in advance, onto the pure-white side of that thin sheet.
Of course, in my own way.
Feed him liquor, feed him junk food, make him watch people get beaten.
In the end, wouldn’t Murong Bai have to beat a few people himself before he came to his senses?
It was not as if I was doing this because I had some grand strategy or clear goal.
I simply wondered what would happen if the two separate personalities of the Divine Physician and the Poison Demon met somewhere in the middle.
If that happened, when he lived his life,
he would use medicine when medicine was called for, and use poison without hesitation when poison was called for—or so I sank into my own private thoughts.
Right now, he was merely a hopelessly kind physician who came running whenever called, so my intention was to soak him in brine beforehand.
Sure enough……
Once the liquor went in, even his way of speaking slowly began to change like someone suffering from pent-up rage, so I laughed to myself.
“Doctor, let’s stop drinking here and get up.”
“Yes, this is an appropriately good point.”
Even as I went to pay, I was thinking about how I could put Murong Bai through some hardship.
“How much is it?”
The waiter, who had been wiping a table, came over while tucking a towel into his waistband.
“Twenty-three nyang.”
If I handed over one standard silver ingot, it would more than cover the bill, and the waiter would have some left to pocket as well. I rummaged through my bundle looking for a standard silver ingot, then peered inside. It was full of bundled banknotes, leftover jerky, and nothing but a bamboo water flask.
Murong Bai, who was looking into the bundle beside me, exclaimed in admiration.
“Wow, Sect Leader. You really do have a lot of money.”
“I told you. I said I have a lot. I do have a lot, but you pay.”
“Pardon?”
“I don’t have a standard silver ingot. No small change. If I give a banknote at an inn like this, they’ll panic.”
Murong Bai took out his coin pouch and said,
“Ah, I’ll pay.”
I knew the waiter’s circumstances well enough. If I handed him a banknote here, he would be in a difficult spot.
Murong Bai handed the waiter a standard silver ingot from his pouch. As soon as the waiter received it, he squatted down and rummaged through the container where he kept the small change, calculating the amount to return.
At that moment, someone entered through the doorway and spoke toward me.
“Move.”
I silently looked at the bastard telling me to move.
“……”
A man in his early twenties with a broad saber at his waist approached with a frown, then nudged the knee of the waiter, who was squatting and counting the change.
“What are you doing? I’m here.”
As soon as the waiter recognized the man, he said,
“Ah, just a moment.”
“Hurry up and settle it.”
The man bent at the waist, snatched away the container full of change, then stuck in his right hand, grabbed a fistful of standard silver ingots, and pulled them out.
“This is so damn frustrating. Fifty nyang, right?”
The waiter stood up and stared with his mouth hanging open before saying,
“You can’t take all of that.”
The man holding the silver ingots brought his other hand to his ear and said,
“What was that? I can’t hear you.”
I answered in place of the flustered waiter.
“Are your earholes plugged? Why can’t you hear? Your ears look fine. You son of a bitch.”
The man whipped his head around and glared at me.
“……What are you?”
I swung my left hand and struck the man’s nose with the back of it.
With a thud, the saber-wielding thug was pushed backward, failed to keep his balance, and landed on his backside.
“What do you think, you bastard? I’m the guy who hits you.”
I looked at the man’s face and said,
“Your nose is bleeding.”
“Huh?”
The man touched his nose, then checked the blood on his hand. The waiter, who had been watching, urgently held out his hand.
“Wait a moment!”
The waiter gave a dry laugh, then said to us,
“Haha…… Please go outside. Outside, yes. Somewhere spacious. Outside would be best.”
The man sprang to his feet, gripped his broad saber, and asked me,
“Are you insane?”
I pointed at the man with my hand and looked at Murong Bai.
“This fellow has a good eye.”
Murong Bai nodded.
“He does.”
“……”
I had a brief staring contest with Murong Bai, then looked back at the man holding the broad saber.
“You point a blade at me because you want to die? You look like a collector working under some third-rate Black Path lackey, but aren’t you sticking that saber out with a little too much confidence?”
I pointed to the wooden sword stuck between the bundle on my back.
“Can’t you see the wooden sword?”
The man shook his broad saber and replied,
“So what!”
I left the bastard who couldn’t be reasoned with alone and said to Murong Bai,
“What does it mean in the jianghu if someone goes around carrying a wooden sword?”
Murong Bai gave the correct answer.
“That he’s an expert.”
I looked at the man and nodded.
“That is me.”
“Bullshit!”
Amazingly, the third-rate Black Path lackey swung his broad saber with force. Its trajectory flew precisely toward my neck.
Instead, I sprang forward and stabbed my finger, infused with the Waning Moon Finger Technique, into the bastard’s shoulder as if driving it in.
Tak!
The podao that had been flying through the air in a straight trajectory lost its force and went slack, then fell to the ground.
At the same time, the underworld thug hastily twisted his posture, and from his fleeing stance his movements gradually slowed. It was like watching someone flail underwater. Before he could even take a proper step, he collapsed limply to the ground and began trembling.
Judging by the sight of him, he was a worthless fool who couldn’t endure ice arts for even a moment.
As I picked up the common silver coins that had fallen to the ground and began putting them into the container, the waiter and Murong Bai also helped me gather the silver.
After putting all the fallen silver into the container, I said,
“……Do you pay tribute?”
The waiter answered while looking at the man shivering uncontrollably.
“Yes.”
“To whom?”
“We pay it to the Dawu Gang (大烏幇). They weren’t originally a place that collected tribute, but they suddenly started doing it recently. We’re bewildered as well.”
“There was no tribute on this street before?”
“No.”
I passed off what I had to do onto Murong Bai.
“Doctor Murong.”
“Yes?”
I pointed at the fallen man and said to Murong Bai,
“Find out. What’s going on.”
Poison Demon of my previous life, try torturing him.
That was how I felt.
Murong Bai replied,
“Me?”
I lightly ignored Murong Bai’s words and said to the waiter,
“I’ll make sure you don’t have to pay tribute from now on. Would that be enough to settle the loss of a day’s business?”
“Ah, yes. We would be grateful.”
I looked at Murong Bai, who was standing still.
“What are you doing?”
Murong Bai shook his head for a moment like a man trying to sober up, then approached the fallen man.
I watched Murong Bai with my arms crossed.
Murong Bai said to the man who was trembling all over,
“Hey……”
“P-please spare me.”
“Who said anyone was going to kill you? I won’t kill you. Why has the Dawu Gang suddenly started collecting tribute?”
“Because we have to raise money too.”
“Who do you have to give it to?”
“Hua… Escort Captain Sun Zhouping of the Huayang Escort Agency.”
Murong Bai narrowed his brow as he replied,
“The underworld is paying tribute to an escort agency?”
“It’s not tribute. The gang leader……”
Murong Bai lightly tapped the spot I had struck with ice arts about three times using a finger technique.
Then the man’s words came out somewhat more calmly.
“……We mishandled an escorted item and ended up having to compensate them. The amount is large, so we’re in the middle of gathering money. Thank you.”
Curious about Murong Bai’s finger technique, I asked,
“How did you do that?”
“I forcibly blocked the spread of the ice art for a short while. The cold energy will spread again soon.”
I nodded.
“Excellent. As expected of Doctor Murong.”
Murong Bai replied like a diligent physician.
“Thank you.”
Murong Bai asked the man,
“What escorted item did the Dawu Gang tamper with?”
“The gang leader ate a hundred-year-old He Shou Wu, so we have no choice but to compensate them with money.”
Murong Bai made an absurd expression, then looked at me and laughed.
“……So he says.”
“How much is a hundred-year-old He Shou Wu?”
Murong Bai said,
“Wouldn’t it be about thirty gold coins?”
“That expensive?”
“A hundred-year-old He Shou Wu is also very rare.”
“Is the price whatever they ask?”
“Yes.”
I looked at the man and said,
“Are you all beggar bastards? You make the mistake, then try to make up for it by shaking down places like this. Typical sons of bitches. Lead the way. Surely the Dawu Gang has thirty gold coins.”
I looked at the waiter watching us.
“We’ll be going now.”
“Ah, yes. But who are you?”
“Me? The Hao Sect Leader.”
The waiter opened his eyes wide and immediately asked back,
“You’re the Hao Sect Leader?”
“Why are you so surprised?”
The waiter suddenly stammered, then barely managed to reply,
“We, we’re…… we’re Nanyang Inn. Don’t you know?”
“I don’t.”
“Ah, a person from the Hao Sect named Sima Bi came by and asked in detail whether there was a shop nearby that could be taken over.”
I was surprised the moment I heard the name Sima Bi.
“Huh? Sima Bi came by?”
“Yes.”
“What did you tell him?”
“Our house is attached at the back, so it would be difficult to hand it over right away. We told him about a few nearby shops. And we knew what kind of place the Hao Sect was because he had explained it to us, Sect Leader.”
The waiter smiled brightly as if pleased to see me. I nodded and muttered,
“Sima Bi has been quietly working on his own. To hear news in a place like this. Good.”
I said to Murong Bai and the man,
“First, let’s storm the Dawu Gang. This is an area where a Hao Sect branch will be established. On the way home, I’ll beat up every underworld bastard who gets in our way before moving on. My motivation has suddenly doubled. If I keep hitting people, it’ll triple, won’t it? What do you think, Doctor Murong?”
Murong Bai, whose instinct to go home seemed stronger than anyone’s, stared at me for a while before finally answering,
“Let’s do that.”
“You don’t want to?”
“No. It’s fine.”
“Good. If I’m with Doctor Murong, my motivation will quadruple, won’t it?”
Perhaps suddenly irritated, Murong Bai turned his head this way and that, then smacked the head of the man who was shivering uncontrollably.
Thwack!
I nodded with a solemn expression.
“That was good just now.”
I reassured the waiter.
“Don’t worry. If beating them doesn’t work, I’ll resolve it even if I have to kill the entire Dawu Gang. Nothing troublesome will happen from now on.”
The waiter scratched his head and replied,
“Yes.”
When I turned my head, Murong Bai was shaking the man by the collar.
“Hey, get a hold of yourself.”
“What’s wrong with him?”
“He fainted.”
“Stick a needle in him and wake him up.”
Murong Bai let out a sigh, then took hold of a needle from the long box he had drawn out of the inner pocket of his robe. It was a thick steel needle, substantial enough to look useful as a hidden weapon.
Murong Bai glared at the steel needle for a moment, then mercilessly jabbed it into the unconscious fellow near the crown and back of his head. The man snapped wide awake with an exhale that sounded as if his last breath were leaving him.
“Kuhak!”
As though he wanted nothing more than to hurry home, Murong Bai grabbed the newly conscious man by the collar.
“Hey, hurry up and lead us to the Daeo Gang.”
Murong Bai hauled the man to his feet.
“Where is it?”
The man pointed in a direction with his hand.
At a glance, he was in no state to walk on his own, but I deliberately walked past the two of them and said,
“Let’s go. Wow, in any case, our Master Murong is good with medicine, good with needles, versatile, all-powerful, a divine physician—our Murong, Murong, Murong, Master Bai.”
Behind me, Murong Bai lowered his voice to a growl and urged on the man who had been slowed by the ice art.
“Aren’t you going to move?”
“My body won’t listen……”
“Do you want another steel needle?”
“N-no.”
“Get up. You can do it. Up.”
For some reason, I was in a rather good mood today.
When I glanced back, Murong Bai was dragging the whining fellow to his feet by the ear.
‘As expected…….’
Watching Murong Bai grow like this filled my heart with satisfaction.