Had he fallen asleep?
The sensation of cold air seeping abruptly into his chest roused Ogyo's mind.
Forcibly pushing open his trembling eyelids and looking around with bleary eyes, he saw that it was early dawn.
The sky was still overcast, and the rain had not stopped.
"……?"
Only then did he realize the faint weight pressing on his shoulder, and turning around, he saw Seohong asleep with her head leaning against him.
In the end, without entering any house, the two had spent the night together beneath the eaves.
Ogyo carefully lifted Seohong's head and stood up.
While stretching lightly, a thought suddenly came to him.
Should he just leave like this?
Having rescued her from being trapped underground, he had shown at least minimal kindness.
Now it was time for each to go their own way.
However, the girl looked frail and anxious, and he felt sorry to leave her alone.
Where had she come from in the first place?
Could it really be true that she was an immortal who brought rain?
She was concerning in many ways.
That was precisely why Ogyo wanted to leave now.
If they talked more, he felt he would grow even more curious about her.
But if he kept letting himself be swayed by others like this, there would be no end to it. He would never be able to keep his promise to Yohwa.
Having made up his mind, Ogyo prepared to leave.
He slung the bundle containing his belongings over one shoulder and wrapped himself in his outer coat and scarf.
It was just as he was about to leave quietly.
"Ogyo."
A clear voice called out, stopping him in his tracks.
Ogyo turned around in surprise.
For someone who had been asleep until moments ago, Seohong's face was remarkably composed.
Perhaps she had been awake the entire time.
"You are kind, yet you try so hard to act cruel. Trying to leave without a word."
"……I have something to do."
"Could you not at least say goodbye? Do you think this Daoist would hold you back by the ankles?"
Ogyo felt awkward and closed his mouth.
Seohong giggled.
"Where are you going?"
"To Lanzhou."
"What is your objective?"
Objective?
He felt she was asking something strange.
Ogyo tilted his head, pondering briefly how to summarize his long story.
"A friend asked me to do something……. I have to do it for them."
"I see. In that case, even if this Daoist had wanted to stop you, she could not have."
"……Sorry."
"Why apologize? I have already received ample help. You are my benefactor."
Seohong rose from her spot and came out to the edge of the eaves.
Approaching Ogyo, who stood in the faint drizzle, she put one finger into her mouth.
Whether she had bitten it with her teeth, when she pulled her finger out again, blood was flowing.
"Let's see……"
Seohong rummaged through her bosom and pulled out a small, square sheet of yellow paper.
It was yellow paper used for making talismans.
In front of Ogyo, Seohong wrote characters on the paper using the blood from her finger.
The characters were so complex that Ogyo could not even begin to read them.
After finishing writing, Seohong blew on it with her mouth to dry the blood.
Then she held out the completed talisman to Ogyo.
"Take this. It is this Daoist's repayment."
"What effect does it have?"
"This Daoist does not know either. I only know that it will be of help to you."
She spoke such strange words. Was it because she was a Daoist?
Come to think of it, Yohwa had often been like that too.
She had often acted as though she could see the future.
"Thank you."
Ogyo put the talisman inside his clothes.
Seohong nodded slightly, as if to say he could leave.
"Then."
"If fate allows, let us meet again."
Seeing Seohong raise her hands in a cupped-fist salute, Ogyo clumsily followed suit.
At that sight, Seohong laughed once more.
*
"This damn rain is falling in a truly sickening way."
A middle-aged man muttered, chewing on the pipe stem held between his lips.
Dark and complicated emotions were tangled in his eyes as he looked up at the overcast sky.
A corner of Lanzhou.
There was a market street along the riverside.
As befitting a city that merchants traveling the Western Regions passed through, the street was a mixture of various peoples.
There were also many refugees who had lost their homes and wandered.
The Emperor had grown idle and neglected state affairs, and having cut off interest in the distant Hexi region in particular, the effects of paralyzed governance were gradually reaching the common people in these parts.
The Yellow River flowed through this area.
The river cut straight through the north of Lanzhou from east to west, stretching far.
The Yellow River was a grateful river that enabled the people of the barren Hexi region to farm and live hand-to-mouth, but it was also quite troublesome.
Because flood control was not properly managed, floods occurred often.
When a flood occurred, many people died. Moreover, farmland was ruined, and even the survivors had their livelihoods cut off.
For that reason, there had long been many peasants in these parts who lost their homes and farmland, starved to death, or transformed into bandits.
Having suffered such hardships every time, this time there was a drought.
For several years, no rain had fallen and the earth had dried up.
The authorities provided nothing yet raised taxes every year, strangling the common people.
In recent years, many commoners had died, become bandits, or turned into refugees, flowing into this Lanzhou.
There were many people on the streets, yet few who smiled.
Even now, if one went outside the city, the corpses of those who had starved to death while begging were strewn about.
It was too much work to deal with the corpses individually, so they were roughly thrown into a large pit outside the city and set ablaze as if burning hay bundles.
Rain had begun to fall amid such circumstances.
While everyone welcomed the rain with relief, this man alone glared at the sky with eyes full of discontent.
"Brother Baekyang, why are you like that again? Have you sworn a blood feud with the heavens?"
"It's pouring day after day without stopping, and it's getting on my nerves. If it's going to come, it should come all at once, not bit by bit like a brat's piss……."
"Don't say things that will bring heavenly punishment. What if it stops raining for another few years after this?"
"That's right. Rain after so long. Everyone's in an uproar saying that the Jinyu Yuxian has blessed us with fortune, so why does Brother only speak words of ill omen every day?"
At the words of his two younger brothers, the man called Baekyang let out a hollow laugh.
"Jinyu Yuxian, my ass……"
Baekyang sprang up from his seat.
Under a corner tent of the market street, two Beggars' Sect beggars were playing a betting game of Go.
Baekyang had been sitting beside them smoking tobacco the whole time, but he was slowly growing tired of it.
He approached the two Beggars' Sect disciples playing Go and pointed at the board with an irritated face.
"Don't just look ahead. Take care of your four houses here first. You foolish fellow, don't you know the saying 'live first, then kill'?"
"Hyung-nim, how could you give us a pointer? We're betting our dinner on this."
"Shut your mouths. You beggar bastards leisurely playing Go. Go out and beg or something."
Baekyang kicked the Go board as if venting his spite, scattering the stones everywhere.
The two beggars could not even get angry and sighed.
That ill-tempered, dissolute-looking man was, despite appearances, the branch leader of the Lanzhou branch of the Beggars' Sect here.
The three knots tied at his waist indicated his position.
Gu Baekyang.
Though his temperament was rough and unruly, he was a figure who received quiet respect from the people of Lanzhou.
Baekyang was different from other uneducated beggars.
Originally a Daoist priest from Mount Kongtong, he was well-educated and possessed outstanding martial arts skill.
Most Beggars' Sect disciples mainly used staff techniques or fist techniques, but he wielded a sword.
A beggar carrying a sword at his waist was bound to stand out.
Though he possessed outstanding martial arts skill, he did not show it off recklessly, and with his excellent wisdom, he solved the worries and difficulties of the street people, so many naturally came to follow him.
Some people arbitrarily bestowed upon Baekyang the nickname "Yellow Earth True Person."
Of course, Baekyang detested it and told them never to call him that again, but the name spread through the streets nonetheless.
No one knew why he, who had been a Daoist priest, had become a beggar of the Beggars' Sect.
Because Baekyang never spoke of his past even to those close to him.
People could only guess that there must be some sad story.
"Hyung-nim, where are you going?"
"To buy liquor."
Just as Baekyang was trudging away from the tent.
"Brother Baekyang!"
Suddenly, someone called out loudly to Baekyang from the other end of the street and ran over.
It was a young Beggars' Sect disciple.
Seeing the young disciple run right up to him and pant, Baekyang frowned.
"What is it? Don't call out someone's name so loudly. It's embarrassing."
"H-Hyung-nim, it's a big problem. Quickly, to the central street……."
"Why?"
"Uncle Duhong has been caught by government soldiers. Th-the soldiers are finding strange faults and beating him badly."
Hearing this, other Beggars' Sect disciples gathered as well.
"Government soldiers? What is going on?"
"I don't know either. They keep asking if Uncle isn't a demonic cultist, interrogating him fiercely, but he can't get through to them."
"A demonic cult?"
Baekyang's expression turned fierce in an instant.
"Lead the way. Let's go at once."
"Yes."
Baekyang and the Beggars' Sect beggars followed the young disciple toward the city center.
Amidst the steadily falling drizzle, two government soldiers were indeed beating an old beggar.
"Stop!"
Baekyang yelled and stepped forward. The soldiers turned to look at him and grimaced.
"Beggar, are you talking to us right now?"
"Indeed. Forgive this lowly beggar for being presumptuous, but may I ask why you are beating that pitiful old beggar so savagely?"
The soldiers scoffed at Baekyang's manner of speech.
"This fellow acted as a demonic cult's lackey and spread strange rumors in the streets. We asked where he heard the rumors, but he wouldn't confess truthfully, so we were thrashing him."
"What strange rumors do you speak of?"
"The strange rumor that Maitreya Buddha has appeared. If you're a Beggars' Sect beggar, you've surely heard it."
At the soldier's words, the great crowd gathered in the street stirred.
Baekyang's expression was calm.
Indeed, such rumors had been circulating in Lanzhou for some time.
Rumors that Maitreya Buddha would descend to save all living beings and usher in a new world.
This was what was called Maitreya's Descent (彌勒下生).
In the past, a folk religion called the White Lotus Society had been greatly popular in the Central Plains.
The White Lotus Society had achieved great feats, such as driving out the barbarians alongside the Hongwu Emperor during the late Yuan period and aiding the founding of the Great Ming, but after the Hongwu Emperor ascended the throne, fearing that the White Lotus Society's power had grown too large, he suppressed them, and they naturally disappeared.
The remnants of the White Lotus Society had left the Central Plains and scattered to the borderlands, and for a while there had been no news of them.
The very teaching that the White Lotus Society had spread during its active days was the belief in Maitreya's Descent, and the "demonic cult" that the soldier spoke of now referred directly to the White Lotus Society.
There was one peculiar point in the Maitreya Buddha stories currently spreading in Lanzhou: it concerned the Jinyu Yuxian.
The gist of the rumor was that the Jinyu Yuxian of Mount Kongtong was none other than Maitreya Buddha descended upon the earth, and that she would bring rain to the world, save all living beings, and establish a new nation.
It was impossible to know who had first spread such rumors.
Perhaps it was spread by remnants of the White Lotus Society hiding nearby, or perhaps it was a joke uttered by some commoner exhausted from a life of destitution.
The truth was unknown, but the authorities did not sit idle regarding these rumors.
After all, it was a sign of rebellion, so it was only natural.
It seemed the captured beggar had carelessly talked about that rumor in the street and ended up getting caught by the soldiers.
"If you understand, step back. This one will be imprisoned and interrogated continuously."
"Does that not mean you will beat him mercilessly until he gives the answer you want, and if he dies, you will throw his body outside the city?"
"You beggar, you have quite the tongue. Dare you interfere in the affairs of the state? Step back."
"I cannot step back. That beggar is my comrade. I am Gu Baekyang, branch leader of the Lanzhou branch of the Beggars' Sect."
When Baegyang revealed his name, the expressions of the government soldiers changed slightly.
He was, in his own way, a well-known figure in Lanzhou.
But in the end, that was all he was—a lowly beggar.
The soldiers snickered.
“So what? Are we supposed to consider your noble station and forgive this man? A beggar mouthing off like some grand personage—branch altar master, my foot.”
“I am the branch altar master, so I merely said I was.”
As he spoke, Baegyang advanced one step at a time.
When he had drawn close enough to put them on guard, the soldier’s expression turned fierce.
“I told you to step back. This man has violated the law, and he will be punished strictly according to the laws of the Great Ming.”
“He is only a beggar, not some force of the Demonic Cult. He was at fault for speaking recklessly, but you beat him so badly he’s barely recognizable. Wouldn’t you say he has already paid for his crime? Let him go.”
“I told you to step back.”
The soldier thrust out his spear and aimed it at Baegyang’s throat.
Even so, Baegyang did not so much as blink.
“If you government soldiers are the fence of the Great Ming, then the common people are its soil. Our roles may differ, but we all labor together for the nation’s prosperity. How can you be so heartless?”
“How can one who plots rebellion be called the soil of the Great Ming? Such a man is nothing but a rat gnawing at the crops.”
“I’m telling you, he’s just a beggar.”
“Whether he is or not is for us to find out. This is your final warning. Step back. If you run your mouth again, I’ll pierce your throat.”
The spearpoint drew close to his neck, as if the warning were no empty threat.
Baegyang let out a sigh.
Then, all of a sudden, he pointed far down the street and made a great fuss.
“Over there! The Golden Fish Immortal has appeared!”
The instant the soldiers reflexively turned their heads, a sharp crash rang out.
The soldier’s spear split in two, one piece falling to the ground.
When the soldier looked forward again, he was startled.
“Y-you bastard, how dare you…”
“How dare you attack government troops!”
“When did I attack you?”
Baegyang shrugged and spoke with an innocent face.
Indeed, his hands were empty.
In truth, in the fleeting instant when the soldiers turned their heads, he had drawn his sword, cut the spear, and returned it to its sheath. But among the countless people gathered in the street, not one had seen that swift sword.
The soldiers were flustered and momentarily lost for words.
“N-nonsense! Didn’t you just cut my spear with your sword?”
“I did not.”
“Then why was the spear cut in two?”
“The shaft was rotten and broke.”
“Bullshit!”
“Then are you saying this beggar drew his sword and cut that spear in that brief instant? If that were the case, shouldn’t I be holding the sword in my hand right now? As you can see, my hands are empty.”
The soldiers exchanged glances.
“You must have swung your sword faster than the eye could see, then put it back into its sheath.”
“How extraordinary would one’s martial arts have to be to do such a thing?”
“How would I know?”
Baegyang grinned.
“If someone that skilled in martial arts were standing here, and he swung his sword once more at a speed none of you could see and cut off both your heads, who would be able to witness it with their own eyes?”
“What…”
“No one would have seen it, so it would merely be a strange occurrence, not murder. Your heads would simply have fallen off on their own.”
“What kind of dogshit have you been spouting since earlier—”
Another soldier stopped the one who was about to argue.
He had already sensed that something was not right.
The man’s words were not pure nonsense.
If he truly was an outstanding master, he could kill them in the blink of an eye.
Killing a government soldier was a grave crime, but even so, government soldiers being murdered was not an uncommon occurrence in the jianghu.
Who said that a man with formidable martial arts had to be a saint?
The soldiers moved their eyes and looked around.
The gazes of the people surrounding them on all sides were utterly cold.
If the man before them killed them and vanished from the street, whose side would those people take?
The soldiers, of course, knew very well that distrust toward the authorities was higher than ever.
“…Enough. This will do.”
“But…”
“Let’s just go.”
In the end, the soldiers quietly withdrew.
Only after they had left did Baegyang relax his stiff expression and let out a sigh.
“I thought I was going to die.”
“B-Big Brother!”
Only then did the Beggar Gang disciples behind him run over.
“To think you drove off the government soldiers! You were truly impressive!”
“We’ve seen you in a new light!”
“Cut the crap. Are you done enjoying the show? Hurry up and take care of our man sprawled over there. Let’s scram before those bastards come back.”
Baegyang kicked the disciples to hurry them along, then turned first and left the place.