Chapter 46
Chapter 46: Third-rate Martial Family Becomes the Best Under Heaven
Deep within a vibrant, packed tavern nestled in downtown Nanchang, a patron nursing his cup leaned across the table toward his companions.
“Tell me, has word reached your ears yet?”
“The marketplace spawns countless whispers every single day. Which tale do you mean?”
“Word is out that a genuine spirit medicine has surfaced!”
At those words, the eyes of every drinking partner snapped wide. Every man sitting at the table walked the path of the martial artist.
“Can that be true?”
“What sort of elixir is it?”
“Nothing less than the Seven-Branch Three-Berry Ginseng!”
“Incredible!”
“A real Seven-Branch Three-Berry Ginseng?!”
Common folk frequently harbored the belief that miraculous spirit medicines remained shrouded in total obscurity, but the truth rested entirely upon the specimen in question. In an empire as vast and densely populated as this, particular varieties of miraculous roots surfaced several times across a single lifespan.
“Aye, that very same Seven-Branch Three-Berry Ginseng! The kind where uncovering a single shoot guarantees an entire patch of mystical herbs awaits anyone diligent enough to scour the surrounding ground!”
The Seven-Branch Three-Berry Ginseng carried such widespread renown that even mediocre, second-rate pugilists like the men sharing the jug recognized its name. Such plants were unearthed with sufficient regularity that premier sects secured steady allocations of them.
“Seven-Branch Three-Berry Ginseng, you say… They say devouring even one raw root firmly bestows half a gapja of internal energy without fail.”
A hungry, bloodshot glint flared in the men’s eyes.
“Where was this miraculous root uncovered?”
“Close by! That peak just over the horizon! Bukchang Mountain!”
Swallowing a single divine draught could overturn a cultivator’s destiny overnight. While acquiring deeper internal reserves did not instantly elevate a warrior’s technical realm, accumulated inner qi offered undeniable, palpable strength that any practitioner could immediately feel coursing through his meridians.
“This could be our solitary shot at fortune.”
“We must strike out before the rest of the horde catches wind of it and swarms the slope!”
“If we drag our feet, there won’t be a leaf left to scavenge!”
Grand ambitions inflame a man’s breast, while sheer avarice clouds his vision. Abandoning their half-drained vessels, the party charged straight out the door toward Bukchang Mountain.
“There are neither roadhouses nor taverns in that wilderness. We must secure shelter.”
“Why not lodge ourselves at the compound resting near the foot of the slope?”
“A sound proposal. Once we claim the medicine, we can properly compensate them for their hospitality.”
The martial artists rushed to the grounds of the Namgeum Merchant Guild at the base of Bukchang Mountain, only to be struck by a blunt reality the instant they arrived: they were hardly the sole warriors to devise such a plan.
“You cur! Have you any idea who stands before you?!”
“Who gives a damn about your name?!”
“I am Ho Sun, the Greatest Sword of Nanchang!”
“Nonsense! I am the true Greatest Sword of Nanchang!“
Hostile warriors snarled and confronted one another across the manor’s courtyard. Fresh stains of crimson were splattered across the flagstones, showing that bloody disputes had already ignited. It was practically a serpent’s nest and a predator’s den combined.
“…This is utter madness.”
“…You can say that again.”
The entire scene was an unmitigated brawl waiting to boil over.
“You no longer need to fret over the Namgeum Merchant Guild. Please resume your commercial activities without delay.”
“Young Hero… can it be true that you are merely eight winters old?”
A look of pure awe crossed Chu Yongwol’s features. The brewing turmoil and the dire crisis currently strangling the Namgeum Merchant Guild were unmistakably the handiwork of the small boy seated before her.
Such tactical genius seemed utterly inconceivable in someone of his tender years. And to pair it with such audacious execution…
Chu Yongwol lowered her head in genuine reverence.
“I offer my deepest gratitude to you, Young Hero, for rescuing the Baekseo antiquarian bookshop from this predicament.”
“Do not mention it. Furthermore, it remains slightly premature to assume your troubles have entirely vanished.”
“What do you mean? Do you intend to take further measures?”
“They had the audacity to meddle with my family’s concerns, so they must pay the price.”
Yanghwi flashed a chilling smirk. Such a predatory expression looked thoroughly unnatural across the soft features of a child.
They are parasites who bleed the desperate dry. Ridding the area of them now will save trouble later.
Watching Yanghwi, Chu Yongwol found herself feeling reassured rather than frightened. To witness such staggering acumen in a child… Should her enterprise maintain its ties with the Baek Estate over the coming decade, what might come of it?
This youth will grow into an incomparably stalwart protector.
Carrying that realization, Chu Yongwol spoke once more.
“Young Hero, to express my sincere appreciation, I shall yield an additional ten percent of our business margin to your house.”
“Oh! How remarkably courteous. My thanks.”
A satisfied grin spread across Yanghwi’s mouth. He had claimed the precise compensation he had envisioned when entangling himself in the strife between the Baekseo antiquarian bookshop and the Namgeum Merchant Guild.
“Haha, the Baekseo antiquarian bookshop truly honors honorable trade.”
“You speak too highly of me.”
“Then kindly start the block-printing this very day. I must depart.”
“May fortune guide your steps, Young Hero.”
Stepping beyond the threshold of the Baekseo shop, Yanghwi reunited with Gu Ak and Chudal, who were waiting nearby. Noting the uneasy scowl on Gu Ak’s brow, Yanghwi offered a faint, knowing grin.
“Brother Gu, we can move out. The climate at the Namgeum Merchant Guild should be thoroughly primed by now.”
“Little Brother… must we truly carry through with this outrageous plot?”
When Yanghwi simply offered a serene nod as if it were the most reasonable thing in the world, Gu Ak remained speechless.
“Consider the situation, Brother Gu. We sacrificed a whole, priceless Seven-Branch Three-Berry Ginseng just to incite this magnificent riot. We hardly can leave without taking our share.”
“Did you not turn around and peddle that exact Seven-Branch Three-Berry Ginseng to an apothecary for a handsome sum the moment the rumor took flight?”
“Tsk. How could one weigh a heavenly root against a handful of petty coins?”
Setting aside the reality that the sum earned was far too vast to ever be termed ‘petty coins,’ Gu Ak could hardly process the rest of the retort. Tsk? Did this whelp just click his tongue at me?! A mere brat over twenty years his junior possessed the gall to cluck at him like an elder? Was this an illusion or waking life? Gu Ak felt himself drifting into Zhuangzi’s butterfly dream.
“Come along, let us make haste. We have the Namgeum Merchant Guild to plunder.”
This marked the subsequent phase of the scheme born from the seeded rumors. Yanghwi had every intention of wringing full recompense from the Namgeum Merchant Guild for the disruption they had caused, choosing the exact moment their ranks were overwhelmed by the pugilists besieging their walls. Gu Ak hauled his wandering thoughts back to reality.
“Petty larceny—no, outright banditry, when my fate was meant for higher callings…”
Regardless of his history within the dark path, Gu Ak had entered the world with a silver spoon in his mouth. He had never demeaned himself with common highway robbery, scraping after the loose silver in another man’s pouch. …Even if he had previously devoured entire commercial houses whole.
“We may simply elevate it by calling it a righteous raid for the sake of chivalry. Half of the haul will be scattered among the indigent folk nearby in any case.”
Yanghwi clambered directly onto Gu Ak’s back, signaling casually. Swept up by the rhythm, Chudal clambered aboard right behind him.
“Why are you lingering? Let us be off.”
Preparing to leap into motion out of pure habit, Gu Ak abruptly went rigid.
“Wait. You two insolent whelps! Neither of you carries a scratch. You little devils are making a regular practice of using me as a pack mule!”
Tch. That failed. I nearly slipped past his guard.
Clicking his tongue in mild annoyance, Yanghwi dropped back down to the earth.
“We need our swiftest lightfoot techniques to maintain pace, so take Chudal upon your shoulders. I will travel on foot.”
Without giving his companion room to grumble, Yanghwi channeled his inner circulation. Guided by the tenets of Vessel Thousand Steps, his silhouette lunged forward like an unleashed arrow. Approximately three da-gak later, Yanghwi and his companions crested a ridge near the slopes of Bukchang Mountain, bringing the sprawling compound of the Namgeum Merchant Guild into direct view.
“Whew, quite a menacing sight.”
He could detect dozens—no, hundreds of conflicting qi signatures clashing and roiling together. Such a heavy concentration meant an immense wave of martial practitioners had packed into the estate, vast as its courtyards were.
“No blades are clashing. It appears they have settled on an unspoken armistice.”
“So it seems.”
The gathered pugilists appeared to have designated the manor as neutral ground until the treasure was unearthed—wholly disregarding the wishes of the merchant house’s masters, of course.
“Very well, Brother Gu. It falls upon you to act as the muddy loach roiling the waters.”
Yanghwi’s design was straightforward. Gu Ak would impersonate a master of the dark path, taunting those bound by the truce and dragging the assembly straight back into violence. Once the ensuing uproar lured away the manor’s private retainers, Yanghwi would thoroughly loot the Namgeum Merchant Guild’s treasury.
“Chudal, you shall keep watch. That lies within your power, does it not?”
“Certainly, Boss! Provided a gold nyang finds its way into my hand afterward!”
“Consider it done.”
Yanghwi, who incessantly championed his identity as an scion of a righteous lineage yet orchestrated armed robbery with absolute calm, and Chudal, raised within a syndicate of killers and possessing no moral qualms about theft… Observing the two youths, Gu Ak could only muster a muffled groan. How had he, a seasoned rogue of the underworld, ended up as the sole rational soul in their midst?
“Ugh. See to it that you honor your pledge.”
“Without fail! I shall purchase the most exquisite hairpin for Sister Rang and place it in your care—wait.”
Catching the faint ripple of movement, Yanghwi raised a hand to stifle the conversation and peered sharply toward the brush.
“What is amiss?”
“Hush. Someone approaches.”
The figure was radiating a chilling, wicked pressure so oppressive it could be identified from a great distance.
This dreadful chill… Could it truly be him?
Yanghwi’s expression froze. Why would that monster appear in this region at this point in the timeline? He was supposed to remain secluded within their distant sanctuary far beyond the borderlands!
Kk-geu-geu-aaah—
Kk-geu-geu-aaah—
As the traveler drew near, a sound mimicking agonizing human screams echoed through their surroundings. It was no earthly resonance carried on the breeze, yet their physical frames and deeper spirits recognized the wailing all the same.
Ghost Slave Hundred Demons.
Two and a half decades into the future, the martial expanse would be torn apart by a terrifying calamity: the Evil Cult Chaos. It would go down as the most devastating carnage in all martial chronicles, wherein madmen wielding demonic arts and sinister techniques rooted in depraved doctrines would march forward claiming to guide the realm toward the ‘correct path.’
That fiend Ghost Slave Hundred Demons… Why has a disciple of the Blood Cult already begun roaming the wider realm?!
Ghost Slave Hundred Demons, that lunatic who commanded one hundred evil spirits as his thralls through the dark arts, had not been recorded making his debut until the outbreak of the Evil Cult Chaos. By all rights, he should not be traversing these lands today.
Was he lingering in this territory during my previous life as well, drawn here now by the scent of the rumor?
The spectral shrieks faded gradually toward the distance. Ghost Slave Hundred Demons was making a straight path toward the Namgeum Merchant Guild. The rumor of the Seven-Branch Three-Berry Ginseng had undeniably reeled him in.
“Matters have taken a dangerous turn, Brother Gu.”
“Indeed. The wanderer who just slipped past is unmistakably a monstrous practitioner of the demonic arts.”
The situation would be simpler were he merely a standard demonic cultivator. The dread surrounding Ghost Slave Hundred Demons lay in his mastery over tormented shades that tore his foes apart. And what were evil spirits? In essence, souls twisted and subjugated by demonic qi and wicked energies.
This complicates things. The evil spirits under his yoke cannot even be cut down without sword energy.
Apparitions were phantoms without flesh. Swinging steel against them was as futile as cleaving running water with a blade. Only true sword energy, achieved by solidifying refined qi into tangible radiance, possessed the power to injure them.
Should I retreat? No, impossible.
During his former existence, Yanghwi had carved his path through uncounted slaughters as a lone warrior amidst the turmoil of the Evil Cult Chaos. His reputation as the Greatest Sword Among Wanderers had been forged entirely within the furnace of that apocalypse. Yet because he had survived purely as a sword for hire, he lacked insight regarding how the Evil Cult Chaos had sparked or how its horrors might be averted.
He may pose a mortal threat to my clan’s destiny, so discovering his secrets and snuffing the danger in its infancy is the wiser path.
Viewed from that angle, crossing paths with Ghost Slave Hundred Demons might prove an unexpected boon. His summoned phantoms were troublesome, yet his physical martial foundations remained mediocre; if Yanghwi could incapacitate him, he could extract crucial truths from his lips. …And pillaging the vaults along the way would serve as a welcome reward.
“Brother Gu, we must adjust our tactics. Since that demonic cultivator will unknowingly sow the chaos in your stead, you and I shall raid the storehouse together.”
Plundering the vaults in tandem promised twice the spoils! Noting the sly curve of Yanghwi’s mouth, Gu Ak could only gawk in sheer bewilderment.
“You lay eyes on a bloodthirsty devil like that, and you still harbor thoughts of burglary? Your audacity is truly the greatest under heaven.”
“Greater hazards promise richer fortunes, as the saying goes. Take care never to wager in the gambling dens, Brother Gu.”
Yanghwi propelled his frame gracefully forward.
“Chudal, remain posted here. Follow my lead, Brother Gu!”
“Hey, hold your pace!”
Skirting the contours of the mountain’s edge, the pair arrived beneath the northern ramparts of the compound.
“It seems every sentry and guest has sprinted toward the main courtyard to face that demonic cultivator, precisely as anticipated.”
The mournful shrieks of apparitions drifted continuously from the central halls. Yanghwi could not tell whether supreme masters had gathered among the wandering crowd, but a creature of Ghost Slave Hundred Demons’ caliber was more than capable of subduing them all.
“Our window may be brief. We must strip the vault with all haste, Brother Gu.”
At that very breath, the moment Yanghwi launched his body onto the crest of the barrier, a ghostly entity materialized from the air directly into his flight path.
“What?”
Kk-geuk—?
Curse it all, caught already?! He has already dispatched his evil spirits to scour the estate?!
Driven by pure instinct, Yanghwi swung his blade across the space of a single breath. Even if the steel failed to slay the shade, pouring his qi through the edge would stun the creature long enough to pass.
SWOOSH!
Kk-ga-gaaaak—!
“Huh…?”
Yanghwi froze, his eyes wide in absolute disbelief.
The phantom had completely dissolved into nothingness.
“How… did that thing just die…?”
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