Chapter 165: Information from the Beggar Sect

Transparent ripples spread through Gongse Dan-yeong’s clear pupils, expressing her surprise.

A demonic martial faction is stirring in the martial world?

That meant demons had infiltrated this land and were conducting some kind of covert activities.

By the way… He must have been in quite a hurry.

Seeing as he came to visit his granddaughter after so long but immediately brought up that matter right after a simple greeting.

Woo Yong naturally continued his interrupted words, having switched to Secret Sound Transmission because of passersby on the road.

“Would there be any other reason? I just came because I wanted to see my pretty granddaughter’s face. Haha.”

Meanwhile, Yeok Bi-mang, who hadn’t heard the Secret Sound Transmission, didn’t know the inside story and politely greeted him.

“Elder Woo, have you been well all this time? It’s truly been a while since we last met.”

Woo Yong nodded his head and gave a hand gesture.

“Yes, yes. It seems to be almost three years.”

Then, wearing a faint smile, he casually asked.

“Has your saber skills improved?”

Yeok Bi-mang smiled back and lightly stroked the four-chi long cleaving saber hanging at his waist.

His cherished weapon Xuan Cloud Saber, which symbolized his alias Xuan Dao Grand Master.

A cleaving saber made from dark iron, a type of rare meteoric iron mineral.

“Yes, this may be embarrassing to say, but… I’m confident it’s not the same as before.”

“Hoho. Saying it like that makes me more curious.”

About three years ago, Woo Yong had had a friendly sparring match with him, and he had won after exchanging several dozen moves.

That was why he had asked about his saber skills.

Since he was the bodyguard-like figure protecting his precious granddaughter Gongse Dan-yeong, the more his martial prowess developed, the more he himself could rest easy.

For Yeok Bi-mang, that friendly spar had been a major turning point in his life as a martial artist.

Although he had been one-sidedly driven onto the defensive and lost, that was actually a great achievement since the Beggar Sect’s Woo Yong, called Northern Dipper Beggar, was such an exceptionally outstanding master.

Generally speaking, the status of Beggar Sect members is determined by the number of their belt knots.

It was called the Beggar Rank Knots.

The belt knots ranged from one to nine, with higher numbers belonging to higher positions, and elders had seven.

Nine knots – that is, Nine Knots – could only be held by the Sect Master standing at the peak of the Beggar Sect, and the eight knots below that were held by a small number of direct disciples.

In other words, Woo Yong’s status was the highest rank excluding some of the upper echelon.

Since his martial prowess was correspondingly tremendously high, Yeok Bi-mang gained further fame after the friendly spar.

Moreover, since Woo Yong, who had exchanged moves with him, personally went around praising his aptitude, the weight of the alias Xuan Dao Grand Master kept growing.

But does a martial artist’s reputation rise just through word of mouth?

No.

Woo Yong, with seven Beggar Rank Knots, was a master of the Northern Dipper Seven Stars Fist Art, one of the era’s Thirteen Great Fist Arts, and one of the top five strongest masters within the Beggar Sect.

That had significant implications.

The martial world was broadly classified into the North and South of the River, based on the Yangtze River that crossed the continent lengthwise.

The Beggar Sect Main Hall’s base was Kaifeng, a leading major city in the Henan region.

It was north of the river.

From ancient times, the martial world above the Yangtze River had an extraordinarily high level.

In terms of overall scale, influence, and combat power, the south was always lagging behind.

It couldn’t be helped.

Looking at the orthodox faction alone, more than half of the Nine Great Sects and Seven Great Families were located in the northern martial world.

Henan region in particular was tremendous.

With various massive factions of both orthodox and unorthodox denominations including Shaolin Temple and the Beggar Sect making their nests there, it was literally a battleground for all sorts of famous masters.

If someone stood out decisively there and received treatment as the strongest, it was practically no different from being a leading candidate to challenge the position of number one in the martial world.

That’s how big the arena was.

Put differently, the fact that Northern Dipper Beggar Woo Yong’s martial power ranked among the top five in the Beggar Sect meant that even looking at the entire Henan region, he was a powerhouse who could be called upper tier.

Yeok Bi-mang had had a friendly spar with such a formidable figure and held out for several dozen moves before losing, so disparaging him as having raised his reputation merely through word of mouth was absurd.

If his skill had been substandard from the start, there wouldn’t even have been an evaluation that he was among the upper tier of famous masters in this Hunan region.

Anyway, when Woo Yong seemed to show curiosity about his saber skill, Yeok Bi-mang wore an expression that quietly anticipated another friendly spar.

“Elder Woo, since you’ve come all this way, if you would teach me… I would simply be grateful.”

“Hmm… I’m sorry. I don’t have time for that.”

“Pardon?”

“The reason I came today was because I received orders from the Sect Leader. So after having a brief conversation, I must depart again for another destination before nightfall.”

“Hmm, is that so? What a shame. Tsk…”

Yeok Bi-mang smacked his lips and scratched the back of his head.

“Did you know in advance that we would be passing through here?”

“Hoho. Of course. That’s why I said earlier that I’d been waiting a long time, didn’t I?”

What Woo Yong meant was that rather than visiting Celestial Flower Tower in another city to ask about Gongse Dan-yeong’s route, he had used the Beggar Sect’s quick information network to come directly here to Wuyang.

“Ah, that’s right.”

“As you well know, our Sect is second to none when it comes to quickly grasping all sorts of miscellaneous news. I sent a letter ahead to the branch hall here while on my way, so I knew you would be passing through.”

“Hmph, then why did you ask first where I’d been coming from?”

“Well, I didn’t know that. I urgently dispatched branch hall personnel and only grasped the general route. Just this old man’s intuition, but I guessed you might have been visiting wherever your beloved resides…”

At that, both of Gongse Dan-yeong’s cheeks flushed red.

“Wh-what… That’s not it at all!”

Not to be outdone, Woo Yong said.

“It is.”

“I said it isn’t.”

“Who are you trying to fool?”

“……”

“Let me see, reading your eyes… That fellow, somehow seems to be from an unorthodox faction.”

Before Woo Yong’s uncanny perceptiveness, Gongse Dan-yeong inwardly clicked her tongue and confessed honestly.

“Ha… Really… Yes, that’s right. But he’s not a bad person. Please don’t worry too much.”

“Haah, my only granddaughter walks an unorthodox faction different from our Sect, which is already regrettable, so how is even the one she’s given her heart to from that side…”

“Goodness, what do you mean… Are you resenting Mother after all this time?”

Woo Yong’s eldest daughter Woo Chwi had accidentally met a man named Gongse Jin-gu, the previous Tower Master of the unorthodox Celestial Flower Tower, during a trip and fallen in love, and from that Gongse Dan-yeong was born.

“Well, I never expected Chwi-ah to give her heart to a man so easily back then.”

“Hmph. Thanks to that, you got to see such a pretty granddaughter, didn’t you? If you keep resenting like that, I’ll hate you.”

When Gongse Dan-yeong put both hands on her sides and pouted, Woo Yong burst into hearty laughter.

“Hahaha! This girl, look at you glaring. I’m joking, joking. Whoever you like is your choice…”

“You know well. That if someone’s character is base, I would never open my heart. Like Mother.”

“I know, I know, your eye isn’t any ordinary eye. But tell that fellow this. From now on, whatever happens, if he makes you cry carelessly, he’ll get a beating at this old man’s hands.”

“Ha, stop worrying about my love life and let’s change locations.”

With that, Gongse Dan-yeong led the way toward a five-story pavilion standing tall on the other side of the main road.

* * *

Hwang Ran Pavilion was the finest high-class pleasure house in Wuyang and one of the information networks connected to Celestial Flower Tower.

That was the reason Gongse Dan-yeong had briefly stopped in this city while returning after leaving Dark Hall.

In fact, Celestial Flower Tower obtained information through high-class pleasure houses in various regions.

That was precisely the major difference from the Beggar Sect.

Pleasure houses were places filled with beautiful women everywhere, and those who visited them made no distinction between common people and martial artists.

In particular.

Famous high-class pleasure houses were generally frequented by martial artists with good backgrounds, so they were useful for obtaining more reliable information than random rumors.

Sometimes even secrets that came out mixed with guests’ drunken confessions…

Of course, the rosters of high-class pleasure houses were kept private in principle and were effectively top secret.

That was precisely where Celestial Flower Tower’s identity and uniqueness lay, and through this they had acquired an unshakeable reputation as an information-gathering organization.

Now their credibility had built up enough to rank within the top ten establishments not only of the Hunan region but of the entire unorthodox faction, so commissions never ceased, and Gongse Dan-yeong’s reputation had improved day by day to surpass that of her father Gongse Jin-gu, the previous Tower Master.

The Beggar Sect, where Woo Yong was registered, had speed of information gathering and vastness of quantity as its greatest strengths.

With nearly one hundred regional branch halls and a total membership approaching ten thousand, there was no faction that could keep up in that regard.

No.

There was none.

Moreover, even ordinary beggars on the streets who weren’t sect members cooperated in the Beggar Sect’s work as informants, so their total numbers combined easily exceeded one hundred thousand.

That’s why they could obtain information with a speed that other information-gathering organizations couldn’t even dream of.

However

Quality was the problem, unlike quantity.

Since they obtained information indiscriminately using their tremendous numbers, it took time to separate the wheat from the chaff.

On the other hand.

Celestial Flower Tower took somewhat more time in obtaining information, but the quality was excellent.

However, the major downside was that unlike the Beggar Sect which roamed the entire martial world, their information network wasn’t mobile.

That was unavoidable.

The Beggar Sect went to find information; Celestial Flower Tower had information come to them.

Thus, information-gathering organizations each had different personalities and attributes.

Gongse Dan-yeong, Yeok Bi-mang, and Woo Yong sat around a table in a private room on the top floor of Hwang Ran Pavilion and began their conversation.

“Is it true that a demonic faction is moving?”

“Huh? D-demonic faction?”

Yeok Bi-mang, who had only just learned of this, widened his eyes slightly.

At that, Gongse Dan-yeong turned her head and quietly informed him.

“Yes, I heard through Secret Sound Transmission earlier.”

“I see.”

At that moment, Woo Yong’s eyes deepened and he extended both hands to neatly fold them together as he spoke.

“This is the demonic faction our Sect suspects.”

His right hand in a fist and his left palm spread open.

It was a code in so-called Black Language – hand signs commonly used by information-gathering organizations.

The two differently shaped hands represented one character.

Bright (鏄�).

When Woo Yong spread his hands to the left and right, Gongse Dan-yeong and Yeok Bi-mang immediately understood what it meant.

If you split Bright, each becomes a different character.

Sun (鏃�) and Moon (鏈�).

Only one faction name came to mind.

‘The Sun Moon Demon Cult!’

One of the Five Demonic Cults representing border demonic factions, and the force that had caused bloodshed in this land eighty years ago.

At that time, even Yaksha Great Sword Ancestor Helian Ryung, the hegemon of the martial world, had nearly been placed in a life-or-death crisis and ground his teeth…

Woo Yong withdrew his hands and spoke in a quiet voice.

“Recently, our Sect has obtained intelligence that part of that group seems to have set foot in this Hunan region.”