Chapter 67: Chapter 67
“Ah, you’re here? Let me introduce you. This is the Ji-hwa you were looking for. And this is… the Huashan Sect’s oddity. Young Hero Seon-yu.”
Young Hwa-jeong spread both arms wide and stood. Then grinned brightly, grabbed a wine bottle, told them to play nice, and vacated the seat.
What exactly was this situation…
Jegal So-mi, too bewildered to speak, stared at him blankly.
He didn’t even sit. Just dropped a blunt statement.
“Heard you’re good at finding people.”
“Excuse me?”
Was that her reputation now? No, that wasn’t the important part right now.
“What’s this all of a sudden?”
“Can you find someone for me?”
“No.”
“Money’s no object.”
“It is an object. I don’t care how much. And why do you keep speaking informally?”
“You’re good at finding people, right?”
Who told her that? Jegal So-mi turned her head. In the distance, Young Hwa-jeong grinned with the bottle in her mouth.
It was you.
“Haa… That’s what the Beggars’ Sect or the Haomun are for…”
“My brother.”
Just as she was about to snap at his bottomless conversational style.
“My brother disappeared. He was Martial Alliance. Find him.”
Jegal So-mi looked into his eyes and had to close her mouth. Eyes brimming with sorrow, ready to spill tears at any moment.
“My brother. His name is I-seo.”
Seon-yu, registered disciple of the Huashan Sect.
His real name was Lee Yun.
“Please.”
The younger brother of Hidden Pavilion Agent 103. A young man who had grown up surviving on the single obsession of finding his brother. The Huashan Sect’s oddity.
“Rising stars, please proceed to where the Alliance Lord is stationed!”
And at that moment, following the announcement, people began bustling about.
Continuing the conversation had become impossible.
Seon-yu whipped his head around and left first.
In that moment, Jegal So-mi saw it clearly.
A tear falling from his eye, like a child’s.
“Wait, hold on!”
She called after him belatedly, but he had already vanished.
Vice Pavilion Master of the Hidden Pavilion, Jegal So-mi.
And Jang I-seo’s younger brother, Jang I-yun.
Their first meeting.
*
The meeting with the Alliance Lord concluded, and the Righteous Path Scholars’ Assembly wrapped up as the sky turned fully dark.
Jegal So-mi kept glancing around even after the event ended.
Because the man who’d appeared suddenly and vanished just as quickly kept lingering in her mind.
“Ten-Second Man, they called him. Did he really disappear after counting to ten? What’s with that guy?”
Nowhere to be found. Or rather, with the crowds pouring out, she eventually shook her head and gave up.
In short, the feeling of missing the ending of a book.
“What are you standing around for? Let’s go.”
“Ah, Grandfather.”
At Jegal Sang’s appearance, she exhaled deeply and spoke.
“Done with greetings? I figured I’d be stuck at the entrance all night again, last to leave.”
“Enough! Nonsense.”
As Jegal So-mi pouted, Jegal Sang clicked his tongue and muttered with evident disappointment.
“I meant to introduce you to several young men today… But there were so many complications.”
“Enough. I met plenty today. And they were all worse than you.”
“That’s… ahem, naturally.”
“Let’s go.”
Jegal So-mi linked arms with him and walked out with a bright smile.
Thinking of the Huashan Sect’s oddity who’d appeared out of nowhere.
Seon-yu.
* * *
– Wolha Village, Seventh Small Palace.
After the uninvited guest Ma I-sin departed.
Jang I-seo sat across from a man in the annex’s first floor. A tiger with broad shoulders and a commanding presence.
Guardian Dragon Hall Master Ji Dae-ho.
He’d chased after Jang I-seo, who’d bolted from the Hall Master’s office like lightning, but by the time he arrived, the situation was already over.
‘W-what happened!’
When he arrived, the Seventh Small Palace was a wreck. Mao lay bloodied on the ground.
A sight that drew an involuntary groan.
He’d immediately secured the scene, and they’d been sitting here for about a quarter-shi.
“…The situation is as you saw.”
Jang I-seo explained without embellishment. Ma I-sin had come. The Seventh Young Master was injured. They’d agreed to a formal duel in one hundred days.
“Fortunately, the Seventh Young Master wasn’t seriously hurt. The physician said two weeks of rest should suffice.”
Jang I-seo bowed his head at Ji Dae-ho’s words. As expected of the Clever Tiger. Bringing a physician along in anticipation of the worst was more than he’d expected.
Thanks to that, emergency treatment had gone smoothly.
“I owe you.”
“I did nothing.”
Ji Dae-ho waved modestly and explained.
“His yang energy is so abundant that even while being beaten, his internal energy miraculously protected his bones and organs.”
Born with the right body. To take that beating and need only two weeks.
“But a one-on-one duel with the Bloodless Duke in a hundred days. You must have your reasons, but… will it be alright?”
Ji Dae-ho’s voice was thick with concern.
He knew the Ma family’s bitter sibling rivalry well. But Mao facing the Bloodless Duke was a stretch by any measure.
Punching a boulder with bare fists.
But,
“There’s no other way to end this.”
Jang I-seo was resolute.
This wasn’t simply about hunting Ma I-sin. More precisely, it was about the backers watching this fight.
“You’re thinking of the Cult Leader and the First Elder.”
As expected of the Clever Tiger. Jang I-seo nodded.
Indeed.
This was a fight that would only end when their approval was given.
On the surface, it looked like nothing more than a heartless older brother tormenting a powerless younger one. But considering the entangled relationships, it was far from simple.
The Ma family’s heir, Ma I-sin. And the Ma family’s second son, the Heavenly Demon’s heir, Mao.
The bigger it grew, the more interests intertwined with the outcome.
Moreover, the Heavenly Demon and the First Elder had watched this situation unfold for years without intervention.
Why?
Because the evaluation of these heirs wasn’t yet complete.
Therefore, a fight between the two, free from outside interference, had to happen.
“They’re probably looking forward to it more than anyone.”
Ji Dae-ho nodded at Jang I-seo’s words.
Perfectly reasonable. But the danger hadn’t diminished.
If anything, it had increased.
“The Bloodless Duke may seem unhinged at times, but he was once called the foremost prodigy. He’ll find a way to fight a battle he absolutely cannot lose.”
He knew. But the same held true for their side.
“We have more than enough reason to win.”
“Heh heh. Is that so.”
Indeed. To complete the mission, the Ma family was a mountain that had to be crossed.
And,
‘Ma I-sin. I can’t just leave you be. My generosity has its limits. By any measure, you’re a menace to the peace of the Central Plains.’
Jang I-seo’s lips curved coldly.
“Well, if it gets truly dire, my offer still stands. Come to the Guardian Dragon Hall. You’re welcome anytime.”
Ji Dae-ho bared his teeth with a greedy grin. This man was slower to give up than expected.
“No. Family matters will be resolved within the family.”
“You’ve become quite the Ma family man.”
“Trying to be.”
Jang I-seo shrugged. Ji Dae-ho nodded as if he wouldn’t press further.
“More importantly. What will you do now?”
Jang I-seo turned his head right, changing the subject. Ji Dae-ho likewise wrapped up the chat and followed his gaze.
There, in the far corner, sat a wooden box.
“Open it. Open it, you bastards!”
The box Ma I-sin had left as a gift. Sa Ho-jeong.
Truly absurd and staggering. To think he’d smuggled him here locked inside a grain box.
“From the Bloodless Duke’s perspective, Sa Ho-jeong, who’d killed Guardian Dragon Hall warriors, was a liability. If the evidence of assistance were exposed, even the Ma family couldn’t protect him.”
Ji Dae-ho’s interpretation was one Jang I-seo couldn’t refute.
“Yes. Less insane than I thought.”
It left him both disappointed and competitive. At the very least, he was a cut above the fool who’d arrived locked in a box.
“Open it. I said open it! You think you’ll be safe when I get out? Huh?”
Sa Ho-jeong’s roaring echoed through the annex repeatedly.
Cold iron, no room to move. No way out. Simply tossing him into Duora Prison would end it.
But before that, there were things to extract.
“May I speak with him first?”
“Hmm. Because of your deal with the Sixth Elder. But he won’t talk easily.”
“I’ll find a way.”
At Jang I-seo’s answer, Ji Dae-ho bared his gums with a scheming smile.
“I’ll help.”
Hmm? Jang I-seo tilted his head. He watched as Ji Dae-ho rose, walked to the box, and struck the latched lid with a bang!
“Sa Ho-jeong. Listen carefully.”
“Who are you? Who the hell are you, you bastard!”
“When I open this door, you’ll stand up quietly. Understood?”
“What bullshit! Open it. Open it right now, you bastards! I’ll kill you. When I get out, you’re first!”
As profanity poured out, Jang I-seo frowned. Ji Dae-ho smiled at him as if to say it was fine.
Eyes fixed forward, he lifted the latch. Clack!
“YOU BASTAAAAARDS-!”
Behind Ji Dae-ho, a furious beast wielding an axe surged upward.
“Careful!”
Just as Jang I-seo sent an urgent warning.
BWOOOOSH!
With a gale-force wind that, slight exaggeration, could have blown the annex away, Ji Dae-ho turned and his rock-like fist buried itself directly into Sa Ho-jeong’s face.
KRAAK!
“KAAAAGH!”
Sa Ho-jeong flew into a pillar with a scream and crumpled. Unconscious before he hit the ground.
Jang I-seo watched, dumbfounded. Ji Dae-ho grinned and shrugged.
“I had some pent-up frustration too.”
“Ha. Haha…”
At the brutally overwhelming strength, Jang I-seo let out a hollow laugh. This was a man he truly didn’t want to fight.
*
“YOU BASTAAAAARDS-!”
Ji Dae-ho’s education continued several more times after that. The method was identical. Knock him out, lock him back in the box. When he woke up making noise again, deliver another strike.
“Eat shit!”
Once, Sa Ho-jeong apparently used his head. Pretending to rise, he rolled backward like a flying squirrel and bolted for the door.
“Gwahaha! Just you wait! Idiots!”
But the moment he threw the door open triumphantly.
“Fuck…”
His feet froze. A curse escaped his lips.
KWAANG! Before him, the Seventh Small Palace was packed with tigers. He’d come face to face with one hundred of the Guardian Dragon Hall’s finest elite.
“Back to your spot.”
Ultimately, at Ji Dae-ho’s low command, he was beaten like a dried pollack and locked back in the box.
And after a total of five rounds of education, Sa Ho-jeong, now a bloody pulp, rose very quietly. And politely.