Chapter 287: Great Desert (5)

Read more at Nineheavens.org

Trade with distant lands was always profitable. Prices, specialties, and demand differed from region to region.

In the Great Desert, minerals not commonly found in the Imperial State, wool, and medicinal herbs from the grasslands were all alive with value. If those could be brought into the Imperial State, it would grant the New Justice Association tremendous power.

I did my best to hide my excitement and kept my expression calm. The Great Chieftain also seemed to be trying to erase emotion from his face, but I could still see a trace of it.

No matter how casually I tried to act, trade with the Great Empire had long been the Great Desert’s cherished dream.

“Basically, it would take the form of smuggling trade.”

“That it would.”

I leaned back and crossed my legs. I had to look as relaxed as possible.

By contrast, the Great Chieftain leaned toward me and clasped his hands before his mouth.

“If it is a fair trade, we can both surely profit.”

“I am sorry, but the New Justice Association has no intention of making a fair trade.”

I spoke in as arrogant a tone as I could manage. The Great Chieftain’s brows rose. To endure this much rudeness meant he wanted it badly enough. I was gathering clues one by one like this.

“To come out so uncooperative from the start.”

“It is not uncooperative. It is a question of fairness.”

“I believe you just said you intend to make an unfair trade.”

“Yes. Because if we made a fair trade, it would be unfair to us.”

The Great Chieftain tilted his head slightly. My words seemed a little hard to follow. But that was good. I had done it on purpose. In negotiation, if you say something plausible that the other side cannot quite grasp, it is easy to seize the upper hand.

“Basically, this is smuggling trade outside the laws of the Imperial State. And if that is discovered, only we bear the risk. It is not as though the Imperial State would punish the Great Desert for breaking the law.”

“Ah. That is what you meant.”

“So there must clearly be something advantageous to us. Since the premise is unfair, the trade itself must also be unfair.”

“I understand.”

The Great Chieftain nodded. He was certainly a man easy to talk to.

“Normally one might agree to reduce trade taxes somewhat, but this is smuggling trade. The advantage of smuggling trade is that there are no customs duties.”

“Then what measures should we take? Even if we lowered the price of goods, your side would not be able to trust that.”

“That is true. So I propose one more covenant.”

“You propose more?”

“I propose a military agreement.”

The Great Chieftain’s eyes widened greatly. That much, it seemed, he had not anticipated.

“A military agreement?”

“Yes. The Great Desert is directly confronting the northern armies of the Imperial State, so you must be tracking their operational intelligence and movements. I would like you to share that with us.”

“I understood the New Justice Association to be a martial-world force. Why would you need that? Are you planning to raise a rebellion?”

“That is correct.”

At my immediate answer, the Great Chieftain met my eyes for a moment. He seemed to be trying to determine whether I was serious.

“You are refreshingly direct. I would believe you even if you called yourself a warrior of the Great Desert.”

To hear a warrior of the Great Desert called such a thing from the Great Chieftain of the Great Desert. There was no higher praise. I bowed my head deeply.

“Thank you.”

“But what do we gain from a military agreement?”

“I will inform you of developments within the Imperial Palace.”

“Is that possible?”

“More than enough.”

If it were Demonic Cult intelligence, it was more than possible. If I simply told them when the palace would mobilize troops or what suppression plans they had, that alone would be enough benefit for them.

“No matter how you put it, what we give you still seems greater than what you give us.”

“That is why I am telling you this. In the military agreement, we take the profit. In the trade agreement, the Great Desert takes the profit.”

“Hmm.”

From the Great Desert’s perspective, the proposal could only sound reasonable. Especially if trade with the Imperial State was their long-cherished dream, they would not be able to refuse.

“That does not sound bad.”

“Good. Then let us do it that way.”

“Very well. We can work out the details as we talk.”

“Yes. Let us.”

And so the covenant between the Great Desert and the New Justice Association was concluded. The New Justice Association was swelling larger and larger.

Even so, it was still too weak to topple the giant known as the Imperial State.

* * *

“Did the talks go well?”

“Yes. I gave them a hearty slap on the back of the head.”

“What slap on the back of the head?”

“That sort of thing exists.”

I chuckled. Myeong-gyeong shook his head back and forth.

“We are the orthodox sects. You must not forget that.”

“Of course.”

In truth, I had half forgotten. If I were truly orthodox, I would have concluded only a trade agreement. Because from the beginning, the New Justice Association had borne no risk at all.

What mattered in smuggling trade was which route one used. How one crossed the borders of the Imperial State. That was the dangerous part. But for me, there was no such danger.

Because Prince Xian of Gansu was preparing rebellion alongside me at this very moment. Since Gansu was also connected to the Great Desert, if goods were distributed through Gansu, there was absolutely no chance of being caught.

So from the start, I had dangled the big fish called a military agreement using a risk I never intended to bear in the first place.

To be honest, the New Justice Association was still a faint martial group. Concluding a military agreement with a massive force like the Great Desert, one capable of directly threatening the Imperial State, was absurd in itself. If trade with the Great Empire had not been the Great Chieftain’s cherished enterprise, I would have been refused outright.

“You look pleased.”

“I am.”

“Because you slapped them on the back of the head?”

“Of course not.”

In any case, by the Great Chieftain’s command I received assurance that I was a friend of the Great Desert. The warriors of the Great Desert were bewildered by the sudden change, but since the Great Chieftain ordered it, they had no choice but to comply.

Accordingly, we even received rather courteous guidance on the way to the Four Sons Banner.

“The Great Desert is not only desert.”

“In fact, the grasslands are larger.”

“Then what do you bring back if you trade? Is there anything the Imperial State lacks?”

Myeong-gyeong asked as though curious. He was asking because I had concluded both a trade agreement and a military agreement.

“A great deal. First, because the Great Desert has grasslands, it is easy to pasture livestock. The dairy products, meat, and wool obtained there cannot compare to those of the Imperial State.”

“Is that so?”

“On top of that, there are many minerals. They simply lack the ability to extract them. The Urarat Middle Banner in particular is a treasure house of ore with tremendous amounts of gold, silver, and iron buried within.”

“Oh. I see. Then what do we give them?”

“There is far too much we can give. Tea leaves, liquor, silk, ceramics… too many to count. If we simply bring them and sell, they will buy at high prices.”

“Is that not fraud?”

“Fraud? That is simply how business works.”

Myeong-gyeong looked as though he could hardly believe it. But this much was perfectly upright. The value of goods always changed by region.

Even selling the same famous painting, buying it at a reputable auction and buying it on the black market would clearly differ in price.

I roughly explained to Myeong-gyeong how the economy worked. Markets operated through supply and demand, and prices were determined accordingly. Even martial artists found life easier knowing such things.

“Hmm. Why does everything Junior Brother says sound like a scam?”

“Prejudice has clouded Senior Brother’s eyes.”

We bickered even as we arrived at the Four Sons Banner. There were people at the Four Sons Banner as well. They regarded us in Central Plains attire with caution and thrust their spear tips forward, but I took out the token of friendship I had received from the Great Chieftain.

They immediately recognized the Great Chieftain’s token, changed posture, and treated us with utmost courtesy.

I told them I wished to see the formation where the Mad Buddha was imprisoned, and they objected, saying we might be swept into the formation if we were careless. But when I insisted, they reluctantly led us there.

“Ugh, that was exhausting.”

“It really was. There was no one here who could speak the Central Plains tongue.”

And so we came before the formation said to hold the Mad Buddha. There was no one at the Four Sons Banner who could speak the Central Plains tongue, so we had suffered quite a bit communicating through gestures.

“A formation.”

In truth, neither I nor Myeong-gyeong had any particular mastery of formations.

But unlike Myeong-gyeong, I knew to some degree how terrifying formations could be. I had experienced the power of a formation beneath the sea in person. A well-made formation was simply another world.

And the formation here at the Four Sons Banner felt similar to the one beneath the sea. It was truly grand, overwhelming. It felt as though if I touched it even slightly, I would be sucked inside.

“It is a little eerie.”

“That is because a distorted aura lies before us.”

They said a formation forcibly reversed the flow of natural energy. The orthodox sects were people who affirmed and accepted natural energy. It was only natural to feel greater discomfort before such a formation.

“Do not leave my side.”

“Okay.”

I kept Myeong-gyeong beside me. I thought that if it were Myeong-gyeong, he really might be sucked in by accident.

But I was different because I could handle immortal qi. Because I could see the flow of natural energy, there was no chance I would enter by mistake.

“Hmm.”

I walked along the boundary of the formation, gauging its features and size. It was a truly dense, tightly woven formation. The saying that no one who entered could ever leave was not without reason.

Simply circling it once took half a shichen. The formation was that large.

‘I cannot enter this.’

And I reached my conclusion. The reason I had come here in the first place was because I could see the flow of nature.

I had wondered whether I might pry open some gap in the formation, but this one was truly perfect. I could not see a single opening.

“Senior Brother.”

“Yeah.”

“I do not think we can enter this.”

“I thought as much.”

Thinking that, I tried to pull away from the formation. In that instant, I felt a prickling sensation from my upper dantian.

And without even time to think, I leapt upward.

Boom boom boom!

Myeong-gyeong’s eyes widened as he was suddenly launched into the sky. It was not only that he had been sent flying, but the place where we had been standing a moment ago had been reduced to wasteland.

“Good instincts. You startled me.”

Looking down, at the center of the devastated ground stood an old man barely five cheok tall.

“Your upper dantian is open? At your age, that is no easy achievement.”

“Who are you?”

I landed while glaring at the old man. Naturally, he was not someone friendly to us.

“Do not be curious about me. That would be overstepping.”

The old man spread his palm toward me. Wind began swirling and gathering in his palm. Before long, the rippling wind took the shape of a sword. It was a sword made of wind.

For me, it was a supreme technique I could not even begin to grasp.

But one thing I could tell. The essence of the internal energy gathering that wind. That was palace martial arts. Of all the palace martial arts I had seen until now, it was the highest-grade internal energy I had encountered. Disgust welled up inside me.

“You are from the Imperial Palace.”

“You are wrong. This one is not human.”

“Then I suppose you are a son of a bitch.”

“Heh heh.”

I was already sensing it. That was a monster. Of all the monsters I had seen, it was the most vicious and dangerous.

And this was the Imperial Palace’s trap. The Imperial Palace did not set half-hearted schemes. It was trying to kill me for certain. With that monster, wherever they had found him.

But there was something I could not understand. If they could use a monster of that level, was there any need to drag me all the way to the Great Desert? That was a question worth thinking about. No, first I had to survive here before I could think at all.

“That insolence ought rightly to be punished with death, but to kill a person directly is to accumulate evil karma.”

The old man spoke. Suddenly the old man vanished. Only then did I realize I had been underestimating him.

Even when I poured out all my strength, I could not catch the old man’s presence with my senses.

In an instant the old man appeared beside me. I immediately drew Bright Elegance and defended. But the old man’s purpose was not to kill me, as he had said.

It was to shove me into that formation. The old man’s kick knocked my sword aside.

Knowing I could not stop, I held Myeong-gyeong tightly in my arms.

We flew horizontally across the ground and were sucked into the formation. The moment we were drawn inside, the aura enveloping our bodies changed completely.

And that aura was, astonishingly, the aura of Great Ming’s imperial house. In other words…

It was demonic qi.