Chapter 225: Chapter 225
The Black Thought Alliance’s main building.
Behind the Alliance Leader’s office on the top floor, there was a secret chamber.
Two people who did not yet belong to the Black Thought Alliance entered this space, whose existence was known only to a few people besides the Alliance Leader.
“You have come.”
The Four Emperors Peak Lord seated there…… no, Cha Seok-du, who had now become the Black Thought Alliance Leader, rose from his chair.
“I should have gone out to greet you myself. I apologize for my discourtesy.”
Cha Seok-du, who had never lowered his head to anyone in his life, bowed politely.
“It is fine. Now that the place where you stand has changed, it is your fate to have a heavier backside.”
“Do not mind it, little brother. If we cared about every little thing like that, we would not have come here in the first place.”
Blood Battle and Flame Ghost Consort.
The two sat down before Cha Seok-du, as if they were the masters of this space.
“Have you been well?”
At Cha Seok-du’s question, Blood Battle let out a laugh.
“You would not have called us here just to ask after our well-being. Get to the point. Why did you call us?”
“…….”
“Are there bastards who are not listening?”
Cha Seok-du smiled weakly.
“Trying to do something I have never done before is proving more difficult than I expected.”
“Heh-heh, Heh-heh. Do you think the Black Path has lived its life being beaten by the Orthodox Path for no reason? Still, it seems you have roughly put up the pillars. It would not have come from your head…… so I suppose there must have been a decent fellow.”
At Blood Battle’s words, as if he already knew everything, Cha Seok-du obediently nodded.
“I was fortunate.”
“That, too, is your blessing.”
“Thank you.”
Flame Ghost Consort, who had been listening from the side, hummed through her nose.
“Little brother would not have called us here openly to cause a scene for him. Are there perhaps people gnawing away at the pillars?”
Cha Seok-du, who had until now only dealt with bastards who knew nothing but “I eat” and “I fight,” somehow felt a refreshing breeze in this stifling secret chamber.
He leaned his body even farther forward and whispered,
“They are meticulous. They are hiding themselves secretly within the factions and spreading words under the guise of acting for the Black Thought Alliance’s benefit.”
“It is said that stratagems are more frightening than hidden schemes.”
Cha Seok-du gave a slight shake of his head and answered,
“This is not something I can simply overlook.”
At Cha Seok-du’s attitude, even Blood Battle’s face hardened.
“Do you have any suspects?”
“I do not even know that yet.”
“Hmm…….”
After pondering, Blood Battle spoke.
“In that case, there is not much we can do for you right this moment.”
“I apologize. I thought my heart would settle a little if the two of you came…….”
“Heh, now that you are doing politics, you are wielding an Orthodox Path Heart Method with your tongue. Hmm…….”
After a brief silence, Blood Battle nodded, read Cha Seok-du’s intention, and continued speaking.
“We will look for them slowly, so do not worry too much.”
At Blood Battle’s and Flame Ghost Consort’s words, Cha Seok-du’s expression improved considerably, and only then did he realize his mistake and open his mouth.
“I apologize. I spoke only about myself. Was the road here not arduous?”
Blood Battle slightly raised the corners of his mouth.
“It was fine. We met an amusing fellow on the way.”
“I heard you came with Jin So-un.”
“Yes. He was more amusing than the rumors. Even if there truly were a Joint Successor of the Black Path Alliance, I doubt he could do as well as that fellow.”
Cha Seok-du nodded as if agreeing.
“He certainly…… has his peculiar sides.”
Blood Battle’s expression abruptly turned serious as he spoke.
“I hear you sent him an invitation. Why did you deliberately do something that would be bad for both you and him?”
“……Have you ever heard of the Black Path Night March?”
Blood Battle nodded.
“Yes. I heard the absurd rumor that the Black Flame Dragon led the Black Path ghosts.”
There had been a rumor that the one who led the Black Path Night March, which had become an important justification for the formation of the Black Thought Alliance, was the Black Flame Dragon, but Blood Battle had not believed it.
Perhaps, because of some connection with a Black Path sect, the boy might have entrusted himself to that event, but it was not an event a fellow who had just passed twenty could have led.
However, as if shattering Blood Battle’s certainty, Cha Seok-du shook his head.
“Actually, that is somewhat true.”
“……Hm?”
“……Oh my?”
Blood Battle and Flame Ghost Consort instinctively stirred.
At length, Cha Seok-du told them in detail about how Jin So-un had stormed Four Emperors Peak during the Murim Regular Exam.
It was not a short story, yet while listening, Blood Battle and Flame Ghost Consort never lost focus for even a single moment.
After hearing the whole story, Blood Battle let out a low groan.
“Huh…… to think that fellow really did lead it.”
Now, those rumors had faded, and Cha Seok-du himself was known as the one who had made an enormous contribution to the formation of the Black Thought Alliance, but strictly speaking, it was true that Jin So-un had fired the signal flare for the creation of the Black Path Alliance.
“And so, I invited him to this Founding Ceremony.”
Blood Battle asked sharply,
“……Are you placing as much expectation on that fellow as you are on us?”
Cha Seok-du awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
“There is no way I would, but…….”
Then he spoke with his eyes shining.
“I am expecting something unexpected.”
Blood Battle and Flame Ghost Consort exchanged glances with strange smiles.
“How amusing. A competition with the Black Flame Dragon.”
“Hmm…… this maiden only wishes to have lovers’ quarrels with my husband.”
For an instant, Cha Seok-du wanted to ask whom she meant by “husband,” but the flames Flame Ghost Consort would send flying afterward came to mind, so he clamped his mouth shut.
The Black Thought Alliance’s eve festival had an atmosphere closer to the back alley of a city famous as a tourist destination than to a banquet commonly held by Orthodox Path sects.
In short, it was a complete mess.
“Pick, pick, pick whatever you want! If you do not pick, you lose out; if you do, you hit the jackpot! This is not an opportunity that comes every day. The most commonly used hidden weapons in the Black Path Murim……”
There was a bastard selling hidden weapons in the training ground.
“Now, please watch closely. From now on, I will swallow this sword. You must absolutely not try this yourself!”
There was a wandering troupe displaying feats of strength in front of martial artists.
“Now! This is not an opportunity that comes every day. This is the very Spiritual Medicine made by Shaolin Temple, known as the Preeminent Authority of Orthodox Path sects! It is called the Small Reversion Pill! In commemoration of the Black Thought Alliance’s Founding Ceremony, this Small Reversion Pill is only ten silver taels today!”
Oh, there was even a bastard selling Small Reversion Pills.
Wow! I really must not miss this opportunity.
No matter how ignorant Black Path bastards were, I wondered whether there could be anyone who would fall for such a scam…….
“I want to buy a Small Reversion Pill.”
The sucker was right here?
I immediately grabbed Dang Seo-hui by the back of the neck as she was about to leap forward.
“Forget it. You must not eat things like that.”
“I have money!”
“This is not a matter of money. If you eat a mixture of unknown medicinal herbs by mistake, you will end up with dreadful diarrhea.”
Dang Seo-hui narrowed her eyes and asked,
“How do you know?”
How did I know?
Because I had eaten one in my previous life.
Absurdly enough, I had even eaten a Great Reversion Pill in my previous life.
I thought I would rise to the ranks of Peak Warriors after eating it.
Peak Warrior, my ass. In reality, it was a medicine that sent you to Ascension through diarrhea.
“……Do not try to know more. You will get hurt.”
By the way, where did that bald head go? There was a bastard brazenly selling Shaolin Temple’s Spiritual Medicine like that.
Shouldn’t he catch him and beat him down?
I looked around.
“Senior Il-myeong is nowhere to be seen.”
“He said he found someone to give teachings to, so he already moved.”
“Is that so?”
Still, Il-myeong would not cause trouble like Dang Seo-hui, right? Well, even if a fight broke out, he was not someone who would get beaten around.
He was hidden by Yong So-ah’s shining name, but if not for Yong So-ah, Il-myeong’s name would now be resounding throughout the world in his place.
Even inside this Black Thought Alliance, the number of people who could harm him could be counted on one hand, and if it became truly urgent, he could just flee.
I looked at Dang Seo-hui and said,
“Then let us move by ourselves.”
“That is good!”
The excited Dang Seo-hui grabbed my hand and began dragging me along.
“I want to buy those hidden weapons.”
“Those are made from rotten iron. They will break after one throw. And does the Tang Clan not make hidden weapons?”
“I want to do that knife throwing.”
“When ordinary people throw those knives, they switch them for ones whose edges have not been sharpened. They do not even stick into the wooden wall.”
Dang Seo-hui clenched both fists and shouted,
“I want to enter the stone-lifting contest!”
“You cannot use inner arts. Are you still fine with it? That is an external arts contest.”
“…….”
The grip strength of Dang Seo-hui’s hand holding mine weakened, so I turned my head. Dang Seo-hui’s cheeks were puffed up round.
“……Then there is no meaning in coming out.”
Ah, right. We had come out to drain her energy.
I quickly bought two Candied Fruits from a stall and handed them to Dang Seo-hui.
Dang Seo-hui skillfully drew two needles from her robe, stabbed the Candied Fruits several times, checked the needles, and then handed one back to me.
“Let us look for something suitable.”
“I want to do that, then!”
Dang Seo-hui, who was chewing on the Candied Fruit, pointed to one side.
There, ten men stood before a small table, holding their chins and thinking hard.
“Now, money down, money back! This is the very game even passing children can get right! Powder money for women, liquor money for men, pocket money of one copper for children! Only one copper! One copper! Money down, money back! This is not something that comes every day. This is the very game even a passing dog can get right! Find the bean, the bean!”
Three wine cups were placed upside down on the table, and the man was moving those three cups around in a dizzying pattern, changing the location of the bean.
‘Gambling?’
That was really amaaazing. After everything else, now she wanted to gamble too?
Even more amazing was that gambler. As if there were nowhere else to set up a gambling table, he had set one up in a place full of martial artists.
In any case, it did not look especially dangerous, and the price was not high.
Dang Seo-hui needed to learn about the world too. It did not seem bad as a first lesson.
I obediently nodded.
“Let us do that.”
When the two of us approached the table while each biting into a Candied Fruit, the onlookers subtly stepped back and opened a path around us.
The gambler looked at Dang Seo-hui and smiled.
“Oh my, a cute young lady and a handsome young master have come. Would you like to play a round?”
“I am confident I can get them all right!”
“That is right! It is a game even a passing dog can get right. We will begin.”
The gambler showed the red bean being placed under the middle cup, then began mixing the cups quickly.
“Now, money down, money back! This is not something that comes every day. This is the very game even a passing dog can get right! Find the bean, the bean!”
Dang Seo-hui focused on the cups moving at a rather quick speed and tracked the bean.
And the moment the gambler stopped moving them.
Dang Seo-hui placed ten silver taels in front of the cup on the far right.
“Hiiik! T-ten taels?”
“Why? Is that not allowed?”
Why is she so bold?
I stopped Dang Seo-hui.
“Things like this are done for fun. Do you not have copper coins?”
“I only have silver coins. And I am confident!”
Well, she was the treasured jewel of the Sichuan Tang Clan, Dang Seo-hui, who had no idea how difficult it was to make a living in the world. Would there ever be a time when her pouch ran dry?
I decided to just leave her be.
Everyone’s gaze focused on the board.
“Gulp.”
The nervous shell-game swindler opened the cup Dang Seo-hui had placed her money on……
“Ahh……. How did you get this right?”
The red bean popped out with a tap!
“Waaah! I got it right! I got it right!”
As Dang Seo-hui hopped up and down, the gambler made a groaning expression and began rolling the cups again.
Dang Seo-hui snorted through her nose and pointed to one spot with her finger.
“This time, it is here!”
Dang Seo-hui placed all the silver coins she had just won together with her original stake, twenty taels in total, in front of the cup on the far left.
However, the moment the gambler opened the cup.
The bean was not there.
‘Huh, look at this bastard.’
While I burst into a dumbfounded laugh inwardly, the gambler teased Dang Seo-hui.
“Oh my! Cute young lady, you failed to get it right this time.”
When the gambler took all twenty taels, Dang Seo-hui once again took out twenty taels from her robe.
“Now, money down, money back! This is not something that comes every day. This is the very game even a passing dog can get right. Find the bean, the bean!”
The gambler’s hands moved faster than before.
Dang Seo-hui even drew up her internal qi as if she would not miss a single instant and tracked the cups.
“It is here!”
Not only the gambler but even the onlookers were at peak tension.
As passersby also began gathering one by one at the now greatly expanded gambling table.
The shell-game swindler carefully opened the cup.
“Huh? Huh? Why, why? Why is it not there?”
Dang Seo-hui stood blankly with an expression as if the world had collapsed.
The gambler deliberately lowered his eyebrows.
“What a shame. It would have been nice if you had been just a little faster. Would you like to keep going?”
“……Do you accept gold coins too?”
“……G-gold coins?”
For the first time, the gambler’s pupils widened.
“W-well, if you wish to play.”
“Good. Then with gold coins…….”
I stepped forward and blocked Dang Seo-hui’s way.
“This time, I will try once.”
“Hm?”
“Are you going to enjoy it alone?”
Dang Seo-hui hesitated briefly, then said,
“……If you cannot get it right, I will do it again.”
I nodded to her.
“Let us do that.”
“…….”
When I jingled the silver coins and gestured with my eyes, the gambler who had lost his sucker smacked his lips regretfully.
However, once the sucker said she would play again, his eyes soon shone, and he began turning the cups.
“Now, money down, money back! This is not something that comes every day. This is the very game even a passing dog can get right! Find the bean. The bean!”
Three cups.
A game where one could earn money simply by guessing the location of the bean one saw at the beginning.
Just as the gambler said, this was a game even a passing child could get right.
The gambler looked up at me quietly.
“Where will you place your bet?”
“Where?”
However, I knew.
Against a gambler, one could never win this game.
Because from the very beginning, this whole game was a scam.
“All of them.”
“Hm?”
I placed one silver coin in front of each cup.
“What are you doing? Open them.”
I had known it was a scam from the start.
Because I had sensed it from the moment he first began turning the cups.
Even so, the reason I had let it pass was because I had seen something peculiar from this gambler.
The gambler deliberately bluffed.
“Good grief, there are friends like this too. Now, look.”
The gambler flipped the cups over at the same time.
There had clearly been a red bean beneath one of the three cups.
“Now, now, cute young lady, please take your seat again.”
I grabbed the man’s hand as he tried to cover the cups and mix them.
“W-what! What are you doing?!”
“Where do you think you are scamming people?”
“Scam? What scam! You clearly saw it too……”
I opened the cup where the bean had just been.
The red bean that should have been there was not.
The flustered gambler flinched.
“T-this is…… Fuck! Boys, hit him!”
The men standing around the table and watching must have been his accomplices, because they all tried to strike down my hand holding the gambler at the same time.
THWACKTHWACKTHWACKTHWACKTHWACK!
But Dang Seo-hui’s hand-blade swept out in an instant, and they all fell to the ground with groans.
“……A scam. It was a scam?”
Dang Seo-hui had at some point returned to being the White-Hand Divine Maiden, an object of terror to Black Path people.
“This kind of gambling is originally all like that.”
“……Truly, truly like that?”
Dang Seo-hui glared at the gambler.
“Hiiik!”
The gambler looked at Dang Seo-hui as if he had seen a ghost.
“S-spare me! I will return all the money I took earlier and all the money I earned today.”
I looked down at him and stroked my chin.
“Hmm? No. There is no need to return that.”
“Pardon? W-what do you mean?”
“How did you do that just now?”
“W-what are you talking about?”
Normally, gamblers did not put the bean in at all when the game began.
Then, after the sucker chose a cup, they would put the bean back in.
That was why this kind of gambling did not work on most martial artists.
However, except for the first time when this gambler had deliberately let her win, he had never put the bean back in.
“The thing where you made the bean appear and disappear.”
What I was curious about was the existence of that bean.
Just like Blood Battle, who contained a voice within qi and threw it, this gambling trick had contained red energy inside qi and made it into something like a bean.
I was somehow curious whether this, too, might become a clue to solving the secret of the Void-Annihilation Fist.
The gambler’s pupils widened.
“Eek? T-that is the secret transmission of my sect……”
Is there even a sect for gambling? Amazing.
“Yes, I will give you that money from earlier, so hand over that secret transmission.”
“B-but……. If Master finds out……”
Oh, he even has a Master?
Then it would be understandable for him to be troubled.
To ease his troubles, I opened my mouth and clapped.
“Now, this is not an opportunity that comes every day. The greatest condition even a passing dog would accept! If you do not want your arms and legs turned backward, hurry up and choose! Now! Pick, pick!”
I tried imitating him, but perhaps the tune was off, because the gambler’s face did not look good.
Ha, I really might have to send several necks flying in various ways.
After receiving the sect’s secret transmission from the gambler free of charge.
I tried to lead Dang Seo-hui, who seemed a little gloomy after learning the cruelty of the world, back to the lodging.
However, Dang Seo-hui planted her feet on the ground and did not budge.
“……We have to bring Il-myeong too.”
“Eh?”
“The world is a scarier place than I thought. Il-myeong may also be suffering at someone’s hands.”
Come on, do you think the Il-myeong of all people is the same as you?
However, Dang Seo-hui shouted while even her shoulders trembled.
“We have to save Il-myeong! He may be trembling in fear somewhere!”
In my previous life, Il-myeong had not been afraid even when he faced the Asura Demon-Slaying Unit alone.
Would a man like that fear mere Black Path riffraff?
However.
“My intuition is telling me! We have to go save Il-myeong!”
Between Dang Seo-hui’s strangely surging energy and my own worry that this bald head might be beating up strict Black Path bastards under the pretext of proselytizing, I nodded.
“Let us do that. The night is getting deeper anyway.”
When we asked the attendants passing by where the bald head had gone, his trail was revealed unexpectedly quickly.
Well, of course.
A monk wearing Buddhist robes among Black Path bastards.
He could not help but stand out.
After following and following his trail like that, we arrived at a strange place.
‘A gambling hall?’
Temporary tents and canopies were spread across the entire Small Training Ground, and beneath them, countless people were gambling.
What was this man doing to end up here?
While I was sweeping my gaze over the seated people, Dang Seo-hui spoke.
“Jin So-un! There! He is over there!”
Just as Dang Seo-hui said, the bald head was seated in the middle of the gambling hall.
As we approached, a strange scene entered my eyes.
Was Il-myeong, who had said he would proselytize, not holding gambling tiles?
‘What is this? Is he planning to break his precepts?’
Moreover, his condition did not look good either.
Why was his entire body trembling?
I spoke to him.
“Senior Il-myeong, what are you doing here?”
Il-myeong turned his head at my call.
Il-myeong’s complexion had gone beyond pale and turned dark.
“B-benefactor Jin…… P-please! S-save me!”
……No, what exactly are you doing here?