Chapter 164: Letter From a Friend
The gathering for the great integration of the Seventy-Two Fortresses of the Green Forest took place at the Cheonsin Fortress, located on Mount Tianzi in Hunan.
Generally, the further north on the continent, the stronger the influence of the Nine Great Sects; and the further south, the stronger the influence of the unorthodox factions.
The fact that the Cheonsin Fortress was the largest force among the Seventy-Two Fortresses of the Green Forest played a role, but it was also largely because the influence of the Nine Great Sects was low there.
Needless to say, it took ages just for the bandits of the Seventy-Two Fortresses of the Green Forest to gather on Mount Tianzi.
But was the wait worth it? The gathered Green Forest boasted an enormous scale.
As their strength assembled one by one, their hearts swelled with an unknown heat.
“It’s an absolute mess.”
The problem was that it was only good up to that point.
Once the bare truth was exposed, it was a gathering of all sorts of pathetic trash.
It is said that when five people gather, one of them is trash, but here, all five were trash.
Moreover, their number quickly surpassed one thousand and headed toward ten thousand, so the chaos was beyond words.
Man San-ho, the Red-Hearted Fighting Tiger and Chieftain of the Black Tiger Fortress located on Mount Dangang in Hubei, clicked his tongue as he watched the unfolding situation.
“I knew it would be a difficult path, but…… this is a mess beyond imagination.”
Though called the Seventy-Two Fortresses of the Green Forest, the relationships between the strongholds were actually on the level of distant neighbors related by marriage.
If there were a common master and their martial lineage was the same, that would be one thing, but since the Green Forest itself was the ultimate hotchpotch, there was no such thing.
If their territories overlapped, profits would decrease and they would slash at each other, so naturally, they were quite far apart.
If they were in the same region, there might be some exchange, but if it was another region, it was out of the question.
Rather, the escort agencies they faced every day through business had deeper friendships.
Moreover, if a distant relative-in-law suddenly came over and babbled, ‘We were so close! From today, we are brothers!’ and you opened your storehouse gladly, you would be an idiot who deserved whatever happened to you.
That was why this gathering of the Seventy-Two Fortresses of the Green Forest was special.
“Those Nine Great Sects bastards are idiots too. In fact, this mess was established thanks to those fellows who danced with their swords while laughing for no damn reason.”
Man San-ho cursed and spat at the Nine Great Sects.
The reason why those distant relatives-in-law cried, ‘We are brothers!’ and everyone accepted it with a foolish yet cool ‘B-brother!’ was because they felt the need to unite due to the suspicious movements of the Nine Great Sects recently.
However, the realms of reason and emotion are different.
Everyone had different personalities, thoughts, and norms. There were even regions where they couldn’t communicate well due to all kinds of dialects.
Although they gathered because they felt the necessity, they threw unity to the dogs and played as they pleased.
The smart ones tried to form groups that agreed with their opinions somehow, and the chieftains who feared being left behind and screwed also expanded their influence by any means.
Although there were some chieftains who disliked collusion, perhaps thinking they would only lose if they acted bold alone, factions of people with similar inclinations were created in no time.
Factions were formed.
Factions gathered because their stronghold martial arts styles were similar, factions gathered because their regions were close, factions gathered because their hometowns were close.
Anyway, the ultimate state of division unfolded.
And the starting point for those factions to run wild was due to a single topic that came up while discussing future plans.
When their numbers were small, even if a problem arose, they would pass it over by whispering among themselves, but when their numbers grew, laws and discipline to match were needed.
Just as there were no laws and regulations that satisfied everyone, disputes arose between factions to create a slightly more advantageous flow for themselves.
Let alone that the Green Forest itself was originally a place where people thoroughly possessed a rebellious spirit, shouting ‘Screw the laws’.
“No, is it actually smart instead? If those hypocritical bastards schemed to create this mess, then they really are incredibly smart.”
Strange conspiracy theories even arose to that extent.
At that time, a subordinate came to find Man San-ho.
“Chieftain.”
“What? Why? Is there another fight breaking out somewhere?”
“Some bastard shot an arrow and ran, but a fight didn’t break out.”
“Usually, doesn’t shooting an arrow itself mean ‘go die’?”
It was a typical bandit’s perspective.
“Seeing that this kind of thing is tied to the end of a headless arrow, it doesn’t seem like they want to fight.”
The subordinate held out a well-folded letter.
At the end of the letter, it was written, ‘To the Chieftain of the Black Tiger Fortress.’
“It seems it was sent by the Daejin Escort Agency. The guys who rushed in saying they would censor its contents laughed after reading it, you know?”
“Well, the fact that those escort agency bastards sent a letter here is indeed funny.”
Man San-ho, brushing off the word censorship with a laugh, opened and read the letter.
And he could understand why the guys who said they would censor it burst into broad laughter.
The letter, which began with typical greetings, went straight to the point, perhaps due to space constraints.
To sum it up simply, the letter said they also wanted to achieve some unity among the escort agencies, and since they were curious about the situation of the Green Forest gathered on Mount Tianzi, please provide some information.
“What is this? Are these guys crazy? These bastards are also formidable idiots.”
He felt that if nonsense reached this level, they should be given an award.
Although before that, he would get annoyed and wring their necks.
But.
“……Huh?”
However, as he read the content that followed, it felt like it warmly scratched a corner of his frustrated mind.
“This is strange. Why does it seem to make sense?”
Man San-ho read the letter carefully once more.
“If the great integration of the Seventy-Two Fortresses of the Green Forest ends in failure, doesn’t the Black Tiger Fortress have to return to Mount Dangang anyway?”
If the great integration was successfully achieved, the Green Forest would transform into a giant power of the martial world under a new name.
However, that was only if it succeeded. If it failed, it was true they had to go home.
It was also true that if they resumed business afterward, they would have to coordinate with the escort agencies again.
“If the Green Forest’s great integration succeeds, aren’t you going to stop banditry on the mountain anyway? This is also true. If we occupy a single mountain and hold out at this scale, it’s the perfect setup to starve to death. In the end, it means we have to find a new source of livelihood…… Either way, there is no reason to clash with the escort agencies, is there?”
No matter what conclusion this mess came to, there seemed to be no reason to clash with the escort agencies. From a rational perspective, there was no lie in it.
That was why it was even stranger.
“I should talk to Dan Ya-heun.”
Man San-ho stood up to find the Chief of the Gangmu Fortress of Mount Geomja in Hubei, who was someone he could share his mind with in this chaotic place.
The Chief of the Gangmu Fortress read the letter Man San-ho held out, and then laughed, holding his belly.
“Puhahaha! Did you say the place that sent this letter was the Daejin Escort Agency? Looking at it now, you had a quite interesting friend as a neighbor. Puhahahahaha!”
“Fun aside, what is your opinion?”
“Hmm! Anyway, it means the escort agencies also don’t want to clash with us…….”
Chief of the Gangmu Fortress Dan Ya-heun fell deep into thought while stroking his chin.
Soon, a deep smile hung on the lips of the Chief of the Gangmu Fortress.
“If they are so curious about the situation here, how about inviting them once?”
“An invitation?”
Thinking he had misheard, Man San-ho picked his ear.
“Whom? Where? Here?”
“For some reason, I feel it’s not a bad plan. If the escort agencies have no intention of clashing with us, when the great integration is achieved, it might be good for our Green Forest to have a hand in what those escort agency fellows are trying to do.”
Man San-ho blinked his eyes, unable to follow the conversation.
“What?”
“If you make a road, people are bound to travel it. If you monopolize the road, you can gain great profits. Although building a road takes effort, if the escort agencies and we properly join hands, it is not an impossible task either. Let’s make the tacit symbiotic relationship between the existing escort agencies and us more officially close. If we monopolize a good road that cannot be replaced, later on, the merchants will come to us first with open hands.”
“So, what you are saying is…… the Green Forest should fully jump into the escort agency business?”
“Exactly. If we organize it well, it will become a legal(?) distribution business, so there will be no room for the government to intervene. It’s a good thing to step up from the shadows to the light.”
And Man San-ho realized.
That a formidable lunatic was right in front of him!
***
It was also a difficult time for the escort agencies.
Since the situation was chaotic, they couldn’t leave the escort agencies empty for long, so the sluggish meeting of the escort agencies was decided to disband for now.
Then, around the time the winter chill completely disappeared and the spring energy bloomed fully, the Chief of the Daejin Escort Agency came alone and held out a letter.
The contents of the boldly written letter were as simple as the powerful energy felt in the letters.
“If you are curious, why don’t you come directly?”
With a serious face, I looked back and forth between Uncle Baek Jin-seong and the Chief of the Daejin Escort Agency who were holding out this letter.
“What is this?”
“Hmm…… I’m also a bit unsure. What does this look like to you?”
“Isn’t it a provocation? Come if you have courage, I’ll wring your neck. Something like that?”
“It reads that way to you too, doesn’t it?”
Is there something else?
“That was sent by the Green Forest.”
“Are they lunatics?”
I felt like I understood why the Chief of the Daejin Escort Agency had come.
Before the meeting of the escort agencies fell through, there was definitely talk of sending a letter to the place discussing the Green Forest’s great integration.
It seemed to be the reply to that.
Suddenly, a question came to mind.
“There was an escort warrior with a bit of a crazy streak in the Daejin Escort Agency, right?”
“Cough! That…… yes, there is……”
“What did he say when he saw this?”
“He said he felt like he met a lifelong soulmate.”
“……You should keep a tight leash on him.”
Perhaps sometime soon, someone might change their occupation from an escort warrior to a Green Forest bandit.
“I tied him up before coming anyway.”
In any case.
“So, can we view it as the Green Forest sending an invitation?”
“Correct. They even enclosed a token of formal invitation.”
“Suddenly, the idiom of waiting under a persimmon tree for a ripe persimmon to fall comes to mind. Ah, of course, the ones being eaten would be us.”
“Even without that, I plan to go with highly selected elites this time. Centering on ‘masters’ who can sufficiently pull themselves out even from dangerous places.”
Why did those words sound ominous?
The trailing remark added at the end heavily weighed on his mind.
“The master who performed water-gliding on the Yangtze River according to recent rumors, that was you, right?”
“I heard that was a Dragon King, not a person?”
“You are a dragon, indeed. Young Heavenly Dragon.”
“No, that’s just a nickname……”
“I heard you even performed void-stepping at the Mount Hua Sect?”
At Uncle Baek Jin-seong’s words, the Chief of the Daejin Escort Agency’s eyes widened.
I knew very well from whose mouth this information came.
Sometime soon, I will have to set a schedule to torture that fellow Baek Mu-ho.
“Do you absolutely want to send me?”
“What are you worried about? Would the Divine Monk stay still? He is someone who treasures you like gold and jade.”
It was indeed a powerful card.
Probably in the current martial world, the number of people who could face the Divine Monk was truly countable on one’s fingers.
Furthermore, he felt like the Divine Monk had gained something while analyzing the subtle principles of the Ultimate Extreme Strike this time.
‘It is reassuring…… it is indeed reassuring, but the thing is…….’
The problem was that the voice of the Divine Monk, showing murderous intent while mentioning the Georok Fortress, rang like an auditory hallucination.
‘Why does the scene of playing with fire in a gunpowder depot while heavily drunk come to mind?’
As much as he was powerful, the major problem was that he was uncontrollable.
“Please give me some time to think.”
“Sure. We will depart tomorrow morning, so prepare yourself thoroughly.”
What kind of ‘the answer is decided, so you just need to reply’ is this!
“Ah, if possible, try to coax that fellow Jang Mun-gyeong as well.”
Why does it feel like the number of people who don’t listen to my words is increasing?
‘Is this what they call karma?’
Come to think of it, I had memories of using that kind of speech pattern quite a bit recently.
Indeed, it seems a person should live uprightly.
***
Returning home, he gave it some careful thought in his own way.
‘As expected, it is hard to leave them be.’
Not to mention that he was Sister Seol-ah’s father, he had received a considerable amount of tangible and intangible help from Uncle Baek Jin-seong.
Setting aside whether he could control him, if the Divine Monk participated in this trip, safety would indeed rise greatly.
The martial prowess of the experts at the very peak of the martial world seen at the Defeng Yin Clan was definitely shocking.
‘What if I stealthily slip Old Man Jong into the party too?’
On the left, the Divine Monk who was Shaolin’s peak; on the right, Old Man Jong, the Vajra Iron Demonic Sovereign, who was one of the strongest in the Demonic Cult.
Thinking under the premise of those two joining, he felt that this trip to the Green Forest would not be as dangerous as he thought.
In the midst of that.
[You will have to go there.]
“……Yes?”
Suddenly, Master Zhang Sanfeng’s voice rang out.
[That fellow Heavenly Demon asked me to convey it. That there is something you must obtain there. I won’t talk long since this is something that drains causality.]
It meant there was something helpful to him in the Green Forest.
If Master spoke that way, the story was different.
“Oh, my bitter fate……”
Now that things had turned out this way, he would have to coax Senior Jang Mun-gyeong too.