Chapter 60: Chapter 60
A night when dark clouds veiled the moonlight.
Around thirty martial artists dashed soundlessly through the lush thicket. On the chests of the ink-colored martial robes they wore, the character ‘Hyun’ was embroidered in gold thread.
Running at the forefront was Black Tortoise Squad Leader Cheol Ji-ak.
Directly behind him, Vice Squad Leader Zhuge Rin on the left and third-in-command Do Seong-hwi on the right followed closely.
The recruits Cheon Woo-jin and Song Yi-yeon ran keeping formation at the very rear, accompanied by Jang Woo-pyeong, their immediate senior.
“Junior Song, you run well now, don’t you?”
Jang Woo-pyeong let out an exclamation of admiration.
The sight of Song Yi-yeon running while even dry-heaving during the mission with the Heavenly Tiger Squad previously was vivid in his mind.
That was something that happened less than a month ago, yet now his posture and breathing were exceedingly stable.
Had his lightness art improved in the meantime?
With his handsome face, Song Yi-yeon let out his characteristic smirk.
“It is about time for me to take off the recruit label as well, you know.”
“Good grief, has it even been a month since you entered the alliance?”
Jang Woo-pyeong burst into laughter as if it were absurd. However, a pleased look was evident in his eyes.
He knew that the two recruits were stronger than him. He also knew that there were many outside the Black Tortoise Squad who mocked that fact.
However, Jang Woo-pyeong was not a pathetic man who felt jealous of the recruits or harbored an inferiority complex because of such things. He merely considered that the growth of the recruits was the growth of the Black Tortoise Squad.
“Who is chattering during a mission?”
Zhuge Rin’s voice rang out from up ahead.
Without knowing who was first, Song Yi-yeon and Jang Woo-pyeong simultaneously shrunk their necks and clamped their mouths shut.
At that sight, Zhuge Rin shook her head side to side.
‘Just when will they ever mature?’
How long had they run like that?
Suddenly landing atop a large tree branch, Cheol Ji-ak raised his hand. Confirming the hand signal, the Black Tortoise Squad members also halted their lightness art at once.
Though they had been running at quite a fast speed before coming to an abrupt stop, it was astonishingly quiet. It was thanks to the uniquely smooth lightness art of the Black Tortoise Squad martial artists.
Cheol Ji-ak sent a hand signal.
‘The Black Market is in that alley up ahead. Half will follow me to enter the Black Market, and the other half will surround the perimeter.’
The Black Market was a market opened by Unorthodox sects by inviting only verified customers, mainly buying and selling illicit goods such as stolen property.
Because most items could not be obtained through legal channels, whatever price asked was the price paid, and for that reason it was also quite a large revenue source for Unorthodox sects.
According to intelligence acquired by the Martial Alliance, the Treasure Map of the Three Eccentrics of the Righteous Path was present at this Black Market.
The Black Tortoise Squad’s mission was precisely to secure that Treasure Map.
Having sent the hand signal, Cheol Ji-ak executed his lightness art in an instant as if soaring into the sky. The Black Tortoise Squad members, who had been preparing inwardly, also moved swiftly as familiarized beforehand.
* * *
Sweeping through the Black Market was easy.
High-ranking experts including Cheol Ji-ak raided while declaring they were the Martial Alliance Headquarters Black Tortoise Squad.
Not being the Black Overlord Castle, there was nothing a mere Unorthodox sect could do against the Martial Alliance.
They bound both hands of the incapacitated Unorthodox martial artists and cheerfully smashed the heads of those bastards who occasionally acted reckless enough to attack.
The bastards who fled were caught and dragged over by the remaining Black Tortoise Squad members already lying in wait.
In less than the time it took to drink a cup of tea after commencing the operation, the Black Market was completely sorted out.
The Unorthodox martial artists had their heads pressed to the ground with both hands tied, while the visiting customers, largely noble individuals from nearby, were politely detained to one side.
“You bastards! Who do you dare think I am!”
As always, there was also someone shouting like a person who had lived grandly his entire life.
Cheol Ji-ak stared at him blankly and spoke.
“Who are you?”
“W-What?”
“Why does a bastard wearing a ridiculous mask out of fear that his identity might be revealed shout so self-righteously? Shall we find out who you are? Should I take it off for you?”
Approaching the pot-bellied middle-aged man who had shouted, Cheol Ji-ak feigned taking off the mask. At that, the middle-aged man cleared his throat and turned his head away.
In the Black Market, whether officials or prominent local gentry, people often wore masks to conceal their identities.
Seeming hurt in pride, the middle-aged man added words behind his back.
“You said you are the Martial Alliance Black Tortoise Squad Leader. Just you wait and see.”
Cheol Ji-ak nodded his head carelessly. He was a man who had even headbutted his direct superior, the Benevolence Division Head; there was no way he would care about intimidation from an external figure outside the Martial Alliance.
“Clear the trash roughly to one side and secure the goods first.”
Trash meant the people, excluding the merchandise.
That is to say, it referred to the Unorthodox martial artists and masked customers.
At Cheol Ji-ak’s command, the movements of the Black Tortoise Squad members grew even busier.
* * *
The Xiangyang Society.
It was a small-to-medium Unorthodox sect created by merging the Unorthodox factions of the nearby Xiangfan region and Zaoyang County.
Compared to its scale, the Xiangyang Society had quite a deep history and earned an extraordinary amount of money because it was a livelihood-embedded Unorthodox syndicate.
Xiangyang Society Leader Na Jin-haeng was a man who knew his place and had quick judgment. The secret to leading an Unorthodox sect for decades with a martial cultivation level of merely first-rate was also his wits and judgment.
He was facing the worst situation in his decades of life in the Unorthodox Path.
“S-So to speak. You are telling us to strike the martial squad of the Martial Alliance Headquarters?”
He had already heard that this Black Market had been ruined. And that the bastards who raided the Black Market were the Martial Alliance’s Black Tortoise Squad.
Even if the Black Tortoise Squad went unappreciated within the Martial Alliance, the fact that they were an armed squad belonging to headquarters remained unchanged.
Swallowing hard, Na Jin-haeng read the mood of the man sitting in the seat of honor.
In the seat of honor, originally the post of the society leader, sat a man with his face concealed by a mask, his legs crossed.
He nodded his head casually.
“Yes.”
“…Then we will die.”
Na Jin-haeng spoke in a subservient tone. Behind him stood dozens of Unorthodox men, but before the man in front of his eyes, they were of no use whatsoever.
He did not know the man’s name. Nor his age, nor his appearance. However, only one thing: solely his moniker was widely known across this vast martial world.
The Shadowless Divine Thief.
The thief of the century, whom even the Sword King of the World’s Twenty-Seven Revered Ones, called martial artists of the heaven beyond heaven, could not catch.
It was even said that although the Zhuge Clan laid out formations in advance and waited upon request from a friendly merchant guild, they could not catch him.
Just how fast was his lightness art that the moniker ‘Shadowless’ was attached because he did not even leave behind a shadow?
Such a Shadowless Divine Thief looked straight into the eyes of the Xiangyang Society Leader. Xiangyang Society Leader Na Jin-haeng felt chilled inside.
If the other party put his mind to it, his head would fall before he could even register death.
“If you dislike it, it cannot be helped.”
When the Shadowless Divine Thief spoke as if disappointed, Na Jin-haeng breathed a sigh of relief inwardly. Though he feared the Shadowless Divine Thief, striking a martial squad of the Martial Alliance was tantamount to suicide.
It was then.
Bang!
At the sudden sonic boom, Na Jin-haeng’s eyes snapped wide open.
Upon the table between the Shadowless Divine Thief and himself, a short dagger had been lodged before he realized.
Far from following it with his eyes, he had not even seen the Shadowless Divine Thief move.
‘Fucking hell…’
Na Jin-haeng spat curses inwardly.
It was a blatant threat. It was an unfair disposition, an excessive command. In the first place, though grouped under the Unorthodox Path, the Shadowless Divine Thief was not of the underworld.
Why on earth would such a fellow suddenly come seeking him to cause trouble?
“Are you cursing in your head?”
“…N-No way.”
Na Jin-haeng felt a pang of guilt inside.
Chuckling softly, the Shadowless Divine Thief continued speaking.
“It seems you misunderstand something; I did not come to kill you, but to save you.”
“…Pardon?”
What kind of bullshit is this, fuck.
Of course, he swallowed the words only inwardly.
The Shadowless Divine Thief’s words continued.
“Do you know what item you sold at the Black Market?”
“Ornaments brought from the Western Regions, curved sabers imported from the Eastern Capital, several bolts of silk, and…”
“That silk is precisely the Treasure Map of the Three Eccentrics of the Righteous Path.”
“W-What!?”
In that instant, he was so shocked that he almost tumbled backward.
To speak of the Three Eccentrics of the Righteous Path.
As senior masters, they were people revered as heroes among heroes in the Righteous Path.
The Shadowless Divine Thief chuckled loudly.
“You know how the Martial Alliance regards those eccentrics, right? Whether you attack the Black Tortoise Squad or not, the moment they return to the Alliance, the Xiangyang Society will be designated a Public Enemy of the martial world. Occasionally among Unorthodox bastards there are those who take pride in becoming public enemies… Are you of that sort as well?”
“H-H-How could that be?”
The Shadowless Divine Thief also knew: although Xiangyang Society Leader Na Jin-haeng resided in the Unorthodox Path, he was a man far removed from the true Unorthodox Path.
A man who was contemptible, quick-witted, and considered his own life more important than anything.
Rolling his eyeballs here and there, Na Jin-haeng suddenly stood up from his chair and fell completely prostrate on the floor.
“My Lord! What should I do? Please save me!”
The Shadowless Divine Thief watched that sight expressionlessly.
How could it not differ even an inch from what Elder Zhuge Seong had said? From inside a small office, he predicted the movements of the Unorthodox bastards and the Martial Alliance bastards as if he had seen the future.
Perhaps he had foreseen this situation ever since trapping me in a formation previously and meekly letting me go.
‘Truly a terrifying man.’
In lightness art he had the confidence to beat anyone, but he had no way to beat someone who knew the future.
The Shadowless Divine Thief spoke softly.
“There is only one way for you bastards to live: strike the Black Tortoise Squad and take back the Treasure Map. I will handle what comes after.”
“Excuse me…”
Xiangyang Society Leader, who had his forehead pressed to the floor, raised his head slightly and gauged the Shadowless Divine Thief’s mood.
The Shadowless Divine Thief also realized what the fellow was curious about.
“Do not seek to know deeply. I will merely tell you that at least an eminent expert far higher than me is involved.”
The Xiangyang Society Leader swallowed hard. If it was a figure higher than the Shadowless Divine Thief, there were not that many even in the vast Jianghu.
One of the World’s Twenty-Seven Revered Ones, or someone approaching that caliber, was involved in this affair.
The Xiangyang Society Leader steeled his heart.
‘If I let my guard down even a little, I die.’
It was a situation where he was caught in a bizarre gale. If he lowered his tension even for a moment, he would be swept away in an instant and his whole body torn to shreds.
His wits, which had allowed him to survive in the rough Unorthodox Path until now with mere first-rate martial prowess, shone brightly once again.
Springing up from his seat, the society leader spoke to the Unorthodox men waiting behind in quite a solemn and tragic voice.
“You heard and know. This mission is an affair upon which our lives are staked. However, if we only succeed, the Xiangyang Society will grow incomparably beyond before. Even the Chang’an Unorthodox Path will not dare look down on us.”
Usually, the Xi’an Unorthodox Path of Shaanxi was considered the best. It was because the hometown of the Lord of the Black Overlord Castle, the foremost person of the Unorthodox Path in the present era, was there.
The Xi’an Unorthodox Path was rough in nature and relentless in handling affairs. Connected by tight bonds, they did not hesitate to lay down their lives for their companions.
Because of that, even the Martial Alliance displayed an extremely cautious attitude when dealing with the Xi’an Unorthodox Path.
The one that survived until now despite having such Xi’an Unorthodox Path right close by was the Chang’an Unorthodox Path, and that was the place the Xiangyang Society mainly traded with.
Of course, as a small-to-medium sect, the Xiangyang Society did nothing but crawl on its knees before the Chang’an Unorthodox Path. Far from negotiating each other’s demands, they simply had to nod their heads even while absorbing minor losses.
That such Chang’an Unorthodox Path could not look down on them? As an Unorthodox martial artist, just imagining it was something that made his heart swell.
Enthusiasm flashed in the eyes of the Xiangyang Society martial artists.
Staring at that sight, the Shadowless Divine Thief chuckled. It was because the back of the Xiangyang Society Leader, who ignited a fire in his subordinates’ hearts, was already that of a man fully prepared to flee.
“We strike the Black Tortoise Squad immediately.”
The Xiangyang Society Leader’s voice resonated low.
At the same time, the Unorthodox martial artists poured out of the office with solemn expressions.