The Price Of A Misjudgment (3)

“Gather the kids from the branch.”

Choe Hyeon ordered the beggars beside him.

“Yes?”

“Shouldn’t we help the Eon Clan?”

“Ah… understood.”

The Jinju Eon Clan was a righteous sect affiliated with the Martial Alliance. The Beggar’s Sect was also part of the Martial Alliance. Even setting that aside, if they were to stop someone using the forbidden art Heaven-Shattering Thunderbolt Sovereign, they had to pool their strength. From the martial world’s standpoint, this was facing a common enemy.

The Beggar’s Sect’s strength came from its numbers. It wasn’t that they lacked peak martial arts or top experts, but compared to their overall headcount, such individuals were few.

But if you counted first-rate experts, their numbers were so overwhelming that no faction in the Central Plains could even compare. That was the Beggar’s Sect’s real power.

Cheongpung was close to Kaifeng, where the main headquarters stood, so it had more first-rate experts than other branches.

The beggars soon swarmed in like a tide. In an instant, the air around Choe Hyeon changed. Since beggars rarely washed, the stench rising from their bodies fouled even the air itself.

“Tch—filthy bastards!”

Choe Hyeon frowned at the mob, then turned his eyes back to the battlefield. If you wanted to wedge yourself into the fray, you had to read the room. Charging in blindly and getting swept along was foolish. If they joined only when the Jinju Eon Clan was clearly being pushed back, they could “save” them and later claim proper credit.

“Ghk!”

But Choe Hyeon’s expression quickly darkened. From Neung Je-gang’s sword—whom he had assumed was nothing special without Heaven-Shattering Thunderbolt Sovereign—a chillingly blue sword aura rose.

“Aaagh!”

“Guhk!”

One strike, one kill!

No one dodged the blade. No—they didn’t even try.

“Have they lost their minds?”

Choe Hyeon couldn’t understand it. Even from far away, it was unmistakably sword aura. Yet the Eon Clan’s experts were throwing themselves into it. They were flailing as if trying to die.

“Don’t we have to help them?”

Not knowing the situation, one of the little beggar brats beside him muttered.

Tap.

“Do you want to kill all the beggar brats? Can’t you see that? Sword aura’s flying everywhere—do you want to rush in to ‘help’ and get everyone beheaded?”

Choe Hyeon said, smacking the muttering beggar.

“Ah, why hit me—couldn’t you just say it?”

“Huh? Right, you weren’t my disciple. Sorry.”

Choe Hyeon had grown so used to hitting Ye Mong that it had become a reflex. Every so often, he made mistakes like this.

Tap.

“Now that I think about it, it pisses me off. Can’t a branch master smack an impudent beggar brat?”

He quickly hit him once more anyway, then glared at the muttering beggar in a threatening way. After that, he turned back toward the fierce battleground and shouted.

“Our job is to stop the fight. So go out there and make as much noise as you can. One of you—run to the yamen and report it. This happened on a crowded pier, so there’s no dodging the authorities’ eyes. Shout, shout! Make it so loud the fight stops.”

At Choe Hyeon’s words, one beggar sprinted toward the yamen, while the rest stampeded toward the pier in a roaring mass, banging their begging bowls against their tapping staffs.

Their numbers were truly nothing to scoff at, and watching them made Choe Hyeon feel pleased.

“Don’t jump into the fight. Just surround it and keep shouting, that’s all!”

Choe Hyeon shouted again. If some fool beggar blundered in and got his neck cleanly chopped by sword aura, it would be a disaster. The Eon Clan’s fight could turn into the Beggar’s Sect’s fight.

Seeing the beggars pouring out, Neung Je-gang halted his offensive. From his perspective, the Beggar’s Sect was an annoying group to provoke.

In the martial world, there were many times you had to rely on the Beggar’s Sect’s information network. And if the Beggar’s Sect personally moved to cut off information, then even with the Eastern Depot at his disposal, things would inevitably become suffocating.

Since he needed to go to Kaifeng immediately and learn about Dam Ja-cheon and Dam Yeo-yeong, he had to stop his hand.

But neither the Eon Clan nor the Beggar’s Sect’s beggars understood his circumstances.

“Uwegh—!”

Some beggars, who hadn’t realized it from afar, reached the blood-reeking scene and started retching. Training in martial arts and having a strong stomach were two completely separate things.

“Don’t stop.”

The Cheon-gang Unit restarted the fight they had paused after seeing the Beggar’s Sect’s beggars. Thick streams of tears rolled down the eyes of the man giving the attack orders. It made him miserable to drive comrades—family—toward death. He even felt a curse rise in his heart toward Eon Cheong-gun, who had forced death on them for the sake of a clan that had begun this unwinnable fight, and toward the late Eon Jo-seong who had started it.

“Aaagh!”

Was dying with a scream the happier way to go? Some Cheon-gang members had their throats cut and died without even being able to cry out.

Neung Je-gang, who had tried to stop, had no choice but to draw the Mindless Sword again. If this was a fight that would only end with everyone dead, he had no reason to avoid it.

In the end, just as intended, the Cheon-gang Unit—raised as the Jinju Eon Clan’s proudest masterpiece—was wiped out on its very first debut into the martial world.

“T-this can’t be…!”

Choe Hyeon hadn’t expected the fighting to continue even after the Beggar’s Sect revealed itself.

“Y-you bastard! Such a heaven-defying—!”

Choe Hyeon’s body and face trembled. He looked as if he might order the beggars to attack Neung Je-gang at any moment.

“You came from the Beggar’s Sect. It’s good to meet you. I was actually on my way to the main headquarters in Kaifeng, so please guide me.”

Neung Je-gang sheathed the Mindless Sword and greeted Choe Hyeon with a clasped-fist salute. He understood perfectly why Choe Hyeon was furious, so he spoke first. He had no intention of picking an unnecessary fight with the Beggar’s Sect.

“Ahem! You’re saying you’re headed to our sect’s main headquarters?”

Choe Hyeon was quite old. By appearances, he looked around the same age as Elder Shingae, which was why his nickname had been changed to Long-Lived Beggar.

From Choe Hyeon’s standpoint, he could have spoken informally to Neung Je-gang.

But after seeing Neung Je-gang’s overwhelming martial prowess and his merciless killing intent, he couldn’t speak carelessly. And once Neung Je-gang said he was going to the Beggar’s Sect’s main headquarters, Choe Hyeon also couldn’t order an attack. Since Neung Je-gang had brought it up first, Neung Je-gang was now a guest of the Beggar’s Sect.

“That’s right. I’m trying to meet Elder Shingae, but where is he…?”

“Shingae? You mean you’re trying to meet the elder?”

“That’s right. I had a prior commission…”

“A commission? But Elder Shingae hasn’t involved himself in sect affairs for a long time—wait. That commission… was it about finding someone?”

Choe Hyeon suddenly remembered something and hurriedly asked. He recalled the last “order” that wasn’t quite an order that Shingae had passed down.

“That’s right. I commissioned the search for Dam Ja-cheon and Dam Yeo-yeong, father and daughter. I’m going to the main headquarters to learn the result.”

“Then you’re Secret Shadow?”

Choe Hyeon remembered the message Shingae had sent—telling them to find someone on Secret Shadow’s commission. It was something he’d erased from his mind long ago, but he managed to dredge it up.

“I am Secret Shadow.”

“My, my… But how did you end up fighting the Jinju Eon Clan…?”

Choe Hyeon couldn’t make sense of it. The Beggar’s Sect couldn’t possibly be unaware of Secret Shadow—of Neung Je-gang’s deeds and achievements over the last several years. Hadn’t he only recently stopped treason in Beijing?

It had been an “official” matter, but the Necromancer Cult had been involved, so even the Beggar’s Sect couldn’t pretend not to know.

So why was a man like that fighting one of the righteous factions, the Jinju Eon Clan, here?

And what about the Heaven-Shattering Thunderbolt Sovereign Ye Mong had mentioned?

There were too many questions. He didn’t even know what to ask first.

“You bastard!”

Just then, a furious roar reached their ears.

Neung Je-gang and Choe Hyeon both turned their eyes—and ears—toward it.

Cheong Yeon and Eon Cheong-gun’s fight had reached its peak. Overall, the tide looked tilted toward Eon Cheong-gun.

It had to be. Eon Cheong-gun was pressuring Cheong Yeon while fully executing the Jade-Hand Art. Cheong Yeon’s early quick footwork was nowhere to be seen; he was barely holding off Eon Cheong-gun’s assault. He was clearly poisoned again by the Jade-Hand Art’s yin toxin.

“Ghk! Jade-Hand Art?”

Only then did Choe Hyeon recognize the martial art Eon Cheong-gun was using. A technique that could elevate the Jinju Eon Clan to the level of the Five Great Families had resurfaced in the present day.

“I’m getting shocked again and again today.”

Choe Hyeon shook his head and watched their duel.

But for some reason, Neung Je-gang looked as if he had no intention of helping Cheong Yeon this time. He simply stood there with his arms folded, as if he had no intention of moving at all.

“You won’t help?”

Choe Hyeon spoke to Neung Je-gang. It was clearly Neung Je-gang’s companion who was being pressed, yet Neung Je-gang looked far too calm.

“He won’t go down that easily.”

“But the Jade-Hand Art’s yin toxin is dangerous…”

“He’s already experienced being hit once by the yin toxin from Gangsi Art. If it truly becomes dangerous, he’ll avoid it on his own.”

“Gangsi Art? Gangsi Art?”

Choe Hyeon looked baffled. He hadn’t known the Cheon-gang Unit had cultivated Gangsi Art—because they had all died before he could find out.

“You didn’t know? They were the Cheon-gang Unit, a combat group the Eon Clan created with all its effort. They all cultivated Gangsi Art, so blades couldn’t pierce them.”

Neung Je-gang pointed at the corpses.

“Don’t tell me…”

“It seems the Beggar’s Sect didn’t know. But the Eon Clan doesn’t have only the Cheon-gang Unit.”

“Then there’s something else as well?”

“Can’t you guess from the name? When there’s a Cheon-gang Unit, something usually follows.”

“Don’t tell me… the Ji-sal Unit?”

Choe Hyeon shouted in shock.

Neung Je-gang only smiled faintly. Letting the Beggar’s Sect in on information it didn’t have was, in a way, a debt repaid. It would all be useful later.

Clang, clang.

Cheong Yeon blocked Eon Cheong-gun’s Jade-Hand Art with his sword and retreated. His strength was steadily draining, and his hands and feet began to tremble. Because he was splitting his inner power to drive out the yin toxin that had seeped inside him, he couldn’t even grip his sword properly.

Unless you could split your mind in two, few people could do two things at once. Cheong Yeon didn’t have that kind of abnormal talent.

Hrk.

A lump of blood surged up over his throat.

Heh.

A rare smile appeared on Cheong Yeon’s face. Most of the yin toxin that had seeped into his body had been expelled along with the congealed blood that rose into his throat. With his body lightened, strength returned to the hand holding his sword.

Shh, shh, shh.

Cheong Yeon tried, as much as possible, not to let Eon Cheong-gun’s hand and sword clash directly with his own blade. He had already experienced that the Jade-Hand Art’s yin toxin seeped into his body through such impacts.

So after spitting blood, he immediately retreated. Even with strength returning, he did not rush in recklessly.

“He’s a public enemy of the martial world who mastered Heaven-Shattering Thunderbolt Sovereign. So what is the Beggar’s Sect doing right now?”

Eon Cheong-gun had thought it was over the moment the Beggar’s Sect appeared. The two men who had killed Eon Jo-seong would become public enemies and be captured, and the Eon Clan would be praised as a hot-blooded clan that had prevented a coming blood calamity in advance.

But what was this? The Beggar’s Sect people were pretending not to see the criminals standing right in front of them. Even after every living member of the Cheon-gang Unit had been driven to death, the Beggar’s Sect did not move.

“Chaat!”

Eon Cheong-gun didn’t get to hear Choe Hyeon’s answer. The instant Eon Cheong-gun opened his mouth, Cheong Yeon—who had retreated—charged in fiercely, seizing the moment.

Martial arts could leap forward all at once when a special trigger occurred. That was exactly what was happening to Cheong Yeon now. The inner power that had fought and defeated the yin toxin had become stronger.

After barely surviving a life-threatening moment, his control of internal energy advanced without him even realizing it, and as a result, the power he poured into his sword rose by an entire step.

Wooo-woong.

Ever since Neung Je-gang had advised him on the fast sword style that suited his nature, Cheong Yeon’s blade had improved by leaps and bounds, but it had always stopped at the step just before sword aura.

After today’s battle, that wall shattered.

Paaak!

No matter how extraordinary the Jade-Hand Art was, flesh was still only flesh woven from cloth and meat. It did not possess the strength to withstand true force.

Wooo-woong.

Eon Cheong-gun tried, as he had until now, to defend with the Jade-Hand Art—then he saw the sword aura erupt from Cheong Yeon’s blade like an explosion and recoiled in shock. He hurriedly flung himself backward, but he could not overcome the increased reach of the sword lengthened by sword aura.

“Urgh!”

Blood burst out. One of his forearms—tempered by the Jade-Hand Art—was severed by more than half.

Just as Eon Cheong-gun was stunned by Cheong Yeon’s suddenly unleashed sword aura, Cheong Yeon himself was also shocked by his own sword aura.

“Ah—!”

In that instant, the unintended sword aura vanished like snow melting away.

That only made Cheong Yeon panic more. After finally grasping the edge of true force, how could it disappear so emptily?

Seeing Cheong Yeon’s flustered expression, Neung Je-gang smiled faintly. Once you had walked a path once, it was easier to walk it again. Having used sword aura even once, bringing it forth again would not be so difficult.

“Die!”

And then, in that very moment, someone everyone had forgotten suddenly attacked Cheong Yeon.

The assault was so unexpected that Cheong Yeon couldn’t raise his inner power in time and had to face it completely unguarded.

Eon Cheong-gun was seething with injustice. A man who had been clearly a step below him had just used sword aura.

So he sent a voice-transmission to Paeng Do-wi, who had been standing blankly off to the side, pressing down on him mentally.

‘Do you truly want the Eon Clan and the Paeng Clan to become enemies?’

Paeng Do-wi could not escape moral responsibility. After all, the spark had started with him and the Paeng Clan. If he had never brought Eon Jo-seong there, none of this would have happened.

So the moment he heard Eon Cheong-gun’s voice-transmission, he decided to finally fulfill the responsibility he had been postponing.

Of course, deep down, he also believed that whether the ambush succeeded or failed, the Beggar’s Sect would not simply stand by and watch him fall into danger.

“Stop!”

“Do-wi! You bastard—stop!”

Neung Je-gang launched himself forward.

Paeng Do-wi knew his ambush had succeeded. Now the master who had cut down Eon Jo-seong in a single stroke would die by his blade.

But in that moment, his older brother Paeng Do-gyeong’s voice rang out.

‘Stop? Why?’

At his brother’s voice, Paeng Do-wi’s blade slowed by the tiniest margin.

And that sliver of difference saved Cheong Yeon’s life.

Clang!

Paeng Do-wi’s massive saber bit into Cheong Yeon’s shoulder, but it failed to take his life. Neung Je-gang’s hand—already beside Cheong Yeon—smacked the saber away.

Pshh!

Blood spurted from Cheong Yeon’s shoulder. It wasn’t fatal, but it was severe enough that it would take a long time to fully heal.

Neung Je-gang quickly stopped the bleeding, then glared at Paeng Do-wi with an icy expression.

He didn’t think ambushes were inherently wrong. Neung Je-gang didn’t hold the old-fashioned belief that one must always fight “fairly” like the righteous sects did.

But he couldn’t help being furious simply because Cheong Yeon had been hurt.

“You…”

“Please forgive my foolish younger brother’s mistake.”

At that instant, a figure came flying in over the curtain of Beggar’s Sect members surrounding them. As he swooped down beside Neung Je-gang and Paeng Do-wi, he shouted those words to Neung Je-gang.

“Brother!”

Paeng Do-wi’s face lit with relief at Paeng Do-gyeong’s arrival. The anxiety in his heart settled.

Smack.

But what he received was Paeng Do-gyeong’s cold palm across the cheek. Paeng Do-wi stared, dumbfounded.

“Do you even know what you just did?”

Paeng Do-gyeong snapped as he looked at his brother’s stupid expression.

“Brother, why—?”

“Shut up, you bastard! Waving a blade around like that…!”

Paeng Do-gyeong scolded Paeng Do-wi first, then turned back to Neung Je-gang.

“I am Paeng Do-gyeong of the Paeng Clan. I offer my deepest apologies for my younger brother’s wrongdoing.”

There was a saying that you couldn’t spit on a smiling face. When Paeng Do-gyeong admitted fault first and bowed his head, Neung Je-gang couldn’t bring himself to explode in anger.

“You’re Secret Shadow, aren’t you? I’ve heard plenty about what happened in Beijing not long ago.”

“I am Secret Shadow. But isn’t the Paeng Clan acting together with the Eon Clan?”

Paeng Do-gyeong practically jumped. He tried hard to show with his whole body that they had nothing to do with the Eon Clan.

To Paeng Do-wi, who hadn’t understood what was going on, it was enough to make his brother look insane.

But the moment he heard the sobriquet Secret Shadow, his face turned genuinely shocked.

“No. How would we dare interfere in the Eastern Depot’s affairs? It’s true we weren’t entirely without ties to the Eon Clan, but since they laid hands on you two, the Paeng Clan has no intention of involving itself in this matter. Only, my foolish younger brother wounded your companion, so we will accept whatever punishment is due for that.”

Even though the Paeng Clan was a recognized prestigious house, having its man come out this humbly made it awkward to respond to.

“It’s fine. He doesn’t look like he’ll die, and fortunately his bones and sinews weren’t damaged. It’s a matter that will be solved once the wound heals.”

“Is that so? Whew… thank goodness.”

Only then did Paeng Do-wi understand why his brother had lowered himself so much.

Before leaving Beijing, he too had heard rumors about Neung Je-gang. If so, then the man injured by his blade was almost certainly tied to the Eastern Depot.

Even if they said it was “no problem” now, there was no guarantee there would be no consequences later.

If they became enemies with the Eastern Depot, his clan would no longer be able to hold its head up in Beijing.

‘Because of that old man…’

Paeng Do-wi glared at Eon Cheong-gun with resentment. If Eon Cheong-gun hadn’t sent that voice-transmission, he never would have swung his blade.

But the truly absurd one was Eon Cheong-gun.

Rather than avenging Eon Jo-seong, he had driven every member of the Cheon-gang Unit into death to revive the clan—by “discovering” a public enemy of the martial world and gaining the pretext that they had suffered harm.

And now, out of nowhere: Secret Shadow. The Eastern Depot.

What kind of nonsense was this?

The Eastern Depot represented the authorities, so he couldn’t suppress Neung Je-gang—who belonged to it—with a chain like “public enemy of the martial world.”

“H-heuk…!”

Eon Cheong-gun clutched the back of his neck and toppled backward.

With a single moment of misjudgment, he had wiped out half the martial force his clan possessed—overnight.