An Unplanned Death (2)

“We’re here.”

At last, Ma-jil’s hand touched something hard. It was clearly the wall of an underground vault. If not that, there was no reason to build such a solid wall underground.

Thump.

Ma-jil raised Hard Metal True Qi and struck the wall forcefully. Perhaps because it was underground, although the wall was hard, it had not been made that thick. So a hole opened through it in one blow.

“We have to be careful. If we recklessly break the wall, that huge stone block we saw above might fall.”

Gongsun Gyeong-in’s words suddenly came from behind him. At that moment, Ma-jil stiffened completely. He had forgotten that.

That tremendous stone-block door, so heavy no human strength could lift it. If the wall weakened while they were stealing things inside and that stone block fell down, then no matter how much of a ghost he was at digging, his bones and flesh would be playing separately in an instant.

“Huuup!”

Ma-jil took one deep breath and moved his hands again. His hand movements were much more careful and gentle than before. He also changed his true qi back to Earth True Qi. It was not the time to stupidly punch holes with Hard Metal True Qi.

After some time passed and a hole large enough for a person to pass through was made, Ma-jil used Ihwa True Qi to make another fire bead, stretched his arm into the hole, and looked around. In that instant, something reflected the firelight and scattered an even more intense light.

“What is it?”

Ma-jil exclaimed without realizing it. The answer came from behind him.

“It seems to be gold, doesn’t it? When gold receives firelight in the dark, it often flashes like that.”

As Gongsun Gyeong-in spoke, his eyes were already gleaming with the sharp gaze of a thief. His professional instincts had activated.

“Let’s go in quickly.”

At Gongsun Gyeong-in’s urging, Ma-jil nodded and carefully entered. After he went fully inside and took a stable position, he made another fire bead and shone it in all directions.

“Wow! Even in my prime, I never saw a treasure storehouse of this scale.”

As Gongsun Gyeong-in said, what glittered in the firelight was gold. Whether they had scraped together every piece of gold in Cheonghae Province, it was absolutely not an amount that Ma-jil and Gongsun Gyeong-in could somehow carry out on their backs.

Unlike Gongsun Gyeong-in, who was shocked by the amount of piled-up gold, Ma-jil enlarged the fire bead, floated it in the air, and looked around with worried eyes in case the stone door might fall. He did not want to move away from the hole, so that he could jump back into the tunnel if necessary.

By contrast, Gongsun Gyeong-in touched various treasures and appraised their value, as if out of habit from his once-glorious days.

“Find what Big Brother told us to find first!”

Ma-jil shouted at Gongsun Gyeong-in, who was moving busily. Even shouting like that made him cautious. In a sealed space like this, even the echo of sound carried tremendous force.

“Understood.”

Gongsun Gyeong-in answered quickly, searched everywhere, and first gathered up everything made of paper. Even that amount was not small, filling one bundle he had brought.

“What should we do with all that gold?”

“Let’s just take the expensive things first.”

“If you mean expensive things, then we should mainly take jewels rather than gold. But if we want to prevent them from using it as military funds, shouldn’t we get rid of the gold first?”

“Hm? Why?”

“Isn’t gold the easiest to use? Jewels are easier to use only after changing them back into gold.”

“Is that so? But there’s too much gold. Can the two of us carry all this?”

“…”

There was no way they could carry it all. They did not have bundles to put all the gold in, and even if they did have bundles that could hold everything, the tunnel would need to be at least four times the size of the one they had dug now for them to carry it out.

“Should we just collapse it?”

“What?”

“We take only the expensive things, and bury the gold by collapsing that stone block. Then they won’t be able to use it right away, and later, once this rebellion is suppressed, we can dig it out again.”

Ma-jil had become much smarter. It certainly seemed that people had to suffer for their heads to start working. After thinking in his own way while caught between Neung Je-gang, Cheong Yeon, and Je So-yeon, had he not now gained a head capable of looking ahead?

“That sounds good.”

Gongsun Gyeong-in also thought that seemed best. If no one dug it out after the rebellion was suppressed, they could secretly pocket it later, could they not? Of course, for that, they would need Neung Je-gang’s permission.

“Let’s go. Come out quickly.”

Since it seemed Gongsun Gyeong-in had roughly gathered all the expensive things, Ma-jil urged him on. A lot of time had already passed. If they were any later, Neung Je-gang might try to kill them.

After Gongsun Gyeong-in slipped out through the hole, Ma-jil pondered for a moment. It was to calculate what he should do to make the stone block above collapse. If he did something rash, the shock might collapse the tunnel he had made. The stone was that large.

But while Ma-jil was pondering for that short time, something happened that made him nearly faint. The huge stone block in the ceiling began to move on its own.

Grrrrrrr.

“Huhk!”

Ma-jil nearly stopped breathing. If the stone had been falling downward, he would have said it was rather good. But that stone block was clearly rising upward. That meant someone Ma-jil and Gongsun Gyeong-in would have difficulty handling was lifting the stone block with internal power.

No matter how unusual an expert Ma-jil was, having learned three of the Five Element True Qis, he could not dare to attack an opponent with such transcendent internal power. Even Ma-jil’s tenacity, said to be unmatched in toughness, would be finished the moment he encountered such an opponent.

“T-this is bad.”

Ma-jil felt as if someone would leap down from above and cut off his neck at any moment. He was afraid. Anyone could not help but be afraid in a situation where they might die.

But even so, Ma-jil had his pride. He could not run away without even seeing the opponent’s shadow. His manly pride absolutely would not allow it.

Ma-jil hurriedly drew up his Ihwa True Qi. Soon, a huge fire bead formed in his hand.

“It’s do or die.”

From Ma-jil’s standpoint, it was now life or death. The moment someone leaped down from above, he intended to inflict as much damage as possible on the opponent and run away.

The fire bead quickly swelled in size. It was probably the largest fireball he had made since learning Ihwa True Qi. He poured all his strength into it without leaving even a handful of true qi behind. The fireball blazed so fiercely that the gold in the underground treasure storehouse began to melt and run down.

Grrrrrrr.

The stone block that had been rising was pushed aside, and light leaked from the ceiling.

Soon, someone would jump down. A shadow that seemed to be a person’s figure flickered between the light.

Ma-jil formed a fishy smile and let the fire bead leave his hand.

“Kikikik!”

Whoever the opponent was, they would suffer quite a bit from the explosion of the fire bead he had created and thrown with all his might.

Ma-jil quickly retreated backward and collapsed the tunnel in preparation for the explosion. Then he turned around and hurriedly crawled away. It was probably the moment in Ma-jil’s life when he crawled through a tunnel the fastest.

Kugung, rumble.

Just as he was almost out of the tunnel, he heard the sound of the fire bead exploding. Its power was so great that the buildings of the Governor’s Office shook as if they would soon collapse.

When he came outside, Gongsun Gyeong-in was waiting for him while holding his breath. When he saw Ma-jil, he quickly came over and asked.

“What was that?”

“There’s no time to tell you now. The enemy might chase us. Run quickly!”

Then Ma-jil kicked off the ground and began to run. Gongsun Gyeong-in also quickly chased after Ma-jil. Gongsun Gyeong-in soon overtook Ma-jil. It was because he realized that if he followed behind Ma-jil, he would be covered in dust.

They climbed over the wall and slipped into the bamboo grove. Fortunately, there were no enemies chasing them.

“Let’s send the signal and go back.”

“What about the Captain?”

“He probably already went back. Otherwise, the enemy wouldn’t have opened the warehouse door.”

“Then isn’t there no need to send the signal?”

“But if we just go back without sending the signal, the Captain will probably try to kill us.”

“What?”

“We have to leave proof that we did the work assigned to us properly. Without that, do you think the Captain will forgive us for being this late?”

“If the Captain went back first, then there’s no one there, so doesn’t it not matter whether we shoot the signal or not?”

“Huh! Haven’t you heard the rumors about our Captain? When people say ‘that vicious bastard of Beijing,’ he’s someone even corpses dead for several years tremble at. Do you think the Captain is the kind of person who considers circumstances like that? Whether we’re right or wrong, the Captain is the one who judges it. We just have to do what the Captain told us to do. If we act on our own for no reason, the aftermath won’t be good.”

“Was the Captain that kind of person?”

Gongsun Gyeong-in thought back to Neung Je-gang when he had met him. The atmosphere of the person Ma-jil was talking about and Neung Je-gang did not match at all.

It was hard to believe, but for now, he decided to follow Ma-jil’s opinion. In any case, it was the opinion of a senior in the Eastern Depot whom he had now come to respect, and he could understand that Neung Je-gang’s true appearance might differ from what he had seen.

Were humans not beings who lived while wearing several false shells in the first place? In the life he had lived, it was not as if he had seen only one or two humans whose outsides and insides were different. And more than anyone, had he not lived wearing a shell others did not know about? Though now, everything had been exposed.

The two fired the signal and quickly launched themselves away, disappearing into the darkness. Their figures were soon hidden by the dark.

Ma-jil and Gongsun Gyeong-in appeared at the Ming imperial army camp not long after. They revealed their identities, entered the camp, and stepped into the Eastern Depot encampment where people were waiting.

At the encampment, everyone had gathered without a single person missing, waiting only for them to return.

They ran to Princess Jang-ok, the highest-ranking person present, prostrated themselves, and made their report.

“Oh, so how did it go?”

At Princess Jang-ok’s question, Gongsun Gyeong-in and Ma-jil each untied one of the bundles they had been carrying. The people around them were startled by the dazzling treasure light. Even in their eyes, these were no ordinary precious treasures.

“But what happened to the Deputy Commissioner?”

Princess Jang-ok asked Ma-jil with a serious expression.

“Yes?”

Ma-jil instead became bewildered and, rudely, raised his head and looked at Princess Jang-ok. The moment he received the gazes of the Eorim Institute experts standing around the princess, he hurriedly lowered his head again.

“Raise your head. And answer me. Why has the Deputy Commissioner not come?”

Princess Jang-ok urged him. Ma-jil cautiously raised his head. If the princess told him to raise it, what else could he do?

“Uh, has the Captain not come yet? Then what happened? We thought the Captain had returned first, so we came straight here.”

At Ma-jil’s answer, the complexions of Princess Jang-ok and everyone around her turned serious. Since Neung Je-gang had made himself bait, the fact that he had not returned made everyone’s hearts uneasy.

Goooooo.

It was that moment. From the direction of the Seon-yeong Governor’s Office in the distance, a loud roar sounded, and a single blue streak of light flew toward the imperial army camp as if shot. It was difficult to see it as human. If it were human, it would not be able to fly like that without setting foot on the ground.

The blue streak of light immediately crossed over the camp’s wooden fence and flew into the Eastern Depot encampment.

“Stop it!”

Chachachang.

As the blue streak of light came closer, it began to look human. If it was an enemy, it looked so strong that they would have difficulty handling it. If so, Princess Jang-ok was in danger. The Eastern Depot fell into chaos. They all drew their weapons and hardened their resolve to protect Princess Jang-ok.

Around Princess Jang-ok, the Eorim Institute and the Eastern Depot elite agents, including Cheong Yeon, formed a human wall.

But then one sentence made everyone feel empty.

“Ma-jil! You bastard, you’re dead!”

It was the voice of Neung Je-gang, whom everyone had been waiting for. The blue streak of light was Neung Je-gang grinding his teeth.

Everyone was bewildered. The voice was Neung Je-gang’s, but the person who appeared before them was not Neung Je-gang.

Neung Je-gang still had long hair flowing with a glossy sheen, but the person who appeared had blackened skin and curly hair like rolled noodles. Though he was wearing Central Plains clothing, smoke was rising from here and there on it as well.

“Isn’t that one of those demon-men said to live in the West?”

Someone muttered that. There was a widely spread rumor that somewhere in that distant West lived people with skin as black as ink, and the person who appeared looked exactly like the appearance of those demon-men they had only heard about.

However, Cheong Yeon and the close aides who knew Neung Je-gang’s voice precisely recognized Neung Je-gang at a glance. Even if his face had turned black and his hair had become curly, his features had not changed.

The people around Neung Je-gang, including Cheong Yeon, looked puzzled, wondering what mistake Ma-jil had made this time. It was probably definitely connected to why Neung Je-gang had ended up looking like that.

Their curiosity was quickly resolved by Neung Je-gang.

“Ma-jil, you bastard! You threw a fireball and ran away so I’d die? Fine, let’s try dying together today.”

Ma-jil’s face instantly turned pale.

Ma-jil had never expected that the person who had lifted that stone block would be Neung Je-gang. If he had known, how could he ever have dared to even think of doing such a thing? Was Ma-jil not the one who knew better than anyone what kind of existence Neung Je-gang was?

“C-Captain, that’s not it.”

“Whether it’s it or not, let’s talk after you get hit first.”

Neung Je-gang must have truly been furious, because even though he was in front of Princess Jang-ok, he grabbed Ma-jil by the collar and flew up into the sky.

“Kkweeeek! Kueeeok! Someone save me! Kihaaaek!”

All through that night, no one in the imperial army camp could sleep because of the sound of a pig being slaughtered. Thus passed that day, which had been endlessly miserable only for Ma-jil.