The Aftermath Of Extermination (4)

After arriving in Beijing, the party had little to do. The Eastern Depot was fully occupied with cleaning up the aftermath of the war, yet only Neung Je-gang’s party had nothing to do. That was only natural. The Eastern Depot’s Deputy Commissioner was originally an honorary position in name only, so there had never been any assigned work in the first place.

“This is boring.”

“Shouldn’t we hurry back?”

Cheong Yeon grumbled at Neung Je-gang, who was bored. Cheong Yeon had been feeling stifled lately. The sword aura he had manifested once still showed no sign of appearing again, so he was going mad.

“If you want to go outside, then do that. Don’t just sit inside for no reason and take your temper out on people.”

“Are you not feeling stifled, Captain?”

“They say His Majesty may call for me soon. What if I go outside and end up causing some incident?”

“Then I will at least go out for a while.”

Cheong Yeon finally went outside. But suddenly, Neung Je-gang called out to him.

“If you see Ma-jil on the way, tell him to come here.”

“Yes.”

A short while later, Ma-jil approached, sweat streaming down his body. It seemed he had been practicing at the training ground in the meantime. In fact, lately, Ma-jil had been learning thieving arts from Gongsun Gyeong-in.

“I was learning really well, so why did you call me?”

Ma-jil grumbled. It seemed he still had not been beaten enough. But now even hitting him was bothersome. The more he was hit, the more insolent he became. Neung Je-gang would have to consider making him stand as punishment like in the old days.

“Go out and call Gongsun Gyeong-in.”

“Got it.”

Ma-jil went out and returned with Gongsun Gyeong-in, who was also sweating.

“You called for me?”

“Go to the Capture Bureau and see if any interesting cases have come in.”

“Interesting cases? That is, um…, what kind of cases would be interesting……?”

“Difficult cases. Cases that seem to involve martial artists. If there aren’t any, just come back.”

“Yes. Understood.”

Gongsun Gyeong-in immediately ran out. It was the moment he finally encountered his first case in Beijing as a member of the Eastern Depot. The former Divine Thief Hands, that was.

“Captain, what should I do?”

Ma-jil asked.

“You? Go and keep practicing. But why are you trying to learn thievery, of all things?”

“It’s fun. Hehe!”

“You…, by any chance, women’s…, no, surely you wouldn’t do something like that. Get out.”

“Got it, Captain.”

Ma-jil quickly went outside. He ran straight to the training ground, then let out a great sigh.

“Hwaa! I thought he had found out. Anyway, his instincts are ghostlike.”

Ma-jil had set his goal on learning pickpocketing techniques and stealing women’s undergarments. Of course, he had chosen Je So-yeon as his first target. He did so while chewing over his grudge against her for treating him even more painfully when he had already been hurt from being beaten by Neung Je-gang.

“I have returned. However, there were no cases that seemed likely to suit your taste. There was only one strange case…….”

“A strange case? What is it?”

“It is a missing-person case. Over the past half year, an unusually large number of maidens have gone missing.”

“Maidens? From where?”

It was said that when a maiden fell in love, she would rush in without regard for fire or water, but the fact that many had gone missing felt somehow strange.

“They are evenly spread throughout Hebei Province.”

“How many cases?”

“Only counting the missing-person reports that were filed, there are more than two hundred.”

“What? Two hundred!”

Neung Je-gang sprang to his feet. If there were two hundred cases, then this could not be called mere disappearances.

“What about Beijing? Are there any disappearances in Beijing too?”

“There are none in Beijing. That is quite strange.”

“Then this means they are avoiding official intervention. A map. Bring me a map. I need a detailed map of Hebei Province.”

“Understood.”

Gongsun Gyeong-in ran out again.

If an incident occurred in Beijing, the Eastern Depot would investigate it as a priority. That was why they had neatly excluded Beijing.

“This was done systematically. If there are two hundred victims, then this is an enormous organization. And if no trace has been discovered until now, that also means they have transportation. Who is it? Who would dare do something like this?”

Neung Je-gang turned the matter over in his mind and thought about organizations that might do such a thing.

“Ordinary underworld groups would not dare do this. Unless an underworld organization that covered all of Hebei Province appeared, anyway. Then is it a force of the martial world? I need to find out whether similar disappearances have occurred in other provinces too.”

Gongsun Gyeong-in returned with a large map. It showed the terrain of Beijing and Hebei Province in detail. However, no matter how one looked at it, this was a military map.

“This isn’t one of our Eastern Depot maps.”

“Yes. The Capture Bureau did not have a map of Hebei Province.”

“Then you should have gone to the Field Agents Bureau. They would have everything there. Where did you bring this from?”

“I brought it from the Brocade Guard.”

“They gave you a map without saying anything?”

The Brocade Guard and the Eastern Depot were sworn enemies. Each insisted that they were superior. Those who held power were generally like this. They quarreled and bickered with one another to gain even the slightest bit more.

“I just carried it out.”

“When no one was there?”

“Yes.”

“Good grief, you little—haah! Since this is urgent, I will forgive you just this once. From next time on, do not steal government property if possible. Understand?”

“Yes, sir!”

Gongsun Gyeong-in answered loudly. In any case, he had understood it to mean that stealing was fine as long as it was not government property.

“Then mark the villages where the maidens disappeared with dots on the map.”

Gongsun Gyeong-in looked at the missing-person list and marked the map one by one. After he had placed all the more than two hundred dots, Gongsun Gyeong-in looked at the map and wore a startled expression.

“Can you see what is in the center of this?”

The dots on the map had a consistent distribution, but strangely, the very center was empty. And that center was none other than…….

“The Jinju Eon Clan is here.”

Gongsun Gyeong-in answered. That was exactly it. To conceal their own involvement, the Jinju Eon Clan had kidnapped maidens from a certain distance away from the Eon Clan estate. Once the dots were placed on the map like this, it was revealed clearly.

“Something connected to the Eon Clan and able to transport people without seeming suspicious would be undertakers. If they transport them inside coffins, no one would know. Contact the Capture Bureau now and tell them to arrest every undertaker in Hebei. Especially in places where people have gone missing, do not omit a single one.”

“Understood.”

Gongsun Gyeong-in ran out excitedly. It was the Jinju Eon Clan. If things went well, they might even be able to loot the Jinju Eon Clan’s storehouses, just as they had during the previous Cheonghae rebellion.

A short while later, Cheong Yeon entered.

“Captain, it seems something has happened. Warriors from the Capture Bureau were deploying in a hurry.”

“We have somewhere to go as well.”

“Where do you mean?”

“The Jinju Eon Clan. This time, I will turn them into a ruined house completely. Without leaving a single thing behind.”

What they would do after kidnapping maidens was obvious. The story surrounding the Jinju Eon Clan and the Small-Hand Art was secret, but those who knew roughly knew.

“The Eon Clan? Why there all of a sudden?”

“It seems they are cultivating the Small-Hand Art there. And on an enormous scale, at that.”

Two hundred missing people. That was only the number that had been revealed, so there was no telling how many there would be if the hidden cases were included. Those who had committed such deeds, outrageous enough to enrage heaven and man, could not simply be left alive. It could not be compared to Kunlun creating two million Necromancer Cultists, but whether it was two million people or two hundred people, the fact that innocent people had been killed was the same.

“Cheong Yeon!”

“Yes.”

“Go to the Field Agents Bureau and have this news conveyed to the Martial Alliance and the Black Alliance. Tell them that numerous cultivators of the Jinju Eon Clan’s Small-Hand Art have appeared. Then they will move to confirm whether the intelligence is true. As soon as they confirm the contents of the report, we will destroy the Jinju Eon Clan.”

“Understood.”

No matter how capable Neung Je-gang was, he could not destroy a martial clan as he pleased. If he did, regardless of being the Eastern Depot’s Deputy Commissioner or anything else, he would truly become a public enemy. Therefore, he had to show evidence that the entire martial world could accept. Only after that could he reduce the Jinju Eon Clan to ruins, just as he had smashed Kunlun.

“This is a grave matter. They say all the undertakers in Hebei Province are currently being dragged into the Eastern Depot.”

The expressions of the clan elders gathered in the Jinju Eon Clan’s main hall were thoroughly crumpled. What they had hoped would not happen had happened.

“Where did the information leak from?”

Eon Cheong-gun asked as though dumbfounded. They had poured their hearts into ensuring that the secret would not leak, yet to think the Eastern Depot would arrest the undertakers. Of course, it did not seem that the Eastern Depot had sniffed something out yet, but he was uneasy.

“We cannot know that.”

Naturally, they could not know. It was something Neung Je-gang and Gongsun Gyeong-in had figured out.

“They probably do not know yet that we are behind it. Our children are not loose-lipped either. They will probably protect the secret with their lives.”

One elder spoke in a solemn tone. But Eon Cheong-gun and the other elders all looked at him with pathetic eyes.

“Why?”

“Who in the world could be behind the undertakers other than our clan? Do you think they will not know just because no one confesses? They may already be watching the clan estate.”

Eon Cheong-gun shouted sharply.

“Perhaps this may have turned out well. Let us show our might on this occasion. If the Eastern Depot comes, we crush the Eastern Depot. If the Martial Alliance comes, we crush the Martial Alliance. Is that not all there is to it?”

Another elder shouted. If they had been discovered anyway, that was indeed the only option. However, it was still uncertain whether they had been discovered or not. It would not be too late to move after seeing the result.

“Elder, to what level have you cultivated it now?”

“Er…, the third level…….”

“Are you saying we should fight after only cultivating that much? Do not think of leaving everything to the children, and you elders should also train harder in the Small-Hand Art. Do you understand?”

As though frustrated, Eon Cheong-gun struck his own chest and shouted.

“Nothing is certain yet. Keep the children under tight control, and let us hold off on obtaining maidens for a while.”

“Then the children cultivating it through the accelerated method will become agitated.”

“There is nothing we can do. Among the servant girls within the clan estate, use the maidens for the time being.”

“Those children are like family…….”

“They are like family, not family. Do not be bound by sentiment for no reason. Because you keep having such feelings, your acquisition of the Small-Hand Art is delayed.”

At Eon Cheong-gun’s words, the elders had nothing to say. In truth, they were already too old to learn a new martial art. That was why they had merely been pretending to learn it halfheartedly.

Neung Je-gang wanted to go to Jinju as soon as possible and investigate personally. He had informed the Martial Alliance and the Black Alliance, but in truth, they were too far away.

However, he had not yet had an audience with the emperor. Princess Jang-ok was only telling him to wait because he would be called soon. But Neung Je-gang did not know. He did not know that Princess Jang-ok was hesitating over how to introduce Neung Je-gang to the emperor. Nor did he know that he might fall out of the emperor’s favor and be killed.

Thus, time passed emptily. The first reply came from the Martial Alliance. In the letter from Investigation Unit Chief Go Won-gi, he first said that it was difficult to believe, but that even so, several members of the Martial Alliance’s Council of Elders would go to the Jinju Eon Clan to confirm it.

“You damned fools!”

The Martial Alliance’s conduct was generally this frustrating. What were they going to confirm, and what were they going to ask?

‘You cultivated the Small-Hand Art, didn’t you?’ Did they think the other side would answer, ‘Yes’? He was disappointed in Go Won-gi.

“This won’t do. We are going too.”

Neung Je-gang decided to leave, emperor or whatever be damned. He could not abandon a case just for the sake of seeing the emperor’s face once.

“What? But…….”

Cheong Yeon blocked his way. In his mind, there was nothing more important than meeting the emperor.

“Enough. If you want to meet him that badly, stay behind by yourself.”

Neung Je-gang had always been ready to move, so as soon as he made up his mind, he simply left. Ma-jil, Gongsun Gyeong-in, and Je So-yeon followed behind him, and at the very back, Cheong Yeon followed with slow, reluctant steps.

He had tried to leave Je So-yeon behind, but there was no way around it when she said she would follow even if he beat her to death. Je So-yeon had changed a great deal too. Should one say she was becoming fiercer?

He told Jo Su-won and Jo Ja-myeong to wait at the Eastern Depot. He said he would return after finishing the matter of the Jinju Eon Clan. Jo Ja-myeong had met quite a tiring master as well. His master was the sort it was difficult to see staying attached to one place for long.

Three days after they secretly left Beijing, Princess Jang-ok heard the news that Neung Je-gang had departed. She must have realized it now. That there were people who could not be forcibly kept in place.