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Bang!
“Another failure, you say?”
Three men were in the room. The one who slammed the table was a narrow-faced man with a goatee. Before him, a man from Xi’an’s Drum Tower bowed his head.
“Twenty top-class assassins, along with more first- and second-rankers than I can count, were mobilized for this job. And you shamelessly tell me it failed?”
“My apologies. But according to the report from Gwanggeom, the current Secret Shadow is a master on a completely different level than his father.”
Bang! Bang!
The goateed man slammed the table again.
“Silence! However great a master, he’s still just an assassin. And you call that an excuse?”
“My apologies.”
“What shall I tell the Pavilion Lord? The commission fee was one hundred thousand taels… We’ll have to pay triple, three hundred thousand! Three hundred thousand!”
For an ordinary man, that amount would burst his heart.
“Still, three hundred thousand in silver could be covered from reserve funds.”
The third man spoke up toward the goateed one. Wherever money circulated, there were always reserves for emergencies.
But he should never have spoken.
Whack! Whack!
“Aagh! Chief, spare me! Please!”
The goateed man—addressed as Chief—snatched up a scroll from the table and beat the man without mercy.
“You swine! Three hundred thousand taels in gold, not silver! Would I be wailing like this if it were silver? Huh? Today you die and I die with you! You die and I diiiie!”
Whack, whack, thud, thud!
“Ugh!”
The fool who had spoken collapsed unconscious under the blows.
“That bastard always keels over right when I’ve only just started beating him. Isn’t he faking? Next time, I’ll send him on the job. Keeping him around will give me high blood pressure before long. Damn wretch, huuuh!”
The Chief let out a long sigh and turned to the remaining man. The courier from Xi’an’s Drum Tower was trembling after seeing a man beaten senseless right before him.
“Who was the client?”
“A young woman. But she is dead.”
“What? The woman who commissioned us is dead?”
Suddenly the Chief’s face brightened.
But the man’s continued words twisted it again.
“Apparently the true client is someone else. After handing over the commission, she killed herself on the spot. Likely to preserve the secret.”
“What? Then you don’t know the real client? Wait, that’s not the problem. If they drove her to suicide to seal her lips, then their organization may be no weaker than ours… If we don’t pay the penalty fee, they may retaliate.”
It seemed the Chief had half a mind not to pay at all.
He fell into thought. Paying the penalty fee was its own problem.
Three hundred thousand taels of gold.
Raising that much was not impossible. But without knowing the client, how could it be paid? And perhaps the client would blame the Assassin Pavilion for failure and strike them instead.
“Chief, another man has come from the Drum Tower.”
“Hmph… I told them not to draw attention. Let him in.”
The door opened, and a younger man entered. He bowed deeply before the Chief.
“Father!”
“Ah, you’ve come. Well? What news?”
The man was the Chief’s son.
“A message has come from Silver Sword, who pursued Secret Shadow.”
“I know. They failed… Gwanggeom returned alive.”
“No. They failed, but the mission is not yet over.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Silver Sword killed the Martial Alliance Patrol Branch Chief who was traveling with Secret Shadow. For whatever reason, Secret Shadow has vanished from Hanzhong, while the woman with him entered the city.”
“Even if one man was killed, the mission failed. Wait—you said the dead was with the Martial Alliance?”
“Yes.”
Thuk.
The Chief’s head dropped.
“Damnation… Now we’ve provoked the Martial Alliance too?”
“We’ve provoked them before, Father. Why the concern? The real question is—who do we send next to kill Secret Shadow?”
“Send more? Why?”
“The commission required us to kill him before he entered Hanzhong. Since he never entered, the mission isn’t finished. We only have to kill him before he returns.”
“Ah, right! Yes, yes! Hahaha! You are truly my son. A fine head on your shoulders. That way we needn’t pay the penalty, and all turns to our benefit.”
The Chief’s face brightened again.
But soon it darkened. Even if not right away, the fundamental problem remained—they might still one day owe that penalty.
“Who among our killers has any chance? Not if he’s just an assassin, but if he’s a true inner-energy master, as Gwanggeom claimed.”
“…”
“…”
“So—no one. And the Pavilion Lord himself cannot act… What now? Send another crowd, only for another crowd to die?”
“Perhaps…”
“Well? Any ideas?”
“Perhaps we should commission another organization.”
“Another organization? Hmph, we have pride! We are the greatest of all assassin orders. How could we—”
“No, Father. That is exactly what we should do. It is a plan of triple benefit. Even the first Secret Shadow was killed only when all the assassin sects joined forces. Why should it be different for this one?”
From the son’s lips came the story of why the first Secret Shadow had died. Neung Je-gang listened intently. His master had never told him how the first bearer met his end.
“That’s true.”
“First, we commission other organizations to kill Secret Shadow. Surely they will fail. If we failed, how could they succeed? Then we collect penalty fees from them. Once they all fail, we join forces as before and finish him together.”
“Oh, an excellent plan.”
“There is more. Once Secret Shadow is gone, we won’t need to pay our own penalty either. If we fail, we pay with the penalty money collected from the others.”
“Yes! Exactly! Hahaha! All problems solved in one stroke!”
The Chief laughed heartily.
Neung Je-gang silently ground his teeth. Now he knew the truth of the first Secret Shadow’s death. Since he bore that mantle, he could not ignore this grudge.
“Send commissions to each assassin order. Offer fifty thousand taels of gold. Time limit, one month. Too long, and the man might slip into Hanzhong.”
“Yes.”
“Our identity must be concealed. Also, find out where the client came from. A woman driven to suicide must have been from a powerful sect—likely one that trains women, like Hwanmil Pavilion or the Divine Maiden Palace. Focus there.”
“Yes.”
Thunk.
As the orders were given and the two men left, the Chief’s foot nudged the unconscious one still sprawled by the table.
“Ah, that fool. Bring him away. When he wakes, set him to counting money. He knows no martial arts, so he’s useless for anything else.”
Neung Je-gang slipped out through the door. He had intended to slay everyone in the tower, starting with the Chief, but the Pavilion Lord was not there. Had he been, the Chief would never have raged so freely.
He would also allow time for the Assassin Pavilion to send out its commissions. That would draw other assassin sects to him, saving him the trouble of seeking them out one by one.
“First I must find the Pavilion Lord. If I stay close to the Chief, sooner or later he will make contact. Then, the Assassin Pavilion will be erased.”
With that resolve, Neung Je-gang withdrew deep into the mountains behind Famen Temple. He ate a simple meal, found water to bathe, and that night slept on the rafters of the main hall.
From the next day on, he shadowed the Chief by day and rifled through hidden ledgers by night. The records listed the Pavilion’s assassins and where its wealth flowed.
He also found the hidden vault beneath the underground palace. A fearsome array of traps guarded it. He dared not open it—without sheer brute force, he lacked the skill to unlock it secretly and reseal it.
Days passed, and the Chief’s son returned.
“We have sent commissions to five of the Ten Great Assassin Orders of the Central Plains, excluding ourselves, Gonggong Gate, Agwi Hall, Blood Dragon Fort, and Hwanmil Pavilion. The five are: Blood Sword Pavilion, Soul-Summoning Temple, Small Kill House, Strangling Lodge, and Hyunhyeon Clan. Each was promised fifty thousand in gold, with twenty thousand paid up front and thirty thousand promised upon success. Thus, the one hundred thousand we received has been spent.”
“To five? What if, by chance, they succeed?”
“They will not. They don’t even know where Secret Shadow is. Most of their time will be wasted in searching. Once they fail, we will collect sixty thousand from penalty fees.”
“Kehahaha! Splendid! What we might earn in ten years, we shall earn in one month. Even if we must pay penalties, we will still be left with three hundred thousand.”
“Father is blessed indeed. This is fortune in misfortune.”
“You flatter even your father? Hahaha! In any case, this news must be reported to the Pavilion Lord. And it’s time you came with me. I should start putting you forward as my heir.”
“Thank you, Father.”
“No thanks needed. Your head for schemes is sharper than mine ever was. I believe you will make the Assassin Pavilion greater still, and subjugate the others. As for me, I’ll pass this wretched post to you and spend my last years in the hot springs the Pavilion Lord and elder assassins enjoy. Each time I visit him, that’s what I envy most. And to ask their aid against Secret Shadow, I should oil the wheels in advance.”
“Father is ever thorough. I still have far to go.”
“Hahaha!”
Father and son laughed together in harmony.
But neither knew that the very man they sought to kill—Neung Je-gang, the current Secret Shadow—was watching from above, and that their fate was already sealed.
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