The Woes Of A Knave (2)

Go So-jeong barely shook off the Eastern Depot’s pursuit by using Blood Rain, then quickly left Luoyang. She couldn’t even go to a doctor. She felt the leg struck by the hidden weapon slowly going numb, but the urgent task was to evade the Depot’s reach and hide her body.

“Bastard!”

The more she thought about it, the angrier she grew.

“He muttered ‘Hao Sect’ on purpose so I’d hear it. Vile wretch! Using the stratagem of killing with a borrowed knife.”

After leaving Luoyang, she found a dilapidated government shrine and, only after setting up a concealment ward there to hide herself, did she pull out the embedded weapon from her leg.

“The Depot scum are truly rotten. They even smear poison on their darts… How is that any different from those demonic outlaws?”

She took out antidote pills from her bosom—swallowing one and grinding another to powder to sprinkle on the puncture. But because she was wearing night-stalker garb, the antidote wouldn’t properly reach the wound.

“Rotten curs.”

Snapping in irritation, Go So-jeong stripped off her trousers. Blood trailing from the wound flowed down her pale skin.

She ground another antidote to powder and dusted it over the blackened skin and the wound. Then she sat cross-legged and entered breath cultivation.

No antidote could cleanse every poison. Luckily for her, this one seemed an elemental counter; not long after she began circulating qi, inky fluid oozed out through the puncture and the blackened skin regained its color.

When she finished, she spread wound-closing powder on the injury and again entered cultivation. She was tired, but rather than simply sleep, circulating qi like this actually cleared her mind and restored her body to peak condition.

After dawn, Go So-jeong headed back to Luoyang. Her movements grew much more cautious.

But it was strange. She had expected the city to be in an uproar by now, yet Luoyang within the walls was too calm. Whether people knew about the commotion at the Depot or not, they were absorbed in their livelihoods as usual, and the lax soldiers of Luoyang looked no different from any other day.

“Did they get so spooked by a single Blood Rain that they decided to pretend nothing happened?”

Whatever the reason, it wasn’t bad for her. Hadn’t she come back prepared to endure the noise anyway?

Go So-jeong moved again, following traces of the perfumed tracking powder only she knew. Chasing the scent linked from the Depot where last night’s disturbance had begun, the place she arrived at was Taepyeong Pavilion, the largest pleasure house in Luoyang.

“A pleasure house? That lousy man! So he crawled into a pleasure house because he’s a ‘man,’ did he? Perfect.”

Cursing Neung Je-gang, she unconsciously clenched both fists. The one branch of spycraft she had never learned was precisely the pleasure-house part—because her father had absolutely forbidden it.

Go So-jeong curved her lips into a triumphant smile.

“Right—I’m on assignment. A pleasure house won’t stop my feet. Ho-ho-ho!”

Her laughter, unlike before, sounded oddly delighted.

Night fell. Go So-jeong slipped covertly into Taepyeong Pavilion’s darkness. Her misfortune was that there were eyes watching her every move.

As Neung Je-gang had done the previous night, she clung to the largest building of Taepyeong Pavilion, then peered inside through a window. As expected of a pleasure house, most rooms held courtesans and patrons drinking.

“What is this? It’s no different from drinking in a tavern. So why did Father hate me going to pleasure houses so much?”

Unable to understand, Go So-jeong tilted her head—then suddenly whirled.

Pabababak

Only after twisting her body several times in midair did she barely land atop the pavilion roof.

“Who’s there?”

Surveying the four assailants surrounding her, Go So-jeong asked. They had opened by hurling hidden weapons without a word.

But instead of answering, another volley of darts rained down on her.

She sprang aside to evade the missiles and charged one of the men. At some point, a pair of daggers had appeared in her hands.

Whirik

She flung one dagger, and her body moved along its line. Depending on whether the enemy dodged or parried, there was a single decisive follow-up to kill in one blow. That was the essence of the dagger art she had learned.

But the opponent didn’t take any action. Even if he had to take the dagger, his murderous intent said he would seize her no matter what.

Go So-jeong halted her rush. For an instant she was cowed by the force of his intent.

‘What are these people… where did they come from?’

They weren’t like the many assassins she had faced. Nor were they overwhelming masters like that villain, Secret Shadow. She could certainly fell them in a single strike—but to do so, she would have to take a wound herself.

‘I’d better just break away. If more gather, I could die here.’

She had not been outmatched even by the Depot, but men who disregarded death could make anyone afraid.

Shuuk

Hwiik

Once resolved, she had to act. Go So-jeong hurled another dagger at her original target and dashed in.

Chang

But her target was not the opponent’s life. The thrown blade struck precisely against the edge of the sword he held.

If the enemy wouldn’t dodge or block, she would create the circumstances that forced him to.

The mere clash of her dagger against his weapon produced the same effect as if he had parried it.

At the sharp clang, Go So-jeong kicked off the roof and flew across the open air. By her usual finisher, this was the moment to plant her second dagger into his body—but if she did, she felt she’d never escape this place.

“Seize her!”

From the unseen dark came a gloomy command. The four attackers leapt after Go So-jeong at the order—and behind them, another streak of black shot forth: the one who had given the order while hidden.

After all six vanished into the air, Neung Je-gang revealed himself atop the pavilion roof.

“Good timing; they’re luring them away. The Martial Alliance really did raise Lady Go well. But hasn’t the tracking scent faded by now? How did she find this place?”

Muttering words that would make Go So-jeong’s chest explode if she heard them, Neung Je-gang headed for the proprietress’s room. With the watchers in the dark gone, nothing hindered his infiltration of the pavilion.

Tonight, the proprietress’s room was lit. Neung Je-gang pressed to the window and listened to the conversation drifting out.

“Another intruder just now?”

“Yes.”

Through the slight gap of the opened window, two women were visible: one in white, one in pink.

The woman in white reclined diagonally on the bed; the one in pink sat on the floor—that was the difference.

‘Is that woman So-hee, the proprietress here?’

She did not have a sultry or seductive face. Even her white clothes were plain rather than gaudy.

By contrast, the woman in pink, from her subtle smile to her splendid dress, had the air of luring men.

“Was it the one we lost a few days ago?”

“I don’t know. The Soul Hunting Tiger squad is in pursuit; they should bring the intruder in.”

“If it’s them, they won’t miss.”

“They won’t.”

“I wonder if things in Jiangxi Province went well.”

“They probably haven’t even been able to commence the attack. The Martial Alliance’s procedures are far too cumbersome… Still, it will go well. They may be fools, but they’re the Martial Alliance in name; can’t they handle two Necromancer Cult branches? They’ve mobilized the Investigation Unit and even the Special Assault Corps. Ho-ho!”

“I suppose so. Then you mean we still don’t know when the Great One will come? By the way, unlike here, you said there was no noise at all in Guangxi Province?”

“So it seems. They say not even the tiniest pretext was exposed there.”

“Good. But since we dragged in that man, Secret Shadow, here… that fox in Guangxi will be insufferably smug.”

“Still, isn’t it enough that Secret Shadow failed to appear in Hanzhong? He does seem formidable, though; the killings by the Assassin Pavilion have halted.”

“Ho-ho! I don’t know about the current Secret Shadow, but the previous bearer was truly extraordinary—stature and character both. He might have been the first to reveal to the world that he was an assassin and take jobs openly. With that face and that assassin’s aura, even I chased after him for a time.”

So-hee’s expression grew wistful, as if sunk in old memories.

She lingered like that a moment, then gathered herself.

“Even if Secret Shadow didn’t go to Hanzhong, his trail is thin; he could appear here anytime. For all we know, that one from last time could have been him. Do not relax your vigilance—tighten the perimeter.”

“Understood.”

“Go.”

“Yes, rest well.”

The woman in pink soon closed the door and left.

Hidden, Neung Je-gang fell into thought.

‘Their intelligence net is astonishing. They know everything about the Martial Alliance’s moves. And Guangxi is where the Black Alliance lies; does that mean they also have a clandestine cell beside the Black Alliance’s base, as here? In any case, they’re the ones who commissioned the Assassin Pavilion. And that Special Assault Corps killing in Hanzhong seems their work, too. I should probably make a run to Hanzhong—there must be a reason they’re desperate to block it.’

That was his conclusion. He had thought there was no need to go now that he had their tail, but there might be a crucial clue there.

‘The culprit could be the “Great One” the proprietress mentioned—the person who went with the Martial Alliance to attack the Necromancer Cult. In other words, someone of the Martial Alliance. I’ll come back here later; for now, back to Hanzhong. If I watch after returning, I should encounter that Great One.’

Neung Je-gang sprang away and left.

“Ho-ho-ho-ho! Ho-ho-ho!”

Just then, So-hee, lying on the bed, suddenly burst out laughing.

“I expected something since they said ‘Secret Shadow,’ but how disappointing. He just left… I hoped to see his face once, but no.”

She had already known Neung Je-gang was at the window. After Go So-jeong vanished, she had seen the shadow seep in through the gap.

So she had purposely left the window unclosed and leaked information, letting him watch in secret.

“If this were the former Secret Shadow, he’d have kidnapped me if he had to, to extract information. In any case, while he’s off at Hanzhong, I must perfect the final plan. Then the Martial Alliance will fall into internal chaos. Ho-ho-ho-ho!”

Gazing toward where Neung Je-gang had flown, So-hee shut the window and lay back on the bed.

“Now that I’ve slipped out a bit of news about Guangxi, that fox will have a headache someday too. I won’t stand by and watch that woman prosper. Ho-ho-ho-ho!”

Giiiing

With a strange noise, the entire bed slowly tilted to one side. She hadn’t touched anything in particular, yet the bed slanted toward the floor, and So-hee was swept into the gap created as it tilted and vanished.

Giiiing

Moments later, the bed returned to its original position. The real door to the secret chamber Neung Je-gang had searched so hard for was the bed itself—the whole enormous thing.