The Woes Of A Knave (3)

Go So-jeong was about to go mad. The ones tailing her seemed to have spycraft on par with hers, and she couldn’t shake them.

On the strength of the inner power her father had raised by feeding her all kinds of rare elixirs, she tried to flee using lightness skill, but in the end she couldn’t shake one of them. She had tailed others often, but had never been tailed herself, so her irritation was boiling over.

“This is all because of that rotten guy.”

Spitting out a line aimed at Neung Je-gang, Go So-jeong ran for the Martial Alliance. If she couldn’t throw them off, the best was to go somewhere they couldn’t follow.

Only when they saw Go So-jeong enter the Alliance compound did the Soul-Hunting Tiger Pair stop the pursuit. They had underestimated her and lost her. Who would have guessed a mere spy would have such outstanding inner power?

The Soul-Hunting Tiger Pair couldn’t bring themselves to enter the Martial Alliance, so they turned back. Even so, they had gained at least this much: the watcher had come out from the Martial Alliance.

Even if they captured her, all they would ask was where she had come from. In other words, by fleeing to the Martial Alliance, Go So-jeong had practically informed the enemy of her identity herself.

“Father!”

Go So-jeong went straight to the Chief of the Investigation Unit’s office.

“Father!”

But Go Won-gi wasn’t there.

In the empty office, she sank her exhausted body into a chair and shook her head.

“How am I supposed to catch this guy now? I already used Blood Rain, so I’ve got nothing. I can’t match him with martial arts either… Ah, damn it!”

As she muttered and sighed, the door opened and Go Won-gi came in.

“Huh? You—who told you to sit there?”

“Relax. It’s not like there’s anything here worth stealing.”

Go So-jeong stood and shot back.

Go Won-gi hurried to his own seat and sat, as if very attached to that spot.

“What news now?”

“Um… well…”

“Why can’t you just say it? That’s not like you… Don’t tell me—you caused trouble again?”

“…Yes.”

Go So-jeong dropped her head. And what trouble—she’d stirred up the Eastern Depot itself.

In any case, she recounted everything to Go Won-gi, stumbling a bit. If she hid something and it came out later, even as his daughter, her father would not forgive her.

“Good grief!”

After hearing her out, Go Won-gi clutched his forehead, looking about to collapse.

“I’m sorry. But this is all because of that guy…”

Watching his face, Go So-jeong tried to dump all the blame on Neung Je-gang.

“Quiet, you brat!”

Go Won-gi was truly angry. He doted on his child—and she had landed a decisive blow.

Clashing with the Depot wasn’t even the real problem; they couldn’t necessarily know she was of the Martial Alliance.

The problem was that, while tailing Secret Shadow, she had exposed that the Alliance knew about them. A spy, as a spy, should keep her identity hidden even at the cost of her life—but she had kindly guided the enemy straight to the Alliance.

And she didn’t even know what she’d done wrong—that was the problem.

“You—this assignment stops here.”

“Why?”

“Why? Are you talking back to me now?”

“Anyway, I can’t stop. I’m definitely seeing this through. I won’t let that Secret Shadow go. So just give me one more Blood Rain… hehe!”

Go So-jeong put on a foxy smile and a cutesy face.

Go Won-gi gaped, speechless at that look.

“Is ‘Blood Rain’ your kid’s name or something, huh?”

As he shouted, Go So-jeong quickly ducked her body.

“If you won’t, I’ll drop it. I’ll just hole up in a pleasure house then.”

“What—pleasure house?”

“If you don’t like that, just give me one Blood Rain and leave the assignment to me.”

“Oh my god!”

Go Won-gi grabbed his head. Now the damned pleasure house had become Go So-jeong’s weapon.

In truth, he hadn’t taught her the pleasure-house portion of spycraft because she was a woman. For men, there was nothing special about it; but for women, becoming a courtesan to experience it was part of the craft.

What father in the world would want his daughter to do that?

So Go Won-gi had cut out the pleasure-house portion.

“Do as you like. But I’m not giving you Blood Rain. Even if I wanted to, there isn’t another.”

“Eh, really none?”

“None, you rascal! If you want it so badly, sell your father to buy one.”

“No helping it then. I guess I’ll have to do that.”

“What?”

“Hehe! Father, I’m off again.”

Go So-jeong gave up on Blood Rain. If he had one, he wouldn’t refuse his daughter.

No matter how precious Blood Rain was, it couldn’t be traded for his daughter’s life. In any case, she was allowed to continue pursuing Secret Shadow; that alone satisfied her.

As always, Go So-jeong slipped out the window, glanced around, and headed for the Alliance armory. It didn’t have supreme-grade hidden weapons like Blood Rain, but it held plenty of usable ones.

A little later, having “sold her father” and armed herself head to toe with all sorts of hidden weapons, she shot off toward Luoyang again. A faint killing aura hung about her, as if to demand compensation for all she had suffered.

At the same time, there was one more person in Go Won-gi’s office.

“My apologies.”

“It’s fine.”

“I meant this task to help you, but it only got in your way… sigh.”

At Go Won-gi’s look, Neung Je-gang smiled.

Indeed, after leaving Taepyeong Pavilion in Luoyang, Neung Je-gang had come to the Martial Alliance—faster than Go So-jeong, at that.

While she took roundabout paths to shake the pursuit, he had gotten ahead.

“By the way, is that face of yours not your real face?”

Go Won-gi couldn’t bring himself to believe there was a face-altering art he couldn’t see through.

But the illusion art of the Hidden Shadows and Extreme Secrecy Method, little-known and thus not famous as a supreme art, was no less potent than one. If Neung Je-gang went around causing trouble with this kind of perfect disguise, who could catch him?

“Haha, that’s right.”

“If you’re changing it anyway, wouldn’t a more ordinary face be better?”

“Well, if I’m changing it, nicer to look at is better, isn’t it?”

“That so? So what did you need?”

“I should at least look over the scene in Hanzhong. Going with a guide is fine, but that might invite another assassin attack… So if you give me the approximate location, I’ll find it alone.”

“Sorry about that. I never imagined the enemy would bring in assassins. How they managed to commission them in that short time, I don’t know… By the way, I heard the place called Taepyeong Pavilion in Luoyang is suspicious—is it not?”

“Your daughter must have mentioned it. Yes, Taepyeong Pavilion is connected to a suspicious group. They know the Martial Alliance’s movements in great detail. They likely have ties to someone in the Alliance, and I think that Alliance person is the one who killed the Special Assault Corps members. The problem is when there’s more than one Alliance person connected to them. Figuring out which is the culprit is no ordinary headache. That’s why I plan to go to Hanzhong—to see if any traces remain.”

“Hm, I think you’re right. But I also heard you learned how they were killed…”

“You heard that too. Well, to give you the conclusion—the method paralyzed the brain.”

Saying this, Neung Je-gang watched Go Won-gi’s face. If there was any change, it meant he knew of such an art.

But Go Won-gi’s expression didn’t change.

Which was odd in itself. He ought to have looked surprised at least.

‘Lady Go told him that already.’

Neung Je-gang assumed Go So-jeong had reported everything.

‘Which means I can’t find out whether the Alliance has such an art. That young lady is a handful in every way.’

“Simply destroying the brain would also kill, but using that method suggests the culprit’s other techniques are ones the Alliance’s Investigation Unit would recognize at a glance—so they used something they’d kept hidden. That’s my thought.”

“Was that necessary? They could have killed them any which way and disposed of the bodies perfectly.”

“Since I’m not the culprit, I don’t know the deeper reason. I can only surmise they had no time to dispose of the bodies. So they hastily used the concealed art to kill thirty members of the Special Assault Corps in one go.”

“Hold on—are you sure it was in one strike?”

Go Won-gi looked stunned. Martial arts that could take thirty lives in a single stroke were rare indeed. Whatever the culprit’s identity, their skill was near peerless.

“Judging from the corpses’ faces, yes. Not one bore a look of animosity toward the enemy. That means they died in a single stroke—or were killed one by one while sleeping. If it were while sleeping, there’d be no need to use a hidden art. By the way, have you ever heard of a martial art that kills by paralyzing the brain?”

As Chief of the Investigation Unit, he might know of something similar.

“Not among the arts I know. There are countless ways to kill without going that far. Why bother with the brain when there are easier methods… And why are you so curious about that?”

This time Go Won-gi studied Neung Je-gang’s face.

But Neung Je-gang’s expression was also blank.

“If such an art exists as a separate technique, it’s not really a problem. But if someone did it the way I did—by directly driving true inner power—then the culprit is a monster beyond reckoning.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know if Lady Go told you, but I can do that to about two people. I tested it when assassins attacked me. But the third bled out and died—the brain was destroyed. I could barely do two like that, and thirty? That kind of thing kills the will to train. Even if I cultivate to my dying day, I’ll never reach that realm.”

He had already crossed blades with the Assassin Pavilion’s lord who wielded the supreme thunder art, and he had learned it too.

Among orthodox supreme arts, the Thunder Emperor that Sunders Heaven had the greatest destructive force.

Yet even if he mastered it perfectly, he wasn’t confident he could kill thirty in one strike.

“Hm, I see. When I heard it from So-jeong, I didn’t think that far…”

Silence fell for a moment, then Go Won-gi broke it.

“In any case, I’ll search the Alliance’s archives top to bottom to see if there’s any record of such an art. I don’t know every martial art under heaven.”

“Please do. Either way, that fiend has nothing to do with me. Once you learn who it is, the Alliance will handle the elimination, won’t it?”

“R-right. That’s for our Martial Alliance to resolve.”

With a somewhat sour face, Go Won-gi opened a drawer, took out a sheet, and sketched something.

“If you go like this, you’ll find the site. I set a concealment ward so people wouldn’t stumble onto it… and this here is the method to break it.”

On the paper were a simple map of Hanzhong City and a tangle of directional marks.

Neung Je-gang took it, tucked it into his bosom, and stood. Go Won-gi stood as well.

“By the way, about what I asked you to look into…?”

“I passed the profile to the Beggar’s Sect. They said they’d put real effort into finding the person. Elder Shingae, the former grand elder, said he understood—so it will be found.”

“Thank you.”

The one called Shingae was a figure symbolic of the Beggar’s Sect of this era. If he had moved, it meant the whole sect had.

Thinking Go Won-gi had gone out of his way for him, Neung Je-gang felt truly grateful.

“No need to thank me. We agreed to help each other.”

“Then, I’ll take my leave…”

Neung Je-gang bowed and started to leave the office—then turned back and met Go Won-gi’s eyes.

“Something else?”

“Your daughter used a tracking powder… Do you know how to remove it?”

“Mm, that’s a secret…”

“If you don’t help here, your daughter will have to keep worrying about me while I work, won’t she?”

“W… wash with water mixed with sulfur.”

“Thank you. Following me will only lead her into danger anyway—you’ve made the right call. Then…”

Neung Je-gang left the Martial Alliance at once—unlike Go So-jeong, through the front gate.