The Dang Sect Of Sichuan's Proposal

Walking into the great hall to meet Mak Yeo-heun, I got the feeling I had done all of this before.

When I went to meet Namgung Hak, I met Myo Su-jae, the Snake God Sword, and ended up coming to the Dark Heaven Sect.

Only this time it was the Dang Sect of Sichuan instead.

Two Dang Sect of Sichuan martial artists in gray martial robes stared openly at me as I came in, and the look was easy enough to read. That young pup?

The two who gave me that look were young themselves, but I knew the reason for it well enough. I had seen the same thing any number of times back at the Murim Alliance. Being the most closed of the murim’s Five Great Clans, the Dang Sect drew a hard line between the collateral branch and the direct line, and so only the direct line had come in even to meet Mak Yeo-heun. There might be older men among them and greater masters besides, but an important meeting like this one fell to the direct line.

“You sent for me, Sect Leader.”

In private he was called the Supreme, and in public the sect leader.

“Come in. Are you acquainted with these two?”

I turned to the Dang Sect martial artist in his thirties and spoke.

“I saw you a few times from a distance while I was at the Alliance.”

“Oh, is that so?”

Dang Jin-ok, with none of the grim air you’d expect from a Dang Sect martial artist, looked at me and rose.

“When I was at the Alliance I heard only your name and never once met you face to face, and I was sorry for it. I am Dang Jin-ok, the Dang Sect’s second son.”

The woman beside Dang Jin-ok spoke.

“Dang Ga-ryeong.”

Both Dang Jin-ok and Dang Ga-ryeong were masters counted among the Twelve Dragons and the Twelve Phoenixes, the rolls that stood for the rising talents of the murim in this generation. They would likely have to lay those name-plaques down after the Dragon Martial Grand Tournament this time, but for five years their names had held their places there. Two martial artists out of one house among the murim’s rising talents had been enough to put them on the tongues of gossips. Dang Ga-ryeong was known besides as the daughter the Dang sect leader doted on above all.

“I shall introduce Scholar Cheon myself. He is my son’s sworn younger brother, and a man this seat thinks of as a foster son.”

At Mak Yeo-heun’s introduction the two of them flinched slightly. To hear such a thing straight from the mouth of the Unorthodox Supreme would carry a shock like nothing else.

“One of the few men this seat acknowledges.”

To be called a man the Unorthodox Supreme acknowledged carried a good many meanings.

“Ah. I see.”

I knew Mak Yeo-heun had said a thing he need not have said, and that he had done it to lift me up. His eyes were laughing as they looked at me.

I am grateful for the thought, but I think he has said a thing that will do worse than nothing.

Because I knew very well how tremendous Dang Jin-ok’s jealousy was. Having seen the Dang house’s secret records in the Murim Alliance’s secret vault, I had no wish to raise the matter aloud at all.

“The Dang Sect is asking our foster son to hand over the poison men this time.”

“The poison men are the Dang Sect’s property, so of course they must go back. But I do not know whether you are aware — when Elder Gal attacked us with the poison men there was poison qi in them, and after I took them the poison qi was gone.”

At my words Dang Jin-ok’s brows drew together.

“Truly?”

“I hardly know poisons at all. What reason would I have to lie about it?”

“Master Scholar Cheon has them with him?”

“Yes. I have them laid in a coffin and kept there. I do not know these things well, but they seemed to be dead.”

“Did you touch them?”

“A coward like me was too frightened to so much as think of touching a poison man.”

“Then how do you know there is no poison in them?”

“I say it because when I recovered the poison men afterward there was no poison qi about them.”

“Hm, that will be known once it is looked into. In any case, on behalf of our sect, I thank you. It is thanks to Master Scholar Cheon that we were able to find the poison men.”

I put in a modest word.

“Not at all. A thing so precious ought to find its way back to its owner. When do you mean to leave? I shall have the coffin with the poison men in it made ready.”

“We mean to set out for Sichuan straight after the midday meal. Our schedule is not so generous.”

“Then I shall have the coffin loaded onto a cart at once.”

“There is one thing, though.”

Dang Jin-ok looked at me and spoke.

“Could you come with us to our sect?”

I had been racking my brains for some pretext to travel along with them, and now the offer came of itself, the very thing I had not dared ask for and had wanted all along. Even so, I kept my expression composed, of course.

“Am I to go in person and explain how the poison men were acquired?”

I played the innocent.

“Not at all. Over a mere matter of poison men, how could I ask Master Scholar Cheon to travel so long a road with us?”

Looking me full in the face, Dang Jin-ok spoke.

“Master Scholar Cheon’s fame has spread through the murim and stands very high.”

“Mine?”

“There are several names to it, but the one that resounds loudest is the Specialist Hellion-Reforming Scholar.”

“Ho ho. That such a thing should be going about. It will be something said to tease me, I expect.”

“Not at all. Reforming Paeng So-un of the Paeng Clan and Namgung Mu-baek of the Namgung Clan is a thing nobody else could have done.”

Just then Mak Yeo-heun cut in.

“Of course, of course. That utter hellion of a son of mine, who gave this seat no end of grief — our foster son made a human being of him too. In truth I never thought that whelp would turn into a human being.”

With Mak Yeo-heun championing me like this, Dang Jin-ok said.

“I heard of it myself. When I heard that Young Master Mak had come to his senses and gone into closed-door training, I resolved that I must bring Master Scholar Cheon to our sect without fail.”

Mak Yeo-heun put a question to him.

“Why? Is there a hellion in the Dang house too? I had understood the Dangs were all strictly schooled and had no crooked children among them.”

Dang Jin-ok answered.

“There is an exception everywhere. In our sect too the youngest grew up somewhat freely, and his temper has come out with corners on it. He has reached the point now where he will not listen to anyone, whatever is said to him.”

Watching how calmly Dang Jin-ok laid out a thing that might well be his house’s shame, I felt he was no ordinary sort.

A man shows his own shame only when he’s playing an angle. They did say the second suited the seat of Dang sect leader better than Dang Pae, the eldest.

Seeing me look as though I were turning it over, Dang Jin-ok went on.

“We shall pay a price fitting for it, of course.”

Mak Yeo-heun cut in again.

“This seat gave eighty acres of land to get our foster son here. I am curious what the Dang Sect’s gift will be.”

Dang Jin-ok’s face did not change, but Dang Ga-ryeong’s brows drew slightly together.

“Our Dang Sect is not a place of great money the way the Dark Heaven Sect is, so we cannot make a gift on that scale. But I promise you we shall give Master Scholar Cheon a gift he will be satisfied with.”

I had told Mak Yeo-heun beforehand that I would go along with the Dang Sect of Sichuan when they came for the poison men.

I told him a precious medicinal herb for my mother is to be had only at the Dang Sect, and that I was going to get it, and now look at him pushing for me like that.

That was the measure of him. Mak Yeo-heun was a truly guileless man.

“Foster son. If our sect and the Dang Sect are to come to good terms, our foster son will have to put his back into it. Meet the Dang sect leader and explain the Demonic Cult’s recent movements to him properly. I have told these two friends of it myself, but it would be well if our foster son explained it as it should be explained.”

And with that he gave me another quiet push. I played along with him.

“Since my Foster Father says so, I shall go to the Dang Sect.”

I had turned the business from a matter between the Dang Sect and me into a matter between the Dark Heaven Sect and the Dang Sect. They could not handle me carelessly after that. That was exactly why Dang Jin-ok had tried to ask me first and get the permission afterward, and having failed at it, he smiled bitterly to himself.

An exceedingly shrewd scholar, this one. But if only he can reform Dang Ji-in…

Of the things he had heard on coming into Jiangxi Province, the talk of Scholar Cheon being the Scholar Divine Sword was too far-fetched to be worth listening to. A scholar had swung a blade a little, and the ignorant common folk who knew nothing had puffed him up into a Scholar Divine Sword. That would be all it was. But seeing that he had reformed men famed as hellions, the thing could not be dismissed out of hand either.

Paeng So-un and Namgung Mu-baek as I saw them were hellions I truly never wish to face again. And yet he reformed men like that, and now they ring with fame as chivalrous heroes. There must be some secret method that belongs to that scholar alone.

That was why the Dang sect leader had sent Dang Jin-ok in person.

See with your own eyes and decide.

The order was that if it proved an empty rumor he was not to invite the man, and if it proved real he was to invite him by whatever means.

If Mak Yeo-heun, the Unorthodox Supreme, famous for his cold head, takes the man’s part like that, his ability cannot be false.

They agreed to eat the midday meal and then set out.

After Dang Jin-ok and Dang Ga-ryeong had withdrawn, I talked a while with Mak Yeo-heun.

“When you go to the Dang Sect, this seat will get an escort ready for you, so take them with you.”

“No, indeed. How should I accept treatment so far beyond my station?”

“Come now, a foster son is my son too.”

The words came close to sheer insistence, and a laugh escaped me in spite of myself.

“By word that came in from our sect’s Secret Pavilion, Demonic Cult men have gone into Sichuan chasing the remnants of the Kunlun Sect. Sichuan may well become a battlefield. So take an escort with you.”

“I shall take the offer and no more. Foster Father, I am the Scholar Divine Sword.”

And I too kept up the bluster to the end.

“If I take an escort with me the Dang Sect of Sichuan will be greatly offended. They will think I do not trust them.”

Mak Yeo-heun turned it over a moment, then nodded.

“Right. Our foster son is not at a level where he goes about getting beaten. Very well. But I shall send word to our branch in Sichuan, so if you should happen to need men, take them and use them.”

“I thank you for the care. If I need them I shall use them.”

“Right. That would be the better way.”

Mak Yeo-heun asked as I turned to go.

“It will not take long, will it?”

“Once I have reformed the Dang Sect’s youngest son and got the herb, I mean to come straight back.”

“Very well. With that whelp of a son of mine off in closed-door training, the thought of our foster son being gone as well leaves me feeling lonely, that is all.”

He said it, and all the while his eyes were laughing.

“My Foster Father will have a great deal to prepare as well. Above all you must pour your whole heart into grasping the Demonic Cult’s movements.”

“I understand. That is why I mean to strengthen the Secret Pavilion now.”

“You must also form a relationship of cooperation with the Beggars’ Sect. That will take the Supreme moving in person.”

To settle terms with the Beggars’ Sect chief, only Mak Yeo-heun himself would match the man in rank.

“They say the Beggars’ Sect chief is an awfully petty sort. I wonder whether it will come off.”

Mak Yeo-heun came down on the doubtful side, and I smiled.

“I understand the Emerald Jade Staff, the Beggars’ Sect’s sacred treasure, is kept in the Dark Heaven Sect. If you take that with you, the Beggars’ Sect chief will come out in his stocking feet to greet my Foster Father.”

“Ho ho. Just how much does our foster son know? That we came by the Emerald Jade Staff is a close secret.”

“Am I not my Foster Father’s foster son?”

As I slipped past it the way an old serpent slides over a wall, Mak Yeo-heun gave me a sidelong look.

“It is the man who secures the information who wins the war.”

The talk had come round to war, and Mak Yeo-heun asked.

“Does Scholar Cheon think the Orthodox-Demonic War will come?”

“A good many signs are coming out now, and they cannot be ignored. A war is begun by the stronger, and the cause of it is that the other side has grown weak. The Demonic Cult has grown strong and the Murim Alliance has grown weak.”

Mak Yeo-heun closed his eyes a moment, then nodded. He wore the face of a man in full agreement with what I had said.

“Just so. In a war the weak are always the ones beaten. This seat’s taste runs to hitting rather than being hit.”

I came out of the great hall and went to meet Yu Seong. I would not see him for a while, and there were a few things I had to charge him with.

When I reached the estate where Yu Seong was staying, I saw lightning striking in the sky above his house.