An Unexpected Big Fish

“Ugh…”
“Kh-hurk…”
“Aaugh…”

The building was full of the moneylenders’ groans. With the tendons of their arms and legs cut, the bastards squirmed across the floor like worms.

I kept my promise.

As long as they were treated in time, they would not die. They simply would never again be able to beat or threaten anyone the way they had until now. They would have to live out their lives begging, though whether even that was possible in Qingzhou was another question.

They brought it on themselves.

They had made others weep tears of blood all this while; now it was their turn to shed them. You reap exactly what you sow.

I stepped out of the building and shook the blood from my spear.

So the Great Saber Gang’s men have caught on already.

If my memory of my past life was right, Spot was one of the Great Saber Gang’s own. I remembered him as exceptionally good at collecting debts, which was why he had been given sole charge of their moneylending business. In this life I had never so much as laid eyes on him, and yet he had picked a fight with Doctor Yu, my own man. That was hard to write off as mere coincidence. Every circumstance pointed to one fact.

The leader of the Great Saber Gang has worked out that Linqu County was my doing.

Black Leopard, the leader of the Great Saber Gang, was a first-rate martial artist and the head of one of the three unorthodox sects that carved Qingzhou up between them. Why a man famed for his greed had turned his sights on me was obvious. He was after the two hundred taels of gold I had made selling the lightning-struck jujube wood, and now that he had marked me, he was plainly going to make a nuisance of himself at every turn.

He has to go.

Of course, that was out of the question for now. Judged objectively, my martial prowess at present was no more than third-rate, and for a man who had not yet crossed even the threshold of second-rate, going up against a first-rate martial artist like Black Leopard would be no different from throwing an egg at a rock. On top of that, he had dozens of gang members under him.

I’m not enough on my own.

I needed people to serve as my hands and feet. One man’s face rose in my mind: one of the few comrades I could trust at my back, a fellow skilled at every kind of trick there was. Last I had heard, he was in Guantao, in Hebei Province.

If I bring Duho in, the Great Saber Gang is worth taking on.

He was said to have a fair number of men following him, so he would be a great help when the time came to deal with the gang. But I could not bring him here just yet. I had two problems to solve first, raising my own realm to second-rate and securing a solid source of funds.

Once my constitution improves, my realm will climb on its own. So for now, securing the money comes first.

The method was simple. I had only to sell the healing pills and wound salve Doctor Yu made. I was certain that anyone who used them even once would come back for more; I had used them many times myself, and no one knew their effect better than I did.

The problem was getting people to use them. However excellent a medicine might be, no one could know how good it was without trying it.

Hmm…

I sank into thought for a moment. At Blood Sand Plain the wounded had come to Doctor Yu without his lifting a finger, so this worry had never arisen, but things were different now. I turned it over in my head.

Who gets hurt as often as men on a battlefield, and would use my medicine trusting me without a doubt?

One sort of people came to mind, people who fit the conditions exactly, and I was nodding before I knew it. Now I had only to secure enough medicine to give them.

I set out for the inn where Doctor Yu was staying.

One week later, I called at an inn.

There I walked up to an escort runner who was deep in preparations for a run.

“Escort Runner Shim.”
“It’s been a long time, young master.”
“Did the run go well? Looks like you’re heading out again the moment you’re back.”
“There’s no telling how long I’ll be able to do this work, so I have to keep at it while my body still holds up. With bandits swarming the Central Plains these days, I worry more than a little.”

Escort Runner Shim let out a sigh. I drew a small white porcelain bottle of wound salve and a paper-wrapped healing pill from my robes and held them out.

“Take them.”

He looked at the medicines and asked,

“What are these? The color’s lovely. They look rather expensive.”
“Healing pills and wound salve my house makes. They work better than most medicines, so try them when you get hurt.”
“Can I really accept something so precious?”
“It’s for doing such a fine job with the favor I asked of you last time, spreading the word. Take them.”
“Goodness, young master. I’ll accept them gratefully.”

He bowed to me from the waist, tucked the healing pill and wound salve carefully away, and went on,

“If there’s ever anything else you’d have me do, say the word. I’ll help with all my heart.”
“Good. Finish your preparations and come back safe.”
“Thank you, young master.”

After Escort Runner Shim saw me off, I went around looking for the other escort runners I knew. When I handed them the medicines as well, every one of them bowed his head in thanks. Going from one runner to the next, I never noticed the sun go down, and as the dark came on, lanterns were lit here and there around me.

The seed is sown.

Now I had only to wait for it to sprout. Until then, my work was the same as it always was: training.

I went back to the house and took up my spear, and the moment I had wrecked the moneylenders came back to me.

Lan, Na, Zha.

With those three alone I had beaten superior numbers and properly tasted the fruit of my training. How, then, could I ever let it slacken?

I’ll get stronger.

For my family, for my house, and for my people, I would go on growing stronger. I swore it to myself and swung the spear.

Shim Deokbae, out on the escort run, felt as though he were dying. That was no figure of speech and no exaggeration; he truly was a hair’s breadth from death.

“Kraaagh!”
“Hold them off! They’re after the cargo!”

Piercing screams and the clash of steel on steel filled his ears.

How did it come to this?

He could not make sense of it at all. There were almost no bandits in the country around Qingzhou, and only a short while ago, coming back from a run, he had found the road safe. He knew bandits were swarming the Central Plains, but he had never imagined a band of them pushing this far in within a few days, and in such numbers besides.

“You dogs! Get out of here!”
“We’ll make you regret ever coming after us!”

The escorts of the Shandong Escort Bureau swung their swords and fought hard, and as time passed the advantage tilted toward the bureau, which was only to be expected. Most of the escorts were second-rate martial artists, while the greater part of the bandits were third-rate or worse. So long as the escorts kept their guard up, there was no way they would lose.

But on a battlefield there was always a variable. The bandits’ chief, resolved to take someone down with him, charged one of the escorts.

— Crunch!

With the sound of something boring into flesh, the escort who had taken the blow tumbled across the ground.

The man who had gone down was Jo Yeonggwang, son of the head of the Shandong Escort Bureau.

“Young master!”
“Escorts, protect the young master!”

The escorts nearby swarmed in, cut down the bandit chief, and saw to the wounded man.

“Cough! Cough!”

Jo Yeonggwang coughed up blood. He was in grave condition, his side torn deeply open and blood surging out of the wound in gouts.

One of the escorts pulled wound salve from Jo Yeonggwang’s robes and sprinkled it over the wound, but to little effect. Far from stopping, the blood kept pouring out.

“Kh-hurk!”

When Jo Yeonggwang spat up dark red blood, it was clear he had taken internal injuries as well. They fed him a healing pill too, and nothing much changed.

An escort shouted urgently to the others,

“Isn’t there any medicine left? Bring every last bit of it!”

They used up all the other escorts’ medicine as well, and still he only grew worse, his breathing turning ragged. At this rate he would surely bleed to death.

“Damn it! The bleeding won’t stop!”
“Isn’t there anything else we can do? He’s going to die on us!”

They all racked their brains, but men who were no physicians were never going to come up with anything.

While everyone else floundered, Shim Deokbae’s hand groped inside his robes without his meaning it to, and his fingertips found the smooth feel of a medicine bottle.

The medicine young master Mujin gave me!

He remembered what Yang Mujin had told him, that it worked better than most medicines.

Grasping at straws, Shim Deokbae shouted,

“Try this, please!”
“Man alive! Our own medicine isn’t doing a thing. What good is some nameless stuff going to do?”

One of the escorts barked at him, but Shim Deokbae paid him no attention and pulled out the stopper. A bitter grassy scent came wafting out of the bottle. He tapped it and shook the powder out over the wound.

— Hsssssss!

The instant the medicine touched the wound, a sizzling sound rose and white foam boiled up.

“Ugh!”

Jo Yeonggwang groaned in pain.

“What in the—!”

At the sight, one of the escorts was about to grab Shim Deokbae by the collar.

“The bleeding’s stopped!”

At someone’s shout, every eye swung back to the bureau head’s son. The blood at his side had stopped as if by magic. Seeing that, Shim Deokbae brought out the paper-wrapped healing pill as well and fed it to him.

“Haah— Haah—”

After a little while, faint color returned to the pale face and his breathing grew steady.

“He’s all right! He’ll live!”
“Everyone pack up what you can. We’re heading back to Qingzhou! Quickly!”

The escorts gathered up the cargo, cleared the ground, and hurried off toward Qingzhou. On the road back they crowded around Shim Deokbae with questions.

“Say, where did you get that medicine back there?”
“The effect was astonishing. Could I get hold of some myself?”
“Don’t keep it to yourself. Tell us.”

Pressed by the escorts, Shim Deokbae spoke up.

“Ah, well… I got it from young master Yang Mujin, the eldest son of the Yang manor.”
“The Yang manor? You mean the house of Iron Lion Yang Taejun, the Great Hero?”
“That’s right.”

The escorts looked at one another and nodded.

I have to get some, no matter what.

Carrying that medicine is as good as having a second life.

What each of them was thinking was written plainly on his face. Small wonder, when they had watched with their own eyes the miracle of the bureau head’s dying son brought back. To men who lived by the blade, nothing in the world was more precious. Money you can always earn again, but a man only has the one life, doesn’t he?

Maybe I should have kept a little back…

With a pang of regret, Shim Deokbae ran his fingers over the empty bottle inside his robes.

As usual, I finished my dawn training and then my meal in my room. I was drinking tea at my leisure when a commotion started up outside.

A visitor, this early?

It was Elder Kang’s voice I heard. He had a hard time of it, handling every matter of the house, great and small, himself.

Just wait a little longer, Elder Kang. Before long you won’t have to labor like this.

Once a market for the healing pills and wound salve was secured, the house would have no more need to take on cargo.

Because I would be shutting the escort bureau down.

It’s about time some response came back.

Six days had passed since I handed the medicine out to the escort runners, long enough for someone who had used it to turn up.

As I lifted my cup again, Elder Kang knocked at the door.

“Young master! You had best come out for a moment!”
“What is it?”
“Well… it will be quicker if you see for yourself.”

At Elder Kang’s urging I set the cup down and opened the door. The manor grounds were as thick with people as a market street: men in silk robes, martial artists with weapons at their waists, escort runners whose faces I knew.

“Young master! Please, sell us some of the medicine.”
“I heard that medicine could be bought here, so I came.”
“I’ll pay whatever you ask, just sell it to me!”

Every one of them was shouting for medicine. Word seemed to have spread far faster than I had expected, and there was no question that the medicine Doctor Yu made was outstanding.

Then, among the jostling crowd, one man caught my eye, a middle-aged man in silk robes whose face I knew.

Jo Mansik, head of the Shandong Escort Bureau, the foremost escort bureau in Shandong.

Well, well—

The corners of my mouth crept up.

An unexpected big fish had taken the bait.