In a family, the master's word is law. In a sect, the lord's command takes precedence over everything. When Tang Hye-seo took out the Clan Lord's token and gave the order, only then did the members of the Extermination Hall kneel on one knee and acknowledge it.
"As you command!"
The senior member of the Extermination Hall at the front did not kneel. He did not even sheathe the sword he had drawn. He looked at the fallen Vice Lord, bit his lip, and then charged forward.
His sword was aimed at Tang Hye-seo. As if she had been waiting, Tang Hye-seo drew her sword with lightning speed.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Clang! Clang!
In just five clashes, she slashed the other traitor's shoulder and kicked him in the lower abdomen.
"Gahk!"
Almost simultaneously, a hidden weapon thrown by her subordinate lodged in the senior member's back.
"Bind the traitors!"
The members of the Extermination Hall rushed forward and secured the senior member and the Vice Lord. They gagged them, twisted their arms behind their backs, and bound their entire bodies and legs tightly. They moved in perfect sync, as if this was a familiar task.
Tang Do-hun's eyes were wide open, but he could not resist. The hidden weapon that struck him must have been coated with a paralyzing poison. Once all the traitors were subdued, Tang Se-yeong let out a sigh of relief.
Gyeong-jae approached and gently embraced her. Tang Hye-seo sheathed her sword and stood before the two of them.
"Sister Yeong, Brother-in-law. Let's return to Sichuan together."
"To Sichuan?"
Tang Se-yeong looked up at Gyeong-jae from within his embrace. Gyeong-jae stared at Tang Hye-seo with a hardened face.
"...... Is that really okay?"
"The Clan Lord has decided to recognize your marriage. You have rendered a great service in helping to root out the traitors of the Tang Clan."
Upon receiving this confirmation, the young couple's faces brightened.
"Let's go back now. To Sichuan."
"Yes, let's go. Home."
The members of the Extermination Hall, having finished binding the prisoners, put on gloves and entered the forest to retrieve the hidden weapons Tang Do-hun had scattered. Gyeong-jae, Tang Se-yeong, and Tang Hye-seo's subordinate cut tree branches with their swords to make stretchers. While everyone was busily moving about, Tang Hye-seo approached me.
"Is it over?"
"It has to be."
Tang Hye-seo stared with her cold eyes at the wandering swordsman standing awkwardly. Of the three wandering swordsmen hired from the Wandering Swordsmen Inn, two had been struck by poisoned hidden weapons during the chaotic fight and had died. Somehow, one had managed to survive.
The middle-aged wandering swordsman that Won Seo-gang called 'brother'. Tang Hye-seo gazed at the wandering swordsman and drew her sword again. It was the expected course of action.
He had been entangled in the Tang Clan's affairs and had seen their dirty laundry; it would be difficult to let him live. This was often the fate of wandering swordsmen hired for money. It was bitter, but it was not my place to interfere.
"Wa-wait a minute. I fought with my life on the line, and you're doing this?"
"I don't expect you to understand."
As Tang Hye-seo took a step forward, the wandering swordsman clenched his teeth and gripped the hilt of his sword. However, he only trembled, unable to draw it easily. Tang Hye-seo had subdued the senior Extermination Hall member without difficulty.
The wandering swordsman must have instinctively known that the moment he drew his sword, he would die. The wandering swordsman took a step back, looking around. He glanced at me, then spoke to Won Seo-gang.
"Great Hero Won. Is there no way for me to live?"
I expected him to be ignored, but Won Seo-gang said something unexpected.
"Can you do anything?"
"Huh? Y-yes, I'll do anything! Just leave it to me!"
"Then join the Underworld Information Clan. Then you can live."
The wandering swordsman's eyes widened.
"The Underworld Information Clan? You were a member?"
"I have a foot in it."
"Ah, I understand. I'll join the Underworld Information Clan. Please take care of me."
As the wandering swordsman grasped his lifeline, Tang Hye-seo asked.
"Is the Underworld Information Clan vouching for this man?"
"I will mediate. Go to the Western Village and speak with the branch master. Great Hero Jeong here and I are also witnesses, so one more won't change anything."
"Is this man tight-lipped?"
"He will be. If not in life, then in death. I'll guarantee that."
The terrified wandering swordsman desperately defended himself.
"I'm tight-lipped, as tight as Mount Tai. Maybe because I'm getting old, but my night vision is bad and my memory is poor, so I don't even know what I saw. Where is this place, who am I..."
Tang Hye-seo sheathed her sword.
"Let's talk at the branch of the Underworld Information Clan."
Watching this, I felt like it wasn't someone else's story. That wandering swordsman's fate was identical to mine right after I heard the secret of the pavilion master and Lee Yun-jae. If he ever let his tongue slip, he would immediately be found as a corpse in a back alley.
Along with anyone else who heard the leaked information. From Tang Hye-seo's perspective, killing him would have been easier and more certain, so her stepping back was a bit surprising. It seemed the cooperative relationship between the Tang Clan and the Underworld Information Clan was much closer than I had thought.
I wondered why Won Seo-gang had saved that wandering swordsman when they didn't even seem particularly close. He could have gotten into trouble if things went wrong. The members of the Extermination Hall, having collected all the hidden weapons, gathered in one place.
They carried the two bound traitors on stretchers and returned to the inn together. The impressive night, where I had experienced both the rumored hidden weapon techniques of the Tang Clan and their unexpectedly flexible attitude, passed, and the day dawned. Skipping breakfast, we hurriedly boarded the carriage and headed back the way we came yesterday.
When we reached the gorge where the bandits had been slaughtered, a terrible stench pierced our noses under the hot sun. Flies buzzed like swarms of bees, and wolves that had their noses buried in the corpses, greedily tearing at them, were startled by the sound of the carriage and lifted their heads.
They stared at us intently, licking their blood-soaked snouts with their long tongues. Seeing them so openly licking their lips, my hand instinctively went to my long blade. I wanted to set the place on fire, but dealing with beasts was a waste of time.
I sat in the carriage with my arms crossed, and soon we left the hellish mountain and entered the main road. We pushed on without rest and were able to return to my beloved hometown, the Western Village, by early afternoon. Since the requested mission was over, I briefly stopped by the Deep Fragrance Pavilion before heading straight home.
It was an empty house, and I had only been away for one night, but I was so glad to be back it touched my heart. I put down my long blade and pack and lay down on the wooden floor. A hazy drowsiness washed over me with the pleasantly blowing breeze.
The sound of the bamboo forest rustling in the distance was faint, like a memory beckoning from beyond. In the cozy dream, I made a promise to myself once more. That I would not leave my hometown again.....
The Tang Clan members secluded themselves in the detached houses. Two days later, the Tang Clan's reinforcements, who had departed from Sichuan, arrived at the Deep Fragrance Pavilion.
"Tang Do-hun, where are the Iron Arm Guards you stole?"
At the Inner Hall Elder's question, Tang Do-hun, tied to a chair, answered calmly.
"I sold them."
Having not washed for several days, Tang Do-hun's appearance was shabby. Since the Tang Clan members were known to be cruel, I thought they would have started by pulling out his fingernails and branding him with a hot iron, but there were no signs of torture at all.
For those who specialized in poison, there were far more effective methods than that. A truth serum made by mixing opium with a confusion powder. With one bottle of that, there wasn't a mouth in this world that wouldn't open.
So, Tang Do-hun's answer was probably the truth. The elder asked back, sounding incredulous.
"Sold them? One of the three great divine artifacts of the Tang Clan? Have you ever seen such an ungrateful bastard?"
"Hahahahaha!"
Tang Do-hun burst into a mad laugh. He laughed for a long time, the sound echoing through the underground interrogation room, then glared at the elder with hazy eyes.
"To bestow something I never once wanted, and then call it a favor... how very like the Tang Clan."
"Have you forgotten that you too are a member of the Tang Clan?"
"I am not a Tang. My father was a Jo. I am Jo Do-hun."
"Your father received the surname Tang as a favor from the Tang Clan. And your mother is a daughter of the Tang Clan. How can you deny your own blood?"
Tang Do-hun's bloodshot eyes widened.
"I hate the Tang Clan. Being despised for being from a branch family, having to suffer by drinking terrible poisons since the age of seven to cultivate my resistance, the suffocatingly closed-off family tradition... I loved my main family. The Jo Family Clinic, nestled in a quiet country village, was the only escape from the brutal and merciless Tang family."
The elder frowned as if he remembered something.
"The sweet smell of brewing medicinal herbs was the best thing in the world. Every time I visited during the holidays, I keenly realized that I was better suited for medicine that saves people, not poison that kills them."
A hint of murderous intent began to creep into Tang Do-hun's voice.
"That ended when I was about twelve. The members of my main family were suddenly massacred. It was said to be the work of a band of robbers, but I later learned the truth. That the culprit was a Tang Clan member. The problem was the prescription for a strange disease my grandfather had newly concocted. The previous Clan Lord, who accidentally found out that it could halve the effect of the eight great poisons, acted quickly. Very quickly... phew."
After letting out a long sigh as if his whole body was collapsing, Tang Do-hun continued.
"He could have just warned them not to produce it, but he just killed them all. He must have been quite flustered. After all, poison is the Tang Clan's power. He must have thought it would be dangerous if the information leaked, even by the slightest chance. That's when I decided. To take revenge on the Tang Clan... That's why I joined the Extermination Hall, which specializes in antidotes........."
The elder, who had been listening silently, finally spoke.
"To whom did you sell the Iron Arm Guards?"
"I don't know. I handed them over to a broker in the black market, so you can look into it if you want. Hehehehe."
"If the Iron Arm Guards fall into the wrong hands, it could bring great disaster to the Tang Clan. Do you think your remaining family will be safe?"
Tang Do-hun shook his head with a detached expression.
"I only did as I was taught. A favor is repaid twice, a grudge is repaid ten times. While working in the Extermination Hall, I repaid the favors twice over. Now it's time to repay the grudge tenfold........."
From behind, Tang Hye-seo watched the interrogation with a complicated expression. Traitors could emerge from any family or sect. It was an inevitable occurrence, like weeds growing in a field.
She had seen traitors being weeded out many times since she was young, but this was the first time a high-ranking figure like the Vice Lord was involved. Although Tang Do-hun was from a branch family, his talent in hidden weapon techniques and poison arts was highly valued, and he had been promoted to a high position, which was unusual.
He had a gentle disposition and did not treat his subordinates poorly, so he was on good terms with many and had many followers. No one could be sure how many more traitors and followers who had cooperated with Tang Do-hun there were. If they were captured rashly, it could lead to a bloody conflict among relatives in the capital.
When Tang Do-hun framed Tang Se-yeong for stealing the Iron Arm Guards and led the pursuit squad out of Sichuan, they decided to use that against him. To capture him after he was far from the main clan.
Unable to trust fellow Tang Clan members, she had borrowed the power of the Underworld Information Clan, accompanied only by a single subordinate. She hadn't thought it possible, but Tang Do-hun was truly a traitor. When this fact becomes known, a shock and agitation greater than what Tang Hye-seo had experienced would strike the Tang Clan.
The Clan Lord would have to be informed, but officially, Tang Do-hun would be recorded as having died while carrying out a mission outside. The members of the Extermination Hall who were at the scene would be re-educated in the Tang Clan's prison until the situation calmed down.
The whereabouts of the Iron Arm Guards were unknown, but fortunately, no other great poisons or hidden weapons had been leaked. Without the poisons and hidden weapons to be installed inside, the Iron Arm Guards were just a cumbersome shield worn on the arm. After the interrogation, the elder and Tang Hye-seo went up to the ground level.
As they came outside, a waiting Tang Clan member ran up to them.
"Elder. A carrier pigeon has arrived from the main clan."
After receiving the small tube and checking its contents, the elder's face darkened.
"What is it?"
"While checking the inventory of the secret storage, they confirmed that some poisons from the Hall of Ten Thousand Poisons have disappeared."
"Don't tell me it's a great poison?"
The elder stroked his beard with a dubious expression.
"Divine Immortal's Ruin and the Gentleman's Dispersal Powder."
Tang Hye-seo was bewildered.
"Aren't they both inner energy-scattering poisons? What about other poisons?"
"Fortunately, nothing else has been leaked. The security of the secret storage is so tight, it seems they took whatever they could..."
Of all things to take because they were relatively easy to steal, they were inner energy-scattering poisons. It made no sense. Although Divine Immortal's Ruin and the Gentleman's Dispersal Powder were classified among the eight great poisons, they had no toxicity on their own.
As the name 'inner energy-scattering poison' suggests, they only interfere with and scatter the user's ability to draw upon their inner energy. To ordinary martial artists without inner energy, they were more harmless than the lime powder Jeong Dae-cheon had scattered a few days ago.
Martial artists were as common as grains of sand on a riverbank, but among them, those who had properly learned an inner cultivation method were extremely rare. Absolute masters who could transcend human limits by infusing profound inner energy into their forms could be counted on one's fingers.
To have taken only the inner energy-scattering poisons among so many deadly toxins meant... As Tang Hye-seo logically traced the cause and effect, she suddenly shuddered. Someone is targeting an absolute master.
With the Tang Clan's poisons and weapons. The thought of someone fighting an absolute master with the Iron Arm Guards loaded with Divine Immortal's Ruin and the Gentleman's Dispersal Powder made her head spin. The leaders of the Nine Sects, the Alliance Leader, the heads of the other Five Great Families...
No matter who it was, if they were ambushed with an inner energy-scattering poison and the Tang Clan was identified as the culprit, the entire sect could be embroiled in a bloodbath. In the worst-case scenario, they could be declared a public enemy of the martial world.
The Nine Sects and the great families already viewed the Tang Clan with unease. Even if they claimed their secret weapons were stolen, those factions wouldn't miss the chance to attack them. She had thought that once Tang Do-hun was caught, the situation would be resolved.
It was a foolish misconception. This was only the beginning. Before returning to Sichuan, Tang Hye-seo sought me out.
"About that Seven Steps Soul-Breaking Powder..."
I flinched.
Was she going to reprimand me for impersonating a Tang Clan great poison?
"It's a poison refined into a powder form, but its color is a pale yellow. Not white. Just for your reference."
"...... Is that what you called me for?"
"Everything must be precise. They were fooled because it was night. In the daytime, it wouldn't have worked. See you again."
There would probably be no 'see you again'. The Tang Clan would be busy for a while, checking for more traitors and searching for the stolen Iron Arm Guards. Of course, that had nothing to do with me.
For killing bandits and surviving a deadly storm of hidden weapons, ten silver taels were placed in my hand. For two days' work, they added four silver taels as a bonus, so the Tang Clan's pay wasn't so bad.
"By the way, what are the Iron Arm Guards?"
Won Seo-gang tilted his head as he poured tea.
"I don't know. It seems to be some kind of artifact made by the Tang Clan, but I've never seen it myself."
"The fact that there are no proper rumors about it must mean that the people who have seen it didn't have time to tell anyone about their experience."
They were probably all killed. Dead men tell no tales.
"Why did you save that wandering swordsman, the one called Brother Dong? You could get into trouble later."
"You mean Dong Ho-sak? That friend is quite useful. It would be a waste to have him killed to silence him."
"What kind of talent does he have?"
"A talent for climbing walls. According to him, he's a self-proclaimed master thief who has never met a wall he couldn't climb."
"A thief?"
"Aren't all martial artists like that? I saw him before, he really climbs walls like a snake. He said he once audaciously tried to rob the Namgung Family, got a knife to the face, and barely escaped with his life, then switched to being a wandering swordsman."
"I was thinking of winning him over someday anyway, so now that he's under the wing of the Underworld Information Clan, I've managed to get what I want without lifting a finger."
"To rob the Black Night Gang?"
Won Seo-gang gave a strange smile.
"If he returned alive from the Namgung Family, infiltrating the Black Night Gang should be a piece of cake. If he's lying, he'll pay the price there."
So that was it. There was no way he would risk danger to save a wandering swordsman he barely knew out of sympathy. I chatted with Won Seo-gang in the detached house for a bit before returning home.
As I was idly chewing on jerky while watching the sunset glow, someone started pounding on my main gate. I went outside and saw it was Gu-sam.
"I told you, you don't need to make a delivery today."
"Hero! Hero! It's urgent! Please open the gate, quick!"
"If you need to relieve yourself, go to the mountain."
"It's not that, someone's looking for you, Hero! They came to the inn and even showed a portrait."
My ears perked up. When I opened the gate, Gu-sam rushed in. He was panting heavily from running so fast.
"Who's looking for me?"
"A Daoist... pant, pant, an old man who looks like a Daoist... He came to the inn, ordered a meal, and then showed a portrait asking if we'd seen this person. And guess what, a face that was clearly yours, Hero, was on it."
"So?"
"I said I didn't know who it was. Then I pretended to do other work, slipped out, and ran here as fast as I could."
"I thought as much."
Those were not my words. Someone pushed open the half-open main gate and walked inside. It was an old man with white hair, wearing a white Daoist robe.
"Hic!"
Gu-sam shrieked, stumbled backward, and fell on his butt. The old man stared intently at my face.
"The face is a rough match."
"Who are you?"
Regardless of my wariness, the old man spoke as if to himself.
"You, in Hangzhou, you received a saber art from a one-armed man, didn't you?"