"What's with this bastard? Can't you understand what I'm saying?"
Seeing no reaction from me, the ruffian's bravado grew. He raised his voice and stood up, approaching me. More than his thick build, the broad knife at his waist caught my eye first.
I put down my teacup and observed him with cold, sunken eyes. His rough features were flushed red with drink, his two eyes gleaming murkily. Contrary to his powerful appearance, the presence he gave off was weak.
It felt like he was the type to make a living by intimidating people with his face rather than his strength. He was the perfect sort to be a bandit somewhere. His steps were uneven and his movements were full of openings.
If he had properly learned footwork or lightness arts, he would not walk so sloppily, no matter how drunk he was. It was one of two things. Either he was a supreme master whose level was so different that I could not discern it, or he was a pathetic idiot showing off while drunk.
No matter how I looked at it, he seemed to be the latter. Like most criminals rolling around in the martial world, fellows like this were usually illiterate and ignorant. They would never understand words.
There was only one way to open the ears of such men. The man strode toward me fearlessly. When he was two steps away from my knife’s reach, I reached out and grabbed the long blade propped up beside me.
I quickly moved to the side of the table and took a large step forward. In an instant, I closed the distance and thrust out forcefully with my long blade, still in its scabbard. His reaction was at least two beats too slow.
Before he could even grab his hilt, the tip of my scabbard struck him in the solar plexus.
"Gah!"
The man flew backward. A single, ordinary thrust that could not even be called a form sent him, despite his size, tumbling pathetically to the floor. His companions at the table near the back door shot to their feet.
They were about to draw their swords, but both flinched when I raised my long blade. I stared at them calmly and gestured toward the door with my chin. "If you want to use your swords, let's do it outside.
I don't feel like eating next to a corpse.” The two idiots swallowed dryly, looking at me, then turned their eyes to their fallen comrade. They exchanged glances and took their hands off their hilts.
It was one of the few wise choices that men who groveled at the bottom could make in their lives. It seemed the fool choking and gasping for air was the strongest of the three. Loyalty be damned, the most important thing in this world was, of course, keeping one's head attached to one's neck.
And it went without saying that it was better to live in this world with your arms and legs intact as well.
"Get lost."
The idiots helped their companion up and carried him out. I had expected some sort of threat to save face, like "You'll pay for this," or "Do you know who I am," but they did not even look back. It seemed they were afraid that if they provoked me, I might change my mind and follow them with my knife.
I watched until the three idiot brothers disappeared down the main road, then sat back down. The two farmers who had finished their noodles glanced at me nervously as they paid and hurried out of the inn. The waiter, who had taken refuge in the kitchen, brought out my food.
"Do you know who those men are?"
The waiter looked around the inn. Even though I was the only customer left, he lowered his voice as if he still felt unsafe.
"Just some local ruffians."
"Do they have a backer?"
"They go around saying they're members of the Black Night Gang, but I don't think so. The person who comes to collect the protection money is someone else."
"How much protection money do you pay?"
"Half a silver tael a month."
I was about to pick up a dumpling with my chopsticks but placed it back on the plate. Maybe I should have asked after I finished eating. I had suddenly lost my appetite.
Half a silver tael was 500 coins, enough for a full sack of rice. A month's wages for a low-ranking official. By the rates in the world of wandering swordsmen, you would have to cut down a third-rate martial artist to earn that much.
It was by no means a small amount. Especially for a shabby inn like this one, located away from the main thoroughfare. This is suffocating, really...
It was nothing new for those on the dark path to extort money. But not in my hometown. Everyone here was poor, but no one ever stooped to such trashy behavior.
Anger and frustration surged up like a raging fire. Maybe I should have just killed all three of them. A belated murderous intent began to boil inside me.
They were clearly sons of bitches. They were criminals who would not do a single good deed even if they lived for another hundred years.
"How big is the Black Night Gang?"
"I don't know the details."
"Tell me what you know."
Glancing at the open door, the waiter spoke.
"As far as I know, they do anything that makes money, from gambling dens and bars to the Flame King House. A rough estimate would be over fifty members."
"Are there no other dark path factions?"
"There are, but I hear they all either broke away from the Black Night Gang or pay tribute to them. They say the leader of the Black Night Gang is from some sword school. There's no one around here who hasn't heard of Black Killing Sword Jeok Chu-yeong."
"You seem to know a lot. Is this place, by any chance, a branch of the Underworld Clan?"
"What? No." The waiter shook his head with a bewildered look.
"When you work at an inn, you hear things whether you want to or not. Everyone's tongue loosens up after a drink, you know."
I had only asked in jest. If the village was this prosperous, an inn run by the Underworld Clan would not be this shabby. Still, the cook's skill with food was decent enough.
I had half expected those idiots to come back for revenge with someone stronger, but nothing happened by the time I finished my meal and stood up. I slung the long blade across my back and shouldered my pack. As I paid for the meal and two nights' lodging and turned to leave, the waiter tilted his head.
"Aren't you going to your room?"
"I'm going to take a look around the town."
"Um, great hero, if it's alright with you, shall I be your guide? I know this town inside and out."
The waiter looked up at me with rather bright, eager eyes. It would be better than wandering around alone. If I did not like it, I could just send him back to the inn.
"Lead the way."
"Just a moment. I'll let them know I'm leaving."
The waiter quickly ran to the kitchen.
"Shouldn't you be preparing for the evening rush? Where are you going?"
"The guest who's staying tonight wants a tour of the town."
"Hey, still… What are you doing? Gu-sam. The guest is waiting, you know? Hurry back!"
The cook, who was about to say something, suddenly changed his tune. It seemed the waiter had shared some of the coins he received from me.
"Let's go, great hero."
The excited waiter quickly ran out and led me onto the street. As I followed the waiter into a back alley, the lively noise of the street completely vanished. Though it was still a bright afternoon, the area was deserted and had a gloomy atmosphere.
Most of the buildings along the road had their doors closed. I guessed they were gambling dens or bars that operated at night. The men sitting idly at the entrances of shady inns or buildings with open doors stared blankly at me as I passed.
Every one of them had the thuggish face that belonged in a back alley. Though smaller in stature than the man I had knocked down at the inn, they were criminals ready to turn into robbers at any moment. After entering the alley, the waiter fell silent and stuck close to my side.
I casually scanned the men, gauging their weapons and skills with my eyes. As I walked, I mulled over in my head how I would fight and escape if a conflict were to break out here, then stopped in the middle of the alley. The five-story pavilion the waiter had told me about was at the end of the alley.
I could see two guards with swords. It seemed getting any closer would be a bother. I had no intention of going inside the building anyway.
Even from a distance, the idiotic-looking sign was easy to see. Black Night Gang.
"What a name... just in case anyone forgot they were on the dark path."
I felt like I had seen a hundred factions with the same name while wandering the Central Plains. That was about the best you could expect when illiterate fools who could not even read the Thousand Character Classic racked their brains.
If it meant that their insides were black and that they did business at night, then in a way, it was a truly honest name. A dark path in my hometown… Not a single person from my hometown recognized me.
How was this any different from any other city in the Central Plains? I shook off the melancholic feeling and turned away. There were too many wolf-like eyes for me to be lost in sentiment.
I left the back alley and returned to the midst of ordinary people living their honest and earnest daily lives. The waiter let out a sigh of relief.
"Aren't there any orthodox sects affiliated with the Alliance?"
The orthodox sects and martial families in the Alliance prided themselves on being part of the righteous sect, but at the end of the day, they were still martial artists who drew their swords at the slightest provocation.
There was no good in getting involved with them, but nothing was better than the Alliance for keeping the heads of unorthodox or dark path factions in check.
"There's nothing like that, but there is an escort agency."
"An escort agency?"
"Yes. You see that mountain foothill to the north? That's it. The Dragon Sky Escort Agency."
Following the waiter's hand, I looked up over the rooftops of the shops. In the distance, against the backdrop of the mountain, I could see tall pavilions rising like towers.
"The master of that escort agency is a lay disciple of the Qingcheng Sect and an incredible master. They say when he swings his sword once, it splits into six, and when he throws a punch, he can shatter boulders. I heard it's some ultimate art of the Qingcheng Sect…"
Escort agencies of a certain size almost always had martial factions and officials as their backers. Most of them formed connections with the orthodox sects that held sway in their region. In Henan, it was Shaolin.
In Hubei, Wudang. In Shaanxi, Mount Hua and Zhongnan...
"That's a bit surprising. This isn't Sichuan, so a disciple of the Qingcheng Sect..."
The waiter easily resolved my question.
"I heard this from the elders, but when this village was abandoned due to famine, the escort agency was the first to come and settle down…"
The boy spoke as fluently as if he were a member of the Underworld Information Clan. I thought it was a good idea to bring him along. If I could find out the story behind how my hometown became like this, even ten coins would not be a waste.
Wherever you go in the big cities, the established powers are always watching with glaring eyes. It is not an easy thing for an escort agency or an orthodox sect to overcome the local territorialism and infighting to survive. There were probably already escort agencies run by lay disciples of Qingcheng and Emei in Sichuan.
If one's backer was not strong enough to overcome the establishment, carving out a niche in an unknown land was a decent survival method. The road from the main road was narrow, but the Western Village itself was spacious.
The soil was not good for farming, but it was surrounded by mountains, and a river flowed through the middle of the village. It was not a bad location for an orthodox sect or a martial family to establish themselves. Wholesale merchants followed the escort agency in, and various shops opened to cater to the escorts.
After the access road was widened, all sorts of aimless drifters from everywhere gathered, dreaming of a new life.
"Does the Black Night Gang own that brothel too?"
Among the unrecognizably changed scenery of my hometown, the splendid eight-story pavilion had shocked me the most. When I pointed to it, the waiter shook his head.
"No." "No?"
"Yes. The guards at the Deep Fragrance Pavilion over there are from the Dragon Sky Escort Agency. The warriors of the Black Night Gang don't even go near the brothel. They absolutely do not mess with the Dragon Sky Escort Agency."
"Is that so?"
"Yes, it's true. The escort agency master's martial might is one thing, but the escort leaders are also incredible masters. I heard an escort leader once got into a fight with some Black Night Gang members and took down five of them by himself."
It seemed that the dark path faction called the Black Night Gang and the Dragon Sky Escort Agency, with its ties to the Qingcheng Sect, were maintaining a balance of power while posing as the righteous faction.
"When it comes to the Deep Fragrance Pavilion, Ye Hyang is the most famous. She's an incredible beauty, and her pipa playing is said to be out of this world. Rumors of it must have spread to the big city, because the prefect of the city or other high-ranking officials often visit. But to drink there, the minimum is two silver taels. To see Ye Hyang, it's five silver taels and up..."
"Have you ever heard of the Righteous Fortune Merchant Guild?"
"The Righteous Fortune Merchant Guild?"
The waiter, who had been chattering excitedly about the Deep Fragrance Pavilion like a tout, blinked with a sour expression.
"No. It's my first time hearing that name. Is it a new shop?"
"I'll have to find out from here. You've done well."
I gave the waiter five coins for his trouble and sent him back to the inn first. I turned my steps toward the area where the shops were concentrated to find the broker named Yeon Jin-won, or was it Jin-hyeon, and the Righteous Fortune Merchant Guild.