Chapter 60
Chapter 60: Divine Sword of King Shura (3)
Translator: hwarang
Editor: Klaurem
The next day I received the information about the man who was with Sa Ma Chun.
His name was Jo Byuk. He was originally a rogue expert who caught the attention of Sa Ma Chun and became his long-serving right-hand man.
He did all sorts of illegal things including assassination, but he was able to get out using Heavenly Dao Gate’s name. There was other information about him but this was the most pivotal piece of information. Another bit of important information that I found was when he was still a rogue expert there were three mercenaries with him. Since they followed him like shadows, they were given the name the Three Rogues. If Jo Byuk was going to do something, he would most definitely use these three individuals.
So I went back to the Heavenly Net Guild to investigate these three individuals. I told them to investigate the three as soon as possible. I didn’t need to know their skills, just where they were and how they looked. As I wanted to know this information faster than normal, I had to spend twice as much money. However, since it was something related to Baek Pyo, I didn’t feel bad about spending all of my money. Even if I went broke, I wouldn’t regret it.
I needed to take care of this very carefully. Since Sa Ma Chun is one the pillars of the Alliance I couldn’t afford to get involved with him just yet.
Baek Pyo welcomed me wholeheartedly again today, “You came again today.”
“Didn’t I tell you I was going to make you rich?”
“Haha, I should open up another location.”
I felt that I needed to get closer to Baek Pyo for the future, so I told him everything about me. That I was the heir of the Byuk Clan in the San Dong City. As well as how I wanted to expand our clan and change the Kang Ho.
I was told him these things so that in the future I could bring him and his family back to San Dong with me.
The most important thing about a relationship is trust. You can’t make strong relationships if you are distrustful from the beginning. Also Baek Pyo could get the wrong idea of me if I lied to him so I decided to be truthful with him.
This was a very important task for me since this will allow to me to direct a dangerous situation away from him while building my relationship with him.
“Young master Byuk, you should be in your prime springtime of youth.”
It seemed that Baek Pyo was jealous of my youth.
“You are still young yourself, aren’t you?”
“Haha, my springtime of youth passed by many springs ago.”
“I don’t think one's age is important, what is more important is to have a youthful heart.”
“Is it?”
“Saying things like this makes me sound like an old man.”
“No. There are many aspects about you young master Byuk that makes you different from your peers.”
“So you are saying that I am old?”
Embarrassed, Baek Pyo said, “That’s not what I meant. I mean that there is something about you that makes you seem different from others.”
Of course, I would be different than others. Do you know how much I care about you? Baek Pyo-ya! I wanted to cry out his name and hug him, but I cannot do that right now.
“That is a compliment, right?”
“Of course.”
“Then, I will drink toyour good intention. Please bring me some alcohol.”
There were some customers in the evening. I carefully inspected them to see if they were dangerous characters, but it seemed they were normal customers. So, I drank late into the evening and went back to my inn.
***
The next day I got the information about the three mercenaries from the Heavenly Net Guild. They told me that the three of them were on their way to Mu Han. This only verified my prediction. They wouldn’t come to Mu Han without orders, meaning that they were on their way to assist Jo Byuk with whatever he was going to do.
The Three Rogues must be individuals who were crueler than Jo Byuk since they were mercenaries.
I grew angrier at Jo Byuk and Sa Ma Chun.
So, they want to use these dirty bastards to do their dirty work for them, huh?
However I had to calm my heart. There was scum everywhere in Kang Ho. What I had to do now was not get angry but think of a way to protect Baek Pyo.
Their expected time of arrival was five days from now. Meaning I had to take care of this within those five days, and if I cannot do that then I’ll just have to eliminate them when they arrive. Eliminating them wouldn’t be hard, but Baek Pyo would take the blame for it. So I had to take care of this as cleanly as possible.
After the person from Heavenly Net Guild left, I was deep in thought while I was strolling down the street.
In my last life, if I had a problem I would usually take a stroll while thinking of some ways to solve it. Thinking like this reminded me how much I missed Kal Sa Ryang.
How much easier would my life be if Kal Sa Ryang was by my side right now?
I recalled a conversation that I had with him before.
“How can you be so brilliant?”
“You praise me too much sir.”
“No need to be humble.”
“The more complex the problem, the simpler the solution.”
“Do you know, by saying something like that you are belittling us even more. It may be simple to you, but for us we wouldn’t have even thought of something like that.”
If the solution to this problem was simple as well, what would it be?
The problem is Sa Ma Chun wanted the King Shura’s Divine Sword. He was suspecting that Baek Pyo had it, and Baek Pyo did have it.
The solution to this problem was to…prove that Baek Pyo doesn’t have King Shura’s Divine Sword.
But how?
However, that wasn’t the only problem. Even if Baek Pyo got out of this unscathed, Sa Ma Chun would suspect Kal Sa Ryang even more. And King Shura’s Divine Sword was too precious to hand off to them…
Then something came to my mind. What if I made them believe King Shura’s Divine Sword wasn’t there from the start? What if I made them think that I, the previous mengju, got rid of the weapon?
I was standing still on the street deep in thought.
How long did I stay there for?
When I started moving again. It was not a contemplative step, but a step towards my plan.
***
The manager of the Heavenly Net Guild, Ban Suh Jung, was silently staring at her tea.
“What are you thinking so hard about?”
The Chef from inside the kitchen approached her. The Chef was her guard as well an elder of the Heavenly Net Guild, and his name was Elder Bing.
Elder Bing had taken care of Ban Suh Jung ever since she was little. The relationship between the two of them was like that of a grandfather and granddaughter. He knew what she was thinking just by looking at her.
“Someone from the Murim Alliance called to meet with me.”
“Was it Ma Bong Gi? What does that old rat want?”
Elder Bing knew everything about Ma Bong Gi, and he hated that old rat.
“It wasn’t Ma Bong Gi but Sa Ma Chun. It seems that he sent some people to Ghostly Eye Palace, and The Thousand Crossroads Guild as well.”
“So he wants to make us compete with one another.”
“That’s what it seems like.”
“Scheming rats, like master like servant. I am worried about the future of Kang Ho.” Elder Bing made an exhausted expression.
The Heavenly Net Guild, The Ghostly Eye palace, and the Thousand Crossroad guilds were the three largest information guilds in all of Kang Ho. Since these three guilds controlled most of the information in Kang Ho they were one of the major powers of Kang Ho.
When Chun Ha Jin was still alive, he would always give them face and summon all three of them at once. Most of the agreements would take place after various talks with the members of the True Heart Sect, then move up to Chancellor Kal, and then finally to the mengju.
Now however, they were just being directly summoned without any choice. They were not getting the respect that they once received.
Staring down at the tea cup, Ban Suh Jung's eyes were lonely as ever.
“Have you heard any news about that person?”
Ban Suh Jung looked up curiously, but she already knew who he was referring to.
Elder Bing said it as he if she didn’t already know, “About the previous chancellor.”
“I heard that he was demoted to a regular advisor.”
She said it as if that was all she knew, but she knew much more. Since she had close ties with the people of True Heart Sect she knew that he was being harassed by Sa Ma Chun, and that Sa Ma Chun was looking for the King Shura’s Divine Sword.
“He will… endure it well. Since he is a strong person.”
She already knew that Kal Sa Ryang had feelings for her and she didn’t hate it. However, Kal Sa Ryang never truly opened his heart to her. Would the situation be different if he confessed his feelings for her? It could be.
Elder Bing knew the feelings that these two had for each other. ‘This frustrating pair!’
However, he knew that he couldn’t get involved with their affairs.
Then one of their subordinates came in disguised as a customer, “It seems like you have to go to headquarters right now.”
***
After about an hour of waiting at the headquarters, a woman appeared with an elderly man.
I knew who it was, it was the manager of the Heavenly Net Guild.
“I heard that you are here to sell some very important information?”
Although she sounded and looked different from normal I knew that she was the manager, but she didn’t know who I was. I applied a new face-alteration mask and changed my voice.
“Yes I am.”
Although information merchants usually sold information, there were occasions where they would also buy information.
“So this information is something that the late Mengju left behind?”
“Yes. A piece of writing that had never been revealed.”
This was the reason why she personally came here.
I took out the paper.
“It’s the previous Mengju, Chun Ha Jin’s writing.
“How do you know it belonged to Chun Ha Jin?”
“I am sure that you would know if it was his writing.”
“Can you allow us to verify it?”
“Of course.”
An elderly man entered the room.
I folded the paper and only showed the first few lines. The old man brought a magnifying lens and compared his note with mine.
After some time, the old man nodded and retreated. This meant that it was Chun Ha Jin’s writing.
Of course it would be. Since I personally wrote it and brought it here. I just made some alterations so that it looked old.
“I must see it to see how much it is worth. Will you allow me to see it?”
“Yes. I trust the Heavenly Net Guild. I am sure you will not try to betray my trust.”
“Don’t worry.”
I gave the paper to the old man. Then he put the paper on a tray and gave it to the manager. After reading the paper she was surprised.
I put something related to martial arts. It wasn’t anything important. It was just a piece of my Ashura Soul Chasing Sword Art that I changed so that it was irrelevant.
But the important part was this.
…I was unable to achieve my life goal, the Spirit Sword State. Now I am going to get rid of my friend, the King Shura’s Divine Sword, that has accompanied me for countless years so that I can find a new approach to reach the Spirit Sword State. I am leaving everything to fate. The reason why I am leaving this note behind is because this marks the end of a chapter of my life…
I wrote about how I got rid of King Shura’s Divine Sword. I knew that Kal Sa Ryang had feelings for Ban Suh Jung, and that was the reason why I visited the store ran by her. Since I believed she had feelings for him as well, I assumed that she knew what was happening with Kal Sa Ryang.
Thus, I will leave this piece of information with her so that she could somehow give pass it along to Sa Ma Chun, so that it can be used to get Kal Sa Ryang out of his bind. Since she already had the paper it was their information now.
Even if she didn’t do what I expected, it wouldn’t matter since I will pass this to Sa Ma Chun as well.
“How much will you buy this information for?”
“Ten thousand nyang”
She didn’t ask where I got this from. Since that was part of their code.
I really didn’t want her money, rather, I wanted to give her money. However I could not make it too obvious.
“No, give me fifteen thousand nyang.”
“This information is worth ten thousand nyang.”
I tried all sort of acts to try bargain with them but in the end, I gave up.
“Alright, I’ll sell it for ten thousand.”
“Thank you for being considerate.”
Sometime later, a man gave me a bag full of money. Just like the Shrouded City Merchants everything was done through traceless bank notes.
I didn’t know what she was going to do with it. All that I could hope for was her to pass along the information.
If Sa Ma Chun received information like this now, his suspicions could rise. However, since it was personally written by the previous mengju he would have to accept it. If he did that then Baek Pyo would be cleared of all suspicion and wouldn’t be bothered.
There could be some other variables that might come into play; however, this was the best solution that I thought of.
All I could do was throw it into the Heavenly Net Guild and hope that nothing bad will happen.
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