Wudang Sacred Scriptures

Chapter 219

CRAAASH!

Shoving aside the splinters of the shattered table, the Nanchang Prefecture Beggar Clan Branch Master came charging in with a tremendous racket, and Chwi Dugae barked at him.

“Branch Master, don’t make a fuss.”

“It’s just that it’s been so long since I last saw you, Sub-Branch Master... But really, you might at least have sent word you were coming. Then I’d have had a yellow dog ready and waiting for you, just the way you like it.”

The Nanchang Branch Master grinned foolishly as he spoke, but all the while his sidelong gaze flicked quickly over Kwak Yeon.

It was plain in his eyes that he had heard from the Black Moon Society men what had happened earlier in this restaurant.

“Even now I could send the boys out to get a yellow dog...”

“Forget the yellow dog. Go down to the ferry.”

“At this hour of the night, what brings you to the ferry...? It’s not even the season when the river fish are any good.”

“I’m telling you to go and fix us a black boat leaving for Gujiang County tonight.”

The Nanchang Branch Master’s eyes flew wide open.

“A black boat for Gujiang County?”

The “black boats” were the ones that ran by night to slip past the eyes of official patrol boats.

“Then you mean you’re leaving as soon as you arrive...?”

“What, you’re that happy I’m going straight away?”

“Never! How could I... I want to serve you for a very, very long—”

“Drop the words your heart doesn’t mean.”

“...”

“Anyway, there will be at least one black boat leaving tonight, won’t there?”

“Half the folk in Nanchang live off black-boat work. There’s no way there wouldn’t be. If an illicit-salt boat is acceptable, I can go sound it out at once. It’s autumn salt season right now, so most of the black boats have already been hired up by the illicit salt merchants.”

“Illicit salt or illicit candles, I don’t care—just make sure you secure two places. And tell them as long as we can leave at once, we’ll pay whatever fare they name.”

“What ‘fare’ when it’s an honor to carry the Sub-Branch Master? Our Nanchang Branch and the black-boat gang here aren’t on such bad terms, you know.”

“Just tell them we’ll pay. But in exchange, you never breathe a word that I’m a passenger on that boat.”

“That’s... ah!”

As Nanchang Branch Master of the Beggar Clan, he knew that the Alliance of the Demonic Path had issued a Public [N O V E L I G H T] Contract for the Dark Cavern Taoist.

He had also heard from the Zhejiang General Branch the news that the Sub-Branch Master was traveling together with the Dark Cavern Taoist as sworn brothers.

“I’ll see to it immediately.”

The Nanchang Branch Master hurried out, and as soon as he was gone Chwi Dugae turned to Kwak Yeon.

“For tonight at least, let’s get ourselves up to Gujiang County at the north end of Poyang Lake. From there we hire a carriage and ride. That way we’ll stay out of people’s sight and won’t have any annoying trouble. It’ll be a bit slower and more cramped than going by boat all the way to the Martial Alliance, but what of it?”

As Chwi Dugae laid out his plan in one clean sweep, Kwak Yeon felt one corner of his chest grow warm. He knew this was the fruit of Chwi’s anxious scheming.

“Thank you... Brother.”

“What are you thanking me for? I’m only doing it because it makes my life easier... ahem.”

Chwi Dugae tried, in his heart, to excuse himself by saying that riding in a carriage meant he didn’t have to do endless martial drills day and night the way they usually did, but even so he couldn’t quite shake off all his embarrassment.

“Anyway, while the Branch Master is off arranging the boat, let’s at least get some food in us. Hells... now that I look, everything’s gone cold.”

They had barely taken a few bites of the dishes on the table, and already they were stone cold.

They simply hadn’t had a moment to spare for food.

“Damn it.”

Even a beggar hesitates to touch food with white congealed grease stuck all over it.

Of late, it had happened to Chwi Dugae more and more often that food sat in front of him and he still didn’t get to eat it, and it soured his mood.

What kind of cursed streak is this, anyway. Tch.

Just then, as Chwi Dugae was smacking his lips in frustrated regret—

“Um... Great Hero!”

The restaurant owner stood there holding a big tray brimming with steaming dishes in both hands.

“...?”

“I was so grateful I prepared a small meal. I was going to bring it over earlier, but I was afraid I’d interrupt your conversation...”

Chwi Dugae’s eyes flew wide.

“Heh, one mustn’t slight a man’s sincerity. Go on, set it down right away. If you hold something heavy too long, it’ll strain your wrists.”

Mouth hanging open in a broad grin, Chwi Dugae helped the owner clear away the cold food and filled the table with the steaming dishes instead.

“Kwak Brother, don’t even think of refusing courtesy of this sort, absolutely, absolutely not. That’s the only way the owner’s heart will be at ease.”

Kwak Yeon, too, had long since realized that unconditional refusal only makes things hard on the other party, and so he nodded readily.

“You’re right.”

He bowed to the restaurant owner.

“We’ll accept it gratefully, without refusing.”

“Oh, compared to the grace you’ve shown us, this is far too little; I’m ashamed. In any case, please eat plenty.”

After the owner bowed politely and withdrew, Chwi Dugae at once snatched up his chopsticks.

From here on, he resolved, any time food appeared he would eat it immediately.

“Come on then, Kwak Brother. Let’s eat.”

But at that moment, Kwak Yeon’s gaze suddenly turned toward the second floor of the dining hall.

Why?

Chwi Dugae whipped his head around too, looking up toward the second floor.

But the seats upstairs were still just as empty as they had been since the fight broke out.

“There’s nothing there. What’s wrong?”

“I heard a faint sound and looked up. I must have been over-sensitive.”

“It was a cat or a rat running around.”

That was what Kwak Yeon himself was thinking. It had been far too faint, and even with the sensory reach of Solitary Moon Illumines the Boundless Skill, he hadn’t felt any other presence.

“Please, go ahead and eat.”

“Right, let’s hurry up and eat.”

Just as Chwi Dugae drove his chopsticks into a chicken leg—

CRAAASH!

“Sub-Branch Masteeer!”

At the Nanchang Branch Master’s thunderous shout, Chwi Dugae squeezed his eyes tightly shut.

Damn it. This really is a proper cursed streak.

Half a shichen after that, Chwi Dugae and Kwak Yeon were standing on the deck of a boat slicing through the waters of Poyang Lake.

Burlap sacks of salt were piled high all over the deck, so that the only space permitted to the two of them, who had become last-minute passengers, was a single corner near the bow.

The night sky was packed with stars, but it was nowhere near enough to light up the black depths of Poyang Lake.

SPLASH, SPLASH.

CREEEAK, CREEEAK.

If not for the sound of waves slapping against the hull and the creak of the oars, it would have felt as though they were adrift in the middle of pure darkness.

The black boat, loaded full of illicit salt, was cleaving straight through the black night itself, living up to its name.

With his back resting against the salt sacks, Chwi Dugae quietly watched the silhouette of Kwak Yeon standing at the prow with the pitch-darkness as his backdrop.

He had stood in that one posture the entire time since they’d boarded.

There was no telling whether he was circulating his qi or deep in thought.

He must have a lot on his mind, anyway.

Chwi Dugae felt sorry for him. The reality Kwak Yeon faced was anything but easy.

His martial realm had climbed to a height where it was hard to even find someone to stand against him. But matters of the Jianghu and the martial world were not something you could cut your way through with one man’s martial arts alone.

That was why martial artists leaned on their sects, built up power, and formed alliances.

The saying in the martial world was that a lone general must inevitably break.

For his part, Chwi Dugae could not understand how Wudang could be so indifferent to Kwak Yeon.

Granted, Kwak Yeon was from Samryeong Palace of the Do-Seon line and held the status of a lay Taoist, but to throw him aside and treat him like cold rice like this went well beyond that.

Even the Alliance of the Demonic Path’s Public Contract, when one came down to it, had its origin in Kwak Yeon acting for the sake of Wudang Sect.

Since the Alliance had proclaimed the Public Contract, there had been no information at all that Wudang Sect had taken any measure or made any move.

It was beyond neglect—close to connivance.

Kwak Brother hasn’t committed some crime of exterminating kin against Wudang, so what on earth is going on?

He was curious, but he could hardly ask what had happened on Mount Wudang. With Kwak Yeon’s disposition, he would hardly answer anyway.

Sigh.

Brooding like a mute with a cold in his chest, Chwi Dugae suddenly sprang up, bracing himself on the Tagu Staff.

“Up we go.”

It wasn’t that his back had gotten damp from leaning against the salt sacks.

For some time now, the murmur of voices from the stern had been tickling his ears, and the black boat’s speed was steadily dropping as well.

“These bastards... this won’t do.”

“...”

“Kwak Brother, don’t mind me. Just stay there.”

Throwing the words like a mutter toward the motionless back of Kwak Yeon, Chwi Dugae gave a light spring and leapt up onto the piled salt sacks.

Srrrk.

There was only the faint scrape of the sacks shifting—a body technique with no wasted motion at all.

Under the pile of salt sacks at the stern of the black boat, five or six men were sitting close together, whispering.

One of them was the black boat’s captain, and the others were illicit salt merchants with leather bags slung diagonally across their chests.

He already had a good guess as to what scheme this lot was hatching.

Back at the ferry, one of the illicit salt merchants had popped his eyes wide open.

It was plainly one of the illicit salt merchants they’d run into below Mount Wuyi in Yunseong County, recognizing him as Hu Gae and recognizing Kwak Yeon as well.

Heh. Even if covetous desire is only human, there are limits.

Their utter failure to know their own place was truly pathetic.

Intending to watch just how ridiculous they would make themselves, Chwi Dugae suppressed his presence and quietly pricked up his ears from right above their heads.

“Captain Wang, we’re about to hit the middle of the lake.”

One of the illicit salt merchants pressed the black boat’s captain.

“Foreman Gi, are you really going to go through with this?”

Captain Wang’s voice, as he asked back at Foreman Gi, was shaking.

“It’s a full million taels of gold.”

“But the target isn’t just anybody. It’s the Dark Cavern Taoist. And the Beggar Clan’s Hu Gae is with him besides.”

“If our Illicit Salt Hall brothers all fling out Poison Salt Sand at once, we’ve got a chance. Captain Wang, you know how terrifying our Poison Salt Sand is.”

“How could I not know how vicious Poison Salt Sand is?”

The illicit salt merchants always carried Poison Salt Sand—a mixture of poisoned salt and poisoned sand—and its virulence was infamous.

Because of that, martial artists were not quick to pick quarrels with illicit salt merchants.

“Even so, they say the Dark Cavern Taoist is the master who killed the Jegal Family’s Coiled Dragon with a single stroke...”

Captain Wang’s voice was still full of fear.

From this, Chwi Dugae could tell that these illicit salt merchants had been working on Captain Wang for a long time.

“Captain Wang, if by some chance the Poison Salt Sand doesn’t work, then we just flip the boat.”

“The boat?”

“No matter how great a master he is, what can he do if he falls into a lake at midnight? All the brothers of the black-boat gang are skilled in water arts. Once we’ve got hold of his ankles underwater and drag him down, he’ll have no way to escape drowning.”

“Then we’d lose the boat and the salt, wouldn’t we?”

“What’s that compared to gaining a million taels of gold?”

“Foreman Gi, be that as it may, what about the Beggar Clan’s Hu Gae? The Nanchang Branch Master knows he boarded our boat.”

“Tie a stone to that beggar’s body and sink him in the lake—who in the world would ever know? Besides, you only took him aboard without knowing he was Hu Gae, didn’t you, Captain Wang?”

“Well, that’s true. It was thanks to our keen-eyed Sang brothers from Illicit Salt Hall that we even learned he was Hu Gae.”

“And thanks to our Sang brothers’ sharp eyes, we learned we had a million-tael prize aboard our boat, so we’ll have to set aside a separate share for them.”

“That goes without saying, but still, the opponent is the Dark Cavern Taoist...”

“Listen here, Captain Wang. Are you planning to spend your whole life driving black boats until you die? A chance to become a rich man like this is heaven’s own favor.”

“...”

“If Captain Wang is that reluctant, then our Illicit Salt Hall brothers will just do it ourselves.”

“Nothing happens on my boat without my say-so.”

“Then what do you propose?”

“I just need to think a little longer...”

“Damn it all, you’ve already been thinking for a full shichen—what more is there to think about?”

“Foreman Gi, this is a matter of life and death. Isn’t it only right to think and think again and again?”

“Those are a hundred times the right words.”

The voice that suddenly drifted down from above made all the men snap their heads up at once. And then they saw a lone figure standing atop the mound of salt sacks.

“Gah!”