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◈ Murim in my Hometown ◈

Chapter 32: Black Market

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“The Black Market? Hmm, all right.”

When I asked Do Hoengil to accompany me to the Black Market and inspect some spirit herbs, he thought for a moment before agreeing.

I did not want to walk in this weather when even a carriage took a full day. I hated riding horses too, so I hired a carriage.

Early the next morning, we left Seochon by carriage.

“A letter of introduction from the Hao clan...”

Do Hoengil gave it a quick read before handing it back.

“Have you read this?”

“I have.”

Do Hoengil tilted his head.

“You can read?”

“I finished the Thousand Character Classic, at least.”

If your martial arts were weak, people took advantage of you. If you could not read, they treated you like a complete sucker. That was simply how the world worked.

It had happened to me more than once or twice.

Once, I did hard work and received a promissory note, only to find out it had been issued by a merchant company that had gone bankrupt ten years ago.

Whenever I worked for a gang, I carelessly put my Hand Seal on contracts without knowing what they said.

Usually, there was no problem. But once, I worked for three months and ended up not only without wages, but also with a debt of one tael of silver.

Those sons of bitches charged me for food and lodging that should have been provided for free. They had even inflated the prices to the rates of a first-class inn.

I was furious, but they shamelessly insisted that was what the contract said.

The time I was assigned to deliver a letter was truly chilling.

The travel expenses and payment were far too generous, which made me suspicious, so I asked a scholar I met at an inn for help.

After treating the scholar to food and drink, they read the letter. It said not to give the bearer a reward for their trouble, but simply murder them to silence them.

After that, I bought a Thousand Character Classic and paid various scholars to teach me whenever I had time.

Perhaps I did not lack aptitude, because after studying for about a year, I finally learned to read. The scholars recommended the Elementary Learning and the Analects, but I had no intention of taking the civil service examinations, so I set my books aside there.

“How much money did you bring?”

“I brought everything I had, since I do not know how much the spirit herbs will cost.”

“Good. Expensive does not always mean best, but there is nothing good among the cheap ones.”

I was trying to gain internal energy. If I tried to save money, ate something strange, and suffered qi deviation, my life would be over.

The carriage rattled along that damn official road hard enough to make my backside hurt before suddenly slowing down.

The driver soothed the horses and turned around.

“The sun is too hot, and the horses are tired. There seems to be an inn over there. How about we rest for a while?”

“Let's do that.”

The carriage left the official road and headed toward a shabby inn with a banner fluttering at the foot of the mountain.

I got down, rubbed my backside, and stretched.

The driver parked the carriage in the shade, took out a bucket from the luggage compartment, and gave the horses water.

When I opened the bamboo container, I had already drunk it all, and there was nothing left.

“Let's have some tea at the inn.”

The inn was old, but its interior was spacious and clean. There was not a single customer inside, nor was there a waiter in sight.

“Is anyone here?”

As I stepped over the threshold, the old wooden floor creaked.

I had absentmindedly started inside when the hairs on my head stood on end, as though I had stepped on a dead rat. I instinctively stopped.

There was nothing beneath my feet.

Only the echo of the floorboards had changed strangely.

Do Hoengil clicked his tongue softly beside me.

“Why is it so hot inside the inn? It would be cooler outside.”

He turned around and sat at one of the outdoor tables beneath the eaves. I quietly withdrew and took the seat across from him.

Only then did a man who looked to be in his mid-twenties emerge from the inn. He was clearly not a waiter, but he did not seem to be the innkeeper either.

“Would you like to order?”

“Tea.”

I paid for the tea with a few coins, and a hot teapot was placed in the middle of the table.

I poured myself a cup but did not touch it. It was not merely because of the heat.

“Did you notice it too?”

“What do you think?”

Do Hoengil answered calmly. He did not touch his tea either, quietly watching the area around the inn.

My instincts had been right.

I carefully looked over the inside and outside of the inn.

It was a shabby, single-story building that looked like a converted warehouse. There were no guest rooms for lodging, nor was there a stable.

If not for the banner outside, I would have passed by without realizing it was an inn.

We had not seen another traveler the entire way here.

Could an inn survive in such a remote place? If this was not a business, how did they make money?

The man who had taken our order and brought the teapot did not seem like someone who worked at an inn either. He looked simple enough, but his eyes were sharp, and his steps had a loose swagger. He had the smell of the Black Path about him.

The inn floor I had stepped on earlier.

Starting from my fourth step after crossing the threshold, the echo of the creaking floorboards had suddenly become open and light.

As though there was empty space beneath the floor from that point onward. A deep, wide space.

“This looks like a black inn...”

“So what? Are you planning to perform a Chivalrous deed?”

I looked through the open doorway at the empty inn.

Pale dust drifted aimlessly in the slanting sunlight.

What could be beneath those floorboards...?

Unpleasant scenes I had encountered while making my way through the martial world flashed through my mind.

Things that had been cut into pieces or bound tightly.

If this truly was a black inn, there would surely be a gang behind it.

Even if I cut them all down, their superiors who received tribute would come investigating. If I wiped them out, someone even higher up would come down. They would cling to me relentlessly, attacking in waves. They could even hire assassins with money.

That was what made organizations so frightening.

Unless you cut off the head in one stroke, they would act as an organization and take a bit of flesh and a handful of blood from your body at a time.

One bit of flesh in exchange for killing one person might seem like a good bargain, but if it happened dozens of times, even the greatest master would become nothing but a skeleton.

That was why even martial artists who built their reputations by exterminating bandits never touched mountain strongholds belonging to the Green Forest.

The world would not change after one or two Chivalrous deeds.

“Forget it. Let's be on our way.”

I remained on edge, prepared for an ambush, but the man did not appear again.

The driver, resting in the shade with the horses, waved us over.

I poured the tea from my cup onto the grass and climbed back into the carriage.

Inside the swaying carriage, I stared coldly at the receding inn.

I did not know whether it truly was a black inn, but it greatly displeased me that such suspicious people were only half a day's journey from my hometown of Seochon.

Thinking about it, it was ridiculous.

The Black Night Gang, those hopeless Black Path scum, were already firmly established in Seochon.

What they did in the back alleys was surely no better than a black inn.

* * *

We finally reached our destination around sunset.

It would be difficult to return that day, so I rented a room at an inn and headed to the place Geuk Hwan had told me about.

The Black Market referred to a shadowy market where transactions took place in secret, out of sight.

Its shops were scattered around, each operating under a different signboard. Unless you already knew where to find something, you could not locate it.

The place I had been introduced to was a herbal medicine shop. When I presented the letter of introduction, I was immediately shown into an inner room.

“You are looking for spirit herbs?”

“Let us see ones from middle grade to high grade.”

“Understood. Please wait a moment.”

The herbalist brought several wooden boxes and set them down before us.

“Now, take a look at this one first. This is the finest fellow in our shop.”

With a smug expression, the herbalist opened a wooden box to reveal a light brown herb the size of a fist.

“Twenty-year-old He Shouwu.”

Unlike me, who knew nothing and could only listen to the explanation, Do Hoengil immediately dismissed it.

“Twenty years? It is no more than five.”

“What? How can you say something so absurd? This is...”

“Enough. A twenty-year-old He Shouwu should be at least twice that size.”

Do Hoengil firmly shook his head. The herbalist read the room, cleared their throat, and quietly closed the box.

The next item was Tiger-Eye Herb, a spirit herb that looked like a tiger's eye when viewed from the front.

Once again, Do Hoengil said a few words, and the wooden box was slowly moved aside. One by one, the boxes were opened and shut as if we were working through questions and answers.

Do Hoengil glared sternly at the herbalist.

“Listen. If you keep dirtying this old man's eyes with inferior goods, you will not get off lightly. There seem to be counterfeits mixed in as well... Do you take the Hao clan for a joke?”

“Counterfeits? Absolutely not! I have made my living in the herbal trade on trust alone. How could you say such a thing?”

The herbalist had apparently not expected such a harsh rebuke and protested with cold sweat running down their face.

The herbalist seemed used to dealing with ignorant martial artists like me who knew absolutely nothing about herbs.

The Black Market did not guarantee quality or authenticity in the first place. Anyone who got fooled was an idiot, and if you were fooled, it was up to you whether to make a scene or turn into a robber.

Still, presenting counterfeits to someone introduced by the Hao clan...

If I had come alone, I might have handed over my entire fortune and received one or two worthless herbs.

“This cannot be all, can it?”

“Whew. Most customers would be satisfied with this much, but you esteemed heroes have truly high standards. We do have a special, top-grade spirit herb for people with truly discerning eyes, but... It is so expensive that I cannot recommend it lightly.”

The herbalist subtly stoked our curiosity.

This bastard had been dragging things out because they wanted to sell that.

Of course. Someone who made a living in the Black Market would not be this clumsy.

The herbalist must have judged that, while I knew nothing, Do Hoengil clearly had a discerning eye. They had deliberately laid out all those poor herbs first to build up to this.

Unable to hold back any longer, I asked first.

“What is it?”

“Snow Ginseng.”

Do Hoengil narrowed his eyes.

“Where is the ginseng from?”

“Do not be surprised. Tianshan.”

Tianshan was crawling with members of the Demonic Cult.

It was a region beyond the frontier, far north past Qinghai.

The nation's power did not properly reach there, so anything from Tianshan was almost certainly smuggled.

“If you are trying to pass off wild ginseng or yellow root as the real thing, this shop will be consumed by flames tonight.”

“Of course not. But the price will not be modest.”

“Show us the item first.”

“It is not here.”

Do Hoengil and I glared at the herbalist at the same time. The herbalist flinched but kept their merchant's smile.

“It is not merchandise from our shop. To be honest, someone asked us to act as a broker a while ago. You will have to meet the seller directly for the transaction. We only take a commission for arranging it. The seller happens to be in the Black Market. Would you like to meet them? If I send word now, the deal can take place in about two hours.”

“Let us do that.”

After arranging the meeting, we went outside.

“I have something to take care of, so let us meet here in about two hours.”

Do Hoengil walked alone into the crowd. I had thought it strange that he had agreed to accompany me so readily. It seemed he had another purpose.

The night streets bustled with entertainment and crowds. Since this city had formed outside the city walls, it had no curfew, just like Seochon.

There were pleasure houses larger than Simhyang Pavilion, while taverns and gambling dens thrived in every alley.

After looking around for a while, I returned to the herbal medicine shop. I spent the time having a light drink at the tavern across the street.

Whatever he had been doing, Do Hoengil returned on time. We went into the herbal medicine shop together.

“The seller of the Snow Ginseng has arrived and is waiting for you.”

As we entered the inner room, a middle-aged man wearing a bamboo rain hat pulled low stood from his seat. He was a martial artist with a Goose-Quill Saber at his waist.

“You are interested in Snow Ginseng?”

It was a voice I had never heard before. Naturally, since it was someone I had never met.

But when the man slightly raised the brim of his bamboo rain hat and looked at Do Hoengil and me, something unnatural happened.

He looked familiar.

Drooping eyes and plump cheeks.

He looked around fifty... no, he would be forty-five.

There was a tattoo of a long, slender woman's hand on his neck. If his martial clothes were removed, there would be a Medicine Buddha tattoo extending down to his chest.

Perhaps because he had drunk too much, or because he had lost sleep, the skin beneath his eyes was dark and his eyes were bloodshot.

Even so, his face nearly matched the facial composite Won Seogang had shown me. I was newly impressed by the skill of whichever painter had drawn it.

Ban Hoyang.

Why was the man supposedly hiding within the Black Night Gang to escape Won Seogang's sword here...?

Ban Hoyang took a small wooden box from his robes. He carefully lifted out the Snow Ginseng wrapped in silk and displayed it proudly.

A sharp chill faintly tickled my nose.

“This is Tianshan's treasure. Tianshan Snow Ginseng.”

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