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◈ Murim in my Hometown ◈

Chapter 4: The Black Path

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“What, you bastard? Don't you understand when people talk to you?”

When I showed no reaction, the thug grew bolder. He raised his voice, stood up, and approached.

Before his bulky build, the broad saber at his waist caught my eye.

I set down my teacup and studied him with cold eyes.

His vicious features were flushed red with drink, and his cloudy eyes gleamed dully.

Despite looking like he could throw his weight around, the air he gave off was weak. He seemed like the sort who had made a living intimidating people with his face rather than his martial skill.

He would have been perfect as a bandit somewhere.

His stride was uneven, and his movements were full of openings.

If he had properly learned footwork or lightness skills, he would not walk that clumsily, no matter how drunk he was.

There were only two possibilities.

Either he was a peak master so far above me that I could not read him, or a pitiful idiot acting brave while drunk.

No matter how I looked at it, it seemed to be the latter.

As was true of most criminals who made their living in the martial world, men like this were usually illiterate and deaf to reason. Words would never get through to them.

There was only one way to open the ears of men like these.

Without a trace of fear, he strode toward me.

When he came within reach of my blade, still two steps away, I reached out and grabbed the long saber standing beside me.

I darted out from beside the table and took one large step forward. Closing the distance in an instant, I drove the sheathed saber forward with all my strength.

His reaction was more than two beats too slow. Before he could even grasp his hilt, the tip of my scabbard struck his solar plexus.

“Guhk!”

The man flew backward. A single ordinary thrust, not even worthy of being called a technique, sent him tumbling shamefully across the floor without living up to his size.

His companions sprang up from the table by the back door. They started to draw their swords, but both flinched when I raised my long saber.

I watched them calmly and pointed toward the door with my chin.

“If you want to use blades, do it outside. I don't want to eat beside a corpse.”

The two idiots swallowed hard as they stared at me, then turned their eyes to their fallen companion. After exchanging glances, they took their hands off their sword hilts.

It was one of the few wise decisions men scraping by at the bottom could make in their lives.

That idiot gasping for air must have been the strongest of the three.

Loyalty and all that meant nothing. The most important thing in this world was naturally keeping your own head attached to your neck.

And needless to say, having your arms and legs mostly intact also made life easier.

“Get lost.”

The idiots helped their companion outside.

I had expected them to make some face-saving threat, like telling me to wait and see or asking if I knew who they were. Instead, they did not even look back.

They seemed afraid I might change my mind, take up my blade, and come after them.

I watched until the three idiot brothers disappeared onto the main road, then sat back down.

The two farmers who had finished their noodle soup paid while watching me nervously, then hurried out of the inn.

The inn attendant, who had taken refuge in the kitchen, brought out my food.

“Do you know who those men are?”

The attendant looked around the inn. Even though I was now the only customer, they seemed unable to relax and lowered their voice.

“They're just local thugs.”

“They don't have anyone backing them?”

“They boast that they're members of the Black Night Gang, but I don't think they are. The people who come to collect protection money are different.”

“How much protection money do you pay?”

“Half a tael of silver every month.”

I was about to pick up a dumpling with my chopsticks, but set it back down on the plate.

I should have asked after I finished eating. My appetite suddenly vanished.

Half a tael of silver was five hundred copper coins, or one seok of rice. It was a low-ranking official's monthly wage. By the going rate among wandering martial artists, one would have to cut down a third-rate martial artist to earn that much.

It was absolutely not a small amount. That was especially true for a shabby inn outside the busy district like this one.

This is suffocating, seriously...

It was nothing new for Black Path criminals to extort money. But not in my hometown. Everyone had lived with little, but there had been no one who did this kind of trashy thing.

Anger and irritation surged through me like a qi deviation.

Should I have just killed all three of them?

The urge to kill rose in me too late.

They were obviously bastards. Even if they lived another hundred years, they would never do a single good deed.

“How large is the Black Night Gang?”

“I don't know much.”

“Tell me what you do know.”

Glancing toward the open door, the inn attendant spoke.

“I hear they run gambling dens, taverns, King Yama loans, anything that makes money. There are probably more than fifty members, at least.”

“Are there no other black path groups?”

“There are, but I hear they either split off from the Black Night Gang or pay it protection money. They say the Black Night Gang's leader comes from a sword sect. Around here, everyone knows Jeok Chuyeong, the Black Slaughter Sword.”

“You know quite a lot. Is this perhaps a branch of the Hao clan?”

“What? No.”

The inn attendant shook their head with a puzzled expression.

“When you work at an inn, you hear things whether you want to or not. Once people have had a drink, they all get loose-lipped, don't they?”

I had only asked as a joke. With the village prospering like this, an inn run by the Hao clan could not possibly be so shabby.

Still, the cook's food was fairly good.

I had been half expecting those idiots to return with someone stronger to take revenge, but nothing happened before I finished my meal and got up.

I fastened my long saber behind my waist and slung my bundle over my shoulder. After paying for the meal and two nights' lodging, I turned to leave, and the inn attendant tilted their head.

“You aren't going to your room?”

“I'm going to take a look around the town.”

“Excuse me, Great Hero. If it's all right with you, would you like me to show you around? I know every corner of this town.”

The inn attendant looked up at me with bright eyes.

It would be better than wandering around alone. If I disliked it, I could simply send them back to the inn.

“Lead the way.”

“Just a moment. I'll go tell them.”

The inn attendant hurried into the kitchen.

“You need to prepare for the evening business. Where are you going?”

“The guest staying tonight wants to see the town.”

“Hey, even so... What are you doing, Gusam? The guest is waiting. Go on, hurry back!”

The cook, who had been about to object, suddenly changed their attitude. Gusam must have shared the coins I gave him.

“Let's go, Great Hero.”

An excited Gusam hurried out and led me onto the street.

* * *

As I followed Gusam into the back alleys, the noise of the lively streets vanished entirely.

Though the afternoon was still bright, few people passed through, and the mood was gloomy.

Most of the buildings along the road were closed. I assumed they were gambling dens or taverns that opened at night.

Men lounging at the entrances of suspicious inns and open buildings stared blankly at me as I passed. Every one of them had the slack-faced look suited to a back alley.

They were smaller than the man I had knocked down at the inn, but they were criminals ready to turn into bandits at any moment.

Since entering the alley, Gusam had fallen silent and stuck close to my side.

I casually looked them over, judging their weapons and skill.

As I walked, considering how to deal with them and escape if a fight broke out, I stopped in the middle of the alley.

The five-story pavilion Gusam had told me about stood at the end of the alley. Two guards with swords at their waists stood outside.

Getting closer seemed like it would become a nuisance. I had no intention of going inside, either.

Even from a distance, the idiotic signboard was easy to see.

Black Night Gang.

“As if their name didn't already scream black path criminals...”

I felt as if I had seen a hundred groups with the same name while roaming the Central Plains. No matter how much illiterates who had not even learned the Thousand Character Classic squeezed their useless brains, this was about all they could come up with.

If it meant their insides were black and they did business at night, then in a way, it was an exceptionally honest name.

black path criminals in my hometown...

Not one person from my hometown recognized me. How was this any different from another city in the Central Plains?

I shook off the gloom and turned back. There were too many eyes like stray dogs' for me to indulge in sentimentality.

Leaving the back alleys, I returned to the ordinary people living each day diligently and fiercely.

Gusam let out a sigh of relief.

“Are there any sects affiliated with the Martial Alliance?”

The sects and clans within the Martial Alliance considered themselves righteous, but when things went wrong, they were still martial artists who reached for swords first.

There was no benefit in getting involved with them, but nothing was better than the Martial Alliance for keeping the heads of unorthodox factions and Black Path criminals down.

“There aren't any, but there is an escort agency.”

“An escort agency?”

“Yes. See the foothills to the north? It's over there. The Yongcheon Escort Agency.”

I looked beyond the shop roofs in the direction he pointed.

In the distance, against the mountains, tall pavilions rose like towers.

“I hear the escort agency master is a lay disciple of the Mount Qingcheng Sect and an incredible master. They say when they swing a sword once, it splits into six, and when they throw a punch, rocks shatter. They say it's some ultimate art of the Mount Qingcheng Sect...”

Nearly without exception, escort agencies of any decent size had martial sects and government officials backing them.

Most formed ties with the dominant sects of their region. Shaolin in Henan. Wudang in Hubei. Mount Hua and Zhongnan in Shaanxi...

“That's unexpected. This isn't Sichuan, yet their master is a disciple of the Mount Qingcheng Sect.”

Gusam quickly resolved my question.

“I only heard it from the adults, but they say the escort agency was the first to come here and establish itself when this village had been abandoned because of famine...”

He spoke with such smooth ease that I wondered if he was truly a member of the Hao clan. Bringing him along had been the right choice.

If I could learn how my hometown had become like this, even giving him ten copper coins would not be a waste.

Every major city already had established interests glaring at newcomers. Whether it was an escort agency or a martial sect, overcoming territorial pressure and conflicts to survive was not easy.

There were probably already escort agencies in Sichuan run by lay disciples of Mount Qingcheng and Mount Emei.

If one's backing was not strong enough to defeat the established interests, avoiding power struggles and opening up unknown territory was not a bad way to survive.

The road in from the official highway was narrow, but Seochon itself was broad. The soil was poor for farming, but mountains surrounded it on all sides, and a stream ran through the center of the village.

It was not a bad location for a martial sect or clan to settle.

Wholesalers had followed the escort agency in, and all sorts of shops that catered to the escorts had appeared.

After the roads were widened, all manner of drifters with nowhere else to go had gathered here, dreaming of new lives.

“Does that pleasure house belong to the Black Night Gang too?”

Among the transformed sights of my hometown, the most shocking to me was that splendid eight-story pavilion.

When I pointed to it, Gusam shook his head.

“No.”

“No?”

“Yes. Yongcheon Escort Agency escorts guard Simhyang Pavilion. Black Night Gang martial artists do not even go near the pleasure house. They never touch the Yongcheon Escort Agency.”

“Really?”

“Yes, truly. The escort agency master's martial skill is one thing, but the head escorts are also incredible masters. Once, a head escort got into an argument with Black Night Gang members and knocked down five of them alone.”

It felt as though the Black Night Gang, a Black Path faction, and the Yongcheon Escort Agency, tied to the Mount Qingcheng Sect and posing as a righteous faction, were keeping the balance of power.

“Yehyang is the most famous person at Simhyang Pavilion. She's an incredible beauty, and they say her pipa playing is amazing. Her fame has apparently reached large cities, so the prefectural magistrate and other high officials visit sometimes. But it costs at least two taels of silver just to drink there. They say seeing Yehyang starts at five taels of silver...”

“Have you heard of the Jeongun Trading Company?”

“The Jeongun Trading Company?”

Gusam, who had been eagerly talking about Simhyang Pavilion like a street hawker, blinked awkwardly.

“No, I've never heard of it. Is it a new shop?”

“Then I need to start looking now. Good work.”

I gave Gusam five copper coins for his trouble and sent him back to the inn first.

I headed toward the district crowded with shops to find the broker named Yeon Jinwon or Yeon Jinhyeon, and the Jeongun Trading Company.

Footnotes:

The Thousand Character Classic was a traditional primer used to teach literacy.

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