Chapter 86: Open Sesame

“Mom, what nonsense are you talking about….”

She wore an expression of disbelief and exasperation.

Il Hyehyang seemed not to recognize me after I had shed my beggar rags and become neat.

When I mimed the same slippery, demanding motion — like back then, asking for money — she finally realized who I was and opened her eyes wide.

“You, you! Could you be that beggar bastard from back then…?!”

Oh my, to call my son a beggar bastard.

Still, feeling pleased to have guessed right, I smiled slightly and nodded.

“My mother abandoned me, but I returned having succeeded, just to show you.”

And I had become a Peak Martial Artist, no less. I spread both arms in triumph.

“…You crazy! Who are you calling my mother!”

A furious rebuttal followed, naturally. She shouted sharp retorts with a face that said she had seen every kind of lunatic.

“I— because of you, strange rumors spread and I suffered so much!”

Apparently, because she had been extorting money on the streets, odd rumors had started about her.

“Right, who told them to harass innocent beggars?”

Instead of helping the poor kids, she continued to oppress them, so it was simply karmic retribution.

But Il Hyehyang’s glare at me since a while ago showed she didn’t accept my words at all — she was staring as if she wanted to kill me.

“Anyway, that temper of yours hasn’t changed. Once again you’re touching other people’s bad karma. Huh?”

It really was a strange grudge.

Not only had I encountered her as an enemy after becoming a master, she was also one of Ilhong’s enemies.

“Why are you attacking Honghwa Brothel! What resentment do you have against them!”

“And why did you try to smash Cheonhwa Pavilion? What grievance did you have?”

There were limits to nerve and hypocrisy. Weren’t Honghwa Brothel the ones who started the trouble first?

If they intended to ruin someone else’s business, they should have been prepared for their own businesses to be destroyed.

“Madam Okryeong, how much did you give that old hag? I’ll pay you ten times that!”

Thinking force and words couldn’t reach me, Il Hyehyang — the mysterious brothel head — tried to buy me off with money.

She claimed Honghwa Brothel had amassed great wealth and that she could provide whatever sum I wanted.

As someone who was just recruiting backers to open an office in Beijing, that was a tempting proposition.

But this trust-and-credit Dan Mujin had never betrayed a client during a commission.

Besides, that woman—

“Boss, you’re not going to be swayed by that, are you?”

“A little, maybe.”

“Oh, Boss. Are you really going to do that?”

“Of course I’m joking, Ilhong.”

She was one of the people who had betrayed the Hao Sect Leader for her own wealth and glory — one of Ilhong’s enemies.

So no matter what amount she offered, I would do my duty.

I rapped my Dog-Beating Staff against my shoulder and walked toward Il Hyehyang.

“W-wait! Twenty times! No, I’ll give you a chest of gold…!”

She became desperate and hurriedly multiplied the stakes dozens of times.

What a shock. Could the Honghwa Brothel really have made that much money in Beijing?

If I smashed Honghwa Brothel, Cheonhwa Pavilion would become the top house — I should stay close to Madam Okryeong.

“Stop! Stop! Why won’t you stop? I’ll give you all the gold you want!”

“You’re really talkative.”

Even if I took that money — selling my client, Ilhong, and my conscience — all that would please only the Heaven-Slaying Star who wanted to corrupt me.

Unless I believed it to be a just reward, no amount of money would feel right; it would be an empty promise like a cake in a picture.

“I’ll give you Honghwa Brothel’s most beautiful woman! Just pretend you don’t see me! That alone will bring wealth and beauty!”

The middle-aged madam Il Hyehyang pleaded to persuade me, never giving up despite my indifferent reaction.

But the way she was dragging out her words made me feel she was stalling for time…as if she were waiting for something.

“There he is!”

“Protect the brothel mistress from the fiend!”

At that moment, men in black appeared from the rear.

They closed the distance like the wind with body-movement techniques. Their precision and system felt unlike ordinary escort warriors.

“Boss, they’re martial artists from Muyeonggak!”

Ilhong poked my shoulder in surprise. From what she said, they were the force in the Hao Sect responsible for military power.

They must have sent reinforcements in haste on hearing that the brothel on their turf was being smashed.

“Traitors who cut down my master… ungrateful bastards!”

Ilhong, usually lively, now spewed rage with a ferocious face.

Seeing the deep hatred in her eyes, it seemed those men had led the charge when the rebellion broke out.

“Boss…”

Ilhong gripped my sleeve tightly and spoke in a plaintive voice.

Without her saying anything, I felt what she felt and raised the Dog-Beating Staff.

“Ilhong, do you remember the name of this staff?”

“…Hell-Revenge Staff.”

“Yes. Your enemies are basically my enemies too. Don’t worry — I’ll take vengeance for you.”

Until the day I put her, with both lineage and legitimacy, in the seat of the Hao Sect Leader.

We were essentially of one mind and body.

“Great…!”

Ilhong looked at me, choked up, clearly moved.

“They’re deeply sinful men; I’ll utterly smash them.”

“Please do the throat-breaking like earlier.”

“…Alright.”

She had pitied them as worse than death; now her desire for revenge flared.

“The opponent is a Peak master! Deploy the Eight-Directional Bewildering Formation (八防迷幻陣) to counter!”

A black-clad man, probably their captain, shouted.

The men in black scattered in all directions and began to execute hectic but systematic movements.

A busy, tightly woven formation that revealed no easy gaps.

“The Eight-Directional Bewildering Formation. Fifteen top martial artists will move interlocked like one body. It’s the Hao Sect’s formation to fell a master like you, Boss.”

As Ilhong said, the enemy tightened like interlocking gears, slowly narrowing my freedom of movement without leaving an opening.

“Is it dangerous?”

“Yes. How many masters have fallen before those Muyeonggak martial artists.”

Each of them bore a vicious edge. If the Hao Sect elite were indeed that, they emitted an ominous aura.

“But it’s okay. I know all the counters.”

Ilhong tapped my arm as if to say to trust only her.

“As expected of Ilhong. She knows everything.”

I smiled and filled the Dog-Beating Staff with internal energy.

A spider whose web had been torn was just an easy opponent.

Taat!

***

An information-handling organization, once it stepped into the murim, required a certain level of martial strength.

Having a master strong enough to overwhelm enemies would be best, but if not, then one had to find a method regardless. That was the way of the jianghu.

Thus, the First Sect Leader, worried for the safety of his disciples, created a complex and intricate formation called the “Eight-Directional Bewildering Formation.”

A great formation for use against masters, it bewitched the five senses with swiftness and illusion, trapping the enemy in a storm of blades.

Although it did not match the strength of an absolute master, it was both a sturdy shield and a sharp blade that allowed the Hao Sect to weather turbulent waves.

“Three steps, formation change! The one in front is the pivot!”

At least, that had been true until today.

“Keuhk!”

Killing intent flew in from all directions, making me struggle to fend them off — but as Ilhong said, once I swung the Dog-Beating Staff, their coordinated formation began to collapse helplessly.

“H-he knows the counter to the Eight-Directional Bewildering Formation!”

“Impossible! There’s no way that’s possible…!”

Thwack!

The blunt end of my staff slammed repeatedly into the black-clad men, whose faces were filled with disbelief.

Weaving through the torrent of sword strikes like solving a riddle, the staff pierced the gaps with precision.

“Left step, then fist formation!”

Just as the formation tried to mend its opening, my fist shot through like lightning.

With a blow carrying fierce Fist Qi, weapons shattered with a clamor.

“Arghhh!”

Sharp fragments scattered everywhere, bringing blood and screams.

With six or seven members of the formation swept away at once, a gaping hole was torn open in the array.

One of the black-clad men, realizing something was wrong, shouted at the girl with the sharp voice.

“Who are you, wench! Could you be a traitor of the Hao Sect…!”

His cry of disbelief.

At those words, flames of rage surged in Ilhong’s eyes.

“Who! Betrayed whom!”

Fwoom!

She pulled a cylindrical ring, igniting black powder in an instant.

A rainstorm of sharp poison needles poured down on the enemies.

“Keugh!”

“Arghh!”

With their formation already broken, the sudden downpour of needles left them unable to respond — they were swept away entirely.

Those who narrowly avoided the needles were struck by my Dog-Beating Staff flying in like a bolt, their skulls half-shattered.

Thwack!

And with one final blunt strike, the last man standing was subdued completely.

The Hao Sect’s fifteen seasoned elite warriors, forged in real combat, were all felled by our hands.

“Keugh… Who… are you… really…”

The leader of the black-clad men, pierced by three poison needles, glared at Ilhong with bitter resentment.

Ilhong drew her sword with a metallic ring and walked toward them.

“My father treasured you as the very cornerstone of the organization.”

She said he had treated them as pillars the Hao Sect could not do without.

At those words, the leader spat blood, his eyes wide in shock.

“N-no… You’re… Keugh!”

But before long, the poison had invaded his marrow, and he died.

All around, other black-clad men rolled their eyes and convulsed before perishing as well.

Slash!

Ilhong swung her sword, cutting down the last remaining traitors, and then let out a long, weary sigh over their corpses.

Perhaps from her great emotional turmoil, her shoulders drooped more heavily than usual.

“You alright?”

Her complexion looked pale.

She had fought alongside the escorts at Cheonhwa Pavilion and here as well, so both her body and spirit must have been exhausted.

“I’m fine, just a little dizzy… Ohh?”

She staggered uncertainly and collapsed against me.

By chance, she ended up leaning into my broad chest.

Then, as if surrendering to fate, she closed her eyes and murmured:

“It’s kind of warm…”

In the brothel turned into a living hell from repeated battles, we paused in that posture.

“It’s only because you just moved your body.”

At my indifferent reply, Ilhong twitched her brow.

“No, that’s not what I meant… Ugh, never mind.”

She pulled her cheek away from where it had leaned, her expression one of “of course.”

The brothel had grown silent, emptied of people.

“Looks like Madam Il Hyehyang of Mysterious Pavilion ran away.”

I scratched my head and muttered.

It seemed she had vanished completely while the Shadow Pavilion fighters bought time.

Well, I would have fled at that moment too.

“Should we chase her? I think she disappeared in that direction.”

As I moved to follow her traces, Ilhong tugged firmly at my sleeve.

“…Why?”

“That’s a trick, Boss.”

Her words came from knowing every detail of Hao Sect’s methods.

“What trick? She definitely ran, so we have to chase her.”

“No, there’s no need to go far. She didn’t run — she hid.”

She kicked at the ruined Honghwa Brothel as she spoke.

“She hid?”

“Yes. The darkest place is under the lamp. Hiding in blind spots is the Hao Sect way.”

She claimed to know both the behavior patterns of the Hao Sect executives and their hiding methods.

But no matter how I looked, there didn’t seem to be any good hiding spots here.

The upstairs had been deserted, and the only presences I felt were ours.

“Look, Boss. Doesn’t the wall here feel unusually thick?”

Ilhong, moving about the brothel as if it were her own home, began pointing out odd details.

The building had seemed spacious from outside, but inside, several places felt strangely narrow.

“And here, the wall endings don’t align.”

“So?”

“There’s a hidden space.”

She spoke with certainty, claiming familiarity with such structures.

After poking around and stomping on spots, she declared a wine cellar wall most suspicious and dragged me over.

Thump, thump.

When I knocked the wall, half-doubting, it indeed sounded hollow.

“Boss, have you heard of trap formations?”

With a small grin, she began tugging at anything within reach — poles, candlesticks.

Click!

Something snapped.

Rumble. Rrrrr—

Dust fell as mechanisms activated.

The wall rotated like a revolving door, revealing stairs leading underground.

“…Oh, so this is a trap formation.”

“Well, that’s always how the Hao Sect operates.”

Ilhong shrugged proudly.

We descended the dark stairs, and before long, we saw a familiar face.

“Mother, we meet again?”

“…”

Il Hyehyang’s face twisted in dismay.

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