The Mad Dog Inspector of the Martial Alliance

Chapter 110 : Dropping the Sun (3)

Marten were plentiful in the Central Plains, but silver marten were not. Pure silver marten pelts, with no hint of gray or brown, were a very rare item that could only be obtained from the North Sea Ice Palace. The best overcoat, with its beautiful appearance and perfect insulation, could not be bought with money alone.

"Ugh, what a waste."

"You can just buy it again, can't you?"

"I'm saying this because it's something you can't buy again. The money that went into getting that alone was five hundred taels."

"F-five hundred?!"

"And the clothes made of Sichuan brocade also easily exceed a hundred taels. Aigoo, aigoo."

It was understandable that Jang So-gil would groan. That Golden Ear had thrown a raw six hundred taels off a cliff. It was no joke; he must have felt the pain of his intestines being cut.

Yang Gwan asked with a reluctant expression.

"If it was that expensive, wouldn't it have been better to do something else? Like that tobacco pipe..."

"If they see a corpse wearing different clothes but holding only my tobacco pipe, who would believe that it's me? Rather, doing that would only make it more incongruous."

Jang So-gil and Yang Gwan was moving to Xuchang, avoiding the eyes of the pursuers. Since they couldn't let their movement path be discovered, they needed to divert the enemy's eyes.

So they had caught a person among the pursuers who had a similar build to Jang So-gil, dressed him in Jang So-gil's clothes, and pushed him off a cliff to fake his death.

"It sounds simple, but I almost died preparing it."

"...Yes. You went through a lot of trouble with that lightness skill."

To create a witness, they deliberately lured the enemy to a cliff. Jang So-gil jumped into the cliff, and Yang Gwan, who was waiting in the middle of the cliff, received Jang So-gil's clothes, dressed the prepared corpse in them, and then threw it down the cliff. And the two of them had fled in the opposite direction.

To Jang So-gil, who had learned the Cloud Dragon Nine Steps, a cliff was like a flat road that he could even climb vertically, but not to Yang Gwan. In the first place, general lightness skills did not assume climbing a cliff. There was no such lightness skill in the Shaolin Temple either.

"Since you went through that much trouble, I hope they were deceived."

"It will only be for a short while, but they will be deceived. Since he was wearing brocade clothes and a silver marten overcoat, they will have no choice but to believe it."

"I suppose..."

"If it were the White Azure Divine Sword, it could have given them certainty, but that's too much. It's enough if we can just buy a little time."

Anyone who knew Jang So-gil would be deceived, nine times out of ten. Because no one would think that that stingy Golden Ear would throw six hundred taels off a cliff.

At least five days. If it was long, they could buy ten days.

"Hoo..."

Yang Gwan and Jang So-gil, exhaling white breath, walked on the snowy mountain path.

The mountains in the middle of winter are cold. It is even colder at night. Wearing the thin cloth clothes that the common people wore, the wind was as sharp as a blade.

It was fortunate that Yang Gwan had made a straw raincoat, saying he had learned it from his father. With the straw raincoat made by weaving straw and dried blades of grass found in an ownerless hut, they had barely avoided getting completely soaked by the falling snow.

A straw hat and a straw raincoat that blocked the snow, and worn-out clothes.

Jang So-gil, who was walking on the path, grinding his teeth, looked at the shape of the mountain path and said.

"It will take about seven more days to get to Xuchang."

"Seven days, we'll arrive sooner than I thought."

Since the two martial artists with strong internal energy were walking day and night, sleeping little and resting less, their speed was bound to be fast.

It took exactly seven days for the body of the fake inspector to reach Jagwang's hands, for the doctor he had called to examine the body, and for him to conclude that since the deceased was over thirty, he could not be the inspector.

Jagwang tore his hair and shouted at the top of his lungs to widen the encirclement.

But by the time he was screaming to ask for cooperation from the Seomun Clan once again, it was already too late.

Jang So-gil had arrived in Xuchang and was watching the manor of the Seomun Clan.

* * *

Despite receiving Jagwang's report, the head of the Seomun Clan, Seomun Songwon, showed no particular reaction.

It was not a particularly surprising matter. A fellow who deserved to die had died, and he had died because his time had come. There had been no one who had touched the great Seomun Clan and had lived until now.

Therefore, the only remaining emotion was pity.

"They say the inspector is dead. You should ease your mind now."

"He's dead? How can I ease my mind when I couldn't even kill him with my own hands?"

Seomun Jung-u replied to his father with eyes full of killing intent. But Seomun Songwon was not interested in his son's eyes full of killing intent.

He was staring at his son's thickly swollen nose. He had used all means to call a skilled doctor, but the swelling of his nose would not go down.

"Heo-eo..."

Seomun Jung-u was not a man with an outstanding appearance, but since his body was firm and had no excess fat, he was a man who was rewarding to dress up. He had a face that became as handsome as the money spent on it.

But if he had a nose like that, dressing up was useless, so a hundred gold pieces were in vain.

'To have such a flaw when he hasn't even married yet... how pitiful.'

One might wonder what appearance had to do with a marriage between families, but appearance was surprisingly important in a marriage proposal. It was because if an ugly appearance were to be mixed into the bloodline, the probability of an ugly person appearing among the descendants would increase, so there were quite a few who were reluctant.

Besides, Namgung Yeohwa, whom Seomun Jung-u admired so much, was a person who cared a lot about faces.

He had been diligently grooming his appearance for her, but years of effort had been blown away by a few punches.

"Son, there are many women in the world. Let's look for a daughter of another family. How about the daughter of the Peng family?"

"That's not the problem right now. I want to finish that fellow who gave me this shame with my own hands."

Seomun Jung-u had desperately wanted to be included in the pursuit team. But Seomun Songwon had stopped him from doing so.

It was a matter of course. The one to kill the inspector of the Martial Alliance had to be a group of the Black Way. If the eldest son of the Seomun Clan were to lay a hand, it would give the Alliance Leader a pretext.

"Even the great Gumen Long of the world would not want to be completely at odds with our family. Even so, if we give the opponent a pretext, we will lose too much. Were you so dissatisfied that I excluded you for the sake of the family?"

"Thanks to that, I will never be able to escape from the shadow of the dead inspector for the rest of my life. A man can only be called a man if he repays his shame with his own hands, but now there is no way to repay it no matter what, so what's the use of being a Ten Dragon or a Firm Dragon!"

"Heo-eo, this fellow."

The wound in his heart was deeper than he had thought. He had used power and money to handle the matter, fearing that his son's heart would be hurt more if the inspector ran rampant, but it was like this.

Was it right to have paid twice the money and captured him alive?

"Eing... since it has come to this, I can only hope that the report that that fellow is dead is wrong."

If it was a false report, he could change the conditions to capture him alive now and raise the reward. After all, he had already spent a huge amount of money.

The money spent on controlling the information going to Luoyang with all his might and spreading false information was a whopping eight thousand taels. The money paid as a bounty was now ten thousand taels, and the ronin units used as the pursuit team were two battalions.

Since he had already spent enough money to make him vomit, he didn't feel much regret even if a few thousand more taels were added here.

"The total bounty so far was twenty thousand taels, so I'll have to add about eight thousand taels to this and change the conditions to capture him alive. It's a story for when that fellow is alive, though."

It was when Seomun Songwon was grumbling like that.

Glimpsed through the window, something strange was visible.

* * *

The manor of the Seomun Clan was located at the end of the east gate of Xuchang. Jang So-gil sat down in a place where he could see the main gate of the manor and stared at them intently.

The level of the guards was extraordinary. An aura like a calm wall, a flashing gaze. They were on a similar level to the first-class martial artists of the Martial Alliance. In terms of military discipline, this side was rather one step higher.

'The defensive formation of the Dog Wolf unit was quite fierce. It seems the family tradition of the Seomun Clan is thorough military discipline and cooperation.'

A defensive formation and sword art that emphasized defense. And a manor that was defended meticulously without any leaks. The obsession with safety was close to paranoia.

As if they were a prestigious noble family, they had even dug ditches in various places on the path so that horses could not run properly, as if they were even assuming an attack by cavalry.

Perhaps to block arrows, the height of the manor's wall was also twice the usual height.

'For the defense to be so great, it's rather a good thing.'

Jang So-gil was not a fool. He did not think that he and Yang Gwan alone could face a prestigious noble family. No matter how much Jang So-gil and Yang Gwan had reached a realm that surpassed first-rate masters, they were outnumbered. It was like hitting a rock with an egg.

It was said that dripping water could pierce a rock, but Jang So-gil was not given that much time.

Besides, if they fought against the overwhelming defense of the Seomun Clan, a long-term battle would rather be a loss. A defensive formation and sword art that focused on defense would shine the longer the battle became.

Then what did Jang So-gil trust to attack the Seomun Clan?

'Of course, it's the Byeokryeoktan.'

He had never taken the Byeokryeoktan out of his bosom, thinking of this.

The Byeokryeoktan was, in name and reality, the number one bomb in the world. Its explosive power and impact were incomparable to anything else in the world. With one Byeokryeoktan, that damn manor would be smashed in one go.

It was something he had been waiting for. But there was a problem.

'The Byeokryeoktan is too strong.'

Because its power was so strong, if the Byeokryeoktan were to be set off wrongly, a big problem would occur. It was possible that not only the manor would be blown up, but the surroundings would also become a scene of chaos.

If it were Byeokryeokja himself, he could also make adjustments such as reducing the damage range of the Byeokryeoktan or slightly lowering its power, but Jang So-gil was not Byeokryeokja. When it came to the Byeokryeoktan, he only knew enough to set it off so that he himself would not die.

Jang So-gil until now, there had been a slight hesitation that the innocent common people of Xuchang might be injured by the explosion of the Byeokryeoktan.

But that hesitation disappeared the moment he saw the defense of the Seomun Clan.

Jang So-gil grinned.

'I can set it off with a peace of mind.'

The defense of the Seomun Clan was certainly thorough. It was so thorough that one might wonder if they were preparing for a war.

But even so, it was not a place that was actually made assuming a real war.

Although the wall was high, it was not a castle wall. Although there were ditches, it was not a moat.

Although the military discipline of the guards was high, they were not soldiers.

And above all.

'Even if there were a castle wall and a moat, even if they were soldiers. They can't stop me now.'

Jang So-gil's body bent as if it were being pressed down.

The Plucking String Body Step was a lightness skill that shot one's own body like a bow. To put it simply, it was the same principle as a flick.

In the opposite direction of the direction you want to go, you press your body, concentrating your internal energy to the limit.

The longer you gather, the faster, stronger, and higher you can soar.

"Heup!"

Wrapping his whole body in wind, he soared high into the sky. Below, the manor of the Seomun Clan was visible.

It was still not enough. Jang So-gil continuously used the forms of the Cloud Dragon Nine Steps and continued to fly vertically.

Around the time the flying hawk was visible next to him. Now the preparations were finished.

Jang So-gil took out the Byeokryeoktan from his bosom. The shape of the Byeokryeoktan was completely different from other bombs.

A black rectangle. It looked like an inkstone. Since its size was also similar, there was a high possibility of mistaking it for an inkstone if one was not careful. It was the mischievous prank of Byeokryeokja.

Jang So-gil stretched his right hand, which was holding the Byeokryeoktan, far back. And with his left hand forward, he took a posture as if he were shooting a bow.

The Sun-Shooting Sword Art was a sword art that had started from the myth of Ye, who had shot down the sun with a bow. Therefore, the basis of the martial art was the bow. He made his own body a bow, and an arrow.

Among such forms, the one that stood out was the form of the 'Also Ten Thousand Giant Bow'.

Even if you threw a dagger, a flying knife, or a shuriken, it showed a powerful force as if it were shot from a giant bow.

It was the only form of power among the forms of the Sun-Shooting Sword Art that pursued speed.

All the power gathered while soaring from the ground to the sky was concentrated in both hands. The bow and string made of qi shook as if they would burst.

Jang So-gil released that power.

The Byeokryeoktan was fired with the momentum to drop the sun. It flew towards the manor, scattering a white light like a flash.

A fleeting moment passed, and a red sun rose on the ground.

The Sun-Shooting Sword Art was a sword art created to drop the sun.

Although the direction of the shot was different, Jang So-gil had succeeded in dropping the sun.

(End of Chapter)