The Mad Dog Inspector of the Martial Alliance

Chapter 130 : A Pearl in the Mud (1)

What does 'demon' mean?

In stories like the one about the immortal who helped those who rose up to defeat the tyrant King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty, or the one about the high priest who traveled to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures and defeated various monsters, demonic beings like 'yoma' naturally appear.

But those are all fictional stories passed down by word of mouth to entertain the public. Jang So-gil was not a street storyteller, and he would not have been talking about non-existent monsters.

To a martial artist, 'demon' naturally meant the Demonic Cult.

The demon sent by heaven. The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult that served the Heavenly Demon!

At Yang Gwan's reaction, Jang So-gil wiggled his long, white fingers.

"It's true that I'm talking about the Demonic Cult. But monsters exist, you bastard."

"What? But I've never seen a monster before."

"People, I tell you, if it's something they haven't seen, they first doubt or deny it. Monsters exist. In the first place, if immortals exist, how can monsters not exist?"

"I haven't really heard any rumors about monsters appearing anywhere in the world..."

"That's because our ancestors worked hard to exterminate the monsters. You bastard, think about it carefully. What is the elixir that you guys consider the best? Isn't it the inner core of a spiritual beast, the 'neidan'?"

The inner core of a human-faced spider, the 'inmyeonjiju'.

The inner core of a ten-thousand-year-old carp, the 'mannyeonhwari'.

The elixir that was considered the best among elixirs was, by all means, the inner core of a legendary spiritual beast.

"What's the difference between those spiritual beasts and monsters?"

"Uh... now that you say it, it seems so?"

"This is a story based on the premise that spiritual beasts and monsters are the same. But I think the reason why spiritual beasts are so rare now is probably because people in the old days wiped out the monsters to eat their inner cores."

"That makes sense."

"Anyway, let's put aside the unrelated monster story for now. As for the Demonic Cult..."

Jang So-gil, pointing at his own face, asked Yang Gwan.

"Do you think those guys would like me?"

It was a very easy question to answer. Yang Gwan shook his head greatly.

"They would hate you."

"They would. Why would they hate me?"

"Well, because you're from the Martial Alliance?"

"And?"

"Because you're a high-ranking person in the Martial Alliance."

"That's not wrong. But it's too abstract. I need to add an explanation. Now, what have I done so far?"

"Saving the Martial Alliance."

"That's right."

The Martial Alliance was dying. The Nine Sects One Alliance and the Five Great Noble Families were only interested in their own profits, and the imperial family was wary of the Martial Alliance becoming stronger. Inside, bloodsuckers were sucking its blood, and outside, there were those who were holding a memorial service for its demise.

If it weren't for the hostages called the secret manuals of the martial arts library, the Martial Alliance would have been disbanded long ago.

"But why did people think it was okay for the Martial Alliance to be ruined?"

"...I don't know."

"Because there was no enemy."

"Ah."

"If the thieves disappear, the escort agency reduces its escorts, and the village disbands its ronin squad. If the enemy disappears, it's an inevitable step to first save on military expenses. But it's a big mistake to think that the Martial Alliance has no enemy now."

The Demonic Cult had not disappeared. They were just hiding in the dark. They were holding their breath, waiting for the fall of the Martial Alliance, and were watching for an opportunity.

There was also evidence. It was the matter of the Hakseo Escort Agency.

"To the extent that an escort of the Hakseo Escort Agency, which is right in front of the Martial Alliance headquarters in Luoyang, had a 'Demon God Pill'. It's natural that the power of the Demonic Cult still remains. Those guys have just changed their strategy. They thought a long-term war of waiting until the Martial Alliance was ruined and disappeared was better than a direct confrontation."

"Then it's understandable that they would hate Young Master So."

"That's right."

It was a Martial Alliance that had only its ruin left if they just waited. But Jang So-gil had saved it. He was draining the rotten blood and filling the lacking blood.

He was overcoming the checks and hindrances of those who were holding a memorial service for its demise and was continuously transfusing new blood into the Martial Alliance.

"So what would happen if Ha Hu-yeong took my head and defected to the Demonic Cult?"

"He would receive a great reward."

"He could easily bear the loss of losing the Four Black Alliance. At the very least, wouldn't they give him the position of a bishop of the Demonic Cult?"

Jang So-gil had quickly realized the reason why the Four Black Alliance was aiming for his life. So he had not tried to extract information from Ha Hu-yeong.

Thus, a line was added to the report on Ha Hu-yeong. Suspected of having a connection with the Demonic Cult.

Jang So-gil, who had briefly concluded the charges against him, sat down. There was a mountain of urgent matters piled up.

He had confirmed how strong Jang So-gil as a martial artist had become and what he could do this time. From now on, it was time to show how much ability Jang So-gil as a merchant had.

Yang Gwan showed a look of difficulty.

"Young Master So is also quite seriously injured."

"The reversal of qi and blood is something that will heal if you just take an elixir and sleep well. For me, doing this official business is my recuperation."

"Sigh... do as you please."

"At the very least, I'll earn three hundred thousand taels from this. Three hundred thousand taels."

As he earned money, he would be able to assert his rights to the Alliance Leader.

Jang So-gil, burning with motivation, loosened his hands. A 'hihihi' sound of laughter spread through the barracks.

* * *

The business rights among the assets of the Four Black Alliance were planned to be mostly handed over to the unorthodox sect. But the Martial Alliance could not sell illegal business establishments to the unorthodox sect for money.

Here, Jang So-gil's resourcefulness shone. He had found a force to take charge of this process instead of the Martial Alliance.

It was the imperial family. And instead of selling the business rights directly, he had arranged a meeting between the unorthodox sect and the imperial family and had received a kind of brokerage fee.

The imperial family knew that this kind of business could not be uprooted, so they wanted to manage it in a place where their eyes could reach. Thus, the unorthodox sects that had taken over the business of the Four Black Alliance had received a promise from the imperial family that they would be exempted from twenty of the miscellaneous taxes.

It was the birth of an illegal business entity that had been approved by the imperial family.

Yang Gwan, who was watching the way things were going, blinked his big, ox-like eyes as if he were dumbfounded.

"How is this possible?"

"Whether you leave them alone or crush them, guys who do this kind of thing will continue to appear. So it's better to fill the place with cooperative guys on this occasion. And considering the national treasury, this is also a profit."

"Even though twenty kinds of miscellaneous taxes are exempted?"

"In other words, it means that from now on, they will pay taxes except for those twenty. Aren't they receiving money that they couldn't receive at all when the Four Black Alliance was in control? Of course, it's a profit."

It made sense when he heard it. But there was nothing to say but that it was a great resourcefulness to connect the unorthodox sect and the imperial family and to mediate between them.

Jang So-gil, in addition to that, had written a prohibition clause for each business establishment. It was to set a proper line.

To the wholesalers and retailers who sold meat obtained from unauthorized slaughter, he had forbidden the handling of 'mixed meat', that is, a method of finely mincing various kinds of meat so that it was not known what kind of meat it was. It was to prevent the trade of human flesh.

The complexion of the unorthodox sects that had taken over the businesses was not good. Since other fields had also been set with such trivial prohibition clauses, their complexion could not be good. Because at this rate, there would not be much profit for doing an illegal business.

In any case, the problem of the business establishments of the Four Black Alliance had ended like this.

Since he had crossed one mountain, he moved on to the next task.

The martial artists who had participated in the heroic journey were each given their own rewards. Someone was hired as a martial artist of the Martial Alliance, and someone caught the eye of a prestigious orthodox sect and became a disciple.

To the extent that it was said that receiving silver was the smallest reward, there were very many who had changed their fate with this matter.

The rewards given to them were paid with the money from organizing the assets of the Four Black Alliance. Not a single silver coin of the Martial Alliance's property was used. In the end, it was a matter of showing off with someone else's thing, but everyone applauded the clean and luxurious rewards of the Martial Alliance.

The days of dealing with the piled-up work continued day after day.

Then, on the sixth day.

* * *

Most of the work was organized cleanly and quickly. But there were some items that were a bit of a hassle.

It was the martial arts secret manuals.

"Although the martial arts secret manuals that the Four Black Alliance has are probably nothing special. It's a problem if there are secret manuals that were traded as stolen goods, secret manuals that the martial artists of the Black Way obtained by robbing graves, or secretly copied secret manuals."

"Well, because you don't know who the original owner is."

"And the things here are the most troublesome ones among them."

Jang So-gil frowned inside the warehouse. Was it because he would say that it was not something of the Black Way? The dusty warehouse was built in a damp corner. It was a low-grade warehouse where items that had not been sold at auction were piled up.

Yang Gwan, coughing, asked.

"Wow, the dust... But why is this place a problem?"

"Because there might be something valuable."

"What? It's a low-grade warehouse with only unsold items. Would there be anything valuable in it?"

"So I'm saying I don't know."

In the morning, he had come from organizing the warehouse where the medium-to-high-grade items were kept. There, quite a few martial arts secret manuals had come out, and there had been arguments and fistfights. Since they had said they would organize the remaining assets after exterminating the Four Black Alliance, there were quite a few martial artists who had come to obtain valuable items.

Every time a decent martial arts secret manual came out, they would repeatedly use their family, their sect, their cousins, their relatives, and even non-existent fiction and fabrication to claim that they were the rightful owners of that martial arts secret manual. Since there were ten such people for each secret manual, it inevitably led to arguments, and sometimes fistfights broke out.

After dealing with that, he had finally gotten some free time and had come to see the low-grade items as well.

"A secret manual is generally made by mixing metaphors and similes. Some secret arts, to prevent leakage, change their contents into a code and write them down. Among them, there are also some that you have to know wordplay to understand. So it's possible that the ordinary appraisers of the Four Black Alliance didn't notice and treated them as low-grade items, but a real treasure might be mixed in."

"It's like finding a pearl in the mud."

"It's more likely that there's no pearl and it's a waste of effort."

"Then why don't we just not do it?"

"Just thinking that there might be gold in the discarded items, I can't sleep."

The probability of there being a valuable book among the many low-grade books here was not even one-tenth of a percent.

An item of high value comparable to gold? Not even one-hundredth of a percent. The martial arts of a famous prestigious sect? Not even one-thousandth of a percent. A martial art of a thousand years would not even be one-ten-thousandth of a percent.

But thinking about that one-ten-thousandth of a percent possibility, the person called Jang So-gil could not sleep.

"Aigoo, how petty."

"Shut up. You just dust off the dust and stack the books."

Yang Gwan, grumbling, grabbed a book. As he roughly dusted it off, he was afraid that the old book would be damaged. That's how many old books there were, and their preservation state was a mess.

Jang So-gil, while carefully dusting off the dust from the books with a duster made of chicken tail feathers, a sense of self-pity washed over him.

"For a person of my size to be doing this is a bit..."

"Stop grumbling and do it properly."

"Aish, I understand."

The dust will get in, so why don't you just shut your mouth. Jang So-gil, clicking his tongue, began to look at the books that Yang Gwan was organizing.

As expected, there were many trash-like books. But among them, there were also quite a few surprisingly valuable books.

"A 'Mountain Yaksha'? It seems to be an old novel. Do these things also sell?"

"These old books are good historical materials to learn about the society of the past. They have historical value."

"Then how much is it?"

"One silver tael."

One silver tael was a sufficiently high price.

But now it was Yang Gwan, who had worked with Jang So-gil for a year. When he said one silver tael, for some reason, it felt like it wouldn't even cover the labor cost.

Wondering what the meaning of this was, it was when Yang Gwan was grumbling again.

Jang So-gil's breathing stopped.

He stared at the old book with a serious expression.

"What's wrong, Young Master So?"

"No way."

The one-ten-thousandth of a percent probability had been broken.

A martial art of a thousand years was here.

He slowly reviewed it dozens of times to see if what he had deciphered was correct.

Jang So-gil, who had been silent for a long time, let out the true name of this old book in a low voice.

"This... I think it's the 'Emperor's Sword Form'?"

It was the family's secret martial art of the Namgung Clan, which was known to have been lost.

(End of Chapter)