The Mad Dog Inspector of the Martial Alliance

Chapter 97 : Accumulating Qi (2)

The winter of the 20th year of Emperor Yongle was a harsher winter than the previous year, which had suffered severe cold damage due to a sudden cold spell.

The crops froze and the earth hardened. People shivered in the cold and clutched their stomachs in hunger.

However, no matter how harsh nature was, the people's situation was rather better this year than last year. It was because there was no additional tax collection that had been collected every winter under the pretext of being on the eve of war. It was because the imperial family had enough money.

As a result, there was no one who had to sell their household goods, and there was no case of forcibly conscripting a young man of prime age from a house that could not pay the money and sending him to the army.

Thieves such as mountain bandits and water bandits, and the groups of the Black Way were also much quieter. It was thanks to the death of Po Chungryang of the Beggars' Sect, who had secretly connected with them and conducted business.

An injured beast becomes quiet. The groups of the Black Way were no different, and they spent the winter as if dead, tending to their wounds.

Since the imperial family was quiet and the groups of the Black Way were quiet, the common people only had to gather all their strength and fight against the winter. Naturally, compared to last year, they could live a much more human-like life, and fewer people died.

The common people praised the inspector of the Martial Alliance, who was related to all these matters, and called him the 'Ghost King', saying that he was the leader of the Yaksha and Rakshasa groups that followed Vaisravana.

Vaisravana was a god of war who protected the Buddhist law and the common people. He also had the aspect of a god of wealth, so he was in charge of wisdom, wealth, and success, and was sometimes identified with the 'Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King'.

A Yaksha was a group of ghosts that followed such a Vaisravana, and while being a fearsome existence, they were also extraordinary beings who punished villains at the very front and protected the common people.

Therefore, the common people had no hesitation in calling Jang So-gil the Ghost King.

On the other hand, there were also many who cursed him. Those who had been collected from and had all their money taken away. Those who had suffered the disaster of having their sects destroyed or had lost their power. They were those who had originally been rich and powerful, but whose methods of maintaining that power had been evil.

To them, the inspector of the Martial Alliance was like a calamity that had manifested in human form and was bringing disaster. It was impossible to look at him with good eyes.

Moreover, the process of the inspector handling matters was extremely rough. When he opened his mouth, it was money, and when he acted, it was intimidation. He was truly a golden ghost crazy about wealth. He was a complete scoundrel who had no respect for etiquette and customs.

So people were divided into those who called the inspector of the Martial Alliance the Ghost King and those who called him a complete scoundrel.

Those who called him the Ghost King worried about the safety of Jang So-gil, who had not shown his face for a long time, and waited for him to appear again.

On the other hand, those who called Jang So-gil a complete scoundrel prayed and prayed to the gods of heaven and earth that he would never show his face in the world again. It was a situation where they gathered their mouths to curse, wishing for his qi deviation, illness, and early death.

As time passed like that, the door of the closed-door training hall, which was in the deepest part of the Martial Alliance in Luoyang, finally opened.

The 20th year of Emperor Yongle had passed, and it was the spring when the 21st year began.

* * *

Luoyang was divided into four districts, east, west, south, and north, with the Martial Alliance in the center of the city.

The east and west were commercial areas where ordinary roads passed, and residents and merchants lived there. The south and north were military areas with a large military road where the army could pass, and it was a place where officials, those with credit guaranteed by officials, and soldiers and their families lived.

A commercial area and a military area created by systematically drawing a line in one city. The merchant guild that the Martial Alliance had decided to create was, of course, in the commercial area.

The directly managed merchant guild of the Martial Alliance, which had started from an official document distributed by the Martial Alliance, had greatly expanded its power in three months. The number of affiliated merchant guilds was seventy in total. Since there were seventy A-rank merchant guilds, if you added the number of small shops belonging to them, it was an enormous scale that far exceeded a thousand.

"Seventy A-rank merchant guilds. Among them, ten have their main office in Luoyang. The scale has grown quite a bit. The commercial area seems narrow. As expected, I knew three months would be enough. Now, then. What is the reaction of the Namgung Clan?"

Jang So-gil, who was looking over the map of Luoyang that Sima Hui had spread out, asked. He looked so neat that it was hard to believe he was a person who had just finished closed-door training.

Yang Gwan, who had finished the closed-door training together, was so worn out that he couldn't even eat, and was now slowly soothing his stomach with thin rice gruel, but Jang So-gil was so fine. It was thanks to diligently practicing the life-nurturing method of the Sima Collection Record and the Sima Divine Art.

Sima Hui, who had been smiling with satisfaction, deliberately cleared his throat and, frowning, answered.

"As you expected, the Namgung Clan has intervened in this matter. Nine of the seventy A-rank merchant guilds are vassals of the Namgung Clan. From livestock and distribution to brothels, they have advanced into a very wide range of fields."

"There must have been various behind-the-scenes maneuvers to interfere with information gathering. You've done well to find out in such detail."

"It was thanks to the cooperation of the Beggars' Sect."

After receiving Jang So-gil's help, the Beggars' Sect, which had reorganized its organization and strengthened its internal stability throughout the winter, had jumped back into its main business. It was nothing new that the main business of a beggar was an information dealer.

"If it weren't for their full support, I wouldn't have been able to find out anything. It's not like I can mobilize the Fengya Unit without any suspicion or evidence."

"So, how was it?"

"Don't even mention it. They were so meticulous that the owners of the merchant guilds were all from different backgrounds and origins, and they had carefully selected and planted only those with solid credit. Among them, there were also children of famous prestigious families, and even officials who had held government posts."

"But even that is probably not all. There are probably more merchant guilds that they have hidden, deceiving even the eyes of the Beggars' Sect."

"That's probably true. Since it's that Namgung Yeohwa."

Which was the richest noble family in the world? Without any disagreement, everyone would choose the Namgung Clan.

The peerless genius produced by that Namgung Clan was Namgung Yeohwa.

The Golden Ear of the West, Jang So-gil.

The Golden Ear of the East, Namgung Yeohwa.

They had heard rumors of each other tiresomely.

"If it's Namgung Yeohwa, she would have planted more than twenty merchant guilds. If she's going to eat up the entire Martial Alliance in the future, she would have to do at least that much."

Although it was Jang So-gil who had set the stage by creating the directly managed merchant guild of the Martial Alliance, the opponent was Namgung Yeohwa. She would of course know what she could do and what she could gain by using this stage.

With her ability, she would have known that if she maintained this stage for a few years, avoiding the eyes of others, it would be possible to buy the Martial Alliance with money. It was a stage where that much money could be obtained.

"So she must be eliminated. How about the Namgung Clan as the first collection target of the inspector who has finished his closed-door training?"

Jang So-gil immediately shook his head.

"No. The Namgung Clan will be left alone."

"That's strange. I thought your way was to strike the big one first."

"That is my way, but this time it's different. Above all, it's still too early."

"Too early?"

Jang So-gil grinned and shook his sleeve. The newly tailored purple silk was engraved on Sima Hui's retina.

It was a bewitching color. His voice was even more bewitching.

"The fruit is not yet ripe. No matter how much it's Namgung Yeohwa, how much could she have eaten in three months? At most, she would have eaten about a hundred thousand silver taels. That's not enough."

"A-a hundred thousand silver taels isn't enough?"

"It would be nice if I could make her go bankrupt by imposing a fine at once like in the case of the Western Great Mountain. But this time, I'm dealing with the best prestigious noble family in the central plains. I can't press them down with the authority of His Majesty, nor can I do it with the name of the Alliance Leader. Even if I expose embezzlement or corruption, I'll have to give them at least a period of guidance."

Sima Hui, who had understood belatedly, sighed.

"It means that if it's the Namgung Clan, they have the ability to cover up their own corruption during the guidance period."

"That's right. They can just pay the fine, and they can also handle the aftermath. So I have to leave it alone until the situation becomes so big that it's impossible to handle."

Until the corruption piles up and becomes uncontrollable.

Until the Namgung Clan goes bankrupt and is ruined at once.

Until the fish's flesh is plump.

He would not hurry, and would wait with a joyful heart.

"So, without acting rashly..."

Jang So-gil leisurely flicked his finger. A faint frost wind flowed along his finger. The fellow who had only known how to shoot the Soul-Stealing Flash at maximum power now handled the ice qi freely.

An enormous achievement in martial arts. Although it was only three months of closed-door training, it was as if he had become a different person. As Sima Hui unconsciously admired him, Jang So-gil said.

"I'm thinking of going back to the basics and doing a light hunt for two thousand taels."

Jang So-gil had made a promise with the Martial Alliance Leader. If he collected two thousand taels, he could enter the martial arts library where all the martial arts of the world were gathered. Sima Hui, recalling that promise, clicked his tongue.

"Even after learning super-advanced martial arts like the Sun-Shooting Sword Art, the Cloud Dragon Eight Steps, and the Soul-Stealing Ice Art, you still have a greed for martial arts?"

"I realized it while doing the closed-door training this time. Rather than the training of digging deep into one thing that is commonly talked about, learning various martial arts broadly suits me better."

In the achievement of martial arts, momentary intuition and enlightenment, separate from intelligence, have a great influence. This is called 'wuxing'. Those who are geniuses in martial arts are those who understand ten when they see one.

Yang Gwan, who was one of the Ten Dragons and could be said to belong to the highest level among the rising stars of the martial world, understood six when he saw one. So he had a sufficiently outstanding wuxing.

"But my wuxing and Brother Sima Hui's wuxing are not very outstanding."

"Hmm."

Intelligence and wuxing are not proportional. Sima Hui and Jang So-gil, compared to their high intelligence, had low wuxing. So they could not know ten when they saw one like other martial artists.

But because their intelligence was high, their ability to see one and understand one was far superior to others. To make use of that advantage, it was necessary to have various samples, and the samples mentioned here were, of course, martial arts manuals.

Sima Hui, as if in agreement, nodded his head.

"Certainly, for people like us, rather than digging deep into one path and pursuing the extreme, it's faster to learn by broadly learning various martial arts and comparing each martial art to fill in the lacking parts."

"Did you feel it too, Brother?"

"I learned thirty-eight martial arts to master the 'Total Protection Moon Fan'. I couldn't help but feel it."

"To break through the blocked parts of the Soul-Stealing Ice Art, I felt the need to learn a martial art of the extreme yang and compare it. I've already compared it with Yang Gwan's Fire Wheel Art, and since I had some achievement of my own, I reached the 3rd star. But I'm stuck there again."

"You'll need more samples."

"As it happens, I have one chance left from organizing the matter of Huashan. How should I make use of this chance?"

A martial art of the extreme yang, a martial art of the extreme yang. What would be good?

It wasn't that Jang So-gil was going to learn it, but he was probably going to give it to Yang Gwan after using it as a reference. If it was a martial art of the extreme yang and also a good martial art for Yang Gwan, what would there be?

Sima Hui, who had been thinking deeply, slapped his knee.

"How about the Zixia Divine Art of Huashan?"

Jang So-gil's eyes twitched. It was because there was no martial artist who did not know the name 'Zixia Divine Art'.

"I also know the Zixia Divine Art. But are you crazy?"

The Zixia Divine Art was a martial art that only the sect leader of Huashan could learn. Just like the Sun-Shooting Sword Art, one of the Ten Great Sword Arts of the World that Jang So-gil was learning, its fame was high in the world, and among the martial arts of the extreme yang, it was one of the two best divine arts in the world, along with the Nine Yang Divine Art of Shaolin.

Even though it was such a martial art, the reason Jang So-gil was disgusted was, of course, because it was a secret martial art of a sect.

"I learned the Sun-Shooting Sword Art of Diancang thanks to the Alliance Leader. But the Zixia Divine Art belongs to Huashan. If I touch it wrongly, it will be a really big problem."

"I know that too. The Huashan Sect is a giant sect that cannot be taken lightly."

"A person who knows that says so? Brother, aren't you just trying to see the Zixia Divine Art once and making a fuss?"

It wasn't wrong. If he could enter the martial arts library, he had really wanted to see the Zixia Divine Art once.

Touching his slightly flushed earlobe, Sima Hui continued.

"But think about it. Isn't it okay as long as you don't learn it?"

"Is that an excuse now?"

"Listen slowly. It's not about learning the martial art. It's just for reference."

"Do you think I'm collecting two thousand taels just for reference? After referencing it, whether Gwan uses it or someone else uses it, I have to choose something that's usable."

"I told you to listen slowly. I will improve the Zixia Divine Art that you have referenced."

The Thousand Li Young Master Sima Hui. He was a person called the number one martial arts scholar in the world. There was no one in the current martial world who was better at reorganizing and recreating martial arts than him.

"But no matter how much it's me, I don't have the confidence to make a martial art like the Zixia Divine Art better. It will definitely be a degraded version of the original. Besides, there's not enough time. To compare this and that, entering the martial arts library once is not enough. It will be necessary twice."

"There's no advantage."

"But even if it's degraded, the Zixia Divine Art is the Zixia Divine Art."

"..."

"If I combine a few martial arts there and recreate it, even if it's degraded, I have the confidence to make it on par with an ordinary advanced martial art. I can also improve it to match the Fire Wheel Art."

"Instead, I have to enter the martial arts library twice?"

Jang So-gil closed his mouth. It seemed he was tempted.

After thinking for a moment, he grinned.

"That's interesting."

"Right?"

"I'll earn two thousand taels within five days. Get ready."

(End of Chapter)