Chapter 97 : Negotiation

Chapter 97: Negotiation

At the questions from Iron Demon and Profound Demon, both wearing puzzled expressions, Yul Han nodded and answered.

“Yes. I planned to take it over.”

“How?”

In response to Iron Demon’s question, Yul Han merely curled his lips into a grin and headed toward the place known as the Government Office’s Aksu Military Farm.

The number of soldiers guarding the military farm was ten in total—one commander and nine soldiers.

All of them belonged to the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

That said, the ordinary soldiers themselves were not members of the Embroidered Uniform Guard proper; they were troops of the Imperial Guard who protected the imperial palace alongside it.

Unlike conscripted peasant soldiers dragged into service, the Imperial Guard were professional soldiers. Their training was solid, and their sense of responsibility was exceptional.

Their families’ livelihoods depended on them.

That was the reason they had not deserted and continued to guard the military farm despite countless raids by horse bandits.

One of those soldiers spotted Yul Han’s group approaching at a slow pace.

Soon, the alarm bell rang, and armed soldiers rushed up onto the walls of the small earthen fortress built at the entrance of the military farm.

The commander did the same.

“From which direction?”

At the commander’s question, a soldier raised his hand and pointed toward the direction from which Yul Han’s group was approaching.

The commander tilted his head as he turned his gaze that way.

“They don’t look like horse bandits.”

“Still, they’re armed. Should we prepare for battle just in case?”

“Yes. Wind the crossbows and ready the bows.”

At the commander’s order, the nine soldiers moved in perfect unison. For an Imperial Guard unit, their training was indeed impressive.

When Yul Han reached the front of the earthen fortress gate, the commander shouted down at him.

“Who are you? Who dares approach the Government Office’s military camp without authorization!”

Yul Han answered the commander, who was shouting with considerable severity.

“I came to talk.”

“Talk? How dare a mere outsider presume to speak with an officer of the Government Office!”

At the commander’s roar, Iron Demon scowled fiercely and tried to leap up onto the wall, but Yul Han stopped him.

“We came to talk. Don’t forget that.”

As Iron Demon suppressed his anger and stepped back, Yul Han spoke again to the commander atop the wall.

“We have no intention of causing harm, so would you open the gate?”

“Impossible! Outsiders cannot be allowed inside the walls.”

The commander’s voice was filled with stubborn resolve.

As Yul Han frowned, wondering what to do next, Iron Demon’s Mental Voice Transmission reached him.

—Dust is rising behind us.

Turning his head, I saw a cloud of dust rising in the distance, just as Iron Demon had said.

The government soldiers atop the earthen fortress had not noticed it at all. The amount of dust was still too subtle for anyone who had not cultivated Internal Energy to perceive.

—Could it be horse bandits?

—Around here, they’re the only ones who could raise that kind of dust.

At Iron Demon’s reply, Yul Han thought for a brief moment, then smiled faintly.

—Let’s withdraw for now.

After confirming that the group had turned and moved according to his Mental Voice Transmission, Yul Han spoke once more to the commander on the wall.

“We’ll meet again shortly.”

Leaving behind words that were hard to understand, Yul Han’s group departed.

The commander watched them until they completely vanished into the nearby forest. Then, urgency rang in the soldiers’ voices behind him.

“H–Horse bandits!”

The commander spun around and confirmed the rapidly approaching dust cloud, his face hardening.

But only for a moment. As if having steeled his resolve, he shouted.

“Prepare for battle! Prepare for battle!”

At his shout, the soldiers drew their weapons and began readying themselves for combat.

Naturally, their expressions were just as stiff as their commander’s.

It was because of the red wolf-head banner fluttering at the forefront of the bandits.

‘The Blood Wolf Bandits!’

They would resist because it was their duty, but from past experience, the chance of victory was nonexistent. That realization was what stiffened the faces of both the commander and his soldiers.

The Blood Wolf was the leader who commanded the Blood Wolf bandits.

Contrary to the savage name of the bandit group, they were not particularly cruel. The fact that their creed was “avoid killing whenever possible” made that clear enough.

Of course, that did not mean the Blood Wolf bandits had never killed anyone.

Banditry, by its very nature, involved forcibly taking what belonged to others, and it was unrealistic from the start to hope that no one would ever be harmed.

Even so, the Blood Wolf bandits were reputed to be quite strong. Every single one of them was a martial artist who had cultivated Internal Energy.

Composed of those from the Eighteen Demon Sects or wandering martial artists, most were First Rate martial artists, and they even possessed two or three Master Level experts. For a mere bandit group, they were overwhelmingly powerful.

That was why a band of only thirty horse bandits was known as one of Xinjiang’s three great bandit groups.

Their leader, the Blood Wolf, was the strongest among them—an elite Master Level expert standing on the brink of Peak Master Level.

As he looked toward the earthen fortress now right before him, he gave an order.

“Quickly.”

At the Blood Wolf’s command, all thirty bandits kicked off their saddles and leapt into the air, landing atop the earthen fortress walls in an instant.

Arrows flew, and even crossbow bolts capable of piercing shields were occasionally fired, but the bandits dodged them with ease, as if they were nothing, and vaulted onto the walls.

Against Internal Energy masters, the walls of an earthen fortress were simply too low.

In that manner, the bandits who had leapt up seized control of the walls in the blink of an eye.

It took some time to subdue the commander, who was from the Embroidered Uniform Guard, but in the end they managed to overpower everyone.

Fortunately, neither the commander nor any of the soldiers were killed. There were wounded, but since it had been a battle, that much had to be endured.

Despite being subdued by the horse bandits, neither the commander nor the soldiers showed much agitation. Their expressions were stiff, but that meant they were not afraid.

After all, this was hardly the first time something like this had happened to them.

They knew that the horse bandits tried not to kill them.

Perhaps because of that, the bound commander was sitting there with his eyes completely closed.

Stepping up in front of that commander, Ju-hyeon spoke.

“Let’s do it like usual. We’ll just take the grain.”

When the commander remained silent with his eyes closed, Ju-hyeon turned his gaze away and gave an order to his subordinates.

“Search the place. If they won’t hand it over, we’ll just find it and take it ourselves.”

At Ju-hyeon’s command, around ten subordinates bowed their heads and rushed down from the wall, pouring into the interior of the fortress to search.

As Ju-hyeon watched his men rummaging through the fortress, a whisper-like voice reached his ear.

“What are you looking for?”

“What, you don’t know? We’re looking for ri—.”

Ju-hyeon cut himself off mid-sentence, his expression stiffening, and slowly turned around.

Yul Han and his group were standing there.

Ju-hyeon flinched, his eyes shaking violently.

Even though he was seeing them with his own eyes, his perception was still telling him that there was no one there.

“Could it be… ghosts?”

“I still have too many grudges to die just yet.”

At Yul Han’s smiling reply, Ju-hyeon realized it clearly.

‘Fuck. I’m screwed.’

There was only one kind of people who were not ghosts yet still escaped his perception.

Experts.

And on the front of Yul Han’s group’s garments was embroidered a hand grasping lightning.

‘Lightning Hand! Bright Cult!’

In Xinjiang, one could not hope to survive after opposing the Bright Cult.

Ju-hyeon instantly changed his attitude and became overly polite.

“Ah! So you’ve come from the Bright Cult. You should’ve said so. Hahaha. Please wait just a moment, great hero. I’ve already prepared the ground well, so if you wait just a little, my boys will gather everything up and present it to you.”

“Good.”

“Yes. I’ll make sure it’s more than satisfactory. What are you doing? Hurry up! The great heroes of the Bright Cult are waiting.”

Only then did the bandits, who had belatedly realized the identities of those who had appeared out of nowhere, begin to move in a panic.

Ju-hyeon sent down ten more from the twenty who had remained on the wall, ordering them to search for grain as well.

He had judged that handing it over as quickly as possible would be the best way to survive.

Even while the bandits were ransacking the storehouses, the commander kept his eyes closed, completely motionless.

To him, Yul Han sent a Mental Voice Transmission.

—Do you feel like talking now?

At Yul Han’s mental voice, the commander opened his eyes and stared straight at him.

—Toying with an official is a grave crime!

—I have no intention of toying with you. I simply need a serious conversation.

—What kind of conversation could you possibly want with me?

—There’s no rice, is there?

At Yul Han’s question, the commander’s gaze wavered.

—Recent supplies were cut off, weren’t they?

—H-how do you know that?

—I saw the soldiers hunting around the area. Catching fish, cutting grass, peeling bark. It’s impossible not to notice.

—Supplies will arrive soon.

—I’d stake my life that they won’t.

At Yul Han’s words, the commander’s eyes wavered once more. He knew it himself—they were isolated.

Recently, the Pyeongchi Realm-Stabilizing Army, which had been formed to investigate a bloodshed incident, had raised the banner of rebellion against the court.

At first glance, one might think that a mere few hundred soldiers could hardly stage a rebellion, but it was not that simple.

The one appointed as the Pyeongchi Realm-Pacifying Great General happened to be a member of the imperial family.

When he raised the banner of rebellion, countless local powers responded. When the state had demanded troops for legitimate affairs, only a few hundred had been mobilized, but once the banner of rebellion was raised, the forces swelled into the tens of thousands.

The local powers knew all too well that the spoils would be enormous if they succeeded.

Not content with contributing their private troops, they opened their granaries, recruited soldiers, and sent them to the rebel army.

They were nothing more than farmers lured by food, but once you put spears and swords in their hands, they became soldiers the enemy could not simply ignore.

In that way, the rebel forces had already grown to tens of thousands.

Against them, the number of Imperial Guards mobilized was merely a few thousand.

It was because the imperial household had been spending extravagantly on luxury and pleasure, reducing the number of Imperial Guards protecting the palace year after year.

In reality, even the Embroidered Uniform Guard, known as the last bulwark of imperial security, numbered fewer than a thousand.

Because of that, rumors had begun to spread among the people that the imperial family would soon collapse.

In other words, rumors of the imperial collapse were already circulating even before news of the rebellion had fully spread across the land.

Even so, no one stepped forward to save the imperial family.

It was a vivid testament to just how brutally the Government Office had oppressed the people.

In any case, the imperial family was facing rebellion.

With insufficient troops, the Ministry of War, which bore full responsibility for the defense of the imperial family, had no leeway to worry about sending supplies to a small earthen fortress on the frontier.

The reason Yul Han had taken interest in the Aksu Military Farm was because he had received information suggesting that the Pyeongchi Realm-Stabilizing Army’s gathering of forces was likely an attempt at rebellion.

The source was crystal clear—it was an official report from the Institute of Reason, which oversaw the Bright Cult’s intelligence.

Realizing that his counterpart had seen through the whole situation, the commander asked:

—You know?

—About the rebellion.

At Yul Han’s indifferent reply, the commander’s expression darkened even further.

The reason the horse bandits spared them was because they feared retaliation from the government troops.

But what if they knew that the Government Office itself was fighting among its own ranks?

The commander worried that they would no longer bother trying to keep them alive.

With his expression growing even darker, the commander sent a Mental Voice Transmission to Yul Han.

—The rumors haven’t even reached Xinjiang yet, but you somehow heard about it.

The reason the commander of the Aksu Military Farm, a remote corner of Xinjiang, knew of the rebellion despite the lack of rumors was because he had received an urgent dispatch from the Ministry of War.

The problem was that while the Ministry of War conveyed news of the rebellion through the dispatch, it included no further orders.

There should have been some command—return to reinforce, or die defending the military farm—but there had been nothing of the sort.

That was why, frustrated and helpless, the commander had no choice but to remain holed up in the military farm as before.

To him, Yul Han’s reply came.

—My ears are a bit better than most. So, how about it? Shall I help you?

At Yul Han’s question, the commander’s eyes lit up.