Chapter 159 : Time Waits for No One

“What is my little brother going to do with this?”

He put the swords he had received from the ruffians of the Heungno Gang in exchange for alcohol into a bundle.

Jin Sohyun, without saying what he was going to do with them, told him to throw them with all his might toward the Cheonru when the sun passed over the Cheonhwagak, and then went inside.

“By the way… did my little brother use a sword?”

Beomgang stroked the bundle containing the five swords and waited for the sun to rise to its zenith.

In the meantime, Jin Sohyun, who had come to the Cheonhwagak, was naturally guided to the Cheonru.

“You’ve come?”

“It seems you didn’t come in person this time either.”

The new Jeokmyeon who had come to find Jin Sohyun was with the huge man he had seen at their first meeting and two men wearing black masks.

“Don’t worry about them. In any case, no one knows about the deal between you and me.”

It meant that it didn't matter who was with him now, unless he revealed his identity himself.

“Then, it’s time to choose. Now… what choice have you made, Young Master?”

“Before that, let me ask you one thing.”

As Jeokmyeon nodded his head slightly, Jin Sohyun said.

“Was it the Hao Sect that turned Honggang into an entertainment city?”

“Well, it’s not a story worth hiding, so I’ll tell you. As you said, it was the Hao Sect that made Honggang prosper like this.”

“Courtesans are essential for a brothel to prosper. How did you gather so many courtesans?”

Jeokmyeon looked at Jin Sohyun with a strange gaze.

It was a gaze as if he didn't know why he was curious about this.

At that, Jin Sohyun continued.

“It’s just a curiosity. Since I’m the son of a merchant, I’m very interested in these business-related things.”

“The son of a merchant… I see. The courtesans of Honggang are not women who originally lived in Honggang. They gathered from all over the Central Plains. They are those who became courtesans themselves to earn a lot of money.”

“Became… courtesans themselves?”

Jin Sohyun chuckled.

“Don’t lie. Jeokmyeon. In this world, there are almost no women who want to become courtesans to earn money. If there were that many, anyone could have set up a brothel and earned a lot of money. Isn’t that right?”

As befitting the son of a merchant, Jin Sohyun said with a sly face, and Jeokmyeon, who was watching this with interest, shrugged his shoulders.

“As expected, you’re not an easy man.”

“The Hao Sect has information power and an information network comparable to the Beggars' Sect. They could easily destroy an ordinary clan or estate… and among them, there must have been many families with daughters.”

“…”

“How many people could withstand it if the Hao Sect set out to destroy them?”

The silent Jeokmyeon laughed heartily.

“Now that I see it, you didn’t come to answer my proposal… but to criticize me?”

“Oops… look at my mind. I forgot about the proposal.”

Jin Sohyun’s gaze moved to the sky outside the Cheonru.

The sun, which had risen at some point, was passing over the roof of the Cheonhwagak.

“I am Jin Sohyun, the eldest son of the Jin Clan. It was known that I lost my martial arts while fighting the Nameless Pavilion, but in fact, I’m fine.”

At Jin Sohyun’s sudden confession, Jeokmyeon was noticeably flustered.

It was when he was about to say something.

Jin Sohyun said.

“Ah, that’s right. I forgot that no one else besides us should hear this story. I have no choice. Can you kill all these guys? Let’s continue our deal after that.”

“What?”

“What’s the big deal? If you can blow off the Cheonhwagak Master’s head, you can kill these three people here, right?”

“…”

As Jeokmyeon could not move rashly, Jin Sohyun stood up very slowly.

“At our first meeting, I didn’t feel a single presence within ten feet. But you said that the one wearing the red mask was your double.”

“…”

“Isn’t it amazing? To be able to set up a double so naturally and convey your words without even seeing me or talking to me directly.”

The huge man quietly gripped the steel hexagonal club.

“So I made a hypothesis. If the you I met last night was the real Jeokmyeon… and you pretended to be dead in front of me… and if you appeared in this place wearing a black mask and set up a double.”

Jin Sohyun’s eyes passed the red mask and looked at the three people wearing black masks in turn.

“The real Jeokmyeon would be in this place.”

“Since when?”

The man standing in the middle of the three people wearing black masks asked.

His voice was the same as the voice of Jeokmyeon he had heard last night.

“I thought of it on my way here today. I became certain when your double, who was wearing the red mask, called me ‘you’ instead of ‘you’.”

Clap, clap, clap—!

Jeokmyeon, who was wearing a black mask, clapped his hands.

“Amazing! I’m not one to trust rumors. Words tend to get distorted as they pass from person to person. But seeing you in person, I think I know. Why the Heretic Path's Alliance was so desperate to kill you.”

Jeokmyeon took off the black mask he was wearing and put on the red mask again.

And so, having returned to the Red-Faced Lord, he said with his hands behind his back, as if it were a pity.

“Tsk… you should have just accepted my proposal. You’re needlessly intoxicated with your own cleverness and hastening your death. Gwan O!”

At his call, the huge man named Gwan O raised his hexagonal club with all his might.

“Gwan O.”

At that moment, a voice that was exactly like Jeokmyeon’s came from Jin Sohyun’s mouth.

At that, Gwan O, who was holding the hexagonal club, began to look back and forth between Jeokmyeon and Jin Sohyun with a confused face.

“You…”

“Gwan O can’t speak. He’s been trained to react only to my voice.”

Jin Sohyun smiled faintly.

“Really?”

‘This bastard is a disciple of the Heavenly Sound White Flower!’

He belatedly remembered that Jin Sohyun was not only Kang Cheon’s disciple but also the disciple of the Heavenly Sound White Flower, Oh Yoran.

Jeokmyeon felt a chill down his spine and stealthily stepped back.

“Did you… steal my voice?”

“It’s the Sound Devouring Art. I learned it because it was interesting, but I didn’t know it would be so useful.”

“Keuk…! Do you think you can defeat me with something like this!”

“Jeokmyeon. I have one thing I’m curious about… how many people in the Hao Sect know your face?”

It didn't take long to grasp the intention of the question Jin Sohyun had asked.

Jeokmyeon did not hesitate and stretched out his hand, shouting.

“Kill that son of a bitch!”

At Jeokmyeon’s order, the two black masks and one red mask drew their swords at the same time.

They rushed at Jin Sohyun all at once.

Jeokmyeon, who was planning to buy time using them, quickly launched himself into the air.

It was then.

As Jin Sohyun stretched out his hand toward the window, five swords flew in from the open window of the Cheonru.

Jin Sohyun, who had grabbed two of them, had a smile on his lips.

“It’s been a while.”

Jin Sohyun’s left hand, which was about to perform the flying sword technique after a long time, stretched out toward the three people who were rushing in.

“Flash Thunder, Thunderclap.”

The two swords shot out, spewing blue lightning ki.

The thunderclap pierced the chests of the two without giving them a chance to escape, and the two swords that flew in afterward pierced the brow of the remaining one.

Jin Sohyun, who had killed the three in an instant, shouted at the flinching Gwan O.

“Stay still!”

Jeokmyeon’s voice exerted absolute control over Gwan O.

Even knowing that something was wrong, Gwan O could not move.

In the meantime, Jin Sohyun, who had approached Jeokmyeon, performing the Shadowless Movement, grabbed the back of his neck.

“Keuk!”

Jeokmyeon, who was caught before he could even activate the device he used in emergencies, struggled.

Although his martial arts level was close to the first-rate, his skills were not enough to escape from Jin Sohyun.

“W-wait! S-spare me! I’ll do whatever you say! Please just spare my life!”

“Don’t worry. You won’t die here.”

Jin Sohyun took off Jeokmyeon’s mask.

And so, the face of an ordinary man was revealed.

In his place, Jin Sohyun put on the mask of the Red-Faced Lord.

“Wait below.”

“Wh…”

Jeokmyeon, who was about to ask what he meant, soon understood what Jin Sohyun’s words meant.

His body flew like a fired cannonball and was thrown out of the Cheonru.

He, whose pressure points had been subdued in an instant, could not even scream.

And so, just before the defenselessly falling Jeokmyeon hit the ground and shattered.

Someone grabbed his ankle.

“Heave-ho!”

Jeokmyeon, who had stopped just a hand’s breadth from the ground, panted.

But his relief was short-lived.

Beomgang, who was holding his ankle, said with a smile.

“Hello. Are you Jeokmyeon?”

As Jeokmyeon remained silent, Beomgang’s face distorted menacingly.

“No? Why aren’t you talking.”

When Jeokmyeon remained silent again, Beomgang couldn't stand it and grabbed his ankle with all his might.

Snap—!!

At the pain of his ankle breaking, Jeokmyeon wanted to scream, but no voice came out.

Whether he knew this or not.

Beomgang nodded his head, admiring Jeokmyeon’s patience.

“As expected, the leader of a place is different! You’re coming with me.”

While Beomgang kicked Jeokmyeon’s face, knocking him out, and then left the place, Jin Sohyun took off the clothes of the dead Jeokmyeon’s double and put them on.

“Gwan O.”

Gwan O knew that the one calling him was not his master.

Nevertheless, the powerful suggestion made it impossible for him to refuse Jin Sohyun’s words.

“From now on, guide me to Jeokmyeon’s office. Right now.”

“…”

Gwan O went down the stairs with a creaking body.

The place he was heading to was a hidden passage in the Cheonhwagak.

Although it was a rather complicated process to enter, surprisingly, Gwan O knew the way to the basement in detail.

Thanks to that, Jin Sohyun, who had come down to the underground passage much more easily, came face to face with a huge space built under the Cheonhwagak.

There, many people were moving busily, wearing black masks.

“You’ve come.”

Those who had mistaken Jin Sohyun for Jeokmyeon greeted him as he came down with Gwan O.

Jin Sohyun did not bother to deal with them and gave instructions to Gwan O, finding and entering Jeokmyeon’s office.

And there, Jin Sohyun could see all the secret information that the Hao Sect’s Honggang branch possessed at a glance.

“The scale is much larger than I thought, isn’t it?”

The scale of the information network that the Honggang branch possessed was larger than he thought.

The number of brothels, taverns, and inns they owned was over a hundred, and the information about the courtesans belonging to them was also recorded in detail.

Among them, there was also Baekhwa’s file.

“Baekhwa…”

Baekhwa’s real name was Umi.

She was born in Sichuan and had a fiancé to whom she was promised in marriage, but one day, her fiancé was found dead.

The cause of death was poisoning.

The prime suspect was Umi.

Umi, who had become a villain who had killed her fiancé in an instant, had to leave her hometown as if she were running away from that day, and in the meantime, she caught Jeokmyeon’s eye and became a courtesan of the Cheonhwagak.

Of course, behind all these incidents was the Hao Sect.

“Is this not the only case like this?”

In fact, there were many who had come to the brothel on their own to earn money, but the majority were in a situation where they had been dragged to the brothel against their will by Jeokmyeon’s evil hands.

In other words, the red-light district of Honggang was not created naturally.

It was created by the Hao Sect.

“When am I going to deal with all this?”

He had a headache.

Since the scale was large, it was impossible to deal with all of them at once.

Moreover, the brothel and the courtesans had now become beings that could not exist without each other, so it was a situation where he couldn't just forcibly get rid of them.

It was when Jin Sohyun, who was posing as Jeokmyeon, was racking his brain over the existence of the Hao Sect, which was larger than he had imagined, that someone came to the office.

Thump, thump—!

“Lord. It’s me, Gowan.”

“Come in.”

Jin Sohyun imitated Jeokmyeon’s tone as much as possible.

Fortunately, the person named Gowan entered the office without suspicion.

Gowan came in, holding a bamboo tube tied with a red string in one hand, and handed it to Jin Sohyun, saying.

“This is an express letter sent by Lord Ok Myeon.”

‘An express letter?’

It was surely a rather urgent content.

Jin Sohyun opened the bamboo tube without delay, took out the letter inside, and checked the content.

—Request for support. Bieunggaek, known as the number one divine thief of the Central Plains, has escaped. Requesting support for this. The last seen location is…

Jin Sohyun’s hand, which was holding the letter, trembled noticeably.

“Lord?”

As Gowan called him worriedly, Jin Sohyun stood up.

As his heart rate quickened, his body became hot, and his head also became hot.

But now was not the time to get excited.

‘I have to be calm. Jin Sohyun. I have to do what I can do now.’

Jin Sohyun gave an order, maintaining the voice of Jeokmyeon that he had stolen with the Sound Devouring Art.

“Mobilize all available personnel… and chase Bieunggaek. He is a key figure, so he must not be hurt or killed. Just ascertain his location and do not approach.”

“As you command!”

Gowan, who had received the order, gave orders to the Hao Sect members of the Honggang branch in turn.

Those with fast feet moved in an orderly manner and left the basement.

Now, Jin Sohyun also prepared to move.

“My master is fast, so he won’t be caught easily.”

Who in the world could catch the great Bieunggaek?

“My master will be safe. My master…”

Jin Sohyun, soothing himself, pressed the red mask deeper.

“Lord!”

Gowan, who had received the instructions and was giving orders to the lower ranks, returned.

“They say they’ve found Bieunggaek’s location! We will now select the fastest ones and pursue.”

“Where is that place.”

“They say it’s Mount Dengzhou, located west of Henan.”

Jin Sohyun, who had confirmed the location, moved himself.

‘I have to find him first.’

Time waits for no one.

He stomped his foot, feeling anxious.

Toward Bieunggaeg, who was somewhere.

(End of Chapter)