Chapter 262: Civil and Martial Affairs Are Not to Be Encroached Upon
The Emperor’s eyes sharpened.
To the Anchaesa, the Emperor’s eyes—wrinkled with age—felt more terrifying than the gaze of any dragon or tiger.
“You intend to line up behind the Crown Prince?”
“Th, that is correct, Your Majesty.”
“Speak in detail.”
Swallowing hard, the Anchaesa continued as calmly as he could.
“While Your Majesty lay ill, the Princess attempted to reorganize the power of the Imperial Household…!”
In an instant, a massive force pressed down upon the Anchaesa’s shoulders. It was the formless qi of Jang Gyeong, Commander of the Royal Guards.
The Anchaesa felt as though his breath would stop. A chill ran down his spine, and his legs began to tremble.
Even as bloodshot eyes flared, he continued.
“It is an open secret! How could one raise a hand to cover the sun! Such a thing must not be done. I am a minister who believes that, in ti, His Highness the Crown Prince ought to govern the realm.”
“So, you would strike at the Myriad Gold Manor, one of the Princess’s backers?”
“Of course, that is not the entirety of the reason. The Myriad Gold Manor—the Ha Joo-myeong family—are villains who have committed countless shaless acts. There is justification, and there is necessity; there is simply no reason to leave them be.”
The Emperor raised his hand.
At the sa mont, the pressure emanating from Jang Gyeong vanished as if washed away.
The Emperor continued.
“How old are you this year?”
“Forty-eight.”
“You stand at a crossroads age.”
It ant the crossroads every high official faced at least once—whether to remain a local official for life, or to stake everything on a single gamble and advance into the central governnt.
The Anchaesa’s eyes flashed.
“Whether local or central makes no difference. All under heaven is Your Majesty’s land—how could position matter when one offers loyalty?”
“Correct.”
The Emperor nodded.
It struck him as rather strange.
The Emperor spoke aloud the thought that crossed his mind—because he was soone permitted to do so.
“You clearly have the physiognomy of a bat.”
“……”
“Jang Gyeong.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“What do you think? To my eyes, this fellow lacks courage, his core is not straight, and if given the chance, he would betray others as easily as eating a al.”
“I see it the sa way.”
“Then how does he endure your pressure and still offer loyal counsel?”
The Anchaesa bristled inwardly, yet he dared not utter a word before the Emperor.
After watching him, Jang Gyeong, Commander of the Royal Guards, spoke.
“First, it is likely because his life is on the line. Second, because the side he has attached himself to this ti is rather solid. Until the innkeeper of Yichang dies, he will not betray.”
Jang Gyeong had seen through the Anchaesa’s situation.
The Emperor nodded in agreent.
In the Emperor’s view, the Anchaesa was adept at survival and skilled in politics—depending on whom he attached himself to, he could beco a villain fit to be beaten to death, or a steadfast loyal minister.
In that sense, so long as the man remained attached to that peculiar innkeeper, he could not act recklessly.
It was then—
“Your Majesty, this humble servant, Tongjeongsa Yoo Jeong-an, reports.”
A voice of an official ca from outside.
The Anchaesa Wi Gyeong-heon’s eyebrow twitched. The Tongjeongsa was the office responsible for conveying the people’s petitions to the Emperor.
“Enter.”
At the Emperor’s command, the Tongjeongsa entered. In his hands were several letters stacked layer upon layer.
“What is it?”
At the Emperor’s low question, the Tongjeongsa glanced once at the Anchaesa with clear eyes before speaking.
“These are petitions submitted by the people of Hunan Province, Hubei Province, and Qinghai Province.”
“Recite only the essentials.”
“The people of Hunan Province earnestly implore Your Majesty to examine the actions of Guest Dragon Jin Seong-un. They say he liberated their lives from the tyranny of the Namok Trading Company—”
“Ahem.”
The Anchaesa, who had aided the Namok Trading Company’s tyranny, let out a dry cough.
The Emperor, the Royal Guards commander, and the Tongjeongsa all glanced at the Anchaesa, then continued.
“They regard him as a chivalrous hero. The people of Hubei Province likewise request protection for Jin Seong-un, who restored the people’s freedom from the wicked unorthodox sect rabble.”
The Emperor nodded.
When his interest in Jin Seong-un had first been piqued, he had already learned all about the man’s actions.
The Tongjeongsa continued.
“And in Qinghai as well—”
“He eradicated the Qinghai Iron Workshop that colluded with the Demonic Cult to abduct children. Naturally, they would regard Jin Seong-un as a benefactor.”
“…That is correct, Your Majesty.”
The Anchaesa realized it instinctively.
It was true that the people were grateful to Jin Seong-un, but it was impossible for such concise, coordinated petitions to be submitted all at once in so short a ti.
‘That Chief Steward must have stepped in.’
Once again, he thought the man was wasted serving rely as the chief steward of an inn.
After pondering for a while, the Emperor finally spoke.
“So, because I shelter the man who will beco my son-in-law, you intend to bla
for it?”
The Anchaesa closed his mouth.
The Tongjeongsa, whose position placed him close to the common people, inwardly supported Jin Seong-un as well, yet he could not easily answer the Emperor’s question.
After a heavy silence, the Emperor said,
“I will give it consideration. You may all withdraw.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
With hardened expressions, the Anchaesa and the Tongjeongsa bowed and left the hall.
What decision the Emperor would make depended entirely upon his own will.
Jiangsu Province, Nanjing.
A night unusually tumultuous descended upon the wealthiest city under heaven.
Though darkness lay thick, rchants and residents, martial artists and officials alike filled the streets, watching sothing unfold.
Amidst everyone’s gaze, a group crossed the widest thoroughfare in Nanjing.
There were those who recognized Hyeon-un, the Great Elder of the Wudang Sect; Tang Tae-san, the Great Elder of the Sichuan Tang Clan; and the Clan Heads of the Moyong Clan and the Seomun Clan.
Each was a figure of imnse influence in the age, and so all eyes naturally turned to the young man standing at the very front.
“So that is the Guest Dragon?”
“He’s far younger than I imagined.”
The war between Seong-un Inn and the Myriad Gold Manor was already widely known across the realm. Thus, no one found it difficult to guess Jin Seong-un’s identity.
Yet hearing countless rumors of the Guest Dragon and seeing him with one’s own eyes produced a peculiar sense of dissonance.
Jin Seong-un was simply too young.
The renowned elders of the Five Great Clans and the Nine Sects One Gang were masters representing the age, yet the sight of a single young man leading them as he strode through the streets felt oddly incongruous.
Unlike Seomun Ak and Moyong Hyeon, whose expressions were grim, Seo Yu-gyeom stretched out a languid yawn and spoke.
“Do you think the Anchaesa pulled it off properly? I’ve never trusted that fellow much.”
“If he failed, it wouldn’t have been any different no matter which of us went.”
“That may be so, but still.”
Seo Yu-gyeom nodded, dissatisfied.
As an assassin, needless to say—and as with the young and inexperienced like Seomun Ak or Moyong Hyeon—it was impossible for them to dare request an audience with the Emperor.
On the other hand, Hyeon-un and Tang Tae-san were too prominent as Murim elders; visiting the Imperial Household while having declared war could be deed irreverent.
If they waited for the Emperor’s permission before moving to suppress the Myriad Gold Manor, matters would grow large. The enemy, too, would likely drag in demonic and unorthodox paths openly and without restraint.
Thus, they trusted the Anchaesa and headed first to Nanjing, intending to move to suppression the mont he returned with permission.
That was why the Emperor’s permission was so important. If the Anchaesa failed, they would be forced to return empty-handed despite standing right before the Myriad Gold Manor.
“Wouldn’t it have been better if you, Jin Seong-un, had gone yourself?”
“How could a re innkeeper et His Majesty?”
Seo Yu-gyeom’s eyes narrowed. From the start, wasn’t Jin Seong-un the sort who never concerned himself with such things?
“There’s another reason, isn’t there?”
“……”
Jin Seong-un flinched.
At tis, Young Master Seo seed able to see straight through his thoughts.
“His Highness the Crown Prince and His Majesty once offered
a position akin to an Imperial martial arts instructor.”
More precisely, Grand Preceptor, the Crown Prince’s teacher.
It had been right after the Eonsa Prefecture Hot Spring Comrcial District developnt rights auction, when he visited the Imperial Palace. Of course, he had firmly refused at the ti.
“Had I gone personally to make the request, I felt that matter would have co up again. It would have been an atmosphere difficult to refuse.”
He did not want to place the suppression of the Myriad Gold Manor and the Grand Preceptor post on the sa scale. If he rejected the Grand Preceptor post there on the spot, they would certainly also forbid the suppression of the Myriad Gold Manor.
As Seo Yu-gyeom nodded as if to say it was well thought out, Seomun Ak glanced slyly at Jin Seong-un.
“As expected.”
After receiving the favor of all those uncles and grandfathers, had he finally captured even the Emperor’s heart?
Seomun Ak’s gaze was filled with envy, jealousy, admiration, and longing.
It was as if he were saying, ‘That seat should have been mine,’ which made Jin Seong-un let out a dry cough.
As they exchanged such miscellaneous talk, before they knew it a massive estate appeared straight ahead. At a glance, rather than an estate, it almost looked like a small fortress.
Above the heavy main gate, a red flag emblazoned with the character ‘Myriad’ fluttered arrogantly.
Jin Seong-un slowly ca to a halt.
Seo Yu-gyeom, Seomun Ak, Moyong Hyeon, and the others all took their positions and lifted their heads.
Martial artists were lined up atop the walls. They even looked like soldiers preparing for a siege.
Baek Un-geom Hyeon-un slowly drew the Songmun Ancient Sword and spoke.
“It seems they brought experts from both orthodox and unorthodox paths. The one on the far left is the Bright Moon Saber, the right-hand man of the Wanderer King. It’s possible the Wanderer King himself is here, so be careful.”
The Wanderer King, one of the Twenty-Seven Stars of the World.
He was a master who stood shoulder to shoulder with the Wudang Sword Immortal and the Poison King, not Hyeon-un or Tang Tae-san.
At the ntion of his alias, Seomun Ak and Moyong Hyeon grew even more tense.
Sensing the stiffened air, Tang Tae-san spoke in a bold voice.
“Senior, poison has no master it spares. Wanderer King or his granddam, wouldn’t he drown in a Sea of a Thousand Tribulations of Blood?”
At that, the Bright Moon Saber atop the wall frowned. To him, it was an insult to his leader, and he did not hide his displeasure as he openly flared his aura.
Regardless, Tang Tae-san continued.
“I’m thinking we should start by lting those fellows down first…”
The martial artists on the wall began to waver. There was no martial artist under heaven who did not fear the poison of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
As Poison Lord Tang Tae-san unleashed the Tang Clan’s uniquely savage and domineering aura, the surrounding air trembled finely.
The auras of the Bright Moon Saber and Tang Tae-san collided head-on, creating taut tension. From that point on, each martial artist began to release their presence, and the onlookers nearby slowly retreated.
It was then.
From among the aura-flaring martial artists, two middle-aged n slowly walked forward. Jang Ji-hyeon, the Inner Chief Steward of the Myriad Gold Manor, and Heo Chung-won, the Eastern Depot Admiral.
Jang Ji-hyeon looked at Jin Seong-un with a peculiar gaze, then spoke.
“Guest Dragon, are you a martial artist or a rchant?”
“Closer to a rchant.”
“And yet, why have you co bearing a blade in the manner of a martial artist, declaring war upon us? How can you bring the vulgar logic of the survival of the fittest and the supremacy of the strong into the sacred Comrcial World?”
So martial artists bristled, but Jin Seong-un rely looked at him with a calm face and replied.
“Because the Myriad Gold Manor did so first. Why did you hire assassins to try to kill our inn waiter?”
“That never happened. Do you believe the words of assassins who bring death wherever they go, rather than the Myriad Gold Manor that feeds the world?”
There was weight in Jang Ji-hyeon’s words. He was a man who had overseen the inner workings of the world’s foremost trading company for decades.
“Even now, withdraw all your martial artists and resolve this through dialogue. The Myriad Gold Manor does not desire ard conflict.”
Jang Ji-hyeon spoke loudly, as if ensuring every onlooker could hear.
Jin Seong-un shook his head.
“How many people do you think have suffered because of the Myriad Gold Manor’s greed? The arrogant Ha Joo-yeon opened the floodgates and caused the Yangtze River to overflow, making countless people lose their hos and livelihoods.”
“Do you have proof?”
“You surely know that the children Ha Cheong-a abducted in collusion with the Demonic Cult alone number at least a thousand.”
“That was rely her personal deviation. The Myriad Gold Manor has already completed compensation for that matter.”
“And just how many commoners’ sacrifices were used to build the Myriad Gold Manor’s wealth—this enormous estate?”
Jang Ji-hyeon shook his head.
It was an attitude as if the matter was no longer worth discussing, yet inwardly he judged that continued dialogue was disadvantageous.
‘If we start weighing right and wrong, there’s little I can say.’
Jang Ji-hyeon was soone who clearly understood both faces of the Myriad Gold Manor. With so many onlookers present, there was no reason to deliberately highlight its dark side.
Thus, Jang Ji-hyeon looked toward Eastern Depot Admiral Heo Chung-won, his gaze urging him to do what needed to be done.
Heo Chung-won wore an unpleased expression.
Though he had co here by the Princess’s order, he had no desire to be deeply involved in a fight between lowly rchants and Murim rabble.
Soon, Heo Chung-won spoke in a monotonous voice, almost like an order.
“The Wudang Sect, the Sichuan Tang Clan, the Moyong Clan, the Seomun Clan, the Hwa-un Trading Company and the Red Cliff Escort Agency, the Jingzhou rchants’ Association, and even Seong-un Inn. Shall I understand that you have drawn your blades against the Imperial Household?”
His weary voice completely changed the atmosphere. Treason—this was more terrifying and dangerous than the blade of any master.
No one had expected the Imperial Household to send even the Eastern Depot Admiral in person to shelter the Myriad Gold Manor, and so Hyeon-un, Tang Tae-san, and the others were inwardly shaken.
Amid this, the Admiral’s dagger-like voice continued.
“You may have co yourselves for now, considering public sentint, but you have over a hundred martial artists waiting along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Did you think I would not know?”
He was correct.
The martial artists of each clan and sect were waiting at the outskirts of Nanjing, at the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
If an all-out battle broke out, they would rush here to the heart of Nanjing in an instant. And the direction of those blades was aid solely at the Myriad Gold Manor.
Thus, Jin Seong-un spoke.
“Our blades are aid not at the Imperial Household, but at the Myriad Gold Manor. They are clearly villains. Ha Joo-myeong is not even showing his face, is he?”
“Do you not know that all treasons in history began that way? At first, the blade is clearly aid elsewhere, the blade raised in the na of chivalry, but it slowly turns to target the Son of Heaven. The Yellow Turbans were so, and Cao ngde was so—what law says you will not be the sa?”
The Murim elders, abruptly treated as bandits harboring treasonous intent, wore displeased expressions.
However, with the Eastern Depot Admiral—called second only to one and above ten thousand—before them, there was no one who dared to step forward in rebuttal.
A peculiar sense of triumph flickered across the faces of Jang Ji-hyeon and the martial artists atop the wall who looked down upon everyone.
The feeling of having the most sacred and imnse power under heaven at one’s back was indescribable.
“I have no desire to speak further. Disperse. This is His Majesty the Emperor’s—”
It was then.
From afar, soone ca running frantically, cutting through the darkness. Everyone’s gaze turned that way.
What erged was an Eastern Depot eunuch clad in a green robe. Without a word, he imdiately handed a letter to the Admiral.
The Admiral received it and read it slowly, his eyebrow twitching once.
Everyone watched with tense expressions. The outco of the Anchaesa’s visit to the Imperial Household was surely contained in that letter.
After finishing it, the Admiral looked at Jang Ji-hyeon and Jin Seong-un in turn.
Then he spoke.
“Each side earnestly voices only its own position, leaving the essence muddled and troubleso. Therefore, simply respect civil and martial non-interference. That is His Majesty’s will.”
Though he spoke at length, in short it ant, ‘Handle it yourselves.’
Everyone could tell that the Anchaesa had fulfilled his role perfectly.
It was effectively no different from granting permission for the suppression, and so the joy and despair of the martial artists in the field diverged.
“Th, that makes no—!”
As Jang Ji-hyeon was about to say sothing to the Admiral, the Admiral looked at him with icy, dagger-like eyes and spoke.
“Are these not His Majesty’s words?”
“……”
Without a mont’s hesitation, the Admiral left. At the sa ti, dozens of eunuchs who had been silently waiting within the Myriad Gold Manor’s walls dispersed like smoke.
The greatest protective curtain guarding the Myriad Gold Manor was lifted. A taut tension hung in the air, such that it would not have been strange for anything to happen at once…
“Uh…!”
A martial artist atop the wall pointed sowhere and let out a strange exclamation. Everyone present turned their gaze there.
Flas released by a single man lit up the dark night as if it were broad daylight. For fire contained within a single sword, it was far too ferocious and imnse.
“H-Hey, wait a second!”
“This is insane!”
Even Seomun Ak and Moyong Hyeon beside him were shocked, while Hyeon-un and Tang Tae-san had already faltered and retreated backward. Seo Yu-gyeom, as if he had expected this, had already put more distance between himself and the scene than anyone else.
Jang Ji-hyeon and the martial artists atop the wall stared in disbelief.
Regardless, Jin Seong-un swung his sword in a single strike. His deanor was utterly calm, as if he were simply doing what obviously needed to be done.
Fire Dragon Escape Sword.
The Sword Immortal’s ferocious flas surged forth in the form of a fire dragon, seeking to annihilate evil.
Kwaaaaaaang—!!
In the next instant, the fire dragon swallowed the massive main gate and walls of the Myriad Gold Manor whole.
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