Harvest
After finishing urgent matters like cleaning up the battlefield and interrogations, a formal eting comnced.
“Now that the Five Poison Sect is gone, what do each of the palaces intend to do?”
Upon translating Mu-jin’s words, Ou-yang Pae’s translation made the Beast Palace Master snort and reply, “We will return to our palace and protect the forest.”
“With the war over, we plan to return as well.”
Mu-jin tilted his head at the straightforward responses of the two palace masters.
“Aren’t you interested in the territory that the Five Poison Sect occupied?”
“Our Taiyang Palace has fewer than a thousand mbers. Expanding our territory here would be difficult to manage.”
“We are busy protecting our forest. We only fought the Five Poison Sect because they kept encroaching on it.”
Mu-jin looked at the two palace masters with a curious expression.
‘Hmm. Even so, the Taiyang Palace Master doesn’t seem to be just giving up.’
Currently, the problem was the small number of mbers. But it seed like they had thoughts of expanding here once they beca stronger.
The Beast Palace Master, on the other hand, appeared to have no such thoughts.
With the two palace masters planning to return, Ou-yang Pae spoke up.
“Then, our Red Tiger Group will stay here for a while.”
“… Are you saying you plan to make a nest here?” The Taiyang Palace Master glared fiercely, but Ou-yang Pae calmly replied, “Don’t worry. Our goal is to return to the Divine Sect. Until then, we need a place to stay, so we will stay here temporarily.”
“Hmph. How do you know when you will be able to return, claiming it’s temporary?”
“We have a plan, so it won’t take long.”
If the Red Tiger Group, Ou-yang Pae, and Geum Yang-hwi stayed here, news would inevitably reach the Demon Sect.
The Demon Sect would then send soone to deal with the traitors.
If the ones coming were upper-class slaves, they could just kill them, but if they were outcasts like the Red Tiger Group, they planned to bring them over to their side.
Either way, the number of people following the Left and Right Protectors would decrease.
Of course, the Taiyang Palace Master’s expression was still sour.
Mu-jin, seeing the Taiyang Palace Master’s mood worsen after losing Geum Yang-hwi, decided to diate.
“Doesn’t it seem like a good idea? Now that the Five Poison Sect is gone, only two palaces remain in the Southern Barbarian lands. Both sides have lost people they consider family in this war. You don’t want to start another war imdiately, right? But seeing how things have been, if only the two palaces remain, another war could break out in a few days, correct?”
“… So, you’re saying they will act as diators?”
“Exactly, Taiyang Palace Master.”
“Hmph. What makes you think we can trust these people who have been with savages?”
To this criticism, Ou-yang Pae, who had been translating Mu-jin’s words, answered directly.
“Taiyang Palace Master, do you not trust Hero Geum Yang-hwi, who has been with us for ten years? How could Hero Geum Yang-hwi favor the Beast Palace unilaterally?”
“….”
With no retort to Ou-yang Pae’s words, the Taiyang Palace Master grimaced as if he had eaten sothing unpleasant.
As things seed to settle, Mu-jin turned to Tang So-mi.
“Shiju-nim Tang So-mi, is there sothing you desire here?”
“Quite a lot. I’m thinking of collecting the materials and research data on poisons used by the Five Poison Sect.”
After Ou-yang Pae translated her answer, Mu-jin asked the two palace masters.
“Since neither of the palaces uses poison, those materials are not necessary for you. Would it be alright to let her take them?”
“Hahaha. Go ahead!”
“Hm. We don’t really care.”
With the two palace masters readily agreeing, Tang So-mi clapped her hands as if she had just rembered sothing.
“Ah! There’s one more thing.”
“What is it?”
“An apology from the Taiyang Palace Master. Now that the war is over, he needs to apologize for the delay.”
After Ou-yang Pae translated her words, the Taiyang Palace Master looked at her for a mont with a sour face.
“Sigh.”
Letting out a deep sigh, the Taiyang Palace Master bowed to Tang So-mi.
“I apologize for underestimating you.”
It was a rare sight to see one of the top martial artists in the Southern Barbarian lands apologizing for his rudeness.
“Hahaha!!!”
Of course, the Taiyang Palace Master swung his large sword at the Beast Palace Master, who was laughing at the scene.
* * *
After all the negotiations were completed, the Taiyang and Beast Palaces returned to their territories.
“Hahaha!!” The Beast Palace Master left with a hearty laugh.
“If I stay with those damn savages, I’ll die of frustration!”
On the other hand, the Taiyang Palace Master left with his face flushed with anger.
Mu-jin’s group decided to stay for a while as Tang So-mi and the poison masters from the Sichuan Tang Clan remained.
Although the Five Poison Sect’s mansion was half-destroyed, the Red Tiger Group quickly built a suitable mansion using the stones and wood from the site.
Mu-jin’s group and the Tang Clan mbers stayed there for the ti being.
“Did you try to serve the Young Master with such poor skills!?”
“Move faster, you weaklings!!”
Mu-jin enjoyed watching Geum Yang-hwi berate the Red Tiger Group mbers while lifting weights.
‘Wow. He’s really good at this. If he were born in modern tis, he’d make a lot of soldiers cry.’
The way Geum Yang-hwi pushed the Red Tiger Group mbers was comparable to how Mu-jin used to train the Zhongnan Sect disciples.
But the harsh training was also influenced by Mu-jin.
“Even the martial artists from the orthodox sects endure such tough training! Are you saying you, as martial artists of the Divine Sect, can’t endure this!?”
Geum Yang-hwi pointed his finger.
There, Mu-jin was lifting an obviously heavy piece of iron, looking at them.
“Ugh!”
“We can do it!!”
Driven by a competitive spirit, the Red Tiger Group mbers gritted their teeth and endured Geum Yang-hwi’s harsh training.
It was a beautiful sight, where they were motivating each other.
“That guy has a lot of ways to tornt people.”
“I’ve just co to accept it, Senior Brother Mu-gung.”
Mu-gung and Mu-gyeong, watching the scene, shook their heads and talked, but Mu-jin didn’t leave them alone.
“Stop playing around and co here. You’re going to lose muscle if you keep that up.”
Mu-yul, who was quietly playing with Ling-ling, was the only one in an unfair situation.
After the sweaty training session, as the sun was setting.
The poison experts from the Sichuan Tang Clan and Tang So-mi, who had gone to research poisonous herbs, returned to the mansion.
Mu-jin tried to hide quickly, but there weren’t many places to hide in the small mansion.
“Mu-jin Sunim, you’re here?”
“Ahem. You ca back early, Shiju-nim Tang So-mi.”
He had hoped her aggressive nature had cald down after the war, but she was simply able to distinguish between work and personal matters.
With the war over, she began to approach Mu-jin boldly, just like she had in Sichuan.
‘But why only ? Why not Mu-gyeong, Mu-gung, or Mu-yul?’
He couldn’t understand why, out of all the monks, she was only targeting him.
“There are so many different poisonous plants here. Oh, and did you know? While I call them poisonous plants, in fact, any herb can be a poison if used as such, and a dicine if used as such.”
“Ahem. I see.”
Mu-jin, as he had done before, tried to subtly steer the conversation and quietly make his exit, but her next words stopped him in his tracks.
“And today, as I was exploring this place, I found a wild Cat’s Eye Herb (묘안초).”
‘Cat’s Eye Herb?’
The na of this herb rang a distant bell.
He pondered where he had heard of it before.
“Are you saying there’s Cat’s Eye Herb here!?” he asked, visibly surprised.
And for a good reason—Cat’s Eye Herb was one of the ingredients in that decoction.
When Mu-jin was on the brink of death after the battle with the Wolf King, it was an ingredient in the decoction given to him by the Divine Doctor.
The Shaolin Temple had acquired the formula for this decoction under the pretext of dical exchange, but mass-producing it was impossible.
This was because the Cat’s Eye Herb was extrely rare.
‘So, if I move the Cat’s Eye Herb to the Shaolin Temple, we can mass-produce the decoction!?’
Mu-jin realized that they might gain a bigger harvest from the Southern Barbarian lands than expected.
Oblivious to Mu-jin’s internal musings, Tang So-mi flashed a sly smile and said, “It’s not just the Cat’s Eye Herb. There are plenty of herbs and flowers here that could fetch a fortune in the Central Plains.”
Mu-jin’s mind started racing.
“Then why not take them and sell them?”
“Wouldn’t that be difficult? To get to the Central Plains from here, you need to pass through Yunnan or Guangxi. Passing through Yunnan would an dealing with the Jeomchang Sect, and Guangxi is controlled by the Safa, so it’s not easy.”
Mu-jin grinned broadly at Tang So-mi’s words.
“Guangxi is not a problem. I know soone there.”
* * *
A few days later, Mu-jin’s party was ready to leave.
Tang So-mi and the poison masters had gathered enough research materials, and it was ti to start paving a trade route to Guangxi.
‘If all goes well, we can earn funds for that guy’s activities and mass-produce the decoction,’ Mu-jin thought, recalling soone in Guangxi.
As he was deep in thought, Ou-yang Pae approached Mu-jin’s group.
“Are you here to say goodbye?”
Finding Ou-yang Pae’s behavior out of character, Mu-jin chuckled and asked, but Ou-yang Pae shook his head.
“Not to say goodbye. I just have sothing to say before you leave.”
Though it seed the sa to Mu-jin, he did not point it out.
“So, what do you want to say?”
“I’ve thought about what you said before. For now, I’ve decided that staying with you is the best decision.”
“Oh.”
Mu-jin nodded, satisfied, and Ou-yang Pae frowned.
“It’s only a temporary alliance. After purging the Divine Sect and punishing those Shinchun bastards who toyed with us, we will return to the Central Plains.”
At Ou-yang Pae’s confident declaration, Mu-jin thought it was very much like him and replied, “Why are you so set on returning to the Central Plains? Can’t you just live comfortably in Xinjiang? Is it too hard to survive there?”
“As expected from soone of the orthodox sects, you know nothing.”
“???”
Seeing Mu-jin’s confused expression, Ou-yang Pae elaborated.
“We’re not eyeing the Central Plains. We’re returning.”
“Returning? Does that an the Divine Sect was originally based in the Central Plains?”
“Yes. Over a hundred years ago, the oppressive politics of the previous dynasty reached its peak, exploiting the common people. The emperor even resorted to human sacrifice to prolong his life, so our sect was a beacon of hope for the commoners in the Central Plains.”
“Are you talking about the Hwan Dynasty?”
The current ruling family in the Central Plains was the ‘Cho’ Dynasty, and the previous empire was called the Hwan Dynasty.
Both were nas of empires that didn’t originally exist in China, but Mu-jin, having lived in this world for nearly a decade, knew them as basic knowledge.
Nodding at Mu-jin’s question, Ou-yang Pae continued.
“When the first emperor of the current dynasty founded the empire, we allied with him and people like you from the Nine Great Sects and the Five Noble Families to overthrow the previous dynasty. But after the war, you denied our doctrines and drove us out of the Central Plains.”
Mu-jin, never having read such a setting even in novels, tilted his head in confusion.
“Your ancestors, the perpetrators, seem to have erased all records of it.”
Ou-yang Pae’s continued words made Mu-gung, who had been listening, snort in discontent.
“Hmph. Isn’t it more likely that your sect left records favorable to yourselves? How can we trust the words of those who tried to annihilate our Shaolin Temple by diverting troops during the war?”
Though Mu-gung continued to stay with them due to Mu-jin, he still found the Demon Sect mbers untrustworthy.
Ou-yang Pae, frowning as well, replied, “Why do you keep falsely accusing us? Our sect attacked head-on. Why would we divert troops to attack Shaolin when our main forces were being defeated?”
“Y-you thought you could win!”
Unable to logically refute, Mu-gung shouted like a child.
“Hey, say sothing. Didn’t the Grand Elder Hyun-gwang get seriously injured because of them?”
Mu-gung quickly turned to Mu-jin, but Mu-jin stroked his chin, lost in thought.
‘Now that I think about it, it makes sense. Even the Namgung Sword Emperor once said it was uncharacteristic of the Heavenly Demon.’
It could indeed be the work of another faction.
And if there was any force capable of such acts…
‘Could it be those bastards too?’
Naturally, the na Shinchun ca to mind.
But discussing events from forty years ago now wouldn’t yield any results.
“We’ll have to investigate that. If we catch any Shinchun mbers next ti, we’ll ask them. If you succeed in returning to the Demon Sect, look through your records too.”
“I will.”
Leaving things sowhat unresolved, they bid farewell and departed from the Red Tiger Group’s mansion.
‘If it’s Ou-yang Pae, he’ll manage sohow.’
Having inford him about the Left and Right Protectors, Mu-jin believed he would handle things well.
As he sorted out his thoughts on the protagonist of Part 1, Ou-yang Pae, his thoughts naturally turned to Dao Yuetian.
‘Has he settled in well?’
This was a crucial matter.
The person Mu-jin intended to et to establish a trade route to Guangxi was none other than Dao Yuetian.
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