Chapter 75
“A caravan will enter our Mountain Path in a few days?”
“Yes.”
Still, we couldn’t continue discussing such an important matter in the Open Space, so I brought the Haomun Leader to my room in our Mountain Stronghold.
When I asked while taking a sip of tea, she nodded again in affirmation.
[A caravan…]
As our Mountain Path stabilized, many Merchants began to use it. And many caravan agencies also used our Mountain Path when crossing from the south to the North.
It was by no means rare for caravan agencies to use our path. Even so, for the Haomun Leader to bring this to me as a piece of information…
[Is the escort cargo incredibly precious…]
…That was highly likely.
A caravan fully loaded with precious treasures was a truly mouth-watering prospect. However…
“Rejected.”
“Pardon?”
It was rejected.
“Our Green Forest has absolutely no intention of plundering the travelers who use our Mountain Path.”
“…”
It was an obvious statement.
Rumors spread fast in this industry.
If we were to steal our customers' goods or commit violent acts, Merchants would become too anxious to use our path anymore.
That was why we heavily promoted to Merchants that this place was safe, and at the same time, we hadn’t committed a single act of plunder since the path opened.
“Well… we’d definitely make good money if we robbed a caravan once. But I want to run a more future-oriented business.”
“…”
“So, it is rejected. Even if it’s a shame… Excess is as bad as deficiency. We can’t lose everything by being blinded by immediate gains.”
“…I see.”
Hearing my words, the Haomun Leader merely took another slow sip of her tea.
“…”
Her demeanor was incredibly calm and relaxed, as if she knew I would say this…
Seeing her like that, I too was able to catch on to something.
“There’s something more… to that caravan.”
“That is correct.”
The Haomun Leader was someone skilled in practicality and calculation. There was no way she did not know that robbing the caravan would be more of a loss for our Green Forest in the long run.
She had brought this up to me with that in mind.
“Then what is the true nature of that caravan?”
“I will tell you now.”
She nodded and began her explanation.
* * *
“Waaaaah-!”
“Kill them all-!”
“Kill them?”
“…A-No! It’s the Leader’s order, so don’t kill them. But anyway…!”
Under Dongryong’s command, the Subordinates charged toward the escort guards. Watching the guys who seemed to have lost their reason while doing banditry for the first time in a while, I clicked my tongue.
“Tsk, tsk, they’ve all lost their minds.”
I had emphasized so much that they should stay calm, yet it was truly pathetic how their eyes rolled back the moment they picked up their swords.
Still…
“Waaaaaah-!”
“Aaaaaaagh-!”
Their Training all this time hadn’t been in vain, as the Subordinates began sweeping away the escort guards indiscriminately.
“Everyone, Draw your swords and fight back - ! Keugh…!”
The escorts bravely drew their swords as well, but I immediately noticed something strange.
[They’re fucking weaklings.]
Of course, it was true that my Subordinates had gotten stronger.
I had ordered not only the executives but also the Subordinates to undergo strict Training.
The executives, who had been beaten to a pulp in Sparring with me, went to the Subordinates and trained them in the form of Hierarchical Scolding/Training, and as I raised the intensity of the executives' Training, the other Subordinates had no choice but to train even harder.
But even taking into account that my Subordinates were strong, those escort guards were far too weak.
Clang-!
“S-Surrender-!”
Originally, subduing an opponent was twice as hard as killing one, yet my Subordinates easily subdued the escort guards.
That was how much of a difference in level there was.
Of course…
Clang-!
“Everyone who can move, gather around! Form a Defensive Formation as trained!”
“Y-Yes…!”
…There was someone among them who seemed somewhat capable.
That girl who had earlier introduced herself as Gong Huiran, the young mistress of the Moran Caravan Agency, was there.
I thought she was just a Young Lady tagging along on the caravan, but it seemed she had learned a fair amount of Martial Arts.
[I should step in for that one.]
Naturally, it was something Dongryong could handle, but Dongryong was currently busy dealing with the other guys.
Figuring it couldn’t be helped, I immediately leaped toward them.
Paat-!
“…!”
As I leaped the long distance in a single bound, they looked at me with flustered expressions.
There was someone among them who tried to block me, but…
“You bastard-! Take the Sword of head Escort Hwang Cheolsan and…, Kkwek-!”
“…You’re the head escort?”
…He was sent flying by just a single flick of my hand, not even a punch.
“At this rate, the caravan would have failed even if it hadn’t been for us, wouldn’t it?”
“Eek…”
Whether she was enraged by my muttering or trying to make a final stand in an already collapsed situation, Gong Huiran raised her Sword and charged at me herself.
Hwoong-.
“You villain!”
“Oh.”
The tip of her Sword was concise and clear.
At this level, she could truly be considered outstanding even among the rising stars of the Righteous Faction.
However…
Swish-, Thwack-!
“…Young Agency Head!”
…That was all there was to it.
I simply dodged her Sword, used her momentum against her, and pinned her straight to the ground.
“Ughhh…”
I kicked the Sword away from her body, which was plastered to the floor, and grabbed her by the neck, lifting her up. Being smaller than me, she ended up dangling from my hand.
I swung her in the air and shouted at the guys who were still fighting nearby.
“Hey, you bastards! Your Young Agency Head of the caravan agency is in my hands!”
“Ah…!”
“Young Agency Head!!”
Seeing that, the escort guards put on despondent expressions, as if they had lost their will to fight.
I smirked at the sight and continued speaking.
“If you all put down your weapons and quietly surrender, I’ll spare the young mistress of the caravan agency’s life.”
“…”
Thud, thud.
It seemed young mistress of the caravan agency Gong Huiran wasn’t lacking in popularity. The ensuing silence was quickly filled by the sound of the escort guards dropping their weapons.
* * *
“Ughhh… You bastard…!”
“Tsk, be quiet. And don’t move. You’re getting in the way of my tying this.”
I was currently performing a Capture of Gong Huiran while receiving her sharp glare. The Subordinates were also tying up the bodies of the other escort guards with ropes.
Watching that, Gong Huiran seemed to think further resistance was meaningless and began to placate me with words.
“…General Stronghold Master! But why on earth are you doing this? Is it because the toll wasn’t enough? If so, we can give you more…”
“No, that can’t be it. The toll you gave was plenty.”
To use our Mountain Path, users had to show their luggage and have their toll assessed.
However, it was a principle of all caravan agencies that the escort cargo taken on a caravan could never be shown, even if the other party was the Murim Alliance Leader.
In the end, since the rules of the Mountain Path and the principles of the caravan agency were bound to clash, I created a new rule.
Namely, if they paid five silver taels, the most expensive toll rate, we would let them pass without asking or looking at what their luggage was.
So, for a caravan to pass through our Mountain Path, it had to pay five silver taels.
Five silver taels per person. Just the escort guards and escort / bodyguards visible numbered in the dozens right now.
Usually, to prepare for such cases, other caravan agencies tried to minimize the number of people passing through the path to save on tolls as much as possible.
But the Moran Caravan Agency just coolly paid several hundred silver taels right away. From that alone, I could tell how serious it was about this caravan.
“Then why did you do such a thing! Do you know what this… this caravan means to our caravan agency…!”
“…”
She didn’t shed tears, but she rebuked me in a choked voice, as if she felt deeply wronged.
Tears even began to well up in her eyes, as if she were about to cry at any moment.
“If we fail this caravan… our caravan agency will… no longer…”
“No… tears even began to well up in her eyes, as if she were about to cry at any moment. “If we fail this caravan… our Moran Caravan Agency will… no longer…” “The Moran Caravan Agency is important, but still, it’s not more important than your life, is it?” “…What?” When I threw out a remark while checking her Capture once more, she asked back as if wondering what I meant. Click is important, but still, it’s not more important than your life, is it?”
“…What?”
When I threw out a remark while checking her Capture once more, she asked back as if wondering what I meant.
Clicking my tongue at her appearance, which looked rather naive because she was so desperate, I continued speaking.
“You probably don’t know what you’re doing right now. Do you even know what that escort cargo is over there while running this caravan?”
“…”
When I pointed at their escort cargo, which was locked with a padlock, Gong Huiran couldn’t answer. Naturally, it seemed she didn’t know what the cargo was either.
Seeing that, I stood up from my spot. She asked me urgently.
“Are you then saying the General Stronghold Master knows what the escort cargo of our caravan is?”
“No, I don’t know. So I’m going to find out now. But before that, I do know one thing for sure.”
I slowly approached the escort cargo and placed my hand on it.
“The moment you arrived in Qinghai and delivered this cargo… you all probably would have died.”
* * *
“Our Haomun has planted a spy in almost every Caravan Agency in the world.”
“Oh… but why go that far?”
“If we grasp the distribution network of the world, the information we can obtain from it increases exponentially. Anyway, we also have a spy in the Moran Caravan Agency in Guangxi Province, and thanks to that, we were able to obtain information about the Moran Caravan Agency’s current caravan.”
“Moran Caravan Agency?”
“Yes, it’s a Caravan Agency that had quite a reputation in Guangxi Province.”
It was my first time hearing of it. I didn’t think I had heard of it in the Original Novel either.
“Anyway, is that the Moran Caravan Agency crossing our path? But why does that matter? What’s inside the escort cargo?”
“We don’t know what the cargo is either. However… the destination of the caravan is…”
“…Where is it?”
When I asked with a bit of tension, the Haomun Leader paused for a moment and immediately answered.
“The Jinhua Caravan Agency is in Qinghai. It looks like an ordinary place on the outside, but… it’s actually a caravan agency that distributes goods to the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains.”
“It distributes goods to the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains… That means…”
“Yes.”
As soon as the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains were mentioned, my face naturally scrunched up. And as if my prediction was correct, the Haomun Leader nodded and said.
“Our Haomun judges that the Jinhua Caravan Agency in Qinghai is a Caravan Agency affiliated with the Heavenly Demon Cult.”
* * *
The Heavenly Demon Cult was excessively ruthless and placed great importance on strict secrecy. Given those bastards' characteristics, the Moran Caravan Agency would have been disposed of the moment they succeeded with the caravan.
“…”
More than that, an escort cargo of the Heavenly Demon Cult was traveling from the southernmost tip of the continent to the northernmost tip. Even I, who had read the Original Novel, couldn’t quite get a feel for it.
What on earth was its true identity?
I first examined the cart containing the escort cargo.
It was quite large… to the point where it could be described as a carriage for people to ride in rather than a cart.
Thump, thump.
When I tapped it, the sound was clear, suggesting the inside was mostly empty space…
Clink, clack.
It was tightly bound with iron chains and a padlock, and the locking mechanism was special, making it look difficult to open easily.
Crack-!
I simply pushed Sword Aura into my Sword and immediately sliced the padlock.
Then, with a slightly tense heart, I placed my hand on the door.
[You Bastards, if it’s treasure, I’ll eat it up, and if it’s something dangerous, I’ll throw it thousands of miles away.]
The Heavenly Demon Cult bastards were heavy-bottomed guys anyway. No matter how important this was, I was confident that they wouldn’t be able to come all the way from the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains to Hunan Province, which was far in the South.
With that, I soon hardened my resolve and…
Creaaak-.
…opened the door of the cart containing the escort cargo.
And…
“…!”
…I ended up freezing right on the spot.
“…?”
When I checked what the cargo was and froze in place, Dongryong approached, seemingly curious.
And then…
“Why, Leader? What’s inside…!!”
…Dongryong also froze after checking what was inside.
Between the two of us who were frozen, the first to move was Dongryong. Dongryong seemed to have come to his senses and tried to approach the other person.
And I blocked Dongryong’s body. Dongryong looked at me as if asking why on earth I was blocking him.
“…Why are you blocking me, Leader? That tiny kid is tied up. We should untie her first…”
“…Don’t even think about touching her thoughtlessly. The moment you touch her, you’re fucked.”
“…Pardon? Why on earth…”
Dongryong and I were looking at the same thing. And that was… what looked like a young girl, seemingly around ten-something years old, sleeping while bound in iron chains.
However… I was quickly able to recognize its true form.
“It’s a Great Python…”
“A great ruin?”
“Not a great ruin, a Great Python! Great Python! You ignorant bastard, don’t you know what a Great Python is?”
“A Great Python… if it’s a Great Python…”
For a moment, Dongryong flinched; then his eyes widened as he asked me.
“…An Imugi?”
“Haa…”
I let out a sigh as I looked at the girl in front of me.
It was always like this.
One always ends up regretting opening Pandora’s box after it’s already open.