****
Fortunately, the lay disciples in the Outer Courtyard were on a break.
The lay disciples' schedule was not as tightly packed as the main mountain disciples'.
It was because they taught them roughly since they would be outsiders anyway, no matter how much they were taught.
"What's with the sudden visit?"
There were many people around Jeon Oh-soo.
As expected of a smart guy, it seemed he had already won over many people.
"Ah. I have something to say."
"Privately? Then let's go inside and……."
"No. Everyone here."
There couldn't be any useless people around Jeon Oh-soo.
Because he was a guy who judged people and ostracized the incompetent.
In fact, there was a frail-looking face next to Jeon Oh-soo.
The son of the merchant king, Yu Hong-yang.
I didn't know how Jeon Oh-soo found out, but it was a remarkable skill.
"What is it?"
"There are no families related to the Shanxi merchants here, right?"
That was the part I had to check first.
Jeon Oh-soo tilted his head and then nodded.
"That's right. Why would a Shanxi merchant family send a lay disciple all the way to the Wudang Sect? They would send them to the nearby Mount Hua Sect in Shaanxi, the Zhongnan Sect, or the Shaolin Temple in Henan."
"That's true."
Still, I said it just in case.
Because no one knew what would happen in the world.
Fortunately, there were no families related to the Shanxi merchants.
In that case, the story becomes easier.
To be fair, if there had been a Shanxi merchant, they couldn't have been in the same group as the son of the merchant king here.
Because the Shanxi merchants and the Huizhou merchants were rivals.
"What on earth is it that you're looking for a Shanxi merchant?"
"The Shanxi merchants are coming to the Yichang market to sell salt this time."
At that moment, I saw Yu Hong-yang's expression momentarily change.
The others didn't notice, but it was possible because I had been keeping my attention on Yu Hong-yang.
"So what? It's a common occurrence for Shanxi merchants to come to the south of the river to sell salt."
"They're coming to rip off the people of the south of the river."
At my bombshell declaration, the eyes of the other kids, including Jeon Oh-soo, widened.
Of course, it wasn't a big deal.
Because the act of merchants ripping each other off was more common than one might think.
In a way, that was a merchant's skill.
"What do you mean by that?"
However, that didn't mean it wasn't something to be angry about.
Merchants were united by their local culture depending on their region.
That was why terms like Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants existed.
If people from other regions were determined to rip off our region, we had to step up.
"Hold on. I need to talk to you."
The one who spoke was surprisingly not Jeon Oh-soo, but Yu Hong-yang.
Since everyone here already knew that Yu Hong-yang was the son of the merchant king, they weren't surprised that he stepped forward.
Because no matter what merchant was here, they wouldn't have the wealth and scale to surpass the Yu family, which was responsible for one wing of the fifteen clans of Huizhou.
He was a person who could have a private conversation with me about this matter.
Yu Hong-yang pulled me and entered the building used by the lay disciples.
"How did you know?"
Yu Hong-yang closed the door and spoke point-blank.
"As I thought, you knew."
"Of course. I am also a guild master in charge of one of the merchant guild's halls. There's no way I wouldn't know about this."
"You mean the fact that the Open Transit Law is being abolished?"
As I struck first, Yu Hong-yang's eyes shone.
When I saw him in Samcheonggwan earlier, he looked extremely timid, but as expected, it was all an act.
If he was the son of the merchant king, there was no way he would have been raised with a weak backbone.
Yu Hong-yang tilted his head.
"How strange. As far as I know, you are the son of a farmer, so how did you know that information? It's something even the officials in Beijing don't know well."
"A merchant's weapon is not a sword, nor a tongue. It is a secret."
Yu Hong-yang let out a hollow laugh.
It was bound to be funny since those were the words of his own father, Yu Bul-jin.
He must have heard that story more than anyone else, so it was bound to be absurd to hear it from me.
Yu Bul-jin's words, which emphasized the importance of asymmetric information, was a phrase that had a great influence on me as well, so I just quoted it.
"Anyway, as a Huizhou merchant, don't you have a duty to defend against them backstabbing the south of the river?"
"That's difficult."
"Why?"
"The elders have already made an agreement among themselves. That the Huizhou merchants will overlook the Shanxi merchants profiting from this."
"Really? I see."
"You're convinced quite easily?"
"They must have received something in return. Like turning a blind eye to smuggling."
Right now, a maritime trade ban was in effect in the Central Plains, making it impossible to conduct business at sea.
Nevertheless, the merchants of the southeastern coast would secretly go out to sea to do business.
Because it brought in tremendous profits.
Since the Huizhou merchants also spanned the coastal region of Zhejiang, they were in the midst of making a lot of profit from smuggling.
Yu Hong-yang's expression changed in an instant.
If he had been looking at me with interest until a moment ago, now his expression was as if he were looking at something mysterious.
"……You even know that? That's an agreement concluded only between the four families of Shanxi and the fifteen clans of Huizhou."
I remembered that the scale of smuggling had grown from around this time and just threw it out there, but it seemed such a deal had really taken place.
However, I had no intention of calling it luck.
Because utilizing luck was precisely skill.
"I'm a man with many secrets."
"Was the information received from the fifteen clans of Huizhou, or from the four families of Shanxi?"
"What are you going to do with that information."
"If this information leaked from the fifteen clans of Huizhou, it will continue to leak in the future. If his identity is related to the fifteen clans of Huizhou, and you tell me, I will give you enough money to live off of for at least ten years."
Yu Hong-yang's expression was serious.
In the end, he was telling me to snitch.
I could understand.
It was only natural for a merchant to plug a hole from which information was leaking.
I had no choice but to shrug my shoulders.
Because there was no way the current me could be connected to the fifteen clans of Huizhou.
"I'm not going to tell you."
"I see. I understand. I was thinking of giving you ten thousand nyang of silver."
"……Really?"
At that amount, it seemed okay to lie.
It was seed money that would be a tremendous help when I became a merchant in the future.
But I couldn't do that.
At the very least, if I was going to become a merchant, I couldn't be on the bad side of either the Huizhou merchants or the Shanxi merchants.
"It's the same that I can't tell you."
"You're quite upright. Or you have that much money. You're an interesting friend."
Yu Hong-yang didn't try to dig any further from me.
The spirit of the Huizhou merchants was as clean as ever, then and now.
"Anyway, that's also the reason why the Huizhou merchants aren't participating in the Yichang market this time."
"Are you saying they will overlook other merchants suffering losses?"
"If someone profits, it's only natural that someone else suffers a loss."
As expected, merchants were cold-headed.
Yu Hong-yang already had sufficient qualities of a merchant.
Since he was the son of the merchant king, it was natural if it was natural.
"So I want to ask. What profit can you gain from there to be trying to obstruct the Shanxi merchants?"
I spoke honestly.
Because it wasn't something to hide.
I said that the Sect Leader of Wudang had given me the ridiculous order to buy salt cheaply without buying it up before it's harvested.
After hearing the situation, Yu Hong-yang's lips twitched, and he finally laughed out loud.
"Haha. You're a really funny guy. How did you think of talking back to the Sect Leader of Wudang."
"I didn't know it would go this far."
"Kuh. That's true. Honestly, if it were me, I would have just lain down on the spot and said I couldn't do it. At least since I'm a lay disciple, they wouldn't kill me."
"It seems I should have done that too."
"But seeing you plotting something here, it seems you've found a way through."
"I'm giving it a try. But if the Huizhou merchants can't help, is there a need to listen?"
"People will tell me anyway. Just tell me."
Come to think of it, that was true.
I briefly summarized my plan and told him.
After hearing everything, Yu Hong-yang stuck out his lower lip and nodded his head.
He looked like a guild master receiving an approval.
"I'll have to see it to know. It's well worth a try."
Of course it was.
I had decades of experience as a merchant.
This level of trickery was nothing.
I came out of the building with Yu Hong-yang.
The kids, including Jeon Oh-soo, were so curious that they were still standing in the same spot.
However, I couldn't tell them the strategy I had told Yu Hong-yang here.
Because for some reason, Sagong-hyeon's gang was also mixed in.
"Participating in the Yichang market? Then I'll have to listen in as I'm also curious about that. The Seungroe Sect also received an escort request."
The Seungroe Sect was also an Orthodox Faction sect in Hubei.
Of course, since it wasn't just big merchants like the Shanxi merchants, small and medium-sized merchants also requested escorts from small and medium-sized sects.
I hadn't thought of that.
"It's not like you're going, so what does it matter?"
"Still, since it's my sect's business, I should listen. What's the scheme?"
I couldn't tell Sagong-hyeon.
Sagong-hyeon held a grudge against me, and if it became known that I had come up with this strategy, I would be on the bad side of the Shanxi merchants.
At least the people from the merchant world here would participate together, so I didn't have to worry about them revealing it, but since the Seungroe Sect was not from the merchant world, they could very well go around blabbering about it.
"I don't want to tell you."
"Then that's troublesome. I'll have to go around telling the people participating in the Yichang market to be careful of you. Saying you're a guy with some scheme."
"How childish."
But effective.
Because people would be on their guard just by hearing those words.
Of course, it wouldn't have a big impact.
Because I wouldn't be the one moving directly at the Yichang market.
I was just the planner of this strategy.
Still, it was true that it was bothersome.
"I'd appreciate it if you'd stop being difficult and leave. This is a matter of the merchant world."
It was exactly what I was going to say, but those words didn't come from my mouth.
They came from Yu Hong-yang's mouth.
Sagong-hyeon's expression hardened.
"You're arrogant because you're the son of the merchant king. Why should I move as you say?"
"Because I told you to."
Yu Hong-yang said as if it were natural with an arrogant tone.
It was a fact that didn't even need to be mentioned that the arrogance suited him well.
"The Seungroe Sect. Shall I have their sign taken down?"
Yu Hong-yang's cold face approached Sagong-hyeon's face.
Even his skinny, timid-looking face looked intellectual and cold-headed when it was cold.
A person certainly had an aura about them.
Sagong-hyeon couldn't say anything to Yu Hong-yang who was getting in his face.
Of course, if they fought, Sagong-hyeon would win.
But Yu Hong-yang's weapon was not a sword.
Sagong-hyeon turned pale, took a step back, and finally turned around and ran away.
However, Sagong-hyeon's group did not follow.
Because Sagong-hyeon had just proven that he could not be a leader by running away.
It was proven that the real power among the lay disciples here was not Sagong-hyeon, but Yu Hong-yang.
Now, Sagong-hyeon had two choices left.
Quietly withdraw from the sect, or clench his teeth and complete the lay disciple course while being ostracized.
Neither would be an easy choice.
Of course, it wasn't something for me to worry about.
"Phew. Phew. I really thought I was going to die."
In the midst of that, Yu Hong-yang placed his hand on his chest and panted heavily.
As someone who knew his true nature, it was definitely an act.
He was continuously acting like a timid person.
It was a good strategy.
If the son of the merchant king stood out here, it wouldn't be good for the Wudang Sect, and it would be a burdensome thing for Yu Hong-yang as well.
I told my strategy to the gathered children of the merchant world.
The eyes of the children of the merchant world shone.
I adjusted the details of the strategy and agreed to continuously share information with them.
The one who took on the role of their representative was, as expected, Jeon Oh-soo.
"This will be fun."
Jeon Oh-soo summed it up in one sentence.
"It will be fun."
I answered.
A few days passed after the strategy was established.
It was the day the market opened in Yichang.
Ah. And it was said that Sagong-hyeon withdrew from the sect not long after losing face to Yu Hong-yang.