Within Chengdu, the Golden Manor held grounds reaching fifty thousand pyeong, and the great estate alone came to twenty thousand pyeong.
Merchants, blacksmiths, clerks, maidservants, escorts, mineral appraisers and the like, three thousand people resided there.
Beyond that, those coming and going from the estate were as many as grains of sand.
That was also the reason I had not immediately left the Golden Manor, surrounded by enemies, right after the regression.
Without much effort I could seize an enormous power of gold and spend it where I needed.
And then there were the miraculous encounters presumed to have existed in the Golden Manor, or actually existing at this point in time.
Having once been a member of this place and having originally considered a powerful revenge, it was only natural that I knew the Golden Manor's past and future down to the last detail.
Though I had never dreamed the Golden Manor would collapse while I was sharpening the blade of revenge—
In any case, I meant to find opportunity within my past memories.
Like here.
“Wretched weather.”
Geon Pyeong, who had ridden up alongside me as I halted my horse on the hill, said it irritably. Thanks to the snow that had come down hard last night, the ground was slushy.
“You provoked me over a barely five thousand pyeong highland Horse Plain on the outskirts and one wench?”
Instead of answering, I gazed at the five thousand pyeong or so of Horse Plain pasture, still covered in unmelted snow.
Most everyone now and then recalls the regrettable opportunities they missed in the past and smacks their lips over them.
Of course, that applied to me as well.
A modest pasture atop a hill.
But to me this was no mere pasture.
“Yeah, that's right. In exchange for handing you half the funds I've scraped together, you hand me full authority over this pasture and over Seol Ha. And of course, all of this on the condition that you get Mother's permission.”
At this point Geon Pyeong was planning to expand his business by raising the mines' output by leaps and bounds, and so was in the middle of transfusing enormous funds.
It was a deal made possible by striking at that weakness.
Of course, Geon Pyeong, who did not know that, would have judged that I had overreached just to get Seol Ha.
Using funds that could buy a thousand pyeong of land on Chengdu's outskirts to buy five thousand pyeong of outlying pasture far from the city center was, to anyone's eyes, failing to get a proper price.
In the end there was nothing much to point to as a reason apart from wanting to obtain Seol Ha.
“Is that bitch worth that much?”
“And who was it that came with his tail tucked to get that one person?”
“Watch your mouth. Before you're buried where neither rat nor bird will know of it.”
“I'm Mother's property. Do you think I'll vanish like dust the way that bastard Geon Gon did?”
“A bastard about to be cast off talks a lot.”
“Just seal the contract.”
The functionaries we had brought exchanged the deeds of contract.
“Get lost.”
“It's my land, so shouldn't you be the one leaving?”
“Ptooey. When luck turns sour, all sorts of things cling to you.”
Geon Pyeong spat and turned his horse's head.
“Let's go!”
The subordinates Geon Pyeong had brought drained away with him like an ebbing tide.
“You lot go back as well. I'm going to have a word with the Pasture Overseer here before I leave.”
Left alone at last, I pushed through the snow and ran down the hill to the pasture.
***
“Haha, I am sorry that this is all we have to offer here.”
The Pasture Overseer, who had served warm milk just drawn from a dairy cow, kept reading my expression.
If the second young master suddenly appeared, said the land had a new owner and asked for a cup of milk, even I would have had all sorts of thoughts.
“It has a rich, nutty taste. I heard that even though this is a Horse Plain that raises horses, the quality of the milk from here is considerable.”
“Yes, but we do not hold so many dairy cows, so the yield is not large. Only enough comes out to be shared as a token of thanks. Haha. It barely covers the costs the cows consume.”
“I see. How are the horses?”
“The number of head has fallen a little from last year. Two horses died…….”
“Hmm, I see. Then I think you will not have to worry about that from now on.”
“What?? Then.”
The Pasture Overseer's eyes shook wildly from side to side.
Then he prostrated himself flat.
“If you tell us to leave in the dead of winter, we herdsmen and our families must sit out in the snow. Please let us stay until spring at least. Mercy, just once…….”
He seemed to have misunderstood.
He appeared to think that with the land's owner changed, everyone under the Pasture Overseer would be replaced.
“I have no such thought. The previous owner had no close dealings with those who manage the pasture anyway, so it does not trouble me.”
Somewhat calmed, his expression, which had looked about to break into tears, improved from before.
“Then what you just said…….”
“It is winter now, so there is no need to mind the grazing, and your work has lessened considerably, has it not?”
“That… is so. I shall move about a little more diligently.”
“No. That is not what I mean.”
“…….”
I spoke evenly to him as he looked at me in puzzlement.
“Let me ask a few things first. Among the horses put out to graze recently, has the number showing aggression increased? It likely has some connection to the deaths as well.”
At my sudden question the Pasture Overseer swallowed a gasp in astonishment.
“How could you know….”
“The silence was well kept, so your subordinates have done nothing wrong. My ears are simply a little sharp.”
“Ah….”
“One more thing. After you had no choice but to kill the aggressive horses, did the herdsmen who had been near them also suffer deep fevers?”
The Pasture Overseer hurriedly nodded up and down.
There was nothing more to hear.
The confirmation was enough.
“Could you guide me to the place where the aggressive horses mainly cropped the grass?”
“Of course. But the path is rough; I wonder whether the Young Master will be all right…….”
“No problem. Now that it has come up, let us go at once.”
When I fastened my coat and sprang up from my seat, the Pasture Overseer hurried along at my heels.
***
Snow was falling again, and we arrived at a dizzying cliff where going any deeper felt as though one might drop in an instant.
It was the most remote spot within the pasture grounds.
The snowfall grew fiercer and fiercer, making it harder and harder to see.
“Young Master, should you not turn back now? If more snow piles up, the way back will be cut off.”
“Go back first. I will look around alone from here. Just leave me the items I asked you to prepare.”
“How could I dare….”
I pushed him off by the back to send him away when he could not easily leave, then set to searching the snowfield in earnest.
Since I had not yet reached a realm able to overcome the cold, the foul weather hindered the search.
Ignoring a cold that felt as if it would freeze my hands, I dug through the snowfield with both of them.
Only after digging a long while.
A vine of blue light soon revealed itself.
Even within the snow, its vigor was singularly alive.
“Clear Blood Vine.”
The vine was so named because it carried a blue glow and looked as though blood ran along it.
But the Clear Blood Vine does not simply spring up one day. It is an offshoot that arises only when a Thunder-Hidden Azure Dragon Herb exists nearby.
The horses turning strongly aggressive and those who were not martial artists suffering severe fevers was all because thunder qi flowed out of the horses that had eaten the Clear Blood Vine.
First I stuffed the Clear Blood Vine that came up in long strands into a leather sack until it was full.
“Good, just as expected.”
The Thunder-Hidden Azure Dragon Herb would be discovered in the Golden Manor some seven years from now.
Around the time a chaotic age began in earnest.
The Chairman's sudden death.
The Grand Madam's rise to power.
The split among three sons who lacked capability.
With the appearance of various factions and outstanding figures threatening them, the Golden Manor too walked the road of decline.
The Grand Madam sought to sell off the priceless Thunder-Hidden Azure Dragon Herb to secure additional funds, but those called the Black Dragon Hegemony, who had their eyes on it, ambushed her and stole it away.
The Grand Madam died because of this.
The important part was that a figure from the Sichuan Tang Clan was implicated in the affair.
In any case, it had nothing to do with me.
What mattered was that the Thunder-Hidden Azure Dragon Herb, one of those priceless treasures that cannot be traded for money, now lay before me.
And it was a spiritual herb much needed for the second stage of the Heavenly Brahma Molting Art.
I carefully peeled off the human-skin mask, stored it in a small wooden case and tucked it into my robes.
Then I bound the sturdy rope the Pasture Overseer had left me firmly to a rock and wrapped it around every part of my body along with the sack strapped to my lower back.
With shoes fitted with sharp iron fastened firmly up to my ankles, it was enough to descend the cliff.
Let's head down—
***
Through the streaming snow I moved along a small cave mouth partway down the cliff.
The knife-like wind pressure grew stronger the farther in I went, but when I pressed deeper still the wind stopped instead.
There was no need for a fire-starter.
Amid the deep darkness there was something that gave off a singularly blue glow.
The Clear Blood Vine I had packed tight into the sack.
The closer it came to the Thunder-Hidden Azure Dragon Herb, the more its faint light blazed like clear flame.
About when I could sense water trickling between the narrow, dark cave walls, the passage that had barely let one body through opened out as vast as a grand hall.
And as brightly as the Clear Blood Vine shone, the Thunder-Hidden Azure Dragon Herbs blooming here and there in the cave also greeted me with a light as strong and bright as moonlight.
“Not four stalks but ten stalks of Thunder-Hidden Azure Dragon Herb. My fortune is wide open.”
From what I had looked into before the regression it was said to be no more than four stalks or so, but coming here I had never dreamed the count would run to ten.
At this much, a result well above expectation.
With nothing more to see, I undid my clothes and approached the Thunder-Hidden Azure Dragon Herb.
The time to reach a second leap in growth had come.
But then it happened.
I felt someone watching me from within the darkness.
A chilling wrongness travelled up from my toes.
***
“So, you gave him his way?”
“Yes, Mother. He clutched at my trouser legs and begged me to do it, so how could I not show mercy to my younger brother?”
After relaying everything that had happened with Geon A-seong, Geon Pyeong added a few words.
His pride would not allow him to end it there.
Strangely, did it not feel exactly like a defeat?
It amounted to no more than five thousand pyeong or so of pasture he had not even paid much for, and one warrior with usable aptitude.
“You lost. And wretchedly at that.”
“What? That is not the case.”
“What you wanted from me was clearly that wench Seol Ha. You wished to place under your command the wench who, even within the Golden Manor, holds the aptitude of a master who will become a match for a thousand men. So I told you to go and persuade your brother, who had a connection to this matter. And yet instead you say you are giving Seol Ha up.”
“…….”
“Setting aside losing that wench, you failed to seize the advantageous ground, and were instead cowed by your brother into handing over five thousand pyeong of pasture land as well.”
“It is useless land. It is not broad or fertile enough to raise horses on a large scale. In exchange I secured the funds I needed, having even useless land bought up at a high price.”
“All of it facts I already know.”
“…….”
“Then do you suppose your brother did not know as well?”
“That is because the bastard is mad for wenches….”
“It means he valued that wench that highly. This body favored her enough to keep Geon Gon alive.”
“…….”
“In the end, who was it that obtained what they most wanted?”
At that one remark Geon Pyeong could say nothing and clenched his fist until it bled.
“Leave now. Seeing your dullness, I may as well extend the second son's lifespan a little.”
Geon Pyeong bowed his head without a word.