Everyone inside Ho Yeong Pavilion froze.
The Blue Snake Gang fighters in particular looked utterly stunned.
“Countermeasures to our gang’s martial arts? Don’t talk bullshit!”
Yanghwi pulled another booklet from his robe and tossed it over.
“I found another one on the way. Take a look.”
A moment later, the Snake Head Hall Leader’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.
“This... How in the world...?”
“What’s so surprising? From the looks of things, the Blue Snake Gang got its hands on countermeasures to the Red Bridge Gang’s martial arts too.”
Yanghwi snickered and continued.
“Seems some eccentric master decided to stir things up for fun. Only this time, instead of the Red Bridge Gang, I guess it’s the Blue Snake Gang’s turn to get fucked!”
“Hwi. Mind your language.”
Ah.
He had forgotten his father was right there.
“Father, I’ve spent too much time around Brother Gu and picked up some bad habits... I’m sorry.”
Despite having been in the middle of a bloody battle only moments ago, Gu Ak felt his blood pressure rise at Yanghwi’s words.
This little bastard has always been rude as hell to my face. Where does he get off telling lies like that?!
Yanghwi caught the look on Gu Ak’s face and hurriedly spoke first before the man could expose him.
“Anyway! The situation seems to have changed quite a bit now! Wouldn’t you agree, Brother Gu?”
Until moments ago, the Blue Snake Gang had been using its numerical advantage to overwhelm the Red Bridge Gang.
Now things were different.
Gu Ak was the only first-rate martial artist present, and now that he possessed the countermeasures, he would be able to display a level of martial prowess far beyond what he had managed before.
Now that both sides know the other’s countermeasures, at the very least they’ll tear each other apart.
In a contest between martial arts, possessing a countermeasure was like playing Go while already knowing where your opponent intended to place every stone.
Until now, the second-rate Snake Head Hall Leader had been able to fight evenly against Gu Ak, a first-rate expert.
That was no longer possible.
And that isn’t all.
“Now that everyone in Agan County knows the countermeasures to the Blue Snake Gang’s martial arts, things are about to get interesting. I wonder whether the Gyojin Gang will sit quietly.”
The Gyojin Gang was another Black Path faction whose territory bordered that of the Blue Snake Gang.
And Yanghwi could guarantee that they would never let an opportunity like this pass.
Just as the Blue Snake Gang had immediately launched an all-out war after obtaining the Red Bridge Gang’s countermeasures.
“Damn it. We’re withdrawing.”
The Snake Head Hall Leader ground his teeth as he gave the order.
Yanghwi looked at him as though he had just heard something absurd.
“What are you talking about? You came whenever you pleased, so you think you can leave whenever you please too? Spoken like ignorant Black Path trash.”
“You little bastard. Today isn’t the only day there is. I swear I’ll tear that mouth of yours apart, so just wait.”
“Your throat will be cut first, won’t it? Right, Brother Gu?”
Gu Ak twisted his blood-soaked face into a vicious snarl.
“Damn right. Snake Head Hall Leader, I’ll bury an axe in your skull before sunset.”
Watching Gu Ak growl, Yanghwi thought,
That should be enough to set the board.
The Blue Snake Gang needed to return immediately and prepare for an attack from the Gyojin Gang.
But there was no chance the Red Bridge Gang would simply let them walk away.
They needed a mediator.
Yanghwi looked toward Baek Muryang.
“Well then. I believe it’s time for the Clan Head of Baek Family Manor to step in.”
Baek Muryang took one step forward and looked between Gu Ak and the Snake Head Hall Leader.
“I, Baek of Baek Family Manor, have a proposal for you both. The harm to ordinary civilians has grown severe. End this fighting. At the very least, I will no longer tolerate people dying near my family’s manor.”
“I see no reason why our gang should—”
—Blood Axe. If you wish to grow old with Miss Rang, accept the proposal.
Gu Ak, who had immediately begun growling, fell silent when he heard Baek Muryang’s voice transmission.
While Gu Ak stared at him with an indescribable expression, Baek Muryang continued.
“The Red Bridge Gang will accept mediation. What will the Blue Snake Gang do?”
“...I do not have the authority to decide for the entire gang. But if matters proceed that way, our Gang Leader will likely consider the Blue Snake Gang indebted to Baek Family Manor.”
“Good.”
“Then we shall take our—”
The Snake Head Hall Leader was just about to signal his men when Baek Muryang stopped him.
“Wait. Do you intend to leave without paying the price for my mediation?”
“...What do you want?”
“One hundred gold pieces.”
That was equivalent to ten thousand silver pieces.
Enough money to buy the entirety of Ho Yeong Pavilion with plenty left over.
“Do you not think that price excessive?”
“The Blue Snake Gang has already taken three businesses from the Red Bridge Gang, has it not?”
“......”
“If you lack the authority to decide, relay my words to your Gang Leader and send someone here before the day is out. Remember that. Before sunset.”
Even if Baek Muryang had demanded thirty thousand silver pieces rather than ten thousand, the Blue Snake Gang would have no choice but to accept.
Unless they wanted their entire faction destroyed.
“...I will convey your words to the Gang Leader.”
Once all the Blue Snake Gang fighters had withdrawn, Baek Muryang turned to Gu Ak.
“Blood Axe. Send your men away as well.”
“...All of you, go downstairs. Tend to the wounded and clear away the bodies.”
Once his subordinates had left, Gu Ak spoke.
“I have quite a lot I’d like to ask you, Clan Head Baek. But let me start with this. Setting everything else aside, do you truly have some brilliant scheme that will convince our Gang Leader to accept mediation?”
“There is something we need to establish first, Brother Gu.”
Yanghwi quickly cut in.
“From the Red Bridge Gang’s perspective, it would be best to join forces with the Gyojin Gang, devour the Blue Snake Gang, and take revenge while you’re at it. But that is the Red Bridge Gang’s position. Yours is different, isn’t it?”
Gu Ak’s gaze deepened.
His father had poisoned the woman he loved.
And from the Red Bridge Gang Leader’s perspective, Gu Ak was merely one child among many—and a potential rival who threatened his throne.
“Keep talking, Younger Brother.”
“You need to act not for the Red Bridge Gang’s profit, but for Sister Rang’s happiness. And to do that, you must persuade the Red Bridge Gang Leader.”
“How?”
“I intend to give you a countermeasure to the countermeasure.”
“You mean you’ll counter the countermeasure to our gang’s true inherited martial art, the Rock-Splitting Axe Art? Who could possibly do that?”
Yanghwi jerked a thumb toward himself.
“Who else? Me, of course—the peerless prodigy who appears perhaps once in a hundred years.”
“I want to scold you for talking nonsense, yet the fact that part of me is wondering if you might actually be capable of it is ridiculous in itself. But wouldn’t you first need the countermeasure to the Rock-Splitting Axe Art?”
Yanghwi grinned and tossed Gu Ak another booklet.
The moment Gu Ak saw what was inside, shock spread across his face once more.
“This is...!”
“I bribed one of the Blue Snake Gang fighters and obtained their countermeasure. Then I devised a way to render that countermeasure useless.”
Strictly speaking, he had corrected the flaws in the Rock-Splitting Axe Art and refined it into a better martial art.
“You made this yourself, Younger Brother? I can’t believe it. No matter how talented you are, how could a child who only just began learning martial arts possibly...?”
It wasn’t exactly wrong.
Yanghwi had only been able to prepare it this quickly because, in his previous life, he had created this improvement as practice before beginning to refine his family’s own martial arts.
Still, Yanghwi decided to brazen it out.
“Will you finally admit that I’m the greatest prodigy under heaven?”
Baek Muryang added,
“Hwi is telling the truth. I watched the entire process as he devised the countering method.”
In fact, Baek Muryang had spent several days watching Yanghwi create it and had been repeatedly astonished.
“Peerless in Chivalry. If it comes from you, I can believe it.”
Conflict filled Gu Ak’s eyes.
If all of this was true, Yanghwi’s talent was dangerous.
Considering the position of Baek Family Manor and the future of the Red Bridge Gang, killing him now would be the sensible choice.
But it was also true that this peerless prodigy was currently on his side.
On top of that, Baek Family Manor was protecting Rangrang.
That meant Gu Ak owed them a debt of gratitude.
“What do you want me to do?”
Gu Ak might belong to the Black Path, but he was not the kind of man who repaid kindness with resentment.
He was also enough of a hopeless romantic to think that if the alternative was doing something that would disappoint Rangrang, then the Red Bridge Gang might as well collapse.
“Give the countermeasure to the countermeasure to the Red Bridge Gang Leader and claim that you created it yourself.”
“My position within the gang will rise rapidly. My father—no, the Red Bridge Gang Leader—will start trying to suppress me.”
“But every member of the gang will need time to learn the new Rock-Splitting Axe Art. At minimum, he won’t be able to make a move for several months. That will be enough.”
In any case, the war among Agan County’s Black Path factions could never continue for months.
Yanghwi intended to finish everything before then.
“Oh, and you’ll need to pay for the countermeasure to the countermeasure.”
“You demanded ten thousand silver pieces from the Blue Snake Gang. What do I have to pay?”
“Simple. I’ll hand you the entire ten thousand silver pieces. Sell us Ho Yeong Pavilion.”
Ho Yeong Pavilion was the largest pleasure house located near Baek Family Manor.
In other words, it was ideal as the family’s first business.
“Ho Yeong Pavilion is under my jurisdiction to begin with, so selling it would not be difficult. Especially if I claim to have created the improved Rock-Splitting Axe Art myself. But what comes after that? What exactly are you planning?”
Yanghwi answered simply.
“The Blue Snake Gang will be destroyed by the Gyojin Gang. Then the Red Bridge Gang will bare its fangs at the Gyojin Gang in order to feast on the Blue Snake Gang’s remains.”
Anyone could predict that much.
“And after that?”
“I have no idea!”
In truth, everything had already been planned.
But he could not tell Gu Ak the truth.
No matter how much a father tried to suppress his son or poisoned his son’s lover, an act of filial betrayal was something that left deep scars on everyone involved.
“Brother Gu, you only have one thing to do. Learn the improved Rock-Splitting Axe Art and devote yourself to your martial training.”
“With things moving this urgently, you want me to sit around training?”
“Tsk. If Brother Gu would just reach the Peak Realm, all of these problems would disappear, wouldn’t they? Honestly, your talent is... Ah. That was rather rude of me. My apologies!”
“......”
Could this brat truly not control his tongue even in a serious situation?
Just as Gu Ak was thinking that—
“Blood Axe. I trust you will act as Hwi instructed. We shall take our leave.”
Gu Ak sighed and gave them a formal fist-and-palm salute.
“Very well. I’ll trust you. Take care on your way back.”
Baek Muryang hoisted Yanghwi onto his back and leaped out through the window.
He did not put him down until they had returned to Baek Family Manor.
“Hwi. Everything truly happened exactly as you said.”
“It seems fortune favors the Baek Family’s path.”
“Yes. Fortune indeed. The fact that you came to our family was itself an extraordinary stroke of luck.”
Baek Muryang looked at the boy who had once told him that he, too, had chosen the Baek Family—the boy who had become his son.
“We truly have a business of our own now. Ho Yeong Pavilion, no less.”
It had been lost during the time Baek Muryang’s father served as Clan Head, but Ho Yeong Pavilion had originally belonged to Baek Family Manor.
That was precisely why Yanghwi had singled it out.
“Hwi.”
“Yes, Father.”
“There is something I wish to ask you.”
“Command me, and I will answer.”
“Everything has unfolded exactly as you predicted. As your father, I cannot help but find it rather too convenient. Do you perhaps know who the mysterious expert spreading these countermeasures among the Black Path factions is?”
Yanghwi had expected the question.
He nodded.
“Yes. I do.”
“How?”
“Do you remember the notice we used when searching for Sister Rang’s family?”
Yanghwi gave Baek Muryang a suitably altered account of how he had first met Yeo Unjeok, then continued.
“Everything happening now is taking place on a board created through the abilities of Sister Rang’s father. In fact, the countering method I claimed to have created was also something he gave me.”
“Good heavens. So Miss Rang’s father was the one who stepped in.”
“Yes. He wants the Red Bridge Gang to fall for the sake of Sister Rang’s happiness. And because Brother Gu cannot be allowed to learn the truth in the process, he arranged things in this complicated fashion.”
“Good heavens...”
As Baek Muryang sighed in astonishment, Yanghwi continued.
“Then, Father. May I go meet Sister Rang’s father?”
“So that is why you have been going out so often lately. You have been working for the sake of our family all this time. Go on.”
“Yes!”
Yanghwi launched himself away energetically.
*****
After leaving Baek Family Manor, Yanghwi headed straight for the place where they had agreed to meet.
Today’s meeting place was the rooftop of the same pavilion where he had first encountered Yeo Unjeok.
Yanghwi reached the top far more easily than before, then spent a moment taking in the surrounding scenery as he waited.
“Young Master.”
Yanghwi had already sensed his presence.
At the sound of Yeo Unjeok’s voice, he turned around.
Then he went straight to the point.
“It’s finally time to put the last piece of the plan into place. Old man, attack the Red Bridge Gang Leader.”
Kill with a borrowed blade.
That had been the purpose of this entire scheme from the very beginning.