Chapter 319

The man leaning over the gunwale was one of the guards assigned to the Great Flame Merchant House’s fleet.

“Ah! Guard Kang!”

Whenever the merchant fleet anchored at Zhenjiangkou, Wang Sosam would row his little skiff between the larger vessels as he went about collecting his nets.

That meant he occasionally exchanged a few words with the warriors standing guard aboard the ships, and Guard Kang was one of them.

“Looks like you drew the dawn watch today?”

Guard Kang looked down at Wang Sosam from the gunwale and nodded.

“That I did. You’re as diligent as ever, Old Wang. You’re getting on in years. Why not take things a little easier?”

“Oh, listen to you talk as if I had that luxury. A dirt-poor villager like me has to work this hard just to keep food on the table. You know I’ve got several mouths depending on me.”

“How was the catch today?”

“Three or four yellow croakers at most. Hardly worth calling a catch. And as if a pod of Yangtze dolphins dragged them off, every other net I set has vanished.”

“That’s unfortunate. Seems today simply isn’t your day, Old Wang. Tsk, tsk.”

Guard Kang clicked his tongue sympathetically.

“So that’s why you were standing there looking so lost?”

“That’s part of it, but there was something a little strange too... Never mind.”

Wang Sosam had nearly asked why the merchant ships’ waterlines were showing above the river, but decided against it.

If the conversation dragged on, he would only lose more time searching for his missing nets.

“Old Wang, you look as though you have something else to say. Go on.”

“It’s nothing. Just nonsense about how the river seems stronger than usual today.”

“...”

Guard Kang silently studied Wang Sosam for a moment, then nodded.

“I see. In any case, you should finish your work quickly today.”

“What do you mean by that, Guard Kang?”

“Our fleet is scheduled to leave Zhenjiangkou earlier than usual. If you linger between the ships, you might lose that skiff of yours along with your nets.”

“Good heavens! That would ruin me. This little boat is all the capital this old man has left.”

Startled, Wang Sosam tightened his grip on the oars.

“Guard Kang, I’ll be on my way, then.”

—Splash! Splash!

So intent was Wang Sosam on rowing away that he never noticed Guard Kang’s gaze sharpening as the man watched him from the gunwale.

A short while later, Wang Sosam pulled his skiff up at his own little landing, two or three li from Zhenjiangkou Harbor.

Calling it a dock was generous. He had merely wedged a few stones between the rocks to make footholds. Even so, Wang Sosam did not envy the sprawling Zhenjiangkou Harbor, with its hundreds of pyeong of docking space, in the slightest.

—Bwooo! Bwooo! Bwooo!

Just as Guard Kang had said, the Great Flame Merchant House’s vessels packed tightly into Zhenjiangkou Harbor began moving at the sound of their horns.

“Well, that’s something you don’t see every day.”

Never before had he seen the merchant fleet depart as though it had been waiting for the very first hint of dawn.

“Must be something urgent back at the Great Flame Merchant House.”

Wang Sosam shook his head, threaded his meager handful of fish onto a cord, and headed for the marketplace.

The catch was pitiful, but if he sold it to the wholesale fishmonger before it spoiled, he could at least keep his losses to a minimum.

*****

Inside the dim cave, Taoist Cheongmu had been fidgeting restlessly until he finally began lifting himself from the ground.

At that exact moment, a cold voice echoed through the cave.

“Taoist Cheongmu, where do you think you’re going?”

Caught halfway up, Cheongmu froze in an awkward crouch.

“Huh? Big Beggar, weren’t you asleep?”

Hu Gae sat cross-legged against the opposite cave wall, his eyes still closed.

“I was not sleeping. I was circulating my qi.”

“Ah! You mean growing that thing that makes your lower belly itch.”

“Taoist Cheongmu, stop changing the subject and answer the question. Where were you going just now?”

“Well... in there...”

Hu Gae’s eyes snapped open.

“Didn’t we agree that you were not to enter the cavern farther inside? Brother Kwak—your Little Martial Uncle—made that agreement with you too.”

“But the air in here is stuffy. It’s dark and cramped and there’s nothing fun to do...”

“Taoist Cheongmu, be honest. You want to go because you’re worried about Brother Kwak, don’t you?”

Pressed again, Cheongmu flared up.

“Yes! What if those living ghosts attack Little Martial Uncle? There aren’t just one or two of them. There are eight! Big Beggar, aren’t you worried about our Little Martial Uncle?”

Hu Gae let out a quiet sigh.

“Taoist Cheongmu, I have told you several times already. The Eight Demonic Venerables are not ghosts. They are living people. You have absolutely no reason to worry about Brother Kwak.”

He could not quite bring himself to add that Cheongmu was the one he was actually worried about.

The moment Cheongmu saw the Eight Demonic Venerables regain consciousness, he had suffered a fit, shouting that they were ghosts.

It was difficult to blame him when he did not understand what had happened.

Had Kwak Yeon not explained it, Hu Gae himself would naturally have assumed that the Eight Demonic Venerables were ghosts after seeing men who appeared dead suddenly open their eyes.

In any case, this was an extremely important period for the Eight Demonic Venerables, who had only just regained consciousness after spending so long in meditative passing.

It was equally important for Kwak Yeon, who needed to gain their understanding. A disturbance like that would only make matters more difficult.

So Cheongmu—who had been raving that they needed to kill the ghosts again immediately—had first needed to be kept far away.

With nothing else pressing to do, Hu Gae had volunteered to act as both Cheongmu’s guardian and watchdog, bringing him to this separate cave.

“Big Beggar, Little Martial Uncle and Sister Jin really are all right, aren’t they?”

Hu Gae nodded firmly.

“Nothing will happen to either of them. Stop worrying and sit back down. There are very few people under heaven capable of dealing with Brother Kwak.”

“Right. Our Little Martial Uncle is really, really strong.”

Cheongmu grinned broadly and started to sit, then tilted his head.

“But why is Little Martial Uncle taking so long?”

Hu Gae had begun learning how to handle Taoist Cheongmu.

Cheongmu was innocent, not stupid. If something was explained properly, he would listen as meekly as a lamb.

The problem was that explaining things properly to him was absurdly troublesome.

Still, Hu Gae needed to get him seated again, so he hurriedly thought of an answer.

“That is because Brother Kwak has something to discuss with the Eight Demonic Venerables. It is a very long discussion, and an extremely important one, so it will take some time.”

At the word discussion, Cheongmu’s eyes lit up.

“Big Beggar, what are they talking about...?”

Hu Gae realized there was no keeping him here unless he satisfied at least some of his curiosity.

After thinking for a moment, he said, “You know Brother Kwak did not come all the way here for fun, don’t you?”

“Mhm! I know!”

“Brother Kwak has to ask those Eight Demonic Venerables for something difficult. If you—or we—go in there and make a racket while he is speaking with them, what do you think will happen?”

“Ah! So that’s why Little Martial Uncle told me to stay outside for a while.”

Hu Gae seized the opportunity.

“Exactly. So let us sit here quietly and wait for Brother Kwak to return. If we go in and ruin the mood for no reason, wouldn’t that put Brother Kwak in a difficult position?”

“That would be bad.”

Cheongmu dropped back onto the ground with a thump.

“Big Beggar, I won’t move an inch from here. So you go back to growing that itchy thing you were working on earlier. If you want to catch up to even half of our Little Martial Uncle, you’ll have to do it a lot. A whole lot.”

“Taoist Cheongmu, I am very, very grateful for your concern for this heir of the Beggar Clan.”

Hu Gae knew perfectly well that the guileless Cheongmu would never catch the barb in his reply, yet he could not stop himself from putting it there.

Every innocent remark Cheongmu made somehow struck directly at a sore spot.

Once Cheongmu fell silent, stillness returned to the cave.

The place was so quiet it felt as though time itself had stopped, making it ideal for qi circulation.

Yet Hu Gae found it impossible to concentrate.

What in the world is happening in there?

It had already been at least six double-hours since the Eight Demonic Venerables awakened.

Truthfully, Hu Gae wanted to go into the inner cavern even more badly than Cheongmu did.

His unease only deepened as time passed.

The Eight Demonic Venerables were great demons known throughout the world, men whose pride reached the heavens. Saving their lives would never be enough to make them submit.

If it were, they would never have ended up imprisoned in the Great Demon Prison in the first place.

—Step. Step.

At the sound of footsteps in the distance, Hu Gae’s eyes flew open.

“It’s Little Martial Uncle!”

Cheongmu was already on his feet and running toward the sound.

Hah! How can he tell who it is from footsteps alone? That man’s five senses really are unbelievable.

“Little Martial Uncle! Are you okay?”

“Brother Cheongmu, of course I am.”

“Ah! Big Beggar was right.”

“...”

“Anyway, come on. Little Martial Uncle, you haven’t eaten anything all this time, have you? I’ll make dried-ration porridge right away.”

“Brother Cheongmu, I can just eat the dried rations as they are.”

“No! They got damp and moldy. Little Martial Uncle isn’t a beggar, so how could you eat them like that?”

Damn it! Why did beggars have to come into this again?

Hu Gae frowned after taking yet another direct hit from Cheongmu’s innocent words.

Kwak Yeon approached him.

“Brother, you’ve had a difficult time.”

“It wasn’t anything much.”

Hu Gae shook his head, studied Kwak Yeon’s face, then asked, “So? How did it go?”

Kwak Yeon replied with an unreadable expression.

“There is not really anything I can tell you at the moment.”

“Hm?”

Hu Gae stared at him in disbelief.

“You mean the Eight Demonic Venerables still haven’t fully come to their senses?”

“That is not it.”

“Then why do you have nothing to tell me? Don’t tell me you never brought it up with them.”

Kwak Yeon shook his head.

“With every moment precious, how could I not? Naturally, I explained the martial world’s current crisis to the Eight Demonic Venerables in detail and asked for their understanding.”

Hu Gae looked even more bewildered.

“Then surely they gave you some kind of answer. Whether they agree to your request or refuse it. And if they just woke up and weren’t ready to make a decision, they could at least have asked for some time to think.”

What Hu Gae said was nothing more than common sense.

“Brother, I thought the same. But the Eight Demonic Venerables simply listened in silence. Not one of them said a single word.”

“...?”

“I waited until just a short while ago, thinking they might need time to consider it, but they still said nothing. I could hardly stand there forever waiting for an answer, and the Young Castle Lord quietly suggested that we give them some space. That is why I left the cavern.”

The thought of Kwak Yeon standing there all that time like a man being punished, facing eight Demonic Venerables who sat as silent as stone statues, made Hu Gae’s temper flare.

“Forget answering your request for a moment. Are you telling me they didn’t say a single word to the man who saved their lives?”

“...”

“What rotten bastards. I don’t care if they’re the greatest demons under heaven. How can they not possess even that much basic human decency? I’m going in there right now and opening their mouths for them.”