Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Strange Object (3)

On the plate, the man’s groan that leaked through the gag breaks the silence of the banquet hall.

“Why is everyone looking like that? Isn’t subduing evil thieves a virtue of a hero and the duty of a chivalrous hero?”

At the shameless answer of the Myriad Gold Merchant Group leader Yun Cheonseong the martial artists’ criticism and curses followed.

“You are not subduing evil but wanting to see a person die painfully. So you put conditions with a thousand gold as bait.”

“Even to an evil thief one recommends surrender, and if able to subdue one does so is the mindset of a chivalrous hero!”

“Making a person dying as entertainment! You are exactly the evil thief!”

Despite the people’s criticism the Myriad Gold Merchant Group leader did not care and smiled.

“If thinking me an evil thief why do you not subdue?”

“What!?”

“An evil thief is stabbing someone who might be innocent right in front of the eyes yet are you all just watching?”

Even in front of martial artists who could easily kill him he was truly calm.

“Is it not that you fear receiving disadvantage because my wealth and fame are amazing? If really so there is no separate treacherous subject who bows the head to power.”

The air of the banquet hall became heavy. Nevertheless the people could not dare think of putting a hand on a weapon.

“Stop.”

Except only me. Unable to listen to sophistry any longer I drew the sword and swung.

“It is a matter that can be resolved by asking the person himself directly.”

When the rope and gag binding the man were cleanly cut, along with the admiration of some people the suffering man opened his mouth.

“P-please spare me! I-I am merely a farmer!”

“Truly skilled at lying as befitting an evil thief. What will you do now, young hero? Will you ask the servants?”

“Young hero, that one is indeed an evil thief.”

“We will testify.”

At the servants’ answer I shook my head.

“The treacherous subject of Qin, Zhao Gao had amazing power and even ignored the emperor. Even if he pointed at a deer with a finger and said it was a horse everyone nodded and your relationship is not different in the least.”

“Then what will you do?”

“It is simple. Treat that one and hand him over to a government office in a region other than Hebei and investigate fairly, then based on the result ask for the crime.”

“Why leave Hebei and another region?”

“Your power reaches all of Hebei so will a fair investigation be possible?”

“My power is not amazing.”

Putting the sword away and pointing at the martial artists.

“Even though cutting down and insulting the honor of this many martial artists right in front of the eyes yet still having life attached proves your power.”

The merchant group leader clapped and burst into laughter.

“Indeed! Even though young I did not expect, the world’s evaluation rather looked down on the young hero! You there! Immediately treat this man and send him home!”

“Yes.”

The servants treated the man with prepared medicine and bandages and disappeared together.

“He was a person hired for acting from the beginning. As a reward I decided to give a hundred gold nyang.”

“What!?”

“T-a hundred gold nyang!?”

“It is acting risking life so shouldn’t that much be given?”

“W-what on earth for!?”

“I wanted to tease you all who achieved the dream I could not achieve.”

The servant’s words that his dream was a martial artist came to mind.

“Having achieved everything, the old dream came to mind. Thinking that if picking it up faster, I might have become a martial artist not a great merchant a pointless jealousy arose.”

From earlier suspiciousness does not cease in his actions.

“With the appearance of a young hero the heart to be jealous also disappeared and now I can leave with a comfortable heart.”

“You mean leaving Hebei?”

“I do not know where that place is but it will be a good place.”

At the appearance of seeming to leave to a place that can never return I asked without hiding the doubt.

“What is that?”

“I will ask the young hero, effort appears as reward right?”

“Usually it is so.”

“Most rewards return as much as the effort. But if, a very small effort returns as a great reward what do you think? Even if a completely wrong effort is fulfilled as desired?”

Even though verbose nonsense everyone closed their mouths at the unknown madness.

“To me who had nothing it gave an opportunity. Truly easy, abandoning a slight conscience, eating a little bad heart it opened the future.”

The servants took out the jar prepared under the table.

“This time it was also so. I did not understand why causing a famine, but in the end it returned as my fame and wealth.”

“Are you saying you caused the famine of Hebei?”

“It is me and yet not me. That did it.”

And sprinkling the liquid inside the jar on the merchant group leader everyone retreated at the terrible oil smell.

“It is fire oil. Fire sticks easily and does not go out well, so do not approach.”

“W-what on earth are you trying to do!”

“I am trying to perform its mission.”

At the appearance of putting a hand into the bosom without answering I tried to stop, but whether opening the lid of the fire-seizing tool inside the bosom he was instantly swept by a fire demon.

“O-oh! With this I set foot in a new world!”

A giant flame soars to the sky. Like people lighting a bonfire and performing a rain ritual the servants surrounded the surroundings and clapped.

“Congratulations, merchant group leader!”

“Congratulations!”

“Please do not forget us!”

The merchant group leader who was laughing madly in the flame shouted as if screaming.

“I feel its will! It likes you all! If seeing it, rejoice! It is a fateful encounter!”

The person who was alive until just now instantly became ashes and collapsed.

‘That!?’

The remaining paper scrap in the ashes flew in the wind.

[Act: Burn the body.]

[Gain: The world of eternal happiness.]

The paper scrap in a fleeting moment, regenerated into a scroll as if turning time backward and then disappeared like a mirage.

‘It was you?’

The strange force and turbulent spirit that caused this incident.

* * *

The end of the bizarre banquet was the constables’ hearing of circumstances continuing until late at night and concluding with the merchant group leader’s suicide.

“Truly a bizarre and outrageous matter.”

“Isn’t it that he tried to vent the resentment of not becoming a martial artist on us?”

“To think one who possessed both fame and wealth would go so vainly.”

Returning to the inn I used the Heavenly Command Plaque and sought the Hebei branch chief.

“I heard the incident. Please explain in detail what happened.”

Telling the situation and conversation of that time the Hebei branch chief reached the same conclusion as me.

“It is the doing of a strange force and turbulent spirit.”

“It seems a fellow that presents a mission and if succeeding gives a reward, but in the end leads to ruin.”

“I hear it seems to give the reward the owner most desires, if caught by the reward isn’t it bewitching the opponent?”

“Not completely burning even in the fire demon and instantly regenerating and disappearing means it cannot be destroyed by ordinary methods.”

“It is certain it is a type that if the master dies seeks another master.”

“How do you handle strange objects that regenerate even if destroyed, or appear again?”

“In such cases, if finding the weakness most are destroyed.”

Accordingly the Hebei branch chief gave an example.

“Since a strange object is an item to be used by someone, the weakness is also often related to that.”

The ancient zither that plays on its own and bewitches the listener, when sending a deaf mute who cannot hear and making him listen to the performance to the end the strings broke and it never played again.

The incense that if burning to the end randomly kills one person within a radius of ten li, when completely covering the incense scent with stench and burning all it no longer regenerated.

The lock that makes the confined one age and die overnight, when secretly infiltrating a person into the locked room it broke as if resenting not being able to perform its role.

“Then the text that presents a mission and if succeeding gives a reward...”

“If failing the mission or the owner refusing the mission wouldn’t it extinguish?”

Or try cutting with sword qi.

“Please monitor the martial artists of Tianjin. If the merchant group leader’s last words are true it will choose a martial artist as the new master.”

“Currently there are many personnel who urgently left their seats due to other strange force and turbulent spirit incidents so monitoring all of Tianjin is difficult, but we will try our best.”

I recall the Righteousness Rank General’s advice.

-There is no place that intertwines well with strange forces and turbulent spirits as much as the martial world.

If really appearing to a martial artist a great bloodshed will occur.

“Three-legged, let’s go. Since personnel are insufficient we also have to run.”

『Now you need this seat’s help?』

“No, why are you suddenly sulking?”

『Hmph! What was asked to the Hebei branch chief is all facts this seat also knows! Why didn’t you ask this seat first!』

“You, I asked while also requesting to monitor the martial artists. If only requesting it seems like ordering.”

『Then I will forgive.』

“You also monitor the martial artists. Can you monitor from the sky? If there is a person doing strange actions tell me right away.”

『It is an easy matter for this seat.』

The Three-legged Crow that flew to the sky immediately came down again.

『Boss, there are dead cats in the alley.』

Going to the location the Three-legged Crow led, dozens of cats were dead.

‘Cut cleanly in one stroke. It is the skill of a martial artist, not an ordinary person.’

If it was not that martial artists gathered in total for the festival it would have been easy to specify the culprit.

‘Is the mission given by the strange force and turbulent spirit killing cats?’

Even if cats are insignificant creatures, there is no reason to massacre in large quantities.

‘It must have given a small mission and made one realize its power. Or presented a reward that cannot be refused at all, even if a joke one has to experiment to be satisfied.’

If a reward to bewitch a martial artist needless to say increase of internal energy and achievement of martial arts.

“Haa! To think the Grand Heaven Gate master’s martial arts would be this much I never imagined!”

“I heard the rumor that the Grand Heaven Eight Paths Sword Technique is profound, truly amazing!”

“You, do you see that? It disappears in a flash, and appears in a flash! Is it martial arts a person can do?”

“Extreme swift sword and phantom sword combined so it looks like that, would it really disappear and appear?”

“Well, that would be it.”

That afternoon, I saw the Grand Heaven Gate master demonstrating sword technique at the martial demonstration ground of Tianjin.

The sword strikes that move in all directions flashing every time swinging the sword once were the extreme of phantom sword and swift sword that cannot be easily blocked.

“It is hard to see at all. A method to block does not come to mind.”

But in my eyes it is clearly visible. It is not that the splendidly moving sword draws a complex trajectory and deceives the vision.

Every time flashing in the air it teleports one span to two spans and the sword really disappears and appears.

“No, aren’t you the Jade-Faced Asura!? You were also watching! Do you also think the Grand Heaven Gate master’s martial arts are amazing?”

“Yes, I think so.”

It is not a person’s sword technique.

“The blood is boiling so I cannot endure without challenging.”

I found the owner of the strange force and turbulent spirit.

“This late learner of the martial world Lee Shin applies for sparring to the Grand Heaven Gate master Dokgo Shin great hero.”