At Ha Muhyeon’s words, the men laughed.
“Ha ha ha! We will be your subordinates from now on, so feel free to speak casually with us.”
Ha Muhyeon flinched.
He was not nearly bold enough to speak casually to faces like those.
“We have only just met. How could I do that? Once we become more comfortable with one another, I will speak more casually then.”
“Please do whatever makes you comfortable, Chief Escort.”
Ha Muhyeon looked over the men.
“How many of you have come?”
“For now, fifty.”
“Are all of you at the supreme level?”
“That is correct.”
Fifty supreme-level martial artists were not merely sufficient. It was an overwhelming force.
He would be sending out trading runs staffed not by escort guards, but by fighters fit to serve as escort captains.
“Then who is the strongest among you?”
He asked because he intended to select escort captains from among them. The men looked at one another.
“We have not fought, so how would we know?”
“I think I might be stronger than this bastard, at least.”
“What? What kind of nonsense is that?”
“Come on. I can beat you.”
“What a joke. That is my line.”
“Ridiculous. Hey, get up.”
“Fine! Let’s do this.”
Killing intent surged in every direction. It felt as though a life-or-death battle might break out at any moment.
Ha Muhyeon was thoroughly alarmed by the unexpected turn of events.
It seemed as if something might happen at any second.
And if they truly began fighting here, who could possibly stop them?
As he regretted asking such an unnecessary question and wondered how he could calm them down, a voice suddenly rang out.
“What is this? Why are you all being so noisy?”
At someone’s voice, every man turned at once.
Then, as though nothing had happened, they all fell silent.
“These bastards start fighting whenever they get the chance. I really ought to beat them senseless one day and settle the pecking order.”
“Hey, leave them alone. They must be bored out of their minds.”
Several men dressed in blue martial uniforms were walking over.
When they spotted Ha Muhyeon, they approached with smiles and clasped their hands in greeting.
“Are you perhaps the Chief Escort of the True Martial Merchant Company?”
“Y-Yes. And you are?”
“Ah! We are applicants for escort-captain positions. Ha ha ha!”
“We are only at the Transformation Realm, so we may fall short, but we look forward to working with you.”
“What? The Transformation Realm?”
Good heavens.
What in the world was happening here?
Transformation Realm masters were applying to become escort captains.
They stood at a realm above his own, yet they were willing to become mere escort captains.
It felt like a dream.
“Your realms are higher than mine. Why would you apply to become escort captains?”
“Do we not meet your approval? We must become escort captains.”
“Please accept us! If we go back like this, we will die.”
“We will work hard.”
Transformation Realm martial artists were begging to be accepted.
“W-Well, that is...”
Just as Ha Muhyeon found himself utterly unable to make sense of the situation, a familiar voice sounded.
“What? Are you harassing the Chief Escort right now?”
Ha Muhyeon turned his head and saw Jeok Wigang walking toward them.
“M-Merchant Master.”
He had never been so glad to see Jeok Wigang.
Wait. Was he not speaking to Transformation Realm masters far too casually?
What if they took offense?
Thinking he should intervene, Ha Muhyeon turned toward the Transformation Realm martial artists.
They were gone.
When he lowered his gaze, he found them lying flat on the ground.
Not only the Transformation Realm masters, but even the supreme-level martial artists who had gathered to become escort guards were pressed flat against the ground, barely daring to breathe.
Ha Muhyeon stood there with his mouth open in stunned disbelief.
“Chief Escort. Did those bastards make things difficult for you?”
“Huh? W-Well...”
“Hey. I told you clearly to listen to the Chief Escort, did I not?”
“W-We listened!”
“It sounded like there was some kind of disturbance just now. Was there not?”
“N-No!”
Their replies boomed through the air.
The martial artists lying on the ground trembled all over at Jeok Wigang’s voice.
“I clearly told you that the Chief Escort’s orders are my orders. Did I not?”
“Yes!”
“Then why does the Chief Escort look troubled? Do you want to die?”
“We were wrong!”
Jeok Wigang looked at Ha Muhyeon.
“From now on, if anyone refuses to listen, write down his name and give it to me.”
“Pardon?”
“Understood?”
“Yes.”
“Anyone whose name is on that list gets to spend some quality time with me. Understood?”
“Yes!”
Jeok Wigang suddenly seemed like a completely different person.
What had he done to them for supreme-level martial artists and even Transformation Realm masters to tremble like that?
Ha Muhyeon had heard clearly that Jeok Wigang possessed no dantian and had a body incapable of practicing martial arts.
Yet these men feared someone who knew no martial arts to such an extent.
Was there someone else backing Jeok Wigang?
“Hey. All of you, get up.”
At Jeok Wigang’s single command, the martial artists sprang to their feet and stood rigidly straight.
Ha Muhyeon grew even more confused.
They truly looked as though they feared Jeok Wigang.
“Use the Transformation Realm martial artists as escort captains, and the supreme-level martial artists as escort guards.”
“R-Really? Shouldn’t... shouldn’t people of that caliber be sent to the True Martial Sect? They are far too valuable to use as escort captains and escort guards.”
“It is fine. Hey, you are all fine with that too, right?”
“Yes! Please, just let us do it!”
Jeok Wigang grinned.
“They say they want the work. Take them and prepare the trading runs.”
“A-All right.”
“I will accompany the Chengdu trading run as well. Prepare that too.”
“What? The Chengdu trading run?”
“Yes. You said it was attacked every time it went there. I want to investigate it myself.”
“I cannot send the Merchant Master into such danger.”
“Precisely because it is dangerous, I should go. Is that not what a Merchant Master is for?”
“Even so, it is dangerous. If anything happens to you, I will have no face to see the Gate Master.”
“You do not need to worry about me.”
“But Merchant Master... you do not know martial arts, do you?”
Jeok Wigang rubbed his chin.
“Then it will be faster to show you my strength first. This place is too cramped, though. Let us go.”
“G-Go where?”
“Somewhere I can show you my strength.”
“Pardon?”
“You all come too.”
“Yes!”
Jeok Wigang moved first, and the men followed after him.
Ha Muhyeon found himself swept along with them.
*****
Ha Muhyeon sat there with a vacant expression.
“Did I just dream?”
It had been such an unbelievable sight that the thought came to him naturally.
“So the Merchant Master was that powerful...”
He still could not believe it.
When Jeok Wigang had first told the supreme-level and Transformation Realm martial artists to attack him all at once, Ha Muhyeon had nearly fainted from shock.
What kind of reckless thing was he doing?
Ha Muhyeon had been wondering how he could stop it when, instead, the supreme-level and Transformation Realm martial artists became frightened and hesitated to attack.
“That is an order.”
The instant Jeok Wigang said it was an order, the atmosphere around the martial artists changed.
The fear that had filled the air vanished beneath killing intent.
They looked at Jeok Wigang as though he were a mortal enemy.
And that was not all.
As though they truly intended to fight to the death, they drew their weapons and assumed perfect fighting stances.
Ha Muhyeon had tried to stop them, fearing something terrible would happen, but he was too late.
They had already charged Jeok Wigang with terrifying momentum.
Why had he provoked such terrifying people?
It was too late now.
Ha Muhyeon thought he would be fortunate if they could retrieve even an intact body.
But it did not take him long to realize that he had been completely wrong.
CRAAACK—
WHUMP-WHUMP-WHUMP—
The martial artists who had charged in with such fearsome momentum were being sent flying by Jeok Wigang’s fists.
Watching them writhe in pain on the ground, Ha Muhyeon could roughly guess just how powerful those fists were.
How strong did a single punch have to be for masters like them to be rendered helpless?
The Transformation Realm masters fared no differently.
They unleashed peerless martial arts, yet before Jeok Wigang’s fists, they too were sent flying with equal ease and left writhing on the ground.
“You bastards. I told you to train hard, but you have all been slacking off. Get up already!”
At Jeok Wigang’s roar, the martial artists staggered back to their feet.
They looked to be in poor condition, yet they gritted their teeth and charged Jeok Wigang again.
What Ha Muhyeon witnessed there was utter chaos.
The chaos ended only after every martial artist had been beaten to the point of being unable to move any longer.
Ha Muhyeon had confirmed beyond all doubt just how strong Jeok Wigang was.
But a problem had arisen.
The escort captains and escort guards who were supposed to depart on a trading run had been injured so severely while demonstrating Jeok Wigang’s strength that they could not even move.
None of them looked fit to travel. At the very least, they appeared to need more than a month of convalescence.
All preparations for the trading runs had been completed, yet everything had gone wrong here.
Had Jeok Wigang not anticipated this?
He could have held back a little.
Still, Ha Muhyeon could not say anything.
If he did, he feared he might end up lying on the ground beside the other martial artists.
Just as he was trying to think of a way to salvage the situation, something even more astonishing happened.
Ha Muhyeon had thought the surprises were over, but there was more.
Jeok Wigang deployed a formation on the ground, and white light enveloped the martial artists lying there in pain.
Then their condition visibly began to improve.
It was an impossible sight.
This was a dream.
He had to wake up.
Thinking so, he pinched his cheek and then his thigh.
It hurt.
It hurt far too much.
Which meant this was not a dream.
Before he realized it, Ha Muhyeon’s eyes had fixed on Jeok Wigang.
An impossible being had become the Merchant Master.
The martial artists who had been rolling on the ground moments earlier were now standing perfectly straight, as though nothing had happened.
They had all recovered in an instant.
Was he a god?
That thought flashed through Ha Muhyeon’s mind.
As he stood there blankly, Jeok Wigang smiled and asked,
“You have confirmed it now, right? You do not need to worry anymore.”
“Huh? Y-Yes! Understood!”
Worry?
He would never worry again.
Had he not just seen it?
Jeok Wigang had faced the strength of an entire mid-sized sect alone without even looking tired.
He was practically a sect unto himself.
There was no need to worry.
*****
Ha Muhyeon was lost in thought, recalling everything that had happened with Jeok Wigang.
Then he heard someone’s voice.
When he came back to himself, his deputy was looking at him with concern.
“Has something happened? You do not look well.”
“Hm? Ah, no. I am simply a little tired.”
“You must have been worrying a great deal over the preparations for the trading runs.”
“Perhaps. Still, is it not fortunate that we can depart after all?”
“Indeed. If we had been unable to send out this trading run, the Merchant Company might have been badly shaken.”
“Exactly. Heaven is helping us.”
“Where did the Merchant Master find masters like those?”
“He did not find them.”
“Pardon?”
“All of those masters... are the Merchant Master’s subordinates.”
“What?”
“For now, just know that much. I will tell you the details later.”
“Yes. Understood.”
“How far have the preparations come?”
“They are almost complete. The Chengdu trading run has also been prepared as you instructed.”
“Well done.”
“Are we truly sending out the Chengdu trading run as well? I heard the Merchant Master himself intends to go.”
“That is correct.”
“Is that not dangerous?”
“Dangerous?”
Ha Muhyeon laughed.
“It is.”
“Then we should stop him.”
“The enemies are the ones in danger.”
“What?”
“The enemies are the ones in danger. They will regret it.
“They will regret ever laying a hand on us.”