As soon as Jeok Wigang reacted, the Martial Inspector shouted hastily.
“Th-there seems to be some kind of misunderstanding. We were merely passing through. If you stop here, we will pretend this never happened and pass by quietly.”
“Misunderstanding? I don’t think so. Didn’t you come looking for someone?”
“Th-that is...”
“Right? The someone you’re looking for is with us. So you were going to kill all of us and take that person away, or else kill that person too. Right?”
“N-no. W-we only need to find one item. If we find that item, we will return quietly.”
“How am I supposed to know you’re good men and believe that?”
“Did I not just say so? We received an imperial order. The person you are hiding is a traitor who defied an imperial order. I will let today’s matter pass quietly as though it never happened, so hand over the person inside.”
At the Martial Inspector’s words, Jeok Wigang gave a faint laugh and said,
“From what I hear, these days imperial orders are being issued by men other than the Emperor. Whose command is this imperial order of yours?”
“Insolent!”
“Insolent? Shall we see who’s really being insolent?”
Jeok Wigang smiled.
A chill ran through the Martial Inspector at that moment.
“Shall I shake him down once?”
Startled by the voice from behind him, he whipped his head around and saw a cold-looking middle-aged man standing there with an eerie smile.
It was Chu Sohwan.
“Do that. Find out a little. That’s why I left him on purpose.”
“Understood. I will learn in very fine detail whose orders brought him all the way here.”
As Chu Sohwan approached, the Martial Inspector blew a whistle.
Fweeeeeet—
Chu Sohwan stopped and waited.
The Martial Inspector blew again and again, but when there was no response, panic crossed his face.
“What’s wrong? The people who are supposed to come aren’t coming?”
“Don’t tell me...”
“They won’t wake until tomorrow morning. Even if they do wake, they won’t be able to move, since I sealed all their pressure points.”
The Martial Inspector’s pupils shook violently.
He could not let himself be captured obediently like this.
The moment he tried to struggle somehow—
Thud.
“Kuhuk!”
Before he knew it, Chu Sohwan had closed in and seized him by the throat.
As his breath was cut off, he thrashed and strained with all his might to pry the hand away, but it did not budge.
Chu Sohwan looked at the suffering Martial Inspector and said,
“If you tell me who sent you even now, I’ll let you go gently.”
“I-I received an im-imperial order...”
“You’ve got backbone. I happen to like people like that very much.”
Then he whispered into the Martial Inspector’s ear.
“It’s still early evening. Let’s have a fun night together.”
******
The next day.
The Martial Inspector stood before Jeok Wigang, trembling violently.
There were no visible signs that he had been tortured, yet his eyes kept darting around anxiously as though he had lost his mind.
“What did you do to him to make him like this?”
“I only loosened him up a little with Bone-Splitting Tendon-Twisting.”
Jeok Wigang leaned his face close to the Martial Inspector.
“Who ordered it?”
At the question, the Martial Inspector flinched and bowed his head.
“Th-the Commander ordered it! It’s true! All I did was come after receiving an order to recover the Imperial Seal!”
At the Martial Inspector’s words, the Lecturer of the Hanlin Academy, who stood behind him, looked stricken.
“Even the Embroidered Uniform Guard, who should follow only His Majesty’s commands... There is nothing left in the imperial palace but hungry ghosts grasping for power... Heavens. Are you truly abandoning this country?”
The Lecturer of the Hanlin Academy lamented.
“And you still intend to take the imperial examination? Do not witness such filth for nothing. Set the examination aside.”
“Oh, come on. I’m going all the way to the Imperial Capital anyway. Since I’m there, I should take the exam before I come back. But it really is impressive. Even in a situation like this, they’re still holding the imperial examination.”
“It is because the situation is like this that they must hold it all the more. His Majesty must obtain talent by any means possible, and the hungry ghosts in the imperial palace must show that the situation there is stable. That is why it is being held.”
“How in the world did it come to this?”
At Jeok Wigang’s question, the Lecturer of the Hanlin Academy let out a sigh that seemed to rise from the depths of his dantian and said,
“Haa! In truth, His Majesty has no power base at all within the imperial family. He was not born and raised in the imperial family to begin with.”
“What does that mean?”
“The previous Emperor had no heir. So they searched for a successor, but there was no one—some had died young, some were daughters. In the end, after digging through the genealogy, they barely managed to find an imperial descendant, and he was a farmer working the fields.”
“You mean the current Emperor was born a farmer?”
“That is so. Because of that, everyone disregards His Majesty and does not treat him as Emperor. His Majesty has no supporting faction at all, and he knows nothing of the actual circumstances in the imperial palace, so he has been unable to exercise any real power and is being dragged around by the factions.”
“Mm...”
Jeok Wigang thought he roughly understood why the imperial family had fallen into such chaos.
They had placed an ignorant, naive Emperor on the throne as a puppet, then started fighting like starving ghosts to seize even a little more power for themselves.
Was that not precisely the environment the White Horse Heaven bastards loved most?
If the White Horse Heaven was among those power-hungry factions, it was dangerous.
There was no telling what they would do if they seized control of the imperial palace.
If that happened, the Central Plains could fall into chaos, and that would mean his family’s happiness would be shattered.
That could not be allowed.
“I will help too.”
“What do you mean?”
“You said His Majesty has no supporting faction. I’ll become one.”
“Truly? If you help His Majesty, it would be like gaining an army of a thousand soldiers and ten thousand horses.”
The Lecturer of the Hanlin Academy had watched Jeok Wigang and his subordinates suppress the Embroidered Uniform Guard in an instant, and he had thought that if such talent stood at the Emperor’s side, it would be reassuring.
But now that such a man had offered to help on his own, there could be nothing better.
“First, I suppose I need to become an official.”
“No, there is no need. I will recommend it to His Majesty and have him bestow an office on you immediately.”
“I don’t want that. I’m going to pass the provincial examination as top scorer, and I’m going to pass the palace examination as top scorer too.”
“Then everyone’s eyes will focus on you at once. Will that be all right?”
“That sounds good. I won’t have to go around looking for them one by one. If they approach me on their own, it will be convenient for me.”
“Mm.”
“I just have to turn every bastard who approaches me into one of His Majesty’s people, don’t I?”
He said something absurd with a confident grin, yet for some reason, it felt believable.
“Would that truly be possible?”
“Just trust me. Before that, though, we need to put the Embroidered Uniform Guard under control first.”
“Why the Embroidered Uniform Guard?”
“Then should I kill all the Embroidered Uniform Guard I subdued outside?”
“N-no!”
“Exactly. If we want to keep all the men outside alive, we have to seize the Embroidered Uniform Guard first.”
“Mm.”
“I’ll need to arrange a meeting with the head of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.”
“How?”
“You will have to call him, sir. If you say you will meet him in person and hand over half of the Imperial Seal, he will come running at once.”
“Will he not suspect something? He could simply drag me away.”
“If you say you are standing at the edge of a cliff and shouting that, he’ll come running, won’t he?”
“Ah...”
“Well, if they want to live, they’ll make sure he comes properly on their own. Right?”
When Jeok Wigang looked at the Martial Inspector and asked, the Martial Inspector nodded violently.
Had he not just heard it?
If the Commander did not come, Jeok Wigang would kill them all.
To survive, he had to make the Commander come here by any means necessary.
“I will make him come, no matter what it takes! P-please believe me.”
“Good. I’ll believe you. But if he doesn’t come, you know what happens, right? That mountain over there becomes your grave.”
“Understood!”
Jeok Wigang nodded with a satisfied expression and said to the Lecturer of the Hanlin Academy,
“Now then, the bait is ready, so let’s wait for the big fish to come.”
The Lecturer of the Hanlin Academy was beginning to wonder whether this was truly right.
Somehow, he even felt as though he had become the villain.
But if it was Jeok Wigang, he could trust him.
In the end, the Lecturer of the Hanlin Academy joined Jeok Wigang’s absurd plan.
*****
When the Black-Feather Golden-Wing, the Embroidered Uniform Guard’s hawk for emergency contact, arrived at the Guard Command Office, an uproar broke out.
The note was urgently delivered to the Commander, the head of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
The Commander unfolded the note and his eyebrow twitched.
“These idiots...”
The Deputy Commander standing beside him asked cautiously,
“What does it say?”
“See for yourself.”
The Commander handed over the note curtly. The Deputy Commander quickly received it and read it, then frowned in the same way.
“They’re floundering because they can’t even catch one ordinary old man who doesn’t know martial arts. How in the world did you train the men?”
At the irritated voice, the Deputy Commander bowed his head.
“I-I apologize. As soon as they return, I will put them through intensive training.”
“Haa. Should I go and kill them all?”
At the surging killing intent, the Deputy Commander quickly threw himself flat on the floor.
“P-please forgive them just this once... I will train them thoroughly so this never happens again. Please, calm your anger!”
“They say I have to go personally. You know better than anyone that I hate moving. I hate going outside.”
“I-I apologize.”
“Do we really need the Imperial Seal? Isn’t it fine even without that damned seal?”
“W-without the Imperial Seal, we lose our justification.”
“We can just establish a completely new dynasty and carve a new Imperial Seal.”
“M-my lord...”
“I only said it because I was annoyed.”
The Deputy Commander lowered his head with a sigh of relief.
There were times when he simply could not understand the Commander’s behavior.
He was extremely reluctant to go outside, and even when he did, he either covered his body completely or moved under a perfect disguise.
Because of that, he only traveled in the depths of the night.
“I shouldn’t go out... It’ll be fine, right? There’s no way he’d come all the way here, would he? Damn it! I still don’t want to go out... Shit.”
The Commander rose from his seat, irritated.
“I’ll be back. No point dragging this out. I’ll finish it quickly and return.”
“Yes! I will make preparations.”
“What preparations? I’m going alone.”
“Pardon? Alone?”
“If I drag you lot along, it’ll take time. It’s faster if I go by myself.”
“Still, you should prepare for any unforeseen danger.”
“What danger? If I drag all of you with me, will there be no danger? And don’t you know me? If someone is strong enough to put me in danger, he would be powerful enough to wipe all of you out and still have plenty left over. I’d rather go alone. Find out where this place is, quickly.”
Because there was nothing wrong with his words, the Deputy Commander could not argue.
In truth, the Commander’s martial arts did not belong in the imperial palace.
He had {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} used overwhelming martial skill to seize control of the Embroidered Uniform Guard in an instant and rise quickly to its highest seat.
The Deputy Commander himself had originally been the Commander, only to hand the position over to the current Commander.
And yet, he did not feel wronged.
A person felt wronged only when the opponent was someone comparable.
Before an overwhelming opponent, a person did not even feel that.
On top of that, the Commander was an exceedingly frightening being.
If he put his mind to it, he was capable of seizing the imperial palace in an instant.
Yet at times, he also showed signs of fearing something.
Could there be something even that monster feared?
The Deputy Commander could only assume it was his own imagination.
“What are you thinking so hard about? I asked where this place is.”
“Ah! I will find out right now.”
“Hurry up and find out.”
“Yes!”
*****
“What the hell?”
The Commander had arrived at the location written on the note.
It was not a cliff.
“Y-you’ve arrived!”
The Embroidered Uniform Guard all greeted him at once, but there was something strange about their condition.
None of them could move their bodies. They could only speak.
“What is this? You were beaten? Pathetic...”