Chapter 293: Centipede Gate (4) |
For some reason, Meng Yubaek acted as if she had avoided a wolf only to dive into the jaws of a tiger… so solemnly.
In any case, hadn’t she promised to grant our request if we resolved the issue with the Cheonghwa Merchant Guild?
Then we had to take care of it swiftly and precisely.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
“Centipede Sect Lord! The Merchant Guild Master showed you kindness—how dare you repay it like this?!”
The rickety front gate, which looked ready to collapse at any moment, was shaking violently.
And there was a man desperately holding it shut. He was a member of the sect who had been on guard against us previously.
I wondered what he was doing, and it turned out the latch had been smashed. Since it had already been broken through once, he was now using his body to block it.
“How many times must I tell you the Sect Lord isn’t here! Come back another time, another time!”
So that was it. They had been pretending no one was here all this time.
A makeshift measure that solved nothing… but considering how little the Centipede Sect could do to begin with, it was an understandable choice.
“You bastard! I figured you’d be stubborn, so I brought the elders! Just because you’ve got some strength doesn’t mean you can defy us… Elders, please.”
“Wh-What…”
A confident voice outside the gate, and a flustered one inside.
It felt oddly familiar—back when I used to handle miscellaneous tasks in the Black Lotus Sect before regression.
The task I did most often back then was protecting small sects or merchant groups affiliated with the Black Lotus Sect.
Surprisingly, there were plenty of Unorthodox scum who, thinking they could get away with it, caused trouble even knowing a place was under Black Lotus protection, thinking, “Surely they won’t send anyone this far.”
Those kinds typically knocked on gates like this, demanding money, and when it didn’t go their way, hired decent vagabonds to force their way in.
The memories brought a small smile to my face. In that slightly lightened mood, I tapped the shoulder of the man guarding the gate.
“Wait a moment.”
“Hey! What are you doing here?! Go hide the Sect Lor— Huh??”
Perhaps mistaking me for another sect member, he had whispered urgently, but then blinked in confusion.
His blank expression amused me, so I chuckled and nudged his shoulder aside.
“It’s fine, just step aside. I’ll take care of it from here.”
“Y-Yes…?”
Still looking unsure of the situation, he shuffled behind me.
With no one blocking it now, one would think the door would open at once… but maybe because those ‘elders’ were still on the way?
The door didn’t open right away. Instead, I sensed a powerful presence approaching from the other side.
Three people. From the pressure they gave off, they were all Peak Stage masters—closer to mastery than just the threshold.
Looks like they were really serious about this.
“Duchil, you rascal. You couldn’t handle a place like this, so you called us three brothers?”
“Brother, don’t be too harsh. Duchil’s just doing what he’s told.”
“The youngest is right. Let’s deal with this quickly and go have a drink.”
“Ha ha! Since my brothers want it so badly, I suppose I have no choice.”
They laughed among themselves, and then their internal energy began concentrating beyond the gate.
Looks like they were planning to strike in one go and blow the door off entirely.
So I, too, drew in my energy, carefully ensuring none of it leaked out for them to sense.
And just as their energy surged to strike, I extended my palm in perfect synchronization.
Thoom!
The gate, pushed by my palm, tore cleanly from its frame and flew far away.
“Gaaah! My arm!”
“What the hell?!”
“B-Brothers…!”
The three vagabond brothers each let out a different scream as they were flung away with the door.
After a long flight, they hit the ground and rolled, only to be pinned beneath the heavy wooden gate.
They must be fairly skilled, though, as they quickly tried to rise.
So I gave them a small dose of killing intent.
“Stay down. Get up, and you die.”
They understood me well enough—instantly they stopped struggling and lay still.
“Sw-Sword Demon… no, Sword Lord… Y-You’re the White Moon Sword Lord?!”
“Hm?”
I smiled awkwardly at the gatekeeper, who now looked like his jaw might fall off.
“Apologies. Guess I got a bit too excited from old memories. Don’t worry—the door’s still intact. You can just reattach the hinges and it’ll be fine.”
“But you hit it so hard… and it’s still whole… that’s even weirder…”
He was from the Thousand Poison Gate, wasn’t he? Surprised he hadn’t seen a technique like that before. Then again, despite being a sect member, he had probably been treated more like a grunt.
I brushed some dust from his shoulder from the earlier scuffle and said,
“If you train hard, you’ll get there too.”
“R-Really?”
“Not really. Just kidding.”
“???”
I walked past the confused man, heading through the now gaping entrance.
If he reached the Sub-Perfection level one day, it might be possible—but it’s not exactly easy.
I looked toward a stunned middle-aged man.
“Let’s see… your name was Duchil?”
“W-White Moon Sword Lord?!”
Had he heard our earlier conversation? Or did he already know who I was?
The slightly chubby middle-aged man, Duchil, stepped back with a trembling voice.
“W-Why are you here…? Ah, wait! Do you know that the Centipede Sect are descendants of the Thousand Poison Gate?!”
“Of course I do.”
“Then why are you siding with them and offering your strength?!”
“Hm? Are you trying to sway me with that slick tongue of yours?”
“N-No! Not at all…!”
Duchil shriveled instantly. I patted his back to reassure him—though not with my hand, but with my sword sheath.
Once I saw that Duchil was practically on the verge of passing out, I finally spoke.
“I have a lot of business with the Centipede Sect. But I saw they had visitors. Was it the Cheonghwa Merchant Guild?”
“Y-Yes…”
“Take me to your Guild Master. From the looks of it, there seems to be a bit of a misunderstanding between the Centipede Sect and your guild.”
“A misunderstanding, you say?”
“Yes. A misunderstanding that can be cleared up with words—before it turns into something worse.”
In other words, if needed, it could turn into something worse.
Duchil’s face turned pale as he bowed his head in a hurry.
“O-Of course! We must settle this peacefully! Our Guild Master will be overjoyed to see you, White Moon Sword Lord!”
“Good. Bring my companions, and wait a moment.”
As I turned around, leaving the stiffened Duchil behind, I spotted the Centipede Sect Lord and the others who had come out to watch.
“What, you were all watching? That saves time.”
“Of course. We wouldn’t want to miss this unusual side of Brother Cheon.”
“Wow… Cheon Hwi. That wasn’t your first time doing that, was it?”
“Why are you so good at threatening people with brute force, I wonder?”
Because I’m experienced.
That’s what I wanted to say, but that would’ve breached my mental restriction, so I said nothing of the sort.
Instead, I pointed at the three brothers still lying under the gate.
“See? That’s who they brought with them.”
Tang Sowol narrowed her eyes to assess the vagabonds’ skill, then nodded.
“Hmm. Even if they’re vagabonds, hiring three Peak Stage experts at once isn’t easy… Sect Lord, I haven’t heard of them before. Is the Cheonghwa Merchant Guild a major force?”
“Huh? Well… they do dominate a few villages around here, but across all of Yunnan, they’re nothing special.”
“Then why…”
Tilting her head, Tang Sowol looked even more beautiful in that moment—perhaps because she had been among gloomy men until now.
I spoke, watching her side profile.
“It’s simple. Their goal wasn’t just to extort money. It was to swallow the Centipede Sect whole.”
The Sect Lord himself was barely first-class. The other members ranged from second to third-class… but the Fire Centipede was a Peak Stage spirit beast.
A clear difference between humans and spirit beasts. Factor in poison as a weapon, and they must have gathered enough power to subdue the Centipede Sect by force.
Naturally, that must’ve cost them.
Too irrational to believe they just wanted to intimidate them for money.
Which meant money wasn’t their objective to begin with.
A bit harsh to say, but the sect members weren’t valuable enough to justify such efforts… so it had to be Meng Yubaek. Or the Fire Centipede.
Hearing my explanation, Meng Yubaek asked, her expression shocked,
“T-Then that outrageous debt… from the beginning, they were after me…?”
“No, that part was just your mistake, Sect Lord.”
“Ah…”
“But everything after that was likely orchestrated by the Merchant Guild. You said no one gave you work despite your efforts?”
“Yes. I bought a house with the borrowed money, but couldn’t repay it. Had to borrow more. No one would hire us. I didn’t know resentment against the Thousand Poison Gate ran that deep…”
“That’s the strange part. The Thousand Poison Gate’s infamy is widespread across Yunnan, so people avoiding its survivors is understandable. But this is the village where the Thousand Poison Gate once stood. They’d know best that some people had no choice but to join.”
Yet no one gave the Centipede Sect members any jobs—not even small ones. It wasn’t that they earned little; they were completely ignored.
Second and third-rate martial artists may lack skill and value, but they should at least be cheap to hire.
“So after weakening the Centipede Sect, they finally sent someone to tighten the leash. Isn’t that right?”
“…!”
Duchil, still awkwardly standing with nowhere to run, turned pale.
Meng Yubaek’s expression twisted for a moment but she soon asked calmly,
“Then what should I do?”
“Normally I’d say figure it out yourself. But I did say I’d help with this one. It’s simple.”
I stretched out my hand and pointed toward the Fire Centipede, who had been hiding in the shadows, waiting for a cue.
“Bring Chilgong and follow me. Ah, Tang Sowol, would you come too?”
“Hehe. Of course. Anywhere you go, Brother Cheon.”
“Cheon Hwi. What should Sister Seorin and I do?”
“Just in case, please stay and guard this place.”
“Okay!”
Confirming Seol Lihyang and Seo Mun-Hwarin’s nods, I turned to the now nearly fainting Duchil.
“Lead the way.”
“Y-Yes, understood…”
We followed Duchil to the Cheonghwa Merchant Guild. It wasn’t long before we arrived, and the building was quite large.
The area was spacious enough to house four Centipede Sects, and the structure rose three stories high.
A stark contrast to the crumbling Centipede Sect—perhaps intimidated, Meng Yubaek spoke awkwardly while riding atop the Fire Centipede.
“White Moon Sword Lord… thank you for helping, but is this really going to work? After all, I did sign the contract.”
“Don’t worry. If money can solve it, I’ll solve it with money.”
It was originally meant to buy the Fire Centipede anyway, but I had ended up saving it.
“But if money can’t solve it… then I’ll solve it with the sword.”
“Oh.”
“Hmm. I sliced sideways during the Thousand Poison Gate incident, so maybe I’ll go vertical this time.”
“Whaaa…?”
“Brother Cheon?!”
For some reason, both Tang Sowol and Meng Yubaek stared at me, horrified.
I shrugged.
“Just joking.”
They didn’t look like they believed me at all.
***
The Merchant Guild Master gave off internal energy very similar to Meng Yubaek’s. She likely hadn’t noticed yet, since she was still only first-class.
But it was clearly a trace of martial arts from the Beast Palace.
“Aha. Congratulations, Centipede Sect Lord. Even after leaving the family, you’re still a candidate for the Young Clan Head, it seems.”
“Why…?”
It seemed this wouldn’t be settled with money alone.