Chapter 7

It drove in almost all the way to the hilt.

Leaving it as it was, I turned my head. The beggars were looking at me with eyes filled with terror. I ignored them.

“Who is the Deputy Branch Head?”

A man raised a trembling hand.

“Th-That would be me…”

“Name.”

“Jang… Jang Seok.”

“Jang Jang-seok?”

“No. It’s Jang Seok.”

“Jang Seok, is it…? From today, you are the Branch Head.”

“…Me…?”

“The previous Branch Head is dead, so shouldn’t the Deputy Branch Head naturally become the Branch Head?”

“That’s… correct.”

As I walked straight toward him, Jang Seok retreated with trembling steps until his back hit a bookshelf. With nowhere left to run, his face turned completely pale with despair.

Smiling, I placed my hand on his shoulder.

“You’ve moved up in the world.”

“…Pardon?”

“Congratulations on becoming the Branch Head. So I must ask: who do you think is the true master of this Snow Pressure region?”

“…Do you want a candid answer?”

As I nodded, Jang Seok spoke the words that everyone knew, yet no one dared to utter out loud.

“…It is Lord Seol Joong-cheon of the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Palace.”

My father and the Master of the Snow Palace. The Ice-Heaven Supreme Master (氷天之尊), Seol Joong-cheon.

“…While the master of Snow Pressure is undoubtedly Lord Seol Joong-cheon, I believe the practical master is the Branch Manager of the Snow Pressure Branch.”

Jang Seok was correct. The master of Snow Pressure was not me, but my father. I had merely been delegated the authority to manage it.

Therefore, I could be seen as the master, or perhaps not. Though positioned somewhere in between, there was no issue with claiming to be the master. This was a place under my management, and a commander and an administrator could not be expected to be one and the same.

“A decent answer.”

“…Thank you.”

“At least you seem better than that dead scum over there.”

“…I am grateful for that as well.”

“So, what are you going to do about my money?”

Gulping hard, Jang Seok began to speak as if he had already prepared a plan.

“First… I will raid the quarters of that dead Chwi Ui-gae.”

“Will all that money still be intact, though?”

“…It won’t be. Everyone knows Chwi Ui-gae funneled money to the higher-ups of the Beggars’ Sect… Even if there is any left, it will certainly be only a small fraction.”

“Then how do you plan to make up for the missing amount?”

Jang Seok was a sharp-witted man. Turning a crisis into an opportunity was undeniably difficult, yet there were always those who attempted it regardless. Jang Seok was one such person.

“We are the Beggars’ Sect. We will offer the intelligence network of the Beggars’ Sect to ‘Your Lordship.'”

“Your Lordship, is it…?”

“…If you do not like that form of address…”

“It’s not that I dislike it. So, you plan to deduct the remaining balance using that intelligence network?”

“…Yes. We normally have set fees for information, but we will not charge you the full rate. We will discount the price by up to fifty percent, or at least thirty percent, and offset the debt through that.”

I liked it.

Patting him on the shoulder, I spoke:

“To commemorate your appointment as Branch Head, I’ll give you a gift.”

“…Whatever it may be, I will receive it with gratitude.”

“Write down everything that happened here today in detail and report it up to your superiors.”

“…Pardon?”

“I’m telling you not to make up excuses by twisting the situation to suit your narrative.”

“…”

“I broke the bones of a One-Knot Beggar, killed that nameless beggar over there, and killed Chwi Ui-gae as well. A beggar from the Beggars’ Sect will certainly be dispatched to investigate this place. When he arrives, report everything in detail exactly as it happened and send him to me.”

“Yes… Understood.”

Turning around, I took my leave. The crowd of beggars moved out of the way on their own. Walking up to the entrance, I turned my head as if suddenly remembering something.

“When you bring the prepared money to the Snow Pressure Branch, it would be nice if you brought along a piece of information that might tempt me as well.”

“…I will prepare something.”

It was just as I was about to head back to the branch. Jang Seok swallowed hard and cupped his hands in respect, saying:

“Safe travels.”

Truly polite. To leech off others’ money in the first place, one ought to possess at least that level of tact and manners.

I resumed my steps.

Seol Woon-hwi returned to the branch with blood splattered all over his long robes.

Stepping inside in silence, he looked around—first at Cheon Pung and four branch members sitting slumped on the floor with injuries, then at Chief Steward Seong panting heavily as if exhausted, and finally at the goods piled up in the center.

It was as if he had anticipated this entire situation. As if he had wanted this to happen from the very start.

Seol Woon-hwi moved without a moment’s hesitation.

“Chief Steward Seong.”

“…Yes, Young Master.”

“Is the sorting finished?”

“…That is not what’s important right now…”

“It is to me.”

“…”

“Is the sorting finished?”

“…Yes, it is finished.”

With that, he handed Seol Woon-hwi a crisp stack of fresh documents. Taking it, Seol Woon-hwi walked over to the goods and began cross-referencing them with the list written on the papers.

Everyone remained silent while Seol Woon-hwi went about his work.

After carefully inspecting the condition of the spiritual pills among the items, Seol Woon-hwi asked:

“What about the spiritual pills I mentioned earlier?”

“…I have delivered those to your quarters.”

“I see.”

Shifting his gaze back toward the items, Woon-hwi picked up a dagger and a sword from the pile.

They were the Cold Ice Flying Water Dagger (寒氷飛水) and the Snow-White Sword (雪白劍).

The Cold Ice Flying Water Dagger was, as its name implied, a dagger imbued with a frigid energy; its defining trait was that upon inflicting a wound, cold Qi naturally spread outward from that area. It was categorized as a mid-grade dagger on the market. It was a bit disappointing that there was only one, but it was fine.

The Snow-White Sword was forged from refined Cold Ridge Jade Crystals. Though not a legendary blade, it was by no means a common weapon either. It was a highly usable sword—more than suitable for martial artists around the 4th Stage of Qi Refining to wield.

Silently plunging the Snow-White Sword into the ground, Seol Woon-hwi looked at Cheon Pung.

“Cheon Pung.”

“…Yes, Branch Manager.”

“It seems a lot of branch members are missing.”

It was only natural for them to be missing. Because every last one of them had fled.

The period Seol Woon-hwi had spent living as a puppet was six long years. There was good reason why a mere One-Knot Beggar of the Beggars’ Sect looked down on him, and why a Branch Head of the Beggars’ Sect talked down to him the moment he saw him.

During those six years, if the only ones who followed Ya Woon-sang—who held real power while treating Seol Woon-hwi as a figurehead—were the two killed earlier, that would have been even stranger.

Out of the eighteen branch members excluding Ya Woon-sang, every single one aside from the five present here had been Ya Woon-sang’s hands and feet. It just so happened that the two who met their end were involved with the Blue Cloud Merchant Group, while the rest served Ya Woon-sang in other matters and pursued personal gains by funneling money out behind the scenes.

The fearful expressions they had shown when Seol Woon-hwi acquired the ledger earlier were all for that reason.

Cheon Pung answered:

“…They have fled.”

“I figured as much.”

“Did you know?”

Smiling faintly, Seol Woon-hwi sat down quietly under the eaves.

“I need to set up a new board, so how foolish would it be to employ unverified bastards as my hands and feet?”

A total of eleven people had fled.

“A few items among the goods seem to be missing as well.”

“…We tried to stop them, but we couldn’t block them all.”

“I see.”

Seol Woon-hwi crossed his legs.

“Stop dawdling and step forward in front of me.”

Cheon Pung stepped up first, followed by the remaining four branch members.

Seol Woon-hwi asked:

“Why are you living as branch members here in Snow Pressure?”

Each had their own answer.

Because the pay wasn’t bad. Because living as a branch member here allowed them to learn the martial arts of the Snow Palace, even if only at the lowest level.

In the end, whatever the reason, all of them were martial artists. And as martial artists, it was only proper to strive for superior martial arts.

“The world is vast. In this vast world, obtaining an opportunity is like plucking a star from the sky.”

“…”

“I intend to offer you a new opportunity.”

At Seol Woon-hwi’s words, all the branch members, along with Chief Steward Seong who was slumping in the corner, looked up at him.

“Two hundred years ago, there was a vagabond martial artist who shook the Martial World.”

There was a deep resonance in Seol Woon-hwi’s quiet voice.

“His name was Han Cheol (寒徹)—a man like a wolf, and his martial arts were like a wolf as well.”

Pausing briefly, he recited the mnemonic incantation in a quiet voice.

The bright moon and ten thousand stars reveal cold light, A pack of wolves roams the sky, eternally severing the void. All sounds fall silent as the howling wind arises, A single sword seals the sky, never to return.

As the incantation progressed line by line, everyone’s eyes grew wide in shock.

At the very least, the five branch members were martial artists. Being martial artists, they could recognize it: The mnemonic incantation itself was extraordinary. Beyond containing subtle principles of high-level martial arts, wasn’t it an extremely aggressive set of techniques?

It was clearly a martial art that could not be learned or known by just anyone. Yet, quite unexpectedly…

Chief Steward Seong, known as an ‘ordinary person,’ had his mouth hanging wide open. As if he recognized the true authenticity of that martial art. Like a master who understood every single word of those incantations.

Seol Woon-hwi paid no mind to any of it. He merely continued to speak calmly.

“The gap between success and failure is like a single kalpa, and Heaven and Earth reached the present through countless kalpas. As the howl of a lonely wolf echoes beneath the moonlight and cold frost slices down through the sky, this is the Heaven-Slaughtering Wolf Star Formula (天殺狼星訣). It is a high-level martial art consisting of three forms.”

Seol Woon-hwi’s eyes gazed at each of the branch members one by one.

“I intend to test you. How faithfully you can obey my commands, and whether you can point your blades at those who shared joys and sorrows with you until yesterday, but are undeniably traitors today.”

There was no way they didn’t know what he was talking about.

“Hunt down and execute every single one of those who fled.”

“…Br… Branch Manager…!”

“Severing their limbs is meaningless. Bring back their severed heads, or bring them before me alive. And recover every single item they stole.”

Cheon Pung was quick to catch on. He wore a resolute expression, and though the other four were flustered, this was undeniably an opportunity.

“If you kill them all and return, I will teach you the detailed forms of the Heaven-Slaughtering Wolf Star Formula. Of course, you will also need spiritual pills.”

Seol Woon-hwi pointed toward the pile of goods.

“What is scattered over there are spiritual pills and cultivation resources. If you satisfy me, I will reward you accordingly. Do you understand?”

“Yes!”

“It’s good to see the light in your eyes change. Be on your way.”

“Understood!”

Everyone, starting with Cheon Pung, began to sprint out like madmen. Their expressions were those of people who had seized an opportunity, filled with a burning determination never to let it slip away.

The branch instantly fell quiet.

Seol Woon-hwi spoke:

“Chief Steward Seong.”

“…Yes… Young Master.”

“How long are you going to stay like that over there?”

“Ah… My apologies.”

Rising from his spot, Chief Steward Seong walked toward Seol Woon-hwi.