Chapter 40
A Busy New Beginning
The Hyeoncheon Unit began with three members.
It was unprecedented in the history of the Martial Alliance.
Normally, whenever a new organization was founded, a grand celebration would be held. It was also customary for the Alliance’s other organizations to send congratulatory gifts.
However, the Hyeoncheon Unit held no celebration, and no one came to visit.
Once again, everyone was watching the political winds because Baek Socheon was involved.
This time, however, the Alliance Leader was not the only person whose mood they had to consider. They also had to remain conscious of Zhuge Hyeon.
Out of respect for Zhuge Hyeon, they naturally should have congratulated the new unit. Yet rumors were already spreading that the Grand Strategist had defied the Alliance Leader’s wishes and forcibly brought Baek Socheon back.
If that was true, then no matter how powerful the Grand Strategist might be, no one could ignore the Alliance Leader’s feelings.
Im Chung and Beon Saeng thoroughly cleaned the interior of the Hyeoncheon Unit.
They removed every speck of dust from the unit commander’s office on the highest floor, then cleaned the workspace assigned to them on the floor below.
The building was old, but it contained everything they needed.
There were several rooms furnished with beds, so they could sleep there whenever their work continued late into the night.
It also had a kitchen where they could cook and an adjoining dining area. There was a place where they could drink tea and rest, as well as another space where they could read.
Once they had cleaned it properly, the building did not seem so bad.
Most importantly, it was a space meant exclusively for them.
“Phew. We’ve more or less finished organizing everything. You worked hard.”
“So did you.”
As Im Chung and Beon Saeng wiped away their sweat and rubbed their aching backs, someone passed by and greeted them.
“You two are working hard.”
“Yes, welcome.”
Beon Saeng raised his hand and waved at him.
Im Chung had been facing the other way. He turned around and belatedly asked,
“That voice sounded familiar. Who was that?”
“The Grand Strategist.”
“……”
Beon Saeng stared at his still-raised hand and recoiled in horror.
“Uwaagh!”
“Did you just wave at the Grand Strategist?”
“He passed by so suddenly…”
“Someone may come this afternoon to cut that hand off.”
“Don’t make jokes like that!”
Only then did the two truly realize that their lives at the main headquarters had begun.
***
Zhuge Hyeon entered Baek Socheon’s office on the highest floor.
“Welcome.”
“How is it?”
“Thank you for giving us such a good place.”
“No. I’m sorry that this is the treatment you’re receiving. I’ll move you somewhere better later.”
“I like it here. But what brings you here?”
“Here. Take this.”
Zhuge Hyeon handed him an iron plaque.
“This plaque grants you access to every place I am permitted to enter. I have already arranged your authorization, so you should be allowed inside anywhere as long as you present it.”
The plaque was called the Ascending Heaven Plaque. It bore the image of a dragon soaring into the sky.
Baek Socheon accepted it respectfully.
He knew how difficult it must have been to obtain this authorization.
“I will also arrange for all information received by the Hyeoncheon Pavilion’s Strategic Command Center to be relayed to you in real time.”
“Thank you.”
That was possible because the Hyeoncheon Unit belonged to the Hyeoncheon Pavilion.
Even so, it was another extraordinary political risk.
Zhuge Hyeon was placing his entire career on the line for one reason alone: his desire to prevent the war.
Zhuge Hyeon cautiously spoke again.
“If you wish to meet the Alliance Leader… come with me.”
Baek Socheon answered with equal caution.
“…I will meet him another time.”
“Understood.”
Zhuge Hyeon turned to leave.
Just before stepping through the door, he asked,
“By the way, where will you go first with that plaque?”
Baek Socheon looked down at the floor.
Zhuge Hyeon smiled.
“You’ll need some good liquor.”
***
That afternoon, Baek Socheon entered the Martial Alliance’s underground prison.
There was a popular joke that even if the Martial Alliance were completely conquered, the final place to fall would not be the Alliance Leader’s Hall, but the underground prison.
That was how many dangerous mechanisms and rigorous layers of security protected the place.
The prison was divided into three sections according to the severity of the prisoners’ crimes.
The White Prison held those guilty of ordinary crimes.
The Blue Prison held serious criminals sentenced to lifelong confinement.
Finally, the Red Prison held exceptional prisoners.
Baek Socheon was headed for the Red Prison, located at the deepest point underground.
On his way down, he passed through six deadly security mechanisms and encountered forty-six guards.
Several of those guards possessed abilities equal to or greater than the commanders of the Alliance’s combat units.
It was a place from which no one could escape before death.
In fact, even death did not guarantee release.
To prevent prisoners from escaping through sinister arts such as the Turtle Breathing Art, anyone who died inside the prison was beheaded before the body was carried out.
The Red Prison itself was divided into three floors.
Baek Socheon arrived at the lowest of them.
Two prisoners were confined within the Red Prison.
They were the only surviving members of the Ten Great Villains.
The Ten Great Villains had been extraordinary evildoers. They had existed since before the current Alliance Leader’s era, but some had died outside, while others had been captured and subsequently killed.
Now only two remained.
The two were imprisoned on different floors, and Baek Socheon had come to see the man on the lowest level.
At Baek Socheon’s appearance, an old man with wild, disheveled hair pushed his face between the bars.
The old man immediately recognized him.
“You bastard! You were still alive?”
Judging from the thunderous volume of his voice, death was still far from claiming him.
“You damned bastard! I’ll chew you alive!”
The old man was Goe Yeo, one of the Ten Great Villains.
The reason he unleashed such abuse was simple.
Baek Socheon was the person who had captured him and imprisoned him here.
“Open this! Let’s fight again! You don’t have any internal energy, do you? Neither do I! Let’s fight openly and fairly like men! You worthless bastard, lower than a beggar’s foot rag! You filthy mongrel! Are you going to open this or not?”
Baek Socheon silently watched him vent his fury.
Only after hurling every insult he could think of did Goe Yeo’s voice finally grow quieter.
“Why are you here? Did you come to mock—”
Goe Yeo suddenly began sniffing.
“Hm? What is that? What’s that smell?”
His gaze moved toward Baek Socheon’s waist.
A bamboo liquor flask hung there.
“You! That!”
“That’s right. It’s the Apricot Blossom Village liquor you like.”
Goe Yeo’s eyes trembled.
He loved liquor.
It was not merely that he enjoyed drinking. He had been such a devoted drinker that few people in the martial world could compare to him.
Baek Socheon removed the stopper.
The rich fragrance of liquor spread through the musty underground chamber.
“Aaaaaaargh!”
Goe Yeo screamed.
He had not tasted liquor since his capture. Merely smelling it now nearly drove him mad.
“Bring it here! Please, bring it over here!”
Baek Socheon approached him as he licked his lips and stared at the flask.
“Closer. Hurry!”
Goe Yeo reached through the bars.
Baek Socheon held the flask just barely beyond his reach.
“You vicious demon! You came here specifically to torment me!”
Then Baek Socheon stepped forward and extended the flask.
Goe Yeo instinctively seized it.
“You’re giving it to me?”
“Yes.”
Goe Yeo stared suspiciously at the flask.
He could not believe Baek Socheon would give him liquor so easily.
“You poisoned it, didn’t you?”
“Do you really think you are important enough for me to grant you the honor of being the first person I have ever poisoned?”
“Then why are you giving it to me?”
“You don’t have to drink it.”
When Baek Socheon reached out to take it back, Goe Yeo hurriedly retreated.
Even if it contained poison, he could no longer restrain himself.
Goe Yeo gulped down the liquor.
“Aaaaaah! Good! This is good!”
He drank and drank.
Like a man who had discovered water in the desert, he cried out in delight while pouring the liquor down his throat.
Before long, he had drained every last drop.
“Kuaaaah! I could die now without regret.”
He wore a blissful smile, as though he possessed the entire world.
Naturally, his tone toward Baek Socheon softened.
“Why did you come?”
“I merely wanted to see your face after so long.”
“Ridiculous. You are not the kind of man who does that. Stop talking nonsense and tell me why you came.”
Baek Socheon calmly looked at Goe Yeo.
“You saw through me. I came because I have something to ask you.”
“What is it?”
“The Leader of the Cheukcheon Alliance—”
Before Baek Socheon could finish, Goe Yeo hurled the empty bamboo flask out through the bars.
He turned his back and lay down on the bed in the corner.
“Damn you! What kind of man do you think I am?”
Baek Socheon picked up the bamboo flask from the floor.
“I’ll return tomorrow.”
Goe Yeo remained facing the wall and said nothing.
***
Baek Socheon returned the following day.
Once again, he brought Goe Yeo’s favorite liquor.
“Go away!”
“Very well. I won’t ask anything. Just drink the liquor.”
“Stop trying your tricks and get out!”
Baek Socheon placed the bamboo flask in front of the cell, within Goe Yeo’s reach.
Then he began exercising outside the cell.
Balancing upside down on a single finger, he commenced his training.
It was the physical conditioning he had recently neglected because of his practice of the Beoncheon Nine Fists.
Time passed, and sweat poured from his body.
After an unknown amount of time, Goe Yeo spoke from inside the cell.
“What kind of lunatic does this nonsense in front of someone else’s home?”
Baek Socheon gave no answer.
Still upside down, he began performing push-ups using only his finger.
The heavy bracelets remained fastened around his arms and legs, but his posture was stronger and steadier than when he had first begun wearing them.
Baek Socheon continued training without rest.
Goe Yeo knew that Baek Socheon possessed no internal energy.
That made the sight difficult to believe.
How can he do that without internal energy?
A few repetitions might have been understandable.
But how could he continue for hundreds?
Baek Socheon had already reached his limit, yet he gritted his teeth.
Just a little more.
One more.
Whether he could break through his physical limits depended on whether he managed that final repetition.
Only after completing it did he collapse.
“Haa… haa…”
Goe Yeo shouted angrily at the gasping Baek Socheon.
“If you’re going to waste your time, do it somewhere else!”
Even as he complained, he casually reached out and pulled the liquor flask into his cell.
Then he retreated to the corner and quietly drank.
The same thing happened every day.
Baek Socheon brought liquor and trained physically outside the cell.
Goe Yeo drank the liquor without saying anything.
On the fifth day, Goe Yeo finally asked in a less hostile tone,
“What exactly do you want to ask about the Alliance Leader?”
Among the Ten Great Villains, Goe Yeo had been one of the masters affiliated with the Cheukcheon Alliance.
He had not merely belonged to the organization. He had also been personally close to its leader.
“I have several questions about him.”
“Do you think I will answer? Do you consider my loyalty so worthless?”
“Your loyalty is admirable. Truly admirable. Since we captured you, you have never uttered a single word concerning either the Cheukcheon Alliance or its leader.”
Goe Yeo had been captured shortly before the war ended and had remained imprisoned here ever since.
Several attempts had been made to extract information about the Cheukcheon Alliance from him, but no method had worked.
“That’s right! That is the kind of man I am! So why are you trying this nonsense?”
“Isn’t it time to stop being loyal? You have done enough.”
“What madness are you spouting?”
Goe Yeo roared, but his eyes trembled.
He thought about it several times every day.
Why had the Alliance Leader not rescued him?
The man must know that Goe Yeo was imprisoned here.
Had he truly wished to save him, he could have offered any number of conditions in exchange.
The Cheukcheon Alliance held many members of the Martial Alliance prisoner, after all.
Goe Yeo had believed that even if no one else was rescued, the Alliance Leader would certainly save him.
Yet nearly four years had passed since he was imprisoned.
The Alliance Leader must have his reasons.
He consoled himself with that thought every day.
Nevertheless, he could not prevent his body and mind from growing exhausted.
At that moment, Baek Socheon said,
“Your Alliance Leader must have his reasons as well.”
Goe Yeo flinched.
Baek Socheon had spoken the exact thought that had just passed through his mind.
“Alliance Leaders are always people burdened with many circumstances, aren’t they?”
“Are you mocking me?”
“No.”
After answering calmly, Baek Socheon walked away.
Goe Yeo could at least tell that he had not been mocking him.
“I’ll return tomorrow.”
Goe Yeo silently watched Baek Socheon depart through the bars.
“Don’t think your pathetic tricks will work on me!”
Yet a part of him hoped that Baek Socheon would bring liquor again tomorrow.
At the same time, a single question began to stir his curiosity.
What exactly does he want to ask about the Alliance Leader?