Chapter 89
Part 14: Feint to the East, Strike to the West
Midnight.
Luoyang Sword Clan, Fourth Young Master’s office.
“…It is finished.”
After stamping his seal on the final document, the Fourth Young Master collapsed face-first onto the desk.
One of the scholars, who had been standing by while half-asleep, received the documents and staggered away with unsteady steps.
The head maid had already fallen fast asleep in a chair in the corner.
Her final act had been to hold a simple “surprise celebration banquet for the lifting of the First Young Master’s confinement” for the Fourth Young Master that evening.
Considering that she was an ordinary person without internal energy, it was almost admirable that she had endured the intense labor that had continued for an entire week.
The middle-aged woman sitting across from the Fourth Young Master’s desk stretched.
“…Goodness, at first it seemed impossible, but this really was a feasible plan.”
The Fourth Young Master answered with his head still buried on the desk.
“…I know.”
She shook her head.
“This was far harder than when I gave birth to our adorable twins and an emergency broke out that very same day.”
“…That is an analogy I cannot understand.”
The woman, who maintained the firm figure she had possessed in her maiden days, was one of the Fourth Young Master’s closest strategists.
She put back on the glasses she had briefly taken off and began reviewing the documents again.
“By the way, granting a Sword Clan Bronze Plaque to that information broker called the Hyeonwol Pavilion Master was an excellent decision.”
“…Without her, we would never have made it in time.”
A playful glint appeared in her sharp eyes.
“When do you think the Second Young Master’s side will realize they have been tricked?”
The Fourth Young Master raised his head.
A mischievous smile appeared on his lips.
“…Probably about now?”
***
Second Young Master’s faction, Strategist Choi’s office.
“Strategist Choi! We did it!”
Strategist Choi’s closest aide rushed into the office.
“What?! Do we have something else to celebrate?!”
Strategist Choi had been celebrating their victory over the First Young Master with his subordinates, emptying a massive jar of liquor brought all the way from Gangnam.
“Yes! It is a report from the Great Immortal Merchant Guild! They say they succeeded in ‘planting stakes’ throughout Hodu Village, the planned business site that the Fourth Young Master’s side was working on!”
The heavily drunk subordinates rose from their seats all at once and applauded with fierce enthusiasm.
“As expected! I knew it would succeed! No matter how the Fourth Young Master threatened the landowners, in the end, those fellows could not help but be swayed by more money!”
With this, a fatal problem had arisen in the Fourth Young Master’s business.
Later, when they tried to proceed with the project and purchase the land, they would discover the plots where their opponents had planted stakes and fall into despair.
“They should have put down a large advance payment in advance and bound them with overwhelming penalties for breach of contract! Well, it was not a choice they could have made with their lack of funds, but still! Hahaha!”
“The Fourth Young Master’s business is certain to be shaken badly from the start!”
“With this, we can thoroughly pour salt on that First Young Master bastard’s first move as well!”
Everyone cheered.
In the end, if the Fourth Young Master requested mediation, the Luoyang Sword Clan Business Support Corps would step in.
Once that happened, they would ultimately have no choice but to resell the staked land according to the Fourth Young Master’s demand.
However, they could still force the Fourth Young Master’s side to suffer considerable losses in terms of time and purchase costs.
Strategist Choi scooped up liquor with a gourd and asked,
“Good! Excellent! How much did they say they bought?”
“They say they achieved five-tenths of our target!”
Once again, his subordinates let out cheers that were almost screams.
But Strategist Choi froze while holding the gourd.
“…How much?”
“Five-tenths! Land amounting to a full tenth of the total planned site!”
“…They purchased that much land all at once? In a single day? From multiple landowners?”
Only then did the others begin to sense that something was strange, and one by one, they stopped in place.
“What was the Fourth Young Master’s side’s reaction?”
“…There has not yet been any special report.”
Strategist Choi’s reddened face began to tremble.
“Something… something is wrong! Tell the Great Immortal Merchant Guild to stop the transactions immediately!”
“…That will likely be impossible.”
“What?!”
One of his closest strategists answered with a troubled expression.
“They should have already paid the down payments.”
“To respond quickly and flexibly to the situation on site, did we not delegate full authority to the Great Immortal Merchant Guild…?”
“The Great Immortal Merchant Guild will use their own operational funds first according to our instructions, then charge us for the expenses afterward.”
The color began to drain from Strategist Choi’s flushed face.
At that moment, the office door flew open.
“Strategist Choi!”
It was Han Myeong-hwi, his face deathly pale.
“Something is wrong! That wench, the Hyeonwol Pavilion Master, had the Fourth Young Master’s Sword Clan Bronze Plaque! There is something going on here that we do not know about! We must stop every operation currently in progress at once! A full reexamination is necessary!”
“…It is too late.”
“What did you say?”
“I said it is already too late…!”
Strategist Choi vomited on the spot.
In the office where everyone had frozen solid, only the sound of Strategist Choi retching echoed in dismay.
***
“With the situation as it was, where they could not withdraw the personnel assigned to respond to the Third Young Master, they must have experienced hell for the past week as well.”
“Besides, not long ago, we removed all their spies from inside.”
Luoyang Sword Clan, the Fourth Young Master’s office.
The woman sitting across from the Fourth Young Master was the strategist known as the Red Widow Spider of the Tang Clan.
The strategist commonly known as the Red Venom Spider smiled thinly.
“A complete change of business site in just one week.”
The Fourth Young Master chuckled.
“They probably never imagined it.”
“Even if I had been on their side, it would have been the same. I would have been caught without ever imagining it.”
“It was a perfect feint to the east and strike to the west.”
“Because no matter how many human resources they had, they were in a situation where they had no choice but to reach their limit.”
The Red Venom Spider licked her lips.
“Tracing the rumors about the First Young Master, grasping the incident the First Young Master caused in the Inner Court, and even the issue of the First Young Master’s confinement.”
“To begin with, the new business site was a place we could not even have dreamed of if Eldest Brother had not stepped in.”
“…You said that from the very day you announced the business plan, the First Young Master showed interest not in Hodu Village, but in that neighborhood, did you not?”
The Fourth Young Master smacked his lips.
“They had absolutely no way to grasp our movements.”
The Fourth Young Master grinned.
“Meanwhile, we succeeded in completely changing our plan to an even larger and more useful business site.”
“The Hyeonwol Pavilion Master also did more than her share. Since she had not been exposed to the Second Young Master’s side, she handled almost all the contracts for the new business site.”
“A Sword Clan Bronze Plaque and a single pavilion were a cheap price to pay for that.”
“Come to think of it, she too was someone introduced by the First Young Master, was she not?”
The Fourth Young Master was about to laugh loudly, but when he saw the head maid sleeping deeply, he lowered his voice.
The boy recalled that day.
The day he had been excited to meet his eldest brother after such a long time.
The moment he had pulled back the curtain in order to explain the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering and personally show him the business site.
The First Young Master had clearly not been looking at Hodu Village, but at the area that had now become their new business site.
***
“Ah, the place you are looking at now, First Young Master, is not our planned business site.”
“That area is one of the largest slums in Luoyang.”
The Fourth Young Master laughed.
“Even if it were not us, that is a place no one would dare touch.”
“At the time, I simply thought Eldest Brother had misunderstood…”
“It is hard to imagine that the First Young Master, who runs Ja-aewon, would confuse the location of Hodu Village with one of Luoyang’s largest slums, ‘The Valley of Sinners,’ one of the Five Evils. Furthermore…”
The Red Venom Spider searched through the desk and took out a thick bundle of documents.
“The draft of this business plan revision was also something the First Young Master gave us.”
“That is right.”
She flipped through the documents and sighed.
“If we had not had this draft, even coming up with the revised plan alone would have taken ages.”
“It probably would have taken everyone at least two full weeks if they had all thrown themselves at it.”
She placed the heavy bundle of documents back onto the desk.
“On top of that, the amount invested in advance by trustworthy people whom the Hyeonwol Pavilion Master sold the business information to cannot be ignored either.”
“With that money, we were able to establish a new branch of Ja-aewon at Grandmother’s shrine located in the Valley of Sinners.”
The head maid woke up with a start.
“Oh my! It seems I dozed off for a moment.”
The Fourth Young Master hurriedly supported her as she staggered to her feet.
“Yes, yes. Today’s work is finished now, so you should go in and rest too, head maid.”
“No, I must stay until you go to sleep, Master…”
“No, no. I can ask someone else, so hurry and go in.”
Unable to resist the Fourth Young Master’s firm order, the head maid left.
However, given her personality, she would not go to bed until she had thoroughly checked the maids who would fill her empty spot.
“Ah! Seriously, why did you suddenly shout like that?!”
Ignoring the Fourth Young Master as he flared up, the Red Venom Spider sprang from her seat and shouted,
“Does that make any sense?! It has only been one week! But in reality, when we received this draft, it had only been three days since my lord explained the business to the First Young Master!”
She struck the desk repeatedly.
“And then he went into the Inner Court! After that, he shook the entire Sword Clan upside down! Alone! That means he pushed the Second Young Master’s seemingly endless information network to its limit!”
“To begin with, without Ja-aewon and the fairy faith, shifting the business plan to the Valley of Sinners would have been impossible.”
“That is true.”
“And there are already more than several dozen famous figures inside and outside Luoyang who have promised to invest a huge sum, saying they are acquaintances of the First Young Master.”
“Will that number not keep increasing? Eldest Brother’s connections are no joke. Once they hear that he has ended his confinement…”
The Fourth Young Master clicked his tongue in amazement.
“The amount of investment already promised has surpassed the final target amount of the previous plan.”
“The scale of the business has grown that much as well.”
The Red Venom Spider roughly scratched her head.
“It has only been about a week since we first explained this plan to the First Young Master, has it not?”
The Fourth Young Master answered shamelessly,
“It is probably the eighth day now.”
At last, she exploded.
“Does that make any sense?!”
“C-calm down…!”
She clutched at her hair.
“Do I look like I am in any state to calm down?! Just how many things did the First Young Master handle behind the scenes at the same time, while also resolving the confinement that had his own fate hanging on it?!”
The Fourth Young Master merely shrugged.
“That is why I have always said it. People like us cannot understand a Great Peng.”
At his reaction, the Red Venom Spider trembled all over and foamed at the mouth.
“At the time, I thought it was merely an exaggerated metaphor!”
The Fourth Young Master clicked his tongue.
“Stop losing your temper and go get at least a little sleep now. Starting tomorrow, we have to begin cleaning up the Valley of Sinners in earnest.”
That was right.
This was still only the beginning of the plan.
As she thought of the mountains they still had to cross, the Red Venom Spider seemed to calm down a little.
“…That is true. Just scouting out and clearing away the Underworld organizations nesting in the Valley of Sinners should take several months.”
“Yes. No matter how much help we receive from Ja-aewon, distinguishing between the poor and members of the Underworld…”
The Red Venom Spider sighed.
“Will already be like trying to separate ink that has seeped into water.”
“Exactly. So…”
“Fourth Young Master! Urgent report!”
After receiving permission, the messenger entered the office almost as though rolling in.
“It is an urgent report from the scouts! The Underworld organizations located in the Valley of Sinners…! The organizations…!”
The Red Venom Spider pressed the messenger, who was panting so hard that he could not speak properly.
“What happened to the Underworld organizations?!”
The confused gaze of the messenger, whose face had turned bluish from lack of breath, turned toward them.
“T-that is, they say all the Underworld organizations located in the Valley of Sinners have disappeared…!”
It was news that made those who heard it doubt their own ears.
“What…?”
It was then.
“What in the world does that mean?! Report in detail!”
“T-that is, the scouts are still investigating the details…”
“There must still be something!”
When the Red Venom Spider pressed him fiercely, the messenger cried out urgently,
“Dark Heaven Venerable One!”
The messenger hurriedly continued.
“It is not accurate information, but at the scene, the epithet Dark Heaven Venerable One was heard unusually often!”