Chapter 24 - Shedding the Shell

A waist as slender as a willow branch, fingertips white as jade and fluttering like willow leaves, the taut curve of collarbones linking neck, chest, and shoulders.

She was a beauty whose figure alone could have brought countless men to tears.

The voice with which she called him Grandfather was as lovely and gentle as her appearance. Had any man other than Dong Bongsu been watching her, he would have been dazed with rapture.

Tang Wu turned at her call. His eyes were already far softer than when he had been looking at Danri Ganghae and the others.

"Let's just go. They're country folk. They don't know any better."

Country folk.

To them, Fengyang was nothing but the countryside, the Danri Family merely a small provincial martial organization, and Danri Ganghae no more than a newborn pup.

A tiger did not react to a puppy's barking. Tang Wu nodded at the veiled woman's words.

"Very well, Hwa. By now, this brat should have learned how vast the world is. Hmph. A supposed heir of the Orthodox Faction, with so little to occupy him that he's drinking himself senseless and making a drunken nuisance of himself first thing in the morning."

Tang Wu shook his head at Danri Ganghae, who lay unconscious, foaming at the mouth.

He had been somewhat heavy-handed with Danri Ganghae and the Black Crow Unit as a warning—to show a newborn pup how wide the world was, so to speak. Whether the unconscious Ganghae would take it that way, of course, was another matter.

"If I followed my temper, I'd snap this brat's wrists. But I cannot bring myself to be so harsh with a youngster of the Orthodox Faction. When he wakes, make it very clear that if he keeps pestering every woman he sees, he won't live out his natural span. Do you understand?"

Tang Wu addressed Gi Daehyo, radiating a chill once more.

Only then did Gi Daehyo understand what had happened. Danri Ganghae must have treated Tang Wu's granddaughter, who had stopped at the inn, exactly as he usually treated courtesans. Entranced by the veiled woman's alluring figure, he had probably tried to pull off her veil or behaved disgracefully toward her in plain sight.

They had been extraordinarily lucky. Even between members of the Orthodox Faction, an incident like this could lead to bloodshed. And given the gulf between the Sichuan Tang Family and the Danri Family, what more needed to be said? It was as clear as day that the bloodshed would have been entirely on the Danri side.

"... Y-yes, sir!"

Gi Daehyo answered hastily, afraid Tang Wu might change his mind.

After hearing his answer, Tang Wu walked through the fallen Black Crow Unit members with the veiled woman, Tang Hwa.

SWISH.

Strangely, with each step he took, the unit members began to come to their senses, one after another. As he walked, he was retrieving every needle he had used earlier by drawing them through the air.

Eyes gleaming, Dong Bongsu watched every detail closely. It was so extraordinary that he would have struggled to believe it had he not seen it himself.

The sight directly contradicted the laws of physics he had always considered absolute truths.

A desire hidden deep, deep within him stirred.

Before his eyes lay a path to strength beyond all limits—something impossible in his previous world.

His resolve to learn martial arts grew firmer still.

Then, by chance, his eyes met Tang Wu's.

"Hmm...!"

What was it? Tang Wu's gaze changed.

He stopped dead in his tracks and stared at Dong Bongsu.

"Grandfather?"

"Hwa. Stay here a moment."

Without offering the puzzled Tang Hwa any further explanation, Tang Wu approached Dong Bongsu.

'What is it?'

Yet another unforeseen development. Dong Bongsu hurriedly lowered his head. He had no idea why Tang Wu was approaching him.

TAP, TAP.

Tang Wu's footsteps grew louder.

"Grandfather? What's the matter?"

Tang Hwa called after him again and followed, baffled by his sudden strange behavior. Tang Wu raised a hand to stop her.

"Nothing. I merely have something to ask this boy."

Something to ask. That meant he had business with Dong Bongsu himself.

Dong Bongsu's mind raced. But there was still nothing he could deduce.

Then Tang Wu, who had come right up to him, spoke.

"What is your name?"

"..."

Dong Bongsu was still Horse-Mute Sam. Sosam, the mute horse handler. He was someone who must not speak.

"I asked you what your name was."

Tang Wu's voice rose slightly. Dong Bongsu remained silent, however, and an answer came from behind him instead. It was Gi Daehyo.

"He's a horse handler named Sosam. He cannot speak."

"A mute?"

A trace of disappointment crossed Tang Wu's face at Gi Daehyo's explanation. Even so, the interest in his eyes did not fade. He continued looking Dong Bongsu up and down.

Though Dong Bongsu's eyes had lost their usual light and turned dull and vacant, he missed none of it. At last, he could guess what Tang Wu wanted.

Tang Wu looked like a pirate appraising a treasure he had captured.

Treasure. Not a word normally applied to a person, but it meant something precious nonetheless. And if a martial artist—especially an expert of Tang Wu's caliber—looked at a young man as though he were a treasure? If he had shown a flicker of disappointment on learning the boy was mute?

It had come suddenly, under wholly unexpected circumstances, but Dong Bongsu instinctively realized that he had finally gained a chance to shed his shell as a horse handler. And he was not about to let it slip away.

Tang Wu stared intently into his dull eyes. In response, Dong Bongsu allowed his own true gaze, rather than Sosam's, to show for the briefest instant.

An unusual light flashed in Tang Wu's eyes as he caught some measure of Dong Bongsu's exceptional qualities. He had no idea, however, that all of this was a performance.

Tang Wu suddenly reached out, seized Dong Bongsu's wrist, and felt his pulse. Astonishment rapidly spread across his cold face.

Dong Bongsu still did not quite know what had startled him. One thing was certain: it was not the JP accumulated in his body.

The internal energy people spoke of here was distinctly different from JP. Had the two been the same kind of energy, Danri Cheon-u and Gi Daehyo could not possibly have failed to notice.

Indeed, people with internal energy had a subtly different air about them, and Dong Bongsu could sense the distinction. He himself showed none of the changes that came with possessing internal energy.

The reason for Tang Wu's surprise clearly lay elsewhere. He did not yet know what it was, but it certainly was not anything bad. It had to be something favorable, something that had given him this opportunity.

Tang Wu stopped examining Dong Bongsu, turned, and approached Gi Daehyo.

"Are you on your way to the Namgung Clan?"

Gi Daehyo was utterly bewildered. He had thought the Danri Family had barely escaped a grave crisis caused by Danri Ganghae, only for Tang Wu to start acting strangely again. His confusion was understandable. And the fact that Sosam was the cause of this strange behavior made it all the more baffling.

He was helping the unconscious Danri Ganghae up when Tang Wu approached with his question. He hastily straightened to answer.

"Pardon?... Ah, yes. For the Namgung Clan's wedding..."

"What work does this boy do?"

"H-he's a horse handler..."

"Then you won't mind if I take him?"

Tang Wu fired off his questions without giving Gi Daehyo time to answer properly. The instant he heard what he needed, he cut him off.

"... Pardon? N-no, you can't. Without him, there's no one who can handle that Sweat-Blood Horse."

"Then he need only take the horse as far as the Namgung Clan?"

"If the Namgung Clan has a horse handler capable of managing a Sweat-Blood Horse..."

"The Namgung Clan has plenty of capable grooms who can easily manage a mere Sweat-Blood Horse. I doubt they'll have any particular need for this boy. Then you will have no objection if I take him after we arrive?"

"..."

"Ah, I'll speak to that fellow Byeok myself. And I'll pay the boy's price. If necessary, I'll even write a letter directly to your family head. Well? Surely that should be enough?"

Gi Daehyo could not make sense of any of it. Why on earth was an extraordinary master like Tang Wu suddenly doing this? He felt as though he were dreaming.

"... Yes. We were planning to present the boy and the horse to the Namgung Clan's patriarch as congratulatory gifts anyway."

"Then that's settled. Is there anything else you would like to ask of me?"

Whatever had made him so happy, Tang Wu was even prepared to offer favors he ordinarily would never have considered.

"Pardon?! I-if you'd go that far for us, we would be most grateful!"

For Gi Daehyo, this was an utterly unexpected stroke of good fortune. He had thought Danri Ganghae's troublemaking had plunged him into the greatest crisis of his life, only for everything to turn completely around.

If Tang Wu, who was close enough to Namgung Byeok to refer to him so casually, put in a word, he might secure Danri Ganghae a place not merely as Namgung Hu's disciple, but as an outside-surname disciple of the patriarch, Namgung Byeok himself.

One question still remained.

What on earth had Tang Wu seen in Sosam that made him willing to take on all this trouble to acquire him? But Gi Daehyo could not bring himself to ask. Such was the gulf between him and Tang Wu. He quickly buried the question deep inside.

All he needed to do was safely complete the mission Danri Cheon-u had given him. If handing over someone as insignificant as Sosam earned him results beyond his assignment, wasn't that a profitable exchange?

"Well, what is your request? If it's within my power, I'll grant it."

"I would like Young Master Danri to become an outside-surname disciple of the Namgung Clan's patriarch."

"Is that all?"

"... Pardon? Ah, yes. That would be enough."

"A trifling matter. Then I may take this boy now."

"Ah... yes."

"Ha ha ha. Good, very good. Let us be on our way, then."

Whatever pleased him so, Tang Wu never once stopped smiling. Not a trace remained of the cold air he had exuded when they first saw him.

He walked ahead with Tang Hwa. When the party failed to follow, he infused his voice with internal energy.

"What are you doing? Hurry up and follow."

"...!"

At Tang Wu's urging, Gi Daehyo finally recovered his wits, loaded Danri Ganghae onto the baggage wagon, and set off at once.

Dong Bongsu followed, leading Yeoro forward. He could hear Tang Hwa and Tang Wu talking.

"Grandfather, please tell me why you're suddenly acting like this. What's so special about that horse handler Sosam that you're going to all this trouble? Well?"

Tang Hwa asked him to explain what on earth was going on, but Tang Wu merely smiled without offering much of an answer. All he said was:

"Later. I'll tell you everything later. Ha ha."

That was all.

Tang Wu's hearty laughter. Dong Bongsu was the only person there who understood what it meant. Though he did not yet know the precise reason behind it, time would resolve that.