Wudang Sacred Scriptures

Chapter 203

Chil Seogae flung himself down before Chwi Dugae.

“Sub-Branch Master, kill me.”

He knew the Sub-Branch Master’s firebrand way—going in circles with excuses would only poison the well.

He also knew he would not be forgiven; there was no reason to turn one blow into two.

Just as Chil Seogae braced for a rain of punches—

“Branch Chief, why so extreme?”

“Eh...?”

“Whatever you did wrong, to blurt out ‘kill me’—what will people think of our Beggar Clan?”

“...?”

Lifting his head a fraction, Chil Seogae noticed a young man outside the hut.

Only then did he realize why Chwi Dugae, for all his killing look, was speaking mildly.

There’s a guest; he won’t lose face.

“Up. On your feet.”

“Yes, sir.”

Seeing the Sub-Branch Master’s face twist like a yaksha the instant he turned his back to the young guest, Chil Seogae sprang up.

“Sub-Branch Master, you hadn’t left? If you’ve not yet eaten, I’ll procure a dog at once.”

Watching the Branch Chief ply his arts of survival, Chwi Dugae tamped down the anger boiling up.

If he lost his temper, he would be admitting the face cloth was made from drawers.

“Where will you get a dog at this hour? Stop currying favor and get outside, fast. The Gaemok has work.”

“I’ll go at once.”

When Chil Seogae stepped out, Chwi Dugae asked:

“You have a carrier pigeon for the Fujian General Branch, yes?”

“...”

“Bring it out now.”

“Sub-Branch Master... there is no carrier pigeon.”

“What?”

“The one we had died.”

“How does a carrier pigeon just die?”

“A weasel broke the cage and... please kill me.”

Chwi Dugae truly wanted to kill this dull Branch Chief.

He had just boasted to Kwak Yeon that he could contact the Fujian General Branch at once and have information on the matter by morning.

“In that case, there’s no help for it. You’re the Gaemok here; you know the shortcuts better than anyone...”

Eyeing Chil Seogae’s rounded belly, Chwi Dugae went on:

“And since you’ve dined well, you can set out at once.”

“Sub-Branch Master, do you mean for me to take the mountain road in the dead of night? If it isn’t urgent, at first light—”

“Go now.”

“...”

“Then I’ll let the other matter go—whatever it was.”

Knowing how dreadful the unspoken end of that sentence was, Chil Seogae answered in a hurry.

“I’ll go at once. I can take these mountain paths with my eyes closed.”

“No need to reach the Fujian General Branch. Go to the Seo-eun County branch at the Wuyi approach and—exactly as I say—have them send a carrier pigeon to the General Branch.”

Listening in silence to the two, Kwak Yeon spoke up.

“Brother, it will be better if we go ourselves.”

Chwi Dugae shook his head.

“Brother Kwak, that’s because you don’t know the lay of the land. Seo-eun County and the General Branch lie the opposite way from where we’re headed. Every day matters—we must save the hours.”

“In that case, there’s no choice.”

After laying out, point by point, what to relay to the Fujian General Branch, Chwi Dugae added:

“Start with the branches in Soseo County, Jigok County, and Unyang County—and have them focus on the south of Nanping Prefecture, to see if any such convoys passed.”

“Soseo County, Jigok County, Unyang County branches! And south of Nanping Prefecture! Understood.”

As Chil Seogae, echoing the order, turned to leave the hut—

“Gaemok, a small token of my regard—please accept it.”

Kwak Yeon took out a few bright silver ingots and held them out.

“Oh, no, sir.”

As Chil Seogae flapped his hands in alarm, Chwi Dugae spoke quickly as well.

“Brother Kwak, the Beggar Clan doesn’t take pay for its work—put it away.”

“Brother, this is strictly my affair. I wish to repay the Gaemok, in some small way, for the trouble of the night road.”

Eyeing the silver, Chwi Dugae wetted his lips and said:

“Branch Chief, take it.”

“Sub-Branch Master, may I truly accept it?”

“Don’t quibble—if he tells you to take it, take it. Don’t make Brother Kwak’s hand ashamed.”

“...”

“And since you’re headed to Seo-eun County... get yourself a set of clothes.”

He could not bring himself to say a pair of drawers, so he said a set of clothes.

—Pat, pat, pat.

Leaving Seonyang County and breaking into the mountain road proper, Chil Seogae freshly felt that the saying “fortune and misfortune ride the same horse” was a timeless truth.

He had expected a thorough beating piled atop the sin of making a face cloth out of drawers and the neglect of the carrier pigeon—yet not only did he take not a single blow, he received silver.

Huh!

Basking in his stroke of luck, Chil Seogae suddenly realized he had missed something important.

It was the sight of the Sub-Branch Master speaking so politely to a green youth—strange indeed.

By his overbearing nature, he butted heads with the Beggar Clan Leader over every little thing.

And he called him younger brother besides?

He had not used the usual form of address for someone younger, but the respectful “younger brother of worth.”

Chil Seogae, recalling that the youth’s surname was Kwak, halted inwardly.

A Kwak—and young; overlay that with someone the Beggar Clan’s Sub-Branch Master treated with deference, and one name naturally arose.

It’s the Kwak of Mount Wudang—the Dark Cavern Taoist!

He was the man currently setting the martial world abuzz. There were even rumors that the Dark Cavern Taoist’s path lay toward Mount Wuyi.

Then the Sub-Branch Master and that Dark Cavern Taoist are sworn brothers!

Otherwise, how could they call each other “younger brother” and “elder brother” without reserve?

The fact that the Beggar Clan’s Sub-Branch Master had sworn brotherhood with the Dark Cavern Taoist now stirring up the realm—astonishing news.

This must be reported to the General Branch at once.

The Fujian General Branch would tell the Beggar Clan’s Chief Branch; soon the news would spread to every Beggar Clan hand across the Central Plains.

And it would be said together that the first to know was Gaemok Chil Seogae.

But what on earth is all this?

If the Dark Cavern Taoist was in such a hurry, it could not be ordinary business.

In any case, it was certain he now had a hand in something important to the martial world. And he had been paid in silver to boot.

Chil Seogae’s feet flew faster over the mountain road.

Thanks to the Seonyang County Gaemok’s diligence on the night road, a carrier pigeon flew into the Fujian Beggar Clan General Branch the next morning.

On receiving the Sub-Branch Master’s directive, the Fujian General Branch sent several carrier pigeons aloft at once; by afternoon, several pigeons settled back on the General Branch eaves.

The next morning, while Chwi Dugae and Kwak Yeon were breakfasting in a tavern dining room in Gaseok County—about two hundred li south of Mount Wuyi—the Gaseok County Beggar Clan Branch Master appeared before them.

“Sub-Branch Master, a dispatch has come from the Fujian General Branch.”

“It should have come yesterday—why so late? Have they all gone soft?”

Chwi Dugae shrugged toward Kwak Yeon and took the dispatch.

After skimming it quickly, he handed it over to Kwak Yeon and said:

“As Brother Kwak expected, there’s a hand in Jigok County who saw such a convoy.”

Reading the dispatch Chwi Dugae passed over, Kwak Yeon nodded.

“So it is.”

Then he rose from his seat.

“Brother, shall we go?”

“However rushed we are, at least finish the—”

Seeing the calm light in Kwak Yeon’s eyes, Chwi Dugae bobbed his head.

“No—rise.”

The dishes had only just arrived; they had scarcely taken a spoonful.

Eyeing the Gaseok County Beggar Clan Branch Master, who had been gulping since earlier, Chwi Dugae said:

“Eat in our stead.”

“Oh, no, sir.”

“The bill is already paid.”

“Ah! In that case, I’ll gladly accept. To waste food is to invite heaven’s wrath.”

Watching the Branch Master sit with a foolish grin, Chwi Dugae gave him a sour look and hurried out of the tavern after Kwak Yeon.

Damn it!

Three days later, the two reached their destination, Jigok County. They had covered six hundred li in three days.

Seo On-gae, the Jigok County Beggar Clan Branch Master, greeted them with wide eyes.

“Sub-Branch Master, I did not expect you so soon.”

“Nor did I know I could be this diligent.”

“Eh...?”

It was an oddly off reply.

Not ‘so diligent,’ but ‘so fast’ would fit, thought Seo On-gae, head cocked, as Chwi Dugae said to him:

“Enough chatter. Where is the man?”

“I’ll fetch him at once.”

Seo On-gae soon returned with a ragged fellow—a Knotless Beggar, a plain rank-and-file hand without a knot.

“Tell the Sub-Branch Master exactly what you experienced.”

With an expression near tearful reverence, the Knotless Beggar gazed at Chwi Dugae and began:

“’Twas about two months ago. I heard a convoy had pulled into the tavern at the crossroads outside the county walls, so I ran to beg. As you know well, Sub-Branch Master, escorts usually toss a coin or two just to be rid of a beggar like me, don’t they?”

“You ramble.”

“Oh—my apologies, Sub-Branch Master. In any case, those bastards gave me nothing. I was hungry and sore at the waste, so I slipped to the wagons. I swear I never meant to touch the cargo. I only meant to pay the wagons a leak and be off, but...”

Watching Chwi Dugae’s face, the Knotless Beggar went on:

“I’d crawled up on the freight and was just undoing my belt when some fellow seized me by the nape. I’d checked there was no one—and he came out of thin air, with a blue blade at my throat, ready to kill me. If the inn errand boy hadn’t come to dump water in the back court just then, I’d have died. His eyes were so cold... ugh!”

Shuddering, the Knotless Beggar continued:

“He threw me out of the wagon, and I ran without looking back. I reported to the Branch Master, but he couldn’t believe it.”

Seo On-gae hurried to add:

“Sub-Branch Master, at the time there was no helping it. Escorts menacing a Beggar Clan hand was beyond imagining. I thought he was making excuses after sleeping it off somewhere. Only when the dispatch came from the General Branch did I think this boy’s tale might be true. So I asked the crossroads tavern errand boy—he said it happened. Moreover, he told me they stopped at the tavern twice with a gap of about two months.”

Chwi Dugae’s and Kwak Yeon’s eyes met.

Sharing a look with Kwak Yeon that said it’s surely them, Chwi Dugae asked the Branch Master:

“You looked into where that convoy went?”

“I did.”

Seo On-gae nodded.

“The errand boy remembered it clearly. He said they took the north road—one convoys hardly ever use.”

“Why don’t other convoys take the north road?”

“Because after twenty to thirty li the way is blocked by Daegok Mountain. The road does continue, but it’s a mountain path hard for wagons.”

Chwi Dugae said toward Kwak Yeon:

“Brother Kwak, then it’s within twenty to thirty li.”

“It is.”

Kwak Yeon nodded, then asked Seo On-gae:

“Branch Master, have you seen any unfamiliar martial wanderers in this area?”

Having already heard that Kwak Yeon was the Sub-Branch Master’s sworn younger brother, Seo On-gae answered with marked respect.

“Kwak Taoist, we have hardly seen unfamiliar martial folk.”

It was not the answer Kwak Yeon had hoped for, but he did not show disappointment as he asked again:

“Are there any sizable manors in the villages along the north road?”

“It’s sheer backcountry; nothing you could call a manor.”

“...”

“If what you seek is merely a sizable building, then the temples in Daegok Mountain would fit best.”

Chwi Dugae’s and Kwak Yeon’s gazes crossed once more.