Unrivaled Spear Demon
Chapter 41 - Scaling the Wall (2)
The bell tolling the third watch echoed in the distance.
“Prepare to close the gates.”
Guard Captain Wonwol gave the order to his soldiers.
The footsteps of the people lined up before the gate began to quicken.
Depending on when those gates closed, some would enter the warm homes or inns beyond, while others would be forced to endure the night dew until the Hour of the Rabbit.
A soldier said to Wonwol.
“Captain. What if we kept the gates open just a little longer today? There are too many people in line. Making them all spend the night outside the walls is a bit…”
But Wonwol was firm.
“The gates cannot be moved without a royal decree. That has been the law, observed ever since the capital was established in Jinling.”
He was a man of principle, and the soldiers knew it.
So the soldiers gave up on persuading Wonwol and instead tried to speed up the gate inspections to let even one more person inside.
“Alright, next. Hmm. Doesn't match the wanted poster. Do you have a pass? Alright. Pass.”
“What's this? Ah, silk to be delivered to Bucha Pavillion. Go on in.”
“Bring the horses over here. You haven't hidden anything in the cart, have you?”
Considering the plight of the people in line, the soldiers conducted their inspections as quickly as possible.
Just then.
A cart pulled by a single horse stopped before the gate.
On the cart was a heaping pile of hay.
The soldiers asked.
“What's in this cart?”
“Cattle feed. As you can see, it's just hay.”
“Is that so?”
The soldier checked the driver's pass and compared him to the sketch on the wanted notice.
The Death Blossom on the notice was a tall, handsome man, but the driver was short with a hunched back, and his face was covered in pockmarks.
“Pass.”
The soldier gave the order to pass, as if there was nothing more to see.
Then.
“Wait.”
Someone stopped the soldier from behind.
They were warriors from the Mount Hua and Wudang Sects.
“Given the current situation, we will perform another check.”
“We ask for your understanding.”
They offered a salute to the soldiers and drew their swords.
Shunk- Shunk-
The warriors of the Mount Hua and Wudang Sects stabbed their swords into the pile of hay.
At that very moment.
“Gaaah!?”
A scream erupted from within the hay.
Instantly, the guards raised their spears and surrounded the cart.
“Who goes there!”
“There's someone hiding in the hay!”
“Surround them! Don't let them escape!”
Soon, the guards pulled two men out from their hiding spot in the hay.
“S-Spare us!”
“We'll g-give you everything! Please, just spare our lives…!”
They were men of average build, and each was hiding a golden toad in his robes.
Guard Captain Wonwol, who had come down to the gate to see what the commotion was, wore an angry expression.
“So, you've come to offer a bribe to the Paedo Sect. You must be sneaking in like this because you're here on shameful business. Perhaps you came to commission a murder?”
The two men were struck dumb.
They simply hung their heads low and squeezed their eyes shut.
Wonwol gestured with his chin in disgust.
“How dare you try to enter the area I guard without a pass? Drag them away and throw them in jail!”
The two men were dragged away by the guards like dogs.
The warriors from the Mount Hua and Wudang Sects sighed, half in disappointment and half in relief.
“Still, I wonder if that bastard, the Death Blossom, will really come this way.”
“Honestly. He's a terrifying villain, I just hope we don't run into him. But if we do, we will risk our lives to destroy him.”
With their swords at their waists, they resumed watching the people.
A young boy was the last to stand before the inspection post.
The guards checked the boy's pass.
“Name, Dong go-gong. A physician. Purpose of visit… delivering aphrodisiacs to the Paedo Sect?”
Guard Captain Wonwol personally inspected the boy's pass.
The boy's face and hair were covered in so much dirt and dust that they were hard to see, but his height and build alone were clearly different from the Death Blossom on the wanted notice.
Wonwol searched the boy's belongings.
The only things loaded on his A-frame carrier were medicinal herbs.
He had a pass, there was nothing unusual about his luggage, and his appearance didn't match the wanted poster. There was no reason not to let him through.
“Pass. Alright, close the gates now!”
After letting the young physician into the city, Wonwol gestured to the guards.
Rumble-rumble-rumble...
The gates closed.
An iron fortress that would not open again until the first cock's crow the next day.
* * *
“Where is it… Found it.”
Chui, after circling along the inside of the city wall, finally found what he was looking for.
It was his Staff.
This staff, taken after killing the Staff Fiend, was long and heavy, unsuitable for a child to carry.
Carrying such a thing through the gate could easily arouse suspicion, so Chui had hurled the staff over the wall into the sky, retrieving it now after passing through.
The staff, having flown over the wall, was firmly embedded in the ground nearby, creating a deep crater.
Even if three or four strong men tried, it would be difficult to pull this firmly embedded staff from the ground.
Shhhk
But, Chui pulled it out with the utmost ease.
Tossing aside all the medicinal herbs he had been carrying, Chui slung the staff over his shoulder and headed for the bustling streets of Chojang County.
Donghak-ro, the county's main thoroughfare, was clamorous with various merchants.
Bear and deer hides laid out by hunters were stretched out in rows. There were people buying meat, people cutting silk, drunkards, men scooping night soil, women applying powder, acrobats performing tricks, carriage drivers, and even children playing by kicking a ball... The street was truly bursting at the seams.
Amidst the chaos, Chui came across a large man standing by the roadside.
The man was already red-faced with drink, shouting at passersby and vomiting wherever he pleased.
Chui grabbed the drunkard and asked.
“Where is the most expensive pleasure house on Donghak-ro?”
“Whaaat? This baaastard—huh? You little punk, you ain't even dry behind the ears yet, and you're already actin' all high and mighty... Uuurgh! Shit…”
Even as he spewed vomit toward Chui's face, the man continued to point and curse.
Without a word, Chui reached out, grabbed a fistful of the man's hair, and slapped him across the face.
Smack!
The impact, powerful enough to shatter his jaw, brought a sliver of focus back to the man's eyes.
“Where is the most expensive pleasure house on Donghak-ro?”
“Go straight to your left, then take a right, and you'll come to a three-way fork. Go straight down the central road, keep going until you see an uphill path, and from there, take the first alley next to the dumpling house with the red sign, and you will find a pleasure house called ‘Bucha Pavillion’.”
Good that he didn't have to ask twice.
Smack!
Chui slapped the man's cheek one more time.
“Don't vomit on the street.”
Leaving the unconscious man behind, Chui moved on.
Before long, following the directions he'd been given, a large building came into view.
On the main gate of the tall, ten-story pavilion, he could see a plaque inscribed with the name ‘Bucha Pavillion’.
Chui kicked the main door open and went inside.
“Wine. Meat. Women. Bring them all.”
An attendant near the entrance stared at him, dumbfounded.
After taking in Chui's shabby clothes, the attendant sighed and cracked his knuckles.
“It seems a mad little beggar has come to place a disorderly mark upon my elegant life. Boy. If you wipe the footprints from the door and quietly turn back now, I might just reconsider my plan to beat you until you're tender.”
The attendant shooed Chui away with a gesture, his tone dripping with elegance.
…Crack!
Chui grabbed the attendant's hand as it flapped before his eyes and squeezed.
“Uwaaargh!?”
As the attendant screamed, clutching his seemingly broken fingers with his other hand, Chui said curtly,
“When a customer places an order, you should hurry up and bring them to the table. You talk too much.”
Attendants who work at fine pleasure houses sometimes act as if they are superior to the customers.
Having tried to show off with fancy words only to meet his match, the thoroughly intimidated attendant guided Chui upstairs.
Soon. After being led to a spacious room, Chui sat down abruptly before the table of drinks.
A courtesan came and sat down next to Chui.
“Do you have money?”
In response to the courtesan who asked with a bored expression, Chui swept back the bangs that covered his face.
Before Chui could say anything, the courtesan poured wine into his cup.
“Boy… you don't need money.”
The courtesan said.
Then she pressed up close beside him and began to smile charmingly.
“It's fine. Money comes and goes. You can just come back when you have some. For today, just relax and have fun. The drinks are on me.”
“?”
This was a reaction he hadn't anticipated, and Chui was slightly taken aback.
Then.
Shhhk-
The paper door slid open, and four men with rugged faces entered the room.
“Are you the one who hit Hwangnul earlier?”
Hwangnul must have been the name of either the drunkard who gave him directions or the attendant he first met.
Chui said, draining his cup.
“If you want to get hit, get out.”
“What? You mean 'get out if you don't want to get hit.' The idiot can't even speak properly.”
“And if you want to die, come in.”
“…”
Hearing Chui's words, the four men's expressions instantly hardened.
Sensing the ominous atmosphere in the room, the courtesan quickly fled outside.
As Chui slowly rose to his feet, the men rushed him all at once.
Thwack
Crash!
Chui grabbed a wine bottle and smashed it over the head of the man in front.
He then stabbed the man beside him in the side with the broken bottleneck, dropping him, and kicked the man behind that one in the groin.
It was the very definition of a back-alley brawl.
“Y-You cowardly…”
The last man trembled and tried to flee, but.
…Thwack!
A chopstick thrown by Chui embedded itself in his thigh, and he collapsed on the spot, rolling around and letting out a shrill scream.
It was then.
“Hey.”
A low voice came from the top of the stairs.
A man dressed in black was looking down at Chui from the top of the stairs.
“Play quietly now, children.”
A scar on his face and a longsword at his waist.
When the scarred man spoke in his low voice, the four men who had been fighting Chui just moments before paled and bowed their heads.
“No.”
Chui replied with a calm expression.
The scarred man couldn't believe his ears.
“What did you say?”
“I said I won’t. I’m going to be loud.”
“…”
The scarred man stood there for a moment with a dumbfounded expression.
Then, he let out a small sigh.
“How long has it been since someone tried to pick a fight with me? It's amusing, but… I have a mission today, so I can't indulge you.”
He raised his head toward Chui and continued.
“The young master inside dislikes disturbances. So be quiet, whether you like it or not.”
“Tell that young master of yours. If it's too loud, he can go play somewhere else.”
“…”
Hearing Chui's words, a vein bulged on the scarred man's forehead.
He pointed to his black robes.
The character for ‘Pae’ written on his chest was glowing crimson.
“Up here is Young Master Do of the Paedo Sect. If you want to die, go on, keep making noise.”
At the scarred man's words, Chui stroked his chin.
The Paedo Sect.
A rather familiar name, in many ways.
A river pirate from the Yangtze Water Stronghold, one he had killed, had said:
‘The Paedo Sect asked me to pass on a message. Thanks for all the tribute payments until now. Wherever you get sold off to, just think of it as your new home~ and try to settle in.’
He also remembered the reactions of the women upon hearing those words.
‘N-No, it can't be… We’ve almost paid off our debt…’
‘What are you talking about? Th-they told me I could go home after working just until the end of this year…’
‘Sold? Y-You mean us? They sold us to you?’
‘M-Mom… I have to go see my mom…’
Recalling his memories, Chui nodded.
Perhaps getting the Death Blossom inside the walls might just have gotten faster.
Chui spoke to the scarred man at the top of the stairs.
“I'll be quiet.”
“Hmph. So you finally know your pla—.”
In that instant.
Two awls shot out from Chui's robes.
In the blink of an eye, Chui had bounded up the stairs and plunged the two awls deep into both of the scarred man's ears.
“……! ……! ……!”
The scarred man's eyes flew open, not even comprehending what had just happened.
But no sound reached him.
It was only natural, as the awls had not only pierced both his eardrums but had also bored through his skull and into his brain.
“It's quiet now, isn't it?”
Chui continued as he ascended to the upper floor where the ‘young master’ was supposedly enjoying himself.
“It's about to get even quieter.”
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