Answer with Stratagems (2)
The person who passed through the white corridor and arrived at the spacious room was Number One.
It was the same room he had come to before with Number Seven. Far inside the room, a man was sitting and writing something.
Number One reported from in front of the door.
“Elder Go has disappeared.”
“What?”
The man stopped moving his hand and raised his head. His eyes asked whether he had heard incorrectly.
Number One repeated the same words.
“Elder Go has disappeared.”
“What do you mean, disappeared?”
“I mean it literally. We lost contact with him during the mission.”
“Are you saying he died?”
“It seems so, but it is not certain.”
“He is not dead. There is no way he would have been killed by someone like the Heavenly Palace Corps Leader.”
The man began writing again.
“And the mission?”
“It failed. The Heavenly Palace Corps Leader returned safely to the Alliance.”
He irritably threw away the brush he had been writing with. The flying brush smeared black ink across the expensive rug as it rolled away.
The man sprang up from his seat. He walked back and forth, tilting his head as if he could not understand. He was so far from where Number One stood that it was impossible to tell what expression he was making.
“Elder Go died to the Heavenly Palace Corps Leader?”
However, his voice echoing through the room was definitely faster and rougher than at first.
“Judging by his usual personality and past activities, it has been analyzed that there is more than an eighty percent chance that he was sacrificed during this operation.”
“Did the entire Heavenly Palace Corps follow him?”
“The number who followed was thirty.”
“No. Even if all of them had followed, there is no way he would have died to them.”
“There was one variable.”
“A variable?”
“The strategist Sima Tian attached to the mission was Gal Sa-Ryang.”
“Ah!”
He seemed to make an expression as if he understood a little.
“Even so, Elder Go was taken down?”
“There is a possibility that Gal Sa-Ryang set a reverse trap. It seems we will have to send someone to investigate the details.”
“Look into it immediately and report back.”
“I will proceed right away.”
“Send someone proper. This matter is not ordinary.”
Number One bowed politely and said,
“Do not worry. There is someone reliable.”
There was someone else who was shocked by the return of the Heavenly Palace Corps. It was Sima Tian, who had been waiting for the tragic news that they had been annihilated.
“Did I think wrongly?”
He glanced at Ma Bong-Gi. Sitting in the grand chair, Ma Bong-Gi had his eyes closed.
It was impossible to tell whether he was thinking about this matter, or whether he was remembering the breasts of the woman he had been fondling yesterday.
Sima Tian had considered this mission a mission of death.
A secret operation that designated the Heavenly Palace Corps, and even then sent only the Corps Leader and a small number of troops. Originally, something like that should have been made by the Hall of Justice, but it had come down from the Alliance Lord’s Hall.
Naturally, he had thought they would all die.
Among the martial artists standing on the opposite side, his eyes met Zuo Tie-Long’s. He was a man whose thoughts were as impossible to read as the Alliance Lord’s.
Beside him stood Iron Cavalry Corps Leader Ok Dang-Chu. A man who had followed Bright Moon Corps Leader Zuo Tie-Long and betrayed Gal Sa-Ryang. Rather, it was easy to see what kind of person he was. He was neither an extremely evil man, nor the type to sacrifice himself for others or for honor. He was a typical bureaucrat.
The problem was Zuo Tie-Long, whose inner thoughts could not be known. Some kind of force was definitely attached behind that man.
At that moment, the doors of the Alliance Lord’s Hall opened, and the Heavenly Palace Corps Leader Jong Cheon-Rak, who had been waiting, walked in.
After walking along the red carpet, he respectfully bowed to Ma Bong-Gi.
“Heavenly Palace Corps Leader Jong Cheon-Rak has completed the mission and returned.”
“You worked hard. I heard there was some trouble this time?”
“Yes. We went to the promised location, but no one was there.”
“The information was false?”
“Or they may have been eliminated by the enemy beforehand.”
Ma Bong-Gi nodded and glanced at Zuo Tie-Long. He was silently staring at Jong Cheon-Rak. Perhaps the person most shocked and angry was Zuo Tie-Long. He had secretly led this matter.
“What exactly are they plotting by using the revival of the Demonic Cult?”
Ma Bong-Gi could not understand their intentions.
This time, Sima Tian asked him,
“I heard there were several ambushes.”
“That is correct. Fortunately, the elites of the main headquarters blocked them well.”
Jong Cheon-Rak never mentioned the newly appointed strategist’s actions. They had agreed that if he absolutely had to say something, he would only reveal that there had been help from Gal Sa-Ryang. He had also strictly ordered his subordinates never to speak of it.
Ma Bong-Gi spoke to the gathered heads of the Grand Martial Alliance.
“Although it is regrettable that this matter did not go as intended, if we cannot stop the revival of the Demonic Cult, the Jianghu will fall into great chaos. Everyone must stay alert and make every effort to manage your organizations. We may soon have to fight a decisive battle against them.”
“Yes! Understood!”
The heads answered in unison and bowed.
“Let us end today’s meeting here. Corps Leader Jong, you worked hard traveling such a long distance. Go and rest.”
“Thank you, Alliance Lord.”
After giving his farewell, Jong Cheon-Rak walked out of the Alliance Lord’s Hall. He acted as if he knew nothing. They had tried to kill him, yet they behaved so calmly. Just thinking about it made his teeth grind, but he told himself that nothing had been revealed yet. That thought helped him greatly in not revealing his true feelings.
All the other heads also went outside, and the person who remained until the end was Zuo Tie-Long.
Sima Tian wanted to remain and hear what exactly these two would talk about, but he pretended not to care and left. Since there had been the matter of trying to eliminate Gal Sa-Ryang while getting mixed into this incident, he did not want to linger around unnecessarily.
When only the two of them were left, Ma Bong-Gi said coldly,
“Your filthy trick failed.”
Zuo Tie-Long’s expression wrinkled slightly. This Ma Bong-Gi did not know how to hide things moderately. Even if it was a place where only the two of them were present, there should have been some kind of secrecy shared only between those who shared a secret. Yet he asked openly and confronted openly. And with such vulgar words.
“Pathetic bastard.”
Truly, if it had not been for the orders of those who had recruited him, he would never have placed Ma Bong-Gi in the position of Alliance Lord.
“The ones who failed were them. They were the ones who tried to kill the Heavenly Palace Corps Leader.”
Ma Bong-Gi saw their failure this time as his own opportunity.
“I cannot trust you people. Go and tell them. If they do not meet me, they will regret it.”
From his eyes, it was clear that this was not a simple threat.
Zuo Tie-Long spoke words he had never said until now.
“Would it not be better to simply live as you are?”
“As I am? As a puppet Alliance Lord? During the day, I stamp seals as you people order, and at night, I do nothing but fuck around? I cannot do that. Go and tell them. I do not want anything else. I just want to see their faces once.”
Without answering one way or the other, Zuo Tie-Long bowed respectfully and walked out.
Only then did Ma Bong-Gi’s sneer fly out and lodge itself in his back.
“You moron. Do not act so superior. You are nothing but a puppet too.”
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“Strategist Gal! I am truly glad you returned safely!”
Sima Tian ran over and clasped Gal Sa-Ryang’s hands. The welcome was so excessive that it felt awkward. Just from this action alone, one could tell. There was something weighing on his conscience.
“The Heavenly Palace Corps martial artists’ performance was outstanding.”
“I just came from seeing the Heavenly Palace Corps Leader. What exactly happened?”
“I will prepare a report and submit it soon.”
“Yes, yes. Submit it slowly. In any case, you must have been greatly shocked.”
“Through this mission, I clearly realized one thing. The Demonic Cult truly is plotting its revival.”
“It is truly a terrifying matter. We must stop them at all costs.”
“I will do everything in my power.”
“You must be tired, so rest well for the next few days. I will receive the report afterward.”
“Thank you.”
Before leaving the room, Sima Tian added one more sentence with a rather moved expression.
“If you had not returned safely, I would have lived with guilt for the rest of my life.”
Gal Sa-Ryang smiled.
“Thank you. Thanks to your concern, I was able to return safely.”
After returning to the Alliance, Gal Sa-Ryang was busy.
The thing he paid attention to first was the Heavenly Palace Corps. He himself was also a target for elimination, but taking care of himself was a matter for later. He had to somehow find a way to help the Heavenly Palace Corps Leader escape this danger.
That was why I had to look after him.
In truth, when it came to the forces behind this, I was the person who knew the most about them. It was only regrettable that I could not share all that information with Gal Sa-Ryang.
First, Sima Tian had to be dealt with. He had tried to kill Gal Sa-Ryang, and there could be another attempt.
How should I deal with him?
I intended to kill him. It was not only because of revenge for trying to kill Gal Sa-Ryang.
He had clearly known that Jong Cheon-Rak and the Heavenly Palace Corps martial artists would end up dying. That was why he had attached Gal Sa-Ryang to the mission.
While occupying the position of Chief Strategist of the Grand Martial Alliance, he knowingly sent his subordinate into a place of death? This was not a matter for mere beheading. He deserved to be torn apart by slow slicing.
But if I killed the Chief Strategist of the Grand Martial Alliance recklessly just because I was angry, that would become a major problem. The force behind him might immediately discover our identity.
Because I had killed that old man this time, they would be tense. Although he had died to one move of my Revolving Wheel Calamity, that old man had truly been a tremendous expert.
They would try to investigate how that old man died. I could not be exposed to them yet. In this situation, I could not simply cut down Sima Tian according to my feelings.
If I could kill him without future trouble, I would kill him, but for now, the realistic method was to drive him out of the Alliance.
How should I deal with this bastard?
At that moment, I remembered one thing related to Sima Tian.
Ah! That is right.
I remembered something I had prepared before for a time like this.
I immediately sent a secret letter to Jin through a contact office.
“There is something going on.”
Sima Tian had a bad feeling. If he had not personally sent Gal Sa-Ryang, this would have been a situation he could simply watch from one step back.
After all, it was a problem between the Alliance Lord and the Heavenly Palace Corps Leader. But the fact that he had pushed Gal Sa-Ryang into that matter kept making him feel uneasy.
“Surely it did not fail because of Gal Sa-Ryang?”
He thought there was no way that could be, but he could not understand how the Alliance Lord and the force behind him had failed in this matter. They must have plotted this because they were capable of killing him.
In any case, once he had made up his mind to kill Gal Sa-Ryang, he began thinking that he had to get rid of him somehow.
At that moment, someone knocked on the door.
“What is it?”
“It is me.”
The person who entered was the strategist-in-charge.
“What is it?”
“They say the Alliance Lord’s Hall will send an investigator to look into this matter.”
“An investigator? To Strategist Gal?”
“Yes.”
Usually, when a major mission failed, an investigator was sent out. However, the place responsible for such matters was the Law Enforcement Hall. Yet the Alliance Lord’s Hall was sending someone?
That meant the Alliance Lord, or perhaps the force behind him, intended to investigate this matter.
“Damn it!”
If things went wrong, it might be revealed that he had intentionally tried to kill Gal Sa-Ryang. Then it would also be exposed that he had come to know of the existence of the force behind the scenes.
“How should I handle this?”
Three days later, I received word from Jin.
As expected, he had prepared what I had asked for before.
Taking what he had sent, I went to Gal Sa-Ryang.
In the meantime, Gal Sa-Ryang had thought of one way to save the Heavenly Palace Corps Leader.
This time, two people from the Heavenly Palace Corps had died, and several others had been injured. His plan was to have them enter special training under the justification of subjugating the Demonic Cult.
Special training was usually training that lasted at least one month and as long as three months.
Once they left the Alliance for training, they could escape Ma Bong-Gi, and being surrounded by one thousand Heavenly Palace Corps martial artists who had entered special training would be the safest choice to avoid assassination.
It was indeed a good method. As expected, Gal Sa-Ryang was necessary.
When only the two of us were present, I handed Gal Sa-Ryang several sheets of paper.
“Please look at these.”
“What are these?”
“I thought we could not leave the Chief Strategist alone. So I secretly investigated him. Not long ago, his right-hand man, Jo Byeok, opened a courtesan house using a child.”
“Ah! I remember that incident.”
At that time, the matter had been left to the Grand Martial Alliance martial artists to handle, and the old men who had used that place had all been imprisoned in the underground prison. It had been treated as an official case.
“At the time, Sima Tian flatly denied knowing Jo Byeok.”
“He did.”
“These are pieces of evidence proving that Jo Byeok carried out various tasks under Sima Tian’s orders.”
“What? Where did you get these?”
At the time, I had ordered Su and Jin to investigate this matter. I had told them to collect evidence related to the connection between Jo Byeok and Sima Tian.
I had thought it would be needed later, and that time was now.
“I bought them through an intelligence organization.”
If Gal Sa-Ryang asked to the very end where they came from, I could reveal it. Jin and Su had already built an information organization on the scale of the entire Central Plains. I could simply say that I bought it from them.
Gal Sa-Ryang did not ask about that. Considering the abilities I had shown him since we met, this matter was also not that surprising. Moreover, I was, in my own way, a child of the Byeok Sword Clan, once called the best in Shandong.
“With this evidence, we can drag Sima Tian down from the position of Chief Strategist. But since the entire Grand Martial Alliance can be said to be on his side…”
Gal Sa-Ryang’s eyes shone.
“We must find a way to use this evidence decisively.”
I believe in him. I believe that he will find a way.
Sa-Ryang. Use your mind as much as you wish. I will guard your back.
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