Volume 5 Chapter 6 – Dead Stone

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Translated by Rain

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Elder Yeom nodded readily.

“…If it is the skill possessed by the Great War Merchant of the North, I think it is a matter worth trying. However…”

The Great War Merchant of the North, Dong Ga-hyu, prostrated himself flat on the floor and cut off Elder Yeom’s words.

“This Dong Ga-hyu will surely accomplish it!”

Although he might have been angry at the attitude of cutting off his words.

Elder Yeom, whose expression did not change in the slightest, continued what he was saying once Dong Ga-hyu finished speaking.

“However, apart from this person’s ability, there is a lot of room for issues in his reliability. This person…”

At that moment, Dong Ga-hyu cried out again.

“If not for this Dong Ga-hyu, you cannot trust any merchant of the north…!”

“Dong Ga-hyu.”

Dong Ga-hyu, who was crying out boisterously, closed his mouth reflexively at the coldness felt from the Eldest Young Master’s single word.

“Ye-es…?”

While breaking out in a cold sweat, he tried to stealthily raise his head to read the countenance, but his two eyes met with the Eldest Young Master who was staring at him intently.

“H-Hieek?!”

Dong Ga-hyu banged his head on the floor again.

“I-I have committed a capital crime…!”

The Eldest Young Master gestured while looking at Elder Yeom.

“Please continue.”

Elder Yeom calmly continued speaking once again.

“…This person was suspected of delivering military supplies to hostile tribes during the Northern War, and it was only because of a lack of evidence that he could not be punished.”

“E-Eek…!”

Dong Ga-hyu was extremely restless, wishing to cut off Elder Yeom’s words several times, but under the Eldest Young Master’s gaze staring quietly down at him, he ultimately could not utter a single word.

“I know that even at this hour, the military authorities of the north are still continuing their investigation against him.”

When Elder Yeom’s remarks ended, the Eldest Young Master nodded readily.

“What a terrible thing. Selling or leasing military supplies to a hostile nation during a war is equivalent to treason.”

At those words, Dong Ga-hyu’s complexion rotted away, but the Eldest Young Master’s words were not yet finished.

“You said it is an investigation by the northern military authorities?”

“Yes. I understand that an intelligence agency directly under the Grand General’s Office is in charge of the investigation.”

“I see. An intelligence agency directly under the Grand General’s Office would be a competent organization.”

“Therefore, you must be careful. Heaven only knows what he will do in the north while carrying the Eldest Young Master’s name on his back, under the guise of executing the mission.”

Elder Yeom tried to recommend a few personnel who came to his mind, but the Eldest Young Master opened his mouth first.

“Seeing that he still roams around freely even though a competent organization of the Grand General’s Office has been investigating for several years, it seems his ability is competent beyond expectation.”

Joy turned on Dong Ga-hyu’s face.

“It is true that he is competent. Therefore…”

Elder Yeom chose his words for a moment with a stiff expression, then soon expressed it directly.

“A ‘rein’ for control is absolutely necessary. However…”

Elder Yeom looked at Dong Ga-hyu with an expression of detestation.

“This person is also competent to the extent that he would not leave such weaknesses behind.”

The Eldest Young Master nodded with his arms crossed.

“I see.”

A silence settled in the room for a moment.

Yeom Baek-ha felt as if she could hear the sound of the old man, prostrate on his knees, rolling his eyeballs here and there.

‘Extremely competent, but wickedly competent.’

She turned her eyes to the Eldest Young Master.

‘Would the Eldest Young Master indeed have a way to control this person?’

Right now, Dong Ga-hyu looked like an ugly old man showing an excessively servile appearance for reasons she did not know.

But in reality, he was a person with an influence counted on fingers among the merchants of the north, and depending on the case, was the possessor of a financial power strong enough not to read Elder Yeom’s countenance like now.

Normally, it would of course be right to reconsider using such a person for an important mission.

However, Yeom Baek-ha expected that if it were the Eldest Young Master, there would be ‘some’ way.

“Dong Ga-hyu.”

The Eldest Young Master called Dong Ga-hyu.

“Yes! Eldest Young Master!”

“In solving this problem, can you swear that you will not covet any private interest?”

Therefore, when this absurd question from the Eldest Young Master came out, Yeom Baek-ha was flustered.

Dong Ga-hyu replied immediately.

“Of course, Eldest Young Master! Swearing by Yuanshi Tianzun, if only you trust this Dong Ga-hyu, surely…”

“Strange.”

The Eldest Young Master cut off his words.

“Are you not a believer in Tengri?”

Dong Ga-hyu, who was momentarily speechless, quickly wagged his mouth.

“O-Of course, I can also swear by Tengri! What would be so special about the faith of a humble merchant like me? As long as you make financial luck follow me, I would mouth off whether it is Tengri, Yuanshi Tianzun, or Amitabha!”

“I suppose so.”

“Indeed!”

It was Dong Ga-hyu who rubbed his hands while kneeling, laughing, ‘Hehehe.’

The Eldest Young Master’s second question was even more absurd.

“Then, can you be dedicated to the extent of even rolling around in a mire full of dirty filth in order to make this mission succeed?”

At that absurd question, even the gaze of the thick-skinned Dong Ga-hyu shook.

“O-Of course.”

“I see.”

Although he had asked the question himself, the Eldest Young Master did not seem particularly interested in Dong Ga-hyu’s answer.

“You will surely keep this oath, correct?”

“Of course! If I fail to keep this oath, lightning will fall from heaven and burn me to death!”

The moment Elder Yeom, unable to watch any longer, tried to step forward and open his mouth, something touched his Qi perception.

It was a sound transmission flying in from the outside.

However, in a situation where he was unprepared, wiretapping a sound transmission directed to the Eldest Young Master was impossible even for an expert of his caliber.

If he had succeeded in wiretapping the sound transmission, he would have heard the following words.

‘It is all lies, Master.’

Hearing the sound transmission of the Head Maid Jeong-ah, who possessed Dragon Eyes, the Eldest Young Master smiled.

“Come to think of it…”

The Eldest Young Master spoke, stroking his chin as if it had just occurred to him.

“Suddenly, a rumor about a certain commander of ten thousand in the distant northern grasslands came to mind.”

The Eldest Young Master made a gesture of retracing his memory with somewhat exaggerated movements.

“He reportedly swore that he would not lay down the sword from his hand before capturing his uncle who had cowardly murdered his father, and tearing his flesh into ten thousand pieces.”

Yeom Baek-ha was puzzled by the Eldest Young Master’s out-of-the-blue words, but felt an even greater doubt at the fact that Dong Ga-hyu, who had been chattering whenever there was an opportunity until now, said nothing at all.

“That commander of ten thousand had his most loyal subordinates, and I heard that according to the commander’s oath, they bound their right hands along with their swords with red cloth, saying they would not untie them until the revenge was finished.”

An arc of a deep, meaningful smile hung on the Eldest Young Master’s face as he turned his body to look into the distance.

“Since they reportedly have not untied that red cloth to this day, decades later, is it not surprising?”

She looked back at Dong Ga-hyu and was startled.

“…!”

The old man was trembling all over like an aspen leaf in his prostrate posture.

Not a single trace of blood could be found on his face.

Furthermore, he was sweating so much cold sweat that it was enough to soak his entire clothing.

Yeom Baek-ha realized.

‘This person is the one in that story!’

It was the same for Elder Yeom who was astonished.

‘Was Dong Ga-hyu not originally from the Central Plains nation in the first place!’

His gaze turned to the Eldest Young Master.

‘Just how did the Eldest Young Master get his hands on such information?’

His gaze toward the Eldest Young Master shook.

‘Did the Eldest Young Master make Dong Ga-hyu wait in advance because he knew this information?’

There was no way that was the case.

That Elder Yeom set today as the visit date was a matter Elder Yeom himself decided unilaterally today.

‘In the first place, for Dong Ga-hyu to hear the message in the north and come to Luoyang to wait, it would have taken at least several months.’

Furthermore, if the Eldest Young Master had prepared Dong Ga-hyu in the first place, there was no reason to hide that fact either.

Without giving Elder Yeom time to organize his mind, which grew more complex the more he thought, the Eldest Young Master’s low voice resounded.

“Dong Ga-hyu.”

Dong Ga-hyu tried to answer quickly, but what came out of his mouth was only the sound of leaking air.

The Eldest Young Master slowly passed his desk and stood in front of the shabby old man.

“I will not command you to even stake your worthless life on this mission.”

The Eldest Young Master issued a command that he could never refuse.

“However, you will surely accomplish this mission successfully.”

The Eldest Young Master whispered in the old man’s ear.

“Is that not so, Dong Ga-hyu?”

The Eldest Young Master’s pupils narrowed like blades.

“Or, should I call you ‘Arukutai’ of the ‘Oirat Tribe’?”

The old man’s eyes grew so wide they seemed ready to tear.

For some reason, the Eldest Young Master’s voice sounded like the voice of his elder brother whom he had stabbed in the back and killed long ago.

The voice of his elder brother who had trusted him more than anyone in the world!

The old man cried out like a fit.

“I-I will surely obey your command and show success!”

The old man banged his head on the hard marble floor.

“Surely!”

He banged and banged again.

“Surely!”

Blood splattered, but he did not stop.

“Surely!”

At that moment, a sound transmission flew into the Eldest Young Master’s ear again.

It was the content he was waiting for.

‘It is true, Master.’

A highly satisfied smile hung on the corner of the Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon’s mouth.

Briefly, teeth like serrated blades reminiscent of a shark’s were revealed, but no one in the office saw it.

It was the result produced by the harmony of the souls’ voices told by the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and the Dragon Eyes possessed by the Golden-Eyed Witch.

‘Do not worry.’

Yeon So-hyeon spoke in his heart to the souls filling the room.

‘This bug-like person is a traitor who murdered his kin to monopolize an inheritance, a slaughterer who burned down countless villages for greed, and a traitor who betrayed his nation to gain influence.’

That was a sentence,

‘And in the end, when the day comes that his usefulness is exhausted, he will die with his body torn into ten thousand pieces.’

That was a declaration.

The earthly agent of heaven’s punishment on behalf of the indifferent heavens.

The dark blue ghostly energy of the Dark Venerable was burning vividly deep within his eyes.

* * *

The Great War Merchant of the North, who used the alias Dong Ga-hyu, slipped out of the office as if rolling.

That shape lacking any dignity was more like fleeing a place of death than retreating.

After a heavy period of silence flowed, Elder Yeom opened his mouth.

“Although it is clear a leash was put on him…”

His tone was cautious.

“…Will he not get frightened and go into hiding?”

The Eldest Young Master, who was the only one in a comfortable posture within the office, wore a smile on his lips.

“The ‘Mangudai’ of the Oirat Tribe will pursue him to the ends of hell, if even a tiny reliable clue is given.”

The smile on the Eldest Young Master’s lips was one clearly containing joy.

“If he is already dead, they will hang his corpse and drag it away, and if he has become white bones, they will search out even a handful of bone dust.”

A thick scent of blood drifted from that smile.

“And he will never be able to abandon the wealth he has acquired and flee.”

The Eldest Young Master extended his hand.

“From the very moment he entered this office, his lifeline was already in my hand.”