Episode 16. Threat of the Bottomless Drinker (1)
Cha Seong-tae asked me,
“So now that your house has burned down to a crisp, where are you planning to sleep?”
“The brothels are full of empty rooms. Why’re you even asking?”
“Well, I was going to suggest you use one of the best suites the former masters used. There were three of them, remember? So we just happen to have three very fine rooms available.”
“I’ll just go crash somewhere. For now, clean up this lot first.”
Cha Seong-tae turned to the men still kneeling on the ground and threatened them.
“Don’t go back to Siwha House tonight. Go to Maehwa House instead. I’ll have a word with you later.”
“Yes, sir.”
All of them had families in Ilyang County, so they were tied to the place and couldn’t just run.
Once the lackeys slunk away with their shoulders hunched, Seong-tae looked back at me.
“Anything else…?”
I stared a while at the ashes of Jahak Inn before speaking.
“Rebuild it properly. I wasn’t joking when I said to restore Jahak Inn.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“And while you’re at it, if there’s some guy who’s really good at construction, keep an eye on him and report back to me. That man will be head of the Construction Gate.”
“Construction Gate?”
“You run the Salvation Gate for the brothel folk. Iron Gate goes to Uncle Geum Cheol-yong and the smithies. The head of Construction Gate will lead all the builders and laborers.”
“Salvation Gate, Construction Gate, Iron Gate… any more?”
“Of course there are more. First, everyone enters the Salvation Gate, then we assign them to Construction or Iron or wherever based on what they want to do.”
My plan for Hao Sect was simple at its core: organize things so people could find work and make a living.
People need work if they want to eat.
If they can’t find work, Hao Sect will give them work.
That was the basic idea behind founding this “sect.”
And if any disputes or bullying arose in that process, the sect master would step in to resolve them. That was my personal indulgence.
While indulging that, I’d grow stronger and settle all the grudges from my past life.
Seong-tae nodded.
“Oh… not bad. Like some kind of alliance?”
I answered in a low, level voice,
“More like a coalition of ordinary working people.”
He scratched his cheek and gave a sheepish smile, different from usual.
“It’s not a bad idea. But once it gets big, the rules and atmosphere will be a complete mess.”
“Doesn’t matter. Let it be a mess.”
“But it’s still an organization.”
I was the sworn enemy of the Martial Alliance and the Demonic Cult, the two groups said to have the strictest rules in the martial world. Naturally, I had no desire to model anything after them.
“All my organization has to do is survive for a long time. That alone gives it meaning. I’m not trying to build some great empire. I’m going to build the most chaotic, messed-up faction in this shitty martial world—and the one that lasts the longest.”
Seong-tae swallowed a curse.
What kind of bullshit is that.
Of course, once the basic framework of Hao Sect was in place, I had other plans I’d set in motion.
“You think underworld gangs like Black Rabbit Gang will sit back and watch?”
At his question, I smiled.
“The structure will be such a disaster they won’t even know where to start tearing at it. That’s the key. Everyone will just do whatever work they can, earn a living, and that’s it. Any blowback lands squarely on the sect master.”
“What about a combat force?”
“You need strong warriors before you can form one. That’s for later.”
“Hmm.”
Once I had enough experts, I could form the Killing Gate. For now, I was the one-man sect master of that gate.
The future members were all the powerhouses I remembered from my previous life, and recruiting them would also be my job.
And those talented at gathering information would eventually be grouped together into Ear Gate.
Life Gate, Iron Gate, Construction Gate, Killing Gate, Ear Gate…
I planned to keep adding sub-groups like that, haphazardly.
Then I’d leave everyone alone as much as possible so they could live their own lives. No grand plans, a total mess of rules; a loose network where people only called on each other when needed.
All I wanted was a world where no one starved to death.
It occurred to me that no one else in the martial world would be crazy enough to try something like this… probably.
Whenever major trouble broke out, the big powers would eventually come looking for the master of Hao Sect.
And that’s when I’d show up and make a scene—just as I had when I became public enemy of the martial world last time.
A man who throws a fit whenever someone bullies the weak—having at least one of those in this heartless world seemed like a good thing to me.
That was all I wanted.
Given my own deranged disposition, it was only a matter of time before I became public enemy again anyway.
So Hao Sect and I would grow side by side.
With an expression different from usual, Seong-tae suddenly dropped into casual speech.
“Ja-ha, can your hyung say something?”
“Go ahead.”
He gave me a strange look.
“I owe you an apology for before. I really misjudged you. Honestly, I kept thinking there must be some great master behind you, but… seems that’s not it. You just… changed.”
“…That’s it?”
He nodded and asked,
“That’s it. So what’s the name of the alliance we’re joining?”
“Hao Sect.”
Hao Sect was the first organization I ever created. At this point in time, there’s no way Cha Seong-tae could have heard the name before.
He dipped his head slightly and muttered,
“Hao Sect… So I should be calling you ‘Sect Master’ from now on?”
His tone had changed.
I nodded.
“Call me whatever’s comfortable.”
He tilted his head.
“But… why did you spare me? I don’t really get it.”
“I figured you’d be fun to torment.”
He seemed to understand at once.
“I see. Better than dying, I guess. Got it.”
He wasn’t wrong.
That’s life.
I gave the ashes of Jahak Inn one last look and stood up.
“Let’s go.”
Having quickly sorted through his thoughts, Seong-tae answered in a different tone than before,
“Yes, sir. Let’s go, Sect Master.”
After that, I either loitered around the empty plot where Jahak Inn had once stood like some bored local youth, or shut myself inside an empty room in the brothel and buried myself in the Golden-Turtle Roaming Art.
Internal energy is something you stash away one handful at a time.
I’d learned in my previous life that a single handful could be the difference between life and death.
It wasn’t just internal cultivation, either.
I kept refining my palm techniques and finger techniques.
Leg work, though, was a problem. My waist, legs, and knees were still stiff with the body of a tavern boy.
So I holed up all over the brothel complex, spending eighty percent of my time on the Golden-Turtle Roaming Art and the rest on external training.
Meanwhile, Cha Seong-tae handled everything outside.
It’s not that I trusted him deeply.
Nor did he especially like me.
But we got along… well enough, and time passed.
Seong-tae hired a young architect who’d recently made a name for himself and commissioned the rebuilding of Jahak Inn. Until the architects came to inspect the site, Sam-pyeong’s former lackeys and various idle men from the brothels worked together to raise the outer walls.
Another twenty-odd days vanished in the blink of an eye.
That’s when I heard from Seong-tae that Black Rabbit Gang had finally shown up. On one hand, it felt inevitable.
“Who is it?”
“…The ones who always came here to be entertained. They went to Ihwa House last night and seem to have heard what’s been going on. The same guys the Jo brothers always fawned over.”
“How many?”
“Two. I’ve shown them to Plum Blossom Room for now. How should we prepare?”
“We go meet them.”
He looked troubled.
“Are you planning to fight them?”
“They’ll probably start with stuff like: ‘Pay up what you owe.’ ‘We can overlook the killing of the branch leaders.’ ‘Come under Black Rabbit Gang properly and show respect.’ That sort of crap.”
“And if they say exactly that? I don’t think we can afford to fight Black Rabbit Gang head-on right now.”
“You can’t afford it. I can.”
“So the rest of us should just die?”
“They’ll go for me first. But I’m not going to die. Where’s Plum Blossom Room?”
“Third floor. Still… couldn’t we try sending them away peacefully—”
“I’ll decide after I meet them. And how’s ‘peaceful’ supposed to work when I killed all three brothers?”
“That’s fair. But those guys really love money. There’s a chance all they want is just that.”
“Oh, that kind?”
I spent a moment lost in old memories.
“Money, huh…”
I knew a bit about the gang members who used to frequent Ilyang County around this time.
There was no reason the person in charge would’ve suddenly changed out of nowhere.
Especially when Seong-tae described them as greedy, a few familiar faces surfaced from my memories.
Seong-tae bowed his head slightly.
“I’ll show them in.”
When I walked into Plum Blossom Room and dropped into an empty seat, the two men slowly examined me as if dissecting a specimen and then introduced themselves.
“I’m Jeon Poong, from Golden Phoenix Pavilion of Black Rabbit Gang.”
“Han Go-wook, also of Golden Phoenix Pavilion.”
Both spoke in a high-handed tone.
It made sense. They were the sort who didn’t even bother to acknowledge the Jo brothers.
They were exactly who I remembered: Black Rabbit’s collectors.
“Collector” sounds like some fancy position, but in reality, they were just glorified debt collectors who went around squeezing money from people. Not exactly top-tier fighters.
Seeing them in the flesh after so long, I almost felt a strange nostalgia. At the same time, murder rose up inside me so fast I had to clamp my mouth shut.
The reason was simple.
In my previous life, it had been their successors—or colleagues—who burned down Jahak Inn.
This time, I was meeting them earlier, back when they were still the ones in charge of collections.
Jeon Poong spoke first.
“I hear you’ve been killing the Jo brothers as you please. Is that true?”
I glared at the two of them and answered,
“It is.”
“Why? Explain in detail.”
His demand for a “detailed explanation” made any desire to explain vanish instantly.
“They tried to kill me and died instead. I was stronger, so I wasn’t about to die for them.”
As I continued to stare them down, both men seemed to sense something was off.
I spoke even more flatly.
“And since you’re not judges, I see no reason I should explain myself to you. Are you their relatives? Doesn’t look like it.”
Jeon Poong and Han Go-wook glanced at each other.
Their shared confusion hung in the air like a fog.
“…”
I stared right back.
“Well? Say something.”
If they attacked me right then and there, I was prepared to kill them both on the spot.
A long silence stretched out.
These two had been the ones skimming off Ilyang’s protection money.
They’d siphoned off enough to build themselves a tidy fortune, and they’d still sent plenty up the chain to Black Rabbit Gang, earning themselves promotions as mid-level external managers.
In other words, they hadn’t climbed the ranks with pure martial strength but through “administrative” work—money.
They were monkeys driven mad by coin.
Finally, Jeon Poong spoke.
“The Jo brothers were granted our permission to establish a branch here. And you killed them.”
I replied, unimpressed,
“And?”
“If we report this straight back to Black Rabbit Gang, you won’t survive. You’ve obstructed our operations. Is that what you want us to do—go back and give a full account?”
The only thing in their heads really was money. Even now, all they were thinking was: If he bribes us, maybe we can smooth this over.
“I understand perfectly. So I’ll have to offer you a bribe. First, let’s have a drink. Madame Son?”
Madame Son opened the door to Plum Blossom Room and stared at me in silence.
“…”
“Bring that shitty Du-gang liquor. And whatever side dishes you want.”
She gave a brief nod and slipped back out.
By “shitty Du-gang liquor,” of course, I meant third-grade Du-gang.
These two weren’t going to pay for their drinks anyway, so serving them first-grade would’ve been a waste.
As the silent hostess left without a word, Jeon Poong asked, curious,
“Is that woman mute?”
“Hardly.”
“Then why doesn’t she speak?”
“I told her that if she runs her mouth wrong again, I’ll tear it off. Ever since then, she’s been very quiet.”
“…”
I pointed to my own mouth and said,
“In the martial world, man or woman, you have to be careful how you flap your tongue. Don’t you agree?”
Both men glanced away from my gaze.
They’d come here planning to lean on me hard and shake me down for money.
Now, they were already revising their strategy.