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Chapter 9: Socheon’s Flag
Lim Chung returned from a wild-goose chase.
He had gone out to meet Wang Gon, Hall Master of the Myth Sect, but Wang Gon had traveled far away and was not present.
When Lim Chung returned to the branch office, the scene had already been cleared. The bodies had been removed, and the merchants who had finished giving their statements had all returned home.
Reporting to him, Beon Saeng felt his heart pounding in anxiety. Lim Chung had flown into a rage when they brought in Jong Bae and his thugs earlier; now that Taejeong himself had died inside the branch office, a fierce tongue-lashing was sure to follow.
However, Lim Chung’s reaction was completely unexpected.
“It turned out for the best, actually.”
“Pardon? For the best you say?”
“The Taejeong Faction storming all the way into the branch office was an act that crossed the line. Now they have nothing left to say for themselves. As things stand, it was fortunate in hindsight that I failed to meet Hall Master Wang.”
Arresting the Taejeong Faction thugs was something that could have caused various complications. But the Taejeong Faction launching an attack on the branch office was a whole different story. This raid on the branch served to completely overshadow the prior arrests.
Of course, Lim Chung did not actually believe the Taejeong Faction had intended to launch an official attack on the branch. No matter how unruly a ruffian Taejeong was, he wouldn’t be stupid enough to do that. He had likely come to intimidate them, only for the situation to escalate out of control. And, naturally, Baek Socheon must have been at the center of it all.
Lim Chung lowered his voice and asked:
“Martial Artist Baek killed Taejeong intentionally, didn’t he?”
“No, it was an accident.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Though he suspected otherwise, Beon Saeng answered firmly. Believing it was an accident would be beneficial for himself, Lim Chung, and Baek Socheon alike.
“You step outside, and tell Martial Artist Baek to come in.”
“Yes, sir.”
Beon Saeng thought about saying that Baek Socheon was blameless, but held his tongue. He feared that speaking up in his defense would only stoke Lim Chung’s anger further.
As Beon Saeng stepped out, Baek Socheon walked into the office.
Lim Chung stared at Baek Socheon in silence.
“What happened?”
“It’s just as written in the report.”
“Shall we speak candidly with open hearts?”
“Let’s do that.”
“I don’t know what kind of life you’ve lived. But please, don’t do this. Martial Artist Beon is a good man.”
“I’m not sure what you mean by that.”
“Don’t shake him up.”
“So that he remains easy for you to order around?”
“…!”
In an instant, Lim Chung flared up. He had never imagined Baek Socheon would say such a thing, and right to his face, no less.
Yet Lim Chung couldn’t immediately refute it. A passing thought struck him that deep down in his heart, he might have held that exact mindset.
“You are…”
A word rose to his lips, but he didn’t utter it aloud.
“You may leave.”
Only after Baek Socheon exited did the words Lim Chung had held back escape along with a heavy sigh:
“You’re shaking me up, too.”
He couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud likely because it hurt his pride.
At any rate, this won’t be resolved easily.
While Taejeong’s death felt as refreshing as having an aching tooth pulled out, the real problem was Wang Gon, who would now come demanding compensation.
—
Sima Iljung’s first duty at the Hyeoncheon Pavilion Strategic Command Center was managing messenger tubes.
Hundreds of tube communications flying in daily from across the Central Plains were all sorted and processed here.
Ordinary tube dispatches were sorted by strategists according to their contents, while top-secret ones were delivered directly to Jegal Hyeon without breaking their seals. Certain top-secret messages were even delivered straight to the Alliance Leader.
Sima Iljung’s task was sorting the ordinary dispatches. Naturally, as a newcomer to the Strategic Command Center, he served in an assistant role.
Whirrr… Thump!
Sima Iljung turned his eyes toward the chute designated for dispatches arriving from Zhejiang Province. He quickly unsealed the cylinder that had slid down and extracted the dispatch within.
The message that had just arrived was an ordinary dispatch that strategists were permitted to unseal.
“This is a report that Taejeong, chief of the local black association Taejeong Faction, has lost his life at the hands of Baek Socheon.”
At Sima Iljung’s report, a senior strategist classified the dispatch’s priority level.
“Classify it as High-Grade and present it to the Grand Strategist.”
“Understood.”
Normally, the death of a local underworld boss was a minor event that wouldn’t even qualify as Low-Grade. It was a report that wouldn’t have been forwarded in the first place.
However, the Hyeoncheon Pavilion was currently keeping a close watch on information flowing out of Zhejiang Province, especially the Munseong area, and any information related to Baek Socheon was unconditionally treated as High-Grade before being escalated.
Carrying the dispatch, Sima Iljung entered Jegal Hyeon’s office.
“This is news regarding Baek Socheon, who went down to the Munseong Branch.”
After reviewing the contents, Jegal Hyeon let out a short chuckle.
“Well, that temper of his was never going anywhere. Send this to the Alliance Leader’s Palace.”
“Understood.”
Normally, among the information classified as High-Grade, Grand Strategist Jegal Hyeon would exercise his own judgment on whether or not a report should be elevated to the Alliance Leader’s Palace.
Yet every piece of information related to Baek Socheon was being passed up to the Alliance Leader’s Palace without exception. It meant the Alliance Leader’s Palace was continuously keeping a watchful eye on Baek Socheon.
“Come to think of it, this is the first time. The first time Baek Socheon has been away from us. He was always by our side. Even after sweeping through battlefields, he always returned to main headquarters. Both his glory and his downfall took place right here.”
That was why they could always see him. Every time he was demoted, they saw him trudging across the martial arts training grounds. The Murim Alliance had been both his cradle and his grave.
“Do you miss him?”
Right as Jegal Hyeon was about to answer…
Clang! Clang! Clang!
At the ringing of the emergency alarm bell, Jegal Hyeon and Sima Iljung rushed out of the office.
“What is happening?”
A strategist ran up and reported in urgent tones,
“There is a report that a large force from the Black Heaven Alliance is moving rapidly from Gansu toward Shaanxi.”
Gansu was the territory of the Black Heaven Alliance, while Shaanxi belonged to the Murim Alliance.
“How many men?”
“Eight hundred men of the Chuhon Squad.”
“Eight hundred? That’s the entirety of the Chuhon Squad!”
Jegal Hyeon was deeply startled. The Chuhon Squad was one of the core strike forces of the Black Heaven Alliance, a unit whose every movement was monitored with high alertness. They had been dispersed throughout Gansu; it seemed they had gathered in secret.
Either a hole had opened in their intelligence network, or the enemy had executed a groundbreaking operation. Regardless of the reason, it was bad news.
“What is their target?”
“Judging by their line of march, it appears to be the Shaanxi Sub-division.”
“Issue an emergency alert to the Shaanxi Sub-division and nearby branches!”
“Yes, sir!”
The strategist hurried away.
Whirrr… Woosh…
The senior strategists at the Strategic Command Center operated the mechanisms with practiced hands, sending the outgoing tube dispatches racing through the conduits toward the outside world.
With a fearful heart, Sima Iljung asked Jegal Hyeon,
“Could it be that they intend to launch an all-out war?”
Jegal Hyeon shook his head.
“That shouldn’t be the case.”
In war, there were always subtle signs and precursors that could be detected in advance.
Hypothetically, if this Chuhon Squad were the vanguard of an invasion force, there would have been troop movements not just in Gansu, but across all the territories under their control…Guizhou, Sichuan, Hunan, Guangxi, and Guangdong. Yet no such reports had been received.
Of course, there was still a slim possibility that this marked the beginning of the Great War between the Righteous and Unorthodox Factions. The bastards of the Black Heaven Alliance were so unpredictable that there was no telling what they might pull off.
“It is likely a large-scale drill.”
That was Jegal Hyeon’s assessment, and that was what he prayed for.
Even as they spoke, dispatches continued to fly in relentlessly.
“Report: The Chuhon Squad forces have advanced another ten li toward Shaanxi. At this speed, they will reach the border area within half a sijin.”
TL/N: 1 Sijin = 2 hours approx
“What are our forces in the expected area of first contact?”
“Only fifty defense troops from the nearby branch. Currently, three hundred reinforcements from the Shaanxi Sub-division have been dispatched on an emergency march.”
Even so, that made only three hundred and fifty men in total. If a clash broke out, they were at an absolute numerical disadvantage, and the opponent was the Chuhon Squad, an elite force among elites.
Based on the incoming reports, strategists moved flags on the troop deployment map. Built upon the actual geography of the Central Plains, the map held hundreds of flags planted across its surface.
The flag representing the Chuhon Squad was gradually being moved toward Shaanxi.
Correspondingly, the flag for the Shaanxi Sub-division was moving toward the same point to intercept them.
Sima Iljung was on edge. It was the first emergency situation he had experienced since coming down to the Strategic Command Center.
He, too, had lived through the final stages of the war, but back then he was merely a junior strategist tasked with miscellaneous chores until the war ended.
Now, for the first time, he was directly experiencing a full-scale confrontation with the Black Heaven Alliance.
Commands poured out from the Hyeoncheon Pavilion without pause, and several times as many dispatches came flying back in.
“Report: Their forces are about to enter the border region between Gansu and Shaanxi!”
With the border line drawn like a national frontier between Gansu and Shaanxi separating them, two flags were planted close together.
It was a live-combat crisis. Had the enemy numbered only a few dozen, it would end as a localized skirmish; but right now, eight hundred of the enemy’s most elite troops stood at the line. The moment they set foot in Shaanxi, it would have to be regarded as the outbreak of war.
Considering the time required for messenger pigeons and tube dispatches to travel, a conclusion must have been reached by now.
Anxious time ticked by.
Every strategist stared intently at the mechanism channel through which news from Shaanxi arrived.
All dispatches from other regions were placed on hold unless urgent.
Whirrr… Thump!
At last, a dispatch arrived from Shaanxi.
Everyone held their breath, staring at the lips of the strategist checking the dispatch.
“Ah! They report that the Chuhon Squad turned back without crossing into Shaanxi territory!”
At those words, every strategist let out a collective sigh of relief.
His tension finally unwinding, Jegal Hyeon slumped heavily into a nearby chair.
Sima Iljung brought him a glass of water.
“Thank you.”
Only after drinking the water did Jegal Hyeon regain his composure.
“That was a truly close call.”
“Their provocations are growing increasingly severe.”
This provocation felt almost like a deliberate warning aimed at them, a signal that time was running out…
“Do you know this, Iljung? The further Baek Socheon’s rank dropped, the more active the Black Heaven Alliance’s movements became.”
“Pardon? Could that really be?”
“Coincidentally, it is true. Every single time Baek Socheon was demoted, there was inevitably a provocation from their side.”
“Don’t they also know that Baek Socheon has lost his internal energy?”
“They know.”
“Then why…?”
“Even without internal energy, the mere fact that a man like him held a high position served as a powerful war deterrent, I imagine.”
Irrespective of martial prowess, there was a symbolic weight that a man named Baek Socheon carried.
Of course, it might not be the case. They might simply have resumed war preparations, and by sheer coincidence, those preparations happened to coincide with Baek Socheon’s demotions.
Yet a sharp mind like Jegal Hyeon wouldn’t hold such a belief without good reason. He must have felt a definitive connection between the two.
“If that is the case, isn’t it all the more reason for Baek Socheon to return to the Alliance?”
“Indeed.”
However, the Murim Alliance Leader had gone so far as to retrieve the sword he had bestowed upon him.
It was a sign that he never wished to see him again. Under such circumstances, could Baek Socheon truly ever return?
How on earth did things end up like this?
The image of the two men that Jegal Hyeon remembered belonged to the days when they were truly close friends.
Wherever the Murim Alliance Leader went, Baek Socheon was there.
He was always by the Alliance Leader’s side, like a Zhao Zilong who could be entrusted with any task and fulfill it without fail. Baek Socheon in those days was dashing and reliable. Not just Jegal Hyeon, but many martial artists who were in the Murim Alliance during those years must have felt the same way.
As the Black Heaven Alliance’s provocations grew bolder, the situation was drifting toward a state where it would not be strange for war to break out at any moment. Naturally, martial artists on the outside had no idea that the situation had grown so dire.
Jegal Hyeon stood up from his seat and walked toward the troop deployment map.
The two flags that had been pressed right against the border of Shaanxi and Gansu were now further apart than before.
Gazing down at them for a moment, Jegal Hyeon searched through a box beneath the map table where various flags were stored.
After a moment, he pulled out a flag trimmed with a golden border and a striking, vivid red field, a flag used to denote a large-scale military force.
It was the first flag ever created for a single individual since the founding of the Hyeoncheon Pavilion.
A flag denoting a single man, yet treated as an entire army.
The clear name written upon it:
Socheon (小天).
He recalled the days when this Socheon Flag crisscrossed the strategic deployment map in every direction. Every time Baek Socheon’s flag moved, the enemies’ flags fell and were swept off the board.
And now, if war were to break out once more…
Will we truly be able to win a war without Pavilion Master Baek?
Gazing down at the Socheon Flag for a long moment, Jegal Hyeon gently dusted it off before placing it back in its original spot.
As he walked out of the Strategic Command Center, he issued an order:
“The emergency alert in Shaanxi shall be lifted once the Chuhon Squad retreats more than two hundred li.”
“Yes, sir!”
Today, a small village at the southern tip of Zhejiang Province became a little more peaceful, but the Central Plains drifted a little closer to peril.
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