Lee Chu was faithfully following Geom Mugeuk's instructions.
—He's about to ask if you can get the antidote for Black Fly.
Tell him you can.
—Understood.
Just as Geom Mugeuk had predicted, Geum Ah-jong sent a telepathic message.
-That energy-dispersing poison antidote, can you get it?
—I should be able to.
—Get it as fast as you can, whatever it takes!
-Understood.
—What are you doing? Get going!
As Lee Chu was about to leave, he looked back at the two of them.
The sight of them drinking made it seem as though Geum Ah-jong was dancing on the palm of the evil spirit painted on the carriage wall.
He wasn't worried about Geum Ah-jong, though.
It wasn't because of how poorly he was usually treated.
'He and I are the same.'
It was the thought that perhaps he, too, was dancing along with him.
On the palm of a giant evil spirit, so large that he wouldn't even know he was on it.
"You asked what kind of person my brother is?"
Geum Ah-jong poured a drink into Geom Mugeuk's cup.
Now that he knew the secret of how the Money Bugs were defeated, Geom Mugeuk seemed less intimidating.
Energy-dispersing poison was a toxin that prevented the use of inner energy for a certain time, not one that killed instantly.
This meant one could prepare for it if they had the antidote beforehand.
A poison befitting a swindler.
"My older brother is a magnificent person. Smart, diligent, handsome, and he's the one who will inherit the main family."
Geom Mugeuk sensed it.
While rattling off insincere words, a hint of his true feelings slipped out, particularly when he mentioned his brother being handsome.
Did he have an inferiority complex about his looks compared to his brother?
"Hearing you say that makes me want to meet him. Could you introduce me?"
Geum Ah-jong thought his prediction was correct.
'So the target was my brother all along!'
His brother was the one these people were planning to hit for a big score at the clan.
'What if my brother falls for these guys? At the last moment, I'll be the one to catch the swindlers who extorted money from my brother and younger sibling.'
It wouldn't be about catching the swindlers, but about seizing the position of successor.
At the request for an introduction, Geum Ah-jong subtly took a step back.
"Would you really need my introduction? If you want to see him, just go meet him. You're part of the family now."
Then, Geom Mugeuk refilled his cup and spoke.
"Do you think he'd welcome me if I went to see him?"
"True, given my brother's personality, he probably won't like you. He'll think you swindled two million Nyang from the main family. Ah, don't misunderstand. That's not what I think."
Geum Ah-jong slowly began to reveal his true colors.
"Speaking of my brother, if I were you, I would have helped him, not the younger sister."
"May I ask why?"
"A true man should aim for great things, shouldn't he? The younger sister has no chance of becoming the successor anyway."
Geom Mugeuk stared intently at Geum Ah-jong and asked.
"Then what about you? Are you not confident you can become the successor? You seem like a man of great ambition."
As expected of a swindler, his senses are sharp.
"Me? I'm like a nuisance. Pushed aside by my older brother, pushed aside by my younger sister. Reality isn't easy."
"If one's ambition is great, aren't their wings also large?"
Geom Mugeuk looked up as if he could see large wings on his back.
Geum Ah-jong laughed at the sight.
It was a simple reaction, but it didn't feel bad.
What's wrong with being told my ambition seems great?
"What's the satisfaction in helping someone who'll become the successor anyway? It's also a problem to stick by someone who will never be the successor. I wish I had met you sooner."
Geom Mugeuk's words of regret intrigued Geum Ah-jong.
For a moment, he felt the urge to reveal everything to this man and join forces to plot something.
Somehow, he felt he could succeed with this man by his side.
But Geum Ah-jong quickly flinched.
'What am I thinking!'
Indeed, a swindler is a swindler.
He had unknowingly entertained the absurd thought of joining hands with this man.
His face, his voice, his expression—he felt the man was born for this.
Listening to him made his heart constantly loosen its guard.
"Let's go together tomorrow. I'll introduce you to my brother."
"Thank you."
"I'll let you in on something special."
It wasn't just because he was in a good mood.
For the man to properly lure his brother, he needed to know him well.
"There's something my brother absolutely cannot stand."
"What is that?"
Geum Ah-jong said as he finished his last drink.
"Losing when it comes to money."
At the same time, in the Clan Leader's Hall of the Golden Dragon Clan, a long-awaited report was being delivered.
"The Hundred Immortals Gang was empty."
At his subordinate's report, Geum Cheonbang asked in surprise.
"You mean there wasn't a single body?"
"Yes. Not a single one."
"Traces of a fight?"
"They were left in various places. Only the bodies had been completely cleared away, so we couldn't tell how they fought or what the outcome was."
When he first sent his men, he never dreamed he would be asking such questions upon their return.
"Is it possible the Hundred Immortals Gang staged it themselves?"
The question arose from the fact that all the bodies had disappeared.
What if they had pretended to be defeated and vanished?
"The possibility is open. They could all be dead, or they could have left traces of a fight and departed."
Seeing Geum Cheonbang's expression sour at the inconclusive report, the subordinate quickly added.
"If they were all indeed defeated, one thing is certain. They wouldn't have had much time to clean up, so for it to be done so neatly, the one who handled the cleanup must have considerable martial skill or be an expert in this kind of work."
The subordinate's report ended there.
"You may leave."
"Yes."
Geum Cheonbang felt that this incident was no ordinary matter.
"Was it staged by the Hundred Immortals Gang? Or was it the work of the Silver River Merchant Group?"
He still found it hard to believe that Geom Mugeuk had done it.
It was at that moment.
"It was neither."
The person who entered was his eldest son, Geum Ah-hyuk.
He had the appearance of a First Young Master from a prestigious clan.
An appearance that radiated the aura of a great and righteous hero.
If the second son, Geum Ah-jong, was the type to reveal his cunning and selfish nature through his face and actions, this Geum Ah-hyuk was a man who thoroughly concealed himself behind the facade of a great hero.
"Everyone, leave us."
Geum Cheonbang dismissed even the subordinates hidden in the shadows.
Now, only the two of them remained in the Clan Leader's Hall.
"Neither? What do you mean?"
"A man named Geom Yeon killed all the Immortals of the Hundred Immortals Gang."
"How do you know that?"
Geum Ah-hyuk didn't answer, but Geum Cheonbang realized the reason.
"Did you hear it from that man?"
He could tell from his son's expression that it was true.
"Didn't I tell you not to contact him as much as possible? I said I would handle it myself."
At that, Geum Ah-hyuk asked with a look of incomprehension.
"Why do you dislike him?"
Even in this atmosphere, the way he referred to him as 'that esteemed person' instead of just 'him' angered Geum Cheonbang.
His voice naturally rose.
"Because he's a dangerous man!"
He hadn't given off such a dangerous feeling from the beginning.
At first, he was gentle and calm.
For a long time, he consistently gave them a reason to trust him and willingly join hands.
Like clothes getting damp in a fine rain, he had slowly seeped into their family.
Only after his clothes were thoroughly soaked did he realize.
It wasn't rain, but blood.
"We must endure it! He is the one who has brought us greater profit than any of the Righteous, Demonic, or Unorthodox Sects. For a merchant, is there a more certain reason than this?"
Geum Cheonbang had lived his entire life as a merchant.
He had reached an age and accumulated enough experience to get a feel for most worldly affairs, to size up most people, and to understand things with a glance.
But lately, there were two things he couldn't understand.
No, two people.
His son and that man.
He no longer understood his son, nor the man his son called 'that esteemed person.' When he first met him, he had thoroughly analyzed and investigated him, but now, after more than a decade, he felt he understood him less.
Much like the heart of his grown son.
"If we're talking about danger, the men from the Western Path Sect that Ah-rin brought are more dangerous. They must have come for him."
"How can you be so sure?"
Geum Ah-hyuk did not answer.
"He told you again, didn't he?"
Geum Ah-hyuk stared fixedly at Geum Cheonbang.
For some time now, his son had been looking at him with such eyes.
With such a foreign gaze.
Geum Cheonbang had always been proud of his eldest son since he was young.
How could a frail and unimpressive man like him have such a son? This sense of pride filled him every time.
When he took his son out, everyone praised him and envied him.
So he had often boasted, enough to feel sorry for his second son.
And so he had lived, believing.
Believing that his son's character was the same as his appearance, that of a great hero.
He truly lived believing that.
And in reality, his son had grown up well without any major trouble.
But at some point, things changed.
He wished it had been after meeting him, but he knew well that it wasn't.
He had felt something unfamiliar from his son even before that.
Could he be this cold?
Could he be this selfish?
Could he be this greedy for money?
It was because of these traits that he thought the man might have approached him.
And yet, he trusted his son.
Though he hadn't answered the earlier question, he trusted his son.
Because he was his son.
Once he was a little older, he would judge situations more coldly.
"Father, didn't you say you wanted to become the wealthiest man in the Central Plains? Didn't you say that was your dream?"
"I did, I did. But…"
"What are you afraid of? Aren't we making that dream come true?"
He didn't deny that the Golden Dragon Clan had grown faster thanks to their partnership with him.
He had also earned a vast fortune with his help.
But the money he demanded was also snowballing.
"One day, he might swallow us whole."
"Even if he swallows us, he'll do it after making us the best."
His son's eyes said it all.
If you're scared, step aside.
It was because of those eyes.
That he had told his daughter she couldn't be the successor.
Because of those eyes, which would even get rid of his own sibling if they stood in his way.
"The men from the Western Path Sect that my sister brought will all be gone before the night is over. Just as the Hundred Immortals Gang disappeared."
"No!"
Geum Cheonbang's heart pounded.
Killing someone meant they could be killed in retaliation.
How could he make such a decision so easily? You fool, we are merchants!
"If they are the ones who eliminated the Hundred Immortals Gang as you say, then we must not touch them carelessly!"
"Isn't it what you always said, Father?"
Geum Ah-hyuk smiled leisurely and added.
"That there's nothing in the world that can't be done with money."
Geum Cheonbang was speechless, because he had indeed said those words often.
Even so… he never thought a day like this would come.
After finishing my drinks with Geum Ah-jong, I went to see my father.
Father and Hwi had moved their lodgings from the safehouse to the Golden Dragon Clan.
Just as we had discussed at the safehouse, I judged that they would soon make a serious move, with the elimination of the Hundred Immortals Gang as the catalyst.
They would try to protect their massive source of funds, the Golden Dragon Clan, by any means necessary.
I hesitated for a moment in front of my father's room.
Was it because of the slight buzz from the alcohol?
I had come because I wanted to see my father, but on second thought, it was already time for him to be asleep.
Father, it's your second son!
It was a day I wanted to bang on the door and act like a drunk, but I didn't dare.
'Martial artists would never know.
That the Heavenly Demon goes to sleep this early.
Shouldn't a Heavenly Demon be awake at the crack of dawn, or something like that?'
Just as I was turning to leave quietly, without making a sound, the door opened.
Startled, I turned to see my father standing there.
Before I could ask if he was still awake, or apologize for waking him, these words had to come out first.
"Another flower pattern? Just how many of those do you have?"
My father was wearing flower-patterned pajamas.
Could the Heavenly Demon really wear such pajamas? The ultimate assassin-proof pajamas.
I didn't know because he didn't wear them when we camped, and I didn't see him at night when we stayed at inns.
One would think he'd be awkward or embarrassed, but my father showed no shame in these pajamas at all.
Could he really wear these pajamas proudly in front of the Martial Alliance Leader or the Unorthodox Alliance Leader?
"What is it?"
I didn't know how to answer his blunt question.
I had really just come to see him on a whim, spurred by the alcohol.
"I just came to wish you a good night."
"Waking a sleeping person to tell them to sleep well?"
I bowed my head to my father, who seemed dumbfounded.
The only words that came to mind right now were these.
"Thank you."
What I felt during this journey was that my father was enduring me.
How could this journey, his first in a long time after staying only at the Main Sect, be purely enjoyable?
Moreover, I was acting as I pleased, trying to do everything I couldn't do with my father, so waking him in the middle of the night must have been another act that required his patience.
I thought he might smack me on the back of my bowed head.
But after looking down at me for a moment, my father closed the door and went back inside.
Even though I had woken him, I was happy to have seen his face.
It was just a brief, insignificant encounter, but even this would become a memory for me.
The title would be something like 'A Little Midnight Drunkenness.'
True victory in my life isn't killing my enemies, but moments like these.
'Even if it bothers Father, I'll keep making these small memories.'
Even if Hwa Mugi draws his sword right in front of me, I will banter with my father.
I will make memories with my Demon Sovereigns and my subordinates.
And with that, I will comfort my past self, who fell asleep in bitter loneliness, longing only for this moment.
It's a promise I always make to myself.
'Not for my father's sake, but for my own.'
Because I know well that only then can one truly act for another's sake.
Standing before the corridor window outside my father's room, I looked up at the pitch-black night sky.
It was a night where both the stars and the moon were hidden by clouds.
Then my gaze fell like a shooting star, glaring at the dark courtyard below.
I slowly brought my index finger to my lips and said softly.
"Shh! Father is sleeping."