The Master of Shadows (4)
At the cry of the Dark Overlord, the hidden experts outside rushed into the warehouse.
The Dark Overlord had been diligently exchanging signals with them while moving between different warehouses. Unable to use his internal energy to send telepathic messages, his subordinates must have sent the signals first.
In this situation, do this; in that situation, do that. They had communicated through all sorts of signals, like touching their noses or patting their heads. Of course, I pretended not to notice.
It seemed the Dark Overlord hadn’t intended to involve these men. He probably thought that if he couldn’t kill me with his devices, they wouldn’t be able to either.
But now that the secret room in the ceiling was revealed, the situation had changed.
“Kill him!”
Yet the men didn’t move.
They were looking up at me, descending slowly from the ceiling.
They knew well how extraordinary it was to walk down through the air like this.
Six men had entered, all skilled enough to guard this place. But none of them could walk through the air. It was a level they couldn’t even dream of.
The Dark Overlord shouted frantically.
“What are you doing? Kill him already!”
His attention was entirely on the secret room in the ceiling, not on me, as if to prove where his mind was.
Swish! Swish!
Two of them leaped at me, swords drawn.
In the next moment, I charged at them from mid-air.
Whoosh!
The demonic energy surged forward, destroying everything in its path with incredible speed.
Thud! Thud!
As the two men were flung away, bloodied, my form flickered and vanished.
Slash!
Two more men twisted and fell under a single stroke.
I had disappeared from their sight, only to reappear like a shadow behind them, executing the Demonic Shadow Step.
The moment the Demonic Wind Step reached its peak power.
As the remaining two men turned towards me, I vanished once more.
Thud! Thud!
The Suramyeongwang Sword pierced their hearts from behind in quick succession.
The two men crumpled to the ground. In an instant, all six experts had become corpses.
The Dark Overlord looked defeated. Considering how carefully he had selected them to guard this place, their deaths seemed utterly futile.
In truth, I could have eliminated them all without using the Demonic Arts or the Demonic Wind Step.
But martial arts improve with practice in real combat.
Since they were all destined to die anyway, I didn’t hold back in using the two techniques of the Demonic Wind Step: the Demonic Bullet and the Demonic Shadow.
With all six experts dead in an instant, the Dark Overlord collapsed to the ground.
A gust of wind flew and sealed his acupoints, preventing him from escaping while I checked the secret room in the ceiling.
The secret room was quite pleasant, with careful attention to ventilation and humidity control.
The reason became immediately clear.
Small boxes were stacked to one side, easily over a hundred. I opened one.
To my surprise, it contained elixirs. All the boxes were filled with elixirs. There was a truly diverse collection.
From the incredible Heavenly Power Elixir that could increase one’s internal energy, to lower-grade elixirs like the Vitality Elixir.
It seemed these were the elixirs he had collected over a lifetime. He hadn’t consumed them because he was a merchant. This was a form of investment.
Elixirs are always a sure investment. As long as the martial world exists, the price of elixirs has never dropped.
A few books and documents were piled to one side.
These were the Dark Overlord’s unburned assets.
Contracts, documents, even coded messages.
With these, all his wealth could become mine.
Compared to what he had offered so far, these were much larger in scale. It might even be all of the Dark Overlord’s remaining wealth.
I descended back down.
The Dark Overlord, sitting in a daze, looked at me and spoke.
“Hmph! You had a lucky day today.”
He acted as if it didn’t matter, as if he could afford to give these things away.
But from his behavior, I could tell. These were indeed all of his assets.
He was afraid that if I found out, I might kill him. So he pretended as if he still had plenty left.
He was truly quick-witted and had a strong will to live.
He hadn’t given up hope yet. He still believed he could escape, kill me, and reclaim his wealth.
It was laughable, but I pretended not to notice. He still had some use left. I intended to drain every last bit of his tenacious life force.
I smiled and said, “Everyone has days like this, don’t they?”
Gong Suchan and Gal Saryang joined forces to begin absorbing his wealth in earnest.
They had already figured out how his assets were managed.
Even Gong Suchan, who had handled vast sums before, was impressed.
“This is truly enormous.”
“Make sure to sweep it all up.”
“Yes!”
Next, I dealt with the elixirs.
I used the elixirs efficiently.
First, I increased my internal energy by one level.
Though I already had ten levels of internal energy, increasing it further was an inefficient choice, but this battle ultimately depended on my showdown with the Heavenly King Army.
In any case, my skill was the most important. To increase my internal energy by one level, I had to consume a significant amount of elixirs.
Now my internal energy was at eleven levels.
I possessed six hundred and sixty years of internal energy.
Fortunately, even after using a considerable amount of elixirs, many still remained. I used the rest for my family and subordinates.
I set aside elixirs for my father, mother, Song Woo-kyung, Song Hwa-rin, and Gwangdu. Enough to increase each of their internal energies by one level based on their skills.
Though my internal energy was unrealistically high, for an ordinary martial artist, gaining one level of internal energy was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
The remaining elixirs were all invested in the White and Black Tiger Squads.
I didn’t leave it to the White Tiger, knowing he would distribute them all to his subordinates, so I handled the distribution myself.
First, I forced the White Tiger to consume elixirs that would increase his internal energy by two levels.
He adamantly refused, saying he didn’t need it, but I made him take them.
With his existing internal energy plus two more levels, it was like giving wings to a tiger.
I didn’t distribute the remaining elixirs to all the Black Tiger Squad members. I had the White Tiger select the ten most trustworthy among them.
The White Tiger chose ten, and I increased each of their internal energies by half a level.
I deliberately created a hierarchy.
Organizations naturally revolve around the most important people. It’s crucial to invest in those with high loyalty.
The others would strive to become one of those chosen. Of course, this choice could have side effects. It could lead to distrust and dissatisfaction with the White Tiger, and issues with camaraderie among the members.
But I had a reason for making this choice.
Based on the White Tiger’s character and how he treated his subordinates, I was confident there would be no side effects.
Finally, I set aside elixirs for the health of Gal Saryang and Gong Suchan.
“We don’t need them.”
Both refused adamantly, but I forced them to take them.
“I need you. Go ahead and take them.”
While the elixirs increased internal energy for martial artists, for ordinary people, they provided a lifetime of health without even catching a cold.
Watching all his elixirs disappear, the Dark Overlord couldn’t hold back his resentment any longer.
“Hypocrite! Pretending to be a good person with my elixirs.”
“If it’s a pretense, it’s one worth making. It feels great.”
“You bastard! Just kill me already!”
“Do you really want to die?”
When I asked seriously, the Dark Overlord couldn’t bring himself to say yes.
“Well, I’ve made enough, so maybe it’s time to see the end.”
“What do you mean by seeing the end?”
His demeanor became polite, and his pupils shook. He knew I was someone who did what I said.
“You have no wealth left, do you?”
“I do! I still have plenty left!”
I ignored his words and continued.
“And you can’t bring in others from the Dark Trade, can you? I don’t see any reason to waste time on you.”
I stood up, exuding a murderous aura.
“Are you planning to kill me?”
“Give me a reason not to. Quickly. I’ve already made up my mind.”
I approached him with determined steps, raising my hand as if to strike. The Dark Overlord squeezed his eyes shut and shouted.
“I have a way to bring in the Dark Master!”
“What way?”
“Among my possessions, there are some paintings and sculptures the Dark Master knows. Some were gifts from him. If I put them up for sale, he’ll know something’s happened to me and come looking.”
“Will he really come? Won’t he just hide deeper?”
The Dark Overlord was confident.
“He will come to save me. Trust me!”
I slowly lowered my raised hand.
“Alright, I’ll trust you.”
“Thank you.”
He sighed in relief.
I pressed his acupoint firmly.
“Aaaargh!”
He screamed again.
“Why? Why are you doing this? Didn’t I tell you the method?”
“You knew the method and pretended not to, like a sly fox.”
His spirit wasn’t broken yet. He needed to be handled more firmly.
Press.
“Aaaargh!”
The Dark Master sat in a small bookstore in a corner of the marketplace, reading a book.
The shop rarely saw more than a handful of visitors each day.
Those who wandered in by chance typically had one of two reactions: some wrinkled their noses at the musty smell of old books, while others wore expressions of delight.
The man known as the Dark Merchant wasn’t reading a book; he was poring over a ledger. The entries were a jumble of codes and numbers, indecipherable to anyone else.
A customer entered the shop.
The man who walked in with a precise, measured stride was clearly a warrior, not someone you’d expect to find in a bookstore. He headed straight for the section on martial arts.
The Dark Merchant approached him.
“Since there are no other customers, feel free to speak openly.”
The newcomer was a Law Merchant, one who enforced the rules of the underground market.
“Someone has broken the rules of bankruptcy declaration.”
“Who?”
“The Dark Idealist.”
“Of course, it would be him.”
If anyone were to make a move, it would be the Dark Idealist. He was the sharpest and most cunning among the Ten Dark Figures.
“He’s been conducting acquisition operations all over the central plains.”
Acquisition operations meant seizing the wealth of existing merchants or wealthy individuals.
“But how did you find out? He wouldn’t have exposed his movements so easily.”
“You’re right. He’s incredibly meticulous and discreet, so we wouldn’t have discovered this if not for something unusual he did.”
“Unusual?”
“He’s started liquidating his assets.”
The Dark Merchant was taken aback by this unexpected news.
“He’s liquidating his assets?”
“Yes, he’s even taking losses to do it. During our investigation, we discovered he’s been conducting acquisition operations in over a dozen locations across the central plains.”
“He’s acquiring assets while also liquidating them?”
The situation was perplexing for the Dark Merchant.
“It seems he’s preparing to leave the underground market.”
“That can’t be.”
The Dark Merchant tilted his head in disbelief. He was the closest to the Dark Idealist. There was no reason for him to suddenly leave the underground market.
“Here is the detailed report.”
The Law Merchant handed over a paper listing the assets being liquidated.
After reviewing the contents, the Dark Merchant looked up with a grave expression.
“Something’s wrong with him.”