Emperor Namgung Mu of the Thousand Years - Chapter 101

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#101

The night before visiting Namgung Taejin.

I looked down at the map spread out on the table.

Guk, the captain of the Namgung Family’s strongest guard unit, the Eighteenth Division of Baekjao, spoke.

“As you instructed, this combines all the information gathered from every deed, document, and paper in the treasury, plus what I personally discovered. It’s every situation where we think the Third Young Master might be operating in Anhui’s underworld.”

“You burned down Zhaoxiang Stronghold’s main residence cleanly, right?”

“I handled it so anyone would think it was completely consumed by fire. I set fire to all the buildings, but deliberately burned only 80% of the important documents we had copied, then scattered them around the treasury ruins. When they come to check later, seeing that will put them at ease.”

“Well done.”

The map spread before my eyes showed all the terrain of the Anhui region in meticulous detail.

Red dots were densely marked across it.

These were Third Young Master Namgung Taejin’s unofficial business operations.

Gambling halls, betting rings, black markets, taverns, brothels, inns, cargo transport routes, warehouses, and finally information networks.

“What about the points connected outside Anhui?”

“They appear to be corrupt relationships with various minor local tyrants. Carriages are regularly sent from these tyrants toward Mount Cheonju with the Namgung Family as their destination, but they never actually reach the Namgung Family’s Main Residence. They always disappear midway, and those carriages consistently pass through this alley, this area here.”

“So he’s even collecting regular tribute. Really making a thorough profit.”

“It’s understandable. Compared to the First and Second Young Masters who were selected long ago and have solidified their positions, the Third Young Master who was only nominated a year ago is at a significant disadvantage. In terms of justification, and among the family’s numerous branch and direct lines and various complex interests, his legitimacy and support can’t compare.”

“He figured he had to win with money first, then somehow unravel the tangled web of everything else.”

I recalled Third Young Master Namgung Taejin’s face.

His fat, bulky body held ambition, and he constantly rolled his eyes, restlessly reading the surrounding situation.

In such cases, the person is rarely stupid.

They have an uncanny ability to sense disadvantageous situations. Even if it leads to penny-wise, pound-foolish decisions—grasping immediate gains while losing bigger opportunities—they cannot tolerate any result that leads to their loss.

“Guk, as part of Baekjao, you’ve observed the Namgung Family’s major and minor affairs.”

“Yes.”

“Speak honestly. If even the Third Young Master struggles in competition for Young Master against his older brothers, what are my chances as the Fourth Young Master of becoming Young Master?”

“My lord, you will succeed. Please don’t worry.”

“I don’t need comfort. What I need now is an objective perspective. That’s something only you can provide—not me—having served the Namgung Family’s leadership and observed them for so long.”

I looked at Guk.

“If you truly serve me, speak mercilessly from a third party’s perspective during this discussion.”

“….”

Guk remained silent for a moment, then spoke bluntly.

“Not even a ten percent chance.”

“I see.”

“You have something in mind.”

I nodded.

“Sitting idle won’t solve anything. I think if I maximize the strengths of the hand I hold and start by playing those cards to untangle the immediate knots, I can eventually untangle the bigger ones too.”

I hardened my expression.

“While it’s good to deny and prove wrong the prejudices and contempt others hold about me, I believe that sometimes—depending on the situation—if I understand what kind of prejudices they might be and instead reinforce them to induce complacency, I can create advantageous situations.”

“Truly befitting my lord.”

I touched my chin with my hand, pondering.

“Then let’s think about this. When the other brothers, who are already established powers, think of me—just recently nominated as Fourth Young Master—what immediate impression comes to mind?”

“A pushover. You have no faction, no supporting patrons. Though your movements are rough, your martial arts aren’t based on superior techniques, so they’d consider them worthless. You also don’t have the appearance to attract people or win favor.”

I stared at Guk thoughtfully.

“You really speak without restraint. Have you been harboring resentment about me?”

“I only wish to help my lord….”

“I’m joking. And I thought the same. They know nothing of my current abilities or what I possess. It’s only natural they’d think that way. And making full use of that will be the first step in opening this waterway for me.”

I drew numerous ink lines across the map.

Quickly writing down my thoughts while continuing to speak.

“Guk, do you know the insect called a praying mantis?”

“I know it as an insect that preys on other insects. I’ve only heard about it, but I understand the Mantis Fist was derived from it.”

“A mantis grows by eating creatures similar to its own size from when it’s young. When small, it never targets anything bigger than itself. Calmly, as it grows, it only targets prey matching its size. Then it eats something slightly bigger, molts, then eats something even bigger.”

My finger pointed to each red dot one by one.

“And when it becomes a full-grown adult, it boldly targets and successfully hunts prey even larger than itself. In that sense, having the Third Young Master before the First and Second Young Masters—especially one trying to compete with money—is an opportunity heaven has given me.”

Guk narrowed his eyes.

“You’re thinking of the Third Young Master as intermediate prey.”

“Right. What I need now are three things: funds, organization, and support within the Namgung Family. Of those, I’ll use the Third Young Master as a stepping stone to solve the first two. And this is the first step.”

I pointed to the center of the map.

A red dot located in the middle of an Anhui alley.

Looking at the map, Guk said.

“Zhaoxiang Stronghold? But didn’t we burn that place down completely as you instructed? That place should be useless.”

“A fire-damaged place can be bought even cheaper. Human psychology naturally thinks gorgeous, pretty buildings are worth buying even above their actual value, while they fail to recognize the true worth of shabby buildings with leaks and fire damage, seeing them as much cheaper.”

“You’re planning to purchase that place?”

“It’s in a backstreet where most people wouldn’t even think of entering. And while it’s central to Anhui, it’s cleverly out of sight, making it optimal as any kind of base. The framework is stone construction too. The exterior was an ordinary wooden house, but when I saw underground, the foundation roots and most of the framework weren’t wood but stone construction. The exterior is unsightly, but it has sufficient value for reuse. The underground wasn’t just ordinary excavated earth either. It was probably originally a protruding massive rock with cave-like tunnels, wrapped in wood exterior to make it look like an ordinary building.”

Guk’s eyes widened.

“How did you… when did you observe all that?”

“When entering underground, observing the surroundings is the top priority for dealing with variables like collapses.”

“Observation aside, you’re not a carpenter, yet how do you have knowledge about building frameworks and their types?”

“You know my answer.”

“Yes, books.”

Guk sighed as if giving up.

“So assuming Zhaoxiang Stronghold’s location and framework have value, using this place as a base… means you’re considering building an independent force?”

“The Third Young Master solved funding first, and while I agree with that thinking, I find it insufficient. That alone can’t catch up to the First and Second Young Masters.”

I spoke firmly.

“I plan to create funding sources while simultaneously building a force that will become my sword, shield, and eyes from now on. Growing only personal martial arts will eventually lead to being broken and devoured. I need a group that will be my eyes, my sword, and my shield.”

I looked down at the map again.

“I hear the Third Young Master has been starting many ventures lately. It seems to be because the strategist he employs is capable, but perhaps because he’s grown too rapidly beyond his original capacity, he can’t use his hand to its fullest and is spilling crumbs on the floor—big ones at that.”

There’s something people always experience in life.

The constant feeling that just getting past this one thing will advance you to the next level.

Without proper experience in that process, impatience to leap to the next stage causes one to neglect what they already possess.

Like the psychology of someone betting everything on gambling.

The Third Young Master was exactly in that state recently. Blinded by the leap, unaware of what was flowing away beneath his feet.

“You plan to start with the crumbs and gradually increase the size of your prey.”

Guk now had the look of someone understanding what I was drawing on the map.

“Right. From now on, I’ll approach the Third Young Master while reinforcing the prejudice that I’m a pushover Fourth Young Master who knows nothing of the world, as you said. And from the Third Young Master’s short-sighted perspective, I’ll pick up the crumbs he drops thinking they’re relatively less valuable, and grow them my way.”

“I’m still worried.”

Guk spoke with a concerned expression.

“Dropped crumbs each have their reasons for being dropped. It means they have defects. Given the Third Young Master’s greedy nature, he might gleefully give you something completely worthless.”

I continued marking the map and setting priorities while speaking.

“To handle that variable, I made this map and investigated everything comprehensively. And spreading this map out, I can sufficiently predict which parts the Third Young Master will consider burdensome, and which crumbs he’ll hand over first if he gives them to me.”

“Manipulating that greedy Third Young Master won’t be easy.”

“If I can’t even do that, I wouldn’t be qualified to be your lord. Just watch. At the end of all this work—.”

Before my eyes, having completed all the work, was a map of Anhui’s underworld filled with countless characters and lines.

“You’ll see one mantis devouring the Third Young Master.”

***

And the next day.

I had acquired complete control over the Thousand Mile Manor organization, worth ten thousand silver coins, from the third young master Namgung Taejin for the bargain price of one hundred silver coins under the pretext of defects.

As a bonus, I received the burned Yaxiang Guild property located in the center of Anhui for free under the third young master’s patronage.

This was something that in my previous life, even if I had rolled through commissions my entire life and desperately saved money, I could never have dared to handle.

‘My personal growth, my organization… I won’t let either slip away.’

Thus my life as a mere assassin began advancing to the next stage,

something I could never have imagined in my past life and had never once progressed toward until now.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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