Chapter 306

Haimen was certainly not the largest city in All Under Heaven. But it was definitely the most bustling.

On one side, trading ships were unloading their cargo, and on the other, small fishing boats were docking to unload their catch.

The cargo from the trading ships all went into the warehouses of nearby Trading Companies or the Sea Dragon Clan, and the fish were traded on the spot.

Haimen was the place where the most active financial transactions in All Under Heaven took place. It was common for tens of thousands of Nyang of Gold Tael to be exchanged in a single day. As such, countless people flocked to Haimen in pursuit of gold.

The laborers working for the Crimson Sword Society were a prime example. To get work at the port, it was easier to belong to the Crimson Sword Society. That was why many joined it. But there were also those who worked without joining the Crimson Sword Society.

These were the ones who transported the fish caught by the fishing boats on carts. It was a job that soaked one’s body in a fishy stench, so the Crimson Sword Society didn’t even give it a second glance.

This kind of work was mostly done by people who had just arrived in Haimen. Then, once they had gained some experience, they would join the Crimson Sword Society and work at the port.

Although they worked at the very bottom of Haimen’s society, they too had basic desires. And to target their pockets, prostitutes came in.

These prostitutes were of a lower class than the Courtesans who worked in the Brothels of the respectable main streets.

Unlike Courtesans, they did not sell laughter, music, alcohol, and their bodies. They only sold their bodies.

The clients they sold their bodies to were also diverse.

Fishermen, men from the slums, and even sailors from the Outer Regions.

Selling their bodies indiscriminately like this sometimes led to unexpected pregnancies. A child, whose father could be anyone, was nothing but a burden to the prostitutes.

The prostitutes tried relentlessly to get rid of the child. They would take medicine that was close to Poison, or inflict shock to their abdomens. Most of the time, the babies would be stillborn. But occasionally, there were children who broke through the Checkpoint of death, survived to the end, and saw the light of the world.

They were beings unwelcome even by their own mothers.

They were born to live by reading the room.

Once they reached a certain age, they had no choice but to find their own way to survive.

By running errands with quick wits, stealing, or doing wicked things in the back alleys. In this way, the children naturally melted into the very bottom of the world called Haimen and survived.

The Waiter at the Inn where Pyo Wol was staying was one such child. Still, he was one of the lucky ones. He received a small salary and occasionally got tips for running errands for the guests.

For the back-alley kids, being a Waiter was the most preferred job. The children who couldn’t become one had to live, wandering through the shadows.

The children, welcomed by no one, stuck together. Although their areas of activity were different, they kept in touch and looked out for each other. Because of this, they were more knowledgeable than anyone about what happened at the bottom of Haimen.

“My name is Geom-yeon.”

“Geom-yeon?”

As Pyo Wol looked at him, Geom-yeon wore a shy expression.

“It’s a name I gave myself. A swallow that uses a sword. My nickname was Swallow.”

Geom-yeon was also a child born to a prostitute.

The aging prostitute had no mental or physical capacity to care for the child that had suddenly appeared.

She thought of Geom-yeon as an obstacle blocking her future. It was because she couldn’t properly receive clients with Geom-yeon crying next to her. So, as soon as Geom-yeon could walk a little, she practically kicked him out of her dwelling.

Geom-yeon grew up watching his mother sell her body from outside the hovel.

Because he was so agile and quick-witted, people called him Swallow. Geom-yeon added the word “sword” to “swallow.”

And so, he became Geom-yeon.

Although things had worked out well for him and he had become a Waiter, Geom-yeon still maintained a close relationship with his friends from the back alleys.

His only pleasure was to find his friends whenever he got paid and eat delicious food with them.

Geom-yeon led Pyo Wol to a back alley of the port where his friends usually gathered.

The back alley looked no different from the slums Pyo Wol had experienced so far.

It was dirty, foul-smelling, and full of crude shacks.

The ground was so full of unidentifiable filth that one would be reluctant to even take a step. But Pyo Wol followed Geom-yeon calmly without even frowning once.

Geom-yeon glanced at Pyo Wol and thought.

‘He’s no ordinary person, after all.’

He had vividly watched how Tarha dealt with the Crimson Sword Society Martial Artists yesterday. So he knew well how terrifying a person Tarha was.

Pyo Wol was the person who had been sitting at the same table as such a Tarha. The image of him conversing calmly with Tarha, as if she wasn’t scary at all, remained a strong impression in Geom-yeon’s mind.

The place Geom-yeon took Pyo Wol to was the most secluded space in the back alley.

It was a small clearing surrounded by shacks, where various objects were piled up like mountains, forming a small hill.

Children were sitting here and there in the clearing.

Their ages varied from little kids of five or six to early to mid-teens like the Waiter, and among them, several children who seemed to be of mixed blood were visible.

This was the children’s territory.

As befitting children who lived in the back alleys, their eyes were full of Poison Qi.

A boy who appeared to be the leader stood up and approached them.

“What is it?”

He was a boy with an unusual mix of yellow in his hair and pale skin. But his body was covered in scars, showing how rough a life he had lived, and his eyes even held a deep Killing intent.

Geom-yeon stepped forward to explain.

“He’s a client, hyung!”

“A client?”

“Yeah!”

At the word “client,” the leader boy glared at Pyo Wol and said.

“What do you want from us?”

“Information!”

“What information?”

“All of it.”

“Fuck! What kind of talk is that? All of it?”

The corners of the leader boy’s eyes shot up.

He hated such broad terms.

He liked it when things were specified precisely, one by one, and he never trusted anyone who spoke in vague, all-encompassing terms.

The instincts of a survivor from the bottom were deeply ingrained in his body.

The number of children in this clearing alone was over twenty. And if you added the children living in their respective territories, the number would exceed a hundred.

The leader boy had a responsibility to protect them.

Geom-yeon tried to stop the leader boy.

“Hyung, calm down for a second. He’s not someone you can treat carelessly.”

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

“I mean…”

“Stop with the nonsense and step aside. I’m the one who negotiates, not you.”

“O…kay.”

As the leader boy scowled, Geom-yeon quietly stepped back. The leader boy’s name was Tae Musang.

He had also given himself that name.

The surname Tae was simply because it sounded cool, and the name Musang was chosen to mean he had no rival.

Tae Musang glared at Pyo Wol with fierce eyes.

The basis of negotiation was to stand superior to the opponent.

He didn’t know why the opponent wanted such comprehensive information, but it was they who were in a bind, not him.

His goal was to intimidate them like this and extract as much Silver Tael as possible.

“If you want something, say it specifically. Don’t speak so vaguely like that. And if you try to stiff us on the money, we won’t let you get away with it.”

Tae Musang started with a threat.

He thought his threat would work since Pyo Wol had a pretty face. That was the negotiation method he had learned at the bottom.

Pyo Wol’s lips curved into an arc.

Looking at Tae Musang reminded him of the old days for the first time in a while.

The children in the underground cavern had acted just like this.

They moved in groups, and the leader would expand their influence by showing themselves fighting against others.

Tae Musang’s actions were the same.

He was deliberately speaking roughly to intimidate him, and showing off to his followers what kind of person he was.

Of course, in Pyo Wol’s eyes, it just looked cute.

As if Pyo Wol’s smile got on his nerves, Tae Musang’s eyes widened.

“Are you smiling? Are you smiling right now? This fucking bastard is smiling? Hwack! Ptui!”

Tae Musang spat phlegm on the ground and approached Pyo Wol. He was trying to look as threatening as possible.

Pyo Wol opened his mouth.

“What’s your name?”

“Why do you need to know? You son of a bitch!”

“Just so I can pray for the soul of a man about to die.”

“What? You fucker…”

In an instant, Tae Musang’s eyes flipped, and he rushed at Pyo Wol.

His movements were so swift it was hard to believe he hadn’t learned Martial Arts. It seemed he was naturally gifted with elasticity.

In a flash, Tae Musang’s fist reached near Pyo Wol’s chin. But Tae Musang couldn’t extend his fist any further.

A single Flying Dagger had appeared and was touching the tip of his chin. It was clear that the moment he extended his fist further toward Pyo Wol, his chin would be pierced by the Flying Dagger.

The Flying Dagger, the size of a child’s palm, was none other than the Ghostly Rain.

“Keuk!”

Tae Musang’s face contorted ugly.

Only then did he realize that Pyo Wol was a Martial Artist who had learned Martial Arts. He looked so pretty that he hadn’t even considered he might be a Martial Artist.

“Hyung-ah!”

“Fuck!”

Seeing Tae Musang in danger, the children rushed forward, vying to be first.

In the children’s hands were common weapons like wooden planks, kitchen knives, and hammers.

Although they were young, it was a scene that showed how full of Poison Qi they were.

Without such Poison Qi, one could never survive here.

The adults here did not protect the children. On the contrary, they tried to exploit and work them. To protect themselves, they had no choice but to become vicious. But their opponent was too much for them.

Jureureuk!

The children all stopped at once.

It wasn’t that they stopped of their own will.

They stopped because small Flying Daggers were floating right in front of their noses.

“What is this?”

“How?”

The children couldn’t hide their shocked expressions.

In their eyes, it looked as if the Flying Daggers were floating on their own.

They were being controlled by the Soul Restraining Thread, but there was no way the children would know of such a sublime technique.

One of the children stealthily moved to the side. But seeing the Flying Dagger turn to follow him, he froze.

One Flying Dagger was touching the tip of Tae Musang’s chin, and nine Flying Daggers were floating in the air, keeping the children in check.

It was truly a murderous scene.

Gulp!

Tae Musang unknowingly swallowed dryly.

The opponent was not someone who could be handled with the Poison Qi accumulated from the bottom. Tae Musang had seen many people called Experts in Haimen, but he had never seen anyone like Pyo Wol.

‘I’m, I’m fucked.’

Only then did he regret not listening to Geom-yeon’s words.

He had acted tough to protect the children, but his choice had ended up putting the children in danger instead.

The opponent was an Expert who could take the children’s lives in a single move if he so wished. It was best not to get involved with such a person at all. But he had already attacked Pyo Wol. It was too late to turn back.

Tae Musang shouted.

“W-Wait!”

“What is it?”

“Let, let it end with just me.”

“Why should I?”

“Be-because it was my fault alone.”

“When you move in a pack, you must take collective responsibility.”

“That’s…”

“That is the way of the Jianghu. Their deaths are all your responsibility. You recklessly charged without gauging your opponent’s capabilities and brought this danger upon yourself. Not only that, you’ve put the children you were supposed to protect on the verge of death. As a leader, you are disqualified.”

“Eek!”

Tae Musang gritted his teeth.

Pyo Wol’s words became a sharp Flying Dagger, digging into his chest.

He couldn’t believe that his own rash judgment had put the children in danger, after he had worked so hard to protect them until now.

Tae Musang looked at Pyo Wol with bloodshot eyes.

The moment his eyes met Pyo Wol’s, he felt a chill run down his entire body.

He had met countless people until now, but he had never seen eyes like Pyo Wol’s, from which he could read no emotion at all.

The more he looked into his eyes, the more despair washed over him like a tidal wave.

Those inscrutable eyes made Tae Musang feel an extreme sense of fear.

Thud!

Tae Musang suddenly dropped to his knees.

“Please spare us.”

“Why should I?”

“You said you wanted information, right? I’ll become your hunting dog and fetch whatever you want. So please, spare us.”

His attitude and tone had completely changed. And he made a reasonably rational proposal.

Pyo Wol realized that Tae Musang had completely submitted.

This type of person was hard to subdue, but once they made up their mind, they were not easily swayed.

Pyo Wol took out a pouch from his bosom and threw it to Tae Musang. It was a pouch filled with Silver Tael.

“Track the movements of the person Geom-yeon tells you about.”

“Yes!”

Tae Musang answered without even asking who it was.

At that moment, Pyo Wol withdrew all the Ghostly Rain.

“Hoo!”

“Heua!”

Sighs of relief burst from the children’s mouths.

Only then did Tae Musang raise his head again. But by then, Pyo Wol had already vanished without a trace.

Tae Musang’s gaze turned to Geom-yeon.

“You, who in the world did you bring here?”