King Shura

Cho Ryu Hyang came back to the Sichuan branch church with a tired face.

He had to watch Sunwu Cho Rin and her minions decimate a group of people without turning away.

It was mentally exhausting, but he didn’t dare to show it.

As a heir to the church, he couldn’t show himself being shaken by such things.

Once Cho Ryu Hyang came to the Sichuan branch, he walked to the place where Un Hui was resting.

Un Hui was unable to even sit up for ten straight days.

Thankfully, Cho Ryu Hyang was able to see that the man although he had a pale facepoint, was able to sit down on a chair.

Un Hui had recovered that much.

The moment Cho Ryu Hyang entered the room, Un Hui stood up, walked towards Cho Ryu Hyang, and barely managed to kneel.

“I have worried you much, my lord.”

“……”

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Cho Ryu Hyang was unable to say anything. He just stared at Un Hui silently.

He soon came to his senses and make Un Hui stood up.

“Stop stressing yourself like that with formalities. I heard you almost died from your injuries…… are you alright now?”

“Yes. In Four days I should have completely recovered.”

“How about your internal injuries? Have they healed?”

“Yes, my lord.”

Un Hui smiled bitterly.

His internal injuries were far worse than what it looked like from the outside.

It was all because he used far too much inner energy while running from the experts of the Imperial Palace, and things got dangerous at a certain point

After the mission finished, he recovered with extreme speed.

Thanks to Un Hui’s strength, when the body found its balance, it was able to heal faster.

“I heard you sold most of the salt that you brought.”

“Mm.”

After he sat Un Hui down, Cho Ryu Hyang nodded.

Un Hui carefully spoke with an unusual amount of curiosity.

“If you didn’t make a deal with Gal Mun Hyuk, how did you sell all the salt?”

From Un Hui’s understanding, without Gal Mun Hyuk’s help, it was impossible to sell salt.

Gal Mun Hyuk, who had ties with the Imperial Palace, was sure to do anything to prevent them from selling anything, and since it was impossible to sell it out in the open, the salt should’ve been just sitting in the storage……

How did Cho Ryu Hyang manage to sell it?

Cho Ryu Hyang faintly smiled as he had noticed Un Hui’s confusion.

“I decided to think a little differently. It was all thanks to No Jin Nyung.”

“…….That guy actually did something?”

Un Hui looked at Cho Ryu Hyang in disbelief.

He immediately realized how rude he was and looked down.

As this was a response that was unlike Un Hui, Cho Ryu Hyang smiled.

“Yes. He helped me think of trying something new. I’m thankful for that.”

Un Hui looked at No Jin Nyung, who was standing behind Cho Ryu Hyang with a lackadaisical face, with extreme disbelief.

Upon seeing this, No Jin Nyung slowly crossed his arms.

Then, he looked at Un Hui with a glare that clearly transmitted the message: “I’m this kind of a guy.”

“You don’t have to think too complicatedly.”

Cho Ryu Hyang took a sip from a teacup.

“Unlike Gal Mun Hyuk, who waits for customers to come to him, we just decided to go to the customers ourselves to sell the goods.”

The goods here must mean the salt.

Un Hui realized that and became extremely shocked.

“Isn’t that too dangerous?”

This would expose their identity far too much.

If one were to put it simply, Cho Ryu Hyang was visiting each of the merchants to sell the salt, but wasn’t this too dangerous to do?

The goods themselves were far too large, and it was far too expensive as well.

Depending on how things went, it was possible to lose both the goods and the people.

“Right. It’s extremely dangerous. That’s why we needed a safety device. Something that can make this not as dangerous as it might look.”

Cho Ryu Hyang smiled as he said this.

Safety device?

What’s that?

Cho Ryu Hyang watched Un Hui become even more confused and spoke.

“There are two things that we have that makes us superior to Gal Mun Hyuk.”

“What are… they?”

“First, we have the quality of the experts. Second, it’s the goods itself.”

“The salt?”

“Right. Since Gal Mun Hyuk’s salt is in powder form, anyone can tell it’s salt. That’s why they can only sell it at night because they wouldn’t be able to pass the guards in the morning, but the salt we have is different.”

Cho Ryu Hyang took out a cubed rock from his pocket and smiled.

“The rich enjoy decorating their gardens with fancy rocks. Each and every one of these rocks are shaped differently and are colored differently. The country doesn’t monitor it as much, either.”

Un Hui’s eyes widened.

Right.

As decorative rocks were only for the rich, it was inevitable that the nation wouldn’t pay much attention to it.

Cho Ryu Hyang used that to his advantage.

“We used sculptors to modify the stone salt a little and sold it. We tried to make it resemble decorative rocks as much as possible. Thanks to that, we were able to sell salt safely in the morning as well.”

Being able to sell salt in the morning definitely brought big changes to the salt market.

The quality of the salt was good, and it was able to be sold in the morning.

This was enough to move the hearts of the salt merchants.

And since the seller delivered it to them themselves, it couldn’t get any better.

“One thing that I regret though, is the fact that we’re selling this at the price of normal salt, but since we can’t really be too greedy right now, it was inevitable.”

“…….”

It was easy to see that Cho Ryu Hyang really was disappointed over that one fact.

It was impossible to see the happiness that one would find from someone who thought of an ingenious way to do something.

Something like this wasn’t impossible for Cho Ryu Hyang at all. Because of that fact, instead of gloating over the fact that he did something good, Cho Ryu Hyang just kept thinking of what more he could do.

Un Hui was lost for words.

He knew that the person he served was amazing.

The person’s talent and abilities were unfathomable by themselves.

But this kind of wisdom was something unattainable by a child, wasn’t it?

It could only emerge after an accumulation of a lot of experience and knowledge.

Un Hui suddenly felt that Cho Ryu Hyang was a person who had surpassed human limits.

“This is the most important part that would allow us to secure our position; thus, I’m going to need a lot of help.”

Un Hui quickly came back to his senses and spoke.

“Your servant shall carry out your commands faithfully.”

Cho Ryu Hyang scratched his cheeks.

“This isn’t a command; it’s a request. You really need to recover faster now. It’s about time our enemies make their move.”

Un Hui became more serious.

The heir was right.

Things were going to get dangerous from now on.

They did a lot of things in Sichuan already. Information about them must have leaked out during that time.

“…….I will try to recover as much as possible by tomorrow.”

Cho Ryu Hyang nodded.

“I will be waiting.”

Cho Ryu Hyang exited the room, so that Un Hui could rest more comfortably.

Although he was able to see No Jin Nyung make fun of Un Hui behind his back, he ignored it.

How long did he walk?

He was able to see someone run towards him.

When Cho Ryu Hyang saw this person, his heart instantly tightened.

‘Again……’

His heart was beating faster.

Cho Ryu Hyang looked at Gongson Ahri with a complicated face.

“Hello!”

“…….”

Cho Ryu Hyang was only able to nod.

He was able to feel his face get hotter.

‘The conditions are getting worse by the day.’

Cho Ryu Hyang wasn’t able to understand.

Why did he become like this in front of Gongson Ahri?

He didn’t do anything wrong, nor he was hiding anything from her.

But he became extremely nervous in front of her.

His mouth dried out, and his muscles tightened.

It was as if he was in front of his teacher, Gongson Chun Gi.

‘I don’t get it…….’

Gongson Ahri was not his teacher.

He could understand when it came to his teacher since his teacher was quite special, but why Gongson Ahri?

‘Just why?’

As Cho Ryu Hyang contemplated on this, Gongson Ahri opened her mouth.

“Did Maksu come here?”

Maksu?

What about him?

Cho Ryu Hyang became a little confused, but he didn’t show it.

“He didn’t.”

“Ah….. what do I do?”

Gongson Ahri was unable to say anything and could only become agitated.

At the point where Cho Ryu Hyang had calmed a bit, Gongson Ahri spoke.

“It looks like our Maksu has run away.”

The word ‘our’ concerned Cho Ryu Hyang a little, but he decided to act calmly.

“He’ll come back whenever. You don’t have to worry about him.”

Maksu wasn’t something one could worry about.

That thing only harmed. It wasn’t something that could be harmed.

“But he hasn’t come back for 10 days.”

“10 days?”

“Yes…….”

Cho Ryu Hyang began to think.

Ten days was a long time.

The reason why he put the rabbit next to Gongson Ahri was partly because she wanted it, but mostly because Cho Ryu Hyang wanted the thing away from him.

But……

‘That guy said himself that being away from me was not good for him.’

He didn’t know how exactly ‘far’ this distance was, but he was sure that it would be better for the rabbit to be close to him.

Being away for so long definitely meant that the rabbit was trying to do something.

‘How annoying.’

It was still unclear whether the rabbit was a friend or a foe.

Because of that, Cho Ryu Hyang tried to distance him from the thing as much as possible.

The actions of now must mean that the rabbit was his foe.

‘This is bad.’

Since he had struck a deal with Maksu, he had some trust in him.

But if Maksu comes out to be like this, there will be no way to stop him.

The deal with him would end when Cho Ryu Hyang dies.

In other words, it would be fine for Maksu to bring Cho Ryu Hyang to danger.

Cho Ryu Hyang smiled when he thought of that.

It was useless.

It was inefficient to think of misfortunes that didn’t had even happened.

This was not how Cho Ryu Hyang worked.

“Let’s wait.”

“Will he come back?”

When Gongson Ahri asked this with a worried tone, Cho Ryu Hyang nodded.

“Yes. He’ll definitely be back.”

Right.

After all, he had something Maksu desperately needed.

But the time when Maksu came back was a little faster than what Cho Ryu Hyang had expected.

The rabbit came back that following night.

In a completely different form than Cho Ryu Hyang had expected…….