Translator: Nox
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: Thugs and Tigers
#1
Several days earlier—
In a private banquet hall in Jiangxi, a storm was brewing.
The infamous “Three Demons of Jiangxi” — the Kang brothers — sat in tense silence, surrounded by their gang of thugs.
None dared speak.
Not with Son Ji-chang in the room.
He sipped tea delicately, fingers stained with blood.
“You invited me here,” he said softly. “And yet you couldn’t show the slightest respect.”
No one answered.
They couldn’t.
Half the gang lay dead on the floor.
The others sat frozen, too terrified to breathe.
Son Ji-chang grinned.
“Now that I have your attention, I have a job for you.”
“W-what kind of job?”
“Disrupt Hyeongju.”
One thug flinched.
“That’s Peng territory…”
“Yes. I want chaos.”
“But we’d be killed!”
“I’m not asking you to fight. Just cause trouble. Like you always do.”
He tossed a pouch.
“Two taels now. Fifty if you survive.”
The gang stirred.
Fifty silver taels was a fortune.
“Any takers?”
One brave soul nodded.
“Good. Now—”
He leaned back, smiling cruelly.
“Let’s have some fun before you go. Fight each other. Winner gets a bonus.”
Chaos erupted.
#2
“And that,” Kang Ok-pae explained, “is how we ended up here…”
He sat bloodied before the Peng Clan Head, begging for mercy.
Peng Jin-mu wasn’t feeling merciful.
“You’ll live,” he said. “But not unpunished.”
He waved to his guards.
“Destroy his dantian. Tie him to the central market post. Let him serve as a warning.”
Kang Ok-pae screamed.
Too late.
His dantian shattered.
And the Peng Sect made its message clear:
**This is tiger territory. Enter at your peril.**
#3
Elsewhere, Jeongga Clan.
Peng Hyeon-do was saying farewell.
“I leave my sister in your care,” Jeongga Clan Head said.
“She’ll be safe.”
“Take First Elder as well. He’s an expert in merchant routes.”
Hyeon-do bowed.
With him came Jeongga Jin-hyeon, a logistics expert, and Jeongga Yeong-yeong, the young heiress.
Together, they’d rebuild Peng’s economy and supply routes.
As they boarded the caravan—
<Will you return soon?> asked the spirit of Jeongga Cheon, floating behind him.
<Not yet. I have work to do.>
The elders watched Hyeon-do depart.
“A rising dragon,” one murmured.
“A star of the orthodox world,” said another.
#4
Back at the Peng Sect—
Peng Jin-mu sat alone, brooding.
“They sent thugs,” he muttered. “They think we’re beneath them…”
He glanced at the door.
“Hyeon-do… come home soon.”
【To be continued in Chapter 27】
