There have been many changes in Chengdu over the winter.
One of them is that new houses have been built in the slums.
Since the slum suffered one great fire last year, many houses were burned to ashes. The poor could not afford to rebuild their homes so they sold their house at a cheap price and left.
As they left, the rich men of Chengsu quickly entered the place they abandoned. They swept away the ashes of the ghetto and built a large mansion. The large mansions, which increased one by one, quickly encroached upon the slums and were reborn as high-end residential areas.
People were envious of the newly built high-end residential area, called the Xintian Road.1
Most of the people who owned houses in Xintian Road were influential people in Chengdu. Among them, there were the owners of the large merchant groups, and there were those who operated the escort services or martial arts.
Thus, Xintian Road became a city for those who had money and power.
As it was a place where influential people in Chengdu lived, the security of Xintian Road was strict. Every alley was lined with warriors standing on the border, making it impossible for anyone with an unknown identity to even enter Xintian Road.
For the people of Chengdu, entering a mansion in Xintian Road has become a dream.
In particular, merchants or those in power who have recently earned a lot of wealth tried to enter Xintian Road.
However, the number of mansions was limited.
There were a lot of people who wanted to buy, but no one wanted to sell. Because of this, the mansions of Xintian Road continued to have their prices soared to the sky.
But even within Xintian Road, there was a mansion that was the object of envy. It was a great mansion in the middle of Xintian Road.
Among the luxurious mansions on Xintian Road, the mansion boasting a particularly large scale and high walls was reminiscent of a fortress.
When people saw the red pine tree on the wall of the mansion, they started to call it the Red Villa.2
Externally, the owner of the Red Villa is known to be Cho Chi-yang, the captain of the Zodiac Division group. However, he only stopped by the Red Villa from time to time, and did not live there. So, people thought of the Red Villa as a separate house for Cho Chi-yang.
However, the real owner of the Red Villa is actually someone else.
Squeak!
The huge door of the Red Villa opened and a young man entered. The man whose white face stood out even in the dark was Pyo-wol.
As Pyo-wol came in, someone rushed out from inside the mansion. It was a sharp-looking man in his early fifties wearing blue clothing.
As soon as he saw Pyo-wol, he bowed his head deeply.
Pyo-wol nodded and passed by the man. Then the man hurriedly followed behind Pyo-wol.
Pyo-wol strode without hesitation inside the Red Villa as if it were his own home, while the middle-aged man followed with the utmost respectful attitude as if he were Pyo-wol’s servant.
The middle-aged man’s name is Ko Hong-seo.
Pyo-wol called him Steward Go. Steward Go was a reticent man. Him not saying a word while following Pyo-wol showed how reticent he was.
But Steward Go had no choice but to remain silent.
Because his tongue was cut off from the root.
It wasn’t that he didn’t have a tongue in the first place. It was Gu Juyang, the leader of the Blood Shadow Group who had cut off the general’s tongue.
Gu Juyang was a cruel man.
He ran another organization separate from the Blood Shadow Group.
Most knew that assassins accepted requests and collected information directly by themselves. They weren’t wrong, since that was also true for a small group of assassins or assassins who acted alone.
But in order to further increase the Blood Shadow Group, Gu Juyang formed another organization. He gathered them so they would systematically support the assassins. Their task was to gather information and trends of the target.
Gu Juyang had cut off all their tongues to keep their job a secret. That was the reason the general’s tongue was cut off.
Seven years ago, the Blood Shadow Group collapsed, but the group founded by Gu Juyang survived. And so they waited for someone related to the Blood Shadow Group to call them back one day.
In a way, they were nothing more than a legacy left by Gu Juyang.
Their personal information remained intact in the booklet left by Gu Juyang so Pyo-wol gathered them last winter.
This didn’t mean that Pyo-wol was going to inherit the Blood Shadow Group. He had no intention of accepting an assassination quest, nor did he have the desire to kill for money.
It was just that in the process of collecting what Gu Juyang left behind, they were also gathered together.
Seven years have passed, but their loyalty to Gu Juyang remains. After the Blood Shadow Group were annihilated, they could have left and scattered among themselves, but their loyalty was proved by the fact that they still stayed.
At the center of it was Steward Go.
Steward Go, who has been loyal to Gu Juyang since childhood, switched his loyalty over to Pyo-wol this time. He had a different mindset that the average person would never understand.
Pyo-wol entrusted Steward Go to manage the Red Villa.
All of the people working at the Red Villa were the people Steward Go had with him. They were scattered all over the city today, collecting information for Pyo-wol.
That was their way of life, and they didn’t know any other way.
Pyo-wol did not specifically discourage or support them. Nevertheless, they worked zealously for their new master.
Steward Go led Pyo-wol to the largest room in the Red Villa.
It was a room that felt even desolate with the lack of common furniture or decorations.
When Pyo-wol sat down at the table in the middle of the room, the general handed him a paper he had prepared in advance.
The paper contained information collected by the members of the Red Villa.
How much money the merchant groups in Chengdu had earned, and what are the trends of the escort companies. There’s also information such as which martial artist expert had obtained an outstanding disciple.
All of these were information obtained by the people who served on the Red Villa.
Although it is far short of the information network of the Hao clan that covers the whole world, at least the information power in Chengdu and Sichuan was never inferior to it.
Steward Go looked at Pyo-wol with an extremely polite attitude.
Pyo-wol nodded his head.
“Good job. This is a big help.”
For a moment, Steward Go smiled.
Gu Juyang raised Steward Go as a dog.
A hunting dog that only finds pleasure in receiving praise from its owner.
Steward Go accepted Pyo-wol as the new owner, and his life was restored to the praise of his new owner.
[I will serve you with all my heart.]
With joy, he wrote on a piece of paper and showed it to Pyo-wol.
Pyo-wol nodded his head.
Among the members of the Red Villa, Steward Go was the only one who could see the whole picture. The other members of Red Villa knew only fragmentary information, but he was the only one who drew and grasped the overall picture.
Steward Go saw this as a privilege and worked more enthusiastically because of it.He was brainwashed by Gu Juyang from a young age, so his way of thinking had changed tremendously.
Steward Go looked at Pyo-wol with eyes full of anticipation. Expecting Pyo-wol to give an order.
“A man named Seo Mun-pyeong has entered Chengdu. Find out his purpose for coming to Chengdu.”
At Pyo-wol’s command, the general smiled brightly and nodded. The sight of a man over fifty years old smiling brightly seemed somehow peculiar.
As the old man leaves, Pyo-wol is left alone in the room.
A large room with nothing on it.
Pyo-wol’s second den was a huge space that could be used for martial arts. Here, Pyo-wol spent most of his time honing his martial arts and assasination methods.
Traces of Pyo-wol’s mastery of martial arts remained intact on the walls and pillars.
By absorbing the legacy of Gu Juyang, Pyo-wol was able to establish his own domain in Chengdu.
Pyo-wol did not engage in any outside activities.
By putting Soo-hyang of the Divine Fragrance Pavillion and Steward Go of the Red Villa at the forefront, his existence is thoroughly hidden.
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