Soma smiled wider.
When something would catch his interest, he would smile more brightly.
Soma followed Pyo-wol with a smile. As he followed Pyo-wol, he got a lot of laughs.
Many were afraid of Soma and the children. The same was true for Yu Gi-cheon. Those who would catch a glimpse of the three would often have frightened expressions as if they were seeing a ghoul.
But Pyo-wol was different.
He was not afraid of children. It was actually the other way around.
It was the children who were afraid of Pyo-wol. However, Pyo-wol do not intentionally enforce fear upon them.
So the children found Pyo-wol kind. He was the only person who wouldn’t tremble even if the children showed and acted their true selves.
Soma wondered how Pyo-wol would track down the assassin who was using poison.
Although he was abused at the Xiaoleiyin Temple and realized his potential, he never did learn how to track a person. For that reason, he was planning to learn tracking techniques from watching Pyo-wol. So his heart was pounding.
Pyo-wol and Soma went to the place called Gaoxian, where the first victim was found. Gaoxian is a county located in the southernmost part of Sichuan Province.
The first victim was a person named Ok Cheongwan of the Golden Fist Village1, a well-known scholar and warrior. He was a person who had never been outside Sichuan since he was born.
However, since he was born into a very prestigious family and was highly educated, many people came to receive instruction from him.
Although he learned the martial arts, he is known for his gentle personality. It is said that he spends most of his time reading books and doesn’t want someone to hold resentment against him.
But one day, he was struck by qi deviation and lost his life. His family thought his death was strange, but could not determine the cause because it happened so suddenly.
Pyo-wol, who arrived in Gaoxian, did not even visit the Golden Fist Village.
He just looked around the county of Gaoxian. He would sometimes ask someone nearby about something, or waste time in a guest house or on the pier.
Soma couldn’t comprehend Pyo-wol’s actions.
After wasting such a day, Pyo-wol then went to the city where the second victim, the sect leader of the Star Palace, Jin Seungpyo, died.
Pyo-wol continued with the same behavior.
Soma wondered what Pyo-wol was doing. With his small head, he could not understand why Pyo-wol, who knew some kind of professional tracking skills, wasted his time on such useless things.
translated by s o u n d l e s s w i n d 2 1 . c o m
But he still followed Pyo-wol, thinking that there must be a reason for his actions.
Pyo-wol’s action has absolutely nothing to do with tracking, even when they arrived in the Star Palace. He would seemingly waste his time drinking tea, standing in the middle of the street, or looking at the people passing by.
Soma who couldn’t take it any longer and asked,
“Brother! What exactly are you doing?”
“Tracking.”
“Isn’t tracking supposed to be looking for something?”
“That’s right.”
“But why are we wasting time here without looking for traces?”
“Does it look that way to you?”
“Yeah! Isn’t it?”
“It would be nice to be able to track someone with only fragmentary traces, but we can’t find such an expert that way.”
“Why? Because he is thoroughly hidden?”
“That’s right.”
At Pyo-wol’s answer, Soma frowned.
He still couldn’t understand Pyo-wol’s methods.
Pyo-wol looked at the flowing river in front of him and said,
“The world is mixed with so many things, and these countless little things come together in harmony. Tracking starts with finding something that stands out and differs from the rest. Finding what doesn’t fit, something that breaks harmony.”
Except for the city where the owner of the first manor died, all the other cities did not have much exchanges with the outside world. This would mean that these places would experience little changes, like water trapped in a reservoir.
In such a place, even a small ripple can be seen immediately. What Pyo-wol paid attention to was specifically that small ripple.
It might be easy to say, but it was not easy for an outsider to catch such a ripple.
It required strong patience and tenacious observation.
Locals are usually very wary of foreigners, so they don’t talk about what they know well. This makes it difficult to get information from such people.
Since Pyo-wol can’t use the method of warmly approaching and gaining favor with them like the others, he has no choice but to observe his surroundings with his unique concentration and eyes.
He preferred the method of observing, grasping the atmosphere of the city, and removing the inconsistent ones one by one.
The assassin, who was also a master of manipulating poison, hid himself thoroughly. It’s impossible to find him through simple means.
It was like searching for a tree in the woods, or finding a needle in the sand.
So what Pyo-wol had to do was find the exact forest or sandy beach where the assassin hid. Only then will their pursuit begin. And Pyo-wol has already found the forest where the assassin had supposedly hidden himself.
“All three cities face rivers, and these rivers are connected. The average speed of the river is about 20 li per hour. So the transportation of tea or other cargo is reduced by two or three days. Furthermore, with the direction in which the river flows…”
“Ah! So the assassin moved by boat. He would ride a boat and assassinate his targets whenever he would arrive at his destination…”
“That’s right. And the three cities had one thing in common that day, the one called Xuanwu Merchant Group. They got down to each city and brought tea. Then they would depart for the next city.”
“So is the assassin using the group called Xuanwu Merchant Group?”
“Nine out of ten.”
At Pyo-wol’s answer, Soma felt goosebumps all over his body.
It was easy to explain, but it was by no means easy to come up with such a reasoning. It was also a method that Soma didn’t know how Pyo-wol came up with.
No other person in Jianghu would be able to find the Xuanwu Merchant Group that the assassin used to travel so quickly.
It was a method that only the assassin Pyo-wol could do. Because he himself was an assassin to the core, he was more accustomed to the physiology of an assassin more than anyone else.
He clearly knew the ways of an assassin.
This makes it impossible for any assassin to completely hide his existence before him.
Soma said,
“Then we should track down the Xuanwu Merchant Group immediately.”
“The final destination of the Xuanwu Merchant Group was Chengdu.”
“Then we can just run the shortest distance without having to follow the river.”
Soma grinned.
Going by boat will definitely be fast, but it’s not always the case. This is because rivers tend to twist and bend, and the speed of a boat is limited.
In some cases, it may be faster to use the land route.
Since they already knew the destination of the Xuanwu Merchant Group, it was possible to catch up with them even if they went by land. Moreover, both Pyo-wol and Soma were masters of martial arts, so they have some good footwork. Their mobility would be superior to others.
Since the two traveled by land, they were able to narrow the distance with Xuanwu Merchant Group faster than expected.
The Xuanwu Merchant Group was staying at a guest house at the entrance of Chengdu.
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