NOTICE: Many of the novels have been removed because they might cause violations, which we were not aware of earlier.
Episode 302. Man Geum Sang Dan (2)
The square interior was very spacious.
It’s hard to believe that this is an office for just one person.
However, in front of the huge, square desk located in the center, just like the rest of the room, there was only one person sitting. Along with a huge stack of documents.
He was a man with impressive white hair. It was hard to guess his age. Just looking at his hair, you might think he was over sixty, but looking at his face, which was almost wrinkle-free, and his manly demeanor, which was no less than that of a young man in his prime, you might think he was middle-aged.
The blue silk robe he was wearing was also impressive. The texture and luster were extraordinary enough that anyone could tell that it was of the highest quality. These items were not something that could be obtained simply because one had money. Only those who could monopolize the process of weaving the fabric and making the clothes, or those who had the power to employ such people, could obtain them and wear them. Anyone with an eye for this would have been able to see that the silk robe the man was wearing was of the same quality as those supplied to the imperial family.
But what caught my eye the most was the intelligence in the man’s eyes. With his clear eyes without any clouding, he read various documents frantically, and he looked like a Confucian scholar devouring books, but surprisingly, he was far from being a scholar. This was because he had been more familiar with arithmetic than with the words of Confucius since childhood.
Man-geum-gwi (萬金鬼) Kang Hae-sang – This man was the owner of Man-geum-sangdan, once renowned as the best merchant group in the world. Here in Guangxi, he was otherwise called Shang-wang (商王). This gave us an idea of how much power he had. Even those who had been acting as powerful families in the martial arts world for hundreds of years rarely had the word “wang (王)” in their nicknames. This was because they could easily offend the imperial family. In the case of those who were known to be peerless in martial arts, even the imperial family could not treat them lightly, so they were often openly called “wang (王)”. In recent years, the only people who had this distinction were Nam-gung Jang-cheon (劍王), the King of Swords, and Peng Ji-hyeok (刀王). Even so, the Sword King was exalted in the hands of the Magwang Heavenly Lord, and the Habuk Peng family, the family of the Dao King, had close ties to the imperial family, so the peerless master there was originally treated as if he were a county king. It is not surprising that his nickname is Dao King.
So, the fact that Kang Hae-sang was now called the King of Shang in some provinces was something that would be shocking to those who did not know. It meant that a mere businessman had acquired enough power to ignore the imperial court’s opinion.
Of course, those who have some insight into the current state of the martial arts world do not consider Kang Hae-sang as a mere merchant. Wasn’t he the one who recognized the potential and fully supported Ma Gwang-cheon when he was established in Wuhan, Hubei? He was an extraordinary person.
In the Sanggye, who had no idea that the power of the demons would take root so deeply in the land of the Central Plains, no one except for the Mangeum Trading Company dared to approach Magwangcheon. Perhaps because of that connection, now only the Mangeum Trading Company has the right to provide various materials to Magwangcheon.
The power of Ma Guangcheon, which originated in Wuhan, Hubei, has expanded over the past twenty years, and now covers more than ten provinces. The southeastern part of Central Plains has become the land of the Demonic Clan. In that vast territory, only those related to the Manjin Shangdan can take the initiative in traveling. Therefore, other Shangdans naturally had to organize their bases and leave for other places, or gradually become subordinate to the Manjin Shangdan.
It was a well-known fact to those who had been in the Central Plains business world that Kang Hae-sang had made enormous profits in the process.
There was even talk that the Magwangcheonju Yeon Junghyuk, who might become the heir to the Central Plains martial arts world, was called the King of the Shang because he recognized his value faster than anyone else and made huge investments. If Magwangcheon really won the Jeongma War and the world of magic came, there was a high chance that all commercial activities in the Central Plains would go according to Gang Haesang’s wishes.
Even after the establishment of Magwangcheon, Kang Haesang provided considerable financial support to help the Mago family settle down. Perhaps because of this, he is close with the Mago grandees and is acquainted with the Mago grand dukes they each gave birth to. It is unknown who will be the next Mago Heavenly Lord, but he has also lined up with them.
If the world of magic comes smoothly, the status of the Man-Geum-Sang-Dan will be unrivaled for the next hundred years. After the current Magwang-Cheonju Yeon-Jung-Hyeok, the hegemon of the Central Plains martial arts world will serve as their background for two generations.
No merchant in history has ever made such a profit in just twenty years. Moreover, the powerful military force was a law that could not be swayed by the majesty of the imperial family.
How could the people of the commercial world, who had a rough idea of the inside story, not call Kang Hae-sang the King of Commerce?
Fall, fall.
The man, Kang Hae-sang, quickly flips through several pages of letters. They are from Hanam. They contain information about the amount spent on purchasing the relics of monks, the claims for that amount, and news from the surrounding area.
‘A total of eighty-nine thousand nyang.’
It’s just a small amount of money. Kang Hae-sang laughed. It was too cheap to pay for the rooting out of all the Bulmun Maekjes throughout Hanam. With this, the enemy that was the most threatening to the Demonic Way and could have been a huge threat was gone. Those who possessed the power of demon annihilation, even if they were not so good.
‘If you organize it without leaving a trace, you should be able to recover about 300,000 nyang without much difficulty. There may be some who truly believe that it is effective against demons, and there may be some who want to buy it again at a higher price even though it has been sold once. In the end, you will only have spent about 600,000 nyang.’
Kang Hae-sang had figured out what was happening far away in Hanam. From the beginning, he had no doubt that Yeon Jung-hyeok would win against Shaolin.
It was because he heard from Geumryeong that Yeon Jung-hyeok had achieved results after being closed for several years. He had acquired the martial arts of the Sword Ghost, the best swordsman in the world hundreds of years ago. To be honest, Kang Hae-sang, who did not have much knowledge of martial arts, was skeptical that Yeon Jung-hyeok, who had already learned many ascending magic arts including the Heavenly Demon Art, would make meaningful progress in his achievements just by learning the old sword art. However, Yeon Jung-hyeok’s actions that followed were shocking.
He killed the King of Swords, Namgung Jangcheon, and destroyed the Namgung clan of Anhui… …!
It was a well-known story that immediately after Magwangcheon was established, Yeonjunghyeok used his own marriage to destroy or subjugate several martial families.
First, he proposes marriage to a warrior who has a woman of marriageable age, and if she refuses, he will start a war against the Heavenly King, citing that it will greatly damage his reputation as the Lord of Magwangcheon. Although it is a new power, the military power of Magwangcheon, which is comprised entirely of the elite of the Heavenly Demon Sect, is comparable to that of any great Heavenly King. Small and medium-sized warriors do not dare to oppose him. They have no choice but to destroy the clan without a fight or give up all their vested interests and barely maintain their lineage.
At that time, the Sixth Sect was just watching what Magwangcheonju Yeonjunghyeok was doing. The marriage issue itself was very personal, and they were wary of what Black Lotus Sect would do after destroying Cheongseong and Ami and taking over.
As a result, there were families that gradually accepted marriage proposals. They thought that if they were to marry Magwangcheonju, they would be branded as a demonic force, but it was better than being destroyed or downgraded immediately. However, Yeonjunghyuk spent the night after his wedding and never looked for the woman he had married again. Many people chose to commit suicide because they felt shame and humiliation at such an oddity.
In this situation.
There was no way that the Five Great Families, who had been rising in power without the damage caused by the Black Lotus, would accept the marriage proposal of Magwangcheonju. They were the powerful families of the Central Plains martial arts world for hundreds of years. Not only was it absurd to collude with the Demonic Clan, but giving away their precious daughter as Magwangcheonju’s one-night stand to preserve their family line was considered a disgrace, like death.
━Get out.
Namgung Se-ga, Jegal Se-ga, Murong Se-ga, and Sichuan Tang-ga all immediately expressed their intention to reject. Only Habuk Peng-ga did not receive any proposals from Ma Guang-cheon-ju. There was a rumor that this was because many women with the Peng surname were tall and thin, but the truth was unknown.
Anyway.
As a result, three of the families that had expressed their intention to reject the offer – the Zhuge family, the Murong family, and the Tang family – were so badly damaged that they could no longer be called the three families. This was because they had been attacked by Ma Guangcheon.
However, only one family, the Namgung family, was not hit hard, because the Sword King Namgung Jangcheon, who had mastered the art of heavy swordsmanship to the extreme, was able to handle the Magwangcheon Lord. Not only that, he even crushed a considerable number of Magwangcheon demons.
In other words, at this time, Yeon Jung-hyeok’s martial arts achievements were not as great as Namgung Jang-cheon’s. At best, they were at a similar level.
However, Yeon Jung-hyeok, who had finished closing the room, easily defeated Namgung Jang-cheon without any injuries. And he did so with sword skills.
It is no exaggeration to call him the new swordsman━That is why Kang Hae-sang guessed that no matter how many great monks were hiding in Shaolin, they would be difficult to match Yeon Jung-hyeok. He had reached perfection even within the realm of the peerless.
Moreover, he was in a position where he was no different from a gambler who had bet all his money on Yeon Jung-hyeok. It was natural for him to plan for the future based on the assumption of victory.
So Kang Hae-sang had given instructions in advance. As soon as the destruction of Shaolin was confirmed, the relics of the monks were to be purchased at high prices. He also used his informants to spread the rumor that the relics of the high monks were effective in warding off evil spirits.
‘It doesn’t matter whether it actually works. What matters is whether people believe it. And that belief tends to come from the price.’
Kang Hae-sang was not only a man of exceptional skill who could make Man-geum-sang-dan the best in the world, but he was also a skilled person who could easily apply the facts he had learned through experience in all kinds of situations.
‘If I find several buyers and sell them at the same time, the amount I can recover will increase, but I might end up causing unnecessary resentment… I think it would be better to just accept the loss of about 600,000 nyang. If I lose that much, no one will complain.’
Kang Hae-sang, who had finished thinking, picked up the brush that was lying on one side and quickly finished writing a letter. It was a brief description of how his subordinates who were moving around Hanam should conduct themselves in the future.
Deeng━
Deeng━
Was it to call the lower ranks easily? There was a small paper on one side of the desk, and when Kang Hae-sang pulled the string hanging from it twice, the door opened slightly and a woman who had spread her magic approached her. She gave off a subtle magical energy, and her achievements didn’t seem to be very deep, but she didn’t seem to be at the level of someone who could be assigned to menial tasks. Did she hire her with a promise of a considerable salary, or was she a mine from Magwangcheon?
“Did you call? The Lord of the Upper House.”
“Send this to Hanam. Enclose a voucher for six hundred thousand nyang.”
“Is it urgent?”
“It’s not that urgent… … If we’re late, we could incur an additional loss of about a hundred thousand nyang.”
“… … I will process the payment. And the lady is in the guest room. The head of the household said that she was working and told me not to bother her, so I will tell you now.”
“Your Majesty, in person? Did you come from Guizhou?”
Kang Hae-sang assumed that it was Gwak Hwa-yeong, the head of the Guiju Guo family, who had come. This was because the information he had received a while ago flashed through his mind. The expedition of the Guiju Guo family led by Taechang Ma Guncheon-ak, the sudden southward advance of the main force of the Jeongcheon Alliance stationed in Juksan, Hubei – it was a situation where it was sufficient to request troops to defend the family.
One woman shook her head.
“No. It’s Fujian Yuga. Madam Yu Seol-ryeon has arrived.”