FVN Chapter 357 : Intelligence (2)
Chapter 357 : Intelligence (2)
Around the time Il-mok was busy putting together all kinds of countermeasures to deceive the Martial Alliance, an outsider was making his way into Tianshui County in Gansu Province.The locals didn't make much of a fuss about a stranger showing up. Tianshui was the closest county to Shaanxi Province, making it something of a transit hub, and while it couldn't hold a candle to Lanzhou, it was developed enough that outsiders weren't exactly a rare sight.
The man stepped into an inn near the marketplace and asked the owner, "You got any rooms ready?"
"Ha, of course! How long are you planning to stay?"
"Not sure yet, but probably a good while."
"In that case, I'll knock a bit off the price for you."
The owner called over a waiter, who led the man to his room. He unpacked just enough of his luggage and headed back downstairs.
"Could you bring me some dumplings?"
After putting in his order with the innkeeper, the man settled at a table near the door where he had a clear view of the marketplace outside.
He was watching the street for a little while when the waiter came over and set the dumplings down on his table.
"Hm. Tianshui's got a pretty lively atmosphere."
The man tossed that out casually toward the waiter, who turned to glance out the door at the marketplace. After taking it in for a moment alongside the man, the young waiter smiled and said, "Hearing you say that makes me appreciate just how great the compassion of the Maitreya Luminous Cult really is."
Caught completely off guard by this impromptu worship, the man barely kept his face straight as he asked, "The Maitreya Luminous Cult? What does that religion even do? Why'd that name come out of nowhere?"
"Ah, I take it you haven't been to Gansu in the past few years? Well, let me tell you about the Maitreya Luminous Cult..."
Triggered by the man's simple question, the waiter beamed and launched into a full-blown sermon about the Cult's magnificence.
The man took in everything the waiter said and only got up after finishing every last dumpling.
"I'm heading out for a bit."
"Of course. Take care, sir."
Stepping into the market, the man naturally melted into the crowd, strolling the streets and keeping a close eye on the locals. Every so often, he'd stop at a stall or step into a shop to look at the goods on display.
He stopped at one stall selling cheap trinkets and the old man running it struck up a conversation. "Ha, don't think I've seen you before. You from out of town?"
"That I am."
"Seeing a traveler from out of town like this makes me feel grateful to the Maitreya Luminous Cult all over again."
Hit with yet another surprise worship session, the man forced his face to remain neutral and asked, "...And what exactly does my being here have to do with the Maitreya Luminous Cult?"
"Hahaha. You didn't know? Up until a few years ago, this area was swarming with bandits. They used to prey on merchants crossing over from Shaanxi, but ever since the Cult wiped them out, more and more people have been able to travel safely to Tianshui County without any trouble."
"Hm. I see."
After politely wrapping up the conversation, the man bought a cheap ring from the stall and moved on. He stopped at another stall and picked up an apple, taking a bite out of it as he walked.
"This apple's pretty sweet."
"Hohoho. Isn't that also thanks to the grace of the Maitreya Luminous Cult?"
Only then did the man realize the truth.
The locals here weren't just randomly praising the Maitreya Luminous Cult out of the blue. They were practically hardwired to worship the Cult constantly, and he just happened to be caught in the crossfire of their everyday devotion.
He reminded himself of his mission and forced himself to ask, "What does a sweet apple have to do with the Maitreya Luminous Cult? Are you telling me they now run orchards, too?"
He spent a while longer roaming the marketplace gathering information, and by the time the sun was dipping low on the horizon, he made his way back to the inn.
Unlike earlier, he picked a table tucked away in a corner and ordered a bottle of liquor along with some food. While he leisurely sipped his drink in solitude, the empty tables around him quickly filled up. The working-class folks of Tianshui County grew loud and rowdy with a little liquid courage, giving the man the perfect opportunity to eavesdrop and gather intel. But then, a very strange melody drifted into his ears.
“Glo~ ry! Glory! O’ Divine Cult!!”
He glanced over to see the innwaiter humming the bizarre tune while wiping down the adjacent table.
"What kind of song is that?"
"Oh, right, you said you just arrived today. It's a hymn of the Maitreya Luminous Cult. Singing this song while doing hard labor really lifts your spirits. Hahaha."
"..."
The man's composure slipped as his expression twisted into one of pure bewilderment.
“Glo~ ry! Glory! O’ Divine Cult!!”
The waiter hummed the tune again as he went about his chores, and before long...
"I've got peace like a riiiiver~"
"I've got peace like a riiiiver~"
Before he knew it, the entire inn had joined in, taking turns belting out a whole medley of different hymns together.
For whatever reason, watching every single person in that room smile and sing along like it was the most natural thing in the world made the hair on the man's arms stand on end.
He spent several more days in the strangely unsettling atmosphere of Tianshui County, and one day, the waiter came over to him again.
"The inn's closed today, sir."
"Closed? Is the owner sick or something?"
"Not at all. Today's a day when the Maitreya Luminous Cult holds a sermon. All the followers take the day off. So why don't you come along to the gathering, sir?"
The man thought it was a chance to gather more information, so he nodded.
He ended up following the waiter to an estate with a signboard that read "Maitreya Luminous Cult."
By the time the gathering wrapped up...
"The Advent of Maitreya! Salvation for All!!"
He was standing there with a glazed look in his eyes, shouting the slogan right along with everyone else.
***
About a month later.
Inside the Alliance Leader’s quarters, Cheok Pae-myeong and Grand Strategist Gongsun Hyeon were going through dozens of letters.
These were reports sent in by the spies they had planted all over the Maitreya Luminous Cult's territories, mainly centered around Gansu.
The letters detailed everything the spies had observed over the past month. Some details just how deeply the commoners worshipped the Cult. Others described how fiercely the Cult devoted itself to those same commoners.
And then there were the other letters mixed in among them, the ones that, for some inexplicable reason, gave you the creeps just reading them:
Gongsun Hyeon rubbed at the goosebumps that had sprouted on his arm while the Alliance Leader flung the letter aside and opened his mouth.
Gongsun Hyeon rubbed the goosebumps forming on his arms. Next to him, the Alliance Leader tossed the letter aside in frustration and spoke. "I have no idea what the hell these people are."
Watching the Alliance Leader whose temper had grown notoriously short ever since they got tangled up with the Maitreya Luminous Cult, Gongsun Hyeon carefully voiced his opinion. "Even so, it's not as though we came away with nothing. After going through all the letters, a few notable points stood out."
"Notable points, you say. Go ahead."
"First, they've been purchasing food in unusually large quantities. I am primarily speaking of items suitable for long-term storage, such as rice or meat jerky. Especially after the Emei Sect collapsed. They have been purchasing a substantial amount from Sichuan, which is rich in rice and provisions."
"I already know about that. Aren't they handing out about half to the commoners and packing the other half with their merchant troupe to head off to the Western Regions?"
"The crucial part is that even just half of that is still a staggering amount of food. Unless they're getting top prices for Central Plains food out in the Western Regions, there's no reason to haul that much of it out there. Wouldn't it make more sense for a trading company to load those carts and wagons with goods that actually sell well in the Western Regions?"
The reason the Maitreya Luminous Cult's Heavenly Light Merchant Guild was purchasing such enormous quantities of food was simple. It was to supply the nomadic tribes of the north that they had recently brought into the fold, along with their existing followers in Qinghai, Tibet, and Xinjiang.
About half was being transported by the Maitreya Luminous Cult's own personnel to Gansu, northern Sichuan, Qinghai, and Tibet, while the other half was being delivered directly by the Heavenly Light Merchant Guild to the Northern Steppes and Xinjiang.
Having no way to know any of that, the Alliance Leader nodded as if he'd just been convinced.
"You're right. It does seem like more than what you'd need just for trade runs."
"Precisely, Alliance Leader. This isn't a one-off thing either; they're buying this much on a regular and recurring basis. At this point it looks less like a trade operation and more like stockpiling supplies in preparation for a war."
"Hmm. In that case, we'd be better off digging deeply into that merchant company and the northern trade routes instead of wasting time investigating the commoners."
"I'll issue instructions for them to do exactly that."
***
A group was making its way through the northern reaches of Shaanxi and Ningxia, pushing into the northern steppes. Once they crossed beyond the borders of the Han territories and stepped into the barren wasteland, they veered away to the west from their original northward route.
After several days of travel across a stretch of earth too bleak to really call a steppe, a distant settlement finally came into view.
They spurred their horses toward it.
As they approached, a nomad stepped out from the settlement and called out to them.
"Where have you come from, and who are you?"
The pronunciation was a bit clunky, but it was undoubtedly the language of the Central Plains.
"We're merchants from the Han territories. We're heading to the Western Regions, and we were wondering if we could spend the night here."
The nomad who'd spoken in Central Plains speech replied, "Please wait a moment."
He went back into the settlement and returned shortly after.
"The chieftain has given his permission."
And just like that, the group of self-proclaimed merchants was allowed inside.
The settlement had a peaceful atmosphere. Children ran around playing everywhere, and every now and then someone would hum a little song that the so-called merchants found strangely off-putting.
"I've got peace like a riiiiver~"
"I've got peace like a riiiiver~"
The children singing were clearly northern nomadic children, and yet they were singing in Central Plains speech for some inexplicable reason. On top of that, even though they lived in the famously harsh and barren North, they were casually snacking on rice and dried fruits.
The merchants cast sidelong glances at the strangely uncanny settlement, then gathered in one spot and settled in.
After the merchants had finished their meal, an elderly man who was apparently the chieftain of the settlement came over to them, along with another man wearing a fierce-looking Heavenly Kings mask. The masked man introduced himself as a missionary of the Maitreya Luminous Cult.
They exchanged a bit of conversation with the chieftain and the missionary, and after a while the missionary said, "Oh, that reminds me, you mentioned you're heading to the Western Regions? Be careful. There have apparently been vicious bandit tribes raiding in the north recently."
The man who called himself the leader of the trading company asked, "I heard the Maitreya Luminous Cult's own Heavenly Light Merchant Guild travels back and forth to the Western Regions as well. Are they having any trouble with this?"
"The Heavenly Light Merchant Guild has been struggling with it too. We've only been able to keep the trade runs going thanks to the protection of the Maitreya."
"I see. Thanks for the warning."
"I only told you what needed to be told."
They chatted a little while longer before the chieftain and the missionary took their leave. "We've kept our guests too long. Please rest well."
Early the next morning, the group of fake merchants set out from the settlement and headed west again.
Surprisingly, every settlement they arrived at exuded a somewhat similar atmosphere. Every settlement had a missionary of the Maitreya Luminous Cult, and the children hummed bizarre songs in the Central Plains language while enjoying meals that did not suit the barren North.
They left yet another settlement where they'd spent the night and were headed west when one of them muttered, "Seems like those Maitreya Luminous Cult bastards have gotten their hooks into the northern nomads too."
"Hah. Taming those savages. God only knows what kind of underhanded tricks they used."
They were in the middle of that very un-merchant-like conversation when the man at the head of the group shouted urgently, "Nomads approaching!"
A pack of bandits was charging right at them.
The self-proclaimed merchants immediately fought back, flexing some seriously top-tier martial arts skills that no regular trader should have.
But the bandits were also packing a level of martial arts that was way too ridiculously overpowered for a bunch of highway robbers.
And the most terrifying of them all was their leader.
"Try blocking my sword if you can!!"
He was a powerhouse who kept bellowing as he swung a massive greatsword around. Every single swing of that huge sword cut the so-called merchants in two along with their weapons.
The merchants were wiped off the map in the blink of an eye, leaving the last sole survivor staring up at the leader in a vacant expression.
"Kuhahaha!"
Unlike his skills, which were unbefitting of a bandit, the sight of him bursting into a manic laugh and licking the blood smeared on his cheek made him look like he was born for banditry.