ISS 42

chapter 42

When Geomryeong shouted urgently, Jeok Hwamyeong reacted.

Shhaa—!

Blood spurted like a fountain from the cracked skin and scattered in all directions. The places where his blood hit turned yellowish.

“What is this?” Jeok Hwamyeong asked in alarm.

“It’s indok.”

Geomryeong seemed to have mentioned it once before. Seeing this indok—something he’d only heard about—was also a first today.

“A lot of things are surprising us today,” Jeok Hwamyeong muttered.

But there was a problem.

Although the hunchbacked man had died, the jiangshi were still moving to kill the Hyeonryong corps.

“This situation looks serious.”

“I think so too. Is there any way out?”

“I can’t think of anything specific. It’d be best to gather together in one place first.”

Rather than letting them scatter, it would be better to gather and then fight the jiangshi all at once, he suggested.

“All right. Gather at the entrance, then.”

Jeok Hwamyeong told the wounded Ui Je-ung, and he quickly had the Hyeonryong corps assemble at the village entrance.

As they did, the jiangshi naturally took up positions deeper inside the village, while Hyeonryong and the others positioned themselves outside the entrance.

“We can run away like this,” Geomryeong said, and Jeok Hwamyeong gave him a look that plainly said, “Don’t joke like that.”

If they ran away now, they might live, but if the jiangshi went down the mountain into the city, chaos would surely erupt.

“You did as I asked.”

Jeok Hwamyeong’s words implied he wanted Geomryeong to step forward and deal with them.

Except for the wounded Ui Je-ung and Hyeon Tae-ji, Jeok Hwamyeong considered Geomryeong the strongest, so he entrusted the jiangshi to him.

The jiangshi were slowly walking toward the entrance.

Those walking toward the narrow entrance naturally bunched up near it.

Seeing that, Geomryeong nodded, stepped forward, and drew the sword at his waist.

The blade glinted in the sunlight.

“I bear no grudge against you, but I have no choice if I’m to survive. If you’re reborn in the next life, I hope you live out your allotted days and die having done so.”

He spoke as if offering consolation, then slowly lifted his sword up toward the sky.

Oooooooong!

A swirl of internal energy gathered around Geomryeong. The force made people step back a little.

Uido-gi looked a little startled by the sight.

The sword that had risen into the air descended vertically, slowly. It was an extremely simple motion.

It came down so slowly those watching were getting bored.

When he conjured that swirl of energy everyone had expected him to show something spectacular, but they looked very disappointed by the slow motion.

The jiangshi had approached to within three paces.

“You—”

Hyeon Tae-ji started to say something, but Jeok Hwamyeong stopped him.

The advancing jiangshi had halted.

“Hurk!”

Everyone stared ahead with astonished eyes.

The clothes the jiangshi were wearing turned to dust and blew away, leaving them naked for a moment, and then their skin cracked and scattered too.

People had heard stories of humans turning to dust, but none of them had ever actually seen it before.

From the heads of the jiangshi, down their bodies, and then their legs, they simply dissolved into dust and scattered.

Everyone’s faces showed disbelief.

All Geomryeong had done was draw his sword and slowly lower it from top to bottom—yet fifty-odd jiangshi that had been rampaging before them turned to dust and vanished.

“What on earth is this—”

Hyeon Tae-ji spoke incredulously, but Geomryeong did not answer. Instead he went to where the hunchbacked man had exploded and searched for something.

He found a book inside and, while walking back to the group, skimmed through it.

“It’s a demonic manual for learning jiangshi techniques. It should be burned,” he said.

No one responded. Interpreting their silence as permission, they performed a trance-like burning ritual and incinerated the manual.

Thanks to tracking down the village on Nokmyeong Mountain, they were able to eliminate someone who had mastered the demonic arts, but the price was seven wounded.

Those who spent the night halfway up Nokmyeong Mountain gathered in twos and threes to discuss the martial art Geomryeong had displayed during the day, but Geomryeong paid little attention. He leaned his back against a large tree, with Uido-gi and Jeok Hwamyeong sitting around him.

“Prince Geomryeong has suddenly become a hero,” Uido-gi said. He’d known Geomryeong had been learning martial arts and that he could block Hyeon Tae-ryeong’s sword techniques; but this terrifying skill that turned jiangshi to dust was something he’d only just learned about.

“I only stepped forward at someone else’s request,” Geomryeong said.

Ever since he’d accidentally displayed his skill in the fight with Hyeon Tae-ryeong, opportunities to show his martial arts had multiplied. That attention made Geomryeong uncomfortable—different from the assumption that he had not been practicing martial arts at all.

“I’ve never seen such techniques in my life.”

Someone asked him to talk about the martial art, but Geomryeong kept quiet.

“More importantly, what do you think?” Jeok Hwamyeong shifted the conversation.

“What do you mean?”

“About the sudden appearance of the demons and the demonic manuals.”

“Conspiracy breeds fruit once it sprouts, so of course flowers will bloom,” Jeok Hwamyeong replied.

A reasonable answer.

“You say it so confidently,” Jeok Hwamyeong observed. He’d heard Geomryeong speak of the demons before, and talk of conspiracy had followed then as well.

“If there wasn’t a conspiracy, there’d be no reason to spread demonic martial arts manuals.”

“Hmm…”

“Isn’t it a bit much to call it a conspiracy the moment demonic martial arts are spreading? Didn’t some manuals from thirty years ago, from when we fought the demons, leak into the martial world?” Uido-gi asked.

He was right—during the fights with the demons thirty years ago, one or two demonic manuals could certainly have slipped into the martial world.

“I suppose that could be. Maybe I overreacted,” Jeok Hwamyeong conceded.

Geomryeong didn’t want to argue about this—he’d said the same things before, and repeating oneself was tiring.

But in truth he still suspected a conspiracy. The reason was simple: far too many people who had learned demonic arts had appeared within one province.

He’d confirmed three cases in Gwangdong Province alone. Then, after coming to Honam Province, he’d encountered someone who had learned jiangshi techniques.

He expected to meet three or four more people who had mastered demonic arts before he reached the Martial Alliance.

“What are you thinking about?” Jeok Hwamyeong asked.

“Everyone saw those who’d learned demonic arts, so why would I need to go to the Martial Alliance?” Geomryeong replied.

Geomryeong’s purpose in going to the Martial Alliance was to inform them that people who had learned demonic arts were active in the martial world. But since everyone here had already met such people, there seemed little reason for him to go all the way to the Martial Alliance.

“You might think so, but you’ll need to prove that two of them—Hyeon Jinmyeong and Gon Honggi—learned demonic arts, so you should go to the Martial Alliance,” Jeok Hwamyeong said.

Geomryeong looked toward the two who had been whispering.

“People are more likely to believe their testimony than mine…”

He wasn’t wrong.

“Considering the positions they hold in the orthodox martial world, your suggestion is likely,” Jeok Hwamyeong continued.

Jeok Hwamyeong nodded in agreement with Geomryeong’s words. Familial interests often influenced outcomes.

“If I vanish, their position will be even better,” Geomryeong said.

“Geomryeong! What do you mean by that?” Uido-gi asked.

“I thought it over, and showing a family feud isn’t a good look,” Geomryeong explained.

Uido-gi narrowed his eyes.

“But if you disappear, they might frame you.”

“All the people here saw everything, so they couldn’t frame me. And those people aren’t that stupid either,” Geomryeong said. He meant Hyeon Tae-ji and Gon Man-uk would know better than to stir trouble unnecessarily.

“Still—”

“Don’t worry. What do you plan to do, Brother Jeok?” Uido-gi asked.

Geomryeong had already decided to leave and act separately. Going to the Martial Alliance and acting with them wasn’t a bad plan, but he didn’t like being tied down to one place.

“I told you, I’ll go with you.” Jeok Hwamyeong said.

“Brother Jeok!” Uido-gi exclaimed, pleased at the fraternal bond.

“You’ll have many chances to meet again, so don’t be too upset. And if Elder Hyeon Tae-ji or Gon Man-uk slanders us, you straighten things out,” Geomryeong added.

“But—”

“Do it,” Geomryeong insisted.

Uido-gi finally nodded.

“Then it would be best to leave at dawn.”

“Agreed.”

“They tricked us. He fed us false information.”

“False information?”

Leng Ga-gok, who operated in Fujian Province, had taken on a contract to kill a man. One of Leng Ga-gok’s three assassination squads—the Insaldan—had moved on the contract, trailed Hyeonryong’s group northward, and based on the insider information they’d been given, planned an operation—but it failed spectacularly.

“That’s right. They weren’t poisoned by the Seonpye (immortal-smoke). The brothers who moved to kill them are all dead.”

The man receiving the report’s eyes tightened.

An assassin’s job was killing others, but it always required them to keep their own death in mind.

They may always prepare themselves mentally, but news of the deaths of comrades is never pleasant.

“Not poisoned?”

“That’s right, Master! If they had been, the brothers would not have been helpless.”

Inja-gi, the Insaldan’s leader, narrowed his eyes.

The contract had been placed through Cheonmyeong Villa, and their informant was the village elder, Hyeon Tae-ji.

He had insisted Hyeonryong’s people would be affected by Seonpye.

“Ten of our brothers are dead. We must hold him responsible for giving us false intel.”

If the intelligence had been accurate, the mission would not have failed.

Ten top-class assassins against people who couldn’t use internal skill—that was already showing maximum courtesy.

But the results were the opposite.

If the information had been unreliable, they would have sought a better chance.

“Are you sure they didn’t lose their internal power?”

“They didn’t, Master.”

Inja-gi thought for a moment, then nodded.

“Tomorrow the rōnin will attack them. See then if they’ve lost their internal power.”

“Master! All our brothers are dead.”

Smack!

Inja-gi punched the man shouting at him.

“Did you forget assassins live with death?” he barked.

“Master—”

“Go out and scout their movements. Everything will be revealed tomorrow; we can deal with it then.”