Chapter 65. The Rogue Under the Moonlight

The moment I heard Yu Sacheong’s words, my mood turned foul. And with good reason.

Only moments ago, I had felt like a commander leading an army; now, thanks to Yu Sacheong, I had been demoted to a piece on a janggi board.

To fight when told not to, and to refuse when told to fight.

That has always been my consistent mindset.

I echoed Yu Sacheong’s words exactly.

“‘Fight hard until a conclusion is reached’... did you just give me an order?”

I casually raised one hand and spoke.

“Let’s call a truce.”

“……!”

“Eldest Martial Brother?”

“Pavilion Lord?”

Enemy and ally alike looked at me simultaneously.

I lowered my tone gradually.

“Fine. I have officially confirmed that Yu Sacheong is behind this matter. So you’ve all been dancing to his tune. I’ll let the gamblers off the hook. But I won’t spare the house. After all, the house rakes in the most money. And who even knows how much he’s pocketing? My proposal is simple. A temporary truce.”

Yu Sacheong replied with a laugh.

“You’re spouting mad nonsense.”

“A fair point. But if we keep fighting like this, the ones to suffer the greatest losses will be Iryong Nogun and Su Seonsaeng.”

Iryong Nogun asked with a pale expression.

“Why?”

Su Seonsaeng also spat out a remark.

“I have never lived my life at a loss.”

I nodded as I looked at the two of them.

“If you divide Namhwa among yourselves, you won’t suffer losses. I’m sure you’ve all calculated from your own positions, but I’m different. The most important thing is that Yu Sacheong didn’t bring any troops. That’s the crux of it. I guarantee it: if we keep fighting, more than half of you will die by my hand. Of course, my subordinates will die too. But the one person who won’t suffer a single loss from beginning to end is the one who orchestrated this entire board—Yu Sacheong.”

Yu Sacheong cut in.

“What are you trying to say?”

“Yu Sacheong must have tempted you two with the promise of profit by seizing Namhwa while the Great Abbot is absent. But in the process, most of your subordinates will die by my hand. And I won’t die. In the end, the ones who perish will be the subordinates who joined this fight.”

Yu Sacheong cut in again.

“What are you trying to say? Get to the point.”

“The most important thing is that no one should suffer losses during the truce. After all, the money you received from Yu Sacheong should still be there with you. Right?”

Hong Sin raised his hand.

“Eldest Martial Brother, sorry, but what do you mean when you say the money received from Yu Sacheong is still there?”

“This is an illusory transaction that exploits the psychology of give-and-take. Iryong Nogun and Su Seonsaeng still have the large sums they received from Yu Sacheong resting within their respective factions. Instead, they must have planned to repay the debt using spoils gained from sacking Namhwa. Returning the money you received as-is would sting, but paying off a debt with plundered goods doesn’t feel like a loss. Do you follow?”

“I understand.”

“Yu Sacheong exploited this. He gave you a large sum and told you to repay it by sacking Namhwa. Killing two birds with one stone... But the crux, as I’ve repeatedly said, is that Yu Sacheong stands to lose absolutely nothing. He didn’t bring troops today; he isn’t fighting himself; he didn’t even come with fellow experts. How much money can possibly replace the lives of your subordinates? The mistake Iryong Nogun and Su Seonsaeng are making is that they haven’t even bothered to calculate the price of their subordinates’ lives. Fine. That concludes the situation analysis.”

I glared around at everyone and spoke.

“The ones I want right now are neither Iryong Nogun nor Su Seonsaeng. Enemy or ally, if you all just stay put as you are.”

I smiled beneath my mask.

“First, I’ll capture Yu Sacheong. I’m a man of my word. If you accept my proposal, I’ll remove my mask on this very spot. It’s a bit of a loss for me, but if I want to catch Yu Sacheong, I’ll have to accept that much. For your information, Yu Sacheong will keep trying to persuade you to fight. Now, let’s hear what Yu Sacheong has to say.”

“…….”

Yu Sacheong was on the verge of provoking and threatening Iryong Nogun and Su Seonsaeng to keep fighting, but he closed his mouth again.

In the end, Iryong Nogun and Su Seonsaeng also looked at Yu Sacheong with displeased expressions. At that, Yu Sacheong frowned and opened his mouth.

“Are you going to let him play you?”

I immediately burst into laughter.

“Hahahahahaha…….”

I cackled for a good while before pointing my finger at Yu Sacheong.

“Was I right or what?”

In an instant, I wiped the smile from my face and addressed the crowd.

“Both sides, leave Yu Sacheong to me. It won’t be too late to fight after that.”

The moment I finished speaking, I removed the Black Cat Mask and handed it to Hong Sin. Hong Sin put on the Black Cat Mask and replied.

“Thank you, Eldest Martial Brother.”

I spoke with my face revealed.

“Anyone here know me?”

Would there be anyone here who would recognize the waiter of the Ilyanghyeon Inn? There wasn’t.

“I’ve already taken the first loss. If I had continued to hide my face, I wanted to mention that I had the confidence to handle half your forces through assassinations. Iryong Nogun, Su Seonsaeng. The decision is yours.”

Yu Sacheong looked at Iryong Nogun.

“Senior Brother Nogun, can you handle this?”

Iryong Nogun replied.

“Yu Sacheong, did you truly think of me as a pawn on a janggi board?”

“How could I?”

Iryong Nogun looked around the surroundings and spoke.

“Then allow me to make a counterproposal. I will not accept a truce at this very moment. However, let the Namhwa Heukdo, the Ihwa Heukdo, and my entire force encircle this place, and let that chatterbox and Yu Sacheong fight a life-and-death duel.”

Iryong Nogun looked at me.

“Once those two fight a life-and-death duel and whichever side dies, I will withdraw my forces. Only then would you bear the blame for killing Yu Sacheong, and a true temporary truce be established. What do you think, Su Seonsaeng?”

Su Seonsaeng replied, forcing back a laugh.

“Senior Brother is correct.”

If Yu Sacheong won, they would press their forces and clean up Namhwa.

If I beat Yu Sacheong, they intended to withdraw their forces.

As expected, an old Jianghu hand had no intention of taking losses.

But there was something these fellows were mistaken about.

I had never been a horse (馬) on the janggi board. Even with Iryong Nogun making his move, I already had a plan for everything.

“Let’s do it that way. A one-on-one duel is always welcome.”

Baek In approached and tried desperately to stop me.

“Eldest Martial Brother, they mean to watch the life-and-death duel first to ascertain your strength.”

I met eyes with Baek In.

“Is that so? Clever bastards.”

When he saw my faint smile, Baek In, having confirmed my expression, stepped back.

Iryong Nogun gave an order to the entire force.

“Widen the formation. Build an encirclement so that no one can escape. Where you clash with the enemy, do not fight each other recklessly. Begin the life-and-death duel.”

Master Su chimed in.

“Spread out wider. Any bastard who runs will be killed without exception.”

Yu Sacheong turned around briefly and looked at the executives of the Unuhoi and Lady Cheolseom, who were blocking his path. Iryong Nogun also stepped forward and stood as if to seal off the escape route.

Yu Sacheong smirked.

“Have you all lost your minds?”

Iryong Nogun retorted.

“Why? You just have to win. Nothing has changed. Whether you step forward yourself or hide in the shadows—only that difference remains. If your forces are so great, shouldn’t you prove it with skill rather than words?”

Regardless of whether these bastards were bickering or not, I openly moved like a cat and approached from behind Yu Sacheong.

Yu Sacheong scratched his chin once, then drew the sword at his waist and turned around.

As I lowered my stance, the ends of my fluttering hair were cut by the blade and sent flying. I thrust Heukmyoa out in a straightforward straight line.

Clang!

Then Yu Sacheong, having knocked aside Heukmyoa, charged at me wielding a Swift Sword.

His mouth firmly shut, Yu Sacheong reflected the moonlight off his blade and launched rapid thrusts before unfolding the Phantom Sword, dividing his sword into three.

It was a technique utilizing the afterimage of sword qi.

His footwork was stable, his sword was fast, and even as he moved smoothly, he maintained a posture with his waist firmly braced.

I knocked aside his sword with Heukmyoa and thought.

‘He’s from the orthodox path.’

It was definitely not a sword art learned in the back alleys. Traces of having trained obsessively in a specific sword art for at least ten years remained everywhere.

He had acted like a bystander who cared only for money, but his hidden skill was not bad.

Even I could not rashly counterattack until I had checked his sword art from beginning to end. At times like this, I couldn’t help but admire the great masters of the orthodox path who had created such martial arts systems.

But although I could admire his martial arts,

there was absolutely no chance that he could recognize mine.

Because my martial arts had no foundation.

Third-rate blade arts, third-rate sword arts, grave-digger’s scythe-work, real combat, martial gambling, martial arts stolen by peeking over shoulders, third-rate secret manuals, second-rate secret manuals—the martial arts of Geumgu Soyogong and Gwangseung mixed and clashed, and I had created quite a few martial arts of my own.

Martial arts learned while fleeing, blade strikes realized while being cut all over my body, the processes I had agonized over to escape qi deviation—all of them were mine.

Because there had been no foundation, the entire process of my surviving through endurance had become my foundation.

I knocked aside all of Yu Sacheong’s attacks and watched as his sword art flowed like water from the first move to the last. After that, the earlier moves and later moves mixed, transformed, and recombined to attack me.

I deliberately stepped back, pushing toward the allied formation with the center line as my reference, then planted my feet firmly and blocked all of Yu Sacheong’s sword strikes.

A man enduring the fairly powerful offensive of an orthodox swordsman with an iron-wall defense—that was me.

If he wasn’t a fool, he ought to realize something…

Having maintained nothing but defense from start to finish, I smirked and spoke.

“Faster, faster, swing faster. Too slow, faster, faster. That technique—this is the third time.”

There are cases where one frantically attacks as if possessed and cannot bring oneself to flee; right now, Yu Sacheong was like that.

In that instant, I created the palm force of the Yeomgye Daesu-in with my left palm.

Yu Sacheong, swinging his sword at tremendous speed, sliced the palm-shaped force into three equal parts in a flash.

When unleashing palm force,

there are times when you compress and invest real internal energy to unleash it as an attack.

And there are times when you create only an empty illusion, hollow like a cloud, to deceive the opponent. Naturally, creating an illusion with real qi is no easy task, either.

But just as Yu Sacheong had created the Phantom Sword, I too could create an illusion with palm force. When Yu Sacheong had cut through the great illusion three times…

I shot forward like a gale over a short distance, threw Heukmyoa, and soared up diagonally to match the moment the bastard swung his sword.

Ching!

Left hand: Energy Absorption Technique. Right hand: Wooden Chicken Finger Technique.

I pulled in Yu Sacheong’s body, whose balance was disrupted, with the Energy Absorption Technique, forced him further off-balance, then landed the Wooden Chicken Finger Technique on his shoulder.

Around the time the arm holding the sword stiffened rigidly, I descended and tapped Yu Sacheong’s upper body acupoints in succession with my thumb and index finger.

Into the acupoints that were stiffening—the shoulder growing rigid, the neck stiffening, the mouth unable to open, the lower body locking up as if completely blocked—I injected the Wooden Chicken qi in order.

Tap, tap, tap, tap!

I looked at Yu Sacheong, frozen stiff like a man turned to ice, then spoke toward Iryong Nogun’s side.

“This bastard is my prisoner now. He is my subordinate, my slave, and at the same time, a captive of my underlings. Whether he is tortured or killed, it is up to me, so don’t tell me what to do from now on.”

I grabbed Heukmyoa, which had fallen to the ground, with the Energy Absorption Technique and added,

“You arrogant bastards.”

The more I spoke, the more I wanted to taunt them, so I ran my mouth.

“So proud, yet you hand over your commander-in-chief just like that. This must be called Iryong Nogun’s blunder, an old man’s folly, an old man’s stubbornness, a judgment that ruined everything by trying to establish the pride of a so-called old master, a senile old man’s choice.”

I made a show of spraying water like a madman onto Heukmyoa’s blade, then performed a sword dance around Yu Sacheong, who was frozen stiff.

As I danced while swinging my blade, Hongsin asked,

“Daesahyeong, are you going to kill him?”

“I don’t know either. I just wanted to try acting like a madman. Sword dance on a moonlit night, a madman under the moonlight, the shop boy of Ilyanghyeon, the liberator of Heukseonbo, the Bangju of Heukmyobang… that is me.”

In front of Yu Sacheong, whose eyes were the only thing he could move, I performed the madman’s sword dance with a consistently serious demeanor.

The moonlight, having sent the clouds drifting past, was now shining on me as well.