Episode 99. You Look Pretty Strong

I stood at the edge and peered through the shattered roof. The owner was loaded, so an unbelievably spacious interior stretched out before my eyes.

‘This isn’t a house, it’s a palace.’

He had enough money to send assassins after me, scatter funds far and wide to recruit sword fodder for fighting the Namcheonryeon, and keep a residence this magnificent.

I extend respect and courtesy to merchants who earned their wealth through legitimate business, even if they aren’t martial arts experts.

But dark-path forces like the Paegeomhoe are different.

They’d likely wrung out this wealth by grinding up the lives, money, and very existence of countless people.

Perhaps because the house was so large, just when I thought nothing was in sight—

Sword qi suddenly surged from beneath my feet.

Crack!

As I dodged the rising sword qi and shifted toward the roof’s edge, someone completely blasted the roof apart with sword qi. In an instant, the shattered debris flew into the air, and even the Paegeomhoe underlings couldn’t approach me.

I stood precariously at the very edge, gauging the skill of the man below.

In that moment, a red-clad swordsman abruptly shot into the air and landed on the roof’s edge, looking down at me.

‘So this is the head of the guards or something?’

He looked to be in his early thirties, and even when completely still, the tips of his eyebrows slanted upward, giving him a face suited for the Path of Domination. Still, for a man leading the Paegeomhoe, he somehow looked far too young.

The man in red asked me,

“Who sent you?”

Funnily enough, it was the same question I had once asked an assassin of the Ilwi Dogang. But men in black never feel such words are worth answering.

“…….”

Right on cue, flames shot high near the center of the Gang Estate. Namgarak was rampaging about setting fires. Apparently having prepared hwaseopja loaded with gunpowder, explosions roared in succession as flames erupted here and there, mingling with screams.

I fixed my gaze on the man in red, a sneer tugging at my lips.

“…….”

Ordinarily, anyone would panic if their house were engulfed in flames, yet the man in red’s expression remained unchanged. That composure made it seem as though he had so much money he didn’t particularly care if a house like this burned down.

From below the roof, the Paegeomhoe martial artists called up to the man in red, revealing his identity.

“Hall Master, are you all right?”

Surprisingly, the man in red—who held the position of hall master—answered his subordinates like this:

“Capture this one alive. I will find out who sent him through torture.”

“Yes, sir.”

Swordsmen surged up from beneath the shattered roof in various places. I muttered in a slightly disguised voice.

“Capture me? With that skill?”

I glanced at the five or six swordsmen, then dove beneath the shattered roof. After confirming that the swordsmen and the man in red were falling after me, I sprang back upward.

Back and forth—anyway, my qinggong is exceptional.

These idiots all jumped down when I jumped down, then surged up again the moment I did. I swung Heukmyoa in a foot-sword form toward the one who had sprung up first.

With a wet, ripping sound, I tore through one swordsman in midair, then immediately leaped back down into the spacious residence.

I looked up at the roof…….

This time, a brief silence hung in the air.

That was likely because someone had just died from an absurdly simple bit of psychological warfare.

Honestly, if I wanted to drive a wedge between them and the Namcheonryeon, it would be best to set a little fire, smash the place up, and run.

But it felt a bit disappointing that the Paegeomhoe leader hadn’t shown himself. Judging from the building’s structure, it seemed the leader was in the deepest part of the first floor. Wanting to see what he looked like before leaving, I dragged Heukmyoa across the floor and unleashed a Jingak to shatter the ground.

Boom!

The entire floor heaved, creating an opening straight down. I dodged the swordsmen falling with blades thrust out from above, sent my body flying, and deflected the torrent of hidden weapons.

Clack!

The subordinates below must have consumed large amounts of elixirs bought with money, because the internal energy loaded in the hidden weapons was rather heavy.

Keeping my eyes fixed on the ceiling, I retreated, kicked a door open with my back foot, slipped out, and moved with Heukmyoa embedded in the wall.

Because the blade could have been damaged, I infused it with the qi of Yeomgye and proceeded to completely trash the Paegeomhoe’s residence. Heukmyoa’s blade was already hard to begin with, and since I had refined and poured Yeomgye’s qi into it as if honing a sharp edge, I could destroy things as easily as slicing through a house made of paper.

There is no reason to hesitate in enemy territory.

I smashed through walls as I pleased, cutting and stabbing anything in my way as I moved.

When I emerged into the corridor again, I deflected a sword that suddenly shot out with Heukmyoa, pulled the attacker in with the Heupseong Daebeop, and the moment I grabbed him, I plunged my blade into his stomach.

Squelch!

I grabbed the dead man by the hair, moved on, and hurled him at the stairs. Just as the men rushing up with a thunderous clamor collided with the corpse…….

Thud!

I poured blade qi wildly down the stairs. The corpse was shredded by the blade qi, the swordsmen who caught the corpse were also shredded by the blade qi, and even those trying to flee had their arms and legs torn apart.

In an instant, both sides of the stairs and the area below were drenched in a mess of blood and chunks of flesh…….

As I descended the blood-drenched stairs, I briefly locked eyes with the man in red, who had been cautiously following me. Even then, this bastard had placed his subordinates in front and stood behind them.

“…….”

The man in red, quite composed and cautious, gave an order in a calm tone laced with internal energy.

“Block off the lower levels.”

Amid the sound of footsteps on the stairs and the forces continuously pressing up from below, the man in red asked me,

“Did Sadoheng send you?”

Honestly, I didn’t think he’d believe me even if I said Sadoheng had sent me, so I just kept my mouth shut.

Just then, a heavy, low voice sounded from below.

“Step aside.”

An executive who appeared where the gathered subordinates had cleared a path asked the man in red,

“Hall Master Cheon, shall we kill him?”

The man in red, positioned to block me in a pincer formation, replied,

“Capture him alive. You may cut off his arms and legs.”

“Yes, sir.”

The Paegeomhoe executive who had arrived below hoisted a spear onto his shoulder with a height that seemed to touch the ceiling.

The moment I saw that, I raised both hands and spoke.

“I surrender. I can’t beat a spear.”

The moment I declared my surrender, I dropped Heukmyoa from my right hand, then kicked the hilt precisely before it hit the floor, sending it flying toward the executive.

Squelch!

Heukmyoa flew with fierce momentum and buried itself deep in the chest of the man who had been about to hurl his spear.

At the same time, I used the recoil of pushing off both walls on either side of the stairs with both hands to leap down, latched onto the falling executive’s body the instant I landed, pulled out Heukmyoa, and seized the spear with my left hand.

I then swung both the spear and Heukmyoa simultaneously, forcing the enemies back.

Heukmyoa unleashed a blade wind, and I cut down those approaching by spinning my body and swinging the spear. The moment I arrived on the first floor, I sheathed Heukmyoa and looked around, holding the spear in my right hand.

Outside, cries that the flames were spreading were followed by another succession of explosions.

‘Impressive. Nam Garak…….’

As a rule, the more wicked a man is—like me—the better he is at playing with fire. Nam Garak was probably setting fires, fighting, and killing as he fled.

If he was the leader of the Nammyeonghoe, he had to be capable of at least that much.

Holding the weighty long spear in my hand for the first time in a while brought back old memories. After all, I had beaten an awful lot of people to death while gripping an unbreakable conviction.

As I cut down the Paegeomhoe warriors surging toward me with the spear, I considered sowing discord and retreating, then slipped out of the building and came to a stop in the center.

Where his subordinates split to either side, the red-clad man appeared, still composed.

“You don’t seem like an assassin. Who the hell are you?”

Drunk on old memories, I stared toward the inside of the first floor. I saw someone’s shadow walking out, and soon a low voice sounded.

“Hall Master Cheon, is it Sadohaeng who has come?”

The red-clad man replied.

“No. A few rats have snuck in.”

“Huh……”

I hurled the long spear straight toward the source of the voice.

Shwaaaaaak!

As the red-clad man instinctively twisted away in haste, the long spear shot forward in a straight line. At that moment, the spear pierced through a translucent screen and came to a stop in midair with a tak. I couldn’t see clearly, but the sudden stillness explained the situation.

It seemed the Paegeomhoe Leader had caught the long spear with his bare hand.

I marveled inwardly.

‘Not bad.’

To catch a long spear imbued with the Wood Rooster’s internal energy so easily……

In truth, if he was the head of the Paegeomhoe, he ought to be able to catch at least that much. Even so, I deliberately stared ahead with eyes full of shock, then turned without lingering and shot up into the air.

As though performing an act of body art that expressed, with my entire being, that my expectations had been completely wrong.

At the same time, those pursuing me charged after me fiercely and leapt into the air as a group.

I spun once in midair, then swept the Black Cat Fang, drawn in a sword-drawing form, through the empty air.

Shwaaaaaaaaak!

The lower bodies of three or four men were struck by blade energy and severed, followed by horrific screams. Without any particular difficulty, I landed atop the wall, evading the hidden weapons flying at me as I retreated without hesitation. Thanks to the Fighting Rooster’s internal energy, it had become easy to distinguish the sounds of the wind and dodge without even looking.

In any case, the Paegeomhoe Leader would have to personally use qinggong at full power to catch up to me. But this wealthy man remained unmoving, like the king on a chessboard.

As I gradually increased the speed of my qinggong and ran, Nam Garak soon sprang out of the darkness and came up beside me.

The two of us merely checked each other’s eyes, then used qinggong to race through the darkness.

The distance between us and those following grew farther and farther, and before long the Paegeomhoe warriors were nowhere to be seen. Feeling slightly disappointed that they seemed to have given up far too early, I moved through the darkness.

* * *

“Those experts over there can’t be all they have, right?”

At my question, Nam Garak, who was sitting on the stump of a cut tree, took off his mask and replied.

“They have the Uihyeol Gang, the Black Snake Corps, the Iron Palm Gang, merchant groups, escort agencies, and even money houses under them, so that can’t be all. If all those forces gather and strike the Namcheon Alliance, the casualties on both sides will be enormous. And since they’ve also found sword fodder, their numbers must have grown even more.”

“Did you burn a lot?”

“I burned more than twenty buildings. They’ll have a hard night of it. Should we join up with the Namcheon Alliance side right away? Or keep watching the Paegeomhoe from here?”

Before coming here, I had split our forces and temporarily stationed Nam Yeonpung on the Namcheon Alliance side.

I listened to our surroundings for a moment, then whispered to Nam Garak.

“Black Nam, put your mask on.”

“…….”

Not knowing why, Nam Garak hurriedly covered his face with the mask. We had fled into the low mountains and were resting in an open clearing. A short while later, a faint, artificial sound came from quite a distance away.

I asked Nam Garak.

“Strange. Is the Paegeomhoe Leader much stronger than you?”

Nam Garak nodded and replied in a bitter tone.

“Most likely…… he is.”

“It’ll be odd if we wait together, so get out first. If I’m late, go to that lodging from earlier.”

I put a finger to my lips as if telling him not to answer, then jerked my chin. Nam Garak disappeared back into the darkness without a word.

With a puzzled expression, I stared toward the direction we had come from.

The surrounding branches swayed, and a middle-aged man I had never seen before descended lightly from the air.

He was a man with only his beard grown rather long. As he approached with his hands clasped behind his back, he said this.

“Did you think you could escape?”

What was that composure?

Was it because my wholehearted acting had worked?

Or was the Paegeomhoe Leader’s skill greater than what the martial world knew?

Or was it simply because I looked like some idiotic man in black? When I listened closely, it seemed only the Paegeomhoe Leader had caught up to me using swift qinggong, for the surroundings were completely silent.

When my favorite kind of one-on-one situation unfolded in the empty clearing under the moonlight, I felt strange.

‘What windfall is this?’

A big fish I hadn’t even hoped for was flopping right before my eyes. On top of that, he didn’t look like someone who would die easily, so my mood was becoming more and more satisfied.

I rose with my arms crossed and spoke in a solemn tone to the man presumed to be the Paegeomhoe Leader.

“Welcome. You look fairly strong, Baldy.”

“…….”