A Duel
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Bok Ha-gyu and Pyo Hol-deuk clashed with savage force.
Fights between swordsmen were clearly different from duels between saber users.
They moved endlessly to claim each other’s blind spots, clouding the eye with dazzling feints and stabbing mercilessly at every opening.
The battlefield was a tangle of the sinister mind games unique to swordplay, with none of the bold, sweeping vitality of saber techniques.
When Bok Ha-gyu and I had crossed blades at the wandering-man inn, neither of us had truly meant to kill the other. We had only wanted to test each other’s skill and, if need be, subdue one another, so neither of us had fought with everything we had.
Now, though, killing intent and ferocious will blazed in every move, as if each strike existed solely to cut the other man down.
The fake Pyo Hol-deuk didn’t give an inch.
The qi he gave off didn’t seem all that remarkable, but the instant I saw him fight with a sword, a chill ran up the back of my neck.
I had been wrong.
That bastard was a master without question—one who could hide his aura as a beast concealed its claws, fooling his opponent’s eyes.
The two opium smugglers dressed as Martial Alliance members were no slouches either.
And the four Black Night Gang men were not the kind of half-baked thugs who survived on threats, cruelty, and a crooked way of making a living.
They were probably men Bok Ha-gyu had personally chosen; their blade work and footwork were both respectable.
And they had the advantage in numbers by two.
Even so, they couldn’t gain the upper hand at all. They were barely hanging on, blocking attack after attack.
“Those bastards are too strong. They’re not just opium smugglers.”
Geuk-hwan agreed.
“They’re from a proper sect. It would make sense if the inspector’s party and the Kongtong Sect martial artists were beaten by them.”
Clang! Clang! Clang!
“Kraaaah!”
When one of the Black Night Gang men took a blade and went down, the tense balance of battle broke.
With four men, it had been even; with one less, the Black Night Gang members began to bleed from here and there, their hands and bodies slowly giving ground.
Bok Ha-gyu, glancing sideways to check on his men, bit his lip.
He must not have expected the enemy to be this strong. He had stormed in with confidence, but at this rate the Black Night Gang men would be the ones wiped out.
If all his men fell and the two smugglers joined Pyo Hol-deuk in a pincer attack, even Bok Ha-gyu wouldn’t have a chance.
Whiiiiish!
With a broad sweep of his sword, Bok Ha-gyu shook off Pyo Hol-deuk and hurled himself toward his men.
It looked as if he meant to deal with those two first, then join his subordinates in surrounding Pyo Hol-deuk.
Given the situation, it was the best call he could make.
Whether he had read the move or not, Pyo Hol-deuk coldly leaned his upper body back to let the sword stroke slide past, then kicked off the ground.
There had been distance between them, and Bok Ha-gyu moved first, but Pyo Hol-deuk’s response was simply too fast.
Before Bok Ha-gyu had taken more than a few steps, the enemy’s sword was already flying toward his back.
Sensing it, Bok Ha-gyu twisted around in a hurry and swung his blade.
Clang!!
He barely blocked the blow with an almost animal reflex, but his balance tipped backward. For one brief instant he lost his footing, and his steps slowed.
Pyo Hol-deuk didn’t miss the chance. After pouring killing strikes toward his face, he slipped into Bok Ha-gyu’s left blind spot and slashed lightly across his thigh.
“You bastard!!”
With a furious roar, Bok Ha-gyu unleashed a storm of sword strikes. Pyo Hol-deuk blocked them busily and withdrew a long way back.
Bok Ha-gyu advanced about ten paces before stopping.
Blood ran from his thigh and dripped onto the dirt, leaving a red stain behind.
From the look of it, the cut wasn’t deep. If he wrapped it with a bandage or a strip of cloth, he could stop the bleeding.
Of course, there was no way Pyo Hol-deuk would let him do that. He would keep clinging to him like a leech, driving blade after blade into his body until blood loss made him heavy, his vision blurred, and he finally collapsed with a fatal wound.
The outcome was, for all practical purposes, already decided.
Watching it made my thoughts knot up.
I didn’t care if the others lived or died, but Bok Ha-gyu was different.
If that man died here, there’d be no way for me to meet Jeok Chu-yeong.
I had made a deal with Bok Ha-gyu. I didn’t even know the faces of the other two in the Black Night Gang trio.
If I were the head of some huge organization or had a towering backer, that would be one thing. But I was just a lone martial artist doing work for the Haomu Sect on the side.
If I went to see them, they probably wouldn’t even let me in.
Even if Bok Ha-gyu lived, there was still a problem.
Once it was revealed that the Martial Alliance inspector was fake, it would mean, in the end, that I had deceived him.
He would certainly claim the deal was void, refuse to honor his promise, and probably try to get back at me for making a fool of him.
But if I helped him here and saved his life, I could turn the situation around in one stroke.
I didn’t know Bok Ha-gyu well, but based on everything I had seen so far, he seemed to be the sort of black-martial-world man who didn’t repay kindness with treachery.
It wasn’t a pleasant situation, but if it gave me a chance to meet Jeok Chu-yeong and learn where Soso noona’s family had gone, I was willing to take it.
Making up my mind, I drew my dao from behind my waist.
“We’re intervening.”
Geuk-hwan tried to stop me.
“Foolish.”
Maybe from the Haomu Sect’s point of view it was. They had no reason to involve themselves in this mess.
All they had to do was wait until the black-martial-world men and the impostors had become corpses, then come down and take the remaining opium.
“I have a deal with Bok Ha-gyu. If that man dies here, everything becomes a waste of time. Does the Haomu Sect take requests from the Black Night Gang?”
“We do sell information from time to time.”
“Then this works out nicely. Bok Dae-ju looks like he’s in a rush. Why not let him owe you a favor while you’re at it?”
When Choe Manor had been taken, the Haomu Sect had briefly teamed up with the Black Night Gang.
Something similar might happen again in the future. If I helped them now, I could make use of Bok Ha-gyu later.
And I had already figured out Pyo Hol-deuk and his subordinates’ skill.
After surveying the battlefield with a cold eye, Geuk-hwan nodded.
“Very well. Let’s try it once.”
I left Hwang Hae behind and got to my feet.
Keeping my body low, I parted the undergrowth between the trees and made my way down the slope.
A sneak attack would have been best, but if I didn’t make sure the job was done properly, Bok Ha-gyu might start talking nonsense later.
At the foot of the slope, I exchanged a look with Geuk-hwan and then dove into the fight.
I went for Pyo Hol-deuk, while Geuk-hwan headed toward the two smugglers.
Startled by the sudden intrusion of unwelcome guests, Pyo Hol-deuk broke off from slashing at Bok Ha-gyu and jumped back.
The two smugglers were also forced away from the Black Night Gang men by the sharp sword strikes Geuk-hwan sent flying.
For the moment, that was where things stopped.
Once the clanging of weapons fell silent, the wolves that had been holding their breath began howling again.
Awuuuuuu.
While Geuk-hwan kept the two smugglers in check with his sword leveled at them, the Black Night Gang men dragged their fallen comrade backward. They checked his injuries and wrapped them in bandages.
Bok Ha-gyu, having recognized me, glared with murderous intent.
“You little bastard, you dare lie to me?”
“Calm down. I was fooled too.”
“Hmph. Did you come to help the inspector backing you? To take my head?”
“I came to help Bok Dae-ju. Together with this man from the Haomu Sect. If I’d meant to kill you, I’d have teamed up with him and launched a covert attack right away.”
When Bok Ha-gyu’s gaze shifted to him, Geuk-hwan spoke.
“The inspector’s circumstances looked suspicious, so we had been following him. If Bok Dae-ju came up behind us, you would have seen the Haomu Sect’s carriage. Bok Dae-ju, would you like to ask our sect for assistance?”
It was unexpected support, but Bok Ha-gyu didn’t refuse it.
“Fine. I’ll hire you. I need help.”
“And how will you pay?”
“We’ll talk about that later. For now, let’s butcher those bastards first.”
Geuk-hwan accepted readily.
“As you wish. Bok Dae-ju is not the sort of man who is stingy with his accounts.”
The battle began again.
The moment Geuk-hwan and I joined in, the tide turned completely.
I unleashed the Thousand Steel Saber Technique in a thrilling barrage of relentless, crushing slashes. Pyo Hol-deuk tried to pierce through the saber strikes with his sword, but then Bok Ha-gyu hurled himself in from behind, and the enemy had no choice but to leap sideways in a hurry.
The sword Bok Ha-gyu sent flying at the back of his head sliced only empty air.
Attacked from both front and back, Pyo Hol-deuk’s hands and feet became frantic.
Geuk-hwan went after the flank of the smugglers who were fighting the Black Night Gang men.
Just as I had felt when we first met, he used a light, elusive footwork and a blindingly fast sword style so quick the blade itself seemed to vanish.
He struck and withdrew so fast that, in the blink of an eye, one of the smugglers had a hole punched straight through his shoulder.
Pyo Hol-deuk took a blade to the back as well.
The cut was shallow, but he still jumped in shock. He wildly swung his sword and retreated hastily.
After checking the wound, he ground his teeth and glared at me.
He seemed to hesitate for a moment, as if deciding whether to try something or not, then turned and ran straight into the forest.
Bok Ha-gyu had been injured in the leg and couldn’t chase him. I had no particular reason to pursue Pyo Hol-deuk either.
I had stepped in at the critical moment and saved Bok Ha-gyu. That was enough.
Out of the blue, Geuk-hwan asked to take over from me so he could chase after Pyo Hol-deuk.
“Jeong Dae-hyeop, I’ll track that bastard’s trail and be back. Please handle these two.”
“Wait! Vice-Chief Geuk, help here instead!”
Bok Ha-gyu stopped Geuk-hwan and then turned to me.
“You, go after that bastard! Bring back the things I mentioned earlier. Then I’ll forgive the deception of hiding behind a fake inspector, and I’ll pay the promised price.”
What Bok Ha-gyu had demanded from Pyo Hol-deuk was the inspector’s official uniform, his identity plaque, and his seal.
I had no idea what he intended to use them for, but that was clearly why he had been shadowing and ambushing Pyo Hol-deuk.
If Geuk-hwan chased after him, then even if he got hold of those items, he would never hand them over to the Black Night Gang. If it became known that a Haomu Sect member had sold a Martial Alliance official’s identity plaque and seal to black-martial-world men, the sect would be in serious trouble.
I was different.
I had a desperate reason to meet Jeok Chu-yeong, and for now there was no other way except through Bok Ha-gyu’s introduction.
Even in such a pressing situation, Bok Ha-gyu had thought that far ahead and entrusted Pyo Hol-deuk’s pursuit to me rather than to Geuk-hwan.
I had thought him a blunt man with a weak sense of calculation, but when it came to thinking things through, he was no fool.
“Very well. Let’s do that.”
I sheathed my dao and raced after Pyo Hol-deuk down the slope.
Between the fiery clang of Geuk-hwan and the Black Night Gang men fighting the remaining two smugglers, Bok Ha-gyu shouted after me.
“If you come back empty-handed, don’t bother returning to Seochon! I’ll cut you into pieces myself!”
He sounded sharp with anger, but beneath the end of the sentence lay a desperation he couldn’t hide.
*
If someone made up their mind to hide in the mountains, they were not easy to find.
There was no telling where Pyo Hol-deuk had gone either.
The frost from dawn still hadn’t melted, so every step through the grass made a faint crackling sound, but not enough to leave a trail.
After crossing a small ridge and a ravine, I was relieved to spot Pyo Hol-deuk sitting in a clearing halfway up the mountain.
He seemed exhausted, or maybe the cut had finally gotten to him, because even after he saw me, he didn’t get up from his spot.
Since he knew he was alone, I didn’t have to worry about an ambush and walked straight up to him.
When I appeared, Pyo Hol-deuk rose from the rock and drew his sword.
“You’re like a hunting dog. Don’t you know that if you chase blindly without knowing what you’re after, the only thing waiting for you is a boiling cauldron?”
“So I suppose that’s exactly the situation you’re in?”
My careless retort seemed to strike a nerve. Pyo Hol-deuk’s face hardened, and he glared at me with a twisted, chilling expression.
“I’ll cut off your arms and legs and feed you alive to the wolves.”
Pyo Hol-deuk gripped his sword with both hands and slowly took up his stance. In an instant, his aura turned severe and oppressive.
A bad feeling flashed through my mind. Before I could even grasp what it was, Pyo Hol-deuk came charging in.
I braced myself with my dao in hand, but that alone wasn’t enough.
Before I could blink twice, Pyo Hol-deuk was right in front of me.
I lost track of his movement for a split second. It was absurdly fast.
We had just fought so fiercely and crossed over a mountain, and yet he still had this much stamina left?
No, this wasn’t a matter of stamina. He hadn’t been this fast down below.
Seeing me half dazed, Pyo Hol-deuk thrust his sword with a cruel smile.
It was too late to block. I hurled my body to the side instead.
The blade skimmed just over my leaning chest, close enough to make my skin crawl.
The instant I hit the ground, I didn’t stop but rolled forward.
Again and again, terrible sword strikes slammed into the spots where I had rolled with frightening speed.
Only after I reached a boulder did I kick off the ground and spring upright into a fighting stance.
Pyo Hol-deuk spun his sword in the air, grinning as if he were enjoying himself.
I kept him in check with my dao and drew inner energy up from my dantian. I circulated it along the proper channels.
As that inner energy spread through my limbs and wrapped around my face, my vision cleared a little.
Pyo Hol-deuk kicked off again. It was an unbelievable burst of speed, but unlike before, I could see his movement clearly now.
This time I didn’t dodge. I planted my feet firmly and met his sword strike head-on with the ultimate form of the Thousand Steel Saber Technique.
Clang!!!!
With my inner energy driving the move, my dao no longer lost to him in speed or force.
I tilted the blade back to guide his sword away, then spun my wrist and aimed for the back of his head.
With his attack deflected and an immediate counter coming at him, Pyo Hol-deuk hurriedly lowered his body, dodged the blade, and hopped backward in a panic.
Shuddering with shock and rage, he glared at me.
“How could a bastard like you have inner energy…”