Hidden Force
The next morning, I slept late for a change.
I’d stayed up until well past midnight, replaying my exchange with Pyo Hol-deuk over and over in my head. By the time I finally lay down, I was exhausted.
Breathing exercises could ease the fatigue, but if I didn’t actually sleep, something still felt off.
When I opened the window, sunlight spilled through scattered clouds. The weather was better than yesterday’s, and the temperature was exactly right for late autumn.
I made do with tea and dried rations for breakfast, then wrapped the Martial Alliance inspector’s uniform in plain white cloth.
After a moment’s thought, I wrapped Pyo Hol-deuk’s sword as well, so no one would recognize it.
I tucked the inspector’s identity token and seal into my chest, packed my money pouch and long blade, then tied the bundle with rope and slung it over my shoulder before leaving the house.
On the first floor of the Nangi Inn, several blade-wielders who had gathered in search of work were already loafing around idly from early in the morning.
When I walked in, the innkeeper recognized me at once and hurried over.
“You’re here to see Bok Dae-ju, aren’t you? I’ve got a room ready on the second floor. Please go up and wait there.”
“There are plenty of seats down here. Why?”
“Ah, please, just do me this favor.”
The innkeeper wore a pained expression and bowed and scraped before me. I gave a snort and headed for the stairs.
It seemed the Black Night Gang kept coming here and driving customers away, making business difficult. If I sat on the first floor, they’d have to clear the whole inn again. And it wasn’t as if the Black Night Gang would compensate them for the trouble.
I took a seat by the window in the largest room on the second floor, chewed on jerky, and waited. Much later, Bok Ha-gyu finally showed up.
The sword wound on his thigh didn’t seem too serious; he wasn’t limping and moved just fine.
We’d crossed blades once before, and we’d also worked together in the mountains, so this time we sat comfortably across from each other at the table.
“So you were alive after all.”
“Did you think I’d died?”
“Did you bring it?”
I set the cloth bundle on the table. Then I took out the inspector’s identity token and seal from my chest and showed them to him.
Bok Ha-gyu held out a hand. I stared at his rough palm for a moment.
Even in ordinary times, he must not have neglected his training; hard calluses had built up where the sword hilt would rest.
“You’ve got decent fortune. But if you want to live to old age, you’ll need to be careful with your words and keep your promises once you make them.”
After giving him a half-baked palm reading laced with a quiet warning, I put the token and seal back into my chest.
Bok Ha-gyu frowned.
“What are you trying to pull?”
“I risked my life fighting that bastard Pyo Hol-deuk to get these. And do you know what these are? The identity token and seal of a Martial Alliance inspector. If I hand them over to a black-path man, even a rootless wanderer like me could end up with his neck on the line.”
“So?”
“I want the price before I hand them over.”
Bok Ha-gyu’s expression hardened.
“The gang leader is ill right now. Once his strength returns, I’ll arrange for you to meet him. I swear on my name.”
“Then let’s start with that. You said the Martial Alliance sent an assassin against the Black Night Gang two years ago, didn’t you? The gang leader’s illness wasn’t some natural ailment. He was ambushed then, wasn’t he?”
That was exactly what Bok Ha-gyu had said in the mountains yesterday. For reasons I didn’t understand, the Martial Alliance hadn’t dared come near Seochon since then.
So this man had already suspected Pyo Hol-deuk was a fake from the moment I sent that letter asking for a private meeting and used the name of a Martial Alliance inspector to pressure him.
And even so, he had still traded with me. He had clearly been waiting for a chance to ambush Pyo Hol-deuk and take the inspector’s identity token and seal.
What did he intend to do with them? It looked like he wanted to impersonate an inspector, but what exactly would that gain him?
Bok Ha-gyu gave me a long, close look.
“Why are you thinking so hard? If you’re planning to cut me down and take them by force, forget it. It won’t be easy.”
That was an extremely black-path way of putting it, and Bok Ha-gyu gave a short laugh.
“I’m deciding how much I should trust you.”
“How’s the leg? The one that got stabbed.”
“It’ll do.”
“Looks like we’ll keep seeing each other in Seochon from now on, so let’s be reasonable. Who knows? Maybe I’ll run into another situation like yesterday and end up helping you again.”
It had been a calculated move, but the truth was that because I’d stepped in, Bok Ha-gyu and his men had barely escaped death in the mountains yesterday.
That seemed to move him a little, and he couldn’t refuse outright. He rubbed his chin, thinking for a long while, before finally making up his mind and speaking in a heavy voice.
“Two years ago, a middle-aged martial artist dressed in fine, respectable clothes came to the Black Night Gang. He said he had brought a letter from the Henan branch of the Martial Alliance for the gang leader.”
“So the Black Night Gang leader was on correspondence terms with the Martial Alliance?”
The Martial Alliance did not admit heretics or black-path men.
Only righteous sects belonged to it, and to them, black-path folk were not even the same species of human.
“Do you think those righteous bastards are paid by heaven in silver? All the real money in this world is made by black-path men.”
I’d heard that quite a few of the so-called orthodox great sects, though rooted in Daoism and Buddhism, quietly invested in black-path businesses through intermediaries.
Seems nurturing secular disciples alone didn’t bring in enough money.
And when they needed dirty work done, or someone to use like a dog, they apparently did that too.
From the black-path side, having ties to the Martial Alliance was useful too; it reduced the risk of being purged. At the very least, as long as the hen kept laying eggs, they weren’t going to slit its belly open.
In that way, the Black Night Gang had also formed a symbiotic relationship with some sect under the Martial Alliance.
Even while laying bare these private details, Bok Ha-gyu never revealed the sect’s name.
“The man who came then had impeccable credentials. The token and seal he carried were genuine. He even laid down the sword at his waist and went to see the gang leader empty-handed. The moment the leader checked the letter, he showed his true colors.”
He lunged without warning and began hurling palm strikes. No matter how formidable a fist fighter you were, you couldn’t beat blades with bare hands.
But that murderer was different. He dodged the strikes at an unbelievable speed, closed the distance, and slammed into Jeok Chu-yeong’s arm.
He could have gone on to kill him with the follow-up blow, but instead he turned and vanished swiftly over the wall.
Jeok Chu-yeong had been hit only once, and not even in a vital point, just the arm.
The struck area turned dark red, and the veins began to twist out of shape.
At first they thought poison was involved. After every skilled physician they knew threw up their hands and walked away, Bok Ha-gyu finally reached out to an obscure master of medicine.
After examining Jeok Chu-yeong’s condition, that master of medicine mentioned something Bok Ha-gyu had never heard before.
“...The murderer’s palm strike on the gang leader carried Hidden Force.”
“Hidden Force? What’s that?”
As if it were only natural not to know, Bok Ha-gyu shook his head with a stiff face.
“I don’t know either. He said it was a realm of subtle internal force methods. They say one can turn internal energy into a tangible form and project it into an opponent’s body like a hidden blade... It sounds like nonsense to me.”
Since I had never met a master who used internal energy in my entire life, it made sense that I couldn’t follow it.
Even for me, who could use internal energy, it was the first time I’d heard of such a thing. Maybe Do Goeng-il would know.
“If you train a proper mental method and circulate your internal energy, they say you can still go astray if you’re unlucky, twist your blood and meridians, and fall into qi deviation, or die, or end up crippled. If you were struck by someone else’s internal energy, and that too condensed into Hidden Force, how could you come out unscathed?”
The Black Night Gang leader, Jeok Chu-yeong, had suffered internal injuries.
No matter how much he rested or how many good medicines he used, he didn’t improve at all.
Worse, his condition grew steadily worse. Hidden Force worked like a living worm, gnawing at his meridians and making his whole body rot from within.
“All we could do was use a fortune’s worth of medicine to lock the Hidden Force inside the gang leader’s dantian and keep it from getting any worse.”
“...Is he still alive?”
“He’s alive. He just lies there.”
“Is there any way to detoxify it?”
“There’s only one method that master of medicine told us for dealing with Hidden Force. True Qi Guidance.”
“Then why not have that master of medicine do it?”
I’d received True Qi Guidance a few times myself.
It consumed the caster’s internal energy, but the Black Night Gang ought to have been more than capable of paying the price.
“We tried. It failed.”
“Was there not enough internal energy?”
“The nature of the internal energy was different. Even when we poured internal energy into the gang leader’s body, the Hidden Force didn’t budge.”
When they tried to force it, the Hidden Force convulsed and tore at the meridians like a seizure.
Not all internal energy was the same. Its nature changed depending on the mental method used to cultivate it.
The medicine master’s internal energy and the Hidden Force were of different natures, so they didn’t blend; they repelled each other.
To draw out the Hidden Force with True Qi Guidance, they would need to find a medicine master whose internal energy had the same nature as the energy used in the Hidden Force.
The more I listened, the less it seemed like something possible.
A proper internal energy mental method was rare enough already. How were they supposed to discover what kind of method the murderer had cultivated?
Surprisingly, Bok Ha-gyu had managed exactly that.
“It wasn’t hard to figure out who the murderer was. That level of expert isn’t common. He was sent by the rival of the sect our gang has ties with in the Martial Alliance. It was an interference scheme. And as a bonus, they were trying to cut off our funding too. It was internal strife within the Martial Alliance. We even spent a fortune getting hold of a manual from the black market that described the internal energy method that bastard used.”
That made my ears perk up.
“Then that should have done it, right? If you learned the internal energy method and used True Qi Guidance to draw out the Hidden Force...”
Bok Ha-gyu shook his head, his face full of rage.
“The manual was stolen while it was being brought here. Everyone escorting it was killed, and we don’t even know where the manual went. It was definitely the work of the bastards who sent the murderer.”
Without thinking, I tilted my head.
“If you have the inspector’s identity token and seal, you can visit a Martial Alliance branch and examine reports and records. If those robbers were sent by another sect under the Martial Alliance, then surely...”
The memory of that day came flooding back with startling clarity in my mind.
The three masked bandits who attacked the carriage, the internal energy manual they stole...
“When did that happen?”
“A few months ago.”
“What time of day?”
“In broad daylight.”
“Where?”
After hearing Bok Ha-gyu’s answers, I was certain of it.
It was the bandit attack I’d witnessed on the road while escorting Ye-hyang to Choe Manor.
And once I factored in what I’d seen and heard afterward at Choe Manor, the pieces fit perfectly.
“Bok Dae-ju. If... if I happen to know who has that stolen internal energy manual now, what would you do?”
Bok Ha-gyu stared at me in shock.
“...Don’t tell me that was you?”
“Do I look like the kind of man who’d go around murdering people and robbing carriages in broad daylight?”
“You might.”
Bok Ha-gyu nodded without the slightest hesitation. His eyes were more certain than they had ever been.
It left a bitter taste in my mouth, but in my view, Bok Ha-gyu was the sort of man who would also toss on a mask without blinking if the situation called for it.
How many martial artists in this world hadn’t killed or robbed anyone at some point?
“You forgot I’m a guest of the Haomu Sect, didn’t you? I see and hear quite a bit going around and coming back. Why don’t we strike a new deal? Instead of the inspector’s token and seal, I provide information on where that internal energy manual is now.”
“Fine. If you can recover that internal energy manual, I’ll arrange for you to meet the gang leader. I swear on my name.”
There were plenty of black-path men without pride, but those who truly valued their own names were rare.
The world was full of thugs who threw away promises and honor like old rags over a handful of coins, then laughed at the fool who’d been cheated.
From the first moment I’d seen him until now, Bok Ha-gyu had always looked like a blunt, upright martial man.
Even now, his eyes burned with loyalty to the gang leader.
If my trading partner was such a man, then his oath made on his name was worth believing in, at least once.
I carefully retraced the day I’d escorted Ye-hyang to Choe Manor.
Hoyeongeom and his masked companions killed the martial artists, robbed the carriage, and handed the stolen book over to Choe Sa-deuk.
The book Ye-hyang had delivered on behalf of the Haomu Sect was a ledger detailing all of the Black Night Gang’s property, businesses, and hidden land holdings.
That document had fallen into the hands of the Split Heaven Gate.
Choe Sa-deuk gave the book Hoyeongeom had handed him to a blind man named Su-ra-do Aryong, the number three of the Blood River Gang.
When the subordinate who checked the contents whispered in his ear, Aryong’s eyes flew open.
“Choe Manor Head. Is what’s written here true? Is this really the... the mental method the gang leader was searching for?”
Why had the Blood River Gang leader wanted the mental method?
The Blood River Gang and the Black Night Gang were enemies.
While fighting over Seochon, the Blood River Gang leader’s eldest son had been hacked to pieces by Jeok Chu-yeong, and he’d been grinding his teeth ever since, desperate for revenge.
Had he wanted to interfere so the Black Night Gang leader’s Hidden Force could never be cured?
Or was he hoping to learn the internal energy method and offer to cure the Black Night Gang leader’s Hidden Force in exchange for something?
That night, the Blood River Gang members gathered at Choe Manor had set out with the Split Heaven Gate to attack the Black Night Gang, only to be ambushed in the mountains and wiped out.
I didn’t know what had happened to Aryong, but he certainly wouldn’t have charged into battle carrying the internal energy method the gang leader wanted.
He would have raced straight to the gang leader and handed it over.
“The internal energy method is with the Blood River Gang.”
*
After finishing the deal with Bok Ha-gyu, I left the Nangi Inn and headed straight to Simhyangru.
The new escorts standing guard at the gate looked at me with obvious irritation.
As I walked past, I noticed both of them had bruises on their faces, as if they’d spent the night drinking and fighting.
I’d done gate duty here briefly myself, but the escorts from before hadn’t been this much of a mess.
If you were short-staffed and just hired anyone, this was what you got: only more half-witted people.
Come to think of it, it had been quite a while since Yongcheon Escort Agency last set out on a major escort run to Sichuan. It was about time they came back...
I met Geuk-hwan and handed over everything: the Martial Alliance inspector’s uniform, identity token, seal, and Pyo Hol-deuk’s sword.
“What happened to the impostor?”
“He’s dead. By now he’s probably wolf food.”
“Impressive. That wasn’t an ordinary man.”
Geuk-hwan stared at me with eyes full of curiosity.
“...I got lucky. How should we handle this?”
It was all tied to the Martial Alliance. I couldn’t sell it, and I shouldn’t sell it either. Still, if it was Haomu Sect territory, they might be able to dispose of it properly.
Geuk-hwan did not disappoint me.
“The proper course is to send a letter explaining the situation and return it to the Martial Alliance. They’ll likely reward us handsomely.”
“In silver or promissory notes?”
“Probably.”
“Could we get spiritual herbs instead of silver?”
“I’ll look into it.”
Since I’d finished my business, I was just about to get up when something occurred to me.
“Did the Tang Clan people come yesterday, by any chance?”
“They’re staying in the annex.”
“Were they back because of that incident?”
“You should ask them directly.”
What would be the point of meeting them? Tang Hye-seo and I weren’t especially close. And I still hadn’t forgotten that her aunt had never been particularly fond of me.
The Tang Clan were the sort of people who might poison you wherever and whenever they felt slighted.
Best not to get involved with them at all.
I was shaking my head and leaving the annex when, by coincidence, Tang Hye-seo’s guard, Bi-hyeon, cupped his fists in salute. Startled, I quickly brought my hands together and bowed in return.
“Were you waiting for me?”
“The young lady is looking for you. Do you have a moment?”
“I’m free, but... isn’t your lady aunt in the annex?”
The guard smiled faintly, as if he found something amusing.
“She asked to meet you at the Poongcheon Inn.”
“So the young lady is at that inn?”
“If you go ahead, I’ll bring you to her.”
“Then let’s do that. I’ll go right away.”
I went to the stable, found the bundle I’d left there yesterday, and left Simhyangru. The streets were busy with merchants and passersby.
The sky had cleared, and the distant mountains still held traces of autumn color, making the whole view crisp and beautiful.
Mixed in with people who were living the day by buying, selling, and carrying goods, I made my way slowly toward the Poongcheon Inn.