Escape
“N-no······ who······”
I hadn’t misheard him. Jeok Chu-yeong was definitely awake.
The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and my whole body started to tremble. My heart was hammering against my ribs.
This was a miracle of an opportunity. Jeok Chu-yeong was in bad shape, which meant he could lose consciousness again at any moment. My thoughts turned frantic.
I was in a rush to set him down on the floor, but then I caught sight of the wide-open space in front and behind us.
If we stayed outside, we might run into those black-clad thugs again, just like before.
I pressed my ear to the door of the nearby hall. After easing it open and confirming no one was inside, I slipped in.
It looked like the servants’ quarters. Several empty beds lined the walls.
I carefully laid Jeok Chu-yeong down on one side.
“Gang Leader Jeok, do you remember the people from Seochon? Seven years ago, didn’t you load them onto their wagon and take them away? Do you remember a woman named Yang Soso? How about Yang Chuhu?”
I was describing the faces and features of Soso-noona and the old man when Jeok Chu-yeong opened his mouth.
I swallowed hard and leaned in to listen.
“Wh······ o······”
Couldn’t he hear me? Or couldn’t he understand? Jeok Chu-yeong only kept repeating the same thing.
As if he refused to engage in any conversation until he knew who I was.
“I’m Jeong Dae-cheon. Bok Ha-gyu, the Solitary Ripping Leader, sent me. Seon Do-mu raided Coiling Dragon Hall, and I carried you out.”
Now would he talk? I watched him anxiously, swallowing dryly.
“Haaah······”
Jeok Chu-yeong let out a long, deep sigh and closed his eyes.
Was he dead?
I hurriedly checked under his nose and at his neck. He was still breathing, and his pulse was there, but no matter how much I called, he wouldn’t open his eyes again.
It was maddening, the way everything seemed about to make sense and then collapsed into nothing. I was confused right down to my bones.
What the hell was this? What had just happened?
I hadn’t even performed True Qi Guidance, so why had the Hidden Force reacted to my internal energy?
Maybe he’d just reached the point where he was due to wake up.
Didn’t Bok Ha-gyu say as much? That sometimes he’d open his eyes and manage a few words.
If it really had responded to my internal energy, then why wasn’t the Hidden Force going berserk? Was it because I wasn’t using True Qi Guidance?
Could I wake him by touching him again and sending in more internal energy?
When I’d seen Jeok Chu-yeong lying there in Coiling Dragon Hall, it had felt hopeless. It seemed impossible to guess when, or even whether, he’d be able to talk again.
Now that he’d woken up so quickly, I was somehow the one who’d gotten impatient. If it were up to me, I’d have used my internal energy right then and there.
But if the Hidden Force really did go wild, Jeok Chu-yeong would die here.
What was I supposed to do?
I couldn’t get my bearings, and the longer I agonized, the messier my thoughts became.
Jin Seok-man, who had been keeping watch through a crack in the door, glanced at me and urged me on, clearly anxious.
“Brother Jeong, I don’t know what the situation is, but we need to go now. They’ll know about the back door, too.”
He wasn’t wrong. If I couldn’t make the call right away, it was better to secure our safety first and deal with it later.
I forced myself to calm down and hoisted Jeok Chu-yeong back onto my back.
Just in case, I circulated the smallest amount of internal energy. For some reason, Jeok Chu-yeong’s dantian didn’t respond this time.
I was left feeling empty, baffled, and completely dumbstruck.
What the hell was going on?
I stepped outside and opened the door of the building surrounding one side of the wall.
Across the spacious back courtyard, I could see the end of the escape route beneath the wall.
As I started forward, I stretched out a hand and stopped Jin Seok-man.
He looked at me in confusion, and I gestured for him to keep quiet. I set Jeok Chu-yeong down in the shadow beneath the eaves, then descended the stone steps.
Thanks to my internal energy, I could feel it clearly. There were men hiding behind the ornamental trees lined up along the wall.
“Come out.”
The branches rustled, and Seon Do-mu and two black-clad men emerged.
They must have seen that Jeok Chu-yeong wasn’t in Coiling Dragon Hall after breaking through the guards, then rushed here to wait for us.
Apparently thinking they had us cornered, Seon Do-mu wore a smug, contemptuous grin.
“Not bad. Bok Ha-gyu’s got a gift for finding capable people, I’ll give him that. Though that won’t matter much after tonight.”
“You think killing the Gang Leader makes the Black Night Gang yours?”
“If I have the pass token, it’s possible.”
“A pass token? What the hell is that?”
“What’s the use of asking if you’re going to die soon?”
Seon Do-mu lazily drew his large saber. His two subordinates moved to either side, both brandishing broad blades.
This was no time to leisurely trade sword blows.
The underlings were obvious enough, but I had no idea how strong Seon Do-mu actually was.
They’d been hiding behind the trees, waiting to ambush us when we came out the back.
They’d have every reason to look down on me, but the fact that they were also setting up a coordinated pincer attack made them a pain in the ass.
A cautious bastard like this was sure to have some hidden trick or dirty method up his sleeve.
If I held back my internal energy and let the fight drag on, or got taken out in some ridiculous way, Jeok Chu-yeong behind me would be the one to pay for it.
Fast and decisive. Kill them as quickly as possible and get out of here.
As if sensing my thoughts, the two black-clad men came at me boldly. Just as expected, Seon Do-mu thrust his large saber toward me at the same time.
I raised my internal energy to its limit and drew my long saber.
Seon Do-mu’s eyes widened when he felt the change in my presence, sudden and dramatic, like a bear shedding a wolf’s mask.
“You bastard, could it be—”
Bang!
I kicked off the ground and shot toward the black-clad man on the left. I closed the distance in an instant and slashed across his chest.
Before the blood even had time to spatter, I stepped through my footwork and charged to the right.
Seon Do-mu panicked and swung his large saber in response.
It was a terrifying horizontal cut, the weight of the heavy blade used to full effect.
With my body strengthened by internal energy, the movement looked sluggish to me.
I laid my long saber diagonally against the blade’s flat, hooked it, and twisted.
The saber spun outward, wrenching Seon Do-mu’s wrist. His large saber flew off to the side, leaving his neck and chest wide open.
“W-wait, hold on! We can make a deal—”
Guhk!
He must have realized I was some monster using internal energy, but it was too late. I had nothing more to say to him.
There was no point dragging this out. Every moment wasted was internal energy I didn’t want to spend.
Fwhaat!
I cut Seon Do-mu’s throat, spun on my heel, and finished off the last black-clad man as well.
After I flicked the blood from my saber, the large saber Seon Do-mu had dropped finally clattered to the ground.
Clutching the throat where blood was gushing out, Seon Do-mu collapsed uselessly over his own shadow.
I carried Jeok Chu-yeong past the corpses and opened the back door.
And just like that, before the short yet intense night had even truly ended, we escaped the Black Night Gang Headquarters unharmed.
The alley was deserted, bathed only in the pale light of the moon.
When we rounded the corner at the end of the lane, I saw the wagon waiting there, out of sight of the Black Night Gang.
Someone climbed down from the covered back carriage.
“That ended faster than expected. I’m glad to see you again. The one on your back is······ surely the Gang Leader Jeok?”
Even Geuk-hwan, whom I’d seen with my own eyes before, couldn’t believe the state Jeok Chu-yeong was in.
“Let’s go to Simhyangru. The detached quarters Won Seo-gang is using will do.”
“Are you requesting shelter and protection for his safety?”
Geuk-hwan asked in an intentionally businesslike tone.
I tilted my head, wondering why he was acting like this, then remembered how the Haomu Sect handled things.
In the end, I was a guest who did work for the Haomu Sect and got paid for it.
If Geuk-hwan simply accepted Jeok Chu-yeong here, it would mean the Haomu Sect was intervening in the Black Night Gang’s internal conflict.
I had been acting under the instructions of the branch leader.
And that went against the Haomu Sect’s principles.
I had to frame this not as a guest, but as a martial artist using the Haomu Sect for my own work.
It sounded like a distinction without a difference, but in any organization, procedure and legitimacy mattered more than people liked to admit.
If the Haomu Sect headquarters ever took issue with it later, the restaurant owner could end up in a difficult position.
“I’m requesting shelter and protection from the Haomu Sect.”
“Then I’ll accept the request. We can draw up the contract and calculate the fees after daybreak.”
“Fine.”
Either way, Bok Ha-gyu would be the one paying, so I didn’t care how much it came to.
The inside of the wagon was warm.
I carefully laid Jeok Chu-yeong down near the brazier where the charcoal burned and sat beside him.
Jin Seok-man climbed in as well. He set his luggage down beside the back door and then, with a show of casualness, took a seat to one side.
I’d assumed he’d cut and run once we were out of the Black Night Gang’s territory, but that wasn’t what he did.
“You’re coming with us?”
“It’s dark out, so I’d like to trouble you a little longer, if that’s all right.”
“Do what you want.”
He seemed to think that if he got robbed by bandits or caught by the patrol constables, it’d be better to trust me to the end.
The wagon slowly rolled out of the alley.
Through the open window, I could see flames leaping up. Beyond the high wall, Five Phoenix Hall was blazing fiercely.
The wagon headed straight for Simhyangru.
*
“That Im Ja-gyeon bastard······”
Bok Ha-gyu drew ragged breaths, his eyes bloodshot.
He’d become a lot stronger since I’d last seen him. He hadn’t been this sharp before.
Apparently he’d devoted all his time to training, hoping to push out the Gang Leader and the other unit leaders and seize the Black Night Gang for himself.
In the end, though, he was nothing but a corpse with its head lopped off.
I stared at Im Ja-gyeon’s head, sprawled blankly on the floor with that vacant expression, and slid my bloodstained sword back into its scabbard.
“Ugh!”
As soon as the tension left me, the wound in my side from the blade I’d taken earlier flared with pain.
“Unit Leader!”
One of my men ran over, applied wound medicine, and wrapped the injury with bandages. His own arm was already swathed in cloth, too.
“How many casualties?”
“Five dead, three seriously wounded, and two lightly wounded.”
Not a single one of us had come out unscathed.
If the men we’d sent to take over Blood Lodge had been here, the damage would’ve been much lighter.
I felt a fresh wave of regret, but it was a blessing from heaven that it had ended at this level.
Between the seated men, I caught sight of a face I didn’t know.
It was the middle-aged man who had been hiding inside the hall, striking at Im Ja-gyeon from behind to help me. He was tending to the wounded now.
He was a martial artist brought here by Jeong Dae-cheon.
If that middle-aged man hadn’t intervened at the right moment, I might have lost every man here.
Bok Ha-gyu limped over and clasped his hands in salute.
“I’m Bok Ha-gyu. You saved us a great deal tonight. I was too preoccupied to even ask your name.”
Although he despised black-clad men, the old martial artist known as Hwang Kang-ju still returned the courtesy when the other side showed respect.
“My name is Hwang Kang-ju. I only did what needed doing, so don’t mention it.”
“Where are the others?”
Hwang Kang-ju shook his head calmly.
“I don’t know. I imagine they’re all doing what they were meant to do.”
“We’re going to Five Phoenix Hall. Will you come with us?”
“Certainly.”
Hwang Kang-ju went with Bok Ha-gyu, taking care not to reveal the stack of vouchers tucked away in his robes.
Five Phoenix Hall was already engulfed in flames and effectively beyond control.
Everyone had given up on putting the fire out and was instead doing everything they could to keep it from spreading.
“You’re here.”
The steward, who had been directing the servants in their efforts to extinguish the blaze, bowed his head.
He was a former manager who had cut his teeth in the caravan trade, so he had no weakness when it came to calculating money, but for the past two years he’d been unable to hold his head up properly.
The Gang Leader who backed him was bedridden, and Im Ja-gyeon and Seon Do-mu were both deeply uncooperative.
Originally, each unit leader had received the funds and supplies they needed through the steward.
At first, Im Ja-gyeon and Seon Do-mu had grudgingly followed the rules, but after the Gang Leader collapsed, they’d begun pocketing the revenues from the establishments for themselves.
Perhaps because it had been so long since he’d been able to direct the servants and feel his own presence again, the steward didn’t look nearly as downcast as I might have expected.
Then again, maybe it was also because the burning hall had been Seon Do-mu’s residence, the man who had spent years bullying him.
“It looks like we’ll have to give up on Five Phoenix Hall.”
Bok Ha-gyu silently nodded.
Unless the heavens decided to dump a flood on us, there was no human power that could put that fire out now.
“At least it’s fortunate the wind isn’t blowing. We’ve been drenching the surrounding buildings with water and sand, so it shouldn’t spread as things stand.”
“It won’t collapse, will it?”
“The main beams are sturdy enough that even if it burns to the ground, the structure should hold its shape. The Gang Leader was particularly meticulous about that part when it was first built.”
“Anyone inside?”
“No.”
“Where’s Seon Do-mu?”
“He took the Five Phoenix unit and went to Coiling Dragon Hall.”
“Damn it······”
Just as Bok Ha-gyu’s face twisted, the servants on one side suddenly screamed.
“W-whoa! What the hell is that? Someone was inside?”
I looked up sharply and saw a rope dangling out of the third-floor window of the hall.
A woman grabbed the rope with both hands, climbed swiftly onto the window frame, hooked it between her feet, and then slid down in one smooth motion.
While everyone was still stunned by the insane stunt, she landed safely where the fire was weakest.
Right after her, another woman and one man escaped in exactly the same way.
All three wore gloves and had wet cloths covering their noses and mouths. They looked every inch like bandits.
“Did those people start the fire?”
“I don’t know. If they’d started it, then there’d be no reason for them to still be inside······”
As if something had just occurred to him, Hwang Kang-ju trailed off awkwardly.
Bok Ha-gyu glared at Hoyeongeom and his martial sisters for a moment, then turned away.
“I have to go. We’ll speak later.”
The leg that had taken a blade from the assassin’s brat throbbed with every step. My side burned, too.
Bok Ha-gyu gritted his teeth and quickened his pace.
This wasn’t over yet. Not until he’d confirmed the Gang Leader’s safety and found out what had happened to Seon Do-mu.
His heart lurched when he saw the guards sprawled in front of Coiling Dragon Hall.
“Gang Leader! Gang Leader!”
He rushed inside, only to find the bedroom empty. The bedding was in disarray, but there wasn’t a single bloodstain anywhere.
Bok Ha-gyu felt relieved.
If it had been Seon Do-mu, he would have killed the Gang Leader on the spot, no matter how weak he’d become.
Im Ja-gyeon was the same, and so was Seon Do-mu—both of them feared the Gang Leader to the marrow of their bones.
Back when they first clashed in Hunan, he’d beaten them so badly they’d crawled on the floor and pissed themselves. After that, they couldn’t even meet his eyes.
And yet they still had the nerve to lift their heads and stage a mutiny. Looks like he hadn’t hit them hard enough back then.
Come to think of it, it might’ve been better not to take them in at all and just kill them. From the start, they’d never been the kind of men who could be reformed.
Bok Ha-gyu closed the bedroom door and turned away.
He gathered every subordinate who could still fight and headed for the back door.
One last gift left behind by Jeong Dae-cheon was waiting for him there.
The corpse of Seon Do-mu, dead with his eyes wide open and his throat half severed.
Standing before that body, Bok Ha-gyu finally felt as if the Black Night Gang’s internal strife had come to a close.
The last time they’d crossed blades, Seon Do-mu had been a step below him.
Im Ja-gyeon had improved by leaps and bounds, but Seon Do-mu was a greedy bastard who spent his life drowned in wine and women; there was no way he’d have made any real progress.
And yet he’d been killed this cleanly.
He knew that what he’d seen at the inn for wandering martial artists hadn’t been everything, but the hidden move behind it had exceeded even his expectations.
He pushed open the back door and stepped outside.
As he looked down the empty alley, a vague unease crept over him.
It was a relief that the Gang Leader had escaped safely, but Jeong Dae-cheon might try to make him return it somehow.
Bok Ha-gyu shook his head hard.
What had to be done tomorrow could wait until tomorrow. Right now, he had to settle the mess inside.
He had to contain the fire, treat the wounded, and gather the corpses.
His head was pounding, but the steward could handle it. Just like the Gang Leader always had.
Bok Ha-gyu locked the back door and returned to Coiling Dragon Hall.
*
“Huff, huff, fuck······”
Pan Ho-yang was running for his life so hard his mouth had gone dry.
At first, when he’d climbed a tree behind the steward’s quarters he’d already scoped out and finally vaulted over the wall to escape the Black Night Gang Headquarters, he’d thought he was safe.
The streets of Seochon were dense and complicated, packed so tightly with shops and homes that they formed a maze.
Once he vanished into it, no matter how capable Won Seo-gang was, he’d never be found.
Won Seo-gang understood that well enough. That was why he’d chased him without ever giving him a chance to hide.
No matter how much he tore through the alleys, he couldn’t shake the bastard. Before he knew it, the chase had driven him clear out of the town and into the outskirts.
No matter how bright the moon was, if he could get into the mountains, he might still escape. But even the nearest mountain was too far away.
His breath was caught in his throat, and his heart felt as if it might burst. His trembling legs were heavy as if they’d sunk into mud.
Persistent bastard. Won Seo-gang, that son of a bitch, and that damn cult of theirs······
Ping!
The sharp sound of something slicing through the air at his ear jolted him fully awake.
Thrown weapon······
He didn’t know what it was, but if it had flown just a handspan farther to the left, it would have stuck straight into the back of his head.
A chill ran down his spine. If he stopped here, he would die.
Pan Ho-yang clenched his teeth and ran like his life depended on it.
Behind him, Won Seo-gang pressed close like a shadow, his eyes glinting with cold, merciless light.