Encounter with a Legend
From Seo Joo-cheon's point of view, watching the novel he had written drift in directions he himself didn't know was an unpleasant feeling—and a strangely fascinating one.
The setting's off. Why? Yu Seong and Jang Hyeon-nam do fight a blood duel later, but that's a story for much further down the line. They were never supposed to meet before then.
A story's setting slipping a little was one thing—this was reality now, after all. But when a character's appearance contradicted the original setup, that was a genuine problem. By now, Yu Seong should have been gathering herbs with Sanho-ong on Xiaohua Mountain.
The Slaughter King was Sanho-ong's disciple. Both the Slaughter King and Sanho-ong had been born under the Heavenly Killing Star. Later, the Slaughter King would kill his master, and that death would awaken Yu Seong's Heavenly Killing Star as well. Those born under the Heavenly Killing Star were bound to one another, and the original setup had the Slaughter King taking Yu Seong as his successor. Only from that point on would Yu Seong's exploits become prominent. He was never supposed to appear like this.
Seo Joo-cheon followed Yu Seong into the dining hall.
"Huh? Big Brother, didn't you already have breakfast?"
Ham Cheon-yeong, who had been coming out of the dining hall, asked as he watched Seo Joo-cheon heading back in.
"I was going to get the boy something to eat."
Instead of the warrior, Seo Joo-cheon brought Yu Seong inside. Watching the boy gobble the food as if he hadn't seen beef in ages, Seo Joo-cheon asked,
"What's your name?"
"Yu Seong."
"So Yu is the family name, and Seong is the given name."
"Yes. Grandfather gave me that name."
"I see. Of course he did."
Sanho-ong had rescued a young child—the sole survivor among slash-and-burn farmers slaughtered by a band of brigands—and had raised him ever since.
"So, Seong, where did you come from?"
"From the mountain back there."
Yu Seong pointed to the great mountain behind the Tang Clan branch. Seo Joo-cheon asked again.
"No—I mean, where were you before you came here?"
"Oh. We used to live on Xiaohua Mountain."
"Is that so? Then why did you come here?"
"Grandfather said there were no more herbs worth gathering on Xiaohua Mountain, so we moved here."
"When?"
"Hmm, it's been almost a year now."
Sanho-ong would not have left Xiaohua Mountain for no reason.
It's not in the original story, but he must have detected the Slaughter King's movements and fled.
Otherwise there was no reason for people who should have stayed on Xiaohua Mountain until they died to be here at all.
"Have you learned martial arts?"
He asked it casually, as Yu Seong tore into the meat with gusto.
"Martial arts? Hehe. Grandfather and I are just herb gatherers—we don't know any martial arts. But Grandfather did teach me how not to be spotted by mountain beasts when hunting, and how to catch them."
Seo Joo-cheon laughed inwardly. Yu Seong didn't seem to be lying.
That's the Silver Moon Assassination Method—the greatest assassination art of the age. A tree branch becomes a killing weapon. The finest stealth technique and lightness skill there is.
The name sounded ordinary enough, but the Silver Moon Assassination Method was a martial study worthy of being called the Silver Moon Divine Art.
And the fact that Sanho-ong hasn't even told Yu Seong the name of the art… maybe he wanted the boy to live an ordinary life.
In the original setup, Sanho-ong had been training Yu Seong as his successor.
Yu Seong ate until his belly bulged, and having packed extra meat to take back to Sanho-ong, he looked thoroughly happy. They did eat mountain game, of course, but the strong gamey smell never sat well with him. Having finally eaten proper beef, pork, and chicken, he bid everyone farewell with the eyes of an ordinary child.
"I have to gather herbs, so it might be a while before I come again. But I will come, so don't worry."
Yu Seong said it stoutly, then turned to go. Seo Joo-cheon's thoughts were racing.
Once Yu Seong awakens, there won't be anyone stronger. But he's with Sanho-ong now—I can't take him. What a shame. That child could become a formidable ally.
If Sanho-ong were dead, he would have found some way to persuade the boy and take him along. If he left things as they were, Yu Seong would eventually fall into the Slaughter King's hands and be born as an assassin who would make the entire martial world tremble.
Now that I've seen him in person, I want to stop that, at least.
He was a character Seo Joo-cheon regretted—he had approached the child's life too much like a novel. Yu Seong would grow up to become the Slaughter King's successor, but he would be wracked by human anguish over being born under the Heavenly Killing Star and becoming a murderer. A character born from the desire to write a human villain.
I think I did something unforgivable.
Seo Joo-cheon's gaze wouldn't leave Yu Seong as the boy left the Tang Clan branch. In the end, that unrelenting gaze found its way out of his mouth.
"Yu Seong."
"Yes?"
Yu Seong turned around.
"It's nothing much—your home doesn't seem far from here, so I'd like to take a look at your grandfather's leg. I know a bit of bone-setting."
"Really? You can heal Grandfather?"
"Of course. Bones don't knit easily in the elderly, but if I work on them, they'll set just fine."
Yu Seong's face lit up—then suddenly fell, and he hung his head.
"But I don't have any money for treatment."
"Hahahaha!"
To have given a child this innocent a Heavenly Killing Star…
I'm a monster.
Seen in the flesh, Yu Seong felt even more pure.
"There's no need for payment. I just want to help you, Yu Seong."
"Really? Then can we go now?"
"Sure. How long does it take to get to where your grandfather is?"
"At a fast walk, about an hour."
"Then if I use lightness skill, we can get there in the time it takes to eat a meal."
When Seo Joo-cheon made to leave with Yu Seong for Sanho-ong's dwelling, his sworn siblings came out after him.
"We'll come with you."
Seo Joo-cheon shook his head.
"No. I'll be back shortly. Wait here."
He told Jang Hyeon-nam and Dang Seol-yong that he would go check on Yu Seong's grandfather and return. Jang Hyeon-nam gazed at him for a moment, then smiled.
"Whoever coined it, the title Shaanxi Four Chivalrous Heroes suits you remarkably well. Hero Po, the epithet First Hero fits you perfectly."
Jang Hyeon-nam assumed Seo Joo-cheon was performing an act of chivalry, and he was impressed. A man who would even look after a herb gatherer seemed, to him, finer than any chivalrous hero of the Orthodox martial world.
"In some ways, Hero Po, you are a true chivalrous hero."
The praise left Seo Joo-cheon sheepish.
"I'm sorry to keep you waiting. I know Young Hero Jang's journey is urgent."
"Not at all. We have that much time to spare. Please go."
"Big Brother. The two younger ones will stay here. I'm coming with you."
Ham Cheon-yeong's face said he would follow no matter what, and Seo Joo-cheon couldn't refuse.
"All right. That would be best."
He figured it would be fine to bring Ham Cheon-yeong along. As Ham Cheon-yeong tucked Yu Seong under his arm and vanished with lightness skill, Kang Chu-mi muttered,
"Third Brother. Has Big Brother's meddling gotten worse? Or has some hidden sense of chivalry finally bloomed?"
No matter how she looked at it, Big Brother fussing over a herb gatherer's injury was strange.
"I think he's been different ever since he met Young Hero Jang. He wasn't like this before."
"Right? I think so too. After meeting Young Hero Jang, maybe Big Brother caught his chivalrous spirit?"
"However it happened, don't we feel a little better too?"
"Hehe. You're right. I feel good. After doing something decent, that gloomy feeling's gone."
"That's because the Unorthodox temperament never suited you."
"Huh? I think the Unorthodox path suits me just fine. I can swear as much as I want, and if there's someone I don't like, I can beat them up. Orthodox martial artists can't do that. All that prim posturing and high-and-mighty airs—it just puts me off."
"We've got 'Hero' attached to our names now. We need to watch how we conduct ourselves."
"That's a bit stifling. When we were the Shaanxi Four Evils, we could do whatever we wanted."
"You gain one thing, you lose another. That's how it goes."
"Wow. Third Brother's turned into a Daoist sage."
Kang Chu-mi stared at him with wide, startled eyes, and Dokgo Ho-in snorted a laugh.
Seo Joo-cheon studied the message floating in the air. Karma Generation. It had been a long time since one had appeared.
Mission: Heal Sanho-ong
⏱ Time Limit: Three Shichen
🎁 Reward: None
☠ Failure: None
The contents were unusual enough that he stared at it for a long while. The mission and time limit were similar to other Karma, but there was no reward and no failure penalty at all.
This Karma Generation wasn't triggered by someone else's request or plea—I asked for it myself. That's why there's no reward and no penalty for failure.
It made sense. He had volunteered to help. Wanting a reward for that would have been absurd.
"It's over there."
The dwelling where Yu Seong and Sanho-ong lived sat about halfway up the mountain. To anyone looking, it was a crude log cabin that could only have been a hunters' temporary shelter.
"It's a place hunters stop to rest, so the house is a bit shabby."
Yu Seong offered the excuse as if embarrassed by their meager household.
"You little rascal. It's fine."
Seo Joo-cheon ruffled Yu Seong's hair.
Sanho-ong came outside before Seo Joo-cheon's party even entered the house. The wariness in his eyes outweighed the surprise—he had clearly sensed their approach in advance. Just as Yu Seong had said, a splint was bound to his foot, and he limped.
"Grandfather. These people are from the Tang Clan branch."
"What brings such distinguished guests all the way out here?"
Even as he spoke with courtesy, Sanho-ong's eyes still swept the surroundings.
"Are you warriors of the Tang Clan? I don't believe I've seen you before."
Seo Joo-cheon stepped forward.
"No. We're martial artists who have been staying at the branch for a short while. We heard Yu Seong's situation, and when we learned that your leg was broken, we came to examine the injury."
"Ah, is that so? There's no need for that. This is rather embarrassing."
Sanho-ong put on a thoroughly convincing performance as a typical village elder. It might have fooled Ham Cheon-yeong, but Seo Joo-cheon had already confirmed through Character Search that this was a character he himself had created.
"Please don't concern yourself. We're doing this for Yu Seong. The child's devotion to his grandfather is so deep that we wanted to help. There's no need to be so wary."
Sanho-ong looked at Seo Joo-cheon and Ham Cheon-yeong and asked,
"May I ask the honored names of you two gentlemen?"
Ham Cheon-yeong answered.
"We don't have any particularly grand titles. Fellow martial artists just call us the Shaanxi Four Chivalrous Heroes. This is our Big Brother, the First Hero."
At those words, Sanho-ong's eyes widened. Even as a herb gatherer, he had heard the rumors plenty of times.
"Ah, so you are the famous Shaanxi Four Chivalrous Heroes. I heard of your reputations when I went to the marketplace to sell herbs. When I heard the tale of how you vanquished the Undying Demon, I couldn't have been more delighted."
Ham Cheon-yeong smiled.
"Hahaha, that was all our Big Brother's doing."
"It is an honor. To meet the likes of the Shaanxi Four Chivalrous Heroes in a mountain hollow like this."
At those words, Seo Joo-cheon replied inwardly.
The honor is mine. I'm looking at the legendary Blood Half Moon—the man who created the Slaughter King.
Sanho-ong's true name was Hak Yu, and in the Jianghu of his active years, they had called him Blood Half Moon. He had gone out on assassination missions on nights when a half-moon rose, and no martial artist alive could escape his touch. Thirty years ago, Blood Half Moon had been synonymous with death—a figure remembered as a legendary assassin. And that man had retired to raise Yu Seong.
Seo Joo-cheon grew cautious, knowing that the staff Hak Yu held could become a weapon at any moment.
"I am Po Un. If it wouldn't be an imposition, may I look at the elder's injury?"
Hak Yu hesitated a moment, a conflicted look in his eyes, then nodded.
"I seem to be causing you trouble."
When the splint was undone and the shin examined, it was not an injury from a fall. Seo Joo-cheon had already anticipated the corresponding scenario and come prepared, so he asked quietly,
"This isn't simply a broken bone."
"That's right."
His shin had been split open along the calf as if slashed by a blade. The wound had been pressed together and bound with a splint and cloth. Hak Yu glanced at Ham Cheon-yeong and Yu Seong, then lowered his voice. The two of them were standing apart, and could not hear the conversation.
At Hak Yu's words, Seo Joo-cheon tensed for a moment. If he accepted a request, Karma would generate—his nerves went taut.