Changing Karma Mission

Jeuk Hon honestly had no confidence he could stop them if the flying daggers numbered not four, but twice that. Kang Chu-mi's Whip-Flying Radiance Art, however, still lacked finishing power — she could only launch four daggers at a time.

Blood from his flank and shoulder soaked through his clothes, and a dull ache rose through him. Seo Joo-cheon's mind began to spin faster than it ever had, hunting for a way to break the deadlock.

Po Un only knows some thirty forms of the White Serpent 72 Sword Art. But I know them all. No — I'll just create them. I'm the author, and I have Fusion Creation.

It was the ability he'd gained during his first synchronization with Po Un. Fusion Creation was a setting he'd written into Antagonist — a power that let the protagonist invent abilities and use them on the spot.

I have poison. So I'll just create a form that uses it.

Seo Joo-cheon applied his author's imagination and devised a form that was common, yet devastatingly effective.

White Serpent Venom Fang. That sounds about right.

It was his first time using the ability, and he had no ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠idea whether it would actually work. He reached into his robes for the poison — then froze. In the heat of the fight, he'd forgotten the most basic thing.

You idiot! If I use the poison, I'll be poisoned too!

He had viper venom, yes — but using it would kill him as surely as it killed his opponent. Unless one was immune to all poisons, channeling venom qi through the White Serpent Sword Art required taking the antidote first. Po Un, however, had never been able to use venom qi with the art, and so he'd never carried an antidote.

Then a fragment flashed from Po Un's memories.

Use Paralysis Herb instead of snake venom.

Paralysis Herb, prepared to treat the brothers if they ever took a blade wound. And Antidote Herb, kept on hand so they could wake from the paralysis quickly.

While Kang Chu-mi held Jeuk Hon at bay, Seo Joo-cheon opened a leather pouch, stuffed the dried herbs into his mouth, and chewed. He swallowed the Antidote Herb first, then smeared Paralysis Herb extract evenly along his blade.

Then, in an instant, he created poison-related forms. Coining names from simple characters wasn't hard. Forms of that caliber, he could invent on the spot.

"Fourth! Fall back!"

Kang Chu-mi's inner energy was already in chaos from weathering Jeuk Hon's One Gapja-powered strikes; she had nothing left. At her Big Brother's word, she slipped behind him. The only reason she'd lasted this long was that Jeuk Hon hadn't been using his full power — he'd been trying to capture her, not kill her.

"Big Brother, I just need a moment."

She'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠meant to catch her breath and jump back in to help him. Then her eyes went wide.

"Big Brother. There's smoke coming off your sword."

She'd never seen white smoke billowing from her Big Brother's blade. She'd heard of White Serpent Sword Qi — venom qi painted on the sword to raise a poisonous mist — but she'd never seen it with her own eyes.

It wasn't true sword qi, not the kind that carried a killing edge — but Jeuk Hon sensed something was off. He didn't hesitate. He drove his sword in.

Steel rang.

Seo Joo-cheon surrendered his mind to Po Un's body and moved. As he unfolded White Serpent Spitting Venom and White Serpent Venom Tail, white smoke kept rising from the blade.

Jeuk Hon inhaled the white smoke, felt his body start to stiffen, and immediately cycled his inner energy at speed. Once he confirmed the smoke had no real toxicity, he cackled.

"What the hell! I got scared for nothing! I heard the White Serpent Sword Art was vicious with poison — what a letdown."

Jeuk Hon had found enough leisure to step back mid-fight and crack a joke. Seo Joo-cheon swallowed the herbs he'd been chewing and panicked inwardly.

The Paralysis Herb should be kicking in by now. Why isn't he reacting?

The Paralysis Herb extract was so concentrated that even a slight inhalation should have paralyzed the entire body.

Don't tell me this isn't enough to affect someone with One Gapja of inner energy?

That was the only thought that came to him.

Did this just fail?

A sinking sense of disaster welled up in him. Seeing Seo Joo-cheon's panic, Jeuk Hon suddenly burst out laughing.

"Hahahaha! Don't tell me you were counting on Paralysis Herb?"

The fact that Jeuk Hon already knew about the Paralysis Herb made Seo Joo-cheon's heart sink.

"My body felt a little sluggish, so I took a guess — looks like I was right. But here's the thing."

Jeuk Hon was overflowing with composure.

"Plant toxins don't work on me. The elixir I took was special, you see. Insect venom might do the trick, maybe."

Watching Jeuk Hon so casually reveal his own weakness only made Seo Joo-cheon more miserable. That was the ease of a man who'd already decided to kill. And hearing those words, Seo Joo-cheon understood.

I didn't write this... it changed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠when it became real. Human-Form Snow Ginseng is the king of all plants. He ate that, so of course he's highly resistant to plant toxins.

Realizing that, he almost regretted not using the viper venom. Then, in the bleakest moment, a thought flashed through his mind.

Wait. Is this actually a better situation? If I use the viper venom now, he'll think it's just more Paralysis Herb and let his guard down.

If Jeuk Hon grew wary of poison, kept his distance, and used sword qi from range, Seo Joo-cheon would have zero chance of winning.

The problem is I can't get poisoned myself. There's got to be a way... yeah. It's not like I have no options at all.

Being backed into a corner seemed to make his mind spin even faster. If this worked, the Paralysis Herb failure would turn out to have been a stroke of genius.

Failure is the shortest path to success.

Jeuk Hon assumed Seo Joo-cheon was panicking because his strategy had been seen through.

"Hahaha. This time, if you get on your knees properly and beg for your life, I'll take your arm instead."

Jeuk Hon was already savoring a victor's ease. No matter how hard they struggled, he couldn't imagine the likes of the Shaanxi Four Evils beating him. He'd recently completed his sword qi and achieved One Gapja — that confidence and elation had curdled into arrogance.

Now. This will work.

Jeuk Hon wasn't a fool, either. Seo Joo-cheon couldn't just pull out the poison and smear it on his blade in plain sight.

Throw the porcelain vial, shatter it with the sword so the venom coats the blade, then raise the poison with White Serpent Venom Tail and change the airflow with a True Step.

I've already committed to the gamble...

It had to happen in one seamless sequence, or it wouldn't work.

Judging that Seo Joo-cheon was too frightened to move, Jeuk Hon took the initiative.

The force that came at him, compressing the air itself, was a sword strike worthy of a First-Rate master. Even a single exchange was crushing. Lasting this long against a master of this caliber had been close to a miracle.

Jeuk Hon unfolded a killing form he reserved for worthy opponents, certain of victory. No First-Rate swordsman had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ever blocked all five points. It was his signature killing art: every ounce of true qi converted to sword qi, combined with the fastest footwork, driving the blade in a piercing assault.

But even the finest sword form was useless if it didn't connect. You didn't have to block it. You just had to dodge.

In that instant, Seo Joo-cheon flattened himself against the floor. Against a form like Phoenix Five-Point Nod, it was the only way. When life and death hung in the balance, a martial artist's dignity and pride weren't worth a thought. Then he threw everything he had into a sideways roll, getting clear of the killing range. Had he met the attack head-on, his body would have been carved into five pieces and then some — but with superhuman focus, he was somehow staying ahead of it.

Jeuk Hon had never imagined anyone would dodge with something as crude as a rolling fall. Annoyed, he let his sword dip slightly.

That was the opening. Seo Joo-cheon stepped into White Serpent Venom Fang. At the same time, he tossed the porcelain vial he'd been palming into the air and split it with his sword.

When the vial shattered, Jeuk Hon flinched, leaned back — then came forward. In that split second, he misjudged: Seo Joo-cheon only had Paralysis Herb, nothing worse. His body committed to the advance.

Seo Joo-cheon stamped a True Step, reversing the airflow forward. The smoke rising from his blade never reached him or the siblings behind him — it crept, slow and sure, around Jeuk Hon alone. Just as planned.

The white smoke stretched out like a serpent's tongue. In the White Serpent Sect, they called this White Serpent Sword Qi, and they ranked it on par with true sword qi.

Hmph. Paralysis Herb or real poison — I'm not afraid of either.

Jeuk Hon believed there was nothing his sword qi couldn't cut. Having only recently completed it, he'd fallen into a kind of sword-qi supremacy. He worked his blade with Phoenix Wing Tide. It looked like he was simply thrashing the sword through empty air. The form's name itself meant a phoenix's wings rolling like waves.

Seo Joo-cheon had already stopped breathing the moment the White Serpent Sword Qi rose. He kept retreating, dodging Jeuk Hon as the man punched through the white smoke.

"Let's see if you can dodge this time too."

A blue aura shimmered from Jeuk Hon's sword like heat haze. The sword qi, drawn from every last drop of his inner power, was dense.

Then Jeuk Hon felt something wrong. He wiped at whatever was running from his nose with the back of his hand. Thick blood smeared across his knuckles. In an instant, his face turned blue.

"You coward. Using poison."

Only then did Jeuk Hon realize the smoke Seo Joo-cheon had raised wasn't Paralysis Herb. It was venom. Seo Joo-cheon shot back.

"And you're using sword qi? That's not cowardly? Sword qi, venom qi — they're both sword forms."

Unable to stop the poison, Jeuk Hon's body staggered.

"Hyung-nim!"

Jeuk In and Jeuk Heon broke off their own fights to help Jeuk Hon — but Ham Cheon-yeong and Dokgo Ho-in wouldn't let them.

"Where do you think you're going?!"

This was a fight that would only end when someone died, so they threw everything they had at Jeuk In and Jeuk Heon. Kang Chu-mi decided dragging this out was a bad idea and joined their fight.

"Times like this, four's better than three, don't you think?"

Her whip snared the wrist of Jeuk In, who was fighting Ham Cheon-yeong. Drained of strength, Jeuk In couldn't dodge Kang Chu-mi's whip. And immediately after, she severed his wrist with a flying dagger.

"Gyaaaaah!"

"I told you. I'd cut your hand off."

Ham Cheon-yeong's broadsword passed through, taking Jeuk In's head.

"I only took the wrist. If you become a vengeful ghost, go haunt this guy."

The moment Jeuk In died, Jeuk Heon spun and chose to run. He never made it out of the inn. Dokgo Ho-in's thrown sword punched through his back and pinned him to a pillar, dead.

From the moment Jeuk Hon went down, their fight had been as good as lost.

"Hah... hah..."

Jeuk Hon, perhaps because of his One Gapja of inner power, was still enduring the venom qi, gasping for breath.

"Your brothers are all dead. Time you followed them."

Dokgo Ho-in raised his sword as he spoke. Jeuk Hon couldn't even answer — his lips only twitched. Seo Joo-cheon looked at him and said,

The moment the words ended, Dokgo Ho-in's sword pierced Jeuk Hon's heart. Clean work, without a hair's breadth of hesitation.

A gruesome killing unfolded right in front of him, and Seo Joo-cheon felt no psychological blow at all. As if he'd grown used to this, all he registered was a faint discomfort.

This must be what Po Un feels, too.

One of the things you always had to address when writing a wuxia novel was the protagonist's first kill, wasn't it? Depicting the shock and fear of taking a life for the first time, giving it justification — that was a device readers needed to stay immersed. Even in wuxia, a protagonist who treated killing too lightly wasn't particularly appealing. So describing the anguish after a kill was critically important.

But if you overcorrected and made the protagonist so indecisive he wouldn't even kill villains, the novel would never be popular. That's why you always had to be careful writing a protagonist's feelings about killing.

If this were a novel, the author writing it would be the type to gloss over the protagonist's killing pretty easily. Just hand-wave it with 'synchronization.'

Being an author himself, all sorts of thoughts occurred to him. While his mind wandered, a new message appeared in the air.

Looking at the message floating before his eyes, Seo Joo-cheon let out a hollow laugh.

Unbelievable. Killing the Three Evils of Luoyang changed the Karma Mission — that's fine. But now I have to protect the protagonist? That's basically the same as not changing it at all. Killing him or protecting him — both are equally hard.

Watching Seo Joo-cheon grin at empty air like a madman, Ham Cheon-yeong asked carefully, worried.

"Big Brother, are you all right?"

"Ah. I'm fine."

Dokgo Ho-in was talking with the innkeeper about something. Cleanup was always the Third Brother's job. He handled these things cleanly so no rumors would follow, which was why this kind of work fell to him.

"Second."

"Yes, Hyung-nim."

"Collect their belongings."

"Yes, Big Brother."

Ham Cheon-yeong rifled through the Three Evils of Luoyang's packs and robes without the slightest hesitation. It was something no Orthodox martial artist would ever do — but in the Unorthodox and Black paths of the Jianghu, it was commonplace. And there was no one in the inn who would fault them for it.

The martial artists watching were all Unorthodox or Black path themselves, apparently — not a single person cursed them for it. If anything, their expressions said taking the spoils was only natural. One of them stood and spoke.

"Street rumors aren't worth a damn. Who said the Shaanxi Four Evils were Second-Rate? They're First-Rate martial artists. It's been a while since I saw a fight that gripping. Well fought."

The man in the bamboo hat clasped his fists toward Seo Joo-cheon in salute, gathered his sword, and went up to his room. The man who'd been sitting in the corner of the inn also rose and spoke.

"A splendid fight. It's been a long time since I saw First-Rate masters clash — I learned a great deal. This Sang offers his respects."

Seo Joo-cheon ran a Character Search on the man who was being so formal.

Seeing the Character Search, Seo Joo-cheon remembered.

Ah! Sang Ryo. Among the Unorthodox characters I created, he was one I put a fair amount of work into.

Sang Ryo's role was to give the protagonist a hard time. To elevate a protagonist, you needed strong enemies, and he was the early-game strong enemy. Originally, Sang Ryo had no grudge against Jang Hyeon-nam at all — Seo Joo-cheon had written him as a master who joined the fight in rage after Jang Hyeon-nam slaughtered every Unorthodox martial artist in the inn.

One of the strongest masters in this Namcheon Inn. For a master of that caliber to offer Seo Joo-cheon his respects — he must have been quite impressed by the fight with Jeuk Hon.

I had to use every ability I had just to barely beat a First-Rate master.

That alone was enormously encouraging — but if he was going to fight the enemies targeting the protagonist later, this level of skill would never keep him alive. Among those hunting the protagonist, there wasn't a single one who wasn't First-Rate. Of course, he'd set that up himself, and he was regretting it now.

I'm going insane. I even wrote in a Peak Realm master to push the protagonist to the brink.

Back then, he'd written a story where the protagonist and the heroine worked together to barely survive the crisis. Which meant that if you weren't the protagonist, surviving didn't look easy. As an author, he felt sorry he hadn't paid more attention to the supporting characters and described them in more detail.

But if you devote too much page space to supporting characters, most readers hate it. They want a protagonist-centered story.

Remembering how long his editor had hounded him over this very issue, Seo Joo-cheon felt a surge of resentment.

If the editor got stuck as a supporting character and suffered a little, he wouldn't say that kind of thing.

And this was with him actually having affection for his supporting characters.

"Big Brother. Come here. The wound's deep."

Kang Chu-mi led the still-ruminating Seo Joo-cheon to a table and sat him down. Only then did searing pain flare from where the sword had cut him.

"Aaaah! Easy!"

"Oh, please. Since when do you whine?"

Kang Chu-mi clicked her tongue, looking at Seo Joo-cheon like he was a spectacle as he fussed about the pain. This was the Big Brother who, until now, had never made a sound even when she treated wounds worse than this.