Murim Nymph # 10
The elders had fallen into deep mourning.
A foreigner had won the tournament.
The Murim Alliance had been thoroughly disgraced.
"Half the remaining bracket withdrew complaining of stomachaches! That has Dang So-hae's fingerprints all over it!"
"What are we to do? Is it right to grant victory by forfeit like this?"
The championship prize, the Azure-Clear Stone Oil, was a treasure beyond price. To hand over one of the few vials that existed on this entire vast continent to a Korean awakener named Ha Ildo was a devastating loss for the Murim Alliance.
And so the elders stood there trading wary glances — until, at that very moment, someone began clapping loudly. Clap clap clap—
"What a magnificent bout! I am almost moved to thank the venerable elders of the Murim Alliance for making such a splendid confrontation possible."
Achilles, S-Rank #5, was watching the screen with unmistakable delight. And Bron, the American S-Ranker who had tracked Achilles' every move and glance since his arrival, knew perfectly well just how intently Achilles had focused on Ha Ildo's match.
Especially when that dog-squirrel and the honey ant showed up — he couldn't take his eyes off them.
Bron thought to himself.
Achilles must have a soft spot for small creatures like dog-squirrels and honey ants.
It was hardly surprising, considering the pair of dog-squirrels his sister Casey had brought back were enjoying a veritable craze in America.
Everyone loves dog-squirrels and honey ants. But then, that enormous owl... Could it be connected to those owls that were raising such a ruckus in Illinois?
Bron narrowed his eyes at Bonbon Calinoi, deep in thought as the infamous incident of America's wild "Witch" resurfaced in his memory — when someone suddenly chuckled. Ha-ha—
It was Yagami Orochi, the boss of Japan's underworld. Dressed in traditional Japanese garb, he addressed the elders of the Murim Alliance.
"Elders, the picture did not unfold as you hoped, and I imagine your stomachs ache for it. A man undone by his own clever scheme — that phrase must have been coined for precisely this situation. A fine show. I enjoyed it."
Unlike the elders, whose faces had flushed crimson, Yagami Orochi's heart was at ease.
He had confirmed that the recent, rapidly rising Murim Alliance was nothing worth fearing. Ha Ildo's beasts were formidable, to be sure — but China's A-Rankers lagged far behind their foreign counterparts in both experience and skill.
What if Japan's own A-Ranker, the "A. Ninja," had entered this tournament?
Even against Ha Ildo, he wouldn't have crumbled as easily as Liu Hua or Dang So-hae.
If China, already a step behind in the 5th Industry, ever hopes to dispute hegemony over Asia again, it will need at least a century. But still...
Yagami Orochi gazed through the screen at the honeybees buzzing busily overhead. Round and plump like bumblebees, each one roughly the size of a soccer ball — and undeniably adorable.
A honeybee found only in China, is it? Those little things are rather tempting.
He recalled the old days when crowds had flooded into zoos just to catch a glimpse of the pandas China had imported. And he remembered, just as vividly, the arrogant attitude of the Chinese as they monopolized those pandas.
"Cute animals are national competitiveness in their own right. Who knows — those honeybees might just be the future of China."
Fwip—.
Yagami swept his traditional robes around him like a cloak and rose from his seat.
"Cyborg Ninja. We return to Japan."
He had seen for himself both the face and the skill of the man his daughter Tsubaki had fallen for, so the purposes of his visit to China had largely been fulfilled. Nor did he have any desire to linger here.
China reeked of a subtle, sinister poison.
# # #
"And now, we announce the champion! The victor is the awakener Ha Ildo, from Korea!"
Meng Zhutian, Alliance Leader of China's awakener coalition known as the Murim Alliance, strode onto the stage and bellowed into the microphone. With his Guan Yu-like beard he was an imposing figure, and his voice boomed across the hall.
He held out to me the championship plaque and what looked like a small gourd.
"Congratulations! This is the Azure-Clear Stone Oil everyone has been desperate to obtain. Drink it, and your realm of mastery will rise even higher — but the side effects may be severe. The choice is yours to make."
The gourd in my hands was cold, as though it had just come out of a refrigerator. I could feel the energy of the Azure-Clear Stone Oil inside seeping faintly through the vessel's walls.
If I drank this, I'd get even stronger. Was that it?
Then my eyes found Oinoi.
"The acquisition of the Legendary Gutter Water is complete...! With the Legendary Gutter Water in hand, raising the typhoon cloud will surely go far more smoothly...!"
Oinoi was celebrating ecstatically over in the VIP seating. Right — she had come to China to raise her typhoon cloud, searching for a Typhoon Flower or its equivalent, the Legendary Gutter Water.
Would it really be fine for me to gulp this down myself?
I fell into a contemplative funk. And then my eyes drifted to Dang So-hae, still devotedly tending to the wounded.
"I couldn't win..."
She had clearly been after this Azure-Clear Stone Oil too.
So what was I supposed to do here? Was it truly right to accept this forfeit victory in good conscience?
As I mulled it over, Meng Zhutian spoke to me.
"Young man. Now that I've lived past my seventieth new year, I've come to understand something: luck, in the end, is simply another form of skill. Allow yourself a little more joy in what you've achieved."
Shoop—.
He seized my hand and raised it high into the air. In the same instant, a great roar erupted from the crowd.
"Long live the Tiger Owl! Long live Bonbon Calinoi!"
"Weren't the honey ant and the dog-squirrel better, though?"
"I thought the singing spider was amazing. A spider that plays an instrument AND sings! Heavens, incredible. Simply incredible!"
Amid the thunderous cheers that threatened to sweep everything away, Meng Zhutian spoke.
"Young Master Ildo. You set foot into this jianghu to take Xiaoxiao back to Korea with you. You must have heard the tale — that the champion of this tournament may wed Xiaoxiao."
I was floored in more ways than one. My whole scheme, my entire plan, had been laid bare.
Just as I stood there feeling utterly sheepish, Meng Zhutian let out a great, booming laugh. Muhahaha—
"Worry not. I have no intention of holding it against you. Nor of stopping you, for that matter. But it will not be easy, I warn you. That Sorceress lies coiled behind the Sichuan Tang Clan."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Demanding easy answers to everything — that is the regrettable habit of the young."
And with that, my award ceremony came to an end.
I returned to my hotel, where my party was waiting, and Oinoi greeted me with tremendous enthusiasm.
"The Master of the House...! Congratulations on your victory...! And the Legendary Gutter Water has been acquired as well...!"
"Oinoi, you're the one who wanted this gutter water, aren't you? What do you say? Want to keep it?"
"Mwheheh, that is a treasure the Master of the House won through his own effort...! For this Oinoi to accept it freely would be shameless in every possible way...!"
Oinoi refused my gesture as though it were the most natural thing in the world. Apparently, one simply could not make free use of anything one had not earned through one's own labor.
Watching her, Seo Yerim frowned and turned to look at Illinoi — who, for some reason, was seething with rage.
"This Illinoi is currently very angry, it is declared...! My betting winnings turned out to be Zimbabwean dollars...! I am suing...! Someone call the lawyer, it is demanded...!"
Illinoi had been swindled. She'd been giddy at the prospect of getting rich, and now that her hollow dream had flown away, she was furious.
Beside her, Oinoi spoke up.
"Then this Oinoi shall process the Legendary Gutter Water so the Master of the House may consume it safely...! Illinoi, your assistance is requested...!"
"Of course...! Drinking the Legendary Gutter Water as-is could easily cause harm, it is warned...! The nymphs' essence is condensed within it at tremendous potency...!"
The Legendary Gutter Water was said to be runoff born from land steeped in concentrated nymph mana. Neither its principles of formation nor its locations were known even to the nymphs themselves.
Pop—.
Illinoi popped the lid off the gourd. A moment later, she scrunched up her face.
"What in the world is this disgusting smell, what even is it...? Something is very wrong with this Legendary Gutter Water...! Truly a made-in-China gutter water, it is...! Now that I look closely, it has been contaminated...!"
What?
My prize was contaminated?
While I stood there stunned, Illinoi poured the gourd's contents into a nearby dish. Drip, drip—.
The droplets falling from the gourd shimmered in rainbow hues, glittering brilliantly. Oinoi trembled violently at the sight.
"It really is contaminated...! This is no better than poison...! We nymphs would be fine, but if humans like the Master of the House drank something like this, it could be gravely dangerous...!"
Dum dum dum—.
Shocking news, on every front. Before long, Seo Yerim's face had twisted into a scowl as well.
"Are you telling me the championship prize was swapped for a fake? Or, what, some prank along those lines? Doing something like that at a tournament with the whole world watching? I'm going to go give them a piece of my mind!"
Fwoosh—.
The temperature around us began climbing in an instant. Seo Yerim looked ready to start a full-blown conflagration.
It was then that someone appeared at our hotel room door.
It was Dang So-hae.
"No one counterfeited anything or swapped it out. That contaminated, poison-like substance is the truth of the Azure-Clear Stone Oil. I intended to obtain it, study it, break down its composition, and synthesize an antidote."
An antidote?
Shoop—.
Illinoi funneled the oil she'd poured into the dish back into the gourd, and Dang So-hae took it. The girl let out a long sigh. Whoosh—
"Drink this, and you can become superhuman. Your qi channels open, your realm of mastery climbs ever higher. But there is a price. If you don't keep drinking something with a similar composition, you fall gravely ill."
It made people stronger — while saddling them with a crippling side effect?
I'd heard plenty about how far the people of China would go in pursuit of strength these days, but this risk was simply too great.
"This is poison. Right now, the Sichuan Tang Clan is addicting people to toxins like this one and controlling them at will through the antidote. It is a horrifying thing."
Controlling people through sickness and cure.
I'd heard this story before. Wasn't it exactly what had happened to So So-hee and her mother, Aunt Dang Yeong-yeong?
"Our once-proud Tang Clan is now pushed around and manipulated by the Sorceress at every turn. That woman wields poisons no one has ever heard of and martial arts no one has ever seen. Everyone is her hostage...!"
The Sorceress.
Meng Zhutian's words came back to me. And then—
Dang So-hae suddenly let out a strangled gasp and collapsed.
"I too... am addicted to one poison or another.... If I speak the truth... a poison... tightens around my heart... it gnaws at my body... khhk—. A Gu... sorcery...!"
Urk!
Dang So-hae vomited up black blood.
Watching her, I sensed something strange. From within her body, I detected a mana reaction — one that felt eerily like a powerful signature of life.
"Dang So-hae... could you possibly be pregnant?"
"Wh-what...! I am... an innocent maiden...! How dare you ask such a thing at a time like this! You, Ha Ildo, you man...! Ngh, agh...!"
So that was it.
I laid Dang So-hae down and turned to Seo Yerim.
"Seo Yerim! Hold her down tight — don't let her thrash or struggle!"
"Like this?"
Shoop—.
The moment Seo Yerim seized both of Dang So-hae's arms, I pressed my mana-infused palm against the girl's chest and poured my will into the life stirring within her.
"Come out!"
"Ughk! Ughyaaaah...!"
Dang So-hae writhed in agony. Before long, the girl retched something up past her lips — kahk—
It was a tiny centipede.
It had countless legs and was about the size of an index finger, and the way it let out a terrifying shriek — Skreee...! — was deeply unsettling.
Right at that moment, Oinoi spoke.
"Aah...! That is the dreadful Shade Centipede...! A centipede that lurks in the shadows and loves to bite the arms and legs of napping nymphs — a thoroughly nymph-phobic creature...! Everyone, let us beat it together...!"
"Mwheheh, good idea, it is declared...! Let's do it...!"
Thudthudthudthudthudthud—.
The nymphs pounded the centipede mercilessly, and without offering the slightest resistance, it flopped over and went limp. In the midst of this scene of brutal violence, Oinoi quickly scooped the unconscious centipede into a glass jar.
"Captured...! Wicked nymphs often used to slip Shade Centipedes into other nymphs' pockets...! A nymph must surely be involved in this affair...!"
"This Illinoi is thinking the same thing...! One of this Illinoi's sisters must be in this land, it is deduced...! We shall meet with her and beat her thoroughly...!"
So Illinoi had sisters.
At those words, Seo Yerim recoiled in horror.
"A sister of Illinoi's? You're telling me there's ANOTHER one out there who blows money like her? Good lord!"
# # #
This was Sichuan Province.
The great estate where the Tang family had lived for generations. Beneath a beautiful, oriental-tiled eave stood a girl, her brow furrowed.
"One Gu insect has had its connection severed...! Without question, the work of that man, Ha Ildo...!"
A girl with her hair bound into two buns on either side of her head, like a pair of steamed dumplings. At a glance, she seemed to be around thirteen years old.
She wore a violet China dress, and her hair was violet as well. What stood out most were her ears — triangular and sharply pointed, wrapping her entire presence in an unmistakably inhuman aura.
"America's Witch has failed...! The natural consequence of an irrational operation...! But 'I' am different...! I shall show you the power of the Nymph-fu Grandmaster...! Such is the way of us, the Nameless."
Mwheheheh—.
The girl laughed like a villainess steeped in sinister menace.
Her true identity was a Rimbu — a Forest Nymph.
Since time immemorial, the Rimbu had lived hidden within the Murim!