Reverse Interview
After nursing the middle-aged fellow named Dang Cheol-san for about two days, the martial artists of the Sichuan Tang Family arrived, just as he had said they would.
I had expected it to take weeks—he’d gone off to treat injuries from hunting centipedes—but they appeared in a mere two days.
The warriors nearly jumped out of their skins at the sight of the corpse under the straw mat by the temple entrance, thinking it might be Cheol-san himself. Then I guided them inside the hall, where they found him lying down.
“G-Gaju! What in the world has happened!?”
“Internal injuries this grave…!”
They stared in shock at his bloodless face and the dark circles under his eyes that looked ready to drip onto his feet. I helped the man sit up, and he began explaining to his martial artists what had happened a few days earlier.
“Blood Hand Rakshasa Tak Un-yang appeared.”
“What!? Blood Hand Rakshasa Tak Un-yang… the great demonic villain who took a palm strike from the Lord of Ten Thousand Poisons more than ten years ago in Qinzhou and plummeted off the coastal cliffs!?”
“That’s the one.”
“H-Heavens! Then the corpse at the entrance…?”
“We nearly met with disaster. He must have been secluded somewhere polishing his martial arts—he’d climbed to a realm close to my father’s.”
“T-That can’t be…”
The three warriors wore expressions of pure disbelief, then their faces suddenly brightened and they rushed to congratulate him.
“Th-Then!? Gaju! If you turned a monster like that into a permanent guest of the underworld, that means you’ve reached the realm of Ten Thousand Poisons! Our congratulations!”
“Congratulations!”
I supposed that was their way of saying that if he’d beaten someone that strong, his own skill must be even higher.
Except it was a one-punch KO for the old guy…
Cheol-san shook his head. Smiling, he pointed at me.
“Not quite. I wasn’t the one who killed him—this young hero here did. I owe him a life-saving grace.”
“What!?”
“Th-This young hero?”
“He defeated Blood Hand Rakshasa Tak Un-yang!?”
Technically it wasn’t me—it was the little centipedes—but they were my pets, so it wasn’t exactly a lie. Accidents caused by pets are the owner’s responsibility, after all.
The warriors, however, seemed to have misunderstood something. They clasped their fists in the Central Plains martial salute and bowed politely toward me.
“We thank you for saving the life of the Sichuan Tang Family’s Gaju.”
“Our deepest thanks!”
“Could it be… have you undergone rejuvenation and returned to youth, Senior?”
They asked whether I was some ancient master who had restored his youth.
What the hell are they even talking about? I should’ve watched more wuxia novels and movies in my past life—I have no idea what any of this means…
Cheol-san looked like he was struggling not to laugh at his men’s behavior. The moment he twitched his eyebrows, a chill ran down my spine and a sound rose from inside my robes.
Hey, I told you not to do that out of nowhere…
—Tssrrr!
That was the warning noise the little Azure ones made when they got angry. They immediately burst from my collar, swaying their heads like snakes and glaring straight at Cheol-san.
“H-Heavens! Th-This is…!”
“C-Centipedes!?”
The three still-yellow baby centipedes made the warriors’ eyes go round with shock. A moment later the chill along my spine vanished, and the little ones slowly retreated back into my clothes.
“Th-Those were…!?”
The warriors had already taken a step back from me, startled by the creatures. Cheol-san answered in my place.
“Hatchlings of an Azure-Spotted Centipede. He says there were eggs in the hole where we caught the parent. The young hero hatched them, and those little ones are what finished off Tak Un-yang.”
“Th-That!? I-Is the venom all right?”
“H-He tamed Azure-Spotted Centipedes…!”
The little stunt of making the centipedes pop out had been for a reason: over the past few days we had figured out exactly when they attacked people.
They react to killing intent. Weird… and kind of impressive.
The day after they took down that madman Tak Un-yang, the little ones barely moved inside my robes. Baby centipedes hardly stir from the mother’s body until after their second molt, so that was normal—but Cheol-san had been curious how creatures that had just taken a life could stay so still now. Lying there, he had asked with a puzzled look:
“They’re so quiet and gentle. Do you have any idea why they attacked Tak Un-yang?”
“No idea. I don’t really know either.”
“Nothing comes to mind?”
I already knew they were venomous, and an accidental bite would kill me too, so I carefully replayed the events.
I washed my body… got grabbed by the neck… and they definitely didn’t react then… so…
“Hmm… I tried to wash them off with cold water so they’d let go of me, but that doesn’t seem to be it… Ah! Come to think of it, when that Tak Un-yang guy tightened his grip on my neck, something cold ran down my spine and I broke out in a cold sweat… Maybe it was the sweat?”
Insects and animals reacting to human sweat is common enough. I wondered if the scent had triggered them, but Cheol-san’s thoughts went somewhere else.
“Hmm? A chill down your spine? Then perhaps…”
His expression said something had clicked. The next instant the same cold sensation I’d felt when Tak Un-yang seized my neck crawled down my back.
—Tssrrrrrrr!
Sure enough, the little ones gave their warning cry, burst from my collar, and glared at Cheol-san.
He cried out in startled delight.
“They react to killing intent!”
“Huh? Killing intent?”
He was as excited as if he’d just uncovered some great secret. Afterward he explained: ordinary killing intent is the murderous aura people show in their faces and manner, but for martial artists it’s different. In my past life it was just a feeling, but a martial artist’s killing intent is a real, formless energy that can cow or even kill a person. And the little centipedes seemed to react to it. That chill down my spine earlier had been killing intent.
Wait, isn’t that dangerous? Feels like I just got hit with a blank round—gross.
Even for the sake of curiosity, shooting killing intent at me was a bit much. He said he’d used only the tiniest amount, which soothed my irritation a little.
A few more experiments let us pin down their exact attack mechanism. According to Cheol-san, killing intent can be spread around an area or focused on a specific target. The little ones didn’t react to ambient killing intent—only to intent aimed directly at me. Like automatic turrets.
They made me nervous about getting bitten, yet at the same time they were protecting me.
We decided that secret would stay between the two of us. Having a secret-friend vibe with an older guy felt a little weird, but whatever.
I was still thinking about their attack mechanism when the conversation around me drifted into something new.
“…and so I intend to welcome him into our family.”
“H-Heavens! Family? Then our little one they call the Wolgye…”
“Exactly. Though the young hero hasn’t decided yet.”
“““Ohhh!”””
The talk between the Tang warriors and Cheol-san had shifted to how he was trying to scout me. I had asked for a few days to think over his offer. There were things to settle here, and joining felt like signing up for a lifelong job—I couldn’t be careless.
But the unfamiliar word “Wolgye” that seemed tied to the whole family business made me ask.
“What exactly is a Wolgye?”
Everyone turned to stare at me. Cheol-san and the warriors looked dumbfounded, until the oldest-looking warrior answered with a mischievous smile.
“Never heard of Wolgye, young hero?”
“Uh… no. Is that another of the Ten Great Venomous Creatures?”
At my follow-up question their faces all softened into smiles. The warrior continued.
“Not at all. Wolgye is a flower. It has thorns, yet it’s red and beautiful. Never seen one?”
“Ah! I know what you mean.”
Wolgye was probably the Central Plains word for rose. Red with thorns—had to be a rose.
“Good, so you do know. People call the peony the King of Flowers, or National Beauty and Heavenly Fragrance, but that’s just ignorance talking. The finest flower of all is the Wolgye, no question. Peonies bloom for a single season and wither soon enough, but Wolgye blooms in every season and delights the eye. Of course it’s the best. And that red—how deep a red it is!”
The warrior launched into a full-blown rose-fanatic speech. It was a bit much, but a guy obsessed with venomous creatures had no right to judge anyone else’s tastes. I decided to respect the hobby and answered with a smile.
“I like Wolgye best too.”
The Tang people suddenly got noisy.
“Ohh! Truly!?”
“He likes Wolgye best of all!?”
“Uh… yeah… well… I was taught that the thorns exist so the flower can stay lofty and proud, so no one dares pluck it carelessly.”
“Ohh! You know a thing or two!”
He was so into roses he almost grabbed my hand, then flinched at the thought of the little centipedes. Looking toward Cheol-san, the family head, he said:
“Then everything’s perfect. I heard you haven’t made up your mind yet, but if you do, Gaju will gift you the most beautifully blooming Wolgye in our Tang Family.”
“Huh? To me?”
Ah, like a welcome gift or something?
I knew Central Plains folk loved red and considered it auspicious. Apparently they used red flowers as a welcome. Even if I joined the Sichuan Tang Family, though, there was no need to go cutting flowers for no reason.
“Elder. Even if I decide to become part of the Tang Family, you don’t have to cut a Wolgye for me. Flowers are living things too… We shouldn’t treat them carelessly, right?”
Something odd happened. At my answer the Tang people all started snickering. Cheol-san wiped the smile from his face and spoke with a serious expression.
“Not at all, young hero. Don’t say such dangerous things. I’ll only gift you the Wolgye—you’ll be the one who has to pluck it. And even if you say you’re fine now, once you get to Sichuan you’ll want to pluck it right away, so don’t worry. Ah, mind the thorns.”
“Huh?”
These people kept saying the most baffling things.
Is there some meaning to roses I don’t know about?
What I heard at the end of the conversation with the Tang people was unexpected.
“You’re saying you’ll search Hainan Island?”
“That’s right. As soon as I’ve recovered enough, we move. I don’t think we can afford to wait.”
“Why? Is there still something left to find?”
I had assumed Cheol-san would head straight back to Sichuan once he was on his feet. Instead he wanted to comb through Hainan the moment he recovered. When I asked why, his face turned grave.
“Tak Un-yang, the Blood Hand Rakshasa. He raised his martial arts while hiding here, so I want to find his hideout.”
“That guy’s hideout?”
My expression asked why we needed the house of a man who was already dead. He explained.
“The art he practiced is called the Blood Hand Poison Claw—a vile, demonic technique. To raise its realm, human blood and bone marrow are absolutely required.”
“Human blood… and bone marrow?”
“Yes. You have to soak your hands in blood and marrow and absorb them… a truly evil art.”
What kind of insane martial art is that?
“Then…?”
If a man who cultivated an art that demanded soaking hands in blood and marrow had raised his level, it meant he had almost certainly committed mass murder. I stared at Cheol-san in disbelief; he nodded.
“Exactly. If he left a secret manual or took a disciple, we must deal with it and remove the future threat—so that cruel demonic art never reappears in the murim. And if there are still people held captive, we should help them, shouldn’t we?”
If it was an art that turned the unwary into serial killers, then hunting it down and erasing it, just as Cheol-san said, was the right call. I nodded, thinking he was more righteous than I’d expected, and he asked for my help.
“So will you give us a hand? You know the local terrain better than anyone.”
He was right—I knew the Hainan jungles. I nodded at once.
“Understood. As soon as you’ve recovered, I’ll help.”
The reason I agreed so quickly was simple: choosing a lifelong workplace meant I should treat this like an internship. If you’re applying to a company, the golden rule is to intern first—feel out the atmosphere, see what the boss is really like. Besides, people say true colors show when things get hard.
So I planned to evaluate the Sichuan Tang Family thoroughly on this trip.
Just you wait. I’m going to grade you carefully.
After all, a capable person always conducts a reverse interview.