Ghost Ship (3)
Seo Baek turned to Yu So Un and said,
“Try gathering your inner energy in your dantian.”
“Very well.”
Yu So Un nodded and took a deep breath.
Sure enough, he frowned and pressed a hand to his chest. Just like Seo Baek, his breath had caught, and a sharp sting shot through the meridians leading to his dantian.
“Is this… poison?”
“It seems so.”
Wang Yi Sam lost his composure at their calm exchange and shouted,
“What? You’re saying we’ve been poisoned?”
“Yes.”
“Then why am I fine? I feel nothing!”
Wang Yi Sam took a deep breath like Yu So Un and exhaled. Seo Baek gave a wry smile.
“Senior Brother, you only use external martial arts, don’t you?”
“Yeah. So what?”
“The poison affecting Junior Brother Yu and me is Scattering Powder.”
“……!”
Though Wang Yi Sam hadn’t cultivated any inner arts manuals, he knew what Scattering Powder was as a martial artist of the Murim.
“Doesn’t Scattering Powder poisoning make it impossible to use inner energy?”
“Who doesn’t know that?”
The real question was how they’d been poisoned.
Seo Baek scanned their surroundings for clues.
The answer came surprisingly quickly—from Yang So So, who flinched and spoke up.
“I never imagined the Scattering Powder would spread…”
“You know something?”
“The lead ship of the Long River Three Gorges Waterway Gang is equipped with Scattering Powder.”
“……!”
Seo Baek’s group furrowed their brows at her words.
“Our waterway gang trains in swordsmanship and martial arts, but it’s true—even righteous or unorthodox masters can be a handful. If they caused chaos on board or started slaughtering…”
“So you can’t win with just weapons and techniques, hence the Scattering Powder to cripple inner arts manuals?”
“Exactly. What’s installed on the lead ship is Divine Immortal Dissolver.”
Divine Immortal Dissolver.
A type of Scattering Powder that rapidly breaks down the gathered true energy in the dantian when an inner arts manual is activated. No—the most notoriously effective poison among them!
“When the mechanism is triggered, needles pierce the pouches of Divine Immortal Dissolver hanging in the ceiling and wall crevices, dispersing the powder into the air.”
“Thoroughly well-made.”
Seo Baek’s face twisted into an uncharacteristic sneer.
“But the Scattering Powder couldn’t have spread! Unless the mechanism is activated, nothing leaks from the pouches. The control room is a place only the gang leader and deputy know…”
Yang So So suddenly froze mid-sentence.
Hadn’t her own words revealed who spread the Scattering Powder?
Seo Baek confirmed it coldly.
“We infiltrated the gang leader’s quarters searching for the sacred relic, while the deputy leader and two gang officers went to check the broken rudder in the control room. The one who triggered the Scattering Powder device was undoubtedly the deputy leader.”
“You installed Scattering Powder out of fear of righteous and unorthodox masters? I never dreamed the waterway gang would turn bandit and spread poison!”
Wang Yi Sam struck at the heart of it, drawing a smirk from Seo Baek. But his face quickly hardened again.
“Now we break through the revenant horde without inner energy. Are you up for it?”
Wang Yi Sam thumped his chest with his fist.
“I don’t need no inner energy. One broad dao’s all I require.”
A faint smile crossed Yu So Un’s face, as if struck by a memory.
“We’ve been through this before. Back then, unable to use inner energy, we infiltrated a revenant zone relying solely on external arts.”
“What? Not just escaping—you infiltrated? You’re all stark raving mad.”
“Exactly. But we had a leader guiding us then, so our hearts were at ease, without a worry in the world.”
Yu So Un glanced subtly at Seo Baek as he reminisced.
“It feels the same now—no worries at all. Don’t you think?”
“It had better.”
Unlike Seo Baek’s group, Yang So So looked uneasy.
She’d trusted these martial artists because of their inner energy, but now crippled by the Scattering Powder, her doubt was plain.
“Are you sure you’ll be all right?”
“It doesn’t matter. We’ll show you that a martial artist relying on external arts isn’t half-baked.”
“I’m sorry. We need to hurry to the control room and confront the deputy leader. Ask why he activated the Scattering Powder without my permission, and then…”
“No need to hear it.”
“What? Why?”
“Don’t you get it yet?”
Seo Baek sneered coldly.
“Deputy Leader Mo Hyeok Gwang betrayed us.”
“Impossible! He was the one who first suggested bringing in you martial artists. For him to betray you—that makes no sense!”
“……”
Yang So So’s words sharpened Seo Baek’s gaze.
“Is that true?”
“Yes, but…”
“Then there’s even less reason to go to the control room.”
“Why…”
“He betrayed you too.”
“……!”
“That’s why he brought us in from the start. While you teamed up with us to head to the gang leader’s quarters, the deputy leader could act freely with his loyal officers.”
“The deputy leader would never do that.”
“There’s no ‘never’ in this world. And ‘he’d never do that’ is what naive fools say after being stabbed in the back.”
“No way…”
As Yang So So trailed off in shock, Seo Baek thought coldly.
‘We agreed to help the waterway gang in return for saving us. But circumstances have changed.’
His master’s frequent words resurfaced.
—Leave a debt of gratitude or grudge unpaid, and the Murim will scorn you. Always repay favors and enmities in full.
‘Understood, Master.’
Seo Baek’s group had fallen into Deputy Leader Mo Hyeok Gwang’s trap.
But it didn’t matter. It was time to show who the real hunters were.
Meanwhile, while Seo Baek’s group infiltrated the gang leader’s quarters, Mo Hyeok Gwang and the two gang officers arrived at the control room.
“Prepare.”
At Mo Hyeok Gwang’s command, the three pulled black cloths from their bosoms and masked the lower halves of their faces. The black silks, woven from threads of the black silkworm, were so tightly knit no human eye could spot the gaps. They blocked poison and water but allowed air through.
Once masked, Mo Hyeok Gwang activated a secret mechanism known only to the gang leader and deputy.
A low rumble echoed as the wall vibrated and the machinery whirred to life.
Now the lead ship would fill with the odorless, colorless Scattering Powder dust. The poisoned martial artists wouldn’t be able to use their inner arts manuals.
A martial artist without inner energy was as good as crippled!
“Let’s go.”
With preparations complete, Mo Hyeok Gwang led the gang officers out of the control room and headed somewhere else.
Their destination was a hold tucked in a dim corner of the ship.
Several such holds lay beneath the deck. The one they entered stored foodstuffs—the galley larder.
Crates of ingredients towered everywhere.
The crates reeked foully, the food rotted away. The rumor that revenants shunned food for human blood seemed true.
Mo Hyeok Gwang scrutinized the crates and found his target: one carved with the character for right in knife strokes.
“This is it. Open it.”
The officers pulled it aside, pried out the nails with an iron bar, and flipped open the lid. Mo Hyeok Gwang and the officers burst into laughter at the sight.
“We found it!”
“Wahahaha! Not a single scratch—perfectly preserved!”
When an officer held a torch close, blinding light poured out. The crate brimmed with silver ingots the size of bricks.
And atop the silver sat the Long River Three Gorges Waterway Gang’s sacred relic: the Azure Dragon Pill.
Mo Hyeok Gwang had known its hiding place from the start.
“Good. We’ve got the goods—time to escape.”
“Abandon the lead ship?”
“Of course. With the relic in my hands and all this silver mine, I can buy a dozen more ships.”
“Understood. Congratulations, Gang Leader!”
“The Long River Three Gorges Waterway Gang is yours now, Gang Leader!”
Mo Hyeok Gwang grinned at their flattery.
“After years rotting under grain sacks, the day has come.”
“What about the gang leader—or rather, Yang So So?”
“Fool. I’d have made her a concubine later if she’d stayed behind. But she followed—her own death wish. We leave her with the martial artists.”
“She did lure them in, serving as bait, didn’t she?”
“Is that how it is? Wahahaha!”
Mo Hyeok Gwang and the officers cackled vilely.
They soon fell silent, hoisted the crate, left the hold, and vanished somewhere.
As Seo Baek reached for the door, Yu So Un handed him a dagger.
“Dangerous if a revenant lunges in tight quarters, but I’ll need this.”
Yu So Un drew his bow from his traveling satchel and slung his quiver at his waist. He turned to Wang Yi Sam.
“Can I entrust you with guarding me?”
“Obviously. No revenant’ll get near you on my watch. I’ll stick to my broad dao too.”
“Do that.”
Seo Baek pocketed their daggers in his satchel, then unslung his sword from his back and gripped it.
Daggers were for stealth and infiltration.
No more need for stealth.
If revenants spotted them, the best plan was to cut them down and escape!
‘Poisoned by Scattering Powder, but holding my breath briefly is no issue.’
The problem was the Shika Heart Method couldn’t be activated.
Seeing clearly in the dark like daylight would be harder now—his vision clouded, restricting movement.
“We’re leaving the room.”
Seo Baek eased the door open slowly.
His earlier worry was unfounded. Torches lined the corridor walls, illuminating it brightly.
The revenants were repeating their pre-death routines.
Dormant revenants rose under the full moon, lit torches, and set the ship sailing.
Now he understood why the lead ship appeared on the river branches only on full moon nights.
Seo Baek peeked out, checking both directions. No revenants—the deck, perhaps.
He signaled with three fingers. Everyone drew deep breaths and held them.
The group slipped out and moved.
Seo Baek in the lead.
Yu So Un with bow behind him.
Wang Yi Sam and Yang So So bringing up the rear, guarding Yu So Un from revenants.
As he’d told Yang So So, Seo Baek had no intention of heading to the control room.
‘Whoever triggered the Scattering Powder there has already prepared to flee.’
Deputy Leader Mo Hyeok Gwang and the officers were surely on deck by now. Catching them before they boarded another ship was priority.
He hadn’t told Yang So So, but Seo Baek suspected Mo Hyeok Gwang was the one who’d raided the vault amid the grain and blades.
‘Mo Hyeok Gwang planned this for years.’
Just then, rounding a corner, Seo Baek halted.
The group froze behind him.
Two revenants patrolled the long corridor.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Seo Baek peered cautiously, observing their pattern.
The two walked opposite directions down the hall, turned at the ends, and returned to the center.
Sentry duty—repeating their living habits.
Seo Baek held up two fingers to the group.
Yu So Un pointed from himself to his bow with his thumb.
No words needed.
—I’ll handle it.
—I trust you.
Seo Baek nodded, eyes meeting.
Yu So Un nocked an arrow from his quiver.