Chapter 33: Canyon Pursuit (2)
Wang Yi Sam asked in disbelief.
"You sure you didn't see it wrong? Wasn't it just heat haze or somethin'?"
"No. What heat haze in this chilly gorge weather?"
Seo Baek cut him off curtly.
"I'll go ahead and catch the fugitives."
The Shika Heart Method was already active.
No sooner had Seo Baek finished speaking than he vanished into the underbrush like the wind.
"Me too. I'll head up first."
Yu So Un tossed out a casual remark and followed suit.
"Hey! Wait up, let's go together!"
Left alone, Wang Yi Sam started running after them.
But he stopped after just a few steps.
Hadn't he collapsed from exhaustion last time trying to keep up with Seo Baek on the mountain path to Shu Dao Pass?
"Yeah, that kid'll handle it fine."
Having learned his lesson, Wang Yi Sam trudged along after Seo Baek and Yu So Un at a walking pace.
...Giving up sure felt easier.
How long had he been crashing through the bushes?
Suddenly, the forest ended, and a sheer cliff jutted up before Seo Baek.
To reach the mountainside, one would have to go around it.
But Seo Baek chose the straight path.
"Hup."
Seo Baek exhaled sharply through his mouth. In the next instant—
Thud. He kicked off the wall with his left foot and scaled the cliff like a staircase.
Tatata-thud.
His lightness skill was like sprinting across flat ground.
To an untrained eye, it would look like a strip of pale blue fabric floating up the stark gray cliff.
Just then, Yu So Un caught up and shook his head at the sight.
"Carrying that massive sword on his back... What the hell is that kid?"
Yu So Un whistled to psych himself up before climbing, then froze and clamped his mouth shut.
"Oops, can't let the fugitives hear that."
He chuckled softly, then launched himself at the cliff, following Seo Baek.
Moments later, Seo Baek crested the vertical cliff and planted his feet on the ridgeline.
One more gorge to cross, and he'd reach the spot where he'd spotted the fugitives.
But first, there was something to do.
Fire the signal flare from the Iron Palm Gang.
Seo Baek untied his leather pouch and pulled out the flares.
Three colors: blue, yellow, red.
He picked the red one.
Cheon Ri Hyeong had said to use them by purpose, but Seo Baek had no intention of doing so.
Flares were for scaring beasts into one direction. When hunting prey, stealth was far better.
That's why he hadn't used the blue one upon spotting them.
Plus, saving them might prove useful later.
Seo Baek aimed the flare skyward and yanked the fuse.
Sizzle. Boom.
The powder ignited, launching it high.
It exploded in midair.
Bang.
Like a red flower blooming in the sky.
The gorge Seo Baek had entered was shrouded in thick fog.
But exploding high overhead, everyone within dozens of li would see it, no doubt.
That included the fugitives.
Seo Baek didn't care.
He had the confidence to catch them anytime!
Proof: The red flower still lingered in the sky, but Seo Baek was already gone.
The three Iron Palm Gang fugitives were climbing a path carved into a sheer cliff.
A man and woman in their early twenties, and a young boy.
The man and woman were Yang San and Chuk Yeong; the boy was Son Il Seo, son of the former deputy leader Son Sik.
As they struggled up the path, they spotted the red signal flare bursting high in the sky.
Yang San spoke in a tense voice.
"That's the Iron Palm Gang's signal."
"Isn't that red?"
"Yes."
The three swallowed hard, glancing at each other.
Red meant one thing.
The pursuit team was right on their heels!
They could appear from anywhere at any moment.
"They're chasing us, so we need to hurry."
"Right."
Son Il Seo nodded. Not yet ten, he was more child than boy, but his face showed resolve and grit.
Then Chuk Yeong, the only woman, spoke.
"Leave me behind."
Her ankle was badly torn, flesh ripped away. As Seo Baek predicted, she'd been caught in the hunting trap.
Her injury had slowed them by half a day. That's how the pursuers caught up.
She blamed herself harshly, as expected.
She'd begged them to leave her several times during the escape.
But Yang San pretended not to hear.
They were promised to each other in marriage...
But now, a decision was needed.
If we keep going like this, we'll all get caught.
Yang San bit his lip, gazing sadly at his lover.
"I can't do that."
Son Il Seo stepped forward.
"Chuk Yeong is the daughter of the Chuk family, to whom the Iron Palm Gang owed a great debt. They won't abandon her."
"But..."
"I've made up my mind. Say no more."
"Understood."
Yang San led, but Son Il Seo was clearly their leader.
To an outsider, it would seem odd—two young adults obeying a child.
Relieved he didn't have to abandon Chuk Yeong, Yang San steeled himself and took the lead up the path.
Then—whoosh—a blue shadow flew from somewhere and blocked the path.
What the—?
Yang San couldn't believe his eyes.
The path was flanked by a sheer rock wall on the left and a bottomless drop on the right.
The opposite cliff was dozens of jang away.
Only Shaolin or Ami masters could leap that. No ordinary lightness skill could manage it.
So where had this figure come from?
As he scrutinized the intruder, Yang San was shocked again.
A boy not even in his teens?
The figure was a boy four or five years younger than him.
A lightness skill rivaling a hidden master—from a mere teen...!
Yang San quickly assessed the odds.
A cliff-leaper was unbeatable.
His only play: sacrifice himself to clear the path.
Take care of the rest.
He signaled Chuk Yeong with his eyes and lunged at the boy.
But before he could draw his sword, a fierce wind whipped his hair, and a razor-sharp blade tip hovered at his throat.
One more step, and it'd pierce clean through.
The boy's martial arts matched his lightness skill. Yang San hadn't even drawn—defeat was certain.
The unbelievable prodigy spoke in a clear voice.
"Thinking of mutual destruction? Give it up."
"...!"
Yang San swallowed involuntarily.
He'd been prepared to die taking the foe with him.
Yet the boy saw right through it...
He's no match for me.
How had a boy under thirteen mastered such arts?
Facing a true master for the first time, Yang San trembled with helplessness.
Seo Baek quietly watched the young man before him slump in despair.
Behind him stood a woman his age and a boy under ten.
As expected, not what Cheon Ri Hyeong said.
Seo Baek had agreed to help the Iron Palm Gang but didn't buy their story wholesale.
And his suspicions were confirmed.
That kid must be the deputy leader's son.
Unlike the man and woman, the boy's appearance and clothes were neat. Definitely Son Sik's son.
From Cheon Ri Hyeong's tale alone, it'd sounded like the deputy leader's wastrel son stole the gang's treasure and fled.
But a child under ten breaking gang rules?
Something was off.
Seo Baek eyed the man and woman.
The man was likely a sworn gang swordsman loyal to the boy. The injured woman knew no martial arts.
But the looks they exchanged weren't ordinary.
Lovers?
They didn't look like fugitives—more like refugees.
Seo Baek sensed a story here.
But it was none of his business.
The Iron Palm Gang handles their own. I just do my part.
Sword still at the young man's throat, Seo Baek said,
"Do you have the Iron Palm Gang's treasure and manual?"
"Yes."
As expected, not the young man—the boy answered.
"Are you from Cheon Ri Hyeong?"
"Yes."
"Not a gang member, though."
"I owe him a debt, so here I am. Hand over the treasure and manual, and I'll let you pass."
Seo Baek had no need to kill them.
Return the items.
That settled his debt to Cheon Ri Hyeong.
The three exchanged glances at his words.
"How do we trust you?"
"I'm just here for the manual and treasure. If not, we fight."
His calm tone belied the ruthlessness.
Surrender the items, live.
Refuse, die.
"You can't run anymore anyway. They saw the flare—pursuers are coming. Not easy with a wounded one."
Seo Baek glanced at the woman's injured foot.
"Besides, the manual and treasure belong to the gang. Rightful to give to the new leader."
"Never!"
Unexpectedly, Son Il Seo cut in.
"Cheon Ri Hyeong is a wastrel disowned by his father, the leader. The leader meant to name me successor. The manual and treasure are mine, not his!"
"..."
For a boy under ten, his gaze and demeanor were bold. He wasn't lying about being successor.
But in the jianghu, no one crowns a child leader.
Yang San stepped forward.
"Three months ago, a great calamity struck the Iron Palm Gang."
"What kind?"
"The leader and deputy both died."
Yang San explained the situation.
Ten-odd days ago, swept by a horde of revenants roaming the Central Plains, the leader and deputy became wandering ghosts.
The gang, stabilizing, chose a new leader. The old one had picked Son Il Seo, deputy leader's son, as successor.
The leader had an eldest son, Cheon Ri Hyeong—but the notorious wastrel had butchered innocents, ruining his reputation.
"The leader cut ties with him long ago."
But with the leader dead and chaos ensuing, Cheon Ri Hyeong stepped up as new leader.
He feigned grief, begging forgiveness from the swordsmen.
But it was a sham.
He killed dissenters one by one, bribed the ungrateful with gold to win them over.
Gangs follow strength over blood, money over jianghu code. Cheon Ri Hyeong's faction formed in days.
By the time Son Il Seo realized, power was seized.
Son Il Seo fled Iron Palm Mountain at night with loyalists Yang San and his lover Chuk Yeong.
Cheon Ri Hyeong, of course, sent pursuers.
The rest, Seo Baek knew.
Looking at them, Seo Baek thought.
A youth barely first-rate.
A woman useless in flight.
A gritty but too-young boy.
Classic weaklings, pursued.
But Seo Baek pitied no weaklings.
Don't half-ass helping the weak.
His master said the jianghu was a battlefield.
On battlefields, the strong devour the weak!
Silence lingered after the tale. The trio exchanged anxious looks.
Yang San pleaded,
"If you know the jianghu code, help us."
"Fine."
Seo Baek agreed readily. They lit up with joy.
But his mind was elsewhere.
Jianghu code means nothing to me.
He'd help for one reason.
Cheon Ri Hyeong deceived and used me and my group. Time to settle that debt.