Chapter 56: Qimen Dunjia Sorcery (Part 2)
Wang Yi Sam swallowed hard and asked Lee Kang.
"What the hell is this Qimen Dunjia that bastard Jegal Hyeok has set up?"
Lee Kang's reply was simple and indifferent.
"I don't know either."
"You don't know? Our junior's fallen into that revenant cave, and you're spouting such irresponsible nonsense?"
"Unless I peek into Jegal Hyeok's head, how could I possibly know? I don't have the ability to read minds."
"……."
Wang Yi Sam realized he'd asked another foolish question and shut his mouth.
But then Lee Kang dropped a bombshell that made his ears perk up.
"I do have a clue about what sorcery he might have used."
"A clue? What's that?"
"Jegal Hyeok's tastes."
"His tastes?"
"He installed a mechanism formation in the garden that opens the main gate, shaped like a Go board."
At those words, Wang Yi Sam recalled the mechanism Seo Baek had dismantled.
"You mean the one our junior said mimicked a Go game?"
"Exactly. Go has long been called a gentleman's pastime. For a literary type like Jegal Hyeok, who's more scholar than martial artist, using Go for a mechanism formation wasn't coincidence."
"Tch. A martial artist wasting time at a desk like some bookworm."
"Qimen Dunjia is the same. He's surely laid it out to suit his own tastes."
Lee Kang's explanation was so logical it slid right into Wang Yi Sam's ears, leaving him no choice but to nod.
The only problem was the occasional foolish interjections.
"Why bother tailoring the sorcery to his tastes? Doesn't that just hand clues to the enemy?"
"Good point."
Unexpected praise from Lee Kang made Wang Yi Sam's chest thump unwittingly.
"The smarter someone is, the more they itch to test their own abilities."
"Like, 'Here's your clue—try solving it'?"
"Precisely. Jegal Hyeok is confident no martial artist can unravel his sorcery."
"Damn, figures."
Wang Yi Sam smacked his lips at that.
It included him among those martial artists.
He could only play five-in-a-row and was blind to Go, so he'd never dreamed the garden mechanism was Go-shaped.
"So, what do you think Jegal Hyeok's tastes run to?"
Wang Yi Sam asked cautiously, wary of another dumb question.
Fortunately, a proper answer came this time.
"The answer lies on Jegal Hyeok's desk."
"His desk?"
"Various items were on it. Go stones among them. One of those holds the key to unraveling the sorcery."
"Ho ho."
Wang Yi Sam thought it sounded plausible.
People keep their tastes close at hand.
He himself always carried a flask of liquor, didn't he?
Yet no matter how he racked his brains, Wang Yi Sam couldn't recall what was on Jegal Hyeok's desk.
No, it was odd to remember a desk glimpsed so briefly.
He tilted his head and asked.
"If I'd stared at the desk on purpose, maybe—but just a passing glance, and remembering every detail? Come on."
"Entirely possible."
Lee Kang answered firmly.
"The boy will remember Jegal Hyeok's desk."
'The answer is on Jegal Hyeok's desk.'
That's what Seo Baek thought.
The current Jegal Clan had its family head in long seclusion and its first young master away at the Murim Alliance.
So the de facto head, second young master Jegal Hyeok, must have reshaped the clan to his liking.
The pond using the Go vital points life-and-death vital six points was proof.
Seo Baek remembered Go stones on Jegal Hyeok's desk when he'd entered his room.
Undoubtedly, the underground held Qimen Dunjia tailored to his tastes as well.
Seo Baek's reasoning hit the mark.
A pattern emerged in the revenants' movements.
That pattern evoked something on Jegal Hyeok's desk.
Jegal Hyeok, who seemed to wish he were a scholar over a martial artist.
On his desk: not swords or hidden weapons, not secret manuals of martial essence.
Paper, brush, inkstone, inkstone.
Worn ink slab. Inkstone carved with a tiger. Brush of imported horsehair. Paper with inscribed words.
Among them, holding the secret of Qimen Dunjia…
'The paper.'
Black ink scrawled hastily across it then.
Those words were the key to passing the revenant horde.
The script was regular script.
Unlike cursive's flowing elegance, regular script's straight lines were forceful and robust.
A glimpse into Jegal Hyeok's temperament.
But unlike infusing his favorite script into Qimen Dunjia, the paper bore words any Central Plains scholar knew.
Starting with Heaven Earth Mysterious Yellow.
The Thousand Character Classic.
Seo Baek had questioned it upon seeing the Thousand Character Classic in Jegal Hyeok's room.
Why would a pretentious scholar painstakingly write mere basics?
Now he understood.
'He wrote the sorcery's clue there.'
Bold enough to show the enemy the hint.
Jegal Hyeok must view Seo Baek's group—no, all martial artists—as beneath him.
Sure enough, the patrolling revenants before him mimicked Jegal Hyeok's script.
Soulless revenants staggered haphazardly.
But these walked straight, then sharply angled turns before resuming.
Precisely tracing the angular regular script of the Thousand Character Classic!
That was the secret of Qimen Dunjia Seo Baek uncovered.
'Time to begin.'
Reading the revenants' paths, Seo Baek slipped from the horde at the perfect moment. He began footwork.
'First, heaven cheon.'
The character heaven had four strokes.
Two horizontal, two diagonal.
Seo Baek moved as if writing heaven on paper with his brush—via footwork.
Swish swish swish.
Four strokes, four steps.
Footworking amid the horde, revenants brushed past his nose. Sometimes nearly nose-to-back.
Yet Seo Baek's body slipped through, a paper's width from disaster.
The horde seemed chaotic but circled empty spaces per Jegal Hyeok's sorcery.
But grasping the principle, following Thousand Character Classic footwork, the horde couldn't touch him!
Seo Baek continued, gliding through the horde.
Heaven Earth Mysterious Yellow, Universe Vast Wasteland, Sun Moon Wax Wane, Stars Arrayed…
How long had he footworked the strokes? Regaining his senses, Seo Baek stood before the passage, horde behind him.
'No big deal.'
Without flanking revenants, he'd have sneered uncharacteristically.
Jegal Hyeok, toying with foes amid battle.
In deadly martial world, such complacency was fatal weakness!
'The Jegal Clan's second young master is but a half-baked scholar.'
Having broken the Qimen Dunjia, Seo Baek turned without regret into the passage.
In Jegal Hyeok's room above the main hall.
Twenty-four warriors knelt on one knee, awaiting orders.
Jegal Hyeok eyed an object on his desk.
"The kid passed the Heaven Earth Mysterious Yellow Formation."
Heaven Earth Mysterious Yellow Formation.
Thousand Character Classic's opening plus tactical 'formation'—Jegal Hyeok's own creation.
"I knew he wouldn't be spotted by revenants. They've pierced treacherous lands to reach Yongzhong."
Jegal Hyeok scowled fiercely.
"Sixteen more laps, and his mind would've shattered into madness. Then he'd spill truths on command. Pity."
The lead warrior among them bowed slightly.
"Impressive."
"Felt he wasn't ordinary. No matter."
His scowl vanished into a grin, revealing his volatile temper.
"Refused the offered cup? Time for punishment brew."
Jegal Hyeok extended hands over the desk.
A small silver basin gleamed, filled with water—a single leaf floating center.
Eerily, not green but blood-red.
He traced bizarre shapes in air with both hands.
The still water swirled suddenly, spinning the red leaf.
"Drive him into the Ninth Sector."
The leader frowned slightly.
"Isn't the Ninth Sector a forbidden zone?"
"It is."
Jegal Hyeok replied flatly.
"But no matter. To show the Murim Alliance, I'll spare no means."
"Even that method?"
"Of course."
Jegal Hyeok smirked, lip curling.
"That green kid will learn he can't raise his head before the Jegal Clan."
Mid-passage, Wang Yi Sam tilted his head.
"I'm blind to it, so I don't get Qimen Dunjia. But how does one cast such sorcery? Curious."
"Didn't you already see?"
"See what?"
"The talismans on the corridor walls."
"Ah……."
"Jegal Hyeok controls revenants with talismans, no doubt."
Wang Yi Sam countered Lee Kang's firm words.
"How do you know so surely?"
"…I have my ways."
How could he not know?
Jegal Hyeok had surely drawn them from the Black Wolf Secret Book.
And the Black Wolf Secret Book was what haunted Lee Kang's nightmares, even in sleep.
Jegal Clan's first young master Jegal Seong, elder-statesman young at the Murim Alliance, was meticulous.
He wouldn't hand the original Black Wolf Secret Book easily to brother Jegal Hyeok…
Blood's thicker than water, though.
Rivals for family head or not, brothers still.
Jegal Seong must've given a copy.
Or perhaps…
'Using busy Alliance duties as excuse, letting his brother unearth the secrets?'
That seemed more likely.
Then Jegal Seong had erred.
Jegal Hyeok was no frail scholar—his heart brimmed with dark ambition to devour the martial world.
That thought sparked something in Lee Kang's mind.
Realizing it, he halted unwittingly.
"Why stop?"
Wang Yi Sam asked curiously.
"…Jegal Hyeok wields sorcery via talismans."
"I know. You just said."
"How would you handle a talisman-pasted revenant?"
"Me? Rip the damn paper off and burn it!"
Wang Yi Sam beamed, proud of his idea.
But Lee Kang shook his head.
"No. There are talismans impossible to remove or burn."
"Hah, where?"
"They exist."
Lee Kang whispered one word to Wang Yi Sam.
The dazed man grasped it moments later, eyes flashing.
"No way, that method…."
Shaking off stupor, Wang Yi Sam clenched his fist.
"Then let's rescue our junior now—no dawdling! Move!"
He bolted like mad.
Lee Kang watched, thinking.
'Skill falls short of first-rate, but a fine comrade.'
Good souls draw good allies. Whatever their meeting, Seo Baek and Wang Yi Sam were perfect for each other.
Lee Kang grew sentimental, past memories surfacing.
His resolve to return from Yunnan exile to Central Plains.
No more turning blind eye to comrades' suffering.
Now, save Seo Baek first.
'Must hurry.'
Lee Kang soared silently like wind.