Winds Over the Canal (2)
The sailors patrolled the corridors every night, torches in hand, standing vigilant watch without rest.
But Dohwa Gwang's hunch proved right—their security was lax.
The barge was vast, spanning multiple decks from top to bottom. With only about a hundred sailors aboard, they couldn't guard every section rigorously.
Confirming the corridor was empty, Dohwa Gwang slipped out silently.
A few days before boarding the barge, he'd gotten into a scuffle with a murim warrior purely by chance.
When Dohwa Gwang easily subdued him, the man begged for his life in exchange for information.
He'd been one of the assassins at the Black Spot Inn when word of Seo Baek spread.
The assassin spilled everything. There was a huge bounty on the head of anyone heading to Shaolin Temple.
But the bounty came with two conditions.
Do not kill the Shaolin-bound target under any circumstances—capture them alive.
And when passing Sukju, disembark from the barge and drag them to Yongjeong Inn.
The assassins had even made a pact at the Black Spot.
Until the barge reached Sukju, no needless fights that could get anyone killed.
Only a few assassins knew about handing the kid over at Yongjeong Inn. Yet remarkably, every one of them had chosen Sukju as their starting point.
Sukju, the city east of Anhui Province.
If they didn't get off there, the barge would enter revenant-infested territory, and the chance to disembark would vanish forever. So in a way, it wasn't coincidence at all.
Dohwa Gwang had listened to the intel, then severed both hands and both feet before letting the assassin go.
He'd spared the man's life, so he'd kept his word, hadn't he?
Now, recalling the assassins' pact, Dohwa Gwang sneered inwardly.
'No fighting until Sukju? What a joke—even a stray dog would laugh.'
He had reason to scoff. The barge still had days to reach Sukju, yet already two bodies had turned up.
'Those underworld scum really know how to honor a pact, haha!'
And even without the pact, they were destined to clash eventually.
There was only one kid to go around—how would dozens split the bounty? They'd fight it out, and the last one standing would claim it all!
While the assassins dithered over their absurd pact, Dohwa Gwang launched his own plan.
It was simple.
Kill everyone who knew the information!
If he wasn't sure who knew, he could just slaughter everyone on the barge.
Then the Shaolin-bound kid would naturally be his.
A barge where no one paid attention to shut-in passengers.
Perfect conditions for quietly picking them off one by one!
Gliding soundlessly down the corridor, Dohwa Gwang paused at a door and rapped softly.
Tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap.
The signal the assassins at Black Spot Inn had agreed on for secret meetings—knock like that if they needed to talk.
A low voice came from inside moments later.
"Who's there?"
"It's me."
Dohwa Gwang roughly disguised his voice.
'Underworld scum. Gotta be some who've teamed up among themselves.'
His guess was spot on. Thinking it was a comrade, the assassin inside opened the door without suspicion.
"What? It's past curfew—if we get caught..."
Mid-sentence, he realized the figure in the corridor wasn't a fellow assassin and froze in shock.
"You... you're Dohwa Gwang..."
"Oh ho, you know me? Well, I am somewhat famous."
"What business do you have with me?"
"You pretending not to know? When an assassin comes calling..."
Dohwa Gwang thrust the dagger from his sleeve straight into the man's chest. So sharp was the blade that it sliced through flesh with barely a whisper. Schick.
"...it's for this."
"Gurk..."
Dohwa Gwang grabbed the assassin's collar to keep him from collapsing, dragged him swiftly inside, and shut the door.
Laying the man on the bunk as he fell, he slowly withdrew the dagger.
Paper-thin and razor-edged, it left no gaping wound, so there was no gush of blood.
His prized weapon, coerced from a master craftsman.
And he'd adroitly missed the heart, ensuring the assassin wouldn't die immediately. Dohwa Gwang's intent was to let him linger as long as possible.
He pulled a pale pink pill from his bosom.
"Come on, open wide. Good boy?"
Prying the assassin's clenched teeth apart with the dagger, he shoved the pill down his throat.
Like the dagger, he'd designed and commissioned the pill himself. Whoever swallowed it fell into a deep coma for days before quietly expiring.
Now the assassin would die in three days, with no rotting stench to give him away. No one would know he was dead.
"Assassins who live by killing, and you lot can't even hide a corpse's stink? Some professionals you are."
Dohwa Gwang opened the wardrobe in the room and stuffed the body inside.
Bending the head down and folding the limbs, it just barely fit.
Once rigor mortis set in after death, it'd fit perfectly jammed in there. Unless someone opened the wardrobe, the body wouldn't be found.
A perfect crime!
Dusting off his hands, Dohwa Gwang muttered.
"What a letdown—too easy."
He ransacked the room, pocketing silver and anything useful the assassin had left. Then he waited in the corridor for footsteps to fade before preparing his next hunt.
As night deepened, Seo Baek and his group emerged into the corridor.
Wang Yi Sam looked like his guts had shrunk to pea-size, terrified of getting caught.
His worries were unfounded.
He'd expected tight patrols, but only one or two sailors passed occasionally—the watch was downright sloppy.
Dodging their eyes was a breeze.
When torchlight approached in the dim corridor, they just ducked into a corner. The sailors' torches actually signaled their positions, practically inviting them to hide.
Wang Yi Sam was so dumbfounded he let out a sigh.
"Are they guarding or just taking a stroll?"
With security this abysmal, bodies turning up on the barge was no surprise. If anything, only two so far was the real wonder.
"The barge is huge, but the sailors are few. It's inevitable. They can't pull all-nighters every day without shifts."
Seo Baek had a point.
Realizing they were safe from detection, Wang Yi Sam started grumbling as usual.
"Tch, that threat about expulsion if we left our rooms? Total bluff."
Then a sudden curiosity struck him.
"So, who's the revenant? You said you had a suspect."
Seo Baek and Song Hyeon answered in unison.
"Seoseung."
"It's Seoseung."
Wang Yi Sam's jaw dropped.
"Seoseung? The one who killed a revenant is the revenant?"
"If the sailors had just dumped the body overboard, Seoseung wouldn't have stepped in. But when I set it ablaze to confirm it was a revenant, he slit its throat himself."
"Why?"
"A revenant that came back from the dead recognizing him would be trouble. One slip, and his identity gets exposed—he'd turn every murim fighter on the barge against him."
"So he silenced his own creation?"
"Exactly."
"Then how do we find Seoseung?"
Song Hyeon fielded this one.
"I know his room."
"How?"
"I've memorized the rooms of everyone aboard for the past week."
"...!"
"Not everyone—some never left their rooms—but most."
Wang Yi Sam was beyond tongue-tied; he was floored.
"You memorize every room too, junior?"
"I figured Senior Song was scouting rooms while wandering the barge by day, so I left that to him. I investigated something else."
Wang Yi Sam was speechless, thinking:
'Insane! These two are completely mad!'
"This way."
Song Hyeon took the lead toward Seoseung's room.
Seo Baek's group moved stealthily, evading the sailors.
But instead of turning down corridors, Song Hyeon descended the stairs.
He kept going until they reached the barge's lowest level: the cargo hold.
Too awkward to ask Song Hyeon directly, Wang Yi Sam whispered to Seo Baek.
"This is the cargo hold, right?"
"Yes."
"You saying Seoseung is down here?"
"Probably above the hold."
"Above?"
"Yeah. Looks like he's planning to punch through the floor to the room above."
Only then did Wang Yi Sam grasp Song Hyeon's scheme for coming to the hold.
But how would they break through?
Barges plying the Yangtze and canals carried heavy loads of people and cargo. The floors had to be thick to bear the weight.
"Punch through the floor? That's tough."
Unless they had Shanxi Thunderbolt Gang explosives.
"Stand back."
Shing. Song Hyeon drew his sword and spoke.
His blade was rusted black and worn beyond repair, like it was corroded through.
Wang Yi Sam recalled how Song Hyeon had beheaded the lead warrior of the formation at Jegal Manor with one stroke.
'A swordmaster like him—with a sword that pathetic?'
Suddenly, Song Hyeon's sword gleamed with a faint blue sheen.
'Sword qi?'
The technique of channeling inner energy along the blade.
Even peak experts of orthodox sects rarely wielded it. Yet Song Hyeon deployed it as casually as drawing an item from his pocket.
Wang Yi Sam wondered anew just who Song Hyeon was.
Song Hyeon raised his sword and thrust at the ceiling overhead.
Slice. The qi-clad blade pierced like a knife through tofu.
Slowly, he maneuvered it, carving a square panel in the ceiling.
With a final twist and pull, the section detached, drifting down slowly before dropping free.
The chunk was brick-thick and heavy, but Song Hyeon caught it effortlessly and set it aside.
A hole now gaped above, just wide enough for one person.
Song Hyeon took out flint and steel, along with a scrap of cloth, struck a spark, and lit it.
"Lighting a fire? What if the guy upstairs spots it?"
"While he's distracted by the flame, we slip in and take him down."
Whoosh. Song Hyeon tossed the burning cloth through the hole and leaped after it.
The square was a tight fit for an adult, but his body sucked through like it was pulled by vacuum, vanishing inside.
Seo Baek followed suit, vaulting up.
Wang Yi Sam jumped but missed the lip on the first try, grabbing it awkwardly. His belly caught, forcing him to wriggle desperately before hauling himself through.
Song Hyeon and Seo Baek stood arms crossed, waiting. They'd already lit a candle, illuminating the dim room.
Wang Yi Sam glanced around and said,
"No one's here?"
"Looks like he's out hunting, same as us."
Seo Baek's group had come to hunt the revenant.
But the revenant had left his room to hunt fresh prey to turn?
Realizing this, Wang Yi Sam tensed.
"If revenant infections spread, the barge will erupt in chaos."
"Seoseung's behavior was suspicious, but we have no hard proof he's a revenant yet. Let's search the room for evidence."
At Seo Baek's words, the group began ransacking the place.