Amyeong - 2: A Plan Gone Too Smoothly
Jang Cheon had a plan. Pose as an Amyeong operative and monitor the Sima Family's movements. Gather whatever information he could. Confirm the building's layout with his own eyes, then infiltrate again at night to stealthily uncover their means of communication. It didn't matter if he got caught. Stirring up a moderate ruckus would flush out the snakes like beating the grass to startle them. But things had gone too smoothly. Unnaturally so. The Three Elders had led him straight to the inner sanctum as if waiting. Spilled information worth hearing. And laid bare the horrors right before his eyes.
"Ugh..."
Jang Cheon had never considered himself a particularly good person. He'd slashed, killed, and sometimes inflicted pain. Even good people had fallen to his blade. But at the very least...
"If you call yourselves orthodox sects."
"Mmph! Ugh!"
The old man's face turned beet red. His carotid artery compressed, blood surging. Jang Cheon glared at him sharply.
"No, if your skin is even human. If you wear a nightcap to bed! At the very least, if you consider yourselves human!"
His roar echoed through the empty cavern. He'd sealed the space with a barrier technique to prevent sound from leaking out. The child gazed at Jang Cheon, tears streaming down its face, watching the old man who'd jammed a grotesque tube into its belly writhe in agony. Something snapped in Jang Cheon's mind.
"Don't you even know this is inhuman! Speak, damn you!"
"Kuh..."
Sima Hogyung already knew it was over. Martial prowess at the pinnacle of Super First Rate. Fewer than a hundred such experts across all of Sacheon. Utterly useless now. Had he ever felt this powerless before? Ah, yes. When he first faced the Lord of Amyeong. Everyone in the Sima Family had their spirits broken upon beholding that man.
"What makes humans so special? Being human changes nothing. It's all futile. Everything... human or Transformation Realm alike! Even your vaunted martial arts are mere insect wriggles! Given your skill level, they'll soon reveal the truth to you too. Kuh, heh heh heh!"
『Ahaha.』
Suddenly, a voice whispered in his ear. From the Divine Artifact. Ah, was the Outer God granting him power? This endlessly soft, comforting voice.
Sima Hogyung's expression went slack as he watched Jang Cheon approach. With a face like a ferocious demon god, he pressed the three vital meridians.
Ah. Severing muscles from bone. The most obvious and vicious torture method in the jianghu. Something straight out of dusty old manuals. But in this state, it wouldn't hurt that ba—
"Aaaagh! Uwaaagh!"
In an instant, it shattered. The hypnosis broke. It hurt far more than he'd braced for. The exploding meridians weren't the issue. Something was devouring Sima Hogyung's brain. The agony of worms crawling inside his skull!
『This filthy, loathsome worm. How dare you wag that pig tongue in whose presence?』
Tears streamed from Sima Hogyung's eyes. He prayed inwardly. He'd done wrong, whoever it was—he'd never do it again. He'd cut out his own tongue as offering. He thrashed until his entire body's meridians shattered and he breathed his last.
"Hoo..."
Now only Jang Cheon remained in the secret chamber. He glared at Sima Hogyung, dead with blood oozing from his seven orifices, then steadied his mind briefly. He approached the altar.
The child still writhed in pain, but a faint smile lingered on its lips.
"Forgive me. Rest now."
He couldn't save it. By striking its death acupoint, the child passed peacefully.
"......"
Silence. In the chamber of atrocities, following the tube connected to the dead child's dantian revealed an unidentified orb. Embedded in the altar's center, greedily devouring innate true energy, it was remarkably clear and transparent. Only faint, milky smoke occasionally swirled at its core.
When Jang Cheon grasped it, the orb bared its teeth like a living thing. But it couldn't pierce his protective aura.
Crunch! Grind!
Jang Cheon watched impassively as the vibrating orb tried to burrow into his flesh.
"Strange thing."
Never seen it before. Never even heard of it. His body had traversed even Geumroe-ok three hundred years ago. He knew the jianghu's bizarre secrets. If such an item existed, he wouldn't be ignorant.
And that was just the start. The pristine white jade called Empty Sky Divine Jade. The bizarre flame bird unleashing the monstrous Blazing Yang Extreme Art.
"What in the world happened?"
For the first time, doubt crept in. Until now, he'd dismissed it. The jianghu was the jianghu. Same as he remembered, just different people and factions. Conspiracies, schemes, greed, and hatred clashing and coalescing. Chains of silver and gold binding the vast world—that was the jianghu.
But now, an odd feeling stirred. As if he'd awakened not in the jianghu, but somewhere else entirely. What on earth had transpired in the three hundred years he was trapped in that chamber?
"Who would do such a thing..."
Jang Cheon muttered as he subdued the Void Soul Orb and tucked it away. He gathered important-looking books, then smashed the altar with Black Yao. Ensuring no one would dare attempt this again.
Familiar memories surfaced in his mind. Horrific past recollections. The day his family was slaughtered.
Those repulsive scum who offered condolences upfront while stifling laughter behind...
"In three hundred years, have they made revulsion a tradition?"
Familiar memories birthed familiar emotions. Rage.
Should he end the Sima Family? Wipe them all out? Exterminating a clan was no challenge. Just dip his feet in the cycle of enmity once more. Kill the Sima, and their backers would come; kill those, and the next would follow. He could endure it all. Wasn't immortality precisely that?
But then.
"Must you really go?"
The face of someone cooking at home flashed in his mind.
"......Right. No matter what schemes you hatch, don't touch my people. Then our paths won't cross again."
He understood what Amyeong was up to. Removing the mark on Cheon Sohyang's nape would suffice. Until he took that child's life, he'd live without even needing Heuk-yo.
But then.
Crackle! Boom—!
"Who's there?"
Jang Cheon hurled Black Yao into a corner of the chamber. He'd sensed a faint, ethereal presence there moments ago. But nothing.
"Odd."
Did the Void Soul Orb disrupt his senses too? Concluding thus, Jang Cheon vanished from the chamber.
Long after, a regretful sigh echoed from the darkness.
『......』
*
Seongdo's streets bustled despite the ominous air. Inns overflowed with merchants and escorts returning from trade caravans, many having made a tidy profit. In a noisy corner of the inn, amid shouts and drunken rants, sat a man in a conical hat. He looked fairly young. Scruffy beard, kind features, a bottle of baijiu before him.
The man muttered.
"The Void Soul Orb is missing, you say? No, speak slowly. Nothing changes by babbling in panic."
Talking to himself? Yet it clearly seemed like a conversation. Strange, as no one around paid him any mind.
He took a sip of baijiu and burst into laughter.
"Hahaha, the Sima Family's embarrassed themselves again. At this rate, they'll really become a backwater clan. That's what makes the jianghu fun... I get it, calm down, Sangcheon. I know how serious this is."
One sip per exchange.
"Fine. I'll check tonight. How much easier if you'd gotten to the point from the start?"
Then his face soured, as if his interlocutor had yelled.
"The Wheel Mirror's power is waning. The connection's fading."
Discreetly, he wiggled his fingers under the table. An invisible ripple swept the inn briefly.
Finally, the man stretched grandly and bellowed.
"Waiter! Another bottle of baijiu here!"
"Coming right up!"
He downed the fresh bottle in one go. Now it finally felt like drinking.
This untimely winter caravan. Passing nearby had been his misfortune. The usual external leader had gone to the Ten Thousand Great Mountains for Empty Sky Divine Jade cleanup. He'd hoped to sightsee, but trouble struck like a ghost.
Thinking back, this wasn't the first or second incident lately. Glitches in Amyeong's plans. Harder to control the Divine Artifacts. Many suspects, but Sangcheon narrowed it down.
"Heuk-yo has awakened, you say?"
The original Divine Artifact, now known as lost, sealed in Shaolin—its influence reported across the jianghu.
"Not my concern. Good luck!"
Slipping payment in the chaos, Sangcheon quietly left the inn. Heading toward the Sima Family.