The Fist Saint Comes at Night
Hwangbo Baek had reached the limits of his patience.
At first, he had no intention of going to Deungmyeong Manor in person. Lately, though, everything had begun to tangle into an ugly knot, and he meant to cut through it all at once.
The Third Young Master has gone missing. We recovered the bodies of the Yeongho Unit, but we found no trace of him.
Unsatisfactory as the boy had been, he was still his son. And before he could even track his child down, another disaster struck.
The head of the Shandong Trading Company has been taken captive at Deungmyeong Manor.
In all the years of his rule as clan head, nothing like this had ever happened.
Everything began at Deungmyeong Manor.
So he had come himself—to set everything right by his own hand. And yet the response from that seventeen-year-old manor lord was so absurd he scarcely knew what to make of it.
Doesn't the brat look like he's itching for a fight?
Hwangbo Baek was thoroughly displeased.
Does even a blood-soaked infant like this dare to look down on me?
People called him the Fist Saint.
For a martial artist who walked the path of the fist, it was a title of supreme honor. And yet the joke of it never left him alone.
The First Fist of the Jianghu.
If anyone were asked to name the greatest fist master in the martial world, not a soul would speak the name Hwangbo Baek.
And the Three Fists of Murim?
Regrettably, few people put him on that list either. If you named five, he might scrape onto the very bottom of the ranking—and that was all.
Most of the glory in the title Fist Saint belonged to his father, who had been the Fist Sovereign.
Perhaps that was why.
Hwangbo Baek hated, with a special venom, any gaze that dismissed him. What he loved was the opposite: crushing an opponent beneath the weight of his presence.
So from the day he became clan head he had walked a brutal path, and he had risen, without question, to the seat of absolute power over Shandong Province. Even that, though, had never quite satisfied him.
And now a seventeen-year-old scrap of a boy—calling himself a manor lord—was smiling at him as if at a joke.
It was the face of a cub baring its white throat and prancing before a starving tiger. There was no reason left to endure it.
"I will give you one last chance. Hand over my brother, and I will withdraw the Shandong Trading Company's branches and the escort agency's offices from Gyounam. Do you accept?"
"So the trading company and the escort agency pull out—and the next day the Hwangbo Clan rides out to crush our manor. Is that the idea?"
"I have no such intention. Though it seems the manor lord rather wants that outcome."
"I don't enjoy being attacked. I prefer the opposite."
"I like the nerve. You've simply chosen the wrong opponent."
Hwangbo Baek's eyes lit with a predator's gleam as he asked again.
"Decide. Do you accept?"
Just as Ja Gangcheon was about to open his mouth—
"My lord. Under the terms as they stand, the Hwangbo Clan has already conceded a great deal. Please—think of my face in this."
Yeonhui knew this was the last chance.
Madmen. They're actually going to fight it out right here.
Was this what it looked like when a tiger and a lion met at the edge of a forest?
But where the man was already acknowledged as a tiger, Ja Gangcheon was still only a cub of a lion—and his conduct was far too reckless.
"My lord. You chose me as mediator yourself. Trust me."
If only to keep Ja Gangcheon alive, Yeonhui had to force her position through.
Hwangbo Baek has bared his fangs. This is no longer a situation I can control.
Haomun was a group skilled at indirect pressure. They were not the kind of people who were strong the moment blades came out. When a man like Hwangbo Baek decided he would simply endure whatever nuisance followed—exactly as he was doing now—there was no stopping him.
And the Hwangbo Clan had no shortage of things to put on the table in any negotiation with Haomun.
Absorbing Deungmyeong Manor and dividing the profits would work just fine.
Wipe Deungmyeong Manor off the map, and Gyounam would be left without a master. If the Hwangbo Clan, as the new masters, shared out everything the manor held and loosened the restrictions on the black market—what then?
The Shandong provincial branch of Haomun would accept without a second thought.
That is what power is.
Those who already held it were always offered the selfish choices.
"My lord. I'm asking you."
Having finished her calculations, Yeonhui spoke with genuine feeling. Even that, to Ja Gangcheon, came as a mild surprise.
"I didn't think you'd go this far for me, Noona."
"I simply judged that this was the right call."
In the end, Ja Gangcheon nodded.
"I'll accept."
Yeonhui let out a long breath.
"Then I, Yeonhui, Branch Leader of Haomun's Cheono Division, hereby guarantee as mediator the terms agreed upon by both parties."
Even as Yeonhui hurried the agreement to a close, Hwangbo Baek and Ja Gangcheon never stopped watching each other. Breaking that taut, stretched silence was her job as well.
"I believe the head of the Shandong Trading Company will be waiting."
At the name of his own brother, Hwangbo Baek rose from his seat. He looked down at Ja Gangcheon as if pinning him in place, then turned his body in a single motion.
That was when it came.
"I have one question of my own."
Still seated, Ja Gangcheon spoke.
"Do you know of Jangpung Express?"
Every member of the Hwangbo Clan stared at Ja Gangcheon as if they had seen a ghost.
"I've taken an interest in the Ak Family Spear Art, you see."
Ja Gangcheon smiled.
"We're leaving."
Hwangbo Baek forced himself to ignore Ja Gangcheon and led his party out in a carefully even voice.
A short while later, Hwangbo Jeong, head of the Shandong Trading Company, stood before Hwangbo Baek looking haggard and worn.
"Elder Brother. I have no face to show you."
"You're not badly hurt?"
"No. Nothing that will last."
Among the brothers, these two had always been the closest. That was because Hwangbo Jeong had quickly abandoned any claim to the clan headship and taken Hwangbo Baek's side.
"We'll talk once we're outside."
By temperament, Hwangbo Baek would have erupted at the sight of his brother standing there with dried blood still crusted on him. Instead he looked, expressionless, at Ja Gangcheon, who was seeing them off.
"We will meet again."
"I'll be waiting for that day."
Receiving Ja Gangcheon's farewell, Hwangbo Baek and his party departed.
"Huuu."
The moment the great gate closed behind them, Yeonhui was the first to let out her breath.
"My lord, what you did today was far too dangerous."
"Were you worried about me?"
"I don't know how close you and I really are—but I'm not so cold-blooded that I'd just stand by and watch you throw your life away."
"I'll admit it, then. We've gotten a little closer."
"That is not what I wanted to hear. Hwangbo Baek is a truly dangerous man."
"I know. That's why now is the chance."
"What do you mean?"
"Hwangbo Baek has no idea what I'm capable of."
"What on earth…"
Ja Gangcheon cut through her worry.
"It's too late to stop. They're going to attack us first."
Yeonhui recalled the word that had made no sense at the time.
"Jangpung Express."
Ja Gangcheon nodded and spoke to her.
"That's as much answer as you get for the sincerity you showed me. Go back to Haomun and do what you need to do. But no personal scouting. I don't particularly want to kill Haomun people either."
Yeonhui knew she could not persuade him.
"Is there nothing I can do to help?"
"There will be plenty ahead, won't there? But for today, you've done enough."
Ja Gangcheon delivered a politely phrased dismissal.
"I hope we meet again safely."
"We will."
Leaving the smiling Ja Gangcheon behind her, Yeonhui left the manor.
On the official road not far from Deungmyeong Manor, Hwangbo Baek stopped walking, and the men waiting in the forest came to his side.
It was the captain of the Fierce Tiger Unit—the clan head's personal guard. Even while the party had been inside the manor, he had held position beyond the walls. When the Fierce Tiger Unit captain, who always followed like a shadow, drew near, Hwangbo Baek halted.
"When you were pursuing Ak Pungjin, an uninvited guest interfered and you lost him. Was that the report?"
"It was."
The Fierce Tiger Unit captain remembered most of the reports that reached Hwangbo Baek. That, too, was part of his duty.
"If you compare the description from that day with the lord of Deungmyeong Manor—what do you get?"
The captain thought for a moment, then answered.
"They are similar."
Those who had lost Ak Pungjin that day had never clearly seen Ja Gangcheon's face. They had remembered build and frame well enough, but that alone could not identify a man. Set against Ja Gangcheon, though, the resemblance was hard to dismiss.
"If that boy has already met Ak Pungjin, we must assume the worst. If the information they hold reaches Haomun, they will try to shake the Hwangbo Clan to its roots."
The Jangpung Express affair had been full of overreach from start to finish. Compared to that, the troubles in Gyounam were nothing. If the Hwangbo Clan's dirty secrets—held by Jangpung Express—were laid bare before the world, the entire Central Plains would condemn them. And since Hwangbo Baek himself had directed that business, it could mean handing Haomun a leash around their throats.
"We settle it tonight, then we leave."
"Even if we succeed, Haomun will not sit still."
At the words of the Young Clan Head, Hwangbo Taesan, one corner of Hwangbo Baek's mouth lifted.
"We hand them the rights to Gyounam. Tell them they may run the black market however they please, and they will stop making trouble."
"Judging by the Branch Leader's behavior just now…"
"Negotiations go better the higher the person you deal with. There is no need to bother with someone at a mere branch leader's level."
"Ah…"
"We only need to deal with that arrogant cub. Tonight we bury everything. The lord of Deungmyeong Manor will not live to see tomorrow's dawn."
They all agreed in silence. Then—
"Elder Brother. I will go with you."
"This is not work that requires you."
"There is a man I must kill with my own hands."
Hwangbo Jeong spoke with the eyes of a demon.
"Best to settle every grudge before we leave."
The method of that settling was Hwangbo Baek's to decide.
The sunset passed, and night came on.
Because the manor sat apart from the village, by this hour the grounds of Deungmyeong Manor grew so still you could hear the wind combing through the grass. Even the noisy bustle of the evening meal, once finished, left the whole estate sunk in silence as if swallowed by the dark.
The ones who broke that silence walked in through the main gate as if they owned it.
Ten in all.
At the front strode Hwangbo Baek. Behind him came the Fierce Tiger Unit captain and four of his men. After them stood the elders of the clan's highest martial circle—Hwangbo Cheonju and Hwangbo Homyeong—along with Young Clan Head Hwangbo Taesan and Hwangbo Jeong, head of the Shandong Trading Company.
Aside from the deputy steward who had come along for practical affairs, every one of them had crossed the manor's threshold.
They made no effort to hide their killing intent as they took the front courtyard with open, confident strides—and a voice rose to meet them.
"A night raid. How perfectly suited to the Hwangbo Clan."
Standing there with an easy smile was Ja Gangcheon.
"Speaking from experience—raids work better in the morning."
"Tigers are nocturnal by nature."
"From what I've heard of your career, you're closer to a crow."
"What did you say?"
"You've lived by picking at corpses, haven't you?"
A vein stood out on Hwangbo Baek's forehead.
"You will not die cleanly."
"You sound frightened. You talk too much."
"Silence! Because of that tongue of yours, every last innocent soul under this roof will die tonight."
At that, Ja Gangcheon let out an open, mocking laugh.
"Just as I heard—you're a coward. Every person who died because of you was killed by you. Don't blame anyone else."
Ja Gangcheon locked eyes with Hwangbo Baek.
"I'll stop you. Die, and repent."
"You bastard!"
Hwangbo Baek could hold himself no longer and lunged forward. He had returned to this manor for this very moment.
"Leave not a single one alive—kill them all!"
Having issued that merciless order, he stamped out the Hwangbo Clan's signature heavy footwork and drove a fist forward.
The pride of the Hwangbo Clan — a fist that falls like a boulder from the sky.
A force like a crashing rock came down upon Ja Gangcheon.
In that instant, instead of dodging, Ja Gangcheon brought forward the hand he had been holding behind his back.
He dares?
The Thunderclap Divine Fist was famous as a fist art whose destructive power, once internal energy was unleashed, stood at the absolute peak. Ending it in a single blow was almost a pity—but there was no reason to refuse.
In the end, both fists, every scrap of force behind them, met in midair.
CRAAASH!
The collision of internal energy burst the air itself outward; a deafening roar hammered the ears. And yet something was wrong.
The energy he had driven out did not smother his opponent. Like a stream of water striking a rock, it split and scattered in every direction.
Why?
In that same moment, Hwangbo Baek felt a sharp, pricking pain in the fist he had thrown. An ominous chill ran through him; he snatched his hand back—and found dozens of tiny red dots stamped across it.
He had been pierced by fine needles.
Needles punched through a fist that was releasing internal energy?
The Thunderclap Divine Fist, loaded with internal force, was no different from wrapping the body in protective energy. For needles to punch through that wall—
Impossible.
Even as the thought formed, a single possible condition rose in his mind.
"The Bihwang-gwon-gap…"
The sacred relic passed down only to the heads of the Hwangbo Clan. As a child he had used it once under his father's hand, but when he became clan head himself, it had never been bequeathed to him.
And now, right before his eyes, the Bihwang-gwon-gap was there.
"You're going to die soon enough. No time to be shocked."
Before Ja Gangcheon's words had even finished, a vicious, searing agony crashed over him.