Three Days
I blinked.
“Is that arrogant remark something you dare say while gathering every senior officer of Unwol Jiju’s Yukrim First Branch?”
The man seated in the place of honor muttered it with a short, hollow laugh, sneering.
There was no answer.
No further clumsy provocations either.
Four gazes tangled together in the empty air.
—Huff… huff….
One breath passed.
Two breaths passed.
Not even the sound of a swallow could be heard.
Only the steady rhythm of their breathing filled the narrow secret chamber.
[There are no hidden ones.]
Mumyeong whispered.
[The one in front radiating the strongest qi must be Ha Hu-gang.]
—Huff….
A third breath passed.
I felt my breath fog against the dark-crimson mask covering my mouth as my eyes rolled left and right.
I saw the hands of the three men seated to either side slowly sliding beneath the drinking table.
“….”
The three were prioritizing the protection of the man in the seat of honor.
The one sitting directly across from me—sagging jowls, a protruding belly—was without doubt Ha Hu-gang, one of the Cheongma Oryun and the branch lord of Yukrim First Branch.
Beneath the table, a sheathed sword leaned against a chair.
[Seven steps to Ha Hu-gang. Three and a half to either side. Twice to the right, three to the left.]
My gaze swept left and right in a flash.
[Weapons confirmed: one staff, two sabers, one sword.]
I felt their four pairs of eyes rake me from head to toe.
It was the sensation of a zither string drawn to its absolute limit.
The largest of the black-path men, seated on the right and boasting the most massive bulk, blinked.
His hand was stealthily reaching toward the staff leaning against the wall.
“….”
The enormous staff of forged steel had three joints.
The hands of the other black-path men on the right continued stretching toward the swords resting on the table.
—Blink.
A bead of cold sweat slid between the blinking eyes of the black-path man.
—Ssscrape.
I dragged my toes. My left leg stepped forward.
An empty chair stood in front of me.
—Krrrk.
The Chiljong-heukjusa-gap on my left hand gave a faint metallic rasp, and at the same instant—
—Crash!
All four of them kicked the table away and snatched up their weapons as they lunged.
—BOOM!!!
I kicked the chair.
It split in half; wooden shards slammed into the table and sprayed in every direction.
—Clatter-crash!
Scattered food and shattered plate fragments filled the air.
Ha Hu-gang roared.
“Changhyeon, Ubaek—right side! Gang-il to the left! Take that bastard’s head!!”
Four men charged from every direction, weapons leveled.
—Gulp.
I clenched my teeth and stepped into the footwork of Baekryeon-pal-ya-jong.
My body swayed like a shadow.
Dozens of murderous strikes tore through the space where I had been and scattered into nothing.
—Crash! Clang!
I vaulted onto the table and drove my heel up into the jaw of the black-path man farthest to the right.
—Crunch!
Jaw and neck snapped backward; he died instantly. I snatched a broken chair leg spinning through the air.
I seized the dead man’s collar and hurled the corpse at the black-path man gripping a sword.
“Wha—!”
His blade hesitated before the body flying at him.
—Thud.
The chair leg already in my hand punched straight through his heart.
—Whoosh.
The instant I ripped the sword from the trembling black-path man’s fingers, I flung it backward with every ounce of strength.
—BOOM!
“Gah!”
The massive black-path man who caught it was blasted away.
I charged in. I snatched a porcelain bowl from the table.
I smashed it down on a skull with all my might.
—Crack!
Blood erupted like a fountain.
Porcelain shards exploded as my knee, carrying my full weight, drove into the fleshy face of the black-path man.
“Y-you butcher bastard!”
Ha Hu-gang was not content to watch.
Blue qi condensed in his hand; dozens of frost-edged sword auras shot forth.
Jaryong Gangcheon
I yanked my knee free from the unconscious black-path man’s skull and flipped backward through the air.
Blue sword auras raked the spot where I had just stood.
“You can’t dodge this!”
At Ha Hu-gang’s gesture the rain of blades writhed like a living dragon and pursued me.
—Clank.
I shoved off the floor with the Chiljong-heukjusa-gap on my left hand and flipped again, widening the distance.
“…!”
I kicked the staff rolling on the floor into the air.
The moment I snatched it up, scarlet light blazed from both my eyes and I swung the staff with a thunderous roar.
Palbang Pungta Bongbeop
Fierce storms from eight directions coiled around me.
—WHOOOOM!!
With a roar that tore the air itself I smashed aside every sword aura howling in from all sides.
Ha Hu-gang’s eyes bulged in shock.
“That staff art belongs to our Unwol Jiju!”
His startled cry was cut short by a staff blow that looked ready to crush his skull.
“Urgh!”
—Clang! Screeech!
Dozens of successive strikes rebounded amid terrifying sparks.
“K-kagh! What kind of human strength—!”
Ha Hu-gang’s thick, fat-padded palms split open from the impact.
I pressed without pause.
—Clank.
I gripped the middle of the staff and spun it; the chain-linked weapon separated into a three-section staff.
Ilwi Dota Samjeolbong
The three-section staff lashed without rest, striking like a serpent.
“No—this is insane! What the hell is this now?!”
Ha Hu-gang screamed as he deflected the overwhelming assault that blanketed every direction.
“You were using staff arts a second ago and now it’s a completely different martial art…!”
—Clank!
What filled his vision was the three-section staff I had just thrown.
“Throwing your weapon?”
To a martial artist a weapon was more precious than life itself.
“Just who the hell is this bastard….”
From righteous sects to demonic cults to black-path men, the very first lesson any martial artist learned was never to let a cherished weapon leave one’s hand.
Unless the weapon was a throwing type to begin with, the idea of hurling it was unimaginable even to a black-path man like him.
The unfamiliar situation slowed his reaction.
Unnecessary flourishes he would never normally make tangled into his movements.
The price was the three-section staff wrapping around his sword.
He could only stare blankly as I closed in, scarlet light streaming from my eyes all the way to his waist.
—Krrrk!
The Chiljong-heukjusa-gap clenched with a steel cry.
Basic Twelve Forms
Jincheon Samma Gwon
It was a span of one-millionth of a second.
Ha Hu-gang let out a short gasp.
“Fuck, now it’s Shaolin?”
—CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!!
Ha Hu-gang’s entire body burst open.
My two fists hammered his whole frame so fast they could not be seen.
The sword he raised in defense snapped.
Every bone in his body broke; his entire frame was pulverized. Death took less than a single breath.
—….
In the secret chamber after the storm had passed, only the shattered drinking table and the twitching corpses remained.
“H-Ha Hu-gang hyung-nim….”
The last surviving black-path man—the one with the massive frame who had only just regained consciousness—muttered in disbelief.
“Hyung-nim was at least a fully mature peak expert… how could he go down like a damn fly… ghk!”
His collar was already in my fist; I lifted him into the air.
I dragged him out.
“S-someone help me!”
He thrashed his huge body with a desperate scream, but my hand did not budge.
—BOOM!
My kick caved the iron door inward and sent it flying.
The rebounding door tumbled down the corridor, smashed through a railing, and plummeted below.
I looked over the railing.
—Splash, splash.
Pebbles dislodged by my feet fell into the fountain constructed below.
Beside it a spiral staircase wound down to the underground levels.
“L-let me go! Please! I don’t want to die!”
“You don’t want to die?”
I glanced around and growled roughly.
“Finally found something we have in common. Same here. Every single day I’ve been alive.”
“You son of a bitch!”
The black-path man howled as he was dragged.
“As expected of a lowly assassin—every last one of your actions is closer to a butcher than a martial artist! Have some shame… eh?”
—Riiip.
I yanked down a red canopy hanging from the ceiling.
I wrapped it around the big man’s ankle.
“W-what are you—!”
—BOOM!
I kicked him square in the ass.
“Gyaaah! Ghk! Kgh!”
His falling body jerked short as the red cloth around his ankle caught him; he dangled upside down.
“Gaaah! Uuup! Uuuuup!”
His feet flailed madly.
Hanging inverted, his nostrils dipped into the shallow water pooled at the bottom of the fountain; he was drowning in real time.
He thrashed wildly, but with that massive frame there was nothing he could do.
“Glurk… glurrrk….”
When the thrashing of his legs began to slow, my brutal grip hauled on the red cloth.
His body was yanked up out of the water.
“Pwah!”
“See that? From now on, every single piece of bullshit you spout lengthens the time you spend drinking water. Answer every question I ask, one by one.”
“W-wait! Don’t do this—!”
I let go.
“Waaaaagh!!”
—Splash!
After he flailed for a long while I hauled him up again.
“Not enough water flavor?”
“Y-you… fuck… demon bastard….”
I let go.
“You crazy son of a biiitch!!!”
I made him drink water dozens of times.
I seized his dripping, disheveled hair.
I shoved my blazing eyes into his face and roared.
“Right now, inside Unwol Jiju, give me the exact locations and details of every establishment running human trafficking. Spill everything.”
The black-path man, hair gripped in my fist, was already half a corpse, breathing in thin gasps.
“Y-you….”
He muttered in a voice like wet cabbage.
“And what if you know? You think… a single bastard like you can reform an organization like our Unwol Jiju?”
“….”
“Heh… heheh. You’re under a misconception. A greenhorn like you who still doesn’t know the world has gotten all worked up over some cheap sense of chivalry because a few kids are being used as slaves.”
The black-path man coughed up water and bloody foam as he muttered.
“It’s three days anyway. You bastard. You know that? You’re already too late.”
“What?”
My brow twitched.
The black-path man laughed as if he had already given up on living.
“How a monster outside the norms like you has been lurking all this time without a single rumor… I can’t even begin to guess, but it doesn’t matter anymore… I’ll admit you’re strong. But just because you’ve got a bit of power, you think the whole world is going to run according to your will?”
The black-path man’s dangling hand suddenly caught my eye.
“…!”
I snatched his hand.
On his thumb was a red ring.
It was the exact same form as the one that had slipped from So Cheonpa’s robes.
The very thing that had made Eun Seollyeong suddenly change her attitude.
To the very end she had never explained in detail what it was.
In the end she had simply vanished like mist, as if this entire burden were hers alone to carry, without a single word of explanation or excuse.
—Clench.
My atmosphere shifted.
“What is this ring.”
“Ki… kiki… and what would you do if you knew, you bastard.”
I gripped his hair harder.
Scarlet light poured from my eyes so fiercely it looked ready to drip like blood.
“If you want the feeling of being unable to die yet not truly alive, keep talking nonsense. I’ll ask again. What is this ring. And what the hell is ‘three days.’”
The black-path man grinned, showing broken teeth.
—Ptoo.
He spat in my face.
Before the spit could land I released his wet hair and drove my fist into his face.
“Gaaah.”
He dangled limply, reduced to pulp.
The black-path man laughed while spitting blood.
“Kill me.”
He muttered faintly, breathing hard.
“A new era… long live the Blood Demon Cult Lord… long live… my sacrifice is for His glorious path—”
“…What?”
What reached my ears was something I had never expected.
“Long live, long live, long long—”
“You bastard, what did you just—”
That was the moment.
—Shhk.
A single dagger sliced through the air like a flash of light.
It severed the red cloth holding the black-path man’s ankle.
“Ah.”
His bulging eyes met mine.
The black-path man fell.
—Thud.
The shallow water in the fountain was nowhere near enough to absorb the weight of a heavy human body.
The sound of the black-path man’s head shattering against the stone floor of the fountain echoed up from below.
—Thump… thump….
“….”
I rose to my feet.
I turned around.
A man stood there.
He was staring straight through me.
The man was bouncing up and down.
Exactly like a rubber ball.
—Thump… thump….
It was a bizarre noise.
A bizarre action.
A sense of wrongness and déjà vu coiled around my entire body.
In the darkness a man with a red hood pulled over his head stood bouncing in place, staring at me.
—Thump… thump-thump….
The man lifted his body with the fluttering cloth and fixed his gaze on me without blinking.