Confessions Under the Blue Chain
Chu Ryung-tae may have been defeated, but he was not about to open his mouth so easily.
He fully intended to resist until the very end.
Drip… drip.
Blood ran from the iron hammer in my hand.
"You…"
Half-crushed and still writhing, fused with the centipede, Chu Ryung-tae glared up at me with eyes on fire.
"If you're a martial artist, you know! No matter how much pain you pile on me, I will never talk!"
"…"
I beat him.
There was no internal energy in the swinging hammer. The moment power entered the blows, he would die on the spot. Maximum pain was the goal, so I struck without qi — carefully avoiding the vital points while still delivering every ounce of agony I could.
Soaked in blood, Chu Ryung-tae finally spoke.
"Now that I think about it… I suppose I should talk."
Only then did I stop pounding him. I caught my breath and readjusted my grip on the hammer.
"Why not resist more? You looked pretty tenacious."
"Th-that's, well, you certainly hit—"
Thwack!
The hammer snapped his neck around.
Rustle.
The centipede coiled around his flesh and began restoring it. Thanks to the Blood Sect's black arts, Chu Ryung-tae endured wounds that would have killed an ordinary man many times over.
I brought the hammer down on his restored body again. He howled.
"I said I'd talk! Why are you still hitting me?!"
"There's still life in your eyes."
"What kind of bullshit is that—!"
Experience had taught me this type well. I could still feel the life in those eyes.
Ever since I met the Heavenly Demon Jade and began roaming the martial world, every fight of mine had been a life-or-death duel. I never lived like the common martial artists of the jianghu, leisurely debating victory and defeat, making fat, complacent remarks about winning or losing. There was no "I'll get you next time" after a bitter loss. Like a coin flipped onto its extreme edge — one defeat and every light went out at once, plunging me into eternal darkness. That was how I had survived.
The woman who first taught me the world beyond the heavens had once said: people show their true selves when facing death.
At first I had not understood. But after watching countless others die, and standing at death's door myself more than once, I finally grasped what she meant.
That peculiar scent. The dense terror and resignation a man exhales when absolute death stands before him. The extreme emotional state. It was as powerful as the stench of a corpse — the so-called corpse fragrance that, once it clings, never washes away.
You could tell from the eyes. Whether the man still had room to spare, or whether surviving had become his sole, absolute priority.
Crack.
The hammer I had been using to beat Chu Ryung-tae snapped at the handle under the acidic blood.
"…The hammer."
A flicker of delight crossed Chu Ryung-tae's face. I said dryly:
"It broke. In that case—"
I rummaged through my clothes.
Clatter!
I pulled out a chain. Cha Ryu-ja had fitted rings to both ends of this chain — a sickle on one side, a steel weight on the other. I crushed the broken weight ring and the sickle that had been attached. It was a chain of heavy iron links that an ordinary adult would struggle even to swing properly, all cross-connected.
I coiled it around my hand. Let the end dangle. No internal energy. But pure physical strength made my muscles contract to the bursting point. The chain screamed in my grip.
Chu Ryung-tae said in a trembling voice:
"Wh-what do you intend to do with that?"
Whoosh!
I swung it through the air with everything I had. The chain writhed like a beheaded snake, coiling, then snapped its tip around the way a skirt is whipped about the waist.
CRACK!!!!
It was neither technique nor skill — pure force alone, a sonic boom that tore the air itself apart. Chu Ryung-tae blinked.
"…A whip…? You're going to use a chain like a whip?"
I nodded in satisfaction.
"Wasn't sure, but it works well enough. A bit heavy, though."
I gripped the chain with both hands and pulled. It was made of iron that shone with a blue light. Heavy, yes, but thin and fine enough that from a distance it looked almost flexible as it moved.
Mumyeong examined the chain and said:
Azure Fang Iron. Lacks elasticity, so it never found favor as material for blades or spearheads — but for sheer strength, it's one of the best. No wonder it felt unusual.
Looking closer, only the final rings connecting the steel weight and sickle — which Cha Ryu-ja had probably modified — were ordinary iron of inhuman make. The chain itself was of an entirely different substance.
I looked the chain over and said:
"This will be useful in all sorts of ways. Speaking of which—"
Clatter!
I fully uncoiled the chain onto the floor.
"I'm not confident in precision aiming yet the way I was with the hammer, but I'll try. If you die without talking, we'll both be in trouble."
"W-wait!! Wait!!"
Chu Ryung-tae screamed.
"I-I have something to say! That chain—!"
I swung the chain. Like lightning it smashed into the stone floor beside him.
CRASH!
With a sound of air being torn, the stone floor exploded like fireworks.
"Eek!"
Chu Ryung-tae recoiled in terror. He could not even imagine what that would do to bare human flesh. I frowned as if unsatisfied.
"Ah, trying to avoid the vitals and aim only for the limbs makes it even harder. I really am hopeless at holding back outside of life-or-death fights."
I shook my head and reeled the chain back in.
"Here I come, then."
"Wait!"
"Don't move. Don't move. Huh? I told you not to move? You wanna die for real? I said absolutely don't move, and you're moving."
"Th-that chain! That chain with the blue gleam!"
Chu Ryung-tae shouted as if seizing. My eyebrows twitched. My movement stopped.
"The chain?"
"That's definitely! Cha Ryu-ja of the Hyeonpung Bandits! It's Cha Ryu-ja's, right?!"
I raised the chain high.
"Is it? Is it, you say?"
"Eek! S-sorry! I was in a hurry!"
Chu Ryung-tae curled up and shrieked.
"…"
I held the raised posture and simply watched him. From far off, Seol Ye-rin said in a disgusted voice:
"It feels like a wicked cotton plantation owner handling his slaves…"
Chu Ryung-tae shouted:
"Don't tell me Cha Ryu-ja is dead? A bastard like you…!"
The chain twitched.
"…Master! Master himself killed him! That damned unorthodox scum! He strutted around claiming he was the real power here and acted so arrogantly!"
"You."
I lowered the chain.
"You know Cha Ryu-ja."
As expected, they were connected.
Mumyeong seemed to share my thoughts.
Moyong Jinryong is far more cunning than I anticipated. He was drawing a very large board.
My mind grew complicated. I muttered:
"You know it too, Mumyeong. People often say the Moyong Family has two wolves. He was never going to be ordinary… But this truly exceeds imagination."
I set the chain down. Bent over. Looked at Chu Ryung-tae and said one thing:
"I'm ready to listen. Bark everything you know."
"Hmm."
Chu Ryung-tae's story took a full double-hour to finish. I closed my eyes and let out a short hum. Beside me, Seol Ye-rin — Young Palace Master of the North Sea Ice Palace and a party with a direct stake in the North — looked ready to topple over backward.
What a mess.
Mumyeong offered his brief assessment. Chu Ryung-tae's tale had filled an entire double-hour. Seol Ye-rin said in a dazed voice:
"You're joking…?"
I answered grimly:
"He's more than capable of it. In fact, it would be stranger if he weren't."
I recalled my first impression of him at the Moyong Family head's funeral. The smiling, razor-edged exchange between him and Moyong Ryu had carried more killing intent than any life-or-death duel.
The current state of the Moyong Family — since the Family Head went missing — had split into three factions along the three brothers, excluding me.
First: Moyong Jinryong.
Second: Moyong Gangcheon.
Third: Moyong Ryu.
Second brother Moyong Gangcheon was a hedonist of wine and women with a vicious temperament, so he commanded little support even within the family. Naturally, the struggle for the next Family Head position had split the elders and subordinate branches between first brother Moyong Jinryong and third brother Moyong Ryu, and a power struggle had begun.
First brother Moyong Jinryong possessed the legitimacy of the eldest son and had received the finest education. Thick friendships with high-ranking orthodox figures, immense power, the support of most Moyong elders — he was the strongest candidate backed by the seniors.
Third brother Moyong Ryu was the opposite. Cast out by the Family Head as a child, he had wandered the unorthodox paths before the Family Head's pardon brought him back. Thus many of the Moyong seniors still saw him as a vagabond who had picked up bad habits, and refused to acknowledge him. Even so, he always looked after his own people, and was infamous for merciless retaliation against his enemies.
Come to think of it, people have always been afraid of third brother Moyong Ryu…
I pictured the man who always grinned and acted the fool around me — who sometimes seemed immature.
…Just what did he do in the past?
While I was staying with the Jegal Family, Jegal Sea had told me about the undercurrent of conflict within the Moyong Family. The result was that Moyong Ryu's elite troops, built up since his unorthodox days, were striking at the choicest branches while Moyong Jinryong scrambled to defend them.
Moyong Jinryong will avoid a direct fight with Moyong Ryu and instead expand outward, drawing in external forces to balance power against him.
Jegal Sea had already foreseen this exact situation. I said to Chu Ryung-tae:
"To summarize: after the Seventh Hall Master went missing, Moyong Jinryong contacted your Blood Sect faction and invited you to the northern lands of the Moyong Family. Is that it?"
Chu Ryung-tae nodded vigorously while staring at the chain in my grip.
"Yes, that's right. He said this place was ownerless — that the only 'legitimate' owner with any claim was the weak Wi Family, who had nothing but money. And of course that wasn't all. According to rumor, the legacy of the White Lotus Demon Sect—"
Seol Ye-rin cut him off sharply.
"Our North Sea Ice Palace is a military force in its own right. We were occupying this land in cooperation with the Wi Family, were we not?"
"Who the hell is this girl?"
Chu Ryung-tae glared at the sudden interruption. I answered for him.
"Talk."
"Yes, I was about to explain that anyway."
Seol Ye-rin looked back and forth between us in disbelief. Chu Ryung-tae continued:
"We shared the same concern, but Moyong Jinryong said that while the Black Dragon Branch exists, the North Sea Ice Palace has essentially abandoned it. Strategically meaningless, no hostile forces nearby, and frankly this barren land has no value beyond the villages the Wi Family manages. It's also the farthest place from the main palace, so even if we openly dug up corpses and made blood jiangshi, they wouldn't even notice."
Grind.
Seol Ye-rin clenched her teeth. I looked at her.
"Is that true?"
"…Embarrassing as it is. My mother was a martial artist obsessed with training, not administration. They told me my visit to the Black Dragon Branch was the first by a main palace member in eleven years."
"…So he sat all the way in the distant Central Plains and saw straight through these internal circumstances."
I let out a deep sigh. Looked at Chu Ryung-tae.
"You received funding from Moyong Jinryong, joined forces with the unorthodox Hyeonpung Bandits, used your Blood Sect arts to create a blood jiangshi army, and planned to absorb the Wi Family to build a new power base in the North. The price for all of this was support for Moyong Jinryong and the promise to provide troops whenever he wished. Correct?"
"Yes. Just the other day we even received a carrier pigeon saying we had successfully hunted down and killed the Wi Family Head who was out traveling. Now only the eldest son of the Wi Family remains, and Dokgo Cheon, former leader of the Hyeonpung Bandits, already has him hostage. And by now—"
Chu Ryung-tae looked up at the sky.
"Under pressure from another Blood Sect faction that also promised cooperation with Moyong Jinryong — the Second Hall Master — they should have already departed for that area in haste—"
Chu Ryung-tae stared at me.
"…Wait a moment. Come to think of it…"
He looked back and forth between me, the demonic energy flowing from my body, and the blue chain in my hand. His face lit with realization as he shouted:
"The demonic martial artist Dokgo Cheon mentioned right before he left — the one he told us to track down no matter what if he couldn't — that was you…!"
Crunch!
My fist smashed into his mouth.
"Yeah. That's me. So he was looking for me too."
One punch from me that could shatter granite smashed every one of Chu Ryung-tae's teeth. He went flying with a scream. Seol Ye-rin muttered:
"The Blood Sect's Second Hall Master… Don't tell me it's that madman Taejacheon?"
"Someone you know?"
Seol Ye-rin looked at me with a deathly pale face.
"Taejacheon, Second Hall Master of the Blood Sect, faces the border with the North Sea Ice Palace main complex. He's the Hall Master most skilled in brainwashing even within the Blood Sect. Famous for lightning-fast dagger arts, and said to be vicious and cunning beyond measure."
"…"
Seol Ye-rin looked at me and said:
"We have to rescue the Wi Family's eldest son! If Second Hall Master Taejacheon brainwashes him and sends him back, the Wi Family will be absorbed by the Blood Sect as good as done."
"No. Not my problem."
Seol Ye-rin stared at me blankly.
"What?"
I answered quietly:
"Whether it's the Wi Family's son or a power struggle between the North Sea Ice Palace and the Blood Sect — I don't consider the affairs of the jianghu any of my business. I have far more urgent matters piled up that I need to resolve."
"Moyong Bi!"
I frowned and looked at her.
"You seem to be mistaken. I'm not your subordinate. I came here for one thing only — the Reclamation Three-Wheel Heart Method. I've already received my payment, so I'm leaving right now."
I muttered while gazing toward the Central Plains.
"Either way, this means I've secured a way to hide my demonic energy."
Chu Ryung-tae's eyes went wide as he shouted:
"…Demonic energy? Ah, now that you mention it — the Patcheon Hyeolma Gunrimbo…!"
"Hm?"
In a state of extreme excitement I had never seen from him before, Chu Ryung-tae shouted at my puzzled face:
"I forgot…! If you are a great one who walks the footwork of the Mother, then — could it be you also came after hearing the rumor? Was that rumor true?!"
"Rumor?"
"Yes!"
Chu Ryung-tae even waved his hands and feet as he poured out his words:
"The jade ring inherited by the Wi Family heir points to the legacy of the White Lotus Demon Sect hidden in this frozen land—"
That was when it happened.
"Guh?!"
Chu Ryung-tae stopped mid-sentence. His cheeks swelled. His face flushed crimson.
"Uh… uuh… uh…!"
Chu Ryung-tae's head began to swell. Mumyeong cried urgently:
Host!
"…!"
I kicked Seol Ye-rin away like lightning.
"Kyaa!"
Seol Ye-rin tumbled. I stepped in front of her, grabbed the hem of my martial robes, and covered my entire body including my face at the same time—
Splat.
With a wet sound, Chu Ryung-tae's head exploded.