The Hidden Inn
Cheon Sohyeon panted hard and wiped the sweat from his brow.
“Hoo. Damn, this place is far.”
Running until the soles of his feet felt like they were on fire had made him acutely aware of just how vast the Demonic Cult’s territory really was.
The Hundred Thousand Mountains.
The name meant a mountain range made of one hundred thousand peaks. No one in their right mind had ever actually counted them one by one, so the name was clearly an exaggeration, but the endless grandeur of the range more than justified it.
After three days of drifting from inn to inn and crossing several ridgelines, he finally reached the bottom of a towering cliff.
“...So I have to climb this, then.”
The fastest route to Unambong was to traverse the cliff face.
Without hesitation, Cheon Sohyeon began climbing. Up he went, stopping and starting, fumbling his way upward like a foolish lizard until—
Kwaaaaang!
A deafening explosion ripped through the air.
“W-what the hell was that?”
The shockwave rattled his body as though an earthquake had struck, and the jutting handhold he’d been gripping crumbled away. Cheon Sohyeon quickly steadied himself and kicked off the wall with all his strength.
He shot up to the ledge in one breath, but thick white mist hung so heavily around him that he couldn’t see a thing.
Then he heard an unfamiliar voice from within it.
“No way this is the end, right? It can’t be. You can’t have been bragging that much over something this pathetic.”
“Cough... You think this is the end? We will not forget our grudge...!”
Crack!
“Aaaagh!”
“Your grudge, my ass. I’ll take on as many of you as you want, so get lost and take your sorry rabble with you. You ought to be grateful I’m letting you keep your miserable lives. A bunch of grown men, shamelessly swarming in a pack—what, there’s still one left?”
Thunk!
Sensing the danger, Cheon Sohyeon scattered force through the air to disperse the mist. Sure enough, a deranged-looking man was charging straight at him with a weapon in hand.
“Unbelievable.”
Pabababam!
Even against the sudden ambush, Cheon Sohyeon stayed calm. He knocked aside the sabers closing in on him, seized the man by the collar, and hurled him straight off the cliff.
“Ughh!”
The man let out a strange cry and twisted midair. He drove one blade into the rock wall to stop himself at the last moment, then flailed his way back up to the ledge.
“Ha, what an embarrassment. So you were the only one worth anything after all. You’ve been waiting for your chance all this time, have you?”
“Hey, I think you’re misunderstanding something here—”
“Misunderstanding, my ass!”
The saber-wielding man, Gang Hyeon, barked back at him.
“You thought I’d fall for that act, huh? Playing dumb with that pretty-boy face? Not anymore. That trick doesn’t work on me. Come on, you bastard!”
Cheon Sohyeon stared at him blankly.
What the hell is wrong with this guy?
He couldn’t tell whether the man was naturally like this or had simply had all the blood rush to his head, but one thing was certain: this was a demon who did not understand the language of reason.
What else could he do? As a Buddhist at heart, he would have to discipline him.
“Fine. I’ll straighten out that rotten attitude of yours first.”
“Ha! Big talk. Let’s see how long that confidence lasts!”
Gang Hyeon drew a second saber and kicked off the ground.
Chains linked the hilts of the twin blades, and dried blood was caked across them.
Whoosh!
Closing the distance in an instant, Gang Hyeon thrust out a lightning-fast strike.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Cheon Sohyeon dodged the blades with a tilt of his head and countered with his bare hands. He batted aside the sabers, blocked the rising kicks from below, and shattered every feint as it came.
The vibration running up through his arms made Cheon Sohyeon narrow his eyes.
He’s not just a nobody.
He had assumed Gang Hyeon was some half-baked bandit, but the man’s techniques—driven by brute strength and flexibility—were genuinely threatening. In fact, Gang Hyeon kept trying to seize the upper hand with precise, blinding saber work that drew clean lines through the air and muddied the eye.
He looked barely in his twenties. There was no doubt he had a strong sect or master behind him. In other words, he was a fool who had properly learned martial arts and made a living out of them.
“So you train that hard just to go around picking fights with innocent people over nothing?”
“What the hell are you yammering about now?”
Gang Hyeon yanked hard on the chain wrapped around both arms, and the twin sabers flashed straight toward Cheon Sohyeon.
Bang!
Cheon Sohyeon drew out Muryeonggi and knocked the blade aside, then seized the chain with his other hand. It should have been a perfect counter, but Gang Hyeon refused to let up.
“Got you, you bastard!”
“Hm?”
A chill spread from Cheon Sohyeon’s palm up to his elbow, and the ache of flesh turning to ice crawled through his grip.
Ice martial arts?
Gang Hyeon grinned fiercely.
“Heh. What do you think? Getting cold, huh? You bastard, hiding on a cliff and sending your underlings to die for you...”
“Shut up.”
Cheon Sohyeon immediately gathered Muryeonggi into his palm.
Between his rough breaths, a pure white flame bloomed. In an instant, it erased the chill, and Gang Hyeon’s eyes flew wide.
“Wh-what?”
“What’s with that dumb face?”
Thud!
Cheon Sohyeon stamped down hard, then yanked on the chain in his fist. He drew power up from the soles of his feet, twisted his entire body through the knees, waist, and shoulders, and drove all that force into the pull.
“...!!”
Caught off guard by the sheer power, Gang Hyeon lost his balance and was dragged forward. As his body lurched through the air, Cheon Sohyeon’s fist flashed out.
Kwaaaaang!
One clean punch, driven straight as if it meant to pierce his solar plexus.
“Guh—k-kheuk!”
Gang Hyeon managed to raise his protective qi at the last second, but he was flung backward, rolled two or three times across the ground, and came to a stop covered in dirt. Struggling, he hauled himself upright.
...What is that guy?
Clutching his saber tightly, Gang Hyeon glared at his opponent. They looked about the same age, yet pressure rolled off Cheon Sohyeon like a mountain range looming over him.
No matter what angle he stabbed from, the man remained unmoved, either letting the strike flow past or knocking it aside, and the whole thing gave the eerie impression of hammering at a massive boulder.
My martial arts don’t work on him?
He had always believed there was no one in his generation who could match him, so naturally, this was staggering. Even so, what rose in Gang Hyeon was not helplessness or despair, but fury.
“I learned this ridiculous martial art because of bastards like you. You’ve met your match today, you son of a bitch.”
“Out of nowhere, what are you—”
“Shut up and come at me!”
Gang Hyeon crossed the two sabers and unleashed a slicing gust of blade wind.
Whoooosh.
Meanwhile—
“Vice Sect Leader, it looks like that demon bastard’s about to lose.”
“Looks that way.”
The Jagui Sect disciples who had been lying still as though unconscious were whispering among themselves.
“What do we do? Should we run while they’re distracted?”
“No. We wait.”
“Wait?”
The vice sect leader, Geum So, smiled slyly.
“Look closely. That demon bastard seems to have learned ice martial arts.”
They hadn’t noticed it during the fight because he had only been swinging sabers.
“Looks like it, yes. But why does that matter?”
“Idiot. You can have a treasure right in front of you and still not know it.”
“A treasure?”
“Exactly. I once heard it from the Sect Leader. A man who practices ice martial arts is worth as much as gold and jewels themselves.”
“Oh? Is that so?”
Geum So’s gaze shifted to Cheon Sohyeon.
“And then there’s that one who showed up out of nowhere. I don’t know where he came from, but look at his face. There’ll be buyers among the pigs who drool over pretty boys, whether male or female.”
“Hmm, to be honest, that one over there looks more like the expert. Do you really think we can capture him?”
“Of course we can.”
“Yes?”
“You did bring the feather needles, didn’t you?”
The subordinate flinched.
“I-I packed them as ordered, but are you really going to use them? If the Sect Leader finds out...”
“Shut your mouth. Didn’t they say that if you want to make big money, you shouldn’t care what means you use? If you’re so worried, should I stick one in your forehead first?”
“...My apologies.”
Geum So opened the small wooden case handed to him by his underling.
Click.
Inside were feather needles so fine they seemed spun from thread. They were a common hidden weapon in Jianghu, but the Jagui Sect’s feather needles were something special.
Good.
They had been tempered from incredibly expensive material, worth enough to empty a household to the foundation, and once infused with inner power, they turned colorless.
Who could possibly evade an invisible hidden weapon flying toward them in the middle of a fight?
“Heh heh heh. The moment I throw these feather needles, charge in immediately. Then all of you will be able to change your wretched fate. Your lives will turn around, do you understand?”
“Yes!”
By then, Gang Hyeon was a complete mess under the pressure of repeated attacks.
Another exchange would leave him beyond saving, so he made the decisive call and hurled the sabers away.
“Let’s finish this, you bastard!”
Gang Hyeon surged forward, both hands turning as white as snow. The instant he stamped off the ground and slammed his twin palms into Cheon Sohyeon’s hands—
Tssst!
Chill burst from his whole body as if detonating outward. It was the ice technique White Snow Transformation, one that turned everything it touched, even the surrounding air, stark white with frost.
It was the decisive move meant to overturn the battle, the trump card that pierced the tiniest opening.
“Hey, that’s pretty refreshing.”
But Cheon Sohyeon remained as calm as ever. Casually, he poured Muryeonggi through his palm.
Extreme heat. A blaze so fierce it was hard to believe it came from a human body erupted outward, and white haze began to rise.
...What?!
Gang Hyeon’s eyes shook violently. With his trump card shut down, his head went faint for a moment.
He had known the man used an extreme-yang martial art, but he had never imagined this level of firepower.
The eye for motion and reaction speed that let him deflect successive attacks, the strength of his fist arts—those had already been shocking enough. But to neutralize White Snow Transformation so effortlessly...
A guy like this belongs to some garbage pit like the Jagui Sect?
As a deeper suspicion took root, he finally saw the expression on his opponent’s face.
“Wait, could you possibly—”
“Could possibly what? Didn’t I tell you you had the wrong person?”
“Damn it! Sorry about that—!”
Gang Hyeon never finished his sentence. Something had caught his eye over Cheon Sohyeon’s shoulder.
Geum So, who had gotten back up, was already scattering feather needles, and the other sect disciples were kicking off the ground and charging in.
Those bastards!
Wooooooong!
Gang Hyeon immediately squeezed out the last of his inner power and unleashed White Snow Transformation once more.
Chill pressed to its limit and beyond instantly froze the air. Even the blood Gang Hyeon coughed up from overexertion crystallized before it could hit the ground.
“...?”
Cheon Sohyeon answered with complete composure, drawing out Muryeonggi and igniting the heat again.
“Well, that’s awkward...”
Gang Hyeon’s consciousness gave out, and he collapsed where he stood. The feather needles racing toward them froze in midair, then melted away under the sudden heat until they vanished without a trace.
What is this demon?
Cheon Sohyeon looked down at the falling Gang Hyeon, then turned his head at a new presence he sensed.
At some point, the men who had been fighting Gang Hyeon were now staring this way, visibly flustered.
One of them had even begun to quietly edge away, so Cheon Sohyeon stopped them.
“Hold it a second! You there, stop right there.”
“...Us?”
“If not you, then who else is here? What was it again—Jagui Sect?”
“That’s right. But why do you ask?”
Cheon Sohyeon walked toward them, studying their faces.
“From the look of it, you came at him in a pack. Mind telling me why?”
The most rough-faced among them answered.
“Why does that matter to you?”
“I’m trying to figure out whether I can just let you all go. Was it a personal grudge?”
“It was only a trivial dispute that escalated to this point.”
Cheon Sohyeon slowly curved his lips.
“What does the Jagui Sect do?”
“We’re just a sect where like-minded people train with swords. Nothing worth worrying about. I don’t even know why I’m telling you this.”
“Right, so you don’t feel like answering properly. I’ll ask around and find out what kind of place this is. Is there an inn or something nearby? Let’s go take a look together.”
“...”
When the man shut his mouth tightly, a subordinate with a narrow face and a sly look quickly cut in.
“This is such a remote area that we don’t have facilities like that. The terrain is famous for being treacherous—there’s no way an inn would be built here. You climbed up the cliff yourself, didn’t you?”
“Ah, right. That’s true. Why did I forget that?”
“Haha, it happens. We simply gathered to avenge our fellow disciple for the abuse he suffered at that demon’s hands. We were overpowered even after coming all this way, but...”
Cheon Sohyeon looked at the man who had interrupted with interest.
Just now you called it a trivial dispute, and now it’s revenge.
The man continued with a deeply solemn face.
“Now that we’ve confirmed the demon’s defeat, our brother lying in his sickbed should be satisfied as well. Thank you.”
He bowed his waist and cupped his fists.
“Now that we’ve confirmed our shortcomings, we’ll take our leave and return to training.”
Just as the Jagui Sect disciples hurried to withdraw, a cold voice caught at their ankles.
“But here’s the thing.”
Cheon Sohyeon stepped toward them with a grin, and the disciples’ eyes went so wide they seemed ready to split.
“This map says there’s an inn around here.”
Cheon Sohyeon shook the scroll he’d taken out from his robes. A fierce killing intent began to gather in his eyes.