The Qilin’s Uncanny Method
Gwak Jiryang was staring at him in obvious confusion.
Just what in the world did he do?
He had seen Sama Ryang press Gwak Jiryang’s acupuncture points, then pour inner power into him, then later use a judge’s brush to pin down the back of his hand and casually mention that he would stab his eyes next.
It was a threat that should never have worked.
Not just Gwak Jiryang, but any martial artist worth the name would have snorted at such a feeble intimidation.
And yet, Gwak Jiryang suddenly began trembling so violently he looked like a sapling caught in a gale.
“N-next… you say?”
Cold sweat streamed down his face until his clothes were visibly soaked, and now even saliva was dripping from his mouth. At this rate, it would hardly have been strange if he simply died on the spot.
All that had happened in the span of time it took to drink a cup of tea.
What, exactly, had Gwak Jiryang experienced in that interval?
Did he suffer some sort of horrifying torture in that instant?
That would mean that, on top of some unknown art, Sama Ryang had overlaid the powers of the Sama Mind-Deciphering Art as well.
Though Sama Chang could not even begin to guess that the method was actually the inversion of the Cheonryeong Jiseul, he was still startled all the same.
That can be used like that?
For the powers of the Sama Mind-Deciphering Art to be imposed upon another person was something he had never even heard of, let alone seen.
Merely touching the upper dantian was a perilous technique that could turn a man into an idiot with the slightest mistake, and yet this fellow was performing it not on himself, but inside another person’s body?
One had to possess encyclopedic knowledge of the more than three hundred blood points throughout the body, and not only that, but also know precisely what each point governed while carefully controlling true qi with painstaking precision.
The concept itself was grotesque, and the execution sounded almost impossible.
Sama Chang stared at the back of Sama Ryang’s head in silence.
Was he really this cursed?
“Uuuugh….”
Gwak Jiryang ground his teeth together, reeling from a splitting headache that felt as if his skull might burst.
Memories carved into his body were screaming.
They begged not to be made to experience that again, insisted it had been like falling into hell, pleaded with him to bite through his tongue and die right now instead.
There was a clear reason why Gwak Jiryang, who valued his own life above all else, had come to entertain such extreme thoughts.
The inspector’s lips clearly stopped at “eyes.” But if he said next he would stab the eyes…
In other words, even that torture he had felt as an eternity had actually been halted in the middle. He had only escaped because the restriction on his dantian had been lifted earlier; if that torture had continued to the end, then…
“N-no!!”
Overwhelmed by sheer terror, Gwak Jiryang screamed.
At the sound of his voice, Sama Ryang said, “Gwak Jiryang.”
The man looked as though he were falling into an abyss, and Gwak Jiryang felt his soul sink with him.
…!
The man before him no longer looked human. He looked like a reaper. Gwak Jiryang, who had been driven completely into panic, opened his mouth on its own to save himself.
“P-please, speak. I’ll tell you anything. So please! Please! If you tell me to rot in prison for the rest of my life, I’ll rot there! Please, spare me. I-I beg you. Give me a chance… a chance, please!!”
“What was your relationship with Yang Bong?”
Didn’t they say humans were most vulnerable right after pain gave way to relief?
After that unimaginable agony, the question that followed felt almost like a lifeline. If he answered properly, it almost seemed as though the man would mercifully send him to Ma Reok Prison rather than continue.
Gwak Jiryang answered at once.
“N-not a deep one! After we captured him, while we were interrogating him… a good proposal came in, so I only released him after that! I-I never imagined he’d been caught in the borderlands.”
A heavy silence settled over the room. Then Sama Ryang asked again.
“Then were there others who helped release him?”
“Y-yes! I’ll tell you everything, even detailed descriptions and names—so please! Please spare me!!”
It was then.
“I’ll go out first.”
Hyeong Baek, who had drawn his saber before anyone noticed, spoke with an expression more solemn than ever before. A fierce killing aura surged around him. Through the keen perception he had spread outward, he had detected someone fleeing from outside the Law Enforcement Hall.
Sama Ryang sent him a telepathic message.
[Is it the deputy hall leader?]
[No. From the qi I can feel, he’s no more than a squad member. Song Ryeong is still on this floor. He hasn’t moved an inch the entire time, so perhaps his claim of being uninvolved was true.]
[Understood. Then… when you return, please summon the deputy hall leader.]
[I will.]
Hyeong Baek vanished outside in an instant.
Creak.
Almost instinctively, the inspectors exchanged glances.
They had considered the possibility of eavesdropping from the beginning.
If they were certain that Gwak Jiryang would speak their names, then escape was the obvious move.
For now, Sama Chang decided that the first priority was to get information.
“Well, this is getting pretty damn interesting. I wonder whose name will come out next. I’m dying to know how many fools are out there listening with their hearts in their throats. First, let’s hear how far this runs. Did anyone above you take part?”
“N-no, there wasn’t!”
“There wasn’t? Are you saying that private use of a prisoner from Ma Reok Prison is something a squad leader can do on his own?”
Wooooong!
Through Sama Ryang’s voice, the aura of the Sama Mind-Deciphering Art seeped out.
It was a weaker flow than before, as though he were showing signs of depleted stamina through an incomprehensible technique.
But that alone was enough.
“H-hurk!!”
Gwak Jiryang sprang to his feet as if burned.
“I swear, no! If there had been, then I’d deserve to be tortured again—y-yes, yes, I’d have nothing to say even if that happened. I truly, truly didn’t know Yang Bong was brazen enough to run a human trafficking ring! It had nothing to do with me!”
Sama Chang narrowed his brow in disgust. It was his own hand that had freed the man, and yet he had committed such vile crimes; to still pretend he had nothing to do with it was revolting.
Gwak Jiryang rushed on desperately.
“And using prisoners was only possible because I seduced one of the Ma Reok Prison guards. I forged the reports and sent them to the Military Council, and then we’d pull the prisoner out at the proper time!”
“Then start with the names.”
“F-first, from the First Squad, Gok Jinhon and Gwa Jongcheon were in charge of escorting the prisoners….”
The names of those who had committed the crime with him, their roles, and the specific methods of their offenses began spilling out.
Sama Chang’s brow tightened.
“So there are five, for now. I’m going out.”
“I’m coming too!”
Sama Chang and Seo Rin left the room at a brisk pace. There could be more men fleeing, so they needed to move quickly.
“Phew….”
Left alone in the room, Sama Ryang swept back his disheveled bangs.
His breathing was shaky, and his vision blurred. Perhaps his sense of balance was off as well, because dizziness rolled over him as though the ceiling were spinning.
Still, none of that mattered.
Now… what should I do next?
The inspection would conclude successfully.
What remained was only the follow-up: detaining the Law Enforcement Hall’s personnel, interrogating them, and excising the rotten flesh. He had already devised a way to finish it more efficiently, too.
I need to go further.
Even so, Sama Ryang drove himself onward.
Because apart from the inspection, there was still the greater cause: stopping the larger scheme before it could unfold.
Bang!
“Ugh….”
Suddenly, Gwak Jiryang lost his balance and sprawled face-first onto the floor.
He hurriedly straightened himself and bowed his head.
“M-my apologies. I lost my senses for a moment. I had absolutely no other intention….”
“Sit straight.”
“Yes!”
Sama Ryang regarded Gwak Jiryang in silence.
The fact that the man had been captured as a criminal was not because he was a fool; it was because there was solid evidence against him.
The surprise inspection had gone through the First Squad’s records, and nothing major had been exposed. There were only a few minor flaws, the sort that looked deliberately left behind.
Not only had his subordinates trusted him, but the fact that he had been caught only now despite all those crimes suggested his ability was undeniable.
He must have prepared very carefully for every possibility.
A man with that sort of temperament would surely have prepared a lifeline for any emergency as well.
Didn’t they say even a rabbit dug three burrows?
Unable to endure the silence, Gwak Jiryang rushed to speak.
“I-inspector, please order me to do anything. Silence is death to me. I’ll obey anything. So please, please, I beg you—give me any order at all….”
Had he completely lost his reason?
The sight of such a formerly swaggering man babbling nonsense and drooling was grotesque beyond words.
“Tell me about the ones who proposed the deal. Do you know where they belong, and whom they’re connected to?”
“…!”
Gwak Jiryang’s eyes shook as though an earthquake had struck them. He no longer felt he had any room to hide his emotions, nor any reason to try.
“Y-yes! I know. Dealing with outsiders is like handing them your own vital weakness, so I investigated them thoroughly before I began. It’s been a long time, so some of it’s hazy, but I remember certain details.”
“Confess.”
At the sharpness in his gaze, Gwak Jiryang flinched.
He had to produce a satisfying answer somehow. Scrambling desperately, Gwak Jiryang dragged up old memories and spilled them out.
The trading caravan that had proposed the deal, the people tied to it, the runner who delivered the messages and received payment in return, even the person in charge of the escort when Yang Bong was released—all of it was recounted in detail, one by one, as he worked backward through his memory.
Then, all at once, Sama Ryang raised a forefinger to his lips.
“How filthy. I’ve got the gist of it, so keep quiet until the inspectors return.”
Then he looked at Gwak Jiryang and sent a telepathic message.
[From here on, answer only through telepathy. That escort handler you mentioned—did he wield an iron fan?]
[Huh? Yes! Yes, he did! It was such a rare weapon that I remember it clearly. He used fan techniques to appear like a phantom, though it was almost strange that he was able to keep his name hidden. The way he kept grinning made him look completely untrustworthy, so I investigated him separately, too! That bastard’s face…]
At those detailed words, a glint entered Sama Ryang’s eyes.
He’s Heuk Siro.
The name was different, but the rare weapon, the movement technique he had displayed, and even the appearance Hyeong Baek had identified as the squad leader of the Law Enforcement Hall all matched the description he had heard from the Third Young Master.
Only then did the corners of Sama Ryang’s mouth lift. He took out a sheet of paper from his robe and held it out.
[Write down everything you know about that man… and forget everything about him.]
* * *
Hyeong Baek entered the Military Council chief strategist’s office, where a rich fragrance of ink hung in the air, with a smile on his face.
“I’ve completed the inspection and returned. The young men were so sharp and meticulous that there was hardly any need for me to step in. Haha!”
“You’ve done well. But….”
Sama Hyeok set down his ink brush.
It was customary for the inspection report to be submitted by the inspector in charge. If Hyeong Baek was delivering the report instead, it meant something had happened to Sama Ryang, and that made Sama Hyeok’s eyes narrow.
“Hm, I should begin with the details. First….”
Hyeong Baek carefully described everything that had happened, from the threshold of the Law Enforcement Hall all the way to its deepest chambers. Naturally, the story focused on the extraordinary actions and decisions Sama Ryang had shown.
“So Sama Ryang carried out the inspection in that manner?”
“Yes. He didn’t go in with ordinary resolve, that’s for sure. He acted like a completely different person. People say youth changes a dozen times a day, but this was certainly beyond anything I expected.”
“…”
“The inspection ended so quickly because the inspector’s contribution was considerable.”
Sama Hyeok nodded.
“If he stepped forward as inspector, that is how it should be.”
Contrary to his dry tone, a faint smile touched his lips.
He had assumed the boy was brilliant enough to conceal his weak nature, but would still fail to hide his inexperience in practical matters.
Leadership and oversight came not from learning, but from the experience earned through years.
“He is indeed exceptional. I now understand very clearly why you had your eye on him. However… he overdid it during the interrogation and suffered internal injury, so he’s gone to the Medicine Hall for treatment.”
Sama Hyeok’s brow furrowed.
“Internal injury? What kind of interrogation caused that?”
Hyeong Baek scratched his head, looking troubled.
“Well… it was a method I had never encountered before, so I can’t say for certain.”
“…”
“As far as I could tell, he combined a medical art that sharpens the senses with the Sama Mind-Deciphering Art, and seemed to seize control of the target’s upper dantian… though I’m not even sure such an application should be possible in the first place.”
“…”
“Does the Sama Family possess such a technique?”
Sama Hyeok’s face hardened faintly. It was only a subtle change, but because he was the sort of man who never revealed his feelings and was therefore called a cold-faced man, the shift felt enormous to Hyeong Baek.
“Was it only the criminal and the inspectors present there?”