The Eunuch's Demise
Namgung Sinjae had once said that wanderers had their own code of honor. Cheong opened her mouth. “From the very beginning—”
“Aaaagh! Aaaaaagh!”
“Hmm?” Cheong, who had been about to continue, tilted her head sharply at the scream that burst out like a dying animal’s wail. Her gaze landed on the one-armed warrior. Their eyes met, and the one-armed warrior froze solid.
“Hey, I was talking. Tsk. I forgot what I was going to say. All because some guy started screaming just because he lost an arm. No manners at all. Seriously.”
Cheong’s body turned squarely toward the one-armed warrior.
“Hiiik.”
“You’re going to stay quiet now?”
The one-armed warrior immediately shoved his remaining fist into his own mouth, sealing it shut. Cheong smiled in satisfaction and continued.
“Since you messed up, you get ten hits. And because you were noisy, if you make a sound, we start over from the beginning.”
The one-armed warrior’s detachable arm swung with ferocious force. For him, it was an experience without precedent in human history. Who else had ever been slapped across the face with their own shoulder?
Smack! Smack! Smack!
The unpleasant sound of flesh striking flesh echoed through the underground chamber. Fluid sprayed from the tip of the makeshift club in every direction while the one-armed warrior desperately kept his mouth sealed. Finally, after the tenth blow, Cheong casually tossed aside the severed arm, now reduced to nothing but an elbow. As a blunt weapon it had been heavily padded and nearly useless anyway, and it was far from sturdy. She doubted she would ever need it again.
“Hmm. I was going to say something. What was it? Ah, the eunuch grandpa? Do you happen to know what I was about to say?”
“Y-you, what are you—”
Gyeong Damgan’s desire to break the noble, pure, and courageous beauty of the world had completely vanished. What stood before him was nothing less than a peerless killing demon.
“Oh, right. Where the hell did your boss go? You said the Double-Line Blood Gu Unit’s leader was here, but all I see are the lackeys standing around.”
“Who are you calling a lackey!?”
“Oh my, why are you getting angry? If you’re the deputy leader, aren’t you the leader’s lackey? After the leader finishes his business, the deputy has to clean up with his tongue, right? That makes you a lackey, doesn’t it?”
“Who said such a thing!? That’s nonsense! How dare you make such a vile accusation!?”
“Well, you’re the one getting angry right now, eunuch grandpa. People always get angry when you hit the mark. What if I told everyone that a dying Blood Gu member testified with his own eyes? They wouldn’t lie in the face of death, would they? He said he saw the leader and deputy leader licking each other and—ugh, disgusting. Everyone, your commanders were swapping spit and—ugh.”
Of course, no Blood Gu member had actually said that. Cheong generally avoided outright lies, so she hadn’t claimed any member had said it. Still, even if it was just wordplay, the Blood Gu members couldn’t help but look at their deputy leader as if he were the most repulsive trash alive.
“It’s all lies! Complete fabrications!”
“I’ve never told a lie. I could even swear on my sect and my master’s honor.”
“You fiend! It’s a lie! This wench is even selling out her own sect and master to tell falsehoods!”
“Hmm. That seems like a bit of a stretch. What do you all think?”
The members of the Double-Line Blood Gu Unit were plunged into utter shock. Their faces looked as though everything they had eaten was trying to escape the way it had come in. Suddenly becoming subordinates to a pair of disgusting perverts had dealt them a severe mental blow.
“So, where did your lover—I mean, your leader—go? He hasn’t shown his face at all.”
“If you keep spouting such nonsense……”
“See? You’re desperately trying to protect him because he’s your lover, aren’t you? If he weren’t, there’d be no need to cover for the leader. Since when has the Blood Sect ever shown loyalty to superiors? If you take someone down, you become the superior, right?”
The Blood Sect warriors’ gazes turned toward Gyeong Damgan. Now that they thought about it, she had a point. It was an extremely clever piece of incitement. Normally, revealing a superior’s whereabouts was forbidden, but the Blood Sect was full of people who planned to betray their leaders anyway. So why protect him?
“Y-you fools, you’re actually believing this nonsense?”
“You were never a trustworthy superior to begin with, so why demand loyalty only now?”
“Graaagh!”
Gyeong Damgan’s eyes rolled back. At the same time, a strangled scream rang out as the Blood Gu warriors collapsed one after another, convulsing violently. It was the Queen Gu’s self-destruct command. Cheong also felt the Gu inside her stomach thrashing wildly. The self-destruct order was a mysterious signal that spread in all directions with a wide margin of error. Gyeong Damgan intended to send his subordinates to their deaths along with her.
Hmm. Farewell, my parasite. If I’d known we’d part like this, I should have given you a name. Well, it’s late, but… Soolbyung-i, goodbye.
Cheong accepted her farewell with the Gu that had only just received a name on the verge of death. But isn’t the poison in the Gu much stronger? Is this your final gift? Hehe, I’m looking forward to it.
As if responding to her encouragement, the struggling Gu’s movements gradually subsided. If the Gu could have conveyed its thoughts, it might have said: It’s okay. You endured, you crazy bitch.
Huh? Soolbyung-i didn’t die? Why? Even the foremost experts in Gu arts would have found this bizarre case a small miracle, so how could Cheong, who was at best a bachelor’s degree holder in Gu studies, possibly understand? It might have been the miraculous effect of the Corpse-Blood Poison Person’s bile, or perhaps the unexpelled poisons had merged and fostered the Gu’s independence. Or maybe it had simply endured out of sheer disgust at Cheong’s warm encouragement.
In the end, amid the Blood Gu warriors dying in horrific agony from the Gu explosion, Cheong launched herself forward in shock. Good heavens, they didn’t even value their own lives! What a waste of good karma! And with this many people, she could have enjoyed herself for a whole week taking turns!
Cheong darted about, stomping on heads and kicking bodies, doing her utmost to ensure no life was wasted. Fortunately, the warriors were rolling on the ground in pain, making their heads perfectly positioned for stomping or kicking. Thanks to that, she managed to kill them all before they could suffocate. After delivering a final kick that left the last warrior’s head half-missing, Cheong lost her balance and tumbled across the floor. Her muscles screamed and her joints creaked; the moment her last soccer kick ended, she had no choice but to roll on the ground.
“You—you bitch!”
Gyeong Damgan had no time to react to the sudden massacre. Cheong had moved at a speed that recklessly drew upon both her internal energy and physical strength. As she flashed past, heads vanished or were halved, or bodies were abandoned as they flew away.
“Tsk. I was in such a hurry I didn’t feel anything. But hey, eunuch grandpa, you can always get new subordinates, right?”
“You… how……”
“I don’t know. I thought I was dead, but I lived? Ah, but two, four, six… who killed all these subordinates? Was it you, Gyeong Damgan, who activated the Gu self-destruct? Or was it the Double-Line Blood Gu that released the poison? You’re not going to accuse me—the one who tried to ease their suffering—of being a murderer, are you?”
“That’s… huh? Tried to ease their suffering…?”
Gyeong Damgan faltered. It didn’t make sense, yet somehow it did, and yet it also sounded like complete nonsense. In that moment, Cheong stood up, dusted off her robes, and drew a sword from one of the corpses’ waists.
Mountain, I’m sorry. Choryeo, I’m sorry. I guess I really am a swordsman after all. Holding a sword in my hand feels so stabilizing. Cheong swung the sword twice. Namgung Sinjae had once said that Cheong’s skill was at the level of “knowing the sword”—grasping its weight and center of balance to wield it like a beloved weapon. It was a cheap blade with a slightly off center of gravity, but it was decent enough for some nameless lackey to swing. Holding what she called Wolgwang-geom (No. 10), Cheong spoke. For reference, wooden swords and the dull practice blades used in sparring did not count as Wolgwang-geom. To her, a sword was a tool for cutting people.
“Still want to talk?”
“Hah! How dare you! Let’s see what meager skill you have!”
Gyeong Damgan charged first. Cheong easily twisted and deflected the incoming trajectory, all while continuing to speak without pause.
“Don’t seniors in the martial world usually give three moves as a handicap? Did you leave your age behind somewhere? You should be ashamed.”
“Hmph. Do I look like some righteous sect’s bookworm to you?”
“Of course not. I just saw an ugly old eunuch.”
“That damned—word—eunuch! Eunuch! Eunuch! I! Am! Not! A eunuch!”
With each sword strike, a roar burst forth. In comparison, Cheong’s tone remained leisurely, displaying a calmness unimaginable in a fight against a late-stage Transcendent master who wielded Sword Gang.
“So, does your thing even get hard? The dead man left a will saying it was pitiful how you kept shaking your limp thing when it was already discarded, calling it too dick-like.”
“You fiend! Die! Die!”
“At this rate, will you even manage to kill me? Put some effort into it.”
Even without the Gu, Gyeong Damgan was a Transcendent master, yet for some reason he was being pushed back repeatedly before Cheong’s skill. Of course, Cheong’s sword was a vicious killing blade. However, for nearly a month she had sealed away her most proficient technique—the killing sword—and trained fiercely instead. It was only natural that her skill had improved by leaps and bounds. Moreover, when she used the killing sword, the sword Qi imbued with the Heavenly Killing Star became even harder and sharper in proportion to the slaughter she had accumulated. Combined with her monstrous output, even the less condensed and somewhat loose Sword Gang of a Transcendent master was something she could easily clash against and overcome.
“Why! Why! Why won’t you die!”
“Hmm. Well, I expected this, but you’re even more disappointing than I thought. It’s not even fun anymore.”
In that instant, Cheong’s eyes flashed. At the same time, her sword traced the most absolute trajectory. The laziest sword under heaven—yet this was the virtue of a sovereign. The ruler of the world does not move recklessly, but when they do, they shake heaven and earth.
Swish.
Gyeong Damgan’s sword fell to the ground along with his wrist, clattering loudly. He hurriedly pressed on his wrist to stop the bleeding and wrapped it with a cloth. As Cheong simply looked down at him, Gyeong Damgan muttered in despair.
“Why… why, when you’re only at the Peak realm……”
“Hmm. Curious? If you’re curious, it’ll cost five hundred coins. From the start, it was only natural that I would win, wasn’t it?”
“Nonsense! The gap in realms is—”
“Nah. Earlier, when you lost your mind, you used the Gu instead of drawing your sword. You should have drawn your sword then. Isn’t that the obvious thing for a warrior who’s been insulted?”
“What are you talking about!?”
“Because you rely on parasites, your sword rusts. When was the last time you swung a sword with real intent?”
“Ah… aah……”
Gyeong Damgan was also a Transcendent master. He understood Cheong’s words. When he had lost his reason and his eyes had rolled back, the explosion that emerged had been the Queen Blood Gu’s self-destruct command. As a swordsman, he should have naturally drawn his sword, but he had long since forgotten his own blade, intoxicated by the omnipotence of the Gu. No matter how much of a Transcendent master he was, if someone who wasn’t even a swordsman held a sword, the result was obvious. Cheong had already relaxed from that moment onward. Transcendent or not, he was already so rusted that he couldn’t possibly be her match.
Cheong pointed her sword tip at him and asked, “So, where’s the leader?”
This was the reason she had bothered to return underground. She had been told there was a boss, yet she hadn’t even seen his face. It wasn’t some scheme to offer medicine to an old man, though she had harbored a small selfish desire to enjoy pulling off bug limbs. Originally, killing just the Sighing Mad Demon would have led to the complete annihilation of those below through the automatic chain self-destruct command triggered by the Queen Gu’s death. But with another Queen Gu of the same rank present and nowhere to be seen, she couldn’t help but feel uneasy.
“I don’t know either. He hasn’t been around since morning. Whether he drank himself unconscious or went off alone to find suitable materials to enjoy himself, how would I know?”