A Wanderer's Code
A wanderer has a wanderer's code. In truth, the difference in intelligence between primitive humans of the pre-modern era and people today was probably negligible. What truly set them apart was that modern humans were far more physically frail than their ancestors. In exchange, they had gained an uncanny adaptability to tools. At the very least, modern people could fiddle with a device for a bit and quickly get the hang of it.
This held true for Cheong as well. She steadily mastered the operation of the Flowing Softness Softening Refinement training stand that Cheon Yuhak had memorized while enduring every kind of verbal abuse from his own master (Ha, you can't even memorize that? At this rate you'll end up severing all your disciple's limb meridians. Sigh, is this the end of the Divine Thief? Etc.). Having come from a production-line background, she knew the golden rule for these non-electrical primitive machines: don't force it. One and done. Thanks to that principle, after turning, tightening, and fiddling with it from every angle, Cheong became quite skilled at operating the training stand.
Unfortunately, her initial clumsiness cost her three precious fingers. She never even got to savor the slow tearing sensation before every joint was wrenched backward and snapped.
“Mmph! Mmmph! Mmmmmph!”
“Grandpa. Do you have something to say?”
“Mmph! Mmph!”
Gyeong Damgan thrashed violently in response. Cheong pondered for a moment. Hmm, should I remove it? But what if he bites his tongue? Although… biting it might be fine?
Cheong clapped her palm into a fist, then reached out and removed the gag from Gyeong Damgan’s mouth.
“What the hell is this! A righteous warrior of the orthodox—!”
Cheong seized the old man’s jaw as it moved up and down, crushing the rest of his sentence into an incomprehensible mumble.
“Come to think of it, the gag was to stop you from biting your teeth or tongue. But we’re not exactly on terms where I need to look after your dental health, are we?”
With that, Cheong shoved her fingers straight into Gyeong Damgan’s mouth. He bit down with all his strength, but the beautiful hands refined by the Sosu Magong—feared by the entire world—would not be harmed by mere teeth.
“Ah. What I’m going to do, Grandpa, is pull out every single one of your teeth. That way you won’t need a gag and there’ll be no risk of you hurting yourself, right?”
“Aaaah!”
“The teeth I pull out will be a gift for Lady Moyong. You like pulling out teeth too, don’t you, Grandpa? You ripped out four of Lady Moyong’s molars. Revenge should be repaid a hundredfold, a thousandfold, so if I pull them all out and deliver them to her, it should bring her some comfort, yes? Here we go. One.”
“Aaaack!”
“Two.”
“Aaaack!!”
“Ugh, why the hell are you licking my hand? Are you a dog, Grandpa? Well, you are a son of a bitch. Did you think licking it with your tongue would push my finger away? Just give up already and accept that you’re paying for your sins in your old age.”
“Aaaack!”
“Alright. Four coming right up. Wow, this old man still has strong teeth. I don’t know why all these high-level experts have such good dental health. Must be the mysterious power of inner energy.”
Cheong plucked Gyeong Damgan’s teeth one by one, skipping every other. Technically, human teeth were called “chi” while animal teeth were called “ibbal,” so in Gyeong Damgan’s case, “ibbal” was definitely more appropriate. Cheong had expected them to come out cleanly like pieces of a plastic model kit, but the roots were surprisingly tough, connected by resilient tendons. Oho. When she applied force, they tore free with satisfying chunks of flesh still attached, delivering a rich, solid sensation.
Thrashing when in pain was a biological instinct meant to distract the nerves and lessen suffering. Conversely, if the victim couldn’t thrash, the pain would double.
“Kuaaack! How can you be so cruel! You heartless, tearless bitch! How can someone like you be an orthodox hero! You’re nothing but a murderous star!”
Of course, with most of his teeth gone, Gyeong Damgan’s pronunciation was extremely unclear, but that was how Cheong interpreted it.
“Aigo, I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you dead!”
“Mm. Wrong. Not ‘I’ll kill you.’ Say ‘Please kill me.’ Very politely. At the point where you’d be on your knees crying and begging, and I’d still have to think about whether to grant it. Not that I will, of course.”
Cheong spoke with a bright, innocent smile.
Until now, Gyeong Damgan had been unsure. Was this the vengeance of a radical orthodox warrior who believed evil men must die in the most agonizing way possible? Or was it simply the amusement of a murderous star who enjoyed others’ suffering?
Now he finally understood. This thing is the same kind as me.
“Oh my. You’re finally showing some fear. Well, respect usually comes from fear, so that’s natural. Will you speak more politely now? A rotten old man who’s lived far too long, speaking down to a young lady young enough to be his granddaughter. Really, old people these days have no sense of hierarchy. Tsk.”
It was practically a statement from a world where age hierarchy had been completely reversed. Since she was simply blurting out whatever came to mind, even Cheong didn’t know what she was saying. It was simply the babbling glee of a child having the time of her life.
“Spare me, spare me…”
“Aish, you really don’t listen. Not ‘spare me.’ Say ‘Please kill me.’ That’s how an old man should beg. But I won’t grant it anyway. Hehe. Frustrating, isn’t it? Not that there’s anything you can do about it, Grandpa. No teeth left—were you thinking of biting your tongue?”
“I—”
Cheong simply kept smiling sweetly as she cut him off.
“Think of it as practice before you go to hell. Oh, and the room is very well soundproofed. I also really enjoy listening to screams, so don’t hold back—let it all out. Now then, shall we play properly?”
A loud and joyful stretch of time passed.
Cheong’s understanding of the human body rose to a new level. Through countless experiments she had completely mastered exactly how far joints and tendons could endure, what kind of resistance appeared when they reached their operational limit, and how much additional force was needed to completely destroy them.
After every single joint in the Sighing Mad Demon’s body had been crippled, even Cheong grew tired and flopped flat onto the floor. But while all his joints were ruined, his bones and flesh were still intact, meaning there was still plenty left to enjoy.
Cheong could confidently declare that the Flowing Softness Softening Refinement training stand was truly the greatest device in the Central Plains.
After that, she did everything she wanted to do.
The only disappointing part was that the great demonic head who had been shrieking such pleasant screams gradually began to lose volume after a certain point. Cheong even poured saltwater into his mouth to encourage his vocal cords, but it only worked temporarily.
“Please, I beg you, kill me. Please, I implore you. Kill me, please kill me. I have sinned. I am a sinner who thoroughly deserves death. So please, kill me…”
“Ugh, I’m trying to lie down and rest here. Shut up.”
“Hup.”
“I’ll kill you, so just wait. The game is over now.”
“Thank you, thank you.”
Cheong gave a dry chuckle in response.
“The game is over, so now we get to the main event. As expected, it’s no fun if I don’t draw blood. I’ll untie you, so if you don’t want to be dissected alive, run away. If you don’t run, I’ll take it as consent and start peeling the flesh from your fingertips.”
The great demonic head of the Blood Sect’s Double-Line Blood Gu Unit no longer had a single tendon still attached to his bones. Even if she released him now, the only thing he could do was twitch.
“Hiiik, kill me, kill me, please kill me!”
“Didn’t I already answer that at the beginning? I said I wouldn’t grant it anyway. You’ve spent your whole life torturing others, yet you can’t even endure this much? What a joke.”
Having endured it herself—and having endured the full three-hour process magnificently—Cheong was fully qualified to say so.
Smiling, Cheong drew her blue blade. It was the sharp divine weapon she had recovered thanks to the willing cooperation of the Blood Sect warrior.
And.
She finally understood why torture scenes in movies always took place in bathrooms. It was so convenient to wash up cleanly right afterward. Everyone knew the good stuff.
When Cheong emerged from the bath, her eyes were clear. They held not a single trace of lingering desire—truly the serene, enlightened gaze of a Buddha who had reached nirvana.
----
Cheong’s next opponent in the tournament was Wang Nopil, the master of violence using chairs. However, due to aftereffects from having his stomach cut open and the poisonous salamander removed, he could not participate and requested to forfeit.
“You didn’t have to forfeit. I could have gone easy on you. At least swing the chair a couple times stylishly before you go down.”
“Haha… ack.”
Wang Nopil tried to laugh like a man but clutched his solar plexus. A hearty laugh apparently consumed a surprising amount of abdominal strength, and his incompletely healed stomach throbbed in protest.
“Isn’t the length of a thing only known after comparing them? No matter how much of a sword master Lady Seomun may be, the outcome of a duel is—”
“Do you really need to compare a bamboo shoot to a bamboo stalk to know which is longer? This is purely an honorable defeat.”
“An honorable defeat?”
“You were going to lose anyway, but now you can say you couldn’t participate because of surgery. That’s an honorable defeat, isn’t it? If that hole hadn’t been punched in your gut, you were going to brag that you could have taken out the Hidden Dragon Tournament champion during the top eight, weren’t you?”
Wang Nopil laughed again, then crumpled in pain.
“You speak of victory as if it’s already yours.”
“Because it is, obviously?”
After finishing her visit to the wanderers who had illegally occupied the third floor of Mucheon Pavilion, Cheong climbed the stairs with light steps toward the top floor she was using.
In the best guest room of the Murim Alliance, reserved for Seomun Su-rin and Cheong, there was now another uninvited resident.
“Lady Moyong. How’s your body?”
“Hiiik.”
Moyong Juhee flinched violently, yanking the blanket over her head. Then she slowly lowered it again, peeking out with only her eyes.
Cheong looked at Moyong Juhee with pity.
“W-what’s with those eyes?! It feels gross!”
“It’s okay. I understand everything. Um, I don’t know if this will be comforting, but… here’s a gift.”
Cheong held out a delicate silk bundle. Moyong Juhee opened it with equal parts suspicion and reluctance, then shrieked and recoiled. The neatly cleaned white teeth of Gyeong Damgan scattered through the air in every direction.
“What the hell are you doing?! Why are you doing this to me!”
“These are the Sighing Mad Demon’s teeth. I thought they might bring you even the slightest comfort. Of course, I pulled them all out while he was still alive.”
“I don’t need this! I don’t need any of this! Why?! Why are you doing this to me! What did I ever do to you?! Just go away! I hate you! I despise you! I don’t even want to look at you!”
Moyong Juhee screamed as if having a seizure. No—it was genuinely a seizure.
Cheong’s eyes trembled. Damn it, I saved her and she’s throwing a fit. Still, she could understand. After suffering such horrible things, it would be strange if her mind hadn’t broken.
Cheong offered comfort in her own way—the same comfort her martial sister had given her back when she was struggling terribly in the Demonic Cult. Because it had truly been a great source of solace.
Cheong forcibly pulled Moyong Juhee into her arms.
“Let go! Let go of me! What are you—!”
“It’s okay. Shh. It’s alright. Lady Moyong didn’t do anything wrong. I took care of all the bad guys. Just think of it as a bad dream, a terrible nightmare. I believe you can shake it off. You’re a strong person, both in body and mind.”
“Let… let go…”
Moyong Juhee’s voice grew wet.
“Everything’s fine now. And no one in the world will ever learn what happened to you, Lady Moyong. Only four people know, and all of them know how to keep their mouths shut, so you can rest easy.”
The only ones who knew about Moyong Juhee’s kidnapping were Cheong, Seomun Su-rin, Dang Nan-a, and the old poison master—four people in total.
“So relax and focus on recovering. Ack! Aaaack!”
In the middle of comforting her, Cheong suddenly screamed as a sharp, rising pain shot through her. Her voice trembled with agony.
“Why… why…?”