I'm Pretty Sure I'm Stronger Than You
"Squad Leader. A letter has just arrived from the Third Squad Captain dispatched to the Black Brown Sect."
A subordinate had appeared like a shadow, respectfully offering a parchment letter. As Jeon Gwi-ak, leader of the First Shadow Squad, took it, a deep furrow carved itself between his brows.
His mood was foul. A full week had passed since he began wringing Baek Byeog-yeon for answers, and still no confession had come.
No, in truth, a confession had been extracted. The problem was that not a word of it could be believed. And now the old man could no longer even be interrogated...
Again and again Baek Byeog-yeon had insisted that his disciple had indeed reached the Hwagyeong realm and then vanished without a trace by morning, and again and again Jeon Gwi-ak had answered with exquisite cruelty. It began with needles thinner and hotter than any ordinary needle driven beneath the nails of all ten fingers and all ten toes, went on to searing his whole body with a red-hot branding iron until the stench of burning flesh hung thick in the air, and ended with water torture that seemed determined to wring out the very last bubble of air in his lungs.
He drove the torture to every limit a human mind could endure, yet the one confession he craved never came: the truth is, my disciple never reached Hwagyeong. Only at the very end, perhaps broken past all reason, the old man had muttered through mad laughter.
"You... you stupid bastards. Fine. I'll tell you the truth, then. That damned disciple you're hunting turned woman from the bone out, and couldn't live with the shame, so she ran off from the Cult. Hahahaha! There. Feeling better now?"
After that he had raved like a man entirely out of his mind, repeating nothing but that dog-chewing-grass nonsense. Yesterday, at last, every member of the First Shadow Squad had clicked their tongues and shaken their heads at the sight. Tch. Uselessly broken, in the end. And so Baek Byeog-yeon had been dumped in the corner of a cell like a bundle of luggage.
"The Black Brown Sect. Isn't that the little sect in Gansu?"
"It is. Word is that their core members were slaughtered, the sect leader and his deputy among them."
"Is that so? And what level were the leader and the deputy?"
"Around early to mid Jeoljeong, sir."
Jeon Gwi-ak studied the coded letter. The First Shadow Squad always exchanged intelligence in cipher to forestall any interception, and as he deciphered it, he doubted his own eyes.
"What is this. One person? A woman?"
"Yes, sir."
"And you're telling me you don't know who she is?"
"We are investigating, but there are few female masters who match her appearance, attire, and level of martial skill."
Reading on, Jeon Gwi-ak asked again, dumbfounded.
"A courtesan? Has the whole Third Squad lost its mind? Or have my own eyes gone dim?"
"Your subordinate found it equally strange and had the cipher checked twice for errors, but they confirm it was a courtesan. Every Black Brown disciple gave the same account."
"Hoo..."
As Jeon Gwi-ak sank into thought, his subordinate added carefully, "In this one's opinion, that female master may be a lay disciple of Mount Hua. There are reports she used Bamboo Leaf Hand... Of course, this too comes only through Black Brown eyes, so it is difficult to trust entirely."
"A courtesan who wields Bamboo Leaf Hand. What a preposterous pairing of words. Martial skill at least mid Jeoljeong or higher... age in her mid-twenties... Is this band kin of the Jin Song Sword Master?"
"Yes, that is the prevailing assumption. The Jin Song Sect has always been closed, rarely active beyond its walls, so nothing is certain, but she is reported to have used the Cloud-Mist Heavenly Net Sword Art, permitted only to the direct bloodline."
Jeon Gwi-ak stroked his chin, weighing the matter for a moment. Was it right, in the present situation, to divert personnel this way?
A full year had passed since the Cult Leader ordered Yul Sogang brought in, and there was nothing to show for it. Whether the man had sunk into the earth or soared into the sky, his trail had surfaced nowhere, like a mirage, and so Jeon Gwi-ak had all but convinced himself that Yul Sogang had long since died a violent death in some ditch, or else sealed his martial arts completely and was living out his days as a nameless commoner somewhere. If the creation of a Hwagyeong art were true, blood that young could never have kept it buried; he would have found some way to flaunt it. A trail this cold meant only one of two things: the claim was a lie, or the man was already dead. His mind could reach no third conclusion.
And with a full year of pursuit behind them, Jeon Gwi-ak judged it no great loss to pull a few hands away for a time, and gave his order.
"The man's identity is certain, and he seems to have nothing to do with Yul Sogang... Still, the crime of daring to kill dogs under this Cult's banner must be paid for. Assemble a pursuit squad and deal with them."
It was an order to kill.
The Squad Leader's word was heaven itself. The First Squad Captain of the First Shadow Squad, who had delivered the report, bowed his head low.
"By your command."
A week had passed since Soyul and Cho Ja-un left Cheongseok County behind. Their destination was the Mount Hua Sect in Shaanxi, one of the Nine Great Sects: a place where sword-like peaks thrust skyward in unbroken ranks. Renowned across the jianghu for its Plum Blossom Sword Art and its Plum Blossom Swordsmen, it was a storied lineage that had traded the lead with Wudang, its eternal rival, for as long as anyone could remember, each staking its name on the title of Daoism's foremost sword sect.
The reason they were headed there was simple: Soyul hadn't given it much thought. Gansu had been her first destination only because it held the nearest city, and once she arrived she'd found nothing in particular to do. Cho Ja-un, on the other hand, had thrown himself into promoting the journey out of a nagging fear that Soyul might take shelter in a Gansu pleasure house again, as she had in the past.
"I think it would be best to go to Mount Hua."
"Hmm. Why?"
"Why, indeed. You inherited Mount Hua's true transmission, Miss Kang. To have mastered Bamboo Leaf Hand! They would surely take you in as one of their own."
"Huh? So I'd have to join the sect?"
"Well... that is..."
Cho Ja-un, who had been about to say of course, swallowed the words and set his mind racing. If he answered "yes" here and Soyul happened to hate the idea, she naturally would not go. Plenty of people would call entry into a storied sect like Mount Hua an honor and the chance of a lifetime, but Ja-un realized her position might be altogether different. She had lived caged in a pleasure house, selling her laughter, until an eccentric of Mount Hua had finally helped free her; to be shut up once more inside a stifling Daoist sect, living under strict discipline, might well feel like just another prison.
"It needn't be quite like that. If you wished it, Miss Kang, that would likely be how it went, but if you refused, no one would force entry upon you. At the very least, you could come and go freely. And if you lived near Mount Hua, then even after we parted ways, it would be easy enough for me to come find you later, wouldn't it?"
"Huh? Where are you going, Ja-un?"
At the word parted, Soyul's eyes went round, and a sheepish Cho Ja-un scratched his head.
"Well... I can't very well drift about like this forever. I only came out for a while to attend to some business."
"What business?"
To that question, the Jin Song Sword Master, who would sooner have died than admit that he had quarreled with his clan head, stormed out in a fit of temper, and had nothing in particular to do, could give no proper answer.
"Ahem. It is a mission demanding strict confidentiality. I cannot speak of it."
"Why not? I could help you. The way you helped me so much, Ja-un."
At those guileless words, the look in Ja-un's eyes as he gazed at Soyul grew a little softer. Yes, what a warm-hearted young lady she was. Someone must cradle that child's wounds and guide her down the right path... If Mount Hua could soothe the girl's bruised heart and give her a proper education, her bitterness toward the orthodox sects would fade, and one day she would stand tall as an upright pillar of the jianghu. And as the years passed, she would ascend to Hwagyeong and command the world as the foremost woman under heaven.
"Hehe. If you ever need help, you must tell me."
But that heartwarming reverie was shattered to pieces by Soyul's next words.
"Actually, come to think of it, I'm pretty sure I'm stronger than you, Ja-un. So ask me anytime."
"...? What kind of bull... I mean, what do you mean?"
When the utterly incomprehensible remark left Cho Ja-un stammering out his question, Soyul thrust out her chest with pride.
"Yours truly single-handedly crushed two Jeoljeong masters, didn't she? While all you ever handled, at best, were brats who aren't even First-rate?"
Flabbergasted, Cho Ja-un shot back. "Now, hold on. I simply never had the opportunity. Had it been me, I'd have finished them off every bit as cleanly as you did. And back in my day, I dispatched men of that caliber with the greatest of ease."
"Back in your day? When, exactly?"
"Some twenty years ago? Back then my name rang across the whole land, and my epithet..."
"Puhaha! Twenty years ago you were a five-year-old kid!"
Only then did Ja-un grasp his blunder and fall silent, but words already spoken could not be gathered up again. At the sight of him, Soyul doubled over, snickering, and began to tease him in earnest.
"Oh my, oh my! Our Cho Ja-un, who conquered the jianghu from the age of five, could you perhaps be an immortal descended from the heavens? Or the Dragon King's hidden son? Xiang Yu reborn? Ahaha!"
"Don't tease me..."
"Then explain it properly, then. You just hate losing an argument, so you're blowing hot air. I never took you for that type~ What, did you grow a beard at five? Or suck on a liquor bottle instead of a baby bottle?"
"I... it's not hot air! I have never once told a lie in my life!"
"Oh? So you're saying it's true, then? That you beat down Jeoljeong masters at the age of five?"
"...Th... that's...!"
Mocked by a girl not even old enough to be his daughter, all he could do was stand there with his clenched fist trembling. Who could he blame but himself for the slip of the tongue? And so Ja-un executed the finest countermeasure available to him: he put spurs to his lightfoot art.
"What? Why won't you answer? Greatest under heaven at five? The legendary Sword God, Xiang Yu reborn, the great hero Cho Ja-un?"
"......"
Face burning red, Cho Ja-un tore down the great road while Soyul dogged his heels, relentless in her teasing.
"I'm asking you to answer me, you know?"
"....."
"Hellooo? Kyahaha."
Behind the two of them, suddenly locked in a lightfoot duel neither could laugh their way out of, a sandy wind came sweeping past as though it were dancing, carrying a clear, bright peal of laughter along with it.