The Lawless Era
In the state of Qi, Yeo Hong-seong unleashed a roar like that of an enraged tiger and charged straight at the bandits. The outlaws saw her coming yet showed no fear. They didn’t flee. Instead they calmly drew their weapons, each man taking up position with the discipline of trained soldiers. Years of predation had forged them into something formidable. They placed their largest brute at the front while those carrying long ge halberds slipped neatly behind him, the motions smooth with practiced confidence that even a single powerful opponent could be overwhelmed by coordinated violence.
They did not yet understand that Yeo Hong-seong was nothing like the wandering heroes they had hunted before.
BOOM!
The iron mace slammed into the leather-reinforced wooden shield with a concussion that shook the entire mountain. The sound alone was so savage it seemed impossible for human strength to produce. What followed was no less merciless. The bandit who had thrust the shield forward was utterly crushed, his body mangled beyond recognition. The arm that had held the shield was pulverized into something no longer recognizable as human, while the mace had driven through his upper torso, collapsing everything from shoulder to chest in a hideous crater of bone and flesh.
Those who had witnessed both the impact and its aftermath still could not accept the reality before them. The bandits muttered in voices too faint for me to make out, all of them shaking their heads with dazed, hollow expressions. Yeo Hong-seong was like a wild boar that had caught their scent. If a boar had tusks, she had a mace. Whether they had recovered their wits or not, her weapon tore through the air again, hungry for a second life.
CRACK!
This time the sound was shorter, sharper, yet the result was no less devastating. The mace crushed the top of a skull, driving the neck bones down into the spine and shattering the cranium. From there the slaughter continued without pause. The relentless destruction of life felt less like battle and more like a butcher’s work, devoid of any mercy.
Only after Yeo Hong-seong’s mace had swung twice more did the bandits finally regain their senses and attempt to fight back.
“Wake up! There’s only one of him! Reform your positions!”
At the bandit leader’s shout, the men who had been staring blankly at Yeo Hong-seong scrambled like people jolted awake from a nightmare. But it was already too late. The overwhelming presence she had established across the battlefield left their movements stiff and clumsy. Their feeble counterattack posed no threat to her whatsoever.
“You idiots…! Raise your shields together and at least grab his arms or legs… Urk!”
“So noisy with all that yapping.”
The bandit leader, who had been barking orders nonstop, collapsed with a short scream of agony. A rock Yeo Hong-seong must have snatched up and hurled struck him squarely in the forehead. Blood poured down his face. Once their pivot point was gone, the bandits’ final resistance crumbled into chaos. Yeo Hong-seong showed them no quarter. Those who charged in blind panic were pulped by her mace. Those who turned to flee had their skulls shattered by well-aimed stones to the back of the head. It was an unrelenting massacre.
The scene resembled the aftermath of a bear’s rampage. Bodies lay marked by the unmistakable imprint of her mace, while others clutched shattered heads and sprawled across the ground as if pelted by hail. The spectacle of punishing evil was horrific. Yet it was also just. These bandits had not only killed and robbed; they had trampled human dignity and devoured human flesh. They were less than beasts. A miserable death was exactly what they deserved. Yeo Hong-seong was no blood-drunk pleasure killer. She was an executioner delivering legitimate punishment, removing future victims and consoling those the bandits had already violated.
Even though my mind understood that these men deserved to be beaten to death, the vivid slaughter unfolding before my eyes brought neither catharsis nor any sense of victory. Instead it filled me with suffocating shock and the heavy weight of having witnessed death. There was none of the stylish, cinematic glory I had seen in movies from my previous life. All that existed here was desperate, ugly struggling to survive and the kind of grotesque death that treated human value as nonexistent.
I had believed myself accustomed to death. Across both lives I had watched many people close to me die. I had even experienced death myself. But that belief was wrong. The deaths I had known were peaceful and clean. The deaths I had seen until now were only the part that came after the dying. That was why Yeo Hong-seong’s slaughter filled me with fear. Even though I knew she was right, I recoiled from the brutality of it. Nausea rose in my throat.
I had thought I had been fighting fiercely for survival in Handan, but now I realized how much of a safe greenhouse that city had been. At the very least, the fact that problems could still be solved through dialogue made Handan perhaps the place closest to peace in this entire era.
Even amid all the self-reproach and turbulent emotions, I could not tear my eyes away from Yeo Hong-seong. Or perhaps I was afraid that looking away would bring me even closer to the horror. At last the time of slaughter ended. Every living thing around her had vanished. Only Yeo Hong-seong remained, drenched in blood, her mace dripping with flesh and fluids. Unlike my own face, twisted with distress, hers showed clear relief.
I quickly scanned the expressions of the others nearby. Their faces were not so different. Relief at having survived, satisfaction at the death of the bandits who had threatened them, and a faint shudder of awe at Yeo Hong-seong’s strength that seemed to transcend humanity. I could read countless emotions on their faces, yet not one of them seemed to share my own feelings.
The very ground beneath my feet suddenly felt alien. In that isolation, as though I alone had been cast into another world, I realized I had been mistaken about something fundamental. I had misunderstood the true nature of this world. Or more precisely, I had only understood it with my head and never truly felt it in my bones. I had been a blind man with open eyes.
This was an age in which people devoured people and nations destroyed nations. An age in which the highest praise went to whoever killed the most and seized the most foreign territory. An age in which law had collapsed, morality had been trampled, and benevolence and righteousness had lost all value. The place I stood was exactly that: a lawless era.
On the entire road to Wuling I spoke to no one, shutting myself away in silence. Yeo Hong-seong approached and tried to speak with me, but I was still too deep in shock to answer. In truth she had little time for me anyway. The merchants who had watched her magnificent display from beginning to end now swarmed around her, eager to strike up conversation. Our positions had completely reversed. The one who had actively sought her out now kept his mouth shut, while those who had once avoided her and kept their distance now worked hard to build connections. Human fortunes truly are impossible to predict. It was a rather ironic twist.
Thanks to that, I was granted time alone. I reflected on the memories of this life I had lived so far and pondered deeply what kind of world I was breathing in. Looking back, I saw that I was still bound by the sensibilities of a modern person. The reason I had forced myself to sever affection was purely my sense of morality. The reason I had agonized alone over my promise to Lord Pingyuan was my conscience. If I had been able to toss promises aside like worn-out shoes for the sake of personal gain, if I had considered petty moral concepts useless because they only brought me loss, then I would never have suffered like this.
My inner turmoil continued all the way until we entered Wuling. There, I finally gave myself an answer to the question of whether I must abandon morality and conscience in order to survive in this world.
I could not.
Ironically, I had survived in this era by clinging to concepts from my previous life that did not belong here. Thanks to the seal I received after swearing my oath to Lord Pingyuan with his help, I had resolved the Yan-Zhao war. By saving Yeo Hong-seong I had protected my own life from the threat of bandits. Even setting those results aside, I had never been the kind of person who could casually set aside conscience, kill without hesitation, and smile while betraying others.
That left only one path. Now that I knew myself, it was time to know the world. How could I hope to find a path toward the future when I did not even properly understand the present I stood upon? The present came first. I had to learn what kind of land I stood on and what kind of lives the people around me led.
What use was Jixia Academy? Even if I met its scholars, any wise maxims they offered would be no more than empty theory to someone who knew nothing of the world.
I wonder if this is how Master Wonhyo felt when he abandoned his journey to study abroad and turned back.
Compared to his profound enlightenment, the realization I had gained was shallow indeed, yet the resulting action seemed similar. I decided to stop heading for Linzi and return instead to Ji, the capital of Yan. First I would see, hear, and learn what sort of place I had been given and where I was meant to live. Whether I went to Jixia Academy or sought other sages, asking for the advice of wise men could wait until afterward.
Having at last declared my intention to take up service, I opened the door with a refreshed and determined heart. A stranger waiting right outside tilted his head at me.
“Who…?”
“Haha! Have you forgotten me already? It’s Yeo Hong-seong!”
Neat clothes, clean skin. Having properly washed and dressed upon entering Wuling, Yeo Hong-seong was far more beautiful than I had imagined. She possessed an androgynous charm with a slightly masculine edge. At a glance one might mistake her for a handsome man because of her short hair, yet closer inspection revealed fully bloomed feminine allure. Beyond an appearance that would have drawn admiration from both men and women, her sun-bronzed skin glowing with health offered a refreshing appeal all its own.
But my admiration lasted only a moment. I quickly collected myself. Having spent so much time beside a beauty like Lord Xinling, I had developed something of an immunity to attractive people. Regaining my composure, I asked her directly.
“You said you would escort me no matter where I was going, correct?”
“Mm, I did.”
“I originally planned to go to Linzi, but I’ve changed my mind. Will you still follow me?”
Yeo Hong-seong gave a short laugh as if to say the question was unnecessary, then nodded readily.
“Of course. Where to?”
“We’re going to Ji.”
The capital of Yan. The place this body was born. The starting point from which this life had begun.