Summer Getaway -1

The ranking matches had stirred up quite a reaction among the nangin.

Separate from the automatic matchups that kept getting thrown my way, they'd started ranking each other on their own. From challengers lining up against Black Cat to all manner of other bouts, a sparring craze had taken hold.

Where did you stand among the warriors of the Wanderer Inn? It was a question anyone would naturally wonder about — a curiosity that had been bottled up for lack of opportunity, only to explode the moment the ranking matches gave it an outlet.

And there was a certain dark magic to an objective ranking, too. For Sichuan nangin who couldn't build a reputation out in the world, who had to throw every fight no matter how weak or strong the opponent — maybe a buried desire to have their true skill fairly measured had been waiting all along.

At any rate, the Sichuan nangin rankings that emerged looked like this:

Jeong Sam was still dead last because nobody would accept his challenges. As the nangin got serious about the rankings, all sorts of rules had started cropping up — and by those regulations, he'd probably climb out of the bottom spot by tomorrow or within a few days. He was never last-place material to begin with, so he'd work his way up on his own.

Thanks to the ranking matches, an unseasonable training fever had gripped the Wanderer Inn. The crack of air-splitting strikes ringing out from the training grounds from dawn until late at night had become part of daily life.

But even that passion among the nangin was about to be snuffed out by something far more formidable.

Namely: a murderous heat so brutal that just breathing was hard work.

"Uwaaagh!"

"Uoooogh!"

The nangin who tried morning training and fled back into the inn were soaked through like they'd fallen in a river. In heat that made you pour sweat just sitting still and breathing, throwing yourself into intense training could only end one way. Anyone who wasn't a martial artist would have collapsed from dehydration.

"Hoo... how is it this hot?"

"Word from the magistrate's office is this is the worst heat in sixty-four years..."

"Mm. I feel like I heard that last year too, but damn, it really is hot."

I was of the same mind — eating steaming hot noodles on a day like this felt genuinely wrong — so I was chomping my way through some flour flatbread when the conversation drifted on.

"I hear the Minjang River has dried down to the riverbed. Boats can't float, so cargo's all backed up."

"Heavens. It really must be record heat."

"Haha. Drought might be a better word than heat, don't you think?"

Was this that event? This year was... I'd been here eight years now, so... right. This was the window for it.

I'd almost missed it. Even the nangin's idle chatter came in handy sometimes.

Lately I'd been completely absorbed in martial ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠training from dawn to dusk. Mornings were stat conditioning plus ranking matches. Days were spent on commissions for real combat experience, then reviewing those fights when I got back, and evenings were for working out countermeasures. Then I'd drag my exhausted body through qi circulation, wake up, and it was dawn again.

Back when I was still second-rate, training had been a dull affair. Even at that level, once you set qi circulation aside, it wasn't much different from working out in the modern world. Just swinging a sword with your body, building muscle, drilling reactions into your flesh...

I was a game-obsessed martial arts nerd, not a gym rat. Outside of qi work, the physical conditioning and martial drills weren't any different from real-world training — so beyond watching numbers climb in the system window, I never found much appeal in it.

But once I hit first-rate, everything changed. Qi distribution and concentration. Just those two extra options mixed in, and the practical applications in real combat became endless. You couldn't just focus on physical movement anymore — you had to manage your qi work too, which meant there was far more to learn and master.

And the rush when you finally harmonized qi and body to unleash a martial form at its absolute peak? That was something else entirely.

Where training used to be nothing but a miserable grind toward better techniques and higher realms, now I was hooked on the fun of training itself.

Still, no matter how enjoyable the training got, there were things I needed to collect. I already had seven of them to gather — hard enough as it was.

Even Black Cat, who normally kept herself wrapped up tight, couldn't fully defy the blazing heat. She'd brought out a fan and was gently waving it.

"Black Cat."

"Yeees?"

"Let's go catch some carp."

"...Come again?"

"I said let's go swimming."

Black Cat shot to her feet.

"Let's leave right now!"

"So they've finally got me by the scruff."

Hwanggeum-seon crumpled the letter in his fist as he muttered. For fifteen years he had worked tirelessly to erase every trace — but the first button had been fastened wrong from the start.

Even without physical evidence, the mouths of those who had been at the scene still remained.

And if those people at the scene had gathered specifically to slaughter the villa's household and plunder its goods, that made things all the more precarious.

So Hwanggeum-seon had bought off people around anyone who looked likely to get caught — so that word would reach him the moment something happened to them.

The letter from Mak Yeo-bu's subordinate carried more than just news of Mak Yeo-bu's death. There was something astonishing written there as well.

That Yeo Il-ye had faced two Super-Peak experts at once and crushed them head-on. Hwanggeum-seon recalled the way Yeo Il-ye had subdued his personal guards in a single stroke.

"Heh heh."

Surprisingly, the smile that rose to Hwanggeum-seon's face held a note of ease.

"So you were a disciple of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Jeomchang Sect after all."

Hwanggeum-seon pictured Yeo Il-ye from that day. Beneath her composed demeanor, a murderous nature had been lurking. Fragments of a madness that could abandon everything and become a blood-crazed killer at any moment.

That sliver of madness Yeo Il-ye carried had frightened him.

It had seemed so unlike a Jeomchang disciple — those people reputed to be gentle, virtuous, even foolishly kind. And yet in the end, she had returned to the path of a Jeomchang disciple.

This letter was the proof.

If she had been blinded by vengeance, Yeo Il-ye's sword would have reached Hwanggeum-seon's eyes faster than any letter.

Instead of washing blood with blood, she had chosen to secure witnesses and evidence and bring the perpetrators of the Yeo Family Mountain Villa massacre to justice. That was what this meant.

What change of heart could have come over her?

Looking at the path of the Red Bamboo Hero Yeo Il-ye — who had burned with hatred for nangin — the normal course would have been to draw her sword and come storming in at any moment. And yet suddenly she was walking the righteous path.

He didn't know the reason, but from Hwanggeum-seon's perspective, it was good news.

What he had truly feared was Yeo Il-ye transforming into a vengeance demon. A vengeance demon who would throw away everything she had and come at him in a mutual-destruction charge. Before someone who had abandoned all else, neither authority nor status nor money held any power.

It was true that Yeo Il-ye possessed the strength to crush Hwanggeum-seon if she burned everything she had. If she became a blood demon who would slaughter everyone in the Hwanggeumga, then Hwanggeum-seon too would have to steel himself for death. That was why, after she reached Super-Peak, he hadn't dared to touch her.

But Yeo Il-ye had chosen the righteous path over the path of a killer.

"A foolish choice."

Hwanggeum-seon sneered at Yeo Il-ye. The orthodox sects' codes. Jeomchang's methods. All of it was worthless if you failed to achieve your goal. No matter how outstanding Yeo Il-ye's skill, what good was it? She was so afraid of other people's blood being spilled beyond her targets of vengeance that she couldn't even draw her sword.

"Now I can crush her with everything I've got."

Hwanggeum-seon thought of certain people in Sichuan. After returning from the bloodbath at the Yeo Family Mountain Villa fifteen years ago, he had used that capital to climb fast.

And then he had realized something.

That there were others in Sichuan Province just like him — people rising aggressively through unknown capital, by any means necessary. Hwanggeum-seon had confirmed that they, too, were among the perpetrators who had burned the Yeo Family Mountain Villa.

During the massacre, those figures of the sunlit world had thoroughly concealed their identities — but with this solid a conviction, they weren't so hard to recognize.

After that, the two of them and Hwanggeum-seon had thoroughly pretended not to know each other, never once making contact — yet they had cooperated in unspoken ways, maintaining the relationship for fifteen years.

The reason for sustaining that neither-here-nor-there ambiguous partnership was simple enough.

If either of those two fell... I'd be in danger too.

If one of them collapsed, would that person simply leave the other two alone? Of course not — they'd blackmail the remaining two to claw their way back. And so the three of them had maintained a peculiar relationship, each watching over the others' welfare, all to bury the weakness that was the Yeo Family Mountain Villa massacre.

Figures who, while not quite on Hwanggeum-seon's level, each commanded considerable standing in Sichuan Province.

"Those two must want to settle the past as well by now."

This time, he would join forces with them and deal with Yeo Il-ye for good.

Against people who had used the fat spoils of fifteen years ago to entrench themselves in their respective positions — how much resistance could a Yeo Il-ye with her hands and feet bound possibly put up?

One martial artist bound by the righteous path, versus multiple power brokers who stopped at nothing. Who would win was obvious. Especially when the battlefield was Sichuan Province, which might as well have been the three power brokers' own living room.

Yeo Il-ye would simply thrash about, trapped in layer upon layer of snares.

A thick smile settled on Hwanggeum-seon's lips.

Black Cat and I finished our preparations quickly and left Sichuan City.

"Seniormm~ so where exactly are we going?"

"The Minjang River."

"Hmm? Didn't they say at the inn that it had dried down to the riverbed or something?"

"That's why we're going."

"Haa... and here I thought this was a real outing when we packed the fishing rods and snacks... so it was opportunity-hunting all along..."

Well, you could call it a bit of both. A swim, a summer escape, a fishing trip — whatever. But telling her in advance would ruin the fun.

"Tch... some of us are working ourselves to the bone hunting down Seven-Star elemental elixirs we can actually buy right now, and somebody else is dragging people along on a so-called fishing trip that's really just opportunity-hunting!"

Having been told they were going to catch carp, only to realize she herself was the fish being reeled in, Black Cat followed behind me in a foul mood, kicking at the ground with every step.

"Tsk!"

"Tch."

I weathered the sulking Black Cat's petty spite as we headed for the Minjang River. The Minjang was a relatively small river — a tributary of the Yangtze, you could say.

Of course, "small" was only by Yangtze standards. It was by no means a small river.

From Sichuan City it was a half-day to a full day's journey, but since I could now manage basic lightfoot techniques, the travel time had shortened considerably. By the time we reached the Minjang River, there was still plenty of daylight left.

"Wow, it really is bone-dry!"

Black Cat marveled at the cracked, split riverbed, kicked off her shoes, and dipped her feet in the water. Record drought or not, the Minjang River hadn't vanished completely. The deep waters that could swallow a person whole had simply dried away, leaving only a stream's worth of water behind. If anything, it might have been even better suited for a swim.

The moment her feet touched the water, Black Cat's mood seemed to lift considerably just from that.

"Hrm..."

What was it again... a distinctive landmark. We walked along the river for quite a while. After about half a shichen of searching, I finally spotted the distinctive terrain feature.

"Yeah. This is more like it."

A massive willow tree half-climbing up onto a boulder. That was the kind of marker you needed.

"Black Cat. Give the packs one last waterproofing check, then get ready to dive."

"...Dive?"

"Yeah. You brought the bamboo breathing tube, right? Hold it in your mouth just in case."

"Hmm... I wonder what this is about now. Anyway, my heart's starting to race!"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

I gave the rocks one last sweep, searching for the entrance. After shifting various stones aside, a cave barely wide enough for a single person finally appeared. Though calling it a cave felt a bit off — it was completely filled with water.

"Going in."

The underwater cave, just wide enough for one person to wriggle through, opened up after a short stretch of held breath into a space ample enough to swim. Even now it was a close call. If we'd come even a few days earlier, this cave would have been completely flooded and we couldn't have entered.

The underwater passage was about one jang across, and roughly eight-tenths of it was filled with water. You could probably poke your face up into the air pocket, but for convenience I kept the bamboo tube in my mouth and pressed forward.

Blub blub.

I glanced back to find Black Cat, having cleared the narrow section, looking around with her eyes wide open.

Once I confirmed she'd received my signal to follow, I took the lead.

This underwater cave was inaccessible unless the Minjang River hit a historic drought. The water level had to drop and drop until enough drained from this passage for air to reach the ceiling — only then could you get through.

It was a good half-shichen of swimming, so even a Murim expert couldn't enter outside this window.

And even if someone stumbled on this underwater cave by chance and got curious about where it ended, nobody crazy enough would keep exploring an endless submarine tunnel with no guarantee of an exit.

But some crazy bastard had done exactly that and found this place. Well — it was a game, so maybe that made it possible. An underwater cave sitting under distinctive terrain, stretching on and on? Anyone could tell something was down there.

At any rate, we repeated the cycle: swim until our lungs burned, bite the tube and breathe the air pooled against the ceiling, then swim again. By the time a chill was seeping into my body despite the internal energy shielding it—

"Pwah."

—we emerged on the other side.

"Wooow... oh my god."

Black Cat let out a sound thick with wonder. Apparently convinced there was no one else here, she had completely dropped her Shadow Image Qi Gong. It had been a long time since I'd seen her eyes sparkle like starlight.

It was certainly a vista worth marveling at.

We had come out into an enormous cavern. Softly glowing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠moss and several unknown subterranean plant species clung throughout the space.

What caught the eye next was the long stretch of pools. Not mere holes — pools holding water where aquatic plants grew.

A natural aquarium, you could call it.

"I can't believe a place like this existed..."

Hearing the awe in Black Cat's voice, a quiet pride welled up in me. That's right — if it weren't for me, where else would you ever get to experience something like this? You don't reach summer escapes like this one without tagging along with a veteran player.

Black Cat and I set down our packs and decided to simply take in the cavern's scenery for a while. I'd only ever seen it on a game screen myself — actually being here was a first.

Above, a broad cavern ceiling draped with softly luminous moss; below, an unbroken procession of gently lapping pools. The view was beautiful beyond compare.

"Senior! Senior! We're staying here a few days, right? We packed plenty of food, didn't we? Right?"

Faced with an expression that said she'd claw my face off if the answer was no, I nodded.

It was a touch humid, but not unpleasantly so. More like the refreshing dampness you'd feel in a forest at dawn. Above all, the temperature in this cavern was perfect for human comfort. That cool sensation of walking into a room with the air conditioning set to seventy-three, seventy-seven degrees. Compared to the outside weather, where standing still for a single minute left you streaming with sweat, this was heaven.

I wanted to stretch our stay in this cave as long as possible myself.

"At the very least a few days. If we're lucky, maybe up to a week."

"Yay!"

Black Cat bounced up and down with joy. And matching those lively movements, a certain pair of information pouches swayed dynamically.

Hmm.

Ordinarily, Black Cat ran Shadow Image Qi Gong, so the curves of her body never really showed. But soaked from swimming and moving this freely...

Quite the view.

"Ah, Senior! There's something in the water in this hole!"

"Yeah."

Black Cat peered into the water. Something softly luminous was swimming within. It seemed to be moving along the bottom, so its full shape wasn't clear.

"What is it?"

"A Fire Carp."

Black Cat looked at me. At the gaze asking whether she'd heard that right, I spoke again.

"More precisely, maybe a ten-year Fire Carp or so."

This cavern was a colony nesting ground for Fire Carp.