Janggi Checkmate and the Heavenly Demon's Legacy
The hard fox mask stared right at me. I couldn't see her face, but I could guess her expression well enough.
Her shoulders were trembling visibly. She'd lost her composure from the earlier fight. Composure comes from stamina, after all. With her energy drained, it was no wonder she couldn't rein in her churning emotions.
"You're talking nonsense, sir. As if I'd dodge a match against a barbarian like you out of fear of losing."
Normally, she wouldn't even bother responding, but she spat it out with real feeling in her voice.
"Women can't even play Janggi properly to begin with, can they?"
"You hold some strange prejudices. For that matter, I'm wondering if an ignorant brute like you can even play properly."
"Ouch. That's a pretty low opinion of me."
"I don't know if you think that mask hides everything, but you can tell a person's true nature just from how they talk."
Her voice was getting louder. She must have a lot pent up against me. I'd chattered on endlessly at her while we walked earlier.
"You're all talk. You gonna play or not?"
"Fine. I'll show you the difference in our levels."
Wolbi twisted her wrist and turned toward me, picking up a jade Janggi piece. She'd fallen for the bait hook, line, and sinker.
Truth be told, I had no idea how to play Janggi. I didn't even know how the pieces moved.
But I've got a way around that.
If your head's no good, use tools. That's the difference between humans and beasts, right?
I slipped back to the real world for a moment and downloaded a Janggi app on my smartphone. The reviews said the highest difficulty AI played at pro knight level. News to me that Janggi even had knights.
Back in the Extreme Sword Heavenly Line world. I discreetly set up my phone behind my back, positioning it to keep an eye on the surveillance view. Cheating prep complete.
"Hurry up and make your move. You talked all big about me being scared, but you're the one chickening out, aren't you?"
Wolbi threw the taunt right back at me. Cute little jab. Her reaction suggested her real personality might not be as stoic as it seemed. I was looking forward to how she'd change after tasting the power of civilization.
We set up the board and started the game. She graciously let me go first.
"Even with the first-move advantage, if you lose decisively, you'll feel the skill gap."
Tak!
Tak!
Tak!
I moved the pieces on the phone app exactly as Wolbi did. Then I copied the AI's moves in the real game.
Wolbi was fighting the AI, not me. Of course, she had no clue.
"......So that's why you're so cocky."
"You're the one who came in cocky, but you're sucking. I don't like women who bluff."
"I have zero reason to care what you like! And this isn't bluffing. Ngh! The game's not over yet!"
Even to my untrained eye, the game was done. Her king was surrounded by my soldiers. I called it.
"Check."
"Ngh...!"
No way she could avoid checkmate. Wolbi hung her head. I'd deliberately scratched at her pride.
"Hey now. Where'd that Janggi player go? Your turn to checkmate."
"I lost......"
For a split second, red eyes glinted through the holes in her rabbit mask—no, fox mask. Wolbi ground her teeth and reset the pieces to the starting position.
"That was just a small mistake! Again! Let's go again!"
"Love the excuses. Fine, round two."
The results were the same no matter how many times we played. Unless she pulled some wuxia protagonist-level growth spurt, victory was mine. Or rather, the AI's.
"Check."
"Checkmate!"
"Check."
"Checkmate!"
"Check."
"......I lost."
I beat her 13 straight games. I'd meant to rest for just half an hour, but over an hour passed.
After thoroughly riling Wolbi with Janggi, we hit the road again. She'd recovered fully. Looked like she'd purged all the Scattering Qi Poison.
"Haha! You're total dogshit."
Games are a miracle cure for tension. I naturally switched to casual speech with the loser Wolbi.
"Shut your mouth! You're trash from the tongue up! Even the lowliest new recruit in my cult has more manners than you!"
"From what I saw, those Shadow Phantom assassins earlier weren't exactly high-class. Even I can't bend time."
"......Exceptions happen sometimes. Anyway, if not for the Scattering Qi Poison, I'd have won!"
Scattering Qi Poison messes with your inner energy. Sure, it might cause some dizziness from qi dispersal, but that's not why she lost. Even at full strength, the Janggi result would've been the same. She knew it too.
She's got a surprising competitive streak. At first glance, she seemed like an emotionless doll, but she's just holding it all in.
Forcibly bottled emotions burst out like a waterfall once the cork pops. Backlash of restraint, I guess.
"A·ny·way! I can't accept this loss! It's invalid! Cheating! Conspiracy! Deception!"
"Got it, got it. Then let's settle it outside. No poison excuse then, right?"
"Hmph...! Who'd play another round with a savage like you? If not for this special situation, I wouldn't even sit with you!"
Already laying the groundwork out of fear. Wolbi had a ton of cute sides.
"Another gate."
Chatting enjoyably with Wolbi—unlike at first—made the time fly. A new door appeared before us. If the original story was right, this was the last one.
"Like the previous one, it's a massively rusted iron gate. Looks like there's a plaque."
"Too weathered to see clearly. Pine tree?"
"Pine tree, rock, tortoise, crane.... The Ten Symbols of Longevity. Probably a shrine or herb room. Or a secret storage."
"Either way, prime treasure spot."
Wolbi nodded lightly in agreement. Maro's compass sword clearly pointed here. She swallowed hard, tense like when we first entered.
I took the lead and opened the iron door.
The grating screech we'd heard so often rang out as the door swung open. A space wider than the passage unfolded before us. And there was Maro.
"Young Master!"
Wolbi rushed to him upon spotting Maro.
"Wolbi. Find anything?"
Maro asked about treasure the moment he saw her. She shook her head.
"Nothing. This seems like a secret sub-branch used by some sect in the past."
"Same here. At first I thought it was a maze made by some twisted eccentric, but there are traces of many martial artists training and living here. And this is their secret storage."
At the back of the room stood a bookshelf with a few volumes. Next to it, a half-collapsed drawer cabinet. Not from external damage—time had simply won.
Unfortunately, the shelves were mostly empty. Most books had crumbled to dust. The few left were unreadable.
"Did you run into the Three Elders' hunting dogs too, Young Master?"
"Yeah. Handled a few Shadow Phantoms. You guys too, huh."
Wolbi nodded. Maro scanned the storage with serious eyes.
"Books are too rotted to read. Not many anyway."
The storage was barer than expected. Didn't take long to search.
"No further paths. If there's treasure, it has to be here...."
Unable to find anything in the shelves or drawers, Maro started thumping the walls.
Even modern sects don't just toss unique martial arts manuals, artifacts, or elixirs into storage. They layer traps and mechanisms to hide them. No different hundreds of years ago.
"They even made a compass sword to record it. If no one else found it, it has to be somewhere here...."
Big picture right, but Maro was barking up the wrong tree on details. I knew where the treasure was.
"Hey. Check this out."
I pointed at a shattered chair. At the end of my finger sat a luxurious chair fit for an emperor's throne. Of course, time had turned it into a rickety wreck too.
"A chair?"
"This chair. Weird design. Look at that blunt decoration underneath. Looks like a safe."
"What's 'design' mean?"
"Simple terms: the shape's off."
I reached for the chair. Peeled off the small box-like protrusion below. The decayed wood gave way easily without force.
"Definitely suspicious box. No way it's in here?"
"Only hiding spot around. Not under the lamp, but under the chair."
The box was iron. Not ordinary iron. A chill like ice touched where my skin met it. Millennial Cold Iron.
Plus a special formation engraved so only someone born under the Heavenly Killing Star can open it.
That's why I dragged Maro here. Without that, no need for him.
Maro reached for the box. The moment his hand touched it, the box vibrated faintly.
"Ngh!"
Maro groaned. Wolbi drew her dagger, alert. She reacted sharply to his response.
"Young Master! You okay!?"
"I'm fine.... The instant I touched the box, I saw something weird."
"Something weird?"
"A black meteor falling. Feels like I've seen it before...."
Maro's Heavenly Killing Star had reacted to the formation on the box. Makes sense—the previous Heavenly Demon engraved it.
This place was once a secret sub-branch of the Demonic Cult.
And the treasure left by the previous Heavenly Demon was the Manifest Demon Pill.