Bad Feeling
Demons.
Bloodthirsty creatures that came pouring in from beyond the Outer Frontier of the martial world.
Their strength varied from one to another, but they all shared the same trait: they were vicious by nature and loved the taste of living flesh.
"Sojin…"
Of all times, it had to turn out like this.
Everyone had panicked and rushed up the stairs, so they’d clearly forgotten about her. Or maybe they’d left her behind on purpose.
Guyang Jihee certainly hadn’t made herself easy to like.
And even if it had been an accident, she was the one who’d awakened the demons in the first place.
You reap what you sow.
"Kieeeeeeeek!!"
One coffin after another creaked open, and demons spilled out in a flood.
"S, Sojin… w-whaaah, d-don’t tell me you’re planning to leave me here…?"
Guyang Jihee was trembling all over, staring only at me with a face gone pale with terror.
Cheongmyeong, a direct disciple of the Wudang Sect leader and the heir once thought most likely to succeed him, had been sent across the River of the Dead by the Blood Sect’s treacherous scheme.
And if Guyang Jihee, daughter of one of the Eight Great Families, were to be torn apart and eaten alive by the Blood Sect’s demons?
...
There was no need to think twice. The Blood Demon would launch an all-out war on the spot.
And if that happened, there was no way I’d survive in my current state.
Forget returning home—if I was unlucky, I’d end up as a giant demon’s meal.
I finished calculating everything in the time it took to blink.
...and immediately ran up the stairs.
Better than dying here. And it’s not even certain I’d die for sure.
"S, Sojin! What about me? Take me with you too…"
Since I was the only person she could trust, she called out my name in a pitiful voice.
Clunk!
"Grrrrrrrrr!!!"
"H-heeek! Sojin…!"
It was too late for that.
I had tried to go up the stairs—
Rrrrrrattle—
With the sound of some hidden mechanism whirring furiously,
"What…!"
the passage above the stairs was completely sealed off.
A tightly shut secret door.
Judging by its thickness from when I’d entered, there was no way I could break through it in a short amount of time with my current strength.
Had someone closed it on purpose?
With the express intent of killing me?
Jong Jinwon? Namgung Hye? ...No way, Wei Shiyun?
If not, then maybe even the low-ranking idiots of the Blood Sect didn’t know there was some special condition for the door to close.
Another possibility was that someone panicking had shut it without thinking.
My head was suddenly full of theories.
...
No, that wasn’t important right now.
What mattered most was this:
I was trapped.
Trapped inside a room where bloodthirsty, flesh-eating demons kept coming out one after another.
...Seven demons already. No, make that eight.
The demons kept crawling out of the coffins.
I had to survive this place.
...But where’s the altar?
Those Blood Sect bastards were fanatics, which meant there was always an altar wherever they stayed.
In the original novel, I only learned this much later, traced the altar backward, and wiped out the entire Blood Sect.
There wasn’t an altar on the way in.
It had to be hidden somewhere in the hideout, but I couldn’t see it.
That was probably where they’d stored the most important information or items.
There had to be a hidden room somewhere...
But I was running out of time.
"Grrrrrrrr…"
They’d been in a deep sleep for so long that they were still only growling in place, half-dazed and unsteady.
But once they came to their senses and felt hunger, it would be only natural for them to sink their teeth into the men and women in front of them.
Fuck.
I habitually reached for the upper part of my clothes, only to find no cigarette there, as expected.
"Kieeeek!!"
"Kruuuuuurk!!"
"Keh-reeeeek!"
Wolf-headed demons, chicken-headed demons, pig-headed demons...
Demons with all kinds of beast heads twitched and wriggled.
Every single one of them looked like something dragged straight out of a nightmare.
"W-wait, me too…"
...
Experts at the level of Blood Sect commanders used an object called the Inmajong to control demons, something bestowed by the Blood Demon himself.
Demons weren’t monsters that discriminated before they bit.
At this rate, with demons even devouring one another, the Blood Sect bastards would die all the same without the Inmajong.
Hold on. Then are all the people inside just demon food?
Impossible.
Because inside the hideout were also sacrifices to be offered to the Blood Sect’s grand altar—people like Guyang Jihee or Wei Shiyun.
They were the kind of people whose lives were thrown away to protect the sacrifice itself.
If they weren’t safe, there was no way they’d be kept together.
Guyang Jihee came crawling toward me, dragging her tattered clothes behind her, face twisted into a tearful grimace.
She kept staring only at me as if I were the door to salvation itself...
That was it!
!
A single hypothesis flashed through my mind.
Tap!
"W-What are you doing?! Ah! Aah!"
I rushed over, scooped up Guyang Jihee in one motion, and stuffed her into the barrel made of moonlight pine.
Into the same barrel she’d crawled out of.
"O-open it! W-what are you doing? Hngh! You’re not planning to leave me behind, are you?"
"Stay quiet in there. And I’ll collect your life in medicinal elixir."
"W-what does that even—"
Whoosh!
Then I rolled the barrel, which had been giving off a faint glow, toward the demons.
Rumble, rumble, rumble...
"Kya! Kyaaaaah!!"
The moonlight pine barrel rolled smoothly across the floor like a bowling ball.
This was almost certainly the right answer.
But if I was wrong...
Rest in peace, Guyang Jihee.
I quickly put another moonlight pine barrel over my head and watched the result of the experiment.
Rumble, rumble, rumble... thud.
With a loud clatter, the rolling barrel finally struck a demon and stopped moving.
"Kieeeeeeeeeek!!"
The instant the barrel touched its body, the bear-headed demon began thrashing wildly, shooting out tentacles.
But just as I’d expected, those tentacles didn’t dare target the moonlight pine barrel itself.
"Kehrrrrrrrek!!"
Instead, they sank their teeth into the poor chicken-headed demon and started chewing.
"Hngh, snif... w-what is this...? What is this...? What’s happening, Sojin…"
I ignored her muffled sobbing completely.
Just as I thought!
I picked up a fragment of debris lying on the floor and threw it at the nearest demon.
Whoosh!
"Grrk? Grrrrrrrk!!"
The fragment hit the wolf demon squarely on the head, and it let out a shriek before biting off the pig demon’s arm.
"Kruuuuuurk!!"
Yes.
This was it.
Now I could see a way out.
*
*
*
Clang!
Claaang!
Another vicious sword exchange—no one even knew how many times it had been by now—collided in a spray of sparks.
And yet...
"Heh... so this is all you’ve got?"
"Hihk! Not yet!"
Though she shouted bravely, the purple-haired woman was forced back three steps every time their techniques crashed together.
The man curled his lips in satisfaction at the sight and laughed loudly, almost gleefully.
"...Well now, this is even more boring than I expected."
"Namgung Jin...! Are you proud of overwhelming me just because of your weapon advantage? How pathetic."
"Tang Soyeong. Watch your words. Until now, you simply didn’t have a sword that could properly withstand my power."
"What did you say? That’s ridiculous…"
Namgung Jin paid no mind to her indignant protest and looked at his sword as if admiring a beloved treasure.
"This is my true power. Heh heh."
She wasn’t down yet, but anyone could tell the outcome was already decided.
Tang Soyeong slowly raised both hands.
"I surrender. I lost. So now…"
"No, that’s not enough. Kneel before me and beg. Then say it."
Namgung Jin deliberately cut her off and let out a sneering smile.
All the filthy emotions he’d been holding back until now surged to the surface.
"Say, ‘I’m sorry for all this time, for daring to defy me like the whore I am!!’"
"Are you insane? Do you even hear yourself right now…"
"I feel wonderful. Power is surging through my whole body! Choose, Tang Soyeong!"
"Ugh…!"
The sharp blade in Namgung Jin’s right hand was no ordinary sword.
It was a weapon so powerful that it was hard to find its equal anywhere in the martial world.
Namokcheolgeom—the Southern Jade Iron Sword—flashed a bluish light and threatened her.
"Will you submit to me, or oppose me? And from now on, you’ll handle all the laundry and cleaning. That suits you perfectly!!"
"How can a clan leader do such unfair work…!"
"Shut up! I’m serious, Tang Soyeong. You’d better look forward to it... from now on, things are going to get interesting."
She trembled all over at the humiliating words she had never once heard in her life, tightening her grip on her sword hilt.
"Still haven’t come to your senses? Fine. That’ll make this more fun."
Namgung Jin smirked as if thoroughly enjoying himself and lifted a finger.
It was a clear gesture of provocation.
Flash!
As Tang Soyeong’s eyes widened with murderous coldness,
the two blades of qi crashed into each other.
Claaang!
...And the result everyone had expected came to pass.
*
"Kieeeeeeeeeek!!"
"Grrrrrrrrrk!!"
At last, the bear-headed demon’s skull burst open.
Finally dead.
Only one remained.
The small seed I’d planted had brought about the mutual destruction of more than forty demons.
Once four demons driven purely by instinct started fighting, it was, in a way, the most natural outcome.
Without the Inmajong to control them, their savage nature had been laid bare.
Clunk!
Thud.
And the last remaining one was something I could handle by myself.
Shing—
The moment I drew my sword, my eyes met the demon’s.
It had only instinct, but it probably understood what I was thinking.
"..."
"Grrrrrk!"
Clunk!
Just then, the lid was thrown open and Guyang Jihee, looking like a ragged beggar, sat up and looked around.
"You’ve cleaned everything up by now, haven’t you? At this point... well, you’ve become much more useful than I expected."
"Kurk? Grrrrrk."
That stupid woman.
She must have thought it was safe because no other sounds were coming from outside.
But even a wounded demon would find it child’s play to tear apart a half-dead Guyang Jihee.
"Still, to stuff me into a barrel without saying a word—h-heeek!"
After all that suffering, I deserved to get something out of it.
If she died here, it would all be for nothing.
Swish!
My sword drew a beautiful arc, and the demon’s body split cleanly in two.
Glup.
Silence settled over the room.
Worthless woman.
Watching her there, swallowing her saliva like that, I couldn’t help letting out a sigh.
"Hey. Are you crazy? Have you lost your mind?"
"...Wah."
Guyang Jihee stared up at me as if she’d lost her soul.
Her eyes sparkled like a squirrel seeing a human for the first time.
...
Bad feeling.
For some reason, a chill ran down my spine.
##