The Thousand-Faced Assassin
A beat behind Yi Won and Lady Un, the two of them stepped into the chamber and saw it at once.
A man lay on the bed.
Bloodshot eyes wide open, utterly motionless — blood had pooled from his mouth, staining the sheets here and there with red.
It was Yi Se-geuk.
He was unquestionably dead.
And there stood Yi Do, looking down at him.
Though they saw only his back, the two of them knew full well what Yi Do had done before entering this chamber. The Jang Clan warriors who had seized the Yi Clan estate numbered two hundred in all.
Yi Do had killed fifty of them alone.
He had cut them down without mercy on his way to the patriarch's hall — and here he was.
Lady Un swallowed dryly.
Another corpse lay dead in the room. It was Jang Mak-su and Jang Un-ryong.
...An ill-fitting question, but it surfaced all the same.
Who had killed Yi Se-geuk?
It was Lady Sang who had poisoned him — but surely it wasn't the youngest son standing over there who had severed his final breath?
The dead could not be held to account. Which meant, in other words, that the death of the patriarch could only be seen as Yi Do's unilateral act.
Yi Do, without so much as turning his head, spoke flatly.
"Have you finished settling your affairs?"
"...Yes. It is done."
"Well done, Second Mother."
"...Speak."
"As of today, my second elder brother is no longer the acting patriarch — he is the Patriarch of the Yi Clan."
"..."
"Prepare the succession ceremony."
"...It shall be done."
Yi Won, who had been standing quietly, asked.
"What of the Jang Clan?"
As if to say, what kind of question is that, Yi Do answered.
"We annihilate them, of course."
"..."
"Tell the warriors to rest for two sichin."
"...That will be enough?"
Yi Do turned his head. Two icy eyes locked onto Yi Won.
"The road here was treacherous, and we have already fought one battle. Charging into another the moment it ends would make for a sloppy fight."
"..."
"And yet — now is not the time to stop. Two sichin is ample time. I will meditate briefly, so go rally the soldiers. Are you not the Patriarch of this clan?"
He would become patriarch. That much was certain.
And yet it felt strangely as though he were patriarch and not patriarch at once.
Yi Won let none of it show.
"Understood. It shall be done."
Yi Won and Lady Un left the chamber.
Left alone, Yi Do rose from his seat — then paused for a moment. A ledger lay fallen on the floor. He picked it up as it was.
He had been curious for some time now.
The Yi Clan was unquestionably a household that earned a great deal of money, yet strangely stingy about how it spent it. He had suspected they were simply hiding everything away in some vault, and so he opened the ledger in silence.
He read through it quickly.
"...Material Expenses?"
Just as Jang Mak-su had, Yi Do sensed something wrong. The sum was absurd. It was truly bizarre — but he set it aside for now. He could settle the Jang Clan first and investigate afterward.
He crossed his legs where he sat.
The elixirs taken from the Sang Cloud Merchant Group, and the single Gold Pill he had obtained when he raided Sang Cloud before. He poured all of it into his mouth at once.
He could delay no longer. His body and mind had long since finished their preparations. He would blast open every remaining blocked meridian with the medicinal power of the elixirs, and step into the Four Realms of Qi Condensation.
Two sichin would be plenty.
He closed his eyes.
It was about half a gak later when a man in a mask and skintight clothes slid silently into the chamber. He gazed at Yi Do sitting in meditation, then concealed himself against the wall.
While all of Jangryeong Commandery seethed with uproar, the atmosphere within the Hyeokli Clan estate had gone utterly still.
Hyeokli Wonpyeong, the clan head, lay in his chamber staring at his second son as though the boy were dead. He was breathing. He was simply asleep.
It came down to a fundamental question: why had Hyeokli Wonpyeong never joined the Jang Clan in its assault on the Yi Clan?
Cautious though he certainly was, the Yi estate had been all but empty. Had the Jang Clan's forces and the Hyeokli Clan's strength combined, they could have swept away Yi Do and every remaining remnant of the Yi Clan alike.
Even if the prize was uncertain, one ought at least to try — the odds had simply been too high.
And yet Hyeokli Wonpyeong had canceled every plan.
He'd had no choice. Because a single man had come to visit him.
The man had approached without a sound and pressed a blade to Hyeokli Wonpyeong's throat. Who are you, he had asked. The man answered that it hardly mattered, and said this to him:
"Leave the Yi Clan be."
The voice had been tremendously deep and resonant, and though the man stood behind him, the sheer pressure of his presence was overwhelming.
"...Might I ask who you are?"
"I told you — it doesn't matter. Hyeokli Wonpyeong. I have no wish for Jangryeong Commandery to grow any noisier than it already is. Cancel every plan. I am telling you not to make an enemy of 'him.'"
"...But the odds of victory here are—"
"Do you truly believe the odds are high?"
"..."
"Even I cannot fathom the depth of that boy's limits. Unlike you, frozen stiff as you are right now, he took my killing intent as a laughing matter. You and he are vessels of a fundamentally different caliber. Your ways of acting differ. Your ways of thinking differ."
Hyeokli Wonpyeong had not understood a word of it. He swallowed dryly. He wanted to live.
The man behind him continued in a voice stripped of all emotion.
"I give you my word. If the Hyeokli Clan involves itself in the Yi Clan's war, you will die — without fail. Your second son lying over there merely tapped the wrong vein; next time, I will not even need to take his blood myself. Imagine for yourself at whose hands you would die."
The blade at his throat was withdrawn. He turned his head. No one was there.
And then the man's voice drove itself into Hyeokli Wonpyeong's mind one last time.
"Remember this."
And with that, he was gone.
That was why the plans had been canceled.
Hyeokli Wonpyeong's hands trembled uncontrollably. What manner of transcendent master could this be, that he would shield the Yi Clan?
"...Myo Man-li...? No — it couldn't be that man."
He clutched his head. Then who in the world was it?
His skull began to ache.
I opened my eyes. In the same instant, I turned my head.
Gazing at the wall where nothing appeared to be, I tossed out the words casually.
"Didn't I tell you never to return to the murim?"
From the shadowed wall, where nothing could be seen, a man slowly revealed himself. He wore a mask, and his frame was strikingly thin — had I not known his identity, I would truly have taken him for someone else entirely.
He did not remove the mask, but the voice was the same as ever.
Hwang No-baek, the Thousand-Faced Assassin.
"Jo Hyeon, then?"
"Yes. My first-ever disciple begged and pleaded with me to go help you... Tch. I suppose I simply moved after a long while."
"I see. I am grateful for your protection. I shall compensate you handsomely in due course."
"No need. You already paid me well enough to open the inn. I'll consider that debt settled."
I rose slowly from my seat, and Hwang No-baek continued.
"I mention this because you may not know — the Hyeokli Clan, the ones who schemed alongside the Jang Clan, I handled neatly on their end myself."
"That was an unnecessary gesture."
"...Heh. Just how much blood needs to spill before you stop?"
I ignored him and examined the wound on my abdomen. It hadn't healed perfectly, but it was far better than before. Hardly surprising.
I had now opened and connected the Ren, Du, and Yang meridians. And that was not all — a small lower dantian had newly formed at the midpoint of my solar plexus. With this, I had fully ascended to the Four Realms of Qi Condensation.
While forcing open the Ren, Du, and Yang meridians, I had used the remaining elixirs to heal the wounds inside my body — internal and external alike.
Of course, the internal injuries had been far graver than the external ones, so the medicinal energy had fallen short of restoring my exterior entirely. Still, I was satisfied.
"It defies all common sense, but... congratulations on reaching the Four Realms of Qi Condensation."
"Thank you."
"By the way — aren't you seventeen this year?"
"I am. Is that a problem?"
"A problem? Yes. A warrior of the later generation entering the Four Realms of Qi Condensation at that age — I have never heard of such a thing in my life."
I laughed.
"That you have never heard of it does not mean it has never happened. I know a man who entered the Four Realms of Qi Condensation at twelve, and the Four Heaven-Earth Realms at eighteen."
Hwang No-baek was visibly stunned.
"...Such a person exists?"
"He exists."
"..."
"In any case — do you truly intend never to return to the murim?"
"If I did, I fear it would interfere with the cooking."
"I see. Then it's settled. I will be visiting the inn before long, so come by."
"...Truly, you are an impossible man to read. Then I'll be going."
Just as Hwang No-baek was about to leave, he stopped in place — as though something had slipped his mind — and spoke to me.
"Someone from the Imperial Sword Sect visited the Jang Clan estate."
"So?"
Hwang No-baek shook his head in weary disbelief.
"...If you provoke the Imperial Sword Sect as well, then not even I can do anything for you. If the Imperial Sword Sect comes flooding into Jangryeong Commandery, then regardless of Jo Hyeon's pleas, I will turn my back on you."
Straightening the folds of his clothes, he added in a low voice, "My lord."
"Hwang No-baek."
"Yes, my lord."
"Have I ever once asked you for help?"
"...No. Never."
"And I never will. What I do has nothing to do with you or yours. Jo Hyeon is my man — but he is yours as well. A wind of blood will howl around me from now on, so if you wish to walk into it, I won't stop you. But neither will I compel you. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"..."
"If the Imperial Sword Sect thrusts its spoon into a debt of gratitude and vengeance that already exists, then I will shatter the Imperial Sword Sect too. They may have started this fight — but when it stops, and whether it stops, is mine to decide. And I do not stop until I have stamped out the very root."
"...My lord. May I offer a word?"
"Speak."
"A sword grown too straight will, sooner or later, surely break."
"Then bending it would leave me with regret."
"Is leaving regret behind not better than dying?"
I shook my head.
"In my resolve to live without regret, how could I ever bend? Broken and shattered though I may be, I will never, ever bow. That is my mu — my martial way."
"...Walk the path of the hegemon long enough, and you may yet fall into the demonic path."
"I have not crumbled. Whether it's the hegemon's path or the demon's path — what does it matter?"
As if struck by some great enlightenment at those words, Hwang No-baek let out a strange gasp of admiration.
"...You are seventeen without question, and yet... could you be some ancient master who achieved returning to youth from old age?"
The absurdity of it wrung a laugh out of me.
"If you're going to waste breath on nonsense — go."
"Yes, I'm going. Truly... I can't make you out at all. When everything is finished, come to the inn. I'll make you that Dongpo pork I prepared and never served."
"Very well."
And with that, Hwang No-baek vanished.
I moved at a leisurely pace. Below, I could see the Yi Clan warriors, fully arrayed and ready for battle. And there was Yi Won as well, his face flushed with excitement.
"Are the preparations complete?"
Yi Won's voice carried a faint thrill.
"Yes. They're done."
"Then let us depart at once."
Our destination was the Jang Clan estate.