Surrender.
Jushin County.
This place was far more famous in the Murim world than one might expect.
To be precise, it was Mount Ten-Thousand-Year Ginseng, located in Jushin County, that had made it famous. The mountain had originally borne an utterly unremarkable name, but after a thousand-year ginseng root was discovered there four hundred years ago, people began calling it Mount Ten-Thousand-Year Ginseng.
In truth, the spiritual energy of the ten-thousand-year ginseng found here could hardly rival that of the Eternal Snow Mountains or the Hundred Thousand Mountains, yet it still possessed spiritual energy of remarkable depth.
Over ten thousand century-old ginseng roots had been unearthed in this place, and the number of three-hundred to five-hundred-year roots had climbed into the hundreds.
It was a place where herb gatherers could turn their entire lives around, and many martial artists and merchants also made pilgrimages here to soak in the mountain's energy.
Naturally, Jushin Prefecture had been elevated to Jushin County, and the city had grown so large that its promotion to a commandery was now all but certain.
Plenty of Murim sects had relocated here as well.
Yi Do hadn't eaten a five-hundred-year ginseng root in this place for nothing.
Having ascended the Thousand Flowers Loft, Yi Do had come down into the village of Jushin County to fill his empty stomach.
Sitting by the window of the first inn he found, eating a bowl of noodles, Yi Do glanced around the room.
Six people who looked like merchants, four who looked like martial artists, and roughly three servers going in and out of the kitchen.
A few of them kept sneaking glances in his direction, but that was pure, undisguised curiosity.
Something along the lines of: how could a human being possibly be that ugly.
Yi Do paid it no mind and silently ate his noodles.
He needed to plan out what came next.
It was true that he was being hunted right now, but hiding away and doing nothing was the sort of thing fools did.
Whoever was chasing him, whatever the circumstances, the only thing Yi Do had to do at this moment was devour as many spirit herbs as he possibly could.
One might even call it obsession — but he had no choice in the matter.
Yi Do did not use ordinary qi.
He refined a portion of the qi that martial artists used, turning it into Pure Harmonious Qi before employing it. It was only thanks to the Ring Stepping Cultivation amplifying that power that he could overwhelm his opponents — and that could hardly work every single moment.
He had to consume spirit herbs, use their energy to widen his meridians and harden them at the same time, and squeeze every last drop of Pure Harmonious Qi from the herbs' energy to accumulate within his dantian.
The Primordial Unity Qi Cultivation could proudly claim to stand above any cultivation method that existed in this world, but it carried one fatal flaw: the speed at which it built internal energy was painfully slow.
Overcoming that required an enormous quantity of spirit herbs.
Yes — spirit herbs.
Only with mountains of spirit herbs could he recover his past life's realm a single day sooner, and only with mountains of spirit herbs could he slaughter the pursuers who would inevitably come. The palace hadn't yet decided who to send next, but it was certain that a master far beyond Shin Gong-baek was on his way.
And the threat of Salmak still lurked in the shadows.
Slowly, one by one, he would erase them all.
Debts and grievances were debts and grievances. Yi Do moved by debts and grievances. It would simply take time — but he would kill every last one of them.
There was so much to be done.
Yi Do had currently settled at a realm between the Three Blossom Perfection and the Five Qi Converging, and had increased the rings in his dantian to three.
For now, he was satisfied with his current realm. Everything had its proper season, and rushing ahead only invited disaster.
This was still astonishingly fast — and appropriately measured.
People came and went. He ordered more noodles, and a jar of Juk-yeop-cheong wine.
Time slipped past.
Then three men who appeared to be merchants entered, their expressions grim.
Yi Do's senses, spread across every corner of the room, sent him a signal.
His brow.
Crumpled into a hideous scowl.
But that lasted only a moment. In the blink of an eye his face returned to normal, and Yi Do went back to his noodles.
The three merchants who had entered earlier began their meal. A little while later, their voices drifted to his ears.
"How are we supposed to handle this? The escorts have fled."
"You're telling me."
"Really — what on earth was Munseong Escort Agency doing to let things fall apart like this... Ahh, hell..."
"Heh heh... Well, the Haomun Branch has an office here as well, so let's try hiring proper escorts through them."
Even had he wanted to, Yi Do couldn't have avoided hearing it.
They were seated directly behind him, and their voices weren't exactly quiet.
Despite himself, Yi Do smiled.
Then it happened.
The voices behind him died down. Just as Yi Do raised another mouthful of noodles to his lips—
"Excuse me... would you happen to be a martial artist of the Murim?"
It was unmistakably one of the merchants who'd been talking behind him.
The man was thin all over.
Much like an assassin.
His eyes were gentle. So unremarkable that it was impossible to tell whether he had ever trained in martial arts, the man forced a smile.
"And your business?"
"Oh — nothing, nothing at all. My name is Sang Cheol-jin, of the Jeongseong Escort Agency in Sawol County. I hold the post of Chief Manager. If it's no trouble, might I ask you to take on a job?"
How often does coincidence truly occur in this world?
As if by chance, Yi Do happened to be eating noodles at an inn in Jushin County — and as luck would have it, merchants happened to be lamenting their shortage of escorts — and as it happened, one of those merchants approached him and asked if he would take a job.
Was this strange confluence of events truly coincidence?
If coincidence stacked upon coincidence, then this was not the operation of some unseen, unknowable current of the world — it had to be a contrived necessity, manufactured by human hands.
The smile blooming at the corners of Yi Do's mouth did not fade.
Yi Do spoke.
"What kind of job do you intend to give me?"
"We're in need of escorts at the moment."
"Destination?"
"The nation of Yeon."
"That's far."
"Far for ordinary men — but for the martial artists who hold the world in awe, surely it's close enough."
"That's not entirely wrong... Fine. In return, you'll pay handsomely."
The man who had introduced himself as Sang Cheol-jin broke into a bright smile.
"Of course. It's a journey to a foreign nation — we could hardly pay you a pittance. We'll see you very handsomely compensated."
He waited in silence.
The three men who had approached him were all Chief Managers of the Jeongseong Escort Agency in Sawol County.
The Master of Jeongseong Escort Agency and the Master of Munseong Escort Agency here in Jushin County were cousins. Being bound by blood, they frequently handled various affairs together — and this was one such case.
The plan, in short, was this.
The three Chief Managers representing Jeongseong Escort Agency would carry the considerable cache of treasure that Munseong Escort Agency held in trust and transport it to the nation of Yeon.
A very simple plan.
Jeongseong had originally assigned several martial artists and escorts to guard its own cargo, but with Munseong's treasure added to the load, the manpower fell drastically short.
Naturally, Munseong was to supply additional escort leaders — and, absurdly enough, a problem had arisen in Munseong's handling of the matter.
Originally there should have been ten martial artists from the Purple Firmament Realm, four from the Twin Radiance Realm, and one from the Five Dragons and Phoenix.
Fifteen martial artists in total should have joined with the treasure — but five of the Purple Firmament men, one of the Five Dragons and Phoenix, and two of the Twin Radiance had vanished.
Something had supposedly happened in the interim, but he hadn't pressed for the details.
What mattered was that they were gone.
The treasure itself came to sixty-two carts.
Carrying this vast fortune to a neighboring nation with so pitifully few guards was outright impossible.
That was the situation.
He waited in silence, arms crossed.
Perhaps half a day passed.
The three Chief Managers arrived with more than twenty martial artists in tow.
Their faces were bright.
Including those who had been escorting the caravan already—
The realms of the martial artists assigned to guard this caravan: forty Purple Firmament Realm martial artists, fifteen Twin Radiance, and three Five Dragons and Phoenix.
Chief Manager Sang Cheol-jin said brightly,
"Right — let's be off."
And so I became an escort, traveling in their company for a time.
By the time the sun had crossed its peak, the caravan ground to a halt.
This was a small village near Yeon-su Town.
"We'll rest here for the night and depart first thing tomorrow morning."
Chief Manager Sang Cheol-jin, having apparently reserved the inn in advance, led our band of escorts there.
It was an inn of just the right size to house fifty-nine martial artists counting myself, and we settled into our places.
Wine and food were laid out at every seat, and the martial artists — everyone except me — began chatting and laughing merrily.
I kept to myself.
The food?
I didn't so much as touch it.
The wine?
Was I insane? Drink this swill?
The martial artist seated beside me asked with a grin.
"Say, quiet friend — where do you hail from?"
I answered with a smile.
"Jangryeong Commandery."
"Jangryeong...? Oh-ho... that place that's been all the talk lately?"
"There was some noisy business there, yes."
"Ah, so that's it. But you're not drinking? This stuff is actually rather good."
"I don't much care for drink."
"I see, I see — you must be one of those Daoist-lineage martial artists, then."
With that, the man tipped back his cup and drained it.
He extended his hand toward me.
"I'm Cheol Baek — they call me the Calculating Blade. The road ahead is long, so let's look out for each other."
I took that hand.
The highest-realm martial artists in this caravan were of the Five Dragons and Phoenix. There were three of them, men so evenly matched that it was difficult to rank them against one another. The man before me was one of those three.
He pointed a finger at two men in turn.
"That one there is Yu Su-gyeom, the Azure Sea Palm — he made quite a name for himself in Wi County. And that one is Jo Yu-chang, the Shadow-Cutting Sword, of Yeonseong. The Jo Clan of Yeonseong — one of the great clans. Surely you've heard of them?"
"I've heard of them."
Yeonseong was one of the largest regions in the Kingdom of Jeok.
Countless sects were gathered there, foremost among them the Yin-Yang Sect, one of the Eight Great Sects. As an aside — the Yin-Yang Divine Gate was founded by a man who had once been an elder of the Yin-Yang Sect before leaving it. Yes, that same Yin-Yang Divine Gate — the one that captured the Central Plains Single Sword Cheon Yeo-bi and hunted my master.
In any case, being the Jo Clan, theirs was a family of swordsmen, and their Shadow-Cutting Sword Art was surprisingly formidable — a martial art that earned genuine recognition in the Murim world.
Jo Yu-chang, the Shadow-Cutting Sword.
I had heard that name before.
Some ten years from now, when the Great Righteous-Demon War broke out, he would distinguish himself considerably in that conflict before joining the Azure Dragon Division of the Murim Alliance.
That was Jo Yu-chang.
I swept my gaze slowly around the room.
They were all chattering noisily amongst themselves, yet every one of their senses was trained on me.
The man guzzling wine over there had been staring at me the entire time, and the man in the corner kept stealing glances in my direction even as he talked to the woman beside him.
This.
Was it simply because I wasn't drinking?
Impossible.
No such trivial reason could create an atmosphere like this.
I beckoned toward the side.
Chief Manager Sang Cheol-jin, who had been pouring wine for several of the martial artists, saw my gesture and approached.
"Sit beside me."
To my mild surprise, he obediently took a seat at my side. I stretched an arm out and draped it over his shoulder.
"My lord — what brings this on...?"
I was traveling under a false name.
Yi Shin.
And this face — the face the Solitary Asura Kang So-eo had called hideously ugly — honestly, I was rather fond of it.
How should I put it? It was a face that seemed like it couldn't belong to this world.
But that too would end today. A shame, really.
Without a word, I filled the empty cup set before me and pushed it in front of Chief Manager Sang Cheol-jin.
He tilted his head.
"Drink."
"...Pardon?"
"I said drink."
At my sudden move, the entire room went quiet at once.
This, too, was proof that every one of them was watching my actions with intense caution. I spoke without expression.
"Why? Can't drink it?"
"...My lord, I don't understand what you mean... I'm afraid I don't handle alcohol very well..."
"Is that so? What a pity. And here I thought, since only my cup had been sitting there glistening untouched, that someone might have smeared poison on it."
"..."
"If Chief Manager Sang Cheol-jin won't drink, then I suppose there's nothing to be done. I don't usually drink myself, but I'll take it as an honor."
Silently I raised the cup to my lips and drained it in one pull.
Gulp.
The taste was surprisingly decent.
"Would this make me... the Formless Mountain Poison Master of the southern reaches, then?"
Cracks ran through that face, which had held its smile from start to finish.
Slowly.
With the arm draped over his shoulder, I wrapped my hand around his throat.
I tightened it, slowly.
Only then did Chief Manager Sang Cheol-jin manage a single sentence.
"...Your internal energy will scatter if you do this."
"And?"
"There's no way you possess the strength to crush my neck. Just let go, my lord. That is, if you'd like to collect your corpse in one piece."
At that cold, contemptuous expression of his, I simply smiled.
Silently, I tightened my arm.
A signal arrived from Chief Manager Sang Cheol-jin's face — it had begun to turn red. Only then realizing that something was terribly wrong, the man swung his right arm. Somewhere along the way a dagger had appeared in his hand — almost certainly one hidden inside his sleeve.
Crack!
I snatched it out of the air with my free hand, unhurried.
"H-how...?"
I ignored him and pressed on.
"The Formless Dispersing Poison only takes effect once it passes the throat."
Like spitting phlegm, I drew up the qi I had condensed at the very end of my esophagus. Khaak—ptoo.
The colorless mass struck Chief Manager Sang Cheol-jin squarely in the face.
"Your dedication was admirable, so I humored you for a while. That's all."
"Stop — please st—"
His words never finished.
Crrrack—!
I flung Chief Manager Sang Cheol-jin's broken-necked body aside, and in the same motion tipped my head back.
A blade ringed in qi swept past before my face. The instant I kicked the table up with my foot, I caught the dagger Sang Cheol-jin had dropped and hurled it straight out.
Cheol Baek the Calculating Blade — who had been swinging his saber — recoiled in alarm, withdrew the blade, and took up a defensive stance.
Clanggg—!
The dagger struck the exact center of his blade and sent him skidding backward a good distance. I rose from my seat.
At some point, every martial artist in the room had drawn their weapons and was leveling them at me.
I laughed.
"I didn't expect Salmak to move this quickly. I'm almost sorry."
"..."
"I'd been underestimating you as a pack of rabble. Consider this my apology."
The remaining two Chief Managers, who had been quietly observing from the corner, stepped forward.
"Look here. Just surrender."
"Why would I?"
"It's not a matter of why — you can't possibly intend to take on every single person in this room. And as Sang Cheol-jin said, if you truly want to collect your corpse in one piece, surrendering is your better option. Did you think Salmak prepared only this much? Even if you miraculously escape this inn, you will die here in Yeon-su Town one way or another. So just surrender."
I shook my head.
"A first and final warning to those who do not belong to Salmak. You pointed your blades at me — I will overlook it just this once. Sheath your swords and go on your way."
"..."
"Opportunities like this don't come along twice in a lifetime. Refuse, and every one of you dies. That's my promise."
Snorts of contempt rang out from all around. I ignored them and continued.
"I'll count to five. Make your decision before I finish. One. Two."
It seemed there was nothing more to wait for.
The two Chief Managers shouted.
"Kill him!"
The martial artists surged forward.