Attackers in the Dead of Night
Yang Jeong left the house and drove the cart toward the inn.
"Heeyah...... heeyah..... Come on, move faster, you beasts!"
His heart was in a rush, but the horses pulling the cart refused to move at the pace he wanted.
The stallion in particular was a problem. The wobbly-legged creature had a habit of delaying them every single trip.
I need to hurry back and start steeping the liquor......
The spirit herbs he'd gathered in the mountains were only two roots. One was a fleeceflower root nearly a thousand years old, and the other was a snow ginseng of roughly the same age. As for the ten drops of Clear Blue Rock Oil, he had carefully stored them in a wooden vial.
Sitting idly in the shade, he watched the horses grazing. Of the two, the unsteady stallion at least had a respectable pedigree — and yet it was the weakest of all the escort agency's horses.
"Please, just move, you brutes............!"
The moment Yang Jeong bellowed, the grazing stallion simply plopped down right where it stood.
Good grief......
Heaving a long sigh, he stared blankly at the sky — and then his eyes flashed.
Would the fleeceflower root work on animals too?
Feeding a thousand-year-old fleeceflower root to a wobbly-legged nag felt like a terrible waste. But the root was so thick and massive that slicing off a piece seemed reasonable enough. More than anything, he was genuinely curious whether spirit herbs had any effect on horses at all.
He drew the long, thick root from his sack and cut it in half. Even halved, the root was still as long as his forearm. Yang Jeong cut it in half again, then brought it to the mouth of the seated stallion.
Munch, munch............
The stallion gobbled it right up. Chewing the fleeceflower root slowly and swallowing it, the animal gradually rose to its feet — and its two eyes were shimmering with a strange, uncanny light.
Whoa...........
"That medicine hits fast."
Delighted, Yang Jeong climbed onto the cart and took up the reins.
Creak...... creak.......
As the two horses began to move, the cart wheels started rolling at last. The speed, however, was exactly what it had been before.
"Agh...... the medicine just doesn't work on horses."
Unable to hide his disappointment, he stuffed a piece of the sliced root into his own mouth.
Munch, munch......
Just like the stallion, Yang Jeong chewed the fleeceflower root with slow, deliberate bites.
Buuurp..........
Then, of all things, the stallion pulling the cart let out a long, deep belch. When the belch was done, the animal suddenly began to run like something possessed.
Thud-thud-thud-thud...........
Startled, Yang Jeong seized the reins in desperation.
"Wha......? Wha......? What's wrong with you? Hey! Slow down, you beast........!"
Jiang Zhou sat in the kitchen, waiting for customers to arrive. But by the time evening had fully settled in, not a single soul had come.
"Damn it. I figured at least the underlings of those middle-aged guests would show up....."
The middle-aged visitors who had come late the night before were unquestionably masters holding fairly high positions. Which meant they were bound to have plenty of subordinates — yet with so much as a nose hair failing to appear, it seemed they hadn't breathed a word to anyone.
The sun had long since sunk below the horizon, and the hour was already slipping past midnight. Having waited through the late hours for guests that never came, Jiang Zhou prepared himself a meal from all the leftover meat.
"Damn it. I swear I don't know what to do with this place night after night."
He had earned ten thousand silver taels selling liquor, but it brought him not the slightest joy. That liquor ought to have fetched a full million silver taels, not ten thousand.
Having set the table, Jiang Zhou took his seat and picked up his chopsticks.
Sssssss.......
Just then, a bone-chilling wind came drifting from the forest to the north. It slipped over the old mansion and seeped all the way into the inn.
What...... is that smell?
Jiang Zhou flared his nostrils, and his brow creased. Woven into the scent of the wind was a foul note of decay.
It was an old mansion, so the smell of rotting wood was only natural. But this was not the scent of rotten timber. It was the stench that rose from corpses not long buried.
Don't tell me...... a ghost?
Jiang Zhou went into the kitchen and came back out with his pitch-black sword in hand. They said many people had died in this mansion, so perhaps it was only natural for vengeful spirits to appear.
I've never once fought a ghost before......
Jiang Zhou began to feel quietly uneasy. If the enemy were human, there would be ways to deal with it — but a ghost was another matter entirely. And having never laid eyes on one in his life, he found himself secretly afraid.
As he scanned the mansion grounds, however, the wind went right out of his sails. Dark figures were flying over the mansion's fence — and no matter how he looked at them, they were no ghosts.
One, two, three, four.....................
A rough count put their number at over twenty.
Jiang Zhou spoke in a composed, measured voice. "This mansion and the forest surrounding it are all my land. Leave now."
Foul auras they might carry, but he could hardly go swinging his sword at them without cause.
At his words, the dark shapes cutting across the mansion grounds stopped dead in their tracks. And in the same instant, one of them closed the distance in a flash, bearing down on him.
Swaak...
The creeping, spine-chilling killing intent drove straight for his throat; Jiang Zhou twisted his stance and moved his blade.
Clang...!
As the sword was knocked away, the man in the shadows flinched and fell back — but as if nothing had happened, he flung his blade at Jiang Zhou once more.
Shaaaaaa.......
In that same moment, blades came pouring in from all four directions.
And then a killing intent flared in Jiang Zhou's eyes. He didn't know who these bastards were. But they had tried to kill him — and whatever they were, they would pay a price to match.
Swhack..... thud.... thud...
The blades raining down from every side cut through his neck and pierced his body clean through.
Fsss.........
Jiang Zhou's pierced body dissolved away like smoke.
Swaak....... swhack......
At the same moment, Jiang Zhou's sword split the darkness. Heads rolled, and flesh was carved apart.
Kkaak.....!
Kkeuk..!
Amid the death-rattles of final screams, the beheaded and the cleaved-open tumbled across the ground.
Crash...... boom......!
Behind them, the pillar of a front hall — severed by his blade moments before — collapsed to the earth with a thunderous clamor.
Swhack..... swaak........
The masked men hurled themselves at him, utterly heedless of death. Jiang Zhou kept moving, stance after stance, without pause.
Kkeok..!
Keuaa...!
Cutting down his enemies at a blistering pace, Jiang Zhou abruptly shifted his footing.
Saaak......
In that instant, a frigid gust swept across his waist.
Jiang Zhou's eyes pierced the darkness and locked onto the man who had swung the blade. The middle-aged giant held a colossal blade in one hand — and his condition was deeply wrong.
"Kill....... me....... kill....... me..........."
His eyes showed nothing but white, and his mouth kept muttering the same words over and over. And from his body rose that revolting stench of decay.
Don't tell me.......... it can't be?
Jiang Zhou suddenly remembered his master's warning. His master had told him to beware of anyone whose eyes rolled back white — and this man fit that warning to the letter.
"Kill.... kill....."
The man, still droning the same words, abruptly flashed his white eyes toward Jiang Zhou.
Huak........!
In a blink, those white eyes were upon him. At the same time, the giant's great blade slashed across Jiang Zhou's stance in a diagonal line — from left shoulder to right flank. The stance shattered and scattered into the darkness like smoke.
Swaak....
The moment his stance dispersed, Jiang Zhou was already carving into the giant's side. But the middle-aged giant was no easy opponent.
KAANG.......!
Sword and great blade collided, and a clash of qi erupted between them.
Whiii.........
The qi shockwave rippled outward in rings, sweeping away the aged halls nearby.
Crash.... boom! Boom!
Pillars of the old halls, caught in the shockwave, shattered and crumbled to the ground.
This was the first time he had faced a master this strong. Even Buk Yeomra, whom he had cut down long ago, would not have been this middle-aged giant's equal.
"Kill....... kill.....kill......"
Even as he swung his great blade, the giant did nothing but repeat those words.
KWAAK........! KWAANG.........!
Every time sword and blade met, the qi shockwave shook the mansion wrapped in darkness to its foundations.
Swaak......
The moment Jiang Zhou severed the man's neck, a colossal great blade came crashing down from above.
KWAAANG......!
The great blade split not only Jiang Zhou's body but the very earth beneath it in two.
Sssss......
As his stance split from crown to crotch, Jiang Zhou's eyes were fixed on the giant's profile.
Swaak...
Jiang Zhou's gaze collided head-on with the white eyes of the middle-aged giant turning his head.
In that instant, his sword blade was cutting through the arm gripping the blade.
Swaak......
Thump...... shudder......
The severed arm fell to the ground, convulsed, and went still.
Thud....!
At the same moment, blood burst from the giant's flank. Yet the middle-aged giant did not so much as knit his brow.
No — if anything, his great blade was cleaving straight for Jiang Zhou's neck.
KWAAANG.........!
Jiang Zhou battered the great blade aside, and as the giant staggered off-balance, drove his sword deep into his chest.
Thud.....!
In that moment, dark pupils seeped back into the two eyes that had shown nothing but white.
Haaa........
With a long, deep breath, the middle-aged giant looked up at Jiang Zhou with clear, dark eyes.
".........Thank you."
Kuum....
With those final words, his body toppled backward.
Jiang Zhou stared down at the middle-aged giant, his face blank. Why had this man thanked him with his dying breath? And who in the world were those masked men lying sprawled as corpses all around?
Whatever the case, he could hardly leave the bodies lying there. Jiang Zhou gathered the corpses and carried them into the forest.
"Ah, what a life I lead. Having to bury corpses in the middle of the night."
Grumbling as he hauled the bodies out, he drew the sword he had left planted in the ground.
KWAANG..! KWAKWAKWANG........!
A few swings of the blade split the earth open, carving out a deep, massive pit. Jiang Zhou dragged the masked men into it and buried them all together.
All that remained was a grave for the middle-aged giant. True, the man had tried to kill him — but he felt no hatred, no resentment toward him. Somehow, he had looked like a man who had moved only because he could not help it.
KWAANG............!
Jiang Zhou swung his sword and began digging the second pit.
When he opened his eyes, shafts of light came streaming in. Having finished his circulation meditation, Jiang Zhou slowly rose to his feet.
By the time he had finished burying every last body, the night was already past the tiger hour. It was an awkward time to sleep, so he had begun his meditation then — and when he opened his eyes, morning had already arrived.
I still don't know why those bastards crossed the mansion fence.
Lost in thought as he walked, Jiang Zhou abruptly shot his stance skyward.
Whiii.........
His body soared like the wind and alighted on the mansion's roof. Turning his gaze southeast, he could make out, far in the distance, the high walls and hall rooftops of the Murim Alliance. Turning his head to the northwest, he saw a village far off.
Only then did Jiang Zhou realize the true identity of the masked men who had invaded in the dead of night.
"Damn it...... this mansion sits right on the road leading to the Murim Alliance."
The masked men and the middle-aged giant had been on their way to attack the Murim Alliance. And with the forest lying in between, it was only natural that anyone assaulting the Alliance would pass through this place.
"Master.................!"
Jiang Zhou looked up at the sky and cursed his master, who had ascended to the heavens and left him behind. Of all the places to hand down as an inheritance.
"That sly old snake, honestly."
Grumbling at the heavens, he plopped down where he stood.
His master had worried about the beast-like killing intent in him ever since he was a child. To crush that overwhelming aura, he had put him through grueling martial training, and every time the killing intent flared, he had punished him harshly. Rolling boulders up to the mountain summit had been nothing more than one of the methods to suppress it. At other times, he'd been made to read passages endlessly or to draw pictures. Of them all, the most effective remedy by far had been cooking.
When he cooked, he forgot everything — and so the killing intent could be held down.
And yet it was that very master who had left him this place.
What in the world was he thinking?
Deep in thought, Jiang Zhou shot a sidelong glance — and far off along the great road, a man with a sword at his waist was strolling leisurely toward him, leading two horses.
"You little bastard.............."