The One Whose Time Stopped
"Are you seriously going to do this?"
Yeo Hwa backed away, irritation written across her face.
"Baek Mun-do is mine to kill."
"Your pride, as ever..."
At Cheolgoe's words, she had no choice but to sheathe her willow leaf sabers.
Baek Mun-do stared at her, and at those sabers, with trembling eyes. How could he ever forget them? Those willow leaf sabers were seared into his memory.
"You... aren't you So-hye?"
Hohoho...!
At his question, Yeo Hwa tipped her head back and laughed. "So you still recognize me."
Once, she had adored Baek Mun-do. But his eyes had been fixed on another woman. She had tried seducing him under the pretense of sharing drinks, yet he had not wavered in the slightest.
"How could you...?"
"If you'd just accepted me back then, none of this would have happened, would it? Cheolgoe says he won't yield you to anyone, so I'll be taking your children with me."
With a soft whistle of wind, Yeo Hwa left without a trace of regret.
"How... how is So-hye even alive?"
Baek Mun-do asked it of Cho Bi-ja with hollow eyes, and the man lifted his spear before speaking.
"Our time stopped, you see. Long ago."
Swish...
Having cleaved through an enemy's throat, Baek Won-young dropped to one knee on the ground.
"Hah...! Huff...!"
He gasped for breath, then doubled over and vomited blood.
"Urgh...!"
His body was already riddled with wounds, great and small, his robes soaked crimson with his own blood and his enemies'. Had he faced the foe alone, he would never have been hurt so badly. But he had also been charged with protecting the young prodigies, and it had left him a walking ruin.
So this is how I die, then. If only Ha-young and my martial sister could make it out of here safe...
"Great Hero Baek...! On your feet, quickly!"
Ak Hwan hauled him up by the shoulder.
"Thank you... Young Hero Ak."
Baek Won-young lifted his head and scanned his surroundings. For all his desperate efforts, many of the young prodigies had already been reduced to corpses, and the survivors were scattered to the winds.
"We must... rally the Crouching Dragon Society."
"You must see to your own body first, Great Hero Baek."
Ak Hwan moved to support him out of the battlefield.
"Unhand me. I will fight... until the moment I die."
When Baek Won-young tried to wrench his arm free, Ak Hwan grew desperate. If this went on, the man would certainly die. And yet they could not flee into the Murim Alliance headquarters either — flames were rising within its walls as well, and it was obvious the enemy had breached them. Clutching Baek Won-young's body against his own, Ak Hwan searched for a stretch of ground free of enemies.
But enemies lay in every direction.
"KRAAAGH...! KRAAAGH...!"
Figures with rolled-back white eyes came shrieking at them like beasts.
At that very instant, Baek Won-young tore free of Ak Hwan's arm and launched himself forward.
Swish... swish...
Thud...
Two heads soared into the open air, and the headless bodies crumpled to the earth.
Thud...
Baek Won-young, having beheaded the attackers, collapsed limply beside them.
"Great Hero Baek..!"
Ak Hwan rushed to catch him and ease him upright. "Great Hero Baek, are you all right..?"
"Young Hero Ak...!"
At that moment, two prodigies of the Crouching Dragon Society came running to his side.
"Great Hero Baek is gravely wounded! We must move him somewhere safe at once!"
Ak Hwan shouted urgently.
"There is no safe place here, Young Hero Ak."
"Then let us fall back over there for now."
The prodigies helped Ak Hwan carry him toward the forest where the inn stood. Moving along the main road, they spotted the glow of fires bleeding out through the trees. And there, at the very center of the Stone Bridge that connected to the forest, a dim figure stood waiting.
"It seems the enemy has already claimed that ground as well."
At the prodigy's words, Ak Hwan ran out ahead of them all.
"Help us...!"
Even Yang Jeong, coiled tight with tension, heard that cry. He had braced himself for an enemy, but the man who emerged was none other than Ak Hwan, the young warrior who had visited the inn not long ago. Considerably relieved, Yang Jeong lowered his voice.
"Welcome, Young Hero Ak."
Ak Hwan crossed the Stone Bridge alongside the prodigies supporting Baek Won-young between them.
"Brother.....!"
The moment Baek Ha-young recognized him, she shrieked his name and came running.
"You're... safe... thank goodness."
Baek Won-young recognized her face as well.
"Lay him down here, quickly."
At Ja-seol's urgent voice, the prodigies eased his body onto one of the tables.
"I'm... all right, martial sister. I can still... swing a sword."
Even utterly spent, Baek Won-young tried to force himself upright.
"Please, just stay still, Brother...!"
Baek Ha-young's voice cracked sharp as she frantically tore open his blood-soaked robes. His body was a patchwork of stab wounds, some deep, some shallow. When Ja-seol brought back cloths, Baek Ha-young set to wiping away the blood streaming from his wounds.
Jiang Zhou watched all of this in silence, then disappeared into the kitchen. There he pried open a liquor jar and drew out a thick root of heshouwu, the legendary rejuvenating medicinal root.
Thock..!
He sliced the root into fat, hearty pieces and stepped back out of the kitchen.
"Chew this down and swallow it. It will bring your strength back."
"What is that?"
Baek Ha-young eyed Jiang Zhou with open suspicion. But Baek Won-young did not doubt him for a moment.
"Thank you... Brother Jiang."
Jiang Zhou placed a thick slice of the root into his mouth.
Ah. It's liquor.
The moment something settled on his tongue, a deep, mellow aroma of aged wine bloomed through his mouth.
In a moment like this, I suppose even the power of liquor is welcome.
While Baek Won-young was still thinking this, Yang Jeong's voice rang out.
"Boss! More enemies are coming!"
The instant those words landed, fear washed over the faces of every prodigy present.
But Jiang Zhou's answer was the very picture of tranquility.
"Handle it yourself."
"The prodigies vanished into that forest."
At her subordinate's report, Yeo Hwa's brow knotted. Why did it have to be that place, of all places? That forest held that wretched inn, and the inn's owner was no man to trifle with.
"And what exactly were you lot doing while they slipped away?"
Her subordinates felt the injustice keenly. They had hardly been standing idle — they had simply been locked in combat with other Murim Alliance warriors and unable to give chase.
"We move."
The moment her voice rose, the tattooed figures and the white-eyed ones fell in behind her.
Cheolgoe is going to throw an absolute fit when he finds out about this later...
Like Cheolgoe — the man who had once been Cho Bi-ja — she, too, felt a strange reluctance about striking the inn. The cooking of that far-from-weak innkeeper was simply too magnificent.
Still, if Baek Mun-do's son is in there, I suppose I have no choice but to attack.
As the inn drew near, a lone figure came into view, standing firm at the center of the Stone Bridge.
Is that him?
A few more paces closed the distance, and his face emerged from the gloom.
Good grief — how can a man possibly be that handsome?
She had seen plenty of handsome men in her long life, but never one like this. Yeo Hwa came to a halt and simply stared at the young man barring the bridge's center. Behind him, firelight spilled out from the inn, and she could make out the shapes of the young prodigies as well.
Hoho...
Yeo Hwa laughed in sheer disbelief.
"You're no Zhang Fei of Changban — what do you think you're doing, standing there like that?"
A very long time ago, it was said, a fierce general named Zhang Fei had stood alone at the middle of a bridge and held back an army of one hundred thousand. Unwilling to kill the handsome man without cause, Yeo Hwa spoke first.
Yang Jeong felt cold sweat sliding down his spine. That woman with the face full of tattoos was surely a master — and not just any master, but an unimaginably powerful one.
I never should have stood here.
Regret always arrived too late. And with all those beautiful young ladies watching from behind him, he could hardly afford to show weakness either.
"I... will hold the enemy back."
Then Baek Won-young, sprawled on the table inside, began to rise.
In that instant, a strange light flickered through Yeo Hwa's eyes.
It's over. That Baek Won-young has ruined everything.
The moment Yang Jeong met that gaze, it felt as though the sky were caving in on him.
"Cross."
At Yeo Hwa's icy command, one of the white-eyed ones charged.
"KRAAAGH.........!"
Swish...
The head of the shrieking attacker went rolling across the stones.
The prodigies, wound tight as bowstrings, stared open-mouthed at Yang Jeong's back.
"Young Hero Yang..........."
Baek Ha-young above all had gone completely slack with awe. But Yang Jeong, having just beheaded a man, wore the expression of someone on the verge of tears. Thank heavens it had only been a weak one. If that woman, or one of the heavily tattooed ones, came at him next, he was a dead man.
Hoho..
"So you really were the Zhang Fei of Changban? I underestimated you."
At her flick of the eyes, a tattooed man slashed out with his saber.
"KWAAANG......!"
But even that blade-wielding man was knocked reeling backward by Yang Jeong's sword. Yang Jeong, who had hammered the strike down, staggered on his feet as well. The prodigies were astonished — and so, for that matter, was Yeo Hwa. Baek Won-young, halfway to his feet, stared dumbfounded at Yang Jeong's back.
But Jiang Zhou only frowned.
Idiot.
Judging that enough was enough, he started walking toward the Stone Bridge. Samryong was not as weak as all that. The boy had enough skill to hold his own against Jiang Zhou's own sword to some degree — enemies of this caliber were well within his power to dispatch. Granted, it was a contest fought without internal energy, but even so, the boy's swordsmanship had passed far beyond the ordinary.
The moment Jiang Zhou stepped into view, even Yeo Hwa tensed.
"Fall back."
She raised a hand to halt her subordinates.
"B-Boss..."
Yang Jeong breathed an inward sigh of relief.
Now you're all dead.
Jiang Zhou came face to face with Yeo Hwa.
"I hear the Alliance Leader's son is inside... Hand that one over to me, and I'll withdraw quietly."
Yeo Hwa opened with her demand.
"This is my inn, and it is my land. Come as a guest, and I will receive you with every courtesy."
At his reply, her eyes rippled with an eerie, piercing light.
"And if I refuse?"
Thick, coagulated killing intent rolled off her entire body. It surged past Jiang Zhou and Yang Jeong and washed over the inn itself. The prodigies shuddered from head to toe.
But Jiang Zhou remained perfectly composed.
"My brother's sword here is quite sharp, you see."
"B-Boss... please stop joking."
Yang Jeong whispered under his breath. But Jiang Zhou brushed the whisper aside.
"And further — if my brother so much as takes a scratch, I will marshal every last ounce of my strength and beat the lot of you to death."
Yang Jeong was moved to the depths of his soul.
"You really... are all I have, Boss."
Aigoo..
"You damn fool."
The prodigies could not have known, but Yeo Hwa understood precisely how much weight that threat carried. Yumrado had been a master even she acknowledged. True, his skill sat a notch below her own these days, but the gap was not a wide one. And yet that Yumrado had died at this man's hands. Just to be safe, she had sent only her subordinates with the strongest martial arts — and every last one of them had been killed as well.
"So in the end, you want to die by my hand?"
And yet she could not bring herself to back away like this.
Shing...
As she drew the willow leaf saber from her waist, the moonlit blade flared with light. Jiang Zhou, for his part, nudged the guard of his sword lightly with his thumb.
But Yeo Hwa never got the chance to loose her sabers. Countless figures were come running at them out of the darkness.
"What is it?"
she asked in a voice like ice. The one leading the runners bowed deeply.
"Cheolgoe has ordered our withdrawal — we have already gained all there was to gain."
"What is that supposed to mean? I haven't gained a single thing!"
When Yeo Hwa exploded in fury, the messenger only bowed lower still.
"Cheolgoe said he would take half — and that half has been obtained."
"Damn it...........!"
She shrieked once more, then shot a venomous glare at Jiang Zhou.
"You are very lucky."
Sheathing her willow leaf sabers, she turned and moved off, a cold wind rising in her wake.
"We go."
When she vanished into the darkness, Jiang Zhou turned back toward the inn as well. The moment he did, Baek Ha-young came darting out. Yang Jeong, meanwhile, was still planted at the center of the Stone Bridge, glowering after the retreating enemy.
"I never dreamed you were such a master, Young Hero Yang. Truly impressive, Young Hero Yang."
Hahaha...
At her fulsome praise, Yang Jeong let out a grand, hearty laugh.
"It was nothing at all."
Cho Bi-ja lowered his spear and drew back.
"That was enjoyable, Mun-do."
Baek Mun-do glared at him, fury blazing in his face.
"What was enjoyable? Can you not even see the ones who threw their lives away for nothing?"
"Death simply came to them a little sooner than it otherwise would have."
"Where has the chivalrous Cho Bi-ja of old gone?"
"Forget that man. I am not Cho Bi-ja. I am Cheolgoe."
With a long whistle of wind, Cho Bi-ja's figure scattered into the empty air even as the words left his mouth.
What happened to you all these years, Bi-ja?
Baek Mun-do said nothing, only watched in silence as his old friend's form receded into the far distance.