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Chapter 28: First Stratagem
The demonic sometimes pretends to be good or even transforms into goodness. In this way, when the demonic becomes invisible to my eyes, I of course succumb to it disguised as good. The reason is that disguised goodness is more seductive than true goodness.
— Franz Kafka, Czech literary master
***
"Mmm. Ahh!"
"Huff huff."
A woman's sticky moans.
A young man's panting.
The subtle harmony of the two reverberated throughout the splendid room.
The light shining through a large window with an antique comb-pattern design was bright and clear. That light reflected off the sweat that ran across the man's tautly stretched back and the smooth thighs of the woman wrapped around his waist, making them glisten.
The man's movements gradually became faster. In turn, the woman's moans slowly grew louder.
Then at a certain moment.
The man's lower body trembled.
"Ah!"
The woman's short moan hotly split through the moonlight that had entered through the window. She had reached climax. Immediately after, the man's robust upper body completely overlapped onto the woman's voluptuous chest.
"Haah-."
The woman trembled her body once in the afterglow of climax, then slowly opened her eyes. The heated sigh from her mouth briefly obscured her vision along with the heat radiating from the man's hot back, and that time was very short.
"Huh!?"
When the heat mixed with her sigh cleared and she regained her vision, something strange caught her eye. Since she had engaged in sexual intercourse with this man in this room several times, she knew the structure of this place quite well. No matter how dark the night, it wasn't so dark that she couldn't recognize the shape of the ceiling.
She opened her eyes wide and carefully examined the ceiling's shape. Though it was difficult to say exactly where it was strange, it was definitely subtly unnatural.
Just as she couldn't find it and was about to speak to the man lying on top of her, the owner of this room.
Suddenly, two bright blue lights appeared somewhere on the ceiling. They looked like the luminous eyes of a nocturnal beast. No, looking closely, it wasn't just something like that—they were really eyes. The only difference was that they weren't from a wild animal but from a real person.
The ceiling's shape hadn't changed—someone was clinging to the ceiling.
"Wh-who?"
The instinctive first words anyone says in an unexpected encounter with an unanticipated person. And those words became the last words she uttered in this life.
Swoosh! Thunk!
A dagger flew into her open mouth and lodged there. Her tongue, which until just moments ago had been producing sticky love moans, was pierced straight through by the dagger.
Splat.
The moment blood spurted from the woman's mouth and covered the naked man's back, the masked person also dropped to the floor.
Swoosh.
The black-clothed person's sword aimed at the man failed to achieve its purpose and beheaded the innocent woman instead. The woman lost her head in one stroke of the black-clothed person's sword. But her head still remained on the bed. This was because the dagger lodged in her mouth had pierced through the back of her head and deeply embedded itself in the bed.
Clang.
The man who dodged the black-clothed person's sword, as if he had known of the black-clothed person's presence from the start, left the bed the moment the attack began and drew the sword hanging on the wall.
Without a moment's hesitation, he thrust his sword toward the black-clothed person.
It looked like a simple thrust, but that was just an illusion. In reality, that one stroke occupied all directions the black-clothed person could move. If the black-clothed person dodged in any direction, he would spray variations in that direction to block the path.
Flutter flutter!
The man's sword moved cunningly and attacked the black-clothed person.
Now there was only one way for the black-clothed person to survive. To meet the man's one stroke head-on. As if knowing that fact, the black assassin raised the sword that had beheaded the woman and extended it toward the man.
However, the man had confidence in his sword.
Throughout the entire Martial World, there weren't many who could receive this one stroke. Especially in this Anhui Province, they could be counted on ten fingers. It wasn't a sword a mere assassin could receive head-on.
He had not a shred of doubt. That this one stroke would drop to the floor the head of this fearless assassin who aimed for his neck.
But!
Wooooong!
The assassin's sword suddenly turned ink-colored, and a bizarre sword cry rang out. Along with it, the black-clothed assassin's ink-colored sword qi ran wild and began cutting through all of the man's sword qi. The man's sword qi was all being extinguished before it could even spray variations.
"Mm!? This is?"
The reason the man was surprised wasn't because his sword was blocked by the assassin's sword. What surprised him was that though it was a sword technique he hadn't seen in a very long time, he knew the assassin's sword technique very well.
"Ink Madness Killing Sword!? Damn it!"
The man urgently withdrew the sword he had extended, but the situation was already too late. Eventually, the man's trembling sword tip and the black-clothed assassin's ink-colored sword qi met in midair.
Clang clang clang!
Compared to the momentum the two swords were emitting, the sound of clashing swords wasn't very loud. But the impact was by no means light.
In the aftershock of the black-clothed person's shattered ink sword qi, scratches appeared all over the naked man's body, and deeply gouged sword marks appeared in various places on the floor and ceiling between them.
On the other hand, one side of the black-clothed person's mask was cut off, revealing the lower part of his face. On his left cheek was a long scar mark.
A kind of mutual defeat where neither completely won.
The two glared at each other for a long while, still in the posture of extending swords toward each other.
Then at some moment.
"Hahahaha."
For some reason, the man suddenly burst into loud laughter and lowered his sword. At this, his now-shriveled genitals swung disgustingly. The man knew the black-clothed person was still extending his sword toward him but didn't care and went to sit at the table in the middle of the room.
The black-clothed person also silently lowered his sword when the man lowered his and quietly folded his arms. He stood upright like that and looked at the man.
Both had expressed that they had no intention to fight.
Thud.
The man first spoke while loudly placing his sword on the table.
"Has it been ten years?"
"Nine years and one hundred ninety days."
Ten years, and nine years and one hundred ninety days. Though the accuracy of their memories differed, the two knew each other.
"Gwang-un, that's like you. Seeing that you remember such trivial things exactly."
"……."
The man called the black-clothed person Gwang-un and seemed to know him well. Judging by that, the black-clothed person Gwang-un hadn't come to kill the man in the first place. As if to prove it, the killing intent that had been naturally flowing from Gwang-un also disappeared.
Though there was still no response from Gwang-un, the man's words continued.
"So, what business brings Eighteen Clouds here in person?"
As if their relationship wasn't very smooth, the man's words sounded somewhat mocking. But Gwang-un, as if he didn't particularly care, began saying what he had to say.
"An order has been issued. Gray Shadow."
Gwang-un's voice was rough, like speaking with a handful of sand in his mouth.
"An order?"
Gray Shadow reconfirmed whether the word that came from Gwang-un's mouth was really 'order.' But that was unnecessary. Though they were meeting after about ten years, Gray Shadow knew better than anyone that Gwang-un wasn't someone who would misspeak.
Gray Shadow's body heated up intensely. He even trembled his body once violently afterward. He was feeling excitement from just the single word 'order' that he had never felt from sexual intercourse with the woman whose head and body were rolling separately on that bed over there, or sexual acts with any woman whatsoever.
Order.
How long had it been since he heard that word?
'Has it been ten years?'
He had come to the Martial World under 'his' order. Since then, Gray Shadow hadn't received orders even once for ten years. But for an order to suddenly drop like this.
The playful expression that had been flowing habitually disappeared, and the lightness also completely vanished from his voice.
"The content?"
"First Stratagem."
"……!"
The words that came from Gwang-un's mouth were rough but a short single phrase.
Though he had expected that answer, there was still shock. Because the reason he came to the Martial World and the reason he had lived until now were all contained in that single phrase.
'First Stratagem!'
Gwang-un and Gray Shadow's eyes intertwined in midair.
Gray Shadow asked once more. It was a question about the key figure in executing the First Stratagem.
"Where is Transformed Shadow?"
As if waiting, Gwang-un's answer followed.
"Namgung Family."
"The date?"
Perhaps because it was something that had been foretold long ago, despite the conversation being terribly short and like code, there wasn't the slightest blockage in communication between the two.
"This month's full moon is Transformed Shadow's wedding day."
"Wedding? Transformed Shadow? Then surely Transformed Shadow is!?"
"……."
Though Gray Shadow got no further confirmation from Gwang-un, he could guess who Transformed Shadow was disguised as.
"The level?"
Level. A word meaning degree. This time too, it was a question with both front and back words cut off, but Gwang-un opened his mouth without much hesitation.
"Everyone except Transformed Shadow and Namgung Hye."
Gray Shadow nodded as if he had expected Gwang-un's answer. But there was still one problem that bothered him.
"Do you know this? Soul Chasing Poison Hand Tang O is currently in Anhui Province. Is he also included in the targets?"
"Of course."
"With just the forces here, it's too much. Support?"
"Five Shadows."
"Five Shadows?"
"If we include Transformed Shadow and you, it's Seven Shadows."
"……!"
Gray Shadow was quite surprised. Though the First Stratagem was important, he didn't know they would provide such dramatically generous support. It must mean 'his' will was that tremendous.
"With that much, even if Tang O is there, we can succeed without difficulty. But why did you come here? I thought you were the support?"
"I have separate work to do."
"Laying groundwork for the Second Stratagem, then."
"……."
As expected, Gwang-un didn't respond to questions that didn't need answering.
Gray Shadow didn't press further.
Gwang-un's silence alone had already finished that answer, and in any case, both just needed to be faithful to their assigned missions. Shadows and Clouds have different assigned missions. They were raised that way and had lived that way.
As if he had finished all he had to say, Gwang-un turned around. He was about to leave. Looking at his back, Gray Shadow asked a final question.
"Ah, but what was Transformed Shadow's name again?"
Gray Shadow was already guessing who Transformed Shadow was but asked to confirm.
"Do Heo-ok."
Right after uttering that name, Gwang-un disappeared from that spot like dust being extinguished. Just like that, as if he had never existed here in the first place.
"Gwang-un. Then and now, you're still unlikable. Tsk. But is it really beginning now?"
Gray Shadow shook his head once and walked toward the bed.
The headless woman's upper body was still rolling on the bed. He kicked it with his foot to drop it off the bed. Blood flowed from the lonely neck hole, dirtying and wetting the floor, but he didn't care. In any case, such things happened quite often in this place, and there was no one who would be surprised or reproach him for killing such a plaything.
Gray Shadow roughly wiped the sweat that flowed on his body and put on clothes stained with the woman's blood. The seriousness from earlier had already all disappeared from his face, and it was full of his original playfulness.
"Ugh. Because of that bastard Gwang-un, my favorite clothes got covered in blood. Damn it. But I thought Shadows would live alone their whole lives, yet they get to have weddings too. Ah, this is enviable in many ways. Transformed Shadow becomes a hero of the righteous sects, and on top of that gets Anhui's First Beauty as a spouse. While I'm dealing with trashy women like that in dark and gloomy places like this."
He left words that might be joking or real envy and left the room.
Thud.
The door closed, and silence came to the room.
Only the woman's head with a sword lodged in her mouth remained alone, having a staring contest with the moon—this place was.
The room of Paga Blood, Silver Naked Lecher, the general manager of Heavenly Demon Castle's Anhui Branch.