Slender Jade Hands
Where does a person's sense of guilt come from?
Killing an enemy who charges at you because you have no other choice, versus completely subduing them and then cutting their throat to silence them for good.
Those two were definitely different. Even in the modern world, the former counts as self-defense and the latter as manslaughter.
Roll, thump.
A head tumbled across the dirt floor, an expression of pure shock still frozen on its face.
It couldn't be helped. He'd been about to shout a secret that would have been disastrous if the approaching Murim Alliance people had overheard it.
"He deserved to die, but…"
Still, that slight unease I felt was probably because I had a few things of my own to feel guilty about.
According to Hwang Geolgae, deciding what is evil and what is good ultimately rests in one's own heart.
Ironically enough, the very fact that I could still feel this pang of conscience was exactly why Hwang Geolgae had spared my life instead of killing me.
Anyway, since I'd taken a life for my own self-preservation, I ought to engage in some serious self-reflection and repentance…
"Ah, fuck it. These things happen."
I decided not to.
When you thought about it, this was the Central Plains Murim, where people's heads flew off like stalks of sorghum. Other martial artists cut off necks and spilled blood every damn day.
"Yeah. Sometimes it's just like that."
And killing a dangerous bastard who was releasing demonic blood energy wasn't a bad choice for the peace of the Central Plains either.
I nodded to myself and settled for that rough compromise.
Satisfaction.
Of course, it was a bit annoying that this damned bastard was pleased about it.
But what was done was done. I raised pure white blazing energy and wiped him from existence right in front of me.
"Young Hero Dan Mujin! Are you all right? I heard you fought Gwang Hyeol-so… Good heavens, your arm—"
She saw my slightly dangling arm, clapped a hand over her mouth, and made a pained expression.
"If only I'd gotten here a little sooner…"
"I'm fine. Slap some spit on it and sleep a few days—it'll heal."
"…What kind of nonsense is that. I'll give you an emergency medicine from my family. It should be effective."
She pulled a round pill from her robes.
"Not me—give it to Jo Harang over there. She looks like she's in bad shape."
I pointed at the woman whose complexion had turned blackish, probably from internal injuries.
"But right now your condition, Young Hero…"
"I'm really fine. Please help her, Vice Leader."
"…All right."
It had been a while since I'd seen her, and for some reason she seemed a lot more worried about me than before.
I had to ask a few more times, feeling sorry for Jo Harang's groaning, before Moyong Cheonghye reluctantly moved her feet.
Ah, come to think of it, I never got the chance to ask why she'd called me "Mujin-ah" earlier.
"Good grief—looking at the face, it really is that demonic head Gwang Hyeol-so… Young Hero, do you realize what kind of fellow you've just taken down?"
Following behind the Vice Leader came Squad Leader Jeok Unyeop. He examined Gwang Hyeol-so's face this way and that, then spoke to me with an incredulous look.
"Truly magnificent. And he's currently the Left Blood Dharma of the Blood Sect, isn't he? This is a tremendous achievement, Young Hero."
Apparently I'd done a great service for the peace of the Murim.
I'd only ever seen him being tormented by the Evil-Slaying Divine Maiden, but this middle-aged guy had a sense of justice and worried about the Murim's well-being in his own way.
"But how did you catch him? Don't tell me you've already reached the Transcendental Peak Realm while I wasn't looking?"
"No, I just got lucky."
"Hah, my man. How do you take down a big shot like this with mere luck? Give me a little hint—just between us."
If I actually gave him the real story, there'd be one more headless corpse on the ground.
"The Divine Wind Saber Jo Harang was a big help. And the guy seemed to be in a weird state, so I really was lucky."
When I modestly shared the credit to brush it off, Jeok Unyeop gave me a look like well, look at this.
"Normally people try to hog credit like this for themselves, but you're different—just like Vice Leader Moyong Cheonghye said."
He declared I was a youth of spirit exactly as he'd heard, and clapped me on the shoulder with an approving look.
"Why not join the Demon Exterminating Squad? As the Squad Leader, I'll take good care of you."
"No, I'd rather not."
Having to always be with my noona, who already made my feelings complicated just by looking at her? Was I trying to die of suffocation?
"Then how about the Righteousness Squad?"
A martial artist in Righteousness Squad attire approached as if to say, what about us?
He'd been impressed by my performance ever since the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering.
"No, that neither."
Murim Alliance combat unit work was overwhelmingly about cutting and slicing people. The small stuff the individual sects handled themselves; they only stepped in for big cases.
In short, if what I did was like general civil affairs work, that place was the violent crimes unit… and one that scoured the entire Central Plains—a special investigations squad.
"Hmm, is that so. If you change your mind, let me know anytime."
I nodded like I understood, pushed past the uncles' persistent recruitment pitches, and walked out.
"Seriously, why are they so keen on recruiting me."
From what I'd heard, the pay was only so-so and it was a job people did packed with honor and a sense of duty.
"Well, every time the boss looks, you're racking up achievements. Of course they'd want you."
Ilhong had come up at some point and spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
I hadn't noticed from afar, but up close her eyes were a little swollen.
"Hey, what. Did you cry?"
"W-what are you talking about. I'm not a kid—why would I cry."
By local standards she might count as an adult, but to me she was still a kid.
"Then why's your face a mess."
"I don't know. Probably from running around like crazy."
Fine. We'd go with that.
I rubbed my nose.
"Anyway, Boss, make a promise with me."
"About what."
"Never again tell me to run and then stay behind alone to fight."
The situation had been urgent, so I'd driven her off first—but it seemed she'd been quite hurt by it.
"Hey, I wasn't alone. Jo Harang was with me too…"
"Promise!"
"…F-fine. Let's do that."
When her family had been massacred at the Haomu Gate and she was the only survivor, something similar must have happened. So when that memory surfaced, she got this worked up.
But I'm not that kid's family, am I?
Two people left alone in this world with no family or relatives. After living and rubbing shoulders together for years, maybe we'd become that kind of existence to each other without realizing it.
Which was probably why, when Gwang Hyeol-so tried to cut Ilhong down, my killing intent had surged so hard.
"Aha."
People can see the speck in others' eyes but not the beam in their own.
Maybe I was changing little by little myself.
A few days after the coffin sent from the Eon Clan was recovered. The Murim Alliance main building in Shaanxi.
The Squad Leader and Vice Leader of the Demon Exterminating Squad were listening to an autopsy report on the jiangshi from a coroner.
"It's quite shocking. The corpse that the Eon Clan martial artist and Young Hero Dan Mujin brought in—investigation confirms it is indeed a jiangshi."
The story was that the jiangshi arts which the Jinju Eon Clan had supposedly wiped out completely long ago had been revived in this day and age.
And in the most ominous form possible: fallen into the hands of the Blood Sect.
"And as the Eon Clan side warned, its durability is extraordinary. I don't know what materials and arts they used, but it's so hard it's almost… Uh, Vice Leader Moyong Cheonghye?"
Even with the coroner's startling report confirming it was a jiangshi, Moyong Cheonghye was staring off somewhere as if possessed.
"Vice Leader, are you listening?"
"Evil-Slaying Divine Maiden, snap out of it."
Moyong Cheonghye blankly watched Ilhong clinging to Mujin like a pair of best friends, then seemed to come to her senses and turned her head.
"Good grief—do you have a crush on that youth or something? It's frustrating for the people watching. If that's the case, just go snatch him up."
"No, it's not like that… Ugh."
It wasn't like that at all. She was simply looking because someone was stuck to a youth she thought might be her real younger brother, and it was bothering her.
Ilhong, was it. She's clinging like someone who's suffered a mental shock.
Some people, after going through something big, tended to find someone and latch onto them.
But setting that aside, there was one problem right now.
How can two men be that intimate…
Before, no matter who he was close with, she'd just thought of him as a brave youth and hadn't paid much attention. But now that she thought the youth might be her little brother, worry suddenly welled up.
And that Divine Wind Saber Jo Harang or whatever—she also sometimes looked at him with eyes that seemed more than just trust.
"I should visit the office with a commission as soon as possible…"
Coincidentally, all three of them worked at the same office. Once this jiangshi matter from the Eon Clan was resolved, she found herself thinking she absolutely had to visit Beijing.
"Evil-Slaying Divine Maiden, I hesitate to say this, but you're looking at him with sister-in-law eyes right now."
"…You're misunderstanding."
As soon as possible, if she could.
"You always leave a deep impression on me."
It was a gathering of the high-ups of the Murim Alliance to discuss this incident and hand out rewards for merit.
Alliance Leader Namgung Soseon praised the Jinju Eon Clan's swift report, then turned his gaze to me and spoke. When his interested eyes landed on me, I felt the gazes of everyone present focus on me at once.
"I am rather outstanding, yes."
When I boldly accepted the Alliance Leader's praise, looks of incredulity flickered around me. People who knew me wore expressions of there he goes again.
"Heh heh. Truly consistent, aren't you."
My bold answer seemed to please him; a subtle smile hung on the Alliance Leader's lips.
"Ever since you called Thunder Sword a greedy old man and cursed him out, I've considered you no ordinary fellow."
"…Ahem."
No—that was because my emotions got the better of me back then. Why bring that up again.
"Are you planning to do the same to me later?"
"…No. I won't do that anymore."
I had thoughts and reason of my own. That Moyong Cheon fellow just needed a bit of scolding. Normally I respected my elders and behaved properly.
"No. There aren't many people who can say what's wrong is wrong even in front of a power holder higher in both position and martial prowess than themselves. So maintain that attitude going forward."
Stay the kind of guy who said what needed saying no matter who the other person was.
I hadn't exactly been burning with a sense of justice when I did that. Besides, looking at the smile spreading across this old man's face, he seemed to have found Moyong Cheon getting cursed out extremely satisfying.
"Anyway, take this as well."
He held out a heavy chest. He said he'd packed in the bounty for the Blood Sect heads cut on the cliff, plus the credit for transporting the jiangshi and beheading the Left Blood Dharma—all combined.
Click.
"Good grief. You open it the moment you get it, with no one around."
When I checked the contents as soon as I received it, the Alliance Leader scolded me as if I had no class.
"Ooooh."
Normally it would sparkle with silver, but this chest was filled entirely with a deep yellow light. From piles of gold coins to thick gold ingots.
"Oh my. You didn't have to go this far."
It was the moment of harvest. When I lifted it, the weight was quite substantial too. I briefly considered converting it to bank notes at the marketplace, but the increasingly harsh fees the farther you traveled across regions came to mind, so I decided to just carry it.
"With this much weight, well. I can carry it on my back."
If it had been luggage I'd have complained, but for a money chest I'd gladly carry it on my back.
"So about that, young man."
"Yes. Whatever you need to say."
In this world, the one who paid the money was king. I bowed my head and said so.
"That Sura Cheonsal Gangsi—how on earth did you cut it down? The coroners were clicking their tongues saying even sword qi wouldn't stick."
The jiangshi's abnormal hardness seemed to be gradually spreading through the Murim Alliance as well.
"I just sliced it and it cut right through on its own?"
"…Hmm."
I simply told him what had happened, but Namgung Soseon's expression grew endlessly subtle.
"Well then, I'll be going."
Better bolt before he dug any deeper. I grabbed the chest and quickly took my leave.
The Jinju Eon Clan commission and the escort to the Murim Alliance were completed today.
"I really can't believe it, Young Hero Dan Mujin."
Miss Eon Wol-yeong laughed as if floored while paying me the fee.
"What's surprising?"
"No, just. I didn't expect you'd say the same thing you said to the Clan Head in front of the Alliance Leader as well."
That bit about just slicing it and it cutting on its own. But except for the part about seeing the line, it wasn't entirely wrong.
"Anyway, the Eon Clan owes the Young Hero a great debt."
"Oh come on. It was all work I got paid for."
I waved my hand nonchalantly and stuffed the payment into my robes. Mm, this one was pretty heavy too.
"No. It's a debt beyond money. If it hadn't been for the Young Hero, that day in the basement when that thing came out, all of us would have…"
A single jiangshi could have wiped out the entire Jinju Eon Clan. At that thought she couldn't finish her sentence.
Honestly, with sincere gratitude like that alone my heart was already full—so even if she didn't know it, she'd already paid her due.
"So as a token of repayment, I have something to tell you."
"What is it?"
When I asked back, she hesitated a moment before gathering her courage and opening her mouth.
"There's… some kind of energy clinging to you, Young Hero. Something I can't explain precisely either."
She gazed past my shoulder and radiated her insight, as if locking eyes with something invisible.
"And for some reason… it seems a bit stronger than before."
"…Excuse me? What got stronger?"
This woman—why had she been like this since last time. Her complexion was already pale and scary enough. If you mastered the jiangshi arts to the extreme, did you start sensing things that weren't alive or something?
"Anyway, so be careful… Ugh, sorry. I can't take any more!"
Her face went deathly white. Midway through her staring contest with empty air, she spun around as if she couldn't endure any longer.
"Hey, seriously what is it."
Was she going to leave me feeling all unsettled like this again?
Once more she tossed out some weird words and vanished. And just like last time, Salsung wriggled and twitched as if declaring victory.
There was a red hand waving goodbye toward the fleeing woman as if to say take care.
Yeah—not the usual two finger joints, but a white and fair—
No. A red and fair palm.
"…Huh?"