How to Stick a Blade
The daughter of the Hebei Paeng Clan arrived at the Sichuan Tang Family Manor.
Except she was far too massive to simply be called a daughter. At least, that was how she looked to the gatekeeper whose eyes were swallowed by her shadow.
So this was the eight-chi giant he had only ever heard about in stories. The great blade on her back and her corded, battle-tempered muscle combined into a truly crushing presence.
The gatekeeper scrambled off at once to find the young lady she claimed she had come to see—Miss Dang Yeohye.
At the sudden news that her old friend had arrived, the petite girl abandoned the poison she had been compounding and came bolting out with a startled face.
"Hwayeop! You could have at least sent word you were coming!"
Dang Yeohye was used to being teased for her small stature, but standing side by side with Iron-Armed Bear Paeng Hwayeop made the contrast almost absurd.
The difference in height did not seem to matter to either of them. Both women's faces were full of pure delight.
"If I had, I wouldn't have gotten to see that shocked look on your face."
The gatekeeper, overhearing a line that could almost raise goosebumps, could only stare blankly.
Dang Yeohye seized her friend's thick arm and dragged her straight into her room. It looked as though she had a mountain of things to catch up on with the friend she had not seen in so long.
"I met that Dan Mujin you introduced me to."
The moment they sat down, Paeng Hwayeop launched into the story of the troubleshooter she had met.
"Oh yeah? How was he? Good at his job, right?"
The instant Dan Mujin's name came up, Dang Yeohye's expression melted into a little grin as she asked back.
"At the actual work... yeah. He was ridiculously good."
Paeng Hwayeop thought back to what had happened in Goan. The beautiful youth and the pretty boy who had turned that quiet city upside down.
The little theater they had staged to lure out a pervert was still being told like legend among the women of the place.
"But there was something a little weird."
Paeng Hwayeop idly spun the teacup that looked comically tiny in her hand as she muttered.
Dang Yeohye nodded as if she already knew exactly what that meant.
"Yeah, that guy's personality is a little off. Sometimes he's completely reckless and full of himself."
Reckless and, now and then, far too full of himself. Paeng Hwayeop's gaze settled silently on Dang Yeohye's tiny face.
It was the look of someone who wanted to point something out.
"What? Why?"
"..."
When Dang Yeohye arched a brow as if to ask what her problem was, Paeng Hwayeop simply looked away as though it were nothing.
Dang Yeohye gave a short snort of laughter and kept going.
"Still, even if he's cocky, he's a good guy. At least enough that I can trust him with my back... mmm."
Her eyes softened for a heartbeat, as if she were remembering the days they had traveled together.
The usual temper was nowhere to be found; a foolish little smile hung at the corners of her mouth.
"Oh my. Oh my."
Paeng Hwayeop's startled little exclamation snapped Dang Yeohye back to herself with a jolt.
She tried to reclaim her usual sharp edge, but it was already too late. That fleeting expression had been caught perfectly in the eyes of her one and only friend.
"...It's not!"
She was so flustered she even dropped the subject and snapped the words out sharp and thin.
"Heh. No wonder Neungsam's face has been looking so happy lately."
The corner of Paeng Hwayeop's mouth curled up in pure mischief.
With that rough temperament, she had always wondered whether her friend would ever find a lover. Neungsam had fretted endlessly over it. And now it had turned out like this.
"I said it's not like that!"
Seeing Paeng Hwayeop's sly look, Dang Yeohye jumped up and started battering those thick arms with a flurry of thumps and smacks.
From the outside it looked like a mouse throwing itself at a giant bear. Paeng Hwayeop just grinned and took the punches.
So even her friend could end up with someone she longed for. Life was full of surprises.
"But hang on—this is actually a problem."
Dang Yeohye's fists stopped. The playfulness had drained out of Paeng Hwayeop's voice, replaced by real discomfort.
"Why? What's wrong?"
"That 'weird part' I mentioned earlier? I wasn't talking about his personality."
"If it wasn't his personality, then what was so weird?"
"...His... preferences. Honestly, I think that guy likes men."
The completely unexpected topic shut Dang Yeohye's mouth.
She stared at Paeng Hwayeop with a look of pure disbelief.
"What the hell are you talking about. Explain. Right now."
"Ahem. Well, you see. I hired him for a job in Goan to lure out a man who preferred other men..."
Paeng Hwayeop spilled every last detail of what had happened there.
At first Dang Yeohye snorted at the idea that such a commission even existed, but the longer she listened, the more serious her face became.
"Ilhong...? That pretty little kid who looks like a girl? H-he made a move?"
"I don't know if it was just for the job or what. There was this strange atmosphere between them..."
They had been far too affectionate, she said. More than just close older and younger brothers.
Especially Ilhong, who had been dressed up from head to toe to bait the target—pretty enough that even other men might have fallen for him, or so the story went.
"Maybe he just needed a push, and I ended up lighting the fire."
Paeng Hwayeop scratched her head with a sheepish face, saying she never thought it would turn out like this.
"Of all the jobs you could give him, you had to pick that one...!"
Dang Yeohye started thumping those broad shoulders again.
She had arranged the introduction herself, but she had never dreamed the commission would be something like that.
He had said he could not speak of it because of his family's honor. She never imagined the contents would be like this.
"Yeohye, that actually hurts now. No inner force."
She thought of Ilhong, who always stuck to Dan Mujin like a shadow wherever he went.
That sly little thing must have been trying to climb onto the stove first while she was away for a while.
No—could he even climb it in the first place? They were both men.
Then again, both of them were handsome enough that the picture was not half bad.
"Ugh, I can't take this! I'm going right now!"
She shot to her feet and began stuffing things into a pack as if she meant to run out that very second.
Paeng Hwayeop stared at her with a baffled look and asked,
"Hey. Where do you think you're going?"
"Beijing!"
"Are you insane? Your family's a mess right now and you're going to leave? You're supposed to take the heir's lessons and inherit the Sichuan Tang Family."
"I'm quitting. Nobody in this house likes me anyway!"
She had heard that most of the blood relatives had joined the coup centered on Dang Ak, and once it failed the relationships had become extremely awkward.
Which was why she was always shouting about this damn house and wanting to leave for somewhere else.
"I already submitted my enrollment papers. I'm going to the Murim Alliance to smash bastards like the Moyong Clan's eldest daughter. But before that..."
"Before that?"
Her resolve looked rock-solid. Knowing there was no stopping her now, Paeng Hwayeop asked after the rest instead.
"That little fox Ilhong... wait, he's a guy, so what do I even call him? Anyway! Even just to calm this anxiety, I have to check for myself."
She meant to race all the way to Beijing—far even from the Murim Alliance—using lightfoot, all for the sake of one man.
Paeng Hwayeop could only marvel at the drive and boldness she had never once seen from her friend before.
So this was what a woman in love looked like.
"And if there really is something like that going on... I'm going to dump ten times the usual dose of laxative into every single thing he eats."
The affection of a Tang woman was famously vicious.
"If you give him that much, it won't be diarrhea—he'll be fighting for his life."
"It's fine. That guy can take it!"
She answered with a faint note of pride in Dan Mujin.
He was no poison master. Where on earth did that faith come from?
Sorry about this, and hang in there, Young Hero Dan Mujin.
The way Dang Yeohye showed her affection was going to be merciless.
Paeng Hwayeop could only hope, in her heart, that he would endure it well.
Warm sunlight hammered mercilessly down on the top of my head.
It was not as if I had specially chosen to train at high noon. The all-night blade work had simply refused to end until midday.
In short, I had been sweating buckets and training all day long.
"What is martial arts?"
Hwang Geolgae stroked his beard and tossed me some vague question while playing at being a Daoist who could not even pull it off properly.
"Would you stop with the empty talk already?"
Smack!
Lightning pain cracked down. I could not even open my mouth as I rolled across the ground in silence.
Ilhong watched me from the side with a look of pure pity.
"I will ask again. What is martial arts?"
Hwang Geolgae looked down at me with a meaningful gaze. He clearly had some answer he wanted.
"...Beating people up."
Thwack!
The long tip of the staff whipped across my back like a lash.
My mouth fell open, but not even a scream came out.
Ilhong sent me a look that said stop being stubborn and just answer properly as I rolled over in pain.
But I had not said anything wrong.
"Haa... I will ask once more. What is martial skill?"
What was so special about martial skill that used a sword? Why was he putting on such airs? He could just teach me how to stick a blade in someone.
"You just beat me with martial skill. So I was right."
"..."
No matter how much he hit me, I kept talking back to the end. Hwang Geolgae finally let out a long sigh as if giving up.
He must have been hoping for some profound master-and-disciple koan exchange.
But when had we ever been that kind of pair? We were the kind that just beat each other whenever we met.
"Martial skill is not simply a tool for beating people. It is a lofty discipline that takes every thing and every living being of heaven and earth into the small universe of the self, and frees one from the five desires, seven emotions, and all worldly afflictions."
A study that stripped away the essence of being human and pursued a higher realm, he said.
"Ah... is that so?"
He must have read the look on my face that said I could not understand a word of the fancy characters he was mixing in.
Hwang Geolgae's expression twisted as if his head hurt.
"This is exactly why I do not bother teaching you with words and just start beating you first."
Hilarious. Last time he had said out of his own mouth that he hit me because it felt good on the hands.
"You still refuse to take anything in through your ears, so as always I will have to teach you through your body."
He should have just done that from the start.
I rolled my shoulders and loosened up, remembering the blade work he had been pouring on me since before dawn.
"The name of the sword art is the Chamgu Sword Art."
Hwang Geolgae lowered the Dog-Beating Staff, drew a long killing weapon from the training ground rack, and recited the name of the art.
But the name that came out of his mouth was so ridiculous it almost made common sense pack up and leave.
"When I named the Hell Demon-Slaying Staff and the Vengeance Staff off the Dog-Beating Staff, you said it was trash."
Was this not just another variation of the Dog-Beating Staff Technique for thrashing mad dogs?
Typical beggar. Zero effort even in naming things.
"You little brat, show a little seriousness. This sword art is a secret technique the sect leader created to pass down to the next generation of beggars. It is not something to chatter about like a joke."
It was on a completely different level from the Gyuji Sword Art, he claimed. Every beggar in the Beggar Sect was desperate to learn it, and I was just taking it for granted.
"Who said anything about the martial skill itself? I said the name is trash. Who named it?"
"This old man did."
Of course he had. He had created it himself after studying the Dog-Beating Staff Technique, so naturally he had named it too.
I knew it. You could really see the habit of living carelessly in him.
Hwang Geolgae said the training from here on would be hard and moved us to a more secluded corner of the grounds.
"Learn the forms and the bearing amid a storm of blades. Anyone else might fail, but a Heavenly Killing Star like you should manage it."
For reference, what he was swinging was not a practice blade. It was a real sword. He was loading it with killing intent and threatening my life on purpose to stimulate the Heavenly Killing Star.
You could call it a purely practical training method with zero consideration.
Truly a method with neither blood nor tears. Staff hits just hurt for a moment. A sword could tear flesh and spill blood in an instant if anything went wrong.
Looking... pleased.
The fact that I was training in a sword art seemed to delight it, and the way I screamed and suffered seemed to satisfy it even more. The red palm showed little twitches of pure joy.
Shhhk.
I faced Hwang Geolgae and drew my sword. The moment I gripped the cold hilt tightly, the crimson energy swayed as if dancing.
The slender fingers wiggled and undulated as if urging me to hurry up and start.
"Oh, right. Master. About that."
"What is it, you brat."
Hwang Geolgae, who had been about to leap in at any second, lifted the tip of his sword at my question.
"Among the Heavenly Killing Stars of the past..."
"Among the past Heavenly Killing Stars, what?"
Any moment now I would be bleeding freely, drowning in survival instinct, my vision going red, and I would forget this question entirely.
They said the baleful star was a star in essence and had no human form. Whether it was a monster or a spirit, if it wore a human body, then maybe...
"Were there ever any women?"
Hwang Geolgae frowned as if I was asking something completely out of nowhere.
"There were."
"...Who?"
I looked down at the palm that was still twitching even now.
The more I watched these fingers, the more I felt they were too slender and fine to belong to a man. They lacked a certain roughness.
"Even you will have heard the stories in passing. The previous Heavenly Killing Star who dyed the jianghu in fresh blood and turned the world into a pool of gore."
...
The twitching of the fingers stopped cold.
I stared silently at the palm that had begun to bloom with crimson energy.
A warm spring had come to the Princess's palace.
Pale pink blossoms were beginning to unfurl one by one, yet in one corner of the palace a wind colder than midwinter seemed to be blowing.
At Cheon Su-gong's feet lay the corpse of the palace maid who had been reported missing last time.
Moreover, the clear traces of a sinister poisoning were unmistakable.
In the garden beyond, where the spring flowers had begun to open, Princess Dohwa was enjoying her tea without the slightest idea of what had happened.
"I will have to call that one in."
At Cheon Su-gong's low mutter, one of the Eastern Depot agents quietly asked back,
"Which one do you mean, sir?"
"The bastard who sniffs out murderous intent aimed at someone the way a dog sniffs a scent."
Cheon Su-gong spoke of what had happened in Baekyang Village and said they needed someone like that.
"Is there really a dog-nosed bastard like that? Among the troubleshooters?"
"There is. One useful fellow, at least."
He had no manners and no real loyalty, but if you paid him he delivered more than his fee was worth.
"Go find the one called Dan Mujin."
"Yes, sir."
At Cheon Su-gong's order, the Eastern Depot agents bowed their heads deeply.