What I Wanted to Say
When the interior was laid bare for all to see, everyone was so shocked they fell silent at first.
Beast-People Paintings packed every wall of the room, and the display stands were neatly stacked with heaps of animal fur.
The moment I shouted, “You perverted bastard!” like I was condemning him, the dazed crowd finally snapped back to their senses and went pale with horror.
Apparently even within the Court of Censors only a tiny handful had known about his secret tastes—especially the fact that he had kidnapped Ju Wolay, who was famous even among the imperial clan. Watching her burst out bound hand and foot and dressed up like some animal left the entire assembly reeling in pure shock.
“Censor Yang…”
In that unspeakable situation, only Cheon Su-gong managed to open his mouth.
“Your tastes have grown truly vile since last we met.”
Genuine contempt dripped from his voice. Yang Gunjwa seemed to feel it; for a moment he froze solid, face stiff as stone.
Then, with a rough shove, he pushed Ju Wolay aside and shot to his feet.
“Th-this is an interrogation!”
His voice cracked as he raised it, stammering.
“Yes! I was merely interrogating the criminal by a special method! You mustn’t misunderstand!”
It was a desperate lie spat out at the brink of ruin.
But the room itself mocked his excuse, overflowing with bizarre evidence. Shelves heaped with beast pelts, lewd portraits of beautiful women hung on the walls, and even the animal-ear ornaments perched on Ju Wolay’s head—every last scrap of his filthy tastes was on full, shameless display.
So even though his voice echoed through the Court of Censors, not a soul looked ready to believe a word of it.
“An interrogation, you say? Are you telling me there exists an interrogation method that involves dressing someone in animal fur and ears?”
Cheon Su-gong sneered openly. Yang Gunjwa’s mouth worked soundlessly; his eyes darted about like a rat that had just realized it was trapped.
While Cheon Su-gong kept talking and held the man’s gaze, I slipped into Whirlwind Steps and glided toward Ju Wolay like a ghost.
Yang Gunjwa hadn’t secured the spot with martial power; one startled “Wha—” later and I had already snatched her away from him.
Up close, the red welts on her bound wrists and ankles stood out sharply, and tear tracks still glistened on her lovely face. She now gave off the full aura of a tragic heroine—a flower whose stem had been snapped.
The moment I removed her gag and unsealed her pressure points, Ju Wolay began confessing his perversions loud enough for everyone to hear.
“This man suddenly kidnapped me! All because I refused his demand to become his exclusive mistress…! And then he did truly beastly things…!”
Those “beastly things,” of course, meant dressing a person up like an animal.
When a beauty whose very gaze drew every eye cried out like that with tears still brimming, the crowd began to stir all over again. Color flooded Yang Gunjwa’s face; his pupils, with nowhere left to go, kept trembling in panic.
“Hic… hic…”
A beauty’s tears had always been devastating in any era.
“Censor Yang Gunjwa.”
Now that he held airtight proof and justification to seize the entire Court of Censors, Cheon Su-gong stepped forward and spoke in a voice cold as ice.
“To kidnap an innocent courtesan and commit such absurdities… You have smeared the honor of the imperial family and the dignity of the Court of Censors with your own hands.”
He was already looking down on Yang Gunjwa with a victor’s eyes.
Just when I thought everything was finished, Yang Gunjwa’s gaze turned viper-sharp. Through the Heavenly Killing Eyes I felt a sudden surge of killing intent. Having decided he had nowhere left to run, he chose the worst possible move.
“Damn it—attack them!”
The middle-aged man’s roar shook the Court of Censors. He bellowed at his men to fall upon the Eastern Depot warriors who were already approaching to make the arrest.
When the Court of Censors fighters hesitated for even a second, his face twisted and he roared even hotter.
“What are you doing?! We outnumber them! If word of this leaks, do you think the Court of Censors will remain standing?!”
Secret chambers, mountains of slush funds—the moment this scandal broke, the entire tower of corruption they had built would come crashing down. The hesitating Court of Censors warriors gritted their teeth. In particular, the black-clad masters who had apparently taken Jo Harang down moved first.
“Ball-less eunuch bastards!”
“Who do you think you are, strutting around here?!”
Led by them, dozens of Court of Censors fighters drew their weapons and charged in a howling mass.
“So you choose the cup of punishment after all, you fools!”
Cheon Su-gong drew his sword and shouted coldly. The Eastern Depot warriors likewise unsheathed their blades as one and moved to meet them like shadows.
In an instant the corridor became a battlefield. Sword light flashed and the sharp ring of steel filled the air. I quietly drew the black staff the Emperor had bestowed upon me.
“I’ll take revenge for Jo Harang.”
Ilhong stayed behind to protect Ju Wolay in my place.
With that, I threw myself into the brawl that the battlefield had become.
A savage, all-out staff assault that tears into the enemy like a starving hound.
For so long I had been forced to swing a sword awkwardly while trying to rein in my overflowing killing intent and master the Knot. Taking up a staff again after all that time felt completely different.
Thud! Thud-thud-thud!
The jolt that ran up my palms, the solid impact, and the juicy way enemies screamed as they went flying—every time I smashed someone a strange pleasure filled my chest to the brim.
I hurled myself among them like a starving wild dog, swinging the black staff without restraint.
Unpredictable, ever-changing staff blows that send two Peak Realm masters flying at once.
Two Peak Realm masters crumpled under the chaotic barrage of staff strikes and rolled endlessly across the floor, screaming.
“That one just now was for Jo Harang!”
Shouting it out loud almost made me feel like I was avenging the dead. But she was perfectly alive—I was simply paying back every blow she had taken, with interest.
Whoosh—
The black staff shot out like lightning and shattered another man’s jaw.
Cheon Su-gong didn’t even need to step in. Thanks to my rampage, a dozen Eastern Depot warriors found their fighting spirit soaring and began subduing enemies one after another. One by one, Court of Censors fighters went down amid screams. Several Eastern Depot men were wounded as well, but the tide had clearly turned in our favor.
Especially after I dropped yet another foe at the vanguard, one of the enemy’s Transcendental Peak Realm masters roared with a face twisted in fury.
“…You bastard! Looking at your martial skill, you’re no troubleshooter—you’re one of those Eastern Depot eunuch bastards!”
I had introduced myself as a troubleshooter, yet my strength was clearly abnormal, so the black-clad man was certain I was an Eastern Depot warrior in disguise.
“Eunuch? You checked yourself?”
I snorted and rested the black staff on my shoulder. My mocking smile only stoked his rage; his movements grew a fraction larger.
In the instant a flash of sword light cut through the air, I swept Staff Force through his stance and drove my instep straight up between his legs.
Crack!
The wet sound of something egg-shaped bursting. A ripping scream echoed off the ceiling of the Court of Censors.
“So, who’s the eunuch now?”
I asked the black-clad man who had collapsed, clutching his groin.
Jo Harang had been wrecked even worse than that… Wait, no, that wasn’t quite right.
Anyway, the act had a devastating effect on enemy morale.
“Th-that heaven-cursed bastard!”
“Good gods, what kind of monster…!”
“Such a despicable…!”
There was an unspoken rule among martial artists never to strike below the belt, but I didn’t give a damn about that. When you face greater numbers with fewer people, crushing the enemy’s spirit is just basic tactics.
Thud-thud!
The black staff sliced the air like a dancer. Two more warriors lost their swords and went sailing into the distance.
A ferocious staff strike that carves a path through the enemy ranks without mercy.
Thud!
A blow straight to the crown. I controlled the force so the skull wouldn’t split, yet I layered in Hwang Geolgae’s secret of pure torment, so the man collapsed screaming in agony.
With me driving forward like that, the Eastern Depot warriors began mopping up the rest one by one.
“Clear them out!”
Once we seized the initiative and broke their spirit, the rest was smooth sailing. Enemies who had once pressed us now edged backward, terrified of me.
What had looked like a close fight ended as a one-sided thrashing. After I finished off the last man with a satisfying volley of the Dog Beating Staff Technique, Cheon Su-gong casually approached from the side. Dangling from his right hand was Yang Gunjwa, face full of despair.
Thud.
The moment he was set on the floor, Yang Gunjwa hurriedly spoke.
“I-I must have gone mad for a moment! Seduced by those damned portraits of beauties… Just stop this. Let’s settle it with words!”
We had already come far too far for anything to be swept under the rug. And since he had even started a fight in an attempt to bury us, it was time for the loser to pay the price.
“Censor Yang, negotiations happen before the fighting starts.”
At that answer every drop of blood drained from Yang Gunjwa’s face. Faced with Cheon Su-gong’s ice-cold refusal, he simply crumpled to the ground, looking like a man who knew it was all over.
I walked past the despairing pervert and went to Ju Wolay—the woman I had thought I might never see again.
“Wolay, it’s all over now. You can relax.”
I patted her back gently, soothing her. The ordeal must have been brutal; her slender shoulders shook as she wept in tiny sobs.
“Secure the scene and arrest this man. I must report to the Imperial Noble Consort first.”
Cheon Su-gong glared at Yang Gunjwa—the Censor who had once held half the palace officials in his grip—and gave the order to his Eastern Depot men. Head bowed low, Yang Gunjwa was forcibly hauled to his feet by two of them. When his face lifted slightly, I could almost feel the venomous resentment he poured toward me and the Divine Thief Yang Yang.
Then Cheon Su-gong stepped up beside me and spoke in a low whisper.
“As promised, we will decide his fate.”
Like a general claiming the spoils of war after victory.
I nodded. I had never believed the Eastern Depot would move just to save one courtesan. Their real goal had been to seize the Court of Censors and strengthen Princess Dohwa’s hand. All I needed was to bring my client Ju Wolay home safe.
“Yes, I’ll hand him over. However, I’m taking one thing with me.”
When I said I would take one thing of his, Cheon Su-gong tilted his head in confusion.
The crime of thrashing Jo Harang and carving a deep wound into Ju Wolay’s heart.
I walked up to Yang Gunjwa, who was glaring at me as if he wanted me dead, and smashed the staff straight between his legs.
Thud!
Mujin-style ultimate technique — a lightning-fast low blow that leaves no room for mercy.
“Ghk…?! Gyaaaaaah!”
It was the lightning-fast secret art of the Mujin school: Nangsimnanmu, the Groin Frenzy. The pain was so intense his eyes rolled back as he screamed. Odds were good one of his “eggs” had just burst from the earlier hit.
“This one’s for Ju Wolay.”
I had already paid Jo Harang’s share in full to those Peak Realm masters earlier, so every debt had been collected.
After that declaration I helped the still-dazed Ju Wolay to her feet.
“…What the hell was that?”
Cheon Su-gong’s flabbergasted question met my perfectly natural answer.
“Revenge. Pure revenge.”
Fortunately Ju Wolay hadn’t suffered any physical wounds, but something like this always left a knot in the heart. Later, when she remembered this scene, at least some of that knot might loosen.
“Of all places, this bastard had to do it right in front of me…”
Apparently I had chosen the worst possible time and place. Thinking about it, I had just flaunted a textbook PTSD trigger right in front of a pack of eunuchs.
“Hah, that wasn’t my intention… It’s a misunderstanding, I’m sorry!”
I immediately bowed my head as low as it would go. Cheon Su-gong’s boiling gaze felt like it was drilling holes straight through the top of my skull.
Yeah, he’s looking at you like he wants to murder you…
Salsung helpfully narrated the scene I really didn’t want described.
Luckily, perhaps because he was in a good mood after bagging a big fish like the Censor, he let my skull remain intact and simply let it slide.
“Hah. No matter when I look at you, you’re never in your right mind.”
Calling me a thunder-struck wild child who didn’t know his place, he shook his head, then took a few of his closest subordinates and disappeared into the distance. Only then did I let out a long sigh of relief and rub my chest.
“Whoa, even I got nervous there.”
“Right?”
That was Yang Yang and Ilhong, who had been watching the whole thing. As if those two getting nervous could ever compare to me.
With the situation finally under control, I linked arms with Ju Wolay right there on the spot and spoke.
“Let’s go home, Wolay.”
The lofty Imperial Palace was far too heavy a place for a courtesan, a troubleshooter, a thief, and members of the Haomu Gate to linger. Fearing possible retaliation, we bolted out of there as fast as our legs would carry us.
Some time later, back at Cheonhwaru.
Beijing’s top courtesan had locked herself in her room for quite a while, sorting through her thoughts and calming her rattled nerves. Then one day Madam Okryeong carefully sought me out.
“Troubleshooter Dan Mujin, our Wolay says she wants to see you.”
What change of heart could have come over her?
It was a sudden request for a private talk from Ju Wolay, the woman everyone had been so worried about.