Black Spot (2)
Hypnosis was an illusion.
It wasn’t some all-purpose power from a comic book, but something you could overcome with sheer mental resistance if you clenched your teeth and refused to believe in it.
So a coin-flipping hypnosis trick from this disgusting bastard should be something I could beat with willpower alone.
That’s what I thought.
“Now, let yourself sink in. The more you focus, the more it feels like your body is slowly drifting down into the deep sea.”
Watching the coin sway back and forth made me feel strangely far away from myself.
Drowsy, warm, almost comforting... almost calming...
Hah!
My mind snapped awake, and I squeezed my eyes shut.
I couldn’t keep looking.
There was no way I was ending up as some middle-aged potbellied hypnosis creep’s toy.
Anything but that.
“Hm? Already? You fell for it faster than I expected.”
Black Leopard’s slick, smug voice reached my ears.
Apparently, the fact that I’d closed my eyes was proof enough that I’d been hypnotized.
“Good. Answer me. What’s your name?”
“Song... Hyeon.”
Seeing an opening, I played along and answered his questions as if I were under his spell.
“And your age?”
“Twenty... ”
“Perfect. Are you a virgin?”
“...”
That was a difficult question.
Was I a virgin now?
Memories of all those mind, body, and spirit theories I’d seen in my past life drifted through my head.
After some consideration, I gave a tiny nod.
His breathing turned rough at once.
Disgusting.
“Kuhuhu. Good, Song Hyeon. You’ve fallen in love with this Black Leopard at first sight. From today on, you’ll become a new bride who devotes every last thing to me. And then...”
He began hammering all sorts of lust-filled suggestions into my head.
For the master of a Black Spot, his desires were amazingly blatant and one-note.
To someone like me, hardened by all sorts of internet filth, it almost felt refreshingly pure.
Still disgusting, though.
Luckily, he didn’t touch me casually, so I was able to keep my eyes shut and plan my escape.
“...Since it’s your first time, I suppose I’ll keep it at this. Now, when I snap my fingers, you’ll keep what I told you in your heart and open your eyes. One, two, three.”
Snap.
At his signal, I slowly opened my eyes.
Seeing the expectant look on Black Leopard’s face made my stomach turn.
I forced an awkward smile and began my performance.
“Black Leopard.”
“Heh-heh, no, no. You should call me big brother.”
“...”
My act was already on the verge of failure from the very start.
“...I can’t say it.”
“Shy, are you? That’s not bad either.”
Black Leopard laughed with obvious satisfaction and reached out toward me.
I slipped back a step to avoid his hand.
“I’m going to wash up.”
“Hm? No, no need for that.”
“How could I possibly welcome my first night looking anything less than proper? I can’t permit it.”
I hurriedly turned and headed for the washroom.
Behind me came Black Leopard’s lecherous, self-satisfied laughter.
“Ugh.”
The moment I closed the bathroom door, the nausea I’d been holding back came rushing out.
Damn middle-aged pig.
I was going to kill him.
This time, I don’t think I’d even feel the slightest emotional shake if I did.
Leaning against the bathroom door, I slowly tried to circulate the energy within my body.
Like I had during the duel with Paeng Mugang, if I drew it up little by little...
“Huh?”
It didn’t move.
I could clearly feel the warm current inside me, but it showed no sign of obeying.
Why?
“No way.”
I quickly pulled the Bigeup from my robes.
Scattering through the opening passages in a hurry, I found the line that explained exactly what was happening.
“Hypnosis begins with subjugation. No matter how strong a person may be, once hypnosis is planted, they cannot move. To do so...”
Even though I had shut my eyes and resisted, the hypnosis had already begun.
So even this invincible, peerless beauty body was helpless once that one blow of hypnosis really took hold.
No matter how desperately I tried to draw up my internal energy, the power inside me felt as though it had sunk into a muddy swamp, tangled in something sticky and sluggish.
“This is a mess—gaaah!"
I was more flustered than I had ever been since becoming a girl.
Until now, I’d had the synergy of this body and its inner energy, and I’d gotten through life without ever feeling true crisis.
Without that, I was just a frail, stupidly pretty girl.
Was this the moment where carelessness finally dragged me to ruin?
“For now, I gotta run, okay~!"
Walking out of the bathroom like this would be the bad ending route.
Feeling cold sweat run down my back, I looked around.
Fortunately, there was a small window for ventilation.
With my little frame, I looked like I could squeeze through it just fine.
Anyway, I’d accomplished my goal of recovering the Bigeup.
Time to bolt.
Without hesitation, I opened the window and thrust myself outside.
But the beauty body that couldn’t borrow my inner force turned out to be far more fragile than I’d expected.
I was half-dangling from the frame, struggling, when I heard the bathroom door open behind me.
“My lovely little bird. Shall we... ?”
Apparently unable to wait any longer to do something filthy, Black Leopard had come into the bathroom naked, only to find me hanging halfway out the window.
His eyes filled with fury.
“You... you little bitch! You dared to trick me!”
The instant he lunged and reached for me, I threw myself out the window.
I rolled across the roof of the first floor and looked back at the window.
Black Leopard was glaring after me, veins standing out on his forehead as he shouted.
“Catch that woman! She’s been hypnotized, so she can’t have gotten far!”
Damn it.
I hurriedly kicked off the roof and started running.
Black-clad thugs burst out from other rooms on the second floor and chased after me, while below, more of them came crashing out in a noisy uproar.
There was no way I could handle this alone when I could barely even control my inner energy properly.
I barely made it near the entrance, then squeezed out what little power I could and pushed it into the soles of my feet.
“Cheongha, catch me!”
I threw my body forward with everything I had.
Thankfully, my body moved the way I wanted, and I was able to fly across the yard toward the entrance.
“Sister?!”
Cheongha heard my shout and caught me with her whole body as I fell.
“Grab them!”
While we were rolling, the black-clad gang poured furiously out through the entrance.
Ugh.
I had swaggered right in, promising to keep things quiet, and yet here we were anyway.
From now on, maybe it really would be better to do things the way Cheongha said and just smash straight through.
With her helping me stand, I somehow got back on my feet, only to find that we were already completely surrounded by dozens of black-clad thugs.
“You thought you could trick this body and walk out of Seoan unharmed?”
Black Leopard pushed through the crowd and came walking out, a long robe hastily thrown over his shoulders.
That disheveled look somehow made him feel even more like a proper scumbag than the decadent filth inside the Black Spot itself.
Cheongha and Paeng Mugang both drew their weapons to oppose him.
“Hah. Did you really think I’d be scared of a woman and a cripple waving swords at me? Pathetic.”
Black Leopard snorted with contempt, then tilted his neck and rolled his shoulders.
Next to him, one of his underlings grunted and hoisted up a heavy club.
I steadied my swaying body and whispered to Cheongha.
“Think we can run?”
“I could beat them if need be. But...”
Cheongha wasn’t looking at Black Leopard.
Her gaze was on Paeng Mugang, who was standing precariously with a broken arm and leg and a sword in hand.
She had said she’d ditch him if he became dead weight, but when the moment came, neither she nor I could leave him behind.
Besides, even now, wasn’t she saying she didn’t want him finding out who she was?
Cheongha’s stubbornness was a little frustrating, but I could understand her position.
She was basically a runaway girl; naturally, she’d want to avoid anything that might tie her to her family.
I had no choice but to turn to Paeng Mugang, who was awkwardly holding himself up on his broken leg.
“Young hero Paeng. Could you buy us a little time against Black Leopard? I was hit by a strange technique, so I need a little more time to recover.”
Paeng Mugang’s eyes turned to me.
I knew it was an unreasonable request.
I knew it was selfish, too, considering I was the one who’d broken his arm and leg.
And yet, even so, the situation Cheongha had been in for several days mattered more to me than the state of his body, which I’d only met yesterday.
So I told him not to be dead weight.
He looked at me, then flashed a grin.
“That’s quite a lot to ask, my beloved.”
Paeng Mugang straightened his back as though he’d forgotten his pain the moment he heard Song Hyeon’s request.
When he glanced at her face, it was full of desperation.
Seeing that expression, Paeng Mugang couldn’t help but let out a snort of laughter.
“Too much, is it?”
“Too much?”
Seeing disappointment flicker across Song Hyeon’s eyes, Paeng Mugang laughed heartily.
“There isn’t a single man of the Paeng Clan who would refuse a request from a woman he fell for at first sight.”
Instead of his limp right arm, Paeng Mugang adjusted his saber with his left hand.
His eyes burned with fighting spirit despite the injuries.
“What nonsense is this cripple muttering?”
Black Leopard stepped forward with a thud, driving the club into the ground as he did.
Under normal circumstances, Paeng Mugang could have settled this in one exchange, but in this condition, it wouldn’t be easy.
Still, he didn’t shrink back at the crisis bearing down on him.
In fact, his heart was pounding harder than ever.
Now I’m beginning to understand why Father told me to love the person whose heart beats the hardest.
Paeng Mugang took a long breath.
The current clan head, his father, was the subject of a legendary tale: he had once beaten down a hundred martial artists all by himself.
And beside him then had been the woman he loved.
In other words, Paeng Mugang’s mother had been there, too.
And now he was no different.
Beside him stood the very woman who had made him fall for her at a glance.
The strong woman who had knocked him flat with one blow.
“So this is what it felt like to rely on a woman. I feel like I could punch through the heavens right now!”
“The more I listen, the more nonsense comes out of your mouth. Boys!”
At Black Leopard’s signal, the thugs roared and rushed forward.
But before they could even reach their target, Cheongha’s flashing sword had already cut them down.
“Since Sister asked me to, I’ll let you have the big one.”
“Thank you.”
Paeng Mugang stepped forward.
As though his leg had never broken.
His stride was steady and proud, without even a hint of wavering.
“Are you that woman’s husband or something?”
“Not yet.”
Black Leopard didn’t even wait for an answer before swinging the club.
Paeng Mugang instinctively raised his saber and blocked it.
Crash!
The roar that followed sounded like two huge weapons colliding, and it echoed through the night street.
Unable to withstand the force, Paeng Mugang was driven back several steps.
A club that relied on brute strength alone.
It was the perfect weapon against the Hebei Paeng Clan.
“To think a cripple would use a sword with his opposite hand. Admirable.”
Black Leopard sneered at the stumbling Paeng Mugang.
But Paeng Mugang merely brushed off the provocation with a loud laugh.
“There are times when a man has to do what must be done. Filthy black-clad thugs like you would never understand that in your life.”
If you don’t do what needs to be done when the time comes...
Paeng Mugang smiled faintly, recalling what Song Hyeon had said.
I’ve lost my heart to a dangerous woman.
But he had no regrets.
Paeng Mugang raised the saber in his left hand and began to swing.
Qiankun Linked Circle Soul-Seizing Saber.
The saber did not stop, instead unleashing a furious chain of strikes.
His injured leg kept the style from reaching its full power, but he compensated by turning his whole body and borrowing speed and weight from centrifugal force.
“Brat with a big mouth!”
Black Leopard guessed instinctively.
The patient in front of him had reached an impressive level.
Normally he would have cut and run long ago, but tonight was different.
The thought of a lush, desirable woman he had never seen before kept scratching at him, and more than that, his opponent was a cripple with broken limbs.
His club slipped through the narrow openings left by the saber and swung in.
The expensive iron club collided with Paeng Mugang’s saber, sending sparks flying with every impact.
“Don’t dodge!”
Paeng Mugang’s saber didn’t seek to match strength head-on; instead, it slipped diagonally through openings and aimed for Black Leopard’s vital points.
There was no way a dumb brute like him could understand the profundity of that linked-circle technique.
The surrounding thugs tried to help Black Leopard by probing for Paeng Mugang’s openings, but again and again they were cut down by Cheongha’s sword.
Cheongha’s gaze, too, shone as she watched Paeng Mugang.
...He’s got a completely different kind of momentum.
It was an emotion she didn’t understand.
Paeng Mugang could focus entirely on Black Leopard because he knew Cheongha was guarding Song Hyeon’s flank safely.
At last, Paeng Mugang’s saber cut deep into Black Leopard’s shoulder.
“Kraaaah!”
But Black Leopard was also the owner of a Black Spot who had rolled through the back alleys for years.
Ignoring the pain, he seized the opening and swung his club.
Without thinking, Paeng Mugang lifted his broken right arm to block it.
“Ghk!”
With horrifying pain, his body was driven backward.
For an instant, Song Hyeon’s desperate face flashed through his mind.
She asked me to buy her time?
That wasn’t enough.
Paeng Mugang used the momentum of his falling body to twist around and launch himself into the air.
Linked-circle techniques really don’t suit me.
He had known that for a long time.
Paeng Mugang had always had very clear tastes, even as a child.
Blue inner energy began to wrap around the saber as he soared upward.
Moving his broken right arm, Paeng Mugang grabbed the hilt again.
I’ll give even this broken arm to you. Not a bad feeling.
The pain that had been throbbing in his arm was gone.
A smile hovered at the corner of his mouth.
Mixed-Origin Thunderbolt Saber.
A man always needed one decisive strike.
Another Paeng Clan ultimate art, like a bolt of lightning, condensing all his inner power into a single blow.
The energy wrapped around his blade flashed blue like lightning.
“First form. One Flash.”
As though thunder had fallen from a clear sky, Paeng Mugang shot toward Black Leopard.
The saber he thrust out sliced through Black Leopard’s final swing as easily as paper and pierced straight through his heart.
Black Leopard stared down at the blade buried in his chest as if he couldn’t believe it, then coughed up dark red blood and collapsed.
Paeng Mugang planted his bloodied saber on the ground and stood there, gasping hard as he looked toward Song Hyeon.
At some point, she had closed her eyes and was sitting quietly in a cross-legged posture.
He had failed to buy time and instead finished the opponent off, yet he hadn’t actually been able to show her this magnificent sight.
Paeng Mugang gave a hollow laugh.
But it didn’t matter.
On the contrary, that unpredictable side of her only made her more alluring.
A fight to protect someone... isn’t bad at all.
The feeling of being relied on was surprisingly pleasant.
He’d always hated politics, clan expectations, and all the rest, leaving everything to his older brother and pursuing nothing but martial achievement.
Paeng Mugang silently resolved that once this journey was over, he would have to think it all through again.
Just as he was sitting down onto the ground with a satisfied smile, Cheongha finished clearing the area and approached him.
The black-clad thugs who had watched Black Leopard fall so hopelessly had already scattered and fled in all directions.
Cheongha judged that checking on Song Hyeon and Paeng Mugang was the priority, so she didn’t pursue them any further.
“Young hero Paeng... you’re quite the righteous man, aren’t you.”
“Well. Maybe not usually. But this time’s a little different.”
Paeng Mugang let out a snort of laughter.
It had all been nothing more than a rash act driven by desire.
He accepted the medicinal pill Cheongha handed him from her bosom without protest.
“It’s rare medicine, but I’ll give it to you specially since you did this for Sister.”
“I’m grateful.”
She’d been glaring at him and acting prickly the whole time, so he hadn’t thought much of her.
But Paeng Mugang’s impression of Cheongha changed slightly for the better.
At any rate, the matter had been resolved.
Now everything would be over once Song Hyeon opened her eyes.
While they waited for her, silence settled briefly over the alley.
And then, at that very moment—
“Hmm. The yard of Black Spot is rather noisy tonight. It’s been a while since I’ve seen such a childish little scuffle.”
A languid voice rang out through the dark alley.
There was no emotion in it at all, and yet the mere presence behind those words made the air around them sink with weight.
Cheongha and Paeng Mugang both turned their heads toward the sound at the same time.
Backlit by moonlight, a man in a deep bamboo hat walked slowly toward them, the hem of his gray robe swaying in the night wind.
“So. Let’s hear it. Why did you cut down our worthless fool?”
Haomun Lord.
The leader of the black path who ruled over all the darkness of the Central Plains.
He had personally appeared in this quiet alley.