Haomun Lord
Paeng Mugang stepped forward as if his wounded leg didn’t hurt at all.
Watching him force himself to act fine made my heart ache a little, but for the moment there was nothing else we could do.
I stared after him for a moment, then turned to Cheongha, who was standing guard beside me.
“Cheongha. I need to break the spell on my body now, so keep watch over me.”
“Don’t worry, Sister.”
I trusted her.
If it was only those riffraff and not that Black Leopard bastard, Cheongha could probably hold them off alone without so much as breaking a sweat.
Feeling reassured, I sat down and took the Bigeup from inside my robe.
If the problem with my body was hypnosis, then there had to be a way to undo it in here.
Luckily, after turning only a few pages, I found the relevant passage.
Hypnosis is like a spider’s web that binds the mind. Forcing through that restraint by burning it away is impossible to withstand. Therefore, above all else, one must focus on remaining undiscovered. If suspicion has already been roused, the method for strengthening the suggestion is...
Burn it away, huh.
It didn’t mean to literally set myself on fire, of course. It meant moving my inner power to kindle a fire within my body.
That was a method often described in wuxia novels.
I’d never tried it myself, but any somewhat capable person was supposed to know how, so surely I could do it too.
I sat cross-legged and focused on the energy within my body.
That disgusting sensation was still there, something sticky and clinging all around me.
How was I supposed to burn it?
Did I just concentrate and shove it out?
I didn’t know the principle, so I simply focused in silence.
Burning. I wanted to burn this unpleasant force away.
Then, little by little, I could feel that sticky energy melting down as the energy inside me began to settle.
What? That’s it? Easy.
As expected of a genius pretty girl.
Martial arts really weren’t that big a deal.
How much time had passed?
At last, when I opened my eyes feeling the refreshing warmth of my body freed from that restraint, my gaze fell on a scene I had never expected.
“Hoh, so you’re finally awake. I’ve been wondering all this time why such promising younger talents were guarding you.”
Paeng Mugang and Cheongha were both kneeling before a strange man wearing a bamboo hat.
Paeng Mugang was pouring sweat as if his injured body had been pushed too far, while Cheongha had also lost her sword and was trembling faintly all over.
What the hell was this?
And who was this old guy?
While I was trying to make sense of the situation, the man in the bamboo hat casually flicked a finger.
I couldn’t see anything, but instinct screamed danger and I twisted aside.
The spot I’d been sitting in a moment ago was gouged out in a small crater.
If I hadn’t already gathered my inner power, I would have been helpless.
“Oh? So you’re not as disappointing as I thought.”
A languid voice drifted from beneath the brim of his hat.
Alarm bells rang in my head.
I’d clearly been threatened, and yet time hadn’t stopped.
Was it because the attack wasn’t dangerous enough? Or because...
But unlike my caution, my body followed instinct.
Was it confidence from wrapping my whole body in inner power?
Or anger at the sudden ambush?
Before I even realized what I was doing, I kicked off the ground and shot toward him in an instant.
It was a strange sensation, like the earth had folded and I’d moved in a single step.
The instant I threw my fist, that peculiar sensation of time coming to a halt struck again.
In that fleeting moment of stillness, I saw the eyes beneath the bamboo hat watching me with perfect precision.
Right before my punch could reach his face, he simply tilted his head and slipped past the blow.
I could only stare blankly as he stepped back with unnerving ease.
“A peculiar trick.”
He raised the item in his hand and examined it.
That was... the jade token I had been carrying in my robe?
I looked down sharply, and saw that the front lapel of my training clothes had been torn open.
He hadn’t merely followed my movement.
He had read my attack as time moved between us, and countered it.
...Dangerous.
This was the first true peerless master I had ever met.
I didn’t know exactly who this man was, but an intuition hit me hard: if I kept fighting like this, I might be the one in danger instead.
I steadied myself and watched his movements with a cool head.
“This is a jade token from the Trading Alliance. That picky old Gwak gave this to you? Is this connected to the visit from that bald fraud not long ago?”
He began sorting out his own thoughts, as though I didn’t matter at all.
Now that I’d been put in my place, the feeling was strangely humiliating.
Come to think of it, I did this sort of thing in front of Cheongha all the time. I’d better rein it in from now on.
“...Are you a transcendent-level pickpocket?”
“Hm? Hoho—your spirit hasn’t broken. I’ll praise you for that.”
He tossed the jade token back to me and let out a hearty laugh.
There was no contempt in that laugh, no mockery—only pure curiosity.
Paeng Mugang, still standing unsteadily behind him, used a voice that sounded like it was about to die to identify him.
“B-be careful... Miss Song. That man is... the Haomun Lord.”
The Haomun Lord?!
That kind of monster had shown up in person?
Once I realized who he was, my behavior a moment ago looked downright insane.
His gaze, bright with the amused interest of a child who had just found a new toy, swept over me from head to toe.
All I could feel was a chill that seemed to pierce straight through my bones.
“Well now. A young one using a strange power I’ve never heard of before. Then are you, too, a user of that bizarre Bigeup that’s been making the jianghu noisy lately?”
I said nothing.
Silence was sometimes a form of affirmation.
He clicked his tongue and shook his head.
“Tsk. Tsk. Young people these days want to gain power through tricks like this. The world really is going to the dogs.”
He sounded genuinely regretful.
I had no particular intention of denying it.
It really was power gained by luck, and I was the source of that luck in the first place.
I didn’t know what he was thinking, but for now I needed to stall.
I picked words he’d find interesting and tossed them out.
“Power is only a means. What matters is not what you learn, but how you use it. Why should that matter?”
“Oh? Are you trying to trade riddles with me?”
Picking a fight over the fundamentals like that.
Old martial artists loved talking about martial philosophy like this.
Sure enough, his eyes gleamed beneath the bamboo hat as he replied,
“Then what meaning can there be in power learned only as a means?”
Of course, I didn’t have deep knowledge of martial arts or any grand insight into it.
Anything I said would just be amateur philosophy.
I didn’t especially like that sort of thing myself.
Still, to buy time and make him a little more favorable, I decided to talk my way through it.
I had over ten years of experience living as a storyteller.
I was confident in my mouth-fighting skills.
I glanced at Paeng Mugang, still kneeling and grimacing in pain, then at Cheongha, who was doing her best to hide her fear.
“To those who need power, it becomes hope.”
“Power gained by improper means eventually becomes poison. What value is there in power you can’t even govern yourself?”
He wasn’t wrong.
Q&A on a subject I didn’t know well had put me at a disadvantage from the start.
Then I’d stop attacking the message and go after the messenger.
“Then was the power you learned, Lord, obtained for some extraordinary reason?”
At my bold counterquestion, his shoulders gave a small shake.
Hooked.
“The chivalry of the jianghu is faster than the law, and slower than the heart. I learned it to protect my own people.”
“That’s an answer, then. Everyone starts out in order to protect someone.”
His expression immediately soured.
I quietly shifted my footing, increasing the distance between us so that if we fought again, Cheongha and Paeng Mugang wouldn’t be caught in the crossfire.
“Is there any Dao or principle in something learned improperly?”
“When you learn martial arts from someone, do you suddenly awaken to the Dao and principle?”
His gaze sharpened.
But that was true, wasn’t it?
If everyone who learned martial arts pursued righteousness and chivalry, the jianghu wouldn’t be in this state.
Besides, aren’t you the leader of the black path to begin with?
Did black-hearted folk ever show even a speck of Dao or principle?
“Justice isn’t something you learn from other people. It overflows from within the heart and flows outward.”
Behind me, I heard Cheongha draw a breath in awe.
Why are you the one getting emotional?
Yes, that’s right. This was the sort of thing my middle-school-syndrome soul was best at—dropping lines that sounded profound because I’d spread a thousand books across this martial world.
A faint smile touched the corners of the Haomun Lord’s mouth.
“A young man who speaks in rare ways. It’s been a long time.”
Good!
His pressure had clearly eased a little.
But the moment he lifted a finger and pointed at Black Leopard, who was bleeding from a pierced heart, the air became heavy again.
“Still, I can’t simply let the death of one of my subordinates slide.”
His eyes flashed.
The force of it pressed down on me so hard that gooseflesh rose along my spine.
Behind me, I heard the two of them groan under the weight of his presence.
This old guy is doing this on purpose.
Oddly enough, even under his pressure, my mind remained clear.
I could read what he was really thinking.
He didn’t give a damn about Black Leopard’s death at all.
It was all just a pretext.
In Seoan, where the Haomun main hall stood, the owner of a Haomun gambling den had lost his life. For appearances’ sake, he had to be seen getting angry.
Once I saw through that, my dissatisfaction vanished.
All I needed was a plausible excuse he’d like.
“It was a personal grudge.”
“A grudge? Even knowing that he belonged to Haomun?”
He asked with interest, and I wrapped my arms around myself in a dramatic shiver.
“He tried to toy with my body using that sinister sorcery you despise so much, Lord. In the martial world, coveting a woman whose identity you don’t know is proof that you’re gambling with your life, isn’t it?”
“...Interesting.”
Fortunately, he didn’t seem displeased by my clumsy acting.
“Besides, he was nothing more than a dog of Haomun in the first place. If a dog you kept bit an honored guest, then it should be put down.”
“...Do you really think you’re qualified to be called an honored guest?”
“There isn’t a more honored guest in all the world than me.”
“Arrogant.”
And yet his face wore an unmistakably intrigued smile.
A reasonably skilled younger talent, with a proper sense of justice, and confidence to match.
A character tailor-made to hit all the old martial artists’ favorite buttons.
Being just a little rude could even be an asset.
And I was pretty, after all.
“Very well. As you say, that fellow was nothing more than a dog guarding a filthy gambling den. I’ll watch and see whether you have the right to stand by those bold words of yours.”
He pulled something from his robe and flicked it at me.
I caught it reflexively: a palm-sized slab of jet-black iron.
“Come to the Haomun main hall. I have something to say to you.”
With that, his figure dissolved into the darkness like smoke.
Just as with his entrance, he really did whatever he pleased.
Only after his presence had vanished completely did I finally let the stiffness drain out of my body and exhale in relief.
I’d thought I was an invincible, unbeatable pretty girl, but meeting a real peerless master wasn’t so easy after all.
I’d need to get stronger.
Then I heard a dull thud beside me.
Turning around, I saw Paeng Mugang, who had been barely holding on until now, had finally lost consciousness and collapsed.
“Young Master Paeng? Are you all right?”
I hurried over and checked on him. Thankfully, he was still breathing.
Cheongha, leaning weakly on her sword beside him, swayed as she looked up at me.
For some reason, her eyes were shimmering with tears.
“...Sister. I’ll follow you no matter where you go.”
“What... what’s wrong with you?”
“I’m moved. Justice overflowing from the heart, you said. What could be more beautiful than that?”
She cried out with passion and seized my hand.
...It seemed I’d gone and hooked another fool for no reason.
**
Within a few days, Paeng Mugang had recovered with astonishing speed and was able to move around again.
Of course, showing him the iron plaque I had received from the Haomun Lord had also helped; the best physician in Seoan had shot out of nowhere like an arrow and treated him immediately.
It seemed the elixir Cheongha had given him was excellent medicine as well.
And apparently the Paeng Clan’s martial arts, which specialized in external training, had sped up his recovery too.
Even after receiving top-notch treatment, he still wasn’t fully back to normal, which was why he was still wearing a splint.
I was worried, but since he himself said he was fine, I supposed that was that.
After finishing his preparations to leave, he came over to us.
“I suppose it’s time for me to continue on the road I originally meant to travel.”
“You should rest a bit longer before you go.”
“At this rate, I’m afraid I’ll be too distracted by Miss Song to accomplish my goal.”
At his words, I turned my head away.
Whenever Paeng Mugang said things like that, his expression was always far too sincere for comfort.
Seeing my reaction, he burst into hearty laughter.
“...Take care of yourself.”
Now that I said it out loud, it sounded exactly like I was seeing off a lover, and I couldn’t help shivering.
Absolutely not.
Absolutely nothing like that was going on.
This was just a casual farewell from someone I’d grown fond of, that was all.
My reckless request had played no small part in his getting hurt, either.
...No, wait. Come to think of it, everything from the moment he got hurt to when he worsened was all my fault, wasn’t it?
Suddenly, I felt a little guilty.
“We’ll meet again soon enough. There’s the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly not long from now, isn’t there? If I were to mention the younger talents of this generation without the two of you, it’d be impossible, so I’m sure you’ll come.”
“The Dragon-Phoenix Assembly?”
I hadn’t heard anything about that.
The Dragon-Phoenix Assembly was a classic wuxia staple.
It was basically the main event!
This was one of those things you’d have to attend even if someone begged you not to.
But Cheongha, standing at my side, immediately frowned when she heard the name.
“I despise noisy places like that.”
“I expected as much from Miss Cheongha. But not from Miss Song.”
Cheongha looked at my face, and her expression darkened.
“And this year, it happens to be hosted by the Jegal Clan, so it’s nearby. If you’re interested, then let’s meet there.”
Paeng Mugang laughed and took his leave without hesitation, heading out of Seoan with no trace of regret.
As befitted his bold nature, it had been a storm-like meeting.
Once his back had vanished completely from sight, Cheongha spoke to me in a trembling voice.
“Sister, are you really going to go there? It’s a gathering place for hypocrites and glory-hungry people of all sorts. They don’t suit us.”
From her perspective, it made sense. It was a place where all the most prestigious orthodox clans gathered, so of course she’d want to avoid it.
But I had absolutely no intention of missing such a main event.
“But, Cheongha. Think about it. You saw the Haomun Lord, didn’t you? Older martial artists tend to dismiss Bigeup as a joke. But you and I, and even the people we’ve fought— the younger they are, the more they’re drawn to Bigeup.”
That was fact, backed by experience.
Cheongha had no comeback and could only let out a small groan.
“It’s good to go hunting for Bigeup out in the field, but if the younger talents are gathering to show off their skills, then there’ll be plenty of Bigeup users who love to strut around, right?”
“But Sister... what if people from Shaolin come?”
That was the only real variable.
But I had already thought that through too.
“Then since you’re so obvious, you don’t need to take part openly. I’ll participate directly, and you can search for Bigeup secretly from behind the scenes. How about that?”
Cheongha seriously weighed my words in silence, thinking it over, and in the end nodded.
“...If that is your will, then I understand. Let us go there.”
Nice!
Our next destination was decided.
First I’d meet the Haomun Lord quickly, then finish preparing for the trip.
Just as I was about to hurry off, Cheongha gently tugged on the hem of my clothes.
“Sister. Since it has come to this, I should confess now.”
When I turned back, Cheongha carefully lifted her face veil and revealed her face.
It was the same beautiful face I had already seen before.
Then, as if she had finally made up her mind, Cheongha said in a low voice,
“My real name is Jegal Cheongha. I am the youngest daughter of the Jegal Clan.”
What? Jegal?
Our idiot middle-school-syndrome Cheongha... wasn’t from the Paeng Clan or the Huangbo Clan, but the Jegal Clan?
The sky caved in on me.