Dirty Money, Iron Fist
Night had fallen over the instructors' quarters of the Hidden Demon Cave.
The dwelling of Iron Fist Ga Cheon-ak was as heavy and spare as its owner.
Saraak.
It was an uninvited guest who broke that silence.
"Who goes there."
A masked figure melted out of the darkness.
"I've come from the Sagal Muk Family. I heard that Instructor Ga Cheon-ak was assigned to investigate the one called Yun Cheon. Hand over his entry records and any weaknesses you've found."
The man skipped the pleasantries and came straight to the point, setting a heavy pouch down on the table.
Jjarang.
A dull metallic clatter. The pouch brimmed with hefty slivers of silver.
"A sum like this should be enough compensation for your trouble."
Ga Cheon-ak crossed his arms and looked down at the man, his face carved from stone. It was true that he had ordered the investigation into Yun Cheon. The Sagal Muk Family had wormed into that crack and was now attempting to buy him.
"……"
When Ga Cheon-ak fell silent, the man mistook it for assent. A base smile spread across his face as he pressed on.
"Word has it you and Instructor Jeok Mu-gwang are rivals, no? Tsk tsk. Isn't Instructor Jeok pathetic? Beaten and humiliated by nothing more than a whelp of a boy."
Ga Cheon-ak's thick brows twitched.
"Pathetic?"
"Isn't it so? He even approached the boy for a chance at revenge, only to be refused outright."
The man chattered on, emboldened, utterly oblivious to the fact that the air in the room was growing as heavy as a slab of lead.
After a long moment, Ga Cheon-ak's mouth opened.
"Merely refused, you say…"
Ga Cheon-ak rose slowly to his feet.
Uuuung—
An oppressive pressure bore down on the man, as though a mountain of rock had just stood up.
"Jeok Mu-gwang has mellowed, it seems. He'd deserve praise for not tearing you apart on the spot."
"Ex-excuse me? What do you mean…?"
"You people take Instructor Jeok for granted. You take the entire Hidden Demon Cave lightly."
Kwadeuk!
Ga Cheon-ak's hand shot out like a thunderbolt. Both of his hands seized the man's entire head along with the money pouch on the table.
"U-urgh?!"
"That boy Yun Cheon is not someone for snakes like you to wag your tongues at. He is the 'martial artist' whom even Jeok Mu-gwang—that proud, unyielding man—acknowledged in defeat."
Udeudeuk.
Ga Cheon-ak's grip tightened. The crushing force of the Iron Fist, a hand said to knead steel like dough. The silver slivers in the pouch shrieked against one another, and the man's skull twisted under pressure it could no longer bear.
"You dare bring this filthy bribe before me? There are limits to insulting an instructor, boy. Consider this money your fare to the underworld."
"S-spare me…!"
Kwajik! Jjeojeok!
A horrific sound of splitting filled the room.
"Kkeureureuk…!"
Beneath Ga Cheon-ak's monstrous grip, the hard skull and the gold were crushed together like kneaded dough. The man's head burst open before he could even finish a scream. The blood that spilled down stained the slivers of silver red across the table.
Ga Cheon-ak casually flicked the blood from his hand and muttered, ice-cold.
"…An insult. They try to buy me with a mere money pouch. Did I look so easy to them?"
In his empty quarters, a single shadow appeared and answered him.
"That could hardly be."
Ga Cheon-ak gazed down at the heap of mangled flesh sprawled on the floor and gave his order, cold as frost.
"Aide. Return this thing to the Sagal Muk Family along with its dirty money. I have a message for them."
"……Eugh!"
The Lord of the Poison Fang Hall gnashed his teeth at the 'gift' that had been delivered before him. His trusted subordinate had come back as a lump of mangled flesh mixed with silver. Beside it lay a letter written in blood.
"Ugh-eudeuk…!"
The armrest of the chair the Poison Fang Lord gripped let out a grinding creak as black mist rose from it. The wood was melting away under his venomous aura.
"A mere instructor of the Hidden Demon Cave dares—!"
The prestige of the Sagal Muk Family, one of the Twelve Guardian Families, lay trampled in the dirt. Their promising young warriors had been defeated. Their elder had been made a cripple. And now even a single instructor of the Hidden Demon Cave was demeaning the clan itself.
"The investigation failed, the recruitment failed—everything! What in the world has come of us over one mere cadet?!"
Just then, a shadow that had been prostrated in the darkness lifted its head urgently.
"Not everything failed, my lord!"
"What did you say?"
"The big fish like Ga Cheon-ak and Jeok Mu-gwang slipped through our fingers, but… among the instructors of the Hidden Demon Cave, we succeeded in recruiting one—a man with no backing and a greedy heart!"
The Poison Fang Lord's eyes flashed.
"Oh? Is that so?"
"As a newly appointed instructor, his position is precarious—and he was once humiliated by that boy Yun Cheon. He nurses a grudge."
The shadow smiled thinly as it delivered its report.
"According to our information, Yun Cheon regularly travels between the Inner Library and the Demonic Physician Hall. Using our recruited instructor as bait, if we strike the moment he lets his guard down, we have a real chance."
At last, a cruel smile curled the Poison Fang Lord's lips. There was only one root of all this misery. And with the Life and Death Venerable now in seclusion, the opportunity would never be better.
"Mm. Good. Commit the Poison Fang Hall's elite. We've secured an ally within—there will be no tolerance for failure this time."
The Poison Fang Lord reached out as though to clutch the empty air itself.
"While the Life and Death Venerable is in seclusion, bring that boy before my eyes! I will pry his mouth open myself!"
"As you command…!"
"Hoo… huuk…"
Deep within the Inner Library, in a small stone training chamber tucked between the ink-scented breath of thousands of ancient tomes, rough breathing echoed at steady intervals.
Baekri Hyeon, the Book Ghost, watched the scene and clicked his tongue.
…That lunatic. Is that what you call training?
At the end of his gaze stood Yun Cheon. Shirtless, he was doing push-ups. Not ordinary push-ups, either—a handstand push-up, bearing his entire body's weight on nothing but his two hands. No, worse than that: on the weight of the jet-black Black Steel Cold Iron packed around his limbs as well.
Even bare-bodied that would be no small feat… and he's carrying that kind of load on top of it?
Baekri Hyeon had been able to sense that Yun Cheon had changed the moment he returned to the Inner Library. The cold, crisp aura emanating from his body was unmistakably the trace of cultivated internal energy. And yet, in Yun Cheon's movements now, there was only the heat of a body screaming in exertion.
He isn't even using his internal energy…
Baekri Hyeon's eye was precise. Yun Cheon was deliberately suppressing his internal power right now, shouldering that absurd weight with nothing but pure muscle, bone, and sheer endurance.
Udeudeuk.
The muscles of Yun Cheon's back twisted like ropes and groaned. The sweat pouring from his whole body had soaked the floor so thoroughly that it formed pools like rainwater.
Extreme physical agony…
And yet Yun Cheon's expression showed no pain. Rather, it was serene—because he was unfolding the forms of the Heaven and Earth Moving Art, regulating his ragged breath with the Life-Prolonging Breathing Technique.
Discard internal energy, stoke the body's life force, and hone flesh and bone to their absolute limit.
It was a desperate struggle to endure the Defying Heaven Secret Art that lay ahead—and at the same time, it was the martial path Yun Cheon himself had chosen.
The sinister chi and scorching yang chi coiled within my body… I will forge a vessel of steel strong enough to bear the Yin-Yang Great Spirit Blocked Meridians.
His arms, tempered since before dawn, trembled violently, veins swelling as though they would burst. Sweat streaming from every pore drenched the floor.
This was the limit.
"Heup!"
With one final push off the floor, Yun Cheon sprang upright.
Kung—!
The chamber shook under the combined load of his body and the Black Steel Cold Iron.
"Hoo……"
Hot steam poured from Yun Cheon's mouth. Every muscle in his body was screaming, but he felt refreshed. Ever since his rotating dantian had formed, his body's recovery had accelerated dramatically. Training that would once have laid him up for days now left him fine after nothing more than a moment to catch his breath.
…Now that's the taste of real training.
He was wiping away the sweat and steadying his breathing when—
"Don't you think that's enough? You've learned internal energy arts now, haven't you? How long do you plan on drilling external power?"
Baekri Hyeon emerged from behind the bookshelves, feigning an annoyed expression.
Yun Cheon gave a dry chuckle and wiped down his sweat-slicked body.
"Were you watching?"
"I wasn't watching. Your idiotic grunting was shattering the quiet of the library, that's all."
Even as he grumbled, Baekri Hyeon stole sidelong glances at Yun Cheon's hardened physique. It was hard to believe this was the same body of the blocked-meridian patient he'd first seen half a year ago.
"More importantly—isn't today the day?"
"…The day?"
"Tsk. Figures. All that blood rushed to your muscles, so you forgot your schedule, did you?"
Baekri Hyeon crossed his arms and jerked his chin toward the outside.
"The sun's already past its peak. Today's the day of your joint research with Lady Seol at the Demonic Physician Hall."
"Ah… so it's that late already."
He had trained in a state of flowing oblivion and lost track of time. As Yun Cheon hurriedly reached for his clothes, Baekri Hyeon cleared his throat and slipped in a remark.
"Ahem. And… I'm coming along today as well."
"You? From what I know, the medical texts we needed from the Inner Library have already been sorted."
At Yun Cheon's puzzled echo, Baekri Hyeon's face went red.
"W-well, it's just… it seems there are medical texts Lady Seol missed, that's all."
His motive was obvious to anyone. Baekri Hyeon, who had always been oddly attentive toward Seol Yeong—having heard that her condition had improved thanks to Yun Cheon, he must have wanted to see her recovered state with his own eyes.
Yun Cheon didn't bother digging into it and simply smiled faintly. Personal interest aside, the man was still a physician in his own right. If he aided the research, so much the better; he would hardly be a hindrance.
"Fine by me. I'm sure Lady Seol will be glad to see you, too."
"Ahem. I am merely going in support of my duties as head of the medical texts section! Don't misunderstand!"
Coughing repeatedly and doing his best to hide his feelings, Baekri Hyeon put on airs—but his readily given acceptance made his pleasure plain. He made a show of dragging his feet, yet his steps were far quicker and lighter than usual. Above all, his smile stretched from ear to ear.
The two left the Inner Library and set out for the Demonic Physician Hall.
Baekri Hyeon, walking in front, abruptly slowed his pace.
"Hmm…? This is the road we always take, but… the area around the library feels strange today, somehow."
Yun Cheon did not answer right away. Instead, he slid the Black Steel Cold Iron ring down around his wrist once.
"I thought it was about time."
"……!"
Four months had passed since the Life and Death Venerable entered seclusion. As the joint research with Seol Yeong piled up, the route between the Inner Library and the Demonic Physician Hall had grown fixed and predictable. If anyone meant to strike, now was the moment. But whether the ones setting this bait were truly the Sagal Muk Family, or merely the dogs beneath them, he could not yet be certain.
"Only thing left is to see how many come, and whether anyone moved in person."
Baekri Hyeon's face stiffened.
"Wha… don't tell me?!"
"If anything happens, don't stray from half a step behind my left side."
It was no joke. Baekri Hyeon swallowed drily. Yun Cheon's voice was far too calm—and that calmness was somehow colder than any panic would have been.
The moment the two turned onto the forest path—
Pisuk!
A short, slender sound of piercing air tore through the gloom.
Yun Cheon's eyes flashed.
Deopseok.
He seized Baekri Hyeon by the collar and yanked him roughly backward.
"Keuk!"
Half a beat later, a single black needle skimmed through the space where Baekri Hyeon's neck had been and buried itself in a tree trunk.
Chi-iik—!
In an instant, the bark blackened and melted away.
Baekri Hyeon's face went deathly pale.
"A p-poison needle…!"
Before the shock could even fade, the forest's stillness shattered and killing intent flooded in from every direction.
Syusyuseuk—!
Black shadows burst forth from all sides of the forest. Figures wrapped in night garments and masks despite the broad daylight. Spreading out in a semicircle to cut off any retreat, matching their spacing with practiced precision, they completed an encirclement in the blink of an eye. Not one hair of their formation out of place. Even at a glance, these were men trained as assassins.
"Kukuku… we've been waiting for you, whelp."
From among the shadows, one who appeared to be their leader revealed himself. His voice was low and suppressed, but it could not hide the excitement simmering beneath it.
"The Life and Death Venerable is in seclusion, and Gal Mu-heun is buried in his office. Who's going to save you this time?"
Yun Cheon slowly rested his hand on his breast pocket.
"There won't be any time for waiting on others, I'd think."
Half-stepping back toward Baekri Hyeon, he added in a low voice:
"Don't fidget. The more you flail, the faster they'll skewer you."
Baekri Hyeon's face showed his wounded pride, but he couldn't bring himself to argue.
…Damn it, it stings, but the boy's right.
Had it not been for Yun Cheon, that sudden poison needle would have severed his thread of life.
"Your companion's death is of no concern to us."
The leader laughed cruelly.
"Attack! Take him alive—but if he resists, feel free to lop off a limb or two!"
The instant the command fell, the attackers surged toward Yun Cheon.
Baekri Hyeon cried out in alarm at the sight.
"Y-Yun Cheon! You have to dodge!"
But Yun Cheon did not dodge.
"No. There's nothing more foolish than showing your back to assassins."
Udeudeuk.
Rather, he gave the wrist laden with Black Steel Cold Iron a light roll and took a single step toward the closing shadows. Yun Cheon's eyes sank into ice.
"Stay right behind me. There are more of them than I expected."
Return of the Cloud Dragon
Author | Chu Sang (Autumn Frost)
Publisher | Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Managing Editor | Editorial Department
Published by | Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. — Dreambooks
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