A Borrowed Blade

The grinding scrape of a heavy body being dragged along shattered the stillness of the forest path.

"Ugh… urk…."

A man beaten black and blue, unable even to properly groan.

Barely half a shijin ago, this had been Muk Yeong-gi, Hall Master of the Poison Fang Hall, who had commanded his assassins with all the swagger of a lord.

After his capture, Junior Drill Instructor Ma Chung had pummeled him within an inch of his life, leaving him a wreck.

"Tch. Worthless trash…!"

"That's hardly for you to say. You're the one who took an internal injury from him."

Trailing behind that pitiful sight, two men were squabbling their way along the path.

"What! I mean, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠really, Senior Drill Instructor Ya Jin. If I hadn't bound his ankles, would I have been able to catch him at all? It was my Blood Wind Leg that landed the decisive blow!"

Ma Chung thumped his chest indignantly, and Ya Jin snorted.

"Bound his ankles? And who was it that subdued a man trying to flee while you were rolling around on the ground after getting hit? If it weren't for me, he'd be long gone by now. And instead of a thank-you, I get…."

"Th-that's not the point! I absorbed his palm strike with my own body and created the opening. That's why we caught him!"

"Absorbed it? You look to me like you took it square on. Tsk, tsk… Go tend to your internal injury. What was I supposed to do about your failure to subdue him?"

There they were, two drill instructors bickering over who deserved the greater credit.

Yun Cheon chuckled softly and turned his gaze to the two assassins following behind.

They were the ones who, upon watching their leader try to run, had lost the will to fight, thrown down their weapons, and surrendered.

"Walk properly."

At Yun Cheon's low words, the assassins' shoulders flinched.

"You are witnesses. Answer my questions without lies, and I'll let you keep your lives."

The assassins trembled and bowed their heads.

"B-but… if the main ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠family learns what we've confessed…."

Yun Cheon stopped and looked back.

"You think they'll come save you for keeping the secret? They'll sooner try to silence you with their own hands."

"……."

"If you want to live, there's only one way. Confess everything honestly, and request protection."

It sounded cruel, but it was the reality.

Captured assassins were not merely useless — they were living proof of fatal crimes, handed directly into the enemy's grasp.

"And if you refuse even that… I'll cut you down right here."

Shring.

As Yun Cheon flicked the blade in his hand, the blood crusted on it pattered onto the ground.

He had a boyish face, but Yun Cheon was a master who had already cut down more than a few assassins.

The memory of it returned, and the assassins' faces drained as white as blank paper.

'If that one says he'll do it, he'll do it.'

The boy before them was colder than any assassin.

The Serpent Scorpion Muk Family's retaliation was a matter for the distant future — but the boy's blade could take their heads right now.

"W-we'll remember! We'll testify!"

Yun Cheon turned his head, satisfied.

"Let's go. The Pavilion Lord is waiting."

The Mad Path Pavilion Lord's office.

As Yun Cheon finished his account, a heavy cracking sound burst from Gal Mu-heun's hand.

Snap—!

The brush he held had broken clean in two.

"……The audacity."

His voice was low, but the fury within it was boiling over like a buried volcano.

"Loosing assassins on the Mad Path Pavilion — on the very road leading to the Demonic Physician Hall?"

Gal Mu-heun's gaze fixed on Muk Yeong-gi, sprawled across the floor.

Splash—.

The unconscious Muk Yeong-gi sputtered awake as his aide dashed cold water over him.

'Damn it all, I've been captured…! Rather than suffer this humiliation alive…!'

The moment he grasped his situation, he instinctively tried to bite through his own tongue.

"Ugh… ugh…."

But his jaw would no longer move.

Only a grotesque gurgle escaped him.

"None of your tricks."

Baekri Hyeon stood beside him, looking down coldly.

"I've sealed every blood vessel pathway in your body."

It was an acupoint-sealing art he had learned directly from Gal Mu-heun himself.

"Well done, Hyeon. I wondered where I'd seen that face… The Poison Fang Hall Master, Muk Yeong-gi. So it's you."

Gal Mu-heun rose from his seat and slowly approached.

"……!"

"The Serpent Scorpion Muk Family seems to hold this Pavilion Lord in very little regard."

Savage killing intent erupted from every inch of Gal Mu-heun's body.

Under that overwhelming pressure, Muk Yeong-gi couldn't even draw a proper breath, gasping and heaving.

"Bribing my people through the Inspection Bureau wasn't enough — and now you loose assassins in the Mad Path Pavilion's own front yard? These madmen must be itching to die!"

Gal Mu-heun immediately turned to his aide.

"Summon the instructors and drill instructors at once! The Serpent Scorpion Family's stronghold—"

"Pavilion Lord, a moment, if you please."

Yun Cheon stepped forward and stayed his hand.

"Step aside, Yun Cheon. This is not your problem alone. It is a challenge to the Mad Path Pavilion itself."

"I think so as well. But there is no need for you to stain your own hands with blood, my lord."

Yun Cheon's eyes were calm.

In contrast to the furious Gal Mu-heun, he was already surveying the entire board.

"Rather… how would it be, my lord, if we set the Inspection Bureau on the Serpent Scorpion Muk Family's back?"

Gal Mu-heun's brow twitched.

"The Inspection Bureau? They hold a grudge against the Pavilion and against me personally. And above all, aren't they in league with the Muk Family?"

The Sa Do-myeong affair had left relations between the Mad Path Pavilion and the Inspection Bureau decidedly awkward. Suggesting they mobilize the Bureau now sounded like utter nonsense.

But Yun Cheon shook his head.

"The Bureau resents us, certainly. But far more fundamentally… they will be enraged by the fact that the Serpent Scorpion Family played them for fools."

"Ohho…?"

Yun Cheon looked down at Muk Yeong-gi as he continued.

"Sa Do-myeong took bribes from Elder Muk Wi-gyu and cooperated with the Serpent Scorpion Family — but when the truth came to light, Muk Wi-gyu tried to assassinate him. In other words, the Inspection Bureau was nothing more than a tool the Muk Family used and discarded."

Yun Cheon's eyes glinted, cold and sharp.

"All we need do is casually relay our investigation results to the Bureau, then magnanimously hand Sa Do-myeong over to them."

"Hmm…."

"Then the Bureau's blade will inevitably turn toward the Serpent Scorpion Family. They will never forgive a clan that deceived and manipulated them."

Yun Cheon's argument was impeccably logical.

Gal Mu-heun stroked his chin and fell into thought.

"Hmm… and yet I wonder if that alone would truly make them draw their blade. The opponent is, after all, one of the Twelve Guardian Families."

"Because once the Mad Path Pavilion's own investigation is made public, it is the Inspection Bureau whose face will be ground into the dirt. This incident is no mere assault on cadets. A single clan — the Serpent Scorpion Muk Family — attempted to buy off both the Cult's official investigative organ and its educational institution simultaneously. That is collusion and corruption in the plainest sense."

Yun Cheon was reframing the board of this affair — not as a contest of 'Yun Cheon versus the Serpent Scorpion Family,' but as 'the Cult's official organizations versus the Serpent Scorpion Family.'

"Ha…! Frame the board that way, and the Inspection Bureau cannot possibly sit still!"

"The price for defying the authority of the Cult's official organizations… I intend to make the Inspection Bureau extract it from them, bone-deep."

"A stratagem that borrows another's blade to strike one's enemy with a single word. The very definition of the stratagem of killing with a borrowed knife!"

Gal Mu-heun marveled at the scheme.

'This boy is not merely gifted in the martial arts. He has the eye to read the board and move entire factions….'

And with that, he could only raise his estimation of Yun Cheon all the higher.

In the atmosphere of the Heavenly Demon Cult, where one's martial prowess was prized above all, powerful warriors poured forth in droves. But talents who also possessed political acumen were exceedingly rare.

"You possess a mind to match your blade. Very well. We shall do as you propose."

Gal Mu-heun immediately commanded his aide.

"Drag Sa Do-myeong out of his cell this instant and send word to the Inspection Bureau. His interrogation is concluded — have them dispatch a responsible party to discuss his disposition."

Before long.

Sa Do-myeong, hauled out of his cell, looked utterly wretched.

"I've testified to everything! What—what do you intend to do with me now?"

Yun Cheon approached him quietly.

"Do you want to die here, for nothing? Or… would you rather live and take your revenge?"

"Revenge… on whom?"

"The agony when Elder Muk Wi-gyu ambushed you and drove that poisoned palm into you. Have you forgotten it already?"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Sa Do-myeong's eyes wavered — and then life flooded back into them.

"How could I forget! That pain, like my bones melting away — and the betrayal!"

"The Serpent Scorpion Family used you and tried to silence you. And as things stand, the Inspection Bureau cannot save you either."

"…I suppose not. My bribery was laid bare in front of every organization in the Cult."

Because Sa Do-myeong had stepped forward back then to test Yun Cheon's internal energy before the assembled crowd, the Inspection Bureau — along with the Council of Ten Thousand Horses and every other organ of the Cult — had witnessed his disgrace firsthand.

Returning to the Bureau as if nothing had happened was impossible.

"But… what if I told you there was a single road left for you to live?"

"And what would that be?"

"Choose. Will you die as the Serpent Scorpion Family's hound? Or will you once more become the Inspection Bureau's blade — and take their heads? I will put the hilt in your hand myself."

"……!"

Yun Cheon's offer was sweet.

"Wield that blade properly, and you will not only survive — you will restore your honor and reclaim your place in the Bureau."

A murderous resolve began to frost over in Sa Do-myeong's eyes.

"…I'll do it! Give me the blade! If I can cut down the Serpent Scorpion wretches, I'll dance with it gladly!"

And not long after.

The great hall of the Mad Path Pavilion.

Amid a heavy atmosphere, the Vice Chief of the Inspection Bureau had come in person.

Because he owed the Pavilion a debt over the Sa Do-myeong affair, he had set aside his usual arrogance and entered in a somewhat humble posture.

"You summoned me with some urgency, Pavilion Lord. Sa Do-myeong's disposition, was it…? Very well — how does the Inspection Bureau stand to answer for this?"

Gal Mu-heun answered only with a silent gesture of his hand.

At once, drill instructors Ma Chung and Ya Jin dragged Muk Yeong-gi out and dumped him on the floor.

"And this one is…?"

the Vice Chief asked.

Gal Mu-heun declared in a voice like ice.

"Muk Yeong-gi, Hall Master of the Serpent Scorpion Family's secret assassin branch, the Poison Fang Hall. This man led assassins in an attack on the Mad Path Pavilion's own instructors."

"What?! The Serpent Scorpion Family? They've gone utterly mad!"

"They attempted to buy off the Inspection Bureau and the Mad Path Pavilion at once, and when that failed, they moved to silence everyone involved. These are the poisoned blades and concealed weapons they employed."

His aide poured out the weapons seized from the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠assassins in a clattering heap.

The Vice Chief's expression hardened by degrees.

Then came the testimony that drove the wedge deeper.

"This drill instructor is a witness! The Serpent Scorpion wretches came waving a pouch of gold coins, demanding I sell them information on the cadets. What do they take me for? Hmph!"

There was Ma Chung's testimony, and letters from instructors Jeok Mu-gwang and Ga Cheon-ak besides.

Last of all, it was Sa Do-myeong's turn.

"Vice Chief. Elder Muk Wi-gyu of the Serpent Scorpion Family approached me — an agent of the Inspection Bureau. Taking it for an opportunity, I secured the Mad Path Pavilion Lord's cooperation and laid a far larger snare."

The Vice Chief's eyes went wide.

Sa Do-myeong looked better than expected — his appearance neat, with no trace of the ordeal he must have suffered.

"A far larger snare, you say?"

Cleanly dressed and composed, Sa Do-myeong recited exactly as Yun Cheon had instructed.

"Though the Twelve Guardian Families exist to devote themselves to the Cult, the Serpent Scorpion Family sought to use the Cult's own organizations for their private gain."

Sa Do-myeong's account went as follows.

The Serpent Scorpion Family had tried to purchase the Cult's official organizations — the Inspection Bureau and the Mad Path Pavilion — with money; they had attempted to poison a Bureau inspector and the Pavilion's instructors; and when events failed to go their way, they had loosed a squad of assassins to murder every witness.

From the account alone, one could see how utterly the Serpent Scorpion Family disregarded the Cult's order and ran rampant over it.

"Grrr… those Serpent Scorpion…!"

The Inspection Bureau existed to root out corruption within the Cult and enforce its discipline. If the testimony were true, this was a corruption scandal on a scale that demanded the Bureau's direct intervention.

'And if the target is one of the Twelve Guardian Families…!'

It was then that Gal Mu-heun made his offer, timed to perfection.

"Vice Chief. Suppose we set aside the old grudges between us, and let the Inspection Bureau handle this matter with full rigor. What say you?"

"…Gal Mu-heun, my friend? And what, precisely, do you mean by that?"

"The Mad Path Pavilion is, after all, an educational institution. If a corruption case of this magnitude were investigated and set right… would that not stand as the Inspection Bureau's achievement, entire?"

"……!"

"Naturally, as Pavilion Lord, I pledge my utmost support in the matter as well."

It was an offer that could not be refused.

The restoration of the Inspection Bureau's honor — and, on top of it, a magnificent quarry called the Serpent Scorpion Family.

The stage was set so that all they need do was draw the blade.

'…A chance to put the Twelve Guardian Families' pride back in its place.'

To the Inspection Bureau, the Twelve Guardian Families — vassal clans swollen with disproportionate power — had long been a thorn in the eye.

But even among the Twelve Families, whom the Bureau could rarely touch, not all stood equal.

The Serpent Scorpion Family was a lesser house, and one with an notorious reputation besides — their backlash would be slight.

'They've been left alone for want of a proper pretext… well, you wretches walked right into it!'

It was ample justification for striking at the Serpent Scorpion Family's private soldiers.

'…If we do this, we don't just wash away the Bureau's humiliation — we raise our standing higher than ever!'

The Vice Chief's eyes flashed.

What better terms could there possibly be?

In an instant, the Vice Chief's face brightened.

"…Very well. The Inspection Bureau is the blade that guards the Cult's discipline. We can no longer overlook the Serpent Scorpion Family's insolence."

He immediately gave orders to the Enforcement Captain who had accompanied him.

"Prepare to raid the Poison Fang Hall at once! We will search their stronghold to its foundations and drag every last person connected to this in chains!"

"By your command!"

After the Enforcement Captain bowed and departed, only then did the Vice Chief ask Gal Mu-heun what had been nagging at him.

"Gal Mu-heun… you've changed somewhat. Has something happened lately?"

Whatever it was, it sat at odds with the way Gal Mu-heun had always done things.

"…Heh heh. The wave behind always pushes the wave ahead, does it not?"

'The wave behind…? Is he speaking of a junior from the Mad Path Pavilion? What manner of person could move a hidebound scholar like Gal Mu-heun?'

The Vice Chief's eyes glittered with curiosity at the answer.

"…We'll speak again soon."

Once the Vice Chief had departed,

Gal Mu-heun summoned Yun Cheon and praised him.

"Your stratagem worked precisely as you said. Why, it was as if you'd blown your nose without so much as lifting a finger."

Even as he commended Yun Cheon, a part of Gal Mu-heun's mind had already arrived at an instinctive conclusion.

'Martial skill, cunning, and now the pretext to move men's hearts. This boy is no sapling meant to rest in my shade. One day, he may become a vine that swallows even the great tree of the Demonic Path itself.'

Exactly as planned, the Inspection Bureau had drawn its blade.

Now it was time to cut down the Serpent Scorpion Muk Family.