Meeting Yu-baek
Yu-baek stood blankly in the small clearing before the outpost, gazing down at the trenches.
The Chagatai army had pulled back a full thirty li, so what lay before him was not the enemy’s imposing might but only the scars of their defeat. Trenches churned into plowed fields by explosions, barbed wire ripped apart, the gray wreckage of Musinpo that had shattered under the blasts with rebar jutting from the rubble. The countless caltrops the Musinpo had spat out stood bristling from the dirt like crops in a kitchen garden, sharp edges gleaming. Even elite troops would lose a fair number of men to pierced feet if they tried to climb that path on foot—unless they used Grass-Skimming Flight, that is.
Yu-baek scratched his head and muttered,
“Great Iron Divine Demon… or whoever… been through here?”
“What are you looking at?”
When Hui-yeom approached from behind and asked, Yu-baek’s head spun a full one hundred eighty degrees to look back.
“Eeek?!”
At that grotesque sight Sama Yun let out an involuntary shriek and hastily hid behind Hui-yeom’s back. Dang Su-jeong, his bodyguard, slipped a hand into her robes as well. Even Hui-yeom’s eyes flew wide at the display.
“…An extraordinary skill. Is your neck as flexible as an owl’s?”
“Ha… well, is this what they mean by the Wolf’s Backward Gaze—turning the head alone while the body faces forward?”
“Now that you mention it, the most famous ancestor of the Sama clan’s main house was known for that very physiognomy.”
Sama Zhongda himself had been that man. While Hui-yeom and Sama Yun made small talk to settle their nerves, Yu-baek finally turned his torso around as well. His face tilted at an odd angle.
“…Yeong-jeong?”
“Pardon?”
“…No. Only the face… looks alike.”
“?”
As Hui-yeom tilted his head for a moment, a chill ran down his spine.
He’s talking about the Founder, Dang Yeong-jeong!
In a flash he recalled the story of the Tang Family’s Three Great Demons that Ye-eun had told him long ago while he burned with fever.
To say he resembles Founder Dang Yeong-jeong means he has seen the Founder’s face.
Could the being before him truly be one of the Samyo who had walked alongside the Dang Family’s history since the Founder’s time?
According to the tale, the Butterfly died, the Spider remained, and the Mantis departed. Then this one’s identity is…
Among the three insects, only one could turn its neck a full one hundred eighty degrees.
Hui-yeom almost revealed that he had guessed the truth, then decided to keep it hidden for now.
Then what about Ye-eun?
He had long since realized she was no ordinary person. Yet he remembered her as a girl. The Ye-eun who had grown up beside him could hardly be one of the centuries-old Samyo…
In any case, Ye-eun knew one of the Samyo. Did Father know this as well?
Holding that single question in his heart, Hui-yeom finally noticed Yu-baek staring straight at him and hurriedly offered a cupped-fist salute.
“A pleasure to meet you. I am Dang Hui-yeom, Young Master of the Sichuan Dang Family.”
“Yu-baek.”
Yu-baek’s fingertip pointed at him.
“Smell of the Dang direct line.”
“Yes, I am the Family Head’s trueborn son.”
“Then you are… the Young Master Ye-eun spoke of.”
Yu-baek fished around inside his robes and produced something.
“This… letter of introduction Ye-eun gave me.”
He had visited the Dang Family in Sichuan, met Ye-eun, listened to her words, and come all the way to Yunnan in search of Hui-yeom.
“She said… you are the Dang Family’s future.”
“Hahaha, I am certainly trying.”
“…Truth is… I had no real interest left.”
Yu-baek looked at him with an expressionless face.
“But you… changed a lot of things.”
“I suppose I did.”
“The Dang Family is changing… has vitality now.”
“Yes.”
“Sichuan changed too. That… train? thing. Amazing. First time I saw it… thought it was a dragon.”
“Haha, is that so?”
“How… did you make it?”
“The Dang Family’s excellent craftsmen built it.”
“Ye-eun said… it came from your head.”
“That’s true enough.”
Yu-baek nodded.
“People… were smiling. Had strength.”
“….”
“Looked… tired, though?”
When he recalled the memory he tilted his head in mild confusion, then spoke with sudden certainty.
“Everyone… had hope.”
“…Yes.”
Yu-baek’s round green eyes curved like crescent moons. It was a smile.
“You changed it. So you… really are the Dang Family’s future.”
“….”
“Not the powerless, declining place it was.”
“Yes. The Dang Family will change.”
“Then I help. Because it has value. That’s why.”
“Thank you.”
“Got something… for me to do?”
“Work, is it…”
For a moment Hui-yeom studied Yu-baek carefully. At a glance he looked like a slightly vacant peerless beauty of a man, yet raw wildness and overwhelming power radiated from that massive frame.
Bigger than Shaquille O’Neal… practically a giant.
By Hui-yeom’s estimate Yu-baek was slender, yet stood a full head taller than Shaquille O’Neal. Only someone like Yao Ming would come close in height.
Hui-yeom asked,
“Should I call you… Lord Yu-baek?”
“Call me easy. Long talk… hard. Casual speech… good. Comfortable.”
“Ah, all right. Then how strong are you, Yu-baek?”
“How strong?”
Yu-baek tilted his head, then said,
“…Pretty?”
Why the question mark?
For an instant it looked as if the man himself did not know whether he was strong or weak; Hui-yeom nearly furrowed his brow. Then he heard the next words and smoothed it out again.
“Only lost once… ever. To Yeong-jeong.”
Then he’s trustworthy enough.
If he could be measured against the Dang Family’s Founder and had never known another defeat across the long years, he might well stand on equal footing with the masters of the Realm of Transformation or even the Realm of Profundity that Hui-yeom had only ever heard of in legend. So he said,
“Then Yu-baek, can you go over that way and take a look at how the mounted nomad army is faring?”
“Not hard.”
Yu-baek nodded and added,
“Be right… back?”
And he vanished.
“What?!”
Astonished, Sama Yun turned to Dang Su-jeong, who had remained silent until then. Sama Yun herself, though often dismissed as a mere schemer, was skilled enough in martial arts to be counted among the Nine Dragons and Seven Phoenixes of her generation. The movement had been so swift that even she, a rising talent, had failed to catch the slightest hint; she wanted the assessment of the Poison Phoenix, Dang Su-jeong—senior of the Nine Dragons and Seven Phoenixes and one of the Dang Family’s top masters.
Dang Su-jeong was drenched in cold sweat. From the moment she faced Yu-baek her body had locked rigid with tension, unable to move; she had been the only one who could even track the shadow of his passage.
With a light leap that needed no preparatory motion he cleared those three trenches, and with a second leap he vanished from sight.
Could even the elders of the Kunlun Sect, masters of the divine art that flips the body nine times in midair, display such movement?
If we fought…
True to her nature as a martial artist, Dang Su-jeong sank into a private world and pictured herself battling Yu-baek. No matter how she tried, she could not envision herself winning.
“Aunt…?”
At Sama Yun’s call Dang Su-jeong finally returned to reality and gave a bitter smile.
“He is… stronger than me. Probably.”
“That much?”
Sama Yun still could not grasp the scale and reacted with a dismissive “No way,” but Hui-yeom thought it entirely plausible. After all, the man had claimed strength comparable to the clan’s Founder.
One shichen later, Yu-baek abruptly appeared out of thin air holding two heads that still dripped blood.
“I’m back.”
Once again the outpost erupted in chaos; no one had sensed a thing. When the people finally calmed, Hui-yeom met Yu-baek and asked,
“How was it?”
“Mm…”
Yu-baek seemed to recall something, then counted on his fingers as he spoke.
“First… lots of them. Enough to fill a whole narrow plain.”
“The enemy’s remaining forces should number a hundred to two hundred thousand. Any sense of the exact scale?”
“Yeah.”
“And?”
“They were… watching the surroundings hard. And they sent soldiers… to fish in the river and cut trees on the mountain.”
“They clearly intend a long war,” Sama Yun said. Hui-yeom nodded.
“Then… those heads?”
“These… sentries. Got in the way… so I tore them off.”
“…Well done.”
Terrifying mobility, and matching martial power, had both been confirmed. For a moment Hui-yeom seriously considered infiltrating this unidentified monster into the enemy camp to assassinate the commanders and trigger a collapse. Then he shook his head.
It shouldn’t happen, but if the worst somehow occurs the Dang Family loses one of the Samyo. We’ve already won this fight; no need to throw a reckless move.
Having now firmly decided that Yu-baek’s identity was the “Mantis” of the Samyo, Hui-yeom instead resolved to use that speed in another direction.
“Yu-baek, I have a request.”
“For the Dang Family?”
“Yes, for the Dang Family.”
“Okay. What?”
“Can you return to Qinghai Province and, if those mounted tribes overrun it, help our Dang Family soldiers fighting there? And if it becomes more than you can handle, can you come to Sichuan and let us know? I’m asking you because no one has faster feet than you.”
“Talk… too fast. Slow…”
“Ah.”
Only when Hui-yeom repeated every word slowly and clearly did Yu-baek seem to understand; he nodded.
“Dang soldiers… the ones without writing. Remembered the smell. Can go.”
“Good. Then I’m counting on you.”
“Okay. Then… I’m going?”
“Wait!”
Dang Su-jeong, who had been listening quietly, suddenly cut in.
“Let me go with him.”
“Aunt?”
Hui-yeom’s eyes rounded at the abrupt request from the woman who had never left his side as bodyguard. She explained as if making excuses.
“There’s nothing for me to guard here, and if something hits Qinghai Province someone will need to lead the Poison Sect and fight. My martial strength is solid, and my position in the family is high enough—wouldn’t I be a suitable choice?”
“?”
The thought “Must you?” did cross his mind, yet Hui-yeom supported her decision. On a battlefield already tilted in their favor, she as his bodyguard had been little more than a surplus mouth eating rice. The only situation in which she would truly shine was one in which the war was lost and the commander Hui-yeom’s life hung by a thread—and that was a situation that must never be allowed to arise in the first place.
Yu-baek stared at Dang Su-jeong and muttered,
“You also… Dang direct line?”
“Y-yes. The current Family Head, the Ten-Thousand-Poison Gentleman Dang Un-sang, is my elder brother.”
Out of respect for a martial artist of such formidable skill, Dang Su-jeong addressed him with formal honorifics without hesitation. Yu-baek regarded her quietly, then nodded.
“I remember… little Su-jeong?”
“Pardon?”
“Your name… Dang Su-jeong?”
“That’s right…”
“Grown… a lot.”
“…Could it be that you are a master who has returned to youth?”
At Yu-baek’s claim to remember her childhood, Dang Su-jeong asked respectfully. He tilted his head.
“Something… like that?”
“Ah, I failed to recognize a senior. Forgive me, Great Hero.”
“Nah. More than that… mm. Can you… keep up?”
“Yes.”
“Then… let’s go.”
Yu-baek vanished without warning, and Dang Su-jeong had no choice but to unleash her full lightfoot technique in pursuit. Watching the two vanish like a storm before any proper farewell could be exchanged, Hui-yeom murmured,
“…Then who is the Spider?”
If the “Mantis,” Yu-baek, had lived since the time of Founder Dang Yeong-jeong, then the “Spider” must likewise have lived from that era. Yet the one Hui-yeom had so far suspected of being the Spider—Ye-eun—had practically spent her childhood with him and grown up at his side; she was hard to regard as an immortal spirit beast or demon. So was Ye-eun not one of the Samyo at all, but a being of some other origin (no martial arts yet suspiciously swift lightfoot and no immunity to insecticide), while the Spider of the Samyo was someone else entirely?
“What?”
“Mm…”
After a brief moment of thought at Sama Yun’s question, Hui-yeom smiled gently and said,
“It’s nothing.”
In the end, Hui-yeom’s decision to send Yu-baek up to Qinghai Province proved remarkably timely.
Not long afterward, Hui-yeom received the grim news that Qinghai Province had come under Chagatai invasion.
And according to that report…
“…Hm?”
The Poison Sect was filming a Rambo movie, and Yu-baek had apparently become a Jedi from Star Wars.
“…Huh?”
About half a month before the day Hui-yeom rubbed his eyes and reread the report, let us turn to the tale of when Möngke Khan’s host, after a thousand hardships, finally crossed the Kunlun Mountains and entered Qinghai Province.