Ivan Novikov? From Today, You're a Slave (3)
"Then how about this? The friction I had with Landlord Hwang arose solely because he openly demanded a bribe from me.
I refused to pay it, and at the same time, by warning him over the abolition of the local gentry's tax-exemption privileges, I meant to keep him from any reckless moves.
If you, Ivan, will assist me in my work, I will not only leave Landlord Hwang's tax privileges untouched, but will also offer him a suitable token of gratitude.
Of course, you yourself will receive fair compensation as well."
At Hui-yeom's proposal, Ivan frowned, suspicion plain on his face.
"I cannot accept if it is evil work."
"Why do you assume it is evil?"
"Because the Sichuan Dang Family is a clan of villains who kill people with poison, is it not?"
At that pure black-and-white logic, Sama Yun and Dang Su-jeong both furrowed their brows, but Hui-yeom only smiled.
"Brother Ivan, even poison, used well, becomes medicine, and medicine, used poorly, becomes poison. Ask the people right now what the Dang Family has done with poison.
We saved the Central Plains with poison."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Three hundred thousand cavalry of the Chagatai Khanate invaded the Central Plains, and our Dang Family stopped them. In that process, poison mist played a very great role."
"Hm… yes, I think I heard something of it in passing."
Ivan pondered for a moment, then soon nodded.
"It seems this one's thinking was rather narrow. After speaking with you, I begin to feel that the Dang Family may not necessarily be a clan of villains."
"Then will you accept my proposal?"
"There is one more condition."
"What is it?"
"Spar with me."
"Pardon?"
Caught completely off guard, Hui-yeom's eyes went round. Ivan spoke in a firm tone.
"Anyone can spin pretty words. From ancient times, a martial artist's true heart is revealed only when fists meet! I will see your sincerity."
"…This humble one is not particularly strong."
"That is fine. Rest easy—I will not injure you. I simply wish to see your martial arts."
"Mm… if you insist that far…"
Hui-yeom nodded.
"You may be disappointed, but very well."
"Good!"
Ivan immediately leapt backward to open the distance, then cupped his fist in salute.
"Third disciple of the North Sea Ice Palace Lord, Isaac Ivanov! Ivan Novikov! I request a bout with you!"
"Young Master of the Sichuan Dang Family, Dang Hui-yeom. I look forward to your guidance."
"As the one who first proposed the bout, I will yield the first three exchanges. Come!"
"My thanks for the consideration. Then…"
Hui-yeom returned the salute, and as the bout began, the onlookers stirred in surprise.
"What—the Ice Palace Lord's disciple?"
"No wonder… that strength was unnatural for his age."
"A-Auntie, doesn't that mean my husband is in danger?"
Sama Yun asked in alarm at Dang Su-jeong's muttering. Su-jeong answered,
"Well, at least in a straight fight, Hui-yeom definitely can't win."
"That can't be…"
"But he doesn't seem intent on hurting Hui-yeom, and the outcome of a bout isn't always decided by raw strength in a head-on clash, is it? Let's watch. This is your first time seeing your husband fight, right?"
"…Yes."
The atmosphere itself felt closer to a friendly spar, so the tension was not desperate.
Sama Yun clenched her fists and cheered for her husband.
"Do your best, husband!"
"…"
"…"
Tension flowed through the air between the two facing each other.
Before the bout began, Hui-yeom spoke to Ivan.
"Young Hero Ivan, simply sparring would be dull. Shall we set one condition?"
"A condition?"
"Regardless of victory or defeat, you already said that if I am not an evil man, you will hear me out on the work I do, yes?"
"That is so—if it is not evil work."
"If we fight as we are, my defeat is obvious. So if I manage to land even one effective blow on you, grant me one additional request."
"If it is evil, I cannot follow."
"You may judge after hearing the content of the request. I swear it will never be evil work."
"Very well. On that condition."
"Thank you."
"Enough talk. Come."
"Understood. Then…"
Hui-yeom drew up his internal energy.
When he opened the eyes he had closed, his irises had turned deep green, and a green current of energy began to swirl around his body.
It was the sign that his Nokryong Singong—the Green Dragon Divine Art—had reached a certain level.
Dang Su-jeong marveled.
"Poison mist materializing… That brat, between working day and night he only trained in scraps of spare time—when did he reach that level?"
"Is it that impressive?"
"If you ask whether it's truly impressive, it's a bit ambiguous—it's the hallmark of a Peak master.
Given the spiritual medicines he was given and his status as Young Master of the Sichuan Dang Family, reaching Peak at that age should be considered an ordinary achievement.
But Yun, you know it too. Hui-yeom never hung everything on martial arts like other rising talents; he treated martial arts as a side job—and he's still Peak.
The world really is unfair."
At Su-jeong's praise that was not quite praise, Sama Yun smiled faintly. Just then Hui-yeom fluttered his sleeves and thrust both hands toward Ivan.
Whitish poison mist flew at Ivan and began to wrap around him.
Having declared he would yield three exchanges, Ivan did not dodge; he simply stood his ground.
"Thinking to take advantage of the poison? But this one is not so easily handled!"
"…"
Ivan drew up his internal energy, raised a white blizzard, and countered by freezing the poison qi seeping toward him.
Though practitioners of cold yin arts were said to be weak against poison, that only applied once they were poisoned; freeze it before contact and the matter became meaningless.
Yet Hui-yeom gave no answer to Ivan's words. He simply continued to pour the energy of the Green Dragon Divine Art toward him.
Before long the internal energy of the Green Dragon Divine Art turned into a colorless, transparent haze that rolled in like fog. Meeting Ivan's cold, it froze and began to pile up at his feet like thin ice.
Ivan laughed heartily.
"Hahaha! Still not finished with the first exchange? Planning to drag this into an internal-energy contest, I see—but that is a mistake. This one has taken Ice Essence; my internal energy is extremely deep. It would be better to move on to the next exchange even now!"
"…"
Hui-yeom did not answer. He only smiled faintly and kept sending the mist.
Ivan still could not grasp Hui-yeom's aim, yet he faced him boldly, as if he would smash it head-on.
Hui-yeom's retainers watched with worry.
Only one person—Dang Su-jeong, whose own achievement in the Green Dragon Divine Art was high—sensed that something was off about the situation unfolding.
Frozen powder piling on the ground? That means it's matter.
Watching the frost accumulating at Ivan's feet, Su-jeong thought to herself.
Poison qi doesn't freeze. It has no physical substance. The fact that it froze means he used the material-transformation function of the Green Dragon Divine Art to create actual matter.
What was that matter's true identity?
Su-jeong judged it would not be "poison."
If the goal had been to poison Ivan, materializing the toxin would be the worst possible plan.
If he meant to poison Ivan, he should have spread unmaterialized poison qi in every direction and forced a hidden-weapon fight.
Use the Hagyeongchong and Dangroe and the like to draw Ivan's attention, then wait for the poison qi secretly dispersed around him to contaminate his internal energy and poison him—that would be the only method with any real chance of victory for Hui-yeom right now.
Even if Yeom has little real combat experience, he wouldn't fail to know that.
One possibility flashed through Su-jeong's mind.
She carefully sent a sound transmission to Sama Yun, Lee Jinmyeong, and Han Ye-eun.
Everyone—better cover your ears.
"Pardon?"
"?"
"…"
The three glanced at Dang Su-jeong for a moment, then without further question covered their ears.
"I say, Young Hero Dang! Isn't it about time you gave up? Do you mean to keep this up until your internal energy is completely exhausted?"
"…"
"This one has often been called stubborn, yet I cannot compare to Young Hero Dang. Are you doing this because you fear my counterattack once the three exchanges pass?"
When Ivan, apparently growing tired of simply receiving, threw out the provocative words, Hui-yeom finally lowered the twin palms he had been extending and let out a long breath.
Ivan grinned.
"Shocked that your specialty, poison, has all frozen solid?"
"That cooling ability is certainly enviable. What is the name of your martial art?"
"It is called the Bingbaek-singong—the Ice-White Divine Art—of the North Sea Ice Palace."
"People of the Ice Palace look like folk of the Lu Kingdom—Russia—yet the original name of the art is not that, is it?"
"Oh? Sharp of you. Correct. The original name is Дыхание Ледяного Бога."
"Dykhaniye…? Isn't that something like the arts used by the noyans of Chagatai?"
"Ah, the Mongol 'Breath,' you mean. Possible enough. Mongol martial arts originated from our Ice Palace in the first place. Mongolia itself was influenced by Tibet, the Ice Palace, and the Central Plains all together.
I don't know for certain, but long ago they supposedly eyed even the lands of Qilisha—Greece—beyond the Persian kingdom, so they may have absorbed Western auras as well."
Hui-yeom was a little surprised by the unexpected knowledge from the man who had seemed a simpleton.
He soon nodded and drew the Hagyeongchong from his robes.
"When you think about it, Central Plains martial arts themselves were transformed and developed after Bodhidharma brought India's mantras to the Central Plains.
Understood. Let us end this match now."
"Only the first exchange has passed and you already mean to surrender?"
"Not at all. I have already won this fight."
"Hoh, quite confident in your second exchange, are you? Let's see it, then."
"Victory and defeat are already decided. Only Great Hero Ivan has yet to realize it."
"What?"
Sensing sudden chill, Ivan hastily circulated his internal energy and examined his interior.
He suspected that, without his noticing, he had been poisoned by some colorless, tasteless, odorless toxin whose symptoms were still being suppressed and hidden.
Yet finding nothing amiss upon inspection, he cocked his head.
"This one is not poisoned."
"You will understand soon enough."
Hui-yeom raised the Hagyeongchong and aimed it at Ivan.
The moment Ivan drew up his internal energy in preparation for the shot, Hui-yeom immediately lowered the pistol and fired at the ground beneath Ivan's feet.
"Wha—"
Ivan had no time even to shout "What the hell are you doing?"
A single lead bullet tore through the air and slammed straight into the "frost" heaped thickly at Ivan's feet.
Frozen ground met lead bullet; the impact and sparks that flew were like a hammer striking an iron plate.
The shock rippled outward in concentric waves, striking the frost crystals carpeting the ground.
The impact shattered the frost crystals and restarted the molecular motion of the frost that had been frozen and still.
The unstable nitrate groups ONO2 of C3H5(ONO2)3 broke their molecular bonds under the slightest shock.
The vast quantity of oxygen released as the bonds shattered immediately combined with carbon, producing a violent oxidation reaction—in other words, an explosion.
The chain reaction that created carbon dioxide, water, and nitrogen generated a shockwave of 7,500 m/s and flames reaching a maximum temperature of 4,000 °C.
The "nitroglycerin" piled thickly on the ground detonated in a true great explosion.
—KWA-AAAAAANG!!!
"Kyaaaaaaaah?!"
Though he instinctively drew up internal energy to defend his entire body, when the explosion erupted beneath his feet Ivan was launched skyward like a pirate doll shot from a barrel in a pirate roulette and crashed into the road.
Trembling all over, he lifted his head to look at Hui-yeom and managed,
"W-what kind of sorcery is th—ugh…!"
before his eyes rolled white and he lost consciousness.
That he remained whole-limbed thanks to wrapping his body in hard cold energy was even more astonishing.
At the billowing smoke and the dirt and stone fragments raining down like a shower, the surrounding people stood with mouths agape.
Dang Su-jeong called Hui-yeom in a trembling voice.
"Y-Yeom-ah?"
"Whew. I won. Thank goodness you stayed still as promised."
"What if that man had died? Why use such a vicious move?"
At Su-jeong's words Hui-yeom looked blank for a moment, then soon gave a short laugh.
"Auntie, this is a man who can even block your attacks. How could a mere explosion like this do anything to him? He's a Transcendental Peak master, hahaha."
"Even Transcendental Peak masters die the same if they take a sword, you know?"
"Still, I know he won't die from something of this level."
"…"
Just how has this kid been looking at me all this time?
Dang Su-jeong quietly resolved never to do anything that might make her look bad in Hui-yeom's eyes.
Several hours later,
when Ivan regained consciousness, he barely managed to raise his still-throbbing body and spoke to Hui-yeom.
"…Mm. I did not expect to lose."
"It was a fine bout."
At Hui-yeom's words Ivan frowned slightly.
"…There is much I would like to say one way or another, yet a loser's words are always shabby. I will not speak them."
"Very well. Then will you grant me one request?"
"What is it? If it is not evil, I will grant it within the reach of this one's strength."
"Haha, nothing much. Simply press your thumbprint on this contract."
"? What kind of contract is this? 'Li… Lifetime Employment Contract'?"
"It means I will take responsibility for Great Hero Ivan even into his old age. Come now—I'll stamp it for you."
"W-wait a moment—when did you put ink on my thumb? No, this is strange! A lifetime contract?!"
"Tut-tut. Is a warrior of the North Sea going back on his word with the same mouth?"
"But still, this is…"
"There. Seal complete. Welcome as a member of the Dang Family."
"…W-what on earth is this…"
Ivan sat dazed with the expression of a man who had been thoroughly swindled without quite knowing how. As she brushed past him, Ye-eun whispered softly,
"Poor guy."
"…"
Hui-yeom beamed and said,
"Hahaha! I have dreams! Business ideas won't stop coming! Now, what shall we try first with our Great Hero Ivan…"
Ivan could only squeeze his eyes shut and hope this was a dream.