Geon Pyeong (1)
It was the art I had completed by taking the Magnetic Qi of my heavenly bone, the Magnetic Constitution, as its foundation and laying the Lightning God Destruction Art over it. Into it I had folded not only every martial theory and enlightenment I possessed, but even the realms I had failed to reach in the life before this. A martial art no other soul could master. One made only for me.
The Lightning God Destruction Art turned the body itself into lightning, and the further the flesh ruined itself, the greater the destruction it dealt. The Magnetic Dark Heavenly Lightning Divine Art was the reverse. The Magnetic Qi flowing through me seized the lightning qi as it grew violent, governed it, and condensed it, until the loss that destruction ought to have cost me fell to nothing.
Magnetic Qi, running through every part of me. The heavenly lightning qi of the Magnetic Dark Heavenly Lightning Divine Art. The higher that heavenly lightning qi climbed, the more firmly the Magnetic Qi that pressed it down and ruled it locked together with it, was tempered, and grew stronger. Yin and yang. A dragon and a tiger, each with the other's tail in its jaws, growing without end. That was the principle.
And now the destructive power forged from it was finally showing its true light.
A single flash of lightning. The moment the six spearmen who had stepped into the room faced that light, they folded like so much straw. I flicked the blood from my sword, and the lingering lightning qi still threaded with magnetism rose off their corpses like heat haze, then vanished. A thin crackle chased it.
"Not bad."
No. Far more than not bad. It felt as if the Heavenly Demon's leading foot—something I had only ever chased—had closed the distance in one long stride and come to rest just before me. To surpass her would be a rather wondrous feeling.
Something rattled.
"Did the sword miss? Still alive, are you."
I shut the half-open door. It met the frame with a solid thud, and from the heap of corpses Wang Baek—the only one still breathing—begged as if his hands had become his feet.
"Spare me!! All of this was that devil Cheong Ya's doing!! I only did what I was told!"
"Obvious. He promised you a pleasure house, didn't he. Or was the plan to hit the
White Spirit Tree warehouse while I was pinned down here? If the deal with me went well, take the trees back quietly. If not, raid the warehouse."
"Th... that..."
"Doesn't matter. Now that he's already dead here, the Dragon Iron Union bastards lying in wait at the warehouse won't move easily without orders. I can just go and kill the lot of them. Well. Shall we start with you?"
I wiped the blood from my cheek with my palm and stepped toward him, and Wang Baek wailed, pleading.
"I'll do whatever you say!! Please, just spare my life!!"
"Fine. Then do as you're told. Think you can manage that?"
"Yes!! Of course!!"
"Then go to the Dragon Iron Union and tell them this. Cheong Ya coveted my White Spirit Tree, ambushed me, and is chasing me as I flee toward the warehouse. You ran for your life, and you've come to bring them the news."
"Th... then, does that mean..."
"Yes. Tonight I'm smashing the Dragon Iron Union. If they hear their leader is dead, they won't come after me. They'll only think about running. I don't want that."
I gave the speechless Wang Baek a light tap on the backside with my scabbard.
"You leaving, or not?"
"I-I'm going!!!"
"Spread it far and wide."
Rumor becomes truth, and truth becomes a righteous pretext. And an orthodox sect, once you put a pretext in its hands, grows more venomous than any demonic man. I had become a man ambushed by Cheong Ya in the middle of an honest deal. All that remained was one thing.
I headed for the White Spirit Tree warehouse, where Seol-ha would be waiting.
The western outskirts of Lanzhou, near the White Spirit Tree warehouse. The elite party that had come out from the Dragon Iron Union was waiting for the messenger pigeon Cheong Ya was supposed to send. Something was wrong. Far too much time had passed.
Sim Ak's eyes gleamed. Among the confidants Cheong Ya cherished, he was a brother who had ridden with him since their bandit days, and he served at once as chief steward of the Dragon Iron Union and as commander of the Ghost Iron Unit, Cheong Ya's personal guard.
"Still no word from the Union Leader?"
"No, sir. Nothing."
Hall Master Ma of Red Heat Hall answered. It was the outfit that ran the King of Hell Stronghold, always first into the dirty work.
"Strange. This ought to have been finished long ago."
"He's nothing but a frog in a well, living off the Golden Manor's reflected glow. Right about now the Union Leader is probably yanking him this way and that while he shakes and writes out a pledge."
"Leaving only one soul to guard the warehouse is suspicious enough. And a soft little wench at that. What is that nameless nobody trusting, that he would..."
"Then why not kill the woman first and take the warehouse? One dead girl won't throw the deal off by much."
"Merchant house or not, the Golden Manor are the ones who hold Sichuan in their grip. Better to coax them and break them in, the way the Union Leader intends."
"A shame, then."
Catching the look in Hall Master Ma's eyes, Sim Ak clicked his tongue.
"You'd put a lecher to shame. Even now, all you can see is that woman's face?"
"Never in my life have I seen a beauty like that. Isn't it as if the moon goddess herself were swaying right before our eyes? Heh heh. The moment the Union Leader's order comes down, that woman is mine."
Even Sim Ak, who had been pretending not to care, swallowed dryly.
"Hah. I come before you in both age and rank."
That was when it came.
"Even so, first come doesn't stand on ceremony. Wouldn't you say?"
A voice, strange and cold, rode the night air. In the same instant Hall Master Ma's face—he had been shaking with laughter—split in half with a wet crack.
"Damn it!!"
Sim Ak hastily reset his grip on the spear, but the lightning-light that flooded his eyes was faster.
"What are you doing!! Kill the bas—"
Before the words could finish, the lightning-light swept in like leaping thunder, centered on Sim Ak. It began with the shoulder and arm of the spear-gripping man being severed in a single stroke.
"Guh—hk."
"Gyaaah."
Not a single scream came out whole. The sound of heavenly lightning qi blooming from the sword's tip, searing nerves and ripping muscle apart, filled the night air. There was no room to answer with a spear. No time to draw a breath and face what stood before them. They had none of it.
Every time the lightning-light scattered, blood sprayed without fail. Nearly a hundred men were torn apart and strewn in every direction. Helplessness and terror settled over them like a shroud.
Then Sim Ak, who had blacked out for a moment, opened his eyes again, trembling as if he had woken from a nightmare. What met him was a flashing bolt of lightning.
"S-spare me..."
The Dragon Iron Union no longer existed in his head. He only thrashed before the terror of the death laid out in front of him. But those indifferent, quiet eyes held no mercy at all. If anything, they smiled, softly.
"Why would I?"
"......"
"This is the price of coveting what you should never have coveted."
Geon-gon's sword drew lightly across Sim Ak's throat. A searing hiss. The last of the lightning qi scattered and burned through his windpipe.
Just then Seol-ha stepped out from between the grasses.
"Young master."
Geon-gon swept his hair back atop the battlefield that reeked of blood.
"Mm. A little late, wasn't I?"
Seol-ha shook her head, came up to the bloodstained Geon-gon as if it were nothing, and met his eyes.
"Next time, please don't tell me to wait and do nothing—not so lightly. If blood is going to stain your hands... I'll take it on too. That's my duty."
She drew out a handkerchief and wiped the blood from him, and a faint, peculiar stillness passed between them. Geon-gon grinned.
"No. From now on, I'll be the one getting most of the blood on me. Instead..."
He folded his hand around hers, the one still holding the handkerchief.
"You just wipe the bloodstains off me, the way you did tonight. That's enough."
The ink-dark clouds veiling the moon drew back little by little, and a thin moonlight leaked in through the dark.
The Dragon Iron Union's headquarters, Cheolruwon. Hundreds of torches crowded the training ground. Three of the Four Section Chiefs, having heard Wang Baek's news, had mustered no fewer than four hundred subordinates.
Hall Master Eom, looking ill at ease, stroked his beard.
"There's still no reply to the letter we sent Hall Master Ma, who left with Chief Steward Sim. I'm not sure we ought to move on that man Wang Baek's word alone."
At that, Hall Master Bang turned to Hall Master Go as if to confirm.
"And what of the Union Leader?"
Hall Master Go answered, eyes blazing.
"I've already sent men to confirm where he went. This is no time to sit here. If I must, I'll take my own men and go to him myself. We have to aid the Union Leader before this grows any louder!"
"Hmm. As Hall Master Eom says, something about this doesn't sit right..."
The moment Hall Master Bang's muttering ended, the great gate of Cheolruwon, flush against the training ground, blew apart. Boom! Through the billowing dust a single sharp spear of black light shot forth, screaming as it flew. It ran Hall Master Go clean through—he had been standing perfectly whole a heartbeat before—and buried itself in the ground. Beside him, Hall Master Eom's beard shivered.
"Th-the Union Leader's spear... Don't tell me that bastard is..."
Hall Master Bang, the one who still had some hold on his wits, shouted in a shaking voice.
"Who goes there!!"
Step. Step. In that moment I walked out of the choking dust with Seol-ha.
"There won't be a reply. Your leader died by my hand."
"You bastard!!! How dare a merchant throw aside the trust between us and carry on like a pack of brigands!! Do you want to make yourself an enemy of the entire murim!!"
I let out a short laugh.
"Wang Baek!"
Wang Baek came scurrying and threw himself down.
"Yes, young master."
Only now grasping the situation, the hall masters' faces twisted all at once.
"Just as I thought—that devilish tongue of yours fed us lies!!"
Hall Master Bang shouted. I ignored him.
"Go to the White Spirit Tree warehouse now. Hand the White Spirit Tree out free to everyone whose Stone Ridge Grass has worn off and who's suffering the side effects. Jegal Rin's name will do nicely."
"F-free of charge, you say?"
"What, you don't want to? Should I kill you now?"
"No, sir! I'm going this instant!"
Wang Baek bolted without a backward glance, and the Dragon Iron Union's warriors moved to chase him. A bone-deep chill cut across their path, becoming sword qi that swept up a full ten of them in a breath.
"No one move."
When Seol-ha released her energy in earnest, the tension strung through the hall drew taut to the breaking point.
"Listen carefully. Your leader interfered with a legitimate deal, tried to intimidate me, and then moved to kill me. He even sent his men to lie in ambush at the warehouse. All to raid my White Spirit Tree store."
At my words, not one of them dared deny it.
"From this moment, you have one day. As the price of the wrong you did me, you will pay in their stead for the White Spirit Tree I gave freely for the sake of Lanzhou. Cause and effect, reckoned in coin."
With Cheong Ya's once-absolute shadow gone, the three hall masters who remained floundered like candles in the wind. They would have liked to kill me here and twist the truth however they pleased, but they had no courage to stand against a man who had killed even their Union Leader.
"By now you lot ought to have lined your pockets well enough. I won't go digging through the slush funds. Just pay what you owe for the White Spirit Tree, proper and in full. Then we can put this away as if it never happened."
"I am Hall Master Bang, one of the Four Section Chiefs. If the Union Leader and Chief Steward Sim have both met their ends by your hand, then you and we are mortal enemies."
"Sure. Loyalty that deep always deserves respect. Fight with everything you ha—"
Hall Master Bang cut me off in a rush.
"No, no!!! Hear me out to the end!!"
I nodded, looking a little thrown.
"The sum you want—how much is it? We'll match every last coin."
The matter was coming along rather smoothly.