Variable (5)

The mountain fortress was a ruin. The elites of the Juseong House who had stayed with Yeom Sa-gaek, and the hundreds of finely honed wanderers besides them, had all become vengeful ghosts.

"The fortress's qimen formations?"

"All of them have been dismantled. No — dismantled is the wrong word. Destroyed would be closer to the truth."

"Damn it!! What the hell kind of mess is this!!"

Arriving inside a fortress thick with the reek of blood, Geon-hyu fixed his eyes on the trusted ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠man delivering the report: Yu Seong-bok.

Yu Seong-bok was the chief clerk who had, in practice, run Manjeonbang beneath Geon-hyu through all the hours Geon-hyu spent training as an outer disciple of the Qingcheng Sect. Unlike Jo Wi and Jun Pyo, chief clerks of the Iron Mirror Bureau and the Gold Coin Bureau, he was a man who had built his martial skill over long years, and he also led the Dark Scale Squadron, Geon-hyu's private fighting force.

"Forgive me."

Yet even he, meticulous as he always was, had never foreseen Geon A-seong breaking out like this. No — not even Geon-hyu, standing here himself, had imagined a situation of this kind.

"Do you have any idea what this venture is worth? It isn't only my money sunk in this place — Mother's funds are in it too!!!"

Screaming as if in a fit, Geon-hyu drove his toe into Yu Seong-bok's shin. When Yu Seong-bok grunted and reeled, Geon-hyu struck the same spot again.

"Stand up straight!! If you can't stay on your feet, I'll tear your throat out first today."

He seized Yu Seong-bok by the collar so the man would not collapse, and not content with shattering the shin to pieces, slowly ripped at the nape of his neck until the blood ran.

"Ghk…"

"I told you not to let your guard down."

"S-spare… me… please…"

Yu Seong-bok, rigid with fear, was still looking to Geon-hyu for mercy when it happened.

Shhk—

Half of Yu Seong-bok's head, still gripped in Geon-hyu's hand, was sheared away by a whip that came from nowhere.

Drenched from head to toe in Yu Seong-bok's blood in an instant, Geon-hyu jerked his head around, eyes bulging.

"The scene is unsightly enough as it is. Why are you sitting here squabbling so loudly?"

The one who revealed himself was a blue-eyed man wrapped entirely in a black robe. The fury staining Geon-hyu's eyes cooled the moment he saw who it was.

"Hero Dang. I greet you."

Behind the man called Hero Dang, dozens appeared in ink-black martial dress, blue eyes gleaming above black-iron masks that covered lip and jaw. The bastard son of the Sichuan Tang Family Head — this was the Blue-Eyed Squadron under Dang Mu-gi. A combat battalion of blue-eyed men of Western blood, who lived for Dang Mu-gi and would die for Dang Mu-gi, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and not for the Sichuan Tang.

Dang Mu-gi, whose blue eyes were the coldest and most cutting of them all, rolled a bored gaze and spoke.

"Inspect it."

In a blink the Blue-Eyed Squadron scattered in every direction. Left alone, Dang Mu-gi stared at Geon-hyu for a long time without a word.

Geon-hyu could not match that presence. He kept his mouth shut, drawn tight with tension. He feared Dang Mu-gi so deeply that he could not even protest, though his own man had just died by Dang Mu-gi's hand.

"How much do you know of this affair? You heard the news and arrived before I did. That suggests you came already grasping something of the situation here."

Dang Mu-gi asked it as he flicked the blood from the iron links of his whip.

"I followed Geon ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠A-seong's trail."

"The second son of Golden Manor?"

"Yes. He caught the scent of the Gold Coin Bureau's hidden funds and tracked them all the way here. I'm certain of it. They say he took the head of the Fire Fox Hall's master — a man who had been one of his own limbs — and reduced the gambling house to a wasteland. He definitely smelled his way this far."

"So the leak came out of Golden Manor."

"It did not. This was the work of a fool who never properly grasped the matter, and acted without even knowing it was Mother's will."

Then the scattered squadron gathered again.

"Every gate has been destroyed, and the ice-crystal chamber that housed the Green Flame Hornless Dragon has collapsed. It appears someone triggered the formation's Death Gate and brought the cavern down. Without question, this was someone deeply versed in qimen formations and hidden weapons."

"Anything unusual in the martial traces?"

"Most of it seems to be ice arts imbued with yin-cold qi, but some of the corpses — Yeom Sa-gaek's among them — were torn apart so thoroughly that we could not even survey the traces. It appears to have been a technique of overwhelming destructive power. How many entered is also impossible to determine, because the traces themselves were destroyed."

"The insight to unravel a formation we spent so long laying, ice arts out of nowhere, and the traces wiped clean besides? An enemy, but I almost have to admire it."

Dang Mu-gi turned his gaze.

"Does that match the Geon A-seong you imagine, Young Master Geon? If it is as you said earlier, then Geon A-seong is the culprit behind all of this."

For a moment Geon-hyu could not speak. Profound qimen arts, and ice arts? Geon A-seong's martial level did seem to have risen of late, through one affair and another, but this was absurd. His thoughts snarled in on themselves. His gut insisted it was Geon A-seong, and yet he could not bring himself to be certain the man had wrought all of it.

The answer, unexpectedly, came from Dang Mu-gi.

"The odds that Geon A-seong has learned ice arts are low. The martial arts I saw from him in the banquet hall showed none of the marks one finds in someone who has trained deeply in ice arts. I cannot rule out that he hid even that — but if so, it would mean he has reached Return to True Simplicity."

Return to True Simplicity. It meant that one who had attained the Transformative Realm had drawn their qi inward until they were no different from an ordinary person.

"Impossible!! If my second brother had reached martial heights like that, he would already have Mother's boundless trust, and to spare!"

"And if he has?"

"He absolutely has not."

"You trust yourself too much. Word that the second son, Geon A-seong, possesses considerable skill is already spreading all through Chengdu. No one has ever properly confirmed how far he has grown, so the doubt is inevitable."

"Did Hero Dang not just say there was no sign that Geon A-seong had learned ice arts?"

"I did. But the way of the world is that even my own thoughts must be doubted."

"……."

"This affair involves your master, Guihyeon Jin'in of the Qingcheng Sect, and all the disciples of the Clear White Palace. Should it become known that the place has been reduced to a wreck like this, the Qingcheng side will not leave you be. Nor, of course, will I."

The color drained from Geon-hyu's face. The allies he had leaned on were now in a position to set a blade at his throat.

"Then what is it you expect me to do?"

"Report the present situation to Madam Dae at once, and offer compensation enough for my family and for the Qingcheng Sect. Or bring before me this Geon ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠A-seong, the one presumed to have done it. Torture him until he dies, or kill him, and he will confess."

"That lies outside my authority."

"Then tell Madam Dae."

"……."

"You would do well not to ignore me. I am very angry that this venture I poured myself into has been ruined. If there is not sufficient compensation, I intend to bring Golden Manor down by any means necessary."

Blue light flickered in Dang Mu-gi's eyes as he smiled, chillingly.

"You think I can't?"

Geon-hyu answered with his gaze lowered in fear.

"I-if… if this wasn't Geon A-seong's doing, then what? Then the fault wouldn't lie with this manor, would it?"

"Who can say. Someone will still have to bear the responsibility. Whoever that is, you know what you must do if you wish to escape the wrath already at hand."

"……."

From this moment on, the culprit of the entire affair had to be Geon A-seong. No other path remained to Geon-hyu.

"Disperse. They can't have gotten far. Scour every inch, out across the whole of Chengdu. And this place — burn it until nothing is left, not a single trace."

Dang Mu-gi turned away in cold silence, and Geon-hyu turned his head toward Golden Manor.

"No! Hah… hah."

Seol-ha woke in a cold sweat, and I closed the book I had been reading at the head of the bed.

"You're awake?"

"What happened? I was certain…"

"We were ambushed, weren't we?"

"Yes."

She had felt a sensation unlike anything she had ever known. In the very instant she believed she had broken the illusion formation, a heavy impact struck, and her vision went dark. An ambush she had not sensed at all. Of late, the only wall she had ever met so helplessly was the young master himself.

"He was no easy opponent."

"Could it have been… that man, Geon-hyu?"

"No. Unfortunately, it wasn't Geon-hyu. If it had been, it would have been far easier. It was someone else."

"Who?"

I answered evenly.

"The Young Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Cult."

For a moment Seol-ha only stared at me.

"You want to tease me at a time like this?"

Watching the disbelief in her eyes, I found myself thinking that a lie is sometimes kinder than the truth.

"I'm not teasing. It's true."

Only when I set my face did her gaze shake.

"The Young Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Cult… why would she be there? No. The Heavenly Demon Cult is a place that exists only in old tales passed by word of mouth."

"It is. Once, with a demonic host tens of thousands strong, they cut the emperor's throat, turned the world into mountains of corpses and seas of blood, subjugated the unorthodox alliance, and drove the hidden powers beyond the frontier who resisted them — along with the lineages of the Nine Great Sects and One Gang, and of the Five Great Families as they stand now — to the very brink of being severed."

"My god…"

"If plague and famine, flood and drought, and a sudden volcanic cataclysm — the veins of the earth bursting until mountains and rivers were swallowed — had not turned the current, they would have pressed down on the world for a very long time."

"……."

"In that same age, the Twelfth Heavenly Demon met a suspicious death, and the cult's civil war began. That, too, played its part. And all of it was already hundreds of years ago."

"Who would believe it? Even the seat they were said to have held, the Mountain of a Hundred Thousand, ought to be nothing but ruined remains."

"The Mountain of a Hundred Thousand never meant only their territory."

"Then what did it mean?"

"If a force of a hundred thousand reached the height where it could form a single city, then wherever that place stood, it could be called the Mountain of a Hundred Thousand."

"Wow… Young Master. You really do sound like a devotee of the Heavenly Demon Cult."

"……."

Watching Seol-ha clap, I felt awkwardly embarrassed for no good reason.

"But why would the Young Cult Leader of a place like that appear in the same place as us?"

"It looked like a preliminary battle, so they can reign over the world again. The way you tamp the earth before you raise a building. Show yourself in secret where you are needed, and sow internal strife and disorder everywhere else. That would be what they do best."

"Then…"

"There's a great deal I need to tell you."

I explained it all, from the moment we faced the Green Flame Hornless Dragon to the near certainty that the Qingcheng Sect, the Sichuan Tang Family, and Madam Dae of Golden Manor were all bound up in the affair.

Seol-ha, who had listened for a long while, tilted her head.

"But how did a Young Cult Leader with ambitions like that withdraw so meekly?"

"I never said she withdrew meekly."

"Then…"

"We fought. Fiercely."

"Did you win?"

"No. A mutual wounding. Neither of us won, and neither of us lost. I took what I wanted, and so did she."

The words Cheon Yu-wol had left me before she departed flashed through my mind. A moment earlier she had spoken as if she would take my head on the spot, but her mind had changed — or so it seemed — and she had sheathed her sword again.

I shook my head. Merely recalling Cheon Yu-wol was enough to set a chill in my gut.

"At this point, it's a cursed bond. A cursed bond."

Seol-ha tilted her head.

"A cursed bond?"

"It's nothing. Just talking to myself."

I waved it off and was about to rise when a man's voice, thick with breath, came from outside.

"Young Master!!"

"Come in."

Ju Cho-saeng flung the door open and came in. He was soaked through with sweat; he had clearly run with everything he had.

"Why so restless, Chief Clerk Ju? I'm the one who caused the trouble."

"Trouble!?"

"You heard about the gambling house, didn't you?"

"That isn't it!!!"

"Then what is it?"

At my question, Ju Cho-saeng shouted, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"The eldest — Geon-pyeong — is dead!!"

Even Seol-ha started, and sucked in a sharp, empty breath.