Twenty-Five Days Later
It had already been twenty-five days since I returned to the clan from Heuksi.
That meant there were about ten days left until the time I had promised Jin Myeong-o.
Creak.
I stepped to the table and opened the wooden box. Inside was a single root of fleeceflower.
Crackle!
As I put the fleeceflower in my mouth and chewed, the sharp medicinal bitterness numbed my tongue. I didn’t care. I ground it down as thoroughly as I could and swallowed.
Without delay, I sat cross-legged on the floor and recited the formula of Baekcheon Gong, the Baek family’s inner art. The hot force seeping out of the fleeceflower passed through the channels of my body and slowly began to gather in my dantian.
How much time had passed?
“Hoo.”
I settled my breathing and opened my eyes. My clothes were soaked through as though I’d fallen into water. Worse, they reeked.
“This is no way to make a living.”
I touched my dantian. Thirty years’ worth of inner power had accumulated there.
When I first turned back time, the first thing I checked was my inner power: ten years’ worth. And in just twenty-five days, I had gained another twenty years.
“Barely into first-rate territory, and even so, that’s respectable.”
Of course, if an ordinary martial artist saw me now, he’d likely start cursing before anything else. From their perspective, it was an utterly absurd achievement.
But to me, it wasn’t such a remarkable thing. Not only had I already passed this level once before, but I also had Baekcheon Gong.
Baekcheon Gong.
It was the inner art taught to every martial disciple of the Baek family. True to the principles of an orthodox art, it was slow at gathering qi, but stable.
Some might say there was nothing special about it.
Ordinary? Nonsense.
Baekcheon Gong had stability on par with Wudang’s inner arts. Someone might argue that stability didn’t count for much on its own. But for a martial artist who had already reached true insight, that stability became an immense advantage.
Over these twenty-five days, I had taken four roots of fleeceflower. Each root could grant five years of inner power, and I had gained twenty years in total. That was the usefulness of Baekcheon Gong combined with the insight I possessed.
With that explanation, it should make sense.
If the stability had been poor, I wouldn’t even have gained ten years of inner power.
It would have been difficult to absorb all the power contained in the fleeceflower in the first place, and when you took repeated doses of the same kind of elixir, the effect dropped sharply.
Even if I had swallowed fleeceflower with five years’ worth of inner power, I might not have accumulated even two years’ worth in my dantian. On top of that, if you repeatedly consumed elixirs with the same effect, the returns would diminish even further.
But my experience from having once reached the Profound Realm, the insight I carried, and the ridiculous stability of Baekcheon Gong had allowed me to settle all that inner power into my dantian without losing so much as a trace.
“This should keep me going for a while.”
I frowned before I realized it. The foul smell was irritating my nose. I opened the window. The sun had already tilted low, and the world was being swallowed by darkness.
“Now it’s time to confirm my guess.”
First I washed up. Then I opened the wardrobe, took out the black night-walking clothes hanging inside, pulled them on, erased my presence, and left the clan residence.
* * *
I saw lanterns cutting through the pitch-black night. No, saying they cut through it was almost funny.
This district, packed with pleasure houses, was overflowing with bright lanterns, the perfume of courtesans, and countless men drowning themselves in wine, luxury, and indulgence.
What stood out most among them were two martial artists sitting in a brothel with a solemn air. Though they had come to a house of pleasure, they kept no courtesan at their side and had driven everyone else away.
Thud.
“I’m sorry, Senior Brother!”
“……”
Woo Dae-un, the young master of the Paeggeom Sect, knelt and slammed his head into the floor again and again. Yet the martial artist seated opposite him said nothing, merely lifting his cup and drinking in silence.
With cold eyes, he stared at Woo Dae-un, and Woo Dae-un shrank under that gaze. After a while of silence, wine was poured into the cup before Woo Dae-un with a soft trickle.
“Young Master Woo Dae-un. Have a drink.”
“Yes.”
Woo Dae-un hurriedly lifted his head and grasped the cup. At that instant, the martial artist’s hand shot out like lightning and pierced through Woo Dae-un’s hand and the cup.
Thud!
“Aaaagh!”
Woo Dae-un screamed and thrashed. Without an arm, he couldn’t even clutch the wound. Watching him, the martial artist’s lips curled into a thin, ugly smile.
“You were beaten by the Baek family brat, and you didn’t even report it until now?”
“Senior Brother, that’s not—!”
“Shut up. Before I rip that mouth apart.”
The martial artist glared at Woo Dae-un fiercely, then rose to his feet. Woo Dae-un, panting in pain, answered him.
“I’ll recover the money by any means necessary.”
“Because of you, the plan must not waver.”
“Y-yes, understood!”
Even through the pain, Woo Dae-un struggled upright and cupped his fists in salute. But the martial artist didn’t even look at him, simply turning on his heel.
“Young Master Jin. Safe travels.”
“You’ve done well.”
The man who left the room wore a bright smile utterly unlike the expression he had shown inside. He stepped out of the brothel and began walking toward the Jin Sword Sect.
How long had he walked? He entered a road where all the lights had vanished and darkness filled every corner. An ordinary person would have turned back, but to a martial artist like him, this much darkness meant nothing.
He had gone about halfway down the road when a figure in black night-walking clothes suddenly came into view ahead.
“Young Master Jin Sword Sect. Jin Paecheon, was it?”
The voice came from the one in black. Judging by how clear it sounded, the man was young without question.
“I am Jin Paecheon. And who are you, blocking the road at this hour of night?”
“So you really are Jin Paecheon?”
“Yes. I am the young master of the Jin Sword Sect—!”
Before Jin Paecheon could finish, the black-clad man drew his sword at astonishing speed and rushed forward, unleashing a storm of flashing strikes.
Jin Paecheon reflexively drew his own sword and began blocking the assault. Each time their blades collided, sparks flew.
The black-clad man’s sword grew faster and faster. Jin Paecheon’s sword speed followed suit. But before long, the attacker’s blade had lightly sliced across Jin Paecheon’s clothing.
“Jin Paecheon. They say you’re a prodigy of Jiangxi, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.”
“You sneaking bastard, coming in with a dirty ambush and running your mouth! Stop wasting breath and show me who you are!”
“Whether you know that much or not doesn’t matter. You’re going to die here anyway, and yet you’re still so curious.”
When he finished speaking, the black-clad man leapt forward again. The exchange resumed. His sword alternated between real strikes and feints, attacking Jin Paecheon relentlessly, while Jin Paecheon kept reacting to blades he believed were false, adding more cuts to his body with every passing moment.
First-rate? No, in pure skill, is he even above that? If this keeps up, I’m really going to die here.
Jin Paecheon, having been forced onto the defensive, scattered his inner power and pushed the black-clad man back. At once, Jin Paecheon charged instead, swinging his sword in a fierce counteroffensive.
In an instant, his aura changed.
The flashy but straightforward flashing sword technique was now saturated with sticky killing intent.
Every line of the sword was a trap meant to deceive, bewilder, and drag the opponent into death.
It was like...
“Like a demonic sect technique.”
“……!”
At the black-clad man’s mutter, Jin Paecheon’s body jerked violently.
In that opening, the opponent withdrew in a smooth retreat and nodded, looking somewhat satisfied.
“So that was it.”
“……Who are you?”
“If I had intended to tell you that, I wouldn’t have bothered wearing this.”
“……”
Jin Paecheon ground his teeth hard.
Then, all at once:
“Young Master!”
“Where are you, Young Master!”
Voices rang out from the Jin Sword Sect’s martial artists. Hearing them, Jin Paecheon curled one corner of his mouth into a vicious grin.
“Still want to keep going? No matter how strong you are, if my guards join forces...”
“Then I’ll be off.”
Mid-sentence, the enemy abruptly turned and fled at full speed.
“……?”
Jin Paecheon stared blankly for a moment before grinding his teeth so hard it seemed they might shatter.
“You bastard...”
“Young Master, are you all right? Those wounds—?”
“Pursue him.”
“Pardon? What do you mean?”
“Shut up and chase that bastard!”
Jin Paecheon’s voice burst out like a scream. The martial artists of the Jin Sword Sect, still stunned, reflexively shot toward the direction Jin Paecheon pointed.
“A martial artist above first-rate... who the hell is he?”
Jin Paecheon muttered in a voice full of murderous intent.
Names flashed through his head, but not a single one belonged to the Baek family.
* * *
“Hoo. What am I even doing at my age?”
I let out a sigh before I knew it. Then I took off the mask covering my face.
“Jin Paecheon, young master of the Jin Sword Sect. So it really is a flashing sword technique.”
Jin Paecheon’s swordsmanship was a flashing sword technique. The sword he had used was unquestionably an orthodox flashing sword style. But once he was driven into a corner, his sword path and nature changed.
“He used the same kind of sword art as Woo Dae-un. Then that means...”
Jin Paecheon’s swordsmanship was clearly the same as Woo Dae-un’s of the Paeggeom Sect.
“Confirmed.”
I already knew there was a connection between the Jin Sword Sect and the Paeggeom Sect. But I still needed proof. That was why I had bothered to hide my face and cross blades with Jin Paecheon myself.
Suspicion had become certainty, and I had confirmed the evidence as well.
The Jin Sword Sect and the Paeggeom Sect were the same family.
I took out the letter from the pocket sewn into the night-walking clothes. It contained the current situation and the names of the Orthodox and Unorthodox factions in Jiangxi.
I read it slowly again, and my eyes stopped at the very last piece of information at the end of the letter.
-The demonic sects in Jiangxi suspected of dealing in dispersed-dantian poison total three. One: Seodomun. Two: Chwihwamun. Three: Paeggeom Sect.
“The framework is all there.”
I let a faint smile form at the corner of my mouth, took off the night-walking clothes, and began walking slowly onward.
I stopped in front of Grandfather Baek Hwang’s room.
“Are you inside?”
After a brief silence, the door slid open, and a strong medicinal scent spilled out. At first the smell had made my head swim, but after breathing it every day, I was now used to it.
“Young Master. You’re later than usual.”
“I had things to do.”
Standing behind the door was my grandfather’s attendant, A-yeong.
When I smiled faintly, A-yeong stepped lightly aside. I looked at her for a moment, then stood before my grandfather, who could not even open his eyes.
“You’re here to greet the old master again today, I assume? Then, as usual, I’ll step out for a while.”
A-yeong bowed her head lightly and turned as if to leave the room, but I stopped her.
“You don’t need to go out today.”
“Pardon?”
“You can stay in the room today.”
As soon as I finished speaking, I placed my hand on my grandfather’s dantian and sent inner power into him.
“Young Master?”
There was confusion in A-yeong’s voice. Well, that was only natural. She didn’t know why I came to see my grandfather every day.
“So you just dumped dispersed-dantian poison into Grandfather’s body. How much did you pump in for even such a formidable martial artist to be unable to open his eyes?”
“What are you talking about?”
Her tone, pretending to know nothing, was nauseating.
Before my words were even finished, a dagger sliced through the air and flew at me.
The situation had turned critical in an instant. But I withdrew my hand from my grandfather’s dantian at once and rushed toward A-yeong, seizing the wrist of the hand that had been thrusting the dagger at me.
“Ghk!”
“Still know nothing?”
She didn’t answer even then. She only glared at me with murderous eyes. Dropping the dagger, A-yeong grabbed a hidden blade with her other hand and swung it toward my neck.
“You’re getting annoying.”
It was close, but I didn’t panic. I snatched the dagger she had let go of and drove it into her abdomen at the same time.
“Mmph!”
Of course, I didn’t forget to cover her mouth and keep the scream from spilling out.
A-yeong groaned in pain and shot me a venomous stare.
After a brief moment, her pupils dulled. I slowly lowered A-yeong’s corpse to the floor. Then I walked to the bed where my grandfather lay.
Medicinal scent mixed with the odor of blood, creating a nauseating stench, but my grandfather still did not move, like a dead man.
“You’ll have to die, Grandfather.”
The candlelight illuminating my grandfather’s face flickered softly. I blew it out.
My counterattack would begin with my grandfather’s death. No, the Baek family’s counterattack would begin.