False Wol-ak (2)
The bait operation proposed by Gang Yu-seung could be summarized as follows.
First, divide into groups across all eight directions, and have the one serving as bait pretend to leave the boundaries of Nonghyeon.
Second, if the murderer appeared among the scattered bait, the Taoists waiting nearby would seize and hold him.
Third, fire a signal flare so the remaining personnel could form an encirclement.
“As things stand, this is the only operation that can capture the murderer. The problem was selecting who would hold him down.”
It was not as though the government office lacked martial artists. The constables and catchers had trained in martial arts, yet their realms were generally third-class, second-class at best. The False Wol-ak they pursued was estimated to be at least a first-class martial artist. To hold such a murderer required first-class strength at minimum.
“So I would like you to take on the role of holding the murderer.”
Not only Cheonhwa’s group but the five Kongtong Sect Taoists were first-class martial artists as well, making them perfectly suited to the task. It was no wonder Gang Yu-seung had prostrated himself fully to secure their aid.
“We will execute the operation at the hour when the sun sets and the murderer begins his activity. Rest and prepare until then.”
Guided by an official, Cheonhwa’s group waited in one of the rooms inside the government office.
“The situation has grown complicated.”
“It has.”
“Still, as disciples of the Zhongnan Sect, we made the right choice.”
Yeonhwa, who had been listening to Jeokhwa and Cheonhwa, added her voice.
“If we left a murderer free to rampage, what meaning would all our training have?”
“I agree. Leaving something like a murderer to run wild doesn’t sit well with me either.”
Jeokhwa nodded in agreement and continued.
“Moreover, with the government’s help, tracking the whereabouts of the kidnapped people will become far easier.”
Cheonhwa inclined his head. Resolve the murderer problem alone, and they would receive Jinhyun’s full support. From the government’s side, having incurred a debt to the Zhongnan Sect, they could hardly wipe their mouths and walk away. There were still other reasons this case had to be settled.
“This is only my speculation, but this murderer may be connected to demonic arts.”
Cheonhwa raised the topic carefully. Jeokhwa took it up at once.
“Because the merchant came from the Nonghyeon direction?”
“Yes. That he could move large numbers of people while an elusive murderer was rampaging… I believe some connection existed.”
The merchant had originally entered Shaanxi from the west, and west of Shaanxi lay Gansu Province. If demonic arts had been spread through Gansu just as they had through Shaanxi, it would not be strange for a murderer to have been born who now plagued the Kongtong Sect.
“Perhaps they struck a bargain under certain conditions, the way Damjeokbang once did.”
For instance, rampaging through a designated region for a set period in exchange for clearing a debt.
Moreover, if he possesses a demonic art like the Essence-Stealing Qi Absorption Art, it fully explains why the murderer is rampaging like this.
The Essence-Stealing Qi Absorption Art was a demonic technique that absorbed essence and qi from the dead. Put another way, it was entirely possible to kill people directly and drink in their qi.
If he has mastered multiple demonic arts the way the Ihwamunju did, he will be a thoroughly troublesome opponent.
Unlike the Ihwamunju, who had amassed power in a short span through large-scale conflict, the amount of qi this one had accumulated might not be vast. Conversely, having built it steadily, he would likely be skilled at controlling the internal energy he absorbed.
If this speculation is true, we must deal with the murderer as quickly as possible.
If the murderer called False Wol-ak—who walked in Wol-ak’s footsteps—ever reached the same realm as the true Moon Evil, a far greater calamity than the present one would surely erupt.
As the sun sank and twilight slowly gathered, the curtain of night drew near. Into that gathering dark, several figures advanced. They were the ones who had set out to carry out the murderer-subjugation operation.
Following Gang Yu-seung’s orders, Cheonhwa moved separately from Yeonhwa and Jeokhwa. Three catchers accompanied him.
Their skills are all at the third-class level.
They had learned a mind method and could accumulate qi, nothing more. Even so, that alone let ordinary men exert the strength of stout warriors. Against anyone who was not a murim martial artist, it would have been enough.
These people are suffering because of the murderer as well.
The one serving as bait especially worried him. Was it not a role in which dying mid-operation would be no surprise?
As Cheonhwa gazed steadily at the bait, the catcher who felt the stare spoke.
“Does it trouble you, sir?”
“Yes. Lives are at stake, after all.”
“You need not worry. We volunteered knowing the danger.”
“You volunteered?”
To step forward as the bait that would draw a murderer’s eye was impossible with ordinary courage.
I feel tension and fear, yet an even stronger will beneath them. So he truly volunteered rather than being ordered from above?
What reason could drive a man to claim so perilous a part?
“The murderer… that bastard killed my family.”
Murderous intent toward the killer glittered in the catcher’s eyes.
“Not only me. Everyone who volunteered for this operation has lost kin to him.”
The others nodded. Unless they held high posts, the lower officials of a government office were usually people of that very region.
“I’d like nothing better than to beat him to death with our own hands, but we cannot. So at the least we wanted to join the operation and see him finished.”
The catcher spoke for them all.
“Please, Taoist. Catch the murderer in our stead.”
His face twisted with bitterness. The others wore the same look—faces that knew all too well they lacked the strength to take revenge themselves.
Cheonhwa lightly patted the catcher’s shoulder.
“Understood. I will do my utmost. But for that, I ask you to keep one thing firmly in mind.”
“What is it?”
“Cherish your own lives.”
Even for the sake of family vengeance, if they themselves died the priorities would be reversed. Only by surviving to the end could they face the dead with dignity.
One more reason to fight has been added.
Not everyone possessed the strength to confront the injustice before their eyes. Most people, like the catchers before him, could only endure. Those who had joined the operation had entrusted their revenge to the Taoists of a great orthodox sect. Cheonhwa meant to answer that trust with everything he had.
I will complete their revenge, and at the same time I will not let a single one of them die.
Accomplishing both would be difficult, yet difficulty was no reason to yield. Cheonhwa renewed his resolve.
“If you know anything about the murderer, would you tell me?”
“Of course.”
Listening to the catchers’ information as they advanced, Cheonhwa soon reached the vicinity of the target point.
“From here I go alone. If the murderer appears, respond at once.”
The catcher spoke and set off down the path by himself. Cheonhwa scanned the surroundings through the Six Harmony Sensory Path.
There is nowhere nearby to hide a body. How does the murderer track those who leave the area?
According to prior reports the murderer was ghostly and elusive. He would appear raising a whirlwind with an absurd lightfoot technique, dispose of anyone trying to leave, then vanish like the wind just as he had come.
A lightfoot technique violent enough to raise a whirlwind cannot be without precursors. Yet within my sensory range there is no such presence at all.
Had he mastered a presence-concealing art like the Tortoise Breath Great Method practiced by assassins?
Deciding the present approach would not serve, Cheonhwa narrowed his sensory field and poured every nerve toward the catcher. At once a presence he had never felt before registered. He snapped his gaze toward it, yet saw only darkness.
Something invisible stands there.
The instant the judgment formed, Cheonhwa moved. He drew Okgyeong from his back; a soft jade light flashed as qi coiled around the blade. Following the arcing trajectory, sword wind howled. The gale struck something near the catcher.
Bang!
Air burst with a sharp report, and the form that had been hidden in darkness revealed itself—a bizarre figure wrapped head to toe in black cloth. The moment the catcher saw it, a cry of shock tore from his throat.
“Th-the murderer?! He wasn’t there a second ago!”
“Step back.”
While the catcher reeled from the sudden change, Cheonhwa raced forward and planted himself as a shield.
That black wind is not protective qi art. He is merely wrapping qi waves as though they were.
He watched the scattered waves melt naturally into the dark. The energy itself seemed to possess the property of concealing presence. Once the sword wind tore those waves away, a vast aura pressed outward so powerfully it seemed absurd he had not sensed it earlier.
This strange energy—no doubt about it. Demonic qi.
Just as Cheonhwa had guessed, the murderer was bound up with demonic arts.
“I will hold him. Send the signal in the meantime.”
With that, Cheonhwa charged. The murderer did not flee; he met the attack head-on. His only exposed eyes fixed on Cheonhwa. Those expressionless eyes held neither hostility nor killing intent, yet the sword techniques that followed were pure killing forms meant to end a life.
Crossing blades, Cheonhwa felt a deep discordance.
I feel nothing from the sword.
Swinging a blade was an act that joined body, internal energy, and will. Facing a sword, one normally sensed the emotions loaded into it—yet from this murderer’s blade no emotion whatever was carried.
It is not the still water of a clear mirror where emotion merely does not stir. This is the absence of emotion itself.
Had demonic arts stripped him of feeling?
The sword technique itself is not especially refined. The problem is that movement.
Every time the murderer shifted, black wind followed and assisted his steps—swift yet stealthy, truly moving like the wind.
Because of that single lightfoot technique I cannot seize complete superiority.
Victory was possible, yet it would take time.
But that is only when fighting alone.
While Cheonhwa held the murderer, one of the catchers fired a signal flare. The light that rose, cutting the dark night sky, marked their position clearly. If they simply bought time, support would arrive as planned. That was how it should have been.
Then more lights blossomed overhead.
Signal flares from groups other than Cheonhwa’s. The number of glittering streaks in the sky was eight—exactly matching the number of teams formed for the bait plan. Simultaneous flares. Their meaning was unmistakable.
The murderer is not alone.
The identity of the elusive killer called the reincarnation of Wol-ak was a cooperative band of assassins numbering at least eight.