I Was Always This Strong
Yi Yeok and Mo Yeong came to a halt.
They were beneath the cliff where the tomb was located. A small pool sat there at the base, its water stained a deep crimson. Floating face-down on the surface was a body.
"Looks like he's dead."
Yi Yeok nodded at Mo Yeong's words, then dragged the corpse up onto the bank and flipped it over. The heart had been pierced through in a single strike. A sword blow that was fast, precise, and brutally efficient.
"That turtle bastard knows what he's doing after all."
He searched the man's robes, but found nothing to identify him. One thing was certain, though—he was no one from the Yangcheon Sect.
"Something must have happened. Come on, let's get up there!"
Without waiting for an answer, Mo Yeong scrambled up the cliff face. Yi Yeok followed.
They leapt down onto that strange, transparent floor before the tomb they had discovered half a day earlier. Bodies lay scattered everywhere, dressed in the same garb as the man in the pool.
One glance told Yi Yeok everything—Yeo Gwi had clearly been at work. Yet Yeo Gwi himself was nowhere to be seen.
Yi Yeok caught Mo Yeong by the shoulder as she hurried toward the entrance, stopping her short.
"Wait. Someone's coming."
A figure emerged from within. It was Yeo Gwi. His teal robe was torn in a dozen places, and his red feathered headdress was half-destroyed. Wounds crisscrossed his body, blood seeping from every one.
And he wasn't alone. A middle-aged man stood behind him with a blade leveled at his back.
The man looked hardly better off. Horrific wounds covered him from head to toe—though judging by their shape, they hadn't come from Yeo Gwi. Tucked under his arm was something bulky. With their sharp eyes, Yi Yeok and Mo Yeong could make out a heavy-looking bronze box.
"These friends of yours?"
At the man's words, Yeo Gwi's face crumpled into a tragic mask. He raised both hands above his head and wailed.
"They are! Take them, if you want. They're more useful than they look, I promise. And of course, every last treasure inside is yours as well! All I ask... is that you let me go. Would that be so terrible?"
A vicious pain throbbed at Yi Yeok's temples.
"That goddamn turtle..."
While he pressed a hand to his forehead and shook his head, Mo Yeong stepped forward.
"What do you want?"
"You, there—the one who looks like a spinster's younger brother. Hand over the dagger."
Yi Yeok put on a look of feigned puzzlement.
"A dagger? What dagger?"
"Don't play dumb. The dagger tucked into your belt. You found it in here, didn't you?"
He meant the Sky-Mist Stone dagger Yi Yeok had taken from the treasure chamber earlier. Yi Yeok glanced down at his waist. So the thing was worth even more than it appeared, was it?
Mo Yeong was shooting him looks that said give it to him, now, but Yi Yeok simply crossed his arms and didn't budge an inch.
"Why should I?"
For a moment, the man seemed genuinely taken aback.
"You need me to explain something like this?"
"Oh dear, oh dear, sir. My friend here may look perfectly normal at a glance, but the truth is he's rather... intellectually challenged. If you explain it to him calmly and kindly, I'm sure he'll understand!"
Yeo Gwi threw himself into the performance with everything he had. Mo Yeong's brow furrowed.
"That burned lizard..."
The man managed to speak at last.
"...Fine. Spinster-brother. Give me the dagger you took from inside. If you don't, I'll kill your friend."
"Hurry up and hand it over! You'd really trade my life for some crusty old dagger?"
"I don't have friends."
At Yi Yeok's placid reply, Yeo Gwi redoubled his efforts.
"You thieving son of a bitch! Fine, then—the truth is I've never once thought of you as a friend either!"
The man found himself at a loss for words yet again. What in the world was wrong with these idiots? He looked from Yi Yeok to Yeo Gwi with an expression every bit as despairing as Mo Yeong's.
"Doesn't matter. Friend or not, they're your companions, aren't they? Hand it over. Unless you want your companions dead."
"Seems ordinary enough. Must be something important, I take it?"
"You don't need to know that."
Yi Yeok remained exactly where he was, arms crossed, unmoving.
Whoosh.
The wind swept past. Five breaths passed, and the moment the man opened his mouth to speak, Yi Yeok beat him to it.
"What are you waiting for?"
It was precisely the question the man had been about to ask. Yi Yeok went on.
"You said you'd kill him if I didn't hand it over. I didn't—so why aren't you killing him? Go on, kill him. That bastard's been getting on my nerves for ages. I've wanted him dead for the longest time. You'd be doing me a favor, honestly."
"You—you absolute son of a—"
Curses poured out of Yeo Gwi like a waterfall, tears welling at the corners of his eyes. Mo Yeong clapped her hands over her ears. She would have done the same herself, but with a sword and a box in his arms, the man had no hands to spare.
"I see you're just blustering."
The man stabbed Yeo Gwi near the shoulder.
"Gah!"
"Yeo Gwi!"
Mo Yeong cried out. Yeo Gwi crumpled where he stood, clutching his shoulder, rolling over and over across the ground.
"AAAAGH! It hurts! That hurt worse than the Old Man's fists!"
Yeo Gwi groveled flat before the man.
"Great lord, great lord! Give me one chance, just one! Return my blade and I'll beat that doomed thief to death on the spot—I'll bring you anything your heart desires, I swear it!"
Without a flicker of disturbance, Yi Yeok drawled in a tone steeped in mockery and sneer.
"You can't even kill one guy? Slit his throat, you moron."
Yeo Gwi, Mo Yeong—even the man himself was struck speechless. To think such a cold-hearted, loyalty-free creature existed in this world.
Wham!
The man kicked Yeo Gwi clear across the ground. Scrambling on all fours, Yeo Gwi crawled away as fast as his limbs would carry him.
"So hostage-taking doesn't work on you. A pity. Even when I opened a road for you to live, you kicked it away yourself."
Yi Yeok sneered.
"Spare me the garbage, old man. You were never planning to let any of us walk out of here alive anyway."
The man let out a great guffaw.
"Not an idiot after all! Then listen well. This elder is Jin Seo of the Black Wasp Hall!"
The color drained from Mo Yeong's face.
"The Black Wasp Hall? That's the Demonic Factions!"
The Ma-mun—the Demonic Factions—was the blanket term for cultivators who harnessed Yin Qi rather than the Yang Qi of heaven and earth, setting them apart from ordinary righteous sects.
Jin Seo took a step forward, and black energy erupted from every inch of his body. The aura coiled and writhed, taking on the shape of a monstrous imugi serpent.
Wreathed head to toe in that black power, Jin Seo seemed to transform into a great scaled black snake. He reached out toward Yi Yeok. The air split with a shriek of tearing sound.
The next instant—
Jin Seo's body lurched violently, then toppled to the ground. Where his head had been, there was nothing.
The black aura that had shrouded him dispersed like smoke, froze in a moment of juddering hesitation, and then was sucked into Yi Yeok's outstretched palm, vanishing entirely.
"So the Soul-Devouring White-Wave Art absorbs Demonic Faction energy too. First I'm hearing of it."
Only then did Mo Yeong and Yeo Gwi grasp what had just happened.
"What—you were hiding your strength from us this whole time?"
"You rotten bastard! You could've saved me ages ago!"
The single pill the Old Man had given him. The blood-spirit absorption made possible by the Soul-Devouring White-Wave Art. The Blood Spirit Transformation he'd figured out all on his own. With no idea where to even begin explaining, Yi Yeok just shrugged.
"I was always this strong. I never hid a thing. You two simply lacked the ability to recognize it—what do you want me to do about that?"