Make Them Want to Live
Sama Sa-cheol bent low at the waist, clinging to the hope that he might yet keep his life.
"Recently, we discovered a thousand-year-old Seven-Colored Ginseng."
"A thousand years?"
Yi Yeok leaned back in the long chair, indifferent, and asked it again. A spirit herb of a thousand years was a rare treasure.
"Where is the thing now?"
"We have not yet gotten our hands on it."
"You dare!"
Yi Yeok roared and struck him across the cheek.
"You mean to spout nonsense in front of me?"
Sama Sa-cheol had no chance to dodge. The slap landed full, and he prostrated himself all the more deferentially. In the demonic halls, a slap was the most merciful punishment there was.
"My lord, it is no nonsense. This man told us himself."
Only then did Yi Yeok look at the man bound to the torture frame. A glance at his qi and blood was enough to mark him as a cultivator.
"We got word first that he and his companions were going after the Seven-Colored Ginseng, and we set out at once to track them. We meant to drag them in and force the location out of them, but they were stubborn beyond belief. The other two were already beaten to death. This one alone has held his tongue to the very end."
The prisoner's body was already a ruin. Skin had split, pus ran from the wounds, and they were rotting as if they had been left to fester for a long time.
"A vicious one. We pulled every tooth, and he still wouldn't open his mouth."
"Then that much wasn't enough."
Yi Yeok rose slowly, walked up to the exhausted prisoner, and spoke low.
"Why throw your life away like this?"
Confusion flickered through the prisoner's eyes.
"Even if you survive and haul the Seven-Colored Ginseng back to your sect, what good does it do you? You think that sect of yours will spare you so much as a leaf?"
The young man clenched what was left of his jaw and howled. With every tooth gone, the words came out mangled.
"You killed my brothers!"
"So you want revenge."
"I cannot live under the same sky as you monsters of the demonic path!"
Yi Yeok snorted and turned his head toward Gwan Gyeom.
"Who killed his brothers? I ought to give them a reward."
A gloomy man with narrow, ringed eyes stepped forward.
"This humble one, my lord."
Sama Sa-cheol hastened to explain.
"A subordinate I favor. His hands are exceptionally skilled."
Yi Yeok looked at the youth again.
"If that man dies, will you talk then?"
The prisoner glared at him with savage hatred and shouted.
"Kill him! If you truly kill him, then I'll tell you!"
In that instant Yi Yeok seized the ring-eyed man by the throat, snapped his neck, and flung the body down at the youth's feet.
"Like this?"
The prisoner's eyes flew wide in shock. Sama Sa-cheol trembled at how fast it had happened.
Yi Yeok's voice was cold.
"I kept my promise. Now it's your turn. Keep yours, and I'll let you live. Refuse, if you like. The price will be paid by your family, and by everyone you know. Every last one of them. I'll erase them myself, one by one."
For a moment the prisoner could not speak. He only stared at Yi Yeok, and the resolve that had filled his eyes at the start thinned away as unease took its place. He dragged in ragged breaths and muttered.
"You... you dare..."
Yi Yeok narrowed his eyes and stepped closer, unhurried.
"You think I won't? Everyone you know in this world, and everyone who still remembers you — I'll wipe their existence clean. In the end, it'll be no different from you never having been born."
Only then did the prisoner understand, with terrible clarity, that the threat was no empty bluff. His voice shook.
"Don't... don't touch my family..."
Yi Yeok snorted.
"Then the choice is yours. Will you keep the promise, or won't you? Either way, I don't care."
At last the prisoner shut his eyes and bit his lip. His whole body was trembling, and he could feel for himself that he could not hold out any longer. He let out a long breath and surrendered.
"I'll... I'll talk..."
His voice was barely loud enough to hear.
"Near Sangbi Mountain there's an old tree, scorched black where lightning struck it. Thirty li south of there stands a stone stalagmite twenty zhang high. It won't be hard to find."
Yi Yeok looked at Sama Sa-cheol.
"Do you know the place?"
Sama Sa-cheol thought a moment, then turned to Gwan Gyeom.
"Do you?"
"Yes. I've passed near there. I remember it, vaguely."
Yi Yeok flicked a hand.
"Untie him."
Sama Sa-cheol started.
"You truly mean to let him go?"
"He kept his word, so we keep ours. Our Sacred Hall values its credit."
Sama Sa-cheol frowned, plainly displeased, but he soon called a subordinate and gave the order.
"Blindfold him, take him a good distance off, and release him."
Men came at once and led the prisoner out.
Gwan Gyeom spoke in open admiration.
"Truly remarkable. A man who wouldn't open his mouth through more than ten days of torture..."
"Fools. What do you gain by piling pain on a man who's already resolved to die? Making him want to die doesn't help. You have to make him want to live."
"I see. Put that way, yes."
Yi Yeok sat again and murmured, as if to himself.
"Black Phoenix Hall is a sorry sight. Doesn't look like it'll be long before it falls."
Sama Sa-cheol forced a smile.
"Yangcheon Sect is still within our reach. The problem is Nokhyeon Sect. It was a middle-rank immortal sect once, and its strength is nothing to scoff at. Their true leader, So Cheong-ha, is a master of no small renown, so we have no choice but to move carefully."
"So Cheong-ha? I'll deal with him before long. The head of a fallen sect — nothing more."
Yi Yeok thought a moment, then asked.
"How much do you know about the bronze box?"
"In truth, we humble ones know little. Not its exact location, nor what it holds. Only that it has something to do with that secret tomb... The dead man, Jin Seo, may have known something, but..."
Yi Yeok frowned. This one, it seemed, had no concrete information either.
Careful not to sour his mood, Sama Sa-cheol shifted the subject.
"Will you go after the Seven-Colored Ginseng at once? Or would you rest first?"
"You want me walking into a place swarming with demonic beasts in the middle of the night? Use some sense."
Sama Sa-cheol laughed, awkward.
"Of course. Forgive me."
With that, he personally guided Yi Yeok to his quarters.
A short while later Gwan Gyeom came in leading five women, somewhere between eighteen and twenty-eight.
Sama Sa-cheol smiled.
"All of them are my concubines. Choose whichever pleases you. It would be an honor for us."
For Yi Yeok, who had scraped along at the very bottom, such things were not unfamiliar. He simply had not expected to be the one on the receiving end.
"You know how to work."
Sama Sa-cheol answered with a fawning little laugh.
"If you wish it, I could even offer my daughter."
"Hahaha!"
Yi Yeok was satisfied. He could see that Sama Sa-cheol had swallowed the act completely.
"Your loyalty runs deep."
Sama Sa-cheol, now convinced he might keep his life, was pleased in his own way.
"If I eat your food, drink your wine, and toy with your women, what am I supposed to report when I return to the Sacred Hall?"
"What do you mean, my lord? Of course you must report the truth. That is your duty. And serving you to the utmost is ours."
Yi Yeok burst out laughing again.
But the laughter left his face soon enough.
"There won't be time for that tonight."
"Why ever not, my lord? Do these girls not please you?"
"It has nothing to do with them. On the way here I felt my energy slip out of balance. If I don't set it right, I won't be able to move properly tomorrow, so tonight I have to focus on cultivation."
Sama Sa-cheol nodded, unable to hide a measure of disappointment.
Yi Yeok, as if to spare the man's pride, went on with a crooked grin.
"But once I have the Seven-Colored Ginseng tomorrow, I'll have taken a tonic. I may need a woman then. I'll share a little of it with you as well."
Sama Sa-cheol's eyes lit, and a bright smile spread across his face. He bent at the waist.
"Wise, and merciful besides. Then I will have these girls washed clean and kept ready. Have no worry, my lord — until you depart, not a hand will touch them."
"Good. When I return to the Sacred Hall, I'll report your sincerity 'exactly as it is.'"
Delighted, Sama Sa-cheol dropped into a deep bow.
"I am deeply grateful for your consideration."
Once he had confirmed that Yi Yeok had settled cross-legged on the bed and sunk into cultivation, Sama Sa-cheol herded Gwan Gyeom and the concubines out.
After they had put some distance between themselves and the quarters, Sama Sa-cheol let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank heaven. His temper is fierce, but he doesn't seem the overly difficult sort."
Gwan Gyeom nodded.
"Indeed. If he had pressed any harder..."
He cut himself off, swallowing a crawl of gooseflesh.
"Right. Do a thing, and you're bound to be found out. From now on we must never even think of deceiving the Sacred Hall. Telling the truth is the way to stay alive."
Gwan Gyeom was quick to agree.
"Yes, Hall Master. If we serve that man well, we'll get through this safely."
"Exactly. It depends on how much sincerity we show."
He looked at Gwan Gyeom and asked again.
"How many spirit stones do we have left in store?"
"A little over four hundred."
Sama Sa-cheol considered, then spoke.
"Good. Go yourself and present fifty spirit stones. We need to make our loyalty unmistakable."
Gwan Gyeom smiled as he answered.
"As expected, the Hall Master thinks deeply. The more gifts, the better they work."