All of This Is Just Business
The Yonga Sect Master's face contorted. Blood spouted from the severed stump of his forearm.
"Sect Master!"
Elders and disciples of the Yonga Sect rushed in, ringing their master and turning their glares on Yi Yeok. He licked his lips and let out a grotesque laugh.
"Supreme Elder... Father...!"
So Cheon-jeon cried out in desperation, fear written across his face. If this affair grew any larger, the higher sects would surely come to investigate, and Nokhyeon Sect would have no choice but to suffer a grievous blow.
So Cheong-ha spoke, his voice low.
"For far too long, you have lived forgetting the daring any cultivator ought to possess."
It sounded, at a glance, like a mutter to himself. In truth it was a rebuke, aimed at the Sect Master and every soul of Nokhyeon Sect.
"Yi Yeok. Are you prepared to bear the consequences?"
Yi Yeok answered with a crooked grin.
"I'm only enjoying this moment. The consequences can wait until they arrive."
In a single instant both his hands vanished. A dreadful current poured from Yojiyu, and the experts of the Yonga Sect stumbled backward.
So Cheong-ha broke into laughter.
"Good! A cultivator is, by nature, one who contends with heaven and earth. Cast aside such petty worries!"
Dong Hyo shouted, his voice tight with alarm.
"Senior! Yangcheon Sect has no wish to fight Nokhyeon Sect! We only seek to bring the truth of our disciples' deaths to light!"
He already knew Yi Yeok was strong enough to defeat Jin Seo, and he had just confirmed the man was stronger still than he had been moments before. Yi Yeok and So Cheong-ha. To fight those two monsters would be madness.
Yi Yeok flicked a glance at Dong Hyo, then looked over the remaining sect masters.
"Sect Master of Sungwol. Sect Master of Pyeongheung. Will you follow the Yonga Sect, or Yangcheon Sect? If it is the former, say so now."
He smiled, thin and sharp.
"That way, this ends quickly."
The Sect Masters of Sungwol and Pyeongheung hesitated. Again and again the impulse to strike rose in them, but the speed Yi Yeok had just revealed was staggering. More than anything, So Cheong-ha standing at his back held them fast.
"You still do not seem to grasp the situation. So long has it been since we met that you have forgotten my strength. This is not a matter to leave in a disciple's hands. I ought to step forward myself."
So Cheong-ha spoke with his lips barely stirring, and the sect masters' faces went the color of ash.
Dong Hyo cried out in haste.
"Everyone... let us stop here. Yonga Sect Master, I beg you, stand down as well!"
Pale to the lips, the Yonga Sect Master glared at Yi Yeok. Yi Yeok only grinned.
"Yonga Sect Master, you seem rather dissatisfied. My skill is still lacking, so I cannot promise to end this without pain. I will, however, do my best to finish it quickly."
Dong Hyo could not keep still.
"Act wisely! You must not let rage blind you!"
It tore into the open all at once, its momentum declaring that the enemy would not be granted so much as a breath in which to think.
These sect masters were men who had cultivated without rest, striving for the realm of Great Daoist Master. The elixirs and spirit stones they had consumed would be immense in themselves. Steal even a portion of that, and Yi Yeok could grow stronger still.
"I concede defeat."
The Yonga Sect Master muttered it.
Yi Yeok stopped short. Yojiyu had already torn through the man's blood spirit and hung leveled at his throat. Yi Yeok frowned, plainly dissatisfied.
"Couldn't you have resisted just a little longer?"
Drenched in cold sweat from head to foot, the Yonga Sect Master had no chance to answer.
The Sungwol Sect Master spoke in a rush.
"We were rash in this matter. From the start it was only business, and yet we raised a furor as though we had lost our own children. We apologize."
"That's right. It's only business. There is no need for blood to be spilled."
Dong Hyo chimed in at once. The Pyeongheung Sect Master went a step further.
"From this day forward, we will follow only Nokhyeon Sect's word. Each year, we will offer a portion of our income."
Yi Yeok drew his hand back and spoke, cold.
"How dull. Hurry and pick up your arm and stick it back on, Yonga Sect Master. You still have a chance."
An elder of the Yonga Sect, one skilled in medicine, stepped forward. The Yonga Sect Master smiled awkwardly.
"I thank you for holding back your hand, and for giving me the chance to be treated."
He did not know how he ought to address Yi Yeok. To call him Young Master, as Dong Hyo did, felt wrong — and yet he could hardly speak the man's name.
So Cheong-ha spoke without warning.
"Everyone except the sect masters, withdraw."
The sect masters ordered their elders and disciples back.
Ju Uk halted mid-step and shot Yi Yeok a sidelong glance. He seemed to be searching the man for something he could read, but in the end he turned away, having found no answer.
I really can't make sense of him.
Soon only the sect masters, Yi Yeok, and So Cheong-ha remained.
"Boring. The adults can wrap this up themselves."
Yi Yeok spoke with brazen ease and took his leave at last. The sect masters watched his back, their gazes thick with complicated feeling. Only So Cheong-ha wore a faint smile.
Yi Yeok stepped out of the great hall. He did not care in the slightest what the sect masters who remained might say to one another. He only wanted to be gone from that place.
Once more, he had confirmed it. To these sect masters, even the deaths of their own disciples were not a matter of feeling. They were nothing but a calculation of profit and loss.
Outside, the grounds bustled with people, but the eyes that found him were complicated things. Some named him a monster. Others whispered that he was mad. A few looked on him with awe and called him a genius. To Yi Yeok, none of it meant anything.
Bang Cheon came toward him with the banner raised. A mountain wind blew, and the cloth snapped wide.
So long as the sun rises in the east, I, Yi Yeok, shall surely triumph.
The words met his eyes, but Yi Yeok spared them only an indifferent glance. Enter Hyeonrim Sect as he had promised, awaken the Origin Tree, and he would never again be dragged into affairs like this. So he told himself.
The people of the immortal sects always raised some plausible pretext. A den of criminals would have been better. At least they were honest.
Seeing the darkness on his face, Bang Cheon asked with worry.
"Senior Brother, are you all right?"
"I'm tired. I'm going back to sleep."
Yi Yeok yawned and returned to his quarters.
Lying on the bed, he felt that following Yeogwi and Mo Yeong into an immortal sect had been a mistake in itself. This was not the life he wanted.
He wanted to wander the world as he pleased — to go wherever the whim took him, free of tangled bonds and the weight of duty.
"Old man. Where in the world did you disappear to?"
He muttered it under his breath.
"It was fun, being with you."
When Yi Yeok woke, evening had already fallen. Yeogwi was sitting in the room.
"What's the occasion, Turtle?"
"My brilliant little brother. Caused trouble again, I hear?"
"This bastard, mouthing off at his older brother..."
"Re~ally something. How do you come all the way to an immortal sect and still run wild exactly the way you did out in the world?"
Yi Yeok lay back, both hands pillowed behind his head.
"How have you been?"
"Anywhere's fine, so long as I don't have to look at that old geezer. The Sect Master thinks well of me. He's given me spirit stones, and he's even having me train my blood spirit. Work hard enough, and I think I can make it into a middle-rank sect."
Hope shone in his eyes. Yi Yeok smiled faintly.
"Good for you."
"With talent like mine, the greatest sword under heaven isn't just a dream."
"So you're entering the Immortal Selection next spring?"
"The Immortal Selection? There'll be geniuses from the middle and late Daoist realm — talents on the level of Dao Grandmaster, even. I'm not ready. I need a few more years of training."
"I'm entering."
At that, Yeogwi turned his gaze to the window. A long while passed before he spoke.
"Yeah. All right."
Bitterness clung to his voice. The two of them were friends and comrades, but a gap neither of them could cross had already opened between them.
Yeogwi rose, laughing.
"Let's meet again up there someday. Until then, work hard — and don't embarrass me."
"Worry about yourself."
Yeogwi said it as he stepped through the door.
"I bought the mooncakes you like."
"Then leave them and get the hell out."
"Yi Yeok. We've grown up. Flying dagger or assassin, it's all a stain. Quit it. The low road will only get in the way of a higher realm."
The door closed.
For a long while Yi Yeok sat where he was, staring at Yeogwi's gift upon the table.