Shall We Practice a Little?
The dungeon was the most desolate place in the entire Namgung Clan Estate.
They'd rather cut a man down on the spot than bother throwing him in a cell, Sun Wukong recalled, remembering Muhwa's explanation from before, and let out a dry chuckle.
The dungeon was a labyrinth. Every structure had been meticulously planned — the height of the stairs, their placement, the length of every corridor. The entire design was woven together to scramble a martial artist's sense of direction. The architect's painstaking work was wasted on him. Sun Wukong's footsteps never once faltered. Even without a guide, he reached his destination in a single breath.
Inside the iron bars, Baek-an-magun hung bound, his limbs twisted and broken.
"Hey."
"...That's an awfully cheerful greeting."
"Greetings are supposed to put people in a good mood."
Baek-an-magun's lips curled. Sun Wukong's attack had taken both his eyes. The indiscriminate beating meant to seal his pressure points had tangled the meridians throughout his body, and the slightest circulation of internal energy sent agony ripping through him as if his entire frame were being torn apart. If he could still open his eyes, Baek-an-magun would have glared with a look that could kill a man on the spot.
"I don't need to tell you why I'm here, do I?"
"Hmph. You're here to torture me for whatever you can squeeze out, aren't you?"
"That's right."
"You idiot. I've already lost everything as a martial artist. You think I'm afraid of a little pain? Even if I survive this, what reason would I have to keep living in this goddamn wreck of a body?"
"Come on. Living is what matters. Who cares about martial arts?"
Through his Fiery Golden Eyes, a colossal centipede writhed into view — wounded, leaking venomous qi in writhing spasms.
"Even if I die here, I'll wait for you in the afterlife. You'll be along soon enough. We'll settle this there. Our Great King will smash that skull of yours to pieces."
"Tsk."
Sun Wukong clicked his tongue. This wasn't like Honse-mawang, who'd babbled on and on trying to talk him around. Nor was he thrashing for his life like the Shandong Seven Shadows. He didn't even entertain the thought that he could be persuaded.
Maybe I should've grabbed that old man instead.
Gunei Nosa, was it? The face Namgung Jinbaek had chased down and cut down in a single stroke. He'd been Honse-mawang's superior. Digging into the organization through him would've been far more useful.
This one belongs to the same organization, but they each run their own operations independently.
It was hard to guess how far an organization led by men of this caliber had spread across the Central Plains.
Bigger than I expected.
He'd assumed a secret cell network would be small-scale. It wasn't. Sun Wukong let out a sigh, and hearing it, Baek-an-magun let out a low, wheezing laugh.
"Even if I wanted to tell you anything, I'm afraid I couldn't. You've probably got the Shandong Seven Shadows locked up too, don't you? You won't get a word out of them either."
Sun Wukong laughed as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"What's there to be proud of about having a restriction seal on you?"
He couldn't wrap his head around how these people thought. No rage, no humiliation at a seal that held their very lives hostage — and they wore it like a badge of honor? A restriction seal was what you used when you couldn't inspire loyalty. Anyone on the receiving end ought to hate it with every fiber of their being. Just look at the Seven Branch Lords and the Shandong Seven Shadows.
Those ones... if I can just get the seals off them, there's a chance.
But not Baek-an-magun.
"Go on, then! Do your worst! These lips of mine will never open!"
There was something unhinged in that laugh. Sun Wukong answered as if it were nothing.
"Nah. I'm not here to listen."
Sun Wukong was not a stubborn man. He didn't cling to slim chances, pouring every ounce of focus and time into them. He turned his gaze toward higher odds and charged after them without looking back. In a single instant, he discarded any lingering interest in Baek-an-magun. He didn't need him. What he wanted from this man wasn't information.
Just one thing.
"What?"
He was nothing more than a test subject.
"What in the world..."
Even if the dungeon held no other villains, it still had its jailers and gatekeepers. Namgung Jeok, who had once tracked Sa Hyeol-cheol-gwi, was a seasoned expert who had long since crossed the threshold of the Peak Realm. He had no complaints about being assigned as a mere gatekeeper. This was a freak that Namgung Jinbaek and Sun Wukong had captured themselves. Even Muhwa — one of the strongest in the entire Namgung Clan — had been put down and now lay in a sickbed. Guarding a dungeon that held a villain like that left no room for carelessness.
A scream tore up from the depths of the dungeon, vile and unending.
"What the hell is happening in there..."
Namgung Jeok's voice trembled. How long had it been since Sun Wukong went inside? The screams never stopped. They sounded like the wailing of a demon rising from a bottomless abyss — vile, horrific.
Being one of the Namgung Clan's elite meant more than most people realized. It meant you were an expert who had survived the front lines of the Great Orthodox-Unorthodox War. Even a man like Namgung Jeok found himself swallowing dry at the screams ringing in his ears.
"How can a human scream sound like that..."
"Horrific" didn't begin to cover it. Even a man accustomed to the din of the battlefield found it unbearable.
"Is he wringing the man's very soul?"
It was a scream that came from somewhere deeper — a primal, fundamental terror. Even a man of iron nerves couldn't endure it. It didn't sound like anything a human throat should produce. It sounded like a ghost howling.
"And that's coming from the deepest cell in the dungeon. To reach all the way to the entrance..."
Just what kind of torture was he inflicting?
How long had the screaming gone on? Then, all at once, it stopped. Footsteps approached. Namgung Jeok turned, his face taut.
"You've been working hard."
"Ah... Teacher Sun."
The warrior's pupils flickered, then settled. Sun Wukong looked exactly as he had when he'd gone in — not a thing out of place. Namgung Jeok's eyes flicked over him in an instant. Not a single drop of blood.
"Did things... go well inside?"
"Oh, I got some results. The guy was tougher than I expected — held up pretty well."
"..."
Held up well against what, exactly? Namgung Jeok looked at him with faintly sickened eyes. Sun Wukong grinned.
"I'll need to drop by a few more times. See you then."
Namgung Jeok gave a stiff little nod, his expression sour.
I need to request a shift change.
Having to listen to those screams again...
If I keep hearing that, my own head's going to start going wrong.
Namgung Jeok watched Sun Wukong's receding back. A hidden recluse, a concealed master, the last successor of a destroyed one-man lineage — there were plenty of rumors. Right now, Namgung Jeok felt only one thing.
That's not someone you ever want to meet as an enemy.
A bloody wind had swept through the night before, but the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly carried on as if nothing had happened.
"Thanks to that, we got to smash the Hwangbo Clan's nose in."
"When we pinned all seven of them as assassins sent to kill the Disciplinary Hall Master, they didn't have much to say."
"Of course not. If they'd been outsiders, maybe. But they were the Hwangbo Clan's own outer hall warriors."
"How did the Hwangbo Clan react?"
"They looked completely lost. Claimed they knew nothing about it — not that it matters."
"Once word spreads through Murim, people will say they're a clan no decent person can associate with."
"If we open our mouths, their reputation goes straight into the gutter."
They had the Hwangbo Clan's weakness in their grip. More precisely, Hwangbo Yong's weakness.
"Hwangbo Yong?"
"Hwangbo Yong is the future clan lord. He's still only the successor, and it's not as if he has no rivals. He has younger brothers. If it comes out that the attendants he brought with him were infiltrating assassins, he'll lose that position overnight."
"So we're holding the future Hwangbo Clan by the throat."
"Things have gotten a lot easier, thanks to you."
"Me? I was just doing what I do."
Sun Wukong shrugged. Namgung Jinbaek kept expressing his genuine gratitude, insisting everything had worked out because of him. Somewhere in a corner of his heart, Sun Wukong felt a twinge of guilt.
I never mentioned they were also from the Hao Sect.
A secret was always more powerful when you kept it to yourself. Sun Wukong shoved the slight prick of conscience aside.
"What do you plan to do with the Shandong Seven Shadows?"
"I'll squeeze whatever information I can get out of them, then keep them under my own watch."
"They're courtesans who practice charm arts."
"Courtesans are still just courtesans."
"..."
Namgung Jinbaek studied him for a moment, then slowly nodded.
"Well. I'm sure Teacher Sun will handle it."
Sun Wukong grinned.
Meaning he'll look the other way.
Namgung Jinbaek's sense of give-and-take was sharp as a blade. Charm arts were condemned throughout the martial world — considered less a martial art than a heretical technique of the unorthodox path. And yet Jinbaek hadn't so much as flinched. He was making it perfectly clear that he'd leave the matter in Sun Wukong's hands.
The Namgung Clan gained something from this Dragon-Phoenix Assembly, so this is his way of paying it back.
Sun Wukong liked this about Namgung Jinbaek.
"As it stands, we don't have the capacity to deal with them ourselves anyway."
Namgung Jinbaek smiled bitterly. Sun Wukong looked at him. Dark shadows hung beneath his eyes.
"You look exhausted."
"I had no idea how terrifying it would be to have the Disciplinary Hall Master's seat sitting empty."
Namgung Jinbaek launched into a complaint.
"It feels like my workload has doubled. No — it actually is about to double."
"Double?"
"The rising stars' martial tournament is coming up soon, and after that we still have to hold the Changryong Chulgwan."
Sun Wukong's eyes narrowed at the words.
"Muyoung needs to formally assume the position of Young Clan Lord this time, so we'll have to hold the Changryong Chulgwan — the Namgung Clan's coming-of-age rite."
"Changryong Chulgwan?"
"...I suppose a great deal of time has passed. You look like you've never heard of it. Well, it's been at least twenty years."
Namgung Jinbaek smiled wryly and offered a brief explanation.
"It's the Namgung Clan's coming-of-age ceremony. Even the successor who will inherit the clan lord's seat must pass it."
"Sounds like it's not just for the Young Clan Lord. Any Namgung of age is expected to pass it?"
"That's right. It's an event the successor undertakes together with blood relatives of similar age."
"The future clan lord and the next generation of warriors, facing it together..."
Sun Wukong nodded.
"The successor leads the young blood of his generation through countless trials, proving he has what it takes to stand as the head of the Namgung Clan."
"That's a problem. Are there even any other kids around to take the rite with him?"
"Besides Seowol..."
Namgung Jinbaek let out a long, frustrated sigh.
"Just thinking about preparing the Changryong Chulgwan after the martial tournament is already giving me a headache."
Sun Wukong clicked his tongue. He'd taken the man for a clever human. Turns out a human was still just a human. Without much thought, he knocked back the cup of wine in front of him.
"Human hands really are small."
"Hm?"
"You want to pile everything onto your palm, but the palm's too narrow to hold it all."
"What are you getting at?"
"..."
Jinbaek looked at him in silence. A faint smile crossed Namgung Jinbaek's face.
"Is that so. Trying to pull off both the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly and the Changryong Chulgwan successfully... that was greed, then."
"Knowing how to let go of greed is how you keep what you truly want."
"Teacher Sun, did you happen to study at Shaolin?"
"Not a chance."
Sun Wukong cackled.
"The tournament isn't that important anyway. Muyoung and Hwangbo Yong already had their match at the banquet, and from what I hear, Namgung Seowol went around challenging everyone to duels the whole way here."
"Hrm!"
"And as for young warriors to go in with him... well, you've got those little brats from the Five Great Clans, don't you?"
"Hold it together with the rising stars of the Five Great Clans...?"
At Sun Wukong's words, Namgung Jinbaek's eyes went wide.