Superior Stalemate — Night
Night.
And the valley.
A cool valley breeze swept low, flowing downward through the gorge. It was a wind laden with the ashes of death.
"All things under heaven are impermanent; the prosperous must fall. Life and death are one face and its reverse…"
Through the glass lenses of her black gas mask, the Fourth Young Master's strategist gazed down toward the lower valley. Tang Ye-rin murmured in a low voice.
"This is the law of arising and ceasing. That cycle is the law of birth and death."
Even now, beneath her eyes, countless lives withered without so much as a scream. There was air, yet they could not breathe. They flailed, gasping, and drowned.
"When arising and ceasing themselves cease, that is the bliss of extinction — when birth and death end, that is the realm of nirvana."
It was her own form of eulogy.
"May you be reborn in paradise."
The moment she tucked her prayer beads back into her robes, the reports began.
"Confirming efficacy procedures in progress."
Those who had fled upward toward the rooftops in desperation died there, bodies contorting. Those who had gone down into the basements died in cellars where not even moonlight reached, felled by the poison that clung to the ground.
"Reports from each observation unit."
"Compiling."
The agents continued their procedures with mechanical precision from behind their gas masks.
"Mid-valley: objective of neutralizing main enemy forces achieved."
"Pursuit and extermination of enemy martial artists underway."
Tang Ye-rin turned and issued the order with a hand signal.
"Cease poison deployment."
"Cease poison deployment."
The Fourth Young Master's agents echoed the command and moved as one to operate the devices mounted on the crates. The crates, which had hissed without pause as wind escaped them, fell silent.
"Operation complete. Poison deployment ceased."
The instant the report reached her, Tang Ye-rin lifted off her gas mask.
"Haa—"
Freed from the stifling mask, she drew a long breath and wiped the sweat streaming down her face.
"Strategist Tang. Is it already safe to remove the masks?"
No-gunsa, standing beside her, made to follow her lead and take his off. The interiors of the gas masks and protective suits, with their poor airflow, were unbearably hot.
"If you take it off now, you will die."
An agent stopped him firmly, shaking his head.
"The air is still thick with toxic fumes."
The agent's words, filtered through his mask, came out muffled and nearly unintelligible. But the simple gesture of drawing a finger across his own throat was something even No-gunsa, who did not know the Tang Clan's hand signals, understood at once.
"…Ah. Understood."
No-gunsa took his hand from the mask and nodded. The agent withdrew.
From within the limited field of vision of his gas mask, No-gunsa surveyed the surroundings. With all combat halted, a stillness hung over the valley — peaceful, even, at first glance.
"…I had heard rumors that experimental weapons of the Tang Clan were used during the Northern War, but was the power this great?"
No-gunsa clicked his tongue.
"This is the completed version, refined and improved through live combat trials on those battlefields."
Watching Tang Ye-rin tidy her hair, No-gunsa swallowed dryly.
"…When I heard the First Young Master had obtained it through a direct deal with the Young Clan Head of the Tang Clan, I wondered what could be so special about the weapon."
"Class A Special Weapon No. 16."
Tang Ye-rin spoke in her measured, even tone.
"Commonly known as Faceless Lifeless. Even within the Tang Clan, it is a classified weapon strictly forbidden from external leakage. This is my first time using it in actual combat as well."
She offered a light smile with her eyes. Whether reacting to the poison in the air or not, her pupils glistened a vivid green.
"The Tang Clan gains field-use data from urban combat, and the First Young Master turns the mid-valley into a no-man's-land."
She added briefly.
"A transaction where both sides profit, you might say?"
"…I see."
The contrast between the woman who had prayed for their rebirth in paradise and the woman who now discussed the advantages of mass slaughter was jarringly alien. But No-gunsa did not bother to put that observation into words. A lifetime spent following armies to war had made him all too familiar with human beings broken in one way or another.
"How long does the toxicity last?"
In answer to No-gunsa's question, Tang Ye-rin turned instead of speaking. Behind them, an agent had unsealed a reagent and was shaking a glass vessel exposed to the air.
"Confirmation complete."
The agent verified that the reagent's color remained unchanged upon contact with the air and nodded.
"Toxicity in this vicinity has lost its effect."
At those words, the agents removed their gas masks without waiting for further instruction.
"My thanks."
No-gunsa spoke as an agent helped him out of his mask and protective suit.
"For something so effective, the duration is rather short."
"That is precisely the refinement that makes this poison a proper weapon."
Tang Ye-rin answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"If the duration were long as well, it would not be a weapon for winning battles — only a path to mutual annihilation."
"…"
But surely the Tang Clan also has weapons designed for that very ending?
Tang Ye-rin answered with a meaningful smile.
"…Terrifying."
No-gunsa felt a chill at that smile and shook his head. He turned his gaze down the valley.
Unlike the almost peaceful mid-section, the lower reaches still thronged with enemies, their torches moving in chaotic patterns. And yet not one among them dared attempt entry into the mid-valley.
"With this, we have a stalemate."
Tang Ye-rin stood at his side and added,
"But a stalemate with our side holding the advantage."
Third Wharf.
The elders of the Second Young Master's faction were plunged into deep shock and silence.
"…Could Dowager Madam Ouyang not tighten the noose a little further on the Council of Six?"
"Impossible."
A fellow elder immediately shook his head at the suggestion his colleague had so carefully offered.
"The situation now is different from before."
Another elder chimed in.
"Previously, however difficult, there was still the chance of a great reward if we broke through. This is not that."
"To order re-entry into the mid-valley now would be like telling them to leap into fire carrying armfuls of kindling."
Even if the leaders of the Council of Six issued such an order, there was no one in the underworld so deeply loyal — or so stupid — as to obey a command that amounted to suicide.
"Damn it…!"
One elder slammed his tobacco pipe down on the table.
"How is it that even our own family's intelligence bureau knows next to nothing about that poison?!"
"…"
"The poison's name is Faceless Lifeless."
A high-ranking official from the Luoyang Sword Family's intelligence bureau exhaled a stream of tobacco smoke and spoke.
"In the past, during the Northern War, there were three live combat trials. After that, a form presumed to be the completed version was observed and reported during the military civil war in the Kingdom of Yue."
"So how long does the toxicity last? What is the range? Is there an antidote?"
Pressed hard by the elder, the senior intelligence official answered bluntly.
"As I said at the outset. We do not know."
Receiving a whispered transmission from a subordinate nearby, he added slightly.
"They say the effect is reduced against those who possess internal qi."
"Damn it all!"
Several elders spat curses; others tossed mocking remarks at the high official from the intelligence bureau.
"You cannot even properly assess the weapons of a potentially hostile power, and yet all that intelligence budget over the years — where did it go?"
"The intelligence bureau's budget allocations are not even subject to audit, are they? Who knows whose throat that money disappeared down."
The senior intelligence official maintained a blank expression even as the sharp words struck the back of his head.
"To begin with, it is a classified weapon that even the Tang Clan's collateral branches do not know exists. Within the Tang Clan itself, only direct bloodline members would have access to that information."
The elders showed their dismay at his words.
"Only the direct line can access the information?"
"That is so."
"…"
"If only the direct line can access it…"
One elder wiped cold sweat as he asked.
"Then to what level of the Sichuan Tang Clan must one reach to be able to deploy that classified weapon right in the middle of Luoyang?"
No one found an easy answer to that question.
"…Has the First Young Master drawn in the highest echelons of the Sichuan Tang Clan?"
An elder well-versed in external politics narrowed his eyes.
"Likely it was a secondary transaction arranged in connection with the Yangtze waterway expansion and maintenance project."
"The Sichuan Tang Clan?!"
The elder gripping his pipe spat his rage.
"How could he bring those filthy people into Luoyang itself?! That damned First Young Master who knows nothing of honor…!"
And yet, had they themselves not brought in Sapaecheon? The elders whose faces were not quite thick enough merely exchanged glances.
"…Come to think of it, what about the fleet's bombardment?"
As if he had found a thread in the conversation just past, one elder asked.
"With the enemy's use of poison, our feet are tied as well — but the enemy catapults in the mid-valley have also stopped, have they not?"
"That's right…!"
"Without the catapults, could we not approach the wharf and strike the upper reaches directly?"
"I distinctly heard something of that sort…!"
Watching the elders' expressions brighten at those words, an officer of the Fresh Blood Fleet gave a short snort of laughter and spoke.
"Bombardment is support, nothing more. Suppose we open fire this instant — who among you will shatter the enemy's final defenses and take the upper valley?"
He drove the nail home into the speechless elders.
"Cannons, shells, and gunpowder are not infinite. Until the outcome is certain, there will be no resumption of naval gunfire."
"…Damn it!"
Crash — the elder with the pipe overturned the table. But no one bothered to rebuke him.
"The present situation is not a simple stalemate. It is a stalemate in which the enemy holds the advantage."
The last to speak was Elder Hahu, who had kept silence until then. At his words, the elders who had maintained some composure nodded.
"Elder Hahu is right."
"Time is not on our side — it is on theirs."
If time simply continued to slip away like this…
"…Those obstructing the decision-making of the Supreme Operations Committee also have their limits."
"In the end, the Supreme Operations Committee will intervene."
That was why the present situation, even as it formed a stalemate, was one of advantage for Yeon So-hyeon's side.
"…Send this message to Dowager Madam Ouyang."
Elder Hahu laced his fingers and closed his eyes.
Countermeasures: None whatsoever.
The hand of Dowager Madam Ouyang trembled violently as she received Elder Hahu's note.
The leaders of the Council of Six merely stood in the corners, avoiding her gaze for fear of meeting her eyes.
Better if she had shouted and thrown her usual foul temper — that would have been preferable. Dowager Madam Ouyang as she was now was no different from a powder keg about to explode.
"…You would have a method, would you not?"
At her sudden words, the leaders of the Council of Six exchanged glances. But her question had never been directed at them in the first place.
"Of course."
'It' answered as if it had been there from the beginning.
"I would. We would. There are any number of methods."
Goosebumps rose on the flesh of everyone present.
"But will that be all right?"
The face of the thing that had abruptly emerged from the shadows was already hideously rotten. Maggots dropped with soft thuds whenever it moved.
"Ugh—!"
"Mph…!"
The leaders of the Council of Six clutched their noses and recoiled from a stench that seemed to bore through their nostrils and plunge straight into their brains. Yet no one was particularly startled. The 'thing' that had revealed itself now was also a member of the Council of Six.
"As I recall, the original agreement was that I would stop the Dark Heaven Venerable when he appeared?"
"…It does not matter."
Watching the thing that layered two voices together, Dowager Madam Ouyang made no effort to hide her revulsion.
"Once you and your accursed kind begin spreading your usual horrors as you always do, that one will show himself of his own accord."
She spoke its name.
"Geum-jil."
The puppet corpse controlled by the one called Geum-jil shrugged its shoulders.
"Accursed kind, you say."
The corpse seemed to try to form a smiling expression. Instead, the patchwork skin of its face merely twisted into something grotesque.
"Our doctrine is more sacred than any false religion upon this earth, and our members are purer than any of the faithful."
The corpse creaked as it extended a hand toward Dowager Madam Ouyang.
"While we are at it, Madam, why not attend one of our catechism assemblies sometime?"
Enraged, Dowager Madam Ouyang stamped her foot, channeling internal qi.
"Enough of your nonsense and get out, Geum-jil! You will keep your promise and nothing else!"
The marble floor cracked with a sharp report, and the shock sent Geum-jil's puppet corpse sprawling.
"Dear, dear."
Lying where it had fallen, the corpse cackled.
"Do not worry, Madam."
As if something were departing, the movement of the corpse sprawled on the floor stilled, and its voice grew distant as well.
"We take our contracts more seriously than anyone."