The Fall of the Cheongang Clan
Still ignorant of that fact, Gang Goui wore a smile of pure self-satisfaction.
“Hahaha. Everyone’s dancing right in the palm of our Cheongang Clan.”
“Even the Lord of Yuhongak is wandering in circles.”
“Looks like they’re searching for us desperately.”
The pieces on the janggi board before him had all gathered into a single cluster. Only the Cannon stood far apart—still moving, yet never able to approach the King or the Guards.
“Even the Lord of Yuhongak won’t be able to reach us.”
“Of course not. We’re the ones moving this board.”
The moment Gang Goui finished speaking, a Cheongang Clan martial artist hurried into the chamber.
“We’ve moved every last treasure outside, my lord.”
“Well done. Time to leave.”
Obtaining the Azure Radiance Sword alone would have been tremendous fortune. Yet the Cheongang Clan had also seized every scrap of gold and silver scattered through this place. They were about to become the wealthiest house on the continent—far beyond Sichuan alone.
“Shall we bring it down?”
“We must. We can hardly leave the fools who ignored us alive.”
It was not the heart of any righteous sect that claimed to revere justice and chivalry.
“Sealing it immediately.”
Before Gang Unje, Gang Goui’s son, sat a square brick—the device that would collapse Mandokchong.
Just as Gang Unje reached to press it—
Thuk!
“Gyaaaaah!”
A long needle buried itself in his hand. In an instant the flesh blackened. The hidden weapon had been coated in poison.
“Unje!”
Gang Goui’s face twisted in panic. This place was known only to them. If anyone approached, the janggi board would have warned them. So what in the world was this?
While every face in the chamber froze in blank shock, Tang Cheonwi stepped out of the darkness.
“Tang Cheonwi!?”
“You don’t even call me Young Master anymore.”
“How did you find this place…?”
Gang Goui’s expression hardened like stone the instant Cheonwi appeared out of nowhere.
“You lot discovered it. Why shouldn’t I? And here you were, up to something thoroughly underhanded.”
Gang Goui clenched his molars. Cheonwi had grasped the entire situation in a single glance. Their crimes had been exposed.
I have to kill him. If not now, the chance will never come again.
Nothing else entered his mind except the need to kill Tang Cheonwi. His son Gang Unje shared the same thought. Enduring the agony of the poison, he forced out a cry.
“Kh… Father! We have to kill him! If what happened here gets out, the Cheongang Clan will never rise again!”
With his free hand he seized the Azure Radiance Sword and pressed its blade against the needle still lodged in his flesh.
Woom-woom.
The blackened hand gradually regained its color—the power of a divine weapon.
Watching, Tang Cheonwi lifted one corner of his mouth.
“You know how to use a divine weapon, at least.”
But then—
“Gyaaaaah!”
The hand that had been recovering its hue blackened once more. This time the poison raced up the entire arm.
“You know one thing and miss two. Does the needle in your hand look like an ordinary needle to you?”
Gang Unje could not even answer. He could only scream under the pain that hammered through his whole body.
“Aaaagh!”
At his son’s shriek, Gang Goui barked orders at his men.
“Kill that bastard right now!”
The Cheongang martial artists surged toward Tang Cheonwi, inner energy flooding their knife-hands—the Cheongang Crush, the technique their clan prided itself on.
Against Tang Cheonwi, who had absorbed the Myeonghon Azure Poison and raised his Tyrant Blood Poison Qi to the fifth star, they were nothing.
He swept one arm from left to right.
Puhak!
Every charging Cheongang martial artist lost his head at the same instant.
“H-Hand Qi!?”
Gang Goui’s eyes flew wide. Releasing the energy gathered in one’s hand was a principle akin to sword qi, yet far more difficult to project with bare flesh. That Cheonwi could wield it left him stunned.
While his mouth still hung open, Cheonwi’s hands kept moving.
Puhak—!
The Cheongang martial artists died without even the chance to resist. In less than a moment they were all gone. Only two still breathed—Gang Goui and Gang Unje.
As Tang Cheonwi walked slowly closer—
“D-Don’t come near! One step more and I’ll bring this whole place down right now!”
Gang Goui threatened. What he received in return was Cheonwi’s utterly indifferent reply.
“Go ahead and press it. I don’t care.”
“Do you even know what this is? It’s the device that will collapse Mandokchong in a single stroke!”
“So what?”
“W-What!?”
Gang Goui floundered. He had expected the threat of a cave-in to make Cheonwi hesitate. What was this reaction? It was neither bluff nor bravado.
“You weren’t seriously trying to pressure me with that thing, were you?”
“Y-You mean you’re willing to watch people get buried alive!?”
“What does that have to do with me? Yuhyeon might be different, but I’m no saint.”
He meant every word. Even if Mandokchong came down, his face said it was none of his concern. He simply was not listening to the threat.
“You bastard! Even if your friend Jegal Gwang dies, you don’t care!?”
“Which is faster—you pressing that device, or me taking your head?”
Stung by Cheonwi’s arrogant face, Gang Goui’s pride flared and he slammed his hand down on the switch.
Or rather, he tried—
Seogeok!
“Gyaaah!”
A streak of green qi flashed out and sheared off his wrist.
“Looks like I’m faster than you.”
In the next breath Tang Cheonwi stood before Gang Goui and seized him by the throat.
“You haven’t changed a bit—then or now.”
He twisted.
Eudeudeuk.
That was the empty death of the Cheongang Clan Lord who had dreamed of becoming the hegemon of Sichuan.
“Now only you are left.”
Gang Unje, heir of the Cheongang Clan. Because of this underhanded whelp, Yuhyeon had died. A man whose greed far outstripped his talent. If he had obtained the Map of Sealing Ten Thousand Weapons, he should have quietly grown his strength. Instead he had boasted, drawn the Lord of Yuhongak’s attention, and lost the map. The Azure Radiance Sword had remained with the Cheongang Clan, yet every listing inside the map had gone to Yuhongak.
“Keueueu…”
“Die slowly here, reflecting on every wrong you’ve done.”
Cheonwi severed both wrists and both ankles so the man could neither walk nor crawl. Unconsciousness was a luxury he would not grant. He pressed the vital points that forced Gang Unje to remain fully awake and feel every instant of the pain.
“Aaaaaagh!”
A scream like tearing cloth. Blood poured from Gang Unje’s eyes, nose, and ears.
Tang Cheonwi turned away from him and laid a hand on the second mechanism beside the square brick.
Kuung.
The sound of machinery shifting. What Cheonwi had touched was also a device that would collapse Mandokchong—the only difference was that it did so in stages.
“This way I’ll have time to hunt the Lord of Yuhongak, Danjuk, and Cheongpung, and Yuhyeon will have time to evacuate the martial artists.”
[What a terrifying brat.]
Hwancheonjihwan saw through Cheonwi’s intent at once. Leave the good deeds to Tang Yuhyeon; handle the filthy cleanup himself. When this was over, Tang Yuhyeon would be called a hero. Everything was unfolding exactly as Tang Cheonwi had planned.
“Time to go hunt the Lord of Yuhongak.”
“Kill them!”
“The Black Dragon Pill is mine!”
“Like hell! That treasure belongs to our Baeksabang!”
Baeksabang was a sect that straddled the border between Sichuan and Guizhou—a subordinate arm of the Jeokun Alliance, overlords of the unorthodox path. They did not wield swords or sabers. They used scythes. Those curved blades reaped necks and legs, crippling their prey in an instant.
“Aaagh, my leg!”
A wandering martial artist whose leg had been severed.
“Keheok!”
A Danjuk Clan fighter who crumpled as a thin red line opened across his throat.
Thuk!
Cheongpung Clan swordsmen who died with scythes buried in their hearts.
They were falling helplessly before the power of Baeksabang.
“Ugh…”
“I never imagined the Eunsa Squad of Baeksabang would be this strong…”
“S-Save meee!”
Terror soaked the air. Overwhelming strength. As befit a pillar of the unorthodox path, the Eunsa Squad’s power was formidable.
Puhak—!
Blood sprayed into the air, painting a crimson mist that hung thick around them.
“Kwahahaha! Leave the treasures and just die!”
Yang Chung, captain of the Eunsa Squad, slapped his scythe against his shoulder and laughed uproariously. No force present could stand against them. Not even Yeomjukjinin, lord of the Danjuk Clan, nor Cheongpungyeohyeop, lord of the Cheongpung Clan, could match the Eunsa Squad.
“Clan Lord Yu, I believe we should withdraw.”
“I was thinking the same.”
The two clan lords began to edge backward. Danjuk and Cheongpung were reading the situation and pulling out.
“Cheongpungyeohyeop! Please save us!”
A wandering martial artist clutched at her trouser leg. Yeomjukjinin received the same desperate pleas.
“Protect us from Baeksabang!”
“If you spare our lives we will never forget the debt!”
Even under their piteous appeals—
“Get off me, you filth!”
Thuk.
“Ack!”
Yu Miryeong kicked away the man who had been clinging to her clothes.
“You maggots. Don’t you understand my life is worth far more than yours?”
Dan Seung likewise bellowed at the independent martial artists. Watching the scene, Yang Chung laughed even harder.
“So that’s one of the pillars of Sichuan, is it? Kwahahaha.”
The righteous path was supposed to uphold justice and chivalry. Yet here they were, weighing the value of lives. It was a spectacle.
The Eunsa Squad wiped the blood from their scythes and snickered among themselves.
“Captain, those righteous-path types have been hiding their true faces for more than a day or two.”
“The orthodox path is crawling with beasts wearing human skins.”
“Better to be open about it like us than those underhanded bastards.”
“Shall we start with Yeomjukjinin and Cheongpungyeohyeop?”
“We’re killing them all anyway. Take it step by step.”
The Eunsa Squad began cutting down those in front of them one by one. In the meantime Dan Seung and Yu Miryeong fled.
“Keheok!”
“Those damned bastards—ugh!”
Even as they died, people cursed the Danjuk and Cheongpung Clans. The wandering martial artists and righteous-path fighters who still lived trembled harder with every life that ended. Their legs shook so violently they could not even run; they could only wait for death.
“I-I don’t want to dieee!”
One wanderer screamed at the scythe descending toward his skull. He squeezed his eyes shut and covered his head.
A moment later—
Kkang!
The ring of steel. When the man opened his eyes he saw the back of a small child. The martial uniform bore the character for Tang. In all of Sichuan there was only one place that could wear that crest.
“The Sichuan Tang Clan…!?”
“Are you all right?”
The child was Tang Yuhyeon. He turned, sword in hand, and looked back.
“Dark Dragon…? The second young master of the Tang Clan?”
“I’m embarrassed to say they call me that.”
“Ah!”
Relief flooded the wanderer’s face—the look of a man who believed he had been saved. The tension drained out of him and he fainted on the spot.
“Hey!”
Tang Yuhyeon shook him, but the man did not stir. Tang Ildo stepped up beside him and spoke in his place.
“He’s only fainted. You can relax. More importantly… quite a few people have already died.”
“We’re a step too late.”
Tang Yuhyeon’s face was grim. He had never seen so many people slaughtered before.
“Why would anyone do this!?”
“Treasure always calls for blood. What will you do?”
“We have to clean this place up first.”
“Then I’ll—”
Tang Ildo started forward, but Tang Yuhyeon stopped him.
“No. I’ll handle that man myself.”
Yuhyeon’s anger locked onto Yang Chung. He could not forgive anyone who treated human lives so lightly.
“If even a scratch lands on the second young master’s body, the Young Master will kill me.”
“Elder Brother wouldn’t kill a Black Scale Guard, would he?”
“If it’s the Young Master, he absolutely would.”
“I’ll try not to get hurt.”
“It would be safer if I just killed him—”
Even as Tang Ildo tried to stop him, Tang Yuhyeon refused to yield. He walked straight toward Yang Chung instead.
“Hah. Tang blood really is stubborn.”
Tang Ildo shook his head and strode to the center of the cavern.
Thuk.
He drove his sword into the ground and stood motionless. The Flying Scale Guard Formation—the protective array the Black Scale Guard prided itself on. Within the domain of its caster, nothing could harm those under its protection.