When the Shadow Swallows Him Whole
Jin Cheong-un stared at the sky beyond the old man's shoulder.
The crimson glow of dusk was fading fast; somehow they had already reached the tail end of the day. Darkness was beginning to settle over the streets of Yinghua Village, which until moments ago had been bright with evening bustle.
He glanced down and found the long-stretched shadow of the alley pooled at his feet.
"What am I supposed to do with all the stuff I just bought……"
Jin Cheong-un muttered, sounding genuinely put out.
At that moment, the old man's mouth opened, half-submerged in shadow like thin fog.
"It's been a long time, Black Asura."
"……"
For a while, Jin Cheong-un studied the old man's face with an expression caught between recognition and doubt, then asked:
"Iron Blood Fortress?"
The old man chuckled, an odd, unsettling sound, and nodded.
Only then did Jin Cheong-un recall the man's epithet.
"Gui-ong. The Ghost Elder."
"To think you'd remember a worthless old man. Much obliged."
He was a relic of the previous generation, active in the Jianghu long before Jin Cheong-un was even born. His reputation had crumbled into the dirt since age withered him, but he had been a genuine grandmaster of a caliber that even all the martial artists Jin Cheong-un had met after retiring in Yichang, combined, could not hope to match.
"I believe I saw you pass by once, when the Fortress Lord visited the Alliance Leader. It's been a while."
Gui-ong smiled with his eyes and bobbed his head.
"Aye, it has. And pleasant it is."
"So you were the backer the Black Tiger Bandit Lord spoke of. What an honor."
"Backer is a strong word. We merely crossed paths by chance, nothing more."
Is that so.
Because the Black Tiger Bandit Lord's account had been a little different.
"Trailing a year-old affair all the way out to this backwater village — that must have been a very special chance indeed."
"Surely not. A small acquaintance, no more."
"Ah, yes. Risking your neck to travel all this way for a *small acquaintance*. Admirable."
Uncharacteristic for one of the Unorthodox Factions, Gui-ong had apparently been a man of rare loyalty in his day.
Hubei, where Yichang sat, was the territory of the Martial Alliance. Even a grandmaster of the Iron Blood Fortress would have had to swallow his pride and slink through the shadows the whole way here, his very life hanging by a thread the entire journey……
And this old man was claiming he'd braved all of that — for a small acquaintance?
"I had assumed you'd come all this way to retrieve something important."
"……"
In that instant, a hairline crack ran through Gui-ong's smile.
Come to think of it, the thought had crossed his mind.
The martial arts of the Esoteric Cult promised rapid early progress, but if one failed to shatter the wall, age would eat away at one's skill with brutal efficiency. If Gui-ong, dreaming of a comeback within the strength-devours-the-weak culture of the Iron Blood Fortress, had found that path through the Black Tiger Bandit Lord……
Couldn't he plausibly have struck a deal with a mere rural bandit?
Ah, now that he thought of it, the Black Tiger Bandit Lord did hail from a fairly substantial organization himself — the Heavenly Earth Society, no less.
Of course, a man of Gui-ong's storied loyalty would never do such a thing.
"……So you already knew. They said rumors of your retirement must be an Alliance stratagem. So it was a false rumor after all?"
"The retirement is real. I'm no longer of the Alliance."
"Heh heh. Well, of course you'd say that."
Gui-ong guffawed, his face betraying not an ounce of belief.
"Tell me, my friend."
"Go ahead."
"Would you care to tell me where the goods from the Black Tiger Den are kept? Do that, and I'll leave quietly."
"I don't know what they are, but if they belonged to the Black Tiger Den, they're probably with the authorities by now."
"Hmm. So it would seem."
Gui-ong let out something like a sigh, gave a slow nod, then straightened.
"Well, this has been a pleasant chat. It's just so strange to hear you actually make small talk that I went on too long."
"Ah. Take care on your way back."
Gui-ong's head tilted, puzzled.
"Go back? Not until I know where my goods are."
"……"
"When the Black Asura himself got involved, I thought I'd have to give the whole thing up. A real mercy, this. The retirement may have been a lie, but the rumors that injury had dulled your blade were evidently true."
Jin Cheong-un clicked his tongue, his face clouding over.
Right. He'd known the moment this old man opened his mouth that any answer would only set him off.
At some point, the lengthening shadow had climbed all the way to his waist.
And deep within that darkening shade, he could almost hear vermin slithering closer, countless and crawly.
"……"
Thoughts churned thick and shapeless in his mind.
His master's face. The Alliance Leader's final words……
And then it struck him — if he let even one of these vermin slip away here, the rot could fester into a blight upon this village he had grown so fond of.
"The kids will be waiting."
Looks like I'll be late after all.
Jin Cheong-un slowly let the tension drain from his hand.
Swish. Thud!
The groceries he'd been cradling in his arm scattered across the ground — and in the same heartbeat, Jin Cheong-un's hand shot sideways like a thunderbolt.
"Gahk!"
A muffled cry burst from empty air.
A black-clad assassin came tumbling out of nothing, caught fast in Jin Cheong-un's grip. He slammed the man viciously into the ground and drove an upturned palm-blade straight down into his neck.
Crack. Shraaaak.
The sickening sound of sinew and flesh parting.
The black-clad man's body, which had been shuddering on the ground, went slack almost at once.
Drip. Drip. Blood fell from Jin Cheong-un's fingers.
"……"
Gui-ong froze where he stood.
One of his men had died in the blink of an eye.
And not some expendable thug — a first-rate martial artist of the Wild Ghost Unit, bred and raised within the Iron Blood Fortress itself.
His breathing pattern…… just changed.
Swish.
Jin Cheong-un rose slowly to his feet.
The alley's shadow now swallowed him whole.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"……"
"Let's begin."
Jin Cheong-un walked step by heavy step into the darkness.
A moment ago, this had unmistakably been the peaceful village of Yinghua.
And now, without him noticing the change, it was the Jianghu.
Fwuuush!
Blood ran rampant through the back alley of Yinghua Village.
Thud! Boom!
The figure darted into an abandoned building, and a dozen-odd pursuers flooded in after it.
CRASH! Rumble-rumble-boom!
"GWAAAAH!"
"Guhk! Th-this bastard—!"
"Gaahk!"
Screams and mayhem echoed through the building for a short while — and then, silence.
Just as the Wild Ghost Unit members hesitated at the threshold, unwilling to commit to entering——
"Behind you!"
Gui-ong, watching from a distance, screamed the warning with everything he had.
The men hesitating outside whipped their heads up in alarm. But something had already descended behind them.
Shrrk!
A frigid blue arc of sword light slashed a line through the air.
Along that line, a Wild Ghost Unit member's head and a fountain of blood rose skyward together.
Shraaaaaak!
Blood rained down like a storm.
And beneath that rain stood Jin Cheong-un, drenched in red.
"A-attack! Kill him!"
Wild Ghost Unit members, white-faced with shock, threw themselves at him.
For a single man to face, their numbers looked overwhelmingly lopsided.
But this was a narrow, dark alley.
Wild swings caught on the walls. Footwork stumbled over the blood-soaked ground and the scattered debris of the abandoned den. Hands and feet tangled together in the cramped space, colliding with allies as often as enemies.
Shaaaa.
In an instant, the alley dissolved into chaos — and it was Jin Cheong-un who had orchestrated it, threading through the press of bodies like smoke.
Thk! Shrrk! Shraak!
Clean, spare, monotonous.
There was not a single wasted motion in his movements. Not an ounce of flourish. With the starkest possible economy of action, he cut, he pierced, he struck — and every strike burst forth blood and screams.
It was less a martial art than a pure art of killing.
"Old man!"
BOOM!
Gui-ong, charging in at the opportune moment, unleashed a single decisive strike that smashed into Jin Cheong-un full force.
Black Hand Ghost Palm.
Dark gray palm-force erupted from both his hands and slammed into Jin Cheong-un's body.
BOOOOM!
Jin Cheong-un was hurled backward as if struck by a runaway carriage, blood bursting from his mouth.
"Don't get dragged into him! Form ranks and fight him properly!"
Flash!
Three or four weapons fell upon him at once. Still swaying from the blow, Jin Cheong-un crossed his arms and shielded only his face.
Fwushaaaa!
Blood spurted from his back and arms.
The Wild Ghost Unit members, who had brightened for a moment, flinched almost immediately.
The impact traveling up their weapons was far too shallow. It felt less like cutting a man's body than scratching the surface of a wall.
Celestial Wall.
Blood pouring from every inch of him, Jin Cheong-un did not so much as blink.
He simply extended his blade toward the openings his enemies exposed with every attack — no flourish, no excess, nothing wasted.
"M-monster……!"
Thk!
A dagger buried itself in the chest of the man nearest to him.
Jin Cheong-un took another life without so much as a glance, left the dagger where it sat, and instead wrenched a sword free from the wall where it had been embedded.
WHOOOOSH!
Sword-energy bloomed out like a net unfurling, its radiance so flamboyant it pushed the darkness back.
"B-block it!"
"Gahk!"
KRAAAAANG!
They were swept away. Two Wild Ghost Unit members went flying like shrapnel and crumpled to the ground, limp. Their formation broke apart before it could ever fully set.
Watching the scene from a distance, Gui-ong could not trust his own eyes.
How in the world……
Every single member of the Wild Ghost Unit was second-rate climbing to first-rate. Going by the density and volume of the internal energy he could sense alone, Jin Cheong-un should have been subdued ages ago.
Granted, ranking by realm alone meant little in the Jianghu — but there were still such things as common sense.
Did I…… misjudge him?
No. He had known. He had known perfectly well.
The Black Asura.
He knew the name came from that monster's habit of wading through battle drenched in black blood, wielding every weapon under heaven with two arms, three heads, six limbs — a devil reaping foes regardless of blade or spear.
He knew that this man had personally written the pages of the Jianghu's dark records, leaving trails of blood too numerous to count.
He knew that even the Lord of the Iron Blood Fortress — a man whose realm surpassed Gui-ong's own — regarded this man as the only enemy he truly feared.
He knew. He had known all of it.
But even so, this is……!
Fwush!
Another Wild Ghost Unit member crossed over into death.
At some point, everyone had frozen in place, and the battle had ground into a lull.
The Wild Ghost Unit members scanned their surroundings with faces drained blue.
Excluding the ten holding the perimeter, of the twenty-six who had surrounded Jin Cheong-un, only five remained.
"Hoo."
Wiping the blood from his face with one slow swipe, Jin Cheong-un regarded them through tired, hazy eyes.
The Wild Ghost Unit flinched as if standing before a monster, bodies trembling, feet shuffling in place.
And a hollow laugh escaped him.
Hesitating?
Here, in front of him — after they were the ones who had come to spill his blood?
So it was true, then, what they said: retire, and the world treats you as a has-been.
Strangers not knowing him was one thing. But these men knew exactly who he was, and still they wavered. If this was all he amounted to now, they'd have been better off leaving a quietly living man in peace and going home.
Step.
Jin Cheong-un eased one foot back.
And at that very moment——
"……Stand down."
Gui-ong walked forward, his face carved from stone.
"I will fight him alone."
Folding back the sleeves of both arms, he spoke in a voice sunk lower than the grave.
"I'd heard the rumors, but truly, you are a butcher in human skin. And yet you still call yourself a man of the Orthodox Sects?"
"……"
"I find myself curious. What will the common folk of this village say, I wonder, when they see you like this?"
Jin Cheong-un tilted his head sharply sideways.
"Has old age rotted your brain? Last I checked, you were the one who disturbed a man who just wanted to live quietly."
"……"
Gui-ong offered no reply. Instead, he began dragging up every last thread of internal energy his body contained.
GRUMBLE-RUMBLE!
Condensed, tangible qi began to glow sharply around both his hands.
Gui-ong's eyes gleamed hard and bright.
"I won't be careless this time."
"……"
"I'll grant you this much: had you trained that new-forged art of yours for half a year more — no, even three months — I might have lost. But your timing did not favor you."
Jin Cheong-un gave a silent nod.
Past one's prime, weathered by age — but a grandmaster was still a grandmaster. Gui-ong, it seemed, had already seen straight through his condition.
If he were pressed to name his current realm, it was barely first-rate, at best brushing the edge of Peak.
True, this was a special case — even below his best, he had crushed grandmasters like the Black Tiger Bandit Lord and Baek Gun-ak with ease.
But Gui-ong was a grandmaster of an entirely different class.
Sometimes, credit had to be given where it was due.
I'm losing.
Deny it however he liked — on the ledger of realms, he was behind.
But battles were not fought on the ledger of realms.
"Whatever it costs me, I will drag you back with me."
"……"
"I'll wring it out of you — the goods' location, and every last one of the Alliance's secrets besides. My men's lives deserve their price in——"
And then.
At that very instant — mid-word, mid-breath.
In the instant before his enemy had even finished drawing in a breath — into that single sliver of a gap in Gui-ong's breathing, Jin Cheong-un launched himself.
"…I'll collect—— huk!"
Gui-ong sucked in a ragged gasp and thrust his hands out to block.
KWANG!
His palm-force, bristling with killing intent, shattered the sword Jin Cheong-un swung at him.
"Kuhk! You cowardly little trick!"
THUD!
The moment he swept out his left palm, Jin Cheong-un's right hand shot in and met it head-on.
WHAM!
His remaining hand followed, clashing against the other. Palm met palm, sealed together.
Gui-ong's eyes bulged.
WHOOOOSH!
Jin Cheong-un's internal energy came boring into his body.
An internal energy contest?
This lunatic…… he's gone mad! He wants to die!
Certain of victory, Gui-ong vented his palm-force at full power——
"……!"
Fwook!
In that instant, Gui-ong felt it: a colossal vortex opening inside him, swallowing his own qi whole.