The Rat in the Warehouse
Having caught the rat that had snuck into the Dokjakdang warehouse, it was now time to raid the rat’s nest.
‘I will give you a chance to atone.’
-What?
‘Help me. Repay your past sins through good deeds. It won’t erase your crimes, but it may lead to a reduced sentence.’
-Ha, what a joke! You want me to become some human’s pet now?
‘That is correct.’
-What?
Seong-jin affirmed the fox spirit’s sarcasm.
‘Or do you think you’ll be able to pass on to the afterlife in one piece if you die? Unless you want to be trapped in there for eternity, what other choice do you have? Just quietly do as you are told.’
Yokai are, by nature, spiritual beings.
Since they can survive without food or water if infused with enough energy, it was not impossible to keep them trapped in there forever if he so desired.
Feeling the sincerity in Seong-jin’s aura, the fox spirit felt a chill run down its spine.
If Seong-jin were to bury the gourd in a place overflowing with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, like Mount Bongnae, the fox spirit would be forced to remain trapped there for a hundred or a thousand years, sustained only by the earth’s energy flowing through the ley lines.
Even the great Monkey King, Sun Wukong, couldn’t budge an inch until the monk Tripitaka saved him; the fox spirit, having no one to save it, might truly be trapped for an eternity.
-W-wait, I’ll help! I’ll help, okay?!
‘From now on, catch the scent of this person and track it back to the assassins’ base.’
After confirming the direction the fox spirit indicated, Seong-jin took his hand off the gourd and spoke to Do Il-ho.
“Do not worry. There will be no more attacks from the assassins.”
“W-what do you mean by that, young master?”
“If there are no assassins left to attack, wouldn’t that solve the problem?”
The assassins’ base was hidden in secrecy, but before the fox spirit’s tracking, it was no different than being in the palm of a Buddha’s hand.
-No matter how much you scrub away the scent of a physical body, you can’t hide the smell of blood soaked into the soul.
A yokai’s sense of smell does not merely track body odor.
-But are you really going in there alone?
“Is there a problem?”
-They say even a stray dog has the advantage in its own yard; how do you know what kind of traps are waiting in the assassins’ den? Humans don’t have thick skin, so you could die from a stray blade, couldn’t you?
“Are you worried about me?”
-W-who’s worried?! I just mean that if you die here, there will be no one left to let me out of this thing…!
“You’re cute. You should have just cultivated the Way yourself instead of harming others.”
Seong-jin ignored the fox spirit’s words and stepped into the assassin gate.
The interior of the gate, disguised as a fabric shop, was silent.
Perhaps they had known Seong-jin was coming and had closed the shop early to wait for him; only stillness flowed through the dark interior.
However, Seong-jin was not deceived by what he saw.
“The killing intent is as noisy as a flock of birds. Is this how you perform assassinations?”
At Seong-jin’s provocation, an old man in white appeared from the darkness.
“If you knew the Assassin Gate was involved, you should have run away and requested support from the Murim Alliance. You came here alone? How foolish.”
‘So that man is the Gate Master.’
His attire was not that of an assassin. Which, perhaps, made it all the more fitting for one.
“Isn’t it you lot who are the foolish ones? Setting up an Assassin Gate in Hubei, where the Murim Alliance is based.”
“That is because we do not fear the Murim Alliance. And all the greenhorns who didn’t know that have already become corpses at our hands.”
“Confessing your crimes so readily—I suppose you do want to live. However, I will not show mercy even if you surrender.”
Raised on the mountain, Seong-jin had seen countless times how beasts would stand on their hind legs or puff out their fur to look larger when encountering a human. Barking loudly was the trait of a puppy.
A true pack of wolves would silently stalk their prey until it was exhausted.
“You little brat!”
“You bark quite loudly for a dog.”
The assassin stomped his feet in rage. However, Seong-jin didn’t even glance at him, instead catching the throwing knife that had been flying toward the back of his head.
“Your assassination methods are also pathetic.”
As he returned the knife in the direction it had come from, a human shadow fell from the rafters with a thud.
“I see, so you do have one trick up your sleeve.”
The Gate Master stepped back, wary of Seong-jin, and at the same time, the assassins swarmed him.
Seong-jin pulled on the blade of the first assassin to rush him, then slammed his knee into the man’s face as he was dragged forward. He then swung the stolen sword to split the incoming blade from the side in two.
Kikikik!
The assassin’s pupils shook as he looked at his sword, which had been split into a fork shape. Seong-jin, having split the opponent’s sword vertically as if chopping firewood, drove the blade straight into the man’s forehead. After leaving a hole in his head, he pulled the sword out and used the momentum to throw it behind him.
The flying sword pierced through the assassin who had been charging and embedded itself in the chest of another assassin behind him.
“An amazing throwing technique. What is the name of that martial art?”
“It is a mere trick that doesn’t even deserve a name.”
Although Seong-jin had shown an incredible feat, he was now in a situation where he had thrown away his weapon to do so. Only after Seong-jin had lost his weapon did the Assassin Gate Master step forward himself. Having observed Seong-jin’s skills by using his subordinates as fodder, the Gate Master remained cautious until the very end.
Seong-jin had charged in empty-handed from the start. Naturally, the Gate Master assumed he would have another trick up his sleeve even without a sword, so he calmly measured the distance.
‘When dealing with a fist-fighter, it is important to maintain distance and not enter the range of their arms and legs.’
In the Murim world, being an old man meant one had survived by eating off the blade until that age. The caution of a seasoned martial artist was tenacious and persistent; the Gate Master approached Seong-jin slowly, as if he would take all day just to take a single step.
‘I will approach slowly so he does not notice my advance.’
He didn’t take steps; he moved stealthily, as if dragging his feet along the floor with his toes. The moment he moved into the range of his sword by closing the microscopic distance the opponent wouldn’t notice, he would aim for a one-hit kill with a sudden surprise attack.
That was the Seven-Point Snake Step. It was a footwork technique named for the snake-like tracks left behind because the user moved by dragging their body with their toes while keeping both soles of their feet on the ground.
Facing such a Gate Master, Seong-jin focused only on the sword, as if not to miss the moment he struck.
‘Yes, be wary of my sword. The more you focus on the sword rather than my feet, the less you will notice this movement.’
Just as the snake’s maw was about to loom over Seong-jin’s neck:
“Come.”
“Kehehe, why would I?”
Snap!
Seong-jin beckoned with his finger toward the Gate Master, who had been waiting cautiously. The moment the Gate Master smirked, as if to say it was impossible:
Thwack!
A sword flew from behind the Gate Master and pierced his chest.
“Kuh-huk!!”
It was the sword Seong-jin had first stolen from an assassin and thrown; it had returned as if alive at his beckoning.
“Controlling the sword with Qi…?”
The legendary realm of controlling a distant sword with nothing but one’s will.
“This is impossible. How could a brat like you…!”
Seong-jin, who had controlled the sword with a single finger, looked down at the collapsing Gate Master and said:
“Are you afraid?”
“What are you talking about!”
“You have made a living by taking human lives, and you have taken so many lives until now—yet you are afraid of your own death?”
Seong-jin’s eyes, looking at the elderly martial artist, were filled with pity.
“Don’t look at me with those eyes! I am the King of the Night, who makes even the famous heroes of the world tremble in fear!”
The words pouring from the mouth of a man facing death were nothing more than incoherent escapism. However, Seong-jin did not mock him. He raised his sword and brought it to the man’s neck.
“Sleep in the stillness of the void.”
An act to end the suffering of one in pain. The Gate Master, with his own death imminent, struggled to the very end.
“W-wait! If you kill me, all the assassins of the Gate who are out on missions will move to kill you!”
“Do you think they would avenge you? What kind of loyalty is there for someone like you who uses his subordinates as meat shields?”
“It is not a promise of loyalty that cannot be trusted! When I recruited my assassins, I fed them the Yin-Yang Poison; if you kill me, the poison planted in their bodies will begin to convulse.”
The Gu-Poison was a type of insect used as a restraint to hold people’s weaknesses and prevent betrayal.
“When I die, the poison in them will convulse, and they will suffer the agony of having their internal organs eaten by insects for the rest of their lives. The only way to escape that pain is to catch and kill the person who killed me, so countless assassins will come for you.”
Seong-jin looked at the Gate Master.
“Kehehe, so if you don’t want to spend the rest of your life fearing attacks every night, you shouldn’t kill me.”
“Well, I don’t think being chased by the living is all that scary.”
“What?”
Having listened to the last words of the dying as a final courtesy, Seong-jin brought his sword down.
“After being chased by the dead, the living don’t seem very scary.”
[Gong-gwa-gyeok Record: Good Deeds +20 (Eradication of Assassin Gate and removal of multiple villains), Evil Deeds 0 (Self-defense)]
[Current Score: 104 points]
Having become a disciple of Lee Cheol-goi, Seong-jin’s daily routine became learning martial arts and tending to the herb garden.
In the morning, he would draw water from the lake and sprinkle it on the herb garden; during the day, he would prune the branches of spiritual herbs infused with Yang energy, like Ha-su-o, so they could get plenty of sunlight; and in the evening, before the sun set, he would remove the shade cloths from spiritual herbs infused with Yin energy, like Seol-sam, so they could absorb the moonlight.
Surprisingly, the spiritual medicines growing on Mount Bongnae grew at a speed incomparable to those in the outside world.
“Is this not practically a hundred-year-old Ha-su-o? It hasn’t even been a few days since I planted it…”
Mount Bongnae, the hidden realm of the immortals. There, even Ha-su-o planted not long ago would become hundred-year-old Ha-su-o in a few weeks, and ten-thousand-year-old Ha-su-o in a few months. Even the wild ginseng he had found the day he first met Lee Cheol-goi had already become thousand-year-old Seol-sam; no matter how he looked at it, it wasn’t normal.
One day, when Seong-jin asked about this, Lee Cheol-goi replied:
“Because the flow of time is different on Mount Bongnae, spiritual medicines grow quickly. But do not worry. Just because a ten-thousand-year-old Ha-su-o has grown, it does not mean ten thousand years have passed in the outside world.”
The spiritual energy of Mount Bongnae, which was connected to the Immortal Realm, was so dense that any spiritual mountain from the outside world would look pathetic in comparison. Thanks to that, even excluding the flow of time, the energy of the earth’s veins itself was extraordinary, so the herbs that absorbed it grew rapidly.
“That is likely why Sunyangja told you not to leave the hut at night.”
“Why is that?”
“Because it is not only plants that have absorbed the spiritual energy of Mount Bongnae and overflow with vitality. At night, it is dangerous because beasts that have become spiritual creatures or yokai by absorbing the energy of Mount Bongnae roam about.”
Mount Bongnae is a place where legendary spiritual medicines that could allow a martial artist to be reborn are scattered by the roadside. If beasts had lived here for years and absorbed that spiritual energy, monsters that would even make a Jiao dragon look laughable must be everywhere.
“Well, if you can master the Hang-ryong-jang I have passed on to you, they won’t be able to be your match.”
“Then, if I practice the Hang-ryong-jang diligently, will I be able to stop the ones stealing the herbs at night?”
“Why would you try to stop that?”
“The herbs I’ve worked so hard to grow are being eaten by beasts every night; how could I not feel disappointed?”
At Seong-jin’s words, Lee Cheol-goi laughed heartily, like a grandfather listening to a child’s tantrum.
“Excess is no better than deficiency; while it is good for the energy of the ley lines to be abundant, it is not all good. The herbs I grow absorb the natural energy, and the beasts take some of that away; Mount Bongnae is maintained by the circulation of nature.”
Lee Cheol-goi said that, but for Seong-jin, who knew that he smacked his lips in disappointment whenever he lacked herbs to brew his liquor, it was impossible not to be concerned.
Was he not being of no help at all, despite being indebted to him like this?
‘It seems the Immortal regards me as little more than a cat, hoping I’ll just play around for the rest of my days.’
To Lee Cheol-goi, who had lived for a long time, Seong-jin might be a mere mayfly, but one born as a human could not just live and die like that.
‘It can’t be helped. Today, I will lie in wait in the field and drive the beast away, even if it means staying up all night.’
Seong-jin had been born with a frail body and had always lived receiving the help of others. The sense of responsibility Seong-jin felt for his own role was bound to be extraordinary.
Determined to ambush the beast, Seong-jin did not return to the hut as the sun began to set, but instead took his place in a corner of the herb garden. Waiting endlessly for a mountain beast that might never come would be too boring for a child. However, Seong-jin waited with patience, enduring until the beast appeared.
Before long, the sun set, and the stars and moon rose. Just as the cries of the mountain birds changed from the chirping of sparrows to the roar of birds of prey, Seong-jin finally encountered the uninvited guest he had been waiting for.
Rustle!
A presence distinctly different from the sound of the wind brushing against leaves. Realizing that something had arrived, Seong-jin poked his head out beyond the grass, and soon, he faced a shocking sight.