The Freedom of Bladder and Mind (2)
Crack!
The dry reeds shattered with a loud rustle.
Huh?
Hak-su's eyes went wide. He'd been absolutely certain the target was hiding deeper in, but Je Suryong wasn't there.
He was definitely——
He scanned left and right.
Whoosh!
That instant, something wrapped in reed leaves shot toward his neck, moving like an entire clump of reeds come alive.
Thud!
……
Hak-su's eyes split open wide in disbelief.
Even the most seasoned fighters leaked killing intent. But the weapon that had just burrowed into his throat gave off not the faintest trace of energy.
Thump!
Something caught him as he fell. It was Jin Yigang's left hand.
You.
Only now did Hak-su see Jin Yigang, lying flat on the ground, staring up at the sky.
How does a man with no martial arts at all——
He couldn't believe it. Not once had he imagined he would fall to someone without a scrap of martial skill.
Go starve for a few days and stake your whole life on hunting animals. Then you'll become a hunting expert like me.
That was it. The reason Jin Yigang could silence Hak-su without a sound was the hunting craft he'd honed over long years. Living in the mountains, he'd rarely had enough to eat. When snow blocked the passes in deep winter, food had to come from the hunt, and success or failure meant starving to death or surviving—so every hunt had to succeed. Even the smallest trace of energy in a weapon sent beasts fleeing, to say nothing of killing intent. In order to succeed, Jin Yigang had trained himself, without realizing it, to smother his killing aura completely. And hunting wasn't just that. He'd also learned to hide without making a sound. A beast had to approach without suspicion before you could take it.
He'd switched to throwing stones as his hunting method for the same reasons—it was hard to stay hidden and silent, and even a strike without killing intent rarely brought down an animal with a swung weapon.
Lower yourself down slowly. Very slowly……
He let his left hand down gently. It looked as if Hak-su were carefully settling to the ground.
—There seems to be someone nearby.
—Search.
The squad leader gave the order.
—Shouldn't we just move openly at this point?
—Do it.
—Yes, sir.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The men sprang up and swept the surroundings. In an instant they had combed a ten-jang radius and arrived where Hak-su lay prone.
"Get up, you bastard."
The squad leader nudged Hak-su with his foot.
The kick carried real feeling behind it, and the force flipped Hak-su's body over.
"Gahk!"
The squad leader's eyes went wide.
Blood was pouring freely from Hak-su's throat.
"He's here! He's close!"
The squad leader roared.
Screech! Screech! Screech!
The signal whistles shrieked frantically. Soon hundreds of men came flooding to the spot where Hak-su had died, combing every direction. But Jin Yigang was nowhere to be seen.
"Everyone down!"
Someone shouted, and the men dropped in unison, crawling forward as they swept the ground.
Jin Yigang, meanwhile, was busily crawling along some twenty jang away from them. His whole body was camouflaged with stuck-on reeds; running upright wasn't even worth considering.
Freeze.
He stopped dead mid-crawl. He'd thought he'd shaken off his pursuers, but he hadn't. Another group was searching this way.
Just how many of them are there?
Grimacing inwardly, he fixed his eyes ahead and strained his ears. The roar of the wind seemed to swallow everything, but that only applied to other people. Jin Yigang possessed the ability to pick out other sounds buried inside the wind. It was a skill he'd developed naturally from years of mountain life. To catch a beast, you had to sense its presence drowned in the wind, and after countless attempts he'd finally learned how.
And on top of that, he'd taken all those medicines at Jecheon Medical Manor. What more was there to say?
My ears are the strongest in the world.
He lifted his gaze.
Night, at last.
Once it's dark, the advantage swings my way.
Jin Yigang lay still where he was, waiting for the darkness to deepen.
Out of nowhere, he remembered studying in the mountains.
What passion had driven him to work that hard back then? Apart from the time spent catching food, he'd poured every hour into his studies. He wrote characters in the courtyard with charcoal ink, wrote them again and again—erased so many that the yard sat nearly a full jang lower from all the scrubbing. And yet he'd hardly ever thought of it as hardship.
When I go to the underworld, I'm going to give your examiners a piece of my mind.
Jin Yigang rolled over onto his belly.
Time to move.
The men ahead had vanished somewhere out of sight. With both ears wide open, he sprinted in bursts whenever the wind blew. The farther he got from the enemy, the faster he moved.
"Is he really dead?"
Old man Shi asked, looking at Old man Nang.
"If he's alive, it should be about time for him to show himself……"
Old man Nang murmured, staring into the darkness.
"Besides, what are we going to do? We've gone and given away the treasure."
"It's only an umbrella, really. And honestly, I was getting tired of it."
"You brat."
Mu Daebo came over to the coachman's stone where Jin Yigang had been sitting.
"You even left your stone here…… Sir Old Man!"
Mu Daebo called out to Old man Na.
"Not allowed, you brat!"
Old man Na barked.
"What's not allowed?"
"You have to attach the honorific, you fool."
"……You're hilarious. Thirty years of being treated well is enough. Wanting more is just greed."
"Thirty years of being treated well? What is that supposed to mean?"
"How old are you now, old man?"
"Don't know. I stopped counting at seventy."
"So at least from sixty on, everyone's been calling you 'venerable sir,' haven't they?"
"So you're saying that much respect is enough, and I should stop?"
"If that's so unfair, hurry up and die."
Whack!
"GRAAAH!"
A scream burst out of Mu Daebo's mouth.
"A-a-am……"
Screaming lasted only a moment before Mu Daebo froze mid-syllable, his face gone stiff with shock.
—That's far enough.
Good heavens.
Mu Daebo forgot all about the pain.
The Dark King Fist—no, its true name was the Dark Heaven Demon King Fist. That martial art belonged exclusively to Na Hu-jeok, the Demon Venerable of the Absolute Five Venerables, who had reigned over the world for fifty years. And there were five of them. Mu Daebo's guess had been right: the five were the Absolute Five Venerables, the greatest masters in the world fifty years ago.
"What are you trying to say?"
"W-well…… l-l-look at this, damn it."
"You insolent brat!"
Handle it yourself, damn it.
"Just look at this. Did you write this, old man?"
Mu Daebo had decided to go down swinging.
"……What would I be writing, you fool? I don't even have the strength to eat."
"Then who wrote this one…… Old woman!"
"I didn't write it either. And that's his spot."
"You're telling me neither of you wrote this fire character?"
"There's a fire character written there?"
Old man Na and Old man Nang looked at each other.
"Good heavens—that madman!"
"Hoh-hoh-hoh!"
"Heh-heh-heh!"
"Hehehe!"
Finally, all five of the Absolute Five Venerables burst out laughing.
"Pavilion Master!"
Old man Nang called for Je Hayeong.
"Yes?"
"Set it alight."
"Set it on fire?"
"That boy told us to light the fire."
"You mean……"
"Je Suryong."
"Where is Je Suryong right now?"
"Set the fire first."
"Y-yes, sir."
"Everyone, set it alight!"
Je Hayeong shouted to her troops.
"Set it alight! Set it alight!"
The soldiers scattered left and right, torching the reeds. At that very moment, Jin Yigang too emerged on the opposite side and began setting fires. First he struck a small spark with his flint, and once it caught, he bundled reeds into a torch. Then he ran to the left, laying fire as he went.
Fwoooooosh! Fwoooosh!
Rat-a-tat! Thud-thud! Ratta-rat!
Fire rode the wind and blazed ferociously.
When his torch burned out, Jin Yigang made another one and carried it to the right this time, laying fire as he went. The flames raced southward like soldiers standing in a single line. The bone-dry reeds gave off tremendous heat, and the fire leapt five jang into the air.
"Your Highness, there's fire!"
A man sprinted to the tent, shouting.
"Fire?"
Namgung Won-mu, who had been drinking tea, sprang up and dashed out of the tent.
"Good heavens."
He stopped dead where he stood. The sky over Weihe blazed red. It looked like the sky at dawn when the sun kicked free of the sea. Red everywhere he looked. The wind howled viciously, and the flames rode it, running mad.
A man who took first place among four hundred who had beaten out three thousand five hundred to one odds—what would you call such a talent, if not a rare genius?
Out of nowhere, Xuanhuan Byeok's words came back to him.
"If they set fire on this side, then the opposite…… Gahk!"
Namgung Won-mu's face twisted. The fire wasn't only on this side. The sky on the far side too glowed red-hot like an ingot of iron.
Weihe ran twenty li from entrance to exit, and he was at the midpoint. Which meant the ends of the reed marsh lay ten li to his left and ten li to his right. A fire started ten li away would be impossible to see from here.
Yet now he could see it clearly.
Which meant the flames had already swallowed more than half of Weihe.
"Withdraw at once! Get everyone out, now! Tah-hah!"
Namgung Won-mu screamed in desperation and stamped the ground. His body shot ten jang into the air in an instant.
"Good heavens."
Namgung Won-mu's mouth hung open.
The fire wasn't burning only to the north and south. On the east and west as well, flames were spreading rapidly.
"Hurry!"
Namgung Won-mu shouted again.
And he wasn't the only one shouting. The other kings too frantically relayed withdrawal orders. The problem was that their cries weren't reaching their subordinates.
The distance from where the kings stood to their men was at least five li, and the wind was raging besides.
In conditions like these, a battlecry reinforced with internal force had no hope of carrying. Their only remaining option was to launch themselves with lightness arts, close as much of the distance as possible, and tell their men to flee. But even that proved impossible.
The heat and smoke rising from below were unbearable even for absolute masters.
Still, they had to try.
"Tah-hah!"
"Chah-hah!"
"Haah!"
The kings leapt into the air as one. But within moments they had no choice but to return to their positions. Climbing higher might have worked—but that was beyond their ability.
"Everyone, join your voices and shout together."
Sam Gwang-ho said to his companions.
"What should we say?"
Xuanhuan Byeok asked.
"There's fire, so let's tell them to flee to the river."
"Good. On the count of three."
"One, two, three!"
"There's fire! Run to the river!"
"There's fire! Run to the river!"
"There's fire! Run to the river!"
The eight of them shouted three times in a row.
"Hm?"
Namgung Ji-yong stopped dead. He had been sweeping the area with the Thousand-Li Listening Art in search of Jin Yigang when the eight voices caught his ear.
"Tah-hah!"
He shot straight up into the air.
Soaring with the Single Crane Ascends to Heaven technique, he looked left and right.
"Good heavens."
Namgung Ji-yong's face went pale.
It wasn't a sea of reeds anymore—it was a sea of fire. Everything in every direction had turned into a pit of flames with no way out.
"The river! All troops, head for the river! This place is a sea of fire!"
He dropped back down, flung himself toward the river, and roared again.
"To the river! Get to the river if you want to live!"
"Fire!"
"It's fire!"
Others, catching sight of the flames, began screaming too.
"Run to the river!"
Everyone in the reed forest bolted for the water.
"To the river!"
"To the river!"
"Aargh!"
"AAAAGH!"
Dozens ran for the river even as the flames swallowed them whole.
"To the river!"
No one could tell how many had burned to death and how many had escaped. There was no thought of looking after the person beside them—everyone just plunged through the fire and ran.
The kings also raced for the river, each of them desperate to confirm their men were safe.
Unlike the others scrambling madly along, one person looked remarkably at ease. It was the Wisdom King herself, the Phoenix Divine Maiden, Ji Yak-ran. Her composure owed to the martial arts her subordinates practiced.
Every disciple of her sect, the Phoenix Divine Maiden Sect, trained in the Ice Arts. Reaching the river would be no trouble for any of them.
"Ngh!"
Ji Yak-ran grimaced.
She carried a secret no one knew. It was alcohol. Her constitution demanded that she drink every single day.
It all came from the Congenital Pure Yin Blocked Meridians she'd been born with. Left alone, that illness would eventually block her meridians entirely and stop her breath. What kept the blockage at bay was the alcohol spirit in liquor itself. So she'd had to drink daily since childhood. Drinking kept her meridians clear and her mind sharp, but it came with exactly one side effect: she had to relieve herself constantly.
She had definitely gone barely half a shijin ago.
And yet she needed to go again.
"I've got to quit the liquor and drink alcohol spirit instead."
Ji Yak-ran grumbled and headed toward a tree standing atop a low hill. When she answered nature's call, her favorite spot was high ground with cover—somewhere she could hide her body and instantly notice anyone approaching.
Some might argue a sunken hollow was better, but in places like that it was hard to sense anyone sneaking up.
In the past, she'd drunk herself silly, gone in a hollow, and been caught in a truly mortifying moment—ever since, she absolutely refused to do her business in any dip in the ground.
This hill had reeds growing beside the tree, perfect for hiding her figure and easy for keeping watch. Ideal, in short, as a place to relieve oneself.
"From now on, if I catch myself drinking, I'm a dog. A dog."
Reaching the tree, Ji Yak-ran crouched down and pulled down her trousers.
"Still, this is nice."
She smiled.
Doing it out here in the wide open beat breathing in the stench of some cramped privy by a mile.
The act that freed not just the bladder but the heart itself. That, in a word, was public urination.
"At this rate, I might actually make a habit of it."
Ji Yak-ran grinned.
And then something strange caught her eye.
"That wasn't there before, was it?"
She tilted her head.
The clump of reeds directly in front of her hadn't been there when she'd gone half a shijin ago. She hadn't moved to a different spot—same place, same posture. Even her stone was still there. And yet a fresh clump of reeds had sprouted.
"Don't tell me……"
Ji Yak-ran's face went pale.