Chapter 2: Where the Treasure Map Is Kept (1)
Wham!
The instant he landed, he hurled a fist at Jin I-gang. For a man capable of manifesting fist gang, he threw nothing more than a single punch laced with internal energy—because Jin I-gang was not to be killed. And yet holding back entirely didn't sit well with him either.
His outstretched fist split into eight in the blink of an eye. It was Fist Illusion, a technique of the Giant Spirit Divine Demonic Fist, built upon the Giant Spirit Divine Demonic Art. Fist Illusion produced eight fists in all, and not one of them was a phantom—they were all real, simply too fast for the eye to follow. Each one drove into an opponent's vital points, draining their strength in a single heartbeat.
"Collapse!"
Wham!
"Guhk!"
Then something astonishing happened. The one who screamed wasn't Jin I-gang—it was Sam Gwang-ho. The massive man was knocked clean off his feet.
"H-how..."
Sam Gwang-ho couldn't believe it. The truth was, he hadn't even seen Jin I-gang move—and yet a rock had slammed into his jaw. It carried such monstrous force that had he not completed the Giant Spirit Divine Demonic Art and stepped into the threshold of the Vajra Indestructible Earth God, his jaw and face might well have been shattered.
Staying here is d-dangerous...
In his eyes, Heonwon Byeok came charging in at terrifying speed.
He flipped into an aerial somersault. The instant both feet touched the ground, he poured in every last drop of his internal energy, and the landscape around him blurred into the distance. It was the Bowstring Shadow Spring—a technique that, it was said, anyone short of three full cycles of training couldn't hope to imitate.
Whoosh!
"It's a rock."
Sam Gwang-ho curled his entire body into a ball.
Thwack!
A stone wedged itself into the sphincter of his anus, just below the tailbone.
Hurk!
Sam Gwang-ho's mouth gaped wide as a baleen whale's.
"KYAAAAAAK!"
A harrowing scream tore out of him. The pain flooding from his anus was the worst he had ever known in his life—so severe that the front of his trousers was soaked clean through.
"Fall back."
At Jin I-gang's word, the Iron Phoenix Troop and the Poison Sword Unit—Heonwon Byeok's forces—withdrew toward the cliff.
"The Jecheon Medical Sage Family is pulling back."
Namgung Ji-yong reported to Namgung Won-mu.
"And the Demon King and the Fire King?"
"Withdrawing as well."
"Send the signal to the Combat King and the Night King."
"Understood."
Namgung Ji-yong fired off a signal flare at once.
Fweee!
The flare climbed high into the sky, trailing fire.
"Attack!"
"Attack!"
Cold shouts rang out from the forest on either flank, and in the next breath the hidden forces on both sides hurled themselves at the battlefield.
"Attack!"
Namgung Ji-yong gave the order as well.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The Namgung Clan warriors tore forward, reaching the official road in moments. The instant they crossed onto it, every blade and spear came swinging down.
"KYAAAK!"
"AAAGH!"
"URGH!"
"Enemies behind us!"
"Enemies at our rear!"
Those who had been pressing the Jecheon Medical Sage Family whirled around as one and met the Namgung Clan warriors crashing into them.
"AAK!"
"URAAAK!"
The Namgung Clan's martial might was nothing to scoff at. The subordinates of Heonwon Man-so, Sam Gwang-ho, and Eum Gu-yeo were simply no match for them.
Troop Leader Dok!
Eum Gu-yeo hastily sent a voice transmission to Dok Bo.
Yes, my lord!
We have to stop those bastards slamming in from behind.
Just a little longer and we'll have broken through...
The ones behind us are Namgung Clan warriors.
You mean the one attacking us is the Supreme King?
They're the Supreme King's, the Combat King's, and the Night King's men. Even if we take him and the Heavenly Doctor's Carriage, it means nothing unless the Namgung Clan is destroyed. Those bastards behind us are the more urgent problem.
...Understood.
"All troops, on me!"
Dok Bo roared the order and sprinted for the rear. The men fighting at his side wheeled around and dashed after him. The front line that had formed at the base of the cliff shifted to the back, and the two sides tore into each other with the carriage caught between them. Before anyone noticed, the world around them had begun to pale with dawn.
"Hm?"
Namgung Won-mu's eyes went wide.
Only moments ago, the Iron Phoenix Troop, the Poison Sword Unit, and Heonwon Byeok's forces had been gathered below the cliff. Now not one of them was anywhere in sight. He turned his gaze to the north of the official road.
Damn it...
Troop Leader!
He called Namgung Ji-yong through voice transmission.
Shk!
"Guhk!"
Yes, my lord.
Namgung Ji-yong answered as he fell back.
They're gone.
Gone, my lord?
Not a soul in sight.
The carriage is still there...
It's probably empty.
Shall we withdraw?
That would be best. I'll inform the others myself.
Understood.
Namgung Ji-yong passed the order down to his men, but in the thick of the melee, disengaging was easier said than done.
Smash the carriage!
Concluding it was the only way, he gave the command.
"Chah!"
"Tah!"
Several of his men unleashed a furious barrage of palm strikes on the carriage.
Wham! Wham!
At last the wall tore away, exposing the interior. There was nothing inside. Every fighter on the field froze mid-motion.
"There's no one."
"They've fled!"
Someone looking back shouted the words.
"Gahk!"
Eum Gu-yeo groaned and looked toward the base of the cliff. Of the two hundred-some people who had gathered there, not one remained. With Namgung Won-mu's force slamming into his rear, he'd had no attention to spare for the cliffside.
Or perhaps he had simply assumed they couldn't flee—not with the carriage still sitting there.
Troop Leader Dok, fall back.
He transmitted to Dok Bo.
Yes.
"Troops, withdraw!"
Dok Bo shouted as he flung himself rearward.
"Fall back!"
"Everyone, fall back."
Both sides pulled swiftly out of the fray, and soon stood glaring at each other across the official road.
Come into the forest.
Namgung Won-mu transmitted to Namgung Ji-yong.
"We're withdrawing."
Namgung Ji-yong barked the order at his men and led them into the trees. Once the Namgung Clan's Shadowless Spear Unit pulled back, the others followed suit.
"Follow me!"
Dok Bo shouted as he ran along the official road, and the Mad Blood Demonic Shadow Troop fell in behind him.
Heonwon Man-so watched them shrink into the distance.
"So our little partnership is over?"
Eum Gu-yeo asked, strolling to his side.
"Nothing left to cooperate on, so end it we must."
Heonwon Man-so shrugged.
"Then I suppose we'll be meeting again at the inn."
Sam Gwang-ho shuffled over with a waddling, ginger gait.
...
The two men stared at him in silence.
"Got a boil on my backside, you see."
Sam Gwang-ho said with a strained smile.
You bastard! I'll kill you for this.
Beneath the smiling face, he was seething. No one knew how much he had suffered getting that stone out. It had been like drawing the stopper from a flask sealed shut for decades—the agony of it.
No, forget the pain; it was the humiliation he couldn't stomach. And even now, a good while later, every single step sent a fresh surge of unbearable agony through him.
"Let's head for Bogwu Inn."
"Let's."
Eum Gu-yeo and Heonwon Man-so shot away at once. Sam Gwang-ho kicked off the ground after them—
"KYAAAK!"
—and immediately shrieked.
The two men ahead stopped and looked back at him.
"Y-your boil..."
"Come along slowly, then."
The two shot away again, and before long they had vanished from Sam Gwang-ho's sight.
"Fix the palanquin—no, that carriage. Now."
Sam Gwang-ho pointed at the Jecheon Medical Sage Family's Heavenly Doctor's Carriage. The walls and roof had been smashed, but the wheels were sound and the horses were still there. It would carry him well enough.
"Yes, sir."
Several subordinates hurried over to it at once.
"We're all going to meet at Bogwu Inn regardless. Early or late, the battle that matters happens there."
Glaring straight ahead, Sam Gwang-ho murmured the words under his breath.
"And yet..."
He cocked his head and wandered toward the cliff. Ji Yak-ran's group had never taken the official road. No—they couldn't have; a battle was raging across it, leaving them no way out. And yet they had slipped away like an ebbing tide. Several hundred of them, no less.
"Damn it!"
When he reached the cliff face, the curse tore out of him. There was a gap in the rock, just wide enough for two people to squeeze through—and handprints were worn into the stone on either side of it. There was no doubt they had escaped this way.
"We got played."
They had camped here from the very start, intending all along to slip out through that gap.
"Goddammit..."
Sam Gwang-ho spat another curse and backed away from the cliff. A short while later, the carriage carrying him rolled out.
Jin I-gang's group reached Bogwu Inn around evening the following day. The place was enormous—large enough to lodge several hundred guests at once.
"What's the point of building it this big?"
Dang Chwi-ryo muttered, tilting her head.
"What do you mean?"
Jin I-gang asked back.
"There's nobody out here to sightsee, so an inn this size just seems like overkill."
"Why wouldn't there be travelers?"
"Are there?"
"Ever heard of Wau Temple?"
"That Wau Temple is in the Bogwu Mountain Range?"
Dang Chwi-ryo asked, eyes wide. Wau Temple was known as the foremost monastery in all Zhongyuan—the resident monks alone numbered ten thousand, and hundreds of thousands of pilgrims streamed to it every year.
"Yep."
The group filed into the inn. It was so vast that even after all four factions, the Jecheon Medical Sage Family included, had taken their rooms, there were still rooms to spare.
Once everyone had settled in, they headed for the dining halls—of which there were three: the main hall in the central building and two auxiliary halls in the annex. The group made for the main hall.
"Oh!"
Ji Yak-ran started in surprise. At her cry, the people seated deeper inside all turned to look, and one of them sprang to his feet and strode over to her.
He was quite tall, and looked to be in his mid-fifties.
"Now that's a blade of a man."
Jin I-gang murmured under his breath. The man didn't feel like a person at all—he was like a sword honed to a razor's edge.
"It has been some time, Your Highness."
The man was Yul Han-cheon, the Heavenly Martial Guest, Deputy Chief of the Empire's External Eight Desolations Department.
"What brings the Deputy Chief to a place like this?"
Ji Yak-ran asked.
"I have come to carry out an imperial decree."
"A decree?"
"I will explain once everyone else has arrived."
"Do we have to stay here?"
Dang Chwi-ryo asked.
"Yes."
"When will they be arriving?"
Heonwon Byeok asked.
"Not until tomorrow morning at the earliest."
"Then we may as well rest properly."
"Please do. Excuse me, then."
Yul Han-cheon bowed and returned to his seat. The group took theirs, and before long the food they had ordered began to arrive. Deprived of a proper meal for so long, they fell upon it chopsticks flying. When the meal was done, everyone scattered to their own pursuits.
Almost everyone made for a bath first. Cleaned up, they either retired to their rooms to sleep or drifted together in twos and threes in the dining hall to drink.
"Come here a moment, will you?"
Je Ha-yeong called Jin I-gang over.
"Me?"
Jin I-gang pointed a finger at himself.
"Yes."
"Alright."
He followed her. She led him to the room she shared with Je Chu-yeong—the room that held all the luggage they had loaded onto the carriage.
"What's going on?"
Jin I-gang asked as he stepped inside.
"There's something I need to show you. Come on."
She led him into the bedroom, where Je Chu-yeong lay face down beneath a blanket.
"What's this..."
Jin I-gang looked at Je Ha-yeong, puzzled.
"Just watch."
Je Ha-yeong stepped in front of him and stripped off her clothes.
"Hurk!"
Jin I-gang choked out a groan. She had removed only her outer robe—with nothing beneath it, she stood completely bare.
"What in the..."
His eyes went wide.
Tattooed across Je Ha-yeong's back was an intricate, labyrinthine design.
"Don't tell me that's..."
"It is. A map. My back and my sister's carry the treasure map leading into the Invincible Fist King's domain."
Je Ha-yeong drew back the blanket covering Je Chu-yeong. She too lay face down and naked, and across her back, likewise, a map had been inked into the skin.
Je Ha-yeong moved around to Je Chu-yeong's right side and lay down beside her.