Time for a Whipping (3)
Jin Yigang turned his gaze on the Devil Sword Barrel.
About a foot tall, narrow at the top and bottom with a round belly bulging at the middle, it looked for all the world like a liquor cask shrunk down to the size used for aging wine. Its surface, engraved with dozens of devil visages, was bored with ten holes, each about an inch deep, set in a vertical row. A handle sat on top, and from the upper flank something shaped like a serpent's head jutted straight up. The material was iron.
The one who had carried the barrel in set ten blades beside it, each roughly as long as the barrel's diameter. On their faces, just as on the barrel's surface, devil visages had been engraved.
The Life-and-Death Sword...
Jin Yigang murmured inwardly. And next to the Life-and-Death Swords lay a transparent object the length of a palm.
"As you all no doubt know—"
"I don't," Jin Yigang said.
Yul Han-cheon looked at him.
"Then an explanation is in order."
"...Very well. I shall explain." Yul Han-cheon nodded.
"This one's name is the Devil."
He held the transparent object up for the party to see. The Devil was symmetrical, sharp at both ends and thick through the middle, every edge honed to a razor's edge so that there was nowhere to properly grip it — a peculiar form indeed. Its surface bore a devil visage carved in intaglio. Whether it was called the Devil because of that visage, none could say.
"This Devil is mounted in front of the Devil Sword Barrel's snake-head nozzle."
Yul Han-cheon opened the lid and slotted the Devil into place.
"Now I close the lid and turn the handle on top."
Krrk! Krrk! Krrk! Krrk!
With every turn of the handle, a skin-crawling sound leaked from the Devil Sword Barrel.
"There. The Devil is now mounted."
"I take it the knives go into those holes?" Jin Yigang asked.
"Correct. These holes are called dead holes, and these blades, Life-and-Death Swords."
Yul Han-cheon explained, pointing with his finger as he went.
"One of the ten knives shoves back the catch that holds the trigger, and the Devil fires from the snake head. For reference, the Devil will punch through any but the most formidable body-protecting qi."
"When the Life-and-Death Swords go in, where does the snake head end up?" Jin Yigang asked.
"Before the heart."
"Pressed right up against it?"
"About an inch away."
"No fun."
"..."
"Seems like a warrior could dodge it if he put his mind to it, no?"
"It can never be dodged."
"That's just what you think. Either way, this wager puts me at the worst odds of anyone here. Let's call the whole thing off."
Jin Yigang rose from his seat.
"The Jecheon Medical Manor does not have the strength to reach Mount Laojun," Yul Han-cheon said.
"The way we see it, traveling with the treasure map in hand beats losing it by forfeiting this wager — because with any luck, we might actually reach Mount Laojun."
"You will never reach it."
"We punched through even them to get here." Jin Yigang pointed at Namgung Won-mu's party.
"It is the imperial decree."
"Spare me the worthless noise. Anyway, you lot sort it out amongst yourselves." Jin Yigang turned to leave.
"You set the terms of the wager."
Namgung Won-mu spoke before Jin Yigang could take a step.
"Me?" Jin Yigang turned back toward the group and pointed a finger at his own chest.
"That's right."
"I was going to say no using martial arts. Is that off the table?"
"It is not. Every condition except 'no martial arts' — I will grant them all." Namgung Won-mu was resolute.
To a martial artist, his arts were nothing less than the water of life. To forbid them was no different from ordering him to stop breathing. Everything else he could have accepted; that alone he would never concede.
"And if I refuse?"
"Then we erase you, and every soul of the Jecheon Medical Manor besides, and choose the master among ourselves."
Jin Yigang looked at Yul Han-cheon.
"That gentleman is a King and I his subject. My duty extends only to delivering the imperial decree and pointing out the treasure map's owner — no further," Yul Han-cheon said.
"This treasure map has sat with the Jecheon Medical Manor for better than ten years. Which is to say, the map's owner is the Jecheon Medical Manor. It already has an owner — why it needs to pick a new one, I can't fathom. How are you people any different from the ones waiting for us in the Funiu Mountains?"
"Because no one may pass through the Funiu Mountains until a new master is chosen."
"So others who aren't us can pass?"
"No. That is why His Majesty decreed that once a single victor is decided, the remaining nine and their subordinates must serve as his escort."
"We will gladly serve as that escort. Je Suryong. Only your decision remains." Namgung Won-mu pressed him.
Jin Yigang turned his head toward Je Ha-yeong.
Je Ha-yeong and the leadership of the Jecheon Medical Manor were standing by at the back of the room. The Kings' own aides had likewise come inside, braced for any eventuality.
"Handle it as you see fit."
Je Ha-yeong said through transmitted voice. The only reason she had shown him the treasure map inked across their bodies was this very wager.
Jin Yigang nodded, then turned his head.
"You feel the same way?" he asked, looking at Ji Yak-ran.
"Eight of the Nine Kings want it. I can't stand with you any longer. I'm sorry."
They had fought side by side, but he couldn't ask Dang Chwi-ryeo and Xuanhuan Byeok to stay with him. If the three women joined hands, the six men would inevitably close ranks on the other side — that much was obvious.
"I see. Oh, right! Give me my share."
"Your share?"
"The two million nyang."
"You want it now?" Ji Yak-ran asked, bewildered. The Kings, Namgung Won-mu at their head, were bearing down on him — and out of nowhere he was asking for money.
"I like my accounts settled cleanly."
"Very well." Ji Yak-ran turned to Du Cheon-hwa, seated off to one side.
"Yes."
Du Cheon-hwa nodded and set a cloth bundle of drafts down before Jin Yigang — the two million nyang that had been set aside separately as his share.
"I don't need to count it, do I?" he asked, looking at Ji Yak-ran.
"Exactly two million nyang."
What money is that?
Na Hu-jeok asked Yu Bong-ji through transmitted voice.
Seems those Kings wagered nine million nyang against the boy in a bet. Yu Bong-ji answered.
Then why is he taking money?
He haggled it out with that girl Ji Yak-ran, that's all.
Offered his cooperation in exchange for a cut?
So I hear.
Three Kings plus the boy makes four, and subtracting the million nyang Ji Yak-ran put in leaves eight million — so a quarter apiece, yes?
That's right.
Quite the young man.
I didn't lend him Red Thunder for nothing.
"I intend to set exactly two conditions. That suit everyone?" Jin Yigang's voice cut in, and the two elders severed their transmission.
"So long as there's no trickery concerning martial arts."
"There won't be."
"Then I have no objection."
"The rest of you?"
"We're fine with it as well." The other Kings nodded as one.
"Good. Here's the first condition." Jin Yigang drew drafts from the bundle and tossed them to the center of the table.
"What's this?" Namgung Won-mu asked.
"Settling things with the Devil Sword Barrel — is that easy?"
"It's hard. It dries the blood right out of you, and the worst of it makes you piss yourself."
"Exactly. A man who survives an ordeal that brutal to become the winner deserves a proper reward — but the reward is a single sheet of parchment that may or may not ever give up its secret. Far too thin gruel. So I propose we give the winner real compensation. He takes the treasure map and makes money besides — what do they call that, killing two birds with one stone?"
"So you're proposing each man stake two million nyang as the pot?"
"It's also a device to keep beggar trash from squeezing into the game. Let beggar bastards into a wager and they whine about the odds, high or low, shriek about tricks and treachery, and generally throw fits. Taking money is supposed to feel good — instead it just gets filthier. Keeping that sort out from the very start is better for everyone's mental health."
Pfft. Na Hu-jeok snorted. Any King who couldn't produce the fortune of two million nyang was about to be demoted to beggar trash on the spot.
How do you think it'll go? Na Hu-jeok asked Yu Bong-ji through transmitted voice.
If he doesn't want to become a beggar bastard, he'll have to pay up.
Where in the world does that ignorant bastard's gall come from?
Who could possibly say?
"Toss this in as well, and the pot grows again."
Jin Yigang flung a single sheet of parchment down beside the drafts. At once a taut tension settled over the room.
The parchment Jin Yigang had thrown down was the treasure map leading into the Invincible Fist King Earth. The one who had given it to him was Je Ha-yeong.
"Now that's a fine method." Namgung Won-mu smiled and turned to Namgung Ji-yong.
"I'll fetch ours at once."
Namgung Ji-yong went straight out the door. Late though the hour was, he didn't care. When he left, the subordinates of the other Kings all filed out after him.
"Innkeeper!" Jin Yigang called.
"Yes?"
The innkeeper came over to his side.
"Bring me five bottles of liquor."
"At once. Although..."
"What?"
"You aren't the Zhuangyuan, elder, are you?"
"...No." Jin Yigang shook his head.
"You look remarkably like him."
The innkeeper turned away. "Tsk! A man who fought through odds of tens of thousands to one and even took first in the imperial examination — and now who knows where or how he lives. I only hope he didn't do away with himself..." Clicking his tongue, the innkeeper headed inside.
"And bring me ten sheets of clean silk as well. Size doesn't matter, but it has to be thin."
"Yes, sir!"
The innkeeper's voice drifted back from within.
It felt as though someone were staring holes into him, so Jin Yigang turned his head. The one glaring daggers at him was Sam Gwang-ho.
"What's with the constipated glare?"
"...I was wondering just what you think you're standing on, strutting about like that."
"They're right behind me."
Jin Yigang pointed to the back of the room, where Mu Dae-bo, the Absolute Five Recluses, and the Three Fiends sat.
"You think they'd save your life?"
"Maybe they couldn't save my life — but they could end yours. No, killing you wouldn't even require their help. I could just ask the people sitting next to you."
"You're saying they'd kill me?"
"Yep."
"We are sworn brothers."
"Spare me the old stories, you bastard. Last night you were half out of your mind because you couldn't kill each other, and now you're spouting sworn-brother nonsense."
Jin Yigang snorted.
"Try it."
Killing intent bled out of Sam Gwang-ho.
Truthfully, he wanted to repay his debt to Jin Yigang. However many times he replayed the previous day's fight, he could not fathom why he had taken that one clean blow. Missing the movement of a mere bookish scholar like Jin Yigang made even less sense.
Worse, Jin Yigang had driven straight into the single flaw in his circling fists. He wanted to know how the man had ever seen it.
"Want to bet?"
"A bet needs stakes, and you don't have—"
"For a man, there's always this, I suppose." Jin Yigang raised his fist.
"With your fist...?"
"You give me your jaw without drawing up your internal energy."
"That's not a bad wager."
Sam Gwang-ho grinned.
"You promise that where everyone can hear?"
"Then hurry up and say it."
Sam Gwang-ho sprang to his feet.
"You were the Ghost King, weren't you?" Jin Yigang asked, looking at Eum Gu-yeo.
"I am."
Eum Gu-yeo nodded. Interest was written plainly across his face — he wondered by what means Jin Yigang intended to make them kill Sam Gwang-ho.
"Get rid of that man for me, and I'll tell you one secret of the treasure map."
"Urk!"
"Gahk!"
"Eh?"
The Kings were so startled that groans escaped them before they could stop themselves.
"Actually — anyone will do. Kill that man for me, and I'll reveal the treasure map's secret."
"Y-you solved the secret?"
"I'll be the first man in a thousand years to figure something out."
"Wh-what is it?" Namgung Won-mu even stammered.
"That bastard first." Jin Yigang pointed at Sam Gwang-ho.
Namgung Won-mu's party turned to look at Sam Gwang-ho.
"That bastard is lying right now. What proof is there that he solved anything—"
"The moment I walked in here, I said — with Yul Han-cheon listening — that we had to go all the way to Noryeong-ae. Not one soul ever told me about Noryeong-ae. So how did I know?"
Those words were the killing stroke.
Killing intent began to seep from Namgung Won-mu and every King present. From Ji Yak-ran, Xuanhuan Byeok, and Dang Chwi-ryeo in particular came a thick, curdling bloodlust, as though they might tear Sam Gwang-ho apart where he sat.
The three of them bled such malice because, unlike the other Kings, Sam Gwang-ho had joined the attack at Jehu Ridge with his own two hands. The grudge against him could only run deep.
Shing!
Xuanhuan Byeok was the first to draw her sword.
It was a pliant blade named Blood Fang, shedding a radiance red as blood. Once bared, Blood Fang moved like a serpent, slow and sinuous.
"If I say one more word, you're really dead," Jin Yigang said coldly.
"F-fine. I lose."
In the end, Sam Gwang-ho raised the white flag.
"I won't say a word."
Jin Yigang grinned.
"You really solved it?" Ji Yak-ran asked.
"Nope?"
Jin Yigang shook his head.
"Then Noryeong-ae is... Ugh!"
Ji Yak-ran's face twisted.
That the Jecheon Medical Manor's final destination was Mount Laojun was known to her and to every other King alike. Noryeong-ae was the most famous cliff on Mount Laojun, nearly as famous as the mountain itself. So the moment Jin Yigang mentioned it, they had simply believed he'd cracked the secret. Perhaps the simple fact that he was the genius who had beaten out tens of thousands to one and taken the Zhuangyuan had worked on them as prejudice, smothering any doubt before it could form.
"Now then — time to collect the stake, shall we?"
Jin Yigang walked over and planted himself in front of Sam Gwang-ho.
Sam Gwang-ho glared up at him and opened his mouth.
"Someday I'll kill you and—"
CRACK!
KRAAAGH!
Sam Gwang-ho's body soared into the air.
"Time for your whipping, dickhead."