The Coffin Under the Leaves
A shrill whistle split the air!
"Hup!"
Jin Yigang's face hardened in an instant.
"Run!"
"What the—"
Gung Yo looked at him.
"It's a trap. Run!"
Jin Yigang shouted as he bolted forward.
"Chaha!"
"Taha!"
With battle cries, dozens of men came flying down from above. Members of the Blood Evil Army, lying in wait among the treetops.
The branches that had blanketed the canopy snapped clean through, and in that same instant the Absolute Five Venerables, along with Gwangbul and Gwangdo, shot up into the air, arms sweeping wide.
Thud! Thud-thud-thud! Thud-thud!
"Kghak!"
"Kruk!"
"Uruk!"
Screams tore loose and the Blood Evil Army warriors plummeted from the trees.
"Old Man Na and Old Woman, go ahead and clear the way! Old Man Rang and Old Man Woo, take the rear! The rest of you hold the middle!"
"Got it!"
The Absolute Five Venerables moved exactly as Jin Yigang directed. Fighting broke out at the front and the back both, and the party pressed forward through it, battle and sprint at once.
Jin Yigang took the middle as well. From there, he hurled stones at the enemies leaping down from above.
It was far too dark around them, and the rocks cracked against everything so loudly that the whistling of the stones in flight was buried completely.
Thud! Thud-thud! Thud!
"Kghak!"
"Kruk!"
"Uruk!"
The stones were devastating.
They punched into the bodies of Blood Evil Army soldiers as if they were blades. Far faster and far harder than before—though Jin Yigang hadn't yet noticed that himself. Thanks to the exploits of the Absolute Five Venerables, the Three Gwis, Mu Daebo, Bukgung Hansang, and Gung Yo, the Jicheon Physician Clan party escaped with their losses kept to a minimum.
"Pavilion Master."
Na Seokjin called out to Je Ha-yeong, his face tight.
"What is it?"
"Lady Chuyeong is gone."
"Chuyeong?"
Je Ha-yeong went pale.
"Did she not make it out?"
Jin Yigang stepped up beside Na Seokjin and asked.
"It appears so."
Na Seokjin nodded.
"You know the way, right?"
Jin Yigang asked Je Ha-yeong.
"Yes."
Je Ha-yeong nodded.
"I'll look for Lady Chuyeong, so go on ahead."
"It's far too dangerous."
Je Ha-yeong shook her head.
"Dangerous or not, I can't just leave her behind. She's sharp—odds are she hasn't been caught yet."
"I'll stay too."
Mu Daebo came to Jin Yigang's side.
"No. Daebo, you have to protect the party. I'm enough on my own here."
"Hey!"
"They went that way! After them!"
From the lower reaches of Myeong-am Valley came a bloodcurdling shout.
"If we dawdle and they catch up, we could be cut down before we ever lay eyes on Mount Nogun."
Je Ha-yeong looked at Jin Yigang.
"Mount Bokwu is where I've lived for twenty years. If I decide to hide, no one alive can find me. So leave it to me and go."
"All right. Chuyeong is in your hands."
Je Ha-yeong nodded and moved off.
"You sure about this?"
Mu Daebo asked.
"All of the Hidden Dagger's inner power is in this body now. I'm not the me from before."
Jin Yigang set down the box holding his belongings and handed it to Mu Daebo.
"Understood."
"You have to run without stopping."
"Watch yourself out there."
―Be careful.
Just then, a telepathic message arrived from Yu Bongji.
Jin Yigang raised a hand in farewell and slipped into the cover of the trees. The Jicheon Physician Clan party pulled swiftly away, and roughly an hour after they were gone, the Blood Evil Army came crashing in.
"Pursue them!"
"Run!"
They tore off after the Jicheon Physician Clan.
A short while after they too had vanished, the hidden Jin Yigang emerged. Twigs and branches were stuck all over his body. He scanned his surroundings, dropped low, and crawled carefully inward. Corpses lay scattered about—among them, some belonging to the Jicheon Physician Clan.
He kept crawling.
He made it to the midpoint, but there was no sign of Je Chuyeong.
Was she captured?
He studied the forest on one side and the boulders on the other, slow and thorough. Then his black eyes met another pair of black eyes. Je Chuyeong, crouched in the crevice of a rock.
Jin Yigang raised a hand slightly.
Whoosh!
And at that very moment, one of the men above dropped down in front of him. Jin Yigang froze where he stood. He needed to know—had the man dropped on purpose, or simply by chance?
The man stared straight at him.
He noticed.
Jin Yigang rose to his feet with a dry little laugh.
"Looks like my eyes didn't deceive me after all."
A broad smile spread across the man's face.
"Got a nickname?"
Jin Yigang asked as he walked toward him.
"Asura Cruel Evil."
"That's a terrifying nickname."
"Got one yourself?"
"Me? Well…"
Jin Yigang scratched the tip of his nose with a fingernail.
"A nameless footsoldier, then."
"I have one."
"You do?"
"Third-Rate."
"…"
"Third-Rate. That's my nickname."
"Pfft—!"
"Shh!"
The moment the man was about to burst out laughing, Jin Yigang hastily pressed a finger to his lips.
The man shut his mouth without even realizing it.
"Good boy."
"…"
"That's what they call a good little bastard, isn't it? One who does exactly what he's told."
"You don't even know who Ak Bong of the Asura Cruel Evil is?"
Ak Bong looked at Jin Yigang as if studying some strange new animal. Asura Cruel Evil Ak Bong was a byword for villainy—a name that made even the self-proclaimed orthodox sects flinch, never mind the unorthodox ones. And yet the man before him wasn't the least bit startled. Which could only mean one thing: he didn't know.
"Do I need to?"
"Asura Cruel Evil is a byword for evil so dreadful it stops a crying child mid-wail."
"An evil one, huh? Then how've you managed to stay alive this long?"
"I'm called evil because I'm alive."
"Ah—! Right. A weak man gets beaten to death the moment he does something wicked, so he could never be called a villain. Makes sense."
"Now then, let me teach you what kind of person actually deserves to be called evil."
Fwack!
Ak Bong shot toward Jin Yigang. He arrived in front of him in the blink of an eye, the distance between them collapsed in a single step. Gripping his sword's hilt, he drew it in one powerful stroke.
He had no intention whatsoever of killing with that first cut.
When Ak Bong killed, what he savored was the sight of his prey squirming like some feeble beast. Even now, he wanted to taste that thrill.
First he'd sever the left arm lunging toward him, then carve the whole body to ribbons, taking his sweet time about it.
But at that very moment—
Crack!
Jin Yigang's left hand closed around Ak Bong's right wrist.
"Ugh!"
Ak Bong's eyes went wide. Jin Yigang's hand had clearly been well out of reach a moment ago. And yet in a single instant he had closed the gap and snatched his wrist.
"But something like this—"
THWACK!
A dull, sickening crack burst from Ak Bong's throat.
"…"
Ak Bong's mouth hung wide open, but no scream came out. The inside of his throat had been shredded to ribbons.
Jin Yigang stared straight into Ak Bong's face as he spoke.
"Next time you've got a spare moment, take a good long look in a mirror. Your face is so laughable it could stop a crying child in its tracks. That's why the crying stopped, you son of a bitch."
Jin Yigang let go.
THUD!
Ak Bong crashed to the ground.
"Let's go."
Jin Yigang said to Je Chuyeong.
She quickly climbed out of the crevice.
"Here."
Jin Yigang shouldered the red coffin she had brought out with her.
"Captain Ak!"
Just then, a voice calling for Ak Bong rang out ahead of them.
"This way."
Jin Yigang took Je Chuyeong's hand and slipped into the forest. Before long, the man who'd been calling for Ak Bong arrived.
"Ah!"
The man let out a groan at the sight of the body.
He immediately pulled out a signal whistle and blew it. The call echoed out, and dozens came running. The Blood Evil Army had not all chased after the Jicheon Physician Clan. Reasoning that the clan might split up to flee, they had sent half in pursuit and left the other half behind to comb the area.
"They went that way!"
One man pointed toward the forest.
"What happened here?"
A squat, bull-shouldered figure came striding over. It was Seon Cham, Vice Commander of the Blood Evil Army—the Great Red Demon.
"Captain Ak has fallen."
One of the soldiers reported.
"And the man who did it—where did he go?"
"Up there."
"After him."
The Blood Evil Army soldiers hurled themselves toward the forest all at once. At that very moment, Jin Yigang was climbing the mountain with Je Chuyeong clinging to his back. She had misjudged a step while running and twisted her ankle. A limping woman made a perfect target. In the end she'd taken an enemy attack, gone down, and fallen behind. If there hadn't been that gap between the rocks, she'd have been dragged off by now and made to suffer unspeakably. The forest was dense to the point of being near impassable.
"No help for it. Get on my back."
"How are you going to carry me with that?"
Je Chuyeong pointed at the coffin. Jin Yigang was carrying it.
"Better to hide it here and come back for it once your leg heals."
Scanning the area, Jin Yigang picked out a suitable spot and set the coffin down. It was a hollow beneath an enormous boulder—even with the coffin tucked inside, nothing showed. He blanketed it with fallen leaves for camouflage, hoisted Je Chuyeong onto his back, and moved on.
"They didn't get far! Find the trail!"
Several hundred Blood Evil Army fighters fanned out left and right in a sweeping search.
"Hm?"
One of them widened his eyes.
As he scanned the ground ahead, a broken pine branch caught his attention. Clinging to the tip of the branch was a cluster of bluish pine needles.
"So he came through here."
Eyes gleaming, the man searched his surroundings—and then spotted the telltale sign of leaves gathered together.
His gaze slid to the crevice beneath the boulder.
Here it is.
The man assumed a cave lay beneath the leaves. He moved to the side of the boulder and, with careful, outstretched grasping qi, swept the leaves away.
"…?"
The man tilted his head in puzzlement.
No cave. Just a single small coffin sitting there.
"What's this?"
The man hauled the coffin out.
"Hidden like this… it must be something valuable."
He glanced around. If it belonged to the Jicheon Physician Clan and was important enough to be hidden away…
"Chances are it holds one of their spirit elixirs."
He surveyed the area again. Even for a fellow clansman, he had not the slightest intention of splitting any elixir of the Jicheon Physician Clan.
"All of this is mine now."
He lifted the lid of the coffin.
"…?"
His eyes went wide. Inside was not an elixir, but a corpse. A small one, at that.
"Damn it."
Just as disappointment settled over his face, his eyes lit up again. He'd spotted a talisman covering the corpse's face.
"Don't tell me—a jiangshi?"
Without a moment's hesitation, he peeled the talisman off.
Nothing happened.
"It's a fake."
He snorted, rubbed the talisman between his fingers until it crumbled to powder.
"And here I thought it was a child. It isn't."
The man studied the corpse quietly.
Small-framed, yes—but the full, rising swell of her chest said this was no child.
"But why does the corpse look so… alive?"
It wasn't his first jiangshi.
He'd seen several before, even laid hands on one. But they were nothing like this. This one looked as though she were simply sleeping.
"Well, let's see…"
The man reached his hand toward the woman's chest.
His hand closed over her breast.
"Oh?"
The man's eyes widened. Astonishingly, the body wasn't stiff at all—it gave softly, like a living person's flesh.
And it was generous to a degree that went well beyond ordinary.
"What in the world is this—"
FLASH!
It was at that exact moment that the jiangshi opened her eyes.