Chapter 8: The Immortal Jade Spirit (1)
Kyaaa!
Thud!
Gah!
A scream tore its way out of the man's mouth.
Crack—!
In an instant, the man's head turned into a block of ice. The last thing he saw before his breath gave out was a hand as translucent as glass.
Baekbaek!
That was the word that surfaced in the man's mind at the very end. One of the Six Great Palm Techniques of the World, Baekbaek—it was said to look exactly like that.
Crunch!
The fallen man's head shattered into pieces.
Whoosh!
The jiangshi's body lurched out of the coffin as if flung from within.
Once outside, it slowly turned its head from side to side, the way one might observe a place visited for the first time. Then it twitched its nose and sniffed.
Kyaaaaaa!
With a low shriek, the jiangshi's figure vanished.
"Ho-yeong has been struck down. Ho-yeong is dead."
When a soldier discovered the man with his head caved in, he shouted the news, and dozens came running at once.
"What happened here?" Seon Cham demanded.
"We don't know."
"I saw him heading this way just moments ago…" The soldier who'd made the report let his words trail off.
"His head was—"
Seon Cham's face stiffened.
"Go. Bring the Young Lord here."
"Yes, sir."
One of the men hurried off, and a short while later a young man arrived. He was a sculptor's ideal of peerless beauty—save for one flaw. His lips were thin. Because of them, despite his good looks, an air of coldness and even a trace of cruelty clung to him.
The man holding a mask was none other than the Evil Demon Great Lord, Nam Se-ok—the overall commander of this mission.
"What's the matter?" Nam Se-ok asked.
"Ho-yeong's head was shattered, frozen in ice."
"Ice?"
"Yes. And there's a small coffin. The lid was open."
"So you're saying Ho-yeong opened the lid himself."
"That appears to be the case."
Seon Cham nodded.
"Wasn't it said that the Blood Emperor's wife had mastered Baekbaek, one of the Three Great Palm Techniques of the World?"
"That's correct. It was said that because of it, she couldn't give birth to a normal child. So they made the child into an Immortal Jade Spirit."
Seon Cham gave a slow nod.
"Then you're telling me it was the Immortal Jade Spirit that did this to Ho-yeong?"
"Highly likely."
"Good thing we left her behind, then." Nam Se-ok smiled faintly.
"We'll begin the pursuit at once."
Seon Cham turned to the triangular-faced man. He was Jang Gu-saeng, leader of the Soul-Chasing Squad, a unit specializing in pursuit, known by the alias the Thousand-Li Tracking Demon.
"Understood."
Jang Gu-saeng bowed his head.
Soon, more than fifty members of the Blood Evil Army scattered in every direction, searching for the trail of Jin Yigang and Je Chuyeong.
Jin Yigang ran at full speed.
His pace couldn't match that of a martial artist employing a movement technique, but compared to an ordinary man running for his life, it was staggering. And he was carrying Je Chuyeong on his back the whole way.
Then Jin Yigang abruptly stopped. He set Je Chuyeong down and pressed his ear flat against the ground.
Boom! Boom-boom-boom! Boom!
A dizzying chorus of footsteps reached his ears.
Are they hunting me?
He detected footsteps from every direction except the north. Which meant they were deliberately herding him north.
He lifted his head to the sky. Neither star nor moon was visible. He spread his palm and waved it toward the wind.
The air hung heavy with moisture.
"If it rains, I'm at a disadvantage," he muttered.
Jin Yigang hoisted Je Chuyeong onto his back again.
"I'm sorry. I should be the one helping you…" she said.
"How are your internal injuries?"
"Improving, slowly."
"In about one sik-gyeong, things will get a little better for us."
"Someone's coming to help us in one sik-gyeong?"
"No one's coming. But the rain will be."
"The rain?"
Je Chuyeong looked up at the sky. It was true that it was heavily overcast. But there was no way to know whether it would actually rain.
"Yes." Jin Yigang nodded. "It looked overcast yesterday too, but…" She let her words trail off. "Today it will rain. I'm sure of it."
Screech! Screech! Screech!
The shrill cry of a hawk echoed from somewhere not far away.
"Keep your head down."
Jin Yigang gripped Je Chuyeong's backside firmly and surged forward. She hastily buried her face against his shoulder—if she kept her head up, a low branch might strike her, so tucked in like this was the only safe way.
The smell of sweat rose from Jin Yigang's body.
It's been a long time since I've smelled a man like this.
Suddenly Je Chuyeong felt her cheeks burn. The grip of his hand on her backside was impossibly vivid against her senses.
You crazy woman.
Scolding herself, she fixed her gaze forward and scanned their surroundings.
Jin Yigang was not fast, but he never stopped running. Yet even as he pushed himself, the hawk's cry kept drawing closer. Unrattled, he simply kept moving, silent and steady.
Tap. Tap-tap.
Shaaaaaaa!
"It's here."
Je Chuyeong's eyes went wide. Right around the time one sik-gyeong had passed, just as Jin Yigang had promised, the rain came down.
It was a downpour of fat, punishing drops—the kind that left a dull ache wherever they struck. Before the two runners, a valley appeared. It already carried a considerable volume of water, and once the falling rain joined it, the valley would swell into a raging torrent.
Jin Yigang plunged straight into the valley. The water rose to his waist.
"If you need to relieve yourself, now's the time."
"Excuse me?"
"Beasts mark their territory with urine, for a reason. It's the most unmistakable trail there is."
"You're saying the enemy will smell it and follow us?"
"Yes."
"Surely not."
"We're in the water anyway. Far better in here than out there."
"…Fine. If it gets desperate, I'll do just that."
Jin Yigang kept pushing downstream, stumbling over the occasional rock. After descending about a hundred jang like that, he climbed up the opposite bank.
"The trail ends here," Jang Gu-saeng reported.
"Where do you think they went?" Nam Se-ok asked.
"They went downstream and crossed the valley." Jang Gu-saeng pointed to the lower reaches.
"Be certain."
As Nam Se-ok spoke, an umbrella canopy materialized above his head, shielding him from the falling rain.
"Anyone fleeing would follow the water. It's the easiest way to erase one's tracks."
"You sound confident."
"Every member of the Blood Evil Army is a master of escape. If I were our quarry, I would go downstream without a doubt."
"Good. We go down."
Nam Se-ok nodded.
"Downstream! Move out!" Seon Cham bellowed.
"I'll take the opposite bank."
"Do as you like." Seon Cham nodded, and Jang Gu-saeng hurled himself across the valley with ten of his men.
The swollen waters hadn't yet risen to full flood, so crossing was no great challenge. The Blood Evil Army swept down both sides of the valley, combing for traces as they went.
Jang Gu-saeng examined the ground with meticulous care.
His attention centered chiefly on the soft earth. To fugitive and pursuer alike, rain is a double-edged sword—the torrent washes tracks away, yet the sodden ground preserves every footprint in deep relief.
Suddenly the roar of water swelled around them.
"A waterfall." Jang Gu-saeng murmured under his breath.
He raised his eyes. Directly ahead, along the side of the valley, stood a rocky ridge some five jang high.
"Flinging yourself into a waterfall in the dead of night is suicide. If I were the fugitive… I'd cross here." Jang Gu-saeng swept his gaze over the surroundings and shouted, "He crossed here! Comb every inch of it!"
"Found something!"
Shortly after, one of his men cried out. Jang Gu-saeng rushed over at once. Where the man pointed, a footprint was pressed into the earth—a man's print, a full jang in length.
Before long, Nam Se-ok and the rest of the Blood Evil Army had all crossed the valley.
"The trail?" Nam Se-ok asked.
"There—a footprint." When Jang Gu-saeng nodded toward the man, the soldier standing beside the print scooped away the pooled water. Soon the footprint emerged into view.
"A man's print," Nam Se-ok observed.
"That's right." Jang Gu-saeng nodded.
"Follow it."
"We must find them before the trail washes away!" Jang Gu-saeng shouted, and the Soul-Chasing Squad surged forward in a single wave. Nam Se-ok, for his part, walked with his eyes on the surroundings rather than the ground.
Great oaks a good ten jang tall stood spaced about half a jang apart. They had gone roughly one sik-gyeong before the fugitive's trail finally broke—the pounding rain had erased it entirely, leaving nothing left to follow.
"Sweep all four directions until we pick up the trail again!" Jang Gu-saeng issued the order, and the Soul-Chasing Squad scattered in search of fresh tracks.
"Not a single woman's footprint, was there?" Nam Se-ok asked Jang Gu-saeng.
"None."
"Then a man is carrying her. And no man in his right mind carries a healthy, unhurt woman—so she's injured." Nam Se-ok spoke as though musing to himself, his gaze fixed on the trees.
"…"
Jang Gu-saeng looked at him.
That much had not occurred to him.
"A branch wouldn't snap in a wind this mild, would it?" Nam Se-ok remarked, his eyes drifting to a broken bough.
"No, sir."
"Back to the spot where we found the footprint! Move!"
Nam Se-ok whirled around at once.
"Fall back!"
Jang Gu-saeng shot after him.
"That cunning wretch!" Nam Se-ok bit his lip. The answer was obvious now—the man had left the footprints behind on purpose, then climbed into the trees and doubled back.
And every broken branch along the way is dutifully proving that he went back.
Nam Se-ok drew up every last measure of his internal power.
Finding the trail had taken time; returning took almost none.
Kukukukukung! Kukukukung!
As the valley drew near, a monstrous bellow rolled out from the swollen waters—one listen was enough to know the state of the torrent. And there, far ahead, heading upstream, was Jin Yigang, a woman on his back.
"There he is!"
Crack!
Nam Se-ok kicked off the ground at full power.
Closing ten jang in the blink of an eye, he planted himself squarely in Jin Yigang's path.
"Ugh."
Jin Yigang's face twisted.
He'd expected to be found out—just not this fast.
"You deceived me beautifully," Nam Se-ok said, studying Jin Yigang up and down.
He wanted to gauge the man's level of martial skill. And within moments, he was quietly relieved. He could find no trace of trained martial arts whatsoever.
"So where did I slip up?" Jin Yigang glanced behind him. The water had swollen to a raging frenzy, thundering past in a mad torrent. Even a martial artist swept into that current, he suspected, would not come out unscathed.
"The footprints belonged to a man only, and a branch was broken," Nam Se-ok said.
"I was careful. I just missed one thing, it seems." Jin Yigang gave a wry chuckle.
"You're laughing?"
"Well, I can't exactly cry about it. But—say, are you sure you should be showing your face like that?"
"What?"
Nam Se-ok's face went rigid. In his haste, he had completely forgotten the mask. If word reached the imperial court that he had personally pursued these two, the Emperor would charge him with defying a royal decree. As the grandson of the Demon Jade Bureau's Vice Director he wouldn't be put to death—but his grandfather would owe a debt he could never repay.
That could never be allowed to happen.
Which means I have no choice but to kill them.
"One thing I'm curious about. Care to answer?" Jin Yigang asked. By then, the pursuing Blood Evil Army had formed a ring around Nam Se-ok.
"Speak."
"Why are you so desperate to catch us? That's what I want to know."
"You ask because you don't know?"
"I ask because I don't know."
"I realized you two would split into separate parties and each make for Mount Nogun. So I divided the Blood Evil Army in two."
"So the ones behind us are the Blood Evil Army, then?"
"They are."
"That's the Evil Demon Great Lord Nam Se-ok—the grandson of the Great Heavenly Demon Lord Nam Taecheon," Je Chuyeong said quietly.
"I know," Jin Yigang nodded.
"…So that's why you have no choice but to kill us."
Now that his face—and worse, his identity—had been laid bare, the only option left to Nam Se-ok was to silence the two of them forever.
A thick, murderous intent began to seep from his body.