Chapter 25 - You've Come to the Right Place

“I asked who that bastard is!” Gwon demanded, glaring at Yang Dang.

“A wandering warrior I haven't disposed of yet.”

“You should have! You were supposed to hand over only the woman and the child!”

“I'll take care of him.”

“Do it now!”

Yang Dang drew his sword and approached me. He was confident he could beat me. How much more arrogance and delusion would this youthful face of mine inspire? How many more Yang Dangs would it bring my way?

“They're obviously scumbags who betrayed their master. Do you really think they'll pay you? They'll probably kill you to silence you and pocket your share too.”

Gwon's eyes blazed. “What? Scumbags who betrayed their master?”

“I'm only keeping it that mild because there's a child here.”

Gwon laughed in disbelief. “What a peculiar kind of lunatic.”

“Flustered because I hit the nail on the head? You really were planning to kill him and pocket the money, weren't you? Don't do that. He even killed all his comrades to get this far.”

Unable to conceal his true thoughts, Gwon flushed. “You worthless wandering-warrior vermin!”

He shouted at his men. “Kill that bastard first!”

The three masked men stepped forward.

“See? He said to kill me first. Doesn't that mean you're next?”

Yang Dang couldn't hide his dismay at my words.

“Even if you're going to run, you should collect your money first.”

Yang Dang, who had taken a step backward, flinched. “What nonsense is that? When did I run away?”

At the very moment he angrily shouted that—

WHOOSH!

A hidden weapon Gwon had thrown without warning sliced through the air. Unable to dodge the sudden projectile, Yang Dang crumpled.

“Fucking idiot. Making such a mess of the job.”

I looked down at the dead Yang Dang. “Live that way, and your turn comes around like this too.”

Then I addressed Gwon. “You're no different from him. You should have kept at least one of them alive to fight me. What good does killing him in a temper do? How do any of you expect to live long with so little control over your anger?”

“How much longer are you going to listen to that bastard run his mouth?”

At Gwon's shout, the three masked men drew their swords and advanced.

They were indeed skilled enough that they had no need to keep Yang Dang alive as a shield.

I looked at the woman and gestured for her to cover the child's eyes. She enfolded him in her arms, blocking his eyes and ears.

I didn't drag the fight out. Before they could attack, I lunged first, using the Underworld King's Step of the Wind God's Four Steps.

I had only just begun to toddle with the art, yet it reduced my opponents to newborns. They never had a chance to defend themselves. In a flash, I was right in front of the first man, and the instant he registered my presence, his head was severed.

I saw the second man's eyes widen behind his mask. If I could have read his thoughts, I imagine they would have gone something like this: 'Gah! What...' By then, his throat had been slit too.

Despite seeing two comrades die, the third masked man failed to respond appropriately. In truth, not even the blink of an eye had passed.

With the Wind God's Four Steps added to my existing martial arts, this was an attack they couldn't have blocked even with a hundred years to prepare. Just as before, I closed in on the third masked man with the Underworld King's Step and cut him down with the Heaven-Soaring Sword Art.

Gwon stared at me in horror. To his eyes, three sword strokes must have flashed simultaneously, and all his men must have seemed to collapse at once.

“Swift swordsmanship?”

“I didn't even use swift swordsmanship, but I suppose that's how it looked to you.”

“W-who are you?” Gwon's voice trembled with terror.

Instead of answering, I asked the woman, “Who is he?”

“His name is Gwon Won. He was one of the retainers who protected our family. I am Geum Sayeon, daughter of the master of Golden Manor.”

“Golden Manor!”

I acted startled, but I already knew who she was. Her father was Geum Asu, a merchant magnate counted among the ten greatest in the Central Plains, the wealthiest man in Fujian and the owner of Golden Manor.

He was the reason I'd traveled so far.

The rebellion at Golden Manor.

That was the incident Im Chu had told me about: the master of Golden Manor had been betrayed by his most trusted retainer and killed.

A change in her schedule had allowed his daughter to escape their clutches. She had hired wandering warriors in an attempt to flee, but in the end, they had all lost their lives.

“I'd like to hire you, young hero. Please help us.”

“Circumstances have changed, so my price has gone up.”

“That's a relief. We can afford your services, however expensive they may be. Please kill him and save my father.”

Gwon Won pleaded with me. “Spare me and join our side. I'll speak to my superior and have him pay you more than that woman!”

“You'll pay more than the daughter of Golden Manor's master? How?”

For a moment, Gwon Won was speechless.

I walked toward him, rebuking him coldly. “You were a retainer, weren't you? Then your place should have been in front of that woman and child.”

Gwon Won desperately tried to evade my sword, but no amount of frantic struggling to survive could bridge the gap between us. My blade cleaved through flesh and bone and pierced his heart.

He collapsed with a single scream. Only upon seeing him die did Geum Sayeon relax. Of course, she still kept the child's eyes and ears tightly covered.

I searched Gwon Won and the masked men and collected daggers to use as throwing weapons. The place we were headed would be crawling with enemies.

“Let's go.”

“We need to take my Yang somewhere safe first.”

Climbing onto the driver's seat, I said, “Get in. Right now, the safest place is beside me.”

Geum Sayeon didn't hesitate long. She had seen my skills firsthand, and without me, she would already be dead. Once she climbed aboard with her child, the carriage began speeding back the way it had come.

* * *

Yeo Sang.

Master of Yeo Manor, the family charged with protecting Golden Manor, and the instigator of today's betrayal.

He had spent ten long years preparing for today's coup. During that time, he had won over Golden Manor's key martial artists, eliminated several in staged accidents, and sent those he could neither sway nor eliminate far away on outside assignments.

He believed he had succeeded perfectly. Until I appeared with Geum Sayeon, that is.

When Geum Sayeon and her child stepped out of the carriage, he beamed, mistakenly believing his men had captured them alive.

“Bwahahaha!”

Had he let the mother and son escape, he would never have slept peacefully again.

“Where is Gwon Won?”

He thought I was one of Gwon Won's men.

“Dead. Everyone but me is dead.”

Something about my manner of speaking must have struck him as odd, but he was more interested in his next question.

“Who killed them?”

“A young, handsome, mysterious master.”

“What?” Yeo Sang shouted in bafflement. “You pathetic fool! What on earth are you thinking, heaping that sort of praise on an enemy?”

“It's the truth.”

“Fine. Let's say it is. Then how did you survi...”

Yeo Sang flinched as realization dawned. “It was you!”

I answered with a faint smile. Yeo Sang shouted for his men, and they came rushing over to surround me and the carriage.

“If you rescued the woman and child, you should have fled far away. Why return to the tiger's den?”

I looked around. “Where's the tiger? All I see is a pack of fucking dogs who bit the master who raised them.”

Yeo Sang and the men surrounding us exuded killing intent. They were his trusted followers and the martial artists who had betrayed Golden Manor. Because my words pricked their consciences, they smothered them beneath still colder anger.

Standing beside the carriage, Geum Sayeon hugged her son tightly. The situation should have terrified her, yet she showed no sign of fear. She knew well that only the strong could afford to be at ease, and as a merchant's daughter, she was quick to read the situation. She took her son inside the carriage so I could fight unhindered.

Yeo Sang also sensed that I was no ordinary opponent, and proceeded very cautiously.

“Who are you, young hero? Let's go inside and discuss this over a drink. I'll serve you some fine wine.”

“No need for all that courtesy. Acting nice won't make me spare you. Neither will begging. So curse and throw a fucking fit all you like.”

Sensing that he couldn't win me over, Yeo Sang gave a cold order. “Attack together and kill him!”

He emphasized the word “together.”

At his command, they rushed me from all sides.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

Daggers flew from my hand with a crisp whistle of wind. By the time they thought to dodge or deflect them, the blades had already cut those thoughts short and buried themselves in vital spots. The charging martial artists fell in rapid succession and tumbled across the ground.

The throwing-knife art I had learned in my life before regression was the Secret Life-Reaping Art of Seomun Cheol, the Grandmaster of Flying Knives. Neither before nor since had I found a better throwing-knife art. It was a martial art worth keeping for a lifetime.

When I ran out of daggers, I saw joy on the survivors' faces. It was a very brief joy, born of the mistaken belief that throwing knives were my specialty.

I drew my sword and rushed them. Their skills ranged through various levels between intermediate fighters and masters, but none of those distinctions meant anything before my complete mastery of the Heaven-Soaring Sword Art.

After I swept through the grounds, all my enemies lay fallen, and Yeo Sang's face had turned pallid.

“Who are you, great hero?”

The blood dripping from my sword had turned a young hero into a great one.

“Great hero, my ass! I'm just a swordsman who caught the scent of money while passing by.”

“How much would it take for you to leave?”

“Have you got a lot of money?”

“Enough to change a man's life.”

“If you've got that much, why do something like this? If you wanted to change your life, you should have spent your own money. Why go after someone else's? Your own master's, no less.”

With no good answer to give, Yeo Sang merely chewed his lip. Just as he was racking his brains, hesitating over what to do—

“Drop your sword!”

One of his men was emerging from a building at the rear with a sword held to Geum Asu's throat. He apparently intended to force me to submit by taking a hostage, but Yeo Sang sighed at the sight, his expression dismayed.

He had meant to keep Geum Asu hidden somehow and negotiate with me, but his idiot subordinate had brought him outside. With the deed already done, Yeo Sang shouted to pressure me.

“Drop your sword now! Otherwise, the master of Golden Manor dies!”

A streak of sword qi tore through the air.

The fourth form of the Heaven-Soaring Sword Art: Blazing Heaven.

It was already a fierce, overbearing form for unleashing sword qi. With powerful internal energy driving it from the Black Demon Sword, its force was enough to startle the heavens and overturn the earth.

KRA-BOOOOM!

The sword qi whirled as though alive and swept through the martial artist. He had hidden two-thirds of his body behind Geum Asu as a shield. The exposed third vanished. His dead body slumped to the ground, leaving Geum Asu standing alone.

Perhaps believing this was his chance now that I had expended internal energy to launch sword qi, Yeo Sang thrust his sword like lightning in a surprise attack. I had been prepared, so his decisive strike naturally missed. As he continued attacking, I kept seeing gaps in his defense.

Even a lifetime of honing his skills wouldn't have made him my equal. With greed filling the place where training should have been, he had no hope of matching me.

I could have subdued him immediately, but I gave him several more moves. If I defeated the master of Yeo Manor too easily, curiosity and fanciful speculation about me would grow far too great.

Yeo Sang's sword came at me again and again, targeting vital pressure points. With his life at stake, his attacks were desperate. Onlookers might have held their breath at what seemed a closely matched contest, but my mind was as clear as a mirror and as still as water.

After thirty-odd exchanges—

SHUNK.

The fight ended with the sound of tearing flesh.

Yeo Sang's thrusting sword had stopped in midair. Its blade reflected Geum Asu's joyful face. My sword, crossing his attack at an angle, was buried in his heart.

Yeo Sang's eyes were full of resentment as he looked at me, but I spoke calmly.

“You were the head of the family sworn to protect them, weren't you? You, of all people, should never have done this. In your next life, become a merchant if you want to make money. If you want to kill people, become an assassin.”

Already dead, Yeo Sang could offer no answer. When I withdrew my sword, he crumpled.

Geum Sayeon, who had watched through the carriage window with bated breath, cheered and climbed out with her son.

“Father!”

“Grandfather!”

Geum Sayeon and the child ran into Geum Asu's arms.

“Sayeon! Yang!”

Clinging to her father, Geum Sayeon wept. Seeing his mother cry, the child began crying too.

A short while later, the imprisoned martial artists of Golden Manor were freed. Once things had been put in order, Geum Asu thanked me again. Having heard what had happened from Geum Sayeon, he was far more grateful that I had saved his daughter and grandson than that I had saved him.

“I will never forget this kindness. Young hero, you are the benefactor who saved our family from annihilation. Would you please honor us with your name?”

Having single-handedly dealt with Yeo Sang and his men, I could imagine how curious he must be about me.

“I'm merely a wandering warrior passing through.”

“Even the King of Wandering Warriors couldn't have dealt with them so easily.”

“You flatter me.”

When I persisted in withholding my identity, Geum Asu stopped asking.

Geum Sayeon told him about our earlier agreement. “I promised our benefactor that we would reward him with money.”

Looking pleased, Geum Asu praised his daughter. “Well done. You've made the surest promise we can keep.”

With his composure restored, he finally showed the bearing of Fujian's wealthiest man.

“If money is what you need, my benefactor, you've come to the right place today.”