Chapter 17

God damn it!

Cheongsang swore inwardly.

The men surrounding him.

They were clearly inferior fighters.

There was no mistaking the gap in skill.

Yet ever since that first wound to his shoulder, his injuries had kept multiplying.

He was bewildered, unable to make any sense of what was happening.

He had never experienced a fight like this. Their attacks followed no established patterns or techniques.

What they had instead was sheer tenacity.

Their swordsmanship was inferior, yet it carried a killing intent cold enough to chill his heart.

Clang! Clang-clang!

Worse, their attacks were growing more chaotic and relentless, making them difficult to block.

Slash!

“Guh!”

Cheongsang staggered as he felt a sharp cut below his knee. A keen dagger seized the opening, flashing toward his throat.

Too late to dodge…

Grab!

“Tsk. I was going to let you get a little more experience.”

“M-Martial Uncle…”

The dagger never reached Cheongsang’s throat. Jinmu had stepped between them and caught it in his hand.

Startled by Jinmu’s sudden appearance, the attacker struggled to pull his dagger free, then looked dismayed when it refused to budge.

“You fucking idiot. Once you failed, you should’ve let go.”

Crack!

With a sneer, Jinmu clenched his hand. The dagger shattered with a sharp snap.

Then—

Thud!

A foot shot straight into the man’s stomach.

“Urgh!”

The man doubled over like a shrimp.

Whack!

Jinmu’s fist slammed into the back of his neck.

Thump!

The impact drove him into the ground, unconscious.

“Right. That’s one.”

Jinmu’s cold gaze settled on another attacker. A round-eyed man dressed in yellow.

How?

He had been hiding among them, pretending to be one of their group. How had Jinmu known?

Jinmu did not miss the bewilderment in his eyes.

“What are you? The way you use a blade, you’re obviously an experienced wandering mercenary.”

“…”

The yellow-clad man’s eyes trembled.

“You’re nothing special, but you don’t look low enough to run with this lot.”

“…”

“Someone hired you, did they?”

“Wh-what are you talking…”

“Yeah, all right. I wasn’t expecting you to answer nicely just because I asked. Looks like we’ll need a little chat after all.”

“…”

“Cheongu!”

“Yes!”

Cheongu answered with gusto.

“…”

Good grief. Couldn’t he take a hint and move on his own at a time like this?

“Clean this up.”

“Clean what up?”

Jinmu couldn’t help sighing.

If these bastards had been any good, they would all have escaped by now.

“Beat up everyone except this one. Come on!”

Only when Jinmu pointed at the man in yellow and glared did Cheongu throw off the baggage and charge in like an arrow.

“Shit!”

At the same instant, the man in yellow sprang away to escape.

Now that he had been exposed, his best option was to cover his tracks and flee.

“Who said…”

“…!”

A voice rang in his ear.

A foot a little longer than a handspan appeared before his eyes.

Wham!

He had barely managed three or four steps before the blow caught him in the face and sent him reeling backward.

Snatch!

A hand seized his collar.

“…you could run?”

A thick fist swung toward him, accompanied by a wicked smile.

Thud!

That was the last thing the man in yellow remembered.

The fist smashed into his nose, shattering it. He went limp, unconscious.

Wham! Thud! Crack-crack!

Meanwhile, Cheongu was still fighting.

Crack! Bang! Thump-thump!

“…”

Still…

“Cheongsang.”

“Yes, Martial Uncle.”

“…The sun’s going to set.”

Whack-whack!

Sure enough, Cheongsang was much quicker on the uptake. The moment he joined in, the fight began wrapping up in short order.

Apart from the two unconscious men, most of the attackers were soon forced to kneel in a row before Jinmu.

“Now, shall we have a little chat?”

Despite Jinmu’s smile, the attackers still held their heads high.

They knew Cheongsang and Cheongu were far stronger, so they did not openly resist, but…

“You’re not thinking that because we’re Taoists, we’ll just ask a few questions, huh? That if you keep your mouths shut for a bit, we’ll give you a little lecture and hand you over to the authorities? Hmm? You’re not thinking that, are you?”

“…”

That was more or less exactly what they thought.

Wasn’t that what Taoists were like? They didn’t have it in them to be cruel.

At worst, they would only have to endure a few blows…

“Sure. You’re right. Those kids behind me would probably do that. No, those hopelessly naive idiots definitely would. But…”

Jinmu slowly approached one man and gently took his arm.

Smiling kindly…

Crunch!

“Aaaaaagh!”

Everyone’s eyes flew wide and their heads whipped around as the man shrieked in agony.

His arm was bent backward.

Blood poured out, and white bone lay exposed.

“M-Martial Uncle!”

Even Cheongsang and Cheongu looked horrified by the brutality.

But Jinmu was still smiling.

He grabbed the still-screaming man’s foot and stepped on his knee.

“What a nuisance.”

Without ever losing that smile…

Crunch!

“Aaaaaaaaagh!”

The leg bent backward too.

At last, the man’s eyes rolled back and he passed out, unable to bear the excruciating pain.

“M-Martial Uncle!”

Cheongu stood frozen, only his eyes blinking, while a horrified Cheongsang frantically pulled first-aid supplies from the baggage.

“Do I really need to hand over more than ten of you to the authorities? With your skills, I doubt any of you have a bounty… There’s nothing in it for me.”

Jinmu smiled wide enough to show his white teeth.

“You’re used to this sort of thing. When you live by the blade, you get hurt for all sorts of reasons, and die horrible deaths in all sorts of places. Sometimes. Often. All the time. Don’t you?”

Jinmu gave the man kneeling beside the first as gentle a smile as he could manage.

“…!”

It only made him look far more vicious.

The gooseflesh covering the man’s body would not subside. His heart had shriveled so much he could no longer remember its original shape.

What kind of Taoist bastard was this?

“Y-you cruel…!”

“What? Cruel? That’s rich. You tried to kill us first…”

Grinning, Jinmu seized the back of his head and raised a tightly clenched fist high into the air.

“W-wait…”

“Now, now. Don’t move. You’ll break your neck.”

Thud! Thud-thud-thud!

A brisk rhythm.

Even and steady.

His nose shattered. Blood spattered.

Through it all, Jinmu’s sharp canines gleamed coldly in his smiling face.

Blood flooded the man’s mouth, leaving him unable even to scream.

By the time he lost consciousness and Jinmu released him, his face had been caved in almost beyond recognition.

“Ah, I only just got this robe…”

He’d gotten blood on it.

For the first time, the smile vanished from Jinmu’s face.

At that moment, a single thought filled every mind.

He was insane.

An insane Taoist bastard.

He had reduced two men to bloody wrecks in an instant, smiling all the while, only to frown because blood had splashed on his clothes.

“I-I’ll talk!”

“…”

Sensing that his turn was next, the third man shouted at the top of his lungs, his face deathly pale.

“About what?”

“Pardon?”

“There’s nothing I particularly want to hear.”

“…”

He felt faint with terror.

He had to say something. Anything.

If that crazy bastard got his hands on him, he would be crippled or dead.

Surely there was something he knew that would interest him.

So thought the third man, and the others were thinking the same thing.

From that moment, they all began shouting as if speaking in tongues, spewing out every memory in their heads.

Each trying to make his voice heard above the rest.

“Enough!”

“…”

“You’re making so much noise I can’t understand a thing.”

Jinmu frowned, and they all shut their mouths as if rehearsed.

“You!”

“Yes! Pallyong Gang! Forty-two years old! Gwak Cheonggil!”

“Talk.”

“Yes! The Pallyong Gang operates in the back alleys of Danjiangkou! We collect protection money from the cloth merchants’ street in the southwest! Our boss is Yi Pallyong!”

In other words—

These bastards were fairly big fish in Danjiangkou’s back alleys, making a habit of threatening merchants and extorting protection money. But today, their boss had ordered them to wait near Mount Wudang and capture three young Taoists.

They said they had neither heard nor imagined that the Taoists would be this skilled.

They had thought it would be easy. All they had to do was catch three brats.

What was more, the two men Jinmu had knocked out were known as the Two Fiends of Shiyan.

They were fairly well-known fighters in Danjiangkou’s back alleys, so the gang had assumed they could handle the job easily.

Which meant they had known Jinmu’s party would pass that way.

But why?

There was no particular reason to abduct three Taoists.

And these weren’t Taoists from just anywhere. They belonged to Wudang.

However far its power had declined, Wudang was still Wudang. This was far too big a mouthful for them.

If things went wrong, it wouldn’t just split their mouths open. Even their in-laws and distant cousins could be wiped out.

Most major forces in the unorthodox faction would not casually provoke Wudang.

To take a bite anyway meant they had more guts than sense.

And the price offered must have been enough to make them throw all caution to the wind.

“Good. That’ll do. Go huddle over there.”

“Thank you, great hero! I mean, holy man—Master Taoist!”

Looking ready to cry, Gwak Cheonggil bowed and hastily withdrew.

When Jinmu’s gaze reached him, the fourth man began speaking without even being called.

“Pallyong Gang! Thirty-two years old! Wang Deoksam! Second of three sons and two daughters! Kept man of Aengaeng in the red-light district!”

“…”

Desperate to survive, he poured out even more information than Gwak Cheonggil.

Even if a tiger dragged you to its den, you could survive as long as you kept your wits.

But…

Gwak Cheonggil, you son of a bitch.

You could’ve left something for the rest of us. You told him everything about the Pallyong Gang… Still, I have to say something.

Wang Deoksam began recounting details of his life that no one needed to hear.

“That’s enough.”

“What? N-no, it isn’t. I still have plenty to tell you. Please…”

Wang Deoksam pleaded desperately, his eyes brimming with tears.

“Shut up. From now on, answer my questions.”

“Yes!”

“Who hired you?”

“What? Th-that…”

“You don’t know?”

“…”

It wasn’t just Wang Deoksam. The others went deathly pale too.

So they didn’t know.

“You don’t know?”

“Please spare me. I really don’t know. I swear. Please.”

“Hmm…”

Jinmu considered for a moment, then asked a few more questions. Every answer was useless. They knew nothing that mattered.

In the end, he would have to pay Yi Pallyong, the Pallyong Gang’s boss, a visit himself.

“All right. Are those bastards famous, then?”

Jinmu pointed at the Two Fiends of Shiyan.

“Yes! They’re among the best in Danjiangkou’s back alleys. I heard they killed a fairly famous martial artist in Shaanxi and have been hiding in Danjiangkou.”

“How much are they worth?”

“Pardon?”

“There must be a bounty on them.”

“About ten taels of silver.”

“…”

Damn it… That figured.

They weren’t even the Two Fiends of Danjiang. They were the Two Fiends of some backwater called Shiyan.

Still, the two together were worth twenty taels of silver. Far more than the spending money Jinheo had given him.

He’d collect that first.

“What about you lot? Got anything on you?”

“…”

What was that supposed to mean?

After a moment’s thought, the Pallyong Gang members handed over every last coin to Jinmu, even the emergency money hidden in their underwear.

“M-Martial Uncle.”

Watching this, Cheongsang and Cheongu could not hide their horror.

As if cruelly maiming these men wasn’t enough, he was extorting money from the thugs too?

No matter how they looked at it, this was no way for a Taoist to behave. But Jinmu was already pocketing the money with a satisfied smile.

“Good. Off you go, then.”

“Pardon?”

“Get lost. But don’t tell Yi Pallyong. If I can’t find Yi Pallyong when I go looking, every last one of you will…”

Jinmu turned his head slightly, and every gaze followed.

The man whose arm and leg had been bent backward, whom Cheongsang’s first aid had barely restored to something resembling human form.

The other man, his face caved in, whose life Cheongsang’s frantic treatment had just managed to preserve.

Gulp.

They swallowed involuntarily.

“We’ll never do anything bad again! We’ll run away right now and live honest lives somewhere else!”

They all shouted in unison.

“Hmm? Oh, no need for that. Just keep living in the back alleys. Collect protection money. Torment people.”

“N-no! We’ll never do that again. I swear on my name! No, on my father’s name!”

“For fuck’s sake! I’m telling you to keep doing bad things!”

“…!”

At Jinmu’s glare, they all hiccupped and clamped their mouths shut.

“Tsk. Go on. Take those injured bastards with you.”

“Pardon? Yes!”

With Jinmu’s permission, the men who had been anxiously watching him hastily slung the wounded over their shoulders and fled as fast as their legs could carry them.

They would probably never return to Danjiangkou.

“Right, shall we get going?”

“…”

After everything that had swept past like a storm, Jinmu rose and dusted himself off as if nothing had happened. Cheongu and Cheongsang simply could not get used to it.

“Hey. What are you standing there looking stupid for?”

“Pardon?”

“Carry them.”

“…”

The men known as the Two Fiends of Shiyan.

Cheongsang and Cheongu each hoisted one onto his back.

Needless to say, Cheongu was carrying both bundles of baggage too.

He looked to be struggling with a man on his back as well as the baggage… but he was strong, even if he was stupid. He’d be fine.