Chapter 9: Chapter 9
Gam Sangcheong’s two eyes literally blazed red.
Holding his sword and leaving the dead horse behind, he walked with steady steps and came to a stop at a distance of about two zhang from Jang Geon. Within those blazing eyes, Jang Geon could feel anger and hatred, and strangely enough, not a shred of sorrow.
Hair disheveled from riding frantically, clothes stained with the blood of his subordinates and horse, and a body squirming with the power of heavily drawn-up internal energy. Jang Geon suddenly recalled that there had been no conversation exchanged with this man except when confirming Gam Sundeok’s name.
So he abruptly asked,
“Why was Jin Yangseok with you guys?”
“…You bastard, why are you curious about that? Trying to buy time?”
Jang Geon held the scabbard bound to his waist with his left hand and stood cross-legged at an angle. Then he gestured with his chin toward the direction of the bandits who had tripped and fallen dead.
“He was among them. Thought he must be dead.”
Gam Sangcheong growled.
“What does it matter whether that bastard lives or dies? He was a guy groveling for help because his brother was about to hang. What you need to worry about right now is not a worm like that, but your own neck.”
Jang Geon let out a snort, collected the dust filled in his mouth from galloping, and spat it out.
“How desolate.”
“What my sword will do to your neck will be even more desolate, son of a bitch.”
Having spoken thus, Gam Sangcheong began slowly lowering his posture. His left foot extended long forward, weight centered on his right foot, pulling his right hand holding the sword up to chest level. His left hand formed a sword secret posture pointing at Jang Geon. It was a thrusting posture.
Jang Geon’s posture was not as dynamic as that. Turning his body sideways and looking straight ahead with only his head, the sword held in his right hand rested at the left waist, at the opening of the scabbard. He hadn’t put the sword inside the scabbard, but it was basically a quick-draw posture.
Gam Sangcheong, squirming while constantly inhaling and exhaling rough breaths from the internal force coursing through his entire body, and Jang Geon, quieted down like still water, glared into each other’s eyes.
Gam Sangcheong’s breathing grew increasingly fierce. Along with that, the entire sword blade trembled violently, and a dim light seemed faintly visible. The tip of his left foot extended forward dug firmly into the ground, leaving a deep footprint. As his low posture sank even lower, he growled like a beast. His two red eyes looked dangerous.
In the middle of the high sky and sprawling wilderness, only the blazing sun and wispy clouds drifting slowly as if transcending all worldly affairs looked down upon the two.
At a certain moment, unable to endure the surging internal force, Gam Sangcheong let out a roar.
“UAAAAAH!”
In a fleeting split second, unclear whether during that roar or the instant it ended, the two crossed past each other.
A long horizontal wound burst open on Jang Geon’s left cheek, blood streaming down. He glanced at his blade. He saw a deep notch chipped out right in the middle of the long blade.
“Fuck.”
He spat out a curse, grabbed the sword with both hands, and quickly turned around. He hadn’t lost, but he hadn’t cut Gam Sangcheong either. The figure of Gam Sangcheong quickly turning his body was visible. A thin red line could be seen on his neck. It was shallow.
Unlike Jang Geon’s still-calm face, Gam Sangcheong, having poured out internal force once, exposed his teeth with a thoroughly excited expression. White foam dripped from the corners of his mouth, and reddish veins were bulging out on exposed areas like his face and hands.
And the light of the sword that had been dim until just now now appeared distinct. A dark red light flowing along the blade. It was Sword Qi.
“Crazy bastard, how much internal energy does he have?”
Even while muttering like that, Jang Geon involuntarily formed a sinister smile with his mouth. Even those called masters in this land did not easily use Sword Qi. The reason was that it was sufficient to kill people without bothering to spew out qi like that. There were even rare individuals who cursed it, calling it a fool who couldn’t control his own qi.
Ultimately, neither when Jang Geon learned martial arts in the Central Plains nor during the several years since crossing over to this land had he actually seen Sword Qi. Standing face to face with that terrifying fruit of internal energy, Jang Geon couldn’t offer any clear statement as to why laughter came out. His heart was simply pounding.
Gam Sangcheong roared once more. Then he rushed forward and brought down his sword. Jang Geon held his sword firmly with both hands and deflected the strike. As the blade met the Sword Qi, sparks flew with a grinding noise. Another large notch was chipped from the blade.
Gam Sangcheong, eyes looking as if fire poured out of them, swung recklessly while imbuing his overwhelming internal energy. Though it lacked the speed and precision of the first exchange, it was an attack whose power was more than overflowing. However, because the movements were too simple and forgot even the basics, Jang Geon was able to hold his sword with both hands and manage to deflect them.
“Euhaha! Euhahahaha! Hahahahaha!”
As if out of his mind, Gam Sangcheong laughed contextlessly while swinging his sword. The blood vessels in his eyes burst, and blood dripped down.
Having deflected the demonic practitioner’s attacks three or four more times, Jang Geon felt his heart pounding briefly subside.
Jang Geon felt no need to waste any more time.
He immediately attached his blade to Gam Sangcheong’s downward-striking sword and pushed it straight along. Gam Sangcheong’s sword glided along Jang Geon’s blade and struck the dirt floor.
As a result, Jang Geon and Gam Sangcheong ended up standing face to face, their weapon-holding arms forming the character for ‘human’.
“Ugh!”
A thunderstorm of consecutive strikes slammed into his opposite flank, jaw, and solar plexus. His internal energy was shattered in an instant.
Gam Sangcheong raised his head with a thoroughly cowering body.
“You, fuck… You bastard! Dropping your sword, such petty, Kahk!”
He suddenly vomited a burst of blood even though Jang Geon hadn’t attacked. Raising a hand, he looked at his blood-dripping palm with disbelief.
“You, you! This is Heaven-Shaking Palm…! The Imperial Army’s palm skill…!”
“It’s not Heaven-Shaking Palm. It’s a heavy internal hand technique I made myself.”
“What kind of… what kind of bullshit is that…?”
Jang Geon had no intention of slowly resolving that doubt. Giving a single shoulder shrug, he delivered a kick into the chest of the guy who had let go of his sword.
Hearing the heavy thud of that corpse falling, Jang Geon brushed dust off his raised trousers.
Gazing at the corpse like that for a moment, Jang Geon turned around and picked up the sword fallen on the ground.
“I’ll have to buy a new one.”
After putting the sword into the scabbard, Jang Geon checked here and there on his body whether there were any fatal cuts among the places sliced.
However, simultaneously, that meant he had killed thirty people in one place.
A snort-like laugh came out of Jang Geon’s mouth, which had been rigid at that action.
“Why is this guy playing around again? Are you tired because you ran a bit earlier?”
At the fella’s action of lightly pushing his arm, he stroked his neck. And then he raised his head to look at the dust rising from far away.
Two riders and horses were galloping, raising clouds of dusty soil. Wearing large bamboo hats and wide windproof coats.
However, he couldn’t be completely defenseless relying on intuition alone, so holding the scabbard with his left hand, he watched the two galloping over.
They came to a halt at a distance of three zhang. Jang Geon felt the two people were somewhat flustered.
A short while later, the person carrying a sword on her back among the two stepped forward slightly and asked:
“Did you kill all these people yourself?”
It was a low voice for a woman. However, it wasn’t unpleasant to hear. Jang Geon answered while squinting his eyes against the sunlight:
“That is so.”
Jang Geon felt the woman’s gaze glance toward the sword at his waist. After a brief silence, she dismounted from her horse.
“Senior!”
The person beside her called out to her in surprise, but she walked forward with unhesitating steps.
And with a hand gesture as resolute as her unhesitating steps, she untied her chin strap and removed her bamboo hat.
She looked at him with eyes squinted against the sunlight just like Jang Geon. Thus, the two locked eyes in silence.
Finally, the woman opened her mouth.
“I am Martial Alliance Patrol No. 71, Jeok Sein. Who are you?”
“Jang Geon.”
Jeok Sein turned her eyes and gestured with her chin toward the corpse lying on the floor.
“Gam Sangcheong?”
“Before that, it seems you should show something on your end.”
Her eyes returned to Jang Geon.
“What?”
“If you’re with the patrol, isn’t there an identification badge?”
Nodding with an ‘ah’, she pulled a hexagonal badge from her bosom and showed it to Jang Geon. Satisfied with that, Jang Geon gestured with his chin toward Gam Sangcheong’s corpse. Jeok Sein immediately walked over to the corpse and knelt down, beginning to search his bosom.
“…What are you doing?”
“Searching for demonic art manuals. That was the reason we were dispatched to pursue these fellas.”
The other man who had dismounted and approached before anyone noticed answered with a smiling face. He was a young man.
She roughly flipped through that book and tossed it to the man.
“It’s what we were looking for. Burn it.”
Nodding his head, the man set the received booklet onto the ground and pulled a small flint from his bosom to set fire to it.
Confirming that the book was burning like that, Jeok Sein approached Jang Geon once again.
“Was it also you who killed the Red Sand Bandits 2nd Unit Leader a day’s distance west of here?”
“Yi Mangyeong?”
“Red Sand Bandits 2nd Unit Leader.”
Jang Geon tipped his head toward the hill.
“That guy is over there.”
Jeok Sein nodded and called the man who was setting the fire.
“Sanho. Go check if there are any other secret manuals.”
“Huh…? Ah, yes. If Senior orders it, I must do it.”
The man called Sanho wiped his nose with his hand as if annoyed, and mounted his horse again.
Jang Geon spoke while watching Jeok Sein slowly shake her head:
“You said you came pursuing these fellas?”
“That is so. Martial Alliance Patrol. Ah, first, thank you for defeating the wicked demonic practitioners.”
“Keep your thanks, and since you’re Martial Alliance Patrol, let me ask something.”
Jeok Sein nodded.
“Ask. I shall answer faithfully.”
“By any chance, can I receive bounties from you?”
“…Bounties?”
Jang Geon raised his right hand and slowly stroked his chin.
“Aren’t there bounties on these fellas’ necks? But I don’t know where a Martial Alliance branch is around here.”
“Ah… That is true. Fortunately, I have authority to that extent. However, what I can issue right now are bounty vouchers from the Alliance, not cash.”
Having pondered briefly at the word ‘vouchers’, Jang Geon ultimately nodded. It was better to possess something at least than nothing.
Jeok Sein brought her horse over, pulled out a thick stack of papers from her saddle bag, and handed them to Jang Geon.
“I shall also include reward money for hunting demonic practitioners and doing the patrol’s work on our behalf. You did splendidly, Warrior Jang.”
Warrior Jang? Thinking that title was amusing, Jang Geon roughly counted the papers. He couldn’t know the exact value, but it seemed like quite a lot of money.
In any case, making quite a bit of money from bandits whose original value he didn’t even know, his mood improved. With vouchers, he could exchange them for cash at any Martial Alliance branch anyway.
“Do you have any more business now?”
“…Doesn’t seem like it.”
“Good. Then.”
Jang Geon immediately turned around and mounted atop Jojo’s back. And before Jeok Sein could say anything again, he galloped away toward the east.
Watching his back gradually receding into the eastern wilderness at a speed neither too fast nor too slow, Sanho returned to stand beside Jeok Sein.
“…Are we just letting him go like this? Shouldn’t we do a body search or something? What if he took a secret manual?”
Returning after confirming Jang Geon receded into the distance, Sanho spoke while gazing at him just like Jeok Sein.
“There was no need for that. That man’s martial arts were stronger than that demonic art. Why would someone who killed Gam Sangcheong with his bare hands desire a low-tier demonic art secret manual? Rather, we should be thankful he didn’t attack us.”
“Huh? The secret line? Would they let us use that as we please? And what else do you know?”
Jeok Sein was smiling as if amused.
“I just checked on Gam Sangcheong’s corpse, and it seemed his internal organs were crushed.”
“…Crushed internal organs. That guy was holding a sword, wasn’t he?”
“He had two hands as well.”
Sanho crumpled his brow.
“Crushed internal organs with two hands… Heaven-Shaking Palm? Are you saying that guy is an Imperial Army soldier?”
“That’s what we’re going to find out. And before that, there’s a place we must go.”
Sanho formed a slimy, ambiguous smile.
“Why is there so much work to do? Let’s take it easy, Senior.”
Jeok Sein silently extended her hand toward Sanho. Thereupon, a sheet of paper slid out from her sleeve.
“What’s this? I barely know how to read the map issued by the Alliance. External maps are a bit…”
“It’s a map of the Red Sand Bandits’ hideout found on Gam Sangcheong’s body.”
“…Aha. To raid the treasure those fellas accumulated?”
Jeok Sein answered while mounting her horse:
“The Red Sand Bandits killed all adults and kidnapped all children to sell them off. We must rescue those children and return them to their families.”
Sanho instantly shut his mouth tight and covered his face with his bamboo hat. Feeling embarrassed about chattering about treasure.
“Feels like we’ll meet often, Warrior Jang.”
Whispering to herself, she tied the chin strap of the bamboo hat she had removed and spurred her horse toward the west.