"GYAAAH!"
"HRGGHH......!"
Three crewmen simultaneously reached for their heads, then crumpled where they stood.
Their topknots had been sliced clean off in an instant, hair tumbling over their eyes.
Hyeol-u caught the cane as it spun back to him like a returning throwing dart and shouted.
"Who just yelled to set sail?"
One of them flinched.
A bandit-chief type with an impressive handlebar mustache.
Thick arms, massive frame — built for a brawl.
The moment his eyes met Hyeol-u's—
"You there. Come here."
"Eeeek......!"
The man reluctantly lumbered forward, fidgeting.
"Y-you mean me......?"
"You came on your own two feet, so yes — it's you."
He stood a full head taller than Hyeol-u, with an enormous build.
But to Hyeol-u, that thick waist looked about as sturdy as a millet stalk.
SMACK—!
The dark cane cracked mercilessly across the man's waist.
"Gnk!"
His face twisted in agony, but his torso stayed rigid.
"Oh? Going to try and take it? Then one more......"
THUD.
Just as Hyeol-u raised the cane to swing again, the man dropped to his knees and flattened himself, groaning.
"Uuurrgh......!"
Hyeol-u crouched in front of him, meeting him eye to eye.
"What's your name?"
"N-Namgung Ga-ri......"
"Namgung......? You're a Namgung too?"
"I'd be roughly the Third Young Master's grandfather's generation. If we're counting degrees of kinship."
"No need for that. You've been smearing mud on the clan's name. So if I killed you right here, nobody could say a word about it."
"......!"
"Will you help me save the clan? Or will you keep siphoning its assets and living like a thug until I beat you to death? Choose."
Namgung Ga-ri's face scrunched in tortured indecision.
He was probably grinding through the calculus of which option benefited him more.
He had likely lived that way his entire life.
And if a young pup's words could make a man like this flip on a dime, that would hardly be trustworthy either.
"Taking your time, I see."
SNAP, SNAP, SNAP—!
Hyeol-u's cane struck his body in rapid succession, hitting spots across his frame.
"GAAGHH! Why......!"
"Pressure points. Every three double-hours from now, you'll be hit with pain that makes you wish you were dead. It lasts exactly half a quarter-hour each time. If I don't release the seals within a month, every inch of you from head to toe will twist up like kudzu vine and wither away."
"No......!"
"I'm the only one who knows this technique, and I'm the only one who can undo it. Don't go looking for cures or letting anyone tinker with it. If you do, even I might not be able to fix it. So keep your mouth shut. Same goes for the rest of them."
"Yes...... understood."
"Nothing happened here today. Clear?"
"Yes, yes, of course."
With that, Hyeol-u clapped his hands and called out as if nothing had happened at all.
"All right, everyone. Break's over — back to hauling stone!"
Once the work was mostly wrapped up, he approached Mo Jung-tak, who lay flopping on the deck of the cargo vessel like a fish out of water, belly heaving as he gasped for air.
"You slipped and nearly drowned by accident. If you understand, just nod."
"Gh, ghh......"
Mo Jung-tak's head barely managed to lift and bob.
"Go home and get that jaw fixed. Leave the rest of the work to Namgung Ga-ri."
"Uugh, uurrggh......"
Then Hyeol-u swept his gaze over the sorters standing along the shore, watching nervously.
"Lovely weather today. If you ever feel like seeing me again, just open your mouths. I'll chase you to the gates of the underworld......"
A blood-chilling threat to take it to their graves.
***
"Young Master, let's go eat. The worms in my stomach are gnawing at my intestines."
Even after witnessing everything that had just unfolded, So-i acted as though nothing had happened and asked about food.
'Is he emotionally numb, or does he trust me that much?'
The boy's utter calm was so unexpected that it was Hyeol-u who felt thrown off.
He picked up the bundle from the ground and patted it.
The bundle was swollen round like a well-fed child's belly.
"Gather round, everyone! Rice balls."
"Wow, where did these come from?"
"Don't ask, just eat."
"But I should at least know where they came from — digestion's better when you know."
'Are you an idiot? Isn't it obvious? He smashed someone up and swiped them.'
Yang Gye-dong bit into a rice ball first, sneaking a glance at So-i.
The fist-sized rice balls, wrapped in oiled paper, were sweet and savory.
So-i ate two and still looked unsatisfied, eyeing the remaining ones in the bundle.
"Where do we go now?"
Yang Gye-dong pointed at the waterfall.
Seen casually, it had not seemed like much.
But now, looking carefully, they would have to scale a sheer cliff thirty jang high.
ROOOAAAR—
"Listen to that. Can we even get up there......?"
The phrase "blood-curdling" seemed coined for the sound of that waterfall.
And the water was scalding hot besides.
Each time the torrent crashed against the rocks below, the smell of seared flesh spread with the mist.
"Ow, hot!"
Perhaps because So-i's body presented a larger target.
A few droplets of the scalding water splashed onto his bare shoulder, turning the skin angry red.
"Is there another way up?"
"I don't know one."
Yang Gye-dong shook his head.
'If you're not sure you can make it, just give up — don't drag me into this.'
That sentiment wafted off him unmistakably.
"Have you ever climbed up there yourself?"
"No, never."
Even if he had, he would say he had not.
Hyeol-u turned to So-i.
"So-i."
"Yes! Young Master."
"Life is a series of trials. If you want to learn martial arts?"
"I'm ready to die!"
"You're better than that one. Follow me closely and do as I do."
"Yes, sir!"
After a quick meal, they prepared to scale the waterfall.
Hyeol-u spoke to Yang Gye-dong.
"Take the lead and climb."
For an instant, irritation flared in Yang Gye-dong's eyes.
'A grown man my age, reduced to playing trail guide for some kid.'
But as if reading his thoughts, Namgung Seong's gaze turned ice-cold.
Like a Judge of the Underworld gripping the thread of his life.
"What?"
"Oh, y-yes sir!"
Yang Gye-dong scrambled to the front.
SPLASH, PATTER.
They climbed along the right edge of the waterfall, staying as far from the main cascade as possible.
Yet hot droplets rained down like a cloudburst, sending steam curling from every inch of their bodies.
The only handholds and footholds were tree roots, branches, slight stone outcrops, or crevices in the rock.
And even those were drenched, sending their feet skidding at every step.
"WHOA! Haaah......"
Yang Gye-dong, clinging to a tree trunk and barely managing to wedge his foot into a rock crevice, twisted his head to look down — and nearly jumped out of his skin.
Hyeol-u, climbing below him, had shot up in a single bound, grabbed a kudzu root, and swung himself skyward.
The agility of a monkey performing tricks.
Then he wound the kudzu vine around a long, jutting rock spur and beckoned.
"Grab the vine and pull yourself up slowly. Plant your feet firmly in the rock crevices to stabilize your body."
"Gnnngh......"
A grunt of sphincter-clenching effort, and So-i hauled himself up, rising past Yang Gye-dong's head.
'So-i — that boy's got hidden strength.'
Hyeol-u's eyes gleamed with satisfaction.
Meanwhile, Yang Gye-dong stood below, deliberating whether to grab the dangling kudzu root.
"What are you waiting for? Grab it and come up."
"Oh, right......!"
With the two above watching in silence, Yang Gye-dong carefully gripped the vine and began climbing.
At last, the three of them stepped into a cave entrance hidden behind the curtain of waterfall and peered inside.
The cave dead-ended after a few paces — but in the floor, a single narrow hole gaped open, barely wide enough for a child to squeeze through, coiling downward like a twisted rope with no telling where it led.
"Wait here."
Hyeol-u slid his cane into the hole and twisted it in circles.
CRUMBLE.
"There we go."
Crusted soil around the entrance crumbled away, revealing a much larger opening.
Hyeol-u lay flat beside it and peered carefully down.
'Pitch black — can I even see anything?'
It might have been faster to smash through the wall. The interior was darkness absolute.
But Hyeol-u quickly allowed a smile to play at his lips and turned to the two behind him.
"It's still a hole made for people to descend through. There are footholds."
"Y-you can see them?"
"Of course."
Hyeol-u nodded, then fixed his gaze on Yang Gye-dong.
"Don't tell me you're thinking I should go first......"
"No, I'm going first. So-i follows me. You're last."
"Understood."
Behind the other two, Yang Gye-dong shook his head in quiet disbelief.
In all his twenty-odd years, he had met countless people.
But Namgung Seong — who breezed past every obstacle and whose next move was impossible to predict — stirred in him a peculiar tension.
Just as Hyeol-u had said, they descended by gripping handholds and stepping on footholds, and before long an exit appeared.
"Phew...... huh?"
So-i breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of the exit — then his eyes went blank.
A stone stele, tall as a man, stood right before them, but beyond it stretched an endless sea of mist.
Fog of unknowable depth filled the space between the exit and where they stood.
And that was not all.
Not a breath of wind stirred in any direction, and a suffocating, leaden air — like being inside a steamer — began to press down on their heads.
"Hwoof, hwoof."
Hyeol-u flared his nostrils wide and drew in deep lungfuls of air, testing the scent.
Mountains, rivers, seas, people, beasts — everything had its own distinct smell.
When the eyes could not find the way, one had to read the surroundings through scent and the taste of the air.
"Beyond the stele...... is it some kind of hot spring?"
Murmuring to himself, Hyeol-u approached the stone stele.
Lone Soul Drinking Alone
Three Powers Open the Great Path
Thirty-Six Paths Unite with Nature
Inscribed by Tae-seok
'What...... is this?'
The normally unflappable Hyeol-u's eyes flew wide.
A powerful sense of familiarity had struck him.
"Ah!"
Hyeol-u slapped his knee.
It was a reworking of the Wine Immortal Li Bai's poem "Drinking Alone Under the Moon."
Lone Soul. Three Powers. Thirty-Six Paths.
And Tae-seok!
The moment Hyeol-u saw the scattered footprints carved before the stele, he found himself seizing the 'Tae-seok cane' and beginning to dance.
WHOOSH, WHOOOONG—!
Circulating the Three Powers Heart Formula while executing every form of the Iron Sword Thirty-Six Paths — from the first, Divide Heaven and Earth, to the final, Endless Iron Sword.
It was a dance of frenzy.
The Iron Sword Thirty-Six Paths flowed through all one hundred and eighty pressure points, finally merging into one unbroken whole.
The wind born at the cane's tip swelled into a gale, and the instant dozens of phantom dark canes bloomed like a vision—
WHOOOOOOSH—
CRASH—!
Space itself wrenched and twisted with a terrifying sound, and the stele spun like a top before plunging into the earth.
And then.
"HAAAGHHH!"
"GNHH......!"
A blinding, radiant light erupted, parting the ink-dark fog like thunderclouds and piercing straight through the space.
They could not even scream.
So-i went without saying, and even Yang Gye-dong — who had been glaring at the dancing Hyeol-u with guarded, watchful eyes throughout — sat down hard with his jaw hanging slack.
CHIRP, CHIRR-CHIRP, CHIRP!
From somewhere came the dreamlike trilling of a bird, rousing Hyeol-u's frozen senses.
"Ah, what is that?"
He had no energy left to be surprised.
He could only stare, dumbstruck.
An egg-shaped pond glowing emerald green, with a tiny island at its center.
Rising from that island, a peach tree soaring some ten jang high.
And atop its crown, in a nest spread open like a lotus flower, perched a golden-winged kite — glaring straight at Hyeol-u.
"The...... Golden Oriole......!"
The words came out closer to a gasp than speech.
Yes.
It was the legendary divine bird — the Golden Oriole.
Hyeol-u stepped forward, then froze.
COOOO—
The Golden Oriole let out an eerie cry and was about to leave its nest, when—
WHOOSH—!
A sound sharp as a crossbow bolt, and a golden shadow shot up from the pond.