I looked down at the Blood Night Gang Leader, split open on a diagonal from his flank to his shoulder.
It was grotesque beyond words that he was still alive, gushing blood like that. Deathly pale, the Blood Night Gang Leader looked up at me and spoke.
"Spare me."
"What?"
"I-if you just spare me......"
"Stop mumbling and speak clearly!"
I grabbed the bastard by his white hair and hauled him up to my face in one motion. Blood surged and poured from the Blood Night Gang Leader's split chest.
"Kheugh!"
When I put my ear to his mouth as he choked and gasped, the Blood Night Gang Leader mumbled.
"......I-I'll hand it all over. Everything I've gathered my whole life......"
Flop.
When I let go, the Blood Night Gang Leader's body tumbled to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut. I stamped down on the bastard's chest and spoke.
"The things in your secret vault?"
The Blood Night Gang Leader's eyes bulged fit to pop out.
"How?"
"Don't get the wrong idea. I have no intention of accepting them."
I bent down, brought my face close to the Blood Night Gang Leader's, and whispered.
"I'm going to take them from you."
SQUELCH! Fssshhhh......
"Just like I took your life just now."
His head sent flying by a single stroke, the Blood Night Gang Leader's body shuddered. What blood remained fountained up from the severed neck.
Thunk, roll, roll, roll. The Blood Night Gang Leader's fallen head rolled to Byeong-ho's feet.
Frozen stiff, Byeong-ho stammered as he looked at me.
"B-Brother. Your eyes."
I answered as I drew back the golden energy wrapped around my straight blade.
"Yeah. Seems to be the effect of a martial art."
The golden eyes show when the Kun-Becoming Thunder Formula activates. This was probably the secret of the golden eyes that stood for the Golden-Eyed Daoist Master.
When I opened my ears, I could still hear fighting outside.
"Byeong-ho, go on ahead and help the Branch Head. I'll finish up here and follow."
"Got it."
Once Byeong-ho was gone, I looked over the wrecked interior of the medicine hall.
There was still work to do.
Perhaps the most important work of all this struggle. I went into the darkened medicine hall and headed for the spot where I had first faced the Blood Night Gang Leader.
"......"
I had guessed right.
In my last life, when we finally took the Blood Night Gang's base, this was the only place that had collapsed.
As if to hide something.
And as it happened, when I came face to face with the Blood Night Gang Leader, this was where he had been standing, facing the wall. That was what made me sure.
......That there was a secret passage.
Feeling carefully along the wall, I found a spot that jutted out ever so slightly.
Clack. Grrrind.
When I pressed hard, a passage leading down slid open about half a jang to the side. I slowly went down the stairs, and at the bottom sat a well.
The final step in making a Soulless One. It must have been the well used for the 'Living Soul stage,' said to turn flesh into iron.
Splash.
The well was full of a blue medicinal liquid, its color steeped in forbidden energy.
Nothing good would come of staying submerged for long, so I threw myself straight down.
When I reached the bottom, a passage branching off to the side appeared. At its end, a way led back up again.
"Puhah."
When I climbed out of the water, a space of about three jang opened up, more cave than room. This must be the Blood Night Gang Leader's secret vault.
"That old man. He sure piled up a lot."
Inside the vault, chests and ledgers lay scattered in a mess. Among blood-stained sealed packages and unmarked medicine bottles, I could see gold, silver, and bundles of bank notes.
I took the money first.
Silver and gold ingots were mixed together, and there were whole bundles of bank notes honored by merchant houses. As I quietly counted it all up, I clicked my tongue despite myself.
Ten taels of silver kept an ordinary person from going hungry for a month.
There were three gold ingots worth a hundred taels of silver each, another eighty taels of loose silver, and when I added the sums written on the bank notes......
It all came to about five hundred taels of silver.
With this much, I could scatter money with my eyes closed and still live five years without a care.
"......"
Come to think of it, this was the first time in my life I had ever held money like this.
A spy's life is predictable, isn't it? There had never been any room to build up a fortune of my own.
"Good. This life, I'm living in plenty."
And why not? I had decided to live as my heart pleased, so shouldn't I spend money as I pleased too?
Thinking that way, I felt the fatigue of the night vanish completely.
I tied the gold ingots and bank notes tightly to the rope at my waist.
And......
In the deepest part of the vault.
Hidden away layer upon layer, at the very end.
I found a wooden box that had been, quite literally, tucked away out of sight.
'Knew it was here.'
The moment I opened the lid, I saw a red root with a bluish sheen.
Vicious extreme yin and forbidden energy poured out, like a held breath let go. The air grew heavy, and a cold chill spread across my skin.
Iron-Blood Azure Root.
The Iron-Blood Azure Root is no wild herb. It is a remnant born where war has been carved into the earth and decades, even centuries, have passed.
Land where countless warriors spilled their blood, soaked through with iron, never to recover.
When killing intent and forbidden energy pool there without losing their balance, a first root of the Iron-Blood Azure Root may form, against the longest odds.
There was no knowing where the Blood Night Gang Leader had gotten something this rare, but the destructive power he showed at the end had surely come from this Iron-Blood Azure Root.
"......"
My eyes quivered at the sight of the nearly undamaged Iron-Blood Azure Root.
I needed inner arts badly as it was.
With the vessel grown endlessly wide, my qi center was all but empty.
It was because it had grown so wide that no comparison with others meant anything, but by the same token, the sea still waiting to be filled stretched out without end.
'With this......'
The Iron-Blood Azure Root might not match Shaolin's Great Restoration Pill, but it was a treasure no money could buy.
If I could only master it properly, it would go a long way toward filling my vast qi center.
Grin.
A satisfied smile spread across my face. All those risks had been worth it.
After that, I took a few more useful things from the dead Blood Night Gang Leader's vault and got out again through the well.
I worked the wall to close the vault's secret door and walked out as if nothing had happened.
Outside, the Pitch-Black League men who had taken the Blood Night Gang's base were bustling about, clearing up everywhere.
At the medicine hall's front door, I saw five of the Twelve Shadows of the Blood Night in bonds. The other seven already lay dead, sprawled on the ground.
Branch Head Bok Geon-gil, who was winding a bandage, spotted me and his eyes lit up.
"The Blood Night Gang Leader?"
I pointed my chin at the inside of the medicine hall.
"In two pieces."
Branch Head Bok Geon-gil held my gaze in silence for a moment, then nodded.
"You did it."
"I told you the night wouldn't be long."
In the distance, the Pitch-Black League's main force was approaching. It seemed the last Blood Night Gang men had all been subdued.
"It's over."
At my words, the Fujian Branch Head leaned on his sword and plopped down.
"What a bullshit night that was."
We had stayed up the whole night. Breathing in the acrid smell, I watched the sun rise side by side with the Branch Head. The Branch Head asked.
"What do you plan to do now?"
I chuckled at that.
"Well, a wanderer's life is drifting around looking for someone to take you in. Will the Pitch-Black League take me now?"
"Ha!" The Branch Head laughed in disbelief, then gazed at me for a while before speaking.
"If I had my way, having you join us here in the Fujian Branch would be a great help, but......"
Then he smiled meaningfully.
"I don't think I'm a big enough vessel to handle you."
"You're quick to know your place."
"You kept your promise, so the Elder will write you a letter of recommendation. With a recommendation from Old Tyrant Roar, you can go anywhere."
Then he went on to suggest the options open to me.
"How about the Guangdong Branch, where the Pitch-Black League's headquarters is? As long as your skill backs you up, that's the fastest way into the center."
The Branch Head pointed to the western sea.
"Or the Roaring Ring Territory, where the Elder, Old Tyrant Roar, lives, wouldn't be a bad choice either. The Elder seemed intrigued by you. If you want to go, he'll take you. That's a rare chance."
Then, this time on his own, he turned his head toward the inland south.
"Or else...... for getting ahead, the Fire Ring Territory isn't bad either. Yeom Hu-gwi, the Head of the Fire Ring, values talent. Make a name for yourself, and you're sure to find a place in the Fire Ring Territory. And if not that......"
The Fujian Branch Head poured out everything he knew about the Pitch-Black League's organization, on and on.
Put simply......
He was telling me to decide where to begin my career in the Pitch-Black League.
It would shape the broad course of everything ahead, so it was certainly an important question.
He looked set to talk forever if nobody stopped him, so I cut in.
"You know an awful lot, Branch Head."
"A branch head who's slow on information isn't fit for the job."
I hesitated for a moment. Because something I wanted to confirm had come to mind. My lips moved a few times before I finally asked him.
"......By any chance, have you heard of Daoist Master Heo-am of Wudang?"
The Branch Head quietly searched his memory, then answered.
"I know every one of Wudang's 'Heo' generation by heart, but I've never heard that Daoist name."
I had expected it, but actually hearing it, an emptiness rushed in as if a hole had been punched through a corner of my chest.
I had known it by instinct the moment I regressed. By Master's own hand, Master had been wiped from this world. To send me back to the past......
The chattering Branch Head glanced at me, flinched, and held his tongue. What kind of face was I making just then?
I swallowed down the rush of feeling and spoke.
"I'm going somewhere for a while. I'll decide where I'm headed after that."
"......Where?"
I turned my head and looked out over the eastern sea. Beyond the distant horizon, land hung faintly in view.
"I've made up my mind to settle in the Pitch-Black League, so I need to cut ties with the place I had a foot in before."
The Branch Head nodded once and asked again.
"When do you plan to leave?"
"What about the Elder, Old Tyrant Roar?"
The Branch Head tilted his head at the out-of-the-blue question and answered.
"Well, he's probably gone off into some mountain to meditate, I'd guess...... He'll turn up on his own when the time comes."
"I see. I'm not badly hurt, so I'll catch my breath and head out right away."
The Branch Head held out his hand.
"I'll have a boat ready. Let's meet in Fujian when you're back."
I smiled and clasped his hand.
With the Ghost Spirit Island business wrapped up, there was one more thing to settle.
The Murim Alliance, and the matter of my status as a spy.
In my last life, my first report as a spy came right after I left Ghost Spirit Island. I had succeeded at my first order, infiltrating the Pitch-Black League, and needed my next orders.
That was also when I first met my handler.
......What would I feel when I saw him? Would I be glad? Or would I want to kill him? And if so, could I really hold back the urge to kill? There was no knowing. I would only find out when we came face to face.
......Now it was time to go meet Moyong Wi.
In the very place where I had first met him, twenty years ago.
***
Through the window of the command post on the shore, a small ferry could be seen leisurely leaving the island.
It was Gu Ja-gyeong and his comrade, Byeong-ho.
"What kind of bastard does he seem like to you?"
At a voice as sharp as a live ember, Branch Head Bok Geon-gil turned his head.
"You've come."
"That bastard, I mean. Him."
Old Tyrant Roar, Noh Hong-geuk, jerked his chin at the ferry.
"You stuck by him all night, so you must have some sense of him. What kind of bastard is he?"
The Branch Head thought back over the grueling day for a moment, then answered with a faint smile.
"His words and deeds don't match, but he's someone you can trust."
"What kind of horseshit is that?"
When Noh Hong-geuk frowned as if to ask what nonsense that was, the Branch Head spoke respectfully.
"He says he has urgent business to see to for a while. When he comes back...... I'm thinking of entrusting my fate to him."
Noh Hong-geuk's face crumpled in a scowl. Irritation burst out of him one line after another.
"Fujian, you brat! Still in the prime of your youth, are you? Keep it up and you'll end up like your father. This is why I hate that kind. Bastards who can't control their own fire and go running around spreading it everywhere!"
Branch Head Bok Geon-gil listened respectfully and silently to Noh Hong-geuk's irritation.
Because these were the words of a man who had once burned hotter than anyone.
"I'm sorry, Elder."
Then he stole a glance at Noh Hong-geuk.
"But how does he look to you, Elder?"
"I told you, he's the moth-to-a-flame kind."
Noh Hong-geuk looked out the window with a sour expression.
"The kind of bastard who'll leap right into the fire for whatever he believes is right! And along the way, he becomes another fire himself and draws the other moths in......"
Then he shot the Branch Head a sidelong glare.
"I mean you, you bastard."
With that, he got right up.
"I'm off."
Branch Head Bok Geon-gil hurriedly rose to see Noh Hong-geuk off.
"Where are you going?"
"I've got business to see to. Don't follow me. I'll be leaving the island straight from there."
Noh Hong-geuk left, and the Branch Head chewed over his parting words for a long while.
"Made a real wreck of the place."
Night had fallen dark.
Standing atop the tallest hall, Noh Hong-geuk looked down on the ruined mountain fortress of the Blood Night Gang.
Originally......
The reason Noh Hong-geuk had come all the way to Ghost Spirit Island was the Soulless Ones.
'Things that should never appear in this world.'
He had rushed here after hearing from Myriad Forms that the Blood Night Gang Leader was making Soulless Ones.
Once finished, they would be no small headache, so he had meant to destroy them before that.
'Gu Ja-gyeong, huh......'
The corner of his mouth twisted subtly. There was a bastard who read the board with his head, not the tip of his blade.
He had come thinking it would be too much for Fujian to handle, but an unexpected bastard had shown up and dealt with it in a snap. And on top of that, he had wrapped Fujian around his finger too.
"Tch."
He didn't like it, but looked at kindly, the brat had taken care of a nuisance for him.
Besides, it wasn't only the Soulless Ones that had brought him. He had meant to deal with them and, while he was at it, pick up a treasure or two.
For quite some time he had been hunting down spirit pills and spirit herbs whenever he had the chance. The rare spirit medicines he had gathered were no small hoard.
They were spirit medicines that would be of great use to whoever became the next League Leader.
'Hmph. Like blowing my nose without lifting a hand. Not bad.'
In a way, it was the easiest he had ever come by a treasure.
Just as Myriad Forms had told him, he worked the mechanism inside the medicine hall and entered the dead Blood Night Gang Leader's secret vault.
He rummaged around inside for a while......
"Hm?"
Noh Hong-geuk's hands, searching here and there, stopped. Because something was wrong.
"......Why is there nothing here?"
According to what Myriad Forms had told him, it had to be here. It came from the bastard who had peeked at everything while setting up the formation on Ghost Spirit Island, so he couldn't be wrong.
And yet it wasn't.
......The Iron-Blood Azure Root that should have been here.
Why was it that a certain bastard's face suddenly flashed through his mind?
—Give me just one day.
"......"
Noh Hong-geuk, who had been standing there stock-still, suddenly burst into mad laughter.
"Wahahahahahaha!"
KA-BOOOOOOM!
Old Tyrant Roar's formless energy, unleashed at full strength, smashed the vault in one blow, and the shock reached all the way to the surface.
Rrrrrumble......
The huge medicine hall collapsed helplessly. Noh Hong-geuk shot up out of the crumbling building to the surface.
A monk can't shave his own head, as they say. He remembered the advice he had given Fujian. Don't trust that bastard, mind the back of your head, he had warned him again and again, and in the end he was the one who got taken.
What he felt just then was truly strange.
Rage as hot as fire, and a satisfaction he couldn't explain. Two feelings that should never mix had mixed, and mad laughter burst out of him.
"Hahahahahaha!"
Every time he laughed, the already ravaged mountain fortress crumbled further. Soon, without a backward look, Noh Hong-geuk turned and left.
"Should I have just killed him back then after all?"
Muttering words that even he couldn't tell whether he meant.