To cut to the chase, by the time the third volley of arrows ended, the leaders of Gansu Murim had decided to let the fifty-odd suspicious-looking men—including the giant—inside the gates.
Of course, it would be misleading to call it a decision made by the entire leadership. Jeok Cheongang’s presence had a great deal to do with it.
“I don’t know what hole these mangy mutts crawled out of, but let them in alive for now.”
Then he added, addressing the murmuring leaders, “What are you agonizing over? If they seem suspicious, kill them and send them back out.”
“Oh.”
“Ah.”
It was such a clear-cut answer that even Judge Bao1 would’ve brought his dog-headed execution blade down with a smack. The meeting that hardly deserved to be called a meeting came to an end, and the Black Night King, Sima Gong, immediately ordered his subordinates to admit the vicious-looking visitors.
Rumble, rumble.
The massive iron gates began to open, little by little.
The giant was the first to step through the gap. He swept his bulging eyes around him.
He’d damn near shit blood dodging three volleys of arrows, and now his clothes were practically rags. His half-rolled eyes darted about, searching for someone.
Someone like the young bastard who’d suddenly ordered the archers to fire.
“Looking for someone? Keep that up and you’ll get a crick in your neck. Want me to find them for you?”
I’d come down first to greet our unexpected visitors. I tossed out the question as I stepped forward, and the giant’s eyes widened.
“You, you…!”
“I saw it all from up there. Nice job blocking them. Nice job dodging, too.”
“You look like a gisaeng’s2 older brother, you bastard! How dare you!”
“What did you just call me?”
My expression hardened. At the unsettling pressure coming off me, the giant flinched on instinct, then forced out another strained reply.
“I said you look like a gisaeng’s2 older brother…!”
“Hold on. Just hold on a second.”
“What?”
Leaving the giant’s angry, baffled question hanging, I closed my eyes.
He said I look like a gisaeng’s2 older brother.
What a wonderful thing to hear.
For a man of the same sex, with the same chromosomes, to say that to me was the highest praise imaginable.
I savored the lingering swell of emotion, then opened my eyes.
“Thanks. Turns out you’re a good guy.”
“…?”
“So, Junggeol, where are you from?”
“……!”
The giant—or rather, Ma Junggeol—nearly popped his eyes out of his head.
“How did you know?!”
“Hm? Know what?”
“My, my name.”
Seeing him stumble over his words now, I answered as casually as could be.
“Didn’t I tell you? We already introduced ourselves. You’ve forgotten that fast?”
“I…?”
“You must still be rattled. Fair enough. You had to dodge all those arrows.”
Ma Junggeol would probably never know that, at this very moment, a translucent holographic window was floating like a ghost above his head.
System
Level: 80
Name: Ma Junggeol
Level 80.
A person’s level wasn’t an absolute measure of their strength, but even so, it was awfully low for someone I’d suspect of being a Dark Heaven lackey.
Going by what I saw earlier, he’s maybe a fairly seasoned Peak master?
Still, you couldn’t let your guard down so easily.
As I slowly looked Ma Junggeol over, his expression still dazed, the leaders atop the wall finally came down the stairs, Jeok Cheongang among them.
At the same time, the fifty-odd mounted men came rushing toward us.
“Stop!”
“Let’s talk! Let’s talk!”
“We don’t want to fight!”
“Big Brother! Are you all right?”
“Enough!”
“I’m going to lose my mind. I told you to stop doing that.”
Six men, riding side by side at the very front of the group, surrounded Ma Junggeol.
What the hell are these guys?
I was sure everyone there was thinking much the same thing.
The lanky one. The dwarf. The bulbous-nosed one. The tiny-eyed one…
Every one of them had striking features that seemed to have gone their own way. You didn’t see a combination like that every day. And Ma Junggeol, standing in the middle of those six men, was the finishing touch.
Was his father Picasso?
They all had such strong impressionist faces that even the Black Dragon Demon Gate’s martial artists—who’d spent their share of time at the bottom—instinctively reached for their sword hilts.
Shing.
As the faint sounds of friction from here and there heightened the tension, a low voice reached everyone’s ears.
“I guarantee that anyone who tries something stupid from this point on will spend a very hot time with this old man.”
No one present needed to ask who’d spoken.
And, naturally, not even Tokyo Hot3 could hold a candle to the JCK-444 Fire Show Special. No one wanted to star in it.
Shuffle, shuffle.
The crowd parted to either side as though fleeing a fire demon.
Jeok Cheongang emerged through the gap, leading the other leaders. He glanced at Ma Junggeol, then turned to me.
“So, who is he, and where did he come from?”
“His name is Ma Junggeol. I don’t know where he came from yet.”
“Could he be a Dark Heaven lackey?”
“We’d have to beat the truth out of him to be sure. But, as you already know, he doesn’t look or seem capable of pulling anything clever…”
“You can’t judge by a feeling alone. What do you think of the possibility that they’re deliberately hiding their strength?”
Jeok Cheongang wasn’t asking because he didn’t know. He meant for everyone listening to our conversation to hear the question. Once I understood his intent, I answered without hesitation.
“No chance.”
“You must have a reason for thinking so.”
“Old—no, Master, if they were strong enough to fool you and the others here, they’d have to have undergone at least Returning to Simplicity or Bone Transformation.”
“And?”
“Look at those faces. Supreme Peak masters who’d reached that level couldn’t possibly look like that.”
“……!”
“……!”
The seven terrifying-looking men, Ma Junggeol included, shuddered. What could I do? It was true.
I’d suddenly found myself playing lawyer, and I felt an inexplicable sense of duty as I continued.
“Therefore, I find no grounds to charge them with ‘vicious-looking men concealing their martial arts,’ and I rest my case.”
Jeok Cheongang nodded with an expression of admiration.
“Your argument is so logical that even this old man hardly dares to dispute it.”
“Thank you.”
“But looking at those faces—whether they’re Yellow Turbans,4 Dark Heaven, or men who’ve held important posts in the Demonic Cult at the very least—I can’t help but find them suspicious.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“Either they confess everything right now, or I’ll beat it out of them with the Flame Divine Palm.”
His voice was directed at me, but his gaze wasn’t.
Under Jeok Cheongang’s stare, which seemed to pour streams of fire, Ma Junggeol went pale and stammered, “A-are you really the Fire King, Great Hero Jeok Cheongang…?”
Jeok Cheongang replied with a bored look.
“Of course I’m real. Did you think I was a fake?”
“If that’s true, then the gisaeng’s2 older brother—no, the young man—is the Blazing Flame Divine Dragon…”
It was my turn to speak.
Smiling broadly at hearing that pleasant description again, I tried to reassure the terrified Ma Junggeol.
“Keep calling me a gisaeng’s2 older brother. Make yourself comfortable. Come to think of it, I was rude, speaking so casually to you all this time. I’m sorry. Okay?”
“N-no, that’s all right. But it seems there’s been a misunderstanding for a while now. May I say something to clear it up?”
“Now you’re talking. You should’ve said—spoken up sooner.”
“I was trying to explain, but you jumped straight to—”
“Go on, then. Skip the preamble.”
At my gentle but forceful urging, Ma Junggeol hesitated, then straightened his shoulders and cautiously addressed the leaders, Jeok Cheongang included.
“To cut to the chase, we came from Ningxia.”
“Hold on. Ningxia? Could you be…?”
A thought crossed my mind, and I frowned. Ma Junggeol hurriedly added, “We’re not mounted bandits!”
Jeok Cheongang muttered, “So that’s why their faces looked suspicious. They’re those mounted bandits who’ve been spreading filth all over Ningxia Province.”
“I-it’s true that I belonged to a band of mounted bandits for a short time, but that’s not who we are now…”
Just then, the Wind-and-Cloud Sword Lord cut in, eyeing Ma Junggeol and his men with narrowed eyes.
“Infinite Life Buddha.5 I shouldn’t say this as a man who pursues the Way, but as Senior Jeok said, those faces clearly belong to men still in the trade.”
People nodded here and there in agreement.
Then, as if to prove why looks ruled modern society, the mood slowly turned hostile. One person spoke up.
“Ma Junggeol, Ma Junggeol… Could you be that very Ma Junggeol of Baekma Bang?”
It was the Black Night King, Sima Gong.
He’d been deep in thought with his brow furrowed. At his question, Ma Junggeol and his men—whose faces had been turning more and more sallow—visibly brightened.
“Y-you know me?”
“I’ve heard of you through the grapevine. More than ten years ago, an unknown master pacified the mounted-bandit gangs in Ningxia Province. A few of their leaders changed their ways under his guidance, joined forces, and founded a horse caravan.”
“That’s right! That’s me—or rather, that’s us!”
As though he’d finally found someone he could talk to, Ma Junggeol’s color returned. His expression grew serious as he saluted everyone with clasped hands.
“I am Ma Junggeol, Chief of Baekma Bang. The Seven Masters of Baekma Bang greet the heroes of the Murim Alliance.”
“……?”
“……?”
A suffocating silence pressed in from all sides.
The elegant title didn’t fit their vicious faces at all. The leaders and I silently exchanged glances, while the six men, prompted belatedly by Ma Junggeol, awkwardly copied his salute and whispered among themselves.
“Uh, is this how you do the salute, hyungs?6”
“You idiot. How many times have I told you to cover your left hand with your right palm?”
“What are you talking about? The youngest did it right. Fourth Hyung’s6 the one doing it wrong.”
“Oh, you’re right…”
“Enough! Can’t you all shut up? Do you know what kind of place this is?”
“Sheesh. A minute ago you were shouting ‘Enough! Enough!’ at the top of your lungs. Now you lower your voice because there are masters around. Being born later is my fucking crime. My crime.”
“……”
What the hell was going on with these guys?
Their voices were low, but their conversation still came through clearly. Everyone’s eyes went flat. Only Sima Gong kept his composure as he spoke.
“Yes, I’ve heard about Baekma Bang a few times. I hear you’ve fought off the nomads who invaded through the northern Great Steppe and given plenty of help to the commoners who’ve begun settling there. But…”
Sima Gong let his voice trail off. His gaze suddenly sharpened.
“What brings you here so abruptly?”
With everyone’s attention on him, Ma Junggeol straightened his bent back and answered.
“We came here to offer our help.”
“Help with what?”
“Dark Heaven. We have important information about them.”
“……!”
Footnotes
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Judge Bao is a legendary Chinese magistrate associated with execution blades bearing animal-head designs. ↩
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A gisaeng was a Korean female entertainer. Comparing a man to a gisaeng’s older brother mocks his pretty face. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5
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Tokyo Hot is a Japanese adult-video studio. ↩
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The Yellow Turbans were a rebel movement in late Han-dynasty China. ↩
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“Infinite Life Buddha” is a Buddhist invocation referring to Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Life. ↩
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Hyung is a Korean form of address used by a man for an older brother or an older man close to him; hyungs is its English plural. ↩ ↩2
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