Chapter 878

The moment he heard the Sound Transmission, Jeok Cheongang moved with remarkable speed—and made it look perfectly natural.

“Oh, you’re looking for the finest Shu brocade¹? You should’ve said so earlier. Come on in.”

“No, wait. I was only…”

The man disguised as a customer tried to protest, but the terrifying qi flowing through Jeok Cheongang’s grip on his wrist left him gaping.

“Gah.”

The pressure felt as though it would crush his entire body.

He instinctively summoned his internal energy to protect his wrist. It did no good.

No—when he saw the flames pouring from Jeok Cheongang’s eyes, even the last scrap of his will crumbled to ash.

What the hell is with that look…

This wasn’t a man. He was a born beast of prey. A predator.

Frozen stiff against his will, the man was dragged deep into the textile shop.

Between towering stacks of cotton cloth and silk, two figures emerged like ghosts from a shadowy corner.

Thud.

In the faint lamplight, the faces of two young men, both around thirty, came into view.

One wore an expression as dry as if he’d been chewing sand. The other was handsome, but his sharply upturned eyes made him look almost sly.

Neither had the sort of face that made dealing with people easy.

The especially grim-looking young man spoke first, in a painfully awkward tone.

“Hey, Mr. Jeok. What’s going on?”

Jeok Cheongang answered, “Hey, Mr. Jeok? Are you that eager to shit blood?”

“……Oh. Not right now?”

“Can’t you tell by looking? How did you survive as a wandering martial artist with that little sense?”

“I’m sorry.”

The grim-looking young man bowed his head. Song Ilseom spoke again, more carefully this time.

“May I ask who that man is?”

“A customer.”

Jeok Cheongang gave the brief reply, then added, “But he used Sound Transmission. Mentioned a sobriquet that starts with ‘Blazing’ and ends with ‘Dragon.’”

Song Ilseom replied at once. “I’ll close up for today.”

“Make sure the shop is secured. Oh, first, circle the area. If you see anyone suspicious, grab the bastard and bring him here too.”

“Yes. But if I have no choice…?”

“What the hell are you asking me for? In that situation, slit his throat first.”

“Understood.”

“Just clean up after yourself. Make sure no one notices.”

“Leave it to me.”

Song Ilseom bowed politely and left at once. The man who’d heard their conversation felt his knees go weak.

Is this a textile shop or a slaughterhouse?

Could they be… an assassin organization?

Nothing in his orders had mentioned anything like this.

As his mouth went dry, the other young man spoke up.

“What should I do?”

“Bring the rest here. Every last one of them.”

“It’ll be difficult to bring everyone right away. One of them is out.”

“Damn it, what kind of goddamn idiot can’t sit still for a minute?”

“Well, it’s Young Lady Ju.”

“She’s allowed to go out for a while. Right. Of course. She must’ve gone to check on the situation nearby. How thoughtful of her.”

“……”

“Quit looking at me like that and go fetch the other freeloaders.”

“Yes.”

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

Jeok Cheongang stopped the young man as he was turning away and frowned.

“I told you not to look at me like that. Do my words sound like bullshit to you?”

“My eyes have looked this way since I was a child, so there’s nothing I can do about—no. I’m sorry. If I get the chance someday, I’ll be reborn.”

“Good. That way you can reincarnate. Maybe you’ll have kinder-looking eyes next time.”

“Yes…”

Sama Pyo, the young man cursed with sorrowfully upturned eyes, left with a feeble reply. Jeok Cheongang suddenly reached toward something.

Swish.

Qi stretched out, invisible, and the air around them trembled.

So did the man’s pupils as he watched a wooden chest float through the air toward them.

Seizing an Object Through Empty Space!

The man belonged to a rather extraordinary organization himself, so this wasn’t the first time he’d seen the technique. But he knew even a skilled internal-energy master would have to concentrate to pull in a chest that heavy.

Yet the middle-aged man before him had done it with ease.

With one casual wave of his hand.

Could it be…?

A possibility occurred to him, and he spoke cautiously.

“Could your sobriquet be the Fire King?”

Instead of answering, Jeok Cheongang blinked at him as if he were some curious creature. Then he kicked the man in the shin as fast as a flash.

Crack!

“Gah!”

“You little shit! You’re still wet behind the ears, and half your tongue seems to be missing. What was that—‘you’?”

“W-wait! Wait! Hear me out! I…”

“Stay right where you are. Move and you’ll get hurt worse.”

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

The grappling technique he’d practiced until his arms were bruised and the footwork technique he’d drilled until his leg muscles screamed were useless now.

After blows to the shin, stomach, chest, and finally the bridge of his nose, the man collapsed like a kite with its string cut.

Thump.

Of course, he wasn’t even allowed to pass out.

“Up.”

He sprang to his feet far faster than he’d fallen. His voice trembled as he spoke.

“Are you Great Hero Jeok Cheongang, the Fire King?”

His tone could not have been more respectful.

Jeok Cheongang had perched on the chest he’d drawn over with Seizing an Object Through Empty Space. He looked as satisfied as a surgeon who’d just completed a difficult operation.

“Your severed tongue has finally grown back in the right place. Yes, this old man is Jeok Cheongang. And who are you?”

“This humble servant…”

“I don’t need to know a nobody like you’s name. Just tell me who you work for. I can tell at a glance you’re an eunuch, anyway.”

“……!”

“What? Was that such a big secret?”

The man—or rather, the eunuch—was momentarily speechless. Jeok Cheongang gave a short laugh and continued.

“I’ll admit, you’ve put together a convincing disguise. That human-skin mask, even the beard—they look like they’re yours. But that’s not enough to fool this old man.”

“Then how did you…?”

“I felt your pulse earlier. You didn’t have nearly enough yang qi for a man. Now, tell me—which is more likely in the imperial palace courtyard: running into a eunuch, or running into a martial artist without balls? I don’t need to spell it out, do I?”

The eunuch swallowed hard. Jeok Cheongang’s judgment was sharp, but what unsettled him more was that knowing he was a eunuch hadn’t changed the man’s attitude at all.

“Then you must know where I came from, too.”

“Of course. The only place in the world with the perverse hobby of ripping the balls off perfectly healthy men is the imperial palace.”

“……”

“Stop rambling and answer what I asked. Exactly where in the imperial palace do you serve? Are you under that eunuch who’s Prince Shangshan’s right hand? The East Depot? Or are you one of the ones licking the Emperor’s…”

“The East Depot.”

“The East Depot, eh? The place where they gather the most stubborn and vicious eunuchs under heaven. So why has one of you come all the way here?”

“The Blazing Flame Divine Dragon—no, your Disciple asked me to pass on several messages.”

“And the Emperor isn’t laying a trap?”

“Absolutely not. Your Disciple was the one who told us you were staying here.”

“That sounds plausible. But with the East Depot’s intelligence network, it wouldn’t be strange if you’d found out some other way. How will you prove it?”

As Jeok Cheongang’s eyes narrowed, the eunuch hurried to answer.

“M-Mong-su-ta.”

“What?”

“Your Disciple told me to say it. I have no idea what it means, but he said if I passed it on, I’d at least avoid shitting blood…”

The eunuch waited in dread. Fortunately, Jeok Cheongang knew exactly what the clumsily pronounced word meant.

Monster.

The monsters from the other world that had stained the realm of immortals with blood.

And only two people under heaven knew about them: Jin Taekyung and himself.

“Hmm. He definitely sent you.”

“Y-yes.”

“If you’d said that sooner, I wouldn’t have had to hit you. Forgive this old man’s rudeness, my good castrate.”

The eunuch wanted to say that calling a eunuch a castrate was about as rude as it got, but he held his tongue.

If he ran his mouth again, he might really end up shitting blood.

His best course was to leave as quickly as possible.

Swish.

He reached deep into his robes, took out a small tube, and handed it over. Jeok Cheongang’s eyes grew serious.

“Is this the missive Jin Taekyung told you to deliver?”

“Yes.”

“And the other one?”

As Jeok Cheongang had said, there were two tightly sealed tubes. The eunuch spoke in a low voice.

“The person I serve ordered me to deliver this one.”

“The person you serve?”

“You seem to know the Deputy Military Commissioner of Shanxi Province.”

“Hong Jin? I’ve never met him, but I heard about him on the way here. A fairly decent eunuch, apparently.”

“……Yes. The person I serve is close to him. He said the contents would help with what you’re going to do.”

“Is that all? Nothing else to tell me?”

“That’s all. I’m only a messenger.”

That was the extent of the eunuch’s orders.

He hurried out of the vast slaughterhouse—or rather, the textile shop—using a footwork technique. Left alone, Jeok Cheongang broke the seals and drew out two rolled-up missives.

Rustle.

The smell of oil-treated paper mingled with the stale air inside the shop.

Jin Taekyung’s missive opened with the immortal line “Looks like we’re screwed.” Jeok Cheongang read it, then quickly went through the information prepared with the East Depot’s help. He let out a quiet sigh.

“What a goddamn mess.”

And then—

Fwoosh.

Flames from Samadhi² True Fire swallowed both missives, writhing in the darkness.

As Jeok Cheongang silently watched the missives turn to ash and vanish with a soft rustle in the blink of an eye—

“I brought everyone.”

Sama Pyo, who’d left only moments ago, approached with some familiar faces, then stopped short.

“Where is that man?”

“I sent him away a little while ago. Fortunately, he wasn’t suspicious.”

“Did you find out who he was?”

“An eunuch. One Jin Taekyung sent.”

“……What?”

Jeok Cheongang ignored Sama Pyo’s confusion at that painfully brief explanation.

“Where the hell were those people? What took you so long to bring them?”

Yaaawn.

Sama Pyo nudged Taishan in the side as he yawned, his eyes still sleepy, then hesitated.

“Well, you see…”

“Holed up in a corner sleeping, were they?”

“I think they dozed off for a bit.”

“Tell him next time he’ll sleep forever.”

“Yes.”

“What about Namho?”

Sama Pyo glanced at the old man, Namho, who was panting in rumpled clothes, and answered.

“He was choking Taishan.”

“Why?”

“Taishan drank all the liquor Elder Namho had hidden away.”

For a brief, tempting moment, Jeok Cheongang imagined choking Taishan and Namho at the same time. Then he sighed deeply.

“Quit screwing around and get ready, all of you.”

“Pardon me, but what should we…”

“We’re going to the imperial palace soon.”

“What? How?”

Jeok Cheongang’s eyes gleamed as he answered.

“Don’t worry. We’ve been formally invited.”