Chapter 14: The Four Divine Arts Activated (4)

The raucous din in Choseong Pavilion went silent in an instant.

“Hmph! You’ll hide to the bitter end? Fine! I’ll make it so you can’t help but crawl out!”

Boom! Boom-boom!

Flames shot up from all sides of Choseong Pavilion.

“Aaagh!”

“F—fire!”

“Gasp! Martial artists!”

The patrons of the pavilion were seized by terror.

Whether they had splashed oil or not, the fire spread at a vicious speed. The storied, well-known Choseong Pavilion was, in a blink, penned in by a wall of fire.

Je Gal Jun, who had been resting, sprang out.

“Sis?!”

Je Gal Ahyeon had come out even faster and was staring through the open window.

“Sis! What is this fire?!”

“Those bastards.”

“Huh?”

Je Gal Ahyeon’s face was bladed over with cold fury.

“The same pack as the ones I smashed yesterday.”

“......!!”

Je Gal Jun ground his teeth.

“How did they even find this place?!”

“That’s not the problem right now!”

Clack!

Je Gal Ahyeon threw the window open and vaulted out, clearing one roof in a single bound.

Her movement was lofty and pure like a lone crane. It was the Je Gal Clan’s signature lightness art—Heavenly Mechanism Body Movement.

In a blink, she was on the central roof. Her face went pale.

There are many!

Far more than a hundred. At the very least, a hundred and fifty.

How did this many gather?!

All she had done was put a beating on some street ruffians who were mugging a passing merchant. From the look of it the merchant hadn’t been in the wrong, and crucially, he’d looked a breath away from dying.

After that, a Demonic Path sect that covered those ruffians’ backs had come chasing. But for a Demonic Path sect they were barely above third-rate, few in number, and she had flattened them at once and sauntered over to Choseong Pavilion.

She had thought that was the end of it.

But the one shouting himself hoarse over there—wasn’t that the very Sect Master of that Demonic Path sect she’d dropped?

“Gasp! Hall Lord! Do you see the roof there? That one, it’s her!”

“I see her.”

Je Gal Ahyeon looked down at the man they called Hall Lord.

A master?

Perhaps forty? A slim frame and a mild, compliant face.

But unlike the exterior, his eyes were not ordinary. Even at this distance, the way he stared at her was chilling, the pupils like those of a beast.

“Hall Lord! Hurry and grab that wench and—!”

Crack!

“Ghk!”

The man tumbled across the ground. The blood gushing from his nose and mouth said he’d suffered severe internal damage.

Je Gal Ahyeon’s brow knit.

Yin Palm?

It wasn’t a technique that released force outward. It was a Yin-type palm that drove cultivated force into the body to rot it from within.

The Hall Lord dusted his hands.

“You idiot. That’s why people call you third-rate. Just look at her. Anyone can see she’s a master raised by a noble house.”

Je Gal Ahyeon called out, clear and ringing.

“Who are you?”

“‘Who are you?’ Hah, listen to that foul mouth on a little girl. Well, pups trained by those orthodox noble houses are all the same.”

“......!!”

“It’s hard on the neck to look up. Come down. If we’re trading names, faces should be close.”

“If I refuse?”

“Well, if you refuse, can’t be helped.”

His answer was playful. What happened next was not.

Leather pouches flew from all directions.

Boom! Whump—whump!

“Gyaaaah!”

“Uwaah! P-please, spare me!”

The already menacing conflagration doubled in size and savagery. The pouches had held oil.

Je Gal Ahyeon shouted.

“Enough! I’ll come down!”

“Should’ve done that to begin with. You orthodox types never listen.”

Ssshhk!

Before the last word finished, Je Gal Ahyeon landed opposite the man.

Her movement was astonishingly fluid. Even the middle-aged man’s eyes went wide in real surprise.

“Ho! What a marvelous lightness art. So then—whose young lady might you be?”

“I am Je Gal Ahyeon of the Je Gal Clan.”

She disliked leaning on her house’s name to press others. But given the situation, there was no choice. One misstep and the common folk would pay dearly.

“Divine-Mechanism Je Gal! So this is how one meets a child of the Seven Great Clans.”

The man looked her up and down as if examining some curious animal.

Je Gal Ahyeon’s face hardened.

What is this?

He wasn’t cowed.

Street ruffians were one thing, but even many Demonic Path sects would bolt the instant they heard the name of the Seven Great Clans. Not only would they fail to win, their lives would be at risk.

And yet the man showed no sign of that at all.

Hm?

Je Gal Ahyeon realized his eyes were somehow dull.

His qi was unmistakably first-class, yet his gaze was turbid?

What is this? Is he addicted to some perverse drug?

Rustle!

At some point Je Gal Jun had appeared beside her.

The man clapped exaggeratedly for them to see.

“Ho! Even on a second look that lightness art astonishes me. Would you teach it to me? I’m a bit weak when it comes to movement.”

He’d seemed bizarre already; the more he spoke, the more grotesque he became.

Je Gal Jun swore without thinking.

“Lunatic!”

“Shall I strip your tendons out while you’re alive and carve off ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) your flesh? Will you tell me then, hm?”

The words were chilling.

It wasn’t mere bluster. Madness was flooding his eyes. From that gaze and tone, he’d done things like that more than once.

“Who are you, really?”

“Ah! I hadn’t introduced myself, had I? I am the Hall Lord of Thunderfire Hall.”

They hadn’t heard of the sect. Truth be told, neither sibling paid much attention to Demonic Path sects.

“I’ll be brief. Order your men to put that fire out. Now.”

“Why would I?”

“What?!”

“Once your Yeon brats are in there or not, once a blaze is set, that’s that.”

The siblings’ faces twisted with anger.

The Thunderfire Hall Lord burst out laughing. The laughter itself carried madness.

“Since you crawled out meekly, I’ll spare your lives! So, how shall I cook your Yeon brats?”

“You vicious swine!”

“The boy looks sturdy—sell him to the old men who drool over boys. And the girl’s easy on the eyes—enjoy her to your fill, then sell her to the brothels!”

“You bastard!”

Wham!

They couldn’t listen any longer. The siblings kicked off the ground.

A thin, killing edge flickered across the Thunderfire Hall Lord’s face.

“Ha!”

Then, from brush far off to their left and right, dozens of throwing blades ripped in.

The throwing was nothing special. But it was a strike no one expected. Hit by a surprise attack while white-hot with anger, there was no way not to be rattled.

“Haap!”

Shhhrip!

At Je Gal Jun’s flick, the knives arcing through the air veered.

It was the Je Gal Clan’s special technique, the Lesser Heavenly Star Palm Method. Palm force spread like a bolt of silk and scattered the attack angles of the blades. For a youth not yet of full age, it was astoundingly high-level skill.

Thud!

“Kh!”

“Jun!”

A marvelous technique—but he hadn’t accounted for a second ambush. Three daggers buried themselves in Je Gal Jun’s thigh.

The Thunderfire Hall Lord laughed and crooked a finger. Thin daggers were pinched between his knuckles.

“Greenhorn.”

Je Gal Jun clenched his teeth and forced himself upright.

His martial skill was strong, but he lacked experience. Neither he nor Je Gal Ahyeon had any experience with massed melees or chaotic battlefield fights.

“This much is— kugh!”

Je Gal Jun suddenly spat blood.

It was bright red, but the stench was foul. Je Gal Ahyeon’s eyes shook.

Poison?!

She stared at the Thunderfire Hall Lord.

“Filthy cur!”

“What? In the martial world, this is basic.”

“Hand over the antidote. Now!”

“Don’t worry. His viscera will be a bit damaged, but he won’t die. I said I’d sell him to the old men who like boys, didn’t I?”

Even through the rage boiling to the crown of her head, her chest dropped hollow. This madman actually meant to carry out the filth he’d said.

“You’re next.”

Sssk.

The fighters who’d thrown from the brush stepped into view. They meant to seize Je Gal Ahyeon in earnest.

Alone, maybe. With her brother crippled, movement became hard. Je Gal Ahyeon’s face darkened with grim calculation.

****

Thud! Rrrrumble!

All along the walls encircling Choseong Pavilion came the sound of collapse.

Who knew how fierce the blaze had to be to bring down stone? Yeon Jipyeong, who had somehow reached the pavilion’s topmost main floor, shouted.

“Captain Shin!”

“Yes, Second Young Master!”

“First, have the men beat back the flames! A—and over there! We have to help the Je Gal Clan!”

For sangfroid, Yeon Jipyeong was second to none, but even he was rattled by the sudden crisis.

Shin Mo answered briskly.

“We should evacuate the people first.”

“Ah! R—right! Then I’ll go help the Je Gal Clan, and—!”

Just then—

“Wait.”

Both of them snapped around.

Yeon Hojeong was standing there. From the look of it he’d been walking near the fire wall; soot smudged his face.

“Brother?!”

“You all right?”

“Y-yes! But, Brother—wait?”

Yeon Hojeong looked to Shin Mo.

“Captain Shin.”

“Yes, First Young Master.”

“I opened a path through the rear garden of Choseong Pavilion, and to the northeast and southeast. It’s not enough. Outside the southwest gate there’s mounded earth to either side. Go roughly a hundred paces past that and you’ll hit the riverbank.”

“P—pardon?!”

“Break the southwest gate. That’s the final escape route.”

“H-how did you—”

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes flashed.

In that instant, Shin Mo felt his spine go straight.

“I receive the First Young Master’s command!”

Shin Mo moved at once.

Yeon Hojeong stepped past Yeon Jipyeong to the edge of the railing. He could see Je Gal Ahyeon holding up Je Gal Jun.

Show me your martial skill.

A faint aura rose off Je Gal Ahyeon’s body. She meant to go all out.

Now!

Yeon Jipyeong asked urgently,

“Brother! We have to open a way where the Je Gal Clan is! There are lots of people over there too!”

“It’s fine.”

“Huh?!”

“The fire won’t spread further. The wind’s against it; no one will be breathing smoke. For now, they’ll be fine.”

“But if people panic and something happens—!”

“Once the duel is decided, everyone lives. Don’t panic.”

“T-then we should go help the Je Gal Clan! The sooner we put those men down, the sooner we can the gate—!”

“Wait.”

“......Brother?”

“Wait.”

Yeon Jipyeong was about to ask what he meant, then shut his mouth.

High nose-bridge, sharp and cold—his brother’s eyes shone a killing blue.

He had never seen eyes like that. Not human eyes—ghost eyes.

Clack!

Without realizing it, Yeon Jipyeong backed up two steps and caught his heel on a broken table leg. He didn’t even register it. The change in his brother’s face filled him with alien dread.

Yeon Hojeong was the same. The five senses and sixth sense that always skimmed the world were fixed solely on Je Gal Ahyeon.

If your clan is the hand behind it all—

His fingers tightened around the window frame.

Crunch.

The wooden jamb snapped. He had unconsciously set the Jade Wave True Formula in motion.

“......I’ll turn all Hubei into a sea of fire, starting with your Yeon dogs.”

Whump!

Dozens of knives poured down on Je Gal Ahyeon.

In that instant, a white surge of force burst from her body.

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes widened.