Chapter 66: There Is Relative, But No Absolute (1)

Mo Yonggun, alternating between two letters, shook his head.

“Bold fellow.”

“What is it?”

“Our trip to Henan for a drink may end up pointless.”

“Hm?”

Mo Yonggun handed Mo Yong Yeonhwa the letters.

Mo Yong Yeonhwa’s eyes trembled.

“Azure Wolf Ghosts?!”

Mo Yonggun clicked his tongue.

“The Ming Clan Lord has made up his mind.”

“No matter what, sending the entire Azure Wolf Ghosts? There’s no need to go this far, is there?”

“There is.”

“Huh?”

“The Ming Clan Lord’s love for his children is rather terrifying. His second came back half-dead—how could his eyes not turn?”

“Well, that’s true.”

The only reason Mo Yong Yeonhwa hadn’t thought of it at once was simple—

Because Mo Yonggun was not that kind of man. Even if a child died, he was the sort to preserve his full strength.

And she agreed with her father: one cannot burn a clan’s power for the sake of a single child.

“Do you think Yeon Hojeong knows this?”

Mo Yonggun shook his head.

“Whether he knows or not doesn’t matter.”

“I’ve heard the Azure Wolf Ghosts are a fearsome outfit. But I don’t know their exact strength. Are they truly that great?”

“They have not failed even once to this day.”

“It could just be they’ve only faced opponents they could beat, no?”

“That’s unlikely—and if it were so, worse. It would mean they came because they judged Yeon Hojeong to be an opponent they could handle.”

“...!”

Interest flickered over Mo Yonggun’s face.

“In the midst of it, his response is amusing, don’t you think?”

“I don’t know. To me it looks like rash bravado.”

“You could call it that. But it doesn’t feel like mere bravado.”

“Hm?”

“He knows I’ve come to Zhengzhou, and still says he’ll ‘tidy up one more thing’ before coming. Even with confidence he can handle the enemy, that’s not easy to do.”

True enough.

When there’s an easy road, there’s no need to go around. A hard road is not always the right one.

“The more justification, the better... He is truly a shrewd yet violent lad, isn’t he? Harboring contradictory traits at once—hardly ordinary.”

Mo Yong Yeonhwa let out a sigh.

“One thing’s certain: he’s the sort who wears people out.”

“Hahaha!”

“Azure Wolf Ghosts... I’ve heard they’re almost assassins.”

“Ambiguous lot.”

“Pardon?”

“Judging by martial arts alone, none of them could match you. Some are first-rate, but none are top-rate.”

Mo Yong Yeonhwa knit her brows.

“And yet five of them caught the Sword Hero of Mount Heng? A master who stood even with an elder of the Azure Castle Sect?”

“Do you think strong martial skill makes one skilled at killing?”

“...What?”

“One with excellent martial skill can kill others easily. But that does not make him a specialist in killing.”

Mo Yong Yeonhwa nodded.

She knew it in her head. She had never felt it.

In the rivers and lakes—in the world—there is nothing that cannot happen. There is a reason you hear, often enough, that a third-rate knife can take a first-rate head.

But she had never yet met true murder-demons. She did not know how efficiently they killed, how vicious they could become for the sake of killing.

So it didn’t feel real. Only five to take the Sword Hero of Mount Heng? How could that be?

“The Azure Wolf Ghosts, to kill a target, will erase an entire area where the target resides.”

“...What?”

“If he’s in a village, they’ll burn the village. If he’s in a forest, they’ll burn the forest whole. If the target is a man of overflowing chivalry, they won’t hesitate to rip a child apart before his eyes or kidnap a housewife and rape her.”

“...!”

“They shake the opponent’s mind first, then begin the work. They make contact early, then build a tactic. Poisoning drink is commonplace. They’ll kidnap commoners’ families and send in suicide charges.”

A sickened light rose on Mo Yong Yeonhwa’s face.

“Demons.”

“Demon-like men. That is why they are strong. Because they are men who will do anything for their aim.”

“And after all that, they’ve gone unpunished?”

“Because the Ming Clan covered them.”

Interest stirred again on Mo Yonggun’s face.

“Until the Ming Clan backed them, they hid absolutely. Their concealment is that good—and they’re hard to catch.”

Mo Yong Yeonhwa nodded.

Now she understood how five could take the Sword Hero of Mount Heng. With methods that foul, the Sword Hero—lauded as a great chivalrous man—would have lost his head.

Mo Yonggun looked out the window.

“A hellish strategy that even elders of the Nine Great Sects could not withstand. In short, it’s a battle of will before skill.”

“...Can Yeon Hojeong overcome them?”

“The odds are low. Martial folk mostly revere personal prowess over strategy or tactics. But if by some chance he does overcome them...”

A chill briefly traced Mo Yonggun’s face.

“Even I will have to beware him.”

****

After good food and as much drink as he pleased for the first time in a while, Yeon Hojeong didn’t rise until noon the next day.

“Brrr!”

The drink was long since out of his system. Perhaps because of that, he felt profoundly satisfied, and his body felt completely loosened.

This is why rest matters. With a single day of rest, he blew away accumulated fatigue.

“Time to get ready.”

He sat cross-legged on the bed and finished a light circulation. Afterward he went to the privy, took care of his needs, came back to quarters, and ate all the rice balls and the pork steamed in a bamboo tube he’d packed the night before.

A refreshing start in the truest sense.

He slung two water flasks at his waist and limbered up.

“Let’s see, first...”

Once loose, he drew a dagger from his bosom. This too he’d had the errand-boy fetch from a nearby smithy before he came back last night.

Of course, it wasn’t just ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) one. Besides the one in his hand, nineteen daggers lay tucked inside his clothes.

“I paid a tidy sum, but the quality’s not great.”

He clicked his tongue.

Well, he wasn’t going to fence with daggers. This would do.

Yeon Hojeong looked out the window.

It was a clear day. As fine as one could wish.

The thought of wrangling with mad murder-fiends on a day like this was already depressing.

Flash!

Beyond the window, light flickered from a tall tower.

Scratching his head, Yeon Hojeong breathed Jade Wave True Qi into the dagger.

Vmmm—

“Let’s see if I can finish before sunset.”

He braced his lower abdomen and whipped his body around.

Shaaak! Thud!

The glint vanished.

At the same time, a scream rang out in the distance.

“One down.”

Axe in hand, Yeon Hojeong set his foot on the window frame.

He left the money on the bed. A shame about the remaining balance, but he could not stop by the wine house proper. One wrong move, and innocents could die.

“Let’s start cleaning!”

Boom!

Yeon Hojeong soared high into the sky.

In a single bound he reached the top of the building opposite and scanned in all directions.

‘Not bad.’

Having killed one, all enemy eyes should have fixed on him.

Yet he felt no killing intent. He felt dozens of gazes, but none carried killing will.

Highly trained men. Clearly they’d had professional education in killing.

‘This is the least you should have.’

Boom!

Planting on the roof, he skimmed over several buildings in an instant.

His movement arts were a notch below his footwork, but still quite excellent. He could not produce the monstrous speed of the so-called masters of movement arts, but as for endurance, he was confident.

His method of efficiently running inner power differed by a dimension from other masters.

Thump! Boom!

Even leaping from building to building, he looked in no danger at all.

The sense of balance earned from swinging a heavy weapon long since surpassed peak-expert level by far. On top of that, with White Tiger Qi he had sharply raised his overall physical capability, and his inner power had grown in both quality and quantity.

If he set himself to flight in earnest, no one would easily give chase.

As he ran on for some time, Yeon Hojeong suddenly felt a faint killing intent.

Whip!

A dagger, arrow-swift, punched squarely into a merchant’s brow.

An enemy disguised as a commoner. His senses had grown keen enough to respond the instant the barest killing intent leaked.

Yeon Hojeong increased his speed.

Whip! Thud! Whip! Thud!

In ten li of running, he killed six in all. Those who died likely never even knew why or how.

After a long run, Yeon Hojeong’s eyes gleamed.

‘There will do.’

Before a low stone hill stood an old Guan Di Temple.

As he moved to enter, an ominous feeling ran through him. It flowed from the temple itself.

‘I don’t feel any signs of life.’

He felt killing intent but no presence of life. Meaning no one but the enemy was hiding there.

Fweee—

White wind howled about his axe.

Leaping high, Yeon Hojeong landed to the left of the temple and unleashed Tiger King’s Nine Thunderclap Stances.

Kra-BOOM!

A monstrous shock-wind from the heavy weapon shattered the temple’s old walls and pillars as they were.

Spla-aash!

Blood fountained in sheets. Two enemies hiding within died on the spot.

But one survived.

Ssshk!

An astonishing strike.

Through the collapsing wall and the fan of blood like silk, a short spear flew. Even under sudden assault, they launched a precise attack that masked his sight.

Tiiing!

The spear glanced off the axe and sprang away.

Whirling his body like kicking out a Whirlwind Step, Yeon Hojeong booted a falling slab of brickwork.

Whumm! Crack!

A skull-splitting sound. The brick took the head off.

Yeon Hojeong quickened.

Boom! Boom!

In an instant he was scrambling up the stone hill’s crown.

As he climbed, he drove his fist into the rock face here and there.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

With fists loaded full of Jade Wave True Qi, he struck the rock face twelve times. Not in one place—zigzagging upward, tapping multiple points.

Even with that much inner power behind them, the blows left no visible gouge. With his back turned, the enemy could not see.

Flaaash!

With nimble motion he crested the rock face and turned.

He saw some thirty-odd warriors.

All in dark blue martial garb. Men and women mixed, and even their ages ranged all over.

And in their midst—the woman from yesterday: Wolf Roar.

Wolf Roar’s eyes had set, grave.

“You—what are you?”

Yeon Hojeong gave a thin smile.

“You tried to kill me without even knowing who I am?”

“I heard you’re the First Young Master of the Yeon Clan of Green Mountain.”

“That’s right.”

“Don’t make me laugh.”

Ferocious killing intent gathered in Wolf Roar’s eyes.

“A prim orthodox boy—with no experience in the rivers and lakes—handles us this handily? Try that nonsense on someone who’d swallow it.”

“Take it up with the Ming Clan that sent you.”

“...!”

Smiling down at them, Yeon Hojeong sighed.

“The Sword Hero of Mount Heng—what a gentle soul. To meet his end at the hands of bunglers like you—walking the edge of a blade is a truly empty life.”

Wolf Roar stared up at him, then shouted:

“Poison Net!”

Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff!

All the Azure Wolf Ghosts popped poison bombs.

The speed with which a blue-black miasma spread was startling—certainly faster than Yeon Hojeong’s movement arts.

Gazing down at the swiftly rising poison haze, Yeon Hojeong thought: inside that cloud, they’d be readying a secondary strike.

Watching to see where he moved.

Yeon Hojeong smiled and lifted his axe. He did not move as the Azure Wolf Ghosts wished.

To be precise, he didn’t need to.

“Compared to the Black Emperor’s Citadel’s assassination squads, you’re at the level of your first toddling steps.”

He drove the axe down with force. Every form of Tiger King’s Nine Thunderclap Stances crashed down in succession.

Boom! KRAK! KRA-KRAK! RRRRRUMBLE!

The rock face—its insides fractured by an internal heavy-hand method—collapsed in one whole slab.