Chapter 68

The External Protection Troops and the Golden Claw members were evenly matched in strength.

This was a great achievement for the External Protection Troops; individually they couldn’t compare to the Golden Claw members.

It was a miraculous balance, forged by their willingness to guard with their lives and Yeon Mujin’s tailored guidance.

—Remember: you’ll face exactly four. Your role is to stall those four Golden Claw members.

—Wei Gon-chan, Yu Se-gwang. The two of you take the tallest one. His specialty is…….

Yeon Mujin instructed them as if a shaman had descended, speaking with the certainty of someone who knew every line of their enemy. Which techniques they favored, where their weaknesses lay, how to confront them and what to watch for—he laid it all out.

Endless, detailed tips—tips only someone who truly knew the Lonely Claw Troops could give—poured out.

—What on earth is the captain…….

The External Protection Troops who heard the orders looked at Yeon Mujin with half-belief. Is this for real? Has the captain gone mad? But they had no choice: trust and fight, or run. They had long since discarded the latter, so they could only trust and fight.

From the first exchange of blows they felt it instinctively.

‘We can do this!’

Yeon Mujin’s advice was not false. When they struck the weak points he had indicated, the enemy was thrown off. They could anticipate the opponents’ signature moves, driving the Golden Claw members nearly insane with frustration.

‘What the hell are these guys!’

Opponents who should have fallen in ten seconds stretched the fight to twenty, then thirty, and eventually reached near parity.

“What are you all doing! The target is only Flying Swallow Manor! Kill them quickly!” Un Cheon-mok shouted, yet even he was struggling against three External Protection Troops.

The External Protection Troops clung like tenacious dogs; Yeon’s order was to buy time, not win. Against foes who wouldn’t overextend, gaining a decisive advantage was difficult.

“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!” Un Cheon-mok spat curses.

The situation wasn’t hopeless, but the fact that time was being drawn out worked against them.

‘Where on earth did the two who infiltrated as the vanguard go!’

Un Cheon-mok suspected the two Golden Claw members who carried the fake corpse of Bukgung Bi-beom had been dealt with. There had even been that mysterious sorcery that burned eleven Golden Claw members to death; thirteen comrades had fallen on this mission alone.

Everything was riddled with unknowns.

They hadn’t expected so many Golden Claw members to die at Flying Swallow Manor, hadn’t expected to be so hamstrung by mere External Protection Troops, and moreover…….

As he exchanged blows, Un Cheon-mok glanced at the thick fog settling over a corner of the training ground. Beyond it, the sounds of the External Protection Troops’ master and the Lonely Claw Troops’ chief fighting echoed. The captain’s skill exceeded their expectations—nearly on par with the demon Un Ji-kang?

He still believed in Un Ji-kang. He couldn’t imagine the demon losing and waited only for a swift opportunity to kill the opponent and return to assist him.

Both the External Protection Troops locked in stalemate with the Golden Claw members; everyone fought while watching the writhing fog.

And then, in an instant.

“Aaaaaargh!”

A scream erupted from within the fog, followed by the chilling sound of blades tearing flesh several times.

People instinctively knew: the indecisive battle’s outcome had been decided.

The fog began to part slowly. What emerged from it was—.

“……!”

“……captain!”

Two silhouettes—blood-soaked apparitions—appeared, two crimson masses drenched in blood. It was hard to tell which was Yeon Mujin and which was Un Ji-kang.

The crimson figures stirred. With a clack, one of them—astonishingly—raised his sword, though no one should have been able to stand after bleeding so much.

On the opposite side, a figure shrank back, terrified. He wore a half-broken arm guard with a blade that had snapped and bent—no longer a proper weapon.

“……Commander?”

Un Cheon-mok doubted his own eyes. The arm guard, that build, that voice—surely the Lonely Claw Troops’ chief, Un Ji-kang.

‘The commander was defeated?’

How could Un Ji-kang retreat, and against merely the External Protection Troops’ captain at that? By common sense, the captain should have been found torn to pieces. Yet the one wielding the blade was the External Protection Troops’ captain; the one retreating was Un Ji-kang.

“Aaaaaargh!”

Terrified, Un Ji-kang swung his broken wing-guard. Clusters of red banners hurled toward Yeon Mujin. Yeon made no defensive move.

Ssshhh—the sound of flesh tearing was chilling. But what came next was more terrifying. Yeon Mujin stepped forward, drenched in blood—one step, another step.

“Aaaah! Don’t come! You ghost! I told you not to come!” Un Ji-kang’s legs trembled as he stumbled backward.

He heard Yeon’s voice—mocking, calm. “Heh heh heh. Ji-kang, come here and fight me more…….” Hearing those words, Un Ji-kang collapsed and began to crawl, scraping the ground with his shattered wing-guard and flinging up dirt as he retreated.

The Golden Claw members were stunned. Their minds could not accept Un Ji-kang’s frail appearance.

The first to regain composure was Un Cheon-mok.

‘If we catch him, it’s over!’

As long as Un Ji-kang wasn’t unconscious the fight wouldn’t end. They only needed to kill the External Protection Troops’ captain to claim victory.

Whoosh! Un Cheon-mok moved.

“Block him!”

Yang Gwan-wol and Seo Nak-il thrust their weapons, taking deep rib wounds as they broke away but ignoring them. Shaking off his attackers, Un Cheon-mok lunged at Yeon Mujin, shouting, “Die! External Protection Troops’ captain……!” His airborne blade met Yeon’s gaze; the opponent seemed on the verge of collapse—one reach could seize his neck.

That was the moment he believed in.

“Shadow Blades, subdue the traitors.”

Shadows fell from the sky like a sudden storm. Un Cheon-mok felt a fierce killing intent at his back, spun, and raised his metal claw—clang! A blade that had cut through the dawn mist shattered his fan in a single strike. A shadow kicked him in the chest and sent him crashing to earth; as he tried to rise a cold blade pressed to the nape of his neck.

“From now on, anyone who moves will be summarily executed.”

The pale dawn moon outlined a figure in pitch-black clothes, unnaturally fast and strong, a single character—“pursue”—engraved on the chest.

“…Shadow Pursue Troops!”

The emblem marked them as the Shadow Pursue Troops, the covert blades of the Bukgung Family’s Glorious Flower Manor, answering only to the Family Lord. Their appearance meant the Family Lord’s order had been issued. But why had they come here?

The Shadow Pursue Troops member pressing him down answered at once.

“The fate—life and death—of the Lonely Claw Troops’ commander Un Ji-kang and other Lonely Claw leaders is placed under Shadow Pursue control from now on. Your charge is treason.”

“Treason?”

Within the Bukgung Family, treason meant annihilation of one’s clan.

“This is unfair! What treason are you talking about!”

“The main house has obtained a fake corpse disguised as the body of the Sixth Young Master Bukgung Bi-beom. Until the course of events is clarified, you are all detained.”

“……!”

A single thought flashed through Un Cheon-mok’s mind: at the beginning of the hour, a carriage left Flying Swallow Manor. The Manor Lord of Flying Swallow Manor had headed toward Glorious Flower Manor.

‘No way it’s there…!’

If so, today’s plan had been toyed with from the start.

‘But how on earth?’

How had they seen through the plan as if reading the lines of a palm?

“Aah!” “Gyaaah!”

Starting with Un Cheon-mok, members of the Shadow Pursue Troops swept through the area. They subdued the Golden Claw members in an instant and recovered the bodies of those burned to death. They targeted only the Lonely Claw Troops members, leaving not a finger on the External Protection Troops.

They took Un Ji-kang as well.

“Secure the Lonely Claw Troops’ commander.”

The broken Un Ji-kang fell into their hands. He stared bewildered as ropes bound his body. A voice reached him.

—Ji-kang.

He lifted his head. It was Yeon Mujin’s voice. Yeon stood precariously, leaning on his blade, no longer ghostly but tired.

—You lost, you idiot. Your life is over.

“……What?”

—Ah, and Ji-kang.

—I enjoyed the food at Zombie Arts. Farewell.

“All Shadow Pursue Troops members, secure the prisoners and return to Glorious Flower Manor.”

The order was given. Then the shadows vanished as silently as they had appeared, taking the stunned Golden Claw members and the recovered bodies. One by one they disappeared, and at last the bound Un Ji-kang was dragged away.

“Where to! Where are you taking the old man!”

The Shadow Pursue Troops member holding him answered coldly, “The criminal will go to the brain prison of Glorious Flower Manor.”

Once inside, one never left.

Un Ji-kang’s screams continued until he looked at Yeon Mujin and shouted, “Yeon Mujin! Yeon Mujin! Yoooooon Muujiiiiiiin!”

His wail vanished like a phantom along with the Shadow Pursue Troops’ shadow figures.

The last remaining troop leader stood still and stared at the blood-smeared Yeon Mujin. Yeon chuckled at Un Ji-kang’s scream, then looked at the leader and bluntly asked, “What the hell. Anything you want to say?”

“You’ve grown gutsy, External Protection Troops’ captain. If you’d come a bit sooner, this wouldn’t have happened, you bastard. …Be thankful to the young lady.”

With those words the Shadow Pursue Troops leader left—silent and as untraceable as when he had arrived.

“Ha….”

Yeon Mujin looked up at the sky with a weary expression. Dawn was breaking.

“Captain!” “Captain Yeon!”

The External Protection Troops who still looked human rushed toward Yeon Mujin. The world was stained crimson; it was hard to tell where his blood ended and the burning dawn began.

“Wah, Captain, are you okay?” “Aren’t you dying?” “Don’t say ‘dying’ to the Captain! Who the hell was that just now!” “Captain, sob sob sob… You can’t die like this.” “We’ll bury you in a sunny place…” “Who was that just now?”

Even though he stood precariously, as if about to die, there was no shred of crisis in their voices. There was no sense that Yeon Mujin was in real danger—because Yeon Mujin was Yeon Mujin.

“Shut up, my head hurts—go yap over there, you bastards……”

He waved them off. He was their master—their failures, their abandoned dogs, their worthless stalks.

“Captain, shouldn’t you at least say a word to us who suffered?” “You can say that even seeing your captain’s condition now?” “If the captain were really hurting, wouldn’t he say so? Tell us, captain. This isn’t the captain’s blood, right? Isn’t it that old man Un or whatever’s blood?” “There’s a cut here, you know?” “How could the captain be taken down? Make sense of what you’re saying. He’s the kind who wouldn’t die even if you performed a death ritual.”

Yeon Mujin rested his chin on his sword hilt and watched the rising sun.

“Your stomach’s rumbling, so shut up……”

No matter how many times he repeated this brutal life, the pain never grew familiar. Still, he had one concession.

“Congratulations. You survived.”

The External Protection Troops fell silent like lacquered shells and focused on the captain’s words.

“Surviving in this murim world means you’re strong. You are strong.”

For the first time Yeon acknowledged it. Today they had not been dead weight; they had risked their lives and crossed the brink to protect. The External Protection Troops of Flying Swallow Manor were his pride—the pride of having survived.

“Ha… the weather is damn nice.”

They lifted their heads and looked at the dawn Yeon was watching.

Thus ended a brutal, spine-chilling, blood-stinking, dog-like day.

Or perhaps it was only the beginning.