The Five Eagle Siblings (1)

A resplendent great hall.

The Giant Demon Jeo Ung-won, who had slipped out of Yunnan, and the ten subordinates standing behind him bowed with crisp precision.

“Jeo Ung-won pays respects to Small-Faced Demon Lord Sa, honored elder!”

Upon the large dragon throne before them sat a scrawny, unimpressive old man.

An old man with a wrinkled, homely face and eyes slit sharp like a serpent’s.

Smiling, he answered Jeo Ung-won’s greeting.

“Hard journey, was it. Is the Supreme well?”

“Yes, Elder! He only bade us remember that the Blood Sect’s dominion is near at hand, and to remain ever cautious!”

“Mm. Yes, one must be cautious.”

Nodding at Jeo Ung-won’s words, the old man asked again.

“By the way—tell me you did nothing on the way here that would draw the eyes of the world?”

At that question, Jeo Ung-won hesitated, his face tightening.

The genial smile vanished at once from Small-Faced Demon Lord Sa Won-yang’s face.

“Why can’t you answer? Don’t tell me you caused trouble?!”

In that instant, a colossal killing aura surged from his small body and filled the hall.

A killing intent so fearsome it made one’s flesh prickle.

Jeo Ung-won blurted hastily,

“B-before we departed I did bring along a few Flying Dragon Corps to amuse ourselves, but on the road here we caused no trouble whatsoever! Truly, Elder!”

Sa Won-yang’s thin eyes thinned even further as he glared at them.

Small-Faced Demon Lord Sa Won-yang, together with Blood-Seeking Demon Lord Ji Gwang-ok—who had been slain by Seol Pung and Seonu Jin in the Poison Forest—was a pinnacle demon feared as a living nightmare by the orthodox during the Righteous-Blood War.

“The moment the smile leaves his face, a sea of blood is born.”

That saying was famous not only among the orthodox, but also within the Blood Sect.

Indeed, among Blood Sect folk he was held to be more terrifying even than the ever-violent Blood-Seeking Demon Lord Ji Gwang-ok.

Seeing the smile gone from Sa Won-yang’s face, Jeo Ung-won hurriedly pressed his forehead to the floor and cried out,

“I have committed a capital offense! Lord Demon, honored elder! Grant me mercy!”

His subordinates followed suit, knocking their heads to the ground and shouting in unison,

“Please forgive us, Lord Demon, honored elder!”

They trembled, unable even to lift their heads, awaiting judgment.

To rouse Sa Won-yang’s wrath might end in far more than a simple death.

If he were truly enraged, a clean suicide might be the kinder end.

After a moment, Sa Won-yang’s voice came, somewhat eased.

“Well, to demand absolute restraint of youths in their prime is perhaps too much.”

At those words, Jeo Ung-won could not help but sigh in relief.

Still wary, he kept his head down until Sa Won-yang said,

“Raise your heads.”

Jeo Ung-won and his men cried out as one,

“Our thanks, Lord Demon, honored elder!”

Looking up, they found Sa Won-yang smiling again like before, all genial warmth.

He spoke to Jeo Ung-won and his men.

“As it happens, some comely young girls have been gathered. You’ll soon be told where and what to do. Before you go, choose around ten to take with you and enjoy yourselves.”

At that, Jeo Ung-won and his followers pressed their heads down once more and cried out, moved to gratitude,

“Thank you, Lord Demon, honored elder!”

Man Jongim and the First Squad of the Twelfth Division departed ahead of us.

Only after we settled methods of contact and I stressed twice, thrice over that they must not be seen.

Left now with only the First Squad of the Eleventh Division and our own, Bi Sayoung let out a deep sigh.

“If I ever get transferred to the Twelfth, I’ll just go find the Demon King and challenge him to a life-and-death duel.”

Everyone burst into laughter at that.

The Diancang Sword Tiger, Je Wonyeong, also laughed and said to me,

“I, Je Wonyeong, owe you a great debt, Young Hero Seonu. I shall surely repay it another day.”

I grinned and answered,

“If you put it that way, it sounds as if I deliberately sent Division Chief Man Jongim away, doesn’t it?”

“Didn’t you?”

“…Lovely weather, isn’t it?”

A rather perceptive fellow.

After that, we resumed our deliberations.

I spoke first.

“In my view, the likely culprits are one of two: the Righteous Chivalry Guild or the Un Clan. Since Chief Man said he’d investigate the Un Clan, we should look into the Righteous Chivalry Guild. Though… I admit I doubt Chief Man will properly look into the Un Clan.”

As everyone nodded, Lady Cheong-yeon asked,

“Is there a reason you think it won’t be the Mountain Sword Sect? Because their situation is the worst right now?”

Of the Un Clan and the Mountain Sword Sect, who were opposing Sichuan’s Righteous Chivalry Guild, rumor had it the Mountain Sword Sect’s state was especially dire—near collapse.

But that alone wasn’t enough for certainty, so all eyes turned to me for my reasoning at her question.

“That’s part of it. But also because I heard some things about the Mountain Sword Sect back when I was with the Seonu Clan. I’d say we can safely strike them from the list.”

Everyone except Lady Cheong-yeon let out an “Ahh!” and nodded.

I was sorry to say it was a lie.

While with the Seonu Clan, I’d had no reason to care about the other powers among Guizhou’s Eight.

What I did know for certain was the outcome of this three-way strife as I saw it after the front collapsed in my past life and I returned to the Seonu Clan.

“Back then, only two of the three remained.”

By then everything was over; I’d only heard in passing that there’d been a clash with the Righteous Chivalry Guild, and knew little else.

But one thing was sure: the Mountain Sword Sect no longer existed.

Only the Righteous Chivalry Guild and the Un Clan stood intact.

“Thinking on it now, that’s plenty suspicious. After the clash with the Righteous Chivalry Guild, nothing else changed, yet only the Mountain Sword Sect was annihilated? And the Un Clan took their territory? Does that make any sense?”

Judging by the current might and momentum of the Righteous Chivalry Guild, they seemed more than capable of pushing into Guizhou.

So the notion that only the Un Clan remained to block such an advance was, at present, hard to imagine.

“By results alone, the Un Clan does look the most suspect.”

Lady Cheong-yeon studied me in silence for a moment.

Naturally, she must have felt my certainty rested on thin grounds.

But she soon simply nodded.

She might not be convinced, but since I said so, she would let it pass.

I let out an inward breath of relief.

I was grateful.

She asked,

“Then if it’s one of the Un Clan or the Righteous Chivalry Guild, how do you intend to investigate them?”

At that, the others—who had been glancing between me and Lady Cheong-yeon whenever we spoke—now looked at me with expectant eyes.

As if I were sure to produce a clever stratagem.

Unfortunately, this time I had no neat trick.

It was easy to say, but sneaking into their strongholds to investigate them would be no different from walking into a trap.

All we could do realistically was inquire through the Hao Network—but that, too, risked alerting the other side that we were sniffing around.

The Hao take clients without discrimination.

I sighed and confessed,

“To be frank, I don’t yet know. No sharp plan comes to mind.”

Faces fell in collective disappointment.

“Ahhh!”

Then Lady Cheong-yeon spoke.

“If finding them is hard, what if we make them come out on their own?”

Again, the looks of expectation turned to her.

Mine as well.

“How?”

“By showing them what they want.”

“What they want?”

What they want…

It didn’t click.

What could they desire so much that, though hiding, they’d leap out?

Squad Leader Seol Pung couldn’t hold back his curiosity.

“And what is it they want?”

Lady Cheong-yeon answered,

“If we assume all this was planned, the strangest point was that—why did those who should be more covert than anyone attack Twelfth Division squads?”

At that, I started to answer,

“Because…”

Then a thought struck, and I asked quickly,

“Then?”

Smiling, she nodded.

“Yes. We show them that.”

“Ahh.”

I nodded as if I understood, then frowned again.

“But to do that…”

She smiled sweetly and asked,

“Why? Do you think we’re not enough?”

I couldn’t bring myself to say it, but frankly, I did.

Just then,

Bi Sayoung scrunched his face and yelled,

“Oh, come on! Stop speaking in code and translate into human speech! What is it, exactly?!”

At his outburst, everyone nodded with equally irked expressions.

They’d all been getting antsy.

I laughed and explained in plain words.

“When the Giant Demon slaughtered the two Twelfth Division squads in succession, there was a common thread, remember?”

People frowned, not recalling.

“A common thread? What? What common thread?”

Lady Cheon Jueun shot her hand up and blurted,

“Me! I know! The women’s bodies weren’t left behind!”

Being a woman, perhaps that part had stuck with her.

I smiled and nodded.

“Correct, Lady Cheon.”

She squealed like a child,

“Kyah! I got it!”

Then, realizing what that implied, she made an “oh no” face and subsided.

We coughed and pretended not to notice.

I continued at once.

“It’s a general trait of Blood Sect demons, but the fact that even in an operation demanding secrecy they couldn’t refrain from preying on women suggests they’re inveterate lechers. So I take Lady Cheong-yeon’s proposal to be—exploit that.”

I looked to Lady Cheong-yeon; she nodded.

“Exactly. If word reaches them of a beauty of sufficient renown, I believe they won’t be able to help themselves.”

Now everyone voiced understanding.

“Ahh!”

Then Je Wonyeong, the Eleventh’s First Squad Leader and Diancang Sword Tiger, tilted his head and asked,

“But where would we find such a beauty? Ah! No slight intended to the ladies here. Only—outside the front, in a bustling city like Inhoe, for rumors to spread that far, she’d have to be, say, one of the Ten Beauties of the Martial World…”

He was mid-sentence when it happened.

Lady Cheong-yeon lifted a hand and slowly swept her forelocks up.

As her bangs rose, our eyes widened in tandem.

Je Wonyeong, too, went slack-jawed, unable to finish.

The moment her face was bared, a radiant light seemed to flood the world.

Whether I stood on cloud or on water, whether this was waking or dream, I could not say.

Seeing her face for the first time was, truly—

Otherworldly.

Yes—otherworldly.

Her beauty held something that mere “beautiful” could never encompass.

Above small crimson lips rose a proud, straight nose; above that, gemstone eyes of heaven—one obsidian, one sapphire—gleamed with ethereal luster.

With such uncanny eyes, one might expect an air of eeriness, yet by the power of her beauty it read as sanctity instead.

Of late I’d often seen Lady Tang Yeo-eun and fancied myself somewhat inured to a woman’s loveliness…

Only now did I feel, to the marrow, how foolish that conceit had been.

As we stared dumbly at her face, she met my gaze squarely and asked,

“Will this be enough to draw out the Giant Demon?”

We were compelled to nod vigorously, up and down.

The Mountain Sword Sect in Inhoe, bordering Sichuan, was unavoidably the first to clash with the Righteous Chivalry Guild pushing east into Guizhou.

They had already met the Righteous Chivalry Guild twice—and lost both times.

In the first battle, the Mountain Sword Sect suffered the humiliation of retreating without even a proper fight against overwhelming numbers.

When they marched out with two hundred elites, the Righteous Chivalry Guild brought a thousand warriors.

There was simply no resisting it.

The second was even more disgraceful.

They falsely proposed peace to the Manor, then ambushed the envoys coming to negotiate—only to be smashed yet again.

One of the sect’s only two Pinnacle Experts, along with two hundred elite fighters, were completely wiped out; it was the worst outcome, losing both honor and strength.

So much so that among wanderers, the Mountain Sword Sect was already spoken of as a fallen school.

Accordingly, the sect’s recruiting desk for freelance warriors had been all but deserted of late.

Who would join a sect already doomed to lose?

However much money was offered, nothing outweighed one’s life—an obvious truth.

For that reason, Wang O, the clerk manning the Mountain Sword Sect’s freelance-warrior desk, was dozing at his lonely table yet again today.

Then, suddenly, the warm sunlight seemed blocked; Wang O lifted sleepy eyes to the front.

Something vast stood there, casting a shadow across the sun.

So massive that for a moment he wondered if a boulder had rolled in from somewhere.

But when a heavy voice came from that “boulder,” Wang O snapped fully awake.

“Is this the intake desk? We come at the invitation of Outer Commander Heo Jeon-sam.”

It was a giant of a man.

So large that Wang O hadn’t even noticed people standing behind him in his shade.

Tilting his head back to peer up at the shaded face, Wang O hurriedly asked,

“You wish to contract as warriors? You said at the invitation of Outer Commander Heo Jeon-sam?”

The giant nodded and answered,

“That’s right. We are the Five Eagle Siblings from Zhejiang’s Dusu—and I am the eldest, Bae Jong-gwan.”

As Wang O scribbled to take down the words, he paused and asked,

“Ah, yes! Yes! The Five Eagle… siblings? When you say five siblings…?”

Bae Jong-gwan nodded and stepped a little aside.

“Indeed. These are my younger siblings.”

Letting his gaze slip naturally past Bae Jong-gwan, Wang O froze as if struck by lightning.

Behind him stood one man and three women.

A spear-bearing man of sturdy build, and three women of striking beauty.

But Wang O’s eyes were nailed to only one of the three.

The others were beauties, too—but the third woman’s looks were of a level Wang O swore he had never seen, not even in dreams.