Chapter 21

Shhk- Thud.

The muzzle of the assault rifle fell to the floor along with the man’s severed forearm.

“Huh?”

He stared blankly at his fallen forearm for a moment before screaming.

“AAAAAAGH!!!”

But even that scream was forced to an abrupt end.

“Quiet.”
CRUNCH-

Jun-gyeong’s sword drove up through his jaw and pierced his skull.
Crimson karmic flames already covered his body, and the Ghost Mask had appeared over his face.
The Thunder Bead’s power heated the muscles throughout his body, while the power of Water kept his nervous system cold.
After dispatching one mercenary in an instant, Jun-gyeong kicked off the floor and shot forward.

“Fire! Kill that bastard!!”

The mercenary captain’s shriek-like order erupted, and dozens of 5.56mm rounds poured toward Jun-gyeong.

RATATAT! RATATATATAT-!

Muzzles spat fire.
Spent casings flew through the air as people screamed, ducked down, and pressed themselves deeper into the corners.
The pavilion descended into chaos in an instant.
An ordinary human would already have been riddled with bullets and rolling across the floor.
But through Jun-gyeong’s Dokkaebi Eyes, an entirely different world unfolded.

The bullets tearing through the air registered not as ordinary lumps of metal, but as vivid red trajectories.
Dozens of red lines crisscrossed Jun-gyeong’s body like a grid, but he did not panic.
His mind, chilled by the power of Water, calculated the optimal path on the scale of trillionths of a second.

FWOOSH-!

Jun-gyeong shot forward, leaving a blurred afterimage behind.

CLANG! CLANG-!

Seolhwa cut through the air in Jun-gyeong’s hand at a speed too fast to see.
Rather than dodge, he lightly tapped the sides of the bullets with Seolhwa’s edge, knocking them off course.

“Wh-What the hell?!”

The mercenaries stared in horror as Jun-gyeong burst through the forest of bullets and closed the distance in an instant.
He gave their shock no time to turn into screams.

Shhk-

Seolhwa swept across the throat of the mercenary at the front.

SPURT-!

Fresh blood erupted like a fountain, spraying through the air and soaking Jun-gyeong.
Before the man could even collapse, Jun-gyeong planted a foot on his shoulder and launched himself into the air.
His explosively strengthened muscles, empowered by more than twenty percent Body Synchronization, produced an inhuman leap.
Jun-gyeong rotated halfway in midair and swung his sword as he descended.

CRUNCH-!

The blade bit through the mercenary’s collarbone and tore diagonally across his chest.
The sensation of crushing through hard bone traveled through the hilt and into Jun-gyeong’s palm.

“Y-You monster!”

The mercenary beside him tried to swing his muzzle around, but Jun-gyeong’s left hand was faster.
Jun-gyeong seized the barrel and wrenched it upward.

CRUNCH!

The steel barrel bent helplessly beneath the force infused with Jun-gyeong’s internal energy.
The tip of his sword drove hard beneath the stunned mercenary’s chin.

THK! CRUNCH!

Instead of pulling the blade free, Jun-gyeong wrenched it sideways and shattered the man’s neck bones.
Jun-gyeong’s pace quickened.
He had to deal with them before they regained their senses and turned their guns on the civilians.
With every increase in his pace, the pavilion transformed ever more rapidly into a scene from Hell.
To completely ruin their firing angles, Jun-gyeong tore back and forth through the very center of their formation.

SLASH! THUD!

His sword carved through one mercenary’s thigh, then tore into the flank of the man beside him with the follow-through.
Wherever Seolhwa passed, only pouring blood and ragged screams remained.

Jun-gyeong flowed between the mercenaries like water, precisely severing wrists and throats before they could even fire.

“Th-That… Is that even human?!”

The mercenary captain backed away as he drew his handgun.
The instant Jun-gyeong read the red trajectory, he left behind only a crimson afterimage and slipped into the man’s blind spot.
Jun-gyeong caught him by the back of the neck and slammed him into the floor.

BOOM-!

The reinforced glass cracked like a spiderweb beneath the captain’s head.
Jun-gyeong stood over him with his sword pointed between his eyes.
Only then did the mercenaries understand.
Whoever tried to fire first would die first.
Jun-gyeong’s cold voice descended over them.

“Drop your guns.”

Thud- Clatter- Clang, Clang.

The surviving mercenaries dropped their guns and raised their hands.
Jun-gyeong’s sword swept across the mercenary captain’s neck, and his head rolled across the floor.
As the headless body spasmed and finally went still, blood gushing from its neck, the remaining mercenaries dropped to their knees and trembled.

“W-We surrender. P-Please… spare us. Please.”

The Third Geneva Convention governed the treatment of prisoners of war under international law. Under it, an enemy who surrendered was to be taken alive as a prisoner.
That was modern warfare.
Jun-gyeong didn’t possess detailed knowledge of it, but even he knew the basic principle that surrendered enemies were not to be killed or tortured.
But that was merely modern knowledge inherited from Han Jun-gyeong, not a standard Kang Jun-gyeong himself had chosen.

“You threw down your weapons, so I won’t kill you.”

He moved immediately.
A movement empowered by the Thunder Bead.
The power of Lightning stimulated his nervous system, granting him speed no human should have possessed.

CRACK! CRUNCH! SNAP! KRAK!

In an instant, the mercenaries’ arms and legs broke with a cacophony of gruesome cracks.

“GRAAAGH!!”

Screams of every kind filled the pavilion.
His work finished, Jun-gyeong turned his gaze toward Wang Jo-young.
Despite having lost every mercenary, there was no sign of dismay on his face.
If anything, a faint smile remained.

“This differs from my calculations. No, perhaps an unforeseen variable intervened. Either way, the important thing is that it isn’t over yet.”

He pulled a small bell from inside his clothes.
It was a crystal bell engraved with a skull, glittering even in the pavilion’s dim light.
He gave it a light shake.

Chime-

“A variable isn’t a setback. It’s merely another step toward optimization. And right here is the culmination of the optimization we’ve achieved.”

Chime- Chime-

BANG!!

The lids of the iron coffins embedded in the floor exploded off all at once.
Along with the foul corpse stench trapped within, their true contents were revealed.

“J-Jiangshi…?”

Someone’s voice rang out.
Jun-gyeong’s brow furrowed deeply.

“Jiangshi?”

Inside the coffins were actual corpses.
They appeared to have died without suffering any obvious mutilation, with no signs of having been cut apart or blown open.
Yet judging by the foul corpse stench, their insides had clearly rotted badly enough to fester.
Their bodies remained whole and unblemished, without a single visible wound, almost as if they were still alive.
The only unusual feature was the yellow talisman attached to each forehead.
Whoever had called them Jiangshi had probably done so because of those talismans.

“Kahahaha! So you recognize them. These are Steel Jiangshi, created through the glorious technology of China! Impervious to blades! Even bullets can’t penetrate them, so what do you think that puny sword of yours can possibly do?!”

Wang Jo-young laughed loudly and thrust the bell forward.

Chime- Chime-
“Kill them all! Don’t leave a single one alive!”

With the ringing of the bell, the talismans on the Jiangshi’s foreheads burst into flame.
Their eyes snapped open, glowing green.
No Book of Karmic Sin appeared.
That meant they didn’t even qualify as monsters. They were mere aberrations.

“Manufactured monsters. Interesting.”

Jun-gyeong murmured to himself as he slowly infused internal energy into the blade.

“Let’s see just how impervious to blades you really are.”

BOOM!

Jun-gyeong kicked off the floor and shot forward like a bullet.

CLANG-!!

The Jiangshi’s body was hard.
Just as Wang Jo-young had claimed, it seemed truly impervious to blades. Seolhwa was knocked away the instant Jun-gyeong brought it up toward its neck.

“KYAAAGH!”

The Steel Jiangshi, struck across the neck, swung its rigid arms toward Jun-gyeong.
But with its limbs stiff from rigor mortis, its attacks were linear and simple.
Jun-gyeong casually ducked beneath the attack and swung his sword again.

CLANG! KLANG-!

But nowhere on the Steel Jiangshi’s body would the blade bite.

“Kahahaha! What did I tell you?! Impervious to blades! Nothing can put so much as a scratch on a Steel Jiangshi!”

Wang Jo-young ground his teeth as he stared at Jun-gyeong and continued.

“No matter how monstrous you are, before the biological weapons of the great Chinese nation, the center of the world and a mighty power, you’re nothing but a gnat! Stop struggling and offer up your neck!”

Jun-gyeong drew up his internal energy.

Whoooom-

The crimson karmic flames around his body rose as though dancing, and a bluish energy began gathering along his sword.

Chime- Chime-
“Go on, struggle all you want! Kill him! Kill him!!”

At his shout, the Steel Jiangshi’s movements grew slightly faster.
Jun-gyeong stepped aside from the attack and drove the sole of his foot into it.

BANG-!

A sound no human flesh could have produced rang out as the creature toppled backward.
But it immediately sprang back up and leaped toward Jun-gyeong.

WHOOSH-

Jun-gyeong swung his sword at the airborne enemy.

CLANG-!

“Damn it!”

Irritation welled inside Jun-gyeong.
Brute force could knock it back, but it did not seem to inflict any actual damage.
Even a blade infused with internal energy couldn’t cut it.

Jun-gyeong began pouring as much internal energy as he could into his sword.
The blade’s bluish glow gradually turned white.

“Die!!”

Jun-gyeong swung his sword.

THK-!

The blade buried itself halfway into the Steel Jiangshi’s neck.

Crack-

But Seolhwa couldn’t withstand Jun-gyeong’s internal energy, and a crack spread through the blade.

CLANG-!!

Then it shattered.

“Kahahaha! Is that all you’ve got? Your sword broke! Now be a good boy and die!”

Chime-Chime-Chime-Chime-

Wang Jo-young shook the bell violently.
The Jiangshi surged toward Jun-gyeong all at once like a crashing wave.

In that instant, Jun-gyeong’s karmic flames darkened to a blood-red hue, as though blood had mixed into them.
Yellow light flashed through the dark-crimson mist.

GRRRR- RUMBLE- KRAKOOOM!! BOOM!

With a tremendous roar, the Steel Jiangshi were blasted away in every direction.
Jun-gyeong clenched both fists and looked over the Steel Jiangshi tumbling across the floor.
After sweeping his gaze around the pavilion, he spotted Wang Jo-young casually making his way toward the central platform.
Jun-gyeong immediately kicked off the floor and shot toward him like an arrow.
Only then did Wang Jo-young realize something was wrong and slowly turn his head.

“Wh-What…?”

BOOM-!!
“GRAAAGH!!”

A sound no collision between human flesh should ever have produced thundered through the pavilion as Wang Jo-young went flying and rolled across the floor.
Jun-gyeong did not even bother to check whether he was alive or dead before turning away.

A single spotlight poured down upon the central platform like moonlight falling upon the earth.
At its center stood the massive stone lion, like the star of the stage.

The lion’s head.

The true star was there.
Mukhwa was buried deep through the head of the legendary spirit beast, as though piercing the lion straight through.
Despite the pavilion being filled with corpse stench and the smell of blood, Mukhwa rested beneath the spotlight, radiating an almost unnaturally quiet and chilling presence.
Jun-gyeong stepped onto the platform and reached for the sword, feeling as though he were reclaiming a part of his own body that he had lost long ago.
The moment his hand closed around the hilt, the crimson karmic flames surrounding his body resonated with Mukhwa’s black energy and began swirling violently.
The weighty, cold texture of metal traveled through his palm.

“It’s been a long time.”

Hummm~

Mukhwa hummed as though answering him.
As Jun-gyeong moved, Mukhwa’s true form slowly began to emerge.

Scrrrape-

After a thousand years, the blade was slowly being drawn free.
Its black energy intensified, beginning to devour Jun-gyeong’s crimson karmic flames.
At last, the entire blade emerged, and Mukhwa was pulled free.

“I’m sorry. I kept you waiting a long time.”

Wooong-

It was as though the two were conversing, one speaking and the other answering.

At the same time.
The Jiangshi, having lost their controller, wandered aimlessly like puppets with their strings cut.
But the moment they spotted Wang Jo-young sprawled across the floor, their eyes flashed viciously and they rushed toward him as one.

THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-!

With their joints locked by rigor mortis, the sight of them hopping forward with both feet together looked almost comical at first glance.
But no one laughed after seeing the solid-wood consoles clipped by their feet splinter apart as though struck by artillery.
Coming back to his senses, Wang Jo-young screamed and scrambled backward as they bore down on him.

“D-Damn it! Stay back!”

The crystal bell lay on the floor far beyond his reach.
To the Jiangshi, a controller who had lost his hold over them was nothing more than a sacrifice meant to pay for the original sin of violating them.
Cornered, Wang Jo-young twisted his face into a grimace and pulled an aluminum case from inside his clothes.
Inside was a syringe filled with a bizarre fluorescent liquid.
He seemed to hesitate for a moment, but as the Jiangshi’s corpse stench closed in, his eyes hardened and he seized the syringe.

THK- SQUELCH-

Without hesitation, he drove the needle toward his heart and injected the grotesque substance.

“GRAAAAGH-”

As he ripped the syringe free with a shriek, blood-laced green fluid erupted like a fountain from the puncture in his chest.
Wang Jo-young writhed in agony as though every nerve in his body were burning away, clawing desperately at the floor.
His fingernails tore free against the reinforced glass, leaving gruesome streaks of blood across the floor.
Eventually, the convulsions stopped, and Wang Jo-young slowly raised his head.
Unknown green fluid oozed thickly from the membranes of his eyes, nose, and mouth.
When his eyes opened again, they were no longer human, filled instead with a horrifying green glow.

“KUAAAAAARGH-!!!”

What erupted from his mouth was no scream of pain, but the grotesque roar of a predator.
A shockwave tore through the air, and the Jiangshi about to descend upon Wang Jo-young stopped all at once.
His skin turning a deathly blue as he transformed into something monstrous, Wang Jo-young fixed his glowing green eyes on Jun-gyeong standing beneath the spotlight atop the platform.

“Th-That’s… mine! That’s my sword!! It’s mine!! Kgh! GRAAGH!!”

As Wang Jo-young pointed at Jun-gyeong and screamed in a cracked, guttural voice, the motionless Jiangshi mechanically snapped their heads around.
Their killing intent focused on a single target now.

“Grrk- Kill him! GRAAGH- Kill… him!!”

As though the bell were no longer necessary, the Jiangshi obeyed his command and began charging toward Jun-gyeong.