The One Who Must Go Must Go

Cheon Tae-san had no intention of trading blows back and forth with Oh Ju-hyang. By his standards, martial artists did absurd things often enough. They called it a style peculiar to their kind; as he saw it, it was nothing but bluster. What was the sense, he meant, in matching dozens and hundreds of exchanges just to get the feel of an opponent’s skill? It made no difference whether the man was orthodox, unorthodox or demonic. And all the while they sneered that only assassins withheld that much respect. Had the man across from him been a martial artist of the orthodox murim, Cheon Tae-san too would have had it in him to pay that much courtesy.

But to a Demonic Cult martial artist?

And to a Demonic Cult Pavilion Master, at that. He had not the least grain of a mind to show any such respect.

Cheon Tae-san concentrated all twenty inner elixirs on Oh Ju-hyang alone.

— Pa-pa-pa-thock-thock-thock!

Oh Ju-hyang’s body reeled like a leaf blown on the wind. But a transcendent-peak master’s body-protecting qi was not so easily pierced.

Oh Ju-hyang had come for Cheon Tae-san. Cutting down the Azure Dragon Corps warriors and the Dang Sect warriors who got in her way, she closed on him, and at last, with thirty feet of ground between them, she came to a stop.

“When I saw you at Hefei I knew it would come to this between you and me. There is that sort even among one’s enemies. A leech, fastened tight to my fate.”

When Cheon Tae-san only looked at her without a word, Oh Ju-hyang opened her mouth again.

“Here today, whether this woman dies or you die, one of us must die.”

“Do as you please.”

At Cheon Tae-san’s flat reply, Oh Ju-hyang’s cheek quivered.

“Though a year from today be the day of my memorial rite, today of all days I will have you dead.”

Cheon Tae-san watched Oh Ju-hyang steeling herself and spoke.

“Have you left all your last words, then? I have one thing to say. A tiger does not bark as a dog does. It simply tears you apart.”

In that instant she herself was made the dog and Cheon Tae-san the tiger, and Oh Ju-hyang’s eyes filled with killing intent.

It was then.

“The masters of the Beggars’ Sect have come!”

A hundred-odd Beggars’ Sect beggars came bursting in. They struck at the Demonic Cult’s rear meaning to throw it into confusion, and it came to little. If anything it was only the beggars who fell in swathes, and it did nothing but drag their spirits down. Still, it was better than nothing, and the Azure Dragon Corps and the Dang Sect warriors pushed in as though delivering a joint attack.

Cheon Tae-san seized the moment while the Beggars’ Sect martial artists were driving hard, summoned the azure dragon then and there and sent it out at Oh Ju-hyang.

Twice the girth of Cheon Tae-san’s own body, the azure dragon flew as though to swallow Oh Ju-hyang whole, and she answered it in kind, pouring out all her internal force in a single stroke.

It was then.

All at once Oh Ju-hyang felt an agony past bearing in her lower belly.

“What is this? Poison?”

Oh Ju-hyang suspected the Formless Poison on the instant. She mastered the fierce pain and drew out her last killing move.

“Uwaaaagh!”

Before she could unfold the killing move that could grind even rock to powder, her mouth fell open at the agony of her stomach being drawn up through her throat. It was as though a lump of iron heated in the fire were blocking her windpipe.

“Urk, urk, urk!”

In that moment Oh Ju-hyang heard it.

“Now, the one who must go must go.”

And watching the azure dragon swallow her, Oh Ju-hyang let go of her consciousness.

“Kuaaaaargh!”

Her scream, torn out of her as though she were loosing a Lion’s Roar, left the battlefield wrapped for an instant in silence.

The azure dragon tore Oh Ju-hyang apart, and in a breath the two camps split. With their commander dead, the Demonic Cult band broke off from the battlefield at once, without anybody giving the order to retreat.

Azure Dragon Corps warriors started after the fleeing Demonic Cult men, and the Squad Leader stopped them.

“Do not pursue!”

It was the same with the Dang Sect warriors. They had not strength enough left to run down fleeing Demonic Cult men.

“Set the field in order.”

The Azure Dragon Corps were elites after all. Even after so fierce a battle they gave emergency treatment to their wounded comrades and gathered up the dead.

The Beggars’ Sect men gathered up the bodies with gloomy faces. More than a hundred had come, and it looked as though fewer than fifty were living. In that short fight better than half of them had died. Even granting that the Beggars’ Sect was a faction that pressed by sheer numbers, they had not known they would be cut down like this. Still, more of their people who had been waiting nearby came up to join them, and the clearing of the field went the easier for it.

The Squad Leader who had led the fifty-odd of the Azure Dragon Corps offered Cheon Tae-san a word of thanks.

“Had it not been for the Scholar Divine Sword, we should have gone down with the Demonic Cult wretches in mutual destruction.”

The Dang Sect’s Formless Poison had given them the better of it for a while, but the Squad Leader knew that once the poison ran out they could not have escaped being wiped out.

“Where is the Azure Dragon Corps’ Corps Chief?”

At Cheon Tae-san’s question the Squad Leader answered.

“The Corps Chief has taken another squad and gone to the aid of the Kunlun Sect.”

Since he was asking, Cheon Tae-san asked one thing more.

“And where is Squad Leader Namgung Seong-jin?”

“Ah, Squad Leader Namgung Seong-jin is moving with the Corps Chief as well.”

Cheon Tae-san nodded. If Namgung Seong-jin was acting together with Jang Ho-jin, the Azure Dragon Corps’ Corps Chief, that was a comfort.

A mild nature with no taste for a fight was the only thing that kept Jang Ho-jin from seeming a powerful figure. Of the Murim Alliance’s Six Battle Corps, none had a stronger Corps Chief than the Azure Dragon Corps.

Cheon Tae-san knew the Murim Alliance had sent both the Azure Dragon Corps and the White Tiger Corps into Sichuan, but no word of the White Tiger Corps had reached him, and he was curious.

“Do you know what the White Tiger Corps is about?”

The Azure Dragon Corps Squad Leader gave a shake of the head.

“They came into Sichuan together with us, but the White Tiger Corps seemed to have taken a separate mission and to be moving on it.”

Which was to say that the White Tiger Corps’ mission and its movements were unknown to them. And if so, some secret task was in hand, and it would not do to press further.

“I understand.”

The Squad Leader said.

“Once things here are settled I must rejoin the main force at once. Will the Scholar Divine Sword be joining as well?”

“No. I am going to the Dang Sect.”

The Squad Leader looked a little disappointed.

“Have you any word to send to the Corps Chief and Squad Leader Namgung?”

“There is nothing in particular to send. Does Corps Chief Jang know as well that the Demonic Cult men have grown strong by amplifying their innate true qi?”

“Of course. We came to blows with them the moment we arrived, so the Corps Chief knows.”

“Then there is nothing I need send. I shall be staying a while at the Dang Sect, so if you should ever have word for me, send it to the Dang Sect.”

Cheon Tae-san looked round at Paeng So-un, who had the look of a man who had settled on something.

“Elder brother. I shall join the Azure Dragon Corps and help the Kunlun Sect, and go to fight the Demonic Cult.”

“Is there any need for that? What do you say to coming to the Dang Sect?”

Cheon Tae-san said it out of worry for him.

“No. Coming to Sichuan at all was for the sake of fighting, from the first. I mean to take Daoist Un Sang and Jegal Do-won with me.”

That Paeng So-un or Un Sang should go was understandable, but it came as a surprise to hear that Jegal Do-won, with an arm gone, meant to fight too.

“Young Master Jegal too?”

“The Azure Dragon Corps has no Strategist, so he says he will go and be an adviser at the least.”

Hellion though he was, the schooling of a great house had had its effect after all.

“Elder brother, if we part like this I think we may never see each other again. So — from now on, treat me as your younger brother.”

Paeng So-un had the right of it. The Demonic Cult was strong enough that he might well die in the fighting, and there was no need to be hard on him.

“Let us do that. From now on I shall call you my younger brother.”

At that Paeng So-un smiled broadly.

“Then I may boast to people that I am on elder-brother-and-younger-brother terms with the Scholar Divine Sword, Master Scholar Cheon?”

Cheon Tae-san snorted a laugh at Paeng So-un’s childishness.

“Take care of yourself. You know they are strong, so form a sword formation and fight in it.”

“Yes. I have something in mind myself as well.”

Only then did Cheon Tae-san accept Paeng So-un as his younger brother.

“Ah — elder brother. Tell Yeo-seol I am sorry for going without a farewell to her. And tell her that I lied. That Yeo-seol is the prettiest of all the children I have ever seen.”

“I will.”

Cheon Tae-san snorted a laugh.

Un Sang came over to make their farewell.

“We shall meet again. I wish Master Scholar Cheon every success.”

Un Sang made Cheon Tae-san a courteous cupped-hands salute. At times like this the Wudang Sect’s plainness and its air of standing clear of the world came through, and Cheon Tae-san thought its Daoists a fine thing indeed.

Jegal Do-won hung back awkwardly, in two minds by the look of him over whether to make his farewell at all. So Cheon Tae-san went to him first.

“Young Master Jegal, the Demonic Cult’s cunning is a thing all the world knows. I ask you to stay at their side and advise them, so that others do not fall into their schemes.”

At Cheon Tae-san’s courteous words Jegal Do-won straightened himself.

“I shall keep it in mind.”

As though he had come to some great resolve, Jegal Do-won opened his mouth. As he saw it, Namgung Mu-baek had been a hellion one had to doubt would ever become a real human being, and hearing that this man had made such a hellion into an upstanding chivalrous hero, he wanted his advice.

“I mean to do the work of a Strategist in the Azure Dragon Corps. My arm has been cut off, so I would at least add my head. But my renown is not high, and I must build a reputation. How should I go about it?”

Paeng So-un, listening beside them, had a look that said why ask his own elder brother a thing like that. It was the same with Un Sang. Dang Jin-ok and Dang Ga-ryeong simply sneered at it inwardly.

And yet Cheon Tae-san read Jegal Do-won’s earnestness inside the question.

“A mind bent on changing yourself, rather than a mind bent on changing the world and other people, will bring you great renown.”

Cheon Tae-san turned to Jegal Do-won and spoke.

“To put it a little more plainly — respect a man while he is there, praise him when he is not, help him when he is in difficulty, never forget a kindness, and forget what has wounded you. Keep even three of these and Young Master Jegal will find good people overflowing all about him.”

Jegal Do-won bent at the waist. It was awkward, as though it were the first time in his life he had bent.

Cheon Tae-san received the bow and turned away, and Jegal Do-won opened his mouth.

“Thank you. And I am sorry.”

Cheon Tae-san did not look back.

Because he knew what it had cost the man to bring the words out.

Knowing what he was thanked for and what he was sorry for, he raised a hand and answered him with it.

When they had left the place with the Azure Dragon Corps, Cheon Tae-san went over to Oh Ju-hyang’s body. Not a sound place was left on it. He made a show of examining the corpse and took the Flying Dantian.

When I had put the Flying Dantian into my pouch and got to my feet, Dang Jin-ok and Dang Ga-ryeong came over to me.

“Let us set out for our sect now as well.”

The Dang Sect warriors had finished their clearing too, so we set out for the inn where Yeo-seol was. In any case the road to the Dang Sect ran past the inn.

Yeo-seol had a faintly disappointed look in her eyes at the news that Paeng So-un, who had squabbled with her all the way here, had gone off to fight.

Man or woman, young or old, one misses it when the person one talks with disappears.

“Little Brother Paeng said this. That you really were the prettiest of the little ones he’s seen. And he asked me to tell you he’s sorry for lying.”

At Cheon Tae-san’s words a laugh escaped Yeo-seol in spite of herself, like a woman who knows the way of the world.

“Brother, do you think I ever took that in earnest? The way people look at me is the way they look at a goddess. I’d be a fool not to know it.”

“Hahaha!”

Cheon Tae-san laughed aloud for the first time in a good while.

Until now the one-armed Jegal Do-won and Dang Jin-ok had ridden in the carriage, but for the journey to the Dang Sect it was Cheon Tae-san and Yeo-seol who took it.

But when the carriage halted for a moment, Dang Ji-in shamelessly squeezed his way inside. Even when Yeo-seol gave him a look to say get out, he pretended not to see.

“Scholar Divine Sword!”

Dang Ji-in’s look and words alike were altogether too much to bear, and left Cheon Tae-san at a loss.

“Young Master Dang Ji-in. When you call me, do not call me the Scholar Divine Sword. Call me Scholar Cheon.”

“Ah, were it me I would be pressing everyone around me to use so great a byname. Master Scholar Cheon is a man of such fine character that he is modest with it, I see.”

Cheon Tae-san studied Dang Ji-in closely.

Is this fellow a new breed of hellion?

Because he seemed somehow a hellion who was not very hellion-like.