You Eat It And See

That was surely no idle threat. The Elders’ Council was watching for its chance to pull down the Corps Chiefs of the White Tiger Corps and the Azure Dragon Corps, both of whom professed neutrality.

“Even so, it seems to me irresponsible to leave these people unattended.”

It grieved Wang Cheong that there was so little room for them to help Scholar Cheon, and yet they could not turn their back on the man either. The moment Corps Chief Jang Ho-jin of the Azure Dragon Corps learned of it, they might well cut Wang Cheong off for good.

“As to the Second Seat Inspector’s order, I shall…”

Wang Cheong had meant to refuse Gu Jin-ha’s command.

“Corps Chief Wang, I think it would be better to follow Inspector Gu Jin-ha’s word.”

Cheon Tae-san had finished absorbing the spirit energy, and he cut into their conversation. He had judged that nothing mattered more than securing Jong So-bin’s and Ye-won’s safety; to hide Cheon Yeo-seol’s identity perfectly, those two had to be safe.

Wang Cheong caught something in his words and nodded.

“Understood. Let us do that.”

Gu Jin-ha bit his lip. The man had shown every sign of refusing even with the Elders’ Council invoked over him, and now he snatched up Cheon Tae-san’s word the instant it was spoken. Gu Jin-ha was so dumbfounded his body shook.

“Are you ill somewhere? Have you caught a chill? Why are you shaking like that?”

And on top of it Cheon Tae-san stood there mocking him while he was in that state, until he felt he might fall into qi deviation. He barely kept hold of his wits and opened his mouth.

“Y-yes. That would be best. I’ve made all the arrangements myself.”

“Still, one never knows. I thought to leave about two squads of the White Tiger Corps behind.”

Wang Cheong said it because they did not know what lay behind it. The Demonic Cult or the Blood Cult crowd might well attack the White Tiger Corps. That was how deadly in earnest those men were about the Ice Sacred Body; they had no interest in Yi Ung or Yi Mak-seong whatsoever.

“There is no need. The White Tiger Corps must protect the Young Palace Lord with its whole strength. To my thinking, you may even have to apply to the Namgung Clan and move together with the Namgung Demon-Repelling Corps.”

Wang Cheong thought for a moment, then answered.

“If Master Scholar Cheon says so, then I understand the matter is urgent. I shall get word to the Namgung Demon-Repelling Corps.”

The two of them settled the matter between themselves and left him, the Second Seat Inspector, standing there; his trembling grew worse and worse.

Before Gu Jin-ha could speak, Wang Cheong gave the White Tiger Corps its orders.

“Finish up here quickly and move out.”

Gu Jin-ha spoke.

“Before that we ought to settle one thing for certain. Scholar Cheon, well? Did Yi Mak-seong have demonic qi in him?”

I had sensed demonic qi plain enough for even a White Tiger Corps warrior to make out, and there was no denying it was there.

“There is. But it looks as though he was poisoned with it somewhere. If he’d raised the demonic qi himself, it would have to be gathered in the dantian. But Yi Mak-seong has it in his meridians and not in his dantian, which shows the demonic qi came in from outside. That will have to be made clear.”

For Gu Jin-ha it was enough that demonic qi had been confirmed at all; he could find some way or other to tangle them in it, if not at this moment.

“That much I can confirm for you on my own name.”

When I took their side and spoke for them, Yi Ung turned eyes full of feeling on me. With demonic qi confirmed in the son’s body, anyone would naturally shrink from speaking up for them, however you looked at it.

“I say it again — Yi Mak-seong’s demonic qi is closer to a poisoning.”

Gu Jin-ha came nose to nose with me and spat the words out one by one. His eyeballs glittered with such killing intent that it was a wonder he did not spit in my face as well.

“That he was exposed to demonic qi from outside can be no proof that he was not in communication with the Demonic Cult.”

Gu Jin-ha stuck close enough that I could feel his breath, and rattled on.

“Where demonic qi is involved, it’s right to investigate a connection with the Demonic Cult without exception. That’s how our Inspection Corps has always done it. Isn’t that so, Scholar Cheon?”

I got the feeling the bastard had finished his groundwork for branding the Jeongryong Sect as Demonic Cult men. Otherwise, with a nature like Gu Jin-ha’s, he would never have talked this far. He was a man always careful, always on his guard over the smallest thing.

So I made up my mind.

He seems to have squared his story with the Elders’ Council to some degree already. If not now, there is nobody left who will put a brake on this bastard’s scheming.

I could not afford to sit back and watch. Alert now, I thought for a moment and came to a decision.

And besides, this bastard is thrashing about trying to tangle me into it as well. In that case the right move is to strike first. Sitting still and taking it is not to my taste.

I spoke to Gu Jin-ha as he turned away.

“Yes. Quite right. If demonic qi is present, there’s a connection with the Demonic Cult, whatever the circumstances.”

At my change of tack Yi Ung looked at me with despair in their eyes. The one who had been speaking for them had turned, and they reckoned there was no hole left to slip out of. A moment later, hearing the rest of what I said, their eyes lit up.

“There’s one thing I found out while examining Yi Mak-seong’s demonic qi. Yi Mak-seong’s demonic qi derives from the Demonic Cult’s Demonic Surge Pill. You know the Demonic Surge Pill?”

Thrown for an instant by my words, Gu Jin-ha stumbled slightly over his own.

“I-I know it. The Demonic Surge Pill is a Demonic Cult article. A forbidden spirit elixir, at that. Carrying one only proves communication with the Demonic Cult all the more.”

As he spoke his face grew more and more triumphant.

“So if a man were carrying a Demonic Surge Pill, we can take it that he too is in communication with the Demonic Cult?”

Gu Jin-ha’s eyes darted about, and then he nodded.

“Naturally. The Demonic Surge Pill is the Demonic Cult’s forbidden spirit elixir.”

I nodded. There was one thing Gu Jin-ha had overlooked.

The Demonic Surge Pill’s demonic qi was an energy that could transfer, so a trace of it off Yi Mak-seong was all I needed to know that energy anywhere. At a distance I had felt nothing; but the moment the bastard came nose to nose with me to talk, I could sense the energy of a Demonic Surge Pill inside his robe.

So he is carrying one more Demonic Surge Pill. If he meant to wipe the Jeongryong Sect out root and branch, he will have meant to use it on Sect Leader Yi Ung too, against the chance of need, and not on Yi Mak-seong alone.

Now that I knew he was carrying one, there was nothing to wait for. Laying Gu Jin-ha’s scheming bare here and now was the surest way clear of his trap.

“And yet — why is it that the smell of a Demonic Surge Pill comes off Scholar Gu’s body?”

“W-what are you talking about!”

At my words the eyes of Wang Cheong and the White Tiger Corps’ command fixed on me all at once. That was how perilous an article the Demonic Surge Pill was.

“The reason I set the thick needles into Yi Mak-seong a while ago and looked at the energy is that what was in his body was the demonic qi of a Demonic Surge Pill. Isn’t it strange? Yi Mak-seong was poisoned with a Demonic Surge Pill, and the smell of that same pill comes off you.”

“Do you mean to frame me?”

Seeing the tremor in his pupils, I was certain.

“If what I say is a lie, take out what you’re carrying inside your robe.”

“Why should I? Why should I listen to a word out of you?”

I spoke in a cool tone.

“Look here, Gu Jin-ha. Put a foot wrong and a whole school stands to be wiped out root and branch for communicating with the Demonic Cult. And yet you press that charge and won’t make so much as an effort to show the evidence for it?”

When I stepped toward him, Gu Jin-ha shouted.

“G-guard me!”

At that, five Inspection Corps warriors ranged themselves in a line behind him. They were Murim Alliance martial artists, and they took Gu Jin-ha’s orders.

“Corps Chief Wang. It will have to be you who confirms it.”

Wang Cheong opened their mouth.

“If the Second Seat Inspector refuses outright, there is nothing for it but to search him by force.”

I moved on the Nine Nether Ghost-Spirit Footwork, pressed Gu Jin-ha’s points, and left him unable to move.

Perhaps because nobody had looked for me to move at all, a silence came down. Wang Cheong had not known I could close as fast as a master and seal a man’s points; they started and blinked. The Inspection Corps’ martial artists had gone just as stiff.

“Do not move. If it is true that Inspector Gu Jin-ha is carrying a Demonic Surge Pill, then anyone who tries to protect him will be branded one of the same party.”

Another of the Inspectors spoke, shaking.

“B-but what if there is nothing?”

“I shall take the responsibility. I shall answer for having framed Inspector Gu Jin-ha.”

When I spoke as forcefully as that, the other Inspectors and the martial artists offered no more resistance. If a real Demonic Surge Pill came out, they could be tangled in as Demonic Cult men themselves.

“Do not believe that bastard! I am the Second Seat Inspector of the Inspection Corps! What reason would I have to be carrying a Demonic Surge Pill! Seize him! He is the one who is truly a Demonic Cult man!”

Paying no mind to the bastard babbling on, I spoke to Wang Cheong.

“Corps Chief Wang. Look inside Gu Jin-ha’s robe yourself. If this is to be done fairly, it will have to be you who steps forward.”

“Let us do that.”

Wang Cheong, seeming to have made up their mind, went over to Gu Jin-ha and searched inside his robe.

“W-what do you think you are doing? Do not believe that bastard! Is it not strange? That a scholar fellow who has never trained a single strand of martial arts should have learned a technique enough to seal my points. It is possible only because he is a Demonic Cult man.”

There was nothing wrong in what he said either, and Wang Cheong looked at me. From where they stood, acting on one side’s word alone would be a breach of fairness.

I sighed, drew the plaque from my robe and tossed it to them. They looked at it, started violently, and looked back at me.

“One surprise after another.”

Shown the Namgung Clan’s Protector’s plaque, Wang Cheong checked it themself alone and handed it back to me.

“Master Scholar Cheon has trained in martial arts. Say no more.”

Everyone knew that serving as Protector to even a single martial house took a martial standing out of the ordinary. If the house was the Namgung Clan, the matter was not worth debating at all.

“Nonsense! I worked alongside him for years — there’s no way I wouldn’t know. Are you telling me that bastard is the Murim Alliance’s secret weapon, or its joint successor?”

The bastard shouted it in anger, and Wang Cheong only looked at him and frowned. They said nothing against it, and a murmur went round.

“It’s actually true, then?”

Those who had watched Wang Cheong take the plaque from me and start in surprise could hardly think otherwise. Talk of the Murim Alliance’s secret weapon and its joint successor had been going about among the Alliance’s martial artists for a long time.

“There’s a chance of it. He could have hidden his true standing and worked in the Inspection Corps.”

“You don’t think—?”

“Come now, you know Scholar Cheon has the nickname of the Ghost-Trailed Scholar?”

“I know it. A scholar famous in the Murim Alliance.”

“Think about it. Could a mere scholar really investigate the corruption of Corps Chiefs and Pavilion Masters, and even investigate Elders and strip them of their robes?”

“Impossible.”

“Now that I think of it, that’s quite right. It’s not a thing a mere scholar could do. It’s only possible because he’s the secret weapon, or the joint successor.”

Wang Cheong had no mind to deny what they were saying. Neither the Murim Alliance’s secret weapon nor its joint successor could be called a higher standing than Protector of the Namgung Clan Head’s Person.

How does a man of the Murim Alliance come to be the Namgung Clan Head’s Protector?

The question stayed with Wang Cheong too, but the footwork the scholar had shown was a technique that leapt to the eye. It had carried the man to Gu Jin-ha like a ghost, and it was an art Wang Cheong was seeing for the first time themself.

It may be a Namgung Clan footwork.

Wang Cheong groped a little deeper inside and drew out a small wooden case.

“This came out.”

“Open it, if you please.”

At my words Gu Jin-ha cried out in a desperate voice.

“T-this isn’t it. This is medicine I take.”

The case came open. Wang Cheong felt the demonic qi pouring off the red pill and screwed up their face.

I looked at the Demonic Surge Pill and spoke.

“You said it was medicine you take, didn’t you? Then you won’t mind if I feed it to you.”

I picked up the pill and made to put it in his mouth, and Gu Jin-ha shouted.

“No! Do you mean to kill me!”

“You said it was medicine you take.”

“Nngh! No! Don’t feed me that!”

“I’m going to feed it to you. You said it was medicine.”

Gu Jin-ha’s lips quivered, and then he confessed.

“T-that’s a Demonic Surge Pill. It mustn’t be eaten.”

In the end, to keep from swallowing it, Gu Jin-ha had no choice but to blurt it out.

“You’re the one who fed Yi Mak-seong the Demonic Surge Pill in secret, aren’t you?”

Gu Jin-ha bit his lip and shut his mouth, so I took the bastard’s jaw in my hand and set the Demonic Surge Pill against his lips. He had already confessed, and neither the Inspection Corps’ warriors nor its Inspectors could stop what I was doing.

“If you won’t talk, it can’t be helped. Nothing for it but to feed you this and see.”

“You son of a bitch! Stop it!!”

“Gu Jin-ha, you know me well enough. I’m the man who fought even Elder Gal. You think the likes of you can stop me?”

Another man might have doubted it; Gu Jin-ha knew I was the sort who would feed him the Demonic Surge Pill and think nothing of it.

Which was why he must have felt all the closer to going mad.