#45: Wolf’s Den (5) — The Patriarch of Sichuan

Jang Pyeong’s mouth fell open.

The sight of a young woman he thought was just a servant girl merrily beating down the fearsome warriors of the Black Tiger Fist Sect was not only shocking but almost refreshing.

He could not tell how she moved. When a swish sounded, wails burst out, and when a thud sounded, they rolled on the ground, yet the warriors’ grim drive to rise and charge again still looked formidable.

But grit alone could not bridge the skill gap. Do-min truly attacked only the openings, as if she was lecturing them on fist technique.

In the end, within a short time, the warriors who were pummeled all over collapsed unconscious.

“What is this, you bastard? Why is this happening?”

Swallowing as he watched, Jang Pyeong suddenly started and looked at Jin-hyeon.

Jin-hyeon clicked his tongue and stood.

“Your foundation is weak. Unconscious before we even begin?”

Jang Pyeong looked at Wi Seong-woo.

He had collapsed foaming at the mouth. His eyes rolled white, looking like a husband caught cheating.

Jin-hyeon brushed off his hands. The wood splinters he had meant to “store” with care blew away on the wind.

“So this ‘scion of a famed Sichuan sect’ has nothing to show.”

“He was always like that.”

Jin-hyeon looked at Jang Pyeong.

Unexpectedly, Jang Pyeong was calm. Faced with too unreal a scene, he seemed instead to grow cool-headed.

“The Sect Master has two sons and one daughter. The first is a promising young talent counted among Sichuan’s best, but the second, Wi Seong-woo, lacks talent and has a rotten temper, so the Sect Master likely dumped work like this on him.”

His voice sank when he said “work like this,” as if his own circumstances stung anew.

Jang Pyeong hurried to continue.

“I see you are no ordinary man. But these brats are nothing. The Black Tiger Fist Sect has over two hundred years of history. If the Sect Master learns of this, Sichuan could truly be upended.”

Jin-hyeon smiled.

“I am from Sichuan too. Do you think I would act without knowing the Black Tiger Fist Sect?”

“?!”

“If I acted knowing, would that not mean I have my reasons for confidence?”

“Th-that…”

On reflection, it was true.

Nodding without realizing, Jang Pyeong looked back at Jin-hyeon.

Thinking him the very one who had brought about this situation, he seemed all the more extraordinary, especially as a youth in his twenties, who was younger than himself.

His white-washed hair had a strange air. With pale skin and a deep gaze, he seemed a scion of some great house.

Jang Pyeong bowed his head without meaning to.

“I did not recognize an honored person.”

“Do not bow like that. I am nothing special.”

A person proves his bearing by word and deed.

Jang Pyeong grew all the more careful with his words.

“If I may, might I know your esteemed name?”

“I am called Jin-hyeon. The surname is…”

“So you are Hero Jin.”

“…Well, I am no hero, at least.”

It seemed some famous Jin had once dominated Sichuan. Otherwise, why did everyone assume he was of the Jin surname?

As Jin-hyeon grumbled inwardly, Jang Pyeong spoke.

“Even a dunce like me can tell that Hero Jin is remarkable. But will you truly be alright?”

“I will. I may look reckless, yet I am no fool who touches what cannot be cleaned up.”

“Th-then…”

Reassuring him, Jin-hyeon called Do-min.

“You will need a place right away. Min, escort this gentleman to that site we saw. Someone will arrive in under an hour. Give my name and go with them.”

Tension fell over Do-min’s face.

“Master, are you going to fight the Black Tiger Fist Sect?”

It seemed she had forgotten where the warriors she herself pummeled were from.

“Why would I fight them? We’ll settle it with words. Do not worry and see him there. When I am done, I will go as well.”

“Understood.”

Of course it was not a relationship to be settled in words. Jin-hyeon simply did not want to unsettle Do-min.

“I will wait here, so tell Pebble to come.”

“Pebble?”

“If you say it like that, he will know.”

With a smile, Jin-hyeon reassured Jang Pyeong again.

“You have been deceived much throughout your life, have you not? Then be deceived once more and trust me. When I am done, I will come at once.”

After sending the two off, Jin-hyeon sat on the steps before the fallen riffraff.

‘Over two hundred years?’

Over two hundred years meant it existed before the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader was born.

Jin-hyeon groped through the memories of the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader who had strode the world.

‘?’

As he searched, he felt a bit at a loss.

‘It has grown blurrier.’

He had lived the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader’s life dozens of times, so even as dreams the experience and memory should have been vivid.

But since when? The ingrained experience remained, yet the memories grew vague.

It had happened before. After crushing the Mighty Tiger Merchant Guild and training for a while, he had to dredge up how the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader trained in the past.

‘I have not forgotten the mnemonics and the searing experiences.’

At last, Jin-hyeon realized.

‘Dreams…’

He was forgetting, slowly and little by little.

No matter how striking, memories blur in ten years and grow dim in thirty.

All the more, they were dreams. Real while dreaming, quickly forgotten on waking.

He remembered much only because he had lived the same life dozens of times. Remembering the fine parts months later was hard, not to mention after a life of over seventy years.

‘Is it still like this even after honing the Soul-Refining Art.’

The upper dantian protects the brain and nurtures the soul’s power. When it activates, memory and intuition naturally rise.

‘No, that is why. I remember this much because I learned the Soul-Refining Art.’

He had lived over a thousand years in dreams and even his temperament changed. Such dreams could be called practical experience.

Yet a dream is a dream. Like rain that leaves traces and vanishes, like water that evaporates with time.

The Eight Wastes Alliance Leader’s life had fallen like fiery rain and seared his body, but being a dream, it would in the end vanish like water.

‘I should set aside time later to sort my memories.’

In truth, it did not matter if he forgot. His ability and experience would remain. But within those memories, there was much he could extract for this life.

Jin-hyeon let out a hollow laugh.

‘Absurd. Only now do I think to sort those treasure-like memories.’

He had been busy with this and that and was in turmoil.

He could begin now. He did not let regret grow from what was missed.

“The Black Tiger Fist Sect…”

He traced his memories of the sect.

‘I do not recall them. Were they nothing much then?’

That could not be.

It is easy for a powerful sect to decline, but hard for one barely holding a line to surge.

The Seol Clan was special, and Mighty Tiger was a merchant guild, which one could understand. Sects did surge at times, but it was not common.

‘They must have made a name locally. If so, there is no way I would not remember.’

As he kept searching, Jin-hyeon suddenly knit his brow.

‘Tiger… White Tiger Hall. There was a sect called White Tiger Hall. But this is the Black Tiger Fist Sect.’

When the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader invaded Sichuan, White Tiger Hall was a rising sect just gaining fame.

Famed for physical arts, they boasted strength said to be next to Sichuan’s Eight Great Sects then.

Of those Eight Great Sects, two surrendered, and the remaining six were thoroughly smashed by the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader.

At that time, White Tiger Hall was not crushed. It swore surrender along with two of the Eight Great Sects.

‘I do recall a passing glimpse… he seemed nothing much.’

The White Tiger Hall Master who came with the two sect masters and knelt.

The face was blurry. He remembered only that he was rather solidly built.

‘Not particularly impressive…’

Suddenly Jin-hyeon realized he was misreading something.

“Idiot, how can you look with eyes from the conqueror days.”

The Eight Wastes Alliance Leader was truly the best under heaven. He was of course a once-in-an-age genius.

And under him swarmed dragons and tigers whose each was as strong as leaders of the Nine Great Sects then. With such strength around, would a mere White Tiger Hall Master have caught his eye.

‘Come to think, that too is strange.’

Compared to then, the Sichuan Murim now was weak.

Strictly, the representative sects’ might was weak. It was harsh to say, but even the Seol Clan would likely be pushed out of the top ten elsewhere.

‘One could say the Seol Clan earned its name through upright character, but what of the other sects? Is this truly all?’

Not even one of the scattered Nine Great Sects belonged to Sichuan.

Anew, Jin-hyeon could not help lamenting Sichuan Murim’s reality.

‘Well, the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader wiped out the resisting forces to the root. Sichuan suffered especially. The result is only natural.’

As his thoughts turned, he pressed Wi Seong-woo’s pressure point.

“Hurrrk!”

Seized by convulsions, Wi Seong-woo gasped and tried to rise, then fell back. His arms were numb and could not give strength.

“W-what is this?”

“What else? It’s time to get up.”

“Gah!”

Pulling up his head and seeing Jin-hyeon, his face went white.

“You!”

“You?”

Jin-hyeon tapped his broken leg.

Wi Seong-woo screamed. It felt like his knee was being sawed at by a knife.

“You’re weak in martial arts, have no grit, and even sold off your sense too.”

“Grrk! D-do you know who I am?! I am of the Black Tiger Fist Sect’s…!”

“Two hundred years ago too?”

“?”

“The name Black Tiger Fist Sect, did you use it two hundred years ago too?”

“W-what are you saying…”

In Murim, lacking sense is a sin.

Jin-hyeon kicked the broken leg hard. Wi Seong-woo choked and rolled on the ground.

“If you don’t answer straight, the other side snaps too.”

“Krhhk!”

“The name Black Tiger Fist Sect, since when have you begun using it?”

An answer popped out reflexively.

“A-about fifty years ago, I think.”

“Fifty years? Then before that?”

“White Tiger Sect…”

So it was White Tiger Hall.

Jin-hyeon stroked his chin.

‘If I consider their strength then and development since…’

The Sect Master’s might seemed stronger than Seol Hong-baek before learning the Tianshan Arts. With more fame than the Seol Clan and more money, he would have taken ample elixirs.

Of course, the key is ceaseless training and real combat.

‘The Sect Master I can manage somehow.’

Naturally he could not face the whole sect. It is a great local sect. It was a problem on a completely different realm from taking on the Mighty Tiger Merchant Guild.

‘We’re fated to fight anyway. They must bear a grudge from the Mighty Tiger affair, grinding their teeth over when and how to kill me.’

It is the same for the other sects entangled in the corruption.

Jin-hyeon glanced at Wi Seong-woo.

‘I had thought to nab this one and go to the Left Chief Constable.’

With the corruption probe fizzling out, tempers would be bad. Bringing these bastards, who touched civilians, in would make eyes roll back on their own.

‘If I tangle with that side for nothing, I will be tired later.’

Matters of Murim are best handled the Murim way.

Most of all, rage boiled up. It galled him that someone spoiled the very first step to securing the home he so desired.

‘It’s actually better this way. Grudges should be settled quickly.’

Jin-hyeon rose and kicked the fallen warriors’ heads. That stretched their unconsciousness from an hour faint into a day.

Wi Seong-woo’s eyes widened.

“W-wai…!”

Crack!

Hit especially hard, Wi Seong-woo passed out again. Meat dishes would be hard for him from now on.

Just then, Dam Jun arrived.

He came ready to grumble, then froze at the sight of the sprawled warriors.

“Who are these guys?”

“The Black Tiger Fist Sect.”

“What?!”

“They tormented the landowner plenty.”

Dam Jun was at a loss.

Seeing the smashed warriors, it looked like he did it not for the landowner but out of a foul mood. Though of course, he could not say that aloud.

“What are you planning? The opponent is the Black Tiger Fist Sect, one of Sichuan’s top names. This is a different level from the Mighty Tiger Merchant Guild…”

“Should I be watching the faces of those who crawled because they could not stand up to a merchant guild’s threats?”

“That was a pretext. If they really were to fight, the Black Tiger Fist Sect…”

Dam Jun’s eyes suddenly widened.

“Is that youth… the Sect Master’s second son?”

“Is he famous?”

“Of course!”

He barely stopped “Are you crazy” from slipping out. Jin-hyeon’s eyes were not ordinary.

“You know the fist sect well?”

“…It is one of our watch targets, so I know it fairly well.”

“And the Sect Master’s martial skill?”

“First-rate beyond question. Not the very top, but certainly stronger than the Patriarch of the Seol Clan.”

“How about his love for his children?”