The Eve Festival (6)

Even Jin-hyeon, who had scarcely been flustered by anything since coming back from death, could not speak now.

The back that had been bent from working in the small shop was straight, and the hips that had stood awkward and skewed were supple and aligned.

The shopkeeper opened his mouth.

“So it was you after all.”

“…”

“I wondered when I saw the white hair. Your body has changed a lot.”

Since completing the Body-Refining Art, he had been so busy he hadn’t stopped by the shop even once.

He had changed greatly. Leaving aside the white hair, the body that had looked gaunt now seemed quite solid. On top of that he had learned the Heavenly Wolf True Art, so the air he gave off was worlds apart from before.

The higher one’s level in internal energy, the more one judges with Qi-sense over sight. To the shopkeeper’s eyes now, Jin-hyeon would look like a completely different person.

Jin-hyeon spoke in a low voice.

“What happened?”

After silently studying Jin-hyeon’s face for a moment, the shopkeeper spoke bitterly.

“So you knew, after all.”

“I don’t know what you mean, but I knew you weren’t ordinary.”

“Did you read my martial arts?”

“I didn’t. Rather, I felt the dissonance of the barrier set around the shop.”

The shopkeeper closed his eyes.

“When I saw you approach without hesitation, I knew you weren’t ordinary either.”

“That barrier, the person who set it can withdraw it or adjust the pressure at will, can’t he?”

“To know even that, I’m truly curious what you are.”

He said he was curious, but his face showed no curiosity.

When he opened his eyes again, the shopkeeper’s expression turned sharp. Jin-hyeon looked straight at him and asked,

“I’ll be direct. This atrocity, did you do it?”

“I am not some mad murderer like that.”

“…As I thought.”

“You believe me?”

“Yes.”

“You don’t seem like someone who would blindly believe someone just because you’re a regular.”

Though close to a joke, Jin-hyeon’s face stayed hard. The shopkeeper gave a wry smile.

Looking quietly down at him, Jin-hyeon withdrew his sword.

“I knew you weren’t the culprit from the instant we crossed a move. I only asked on the off chance.”

Surprise flickered on the shopkeeper’s face.

“Why…?”

“A man who attacks first because he thinks I’m the culprit cannot be the murderer who did this.”

“It could be a ploy to fool you.”

“Sorry, but I’m not so easily deceived. Besides…”

Jin-hyeon sheathed the Indestructible Sword, showing by action he had no will to fight further.

“I don’t think someone who can make food that moves people would commit such senseless murder.”

The shopkeeper’s expression turned so strange it was hard to describe.

Jin-hyeon turned and looked into the house.

In that instant, curses burst out of him.

“That insane bastard.”

Two adults and three children, a total of five people were killed.

An entire family was annihilated. And the state of their deaths was unspeakably horrific.

Arms and legs lay scattered, and entrails burst out from split bellies. The children looked even more gruesome than the two adults.

Saaaak.

A terrifying murderous aura seethed from Jin-hyeon’s body.

The shopkeeper felt his spine chill at Jin-hyeon’s killing intent. He had faced many villains, but such a primal killing aura was a first.

‘Astounding.’

A warrior raging at a butchered family.

Yet the density of the surging killing intent was so merciless it drew the word demon by itself. That mismatched duality only made him harder to face.

Seuk.

Jin-hyeon examined the marks on the corpses.

‘A saber.’

It was similar to the saber wound on Yeo Bang’s body.

‘Was it that guy?’

The one who cut Yeo Bang and fled.

Inwardly, Jin-hyeon shook his head.

‘No. Even if he came here right after fleeing, the time’s too short. The shopkeeper would have detected him before I arrived.’

Besides, wounds from a gently curving saber were mostly similar anyway.

Then the shopkeeper came up behind and spoke gloomily.

“Can you see how it could be me?”

Without even looking back, Jin-hyeon said.

“If you want to be branded the culprit that badly, go to the Investigation and Defense Court and surrender.”

“The marks on the bodies are saber wounds. There’s ample cause for you to mistake me for the murderer.”

“And I told you. You’re not that kind of man.”

“Because of some dumplings?”

“They weren’t thrown together so poorly you should belittle them. Anyway, if you want the misunderstanding, go surrender, or wait here till dawn. If the Investigation and Defense Court constables aren’t fools, they’ll search this area too.”

The shopkeeper said nothing further.

Rising, Jin-hyeon ground his teeth.

He wanted to cremate them and pray for their spirits. But he couldn’t burn bodies bearing the culprit’s traces.

Jin-hyeon looked back at the shopkeeper.

“What are you?”

“…”

“How did you know a killing happened here?”

His tone changed, his eyes shifted.

There was ample doubt toward the other, but no hostility.

With a dark face, the shopkeeper spoke.

“The culprit.”

“Stop talking nonsense and answer the question!”

“The murderer imitated me and killed innocents. Does that make me no different from the culprit?”

A chill gleam came into Jin-hyeon’s eyes.

“I’ll ask again. What are you?”

“…”

“Damn it, if you don’t want to answer, forget it and help me instead.”

The shopkeeper started.

“Help you? What do you mean?”

“You want to catch him, don’t you? So do I. Then help me. Or I can help you.”

Passing by the shopkeeper, Jin-hyeon muttered as if to himself,

“Since from the looks of it, you track him better than the Court or the sects on the search.”

Staring blankly ahead, the shopkeeper soon lowered his head to the bodies.

After looking at them for a long time, he spoke.

“I…”

Just then.

Pababak!

There came a sound of something brushing the thicket.

Someone was heading here. From the movement, both Jin-hyeon and the shopkeeper could tell it was rather urgent.

A moment later.

“Teacher?!”

Seol So-ha quickly steadied her breath and bowed to Jin-hyeon.

“How are you here, Teacher?!”

“I caught the scent of blood by chance and came.”

“Eh?”

Jin-hyeon pointed his thumb toward the house.

“He already finished and left, that son of a bitch.”

Seol So-ha and the swordsmen started toward the house in shock, then spotted the shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper, already wearing a hood just in case, recognized her at a glance. This being that Jin-hyeon had visited with her a couple of times and because the Seol clan’s fame was immense.

Seol So-ha looked at the shopkeeper with tense eyes.

“And this person…?”

She looked ready to draw at any time.

As the shopkeeper was about to speak.

“He’s with me.”

Startled, the shopkeeper looked at Jin-hyeon.

Arms folded, Jin-hyeon looked up at the moon and said,

“He’s with me. There’s no need to be so tense.”

“I see.”

The hood was awkward, but if Jin-hyeon said so, so it was. Seol So-ha and the swordsmen gave the shopkeeper a short bow and entered the house.

“Th-this!”

“That bastard again!”

Laments burst from the swordsmen. Seol So-ha couldn’t even speak.

Jin-hyeon approached the shopkeeper.

“Where do we start?”

Looking at Jin-hyeon with wavering eyes, the shopkeeper sighed and shook his head. He didn’t know.

After quietly searching his eyes, Jin-hyeon spoke to Seol So-ha.

“We’ll search elsewhere. Lady Seol, move separately with the swordsmen.”

“…Understood.”

“Don’t burn the bodies. Inform the Investigation and Defense Court before moving anything.”

Giving brief instructions, Jin-hyeon unfolded his movement arts toward the northeast. The shopkeeper hesitated, then followed.

How long did they run like that?

Reaching a small, empty hill, Jin-hyeon looked back at the shopkeeper.

“No one is listening. Tell me, how did you know the killer would appear there?”

“…”

“Not going to answer?”

“Jeong Gyo.”

“?”

“My name is Jeong Gyo.”

“Good then, Jeong Gyo. How did you know that was the scene?”

“I didn’t.”

“Are you saying that it was by chance?”

The shopkeeper, Jeong Gyo, spoke in a calmer tone.

“There’s no clear pattern to his killings. It’s purely random.”

“…”

“But checking the state of the bodies tells you he acts between the Rat and Ox hours.”

It was something he hadn’t known since he’d moved alone. Jin-hyeon nodded.

“And?”

“Of course he’s a master of considerable level, and when possible he targets families of two or more.”

“Two or more?”

“The killings always happen in concealed places like dwellings or storerooms. As you saw, the walls and ceiling become seas of blood.”

For a moment, Jin-hyeon’s eyes flashed sharp.

“The smell of blood… he’s drunk on blood.”

Jeong Gyo was quite surprised. To infer that far from his words alone took no small experience.

“You must have much experience in such matters.”

“Spare that talk and go on.”

“…With no notable traces besides blade marks, he’s adept at movement arts. Drenched in blood, he must change clothes daily.”

“And?”

“That’s all. What I focus on is that the culprit is obsessed with the scent of blood.”

Jin-hyeon knit his brows.

“And from only that you came here?”

“You can tell by wind direction. Opening the door late at night would draw suspicious looks from passersby, so he’d have opened the window.”

That is, he opened the window to check if anyone was coming. However flimsy a house, opening or closing a window differs in sound and presence.

Jin-hyeon’s gaze deepened.

“The wind… since wind blowing in would carry the blood smell out faster, he targeted places with windows set away from the wind?”

“Yes. Remarkable.”

“But then who can know when and where it will happen? Sichuan is vast.”

“Looking at the distances between scenes so far, it’s the area south of Chengdu. He targets civilians exclusively, avoids very deep villages and clusters on flatlands. Thinking that way, you can track him somehow.”

Jin-hyeon was impressed.

Easier said than done, narrowing scenes this far required thorough inquiry, ceaseless covert work, and bold analysis.

“But for today’s weather, there’s barely any wind…”

Realizing in a moment, Jin-hyeon nodded.

“So you targeted near the river. The humidity would thicken the blood scent.”

“Exactly.”

“Even so, the river wind blows fairly strong.”

“So he acted quickly. At the latest, he’d have finished before midnight.”

They clicked at once. To think that someone with such martial skill and analytical ability had been pinching dumplings in the market, it was unbelievable even now.

“Only, yesterday’s killing was different somehow.”

“Speak.”

“There were quite a few footprints. Faint and irregular, hard to tell the martial art, but certainly different from before.”

“It could be possible that he used feints because of the Court and sect reinforcements?”

“No. Those footprints were plainly clumsy.”

Given Jeong Gyo’s skill, it was credible. He wouldn’t mistake forced traces by a master for the inevitable ‘marks of movement arts.’

“There are two culprits?”

Jeong Gyo was greatly surprised. Enough to wonder if this man really knew little of the case.

“That’s what I believe, but I can’t be sure.”

“Do you think today’s killings are done?”

“Yes.”

Nodding, Jin-hyeon turned.

“Let’s meet at the shop before sunset tomorrow.”

“Wait.”

“What is it?”

Jeong Gyo’s gaze was colored with confusion.

“I said the culprit imitated me. You won’t ask anything about that?”

“Stop the needless talk and go rest. Your eyes are bloodshot.”

“I…!”

“You sell food. Except, you’re just stronger and smarter than most other people.”

Jin-hyeon unfolded his movement arts.

Before he left, the words he left behind circled Jeong Gyo’s ears.

“You’re far more suited for a carefully-seasoned kitchen knife than a baleful long saber.”