Day And Night (7)

“Mind your words.”

Red Sword, the leader of the twenty-some masters blocking Jin-hyeon before Ha Jun, spoke.

“This is the Cheongyang Association’s Second Young Master. Even if you are the Seol clan’s attendant, you are excessively rude.”

“I am certainly ill-mannered, but I have never heard that one must bow unconditionally to a member of the Cheongyang Association.”

“What?!”

“Did the Heavenly Will Alliance decree so? Or is it Cheongyang’s own law? You may set your own rules, but deciding you are some kind of nobility and forcing everyone’s honorifics is a different matter, is it not?”

Jin-hyeon tilted his head.

“Why? Do you plan to make an issue if one does not honor even the heads of the Nine Great Sects?”

Red Sword spoke as if dumbfounded.

“Are you now placing yourself on par with those sect leaders?”

“If you want to nitpick, I can oblige anytime, but if your head cannot grasp even this simple point, then shut your mouth and salvage what face you have left.”

Red Sword’s face flushed red.

“How dare…!”

Just then, Ha Jun spoke.

“Stand down.”

“Second Young Master?”

“Stand down. That man is right.”

Red Sword glared briefly at Jin-hyeon, then moved aside. His subordinates followed, opening a path.

Ha Jun spoke calmly.

“I know it is somewhat forced.”

“You are the one forcing things.”

“I mean my rudeness upon first meeting.”

“I told you I lack manners.”

“…”

“If you are not going to settle this, step aside.”

A chill glinted at the corner of Ha Jun’s eye.

“You cannot enter here. You are an attendant. Only the heirs of the Eight Houses may enter.”

“Master and underlings alike seem to love laying down all sorts of rules.”

“You there!”

For a moment blue light rippled in Jin-hyeon’s eyes and vanished.

Ha Jun unconsciously clenched his fist, for when he met that ominous gaze he nearly retreated by instinct.

“Since the others seem content to let it pass, I will at least do my part. Not even the Cheongyang Association Leader has the right to block another’s business.”

“…What business do you mean?”

Jin-hyeon looked past Ha Jun.

Fixing his gaze on Song Geon among them, Jin-hyeon smiled coldly.

“Was it you?”

Song Geon’s cheek quivered.

The moment a violent aura rose from the yard’s center, he realized Jin-hyeon was here.

Jin-hyeon’s voice grew colder still.

“It seems you have a grievance against Lady Seol. People may harbor grievances, but you dare to cast killing intent?”

Ha Jun spoke in haste.

“You misunderstand. You should now…”

“Since you tried to kill an heir of the White Sword Seol Clan, are you prepared for what follows?”

The one line that ought not be said.

An heir of the Eight Houses trying to kill another. Once those words were spoken, the conflict became the kind that could not be smoothed over.

Sensing the mood, Yeom Hang spoke quickly.

“Seol clan attendant, do not misunderstand. There was a small dispute and Brother Song drank too much, that is all. Right, Brother Song?”

He stepped in to calm matters, but unfortunately did not grasp Song Geon’s state.

Jin-hyeon looked straight at Song Geon and smiled, a smile so subtle it could be taken a thousand ways by a thousand people.

Fire lit in Song Geon’s eyes.

“No, I did not make a mistake.”

“Brother Song!”

It was like pouring oil on a fire.

Jin-hyeon nodded as if impressed.

“Manly enough. Others seek the truth and to smooth things over, yet you alone state the facts boldly. I see you anew.”

Ha Jun quickly addressed Divine Spear’s attendant.

“What are you doing? Take Younger Brother and leave the manor at once!”

“Why should I be the one to leave?!”

His shout brimmed with unbearable rage.

“Did I say anything I should not? Who are we? We are heirs of Sichuan’s Eight Martial Houses! Why should we, the peak of Sichuan Murim, make such a fuss over the words of some wanderer from who knows where!”

He was not dead drunk, but the drink had honed his pride to a sharp edge.

Ha Jun looked at him with a sharp gaze.

“Younger Brother Song! Do you not see that our relationship could be ruined if you keep this up!”

If he did not calm this, he as host would not escape blame.

Ha Jun had the wit to see that, and tried to suppress Song Geon with a stronger prod.

And that was his second mistake.

“Ruin our relationship? Over a single fellow like that!”

“Not ‘a fellow like that’, the Seol clan’s benefactor.”

Seol So-ha’s expression did not change, though her nape flushed slightly.

Though training the Ten-Thousand-Year Only-White Art had greatly improved her mania, she was not cured. With superhuman patience she suppressed the frenzy threatening to burst.

“And this arose not because of the Teacher, but because of your arrogance and foolish tongue. Do not shift the blame.”

“Shut up!”

It grew more and more of a spectacle.

Hwaaak!

A sharp aura burst from Song Geon’s body. Oppression and rage finally blasted his reason away.

“I am the next Patriarch of the Divine Spear Clan! Who dares call me to account!”

Words could no longer solve this.

Ha Jun was about to raise his internal energy and speak.

“I will call you to account.”

Ha Jun was startled. Before he knew it, Jin-hyeon had touched his shoulder and stepped forward.

Pa-ak!

Instinctively shrugging off the hand and stepping aside, Ha Jun stared at Jin-hyeon in disbelief.

He had not even sensed when the man came to his side, much less laid a hand on his shoulder. Even unguarded, it was hard to believe he had allowed a wanderer to touch him.

‘A master. Could he be stronger than I—?!’

Jin-hyeon spoke evenly.

“I will call him to account. You have no objection, do you?”

“…You bastard!”

“Lady Seol has a duel tomorrow. Though it would be hard for a wretch like you to scratch her, there is no need for her to join a needless fight. Thus, I will take responsibility.”

Seol So-ha’s eyes wavered.

“Teacher.”

Jin-hyeon raised his right hand, and her mouth closed of its own accord.

All who saw it were astonished. That the Seol clan’s attendant, her personal guard, was instead restraining her words and actions?

More surprising, Seol So-ha did not resist but was overly respectful.

“I do not know how this mess began, but reasons are no longer needed. You look ready to fight. If this place is narrow, shall we go to the yard? Or is here enough?”

He naturally led the fight.

Watching from afar, Han Cheol-sang could not help but admire.

‘He is playing him completely.’

It was not because the opponent was a greenhorn.

Jin-hyeon had the ability to lead the mood and situation. Beyond words, every expression, aura, and well-timed motion was a calculated act to produce the result he wanted.

‘I felt it before, but he truly seems like a veteran of countless battles. And such conduct is not built by experience alone. He was born to it.’

Han Cheol-sang shook his head and looked at Song Geon with a trace of pity.

Song Geon’s face flushed scarlet.

In his excitement, he forgot that his opponent surpassed even his father.

For a hot-blooded, proud youth, logic and reason can be annoying attachments. So it was for Song Geon.

“Fine! I do not know where you crawled in from, but I will fix your manners today!”

Was it because he could hold it in no more?

At that moment, the man who had come as Song Geon’s guard took a step forward.

‘?!’

The man’s face changed. Han Cheol-sang had come up and blocked him out of nowhere.

Their gazes clashed.

They conversed without words. From Han Cheol-sang’s eyes and air, the man realized at once that he was facing a master beyond him.

A face hard as rock and eyes clear as crystal.

If he stepped in, his head would fly. The positioning was optimized for a cut. Move rashly and he could take a mortal wound in a single exchange.

‘Impossible!’

Behind the inwardly appalled man.

The Three-Sword Beheader, Baek San, finally stepped forward.

“Everyone, calm yourselves.”

Wooooong.

Powerful internal energy emanated from Baek San’s voice.

“This gathering was prepared by our Young Master Ha to strengthen the friendship among the Eight Houses…”

Just then.

“So are you fighting or not?”

Jin-hyeon grumbled.

“If you cower like a scared mutt, it’ll feel awkward to step on you. Shall I go first?”

Killing intent exploded from Song Geon’s body.

Urgency rose on Ha Jun and Yeom Hang’s faces.

“Younger Brother Song! No!”

“Brother Song!”

Song Geon cleanly ignored them.

“Die!”

Paaak!

He closed the short distance at once and swung a knife-hand.

The strike aimed for Jin-hyeon’s neck. It was obvious to anyone here that it was a clear killing move meant to snap the neck in one blow.

Jin-hyeon’s hand moved like lightning.

Udook!

Song Geon’s knife-hand stopped half an inch before Jin-hyeon’s throat.

“Ghh!”

Song Geon’s face reddened in an instant, filled with madness beyond disbelief and rage.

Clutching his wrist, Jin-hyeon’s expression slowly turned indifferent.

“You used a killing move first. I will accept this bout as a life-and-death duel.”

Baek San shouted.

“Stop!”

Hwarururuk!

Heavenly Wolf Qi surged out.

As if a great beast bound in black chains were freed, everyone in the manor felt their sight dim.

Song Geon’s mouth fell open.

The eyes of the ‘white-haired ghost,’ flickering oddly red and blue, held a savage, uncanny energy.

Sharper than killing intent, more violent than madness.

Facing demon eyes filled with an undefinable force, Song Geon recovered forgotten memories faster than anyone.

Those memories held the overwhelming presence that made not only his father, the Divine Spear House’s top master, but even the Abundant Prosperity Guild Master, said to stand after the Cheongyang Association, hesitate to speak rashly.

‘Huk!’

His body shook like an aspen.

The pale opponent’s face seemed to warp like mud, changing into the face of an indescribable monster.

A ghost would not have shocked him so. Even a beast baring fangs would not have been so terrifying.

“Uwaaaah!”

Unaware, Song Geon let out a wretched scream, froth at his lips.

His wrist was not broken, nothing was shattered, yet his whole body hurt.

The pain was phantom pain. The overwhelming killing intent before his nose conjured the vision of his body being torn apart.

He screamed madly and turned his head, instinctively trying to escape.

Then Jin-hyeon seized his face with his other hand and turned it back.

“Where are you looking?”

“Aaagh! Aaaagh!”

“Look straight at your opponent.”

Jin-hyeon smiled palely.

Song Geon’s trembling eyes slowly rolled back.

Even a healthy man, when facing a tiger in the mountains, loses the will to flee when overwhelmed by the tiger’s killing aura.

So it was with Song Geon now. Jin-hyeon had reached the Wolf-Taming Path, and his mind was tempered in blood with the worst conqueror in history.

Before him poured the Eight Wastes’ majesty, and monstrous aura.

In the end, Song Geon could not endure it.

Teolseok.

When his hand let go, he collapsed as he was. Even fallen, he convulsed and shook.

His mind having been forcibly shattered, recovery would be very difficult. Even if he did recover, he would never step on Jin-hyeon’s shadow again in his life.

Defeating his foe without a single punch, Jin-hyeon looked back at Ha Jun.

“You. Come here.”

Ha Jun’s complexion turned pale.