Side Story 22. Yu Su-rin, Dam Hyun, Guihon Jade (2)

The head of the Baek Clan was still Baek Ryu-san.
And its young clan head was the Iron-Blood Sword Dragon, Baek Ha-jun. Yi-gang’s younger brother.
In Yi-gang’s eyes, he was still a lacking younger brother, but Ha-jun was now one of the most outstanding swordsmen in the entire Central Plains.
His body still bore the traces of Demonic Qi Art, but he had now overcome even its side effects.
With near-limitless internal energy and powerful swordsmanship on top of that.
Ha-jun possessed martial power on the level of an Absolute Master.

And yet today, that same Ha-jun sat without a single attendant by his side.
His dark steel sword was caked with dried yokai blood.
Sitting on a rock, Ha-jun took out an oilcloth from inside his robes.
And with it, he wiped down the blade.

Clotted blood and grease reduced a sword’s cutting power.
Even a Transcendent master who could unleash Sword Qi and Sword Aura could not avoid that.
That was why Baek Ha-jun, as a swordsman, never neglected caring for his sword.

“Lend me a cloth too.”

And beside him was one of the very few people Baek Ha-jun called a friend.
It was Moyong Jin of the Moyong Clan.
The impression he once gave of seeming somewhat soft had changed greatly in the meantime.
When the age of chaos began, he volunteered for the Murim Alliance’s armed forces.
Together with Namgung Shin, So-ryu, and others, he had crossed countless life-and-death battlefields.
From the scar drawn across the corner of his mouth to his cold gaze.
There was no trace left of the brat who once craved his older brother’s attention.

“No.”
“Come on, mine’s covered in way too much blood.”
“That’s not my problem.”
“You bastard.”

But there was still some youthful spirit left in the way he bickered with Baek Ha-jun.
Even while saying no, Ha-jun ended up tossing him the cloth.

“You could’ve just given it to me from the start.”

Moyong Jin also tended to his own sword.
His sword was not made of cold steel, so the edge was chipped in places.
They had cut down far too many yokai in this valley for it to be otherwise.
The fishy smell of yokai blood stung the nose.

Perhaps because simply cleaning his sword was boring, he brought up something fit for a storyteller.

“My older brother told me something. Want to hear it?”

Ha-jun didn’t answer, but Moyong Jin took that as agreement.

“A while ago, my brother went on a trip to Hangzhou with my sister-in-law. They’d been so busy after getting married.”

Moyong Jin’s older brother, Moyong Tak.
Even that troublemaking free-spirited young master had, in time, finally gotten married.

“Well, because of the situation with the Namgung Family. My sister-in-law worked really hard trying to rebuild it.”

As fitting of such a tenacious bond, the woman he married was his former lover, Namgung Yeo-sang.
Namgung Yeo-sang’s goal was to rebuild the Namgung Family after its gates had been sealed.
Moyong Tak respected and supported his wife’s dream.
They fought often, but they were still a loving couple.
That was why they had gone on a trip together.

“But when they came back from the trip, things were icy between them. I asked what happened, and it turned out they’d fought.”
“Really?”
“But I wanted to know who was in the wrong.”

Ha-jun showed some interest too.
Moyong Jin explained what he had heard.

“You know West Lake in Hangzhou, right? It’s famous, so everyone goes there to see it……”

West Lake in Hangzhou was counted among the most beautiful scenic spots in all the Central Plains.
It was also a lake beloved by poets and men of letters such as Su Dong-po and Li Bai.
Poets saw the moon reflected over West Lake and left behind beautiful verses.

At first watch, the mountain spits out the moon.
A jade tower lies upon the faint ripples.

Moyong Tak and Namgung Yeo-sang had also gone to see that very West Lake.
To a couple worn down by work, that trip must have been sweet as honey.

At dusk, when it was not yet dark and the pale moon was already up, they walked along the lakeside of West Lake.
There, they found a patch of grass full of clover.

“Hey, you know clover leaves usually have three leaflets, right?”
“Yeah, I know.”
“My brother told me that if you find a four-leaf clover, good luck comes to you.”

Ha-jun’s brows twisted slightly.

“Really?”
“Well, I don’t know if it’s really true. Just that there’s a saying like that.”

The story that finding a four-leaf clover brought good luck.
For some reason, Ha-jun felt like he had heard that before.

“No, I think my brother told me something like that too.”
“Then maybe it really is true. Anyway, my brother said he started digging through the clover trying to find one.”

Moyong Tak was a sentimental man who knew how to appreciate elegance and romance.
Faced with the beautiful scenery of West Lake, perhaps he wanted to gift good fortune to his betrothed.
By contrast, Namgung Yeo-sang had a practical and dry personality.
While Moyong Tak said, ‘Just wait a moment,’ as he searched through the clover, Namgung Yeo-sang told him, ‘Stop that and let’s go already. It’s grass that’ll be useless anyway.’
At that point, it seemed Moyong Tak became even more stubborn.

While he was searching for a four-leaf clover, some young women who were sightseeing around West Lake happened to take an interest.
Those women, who could not yet have been twenty, searched enthusiastically for a four-leaf clover beside Moyong Tak.
But finding a four-leaf clover was very difficult.
Even with a martial artist’s sharpened eyesight, it was not easy, so Moyong Tak searched through the clover for quite a long time.
Just as Namgung Yeo-sang was growing bored.

“Found it!”

Moyong Tak found a clover with a boyish smile on his face.
It was definitely one with four leaves.

“Waaah!”
“It really has four leaves. Wow, I’m jealous!”

Apparently the young women exclaimed like that.
Moyong Tak was extremely pleased by their reaction.

“Haha, go on and take it.”
“Really? Thank you!”

He gave the four-leaf clover he had worked so hard to find to the young women beside him.
That, surely, was the generosity of an elder.
Moyong Tak returned to his wife with a carefree expression.

And Namgung Yeo-sang, who had been waiting for him,
was looking at Moyong Tak with an expression impossible to describe.

“……”
“Wh-what is it……?”
“Well, that four-leaf clover was not necessarily mine, was it.”

And after they returned, they apparently stayed in a cold war for quite a long time.
As he told the story, Moyong Jin added with a question.

“What do you think?”
“About what?”
“Who do you think was in the wrong? Do you think my brother was?”

It seemed Namgung Yeo-sang had likely felt hurt.
If so, was it Moyong Tak’s fault, or was it nothing for Namgung Yeo-sang to feel hurt over in the first place?

“Well, he could give it to someone else too, couldn’t he?”
“Right?”
“She didn’t ask for it. You said she wasn’t that interested.”
“My sister-in-law doesn’t believe in things like that.”
“Then it’s not something worth fighting over.”

When Baek Ha-jun answered that way, Moyong Jin also looked satisfied.
What kind of thing was giving away some clover to fight over.
Moyong Jin suddenly became curious about Dam Hyun’s opinion.

“Taoist Dam. What do you think?”

Dam Hyun, who was sitting astride a long yokai tentacle, answered while picking at his ear.

“You’re all idiots. You’re agonizing over something like that?”
“Sounds like you’ve got a firm opinion.”

Moyong Jin and Baek Ha-jun waited for Dam Hyun’s answer.

“Well, obviously……”
“Aaaaaah!”

But because of the scream ringing through the air, they couldn’t hear the rest.
Ha-jun reacted like lightning.
The moment he stretched both arms out, Yu Su-rin dropped straight into them.
It looked as though Baek Ha-jun was holding Yu Su-rin.

“……Uh, h-hello.”
“……”

An awkward silence settled between Yu Su-rin and Baek Ha-jun.
With a thud, the silk pouch dropped against Yu Su-rin’s chest, and Baek Ha-jun set her down.

Dam Hyun strode over.

“Well, you got here fast.”
“What is this, Martial Uncle, th-that’s Gujiram?”
“Yeah. Can’t you tell by looking?”

Yu Su-rin’s face went pale with shock.
Gujiram.
A name meaning a basket with nine fingers.
The Dragon Grade yokai Gujiram had a form exactly befitting that name.
It had nine tentacles as thick as great trees, and its main body looked like a glossy black rice bowl turned upside down.

However, those tentacles were not visible at the moment.
A few severed tentacles were visible, but Moyong Jin and Baek Ha-jun had not cut them all off.
It still had five tentacles remaining.
Gujiram had hidden them beneath its body.

“It’s hiding them inside its shell, like a turtle.”

The assault from Dam Hyun, Baek Ha-jun, and Moyong Tak had been tremendous.
Enough that even Gujiram had curled in on itself and hidden.

“Did you deal with all the other yokai?”

Saying that, Yu Su-rin looked around.
All around them was a sight that even Yu Su-rin, who had seen many yokai slain, could grow sick of.
The smell of blood stabbed at the nose.
No living yokai could be seen besides Gujiram.
Hundreds of yokai corpses were strewn about.
Some had been cut apart, some torn to pieces, and some burned.
It was obvious the three of them here had killed them.
The blood spilled by the yokai had dyed the valley red.

“About half.”

But Dam Hyun said that.

“Half? Then where did the other half go?”

Yu Su-rin was alarmed.
Hundreds had died, so if half were still alive, that meant hundreds more remained.
Even if they were only small Cat Grade yokai, that was still a problem.
If the scattered yokai attacked civilian homes, a disaster was certain.

“We need to contact all the nearby sects and block every route……”
“They’re in there.”

What Dam Hyun pointed at was Gujiram’s body.
From inside that overturned rice-bowl-shaped body came the cries of yokai.

“It’s like a cradle, just like its name suggests. That thing keeps lesser yokai inside its body and shelters them.”
“……Huh.”
“The ecology of yokai is wildly varied, you know. The injured ones recover perfectly in there and come back out stronger. But that’s not all.”

Dam Hyun had been working through a theory of his own.

“I thought it strange that there were so many even for Cat Grade yokai. That thing is making yokai.”
“It’s… making yokai?”
“Yeah. I saw yokai dragging wild beasts into that thing. And it’s probably turning those beasts into yokai inside there.”
“That shouldn’t be possible!”

Yu Su-rin was stunned.
A yokai that turned ordinary beasts into yokai.
She had never heard of such a thing, nor could she imagine it was possible.

“Why are you so shocked?”
“No matter how strong a yokai is, there’s a limit to how much yokai energy it can contain. If it’s making other yokai, it would have to divide that energy among them……. But hundreds of them.”

Yu Su-rin had a reason for being so certain.
The yokai energy held by a Dragon Grade yokai was certainly vast.
If it consumed that energy, it might be possible to create hundreds of lesser yokai.
But if that were the case, Gujiram would definitely grow weaker, just like a martial artist after exhausting their Innate True Qi.
Yet Gujiram was still breathing just fine.

“Who said it used its own yokai energy?”
“What……?”

At that moment, Gujiram’s body trembled.

Gurureureung-

A heavy shudder rang out, enough to make one mistake it for an earthquake.
There was no time to listen to Dam Hyun explain.

“It’s about to spew them out again. We have to smash it open before that.”
“Then shouldn’t we attack first, quickly?”
“Yeah, but it’s absurdly tough.”

Gujiram’s body was hard.
Hard enough to be compared to eternal cold iron.
Even pouring Sword Aura into it had only left scratches, so Dam Hyun, Baek Ha-jun, and Moyong Jin had no choice but to wait.

“Now that you’re here, it’s fine.”
“Me……?”

Yu Su-rin hardened her expression as if making up her mind.
She too was a proud Great Sorcerer in her own right.

“Alright. I’ll prepare a great spell too.”
“What nonsense are you talking about? Just hand that over.”

As if telling her not to talk nonsense, Dam Hyun snatched Yu Su-rin’s silk pouch.
Then he flung the pouch open and said.

“You just get ready to light it up from the side.”
“What? Y-yes!”

Without understanding what was happening, Yu Su-rin hurriedly prepared a flame spell.
Ha-jun and Moyong Jin also raised their swords again.
If Dam Hyun said he was going to do something, then somehow he would do it.
His skill, at least, was the real thing.

Sure enough, the contents of the silk pouch began to rise into the air.
And Dam Hyun murmured quietly.

“Namo bābhadye narida surasenya……”

Yu Su-rin recognized the mantra Dam Hyun was chanting.

“The Shurangama Mantra?”

Spell arts and sorcery as Dam Hyun used them did not strictly distinguish between systems, but to chant a Buddhist mantra in a situation like this.
Yu Su-rin could not understand what Dam Hyun was trying to do.

“नमो भगवते उष्णीषाय शुद्धे विरजे विमले स्वाहा।.”

The resonance of the Sanskrit chant grew denser, and the earth shook.
Soon, the yokai corpses strewn across the ground began to glow.
The corpses broke apart while releasing light.
Yokai energy and inner cores rose up as motes of light.
Yu Su-rin also realized what this phenomenon meant.

‘An offering?’

It was an offering rite. Then to whom was it being offered?
But she couldn’t ask. Yu Su-rin could only continue earnestly reciting the incantation for her flame spell.

At last, Dam Hyun summoned something.
A humanoid figure appeared in the air before them.

“……Tsk, this is a losing deal.”

Dam Hyun said with a grin.

“Just hit it once and be on your way!”
“You reckless sorcerer who doesn’t fear the heavens. Even a forehead flick would be too generous for this!”

But Dam Hyun called out his name and demanded the price be paid.

“Victorious Fighting Buddha! Hurry!”
“Grr……”

Golden fur and red eyes.
The Monkey King, keeper of the heavenly peaches, the Buddha who never lost in battle.
The Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong, had appeared at Dam Hyun’s call.
Sun Wukong smirked as he answered.

“Fine then!”

The golden Ruyi Staff in his hand swelled to an enormous size.
With that divine heavenly weapon, Sun Wukong brought it crashing down onto Gujiram’s body.