Chapter 37

— Ka-ka-boom…

We stepped out through the open Three-Point Gate, and faint sunlight came down to greet us.

“We’re outside!”
“Who’d have thought sunlight could be so welcome.”

While we were drinking in our freedom, Yeon Seo-ha, the Plum Blossom Swordsman, shaded her eyes with one hand and looked up at the sky. She read the sun’s position through the gaps in the jagged, jutting bamboo, then nodded.

“If we hurry, we should be able to get clear of the Iron Bamboo Forest before nightfall.”
“Let’s get moving.”

There was no time to lose. The Warden of the Iron Bamboo Forest could turn up at any moment.

The moment we made to hurry off, Yeon Seo-ha faltered.

“What’s the matter?”
“Which way do we go?”
“Sorry?”
“I don’t know the lay of this Iron Bamboo Forest.”

Now that she said it, I thought back to our first steps into the place. The iron bamboo had grown high enough to touch the sky, blotting it out, walling us in on every side.

The Iron Bamboo Forest.

The place was a maze in its own right, and the only reason we had come through it and reached the ruins in one piece was our excellent guide, Min Hui-seo.

“We just ask our Hui-seo, of course.”
“That rat. I don’t see it anywhere.”
“Huh?”

Now that I thought about it, it hadn’t been in sight for a while.

Since we went into the ruins, was it?

I called for our guide in a shaky voice.

“Hui-seo?”

But call as I might, no answer came back.

Why, the disloyal little rat. Took everything it was owed and that’s the end of that, is it?

I decided to put yer Hui-seo out of my mind.

This is a problem.

The maze was a problem in itself, but the far bigger problem was the appallingly dangerous thing that had made its home inside it.

If it comes to it, there’s nothing for it but to walk it ourselves, find a path and get out of the maze….

Who would want wild creatures wandering about their house as though it were their own bedroom? Monsters are unfriendly to humans at the best of times, and the thing they called the Warden of the Iron Bamboo Forest would be worse than most.

“Nothing for it. Even if it’s just the three of us….”

Just then, Yeon Seo-ha’s head snapped around.

“It’s coming!”
“Hui-seo is?”
“No.”

— BANG!

An instant later something huge came bursting out of the direction she had turned toward and dropped in front of us like a lightning strike.

— Grrrrung…

An enormous wolf stood before us. The low, chilling infrasound of it made my hair stand on end.

The Warden of the Iron Bamboo Forest!

Even the sect leader of the Mount Hua Sect had run into this monster in his younger days, and only barely escaped it.

Did it come at the sound of the ruins’ door opening?

The hair-raising red glow of its eyes was fixed on us. Then it threw its head back and howled.

— Awoooo—!

A formless wave of qi exploded out of it.

“Kuh!”

That alone told me everything. It was not an opponent for us as we were.

I glanced to the side and saw a pair of trembling legs. Moyong Rin was pinching her own thigh with all her strength, holding on in desperation.

I have heard that one growl from a tiger drains the strength out of a deer, and it sinks down where it stands. One roar from this thing had put the fear into her and stripped away her will to fight. That was how wide the gap between it and us was.

With its arrival, the Iron Bamboo Forest grew darker still. It had been gloomy already, even in broad daylight, under bamboo grown tall enough to blot out the sky.

The air had turned bleak.

— Shhing.

“Behind me.”

Yeon Seo-ha, the Plum Blossom Swordsman, drew her sword and stepped forward. And at that, the darkness seemed to draw back, if only a little.

I looked at her back. We cannot handle that thing. Could Yeon Seo-ha handle it? And with two lumps of deadweight, Moyong Rin and me, on her hands at that.

“Listen well.”

Yeon Seo-ha spoke in a voice as cold as the sword she had drawn. Her eyes stayed on the wolf.

“While I hold it, the two of you run as far away as you can.”

Yeon Seo-ha raised her sword as though barring the wolf’s way.

— Grrrrr…

Its stance dropped and it set itself to spring at any instant.

“I don’t know how long I can hold.”

Everything hung on a hair trigger. The instant any one of us moved, the fight would begin. A fight that might well be the last.

From behind Yeon Seo-ha, I watched the wolf move. Unlike other monsters, which charge first and think later, this one was careful. It prowled slowly around us, studying us. It had realized, as we had, that Yeon Seo-ha was no ordinary opponent. At the very least, she was not an enemy it could handle without taking a wound.

Not good.

I have heard it said that the stronger a monster is, the smarter it is. There are even monsters that mimic human speech, or so the ghost stories go.

They said the Mount Hua Sect’s sect leader came here in his younger days and only barely got away.

Was Yeon Seo-ha stronger than that sect leader had been, or weaker? A person wants to believe stronger. We are all of us frail creatures. But reality is cold to the point of cruelty. Naturally, weaker is the likelier answer, and she has two lumps of deadweight hanging off her besides. There is no chance of her beating it.

So what was to be done?

“Big Sis Yeon.”
“What.”

Yeon Seo-ha answered, but only with her lips, nothing behind it.

“Are you… confident?”

I did not mean victory. I was asking whether she could survive against that monster, whether she was confident of getting away from it.

“…I don’t know.”

There was none of her usual certainty in the voice.

“It’s the strongest monster I’ve ever seen.”

In that voice, Yeon Seo-ha entrusted us with something close to a last will.

“When you get back, tell that Ju Jeo-ha to stop slacking and apply himself to his training. Tell him to get strong enough to avenge this Senior Sister of his one day.”
“I refuse.”
“What?”
“Tell him that yourself.”
“This is no time to be difficult.”
“I’m not being difficult.”

Keeping my eyes on the wolf as it prowled its slow circle around us, I spoke fast.

“Run where, exactly?”
“That’s—”

Yeon Seo-ha had no answer.

“Even if we run while you’re holding that thing off, Big Sis Yeon, there’s nowhere to run to. Because we don’t know the way.”

That was the reality we stood in. Cold to the point of cruelty. The moment we looked away from it, we would all of us die.

“To us it’s a maze, but to that thing it’s home. Run now and we’ll be picked off one by one, neat as you please.”

Joining forces here and now and standing against it gave us the highest chance of surviving.

“How are the likes of us supposed to bring that monster down?”
“We’ll have to manage somehow.”

Somehow, and I mean somehow.

Do I have to use the laser?

There was no chance it would stand still and take it, and even if it did I had no confidence it would put the thing down. That was how strong the monster in front of me was, and besides…

The laser is a bad matchup for it.

A human being is made of bone and flesh; the monster in front of me was a thing made of meteoric iron.

Isn’t there another way?

Think. Think. If I couldn’t think of a way now, we died, and that was that.

Watching it closely, I went through the cards in my hand one by one.

Huh?

For a moment I doubted my own eyes.

What’s that?

Points all over its body were glowing.

Ah!

It came to me a beat late.

It’s the power of the star eyeball!

Which is to say, it was the ability of the lens I currently had seated in my eye. The powers held in the star eyeball came to three in all, the same as the earring’s.

The first was the Star Eye, a passive skill that pierced every illusion and every darkness the way starlight does. This was what Herion had meant when he said no illusion arts would ever get me. Past that, it came with a unique ability that bundled in several useful extras, sharper eyesight among them. Seeing straight through a monster’s weak points was one of those.

And the second was the Mirror Wheel Eye.

Not important right now, so — pass.

Last came the third, the Demon Wheel Eye. It could press down and subdue the demonic nature of every grotesque and wicked prodigy and spirit¹, monsters and ghosts alike.

Not all-purpose, of course. It ate battery, and the stronger the thing, the more it would eat, presumably.

I’m betting everything on the Demon Wheel Eye.

This was an opportunity.

“Big Sis Yeon. Yong-rin.”
“Mm?”
“That thing. Could you pin it down for a moment? I have an idea.”
“How long is a moment?”
“Well. About one breath?”

Yeon Seo-ha thought it over for a second, then nodded.

“…That much, I can do.”

Neither of them asked me why. I could feel how firmly the two of them trusted me.

“I’ll draw its eyes.”

Moyong Rin said.

“Can you manage it?”
“I’ll have to manage. Our lives are on it.”
“Put any thought of attacking out of your head. Concentrate on defense and evasion only. Then you should be able to hold out a while.”
“I’ll keep it in mind.”

Moyong Rin threw me one last sidelong glance, then sprang out ahead.

— Tak!

The Warden of the Iron Bamboo Forest had been watching us in silence, and it reacted at once. The thick silver fur that covered it like a lion’s mane stood on end, every strand a blade.

While Moyong Rin drew its eyes with the dizzying movement of the Butterfly Step, Yeon Seo-ha charged in. Plum blossoms scattered on the air along with a faint sweetness.

They say the Mount Hua Sect’s Plum Blossom Sword pursues a sword-intent of illusion and swiftness. And of change.

It was a sight beautiful enough that I found myself staring at it blankly. Killing strokes and feints mixed together and came storming in, brilliantly. Dazzling, and at the same moment bewitching.

— Keeeeen—

The Mirror Wheel Eye reacted to Yeon Seo-ha’s Plum Blossom Sword. I came to my senses with a start.

This is no time for that.

I quickly used the power of the Star Eye to catch the weak point glittering on it, and shouted.

“Big Sis! Above the tail! There should be a slight dip there. Drive it in there!”

I drew the Pork-Slicing Demon-Cleaving Saber fast and joined the fight myself. The two of them were not enough.

The moment I joined in, the wolf gave ground a step and swung its tail.

Yeon Seo-ha shouted.

“Look out!”

A crescent-shaped wave of qi poured out of the tail and swept everything around it. I felt a sharp, keen edge in it.

— Clang!

I got my sword up and barely turned it aside.

“…Sword qi?”

Insane.

What kind of monster pours out sword qi?

It did not stop there. It swung the tail and cut through the bamboo standing nearby. For bamboo made of iron, the stalks sheared off far too easily, which said everything about that edge. It had to be sharper than any decent famed blade.

Before the severed iron bamboo could so much as fall, the wolf swung its tail several more times at tremendous speed and trimmed it down.

What is it doing?

Then it took the thing in its mouth and swung. The iron bamboo had become a sharp sword before I knew it.

“…!”

A monster swinging a sword? The workmanship was slapdash and crude, but the livid-blue keen edge coming off it was the real thing. Appalling to watch, and we had no time to be appalled, so we got our swords up.

— Clang! Cla-clang!

The wolf had two swords. One was the crude blade in its mouth. The other was its tail, the equal of any famed sword.

Its swordsmanship was rough and yet clean, at a level quite impossible to believe of a beast swinging a blade held in its teeth. It was like watching a first-rate two-sword swordsman. Attacking was out of the question. We were hard pressed just holding it off.

The Twin-Sword Wolf drove us back with its fierce swordsmanship, then swung wide and cut down the iron bamboo around us at a stroke.

— Krrrunch!

The tall iron bamboo came down and fell across the place where we were standing.

Using the terrain, too?

It was enough to drive a man out of his mind. By now the Mount Hua Sect’s sect leader, who had managed to escape the Twin-Sword Wolf, was starting to look impressive to me.

— Ka-ka-ka-boom!

The falling iron bamboo threw up a great cloud of dust. The thing came on slowly, sniffing. It was probably thinking something along the lines of Did I get them?

At that instant Moyong Rin sprang out like a butterfly. While she drew the wolf’s eyes with soft, unpredictable steps, Yeon Seo-ha took its rear. For a moment the scent of plum blossom rushed out, and the tip of Yeon Seo-ha’s sword pointed at the wolf’s hindquarters. The wolf swung its tail instinctively and blocked, but that had been a phantom made by the petals.

— Cra-krack!

The real killing stroke, hidden among the scattering petals, buried itself above its tail.

— Thud!

Struck in its weak point, the wolf went down on one knee.

“Now!”

I unfolded the lightness arts at once and appeared in front of its eyes.

— Crack!

I drove my sword into its mane and forced its head around to make it meet my eyes.

“Look at me.”

— Keeeeen—

The star that rose in my retina began to turn like a cartwheel. The Demon Wheel Eye activated.

My eye burned hot. It felt as though it were being scorched away. But I clenched my teeth and bore it.

The battery drained fast. One bar, two bars…

Through the pain of my eyeball burning away I held my eyes wide open. Tears ran down in streams. All manner of thoughts drifted through my head.

Had one breath passed? It felt ten times that, at least.

Damnable wolf. Just how strong are you, to give me this much trouble?

Herion, you mad bastard. Would it have killed you to give me the barest warning? Once I’m out of here I’m going to kick you up the backside.

An eternity passed. Then the third and last remaining bar of battery was finally spent.

— Vwooom—

And the red glow of its eyes stained over blue.

— Murmur, murmur.

A stir spread over the double haul the Mount Hua Sect had brought back.

“Come now, how in the world do you take down two monsters inside the time allowed?”

At the Paeng family head’s question the children nodded, sending up their silent agreement. Hunting a single one had been all they could manage, and these were no ordinary quarry but monsters. Tracking them, running them down, hauling them all the way back here took no small amount of time. And two of them? It was not easy to accept.

Moyong Bi turned to Paeng Ja-hyeok, the man who had gone with the Mount Hua children as their guardian.

“Did you help?”

Paeng Ja-hyeok shook his head.

“Then what’s that over there?”

Paeng Ja-hyeok slowly looked toward one side.

“That monster, that boy took it down on his own.”
“…What?”

Moyong Bi looked where Paeng Ja-hyeok’s chin had pointed. There stood a young Daoist, yawning as though thoroughly bored.

Ju Jeo-ha, was it?

The one who had taken a griddle cake off Gwang-seon and eaten it.

“Hah… you’re telling me he’s already past the level of the rising generation?”

Moyong Bi let out a sigh.

“A genius.”
“‘Genius’ isn’t a big enough word to hold that child. He’s a monster, that one.”
“To think there’s another one like the Azure Dragon Sword.”

Moyong Bi could not easily go on. That was how staggering the young Daoist’s talent was.

“This Dragon and Phoenix Conference is truly going to be… no easy thing.”

Paeng Ja-hyeok nodded heavily.

While the two warriors talked, the three heads had gathered off to one side and were conferring over which team would take the win. The conference was for form’s sake, of course. Nobody present was in any doubt about who had come first.

Paeng Ja-hyeok gave Moyong Bi a nudge with his elbow. When Moyong Bi’s eyes turned on him asking what for, he pointed his chin at the Moyong family head, who was taking part in the conference.

“Your family head. He doesn’t look all right.”

His face was blank, as though the soul had gone out of him. The other heads’ words were going in one ear and out the other.

“Hand it over. Three silver taels.”
“…”
“And don’t pretend you didn’t hear.”

— Tch—

Moyong Bi clicked his tongue.

“That’s what comes of offering up Heavenly Silkworm Thread gloves.”

The conference for form’s sake ended, and Seomun Jeong, sect leader of the Mount Hua Sect, announced the winner.

“I shall announce it, then.”

The smile blooming across his whole face gave away which team had won.

“The victory in this exchange meet goes to….”

At the instant he was about to call out the winning team, the expressions of all three heads changed.

“Something’s coming!”
“Get clear!”
“Protect the children!”

— BANG!

Something unidentifiable came down out of the sky like a thunderbolt. The three heads and the two guardians put themselves in front of the children as though to shield them, weapons drawn, eyes fixed. Then the dust settled, and the identity of the uninvited guest was revealed.

— Grrrrung…

At the chilling infrasound that raised the hair on their arms, everyone present froze.

“You…!”

Among them, Seomun Jeong, sect leader of the Mount Hua Sect, was the one whose eyes went wide. He had recognized what it was.

“The Warden of the Iron Bamboo Forest…? How is that thing here!”

“Please calm yourselves.”

Just then, a voice came from atop the creature. When they raised their heads, they saw three people sitting astride the monster’s back.

“…Huh?”

They gaped stupidly up at him. From the wolf’s back the boy looked down over them all and spoke.

“We’re late.”