Luoyang Sword House, 2nd Young Master’s Faction.
Jiangnan Corps Headquarters.
“…Do you have no intention of seeking other methods?”
Strategist Choi, in charge of responding to the 2nd Young Master, asked in an anxious voice.
“You know too, don’t you? This is the only method left now.”
“However….”
Scholar Han Myeong-hwi continued with gleaming eyes.
“In the end, we scholars find it easy to throw away others’ lives, but we don’t stake our own lives when devising schemes.”
His eyes narrowed.
“If we want to deal a blow to the Eldest Young Master and Fourth Young Master somehow, there’s no choice but for us to take a risk ourselves.”“….”
Strategist Choi lowered his head with a bitter expression.
“You’ll be demoted at this rate. You know that, right? The last method remaining for us now is Geum….”
Han Myeong-hwi, who was about to say Geumjil’s name, swallowed his words at Strategist Choi’s sharp gaze.
“…Anyway, we need to get that fellow Geumjil’s cooperation.”
Already pushed into a corner, Elder Son’s stern warning had long been pushed out of Han Myeong-hwi’s mind.
“…I understand.”
Strategist Choi, quietly collecting his thoughts, made up his mind and rose from his seat.
“Let’s go.”
“Where are we going?”
Strategist Choi spoke as he grabbed his overcoat.
“When I previously investigated that ‘Geumjil fellow’, there was someone I came to know.”
* * *
As the sky gradually turned red, all things on the ground were soaked in a bloody hue.
However, even that sunset could not stop the darkness extending its territory while hanging low.
Strategist Choi and Han Myeong-hwi, their faces hidden behind their hoods, were walking through an alley where darkness had already descended.
Han Myeong-hwi asked Strategist Choi, who was sparsely checking the path while traversing the complex and dirty back alleys,
“…It’s a dangerous area. Will it be alright with just the two of us without guards?”
Strategist Choi answered while avoiding the passersby with gloomy expressions.
“The moment we bring someone, that fellow will vanish.”
“Just what kind of person is he….”
Han Myeong-hwi, who was grumbling out of habit, nearly collided into Strategist Choi’s back as he abruptly stopped walking.
“This is the place.”
Strategist Choi descended into the basement of a dilapidated and filthy building.
The old wooden stairs creaked, leading into the maw of deep darkness without a single lantern.
“….”
Occasionally, Han Myeong-hwi thought.
The darkness of Luoyang had a different depth from the brutal darkness of Jiangnan where he was from.
That sticky, suffocating darkness of Luoyang seemed to try to swallow those who dared to fathom its depth.
Han Myeong-hwi swallowed his dry saliva once and followed Strategist Choi down the stairs.
* * *
‘An underground gambling den…?’
The place filled with tobacco smoke was occupied by gamblers muttering curses under their breaths and nonsensical lewd remarks.
Bloodshot eyes intoxicated by new drugs, faces dazed from opium.
Flickering lanterns burning cheap oil hung here and there like hanged corpses.
Crossing the dim interior, they eventually arrived at the innermost table.
The most secluded spot meant the darkest seat.
The table was empty.
Strategist Choi wordlessly pulled out a worn-out chair and sat, and Han Myeong-hwi also took a seat beside him.
The fishy stench of vomit, the thick smell of cheap alcohol, the unpleasant odor of those living without properly washing.
Mayflies and flies twisted by the revolting environment came and went around the face.
As the meaningless mumbling of drunkards or drug addicts started to ring in the ears, Han Myeong-hwi could not hold back and opened his mouth.
“When will that man we’re supposed to meet….”
“Are you chasing again what you should not chase?”
A chill ran down the spine as if falling into the winter sea.
“……?!”
Someone was definitely sitting across from him, a spot that should have been empty until just now.
Eyes that looked like those of the dead were staring at him through the torn gaps of a deeply pressed-down bamboo hat.
Han Myeong-hwi reflexively shouted.
“W-We need to find that man!”
“…Do you not know?”
The bamboo hat-wearing one spoke in a deep voice that seemed to press down.
“In this world, there are things you should not look at the other side of.”
That one spoke as if a bug was crunching on rotting food.
“Like not looking at the back of a broken charm mirror, like not peering between the tears of a torn talisman. Like not peeking between the trunks of a rotten, hollow tree.”
Han Myeong-hwi looked beside him, but Strategist Choi had been dripping with cold sweat since the moment the bamboo hat-wearing existence appeared.
“…Merciful Bodhisattva. Merciful Bodhisattva.”
Upon closer look, he had his eyes closed and was diligently turning his prayer beads.
‘What a pathetic guy!’
Seeing that made him feel like he was suddenly wide awake.
Han Myeong-hwi spoke through gritted teeth.
“…I don’t believe in superstitions!”
Black-stained teeth were revealed from under the bamboo hat.
“When there is the bright and clear, there is also the dark and obscure. Why do you not realize that obvious principle?”
Han Myeong-hwi resolutely shook his head.
The cold sweat that had been trickling down sprayed left and right.
“I’ve heard enough stories about the supernatural from the Jiangnan boatmen long ago. I simply wish to meet the one with the surname Geum.”
“Surname Geum…?”
The eyes peeking through the gaps of the bamboo hat curved as if smiling.
“I am not warning about that ‘half-formed monster’.”
Han Myeong-hwi furrowed his brows.
“What do you mean? Are you saying Geumjil is a half-formed monster?”
“That’s right.”
The eyes rolled around once before answering.
“You have called ‘its’ name several times already, so it will seek you out.”
It was incomprehensible.
“That man will seek me out…?”
“It’s an obvious principle.”
The white coating on the tongue visible between the black teeth was revolting.
“Like a stillborn child improperly offered and abandoned in the fields coming back along the umbilical cord to find its parents. Like a curse burning and scattering hair bound by grudges returning to oneself.”
“….”
Because he uttered Geumjil’s name several times, Geumjil would come find him?
‘Just what does that….’
Han Myeong-hwi roughly shook his head.
“Then what was the story from earlier? What does the warning you gave refer to?”
The eyes narrowed.
“What you are chasing. That which should not be chased. That which should not be peered into. That which should not be made known. That which should not exist.”
“I…? I, Geumjil:”
What was he trying to chase by finding Geumjil?
Words suddenly flowed from Han Myeong-hwi’s mouth without him realizing.
“The Eldest Young Master. And….”
His voice thinned.
“Sovereign of Dark Heavens…. Hm.”
He barely managed to stop saying the name.
The eyes narrowed.
“Clever. But that is an existence unrelated to names.”
Han Myeong-hwi frowned.
“Is that Sovereign…. Is that being that dangerous?”
“How dangerous is an ‘existence that should not exist’?”
A thick laugh seeped out between the teeth stained black from the influence of southern barbarian shamanic rituals.
“Originally, to ask I, a question, one must pay a fitting price.”
Now it wants an offering?
Han Myeong-hwi roughly rummaged through his bosom.
“Fine, alright. How much….”
“But why do you think I, am readily answering your question?”
“What do you….”
The eyes peeking through the bamboo hat seemed to mock Han Myeong-hwi.
“I am already making an offering for one who is practically dead.”
The bamboo hat waved its hand.
“Karma for karma.”
“What is that…?!”
His hand was full of southern barbarian shamanic script tattoos that Han Myeong-hwi could not recognize.
“Are you saying this Han Myeong-hwi is fated to die soon?!”
Han Myeong-hwi roughly jumped up from his seat.
The chair he had been sitting on tumbled violently.
Han Myeong-hwi trembled with anger, panting heavily.
“Wh-What’s wrong with you?”
Beside him, Strategist Choi was looking at him with a dumbfounded face.
Seeing that stupid expression made Han Myeong-hwi’s anger surge even more.
“This being to me…!”
Han Myeong-hwi’s hand, about to point, fell powerlessly.
“Th-This….”
There was no one across from him.
Han Myeong-hwi looked around hurriedly in bewilderment.
Perhaps because he had leaped up and shouted, the eyes of everyone around were focused on him.
The dull gazes were strange and ominous.
“You don’t look well.”
Strategist Choi put the prayer beads he had been holding into his bosom and rose from his seat.
“That man doesn’t seem to be coming today. Let’s get out of here for now.”
Han Myeong-hwi did not remember how he crossed the gambling den and climbed the stairs.
He had merely been led by Strategist Choi’s hand back to the filthy and narrow back alley where darkness had descended.
“….”
To the dazed-looking Han Myeong-hwi, Strategist Choi asked,
“You saw something, didn’t you?”
“….”
Han Myeong-hwi slowly nodded without answering.
Strategist Choi nodded.
“I see. I understand. I also had a similar experience before. Don’t try to say what it was. Let’s head back for now.”
The two turned and headed in the direction they had come from.
And they realized not a single passerby could be seen in that narrow and filthy back alley.
“……?!”
Strategist Choi looked around in alarm.
Under the bloody sky, in the alley where darkness had descended, there were only the two of them.
Han Myeong-hwi gritted his teeth.
“Geumjil’s subordinates.”
At Han Myeong-hwi’s words, Strategist Choi was startled and looked in the same direction as him.
In the spot where there had been no one until just now, two small figures were standing still.
“Geumsasa is Geumjil’s daughter.”
“Geumsasa (金邪蛇) is her father’s adopted daughter.”
The figures creaked as they approached from the darkness.
“Why do you seek Father?”
“For what business do you seek the master of Geumsasa?”
The ones revealing themselves were girls who seemed to be stitched all over their bodies.
“Hii-Hieek?!”
Strategist Choi, who had been supporting Han Myeong-hwi, crumpled to the spot as his legs gave out.
“Eeek…!”
Han Myeong-hwi, who had been leaning on him and nearly fell together, gritted his teeth and stood his ground.
For some reason, he could now faintly sense.
That the ‘things’ before his eyes were clearly of the same ‘kind’ as what he had seen underground earlier.
“Speak.”
“Tell.”
They revealed gums that looked like they were rotting.
Han Myeong-hwi shouted.
“I-I want to join hands with your father and catch our common enemy!”
The girls fell silent.
“Didn’t the Eldest Young Master and Fourth Young Master of the Luoyang Sword House occupy the Valley of Sin? I am their enemy! And weren’t the Golden Faction and Black Bone Faction swept away by the Sovereign of Dark Heavens?! I also have business with him! So ally with me…!”
“Father already knows.”
“What you are chasing.”
The gaze of the Geumsasas, who had clearly sewn in the eyeballs of others, swept over Han Myeong-hwi as if assessing him.
Eventually, the Geumsasas’ mouths opened, and what flowed out was the voice of a middle-aged man.
“…Very well.”
“…Very well.”
As the Geumsasas simultaneously produced the voice of the middle-aged man, that voice echoed ominously.
“I shall lend you my strength.”
“I shall lend you my strength.”
Joy rose on Han Myeong-hwi’s pale face.
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