Chapter 126 : Jaseung, Changes

Chapter 126: Jaseung, Changes

The door opened with a metallic clank.

Several men who had been eating at the table turned their heads toward the sound.

“What is it?”

The iron platform had dropped over the opening where the door had slid.

One of the men walked over, stuck his head into the open shaft, and looked up. In the darkness, he neither saw nor sensed anything.

“Is it a malfunction?”

When he worked the controls again, the iron platform rose and the shaft closed.

He went back to his seat.

Someone was watching that scene from where he clung to the ceiling. It was Lee Jaseung.

The instant the door had opened, Lee Jaseung had slipped through and shot up to the ceiling. It all happened while the men were turning their heads. He moved so fast and so silently that the man never realized a thing.

Still hanging from the ceiling, Lee Jaseung slowly scanned the room. Stacks of bowls in one corner told him this was where food sent down from above was received. There were four men in this room.

Just then, the door opened and another man pushed in a small handcart. The cart was piled high with empty bowls.

“Come on, eat.”

“Hey, I said let’s eat together ya bastard. Where’s your loyalty.”

“Go find your loyalty with the hussy who dumped you and get over here and stuff your face.”

“You bitch! I told you not to bring that up!”

The men cackled.

The newcomer sat down and started eating with them.

Lee Jaseung was already gone. Before the door closed he had blinded their eyes to him and slipped out.

He walked the corridor. The space was small and held little of note. There was the food room, and one more room.

From inside it came a woman’s low, stifled cry.

“Uuuugh!”

Carefully, Lee Jaseung looked through the small viewing slit in the iron door.

The room was cluttered with strange devices whose uses were hard to guess. Dozens of sticks of incense and lurid red and blue paintings.

At the center, a woman hung spread-eagled on a wide wooden board. Several long tubes were driven into her body.

Some of the tubes were thick, others thin. Heart, abdomen, even her head.

Blood flowed through the tubes.

They all fed into a single large sphere.

He could see the back of a woman who stood watching.

The woman hanging there was shriveled like a drying fish and dying, and the observer watched her with indifference.

The woman on the board gave one last violent shudder, then let her head droop. Every last bit of her vital essence had been drained.

Lee Jaseung understood. That sphere was a device that siphoned a person’s life essence.

The women dragged here were toyed with by Jang Wonso, then brought to this place and drained to death.

‘Jang Wonso, you son of a bitch!’

Lee Jaseung clenched his teeth.

At that moment, the woman inside turned toward the door.

She was none other than Jo Yehyang. His figure couldn’t be seen in the slit. Swiftly stepping aside, Lee Jaseung erased every trace of his presence and stood by the door.

Jo Yehyang turned her head back.

She slowly walked to the sphere and caressed the cold metal with her hand. A strange heat flickered in her eyes. She felt like a completely different person from the one he had seen before.

“It isn’t far now.”

Her voice rang out, grim and hollow.

Lee Jaseung went straight back to his room. When the men sent the empty bowls back up, he rose with them. Avoiding their gaze to ride the lift up wasn’t hard.

Before returning, he stopped by Jang Wonso’s quarters. Fortunately, Jang Wonso and the woman, worn out from round after round of coupling, had fallen asleep.

Back in his own room, he found the woman there asleep. Tomorrow she would proudly boast of today’s unforgettable cloud-and-rain of pleasure.

He pulled a blanket over her and sat on the edge of the bed to wait for dawn.

His eyes were colder than ever.

* * *

In the middle of the darkness stood Rain.

All around him, several people stood in a circle. These were those summoned by Mountain’s call. It was too dark to know exactly how many there were.

Light shone only on the floor where Rain stood, so only Rain was visible.

A voice spoke from someone in the darkness.

“Report.”

The voice was low, yet it carried a resonance that stirred the heart.

It sounded so calm and clear that hearing it made one feel unable to lie or disobey. The darkness was too thick to see him clearly.

He was also the one Yim Sayeon’s son, Cheon Myeongin, had mentioned, the man who had used him to build the organization. He was Mountain.

Those summoned were Mountain’s direct subordinates. It was the position the man of letters had so badly wanted.

Rain spoke calmly.

“Wrath died by Seop Mu-pyeong’s hand.”

Another voice came from beside him, hot-blooded and gruff. He was Fire.

“Did Wrath fail to unleash all his fury?”

Rain turned his voice toward Fire.

“No. Wrath showed his true face and still died.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

From the opposite side came a proud, haughty voice.

“What is so impressive about killing a mere Wrath anyway.”

It was not confidence, but conceit. He did not bother to hide it.

“Wrath is nothing more than prey I would cut down within a hundred strokes.”

A man whose boast of killing Wrath in a mere hundred exchanges fit him perfectly. He was Sword.

Then, another voice spoke.

“He isn’t some simple expert of Jianghu though.”

Caution marked this voice. He was River.

Everyone turned their attention to River. Only one man, Mountain, kept his gaze on Rain alone, as if already knowing what River would say.

“When Black tried to kill him, Black’s dark arts did not work on him at all. And this was, even during a lunar eclipse.”

“How could dark arts not work at all?”

Fire’s question drew River’s answer.

“So I investigated. I started with those who might be able to resist Black’s dark arts. And I learned something significant.”

“What was it?”

The answer did not come right away. River’s eyes turned toward Mountain. He was asking permission.

Mountain, a mere silhouette in the dark, gave the slightest nod.

With that leave, River spoke.

“He isn’t the heir to the Flying Dagger Sect. He is the Black Way Alliance Lord, Lee Jaseung.”

The place murmured. There were two kinds of reactions. Those who were startled, and those who showed none at all, as if they had known already.

Mountain and Rain showed no reaction.

“Is that true?”

Fire’s booming voice rang through the hall.

Then Mountain spoke a single word to quell the murmurs.

“It is.”

Mountain having spoken, all mouths shut and the air calmed at once.

Fire lowered his voice to ask.

“Did you know from the start?”

“Is that important?”

The tone was calm, but the words struck like a blade, and Fire bowed his head in the dark and answered respectfully.

“No.”

A heavy tension fell for a moment.

This group was both open and closed. Those called by the summons had authority to handle anything on their own, yet absolute loyalty to Mountain was required.

Mountain had never been one to tell all. If some ruled by laying everything bare to control their underlings, he ruled by hiding things.

To hide well did not mean hiding much. It meant knowing precisely what must be hidden and what must not.

A lilting woman’s voice eased the tension.

“He’s very handsome. Hohoho.”

She was White Flower.

The white of her snowy skin seen through her veil gave her the name White Flower.

No one laughed with her. Instead, Fire’s deep voice mocked her.

“Always so wanton.”

Jealousy laced his words.

Everyone knew Fire fancied Flower. Everyone knew, yet no one showed it. White Flower herself pretended not to notice.

Mountain spoke again.

“From his fight with Wrath, we gauged his skill. He is formidable, but not to a degree that warrants fear.”

When he fought Wrath, Lee Jaseung had used only one hundred eighty years worth of Qi, and neither his body arts nor the Limitless Steps. That decision bore fruit now.

Sword spoke next.

“An impudent wretch indeed. For the Black Way Alliance Lord to devour the Northern Sky Clan and share cups with the Alliance Lord.”

White Flower laughed.

“Hohoho, a truly bold man has ascended to the Black Way Alliance throne.”

Fire barked.

“Give that bastard to me. I’ll erase him today.”

Mountain, after a brief thought, spoke softly.

“Rain will continue this matter. Eliminate him as quickly as possible.”

With orders given, none voiced objection.

Rain bowed his head.

“I accept the command.”

“All of you may go.”

“Yes.”

Those in the dark vanished. Every one of them moved with uncanny grace, masters at the transcendent peak.

But Rain remained.

As if they had agreed beforehand that he would, Mountain asked naturally.

“Have you found the item?”

“Not yet.”

Mountain did not hide his displeasure, and his reply came cold.

“Failure becomes a habit.”

The air changed for a moment. Rain tensed. He knew well how frightening Mountain’s firmness toward failure could be.

“My apologies.”

Feeling that this alone served as enough of a warning, Mountain drew back the chill.

Mountain always said as a habit, that he trusted Rain the most.

“Perhaps it is time to change methods?”

“Jang Wonso is not someone who will yield to torture or threats. If we do that, we’ll never find it.”

Mountain nodded at Rain’s words.

“We must hurry. Jang Wonso has raised his power to the limit. Rebellion is only a matter of time. Once he starts to thrash about, it will be exhausting.”

Rain bowed his head.

“I will find it.”

“I will trust you.”

When Rain too was gone, only Mountain remained.

In the darkness he smiled.

It was a smile so chilling that the light bleeding from his eyes and the flash of his white teeth together made the skin crawl.

* * *

Back in his quarters, Lee Jaseung called only Dan Woobin.

When he heard what had happened at the banquet, Dan Woobin was shocked.

“Jang Wonso is scum of scum huh.”

“He laid hands on a young disciple. It was already over then.”

He spoke calmly, but it was clear how furious he was. When Lee Jaseung was truly angry, he became quiet like this.

“What will you do now?”

Normally, Lee Jaseung would have said that was his line to ask. But Lee Jaseung had already made up his mind.

“We change the plan.”

“In what way?”

What Dan Woobin had first feared, yet hoped would not be said, came out of Lee Jaseung’s mouth.

“We remove Jang Wonso. As quickly as possible.”

Lee Jaseung was not one to act out of emotion.

This time was different.

Perhaps because he had married. Perhaps because this concerned a woman, Dan Woobin thought.

Either way, Dan Woobin stayed steady. He was the Black Way Alliance’s chief strategist.

“If Jang Wonso dies like this, someone else will become Alliance Leader.”

Lee Jaseung had not yet climbed high enough to inherit that seat.

Dan Woobin searched his eyes, asking without words.

Will you take the harder road?

Lee Jaseung nodded.

“I know.”

That was enough. He knew, and even so he had given the order.

Without another word, Dan Woobin bowed again.

“Understood. I’ll prepare countermeasures.”

At the door, Dan Woobin turned and looked at him. He saw the back of a man standing at the window, looking out.

Yes, this is why he liked him.

This was Lee Jaseung’s justice.

The justice that reminded them they were not a power-blind faction doing nothing but weighing scales and chasing gain.

So even if the road became longer.

Dan Woobin grinned.

‘So what if that road is a thousand-fathom cliff with lava fire shooting up? I am walking it with my Lord. Don’t worry. I’ll guide the way.’

One thing was certain.

Jang Wonso, you are in big trouble.

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