The sun climbed to midday.

Thump.

When Seo Woojin came to see Mun Seok again, Mun Seok handed him a single ledger. His face was set stiff, and beads of cold sweat clung to his forehead.

“The ledger Yun Giwon spoke of.”

Seo Woojin stared at him steadily. Mun Seok avoided his gaze.

“Ahem. What’s the matter. I — I never once looked inside.”

Seo Woojin let out a snort.

“Quite the brave man. It was said clearly to contain matter that could deal a blow to the Dark Alliance. And still you had the nerve to check what was inside.”

“Th-that’s not it… I — I only wanted to verify the article’s authenticity first…”

Mun Seok stammered his way through excuses, but Seo Woojin closed his ears and opened the ledger to look over the contents.

‘Hm. Nothing particularly odd… huh?’

His hands grew heavy as he turned the pages. The further he leafed, the more doubt grew that any of this could truly be real.

Tak.

Having read through the whole ledger, a dry, incredulous laugh escaped him.

Just what had these people been thinking, to carry out something like this?

And what of the Dark Alliance? The Dark Alliance, which could catch even the Baek Clan’s petty embezzlement — did it know about this? Or did it know, and pretend not to see?

The revulsion was enough to make him want to retch.

Seo Woojin looked at Mun Seok, his own face gone stiff. Mun Seok flinched. Then Seo Woojin sighed.

“I’ll say two things.”

“Y-yes, sir!”

“First. Forget the contents. I say this purely for your own sake.”

Mun Seok swallowed hard and nodded firmly.

“I — I’ve already forgotten!”

Was he even aware he was speaking so formally.

Inwardly, Seo Woojin let out a sigh of relief. If he was that frightened, he wouldn’t be leaking what was in that ledger anywhere. He was the type who put his own hide ahead of a windfall.

“Second. Bring Yun Giwon here to me.”

Mun Seok, as if waiting for it, shouted toward the outside. Kang Boksu then led in the bound Yun Giwon. Mun Seok must have ordered separate treatment — his face was cleaner than yesterday.

Seo Woojin faced Yun Giwon across from him and asked,

“Is what’s written in this ledger the truth?”

“Y-yes.”

“How can you prove what’s written here?”

“That…”

Seo Woojin let out a faint sigh.

“Sorry, but I don’t have the luxury today to wait through your indecision. From here on, if you falter on an answer, I’ll take it to mean you want to go the other way. What proof is there that this ledger is genuine?”

“…The ships they used for smuggling are in the harbor. And they’ve set up a warehouse where they store what’s listed there, on an island to the east. The witnesses and the evidence — I know where they are.”

Seo Woojin nodded.

“Good. I’ll require two things of you.”

To Yun Giwon, Seo Woojin must have felt like another form of violence. But there was nothing to be done — he had brought it on himself, and nothing was left to him but to nod.

“I need a coroner. Prepare one you can trust. Someone who will falsify the postmortem findings to my taste.”

“U-understood.”

“The Dark Alliance will demand your testimony later. You need only tell them exactly what you told me here.”

“B-but…”

“Your career in office is finished anyway. If you want to preserve even a little of what remains of your wealth and family, do as I say. Isn’t that path at least better than being executed as a traitor to the state?”

Yun Giwon clutched his head and writhed, but Seo Woojin felt not the slightest pity.

If he had his way, he would have hauled him to the government office right then. No — honestly, he wanted to take the man’s head himself. That was how vile he was.

Well. Once this business was over, a similar end awaited him anyway.

Seo Woojin rose from his seat and looked at Mun Seok.

“Get the location of the warehouse out of him.”

“U-understood.”

Seo Woojin heard the answer with half an ear and walked straight out. He drew in the outside air, but the tightness in his chest wouldn’t ease.

‘Damn it.’

He knew why. Because he was going to use these people’s crimes as bargaining material. Because for now, he would turn a blind eye to their wrongdoing to get what he needed.

‘Just this once… if only I can get through this business without incident…’

He tried to defer it to later, but the tightness in his chest remained.

And so Seo Woojin, still carrying that weight, set off for Bonghwa. His steps were heavier than ever before.

Bonghwa lay some sixty li south of Ningbo. On horseback it wasn’t even a shichen away, and Seo Woojin reached it without taking long.

Upon arriving, he wandered up and down the streets of Bonghwa. It was something like a habit of his — imagining himself pursued for no reason at all, and working out his retreat routes in advance. Another fruit of his grandfather’s training, no doubt.

After roughly a shichen of drifting through the streets, he stopped in front of a large estate. He climbed a large tree nearby and, holding his breath, watched a single point.

The estate of the Bonghwa Jang Clan.

To the north of the estate, a wide highway leading toward Ningbo Prefecture cut across the city gate and stretched smoothly on. Beyond the estate’s western wall, a bamboo grove — dense, taller than a man — spread out like a sea.

The estate’s scale was greater than that of most high-ranking officials’ homes. It was strange enough that a clan only now on the rise should own an estate this size.

‘A place that size ought to require at least two hundred warriors. But the number I can see right now is few.’

That must mean a great deal of manpower had been dispatched elsewhere.

Seo Woojin kept watching the estate as he mulled it over. How long he waited like that, he couldn’t say. Eventually a single warrior came out. Judging by his weary look and the stretch he gave, he’d been on duty inside.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Seo Woojin sprang down from the tree.

Whoosh! Tap!

He struck the man’s paralysis and mute points and vanished with him toward the bamboo grove to the west. Hauled off out of nowhere, the warrior could only blink, bewildered — there was nothing else he could do.

From somewhere, Seo Woojin drew a short sword and brought it to the warrior’s throat.

“I’ll release the mute point first. If you can send your voice out faster than my hand can move, feel free to scream.”

The warrior blinked rapidly. Judging by the terror in his eyes, he’d cooperate meekly.

Tap.

Seo Woojin released the mute point, but the warrior kept his mouth firmly shut. He seemed afraid that even a moan might touch off Seo Woojin’s ire.

“Your clan head — is he inside the estate?”

“H-he is.”

Seo Woojin barely swallowed a dry laugh threatening to escape.

‘For all their sudden rise, the bonds between them can’t be very tight.’

Set beside the Baek Clan’s warriors, it let him guess how much Baek Gyeong had endured all this time — bowing his head to men like these, again and again, to buy his daughter’s life.

Seo Woojin let out a sigh and asked again.

“Is he in the Clan Head’s Hall?”

“Y-yes. At this hour he’ll either be asleep… or just be waking.”

“Where is the Clan Head’s Hall?”

“On the north side of the estate. It’s the tallest hall, and the roof is covered in celadon tiles — you’ll find it quickly.”

It was the hall that had stood out most when he’d surveyed the estate from the tree.

Seo Woojin nodded again.

“Good. Then just a few more questions. The warriors inside the estate looked thin on the ground. Where has everyone gone? And exactly how many warriors are inside?”

For the first time, difficulty crossed the warrior’s face.

“I — I’m at the bottom of the rank, so I don’t know that kind of detail. All I know is that the Jang Clan’s elites are currently deployed outside. Only ranks like mine are left inside the estate.”

He didn’t seem to be lying.

Seo Woojin let out a faint sigh.

“Understood. Well done. Rest for a while.”

“Eh? W-wait—”

Whoosh! Thwack!

Thud.

Knocking the warrior out, Seo Woojin approached the estate. He pressed himself against the wall and listened for the presences within.

‘No reason to wait any longer. Without the elites, I should be able to slip in easily.’

Swish! Tap! Tatak!

Whoosh! Tap.

Kicking off the wall once, then striking against the neighboring bamboo in a rapid sequence — he alighted on the roof of one of the halls near the wall.

He could guess well enough why they’d left the bamboo grove standing — some notion of elegance, most likely. Signs of that sort of thing were visible throughout the estate, along with the vanity and extravagance that came with it.

Which was exactly why it had never occurred to them that someone might walk this easily into the sanctum of their own power.

Seo Woojin ran quickly north, moving from rooftop to rooftop. And there — the hall the warrior had described came into view.

Whoosh! Tap!

Clatter!

When he landed on the roof, the celadon tiles let out a small cry. Seo Woojin flattened himself and spread his qi-sense out.

‘Roughly twenty men on watch. The clan head’s bodyguards, no doubt.’

Their all being clustered on the top floor meant the clan head was up there as well.

‘Five along each wall. Two men each patrolling the central corridor, four in total. Two guarding the door, and four in concealment.’

Getting past them and into the clan head’s room was impossible. A clash was unavoidable.

Seo Woojin took a small, deep breath.

‘Hoo. Will this work?’

Tension flickered through him, but he let it out with the breath. What this needed now was precise calculation and a cool head.

Whoosh!

CRASH!

He hurled himself from the roof toward a window on the central corridor. The moment he was inside, he took down the two just then passing the window.

“Wh-what—!!”

The two making for the opposite side tried to raise their voices, but Seo Woojin was faster.

Snap!

Whoosh! CRACK! CRACK!

His right foot struck the head of the man in front. Using the recoil, he lifted into the air and spun; his left foot came down on the back of the remaining man’s head.

Splat!

Tap.

With four subdued, their route of escape was sealed. They would have to overpower him — or hurl themselves out the windows.

“Who goes there!!”

At the sudden commotion, the ten men keeping watch along the walls revealed themselves.

“Hoo.”

Seo Woojin let out a small breath.

Boom!

Snap! WHOOOSH!

He stamped down and hurtled forward in the same instant. He came straight at them without a word of warning, and their alarm was plain.

“You bastard—!”

The two in the vanguard thrust their swords out at once, aiming respectively at Seo Woojin’s throat and his lower body.

Tatatat.

Seo Woojin tapped his feet lightly and tilted his body toward the sword aimed at his head.

Grab.

He seized the wrist of the sword-hand and yanked it down.

Clang!

He deflected the sword aimed at his lower body, and his opponent pitched forward. At just the right height, the man’s face came into view.

WHOOOSH! CRASH!

His fist struck it dead-on.

The man staggered and collapsed against the comrade at his side.

“Kh!”

The one who’d meant to follow the failed first strike with another had to pull his sword back as his comrade toppled onto him. Into that gap, Seo Woojin drove his right foot around.

WHOOSH! CRASH!

His leg, swung like a whip, lodged straight in the man’s neck.

There was no time to check whether he was still alive.

Snap!

He hurled himself backward.

Kang! Kang! Kang!

At the same moment, swords stabbed into the spot where he’d been.

Tap.

The instant his feet touched the ground —

Boom!

He shot forward again. Before the others could recover their weapons —

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

He struck them at their vital points as he passed.

By this point their confusion was total. It had all taken the briefest of moments, and in that moment half of them were already down.

By now the option they hadn’t considered would be occurring to them — fling themselves out the window and raise the alarm.

But it was already too late. Seo Woojin’s charge had become a storm, and it swept over them.

CRASH-CRASH-CRASH-CRASH!

His motions were spare. He aimed for their vital points exactly, with nothing wasted anywhere along the way.

Much like the movements of the Crazed Fiend.

WHOOOSH! CRAAASH!

Only after subduing the two guarding the door as well — did Seo Woojin let out a deep breath.

‘Hoo. Good. It went as I thought.’

Speed and stealth. The Lingering Heart Sword Art was no fit for holding both at once. It required moving his true qi with fine delicacy, and movement this fast was impossible under it — and its sheer force might have brought the hall down.

So he had mimicked the Crazed Fiend instead. With nothing wasted in his motions, he could move faster than usual. The true qi carried no rotation, but it struck vital points exactly, and that made it destructive.

Once the field had been cleared like this, though, the shortcomings of the Lingering Heart Sword Art meant nothing.

Whoosh! Clang!

Turning as he drew his sword.

Four figures in black dropped from the ceiling, but Seo Woojin instead sprang up into the air to meet them.

Wind Flow Eighteen Swords. Azure Dragon Ascending to Heaven.

The storm-laden azure dragon rose into the heavens. And the hidden swords, honed in the dark, were swept up in that storm.

CLAAAANG!

With an ear-scraping sound, four swords shattered at once.

No — not just the swords.

“Guhk!”

Thump!

Not one of them was spared; each one vomited blood and dropped.

Whoosh. Tap.

Seo Woojin alighted on the floor as if the result had been a foregone conclusion.

He had left the concealed ones alone from the start. Human nature being what it was, they had come to believe themselves unnoticed — which was why they had waited so doggedly, holding out for the moment his guard slipped and an opening appeared.

And it was why, even after seeing what had just happened, they had forced an attack rather than slipping outside to raise the alarm. The alarm would have been the wiser move.

Seo Woojin sheathed his sword and opened the door of the room.

A wide chamber, extravagant and dazzling. Costly porcelains announced themselves at a glance, and the paintings on the walls were fine enough to draw a breath of admiration.

And on the bed — half-clothed women.

“Die—!!”

WHOOOSH!

Swish.

Vwoom!

A shout came from behind, and a sword fell. But Seo Woojin dodged with a single sidestep.

Whoosh! Thwack!

Instead, he struck the man’s neck with the pommel of his sword.

“K—Khk!”

Clatter!

The man dropped his sword and let out a groan of pain.

Seo Woojin knelt down to bring their eyes level.

“Clan Head Jang?”

The middle-aged man looked up at him with trembling eyes.

“W-who… on earth…?”

Seo Woojin drew Yun Giwon’s ledger from his robes.

“I’ve come to make a deal.”

He had declared his purpose. But the middle-aged man, still with no idea what was happening, only coughed, his eyes darting this way and that.

(End of Chapter 29)