Episode 19. Rain and the Man of Steel (2)
I couldn’t get my hands on the main weapon I used to rely on. Until I did, I needed a replacement to serve as my primary arm. The question was whether Uncle Geum Cheol-yong could actually forge it.
Honestly, it didn’t matter if he couldn’t.
What I wanted was not for him to spend his life making decent-but-ordinary weapons, but for him to take on something more meaningful.
…
…
…
Watching the rain, Geum Cheol-yong finally spoke.
“Not going to be easy.”
“That’s true.”
“First off, finding steel that tough isn’t easy. Like you said, if we could get ten-thousand-year cold iron, that’d solve everything. But getting that is about as hard as finding refined heavenly oil.”
“Also true.”
“Still, if we’re talking about something that heavy, we might try checking the black market.”
The black market was a catchall term for places where dark-world fighters bought their weapons—some auctioned them, some forged and sold on demand.
From the way he said it, it sounded less like he wanted to buy a finished blade and more like he wanted to hunt for raw metal there.
I kept my mouth shut.
Forging weapons was his domain, not mine. He’d been running Yongdu Forge for years. No need for me to meddle.
If he managed to build a weapon I was satisfied with, that would be my good fortune and his fate.
He’d spent his life holding back out of fear of martial experts, but I planned on breaking that taboo for him.
If trouble came to Yongdu Forge because of it, I’d protect them.
Geum Cheol-yong asked,
“Got a name in mind?”
I answered without hesitation,
“The weapon’s name is Gwangin—狂刃.”
Mad (狂). Edge (刃).
He repeated it, tasting the word.
“A mad edge, huh? If the shape doesn’t matter, then I suppose that ‘edge’ is more about ripping the opponent apart than about the blade itself?”
“That’s about right.”
“Mind if I make it as a straight saber? If we’re keeping the design simple, a straight blade is best.”
A straight saber—exactly what it sounded like. No curve along the edge.
“Even better. Men only know how to go straight, after all.”
At that bit of nonsense, he gave me a long look and said,
“Fine. I’ll forge it as a straight saber. Its name will be Gwangin, and it’ll carry my unbreakable resolve.”
I smiled faintly.
“Sounds good.”
Listening quietly, Jang Deuk-su added,
“Gwangin… that’s a terrifying name.”
Geum Cheol-yong, already picturing the weapon in his head, asked,
“What’s the deadline?”
“Deadlines are for craftsmen to set, not clients. Throwing a tantrum won’t make a proper work come out any faster. Any time is fine.”
He’d never truly been treated as a master craftsman in this life, but I planned to treat him as one.
He stroked his chin.
“That’s fair. Can’t predict how long it’ll take to get the materials anyway. One day, I’ll call you over and present this Gwangin to you. In that spirit…”
“Yes?”
He tapped his empty bowl.
“You’re paying for the noodles today. Got another free meal out of you.”
“What kind of grown man mooches off a poor tavern boy?”
He gave me a look that said, don’t be ridiculous.
“You’re no tavern boy. Not sure exactly when that stopped being true, but it did. Today I’m eating on the Hao Sect’s sect master.”
Wiping a bowl, Jang Deuk-su looked over, curious.
“Hao Sect? What’s that? You start it, Jah?”
I answered,
“Deuk-su hyung.”
“Yeah?”
“You’re in the Hao Sect too.”
He blinked.
“Huh? Me? When did that happen?”
“Everyone I know is basically already in.”
“Ah.”
“Which means, from now on, you should always serve the sect master his noodles for free. Got it?”
His eyes went sharp like a tiger’s and he said, dead serious,
“Sir, what’s wrong with you?”
“…”
Yeah. Things like that didn’t really work on the men of Ilyang.
Resigned, I pulled money from my pouch and set it on the table.
Just then, my eyes went to the front of Chunyang Noodle House. Geum Cheol-yong and Jang Deuk-su followed my gaze.
There were men standing out in the rain.
Geum Cheol-yong frowned.
“Uninvited guests in the rain, huh. Must be your enemies. I’ve lived a clean life—never even go near the brothels.”
Deuk-su’s eyes suddenly looked very innocent.
“I’d love to help, but I can’t fight. If my hands get hurt, I can’t run this place.”
Even as he said that, he casually checked the position of his sharpest kitchen knife with his eyes. If they barged into Chunyang, even the noodle shop owner was ready to make it a knife fight.
I shook my head.
“See any sign they actually came here for me?”
Just then, one of the men outside called toward Chunyang,
“Lee Jah! We know you’re in there. Come out!”
Deuk-su nodded.
“They’re calling for you, Sect Master.”
Now upgraded from ‘customer’ to ‘sect master’, I looked at him. He answered solemnly,
“Be careful.”
Geum Cheol-yong also spoke, genuinely worried.
“Be careful out there, Sect Master. My back always acts up when it rains… chronic problem, you know.”
I stood, loosening my whip at my waist.
“Leave it to me. Bastards, bothering me when it’s raining.”
As I stepped out, Geum Cheol-yong muttered to Deuk-su,
“I get the feeling he meant us by ‘bastards’ just now.”
Deuk-su shook his head.
“No.”
“No?”
“Yeah.”
“How do you know?”
“I’m older, remember? Jah’s not that kind of guy.”
“In the martial world, the strong are the older brothers.”
“Then you’re his little brother too, sir?”
“Deuk-su, there’s a ten-year age gap here. You want to measure that with martial skill too? Let’s not go that far.”
“Okay.”
Outside, I looked at the rats standing in the rain.
Only one of them had the feel of a true expert—a bald man wrapped head to toe in a rain cloak, only his eyes visible.
Sure enough, it was the bald man in the cloak who spoke.
“That scrawny one?”
The others answered,
“Yes.”
His eyes, the only part of his face I could see, were vicious.
“They tell me you killed Black Fan Fort’s Neung Ji-seok. That true?”
I tilted my head.
“Neung Ji-seok… name sounds familiar.”
Of course I knew exactly who he was. The guy I’d split in half near Jahak Inn.
A few faces among the rats around him were familiar too—fighters from Plum Blossom House. In other words, Jo Sam-pyeong’s other underlings.
I asked the cloaked man,
“You the great elder brother of the late Neung Ji-seok, Mister Bald in the Rain?”
“I am Wi Seon-u of Black Fan Fort.”
At the name, a title popped into my head.
Wi Seon-u… then this is one half of the Twin Ghosts of the Ring Sabers.
Wi Seon-u and Gu Yang-su—the two known as the Twin Ghosts of the Ring Sabers. Only now did I learn they’d originally come from Black Fan Fort.
Probably wasn’t a very cohesive organization if they later left it behind.
One night, over a contested treasure blade, these two slaughtered forty or fifty martial experts from both orthodox and unorthodox factions.
Of course, in the end, the Twin Ghosts died by my hand, and the treasure that blade pointed to became mine.
Wi Seon-u slipped off his rain cloak, revealing his full face.
The man I’d once killed was glaring at me with a younger face.
I couldn’t rule out the possibility that Gu Yang-su was lurking somewhere nearby.
Whip in hand, I said,
“Plum Blossom House goons, get inside. Unless you’re eager to get caught up in this and die.”
Wi Seon-u, fixated on killing me, didn’t spare his underlings so much as a glance. The Plum Blossom lackeys quietly backed away, settling a good distance off. They wanted to see how this fight ended.
Wi Seon-u asked,
“Boy, why did you kill Neung Ji-seok?”
I answered simply,
“For the crime of burning my house down.”
He snorted.
“Good reason to die. Thanks to that, you’ll die too.”
“Things don’t always go the way you want. Your hair is proof enough of that.”
A vein bulged on his forehead.
“First thing I’m cutting is that mouth.”
Just then, the sky flashed.
In that instant of bright light, we got a clear look at each other’s faces—and both smirked.
Wi Seon-u drew the twin ring sabers at his waist and dropped into his stance. He was stronger fighting alongside Gu Yang-su than alone.
Too bad for them, I knew their saber arts very well.
Not just theirs. After all the trouble I’d caused the Martial Alliance, the stronger the expert, the more likely it was that I’d already met them.
This time, I had the power of Golden Tortoise Roaming Art, reforged from the Heavenly Jade, and all my past-life experience.
In other words, this was just some rainy-day entertainment.
“Wi Seon-u, you’re the one cutting your life short. You’ve got the face of a man who’d live to a ripe old age… if you didn’t run into me. Shame, really.”
It was a comment about his previous-life fate, but there was no way he’d understand that.
Instead, he snorted.
“Crazy bastard.”
“Sharp eye.”
The rain started coming down even harder.
Shhhhhhhh!
Wi Seon-u dashed in, spraying pooled rainwater behind him. I snapped my whip out; he slid along the wet ground, dodging the strike, and in an instant he was on me, both sabers swinging.
His movements showed he knew exactly how to kill someone wielding a whip.
He had no intention of letting the distance open up.
I moved sideways, circling, keeping him just at the edge of my effective range.
We traced a wide circle through the rain, jockeying for the initiative in this opening exchange, soaking wet in moments.
As I moved, I deliberately stomped through puddles, splashing water into his path; Wi Seon-u worked busily, swatting the water aside with the flat of his sabers.
My opening strategy was simple: keep the tension tight and drag things out.
That way, the hidden Gu Yang-su would be under more pressure to show himself.
So I stayed mostly on the defensive.
Lightning flashed three more times; thunder rolled overhead.
Then came the wet slapping sound of footsteps in the rain—Cha Seong-tae arrived, clutching his straight saber.
I shouted as soon as he appeared,
“Stay back. He’s a real one.”
“Got it.”
He gave a short reply and yanked off his eyepatch. In this downpour, keeping one eye closed wasn’t doing him any favors.
Blocking Wi Seon-u’s strikes, I had no choice but to warn him again,
“There’s another one nearby. Watch yourself.”
Cha Seong-tae flinched, then stared hard through the sheets of rain, gripping his saber tighter.
“Understood.”
After a moment, he said,
“I only see Plum Blossom riffraff.”
Before he could finish the sentence, something black spun down from the rain-soaked sky.
“Huh?”
The dark shape unfolded in midair into a pair of blades. Gu Yang-su, face dark as ink, landed and fell into step beside Wi Seon-u.
Cha Seong-tae swore, eyes wide.
“Holy shit, there really was one.”
Seeing Gu Yang-su’s face again after so long, I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Heh.”
Now that both Twin Ghosts of the Ring Sabers were here, there was no need to hold back.
I wrapped my whip in the blazing energy of Flame Fowl.
The whip, already writhing like a bad-tempered snake in the rain, began to glow a faint red.
Gu Yang-su spoke quietly,
“Brother, he’s hiding his true strength. Be careful.”
“Yeah.”
The two split left and right, circling to flank me, twin sabers cutting arcs through the rain.
After tasting my internal energy, they’d decided to turn this into a long fight.
They were right about one thing—compared to other weapons, whips took longer to recover after each strike. From their perspective, the plan was obvious: one of them would entangle my whip with his pair of ring sabers, while the other came at my back.
Reading their intentions as clearly as the puddles at our feet, I plunged into a battle in the water.