Star Instructor, Master Baek

The moment Old Man Wi lunged forward, I kicked the table and threw myself backward.

CRACK!

The table shattered into two, but Old Man Wi continued charging at me with the momentum of an angry bear.

Although I kind of expected this reaction…he’s even more desperate than I thought.

I continued retreating as I asked, “How ‘bout a talk before we fight?”

Old Man Wi’s answer to my question was a rock-like fist. I didn’t want to be one-sidedly bullied, so I raised my fist to meet his.

POW POW POW POW POW!

We exchanged a dozen punches in a flash. As fist met palm and palm met finger, we slowly got a sense of each other’s martial arts.

Old Man Wi’s eyes widened in astonishment. “Impossible! This martial art is…!”

Old Man Wi grimaced.

Outside the tent, Bok Man-Chun yelled, “Boss!”

“Don’t come in!” I quickly shouted back at him and shot Old Man Wi a warning look.

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Old Man Wi hesitated for a moment, then reluctantly ceased attacking. However, he stayed on his toes, ready to burst back into action any moment.

I sensed Bok Man-Chun lurking right in front of the tent, deciding whether he should force his way in or not. I turned in his direction and said, “Don’t worry, it’s nothing. Stop being overprotective, it’s embarrassing, you know?”

“But… I thought I heard the sounds of fighting…”

“We just had a minor misunderstanding. Why don’t you wait for me at the Freelancer’s Bazaar? I’m sure you’re hungry, go get something to eat.”

“…When would you like me to come get you?”

I glanced at the old man who was still shooting me a death glare and said, “Don’t come. If I don’t return by morning, go back to Nanchang and wait for me there.”

“…What should I do about your inheritance?”

He’s asking me about where my money goes after I die. I smirked and replied, “Don’t even think about it. I won’t take more than a few days. If I find the money gone, I’ll hunt you down and cut off your fingers.”

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I had a practical exam I couldn’t miss, so a few days was as much time as I could spend gallivanting around.

Bok Man-Chun coughed embarrassedly, “Ahem, I was just joking. Anyway, if anything happens, you can contact me…”

“Why are you still here?”

“Okay, I’m going, I’m going…” Bok Man-Chun grumbled, his voice becoming more distant as he walked further and further away.

When he was out of earshot, Old Man Wi suddenly released a powerful killing intent and asked me, “Who are you?”

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As expected of the head of the Wiji Clan,1 one of the Eight Great Clans supporting the Blood Cult and the only clan famous for their metallurgy, blacksmithing and explosives manufacturing rather than their martial arts. Even the Blood Demon Sword, the divine weapon of the Blood Cult, was forged by the Wiji Clan. They are so specialized in their craft that unlike the other clans, the position of Wiji Clan Head is always occupied by the best blacksmith in the clan.

“I’m…someone in a similar situation as you,” I said, choosing my words carefully.

“…Are you the descendant of a survivor?” Old Man Wi asked me in a cracked voice.

Approximately fifty years ago, when the Blood Cult was severely weakened by an “internal dispute”, the Murim Alliance had suddenly attacked them and wiped them out. The “survivors” that Old Man Wi was referring to were those who managed to escape the Murim Alliance’s initial offensive.

Needless to say, the survivors of the Blood Cult were all still wanted criminals.

“Something like that.”

“…You expect me to believe you when you’ve only mastered a single fist technique that any low-level warrior can learn?”

Seems like it isn’t that easy to dispel Old Man Wi’s suspicions of me. This is all the Murim Alliance’s fault for tricking the remnants of the Blood Cult multiple times, just so they could eliminate them completely. Now, if I want him to trust me…I’ll have to reveal a few more of my hidden cards.

Having made my decision, I slowly removed my Heo Cheon mask.

RUSTLE.

“This is my real face. Not even Administrator Bok knows about it.”

“……”

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“If you still don’t believe me, how about I show you another martial art?” I asked, slowly drawing Moon Shadow and shifting into a preparatory stance so as not to startle Old Man Wi. “If you don’t recognize this, I’ll be the one suspecting your legitimacy instead.”

“……”

I first went through the motions of the sword technique sluggishly so that Old Man Wi could see everything. However, I soon started speeding up, until my slashes whistled through the air in the tent.

Relentless.

Vicious.

Fearless.

A sword technique that tries to rip the opponent’s throat out no matter what.

Even I can’t help but release my killing intent as I perform this sword technique. The more I sank into a trance, the stronger the stench of blood became in the tent.

Finally, when I was done with my demonstration, I sheathed Moon Shadow.

At the same time, Old Man Wi sighed, “The Bloodwolf Sword Technique… I haven’t seen it in decades.”

The Bloodwolf Sword Technique was taught only to the Bloodwolves, the most powerful strike team in the Blood Cult. There were two versions of the technique: Basic and Advanced, and the latter could only be learned by someone who was at least captain-class. What I had just shown Old Man Wi was the advanced technique.

“Do you believe me now?”

“…How are you related to the Bloodwolves?”

“My late father was the vice-captain of the Thirteenth Division of the Bloodwolves,” I said, gambling on the fact that the Bloodwolves, being an elite military organization, would never allow information on the identities of their members to be known to someone in the Wiji Clan, especially the higher-ranked ones.

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“I don’t know who your father is, but…he’s raised a good son. Allow me to introduce myself properly, my name is Wiji Yeol.”

Phew, he has no idea who the real vice-captain is! His voice is gentler now, and the killing intent is mostly gone. However, he still doesn’t seem completely convinced.

Wiji Yeol’s sharp eyes flickered as he asked, “How did you realize that I was the Clan Head of the Wiji Clan?”

I mentally apologized to my real dad, and concocted a plausible story based on my prior knowledge of the Wiji Clan, “…My late father used to say that the head of the Wiji Clan was the greatest swordsmith in the world, and that the swords he forged were never broken on the battlefield. He also told me that if the swords he forged ever ended up in the gangho, there would be a bloodbath over them…”

“Ahem, your father flatters me too highly. I’m not that great,” Wiji Yeol dismissed. Contrary to his words, though, the corners of his mouth curled upward slightly in pride.

“My father once saw you from a distance. He said he could never forget his first impression of you, especially the tattoos all over your body.”

“Tattoos?”

I looked at the tattoos all over Wiji Yeol’s muscular frame. Although the Blood Cult’s tattoos were covered with dragons and tigers to avoid detection by the Murim Alliance, I could still discern several swords, daos, spears, and other weapons.

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According to the tradition of the Wiji Clan, every tattoo told a story.

“I’ve heard that you only tattoo your own masterpieces, but there’s a dragon that goes from your left shoulder down to your arm…”

A red dragon was clearly engraved on Wiji Yeol’s left shoulder. However, I knew that it wasn’t meant to represent a dragon, but a sword.

A sword that Wiji Yeol did not forge himself.

“That’s the Blood Demon Sword, the Blood Cult’s divine weapon, right? I heard that you tattooed it as a vow that you would one day forge a sword that surpasses it.”

“……”

After glancing at his left shoulder for a moment, Wiji Yeol turned back toward me. “You are indeed an intelligent child, finding traces of the Blood Demon Sword in this dragon tattoo.”

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“It’s a deduction anyone could make if they knew the story.”

“If it was that simple, I would have been captured and killed by the Murim Alliance long ago.”

Finally, Wiji Yeol retracted all suspicion toward me.

Smiling bitterly, he asked, “Could we talk for a while?”

We chatted about the destruction of the Blood Cult fifty years ago. Shortly after me and my masters died, the Murim Alliance had taken advantage of the chaos we caused to finish them off.

Wiji Yeol was one of the old folks who remembered those times, and as someone who lived in the same period, I could relate to him.

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Wiji Yeol, you’ve aged a lot. As we talked, I recalled his younger self. Back then, he was quite a bright and cheerful person, but his personality had mellowed and his face had become weathered from the hardships he had endured.

At least, he was one of the few decent people in the Cult. He never murdered people for fun, nor did he dabble in the messed up internal politics. All he cared about was blacksmithing.

…I wonder what his life was like all these years?

It felt a little strange to meet someone I knew from my previous life. However, the past was the past, and I didn’t feel much sympathy for him.

Well, it was about time I cut to the chase. “Does this request of yours have anything to do with the Blood Cult?” I asked.

Wiji Yeol deliberated for a while, then sighed and bowed his head. “It’s…not totally unrelated.”

He paused yet again, before raising his head and looking at me sadly. “I’m begging you, please kill my grandson.”

A few days later, I followed Wiji Yeol up an unnamed mountain.

“We’re almost there.”

“I’m sorry, but I think I’ve heard you say the same thing ten times.”

“Tsk, young people like you shouldn’t be so impatient.”

“I think I’ve stressed this a few times, but I have an important exam in a few days.”

“We’re actually almost there. Removing these formations just takes time…”

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The target’s residence was located deep in the mountains, surrounded by formations. Because we had to dismantle them one by one and then return them to their original state once we passed through, the journey took much longer than I initially thought.

I counted down the days until the practical exam. I expected to only spend a day doing this, but I’ll be cutting it quite close at the rate we’re going…

We trudged through the forest for another hour or so, before finally, Wiji Yeol came to a stop at the top of a hill.

“Our destination is over there…” He said, pointing at a small thatched hut at the bottom of the hill.

Next to the hut, there were two gravestones. “These are my son and daughter-in-law’s graves. They foolishly got their qi centers destroyed while trying to protect me, the Clan Head,” he said sadly.

Wiji Yeol’s son and daughter-in-law had become crippled while fleeing the Murim Alliance’s pursuit, and had passed away after a long battle with their injuries.

The target of Wiji Yeol’s request, a boy who couldn’t have been more than thirteen or fifteen, stood next to the gravestones. A mountain bird perched on the back of his hand and chirped, and he smiled and chatted with it as if it were a friend.

“That’s my grandson, Wiji Cheon. He’s never seen his parents’ faces, and I raised him since he was a wee babe… And he is undoubtedly the most outstanding martial artist in the history of our clan.”

Wiji Yeol lowered his head in grief, then continued, “That’s why, after my son and daughter-in-law’s deaths, I was blinded by my selfish desire for revenge, and was too harsh on him…”

The boy stroked the mountain bird and gently picked it up. Surprisingly, it was still chirping cheerfully.

“And I failed to realize that he had succumbed to his inner demons…”

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“Inner demons?”

Suddenly, the pleasant birdsong turned into an agonized wail. The tiny mountain bird squirmed desperately, begging to be let go.

The boy smiled and let the bird go as it wished, and as it spread its wings and flew into the air, he waved his hand gracefully as if saying goodbye.

SMACK!

The bird exploded and landed on the ground as pieces of flesh and bone. The boy, his face covered in blood, grinned and sang a song to lure in yet another bird.

I froze in shock.

“Even after I found out about this, I couldn’t bring myself to kill him with my own two hands, and as a result of my hesitation, he has now gotten so powerful that I am no longer strong enough to kill him…”

“…Who taught him that martial art he just used?” I asked in an unsteady voice.

Taken aback by the unexpected question, Wiji Yeol blurted, “Why are you asking about that…? Wait, do you recognize that martial art?”

Hell yeah I do. After all, I’m the one who created it.

1. Wiji: Wiji, or Yuchi (尉遲) is a Chinese compound surname which was translated from “Viśa”, the family name of Khotan royalty. The Kingdom of Khotan was a small ancient kingdom sandwiched between China, Tibet, Mongolia (Xinjiang), India, and the Middle-East. Wiji Yeol is calling himself Old Man Wi as the last name “Wiji” is nonexistent in the Central Plains, while “Wi” is fairly commonplace.