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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator:Bobt
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The small bonfire that had gathered and ignited the dry twigs flickered with a faint light.
Jang Geon broke a long twig in half and tossed it into the fire. However, the bonfire didn’t have much fuel, so it swayed small and unsteadily, and the light wasn’t very bright either. It seemed that if he wanted it to keep burning through the night, he would need to find more firewood from somewhere else.
But Jang Geon didn’t seem to care. Although the light was dim, his awakened senses perceived it as bright as daylight. He had built the fire so that the horse Jojo tied up next to him wouldn’t be restless, and also to boil water for his own tea.
He sipped from a small iron cup, the tea tasting slightly muddy. The flavor wasn’t very good, so he grimaced.
“Tastes like molasses.”
Jojo, lying on the ground, had been mumbling about something but turned to look at Jang Geon upon hearing his mutter. Jang Geon felt his gaze and looked back at Jojo.
“What? You want some too?”
Jojo stared at Jang Geon sipping the tea in an awkward sitting position, as if finding him pathetic, before snorting and lying his head down on the ground again. Jang Geon grimaced again at the taste.
“There can’t be another horse in this world that loves to lie down as much as you do.”
As if understanding Jang Geon’s jab, Jojo snorted again and scratched the ground with his nose, causing dust to fly towards Jang Geon.
“Ah, dammit.”
Jang Geon waved his hand to dispel the dust blowing his way. He sometimes wondered if Jojo was the reincarnation of someone else, because the horse acted too intelligently for an animal. And simultaneously, he unconsciously recalled his own secret, which dampened his mood.
Reincarnation – according to Buddhism, the rebirth of a deceased being in a new form.
This was the most unbelievable phenomenon he had experienced in this martial arts world and ancient empire, yet something he ultimately had to believe. A youth living in an era of supersonic jets and lunar expeditions had died in an accident and reincarnated on this land. Specifically, not on this new continent, but in the Central Plains as the son of a wealthy family.
“Damn it.”
Jang Geon, trying to suppress his emotions, sipped from the cup again. Then, with a scowl, he spat out the tea he had taken into his mouth. Glaring at the lying Jojo, he flung the dusty tea liquid to the side. Jojo made a whinnying sound as if truly finding it amusing.
Thinking that someday he would sell Jojo and get a new horse, Jang Geon leaned back diagonally. He lifted his head from the bonfire and gazed into the distance.
On this moonless night where everything on the ground looked like a dark mass, the twinkling stars and Milky Way filled the entire sky with large and small lights, as if proclaiming their vibrant existence. It was like jewels sparkling under deep water, making Jang Geon want to get up and dive into that starry sea right away.
However, the distance between those stars and Jang Geon was so far that numbers could not truly capture it in one’s heart, no matter how large. Even if he spent the rest of his life flying in one direction toward that light, he could never reach a single one of those stars.
Someone else might have felt sadness at this fact, but at least Jang Geon did not dwell on things he could never achieve. He let out a deep breath and immediately laid down, pulling the thin blanket up to his neck.
It was time to sleep now.
* * *
Jang Geon woke up in the morning and loosened his body by lightly swinging his sword. Afterwards, he tidied up the blanket, bonfire, and other things, then woke the still lying Jojo, stood him up, and put the saddle back on that he had removed earlier. Jojo acted fussy as if trying to avoid the saddle, but could not escape Jang Geon’s hands.
After finishing the rough preparations, Jang Geon took out a small hardtack from his pack and munched on it as he mounted Jojo. He was a little worried about whether they could reach a village by today. No matter how beautiful the night sky scenery was, it could not compare to a comfortable inn bed and warm meal.
He hoped they would come across a large village. He needed to unload the jade bracelets he had swindled from Yang Hweng, and also find some other way to make money.
“If I ever touch ecliptic bones again, I’m not human, really.”
He muttered absently as he slowly spurred Jojo into a trot. He was confident in the martial arts skills and techniques he had cultivated, but ecliptic bones were another matter altogether.
It wasn’t just about having quick eyes and nimble hands to fleece an opponent. The important thing was whether the rest besides one mark had colluded or not. He only realized this after having all his winnings taken away.
Lost in such random thoughts while riding, Jang Geon suddenly pulled back on the reins. Startled by the abrupt motion, Jojo shook his head irritably.
“Stay still, you brat.”
Jang Geon’s ears, sharpened by training and internal energy, had picked up the sound of a scream. The scream seemed to be coming from over the hill to the right.
Jang Geon immediately pulled Jojo’s reins in that direction. Understanding his master’s intention, Jojo galloped unhesitatingly toward the hill, kicking up a dusty trail behind them.
Once on top of the hill, Jang Geon and Jojo saw a wagon stopped in the middle of the field along with fallen people, and bandits smashing and looting the wagon.
Of the figures who didn’t seem to be bandits, only one remained somewhat unharmed, kneeling and pleading with someone. In front of him stood a bandit holding a sword, arrogantly toying with it.
The kneeling man, perhaps wanting to live, groveled on the ground as he begged. But in the next moment, the bandit’s sword blade grazed across the back of his neck. The bandit had a pleased look on his face despite having just killed a man, as if enjoying the blood on his sword.
Once he had killed that last person, the rest of the bandits all raised their weapons high and let out celebratory shouts of glee. Jang Geon narrowed his eyes watching the scene from atop the hill.
There were very few areas in the new continent that were completely under imperial rule. At most, only about four cities. In the rest of the land, either a martial sect would maintain local law and order, or the Martial Arts Alliance would dispatch enforcers through its branches.
Naturally, all kinds of bandits and villains who disregarded laws and rules ran rampant everywhere. The smarter ones preyed on ordinary people while blending in, while the dimwitted ones plundered travelers on the open fields and wilderness.
However, even those types ultimately came from a culture that lived under the Ancient Empire’s strict moral code, so they generally had reservations about committing murder. Indiscriminately massacring people was uncommon, also deterred by the fact that the Martial Arts Alliance prioritized murderers as wanted felons.
But just as there were bound to be a few lunatics anywhere, there existed those who killed without a second thought about bounties or morality. Such people were either truly deranged murderers, or evil cultivators of demonic arts. And often, the two were one and the same.
At that moment, the bandit who had been toying with his sword suddenly whipped his head around and glared at Jang Geon. His face was grimy and ingrained with filth, but his two bulging eyes glistened like glass beads as they glared at Jang Geon.
The bandit shouted something while pointing his sword at Jang Geon. The other bandits who had been looting the corpses quickly mounted their horses. With bizarre whooping cries like some steppe marauders, they charged straight at Jang Geon.
A cold smile crept across Jang Geon’s lips.
“Let’s do this then.”
Still mounted on Jojo, he drew the sword from his waist. The elongated blade gleamed a bluish tint. He lightly kicked Jojo’s flanks, and with a snort, the horse charged at full gallop down the hill toward the bandits.
About a dozen bandits and Jang Geon charged straight at each other.
The bandits didn’t seem to have practiced any sort of formation, just rushing in a line. As a result, only about two of them directly faced Jang Geon as they passed each other.
And in that instant their paths crossed, two severed heads tumbled through the air.
Jang Geon immediately pulled back on the reins, and Jojo smoothly turned his body as if he were a high-end carriage rather than the unruly colt he normally acted like.
“What the—! That bastard killed Sang-yeon and Gu-mun!”
“Shit! Kill him! Cut that fucker’s head off too!”
The remaining bandits who had passed by Jang Geon cursed loudly as they wheeled their mounts around. Not coordinated, they ended up charging at Jang Geon one after the other.
And one by one, their necks were severed by Jang Geon’s sword.
After cutting down about five of them, one bandit charged while biting down on his sword, trying to ram Jang Geon from his saddle. Jang Geon caught him with his left hand, flinging him off the back of the horse and casually swinging his sword in an arc that sliced him from chest to groin. The bandit fell thrashing as his entrails spilled out.
Shocked to see their comrades killed off so easily, the remaining bandits froze their horses in their tracks.
“We’re dead! He’s a master!”
“Shit! Why did a guy like this show up here!”
One of the bandits turned and shouted toward a solitary figure standing near the wagon.
“Boss! Help us out, Boss!”
But if he really wanted to live, he should not have taken his eyes off Jang Geon. By the time he turned back, Jang Geon’s sword had already rent his upper body diagonally in half.
“Run for it!”
The terrified remaining bandits fled. But their path of retreat led right behind their boss, suggesting they trusted in his skills.
Jang Geon did not give chase, simply stopping his horse to watch the bandits scatter behind their leader. And their boss glared menacingly at the approaching Jang Geon. He seemed to realize that not a single drop of blood had spilled from Jang Geon during the fight, except for a solitary drop slowly falling from the tip of his outstretched sword.
After eyeing the sword, the boss lifted his gaze to meet the cold, steely eyes visible beneath the brim of Jang Geon’s hat, contrasting with his weathered, nonchalant face.
The boss let out a jeering smile. “From the Martial Arts Alliance?”
“No,” Jang Geon replied, bringing Jojo to a halt.
The boss’s smile deepened. “Ah, then a wandering pugilist? In that case, keep wandering on your way?”
Jang Geon gave a wry smile at the mocking tone. “You crazy bastard. You lot struck first, and you’re telling me to just leave?”
“Ah, that was unavoidable. This is just our work.”
“Killing people and robbing them, that’s your ‘work.’ What an admirable piece of shit you are.”
The boss spread his arms wide. “Well, what can you do? It’s been over a hundred years since the new continent was pioneered. And in that time, who ultimately seized dominance here? The powerful, right? The Martial Arts Alliance backed by the empire, the ancient noble houses of the old dynasty, the merchant confederations playing with mountains of cash, and so on. What have they all been doing for a hundred years but trampling over the people trying to settle this land and lining their own pockets?”
The boss smiled as he stuck out his tongue to lick his yellowed, rotten teeth in a repulsive manner.
“I’m just getting a small piece of that pie. So you could say it’s my work too, just like they call their deeds work.”
Jang Geon listened with a furrowed brow as the bandit rambled, then lifted his gaze to the corpses lying beside the wagon behind him. Among them was the body of a young woman slumped against the wagon, still gripping a sword, likely a martial artist. For some reason, perhaps molestation or looting, her robe had been pulled open to expose her front.
For some reason, Jang Geon felt as if her dull, dried-out vacant eyes were staring right at him.
After watching those eyes, Jang Geon dismounted from his saddle with a light hop. He slowly walked until he stood about a yard away from the bandit leader.
“So you thought I was from the Alliance because of the bounty on my head?”
He flicked his wrist, sending a spray of blood from his sword before nonchalantly sheathing it. Seeing this, the bandit leader unexpectedly became agitated, his mouth widening into a ghastly grin.
“So there is a price on your head! What did you do to earn it, I wonder? Maybe I’ll earn an even bigger one once your rap sheet comes to light?”
For some reason, the excited bandit leader heavily exhaled before gripping his sword with both hands parallel to his waist. He widened his stance low in a crouch, as if gathering power before an explosion.
Jang Geon loosened his sword grip, thinking about how ridiculous this all was.
As the imperial army became the strongest martial force in the realm, the progression of martial arts became singularly focused on quickly killing one’s opponent. As a result, real-world martial practice differed greatly from the literature he was familiar with – it had become extremely one-sided.
Techniques like lightbody skills, clairaudience, ventriloquism, or even external techniques like vishama vapor or dakhini were either only taught basic theoretical foundations or were absent altogether. Martial arts solely concentrated on instantly killing whoever was in front of you. As quickly and decisively as possible.
Consequently, whenever a pair of experts of a certain level faced each other one-on-one, this was the inevitable scene that unfolded.
The bandit leader’s two eyes burned with a reddish gleam. His spread legs bulged with tensed thighs looking fit to burst. As he sank lower into his crouch, an explosive force seemed to churn within his body. His raised sword blade flickered with a faint reddish glow from the internal energy channeled into it.
In contrast, Jang Geon regarded him with a composed demeanor. He simply placed his right foot forward with his left foot positioned perpendicularly behind, lightly gripping the sword hilt in his right hand and the sheath in his left. With his tilted hat, the bandits could only see his bearded chin slightly peeking out from beneath the brim.
The people and horses had gathered together, numbering around eighteen, but the surroundings were utterly still and silent. Not even the wind blew, and no animals or insects made a sound. Or rather, they too had fallen silent.
At that moment, one of the bandits who had been watching the two tensely with the others abruptly gulped audibly.
Simultaneously, two blurred arcs flashed past each other.
“…Fast,” the bandit leader muttered curtly.
Both he and Jang Geon remained in their sword-thrusting stances, standing back-to-back. The only damage Jang Geon appeared to have taken was a slight vertical slice through the front of his hat brim.
However, the bandits’ leader then crumpled to the ground with his midsection severed apart. Through the slit in his hat, Jang Geon saw the remaining bandits recoiling in terror.
They tried to turn and flee, but Jang Geon was swifter, severing their waists as well and spilling their intestines before they could escape.
After finishing off all the bandits, Jang Geon flicked the blood from his blade and surveyed the field of corpses he had created. He then let out a short whistle, and Jojo, who had wandered a short distance away, came ambling back over in contrast to his ferocious gallop from earlier.
Smiling wryly at the horse’s nonchalant attitude, Jang Geon reached for the saddle to remount. That was when he heard a faint, dying voice coming from the direction of the wagon.
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