Reincarnated Sword Ghost-Chapter 25 : Mission

Mission
Before he realized it, night had already fallen.
A fair amount of time had passed due to searching the area, chasing after the ominous energy, and climbing up and down the mountain.
'Back then...'
Jeong-un dwelled on the moment when he had instantly closed the gap between himself and the enemy.
The moment he closed the distance so quickly that the opponent didn't even recognize his own leg had been cut off.
'It feels like I'm finally starting to get the hang of it.'
But it was still not on the level to be called "lightness skill".
There were stories of people running over blades of grass like the wind, so he must still be at the beginner's level.
'Protective body skill is the most important.'
Maybe even more so than sword technique.
Jeong-un believed that protective body skill was the martial art that determined life and death.
The more he swung his sword, the more acutely he felt the importance of the protective body skill.
He was personally realizing that even with the same sword, the way you move your body creates a difference in sword power.
Additionally, that footwork, body movement techniques, and the lightness skill were not actually separate.
'If I just had a little more inspiration...'
As he neared the Dragon Heart Gate, voices reached his ears.
It sounded like the others had already returned, and perhaps it was dinnertime, for the subtle aroma of food wafted to his nose.
Whish—
Jeong-un, instead of going through the door, simply leapt lightly over the wall.
The wall was quite low for a military hall, so he had always questioned why it was even there.
"Why are you coming in that way when there's a perfectly good gate?"
Jo Gwang frowned at Jeong-un, catching him as he jumped over.
He'd always had a rather cold attitude towards Jeong-un and Baek Il-gang since the beginning.
"The others came earlier, what were you doing, coming so late...?"
"I was late because I was climbing the mountain."
"Climbing the mountain? We told you to only search the area near the village, didn't we?"
Then, seeing Jeong-un approaching out of the darkness, Jo Gwang narrowed his eyes.
"What are you carrying on your shoulder this time...?"
When he saw that Jeong-un was carrying a person, he was startled.
Thud.
Jeong-un dumped the man in the center of the yard.
Even now, the man was still limp, not having regained consciousness.
"... Don't tell me that's the culprit?!"
"We'll have to find out after questioning him."
Jeong-un had seen him with his own eyes, burying children's corpses.
However, he wasn't yet sure if this man had kidnapped all those children.
'He acted like he had an accomplice.'
He'd said he had a teacher. He'd talked about offering children, and said he was only in charge of cleanup.
It was clear this man wasn't moving alone.
"What do you mean, 'questioning?' Isn't that a corpse?"
"If I'd killed him, I'd have only brought his head."
"..."
Just then, the door burst open and people came running from all over.
As martial artists with sharp hearing, it seemed they had heard the full story.
"What did you bring?"
"Did you already catch the culprit?"
They stopped in their tracks when they saw the man lying motionless on the ground.
Lee Si-geon stepped forward and asked Jeong-un,
"Who is this?"
"He's the one I caught burying the children's bodies on the mountain."
"What?"
Jeong-un immediately spoke to the servant standing nearby, trembling.
"Go and bring the Gate Leader."
Soon, the Dragon Heart Gate Leader came rushing in. He clearly hadn't expected that something would be found so soon.
"This man...!"
The Gate Leader's face turned ashen when he recognized the face of the one lying face down with his eyes closed.
"Is it someone you know?"
"His name is Cha Un-yeop, the scholar from the village who disappeared along with the children."
"A scholar? He seems to have learned some martial arts."
"He was never involved in martial arts at all, so how could..."
The Sect Leader looked somewhat bewildered.
After that, the Dragon Heart Gate handled the rest of the situation.
At the location Jeong-un had pointed out, they gathered the bodies of the children.
That night, the wailing of parents, who checked their children's faces again and again under the mid-night sky, shook the heavens.
* * *
"A mere scholar was able to accumulate such sinister energy?"
Baek Il-gang wore a deeply unpleasant look.
He looked as if he could draw his sword and chop off the man's head at any moment.
Apparently, Jeong-un wasn't the only one who felt the man's ominous energy.
The storage room where they held the man was filled with a foul atmosphere.
Even Tang Yerin wrinkled her delicate brow at how strong it was.
"It's hard to believe such a person was around and none of us knew."
"I found him at the foot of the mountain. While searching his house, I sensed the energy and chased after it."
"... You chased after traces of true ki?"
Tang Yerin looked at Jeong-un, eyes wide.
"How far?"
"I climbed the mountain for about two hours."
"You followed traces of true ki from someone that far away... for two hours...?"
Tang Yerin's expression was that this sounded completely absurd.
Watching from the side, Lee Si-geon interjected.
"You must have been lucky, catching something while searching. You probably traced the mountain's shortest route from his house."
"..."
Jeong-un didn't bother to argue. It wasn't wrong.
In fact, following the trail of true ki led to the closest route up the mountain.
"Still, it's amazing. You caught the culprit in just one day."
"Beginner's luck, perhaps. It happens often in missions."
Lee Si-geon offhandedly remarked, then strode over to the still-unconscious man and roughly kicked him in the solar plexus.
"Gah!"
With that, the man gasped and woke.
Apparently, a strong enough blow to the middle pressure point could rouse even an unconscious man. Jeong-un made a note of this.
"You seem to think this is your home. If you don't get up, I'll cut off your neck next, not just kick you."
"You, you bastards...!"
"Shut up and kneel."
At the chilling voice, Cha Un-yeop was forced to kneel.
Lacking one leg, his position was tilted and awkward, but he seemed to value his life.
"Did you kidnap the children?"
"Yes. I took them and offered them to my master."
"Master? So you learned dark arts in exchange for the children?"
"That's right, I learned a verse of mantras for each child I brought. Do you know how gracious that is...!"
His eyes were filled with ecstasy. It was the face of someone who had thrown himself into a sinister cult.
He was clearly not sane.
"The price of one life is just a verse? You're insane."
Baek Il-gang flipped out at the answer, and Cha Un-yeop snapped his head and shouted.
"Just a verse? You people who learned martial arts as if it were your birthright, what do you know?!"
"So you're saying you valued human life as nothing but scraps of paper just to learn a bit of martial arts?"
"'Just martial arts'? What do you know to speak like that!"
His eyes bloodshot, he spat out words as if possessed by resentment.
"To ordinary civilians, it's normal to bear being beaten on the street for no reason. We can't even think of resenting it; we can only try to forget. If we speak up just once, who knows what we'll bring upon ourselves. Even a single word makes us shake. And how about you?"
Cha Un-yeop, a sneer on his face, glared at the martial artists surrounding him.
His voice, now a bit calmer, was thick with ridicule.
"You people who devote everything to the pursuit of martial prowess — do you think you can be sane? Most of you are swollen with egos after all those achievements. Countless of you draw swords and swing them for a single wrong look. You say grudges run deep in the martial world? Ridiculous. That's just your narrow minds dressing up your behavior. You lot are nothing but disasters inflicted on this age."
Left alone, his ramblings didn't stop.
"... He's drunk on himself."
Baek Il-gang muttered under his breath. Anyone could see the man was unhinged.
Even Lee Si-geon seemed taken aback by Cha Un-yeop.
But Jeong-un simply looked down at Cha Un-yeop, a puzzled look on his face, and asked, as if he couldn't understand:
"Aren't you a martial artist too?"
"What?"
"And you learned martial arts by selling the children of your own neighbors."
"Shut up!"
Cha Un-yeop convulsed, trying to rise, but Jeong-un moved even faster.
He pressed his foot on Cha Un-yeop's shoulder blade, slamming him into the ground.
Thud!
"Gah!"
Crunch!
A sound of bones breaking echoed through the warehouse.
His shoulder was pressed so hard that a finger-length depression appeared.
"You, too, learned martial arts with the blood of commoners. Here, the only martial artist who's sucking the lifeblood of others in this village is you."
'... Isn't that so?'
For a moment, Jeong-un glanced at Jo Gwang.
"...?"
While Jo Gwang looked confused, Jeong-un pressed harder with his foot and continued.
"Urrgh!"
"There's only one disaster in this village, and that's you. So stop spouting nonsense..."
Jeong-un's cold voice settled on the back of Cha Un-yeop's head.
"Tell me—where are your masters?"
* * *
"You're just leaving? Are you serious?"
Baek Il-gang stared at Lee Si-geon in disbelief.
"Our mission was only to find the missing children. The culprit has been caught, so our job's done."
"He admitted himself that he has people behind him!"
"Did you not see that crazed look in his eyes as he rambled? He isn't sane. Are we supposed to waste more time based on that?"
Baek Il-gang looked ready to shout.
But Lee Si-geon coldly added even faster,
"And mind your words. You're awfully arrogant for a new inductee."
"...!"
Baek Il-gang was left speechless.
His face flushed, he spun on his heel and went back to his room.
Jo Gwang, watching from the side, clicked his tongue in disapproval.
"At this rate, it's no wonder. Please forgive his rudeness, great hero. I'll see to it that he gets extra education on the way home."
"No need. You go prepare for the return."
"Understood. Leave it to me!"
Jo Gwang bowed deeply, made a fist-salute, and hurried off.
To Jeong-un, Jo Gwang always seemed like he'd chosen the wrong line of work.
"Miss Tang, why don't you go and rest. It's late, so I'll have supper sent to your room."
"Thank you."
Tang Yerin answered with a bright smile, and Lee Si-geon nodded in satisfaction.
Then he turned to look at Jeong-un, his face stern.
"You."
"Yes?"
"Well done."
"...?"
The unexpected words made Jeong-un look at him in confusion.
"Everyone gets lost on their first mission. But you understood my instructions well and produced results."
"... Thank you."
"We'll leave early tomorrow, so go get ready."
"Yes."
As Jeong-un bowed lightly, Lee Si-geon patted him on the shoulder and walked past.
Then, Jeong-un met eyes with Tang Yerin, who was watching him with a curious look.
"Young master Yu, what do you think?"
"About what this time?"
"About what that man said earlier."
"..."
Jeong-un recalled the man digging with his bare hands.
Lee Si-geon hadn't been wrong. The man really did have half-mad eyes.
Yet there had been a clarity, a gaze yearned upward.
The usual look in the eyes of a martial artist obsessed with achieving martial arts.
"... He was learning martial arts, wasn't he? No doubt there's someone who taught him. There really is someone behind this."
"No, not that."
"...?"
Jeong-un looked at Tang Yerin quizzically.
But she instead widened her eyes and met his gaze.
"Of course he has backers. We can't just leave it at this. When morning comes... well, that's not what I was asking."
"Then...?"
"I meant, what do you think of the things he said earlier?"
"I didn't pay any mind."
Jeong-un answered firmly.
"He was the only scholar teaching children in this village. All he did was rationalize selling off the very children he used to teach, in order to learn martial arts."
"Hmm... I see."
Tang Yerin looked a little conflicted.
The words about martial artists living off the blood of the common people.
Perhaps because she came from the most prestigious martial family in Sichuan, it hit home.
It seemed to have struck a chord.
"Still, it seems he was right about one thing."
"Yes?"
"What he said—about grudges running deep in the martial world, and martial artists being narrow-minded."
"What do you mean...?"
"Thinking about it, I don't think I'm particularly broad-minded either."
"...?"
Leaving Tang Yerin looking at him with puzzled eyes, Jeong-un headed to his room.