Chapter 54

Chapter 54.

“Shall we have a sparring match? If you win, I will place myself beneath you.”

At Yayul Hui’s proposal, the training ground froze for an instant.

The gang members held their breath and watched the corners of the lips of Little Dragon, the one-hundredth rank on the Wind and Cloud Ranking and the strongest expert of the Black Dragon Gang until yesterday.

Little Dragon gulped dryly.

‘This does not feel good....’

The force emanating from the woman before him was somehow similar to Uncheon, who had smashed him yesterday.

Yayul Hui gave a faint laugh and walked to the center of the training ground while holding her Saber Case.

‘No matter what... even if she is the Gang Leader’s guest retainer...!’

It felt too unfair to back down like this.

Before he was sent tumbling by Uncheon, had he not climbed up from the bottom of Qinghai and maintained the one-hundredth rank on the Wind and Cloud Ranking?

He could not show the disgraceful sight of tucking his tail before a woman he had never seen before in front of his subordinates.

“...In that case... excuse me! Haaap!”

Little Dragon drew up Black Iron Steel Body.

Crack, crunch.

His skin turned black, and his iron-like muscles expanded.

He kicked off the ground and thrust out a heavy fist.

He had not the slightest intention of going easy on her because she was a woman.

No, his opponent was a companion of a monster like Uncheon.

Not going all out would instead be discourteous.

Swoosh!

However, Yayul Hui did not even draw her saber.

A strand of breeze slipped past Little Dragon’s heavy fist wind.

Then came a sharp striking sound that hit the eardrums.

Thwack!

“What good is strength when you are full of openings?”

Thwack! Thud!

“Guhak!”

Yayul Hui’s Saber Case struck Little Dragon’s side and solar plexus with precision.

It was an external art trained through Black Iron Steel Body, but against sharp strikes that singled out only the acupoints where energy gathered, he was helpless.

“Y-You!”

Little Dragon, humiliated before his subordinates, clenched his teeth and charged in.

In time with him, Yayul Hui’s figure spun like a top.

It was footwork mixed with the principles of Wind God Dance, which she had obtained from the Inner Archive.

Little Dragon’s heavy strike cut through empty air.

Meanwhile, Yayul Hui brushed past him and lightly tapped Little Dragon’s calf with her Saber Case.

If she had drawn her saber, it would have been a strike that sent his leg flying.

“Uh... uhh?”

Having lost his center of gravity, Little Dragon could not overcome his own strength and slammed straight into the dirt outside the training ground.

“.......”

Silence flowed.

The gang members’ eyes filled with shock close to awe.

A powerhouse strong enough to enter the Wind and Cloud Ranking had been toyed with by a woman who had not even drawn her blade.

“Ughhh....”

“Are you frustrated?”

At Uncheon’s indifferent voice, Little Dragon sprang to his feet while brushing off the dust.

He looked at Uncheon with eyes full of grievance and cried out as if in anguish.

“Honestly... I am frustrated! Who in the world is that woman?”

“...It seems you at least have the desire to improve. Introduce yourselves. She is Yayul Hui.”

Little Dragon’s eyes widened as if they would pop out.

“Yayul... Hui? N-No way. Of the Mad Wind Yayul Family, one of the Twelve Guardian Families...!”

When Yayul Hui nodded indifferently, Little Dragon inwardly accepted it.

If he had known from the start that she was from the Yayul Family, he would not have challenged her so easily.

‘......Second-in-command is impossible. I will be satisfied with third.’

At that moment, a rough laugh came from atop the Black Dragon Gang’s wall.

“Heh heh, this is worth watching! The taste of liquor is coming back! Especially that footwork? No, is it a dance?”

It was Drunken Sword Yi Mok, who had somehow perched on the wall and was watching the sparring match while tilting a liquor bottle.

“Senior Yi Mok. You have arrived?”

“Heh heh... Naturally, you prepared the liquor, did you not?”

If an expert as seasoned as Yi Mok joined them, he would be a great help.

“It is stacked up to the point of overflowing. As of this moment, I will be placing the gang members under a prohibition order for the time being.”

“......!”

At the new Gang Leader’s declaration of prohibition, the gang members drew in hollow breaths.

On the other hand, Yi Mok’s eyes flashed open.

“Heh heh... What should this old man do?”

“I will receive you as a guest retainer of the Black Dragon Gang. It will be enough if you simply look after these bastards’ training whenever you are bored.”

“If you promise that you will someday show me your martial arts properly, then working these bastards is nothing at all!”

“I will do so.”

Thus, Drunken Sword Yi Mok also joined the Black Dragon Gang as a guest retainer.

‘Even Senior Drunken Sword...?’

Little Dragon rewrote the ranking chart in his head once again.

Uncheon, the Gang Leader, stood at the unrivaled peak, and below him were the daughter of the Mad Wind Family and a seasoned old expert.

‘Which of those two is ahead?’

The order of second and third place was unclear.

But there was one thing that was certain.

Whichever one of them was ahead, two more monsters had appeared above Little Dragon himself.

Little Dragon swallowed tears of blood inwardly.

‘Then I am... the fourth in the Black Dragon Gang? I was the number one until yesterday....’

Little Dragon’s rank had plummeted in a single day.

However, Little Dragon soon made his eyes flash.

He vowed that he would someday master Black Dragon Dynamic Art, which he had learned from Uncheon, and surely reclaim the position of second-in-command one day.

***

The next dawn.

At an hour when the fog had not yet cleared.

What broke the silence of the Black Dragon Gang was not the cry of a rooster.

CLANK, BOOM—!

Uncheon stamped his foot with Black-Steel Cold Iron fastened to him.

The training ground shook as if an earthquake had struck.

The cold rebuke that followed opened the Black Dragon Gang’s morning.

“Everyone, wake up!”

The moment the order fell, Little Dragon ran around like a madman and kicked down doors.

“You witless bastards! Are you not getting up right now?!”

“The Gang Leader has opened his eyes, and you are still sleeping?”

Behind him, the gang members, their faces ashen, lined up one after another.

Yayul Hui, who had the habits of the Hidden Demon Cave ingrained in her body, had appeared long ago and was wearing a pitiful expression.

Even Drunken Sword Yi Mok, reeking of liquor, appeared at some point with a yawn.

With even the guest retainers out on the training ground, the gang members could not possibly fail to appear.

Uncheon’s threat to drive out any gang member who was not prepared was no empty bluff.

However, waking up was only the beginning.

“Everyone, run to the mountain summit. Stragglers get no breakfast.”

With that, the Black Dragon Gang’s new daily routine, which would repeat every day, began.

From dawn, a black mass was running along the slopes of Qinghai’s mountains, which were known for being rugged.

At the front of them was Uncheon.

Even with lumps of iron hanging from him, he climbed the mountain path with long strides as if he were walking on flat ground.

‘I used to climb the mountain every morning at Gonryun too.’

Behind Uncheon, who was lost in reminiscence, the gang members’ wails shook the mountain range.

“Hey, you bastards! Do not slow down!”

“The Gang Leader is running, so how dare you slow your steps!”

“Do you want to die?!”

Little Dragon foamed at the mouth as he drove the gang members forward.

After circulating Black Dragon Dynamic Art, his body had grown so light that it was unrecognizable, and intoxicated by his own achievement, he drove his subordinates even more excitedly.

That was not all.

There was a figure moving between them like a ghost.

It was Yayul Hui.

She stepped with the footwork of Wind God Dance and glided as if riding the wind.

Every time she passed beside the formation, a fierce striking sound erupted against the gang members whose posture had fallen apart.

Thwack!

“Straighten your back. Next time, I will strike bone.”

Thud!

“Are you not putting strength into your legs?”

The gang members shuddered at the frost-like cruelty hidden behind her graceful figure.

The group that fell furthest behind was an even more miserable sight.

“Heh heh, what are you young men going to do if you are already out of breath?”

Even though Drunken Sword Yi Mok was staggering along while gulping liquor straight from the bottle, the gang members running at full strength could not shake him off.

Every time Yi Mok tapped their backsides with an empty liquor bottle, the gang members screamed and fell forward.

“Now, now. Young men should not be slower than an old man who is merely walking. Come, try a little harder!”

Tormented by Little Dragon, Yayul Hui, and even Yi Mok while running, the gang members felt as though they were dying.

Watching the Black Dragon Gang members climb the mountain while shouting from early morning, the villagers opened their windows and whispered among themselves.

“Wait, are those not the Black Dragon Gang thugs?”

“Why are those pure gangster bastards climbing the mountain with fire in their eyes?”

In the past, the villagers had trembled at the mere sight of a Black Dragon Gang warrior.

But now, instead of fear, curiosity settled in their eyes.

“They said a real dragon had nested in the Black Dragon Gang. I suppose the rumor must be true.”

“Good grief.... Since they are not harassing us, I can finally live a little.”

When the run ended and the gang members returned to the training ground, a steaming cauldron was waiting for them.

“Now, everyone line up! This is the nourishing meal the Gang Leader has prepared for vermin like you!”

It was a Medicinal Meal filled with meat and medicinal ingredients procured by emptying Little Dragon’s secret funds.

“Chew it! Chew even the bones and swallow them, and engrave the grace given by the Gang Leader into your marrow!”

Amid Little Dragon’s shouting, the gang members chewed the meat with tears in their eyes.

A warm and nutritious meal after being worked like beasts.

The gang members, who had been no different from thugs, were gradually growing accustomed to their changed daily routine.

Their bodies, lighter than yesterday.

The conviction that each day stacked up and carried them further forward.

It was the sense of accomplishment as “martial artists” that they, who had spent their whole lives rolling along the bottom, were feeling for the first time.

Uncheon looked down at them eating with indifference.

‘In the end, the vessel that contains the Dao is made only by relentless repetition and the small achievements given at the end of it.’

Overturn the environment, make them quit liquor, and fill their days with training.

If one does that, humans change quickly.

Even Gonryun’s young junior disciples had not been Daoists from the beginning.

Uncheon was confident he could turn even thugs into martial artists.

‘Well... this much is simple. It is not as though I am making them Daoists. If it is merely... making martial artists.’

***

In the office of the Ilwol Merchant Guild, where darkness had settled.

The silence was broken by the arrival of a Carrier Pigeon.

Yuha unfolded the note tied to its leg beneath the moonlight.

[Uncheon has entered the one-hundredth rank. He has ascended as the Black Dragon Gang Leader.]

It was a short sentence, but its weight was by no means light.

A peculiar curve formed at the corners of Yuha’s mouth.

“Heh heh... The Hidden Dragon has finally come out of the water. To swallow an entire faction whole. He is bold from the first move.”

Yuha personally picked up the brush.

The brush tip, stained with red ink, crossed over the name of Little Dragon, the Young Gang Leader of the Black Dragon Gang, at the lower end of the Wind and Cloud Ranking.

A vivid red line was drawn across it.

Then Yuha engraved a new name in neat yet sharp handwriting.

[One-Hundredth Rank. Black Dragon Uncheon]

Yuha intentionally omitted the title of “Gang Leader.”

He emphasized only that name, the two characters “Black Dragon.”

“Dragon...... Is that title not too heavy?”

Sun Elder, who stood in the darkness, quietly voiced his concern.

The Wind and Cloud Ranking did not speak only through rankings.

Because a “title” said much more about a person.

Originally, in the martial world, dragon was a title attached to promising young talents who had made their names known.

The starving wolves watching the Wind and Cloud Ranking would not be able to let this pass quietly.

“No, it suits him perfectly. He is still a Hidden Dragon concealed behind clouds. Should I not draw him out by provoking him like this? Only then will it be worth watching.”

“Perhaps... are you trying to test that child?”

Moon Elder carefully guessed his master’s intention.

Instead of answering, Yuha spread out a map of the Central Plains beside the Wind and Cloud Ranking.

“A test? No, I am looking farther ahead.”

Yuha’s finger pointed to the place where the Black Dragon Gang was located.

“Purchase as much land near the Black Dragon Gang as possible. We will establish a branch of the merchant guild there.”

“Young Guild Master, no matter how high your expectations may be, establishing even a branch of the merchant guild merely for someone like Uncheon is....”

“No. It is not for Uncheon.”

Yuha drew a firm line.

“It is purely a merchant’s art. The Black Dragon Gang’s location is like an acupoint leading from the main mountain into the Central Plains. Until now, it has merely been rotting because its owner was inadequate.”

Yuha’s finger drew a straight line connecting Cheonsan, the Demonic Martial Hall, and the Black Dragon Gang.

“However, that bastard has just happened to build his nest there. Before long, the martial artists of this Cult will flock to Qinghai in pursuit of fame. Then should we not sweep up that money?”

It was the insight to preemptively seize a military and commercial strategic point.

Only then did the Sun-Moon Twin Elders shiver as they realized the scale of the board Yuha was drawing.

“......We will obey your command, Young Guild Master.”

“As you command.”

A wind rose. The Black-White Twin Elders, having received Yuha’s orders, vanished into the night fog without leaving a trace.

Yuha tilted a wine cup alone while looking at the moon outside the window.

“Now, Uncheon. I have set the stage for you. So try taking flight.”

***

At a roadside where Qinghai’s rough sand wind struck the paper windows.

Inside a desolate tavern at least six or seven li away from the Black Dragon Gang’s sphere of influence, the rumor that had just arrived had made the place noisy.

Amid the heavy smell of liquor from the rowdy men, there was one table where an especially alien silence lingered.

There, instead of a liquor bottle, there was only a steaming teacup and a single sheet of neatly folded paper.

The woman’s fingers, the ones not holding the teacup, slowly swept over the paper.

[One-Hundredth Rank. Black Dragon Uncheon]

A quiet but cold voice flowed from between the woman’s lips.

“......Black Dragon?”

Rustle.

When strength entered the woman’s hand, the tough Korean paper screamed as it crumpled.

In her eyes, instead of the letters of the Wind and Cloud Ranking, memories of the past flickered.

‘The name the Gang Leader devoted his life to protecting.......’

Her father had been a guest retainer of the Black Dragon Gang.

He had preserved his life under the grace of the former Gang Leader, and that grace had continued even to his daughter, her.

To Jin Sowol, the name “Black Dragon” was not merely the name of a faction, but a pride and legacy that had to be protected.

“It was my mistake to leave that idiot Little Dragon alone. As if it was not enough that he climbed into the position of Young Gang Leader and acted like a merchant... now he has handed the Black Dragon Gang to some rootless bastard entirely?”

Tap.

She set down the teacup and grasped the weapon she had leaned beside the table.

A pitch-black spear shaft.

Upon it, the form of a black dragon splitting the clouds had been intricately engraved.

She coldly swept her gaze over the tavern, which was filled with the smell of liquor, as if she found it disgusting, then rose from her seat.

“A fake has stolen the name of the real thing, so it is time to correct it.”

She threw the crumpled piece of the Wind and Cloud Ranking to the floor and glared fiercely in the direction of the Black Dragon Gang, where darkness had settled.

The black spear tassel hanging from the spearpoint danced wildly, as if responding to the night wind.

“I will pierce the throat of the bastard falsely claiming the Black Dragon and reclaim the name my father served.”