Chapter 62

Chapter 62

THUD—.

After committing the list that seemed soaked in the scent of blood entirely to memory, Uncheon threw it deep into a drawer.

There was one month left until the Inauguration Ceremony.

To welcome the names written on this Death List, he needed a grand stage worthy of them.

BANG! THUD! CREEEAK—.

From the morning onward, the noisy sounds of hammers and rolling cartwheels filled the mountain slope.

“Carry it carefully! That is the highest-grade red pine stamped with the seal of the Ilwol Merchant Guild!”

“Double the width of the road! Clear a path so the merchant guild’s large carriages can come and go!”

“Break down this wall and build it higher! We also need to raise three more warehouses to hold the merchant guild’s goods!”

The area around the Black Dragon Gang, which had been nothing more than a shabby den of ruffians only a few days earlier, was undergoing a transformation that could be called the creation of heaven and earth.

Under the command of Geum Budong, the Qinghai Branch Manager of the Ilwol Merchant Guild, an enormous amount of capital and manpower was poured in.

The shabby Black Dragon Inn had now been expanded into a splendid five-story pavilion, and the broken main gate of the Black Dragon Gang had been transformed into a majestic black iron gate.

As money circulated and people gathered, the backwater village was changing in an instant.

The wanderers and merchant guild escort warriors who arrived at the entrance of the village could not close their gaping mouths.

“W-Was this area always this prosperous?”

“The Ilwol Merchant Guild is going all in. It looks like they are going to make this place the logistics hub of northwestern Qinghai Province!”

Even originally, it was a naturally blessed strategic route connecting the Demonic Cult’s stronghold at Cheonsan, Xining City, and the Gonryun Mountains.

At that weighty vital point, a great nest where the Black Dragon would coil itself was being built.

However, what made the wanderers marvel as much as the increasingly splendid outward appearance was the sound coming from beyond the newly built walls of the Black Dragon Gang.

“Haaaaap!”

“Graaagh!”

“Get up! Did you try to enter the Black Dragon Gang with that pathetic state of mind?!”

THWACK! CRACK!

The training yard was thick with blood, sweat, and dust all tangled together.

By Uncheon’s order, the four instructors were carrying out a bone-scraping screening process against the incoming wanderers.

SWISH!

“Huff... huff... S-Spare me....”

“If you bastards are going to give up over this much, crawl out through the main gate right now! But if you want to remain martial artists, pick up your weapons again!”

Amid the harsh screening process, the wanderers’ bodies became covered in wounds, but their eyes alone gleamed like beasts.

“Bleeergh!”

“Huff, huff... I-I can still keep going...!”

For those who had spent their entire lives rolling around on the streets and being treated like trash, the chance to learn “true martial arts” was an opportunity they could not trade for anything.

And there were two eyes watching that sight with bated breath from beyond the window bars.

The Infirmary of the Black Dragon Gang.

With bandages wrapped tightly around his broken jawbone, Bloodstained Wolf Kang Hwi swallowed dryly as he looked down at the training yard outside the window.

Hundreds of wanderers had flocked in from all over the country.

However, the instructors’ screening process was harsh enough to filter out even impure intentions.

It was truly a hellscape filled with screams and agony.

‘That ignorant madness... is not training... but screening?’

It was less a simple screening and more a process of Bone-Exchange Rebirth.

Just as Uncheon, who had been visibly sick from Severed Meridian Affliction, had endured bone-scraping pain and finally been reborn into his current body.

The other wanderers also had to go through such a process in order to cultivate Internal Energy.

It was a process of expelling the Muddy Energy that had accumulated in their bodies for decades and correcting twisted bones and muscles, so there was no way it could be easy to endure.

SWISH! THWACK!

Yayul Hui’s saber case mercilessly stabbed through a wanderer’s acupoints and swept past him.

“Your legs have gone weak! If you cannot do any more, get out!”

Jin Sowol’s enormous Banner Spear swept away the wanderers, and Drunken Sword Yi Mok, holding a liquor bottle in one hand, pierced the wanderers’ openings as if mocking them and slammed them into the ground.

“Aaaargh!”

“...I... I cannot do any more....”

The instructors gave equal opportunity to the wanderers who said they wanted to enter the Black Dragon Gang.

Those whose will broke left the Black Dragon Gang on their own.

Because they had made the decision themselves, they had no complaints.

Only those with venomous resolve, who rose again even while coughing blood, remained on one side of the training yard.

A cold chill ran down Kang Hwi’s spine.

‘When I was arrogant over a ninetieth ranking, which is no more than the difference between fifty steps and a hundred... where was the Black Dragon Gang Leader looking...!’

Only after seeing the Black Dragon Gang from the inside did he understand it to the bone.

The Black Dragon Gang Leader was not someone who cared about a mere Wind and Cloud Ranking.

‘...If this man had made up his mind, he could have raised his ranking as much as he wished.’

How insignificant was he, who had grown arrogant over a mere ninetieth rank?

Kang Hwi’s fists trembled with shame.

Clank.

At that moment, the heavy sound of metal echoing through the corridor nearly stopped Kang Hwi’s heart.

Creak.

The door to the Infirmary opened, and Uncheon, dressed in a pitch-black martial arts uniform and wrapped in Black-Steel Cold Iron, walked inside.

Uncheon’s cold eyes pierced through the bandaged Kang Hwi.

For an instant, Kang Hwi stopped breathing, gripped by the illusion that a cold blade had touched the nape of his neck.

A gap he could feel even though Uncheon released no presence at all.

Only then did Kang Hwi realize it.

He had run wild because he was afraid of that.

“Have your wounds healed somewhat?”

“......”

“You did not run away for several days and only looked out the window.”

Uncheon sat indifferently on a chair in the Infirmary and asked in a low voice.

“Decide. Will you bark like a frightened dog, or will you bow your head to the strong and learn?”

It was neither provocation nor mockery.

Kang Hwi himself knew very well.

Forcing down the instincts that were screaming in terror and charging in.

Was that truly courage?

Or was it merely arrogant immaturity that did not want to accept the difference in skill?

“...I... will acknowledge my inadequacy. I will follow you. Until the day I am ready... to challenge you.”

Rustle.

Kang Hwi got down from the bed and knelt on one knee at Uncheon’s feet.

It was a declaration of submission.

It was the moment when a master ranked ninetieth on the Wind and Cloud Ranking put on a collar by his own will.

“Good. Learn the Black Dragon Dynamic Art from Little Dragon.”

He was the opponent Kang Hwi had defeated three years ago, and also the opponent to whom he had lost so miserably that the victory of that day had become meaningless.

He was to learn martial arts from such a Little Dragon?

For a moment, his pride tried to raise its head again, but Kang Hwi suppressed it.

“......I will do so.”

Uncheon gave a faint laugh and rose from his seat.

“Now you have finally taken one step. Only when you know how to accept your own shortcomings can you take another step forward.”

***

At the same time.

The Head Instructor quarters of the Demonic Martial Hall.

Head Instructor Ma Chung, who had received the invitation delivered through a Carrier Pigeon, tilted his head.

“The Black Dragon Gang Leader? Who is this, daring to send an invitation to me?”

Beside the puzzled Ma Chung, Senior Head Instructor Yajin appeared silently and sneered.

“Tsk, how can you be this slow to hear the news? Look carefully below, where the sender’s seal is stamped.”

Yajin had a relaxed smile, as if he already knew the entire situation.

Only then did Ma Chung check the characters stamped at the very bottom of the invitation and open his eyes wide.

“The Black Dragon Gang Leader...? Un... cheon?! You mean Uncheon became a gang leader?”

“Yes. I was surprised when I heard it as well. He said he was leaving on a Sparring Journey, yet somehow he swallowed an entire gang whole....”

Yajin curled up the corners of his mouth in amusement.

“This matter...! I must report it to Hall Master Gal Muheun immediately!”

“Hmph. Do you think the Hall Master does not know something even you know? Stop making a fuss and go get permission to leave instead. We cannot be absent from a feast that fellow is holding, can we?”

“Of course not! This Ma Chung was the first Head Instructor to recognize Uncheon’s potential!”

“...Recognize it? Have you already forgotten that he stole your identification tag?”

Ma Chung cleared his throat and straightened his clothes.

“Ahem...! At that time... I was simply careless!”

In any case, Uncheon was practically a disciple whose promising sprout he had recognized first and whom he had taught with blood and sweat.

‘Uncheon is the successor to Blood Wind Leg!’

At least Ma Chung sincerely thought so.

“Ahem! I will go to the Hall Master at once.”

As Ma Chung spiritedly ran toward the office, Yajin, left alone, let his gaze sink deeply.

‘To think he took control of a backwater gang and joined hands with the Ilwol Merchant Guild in only a few months... I knew his martial talent was outstanding, but his ability to grasp and shake the board is no less than that of an old serpent.’

Yajin’s gaze turned out the window, toward the dark clouds hanging over the sky of Qinghai Province.

‘If that fellow begins spreading his wings in earnest... the Cult will soon reek of blood.’

***

Time flowed by helplessly until the Inauguration Ceremony.

The smell of blood and sweat did not leave the Black Dragon Gang’s training yard for even a single day.

Half collapsed while coughing blood.

Half fled because they could not endure it.

In the end, of the hundreds of wanderers who had gathered, barely about fifty remained to the end and came to wear the Black Dragon Gang’s black martial arts uniform.

“Training ends here. Go in early today and each of you take time for personal maintenance!”

“Understood!”

The new gang members answered loudly with fairly disciplined bearing and left the training yard.

The four instructors ended the gang members’ training earlier than usual.

“Finally, it is tomorrow.”

It was the eve of the storm, when the renowned powers of Qinghai Province would come pouring in.

Even so, the four instructors’ day was the same as usual.

After Uncheon became the Gang Leader, the four instructors had stepped onto the sparring platform every day without fail, facing and screening the wanderers.

They had spent every single day more fiercely than ever before, and they were fully prepared.

Shhhk, scrape—.

A sharp friction sound tore through the silence.

In particular, there was a strange impatience in the hand of Yayul Hui as she sharpened her saber on the whetstone.

‘Will my main family... come?’

Little Dragon did not miss the way her gaze kept turning toward the north, where the Mad Wind Yayul Family was located.

‘Tsk, tsk. She is wound up tight.’

Little Dragon clicked his tongue inwardly and hung his usual sly smile on his lips.

He thought that relieving her tension was also part of his duty as the chief steward of the Black Dragon Gang.

“Sister. You are going to ruin the blade.”

“......Shut up. Do not bother me.”

Yayul Hui snapped at him, but Little Dragon laughed shamelessly and set the stage.

“Come on, since the Inauguration Ceremony is tomorrow, should we not loosen up a little today at least?”

“......”

However, Yayul Hui did not even answer and only silently maintained her beloved weapon.

“It is already a scheduled matter that we will deal with the jackals aiming for the Black Dragon Gang tomorrow.”

Unable to just watch any longer, Little Dragon broached the subject.

“So since we are doing it anyway, why do the instructors not make a wager among ourselves?”

“A wager?”

Jin Sowol, who had been silently arranging the Black Dragon Banner, raised her head.

“Little Dragon. Tomorrow is a grave event where we will proclaim the Gang Leader’s majesty to the martial world. A playful wager at such an occasion is absurd.”

“Oh my, Sister Jin. Playful? As the Gang Leader’s hands and feet, we should use this chance to prove which of us instructors is the most outstanding.”

Little Dragon thumped his chest and threw out a thoroughly calculated proposal.

“Whoever gets the most blood on their hands wins. The one in last place will take sole responsibility for the dawn runs of those fifty new gang members for the next month. How about it?”

“What...?”

In that instant, Yayul Hui’s eyes changed.

“So you are saying I can sleep in comfortably for an entire month? Good. I will do it. There is no way I will lose.”

“Ahem, Sister Yayul Hui, now that my Black Iron Steel Body and Black Dragon Dynamic Art have started to harmonize, you should not look down on me. More importantly, Sister Sowol is giving no answer. Surely you are not lacking confidence, are you?”

When Little Dragon provoked her, a strange flame also sparked in Jin Sowol’s eyes as she listened from the side.

She had never properly interacted with people her own age and had only polished her spear alone, but her pride as a martial artist was not inferior even to Yayul Hui, who came from a martial family.

“......My Black Dragon Heaven-Churning Banner has now completely settled into my hands as well. I will not lose either.”

She declared this while striking the floor with her Banner Spear with a thud.

Until now, she had used a degraded form of the Black Dragon Heaven-Churning Banner as an irregular spear art.

But after taking up the banner, Jin Sowol had reacquainted herself with the methods she had cast aside and returned to the original source.

‘Good. They are both fired up.’

Sparks flashed in the gazes that crossed between the two women.

At the murderous battle of wills between the two instructors, whose personalities and martial arts were exact opposites, Little Dragon inwardly cheered.

‘Keke, this is how our Black Dragon Gang should be. I am still far behind both sisters, but... I am curious. Which one of them is stronger?’

At that moment, Drunken Sword Yi Mok, who had been leaning crookedly at the edge of the wooden floor and drinking Fire Liquor, burst into a cackling laugh.

“Kekekeke! Youth is good indeed! Looking at all that hot blood.”

Yi Mok tossed the empty liquor bottle to the floor and placed his hand on the hilt of his old sword.

His usual cloudy eyes, like those of a drunkard, were nowhere to be seen, and the cold gleam of a sword ghost flashed in them.

“But what are you going to do? Tomorrow, this old man’s sword will drink blood first and grow drunk. You young bloods will merely pick up the small fry that fall behind me.”

It was the eve of the storm, when tension as thin as ice should have been in the air.

Yet the leadership of the Black Dragon Gang was treating the enemies who were approaching as nothing more than the “prey” of a wager.

At the corners of Uncheon’s mouth, as he silently gathered his energy, a faint arc also formed.

‘The blades have been honed quite sharp.’

***

At last, the day of the Black Dragon Gang Leader’s official Inauguration Ceremony arrived.

The sky over Qinghai Province was bleak, full of thick ash-gray dark clouds.

“There it is! I can see the Black Dragon Gang’s signboard!”

From all directions of Qinghai Province, the forces that each harbored their own malicious intent advanced at once toward the newly built, enormous black iron gate of the Black Dragon Gang.

The leader of the Iron Shark Gang, who had come up through the eastern waterways, smiled viciously with a great saber like a straw-cutter blade slung over his shoulder.

“Kuhahaha! I hear the Black Dragon Gang has grown quite fat. Today, I will split open the belly of that thing, whether it is a Black Dragon or an earthworm, and our Iron Shark Gang will take all its wealth!”

The bandits of the Blood Axe Stockade had descended from the rugged mountains to the west.

At their head, Maeng Ung clashed his enormous black iron axe and let out a blood-boiling roar.

“Those ruffian bastards dare hold an Inauguration Ceremony without knowing their place? The banquet table those bastards prepared must surely be meant for us mountain heroes!”

The warriors of the Seven Star Sect, who controlled the southern road, were also walking in formation with hypocritical smiles.

“Tsk, tsk. Rootless wanderer trash have gathered together and falsely claimed to be a gang. Our Seven Star Sect will teach them to the bone who the true master of Qinghai Province is.”

Finally, there was the northern road to the Black Dragon Gang that led down from Cheonsan.

Unlike those noisy packs of wolves or herds of wild boars, only silence lingered here.

In the middle of that road, a bamboo-hatted man with a long horse-slaying saber slung diagonally across his back was heading toward the Black Dragon Gang as one man and one horse.

The cold gaze beneath the bamboo hat reached the flag of the Black Dragon Gang fluttering in the distance.

“Elder Sister is staying as a guest retainer in a shabby place like this......”

It was Yayul Hyeon, the youngest son of the Mad Wind Yayul Family, one of the Twelve Guardian Families.

“Black Dragon... Uncheon... What kind of man is he......?”