Chapter 21
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Chapter 21: Geum-ju (Golden Spider)
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“Hey, I’m telling you to stop, seriously.”
The leader of the men did not want to complicate matters. Judging by her attire and appearance, she was clearly a young lady from a high-ranking family, yet she showed no intention of listening to reason.
“Damn it.”
Eventually, his patience ran out.
“The warning is over, girl.”
At his gesture, one of his subordinates lunged forward. With a low stance and a low center of gravity, his already swift speed seemed even faster. He intended to subdue her with a single strike; a hit from a fire poker was one thing, but he planned to crash into her and pin her down instantly.
‘Got you…!’
Jeong-ah’s body moved exactly one step to the side, evading the man. Had she been a fraction faster, the man would have adjusted his trajectory; had she been a fraction slower, she would have been seized.
“Ugh…!”
And the tip of the fire poker she held had already pierced the man’s solar plexus and retracted. Jeong-ah then brought the poker, which she had raised high, down onto the nape of his neck, cutting off his consciousness. Had it been a sword, it would have been a terrifyingly precise strike that pierced the heart and severed the neck.
Only then did the men’s eyes change.
“She’s no ordinary girl! Don’t hold back!”
Men swarmed her from both the left and the right. She stepped back naturally, narrowing the angle from which two people could attack her simultaneously.
“Hup!”
The fist of the first man to rush her grazed her face. The next punch she dodged also brushed past the tip of her nose. In that split second, the handle of the fire poker, thrusting up from below, shattered the man’s jaw.
“Kuhk…!”
The second man lunged in the meantime, but Jeong-ah had already retreated, widening the distance.
“Damn it!”
As he kept losing the distance, he changed his tactics. He swung his hands wildly, trying to grab her fluttering sleeves. If he could grab hold of anything, he could seal her movements. However, no matter how hard he tried to snatch at her, her sleeves merely fluttered, narrowly slipping through his grasp every time.
‘This, this is absurd…!’
Just as all the strikes from the man before had missed, the hand gestures of the man aiming for her sleeves only cut through empty air. Clearly, the woman before his eyes was not moving at a speed that transcended imagination like a martial artist, so why was every single attack missing?
“Ugh…!”
The man, rushing in frantically, failed to notice his unconscious comrade and tripped over him.
‘How…?’
Clearly, this woman had been walking backward while facing him. Her gaze had been fixed on him, so how could she have avoided the person lying unconscious while walking backward? As the man’s mind was filled with confusion, the fire poker flew into the back of his head.
“…Amazing.”
A murmur of admiration escaped Se-ah’s lips as she watched the scene blankly. Even if the opponents were unarmed and she was holding a fire poker, they were no mere rabble. They were the elites of the Black Bone Faction, who, while unable to master the ‘Internal Energy Technique’ that required internal force, were tempered by ‘Martial Arts.’ As their dozens of skull tattoos suggested, were they not people who had built their experience and proven their abilities by taking dozens of lives?
“…Crazy.”
There was no other choice now. The lone remaining leader pulled a sharply honed dagger from his robes.
“Girl. This is all your own doing.”
Had an ordinary person seen it, they would have only seen the blade flash. But Jeong-ah’s ‘eyes’ saw the blade precisely. Not just the blade, but the grain of the steel, the grime on the leather-wrapped handle, the black dirt under his unkempt fingernails, and even the filthy pores on his unwashed skin—everything was visible to her.
She lightly raised the fire poker and inserted it into the trajectory, causing the dagger to spark and bounce away.
The second strike followed immediately. No matter how much she could see, there was no way a body without a shred of internal force could dodge a series of consecutive strikes. However, she was listening to the opponent’s breathing and could feel the movement of his muscles. Her senses, maximized by her ‘eyes,’ were turning the impossible into the possible.
It was exhilarating.
Jeong-ah realized that she was smiling. The leader’s eyes rolled back in his head upon seeing her smile.
“You dog-like…!”
*Thwack!*
It was a strike that completely stole his breath. Jeong-ah, who had been consistent in her defensive stance until now, had instantly slipped into the gap while the opponent was speaking. The man, struck hard in the philtrum by the fire poker, rolled his eyes back and collapsed backward. It was a perfect, single-point strike, both psychologically and physically.
“Haa, haa.”
Jeong-ah exhaled raggedly, leaning on the fire poker to steady herself. Sweat dripped from her face onto the floor. Even she could do nothing about her physical limitations.
“Jeong-ah!”
Se-ah, who had rushed over, supported her. Jeong-ah shook her head as she caught her breath in her sister’s arms.
“Sister, this… is tiring.”
Se-ah gave a hollow laugh.
“No, did you learn swordsmanship at the Sword Clan?”
Jeong-ah shook her head.
“No.”
“Then?”
Jeong-ah smiled faintly.
“I just ‘watched’ over people’s shoulders while coming and going.”
Se-ah could not understand what that meant.
“Jeong-ah, what do you mean…”
Just then, Jeong-ah stepped out of her support and straightened her posture.
“Is it still more than a quarter of an hour away?”
“It is.”
Jeong-ah frowned, looking toward the entrance.
“This time, even I am at my limit.”
At that moment, the door burst open, and Se-ah’s subordinate, who had reported earlier, rolled in, covered in blood.
“P-Pavilion Master, r-run…!”
A ringing, feminine laughter echoed from the hallway. The volume, which seemed to pierce the ears, clearly meant that the woman was a martial artist possessing internal energy.
“How very dull. Where has everyone gone that there are only such pathetic, worm-like things here?”
Se-ah knew that voice.
“…Geum-ju.”
Stepping boldly through the open door was a beauty in flamboyant attire with heavy makeup. The woman’s clothes were entirely bright red, and even the tones of her facial makeup were all in the red spectrum, making her impression intensely striking. Behind her, three people of various appearances emerged, armed with weapons. All three of them, their faces almost covered in black skull tattoos, were undoubtedly martial artists. And the hallway was filled with the regular members of the Black Bone Faction.
“Oh, what’s this?”
Geum-ju, who had made a pleasant entrance, looked down at her subordinates sprawled out unconscious on the floor. Then, grasping the situation through Jeong-ah and the fire poker she held, she raised a hand to her forehead.
“To think I fed and raised such things as elites…”
Of the three standing behind her, the sleeve of the one wearing monk’s robes fluttered.
“……!”
Jeong-ah hurriedly blocked Se-ah’s front, but the monk’s stance had already returned to normal. The fortunate thing was that the attack was not aimed at them. The needles that had shot out from that sleeve were embedded in the vital points of those who had been unconscious.
‘I still couldn’t react…!’
Jeong-ah bit her lip. Her ‘eyes’ had felt the omen and could see that what was flying were needles, but the difference in speed was so great that it was meaningless. It was the limit of an ordinary person without internal force. If those needles had been aimed at them…
“Geum-ju, what on earth is the meaning of this?”
Se-ah, who had stepped in front of Jeong-ah, asked in a low voice while smoothing back her hair.
“You must know that there will be consequences for doing something like this.”
Geum-ju shrugged her shoulders.
“The hospitality here is truly terrible. You didn’t even offer a simple cup of tea.”
At that, one of Geum-ju’s subordinates standing in the hallway darted in. He then searched for tea leaves at the spot where Se-ah and Jeong-ah had been sitting. It was the tea leaves Se-ah had specially prepared for Jeong-ah.
“…A guest, you say? That’s a joke, right?”
At Se-ah’s words, Geum-ju snorted.
“You always acted like you were so smart, but it seems your brain has suddenly hardened.”
She crossed her arms and continued.
“If you were an enemy instead of a guest, do you think you would still be standing there so unscathed?”
Se-ah waved her pipe.
“Seeing you spout such nonsense, it seems certain that you didn’t come as an enemy.”
She snatched the teacup from Geum-ju’s subordinate, who had been brewing the tea. Her attitude was so imposing that the subordinate could only stare at her blankly.
“Then tell me.”
Se-ah sat in her chair, crossing her legs, and enjoyed the scent of the tea.
“Ha. Seriously.”
Geum-ju burst into a hollow laugh.
“I really wish our brats would learn that kind of nerve.”
As Geum-ju flicked her hand, the monk’s robes fluttered once more. A few needles grazed past, and several strands of Se-ah’s severed hair fluttered in the air. However, Se-ah did not even blink, merely glaring at Geum-ju with her one remaining eye.
“Tsk.”
Geum-ju clicked her tongue as if bored and got to the point.
“Lately, incidents where our brats—the ones who are actually useful—get ambushed have become extremely frequent.”
“Isn’t that the price of aggressive expansion?”
“But I have a strong feeling that you are behind these ambushes.”
Se-ah looked at Geum-ju with eyes that found it absurd.
“…You caused all this chaos just because of that feeling?”
Geum-ju waved her hand.
“No, I heard a little something from somewhere.”
Se-ah took a sip of tea and replied.
“Stories are things that spring up anywhere as long as there’s a mouth to tell them.”
At Se-ah’s composed attitude, Geum-ju bared her teeth.
“Don’t you wonder how I was able to come at this exact moment? At the very moment when the defenses around you were thin?”
Se-ah set down the teacup and lit her pipe again. The smoke she exhaled in a long stream scattered toward the ceiling.
“A spy, I suppose.”
Geum-ju shook her finger.
“No, no. Don’t change the subject.”
Her voice dropped low.
“Doesn’t it mean that I, Geum-ju, have found a source to get proper information?”
At the sound of her voice, imbued with her internal force, the tea in the cup vibrated thinly.
“It means there will be no more being swayed by pathetic, child’s-play groups like yours.”
The aura flowing from her pressed heavily upon the entire space.
“So?”
Se-ah sighed nonchalantly.
“Did that ‘authentic’ information group say that I was the one behind it?”
“It’s still a bit lacking. However, there is a mistake in what you said….”
Geum-ju rummaged through her wide sleeve and pulled out a circular token.
“This isn’t some ‘authentic’ group. It is the most powerful organization in Luoyang, in Henan, and in the entire Central Plains.”
The circular metal token, gleaming with a polished luster, bore the four characters of the Luoyang Sword Clan in relief.
“The Sword Clan’s Bronze Token……?!”
It was Jeong-ah who cried out the name of the object.
Geum-ju looked at Jeong-ah with a puzzled expression.
“You recognize this? Who are you?”
“…….”
But Jeong-ah only kept her lips tightly sealed.
“Well, it doesn’t matter.”
Geum-ju waved the Sword Clan’s Bronze Token in her hand toward Se-ah.
“Now, do you understand? Why I’m causing such a scene based on mere suspicion? Why I don’t worry about the consequences even after causing such a stir?”
Geum-ju smiled broadly, revealing her white teeth.
“May I take a look at that?”
A voice suddenly rang out.
At the sound of that familiar voice, Jeong-ah’s face brightened.
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