Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Neither Kindness Nor Grudges Are Forgotten (1)

The next day, Dam Ho set out from the inn before dawn.

Neighhh!

Dark Demon, who had been alone in the stable, greeted him with a cheerful whinny. Dam Ho saddled the horse and led it outside.

Turfan was still shrouded in darkness.

Dam Ho took his bearings for a moment, then mounted.

Dark Demon ran as though seeking to release the frustration of its long confinement in the stable.

'You were cooped up too, weren't you? Just like me.'

Dam Ho understood the horse's heart.

It was a creature that had once roamed the vast plains at will, now trapped in a narrow stable. How stifled it must have felt!

Dark Demon became a black wind. Dam Ho merged with it as one.

The landscape rushed closer, then receded. Barren wastelands appeared, and the mountains that had seemed distant drew near at tremendous speed.

Dam Ho let Dark Demon run until it was spent. When the horse was weary, it would stop of its own accord.

Dam Ho surrendered himself to the horse and felt the wind.

It was the first time in twelve years he had felt warm light and wind. He wished to savor this moment.

Dam Ho forgot the passage of time.

After riding for an unknown duration, Dam Ho suddenly felt the horse's pace slow. Dark Demon had finally grown tired.

"Very well. Let us rest a while."

Dam Ho scanned his surroundings for a place to stop.

In the distance, a large boulder stood. Beneath it, shade was cast.

Dam Ho steered Dark Demon toward it.

The moment he drew near the boulder, Dam Ho frowned slightly. A faint, acrid scent of blood reached his nostrils.

As he drew closer, the scent intensified. Beneath the boulder's shadow, dozens of corpses lay scattered. Judging by their state of decay, some time had passed—the bodies already emitted a foul odor.

Dam Ho dismounted and approached the dead. The sight that unfolded before him was enough to turn one's stomach.

The corpses had been mutilated beyond recognition. Wounds gaped open here and there like the gills of fish.

Dam Ho examined one corpse's wounds carefully.

"They were played with."

Not a single wound was deep enough to kill.

Those who had killed them had slashed their bodies like a cat tormenting a mouse, then watched them die in agony.

The innkeeper's words suddenly came to mind.

'Bandits?'

Dam Ho moved to rise.

That these people had been killed by bandits was unfortunate, but it had nothing to do with him.

It was then.

"Nnngh!"

A faint moan rose from among the corpses.

Dam Ho shifted several bodies aside and pulled out the one who was moaning. The moment he saw the man's face, Dam Ho's expression darkened.

The man, whose torso was split open from chest to abdomen and who moaned even now, was someone Dam Ho knew well.

Bang Woo-gwang—Bang Jin-bo's father.

Though grievous wounds exposed his innards, Bang Woo-gwang clung stubbornly to life. But Dam Ho knew he had little time left. That he had endured this long was a miracle of fortune.

Dam Ho injected internal energy into Bang Woo-gwang. Color returned briefly to the man's face.

Bang Woo-gwang opened his eyes with great difficulty.

Whether he recognized Dam Ho or not, he forced his lips apart.

"Who… are you?"

"Any last words?"

"What…"

"You know already. That you will not live long."

"Kugh!"

Tears streamed down Bang Woo-gwang's cheeks. Dam Ho watched him in silence.

After a moment, having gathered some small measure of composure, Bang Woo-gwang looked Dam Ho directly in the eye. In his gaze was desperation—the desperate longing to protect what mattered most, even if it cost him everything.

"Jin-bo has been taken by the bandits. Please, I beg you… save Jin-bo. Save my son."

"…"

"My lord, I implore you… that child…"

Bang Woo-gwang seized Dam Ho's hand with his blood-soaked fingers. The grip of a dying man was surprisingly strong.

His desperation traveled through his hand into Dam Ho.

His lips moved like a fish gasping for air.

"My lord, please…"

Dam Ho recalled that he had once seen a similar gaze.

A very long time ago, when his village had been attacked, his father had worn the same look as Bang Woo-gwang.

The one difference was that after his father had died, the Taoists of the Mount Hua Sect had come. Bang Woo-gwang had met Dam Ho before his life's breath had ended.

A rough, hoarse voice escaped Dam Ho's lips.

"If they still live."

"Th-thank you… please…"

Bang Woo-gwang's voice faded. His body, too, grew cold.

The light of life vanished from the eyes that stared at Dam Ho. But the desperation remained.

Dam Ho reached out and closed Bang Woo-gwang's eyes, then rose and surveyed his surroundings. Not far away, he discovered a mass of intertwined corpses.

Among them, Dam Ho found yet another familiar face.

'Oh Gi-o.'

The chief guard of the Silver Lotus Trading Company—the man who had included Dam Ho in the caravan. Beside him lay Cho Su-gwang, the company's master, his tongue protruding.

So great was their anguish that even in death they could not close their eyes. Dam Ho studied their lifeless gazes for a long while.

They could speak no more, but their extinguished eyes told a story beyond words.

Dam Ho looked upon their vacant eyes in silence, as though engaging in conversation.

After a considerable time had passed, Dam Ho closed their eyes and rose to his feet.

He mounted Dark Demon.

Perhaps because of the brief rest, Dark Demon whinnied with renewed vigor. There was no trace of weariness in its bearing.

"Let us go."

Dark Demon surged forward, as though it had been waiting for that very word.

***

Bang Jin-bo's eyes were red-rimmed with tears.

He could not comprehend what had happened to him. He did not understand why he was in such a place.

Bang Jin-bo was confined within a small wooden frame, like a cage for livestock.

He was not the only one imprisoned. The younger merchants of the Silver Lotus Trading Company shared his fate. There were more than fifty of them.

The rest were all dead. Cho Su-gwang, the company's master, and Bang Jin-bo's father among them.

Cho Su-gwang, fearing bandit attacks, had set out with another trading company. Two companies combined—more than one hundred and fifty people. He had believed that even bandit gangs would not dare to approach.

But his judgment was wrong.

The bandit gangs had not been intimidated by the combined force. They had attacked without hesitation.

Oh Gi-o and his guards fought bravely, but they were outnumbered by more than a hundred bandits.

In the end, the guards were annihilated, and countless merchants perished. Bang Jin-bo had been forced to witness every moment of it with his own eyes.

The bandits had built a great bonfire in the center of the clearing and were celebrating their spoils. On one side, goods plundered from the trading companies lay strewn.

A large man sat before the bonfire. He held a child's fist-sized night-luminescent pearl up to the firelight.

"Heh heh! Fortune smiles upon me today. A cat's eye stone of this quality."

The combined value of everything they had plundered from the trading companies did not amount to a tenth of this stone.

Today was the finest day since he had begun raiding in this region.

His name was Dong Ja-chwi. He was the chief of the Blood Wolf Gang, a band that preyed upon merchants traveling between the Western Regions and the Central Plains.

The Blood Wolf Gang was composed of Han, Hui, and various other ethnicities. Their common traits were formidable martial arts and an inability to settle in one place.

They roamed the Turfan region, raiding and plundering. They killed, seized goods, and sold them. With the money, they drank and indulged in women.

Dong Ja-chwi toyed with the cat's eye stone for a time, then asked his subordinate beside him.

"What of the others?"

"We sent a signal. They should depart soon. They will arrive within two or three watches."

"Is that so? What shall we do until then?"

Dong Ja-chwi's eyes gleamed dangerously in the firelight.

His gaze turned to the people in the cages.

"Bring those two to me."

"Why, Chief?"

The vice-chief, Cho Bok, whose face resembled an owl, looked puzzled. Dong Ja-chwi grinned.

"Are we not bored?"

"Ah!"

Cho Bok understood, and a leering smile spread across his face.

He ran to the cage and surveyed the captives. Those whose eyes met his shrank back.

"Why are you doing this to us?"

"You have taken our goods. Release us."

Several people pleaded, but Cho Bok dismissed their words with a wave.

"This one and this one. Bring them out."

"Yes, Vice Chief!"

The subordinates dragged the two chosen men from the cage. They were a merchant in his early thirties and a youth in his early twenties.

Cho Bok and his men threw them before Dong Ja-chwi.

The two men, not knowing what was happening, collapsed at Dong Ja-chwi's feet. He looked down at them and smiled.

"Do you know your fate?"

"What?"

The merchant jerked his head up. He was a merchant from one of the trading companies allied with the Silver Lotus Trading Company.

The frail youth could not even raise his head and simply trembled. Into his ear came Dong Ja-chwi's voice.

"In a short while, certain people will arrive. I intend to sell you to them as slaves."

"How can you do this!"

Their faces drained of color. Dong Ja-chwi savored their expressions.

"If you are sold as slaves, you will never see the sun again. None who were taken by them have survived. That is why I will give you a chance."

The moment Dong Ja-chwi finished speaking, Cho Bok threw a sword to each of them.

The two men, bewildered, blinked.

"Fight. The winner will be freed. Heh heh!"

"Heh heh heh!"

Cruel laughter erupted from all around.

The eyes of the Blood Wolf Gang's bandits gleamed with killing intent.

This was their entertainment.

Watching men fight to the death for the sake of freedom was one of their greatest pleasures.

The battle between two ordinary men who had never held a sword was fierce, offering a spectacle quite different from a clash between martial artists.

The merchant jerked his head up and looked at Dong Ja-chwi.

"Is that true?"

"Of course. If you win, I will set you free. If you lose, I will set him free. Well? Is that not sufficient reason to fight?"

Conflict blazed in the merchant's eyes.

'For freedom? I do not wish to spend my life as a slave.'

He had a wife and children waiting at home.

No matter what, he had to return to them.

The merchant grasped his sword. In his eyes, a vicious light rose. The youth, on the other hand, trembled.

"I… I cannot do it."

"Heh heh! Then you die now."

"Please…"

Tears streamed down the youth's cheeks.

Clang!

Cho Bok drew his sword and pressed it against the youth's throat.

"Pick up the sword, you coward."