Chương 16: The Jade Phantom

When she saw the Specter grab her sleeve and start to tug, Chae-ha was already prepared for the inevitable consequences. She deliberately swung her hips and started to spin away, loading another needle into her right hand with elegant precision. As the man pulled, the carefully designed chain-stitch connecting the sleeve to the main body of her robes began to rip along its length.

The young Inspector felt very thankful to Mu-cheon for helping her calibrate the strength of the stitches on that final training day before they'd left. The sleeve detached, and the assassin was pulled wildly off balance as his tug met with far less resistance than should have been possible." Geun-maek-jeom," Chae-ha intoned.

"Tendon Pin: Flexor Digitorum." Grasping the needle between her knuckles, with the eye braced against the leather pad in her palm, she drove the penetrating point hard into the man's wrist. His arms were covered in leather wraps, but her trocar bookbinding needles were meant for piercing buffalo hide. The needle slid easily through the grains of the leather, stopping only when it suddenly impacted the carpal bone. It protruded from the man's arm at an angle, the eye jutting out towards his hand.

The assassin stared at the needle for a moment, trying to process what had just happened. He attempted to pull it out of his wrist, but grunted in pain as he realized he couldn't. This trap had been meticulously designed; every attempt to straighten his fingers caused the pierced tendon to slide up the needle, as if it were a ramp. The resulting bulge crushed the tendon sheath against the ligament holding it down, causing the whole system – including the needle – to become firmly locked in place.

The Specter tried to drop the sleeve in his grip, but his hand refused to open. He shook his arm wildly to try and get rid of it, but to no avail. The tongueless man let out a groan of pure frustration as he roared senseless noises to the sky.

"Got you," Chae-ha mouthed silently back at him. The assassin reached into his robes and pulled out another dagger with his other hand. He began stumbling towards her again. But the fight was already over. She didn't need to kill him; that was never the point. An escort warrior slammed into the assassin's side, knocking the man flat onto the ground. Then another dog-piled on, and another. It had taken a while, but the rear guard had finally arrived.

"That's what was supposed to happen the first time," Chae-ha muttered, to no one in particular. The young girl looked down at herself and let out a small, wry chuckle. She was dirty, bruised, and missing a sleeve. But those traits just made her more invisible. She turned and began to walk behind a small contingent of guards who were chasing after the remaining intruders.

Chae-ha didn't know it yet, but history would remember this day as the first time the Jade Phantom strode across a battlefield, and towards danger. Knowing his opponent was frozen in place by the piercing blue light, the Eye Demon swung his poisoned Bi-su again, ready to end the fight. Elder Ma engaged the second mnemonic of the Chuk-ap-gyeol. He broke the seal over his Danzhong point, located in his chest, causing his body to explosively depressurize.

Definition returned to his muscles as a blast of air shot out, sending his opponent flying. Suddenly free to move, the Diplomacy Elder turned away from the Eye Demon to chase after the rapidly escaping Specter.

"Young Master!" He sprinted after the black-clad intruder, trying frantically to prevent the man from reaching his ward. But the operative's lead was much too big. Elder Ma watched with a mixture of relief and horror as Mu-cheon rounded the side of the carriage with his sword in hand, ready to meet the oncoming assassin himself.

"Finally," the Inner Disciple declared impatiently.

"I've been wanting to hit something for a while now." Elder Ma risked a glance behind himself, fully expecting the Ghost Elder to be right on his tail. But what he saw instead caused him to grind to a halt in sudden shock. Sa Jeong-gwi was holding up one of their guards, his veil drawn back and his demonic eye glowing purple. All around him, members of the Tai-shan vanguard – who should have been coming to help – were killing each other.

The Diplomacy Elder was too far away to hear the man's intonation of " Pa-hon-an" as he executed his technique, but the effects of the Soul Dominating Eye were obvious, even from this distance. Elder Ma's face paled. He wasn't at all certain he could beat the Eye Demon one-on-one. But what if those odds were twenty-to-one, instead? Mu-cheon invoked the first mnemonic of the Chuk-ap-gyeol. He swung his Dae-jik-do in a lethal arc as his body began to swell, forcing the assassin in front of him to hop backwards.

"If you don't stop him now," the young man screamed, blocking a counter-strike and driving the Specter back once again, "we're going to be overrun by our own men! Go!" The Diplomacy Elder didn't want to admit it, but he knew the boy was right. Together, they would easily win the fight against the Specter. But could they survive the calamity that would follow? The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Elder Ma hesitated, locking eyes with Mu-cheon one final time.

Knowing the Sect Leader might execute him for this decision, he turned his back on the Young Master and raced towards the growing army of puppets. The Diplomacy Elder gritted his teeth and prayed silently that his decision was the correct one. Behind him, the Specter lunged towards Mu-cheon once more. The young prodigy parried the thrusting dagger with the hilt of his sword, grabbed the man's leather harness, and kicked him squarely in the chest, sending the assassin flying.

The Specter managed to regain control of himself while in the air and landed gracefully into a crouch, ready to immediately pounce again.

"It feels good to fight something that actually is where it's supposed to be," the Young Master muttered. When she finally neared the front of the convoy, Chae-ha stepped into what looked like an active war zone. Chaos was everywhere. Groups of Tai-shan escort warriors were fighting desperately amongst themselves, but which were friends and which were foes was impossible to tell. Blood, steel, and occasional bits of dismembered flesh littered the surface, spread around seemingly at random.

To her east, Elder Ma was besieged by the Ghost Elder. Scattered all around them were piles of bisected bodies, which cluttered the ground as the two titans fought. Her eyes turned to the south, where she could clearly see Mu-cheon engaging the remaining Specter. A pair of escort warriors were stumbling towards him, although with what intent remained unclear. Chae-ha's pace stayed measured and calm. The separated panels of her robes fluttered all around her as she kept linking her steps together continuously.

The young girl felt detached from the violence, like a ghost drifting steadily across the scene. A small group of five guards, engaged in a chaotic inner struggle, stumbled in front of her path. One of the men took a swipe at her. His eyes were unfocused, drool was drizzling down his chin, and the occasional groans he made were unintelligible. She floated away almost effortlessly as the clumsy strike missed, leaving behind a needle buried in his upper arm.

She wasn't sure if she had hit the radial nerve or not, and she didn't pause to check. Chae-ha had begun the day with twenty needles, but half her supply was still currently hidden in her missing sleeve, clutched in the locked hand of the defeated assassin. Only seven still remained. As she continued to drift through the battlefield, the young girl passed by knots of conflict several times.

She tried to identify the possessed fighters and injure them as she went, hoping the sane ones would emerge victorious and eventually be able to join their friends. By the time she approached the area where Mu-cheon was fighting, three more needles were gone. The two men she'd seen slowly stumbling towards him earlier had almost arrived, and it was now clear that they were not coming to help. Her friend would soon be overwhelmed. Chae-ha had four needles left. She loaded one of them into her hand.

When Mu-cheon saw the young girl approaching, her scholar's robes filthy and torn, his first reaction was shock. He wanted to scream at her to run, to not engage, to save herself. The young man knew the battle was lost; yes, he'd managed to hold off the Specter so far, but two more opponents were approaching from the side. There was no longer any hope. But then a ray of light glinted off one of the triangular facets of the needle in her hand, and pragmatism suddenly took over.

He looked back at the assassin, who seemed completely unaware of her presence in the background, and made his decision. The next time their blades crossed, Mu-cheon surged forwards. The Young Master used every ounce of his strength to forcefully drive the assassin back, intending to help Chae-ha close the remaining distance. The Specter's feet slid haphazardly through the dirt, kicking up loose stones and gravel as he locked his legs to try and brace himself against the ground."

Hyeol-gwan-jeom," came a voice from behind him.

"Vascular Pierce: Arteria Renalis." The assassin's eyes went wide with shock and sudden, all-consuming pain as he felt the long needle enter and then leave his right kidney. Blood leaked from the wound as the man hemorrhaged internally, but adrenaline kept him standing. He didn't know yet that he had about thirty breaths left to live. The Specter spun around and swung blindly. He seemed disoriented and wobbly.

Mu-cheon's heart beat fast as he saw the random swing, but thankfully Chae-ha had long since danced away; she seemed to be heading over to block off the approaching puppets. The young man recognized each motion she made. The third step… the sixth… Fueled by pure adrenaline, the Specter propelled himself after her and let loose his signature, piercing thrust. But the Inner Disciple immediately saw that the man was aiming for the wrong place. Mu-cheon had made this exact same mistake himself a hundred times.

The assassin was going to miss – and the momentum was going to carry his arm forwards. The Young Master swung his Dae-jik-do down with all his strength. He wasn't aiming for where the assassin's arm was, but for where he knew it was about to be. A crimson geyser sprayed out violently across the dirt road as the man's severed limb went flying through the air. The catastrophic blood loss cut his remaining time short. Wheezing feebly, the Specter dropped to his knees.

A few moments later, he collapsed face first onto the ground. The flow of blood from the gruesome stump slowly petered out, until only a trickle remained. Mu-cheon left the Specter to his fate and rushed over to assist Chae-ha. He saw one clumsy strike miss her and slammed his shoulder into the man who had tried it, knocking him away. The Young Master would have preferred to try and find some way to save these two escort warriors, but he knew there was no time.

Backed up by Chae-ha's needles, the Inner Disciple did the best he could to make sure their deaths were painless. Breathing heavily, a rush of relief and triumph washed over Mu-cheon as he realized he'd escaped death – at least for now.

"Chae-ha, I…"

"Save it, senior brother. There'll be time for us to talk once we've survived all this." Mu-cheon straightened his back and held his head high. He swung his Dae-jik-do once to shake some of the blood off.

"You're right. We need to go help Elder Ma. Let's hurry, little sister."

"No," Chae-ha replied, shaking her head.

"If we try to interfere directly in that fight, we'll get ourselves killed. Please, senior brother. Listen to me and don't engage that man."

"We don't have a choice –""We do have a choice. There's a better strategy." Chae-ha clenched her jaw.

"We save the sane guards who are still fighting the puppets – and attack that monster not with two people, but with an army." Mu-cheon's mouth opened and closed in protest, but no sound came out. He knew immediately that she was right, but he still didn't like it. The young man lowered his head in resignation.

"Do you think Elder Ma can hold out that long?"

"It doesn't matter what I think," Chae-ha whispered in reply.

"If he can't, we're all dead anyways."