Chapter 6
The Baekryundang slowly closed in on the two of them.
No one knew what had happened, but every single one of them looked furious, their faces twisted with rage. Considering they were a group that would not hesitate to commit murder if necessary, the situation was extremely dangerous.
“It was a mistake to trust that bastard Zuhan from the beginning.”
Wenling was just as anxious, but he tried his best not to show it.
Yunseol glanced at the sea and asked,
“Should we escape into the ocean?”
It seemed she was thinking of transforming back into a mermaid and fleeing.
But Wenling had a different idea.
“Still, if we capture these guys and interrogate them, we might get some useful information.”
“You can do something like that with your character magic?”
“My weapon isn’t just character magic.”
Before he could even finish speaking, a large man in front of him shouted and rushed toward him.
Wenling quickly crossed his arms, grabbed the man’s arm, twisted it, and flipped him over.
Thud.
The man crashed onto the ground.
Wenling calmly adjusted his posture while taking a slow breath.
“I may not look like it, but I’ve practiced Tai Chi since I was young.”
There wasn’t the slightest tremor in his body.
When their comrade was defeated, the two men behind him rushed at Wenling.
Wenling stepped back a few paces and quickly wrote characters in the air.
“Pierce!”
With a shout, he punched the glowing character.
A sharp gust of wind followed, and the two men in front of him were blown away.
They had to break through the encirclement.
Gritting his teeth, Wenling swung his fountain pen again.
“Shatter!”
He kicked the character written in midair with speed and force.
The character flashed brilliantly, leaving a red trail as it struck the group ahead. Several who were hit directly collapsed on the spot.
Wenling didn’t miss the opportunity and quickly wrote another character in the air.
“Shake!”
With a loud rumble, the ground nearby trembled.
A gap opened at the edge of the encirclement.
“They’re more persistent than I expected.”
Wenling steadied his breathing and slowly scanned the remaining members of Baekryundang.
They too seemed quite flustered now that Wenling had taken the offensive.
Still, the encirclement had been broken.
Wenling raised the hand holding his fountain pen high.
Now he only needed to signal Yunseol and buy time until she escaped far away.
Bang!
A sharp sound suddenly cut through the air.
“Argh!”
A searing pain exploded from his shoulder.
Wenling cried out as his right arm fell limply. The shock sent the fountain pen flying far away.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gunshots tore through Wenling’s arm one after another.
In an instant, his upper body was drenched in blood.
“M-my pen…!”
Struggling to remain standing, Wenling turned toward the direction of the gunshots.
A short man wearing Baekryundang clothes was aiming a pistol at him.
Perhaps because of the ship’s lights shining behind him, the muzzle of the gun looked especially clear.
“Ahhh! Let go of me!”
Yunseol’s shrill scream rang out from behind.
Several remaining Baekryundang members were laughing as they grabbed her hair and waist.
At this rate, Yunseol would be in danger.
Wenling gathered the last of his mental strength and activated the character he had written on the back of Yunseol’s hand.
“Retreat!”
As he shouted, a red light flashed from Yunseol’s right hand.
At the same moment, the men clinging to her were knocked away as if struck by something.
“R-run…!”
Wenling tried to shout for Yunseol to escape, but blood surged up from his mouth instead.
The pen. I need the pen.
Despite the crushing pain throughout his body, he desperately searched the area.
Then he noticed something round lying near his feet.
“The young master of the Hou family resorting to pickpocketing. Even the street dogs would laugh.”
A sharp, mocking voice came from the shadows.
An old woman dressed neatly in blue stood there holding a basket, staring at him.
“Working so late at night must make you hungry.”
The old woman cackled and took something from the basket, rolling it toward Wenling’s feet.
The sound of beasts barking somewhere echoed in his head.
Without thinking, Wenling picked it up.
It was a plain boiled egg.
“Don’t worry. Eat as much as you like. I’ve got plenty.”
The old woman cackled again and kept rolling boiled eggs toward him.
Wenling stared at the egg blankly before swallowing it.
He didn’t know why.
He simply felt like he had to.
The howling of beasts around him grew louder.
“Yes, yes! Eat more! There are plenty of eggs!”
The old woman thrust the entire basket forward.
Wenling desperately swallowed the eggs.
His throat felt blocked, he could barely breathe, and the eggshells scratched his esophagus painfully—but he couldn’t stop.
His mind was filled with only one thought:
He had to eat the eggs in front of him.
“I knew this would happen!”
Suddenly Yunseol’s voice burst into his fading consciousness.
“Trying to act cool and handle everything alone?”
Yunseol ran toward him.
Grabbing the back of his neck, she rushed straight into the nearby sea.
Gunshots rained down from every direction.
Amid the hail of bullets, Yunseol transformed into her mermaid form and snapped at him,
“If we keep going like this and I get hungry, I’ll chew you up and eat you!”
* * *
One drop, two drops, three drops.
Each mouthful of blood healed flesh and closed wounds.
A miraculous elixir no medicine in the world could recreate.
“…That’s enough.”
Wenling wiped Yunseol’s blood from his lips and bowed his head slightly.
Yunseol glared at him irritably.
“What was that? You said you could handle it on your own.”
Wenling lowered his head, looking ashamed.
He didn’t even have the energy to argue. After being beaten so badly and barely surviving thanks to her blood, he had nothing to say.
“I’m sorry. I have no excuse.”
“You were fighting pretty well earlier. What happened all of a sudden?”
Wenling recalled the blue-clothed old woman and replied defensively.
“One of Baekryundang’s remnants was a Grass Ghost Witch from the Miao tribe. A very powerful shaman. I was no match for her.”
Yunseol muttered loudly enough for him to hear,
“Hmph! I knew it. My dad was right. Guys who talk big are usually useless.”
Wenling said nothing.
After a moment of hesitation, he spoke carefully.
“Let’s request reinforcements from another branch. Zuhan’s character magic was on Baekryundang’s ship. Zuhan might have joined forces with them. This attack might have been ordered by him.”
“They even have guns, so I guess we don’t have a choice. I’ll contact another branch.”
While saying that, Yunseol gnawed on a frozen tuna.
After bleeding so much and overexerting herself, she was starving.
Wenling watched her quietly before speaking weakly.
“And once reinforcements arrive… I will return to China.”
“Huh? Why?”
Yunseol asked in surprise.
The man who had seemed so confident was suddenly talking about leaving.
Wenling sighed and lowered his shoulders.
“I lost my fountain pen by mistake. Without it, I cannot use character magic.”
“What? You only carry one pen? Don’t you have a spare?”
Wenling replied despairingly,
“That pen was handcrafted by a master artisan of the Hou family workshop. The materials are difficult to obtain, and it’s very expensive. I still have ink, but I don’t have another pen.”
Yunseol looked incredulous.
“I saw your brother using it just fine without something like that! You can’t do it?”
“Reluctantly, I must admit that he is an elite of the Hou family.”
Wenling continued in a dejected voice.
“Some exceptional writers are born with special constitutions that allow them to use their own blood and body as the medium for character magic. But I cannot. I am not an elite.”
Hearing that, Yunseol scolded him.
“What the heck? You’re more useless than I thought.”
Wenling apologized quietly.
“I’m sorry for being useless.”
“I should’ve just eaten you on the way here and wiped my mouth.”
“What?”
For a brief moment, Wenling was genuinely terrified of Yunseol.
She looked like she might bare her teeth and tear him apart if something annoyed her.
“So you have ink but no pen, which means you can’t use character magic, right?”
“Yes. That’s correct.”
“Before fountain pens existed, what did people use?”
“About a hundred years ago, they used brushes. But ordinary brushes won’t work. They need special materials.”
After hearing the explanation, Yunseol tilted her head thoughtfully.
“Do you know the materials or how to make that brush? It doesn’t need to be perfect. Just something temporary that can be used once or twice.”
“Yes… I roughly know.”
“Then that’s enough.”
Yunseol grinned.
“Let’s go make a brush for you.”
* * *
The night of Jeju Island was quiet and beautiful.
Zuhan lay in a hammock borrowed from the resort, enjoying the peaceful moment.
The sound of waves crashing nearby soothed his mind.
A satisfied smile spread across his face.
Jeju was wonderful—delicious food, beautiful women.
Even though he had only stayed a few days, he was already fond of the place.
He even yawned contentedly in the sea breeze.
“Strike!”
A red character suddenly flashed before his eyes.
A massive invisible force slammed into Zuhan’s hammock.
The attack was so sudden he had no chance to react.
“Guh!”
Caught completely off guard, Zuhan was thrown onto the ground.
Across from him, Wenling approached with a cold expression.
As soon as he saw Zuhan, Wenling spat out,
“You piece of trash. Just seeing your face makes me want to vomit.”
Zuhan frowned and snapped back,
“Little brother, you’d better explain exactly what you think you’re doing.”
“You’re asking that because you really don’t know?”
Wenling shot back.
Zuhan’s eyes widened.
“I don’t know how or why you found me, but right now I’m on the verge of going crazy because someone interrupted my perfect, happy vacation.”
“Funny. I thought you’d know exactly why I’m doing this.”
Wenling pointed the brush in his hand at Zuhan.
It could barely be called a brush—just a crude substitute made from rough materials.
