Doh Gyeom (도겸, Dogyeom; "Gyeom Doh"), known also as the Iron Lion (철사자 (鐵獅子), Cheolsaja), is the current master of the Pungjin Sect[1] and the newest delivery boy for the tavern-on-the-fork. He is also the older brother of the young lady Gang Ryong saved early on in the series.[2]
Appearance & Personality
Doh Gyeom is a young man with a baby-face, grey eyes, a widow's peak with his hair being held up with a traditional ornament to denote his class and surprisingly long thick eyebrows and slightly flared sideburns. He wore a red cape over traditional attire with primarily blue colours and kept his two batons fastened to his back. Initially, his hair was black but after undergoing "ultimate metamorphosis" during his clash with Gang Ryong, his hair turned completely white. Gyeom's body is littered with many scars. After becoming a delivery boy, Gyeom wears simple blue garbs and ties his hair in a flowing ponytail with a red ribbon.
Gyeom is a polite young man who normally shows a very confident yet flighty disposition. On the outside, he appears somewhat naive and very trusting, but on the inside, where his 'other' self resides, he is a lot more acute. Gyeom is very determined and persistent. Much like his late older brother, he suffers from a split personality that appears to be the manifestation of his darker desires; however, he has dealt with his much better than his brother.
Image Gallery
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History
Around ten years prior to the beginning of the story, Gyeom began to notice his older brother becoming more and more insane after the death of their mother. With his brother going on an indiscriminate killing spree of those in the murim, the spree came to an end when their father, Doh Gwang, caught him. After being punished and then released, Gyeom's older brother seemed back to his old self, but Gyeom realised that his madness had worsened. Realising that his older brother wanted to kill their father, Gyeom ended up fatally poisoning his older brother out of fear.[3]
Plot
Doh Gyeom, the Iron Lion
On his way to Yellow Dragon Mountain to meet the man who saved his little sister, Gyeom got lost and asked a passing Yerin for help. Even after her directions, he still made no progress, eventually necessitating and irritated Yerin to guide him personally. Leading him to the entrance of Yellow Dragon Mountain, Gyeom thanked her by offering her a meal. While eating, Gyeom was about to confess but Yerin interrupted him telling him there was something in the food before passing out. Realising this, Gyeom passed out too. Quickly rousing from the effects of a sleep-inducing drug, much to their shock, Gyeom is then assaulted by the men sent to capture him and he managed to put up a decent fight before finally being subdued.
Waking up from a nightmare, Gyeom realised he was chained up and imprisoned in a cell. Just then, Gyeom's uncle appeared and freed him from his restraints. Escaping with his uncle, Gyeom is then told the history and current situation of the Pungjin Sect by his uncle. Being reminded to keep the knowledge of the 'seal' a secret, Gyeom naively told him uncle the location before fleeing. With his alter-psyche calling him a fool, guards caught up to him and attacked, but he killed them. With the rest of the guards shocked he could even move, Gyeom was impaled by a sword thrown by his uncle. Momentarily downed, Gyeom and his alter-psyche switched, before psycho-Gyeom got up, having evaded the sword, and slaughtered the rest of the guards.
As Sa Jun's men were leaving, psycho-Gyeom suddenly appeared, killing the men in front of him and greeting his uncle. Casually dodging the cleaver-blade thrown at him by Sa Jun, psycho-Gyeom then proceeded to slaughter the majority of people in the room, including Sa Jun, before watching his uncle flee and musing that he was getting bored because there was no-one strong to fight. Noticing something, psycho-Gyeom then chased after his uncle and slaughtered the fleeing men with him before clashing with his uncle. After being told that he fought like his older brother, psycho-Gyeom then claimed he was Gyeol, the very nephew he had poisoned. After slicing through his uncle's eye, the latter called him insane and noted that Gyeom's latent abilities had already manifested. With psycho-Gyeom saying that his uncle wasn't making it very fun, his uncle told him to get it over with but, before psycho-Gyeom could cut him down, Yerin appeared and stopped him. Using the chance, his uncle fled and psycho-Gyeom tried to attack but Yerin stopped him again. Irritated, psycho-Gyeom then attacked Yerin and cut off her head, only to find himself drowning in blood. With her concentration broken, the illusion ended and psycho-Gyeom attacked in fury only for him to be repelled by Gang Ryong. Quickly recovering, Gyeom attacked with Storm Slash, causing them to be buried in rubble when Ryong's footing gave way. Seeing his uncle scurrying away in the distance, he got ready to give chase until he realised Ryong had taken barely any damage.
Impressed, psycho-Gyeom was about to speak but Ryong just attacked straight away. The two then began fighting in earnest with Ryong dominating. Again, impressed with Ryong's abilities, psycho-Gyeom asked if he was the worthy opponent he had been waiting for, earning a disinterested response from Ryong. Merely resuming their fight, Ryong once again took control, eventually smashing Gyeom into the side of the cliff face. Getting back to his feet, psycho-Gyeom attacked again but Ryong put him down again with a Divine Heavenly Destruction technique. Psycho-Gyeom got back to his feet once more, to Ryong's shock, and then arrogantly told Ryong he'd better get serious or he'd regret it. Ryong dismissed his words and told him he'd better not use martial arts in his state, but psycho-Gyeom ignored the response only to begin succumbing to the effects of Ryong's technique. Ignoring Ryong's warnings to give up, a suffering psycho-Gyeom tried to attack but kept missing. Struggling to his feet, psycho-Gyeom attacked one more time causing a slightly confused Ryong to strike him down for good.
Due to suffering from a ki overload from his ki points being disrupted, Gyeom cried out and he underwent an excruciating transformation. With the transformation complete, a revived psycho-Gyeom exuded serious killing intent as he got ready for a second round with Ryong. Noting the changes in his body, the two began fighting again with psycho-Gyeom revelling in his new-found strength. With the two trading blows again, psycho-Gyeom puts Ryong on his bum before demanding to know what sect he was from as he wanted to know how many stronger people there were out there. With Ryong replying likewise, he stated that he would now put Gyeom down for good. Annoyed by Gang Ryong's confidence, psycho-Gyeom used his most powerful attack but was left gobsmacked when Ryong nullifies it. Suddenly being pulled in by and shocked by the use of a Divine Heavenly Destruction technique, psycho-Gyeom tried to retaliate with a technique of his own, but it got absorbed by Ryong's technique. Trying once more to reach Ryong with an attack, psycho-Gyeom is finally subdued for good when discombobulates him with another Divine Heavenly Destruction technique. Reflecting on his past to the time of his older brother's death, Gyeom finally confronted and accepted his delusions in tears while his alter-psyche told him that he would always be there. A little after Ryong had left, sitting hunched over, tears fell from Gyeom's face.
Returning back to the Pungjin Sect, Gyeom found that everything had changed, including that what his uncle had told him about the fall of the Pungjin Sect being true. With his alter-psyche reminding him about Ryong's intervention curing Gyeom of his cursed physiology, they agree that Gyeom would repay his debt to Ryong. However, when Gyeom went back to the tavern, he found out that Gang Ryong had already left in search of his "enemy".
Season 2 Intro
After finding out that Gang Ryong had already left in search of his "enemy", Gyeom returned to the tavern-on-the-fork two months later asking to become their new delivery boy. After being warned of past replacements lasting only days, Gyeom took the job and persisted for months, determined to become a better delivery boy than Ryong had been.
Around six months later, Gyeom returned back from a delivery to find his sister Yeon waiting for him. Seeing a man sitting with her, he attempts to intimidate him but Yeon explained that the Jinhong had helped her find the place. Humorously apologising for his mistake, he then asked Chohyang if he could have a word with his sister. He was then seen turning curiously when Jinhong mentioned Gang Ryong.
Mak Sapyeong
Revived Heavenly Destruction Sect
Powers & Abilities
Because Doh Gyeom was born with tae-eum metastatic bone body (태음환골지체, taeeum hwangoljiche), he was severely limited in his ability to perform inner ki martial arts due to the effects the physiological condition had on his flow of inner ki and the dangerous internal damage it could cause.[4] Despite this, Gyeom proved to become a powerful young martial artist regardless, showing great martial arts prowess and exhibiting incredible feats of strength on multiple occasions. He was able to effortlessly evade an attack from and then casually kill a gosu of Sa Jun's level with his skills.[5] During his clash with Gang Ryong, Doh Gyeom underwent an immense Ultimate Metamorphosis (환골탈태 (換骨奪胎), Hwangol taltae; "Corporal Reconstruction"), increasing his power level by magnitudes.[4] However, after their battle, he noted that he couldn't draw out even half the power he had when he faced Gang Ryong, though he was still many times stronger than he was before.[6] It was noted by Gyeom's uncle that he had the same peculiar movements and brutal spear attacks as his older brother, Gyeol.[5][7]
Immense Durability & Endurance: He has shown titanic feats of durability and endurance. Even after just regaining consciousness from the effects of a sleeping drug, he was single-handedly able to take on a multitude of men trying to subdue him.[8] During his battle with Gang Ryong, he was able to tank several admittedly pulled Divine Heavenly Destruction techniques and continue fighting without any impairment.[9]
Immense Physical Strength: Even while woozy from the effects of a drug, Gyeom was able to lift two full grown men, one with each arm, and slam them together with enough force to knock them out.[8] Later, he was shown being able to effortlessly slice through entire cliff faces.
Drug Resistance: Gyeom appears to have a remarkable resistance to the effects of drugs, being able to quickly regain consciousness and even take down a multitude of fighters sent to capture him after ingesting enough sleeping medicine to put a bear down.[8]
Weapons
He initially wields what appear to be a pair of thick batons.[8] However Gyeom is exponentially more adept with a naginata (or any spear-like weapon), using it with such proficiency that even Gang Ryong was caught off guard. He was able to deliver a 360° slash faster than anyone could react, and cleaved through thick pillars, walls and other people in the process.[5]
As the son of the original Iron Lion, Doh Gwang, and the heir of the Pungjin Sect, Gyeom trained in the Doh Family Spear style and has mastered its arts:
- Doh Family Flame Spear, the 13th Move: Empyrean Annihilation
- Pungjin Cross Slash
- Pungjin Spiral Dance
- Storm Slash
Quotes
Alternate Translation
- Steel Lion, Do Gim (LINE)
Notes & Trivia
- If his first appearance in the series is any indication, Gyeom is terrible with directions. Though he mentions that his navigational ineptitude has since disappeared after undergoing "ultimate metamorphosis".[1]
- Considering that his older brother Gyeol suffered from a similar insane alter-psyche, some fans believe that the condition is a maternal hereditary condition.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Chapter 88
- ↑ Chapter 36
- ↑ Chapter 53
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Chapter 50
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Chapter 45
- ↑ Chapter 54
- ↑ Chapter 46
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Chapter 38
- ↑ Chapters 48 - 52