The Name That Shakes the Cavern

Pung So-cheong frowned at the sight of the three men.

"Why would they be here……?"

A note of unmistakable displeasure colored her voice.

Ouyang Qiangang asked, "Branch Master, do you know who they are?"

Pung So-cheong answered coldly. "The one with the fists is Hwangbo Pung of the Shandong Hwangbo Clan, the Iron Fist Mountain Breaker. The one with the broadsword is Paeng Man-gyeong of the Hebei Paeng Clan, the Mountain-Cleaving Tyrant Saber. And the young man with the folding fan is Zhuge Hui of the Hubei Zhuge Clan, the Divine Calculation and Ghostly Plan."

She clicked her tongue in irritation. "All three of them are hailed as the next-generation pillars of the Six Great Clans."

Han Jo asked, "The Six Great Clans… you mean the oldest and most powerful families in Murim?"

"The very same. The arrogant noble houses who fancy themselves the true orthodoxy of the martial world."

Open disgust dripped from Pung So-cheong's voice.

At that very moment, the scholar-robed young man—Zhuge Hui—suddenly turned toward the direction where they stood. "You three over there. Do you intend to simply keep watching?"

His voice was thick with composure.

Ouyang Qiangang's eyes darkened. He hadn't bothered concealing himself, so it was entirely within his expectations that Zhuge Hui and the others would soon notice their arrival.

He replied, "It doesn't look like you're in any position to need help."

"That's true enough, but I'd like to clear out these smelly things as quickly as possible." Zhuge Hui gestured at a jiangshi with his folding fan. "You three don't seem the type to want to linger in a place like this either, am I right?"

Hwangbo Pung scowled, clearly displeased. "Brother Zhuge, is there really any need to ask for assistance? On our own, we're more than—"

"Hahahah! Elder Brother, what kind of talk is that!" Paeng Man-gyeong boomed with laughter and waved toward Ouyang Qiangang's group. "Come on over! The more hands the better! These bastards are a nuisance precisely because there are so many of them!"

Ouyang Qiangang's gaze deepened.

Getting bogged down by undead monsters at the very start of the investigation doesn't appeal to me.

Mind made up, he stepped forward. Seeing him move, Han Jo and Pung So-cheong followed suit.

Han Jo drew the three-chang iron chain from his waist—the Black Dragon Chain.

Shrrrrrrr—

Forged of black steel, the Black Dragon Chain was a famed weapon with an intricate dragon-scale pattern etched into every single link. Flexible yet devastatingly strong, it was a weapon that, in the hands of a skilled user, could match any sword.

Pung So-cheong drew a pair of daggers known as the Moon Shadow Daggers. She was a master of the twin blades.

Ouyang Qiangang did not touch the Divine Venerable Sword.

Drawing it against opponents like these… would be an insult to the sword itself.

The low-grade jiangshi before them could be handled by his palm strikes alone.

"We thank you!" Hwangbo Pung shouted heartily.

"Then let's finish this quickly!"

Zhuge Hui raised his folding fan high. "Between the Gen and Kun palaces! That's where their weak point lies!"

"Hahahah! Leave it to us!"

With Paeng Man-gyeong's thunderous roar, five experts kicked off the ground and surged forward as one.

But a shadow moved before any of them.

Ouyang Qiangang.

He seemed to be walking toward the battlefield at an utterly ordinary pace. Yet with his first step, his figure blurred as if being erased from space itself. With his second, his silhouette split into a dozen afterimages, and by the third, he was already standing in the very heart of the jiangshi horde.

It was the moment his own creation—Phantom Shadow Flicker—revealed itself to the world for the first time.

"Khhrrr……"

Dozens of jiangshi, sensing the alien intruder, hurled themselves at him all at once.

In that exact instant, hundreds upon thousands of azure flashes burst from every corner of Ouyang Qiangang's body. They spread out like a living web of lightning and crashed down upon the surrounding jiangshi.

SWAAAAAH—!

CRUNCHCRUNCHCRUNCHCRUNCH!

It was a speed too fast for the eye to follow. The jiangshi at the vanguard collapsed before they could so much as raise a hand, their upper bodies scattering like dust into the air.

No one present could even perceive when Ouyang Qiangang had struck.

Such was the power of Gale Lightning Palm, the new ultimate technique he had created by re-forging the Gale Chain Formation.

"…Did you see that?"

Hwangbo Pung, his fist still mid-swing, murmured with a vacant expression.

"……?"

Paeng Man-gyeong, who had been charging in with a hearty laugh, froze as if the laugh had snagged in his throat.

Zhuge Hui, who had been watching the entire field of battle, felt the hand gripping his folding fan tremble ever so slightly, without his willing it.

Leaving their stunned awe behind, Ouyang Qiangang swept through the center of the jiangshi like a storm of death. A single gesture of his hand tore through space; a single stride shattered their ranks.

In less than half an incense stick's time, the hellish battlefield was completely cleared.

Ouyang Qiangang alone had reduced more than half of the hundred-plus jiangshi to dust. Not a single one withstood his strike.

Paeng Man-gyeong sauntered over, resting his massive broadsword on his shoulder with a booming laugh. "Heheh, you've got frighteningly quick hands, friend! I'm Paeng Man-gyeong of the Paeng Clan—folks in the rivers and lakes call me the Mountain-Cleaving Tyrant Saber. That was some tremendous skill. Who might you be, sir?"

Ouyang Qiangang answered with an even smile. "My name is Hahu Gang. A mere nobody who has never been active in Murim……"

His words never reached their end.

Zhuge Hui, pale with astonishment, cried out as if in a scream. "Hahu Gang, the Life-and-Death Divine Doctor? Are you… are you truly the Great Hero Hahu?"

His manner was so overwhelming that it made even Ouyang Qiangang flinch. "I have heard that people call me that, but……"

At his words, even Hwangbo Pung and Paeng Man-gyeong jolted in shock.

"Heheh, well, I never… to meet the actual Life-and-Death Divine Doctor here of all places!"

Paeng Man-gyeong let out an involuntary gasp, while Hwangbo Pung scanned Ouyang Qiangang from head to toe with an expression of sheer disbelief.

Watching their reactions, Ouyang Qiangang found himself baffled instead. He had never truly grasped just how famous his alias had become in the martial world.

Zhuge Hui stepped forward and bowed with a respectful fist-in-palm salute. "Great Hero, we have committed a grave discourtesy. Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine we would meet a figure of your eminence in a place like this. Please forgive my rudeness of a moment ago."

"Was there anything rude about it? But tell me—how did you and your companions come to be here?"

"The matter concerns the internal affairs of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠our Alliance, so I must ask for your understanding that I cannot speak of it in detail."

"Your Alliance…?"

"We belong to the Azure Heaven Murim Alliance."

"Ah!"

Han Jo and Pung So-cheong exchanged greetings with Hwangbo Pung's group as well, after which Zhuge Hui turned to Ouyang Qiangang. "What business brings you here, Great Hero?"

"While investigating Ghost Valley Village at the entrance to the Valley of Lost Souls, I discovered that traces left by the dead there led to this place. So I followed them."

Zhuge Hui's eyes gleamed.

He's known as the Divine Doctor, but his true identity is suspect. That overwhelming martial prowess, and the sheer audacity to thrust himself into the heart of this bizarre catastrophe… this man may know something about the 'thing' we're chasing. For now, moving together with him is the wisest course.

Reading his thoughts, Hwangbo Pung asked politely, "Great Hero Hahu, do you intend to continue investigating this place?"

He raised his speech to honorifics. Now that he knew Ouyang Qiangang's identity, speaking casually was no longer an option—the combined renown of all three of them could not hold a candle to the Life-and-Death Divine Doctor.

Ouyang Qiangang nodded. "That is my intention. And what will the rest of you do?"

Paeng Man-gyeong answered with a hearty laugh. "If the Divine Doctor himself isn't falling back, how could we possibly retreat? Let's go together."

Ouyang Qiangang readily accepted their company.

The Azure Heaven Murim Alliance. One of the most colossal powers in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the world, counted among the foremost of the forces outside the orthodox and heterodox paths… moving with them increases the odds of uncovering this place's secrets with far less trouble.

Even as he thought this, a jolt of unease passed through his chest. It was because he remembered how, several months earlier, at the Heavenly Fragrance Pavilion's request, he had defeated Wei Liang—an expert of the Alliance's Enforcement Hall.

Granted, he had been masked at the time, so there was no chance his identity had been exposed.

Still, I can't help wondering what faces they'd make if they found out I was the one who did that.

He shook off the idle thought. Whatever else was true, this was a place where jiangshi—monsters said to have vanished after the Righteous-Demonic Great War—had come crawling out. The more companions, the better.

The party began to search the underground cavern where the jiangshi had vanished. The ceiling rose to a height of ten chang, and the space stretched more than a hundred chang across. Aside from the passage by which they had descended, no other route was visible.

Akasha, those jiangshi couldn't have been all of them. There's definitely another exit somewhere. Find it.

[Understood.]

At Akasha's reply, thousands of invisible nanobots streamed out from every part of Ouyang Qiangang's body, scattering in all directions. Like living creatures, they spread across the cavern's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ceiling and into every crevice of its walls, methodically combing every surface.

Within the visual field of Ouyang Qiangang's mind, a three-dimensional map of the cavern—reconstructed from the data streaming in from the nanobots—was being drawn in real time.

Ouyang Qiangang approached the western wall that Akasha had indicated.

Zhuge Hui asked with a puzzled look. "Great Hero Hahu… have you discovered something?"

"There is a mechanism installed here."

At his words, every gaze turned toward the smooth stone wall he was pointing at. But all they saw, gleaming damply in the pitch darkness, was a perfectly unremarkable stretch of rock. Even Zhuge Hui, who had made mechanisms and formations his particular specialty, swept the wall with his sharpest eyes—and could find no crack, no trace of any device whatsoever.

He frowned. "Great Hero Hahu, there… appears to be nothing there."

An unavoidable note of skepticism had crept into his voice.

Ouyang Qiangang recalled the knowledge of mechanisms he had absorbed from the Imperial Treasury and said, "This place is woven with the Demonic Cult's mechanism art—the Ten Gates Golden Locks. Touch it wrongly, and this entire cavern will collapse."

With that, he stood before the wall and extended his hand. His fingers danced through the air like a performer, pressing the wall in a precise sequence, at precise angles.

A moment later—

Grrrrrrrrum—

With a ponderous grinding, the three-chang-thick stone wall sank downward, and a new passage opened before them.

As the stone wall parted, a chill yin energy poured out that seeped into their very bones, and on the wind came a sound like the weeping of lost souls.

Kyaaaah—

Watching it happen, Zhuge Hui's eyes flooded with disbelief.

He had long heard of the Divine Doctor's fame. But who could have imagined that, on top of his medicine and his martial arts, the man had also reached such depths in the art of mechanisms and formations?

Medicine, martial arts, and formation arts—three entirely different paths, all mastered to this degree by a single man… is that even possible for a human being?

Yet before his eyes stood the man who had done it as if it were nothing.

Denial was pointless.