The Swordmaster’s Trail
While Geom Mujin was holed up in the medical clinic watching over the child, one rumor began making the rounds in Gangneung.
It was the rumor that one of the Seven Martial Stars—the Great Swordmaster—had shown up.
The people of Gangneung split into two camps over that rumor.
The first were ordinary commoners.
"Great Swordmaster...? You mean that barbarian swordsman?"
"The Seven Martial Stars are in Gangneung? I didn't see him. Did you?"
"No idea. There are black-haired people all over this town."
The reaction from the common folk, who had little to do with the martial world, was lukewarm at best.
Who cared about some barbarian swordsman they'd never even seen?
However well he wielded a blade, however much he was called a hero, to them he was still just a black-haired barbarian born on the frontier.
...At least, that's what those peasants with nothing to their names thought.
If it had been one of the other Seven Martial Stars, the whole town would have gone crazy. But the one who'd appeared was the Great Swordmaster.
So before long, they all went right back to their daily lives.
In contrast, the martial sects were thrown into turmoil.
Lately, for reasons unknown, the number of idiots who looked down on the Great Swordmaster just because he was a barbarian had been rising, but there weren't many such fools among the sects here.
-Why the hell would that lunatic who collects heads show up here?
-Don't tell me... he's starting his demon-extermination campaign again.
-Damn it! If he hadn't done so much for the Orthodox-Demonic War, he'd be no different from the demonic sect himself...!
They knew.
Before the Orthodox-Demonic War had even broken out, before he had been called the Great Swordmaster, Geom Mujin had already been someone else entirely.
He had caused plenty of havoc in the Orthodox sects, sure, but compared to what he did to the demonic side, that was child's play.
He had sent people to bedridden misery, disgraced entire sects, and made them live for the rest of their lives in shame. But he had rarely taken lives.
The demonic sects, by contrast, had always had their lives targeted in the name of demon extermination.
The moment eyes met, it was a fight to the death.
Geom Mujin challenged them to a duel!
Geom Mujin used Head-Cutting.
-Become my experience points!
-Guhk!
-Massive damage
The demonic sect's demon lords became Geom Mujin's obedient experience fodder.
He had cut down more than a dozen of them, but apart from the demonic sect, almost no one criticized him.
They were the demonic sect, after all.
They were less rotten than the demon cult, maybe, but they were still a festering tumor on society.
There was nobody who'd be sad to see those bastards die.
The demonic sect was that rare kind of prey people cheered for when it got killed. (Though because Geom Mujin was a barbarian, he didn't get cheered for all that often.)
Geom Mujin went demon-hunting practically every other day.
With his daily quota of ten kills, he became etched into the demonic sect's minds as pure terror.
While the demonic sect was still reeling from his casual beatdowns and trying to move against him, something completely unexpected happened.
-Kwahaha! Let's go to the Central Plains!
-We'll spread the glory of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult to the barbarian dog-beaters of the Central Plains!
-En taro papias! For the Heavenly Demon!
The cult-like scam gang from the Tianshan Mountains—the demon cult—began their invasion.
With war burning through the martial world, the demonic sect had no time to worry about Geom Mujin.
More precisely, they thought he'd die in the chaos of war.
But against all expectations, Geom Mujin didn't die. He made a massive name for himself and became one of the Seven Martial Stars.
The demonic sect found him too troublesome to touch, and in the end had no choice but to let him keep beating them one-sidedly while they endured it in silence.
Fortunately, after the war ended, Geom Mujin stopped bothering them and disappeared without a trace.
They'd assumed he was hiding away somewhere, but that wasn't it.
And now he had turned up in Gangneung, a region where the demonic sect held the upper hand, so the demonic sect had no choice but to panic.
He was already that strong before he became one of the Seven Martial Stars. Just how strong was he now?
Don't tell me he's after me!? (Gangneung demonic sect collective panic)
The demonic sects were thrown into complete confusion.
Still, why had this rumor suddenly started spreading?
The source of the rumor was the Taeho Sect.
"There was a Great Swordmaster among the Monster Demon extermination squad?!"
The young man jumped in shock.
This young man was none other than An Dongshin, heir to An Gojun, the Taeho Sect leader, who had become so much of a wreck that he now shat his diapers five times a day.
"Why the hell is that barbarian bastard suddenly coming up here...? Are you sure about this?"
An Dongshin was questioning the most senior surviving disciple of the extermination squad.
"Young Sect Leader, didn't you see them yourself? The sword marks carved into the mountain."
"Mm..."
An Dongshin swallowed a groan.
When the extermination was over and the morning sun had finally risen, the survivors of the squad had seen something astonishing.
The mountain that had been thick with forest just before the assault had been reduced to tatters by enormous sword scars.
"Even if Sect Leader himself had been in his Transcendence / Master / Peak Realm state, something like that would have been impossible."
"...Yeah, that's true."
"The squad leader of the fourth unit testified that the black-haired laborer under his command was the one who did it. That man must have been the Great Swordmaster."
Surprisingly, the fourth-unit leader, left right in the middle of the mess after being struck by pressure-point attacks, had survived.
According to him, the black-haired laborer from his unit had subdued them in an instant.
That alone was proof that this wasn't some ordinary black-haired nobody.
"...And the one who hunted the Monster Demon was probably that barbarian bastard too."
The Monster Demon had vanished from the mountain, but there was no corpse.
Someone else had clearly taken it, and if you put the previous facts together, it was obvious who.
What's more, the severed right arm of An Gojun had clearly been cut off by a blade.
Maybe it had been the Great Swordmaster who'd left his father in that state too.
"So what do we do now?"
The disciple asked An Dongshin.
There was a certain hunger in his eyes.
"Ha! What, you want revenge or something?"
An Dongshin snorted.
"Obviously..."
They'd had their Monster Demon stolen, their sect leader reduced to that pathetic state—wasn't it obvious?
"And how do you plan to do that? Huh? What's your brilliant plan?"
"....."
The disciple had no answer.
They weren't those lunatics who thought the Great Swordmaster had become one of the Seven Martial Stars through some special barbarian preferential treatment.
If they had known a method like that, they wouldn't be here—they'd be the chief strategist of the Martial Alliance by now.
Besides, the laborers had only been intended as bait, so there were no records or documents on him to work with. There was no way to pursue him.
"More importantly, we should deal with the urgent matter first."
"The urgent matter, you say?"
"Can we keep leaving the sect leader's seat empty? Don't you think so?"
An Dongshin's lips curled upward.
He was grateful to the Great Swordmaster.
Because the bastard had turned his father into that state, the day he inherited the sect leader's seat had come far sooner than expected.
Otherwise, he'd have had to wait as long as twenty more years.
The sect's fighting strength had been cut down quite a bit, yes, but the top seat was always desirable.
Rest easy, old man. Once the inauguration is over, I'll send you off to Valhalla in no time.
"That's right. Naturally, the young sect leader should take the seat."
Like a lie, the hunger in the disciple's eyes vanished, and he quickly switched over to the new power structure. An Dongshin smiled in satisfaction.
What else could you expect from a demonic sect's loyalty?
"More importantly, make sure the underlings keep their mouths shut so no useless gossip spreads."
If word got out that he was taking over as sect leader, the younger brothers below him might oppose it, so this had to be handled quickly.
Heh. A rosy future was already taking shape—
Splorch. Splat-splatter.
"Waaah! Waaah!"
From beyond the room door came the wailing of a middle-aged man, along with the sound of a freshly changed diaper being filled to bursting.
"...He's gone again. Go fetch Jibeon."
".....Yes, sir."
At this very moment, a brown future awaited them.
But contrary to An Dongshin's warning just now, the rumor about the Great Swordmaster leaked outside anyway.
With most of the disciples dead and the sect leader just shitting himself senseless, there was no way to control it.
The rumor spread through people's mouths and soon swept across all of Gangneung.
And then the hidden ears caught it.
-Gugu! Gugu-gugu!
Rumors don't travel through footless mouths alone; they travel farther by messenger pigeon with wings.
All the way to far-off Shaanxi.
Huayin County, Shaanxi Province.
In this county stands Mount Hua, the West Peak among the five famed sacred mountains of the Central Plains.
Because the terrain is so rugged and the cliffs so steep, the path to the summit is little more than a rocky wall of stone.
Even seasoned mountain climbers struggle to ascend it, and yet this mountain has long been home to a sect.
The Mount Hua Sect, surrounded by plum blossoms so lavishly in bloom it was hard to believe they grew on a barren rock mountain where grass struggled to survive.
One of the Nine Great Sects, a Daoist sect and a sword sect both, the Mount Hua Sect was one of Shaanxi's great and prestigious powers.
Inside that sect stood a relatively recently built pavilion.
Hwayeong Pavilion.
A new pavilion built for the hero of the Mount Hua Sect.
Though she had firmly refused it herself, her followers ignored her protests and built it anyway.
A gazebo at the very top of the pavilion.
Beyond the open view, the Mount Hua Sect and the whole mountain scenery lay spread out at a glance.
Disciples training in the martial field.
Pilgrims climbing the mountain to pay their respects to the Mount Hua Sect.
Wild beasts running through the mountain forest.
Hwayeong Pavilion, which took in all of it, was a place of excellent geomancy.
In that auspicious place, a woman was moving a brush across canvas paper.
Swish—. Swish—.
Each stroke left behind vivid streaks of pigment.
Despite her brisk movements, not a single drop of paint stained the long sleeves of her robe, embroidered all over with plum blossoms.
That was only natural.
The woman wasn't actually holding the brush.
"......"
Like a conductor, she moved her fingers, and the brush moved in response.
Straight lines, curves, diagonal strokes.
The brush had been specially made, allowing it to move freely no matter the size of the canvas paper—this one was a full eight meters in diameter.
Each time she moved her fingers, her light purple hair swayed softly, like petals scattered on the wind.
It looked as if a celestial maiden had descended briefly to the mortal world and was amusing herself there.
Just as she was dipping the brush into the paint on the floating palette held aloft by telekinetic control, someone approached the top of the pavilion.
"Muyeong."
"Yes, Senior Sister Yu. Pardon the intrusion for a moment."
"Come in."
The man entered and saluted with clasped hands.
If anyone else had come without notice, they would have been told to get lost at once, but he was an exception.
A small privilege of his, earned through years of serving her faithfully, and a token of trust.
"You were painting. Am I disturbing you?"
"Heehee, don't mind it. Oh, want to try some plum blossom mochi?"
"I'm fine. More importantly, may I ask what kind of painting you're working on?"
The man—Muyeong—looked at the painting and, inwardly, found it surprising.
The unfinished work was more than half black.
That was unusual, considering her tastes.
If that were mere coincidence, it would be chilling.
Especially since the reason he'd come here was related to that very thing.
Could it be that she really did have some uncanny intuition?
"I'm trying to copy a painting called The Starry Night by a painter named Van Gogh, a gift from Hye-mae."
With a gentle smile, the woman kindly explained the painter and the painting to her disciple.
She looked like a flower.
It was the sort of sight that would make any man imagine everything from falling in love to ending up buried in a grave, but Muyeong couldn't afford that luxury, not with what he had come to say.
After swallowing once, Muyeong opened his mouth carefully.
"...It seems his location has been identified."
Freeze—
"......"
At that moment, the movement of the brush stopped.
The woman's atmosphere changed in an instant.
Swish... swish...
As the wind began to blow around her, her hair lifted and fluttered.
A flower slowly turning into a ghost.
"Is that true?"
"...Yes. A special messenger pigeon just arrived from Hyangyeong Hall."
Rip—! Riiip—!
The wind grew even fiercer, becoming sharp sword aura that shredded the canvas paper... no, slashed it to pieces.
The painting she'd worked on for days had become trash, but it didn't matter.
From the very beginning, the woman had no real hobby for painting.
She was only doing it because everyone around her kept urging her to.
Kakakak—! Ka-kak—!
As the sword aura filled the space, Muyeong drew his sword and swung it.
The reason he had come wearing a sword wasn't because he was some swordsman's soul reincarnated—it was for self-defense.
"......"
Whoosh!
When she extended a hand into the air, the sword resting on the stand flew to her.
Click.
It was her personal weapon, the Jarming Sword.
Gripping the sword tinged with violet, the woman asked one last time.
"Where is he?"
"...Gangneung, in Shaanxi Province."
Silently, she stepped to the railing facing the southeast, where Gangneung lay.
"...Gangneung."
At that moment, the woman vanished.
No—she shot forward at terrifying speed.
BOOOOM—!!
"Ghhhuuuh!"
The shockwave from her launch blasted the top floor of Hwayeong Pavilion apart.
"...Wait for me, Geom Mujin."
With plum blossom petals gathering at her feet, Yu Seol-yeong, the Seven Martial Stars' Plum Blossom Sword Princess of Mount Hua, unleashed her movement art to the absolute limit and headed for Gangneung.
And on this day, a guard dog was dropped on Mount Hua Sect.