Radiant Ascension Path
“…This is how we live. We’re satisfied with our lives right now!”
“Vice Leader. That’s just your opinion. Look around you.”
The Vice Leader slowly turned his gaze over the gathered men. Almost no one shared his outrage or his defiance toward me. At most four or five faces burned with the same heat. The rest dropped their eyes the moment his looked their way, desperate to avoid it.
A black-path sect. They called themselves a martial school, but they were closer to a gang of thugs. Those with a little skill and a title could live well enough—swaggering about the way the Vice Leader did. The ordinary disciples, though, had it far worse. They never learned proper martial arts. When war broke out with another sect they died first. No one outside respected them. Even if they somehow survived long enough to grow old, what then? A black-path sect was a place for men who lived by force. Age meant you left—or you died. Savings? They drank and whored away every coin they earned. Take up farming? Farming was a trade that demanded experience. Men who had never touched a plow would never last; most who tried quit out of sheer boredom and hardship.
“I’ll divide every last asset remaining to Doyangmun among you. It isn’t a small sum. You could live five years without lifting a finger. Use it to enter a proper martial hall and learn real arts, buy land and farm, open a shop—I don’t care which.”
The disciples’ faces lit with interest. Money of that size had never come within their reach.
The Vice Leader was different.
“Do not try to shake our loyalty with coin! Doyangmun is our history!”
“Loyalty. Always loyalty.”
I seized him by the collar, kicked his calf hard enough to snap the bone, then drove a fist down onto his shoulder and shattered it.
“Aaaargh! S-Sect Leader!!”
“Vice Leader. From this moment I will test that fine loyalty of yours. If the loyalty you speak of truly exists, I’ll hand the position of Sect Leader over to you.”
“H-huff, huff, m-my leg…!”
“Stop whining over a broken leg. I nearly killed you out of pure irritation.”
“…….”
He felt the murder in my voice and clamped his mouth shut. The terror in his eyes was almost pitiful.
“As you can all see, the Vice Leader is in my hands. I intend to kill him. Anyone who wants him saved, step forward. Only those ready to die in his place. Show me that precious loyalty and I’ll spare him.”
I swept the yard with a cold stare. The disciples scrambled to avoid my eyes. Even the men who had always trailed the Vice Leader like limbs stayed frozen, silent as dead rats.
“Vice Leader. The loyalty you spoke of doesn’t seem to exist here.”
“S-Sect Leader, I was wrong…! I lost my head for a moment. I’ll follow your will. P-please, just one more chance…!”
“I already gave you a chance.”
I closed my fist. The man was barely better than a commoner; no need for a blade. He had climbed to Vice Leader through politics and cunning alone, never martial skill. Whatever money Doyangmun managed to make had come from that brain of his.
“I can’t stand to watch any longer.”
From among the disciples the former Sect Leader of Doyangmun, Eun Taemang, stepped forward. He was already armed—massive demon-slaying saber in hand, black armor covering his body.
“You half-man, half-woman thing, stay quiet the way you always have.”
“I can’t do that. The others I can discard, but I still need the Vice Leader. With his mind… Doyangmun will climb higher after this crisis.”
“You don’t understand. As of today, Doyangmun is dissolved.”
“Hahaha! Do you think the world will simply bend to your will?!”
“…….”
I ignored him and started to swing. Kill the Vice Leader first, then Eun Taemang.
Interference came. Eun Taemang lunged and brought the great saber down. I back-stepped and shoved the Vice Leader forward as a shield.
“Huuurk!”
The massive blade stopped a hair from the Vice Leader’s nose. He shook so hard his teeth chattered.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
From outside the training ground, masked men with swords charged in and ringed me. Their movements were clean, drilled—no rabble. They had trained.
Obvious. Baeksan Golden Clan.
Eun Taemang had called for their help. After the last Baeksan war the Golden Clan had lost most of its influence inside the fortress; they would be hungry for whatever strength Doyangmun still held.
“Hahaha. The tables have turned! Put the Vice Leader down while I’m still asking nicely! And hand the Oindan over to me! Do that and I’ll kill you clean—no torture!”
“You’re talking a lot of shit.”
I drew the saber at my waist and took the Vice Leader’s head in one stroke. It spun into the air.
Eun Taemang’s face twisted.
“You fucking bastard! Kill him now!!”
The men surrounding me rushed as one. I drove power into my core and knees and leapt. Internal energy carried me five meters straight up.
Eun Taemang chewed his lip, eyes locked on me, waiting for the moment I came down so he could strike.
I released energy through the soles of my feet. Crude, brutal use of internal force—my Yongcheon points felt ready to burst—but it was enough to twist in mid-air and spear straight at him.
He raised the demon-slaying saber for a counter. Slow. Clumsy.
Still hasn’t recovered from the wounds he took in the sparring match.
The instant the saber began its arc I triggered Charna. Time stretched. Every twitch of his body lay bare. Our blades met. I was at the disadvantage—my feet still had not touched ground.
But I had already read him completely. What you know, you can use.
I turned his own force against him, letting the shock of the collision spin my body while Charna fine-tuned every microscopic adjustment of the blade.
Sword energy spiraled along the blade and carved Eun Taemang’s body to ribbons.
Only the black armor kept him from being diced into pieces. It could not stop the cuts that opened his flesh. In a heartbeat he was drenched in blood.
“……!!”
Instead of screaming he chose to counter. That willpower, at least, deserved respect. The counter meant nothing once I had already seen through it.
I slipped past the demon-slaying saber by a hair, landed, and sprang again. The tip of my blade sliced open his chin.
What goes up must come down. On the way down I took more than half his neck. It was finished. Eun Taemang staggered backward and toppled.
“Se…ct… Lea….”
Next came the rest of the men he had brought. They were weaker than him. Clustered together they were a mild nuisance, nothing more. I handled them alone without trouble.
Ten minutes later the fighting was over.
Corpses littered the ground around me. I did not bother unmasking the dead. They were Baeksan Golden Clan martial artists; that much was obvious. I had no intention of starting a war with the Golden Clan right now.
Annoying, sure—but if I storm their gates and raise hell, my plans go up in smoke.
I stepped over the bodies and faced the disciples still standing in the training ground. Awe filled their eyes.
“I’ll say it once more. As of today, Doyangmun is dissolved. Anyone with a complaint, step forward.”
“We will follow the Sect Leader’s will!”
“Good. As promised, take the money and get the hell out.”
I distributed the silver and left Doyangmun without a backward glance. My destination was not the inn but the gates of Baeksan Fortress. Staying inside invited Golden Clan pursuit. Publicly I would leave the fortress; later, under cover of night, I would slip back into the inn.
“…….”
Footsteps behind me. I turned.
Six former Doyangmun disciples were still following. Even after we passed through the fortress gates they showed no sign of peeling off.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
All six dropped to their knees in front of me and pressed their foreheads to the dirt.
“Sect Leader! Take us in! We want to stay with you! We swear eternal loyalty! Please, take us in!”
Their real goal was plain. They wanted my martial arts. To them I was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity they refused to let slip away.
What a goddamn nuisance.
Irritation flared. Kill them all? I considered it for a heartbeat. I had already spared them once; killing them now felt wasteful. Mercy given once could be given twice.
“Doyangmun is dissolved. I am no longer its Sect Leader. You are no longer its disciples. Get lost. Find your own way to live.”
“Sect Leader…! No—Great Hero Han Soopyeong! We’ll do anything you order! We’ll even return the money you gave us! Please take us in!”
Thud. Thud-thud-thud.
They smashed their heads against the ground until foreheads split and blood ran. They were trying to prove sincerity. I felt nothing.
“Six is too many.”
“……Pardon?”
“Two seems about right.”
I turned and walked on.
On the seventh step, screams rose behind me. Curses and the clash of steel followed.
On the ninety-fifth step I felt presence again. I turned. Two blood-soaked men collapsed to their knees.
“Great Hero!”
“Please accept us!”
“You really are a pain in the ass.”
“…Great Hero. We can do anything.”
“If you say you only need one instead of two….”
They shot each other looks thick with murder. The moment I gave the word they would have cut each other down without hesitation.
It wasn’t even funny.
“Ha. You worthless pieces of shit. Do me a favor and know your place.”
Before either could open his mouth the saber left my hip and took both heads. Two skulls rolled across the dirt.
“Always making me draw my blade for no good reason.”