A Tremendous Mental Shock
Time had passed, and the atmosphere at the training grounds had grown so strained that even a passing breeze would have been ashamed to stir.
Lee Sujol and Maeng Chang-haeng, the two titans of Cheonun Sect, stared blankly at the starlight coiled around Yeop Pung's body. They wanted nothing more than to pinch their own cheeks and confirm whether this was a dream or waking life.
Golden starlight wound about Yeop Pung's frame — not the ordinary pale blue of the art, but a radiance entirely his own.
Maeng Chang-haeng finally managed to shut his gaping mouth and turned to Yeop Pung.
"D-did you really... learn the Star Spirit Body Art?"
A whoosh of motion. Yeop Pung covered his face and let the Star Spirit Body's blistering speed speak for itself — a streak of starlight too swift for the eye to follow.
Then he smiled, doing his level best not to look like he was showing off.
"Uh... I think I learned it."
Damn it, "I think I learned it"? If you learned it, you learned it — what's with the "I think"?
Beside him, Lee Sujol looked as bitter as if he'd been chewing a mouthful of acrid herbs. This was even more absurd than the day he'd been stripped of the Sect Master's seat. A man of his standing had not personally transmitted a martial art to a disciple in years — and this was the Star Spirit Body Art, the most precious technique Cheonun Sect possessed.
This brat couldn't even do it two days ago!
"You... where the hell did you learn this?"
Lee Sujol asked it as if his throat had gone dry.
"Hmm..."
Yeop Pung scratched his head.
"Would you believe me if I said the Founder appeared in my dreams again and taught me?"
Like hell they would.
Lee Sujol and Maeng Chang-haeng turned their backs on the spot. Their hearts ached. They ached a great deal.
From now on, I'm not worrying about this brat ever again. He can figure it out himself!
Yeop Pung was left alone, still stroking his chin.
Huh? They already left? Are they mad? These old men's mental fortitude is this weak...
After the two titans departed, Yeop Pung's guilt evaporated in less than a second. His gaze drifted toward the far side of Cheonun Peak.
I wonder if my herb garden is all right?
A faint unease stirred in him. Since returning to the present, he hadn't been able to feel his soul connection with Heukgu. Of course, it could simply be the distance — but nothing had happened to the Herb Garden, had it?
Heukgu was highly intelligent, and Mount Tianyun hadn't suffered a major disaster in a hundred years. What could possibly have gone wrong?
He couldn't go to the Herb Garden immediately. He would have to wait until he was certain the two at Nagun Peak — and Bone — wouldn't find it strange enough to follow him. He swallowed the anxiety and resolved to bide his time.
Besides, he had a more immediate problem. When the sun rose tomorrow morning, he would have to report for Cheonbong Legion training.
The next morning, Yeop Pung's three-day leave came to an end. He left Nagun Peak with the morning sun on his face.
It was only when he arrived at Cheonun Square that he truly grasped how much Cheonun Sect had changed.
A suffocating pressure settled over him. A gloom so thick he could barely draw breath had seeped into every corner of the sect. Within a few minutes of standing in Cheonun Square, he watched three patrols of soldiers in Cheonbong Legion armor sweep through. Their cold gazes found him, and for a moment he felt like a stranger in his own home.
This had once been where Cheonun Sect disciples strolled and gathered to talk — a place where people chatted freely and passed the hours in easy company beneath the Cheonun Stele of Inquiring Qi. Now the square stood empty. Disciples were hard to find, and the few who did pass through wore taut expressions and even muted their footsteps.
In a mere three days, this was no longer a space that belonged to the people of Cheonun Sect.
"Hey, kid. What are you loitering around for?"
He'd been spotted by the patrol. Without a word, Yeop Pung produced his disciple identity token.
"What? Yeop Pung?"
The squad captain glared at him, making no effort to hide his hostility.
"Your Cheonun First Unit training ground is at Nowoon Peak. Stop hanging around here and get lost."
The captain's words grated. That ear-splitting bark, in particular, was almost more than Yeop Pung could bear. He furrowed his brow and met the man's eyes with a look of ice.
"Huh? What's your problem? What are you looking at?"
The captain slammed the butt of his spear into the ground with a crack.
"Seize him!"
The eleven Cheonbong soldiers behind him shouted in unison and leveled their spears. The air turned vicious in a heartbeat.
Just then, a familiar figure came running.
"Yeop Pung?"
Taking in the scene at a glance, he rushed forward and planted himself in front of Yeop Pung.
"My apologies. Yeop Pung's been sick for a few days and doesn't know how things stand. Please be generous and let it go."
Wang Maeng?
Yeop Pung recognized the man in front of him as Wang Maeng, who had fought beside him in the hunting tournament. Wang Maeng, who had once carried himself with such pride, had become remarkably servile in just a handful of days.
"Hmph."
The captain snorted and waved his men off, signaling them to lower their spears.
"I can give a free lesson to anyone who doesn't know how things work around here. Yeop Pung, I'll count to three. Get to the training ground right now. Otherwise I'll put you right back in a sickbed for a few more days."
"One!"
"Let's go, Yeop Pung. Hurry!"
Wang Maeng tugged at Yeop Pung's sleeve. Yeop Pung stood there without expression, but unspeakable rage was boiling up inside him.
"Two!"
"Come on, Yeop Pung!"
Wang Maeng grew even more frantic, pulling at his arm. In the end, Yeop Pung moved his feet. He knew he couldn't afford to cause trouble here.
But every step he took as he turned away felt unbearably heavy. His chest was tight, and curses crowded the back of his throat.
"Hahaha! That clueless brat's going to have a rough time at Nowoon Peak. Hahaha!"
The Cheonbong soldiers' mocking laughter rang out behind him. Yeop Pung was already on the Legion's watch list, so no one was going to treat him kindly. That hardly mattered. What weighed on him was seeing a change in Wang Maeng that he had never wanted to see — and seeing it in just three days.
Fortunately, the moment they were well clear of Cheonun Square, Wang Maeng's face twisted with fury.
"Ptooey! Those sons of bitches. This is too much!"
"Wang Maeng..."
Yeop Pung let out a quiet breath of relief.
"Why did you bow that low? This is clearly our land."
"Heh. Our land?"
Wang Maeng's smile was bitter.
"Yeop Pung, while you were gone... this Cheonun Sect isn't ours anymore."
Could it really be that bad?
Yeop Pung's heart sank like a stone. Wang Maeng gave him a brief account of the past few days. In short, under Acting Sect Master Han Buri, Cheonun Sect had dropped to its knees before the Military Supply Bureau. More than three thousand Cheonbong Legion soldiers were now stationed on the mountain, and the sect had effectively become their camp.
Han Buri had issued a strict order: there was to be no conflict whatsoever with the Cheonbong Legion, and anyone who violated a command would be thrown into the sect prison and punished severely, no questions asked.
"That's insane..."
Yeop Pung was stunned.
"Insane or not, that's the reality."
Wang Maeng shook his head.
"In two or three days, hundreds of elders and disciples have been locked up. If you'd provoked them even a little more just now, even Peak Master Maeng couldn't have protected you."
Han Buri. That bastard is as despicable as they come. Is this vast Cheonun Sect really going to collapse in his hands?
Yeop Pung's chest tightened, and he asked again.
"Is everyone else all right? What's that damn training even about?"
"About that..."
Wang Maeng said.
"The selected personnel were split into five units. The two hundred of us who were in the hunting tournament are Cheonun Army First Unit, and the rest are training at the other peaks. Nothing special happened over the past few days. We mainly drilled military discipline and formations. The rest of the time we could cultivate freely."
That straightforward?
Yeop Pung felt something was off. Organizing the Cheonun Army couldn't be that simple. Those Cheonbong Legion bastards definitely had a scheme cooking.
"Let's go see for ourselves first."
"There's one thing you're not going to like, though."
"What?"
"That bastard Beom Undae became our unit captain. Ugh. That shameless piece of work. Just thinking about him pisses me off."
Beom Undae?
Yeop Pung narrowed his eyes. He could already see that groveling face as clearly as if it were standing in front of him.
And so Yeop Pung and Wang Maeng walked the cloud bridge toward Nowoon Peak.
At the same hour, on the Nowoon Peak training ground, a soldier was sprinting toward a distant palace — the temporary training headquarters the Cheonbong Army had established on the peak. Hearing the soldier's report, a cold smile spread across the face of a young officer clad in white armor and a phoenix helmet.
"It's Yeop Pung! Yeop Pung's here!"
The moment he arrived at the Nowoon Peak training ground, familiar faces and welcoming voices rose to meet him. Yeop Pung smiled and walked toward them.
Having fought together at Taibai Peak, he had come to feel a true comradeship of life and death with the people before him. The petty grudges of the past had all burned away. What mattered now was weathering this crisis of Cheonun Sect together.
"Yeop Pung, did you miss me?"
Mo Soo-mi seemed to mince over daintily — and then, in a blink, was standing right in front of him. Even before he got close, Yeop Pung caught the heavy scent of cosmetic powder.
"Heehee, I heard all about it. At the Gangun Moon Viewing Banquet you made that Sa Cheonseong cry for his mommy with a single sword? I was so satisfied I could die. Oh, and Yeop Pung — are your injuries all right? Shall I take a look?"
Ah, no. Don't touch me.
Yeop Pung tried to step back, but the idiot Yo Yeong-chun blocked Mo Soo-mi with a hand.
"Y-you, get out of the way. Yeop Pung belongs to our goddess! Oh, right — Yeo- Yeop Pung, people said you went back to Nagun Peak carrying Un Cheoncheon in your arms. Is that true?"
A hundred-odd martial brothers around them lit up as one. Those gazes were packed with envy and jealousy beyond words.
"Haha, th-that's..."
Yeop Pung scratched his head, pondering how best to spare the fragile souls in front of him.
Then a cold voice cut through the air.
"What are you all doing here? Training starts now. Assemble and form ranks immediately!"
Beom Undae.
Yeop Pung watched him come, face set hard, shouldering through the crowd. Only the groveling Baek Reung trailed in his wake, but the arrogant aura rolling off him blanketed the entire training ground like a bad smell.
"Yeop Pung!"
Beom Undae called his name without the slightest hesitation.
"You slacked off for three whole days, so you'd better train extra hard. Don't drag down our unit's record and embarrass us."
What? What was that supposed to mean?
Everyone around stared at Beom Undae as if he'd taken leave of his senses.
When had Yeop Pung ever brought shame upon Cheonun Sect?