The One Summoned
Purgatory drew a sudden breath.
Manhon Yeon-ok, the Purgatory of Ten Thousand Souls. A dungeon that should have stayed closed for a full year after being cleared had opened its doors once more.
The jade tokens in the Orthodox-Unorthodox Coalition Headquarters rang out in a clamor as they feverishly passed the news from one to another.
Manhon Yeon-ok—
How could this—
It hasn’t even been a year yet—
Could it be Cheol-ya failed to clear it properly—
You’re the one who didn’t investigate it right—
What did you say, punk? You want to throw down—
Fine. Today, I’ll settle our life-and-death grudge properly—
As always, the moment the news reached the Coalition Headquarters, the place erupted into a noisy, full-blooded argument and then into a meeting no less chaotic for it.
The air over Shaanxi’s Hanzhong thickened as if it had gathered itself into a single mass, releasing a vile miasma. The rebirth of Purgatory. The news spread faster than any rumor in the jianghu, and even faster than that, the shadows in the dark began to move.
“Heuk-ak-sa deliberately left that jade token behind.”
“Did he use the young waitress named Yeonhwa?”
“No.”
The leader murmured quietly.
“He passed it on. To her, and to Hong San.”
Heuk-ak-sa had betrayed Heukwol Hall. But it was not because he rejected Heukwol’s grand cause; it was because he had begun to question the cold balance they pursued.
Heukwol’s balance was mechanical. If necessary, they would erase one hero, sacrifice an entire sect, and even add the very energy of Purgatory into their calculations of control with arrogant certainty.
Heuk-ak-sa had stepped out of that equation on his own. The reason he had begun pursuing Mu-hyeon-gok was part of the same chain of cause and effect.
If Heukwol were the shadow that adjusted balance, then Mu-hyeon-gok was the shadow within the shadow that distorted the flow until it ran wild.
They wanted to weave fear and information together and manipulate the martial world to suit their own tastes.
Cheol-ya had seen it at the edge of Purgatory. In the flames, there had been traces of someone artificially carving out a path, and through that opening he had come face-to-face with Mu-hyeon-gok. And that was how he came to be hunted.
Heukwol merely did not want to lose its stake in Purgatory, but Mu-hyeon-gok wanted to deepen Purgatory’s curse and shove the world into even greater chaos. Heuk-ak-sa stood alone between those two shadows with only his flute in hand.
Shaanxi, Hanzhong.
The red energy seeping out of Manhon Yeon-ok, an energy that overturned everything around it, was crawling through the cracks in the rock and devouring the land. The Coalition Headquarters immediately issued an emergency summons. Some rejoiced at the thought of clearing the dungeon and claiming the rewards from this unexpected reopening, while others wore grim faces, thinking of how many more would die, of the people consumed as sacrifices by Manhon Yeon-ok. Once again, the jianghu was tense before Purgatory.
Heuk-ak-sa stood at the edge of a cliff above the ravine. Below his gaze, the warriors of Mu-hyeon-gok had taken positions in a strange formation. It was not an altar, yet the arrangement itself mimicked a formation array, an artificial route meant to direct Purgatory’s heat toward a particular vector.
Seeing it, Heuk-ak-sa frowned.
Were the bastards from Mu-hyeon-gok members of the Blood Cult after all? If so, this round of Purgatory wasn’t natural at all—it had been twisted into something far more terrible and bizarre.
Heuk-ak-sa drew in a deep breath. The hot air from Purgatory seeped deep into his lungs. He had left Heukwol branded a traitor, but at last he was trying to find what real balance actually meant. Between the calculators and the distorters, he would cast a single honest variable into the board. He needed to take that step if he was ever to tune the world toward true peace.
At the same time, in the kitchen of Mugung Hyeoptak.
Yeonhwa heard that Purgatory had opened again while she was standing there with a ladle in hand. The customers’ footsteps quickened. Orders increased.
“To go.”
“Right now.”
Yeonhwa moved briskly. Keep the thoughts short; keep the hands faster.
But how many of the people who went like this would ever come back...
And somewhere in the back of her mind, the memory of the Black Moon Jade Token she had given Hong San lingered in a strangely persistent way.
And so Hong San headed to the main branch of the Coalition Headquarters in Chang’an with the jade token in hand.
“Purgatory has opened again.”
It was the kind of news that made your head throb the moment you heard it.
Hong San gritted his teeth through the headache at the Coalition Headquarters, made his decision, and prepared to set out; Baek-yeon tightened his grip on his sword and got ready for battle; and Yeonhwa went back to peeling onions.
While enduring the sting in her eyes.
Below the ravine, a brief note from Heuk-ak-sa’s flute drifted over Mu-hyeon-gok’s formation.
Pyiri-
A very slight distortion in the notes. Yet with that one sound, Mu-hyeon-gok’s precise flow of movement slipped ever so subtly off course. From the cliff above, Heuk-ak-sa’s eyes caught a flash of Yeonhwa’s face.
Leaving the jade token for her had not been about handing over a choice. He, too, had once been of Heukwol Hall, and because of that he knew the information, knew Hong San, knew Yeonhwa, and understood what would happen. That was why he had acted.
Yeonhwa, unaware of it all, had set the stone in motion, and now its direction had been decided for certain.
***
Jangro Suksu stood before the stove, swinging a massive wooden spatula and barking orders at the cooks. In the uproar of the kitchen, one figure stepped through the door. Cheol-ya.
Cheol-ya drifted into the familiar chaos as though merging with it. Yeonhwa faced him, and Cheol-ya met her gaze.
There was the smell of Purgatory on his body. Not the scent of burning flesh, nor of incense, but of something unpleasantly sticky, as though a foul energy had clung to his skin and lungs.
“Are you going?”
Yeonhwa asked.
“It opened.”
No more words were needed.
“This time, Purgatory’s energy is far fouler than usual. I put a noodle dish based on chili oil in this box, just like Yeonhwa suggested. When the heat gets too much, you need hotter stimulation to keep from losing your head.”
Jangro Suksu said this as he lifted the packed box.
“Be careful, Cheol-ya. You look like you think you’re the gatekeeper of Purgatory itself, but gatekeepers usually end up rotting together with the gate.”
Yeonhwa added, looking worried as well.
“Master’s right. I put in five times more spice than usual this time. It’s going to be so hot your tongue will go numb, so if you feel like you’re forgetting who you are inside Purgatory, you absolutely have to take a bite. Understand?”
“Hah. We’ll see whether it’s my tongue that tears or Purgatory itself.”
“Honestly. What’s so great about food that spicy?”
And yet even Yeonhwa liked spicy food.
Cheol-ya took the box. Even he couldn’t say for certain what he was seeking as he headed back into that hell. Only one feeling remained clear: Purgatory was calling him.
When Mu-hyeon-gok opened Purgatory this time, they lost something. Not a sacrifice’s blood, not a sorcerer’s lifespan. What they lost was doubt.
When Manhon Yeon-ok closed, what they saw in its deepest heart, in the very center where blood and flame roiled together, was Cheol-ya.
When Purgatory’s gate twisted and shut.
The energy of Purgatory, which had no true direction, no up or down, began to converge on one point called Cheol-ya, like iron filings pulled toward a magnet. The veteran sorcerers of Mu-hyeon-gok were stunned by the sight.
“That one is the key.”
Whether he was a key, a lock, or merely a stone caught in the turning wheel of fate, no one could say. But the fact that Purgatory had reacted to him was enough.
Mu-hyeon-gok cast aside their doubts. They had found their certainty. And now they began pursuing Cheol-ya in earnest, intent on seizing whatever he possessed—or whatever he represented.
Meanwhile, Heuk-ak-sa watched Mu-hyeon-gok from atop the cliff.
He was the sharpest blade in Heukwol Hall. Since he had spent his life moving like a shadow in places no one saw, cutting down the necks of traitors, he was the first to catch the strange phenomenon that occurred on the night Purgatory opened.
In his arms was another jade token like the one he had left for Yeonhwa. A sign token whose pattern could only be seen under moonlight. The Heukwol Jade Token. But even on that night, with the moon hidden behind clouds, the token began to tremble and emit a strange glow the moment Purgatory opened.
Heuk-ak-sa understood. Heukwol Hall had tried to eliminate Cheol-ya not only because they feared he might close Purgatory, but because he was in harmony with it.
“I have to move before Mu-hyeon-gok fully opens the gate.”
He decided to act on his own judgment rather than Heukwol Hall’s orders. Every time Mu-hyeon-gok opened Purgatory, Cheol-ya would head there, and each time, Purgatory would become more warped. It might mean the ruin of the jianghu, but for Heuk-ak-sa, it was also the one chance to shatter Heukwol Hall’s cold order.
In one hall of the Coalition Headquarters, Hong San was holding up the jade token Yeonhwa had given him and studying it by moonlight.
“It hums like it’s been fed some kind of energy, but to my eye, it seems to be eating Purgatory’s power.”
Baek-yeon, seated opposite him, nodded.
“Then it is all the more remarkable. It will be of great use in checking the coming rounds of Purgatory.”
The Black Moon Jade Token twitched faintly. It was a silent sign that Purgatory had opened again. Hong San tightened his grip on the token and rose from his seat.
“Cheol-ya’s already gone, I take it?”
“Yes. He left with a packed meal from Mugung Hyeoptak, too.”
Weariness and resolve crossed Hong San’s eyes in turn.
“And here we are, sending that one bastard straight into the lion’s den again. Mu-hyeon-gok is involved now, and Heukwol Hall on top of that. This time, we can’t just sit still.”
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