The Eve of the Storm

Shaking the blood from his blade, Yi Do turned his head.

Kang So-eo was grinning at him.

The man's expression plainly said he was waiting to hear something, so Yi Do obliged him with a single word.

"Well done."

The grin grew brighter still.

"Thank you, my lord."

With a silent bow, Yi Do reached to search Shin Gong-baek's robes — no, he had only just stretched out his hand when...

"Allow me, allow me!"

Kang So-eo darted forward and rifled through the dead man's garments himself, and his hands moved with startling familiarity.

"Ah, I made something of a name for myself picking pockets when I was young, you see..."

Before long he produced three items and handed them over: a small pouch, a gold ring, and the ivory credential that marked its bearer as a probationary Hundred-Household Chief of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. The ivory work was quite elegant.

The pouch held roughly eighty gold taels, and the ring was unmistakably melted down from another ten or so. All told, a considerable haul.

Then a question occurred to Yi Do.

"Do you know anything about Shin Gong-baek personally?"

"Well... hmm... I can't speak to much, but there is one thing I do know."

"Speak."

"He is the second son of a family that has produced Thousand-Household Commanders of the Jeok royal house's Embroidered Uniform Guard for generations. When people speak of the Shin clan of the capital, his house is counted among the prestigious... but beyond that, I really couldn't say."

In other words, the man had been born to wealth and standing.

"What will you do? Push straight into the imperial capital now?"

What nonsense.

Yi Do was not the sort to move without thinking. And how far was it from here to the capital of Jeok Country, anyway?

It was right to go only after raising his martial realm a little higher. If he went now, he would die like a dog — of that there was no doubt.

"We're leaving now."

At that, the man shook his head.

"Lord Yi Do. Might I be permitted a word?"

Yi Do nodded.

"I wish to serve you."

"Why?"

"Because you are the heir of Kunlun."

"..."

"I am a useful man. You need not give me your trust. Simply give me tasks — any task at all. I have lived my whole life dreaming of Kunlun's revival. That is the long-cherished wish of our Kang family."

"I have no intention of reviving Kunlun."

"That does not matter. Even if Kunlun is never revived, I wish to add my strength to the road you walk — you, who carry Kunlun's legacy."

He sank to his knees and pressed his forehead to the ground, hard enough for the impact to ring out.

"Though rumor brands me a demon head, as a martial artist who has reached the Five Dragons and Phoenixes, I believe I can still be of use."

"Five Dragons and Phoenixes? That is no small feat. Then do not belittle your own realm."

"...And yet did you not climb to that same height in less than a single year?"

It was a fair point, and Yi Do had nothing to say to it.

"I beg you. Take me in."

Yi Do studied him in silence.

The man was clearly useful. Luring those guards here had been Yi Do's own plan — he had meant to collapse the cave and bury every last one of them. But when he learned that the dead Shin Gong-baek stood at Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown, he had judged that he needed to conserve his strength as much as possible.

Then who had rigged the cavern in all the right places so that it could be brought down?

Kang So-eo.

The man had plainly furthered Yi Do's work, and proven his worth.

Yi Do tossed the words out casually.

"I will take you in. But I will not give you my trust. There is far too much I do not know about you."

"...I will tell you everything."

Yi Do shook his head.

"Whatever your past, whoever you killed — I know none of it, and I don't care to. If you truly intend to live for me, then everything I do from this point on will shake your life as well. What weight could your past possibly carry now?"

The man raised his head.

"I will give you one task."

"Anything you command."

Yi Do laid out what he had already settled in his mind.

"First, shed that label of demon head."

"...It will be difficult, but I will manage it."

"Wi County is crawling with bandits. Ride out and crush them. Then go to the Hao Gate and the Cheonjeong Gate and give a full accounting of everything that happened with the Jo clan, one of the three great families of Yangdeok Prefecture. Aiding the government troops would be one way to do it."

"Yes. I shall do so."

"Once your name is cleared, go straight to Jangryeong Commandery."

"...Jangryeong Commandery, my lord?"

"It stands empty now. But its commercial value is extraordinary. Go there, establish the 'Kang Family,' and bring the whole of Jangryeong Commandery under your control."

"...I will try."

"What comes of this task ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠will decide whether I treasure you or cast you aside. Am I understood?"

"Yes."

Yi Do turned to go, then paused.

"In one year, a great plague will break out. The herbs that can cure it are yeolsuo and cheongyeol isu. Spend every coin you can scrape together and buy them all up. It will do a great deal to swell your funds."

Without a word, he handed the man the pouch of gold taels and the gold ring he was still holding.

"And there will be a person of consequence staying at the Golden Inn there. Whether by day or by night, pay your respects once ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a day, without fail."

Kang So-eo pressed his forehead to the ground once more, then laid both palms flat against the earth.

The perfect posture of full prostration.

"I honor your command!"

The slaughter of the imperial guards made Yi Do's name spread faster than ever.

To be honest, whatever one did in a backwater like Jangryeong Commandery, it would never echo across the entire murim on its own. The proof was that the twin pillars of the intelligence world, the Hao Gate and the Cheonjeong Gate, had never once deemed the man Yi Do worth detailing.

But the situation had changed now.

The Jeok royal house was a colossus.

And among its instruments, the very name of the Embroidered Uniform Guard reigned as a byword for terror — at least among officials.

How much more so for martial artists, then.

Not every man of the imperial guards was a supreme expert. But their numbers were vast.

Setting aside the ranks swelling toward a hundred thousand, the commanders who led them were always guaranteed a certain level of martial attainment.

A mere Hundred-Household Chief like Shin Gong-baek had been a master of Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown, and above his rank, those of Five Qi Gathering at the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Origin were legion.

Above all, the Grand Commander who headed the Embroidered Uniform Guard — pedigree aside — could only be appointed if backed by genuine martial power.

The minimum requirement for that post was the Realm of Myth.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard was, without question, a fearsome organization.

And now a Hundred-Household Chief, a master of Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown, had been annihilated along with all his guards at Mount Bushin.

One hundred and eighty imperial guards crushed to death beneath the collapsing cave, twenty more found with blades through their throats, and Shin Gong-baek himself — body severed in half, skull pierced through.

He might not have wanted fame, but circumstances had made it impossible to escape.

And that was not all.

The Emperor Sword Sect was already hunting him, and now the Killing Curtain had joined the chase.

The Curtain Lord of the Killing Curtain had issued his order: this wretch who dared lay hands on the Killing Curtain was now throwing the entire murim into an uproar — seize him at once and beat him to death. And deliver half the corpse to the imperial house, and bring back the other half.

The Killing Curtain was admittedly not the finest assassin organization in all the murim.

But it was an organization that aspired to be the finest of them all.

The Curtain Lord himself was a master of the Realm of Harmony, and the four Protectors who commanded the Curtain's assassins were all at Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown.

The important one, though, was the Vice Curtain Lord.

This Vice Curtain Lord was a master of Five Qi Gathering at the Origin — and he was the very man upon whom the Curtain Lord's order had fallen.

Withered Bamboo Demon Lord Jang Min.

He led his assassins and began the pursuit of Yi Do.

They had not moved blindly. In Jang Min's hand was a single dispatch.

Rage surged at the mere thought of it; his hand tightened, crumpling the paper.

"...I will go and tear him limb from limb."

Written on that dispatch was information on Yi Do's current whereabouts.

The Murim Alliance, silent until now, began to move as well.

Plenty of men had killed a prefect or a magistrate in their day — and every one of them had been hunted down by the Embroidered Uniform Guard. But a man who slaughtered a prefect and then butchered the very guards who came after him — the murim had scarcely seen his like in all its history.

If the Murim Alliance — guardian of the righteous path, champion of chivalry and honor — kept silent any longer, it would have to take down its own signboard.

The great majority of the orthodox sects' elite disciples belonged to the Alliance's Azure Dragon Platoon.

Its commander was a man named Ju Cheon-ui, who bore the epithet Red Dragon Divine Lord, and his Red Dragon Divine Art, which wreathed his whole body in living flame, was hailed as the finest of the finest.

His realm: Five Qi Gathering at the Origin.

He led the Azure Dragon Platoon's elites and set out after Yi Do.

Naturally, his intentions were not kindly ones. To capture him — or to kill him.

Yi Do was already, in name and in fact, a "demon head," so this much was only to be expected.

In Ju Cheon-ui's hand, too, was a single dispatch.

"He is heading for Jushin County. Prepare yourselves."

The members of the Azure Dragon Platoon answered as one.

"Yes, sir!"

The Killing Curtain and the Murim Alliance hunted Yi Do. But there was another pursuing him, for reasons entirely his own.

"Where is he?"

At Myo Man-li's abrupt question, Won Sunsang, branch manager of the Cheonjeong Gate's Wisu Commandery branch, nearly toppled backward out of his seat.

"Wh... where what is, exactly...?"

"Come now, man. Where is my disciple, is what I'm asking."

"...Is he really your disciple?"

"Not yet. But he will be. He learned my martial arts, did he not?"

"I heard you simply handed them over..."

"Heheh. And so he became my disciple. Now — where is he at this moment?"

"...I couldn't say."

Myo Man-li grinned.

"The information you've passed me before was truly fascinating, you know."

"..."

"Thanks to you, I've wasted the trip — but I did get to savor, after so long, how beautiful the Central Plains look. There was one spot in particular that caught my eye. Shall I bury you there?"

"N-no, Great Hero — I wasn't the only one. Everyone in the Central Plains has failed to predict that man Yi Do's movements. He appeared out of nowhere at Mount Bushin, of all places. His trail is utterly uncanny."

"Which is precisely why my disciple is remarkable."

The smile at the corner of Myo Man-li's mouth turned pleasantly indulgent again.

He seemed the easy sort to read — and yet, precisely for that reason, one could never let their guard down. The seat of Grand Elder of the Asura Sword Sect was not one just anyone could occupy. That man was a madman.

Perhaps worse than Yi Do.

Ahem.

"I... I will look into it myself, Elder. Grant me a little time."

"How much do you need?"

"...One double-hour will suffice."

"One double-hour?"

"Yes."

"So you hesitated to speak on facts you could learn in a single double-hour?"

Won Sunsang had no idea what the man wanted of him, and silently hurled at himself every curse he knew.

He felt a little better afterward.

"I... I can't pinpoint him exactly. Since the affair at Mount Bushin there has been no confirmed sighting of him anywhere, so at best I could narrow things down to several high-probability locations... and frankly, even that is uncertain. But."

"But?"

"We can follow on the heels of those pursuing him."

"...Hmm."

"Go on to Wi County first, Elder. I will gather every scrap of information I can and fly it to you by dispatch."

"Very good. But if my disciple dies, so does ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠your life."

"...You are joking, surely?"

"Heh heh heh. Does it sound like a joke?"

Son of a bitch.

Myo Man-li clapped Won Sunsang warmly on the shoulder.

"Now, now. Complain all you like — it all serves you in the end. Would I truly turn my back on a man who does me such great service?"

"..."

"So hurry along and get to work."

"...Yes... of course..."

Won Sunsang was just rising to track down Yi Do's destination when the door burst open.

Won Sunsang and Myo Man-li turned their heads at the same moment.

It was a gate courier of the Cheonjeong Gate, a dispatch in his hand — sealed in gold, the mark of the Gate's special grade.

"We have... just located the Cruel Demon Dao."

Won Sunsang took the dispatch from the courier, and at the portrait it contained he nearly fell out of his chair.

"Good heavens..."

It was grotesque.

This was supposed to be a human face?

Distinctiveness had its limits, and this went far past them.

Ahem.

He cleared his throat and read on.

Myo Man-li, who had been reading over his shoulder, dashed straight out of the room as if there were nothing left to weigh. Won Sunsang didn't even have time to get a word out.

Bursting into a sigh, Won Sunsang asked the courier:

"Where did this information come from?"

"The Bushin County branch of the Cheonjeong Gate. They say a man who declined to give his name or affiliation visited and handed it over — without asking for anything in return."

"...Without payment?"

"Yes. They described him as having long, narrow eyes, a round face, and a very large frame."

"The face doesn't matter. Anyone can disguise themselves, after all."

"They said that beyond that, there was nothing distinctive about him at all."

"..."

"And the information wasn't sent to the Cheonjeong Gate alone. It went to everyone pursuing Yi Do."

Now that was strange, wasn't it?

Setting aside the question of whether the information was even genuine — why broadcast Yi Do's whereabouts like this?

If they knew he had been going about with a changed face, whether through disguise arts or masks, and knew where he was now, the obvious move was to go and kill him themselves. Yet they were borrowing someone else's hand?

No matter how central "killing with a borrowed knife" was to the murim's way of things, this was too strange. At least in the eyes of Won Sunsang, who had dealt in nothing but information for decades and weathered every sort of affair the murim could produce.

"...It reeks of a warning."

That was it. A warning.

Whether Yi Do lived or died over this affair was of no interest whatsoever — it simply felt as though someone was settling a debt of some kind.

"This information reached everyone chasing the Cruel Demon Dao?"

"Yes."

Then what happened next was simple. Either Yi Do died, or Myo Man-li went and saved him.

Or else — a possibility so remote it hardly deserved the name — Yi Do butchered every last one of his pursuers.

Think, he told himself. Even for a special-grade dispatch, there was no ruling out the chance of the trail diverging or the timing missing its mark. The dispatch said Yi Do had not left the small mountain in Jushin County for two days — and if the dispatch had been sent yesterday, then...

"The Killing Curtain must already be moving."

"...They say the Murim Alliance has moved as well."

Everyone who meant to move was already moving — and the Cheonjeong Gate, self-styled masters of information, was only now catching wind of it.

His pride stung.

He needed, at the very least, to learn who had spread this information. The moment he thought so, something surfaced in Won Sunsang's mind.

The Cruel Demon Dao had gone to Wi County?

What was in Wi County? Merchants. A port city, with smuggling rings in full swing — and wherever such a place existed, one group was bound to be mixed up in it. The black market.

Yi Do had money. According to this trail, he had purchased a single sword and a five-hundred-year ginseng root. He had plainly spent his fortune there.

And yet he had never once visited the black market.

But he had obtained those goods in Wi County.

Which meant he had almost certainly bought them from a middleman, before they were ever supplied to the market. Such cases were not unheard of, so it was a fair deduction.

And then there was this overwhelming grasp of information.

People had noticed that Yi Do disguised himself — but no one would have imagined this face. Whoever knew both was a person, or an organization, of a very particular kind.

One name came to mind.

"...Cheonrim — the Sky Forest...?"

Once the clue surfaced, there was nothing left to hold him back. Won Sunsang's mind whirred at full tilt.

However he turned it over, only one answer came.

Cheonrim. Cheonrim had leaked Yi Do's location.

Everything that happens in this world has a reason, and every result has a cause. There is no such thing as an effect without one.

This case was no different.

What Yi Do had taken was one five-hundred-year ginseng root and one sword. Even if he had paid a fair price, that payment had not gone to Cheonrim — and Cheonrim was, above all, a merchant. Which meant...

"Had someone already reserved one of those two items...?"

As for the ginseng — rare, certainly, but thin motivation for all of this. Which left one item.

The Cloud Dragon Sword.

Someone had plainly 'reserved' that sword in advance. Won Sunsang made straight for the archive and began tearing through the records. Cheonrim, Cheonrim, Cheonrim.

There.

He ran his eye down the list of their recent contacts. His index finger stopped on a single entry.

"...Eight Immortals Sword Bang Ju-hon."

Cheonrim had made contact, not so long ago, with an elder of the Emperor Sword Sect.

The odds were high that some manner of bargain had been struck there.

Won Sunsang went straight to the opposite shelf — the one holding the records of affairs in Wi County — and there, too, he found what he was looking for.

Who was Jang No-ya? A merchant who traded with Cheonrim in Wi County, a master of the Jucheon realm — and the very old man who had sold Yi Do the five-hundred-year ginseng and the Cloud Dragon Sword.

Every question resolved itself at once.

The one who had reserved the Cloud Dragon Sword now hanging at the Cruel Demon Dao's hip was Bang Ju-hon of the Eight Immortals Sword.

Cheonrim had received the goods in Wi County and meant to sell them on to Bang Ju-hon — and then things had gone wrong.

If you want leverage over the Emperor Sword Sect, you must act somehow, in some fashion. This was the result.

As for why they had not simply cut off Yi Do's head and seized the sword themselves — presumably because Yi Do's manner of acquiring it had been legitimate enough. He had paid far beyond a reasonable price; if Cheonrim now went and murdered him to reclaim the goods, who would ever trade with them again?

But Jang No-ya had not been so fortunate.

"...Terrifying, honestly."

Cheonrim had killed Jang No-ya — and warned Yi Do.

No doubt they had originally intended to tip off the Golden Heaven Divine Sword about Yi Do's whereabouts, but the Golden Heaven Divine Sword was currently missing. Having grasped the whole of it, Won Sunsang scratched his head.

"If that's a talent, then it's quite the talent. How does the man manage to make enemies everywhere he goes and spill blood wherever he walks?"

"Indeed, sir."

"Men like that come to one of two ends: buried quietly in some nameless hill, dead without a sound..."

The courier leaned in at that. He wanted to hear the other one.

"...or become a powerhouse whose name shakes the entire murim."

"Which end do you think he'll meet, Branch Manager?"

Won Sunsang gave a dry laugh.

"Me?"

"Yes."

He thought for a moment, then answered with conviction.

"The latter."

"The latter, sir?"

"However I look at him, this man is unlike anyone the murim has produced until now."

That was the feeling he got.

Scratching his head, he gave the courier his orders.

"Raise every piece of intelligence on the 'Cruel Demon Dao' to special grade. Report to me the instant anything comes in."

"Yes, sir."

At that very hour, just as the dispatch described, Yi Do sat cross-legged on a small mountain in Jushin County, not far from Wi County.

Above his head, three flowers were blooming — and the air about them was something altogether different.

The lower dantian, the middle dantian, and the upper dantian at the crown of his head — still unopened, yet faintly, unmistakably there.

The qi that had surged and circled among these three inner fields was drawn back and absorbed into Yi Do's body once more.

Had that gathered energy pierced the crown of his head and soared skyward to touch the Heavenly Palace, that would have been Five Qi Gathering at the Origin — but he was not yet capable of that.

Any other martial artist who witnessed this scene would have been struck speechless.

Ordinarily, one first senses the upper dantian upon reaching Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown. To awaken it — let alone throw it open — is absolutely impossible at that stage.

But a short while ago, Yi Do had consumed the Heavenly Spirit Spiritual Root Pill, briefly summoning the power of his former life.

For that fleeting moment, Yi Do's upper dantian had stood perfectly open.

That experience had fused with his present ascent to Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown.

Yi Do's middle and lower dantians had merged into perfect unity.

The very feat said to be attainable only upon reaching Five Qi Gathering at the Origin had been accomplished now, flawlessly.

Five Qi Gathering — and yet not Five Qi Gathering.

Without meaning to, Yi Do had pioneered an entirely new realm.

Yi Do opened his eyes.

"...Mmm."

If he himself had failed to notice the change in his own body, that would have been stranger still.

His expression never wavered, but there was a tremor in his voice.

It was a singular realm. He could wield the power of Five Qi Gathering at the Origin, though not for long — and even so, it stood above the realm of Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown.

He had never experienced anything like it.

The realm needed a name.

"...Cheonhwa Nanchu — Flowers Falling from Heaven."

It was a fine name.

At the hour when his pursuers gave chase, at the time when a great storm of blood had been foretold, Yi Do ascended to Cheonhwa Nanchu.