Uigyeong Pavilion
My strike had gone wide.
The instant that thought formed, I drove every ounce of strength into my legs and surged forward. From the body of Myeong Hyeon, who had retreated a good distance away, a strange black energy was seeping out.
Demonic qi.
It wasn't pure demonic qi, but it was thoroughly contaminated all the same. If he left it alone like that, or kept letting it grow, the day would come when he'd lose his reason and rampage like a madman, destroying everything around him.
That was exactly what happened to the demonized — those who had been devoured by their own demonic qi.
Wolcheon Thunder Sword Art.
A bead of pure, refined qi gathered at the tip of my blade. A crackle — the energy of lightning took root in the steel. I brought it straight down. Myeong Hyeon twisted his body. His foot.
BOOOOM—!
He deflected my sword.
It was fine. I had expected it. I spun with the deflection, turning his own striking force against him, and my Cloud Dragon Sword, laden with centrifugal force, arced for his throat — a vivid dragon's shape coiling along the blade as it went.
Myeong Hyeon cried out in alarm. He kicked off backward, putting distance between us, but—
Shrrk! He failed to stop the cut splitting open his chest. Blood sprayed in all directions. He staggered back, then lifted his head.
"...That's the Three Flowers Gathering at the Peak, isn't it?"
"You're wondering about that now?"
"...There are a few other things I'm curious about, but before those — may I make one request?"
I adjusted my grip on the sword.
"Speak."
And Myeong Hyeon came out with something even I couldn't make sense of.
"C-could you possibly... count to three for me one more time?"
I was dumbfounded. Myeong Hyeon backed away, drawing his energy back in.
"How can anyone be so stingy as to count only to three? You ought to give a man at least five."
I was about to ignore him and lunge in when—
Myeong Hyeon raised both arms. An unmistakable gesture of surrender.
"You do know that fleeing beyond the frontier is no easy feat, don't you?"
I watched him for a moment, then slowly lowered my sword.
He pressed on.
"As for that information network of yours with its unknown origins, I won't pry. What matters is that you, Lord Protector, simply know too much."
"And?"
"Well... you already know what I'm about to say, but I'll say it anyway. Me, Xuanwu, Qinglong — none of us truly holds a grudge against you, Lord Protector."
"Go on."
"We answer only to the Sword Emperor's orders. I can't speak for the other two, but as for me — I'm carrying out different orders right now. I have business to attend to within the Asura Sword Sect, so I have no intention of making an enemy of you. That's what I'm saying."
"In the end, the Sword Emperor will order me killed."
"He might. But there is one way around it."
"Which is?"
The Yaksha drew a breath. Then, with a rather complicated expression, he said to me:
"You simply make it so that I have died."
"Then this is simple. Wouldn't it be convenient if I just killed you here and now?"
"Honestly, no one would believe that you, Lord Protector, killed Geumcheon Shin-geom. How could a master of the Three Flowers Gathering at the Peak slay a master of the Realm of Harmony? Even I, at Ogijowon, couldn't manage it. But it is also true that Geumcheon Shin-geom has vanished. I've been watching you from yesterday until now, and I can tell — if neither of us acts, you and I will inevitably end up pointing blades at each other. Who wins is a separate matter."
"What exactly are you getting at?"
"Let's make a deal."
"A deal?"
Wordlessly, Myeong Hyeon walked over and dropped himself down onto the spot where he'd been sitting before. His gaze settled on the campfire. He was utterly, perfectly defenseless. If I struck now, it would land without fail. I could take at least one of his arms.
But.
I didn't.
"I entrust myself to you."
He had humbled himself that far, so for the time being, I let it pass. I sat back down across from him.
"The Sword Emperor's influence spreads across this entire Jeok Murim. The Yeon Murim and the Wi Murim are no different. He leads the sect that wields the sword better than any other, so warriors from every nation flock to him for guidance. 'Flee beyond the frontier'? 'Run and hide'? Do you truly believe that's possible?"
"Perhaps not. But it would still beat staying here."
"...No. To speak frankly, living on here in the Asura Sword Sect as a second-generation disciple would suit me far better than tending to that old man's grave."
It wasn't a non sequitur.
The Shadows of the Emperor Sword Sect.
Yaksha, Qinglong, Xuanwu.
Of the three, Xuanwu was such a lunatic that even I clicked my tongue at the memory of him — but the Yaksha and Qinglong were not. Those two had grown weary of living as shadows. More than that, the Sword Emperor held a leash around their necks. In my previous life, they had made a single request of me.
Save the ones they loved.
I saved one. I failed to save the other.
The one I saved was Qinglong's. The one I failed was the Yaksha's.
Then a question occurred to me.
"What were you doing in the Asura Sword Sect?"
"...Investigating."
"Investigating what?"
"The Sword Emperor suspects Dokgo Dan-ya, the Sect Master of the Asura Sword Sect."
Suspects, is it...
"Suspects him of what?"
Myeong Hyeon lifted his head and met my eyes directly.
"For all that prodigious information network of yours, it seems there are a few things you don't know."
"Spare me the theatrics. Get to the point."
"It concerns Dokgo Dan-ya's martial realm."
"His realm?"
"Yes. As far as the world knows, Dokgo Dan-ya stands at the very peak of the Realm of Entering Divinity. But the Sword Emperor judged otherwise. He assessed Dokgo Dan-ya's true realm as at least the Realm of Myth. The Sword Emperor once crossed a single blade with him under the pretense of a friendly bout — and he claims he sensed the presence of demonic qi."
That was somewhat interesting.
"So you planted me in the Asura Sword Sect to confirm it?"
"Yes."
"And if it's proven that Dokgo Dan-ya learned the demonic arts?"
"The entire Murim would come swarming to annihilate the Asura Sword Sect. Demonic humans have begun appearing one by one near Yeonseong lately — around the Pacheon Fist Sect, the Asura Sword Sect, and the Sinsal Sect. Truly strange, isn't it? In the Yeon and Wi Murim, not a single demonic human has shown so much as the tip of its nose — and yet they surface only in the Jeok Murim."
As far as I could remember, the Asura Sword Sect had most certainly not been a demonic sect.
It was simply one of the sects that had been destroyed.
And Myo Man-ri, the sole survivor of that destroyed sect — what had he done?
He had launched relentless attacks on the Emperor Sword Sect and the Murim Alliance alike.
That he had kept striking at those two powers even after the Pacheon Fist Sect was already annihilated meant there had to be something tying them together.
And so a picture began to take shape.
The Pacheon Fist Sect, the Emperor Sword Sect, and the Murim Alliance — those three had destroyed the Asura Sword Sect. Then the Pacheon Fist Sect, having outlived its usefulness, was branded a demonic sect by the Emperor Sword Sect and the Murim Alliance and destroyed in turn.
This picture I'd drawn might be wrong. But by my instinct, it was the most likely version.
Because.
I knew that the Sword Emperor of the Emperor Sword Sect had learned the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
"So that's why you sealed your own blood pathways?"
"...Yes. Unless I went this far, the average master might be fooled, but never Dokgo Dan-ya's eyes."
What this meant was simple: the Myeong Hyeon before me was, beyond question, a master of Ogijowon. Whether he had studied the demonic arts or not, that realm did not simply evaporate. It had to be concealed as thoroughly as possible.
He hadn't lived as a Shadow of the Emperor Sword Sect for nothing. He had forcibly shut down his own blood pathways, sealed every channel through which demonic qi might flow, retained only the barest trace of it, and then smothered that trace completely beneath ordinary qi.
With that, the eyes of Entering Divinity masters were easy enough to deceive.
He might even fool a master at the threshold of the Realm of Myth — but only those who had just entered it. Anything beyond that, and he'd be seen through at a glance.
And Dokgo Dan-ya had most certainly noticed Myeong Hyeon's existence. So why was he leaving him be?
Was he preparing something?
"Do you know why I'm telling you all this, Lord Protector?"
"Do I need to?"
"Wouldn't it be better if you did?"
I said nothing. Myeong Hyeon smiled awkwardly.
"I can't say whether it will come to pass, but you are bound to the Emperor Sword Sect by debts and grudges alike. Jang Un-yeon. Geumcheon Shin-geom. And looking at the bigger picture — the Sword Emperor himself."
"And?"
"I don't know who will stand victorious at the end. But the longer time goes on, the more I find myself wanting to raise your banner."
A dry laugh escaped me.
"And what led you to that judgment?"
"Possibility."
"Possibility?"
"You reached the Three Flowers Gathering at the Peak at seventeen. You have the full trust of Myo Man-ri, who will surely ascend to the Realm of Entering Divinity soon — you'll sit in a high seat of the Asura Sword Sect before long. And beyond that, there stands Dokgo Dan-ya, fully capable of matching the Sword Emperor one-on-one. Looked at broadly, this will become a war between the Asura Sword Sect and the Emperor Sword Sect. I have tried everything to slip free of the Sword Emperor's shadow, and every attempt has failed. So I would like to try once more."
I stared at him in silence.
"Of course there's a chance it fails. But that's what makes it worth finding out. Wouldn't you agree?"
From yesterday until today.
It wasn't as though I hadn't noticed Myeong Hyeon's gaze boring into me the entire time. His stare alone had been reason enough to rough him up.
He had spent all that time taking my measure — working out exactly what kind of man I was.
This proposal was the sum of all of it.
"Your existence is a lethal liability. If I'm to keep it hidden, I ought to get something out of the arrangement, shouldn't I?"
Myeong Hyeon smiled.
"Then use me as your sword."
"Your sword?"
"There's no telling what may happen from here on. The Asura Sword Sect... to be frank, it has serious problems internally right now. The elders are split into factions — that's the largest issue — and the Asura Hall is fractured along with them. It's a mess atop a mess. Judging by everything you've done since arriving, Lord Yi Do, you will plainly need someone standing beside you to shoulder the load."
"And that someone is you?"
"Yes. Because my blood pathways must stay sealed and my qi bound, I can't draw out my full strength — but I can bring up at least the power of Oryongbongseong without difficulty."
"And why should I trust you?"
"...My lover and my child live in Geongon Fortress, in the Yeon Nation. Just as the Sword Emperor knows my weakness, so now do you, Lord Yi Do. Isn't that enough?"
Come to think of it, it wasn't bad. It was more than understandable.
Being alone suited me fine — but having a dog or two to work to the bone wasn't a bad thing either.
And then the man asked me:
"...How much do you know about the Sword Emperor?"
"More than you do."
"...Do you also know what martial art he cultivated?"
"If you mean the Heavenly Demon Divine Art — yes. I know."
Myeong Hyeon went pale with shock.
His mouth opened and closed wordlessly several times before he finally managed to speak.
"...Then I am, without question, an existence mortally dangerous to you, Lord Yi Do. If it became known that I studied the demonic arts, the Asura Sword Sect itself could come crashing down. But the reverse is also possible."
That was true.
The reverse was possible.
"You could bury the Emperor Sword Sect as a demonic sect. Because my very existence is poison to them."
Whether I liked it or not.
Keeping Myeong Hyeon close was the better play.
"Fine. I accept the deal."
"Thank you."
Myeong Hyeon and I returned together to the Asura Sword Sect.
A man was standing in our path — and the moment Myeong Hyeon laid eyes on him, he dropped into a bow from where he stood.
"I greet the Asura Pavilion Master!"
I watched Myeong Hyeon for a moment. For now, I intended to observe.
Wordlessly, the man took the clenched-fist salute.
"It is done."
I raised my head. The Asura Pavilion Master — Sangguan Yeonhwi, the Thousand Sword Scholar.
This was the first time I was seeing him in the flesh, but the various rumors I'd heard about this man still burned vivid in my mind.
Eight years from this very moment — before the Asura Sword Sect collapsed — this man would die in the war against the Pacheon Fist Sect.
His deeds in that final moment would reach my ears even a decade and more after the fact.
The Pacheon Fist Sect had six elders. One master of the Realm of Entering Divinity, and five of the Realm of Harmony.
Sangguan Yeonhwi slaughtered two of those Harmony masters, and the Entering Divinity elder besides — three men in total.
Alone.
It was, in a sense, a mutual destruction. A master of the Realm of Harmony, facing two masters of his own rank and one of a higher rank besides, dying alongside all of them. The world still murmured that had Sangguan Yeonhwi been alive when the war between Orthodox and Demonic paths broke out, the Asura Sword Sect would never have crumbled so easily. It was fascinating.
He hadn't mastered the Ring Stepping Cultivation the way I had. He didn't wield pure refined qi. And yet he killed a master a full realm above him — in a hierarchy where a single step in the Heaven-Earth Realms meant a gulf as wide as heaven and earth?
It would have been stranger if I hadn't been interested.
"They call you the Cruel Demon, I hear. Quite an amusing epithet you carry."
"You flatter me."
"At first I thought the Great Elder had gone and caused trouble again, but it seems he's actually brought back a proper martial artist this time."
A peculiar smile crossed Sangguan Yeonhwi's face.
"The spoils from Seok Family Manor arrived yesterday. The sum was monstrous."
"Is that so."
"...You're a hard man to read."
I studied Sangguan Yeonhwi in silence.
"You're remarkably composed. Most martial artists take one look at me and start trembling."
What he meant by that was easy enough to grasp.
Setting aside his realm and his rank entirely, his physical presence alone was overwhelming. He stood nearly seven chi tall, and the three swords slung across his back were each of a different length — by rough estimate, two chi, four chi, and six.
A short blade, a mid-length blade, and a greatsword.
Curious.
Was it a hallmark of his martial art, the Asura Monarch Dragon Sword? Or merely a personal quirk? I found myself wondering.
And then there was his face.
Frankly, he was far from handsome. Eyes half-lidded and heavy, a jaw carved in hard angles, thick brows and a broad nose — he looked for all the world like a mountain bandit.
"You finish a red mission the moment you arrive... and while I don't much care for you hauling off a branch member without so much as a request, the results speak for themselves, so I'll let it pass."
I stayed quiet.
"Taciturn, just as the rumors say. And I'm told you're to be appointed Branch Head of the Sambong Branch. Failing to come pay your respects directly is a touch insolent — but since the Great Elder brought you here personally, I'll say nothing more about it."
"If I gave offense, I apologize."
"No matter. Tell me — have you heard anything about the Sambong Branch?"
I shook my head.
"Then I'll explain briefly. The Sambong Branch was all but annihilated by the incident some time ago. Of the twenty-one members including the Branch Head himself, every last one died save two. The ranks must be refilled, and there are two ways to do it."
"I'm listening."
"Receiving second-generation disciples recommended by the Asura Hall — or bringing in your own people."
There was nothing to deliberate.
"I choose the latter."
"You'll bring them yourself?"
"Yes. And I'd like to take Myeong Hyeon here into the Sambong Branch as well."
Sangguan Yeonhwi glanced at Myeong Hyeon, then gave a nod.
"Then do so. I've already spoken to Uigyeong Pavilion. Go receive your resources, and set about your duties at the Sambong Branch."
"Understood. I will."
When I returned the salute, the Pavilion Master accepted it and moved off. Only when he had vanished entirely from view did Myeong Hyeon rise from where he knelt.
I shifted my gaze. Ahead, trees stood planted thick and dense.
"Myeong Hyeon."
"Yes, Branch Head."
"Go to Uigyeong Pavilion and collect the reward for this mission, along with the training resources to be distributed to the entire branch."
"...Me?"
"Yes. You."
"..."
"I'll be circulating my qi, so take your time going and coming. And—"
I looked him dead in both eyes.
"No whining. When I give an order, you carry it out. Understood?"
"...Yes."
Having sent Myeong Hyeon off to Uigyeong Pavilion, I walked up to the trees, folded myself into a lotus position, and began to breathe.
Myeong Hyeon's mind was a tangled mess.
Yi Do.
Frankly, the man was bizarre beyond belief. Setting aside his temperament and his heavy hands, it was his strength that defied comprehension.
Seventeen years old.
Barely more than a child — and yet listening to him speak was like facing some grizzled veteran of the rivers and lakes.
His debut into the Murim was plainly recent, yet he possessed insight and judgment beyond all reason.
And the hands to back it all up.
It went past admiration into something close to fear.
No.
Think of it logically: if a seventeen-year-old had reached the Three Flowers Gathering at the Peak, what realm would he occupy at eighteen?
At nineteen? At twenty?
It was beyond imagining.
Even the demonic humans who cast aside their very humanity as the price of learning the demonic arts — who waged endless war against their own impulses — were never like this.
Yi Do had never touched the demonic arts.
Of that much he was certain.
That was precisely why he had proposed the deal.
The Forbidden Guard, who invariably hunted down and killed anyone who meddled with the officials, held their silence — and so did the Killing Curtain, with whom Yi Do had already made an enemy.
The Emperor Sword Sect? There was nothing more to say.
Not with the backing of the Asura Sword Sect that had risen around Yi Do.
Myeong Hyeon's choice had been the right one.
Worth betting on.
He wanted out of the Sword Emperor's grip.
He clenched his fists.
Truthfully, he wanted to seize the Sword Emperor by the throat and tear it out — but that was impossible.
The man was already a master of the Realm of Myth. A monster who wielded the Heart Sword. If he decided to kill Myeong Hyeon, Myeong Hyeon would die without ever knowing he had died.
"The Sambong Branch, is it... The new Branch Head is the one they call the Cruel Demon, aren't you?"
He looked up.
A pavilion member of Uigyeong Pavilion was regarding him.
The grim expression on Myeong Hyeon's face melted in an instant into something pleasantly dopey.
"Heheh. That's me."
"Tsk, tsk... you'll have your work cut out for you. Seeing you this time, it's not that you're bad at the job — your hands are just far too heavy."
"You think so?"
"You wiped out the entire Kang clan estate, didn't you? What in the world possessed you to pull a mad stunt like that — planning to go to war with the Pacheon Fist Sect?"
He simply laughed. Nothing he said would get through, and he had no desire to argue the point anyway.
"You resolved a red mission, so here's five ten-year Asura Pills, plus training resources for 'four branch members.' Now take it and go."
Beside the man sat a pouch.
That's right.
A pouch — not a bundle.
"Er... isn't this a bit too little?"
"Too little? You've got no branch members yet anyway. What's the point of giving you more?"
"...If my Branch Head finds out about this, I feel like he might be... a little displeased."
"Oh, come now. What's a man who went from youngest entry disciple to second-generation disciple got to grumble so much about?"
"..."
"Word is your Branch Head said something rather interesting during the match for Sect Master. Do you know who the Uigyeong Pavilion Master is lined up behind?"
He knew.
The Asura Sword Sect had eight elders in total.
That count included the Great Elder — which meant that after the Great Elder, the man wielding the greatest influence was none other than...
Elder Chodong.
The Uigyeong Pavilion Master had risen to his post on Elder Chodong's recommendation. He was no divine physician, but he possessed considerable medical skill all the same.
Myeong Hyeon heaved a sigh inwardly.
Still, after a few days together he'd managed to get a rough measure of the man's temperament.
"I—I did tell you plainly."
"Told me what?"
"That it was too little. I told you, didn't I?"
The pavilion member snorted a laugh.
"Enough. Off you go."
"Yes."
He simply stopped thinking about it. The man would handle it however he pleased.
Let the winds of blood blow, let anything blow. None of my business — with that thought, Myeong Hyeon turned and headed back the way he had come.
To finish the thought he'd abandoned earlier: he had wanted, by any means necessary, to slip free of the Sword Emperor's hand.
He wanted this prohibition seal lodged inside his body gone, and the weakness the man held over him erased as well.
The prohibition seal would never trigger so long as he stayed forever out of the Sword Emperor's sight — but he had a family. The Murim was vast, and yet in its own way, narrow. Even a lifetime of running had its limits.
And there was exactly one way to resolve all of it in a single stroke.
Killing the Sword Emperor, Gun Mu-gyeol.
Yi Do was still far too lacking — but the future was another matter entirely.
He wanted to believe in the boy's talent, just once.
A great tree came into view.
Yi Do was there. Myeong Hyeon drew near to where he sat drawing in his qi, and stood quietly by.
He had ended up serving as a Protector quite against anyone's intention, but there it was.
Time slipped by.
Only after roughly two full time-periods had passed did Yi Do open his eyes.
"Did you get them?"
Myeong Hyeon held out the pouch he'd been carrying.
Yi Do checked the contents, and his brow creased.
"How much training resources does a branch normally receive?"
"...If a branch completes a mission handed down from the Asura Hall — five pills for a red or black mission, three for a white. Beyond that, the Asura Hall weighs the mission's difficulty and how it was resolved before granting additional pills..."
Myeong Hyeon let the sentence trail off and stole a glance at Yi Do's face. How to describe the man's expression? Blank, one might call it. He didn't look angry. He didn't look pleased either.
Yi Do asked:
"In your judgment — was five Asura Pills a fair price for the red mission you and I just completed?"
"...It doesn't even come close."
The reason was simple.
"The spoils we brought back from Seok Family Manor are said to be worth roughly three thousand gold nyang. From what I heard, everyone was stunned — it was enough to make the whole manor stagger. You've done business in the black market yourself, so you know how supply works there: that sum would buy a fine five-hundred-year ginseng and leave more than plenty to spare. And yet five ten-year Asura Pills is just..."
"So they handed it out without weighing the mission's difficulty at all — 'here, eat and get lost.' That's what this amounts to."
"Roughly, yes."
"Then what about the resources for the branch members?"
"You likely don't know this either, so let me explain it all at once. After completing a mission, a Branch Head submits a report to the Asura Hall. The Hall makes its final assessment and decides whether to grant additional Asura Pills. But twice a month — on the first day and the fifteenth — regardless of whether any report exists, the Branch Head or a branch member must come to the main mountain and collect training resources enough for 'twenty people' to take over a half-month. The Asura Pills earned from missions are handed out in a lump at the same time."
"I follow. But enough for twenty people for half a month? This pittance?"
"...The, the pavilion member said he had given us four doses' worth."
Only then did something shift in Yi Do's expression.
He smiled.
And the killing intent etched into that smile was ferocious beyond measure.
It seemed he wasn't about to let this one slide.
"B-Branch Head. I think I have a fairly good idea what you're thinking right now... but it might be wiser to just let it go this once."
Yi Do asked him instead:
"What is my position?"
"Branch Head... and also..."
"Protector."
Myeong Hyeon swallowed hard.
"And what does a Protector do? Explain it with your own mouth."
"...Two duties. One is the protection of the sect's key figures. The other is upholding the law of the sect."
"You know it well."
Of course he did. Myeong Hyeon had been the one to tell him all of it, after all.
No — upholding the law was never as easy as it sounded. At the very least it required long years ground into the sect's ranks for the right to even claim it. What could a man who had been here barely a few days possibly know of it?
"Where is Uigyeong Pavilion?"
Myeong Hyeon let out a sigh from the depths of his soul. If the man were the type to be stopped, he'd never have earned the epithet 'Cruel Demon' in the first place.
No helping it, then.
Let come what may.
"...I'll lead the way."
Myeong Hyeon guided him.
The Asura Sword Sect was vast. It took a long, unhurried walk across a full corner of the sect before Yi Do reached Uigyeong Pavilion — and then he committed an act that even Myeong Hyeon's understanding could not encompass.
BOOOOM—!!
He simply smashed the pavilion's front door to pieces.
Myeong Hyeon clutched his head and gave up.