The First Phoenix's Request
“Come watch the flowers with me!” — or failing that, a full-blown sparring match. At her words, Sanlong wondered for a moment if he had misheard.
“You want to spar? Out of nowhere?”
“I was curious the moment I laid eyes on Third Young Master today.”
Two years ago, Sanlong had been nothing special to look at — and now he had grown explosively enough to capture Sam Sal of the Ghost Blade Three Killers. That transformation, it seemed, had stirred both her curiosity and her competitive spirit.
“You're serious?”
“Yes.”
He'd assumed it was a joke, but she seemed entirely sincere, and Sanlong found himself at a loss for how to handle this.
As he hesitated, Wi So-gun smiled gently at him.
“I don't much care for this sort of thing, normally….”
After a brief pause, she continued slowly.
“The fact that you insisted on guiding us today — that must have to do with what happened between us in the past, doesn't it? I imagine Martial Aunt gave you quite a hard time over it.”
He had taken her for a martial obsessive with no interest in anything outside her training, but while she kept quiet, she was reading the situation around her with remarkable precision.
“Haha….”
“If you grant me this spar, I promise Mount Emei will never use that incident as leverage against the Tang Clan again.”
Not a bad deal at all.
Her offer made Sanlong want to cheer, though he kept it off his face.
I was curious anyway.
Truthfully, he had wondered about the strength of the Nine Dragons and Eight Phoenixes.
Prodigies who, at their young age, either stood on the threshold of the Peak Realm or had already crossed it — a gathering of true geniuses, in a league entirely apart from the Jamryonghoe pretenders. A spar with one of their members was genuinely tempting.
And on top of that, it settles the grudge for good. A clear win all around.
For Sanlong, there was no reason to refuse.
Besides, I've got a prototype I've been meaning to test.
Fidgeting with the bracelet on his wrist, Sanlong offered a cupped-fist salute.
“Then I look forward to your instruction.”
“Thank you for indulging my stubbornness.”
“What? You're actually going through with it?”
Tang Saryeong's astonishment had barely settled before the Emei disciples, who had been busy admiring the Lotus Flower Hall, began drifting one by one toward the training ground. They too were curious why the good-for-nothing Sanlong of two years ago was now being called the Poison Tyrant.
“I ask for your instruction.”
“And I for yours.”
Sanlong slipped his hands into his sleeves and took the Tang Clan's foundational opening stance, while Wi So-gun drew her sword and stood with lofty grace.
The Tang Clan's opening stance is always the same, but the art each of us unfolds from it is different every time! I can't wait! I can't wait!
Beneath her calm exterior, Wi So-gun was so worked up she wanted to cross swords that very instant.
Having no way of knowing this, Sanlong simply studied her at his leisure.
So that's Emei's Extinction Sword Art. Calm as she looks, she's trained in a brutally ruthless style.
He felt a twinge of disappointment that he couldn't get a read on the Chaotic Wind-Splitting Sword Art, Emei's secret transmission — but her Extinction Sword Art was every bit its equal as a magnificent blade style.
“Would you mind telling me which poison you intend to use?”
“It's only a light spar, so I won't bother with poison.”
“Hmm….”
To her faint disappointment, Sanlong added in a voice of genuine concern,
“Also, the poisons I do use are… quite poisonous.”
The venom of the Black Thread Bee and thirty-year Blood-Sucking Snake was a touch excessive for a friendly match.
Not that Wi So-gun had any way of knowing that.
Oh, that delicious edge of danger!
The moment she took up her blade and faced an opponent, Wi So-gun's entire temperament transformed, and she slowly began to raise her qi.
As a fierce, explosive energy came pouring out, Sanlong had to revise his earlier assessment.
I thought it wouldn't suit her, but Extinction Sword Art and Wi So-gun are a perfect match.
With a sword in hand, she was a far cry from serene.
“I'm coming at you first!”
“Please.”
Unable to hold back any longer, Wi So-gun shot toward Sanlong at blinding speed.
Against a Tang Clan fighter, the cardinal rule was never to grant them distance.
The Tang Clan did possess arts that wielded iron threads and the Judge's Brush, so they were hardly helpless in close quarters — but what they loved most, and where they performed at their absolute best, was the long range. Denying your opponent the ground that favored them was simply the foundation of combat.
This range should do it.
The instant he thought, just hold this distance, a slender thread of sword qi stretched out from the tip of her blade like taffy and came lashing toward him.
Tch!
Sanlong dodged by a hair's breadth and flung out his hand.
Tswak!
Hidden projectiles, launched in silence!
But Wi So-gun evaded them as though she had predicted the throw, and her relentless sword qi wheeled around to hunt him down.
She's not making this easy.
They said you needed the Peak Realm to wield sword qi freely — yet here she was, a mere First-Rate, controlling it to this degree. It showed exactly how close she was to the breakthrough.
She's not giving me a moment to breathe.
Sanlong decided he would simply have to carve out that moment himself, and unleashed the Tang Clan Fist along with the Poison Dragon Step.
Ordinary Tang Clan Fist… but — hahah!
It looked like a plain, unremarkable display of clan boxing, yet hidden projectiles kept spitting out from all over Sanlong's body. Sleeves, elbows, knees, even the tips of his toes — there was no telling where the next one would come from.
“The Tang Clan's hidden weapon arts really are insidious!”
“If that were me, I'd have taken a hit without even seeing it coming!”
The Emei disciples watched with rapt attention.
Projectiles fired at close range burdened even Wi So-gun, and in the end she had no choice but to hold to a careful middle distance.
In that case —!
From that ambiguous range, her sword qi came pouring down like a whip.
“Yikes!”
Having barely evaded it, Sanlong wore the faintest hint of a smile.
Wi So-gun focused intently on the movements of his Poison Dragon Step.
It's different from the Poison Dragon Step I know! Unlike Second Miss Tang I-ryeong's, it's like he's walking a tightrope — right on the very edge.
She had sparred with Tang I-ryeong, one of the same Nine Dragons and Eight Phoenixes, but this felt like encountering an entirely new art.
Watching Sanlong evade with the minimum possible movement, Wi So-gun concentrated her qi into the blade.
“Hah!”
Sword qi that sealed off Sanlong's every avenue of movement!
In a real fight, that qi would have flown straight for his vitals. And then, the distance closed again.
That was close.
Cold sweat ran down Sanlong's spine at the thought of that sword qi streaking for his cervical spine in a true duel.
But he couldn't just stand there and take it, so he scattered another volley of hidden projectiles.
“Nine Calamity Kill!”
“I anticipated it!”
Tswarak! Kkarang!
Wi So-gun batted the projectiles aside with practiced ease — and then, at the sight of Sanlong standing utterly defenseless to any observer, she drove her sword in without a moment's hesitation.
Sanlong twisted clear by a whisker and thrust out his arm.
“Ah!”
Pat! Kang!
A flying dagger like a flash of lightning burst from his sleeve, and Wi So-gun barely turned it aside with the flat of her blade. Had this been a real fight, more than one part of her would have been cut.
I forgot the signature trait of Tang Clan martial arts! Haha! Trading away the range advantage with an obvious attack just to lure the opponent in — devious!
Wi So-gun found herself enjoying this more and more.
“Huh?”
Just then, a sharp sensation rose from behind her!
Wi So-gun spun a somersault in place and slipped clear by the narrowest of margins.
So graceful was the motion that, with her robes fluttering, it looked almost like a dance.
…The dagger came back?
Once she identified what it was, Wi So-gun blinked in surprise.
“Don't tell me — Flying Dagger at the Master's Behest?”
A returning projectile could only mean one thing. But Sanlong's realm was First-Rate. Controlling a weapon mid-flight was the province of masters beyond the heavens, those who had reached the Profound Realm — it made no sense.
It's not qi-command, though!
She quickly realized the secret: a tiny glint of sunlight reflected off the dagger was what bent its path back around.
“A thread — something thin as a strand of silk… what is it?”
“We call it Hidden Silk. It's still a prototype — the elasticity's decent, but the durability leaves much to be desired.”
It had been inspired by the web of a Thousand-Year Earth Spider. He'd tried to imitate that silk's elasticity and strength, but iron alone had proved riddled with limits and problems. So lately Sanlong had been experimenting with combinations of different minerals for this Hidden Silk, and this was the most serviceable version yet.
Black gold, was it? Wonderful elasticity, poor durability.
What if he blended in dark iron? That might finally yield a true Hidden Silk with the elasticity and resilience he wanted.
As she studied the silk, Wi So-gun seemed to remember something and gazed down at her sword.
“A thread… I feel as though my horizons are widening. There's something I'd like to verify. Will you receive it?”
“The spar isn't over yet.”
“Good.”
At her radiant smile, Sanlong stared at her for a moment, dazed.
A face really can be a weapon.
Whether a beautiful man or a beautiful woman, their faces seemed to possess the power to throw an opponent's composure into disarray.
“Hah!”
True to its name, the Extinction Sword Art moved with such overwhelming force — destroying and erasing everything before it — that Sanlong's movements grew wilder by the moment.
Why is she still so full of energy after unleashing that much sword qi?!
Sanlong threw out hidden projectiles and tried to open up distance, but she slipped past them all with uncanny footwork.
Shwk! Shwk!
Then, as though leaving afterimages behind her, she closed the gap in a flash.
Damn it!
If this kept up, dodging would be all he could do — so Sanlong poured internal energy into the Hidden Silk and flung out his hand.
Tswarak!
The silk moved like a living serpent and shot toward Wi So-gun at blistering speed.
Fast!
She slashed it away with her sword, and since the silk was less sturdy than he'd hoped, it parted easily.
“Is that all you— wait—!”
Whirr!
Somewhere along the way, one of her legs and her left arm had been snared in the silk.
“Hah….”
Seeing it, Sanlong swiftly drew a flying dagger. The Soul-Chasing Heart-Piercing Dagger, fired at an immobilized target, could not miss.
The whole sequence — sealing her movement, drawing the blade — unfolded in something close to a blink, swift and utterly natural.
Knowing she would be hit without fail if she stayed put, Wi So-gun slowly channeled her qi into the sword.
Cut them all at once!
Slicing through one strand was easy — but as long as the other still bound her, she would have to sever both simultaneously to escape what was coming.
The silk… my sword qi, thin as a thread….
Wuummm!
Her sword began to hum, as though begging to be released.
And then her sword qi split into a dozen strands and shot out in every direction.
“That's—!”
Sanlong knew exactly what it was. The stage immediately before the Sword Gang — the undeniable mark of the Peak Realm — the Sword Thread.
Oh no!
Snk!
Sanlong hurled the Soul-Chasing Dagger, but her Sword Thread had already severed the silk — and still had time to spare.
“Haaaaah!”
Her body was free! And in the same breath, her sword qi — a moment ago sprawled chaotically in every direction — condensed fiercely into a single point.
“Huh? Wh-what—?!”
“That's—!”
“Good heavens!”
“Eldest Senior Sister!”
Gasps erupted from all sides. Her sword qi wove a blaze of brilliant light, and as Sanlong's dagger came hurtling right up to her, her blade moved — lightly.
Like a knife slicing through water, a motion so natural that no resistance could be felt at all.
Snk.
With the sound of steel parting, Sanlong's flying dagger was cleaved in two and dropped lifelessly to the ground.
At the sight, a hollow laugh escaped him.
“Haha… well, then… congratulations.”
Wi So-gun had broken through the wall of the Peak Realm.
She had always tempered her every emotion — but just this once, she had no wish to hold anything back.
“Hohoho! Thank you, Third Young Master. And this — this is my repayment!”
Wi So-gun came rushing at him!
She thrust out her palm and unleashed a palm art — and at the sight of it, laughter burst unbidden from Sanlong's lips.
“Haha! Hahahaha!”
Like a dragon performing a dance, her qi scattered freely through the air and came surging down upon him.
She had handed him, in that single moment of reaching the Peak Realm, the seed of an entirely new art for wielding the Hidden Silk.
So THIS is what a genius looks like!
Toward Wi So-gun, who had offered him a glimpse of a new martial path the instant she ascended, Sanlong drove out his fist with everything he had. He wanted to throw himself, body and soul, into that beautiful banquet of qi.
“I won't go down easily, you know!”
Bang!
The gorgeous cascade of qi blooming from her palm gently swallowed him whole.
“Hahah!”
Along with her cheerful laughter, Sanlong's consciousness slowly dimmed.
God, that hurts.
His body ached all over — but he had gained a great deal.
“Hidden Dragon Silk — how does that sound?”
“Far too grandiose. I'll call it the Hidden Serpent Silk.”
“A serpent that has yet to become a dragon… it suits you.”
With her final words, Sanlong lost consciousness entirely.
“Tang Sanlong! Hey!”
“He's only fainted. Honestly….”
Having soothed the panicked Tang Saryeong as she rushed to Sanlong's side, Wi So-gun sat down where she stood and folded herself into a lotus position.
“Guard me, please.”
“Yes, Eldest Senior Sister!”
Every disciple of Mount Emei took up positions around her as she circulated her breath, fully assimilating the enlightenment of the Peak Realm.
“Hey! Tang Sanlong!”
Slap! Slap!
Tang Saryeong tried to wake the unconscious Sanlong, slapping his cheek — while smiling. No, wait. Was she just hitting him because he annoyed her? There did seem to be a certain emotion behind those blows.
And so today's spar proved a victory for the both of them.