An Unexpected Sparring Match
The moment he stepped inside, the first thing Sanlong felt was the sweltering heat pressing against his skin.
He hadn't expected to feel such warmth in an open ground where the cold northern wind was blowing.
Crackle. Crackle.
Accompanied by the sound of burning firewood, Sanlong looked around the inside of the barracks.
It's all top-quality stuff.
It was clearly different from an ordinary barracks, as befitted the quarters of a Grand General.
"Huh?"
As he glanced around, Sanlong couldn't help but stumble to a halt.
Everyone was standing despite the perfectly good tables and chairs sitting right there.
"Uh… um……"
Yu Yangcheol and Sanlong instinctively took up empty spots and looked toward the man standing at the highest position on the right.
An old general of a massive frame, easily seven feet tall, stood there with an expressionless face. Gray-flecked cropped hair, thick eyebrows, fierce glaring eyes, a beard running from his cheeks down past his jaw, and scars filling every gap between his clothes — the marks of a man who had survived brutal battlefields. And hands so rugged he could probably beat a cow to death barehanded.
He looked like nothing less than a living textbook for the phrase this is what a general should look like.
Everyone here is huge.
Even Sanlong, who stood around six feet himself — hardly a small man — had to tilt his head back to look some of them in the face.
Similar in build to the female general who had delivered the orders earlier? It made sense. They were all generals, so their physical capabilities naturally surpassed those of ordinary people — the kind of presence that could fell a beast barehanded even without formal martial training.
But they've properly mastered the martial arts, too.
Most of the officers seemed to have learned some degree of martial arts, but the old general in particular — should he even be called a mere military man? He'd reached the Peak Realm, in a word. A genuine master.
If a man like that stood at the front lines swinging a spear, the enemy army would wet themselves and it still wouldn't be enough.
"Sanlong, that man is Grand General Hang Jeoksan, the supreme commander of this expedition."
Was he a descendant of Xiang Yu? If so, that massive frame would make sense.
Even a man like that is standing there like he's on trial……
If even the supreme commander of the expeditionary army had to stand, did that mean someone even higher was present here? Sanlong's gaze drifted toward a spot covered by a tent curtain. Reflected in the firelight, the shadow within told him the person inside was a young man.
Someone above the Grand General… and a young man… the Imperial Prince.
Sanlong had little difficulty deducing who was inside. So the prince had decided to join this expedition, and now everyone was hauling their sons and nephews along for the ride? Sanlong was, if anything, one of the chief culprits who'd been dragged here because of it.
Still, he couldn't let such feelings show on his face.
Those ones, is it?
He could see several people watching him and Yu Yangcheol with sharp eyes.
So those are the ones Uncle mentioned……
Behind him, those men radiated an air of readiness to pounce and tear into him the instant he showed the slightest opening — and then, at last, the tent curtain was raised.
"Oh my, were you all waiting for me?"
The young man wore such flamboyant clothing it made one wonder if he'd really come to a war front at all. His expression was full of mischief, but on closer look he was actually quite handsome.
Prince Zhu Wancheong, who looked to be around Sanlong's age, tossed the cloth he'd wiped his hands with carelessly onto the floor and took his seat.
His bodyguards quietly picked it up for him. They looked well accustomed to this kind of cleanup duty.
Watching them, Sanlong caught the scent of a kindred spirit.
A delinquent… a genuine, first-class delinquent.
Not just any delinquent, either — one whose backing was the very ruler of this empire, a delinquent of truly monstrous pedigree.
"We greet His Highness the Prince!"
At the thunderous greeting from his subjects, Zhu Wancheong smiled with satisfaction and nodded along while munching on fresh fruit, a rare delicacy this far north.
Watching him, Sanlong decided to hide his presence as thoroughly as possible.
Getting entangled with that one means nothing but headaches.
Sanlong resolved to stay quiet for the entire meeting, and Yu Yangcheol seemed to have reached much the same conclusion.
"Sanlong."
"Yes, Uncle."
"Good thinking."
Yu Yangcheol shot him a look that said, as expected of my brilliant nephew!
A few others, it seemed, had hit upon the same idea, and kept their silence as well.
I should keep an eye on the quiet ones.
Those who stayed silent mostly bore no hostility toward Yu Yangcheol and Sanlong. The ones who did — well, they were so desperate to curry favor with the prince that they had started shifting and squirming on their feet before anyone was even seated, loudly proclaiming their own existence.
"Now, now — why is everyone standing there making their legs sore? Sit, all of you."
"We accept your command!"
"We accept it."
"Accept it."
Amid voices loud enough to shake the barracks, the quiet replies of Sanlong and Yu Yangcheol were buried without a trace.
The conversation that followed was led by the prince. Supreme Commander Hang Jeoksan simply listened quietly at his side.
"So listen! General! I've devised a brilliant strategy. Care to hear it?"
"I will listen."
At Hang Jeoksan's reply, Zhu Wancheong spoke with a confident face.
"For this expedition, we select the swift and able men around me, form a separate strike force, and strike deep into the enemy's rear!"
"Denied."
Hang Jeoksan opposed it the moment he heard it, without a flicker of hesitation.
At his words, the prince's genial, smiling face turned cold.
"And why not?"
"For one, Your Highness has not yet properly learned even the basic geography of the north. Furthermore, no matter how fast you may be, your mobility would fall short of the Northern Yuan remnants."
"What?"
"There is more besides."
Hang Jeoksan laid out, with impeccable logic, exactly why the plan wouldn't work.
"And should you happen to run into the Sword of the North, I could not promise Your Highness would keep his life."
"The Sword of the North?"
"Yes. When the Northern Yuan remnants fled, they looted every last piece of the imperial treasury — gold, silver, treasures, and elixirs — to raise this elite force. They number barely a thousand, but every single soldier among them is a formidable warrior."
"What of it!"
"I hear Your Highness enjoys tales of the Jianghu, so allow me to put it simply: every rank-and-file soldier among them has reached the First-Rate realm, and their officers are masters who have ascended to the Peak Realm."
What?
The most shocked person in the room was Sanlong.
Soldiers who were all First-Rate, and officers at the Peak Realm? A thousand of them? That was, without question, an object of terror.
"They are also the reason we cannot achieve total victory."
It was no exaggeration to say that these endless, indecisive cycles of advance and retreat were entirely their doing. When the Sword of the North appeared, even overwhelming numerical superiority could not guarantee victory.
"They have plagued our army for a long time. They cross that vast steppe as though it were their own front yard."
"Even so!"
But then, a man who would listen obediently to such reasoning would never have stubbornly dragged himself here in the first place.
"Are you afraid I'll earn more merit than you, General?!"
The prince was now openly throwing a tantrum. Yet Hang Jeoksan showed no sign of backing down.
"Whoever earns the merit, reclaiming our lost territory is reward enough for me."
"That's my point! That's exactly why I'm forming a strike force to pierce the enemy's heart!"
Normally, at this point, everyone would simply cave and do as the prince said — but Hang Jeoksan was cut from an entirely different cloth than such people.
"Denied."
"If you oppose it, I'll simply raise the force myself."
"Are you saying you would defy my orders?"
"Defy? Defy your orders! Fine — what will you do if I do?"
"I will act according to military law. You will be kept comfortably in the barracks until this war ends."
In other words: the moment he stepped out of line, he'd be thrown straight into a cell. Of course, being a prince, it would amount to little more than house arrest rather than an ordinary prisoner's fate — but still.
"What? How dare — do you even know who I—"
At that moment, the air in the room froze over, sharp and cold.
The instant the prince raised his hand, the hands of everyone present slowly drifted toward their waists. The barracks filled with an atmosphere so razor-edged that even the prince's own bodyguards tensed.
Now I understand why this meeting was called.
Before marching to the front, Hang Jeoksan was preemptively breaking the prince's spirit, getting his measure in advance.
Well, to be fair, you have to sort out the traffic before you march.
Was there a more fatal weakness for an army than a command structure split in two? Prince or not, the supreme commander of this expeditionary army was Hang Jeoksan.
According to what Yu Yangcheol had told him, the general belonged to no faction — a neutral party. That was precisely why the Emperor could send him off as expedition commander with an easy mind, and trust the prince to his care as well. The Emperor had absolute confidence that Hang Jeoksan would attach himself to no one.
Even a delinquent like the prince surely understood that much — and yet a hint of impatience showed through him.
— The prince looks impatient. If you get tangled up with him, it'll only bring trouble.
Sanlong flinched — no, it was Yu Yangcheol who started slightly.
This was far from the first time, but his uncle never failed to be a little startled every time the secret voice reached him.
Yu Yangcheol traced a single character on his nephew's thigh with a finger.
Kong (空)? Empty? Empty… no way.
"Shh."
The moment Sanlong grasped the meaning of the character, his eyes widened to the point of tearing, and Yu Yangcheol quietly pressed his index finger to his lips.
The seat of the heir is empty? But I heard the Crown Prince already exists.
And yet the line of succession was vacant? From that single character, Sanlong understood that something had happened to the Crown Prince — that his safety, his very status, had been compromised.
Fragments of a puzzle began clicking together, one by one.
So they all knew……
It hadn't been made public, but everyone who needed to know apparently already did. That was why the prince was straining for an opportunity here — and why the remnants of the eunuch faction, the ones who had framed the Yu family and ultimately been destroyed, had all volunteered for this expedition and were thrashing about for their chance.
Come to think of it, that's the only explanation. Otherwise why would the prince obsess over earning merit in a place like this?
Only now did Sanlong grasp why the prince had forced his way into the expeditionary army.
"Fine!"
How long had the staring contest between prince and general lasted? In the end, the first to tuck his tail between his legs was the prince. However much of a prince he was, the Grand General's presence was intimidating, and the master of this place was, whatever anyone said, Hang Jeoksan.
Still, he folds fast.
The prince now seemed to be searching for another way. And it appeared he'd done the math: if he wanted to earn merit here anyway, antagonizing Hang Jeoksan would gain him nothing.
"I well understand your concern for my safety, Commander."
"I am grateful for Your Highness's understanding."
"The mood has gotten rather heavy, hasn't it…? Perhaps it's late for it, but how about we each introduce ourselves?"
The prince proposed it as a way to lighten the atmosphere, and the remnants of the eunuch faction leapt forward first as though they'd been waiting for exactly this.
"If I may speak of myself!"
I'm a relative of so-and-so, an acquaintance of such-and-such, a nephew, a son… They gave grand, sweeping speeches about their connections, but listened to closely, they were complete strangers to everyone involved.
He's just a random guy, isn't he?
Who knew how many degrees of kinship they were skipping over?
"Haaam~"
The prince yawned — a yawn he himself had ordered up with all this formality.
"I am……"
Several more introductions followed, and then a young man rose and spoke.
"I am Woo Gyeongbong, a lay disciple of the Wudang Sect and son of Thousand-Man Commander Woo Cheolgon. It is an honor to be granted an audience with His Highness the Prince."
"Oh! The Wudang Sect!"
The prince, who had been yawning his way through the tedious introductions, suddenly sparkled with curiosity at the word Wudang.
The moment everyone realized the prince had a taste for this sort of thing, they stepped forward one after another.
"I am……"
They were nothing compared to the Nine Sects and One Gang or the Five Great Clans, but a few of them belonged to sects that had made names for themselves in their home regions.
"Well now! Look at this! So young, and already heroes of the Jianghu!"
"You flatter us, Your Highness!"
The atmosphere turned warm and convivial in an instant.
And before anyone realized it, it was Sanlong's turn. He rose from his spot and gave a plain, measured introduction.
"My name is Yu Sanlong. I have trained only enough martial arts to protect my own body."
If it came out that he was of the Tang Clan, the prince — with the personality he had — was guaranteed to make an enormous nuisance of him. So Sanlong had changed his surname.
"I see."
Watching the prince lose interest at once, Sanlong let out a breath of relief.
"Well done."
With Yu Yangcheol's encouragement beside him, Sanlong prayed this uncomfortable gathering would end soon.
But dismissing that small hope entirely, the prince made a proposal.
"Since fate has brought us all together, might we see a demonstration of these young martial artists' skills? What say you, General?"
Say no! Say no!
Sanlong prayed Hang Jeoksan would refuse — but unexpected words came from the general's mouth instead.
"It would not be a bad way to raise morale before they are deployed to the front lines. Our army's own officers will take the field as well."
"Ahaha! I like it! I truly like it! Did you all hear him?"
"Yes, Your Highness!"
The prince laughed with genuine delight.
And so, without warning, a sparring tournament was held.