Chapter 0
Chapter 0
Prologue 1 Funeral Rites
The wind was cold and the air was fresh.
Winter was still months away, but the wind blowing on the mountaintop today felt particularly biting, causing Jin San-wol to shiver involuntarily.
As always, the scene of a funeral possessed a strange atmosphere that stirred the heart. It evoked a peculiar sense of sorrow that couldn't be simply described as heavy or sad.
Jin San-wol had attended funerals about five times so far, and he felt this way every time.
Perhaps this atmosphere was something only Jin San-wol felt. He often saw others talking loudly without any sad expressions, or even grinning with their teeth showing. Jin San-wol felt inexplicably angry when he saw such people.
Fortunately, no one was laughing or talking today. Everyone was silently pouring wine, burning incense, and setting Paper Money ablaze. It was a solemn and heavy atmosphere befitting a funeral.
So Jin San-wol was relieved for the moment.
Even more fortunate was that his junior sister didn't cry or look forlorn while pouring wine on the grave. If tears had flowed from his junior sister's eyes, Jin San-wol would have found it hard to bear. But his junior sister didn't cry.
When a person receives too sudden a shock, they can't even feel sadness.
After his junior sister finished bowing twice, everyone's gaze turned to Jin San-wol.
Now it was Jin San-wol's turn. Jin San-wol slowly walked forward. He poured wine, burned incense, and set Paper Money on fire just like the others. As he bowed twice and rose from the ground, he heard someone's grumbling.
"Tch!"
Jin San-wol knew without looking that it was the voice of Eung Gye-seong.
That guy probably expected Jin San-wol to prostrate himself on the ground and wail. If that could bring the person in the grave back to life, Jin San-wol would have done it. But otherwise, there was no need to put on a pathetic display in front of others, was there?
After Jin San-wol finished, no one else came forward.
The funeral was desolate, but the aftermath was even more desolate. One would expect someone to sing a mournful Funeral Dirge, but everyone was silently staring at the grave.
The grave mound was small and shabby. It was hard to believe that it was the grave of the twentieth Sect Leader of the Great Jongnam Sect, which had once boasted a distinguished reputation even among the Nine Great Sects.
Another gust of cold wind swept through the area, and the ashes of the blackened Paper Money swirled in the air before disappearing somewhere.
Jin San-wol blankly watched the scene, then suddenly seemed to come to his senses and looked around.
"Let's go down now."
Jeong Hae and Sunset Clan were tidying up the sacrificial utensils, while Bang Chwi-a and Du Gi-chun were carrying the wine cups and incense burner. The rest silently followed Jin San-wol down the mountain.
Just before descending from the mountaintop, Jin San-wol stopped again and looked back.
The scene of the gravesite, still faintly scented with incense, couldn't have been more desolate.
His junior sister approached and took his hand.
"Senior Brother."
Jin San-wol said in a calm voice.
"We should have built at least an Ancestral Shrine. It's too lonely around here."
His junior sister smiled bitterly.
"You know Father didn't like that kind of thing. This is enough."
Jin San-wol silently nodded and turned around.
The two walked shoulder to shoulder, the last of the group to descend the mountain.
As they rounded a large rock below the mountaintop, a vast, lush forest stretching endlessly beneath the unusually blue autumn sky came into view. Seeing the few buildings nestled among the trees, Jin San-wol suddenly realized one thing anew.
'I am the Sect Leader now.'
That was right.
He was now the twenty-first Sect Leader of the Jongnam Sect, which, though fallen and expelled from the Nine Great Sects, had once been renowned as a leading Prestigious Orthodox Sect of the Central Plains.
September 17th.
The weather was clear, but the wind was unusually strong.
Prologue 2 Martial Arts Proclamation
In light of the upcoming battle with the Heavenly Dragon Temple of Tibet, we have decided to unite the will and strength of the martial artists of the Central Plains on the fifteenth of next month at Five Peaks of Mount Song. We ask for the participation of many Martial Brothers.
Dae-bang, Abbot of the Thirty-sixth Generation of the Shaolin Temple.
Hyeon-ryeong, Sect Master of the Thirty-second Generation of the Wudang Sect.>