Everyone Is Here (2)
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
The assembled monks swallowed hard.
They had already witnessed Mount Hua, the Sichuan Tang Family, and the palaces of the Outer Lands with their own eyes. Had they not already received those sects in person at the earlier reception?
But there was a world of difference between watching people rush this way and that to welcome their guests, and seeing them arrive with their robes in perfect order, moving in measured lines with practiced precision.
Not a single step was out of place. Their synchronized strides seemed to seize control of even the breathing of those watching.
“T-the Tang Family!”
“It’s the Sichuan Tang Family!”
From behind the great hall, figures in green martial robes emerged.
The overlords of Sichuan, the ancestors of poison and hidden weapons.
Warriors of the Sichuan Tang Family, who had ruled the Sichuan martial world for ages, were advancing slowly toward the training grounds in flawless formation.
“……”
“……Wow.”
There was a reason the saying the reputation speaks for itself existed.
The Tang Family followed the rules of family succession, and because of that, they did not have nearly as many branch members as other great noble families. So even those who had wandered the jianghu for years and seen plenty of the world had rarely, if ever, witnessed so many Tang Family members at once.
Perhaps that was why merely looking at them felt suffocating.
The green robes that symbolized the Sichuan Tang Family fluttered in the wind. The Tang Family warriors entered the training grounds under the gaze of the monks lined along both sides of the path.
Gulp.
Someone audibly swallowed.
These were people who had won the name of a great sect through poison and hidden weapons in a world that worshiped fair and square combat. Everyone feared them, yet no one dared look down on them.
Of all the sects gathered here, none were more suited to crushing the crowd with sheer weight and presence than the Sichuan Tang Family. Their fierce aura overwhelmed the surrounding air.
And then—
“Th-the Ice Palace! The North Sea Ice Palace is here too!”
From the opposite side of the road where the Tang Family had entered, warriors in spotless white robes stepped forward, exuding a blade-like intensity. Just seeing them made everyone understand the meaning of the phrase the bitter wind and freezing snow of the north.
Those white robes, untouched by even the slightest stain, were enough to draw every eye, and their low, heavy gazes were more than enough to cow anyone watching.
The king of the North Sea.
The warriors of the North Sea Ice Palace, who ruled over that barren land of bitter cold, entered the training grounds like a single chilling sword.
There was no trace of the usual gentleness on Han Yi-myung’s face at the head of the line.
He had experienced both the brilliance and the agonizing endurance of the North Sea. Because of that, he possessed a depth that others simply did not.
It was an image perfectly suited to a man occupying the weighty, burdened position of general steward of the North Sea Ice Palace.
Here and there, strained breaths broke from the crowd, crushed beneath the force of their presence.
People said it easily enough.
Gupailbang. Odaesega. The Five Hegemons of the Jianghu. The Five Outer Palaces.
They were the names that represented the martial world, but compared to the number of martial artists scattered across the land, they were really nothing more than a handful.
And yet it was those handful of warriors who stood at the summit and led the world.
Seeing such people gathered in one place was a truly rare experience. Especially after the war with the Demonic Sect, when the hundred years that followed had almost never produced a scene like this.
Those who had gathered specifically to see this sight could not tear their eyes away from the North Sea Ice Palace and the Sichuan Tang Family.
How could one guess their strength merely by looking? What was visible before the eye would not even amount to a tenth of what they truly possessed.
And yet even that much was enough to understand why they stood at the pinnacle of the martial world.
So these are the people who join hands. These people!
One sect alone could dominate its own region.
And now those sects had come together under the name of the Heavenly Alliance. Everyone here already knew that this alliance was no mere decorative title or empty formality.
“The Beast Palace!”
“The Southern Barbarian Beast Palace is coming!”
All eyes turned once again in unison.
“Oh……”
“No way……”
Along the same path the Tang Family had taken, the warriors of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace appeared.
The faces of the monks, stiff with tension, loosened slightly at the sight of them.
There was none of the rigid severity the Tang Family and the North Sea Ice Palace had shown. They weren’t even entering in proper formation, nor did they release that frigid aura the other sects had carried with them.
On the surface, they looked no different from a ragtag mob.
They seemed to swagger in with the carefree ease of people who had no idea how to stand on ceremony.
But no one could dismiss them as mere rabble, because each face was stamped with a confidence and spirit that could not be concealed.
Just how many people were gathered here?
And around the raised platform, the senior figures of Gupailbang and the Five Great Families who ruled the current martial world were already seated.
For an ordinary group of paladins to show confidence in a place like this was nearly impossible. It was an expression that could only be shown when backed by certainty in one’s martial skills and an unshakable will.
That was why no one here tried to belittle them.
Confidence in the unskilled was an eyesore, but confidence in the skilled was something to be acknowledged. The Southern Barbarian Beast Palace, as one of the Five Outer Palaces, had more than enough reason to be confident.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
With a slightly swaggering gait, the Beast Palace entered the training grounds and took its place in the center, between the Sichuan Tang Family on the left and the North Sea Ice Palace on the right.
Even though they had not entered in formation, their final alignment was perfect. As though they, too, understood the importance of this place.
“……Amitabha.”
Beop Gye quietly recited a Buddhist chant.
From the honored seat, he could see the three sects lined up at a glance.
How different.
Who in the current martial world did not know that those three sects were allied?
But knowing it in one’s head and seeing the three great sects of the world standing in formation before one’s eyes were very different sensations.
If the Nine Sects gathered together, would it feel like this?
No. Beop Gye knew. Even if more powerful sects gathered than this, they would not be able to give him the feeling he had now.
That was because of the nature of the alliance itself.
However loosely the Nine Sects were spoken of under one name, they were still nothing more than a loose coalition with no real binding force. They sat in the same place only because of mutual interest and public opinion, and in truth they were little more than factions that watched and threatened one another.
The Five Great Families were no different. The Five Hegemons of the Jianghu were not even worth mentioning, and even the Five Outer Palaces were barely more than distant acquaintances of one another.
But these were different.
Perhaps things would be different in the future, but for now, it felt less like several sects had come together in one place and more like several organizations within a single sect had gathered.
The Heavenly Alliance……
They had not been forced into submission by strength, nor had they joined hands for a clearly defined objective. And yet that loose, almost absurd lack of specificity had only made them more tightly knit.
When people with no explicit reason to stand together became of one mind, it meant there was no particular reason for them to split apart, either.
This is no ordinary alliance.
An alliance in which no one calculated gain against the others was, in effect, no different from a single massive sect. Perhaps what he was seeing now was not the birth of the Heavenly Alliance, but the birth of the Heavenly Alliance Sect.
And then—
Beop Gye’s gaze shifted to one place.
The ones who had accomplished this astonishing, unprecedented feat—something no other sect could even dream of—would now appear from there.
Mount Hua.
Had there ever been a place in the history of the martial world that rose so brilliantly in such a short span of time?
Abbot. Mount Hua may be even stranger than we thought.
The Sichuan Tang Family.
The North Sea Ice Palace.
The Southern Barbarian Beast Palace.
These were sects that would rather feud than entrust their backs to one another. Yet the moment Mount Hua entered the picture, they all melted into one.
How could that not be extraordinary?
Mount Hua’s achievements up to now had been remarkable enough, but compared to the feat of binding these sects together, all those earlier accomplishments seemed to pale.
“……Incredible.”
“Seeing it with my own eyes, the prestige is even greater than I imagined.”
“Hmm…… that is true.”
Uncomfortable murmurs seeped out from the honored seats.
It would hardly do to throw a fit in a banquet hall, so everyone was doing their best to maintain pleasant expressions. But after seeing the true face of the Heavenly Alliance, they no longer seemed able to suppress their unease.
“Heh. They say you live long enough to see everything, and now Mount Hua……”
“……Perhaps it was fortunate that Zhongnan went into seclusion. If they’d seen this, they’d probably have been bedridden for three days.”
“Only three?”
No one felt discomfort in the presence of someone who posed no threat.
The fact that complaints were now slipping from their mouths meant this sight had become a real threat to them. Not to some nobody, but to the elders of Gupailbang and the Five Great Families.
From this day on, no one in the world will dare look down on Mount Hua.
Signs of that shift had already been visible for some time, but today’s opening ceremony had made it undeniable.
They might still belittle Mount Hua of Shaanxi, perhaps, but no one would ever dare belittle the Mount Hua of the Heavenly Alliance.
Who could possibly dismiss a sect that had ceded the seat of honor to the Sichuan Tang Family and been respectfully greeted by two of the Outer Palaces? Not even Shaolin could do such a thing.
“Amitabha.”
Beop Gye found himself harboring an involuntary expectation.
Of course, his feelings toward Mount Hua were hardly warm. Still, however one looked at it, Mount Hua was the undeniable star of this gathering. So naturally, he was curious—almost eager—to see how they would make their entrance.
His gaze moved to where Mount Hua would appear, waiting in advance.
The anticipation swelled.
And swelled.
And kept swelling.
But then……
“……Why aren’t they coming out?”
“Exactly.”
“What is this? Are they deliberately dragging things out?”
The time for them to appear had passed, yet for some reason Mount Hua still showed no sign of entering.
“They’re really making us wait too long……”
It was true enough that delaying for effect was a common enough custom for building suspense and heightening anticipation, but this had gone far beyond that.
Beop Gye, frowning slightly as he watched to see whether something had gone wrong, suddenly heard a sharp voice in his ear.
It was too quiet for someone with low martial prowess to hear, but it was unmistakably there.
“Hey, you bastard! You’re late even on a day like today? Die! Just die, you bastard!”
“Tch, what a fuss over some supposedly grand event.”
“Aaaagh!”
“Uncle, hold it in! Not now!”
“Hurry up and get out there! Move!”
Beop Gye’s face twitched faintly.
“……Wha—”
Flustered, he nearly choked on his own breath and coughed several times.
Then the crowd all around the hall began to stir.
“They’re coming out!”
“It’s Mount Huaaaaa!”
“Mount Hua is here! Mount Hua!”
A great cheer erupted through the venue.
Even those seated in the honored places were caught off guard by the sudden roar and looked around in alarm.
“No, this much……”
The response was clearly different from what had greeted the earlier three sects.
It was a vivid demonstration of how Mount Hua was now regarded in the present martial world.
The faces of the elders from the Nine Sects and the Five Great Families turned ashen. And before they could recover their expressions, the disciples of Mount Hua appeared from behind the great hall.
The monks shouted and cheered furiously. Above them rose the plum blossom pattern carved into the hall, petals scattering in every direction.
At last, Mount Hua’s disciples, dressed in black martial robes, strode in with faces full of steadfast resolve, their bearing as unshakable as iron.