The Dam Raid
Namgung Cheok, captain of the Namgung Family’s Heavenly Sword Unit, was in a foul mood.
No—frankly speaking, it was an absolute mess.
“Those damn bastards. How the hell did they train their spies that they got caught so easily and caused this whole fiasco?”
Not long ago, Namgung Jin—young master of the Namgung Family and Cheok’s cousin—had summoned him.
The matter was simple.
They had deployed spies to extract the core technologies of the Sacheondang Family, but the Dang Family had caught them red-handed, complete with ironclad evidence. There was no wriggling free.
The Dang Family demanded compensation, so they had no choice but to swallow their pride and accept it.
If he had heard this two years earlier, he would have scoffed, drawn his Azure Steel Sword, and bellowed at the top of his lungs, “Let’s crush those Sichuan country bumpkins who don’t know their place!”
But…
“…Damn it.”
Even now, the memory of the tidal wave of official robes that had swarmed the Namgung Family like a plague of locusts was enough to jolt him awake in the dead of night. He had no choice but to accept it.
What he simply could not understand was the so-called “compensation” they demanded.
“Crazy bastards. Why is the condition for overlooking the spy incident that the Heavenly Sword Unit has to go guard that dam?”
Right—how exactly did victim compensation turn into free security detail?
If they had found fault and seized some rights or land, that would be one thing. Even if they had simply extorted money, he could have understood.
Instead, they had specifically named one of the Namgung Family’s outer martial units, ordered them to travel all the way out here, and told them to stand guard.
And the object of that guard duty was not the new state-run ironworks construction site packed with confidential technology, nor the Dang Family’s executives and master craftsmen. It was a dam that had already been completed.
Sure, the gossips grandly called it the Great Dam, but rumors were always like that, weren’t they? It was probably just a village reservoir built a little larger than usual.
Thinking that, Namgung Cheok had raced to Henan Province—only to gape speechlessly at the colossal water wall of the Baekgak Mountain Dam when he looked up.
“…Crazy….”
It was a vast lake formed by damming an entire basin of great mountains, and a grayish-white wall the size of a mountain itself that made that lake possible.
Namgung Cheok, who had imagined nothing more than a modest expansion of a neighborhood back-hill reservoir, was forced to reflect on how pitifully limited his imagination had been.
“This is practically a lake. And a huge one at that.”
It did not quite reach the scale of Dongting Lake, which was said to be confusable with the sea, yet it was still a reservoir so immense that few lakes under heaven could rival it.
When he climbed up and examined the water wall itself, the height was enough that even Sichuan’s infamous Sword Pavilion—not the sword sect, but the impregnable fortress—would have to yield a step.
Anyone who fell from that height would not survive, even a martial artist who had mastered the Cloud Dragon Eight Forms of the Kunlun Sect, reputed to possess the lightest body under heaven.
“It’s impressive, but… is there really any need for us to go out of our way to guard this?”
He admitted the scale was staggering, and he understood that if the great dam ever burst it would bring catastrophic disaster.
But in the end, was it not simply a dike holding back water?
This was not even a wartime water attack. What madman would deliberately try to destroy it?
In answer to Namgung Cheok’s question, the mid-level official from the Henan Provincial Administration Office charged with maintenance of the dam facilities merely shrugged.
“Frankly, government troops are already standing watch, so this office also considers it a waste… but Academician Dang requested it, so what can we do?”
“….”
From time immemorial, those below simply did as those above ordered.
Namgung Cheok had no desire to spar with an innocent bureaucrat and only heaved heavy sighs.
“…Well, since it’s come to this, I suppose there’s no choice. Let’s look after each other from now on.”
“The same to you. If there is anything you need for your stay, please do not hesitate to ask.”
The official likewise had no intention of putting on stiff bureaucratic airs before a blood relative of the renowned Namgung Family.
Both Namgung Cheok and the official shared the common misery of having been forced into this cursed business trip because of the dam, and because one belonged to the murim and the other to the official world, neither encroached upon the other’s domain. They became friendly far more quickly than expected.
That Namgung Cheok was, as befitting a scion of the Namgung Family, not sullen but rather easygoing and reasonably broad-minded also helped the two grow close without delay.
“Ah, brother, this little brother must head in now.”
Watching the official—now on brotherly terms—flail with a face flushed beet-red and crawl off into the dormitory, Namgung Cheok smacked his lips.
The moon hung unnecessarily high and bright, and its reflection upon the artificial lake—the massive reservoir nestled between the mountains—was a true spectacle.
It was a night that made a man crave wine more than usual, yet his good drinking companion had already collapsed first, leaving him without a partner for the cup.
Namgung Cheok had thought of returning to the dormitory to finish a solitary drink and sleep, but he soon changed his mind and grinned.
“Shall I go check whether the boys are doing their duty properly?”
On a night with the moon so brilliantly full, if he opened a drinking party atop the dam—with the vast lake on one side and sheer cliffs and valleys spreading on the other—would the scenery alone not carry several jars of wine down the throat?
Of course it was something that should never happen, and the fact that the man about to do it was Namgung Cheok, overall commander of the patrol detail, would have made Namgung Jin tear his hair out. Still, Cheok had his excuses.
If you dump a detached assignment that has neither tension nor any sense of necessity, you ought to possess the magnanimity to overlook a little deviation like this, shouldn’t you?
Carrying a large wine jar with the intention of sharing a round with the patrol martial artists at the dam site, Namgung Cheok raced soundlessly along the forest path like an owl.
But before he reached the top of the dam, something strange caught his eye.
“……!!”
Footprints.
In eyes that saw as clearly as under daylight even in darkness, more than a dozen prints remaining among the grass came into sharp view.
The problem was that this was neither a direction used by the patrol teams nor a path taken by hunters or herb gatherers.
Discovering footprints where none should exist, Namgung Cheok’s previously relaxed eyes instantly began to radiate a sharp, sword-like killing intent.
He set down the wine jar, circulated his inner energy through a full cycle to drive out the alcohol, drew his Azure Steel Sword, and deployed his lightfoot technique at full power.
And when the upper reaches of the dam drew near, he finally heard the clash of weapons.
He raised his inner power and unleashed a lion’s roar.
Hoping the other members still wandering dreamland in the distant dormitory would hear, Namgung Cheok immediately launched his body into the sky.
In any case, even if he approached in stealth alone, he was not an absolute master capable of fully exploiting the element of surprise.
Thus he discarded the advantage of a silent approach in order to call for reinforcements—but he still intended to throw the first blow.
At the tip of Namgung Cheok’s sword as he soared into the air, a clear blue sword energy reminiscent of the azure sky began to whirl.
He launched that sword energy against the masked men attacking the Heavenly Sword Unit members atop the dam.
"Soaring Stars of the Azure Heavens!!!"
His sword tip seemed to paint an illusion of the deep blue, nearly indigo summer night sky—then sword energy poured down like a meteor shower.
It was a powerful martial art fully worthy of the man who led the Namgung Family’s Heavenly Sword Unit… yet—
One masked man who had been standing with arms folded stepped forward and raised both hands.
Clap.
Between the lightly clapping palms of the masked man, seething violet-blue lightning energy wavered.
When he thrust both palms outward, Namgung Cheok’s eyes widened as though they would tear.
“Yin-Yang Dual Thunder?!”
In that instant, with a roar that seemed to shake heaven and earth, three forks of lightning-like palm force erupted from the masked man’s dual palms, swallowed every last scrap of Namgung Cheok’s sword energy, and crashed toward him.
Without even time for shock, Namgung Cheok swung his sword thrice in rapid succession, split the palm force, and managed to land.
“Captain!!”
“Don’t look this way! Focus on the enemies in front of you!”
When one surviving member cried out tearfully, Namgung Cheok roared back.
“Wounded to the rear! Survivors gather here!”
The situation was clearly unfavorable for the Namgung side.
Of the twelve Heavenly Sword Unit members, four had already lost their lives, and the remaining eight were bleeding from wounds all over their bodies.
Twenty or thirty corpses of masked men lay on the ground, yet roughly that many still remained—and above all, there was the masked man before him.
Had that man stepped in earlier, the Heavenly Sword Unit would have been annihilated long ago.
But that was not the important point.
Namgung Cheok felt every hair on his body stand on end with rage and growled.
“From the Peng Family, are you?”
“….”
“No use playing dumb! That single form of Yin-Yang Dual Thunder is none other than a form of the Hunyuan Thunderclap Palm that the Peng Family prides itself on!!!”
Indeed.
The palm technique with which the masked man had countered Namgung Cheok’s attack was Yin-Yang Dual Thunder, a late absolute form of the Hunyuan Thunderclap Palm.
Though it appeared to emit lightning energy, in truth it was not lightning at all, but multi-forked palm force that pressed in so as to make defense extremely difficult—that distinctive trait was unmistakable.
And that was not all.
A surviving Heavenly Sword Unit member reported in a trembling voice.
“That’s not all. Those bastards… those bastards….”
The member cried out, nearly weeping.
“The martial arts they used! They’re pretending to imitate sword arts, but it’s clear. It’s the Peng Family’s Hunyuan Thunderclap Saber!”
Every one of those arts was a symbol of the Hebei Peng Family.
Of course they fell a step short of the Peng Family’s true secret, the Five Tigers Gate-Severing Saber practiced only by the direct line.
Yet even the saber arts taught to the collateral branches were not handed out to just anyone.
Only those who possessed unbreakable trust that they would never betray the family, and the talent to fully digest what was taught, were granted the right to learn such techniques.
Namgung Cheok’s eyes flicked for an instant toward the corpses.
Upon the bodies of the masked men—upon the dead of the Namgung Family’s Heavenly Sword Unit—traces of Hebei Peng Family martial arts remained.
Was there any room left for doubt?
Fire ignited in Namgung Cheok’s eyes.
“You cowardly Peng Family swindlers!! The Emperor’s Sword shall judge you!!”
As he raised his aura, blue sword energy like a summer sky began to whirl at the tip of his blade.
As if answering, the masked man lifted both palms, and crackling, thunder-like violet-blue energy rose.
“Hold on! Hold until reinforcements arrive!”
With those final words, Namgung Cheok and the masked man clashed.
The masked man’s prowess was tremendous, yet Namgung Cheok was himself a master of the level who could command one of the Namgung Family’s renowned force units; he did not yield easily.
Even so, rather than overpowering the masked man, Cheok was hard-pressed simply protecting the dam and the remaining Heavenly Sword Unit members from the man’s assaults.
Still, he ultimately succeeded in buying time. From the distance came the sound of other Heavenly Sword Unit members racing closer, and the signal horns of the government troops began to sound.
At that moment the masked man stepped back and brought his dual palms together. And then—
“…?! Dodge!!”
The air turned chill as wind was sucked toward the masked man.
Feeling every hair on his body stand on end, Namgung Cheok shouted—and in that same instant a palm force incomparably greater than anything the man had previously unleashed flew forth like a thunderbolt and smashed into the dam’s water wall.
—KWAANG!!!
With a noise as though dozens of crates of gunpowder had detonated at once, a dust cloud billowed upward, and the masked man used the recoil to soar into the air.
“…?!”
In the eyes of the masked man as he flipped his body, composure vanished for the first time and a light of pure shock appeared.
The water wall that had taken his palm force, though cracked in places, still stood firm and unyielding.
“…!”
He immediately prepared to launch another palm force at the fractured wall… but Namgung Cheok was not one to stand idle and watch.
"Heavenly Thunder Single Arrow!"
Unlike the Namgung Family’s swords that relied on weight and momentum, the Heavenly Thunder Divine Sword focused purely on speed—and among its forms the one reputed to be the fastest, Heavenly Thunder Single Arrow, came streaking toward him. The masked man had no choice but to abandon the strike meant for the wall and hurriedly defend.
Bang!
Barely escaping the crisis of the sudden attack, the masked man whipped his head around to glare at Namgung Cheok—but judging that further delay would be unwise, he used the recoil to fling himself toward the opposite forest.
“Stop right there!”
“Don’t chase! Capture the small fry instead!”
Namgung Cheok ordered coldly. If he pursued recklessly and suffered a counterattack, the headache would be obvious.
Moreover the opponent had already as good as revealed which school he belonged to; there was no reason to force a chase.
And at that moment—
“C-Captain. These ones… they all bit poison pills….”
“Hmm.”
Looking at his subordinates’ troubled faces, Namgung Cheok furrowed his brow.
He strode irritably to one of the masked corpses and yanked the mask free.
An ordinary face appeared, of course. After pulling out the corpse’s tongue, flipping the eyelids, and examining the body this way and that, Namgung Cheok’s expression oddly hardened.
“…This is… the same poison that killed Eok—Namgung Eok?”
The direct-line poisoning incident of the Namgung Family.
A strange piece of the puzzle had just surfaced here.
It was only natural that the series of events at the dam immediately spread in every direction.
Upon receiving the report, Hui-yeom rarely allowed his expression to harden as he spoke.
“…I didn’t expect it to catch like this.”
An unexpected big fish had been snared in the net he had cast just in case.