A Temporary Escort
The Flash Flower Sword, Cheon Hyeong-jin, was one of Mount Hua’s Plum Blossom Sword Protectors.
The Plum Blossom Sword Protectors were the six elite disciples qualified to become the sect’s future head. It was not a post handed out to just anyone, and it was certainly not a position just anyone could claim.
As for the Flash Flower Sword, he happened to be unusually spirited and inclined to meddle in the affairs of the world; since someone had to do it, he simply took on the Murim Alliance’s work. Under different circumstances, he would have been perfectly content to stroll around with his hands clasped behind his back, puffing himself up and going, Hmph.
“I am the Flash Flower Sword of Mount Hua! Unfortunately, it’s dark enough that I can’t make out the faces of you lot properly! So if you’d all like to turn your weapons around and run now, I’d have a hard time catching each and every one of you!”
At that shouted warning, the men who had charged forward and then paused to assess the situation exchanged quick glances.
But there was no sign at all that they intended to retreat. If anything, they shifted their positions little by little, burning with fighting spirit.
“Ha. So my name alone won’t drive you off? My reputation is wasted on you! I gave you a chance, and you still—!”
The Flash Flower Sword was a righteous man.
He was not one of those hypocrites who wore one face in public and another in private, nor was he a man so obsessed with his sword that slaughtering people had become his hobby.
He drew his blade only for the sake of the justice and chivalry he truly pursued.
At this point, it was no exaggeration to say that this murim still endured because of people like him.
Looking at the men before him, still stoking their murderous intent, the Flash Flower Sword thought to himself, Well, I suppose people like that aren’t going to back down just because I said a few words.
That was Murim. That was the jianghu. It was not a place where a name or a level alone solved everything.
There were always fools who insisted on seeing things for themselves with their own eyes.
And the hidden assailants who had targeted the Rippling Wave Sword Demon soon coordinated their steps and rushed at the Flash Flower Sword.
Meticulously measured positions. And a perfectly synchronized assault.
A joint formation. A method devised by those of lower skill and lower realm to deal with opponents stronger than themselves.
Watching their attack, the Flash Flower Sword clicked his tongue inwardly.
Five of them came for him, attacking from every direction—above, below, left, right, even overhead.
So they did have some tricks, then.
Well, without that sort of thing, they wouldn’t have clawed their way up into this miserable position in the first place.
Cheon Hyeong-jin’s sword spun in a graceful arc, deflecting the assailants’ attacks.
Ching! Ching! Ching! He knocked aside the weapons of three men in rapid succession, then barely slipped past the dao of the last man lunging in and thrust his blade straight for the man’s throat.
The strike shot out so swiftly the man had no time to evade or parry. He stared in horror, as though he had glimpsed his own death in a flash of destiny, refusing to accept what was about to come.
But then, clang! Another sword intercepted Cheon Hyeong-jin’s blow.
That was the beauty of a joint formation. It saved a life that would otherwise have been dead without question.
And in that opening, the other assailants’ weapons came slashing back toward the Flash Flower Sword.
Clicking his tongue again, the Flash Flower Sword finally called up his inner power in earnest.
The night was still long, and no one knew what else might happen. In truth, conserving energy would have been the wiser choice.
But Cheon Hyeong-jin judged that it would be better to settle things quickly, even if it meant expending a little more strength now.
So he gathered his internal force and drove it hard into his sword.
“Hup!”
One of the men sucked in a sharp breath and cried out in shock.
Sword gang.
The sort of power one could only manifest after achieving enlightenment and entering the Transformation Realm / Hua Realm / Supreme Master.
The assailant was seeing sword gang for the first time.
And yet, even at first sight, he recognized it immediately.
He also realized what awaited them.
The tip of Cheon Hyeong-jin’s sword trembled with mystical precision.
Mount Hua, one of the Five Great Sects.
Yet on the rocky slopes of Mount Hua, plum blossoms did not naturally bloom.
And the reason those men used a sword that made plum blossoms bloom was simple.
Because plum blossoms bloom wherever the heart and the sword’s tip choose to let them bloom.
Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Art, twentieth form: Plum Blossom Falling from Heaven.
The swordsmanship of Mount Hua, the essence of change and illusion, unfurled as the delicately swaying tip of the blade scattered the assailants’ weapons in all directions one by one.
One man’s wrist. Another’s flank. Another’s thigh. Another’s shoulder….
In an instant, the Flash Flower Sword had neutralized the five men who charged him, and then he sprang off the ground and rushed toward the others.
What was truly astonishing was that even after seeing five men fall in the blink of an eye, the assailants still didn’t flee.
They fought back by hurling not just weapons, but nets, nooses, and hidden blades as well.
Those men must have decided that even a sliver of resistance was better than running—better, somehow, for their chances of survival.
And truthfully, that wasn’t wrong. The problem was that whether they ran or fought back, the odds of success were equally close to zero.
In the dead of night, in an unnamed mountain, plum blossoms bloomed out of season while the assailants collapsed onto the cold ground, groaning and glaring resentfully at the Flash Flower Sword.
More than twenty of them had fallen in the span of a breath.
After confirming that every last one had been taken down, the Flash Flower Sword finally sheathed his sword and looked down at the groaning men.
Then he said quietly, “Consider yourselves lucky to have kept your lives by a thread. Leave this place at once. And next time, don’t waste your lives chasing after empty fantasies—live honestly. Honestly.”
The assailants listened to him and, more or less on their hands and knees, dragged themselves away.
Watching the very last of them disappear, the Flash Flower Sword finally turned to Baek Jin-ah and Dang Yeong-young, and asked—glaring straight at Baek Jin-ah in particular:
“And who, exactly, are you? Why are there two girls from the Ice Palace? You had better tell me the truth. This concerns the alliance’s treaty with the Ice Palace as well.”
“I am Baek Jin-ah of the North Sea Ice Palace. It is a pleasure to meet you, Hero of Mount Hua, the Flash Flower Sword.”
“So you really did come from the Ice Palace?”
“Yes, that’s correct. Pardon me for asking, but… do you happen to know Miss Baek Harin?”
“Hm? Ah, yes. That was the girl’s name. So this is the reason, is it? Now I’m curious.”
At the Flash Flower Sword’s reaction, Baek Jin-ah’s face brightened and she hurriedly said, “I am the only one who came from the Ice Palace. Miss Baek Harin has nothing to do with the Ice Palace.”
“Then what in the world are you saying? I’m afraid I don’t understand.”
His expression full of curiosity, the Flash Flower Sword was about to continue when he suddenly glanced off to one side.
Baek Jin-ah and Dang Yeong-young did not notice it, but his keen sense of qi had detected yet another group approaching from far away.
“Tsk. This is no place for leisurely conversation. But tell me—why exactly have you two come here? Don’t tell me you’re after the Rippling Wave Sword for some absurd reason, too!”
“We were following after Miss Baek Harin because we wanted to meet her. But… suddenly those same sorts of people kept appearing, and so we were trying to avoid them….”
Having heard that much, the Flash Flower Sword quickly understood the situation.
“So things have turned rotten in a rather ugly way. Tsk. Still, what can I do? I can’t exactly leave you here safely, and I can’t take you somewhere safe just like that either….”
As he spoke, he mentally did the math.
The Rippling Wave Sword Demon had been driven into Pyeongjeong Mountain.
And the people hunting that Rippling Wave Sword Demon were, for reasons unknown, now swarming here as well.
So if he meant to uproot the Rippling Wave Sword Demon completely this time, he couldn’t simply leave this place.
If some stray scoundrel managed to make off with the Rippling Wave Sword, that would only start another vicious cycle.
Fortunately, the two girls before him did not seem especially weak.
Well, the one had traveled all the way from the Ice Palace to the Central Plains on her own. She couldn’t be a nobody.
And the girl beside her—he hadn’t heard her name yet, but she was clearly from the Tang Clan.
She seemed to be no less capable than this Baek Jin-ah girl.
“I can’t leave you two here, but I also can’t escort you somewhere safe right now. So let’s do this. Follow me for the moment. Once I’ve finished dealing with the Rippling Wave Sword Demon, I’ll take you to where that girl is. She went to Kaifeng with Senior Extreme Saint. And in any case, I’ll have to go to Kaifeng myself when this is done, since that’s where the alliance is. What do you say?”
“I worry that if we stay by your side, we’ll only interfere with your work, Hero.”
“Nonsense. There’s no need to worry about that. If anything, there may be ways for you to help. Will you come with me?”
“I understand. My strength is meager, but if you would ask it of me, Hero, I will follow.”
Listening to Baek Jin-ah’s answer with a satisfied expression, the Flash Flower Sword then looked at Dang Yeong-young and said,
“And what about you? Will you do the same? You’re from the Tang Clan, aren’t you?”
“My name is Dang Yeong-young. I’ll go with you.”
Hearing the name Dang Yeong-young, the Flash Flower Sword was faintly taken aback inwardly.
Wasn’t Dang Yeong-young that Tang Clan girl everyone said had rotten prospects? The one rumored to be rude and arrogant?
There wasn’t the slightest trace of that in her now, was there?
As he sifted through his memory, the Flash Flower Sword concluded that rumors could not be trusted wholesale.
As expected, seeing things with his own eyes was what mattered. There was a reason people said a hundred hearsays were not worth one look.
“In that case, let’s go. More of them will be coming this way soon.”
With that, the Flash Flower Sword took the lead, and Baek Jin-ah and Dang Yeong-young immediately followed after him.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
In the dim great hall, the Sado Alliance Leader sat upon the taesa chair atop the dais, while Jeokwol knelt before him and gave a detailed report of everything he had seen.
After hearing the whole story, the Sado Alliance Leader frowned slightly and rested his chin on his hand, thinking in silence for a moment.
Jeokwol, who had been worried he might be on the verge of being thunderstruck with a reprimand, saw that expression and decided he had at least cleared one hurdle. With a somewhat lighter heart, he lowered his head and waited in silence.
“Extreme Saint, you say.”
“That is correct, Alliance Leader.”
“Then are you saying Mount Zhongnan is involved in this as well?”
“Extreme Saint is a peculiar woman. She is not one to interfere in just anything at random. There were rumors that Extreme Saint and that Ice Palace woman were together in Luoyang, but that was only for a short time, and we confirmed that Extreme Saint later returned to Mount Zhongnan. However, the fact that she is once again moving alongside her like this makes me believe their relationship is anything but ordinary.”
At Jeokwol’s words, the Sado Alliance Leader nodded.
It was not the sort of movement one could easily understand. Which meant there had to be something behind it.
“Go. I won’t tell you what to do with Extreme Saint. But no matter what it takes, bring that woman before me.”
“Understood.”
Jeokwol answered and left the great hall.
And the Sado Alliance Leader, meanwhile, sank into serious thought over why Mount Zhongnan had gotten involved in this matter.