The Dusty Road of Jianghu
“You bastard! Neung Jeon! Are you still refusing to admit your fault to the very end?”
My father’s roar was already carrying over the wall.
It was only natural that he would be angry after losing one of the family’s prized possessions. But the second brother’s reaction that followed was something I could not begin to understand.
“Hic! Father! I… I’m really innocent! I swear to Heaven and Earth, I never touched that elixir! Why! Why won’t you believe me?”
A full-grown man was sobbing like a woman. Whatever terrible mistake he might have made, this family would not be severing his limbs or destroying his dantian, so the spectacle was baffling.
“Young Master, I think we should hurry a little.”
Wang Wi’s face had already hardened at the ominous atmosphere, and with his warning added to the mix, I silently quickened my steps.
Then, a moment later, an even stranger scene than I had expected came into view.
My second brother was kneeling on the dirt, both fists clenched, tears streaming down his face. His eyes were so swollen from crying that he looked pitiful, yet there was no blood on his body anywhere.
In other words, no punishment had been carried out yet.
How could he be weeping so bitterly in a situation like this?
For me, who remembered the spies of the orthodox sects maintaining complete composure even under the demon religion’s cruelest punishments, it was a scene I could scarcely comprehend.
As I casually glanced around, my eldest brother met my eyes.
At that moment, as though he had made up his mind, he gave me a small nod and strode at once toward my second brother.
“Father! Since the elixir sent by the Baekri family was originally meant to be given to me, let it simply be counted as having gone to me! Neung Jeon is claiming his innocence so vehemently, so please trust him! There must certainly have been an intruder.”
It was unlike my eldest brother to say such a thing.
This was far removed from the elder brother I knew, the one who normally valued rules and discipline above all else.
Yet my father still spoke with the same stern righteousness as ever.
“Neung Bi! Are you saying you’ll trample our family’s laws just to protect your brother? Neung Jeon himself admitted that he entered my study last night, and still you ask me to forgive him? Does that truly seem to you like the right thing for this family? If this matter is allowed to pass without punishment, then from this day on no one living in this house will fear theft anymore! That is what it means to ruin our family!”
Then my eldest brother dropped to both knees as well and spoke.
“Then let me take half of whatever punishment is due to Neung Jeon! I too bear responsibility for failing to properly teach my younger brother, Neung Jeon.”
At that moment, I could no longer hold back the laughter surging up inside me.
“Puhuhahaha!”
Everyone stared at me in shock.
Then my father spoke toward me.
“Neung So! Is it that amusing to you to see your brothers kneeling and begging forgiveness?”
At that, I met my father’s incredulous gaze and replied.
“How could it not be amusing, when those who have done nothing wrong are on their knees while the one who actually committed the act merely stands by and watches?”
“What? Then are you saying you know who the real culprit is?”
I nodded at that and slowly began to sweep my gaze over the people around us.
Every servant who met my eyes hastily looked away.
They seemed to think I might point a finger at them.
But my servant Wang Wi alone did not avert his gaze.
Of everyone here, he was the only one who trusted me.
So I gave him a slight smile, then finally turned back to my father and spoke.
“I know perfectly well. It was I who took that elixir.”
Gasps erupted from all around.
My father was no different.
“Hah… You’re admitting your guilt with your own mouth?”
But at that moment, my second brother suddenly raised his voice.
“Father! When I visited the study last night, I didn’t see Neung So! Neung So is lying now to protect his brothers!”
Then my eldest brother also spoke up.
“That’s right! With Neung So’s level of martial skill, evading the eyes of the guard is utterly absurd! Please don’t take the foolish words of Neung So to heart!”
Even after I had claimed to have stolen the elixir myself, the sight of my two brothers trying to shield me made another fit of laughter rise in me, sharp and bright.
It was a feeling I had never once experienced before—strange, and yet strangely joyful. In the end, I could not help myself.
“Puhahat! There isn’t a single person here qualified to judge my martial skill. It seems our eldest brother has misunderstood this younger brother’s ability by quite a margin.”
Immediately, my father’s bellow thundered out.
“You brat! Neung So! Your behavior is nothing short of outrageous! Are you now insulting me, your father, and this family? I will not spare you simply because you are young!”
At that, I quietly drew the sword at my waist.
Everyone around me once again sucked in a sharp breath.
And then my body began to move, smooth as flowing water.
“A single plum blossom does not break, even in bitter frost!”
As the qi-filled blade thrust into the air, a clear hum burst forth from the sword.
With a small smile, I unfurled the next form.
“Within the frost-lit radiance, it holds the scent of silver fragrance!”
The second form of the Eighteen-Form Plum Blossom Sword contained the subtlety of hidden force beneath its sharp thrust.
Thanks to that, the tree my sword had struck showed its pierced hole swelling outward and bursting apart. While everyone who saw it held their breath, realizing I was displaying an advanced martial art, my movements continued unabated.
“Petals dancing on the wind weave illusions!”
As the third form, imbued with the mystique of the illusionary sword, left afterimages in the air, my body immediately drew the next.
“Every branch becomes a blade, and every root gathers its momentum!”
This time, the afterimage I had just created transformed into a cluster of sword qi and shot forward before my eyes, slicing apart everything caught within its reach.
The moment the tree before me was torn into dozens of shattered pieces and scattered to the wind,
the inner energy filling my dantian was completely spent.
But I had already opened my upper dantian.
“When the silver plum blossoms fall, life lingers at the tip of the sword!”
A thread of energy drawn through the upper dantian condensed instantly into sword qi at the tip of my blade, striking the void, and then the next form unfolded.
“Though it falls as lightly as spring snow, it becomes a deadly flower.”
The instant my words ended, the sword qi crumbling from the tip of the blade turned into countless small edges that shredded the air before me.
And yet, despite the many forms still remaining, I could no longer continue.
The Baekri family members, who had come as guests, had finally appeared in response to the commotion here.
So I sheathed my sword at once and turned back to my father.
“What do you think, Father? Instead of the elixir I took, I offer this as our family’s new treasure: the Eighteen-Form Plum Blossom Sword. It is a pity, but since our guests have arrived, I’ll stop here rather than demonstrating the family’s secret art directly. I’ll prepare the rest as a manual for you.”
My father, a man who had reached the first-rank realm, ought to have understood. While the Great Ultimate Yang Brightness Pill I had taken was indeed an extraordinary treasure, this Eighteen-Form Plum Blossom Sword was also a priceless art that could raise our family’s standing to something entirely different.
But my father’s answer was something I had never expected.
“As the head of the Neung family, I sentence Neung So for his crime! Neung So, leave this house by the end of today!”
Could it be that he failed to realize just how extraordinary this martial art was?
“This Eighteen-Form Plum Blossom Sword is an ultimate martial art that will carry Father beyond the first-rank barrier you now face and into the pinnacle.”
And yet his reply, even after hearing me, remained as baffling as before.
“You brat, Neung So! Do you still refuse to repent for your wrongdoing? One shichen! Leave this house within one shichen! I’ve raised my son all wrong!”
He finished speaking in a hurry, then turned his back on me without another word.
Watching that back, I spoke again.
“Is the Eighteen-Form Plum Blossom Sword not enough? Very well. Then I shall offer another martial art! The Six Harmonies Sword Art! This is a technique that harmonizes heaven and earth, east and west, south and north—”
“Enough! Just how much disgrace do you intend to smear across my face? I don’t want to speak with you any longer, so pack your things and leave this instant!”
My father spat the words out while looking at me for only a moment before turning away once more.
But in that brief glimpse of his face, I read something strange.
Sadness.
Something this family had always shown me only in bewildering fragments—its sadness and tears—had once again appeared before me.
For that reason, I too, who had been keeping silent all this while, finally decided to give up on staying in this house.
The owner of this house did not want me here, and I had no desire to endure his glare any longer.
So I turned without hesitation and headed for my chambers, only for my eldest brother’s voice to ring out behind me.
“Neung So! At least now, hurry and beg Father’s forgiveness!”
I paused for a moment at those words, then continued walking.
Even if this was an unexpected turn of events, it was still a good excuse to leave the house and go meet the immortals for myself.
But just as I reached my quarters without any particular reaction, the servant Wang Wi, who had followed quietly behind me the whole time, finally spoke.
“Young Master! I think the family head is very, very angry. Rest here for a bit, and once his temper cools, go see him and admit your fault then.”
He had always looked at me with arrogant, cheeky eyes, and now he was taking it upon himself to meddle again.
For some reason, I found that annoying self-importance of his not so intolerable.
I gazed at Wang Wi for a moment, then said, “Wang Wi, do you know how remarkable the martial art I said I would offer in place of the elixir actually is? You truly don’t have the eye for treasure that the people in this house do.”
After that, I immediately began gathering clothes and other things to leave the house with, and Wang Wi suddenly raised his voice.
“The one who can’t see what’s right even with both eyes open isn’t me, Young Master—it’s you! The family head really didn’t mean to drive you out of the manor!”
That might have been true.
No, it probably was true.
If I were to kneel before my father right now and beg forgiveness, he was the sort of man who would easily pardon me.
But I had no intention of doing so.
This was a good chance to find some fitting spirit elixir to replace the Great Ultimate Yang Brightness Pill I had taken, and to meet those so-called immortals as well.
So I spoke again to Wang Wi.
“Wang Wi, you know well enough how foolish it is to try gathering seeds scattered by the wind. Father’s words are such seeds already sown in me. They have taken root in my heart and sprouted, teaching me how stifling this place truly is.”
At my calm reply, Wang Wi could only chew on his lip.
Perhaps he was worried about what would become of him after I left.
So, for the sake of the man who had trusted me until the end, I gave him a small gift.
“This is your reward for all your hard work. It contains a rather profound first-rank martial art, so you may learn it yourself, or sell it to someone else and make a respectable profit.”
But the moment he took the manual for the Falling Sun Sword from my hand, he threw it straight to the ground.
“Young Master!!”
Wang Wi was now looking at me with a face on the verge of tears.
I spoke to him again.
“Of course, since that was already given to you, you may throw it away if you don’t like it.”
Then, after gathering the luggage I had packed in a short while,
Wang Wi grabbed hold of my sleeve and clung on again.
“Where exactly are you going?”
At that, a suitable place came to mind at once.
“The Baekri lady said it herself. They’ll soon be recruiting disciples at the Hyeondo Sect, a cultivation sect. I’ve wanted to visit a cultivation sect anyway, so I’m thinking of going there this time. I’ll see for myself what kind of extraordinary people these immortals, who train for a thousand years, really are.”
At my words, Wang Wi’s hand slipped from my sleeve.
“Then once your business there is finished… please do come back!”
I gave a faint smile at that, patted the back of Wang Wi, who was determined to remain on my side to the end, and stepped out of the quarters.
Then, perhaps curious about what was happening here, the Baekri family’s daughter, who had been watching from a fair distance away, met my eyes. Just as well—I had intended to ask her the way to the Hyeondo Sect.
So I walked straight toward her, and she, as though she intended to keep her gaze fixed on me to the end, slowly lowered her head at some point.
“Do you have something to say to me, sir?”
“Miss Baekri said she intended to visit the Hyeondo Sect, the cultivation sect, did she not? I also mean to go there. Please tell me where it is.”
Then she raised her head again, met my gaze, and this time spoke with a faint smile.
“The Hyeondo Sect is on the highest peak of Gwiheo Mountain. Gwiheo Mountain is famous even among ordinary commoners, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find the way. If you challenge the Hyeondo Sect’s entrance trial at next month’s new moon, sir, we may meet again.”
Having gained useful information, I let a slight smile appear just as she had.
“Thank you. Then I look forward to seeing you again then.”
And the moment I turned away, she raised her voice behind me.
“Next new moon! Don’t forget!”
Instead of turning back to answer, I merely lifted a hand slightly, signaling that no further words were needed.
Then I resumed walking.
It was a sudden journey into the jianghu, begun by an unexpected moment and an unexpected turn of events.
But for me, a man who had already once driven the Dusty Riverlands to kneel beneath my feet, there was nothing to fear.
“Since I have already trodden the jianghu and shattered it once,
I shall know no worry even if I travel ten thousand leagues.
When the sword rises, stars and rivers will break apart.
Heaven and earth shall stand still for me.
Jianghu once broken beneath my step,
Ten thousand leagues and still no care.
The sword ascends, and stars are shattered,
Heaven and earth remain for me.”
With a poem flowing naturally from my lips, my footsteps pressed onward without the slightest hesitation.
In the end, in just a few days, I had cut the distance to Gwiheo Mountain in half.
But that smooth progress came to a halt all at once.
It was because of a single immortal who suddenly blocked my path.