The Rumored Sword Empress
"Is the food to your liking?"
"It tastes wonderful. Still, with hands so short around the manor right now, I wonder if it is right for me to indulge in such luxury."
"The fault lies entirely with our clan, as does the grave discourtesy committed against a guest. We should have treated you with proper honor from the very beginning, but my wretched third brother caused this disaster. As his elder brother, I offer you my deepest apologies."
"Please, think nothing of it. Such mishaps are common in the martial arts world. I have weathered far worse, so you needn't trouble yourself over it."
Jin Yeong was conversing with Paeng Jo-yun, the second young master of the Paeng Family. Ever since the clan had been turned completely upside down the previous night, Jin Yeong's status had abruptly shifted from that of a captive prisoner to an esteemed guest of honor.
The manor was already thrown into chaos by the absence of its clan head and foremost experts. Under the circumstances, they desperately needed to resolve the dishonor inflicted by the late third young master as swiftly as possible.
"I thank you for your generous forbearance, Young Hero Jin Yeong. Should you ever wish to depart, simply say the word. Until then, we will continue to attend to you as our honored guest, so please do not weigh your heart down with worry."
"Understood, Great Hero Paeng."
When Jin Yeong cupped his fists in salute, Paeng Jo-yun nodded in return and excused himself from the guest chamber. With the clan head gone, the second young master's authority was practically on par with that of the eldest heir.
While the first young master assumed the mantle of acting clan head, Paeng Jo-yun was left to manage the overall affairs of the manor. The acting head had to tighten external defenses, while the second son had to knit the inner clan back together.
In truth, lingering here any longer felt awkward beyond measure. Yet simply packing up and leaving would appear as though he found their hospitality lacking.
Just as a heavy sigh escaped his lips over the dilemma—
"Well, well. Look at who's living like a king after supposedly getting captured."
"R-Ryeong sojeo? How did you get in here?"
"What do you mean, 'how'? It's not like the Paeng Family manor is off-limits to me."
Jin Yeong jolted as if he had seen a vengeful phantom. From the wild dilation of his pupils, it was clear he had already deduced whose handiwork had caused the previous night's massacre.
Yet this was the very heart of the Paeng Family compound. No matter how much he wished to shout, he had to swallow his voice. Ryeong, well aware of the danger, brought an index finger to her lips.
Though no words were exchanged, her presence alone served as living proof that she had slain the third young master and laid low countless martial artists. Wavering over what to say, Jin Yeong bit back another sigh.
Had Ryeong merely executed the third young master and vanished, he could have understood. Had she slaughtered the intervening clan head and eradicated every single soul within the Hebei Paeng Family Compound, he would have accepted that as well.
If Ryeong had made either choice, it would have been the product of cold deliberation.
The trouble was that she had spared some while butchering others. To her, moral lines were a meaningless construct. She was someone who could step across the line at whim, just as easily as she could walk within it.
The moment she infiltrated the manor, slaughtered the third young master, and stood face-to-face with the clan head, she had unequivocally crossed that boundary. In such a state, nothing Jin Yeong said could have held her back.
In other words, either everyone should have died, or she should have cleanly eliminated the third young master without shedding extraneous blood and slipped away.
"Why did you do it that way?"
Jin Yeong set aside his swirling thoughts and posed the question bluntly. Why? Either resolve it in total silence, or wipe them out with absolute certainty. Why stop halfway through such an ambiguous mess? That was what his gaze demanded.
Ryeong caught the intent behind his eyes immediately. The youth who once hesitated to draw blood and prized every mortal life was long gone.
He had survived harrowing clashes with the Demon Blood Divine Cult and witnessed death and madness in abundance. While his upright moral compass had been subtly frayed by Ryeong's influence, those blood-soaked battles had forged a new conviction within him: those who deserved death ought to die.
Hence, the look in his eyes practically asked why she hadn't seen the slaughter through to the bitter end.
"I'll explain on the road. For now, know that the Ghost Spirit King is dead and buried, and I managed to reap quite a harvest in the process."
"I will hear it here before taking a step. There are no ears nearby, and I know how to erect a sound-dampening barrier of qi as well."
Jin Yeong's resolve was immovable. Given that a bloodbath had transpired within the Paeng Family, he was determined to hear the truth within these walls. In the end, Ryeong conceded.
When all was said and done, she was the one who had spilled blood. In the past, she would have snorted in derision and dragged him out by the collar. Yet ever since witnessing him consumed by sheer hatred within that bizarre formation—
She found it difficult to treat him with her old callousness.
"It seemed the Demon Blood Divine Cult had already driven its talons into the Paeng clan. I pushed myself to butcher their demonic zealots while trying to spread word of the Ghost Spirit King's demise far and wide. Only, the Successor Beggar of the Beggars' Sect happened to be trailing me."
"If the Beggars' Sect's successor was behind you, how could rumors have spread in this manner?"
"Easy. I even flaunted celestial qi to convince him. Having reached a sensible conclusion, the little beggar went ahead and circulated the rumors."
Jin Yeong's eyes narrowed. After spending so much time at Ryeong's side, he had acquired the ability to discern whether she was spinning falsehoods or speaking the unvarnished truth.
She remained oblivious to it herself, but through long observation of her habits, Jin Yeong had picked up on the tell: whenever she lied, her shoulder gave an involuntary twitch.
The movement was so imperceptible that ordinary eyes would never catch it. Yet Jin Yeong saw right through it. She was not telling a single lie.
"I believe you. However, the next time you orchestrate something like this, inform me beforehand."
"Hard to do that when you were locked away in a holding cell. Besides, I wasn't in the brightest of moods yesterday."
Ryeong's spirits had been dampened by the Ghost Spirit King's sinister formation. Though examining her spoils had helped, it merely elevated her from sour to bearable—it was hardly what one would call pleasant.
On top of that, discovering Jin Yeong had been hauled away had made her snap. She recognized that the third young master was entirely in the wrong, overstepping his bounds on nothing more than the hollow prestige of the Hebei Paeng Family.
Only the distinct presence of demonic qi within the compound had kept her sanity tethered. Her original design had been to slay the third son and slaughter every living soul in sight.
Yet a startling number of Paeng martial artists had secretly cultivated demonic arts. In a fleeting instant, Ryeong had singled them out to demonstrate her martial prowess before Paeng Woo-gang, successfully purging the treacherous vermin without raising undue suspicion.
"The real problem is that the successor's reach is absurdly wide. Even I didn't expect the rumor to saturate the entire province of Hebei in less than a day."
"The Successor Beggar is practically equivalent to the Dragon Head Chief himself. His martial prowess might be inferior, but when it comes to lightness skills, even someone like you, Ryeong sojeo..."
"Even someone like me?"
"...Could catch him easily enough, of course, but his lightness skills are still extraordinary. To a beggar, survival always comes before battle."
He was right on that point. Every sect held different values, and the Beggars' Sect—the lone guild among the Nine Great Sects and One Gang—dealt primarily in intelligence, prioritizing the survival of its operatives above all else.
If an ambush struck during an intelligence run, all but one operative tasked with delivering the message would throw themselves into combat to ensure the survivor escaped.
That was how the Beggars' Sect had endured throughout history, and why the martial arts world revered their presence as the Hundred Thousand Beggars. Possessing tenacity surpassing that of vermin, they held a stranglehold over the flow of information throughout the jianghu.
And their successor was second-in-command of that vast network. The volume of intelligence he processed dwarfed that of ordinary beggars—
And the speed at which he aggregated and disseminated it existed in another realm entirely.
Ryeong tried to imagine what would have become of her had she failed to win the brat over. She couldn't easily fathom it. At worst, she might have been branded a public enemy of the entire martial world.
"Still, we should count our blessings that word didn't spread of me personally slaying the Ghost Spirit King. That would have been an utter nuisance."
"Wouldn't it be better to spread your epithet as the Sword Empress while you have the chance?"
"What nonsense. I have no desire to draw unwanted eyes. Besides, what part of me looks like a sword empress?"
Ryeong tossed up both hands and shook her head vehemently. Though she had severed the enemy ringleader's life with the Four Divine Beasts Sword during the Hubei Catastrophe, her mastery over the blade hardly warranted the exalted title of Sword Empress.
Martial artists tended to see only what they wished to see. In the eyes of the martial world, Ryeong had been branded a sword master. Whether that would prove a blessing or a curse remained to be seen.
Unfortunately, contrary to her wishes, no sooner had the news of the Ghost Spirit King's subjugation washed over Hebei than a follow-up rumor exploded across the province: the Sword Empress herself had struck down the fiend.
"Hey, brat. Didn't I tell you to spread word that the Ghost Spirit King died, not that the Sword Empress did it?"
"I-I apologize! My master insisted that if we were putting the news out anyway, it would be best to reveal your identity..."
"Goddammit. This is why you can never trust the Beggars' Sect. If I'd handed this to the Hao Sect, it would've been completely anonymous! What the hell is this mess?"
The moment Ryeong had stepped out of the Paeng Family manor, she was swarmed by an ocean of Hebei commoners offering deafening cheers and adoration. The tale of her being the legendary Sword Empress had already spread under the heavens.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Jin Yeong had seized the opportunity to abandon her and slip away. Left to endure the endless stream of tearful gratitude from the crowd, Ryeong waited for the first gap in the throng before sprinting at full speed straight toward the Beggars' Sect's Hebei branch.
Catching sight of Ryeong's sudden arrival, Ga Ak-sang went pale enough to faint on the spot. It was clear he was acutely aware of the transgression he had committed.
"Hey. Ga Ak-sang."
"...Speak, please."
"Let's cooperate nicely from now on. Otherwise, your neck is going to feel an awful lot of heat tonight."
Shring.
When Ryeong drew the Evil-Slaying Dagger and curled her eyes into a razor-sharp crescent, a sharp hiccup tore from Ga Ak-sang's throat, and he nodded his head with furious vigor.
Even the successor of the great Beggars' Sect was nothing more than a meek lamb before pure, unadulterated bloodlust.