The Rumored Sword Empress
"Alliance Leader. An urgent dispatch has arrived from the Beggars' Sect's Hougae. Liaoning Province has been utterly devastated."
"They have already reached as far as Liaoning? The zealots of the Demon Blood Divine Cult must possess more lives than one."
A heavy groan rumbled from the chest of Alliance Leader Mujeokcheon, master of the Murim Alliance—the beating heart of the Orthodox factions situated in Henan. Revered as the undisputed zenith of contemporary martial arts, he was a grandmaster who had crossed into the sublime Realm of Profound Mastery.
Geographically, Liaoning was supposed to have been among the safest territories. The Hebei Paeng Family Compound, home to one of the Five Great Noble Families, stood not far beyond its borders. More crucially, the Forbidden City—where the Son of Heaven himself resided—was seated in Beijing. What madman would dare target Liaoning and risk provoking the imperial court?
The reigning emperor enjoyed widespread acclaim as a wise ruler, yet he was known to enact ruthless, extreme measures the moment he perceived the slightest threat. Mujeokcheon was certain that Liaoning's fall would stir the court into action. Even if the Demon Blood Divine Cult had operated under the mutual non-interference pact between officialdom and the martial world, invading Liaoning was nothing short of a disastrous blunder.
Still, the Murim Alliance could hardly sit idly by. Word had already broken that even the Paeng Family had been infiltrated by demonic spies; Mujeokcheon had to send reinforcements. The predicament was that any army they mobilized would arrive long after the dust had already settled.
"Chief Strategist. What are your thoughts on this matter?"
Ultimately, the Alliance Leader turned to Chief Strategist Jegal Cheong, hailed across the land as the First Brain of the Central Plains. Though Yeon Muryang normally weighed and decided the vast majority of Alliance affairs on his own, the present crisis demanded the strategist's keen foresight.
"In my humble opinion, our best course is to observe the imperial court's response."
"Your reasoning?"
"The Beggars' Sect is deliberately engineering the birth of a hero for a new age. The Sword Empress, was it? This third-generation disciple of the Jongnam Sect turned the Hubei Tragedy into victory, subjugated the Ghost Spirit King, and flushed out the spies lurking in the Paeng Family."
Jegal Cheong had already deduced that the Beggars' Sect intended to raise the girl named Jin Ryeong as a counterweight against the Demon Blood Divine Cult. Had that not been their design, rumors regarding her exploits would never have traveled with such staggering haste.
"We have intelligence placing her in Hebei," Jegal Cheong continued. "Furthermore, the court will undoubtedly mobilize in response to the assault on Liaoning. There is no compelling reason for us to deploy our main forces."
"And what if innocent commoners perish in the interim? We are the Murim Alliance, the righteous path. Calculating gain and loss is natural, but how can we claim to be orthodox if we disregard human lives for mere advantage?"
"Alliance Leader, the time has not yet come for the Alliance to move."
Jegal Cheong remained steadfast on the Murim Alliance's core duty. Standing at the fulcrum of the Central Plains, the Alliance could not afford to waver with every passing gust. Grave as this crisis was, the Beggars' Sect was deliberately managing the flow of information. If the Alliance rashly mobilized an army, rumors would spiral out of control, and their forces would still arrive far too late.
"It would be far wiser to dispatch a select few. In truth, only one person comes to mind."
"You mean to send the Shadow Sword Commander? He would certainly reach the border in time, but..."
"He is more than capable of matching a hundred foes on his own. Besides, has he not been kept from real combat for quite some time?"
The Shadow Sword Commander operated in the Alliance's deepest shadows, a man who never shrank from dirty work to preserve its pristine public veneer. His subordinate Shadow Sword Unit had forged peace across the martial realm through countless clandestine battles. Lately, they had been tied down gathering intelligence on the Demon Blood Divine Cult, keeping them from the front lines.
Now, the moment was ripe. A massive deployment was unfeasible, yet an elite master was desperately needed. No candidate was better suited than the Shadow Sword Commander.
"Since I sought your counsel, I shall heed it. Summon the Shadow Sword Commander."
"At once, Alliance Leader."
Jegal Cheong bowed deeply and departed the chamber. The current Shadow Sword Commander was an expert at the pinnacle of the Transformation Realm—a powerhouse so formidable that even Alliance Leader Mujeokcheon had to remain vigilant in his presence. If he linked up with the garrison stationed in Hebei, the odds of their defenses falling would plummet exponentially.
The Sword Empress, was it? To have attained such a consummate Transformation Realm before even reaching thirty...
Mujeokcheon committed every detail of the reports on Ryeong to memory. As the ancient saying went: The rear waves of the Yangtze River push forward the waves ahead.
Now that the Demon Blood Divine Cult's invasion of the Central Plains was crystallizing into reality, the realm needed a standard-bearer for the new generation, not just relics of the past. Right on cue, a maiden bearing the epithet of Sword Empress had emerged.
Mujeokcheon resolved that whenever she eventually visited the Murim Alliance, he would personally instruct her in swordsmanship.
Returning from Liaoning, Ryeong headed straight for the local Beggars' Sect branch. Ga Ak-sang was none too pleased by how freely she walked in and out as if she owned the place, but fearing a blow to the skull if he spoke his mind, he kept his mouth shut.
"Any fresh intelligence while I was out? The Demon Blood Divine Cult definitely struck Liaoning."
"There is good news. His Imperial Majesty has dispatched five hundred of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Every last one of them is a first-rate martial artist, and the commander leading them has reached the Peak Realm. Above all else, they are bringing gunpowder."
A grin crept across Ryeong's face at the mention of gunpowder. Flesh and bone perished before explosions; no matter how elevated one's martial cultivation, all mortals stood equal before gunpowder.
Individual martial prowess among the Embroidered Uniform Guard might seem middling to sectarian pugilists, but comparing individual dueling to their military formations and tactical doctrine was an insult to their craft. And with artillery and explosives thrown into the mix? Ryeong felt as though she had gained ten thousand reinforcements. Even if the cultists surged blindly out of Liaoning, Hebei would not crumble so easily.
"Where is Jinyeong?"
"Waiting for you to return, young lady. But... would you mind leaving now?"
"Why? Am I getting in your way? For someone calling himself a Hougae, your intelligence flow is pretty dry. Are you sure you're actually a Young Beggar?"
"...Nobody can step inside because you are sitting right here, aren't they?"
Ga Ak-sang forced the words through gritted teeth. He desperately wanted to yell, Nothing gets done while you're around, so get the hell out! But one look into those chilled eyes stifled the nerve right out of him.
Noticing his consternation, Ryeong flashed a faint, mocking smirk. Her blatant ridicule only stoked Ga Ak-sang's frustration further.
"Young lady, I implore you. Work has been piling up lately, so—"
Whoosh.
The moment Ga Ak-sang gathered his courage to finish speaking, Ryeong vanished into thin air, leaving behind only the drafty, deserted tent. The last tether of his sanity finally snapped.
"Aaargh!! Is 'Sword Empress' the name of some mutt in the street?! You rotten wench!"
What Ga Ak-sang failed to realize was that Ryeong had concealed her presence with the Heaven-Killing Art and heard every word. Tempted as she was to step back inside immediately, she worried he might actually faint on the spot. Resolving to torment him later, she turned toward the inn.
Meanwhile, Jinyeong was seated cross-legged at the inn, immersed in breath circulation and energy regulation as he awaited her return.
"Huuuuh."
Ever since breaking through to the Peak Realm, Jinyeong had maintained optimal physical condition—setting aside the grueling sprint to Hebei via lightness skills, of course. Combining intense physical conditioning with internal meditation had caused his physical prowess to blossom. By now, he executed the Ghost Soul Steps even more naturally than his sect's Floating Cloud Steps.
While still a drop in the ocean compared to Ryeong's mastery, Jinyeong took satisfaction in his progress, determined to hone it further.
"Training properly even without me around, are we?"
"You have returned, young lady. What is the situation in Liaoning?"
"The Demon Blood Divine Cult swept through and cleared it out. Another battle will erupt before long."
"With the Moyong Clan collapsed, great turmoil is bound to grip the martial world."
Situated far from the heart of the Central Plains, the Moyong Clan had accumulated vast wealth through interregional commerce, operating numerous merchant caravans. With Liaoning's fall, those trade routes were naturally paralyzed, choking supply chains across the interior. Jinyeong suspected that one of the cult's motives in raiding Liaoning might have been to strike at the Central Plains' economic lifeblood.
Ryeong, having little grasp of merchant companies or trade balances, had not discerned the cult's deeper economic calculations. It rankled her that the Beggars' Sect surely knew this yet had withheld the information.
"Still, the Emperor is backing us with five hundred Embroidered Uniform Guards and gunpowder, so it shouldn't be as grueling as the Hubei Tragedy."
"That is a relief. If the Embroidered Uniform Guard has been deployed, His Majesty has no intention of overlooking this transgression."
Even with such reinforcements, defeat remained a possibility. Yet should the imperial forces fall, the Emperor's pride would suffer a grievous wound, likely prompting the deployment of thousands more elite guards in retribution. In the broader scope of things, the demonic cultists' annihilation was already assured. Whether that outcome was achieved swiftly—or only after countless lives were lost while chasing their heels—lay squarely in Ryeong's hands.
For across the whole of Hebei, masters who could stand as her equal, let alone surpass her, were virtually nonexistent.