Omen (2)
I hope Junior Brother Yeobhwa made it safely…
Left alone, Jeokhwa fretted over Yeobhwa as he was carried out on a stretcher. Had she the leisure, she would have gone after him at once—but the next match was hers. All she could do was pray for his well-being.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been by myself like this.
Myeonghwa’s injuries had yet to heal, so he remained in the medical hall. Cheonhwa had been carried there as well after his bout with Paeng Mu-jin, and Yeonhwa had gone with him. Now even Yeobhwa had collapsed in the ring and been taken away. Who would have thought three of the five would end up under the physicians’ care? It only proved how fevered the atmosphere had grown as the Dragon and Phoenix Gathering advanced.
Focus. My turn is almost here.
Jeokhwa drew a light breath and settled her restless thoughts. Her match was next. Her opponent was Mangya of the Hwajeong Sect—the very man who had set her instincts on edge.
Once I face him, the nature of this unease will become clear.
Winning mattered, yet confirming her suspicion mattered just as much. If the unease she felt pointed toward something foul, the consequences would be anything but ordinary.
I only hope it’s nothing more than an old woman’s fretting…
With that thought she stepped onto the arena. Mangya rose from the opposite side; the two martial artists locked eyes. Before the bout began they both raised their inner power. Heat haze shimmered around them, thickening with the rising pressure of their blazing yang arts and laying bare the fighting spirit each carried.
“Begin!”
The instant the referee’s signal fell, Jeokhwa shot forward like a released arrow. Using the light footwork of her Flame Heaven True Qi—the Flame Affection Wave Steps—she closed the distance in a heartbeat, leaving trails of heat haze like afterimages. That same speed poured straight into the One Fire Sword Art, forging an assault that was nearly a surprise attack—the exact same opening that had toppled Dang Sowol, the First Beauty of Sichuan.
This time the result was different. Mangya struck her swift blade aside. When their heat-wreathed sword edges collided, fresh haze bloomed and warped the air. Jeokhwa carved through it and thrust again; Mangya answered in kind. As the exchanges lengthened, their speed climbed higher still. With every clash heat and haze danced like living flames. The glittering sword-light flickering inside the haze was beautiful enough to seem dreamlike—yet the savage ringing that filled the arena warned every onlooker that those light-rays were as deadly as they were lovely.
I can’t break his defense.
Even while pressing the attack, Jeokhwa felt nothing but bleak frustration. A swift sword was meant to steal the opponent’s breath through pure velocity. Mangya’s swordsmanship, however, was severing the very flow and forms of her swift style. She was the one on the offensive, yet he held the entire tempo of the match in his grip.
After the way he used the ‘strike first, seize the initiative’ method in his earlier bout, I was certain he was a swift-sword user like me…
In her mind flashed Mangya’s match against the Shaolin martial monk. Then he had driven the monk back with blistering speed. She had assumed they shared the same path—yet facing him now, she found an entirely different art.
So it was a Severing Sword all along.
The Severing Sword—true to its name, a style specialized in cutting an opponent’s forms and nullifying them. Difficult to learn, ruthlessly selective of talent, yet once mastered it possessed peerless power. The proof stood before her: no matter how hard she pressed, he answered without the slightest strain.
He called it the Zhurong Sword Art, didn’t he? Even if the sect is gone, it still carries the weight of Hengshan, once a pillar of the old rivers and lakes.
Zhurong was the Fire God among the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. One of his legends told how, under the order of the Black Emperor Zhuanxu, he severed the boundary between heaven and earth. That a sword art bearing Zhurong’s name should contain the principles of the Severing Sword was hardly strange.
A martial art worthy of pure admiration—but if this continues, I’ll destroy myself first.
Flame Heaven True Qi accelerated its circulation the longer it was used; longer exchanges therefore meant ever-greater sword speed. Yet if the wildly hastened flow of energy slipped beyond control, it could run wild and leave her with deep internal injuries. She had to end this in a single decisive stroke.
I’ll stake everything on an ultimate technique.
She still lacked certainty about the true nature of her unease—because she had yet to force out his full strength. She needed to drive him until he had no choice but to reveal everything.
She pushed Flame Heaven True Qi to its absolute peak. Heat-laden qi instantly coiled around her entire body while the propulsive force of the Flame Affection Wave Steps reinforced every movement. The surge of martial power that wrapped her whipped outward in all directions, creating a formless pressure so sudden that even Mangya’s motion faltered for an instant.
What followed was a single streak of light exploding outward—the trajectory of a blazing sword-ray that treated her own body as the arrow. The strike crashed into the protective barrier of inner energy Mangya wore at a speed the Zhurong Sword Art’s severing principles could not answer. Overwhelming sword speed transformed into pure force, shattering his defensive qi and toppling his balance at the same time.
The first opening since the match began. Jeokhwa was no green novice who would let such a gap slip away. She rode the footwork’s propulsion as though it were a movement art itself and prepared to deliver the second blow—
KWA-BOOM!
A massive explosion erupted from Mangya and hurled her backward. The blast came without warning; she had no chance to react. Caught full in the explosion, she skidded several steps to the rear. A sickening lurch twisted through her organs and forced a ragged breath from her lips.
“Cough!”
Blood spilled from her mouth along with the cough—clear proof of severe internal injury. To suffer such damage even while sheathed in protective qi was no ordinary matter. Yet Jeokhwa had no leisure to dwell on her wounds.
That explosion just now… that was definitely Rebound Qi Art, wasn’t it?
The repulsive force she had felt was unmistakably the power of her own ultimate technique turned back upon her. Worse, the qi wave that burst forth with the rebound carried the principles of an Internal Force Infusion Method. The two together had punched past her protective barrier and inflicted devastating internal damage. Even now the true qi that had seeped into her by that infusion method was gnawing away at her body.
An unnaturally sophisticated Rebound Qi Art… and a Blazing Yang Art of vicious nature.
She knew martial arts that possessed those exact functions.
Heaven-Overturning Qi Armor. Heavenly Yang Divine Art.
They were the same demonic arts that had masqueraded as divine secret techniques—arts she had encountered while roaming western Shaanxi with Cheonhwa and Yeonhwa. The unease she had felt from Mangya was nothing other than a sense of déjà vu.
A martial artist who has cultivated demonic arts… advancing all the way to the main tournament of the Dragon and Phoenix Gathering.
Through blurring vision Jeokhwa stared at Mangya. The figure standing solidly in that hazy world no longer looked human; it was some unknown being wearing a man’s shape—like a shadow that had fallen across the entire Gathering, a darkness whose very existence none of them had even suspected until now.
“That’s enough! The victor is Mangya of the Hwajeong Sect!”
Judging Jeokhwa’s condition critical, the referee rendered his decision. She was lifted onto a stretcher by martial artists of the Sichuan Dang Family and carried to the medical hall. Alone on the arena, Mangya’s face remained stiffly set even in victory. To an outsider it might have looked like discomfort at having injured his opponent so badly. The truth was entirely different.
Did she see through me?
He recalled the look in Jeokhwa’s eyes just before she collapsed. That gaze had nothing in common with the way one regarded a mere tournament rival. It could have been simple misinterpretation—yet he could not shake the crawling sense of unease.
I may have to revise the plan.
Originally the scheme had been set to unfold just before the finals, when the core masters of the great sects would all be gathered in one place. To that end they had arranged for at least one of the three infiltrators to reach the finals. But if his identity had been exposed, he would have to advance the timing before the other side could take countermeasures.
I’ll finish preparations as quickly as possible and detonate everything in the semifinals.
Meanwhile, the moment Jeokhwa regained consciousness in the medical hall she made a request of the physicians.
“Anyone will do—please summon Senior Uncle Gakhyeon of the Zhongnan Sect, who is here to observe the Gathering. I have something urgent to tell him.”
Her sudden demand drew puzzled looks from the rest of the group sharing the room.
“Junior Sister Jeokhwa, why are you looking for the group leader all of a sudden?”
“I don’t feel like explaining twice. I’ll tell everyone once he arrives.”
She smiled as she spoke, yet the others felt a clear wrongness in her manner. It was as good as saying she could not speak until Gakhyeon was present.
Before long Gakhyeon entered the room where the five of them were gathered. Jeokhwa addressed him through voice transmission.
[I have information that must be delivered in private. Please raise a qi barrier to block sound from leaving this room.]
Sensing that something serious had occurred, Gakhyeon nodded without a word and spread a barrier of qi throughout the chamber.
“No sound will leak outside now. So what exactly has happened?”
“The opponent I fought—Mangya—appears to have cultivated demonic arts.”
“What?”
Her words left Gakhyeon and everyone else present stunned beyond speech.
“Is that true?”
“Yes. That protective qi art and that blazing yang art—they are without doubt the Heaven-Overturning Qi Armor and the Heavenly Yang Divine Art.”
Having observed both arts at close range during the demonic-art pursuit mission, Jeokhwa answered with absolute certainty. Gakhyeon exhaled a long, heavy sigh.
“If what you say is true, this is no small matter. Through the Martial Alliance, the Sichuan Dang Family received full reports on the Mysterious Power and on demonic arts. They tightened security thoroughly for this Gathering.”
Before the preliminaries, direct bloodline members of the Dang Family had personally screened for suspicious individuals. Before the main tournament, the medical hall had examined pulses with meticulous care. In every other respect as well they had remained vigilant against the Mysterious Power and demonic arts—yet someone who had mastered those arts had still advanced all the way to the main rounds without discovery. That alone was deeply unnatural.
“Exactly. Unless there is a collaborator inside the Sichuan Dang Family itself.”
“Yes. That possibility is precisely why I asked you to raise the barrier. We have no way of knowing where a leak might occur.”
“A sound judgment. To have reasoned that far in so short a time…”
Gakhyeon praised her, then turned to the rest of the group.
“Originally I wanted you simply to enjoy the Gathering in peace—but the situation has changed.”
Once it was confirmed that an enemy existed inside the Sichuan Dang Family, there was no chance the Gathering would continue undisturbed. Some scheme was almost certainly afoot. The first priority was to find the Family Head and inform him of the facts.
“All of you, devote yourselves completely to recovery. We have no idea what may erupt in the meantime.”
With those words he dissolved the qi barrier and left. The remaining group followed his instruction and quietly focused on healing.
Cheonhwa lay on his bed, lost in thought. He had barely regained consciousness after the bout with Paeng Mu-jin—only to be struck by this shocking revelation.
Looking back… was Lady Dang Sowol taking on the role of guide under the alias Dang Soso precisely to prevent a situation like this?
Otherwise there would have been no reason for a direct descendant of the family to move about in disguise. Even that effort seemed to have been rendered useless by the internal collaborator.
Will the Dragon and Phoenix Gathering even be allowed to continue?
With a spy of the Mysterious Power confirmed, suspension was the more likely outcome. At the very least they would have to root out the infiltrator before any resumption could be considered.
Or they might keep it running—both to demonstrate the righteous path’s strength and to lull the enemy into carelessness.
They would know the answer only when Gakhyeon returned. Cheonhwa turned his mind fully to recovery, circulating his Dark Heaven True Qi through careful breathing and meditation. It was then that a visitor arrived—Paeng Gun-ak, the third young master of the Hebei Paeng Family.