The Sky of Namgung
The bustling nightscape of Hefei spread out beyond the window, yet it did nothing to soften the blade-sharp killing intent that hung in the air of the room.
The Black Wind Squad members glared at the intruder, their grips locked tight around their sword hilts.
Every one of them had reached the Peak Realm, and their leader, Ak Mookyeol, was a grandmaster who had fully ascended to the Transcendent Realm.
It was more than enough force to deal with a single greenhorn barely past his twentieth year.
And yet, instead of ordering an attack, Ak Mookyeol issued a command to the vice-captain standing behind him.
"Everyone, fall back."
"...Captain!"
The vice-captain was aghast. Had they not come all this way to Hefei for a reason? The Sword Ghost Namgung Cheon had single-handedly annihilated the Blood Sword Gang, a gang sworn to the Four Black Alliance, and thrown the entire underworld of Anhui into chaos. Had they not come to make him pay for his arrogant provocation? And now, with the man himself standing before them, they were being told to withdraw?
It defied all reason.
"There is no telling what scheme this man may be weaving!"
"Do not make me say it twice."
Ak Mookyeol's voice was resolute.
He knew his men were not wrong.
But...
Even my energy could not shake him in the slightest.
The moment Namgung Cheon had appeared, Ak Mookyeol had covertly flared a blade-like wave of energy directed at him alone. A sharp qi-wave aimed exclusively at Namgung Cheon, one that none of the other men could detect. It was pressure that would have sent even those who had only just broken through the wall of the Transcendent Realm shifting uneasily on their feet — yet Namgung Cheon had not wavered by so much as a hair's breadth.
Which means...
He was, at the very least, Ak Mookyeol's equal. Likely more.
And if a fight did break out, it was obvious the men under his command would be of little help.
The vice-captain realized he could not bend the captain's iron will. He hesitated a moment, then seemed to reach his decision and bowed.
"...We receive your order."
He cast a glance at the Black Wind Squad members. Before long, the squad had all filed out, and Ak Mookyeol finally spoke.
"Your nerve, I will acknowledge. Now state your business."
"It was you who approached first, was it not? I heard you were looking for me."
Namgung Cheon parried with easy composure.
"That much is true. I was looking for you."
Ak Mookyeol admitted it readily.
"I wished to know why you drew your blade as you pleased. Whether it was the will of the Namgung Clan — or merely the moonstruck bravado of a boy barely weaned."
"And did you find your answer?"
"I am still finding it."
Ak Mookyeol studied Namgung Cheon for a moment, then cut straight to the heart of it.
"Answer me. Is your course of action the will of the Namgung Clan?"
At the question, Namgung Cheon gave a short laugh.
"If the clan itself had moved, do you think you would be sitting here so leisurely, sipping tea?"
"..."
Silence hung for a moment before Ak Mookyeol slowly nodded.
So. It is a private affair.
And yet there was nothing he could do about Namgung Cheon. However much one sect under the Four Black Alliance had crumbled, if they laid a hand on this man...
The Namgung Clan could move. No — he himself might.
The Sword Emperor, Namgung Mugang.
Ak Mookyeol recalled the contents of the reports. The years of the Sword Emperor's seclusion had ended at a time that eerily overlapped with his son Namgung Cheon's emergence into the Jianghu. Could that truly be coincidence?
Provoking Namgung Cheon could be the very thing that draws the Sword Emperor out of the shadows.
That was, in essence, the worst-case scenario their military strategist had warned them about again and again. The Sword Emperor, hailed as the foremost sword under heaven. Turning that singular, off-the-scale existence into an enemy was to be avoided at all costs.
Before departure, the Alliance's strategist had been unequivocal: confirm the facts, and never under any circumstances be the first to spark a conflict. It was a strict injunction not to hand the Namgung Clan — or, precisely, the Sword Emperor — any pretext to seize upon.
And in truth, the facts he had come here to confirm did not differ greatly from the rumors at all.
The third young master of the Namgung Clan, Namgung Cheon, engaged in a formal duel, and the Blood Sword Gang, having lost its gang leader, destroyed itself.
Destroyed itself.
Nowhere in those words lay any grounds to press charges against the Namgung Clan.
The moment the calculations in Ak Mookyeol's head finished, Namgung Cheon spoke.
"If you have your answer, then it is your turn to answer mine."
Namgung Cheon got straight to the point.
"You came because the tribute stopped. Am I right?"
Ak Mookyeol nodded and asked, "And so?"
Namgung Cheon answered without delay.
"I have installed a new group in its place. The Gold Pavilion, I am told."
"...And what exactly are you playing at?"
Wariness bled into Ak Mookyeol's voice. At the question, Namgung Cheon studied him for a moment.
Then, one corner of his mouth curling upward, he answered.
"Does my reasoning matter to you?"
"..."
Ak Mookyeol's brow twitched.
Namgung Cheon pressed on.
"Your business is done once you receive what is owed, is it not? Probing for anything beyond that is overstepping."
At the word overstepping, Ak Mookyeol's eyes turned to ice. This whelp was trampling on his dignity — and the authority of the Four Black Alliance itself. Anger boiled up within him, but he did not move rashly. Instead, he turned Namgung Cheon's words over in his mind once more.
What is owed.
He meant the tribute.
However the process played out, if the Gold Pavilion resumed payment, the Alliance gains its profit.
Making an enemy of Namgung Cheon here and swinging into a fight would be neither profitable nor justified — nothing more than an emotional outburst. And that was precisely the kind of action the strategist had guarded against above all.
He called it a private matter, but he is Namgung blood regardless.
If Ak Mookyeol let his emotions rule and harmed Namgung Cheon here, Namgung Mugang would move — by some means or another, that much was certain. And besides, with Namgung Cheon having already prepared a sect to take the Blood Sword Gang's place, no choice truly remained to him.
"...It does make for pleasant listening."
After a long silence, Ak Mookyeol spoke. But he did not withdraw meekly.
"Still, how am I to trust it? Can anyone say whether these Gold Pavilion people, unheard of until now, will actually pay proper tribute — or whether you will simply siphon everything off behind the scenes? All we would take away is an uncertain promise, and if things go wrong, would that not damage the Alliance's standing even further?"
It was a rebuttal with real teeth. But the smile had not left Namgung Cheon's lips.
"Standing, is it..."
He gazed out the window a moment, then turned his eyes back to Ak Mookyeol.
"Then let me tell you how to shore up that very standing, should it ever come to that."
"...?"
"If the Gold Pavilion ever refuses tribute, or the amount displeases you — cut their throats whenever you please."
Ak Mookyeol doubted his own ears.
"You are telling us to kill the very people you installed?"
"Precisely. And if it comes to that, does it not make an example of them? The authority of the Four Black Alliance would only rise."
Namgung Cheon continued in a tone of perfect indifference.
"And should that happen, I will simply find you someone else to pay the tribute. Well? Does the Alliance's authority sound diminished to you now?"
Ak Mookyeol found himself at a loss for words.
This was the Namgung Clan — an Orthodox Great Family, keepers of the Azure Sky. And from the mouth of its own son, tribute money and the standing of the Four Black Alliance were being bandied about as though they weighed nothing at all.
It made no sense whatsoever.
Just what in the world is this man...?
Ak Mookyeol marshaled every ounce of his judgment and measured the man before him anew. The reports had been accurate. Barely past his twentieth year and already in the Transcendent Realm; he had brought every strongman of Hefei to his knees. That fact alone was more than enough to call him a monster.
But...
There is something about him that martial prowess alone cannot explain.
Those fathomless eyes, and the overwhelming bearing of a man looking down upon the world itself. The images of countless powerful figures Ak Mookyeol had encountered in his life flickered through his mind. There had been prodigies who achieved overwhelming skill at a young age — and most of them had poured themselves into nothing but their own blade. The Transcendent Realm was, by its nature, a height one reached only that way.
Namgung Cheon was different.
He was not merely armed with strength; he was bent on moving everything around him — Ak Mookyeol included — according to his own design. His temperament was less that of a martial artist and closer to that of a sovereign.
And then, unbidden, a single face surfaced in Ak Mookyeol's memory.
The Young Alliance Lord...
The Young Alliance Lord, hailed as the future of the Four Black Alliance, had likewise entered the Transcendent Realm at a young age. But the Young Alliance Lord of Ak Mookyeol's memory was closer to a keenly honed blade — an arrogance that would sooner snap than bend. It was the look that prodigies of that age invariably wore.
He sensed none of that arrogance in Namgung Cheon. What he sensed instead was an absolute composure — as though the man felt no need to bend or break at all. The bearing of one for whom the entire world rested in the palm of his hand.
It is a temperament I never saw in the Young Alliance Lord.
After a long silence, Ak Mookyeol was finally forced to admit it — that he was facing an existence beyond his understanding, and that in this exchange, he could never come out the winner.
He lifted his teacup. The taut edge of his presence had softened considerably.
"...I accept your proposal."
"Then our business is concluded."
Almost before the words had left his mouth, Namgung Cheon rose from his seat. In an instant he was already receding into the distance — and at his retreating back, Ak Mookyeol threw his last question.
"...What is it that you stand to gain from all this?"
The tribute would flow to the Four Black Alliance, and the hegemony of Anhui's underworld would naturally rest with the Gold Pavilion, which paid tribute to the Alliance. Then what of the man who had orchestrated the whole arrangement? What in the world did he gain?
For Ak Mookyeol, it was a point he absolutely had to confirm. Only by knowing his true purpose could they prepare for what came next.
Namgung Cheon stopped mid-stride and spoke quietly, without turning around.
"You truly do ask useless questions right up to the end."
"..."
At the dismissiveness, Ak Mookyeol's face hardened for an instant. Namgung Cheon paid his reaction no mind and resumed walking. Before long he stopped at the door and spoke once more, still not turning.
"It happened this way because I willed it so. That is all."
With those words, Namgung Cheon left the room.
"..."
Left alone, Ak Mookyeol sat motionless for a long while, turning over the final words Namgung Cheon had left behind.
It happened this way because he willed it so...
An answer that defied comprehension. And yet it was clearer than any answer he could have asked for. A simple statement: that it had come to pass purely because his own will had decreed it.
But...
If one's will can move all things as it pleases — then that would be...
Just then, the vice-captain's voice came from outside the door.
"May we come in?"
"...Enter."
The vice-captain stepped cautiously inside and, seeing Ak Mookyeol sitting alone, asked carefully, "The situation..."
"All investigation is to cease."
Ak Mookyeol said it while gazing out the window.
"We return to the Alliance tomorrow morning."
"But the orders the strategist gave us..."
Confusion clouded the vice-captain's face. Returning with the investigation incomplete was a clear mission failure — something that had never once happened to the Black Wind Squad.
"The situation has changed."
Ak Mookyeol answered shortly.
"I will deliver the report to the Alliance myself."
The vice-captain asked nothing further and bowed his head. The captain's decisions would have their reasons.
Before long the vice-captain quietly withdrew, and Ak Mookyeol, alone once more, took up his brush. He meant to send a letter to the Alliance's strategist. Not a single line of it concerned the factional strife that had erupted in Anhui, or the new tribute vessel known as the Gold Pavilion.
Those things can wait until I return in person. For now...
He first set down three characters on the letter:
Namgung Cheon
Namgung — his Heaven.
And beside the name, he appended the conclusion he had reached regarding Namgung Cheon.
The Heaven of Namgung.
The strategist would need nothing more than those two lines to grasp everything — that a calamity of heaven and earth in human form had appeared, and that this Namgung Cheon must be watched above all other priorities.
The Heavenly Demon of Namgung
Author | Baek Rihang
Publisher | Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Senior Editor | Editorial Department
Published by | Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. — Dream Books
Address | 7F, Kwangsung Building, 28 Eunma-ro 114-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea
ISBN | 979-11-7306-734-1
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