Interlude: The Survivors of Yeonhwa Peak
The Mt. Hua Sect had originally made its home on the southern peak, the foremost summit of Mt. Hua. After the founding war of the new dynasty, however, it relocated to Yeonhwa Peak.
The move was made to commemorate the Battle of Yeonhwa Peak, fought during that war. The battle had been waged to break the Five Mountains Sword Sects.
When the martial schools of the Central Plains' five great mountains—the Five Mountains Sword Sects—gathered at Mt. Hua, the old empire closed in on them. To punch through the encirclement, the Mt. Hua Sect, masters of the local terrain, took the lead.
At first the Mt. Hua disciples used the mountain's sheer, treacherous ridges to toy with the siege lines. But the old empire seized the people of the nearby cities as hostages.
Declaring a scorched-earth campaign, they butchered the townsfolk. The young martial artists of the Five Mountains Sword Sects, unable to contain their fury, poured down the mountain.
Those who descended walked into ambushes, suffered heavy losses, and limped back to Mt. Hua. Then the army itself began the climb, determined to finish the Five Mountains Sword Sects once and for all.
The fighting opened in the gray of dawn. The Mt. Hua Sect used the slopes to strike the reinforcements. Their opening momentum was fierce, yet as the battle wore on they were driven onto the defensive.
Too many of their fighters had already fallen in the earlier ambushes. Though the Five Mountains Sword Sects held the greater number of true masters, the sheer disparity in numbers slowly drained their inner energy until all that remained was to wait for death.
It seemed the battle would end in the annihilation of the Mt. Hua Sect. Indeed, before noon the sect leader of the Taishan Sect had already fallen in the chaos of the melee.
As the sun reached its height, the martial houses of Jiangnan—led by the Namgung Clan—and the armies of the new dynasty launched their assault from the foot of the mountain.
The Namgung Clan of Anhui smashed through gate after gate on the road to Mt. Hua and arrived to save the sect.
Breaking those successive passes had cost them half their strength, yet they threw themselves into the attack with desperate fervor to rescue the Mt. Hua disciples.
By the time the sun was setting, the battle was over. The old empire's army, trapped on the mid-slopes, surrendered. The victors were the Mt. Hua Sect and the new dynasty's forces—yet none of them cheered.
The Zhongnan Sect of Shaanxi had been wiped out, leaving only the sect leader's personal disciple and a handful of successors. The Five Mountains Sword Sects fared little better. The Taishan, Songshan, and Hengshan Sects had been destroyed, and they left their treasured swords and secret manuals in the hands of the Mt. Hua Sect's leader.
The survivors of the Five Mountains Sword Sects on Yeonhwa Peak did not call themselves victors. They called themselves survivors. And the living wanted to repay their debt to the dead.
Their eyes turned toward the surrendered soldiers of the old empire. When one of the enemy generals claimed he had merely been following orders, the survivors' rage reached its peak.
History does not record who first swung a blade at the unarmed prisoners. It records only that the man who stopped that blade was Nancheon Jinin, then the sect leader of Mt. Hua.
Nancheon Jinin urged the survivors to keep their dignity—not for their own sake, but for the dignity of the fallen.
They heeded him and lowered their weapons. In memory of the battle, Nancheon Jinin resolved to move the Mt. Hua Sect's main seat to Yeonhwa Peak.
And at the entrance to Yeonhwa Peak he set the treasured swords of the Taishan, Songshan, and Hengshan Sects, so that any remaining disciples of those schools, wherever they might be in the world, might one day find their way home.
Thereafter the people of the martial world came to call the entrance of the Mt. Hua Sect—where those three swords rested—the Haegeomji, the Place of Unloosing Blades. In honor of the martyrs of the Battle of Yeonhwa Peak, all who climbed to the Mt. Hua Sect first laid down their weapons.
And so it has been, down to this day… In the gray before dawn, a man was walking up toward the Haegeomji.
He wore a broad bamboo hat and a black cloak that covered him like a rain-cape from head to foot, making it impossible to tell which school he belonged to.
One of the Mt. Hua disciples standing guard at the Haegeomji tilted his head and stepped forward. Or rather, he started to.
"…That fellow is my guest. I will receive him myself. You lot attend to the others."
"Sect Leader!"
The Taoist who appeared behind the disciples like a wisp of smoke was addressed as Sect Leader.
The current leader of Mt. Hua was Yeon Hochun, known since the Battle of Yeonhwa Peak as the Plum Blossom Blood Venerable. He had fought in that battle as the sect leader's personal disciple.
When the fighting ended he learned how many of his peers he had lost, and until the war itself was finished, the scent that clung to his sword was not plum blossom but blood.
That, of course, was the Yeon Hochun of his youth. The man who stood here now was simply an aging sect leader.
Yeon Hochun was famously soft on the younger disciples, known throughout Mt. Hua as a generous master. That same master smiled as he spoke.
"It's still early for the sword debate to begin, yet you always arrive ahead of time. Of course this is no place you are forbidden to enter—but for both our sakes, would it not have been wiser to stay away?"
The smile never left Yeon Hochun's lips. His eyes, however, were not smiling at all.
"If not now, when am I supposed to share a cup with old comrades? And when, exactly, have I ever gone around asking permission to come in?"
"Are you not afraid of His Majesty?"
"His Majesty? Does a ginkgo tree become a plum tree just because it puts out flowers?"
Yeon Hochun gave a short snort of laughter. The stranger's face was hidden under the hat, but Yeon Hochun guessed he was smiling too.
"True enough. No need for His Majesty to come between us. The Mt. Hua Sect welcomes every comrade-in-arms."
"That's more like it—that's the comrade I know!"
"Spare me the nonsense. Come on up."
Only then did Yeon Hochun turn with a full, open smile.
"Who is that man…?"
One of the disciples at the Haegeomji could not contain his curiosity. The Plum Blossom First Sword, who was leading them, cut the question short with a sharp look.
His Majesty was mentioned, so he must be from the Demonic Cult… But if the Sect Leader welcomes every comrade, then Mt. Hua follows the Sect Leader. That is all.
The Plum Blossom First Sword chose not to tell the disciples more than they needed to know. He simply hurried them on with preparations for the morning of the sword debate.
Yeon Hochun and the man in the bamboo hat left the Haegeomji and entered the Mt. Hua grounds. Drawing on their inner energy as naturally as breathing, they climbed the mountain at speed.
Only when they reached the summit of the southern peak did they stop. From within his cloak the man produced a wine flask.
"When did you first hear that she was brewing Nü'erhong for herself?"
"Same as you. Right here. That day."
"Have I told you this before?"
"Every year."
At last the man removed his hat. A long, old scar cut across his left eye.
Most men would have covered such a wound with an eyepatch. He wore it openly, almost with pride.
He uncorked the flask, sprinkled wine thrice toward the sky, and tossed the bottle to Yeon Hochun. When Yeon Hochun caught it, the liquor inside was still swirling in a whirlpool.
"She always said shaking it made the wine smoother."
"You heard that too? I asked her why, and she called me a stuffy old Taoist."
Yeon Hochun tipped his head back, drank, and answered.
"A ruffian like you?"
"You're the only one who gets to say that."
Yeon Hochun passed the flask back. The man drained it in a few swift gulps.
"Ahh… Well, you drink so primly it's no wonder she called you stuffy."
"The closer the friendship, the more carefully one must tread. Isn't that so, my friends?"
Yeon Hochun spoke while gazing down over Mt. Hua. To him the mountain was both the home of the Mt. Hua Sect and the graveyard of his friends. And whenever the Mt. Hua Sword Debate drew near, he missed those friends all the more.
"So. No one else coming from the Cult?"
"…That petty bastard has been spreading too many ugly rumors, I'm afraid…"
"Then you came alone?"
"…A man holding the office of Left Envoy of Light can't exactly wander about as he pleases. I told them to wait in a nearby village."
Myeonggyo had been one of the pillars of the new dynasty's founding war. That the emperor himself had once been a devotee of Myeonggyo was an open secret.
That bond had soured toward the war's end. And so, in the new world that followed, the name Myeonggyo was cast aside; people spat the word Demonic Cult instead and drove them out.
"Dawn is breaking. Shouldn't you go down and receive the other schools?"
Without answering, Yeon Hochun snatched the flask, turned it upside down, and scattered the remaining wine on the wind.
"What are you doing? What a waste!"
"You didn't bring this just for yourself to drink, did you? The others need a share too."
"…"
"I'll have the First Sword send more wine up. Hold out until nightfall."
At Yeon Hochun's words the man turned, resigned, toward the old buildings of the Mt. Hua Sect. Below the southern peak, the sun was rising.
The man remained on the southern peak. Yeon Hochun walked back down toward the Haegeomji.
Somewhere in Chang'an. Every window of the room was shut; the chamber was dark, yet not a single lamp had been lit.
"The Left Envoy of Light has entered the Mt. Hua Sect again."
"So it seems certain the book is inside Mt. Hua."
"Do not jump to conclusions. That is your worst habit."
"True. Judgment belongs to Him. We merely watch."
Four different voices spoke in the darkened room. Their conversation was brief. When they emerged a short while later, all four were dressed in brocade uniforms.