Follow Me With Everything You've Got
"Has everyone eaten?"
"Pardon?"
"Looks like you rushed over without even stopping for a meal. Let's talk while we eat."
"We're grateful for the concern, but this is a matter of the utmost urgency—"
Sun Wukong didn't even listen. He snapped his fingers.
A sharp click, and the waiter came flying over like the wind.
"We've got distinguished guests. Load the table till the legs buckle."
The Wudang Sect martial artists who had stepped into the inn stood there awkwardly, unsure what to make of any of it.
Sun Wukong looked them over from his seat.
"How long are you planning to stand there?"
"Teacher Sun, we really must leave at once—"
"My neck hurts."
"Pardon?"
"Hurts from craning up at you. Sit."
A peculiar look crossed the face of Ak Biun, one of the Wudang Ten Swords.
Frankly, he was thrown. Being spoken down to from the very first meeting. Even within the Wudang Sect, few people addressed a member of the Wudang Ten Swords so casually. The elders themselves treated the Ten Swords with respect, using at least a half-honorific.
Then again, Ak Biun hadn't introduced himself as one of the Ten Swords, so perhaps it was fair enough. He wasn't particularly offended. He wasn't so young that a mere tone of voice could wound his pride.
Still, it gave him a great deal to think about.
The way he talks down to people is far too natural. Like he's been doing it his whole life.
Teacher Sun's true identity was a complete mystery. Reducing him to some newly appeared prodigy simply wouldn't hold. His martial prowess was too far beyond the ordinary for that.
The Butterfly Immortal said he was a man of the Transcendental Realm, no less. Hard to believe, but...
A martial artist of the Transcendental Realm. That meant a fighter who could contend with the Ten Great Masters. Such people were vanishingly rare. Anyone of that caliber was almost invariably famous throughout Murim. And yet the title Great Sage, Equal to Heaven was one Ak Biun had never heard.
Not that I believe the Butterfly Immortal would lie...
But how could a martial artist of the Transcendental Realm have left not the faintest trace of himself until now? The moment someone displayed even Peak Realm strength, the Beggars' Guild or the Hao Clan's information networks would inevitably catch wind of it.
Until he appeared at the Namgung Clan, there wasn't a single record of him. He quite literally sprang up out of the earth.
And the way he treats people from a superior's position is completely natural.
There had been no awkwardness at all in the casual speech that had tumbled out the moment he laid eyes on the Wudang swordsmen. It was the air of a man who had occupied a high seat for a very long time.
They took their seats, somewhat at a loss, and the food arrived not long after.
Ak Biun's eyes went round.
He had expected a quick bite to fill their stomachs before they set out again. Instead, the table was being laid as if for a banquet, dish after dish crowding every inch of wood.
He was thoroughly flustered.
"Teacher Sun. I am Ak Biun of the Wudang Ten Swords. As I already said, we need only a light meal before heading straight to Mt. Wudang—"
"Looks to me like you're the one in charge."
"Ah—yes. That's right."
"Shouldn't you be making sure your people aren't running on empty?"
Ak Biun turned his head.
The seven second-generation disciples of the Wudang Sect who had followed him here. Young faces still carrying the last traces of boyhood — fresh to Murim, every one of them. Inexperience in the martial world was one thing, but as second-generation disciples of Wudang, they were all First-class martial artists.
And yet...
"Ahem."
Ak Biun cleared his throat, and the disciples hastily composed their expressions. Their eyes had been glued to the food piling up on the table. A few had their mouths slightly open, a drop or two of drool threatening to escape.
After nothing but tasteless Daoist fare and raw vegetarian meals at the sect, a spread of rich, oil-glistening dishes was enough to make anyone's head spin.
Sun Wukong clicked his tongue.
"Looks to me like you used qinggong the whole way here without a single rest. At least fill their bellies properly."
"That's true enough, but the situation is urgent."
"Does the Wudang Sect have no enemies?"
"Pardon?"
"I'm asking if you've got no grudges at all."
The question came so far out of nowhere that Ak Biun couldn't answer at once.
"Say you're racing back to Mt. Wudang like this — no rest, no food, wearing yourselves down with qinggong — and enemies jump you out of nowhere. What happens then?"
"...!"
"Even if you don't have enemies right this second, this is the kind of world where a blade can come flying at any time. Isn't that how this business works?"
Ak Biun's mouth snapped shut. There was nothing in Sun Wukong's words he could refute. He looked at the man with a complicated expression, then nodded.
"Teacher Sun is right. A man needs something in his stomach if he wants any strength behind his sword."
Ak Biun found himself taking a hard look inward.
I was too hasty.
The Sect Leader collapsing was an unprecedented crisis, and he had failed to keep his heart still. A Peak Realm master and a member of the Wudang Ten Swords ought to have been the one holding the center. He hadn't come out here alone. He was responsible for second-generation disciples who had never set foot in Murim.
Sun Wukong's words were right a hundred times over. Murim was a world where a blade could come from behind at any moment. To exhaust every last scrap of strength rushing forward, only to be ambushed — the thought was horrifying.
So did this man go out of his way to look after us like this?
Ak Biun's eyes narrowed. In a matter of moments, the man had taken the measure of their condition and seized control of the conversation. That was no ordinary skill.
"All of you, eat. You'll need something in your bellies. And thank Teacher Sun."
"Thanks, nothing. I'll be eating plenty myself. Ak Biun, was it? I'll eat well, Master Ak."
"...Pardon?"
"We're guests of the Wudang Sect, aren't we?"
"Well — yes, of course that's true..."
Ak Biun's voice trailed off as the meaning sank in. He looked around the table with a stunned expression. Even he had never seen most of these dishes. How a roadside inn could produce food this rare and extravagant was beyond him.
He let out a long breath. Thinking of the funds he'd been issued for the journey...
Looks like I'll have to dig into my own purse.
"Mm."
Wudang swordsmen were not wealthy men. They were Daoists first, after all, and cultivated a lofty detachment from worldly money. They didn't beg for meals like the beggars of the Beggars' Guild, but the funds they received were a stipend in the name of maintaining dignity, nothing more.
I don't... begrudge it.
Ak Biun made himself think so. He hadn't expected seven second-generation disciples in their rock-chewing prime to demolish the table quite so thoroughly, but he didn't begrudge it.
Or do I? Maybe a little.
Feeding the second-generation disciples was something he could well afford as their senior. That, however, was not the whole of it.
"Good meal, Master Ak."
"Ah... yes."
"It was delicious."
"Yes. Hall Master."
Ak Biun gave a bitter smile as Muhwa discreetly looked away. She had put away more food than the starving second-generation disciples. He couldn't very well say anything about it. He wasn't a petty man, and even if he were, what would be the point?
More to the point, these were not people he could afford to treat carelessly.
Sun Wukong had wanted a full account of the situation over the meal. Being inside an inn made that a delicate matter — this was not information that could be allowed to leak outside.
That was when Muhwa, still chewing, spread her qi in a wide, even sweep. A qi barrier. An advanced technique that formed a wall of energy to cut off all sound.
So the rumors of the Namgung Clan's Sword Maiden were true.
The Sword Maiden of the Namgung Clan. Ak Biun had heard, in passing, that there was a woman warrior who had earned the clan's recognition through the sword alone and been appointed Law Enforcement Hall Master despite not bearing the Namgung name. Seeing her in person, her level was anything but ordinary.
This is the Namgung Clan, all right.
He could raise a qi barrier himself. But doing it so casually, while eating, as if it were nothing at all — that was no easy feat.
And the one beside her is the Sword God's daughter...
Namgung Seowol, daughter of the Sword God, and Muhwa, the Law Enforcement Hall Master. Young as they were, their standing within the Namgung Clan was absolute.
And yet they're moving entirely at Teacher Sun's direction.
Every decision deferred to Sun Wukong's will. In that short span of time, Ak Biun had already identified the heart of it.
This man is truly no ordinary person. An outsider, and yet he commands that much trust from the Namgung Clan? From those eccentric Namgungs, no less? Trust, from people who draw steel before they finish a sentence...
Curiosity welled up in him. But the situation left no room for indulging a private curiosity.
Sun Wukong produced the ledger of the Yusal Sect. Ak Biun went pale.
"They'd been preparing an assassination for some time... Who on earth..."
"Yusal Sect turned them down, so they probably went somewhere else. One of the Three Great Assassination Guilds, wouldn't you think?"
"That would be it. The only assassination guilds that would dare attempt a strike on a Sect Leader are the Three Great ones. At least now we can be certain this was an assassin's work."
Clear evidence that someone had been plotting the Sect Leader's assassination.
"Opinion was divided within the Wudang Sect. The Sect Leader is in no condition to say a word — he's fallen into qi deviation. We suspected an assassin, but privately, people were starting to wonder if there was a traitor among us. Having fellow Daoists look at one another with suspicion... it was a very difficult time."
The ledger had settled it. This was an assassin's doing. Even if it wasn't the Yusal Sect, the Three Great Assassination Guilds were more than capable of harboring the venom to kill a Sect Leader.
"The important thing is that someone attempted to place the contract. An enemy from outside. That's a relief, at least."
Ak Biun let out a long breath.
"Things that strained, are they?"
"Well. Not exactly. Every sect has its share of that kind of friction, doesn't it?"
Sun Wukong's eyes narrowed.
Ak Biun managed his expression as well as any Peak Realm martial artist should. There was nothing immediately off about his tone. But Sun Wukong caught even the finest shift.
He's dodging the question.
Every school, every organization, had conflict within it.
Human beings are creatures that inevitably generate conflict and collide with one another.
And lofty Daoists would be above all that? Laughable. Sun Wukong had witnessed, more times than he could count, just how thoroughly human Daoists and Buddhist monks truly were. How many greedy monks and crooked priests had he run into on the long road through India?
Fallen Daoists and fallen monks existed everywhere, and they never disappeared.
Judging by the fact they were ready to believe the assassin was a traitor from inside, the rifts run pretty deep.
To Sun Wukong's eye, this was no ordinary friction.
An assassination attempt on the Sect Leader...
He quietly recalled the name written in the ledger as the client.
Sima...
It might be nothing more than an alias, or a proxy.
The real client could just as easily be inside the Wudang Sect.
Sun Wukong's gaze sharpened. Assassinating a Sect Leader was no simple thing. He had seen as much at the Namgung Clan himself.
Outsiders don't just walk in.
Warriors posted at every turn, formations and mechanisms laid throughout the grounds. How much more so for the Wudang Sect? Nestled in the rugged heights of Mt. Wudang — even an assassin from the Three Great Assassination Guilds would not find it easy to reach the Sect Leader.
Help from the inside?
The possibility was more than real.
Humans. Tch.
Sun Wukong clicked his tongue. He had planned to slip into the Wudang Sect, quietly meet the Earth Deity, collect the Golden Cord from Geumgak, and leave. Things were looking considerably more complicated.
"Better wrap this up quick," he muttered, then said,
Ak Biun let out a hollow laugh.
"Wudang's qinggong is in no way inferior to the Namgung Clan's."
"It's not Namgung you have to keep up with. It's me."
Ak Biun turned his head. Muhwa and Seowol showed no particular reaction. If anything, they looked like they were steeling themselves. He turned back to Sun Wukong.
Is this man's qinggong truly on that level?
Sun Wukong glanced around, then spoke.
"Which of yours is the weakest at qinggong?"
"The second-generation disciples are all First-class. Their qinggong is thoroughly trained as well."
"That one looks a little shaky to me."
Sun Wukong pointed.
"Uncheong..."
The named disciple startled. A flicker of surprise crossed Ak Biun's eyes as he looked at Sun Wukong. The man was right. Uncheong had only recently stepped into the First-class realm. His external arts were excellent, but his internal energy training was lacking.
And Sun Wukong had seen it at a glance. To read a person's realm by sight alone was no ordinary eye.
"I needed a guide anyway, so this works out. I'll take this kid with me. You lot catch up."
"What do you mean—"
Ak Biun never finished the sentence.
"Wha—?!"
Sun Wukong snatched Uncheong by the scruff of the neck and kicked off the ground as if leaping into the sky.
"...!"
In an instant, Sun Wukong shrank to a distant speck. Ak Biun's eyes flew wide. A faint human shape compressed into a single point and vanished. The speed was so overwhelming the eye could not even follow it.
Follow me with everything you've got, he said...
The shock lasted only a moment. Muhwa and Seowol sighed and spoke as one.
"We should follow too. We'll probably watch the sun come up from Mt. Wudang."
Muhwa said it as if she were used to this. Before Ak Biun could get a word in, they launched into qinggong and shot away. Their speed, too, was staggering. In that moment, he felt the depth of the Namgung Clan on his own skin.
Ak Biun clenched his teeth and shouted.
"We return to Mt. Wudang at once!"
Why Sun Wukong had taken Uncheong dangling from one hand under the pretext of needing a guide — Ak Biun understood it now with painful clarity. Wukong hadn't merely taken the lead. The distance had opened so far that the man was no longer even in sight.
The second-generation disciples are giving it everything they have. Their faces are turning beet-red...
He was beginning, at last, to feel even a fraction of the martial prowess the Butterfly Immortal had described.
"There he is!"
Muhwa, running alongside him, called out. Ak Biun snapped his head around. He sharpened his vision and saw Sun Wukong standing there, Uncheong slumped beside him, looking thoroughly dizzy.
"Hah. So he waited for us..."
"Mm. I don't think that's it."
"Pardon?"
"There are warriors standing in front of him."
Ak Biun was briefly startled. Muhwa had seen farther than he had, and more precisely. That meant her realm was higher than his own — higher than a member of the Wudang Ten Swords.
And she was not the only one.
"Nine of them. Seven saber-wielders, two swordsmen."
Seowol, a full ten years his junior, had not only counted them but identified the weapons at their belts.
So this is what a Namgung Clan martial artist is.
Surprise registered on his face. But the surprise lasted only a moment. When he looked at the warriors standing before Sun Wukong, his eyes went wide.
"Those men..."