The Azure Dragon Leaves the Pass
"The Namgung Clan wants the Five Great Clans united more than anyone."
Sun Wukong folded his arms at Muhwa's words.
Muhwa popped a honey-drenched pastry into her mouth and went on, speaking around the chew.
"The Wulin Alliance is locked tight around the Nine Sects and One Gang. They're orthodox, same as us — but if it weren't for that righteous fence holding everyone in, we'd have had a proper clash with them by now. The relationship's that bad."
"Nine Sects and One Gang... that's a lot of sects to keep in one piece."
"They've always had two mountains standing over the rest."
"Shaolin and Wudang?"
"That's right. The other sects don't exactly cower — but they still accept, in their own quiet way, that Shaolin and Wudang sit at the head of the table."
"They just accept that? Those prideful bastards?"
"Those two sects were founded by the prophets who basically created Murim."
"Bodhidharma and Jang Sambong, huh."
"Yes. Those two cultivated until they could take the inner power nature holds and teach people how to train it — then they spread that method far and wide. The two sects stand on a different plane. There's even a saying that every martial art came out of Shaolin, and it's not entirely wrong."
Muhwa kept stuffing pastries into her mouth even as she talked. Then she glanced sideways at Sun Wukong, who was listening with his arms still folded.
It was the last pastry. After a long, agonized pause, she held it out to him with careful hands.
Sun Wukong snorted a laugh and waved her off.
"You don't care for snacks, I take it."
"I'm not so desperate I'd steal the last one."
"Ahem."
Muhwa gave an embarrassed little laugh and popped the pastry into her mouth. Her face went slack with bliss, melting like sugar. Sun Wukong smiled wryly. Unlike Ojeong, no matter how long he looked at her, he just couldn't overlay this woman with the Zhu Bajie of his past life.
Sometimes the difference in appearance was so stark that a flicker of doubt would catch him off guard.
Then I watch her eat, and that doubt goes right out the window.
She'd been eating porridge earlier. Now it was pastries. Something was going into that mouth without a single pause.
"Anyway, the Five Great Clans are already few — just five families."
"Ten sects versus five. Exactly double."
"Yes. There was a time when the Namgung Clan alone could close that gap."
Not anymore. Compared to its golden age, the Namgung Clan had grown unmistakably weaker.
"That's why unifying the Five Great Clans is the most urgent task in front of us."
"It's not just about getting them together, though, is it?"
"No, it isn't."
Muhwa let out a sigh.
"The Namgung Clan has to stand at the center, the way Shaolin and Wudang do."
From that standpoint, Sun Wukong had done the Namgung Clan a favor so large it might as well have been a debt of gratitude.
"For one thing, our biggest rival — the Hwangbo Clan — has already taken a step back."
Thanks to Sun Wukong, the Namgung Clan had shoved the Hwangbo Clan aside, at least for now. Who knew what schemes those people might cook up later — but for the moment, the Hwangbo Clan had no choice but to lie flat and play dead.
"And then there's the scheme of folding Changryong Chulgwan into the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering. I'll be honest — that one surprised me."
Muhwa looked at him with genuine admiration.
"Originally it was a trial for the heir — a way for the future clan lord to build bonds and solidarity with the next generation of warriors. But if you open it to the rising stars of all Five Great Clans..."
"It means the Namgung Clan stays alliance leader of the Five Great Clans from here on out."
"And precedent matters. Once this happens even once, holding Changryong Chulgwan at the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering will become as natural as water flowing downhill."
"Assuming the Namgung Clan has a firm grip on power by then."
"That's our task going forward."
"Our?"
"...The Namgung Clan's task."
Muhwa corrected herself in a hurry. However much Sun Wukong felt like one of their own, he was still an outsider.
"So the real problem is how you get the rising stars to actually join Changryong Chulgwan."
Sun Wukong said it like it was someone else's problem. In truth, just putting the idea on the table meant he'd already done his part. Muhwa nodded.
"That's where I come in."
"Changryong Chulgwan has always been a famous event."
"That's right, Young Clan Lord. They used to say that only a warrior who had passed through Changryong Chulgwan could truly be recognized as a member of the Namgung Clan."
Jegal Seoseo nodded.
"It's a fascinating idea, though. Inviting the rising stars of the other clans to take part..."
"It stops being a Namgung Clan event and becomes an event of the Five Great Clans."
"The unity of the Five Great Clans will only grow stronger. And more than that — the Namgung Clan leading the rest through hardship until they complete the trial and emerge..."
It was a maneuver no one had seen coming. When they'd canceled the martial arts tournament, people had wondered what they were planning. Nobody expected this.
"It doesn't matter to us — we're not chasing the seat at the head of the table. But will the other clans accept this?"
"Hard to say..."
Under ordinary circumstances, no. Jegal Seoseo let the words trail off.
The atmosphere has changed.
Hwangbo Yong, who'd been so aggressive he'd practically been dancing a sword dance, had gone quiet.
Something happened.
Jegal Seoseo was certain. Something had gone down between the Namgung Clan and the Hwangbo Clan last night.
The way the Clan Lord looks at Teacher Sun has changed.
Sun Wukong was only an observer, so he didn't have much to do — but he showed his face now and then. And every time he did, Namgung Jinbaek appeared as well. Jegal Seoseo had seen the look in Namgung Jinbaek's eyes.
That was not the gaze you turned on a mere guest retainer. It was the look of a man gazing at a priceless treasure.
Teacher Sun is definitely mixed up in why the Hwangbo Clan has gone so quiet.
She thought about Sun Wukong for a long while, then sighed. It was all inference. She couldn't reach a conclusion. What mattered right now was the Changryong Chulgwan sitting in front of them.
This was the Namgung Clan's confidence made visible. The will to seize the leadership of the Five Great Clans, once and for all.
Since arriving at the Namgung Clan Estate, Jegal Seoseo had felt the source of that confidence.
Their numbers are small — but every last one of them is a formidable warrior.
The Namgung Clan was still the Namgung Clan. The Hwangbo Clan, by comparison, had been something of a disappointment.
Jegal Seoseo felt the moment of choice arrive.
The Tang siblings of the Sichuan Tang Clan — last to arrive at the Namgung Clan Estate — had been quiet. True to the closed-off nature of the Sichuan Tang Clan, they barely participated in anything that wasn't a required event of the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering.
But when it came to Changryong Chulgwan, they showed a surprising hunger.
"The Tang Clan will participate as well."
There was a saying in the martial world: every Namgung warrior who passed through Changryong Chulgwan emerged as a dragon. The most recent Changryong Chulgwan had been held more than twenty years ago.
The Tang Clan had put their name on the roster of the Five Great Clans and never once reached for the leader's seat. The chance to take part in a trial that had always belonged to the Namgung Clan alone made their eyes gleam.
Next was the Hebei Peng Clan.
Peng Jeokhon heard the proposal and thought it over.
"If the Hwangbo Clan accepts, we accept."
"But..."
"If Hwangbo swallows this, it means they're stepping down without a fight. That's when we fall in line behind Namgung."
Peng Jeokhon quietly looked toward the pavilion where Hwangbo Yong was staying.
"Tsk. I was hoping the two families would keep tearing at each other a little longer — wear themselves out."
That was supposed to be the Hebei Peng Clan's moment to quietly rise.
Hwangbo Yong isn't some towering intellect, but he's no fool either. And yet he's getting played like this without landing a single blow?
The Namgung Clan's hidden strength? Their terrifying martial prowess? Hadn't he already accounted for all of that?
Peng Jeokhon clicked his tongue, tasting something sour.
There's one thing I didn't account for.
A shock of brilliant golden hair flashed through Peng Jeokhon's mind.
"That Teacher Sun."
Peng Jeokhon clicked his tongue.
"Guest retainer, my ass. What kind of guest retainer shows up as an observer at every single event of the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering?"
Peng Jeokhon was certain. Sun Wukong was no guest retainer. He was an outside master the Namgung Clan had recruited — a master so formidable that even the Namgung Clan, a family that treated outsiders with near-pathological suspicion, had brought him in.
I'll need to keep an eye on him.
When the Namgung Clan started moving in earnest, Sun Wukong would almost certainly be standing at the front. Peng Jeokhon had a feeling that even if he didn't bother watching, he wouldn't be able to look away.
"Changryong Chulgwan? The rising stars are participating?"
Hwangbo Yong, of course, hit the ceiling.
It was a humiliating proposal. The fact that he had no choice but to accept it was despair itself. Who could have guessed that the outer hall warriors the Hwangbo Clan had brought along were assassins targeting the Namgung Clan?
If that fact got out, Hwangbo Yong was finished. But if he meekly agreed to enter Changryong Chulgwan, wasn't that the same as admitting defeat?
"When the wind blows, you have to bend if you want to survive. Like a reed."
"...Have you come to persuade me, Law Enforcement Hall Master?"
Muhwa smiled faintly. Hwangbo Yong found her presence uncomfortable — not because she was a remarkable beauty, but because she was the living witness to the assassins who had been hiding inside the Hwangbo Clan. She had taken the poison herself and been badly wounded. Her mouth was smiling, but her eyes were ice.
"I did come to persuade you."
"You didn't come to threaten me? When the Law Enforcement Hall Master herself pays a visit, that's usually what it means."
"Surely the Hwangbo Clan didn't actually bring assassins in to kill a member of the Namgung Clan?"
The way she laid it out again made Hwangbo Yong flinch. Muhwa spoke in a gentle, almost sweet voice.
"Even if the Namgung Clan becomes leader of the Five Great Clans for now, the future probably belongs to Hwangbo."
"...?"
The unexpected words made Hwangbo Yong look her straight in the eye.
"The Namgung Clan has virtually no new generation to speak of."
"That's..."
"Whereas you, Young Master Hwangbo, are the star of the generation to come. Aren't you?"
"What exactly are you trying to say?"
"If word gets out into the martial world that there were assassins — what do you think the Hwangbo Clan will do?"
"..."
"It won't go as far as open war between clans. They'll just cut off a convenient tail."
"Are you saying I could end up taking the entire fall, Law Enforcement Hall Master?"
"Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying."
Muhwa dropped the gentle voice and spoke with cold precision. The shift left Hwangbo Yong momentarily speechless. She was a Namgung warrior — and one of their finest. No matter that he was a rising star, Hwangbo Yong was simply not in Muhwa's league.
"You have younger siblings, Young Master Hwangbo. And their skills aren't half bad."
"...!"
"Will they wear the rumor that they used assassins to attack a fellow member of the Five Great Clans — a fellow orthodox sect — like a bunch of trash, and pick a fight with Namgung? Or will they pin it on someone and replace the heir?"
Hwangbo Yong's mouth fell open. Only then did he understand the situation he was in.
Muhwa smiled faintly.
"But if you bow your head right now and just manage to keep the heir's seat..."
"If I keep it?"
"Then in the future, a Hwangbo Clan packed with young warriors of the new generation will end up holding the lion's share of the Five Great Clans. And you, Young Master Hwangbo, will be the master of that clan."
Hwangbo Yong shut his mouth. She was telling him that Hwangbo would take everything in the end anyway — so just bend this once.
If the person saying this had been a Namgung by blood, he never would have believed it. He'd have written it off as a cheap ploy to make him dance.
The Law Enforcement Hall Master isn't a Namgung.
Muhwa held enormous weight within the Namgung Clan. Every member of the family treated her like blood. That much was obvious. But from the outside, it was a different story. Even among actual blood relatives, the line between the main family and the branch families was drawn so strictly it bordered on savage. That was simply how these houses worked.
Wasn't that true of every one of the Five Great Clans? And Muhwa wasn't even a branch family member. She didn't share a single drop of Namgung blood.
That was why her words had the ring of truth. And more than that, Hwangbo Yong felt, with painful clarity, that he had no choice left.
"A wise choice."
Muhwa beamed.