Make Me Pull the Staff
Namgung Jinbaek watched the fog for a long while, his eyes dark and still.
"Myeong-i-dang Master."
"Yes, my lord."
"Take a warrior skilled in qinggong and go to Hubei. Hurry the envoy along."
"...We're not waiting for Teacher Sun to come out?"
Namgung Jinbaek's eyes sharpened in an instant. Namgung Cheonyeong flinched.
"It isn't that I don't trust Teacher Sun. But we prepare for every possibility, do we not?"
"Understood."
"Time is short. Myeong-i-dang Master — go yourself."
"I receive your command."
Namgung Cheonyeong's figure vanished.
"Even if Teacher Sun fails, we could have sent someone the moment he came out," Muhwa said carefully.
Namgung Jinbaek shook his head, firm as iron.
"Teacher Sun is an exceptional martial artist. That much is true. But Muhwa — no. Law Enforcement Hall Master. You don't take me for a lesser man than he is, I trust."
Muhwa shook her head at once. Whatever anyone said, Namgung Jinbaek was the strongest martial artist in the Namgung Clan. Broaden the field to the entire Central Plains, and he was still the first name spoken whenever the Ten Great Masters came up.
Yes, Teacher Sun is strong, but...
He lived forever in the shadow of the previous clan lord, the Sword God — the weight of that name, that legend. And yet Namgung Jinbaek was the Sword God's own brother. His talent ran deeper still, and he had never once stopped driving himself. A master worthy of any martial artist's respect.
And Namgung Jinbaek had failed to resolve this inexplicable calamity.
However strong Sun Wukong might be, assuming he could simply handle it was a dangerous thought. Namgung Jinbaek had to keep every possibility in mind. That was what a clan lord did.
And yet...
Somehow, she could already picture Sun Wukong strolling out of that fog with that trademark grin of his, as if nothing in the world had happened.
Namgung Jinbaek seemed to catch the look on her face, and went on.
"What's in there, Law Enforcement Hall Master — you felt it yourself. It isn't something martial arts can touch. It's the same breed of strangeness the old Daoist adepts and Buddhist monks used to unravel."
"That's true enough."
"Of course, Teacher Sun may well resolve it brilliantly. Even so, sending the Myeong-i-dang Master to meet the envoy is no problem at all. If it comes to that, we simply say we came out to receive them."
"Ah—!"
A flicker of admiration crossed Muhwa's face.
"The envoy was coming anyway. There's no need to set a grim tone."
"Exactly. If we say we came to greet them, they'll take it as the Namgung Clan extending a hand in goodwill. Nothing lost."
Muhwa gave a small nod.
"The rest of you, move. Search the old records, use every means you have — find out what this thing is."
The order fell like a blade. Namgung Jinbaek, who ordinarily wore his authority lightly and rarely stood on ceremony, now spoke with a gravity that made every person present clamp their jaws shut. They felt it in their bones: this was no ordinary crisis.
Not only the successors of the Five Great Clans were in there. Namgung Muyoung, the heir himself, and Seowol were in there too. Losing them was a horror beyond imagining.
They set to work with grim faces, each scattering to their task. How long they had been at it, no one could have said — and then a cry tore through the air, half shout, half scream.
"The fog is thinning!"
Every head that had been bent over its own work snapped around at once.
"Ohh...!"
"The fog is disappearing!"
They abandoned whatever they were doing and came pouring back together. Even standing right in front of it, you could see the fog growing thinner by the heartbeat. A wind rose, swept the mist away in a single stroke, and was gone.
A lush green forest lay revealed, shimmering with a fresh, living light.
"Hah..."
A hollow laugh slipped from Namgung Jinbaek's lips. It was not that he had doubted Sun Wukong.
"How?"
He simply could not understand it.
"If it had been a Qimen Formation, you could break it with raw force, at least."
What he had seen inside that fog was no formation. It had been an incomprehensible domain — the kind of uncanny phenomenon that sometimes manifested when a renowned Daoist performed a rite.
"Teacher Sun has come through for the Namgung Clan once again."
"He must have done something in there. There's no other explanation."
"As expected of the Namgung Clan's most honored guest!"
The voices of the Namgung warriors rang out one after another, flushed and bright. Namgung Jinbaek found himself smiling despite everything.
He's stolen the clan's heart this thoroughly, and in so little time.
Well. That was hardly surprising.
I think well of him myself.
A thought flickered through Namgung Jinbaek's mind — a plan he had conceived some time ago, one he had not yet discussed with a single soul. He rated its chances highly.
After the Orthodox-Unorthodox War, the Namgung Clan walled itself off from every outsider. And he has melted into us this completely...
It was almost frightening, when he thought about what Sun Wukong had done.
But what of it?
"Teacher Sun has saved the Namgung Clan in a big way. Again!"
Muhwa said it with a face that looked as if she had believed in him all along. Even Muhwa — the most difficult person in the entire clan — placed that kind of trust in Sun Wukong. Namgung Jinbaek smiled a wry, complicated smile.
"The Hall Master and I will go in and see how things stand."
Namgung Jinbaek slipped into the forest with Muhwa at his side.
"...The examiner?"
Sun Wukong understood in a single beat what they were talking about.
So there were examiners at every gate, huh.
He gave a light, dismissive wave of his hand. Examiner? As if he was going to take on something that tedious.
Namgung Seowol was staring at him with shining eyes. Namgung Muyoung wore a look that said he could not quite follow. The other successors were bright-eyed too, waiting.
"I'm not the exami—"
Teacher Sun. Wait — hold on a moment.
Sun Wukong's words cut off cold. His brow furrowed of its own accord. His head snapped around.
A shadow flickered behind a soaring tree. Namgung Jinbaek and Muhwa. They clearly had not expected him to pinpoint their position in a single glance — the shadow gave a visible start.
The details can wait. First, allow me to offer my thanks. Because of you, Teacher Sun, the Changryong Chulgwan will be able to proceed without incident.
Sun Wukong folded his arms.
Tension bloomed across the faces of the successors standing in front of him. He was paying them no mind at all — he was listening to a sound transmission — but what they saw was Sun Wukong's expression suddenly souring, his arms crossing, a look of deep thought settling over his face.
A strange, prickling tension filled the air.
Why is this guy being so deferential?
Sun Wukong had caught the subtle shift in Namgung Jinbaek's tone. The man had always treated him with genuine respect — but this was a notch lower, somehow. More careful.
Because I cleared Myodu-eung's fog?
Well, that was something to be grateful for. But knowing Namgung Jinbaek, he would usually just offer something in return and call it a transaction. That was how it had always gone.
Sun Wukong's gaze flicked, just for a moment, to the successors.
Ah. It's because of these kids.
He grinned and sent his meaning back.
You mentioned an examiner. That's what this is about?
...Your instincts really are sharp, Teacher Sun. Yes. I was supposed to serve as the final examiner myself — a rotating melee against the successors.
Then just do that.
The trouble is...
What followed was simple enough.
The Five Great Clans still don't know what happened today.
They do not.
The calamity that had erupted in the middle of the Changryong Chulgwan had not yet reached the outside. Only Namgung blood and a handful of retained guests were permitted near the trial grounds. The attendants of the other four clans were waiting at their lodgings for nothing but the results.
And the successors themselves seem to think the whole thing was just another Qimen Formation from earlier.
Nobody got hurt, so yeah.
Precisely. Which is why...
You want to bury it.
The words struck the heart of the matter. Namgung Jinbaek hesitated a moment before answering.
Hah. This Changryong Chulgwan will set the precedent going forward. It is no longer a Namgung trial alone — it is a gathering of the Five Great Clans, with every heir in attendance.
And if something goes wrong at the very first one, they'll have the perfect excuse not to come next time.
Sun Wukong kept his arms folded.
Him standing here and announcing he was not the examiner would look ridiculous. Namgung Jinbaek appearing out of nowhere to administer the test himself would look just as strange. Even a clumsy cover story would leave seams showing — and the girl watching him with those exceptionally bright eyes would find them.
Jegal Seoseo. Underneath that sparkle ran a thin, unmistakable thread of suspicion.
If that sharp little thing starts picking at this, she might just figure out what really happened today.
Sun Wukong twirled a lock of hair around his finger.
It is a poor offering, but I will express my sincerity.
Sincerity, huh.
And of course, I will not forget a token of gratitude for resolving today's calamity.
Sun Wukong let out a short laugh. What did a reward like that even matter? He found Namgung Jinbaek's uncharacteristically low posture almost funny.
Namgung Jinbaek...
He had already confirmed that Muhwa was Zhu Bajie, reborn. It was time Namgung Jinbaek knew the truth as well.
Might as well become a creditor while I'm at it.
He fully intended to load the man with as much debt as he could, however it happened to fall.
"That's right. This Teacher Sun is the examiner for the final gate."
Sun Wukong drew his steel staff, spun it in a dazzling flourish, and drove it into the earth with a thunderous crack. He grinned.
The contents of the test, of course, were entirely up to him.
"Make him pull the steel staff, and they pass..."
Muhwa let the words trail off. A test condition that arrogant was almost impressive.
"I know Teacher Sun is strong, but... is he just making it easy for them to get through?"
The successors standing down there were no ordinary children. Peng Jeokhon. Hwangbo Yong. That pair's saber and sword were already reasonably well known throughout the martial world. Jegal Seoseo's martial skill was the lowest of the group — but that did not mean she could be dismissed. Lowest among these heirs was not the same thing as weak.
And then there were Dang Seong and Dang So, the twin brother and sister of the Sichuan Tang Clan. The martial world knew nothing of them, but that was only the Tang Clan's famous isolation. Muhwa had watched those two for days, and their poison arts were anything but ordinary. Even the Namgung elders who had served as examiners at the earlier gates had clicked their tongues in astonishment.
Which made Sun Wukong's standard of evaluation absurdly, almost insultingly, arrogant. The suspicion flickered through Muhwa that he was simply too lazy to bother, and had set a bar they could hop over so he could be done with it.
"I don't know about that. I find myself thinking something rather different from the Law Enforcement Hall Master."
Namgung Jinbaek's wry smile pulled Muhwa's gaze back — and then she could not find the words.
"...Ah. Oh."
A crash. Then another, heavier still.
"Kh—!"
It was dazzling. Beside the steel staff driven into the earth, Sun Wukong was taking on every successor with nothing but his fists and feet. The format was a rotating melee, but he never even let them bleed off their strength. One after another, far too early, they went down.
And he used that pillar of a staff with ruthless precision. He slipped behind it to catch sabers and swords —
Clang. A ringing, splitting clash.
— without so much as grazing the staff with a fingertip. He spun around it as his axis, bewildering the successors, and every time a gap opened he drove a fist or a foot straight through it.
"What in the world..."
Muhwa's mouth fell open. She had known, in a vague way, that Sun Wukong was a master. But this — this was a teacher of an entirely different caliber, schooling children.
Namgung Jinbaek wore a wry smile of his own. His mouth curved. His eyes had gone cold and still.
I handed him the examiner's role because I wanted to see Teacher Sun's martial prowess with my own two eyes.
The excuse about burying the calamity so the Five Great Clans would never learn of it had been genuine enough. But that had not been the real reason. The thought had risen the instant he pictured Sun Wukong standing opposite those successors.
Until now, Namgung Jinbaek had never properly witnessed Sun Wukong's martial skill. He had only guessed at it. He had wanted to take it in with his own eyes — because there was an enormous difference between conjecture and what an absolute master of his caliber could see for himself.
But if this is all I get...
A hollow sound escaped him before he could stop it. And Sun Wukong, as if he could see that thought laid bare, was down there grinning like a man playing a particularly entertaining prank.
Namgung Jinbaek thought for a long moment. Then he looked at Muhwa.
"Law Enforcement Hall Master."
"Yes?"
"Go down there and try to pull that steel staff out yourself."