Born This Way

Namgung Muyoung's succession as Young Master had concluded without a hitch.

And with that, the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering drew to a close as well.

For the Namgung Clan, it had been a splendid affair. Fortuitously, the rights and businesses they had reclaimed breathed new life into the clan's coffers, and with that influx of wealth they hosted an event no one could dismiss as anything less than magnificent. They had even set a new precedent: the Changryong Chulgwan, in which the rising stars of the Five Great Clans moved at Muyoung's command.

They had gained a great deal. But word of an incident that could only be called the Wudang Bloodbath spread through the martial world, and the mood sank.

The rising stars of the Five Great Clans each chose their own path.

"The Jegal Clan has deep ties to the Wulin Alliance, and many of our blood kin serve there. I'll go with you."

Jegal Seoseo joined Muhwa on the road to the Wulin Alliance, bringing a handful of escorts with her.

After passing through the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering and completing the Changryong Chulgwan, Jegal Seoseo had confirmed the Namgung Clan's unshakable position among the Five Great Clans.

For as long as I lead the Jegal Clan, at least, the Namgung hold the upper hand.

Jegal Seoseo judged quickly and acted on it.

The remaining Great Clans, however, wore uncomfortable expressions.

"We cannot act of our own accord without orders from our house. We will report this matter to our elders and await their decision."

The Tang siblings turned for the Tang Clan without so much as a backward glance.

"I, too, will report what transpired at the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering and seek aid from the elders of my house."

Hwangbo Yong of the Hwangbo Clan and Peng Jeokhon of the Hebei Peng Clan were of the same mind.

It was only natural. Heirs or not, this was a bloodbath they were dealing with. Not since the Great Orthodox-Unorthodox War had the Wudang Sect come under attack. The rising stars could not simply throw themselves into an affair of this magnitude. They had to follow their families' decisions.

For the Namgung Clan, that was just as well. If those youths had been unable to contain their boiling blood and insisted on coming along, it would have been a headache. Should any of the rising stars be injured or killed, how would a Great Clan that had lost its heir react? Worse still, Namgung Jinbaek and all the elders and retainers would have remained at the estate while only the young successors were sent out.

"I shall entrust you with my letters. Please see that the elders of your houses are thoroughly informed of this matter."

Namgung Jinbaek dispatched the letters himself. The Five Great Clans would respond soon enough.

I'd prefer we settle this before then.

Namgung Jinbaek looked at Muyoung and Seowol standing off to one side. Sun Wukong was leaning against the wall, yawning with a look of utter boredom. The rising stars who had been preparing to leave gathered around him one after another. Namgung Jinbaek tilted his head.

"Teacher Sun, I am grateful for your instruction during the Changryong Chulgwan."

"It was a great help. I learned a great deal as well."

"I will not forget this debt."

Namgung Jinbaek let out a dry laugh.

Those prideful rising stars — heirs, no less — going that far...

He clicked his tongue in amazement. Sun Wukong received their thanks with the same look of mild annoyance.

A man who has earned the goodwill of the future lords of the Five Great Clans...

Namgung Jinbaek chuckled. Looked at one way, this was a man to be wary of. But Namgung Jinbaek's dantian held the heavens, and his heart was every bit as vast as the open sky.

So long as we do not betray Teacher Sun, he is not a man who would turn his blade on the Namgung Clan.

Sun Wukong was a companion who walked beside them.

If anything, the need to keep Teacher Sun firmly in our grasp has only grown.

Namgung Jinbaek made the resolution with a solemn face.

A fierce wind scraped across his cheeks.

Namgung Muyoung could barely keep his eyes open against the gale blowing straight into his face. The wind hammered at him like a thing gone mad. Racing through a mountain the sun never touched, the headwind was merciless. He clenched his teeth and shouted.

"Teacher Sun! This is not the way to Eosa!"

Far ahead, a figure so small it was little more than a speck showed no sign of stopping.

"What on earth is he thinking?"

When Namgung Jinbaek had told him to go with Sun Wukong, Muyoung had been privately relieved. Whatever one said about Sun Wukong's temperament, his skill was the genuine article. There was no one more reassuring to have on your side. He clearly held the Namgung Clan in good regard. He was not a man who would ever turn traitor. But actually traveling with him was another matter entirely.

"He just took off in lightfoot without a word of warning..."

The moment they left the Namgung Clan, Sun Wukong had charged straight ahead without the slightest hesitation. The speed was nothing short of terrifying. Muyoung and Seowol's own lightfoot was nothing to scoff at. At first they had kept pace, running shoulder to shoulder. That lasted only a short while. After half a day's hard running, the limits of their inner energy forced them to fall behind. Now Sun Wukong was so far ahead he looked like nothing more than a distant speck.

It's as if his inner energy is infinite.

It seemed to well up without end. He was cutting through strange mountains and forests that were not even on the road to Eosa, and there was no stopping him. Just keeping up was exhausting enough. The gap in the depth of their inner energy was stark.

"Seowol, are you all right?"

"Yeah!"

Namgung Seowol's eyes were shining, as if she were actually enjoying this. The single-minded will to chase Sun Wukong even if it killed her was written all over her. Sun Wukong's overwhelming movement technique had struck a spark in Seowol's burning competitive fire.

"Look. That man isn't even leaving footprints!"

No matter the lightfoot technique, faint traces always remain — all the more so when one has been running it for a long time. Even with the most refined circulation of inner energy, time and the ruggedness of the terrain inevitably leave marks. The true master is the one who leaves as little as possible. The vivid tracks trailing behind Muyoung and Seowol themselves were proof enough. They had not been leaving footprints either, but now they were so short of breath that finely controlling their inner energy enough to worry about traces was beyond them.

The path Sun Wukong had taken, by contrast, held nothing. One would expect snapped twigs, at the very least. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠There was not a single one.

A sudden chill prickled across Namgung Muyoung's skin.

He's not stepping on the ground. He's stepping on empty air!

Of course, walking on the sky in the literal sense was impossible. Ordinarily the phrase was a metaphor for the supreme lightfoot that left absolutely no trace.

But this really does look like he's running without touching the ground!

What an exalted realm it was. He could not even begin to grasp it. The more he understood, the more that bottomless depth left Muyoung faintly dizzy.

Seowol, on the other hand, only stared harder at Sun Wukong's back, her eyes bright with fascination as she ran.

"And the path itself is like this, too."

There was another reason chasing him in lightfoot was so punishing. The terrain was brutally rugged. This was no maintained road. It was a beast-trail, untouched by human feet. They had been forcing their way along such a path for half a day, and Sun Wukong had held the same pace from the very start. He drove forward without the slightest hesitation, as if he had been here before — as if he already knew every inch of it. The way he found and plunged into the animal tracks was so unerring it felt as though he could see straight through the mountain.

Namgung Muyoung and Seowol clenched their teeth and chased, and still they fell further and further behind.

How much time passed, he could not say. Then, all at once, the speck that was Sun Wukong began to grow larger.

"Teacher Sun!"

Sun Wukong had come to a stop. Namgung Muyoung, panting hard, finally managed to speak.

"Teacher Sun, why do you keep heading this way... this is not the road to Eosa."

"And what would we do if we went to Eosa?"

Sun Wukong's reply was blunt.

"The traces left there are already being tracked by the master of Myeong-i-dang, aren't they? And there's no chance the culprits are still hanging around nearby."

"But that is the only lead we have to follow."

They had no ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠choice but to pursue those traces. Those were the only traces there were.

"Not necessarily."

Sun Wukong grinned and looked up at the sky. A bird that had been flying overhead folded its wings and settled slowly onto his shoulder.

"Ah... the white owl that was with Sister Muhwa."

Sun Wukong stroked Myodu-eung's head.

No matter how far a human's vision expanded through training, no matter how fast their feet became, no matter how keen their nose — what could compare, in the art of tracking, to a bird that flew through the sky? And this was no ordinary bird. It was not even a mere spirit beast. This was a pursuit conducted by ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠an Earth Deity in person.

Myodu-eung reported.

"There's a village along the river ahead, and a fairly large manor a little way off from it."

"Is it there?"

"The scent of blood leads that far."

Sun Wukong wrinkled his nose slightly. A faint, metallic tang mixed in among the clean smell of grass. He grinned.

"Your nose is something else too."

"Ahem! I'll have you know I'm an Earth Deity!"

Myodu-eung puffed out its chest. Sun Wukong snorted a laugh. Perhaps because the soul of the previous Myodu-eung had briefly resonated with it, the present Myodu-eung had grown larger, its eyes burned brighter, and its beak had taken on a fierce, keen edge.

"So the blood-scent from Eosa headed that way, then?"

"It's all mixed up, so I can't be certain — but the direction is right."

Sun Wukong nodded.

Muyoung, who had come to a hurried stop and was gathering his inner energy with deep, measured breaths, tilted his head.

"Were you just speaking with that owl?"

"Yeah."

"...And you said there's a scent of blood?"

"What, you couldn't smell it?"

Muyoung's gaze turned distinctly strange, but Sun Wukong paid it no mind.

"This way."

Muyoung was too tired to ask any more questions. He had originally intended to take the lead until they rendezvoused with Namgung Cheonyeong, but the situation had not cooperated in the slightest. It started with his own nature — he had never been one to enjoy putting himself forward — and then there was the problem of Sun Wukong's standing. He did not even know the man's master or school, so he could not begin to gauge the seniority. And yet this was someone who addressed the lord of the Namgung Clan as an equal, as if they were old friends. For Muyoung, it was impossible. He had no choice but to follow behind Sun Wukong.

Before long, a small village came into view. It was a modest farming settlement along the riverbank — a quiet, out-of-the-way place if ever there was one. When outsiders appeared, martial artists wearing swords and a thick steel staff, fearful glances turned their way. Sun Wukong looked them over, then shifted his gaze to the village headman who came hurrying out.

"W-what brings you h-heroes of the jianghu to th-this village...?"

Heroes of the jianghu, his ass. Sun Wukong waved a hand. He rather enjoyed teasing timid humans, but he saw no need to torment them.

"Has anyone injured come through here?"

"Th-this is a remote place, you see... From time to time people come looking for the Soseon Martial Hall up the way, hoping to learn martial arts."

"Soseon Martial Hall."

Sun Wukong sharpened his eyesight in the direction the headman pointed. At a distance no ordinary person could have seen at all, a large manor was faintly visible. Manor was a generous word — it only looked large compared to the buildings here. It was nothing more than a somewhat bigger house.

"Originally a retired Wudang master settled here and opened a martial hall to teach the local children. As it grew, they recently established themselves as a proper sect. We're still used to calling it the Soseon Martial Hall, but... it's the Soseon Sect now."

Sun Wukong nodded at the headman's words.

"Let's go that way."

"..."

Namgung Muyoung's gaze was still full of questions. Sun Wukong met it without the slightest concern.

"The scent of blood is coming from that direction too."

Muyoung could not readily accept it. Even pouring inner energy into his eyesight, all he could make out was the faint shadow of a building — it was that far away. And the man was claiming he could smell it as well? From here, in a village thick with every odor imaginable?

His eyes were loaded with suspicion, but Muyoung did not push back. They had come this far already. He might as well watch and see what Sun Wukong was thinking.

As for Namgung Seowol...

"You can smell it from there?"

"Yeah."

"You smell ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠better than a dog."

"That's supposed to be a compliment, but it kind of sounds like an insult."

"Did you train your senses?"

"I was born this way."

"I'm jealous."

Sun Wukong said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Namgung Seowol watched him with shining eyes.

This is not going to be easy, Father.

Namgung Muyoung felt the premonition settle over him, strong and certain.