Except the Namgung Clan
The Orthodox Faction is a righteous organization.
That is the prevailing wisdom that runs through the rivers and lakes of the martial world.
Of course, the debate gets heated. Bring it up over drinks and the table is guaranteed to get loud. It is the kind of topic that starts fights.
But add a single condition, and remarkably, everyone agrees.
The Orthodox Faction is a righteous organization.
The Namgung Clan.
Foremost among the Five Great Clans, and in name and in fact the Greatest Sword Clan Under Heaven.
The pillar of the righteous martial world that saved Wulin in the great battle against the unorthodox path more than a decade ago.
...Or so it should have been.
"These miserable bastards! Sa Hyeol-cheol-gwi shows up, and they don't send so much as a single message to our Namgung Clan?!"
A middle-aged man with a face gone scarlet was throwing a fit.
Calling it a fit barely covered what was happening. Windows and doors rattled as if they might shatter. A savage aura coiled through the hall, and the floor heaved as though an earthquake had seized it.
At the uproar, elders scattered throughout the Namgung Clan Estate rushed in with faces drained white.
"Clan Head! Please, compose yourself! Calm down!"
"Settle your temper, Clan Head!"
Namgung Jinbaek, Clan Head of the great Namgung Clan, ground his teeth until they creaked.
"A Wulin Public Enemy. A Wulin Public Enemy! He murdered seven Shaolin disciples, nine second-generation disciples of the Beggars' Guild, and during the Great War he slaughtered our Namgung blood! That villain has appeared, and they won't even ask our Namgung Clan for help — does that make any sense?!"
Of course it didn't.
The king of Anhui was Namgung. The foremost of the Five Great Clans was Namgung. At the very peak of the righteous martial world sat Namgung.
That was how every member of the Namgung Clan saw it.
If a Wulin Public Enemy had slipped into Anhui, they should naturally have requested the Namgung Clan's cooperation...
In truth, both the Clan Head and the elders already knew why.
"Ahem. Are we... that unpleasant to deal with?"
"They must be frightened, at least. Elder Brother Jincheon's reputation was formidable in more ways than one, even now that he has gone into seclusion."
"Come now. The process may have been a bit rough, but the results turned out well in the end, didn't they?"
"Exactly! The disappearance of the unorthodox path, Sama Order and all, was thanks to the Namgung Clan's decisive action!"
"It was a kind of shock therapy, wasn't it? Planting the two characters of 'Namgung' as a terror in the Sama Order's hearts, so they'd shrink back every time they fought. It was all strategy."
"The problem is, it wasn't just the unorthodox path. Our own side — the righteous martial world — ended up fearing us too."
"What? We're on the same side. Why would they be afraid of us?"
At that thoroughly uncomprehending response, Muhwa, Master of the Law Enforcement Hall, who had been watching the whole exchange, cut in with a voice drained of strength.
"There's, you know. The optics, Elders. Cutting off the arms and legs of anyone they call an enemy. Cutting open chests to check if the heart has stopped. Splitting skulls completely open and burning the bodies because it would be a disaster if they became jiangshi..."
"Come now! Against villains, how is that cruel?!"
"Exactly! Those scum deserved every bit of it, every bit!"
"...Haa."
Faced with elders who showed no sign of calming down, Muhwa let out a sigh despite herself. As Hall Master of Law Enforcement, she had to keep a cool head at all times to uphold the clan's rules and laws, and she was thoroughly sick of situations like this.
It felt, somehow, like talking to idiots who knew nothing but martial arts.
As the chatter rose from every direction, Muhwa finally lost her patience and stamped the floor hard.
BOOM!
"Everyone, just—! Let's get a clear grasp of the situation here!"
"..."
Silence settled in an instant. Everyone flinched and avoided Muhwa's fierce gaze.
Clan Head Jinbaek raised a hand with an awkward laugh.
"Ah, Law Enforcement Hall Master?"
"You too, Clan Head! That habit of flying off the handle so easily! Fix it already! You may be the previous Clan Head's younger brother, but you don't need to inherit his temper too!"
"..."
The elders gathered here were relatively young. Even Jinbaek, the oldest among them, was only in his mid-forties.
And among them, Muhwa was especially young. She looked young enough to be Jinbaek's daughter — and in terms of age, she practically was. Even so, Jinbaek found her somewhat difficult to deal with.
She was an outsider by origin, not of the bloodline. Perhaps it was because she was the only one among them who possessed a genuinely cool-headed temperament, unlike the rest of the Namgungs.
Once the room had quieted, Muhwa let out a short sigh and spoke.
"What good is it that we're foremost among the Five Great Clans, the pillar of the righteous martial world? Even our fellow Orthodox sects are afraid of us. Let's be blunt. They look at us as sword-dancing butchers, don't they?"
"...Ahem."
"Seriously — what Orthodox sect guts people, hacks off all four limbs, burns the corpses, and then drinks and dances on top of them?"
"Ahem. Th-that was, in my younger days, a bit of youthful spirit..."
Jinbaek mumbled a feeble excuse in a shrinking voice, but Muhwa only stared him down with colder eyes. He shut his mouth and dipped his head slightly.
Muhwa looked around the room.
"If we truly intend to remain the elders of the Orthodox Faction, the pillars of the righteous path, then we need to care about how other people see us."
"How they see us..."
"Shaolin and Wudang have declined compared to the past, so why does everyone still revere them?"
"Well..."
"Because they managed their public image. Upright, merciful, kind. Even toward enemies they never turned cruel — they even showed mercy at times. That kind of image!"
"That's all just pretense..."
"We need to be a little pretentious too, you know? We're the ones who actually shed the most blood!"
"..."
"And we need to start taking on guest retainers who are actually normal people. What, is it because the Namgung Clan's reputation looks like a bunch of human butchers? Sometimes I can't tell if our guest retainers are from the unorthodox path or just street thugs!"
Muhwa's scathing lecture plunged the room into silence. They all knew it. They had simply chosen not to think about it. Now that Muhwa had laid it out, no one had anything to say.
Jinbaek sank into his seat with a rather sheepish look on his face.
That was when a new figure entered the hall.
It was the Hall Master of Myeong-i-dang, the Namgung Clan's intelligence hall.
"Clan Head, we still have to be the ones to catch Sa Hyeol-cheol-gwi. The Dragon-Phoenix Gathering, where the rising talents of the Five Great Clans will assemble, is being held at our estate. If a Wulin Public Enemy is still wandering Anhui freely when that happens, it will be a tremendous disgrace."
"That's obvious. He murdered our blood. But the Wulin Alliance is sitting on the information and refusing to cooperate. What do you expect us to do?"
"It isn't as if there's no way."
"Is that true?"
"The Wulin Alliance cooperated with the authorities to issue a sailing ban. After that, several ships ignored the ban and slipped out. There is a high probability that Sa Hyeol-cheol-gwi is among them."
Jinbaek pondered, and his eyes sharpened. A ship that ignored a ban issued not only by the Wulin Alliance but by the government itself...
"Either someone with enormous guts, or someone very good at running."
Jinbaek's hand went straight to the sword at his waist.
"We've found a Wulin Public Enemy. How can I, as a renowned figure of the martial world, sit here and do nothing?!"
"Ooooh!"
"We'll go with you, Clan Head!"
"Haa..."
Watching the Clan Head and elders roar with enthusiasm as if they had never reflected on anything in their lives, Muhwa pressed a hand to her forehead.
Men... no. Namgung men are especially like this. This is all the previous Clan Head's fault. That hot-blooded idiot turned the Namgung Clan into this mess.
This was why people looked at the Namgung Clan so strangely.
Just then, Jinbaek, who had been stepping forward so eagerly, shot her a furtive glance.
"Ah, Law Enforcement Hall Master? This can't be helped. A suspected Wulin Public Enemy has appeared. If we sit still worrying about how we look, what kind of righteous Orthodox Faction would that make us?"
"Huu. You're right. If it's confirmed to be Sa Hyeol-cheol-gwi, we should be the ones to catch him."
Sa Hyeol-cheol-gwi had a blood feud with the Namgung Clan, after all. A grudge, as they say, is something you settle with your own hands.
Jinbaek's face lit up.
"Right? I'll take the bastard's head off right this—"
"However!"
"Huh?"
"No dismembering of limbs. No cutting open chests to check the heart. No burning the body and drinking on the corpse."
Muhwa turned to the elders and continued.
"Let's take him alive. Capture him, lay out every one of his crimes, one by one, convene the Wulin Alliance, and declare to the world that we caught the villain — then execute him."
"Mmm. So don't kill him, then?"
"Yes. And make absolutely sure it really is Sa Hyeol-cheol-gwi first. Please don't go picking a fight with some peak-level master or a hidden recluse and creating a new grudge for no reason."
"Haha, as if we wouldn't recognize a villain. We'll know once we start fighting. And in a fight, arms and legs might get cut off, you know..."
"...Haa."
Muhwa sighed.
"We'll compromise at one arm and one leg."
"...Hall Master, you really are a Namgung martial artist after all. How about it? Have you given any thought to my offer to take you as my adopted daughter? Honestly, the Namgung name suits you better than anyone."
"Where would I even go?!"
"Ahem."
Jinbaek coughed and edged backward.
"Well then, Hall Master, I'll leave my nephew and my boy in your care."
"...Don't tell me. You're taking this entire group out there?"
"Come now! Who knows what kind of havoc a Wulin Public Enemy might wreak? Of course we have to go fully prepared!"
Muhwa's mouth fell slightly open.
They were going to charge out — the Clan Head and the elders of the Namgung Clan — just to catch a single public enemy? All of them?
But before she could say another word, the Clan Head and the elders poured out in a noisy rush, sounding for all the world like laborers heading out for drinks, eager to catch up after a long time apart.
"Haa..."
Muhwa sighed. These people held values rather different from other martial artists. She felt as if she were the only strange one here.
"Aigoo. Honestly. At this rate I won't live out my natural lifespan."
Looking exhausted, Muhwa popped a sweet pastry into her mouth. Whenever her head started to hurt, she had to eat something or the tightness in her chest wouldn't ease.
"Still, nothing will go wrong, right?"
They may have looked simple and thick-headed, but they were the Clan Head and elders of the Namgung Clan. Their judgment was sound, and their skill was the real thing.
Surely nothing would happen.
"...Nothing will happen, right?"
Somehow, Muhwa felt uneasy.
Sun Wukong furrowed his brow.
"They're afraid of them for being human butchers? Even though they're on the same side?"
The explanation, roughly summarized, went like this.
"So basically, the righteous path fought these unbelievably evil people from something called the Sama Order — people like Guanyin — and they slaughtered almost the entire Namgung Clan, direct line and branch families alike, so the Namgung Clan got pissed and put on one hell of a revenge play?"
"The Sama Order is like Guanyin?"
The comparison seemed a little off, somehow.
Sun Wukong tilted his head, then nodded and corrected himself.
"Ah, that's not quite right."
"Exactly. Guanyin is beloved by the common people..."
"Comparing the Sama Order to Guanyin is an insult to the Sama Order. Yeah. The Sama Order would be real offended. My mistake. Slip of the tongue. This is why you've got to watch what you say. Got it? You watch your mouth too."
"..."
"Anyway, that revenge was so vicious and so cruel that even their own side started seeing them as human butchers. That's what you're saying?"
"Yes."
Sun Wukong clicked his tongue.
Was that really something to get cursed out over? Honestly, if your own people got hit, your eyes spinning in your head was the most natural thing in the world.
Sun Wukong had experience with that himself.
Honse-mawang, that bastard.
Ah, that bastard's face just wouldn't leave his memory.
When was it. After he'd left Water Curtain Cave on Flower-Fruit Mountain to learn the arts of immortality?
While he was away, the bastard had stormed Water Curtain Cave, slaughtered his precious monkey family, and worked the survivors like slaves.
Sun Wukong's eyes had truly spun that day. He had torn Honse-mawang apart without a shred of mercy.
Having lived through that, Sun Wukong didn't just sympathize with the Namgung Clan — he felt sorry for them.
Qualitatively they still had their masters, but their numbers had been slashed. So they were taking in guest retainers to maintain their strength in quantity as well.
"Guest retainers. Right, guest retainers. We just go in as those, then?"
"It's not that easy to get in even as a guest retainer."
"Aigoo? What now... What are the conditions?"
"Enormous fame, or..."
"Done, then."
Sun Wukong started clapping before the sentence was even finished.
Sideburns stared at him with incredulous eyes.
"I said enormous fame. The kind where anywhere in the Central Plains, people hear the name and go, Ah! That person!"
"Just in this Eastern Pure Land? As for this Teacher Sun..."
Sun Wukong threw both arms wide. It was a pose of pure showing off.
Eyes gathered from every direction. Sideburns' face burned.
They had left the tavern; this was the street. In the middle of the marketplace, a golden-haired foreigner striking a ridiculous pose — of course people stared.
And somehow, the sight felt familiar to Sideburns.
Didn't he do this in front of the Seokhwa Gate people and get his face shoved in the dirt?
Surely he wasn't about to do it again?
Ah. He was really doing it again.
"Not only throughout this Eastern Pure Land, but across the Western Pure Land of the Tathagata as well, my brilliant fame resounds! In the deepest underworld, across the Six Paths of Reincarnation, the Eight Hot Hells, the Eight Cold Hells, and even the Hells of the Ten Kings, the three characters of Teacher Sun's name have been carved! There is not a soul in Hell or Heaven who has not heard of the one who rules the skies — the Great Sage, Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong!"
"Ah."
Sideburns squeezed his eyes shut.
Just... please.
Tears came. Just a little. A very little.