The Hegemon Points the Way (4)
Namgung Jin had never in his life laid eyes on a master greater than her. Ah—of course, the Interdimensional Integrated Community might hold even stranger monsters, but still.
Yet the field he wanted to speak of was a little too ambiguous to call martial force. Something more like martial learning, perhaps? In matters of theory, she was an unscalable wall that no one could ever surmount.
Were he so bold as to render judgment, then if there existed anyone worthy of being called the greatest master of the martial way in all of history, it would be her.
Whenever he discussed martial arts with her, Namgung Jin felt as though he were gazing up at a heaven above the heavens.
They would never meet, after all—she lived in an entirely different world. Surely releasing a few pages of his clan's secret manuals would have no real consequences. Besides, the community hardly lacked for people surnamed Namgung.
What truly stunned him was her insight.
She said things that were simply impossible to believe.
And yet.
"Jin-ah. I never knew your comprehension was this extraordinary."
"Hoho. The Namgung Clan has been blessed indeed."
"Genius doesn't even begin to describe this talent."
"If only your bone structure were stronger... you would have lacked nothing in becoming the finest under heaven."
"Young hero Jin, might you perhaps take a look at our clan's martial arts as well?"
Namgung Jin came to a realization: ordinary people can never understand a genius. Her wild, outlandish remarks had sounded to him like talk from another world entirely—or pure nonsense.
Was this even... possible? Just by listening and speaking, she could point out the flaws in a secret manual, then go further and refine it into a peerless martial art.
Ah, ah... a genius the common man could never hope to fathom. A talent bestowed by the heavens themselves.
With his characteristic knack for getting along with people, he received a great deal of help from her. A single casually tossed remark of hers would blow open blockages in his enlightenment one after another. The only reason he remained among the first-rate masters was that his own bone structure fell short.
Namgung Jin faithfully answered every question she posed about the Jianghu, whatever it happened to be.
Known and unknown alike, he answered everything with utmost sincerity.
He did not know the details of her circumstances. But her stories of recently losing her own kin had given him comfort in turn—he, too, had suffered the destruction of his clan.
"By the way, how exactly did you travel to another world? I can't even imagine it."
Well, is there any point in being curious? She wouldn't understand it anyway.
Talking with her, he sometimes felt pangs of distance, self-loathing, hollowness, impatience. But not anymore. Accept what must be accepted, learn what must be learned—and somewhere along the way, "Teacher" had become the natural thing to call her.
"Haha. So the Teacher will make her debut in the Jianghu?"
Merely imagining it was delightful.
Though from the perspective of that world's Murim, it might well be a calamity.
In any event, around the time their conversation was drawing to a close, he heard voices calling for him again from outside.
Oh dear. I must have gotten too absorbed.
Namgung Jin politely ended the conversation and stepped out through the door.
Waiting for him were the Leader of the Murim Alliance and the Wudang elder.
Namgung Jin cleared his throat for no particular reason, steeled himself, and greeted them.
A low murmur rippled through the air.
Countless martial artists stood in disciplined formation before the main gate of the Murim Alliance. From the Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise, and White Tiger divisions to the elders and patriarchs, nearly every martial artist in the Alliance had split into two wings flanking the main gate, awaiting orders.
The heat and confidence radiating from hundreds of warriors seemed capable of piercing the very sky.
"The Alliance's might pierces the heavens, does it not."
"Hoho. To think he'd come here alone, so brazenly. Even the Heavenly Demon himself would regret it, facing our Alliance's majesty head-on."
"One must credit the man's nerve."
"Perhaps he has come ready to abandon everything. Hoho."
"Ah—someone approaches now."
"...Armor?"
Every pair of eyes in formation turned toward the space beyond the main gate.
Clank—
Someone was approaching, clad in full plate armor soaked in blood. Beneath the dark crimson armor, drops of blood fell one by one, spattering the ground and giving off a thick, iron reek of gore.
What is that?
Setting aside the alien shape of the armor itself, something about the bearing—the aura? — everything about it felt wrong.
Why is that?
"...!"
"Hehe..."
"Alliance Leader. Is that truly the one?"
"..."
"A truly savage creature."
"From the shape of the armor, it seems to be a woman."
"The silhouette does suggest..."
"The audacity. Does she know where she stands?"
Come to think of it, this was the main gate of the Murim Alliance Headquarters—guarded by legions of martial artists at that.
And yet, despite being subjected to all these piercing stares in a place like this, she walked forward with perfect composure, as if nothing at all were amiss. Was that even sane?
Thud— thud—
Whatever the case, the visitor arrived at the gate and casually surveyed her surroundings.
"So this is the place called the Murim Alliance?"
What? I don't sense any internal energy at all. Could she truly be the new leader of the Demonic Cult?
But before the Alliance Leader's thoughts could even settle, someone pushed through the crowd.
"How dare you show your filthy face in a place like this!"
The Alliance Leader was taken aback by the Wudang elder's reckless charge.
No—we haven't even confirmed whether she's actually the Cult's leader yet...
He understood, of course. To a man who had lost everyone—his sworn brothers, his masters, his disciples alike—in the destruction of Wudang, the Heavenly Demon Cult was an enemy that could never be forgiven.
And yet, must one not still choose the proper time and place?
"Your welcome leaves much to be desired."
A voice without pitch or warmth drifted out from the crimson armor.
Shiver—
At that artificial voice, genderless and unidentifiable, the atmosphere among the warriors froze in an instant.
And yet why—why did it sound like she was smiling?
The Alliance Leader attempted to send a secret transmission to restrain the Wudang elder. But before he could, the elder had already drawn his sword.
"A welcome? You dare speak of a welcome?! Unless you intend to trample the Murim Alliance into the dirt, how could such words leave your mouth!"
The Murim Alliance Leader realized the Wudang elder had not lost his reason and charged in blindly at all.
He was staking the face of the entire Alliance on this confrontation, subtly maneuvering so that his own actions would appear to speak for the Alliance itself.
That cunning old fox!
First, calm the elder down, then give the new cult leader room to answer with dignity, and...
"You talk too much. You drew your sword, so attack. Or do you intend to fight with your tongue instead?"
"...!"
The Demonic Cult leader's relentless provocation sealed the elder's lips at once.
In truth, the elder may never have intended a real fight. Perhaps he merely wished to shout to the orthodox factions that although Wudang had been destroyed, it could rise again at any moment. At this point, mediating between the two and salvaging everyone's face would...
"Your master must be wailing in the underworld. Lamenting that he left behind such a filthy coward of a hypocrite for a disciple."
"!!"
Does she mean to drag the dead through the mud?! How could anyone stoop to such vulgar provocation?
But even between insults, who spoke and who heard changed everything.
For a surviving elder of Wudang, destroyed by the Demonic Cult, this was the cruelest provocation imaginable.
At last, his eyes rolled back, the elder surged his Six Yang Divine Art to its peak and thrust in with the Supreme Clarity Sword Art.
So it has come to this after all... no, perhaps it isn't such a bad thing.
Blind with rage though he was, the unwavering trajectory of his forms and his focus suggested the sword had not been drawn in vain. A surprise attack at close range from a master of the supreme-peak realm was precisely that ferocious.
And yet.
Shff—
"!!"
"Elder Mu Jin!!"
"Amitabha."
"Elder!"
"Gaaaargh!"
A fountain of blood erupted from Elder Mu Jin's severed right arm, and sparks seemed to ignite in the eyes of every warrior in the courtyard.
"That treacherous Demonic Cult!"
"You dare assault the Murim Alliance?!"
"Strike them down!"
"Demon-Slaying Corps, to the front!"
In an instant, the warriors completed their battle preparations and began to encircle the crimson armor with murderous momentum.
No...! The picture is far from good. Even a one-on-one life-or-death duel with a visitor who came under a flag of parley could be called into question—now this is outright intimidation? And the visitor is the leader of the Heavenly Demon Cult, no less.
Demonic Cult or not...
But the Murim Alliance Leader had no leisure to worry about any of that.
"..."
He was too busy turning over what he had just witnessed in his mind.
Just now... what did I see? Surely...
The rising forms of the Supreme Clarity Sword Art that Elder Mu Jin had unleashed seemed to unfold, in their entirety, from the opponent's hand. The only reason he could not be absolutely certain was how fleeting that instant had been.
No... it wasn't identical. If anything—!
The Supreme Clarity Sword Art, stripped of Elder Mu Jin's particular habits and tics, and evolved one step further?
At that impossible hypothesis, his mind went white. Most of the masters above the Flowering Realm in the Alliance were surely sensing the same, dimly.
The Murim Alliance Leader shook his head and barely gathered himself. It was like his brain grinding to a halt upon witnessing something incomprehensible.
Now is not the time.
With the air seething on the brink of all-out bloodshed, he hurriedly sent a transmission somewhere.
So. You say you overthrew the Heavenly Demon Cult by force and seized the mantle of leader?
But we too hold a card of equal weight.
If you have a new cult leader, the orthodox factions have the Invisible Divine Sword.
A divine spear of the orthodox factions who is second to no one!
Now! Show them the spirit of the orthodox path!
Barely moments after the transmission went out, white light poured down into the courtyard and the clouds split apart. That was not all—a mysterious mist began to drift down from the heavens themselves, and from somewhere, a heavenly melody seemed to drift upon the air.
The mouths of the orthodox martial artists hung agape. The Alliance Leader was no different.
From high above, a figure in a bamboo hat was walking slowly down along the clouds, robes billowing in the wind.
It was as if a celestial god were descending to earth.
Every gaze in the courtyard converged upon him.
Meanwhile, Namgung Jin was breaking out in a cold sweat as he looked down at the crowd below.
'Th-theatrics are way over the top here, aren't they?! I had no idea this many people would be watching!'
The effects of the item from the gacha draw were exceeding even his own imagination.