End of Chapter One (1)
Peace had reigned ever since the visit to Hongseong Sect, untroubled by any incident worth mentioning.
Autumn had settled in, the sky hung high and blue, and smiles lingered on the lips of everyone passing through the streets.
Because that very peace was the foundation upon which my ledger had been decorating itself almost entirely in red ink, I found myself hoping it would simply continue forever.
Of course, I knew perfectly well that the world rarely worked out so conveniently.
I was upstairs finishing my work after training with Chae Jin, just like any other day, when a subordinate came up to report that a guest had arrived. My intuition spoke at once.
Ah. So it's finally begun.
I hurried downstairs and found an old man in shabby clothes seated in the inn's main hall, waiting for me.
Ha-no — branch head of Hao Gate's Yangwi Fortress office, and my partner in business.
"You wouldn't have come all this way just for some medicinal cuisine. Let's talk in my office."
I led Ha-no to my room, and the moment the door closed behind us, I asked.
"Sama Gun has moved?"
"He has."
The easy, playful smile that had been hovering around Ha-no's lips only moments before hardened into stone.
He immediately produced a stack of documents, and the table that had been cluttered with import manifests for the shop's goods and papers on medicinal herbs was swiftly buried under the intelligence he had brought.
Most of it confirmed that the New Four Black Lotus had begun to move. The most recent report stated that Sama Gun had struck down the Palace Master of Black Darkness Palace, absorbed that massive evil sect whole, and begun his advance.
"Thankfully, the force Sama Gun leads personally isn't that large."
"Mm. Our assessment at Hao Gate agrees — their numbers are few. It's their strength that's the problem."
At the head rode Sama Gun, the leader of the New Four Black Lotus, flanked by the elite of the old Four Black Alliance — the warriors of Black Darkness Palace — along with the followers who had served him from the start.
I scanned the list of evil sects that had thrown in their lot with Sama Gun. At least seven mid-sized sects were marching under his banner.
Even for them, moving that many forces at once must be a strain...
The Empire was no fool. Armed masters mobilizing in a single body would almost certainly spark alarm and invite inspections along the roads.
When I raised this, Ha-no nodded.
"They're no fools either. My guess is only Sama Gun, a handful of warriors sworn to him, the former soldiers of Black Darkness Palace, and those presumed to be Iron Blood Dan will travel together — the rest will move separately and converge once Sama Gun actually begins his assault on Seomhwachon. They'll all want a piece of the glory of helping bring down the Sword Saint."
If they moved separately and merged later, as Ha-no said, they would never trip the inspections.
It was rare for murim warriors to travel that way, but hardly unheard of.
Especially since they would merely be passing along the road rather than entering a town or fortress — and if their declared destination was the current Four Black Alliance, there was little ground to stop them outright.
Unless they happened to be carrying contraband, of course.
"And the possibility that they'll simply pass through here and strike the Four Black Alliance directly is..."
Not likely, of course.
The Iron Blood Golden Emperor pulling Sama Gun's strings had his eyes on Mount Hongseong, not the alliance.
Still, I asked while clinging to a sliver of hope — and Ha-no shook his head.
"Not a chance. From everything Hao Gate has gathered, they're coming here. No question about it."
"Tch."
"Though I'll say this — coming in, I got a good look at your defenses. You've done well."
The reinforced palisade. The platforms built atop it for striking down attackers.
The watchtowers, and all the rest besides.
He had evidently made a careful survey of everything on his way into the village.
At Ha-no's smiling assessment, I felt a small weight lift from my shoulders.
"Then our tasks haven't changed much."
"Well... I'd say so. They're evil sects all the same, drawn together by the power of Sama Gun, the New Four Black Lotus leader. Remove that rallying point, and they'll scatter back to their own corners soon enough."
In other words — keep gathering supplies as we had been, keep training as we had been.
Defeat the enemy exactly as planned. Simple as that.
"The sell-swords operating on their own, and the sects outside his main force — those we can manage to hold off ourselves. But if Seomhwachon falls..."
And after that? Nothing left to say? I smiled at Ha-no.
"That much is more than enough. Though I wonder — who else will step forward? Surely Wang Hwi won't just sit on his hands and watch."
"Naturally, we've secured support. The experts he's sending will disguise themselves as Hao Gate men and move with us. And on the evil sects' side, Jin-gwon Hall has agreed to take point against them."
Oh. Jin-gwon Hall.
So that old connection has come back to life and is lending us a hand.
"But don't forget — the heart of it all is stopping Sama Gun here, in Seomhwachon. If we lose this ground... we'll have no choice but to retreat."
It was cold when you looked at it one way, but utterly obvious — and all I could do was shrug at Ha-no for saying it aloud.
He stared at me for a long moment, then spoke in a voice heavy with bitterness, like a man chewing on a piece of dried persimmon.
"I'm sorry. It feels as though I'm leaving the hardest, most important work to you and yours alone..."
"I understand. You have people of your own to look after. Still — tell Wang Hwi that when this is over, we'll be collecting our reward for this war."
"Haha. Of course."
"Anyway, you're here, so at least have a meal... and rest a few days before you go."
"Nothing would please me more, but there's work left to do. I still have to go beg favors from the other sects who are sitting on the fence."
Planning to rope in as many as he possibly can, then.
I clasped my hands in a fist-and-palm salute toward Ha-no.
"May fortune walk with you."
"Next time, you'd better host me properly."
I shook my head at him, smiling.
"I suspect the debt of hospitality will be mine to pay."
After all, he was doing far more for us than our own script had ever called for.
Once Ha-no departed, I summoned everyone and shared the intelligence he had brought.
The Magistrate. Geomseong and Hong Ryeon. And Chae Ryeon and Chae Jin as well.
They listened with grave, solemn nods in the inn's main hall, and once they had filed out, I went alone to the backyard and put my pipe to my lips.
"Feeling anxious?"
Geomseong and Hong Ryeon — the two I thought had already left — came walking over.
Worry for me was written plainly in both their eyes, and so I smiled.
"Not the least bit."
"You're always so confident. It's a fine thing to see."
"I've done everything there is to do, haven't I?"
"Mm. Then... all we can do is our part as well. We'll go put in some more training. Come."
"Yes, Master."
I watched the two of them bow and depart. Just then, two figures in matching attire emerged from the inn.
The Chae sisters — Chae Jin and Chae Ryeon.
"Feeling nervous?"
"Not at all."
"Haha. Cool as ever, I see."
Chae Ryeon beamed at me as I answered her sister's question. Perhaps it was thanks to that easygoing smile of hers, but my heart felt considerably lighter.
Once they, too, had left for training and I stood alone in the backyard, I drew on the pipe again and let the smoke curl out.
I had done everything within my power.
I had thinned the ranks of the enemy who would join this assault. Hao Gate and Wang Hwi's people were moving on our behalf.
On top of that, I had borrowed troops from Cheon Il-hwa, and Gi Noya and Wi Yeol had joined as well.
Was that all? Chae Ryeon and the Moonlight Squad stood ready too.
Hongseong Sect had grown far stronger than expected, and Seomhwachon itself had developed, its equipment and supplies upgraded across the board.
On one side, the forces of the Iron Blood Golden Emperor and Sama Gun, the New Four Black Lotus leader — villains from Cheonsang Myeongwol.
On the other, the strength of the powerhouses now gathered on our side.
Run the numbers however I liked — we would win.
I exhaled a long plume of pipe smoke.
Just as I'd said: not anxious in the slightest.
So this is why people seek out the experienced ones.
Heaven had planned Hongseong Sect's destruction — and carried it out.
In Cheonsang Myeongwol, that fate had truly come to pass. But I — we —
We had already snapped heaven's will once.
What was there we couldn't break a second time?
All that remained was to give everything we had.
The middle-aged man with the deep scar by his eye lifted his head.
Before him stretched rank upon rank of armed warriors.
Pride gleamed in the man's eyes as he surveyed them.
More than ten years had passed since he had entered the Four Black Alliance and bowed his head to live in its shadows. And now, at last, the hour had come to reveal his true strength.
The middle-aged man — Sama Gun, the Lightning Spirit Divine Lord — let the past unspool behind his eyes.
It must have been fate that an injured warrior collapsed before a third-rate nobody like him, back when he was nothing but gutter trash rolling through the back alleys.
It must have been fate that a large rock — perfectly sized for beating a man to death — happened to lie at his side.
And it must have been fate, too, that he came into possession of the secret manual of the Lightning Spirit Divine Art, along with the elixir known as the Lightning Spirit Pill.
Everything had been fate, arranged to place him exactly where he now stood.
He had obtained the manual and the elixir essential to mastering it, killed countless people, and burned the Lightning Spirit Divine Art into his very body.
What were a few deaths, to a man learning a martial art as powerful and perilous as the art of wielding lightning qi?
What mattered was that he had seized destiny in his own two hands.
Look at me now. That was why a third-rate nobody like him had struck down even the Palace Master of the infamous Black Darkness Palace and claimed its entire fighting force for his own.
In the end, power decided everything.
That was why the evil sects chafing at Alliance Leader Wang Hwi's cautious ways had flocked beneath his banner as well.
And so this, too, was fate.
"Don't you agree?"
When he spoke in that arrogant tone, the kindly-looking middle-aged woman standing beside him bowed her head with respectful grace.
A smile spread across Sama Gun's face as he studied her.
In the evil sects, ambush could come at any hour, from any quarter — all the more so for a powerhouse like himself, who relied on nothing but his own formidable martial arts, with no faction or lineage behind him.
It was that woman who had extended her hand to a man like that.
Years ago she had come to him, sworn to follow him, and brought with her vast funds and an entire retinue of subordinates besides.
Not only the powerful warriors she had attached to him — men who served him as his own hands and feet — but the woman's own martial arts were far from ordinary.
And so he had asked her.
Why do you follow me? And Sama Gun had never been able to forget her answer.
"Yu Hyo-jin. You said it that day."
"Hehe. Yes."
"You called it destiny."
"Yes. Destiny. Meeting you — and following you — both."
At Yu Hyo-jin's smile, Sama Gun's own grin deepened.
Yes. Destiny.
His meeting with Yu Hyo-jin was destiny.
And now, his becoming leader of the Four Black Alliance would be destiny as well.
The moment Wang Hwi's head hit the ground — that coward forever watching the wind, forever clinging to the skirts of the Empire — even the timid ones who had only been biding their time would kneel to him of their own accord.
The evil sects were a world where the law of the jungle reigned supreme.
And so —
"...Let us go."
He would simply show them his power.
And the first target of that power —
was Hongseong Sect, one of the mighty pillars of the orthodox sects.
"I will become the master of all under heaven."
At the declaration of Sama Gun, the Lightning Spirit Divine Lord, his followers — the evil warriors now called the Lightning Legion — raised their weapons and roared.
And watching him, Yu Hyo-jin —
the Iron Blood Golden Emperor of the Iron Blood Dan — smiled, faint and thin.
Winning over Sama Gun — a man of brilliant talent, yet so violent and impatient that he had always walked alone — had not been difficult.
Nor had it been hard, exploiting that simpleton's utter guilelessness, to have him shatter several places where spiritual energy gathered, amassing power and steering him precisely as she wished.
And who would have thought that fool of an Iron Blood Water Emperor would fail, granting her an opportunity like this besides?
Losing Jo Yo was a pity, but a burden of that size could be replaced a hundred times over.
Talent was never in short supply within the Iron Blood Dan.
And so it would be her hand that sent the spiritual energy of Mount Hongseong into berserk frenzy.
Her hand that would summon chaos upon the world.
And her hand that, seizing the raging spiritual energy of Mount Hongseong, would make herself the true master of the Iron Blood Dan.
That all of it would be accomplished by her own two hands was —
"The destiny heaven wills, I suppose."
The lips that had worn nothing but kindness mere moments before now curved into a smile that held nothing whatsoever but cruelty.
"Ah — that reminds me. I heard Seomhwachon has been fortifying itself. Do you think you can take both Hongseong Sect and the village?"
"Hehe."
The Iron Blood Golden Emperor knew the story as well as anyone. But what of it?
"Something of that scale is well within our ability to handle. And besides—"
Clink...
At her slight gesture, the ten spears laid out behind her stirred to life. The strangely-shaped weapons took to the sky and drifted to her side, and Sama Gun laughed.
"The Demon Soul Spears, infused with the power of every monster we have captured — all ten of them. You know well what they can do."
Just as she said, Sama Gun knew.
He knew that the masters of rival sects who had defied her had been reduced to bloody mist by those spears, strengthened by the flesh and blood of countless demonic beasts.
And so Sama Gun laughed with perfect confidence.
"True enough. Good."
As he nodded and turned away, the Iron Blood Golden Emperor sneered, cold and silent.
Sama Gun believed the Four Black Alliance was her final destination.
But her true destination was, in the end, Seomhwachon.
Once the spiritual energy of Mount Hongseong went berserk, everything else was a triviality.
And so she walked with light, easy steps, smiling as she soaked in his arrogance.
After all —
there was little time left now, for any of it.
"I shall obey your command."
With the bright, utterly devoted smile of a faithful subordinate, she bowed her head with deep respect.
"Alliance Leader."
At that single word, Sama Gun's face bloomed with a smile of purest delight.
Never knowing that the sweet word was poison, dropped by a hand that meant to use him.
And never knowing —
that what awaited them was a man who had come to break destiny itself.