Turning Point
An elder of the Yi Family, a man of military origin, raised his command baton and shouted from behind those holding the shields.
It was because he had seen another elder sent flying by a single burst of the First Young Master’s internal energy from a distance.
“Hold the line! Not one step back! Dig in with pure grit and endure, damn you!”
Household retainers of a great family were expected, in moments like these, to serve as combat troops. Yet the retainers the Yi Family had mustered for this emergency were of a different caliber entirely from the usual head-count fillers pressed into service as conscripts.
Year after year the Yi Family poured vast sums into carefully selecting and rigorously training their servants. When the martial artists who led them were added to the mix, the result was a force worthy of a powerful clan’s name.
“You bastards, hold! Brace shoulder to shoulder with the man beside you!”
“Shit! Squeeze out every last drop of strength you ever had!”
The Yi Family’s squad leaders were the first to hurl themselves forward, bellowing raw curses as they threw their full weight against the enemy’s heavy shields and shoved.
Drawn out in a long oblique formation, the Yi Family’s battle line somehow managed to withstand the crushing pressure of the heavily armed judicial enforcement troops.
It was an almost unbelievable feat of arms.
But then—
From the central clash point of the formation, a voice laden with internal energy rang out across the field.
“You dare obstruct by force the official duties of a bureaucrat appointed by His Majesty the Emperor! You lot are the true rebels!”
It was Yeon So-hyeon, returning the very words he had heard in Qinghe Ward straight back upon the Yi Family.
The First Young Master’s standard pole—little different from a steel spear—swayed with a strange, deliberate motion.
“All of you, on your knees!”
The Yi Family troops who had been desperately shoving the pole back lost their balance as one and toppled forward. Some went beyond kneeling and sprawled face-first, jaws cracking against the ground.
“Clear the path!”
With Yeon So-hyeon’s shout, the standard pole lashed left and right in a savage sweep. Yi Family soldiers went flying three and four at a time, tumbling away behind their own lines.
From the rear ranks, fresh troops constantly poured forward to fill the gaps. Yet Yeon So-hyeon’s standard pole was thrashing through that narrow space as if it were an empty plain.
“Haha!”
He looked every inch a peerless warrior capable of facing ten thousand men.
The reason lay in the sequence of spear techniques Yeon So-hyeon was currently unfolding with the standard pole. That art originated from a nameless manual once called the Fengxian Spear Method—the martial legacy of Lü Bu, the very man known as the Peerless of Ten Thousand.
After the Lü Family’s decline over the centuries, the technique had been put up for auction more than a hundred years ago; it now belonged to the Luoyang Sword Family.
“Th-that…!”
The face of the Yi Family elder with the command baton flushed crimson with rage.
What good was a miraculous stand against the heavily armored judicial troops if the center where Yeon So-hyeon stood collapsed? The very meaning of the oblique formation would vanish. The soldiers had to buy time at all costs until the elders could destroy or carry off the key evidence and flee.
“What are the martial artists doing?! Stop that man at once!”
Several of the Yi Family martial artists, who had been stationed mainly on the left of the formation, launched themselves into the air. Using lightness skills, they stepped across the heads and shoulders of their own troops and plummeted toward Yeon So-hyeon.
Of course Yeon So-hyeon had read that response as clearly as the palm of his hand. With both sides packed shoulder to shoulder and no room to set a foot, the only avenue of attack was the air.
In an instant, Yeon So-hyeon’s martial art shifted.
The pure essence of Zhongnan, chosen in place of the ancient Fengxian Spear Method that possessed only spear forms and no internal-energy arts.
“Hup!”
The martial artists diving from the air were hurled back the way they had come amid a thunderous report. The boom seemed singular, yet the layered impacts twisted their entire bodies out of true.
A martial artist who had tried to slip between the straining legs of the pressing troops for a surprise attack already lay crushed beneath Yeon So-hyeon’s foot.
The sniper from Haedong, hired at enormous expense, died when the very arrow he had loosed rebounded and struck him.
“Is this the full measure of what the Yi Family can show?!”
A Daoist-style Lion’s Roar shook the battlefield once more, and the Peerless Spear Art—refined by Yeon So-hyeon’s own hand—swept and stabbed in every direction.
At that sight, cold sweat soaked the back of the baton-wielding Yi elder.
Th-this is insane…! At this rate the entire formation will collapse!
It was no longer the time to husband their cards.
“…I must ask it of you.”
At his words the murim men who had been waiting nodded and stepped forward with their weapons. Each was a name known across the rivers and lakes, guests who had taken shelter under the Yi Family’s roof.
Yet they never received the chance to display skill equal to their renown.
“-------!!”
The towering wall that had anchored the left tip of the Yi Family’s oblique line shattered, and the Ironclad Fortress came crashing into the formation’s flank.
In that single instant the left extremity of the line—held by the thickest concentration of troops—was pulverized.
“W-why is that thing bursting out from there?!”
It was a nightmare made flesh. The commanding elder of the Yi Family clutched his head.
How could I have missed that enormous carriage slipping around behind us…?!
It was the result of being pinned between the rearmost shields by Yeon So-hyeon’s Hundred-Pace Divine Fist; the commander’s field of vision had been far too narrow.
As the Ironclad Fortress began thrashing through the rear ranks amid a dense spray of blood, the commander of the judicial enforcement troops—who had been waiting for precisely this moment—flashed his eyes.
“Now! One step forward!”
His internal-energy shout rolled across the field, and the judicial troops who had been silently holding formation while draining the Yi Family’s strength advanced as one.
“One step!”
With the judicial troops’ answering roar, the Yi Family line that had held so stubbornly until now shuddered as if by some lie.
“Wha…?!”
“D-don’t give ground!”
But their strength was already spent; they were being driven back unilaterally. This was the tactic the judicial enforcement troops had forged through long experience.
Whenever they moved to enforce the law, powerful families inevitably exercised armed self-defense. Those household troops, facing the immediate loss of their livelihood, often unleashed superhuman force at the opening of battle.
Once that force is bled away, the rest is easy.
The judicial commander flicked his hand in signal.
“Hup!”
Through the gaps that opened, investigators who had waited silently in the rear ranks erupted forward without waiting for individual orders.
“Kraagh…!”
“W-we have to hold…!”
Their weapons, sheathed in internal power, flickered with cold light from every side. The Yi Family formation, drained to the dregs, began to collapse in earnest.
“Push with everything you have!”
Yeon So-hyeon’s Lion’s Roar thundered across the battlefield, and the entire judicial force charged in as one. Short spears flashed, blood sprayed, and screams filled every direction.
A one-sided slaughter unfolded.
“.......”
Through the chaotic press, the eyes of the judicial commander and Yeon So-hyeon met across the distance. The commander’s gaze held a peculiar dissatisfaction—because Yeon So-hyeon had given the orders both at the opening of battle and at this decisive moment.
Even so, he showed no inclination to voice the complaint aloud. Yeon So-hyeon’s command had been that timely.
“My apologies.”
Muttering the words, Yeon So-hyeon raised a hand in a brief gesture of apology, then turned his back.
“Give it up.”
He spoke to the murim men of the Yi side who still stood in awkward hesitation.
“The tide has already turned.”
The weapons they discarded clattered across the ground. There was no choice left to resist to the last.
At the sight of them the elder who had commanded the Yi Family troops flew into a rage.
“What in the world are you doing?! As house guests, is it not your duty to fulfill your obligation?!”
The first murim man to surrender merely shrugged.
“A man has only one life.”
To throw oneself into a battle already finished and burn that life to the end—the favor received for merely lodging as a guest could not balance the books.
“You honorless—!”
The command baton he swung in fury spun through the air and clattered to the ground. Its owner toppled backward with a shattered jaw.
“A noisy one to the very end.”
Withdrawing the extended standard pole, Yeon So-hyeon gave a cold smile and shouted.
“All of you, surrender! The battle is over!”
His voice, laden with internal energy, rolled across the field.
“.......”
The remaining Yi Family troops who had fought to the last atop the bodies of their comrades let the weapons fall from their hands.
“Found it. A mechanism.”
When an investigator worked the candlestick, a hidden door was revealed, and troops filed inside.
“I—I surrender! Sur—”
The words cut off; screams and the thudding of clubs leaked out from within.
While the investigator rummaged through the space behind the bookcase and smoked half a cigarette, an elder of the Yi Family—covered head to toe in bruises—was dragged out.
At the questioning looks of the troops asking what to do, the investigator waved a hand.
“Haul him away.”
They flung the shackled elder outside.
“Oof! I’m done for!”
The garden deep within the estate was already crowded with others who had been dragged out in just this fashion: an elder who had vaulted the wall only to be seized by those waiting outside; an elder caught hiding in some corner; an elder who had changed into shabby clothes and tried to pass as a servant; an elder who had resisted with worthless martial arts.
If they shared one common trait, it was that every face was swollen purple from a thorough thrashing.
With almost supernatural skill the investigators rounded up the guilty and uncovered the evidence.
Behind the magistrates receiving the reports, Yeon So-hyeon’s figure could be seen.
“Excellent tactics, and outstanding command.”
At Yeon So-hyeon’s words the commander of the judicial enforcement troops inclined his head slightly. His expression was unexpectedly amicable.
“Thanks to the First Young Master we were able to suppress them far faster than usual. Our casualties were correspondingly light.”
He had accumulated merit in major local wars, including the northern campaigns.
“I had thought there was nothing left on a battlefield that could surprise me, yet the First Young Master has astonished this officer.”
“You flatter me.”
“I do not waste empty compliments.”
Those standing guard nearby could not entirely hide their surprise at their commander’s words. Their commander was a man of so few words that silence itself seemed his nature; even those who shared his mess had never before seen him praise anyone so highly.
“There—all done!”
Beyond the conversing pair, Su-ran of the Spring of Luoyang was helping with the emergency treatment of the wounded.
Neither Su-ran nor Cheong Ho-wi had been granted permission by Yeon So-hyeon to join the fighting. It was not that he dismissed their skill; rather, the alleys where they usually operated and today’s battlefield were worlds apart. And just as Yeon So-hyeon had said, the Yi Family’s resistance stood on an entirely different level from the dark-alley gangs.
“Miss! Thank you!”
“Oh, stop that. Don’t call me miss.”
Su-ran waved to the wounded man who offered his thanks as he headed toward the main building, then turned her gaze toward Cheong Ho-wi.
“.......”
A trace of worry colored her eyes, for the man speaking with her comrade was none other than the head of the Cheong Family.
Lord Cheong addressed Cheong Ho-wi.
“You rascal. Did it feel refreshing to kick free of the family?”
Despite the words, his tone was mild.
“…I am sorry, Uncle.”
Cheong Ho-wi scratched the back of his head with his remaining hand. He had left the family because continued work with the Spring of Luoyang might ultimately bring harm upon them.
“Still, I am glad you seem to have grown so much after leaving. To think you have become someone who walks alongside that First Young Master.”
At Lord Cheong’s words Cheong Ho-wi gave a wry smile.
“Rather than walking alongside him, it would be more accurate to say the First Young Master has graciously allowed me to accompany him.”
“Even that alone is a remarkable thing—do you not know it?”
“You are right, of course.”
Cheong Ho-wi had known Yeon So-hyeon for only the briefest span of time. Yet the mere fact of accompanying him was enough to earn recognition from the head of the Cheong Family; the young man was clearly a figure of extraordinary stature.
“Yet…”
“What worries you?”
Cheong Ho-wi spoke with difficulty.
“…I fear that launching an operation of this scale without solid physical evidence may place a heavy burden on the Cheong Family.”
“Indeed. As you say, it will be a burden.”
Lord Cheong nodded in agreement, smiling.
“Now that our family has taken the field with the First Young Master, we will be thoroughly battered by the other families of Young Master Yi’s faction.”
“Then why…?”
“As to that—”
Lord Cheong’s gaze settled on Cheong Ho-wi.
“Judging by this old family head’s limited insight…”
Meeting those eyes that held a depth of wisdom beyond measure, Cheong Ho-wi swallowed hard.
“I would dare to call the present Luoyang a turning point of history. From this moment it will be decided whether the Central Kingdom slides into decline or strides forward.”
Lord Cheong spoke in a quiet voice, yet the words carried an insight that embraced the entire continent.
“And I had always believed the only possible outcome was the Central Kingdom’s decay and ruin.”
“......!”
“Yet by chance, at precisely this juncture, I was able to meet a certain person.”
His gaze traveled far, toward Yeon So-hyeon.
“Now that he has appeared, whatever the result may be, that First Young Master will stand at the very heart of the transformation.”
Yeon So-hyeon held the rank of First Young Master in the Luoyang Sword Family, a peerless great house. He was also the man upon whom Kong Ryang—head of the Kong Family, one of the Sixteen Imperial Capital Families and the leading reformist house of the Central Kingdom—had staked everything. The transaction that had bound together the old horses of Mount Beimang, the Sichuan Tang Family, and the Dali Duan Family was unimaginable in both scale and method.
His steps had only just carried him out into the wider world, yet that single stride was already shaking this vast metropolis of Luoyang to its foundations.
“…Our Cheong Family will continue to walk with him in reforming the Central Kingdom. And that beginning was this very moment.”
Just as in today’s battle, he was certain that the youth would stand as a turning point in the history of the continent itself.
“Does that answer your question?”
“…Yes, Uncle.”
Cheong Ho-wi wiped away cold sweat. Meeting the head of the Cheong Family again after so long, he felt anew how fitting the title “Lord” was for a man of such stature.
Both the family head who could read the flow of history, and the First Young Master Yeon So-hyeon who had moved that entire family—both stood so far beyond any measure Cheong Ho-wi could take that they seemed almost of another world.
“I myself am deeply interested in the reforms you speak of, yet…”
Cheong Ho-wi scratched his head with a bitter smile.
“For a dull fellow like me, the only work I seem fit for is simply helping the common folk before my eyes.”
At those words Lord Cheong laughed heartily.
“You are right as well. Change that begins at the very bottom can also become an irresistible great current.”
Cheong Ho-wi understood the words left unsaid.
Ah… so that is why the Sword Family’s First Young Master founded the House of Compassion…
Just then the chief investigator sent a sound transmission from afar, reporting to Lord Cheong.
“All investigations proceed smoothly thus far, yet the head of the Yi Family is nowhere to be found.”
Lord Cheong murmured inwardly and immediately relayed the content by sound transmission to Yeon So-hyeon.
In the distance, Yeon So-hyeon—who had been discussing urban tactics with the commander—replied with a smile through transmission.
“As for the head of the Yi Family, there is no need for concern.”
At that answer Lord Cheong merely shrugged. Once again the First Young Master had stepped clean outside every expectation.