Torrential Rain
Though commonly called the Yongbongjihoe Arena Construction Site for convenience, it was more accurately a complex of related amenities and facilities beneath the arena itself.
The Luoyang Sword Family had decided to build the complex in the outer districts rather than within the already saturated interior of Luoyang.
Responsibility for that construction plan had fallen to the Third Young Master's faction at the end of a brutal political struggle.
And now, thousands of impoverished laborers who had risen in revolt were isolated there.
Deep night.
The outskirts of Luoyang.
The Yongbongjihoe Arena Construction Site, outer perimeter checkpoint.
The rain that had once felt like a spring shower moistening the dry earth was now pouring as if a hole had been punched straight through the heavens.
The warriors of the Third Young Master's faction standing guard at the checkpoint wore rain gear, but it proved useless against the deluge.
If this keeps up, we might see an unseasonal flood.
Elder Yu of the Fourth Young Master's faction, who had briefly fretted over flooding, let out a hollow laugh.
The place she stood was no different from a powder keg on the verge of exploding.
This was no time to worry about something as trivial as a flood.
If not for the First Young Master's order, I never would have dreamed of coming to a place this dangerous…
In front of the checkpoint, her aide and the checkpoint's squad leader were raising their voices at each other.
"…No!"
"…But still, we've obtained entry permission like this…!"
"…And so, all outsiders are currently prohibited from…!"
Yet even their shouting was drowned by the rain, so that she could not make out the words properly.
"……"
Watching the argument from a short distance away, Elder Yu habitually reached into her robes for a cigarette, then gave up.
"…Damn rain."
She stroked her thoroughly soaked horse as it tossed its head, calming it.
"……"
The horse was unusually skittish amid the killing intent that overflowed all around.
This was merely an outer perimeter zone, after all.
Yet the Third Young Master's warriors were wound tight with tension, their eyes gleaming wetly with murderous aura.
The way they prowled back and forth with swords at their sides made them look for all the world like wild beasts, rain-soaked and hunting for blood and flesh.
Who would have thought a mere laborers' uprising would drag on this long.
And that even with the Third Young Master's faction pouring in their full strength, resolution would remain so sluggish.
The current situation was clearly more serious than what she had heard back at the main family.
Just as the First Young Master had predicted.
"Elder Yu!"
After a long argument, her aide spat on the ground and returned to her group.
"They say under no circumstances will they allow passage! From what I can tell, some kind of operation seems to be underway right now!"
A rainy night like this was perfect for attempting a surprise attack.
The image of the guerrilla forces of the ancient Yue Kingdom ranging through the rainforests rose unbidden in her mind.
"…So for the moment, entry is difficult, but…!"
Her aide shouted over the intensifying wind and rain, pressing down his bamboo hat.
"If we wait just a little longer, perhaps—!"
His cry never finished.
A flash.
Then a sudden boom.
"-----!!"
At the flash reminiscent of lightning and the explosive roar like thunder, everyone instinctively ducked low.
It was an explosion powerful enough to momentarily reverse the direction of the wind.
At the series of smaller blasts that followed, the horses went wild.
One of her subordinates, unaccustomed to riding, was thrown as his mount reared.
"…Shit!"
Drawing on past experience, Elder Yu barely managed to control her own horse. Her gaze turned toward the distant epicenter of the blast.
"……!"
In the distance, one of the nearly completed high-rise pavilions was engulfed in flames and collapsing where it stood.
Even through the torrential rain and pitch-black darkness, the sight was vivid.
Soon the sound of the collapse and the tremor reached them.
"…What in the world…!"
In the midst of the chaos, Elder Yu's eyes swept the surroundings sharply.
"…This is an operational area…?!"
The checkpoint personnel all seemed distracted, staring toward the site of the explosion.
"Are you conscious?!"
"I-I'm fine…!"
The subordinate who had fallen from his horse at least had not lost consciousness.
In that brief moment, she made her decision.
Her mouth opened.
"We pass through the checkpoint under cover of the chaos!"
Her subordinates' eyes snapped to her at the shout.
She bared her teeth and shouted into the darkness and downpour.
"Right now!"
Without even looking back, she spurred her horse forward first.
Her subordinates, startled, raced after her.
A short while later.
The Yongbongjihoe Arena Construction Site.
The Third Young Master's camp.
In the distance, through the darkness and torrential rain, the nearly completed construction site could be seen below.
The Third Young Master's tents pitched on the open hilltop swayed and danced in the fierce wind and rain.
There will be no more pursuit.
Hearing her subordinate warrior's sound transmission, Elder Yu nodded.
Wherever one looked within the camp, the Third Young Master's warriors and soldiers were running about frantically through the wind and rain.
"Ugh…"
Those burned by the explosion, those crushed under debris in the collapse with broken bones or missing limbs.
"What are you doing?! The field hospital can't handle this! Transfer them to the rear immediately!"
"The rear is full too! We can't take any more!"
Those supporting the wounded or carrying them on stretchers.
"Get a headcount first!"
"How many of us did we leave behind out there?!"
With the operation aborted by the explosion and those retreating pouring back in, the camp was a cauldron of chaos.
"……"
Elder Yu's mounted party passed through that chaos-filled camp.
In a situation like this, no one tried to stop or inspect the horsemen flying the banner of the Luoyang Sword Family.
"The command tent seems to be that way!"
Seeing one of her subordinates point toward the largest and most ornate tent, Elder Yu dismounted.
"Everyone wait here!"
Leaving her subordinates behind, Elder Yu pressed down her bamboo hat and strode boldly toward the command tent.
"Medic! Is there a medic?!"
Those carrying wounded while calling for medics slipped on the mud-churned ground and sprawled before her.
"Ugh…"
The sight of a blood-soaked soldier reaching a hand toward her caught Elder Yu's eye.
"Ugh, m-mom…"
His burned lips worked.
"Mama…."
With those last words, the strength left the soldier's hand.
"Hey! You bastard! Snap out of it!"
"You son of a bitch! Open your eyes, damn it!"
Leaving behind the cries of comrades shaking the corpse, Elder Yu entered the command tent.
"Hold. Identify yourse—"
The warriors blocking the entrance stepped back at the sight of the Luoyang Sword Family elder's token she presented.
"…What do you expect us to do?! Those bastards are holding the nearly completed buildings hostage!"
"We still should have pushed harder…!"
"Did you not see that explosion just now?! If the arena goes up, will you take responsibility?!"
So that explosion was meant for that, was it.
She nodded inwardly.
The raised voices that had greeted her the moment she entered the tent continued even after she slipped quietly inside.
"The government troops we went to such lengths to secure keep dying off!"
"And how is that our fault? Is it not the Military Ministry's problem that they keep being led around by the tactics of mere impoverished laborers?!"
"Does that explosion look to you like something mere impoverished laborers could pull off?!"
"Judging by the reports, it's clear there are even those with internal qi among them!"
"That's why I said from the beginning! There is definitely some collaborating force behind them!"
It was pure pandemonium.
The government army commander, for his part, could not even think of intervening and just stared blankly at the tactical map in the corner.
"Then you Hengshan Sect warriors should have taken the lead from the start!"
"And Zhongnan, who sat on their hands this whole time, only raising their voices now?!"
The top brass blaming one another, shifting responsibility, reluctant to step forward.
To Elder Yu, long familiar with the scenery of the Elders' Council, it was nothing particularly surprising.
If one were to liken the Second Young Master's command structure to a two-headed serpent, the Third Young Master's was a giant with countless heads.
Worthless fools who can't live up to their name.
Outside they were called the "New Murim Alliance" for how illustrious the Third Young Master's forces sounded, but peel back one layer and this was the reality.
"Mind if I borrow a light?"
Elder Yu asked a warrior who had been chain-smoking where she stood, lighting her own cigarette from his.
"Huuu—."
Through the long stream of exhaled smoke, she could see the old men in splendid martial robes arguing as if about to seize one another by the collars at any moment.
"Don't talk nonsense, you old fossil! We lost two warriors in the last forced reconnaissance!"
"They died because they lacked skill!"
Even so, those factions that had once been members of the Murim Alliance formed the core, making them a force every bit as powerful as the Second Young Master's side, who had the distant Sapaecheon at their back.
"Quite the amusing sight, isn't it?"
A heavily armed old man approached Elder Yu's side.
"With our lord away on expedition, things have turned into this mess."
Mentioning the absent Third Young Master, he flicked ash from the cigarette in his hand onto the floor.
"Every time I see it, it feels like watching a play. These days I don't even bother seeking out the theater separately."
He chuckled.
"They'll probably stay like this for a while yet, until the left and right grand strategists issue a recommendation."
Elder Yu glanced at him and gave a slight bow of greeting.
"Sect Leader of Diancang. It has been a long time."
The old man was none other than the former sect leader of the Diancang Sect, who had arranged a meeting with the Grand Abbess of the Emei Sect before vanishing from the main family.
"You have not been attending the Elders' Council of late. So this is where you have been."
At her words, the former Diancang sect leader shrugged with a mischievous expression.
"I was born a martial man."
To the words of the man who had handed the entire Diancang Sect over to the Luoyang Sword Family and become an elder, Elder Yu gave no reply, merely twisting her lips into a crooked smile.
"But…"
Even seeing that, the former Diancang sect leader asked her with a sly look.
"What business does one of the Fourth Young Master's faction have here?"
Unlike his expression, his eyes were sharp enough to carve flesh.
"Huuu—."
Whether he did or not, Elder Yu exhaled the last drag of her cigarette with an impassive face.
"Originally I intended to request that any planned military operations be halted, but…"
She stubbed the cigarette out in the ashtray provided.
"It seems there is no longer any need."
The operation that had already begun had ended in failure, so there would be no new ones for a short while at least.
"No, by what authority do you even…"
The former Diancang sect leader had first burst into laughter as if finding it absurd.
"Could it be that the First Young Master sent you to make such a request?"
Yet even at such open mockery, Elder Yu's expression did not change in the slightest.
"……"
She merely took out a fresh cigarette as if intending to burn through all the ones she had been unable to smoke until now, and borrowed a light again.
At that sight, the smile gradually faded from the former Diancang sect leader's lips as he had been laughing.
"…Surely not?"
She nodded.
"A decision from the Supreme Operations Council ordering the temporary suspension of hostile military actions will be handed down soon."
The color drained from the former sect leader's face.
"For what possible reason…?"
It had not even been two full days since the Supreme Operations Council's decision to leave the entire response in the hands of the Third Young Master's side.
Near the Third Young Master's encirclement.
The underground space of a vast warehouse left abandoned in ruins.
Spring of Luoyang, secret assembly.
"That explosion just now was, as expected…"
A middle-aged man in a mask muttered in a gloomy, sighing tone.
Rain poured in streams from the ceiling of the dilapidated basement.
"The comrades who helped those who rose up, after the food stores, the place they had occupied was…"
Even those who would normally have complained habitually about the poor conditions kept their mouths shut.
They only sighed beneath the masks worn to hide their faces.
"It was clearly the oil depot and powder magazine."
The oil depot for night work and maintenance, and the powder magazine storing explosives for blasting rock, had clearly been the source of that massive explosion.
"…To the point they had to resort even to a suicide attack—the situation must have grown that desperate."
"Without at least making it clear that way that they were holding the buildings hostage, it would have been a dangerous moment."
The middle-aged man looked down at the floor.
"…Now things are flowing beyond our control."
"From the beginning…"
A woman with a cold voice spoke from behind her mask.
"There was no way to turn back."
"That…"
He did not want to admit it, but it had been the sequence foreseen from the very start—when the starving laborers had impulsively raided the food stores.
From the moment the Spring of Luoyang had intervened to help them.
"Come to think of it."
The middle-aged man looked back and asked a large-built man.
"Shouldn't the First Young Master of the Sword Family have arrived by now?"
At the words "First Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Family," several people coughed uncomfortably.
They were those who had joined the Spring of Luoyang out of hatred for the powerful.
"……"
Yet even they did not openly voice discontent in a situation like the present.
Everyone was in a mood to grasp at any straw.
"As you say, he should have arrived by now, but…"
The large man in a mask, Cheong Ho-wi, scratched the back of his head as he thought of Su-ran, who had gone out to meet Yeon So-hyeon.
"Perhaps the sudden downpour has delayed him—"
"Ah! I'm sorry!"
Just then, a masked girl appeared from the hole in the ceiling.
It was Su-ran.
"I'm late!"
But she was alone.
"Huh? The First Young Master…"
She spoke from behind her mask.
"The First Young Master said that since the assembly hasn't reached quorum yet anyway, there was no point stopping by here first."
"S-so?"
She shrugged.
"So he said he'd tear down the encirclement first, and went straight inside."