The Sound of Thunder
The Luoyang Sword Family.
The mansion where the Emei Sect was held under house arrest.
No moon hung in the dark night sky, yet the confined members of the Emei Sect had not even lit a single oil lamp.
These were the ones Yeon So-hyeon had implicated in the "Daseonrang Assassination Attempt."
"…If we're escorted back to Sichuan like this, what will become of us?"
The middle-aged nun's mumbled words were shaped like a question, yet every nun gathered there already knew the answer.
The moment they were delivered to Sichuan, they would become dew on the execution ground.
"The rumors say the lower-ranking martial nuns have sided with the First Young Master!"
"Those lowborn wretches…!"
A high-ranking nun of the Emei Sect pounded her chest in fury.
"Those of us who truly care for the Emei Sect are locked up in here, while the traitors are outside playing watchdog at the First Young Master's house…!"
Traitors.
That was how they saw the martial nuns of their own sect who now aided Yeon So-hyeon.
"Those traitors! Even if we have to send an extermination squad later, we must take every last one of their heads!"
"Amitabha! Amitabha!"
How poorly the chant of Amitabha suited the moment.
"We cannot allow ourselves to be escorted away like this!"
"We must go out and purge the traitors ourselves!"
Eyes blazing as they called for the slaughter of the lower-ranking martial nuns, their behavior could only be called collective madness.
Someone approaches…!
A visitor, in the dead of night.
At the sound transmission from the nun keeping watch outside, every mouth snapped shut.
"Is anyone there?"
Without waiting for the Emei Sect's consent, the visitor flung the main gate wide open.
Sword Family warriors who had been standing guard outside to prevent escape poured in. They raised torches and eyed the nuns who came rushing out of their rooms with open wariness.
"How dare you!"
"How can you barge in at this late hour without permission?"
The nuns protested fiercely, but the warriors showed no intention of opening their tightly sealed lips.
"Permission, you say…"
From among the warriors, a man whose presence stood out even among them stepped forward.
"Keeping you under house arrest rather than throwing you into a dungeon… I would say our Sword Family has already shown the Emei Sect all the courtesy its name deserves."
The words were not wrong, yet what truly silenced the nuns was the unmistakable fact that the old man who had spoken them was no ordinary figure.
…He seems to be an elder of the Sword Family, at least.
…It would appear so.
People who loved to brandish authority were always weak before it.
Which faction does he belong to?
He was not known to be aligned with First Young Master Yeon So-hyeon or Fourth Young Master Yeon Bi. Therefore he could not be a man sent by that cunning First Young Master.
"Seeing how silent you've all become, it seems you've accepted the point."
The Sword Family elder twitched his long white eyebrows and smiled.
"Then, would you not arrange for this old man to speak with someone of suitable standing?"
At those words, the nuns' gazes turned toward the inner room.
Though she had sat in the seat of honor without uttering a single word, someone of greater presence than anyone else present—greater even than the newly arrived Sword Family elder—waited in the darkened chamber.
"…What business brings a man of the Second Young Master's faction here?"
At the uncanny skill of identifying his allegiance in a single breath, the elder allowed a bitter smile to form inwardly.
As expected… she is no one to take lightly.
His gaze, laden with internal qi, pierced the darkness and fixed upon the old woman seated within.
The Grand Abbess of the Emei Sect.
The one who had made the final decision to assassinate certain members of Daseonrang.
Indeed. The white-haired, star-speckled Go-dok-no-gwi of Emei.
The old woman who had been defeated so absurdly, so hollowly, by Yeon So-hyeon—who had seen through the future itself.
"I am well aware that Consort Dowager Guyang of the Second Young Master's side has been driven into a corner."
Even under house arrest, right in the heart of the Luoyang Sword Family and far from Sichuan, the Grand Abbess had somehow managed to gather high-level intelligence.
"…Then conversation will be simple."
The elder brought his hands together and introduced himself.
"This one is Elder Son of the Sword Family, who serves the Second Young Master."
"An elder of the Jiangnan faction, then."
"…That is so."
A chilling killing intent rose in the Grand Abbess's eyes.
"Well then, Elder Son. What business do you have with the Emei Sect?"
Even in this situation she still referred to herself as the Emei Sect. The old woman rolled her eyes and twisted a sneering smile across her wrinkled face.
"At this point, there is almost no deal the Second Young Master's side could possibly offer me."
Elder Son shook his head.
"What our side desires is not a deal with you."
The Grand Abbess's eyes narrowed.
"Then what?"
When Elder Son raised a hand, the surrounding warriors withdrew as one beyond the main gate.
"…Hmm?"
With the refined senses of a seasoned master, the Grand Abbess perceived that the warriors were not merely retreating into the courtyard—they were completely withdrawing from the mansion where the Emei high ranks were confined.
"…What scheme is this?"
Her voice hissed like a threatened viper.
"No scheme at all, Grand Abbess."
Even beneath the terrifying pressure pouring from her, Elder Son continued to smile.
"Have you no thought of purging the traitors of the Emei Sect… and making First Young Master Yeon So-hyeon, who brought you to this state, pay the price?"
The members of the Emei Sect stirred.
For the briefest instant, even the Grand Abbess's eyes wavered—Elder Son saw it clearly.
He smiled with benevolent kindness.
"As I said, what I have brought is neither a deal nor a scheme."
And from his lips came the whisper of a serpent.
"What I offer you is revenge—still hot, not yet grown cold."
For a single heartbeat, a lightning-like force flashed in the Grand Abbess's eyes.
Elder Son would stake his name on it: that force was called madness.
"…I do not know what you are plotting, but—"
The Grand Abbess's words were cut short.
From far away came a faint sound, like distant thunder rolling across the sky.
"Dear me. They've already begun over there."
Hearing it, Elder Son shrugged and looked at the Grand Abbess.
"If you delay any longer, your revenge may be claimed by others."
A short while earlier.
A certain pier in Luoyang.
Along the great east-west Grand Canal that linked Jiangnan to Luoyang, a considerable number of people had gathered at one of the major docks.
"The work is slow."
When one of the Second Young Master's strategists muttered and clicked his tongue, the official responsible for the pier flared up in anger.
"Do you think this is easy?!"
Another strategist snorted a laugh.
"All you have to do is let the ships that arrive pass through. Must you make such a production of it?"
"What did you say?!"
The pier officials flushed red.
"How dare you speak that way to an official of His Majesty the Emperor?!"
"Spare us the nonsense and simply do the work you've already been paid for."
A short distance from that commotion, a meeting of higher ranks was underway inside the pier office.
"It was no simple matter."
At the words of Luoyang's highest-ranking official, one of the Second Young Master's elders nodded.
"You've worked hard. We will see that you are compensated further so you will not feel slighted—"
"That is not what I mean!"
The high official ground his teeth.
"Ordinarily, merely allowing ships to pass would require nothing more than permission from the upper ranks of the military!"
"We are aware of that."
Every vessel entering Luoyang by the Grand Canal was subject to strict military control and required authorization.
"Was it not precisely so that you would handle that properly that our side promised to push you into becoming the next Governor of Luoyang?"
"That may be so, but…!"
When another of the Second Young Master's elders twitched an eyebrow, the high official flinched yet spoke with force.
"The problem is the supreme command of the Luoyang Defense Army!"
At the official's shrill voice, the elders of the Second Young Master's faction scowled.
"The supreme command of the Luoyang Defense Army—you mean the guardian families of Luoyang?"
The high official shouted as if the answer were obvious.
"Have you not heard that the Seo family of the military, backed by the First Young Master, is even now exposing the corruption of the guardian families and pressing them hard?!"
In the wake of the purging of the Valley of Sin, the Seo family—who had sworn loyalty to Yeon So-hyeon—was still rampaging spectacularly through this very night.
"We have heard. What of it?"
"Just a short while ago! The Seo family submitted evidence of corruption to the Luoyang Central Court and requested the temporary suspension of the guardian families' duties and authority!"
The elders of the Second Young Master's faction blanched.
"Just now? But at this hour, the court would not so easily—"
The high official cut the elder off.
"The judge assigned to that trial is from the Cheong family! The same Cheong family that is allied with First Young Master Yeon So-hyeon!"
"That…?!"
The elders' faces turned ashen.
Has that First Young Master already extended his reach this far?!
Surely our plan has not leaked…?
Having carefully confirmed that the elders opposite him were sufficiently rattled, the high official lowered his voice.
"If my intervention had come even a little later, the ships you so eagerly await would never have arrived at all. Do you understand?"
The elders of the Second Young Master's faction exhaled in relief.
"…Meaning they have already passed the final checkpoint."
Even in their relief, the napes of their necks prickled.
When we first heard the great undertaking was set for this very night, we thought Consort Dowager Guyang was rushing things…
If it had been tomorrow…
…it would have failed.
"Well then, it succeeded."
The high official smiled with self-satisfied pride.
"Who do you think I am, that I could not manage a matter of this scale?"
Having thoroughly milked credit for his role, he lifted his nose high.
"So the Second Young Master's side should not merely send elders to me like this. Once in a while, a private audience between myself and the Second Young Master—"
"We understand. That is enough."
When the one who had kept silent until now spoke, the high official bristled.
"I was merely voicing my difficulties. If you are going to respond like this…"
Meeting the eyes of the man who had told him to stop, the high official's voice grew smaller and smaller.
"If you respond like this…"
The remaining eye of the man across from him was bloodshot as it fixed upon the high official.
"If I respond like this… what then?"
Elder Hahu—whose eyes had been gouged out by the Second Young Master—pressed him in a chilling tone.
"What do you intend to do if I respond like this?"
It was not only his tone that was chilling.
As the elder charged with the operation by the Second Young Master, Hahu had already long since reached his limit.
Even his fellow elders averted their gazes from him; he no longer seemed entirely sane.
"Ah, it is nothing."
Naturally, it was the high official who lowered his tail first.
"I merely wished for my difficulties to be acknowledged."
What saved the high official, who had been like a mouse before a cat, was a report from a Second Young Master's warrior.
"Ships are approaching. Signal confirmation—they are ours."
The high official shot to his feet with the expression of a man granted a new lease on life.
"Come, come! Let us set this aside and go confirm the ships' arrival!"
"Very well."
The elders rose after him, chuckling.
"Y-you said it was five vessels, did you not?"
The high official hurried to the window and flung the large casement open.
"The virtue of this office is that through this window one can take in every ship entering the pier at a glance…"
Looking outside, he began to stammer.
"At a glance…"
Confirming the vessels cutting through the waterways out of the darkness, his mouth fell open.
"Wh-what?!"
He spun from the window and shrieked at the Second Young Master's people as if seized by a fit.
"Y-you told me they were merchant ships for smuggling personnel into Luoyang!"
One elder shrugged with an air of perfect innocence.
"Is there a problem?"
"Th-those are…!"
The high official pointed a shaking hand at the ships entering the pier.
"Those are warships!"
Just as he said, the flanks of the massive sailing vessels docking at the pier were pierced by more than a dozen openings each.
And thrusting their muzzles from those openings were, without a doubt—
"W-warships loaded with naval cannons?!"
The high official's face drained white as he trembled and shouted.
"Wh-what in the world are you planning to do in Luoyang—?!"
His words never finished.
Elder Hahu strode forward and simply kicked him out the open window.
"Aaaagh!"
The scream did not last long. A wet crunch followed as the skull burst.
"Kill them all!"
At the same moment, the Second Young Master's men who had been arguing with the pier officials drew their swords and began slaughtering every last one of them.
The stench of blood joined the darkness of the pier.
"…Elder Hahu."
The faces of his fellow elders darkened.
"If we butcher the officials like this, how do you intend to handle the aftermath—"
"Aftermath?"
Elder Hahu gave a short, dry laugh.
"For me, there is no longer any 'after.'"
He sent a hand signal out the window. A subordinate loosed a signal arrow into the sky.
And then—
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWANG!
The naval cannons of the warships roared in unison with the sound of thunder, belching fire.
Their target was the Valley of Sin.