The Sword Raised to the Heavens
The sword that the former Sect Leader of Jeomchang raised high toward the heavens—
"The only one worthy of receiving Jeomchang's blade is the rightful heir of this house… the Eldest Young Master himself…!"
—scattered blue moonlight and crimson lantern-glow in a wild, glittering chaos.
"Jeomchang…?!"
Strangled cries burst from the mouths of those packed into the grand banquet hall.
"What…?!"
"At this of all moments, Jeomchang is abandoning the Third Young Master's side and defecting to the Eldest Young Master…?"
Unlike those beyond Wongak-jeong's walls, every distinguished guest within this hall was a figure of power and wealth—men and women whose political instincts ran razor-sharp.
"Isn't Jeomchang one of the central pillars of the New Murim Alliance under the Third Young Master's faction?"
They read the shifting board with ruthless speed.
"What's more, Jeomchang barely suffered any losses during the unrest at the Yongbong-jihoe stadium construction site last time."
Back then, the former Sect Leader of Jeomchang had felt Yeon So-hyeon's shadow so keenly that he had all but deserted without orders, pulling the entire Jeomchang Sect off the field.
"At that time, Amcheonjonja nearly annihilated the Hyeongsan Bukryu of the Hyeongsan Sect."
"And in the middle of all that, the Sect Leader of Jeomchang accepted disciplinary punishment and saved his own people."
"Besides, contrary to the shameful talk that he sold his sect to the Sword House simply to survive…"
"In truth, by choosing the path of vassalage so quickly, Jeomchang received no small number of benefits from the Sword House as well."
"For a man with a nose that sharp to switch sides to the Eldest Young Master at this exact moment…"
The gazes of the assembled guests crossed in midair.
"Does it mean the great tide inside the Luoyang Sword House is already tilting toward the Eldest Young Master…?!"
The murmur swelled by the second.
The former Sect Leader of Jeomchang kept his sword aloft, his face a mask of solemnity—while inside, he allowed himself a thoroughly sardonic smile.
The great tide of politics…
…is not something given. It is something you create.
But those capable of such a thing were vanishingly few across the whole of the Central Plains. And the man he had chosen—Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon—stood at the very head of that rare company.
Well then, Sect Leader of Zhongnan.
His eyes locked with those of the Zhongnan Sect Leader, still on his knees in apology before the Eldest Young Master.
You no longer have any other choice.
The Zhongnan Sect Leader remained frozen in his kneeling posture. Long years of cultivation held his expression in place—but the former Sect Leader of Jeomchang did not miss the minute tremor in his eyes.
Jeomchang has offered its sword to the Eldest Young Master. Zhongnan must do the same…!
If Jeomchang's former leader, in open admiration, presented his blade—and Zhongnan, after such a deep apology, simply withdrew?
Zhongnan's name would be dragged through the mud. They would become a laughingstock to everyone present.
A little late, but—
"Wait—just a moment…!"
The Third Young Master's loyalists, finally grasping how the situation was turning, rushed forward in a panic, their voices rising.
"Sect Leader of Jeomchang…!"
"Do not make so emotional a decision!"
They shoved through the throng of guests with no regard for their askew robes and caps, shouting as they came.
"We understand that the Military Ministry's severe sanctions have wounded you deeply…!"
"But to decide Jeomchang's fate in a drunken fit of feeling—!"
"It is rash! Far too rash!"
They were shouting at the former Sect Leader of Jeomchang—but in truth, the man they were trying to warn was not him at all.
The Sect Leader of Zhongnan…!
You must not let a momentary surge of emotion drive you to a foolish choice!
Their true target was the man still kneeling before the Eldest Young Master.
"Take a little time! Think it through as long as you need!"
"Your vision has grown far too narrow, Sect Leader!"
As if the former Sect Leader of Jeomchang could fail to notice that every word was aimed at Zhongnan's master.
"Hmph…!"
He deliberately raised his voice.
"Though the Eldest Young Master was forced by circumstances unknown to others into long years of seclusion, he has returned and splendidly proven his worth before all the world! And yet—!"
Instead of retreating, the former Sect Leader of Jeomchang pressed the Third Young Master's loyalists as if rebuking them.
"And yet—while Luoyang was under attack by the pirates of Sa-pae-cheon and by the dark-world organizations that revere the Second Young Master—where was the Third Young Master?!"
He flung a hand toward Yeon So-hyeon.
"While the Eldest Young Master here personally settled every last crisis—was the Third Young Master not pouring himself solely into his own training, abandoning the main house to its fate?!"
The old man's voice, liquor-roughened yet piercingly clear, carried to every far corner of the hall.
"Before such an Eldest Young Master—who dares presume to debate the right of succession?!"
The Third Young Master's loyalists nearly choked on their rage.
"Nonsense…!"
"During all those long years the Eldest Young Master neglected his duty, our Third Young Master more than proved his qualifications!"
"He merely seized a moment while the Third Young Master was away to claim a few merits—spare us such sophistry…!"
Veins stood out on their necks. Fingers jabbed the air.
"And that is why the Eldest Young Master…!"
"And what of the Third Young Master…!"
It was the familiar spectacle of a succession debate in the Elder Council Hall, replaying itself in miniature—and it did not take long for that very spectacle to become the loyalists' fatal mistake.
"…In the past, my own martial brothers—"
The moment a voice escaped the kneeling Zhongnan Sect Leader's lips, the entire hall fell silent and turned toward him.
"—committed crimes grave enough that the whole of Zhongnan should have borne the blame. And yet…!"
The Zhongnan Sect Leader lifted his eyes to the Eldest Young Master.
"Instead of imposing collective guilt upon all of Zhongnan, the Eldest Young Master rendered a decision for Zhongnan's future—and for the future of the main house."
Damn it…!
The Third Young Master's loyalists' eyes flew wide. The Zhongnan Sect Leader's voice grew even more solemn.
"At this moment, I am not weighing the Eldest Young Master's qualifications, nor any political gain for myself…!"
He raised his voice further, as if scolding the Third Young Master's side outright.
"Do not belittle or distort that resolve of mine!"
"N-no…!"
They understood then. By letting the argument degenerate into raw political combat, they had only shoved Zhongnan's master forward from behind.
"That was never our intent…?!"
"We were only refuting the words of Jeomchang's Sect Leader…!"
The Third Young Master's loyalists looked toward the former Sect Leader of Jeomchang.
A sly grin.
The old serpent who had survived the turbulent age when the Nine Great Sects lost their standing to the great houses, and the Murim Alliance itself collapsed.
Magnificent. This joy of taking the lead and shaping the board as one pleases…!
He had never become a dragon and ascended to the heavens—
How long has it been since I last felt this rapture…?
—but in place of a wish-granting pearl, he had nurtured a venom more vicious than any other, honing his instincts for survival to a razor's edge. And now that old serpent stood there, laughing at the Third Young Master's loyalists.
"I, the Sect Leader of Zhongnan—and all of our Zhongnan Sect…!"
From his prostrate position he drew his sword and raised it toward the Eldest Young Master.
"—will henceforth serve only the Eldest Young Master as the sole rightful heir of the main house!"
"Sect Leader—!"
"You must not—!"
The Third Young Master's loyalists cried out, scrambling to salvage the moment—but too late.
"You have my thanks."
Yeon So-hyeon was already a step ahead. The sword was already in his hand.
"As Eldest Young Master of the Luoyang Sword House, I will never forget the upright loyalty you have shown toward the main house."
His voice settled over every corner of the vast banquet hall.
"Zhongnan's sword, side by side with the sword of this house, shall remain a name that shines forever in the history of this continent."
It was a voice of such unguessable weight that age itself seemed irrelevant.
"I, Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon, give you my word."
Woven into the dreamlike scenery of Wongak-jeong, the promise carried the force of prophecy—as though it were already destined to come true.
"A splendid decision!"
"So this is the famous Sword House loyalty rite! I've never witnessed it with my own eyes!"
Thunderous applause poured from the guests who had favored the Eldest Young Master from the start.
Damn it all…!
The Third Young Master's loyalists clenched their fists until the knuckles went white—
If Zhongnan follows Jeomchang in defecting like this…!
—and their faces were paler still than those bloodless fists.
At this rate, the very foundation of the New Murim Alliance may begin to crack…!
The New Murim Alliance. A grand name—yet stripped of the towering reputations of Huashan, Wudang, and Shaolin. It was merely an organization of those who had become vassals of the Luoyang Sword House, and of those who walked in step with the Namgung Clan.
And if Jeomchang and Zhongnan—the last remnants still carrying the lifeblood of the old Nine Great Sects—were to leave it—
But—
"A splendid decision!"
Before their thoughts and judgments could even finish forming—
"Welcome, Sect Leader of Zhongnan!"
—the one who stepped forward, clapping more fervently than anyone, was the venomous old serpent himself: the former Sect Leader of Jeomchang.
"When the great tide tilts this far, one no longer calls it a mere tide!"
He cried out with passionate force.
"This is the Mandate of Heaven!"
Something about the exaggerated rhetoric set the nerves on edge.
As that cry rang out, the Third Young Master's loyalists' eyes followed the former Sect Leader's gaze on pure reflex—and when they saw who stood at the end of the old serpent's stare amid the crowd, they were struck with shock.
"The Grandmaster of the Kongtong Sect!"
There stood another pillar of the New Murim Alliance who had come with them—the Grandmaster of Kongtong.
The former Sect Leader of Jeomchang's clear, ringing voice pealed through the hall.
"Should not Kongtong, too, receive this Mandate of Heaven and serve the Eldest Young Master?!"
Mere hours earlier, such words would have been dismissed with a snort of laughter.
But now, instead of scoffing, the Grandmaster of Kongtong twitched his long brows and pressed his lips tight shut—making it instantly plain to every watching eye that he was thoroughly shaken, and that he was seriously weighing the proposal.
Unlike Jeomchang and Zhongnan, the Kongtong Sect had originally stood outside this affair. Yet the spectacle of power shifting before his very eyes carried enough force to compel even him to deliberate.
"The Mandate of Heaven?!"
"W-what absurd nonsense are you spouting?!"
And then the Third Young Master's loyalists, howling in desperation, finally understood.
From the very beginning…!
From the start…!
This had been one vast trap.
Hyeongsan Bukryu had been annihilated. Jeomchang had betrayed them. Zhongnan had offered its sword to the Eldest Young Master. What remained was—
Among the members of the New Murim Alliance, Kongtong is the only remaining sect of the old Nine!
If even Kongtong turns its back on us at the end…!
In truth, the name of the New Murim Alliance would become nothing but an empty shell.
From the start, the Sect Leader of Jeomchang—no.
Their gazes shifted to the figure standing behind the former Sect Leader of Jeomchang.
No—the Eldest Young Master…!
He meant, in a single stroke, to put the very survival of the New Murim Alliance in peril and throw our entire side into chaos!
"No—you must not, Grandmaster!"
"There is nothing in those words worth considering!"
They shouted desperately toward the Grandmaster of Kongtong, yet even they could feel it: at this moment, they had no benefit whatsoever to offer Kongtong. They had no means at all of stopping that calculation and deliberation.
At this rate…!
Does it end this hollowly…?!
The longer the Grandmaster of Kongtong's silence stretched, the more their vision blackened and their minds went blank white.
"Grandmaster…!"
"Please…!"
But then—salvation reached the Third Young Master's side.
"Urgent report! An urgent report!"
One of the late-arriving guests came racing into the grand banquet hall.
"Just now—Huashan and Wudang have declared an alliance with the Third Young Master's faction!"
He gasped for breath, yet forced the final words out to the end.
"Huashan and Wudang have joined the New Murim Alliance!"
It was the counterstroke of Namgung Hyeok-cheon and the Left and Right Grand Strategists.