Gate of Death
Bang—!
The first sniper’s shot dropped a Mount Hua disciple with a hole punched clean through his skull.
Almost in the same breath, the rest of the shooters opened fire.
Bang!
“…!”
A Mount Hua disciple hurled herself from her saddle, diving desperately for the roadside. Mid-air, her posture was already broken.
But she had seized her scabbard the instant the first shot rang out. With astonishing flexibility she twisted her body in empty space.
Her pupils contracted to the absolute limit of focus. Purple flame leapt in her eyes.
“Hup—!”
A low shout. The plum-blossom embroidery on her sleeve fluttered as she drew.
Clang!
Sparks flared in the air. Her blade split the bullet cleanly in two—faster than the projectile itself.
Mount Hua Sect.
Twenty-Four Forms Plum Blossom Sword.
Plum Opens, Path Cleared.
The other disciples fared little differently.
Clash! Clash-clash!
Purple sword-light carved through every direction, scattering sparks. Lead balls split in half, their force bled dry by sword qi. The shattered fragments caught the dying light of the sunset and glittered wildly as they fell.
Before those fragments even hit the ground—
Thud.
Boots struck earth. The Mount Hua disciples vanished into cover along the roadside.
“----!”
“---!”
The horses they had ridden collapsed in dying screams, yet the Mount Hua Vanguard suffered no further casualties.
The moment the last ally reached cover, a disciple reported by voice transmission.
Deputy Leader Mae Ok—who had taken cover first—was already piecing the situation together from her disciples’ reports.
She relayed the condensed intelligence to Vanguard Leader Gam Woo-hyeon. He leaned against the wall, eyes closed, waiting for the moment.
The gunfire hammering the walls of their cover finally began to thin.
Gam Woo-hyeon’s eyes snapped open.
On the signal, a first-generation disciple kicked off the alley walls in rapid succession and rocketed upward. His juniors followed like shadows, their movement ethereal and fleeting.
It was the footwork Mount Hua prided itself on—Dark Fragrance Drift.
Mastering the principles of Dark Fragrance Drift, one could leap from rooftop to rooftop all the way to the city wall, advancing under constant concealment and cover.
“Ha…!”
Yet the first-generation disciple deliberately shouted and launched himself high into open air.
Still in a drawing stance, he hung suspended. His violet eyes narrowed. The moment stretched toward eternity. Concentration burned white-hot through his mind.
No shots came for him. With vision pushed to its absolute limit, he swept the wall in an instant.
The transmission had barely finished before the second-generation disciples—waiting under rooftop cover—exploded into a full sprint.
If the enemy was reloading, concealment and cover became irrelevant. Listening to the first-generation disciple’s transmissions, the second-generation disciples raced so low their white hems almost brushed the rooftop tiles, trailing like comets.
Then—
Bang!
“Kh…!”
The lead second-generation disciple split the bullet—but a ricocheting fragment caught his shoulder and sent him tumbling across the roof.
The first-generation disciple trailing him spotted the threat first.
Chain fire erupted from their flank.
Bang-bang! Bang-bang-bang-bang!
Deputy Leader Mae Ok reported aloud in the sudden crisis.
“Flanking fire! They lured us into their reloading window…!”
Vanguard Leader Gam Woo-hyeon ground his teeth.
If they could crush the force on the left of the South Gate—even at the cost of blood—they would secure an escape route.
The first-generation disciple, still standing, whirled his sword at blinding speed to shield the others. His eyes flew wide.
“…!”
The shooters on the left wall of the South Gate—the very ones they had been charging—set down the guns they had been reloading.
Then they drew out already-loaded weapons that had been hidden at their feet.
From the beginning, each of them had carried multiple firearms.
The first-generation disciple shouted as the muzzles swung toward them.
“Scatter! All units scatter and fall back!”
In that instant, perfect crossfire swallowed them whole.
Urgent transmissions poured in.
Grim resolve colored the first-generation disciple’s transmission.
The link cut. Vanguard Leader Gam Woo-hyeon smashed his fist into the wall.
Crash!
“Damn it…! Right now I—!”
He was about to shatter the wall outright and charge when Deputy Leader Mae Ok seized him.
“Leader!”
She shouted.
“Calm yourself! Will you get the rest of the disciples killed as well?!”
She was right. He was a Boundary Crosser. If he charged in, he could suppress the immediate enemies—but that would be the end of it. Reinforcements would pour in during the fight, and only he and Mae Ok would survive.
“…What about the escape route?”
Mae Ok pointed behind them.
“The disciples have secured a withdrawal path. Fall back and regroup. This position is far too exposed.”
The direction she indicated led deeper into the city.
We have to go farther inside…?
Gam Woo-hyeon turned his head toward the gate.
“Aaaah!”
“Run! Run for your lives!”
The South Gate entrance had become a living hell of refugees stampeded by the sudden battle. No matter how superb the Mount Hua disciples’ martial arts, forcing a retreat through that human tide would be pure suicide.
Then the transmission of the first-generation disciple—isolated after the failed breakthrough—crackled through with static.
“All units…!”
Gam Woo-hyeon roared as if vomiting blood.
“Withdraw through the escape route…!”
As he retreated, the first-generation disciple’s final transmission reached him.
“Eldest Young Masterrr—!”
Gam Woo-hyeon poured inner power into the howl.
“I will kill you for certain—!”
“Mount Hua Sect, you say…?”
Seated in lotus position, regulating his breath, Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon opened his eyes.
Even while subduing the demonic qi of the Jeam Jincheon Scripture through breathing control, faint black energy still drifted at the corners of his eyes.
“That is correct.”
An analysis operative of Hyeonwol Pavilion inclined his head.
“The enemy is assessed as the Mount Hua Vanguard. Their commander has been confirmed as Sect Leader’s disciple Gam Woo-hyeon.”
At the report, Hyeonwol Pavilion Master Se-a’s eyes widened.
“Mount Hua Sword Dragon, Gam Woo-hyeon…?”
She looked to the Eldest Young Master.
“Then the deputy leader is surely his junior martial sister, Fully Blooming Sword Phoenix Mae Ok.”
More than a decade earlier, those two had distinguished themselves so brilliantly at the Yongbong-jihoe that they had been granted the titles of Dragon and Phoenix. The head of an intelligence organization could not possibly fail to know them.
“…That would also explain the excellence of their response to firearms.”
“Those two made their names in the chaotic northern reaches of Shaanxi, where Mount Hua stands,” the analysis operative continued. “Their disciples are likewise a combat unit of Mount Hua that has weathered countless real battles at their side.”
“Heh!”
Tal-myeong-gwi-geom, who had been standing guard over the Eldest Young Master’s breathing, snorted.
“Even so, one stroke from this body and they’re finished.”
“You must not underestimate them.”
Se-a regarded him with a hard face.
“After Geomgun fell to Elder Yeom of the Sword-Evil Rift years ago, Mount Hua opened the Jahasingong—once restricted solely to the Sect Leader’s personal disciples—to every student.”
The public release of the Purple Sunset Divine Art had been Mount Hua’s innovation for survival in an age of upheaval.
“…A divine art is still wasted on ordinary disciples who haven’t even crossed the boundary.”
“Gatekeeper. Your prattling is noisy.”
It was Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon who silenced the grumbling Tal-myeong-gwi-geom.
“My lord, did I say anything untrue?”
Looking put-upon, Tal-myeong-gwi-geom received the Eldest Young Master’s reply.
“Their level is of an entirely different order from the rotten, broken sword corps of the Moyong Family.”
“…Even so, stronger than the hunting dogs of the old Wulin Alliance?”
The “hunting dogs of the old Wulin Alliance” referred to Tan-rang, whom Tal-myeong-gwi-geom had broken alone.
“Ha…!”
The Eldest Young Master laughed coldly.
“Without the geographic peculiarity of Luoyang’s underground drainage system, Gatekeeper—could you have faced Tan-rang head-on?”
“…Th-that’s—!”
Speechless for a moment, Tal-myeong-gwi-geom blustered.
“Damn it…! You only know after you fight, don’t you?!”
He made to storm out at once. The Eldest Young Master sighed, raised a finger—
—and jabbed him hard in the side.
“Kyaaak—!”
Tal-myeong-gwi-geom collapsed with a grotesque scream, clutching his flank.
“Tsk tsk. Such theatrics…”
Tal-myeong-gwi-geom had already taken various wounds in the earlier clash with the sword corps. On top of that, he and the Eldest Young Master had just finished racing without rest through the Moyong Family main estate, purging rebel remnants.
“Theatrics, he says…!”
Still gripping the injured side, Tal-myeong-gwi-geom cried out. The Eldest Young Master answered calmly.
“Neither you nor I can manage a large-scale battle right now.”
“…….”
Turning from the sulking gatekeeper, the Eldest Young Master gazed out the window and murmured as if to himself.
“Still… for the Mount Hua Vanguard to reach Shenyang already…”
His eyes narrowed. From that single move he intuited at once that Sama Dae-gunsa stood behind it.
“…Pavilion Master of Hyeonwol.”
“Yes, my lord. Command me.”
She prostrated herself. The Eldest Young Master issued his order.
“As of this moment, all judgment is delegated to the officer on site.”
He added, short and hard:
“Show them the results of the joint training.”
“By your will!”
The heart of Shenyang.
Atop a tall building.
Indeed. The command-and-relay system Hyeonwol Pavilion had built over years of bloodshed still shone even in the north. The Eldest Young Master’s order reached the field without long delay.
“Good.”
Field commander, Chief Maid Jeong-a, nodded.
“Enemy position?”
“Engagement status?”
“Understood.”
Confirmation complete, Chief Maid Jeong-a gestured. A waiting Hyeonwol operative fired a signal flare.
Boom—!
A red bloom of fire and smoke—sunset-colored—unfolded in the sky.
KRAAAAAAASH—!
It was a colossal explosion. The enormous roar and vibration—clear even from a distance—rolled across the city. A smile touched Chief Maid Jeong-a’s lips.
“Then we begin by scattering them.”