Field of Asura
Moyong Family main house.
“Just a moment ago,” reported Se-a, Head of the Hyeonwol Pavilion.
“The Moyong Family suicide squad’s operation team has successfully infiltrated the enemy lines together with the Mount Hua Sect.”
She checked the time as she continued her report.
“According to the operational plan, the enemy’s internal strife should begin shortly.”
Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon, who had been sitting in the lotus position, asked,
“There were no issues with the identity verification procedures at the entrances, I take it?”
“Yes.”
Hyeonwol Pavilion Head Se-a nodded.
“The passphrases obtained from the enemy’s intelligence outposts proved effective.”
Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon had ordered Chief Maid Jeong-a to raid the enemy’s intelligence outposts in Shenyang. As the possessor of the Golden Eyes, Jeong-a had secured those secret outposts at a speed no one could have imagined. In the process, the agents of Hyeonwol Pavilion had obtained the enemy’s passphrases.
“When regular contact with the intelligence outposts was cut off, the Prince’s side would have responded by changing the passphrases, of course…”
Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon took up her words.
“But the enemies in Shenyang, cut off from the outside, would never have received those new codes.”
Hyeonwol Pavilion Head Se-a nodded.
“Exactly so.”
“Good.”
Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon nodded and closed his eyes.
“Report again the moment new word arrives.”
“As you command.”
When Hyeonwol Pavilion Head Se-a raised her deeply bowed head,
“…….”
Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon had already sunk once more into deep energy circulation.
Moyong Family rebel underground stronghold.
“The Mount Hua Sect has betrayed us!”
“They’re attacking us!”
The moment those cries reached them, Vanguard Leader Gam Woo-hyeon and Deputy Leader Mae Ok of the Mount Hua Sect stood right outside the office of Elder Moyong Gu-cheok, the commander of the underground stronghold.
Our Mount Hua…?
Attacked them…?
Grasping the situation in an instant was impossible.
Is this a trap—the rebels trying to sell us out…?!
Did friction break out between our disciples and the rebels…?!
Even as the thoughts raced, they reflexively seized the hilts of their swords. The motion was entirely proper. As martial artists—and as commanders who had walked into the heart of another force—heightened vigilance was only natural.
“……!”
Yet—
“I warn you!”
“Take your hands off those swords at once!”
Elder Moyong Gu-cheok was the man responsible for this stronghold. The sight of two experts gripping their blades right outside his office—how would that look to the rebel side?
“The revolutionary army’s quarters are under attack…!”
[Under attack by the Mount Hua Sect!]
[Support! Requesting reinforcements immediately!]
And all of it while reports of Mount Hua’s attack and betrayal poured in without pause.
“These ungrateful bastards…!”
The rebel martial artists standing guard in iron formation before the office drew their swords at once.
“Mount Hua—disarm immediately!”
“Throw down your weapons and get on the ground!”
“W-wait…!”
Deputy Leader Mae Ok hastily raised one hand and waved it as she cried out.
“There seems to be some misunderstanding!”
Of course, her other hand remained fixed on her sword hilt.
“If only so we can grasp the situation, let us see Elder Moyong Gu-cheok at once!”
Vanguard Leader Gam Woo-hyeon shouted the same.
“If the leaders meet and respond jointly, we can sort this out in moments!”
Yet even as he shouted, Gam Woo-hyeon had no intention of releasing his sword. They were not fools enough to disarm on another army’s orders while still ignorant of what was happening.
Of course, the other side was never going to take it that way.
[The Mount Hua Vanguard’s experts seem to be targeting Elder Moyong Gu-cheok!]
[Evacuate Elder Moyong Gu-cheok at once!]
[The Elder is already on the move! Hold back the Mount Hua experts even if it costs your lives!]
For Boundary Crossers like Gam Woo-hyeon and Mae Ok, eavesdropping on the rebels’ sound transmissions was no difficult feat.
“W-wait…!”
Gam Woo-hyeon cried out on reflex. He possessed a keen mind and rich experience. He sensed at once how things would spiral if, in a situation like this, even communication between the command levels was severed.
“You must not evacuate Elder Moyong Gu-cheok under these circumstances! Let us see him at once—!”
His appeal never finished.
“The sound transmissions are leaking!”
“From this moment, sound transmission is restricted to close-range only!”
Beneath a night sky heavy with cloud,
“My lord has said,” Chief Maid Jeong-a spoke, clad in night-operation garb,
“that Elder Moyong Gu-cheok of the rebel side possesses an exceptionally keen sense of smell.”
“As expected of the Eldest Young Master. An accurate assessment.”
Moyong Ho—younger brother of Moyong Un-jeong, Acting Commander of the Northern Army, and her deputy—nodded.
“Despite an appearance like some battle-hardened general, he is known as the Moyong Family’s ‘greatest coward.’”
That very morning, Elder Moyong Gu-cheok—who had been away on external business—had sensed something amiss from the main house and fled at once to the secret stronghold in Shenyang. His instinct for survival was that sharp.
“But right now, that keen sense and that cockroach-like tenacity work in our favor.”
“Yes.”
Chief Maid Jeong-a agreed.
“Now that the matter has erupted, he will never be the first to try clearing up any misunderstanding with the Mount Hua Vanguard.”
Underground secret passage.
The Moyong Family’s greatest coward, Elder Moyong Gu-cheok, was racing through the corridor with a nimbleness that belied his bulk.
“Elder…! Elder…!”
His deputy scrambled after him, shouting urgently.
“The Mount Hua side’s Vanguard Leader and Deputy Leader wish to see you!”
“And so?!”
“Pardon…?”
Elder Moyong Gu-cheok flared up.
“In a situation like this you want me to meet two Mount Hua experts?!”
Elder Moyong Gu-cheok’s martial skill was not lacking, but his counterparts were disciples of the Mount Hua Sect’s great sect leader.
“B-but—!”
“But nothing!”
Elder Moyong Gu-cheok’s strides only lengthened.
“Tell them not to seek me out unless the Mount Hua lot fully disarm and surrender!”
That the Mount Hua Sect—already being hunted by the Eldest Young Master’s side—would turn traitor against them was blatantly strange. Suspicious points were hardly few.
[Engaging Mount Hua in the barracks mess hall! Requesting immediate support!]
[Pursuing fleeing Mount Hua members!]
[Ambush! Enemy ambush—!]
Even so, Elder Moyong Gu-cheok had not a single reason to stick his own head out toward Mount Hua’s experts.
“If you wish to see Elder Moyong Gu-cheok, first cast aside your weapons and surrender together with your disciples!”
The rebel side, surrounding Mount Hua Vanguard Leader Gam Woo-hyeon and Deputy Leader Mae Ok front and rear in the narrow corridor, shouted.
“If Mount Hua is truly innocent, you should have nothing to fear!”
“Nonsense…!”
Mount Hua Vanguard Leader Gam Woo-hyeon tightened his grip on the sword hilt.
“You’re the ones planning to seize our Vanguard and negotiate with that Eldest Young Master of the Sword Clan, aren’t you?!”
[Senior Brother…!]
Mae Ok, standing back-to-back with him, checked the man whose temper was beginning to rise.
[We must not provoke them further here!]
“Damn it…!”
Gam Woo-hyeon ground his teeth.
[Junior Sister! Do you realize how many of our disciples may be dying while we stand here locked in a standoff?!]
Screams and the clash of metal reached them even here. Whose screams they were, no one could tell—but every instinct in him screamed to draw steel and force a breakthrough.
[…Even so, we cannot.]
Deputy Leader Mae Ok shook her head firmly.
[If we attack the rebels as well here, the situation will become irreversible.]
Remaining composed even in the most chaotic moment was the deputy’s duty. And she was, to Gam Woo-hyeon’s knowledge, the finest deputy there was.
“Damn it all…!”
Listening to her senior brother’s curses, Deputy Leader Mae Ok swept the surroundings with a sharp gaze.
A scheme of the Eldest Young Master’s side…?
The rebels’ underground stronghold was a fortress in all but name. Had she stood in the Eldest Young Master’s place, she too would have begun the assault from within.
But how, exactly…?
Her keen intuition was certain the Eldest Young Master stood behind this affair. Yet the method eluded her. So did any way to break the deadlock.
“Stay back!”
All she could do was exploit the rebels’ reluctance to casually assault two cornered experts, buying time. Somehow, in that span, she had to find a solution.
“R-rear! Attack from the Mount Hua Sect in the rear…!”
But time was not on her side.
“Stop them!”
“Don’t let them link up!”
One side of the rebel encirclement began to buckle beyond control. Screams rose as blood sprayed across the low underground ceiling and limbs were hewn away. Through the gaps, vivid purple sword-light erupted again and again.
“That’s—!”
Neither Gam Woo-hyeon nor Mae Ok could fail to recognize it.
“Aaaagh!”
“Guh…!”
Those fighting desperately to break through collided with those struggling to hold the line.
“Leader…!”
Blood-soaked faces of disciples calling his name. Gam Woo-hyeon’s patience ended there.
“You bastards—!”
The sword of a Mount Hua Sect Leader’s disciple roared purple, exploding with killing intent.
In the dim glow of oil lamps, spilled blood gleamed wetly.
[Successfully herded a portion of the Mount Hua Vanguard into contact with the Vanguard Leader!]
[Vanguard Leader Gam Woo-hyeon has begun clashing with the rebels!]
[Deputy Leader Mae Ok is joining as well!]
Events were unfolding with terrifying fidelity to the Eldest Young Master’s predictions.
The infiltration commander of the suicide squad, drawing a sword from a fallen rebel’s corpse, nodded.
[Good.]
Provoking those trapped in an underground space was no great difficulty. When a suicide squad member dressed as Mount Hua killed rebels, the rebels’ eyes went wild. When a suicide squad member dressed as a rebel ambushed the Mount Hua Vanguard, Mount Hua drew steel. From the outset, the infiltrators had been drawn solely from the Moyong Family’s special operations units.
[Casualties?]
[Many wounded, but confirmed losses so far are light.]
[Per doctrine: absolutely no engagement with the enemy’s main force.]
Those who had sown chaos immediately withdrew from the scene as planned. When an unavoidable clash broke out, comrades disguised on the opposite side stepped in to assist.
[Finally—present the enemy with our gift.]
[As you command!]
As the order left his lips, the infiltration commander’s sword swept across the ceiling in a flashing arc.
Clang!
An oil lamp hanging from the ceiling smashed against the floor. Thick oil spread stickily across the ground; over it, the commander stripped off the Mount Hua uniform he had been wearing and cast it down.
Then—
Whoosh—!
Fire leapt from the fire-starter he flung, racing outward in every direction. Disaster by flame had begun in the underground space. That was the suicide squad’s final gift.
[As of this moment, we withdraw from the operational site.]
[Enemies are pouring outside to escape the smoke!]
Every time a cluster of enemies burst out—
Tat-tat-tat-tang!
The muzzles of the maid corps sealing the entire district spat fire as one. Enemies who had rushed out in panic coughed blood and collapsed. Mount Hua uniforms or rebel garb made no difference.
Distinguishing the suicide squad infiltration team was simple enough.
[Naked figures confirmed!]
In the end, the infiltration team had stripped off every last scrap of clothing they wore.
[Friendlies! Cease fire!]
In other words, the infiltration team’s ultimate uniform for friend-or-foe identification was their bare skin.