50. Heavenly Wolf Sect (1)
Heavenly Wolf Sect (1)
50. Heavenly Wolf Sect (1)
Everything at the Murong Clan ended with the expedition ceremony. Even Murong Sang, who disliked me, came over and praised my conduct of the ritual, but after witnessing the clan's majesty, his words barely registered in my deeply shaken mind.
A grand escort of more than a hundred martial artists formed around the Murong Clan's three most important children and departed for Henan. I too left the clan and headed toward Yeongsan Sect on heavy steps.
It was a shock.
I could scarcely breathe. Such force was ordinary for the Murong Clan, yet even it was only a small part of the whole world: the Nine Great Sects and Beggars' Sect, Five Great Clans, Ten Great Evil Factions and Unorthodox Wanderers, Four Outer Palaces, and Demonic Cult. Even among powers I knew, thirty-three great factions existed at that scale. Yeongsan Sect would never contend for the world, but if an enemy had one of those organizations behind it, Murong Rin's favor alone couldn't overcome the danger.
I had been complacent. The Spirit-Binding Art offered possibilities for the future, but it could never guarantee them. Since learning it, I had not encountered a single soul except Elder Hwangseong's.
—Yeongmok. That road leads to the city gate. Are you not going to the Yongrim Escort Agency?—
—I do not think I should return to Yeongsan Sect like this. I intend to walk back and search for souls along the way.—
—I've been thinking about it too, and real ghosts are nothing like I imagined in life. How have we failed to meet even the ghost of a mangy stray dog...? It seems the souls the Spirit-Summoning Art can call must possess not only powerful lingering attachments but achievements accomplished in life.—
—I think so too. It was strange no matter how I considered it. We could not find even a farmer's ghost. Rather than no ghosts existing, it seems more reasonable that the Spirit-Summoning Art cannot call every ghost. If I return to Yeongsan Sect like this, finding souls will be difficult, so I must find at least one before I go back.—
Setting aside the genius Son Yeong, our talents were all more or less equal anyway. If we could retrieve just a single supreme martial art and become stronger as a group, we could at least stand as a sect. Just like Sword Empress Pavilion, a women's sect of barely over thirty members that rivaled the Emei Sect of the Nine Great Sects and the Beggars' Sect.
I left the city and walked diligently while searching for spirits. The odds were lower than expected, but the world was vast. When the chance was small, increasing the number of attempts was best. Yet after a full day and into the second night, I still found nothing. As the sun sank, I clumsily lit a fire, leaned against a tree, and sighed.
You stupid bastard. How had I become so complacent just because I learned the Spirit-Binding Art, as though I were the Greatest Master Under Heaven, when I couldn't find a single soul?
—Do not be impatient. The world is vast, and a journey of a thousand li begins with one step. Your conduct of the Murong Clan's expedition ceremony has begun to establish our Daoist school's reputation, so do not rush.—
No. Even the Maoshan Sect, which reached the pinnacle of Daoist Studies, had been only an ordinary sect before the jiangshi appeared. Daoist Studies mattered, but the martial world ultimately revolved around martial arts.
Huh? Wait. Daoist Studies?
—Elder! I remembered something—divination. Could you divine where and roughly when I might find a soul?—
—Divination is not prophecy! What I told those escorts before was no more than advice to help their luck open up just a tiny bit.—
—Exactly. So open my fortune a little through divination. As for my birth chart...—
When I yielded full control of my body, the Elder reluctantly broke off a branch and examined the divination from several angles.
Then suddenly his hand—no, my hand—froze as if locked in ice.
—Did you get something?—
—J-Just... wait a moment.—
Mixing the branches again to examine something in the divination, his face hardened in an instant.
—Ye-Yeongmok. This is grave! A tremendous crisis has befallen our sect!—
—What? What do you mean by that?—
—Divination shows only vague fragments of the future. But your sign appeared with terrifying clarity: an ill omen that you will lose someone precious!—
—Someone precious? Are you certain it means Yeongsan Sect? Could it be Baek Clan Estate, or Murong Rin?—
—N-No. Your sign was so strange that I checked mine. I received the same omen—that I would lose precious people. Who is precious to both of us? It can only be Yeongsan Sect!—
His voice was close to a scream. It felt as if all the blood in my body was running cold. It could not possibly be a jest. He had been a powerless founder, but he was never the sort of person to treat Daoist arts or our sect as a joke. And on top of that, this strange unease I had felt ever since the expedition ceremony ended. In the past I would have dismissed it as absurd nonsense, but I was a Daoist who had already learned two kinds of Daoist arts that transcended reason.
—I must hurry.—
Master. Jeong-hyang. My two beloved women. Son Yeong, Lee Eun-ha, and Cho-ryeong—my Senior Sisters, already like family. Their screams rang in my ears like hallucinations. As I rose, Hwangseong stopped me.
—You must not. The divination sign is clear. Wait. Go around. Hurry.—
—What does that mean? How am I supposed to wait, take a detour, and hurry at the same time?—
—Yeongmok, trust me and wait. It is the only way to avoid calamity!—
—Did you not say divination was not prophecy? If I wait or take a detour and arrive too late—if I lose the chance to save Master and my Senior Sisters—what then?—
—I too hope my sign is wrong! But it is far too clear. I may be an unreliable founder, but do you not acknowledge my Daoist Studies? Please, wait a little!—
Should I trust him? The warning that Yeongsan Sect faced disaster came from his divination, so if I believed the crisis, reason demanded that I believe the remedy too. Yet anxiety tightened around my throat, and I could only stamp my feet and ask.
—How long must I wait?—
—Seven and a half minutes. That will suffice. If nothing happens by then, my divination was wrong, so hurry back. I do not sleep; if you tire, I will move our body.—
He was as restless as I was. What should I do? How could I save them without regret? What kind of crisis had even struck them?
From the distance, the sound of horse hooves reached me. This was no ordinary traveler—riding at night in such a remote place, nowhere near the city. Hwangseong's divination sign had been correct. The rider who approached us dismounted, handed me a letter, and then vanished into the dark forest just as they had come.
—Heuk Cheon-gyeon attacked Yeongsan Sect, burned the grounds, and abducted five women. More than a hundred Murong martial artists are traveling to Henan, so you cannot expect aid from the main clan while its forces are divided. Your enemy is one of the Top Hundred Masters. I want to tell you to hide, but as the Young Master, you will surely try to save your lovers even at the cost of your life. It may accomplish little, but try negotiating with Baek Clan Estate's wealth or invoking your connection to me.
As your friend, I order you: survive by any means and meet me again.—
It was written in Murong Rin's lovely hand. The back of the letter gave the Heavenly Wolf Sect's approximate location in Liaoxi.
This... was this it? This was the crisis that had come to Yeongsan Sect? It made no sense. Why would Heuk Cheon-gyeon, one of the Top Hundred Masters, attack Yeongsan Sect, which was practically too embarrassing even to call a sect?
—Ye-Yeongmok!—
Hwangseong was equally panicked. Murong Rin had received the report from a clan intelligence agent soon after departing for Henan and immediately sent a subordinate to find me. I was profoundly grateful that she was my friend. An ordinary friend might have hidden the truth to keep me from throwing my life away. She understood me well enough not to do so. For that very reason, I felt sorry for her. Her order to survive and meet again would be difficult to obey. Orders between friends were absurd by nature.
The messenger vanished after dismounting, leaving the horse behind. Even Murong Rin could not send troops against a Top Hundred Master while the clan's forces were dispersed for the Henan expedition, especially without a direct feud. So she had sent the horse with the letter. As I mounted and turned toward Yeongsan Sect, Hwangseong spoke.
—Yeongmok, you must not go like this! I do not know Heuk Cheon-gyeon, but he is one of the Top Hundred Masters. You will not save the women; you will not even reach them!—
—I know. Elder—no, Ancestral Master. I am sorry. I asked you to help rebuild the sect, but it seems Yeongsan Sect ends here. Even if I cannot save them, only by dying beside them can I call myself its disciple.—
—Do not speak such nonsense! How dare a green young whelp speak so carelessly of life and death? Get ahold of yourself, Yeongmok! What you must do is not die a dog's death!—
—Then should I survive alone and carry on Yeongsan Sect's name? I cannot.—
—I said get ahold of yourself! You must neither abandon the sect and flee nor die pointlessly. You are Yeongsan Sect's tree, Yeongmok! Did you not take that Daoist title while vowing to protect the sect from every danger?—
Reverend Hwangseong's roar hammered into my frozen heart and shattered it.
—I know it sounds absurd. Even in life, I never saw one of the Top Hundred Masters with my own eyes, but at the Murong Clan I saw their power clearly. Yet the divination showed a way to avert disaster. The waiting is over. Now you must take the detour.—
—A detour? Where?—
Hwangseong's divination had been right. I waited and received both information about the danger and a horse for the return. Leaving earlier would only have made me miss Murong Rin's messenger. If our paths had diverged at a fork, I might have learned the truth too late.
—E-East? Five peaks? D-Do you mean...?—
—Dong-o Peak? Going that way will cost an entire day.—
—N-No! You must go there! Do you not know the Four Heroes of Dong-o? Their souls are there, bound for hundreds of years to the land where their spirits fell!—
The Four Heroes of Dong-o? I was a bumpkin ignorant of the Central Plains, but I knew Jilin and Liaoning well enough to know even a small place like Dong-o Peak. Yet I had never heard that name.
—Who were they?—
—What? You truly do not know the Four Heroes of Dong-o? They were heroes among heroes, the ones who defeated Goshifa Lama, the strongest and most vicious master of the Yuan dynasty!—
The Yuan dynasty? This was the early Ming. How could I know a master from the Yuan unless he was as famous as Wudang's Zhang Sanfeng?
—They must already be forgotten in your era. Even in mine, their story was told like a legend.
They were the Orthodox Faction's greatest masters—not merely members of the Top Hundred Masters, but its true pinnacle. One of the Four Heroes, Reverend Heo San, was Zhang Sanfeng's grand-disciple!—
Legendary names came tumbling out one after another. I did not fully understand, but if souls of that caliber really remained, perhaps something could be done. No—there was no other way.
I drove the horse through the black night toward the place where my last hope slept: Dong-o Peak.