Reunion
Muhyeong-amje.
He stepped into the inner sanctum of the Jade Heaven Palace.
“The stench is overwhelming.”
As if the odor were truly there, Muhyeong-amje pinched his nose and scrunched his face in disgust.
He had spent his entire life honing his martial arts on Mount Hua.
After accumulating profound cultivation and earning the title of Mount Hua’s greatest swordsman, Muhyeong-amje suddenly left the sect.
Whether it was a clan or a sect, the moment one belonged to such an organization, inevitable factional strife and political scheming would begin.
Muhyeong-amje despised those things more than anything.
He simply wanted a life devoted purely to pursuing the ultimate pinnacle of martial arts.
For the sake of that long-cherished life, he had cast everything aside without regret and departed from the Mount Hua Sect.
Yet the place where he was born and raised was, after all, Mount Hua.
How could he not long to return?
Even before falling asleep, he would bow toward the direction of Mount Hua.
He showed utmost respect and courtesy to the sacred sect that had nurtured him.
In honor of the noble spirit and ideals Mount Hua had bestowed upon him, he always carried himself with dignity no matter where he went.
He never grew arrogant about the sword, remained perpetually humble, and lived as if he were one with the world—present yet invisible.
But even to a man like him, Byuk-ryu had come.
“Aren’t you showing up a bit too often?”
At Muhyeong-amje’s teasing words, Byuk-ryu gave an awkward smile and nodded.
“I think I finally understand why Master has come out into the world.”
Master.
Byuk-ryu’s master and his second teacher.
After the previous sect leader who had taken Byuk-ryu in ascended to the heavens, it was Muhyeong-amje who had taken in the now-alone disciple.
He taught him the sword, and sometimes like a father, sometimes like a friend, they drank together and wandered the world.
Muhyeong-amje could not have missed the darkening of Byuk-ryu’s expression.
“What’s the matter?”
“It’s nothing… I just seem to have something I must do.”
“Something you must do? A mission has been assigned, I take it.”
“……”
At those words, Byuk-ryu simply left behind a faint smile and turned away.
Even when Muhyeong-amje urged him to rest for the night, he refused with a smile and vanished.
“That bad fellow… not even saying a single word to his master…”
Did Muhyeong-amje fail to notice his disciple’s strange behavior?
He immediately followed Byuk-ryu and arrived all the way at Hwayin County.
And there he saw it.
The warriors of the Ju Family disguised in plain clothes.
Hwayin County was unmistakably Mount Hua’s territory.
No matter how much they belonged to the same righteous path and maintained occasional exchanges, even the Ju Family with whom they shared friendly ties could not act freely here.
Just as he began to question it, a red signal flare exploded from Mount Hua, and the Ju Family warriors began to move.
And then…
The disciples of Mount Hua brought him the news.
“So that’s what happened.”
Only then did he understand Byuk-ryu’s expression.
A child who loved his sect more than anyone, just like himself.
A truly upright boy who had followed everyone around him so well since childhood.
What must Byuk-ryu have been thinking?
What thoughts led him to set foot inside a sect that had already rotted away?
In the end, more than a decade after leaving Mount Hua, Muhyeong-amje returned to his sect once more.
At the tip of the sword he drew, a deep violet sword qi raged fiercely.
The interior of the Jade Heaven Palace had been perfectly fortified into a stronghold.
“Hah.”
Muhyeong-amje frowned.
Bloodstains were smeared everywhere.
They stretched in a long trail deeper into the palace.
“It looks like they’ve been preparing for a long time.”
While he had been away, the Mount Hua Sect had changed greatly.
Whether that change was for better or worse, it didn’t matter.
But the fact that disciples were dying had already reached a point he could no longer tolerate.
Muhyeong-amje walked inside without hesitation.
“Cough… hack…”
A Plum Blossom Swordsman sat slumped against the wall, clutching his abdomen.
Muhyeong-amje rushed toward him at once.
“Byuk-je!”
“M-Master…”
Byuk-je grabbed Muhyeong-amje’s sleeve with a hand soaked in blood.
Muhyeong-amje quickly examined his wound.
The sword injury was dangerously deep.
He placed his hand on the wound and circulated his internal energy.
But…
The bleeding won’t stop.
On the contrary, the moment Muhyeong-amje’s energy touched it, Byuk-je’s wound split open even wider.
“Ugh! It’s… useless.”
Byuk-je smiled bitterly.
He had already tried every possible method to stop the bleeding.
Yet the blood simply would not cease.
“What happened?”
Muhyeong-amje tore off his own sleeve and tightly bound the wound as best he could.
It was to minimize the blood loss as much as possible.
With a deathly pale face, Byuk-je slowly opened his mouth.
“In… inside…”
“Inside?”
“Senior Brother… Byuk-ryu… is inside… Master. Please… save… Senior Brother…”
Soon Byuk-je’s eyes rolled back, and he collapsed limply.
He wasn’t dead, but he had lost too much blood and fallen into exhaustion.
Muhyeong-amje gently laid him down and slowly rose to his feet.
His expression grew heavy.
What on earth is inside…?
His chest felt suffocating.
Judging by the bloodstains scattered everywhere, a fierce battle had clearly taken place here.
Yet there were no common corpses, and the only injured person was Byuk-je.
Muhyeong-amje groped along the blocked wall with his hand.
Ordinary disciples would never know that such a deep secret chamber existed inside the Jade Heaven Palace.
It was a hidden space known only to the sect leader, the elders, and an extremely small number of first-generation disciples.
It seemed Byuk-ryu and the remaining Plum Blossom Swordsmen had entered that very place.
Rumble!
When Muhyeong-amje opened the closed door of the secret chamber and stepped inside, he immediately covered his nose with his sleeve again.
“Where is this stench coming from…?”
It was no ordinary odor.
Muhyeong-amje’s face hardened in an instant.
To someone who had walked countless battlefields, this smell was unforgettable.
Corpses.
The stench produced when corpses rotted and decayed.
It was the so-called smell of death.
Muhyeong-amje followed the odor deeper inside.
When he reached the deepest part of the chamber, he suddenly stopped.
“……”
Before his eyes stood a colossal tower.
Yet the state of that tower was slightly strange.
“You… insane bastards.”
A mountain of corpses.
In the heart of the Mount Hua Sect, inside the Jade Heaven Palace that served as the sect leader’s quarters.
A massive mountain of corpses had been discovered.
Muhyeong-amje approached closer.
The traces on the not-yet-fully-rotted bodies clearly showed the uniforms of Mount Hua disciples.
“Why… why?”
How could he not have known?
Why had he not realized that his disciples were dying one by one?
Muhyeong-amje’s gaze slowly shifted to the side.
Behind the mountain of piled corpses, there were yet more bodies.
“Sect Leader.”
It was the half-decayed corpse of the sect leader, Mu-sang Jin-in.
This was the real Mu-sang Jin-in, not one from the Mahwang Squad.
Beside him lay the corpses of other elders as well.
They had killed the sect leader and the elders, then slaughtered the disciples and replaced them, disguising themselves to infiltrate the heart of the Mount Hua Sect.
The fact that he had known nothing until things reached this point tormented Muhyeong-amje even more.
Whoosh!
Flames bloomed at his fingertips.
The fire quickly spread to the mountain of corpses, becoming a massive blaze that consumed every last body without a trace.
Using his sword pressure to push the acrid smoke toward the passageway, Muhyeong-amje immediately walked deeper inside.
The only one who could now avenge his disciples, his senior brothers, and his junior brothers was himself.
I followed Muhyeong-amje’s presence.
From the deepest part of the Jade Heaven Palace’s secret chamber.
There had been a massive flame, and soon acrid smoke poured out.
All that remained in front of it were burnt bone powder and ashes.
The amount of bone powder piled up was enough for me to guess what had happened here.
“They’re all dead. So this is how it began.”
One by one, then dozens, then hundreds.
The disciples of Mount Hua must have been replaced through the schemes of the Mahwang Squad.
Those who could not be placed under suggestion were killed and replaced by members of the Mahwang Squad.
The disciples who had been implanted with suggestion would have their latent demonic energy invade their marrow the moment a signal was sent, rendering them unable to regain their senses.
It was the Mahwang Squad’s classic method.
“The damage is worse than I thought.”
If it was already like this now, how bad must it have been later when Mount Hua truly sealed its gates?
They would naturally have been unable to respond properly to the Demonic Cult’s offensive.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, an enormous pressure swept over me.
From deeper inside, Muhyeong-amje’s energy was reverberating throughout the entire space.
It seemed a fight had broken out.
“Strange.”
I walked toward the source while tilting my head in confusion.
The Mahwang Squad were subordinates of Muhyeong-amje.
If Muhyeong-amje had fled, there was no reason for the Mahwang Squad to remain here.
He had clearly said the plan had failed.
Then who on earth was Muhyeong-amje fighting?
Boom!
I urgently unleashed my light footwork and dashed toward where I sensed Muhyeong-amje’s presence.
Clang! Claaang!
Deafening explosions burst forth, and dazzling sword light filled every direction.
Beneath the enraged Muhyeong-amje’s sword qi, the opponent’s body was torn to shreds like rags.
But that lasted only a moment.
“……!”
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
In the blink of an eye, the man’s body regenerated.
The blood flowing from all his wounds stopped, and new flesh sprouted.
The speed was truly instantaneous, so unbelievable that even seeing it with my own eyes, I could hardly accept it.
“Why did you come here!”
Muhyeong-amje shouted without even turning around.
“Get out of this place at once! Hurry!”
Muhyeong-amje felt the situation was hopeless.
The opponent was a monster that neither tired, died, nor stayed injured.
The sword clearly penetrated that body, yet it recovered in an instant. It was truly maddening.
“What the hell is that…”
I drew my sister’s sword and slowly approached the opponent.
With each step, I circulated my entire internal energy, awakening my power.
The vast power surged like an ocean. Sensing the resulting pressure, Muhyeong-amje widened his eyes and stared at me.
“This… what is this?”
Transcendent Peak realm.
It was not a level a mere sixteen-year-old should be able to display.
“It seems I can be of help.”
Though it was our first meeting, somehow I felt I could defeat it.
The fortunate thing was that the opponent seemed to know no martial arts; all it could do was dodge here and there.
Its movements were far too crude to be considered someone who had learned proper martial arts.
Jade Heaven Descending Dragon Qi.
First form—Blue Dragon Descent.
A breathing technique that highly condensed internal energy and fired it with the momentum of a blue dragon soaring through the heavens before plummeting to the earth.
The tightly gathered energy coalesced at the tip of my sword.
If the family head knew I had manifested weapon qi in a single move, what kind of expression would he make?
Crunch!
Heavy, sharp, and capable of cutting through anything—sword gang.
“Sword gang!”
Even while fighting, Muhyeong-amje was deeply shocked.
Sword gang required not only enlightenment but also at least a Jiazi of internal energy within the body to manifest.
Does someone that young really possess such internal energy?
Seeing it with his own eyes, he had no choice but to believe it.
I took another step forward and thrust my sword with fierce power.
White Dragon Sword Scripture.
First form—White Dragon Emerging from the Sea!
Like a massive dragon surging from the vast ocean and tearing its enemy apart in one bite.
My leaping body instantly engulfed the opponent.
Craaaack!
The body touched by sword gang crumbled.
It shattered and broke apart.
But in the next moment, it began regenerating again.
I immediately reversed the flow of my internal energy.
Demonic energy.
Demonic energy destroys, dominates, and corrupts everything it touches.
The demonic energy flowing into the gaping wounds poured into the opponent’s interior.
It burned his meridians, shattered his dantian, contaminated his brain, and twisted his internal organs.
Crack! Crunch!
The opponent’s body began to bend in grotesque angles.
At that moment, the thick scent of plum blossoms wafted from behind, and Muhyeong-amje, who had leaped in front of me, unleashed a single strike.
Twenty-four Plum Blossom Sword Technique.
From the first to the seventh form, the magnificent sword paths contained within a single strike.
Muhyeong-amje’s sword technique layered perfectly over the wounds I had carved, shredding the opponent’s body into tiny pieces.
So it could never regenerate again.
Having sliced the opponent until not even a trace of its form remained, Muhyeong-amje sheathed his sword.
Is it over?
That was when I turned around.
Sring!
The tip of Muhyeong-amje’s sword stopped just one inch from my throat.