Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Slipping out of Mount Hua was not particularly difficult.

Unlike the ascent — when he had worried about possible formations on his first-ever visit — now, with no defensive formations to speak of and his target dispatched cleanly, he could afford a rather unburdened heart.

Hissss.

CRACKLE—! CRACK—!

'......Hard to believe, even though I'm the one who did it.'

Even as he savored the cool night air against his whole body, Yul Hwi did not neglect to leave his marks throughout Mount Hua.

More precisely, he was carving traces of yin-cold qi — less potent than extreme yin qi — across the mountain.

Starting from every corner of Sunrise Peak's halls, extending to the sizable boulders encountered along his descent and the trees rooted here and there in scattered clusters.

Conspicuously suspicious marks were left scarred across Sunrise Peak like wounds.

'Sometimes the most obvious ploy is the one that works best.'

Humans were animals with a decidedly self-centered way of thinking.

When such humans formed a group and banded together under a single name, swelling with pride and self-regard, it was only natural for that individual self-centeredness to evolve into a collective obstinacy.

'Mount Hua's already been blinded by rage over the Blossom Sword Dragon's disgrace and death.'

And in the midst of that, someone had come brazenly into their own grounds and carried out an assassination dripping with evidence?

Against the Sun and Moon Gate's arrogant conduct — which yielded not an inch even to the Martial Alliance, the coalition of the Nine Great Sects and Eight Great Families — what deed could possibly fit better than this?

Naturally, he had not inscribed the Phantom Slaughter Sect's mark that he had habitually left during his days as Annihilation.

'It's not yet time.'

The discord and hostilities between the Sun and Moon Gate and the Martial Alliance needed to intensify a fair bit more than they were now.

The Orthodox faction had no organizations in the killing trade, which was why they fell for such transparent ruses as though covering their own eyes — but the Phantom Slaughter Sect, which had carved out a seat among the Seven Houses of the Demonic Path through that very trade, scorned by even fellow demons, was by no means an enemy to be taken lightly.

After all, everything he knew and everything he was capable of had been learned, honed, and born from that place.

So now was not the time for the Phantom Slaughter Sect's name to circulate across the Central Plains.

At the very least, only after his Phantom Slaughter Demonic Art — now augmented by extreme yin qi — crossed the threshold of the eighth stage could he expect to hold his own against whatever the Sect sent from Cheonsan.

'It would be ideal if I could just pluck the Phantom Slaughter Sect out and annihilate it alone.'

But the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult would never stand idly by and watch.

'In the end, I have no choice but to seize my chance amid the chaos of war.'

Tap.

At some point having fully cleared Mount Hua's treacherous terrain, Yul Hwi pressed his foot firmly against the ground and murmured curtly.

"Tying the Martial Alliance and the Sun and Moon Gate together comes first. The Phantom Slaughter Sect and the Demonic Cult come after."

His feet resumed their unhurried pace through the night, as though nothing had happened.

They were faithfully tracing the trail the Plum Blossom Swordsmen had left when they charged eastward during the previous day.

***

On the road from Mount Hua back to Taewon — a return after five years — the whole way:

"Say, have you heard the news? Well, I never......"

"Mount Hua? You mean after the Blossom Sword Dragon, even the elder Fallen Petals on Flowing Water was assassinated?"

"You don't say. They say Fallen Petals' body was frozen solid — stiff as a block of ice."

"Heavens...! Just one day after the scandal of the Blossom Sword Dragon dying in a pleasure house spread...!"

"Mount Hua's reputation is in absolute tatters."

"That's why they've unleashed every last Plum Blossom Swordsman to fight the Sun and Moon Gate to the death, isn't it?"

Murmur, murmur!

Chatter, chatter!

'Everything's going according to plan.'

Rather than his customary rough camping, Yul Hwi made a point of staying at inns each night along the way, meticulously monitoring the speed at which the events in Hwaeumhyeon were spreading to other regions.

His current location was Gyoseong — a town half a day's travel from Taewon.

'If the rumor has reached all the way here, then the Plum Blossom Swordsmen who've already arrived in Taewon must have received the news about Fallen Petals as well.'

And that, in turn, implied the possibility that Mount Hua's elite — who would have been fuming over the Blossom Sword Dragon affair — had already drawn their swords without hesitation.

His most immediate short-term plan was to commence action only after the Plum Blossom Swordsmen clashed with the Sun and Moon Gate's senior figures, who had come to Taewon for the ceasefire negotiations.

Clink, clatter.

For the moment, Yul Hwi focused on the meal before him like any ordinary person, biding his time for the right moment to depart.

As the chopsticks roaming the tabletop gradually slowed and the hollow in his stomach filled to satisfaction —

CRASH—!

"G-great news!"

A stout man burst through the old inn's door as if to tear it off its hinges, his booming voice delivering the long-awaited tidings.

"War has broken out in Taewon again!"

***

For the people of Gyoseong — a mere half-day from Taewon — a large-scale clash between martial artists out of nowhere was no different from a terrible natural disaster.

'I just have to follow the plan.'

TAP—! TAP, TAP—!

But for Yul Hwi — who had quietly slipped out of the inn and begun deploying his movement arts — this, too, was merely a tiny fraction of the grand current he had plotted in advance.

From the moment he had chosen a Mount Hua elder as his rehearsal target and, not content with that, singled out the Blossom Sword Dragon as the bait to draw that target out, every one of these developments had fallen within a fully predictable range.

'The Martial Alliance's cohesion is far from strong.'

This was a rock-solid truth he had experienced and realized firsthand in his previous life.

An era of Orthodox martial arts without war against the eternal nemesis the Evil Path Alliance, without even an invasion from the Central Plains' deep-rooted dread — the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

Under such conditions, what reason could the Martial Alliance possibly have to unite as one?

And for the same reason, the Evil Path Alliance was no different.

It was precisely because of this drifting state of affairs that he — known as the Soul-Severing Wanderer — had been able to roam the Central Plains for twenty years, completing a staggering one thousand killing missions.

Had the Martial Alliance or the Evil Path Alliance shifted to a wartime footing and moved in lockstep as a single body, he would likely have been caught before even reaching a hundred kills.

No matter how extraordinary an individual might be, standing alone against the collective might of many was that close to impossible.

'Which is exactly why I need a war for my vengeance.'

Whether due to internal power struggles within the Martial Alliance or otherwise, the only forces that had actively participated in the five-year war against the Sun and Moon Gate were the Jinju Eon Family — which had a direct grudge — and Shaolin, which had arrived afterward.

The Namgung Family of Anhwi and the Hwangbo Family and Ak Family of Sandong, whose territories bordered the Sun and Moon Gate's province of Gangso, had instead maintained a cautious stance.

On top of that, the martial artists independently raised by the Martial Alliance headquarters in Muhan of Hobuk had refused to send reinforcements, citing the need to check the Evil Path Alliance's provocations to the south.

This was only natural, given that the Taewon Yul Family had not even been a Martial Alliance affiliate to begin with, and the Sun and Moon Gate had shown no ambition to seize all of Sanseo.

'If they stirred things up too aggressively and fought to the death, the Martial Alliance would only be doing the Evil Path Alliance a favor.'

No matter how powerful the Sun and Moon Gate was as a single force, fighting the entire Martial Alliance alone was a losing battle of numbers.

But the presence of the Evil Path Alliance — watching the situation with predatory eyes from just below — unexpectedly provided the conditions for the Sun and Moon Gate to rampage even more outrageously.

That was why the almighty Martial Alliance had spent five years dragging out a war against a single sect, only to end up pursuing a ceasefire.

Yet now, the events at Mount Hua had reduced all of that to foam on the surface.

'I'm curious to see the result.'

TAP, TAP—! TAP—!

Perhaps because of how viciously hostile the atmosphere in Taewon had been over the past five years, the main road leading to the provincial capital — wide and well-maintained as it was — sat utterly devoid of human presence.

As he sprinted at full speed along that empty stretch for the first time in a long while, Yul Hwi's blue eyes had begun to ripple with a curious anticipation.

The Jinju Eon Family and Shaolin's senior figures, gathered for the ceasefire negotiations — now joined by a hundred Plum Blossom Swordsmen burning with fury.

And the Sun and Moon Gate forces, who would fight them with everything they had.

What would be the outcome of their sudden, explosive clash?

'I wonder......'

SNAP—!

His foot crushed a stray branch on the ground as he sprang forward, and his stride began to gain an uncharacteristic buoyancy.

***

BOOM—! RUMBLE—!

CRASH—!

"GRAKH!"

"KYAAAGH!"

'Quite the spectacle.'

One full double-hour of straight northward travel from Gyoseong in the southwest.

A distance that would take ordinary folk half a day was, for a master who had relentlessly honed his martial arts, a journey of precisely that length.

The instant he passed through the south gate, the hellscape that flooded his vision —

"Cut them down!"

"You treacherous fiends of the demonic path!"

"We will avenge Myeong-u, who fell so unjustly!"

Among them, the ones that seized his gaze before all others were the Daoist swordsmen — darting nimbly to evade towering infernos with their ethereal stepping arts, weaving wondrous phantom swordplay all the while.

"HA!"

"Sword formation! Deploy the Plum Blossom Sword Formation!"

Already the air around them was abloom with plum blossoms drawn in sword qi, petals scattered in profuse splendor.

And from the delicate fragrance drifting into his nostrils, it seemed several masters who had attained the Realm of Sword Fragrance were mixed in among them.

Dozens of swordsmen fanning out to scatter in every direction, then converging again to move as one body, conjuring a kaleidoscope of plum blossoms — what a spectacle!

'......Magnificent.'

Yul Hwi was genuinely impressed.

Not a single one among them was a stronger master than the Fallen Petals on Flowing Water he had killed with such ease.

Yet if someone were to ask whether he — or even the Soul-Severing Wanderer Annihilation — could defeat those Plum Blossom Swordsmen, it would be difficult to give a ready answer.

'I wouldn't lose, but I certainly wouldn't come out unscathed either.'

He would have to steel himself for the loss of at least an arm or a leg — perhaps even two of his four limbs.

That is, if he intended not merely to flee but to commit to a head-on clash and aim for their total annihilation.

Of course, for an assassin whose trade was to strike at the single moment a target was most vulnerable — delivering a one-strike, one-kill blow — such a realistic assessment was nothing to be ashamed of.

An assassin was never the one who fought fair and square, face to face.

Which was precisely why his curiosity deepened.

About the Sun and Moon Gate's counterattack against that savage might — which could effortlessly crush two or three supreme masters in a straight fight.

"Impudent topknot bastards!"

"We'll freeze you to the marrow!"

Hissssss.

CRACKLE—! CRACK—!

"?!"

His eyes flew open wide before he could stop them.

He could not help it — the sight was that astonishing.

'That is...!'

Five.

A mere five women had, against the combined assault of a full hundred Plum Blossom Swordsmen, forged a standoff so dead-even that neither side yielded a single inch.

CRACKLE—! CRACK, CRACK—!

From the ten palms they spread wide, a terrifying yin-cold qi poured forth in endless, limitless waves.

And those waves were freezing — every last one — the plum blossoms of Mount Hua that had been packing the air on all sides as if to blot out the very sky.