Chapter 1

Chapter 1

 

“Gasp, gasp!”

Panting harshly, Dang Myeong, the young lord of the Sichuan Tang Clan, was pushing his lightness skill like a madman.

Two middle-aged men, breathing just as hard, raced alongside him.

“Young Lord, just a little more.”

At the words of Dang Hong, commander of the Flying Heaven Unit of the Sichuan Tang Clan, Dang Myeong bit his lip.

“Do not worry.”

Then he poured even more internal energy into his footwork.

WHOOSH!

Worthy of his status as the young lord of the Sichuan Tang Clan, Dang Myeong’s figure shot forward like a meteor tearing through the dark night.

Watching him, Dang Hong bit his lip and glanced back. He still could not sense the aura or movement of their pursuers.

But in the darkness of those black mountains, there were definitely people chasing them.

The Demonic Cult’s Blood Death Squad… those vicious bastards.

Dang Hong flicked a glance at the man beside him. Dang Min, his younger brother and the vice commander of the Flying Heaven Unit…

Catching his brother’s gaze, Dang Min gave a firm nod and spoke.

“Please protect the Young Lord.”

As he spoke, Dang Min pulled a jade vial from his robe and poured its contents into his mouth.

FWOOSH!

At once, Dang Min’s face flushed red. It was Blood Mist Poison, one of the Tang Clan’s Ten Great Forbidden Poisons.

Once someone took Blood Mist Poison, every drop of their blood became poison.

Not just poison, but an exceptionally deadly poison.

The one who took Blood Mist Poison would die, but so would anyone who touched that blood or breathed it in…

And the blood of anyone poisoned by it would also become Blood Mist Poison. That was why it was counted among the Ten Great Forbidden Poisons.

Its power did not weaken. It only spread…

Dang Min sliced his palm and swung his hand, and a red mist of blood spread into the air around him.

“I am sorry.”

“Go.”

With that cry, Dang Min turned around and faced the rear.

At the sight of him, Dang Hong bit his lip, then followed after Dang Myeong, who was already racing farther ahead.

WHOOSH!

Feeling Dang Hong falling in behind him, Dang Myeong bit down on his lip.

But he said nothing. He only carved the names of the ten Flying Heaven Unit warriors who had stayed behind to send him away into his heart.

And soon, screams began to ring out from where he had left them behind.

“Aaaargh!”

“It is poison!”

At the screams coming from behind, Dang Myeong bit his lip and shot forward even faster.

***

As Dang Myeong ran in a daze, he saw blue smoke rising into the sky.

FWEEE! BOOM!

Something shot upward trailing smoke, then burst and spread that smoke in all directions. Dang Hong spoke urgently.

“That is a Qingcheng signal.”

At Dang Hong’s shout, Dang Myeong drove strength into his legs and sprinted toward the place where the smoke had risen.

WHOOSH!

“Over there!”

“Who goes there?!”

With shouts, swordsmen in white robes came rushing toward Dang Myeong and Dang Hong.

“This is Dang Myeong, the young lord of the Sichuan Tang Clan!”

At Dang Hong’s shout, the Qingcheng disciples hurried over to them.

“That is Dang Myeong, the Tang Clan’s Flying Dragon.”

At the words of the disciple who recognized him, the others quickly guarded their surroundings and saluted with clasped fists.

“Are you all right?”

Seeing the two men from the Sichuan Tang Clan exhausted and soaked in blood, the Qingcheng disciple asked in shock and confusion. Dang Myeong spoke at once.

“I need to see your sect leader.”

“What has happened?”

“We will talk as we go. While we are moving.”

At the urgency in Dang Myeong’s face, the Qingcheng disciple nodded.

“Come with me.”

“And the Demonic Cult is pursuing us.”

“The Demonic Cult?”

At those words, the Qingcheng disciple’s face hardened, and he nodded.

“Understood.”

At the disciple’s reaction, confusion flickered across Dang Myeong’s face.

“You knew… about the Demonic Cult?”

In the Central Plains, the name Demonic Cult was taboo. Yet even after hearing that the Demonic Cult was in pursuit, this was all the reaction he got?

“The Demonic Cult’s Black Wind Unit is already positioned around Qingcheng as well.”

“The Black Wind Unit? The Black Wind Unit is at our main house right now.”

“That… I do not know either. For now, please come.”

With a troubled expression, the Qingcheng disciple led Dang Myeong and Dang Hong into Qingcheng Mountain.

***

Inside the main hall of the Qingcheng Sect, the sect leader and the sect’s senior elders were gathered. Standing before them were Dang Myeong and Dang Hong.

“You have both been through a great deal.”

At the words of Qingcheng’s sect leader, the Sword of Clouds Myeonghongja, Dang Myeong hurriedly shook his head, saluted with clasped fists, and cried out,

“The Demonic Cult’s forces are crashing down on our main house. Please send reinforcements at once.”

At Dang Myeong’s words, Myeonghongja looked at him with a troubled expression for a moment before speaking.

“You may not know this, but our sect is also engaged in battle with the Demonic Cult at present.”

“I heard it is the Black Wind Unit. I do not know the full strength of the Black Wind Unit, but if its commander is at our main house, then the troops stationed at Qingcheng can only be a small decoy in an eastern feint. The Demonic Cult’s main force is at our Tang Clan.”

At Dang Myeong’s words, Myeonghongja let out a sigh and opened his mouth.

“Yes, what you say is probably true.”

“Gather your masters, wipe out the Black Wind Unit deployed at Qingcheng, and head straight for Chengdu. If you leave now, you can arrive by this evening.”

“That is probably true as well.”

“Then please gather your masters immediately.”

“However… that is exactly why we cannot.”

At the words cannot, Dang Myeong’s face went rigid.

“What do you mean?”

“This time, the Demonic Cult used an eastern feint… In other words, they deployed their forces at both Qingcheng and Emei.”

“I know. That is why our Tang Clan sent two detachments to Qingcheng and Emei.”

The Sichuan Tang Clan was renowned for its poison arts. In large-scale battles, even a single Tang Clan master could change the flow of the fight.

So when word came that Demonic Cult experts had taken positions at Qingcheng and Emei, the Tang Clan immediately dispatched armed forces.

But… that had been the trap.

The Sichuan Tang Clan’s martial detachments heading for Qingcheng and Emei had fallen into a trap laid by the Demonic Cult and were annihilated.

Then the Demonic Cult forces surrounding Qingcheng and Emei had immediately turned toward the Sichuan Tang Clan.

The Demonic Cult’s target had been the Sichuan Tang Clan from the very beginning. The Tang Clan, which constantly harassed them with poison and neutralized their toxins… that Tang Clan had been the true target this time.

And so, at this very moment, the Sichuan Tang Clan was under siege and under attack by the Demonic Cult.

“What we fear is… being defeated one by one.”

“Defeated one by one?”

“If Qingcheng moves to help the Sichuan Tang Clan, then Qingcheng will be isolated and wiped out. And if we are wiped out, they will advance straight on Emei next.”

“Waiting this out will not solve anything.”

“We are not simply waiting. We are buying time. Kongtong in Gansu, Mount Hua and Zhongnan in Shaanxi, and the Dian Cang Sect in Yunnan are all entering Sichuan right now with their masters. Once they arrive, Qingcheng and Emei will cut off the Demonic Cult’s rear.”

At Myeonghongja’s words, Dang Myeong’s face twisted. Dang Hong lightly gripped his shoulder.

SQUEEZE!

At that firm pressure, Dang Myeong let out a long breath and slowly swept his cold gaze across Qingcheng’s senior elders.

Among them were elders with whom he had once been close.

“There is one thing I want to make absolutely clear.”

“What is it?”

“If things are as you say, Sect Leader… then time is needed until Kongtong, Mount Hua, Zhongnan, and Dian Cang gather. And that time… will be bought with my clan’s blood.”

“The Sichuan Tang Clan is strong. I believe the Tang Clan will endure.”

At Myeonghongja’s words, Dang Myeong let out an empty laugh.

“Hah… hahahaha.”

With a bleak laugh, Dang Myeong said,

“Of course our clan is strong. If the fifty elders of the Secret Serpent Unit and the Flat Bat Unit, who marched out in response to Qingcheng and Emei’s call for aid, had remained at the main house… I never would have made it this far.”

The Tang Clan’s poison was powerful. And poison was even more effective in defense than in attack.

They spread poison along the enemy’s approach, and again in the direction from which the enemy would come… That was how the Sichuan Tang Clan had managed to hold out against the Demonic Cult’s large-scale assault until now.

And if those fifty masters of poison arts had still been there, they would not merely have held the line. They would have slaughtered everyone who tried to come in.

At Dang Myeong’s words, Myeonghongja gave a small, awkward cough.

“Ahem! Ahem!”

As Dang Myeong looked at him, his gaze swept the room. Then his eyes landed on a young Daoist.

At Dang Myeong’s gaze, the young Daoist quietly turned his head away.

Right, Jeongmyeong… what power do you even have here?

Looking at Jeongmyeong, the leading disciple among Qingcheng’s second generation and his sworn brother, one of the pair known as the Two Bright Stars of Sichuan, Dang Myeong turned to Dang Hong.

“Commander of the Flying Heaven Unit.”

“At your command!”

Dang Hong shouted loudly and dropped to his knees.

“We came to a place we never should have come.”

With a smile, Dang Myeong slowly swept his gaze over Qingcheng’s senior elders.

“We came to a place we never should have come.”

“That is right. We… came to a place we never should have come.”

“Let us go.”

“At your command!”

As Dang Myeong started walking, Jeongmyeong hurriedly shouted,

“Dang Myeong, where are you going? If you go, you will die.”

At Jeongmyeong’s cry, the people of Qingcheng frowned.

Dang Myeong turned and looked at Jeongmyeong.

“We may have come to the wrong place… but should we not at least go to the right place to die? Hahahaha!”

Laughing loudly, Dang Myeong strode out of the hall, and Dang Hong followed behind him with a grin.

“A man cannot choose where he is born! But how can he fail to choose where he dies!”

At Dang Hong’s shout, Dang Myeong laughed.

“The commander speaks truly! Truly! Hahaha! If a man cannot even choose the place of his death, then what kind of man is he? Hahaha!”

At Dang Myeong’s loud laughter, thick with scorn, Myeonghongja let out a sigh and looked to the senior elders.

“The disciples may be shaken. Calm them well.”

At Myeonghongja’s words, Jeongmyeong and the senior elders sighed, saluted with clasped fists, and looked toward the place where Dang Myeong and Dang Hong had departed.

Their hearts felt just as sick.

***

The faces of Dang Myeong and Dang Hong were set hard as they came down Qingcheng Mountain.

“I am going back home.”

At Dang Myeong’s words, Dang Hong was silent for a moment before speaking.

“I will be the only one going back.”

At those words, Dang Myeong gave a small smile and looked up at the sky.

“As long as the green hills remain, there will never be a shortage of firewood. A gentleman’s revenge can wait even ten years.”

Still looking at the sky, Dang Myeong turned to Dang Hong.

“Do not say such things to me. My family, my brothers, my nieces and nephews are shedding blood… I do not want to live on alone and plan for some future day under the name of revenge.”

Then Dang Myeong turned to look back at Qingcheng Mountain.

“And… if I survive and take revenge, then before the Demonic Cult, Qingcheng and Emei will be first.”

With that, Dang Myeong flicked his long outer robe and started walking.

At Dang Myeong’s words, Dang Hong looked at him, then smiled.

“Repay kindness tenfold…”

“Repay enmity a hundredfold…”

Murmuring the motto of the Sichuan Tang Clan, the two of them kicked off the ground and shot forward. The road to Qingcheng had been a road to survival.

But now, the two of them were walking a road meant for death.

***

WHOOSH!

Every time Dang Myeong’s hand brushed past his robe, a dagger shot out.

THUD! THUD!

“Aaagh!”

“Ugh!”

Dang Myeong flicked his hand toward the black-clad men collapsing with groans.

SHHHH!

Thin silver threads, too fine to be seen clearly, streamed from Dang Myeong’s fingers.

SLIDE!

Those light, delicate silver strands wrapped around the daggers buried in the black-clad men’s bodies and yanked.

RIIIP! RIIIP!

The daggers were torn brutally out of their flesh, ripping their bodies open as they came free.

WHIRL!

As the daggers wrapped in silver thread flew up into the air, Dang Myeong’s hand moved, catching them one by one and slipping them back into his robe.

After retrieving the daggers, Dang Myeong let out a rough breath.

“Haa!”

Only then did he release the breath he had been holding all this time and turn his head to the side.

There… he saw Dang Hong.

Dang Hong was dead, one arm severed.

Dang Myeong gently stroked Dang Hong’s face, bit his lip, and picked up the severed arm.

Pulling out a strip of cloth from his robe, Dang Myeong tied Dang Hong’s arm to his waist.

“With me… back home…”

Murmuring that, Dang Myeong suddenly… went still.

Then he saw it.

A sword had burst through his chest.

Slowly, Dang Myeong turned around. In his sight was a black-clad man lying on the ground, dead, one arm stretched forward.

In his final moment, he had thrown his sword.

“Cough!”

With that cough, blood burst out, and the strength drained from Dang Myeong’s body.

THUMP!

Dang Myeong collapsed to the ground and raised his head. He looked quietly to the east, where the Sichuan Tang Clan lay…

And tears ran from his eyes.

“Home… home… home…”

Thud!

Then Dang Myeong’s head dropped.

As if to say this was not where he was meant to lie down… he remained there on his knees on the ground…

And closed his eyes.

***

That was how my story ended.

And how it began.

That new beginning came on the day a messenger pigeon reached our main house with news that the Demonic Cult had surrounded Emei and Qingcheng.

I returned to that very day.