Chapter 101: Zhuge’s Move (4)

Those black eyes stared straight at him.

A soft mountain breeze stirred the silence, rustling her thick, glossy hair.

Zhuge Cheokwol froze for a moment, speechless.

...He had nothing to say.

Soyak looked back and forth between Zhuge Cheokwol and Eunsong.

It seemed the silence she had created was making her rather uncomfortable.

Still, she understood at least that the problem had been resolved.

"You heard me, First Young Master. We will be going in now."

"...Go ahead."

He had been outargued by a fourteen-year-old girl.

If he kept forcing the issue now, it would only become an irredeemable disgrace.

And more than anything, that single line had struck him like a blow to the back of the head...

Zhuge Cheokwol became painfully aware of his own state.

He dragged a hand through his hair.

Then he let out a long sigh, his shoulders sagging.

"...My apologies."

"It is all right."

"The dead man was not merely a guard. He was a friend who grew up with me. You know the sort people speak of—the bodyguard who spars with the young master and grows up at his side. And of all people, for a friend like that to die... in such a cruel way."

Zhuge Cheokwol swept back his badly disheveled hair.

Then he cupped his fist in salute to Soyak and Eunsong and bowed.

"I am Zhuge Cheokwol, First Young Master of the Zhuge Household. I do not know what business brings you to my youngest sister, but I can only hope you obtain what you came for. I will take my leave."

When he finished speaking, Zhuge Cheokwol raised his head.

The fact that his eyes met Soyak’s again was purely, purely coincidence.

...She is the sort of child who draws the eye.

Black, empty eyes.

Pale, almost white skin.

Small lips, slender fingers, and a frail little frame.

As a master of formations, he was sensitive to harmony.

Yin and yang, the five elements, the six unions, the eight trigrams—such were the principles a formation master mixed, twisted, and wove together.

Which was why he could sense it.

That strange heavenly fate Soyak carried within her.

But he could not tell exactly what it was.

I have definitely read of something like this before. Even if I have never seen it in person...

Something hovered at the edge of his memory.

That was only natural.

Zhuge Cheokwol had never seen a living Heavenly Killing Star.

Soyak passed by him after Eunsong.

At that very moment—

Zhuge Cheokwol turned back in unease, and his eyes met hers once more.

...That child looked back at me too?

That meant she had noticed the look in his eyes.

His guess was correct.

Soyak had been fully aware of the way Zhuge Cheokwol had been observing her.

He is wary of me.

There was unmistakable caution in his gaze.

That discomfort people felt when faced with something unknown, something they could not understand—

The look Zhuge Cheokwol had fixed on Soyak had not been any different.

It did not wound her anymore.

She had a master who had given her both a chance and a place to stand.

She had fellow disciples who would throw themselves before a blade for her.

And beyond that, how many ties had she already forged?

With Namgung Seon, the heir of the Namgung Household, she had become a friend who could speak of how they saw the world.

With Gong-eop of Shaolin, she had become a comrade who had saved his disciple and stood beside him against assassins.

She had personally slain Ju Heung-a, the Blood Sword Commander, the Night Ghost who had hurled crimson Sword Qi.

And she had also killed Gisan Gwang, once the Deputy Commander of the Namgung Household’s Night-Heaven Hall.

Hands tangled with countless strands of blood and fate.

With these hands, she would call forth as much blood as she needed again.

And then she would walk on, alongside as many new ties as that blood brought her.

Soyak turned her head away again.

Following behind her master, she crossed the threshold of the Zhuge Household.

*****

Mount Longzhong.

The Zhuge Household did not own the entire mountain.

But part of it undeniably belonged to them.

The household had used one of the mountain’s caves to create a closed-door training site.

Natural energy drawn in through mechanism-formations.

And a great stockpile of clean fasting pellets besides.

Ordinarily, the Zhuge Household’s closed-door training ground strictly forbade the entry of outsiders.

A place no one could enter even without guards standing watch.

It was protected by a formation built from the natural energy flowing out of Mount Longzhong’s dragon vein.

And yet Zhuge Yeon passed through it all with absurd ease, stepping only on the Life Gates.

Since she herself was the one who maintained this formation, perhaps that was only natural.

"For now, I’ve passed the entrance."

Formations distorted the five senses.

Sight was among them.

A cave entrance that had always been there slowly emerged from what had looked like a bare cliff face.

Zhuge Yeon stepped into the cave.

She avoided the many hidden mechanisms laid into the floor and walls by the narrowest margin.

She even leaped over threads woven from celestial silkworm silk, invisible to the naked eye.

It was a feat only possible because she knew the entire design.

How long had she gone on like that?

At last she saw the Family Head seated in meditation.

Her father.

Zhuge Won.

"...Family Head."

Zhuge Yeon called softly.

Zhuge Won slowly opened his eyes without moving from his seated posture.

He did not look pleased.

"Am I not in closed-door training? I gave orders that outsiders were not to enter."

"Right now, my two elder brothers are fighting over the place of the next heir."

"Cheokwol and Sakhyeon?"

"Yes."

Zhuge Won narrowed his eyes.

"This concerns succession to the next Family Head. I deliberately set them in competition. What of it?"

"One of Brother Cheokwol’s men, Gu Jang-il, has been killed."

"...That Gu Jang-il?"

Gu Jang-il was a guard Zhuge Won had deliberately chosen to be close to his son’s age.

A companion who had been with Zhuge Cheokwol since he was very young, practically his closest friend.

Naturally, suspicion fell on the Second Young Master, Zhuge Sakhyeon.

Even taking into account that the First Young Master and the Second Young Master had never been particularly close—

To kill a man within the family itself?

And not just any man, but the friend who was as good as blood kin to the other side?

"...No matter that the martial world answers all things with blood and steel."

Family Head Zhuge Won slowly rose to his feet.

A fierce light began to burn in his eyes.

He was tall and lean, but not slight.

The firm, honed lines of muscle and bone revealed themselves.

"I had vowed that, at least within this Zhuge Household, such a thing would never happen."

That was the moment Zhuge Won broke off six months of closed-door training.

*****

"The Internal Affairs Pavilion Lord has stepped away for a short while. Please wait just a bit."

A servant led Soyak and Eunsong to the guest hall.

A building set aside for receiving visitors.

The first floor held an open corridor, and large rooms occupied the floors above.

"You may use the second room on the second floor."

"Thank you for guiding us."

Eunsong returned the servant’s courtesy with a cupped-fist salute.

Seeing that, Soyak bowed her head as well.

A main mountain disciple of Mount Hua, showing courtesy to nothing more than a household servant.

It was written all over the servant’s face that he had no idea what to do.

"Y-you need not treat me this way..."

"If one feels gratitude, what place is there for higher and lower?"

Rendered speechless, the servant bent at the waist in a hurried bow and then practically fled.

He simply did not know how to handle it and chose escape instead.

Eunsong and Soyak watched his retreating back in silence...

Then sat down on the cushioned chairs in the corridor and let out a sigh.

"...Do you think this is the Kill Veil again, Master?"

"Most likely."

Few people had ever experienced the martial arts of the Kill Veil.

Because nearly all of them died.

Cheonjeong had only survived because he had deliberately thrown himself in and chosen where the blade struck him.

Otherwise, he would have died on the spot.

"Was it not you who said that clinging murderous aura belonged to a Kill Veil sword?"

"Yes. The same kind of murderous aura remained in Head Senior Cheonjeong’s wound."

"Murderous aura..."

That was the baleful force shaped for the sole purpose of killing.

It was the defining trait of the Kill Veil’s heart methods and martial arts.

Just as Shaolin martial arts originated in Buddhism and carried the nature of radiant light,

and Wudang martial arts originated in Taoism and held the drifting balance of the Taiji,

so too did the martial arts of the Kill Veil carry internal force saturated with violent murderous intent.

"...Could it be Night-Heaven Hall?"

"The Namgung Household... mobilized even Night-Heaven Hall to kill me."

Soyak began calculating in her head.

Deputy Commander Gisan Gwang had attacked while she was regulating her breathing.

And on the journey to the Ak Family, he had harmed a Shaolin disciple to separate Ak Jupae from the rest.

Their Hall Lord had taken Seol Yegang’s younger sister hostage and forced him toward murder...

And then Namgung Byeok had slaughtered them all.

"There is a high chance it is them again. I do not know what they want, but it seems they acted to coincide with our arrival at the Zhuge Household."

"That does make sense."

That was how it had been at Shaolin too.

But Soyak felt that something about it was off.

"But what troubles me is..."

"What troubles you?"

"...It has not been long since Night-Heaven Hall lost both its Hall Lord and its Deputy Hall Lord."

An organization that lost its center of gravity needed time to rebuild.

And it would need even more time before it could carry out operations beyond its own walls.

Of course, as a direct organization under the Family Head, it would still function even after losing that center...

But at that point it would be nothing more than a puppet with no autonomy whatsoever.

And an organization like that simply was not worth the cost of maintaining.

"Besides, after losing both the Hall Lord and the Deputy Hall Lord, I do not think the Namgung Household would move in such haste."

"Yes, you are right. They are not such fools."

"No. Which means this person... may be someone from the Kill Veil, but unrelated to Night-Heaven Hall."

"...So the Namgung Household is not the one behind it?"