Chapter 175: Running Rampant (9)

Contrary to Zhuge Yeon’s fears and concerns, the Demonic Cult did not rise up in earnest.

Not for quite some time.

Even so, disturbing stories began to circulate.

They said an undying, ghostlike creature was attacking sects across the martial world.

But for the sects themselves, it was still within manageable limits.

Those things only seemed like immortal ghosts from the perspective of commoners who had never learned martial arts.

Powerless people who could not sever a man’s neck in a single stroke.

To them, the creatures could hardly look anything but immortal.

A sickle buried in the crown of the head did nothing.

A knife driven through the heart did nothing.

But every martial artist who had actually fought one understood what they were.

Half-made Demonic Beasts.

They had not cultivated Demonic Energy of their own will only to be consumed by it.

Experts from the Demonic Cult had seized ordinary people and forcibly stuffed Demonic Energy into them until they became those things.

That alone made them far too much for commoners to handle.

But a First-Rate martial artist could defeat one, and before someone at the Apex Realm, they were little more than straw men.

Still, the rumors slowly spread.

Whispers that the Demonic Cult was extending its reach into the world began to circulate through the marketplaces.

The Martial Alliance could mobilize the One-Under-Heaven Corps and try to silence people all it wanted.

Rumors still traveled where no one was watching, and stories passed from mouth to mouth beyond the fences after dark.

Then, one day—

a man arrived in Hwaeum.

*****

“Which way is Mount Hua?”

He was abnormally tall.

Gaunt to the bone.

His skin was dark and lifeless, without the slightest trace of healthy sheen.

A long saber was strapped across his back.

The man had been eating thin noodles and dumplings at a marketplace tavern when he abruptly asked the question. The waiter stared at him in disbelief, then pointed toward the kitchen side of the building.

“Go outside and keep heading that way. You’ll reach Mount Hua. You should be able to see it right away, for heaven’s sake.”

“...Understood.”

The man slowly finished the rest of his noodles.

He stuffed the dumplings into his mouth one at a time, then washed them down with the noodle broth.

He looked exactly like any other wandering martial artist one might find in a marketplace.

That was why no one paid him much attention.

Men like him could be seen anywhere.

They ordered the cheapest food available and walked around with sinister-looking blades at their sides.

But his blackened, lifeless skin was another matter.

His gaunt flesh was mottled with dark spots and carried an ominous look.

It was unpleasant enough that anyone seeing him might have assumed he was suffering from some plague.

Perhaps for that reason, the waiter quickly put some distance between himself and the man.

Once the man had finished every last noodle and dumpling, he rose from his seat.

A few coins lay where he had been sitting.

Considering how many men of his sort ate without a coin to their name, started swinging blades when challenged, and ended up being dragged outside, it was a better conclusion than most.

“...What a strange man.”

The waiter followed the peculiar stranger outside—the man who had actually asked where Mount Hua was while standing in Hwaeum County.

But the street was empty.

The waiter blinked, rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand several times, and looked again.

Still nothing.

It was as if some master of the Lightness Arts had vanished into the distance in a single instant.

“...He really was strange. Really strange.”

*****

It was the third anniversary of Soyak entering closed-door training.

Eunsong sat leisurely in his residence, reading a letter.

It had come from the Reverse Heaven Society.

Only Cheonjeong was with him.

“...Master, aren’t you worried?”

“About whom? Your junior brothers and sister?”

“Yes.”

Cheonju, Cheongu, Cheongak, and Cheonhwa.

All four had departed on their Roaming Pillar Journeys that very same day.

Cheonjeong was always anxious about whether those four fellow disciples would return safely.

And he had good reason to be.

When he had gone on his own Roaming Pillar Journey with Soyak...

he had been stabbed, nearly killed, and pursued by a Transcendent Apex master intent on murdering them.

But most Roaming Pillar Journeys were nothing like that.

Eunsong also knew there was no particular reason anyone would be targeting those four.

“They aren’t Soyak. They’re unlikely to attract that kind of attention.”

“...I know. I’m still worried.”

“Cheongak is better with a sword than you are. What are you so worried about?”

“He understands the world even less than I do.”

That was so undeniably true that Eunsong could only nod.

Swordsmanship alone was not enough to make one’s way through the world.

Both Eunsong and Cheonjeong understood that.

“That is why I sent Cheonju with them.”

“...My first concern is whether the four of them will even manage to stay together without me.”

“They bicker, but they won’t turn their backs on one another. You should trust them that much.”

“...I suppose so.”

Cheonjeong let out a deep sigh.

Then his gaze slowly traveled around Eunsong’s residence.

It looked exactly as it had three years ago, when they had all still been younger.

The only real difference was the portrait of Jeonggang hanging on the wall.

Elder Jeonggang had passed away exactly three months after Soyak entered closed-door training.

Cheonjeong remembered the letter he had sent to Mount Hua a month before his death.

It said that Jeonggang was leaving his residence on Mount Hua’s North Peak, where the elders lived, to Eunsong.

Myeonggon had snorted when he saw it, but the house remained Eunsong’s nonetheless.

Nor had Myeonggon shown any further displeasure.

He knew better than anyone what kind of disciples Eunsong and Eun Jeong had been to Jeonggang.

And Eunsong had lent that residence to Eun Jeong.

After emerging from such a long period of closed-door training, Eun Jeong had not really had anywhere suitable to stay.

“If you’re that worried, you should have gone with them.”

Eunsong glanced sidelong at Cheonjeong as he spoke.

Of course, he already knew what the answer would be.

He was half teasing him.

Cheonjeong understood that perfectly well. His eyes narrowed as he replied.

“Today marks exactly three years since Soyak entered closed-door training. We don’t know when she’ll come out. If I leave too and follow the others, who will be here to welcome her back?”

“There is no guarantee she will come out today.”

“...Wouldn’t she come out once she reaches the Transformation Realm?”

Eunsong smiled at him.

This boy truly seemed to believe Soyak would emerge after only three years having already reached the Transformation Realm.

Of course, Eunsong was not entirely without hope himself.

Even Jeonggang had admitted that there was a possibility.

But still...

Reaching the Transformation Realm before the age of twenty?

Even the Sword Sovereign had not reached it until after thirty.

No matter how far Soyak’s talent strayed beyond ordinary human limits...

it could not possibly be easy.

“You truly think Soyak has reached the Transformation Realm by now?”

“She reached Transcendent Apex only a few months after coming to Mount Hua. Why couldn’t she?”

“It is harder for a Transcendent Apex master to reach the Transformation Realm than it is for an utter novice to reach Transcendent Apex.”

“...I know that, but...”

For all his words, Eunsong himself still harbored that same small hope.

Soyak had always defied common sense.

She had personally killed the Dark Emperor.

She had resolved the crisis in the Shandong Ak Family.

“...It would be wonderful if she really did come out today.”

“Didn’t you just say it would be difficult?”

“Just because it is difficult doesn’t mean I cannot wish for it.”

“...You’re contradicting yourself.”

Eunsong only laughed.

And around that time—

someone called to him from outside.

“Daoist Eunsong! Are you here?”

Eunsong shrugged and rose from his seat.

Then he walked toward the fence.

One of the guards who should have been stationed at Mount Hua’s main gate was standing there.

He was drenched in sweat.

“What happened?”

“S-someone is asking for you, Daoist Eunsong.”

“Who is asking for me?”

White Plum Scholar might be Eunsong’s sobriquet, but even that name had begun to fade from memory in the outside world.

The last time he had truly traveled beyond Mount Hua was when he brought Soyak back with him.

He had never reached any especially conspicuous martial realm, nor had he accomplished some great feat that would make his name famous.

So who would come all the way here and demand Eunsong specifically?

But Eunsong noticed clues far more troubling than that.

The guard was sweating cold.

Several drops of dark red blood had splattered across his clothes.

And his face was deathly pale with fear.

“I-I don’t know who he is. He refused to identify himself, so we tried to drive him away, but he cut down my senior guard with a single stroke...”

“He killed him in one stroke?”

“Y-yes! He swung this long, narrow saber, and flames burst up violently...”

Eunsong’s eyes narrowed.

A saber.

And fierce flames.

Among martial arts known for those traits, the most famous and formidable belonged to Ak Jupae, the Flame-Saber Lord, and his Flame-Dragon Saber Canon.

The man who had walked into the Demonic Cult more than three years ago.

But a long, narrow saber?

Eunsong called out to Cheonjeong.

“Cheonjeong.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Go get Eun Jeong. Tell him to come to the foot of Mount Hua.”

“I’ll go ahead.”