Chapter 215: Moving in the Shadows (3)

"...Familiarizing yourself with the surroundings."

"Yes."

Namgung Seon gave a bitter smile.

He knew what had happened the other night.

Night-Heaven Hall and the Night-Heaven Wanderers.

As the heir to the Namgung Household, there was little information about his family that remained hidden from him.

And that particular Night-Heaven Wanderer...

He had returned in quite a state, so shaken that he had barely remembered to conceal his presence.

Namgung Seon had heard exactly what kind of martial artist Soyak was.

A cold, sharp woman.

Small and slender in appearance, yet possessing a chill that seemed to conceal a black dagger within her...

Someone who had split a man in half to deliver a warning to him and the Namgung Household.

Of course, death was hardly an uncommon sight in the martial world.

One could encounter corpses with shattered skulls, bodies burned alive, or even corpses whose faces had been crushed beyond recognition.

But that had been before the period of stability the Sword Sovereign established after destroying the Demonic Cult.

With the collapse of the Demonic Cult and Kill Veil, the number of assassins had dwindled.

Even the remaining assassins rarely undertook killings after that period of enforced stability began.

If that was true of the lowlife assassins employed by the unorthodox factions, the same was true of the Namgung Household's Night-Heaven Hall.

Of course, its Hall Lord and Deputy Hall Lord had originally come from Kill Veil...

But they were dead, and most of the elite assassins among the old Night-Heaven Wanderers had been hacked to pieces and killed alongside them.

The man who had followed Soyak was a newcomer.

To that novice assassin, a corpse split vertically from the crown of its head to its navel in a single stroke must have been a horrifying sight.

The body had been butchered like a pig.

Namgung Seon himself had seen the novice return to Night-Heaven Hall, his face deathly pale and his entire body trembling.

"...It seems our people were rather discourteous to you."

"If you weren't the one who gave the order, there's no problem."

"I doubt it's that simple."

Soyak looked up at Namgung Seon for a moment.

Then she shook her head.

"It really is fine."

"...How can you say that?"

"Because before long, you'll be the head of the Namgung Household. There's no need to let the actions of the previous Family Heads hold you back."

Her words carried a deeper implication.

For the leadership of the Namgung Household to pass into new hands, the previous Family Head would have to die or retire.

And as for the actions of the previous Family Heads holding him back...

Strictly speaking, she was saying that his father, the Sword King, and his grandfather, the Sword Sovereign, were obstacles standing in Namgung Seon's way.

Yet Seon could neither grow angry nor rebuke her.

After all, Cheon Soyak was the one who had been confronted by an assassin.

Besides...

The look in the Sword Sovereign's eyes as he gazed at Seon's sword still lingered in his mind, leaving him deeply unsettled.

"Well, hearing you say that does put my mind at ease."

"And congratulations."

Soyak's eyes seemed to see straight through him.

The Transformation Realm.

Namgung Seon was startled to realize that she had seen through his achievement so easily.

Now that he had reached the same realm, he had thought he could at least regard her as something approaching an equal.

But that was not the case at all.

"...When did you figure it out?"

"Just now."

Still, at least they should be evenly matched enough to have a proper duel.

Even if he lost, he would not be defeated without putting up a fight.

That was enough.

"I'll be going now, young heir."

"...Right. I suppose you can't do much sightseeing with me around."

He was the heir to the Namgung Household.

Even now, the people of Qianshan were avoiding them.

Quite some time had passed, yet no customers had approached the shops along this street, apart from a few curious onlookers eager to see what was happening.

The merchants were growing increasingly restless, unable to bring themselves to direct resentful looks at Namgung Seon.

If he stayed much longer, he might ruin an entire day's business for everyone on the street.

"I'll see you at the tournament grounds."

Soyak offered him a fist-and-palm salute before turning away.

Curious onlookers had gathered, hoping to overhear their conversation, but not a single one dared stand in her way.

The longsword at her waist and the swordlike sharpness of her presence were enough to make the crowd part before her.

*****

"...Are you sure your junior sister is going to be all right?"

"I told you, she'll be fine."

Cheongak and Tang Uwon had been watching the conversation between Namgung Seon and Cheon Soyak.

They had concealed themselves among the curious onlookers.

"That's the grandson of the number one martial artist under heaven, you know?"

"Soyak's reached the Transformation Realm. I'm certain of it."

"How can you tell?"

Cheongak quietly watched Soyak.

He could discern nothing.

The sheer, unfathomable depth of her presence left him at a loss.

There could not be many people capable of making him feel that way now that he had reached Transcendent Apex.

Not even those who had fully mastered the realm and reached its mature heights.

"...Because I'm at the middle stage of Transcendent Apex now."

"You really have it rough, don't you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Normally, someone at your level would have a reasonable shot at winning the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering."

Tang Uwon spoke with a bitter smile.

He was not wrong.

Just how delighted had his family been when he reached the early stage of Transcendent Apex?

Of course, the Sichuan Tang Family had never had much of a connection to the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering.

The tournament generally prohibited killing techniques that could injure or kill an opponent.

But the strength of the Sichuan Tang Family lay in medicine and poison.

How could its members fight properly when they were forbidden from using the poisons that could instantly incapacitate an opponent, disperse their internal energy, or take their life?

His elder brother, Tang Gukwon, had at least concentrated on training his palm techniques, so he might manage well enough...

But Uwon's skills consisted entirely of the poison arts and hidden weapon techniques.

And even his skill with hidden weapons lagged behind his mastery of poison.

If poison were permitted, Tang Uwon believed he could put up a fight against Cheongak, despite the latter's higher cultivation...

But without it, his hidden weapon techniques alone were woefully inadequate.

"Well... I don't really have any regrets about it."

"Really?"

"Three years ago, I left Mount Hua for a little while with my junior sister."

Their journey to the Shandong Ak Family.

Word of what had happened along the way had spread quite widely throughout the martial world.

After all, three years had already passed since then.

Of course, Soyak had been active for only a short time before withdrawing into closed-door training for three years and disappearing from public view. As a result, the stories about her had gradually faded into little more than rumors...

But a family of the Tang Household's standing did not dismiss rumors as mere rumors.

Its external martial arts, such as palm and fist techniques, could not compare with those of Shaolin.

Its swordsmanship and spear techniques were inferior to those of Wudang, Mount Hua, and the Peng Family.

The Tang Family had earned its place among the Five Great Households through poison and hidden weapons alone.

And to make proper use of such deadly techniques, it needed an enormous amount of information.

That was why the saying had arisen that the Tang Family repaid vengeance tenfold.

Through exhaustive intelligence gathering and the use of inescapable poisons, it ensured that its revenge was carried out without fail.

Achieving that required an intelligence network of extraordinary scope...

And while Tang Uwon had never enjoyed the same access as his elder brother, Tang Gukwon, the Tang Family heir, he too had grown up handling most kinds of intelligence from an early age.

"...If you're talking about what happened back then, I know about it too."

"I doubt you know everything."

"She fought the Dark Emperor and survived, didn't she?"

Cheongak grinned.

Then he leaned close and whispered into Tang Uwon's ear.

"No. They both died in that fight. My junior sister killed him. The Dark Emperor."

"...What?"

According to the account that had spread throughout the martial world, the Mount Hua Sword Emperor had been the one to execute the Dark Emperor that day.

The reasons for the Mount Hua Sword Emperor's subsequent decline and ascension had never been properly explained.

Even the Tang Family could only speculate that he had fallen victim to some particularly vicious method employed by the Dark Emperor through Kill Veil.

They did not know what had actually happened that day.

"So, you see..."

Just as Cheongak was about to whisper the rest into Tang Uwon's ear...

Soyak's cold voice sounded behind him.

"What are you doing, Brother?"

"Hic!"

Leaving the startled, hiccuping Cheongak to recover on his own, Soyak sighed and brushed back her hair.

Then she offered Tang Uwon a fist-and-palm salute.

Tang Uwon returned the greeting before looking up at the sky with an awkward expression.

"Ha, hahaha..."

"Don't you already know quite a lot about me?"

"From what I just heard, apparently I don't know as much as I thought. In fact, it sounds like some of what I know is wrong."

Tang Uwon might appear friendly and easygoing, but he was still a member of the Tang Family.

Soyak could read the venom buried deep within his gaze.

"If you've been approaching my brother to gather information about me... I'd advise you to refrain from doing so."

"...Huh."

Tang Uwon gave her a pleasant smile.

Caught between the two of them, Cheongak looked utterly lost, unsure what he should do.

"Uwon...?"

"It's nothing like that. Really. I wish you'd believe me."

Tang Uwon gave Cheongak several hearty pats on the back and flashed another easygoing grin.

Soyak did not press the matter any further.

Even if he had something else in mind, it did not matter as long as he meant her no harm.

After all, the Tang Family repaid kindness tenfold, just as it repaid vengeance.