Chapter 216: Moving in the Shadows (4)

"...Come on. Surely not."

Even after returning to their lodgings, Cheongak remained sprawled in a cushioned chair, shaking his head.

He couldn't stop wondering whether Tang Uwon might have had an ulterior motive.

Apparently unable to settle the matter on his own, he turned toward Soyak.

"Do you really think so?"

"Think what, Brother?"

"About Tang Uwon. Don't play dumb, Sister."

Soyak shrugged.

Then she glanced at the belongings Uwon had left behind.

"It's simply a possibility that occurred to me."

"So you could be wrong?"

"Yes. He may be a good person. No, even if... he approached you because he wanted information about me, that would be a separate matter from his character."

Cheongak furrowed his brow at her words.

After a moment, he seemed to understand and nodded.

"Well... he is the Tang Family's second son."

"Yes. It's difficult to call someone wicked for gathering information on behalf of his family. But if he has another purpose in mind, it would be equally difficult to call his actions virtuous."

"...I suppose that's true."

Soyak flopped onto the bed.

She had said everything she needed to say.

The rest was up to Cheongak.

For the most part, Cheongak was an innocent, guileless person.

He had been that way even when his competitive spirit flared and he clashed with Seongeung.

Compared with the Cheongak Soyak remembered from before her three years of closed-door training, the man before her...

Well, he didn't seem to have changed very much.

But he, too, must have traveled the world.

He had reached Transcendent Apex and was old enough to stand on his own.

Even Soyak, at seventeen, had reached an age when she could properly be called a martial artist.

Perhaps that was why...

Cheongak was giving the matter such serious thought.

Two conflicting interests existed in the martial world.

One was martial honor. The other was personal gain and loss.

Martial honor was rooted in favors and grudges.

If someone wronged you, you repaid the wrong. If a friend was wronged, you naturally came to their aid.

If someone helped you, you repaid their kindness. If they helped a friend, you naturally treated them with the same consideration.

Gain and loss, on the other hand, were rooted in practical interests and calculation.

People weighed the practical benefits to secure an advantage, and they questioned and calculated to avoid failure.

In the process, martial honor and old debts of kindness or vengeance were sometimes forgotten.

Then how should Tang Uwon's actions be regarded?

He was certainly acting for his own benefit.

But could it be said that he had violated his own sense of honor?

"...Why are you staring at me, Brother?"

"I'm just... trying to figure something out."

"Staring at my face won't make it any easier."

Soyak narrowed her eyes at Cheongak, who had been gazing at her intently.

Then she disappeared beneath the covers.

Cheongak sighed and rubbed a hand down his face.

Uwon had done him no harm.

Nor could he say that Uwon had harmed Soyak, his junior sister.

He had simply pursued his own interests without violating the principles of martial honor.

...Even if Soyak's suspicions were correct.

So what would be the wisest thing to do now?

Having made up his mind, Cheongak rose from his chair.

"I'm going out for a bit."

"See you later, Brother."

With that, Cheongak hurried out.

He was going to ask Tang Uwon directly.

In the end, the answer given by the person concerned mattered most.

Whether it was a lie or the truth... deciding whether to believe him was a matter for Cheongak's own heart.

Thud.

The door closed.

Curled up on the bed with the covers pulled over her, Soyak closed her eyes.

Her closed-door training had been one long stretch of silence.

The exit had been sealed by a massive stone.

The only sound had come from the medicinal spring flowing through the cave.

She had spent those years quietly honing herself, scarcely speaking a word.

The world she had emerged into afterward was unbearably noisy.

The Flame-Saber Lord, an enemy who bore a grudge against her just as she bore one against him, had come looking for her.

She had set out for the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering because she needed to make a name for herself, to announce her presence to the world and gain the standing necessary to confront the Sword Sovereign.

Then the Namgung Household's Night-Heaven Wanderers had targeted her yet again.

One sword tip, another sword tip, and yet another.

Soyak could feel her Heavenly Killing Star awakening more and more.

The path of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

In the end, she would not be able to avoid it.

To fight the Sword Sovereign, she would need the help of countless people.

The Reverse Heaven Society had to grow larger than it was now.

And the catalyst for that growth...

Had to be her.

She had to become a banner proclaiming that the Sword Sovereign could be challenged.

Without such a banner, no one would dare rise against him.

All those who had possessed that kind of courage were already dead.

Their tongues cut out, their heads severed, their bodies growing cold, unable to speak another word.

Ultimately, if she wanted to kill the Sword Sovereign, bring an end to the gilded world under heaven, and avenge the wrongs she had suffered so long ago...

Civil war in the Central Plains.

She would have to ignite an immense, ferocious civil war that split the Central Plains in two.

Blood would inevitably be shed.

The blood of the innocent and the guilty alike...

With merciless impartiality.

"...It's the right thing to do."

Soyak murmured the words.

She was speaking to herself.

There was no such thing as a bloodless revolution.

Too many people were already shedding blood for the world to be saved by literature and eloquent speeches alone.

Even she could not break the shackles and chains of favors and grudges that bound her.

Since she could not break them, she would use them.

She squeezed her eyes shut, but sleep would not come.

Eventually, Soyak threw off the covers and sat up.

She ran a comb through her sleep-tousled hair, then swept it back.

And then she got out of bed.

*****

"...The heavens do not look favorable."

"Is that so, Master?"

Eunsong gazed up at the night sky, his face filled with concern.

It had been quite some time since he had sent Soyak away.

The Dragon-Phoenix Gathering would probably begin before long.

Yet the movements of the stars were distinctly ominous.

Of course, Eunsong was no reader of heavenly fate like the Sleeping Dragon of old...

But he could still recognize certain unmistakable signs.

Stars obscured other stars, while stars that should not have been red turned crimson.

The clear light of the stars wavered, then vanished.

These were ill omens heralding an approaching age of turmoil.

"Cheonjeong."

"Yes, Master?"

"Do you think Mount Hua will survive the flames of calamity?"

Cheonjeong hesitated before answering.

A demon of flame.

The expression generally referred to an unavoidable calamity or disaster.

An ordinary fire would be one thing...

But a calamity that consumed the entire world?

"...I don't know."

"Indeed. Neither do I. And that is precisely the problem."

Mount Hua had certainly excised a massive tumor.

It had removed its corrupt Sect Leader and installed a man of integrity and unyielding principles in his place.

It had worked to expose and uproot the Demonic Cult's influence wherever it had taken hold.

But would that be enough?

Standing beside Eunsong, Cheonjeong gazed silently down at Mount Hua's plum blossoms.

And at that moment...

He witnessed an ill omen descend upon the earth.

"...Master, the plum blossoms..."

"They're falling."

Red for Ten Thousand Days.

The plum blossoms that had remained in full bloom for nearly thirty years, as though they would never fall...

One by one, their petals were unmistakably drifting to the ground.

"Cheonjeong."

"...Yes, Master."

"I'll write you a letter. Take it and go to Xianggang."

Cheonjeong looked up at Eunsong.

His eyes widened, unable to understand what his master meant.

No.

The truth was, he was not entirely ignorant of what those words meant.

"...Master?"

"Mount Hua will burn. It has stood for so many years without falling. Perhaps its time to collapse has finally come."

Eunsong slowly rose.

He rested his left hand on the hilt of the Plum Blossom Sword at his waist.

"It won't be long. You must go ahead of us. There is a house there... one I arranged to have built after discussing the matter with Zhuge."

"Then when... when do you intend to come, Master?"

"Who knows? I'll have to wait until Soyak returns, at least. Cheongak will be coming back with her, won't he?"

Evil flourished most when it had been forgotten.

And to the Central Plains, which had forgotten the atrocities committed by the Demonic Cult, the demonic would inevitably return.

Cheonjeong and Eunsong caught the faint smell of burning carried on the wind from somewhere far away.

In the dark of night, long before dawn, something was burning in the distance, its light and heat rippling through the darkness.

"Go, Cheonjeong."

"...Please, Master. You must stay safe."

"I know perfectly well that I've never had much talent with a sword. Don't worry about me."

Cheonjeong nodded.

Then he threw himself off the cliff behind Eunsong's hut.

Having reached the middle stage of Apex, Cheonjeong possessed Lightness Arts more than sufficient to carry him down the cliff by stepping on its narrow, steeply angled ledges.

And less than a quarter hour after Cheonjeong had descended the mountain...

Jeongbeop, the Plum Blossom Wild Spear and Sect Leader of Mount Hua, came to Eunsong with his spear gripped firmly in his hands.

"...Eunsong."

"Yes, Sect Leader. I know."

Eunsong rose.

It was time to summon Jeongyang out of retirement.

The man who had colluded with the Demonic Cult.