Chapter 1085

The rumors spread in an instant.

From mouth to mouth.

On the beating wings of messenger pigeons.

Along with the hooves of horses racing across mountains and fields under the crack of whips, and the smoke of beacon fires staining the sky gray.

Before the people shaken by the astonishing news could even determine whether it was true, they saw it with their own eyes.

Countless ships cutting swiftly through the river, their flags billowing proudly in the favorable wind.

The Yangtze River Channel League.

The moment they made out the five characters on those wind-swollen flags, they knew that denying it any longer would mean hiding from reality.

Everything they had seen and heard was no baseless rumor.

It was true.

A mere band of river pirates, who had lived off the Yangtze with the world’s tacit consent, had at last become its true rulers.

And they had done it against the Great Nation itself—the master of the world.

“…Gods of heaven and earth.”

The groan that slipped from someone’s lips sounded hollow.

The vast empire founded under the Mandate of Heaven¹ was collapsing.

No—their heaven was.

“If this isn’t defying heaven, then what is?”

More than a hundred years had passed since the age of warring heroes ended and a unified dynasty was born.

The country folk, who had revered the Great Nation ruled by the Son of Heaven as heaven itself, trembled with unease. Confucian scholars groaned as they realized that the order they had taken for granted had crumbled. Betrayed martial artists seethed with anger and shock.

“Those bandits finally…!”

“I knew something was off. We should never have trusted dark-path figures in the first place!”

But the Yangtze River Channel League’s betrayal wasn’t the only news to shock everyone.

“Two days ago, the Green Forest bandits rebelled in Hubei and Shaanxi!”

The Green Forest Alliance, which divided the world’s dark-path forces with the Yangtze River Channel League, had risen up.

And people belatedly realized that storm clouds were gathering beyond the distant Great Wall as well.

“An urgent report from Sichuan! Potala Palace in Tibet is on the move!”

Potala Palace.

The news that the esoteric monks—counted among the Three Outer Powers alongside the North Sea Ice Palace and Nanman Beast Palace—had finally broken their long silence and stirred to action surprised no one in the Murim.

In their eyes, as people of the Central Plains, Potala Palace had been nothing more than a pseudo-religion following evil doctrines since the distant past.

The New Murim Alliance had sent envoys to seek an alliance several times since its founding, but Potala Palace had always answered with silence. For them to act now, in a situation like this, could only mean one thing.

“…Dark Heaven. It’s them again.”

Fortunately, Sichuan had powerful reinforcements.

Unlike the North Sea Ice Palace, which remained neutral as always, Nanman Beast Palace had overcome the threat of civil war thanks to the astonishing exploits of a young man and resolved to ally itself with the Murim Alliance.

So attention turned to the Yangtze River Channel League and the Green Forest Alliance.

The initial shock soon passed, and quite a few people began to scoff at the dark-path forces’ uprising.

“Even if they’ve won a great victory, dark-path figures are still dark-path figures. Nothing’s changed.”

It wasn’t entirely wrong.

The Yangtze River Channel League and the Green Forest Alliance together had nearly twenty thousand men, but if numbers alone were enough to take everything, the Murim world would belong to the Beggars’ Sect.

Everyone was confident that the orthodox factions, now completely united around the Murim Alliance, wouldn’t be shaken by a force this small.

“Shaanxi has Huashan and Zhongnan, and Hubei has Wudang and the Zhuge Clan. If the Son of Heaven’s Imperial Army moves out too, those bastards will regret joining hands with Dark Heaven.”

But that prediction had several fatal flaws.

First, the Zhongnan Sect had very few forces left at its headquarters.

Second, most of the hundreds of thousands of Imperial Army troops were concentrated in Jiangsu, where the Imperial Capital and the Son of Heaven were located.

Third, the Green Forest Alliance and the Yangtze River Channel League were advancing west in broad daylight, making no effort to hide, and their forces were far larger than anyone had expected.

Like a snowball growing as it rolled down a snowy slope.

“The Green Forest bandits gathered in Hubei crossed Tongsan half a shichen² ago! Their numbers are estimated at around five thousand!”

“Five thousand? What in the—”

“Weren’t there only around three thousand half a day ago?”

“W-Well, it seems the forces scattered among the various strongholds have joined them.”

“That’s absurd!”

But the men who so fiercely rejected the messenger’s report soon learned that another force had joined the two groups of outlaws secretly gathering around Hubei and Shaanxi since before the great battle in Gansu.

And it had reached them by the very means the Central Plains Murim feared most.

“…Damn it. They must have used that accursed dark art.”

“Dark art? You don’t mean…”

“I do. A Moving Formation.”

The existence of the Moving Formation had once been guarded with the strictest secrecy. Now it was no longer known to only a tiny handful of people.

As long as people had eyes and ears, secrets would eventually get out.

The Murim Alliance leadership and the Hidden Shadow Pavilion, led by the Thousand-Faced Fox Song Ho, had stepped forward, but for some reason, the secret of the Moving Formation had still gotten out. Now that the Sect Leaders and Family Heads had confirmed it was real, a chill ran through them.

We have to strike. Right now.

The Yangtze River Channel League and the Green Forest Alliance were, after all, coalitions of separate groups.

Their Stronghold Lords commanded anywhere from a few dozen to several hundred, or even a thousand, men each. They pledged loyalty to their respective alliance leaders and repeatedly gathered and dispersed at their command.

Now was the best time to strike.

Before the enemy had fully assembled. Before they could gather in one place and become a powerful force.

But the complication everyone had secretly feared had come to pass.

No one even knew where the Moving Formations were, and Dark Heaven’s powerful forces were using them to join the dark-path figures.

What if we fight them now?

It was dangerous.

The Moving Formations alone posed an enormous threat, and there was no guarantee of victory.

Shaolin, the Mount Tai and Northern Dipper of the Murim, had suffered terrible losses. So had the Sichuan Tang Clan, which held its place among the Five Great Families with deadly poisons and hidden weapons. Even Nanman Beast Palace and the Hebei Peng Family had been badly hit.

That wasn’t all. According to reports, the Kongtong and Zhongnan Sects had also been hit hard in Gansu.

The damage was no less severe than during the Great Faction War, a time no one wanted to remember. If anything, it was worse.

The Nine Sects and One Gang. The Five Great Families.

With even the fifteen great trees supporting the Murim world trembling at their roots in the typhoon stirred up by Dark Heaven’s storm clouds, it was no easy thing to summon the courage to risk everything and face the danger.

Least of all Sect Leaders and Family Heads, who were responsible for their dependents’ lives as well as their own.

“I… I give up.”

“Sir Seok! What are you saying?”

“Let’s be realistic. Do you think the forces gathered here can stand against them?”

“But—”

“You know it too, don’t you? The outcome is already decided. We have to conserve what strength we can. Fortunately, those traitors who joined hands with Dark Heaven are heading only west. We can avoid a clash for now.”

“Fortunately? Did you just say ‘fortunately’? Do you really not know what they’re after?”

“I know. They want to pin down the reinforcements from the Central Plains and take Qinghai completely into their grasp. That must be their goal.”

“And you know that, yet…!”

“But this time, I have no choice. I’m no Supreme Peak master, nor am I a Sect Leader of one of the Nine Sects and One Gang. I’m sorry.”

“Sir Seok!”

“Please don’t call me that. I’m not worthy of it. I’m just a cowardly Sect Leader who wants to keep his dependents safe.”

He muttered the words bitterly and left. Several other Sect Leaders, their faces downcast, got up and followed him.

Then the refined-looking middle-aged man who had been watching quietly from the seat of honor rose too.

Scrape.

The others had watched the departing Sect Leaders with anger and a sense of betrayal, though part of them understood. Now their eyes widened.

They had been certain that even if everyone else left, this man wouldn’t.

“F-Family Head!”

“What is this?”

But contrary to their fears, the middle-aged man merely shrugged, his expression calm.

“Ah, don’t misunderstand. I’m just going to get some air.”

The others relaxed, then sighed.

A third of Hubei Murim’s leading figures had just left, and he was going to get some air?

It was just like him. That didn’t make it any less ridiculous.

“Why now, of all times?”

“Yes. Right now.”

“There’s so much to discuss. Even the Murim Alliance hasn’t made a proper decision yet…”

“If it’s that urgent, I’ll just piss right here.”

“Pardon?”

As the others stared at him in bewilderment, the middle-aged man clutched the front of his trousers, looking grave.

“My bladder’s about to burst.”

“…!”

“I don’t know whether it’s age or all this time I’ve spent away from our family, living out in the world, but my bladder seems to have gotten weak. And even when I’m sitting still, a certain private spot on my backside starts tingling…”

He rambled on until he noticed their expressions, then smacked his lips.

“Well, I shouldn’t have brought it up. Let’s get back to our discussion.”

“…Just go.”

“No, no. I’ll wet myself right here. I’m sure even Zhuge Wuhou did when he was busy.”

“Please go. We’re begging you.”

“Oh? Then it’s all right if I do?”

“Yes. For our sake, please.”

“You’ve begged me so earnestly three times. I suppose I’ll have to follow the story of the Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage.³”

The middle-aged man smiled at the half-resigned group—Zhuge Feng, Family Head of the Zhuge Clan, or rather, the Crouching Dragon Guest—and hurried out.

He didn’t head for the privy. Instead, he wound through maze-like paths for some time before reaching the garden in the Inner Hall, where only the Family Head was permitted to enter. There he finally stopped.

“It’s all well and good to stay out of sight, but you should at least tell me where to find you.”

In a corner of the spacious garden, someone stood with their back to him, gazing at a mulberry grove said to have been planted by Zhuge Kongming himself.

Zhuge Feng added quietly, “Don’t you agree, Alliance Leader?”