Chapter 1180

Great Sir’s final mutter, heard only by the desert and the darkness, had been half right and half wrong.

As the dim dawn mist receded and the first light began to spread, the sky unleashed a downpour with all its might, as if it had been waiting for this moment.

Not over the parched desert, but toward the western plateau.

Whoooosh!

Rain came down in sheets. People pulled their collars tight and their straw rain capes close against the fierce wind and rain. The beasts carrying them let out weary cries.

“It’s coming down like crazy. At this rate, forget the people—the horses won’t hold out.”

At the deep voice from beneath an oil-treated bamboo hat, the young man riding slowly to the speaker’s right spoke up.

“We’re lucky they’ve held out this long. We’ll be clear of this wretched plateau in half a day, so we’ll just have to keep going a little longer.”

Wretched.

The man in the bamboo hat couldn’t help agreeing. He was certain the tens of thousands of martial artists trudging forward at that very moment felt the same way.

“Yes. It hasn’t been easy.”

He murmured the words to himself, remembering what he’d seen on the way here.

Dry rivers and dead forests.

Villages and cities—proof that people had once lived there, yet so desolate it was hard to believe anyone ever had.

Every well was rotten. They’d searched the surrounding areas thoroughly, but found no people—not even the corpse of a common flying insect.

As if none had ever existed in the first place.

What on earth happened here?

The man in the bamboo hat thought again of the question that had long gone unanswered. But he already knew that no matter how deeply he pondered it, he’d only be wasting his mental strength.

If it were something he could figure out on his own, the white-haired old man approaching now with a nod of greeting would surely have figured it out too.

“Great Hero Song.”

At the man’s respectful salute, Song Ho, the Thousand-Faced Fox, smiled.

“Family Head Jin, such formality leaves this old man hardly knowing what to do with himself. Just call me Chief.”

The man in the bamboo hat—Jin Wikyung—shook his head awkwardly.

“Compared to you, I’m still a junior by a long way. Besides, I’m only the Lesser Family Head acting in the Family Head’s place.”

“I know that, of course. But these are precisely the times when a family’s unity matters most. And the Family Head of the Jin Family of Taiyuan…”

“He’s away. Still.”

At the young man’s abrupt interruption, Jin Wikyung clicked his tongue.

“Second.”

The Second Young Master of the Jin Family of Taiyuan, Jin Mukyung—the Heaven Shaking Sword—replied, “Who are you calling Second?”

“…Fine. Commander of the Heaven Shaking Squad.”

“Give your order.”

“Choose some men and search the surrounding area. No—Commander, please see to it. I need to speak privately with Great Hero Song.”

“Commander Jin Mukyung accepts the Family Head’s order.”

“You…!”

“Then I’ll be off.”

Without giving Jin Wikyung a chance to say another word, Jin Mukyung answered as casually as could be and disappeared into the rain, his long robe whipping behind him.

“Whew. That boy…”

At Jin Wikyung’s sigh, the Thousand-Faced Fox let out a quiet chuckle.

“Don’t be too hard on him. From what I’ve heard, you brothers are close. It’s good to see.”

“No, my younger brother needs a good scolding. He has no manners at all, interrupting an elder while he’s speaking.”

“Don’t mind me. I’m quite all rig—”

“And he didn’t even bring an umbrella.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s pouring! I’ve told him over and over to use one, and he won’t listen! He didn’t even put on a bamboo hat!”

“…”

“He won’t lose his hair right this instant, fine! But what if he catches a cold? What then, hm? Am I wrong?”

The Thousand-Faced Fox fell silent at Jin Wikyung’s sudden outburst before replying.

“You really are… close. Closer than I’d heard.”

“My younger brothers were frail when they were little. Taekyung must be having a hard time right now, too. I worry whether he’s taking care of himself.”

By this point, the Thousand-Faced Fox was worried too.

Worried that there might be something wrong with Jin Wikyung’s mind.

Who was Jin Mukyung, the Heaven Shaking Sword?

Since childhood, he’d been counted among the finest rising martial artists in Murim on the strength of his extraordinary talent alone. And after One-Ride Heavenly Dragon Murong Yeonghwi vanished with the downfall of his family, no one had denied Mukyung his place at the head of the Ten Dragons and Phoenixes.

To be precise, he had long since surpassed the level of a young prodigy.

In the recent Battle of Eight Spring Gorge, which decided the fate of the entire northern region, that young Sword Demon of the Jin Family of Taiyuan had defeated the Blood Soul Fat Demon, a great fiend of the previous generation, announcing the birth of a new Supreme Peak master to the world.

And Jin Wikyung was worried he’d catch a cold.

When he brought up Jin Taekyung, that monster among monsters, the Thousand-Faced Fox nearly lost the power of speech altogether.

Is he joking?

He briefly wondered whether he ought to laugh. Then, with the practiced skill of the Chief of the Hidden Shadow Pavilion, he kept his expression in check.

“Jin Taekyung will be fine. Even if he runs into a little trouble, I’m sure it won’t amount to much.”

“On that score, I’m reassured.”

Jin Wikyung, who doted on both his younger brothers—and especially his youngest, who’d long been a source of worry to him—agreed with heartfelt sincerity.

The group sent across the desert was small, given the terrain and the need for speed. But it included no fewer than six Supreme Peak masters: an elite force by any measure.

Three of them were hardly inferior to Mae Jonghak, the current Sword Saint and Alliance Leader of Murim. Even if a major threat arose, they should each be capable of protecting themselves.

If Jin Wikyung had one concern, it was a single person.

Great Sir, was it?

He’d heard plenty of rumors.

The appearance of a new Supreme Peak master always drew attention, even while Dark Heaven’s schemes shook the land.

If anything, it drew more attention now.

A mysterious master appearing in such troubled times, with wild hair and half his mind seemingly elsewhere?

A chivalrous hero who’d crushed the mounted bandits running rampant in Gansu more than a decade ago, all in one stroke?

That was all it took.

The martial world’s gossips were all shouting, “I can’t resist this!” as they talked about Great Sir until their mouths were dry, and word of him spread across the land.

But rumors aren’t worth much in the end.

As the man leading a family, Jin Wikyung was cautious in all things. When it came to his younger brothers’ safety, he left nothing to chance.

So of course he’d decided to meet the suspicious eccentric who’d joined his youngest brother’s group himself.

Though, in the end, he hadn’t managed it.

I wish I’d had a little more time.

Great Sir was like the wind on the Great Steppe.

Jin Wikyung had seen him only briefly, standing beside Jin Taekyung atop the city wall. After that, he was always vanishing somewhere and suddenly turning up somewhere else.

If Great Sir’s whereabouts had ever remained a mystery for long, Jin Wikyung might have seriously suspected him of being a spy. But his own fairly thorough investigation had ruled that out.

Great Sir announced his presence to the world with booming nonsense and a foul stench.

Just before the army set out, Jin Wikyung had been so busy he could barely find a moment to visit his quarters. Great Sir had been elsewhere, drinking with the Beggars’ Sect Leader and being invited to join the sect. When even that hadn’t worked out, he’d sent Jin Mukyung and other family members in his place, only to find Great Sir hiding with Cheongpung in the military supply warehouse, looking for snacks.

And most people liked Great Sir.

Even his youngest brother did, though Jin Wikyung thought the boy was every bit as finicky as his master, familial affection aside.

“Great Sir? I don’t know him that well, but from what I’ve seen, he seems like a good person.”

“Come now, youngest! How many times have I told you to be careful around people you don’t know—”

“I’ve been watching him since Gansu, and I’ve thought it over. I’ve got a good feeling about him. Like I do about you, hyung¹.”

“…Like me?”

“Don’t make that face. Of course I like you more, hyung¹. There’s no comparison.”

“Oh, right?”

“Of course. But hyung¹, want some candy? Cheongpung left it behind.”

“Hm? Sure!”

That was the last time.

Time was pressing; fifteen minutes felt like three autumns. Jin Wikyung grew busier still, while Great Sir continued darting about like the wind.

Before long, the combined army of the government and Murim—the first of its kind in the continent’s history—split into three forces at the border between Qinghai and Xinjiang.

Two like enormous waves, and one like a sharp awl.

“…That candy was good.”

Jin Wikyung murmured without realizing it. Then he felt a hot stare on his cheek and composed his expression.

“Ah, pardon me. I was deep in thought about where the Imperial Army might be by now.”

At that remarkably shameless answer, Song Ho fell silent for a moment.

He was old and missing a leg, but he still had both ears, and his hearing was as sharp as ever.

He wanted to ask what candy Jin Wikyung had been enjoying so much, but the Thousand-Faced Fox once again put his years of experience to work and answered as calmly as he could.

“If all has gone according to plan, they crossed Lop Nur fifteen days ago and should be at Hejing by now.”

“Then…”

“Yes. Tianshan is close. We may be a day apart, but we should be able to join them at the edge of the Tianshan Mountains before sunset the day after tomorrow.”

“…!”

Tianshan Mountains.

The moment he heard the name, Jin Wikyung felt his grip tighten on the reins.

Tianshan, a giant of earth reaching closer to the heavens than any other.

The lair of darkness, an unfathomable demon-slaying battleground that had poured forth countless evils over a thousand years, yet whose depths remained impossible to gauge.

But at last.

They had come. At the end of this long journey, he was waiting.

But before Jin Wikyung could calm the shiver of awe and fear that thought sent through him, a familiar voice rang out in the distance.

“Hyung¹!”

Jin Mukyung. It was him.

Jin Wikyung’s eyes widened as his younger brother came hurtling toward him alone like an arrow, using his lightness skill. Where had he left the horse he’d treated like an extension of himself until now?

And then Jin Wikyung saw it.

An unfamiliar landscape spread behind Jin Mukyung’s approaching shoulder.

A mountain range?

A shape the deep darkness couldn’t conceal.

Beyond the driving rain, it was enormous. Vast.

Is that Tianshan? The one I’ve heard so much about?

But why was his heart pounding so hard? Why did Jin Mukyung’s cry sound so urgent?

The next moment, Jin Wikyung understood.

Or rather, a single enormous bolt of lightning, slashing down through the distant sky, showed him.

Rumble!

As the thunder boomed and a flash of light flared for an instant, the roars of countless monsters rang out.