In the dim light before dawn, a group of people made their way through the thick fog.
At their head, two middle-aged men spoke in low voices.
“Are you sure the information is reliable?”
“More than ninety percent.”
“Ninety percent?”
“I can’t be certain until we confirm it ourselves.”
“Then the other ten percent…”
“They may have leaked the information deliberately.”
“Which would make this a trap.”
“That’s why we’re taking every possible precaution, isn’t it?”
The two middle-aged men swallowed hard. So did everyone following them.
Each man gripped his weapon tightly, his eyes brimming with anxiety and tension.
“Damn it. We really stepped in shit.”
“Same here. I had a bad feeling from the moment they put me in charge of the Datong Branch.”
The two middle-aged men exchanged sympathetic looks. They were the Branch Leaders of the Jin Family of Taiyuan and the Lower District Sect’s respective Datong Branches, both established barely a month ago.
“I was bragging to my wife about my promotion just the other day. At this rate, I’m going to make her a widow.”
“Stop whining. I told you, we’re more than ninety percent certain.”
“And if we land in the other ten percent?”
“We die surrounded by more than four hundred mounted bandits.”
“…”
“Look at your face. Enough with the ill-omened talk. Watch where you’re going—we should be there soon.”
After the Lower District Sect Branch Leader finished speaking, silence descended.
They continued forward, slow but steady, muffling even their footsteps. The dense fog blanketing the area concealed both their figures and the sounds they made.
How long had they been walking?
By the time everyone was drenched in sweat and moisture—
“Stop!”
The low, restrained shout came from the Datong Branch Leader of the Jin Family of Taiyuan. Gripping the hilt of his sword hard enough to crush it, he asked the Lower District Sect Branch Leader,
“Did you hear that?”
“What…? Ah!”
The Lower District Sect Branch Leader’s face stiffened.
A sound from beyond the fog had reached his ears.
That’s…
Horses snorting. And not just one or two.
The two men raised clenched fists. At once, dozens of sword blades smeared black with ash emerged from their sheaths.
Beyond the dense fog, which limited their vision to less than a zhang, it felt as though hundreds of mounted bandits armed with bows and lances might come charging out at any moment.
Gulp.
Just as someone’s throat bobbed loudly, a sudden gust swept across the grassland and brushed away the fog.
The sight it revealed made everyone’s eyes fly open.
“Gasp!”
“W-What in the world…?”
Beneath the grassland’s blue sky lay a field of red. The earth had been scorched black, and the stench of blood and death hung heavy in the air.
The Lower District Sect Branch Leader groaned involuntarily.
“So the information was true.”
Dozens of bewildered gazes swept the area. Hundreds of men and horses lay sprawled across the ground, every trace of life already gone.
Severed limbs lay scattered like weeds, and eyes frozen wide with terror and shock stared blankly into space.
The few horses that remained alive let out hungry snorts as they trampled a flag covered in hastily scrawled red characters.
HEAVENLY WIND
There was no mistake. It was the flag of the Heavenly Wind Band.
The annihilation of the Heavenly Wind Band, which had once made a name for itself throughout the northern Gaoyuan through its brutality. The ninety-percent guess had finally become a hundred-percent certainty.
For nearly half a month, the Jin Family of Taiyuan and the Lower District Sect had been closely monitoring the Heavenly Wind Band’s movements. They should have felt the relief of having a rotten tooth pulled, yet the longer the two Branch Leaders surveyed the scene, the darker their faces became.
“T-This…”
“That’s right. One person did all this.”
The scattered corpses told the story themselves.
A single person had killed them all.
“What a terrifying master. I can’t even begin to fathom his strength.”
The Jin Family Branch Leader, the strongest martial artist among them, continued in a trembling voice.
“Every one of them was killed in a single strike. Judging by their burned-out organs, the killer must have cultivated Scorching Yang Qi to its utmost limit.”
“W-What about his martial arts? Can you tell what he used?”
“Not at all. He didn’t use any distinctive martial art. This was… nothing but overwhelming power crushing everything in its path.”
One person had slaughtered more than four hundred mounted bandits as easily as crushing ants.
The bodies strewn in every direction showed that they had tried to flee. Their horribly contorted faces showed the terror they had felt.
Not a single person had escaped the hands of this unidentified master and his fearsome martial arts.
“C-Could something like this really be possible?”
“It must be. We’re seeing it with our own eyes.”
He was right. The scene before them was both evidence and witness.
The two men fell silent, unable to find anything more to say.
“Over here! There’s a survivor!”
A survivor?
Their eyes snapped open at the sudden shout. The two Branch Leaders immediately displayed their movement techniques and ran like the wind. As they arrived, they muttered like men groaning in disbelief.
“A survivor?”
“He’s still breathing. Not for much longer, though.”
As the man had said, the sole survivor was already little better than a corpse.
His left arm had been ripped off as though devoured by a beast, and a sickening smell of charred flesh rose from the gaping hole in his side.
The Lower District Sect Branch Leader stared intently at the man’s relatively intact face.
“This is the Heavenly Wind Band Leader.”
“…Are you sure?”
“Certain.”
The Heavenly Wind Band Leader had begun making a name for himself ten years ago, and his face was widely known.
Though only recently appointed head of the Lower District Sect’s Datong Branch, the Branch Leader had memorized the features of every major figure in the region.
Lately, he had seen the Heavenly Wind Band Leader’s face more often than those of his own children.
“He was one of the five strongest men in the Gaoyuan—no, one of the top three… To think he would end up like this.”
The chieftains of the mounted-bandit forces ruling the Gaoyuan were all accomplished martial artists, but the Heavenly Wind Band Leader had stood out even among them.
He was dull-witted, but his innate talent for combat alone had made him one of the pillars of the Gaoyuan—a Peak master.
Now, however, he was nothing more than a defeated man on the verge of death.
“I suppose being a Peak master earned him two attacks. One tore off his arm, and the other put a fist through his side.”
A Peak master defeated in only two exchanges?
It was so absurd that he could no longer even feel shocked.
Everyone stood speechless when—
“Khrrk. Khrrrk.”
A wet rattle came from the Heavenly Wind Band Leader’s throat as his body twitched.
He laboriously opened his eyes, and a hoarse voice leaked between his lips.
“Save… save me.”
“You’re the Heavenly Wind Band Leader. Is that right?”
“Y-Yes. That’s me.”
The Jin Family Branch Leader sent internal energy toward his wrist. The man’s eyes became a little clearer. Just a little.
“Don’t worry. You can survive.”
It was a lie.
They would gladly have saved him if they could, but it was already too late. There was a mountain of questions they needed answered before he breathed his last.
“Who did this?”
Before the words had fully left his mouth, the Heavenly Wind Band Leader jerked like a bird struck by an arrow. His remaining hand shot up and seized the Branch Leader’s collar.
His grip held a strength impossible for a dying man. The stench of death poured from his open mouth.
“An old man. It was an old man. He’s a demon who rose from a pit of fire.”
“Let go!”
“They’re all dead. I’m dead too. I’m already dead. The demon killed me.”
“Y-You!”
The horrified Branch Leader hurriedly tried to pull away, but the strength slowly drained from the Heavenly Wind Band Leader’s grip.
The lifeless body slowly tipped over and collapsed. His wide-open eyes glared at the blue sky.
“Hah… Hah… Is he dead?”
The Lower District Sect Branch Leader nodded and sighed.
“He had completely lost his mind.”
“No wonder. It’s a miracle he was alive at all. He survived in that condition for nearly two days.”
“At least we learned something.”
“What do we know besides the fact that he was old?”
“He was an old master in the Supreme Peak realm who primarily used Scorching Yang Qi. Judging by the fact that he didn’t leave a single person alive, he’s merciless as well. If he came this way past Datong, he’d attract attention in no time.”
After a moment’s hesitation, the Lower District Sect Branch Leader added,
“…One way or another.”
Whether he was merely an old master who showed no mercy or a great fiend beyond anything they could imagine, they had no way of knowing.
There was only one thing they could do to prepare for the worst.
“We need to send word to our family.”
“I’ll do the same.”
The two men exchanged dark looks, each thinking much the same thing.
Who—or what—was the old man the Heavenly Wind Band Leader spoke of? And…
Where is he now?
The woodcutter met the old man halfway up an unnamed mountain.
The moment he saw the old man strolling leisurely along the rugged mountain path, only one thought crossed his mind.
Is he a mountain spirit?
In all his life, he had never seen anyone so old. Looking at the woodcutter awkwardly prostrating himself, the old man asked,
“What is it?”
“My name is Jang-pal.”
“…So?”
“I’ve come to pay my respects, Mountain Spirit.”
After a brief silence, the old man spoke.
“What kind of lunacy is this…? Are you trying to make a perfectly healthy living man ascend to immortality?”
“Y-You’re not a mountain spirit?”
Jang-pal the woodcutter looked the old man up and down.
Now that he thought about it, more than a few things seemed strange. An immortal should radiate a sacred aura at first glance and speak with dignified elegance…
“Have you ever seen an immortal dressed like this? My robes gape so badly that the cold wind blows straight through them.”
That eccentric way of speaking, those loose clothes torn in places…
The only thing about him that resembled an immortal was his extraordinary age.
“I’m sorry. I’m completely uneducated.”
Jang-pal gave an embarrassed smile, and the old man waved him away.
“If you understand, then be on your way.”
“Yes.”
Jang-pal bowed politely and continued walking.
“…”
“…”
“…You there.”
“Yes?”
The old man scowled.
“Why do you keep following me?”
“Oh, this is the road to my village.”
“What’s down this road?”
“Jang Family Village. It’s a small place. I live there myself.”
“Jang Family Village? From the name, I take it everyone there belongs to the same clan.”
“That’s right.”
The old man clicked his tongue.
“Why are there so many clan villages around here? Half a shichen ago, I passed one called Hong Family Village or something.”
“Hong Family Village?”
“Why? You know it?”
“Yes. Of course I do. But…”
Jang-pal tilted his head.
“Hong Family Village should be at least three hundred li from here. Are you perhaps confusing it with somewhere else?”
“Do I look like an idiot who can’t remember what happened half a shichen ago?”
Three hundred li was far enough that even Jang-pal, who had sturdy legs, would need two full days to cover it.
But three hundred li in half a shichen?
Jang-pal, a simple country bumpkin, clicked his tongue inwardly in pity.
The poor old man’s senile.
His appearance certainly fit. His body was painfully thin, and his hair hung wild and unkempt.
What had brought an old man like him to a mountain climbed only by woodcutters like Jang-pal?
Ah, could it be…?
He suddenly recalled stories of unfilial sons abandoning their elderly parents in the mountains to leave themselves one less mouth to feed. Perhaps this old man had suffered the same fate.
Jang-pal gazed at him with guileless sympathy, then took something from inside his clothes and held it out respectfully.
“Elder, please have this.”
“Hmm? What is it?”
Jang-pal scratched the back of his head.
“I brought it along just in case… but I’m full.”
It was a rice ball his wife had prepared early that morning. He was hungry after working so hard, but surely the old man before him must be even hungrier.
“It isn’t much, but please eat it.”
“It certainly doesn’t look like much.”
“…”
“I’m joking.”
The old man glanced between Jang-pal and the crude rice ball.
“My stomach happened to be empty. This will do nicely.”
He devoured the palm-sized rice ball in the blink of an eye. Jang-pal then offered him the wooden carrying frame on his back.
“Please climb on. If you sit atop the bundle of firewood, the ride should be bearable.”
“Hmm? You want me to ride on that?”
“Yes. The mountain path is rough, and you’re heading down anyway, aren’t you?”
“I am, but…”
Jang-pal smiled guilelessly.
“You remind me of my father, who passed away long ago.”
A complicated expression crossed the old man’s face. He clicked his tongue, then climbed onto the carrying frame.
He was so light that Jang-pal could lift him with one hand.
“Are you comfortable?”
“These sticks are poking my backside to death.”
“Should I walk a little more slowly?”
“Slowly? You should be running as if you’re flying. Oh, and about that late father of yours…”
“Yes?”
“What sort of man was he? If I reminded you of him, he must have been exceptionally handsome and strapping.”
“…”
Jang-pal suddenly became much less talkative.
Ahead of him, Jang Family Village began to come into view.
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