Chapter 240

Smoke streamed from the old man’s seven orifices.¹

It was Scorching Yang Qi, so dense it was visible to the naked eye, endlessly coiling around his small frame as it circulated through him.

And then, soon after—

Sssssss.

Five rings rose one after another above the crown of the cross-legged old man.

Some were blue and red, others black and white.

When the final yellow ring took shape, the five vivid rings, one in each of the five directional colors, were complete.

Five Qi Returning to Origin.

Jeok Cheongang, the small-framed old man who had just displayed the dream realm sought by every martial artist in Murim, suddenly opened his eyes.

“Come in.”

The door opened the moment the words left his mouth.

A young man dressed in rags strode inside as though he owned the place and looked around.

“Weren’t you circulating your qi?”

“Some bastard kept pacing outside the door. How was this old man supposed to concentrate with him distracting me?”

“Fair point. Ah, I should’ve just come in and watched the Olympics.”

“It wasn’t the Olympics or whatever you called it. It was Five Qi Returning to Origin.”

“What does it matter? As long as you got the meaning across.”

Jeok Cheongang silently regarded the young man, Jin Taekyung.

“Where have you been?”

“You know where. I went to see Great Hero Namgung Ryong, the Family Head.”

“Family Head Namgung. Right. You did.”

After muttering under his breath, Jeok Cheongang asked, “What did he say?”

“Oh, that.”

Jin Taekyung stretched before continuing.

“The banquet’s been canceled.”

“The banquet was canceled? What does that mean?”

“Well, apparently the Azure Sky Sword King entered seclusion.”

“Seclusion?”

“They say he suddenly gained some minor insight or something. Anyway, that’s how it turned out.”

“Enlightenment…”

Jeok Cheongang gave a small nod.

“That’s quite a coincidence.”

Jin Taekyung stopped twisting his overgrown beard around one finger.

“What is?”

“The Azure Sky Sword King waited more than twenty years for today. Yet of all days, this happened today. How could it not be a coincidence?”

“……Maybe he got a little nervous when it was finally time to fight you?”

“Who knows?”

“Come on, it’s obvious. Don’t you think you’re overthinking it?”

“You think so?”

“Yes. Absolutely.”

Jeok Cheongang stared in silence as Jin Taekyung nodded vigorously.

“W-why?”

“Nothing.”

“There’s no such thing as ‘nothing’!”

“Do I need your permission just to look at your face?”

“Have you never heard of image rights?”

“No. Shut your mouth before I use Flying Over Grass² to stomp on your head.”

“Yes, sir.”

But the silence did not last long. Jin Taekyung glanced at the old man, gauging his mood, then spoke again.

“Old Master.”

“What?”

“This whole thing worked out okay, right?”

“There is nothing to call ‘working out.’ The date has merely been postponed for a little while.”

“But we bought some time.”

“Did you think this old man would lose?”

Jin Taekyung hurriedly waved his hands.

“That’s not what I meant. Given the situation, even if you won, it wouldn’t really count as a victory.”

Even if I won, it wouldn’t really count as a victory…

Jeok Cheongang repeated the words silently.

They were true. Had the duel taken place, he would have paid a heavy price regardless of the outcome.

The Azure Sky Sword King was an opponent he would have to face with everything he had.

If Jeok Cheongang suffered an Internal Injury in a fierce duel against him, the essence, qi, and spirit he had barely managed to bring into balance would collapse.

“Old Master?”

Jeok Cheongang raised his head from his thoughts. Jin Taekyung was looking at him with concern.

“Why did you call me?”

“No reason. Do I need permission even to call you once?”

“What a tiresome brat.”

Normally, Jeok Cheongang would have rapped him on the head, but today, he decided to let it slide.

He let out a quiet chuckle and rose from his seat.

“Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“Henan.”

The Star-Array Grand Banquet.

Even now, the most renowned masters of Murim would be gathering in Henan one after another.

Having let all four seasons pass them by, the two of them had taken quite a detour.

“The Namgung Family has no reason to keep us here, and we have no reason to remain. Leaving is only natural.”

“Leaving sounds good, but can’t we soak in some hot water first? I’ve got so much dirt caked onto me that my body feels heavy.”

“You should have brought that up much earlier, you brat. Don’t start pretending to care about cleanliness now. Go get us some travel money. We may be uninvited guests, but they should at least give us that much.”

“Wow. Now you’re even telling me to shake people down.”

“Why, you—!”

“I’m going. I’m going.”

Jin Taekyung grumbled as he left the pavilion.

He did not know that Jeok Cheongang was silently watching him.

Watching the shackles that had been hastily forced shut by sheer strength.

Watching the cleanly severed ends of his sleeves.

The old man watched until the young man’s back had receded into the distance, then muttered,

“……That brat. Going and doing something I never told him to.”

His seasoned gray eyes swept toward a small mountain in the distance.

A faint cloud of dust was dispersing above the ridge covered in blue-green light.

The bright sun slipped behind the mountain, and darkness descended.

The Azure Sky Sword King, Namgung Cheon, stood motionless as the mountain wind whispered through the trees. Then he abruptly spoke.

“Who was that boy?”

Namgung Ryong, the Family Head of the Namgung Family, was standing quietly behind the Azure Sky Sword King. He answered,

“His name is Jin Taekyung of the Jin Family of Taiyuan in Shanxi.”

“The Jin Family of Taiyuan?”

“Yes.”

“So a Hidden Dragon was crouching in the borderlands.”

“And the Fire King took that very Hidden Dragon under his wing.”

“You’re wrong.”

The Azure Sky Sword King shook his head.

“The Fire King is the dragon pearl.³ It wasn’t that he took the Hidden Dragon into his embrace. He became the dragon pearl himself.”

“……!”

Namgung Ryong could not hide his astonishment. Though father and son had never been close, he knew what kind of man his father was.

One of the things he knew was that his father was a man of few words who was exceedingly stingy with his judgments of others.

Yet the words Hidden Dragon had come from his lips.

He had even said that the Fire King, Jeok Cheongang, whose name shook all under heaven, had become the dragon pearl himself.

The man who never once praised even his own grandson…

A pang of hurt mingled with Namgung Ryong’s curiosity.

“Is he truly that extraordinary?”

The Azure Sky Sword King did not answer the cautious question. Instead, he abruptly asked one of his own.

“How far have you mastered the Emperor’s Sword Form?”

“……I have yet to break through the barrier of three-tenths mastery.”

“When I was your age, I had mastered seven-tenths of the Emperor’s Sword Form. I believe that was around the time the world began calling me the Sword King.”

“I apologize.”

Shame filled Namgung Ryong’s reply, but the Azure Sky Sword King paid it no mind.

He had not said it to rebuke his son, who was already sixty years old.

“More than twenty years ago, when my mastery of martial arts reached eight-tenths, a question suddenly occurred to me. I wanted to test my sword.”

“……”

Namgung Ryong silently lowered his head. He knew well what had happened afterward.

The clash between the Fire King and the Sword King.

The winner of that earth-shaking battle between two Supreme Peak masters had been the Fire King.

“During my secluded training, I faced countless towering walls. I struck and hammered at them without end, until at last, one of those walls collapsed.”

“Then…!”

“I have only just broken through a single wall. I have not yet achieved Great Completion.”

“Congratulations!”

Namgung Ryong performed a full bow before his father, trembling with excitement.

The Emperor’s Sword Form was the beginning and end of the dozens of secret arts possessed by the Namgung Family.

In the family’s entire history, only the founding Family Head had ever achieved Great Completion of the Emperor’s Sword Form.

True to his greatness as a martial artist, the Azure Sky Sword King had become the first in roughly a century to reach nine-tenths mastery of the Emperor’s Sword Form.

“Congratulations, is it?”

But the Azure Sky Sword King’s expression remained calm. No—he even looked hollow.

“Then let me ask you one thing. Can you withstand three moves of the Emperor’s Sword Form this old man unleashes?”

“How could I possibly dare… Surely?”

The Azure Sky Sword King quietly nodded.

Namgung Ryong’s eyes widened like lanterns.

It was unthinkable—something that neither should nor could have happened.

Yet his father had confirmed it.

That young man had withstood the Emperor’s Sword Form wielded by none other than the Azure Sky Sword King himself.

Even Namgung Ryong, who rarely lost his composure, spoke with a trembling voice.

“B-but he is only twenty-two.”

“Yes, twenty-two. He possesses the Heavenly Martial Physique and has the Fire King Jeok Cheongang as his Master.”

The Azure Sky Sword King raised his head and stared into the dark night sky.

For many long years, from the moment he first entered the world, he had lived under the name Namgung. He had carried the two characters Azure Sky in his heart and learned a sword that resembled the azure heavens.

But today, he had met a dragon soaring into the sky.

I thought one move would be enough.

He had put two-tenths of his power behind his sword, intending to teach the young man some manners.

Then three-tenths.

Then six-tenths.

And yet…

“Three moves. That’s it, right? Thanks for going easy on me.”

The young man had slung the iron balls over his shoulder and left.

All that remained in his wake were hundreds of trees and boulders carved apart by stroke after stroke, along with the mournful cries of birds that had suddenly lost their homes.

A Hidden Dragon. A Hidden Dragon.

The Azure Sky Sword King repeated those words in his mind, then spoke.

“Have they left?”

Namgung Ryong, who had only just gathered his wits, answered, “Yes. They left five shichen⁴ ago.”

“Where did they say they were going?”

“Henan. They said they would attend the Star-Array Grand Banquet being held there in one month.”

“The Star-Array Grand Banquet?”

The Azure Sky Sword King let out a hollow laugh.

“Make it clear to your son that he is not to show his face at this Star-Array Grand Banquet.”

Black Mountain Stronghold was a bandit organization based along one of the major routes connecting Henan and Anhui.

Its leader, Heuk Jongpil, was an illiterate former butcher, but he was also a natural-born plunderer and a master who had honed his axe techniques to the Peak realm.

Thanks to that, he commanded more than three hundred underlings and lorded over them like a king.

Not that the Green Forest Alliance didn’t bleed me dry.

No matter how capable Heuk Jongpil was, he was no match for the Green Forest Alliance.

The only reason he had managed to build Black Mountain Stronghold into what it was today was that he paid four-tenths of his monthly profits to the Green Forest Alliance in exchange for various forms of assistance.

For instance, the valuable intelligence delivered by the subordinate who had just entered.

“Boss, a letter arrived from the Green Forest Alliance headquarters! Here—”

Whack!

“You bastard! Don’t you know we’re all illiterate? Read it aloud!”

“It has information about the goods the Geumwa Merchant Group is transporting and the route they’re taking. They say it should arrive within two days.”

“What are you waiting for?”

“Yes?”

“Call everyone!”

The Star-Array Grand Banquet was an important event for martial artists and bandits alike.

Heuk Jongpil gathered all three hundred of his underlings and set up an ambush along the route the Geumwa Merchant Group would take.

Just one big haul. Let us land one.

If they managed to get their hands on even a single top-grade cat’s-eye stone, they would still have a fortune left over after paying tribute to the Green Forest Alliance.

Feeding and arming more than three hundred able-bodied men was no small task.

“They should be here by now… Why haven’t the scouts come back?”

“Who knows? We sent them out a shichen⁴ ago, but there hasn’t been any word.”

“Ugh. Trying to run a bandit operation with idiots like these is hard on the body. Hard on the body.”

The next instant, Heuk Jongpil froze mid-grumble.

With a trembling hand, he pointed toward something approaching through the darkness at incredible speed.

“……Hey. What is that?”

“I-I’m not sure either.”

Whoooosh!

Two silhouettes—one large and one small.

A long trail of red qi lingered behind them like the tail of a meteor shower.

Are they ghosts?

Heuk Jongpil was crouching in the grass, watching the sight, when it happened.

The two silhouettes racing along the mountain road at an unbelievable speed abruptly stopped.

A moment later, low voices drifted over.

“Why stick your nose into this?”

“It bugs me. They seem to be with those two who were skulking around earlier.”

“We’re going to be late at this rate, you brat.”

“No matter how late we are, whoever sees the trash first should clean it up.”

“Where did you learn to talk back every single time this old man says something?”

“Bastards like that always set fire to mountains.”

“You little shit! Go break all four of their limbs.”

“Yes, sir.”

Heuk Jongpil had been listening intently to their conversation.

His eyes flew wide.

“W-we’re fucking screwed! Everybody—!”

But his cry went no further.

Whoosh!

A brief rush of wind.

Then someone’s enormous hand settled companionably around his shoulder.

“Everybody, what?”