Chapter 370

The Sichuan Tang Clan had been famous for its insularity since ancient times.

Even renowned figures could not come and go freely. Fearing that daughters who married out might leak the clan’s martial arts and secrets, the clan instead took in live-in sons-in-law and had them carry on the Tang surname.

The gates of the Sichuan Tang Clan, which had endured for centuries in this fashion, had been thrown wide open only seven days ago.

“Hey, you! Get that pillar straight!”

“We pull on three. Ready. One, two—!”

Stocky laborers hauled on ropes and carried stones and lumber from place to place.

Buildings slowly took shape across the broad site, rising atop foundation stones still stained dark red with blood.

Farther away, dozens of monastics gathered to chant Buddhist prayers.

“May I live out my days with no other thought, following Amitabha alone, every thought forever fixed on the jade-white light between his brows…”

With their closely shaven heads and clear, vigorous gazes, they were nuns of the Emei Sect.

Countless wooden coffins burned before them, engulfed in flames.

“May you be reborn in the Pure Land. We will never forget your integrity or your souls.”

Several days and nights had passed, but the flames had yet to die down.

That was how many victims the Three-Sect Bloodbath had claimed. The Sichuan Tang Clan in particular had suffered devastating losses.

“Whew…”

“You look tired, Satae Myo Ryeong. Perhaps you should rest, even if only for a little while…”

“No, Daoist Myeongjin. I am merely doing what must be done, so please do not concern yourself. Let us continue.”

The Daoist studied the pale-faced, middle-aged nun, then nodded solemnly.

A short while later, martial artists with swords at their waists marched toward them in a line, carrying several dozen wooden coffins.

Among them were Daoists from the Qingcheng Sect, disciples from various mid-sized and minor sects, and even a beggar with grime running down his face.

A group of physicians hurried along behind them.

“I heard a patient suddenly started vomiting blood. Weren’t they stable?”

“If I knew that, would I be here right now? They clearly suffered severe internal injuries, but I can’t figure out what their symptoms mean…”

“Hurry! Spread out and bring the Divine Physician!”

Emei nuns, Qingcheng Daoists, beggars from the Beggars’ Sect, and martial artists dispatched from sects both great and small. Alongside them were commoners, including carpenters, stonemasons, and physicians.

Countless people moved through the grounds of the Sichuan Tang Clan, each diligently carrying out their role.

From a tall pavilion, a young beggar watched the scene through a wide-open window and muttered wearily.

“I never thought I’d live to see something like this. And in the Sichuan Tang Clan, of all places.”

Hyuk Mujin, lying on a bed nearby, answered him.

“Don’t just stand there watching. Go help. Being the Future Beggar Chief doesn’t mean you get to loaf around.”

“Loaf around?”

Gung Gibang’s eyes widened as he pointed at himself.

His upper body was swathed in snow-white bandages, and one leg had been fitted with a makeshift splint. They were glorious wounds earned while fighting Samgoe.

“Look at me! You can see me like this and still say that? You call this loafing around? Huh?”

“Are you the only one who got hurt, Young Hero Gung?”

Hyuk Mujin snorted and made a show of wriggling like an earthworm.

Unlike Gung Gibang, he was wrapped from head to toe in bandages, making him look like a mummy.

“You have to get hurt this badly before people look at you and say, ‘Ah, that kid really went through hell.’ Understand?”

“…”

Gung Gibang trembled.

The fact that he had escaped without more serious injuries was proof that his martial arts were superior, yet somehow he felt as though he had lost.

“I changed my bandages five times!”

“It’s a miracle I’m even alive. And wasn’t that only because you were so filthy? I heard the physician finally lost patience, tried to scrub the grime off you, and passed out from exhaustion. Is that true?”

“…”

“Forget it. Keep talking and I’ll just have to smell your breath. Since we’re on the subject, ask them to brush your teeth next time too. Every time I talk to you, it feels like I’m speaking straight into the ass of a stray dog in the marketplace.”

What a vicious tongue.

Struck speechless, Gung Gibang stared at the ceiling and lamented.

“Samgoe should have killed that bastard.”

“Hey. That’s crossing a line.”

“I still don’t understand how someone like you survived that battle.”

“If you’re really curious, try following our squad leader around for two years.”

“…I’ll pass.”

If there was one thing the constantly bickering Gung Gibang and Hyuk Mujin agreed on, it was Jin Taekyung.

He seemed like every disaster under the sun rolled into one, with the tenacious vitality and dogged determination to somehow survive any crisis.

And now his martial prowess had reached such distant heights that whenever they looked at him, they wondered whether he was truly the same man they had known.

There is one more person like that.

Yeah. That guy.

Reaching the same thought, the two men turned their heads in the same direction.

“Mimi, spin like a whirlwind!”

Whrrr!

“Good job, Mimi! This time, fly through the air!”

Ssssk?

“Ah, so this one doesn’t work. Then how about…”

Hyuk Mujin and Gung Gibang wondered whether the bizarre young man ordering a snake to fly was truly the heir of the Sword Saint—and the Huashan Divine Dragon who had single-handedly defeated Ilgoe, the strongest of the Qilian Samgoe.

“Say, Young Hero Gung.”

“What?”

“Do you have to be slightly unhinged to become a Supreme Peak master?”

“…I don’t know. I really don’t anymore.”

Gung Gibang dodged the question.

His master was fairly eccentric himself, but not to the same degree as Jin Taekyung or Cheongpung.

Judging by the Sword Saint and the Fire King, perhaps disciples really did take after their masters.

“But what is that snake, exactly?”

“Apart from an imugi,¹ there’s only one snake with a horn that large. A thousand-year one-horned snake.”

“An encyclopedia of spirit creatures I read as a child said it was an enormous, pitch-black venomous creature.”

Cheongpung shouted.

“Mimi! Lie down!”

Ssssk!

“Looking at that, it doesn’t seem venomous. It just seems like an animal.”

“That’s exactly what I mean.”

“But why is Young Hero Cheong here? He barely looks injured.”

“Didn’t you hear that loud noise outside earlier? They say Young Hero Cheong went out to help and ended up destroying a pavilion.”

“…Ah.”

The two men fell silent together, then lay side by side on their beds and stared at the ceiling.

Although nearly nine-tenths of the clan’s buildings had been damaged, this pavilion had somehow remained standing. It was now being used as a temporary treatment room for important patients.

Hyuk Mujin caught the scent of a medicinal decoction drifting in from somewhere and suddenly muttered,

“It feels like a dream.”

“Yeah.”

Seven days and nights had passed since the day of the Three-Sect Bloodbath.

The Sichuan Murim had united and cast an inescapable net across the region. Most of Dark Heaven’s black-clad men, who had painted various parts of Sichuan red with blood, had been killed or captured. Even the Samgoe, who had vanished without a trace, had been caught by a mysterious figure.

And with that, the brief war had come to an end.

But…

“I don’t think this is over. What do you think, Young Hero Gung?”

“Do you really have to ask? If this ends here, I’ll eat my hat.”

It was a crisis everyone felt—not just the two of them.

In barely two months, Henan and Sichuan had been stained with blood.

Once news of the Three-Sect Bloodbath spread to the farthest reaches of the continent, the people of the world would realize it.

The dark cloud called Dark Heaven was already looming right under their noses.

The beginning of an age of chaos that could no longer be denied.

And heroes were born in such troubled times.

Hyuk Mujin’s gaze naturally drifted toward the closed door.

“When do you think our squad leader will wake up?”

“Who knows? It’s not like I have any way of telling. Mungyeong says there’s nothing wrong with him, so all we can do is wait.”

“Since we’re on the subject, Mungyeong may be skilled for his age, but isn’t he a little too young for us to entrust our squad leader to him?”

“The Divine Physician is busy, I suppose. Great Hero Jeok Cheongang is still recovering his strength, and there are so many other critical patients, including Great Hero Tang Sadok. It can’t be helped.”

“I understand. I do understand, but even if he is the Divine Physician’s Disciple, Mungyeong is a bit… How much could that child possibly know?”

At Hyuk Mujin’s worried words, Cheongpung abruptly lifted his head.

“Don’t say that. You’ll die.”

“Young Hero Cheong?”

“What you just said—don’t say it in front of Grandfa—no, especially not in front of Mungyeong.”

“What? Why are you suddenly saying—”

“No. Really, don’t.”

“…”

Hyuk Mujin and Gung Gibang exchanged bewildered looks. Then Cheongpung suddenly gasped.

“Mimi! Where did you go, Mimi?”

At that moment, just as Cheongpung began desperately searching for the thousand-year one-horned snake that had disappeared during the brief time he looked away, a muffled shout burst from beyond the firmly closed door.

“Gack! Hey, you snake bastard!”

The three men’s gazes collided in midair.

At the same time, several different names for one person rang through the pavilion and echoed outside.

“Benefactor!”

“Squad Leader!”

“Jin Taekyung!”

The shouts caused a commotion among the people outside, who had been busy with their respective tasks.

“Did you hear that?”

“Could he have woken up?”

“Report this to the Sect Leader! Quickly!”

I had a nightmare.

A snake was slowly tightening around my neck in an abyss of pitch-black darkness where I couldn’t see an inch ahead.

I couldn’t breathe, and my vision washed white.

Then, in the next moment, I opened my eyes and exhaled the breath I had been holding.

“Guh-ack!”

Ssssk.

“…?”

Ssssk? What the fuck is this?

Three seconds of complete mental shutdown.

At last, I realized what my nightmare had been. I grabbed the horn of the snake coiled tightly around my neck.

“Hey, you snake bastard!”

I didn’t care whether its name was Thousand-Year One-Horned Snake, Mimi-chan, or whatever else.

From today onward, this bastard’s name was Snake Wine.

“You’re living on nothing but dew from now on. Cham Isul.²”

I swung it around, preparing to slam it forcefully onto the floor, when the firmly closed door exploded inward and someone charged through.

“Benefactor!”

Cheongpung’s thunderous shout made my skull ring.

Behind him, I saw Hyuk Mujin wriggling like an earthworm and Gung Gibang hopping along on one leg.

“Squad Leader!”

“Jin Taekyung!”

“…Why do you all look like that?”

Hyuk Mujin answered while vigorously bouncing his body.

“Samgoe. That insane old monster did this to me.”

Gung Gibang helpfully elaborated.

“It’s sheer luck he survived. That lunatic Hyuk Mujin mixed rocks into some dirt and threw it at Samgoe. If Chilseonja hadn’t stepped in and blocked him at just the right moment, Hyuk Mujin would have been torn limb from limb.”

“…?”

Who the hell are Samgoe and Chilseonja? Kim Sunja was the name of my high-school dean of students…

These fucking lunatics.

My relief at surviving the underground prison lasted only a moment. A headache came on, and I pressed a hand to my forehead.

I had specifically told them to hole up at the Divine Physician’s residence, but apparently they couldn’t sit still for even that long and had crawled out to fight to the death.

Thank God they had survived. What would I have done if they had died?

“Were you idiots desperate to die? What kind of trouble did you cause this time?”

“…?”

“…?”

“What? Why?”

Why did they look like that?

The three of us—everyone except Cheongpung—exchanged bewildered glances.

“Is there a problem?”

“Of course there is.”

“You told us to go save the Emei Sect, Squad Leader.”

The first answer came from Gung Gibang, the second from Hyuk Mujin.

They were both talking nonsense, so I deliberately frowned.

“What are you talking about? I did?”

“Yes. That’s definitely what I heard from Mungyeong. Did you hit your head?”

No way.

I could feel it the moment I opened my eyes: a powerful qi boiling throughout my entire body.

The world spread out before me and the qi of nature surrounding me both felt clear and vivid.

So this is the Supreme Peak realm…

I wanted to test this power right away—and check the mountain of System messages that must have piled up by now.

But before either of those, I needed to stop listening to this nonsense and ask one thing.

“Is everyone safe?”

They all knew who I meant by everyone.

Smiling brightly, Cheongpung threw open the enormous window instead of answering.

“See for yourself, Benefactor.”

As if possessed, I slowly walked toward the window.

A warm spring breeze brushed my face. An oddly quiet atmosphere greeted me as I leaned out and looked beyond the window.

“Ah.”

I looked down and was rendered speechless.

There were people gathered below.

Nuns, Daoists, and people who appeared to be craftsmen, such as carpenters. Physicians wearing brilliant white garments.

Countless gazes were fixed on me, all carrying the same emotion.

Awe.

The next moment, as though by some prior agreement, they all paid their respects.

Some gave a fist-and-palm salute. Some bowed their heads slightly. Others prostrated themselves deeply.

At the same time, one enormous voice rose as though from a single throat.

“We pay our respects to the Blazing Fire Divine Dragon!”

A shiver pierced me from the crown of my head to the tips of my toes.

Ding.

System

• Your achievements and Fame will resound throughout the Central Plains.
• You have acquired a new epithet!

Along with the System notification ringing in my ears, I spotted someone in the distance.

“Well done.”

I smiled back at Jeok Cheongang.