“…Would you look at this lunatic.”
The voice was thick with disbelief, and the red hair stood out even in the deep darkness.
I widened my eyes at the last person I expected to see.
“Oh? What brings you here?”
“That…”
Jeok Cheongang hesitated, his voice trailing off.
“I got seasick, so I got off the ship for a bit.”
“Ah, seasick. The Old Master got seasick.”
This wasn’t just any Supreme Peak master. This was the Fire King himself.
Spider-Man retiring because he was afraid of heights would have been more believable than Jeok Cheongang suffering from seasickness.
“What’s with that smile?”
I forced down the corners of my mouth and answered.
“I just have one of those faces that looks like it’s smiling.”
“Want me to make it look ready to die?”
“No, thank you.”
“If you have a complaint, say it to my face. Don’t grin at me like a creep.”
“I never said I had a complaint. But what are you hiding behind your back?”
“H-hiding? What would this old man be hiding?”
“The thing you’re holding in your clasped hands. Whatever could it be that you’re so embarrassed you have to hide it? Are you some kind of Murim high-school girl boss?”
“I said I’m not hiding anything!”
Jeok Cheongang shouted at my sharp observation and awkwardly brought his hands out from behind his back.
He was fiddling with something wrapped in a large leaf, and the conflict in his movements was obvious.
Looks like food. And damn, does it smell good.
The meaty aroma carried on the wind was incredible. My stomach had spent more than half a day digesting nothing but raw fish and grilled fish, so of course it began to churn.
Grrrrowl.
“Is it pork?”
“Beef.”
“You didn’t catch it fishing, did you?”
“Of course not. It was loaded onto the ship beforehand. Those river bandits rubbed it with spices and grilled it. It’s quite good.”
“That sounds delicious.”
“Two people could be eating it while five dropped dead, and neither would notice.”
“That sounds like deadly poison.”
“It’s that delicious.”
“Then give me some. Let me taste it.”
“Hah. You’re not even funny. Did you think I brought it for you?”
“Ah, so you packed it for yourself?”
“Of course.”
“So you got seasick and abandoned the swift ship. It sailed off and left you in the middle of a river you hate, but you still made sure to bring food…”
I looked at Jeok Cheongang and slowly nodded.
“That makes perfect sense.”
“…!”
“Give it here.”
Jeok Cheongang answered gruffly.
“Here. Stuff your face.”
“Why, thank you.”
“I brought it for myself, but I’ve lost my appetite. That’s why I’m giving it to you.”
“I know. I know everything. Why do you keep explaining something the whole world already knows?”
“…Damn it.”
I let his grumbling go in one ear and out the other as I devoured the meat.
By the time my short but fiercely fought meal was coming to an end, the four sharks that had been circling nearby while watching me warily had disappeared from sight. So had the swift ship that had been faintly visible in the distance.
“Ah, I missed it.”
“The sa-eo1?”
“No. I was going to let them go soon anyway.”
“Then the swift ship?”
I sucked the seasoning off my fingers.
“Yes.”
“You don’t seem particularly disappointed for someone who missed it.”
“I’ve got no reason to be.”
“What a strange fellow. Didn’t you use the sa-eo1 to chase the swift ship all the way here so you could catch up?”
He was right. I couldn’t deny it.
But…
“I was starting to regret it.”
“Regret?”
“Yes. Regret.”
“Why?”
“Because doing it this way… there’s no point.”
I’d caught the sharks and come this far under the excuse that I needed to replenish my internal energy. But the closer I got to the swift ship, the harder it became to ignore the unease I felt.
Maybe that was because I’d gone against the way I’d lived until now.
I’d let myself grow lax without realizing it.
I already had power I could never have imagined in the past. Enormous wealth, fame, and the attention of the world followed my name like tags.
Maybe I’d gotten carried away by the rewards that came with it all.
I wouldn’t have done this before.
To obtain something, you had to pay a price equal to its value.
If I had still been the F-rank Hunter who had secured a home for my family in an expensive Safety Sector far beyond our means and thrown myself into raids without rest to pay my mother’s hospital bills, I would never have used some cheap trick involving sharks.
Neither would the version who’d endured a year of brutal training on Mount Jiuhua without ever fleeing back to reality.
“I should’ve stayed back there and held on to a reef.”
Jeok Cheongang frowned at my half-joking complaint.
“Then you’d have fallen even farther behind the swift ship.”
“So what if I did? I’d have learned something for every bit of distance I lost.”
“You might never catch up before we reach Henan.”
“That’s fine. Catching up isn’t the goal.”
Jeok Cheongang’s stiff expression slowly relaxed.
“You realized the most important thing in half a day.”
I lowered my head toward him. At that moment, I couldn’t bring myself to meet his eyes.
“It took me a whole half day. I’m sorry.”
“At first, I waited because I was worried about you. After that, I meant to give you a thorough scolding.”
From Jeok Cheongang’s perspective, it must have been utterly absurd. He had even outsourced my training, only for me to put together a Shark Water-Ski Team and use a cheap trick.
But his voice was gentle now.
“I did mean to scold you… but this will do. Try to catch up on your own strength from here.”
Jeok Cheongang stepped forward. The ripples spreading from his toes were far gentler than mine.
He noticed me watching and tossed out a remark.
“Our sect’s martial arts have an especially violent flow. It took me years to calm that storm on my own.”
“Years…”
“You already know this isn’t something you can learn overnight.”
“I know. I also know that it isn’t overnight. There are still ten days left.”
I shrugged and added,
“And I have two excellent advisors beside me to show me the way. That should make it a lot easier for me than it was for you, Old Master.”
The Fire King and the Slaughter Saint. Both were far stronger than I was, and both had traveled the path I was on long before me.
Those were much better circumstances than Jeok Cheongang had faced when he’d had to figure it all out for himself.
Jeok Cheongang let out a quiet laugh.
“Look at this sly bastard. Proudly announcing you’ll take another shortcut.”
“I’m hurt that you’d call it a shortcut. Most people call this a fortuitous encounter.”
“Hah. You certainly have a way with words.”
“But you’re not denying it.”
“Because, now that I think about it, you’re right. But that isn’t the only difference between us.”
“…?”
“Martial talent. With that outrageously excellent body and talent of yours, you should be able to sprout at least one bud before reaching Henan.”
A towering tree and a gorgeous flower both began with a single small bud.
It had taken Jeok Cheongang years to bloom. For me, it would be different.
He watched me in silence for a while, then spoke abruptly.
“I can’t see the ship anymore. I’d better hurry after those damned bastards.”
“Take care. If you run into a sa-eo1, catch it and try riding it.”
“So you don’t intend to come with me.”
What a mischievous old man. He’d already guessed, but he was testing me anyway. I let out a quiet laugh.
“I’ll follow in a little while.”
“A little while? It’ll take you half a day.”
“It still doesn’t sit right with me. So yes, that’s the plan.”
“Tsk, tsk. You certainly know how to make life difficult for yourself.”
He said that, but he couldn’t hide the smile tugging at his mouth.
Jeok Cheongang looked at me for a moment, then turned and shot off into the darkness.
Even after he dwindled to a speck and vanished, I stayed where I was for a long time.
At last, the sun rose, and the sunlight began to heat the river.
Splash.
I stepped forward through the rough current.
The goal was the swift ship—no, Henan.
The entire Murim world seethed like water in a cauldron.
What had begun as a simple rumor spread in every direction on the lips of gossipmongers. Then one day, dozens—hundreds—of messenger pigeons rose from Mount Song in Henan, each carrying a letter that would turn the rumor into fact.
To all of Murim.
The letters began with that brief sentence and were delivered across the land. Those who learned their contents realized the truth.
An era of upheaval had arrived, and no one could avoid it.
The New Murim Alliance.
An old veteran of the martial world, his body covered in scars, remembered the Great Faction War, when corpses had piled into mountains and blood had run in rivers. Young martial artists born in peaceful times, who had never lived through those horrors, were swept up in all manner of emotions.
“The time has come.”
“At last…!”
Troubled times gave birth to heroes.
Some could not hide their excitement at the thought that their chance to make a name for themselves had arrived.
“H-how can this be?”
“So it’s finally come to this.”
Others trembled at the thought of the death soon to come.
But the orthodox Murim of the present era was the victor proven by history.
Hadn’t even the mighty Demonic Cult failed to take the Central Plains and been driven back decades ago?
A bloody storm had swept through Shaolin and Sichuan, but to most martial artists, that was a reason to be angry and fight—not to retreat in fear.
“Anyone with the spirit to fight, any martial artist who bears a weapon—stand beneath the Murim Alliance’s banner!”
The call rang out across the land.
And some answered it.
“Shaolin of Mount Song requests to join the alliance.”
“Huashan will join the Murim Alliance as well.”
The Nine Sects and One Gang. The Five Great Families.
The fifteen pillars that supported Murim began to move.
Shaolin Temple and Huashan were the first to raise the Murim Alliance’s banner. The other renowned sects and great factions soon rushed to request membership too.
In crowded markets, pleasure houses, and inns, gossips talked of little else day after day.
“Have you heard? They say the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Families have all joined the alliance.”
“It’s only been a day since the news broke. Already?”
“You’re behind. Of course they have. The question is what the other sects will do.”
“I heard the Shandong Yue Family plans to join too.”
“That’s a surprise. Aren’t they in an awkward position between Murim and the authorities?”
“Any news from the Hahou Sword Family?”
“I understand the former Family Head died in the Great Faction War. The current Family Head will probably join the war to avenge his father, if nothing else. Everyone knows Dark Heaven is the Demonic Cult’s successor by now.”
“The Murim Alliance is the symbol of orthodox Murim. The problem is those who practice demonic and heterodox arts—and the Outer Lands.”
Even as the gossips talked, people throughout Murim were making their own moves.
And as the fervor spread like wildfire, ten days passed.
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