The voice outside was hushed, but there was no hiding the urgency in it—or the sound of someone approaching.
“P-Palace Lord!”
The Beast Miao King and Yayul Mok snapped their heads up at the call, which seemed to come from one of the guards.
“Something’s happened at Ailao Mountain…!”
Boom!
A powerful wave of qi burst forth and swept through the shrine. The Beast Miao King shattered the decrepit door and glared at his man.
“What do you mean, something’s happened at Ailao Mountain?”
Before his shout reached my ears, a soft chime sounded.
Ding.
System
You have accepted the sudden quest, Unknown Omen!
A time limit has been created!
Time Remaining: 4 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds
System
- A sudden quest, Unknown Omen, has been generated!
Quest
Unknown Omen
Nanman’s forbidden land, Ailao Mountain, is screaming.
Bodies torn to pieces hang from its countless high, treacherous peaks. Blood from something unknown runs down the thousand-fathom cliffs between them. Endless howls pour from the mountain, shrouded in black clouds and mist, filling everyone with fear.
And now, a new path has appeared before you.
Grade: Sudden Quest
Restriction: Jin Taekyung
Mission: Investigate Ailao Mountain within the time limit (Incomplete)
Reward: ???
Failure: ???
- Would you like to accept the quest?
Unknown Omen, huh?
The title needed changing. Not Unknown Omen, but Fucking Obvious Omen.
That aside, there was only one answer I could give.
Accept quest.
Ding.
The frozen time began to move again. Before even a moment had passed, we set out through the predawn darkness for Ailao Mountain.
The warriors of the Nanman Beast Palace were said to grow up alongside fierce beasts.
From childhood, warrior and beast formed a bond. Once a warrior completed the coming-of-age ceremony and was recognized as a full-fledged warrior, they officially became the beast’s owner and companion.
But even a centuries-old tradition had its exceptions.
Whoosh! Rustle!
The Beast Miao King, Yayul Cheok, had no need of a beast’s help. He probably never had, even as a child.
He was the greatest warrior Nanman had ever produced—and a beast in his own right.
Leading us through the dark, overgrown jungle, the Beast Miao King let out a mighty roar.
Gwaaaar!
It was a beast’s roar in every sense: rougher, more savage, and far more primal than Shaolin Temple’s lion’s roar, a supreme technique with the power to subdue demons.
His roar tore through the darkness, carrying the warning farther and faster.
Hundreds of torches flared to life here and there below a distant ridge. Looking down at them, the Beast Miao King shouted to the guards running around him.
“Gisan. Dogok. Go to the Outer Palace. Find the tribal chiefs staying there, reassure the people, and mobilize the warriors to prepare for a possible foreign invasion!”
“Yes, sir!”
“Wonhu. Manjeok. You’re going to the Inner Palace. Mobilize the Miao warriors and guard the palace!”
“At your command!”
“The remaining three of you, find the other great chieftains and inform them of the situation. Tell each of them to mobilize one hundred elite warriors and head for Ailao Mountain!”
He delivered his orders without missing a beat to the Seven Miao Tigers, his personal guard of the Miao people’s finest warriors. Then his gaze moved to his late-born son, running hard behind him.
“Mok.”
“…Yes, Father.”
The darkness around us wasn’t why Yayul Mok looked so grim. He answered faintly, as though he already knew what was coming.
“Go with them,” the Beast Miao King said firmly. “Gather the warriors under the Miao people and raise a force in case of trouble.”
“But…”
“Have you forgotten? You’re the Miao people’s Young Chieftain and the Nanman Beast Palace’s Young Palace Lord.”
It was a reminder of why this man ruled the Nanman Beast Palace. When we’d first met, he’d seemed as easygoing as a well-fed lion. Now he was a beast with prey right in front of him.
And Yayul Mok wasn’t childish enough to defy his father’s orders at a time like this.
“…I obey, Palace Lord.”
Yet he didn’t leave us at once. He drew close to me as I ran beside the Beast Miao King and made an unexpected offer.
“Take this one with you.”
“Huh?”
Grrr?
He meant White Tiger, which made the offer all the more surprising. Nanman’s warriors considered the beasts at their sides their dearest comrades—and family.
Whoosh!
I ducked a branch rushing toward my face and asked cautiously, “Are you giving him away? Putting him up for adoption?”
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
Grrrr!
“Whoa. Why are you getting so angry? If it’s not, just say no.”
“No! If you save even a little strength, you’ll be more help to Father!”
Gwaaaar!
So much for man and beast understanding each other without words. They were both throwing the same fucking fit.
Still…
It would definitely be much better to ride him.
My reserves of internal energy were considerable even by Central Plains standards, but they weren’t an inexhaustible spring.
If I ended up facing Dark Heaven under the command of the Southern Heaven Demon Empress at Ailao Mountain, then, as Yayul Mok had said, it would be best to conserve as much strength as possible.
Good kid.
I hadn’t been in Nanman long, but I knew what it meant for a warrior to lend someone his beast. I gave Yayul Mok an approving look and decided to offer him a gift in return.
“Here. Don’t turn it down because you feel bad. Give and take, right?”
Rustle!
For a moment, there was only the wind and the sound of branches brushing past us. Namho, whom I was carrying in both arms like a piece of luggage, spoke with a grave expression.
“Am I an object?”
“If you were, I could at least throw you at someone. I can’t even do that with you, Old Man Namho.”
“What an insolent thug. You dare suggest attacking an old man…”
“Quit complaining and go. Your retirement plans are looking bright, so don’t get dragged into this for no reason. And our kids can’t just sit around doing nothing either.”
I wasn’t dismissing him. I was looking out for him. Namho might be a Hidden Shadow Pavilion agent who’d been through every kind of hardship, but he was still an old man who hadn’t learned a single move of martial arts.
He knew it better than anyone. He sighed, his face full of worry.
“I’ll tell the Fire Dragon Pavilion that the Pavilion Master is looking for them.”
“That’s enough. I trust you’ll tell them what to watch out for, too.”
The fuse that was Nanman had finally been lit. The question was who had lit it: an enemy from outside or one within.
Namho’s body had aged, but his mind hadn’t dulled in the slightest. He gave a small nod.
“Pavilion Master, one last thing.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t get hurt.”
“Ah.”
“And dying is even more out of the question.”
I gave him a small smile instead of an answer. Yayul Mok took Namho from me, then, with a glance, kicked off White Tiger’s back and sprang away.
Tap. Whoosh!
A shadow swept through the hazy moonlight. Yayul Mok and the Seven Miao Tigers left our group and disappeared into the darkness. The Beast Miao King, racing on all fours like a gigantic brown bear, picked up his pace.
Crack-crack-crack! Smash!
Thick branches snapped, and dense undergrowth was trampled.
I climbed onto White Tiger’s back, which Yayul Mok had left behind, and heard the Beast Miao King’s voice through the wind rushing violently past my ears.
“Do you think Dark Heaven is behind this?”
“We’ll have to get there to know for sure, but the possibility is high. At the very least, it’ll be connected somehow.”
His face had gone rigid. I spoke again.
“What exactly is Ailao Mountain?”
“Forbidden land. No one enters without permission.”
I already knew that much. Namho had told me on the way here, and the System had just said the same thing. The answer didn’t tell me what I wanted to know.
“Isn’t the Nanman Beast Palace the same way? Actually, that seems true of most of Nanman.”
“It’s different. Entirely different. The finest warriors of each tribe go in to keep watch over that place.”
“Why would they need to…?”
“This began more than three hundred years ago, when my ancestors’ ancestors lived in Nanman. For generations, over a hundred tribes had fought and killed one another across this land. Dozens vanished. The descendants who barely survived founded a sect of their own in Nanman’s deepest reaches—and began working with something more dangerous than any blade or beast.”
A conversation I’d had with Jeok Cheongang in Henan several months earlier flashed through my mind. We’d spoken of the Nanman Beast Palace’s history and its connection to the former Sect Leaders of the Fire Gate Clan. That history was also one reason the palace had joined the Great Faction War.
In that case…
There was only one answer.
“Poison,” I murmured. “It was poison.”
“Yes. That was the beginning of the Five Poisons Sect, which would terrorize Nanman for the next hundred years.”
We crossed a towering peak, leaped from a hill, and raced across the tops of the dense trees. The Beast Miao King swept his clawed hand into a thick tree and sent it flying as he continued.
“Countless people died, they say. Dead fish filled the riverbanks. Beasts ate fish that had washed downstream and died too. Poison spread through the wells, and an unknown epidemic broke out. After thousands—tens of thousands—had died, the divided tribes finally gathered beneath one banner and began a new war.”
That was how the Nanman Beast Palace was born.
But death bred death, and vengeance brought more vengeance. While the Nanman Beast Palace and the Five Poisons Sect fought their bitter war, trapped in that unending cycle, a stranger arrived from the distant Central Plains.
“He called himself the Sect Leader of the Fire Gate Clan. My ancestors had probably never heard the name, but I doubt that mattered to them. The moment he entered Nanman, he burned to death the hundred Five Poisons Sect warriors who attacked him.”
The Sect Leader of that era hadn’t appreciated the Five Poisons Sect’s unexpectedly grand welcome. Like most martial artists, he hated poison, too.
So he planted his ass on the scales of power, crushed the balance, and led the Nanman Beast Palace in reducing the Five Poisons Sect to ashes.
“The problem came after he left.”
The sect’s disciples were reduced to bones, but the venomous beasts and fierce animals they released in their final moments multiplied deep in the mountains where their headquarters had stood.
Slowly. Secretly.
And that former headquarters of the Five Poisons Sect was none other than…
“Right there. Ailao Mountain.”
I looked up, following the Beast Miao King’s pointing finger.
Far in the distance, a black mountain rose into view, its many peaks shrouded in clouds and mist.
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