Chapter 655

Nanman was like a small country cut off from the Central Plains, with the Nanman Beast Palace as its royal palace.

Naturally, the Inner Palace was enormous. Nearly a thousand people lived there—warriors, cooks, servants, keepers who tended the beasts, and more. Whenever the Tribal Grand Council convened, that number swelled several times over.

Yet among all those people, four mattered more than the rest: the Great Chieftains.

They led the strongest four of Nanman’s thirty-two tribes and had the power to become the next Palace Lord of the Nanman Beast Palace. Their influence was immense, and for generations, the three Great Chieftains other than the Palace Lord had enjoyed special privileges.

Whoosh!

Yayul Mok, running beside me, was explaining one of them now.

“Every chieftain other than Father lives at their tribe’s main base and must give advance notice before entering the Inner Palace. The Great Chieftains are exceptions. They’re free to come and go, and each has a residence inside.”

East, west, south, and north.

The north had traditionally belonged to the Palace Lord of the Nanman Beast Palace. The other Great Chieftains each had a residence in one of the remaining directions.

They were official residences granted to high-ranking figures. In Central Plains terms, it was as though the Son of Heaven had permitted his vassal princes to establish their own princely residences.

But after running there at full speed, what I found waiting for me was blood pooled across the ground, corpses, and the wreckage of a building someone had destroyed.

“What the…”

Namho’s groan reached my ears. Feeling as though all the blood in my body had turned cold, I looked up.

A wooden plaque hung crookedly over the shattered gate. Three characters were written on it.

Western Yao Estate.

They told me whose estate this was. The image of a woman smiling with captivating eyes flashed through my mind.

Yohi. Great Chieftain of the Yao people.

“Bewitching” suited her better than “beautiful.”

I didn’t know whether she was behind tonight’s attack, but two things were certain. This splendid estate, so thoroughly shaped by Yohi’s tastes, was no longer as beautiful as it had been.

And Yohi herself had vanished without a trace.

Step.

I crossed through the half-destroyed gate. Bodies lay scattered everywhere, among them the carcasses of beasts. Flower beds that must once have bloomed in all different colors were soaked red with blood.

“…Fuck.”

I couldn’t keep the curse in. Just then, a warrior spotted Yayul Mok walking beside me and approached.

“Young Palace Lord. You’ve arrived.”

Yayul Mok nodded, his face grim.

“You’ve worked hard. Have you found anything else?”

“No. Only more bodies.”

Behind the warrior, corpses lay side by side. A few steps away, three or four warriors were hauling a tiger out of a well, its drenched body hanging limp.

“So far, we’ve confirmed at least a hundred dead, counting both Yao warriors and the beasts they commanded.”

“Any survivors?”

The warrior was silent for a moment before answering.

“…None so far.”

So far?

I doubted they’d find any. Keeping that thought to myself, I approached the bodies.

A warrior instinctively moved to block my way, but when our eyes met, he flinched and stepped aside. I examined the wounds, looking for how these people had fought the unknown attacker—and how they had died.

Then, just as I realized something, I heard Yayul Mok’s voice.

“Found anything?”

Dozens of pairs of eyes turned toward me. I gave a brief answer.

“Force.”

“……!”

“……!”

A ripple of unease passed through the crowd. My voice came out stiff.

“The attacker was undoubtedly a Supreme Peak master. Most of them probably didn’t notice the attack until the last moment. The gap in martial arts was that great.”

The Supreme Peak realm was open to only a chosen few. After enduring countless hardships and breaking through the barrier, its masters rose to a realm that made them, quite literally, superhuman.

With a single swing of a sword, they could kill dozens of First Rate masters. Even barehanded, they could beat a dozen Peak masters to a bloody pulp.

Whoever had attacked this place tonight was one of them.

Fast, economical, and utterly lethal.

I’d known as soon as I saw the wounds. The attacker was a seasoned killer.

They had slaughtered every living thing in the estate using no more force than necessary, and no less. Everyone in Murim knew that one chi¹ of depth was enough to take a life. Only a Supreme Peak master could kill a hundred warriors and beasts that way.

The implication was clear.

—Are you saying Baeksang did all this?

Yayul Mok’s quiet Sound Transmission reached my ear. I looked at his rigid face amid the shocked crowd.

—Who knows?

—What do you mean, who knows?

—Only two masters in Nanman have reached this level. One is Baeksang, as you know. The other… is someone everyone in Nanman knows well.

Yayul Mok went deathly pale. His mouth opened as though he were about to shout, but he bit down hard on his lip instead.

—Are you saying Father did this?

—Of course not.

—Then why…

—I’m saying that would be too obvious. What’s certain is that Dark Heaven was directly involved.

Supreme Peak masters were exceedingly rare even in the Central Plains, and rarer still in Nanman. I might have my suspicions about Baeksang, but I wasn’t that much of a blockhead.

Dark Heaven had probably sent one of its own Supreme Peak masters.

They seemed content to watch from a step away. Have they finally decided to act themselves?

But what were they after?

I kept the question to myself and spoke aloud rather than using Sound Transmission.

“There’s something I want to check for myself. Shall we step away for a moment?”

Yayul Mok understood and gave the onlookers a glance. Their eyes turned away.

The three of us—Yayul Mok, Namho, and I—entered the pavilion at the center of the estate. As we’d expected, the place that must once have been filled with rare furnishings looked as though a storm had torn through it.

“Looks like they put up a real fight,” Namho muttered.

Yayul Mok answered, his face still grim. “But it was over in moments. With a Supreme Peak master against them, I suppose that was inevitable.”

“How do you know how long it lasted?”

“Because I heard a short but unmistakable boom. By the time I heard the report and arrived, everything was already over. All that remained in the Western Yao Estate was blood, corpses, and…”

Rattle.

Yayul Mok slid open a large door. His voice sank.

“Those.”

He meant two things lying in the wrecked room: a scent pouch, and something far more valuable in its use, though it gave off a terrible smell.

“Hmm.”

Namho let out a low groan. I walked over without hesitation and touched the second object. It was cold, and sticky blood coated my fingers.

This is…

Anyone with eyes would recognize it.

A wrist. Someone’s wrist, cleanly severed.

“Can you tell whose it is?”

How could I not?

I stared at the plump wrist for a moment before answering quietly.

“Probably Heugung’s.”

“That’s right. He came to see Great Chieftain Yohi with four guards. The Eastern Yi Estate confirmed it.”

If the Yao people had built the Western Yao Estate in the west, it seemed the Yi people under Heugung had established the Eastern Yi Estate in the east. I set Heugung’s wrist down.

“When was that?”

“Less than half a shichen² ago, but at least half an hour.”

I worked out the timing. It was just after Heugung and I had parted. He must have gone straight to the Eastern Yi Estate, then come here to see Yohi.

…That lovesick bastard. He couldn’t wait even that long.

I struggled to keep the curse from coming out. I needed to stay calm.

I still didn’t know why Heugung had come to see Yohi. And until his death was confirmed, I had to suspect everyone.

“What happened to the guards he brought?”

“Dead. Along with the Yao warriors.”

Of course. Fuck.

I’d asked just in case. I’d gotten exactly the answer I expected.

“Whew.”

I let out a deep breath and slowly surveyed the room. Signs of resistance were everywhere. Beyond a wall that had probably collapsed under a powerful palm strike, I could see a rear garden that had kept its splendor.

There were faint footprints there, too.

They subdued the two of them quickly, then escaped through the rear garden.

The prints were too faint to tell me who had left them. But they did establish one thing: this wasn’t an attack staged by Heugung or Yohi. A third party had been here.

Less than half an hour ago, at least three people had occupied this room.

And one of them was a Supreme Peak master.

So who had left those footprints? The Southern Heaven Demon Empress? Or one of the Dark Heaven masters under her command?

I thought it over, then shook my head.

I wasn’t some old veteran of Murim. These clues could tell me only so much. Namho had encountered a wealth of information as an agent of the Hidden Shadow Pavilion, but his knowledge concerned fiends’ faces and other outward features.

In the end, I need someone with both a high level of martial arts and a high level of insight.

Only two names came to mind immediately, and one of them was someone I could never bring myself to trust.

I turned to Yayul Mok.

“When will Great Hero Yayul arrive?”

“I’ve already sent someone to notify him. By now, he should be on his way with the other chieftains.”

That was good news. I made sure Heugung’s wrist was where I’d found it, to preserve the scene, then sniffed the pouch Yohi had left behind. The silk had split along one side, and only the faintest trace of scent remained—almost nothing.

I’ll find out what happened. No matter what.

Just then, a commotion broke out beyond the pavilion.

“Father must have arrived at last,” Yayul Mok said. “He may be able to identify the attacker.”

But before I even stepped outside, I knew he was wrong.

The Beast Miao King wasn’t the first to arrive. And the person being named as the culprit was someone I hadn’t expected.

“The guilty party is coming out on his own.”

The moment I heard Baeksang’s flat voice, I understood.

Baeksang and the Beast Miao King weren’t the only Supreme Peak masters in Nanman capable of doing this.