Chapter 940

While a ger¹ on the grasslands shivered in the cool night wind, heavy with sand, people behind a massive wall ten thousand li² away were greeting the morning.

The sun was still a long way from rising. Darkness surrounded them on every side.

Thudthudthudthud!

Rough hoofbeats shattered the silence of the night.

More than a hundred messengers passed through the Seven Gates without a single formality. Like the dozens of messenger eagles sent ahead of them, they vanished into the wind, each bound for a different destination.

The man who had given all these orders listened, pale-faced, as reports came in one after another.

“All the messengers have just passed through the Seven Gates!”

“The Imperial Decree has been delivered to the high ministers of the Six Ministries!”

“The Censorate awaits Your Majesty’s command!”

“The officials of the Hanlin Academy and the Transmission Office are preparing the edict!”

“A report from the Five Tiger Commandery! In accordance with Your Majesty’s command, we are immediately mobilizing three hundred warships, one hundred thousand naval troops, and the Imperial Guards—”

“Enough.”

At the Emperor’s sudden command, every sound around him vanished as if washed away.

The Son of Heaven’s authority was absolute.

Though the Great Nation was only in its third generation, the power wielded by its current Emperor equaled—or perhaps surpassed—that of Taizu, who had unified the realm.

“How noisy.”

At the Emperor’s quiet murmur, everyone prostrated themselves, barely daring to breathe.

“We beg Your Majesty’s forgiveness!”

“Please execute us!”

Rustle.

The Emperor gave a small shake of his head and silently waved his long sleeve.

Those who understood the unspoken command backed away and disappeared with careful steps. Before long, only two people remained in the vast main hall.

“Every time I say anything, they start begging me to kill them. If I’d had to listen to that for another fifteen minutes, I might’ve bitten through my own tongue.”

At the Emperor’s bitter smile, Baek Yeon, Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, spoke with a stern expression.

“Even as a joke, please don’t say such things.”

“It’s only a joke. What does it matter? Besides…”

The Emperor leaned at an angle against the throne and continued.

“I have not the slightest intention of dying in a situation like this.”

His face was still pale, but as he faced a new crisis, his eyes gleamed like luminous pearls.

“I expected as much, but it’s worse than I thought. I didn’t think they’d move so quickly.”

Baek Yeon wholeheartedly agreed.

Dark Heaven.

That rebellious faction, whose very name was ominous, was larger than expected—and more methodical, too.

Even more so than a religious movement that had once erupted like a grass fire from a distant western land, back when Baek Yeon had served the late Emperor.

“It was more than fifty years ago that those called the Demonic Cult headed for the Central Plains.”

“The Great Faction War.”

The Emperor murmured to himself and stroked his graying beard.

Though it had happened long before he was born, everyone knew of the momentous event when no fewer than a hundred thousand cultists set foot in the Central Plains.

Especially because they weren’t merely country bumpkins lured in by sweet words. They were an army armed with unwavering faith and spears and swords.

“When the Demonic Cult’s momentum reached the heavens, the martial artists of the orthodox factions petitioned the late Emperor. They said the Demonic Cult was a foreign enemy disrupting the Great Nation’s order, and asked him to raise the Imperial Army and order a campaign against them.”

“I know.”

The Emperor looked at Baek Yeon and added,

“And I know you opposed joining the war more strongly than anyone.”

Baek Yeon gave a small nod in acknowledgment.

It was true.

Here, in this very place, the high ministers of the court had argued fiercely for days. The late Emperor had seriously considered ordering a campaign, but Baek Yeon had pleaded with him more earnestly than ever before, and the Emperor had finally given up the idea.

“Can Your Majesty guess why I opposed it so strongly?”

“I think there were two main reasons. First, the Demonic Cult feared the Great Nation’s power and wasn’t harming the people. And second… Cang Gong.”

“That’s right. Unlike me, Cang Gong was the first to insist that we drive out the foreign enemy.”

“You made the right choice. If Father had sided with Cang Gong back then, the Great Nation would have shed a great deal of blood.”

“It was clear he intended to weaken the imperial house. That was all the more reason I had to oppose it.”

There had never been a victory without wounds, not in all of history.

Baek Yeon knew that as a commander who led an army, not merely as a martial artist. He had done everything in his power to keep the Great Nation out of the war.

Cang Gong—or rather, the Eastern Heaven Demon Lord—had already been someone to watch back then.

Of course, countless orthodox martial artists had died because of Baek Yeon’s opposition. But he didn’t regret it in the least.

He had simply made the choice that was best for the Emperor and the Great Nation—and, by extension, the people.

It wouldn’t have been too late to intervene after watching the two great powers, the Murim Alliance and the Demonic Cult, crash violently into each other.

And the result of that wait had been an orthodox victory that came close to mutual destruction.

“Back then, I actually hoped the Demonic Cult would win.”

The Emperor clicked his tongue at Baek Yeon’s words.

“You’re unusually honest today.”

“It can’t be helped. Many martial artists of the orthodox factions have the people’s trust, so we’d have no grounds to launch a campaign against them. But it would’ve been different if the Demonic Cult had survived.”

A massive boulder was too heavy even to move.

But what about a pebble left behind after being smashed and battered again and again?

And if that pebble had jagged edges sharp enough to harm the people, Baek Yeon would have taken up his hammer without the slightest hesitation.

He would have torn down the lawless fence that was Murim once and for all.

“But if things had gone as you hoped, we wouldn’t have made it to the present day.”

The Emperor’s low voice echoed through the vast hall.

He was right. It was deeply ironic, but they had relied on those very martial artists to put down the traitors and accomplish their great undertaking.

And now… it was time to set that contradiction right.

“I intend to help with everything I have. For their sake—and for all of us.”

Thump.

Baek Yeon lowered his head and went down on one knee.

A storm of bloodshed would soon descend, one that would dwarf the Great Faction War.

Dark Heaven was more powerful than the Demonic Cult, and incomparably more dangerous.

A war was beginning that would not be confined to Murim. It would overturn the world.

“Your Majesty, ruler of all beneath the heavens, I humbly ask that you give me your orders.”

The information Jin Taekyung had delivered in the dead of night was an unexpected misfortune. Fortunately, they had already made thorough preparations to accomplish their great undertaking.

Hundreds of warships and thousands of officers.

Hundreds of thousands of troops, the imperial banners flying above them, were waiting for their command.

“I command Baek Yeon, Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.”

Speaking in a solemn voice, the Emperor slowly rose despite his ailing body.

Instead of his white sleeping robe embroidered with a golden dragon, he wore heavy armor. He strode across the hall without hesitation.

Clank. Clank.

One step. Then another.

The Emperor descended from the throne and personally raised Baek Yeon to his feet.

“Tell the entire army that I will lead the campaign in person.”

“……!”

Baek Yeon’s eyes trembled for an instant, unable to hide his shock.

It wasn’t only the impact of the Emperor taking command in person. He could feel the resolve of a man who had little time left to live.

“Your Majesty.”

But the words Baek Yeon struggled to force out never came.

Seeing the Emperor silently shake his head, the loyal subject could only clench his teeth, his heart heavy.

“I, Baek Yeon, Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard… will obey Your Majesty’s solemn command.”

The Emperor gave him a faint smile instead of an answer, then walked past him.

The world beyond the wide-open iron gates was still shrouded in darkness.

Like his own future, with so little of it left.

Still, this isn’t so bad.

His body might be dying, but his mind was clearer than ever.

The first campaign he would lead in person—and the last.

To meet his end on a battlefield instead of in bed would be a blessing, not a tragedy.

And so was the fact that someone had brought back his will to live, if only for a while.

“Come, Baek Yeon.”

The Emperor smiled brightly—so brightly it was hard to believe he was a dying man—and continued,

“We should see off a certain insolent rogue who’s leaving before me without keeping his promise to me.”

One shichen.³

That was how much time had passed since I’d first gotten my hands on the iron chest left behind by the Eastern Heaven Demon Lord.

“Everything’s ready.”

At Hyuk Mujin’s report in my ear, I opened my eyes, which I’d kept tightly shut.

His gaze and expression were unusually grave. That alone said how urgent things had become.

“Let’s go.”

What else was there to say?

I gave a brief reply and stepped out of the pavilion, moving as if in a daze.

Even after circulating my qi once, my mind was still a mess.

Half a month.

Only half a month.

That was all the time left until the Double Ninth Festival.⁴ Or maybe even less.

The missive the Eastern Heaven Demon Lord had kept said Dark Heaven’s main force would invade Shanxi Province through the northern grasslands before the festival.

It could be ten days. No—even tomorrow.

I swallowed the groan rising in my throat.

This wasn’t just urgent. It was an emergency.

The distance from here, Zhejiang Province, where the Imperial Capital stood, to Shanxi Province was a full ten thousand li.²

No matter how quickly the Imperial Court’s messenger eagles flew, the trip would take at least ten days.

Can I get there in time?

Even as I left the imperial palace with everyone else, doubt weighed heavily on my heart.

Then Jeok Cheongang, who had been watching me in silence the whole time, suddenly spoke.

“Was it about fifty years ago? I got into some petty dispute with that Thunderbolt Saber King bastard and ended up in a real fight.”

As though he were talking to himself, Jeok Cheongang glanced away from me and continued.

“I’d always looked down on him as someone far beneath me, so I didn’t think much of him. But when we actually traded blows, he was pretty strong. I didn’t show it, but I was surprised.”

The Bow Saint, who had been riding quietly with the reins in hand, replied.

“He’s a strong man. If it hadn’t been for you, he probably would’ve been the greatest of the Ten Kings.”

“Hmm. I suppose so.”

Jeok Cheongang nodded, then glanced at me and added,

“Still, the Hebei Peng Family didn’t become one of the Five Great Families for no reason. With that kind of strength, they could beat just about anyone. And they have enough intelligence-gathering power to keep a clear eye on what’s happening not only in Hebei but in Shanxi, too.”

Only then did I think I understood.

This completely random conversation was meant to put me at ease.

Heh.

What was I supposed to say? I was just grateful.

And just as I swallowed the laugh threatening to slip out, someone spoke.

“So, were you planning to leave just like this without saying goodbye?”

The breezy voice didn’t suit him at all. The Emperor, who had been waiting for me in front of the enormous iron gates, laughed aloud.