Chapter 946

Time is impartial.

To the living, the dead, and even things without form.

And so, the name that suddenly came to mind had begun to fade with time. If not for the fierce battle that day and the item I’d happened to get my hands on after winning, I might have forgotten it soon enough.

The Temporary Strength Pill…!

Was this what it felt like to be struck by lightning on the crown of your head?

The shock rattled my mind, and my body went rigid before I knew it.

No way.

My first reaction was denial. But I knew better than anyone why I wanted to reject the thought that had just crossed my mind: I didn’t want to believe it.

“What did that bastard—your leader—have?”

“Pardon?”

“Some secret that didn’t sit right. A strange item he didn’t have before. Whatever it was, remember.”

“G-Great Hero, what on earth do you mean…?”

Jang Il, who’d been clinging to my back like a leech, asked in a trembling voice.

Instead of answering, I fought to keep my grip from tightening around the reins.

We couldn’t stop here. We had to keep riding, if only for another moment. Stopping the horse now wouldn’t change anything.

“There must have been something strange. I’m sure of it.”

“P-Please, wait. Please calm down, Great Hero.”

Jang Il looked completely flustered. I was beginning to regret not bringing his unconscious leader instead when—

“…Huh?”

A dazed voice reached my ears. I whipped my head around to find Jang Il staring back at me, eyes wide.

“Come to think of it, at some point he started carrying a silk pouch everywhere.”

“A silk pouch?”

“Yes. I remember it clearly. A few months ago, an unlucky traveler passed through our stronghold in Hubei, and the chief took it from him instead of a toll. After that, he kept it close like it was some kind of sacred relic. I thought it might be precious musk or something.”

A traveler in Hubei.

A mysterious silk pouch the leader had kept close.

And his inexplicable behavior afterward.

“Um, was there something wrong with the pouch? I did wonder about it a little, since it didn’t have the distinctive smell of musk.”

I didn’t answer Jang Il’s question.

No—I couldn’t.

My ominous suspicion had just become a certainty. And I knew there was nothing more Jang Il could tell me. What had been inside the silk pouch, and who the traveler who’d owned it was—he wouldn’t know even decades from now.

There’s no doubt. It was the Temporary Strength Pill.

The Temporary Strength Pill did just what its name suggested: it drew out all the strength latent within the body. Having experienced its dangers firsthand when I fought Pung Yang, I could only grit my teeth.

Crunch.

“What is it?”

Jang Il wasn’t the only one who’d noticed something was wrong. I looked at Jeok Cheongang, whose face had gone rigid, and steadied my breathing.

“Do you remember what happened in Shanxi Province?”

“When do you mean?”

“I mean the mounted bandits who attacked the Mount Heng Sword Sect. I told you about them once before.”

Strictly speaking, Jeok Cheongang had arrived in Shanxi Province just after the Mount Heng Sword Sect affair had ended. But he was one of the few people who knew all about Pung Yang and the Temporary Strength Pill.

“…Then could it be?”

His eyes widened as he realized what I was getting at.

“Yes,” I said quietly. “It’s likely. No—given the circumstances, there’s no doubt.”

“Goddamn it.”

Jeok Cheongang let out the curse like a sigh. The Bow Saint, who’d been listening to us with a grave expression, spoke up.

“This is about that bizarre pill, isn’t it?”

“…!”

“Don’t look so surprised. It may have been in the past, but it was only a year or two ago. I already knew about the Mount Heng Sword Sect and the Red Wind Band.”

Unfazed by my reaction, she continued.

“I know you were careful to keep it quiet, but unless you silence the witnesses, the truth has a way of getting out.”

The shock of remembering the Temporary Strength Pill had made me forget why the Bow Saint had chosen to stay by the Emperor’s side—and just how many eyes and ears the imperial court had scattered across this vast land.

“If you already know, there’s no need for a long explanation.”

A faint, inscrutable smile touched the Bow Saint’s lips as I regained my composure. It vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

“What happened at the Mount Heng Sword Sect raised questions for me, too. Especially after I learned more about Pung Yang, the leader of the Red Wind Band.”

Setting everything else aside, any martial artist would have had questions.

That day, in front of a fair number of onlookers, Pung Yang had displayed power approaching the Supreme Peak realm. He’d already become an accomplished Peak master, making him a formidable fighter in his own right. But manifesting Force, even imperfectly, defied common sense.

Especially when the Head Elder, who’d reached the very limits of the Peak realm, could only show power like that after drawing on his innate qi.

Learning martial arts was like climbing an endless flight of stairs. A beginner might skip several steps at once, but at the Peak realm, you had to give everything you had just to reach the next one.

Even Cheongpung, born with heaven-sent martial talent and strengthened at a dazzling pace, wouldn’t have skipped the steps laid out before him.

But the Temporary Strength Pill makes that possible.

Its effects were tremendous, its side effects terrible, and its power short-lived. Still, it could twist the natural order. There was no way the Bow Saint could have missed that after learning more about Pung Yang.

“At the time, a thought did cross my mind,” she murmured. “I wondered if Pung Yang—the man who died because of his greed—might be the one I’d been searching for.”

A question occurred to me.

If Pung Yang, not I, had survived that battle—and if he really had been the chosen one—what choice would she have made?

But I swallowed the question. What we were facing now was far too serious.

“It seems… someone is secretly distributing the pill Pung Yang used.”

Jeok Cheongang and the Bow Saint already knew who I meant by someone.

Dark Heaven.

The ones who had made the Temporary Strength Pill.

I didn’t know exactly when they’d begun preparing for this. But the fact that one had reached the hands of an ordinary bandit was no small matter.

“Are you sure?” Jeok Cheongang asked, his voice low. “From what this old man heard, its effects seem far too weak.”

The Bow Saint shook her head before I could answer.

“The bandit who stood in your way hadn’t even reached First Rate. Considering the change in him afterward, there are two possibilities.”

“What two?”

“Either its power varies according to the user’s level. Or…”

Her voice trailed off as she looked toward me.

“Or they reduced its effects,” I said, “and reduced the side effects along with them.”

“…!”

A brief silence fell. Jeok Cheongang looked between us, his expression heavy, then muttered, “It must be the latter.”

“We can’t be sure of that yet.”

“No. Whatever explanation you come up with, it’s only wordplay to avoid facing reality.”

He shook his head and continued firmly.

“Everyone in this world wants power. Wealth, fame, strength—whatever form it takes, they want to stand above others. But everything has its price.”

Great power came at a great price.

And most people, however fiercely they wished for something, couldn’t bring themselves to put in the work to get it. They knew how hard that would be. To gain what they wanted in the future, they’d have to give up the comforts and pleasures they had now.

“But what if the price of a moment’s power were one they could bear?”

Then I understood why Jeok Cheongang was so certain—and what he was really trying to say.

“They didn’t make it just to bolster their own fighting strength.”

“…!”

“How else could Pung Yang, who led a mere band of mounted bandits, or some petty mountain bandit get their hands on it? No—why would Dark Heaven reach out to the likes of them at all?”

No one would touch a bomb. It might go off at the slightest jolt, and its blast could tear you apart just for standing too close.

But what if it wasn’t a bomb? What if it was a campfire?

On a cold winter day, people wandering through the snow in search of something would reach toward it for warmth. Even if they got too close, they’d suffer only a small burn. They knew that much wouldn’t kill them.

A campfire anyone could reach toward. A trivial price for its warmth.

That was probably exactly what Dark Heaven wanted. This vast land was full of madmen eager to taste power, even at that small cost. And those called the orthodox faction would be no exception.

Power anyone can obtain…!

That was the true danger of the new Temporary Strength Pill.

Its alluring power would tempt people who’d spent ten years, even decades, stuck in the same place. In the blink of an eye, it would addict them and ruin them.

And at the same time, the Lord of Heaven could give greater vitality to his countless followers—or rather, to the people who were little more than disposable meat shields.

To the innumerable hordes of Dark Heaven surging like a wave toward Shanxi Province even now.