“Why are you being so kind to me?”
It was a question I naturally had to ask.
Miss Namgung, I could understand, but there was no reason for her brother to look out for me like this too.
The sky was still raging madly, and according to these people's explanation, an ordinary person's life was in danger just from being exposed to this blood qi or whatever.
Yet she'd gone out of her way to rush into that dangerous place to save me, and they were moving together with me like this.
Anyone but a fool could tell: the Namgung siblings were flanking me left and right, as if guarding me.
Everything from their attitude to what they said looked like they were trying to protect me.
“Because you must return alive and receive a Namgung Token.”
“……?”
I tilted my head at Namgung Ho-won, who stood on my left and still delivered only the conclusion to me, calmly and mechanically.
From my right, Namgung Ran spoke in a voice that sounded a little like a sigh.
“The Namgung's debts and grudges are not as famous as the Tang Clan's, but when it comes to kindness, we surpass the Tang Clan. You have shown me a great kindness, so of course you are entitled to receive a Gratitude Token.”
“What do you mean?”
Namgung Ran, rather proudly, chattered about how she had crossed into a new realm and how I had played a very big part in it.
“Me?”
“Yes, you, Licentiate.”
“I think I only said common-sense things, though.”
Again, a dry voice came from my left.
“Martial arts are personal by nature. The walls one faces differ for everyone. The greatest kindness one can show a Namgung martial artist is to open the way to what lies beyond.”
“Do you do this for your family elders too?”
“No. It is precisely because you are an outsider that we must do this.”
It somehow felt like they were making too much of it. It wasn't my intention, and even if she'd crossed a realm, I doubted I had any share in it.
“What realm did you reach that you're acting like this?”
“Thanks to your words, my sword has reached the Peak.”
“That's……. a Peak Master, right?”
“That is right.”
“Congratulations.”
At my congratulations, Namgung Ran scratched her head bashfully, and there was certainly no anxiety or worry on her face.
A bright, confident expression that made me think this was how she must have originally been.
[Now I can eat properly even when I go back to my family.]
The content she sent by telepathy was strangely trivial, but actually very important.
What did I know about Peak Masters?
Hong-hyung sometimes used to grumble about the wall of the Peak too.
If she'd set foot at that level at her age, she must be terrifyingly strong.
It wouldn't be called the Peak for nothing.
I nodded quietly, then quickened my pace.
The government office looked very busy.
Unless I misheard, there were officials shouting nearby too. They were shouting at the people hiding without knowing what was happening that they had to evacuate.
There wasn't even a military officer standing guard at the gate, and once we went through the main gate, it seemed they'd all been busy running around with weapons.
One of them saw us and was wary at first, but recognized the Namgung martial arts uniforms and approached.
“Are you the young masters of the Namgung?”
Before I could say anything, Namgung Ho-won answered.
“Yes. This is Licentiate Heo of Jeong Manor, who guided us here. All the inn's staff came with us. If the Governor is here, we would like to receive his instructions.”
I took a step back for now.
I'd never wanted to lead in the first place, so if the second Namgung young master stepped up, that suited me fine.
“Thank you for your cooperation. The Governor is in his office. Please follow me.”
He seemed to be an officer of some rank, because when he gestured, other soldiers began guiding the inn's staff somewhere.
Watching that, I felt a bigger chill than from anything else.
‘This is way too well-coordinated.’
That itself isn't a problem. It's a good thing.
But is it even possible to move like this without guidelines all the officials have already memorized?
If so, it means guidelines handed down from above have been strictly drilled into them.
When civil servants do their jobs well, it means the higher-ups have ground them down hard.
Or……. it's a dangerous enough matter that anyone but a fool has no choice but to follow.
Wherever I look, there's bewilderment, but no confusion about what needs to be done.
Then this world was never a place where you'd be fine as long as you didn't go near sword-carrying martial artists.
Absolute Masters scattering calamity from the sky walk around in human form, so I don't even want to imagine what kind of disaster a war between martial artists is.
And it's a world where all of that has been passed down as lessons too shocking to be forgotten.
What does that mean?
It means that if the officials of this world don't know what peace is, then neither will I.
It also meant there'd been something creaky in the very foundation of my plan to enjoy peace in a government post.
Instead of sighing, I raised my head and looked at the sky.
Whatever happens, I have to survive.
I tried to slip in among the staff being led away and follow the military officer.
“Licentiate? Where are you going?”
“Pardon?”
“You should come with us.”
Namgung Ran asked so genuinely puzzled that I couldn't follow the military officer.
The officer didn't pay me any attention either.
I'd already been recognized as part of their group. Like it or not.
On the contrary, some of the inn staff even bowed their heads to me as they moved off.
I haven't done anything.
The Governor I met after following them wasn't a face I was seeing for the first time.
The County Examination, the first stage of the Youth Examination, had been held in Lizhou, so I remembered him presiding over it.
But I felt he'd aged terribly since then.
Maybe it had only been a few weeks.
“The children of the Namgung. Did the Divine Sword find you?”
“He did.”
“Then you roughly know. Whom is he fighting up there?”
“It seems to be the Captain of the Blood Heaven Unit.”
The Governor's expression at that moment was quite a sight; it seemed less that he'd asked because he didn't know, and more that he'd hoped they'd tell him it wasn't so.
After a brief moment of despair, the Governor spoke quickly, as if reciting prepared words.
“Then I ask a favor: evacuate even a few of the residents in the areas where the blood qi is spreading. While the Divine Sword pushes back the Blood Heaven, we must get as many people out of Lizhou as possible.”
“We will do so.”
“Ah, and you……. Are you not the young man who became a Licentiate the day before yesterday? Jeong Manor……. You were the Licentiate from Jeong Manor, were you not?”
He tried not to show it, but there was a momentary glint of suspicion. I realized the situation too. From the Governor's standpoint, I couldn't help but be suspicious.
Namgung Ran stepped forward firmly.
“But he is a benefactor who is to receive a Namgung Token. He has nothing to do with the Demonic Cult's ilk.”
“I hope so. No, wait, did you say Namgung Token? Then you will take charge of him.”
“We will.”
“Good, handle it as you see fit. I must get moving as well. Ah, may I ask your levels of martial arts?”
It might have been a rude question. Namgung Ran readily said that she had risen to the Peak. Namgung Ho-won remained silent.
“Then how do you think the fight up there will go? I need to decide what to do next.”
“I do not know either, but…….”
“You would know better than I would.”
“…….”
I thought I understood the situation a little.
There seemed to be some unwritten rule that orthodox martial artists and the government cooperate in emergencies like this.
In fact, the Governor's behavior looked like conduct within guidelines.
“To be honest, I think the Divine Sword is being pushed back. He may be straining himself to hold on.”
“Is that so? Sad news. We must flee even faster. Then I am counting on you. I will be sure to convey this to your family.”
“Ah, if you would do that, I would be truly grateful.”
Namgung Ran brightening was one thing, but even Namgung Ho-won's face brightened slightly.
What on earth are these merit points?
Watching all that somehow struck me as funny, but every time it did, thunder raged in the sky.
If the Qingcheng Divine Sword isn't going to hold out long, things will get even more dangerous.
“And the First Squad of the Blood Heaven Unit may be nearby. Do not forget that.”
“We will keep it in mind.”
“In that case, at least you must survive. Otherwise, I will have nothing to report.”
“We will.”
The conversation was quick and concise. It was possible because both sides already knew what they had to do and what to say to each other.
When we came out of the Governor's office, Namgung Ho-won apologized to me.
“I am sorry for not asking your opinion. I thought it would be better for you to move with us, Licentiate.”
I'd had no choice anyway, so I quietly bowed my head to express my thanks.
He'd said to ask the Namgung for help when your life hangs by a thread, so that's the right thing to do.
At least they won't let me die, so this actually works out well for me.
Walking out, I felt all over again how strange my situation was.
In this chaos, everyone's situation is strange, but among them, I must be the only one who knows the whole picture and is connected to every group involved.
I licked my lips. There was blood on them, and they tasted of it. I flinched, wondering if it was blood qi, but it didn't tingle or sting.
My lips were bone dry.
I looked up at the sky again.
The utterly ominous red and blue sky was gradually blurring at its border, about to blend.
And even to my eyes, the blue sky seemed to be getting pushed back little by little.
That meant all of Lizhou might be covered by the Blood Heaven.
A chill ran down my spine.
***
Martial artists are those who live by the sword and die by the sword. They are not newly flustered to find themselves exchanging blows with someone.
The Divine Sword, meeting the Captain of the Blood Heaven Unit as he charged in ferociously, first thought he had to get him away from the ground.
Given the nature of his movement art, it was a battlefield more favorable to Qingcheng, and it was also an effort to somehow minimize the damage to the ground.
The Captain of the Blood Heaven Unit was far too great a figure.
If he and the Captain ran amok on the ground, it would go exactly as the Captain wanted.
“Ngh.”
And there was another problem.
A single exchange.
The single move to soar into the air and the clash with the red blood qi that met it were enough for him to understand.
‘A difference of about half a move.’
Those compared to the heads of the Seven Demon Heavenly Pillars were, by nature, the Sun-Moon Seven Stars.
The Divine Sword, who used the same sword yet had not reached the star of the sword and merely bore his sect's name before his own, fell short of the Captain of the Blood Heaven Unit.
‘Well, it was not something I did not know.’
The Divine Sword reset his role in an instant.
From the start, he was a scout.
If it was not a situation in which he could fight and win, it was enough not to lose.
The Murim Alliance's messenger pigeons would have flown across all the Central Plains.
The Emei Divine Nun and the Sichuan Tang Clan Head would also be heading to Lizhou ahead of their households.
He had to hold out until then. He had to pin the Captain down in the air so the ground would not be completely wrecked, dissipate the aftershocks as much as possible, and pit his domain against the Captain's as well.
He would buy time for as many people as possible to escape Lizhou alive.
‘Four hours……. no, two at best, perhaps.’
The problem was not whether he himself survived, but all those living in the small city of Lizhou.
‘If need be, I will drive him into the Rakshasa Immortal's territory.’
The unknown is always an object of fear. An Absolute Master who had held his domain in one place for more than three hundred years had become a kind of aberration.
It was a drastic remedy he could consider to create a variable in his fight with the Captain.
The two, who had risen above Jeong Manor in a single bound, began trading blows as they stepped on clouds and on the wind.
Even then, the vast domains that symbolized their enlightenment swirled, competing beyond the physical realm.
If he did not push back the red Blood Heaven, all the humans below would die, so the Divine Sword desperately expended his inner arts.
That sight puzzled the Captain of the Blood Heaven Unit as well.
Sword and fist clashed again, and a shock spread that scattered the surrounding clouds in an instant.
In the momentary vacuum of qi and force it created, the Captain asked the Divine Sword a question.
“Where did you really leave the Sword Star? If you mean to strike me, there is no way you came alone.”
Rage surged in the Divine Sword. For an instant, it was enough to crumble the composure he had built through cultivation.
“How long will you go on defiling my friend? It has not been a few days since he fell into your vile trap and departed this world.”
At times, rage becomes strength. Powerful force went into the release of his inner arts, and it became a storm that shoved the Captain of the Blood Heaven Unit away.
The border of the domains heaved greatly, and the Blood Heaven was pushed back.
“Where have you hidden the Hermit Forest Lord, you bastard?”
It was not something the Forest Lord could have done alone.
But if the Captain were with him, a way would open for the Sword Star to have been struck down without a trace.
For the martial world was a truly unknowable place.
Despite the shadow veiling the Captain of the Blood Heaven Unit's face, one could feel it scowl.
“Our words do not match. I will kill you and ask someone still alive.”
“And I will kill you and find the Forest Lord to ask him.”
Between the orthodox and the demonic paths, which could not share the same sky from the beginning, there was little chance of a straight conversation.
The two Absolute Masters each thought the other was spouting nonsense to mock him.
Then, in a corner of the Captain of the Blood Heaven Unit's vision, he saw his subordinates coming over the pass into Lizhou.
The First Squad of the Blood Heaven Unit had arrived.
Whether the Sword Star was there or not no longer mattered.
“Now die.”
The Captain of the Blood Heaven Unit thrust his body straight onto the Divine Sword's blade.
Forgo defense, and you gain one more breath of attack.
It was an offensive the Divine Sword could not have predicted, and right after, a red fist aimed at the Divine Sword's head came right at his nose.
Blocking it was almost a miracle.