The shadow of death slowly drew closer.
Moin narrowed his eyes.
'Lee Woo-yang… that bastard had to say something unnecessary…'
Moin had been standing right behind him.
When Lee Woo-yang brought the Black Death Sword down on Ja Cheon-gwang, that had been where Moin stood.
Naturally, Lee Woo-yang's words had reached Moin's ears with perfect clarity.
-Where have you been? What took you so long to return?
Lee Woo-yang's words.
Moin's heart dropped.
No matter how ignorant the martial artists of the Ascending Dragon Sect might be, they surely had enough sense to notice that much.
Moreover, Ja Cheon-gwang was even literate.
Even among those boar-like brutes, he was especially sharp-witted.
'His condition had been abnormal from the moment he returned. He must have clashed properly with the White Dragon Corps. More importantly…'
What mattered was whether the White Dragon Corps had opened their mouths.
But judging by their behavior, it did not seem as though they had said anything.
If they had talked, would Ja Cheon-gwang not have drawn his sword and charged in the moment he arrived?
'In any case, he does not know. He does not know who the men that ambushed him were…. I am certain of it. He will not know that I was the one manipulating things from behind the scenes either.'
Moin recalled what the Black Dragon Corps had said.
If they attacked Ja Cheon-gwang, the Black Dragon Corps might be wiped out.
The White Dragon Corps would likely have been no different.
'Besides, they must have looked down on him. The White Dragon Corps has always been that kind of bunch.'
Carelessness had brought disaster.
That was why Ja Cheon-gwang was standing here alive now.
'Even if they had failed, I could have let it pass. But Lee Woo-yang, that bastard, went and killed his close friends as well…'
He had scratched at the scab and torn it open.
A massive sore, one that would be difficult to treat….
Moin lowered his gaze slightly.
The two greatswords in Ja Cheon-gwang's hands.
Fresh blood dripped from their tips.
It was Lee Woo-yang's blood.
"Sect Leader. Congratulations on your ascension."
Moin immediately prostrated himself flat on the ground.
Thoughts could wait.
First, he had to preserve his life.
"C-Congratulations on your ascension, Sect Leader."
The other two elders, Second Elder Jang Woo-geun and Third Elder Sim Baek, hurriedly bowed as well.
"Ah… I feel much more comfortable now that you are doing that."
SWISH.
Ja Cheon-gwang laid a greatsword across Moin's neck.
It was the Black Death Sword, its blade honed to a blue gleam.
Its heavy weight pressed down on Moin's neck.
If Ja Cheon-gwang merely relaxed his grip, its razor edge seemed capable of severing his head at once.
"Why did you send them?"
"I… I do not know what you mean."
CREAK…
When Ja Cheon-gwang loosened his grip, the blade bit into Moin's neck.
Blood streamed down between the sword's edge and his skin.
Lee Woo-yang's blood and Moin's blood flowed together.
"Why did you send them?"
"I-I never did such a thing."
"Is that so? Second Elder."
Jang Woo-geun, who was prostrated beside him, flinched in surprise.
"Yes? Yes, Sect Leader."
Jang Woo-geun was bewildered.
He understood Ja Cheon-gwang cutting down Lee Woo-yang and ascending to the position of Sect Leader.
But he had never expected him to suddenly hold a sword to the Grand Elder's neck.
"Did they not say they had come because the Grand Elder sent them?"
Ja Cheon-gwang addressed only Jang Woo-geun politely.
Until just yesterday, had he not fought on the battlefield under Jang Woo-geun's command?
Jang Woo-geun was also someone who had been favorable toward him.
But what?
Sent whom?
At that moment, several faces flashed through Jang Woo-geun's mind.
Had three men in black not approached him the day before and said they would accompany Ja Cheon-gwang on his reconnaissance mission?
He had completely forgotten that fact amid the fierce battle the previous night.
'Right. It was certainly a written message from the Grand Elder. It said he would send men.'
"I-If you mean those men from yesterday, then yes. They said they had come because the Grand Elder sent them."
Jang Woo-geun looked at Moin's buttocks as he lay prostrated before him.
They were trembling.
'What is the problem? If the Grand Elder sent them, they must have been from the Black Dragon Corps. Did something happen?'
Unable to understand the reason, Jang Woo-geun could not comprehend why Moin was trembling so badly either.
"Grand Elder, did you hear that? They said they came because the Grand Elder sent them. You are quite capable. To think you would send the White Dragon Corps rather than the Black Dragon Corps. It seems you can even move the Sect Leader's guards as you please."
The more Ja Cheon-gwang thought about it, the more certain he became that they had not been from the Black Dragon Corps.
All three had been stronger than the upper ranks of the Golden Dragon Corps.
If so, they would have held fairly high positions even within the Black Dragon Corps.
Men like that could not possibly have failed to recognize the martial uniforms of the Moyong Family.
'He found out they were from the White Dragon Corps? I see. Those White Dragon Corps bastards opened their mouths. Worthless bastards. Not only did they fail their mission, but they had loose tongues as well?'
More importantly, the written message.
Moin had never sent such a message.
All he had done was use someone in the Black Dragon Corps who was friendly with the White Dragon Corps to pass along a quiet message.
There was no way the Black Dragon Corps under his command could have failed to do their job properly….
'Did those White Dragon Corps bastards tell the Second Elder that? Did he merely assume it on his own?'
There was no longer any way out.
If that was the case, they must have confessed everything, including the plot they had devised with Moin.
After all, it was true that he had encouraged the White Dragon Corps.
"……."
"Enough. I understand."
Silence was an answer.
He had merely been sounding him out….
Yet Ja Cheon-gwang had become certain from Moin's reaction alone that Moin was the one behind moving the White Dragon Corps.
THWACK.
The Black Death Sword resting across Moin's neck fell straight down.
A tremendous sound, as though the earth itself had split, rang out.
ROLL, ROLL…
Moin's head rolled across the ground before stopping at Ja Cheon-gwang's feet.
"Haa…."
Ja Cheon-gwang looked toward Great Dragon Hall with indifferent eyes.
Toward the Great Dragon Hall where chaos had erupted.
Perhaps the Golden Dragon Corps was still fighting a fierce battle against the White Dragon Corps who had remained there.
"I should lend them a hand."
Ja Cheon-gwang slowly began walking toward Great Dragon Hall.
***
It was a quiet midnight.
A single small candle flickered, struggling to illuminate a fairly spacious room.
The glimpses of scenery revealed by its wavering light suggested that this was quite a lavish place.
Beneath the candle's shadow.
A middle-aged man clutched his head.
"What a heavy burden."
His low voice sounded like the cry of a man who had fallen to the bottom of the world.
It was Moyong Jeong-cheon, the Young Family Head of the Moyong Family.
No, he was now the man who had become its Family Head.
An enormous burden weighed upon his shoulders.
He was the one who had to settle all of it.
In the study of the Moyong Family's main hall, his long sigh, uttered in solitude, cut through the still air.
'I knew that I would become Family Head one day. But I never wanted an inheritance like this. Not once…'
The Moyong Family had been attacked by black-clad men whose identities were unknown.
They did not even know who the attackers were.
No one had been captured alive.
No meaningful clue had been found on the corpses of the attackers either.
They had merely been attacked, and terrible losses had been left behind.
'The only thing I learned was that they were thorough enough to leave behind neither identities nor evidence.'
It was useless information.
His mother had died.
Along with more than a hundred members of the Moyong household.
The men had shown no mercy even to the servants who knew no martial arts.
Moyong Jeong-hyeon, his younger brother and the Moyong Family's second son, had lost his right arm and left leg while blocking the black-clad men.
Moyong Jeong-gi, the third son, had lost his life after being pursued by the men on Scattered Gorge Mountain.
Above all, even the family’s Sacred Relic, the Heavenly Spirit Jewel, had vanished without a trace.
"Father…."
Moyong Yang, the Family Head of the Moyong Family, had passed away as well.
His end had been unbearably miserable.
The corpse recovered after the battle no longer had a head.
It had been crushed so thoroughly that its shape could not even be recognized, with only the scalp hanging in tatters from the neck.
'Jang Hang… that bastard…'
Blood seeped through Moyong Jeong-cheon's tightly pressed lips.
He had to take revenge, at the very least.
But he could not even make a move.
There was no way for him to withstand Jang Hang's overwhelming martial prowess.
He had withdrawn under the pretext that he needed to settle the family’s chaos.
But in the end, he was nothing more or less than a dog with its tail tucked between its legs.
RUSTLE.
A letter lay before him.
On its first page was written a weighty name.
Martial Alliance.
He had read it again and again until the paper had nearly turned to rags.
Each time, all that remained was despair.
Moyong Yang's reckless charge in the grip of his rage.
In its aftermath, not only the Moyong Family's elite but also many martial artists belonging to the Martial Alliance had lost their lives.
Yes, that much might have been resolved somehow.
But martial artists from the great sects who had gathered to raise their reputations had died as well.
Even the rising talents of the younger generation from each family had fallen.
Their deaths were enough to make sects across the Central Plains rise up.
The severely weakened Moyong Family could not bear all that responsibility.
Yet every interested party tried to pass responsibility onto another, and in the end, the Moyong Family had no choice but to bear the burden of this incident alone.
-Does anyone truly need to stop Hegemon Fortress when it is not coming out?
-Liaoning is not part of the Central Plains anyway, is it?
-Shanhai Pass, the gateway into the Central Plains, is guarded by an army of more than ten thousand. Could a mere rabble possibly cross into the Central Plains?
Taken together, the words being spoken all carried one meaning.
Hegemon Fortress lay outside the Central Plains, so there was no need to confront it.
It was only natural that opposition to the war would spread.
That meant the dissolution of the Orthodox Allied Forces.
At the same time, it was little different from the Martial Alliance declaring that it would abandon the Moyong Family.
'Perhaps it was inevitable. The Martial Alliance had long been dissatisfied with maintaining the front line while repeating only drawn-out battles without progress.'
The endless waste of funds.
They had put forward the noble-sounding cause of eradicating the unorthodox faction, but in truth, it was no different from pouring water into a bottomless vessel.
Hegemon Fortress itself merely remained quiet.
Except for Jang Hang's appearance this time, it had been nearly twenty years since Hegemon Fortress had last revealed itself.
Furthermore, the Moyong Family had always been the side to start the battles first.
There were even claims that the Moyong Family was overreacting to Hegemon Fortress, which posed no significant threat.
Some even openly spread rumors that it was merely a scheme to obtain support funds.
'What should I do? If the Martial Alliance cuts off its support, the Moyong Family will have no choice but to fall.'
Under pressure from Hegemon Fortress, most of the Moyong Family's commercial interests in Liaoning had collapsed.
In the aftermath, it was difficult even to maintain the family’s prestige.
If the Martial Alliance's support was cut off as well, the decline of the already faltering family would inevitably accelerate.
There was at least one fortunate thing.
Perhaps because of Moyong Yang's death, the Martial Alliance had not openly demanded compensation.
They must have had some sense of decency as well.
One could not exactly bring a bill to a house in mourning.
What a cruelly ironic world.
"Father… I am sorry. Once things are settled, I will hold memorial rites for you without fail, even if they are late."
The Moyong Family did not even have enough beds for the wounded.
In the end, Moyong Jeong-cheon had no choice but to give up even his own room as a sickroom for the injured.
Holding memorial rites for Moyong Yang amid all this was beyond consideration.
Once this night passed and the sun rose, how many people would groan in pain?
How many bereaved families would come to the Moyong Family and cry out in grief?
He feared the rising morning sun.
Most agonizing of all was the fact that there was nothing he could do now.
That helplessness weighed even more heavily on his shoulders.
SWISH.
A small cloth pouch slipped out from his sleeve.
Inside were metal fragments found near the place where his younger brother Moyong Jeong-gi had died.
'In the end, is this all that remains?'
For a while, Moyong Jeong-cheon stared blankly at the fragments.
The pieces of metal glimmered faintly beneath the candlelight.
The fragment answered his gaze.
Look at me.
***
Between rocky mountains, two men rode slowly upward along a gorge path.
The younger man looked extremely awkward, as though it was his first time riding a horse.
His body kept swaying, and he repeatedly struggled to keep his balance atop the saddle.
Though it was a gorge, the road was fairly wide.
It was broad enough for ten people to walk side by side.
The road led to the greatest power in these parts.
Hegemon Fortress.
The road itself was rough and unkempt, but in scale alone, it was enormous beyond comparison to the mountain paths of the Ascending Dragon Sect.
The two men wore neat martial garb.
However, they carried no weapons.
If they valued their lives, they had to leave their swords behind on the road leading to Hegemon Fortress.
In contrast to the refreshing weather, both men wore heavy expressions.
"Do we really have to go? It is my first time riding a horse, and I cannot even keep my posture steady…."
The young man in his early twenties asked the elderly man on his right.
His face was full of discontent.
Perhaps because riding was still unfamiliar to him, he continued fidgeting in the saddle.
"It is a place we must go."
The old man answered.
"Tsk…."
"You must never show that attitude once we arrive. You never know what misfortune may befall you."
"That is what I do not like. What is so special about Hegemon Fortress…."
"……."
The young man in his early twenties was Ja Cheon-gwang, who had ascended to the position of Sect Leader of the Ascending Dragon Sect three days earlier.
The old man was Sim Baek, the Ascending Dragon Sect's new Second Elder.
He had originally belonged to the Internal Affairs Hall and handled documents.
The previous Second Elder, Jang Woo-geun, had been promoted to Grand Elder.
However, Jang Woo-geun had originally been responsible for combat.
Even after becoming Grand Elder, he still had to take to the battlefield, so it was a promotion that was little more than a change in name.
Sim Baek carefully watched Ja Cheon-gwang's reaction.
He had seen the former Sect Leader, Lee Woo-yang, being cut into pieces before his eyes.
He had also personally witnessed Grand Elder Moin's head being cut off.
There had been no opposition.
It was a succession without formal justification, but that was the Ascending Dragon Sect's way.
The strong became Sect Leader.
That was why the Ascending Dragon Sect was called an unorthodox faction.
In any case, the Golden Dragon Corps, the Ascending Dragon Sect's greatest force, fully supported Ja Cheon-gwang.
Therefore, no one could oppose his accession as Sect Leader.
Perhaps they had grown sick and tired of Lee Woo-yang's tyranny.
'Great Dragon Hall at that time. It truly was hell.'
Sim Baek was also from Non-Dragon Hall.
However, it had been nearly twenty years since he had last gone into battle.
He had worked in the Internal Affairs Hall of Great Dragon Hall during that time, so it had been a long while since he had seen such a horrific scene.
Goosebumps rose on his skin without his realizing it.
Even now, the memory of that day sent a chill down his spine.
"Sect Leader. Are you truly not going to bring any guards?"
Sim Baek asked cautiously.
The five members of the White Dragon Corps who had remained at Great Dragon Hall that day had been slaughtered, quite literally.
By the Golden Dragon Corps.
'If only those bastards had died, it would have been better. But they killed every member of their households as well….'
Lee Woo-yang's two wives and three children.
Even the wives and children of the White Dragon Corps members.
The Golden Dragon Corps, acting on Ja Cheon-gwang's order, had mercilessly cut off every one of their heads.
The only blessing, if it could be called one, was that they had not been violated.
"Hmph. I cannot keep men who acted as the Grand Elder's puppets by my side. We will take our time and reorganize properly. But why are the Orthodox Allied Forces so quiet?"
"It seems the losses from the last battle were severe. Even their leader, Moyong Yang, died."
"Those bastards used to pick fights every other day. Now that they are quiet, I find it even more unsettling."
"It is fortunate for us. The Ascending Dragon Sect needs to be reorganized as well."
Perhaps that work would proceed more smoothly than expected.
Hegemon Fortress had sent down an enormous amount of war funding.
The Ascending Dragon Sect had been the first to arrive on the battlefield and held back the Orthodox Allied Forces, even while being driven to the brink of annihilation.
It seemed that Hegemon Fortress had valued that merit highly.
If Lee Woo-yang had known that this money would be sent, he would have left the Golden Dragon Corps alone.
Then Bong Gyu would not have died, and Ja Cheon-gwang himself would not have been injured.
For Lee Woo-yang, it truly had been a pointless death.
In any case, the Ascending Dragon Sect's sacrifices had been immense.
More than thirty percent of its members had died.
The number of wounded was beyond counting.
"More importantly, what sort of bastard is this Jang Hang?"
Sim Baek flinched at Ja Cheon-gwang's words.
To dare call him a bastard within Hegemon Fortress's territory.
"Sect Leader. You must watch your words here. You may suffer severe punishment."
"Tsk."
Come to think of it, had it not been said that Jang Hang ended the last battle?
'I missed a fine spectacle. Why did a man I have never even seen have to appear when I was absent…?'
According to the Golden Dragon Corps members, he had not been human.
He had an enormous body, as though several people had been stitched together, and overwhelming strength.
Had the men who witnessed that sight not all been left dumbstruck?
'Soon, I will see for myself. What kind of bastard he is.'
A faint killing intent flowed from Ja Cheon-gwang's eyes.
It was not intentional.
He bore no grudge against Jang Hang.
It was merely the competitive spirit he felt toward a strong opponent.
Sim Baek's heart pounded at the sight.
'This… it seems dark clouds are gathering over the Ascending Dragon Sect.'