To the west of the Ascending Dragon Sect's training ground.
Ja Cheon-gwang sat on the edge of a cliff.
The sun was slowly sinking, and a crimson sunset lay low across the horizon.
The long shadow it cast stretched all the way down the mountain.
It was a place he had visited whenever he had the chance since his days in the Iron Dragon Corps.
Together with Bong Gyu and Yoo Hwan-geun.
'It has not changed.'
Below the cliff, he could see the training ground of the Non-Dragon Corps.
The children swung their swords, while several Instructors from the Golden Dragon Corps and Silver Dragon Corps shouted and kicked at them.
So many people had died in the last battle.
Naturally, the number that had to be raised from the Non-Dragon Corps into the Iron Dragon Corps had increased as well.
That did not mean they could promote useless dregs.
It was only natural for the Instructors to drill them with vicious determination.
When had it begun?
From the moment his memories began, he had been in the Non-Dragon Corps.
A place completely cut off from the outside world.
A world beneath a cliff that no one could leave.
Number 48 had swung his sword like a madman, dreaming of the world above the cliff.
He believed that a paradise would unfold if he could only escape this place.
But the moment he entered the Iron Dragon Corps, he realized that was a lie.
Within the Non-Dragon Corps, the word death was not used except for children who fell into qi deviation.
But the battlefield here was different.
Death was always nearby.
Someone who had laughed and joked only moments before would leave his side as a cold corpse.
-Go out into the martial world.
Myo-wol's words lingered in his mind.
Joy welled up within him.
Had he not always sat here, gazing beyond that sunset?
Holding onto the hope that he could leave for the end of that sky and find freedom.
Whether it was misfortune or fortune.
The side effects of qi deviation had given him enormous inner arts.
The Silver Dragon Corps.
The Golden Dragon Corps.
His promotions had come in an instant.
In the end, he had risen all the way to the position of Sect Leader.
The complacency that came with settling into his position.
'I have changed as well. To think that, at some point, I stopped even considering leaving this place.'
Was that why Myo-wol's words had made his heart race?
His mind was now filled once more with the desire to leave.
'Had it been there since then?'
At one side of the Non-Dragon Corps' training ground, he could see several oak trees growing together.
It was a spot no one paid attention to.
Weeds taller than a person grew thickly there.
'At this rate, the weeds will grow taller than the oak trees. Tsk, who even eats those damned acorns…?'
The acorns Bong Gyu always kept in his mouth.
In the Non-Dragon Corps, where there had been nothing to eat but hard fist-sized rice balls, they had been the only snack Bong Gyu could enjoy.
'Come to think of it, there are no oak trees above the cliff. Where in the world did that bastard get his acorns?'
Even when he died, Bong Gyu had kept acorns tucked into his chest.
Ja Cheon-gwang suddenly regretted never asking him while he was alive.
Ja Cheon-gwang slowly turned his head.
Great Dragon Hall stood across the training ground.
It was his residence as Sect Leader.
Only a short while ago, he had been a man who slept curled up inside a shack beneath the cliff.
A spacious room.
Old-fashioned decorations.
A splendid space filled with expensive furniture.
Yet he felt nothing in that place.
He had been accustomed to a shabby life from the beginning.
He did not even have the knowledge to tell what was expensive and what was good.
Rather, he had grown used to the bustle of living in a group, and the solitude of a large detached residence tormented him more.
Above all, he could no longer find any interest there.
It had already been fifteen days since he became Sect Leader.
During that time, he barely spoke.
He had always lived without people around him.
Yoo Hwan-geun and Bong Gyu had been there, but now even they were gone.
Except during meetings, there were more days when he did not speak a single word from dawn to dusk.
Sitting alone in a luxurious room and watching the day fade away.
That had become his daily life.
'Surely this is enough, is it not?'
The Ascending Dragon Sect had been greatly weakened after the large-scale battle.
They had recovered the corpses.
They had treated the wounded.
They had repaired the weapons.
They had reassigned the scattered personnel and rebuilt the collapsed structure.
For the time being, the Moyong Family would be unable to move.
The same was true of Hegemon Fortress.
The war had paused for a while.
'Then there should not be any major problem in the Ascending Dragon Sect for now. Elder Sim Baek and the internal affairs officers will handle the major and minor affairs far better than I can.'
Jang Woo-geun would oversee the training.
That meant there was nothing he needed to do.
Nothing remained here in which he could find meaning.
Perhaps that was why Lee Woo-yang, the former Sect Leader, had lived steeped in drink as well.
DONG, DONG, DONG, DONG…
From afar, the bell announcing the evening meal rang out.
But now that he was Sect Leader, it no longer held any meaning for him.
Even that bell could no longer stir anything within him.
His resolve hardened.
'Let us go.'
Far from this place.
To the Central Plains.
***
People hurried busily back and forth.
In the middle of a bustling marketplace stood a shabby inn that suited the scene rather well.
A man sitting beside a second-floor window rested his chin on his hand and looked down outside.
He wore an ordinary martial arts uniform of black cotton with blue trim.
His sleeves were so loose that he could have passed for someone wearing ordinary inner clothes.
His face was unremarkable.
His hair was tied back carelessly.
He looked to be about twenty years old.
Whenever the wind blew, his disheveled bangs tickled the corners of his eyes.
His gaze rested on the people in the street.
Merchants hurrying back and forth.
Vendors talking noisily.
Even children running around with food in their hands.
His eyes sparkled as though every sight fascinated him.
It was a time that seemed dull yet was strangely enjoyable.
He was watching people.
Who would have thought that each and every person could be so interesting?
Compared to the Ascending Dragon Sect, where only rough men had swarmed, this place was truly another world.
Ja Cheon-gwang smiled faintly without realizing it.
One month earlier, he had left the Ascending Dragon Sect and set foot in the martial world for the first time.
At the time, Ja Cheon-gwang had still been staying at the Ascending Dragon Sect.
One person had come down from Hegemon Fortress.
Outwardly, he had come to assist the Ascending Dragon Sect's internal affairs, but anyone could see that he was there to watch them.
"Sect Leader of the Ascending Dragon Sect, Myo-wol the Strategist says that you must uphold your agreement at once."
He had a scrawny build.
His body looked as though he had never trained in martial arts at all.
Instead, his face made it clear that he had read quite a few books.
"You have not yet set out into the martial world. Surely you are not looking down on Hegemon Fortress?"
There was no hesitation in his tone.
Ja Cheon-gwang was the Sect Leader of the Ascending Dragon Sect, no matter what.
Yet the man spoke with his neck held stiffly upright, his eyes lowered.
'He says he came to assist the Ascending Dragon Sect's internal affairs? He looks more like a bastard who came here to commit abuses…'
That was what Ja Cheon-gwang thought, but there was nothing he could do.
In the end, he set out into the martial world.
It had clearly been something he had dreamed of for a long time.
He had even made up his mind, yet when it was time to leave, his feet did not move easily.
The Ascending Dragon Sect had regained a certain degree of stability, but it had not yet fully recovered from the wounds of battle.
Above all, too many people had died.
That meant the gap in their fighting strength was just as great.
Sim Baek had said:
"We will somehow replenish the missing children."
Whether through kidnapping.
Or through buying and selling.
The Black Dragon Corps, now Sim Baek's hands and feet, would somehow fill the ranks.
"Leave now. We cannot drag out Hegemon Fortress's order any longer."
In the end, Ja Cheon-gwang left Liaoning.
At the edge of Liaoning, he crossed Shanhai Pass and entered the Central Plains.
It had not been easy.
Above all, he did not know the roads.
Having lived his whole life only around Scattered Gorge Mountain, he might as well have been unable to tell east from west.
The place where his steps brought him was Hebei.
There was no special reason.
Hebei lay directly beyond Shanhai Pass.
'They said the Moyong Family's influence is strong around Shanhai Pass. I cannot run into those bastards now. I should stay as close to the coast as possible.'
Even finding a road to the sea was arduous.
He had no sense of direction.
Still, he somehow found the right direction and made it here without any major trouble.
'What is this? Are all of these people?'
What surprised him most was the number of people.
Liaoning was a barren land.
Even its busy districts were not very large.
In the first place, he had never visited places like that.
He had spent his entire life within the Ascending Dragon Sect.
The only outsiders he had ever seen were martial artists from the Orthodox Allied Forces and the Hegemon Fortress Alliance.
That tiny circle had been his whole world.
But Hebei was different.
Everywhere he went, enormous cities appeared.
They overflowed with people.
Even struggling through the crowds, packed so tightly that there was no room to set one's feet, was exhausting.
Merely squeezing through people left him drained.
He walked with his shoulders hunched, worrying that he might bump into someone for no reason.
Where in the world had so many people come from?
For Ja Cheon-gwang, who had spent his life seeing only a limited number of people, the sight itself was a new world.
"Hey, you bastard. Is that any way to settle a bill?"
"Bastard? Are you out of your mind? If you are not buying, get lost."
Ja Cheon-gwang turned toward the sound.
"Oh, they are fighting again."
It was the spectacle he had found most entertaining lately.
It seemed that two men who had been bargaining had gotten into an argument.
Soon, one man grabbed the other by the collar and threw a punch.
Ja Cheon-gwang's eyes sparkled.
"No, there you should duck your head instead of pulling it back. That only widens the distance. Get inside his guard."
He even offered his own advice.
Of course, they could not hear him.
It was a scuffle between people who knew no martial arts.
It had a charm of its own.
And the first thing he noticed when he saw people from the Central Plains.
'Huh? These people's aura…? Is this what Elder Sim Baek was talking about?'
Everyone he had seen until now had been a martial artist.
There were differences in strength, but all of them had trained in martial arts.
But this place was different.
Most were ordinary people who knew no martial arts.
In fact, it was harder to find someone who had trained in martial arts.
"It does not look as though I would be defeated by people like them. What is supposed to be so dangerous?"
Ja Cheon-gwang suddenly recalled what Sim Baek had said before he left the Ascending Dragon Sect.
It had been advice on what to watch out for in the martial world.
-The martial world is a place where betrayal and slaughter run rampant. If you do not stay alert, someone may cut off your nose before you know it.
Ja Cheon-gwang turned those words over in his mind.
'There is no way people who do not know martial arts could cut off my nose. Slaughter, my ass…. I have not even seen anyone kill a dog since I came here.'
-Hide the fact that you are a martial artist. It could cause unnecessary trouble.
Still, it was Sim Baek's advice, so Ja Cheon-gwang had been as careful as possible.
The thing he had devoted the most effort to over the last month was concealing his aura.
Hiding his enormous inner arts was by no means easy.
But he had somehow succeeded in suppressing them.
Unless someone was an exceptional martial artist, they could not even tell that he was a master.
"AAARGH, he got me in the eye. My eye. Wait, wait."
One of the men who had been fighting earlier grabbed both eyes and waved his hands about.
That was how the fight ended.
Fights between ordinary people always ended that way.
Someone cried.
Someone's nose started bleeding.
Or, like now, someone took a blow to the eye or the pit of the stomach and could not breathe.
Then it was over.
The winner wore a sinister smile, and the people around them cheered with snickers.
'As I thought… there is no way I will have my nose cut off. Elder Sim Baek said he had barely been outside either. Perhaps even the Elder does not know the martial world well.'
No matter how he looked at it, he did not think he would lose to people like them.
His gaze naturally shifted to a corner of the room.
A large wooden case leaned against the wall.
It was as long as a coffin but much narrower.
Inside, the Black Death Sword once used by the former Sect Leader Lee Woo-yang lay sleeping.
-Unless it is a special circumstance, you must never draw your sword.
Sim Baek's repeated warning.
And beyond that:
-You must never harm those who do not know martial arts.
-You must not act rudely toward those wearing official uniforms.
-You must not spend money as you please.
-You must never go near gambling tiles.
-You must keep away from women at all times.
Never.
Never.
And never….
There were so many things he was forbidden from doing that he had almost developed calluses on his ears.
Still, he could understand Sim Baek's concern.
Within the Ascending Dragon Sect, he had been the Sect Leader and the strongest person.
But in terms of worldly knowledge, he was nothing more than a reckless innocent.
At least, that was how Sim Baek saw him.
"Ah."
Ja Cheon-gwang abruptly leaned forward.
"There is one passing by."
Below the window, a man in white martial arts uniform passed by.
A thin sword hung at his waist.
He was dressed similarly to the Orthodox Allied Forces Ja Cheon-gwang had seen in the battle of Scattered Gorge Mountain.
Above all, the way he walked and the aura he gave off made it clear that he had trained in martial arts.
"So this is how those martial world people from the Orthodox Allied Forces normally walk around."
His heart began to pound for no reason.
In a market where thousands of people came and went each day, he was lucky to spot only one or two martial artists.
It was merely a game of spotting martial artists, but for him, it was rather enjoyable.
"Judging by the way those people act, Elder Sim Baek must have been right after all."
Every martial artist radiated an air as though they could easily slaughter ordinary people.
Not merely one or two, but dozens or hundreds of them.
Yet strangely, they almost never started trouble first.
Instead, they were more often helpless before ordinary people.
'Elder Sim Baek said that if I touch ordinary people, government officials will come. And if I kill those officials, the army will come.'
He had thought martial artists were nothing much.
But an army was different.
The soldiers he had seen when crossing Shanhai Pass.
Each of them would be nothing on his own.
But thousands of soldiers lined up in armor, holding long spears, were different.
Honestly, he did not think he could rush into their midst.
'Elder Sim Baek said they have the martial strength to sweep away either the Orthodox Allied Forces or the Hegemon Fortress Alliance in a single day. If there are that many of them, even ordinary people are frightening.'
At that moment, a man with steps as light as clouds passed beneath the window.
"Oh… another martial artist is passing by."
This time, he wore blue.
Ja Cheon-gwang followed him with his eyes as though he had spotted a familiar face.
Of course, he was a stranger.