The road they trudged along.
Everyone was silently heading toward their designated training ground.
Namgung Jin, who had quarreled with Namgung Yeon.
Someone spoke to him.
“You held back well. If it were me, younger brother or not, I would have beaten him to a pulp.”
“…….”
Namgung Jin could not reply at all.
Because he still had not escaped the enormous shock.
He had only thought of him as a young and weak younger brother.
That was why he had thought Mother loved him……
‘What on earth…….’
He looked at his wrist, which still ached.
A red mark had risen on it.
Even though Yeon had truly gripped him leisurely and let go, he had not been able to react.
As if someone had bound his mind, not a single thought had come to him.
How should he explain this feeling?
Lost in his own thoughts, he could not react even when a group member spoke to him.
The threshold of first-rate.
It was the period when one began to show movements so fluid that they could no longer be thought human.
And yet he…… had not even been able to react.
What on earth had happened?
“Group Leader? Are you listening to me?”
“Hmm?”
“Heh heh. It seems you were thinking about how you should have beaten him.”
“……Something like that.”
Should he have taught him a lesson then instead?
Namgung Jin thought so, but he was bewildered because he could not picture himself throwing Namgung Yeon down at all.
A martial artist, by nature, could recognize an opponent’s strength just from the posture with which he held a sword.
Namgung Jin had grown up watching the greatest martial artists of the age.
He might not know other things, but his eye for judgment should not be wrong.
Namgung Yeon’s strength was…… perhaps equal to his own, or even above it.
That did not mean it was absolute strength.
However, there was no telling how he would change over the next two years.
‘I have to become stronger by any means necessary.’
It was not as though he would spend two years shut away doing nothing but training.
There would likely be struggles for the group leader position here and there along the way, and he would fight countless mock battles as well.
Namgung Jin decided he would aim for that time and show him his place.
Unaware that his hand was trembling, he headed toward the training ground in the mountains.
He did not know.
That a seed of fear had already settled deep within his heart.
The seed would slowly sprout in a place no one could see.
The moment the vines of emotion grown from that seed coiled tightly around his heart, he would realize it.
That it had begun from the moment he seized that collar and met those emotionless eyes.
The seed’s name was [Submission].
***
RATTLE, RATTLE.
The movement of the carriage was still something he had not grown used to.
It was a top-quality carriage, but even so, it could not completely block the shaking that rose from the ground.
Namgung Yeon was silently staring out the window.
He was drawing out the future in his mind.
He was also entering his mental image and gauging the items he could take out from the Infinite Storehouse.
He was now at the threshold of first-rate.
The period when the human body ripened.
‘I should reach peak within these two years.’
Only then would he be able to take out more things.
If he became a peak martial artist, he felt he would be able to take out more Thousand Poisons Pills.
If he reached supreme peak?
Perhaps he would be able to take out something like Shaolin Temple’s secret medicine, the Small Rejuvenation Pill.
Not only that, but he would also be able to freely take out materials to make the highest-grade armaments.
As he was thinking one thing and another, the carriage stopped.
“Young Master, we have arrived.”
“You have worked hard.”
“We will load the luggage and go up.”
The coachman climbed down from the driver’s seat and spoke with Namgung Yeon.
Namgung Jinjin, who had been watching that scene closely, suddenly cut in.
“What are you doing? What are we supposed to do if you drop us off in the middle of a mountain?”
“What use is a martial artist who does not train?”
“……?”
What kind of bullshit is that?
After riding a carriage all the way here, he was suddenly getting off and talking about training?
Namgung Jinjin was so dumbfounded that he only frowned hard.
A statement that did not match front to back at all.
Arbitrary behavior, with not a single thing about it that could be understood.
What exactly are we supposed to trust in order to follow this man?
Namgung Jinjin was not the only one who thought that.
Namgung Geonho, the son of the Fifth Elder, also stepped forward in protest.
“Group Leader. Whether we walk to Hapsan Training Ground now or arrive quickly, prepare, and train, is it not all the same?”
“Who said we were just walking?”
[Infinite Storehouse]
[Dragon-Sealing Chains]
THUUUD—!
They were things once called chains that weighed down a dragon.
In truth, objects made by cutting apart and melting down chains that had actually been weighing down some dragon somewhere poured out.
To be precise, he was taking out and dumping what he had loaded onto the carriage in advance.
While they stared with dumbfounded eyes, Namgung Yeon shouldered one of them.
The first to move after seeing that was none other than Nam Hoho.
Hoho, who showed enough loyalty that he would even feign death if Namgung Yeon told him to die, likewise shouldered the Dragon-Sealing Chains.
“Oof……. This is really heavy.”
“Breathe deeply. If you tire midway, tell me.”
“Yes, sir!”
“…….”
There was only one road anyway, so they simply had to keep going up like this.
Hoho began climbing one difficult step at a time without complaint.
Huff—!
His rough breathing began to ring out.
“What in the world…….”
“When did you load things like this?”
“You do not need to know. If you do not want to become stronger, just go up without one.”
“…….”
He did not say anything else in particular.
That he did not explain anything?
That could be passed off as him having no manners.
Perhaps the group leader had prepared it separately.
However, they could not tolerate being told they could not become stronger.
They could turn a blind eye to everything else.
But not becoming stronger.
You will become weak.
For one born as a martial artist of Namgung, there was no insult greater than that.
“This is nothing?”
“Nnnngh—!”
One by one, they shouldered the Dragon-Sealing Chains and began climbing Hapsan.
The instructors clicked their tongues as they watched.
‘When and where did he prepare things like that?’
‘His preparations are thorough. So he means to choose a more efficient method instead?’
‘He drastically reduces travel speed and begins high-intensity training. This…….’
It was interesting.
And it was new.
The instructors’ hands began moving busily.
Their role was to observe and protect the candidates.
If there was anything new, they were to report it at any time, and if it could be absorbed by the clan as a whole, they were to gladly accept it.
Because becoming stronger was Namgung’s long-cherished wish.
The instructors’ eyes shone as they diligently recorded Namgung Yeon’s method.
Yes.
What we are short on is strength, not money, are we not?
‘This is worth recommending. On top of that, he has a grip that subtly makes the group members follow him.’
Making people move voluntarily was surprisingly difficult.
Motivation.
And a situation they could accept.
Only when various circumstances fit together could one make prideful young masters move of their own accord.
For years, as instructors and as warriors, they had seen countless juniors.
Outsiders who had registered at the Namgung Clan’s martial hall.
The children of martial artists under the Namgung Clan.
The children of the Namgung Clan’s collateral and direct lines…….
“He is certainly different.”
“Hmm. I agree.”
Strength.
They saw candidates moving forward while looking only at that single word.
Even group members who had no connection to him were silently going along with Namgung Yeon’s actions.
They did not know.
That from this very moment, Namgung Yeon’s “filtering people out” and “money-wasting bullshit” had already begun.
An unknown powder began scattering through the air.
***
Huff—!
Huuuuff—!
Only the sound of rough breathing echoed through Hapsan.
From the point where they had gotten off the carriage to Hapsan Training Ground, they had to walk for roughly two hours.
In truth, Hapsan was not originally an existing place-name.
It referred to one of the mountains the Namgung Clan used as a hidden base.
The mountain’s original name was [Yinping Mountain].
It was a relatively nearby place called Hapsan in the Namgung Clan’s code.
Though it was a mountain near Hefei, its presence was quite distinct.
In other words, climbing it while shouldering metal like the Dragon-Sealing Chains was tremendously overwhelming.
“Aaaaargh!”
“I-I cannot do any more!”
CRASH—!
They had drawn out all the true energy within their bodies, but some of them failed to reach the training ground.
They were the ones Namgung Yeon had marked.
The Weapon Hall Master, who was responsible for the Namgung Clan’s arms.
His son, and those who had not appeared at the Group Leader Selection Trial.
In the end,with only a short stretch left, their legs gave out and they collapsed.
While they were sprawled about carelessly, panting harshly with bodies soaked in sweat, their group leader Namgung Yeon stood before them.
“Is this the extent of you?”
“Huff……. W-we will rest just a little before going, Group Leader. That is fine, right?”
“Do as you please.”
Among the sprawled people, Namgung Yeon saw some whose skin had begun to turn red.
Two out of three……
So the demonic cultivators had already infiltrated deep into the righteous faction.
Should he cut their throats here, or wait a little longer?
Namgung Yeon’s black, dead eyes stared fixedly at them.
Perhaps because he sensed something chilling, one of them cautiously opened his mouth.
“G-go ahead first. We will follow soon.”
“Hmm. I will go ahead first.”
Namgung Yeon’s decision was to put it on hold.
The first reason was the possibility of unknown connections and surveillance.
The second reason was to make use of the Black Wind Gang.
The Namgung Clan was vast.
And in each cycle, the demonic cultivators’ methods of control changed.
They, too, were humans who responded organically, so they had waged battles of moves and countermoves against him in various ways.
These people would decide their own treatment for themselves.
Who knew?
‘There were occasionally those who escaped the demonic cultivators’ grasp.’
Very rarely, there were some who repented of their own wrongs and became loyal to murim.
Those who defected after discovering a shocking truth.
Those who eventually realized that the future of this murim did not lie with the demonic cultivators.
It might be a tiny sliver of hope.
Or it might be called a pointless act of being a sucker.
But murim was…… the world was a place where people lived.
If one more person could be saved.
Or if burning one piece of trash could save many more.
‘For now, I will watch a little.’
Namgung Yeon reached the end of Hapsan while gasping for breath.
He heard the sound of busy movement.
Those who had arrived in advance were busily making something.
The instructor who had been tracking Namgung Yeon also heard the strange noise and hurried upward.
Hapsan Training Ground was fundamentally a secret place.
That meant outsiders could not enter.
And yet how could it be this noisy?
“Are they intruders?”
“That does not seem to be the case.”
“Let us check first.”
The youngest said that to the senior instructor and ran off.
Honestly, he had come here comfortably by carriage.
Then it was time to work.
He ran using footwork, and when he arrived, there were people carrying out another eccentric act.
“What is this…….”
“You have arrived! I am Mr. Hwang, in charge of the renovation work!”
“…….”
The instructor could not close his mouth.
No matter how one looked at a training ground for murim people, how good could it be?
Old facilities.
Since it was in the mountains, even proper supply was difficult in reality.
“Ah. You have arrived, esteemed Instructors.”
“You are……?”
“I am Park Manho, Young Master Namgung Yeon’s bodyguard.”
“Ah, Third Elder’s…… correct?”
Manho, who had arrived first, respectfully cupped his fist.
What unfolded behind him were carpenters and technicians introducing the newest facilities.
Manho said proudly.
“The Young Master said this: Does a martial artist really need to train like a Daoist?”
Since it was true, all the instructors fell silent.
Because they had not expected him to slather money even over a place like this.