"B-Brother. I did not mean that I was the one saying it......"
"I know."
Namgung Un cut his brother short.
"I know full well it is nothing but drivel spouted by worthless nobodies running their mouths. Believe me."
"Yes......"
"And yet."
Namgung Un thrust his face into his brother's.
"You could not even bring yourself to ignore such nonsense, and instead you blather it to my face on purpose?"
"B-Brother."
"Remember this, little brother. Even the most trivial of rumors gains a life of its own the moment you give it attention and put it on people's tongues."
A leaden silence filled the room.
Namgung Jak swallowed hard.
"What do we gain by engaging in such pointless behavior?"
"I--it......"
"Answer me. And quit flicking your tongue like a damn cur."
Namgung Jak's face went white as a sheet.
The vicious edge his otherwise gentlemanly brother revealed on the rarest of occasions--no one knew better than his own younger brother just how dangerous it was.
"N-nothing."
"That is right, nothing. So why waste our energy on something so utterly pointless?"
"I am...... sorry, Brother."
"As long as you understand. And do not repeat the same mistake."
"Yes."
Namgung Jak withdrew, thoroughly deflated.
Namgung Un swept the room with a stern gaze.
His brother and his most loyal retainers occupied the seats around him.
He met each of their eyes in turn, then spoke in a measured voice.
"As to what happened at the Martial Emperor Hall the other day, you are all well aware, but I had no choice but to step back for the time being."
"Of course, we fully understand your judgment, Patriarch."
It was the man regarded as the foremost sword of the Namgung Clan's Outer Hall.
Lightning Wheel Sword Sim Sohwan.
"With none other than the Shaolin Abbot backing that man, anyone would have had to catch their breath."
"Even so, I cannot help but feel we gave Shaolin Temple's reputation too much deference."
Avalanche Fist Ma Seongchu, another master of the Namgung Clan's Outer Hall, spoke with a face like hewn stone.
"Whatever the inner circumstances may be, on the surface at least, that man and Shaolin Temple are strangers. Setting him straight for his insolence should have been well within bounds."
"Now, Seongchu. That is a misguided notion."
"Misguided, you say, Sohwan?"
"Indeed. That man is the Martial Alliance's hero who defeated the Blood Sky Demon. One cannot humiliate him before a crowd merely for being a touch arrogant."
At Sim Sohwan's words, Ma Seongchu furrowed his brow.
"He claims to have defeated the Blood Sky Demon, nothing more."
"It may not have been properly proven yet, but should we not consider the possibility?"
"Hmph! The Namgung Clan I know is a house that reveres the martial way! A house whose very calling is to honor martial strength above all else. Is that not so, Patriarch?"
"Indeed, Seongchu, you are not wrong."
Namgung Un answered evenly.
Yet those who had served him long enough could detect the faintest hint of unease lurking beneath the patriarch's reply.
Ma Seongchu himself, lacking the subtlety to notice, seemed oblivious.
"Then he should have been challenged on the spot through martial strength. Should he not?"
"......"
"If the Patriarch had bested that man, that would have been the end of it! Regardless of whether he truly killed the Blood Sky Demon, the entire world would have learned who the true greatest under heaven was."
"Now, Seongchu! This is not something to be spoken of so lightly."
"What is so difficult or complicated about it, Sim Sohwan? We are martial artists, and this is the martial world. Is it not?"
"Both of you, that is enough."
A single word from Namgung Un.
Sim Sohwan bowed his head and retreated a step, but Ma Seongchu lacked even that much tact.
"But, Patriarch......"
"Ma Seongchu."
Namgung Un's voice dropped to a hush.
"Since when have you been in a position to dictate this Namgung Un's every decision?"
"Pardon?"
"Since when have you been qualified to prattle on at this Namgung Un about what he should and should not do?"
"......!"
Ma Seongchu finally flinched at the naked shift in Namgung Un's demeanor, the reaction coming far too late.
"I-I apologize. I spoke out of turn, Patriarch."
"I am glad you realize it, even now. Then kindly shut your mouth."
An admonition that seemed to carry the unspoken threat of consequences.
When Ma Seongchu finally fell silent, Namgung Un surveyed the room with a stern expression.
"Listen well, all of you. Nothing has been clearly established yet, so rash action is strictly forbidden."
"......"
"In short, no one is to make unauthorized contact with Dan Sahyeok. Am I understood?"
"Yes, Patriarch!"
The shout rang through the room.
Having examined the faces of his properly disciplined subordinates, Namgung Un sank into deep thought.
'If that man is nothing but a common blowhard, there is no problem. But what if the Blood Sky Demon's death is real? And what if the proclamations plastered across Yellow Dragon Fortress are to be taken at face value?'
The situation would grow far more complicated than he had imagined.
Yet the more critical point was, in truth, what Ma Seongchu had raised.
'If I had fought that man then and there.'
As Ma Seongchu said, he need only have defeated him and that would have been that.
But what if that was not an option?
'If that man...... is truly stronger than I am?'
Namgung Un could not answer that question.
***
"So what you are saying is......"
Sama Jin barely managed to get the words out, his face a sickly blue.
"That man, Dan Sahyeok, truly did...... defeat the Blood Sky Demon Cheon Muyeol?"
"That is correct, Strategist."
The man who was practically prostrating himself before Sama Jin.
He was none other than O Duseok, the Martial Alliance's Gansu Branch Commander.
The place where he and Sama Jin were meeting in private was somewhere in Qianyang.
If Hanzhong was the gateway from Shaanxi into Sichuan, then Qianyang was the gateway from Shaanxi into Gansu.
Their encounter there was something O Duseok had not anticipated at all.
He had already been on his way from the Gansu Branch to deliver his report.
Ordinarily, Sama Jin would have simply waited for him to arrive in Xi'an, but his patience had given out and he had come out to meet him.
Never in his life had O Duseok expected to run into the Strategist halfway along the route.
Even so, he privately commended himself for having carried out his assigned duties without fail.
"Evidence?"
"Pardon?"
"Physical evidence that the Blood Sky Demon Cheon Muyeol is dead! Do you have it?"
At Sama Jin's question, O Duseok looked bewildered.
"Did you not...... verify the Blood Dragon Blade? Surely Dan Sahyeok, that lout, must have brought it along......"
"You believe it to be genuine?"
"Sorry? Ah, yes. Would it not be?"
"And on what grounds do you believe that? Hm? Could it not be a forgery, cleverly fabricated by Dan Sahyeok after commissioning a skilled craftsman?"
"Sorry? Him? He would not have had time for......"
"We cannot know that. Dan Sahyeok may have had an accomplice who prepared a counterfeit Blood Dragon Blade."
"Sorry?"
O Duseok kept repeating himself, half voluntarily and half from sheer disbelief.
Sama Jin felt a surge of irritation.
"I am asking how you can be certain that blade belonged to the Blood Sky Demon!"
"W-well, about that. As it happens, we brought something along."
"Brought what?"
"The Blood Sky Demon's body......"
"......!"
Sama Jin's expression looked as though he had been struck squarely in the face.
Wondering if the Strategist did not believe him, O Duseok went around the back and dragged out a sizable wooden coffin.
"It is in here. To prevent decomposition, we packed it generously with perennial snow from Great Snow Mountain."
"......"
"Would you like to have a look?"
Without waiting for permission, O Duseok pried the coffin open.
The state of the body was better than expected.
Clear enough to confirm the face without difficulty.
The problem was that Sama Jin had no way of knowing whether this was truly the face of the Blood Sky Demon Cheon Muyeol.
"This is the Blood Sky Demon?"
"Yes, Strategist."
"And how am I supposed to believe that?"
"Well, the thing is. We have actually seen the Blood Sky Demon a number of times."
"Seen him? Your people? The Blood Sky Demon?"
"Yes. He never personally took part in battle, but...... he often observed from a distance."
"Observed? You are telling me that when you should have been fighting to the death, you conveniently took in the sights?"
"Yes."
The response was so matter-of-fact that Sama Jin felt his stomach knot into a ball.
"How can you answer like that?"
"Sorry? Well...... that was simply the kind of man the Blood Sky Demon was. I am afraid I can offer no other explanation."
"Gah!"
Sama Jin clenched his teeth and stared down at the Blood Sky Demon's corpse.
He was startled to find that a part of him was, at this juncture, hoping the body was a fake--but given the circumstances, he could hardly help it.
"We do not know for certain yet. Not until we establish that this is truly Cheon Muyeol's remains--"
"It truly is."
"......!"
A voice from right beside him nearly made Sama Jin jump out of his skin.
"A-Abbot?"
"Mm."
"When did you arrive? And how on earth......?"
The color drained visibly from Sama Jin's face as his question trailed off.
Great Master Gomok paid him no mind, instead leaning over to peer into the coffin.
"I have been here a while. You slipped out of Yellow Dragon Fortress so suddenly that I grew curious and followed."
"......"
"Well now, what a reunion. I never expected to see this wretched face again in the flesh."
"A-Abbot. Did I hear you correctly just now?"
"It has been ten years since the Bloody Battle of Mount Hua. Not a short span by any means, but not long enough to forget a face this vivid, Strategist."
At Great Master Gomok's words, Sama Jin felt the strength drain from his entire body.
"Th-then......"
"Mm. We had best do as that young man says."
Great Master Gomok smacked his lips and spoke.
"Move out, or negotiate a new contract."
***
The wooden coffin bearing the Blood Sky Demon's corpse entered Yellow Dragon Fortress.
Without any proper escort, it simply passed through the gates on an unremarkable cargo cart.
But that alone was enough for the rumor to spread like wildfire through every corner of the fortress.
"They say the Blood Sky Demon's body was brought in, packed in a coffin."
"Apparently Gansu Branch Commander O Duseok personally escorted it."
"I heard the Strategist went all the way out to Qianyang to verify it in advance."
"Which means......"
"That man's story was true."
Conversations of broadly similar substance drifted out from all across the fortress.
Those who spoke them were left stunned by the reality they confronted at the end of their own words.
"Then does that really mean......?"
"We all have to pack up and leave?"
"Hold on a moment. What happens to the Martial Alliance, then?"
"Can they really tell everyone to vacate over something like this?"
"Hmph! Worry not. As if the renowned giants of the martial world would simply stand by!"
"Mm......"
"The Namgung patriarch is here, and so is the Shaolin Abbot. And what about the countless sect leaders and their representatives?"
"True. There are quite the heavyweights gathered here right now."
"Exactly! Against all of them, even that Dan Sahyeok will have no choice. They will talk him down or whatever it takes and sort it out easily enough."
"And if they cannot?"
"Then......"
Those who had arrived at similar conclusions fell silent.
"What is going to happen?"
Someone posed the question in a slightly trembling voice, but no one had an answer.