While the two of them talked, dozens of onlookers had gathered in a ring without anyone noticing.
Just then, the First Young Master, Namgung Ryong — dressed in a martial arts uniform — approached after inspecting the masked men's faces.
"Seventh Elder, thank you for your efforts."
"I did nothing. This one caught them."
"Is that so? And why are you in traveling robes with a bundle?"
"Haha, things came together that way. I was about to head out when I spotted these two sneaking in and followed them."
The Seventh Elder turned to the First Young Master.
"Haha, truly fortunate. That aside, do you recognize them?"
"Hard to say. They do look familiar, somehow."
At that, Hyeol-u spoke up bluntly.
"They're called Black-White Impermanence — notorious in the Shanxi region as reapers of death. The Shanxi Merchant Guild has a hefty bounty on their heads, if I recall."
"Is that so? How do you know all this, Seong? You've never even been to Shanxi."
'Come now, don't be silly. There isn't a corner of the Central Plains' hundred and eighty thousand li I haven't visited.'
He wanted to say as much but could not.
He had once tracked these two for the bounty, only to abandon the chase when the Blood Sand Wind reared its head. And now, in a different body, he had caught them.
A strange sense of how the times had changed washed over him.
"I happened to see and hear about them once in a tavern."
"I see...... Now that we know their names, we can trace their movements and find out who sent them."
"Then allow me to investigate the......"
"These two were being hunted by bounty hunters in Shanxi, fled to Mount Huang, and attached themselves to a certain organization as house guests."
Hyeol-u cut across Namgung Ryong's words and interjected again.
If they took too long, whoever had sent the assassins would cut their losses and disappear.
"A certain organization — you don't mean the Huizhou......?"
"Yes. Exactly as you suspect."
"Oh, what to do. We lock them in the dungeon and......"
That question was directed at Hyeol-u.
Perhaps catching the near-legendary Black-White Impermanence had earned that much trust.
'Hold on — if we just lock them up, will the Huizhou Merchant Guild simply confess and pay reparations? Not a chance. They'll deny everything to the bitter end.'
Hyeol-u proposed an alternative.
"Make a show of it."
"A show?"
"Load Wang Gyeong-jong and Black-White Impermanence onto a cart and take them to Mount Huang."
"Hm? Why would we do that?"
Namgung Pil-su said, sounding incredulous.
"What do you think, Elder Brother?"
"I'd like to ask 'why' too, same as the Seventh Elder."
Instead of a direct explanation, Hyeol-u swept his gaze over not just the two of them but the stewards, warriors, and servants crowding around.
"Seventh Elder — why did you come back?"
"That's......"
'Why is this brat bringing that up now? Is he trying to embarrass me?'
Namgung Pil-su's face went through several colors before he fell silent.
"You saw that the Namgung Clan is not dead yet! That hope brought you back."
"Hmph...... And what does that have to do with loading those men on a cart and going to Mount Huang?"
Hyeol-u grinned and declared in a booming voice.
"The Namgung Clan lives! We announce it to the world — loud and clear!"
"Wow......! Yeah! That's right!"
"He's right! The Namgung Clan lives!"
"Damn right it does!"
Applause and cheers erupted.
What made every heart swell to bursting—
Was that very cry.
'The Namgung Clan lives!'
***
"The cart is a fine idea, but we can't just load them in bare."
As Hyeol-u sat on the dark stone mulling it over, Yang Gye-dong — who had been reciting the Three Powers Heart Formula in horse stance — sprang up and walked over.
"What? You've memorized the entire Three Powers Heart Formula already?"
"Of course."
He had passed the formula on to them, moved by their dedication to learning martial arts.
In truth, the formula was no different from the basic mental methods with the name "Three Powers" that could be found at any marketplace — so it had not been a difficult decision.
"Gnnngh......"
So-i, meanwhile, had begun groaning in pain.
Yang Gye-dong, oblivious, pressed on with gleaming eyes.
"Build an iron cage on top of the cart, lock the three of them inside. With a padlock and everything."
"And you can build that?"
"Absolutely. It's not that hard. Give me three days. All I need is iron ore."
"Hmm. Fine."
The moment Hyeol-u agreed, Yang Gye-dong darted off to the stables with delight.
He was going to ride to the Ma'anshan smelter immediately and forge the cage himself.
"Young Master...... I'll go with him."
"You? Why?"
"Aw, did you forget?"
So-i pointed at the red iron ore Hyeol-u was sitting on.
"I'm stronger than Brother Gye-dong when it comes to heavy lifting."
"You haven't memorized the Three Powers Heart Formula, have you?"
"N-no, I......"
His legs were trembling violently.
"Fine, go."
"Hehe......"
Hyeol-u waved them off.
Nothing was uglier than trying to stop someone determined to leave.
Three days later.
A truly impressive cart appeared at the training ground near the clan's entrance.
"My, would you look at that."
The First Young Master, Seventh Elder Namgung Pil-su, and even the Grand Steward — who had been under house arrest — gathered among the dozens of Namgung Clan members gawking at the cart.
The three horses hitched to the front — chestnut, brown, and white — were the ones purchased from the Azure Cloud Temple relay station.
The black colt nuzzling the white mare's side was not counted.
"Here are the cage keys. One for me and one for the Young Lord."
"Good. Let me take a look inside."
But when the First Young Master, Namgung Ryong, climbed into the cart, he tilted his head.
It had looked spacious enough to hold three people comfortably, but in reality it was barely wide enough for them to sit.
"Good work. Well built, but...... isn't it a bit low?"
"Prisoners have no business holding their heads up high."
"Haha, fair enough. They can sit or lie down — no need for them to stand."
Several days later.
The day of departure for Mount Huang.
Hyeol-u, who had been sleeping, was jolted awake in the small hours by a feeling that squeezed his heart.
The words that had set every member of the clan's heart ablaze.
'The Namgung Clan lives!'
Perhaps the deep emotion had lingered even in his dreams—
CHEEP, CHIRP!
"......Hm?"
Geum-a had just deposited a warm pile of droppings all over Hyeol-u's chest.
'Ugh, what is this at the crack of dawn......'
From the moment the creature had hatched in his arms and first locked eyes with him, it seemed to regard Hyeol-u as its mother.
That was why it refused to budge from the nest of his robes.
After washing the chick in slightly warmed water, Hyeol-u — already up — finished his now-habitual cold-water bath at the well and stepped into the front yard.
Next came sitting atop the dark stone and circulating the Three Powers Heart Formula.
He climbed onto the stone and closed his eyes — then opened them again.
"Hmm......?"
A slender blue figure was slowly emerging from the bamboo grove into the yard.
Namgung Hye, her face haggard.
Hyeol-u's brow creased involuntarily.
'Any martial artist knows how precious the time for qi circulation is......'
Curious what could drive her to commit such a breach of etiquette, Hyeol-u remained still and waited.
Seeing that he stayed put, she flung a long sword at his feet.
THUD—!
QUIVER......
The pale sword, buried and trembling in the ground, seemed to speak for her heart.
Her lips were pressed tight, and her eyes trembled.
"I told you last time. That next time I'd come with a real sword."
"And why does it have to be...... this morning of all mornings?"
"Because after today there won't be another chance. That's all."
A half-trained shaman gets people killed, as the saying goes — and the saying was not wrong.
This oblivious girl, unable to read the mood or the situation — what was he supposed to do with her?
Hyeol-u wordlessly grasped the sword with one hand and looked at her.
A real sword in his hand for the first time in ages felt slightly unfamiliar, though the solid weight of it was reassuring.
The Heaven-Earth Spanning Blade he had wielded in his past life was far heavier.
"This time it's the Great Expanse Sword Art. Be careful."
"Well, how thoughtful of you."
Hyeol-u was not particularly tense.
But when she assumed her starting stance, a weighty presence radiated from the blade and wrapped around her entire body.
"Oh? Not bad at all."
He was honestly impressed.
Her small, delicate frame had suddenly taken on an aura as massive as a mountain range.
"Heavenly Stem Penetration!"
Her sword formed a dense curtain of steel — and in that instant, her figure vanished.
'Oho!'
She cried out inwardly in triumph.
She had caught Hyeol-u off-balance, looking around in a disheveled stance.
"HYAAH!"
Her sword shot through the curtain like a catfish slicing through a current.
But Hyeol-u had already slipped to her right flank, into her blind spot.
If he had wished, her side would have been in grave danger.
"Ngh! Red Leaves, Flying Flowers!"
Realizing too late, Namgung Hye's blade flushed crimson and thrust in a straight line at Hyeol-u's waist, blazing with heat.
Deceptively simple yet fast — she was certain Namgung Seong would fail to block it.
She was wrong.
Hyeol-u spun like a top and evaded her attack with ease.
'Damn it...... but that's not all!'
Namgung Hye gritted her teeth.
Had Hyeol-u raised his sword to parry, the force of the collision would have been formidable.
But as her sword tip grazed harmlessly past his right side, it shuddered in a dizzying blur.
In that instant—
Over a dozen crimson sword shadows, blooming like red flowers, drove into Hyeol-u from every angle.
"Wha......?"
"Oh no!"
Hyeol-u's gasp of alarm was immediately buried under Namgung Hye's disappointed cry.
The moment he had sketched a cross-shaped slash with his sword, an impenetrable force had deflected every sword shadow away.
"F-Four Directions Seal?"
When had Namgung Seong's martial arts advanced this far?
To block Red Leaves, Flying Flowers with the Iron Sword Thirty-Six Paths' Four Directions Seal — a basic sword art!
But the fact remained that she had shaken her opponent.
This time, her blade seemed to stretch in an optical illusion as it swept at Hyeol-u's legs.
"Great Expanse Shadow Slash!"
The sound of the blade splitting the air trailed one step behind.
A phantasmal, unpredictable sword art that slashed as though cutting shadows.
But that was as far as it went.
Hyeol-u stepped half a pace forward and flicked his sword outward.
A strange current of force rippled from his blade like a wave, shoving Namgung Hye's sword aside.
HISS.
CLANG—!
For an instant she felt as though she were drowning — floundering, losing her bearings.
But the pressure that had wrapped around her body vanished as if washed away.
'Now's my chance......!'
Namgung Seong had held on using the clan's basic sword art — it had to be luck, nothing more.
"Great Expanse Heavenly Net!"
What Namgung Hye unleashed was a vast net of blade force.
Her sword traced a small circle that amplified outward, as though an enormous net were descending from the sky to crush Hyeol-u whole.
The kind of despair that came from being snared like a fish, unable to move—
RIIIIIP!
"Wha......?!"
Namgung Hye's face went pale at the sound of tearing silk.
Before her eyes, the net of blade qi that had surely ensnared him was being dismantled — fragment by fragment — in a bizarre, phantasmagoric vision.
She squeezed her eyes shut and dragged up every last drop of her remaining power.
"Gnnnhh...... Five Peaks Stance!"
She cried out at the top of her lungs.
An immense pressure — as though Mount Hua, Mount Song, Mount Tai, and all five sacred peaks had compressed their mountain force into a single mass — bore down on Hyeol-u.
The instant that pressure hit, it could rupture every fiber, inside and out, and tear the body apart.
But.
"Endless Iron Sword......!"
With Hyeol-u's murmur, dozens of phantom iron swords pushed back the pressure and began to spin.
At first they moved as slowly as a crawling turtle, but as the Five Peaks Stance weakened, they quickened to the speed of a soaring hawk.
Then the rotation accelerated beyond control, and a vortex began to form in the air.
"AAAAAH......?!"
The moment Namgung Hye's body was sucked into that spiraling orbit—
"STOP—!"
A thunderous shout cracked through the air, and only then did Hyeol-u snap back to his senses.
"Huh?! Oh no!"
Startled, he flung the sword aside with all his might and caught Namgung Hye with his entire body, rolling with her across the ground.
CRASH—!
"Gnnhh......"
It felt as though every bone in his body had been ground to dust.
"Namgung Hye......!"
He whipped his head up to check on her—
And found himself staring into the furious face of a man in his sixties with a long jaw.
Seventh Elder Namgung Pil-su stood holding Namgung Hye in his arms.
"Seong...... what in blazes was that? You nearly killed everyone!"
But Namgung Hye, looking utterly spent, shook her head gently in his embrace.
"N-no. Brother is not at fault."
"Brother......?"
Hyeol-u was bewildered.
He had expected her to rage with frustration at her defeat — and instead, out of nowhere, "Brother."
And then she began to defend him.
"Hm? What are you saying?"
"Brother is leaving today on a vital mission for the clan. And instead of helping, I challenged him to a real-sword duel...... I'm so sorry, Brother."
Hearing someone call him "Brother" for the very first time made Hyeol-u's chest tighten.
"N-no. I'm the one who's sorry. All this time, I've been all talk and never did right by you as a brother."
"Then neither of us owes the other anything, so let's make up. Here — your hand."
"Hm? Oh...... sure."
'Why does my chest ache like it's about to split, and my heart tremble for no good reason?'
Taking her hand and standing, Hyeol-u was seized by a feeling he could not name.
"Oh, by the way — who's been assigned to the escort?"
Shaking off the emotion, Hyeol-u asked Namgung Pil-su about the escort party to begin his preparations.
Given the distance and the task of transporting three prisoners, guards and attendants were essential — plus several days of room and board.
"Ah, well — you and your two attendants are a given......"
Seventh Elder Namgung Pil-su himself and Golden Swordhand So Se-gi — once the Namgung Clan's finest — had volunteered.
And surprisingly, the Second Young Master, Namgung Byeok, had also agreed to join.
'That's a bit uncomfortable.'
So Hyeol-u felt — but he figured Namgung Byeok would not cause trouble during a procession meant to flaunt the Namgung Clan's might to the world.
'Just try it. I'll make mincemeat of you.'