After Namgung Seon-jae left for the Murim Alliance.
Seonwoo Hyun spent each day enduring grueling training.
At dawn, he underwent strength and stamina training several times harder than the other trainees.
Afterward, he honed the Iron Sword Twelve Forms in the training hall, and in the evening, he practiced the Great Expanse Divine Art in the cultivation chamber.
His outer arts grew in proportion to his effort, and his martial prowess improved little by little to match.
However, the inner arts accumulating in his qi center still showed no change.
This frustrating reality often made him impatient.
But each time, he strove to steady his heart by recalling the words Namgung Seon-jae had left him.
“Do not try to achieve everything in haste; do your best at what you can do, and endure. All of it will become fertilizer that makes you even greater in the days to come.”
Chewing over his uncle's words, Seonwoo Hyun took up his sword once more.
And picturing the future that would someday come, he devoted himself to training even more diligently.
‘A path will open, no matter what! So I'll never give up!’
Thus time flowed swiftly, and at last the new year dawned.
Changing out of his usual martial arts uniform into plain clothes, Seonwoo Hyun stepped out through the clan's main gate.
“Phew. Shall I get going, then?”
Seonwoo Hyun looked at the mountain range rising high behind the clan.
Mount Tianzhu.
Together with Mount Huang, it was the greatest of Anhui's famous mountains, and the place where his parents' grave mounds lay.
“…….”
Seonwoo Hyun silently climbed the mountain.
Because of the cold weather, frigid air seeped deep into his lungs with every breath.
The path was familiar.
After all, it was a mountain he had climbed every single year since his parents passed away.
But the absence of Namgung Seon-jae, who had promised to visit the graves with him, left a corner of his heart feeling empty.
‘I hope Uncle's doing well. What on earth happened that he had to rush back to the Alliance like that?’
Climbing the winter mountain was hard.
The higher he climbed, the more the path was buried under snow and hard to find, and the stone steps were covered in ice and slippery.
Because he had climbed the steep path without rest, his breath came up to his chin, but Seonwoo Hyun still did not stop.
How long had he walked like that?
When the sun was nearing its zenith, two grave mounds came into view on a sunny knoll.
Arriving before the grave mounds and bowing deeply, Seonwoo Hyun spoke in a low voice:
“Father, Mother, I'm here.”
Brushing the snow off the gravestones, Seonwoo Hyun smiled brightly.
But in his eyes, a deep sorrow and grief had settled.
Seonwoo Hyun carefully set out the few ritual offerings he had brought and lit incense.
As he quietly closed his eyes amid the drifting smoke, memories of his parents passed through his mind one by one.
The memory of riding on his father's shoulders to the market to buy candy, the memory of snuggling tightly in his mother's arms to sleep because he was scared whenever his father went out on an escort mission, and even the memory of being scolded so hard for doing something wrong that tears welled up.
Every one of them was warm and brought a smile, but because he could never experience them again, they were also wounds.
Seonwoo Hyun wiped away the tears that had fallen without his knowing, then gripped the hilt of his sword and swore.
‘I will take revenge, without fail.’
After staring blankly at the burning incense before the grave mounds for a while, Seonwoo Hyun suddenly sensed something strange and raised his head.
“Why is the mountain so quiet? I can't hear a single bird…….”
Even in winter, since he was deep in the mountains, it would have been normal to hear at least birds chirping around him.
But now, not only were there no birds around Seonwoo Hyun, there was no sound of any beast at all.
The moment Seonwoo Hyun sensed something was wrong.
Suddenly, a skin-slicing killing intent flashed, and something came flying at him.
Whsst!
Instinct reacted faster than reason.
The moment he sensed something glinting flying toward him, he twisted his body a step ahead.
THUNK!
‘This is… a dagger?!’
Seeing what had grazed past his ear and lodged in the ground, goosebumps rose all over Seonwoo Hyun's body.
But unlike his flustered mind, his hand swiftly drew the sword at his waist.
“Who's there?!”
Seonwoo Hyun's sharp voice echoed through the mountains.
But what came back was not an answer, but two daggers shot out from the bushes.
THWACK!
‘Kh! There's more than one!’
He dodged both daggers flying from different directions, but his face clearly showed bewilderment.
Judging by the extraordinary speed of the daggers, they had surely been thrown by someone who had learned martial arts.
Just then, a dagger came flying again from a completely different direction than before.
CLANG—!
Seonwoo Hyun reflexively raised his sword and deflected the dagger.
But before he could even catch his breath, another dagger flew at him from yet another direction.
“Ngh!”
Seonwoo Hyun quickly rolled across the ground.
The dagger had come from a completely unexpected direction, so he couldn't deflect it with his sword.
‘Not two. Just how many of them came? No, more importantly, why me?!’
Seonwoo Hyun truly couldn't understand the current situation.
No matter how much he thought about it, he had no memory of earning anyone's grudge.
Who could he, who had never even properly left the clan, have earned a grudge from?
But that wasn't what was urgent right now.
The top priority was escaping this crisis first.
‘They're hiding in the bushes. But I'm not. Facing them in such an open place is impossible. I need to get out of here first!’
Having made his decision, Seonwoo Hyun heightened his five senses and waited for the moment the enemy threw daggers again.
However many there were, the instant they threw a dagger, an opening would appear in their movements.
He had to aim for that fleeting gap.
At that moment, two daggers came flying at him again.
‘Now!’
CLA-CLANG—!
As Seonwoo Hyun's sword, imbued with sword qi, knocked away both daggers in one stroke, the sound of metal rang through the mountain.
At the same time, he threw himself toward where the daggers had come from, and his sword, emitting light, slashed at the speed of lightning.
FWAAASH—!
Iron Sword Twelve Forms, First Form: Dividing Heaven and Earth.
As the sword drew a great arc and split the bushes, a black shadow was seen leaping up and retreating.
‘Got it!’
Not missing the opening, Seonwoo Hyun quickly flung himself into the bushes on the opposite side.
***
“Hell!”
Seonwoo Hyun ran along the mountain path with all his strength.
But thinking he could shake off the pursuit had been a misjudgment.
The cloying killing intent he felt behind him was clinging persistently to his back.
‘What do I do? If I keep running like this, I'll end up deep in the mountains.’
Going deeper into the mountains would give him no advantage.
‘I need to go down to where the clan is visible. That way I can somehow call for help.’
Seonwoo Hyun slightly shifted the direction he was running so the enemy wouldn't notice.
At that moment, two daggers shot fiercely at him from behind.
“Kh!”
He managed to twist his body and avoid the attack in an instant, but he couldn't change direction.
Clenching his teeth, Seonwoo Hyun turned his body the other way again.
But this time too, without fail, a dagger came flying with an air-splitting whistle.
‘They're stopping me from going down the mountain!’
A dagger shot precisely in the direction he had turned.
The enemy had clearly and perfectly seen through his intention to circle around the mountain.
‘Shit… Do I just have to keep going straight ahead like this?’
A look of dismay settled on Seonwoo Hyun's face.
Still, there was one thing he had realized through the few exchanges.
Though the daggers were fast and sharp, their martial prowess was by no means higher than his own.
‘I need to get somewhere open. As long as I can see them, I can deal with them somehow!’
In the end, he had no choice but to keep climbing the mountain until he reached a place without bushes.
The mountain path was rugged, but he was confident in his running.
That was precisely why he had endured stamina training several times harder than others all this time.
How long had he run like that?
As he dashed forward in desperation, Seonwoo Hyun finally began to see the end of the bushes.
‘Yes! Just a little more!’
Seeing hope, Seonwoo Hyun's eyes flashed, and he ran forward even faster.
But what appeared at the end of the path was.
“…Huk!”
Seonwoo Hyun was left speechless at the cliff that suddenly appeared before him.
Between sheer cliffs that broke off as if touching the sky lay a gorge, an abyss so deep its bottom could not be seen.
His eyes trembled like aspen leaves.
“This can't be. This is…….”
There was no doubt.
The most eerie cliff of Mount Tianzhu, known as a place from which no one who fell could ever climb back up.
He had never seen it himself, but Seonwoo Hyun knew.
‘Heaven's Barrier Cliff…….’
Clatter.
A few pebbles caught on the tip of Seonwoo Hyun's foot rolled and fell down into the gorge.
‘I've been had! They planned to drive me here and get rid of me from the start. And I didn't even realize…….’
At that very moment.
Behind him, unlike before, a cloying killing intent was openly felt.
Those who had only thrown hidden weapons while hiding in the bushes had revealed themselves now that Seonwoo Hyun was driven to the edge of the cliff.
Those who parted the bushes and walked out numbered five in all.
Judging by their attire, with their entire bodies wrapped in black cloaks, they were assassins.
In their eyes, visible through their masks, there was open mockery.
Whoooosh.
The cold wind gusting from the cliff and the keen killing intent that seemed ready to hack his whole body to pieces.
Seonwoo Hyun felt as though he had become a deer cornered by hunters.
However.
“Phew…….”
Unlike a moment ago, when he had only run because he had no way to deal with them, his gaze was calm.
Seonwoo Hyun raised his sword toward the assassins and asked:
“Who are you people? No matter how I think about it, I've never earned a grudge big enough to be chased by assassins…….”
He hadn't asked expecting an answer in particular.
But after a brief silence, the assassin at the very back stepped forward and spoke in a cracked voice:
“Grudges are, by nature, earned without one's knowing. If you are so curious, go ask in the underworld.”
An eerie voice, like that of a reaper of the underworld.
Seonwoo Hyun gripped his sword tightly and glared at the assassins' leader.
At that moment, the leader raised his sword and said:
“Kill him!”
At the command, the assassins raised their swords toward him all at once.
Their swords were short swords, a favorite of assassins: shorter than ordinary swords, but fast.
Emitting killing intent, the assassins slowly approached Seonwoo Hyun.
Watching the sight, Seonwoo Hyun drew a deep breath as if to shake off his tension.
“Phewww…….”
‘I can't die without even avenging my parents. I will… I will make it out of here alive, no matter what!’
At that moment, four figures with swords raised charged at him all at once.