A World In Chaos!

Mount Putuo¹ in the Zhoushan Archipelago.
The Sword Queen quietly looked up at the night sky.

‘For some reason, I can’t see the stars tonight.’

It wasn’t even cloudy, yet there were no stars. Sensing something ominous, the Sword Queen took a torch and left her quarters.
She wasn’t walking toward any particular destination.
She was simply moving as she pleased.
The Sword Queen’s wandering steps stopped at a forbidden area.
A deep cave.
Beyond it, there was only darkness.
Though it was forbidden, there was no one guarding it.
It was hard to find, so even if you came once, it was difficult to find again.
After hesitating for a moment, the Sword Queen headed into the cave.
As the torch moved, light slowly spread through the cave.
But it couldn’t reach the end, blocked by darkness.
As she walked the cave, the Sword Queen swallowed her breath.
Something beyond the darkness was wavering.
It was clearly a human silhouette. But the Sword Queen didn’t think it was human.
Its presence was far too alien to be called human.
If she hadn’t seen it, she wouldn’t even have recognized it existed.
It felt as if it was being mixed in with the darkness.

“Who are you? This place is forbidden.”
“Forbidden. And who decided that.”

A calm voice came from beyond the darkness. A young man’s voice.
When the other spoke with a human voice, the Sword Queen could relax a little.
“…The ancestors of the main mountain.”

At the Sword Queen’s words, laughter spilled out.

“How arrogant. Since when has the owner of this land been human?”

It was a strange thing to say. But because of it, she could be sure.
The other was not human.

“…Where do you come from?”
“Who knows. I’m curious myself.”

The darkness wavered, and the human silhouette walked forward.
Hair white as snow. Eyes red.
It was an appearance she had never seen before.
The man opened his mouth as if singing.

“With no older brothers, no younger brothers, I sealed myself away. Who in the world woke me?”

In his blue eyes rose sorrow and longing.

“Ah, the world is wide, yet now there isn’t even someone to share a cup with.”

His voice also carried resentment toward whoever had awakened him.
A crushing loneliness.
The man’s shadow, cast by the torchlight, wavered.
Because of that, the Sword Queen could glimpse his true form.
A monkey.
A gigantic monkey with an unusually long tail.

“…The Handsome Monkey King (美猴王)?”
“A name I miss. But the character is wrong.”
“That title refers to my younger brother. I am the Macaque King.”

At the man’s reply, she swallowed her breath.
If what he said was true, the being before her existed only in legend.
The Great Sage Who Travels with the Wind, the Hundred Ghost King.
The Sword Queen didn’t think the being before her was lying.
Her hand went to her sword hilt.
Even so, the Hundred Ghost King’s gaze was calm.

“Don’t worry. With my older brother gone, I have no intention of doing anything to you.”

He wasn’t speaking only of the Sword Queen. Humans.
The Hundred Ghost King was talking about the first of the Seven Great Sages, the Bull Demon King.
Even in legend, the Hundred Ghost King was lazy by nature. Unless it was the Bull Demon King, he didn’t step forward first.
As he said, boredom seeped from his eyes.

“I only came to retrieve what I scattered.”

The Hundred Ghost King extended his hand. Then the cave began to glow.
Paintings drawn on the cave wall.
Only then did the Sword Queen realize who had left the drawings.
A new light rose in his eyes that had been sunk in sorrow and boredom.

“I left it only to pass the time, but fate connected. And recently, at that.”

The Hundred Ghost King turned to the Sword Queen.
For the first time, the corner of his mouth twitched. Someone had carried on his traces.
For the first time, life rose in his bored eyes.
And he spread both arms wide.

“Kunlun has collapsed, and the boundary of the world has grown faint. The old masters will rise to reclaim the land.”

It was a prophecy. Even in legend, the Hundred Ghost King had delivered prophecies many times.

“In this world now, there are no older brothers to hold those bastards back, and no younger brother or that Tripitaka brat to step out for humans. They say there are those who cultivate the Immortal Dao, but their greed is no different from ours.”

Saying that, the Hundred Ghost King laughed heartily.
He spoke alone and laughed alone. To an outside eye, he looked insane.

“But you humans have grown too. Whether you learned from us or realized it yourselves, you use interesting techniques. Good. Very good.”

Now he was laughing so hard he was even clapping.
Unlike before, it was a light, childish laugh.

“In the past, the technique I created didn’t suit you. Not just you, our own children too. Monkey or human. In all the world, only my younger brother, Wukong, could learn it.”

Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong.
Only he understood his martial way.
He was even better than the one who created it.
His younger brother Sun Wukong was a being born to fight.
Victorious Fighting Buddha.
He became a Buddha through battle, so there was nothing more to say.
What he left here wasn’t even a fragment of it.
Yet for countless years, no one had mastered even that.
But then one more appeared. Whether it was monkey, human, or something else, he couldn’t tell.
Even so, he couldn’t help but be glad.
Soon the Hundred Ghost King stopped laughing, and his eyes turned to the Sword Queen.
Eyes that flashed.
Red like blood.
Under that gaze, the Sword Queen couldn’t even move.
A feeling that everything about her was being read.

“Yes. Your lot’s techniques are enough to seize those bastards by the ankle.”

It’s fairly threatening. The Hundred Ghost King said it as if delighted.
It sounded like praise.
He didn’t sound like the dreadful king of yokai.

“A world in chaos! There won’t be entertainment like this again. There won’t be snacks like this either.”

As the Hundred Ghost King spoke, his shadow grew faint.
The Hundred Ghost King looked to where the mural had been.

“I thought my ties to this world were severed, but a new tie has formed.”

Soon the Hundred Ghost King vanished.
He disappeared like the wind itself.
Only after a long while did the Sword Queen exhale.
She looked around, but the Hundred Ghost King was nowhere to be seen.
It felt as if she had dreamed.
But the cave wall, with nothing left on it, proved that being’s existence.
The Mara Twenty-Four Forms was gone.
Just as he said, he had retrieved it.

“…World of Chaos.”

The Hundred Ghost King’s words echoed in the Sword Queen’s ears.
Not a troubled age, but a world in chaos.
There was no better way to describe what would happen from here on.
She had heard something similar from Gyo-ha when he visited the Putuo Sect.
But it hadn’t hit her deeply.
Not because she didn’t believe it, but because she had no room to think that far.
But now it was different.
She had seen a legend with her own eyes.
The Sword Queen thought of her disciple who was away.

“Namu Amitabha, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva.”

A Buddhist chant slipped from her lips.
And only the next day did the Sword Queen realize the alcohol she had bought for rites had disappeared.

“…I can’t move.”

Gyo-ha, wriggling, let out a sigh.

“You pushed yourself too hard.”

When he looked to the side, Namgung Hyeok was already walking.
In contrast, Gyo-ha couldn’t even get up from the bed.

“More importantly, they said your internal energy decreased. Are you okay?”
“It doesn’t matter. Internal energy can be built up again.”

The current Murim values internal energy over external arts.
You could even say internal energy was everything to a martial artist.
But Namgung Hyeok was calm.
Was it because he trusted the Namgung Clan’s power?

“Isn’t saving my life enough. Thanks to it, I also gained a sturdy body.”

After saying that, as if something came to mind, Namgung Hyeok gave a bitter smile.
He even looked gloomy.
Only then did Gyo-ha realize.
Rather than trusting the Namgung Clan, it was because he’d lost something bigger than internal energy.

‘He really is bothered by it.’

From now on, his growth will be slower.
Of course, as he built internal energy anew, he could build purer internal energy than before, beyond comparison.
He would grow strong faster.
But that wasn’t the ‘growth’ Gyo-ha meant.
Height.
Internal energy could be overcome with elixirs and effort, but height could not.

‘Is it really that important?’

For Gyo-ha, who had already surpassed an adult’s height, he couldn’t understand it, but he didn’t say it out loud.
He had that much sense.
Then there was movement beyond the door.
Soon the Beggars’ Union branch master and the Medicine Hall Chief entered.
The branch master sighed the moment he saw the two of them.

“Is this the Beggars’ Union, or a clinic?”

It wasn’t something to say in front of patients, but he had the right.
The Medicine Hall Chief cleared his throat as if embarrassed.
As recently as yesterday, Namgung Jin-yeong had been treating his internal injuries here before leaving.
Even a clinic wouldn’t see people coming and going this often.
And above all.

“…Don’t overtrust your sturdy body.”

The Medicine Hall Chief scolded sharply.
Because Gyo-ha was the second one.

“Yeees.”

Gyo-ha lowered his head with a glum expression.
And he glanced sideways.
The branch master and Namgung Hyeok didn’t know, but the Medicine Hall Chief and Namgung Jin-yeong, who had examined Gyo-ha’s body, would have noticed the Yokai Qi.
Namgung Jin-yeong had even faced it directly.
And yet, they said nothing.

“What happened to that sword?”
“We recovered it safely.”

The branch master replied.
The cursed sword.
With no way to deal with it, the Beggars’ Union was guarding it.
Just in case, they requested help from Wudang, and Wudang readily agreed.
Gyo-ha and Namgung Hyeok looked at the branch master.
Because they were curious how he recovered it.

“There was a box that could store something that sinister.”

They also brought cloth covered in strange writing.
Had Wudang known about something like that from the start.
He had questions, but since it was Wudang, he let it slide.
The world’s number one Taoist sect.
All nearby rites were overseen by Wudang Taoists.
It wouldn’t be strange if they knew talisman arts.

“More importantly, we got word from Sichuan.”

At the sudden statement, Gyo-ha and Namgung Hyeok looked at the branch master.

“They say the Emei Sect burned down.”
“…!”
“…!”

The words from the branch master were shocking.
The Medicine Hall Chief nodded as if he knew too.

“…Was it the Evil Heaven Alliance’s doing?”
“No. It was a beast’s doing. Fortunately, only the temple burned, and they say there were no casualties.”

Only then did they let out relieved breaths.
They couldn’t lose the Emei Sect in a time like this.

“The problem is, we don’t know how Sichuan’s movements will change because of this. And because of that, the Sword Saint already headed to the Murim Alliance first.”

At the words ‘a beast’s doing,’ Gyo-ha scratched his head.
Because he had an idea.
Still, it was fortunate there were no casualties.

“He asked for you two to come to the Alliance as soon as you’ve recovered.”

It was the Medicine Hall Chief.
The two nodded heavily.
Lying down, Gyo-ha wriggled his body.

“Mmm, in this state, I think I can leave by tomorrow evening or the morning after.”
“…”
“…”

His body was already starting to respond bit by bit.
At Gyo-ha’s words, the Medicine Hall Chief and the branch master gave him looks like they were disgusted.

“Shouldn’t you be going to the Wudang Sect too?”

Along with the cursed sword.
Those words were left unsaid.
Gyo-ha himself was a strange being.
At that, Gyo-ha only laughed awkwardly.
The branch master said it as a joke, but he felt pricked inside.
Recently, Gyo-ha had thought something similar too.
Was he actually not human?
But the answer was simple.

‘What do I care?’

As long as he could fight, that was enough.

“Anyway, rest. I’ll keep what you said in mind.”

The branch master said meaningfully.
Because he had also told them about the Kunlun Sect while explaining the cursed sword.
He had seen it himself, so he couldn’t help but believe it.

And just as Gyo-ha said, when the next evening came, Gyo-ha was able to walk.
But seeing the state of the two of them, they judged it would be hard to depart right away, so they rested two more days and left the branch.