Sword Freak

“Is this truly Wudang’s will!”

Su-jong Jin-in’s gaze was not on Jeong-hye Jin-in.

A middle-aged Taoist calmly met his stare.

Jeong-hyun Jin-in.

Unlike Jeong-hye Jin-in, he was a Wudang representative who had come to offer congratulations.

“Junior Brother Jeong-hye’s will is Wudang’s will.”

At Jeong-hyun Jin-in’s words, Su-jong Jin-in looked back to Jeong-hye Jin-in, but Jeong-hye Jin-in did not even spare him a glance, looking instead to the Young Gate Master at his side.

“Young Gate Master, the Justice Gate cannot be said to be unconnected to our sect. Is that right?”

“Y-yes, that’s correct.”

The Young Gate Master nodded in haste.

This was different from the Qingcheng–Kunlun relationship Su-jong Jin-in had mentioned.

The Justice Gate carried Wudang’s lineage.

“I am a guest, but with your Gate Master absent, may I represent Wudang and settle this gathering?”

“…Yes. Of course. I ask it of you.”

The Young Gate Master bowed his head.

This was actually what he had wanted. The matter had grown too large for him to handle.

Only then did Jeong-hye Jin-in look to Su-jong Jin-in.

Unlike Su-jong Jin-in, he had proper grounds.

“This humble Taoist would like to request that everyone lay down their swords.”

Jeong-hye Jin-in spoke gently, courteous in tone, but his meaning was not light.

Watching Su-jong Jin-in and Red-Eyed Beggar, people lowered their blades one by one.

With Wudang stepping forward, they could not.

But Su-jong Jin-in glared at Jeong-hye Jin-in as if to make a point.

“Even Wudang cannot oppress people like this.”

Beside him, Red-Eyed Beggar was bare-handed, yet his momentum did not ebb.

The secret manual was still in Su-jong Jin-in’s hand.

People held their breath and watched them.

Listening from behind, Jong Dae-woon let out a snort.

Who was oppressing whom right now?

Jeong-hye Jin-in, about to speak again, furrowed his brow.

He turned his head.

Su-jong Jin-in wondered for a moment at his look, and then felt the presence of many beyond the dark.

“It seems you have finished your business, so we will attend to ours.”

Figures in black wind-coats vaulted over the Justice Gate’s wall.

On their chests, the character ‘Iron’ was written in red.

“Ironblood Hall.”

Someone breathed the name like a groan.

At their center appeared a middle-aged man in black.

Unlike the others, he did not bear the character, yet it was clear he was their core.

“Seo Jeong-hu! What insolence is this! Do you mean to make war with our Gate!”

At the Justice Gate elder’s bellow, the man called Seo Jeong-hu snorted.

“What is a Justice Gate without the Straight-Edge Sword.”

The Straight-Edge Sword.

It was the epithet of Gwak Mu-hyeok, the Justice Gate’s Gate Master.

As the elder bristled and moved to step out, Jeong-hye Jin-in and Su-jong Jin-in both stepped forward at once.

“There is no need to bare fangs. Our Hall has no intent to oppose the Murim Alliance without our master’s leave.”

Seo Jeong-hu tapped his neck as if wearing a collar.

A flippant motion. Yet none took him lightly.

Because the collar’s master was none other than the Evil Heaven Alliance.

Foremost among the Unorthodox factions.

But that was not the only reason Jeong-hye Jin-in and Su-jong Jin-in were tense.

“Will a mad dog heed a collar? Put on a muzzle.”

Red-Eyed Beggar cut in coldly.

It was insulting, yet Seo Jeong-hu laughed instead.

“Then you should know how savage that mad dog’s fangs are.”

Stripped of his smile, madness rippled in his eyes.

Since Gwak Mu-hyeok’s retirement, he was Lanzhou’s foremost tyrant.

No, he had long since surpassed Gwak Mu-hyeok even in his prime.

His influence spread across all Gansu.

That was why not only Wudang, but Qingcheng’s Su-jong Jin-in and the Beggars’ Union’s Red-Eyed Beggar had stepped out in person.

Seo Jeong-hu glared, then burst into a laugh.

“Do not worry. We did not come for business with you this time.”

As people wondered, he stepped back.

An old man behind him came forth as if changing places.

A one-armed elder, even limping on one leg.

Illness was plain on him, yet his eyes brimmed with venom.

People puzzled over the stranger, but only Red-Eyed Beggar stared hard at his face, uncertain.

Soon a name popped from his mouth.

“Darkshadow Mountain Ghost?”

Some knew the title and looked at him in shock.

“My sworn brother. He lost his disciple recently, and an arm to that fiend too. Ah, and didn’t that man steal the secret manual the disciple held?”

Seo Jeong-hu smirked at the manual in Su-jong Jin-in’s hand.

Faces twisted at his words.

But Darkshadow Mountain Ghost glared at only one person.

“Come out.”

And that person responded to him as well.

“…I knew something was feeling disgusting.”

The one who grinned fiercely was Gyo-ha.

Gyo-ha walked forward slowly.

The fighting spirit flowing from him thickened.

And between that fighting spirit, killing intent seeped out.

“I told you I would be the one to kill you, no matter what?”

Jeong-hye Jin-in stepped in to block Darkshadow Mountain Ghost.

After a brief thought, Jeong-hye Jin-in spoke.

“…By ‘disciple,’ do you mean Iron Tyrant Staff Nam Gwang? In that case, this is not unrelated to our sect.”

He had come out in the first place to pursue Iron Tyrant Staff Nam Gwang.

Jeong-hyun Jin-in looked at Gyo-ha in surprise, then stepped to Jeong-hye Jin-in’s side. The other disciples of Wudang naturally leveled their swords as well.

Iron Tyrant Staff Nam Gwang had killed a Wudang disciple.

That made Gyo-ha little different from a benefactor who avenged them.

If enmity had arisen from that, Wudang was involved too.

Su-jong Jin-in and Red-Eyed Beggar took their eyes off the party and kept wary of Ironblood Hall.

Wudang and Qingcheng might not see eye to eye, but they were rivals, nothing more.

It was different with Ironblood Hall.

Ironblood Hall was clearly an enemy.

“Oh? Planning to drag out all your dusty grudges right here?”

But Seo Jeong-hu laughed as if pleased.

Seeing him, anger rose on the faces of the three Jin-ins and the fighters.

Yet they could not move easily.

Attacking Seo Jeong-hu here was tantamount to declaring an all-out war.

“…Move.”

Then someone slipped past Jeong-hye Jin-in.

Before he could be stopped, he hurled himself at Darkshadow Mountain Ghost.

It was Gyo-ha.

Darkshadow Mountain Ghost raised his fingers sharp, as if expecting it.

“I will tear you to shreds!”

Ink Blood Claw.

His fingers flashed black.

A chilling murderous energy.

It seemed those hands would rip Gyo-ha apart any moment.

“How many times must I say it?”

Gyo-ha twisted his body, then reached for Darkshadow Mountain Ghost.

Darkshadow Mountain Ghost’s hand turned for Gyo-ha’s face, but as if expecting it, Gyo-ha’s hand seized his wrist.

“…!”

“I’ve already seen it.”

He still remembered their fight clearly; he had replayed it countless times since.

But he no longer needed to.

There was no need. The result was decided.

Even at his peak, Darkshadow Mountain Ghost would lose.

And now he had even lost an arm.

Kkwaak.

Darkshadow Mountain Ghost tried to wrench free, but nothing budged.

Rather, Gyo-ha’s fingers dug into his wrist.

“Ghh—! Let go!”

Darkshadow Mountain Ghost writhed in pain.

Claw arts were among the hardest external arts to master.

To temper claw arts, one must be used to pain.

Yet even he screamed.

Even so, he swung a kick to shake Gyo-ha off.

No, he tried.

If Gyo-ha’s foot had not stamped his instep.

Gyo-ha’s fist plugged the mouth that would have screamed.

Kwaang!

Again.

Kwaang!

Gyo-ha’s eyes flashed cold blue.

His fist drove on.

And.

Kwagik.

Darkshadow Mountain Ghost’s body collapsed.

It had all happened in an instant. Silence fell over the garden.

No one present had failed to feel Darkshadow Mountain Ghost’s aura.

And those who knew him were all the more shocked.

Though a bygone master whose name had faded, he had once stood at the threshold of the peak.

He might be weaker than then, but he was not a man to fall so easily.

“Ho. I did not expect this.”

Seo Jeong-hu stroked his chin.

He did not spare his sworn brother’s corpse a glance, staring only at Gyo-ha.

“I thought he’d at least hold your ankle even if he couldn’t win. Were you hiding your ability?”

Seo Jeong-hu had seen Gyo-ha fight.

So he had sent Darkshadow Mountain Ghost alone.

Yet something was off. Gyo-ha’s movements were no different from before.

Nor was Seo Jeong-hu the only one to think so.

“So you use heretical sorcery! You are surely of the Demonic Outlands!”

Su-jong Jin-in seized the moment to cry out.

The murmurs swelled, but Gyo-ha did not so much as frown, only swelling his fighting spirit.

“An intriguing fellow.”

Watching Gyo-ha closely, Seo Jeong-hu murmured.

He thought for a moment, then nodded.

“Fine. Hand that one over and I will forgo the manual.”

Seo Jeong-hu jerked his chin at Gyo-ha.

“What?”

Su-jong Jin-in’s brow twitched.

But at Seo Jeong-hu’s next words, he could only shut his mouth.

“Otherwise, shall we do this for real? I don’t mind.”

Seo Jeong-hu bared his aura.

Faces went rigid.

Especially Jeong-hye Jin-in and Su-jong Jin-in’s astonishment.

‘He’s crossed the wall.’

They knew it because they too touched that wall.

The reports were wrong.

He was a perfected master.

“Jin-in.”

At that moment, Red-Eyed Beggar called softly. When their eyes met, he gave a quiet nod.

It meant the offer was not bad.

Su-jong Jin-in cleared his throat and folded his arms. This meant he would not stop him.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

It was Gyo-ha. He turned and looked from Seo Jeong-hu to Su-jong Jin-in.

“Who decided that on their own.”

His fighting spirit surged.

Then a swordsman beside Su-jong Jin-in clicked his tongue.

“What an arrogant whelp. Think you’re something for beating a one-armed cripple? This is not your place to step in.”

Others nodded along.

They had not dared a word while Darkshadow Mountain Ghost lived, but now that he was dead, it did not matter.

“I know not where you got that manual, but Kunlun is not a name to be bandied lightly!”

[Who spoke of Kunlun?]

A voice sounded suddenly.

It spread as if from the sky, echoing all around like a cave.

Those of lower cultivation sank to their knees, dizzy.

Six Harmonies Voice Transmission.

Then, a star fell from the night sky.

Kwaang!

The manor shook.

At its center, a single sword was embedded.

A rough sword inscribed with the characters Azure Cloud.

At its tip hung a tassel carved with a dragon.

Upon the pommel, a person alighted.

A body light as a falling feather.

A yellowed robe fluttered; at his waist hung an empty scabbard and a worn iron sword.

Standing upon the blade, he gazed down with indifferent eyes like an immortal descended from the heavens.

“Say it again. What of Kunlun?”

“Master!”

Gyo-ha cried out in joy.

“…Who might you be, sir?”

Su-jong Jin-in asked cautiously.

Such was the unusual aura of the one who’d descended.

Unlike Su-jong Jin-in, someone recognized him.

“…Senior Uncle Yun Heo?”

It was Jeong-hyun Jin-in.

At the term ‘Senior Uncle,’ Wudang’s disciples startled and looked to the middle-aged man.

But it was a face they had never seen.

His robe also differed from Wudang’s.

Yun Heo stared at Jeong-hyun Jin-in, then nodded.

“I remember now. A disciple of Song-hak’s, was it? You’ve grown old.”

“…Senior Uncle is unchanged. My master is now our sect’s Sect Leader.”

“That brat?”

Yun Heo let out a short exclamation.

Those nearby drew breath. By Jeong-hyun Jin-in’s words, the man before them was of the same generation as Wudang’s Sect Leader.

Yet he looked ten years younger than Jeong-hyun Jin-in.

One thing rose in their minds.

Reverting to Youth.

A realm spoken of only in legend.

Soon Yun Heo’s gaze turned aside.

At his gaze, one man flinched and trembled.

It was Su-jong Jin-in.

He too had heard Yun Heo’s name.

“Sword Freak.”

He breathed the title like a groan.