Have Only The Good Memories. (1)

Yu Jinsan, having returned to the pavilion, peered again into the secret manual of Buddha’s One Light Line.

He felt a little empty without his chatterbox granddaughter at his side, but it was a rare chance to concentrate.

He had been quietly reciting the martial formulas for some time when it happened.

“Hm?”

He set the martial manual down, tilted his head—footsteps at the door.

He stared toward the door a moment, then spoke softly.

“If you have business, come in; why linger outside?”

At that, the door opened and someone stepped in.

“I—it’s me, Great warrior.”

It was Yeop-seong, the hall leader of Heavenly Sword Mountain Hall. He approached awkwardly, clearly uneasy.

Yu Jinsan rose from his seat to greet him.

“Hall Leader—ah. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I thought someone was playing a prank.”

“No, it’s nothing. More importantly, I heard you would help us. I don’t know how to properly thank you…”

He had apparently heard that the granddaughter would help with the search.

Yu Jinsan waved a hand as if it were nothing and said casually.

“Don’t worry. I’m just a guest repaying my keep for a while.”

“Guest? What a harsh word. Great warriors are honored guests—more than that.”

Yu Jinsan smiled wryly and motioned toward a chair.

He meant the conversation would be long; they should sit.

After Yeop-seong sat, Yu Jinsan asked what he’d come to say.

“Has anything like this happened here before?”

“There have been minor incidents, but never an entire escort detail disappearing like this.”

“Hmm. Are there any who bear grudges against you?”

Yeop-seong slowly shook his head.

“Although we don’t refuse jobs that pay, we’ve never done anything against the bonds of humanity.”

“Then how about rival forces?”

“There are a few, but they’re small in scale. Besides, four of the Extreme Five went together, so they can’t be suspects.”

Yu Jinsan laced his fingers on the table and pondered for a moment.

No hated warriors, and not rivals either.

He suspected the fiends might be people no one had expected.

There were a few possibilities, but he decided not to dwell on them now.

“I’d like to give you hopeful news, but from my experience the feeling isn’t good. You should prepare yourself, to some extent.”

If trouble had struck, it would already be at the point where everyone could have been wiped out.

He said this to brace them for the impending psychological shock.

“You think… they’re all dead?”

Yeop-seong couldn’t bring himself to say it aloud.

Yu Jinsan gave no answer.

“…”

Sensing the omen in his silence, Yeop-seong fell quiet for a moment.

After a time, he forced a wan smile and handed over a pouch of coins.

“Thank you, Great warrior.”

“Although the situation isn’t good, let’s wait a bit longer. The Yin Monster followed them, so she will bring some news.”

“Yes, understood.”

Meanwhile, Yu Seol streaked through the sky without hesitation.

Cheon Woo-hwan was clutched in her hand, dangling back and forth like prey seized by an eagle.

At such dizzying heights even a skilled warrior would feel uneasy.

“Gah! I think it’s that way!”

He couldn’t gather his wits. He wanted to close his eyes, but he had to find his brothers.

Startled, he kept turning his head without pause, able only to make out terrain—details were lost at that distance.

“Still haven’t found them?”

“W-well. It’s hard to see…”

Why was he only saying that now?

Yu Seol sighed and lowered the altitude.

“Sigh.”

Cheon Woo-hwan’s color returned little by little as if he could finally breathe again.

After a frantic search for traces for a while, Yu Seol’s head snapped to the left—she had spotted something.

As the altitude dropped sharply, Cheon Woo-hwan asked urgently.

“Yin Monster Great warrior! What do you see?”

“I think there’s a carriage over there.”

After a moment he could make it out clearly too.

A broken carriage stood abandoned on a forest path slightly off the road.

“From the location, it looks like they were attacked while trying to flee.”

They must have tried to hide in the woods but were caught quickly.

But from what had they been fleeing?

The damage to the carriage was strange too: it had been cleanly split in two.

Yu Seol immediately suspected a high-level killer.

“It was cut in one strike with a blade technique.”

They landed and examined the scene.

Several bodies lay strewn about.

Dressed in white light armor with black headbands around their foreheads—these were surely warriors of Heavenly Sword Mountain Hall.

Cheon Woo-hwan’s face trembled with rising fury.

“Damn it. What the hell kind of bastard…”

He swore unconsciously, then met Yu Seol’s gaze.

“…?”

At that moment Cheon Woo-hwan realized his mistake and panicked.

“S-sorry. How dare I swear in front of the Yin Monster Great warrior…”

But Yu Seol had been looking at him for another reason. She pointed into the ruined carriage.

“Strangely, nothing was taken.”

The neatly stacked boxes were mostly intact.

They hadn’t even been opened.

That meant it wasn’t a robbery of the escorted goods.

“Then who on earth would do this, and for what purpose…?”

Yu Seol examined the wounds on the bodies, folding her arms with a grave expression.

“They weren’t struck by a short sword. They were hit by a blade.”

At that, a single name flashed through Cheon Woo-hwan’s mind.

His face went pale in an instant.

“The… Blade Emperor? It looks like his doing.”

The Blade Emperor’s name surfaced in Yu Seol’s memory as well.

“The old man who once broke into our place and escaped?”

The Blade Emperor had once pursued the Extreme Five and stormed into the Yin Yang Twin Monster’s home. At that time the Yin Monster and the Sword Empress had been present together, so he fled immediately.

“Yes. That damned old man apparently tracked us down to capture us.”

Though he had only crossed their path briefly, he was an extraordinary expert—someone the Extreme Five could never handle alone.

“Phew. Then we’re in big trouble.”

“M-my brothers…”

Cheon Woo-hwan paced anxiously, looking around.

There were more than a few bodies scattered everywhere.

Before long they found over ten corpses.

One commonality: all had been struck down in a single blow.

Soon they found a familiar corpse.

“Fourth brother!”

He ran over in a single bound, fell to his knees, and clutched the body.

Unlike the others, this one bore many wounds.

It seemed he had resisted to the end and been brutally killed.

He hugged his brother and began to wail.

“Sob…”

Watching the pitiful scene, Yu Seol’s eyes reddened too; memories of playing together in Shaanxi resurfaced.

To see someone so close killed so horribly was devastating, but they couldn’t just stand by.

Suppressing her tears, Yu Seol put a hand on his shoulder to steady him.

“Other men might still be alive. Let’s search quickly together.”

Though she said it, Yu Seol knew the likelihood was slim. Still, they couldn’t give up.

Cheon Woo-hwan, hands trembling, slowly set his fourth brother down again.

“Wait… wait here a moment.”

It was no time to be gathering bodies, yet his feet wouldn’t move.

As he hesitated, wiping his tears, Yu Seol gave his backside a light smack with her fist.

“Snap!”

Awakened, he pulled himself together and gripped his sword.

“S-sorry for the spectacle, Great warrior.”

“We must find the others quickly. Just follow me.”

Yu Seol led the way, beginning to track the trail.

She pushed her sight, smell, and hearing to their limits.

Her sharpened senses could detect a bird’s movement tens of li away.

But the vast forest stretched so wide that it would be hard to get out even after days of walking.

After a while Yu Seol stopped, expression grave. Cheon Woo-hwan, trailing behind, asked anxiously.

“Did you find something?”

Yu Seol put a hand behind her and signaled him to be quiet.

“Stay still. I think I just heard something.”

It sounded like a scream from somewhere.

The distance was so great in this place that it was hard to gauge.

If some had survived and fled and were still running, it would make sense.

Yu Seol closed her eyes briefly and slowly turned her head.

Then she suddenly opened her eyes and pointed with her finger.

“It’s that way. Hurry and follow me, sir.”

In the dense forest that stretched endlessly, two men, whereabouts unknown, were gasping for breath.

“Let’s rest a bit, second elder brother. I can’t go on.”

It was Cheon Woo-jin, one of the Extreme Five and the youngest of the Cheon brothers. He stopped, doubled over, and panted.

His left sleeve was stained red, and his face was pale as if from internal injury.

“We don’t have time, youngest. We must get as far away from here as we can.”

The second brother, Cheon Woo-seong, grabbed the youngest’s right arm and hauled him onward.

He too was in bad shape; his abdomen seemed slashed and blood-soaked without signs of drying.

Despite that, he was determined to drag the youngest away by any means.

“Sob.”

The youngest wept almost uncontrollably; his tears wouldn’t stop.

“Why are you crying? Want to hear that the famed Extreme Five are crybabies?”

Cheon Woo-jin wiped his tears with his sleeve.

“Our fourth brother was butchered right before our eyes. How could only we have escaped…”

“It’s tragic that Woo-min’s gone, but it’s better than all of us dying. We must survive to avenge him.”

“We will avenge him. We will, absolutely…”

“Right. Let’s go back and consult with the eldest. We must quickly tell him that that damn old Blade Emperor tracked us here…”

Cheon Woo-seong stopped mid-sentence, frozen—he sensed movement behind a tree some tens of meters away.

Cheon Woo-jin tightened his grip on his sword with a hardened expression.

“Looks like they’ve already followed us.”

“Wait.”

After a moment, Cheon Woo-jin felt his tension ease with relief—it wasn’t an enemy.

Limping as he approached was Cheon Woo-geuk, the third of the Extreme Five.

Cheon Woo-jin, tearful, hurried over.

“Third brother?”

“You’re alive, youngest. And the second brother too…”

Cheon Woo-seong also asked happily at the reunion.

“What on earth happened?”

“All the ones who ran with me are dead.”

“Same with us. Only the youngest and I barely got out.”

“That an entire escort could be taken out by a single person… But why is the fourth missing?”

Cheon Woo-seong and Cheon Woo-jin’s faces darkened again.

“…”

They couldn’t bring themselves to say their brother had been slaughtered before their eyes.

From their reactions Cheon Woo-geuk realized the truth as well: the fourth was dead.

It wasn’t time to wallow in grief; in a dejected voice he shifted focus.

“More importantly, this isn’t the time to stay. We must move quickly.”

At that, Cheon Woo-seong looked at his leg with concern.

“Is your leg okay? It looks badly injured.”

“I can still move. You look worse off than me, brother.”

It wasn’t only the third brother’s leg— they all bore wounds, some minor, some severe.

Still, someone had to lead and blaze a path through the dense forest.

Cheon Woo-seong stepped forward with a resolute expression.

“I’ll lead—follow closely.”