Chapter 107: The Snipe-and-Clam Stratagem (5)

Zhuge Yeon raised her hand.

She was not volunteering to go herself.

“I’ll send Uncle Jang Yul.”

“...He is your guard, Yeon.”

Zhuge Won pointed that out in a low voice.

Whatever blade of the Reverse Heaven Society meant to pierce the Sword Sovereign she might be, to him, his daughter’s safety could only matter more.

But Zhuge Yeon shook her head.

“I’ll stay by Brother Cheokwol’s side. Wouldn’t that make it the same?”

Zhuge Won remained stubborn.

And then, as Family Head, he made the decision he had to make.

“No. Cheokwol, you will go to Shaanxi. Sakhyeon, you will go with him as well.”

“...Me? If even Sakhyeon goes with me, then...”

Zhuge Cheokwol’s eyes widened.

His thoughts were too easy to read.

The Zhuge Household would soon become a battlefield with the Dark Emperor.

To anyone watching, did it not look exactly like their father was trying to move his sons to a safer place?

And yet, no one objected.

Zhuge Cheokwol and Jang Yul were masters of the same level.

Zhuge Sakhyeon, meanwhile, was only barely at the end of First-Rate. In front of the Dark Emperor, he would be no different from dead weight.

If sending any of them would not change the gap in force, then who could demand that the Family Head sacrifice his heirs instead?

“It will be fine, Brother.”

Zhuge Sakhyeon spoke in a low voice.

Then he looked quietly at Soyak.

A young monster.

Compared to that child, someone weaker than her like himself really would make no difference whether he was here or not.

Far better to remove himself and at least reduce the chance of a hostage situation.

And more than anything...

There was also a selfish reason.

“In that case, I would like to take Hyeyeon with me as well, Father.”

The Family Head’s brows rose.

For a moment, the exchange of looks between them turned sharp enough to cut.

But Zhuge Sakhyeon endured even the pressure of his father, a master of the Transformation Realm.

“...Very well. Take her with you.”

“And what do you intend to do about Mother?”

Zhuge Cheokwol asked, concern plain in his voice.

But Zhuge Won only gave a short laugh.

“Has your mother ever been the kind of woman to retreat from danger?”

“But still...”

“That reminds me. Young Hero Soyak, would you be willing to meet my wife for a moment?”

Caught off guard by the sudden question, Soyak blinked.

Then she slowly nodded.

“It is not a difficult request. But why...?”

“She says she wishes to offer her thanks. My wife is from the Shandong Ak Family.”

*****

Great Madam Ak Jayeon’s heart was heavy.

The news that the Shandong Ak Family branch estate where she had been born and raised had all but collapsed tore at her chest.

But the most dreadful part of it all was this...

One death, and one betrayal.

“Brother Jupae... just what were you thinking... Haah.”

Nothing but sighs kept escaping her.

Just then, someone knocked at the door.

It was a middle-aged man with a red collar.

Danmok Il, commander of the Red Sleeve Corps.

“Great Madam. The Mount Hua martial artist you summoned has arrived.”

“Send them in.”

“As you wish.”

A moment later, the paper-covered door opened.

Only one visitor entered.

“...Cheon Soyak, third-generation disciple of the Mount Hua Sect, greets the Great Madam of the Zhuge Household.”

The salute came from a tiny, pale fist.

Ak Jayeon stared at her blankly for a moment.

There was such a thing, in the martial world, as a martial frame.

People whose build and bone structure made it plain they had been born to learn martial arts.

But the girl before her was far too young, and far too small.

If she had at least been broad-boned and sturdy despite her age, that would have been one thing...

Instead, she had the fine, delicate lines of someone who would look better dancing than wielding a blade.

Skin so white it looked drained of all color.

And black hair spilling down like fine silk thread.

Of course, through qi accumulation, human beings could transcend the physical limits of the flesh...

But even so, it was hard to believe a child like this was a master who had already passed the opening stage of Transcendent Apex.

“So then... you really were the one who went on the Roaming Pillar Journey to the Ak Family?”

“Yes.”

She had heard the stories.

A tiny, lovely young girl.

Two months had already passed since she defeated Namgung Seon. By now, anyone who paid attention to the young masters rising through the martial world would have found it hard not to know her name.

Even so, prejudice always lurked somewhere in the heart.

“...Please, sit.”

Great Madam Ak Jayeon rose from her seat.

Soyak sat down in the wooden chair she was shown to.

The cushion laid on it was embroidered and stuffed thick with cotton, soft enough to sink into.

Ak Jayeon brought over a kettle of boiling water and sat across from her.

“Do you like tea?”

“When I was little, I used to enjoy it with my parents.”

“...I see.”

To hear the words when I was little coming from the mouth of a fourteen-year-old girl.

Ak Jayeon could not think of any proper answer, so all she managed was a vague murmur.

An awkward silence followed.

In the end, it was Soyak who spoke again first.

“May I ask what your relation is to the Flame-Saber Lord?”

Ak Jayeon placed the dried tea leaves into the cup and poured over hot water.

As she steeped the tea, stirring it gently with the lid, her hand stopped for a moment.

Then she answered with a bitter smile.

“He was my elder brother.”

“...Your heart must be heavy.”

“Of my two elder brothers, one has left me, and one has died.”

The dead brother, then, must mean Ak Jugwang, Lightning-Calamity Flame, the Family Head of the branch estate.

Soyak remembered his son, Ak Seo-il.

And their first meeting too, when she had come very close to cutting him down.

“Brother Ak Jupae was heartbroken after Seowon died... but I never imagined he would go over to the Demonic Cult.”

Murmuring to herself, Ak Jayeon poured the first steeping into the serving pitcher.

A thin stream of pale green-brown tea flowed through the gap beneath the lid held down by her thumb.

“Please, drink. It’s Tieguanyin grown near Anxi County in Fujian Province.”

“...Yes.”

Soyak quietly looked down at the teacup.

Tea had seeped into the fine cracks in the glaze, leaving patterned lines behind.

It was a Ru ware tea set from the Northern Song.

Originally, such things had been made for the imperial court. If this truly was an original piece from that time, then it was no ordinary treasure.

Even if it was only a recent replica, it was still a fine and expensive set.

This was not...

The kind of cup one set before just any guest.

Soyak drew in the fragrance rising with the warm steam.

It was bright and floral.

And when she took a sip, sweetness and softness spread through the bitterness.

“...It is good tea.”

“Young Hero Soyak.”

“Yes.”

“If, if many years from now, while wandering the martial world, you happen to meet my brother...”

Tap.

The sound of an empty teacup being set down.

Ak Jayeon’s eyes hardened with resolve.

“Would you be able to stop Brother Ak Jupae?”

“...By that, you mean...”

A master of the Transformation Realm who had betrayed the righteous path and defected to the Demonic Cult.

Even if he never learned Demonic Arts.

Simply the fact that he had dealings with the Left Luminary Guardian and maintained friendly relations with him was already enough for a kill order.

And that was not all.

If he truly did begin practicing Demonic Arts, or start moving on behalf of the Demonic Cult...

The Ak Family’s reputation would plunge into the abyss.

It was true that Ak Jupae, as Heaven-Net Platform Lord, had served the current Alliance Leader’s order like a loyal retainer.

It was true as well that, because of that, the standing of the Shandong Ak Family had risen dramatically, to the point of rivaling the Five Great Households.

But if Ak Jupae himself truly stood with the Demonic Cult...

Then the fall would be worse than the rise had ever been.

“Yes. Please kill him.”

Ak Jayeon looked steadily into Cheon Soyak’s eyes.

Soyak finished the rest of the tea, now cooled to the right temperature, and quietly set the cup down.

“...I will.”

“Thank you.”

A Great Madam over fifty bowed her head.

And bowed it deeply.

Soyak slowly returned the bow.

*****

Deep within Wudang Mountain.

Inside a cave that belonged to no one.

Namgung Byeok lay there.

“Ugh, I’m dying.”

“I warned you not to draw out Sword Force unless you absolutely had to. I knew this would happen.”

“Elder, must you be so heartless?”

The old man looking down at Namgung Byeok let out a snort of laughter.

Then he began rummaging through the pack on his back and pulling out medicinal herbs.

Old, tough clothes of the kind some herb-gatherer might wear.

A staff made from cut bamboo.

And a rough bundle of white beard and hair tied up without care.

The old man looked no different from a mountain savage.

He was the Medicine Sage, Jang Uitae.

The one who had saved Namgung Byeok after the tendons in his limbs had been severed and his dantian shattered.

“Why don’t you just die already? Do you think the medicine that settles your dantian grows like roadside dandelions?”

“I trust no one but you, Medicine Sage.”

“I ought to stomp on your navel.”

The old man grumbled all the while, but still made his way to the stove he had built in one corner of the cave.

He mixed several herbs into the water he had drawn, poured them into a pot, and set it over the fire.

Namgung Byeok watched him quietly, then let out a long sigh.

“...Medicine Sage.”

“What now? Must you keep getting on my nerves?”

“I’m sorry.”

A brief silence followed.

The Medicine Sage turned and looked at him quietly.

“What exactly are you so sorry for?”

“Didn’t I betray your expectations?”

Unlike when he spoke to other people,

Namgung Byeok was endlessly respectful to the Medicine Sage alone.

“You healed me, and I boasted that if you restored me, I would become the blade that killed the Sword Sovereign...”

“Hah. Do you think I ever truly believed that?”

That was what he said.

But the smile on his face was bitter.

You could tell from how the corners of his mouth failed to lift.

It had been twenty years since Namgung Byeok was saved by the Medicine Sage.

Back then, Namgung Byeok had been thirty-one.

He had already passed even the middle stage of Transcendent Apex.

The same realm as Eun Jeong, now called the strongest among Mount Hua’s younger generation.

So he had been sure.

That within ten years, he could reach the Transformation Realm.

And in the ten years after that, perhaps even reach the Mysterious Realm.

But that had been arrogance.

The result of overestimating his own gifts and talent had been a rather miserable one.

The Medicine Sage was now seventy-seven years old.

His medical skill was peerless, but his internal energy was insignificant.

He might die without ever seeing the Sword Sovereign’s downfall.

“...You did believe me.”

“I did. I believed you then...”

“In place of that, I’ve brought you news you may find interesting.”

“No need. Even I have given up now. What kind of talent is going to appear that can kill the Sword Sovereign? Unless the Heavenly Demon is reborn, tch.”

For some time now, he had shut himself away in Wudang Mountain, focusing on the making of the Primordial Peerless Pellet.

The pill that had restored Namgung Byeok’s body over twenty years ago.

The Medicine Sage’s own secret pill, ranked above Shaolin’s Great Return Pill and Mount Hua’s Purple Firmament Pellet, a secret that had never leaked outside the Reverse Heaven Society.

“There is a child who, at fourteen, has already achieved the same level of martial arts I had back then.”

“...What did you just say?”

It was something that took fully twelve years to produce.

The Medicine Sage had always made the Primordial Peerless Pellet for one reason alone.

For the sword that would break the Sword Sovereign.