Chapter 136: The Eve (4)

Soyak came down from Jeonggang’s residence with Eunsong.

It was a path they could have descended in only a few steps with lightness arts.

Yet Eunsong came down slowly, one step at a time.

Soyak followed behind him and guessed what that meant.

He must be agonizing over it.

How far should he tell people?

Whom should he ask for help, and from whom should he hide it?

And perhaps the ones he would agonize over most were the people bound to him by fate.

People like her.

Eunsong’s own disciples.

Cheonjeong, Cheonju, Cheonhwa, Cheongak, Cheongu...

Mount Hua burning was not a rhetorical expression.

Keeping the Young Cult Leader’s bodily remains sealed away was a duty entrusted to the Mount Hua Sect and other renowned righteous Daoist and Buddhist sects.

There was a reason several sects had waved their hands and refused to take part.

But the seal had been broken?

And its host was a martial artist of Mount Hua?

That alone might be enough for the Martial Alliance to hold Mount Hua responsible.

They had to catch it before the problem escaped outside, no matter what.

“...This will not be easy.”

Eunsong let out a deep sigh.

There was one thing he had to do first.

Meet his junior disciple.

Eun Jeong, the Mount Hua Sword Dragon, who had entered closed-door training.

“Soyak.”

“Yes, Master.”

“How does it look to you? Are your fellow disciples the sort who can keep their mouths shut?”

Soyak smiled faintly.

The fact that he was asking her that question at all had no practical benefit.

And Eunsong himself must already know that it had no practical benefit.

In other words, it was simply a lament.

A lament spilling out because the problem was so difficult.

Eunsong had always seemed so firm and wise.

Now he was showing even this side of himself to her.

That was rather funny.

“You already know, don’t you?”

“Yes. I do.”

Eunsong looked at Soyak’s smiling face and shrugged.

He remembered when he had first brought her in.

She had been a child who seemed to carry every hardship and sorrow in the world on her back.

A merciless child who had cut off a person’s arm with the first sword she ever drew...

And now, she knew how to smile like that.

When he saw it, he even found himself thinking that perhaps he had not been such a bad adult after all.

Though he had hardly taught her anything.

The other disciples were the same.

Each of them had their own circumstances.

Cheonju and Cheonhwa had been beggar children brought in by Mount Hua’s Sect Leader, who had coveted their talent.

Cheonjeong had been the son of an innkeeper’s family who had tried to learn martial arts for revenge.

“I will go meet Eun Jeong, so you go to my residence. Your fellow disciples should be gathered there.”

“At this hour... yes, they certainly should be.”

“Go and tell them about what is happening now. Everything, without leaving out a single detail.”

Soyak stopped walking for a moment.

Then she looked up at Eunsong.

Eunsong also turned back and gazed quietly at her.

He knew that look in her eyes.

It was the look of someone sincerely worried about her fellow disciples.

“...Are you truly sure that will be all right?”

“Yes. It will be all right. I trust all my disciples.”

“That is not what I mean. What worries me is simply...”

In Soyak’s mind remained the image of Cheonjeong telling her not to tell him, but to go to her master first.

Information was no different from treasure.

And those who possessed treasure beyond their station were persecuted and robbed.

Information was the same.

“...I worry that the information itself may put them in difficulty.”

“Unless you have two bodies, you cannot run around that busily.”

Soyak also accepted that and nodded.

Eunsong was right.

For now, the people they trusted had to be given the information clearly.

And there was another problem they had to consider as well.

Eunsong, Jeonggang, and Soyak would all begin moving differently from usual.

If so, every third-generation disciple under Cheonjeong would fall into confusion.

At the very least, everyone taught by Eunsong would.

If that accumulated, it would become distrust.

And if distrust accumulated, conflict and fighting would inevitably arise.

Soyak did not want to face that result.

“...Understood. I will tell them.”

“Good, Soyak. Once you finish speaking with them, either remain at the residence or return to Flower-Haze Hall if the time is right. I will have to explain the situation to Eun Jeong at one of those two places as well.”

“Understood.”

*****

“You did not oversleep, did you?”

Cheongak poked his head out beside Cheonjeong and spoke.

Cheonjeong was currently looking through the inside of the residence, wondering whether Eunsong might be ill.

Beside him, Cheonju sighed.

“Cheongu, how do you even go around with a child like that?”

“Well, he may look like that, but deep down he’s... not deep at all, but he is a kind friend.”

“That is an insult.”

When Cheonhwa added that from the side, Cheongu put a finger to his lips and shushed her.

Because in truth, he had indeed been teasing Cheongak while pretending to praise him.

Cheonhwa saw that and giggled.

Meanwhile, after roughly checking the inside of the residence, Cheonjeong reached a conclusion.

“It seems he went somewhere.”

“At this hour?”

“He may have gone to Grand Master Jeonggang, or else...”

“Or else?”

Cheonjeong furrowed his brow.

Then he struck Cheongak on the crown of his head with his knuckle.

“I do not know either, you brat.”

“Why did you hit me? That hurt...”

At that moment, someone flew in from far away with lightness arts and landed in the front yard.

It was Soyak.

Cheongak opened his eyes wide and pointed at her.

“Didn’t you go to learn from Great Grand Master Jeonggang?”

“Something came up for a moment. Master has gone to see Master Eun Jeong.”

Everyone tilted their heads at the unexpected name.

Eun Jeong, the Mount Hua Sword Dragon.

They knew who he was, but Cheongak was the only one among them who had ever seen his face.

“Master Eun Jeong entered closed-door training for three years... ah.”

“Do you know something?”

Cheonju stared quietly at Cheongak.

Cheonjeong nodded.

“He entered three years of closed-door training. Three years ago.”

“So it is time for him to come out.”

Soyak nodded in affirmation at Cheonju’s answer.

Cheonjeong still seemed unable to resolve all his questions and tilted his head.

“But this is strange. Usually, the disciple is the one who goes to visit.”

According to proper etiquette, Eun Jeong, having finished closed-door training, should be going around Mount Hua to pay his respects.

Not Eunsong, the Eldest Brother among the second-generation disciples, going to meet him personally.

Before answering, Soyak first spread her internal energy around them.

It formed a kind of soundproofing wall.

“...Something has happened.”

Cheonjeong let out a sigh.

A matter that no one but the people in this place could hear.

Most of the time, that meant something related to someone’s safety or well-being.

And now, something had happened again.

“Yes. Something has happened. And Master told me to convey it to every fellow disciple present here.”

Cheonju, Cheonhwa, Cheongak, and Cheongu’s eyes widened.

For the most part, matters like this were not shared with them.

They did not especially resent that.

Information was like treasure; simply knowing it could bring disaster.

For instance, Cheonjeong was always full of worries.

Perhaps it was because, as the Eldest Brother, he heard more things.

After agonizing over it, Cheongu opened his mouth.

“You mean us too?”

“Yes. That is correct. So for now, everyone should go inside.”

Fortunately, Eunsong’s room was not especially narrow.

It was large enough for six boys and girls to sit huddled together.

Once everyone had taken a seat, Cheonhwa, who sat by the doorway, closed the door.

This residence was protected by a formation.

It looked shabby, but the Zhuge Household had put considerable effort into this place.

Here, they could speak freely.

“I will begin with the core of it. Someone presumed to be the Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult is inside Mount Hua.”

It was, in every sense, an explosive declaration.

Cheonjeong and the other third-generation disciples, who had been listening closely, all froze in place.

Cheonjeong narrowed his eyes and asked back.

“...Did you say that correctly? Or did I mishear you?”

“Yes. You heard correctly. I will explain.”

Cheonjeong nodded.

In a calm voice, Soyak began explaining the series of events.

She began with the strange sound she had heard when she came out to the training ground with Cheonjeong at dawn.

How she had gone to investigate it.

How she found a cave on the slope beneath South Peak where Demonic Energy could be felt...

And how she confirmed that something sealed there had been released.

Finally, she added the information Jeonggang and Eunsong had told her, and that was the end.

The fact that, during the old War of the Righteous and Demonic, the Young Cult Leader with an undying body had been cut apart, and some of the Nine Great Sects and Five Great Households had divided those pieces among themselves and sealed them away.

“...There is one thing I’m curious about.”

Cheonju, who had been listening quietly, raised his hand.

“Yes, go ahead. I will tell you everything I know while we are inside.”

“I understand that the Young Cult Leader became something like a lump of objects that would not die because of his tremendous Demonic Energy. But then how did they kill the Heavenly Demon, who was the Cult Leader?”

For an instant, the air turned cold.

Soyak had asked Jeonggang and Eunsong that same thing as well.

Their answer had been unclear, and Soyak had not accepted it either.

She could only repeat the answer she had heard.

“The Sword Sovereign told them nothing, and only brought back the Heavenly Demon’s head after his breath had stopped.”