Chapter 203: Arrival (1)

The journey from Mount Song to Mount Tianzhu was surprisingly uneventful.

It was true that rain soaked her clothes along the way, and she ended up sleeping outdoors beside a pond near the roadside, but...

A body that had reached the Transformation Realm did not fall prey to minor ailments so easily.

She could dry her clothes with internal energy, and circulation practice was enough to offset a night of poor, uncomfortable sleep.

And when Soyak finally reached Mount Tianzhu—

she found herself facing a massive city sprawling beside the Namgung Household estate, which occupied virtually the entire foot of the mountain.

Qianshan, Anhui.

She had arrived according to schedule, leaving her with plenty of time.

Nearly fifteen days.

Soyak began checking the inns in the area one by one.

Of course...

Every last one of them was rather expensive.

There was hardly a wall in the marketplace without a notice about the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering plastered across it.

And everywhere she went, she saw people from the Namgung Household.

Their distinctive clothing, dyed a deep indigo, made them easy to spot.

“...Mount Hua’s Daoists don’t come down the mountain ? NоvеIight ? (Original source) that often.”

Soyak pondered this for a while. It was only after walking all the way to the Namgung Household’s enormous main gate that she understood why.

Whether it was Mount Hua, Mount Song, or Wudang Mountain, Daoist halls and Buddhist temples were usually built high up on the mountains.

Great households were different.

Their roots lay in the secular world from the very beginning, so they established themselves at the foot of mountains, where they were easy to reach.

Was this what people meant when they said a house was as grand as a whale’s back?

Soyak blinked at the almost absurd scale of the estate.

Namgung Ak, the Sword Sovereign, was somewhere inside this sprawling palatial compound.

...It really is huge.

Which meant it would be that much harder to break into.

Even though Soyak stood there studying the enormous Namgung estate intently, no one around her said anything. ℴℴ𝗺

And naturally so.

With the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering drawing near, more and more outsiders were arriving.

The Central Plains were vast, and the distances between regions were immense.

For most people, traveling elsewhere meant literally stepping outside the world in which they had been born and raised.

How fascinating must that be?

Unless someone had been born a natural wanderer and spent their entire life roaming the land, it was bound to feel extraordinary.

At a time like this, even if some stranger came by and stared around in wonder, the guards were unlikely to interfere without good reason.

Had it been any other time, however, such behavior would have drawn considerable suspicion.

It was not as though the Namgung Household had no enemies to fear in Qianshan.

In the worst case, an outsider might even be accused of being a Demonic Cultist.

Everyone had just witnessed the collapse of the Shandong Ak Family.

They had seen the inferno where even wet nurses who had raised children at their breasts seized kitchen knives and screamed that the Heavenly Demon had returned and the world belonged to the Demonic Cult.

After something like that, how suspicious would a stranger openly studying the estate seem?

And this was the Namgung Household.

The birthplace and home of Alliance Leader Namgung Ak, the Sword Sovereign.

His blood relatives lived here.

If even one of them were taken hostage or harmed, it could provoke the Sword Sovereign’s wrath.

It’ll take a long time for all of this to burn.

None of that mattered to Soyak.

She merely narrowed her eyes and stared.

Standing perfectly straight, without the slightest slouch.

In her mind, she compared the estate to the Flower-Halo Sect where she had once lived...

and calculated how long this place would take to burn to the ground.

Perhaps one of the warriors guarding the Namgung main gate sensed something chilling in her gaze.

He approached Soyak.

Not rudely, of course.

The Dragon-Phoenix Gathering was approaching, and the girl before him wore a martial uniform embroidered with plum blossoms over the chest.

“...What brings you here?”

Soyak quietly looked up at the warrior.

Then she gave him a small bow of greeting.

“I came from Mount Hua to attend the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering.”

“That is still fifteen days away. You would be better off returning to your training until then.”

Rumors inevitably became exaggerated and distorted as they spread.

If someone claimed that a pale, slender girl barely five feet tall had cut down the Flame-Saber Lord in a single stroke, people would call them a liar.

So rumors gradually acquired “plausibility.”

Those passing the story along did not want to be branded liars, so they embellished and altered it into something that sounded believable.

By the time the tale of Soyak “slaying the Flame-Saber Lord” had traveled from Shaanxi to Qianshan, it had become quite thoroughly distorted.

Apparently...

the formidable woman who had cut down the Flame-Saber Lord in one strike was well over six feet tall.

Her entire body was wrapped in smooth, powerful muscle.

And she wielded an enormous sword comparable in size to the Flame-Saber Lord’s Flame-Dragon Saber...

Something along those lines.

Which was why the warrior guarding the Namgung Household’s gate had no chance of recognizing Soyak.

To him, she was merely some ordinary third-generation Mount Hua disciple who had come to participate in the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering.

Naturally, Soyak had no way of knowing that.

“I will keep your advice in mind.”

“Good.”

No matter how accomplished Soyak was as a martial artist, the martial world still ran on seniority.

The warrior before her looked to be in his forties and was naturally senior to her.

Knowing that, Soyak found nothing strange about the curt way he dismissed her.

Regardless of the reason, however...

there were things she could ask precisely because he did not recognize her.

“Could you perhaps recommend an inn nearby where I might stay?”

“An inn?”

“Yes. I’m not from this area, so I don’t know which places are reliable.”

The warrior looked down at Soyak for a moment, then nodded.

She was barely five feet tall, with small hands, pale skin, and glossy black hair.

Since she was not deliberately showing him her callused palms, she could easily have passed for the daughter of a wealthy household.

“You could find yourself in trouble if you stay just anywhere. Follow the main road straight up and look for an inn with a blue lantern hanging beneath the eaves. That will be the safest place around here.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. A blue lantern means the business is under the Namgung Household’s protection.”

Soyak narrowed her eyes.

An inn protected by the Namgung Household.

At first glance, that might seem dangerous.

In reality, it was the opposite.

They would never imagine that she would willingly stay at one of the businesses under their own protection.

“Thank you, sir.”

Soyak gave another slight bow and turned away.

The warrior in his forties watched her leave with a faintly displeased expression.

When an elder went to the trouble of giving valuable advice, the least she could do was offer a proper cupped-fist salute.

Instead, she had merely dipped her head.

It was quite rude, and he did not care for it at all.

Had he not been on duty, he might very well have raised his voice and given her a thorough scolding, regardless of what sect she belonged to.

What he did not know—

was that Soyak had already been irritated the moment she saw the deep indigo of the Namgung clothing he wore.

And she had deliberately refused to offer him a cupped-fist salute.

*****

Soyak removed the large, worn cloth she had been using to conceal her sword.

On the streets of Qianshan, two or three people out of every ten already carried swords.

Martial artists were beginning to gather one after another as the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering approached.

Their numbers would only increase as the date drew nearer.

Soon, more than half the people on the streets might belong to the martial world.

Of course, not all of them would be competing in the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering.

Some would have come as guards.

Others would be there to attend to their masters.

Soyak, however, was unquestionably alone.

So much so that even the innkeeper looked bewildered.

“...You really came by yourself?”

“Yes.”

The innkeeper was an elderly woman.

She stared down at Soyak with an expression somewhere between concern and helplessness.

It was not that there were no rooms available, nor that Soyak lacked money.

Judging from her martial uniform, she had come all the way from Shaanxi, and the old woman simply felt sorry for such a young girl having traveled so far without a single companion.

“I have silver pieces.”

“No, that’s not the issue... You truly came all the way to Qianshan by yourself?”

“Yes.”

The old woman rubbed both hands over her face.

Then, looking troubled, she picked up the silver pieces Soyak had placed on the table and began weighing them.

To her astonishment, the silver Soyak had handed over matched exactly the weight she herself had quoted for one month’s lodging.

Perfectly.

“...That’s quite a skill.”

“I was lucky.”

It had nothing to do with luck.

A swordsman’s fate was to measure and understand an opponent’s blade through the sensations transmitted to the fingertips when weapons met.

Soyak was a master who had reached the Transformation Realm through the sword.

Naturally, she was exceptionally sensitive to weight and tactile feedback.

“All right. There’s exactly one private lodging left. Come with me.”

The old woman made up her mind.

She was the owner of this place, after all.

Her eyesight had grown poor with age, and numbers no longer came as easily to her, so her son had effectively taken over most of the work, but...

surely he would not blame his mother too harshly for giving this small, delicate girl a room slightly better than the one she was supposed to receive.

And so, after passing through a beautifully tended garden...

Soyak was given an entire detached cottage to herself.

“...Ma’am?”