Chapter 205: Arrival (3)

Namgung Seon’s grandfather.

Namgung Ak, the Sword Sovereign—the Alliance Leader and number one sword under heaven.

Even past seventy, he remained hale and vigorous, the supreme figure of this age.

With someone like that behind him, caution was understandable.

Especially when Namgung Seon was not only the Sword Sovereign’s eldest grandson...

but also the heir to the Namgung Household, the number one household under heaven.

Assuming his personality had not changed over the past three years, places he frequented ought to treat Namgung Seon more casually, if anything.

He had never been a man particularly concerned with solemnity or authority.

And from the look of things, that had not changed.

“Anyway, let’s talk somewhere without people listening in. That fine with you?”

“I don’t mind.”

By then, Soyak had already gauged Namgung Seon’s strength to a certain degree.

First of all, he was not in the Transformation Realm.

If he had become a Transformation Realm master, the Namgung Household would have had absolutely no reason to keep it secret.

And judging by his presence alone, he did not seem to have crossed the Transformation Realm wall.

Of course, masters above a certain level could conceal their presence.

It was also one of the secret arts practiced by assassin groups such as the Kill Veil.

But it was difficult to imagine Namgung Seon having learned the Kill Veil’s arts.

And concealing one’s presence was useless against someone substantially stronger anyway.

“...You don’t mind? That stings my pride a little.”

Somewhere no one could listen.

A secluded place where no one could see them.

Her answer meant that even if he took her somewhere like that, she did not consider him a threat in the slightest.

Namgung Seon muttered with half-playful amusement and half-genuine frustration.

Soyak, however, had no intention of sparing his pride.

They were hardly close enough for that in the first place.

And whether he knew it or not, she was the daughter of a family that had been burned to extinction on his grandfather’s orders.

So Soyak gave no reply.

She simply followed their guide with Namgung Seon into a secluded private room deep within the restaurant.

“...This way, sir.”

“Thanks, proprietor. I’ll come by for a bottle of wine sometime.”

“Th-thank you!”

The heir of the Namgung Household was hardly going to wander in alone and order nothing but a single bottle of bamboo-leaf liquor.

Even if the proprietor did not know the specifics, there would surely be guard warriors accompanying him, along with attendants to wait on them.

And what kind of expensive liquor would they order?

How many dishes would they spread across the tables?

A single visit might bring in more revenue than half a month of hard work.

And what if word spread that the heir himself patronized this establishment?

Then the man would truly be sitting on a mountain of money.

Here in Qianshan, at the foot of Mount Tianzhu where the Namgung Household had established itself, the Namgung name shone that brightly.

“Th-then I’ll take my leave!”

Afraid that even the slightest thing might displease Namgung Seon, the proprietor hurried away.

Soyak tilted her head as she watched him disappear down the long, narrow corridor.

“...I still don’t really understand.”

“You just don’t know much about the secular world yet.”

He was not wrong.

Soyak’s days as the cherished young lady of the Flower-Halo Sect belonged to her childhood.

After that, she had lived confined as a servant in the Gwak Household.

And after that came Mount Hua.

She had gone on a Roaming Pillar Journey, but it had been too brief for her to learn much about worldly greed.

And once that short journey ended, she had entered closed-door training.

Of course, when it came to worldly malice, Soyak knew more than enough.

She knew the malice that had burned down her family.

The malice of the Gwak Family Head who had tried to sell her off somewhere for a high price.

And the malice of the Namgung Household...

which had tried to have her killed while she was still young.

Soyak quietly looked up into Namgung Seon’s eyes.

She sensed no killing intent in them.

Not yet.

“Fine. Come in first.”

Namgung Seon slid the door open, revealing a spacious private chamber.

A low dining tray stood in the center, meant for liquor and food.

Its surface depicted a sky ground from lapis lazuli, with clouds painted from mixed lime.

A glass panel made from high-quality silica even covered the top.

Namgung Seon gestured for Soyak to sit on one of the red cushions.

Even the feel of it beneath her toes...

was finer silk than anything she had ever touched before.

And the red was so vivid and deep.

She could not even begin to guess what kind of dye had been used, how much of it, or how many rounds of dyeing it had taken to produce something so extravagant.

“I knew this place existed, but this is actually my first time here. It’s a little excessive.”

“...You’ve never been here?”

“I really haven’t. My father told me about it, so I knew where it was.”

As Family Head of the Namgung Household, Namgung Hyeong naturally needed places where discreet meetings could be held.

Even the number one household under heaven could not afford to neglect the shifting political currents.

Although the martial world now submitted to Namgung Ak so thoroughly that one might call this the age of the Sword Sovereign...

the more people were pressed down, the more human defiance found cracks through which to escape.

Such people had to be won over and brought to heel, given wealth and turned into subordinates.

Or killed.

And this place...

was excellent for either persuasion or elimination.

“Sit down first. Feels like we ought to at least have something on the table while we talk.”

Seeing Soyak still standing over her cushion, [N O V E L I G H T] Namgung Seon sat down first.

Only then did Soyak sit across from him.

She still sensed no killing intent in his eyes.

The Heavenly Killing Star was more sensitive to killing intent than anyone.

Malice could be concealed.

Killing intent could not be hidden from the Heavenly Killing Star.

But Soyak also knew perfectly well that one did not need to radiate killing intent to harm someone.

Namgung Seon pulled a thin chain hanging from the ceiling.

A faint bell rang somewhere far away.

Both of them were martial artists of sufficiently high cultivation to hear it. An ordinary person probably would not have noticed it at all.

Soon, quiet footsteps approached, and someone knocked on the sliding door.

“You called, Heir?”

“Bring us some decent liquor and a few dishes.”

“Of course.”

A strange light entered Soyak’s eyes as she watched Namgung Seon.

Little by little, she was beginning to grasp the authority and power he possessed as the Namgung heir.

Namgung Seon had been young when he came to the Ilji Gathering.

And that was not all.

That place had not been the Namgung Household, the foot of Mount Tianzhu, or Qianshan.

It had simply been Shaanxi.

A Daoist hall of Mount Hua.

There, the Namgung Household’s authority stood beneath Mount Hua’s.

Of course, he was still the Alliance Leader’s eldest grandson and the Namgung heir...

but before any of that, he had occupied the position of a guest of Mount Hua.

Here, however, things were different.

So long as Family Head Namgung Hyeong, the Sword King, and Grand Family Head Namgung Ak, the Sword Sovereign, were absent...

at the foot of Mount Tianzhu, Heir Namgung Seon was effectively the sky itself.

The sky every commoner here looked up to.

Authority carried in a single gesture of his hand, a single word from his mouth.

He was different from the boy in her memories.

He possessed the power to move people and money with a single sentence.

“So, you came to enter the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering?”

The liquor and food had not even arrived yet.

Namgung Seon began with a light question.

Soyak tilted her head as she answered.

“Yes. But that is not what you actually want to ask, is it?”

“...Why do you think that?”

“You do not seem like someone who would try to secure victory in the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering by persuading me not to participate.”

Namgung Seon’s expression stiffened.

Only for an instant.

Yet in that fleeting change, Soyak caught a glimpse of anxiety and anguish.

Namgung Seon was being crushed under something.

...Something capable of crushing the heir.

Who, here at the foot of Mount Tianzhu, could press down on Namgung Seon—the small heaven of this place?

Within the Namgung Household, there were at most two people.

Family Head Namgung Hyeong, the Sword King.

And Grand Family Head Namgung Ak, the Sword Sovereign and Alliance Leader.

Then why were they pressing him?

That...

had already been answered the moment he called her here.

“...Something happened that makes it necessary for you to win.”

“Haa...”

The easy, sly smile Namgung Seon had been wearing finally cracked.

He scrubbed a hand over his face in frustration, swept his hair back, then propped his chin on the low dining tray and stared at Soyak.

“I heard you reached the Transformation Realm.”

“Yes.”

“And I heard you’ve already gone beyond the early stage.”

Soyak silently nodded.

Namgung Seon watched her...

then abruptly drew the treasured sword beside him and slashed.

Despite the sudden draw, brilliant Sword Qi already gleamed along the tip of the blade.

But that was all.

Soyak raised the Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge, placing it directly into the path of his sword.

The upward motion drew the blade slightly from its sheath, and that narrow strip of black-shining steel intercepted his sword with perfect precision.

“...Damn it.”

She had not even drawn her sword.

She had not dodged.

Nor had she redirected the strike with the sheath.

She had simply lifted the sheathed weapon—

and with nothing more than the tiny portion of blade exposed by that motion, stopped his sword exactly along its path.

“You already know that is nowhere near enough to defeat me.”

Soyak lightly pushed Namgung Seon’s sword aside, slid the Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge fully back into its sheath, and set it on the floor.

Namgung Seon returned his treasured sword to its sheath as well.

Then he let out a long sigh.

“...Why the hell are you entering the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering?”

The reason.

Why Soyak—who stood effectively beyond the ranks of ordinary young talents already and had little to gain from the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering—had chosen to compete.

That was what Namgung Seon wanted to know.