Piiiii—

Red and blue signal flares shot up in succession, piercing the sky.

One, two, three, four.

When the fifth and final flare rose, Namgoong Cheongun approached Namgoong Mucheon.

“The last signal flare is up.”

Namgoong Mucheon gave a nod.

His gaze swung to the Namgoong Clan’s martial force, locked in fierce standoff with Mount Wudang.

While the main stronghold stalled for time, hostages trapped in five separate dungeons would be rescued.

That was the heart of today’s rescue-and-purge operation.

Now every hostage was out.

All that remained were the Wudang leadership holed up in the mountain seat, trying to buy time.

“We advance as well.”

“I will lead the vanguard.”

Namgoong Mucheon looked at Namgoong Cheongun.

A son thrust into the Clan Lord’s seat in the chaos of his father’s death.

The eyes that had lost their way and their light after that loss now held strength enough to lead the clan.

Meeting Cheongun’s gaze, Mucheon nodded once.

Cheongun bowed under that look of trust and expectation, then sprinted to his command.

****

Clang—!

Thud— flop. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Seolhwa’s eyes on the fallen Daoist were cold enough to burn.

The two Daoists had fought to the death over the Hwandan.

So greedy, so base, she could hardly believe they were disciples of the Wudang Sect.

At the instant one Daoist’s sword was about to punch through the other’s abdomen, Seolhwa’s blade knocked his aside.

She knocked the loser senseless, sliced the hamstring at the back of his knee, then looked to the one left standing.

“You won.”

The Daoist, chest heaving, snapped back to himself and lowered his sword.

A heartbeat ago he had tried to kill his own sect brother; now he shook at the sight of the man, hamstring cut, sprawled on the ground.

Even so, he could not tear his eyes from the Expanding Blood Pellet lying in the dust.

“Do you want it?”

“P-please... give it to me....”

His hand trembled.

Seolhwa watched him a moment, then walked toward the pellet.

“Take it.”

“...What?”

“Take it with your own hand.”

He checked her face, saw she stood still, then scurried forward.

His knees hit the ground; just as his fingers were about to touch the pellet—

Crunch—

“!!”

Seolhwa’s foot, weighted with force, crushed his hand without mercy.

“Argh— Aaaagh!!”

The Daoist stared up at her in agony.

His hand quivered beneath Seolhwa’s foot.

“W-why....”

“Who was it?”

“...Pardon...?”

“Who did that to my uncle’s leg?”

The Daoist hesitated, then blurted the answer as if he had only just understood.

“F-first-seated disciple... Martial Uncle Seo Il...!”

“And who is he? How do I recognize him?”

“M-Martial Uncle Seo Il has a mole under his left eye... about the size of a pinky nail...”

Without the slightest hesitation he divulged information about the Daoist named Seo Il.

Rather than protect his martial uncle, he betrayed him easily. He could no longer be called a martial man of an orthodox banner.

This was the true horror of the Blood Cult’s drug.

A vicious addiction that toppled not only the body of the one who took it, but his mind and convictions as well.

In her previous life, Seolhwa had seen many Wudang disciples betray their own sect brothers for a single Hwandan, and that was why she had pushed the Wudang problem to the very end.

“So you don’t know where this Seo Il is right now?”

“H-he usually oversees the dungeons...”

Whump— flop.

The remaining Daoist crumpled at Seolhwa’s feet as well.

Seolhwa ground the Expanding Blood Pellet into the dirt until nothing remained, then cut the hamstring of the second Daoist like the first.

She looked toward the dungeon to which Jegal Hwi and the martial men had gone.

Sching—

Even as she slid her blade into the scabbard, a dense murderous aura still poured off her.

****

KRAA-BOOM—

“Waaahhh!!”

The Wudang gate shattered easily.

Ringed on all sides, they could not hope to hold back the surge that crashed in at once.

“Bind them!”

Ching— chiaaang! Kagang! Kang!

The Namgoong Clan’s martial corps and the Martial Alliance fighters fanned out through the Wudang stronghold in a blink, with Cheongun and the Namgoong corps lords at the fore, subduing Wudang disciples one after another.

Step. Step.

Amid the chaotic clashes, Namgoong Mucheon, Heaven’s Decree in hand, raised his eyes to the vast Purple Cloud Palace.

The Wudang halls that enshrined Daoist scriptures and myths alike possessed a restrained, singular elegance.

“‘In the north, Shaolin is revered; in the south, Wudang is esteemed’—even that has become an old saying.”

So went the saying: in the north, Shaolin is honored; in the south, Wudang is respected.

Together with Shaolin, Wudang had been called one of the two pillars of the martial world.

As a grand orthodox school representing the Central Plains, even Namgoong swordsmanship had surely felt Wudang’s influence.

For a breath, Namgoong Mucheon thought of an old friend—Taeul Jinin.

He recalled the shiver that had run through him when their swords had crossed long ago.

‘How... did it come to this....’

How had a pillar of the world been broken so wretchedly?

When had its core begun to rot?

Crack.

Power clenched in the hand that gripped Heaven’s Decree.

His closed lids trembled faintly.

Then—

BOOM—!

“How dare you set foot here without leave!”

Five Daoists burst from within the Purple Cloud Palace.

An indescribable, massive pressure poured off them.

The five elders of the Wudang Sect, the very center of Wudang.

At that overwhelming presence, the faces of Wudang disciples—who had been driven back helplessly—brightened, while the Martial Alliance fighters’ faces clouded with dismay.

“Heavenly Dragon Sword Emperor! What is the meaning of this! Our Wudang never agreed to the Martial Alliance’s will! To storm in and run rampant like this!”

As Namgoong Mucheon’s eyes moved over the elders standing before the palace, his expression chilled.

Who were these men?

Had they not once fought beside Taeul Jinin to uphold order in the martial world?

How, then, could the Blood Cult’s breath be felt upon them?

“...I have no wish to trade words with the ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) likes of you. Where is Taeul Jinin?”

“Do not speak our Sect Leader’s name so lightly! The Sect Leader has ordered us to oppose the Martial Alliance’s tyranny!”

Hearing from the elders’ own mouths that Taeul Jinin was directing all of this, Namgoong Mucheon’s mood sank further.

He could not bring himself to believe his old friend had turned.

“Then I will strike you down and go see him myself.”

“Do not make light of our school!”

Sching— schring— sching—!

The five elders drew their swords as one.

From each of them rolled forth a force nearly equal to the Flowering realm.

‘It cannot be that all of them have truly reached Flowering...’

Was this strangely alien Blood Cult aura magnifying their original inner power?

Just then—

“!”

Along the wall encircling the Wudang stronghold, warriors rose to the parapet—each reading at least as near-Transcendent.

As if they had turned the tables and surrounded the Martial Alliance inside the compound.

“If you surrender even now and kneel, I will spare your life and those of your men!”

‘So they did think this through.’

He had wondered why they had not shown themselves until the Alliance had entered the main seat. Now their design was clear.

Five at Flowering was surprise enough, and so many near-Transcendent experts on top of that.

With this much force, they could have shattered the fighting spirit of most factions.

There was, however, one thing the Wudang elders did not know.

— Cheongun.

Namgoong Cheongun looked back at Namgoong Mucheon.

— Do not let a single one slip away.

— Yes, Father.

Sssssss....

Namgoong Mucheon’s body began to rise slowly into the air.

“That is what I wished to say.”

Namgoong Mucheon’s realm was not the Flowering the elders imagined, but Heaven Beyond Heaven.

Moreover, Gong Cheon—who had just freed the hostages from the nearby dungeons—would reach this place at any moment.

No matter how many Flowering experts stood there, those in Flowering could not defeat one in Heaven Beyond Heaven.

Between Flowering and Heaven Beyond Heaven lay a gulf like heaven and earth.

Even if Wudang’s warriors used Bloodburst Pellets to amplify their inner power, before two experts in Heaven Beyond Heaven they were no different from children.

“Cast down your swords, confess your crimes, and repent—even now. Do that, and I will spare your lives.”

“Are you in your right mind, Heavenly Dragon Sword Emperor?”

The elders could not hide their dismay that Namgoong Mucheon, far from cowed by five powers near Flowering, only grew more imperious.

“You mean to stand against us to the very end!”

“Stand against you? How laughable.”

A thin breath of laughter slipped from Namgoong Mucheon.

“You cannot even gauge my realm. Do you still not understand what that means?”

He was right.

The Wudang Daoists could not sense his level at all.

To be unable to read an opponent’s realm was proof that the opponent stood higher.

“W-what...!”

Rrrrrrr—

The ground shook, and an immense force pressed down on the Daoists around the Purple Cloud Palace.

Thud— THOOM!

The Wudang Daoists who had been standing smugly atop the wall toppled one by one—without even drawing their swords.

“Gkh...!”

“Urgh...!”

An invisible hand bore down on them, threatening to crush them to paste.

Just enduring that pressure forced them to pour out all the inner power the Bloodburst Pellets had swelled within them.

Sching—

The sword of the central elder—one of the five, shaken—slid itself free and floated into the air.

He snatched for it too late; the blade hovered and leveled at its own master.

Swordsmanship that moved a blade freely with force alone, without touching it.

A near-miraculous level said to belong only to those who had reached Heaven Beyond Heaven.

“Sword Wielded by Qi...!”

The elder gasped the words as his own blade aimed at him, his body shuddering at a sight his eyes could scarcely believe.

“Well then, who will step forward first?”

Not only the Wudang elders and warriors but even the Martial Alliance men could not hide their shock at Namgoong Mucheon’s display of qi-wielded sword.

Heaven Beyond Heaven.

That overwhelming realm’s outpouring presence made the impression of the five elders vanish in an instant.