Thud— THOOM!

Faced with the unfathomable gap in realm that Namgoong Mucheon displayed, the Wudang Sect surrendered without managing even a proper attempt at resistance.

The Wudang warriors had their Blood Channels sealed so they could not use inner power, and Namgoong Mucheon personally sealed the Blood Channels of the elders and Wudang’s mainline Daoists.

While the situation was being brought to order, Namgoong Cheongun headed for the underground dungeons beneath the main hall with Seo Heo.

“That the Sword Emperor has reached Heaven Beyond Heaven... it truly astonishes me. The Namgoong Clan Lord must have known.”

“He is my father, after all.”

“I wonder what it feels like to have your father be the strongest under heaven.”

On the way to the dungeons.

Exchanging light words, the two arrived at the dungeon entrance.

The main hall’s underground dungeons were where only the Wudang Sect’s own warriors were imprisoned.

Just before they stepped onto the stairs down—

Seo Heo suddenly stopped.

“Ah—I forgot the dungeon keys. They should be in the ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) Jade-Vacancy Palace. I will hurry and fetch them.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“No. I’ll be right back.”

Seo Heo sprinted off toward the Jade-Vacancy Palace.

Cheongun and the warriors following him stood at the dungeon entrance and stared after Seo Heo’s retreating back.

****

Gasp— Huff—

‘It should be here, somewhere here....’

Rising breath.

Hands trembling.

Cold sweat trickling down.

The one fumbling along the main building’s wall of the Jade-Vacancy Palace in a daze was none other than Seo Heo.

Claiming he would fetch the key, he had slipped around to the palace’s western side out of sight, and was now feeling along the wall for no apparent reason.

Sching—

“!”

A chill touch at the nape of his neck made him freeze where he stood.

“What are you in such a hurry to find that you do not even sense another’s presence?”

Seo Heo swallowed.

He slowly turned his head to find Namgoong Cheongun standing behind him.

“H-how did the Namgoong Clan Lord... come here...?”

“It struck me that the Jade-Vacancy Palace is rather large. If you don’t actually know where the key is, I thought you might need help. But...”

Namgoong Cheongun let his eyes travel over Seo Heo’s body.

As if trying to hide his shaking, Seo Heo clasped his hands together in a rush.

“What are you doing?”

“T-that...”

“I see nothing at all.”

Namgoong Cheongun let his gaze roam over the palace wall.

To the eye, there was indeed nothing. However—

“Our house has a mechanism much like this.”

“N-no! I was only... only passing by...”

“Your excuse lacks sincerity. Even if I’d like to be fooled, you make it too obvious.”

Namgoong Cheongun brought his sword close to Seo Heo’s throat.

Seo Heo had to inch backward so as not to cut himself on the keen edge.

With Seo Heo driven back, Cheongun swept the wall again and rapped here and there with his fist.

“C-Clan Lord Namgoong...”

“Shh.”

Silencing him, Cheongun kept moving, tapping the wall as he went.

And then—

TANG! TANG!

“!”

Unlike elsewhere, the sound came back hollow.

“B-beyond that is the Wudang Sect’s Secret Vault...!”

“The Secret Vault. Now that is a tempting name.”

Cheongun smiled faintly and stepped back a pace.

By rights one should find the hidden trigger and reveal the concealed space.

KRAAANG—!!

But Cheongun’s palm, backed with force, laid bare the thin wall with ease.

It was a mere decoy mechanism; the wall crumbled far too easily.

Clatter... crumble....

“...”

Beyond the smashed opening yawned a dark stair descending underground.

And as the coppery scent of blood wafted up from below, Cheongun’s expression turned to stone.

****

“Where is Taeul Jinin?”

After subduing Wudang’s elders and disciples, they searched the compound from end to end, but the Wudang Sect Leader, Taeul Jinin, was nowhere to be found.

“The Sect Leader is away.”

Namgoong Mucheon did not believe the elders.

“Just now you tried to protect your Sect Leader inside the Jade-Vacancy Palace, did you not?”

“...It is the truth. What would we still hide now? When the Sect Leader heard you were marching on Mount Wudang with an army, he immediately...”

“I think we’ve found the Wudang Sect Leader.”

Mucheon turned to Cheongun, who had come up behind him.

Cheongun’s face was more set than ever.

“There is a stair to an underground place on the west side of the Jade-Vacancy Palace. Alliance Lord... you should see it yourself.”

Mucheon looked once more at the Wudang elders.

Their visibly shaken faces confirmed they had found the right place— and that it was not for a good reason.

“...Very well.”

With Cheongun leading, Namgoong Mucheon headed toward the Jade-Vacancy Palace.

Cheongun kept his silence all the way there.

On the palace’s western side where they arrived—

Seo Heo knelt before a smashed-open wall, held fast by the Namgoong Clan’s Black Dragon Unit.

“A-Alliance Lord...”

Without sparing Seo Heo a glance, Namgoong Mucheon stepped to the passage leading down.

His expression tightened.

A heavy scent of blood was rolling up from below.

“Have you gone down?”

“I have not. This man claims the Wudang Sect Leader is below.”

“Good. Call me if anything happens.”

“Yes.”

Leaving Cheongun and the martial corps behind, Namgoong Mucheon descended alone.

No special traps or patterns.

After some way down the dark stair, a thick iron door appeared.

There was a peculiar trace of force about the door; it seemed one could only open it by a particular method.

But when Mucheon set his hand to it and fed in inner power, mechanisms clacked and rattled, and then the door swung inward.

Creeeeak—

A sour, fishy stench rushed out as the door opened.

Mucheon stepped in, face hard.

“...”

The scene within was nothing short of horrific.

Night-pearls shed a wan light, and beneath them stood an unknown kind of worktable.

Upon the table lay Hwandan of all sizes, and in a corner where even that faint light did not reach, a person hung suspended.

Kang—!

At a wave of Mucheon’s hand the chains binding the man snapped at once.

He drew the man to him with force so he would not fall, shrugged off his own long coat to wrap him, and laid him gently on the floor.

The man’s body was covered in small wounds.

Some seemed fresh; blood seeped from a few. Beneath where he had hung were water jars that looked to have been placed to catch the dripping.

Mucheon took the man’s pulse.

Unfortunately—or fortunately—the man still lived.

Though gaunt and white-haired and unkempt, Mucheon knew him.

Hoooo—

Breathing inner power into him, Mucheon called to the man.

“Taeul Jinin.”

A clear blue qi coursed his Blood Channels like a breath filling the lungs.

At length, Taeul Jinin forced his eyes open.

“Do you have your senses?”

His parched lips trembled; a cracked voice leaked between them.

“Sword... Emperor...”

Mucheon nodded.

“It is I.”

Confirming that Taeul Jinin’s mind was intact, Mucheon examined his body again.

His muscles had withered from long confinement, his dantian shattered—his inner power entirely gone.

Wounds marred him head to toe, and the internal damage was severe.

As Mucheon lifted his wrist to take his pulse once more—

Clench—!

Taeul Jinin seized Mucheon’s hand.

It was a grip no dying man should possess.

“Mucheon... please... end me...”

“...”

“I beg you... please... me...”

Taeul Jinin’s eyes were full of despair and pain.

A gaze that truly longed for death.

A desperate hollowness from one who sought rest through death.

In that gaze he was already a dead man.

Meeting that torment and that plea for death, Namgoong Mucheon closed his eyes.

“I’m sorry, but I cannot.”

Taeul Jinin’s grip tightened still more.

Feeling that fierce insistence—like a cry to be killed—Mucheon spoke.

“Your disciples who refused the Hwandan and resisted are still locked in the dungeons.”

“....”

“If you die, who will lead those children?”

He felt Taeul Jinin’s grip slowly weaken.

Mucheon opened his eyes and met his.

“The Wudang spirit has not been extinguished. You must endure a little longer.”

Taeul Jinin’s wide eyes quivered minutely.

In his bloodshot, desiccated eyes, at last, clear tears slowly welled.

Wudang—once the North Star of the world.

Its pine-straight spirit and virtuous energy, accumulated in harmony with the patterns of nature, had been the pride of a grand orthodox school, exemplar to the Central Plains.

‘When...?’

When had they become a sect so blinded by vicious greed that they trampled even their own brothers? 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

How had they become a base pack of wastrels, committing cruelties even the underworld would shun?

‘It is all my fault.’

“...”

Taeul Jinin closed his eyes.

Clear tears slid from the corners, tracing down to his temples.

“Rest.”

Namgoong Mucheon held his limp hand and let a steady stream of his own qi flow into him.

In that quiet reassurance, the Wudang Sect Leader, Taeul Jinin, slowly sank into deep darkness.