Wudang Sacred Scriptures

After the young maidservant poured the tea and left, Taoist Hyeonam spoke.

“Junior Brother Kwak, you have worked hard.”

“...”

“And thank you for finding the courage to do what you did.”

Kwak Yeon answered.

“Senior Brother, it was something I began. Of course I should be the one to see it through.”

“That is not so obvious to most people.”

Taoist Hyeonam shook his head with a bitter smile.

“My master has often told me that I am too severe by nature. I have tried to change, but forgiving others has never come easily to me.”

His strictness had earned Taoist Hyeonam the name Lion Judge of the Precepts Hall.

This time, Kwak shook his head emphatically.

“Your standards may be high, Senior Brother, but you are more generous than anyone.”

“...”

“The fact that I am here proves it.”

A faint smile touched Taoist Hyeonam’s lips.

“Even if you are only saying it to please me, it is good to hear. All the more coming from you, Junior Brother Kwak.”

Seeing the bitterness leave Taoist Hyeonam’s expression, Kwak said, “In any case, I am sorry for keeping you so busy with one matter after another.”

“If it is this kind of work, this senior brother would not refuse it even a hundred times.”

“...!”

Kwak felt his Honwonmusang qi ripple and lowered his eyes slightly.

Perhaps sensing the shift in him, Taoist Hyeonam hurriedly added, “Martial Uncle Uncheon did not send me because he doubts you.”

Clatter.

Taoist Hyeonam drew a dagger from within his robes and laid it on the table.

It was a dagger roughly six inches long, with both its sheath and hilt wrapped in black leather.

“Martial Uncle Uncheon asked me to give this to you.”

“...?”

When Kwak merely stared at it, Taoist Hyeonam asked, “Junior Brother Kwak, why are you not taking it?”

“It came too suddenly.”

“It is a gift from a senior of our sect. Take it first.”

Since refusing would make it impossible for Taoist Hyeonam to carry out Martial Uncle Uncheon’s wishes, Kwak had no choice but to pick up the dagger.

“...!”

Its weight made him flinch.

Though it was only six inches long, it weighed nearly as much as his Blue-Steel Sword.

This was no ordinary dagger.

“The dagger is called the Dragon-Severing Dagger. Draw it, and you will understand the meaning of its name.”

Shing.

Kwak gripped the hilt and drew the blade.

The blade was crimson, red as blood.

“There is a legend that when it severed a dragon, it drank the creature’s blood and turned red. The accepted explanation, however, is that it was forged from red meteoric iron.”

Meteoric iron, refined from fallen stars, was worth ten million gold.

“In any event, they say this Dragon-Severing Dagger can cut through ten-thousand-year cold iron as easily as butter.”

A dagger capable of slicing through the strongest metal in the world was, without question, a peerless blade.

That only made Kwak more troubled.

“For what reason is Martial Uncle Uncheon giving me such a treasure?”

“In truth, Martial Uncle Uncheon is not the one giving it to you.”

“...?”

“It is a treasured blade of the Jegal Family. The Clan Master brought it when he visited Martial Uncle Uncheon to offer thanks.”

Kwak grew even more puzzled.

As a gift in return for the Jaso Pill Uncheon had sent to treat the Fire Dragon of the Jegal Family’s internal injuries, it was far too extravagant.

The Jaso Pill was indeed one of the finest spiritual medicines under heaven, but not something worth surrendering a peerless weapon rarer than plucking a star from the sky.

Moreover, an item received in such repayment should naturally have been kept as a treasure of Wudang Sect.

“Then why give it to me...?”

When Kwak asked in confusion, Taoist Hyeonam replied, “The repayment was merely a pretext. In truth, the Clan Master of the Jegal Family found it difficult to give it to you in person, so he asked Martial Uncle Uncheon to do so. It carries the Jegal Family’s apology to you.”

“...!”

Only then did Kwak understand why the Clan Master had said earlier in the rear garden that it would be awkward for him to see Kwak off personally.

“I understand the Clan Master’s feelings. But I am not worthy of receiving such a blade. I cannot dare accept it.”

“No. You are more worthy of it than anyone.”

Taoist Hyeonam firmly shook his head.

“Even today, did you come here merely to visit the Fire Dragon of the Jegal Family?”

“...”

“Besides, the dagger is already in your hand. There is no undoing it now.”

“Senior Brother, but—”

“Junior Brother Kwak, why do you have so much to say? You need only use it rightly, more than anyone else.”

“...”

“Think of what becomes of a peerless blade when it falls into the wrong hands. Do you think the Clan Master brought this dagger into the world without considering that?”

At Taoist Hyeonam’s rebuke, Kwak finally understood with perfect clarity that the Dragon-Severing Dagger was meant to come to him.

He bowed his head toward Taoist Hyeonam.

“I will use it only for the good of the world.”

Taoist Hyeonam nodded with satisfaction.

“I will convey those words to Martial Uncle Uncheon.”

“Senior Brother Hyeonam, I will go see Martial Uncle Uncheon myself, offer my greetings, and tell him of my resolve.”

Taoist Hyeonam shook his head.

“There is no need for you to make the trip. Martial Uncle Uncheon told me to say that even if you came, he would not see you.”

“...?”

“Otherwise, he would have summoned you himself. Why would he have sent me?”

Kwak knew that although Martial Uncle Uncheon treated him harshly on the surface, his heart was not truly so cold.

“I understand, Senior Brother.”

A short while later, the two of them left the main gate of the Jegal Family manor.

“Junior Brother Kwak, I will be on my way.”

Kwak bowed toward Taoist Hyeonam’s receding back.

Senior Brother Hyeonam, thank you. Always.

Given Taoist Hyeonam’s temperament, he would not have accepted such thanks face-to-face. This was the only way Kwak could offer them.

By the time he lifted his head again, Taoist Hyeonam had vanished completely into the darkness.

Kwak lingered in thought for a moment, then shook off the feeling.

There was something he needed to focus on immediately.

“Golden Sand Village. Dragon King Hall.”

Kwak murmured the words under his breath, his eyes already gleaming.

He looked up at the night sky and judged the time.

There was still some time before midnight.

Only eight characters had been written in fine brushstrokes at the bottom of the teacup.

Golden Sand Village — Dragon King Hall — Midnight

He had no idea who had sent it or why.

I will find out when I go at the appointed time.

The young maidservant was a girl with no martial training whatsoever.

Kwak had seen no trace that she had learned martial arts, and because she worked in one of the lowly trades—servant, serving boy, peddler, courtesan—he presumed she belonged to the Hao Sect.

Anyone who knew martial arts while working as a servant inside the heavily guarded outer fortress, particularly in the household of a great family, would have been exposed in no time.

Kwak silently marveled at the Hao Sect’s vast reach, extending even into the Inner Court of the Jegal Family manor.

They say the Hao Sect has eyes everywhere under heaven.

That was why the hidden mastermind had tried to seize control of the Hao Sect.

In any case, whoever had summoned him to Golden Sand Village’s Dragon King Hall had clearly used the Hao Sect to contact him.

Kwak considered the possibility of a trap, but soon dismissed it.

There was no chance that the Alliance of the Demonic Path Leader had rejected the Martial Alliance Leader’s proposal. There was no one left with any particular reason to target him.

And if it was a trap set at the hidden mastermind’s instigation, he would welcome it.

It might give him a clue to their true identity.

First, I need to find out where Golden Sand Village is.

Kwak headed for the gate of the outer fortress.

Once he reached the marketplace beyond it, he would have no trouble finding someone familiar with the local geography.

Judging by the name, Golden Sand Village clearly was not located within Martial Alliance headquarters. In any case, he needed to leave the outer fortress.

*****

“Brother Kwak, your elder brother is back.”

Making a conspicuously loud show of his arrival, Hu Gae threw open the doors to the main hall of the guest residence.

“What kind of flood of reports is this? I did not even have time to eat... Huh? Why is no one here?”

The main hall was empty.

Hu Gae looked toward the inner rooms.

“...!”

The lights were out in both Kwak Yeon’s room and Jin Cheongha’s room.

With midnight drawing near, it was not strange for them to have extinguished their lamps and gone to sleep.

Are those two not being a little much? The senior-most among us has not even come in yet.

Grumbling inwardly, Hu Gae headed toward Kwak’s room.

Jin Cheongha might have gone to bed without a second thought, but Kwak would not heartlessly fall asleep before Hu Gae had returned.

Surely he has not still not returned from the Alliance Leader’s Office?

Hu Gae grew a little anxious. Still, Kwak might have been in the middle of qi circulation, so he knocked carefully.

Knock, knock, knock.

“Brother Kwak, are you in there?”

When there was no answer, Hu Gae spoke again.

“This elder brother is coming in now.”

The room remained silent, so Hu Gae cautiously opened the door.

Creak.

“...?”

The room was empty.

There was not even a trace of warmth left inside.

“Huh. He really never came back.”

Hu Gae was thoroughly dumbfounded.

“He went up there in the morning, and they are still keeping him there and working him at this hour of the night?”

No matter how he thought about it, he could not understand.

Kwak was in the midst of struggling with an inner demon, too.

“No. That cannot be right. The Alliance Leader is not so thoughtless. Brother Kwak probably came back while I was gone, then headed out again because something came up.”

Hu Gae closed the door and returned to the main hall, but he could not help wondering whether his guess was right.

Jin Cheongha was always at the guest residence. Asking her would settle the matter at once, but...

“...!”

He felt guilty about waking Jin Cheongha after she had already turned in for the night.

Hu Gae looked at the darkened room, then shook his head.

“It is probably nothing.”

It would be good if she woke naturally and came out into the main hall herself, but she appeared to be sleeping deeply.

“Hoo...”

It did not feel right to go to the Strategists’ Office at this hour. Yet sitting alone in the guest residence’s main hall would only make Hu Gae worry more.

Then his thoughts returned to Jin Cheongha.

Every night, she shut herself in her room and never stirred.

Hu Gae had assumed she was spending the night in qi circulation and had not thought much of it.

He could have dismissed it the same way today, but with Kwak absent, it nagged at him.

Thinking back, during their journey to the Martial Alliance, there had never been a time when she shut herself in a guest room and did not move like this.

That is right. Back then, she would dart outside the moment she heard even the slightest sound. But ever since we came to the Martial Alliance, she has been like this every night.

Hu Gae casually nudged over the chair beside him.

Crash!

Then he waited for Jin Cheongha to emerge into the main hall with startled eyes.

But even after a while, there was not a sound.

“...?”

A chill crept up the back of Hu Gae’s neck.

He sprang to his feet and walked to Jin Cheongha’s door.

Just as he was about to knock, he stopped.

Am I being suspicious for no reason?

Jin Cheongha would come out in alarm and ask what was wrong, but he had no excuse to give her.

Right. Sister Jin is probably sleeping soundly because she feels safe inside the Martial Alliance’s inner fortress.

Swallowing his unease, Hu Gae returned to the tea table in the main hall and let out a quiet sigh.

Brother Kwak, what in the world are you doing so late at night?