Namgoong Hwashin was the last one.

That was what Jung Yeonshin thought. Even after securing promises from those he had met today to accompany him to Sichuan, he could not set out without the White Qilin.

That was why he had gone straight on his way. He had already parted from the Lightning Genius lineage for the time being and sent the Supreme Flame Dragon back as well.

The White Qilin, Namgoong Hwashin.

A swordsman born with extraordinary senses. With the immense internal energy stored in his body, he was a prodigy who could easily contend for the title of strongest among the rising generation.

Even Jung Yeonshin did not yet believe he could fight Namgoong Hwashin ten times and win every bout. He had not properly tested himself against him since consuming the superior spirit medicine, but he reckoned he was certain to lose at least two or three times.

Perhaps three or four. There were many variables in a fight.

Setting aside his shame, Jung Yeonshin intended to ask for his help.

'Sichuan's Murim is dangerous.'

It was not some rabble of martial artists who had disappeared there, but the Radiant Demon Squad. He had to regard it as a place where even the elite warriors of the Nine Great Sects watched their step. Every additional blue-robed expert mattered desperately.

Jung Yeonshin, Namgoong Hwashin, and the Supreme Flame Dragon.

Ten blue-robed experts of the Lightning Genius lineage, including Hong Joogeom.

And another thirty-odd white robes.

They were not enough to serve as the fortress's main fighting force. But they would be a force that no one in Sichuan could easily dismiss.

'But is it right to do this? Young Master Namgoong must be in despair.'

The boy wrestled with that question right up until he knocked at the gate.

CLANG! CLANG!

He gripped the cold knocker and struck it downward.

This was the Suncheon Wing's compound in the Desolate Fortress. As with the Radiant Demon Squad's quarters, there were few presences within. He had heard that they, too, had gone on a mission to Sichuan, alongside the Annihilation Squad and Radiant Demon Squad.

CREEEAK!

Before ten breaths had passed, the gate opened. A girl peeked out.

He could see the character for desolation embroidered on the shoulder of her white robe. She was a white-robed warrior of the Suncheon Wing.

"Lightning Genius?"

Her eyes widened slightly.

Their slightly upturned shape was familiar to Jung Yeonshin. He remembered seeing her during his contest with Namgoong Hwashin. The tone in which she had looked straight at him and spoken had left an impression. She had been quite brazen.

["Senior Namgoong walks a lonely road. You seem as though you might be someone who could walk beside him, but I'm not quite sure."]

She had appraised Jung Yeonshin in Namgoong Hwashin's presence during the contest.

Shin Binbin of the Suncheon Wing. She had said she was the older sister of Shin Sobin, his junior in the Radiant Demon Squad. Naturally, she was a cherished daughter of the Desolate Fortress's Shin Clan.

"I've come to see Young Master Namgoong."

Jung Yeonshin spoke calmly. Shin Binbin's delicate brows drew together slightly.

"At this hour of the night...?"

"It's... an urgent matter."

He was the one in a hurry. Coming unannounced in the middle of the night was, strictly speaking, rude. This was no time to take issue with the way a lower-ranking white-robed warrior addressed him.

'What is this?'

For her part, Shin Binbin was offended. She had never liked the boy called Lightning Genius, Jung Yeonshin.

When he defeated her senior, the White Qilin, in the mission contest, she had accepted it. She might not have liked it, but the match had been fair. The rumors that followed, however, had planted the seeds of resentment.

'So he's that hungry for credit?'

While she had been cheering on the senior she secretly loved, word had reached her that Lightning Genius had monopolized all the credit and fame.

Namgoong Hwashin, they said, had been unable to resolve even a single thread of his personal debts and grudges—all because Lightning Genius had cut down both siblings of the Namgoong direct line and walked away.

'He really thinks the world revolves around him. And he wasn't even raised in a distinguished household.'

His coming at this hour to attend to his own business was proof enough. It would be midnight in just one two-hour watch.

Arrogant. Insolent. Utterly inconsiderate.

He was an unbearably rude, greedy boy, his true nature merely wrapped in fairly handsome looks, exceptional skill, and youth.

Lightning Genius, Jung Yeonshin.

She could picture him, confident in his martial prowess, readily accepting the winner-stays-on format and using his glib tongue to persuade the good-natured Namgoong Hwashin.

Shin Binbin's eyes narrowed. Naturally, her words came out curt.

"My dear Hwashin has already retired, you know?"

She addressed Namgoong Hwashin with the affectionate familiarity of a younger woman calling an older man her dear brother—a white-robed warrior speaking of a blue-robed expert that way.

It showed a disregard for rank, but Jung Yeonshin paid it no mind. He had no time to waste on trivialities.

"The Radiant Demon Squad sent to Sichuan has gone missing. I've assembled a rescue party. I want to ask Young Master Namgoong to join us."

"The Radiant Demon Squad...?"

An unusual light flickered in Shin Binbin's eyes.

The news had only arrived that evening. It was understandable that she knew nothing of it, having devoted all her attention to Namgoong Hwashin in the Suncheon Wing's compound.

Jung Yeonshin nodded silently. To leave at daybreak, he had to secure Namgoong Hwashin's participation and obtain the Command Bureau's approval without delay.

"As I said, it's urgent. Please let him know."

But instead—

"Hmm..."

Shin Binbin pressed her small lips together. She showed no sign of moving away from the gate.

At last, emotion entered Jung Yeonshin's voice.

"What is this? What do you think you're doing?"

"Hwashin needs rest. He's been under tremendous mental strain. He used to immerse himself in martial arts to the point of forgetting food and sleep, but since his return, he's been skipping even his morning training. All thanks to someone who cared nothing for his comrades and wanted only the credit."

Her tone was accusatory. With a prim expression, Shin Binbin shot Jung Yeonshin a sidelong glare. Her lashes flicked up and down defiantly. She was not even treating him as an equal.

Was she insane?

Thinking this, Jung Yeonshin echoed her words.

"Credit...?"

He had an idea what was going on. Shin Binbin seemed entirely ignorant of the circumstances.

She did not know that Namgoong Hwashin had been raised to lead the Namgoong clan's assassins. She had heard nothing of the sorcerous mental restraint placed on the White Qilin. Otherwise, she could not have behaved this way.

Things had turned out that way because of concern over the effects of the brainwashing that prevented him from harming the direct line. Had Namgoong Hwashin been free of it, Jung Yeonshin would never have agreed to a winner-stays-on contest with the youngest going first.

'So he only confided in me.'

The boy considered this. Namgoong Hwashin had not shared his private troubles even with his comrades in the Suncheon Wing. Had crossing swords in their contest left some impression on him?

It seemed Jung Yeonshin had been allowed to hear his story because the White Qilin acknowledged him as a martial artist. All the more reason he could not tell Shin Binbin.

"You said Young Master Namgoong needs rest."

Jung Yeonshin slowly parted his lips.

"... That isn't for you to decide, is it?"

"What did you just say?"

Shin Binbin's eyes flared wide.

Jung Yeonshin decided to ignore her. She was beneath him.

Even if she knew nothing of the circumstances between him and Namgoong Hwashin, one fact was clear: an entire combat unit of the Divine Sword Squad stood on the brink of annihilation.

Shin Binbin was being absurdly unreasonable. There was no reason to keep talking to her.

'I'll have to jump over.'

The boy's gaze naturally rose.

WHOOSH!

Had she noticed his intention? A wave of qi stirred.

Shin Binbin attacked. Before Jung Yeonshin could leap, her right hand shot toward him.

It was not that he had lost in a contest of speed. It merely meant that she had moved first.

This was insubordination.

SWISH!

A breeze swept toward him. Fluttering white cloth entered his vision.

Shin Binbin's hand moved in a grappling technique. Beside the smooth inner surface of her sleeve, he glimpsed the hilt of a treasured sword. It was not a Desolate Sword, but a famed sword of the Shin Clan.

With her free hand, she flung the gate wide and closed in with a single step. A refined wave of qi, characteristic of a distinguished martial clan, washed over him.

Sky-blue lightning flashed in Jung Yeonshin's eyes.

"Not one step..."

The instant she opened her mouth, the boy's form twisted like a leaf. Wind swept along his curving path, scraping up the Suncheon Wing's gate.

He closed the distance in an instant. Shin Binbin's grappling hand failed even to brush his robes.

BANG!

A crushed breath burst out beside the back of his hand as it struck the side of her head like lightning.

A gale blasted sideways like an exploding cannon shell. Flung away with it, Shin Binbin tumbled helplessly across the ground.

"Urgh... uhhh..."

"Hungry for credit? You're right. I want credit more than anyone."

Jung Yeonshin looked down at her coldly.

"How you judge me is irrelevant. But I will not tolerate insubordination. You've wasted precious time as well. Be grateful I haven't executed you on the spot."

His voice came out harsh.

He could hardly divulge Namgoong Hwashin's family affairs just to correct a misunderstanding.

He could accept being misjudged. They could point fingers and say whatever they pleased.

'Just don't get in my way.'

So long as they did not intrude upon the faces of Ma Jin and Heon Wonchang, Chung Myung and Baek Miryeo, which still hovered before his eyes.

His mind was more sharply on edge than ever. He carried a sword in his heart. If anyone brought further harm to his Radiant Demon Squad comrades, he could cut them down, whoever they might be.

The Sichuan Tang Clan.

The Diancang Sect, Qingcheng Sect, and Emei Sect.

The Ten Perfections Sect, Pure Demon Alliance, and Dragon-Slaying Alliance.

These were the great factions of the Eight Families, Nine Great Sects, and Thirteen skies said to be vying for supremacy in Sichuan.

The Diancang Sect was originally based on Mount Diancang in Yunnan, but its members were reportedly ranging across Sichuan's Murim to aid the Qingcheng and Emei Sects, which were being driven back by three of the Thirteen skies.

That was how chaotic the region was.

'I have to suspect all of them.'

The Radiant Demon Squad possessed tremendous mobility through its lightness skills. If its members were determined to flee, a single contingent of elites from one great faction would not be enough to capture them.

He had to assume that at least two great sects had joined forces to corner the squad.

Jung Yeonshin needed to keep his mind flexible while remaining decisive in his actions.

Crossing the threshold, he spoke to Shin Binbin, who lay sprawled on the ground, unable to steady herself.

"My comrades in this fortress are precious to me, too."

Conviction honed like a blade flowed through the boy's voice.

The closer he came to creating his mental cultivation method, the higher the quality of his internal energy rose. He had reached a realm where intent seeped into his waves of qi. At this moment, as he used the encounter with Shin Binbin to solidify his mental image, it was refined another degree.

His feelings were being carried in the pulses of his core energy.

"...!"

She, too, was a white-robed warrior who had honed her energy detection. Her eyes wavered at the sound of Jung Yeonshin's voice.

'Could there have been... some kind of misunderstanding...?'

But the boy gave her no chance to say more. Leaving Shin Binbin behind, he walked on.

He was going to recruit the final piece needed for the mission: the White Qilin, Namgoong Hwashin.

* * *

"I'll go."

Namgoong Hwashin spoke.

Dark shadows hung beneath his eyes, much like the Supreme Flame Dragon's. It was hard to find any trace of the mysterious, handsome appearance that had suited his epithet of White Qilin.

Despite his ready acceptance, anguish clung to him. Even his gaze was clouded.

"Thank you."

"No need."

He waved a hand at Jung Yeonshin as the boy bowed, then continued.

"I merely... thought I might feel better if I could swing my sword to my heart's content. That's the only reason I'm accepting. Though it is also something I ought to do."

"..."

"And I offer my apologies for Shin Binbin's rudeness. I was late to notice what was happening. Perhaps my energy detection has dulled."

Namgoong Hwashin spoke as though it were of little consequence.

In that moment, Jung Yeonshin realized that the White Qilin's temperament had changed.

A junior he cherished had been struck down, yet he seemed untroubled. This was not the personality of the unfailingly upright scholar he had resembled before.

Instead, there was something faintly reminiscent of Jung Yeonshin himself in combat. He no longer concerned himself with small things and had become bold in all matters.

'Is this all right?'

The boy considered it.

The two blue-robed experts and one unranked disciple who would lead the rescue party were all in a bad state. At the very least, they were in no condition to comport themselves as orthodox martial artists.

He himself was the first example, with that sword raised in his heart. Namgoong Hwashin, too, seemed greatly changed. And there was no need even to mention the Supreme Flame Dragon, forever chewing poppies and intoxicated by their effects.

'... It should be fine.'

Leaving Namgoong Hwashin's room, Jung Yeonshin reached that conclusion on his own. There was no alternative.

Now he had to race onward.

... And so the solitary moon sank, its faint light fading with it.

Before long, the day of departure dawned.