But it lasted only an instant. The foresight of his upper dantian vanished as suddenly as it had come. The images flashing through his mind scattered like dust.

'What was that?'

Jung Yeonshin quickly collected himself. The spiritual nature at his Baihui point, which had whispered the words “divine technique,” left his head.

But that was not important now. What mattered was the sight of the Radiant Demon Squad he had just witnessed. He could not tell whether it was the present or the future.

'It's hard to tell.'

The powers of his upper dantian were always like this. Transcendent senses such as foresight and far-reaching perception never came when he wanted, or in the form he wanted.

Often, they showed him useless things, as though Heaven's providence were toying with the boy.

His body swayed briefly. The lingering sensation beneath his crown felt like the pain of a burn.

It was growing worse with time. His upper dantian was becoming more powerful? That meant death was drawing that much closer.

It brought the truth home to him afresh. He had only three years or so left.

'I know.'

He repeated it inwardly. It felt as though his mind were rapidly drying out.

“Captain? What is the matter?”

Had he sensed something? Namgoong Hwashin asked at once. Jung Yeonshin answered aloud.

“It's nothing. But I think we should hurry.”

“We seem to have entered the bounds of a sorcerous formation. This darkness is unnatural. Even my eye technique cannot see through it.”

Namgoong Hwashin was right. It was pitch-black in every direction, as though they had entered an abyss.

Jung Yeonshin raised an arm and lowered his gaze. He could see nothing. Even his own hand, so close to him, was buried in the darkness.

The air pressing down on his shoulders was heavy. There was definitely something here. The darkness was uncanny.

'We've come to the right place.'

The boy found himself recalling the Blood Flame Cult's Enchantment: the Twin Flame Blood Spirit Enchantment.

It had used sorcery to produce a strange effect, separating the cult's headquarters from the outside world. The darkness brushing his skin now held a similar mystery.

“Gloomy place.”

The Supreme Flame Dragon's voice sounded nearby. His perpetually bored tone seemed tinged with interest.

“Founding Master, when visibility is poor, it helps to spread your internal energy outward.”

Hong Joogeom approached as though to guard Jung Yeonshin's back. He was a seasoned martial artist, and his advice came from experience in the martial world. Though the man could hardly see it, Jung Yeonshin nodded.

“Everyone, release your qi waves.”

He infused the brief command with core energy, carrying it far.

Immediately, waves of internal energy began spreading from the Wing-Returning Unit's warriors in every direction. The breezes of core energy touching their skin made them aware of one another. They regained some sense of the space around them.

This was the strength of a group of experts. They could adapt to any situation. Not one of the warriors panicked at losing their sight.

Even the Beggars' Sect members were the same. Everyone present was an elite of a major sect.

“Does anyone have a luminous pearl?”

The Beggar Heir interjected at the Supreme Flame Dragon's question.

“They say carrying one shortens your life.”

“You beggars must have seen only the cheap ones. Stones that store sunlight for later use are harmless.”

“How nice to be the ruined young head of a once-wealthy clan.”

The Tang siblings also obeyed Jung Yeonshin's instruction. Waves of qi resembling heat haze extended from the boy and girl. Their method of circulating core energy clearly revealed their training in poison arts.

“Doesn't this feel familiar somehow?”

“I've heard faint sounds a few times, but to think a place like this really existed...”

The speakers were Poison Dragon Tang Yeohwa and Poison Phoenix Tang Ryeoryeo.

“Why didn't you come down and look?”

A brief rustle of clothing followed Jung Yeonshin's question. Tang Ryeoryeo seemed to have turned toward him.

“Because our father's traces were here. Our escorts are our grandfather's warriors, and Grandfather hates our father for abandoning the clan. The Tang Clan's laws are strict. They do not forgive even blood relatives who break them, so we...”

“We were afraid Grandfather would find Father and kill him. When we practiced Blossoms Raining Across the Sky up above, we kept the guards back. All we had to do was pretend we hadn't noticed anything.”

Tang Yeohwa clearly summed up what his younger sister had trailed off trying to say. His childish manner of speaking actually made it easier to grasp.

“I see.”

Jung Yeonshin gave a brief acknowledgment. The unusual rumbling had not occurred only when the Wing-Returning Unit arrived. He understood the siblings' reasoning, too.

“The Tang Clan, all right. What a bloodthirsty family.”

“The Beggar Heir tells us you're the Hwangbo young clan head. Is a blood relative of the Hwangbo clan really in any position to say that?”

Jung Yeonshin put the Supreme Flame Dragon's amused voice out of his mind. As the siblings finally lost their tempers and began arguing with him, the boy silently closed his eyes.

He needed to concentrate.

“Quiet.”

It was Namgoong Hwashin's clear voice. He had sensed the movement of Jung Yeonshin's eyelids. It was proof that his sharply honed energy detection was focused on the Wing-Returning Unit's captain and his surroundings.

If the Supreme Flame Dragon was a flame difficult to control, Namgoong Hwashin now resembled a sky that was dull yet utterly settled, without a single opening.

At moments like this, he could not have been more reassuring.

Jung Yeonshin altered the route of his circulating qi. This was not the Movement Art, but a supreme method of controlled breathing unique in all the world.

'Moon Spirit Harmonization Art.'

He activated the mental cultivation method bestowed by the Desolate Fortress Master. The internal energy throughout his body began to feel cool and transparent.

Since he had not cultivated it as his primary art, he could not draw out its full benefits. Yet his control of internal energy manifested as much of the Moon Spirit Harmonization Art's power as he needed.

HUM...

Qi gathered at the Tongziliao points beside the outer corners of his eyes. It was the yin qi of the Moon Spirit Harmonization Art.

Dark night was said to be the time of yin qi, stripped of yang. That energy, established within him as internal martial power, suffused his eyes with a crystalline glow.

“The nature of your qi waves has changed. Our Founding Master can cultivate yin qi, too?”

The Supreme Flame Dragon's voice reached him. It sounded playful at first, but seemed to hold a trace of surprise.

SWISH!

Blue eye-light flashed across Jung Yeonshin's vision. The view ahead opened up, if only dimly. The rough cliff walls extending around him began to reveal themselves just as they were.

“Follow me,” the boy said.

STEP.

He had just confirmed the existence of an underground space through his upper dantian. Now he moved to find its entrance.

Seemingly grasping the situation from the Supreme Flame Dragon's words, the Wing-Returning Unit and the other martial artists followed Jung Yeonshin's qi waves.

'I need to use both my eyes and my qi waves.'

Jung Yeonshin looked around, releasing qi without pause. He imbued the core energy he sent outward with his intent.

It was a way to expand his energy detection. He meant to use the sensations returning when his qi waves struck something to locate an entrance hidden in the walls.

Meanwhile, the Beggar Heir standing behind him took up a brush in his mind.

'He's cultivated a yin-qi martial art?'

The captains of the combat units under the Divine Sword Squad were contenders for the very highest rating. All seventeen supreme masters were.

Though his appointment was temporary, Lightning Genius was the eighteenth. He was even leading the White Qilin and the Supreme Flame Dragon.

Despite being only of the rising generation's age, even the smallest piece of information about him now merited treatment as intelligence.

'If the Supreme Flame Dragon didn't know about it, that means yin-qi martial arts aren't his main discipline, doesn't it?'

The Beggar Heir silently worked his mental brush.

'He doesn't seem to have learned hidden-weapon arts, yet he blocked a strike from the Twin Poisons of Dragon and Phoenix. Exceptionally keen senses. That deserves a separate entry. No equal could beat him in a contest of finesse. With two swords at his waist, his swordsmanship can't be shallow, either. His movement technique appears to resemble that of the noble race.'

The information was recorded piece by piece. This was how the Beggars' Sect had built the body of intelligence said to encompass the world.

When a matter warranted his personal involvement, the Beggar Heir led by example. This was one such moment.

'Lightning Genius of the Desolate Fortress. Plenty of people still don't even know his face... but he can already be called the pinnacle of the martial world's rising generation. This isn't something to leave to those old elders, nor something my half-dead master should handle personally. I'll have to do it.'

The Beggars' Sect's successor was assessing Jung Yeonshin's worth in real time.

It was then that it happened.

“Here. It's the entrance.”

The boy's voice rang out calmly.

At the front of the group, Jung Yeonshin slowly extended his arm. Filling his right arm with powerful core energy, he pulled down the boulder concealing the rock face.

THUD!

A cave was revealed with a heavy crash.

* * *

“Nothing here.”

The Supreme Flame Dragon's voice echoed.

A full two hours had passed. The party had entered the cavern without hesitation. It was barely wide enough for five people to stand shoulder to shoulder.

Jung Yeonshin led, with the Supreme Flame Dragon and Namgoong Hwashin supporting him from behind. Behind them were the Tang siblings, with the Wing-Returning Unit's blue-robed experts arrayed alongside them.

“A place this long and deep is extraordinary in itself,” Namgoong Hwashin replied.

“True enough, but...”

Hong Joogeom added to the Supreme Flame Dragon's languid words.

“Caution is warranted. If a fight breaks out, think of it as constantly emitting qi waves. You need to sense the terrain and obstacles. Our Founding Master already seems adept at it, but the white robes are a concern.”

“We can manage easily.”

“Weren't you a white robe yourself until recently, Hong Joogeom?”

Reassurances came from behind. They were the Wing-Returning Unit's white-robed warriors.

'There are so many.'

Jung Yeonshin became newly conscious of the long procession behind him. It felt unfamiliar to find himself leading people before he knew it.

Not even two years had passed since he took the Desolate Fortress trial under the eyes of his white-robed seniors.

'They're a reassuring fighting force, but...'

He needed to minimize casualties in the Wing-Returning Unit, too. He was the one who had brought them.

Responsibility for the comrades who praised him as their founding master weighed on his shoulders. It was far heavier than the black air licking over his body.

Just then, voices sounded.

“Huh?”

“Over there.”

They belonged to Tang Yeohwa and Tang Ryeoryeo.

Their reactions were indeed as swift as their reputations suggested, but slower than Jung Yeonshin's. The boy was already racing through the darkness, the skirts of his blue robe streaming behind him.

WHOOSH!

There was no Enchantment laid within the cave. The experts' eye techniques worked perfectly well. Moreover, Jung Yeonshin was still circulating the Moon Spirit Harmonization Art's yin qi.

That meant the terrain and obstacles were as clear to him as in broad daylight.

TAP!

He detonated the core energy at the Yongquan points in his soles. A figure entered his unobstructed field of vision.

It flinched while hiding in a gap in the wall. Its build was exceedingly small.

'The iron race!'

Certain of it, he closed the distance. The other party seemed to realize instinctively that it was too late to evade him. A gravelly shout burst out.

“You trait—traitorous bastards! The Thirteen skies again?! Or are you from the sect that claimed to follow a middle course between the two paths, then stabbed the Desolate Fortress people in the back...! Th-those shameless bastards' sect!”

There was spirit in the voice despite its apparent fear.

Jung Yeonshin abruptly subdued his forceful presence. The small figure continued shouting.

“However much you covet our clan's city, I will admit no more villains! Our treasure plaque has already been stolen. Even if you slit my belly open, you won't get inside!”

“I am Jung Yeonshin of the Desolate Fortress's Wing-Returning Unit.”

WHOOSH!

A strong backdraft swept past, lifting his sleeves. Jung Yeonshin planted his feet lightly on the ground and stopped right in front of the stranger.

He lowered his gaze.

A man who reached only to Jung Yeonshin's waist was leaning backward. He seemed momentarily frightened.

His bushy beard and short limbs resembled those of the iron race at the Desolate Fortress. So did the bulging muscles of his arms, which looked like rocks fitted together.

Only his shabby clothing was different. It did not befit a clan said to be immensely wealthy, born as they were with supreme craftsmanship.

“The Desolate Fortress...?”

The iron-race man slowly repeated the words. He, too, seemed to have learned an internal qi art; his eyes gleamed with qi as they swept over Jung Yeonshin.

The boy turned his shoulder slightly to display the character meaning “desolate.” With the hand he slipped inside his robe, he drew out a golden identification plaque. It had been a long time since he last showed his Desolate Fortress plaque.

The vivid golden tree design shimmered in the darkness.

“... Not the work of the Han people,” the man muttered.

It was an arrogant certainty. Typical of the iron race.

They had founded the Ming dynasty alongside the noble race. Their clan received different treatment from the foreign peoples of the Western Regions.

The imperial family was said to keep them under strict supervision. He had never imagined their city would be in a place like this.

'I've found a lead.'

Jung Yeonshin did not concern himself with such minor matters of attitude. He spoke at once.

“You mentioned the Desolate Fortress. Are they inside?”

The man did not answer immediately. His tightly closed mouth looked stubborn.

'It's all right,' Jung Yeonshin thought.

He had already heard a great deal. The iron race's underground city, the Thirteen skies, a middle-path sect, betrayal, the Radiant Demon Squad...

Many parties were entangled, like the energies latent within his own body.

Suddenly, the scene he had witnessed through his upper dantian's power came back to him. His seniors' backs had been slashed and stabbed. Baek Miryeo and Chung Myung had been wounded, too.

HUM!

With the stirring of his heart, the energies inside him surged.

The Movement Art's pure core energy writhed in his lower dantian alongside the Dharma power of the Demon-Slaying Gentle Flowing Strike. The yin qi left by the Moon Spirit Harmonization Art rose in curling wisps beyond his skin.

Even the remnants of the Demonic Asura Blood Art spread outward in sinister qi waves.

'No.'

Jung Yeonshin took a deep breath and calmed his energies. He had recognized the danger of qi deviation. There was no telling how his core energy might become entangled.

Just then, Tang Ryeoryeo spoke, her voice bewildered.

“What was that just now...?”

The Twin Poisons of Dragon and Phoenix, who had arrived with the Supreme Flame Dragon and Namgoong Hwashin, stared blankly at Jung Yeonshin.