It was a truly wondrous sight. The visual impact was staggering.

A boy clad in the black robes of the Desolate Fortress spoke from within a vast silver whirlwind. The blood of the Pure Demon Alliance warriors strewn around him compelled silence. His words, which amounted to an order, did not seem out of place.

"..."

Jung Yeonshin dominated the scene. The spirit he displayed in his fully revealed black robes was tremendous.

The crowd's mood shifted—the people who had mocked his words, those watching with folded arms, and even those who had regarded it all as mere entertainment.

THUD!

A master clinging to a building's railing with the Wall-Lizard Art had fallen. But there was something mesmerizing about the martial prowess and Tang Clan secret art Jung Yeonshin had displayed. No one turned to look.

SHHHH...

They stared, spellbound, at Blossoms Raining Across the Sky as it swept upward, cleaving even the biting wind blowing along Kuizhou's main street. Only the rough, grating sound of steel petals striking one another rang out.

The boy etched his presence indelibly into Sichuan's Murim. He had taken another step into the wider world.

"... So this is not," the Fell Sword, Gal Saryang, slowly began with a troubled murmur, "a question of martial prowess."

He closed his mouth after those few words, his eyes calmly half-lidded. The distinctive gleam of a supreme master flashing in his pupils betrayed his complicated feelings. Anyone would have been troubled.

Gal Saryang thought to himself.

'I meant to strike a blow against the Desolate Fortress while it was battered and broken.'

Whether to its reputation in the martial world or its actual fighting strength.

He had never expected a single person to stop them. Who could have imagined that person would not even be twenty? Neither the Ten Perfections Sect Master nor the Pure Demon Alliance Leader could have anticipated this.

The Pure Demon Alliance was the immediate problem. It had lost two warriors capable of countering a black-robed expert of the Desolate Fortress. Apart from its leader, there would be no others.

The Desolate Fortress stood alone against the martial world. Among the great sects, including the Thirteen Skies and the Nine Great Sects, having two supreme masters of Black rank was considered a great deal. Was the leader of Mount Hua's Plum Blossom Swordsmen not compared to the captain of the Radiant Demon Squad?

Gal Saryang weighed his options.

Should he retreat? Or was it right to kill the youngest black-robed expert by whatever means necessary?

'If the Tang Clan intervenes, I must consider retreat.'

Yet the latter issue was a grave concern. A Desolate Fortress Black at that age. Supernatural abomination was the right description. There was no telling how much stronger this creature would become.

Still lost in thought, Gal Saryang slowly spoke.

"What is your name?"

"Jung Yeonshin," the boy answered curtly.

The Ten Perfections Sect's Fell Sword paid attention to every development in the martial world.

The name Jung Yeonshin was certainly in his memory. The match between the Namgoong clan and the Desolate Fortress had been a matter of intense interest. A rising talent who had defeated the Blue Qilin, Namgoong Sejin, was worth remembering by both name and epithet. That was why he had committed them to memory, but...

"Lightning Genius Jung Yeonshin... Your martial arts justify such arrogance. Unbelievably powerful, and mysterious as well. I never expected to see the Tang Clan's rain of blossoms unleashed by a Desolate Fortress master."

The Fell Sword spoke slowly.

Was he trying to buy time to respond to this unforeseen turn? The boy gazed at him, then turned his head slightly and spoke as though reciting to himself.

"Heaven and earth are quiet and solitary, unmoving, yet their energy never pauses or rests for a moment. Though night and day change in tumult, their light remains unchanged in this world, like the immutable myriad things. You told me those words described the virtues of a noble man."

Jung Yeonshin's calm voice rang out.

"You advised me with a passage from Discourses on Vegetable Roots. Hiding is not the answer to everything."

He was addressing the master of the Tang Clan.

The Poison Lord, Tang Unhwang. The Tang clan head who had left his home. He had lost his wife to Sichuan's two great sects of the Thirteen Skies. As her husband and his clan's head, he had sought revenge, but when the retired clan head opposed him, he severed ties with the family and departed.

["Martial arts unleashed in haste leave nothing in reserve. In peaceful times, prepare for movement within stillness. In urgent times, maintain the calm of stillness within movement. This holds true for swords and hidden weapons alike."]

Tang Unhwang had told him that in the City of Master Artisans. It was a kindness, one that had played a major part in the creation of the Dharma-Surpassing Radiant Wheel Art. Had he not held fast to that passage from Discourses on Vegetable Roots and the accompanying advice, his radiant wheel would never have gained the power to surpass other arts.

Jung Yeonshin knew he was hiding nearby. The radiant wheel in his heart never forgot the energy waves of anyone he had encountered. The Tang clan head's prowess had fallen from Purple to roughly Black rank. He could not evade the radiant wheel's energy detection.

"Clan Head."

"..."

"Have you prepared for movement within stillness?"

He asked quietly, but no answer came.

The Tang Clan under its retired head was present. Could Tang Unhwang not muster the courage to return to his family?

It happened then.

TAP.

Golden robes fluttered imperiously. A gaunt old man entered the open space, appearing suddenly after leaping over the crowd.

"Do not speak to that wretch. It is with me that you must discuss supreme martial arts."

His appearance was not unpremeditated. It was obvious he had been watching keenly for his chance. Astonishment and joy filled his wrinkled face, so much so that it was hard to understand why he had delayed.

'That man...'

Jung Yeonshin took in the old man. He wore resplendent golden robes over a body like a withered old tree, yet his innate air of overweening pride made them look entirely fitting.

"Tang Taedok," murmured Gal Saryang, standing motionless.

The retired patriarch of the Sichuan Tang Clan. The old master also known as its retired clan head.

He was not the person Jung Yeonshin wanted.

"I shall burn them all, be they the Ten Perfections Sect or the Pure Demon Alliance. I shall establish friendly relations with the Desolate Fortress and treat you as a benefactor."

His tongue was as venomous as a snake or scorpion.

His stance had changed. Was this truly the man who had opposed revenge by the Poison Lord, Tang Unhwang, his son and clan head?

Even young as he was, Jung Yeonshin could guess the old man's intentions. The events in the City of Master Artisans and here had greatly weakened the two Thirteen Skies sects. Now he wanted to seize supremacy over Sichuan's martial world. He would acquire Blossoms Raining Across the Sky and sweep away his potential enemies in the bargain. Even calling it killing two birds with one stone would not do it justice.

A smile bloomed across the old man's entire face, like a mask with the corners of its mouth pulled as high as they would go. It was the obsession of an old master with his lifelong desire within reach.

"Bring it."

Tang Taedok turned his head slightly as he gave the order. His bearing looked arrogant, yet his body trembled faintly, his hands clasped behind his back.

A warrior in green martial robes, evidently a subordinate, approached. Kneeling before the old man, he presented something in both hands.

It was a rolled sheet of paper, an ornately decorated document backed with blue silk. Tang Taedok took it and approached Jung Yeonshin.

Looking into the old man's eyes, the boy thought they were filled with an ambition that belied his age.

"I was uncertain after reading my grandchildren's message," Tang Taedok said with a broad, lingering smile.

"A man of my standing could hardly enter the Desolate Fortress's premises in person, so I waited for you to come out. Urgent though the matter was, I could not abandon all propriety. Would it not have looked strange to send a letter summoning you? Lightning Genius Jung Yeonshin. I know you. Very well indeed."

"..."

"I have listened for news of you for a long time. Now I know everything. The Tyrant Sword Tribe, the Hwangbo clan, the Blood Flame Cult, the Namgoong clan... You have fought your way through so many fields of slaughter in so little time. You must need a place to rest. You may make Sichuan your home. If you wish, I shall wed Ryeo to you."

He meant the Poison Phoenix, Tang Ryeoryeo.

A startled movement came from the wall behind them. Perhaps because the retired clan head's word carried such absolute authority, neither Tang Yeohwa nor Tang Ryeoryeo offered any protest.

Jung Yeonshin silently regarded Tang Taedok's aged face.

'The Tang Clan's influence and military might... must be as formidable as the rumors say.'

Standing some distance away, the Ten Perfections Sect warriors, including the Fell Sword, Gal Saryang, and the Halberd-Surpassing Sword, remained still. Gal Saryang's expression looked particularly complicated. The situation no longer allowed him to act rashly.

The Pure Demon Alliance seemed to have stopped for a different reason. Four of its ten warriors had fallen to Jung Yeonshin's technique. The remaining six stood silently, honing their threatening presence as they glared at Blossoms Raining Across the Sky, which still embroidered the air.

"Read it, exceptional young talent."

Jung Yeonshin accepted the document from Tang Taedok. A red cord bound the scroll. With a wave of force from one hand, he severed the cord and unfurled it. The bottom of the paper dropped smoothly with the rod rolled into its edge, instantly revealing long lines of text.

"..."

The boy scanned the lines in silence. Their contents were extraordinary.

An endless succession of clauses set out guarantees and obligations. They specified the privileges the Tang Clan would grant him, the attitude they cautiously hoped for from him, and even a pledge to support the Desolate Fortress wholeheartedly in the future. It was a form of sworn undertaking.

"I regret to say this," Jung Yeonshin began after reading it all, "but I owe a debt to the Poison Lord, the Tang clan head. I believe repaying him must come first. I hear that the Tang Clan also draws a clear distinction between debts and grudges."

The wrinkles around Tang Taedok's mouth twisted.

"What? This is not a divine technique to share with some wretch who turned his back on the family. It is a martial art equivalent to our clan head's token of authority. That is why I am entreating you now!"

"While we were destroying the elite forces of the Ten Perfections Sect and the Pure Demon Alliance," Jung Yeonshin said evenly, "the Poison Lord did me a kindness in the City of Master Artisans."

"Boy!"

"Along with the Twin Poisons of Dragon and Phoenix, the Poison Lord rightfully deserves credit for Blossoms Raining Across the Sky. He also created this opportunity to crush two of the Thirteen Skies in Sichuan's Murim."

It was the moment the boy's chivalry began to bud. Jung Yeonshin considered himself petty. With his days numbered, he had no leisure to spread righteousness far and wide. Nor did he pursue something lofty like the Blue Qilin, Namgoong Sejin.

Then he would conduct himself as a man of the martial world. That was what he decided.

He would distinguish clearly between kindness and enmity, honor each without confusion, and repay them.

FWOOSH.

Fire rose from the hand holding the document. The flames of True Samadhi Fire began burning the pledge in a translucent red glow.

WHOOOSH!

The Tang clan head had arrived beside him before anyone knew it, looking unnatural in his merchant's garb.

The Poison Lord, Tang Unhwang.

Rather than look at his father, the retired clan head, he gazed at the young master who shared his grudge against the Thirteen Skies.

Just as an enraged Tang Taedok was about to bellow, Jung Yeonshin silently extended a hand toward Tang Unhwang. At the same time, the fragments swirling around them in Blossoms Raining Across the Sky lost their force and fell.

Jung Yeonshin paid them no mind.

Their hands slid together.

The palms of the short man, one of the Eight Great Family heads, and the young supreme master met. The Lesser Mansion and Palace of Toil points in their palms touched.

In that instant, the arts of attraction and emission passed across in their entirety. With extraordinary speed, Jung Yeonshin conveyed them beyond any doubt.

"This intent... I wonder about your formula. Is it the passage I have in mind?"

Tang Unhwang asked quietly. Jung Yeonshin nodded, confirming that it was Discourses on Vegetable Roots.

Deep emotion suffused Tang Unhwang's rocklike face. He had lived as a man consumed by vengeance, his lifelong wish all but impossible to fulfill. The passage that had sustained him in his wife's place lingered on the tip of his tongue, then passed once more to the boy.

"Heaven and earth are themselves quiet and unmoving..."

"Yet their energy never pauses or rests."

Jung Yeonshin answered calmly. The corners of Tang Unhwang's mouth rose. Opening his mouth once more, he took in the miraculous opportunity in a boy's form with his aged eyes.

"Though night and day change in tumult..."

"Their petals remain unchanged through all eternity."

Jung Yeonshin altered the final passage in his reply. These were words describing a supreme divine art.

The Tang Clan's secret technique, Blossoms Raining Across the Sky.

The onlookers watched with bated breath as the Tang clan head who had left his home communed with the young master.

The moment the two separated their hands, the fallen iron fragments soared again at the Tang clan head's gesture.

A legend of the martial world had been reborn.

The Tang siblings had jumped down from the wall at some point. They looked back and forth between their father and Jung Yeonshin in bewilderment.

At that moment, the Tang clan head was sweeping his calm gaze over the dumbstruck retired clan head and the crowd.

"As master of the Tang Clan, to whom Blossoms Raining Across the Sky has been passed, I declare:"

The Poison Lord, Tang Unhwang. The small giant standing beside the boy spoke.

"From this moment forth, the clan shall obey my commands and duly honor the Lightning Genius as its teacher."