Jung Yeonshin had exhausted himself using Blue Flame, First Form against the Sword Saint.

A form was a prescribed way of moving the body and internal energy in unprecedented directions. Destructive movements exacted a corresponding price. A technique meant to kill in a single strike inevitably brought recoil.

After his match with the Sword Saint, the boy's sword forms no longer moved with their former dynamism. He had overcome his opponents after Sage Cheon Joo through the Movement Art, forcibly tightening, stimulating, and expanding the pressure points and muscles throughout his body.

Naturally, many of the bundles of sinew throughout his body had stiffened. They could no longer keep pace with the Dharma-Surpassing Radiant Wheel Art at full power. It was fortunate that no opponent comparable to a Black rank had appeared after Sage Cheon Joo.

The martial world was woven together by debts and grudges. A martial artist had to be prepared for an ambush at all times.

On a public road thronged with countless passersby, he naturally had no choice but to sharpen his senses. Martial artists called this discipline the Way of Perception. Ever since leaving Alliance headquarters, Jung Yeonshin had been circulating radiant wheel qi through the pressure points in his head.

That was how he heard a martial artist with an immense qi presence appraising the Supreme Flame Dragon.

"So you've been poised like a cat. What an interesting child. Would you care to enjoy a little drunkenness with me? I am Eon Hwaryeon."

The voice was somewhat hoarse, its enunciation indistinct. Jung Yeonshin clearly detected the supreme master's murmuring. It was a woman's voice, sounding like a drunkard's.

She seemed to be speaking to a third party, but her words were unmistakably directed at him.

The boy's lips parted slightly.

"Let's go up."

"Let's."

The Supreme Flame Dragon answered with a curious expression. His perceptiveness was uncanny.

The pulse between his ears and eyes was already throbbing red. The flow of core energy stood out at the Taiyang points at his temples.

The blazing yang qi wielded by the Hwangbo young clan head drew attention wherever he went. Countless people passing along the road glanced his way. It had been like that ever since they left Martial Alliance headquarters, but the Supreme Flame Dragon had walked on proudly, paying them no heed.

He, too, had guessed the state of Jung Yeonshin's body. He could not leave keeping watch entirely to the boy captain, even if delicate control of core energy took a great mental toll.

He had heightened his Way of Perception early on, even as he tried to persuade Jung Yeonshin to relax.

The Solar Divine Meridians were said to burn one's lifespan to produce an endless wellspring of internal energy. This gift cleared blockages throughout the body's qi and blood channels on its own, filling them with blazing yang power. In terms of accumulated qi alone, he surpassed even his captain.

'I'm just a tiiiny bit slower.'

The Supreme Flame Dragon chuckled inwardly as he led the boy captain onward.

["You're a little slower."] Jung Yeonshin had told him that during the Dragon-Phoenix Summit. By now, he no longer denied it.

He smoothly pushed open the doors of Blue Crane Tower.

It was said to be the finest tavern and inn in Hanzhong. The hinges connecting the doors to the walls had been lavishly oiled. The interior unfolded before them with scarcely a sound: rows of orange lanterns, patrons noisily setting down wine cups and helping themselves to food, and a square opening extending upward from the second floor.

The gazes that habitually swept over newcomers converged on the pair, then froze.

"..."

The room, occupied by merchants and martial artists alike, fell quiet.

Having lived as a scion of Shandong's most powerful regional noble clan, the Supreme Flame Dragon possessed remarkable elegance. Despite all the poppies he chewed, refinement still shone from his shadowed eyes.

The presence born of his Solar Divine Meridians pressed upon his surroundings without any conscious intent. As he strolled inside, even the cotton hem brushing the threshold seemed like silk.

"You probably haven't experienced an atmosphere like this, Captain. This is where drinking is meant to be enjoyed. Not in some dull, stuffy clan pavilion."

Smiling languidly, he swept a hand from behind him to the front. There was something playful in the way he ushered his companion onward, and it suited him strangely well.

It looked as though a young nobleman of rare distinction was attending a mere boy.

Jung Yeonshin entered in a rough-textured black robe. Long battles had robbed the black satin of its smooth sheen. His hair was glossier by comparison—a natural luster.

"Those two..."

"They look awfully familiar. Could it really be?"

People began murmuring. It was a common occurrence in Hanzhong's bustling streets these days.

He was plainly a young swordsman, with handsome features and unusual attire. The left sleeve of his long black robe had been roughly torn away. Only the right sleeve hung long, while a small white character for Desolate marked the shoulder.

Jung Yeonshin was wearing Ma Jin's robe, which he had brought as a spare. Sage Cheon Joo's sword strikes had destroyed his original martial robes.

His uncle's robe was a little roomier and easier to move in. He did not particularly miss the martial robes that had been slashed to pieces.

"This humble nobody is Blue Crane Tower's chief steward. Today, I have truly been blessed with an honor worthy of three lifetimes. To think the captain of the Radiant Demon Squad would grace us with his presence..."

A man who appeared to be in charge emerged and raised his clasped hands. He was no waiter, but a middle-aged man dressed in fine silk.

His response was exceptionally swift. The sight also brought home just how great a martial reputation the boy had earned in Hanzhong.

Was it because he had driven out the Sky-Swimming Sword Demon and the Martial Alliance's martial forces? Together with the renown he had gained at the founding ceremony, he seemed to have already won the people's hearts.

'This will be useful later.'

The boy thought of the documents he had obtained from the prefect he had killed earlier. He had evidence that the Zhuge clan head had deliberately turned a blind eye to the Martial Alliance's pillaging.

To overturn an Alliance whose seats included numerous peerless masters of clan-head caliber and emerge unscathed, he would need several kinds of support behind him.

'A just cause, public support, and a minimum of martial strength.'

Ousting the Zhuge clan head. That was the task he had to accomplish as captain of the Radiant Demon Squad immediately after obtaining the Great Restoration Pill. Done properly, it would lead directly to great merit.

Officers of captain rank in Desolate Fortress had the authority to carry out missions at their own discretion. He needed to accumulate many distinguished achievements before rising to purple rank.

Chung Myung and Baek Miryeo, who had formed Radiant Demon Team One with him, had told him often enough: ordinary achievements would not suffice if he wanted to overtake the Desolate Divine Spear, Ak Surim.

'Letting this go would be wrong toward the Supreme Flame Dragon, too.'

The Hwangbo clan had been destroyed for exploiting commoners for its own ends. The boy now had the Hwangbo young clan head under his command. He could hardly overlook the Zhuge Clan's actions merely because the Alliance was powerful.

At the very least, its clan head had to answer for them. Such was the new Radiant Demon Squad captain's resolve.

"Since a captain of Desolate Fortress has honored us with a visit, we must provide a seat befitting your station..."

"The top floor would be best."

Jung Yeonshin cut the chief steward off.

The man's eyes widened briefly at being addressed politely by the Radiant Demon Squad captain, only to droop in dismay.

"We already have guests there. Guests whose identities I cannot readily disclose, even to you, Captain..."

"I have an appointment with Ak Yerim."

Jung Yeonshin spoke after sensing the qi presence of the Yue clan of Shandong's rising disciple. The steward's face immediately brightened.

"Ah! A gathering of handsome young men and beautiful young women!"

"Handsome men and beautiful women? True enough, in a way."

An amused voice reached them—the same hoarse voice as before.

The Supreme Flame Dragon seemed to hear the slurred words as well. The Hwangbo young clan head's gloomy eyes narrowed.

"It seems she really is your final hurdle, Captain. The Eon Clan's Foremost Fist. They say she can wield her protective force qi like a fortress wall with a human body."

Jung Yeonshin nodded silently. That was why he had not turned down the unfamiliar supreme master's invitation to join her.

The boy's eyes saw through many things. With his body in less than perfect condition, he needed to assess this opponent of tremendous renown beforehand.

They followed the chief steward, who had been startled by the Supreme Flame Dragon's words, up to the highest floor.

"I hope you enjoy yourselves."

Having guided them there, Blue Crane Tower's chief steward went back downstairs without even waiting to see them meet.

His conduct differed from his earlier attitude. He understood the workings of Murim well. He knew how insignificant an inn was in the martial world. Clearly, he had retreated to protect himself.

"The finest in Hanzhong, they said. And indeed..."

As the Supreme Flame Dragon murmured, a woman lounging against the wall greeted Jung Yeonshin. Half-reclining, she raised her wine cup.

Across from her, Ak Yerim had lowered her head at an angle, seemingly embarrassed by her drinking companion.

"Ah."

It was a curious exclamation.

The Eon Clan's Foremost Fist, Eon Hwaryeon, Lord of Martial Fists, smiled with half-lidded eyes.

"You're better-looking than I'd heard. I can't imagine what you'll look like in a few years. What a shame to mash you up with the Eon Clan Fist."

"You'll be occupying a sickbed, too. Tomorrow."

He answered her flippancy with an equally casual remark. Unlike his lips, however, the boy's eyebrows did not move. His pitch-black eyes studied Eon Hwaryeon closely.

Her martial robes were sleeveless on both sides, revealing the contours of her biceps and triceps. Glimpses of blue veins pulsed with powerful internal energy.

Her physique was strikingly different from that of Baek Seogun, the Sky-Swimming Sword Demon. A fist practitioner's body differed from that of a pure swordsman.

Eon Hwaryeon's lips curved. Had she learned an art of preserving youth? She was known to be around forty, yet not a single wrinkle formed around her smiling mouth. She could have passed for Ak Yerim's sister.

"Child of Desolate Fortress, what are you staring at?"

"What?"

The boy's answer was brief. Short replies were easier with his opponents. He had grown particularly prone to them lately.

Eon Hwaryeon's smile deepened. The young Radiant Demon Squad captain's manner seemed to please her instead.

Her lowered lashes trembled in the waves of qi—the fluctuations of a supreme master's power as her competitive spirit stirred.

"Your gaze is terribly sly. You'd best abandon those wicked intentions. Unless you're skilled enough to look down on me as your inferior, that is. I'm no longer in a position to take just anyone as a husband. I may soon become clan head, you see."

She was making frivolous jokes, just like the Supreme Flame Dragon.

'The next clan head.'

Several months earlier, the leader of the Martial Alliance had snapped the Eon clan head's neck. It had been a momentous incident, discussed alongside the Tyrant Sword Tribe Lord's killing of the Qingcheng Sect leader.

Desolate Fortress's Command Bureau had also classified it as a purple-rank incident.

The Eon Clan's Foremost Fist.

That other title of Eon Hwaryeon, Lord of Martial Fists, had been the Jinju Eon clan's desperate recourse. They had deliberately elevated her renown to preserve the clan's established privileges.

The Eon clan was one of the Eight Great Families, famed throughout the land as a prestigious lineage of fist arts. Martial clans were regional noble houses that acted like royalty in every corner of the world.

Each was said to operate on an enormous scale. Ordinary renown would not suffice to sustain such powerful influence.

'They say a martial sect's fame and power... come from the master who symbolizes it. Like our fortress master.'

So the boy thought.

The Jinju Eon clan's circumstances were already widely known. Eon Hwaryeon had come to replace the deceased clan head. That meant she was a supreme master with at least Black-rank prowess. That was why he had come rather than avoid her.

If his opponent was his equal, he needed to know her properly. At the higher reaches of martial arts, even a butterfly's wingbeat could affect the precision of a sword form.

'I'm one step away from the Great Restoration Pill. Eon Hwaryeon is the last.'

Meanwhile, Ak Yerim's eyes moved between Eon Hwaryeon and Jung Yeonshin, opened very wide.

It was unfamiliar to see them immediately addressing each other as equals. Such a sight was difficult to accept in the orthodox martial world, all the more so because Jung Yeonshin was so much younger.

Had Desolate Fortress not used office in place of generational standing, the senior masters would have rebuked him long ago.

'A boy like this acknowledged my dear Namgoong...'

Regardless of her thoughts, the two supreme masters had met. It was bound to affect the founding ceremony, now racing toward its conclusion, in one way or another.

The captain of the Radiant Demon Squad and the Eon Clan's Foremost Fist. Their meeting could be called the most significant event currently taking place in Hanzhong.

Still lounging, Eon Hwaryeon groped about the drinking table, then grasped a jade bottle and lifted it. The grin she gave was unmistakably a drunkard's. Perhaps the saying that every supreme master was an eccentric was true.

"I'd like to be waited on by a handsome child. Would you pour me a cup?"

She offered the bottle to the boy. The Supreme Flame Dragon's mouth twisted upward.

"It seems Auntie Eon has suffered qi deviation. Isn't she even more unrestrained than I am?"

"Just about your level. It's fine."

The young Radiant Demon Squad captain answered, then quietly approached and accepted the jade bottle with one hand. Almost beaming, Eon Hwaryeon held out her cup.

Her chin was raised, as though daring him to try something.

TAP.

Jung Yeonshin silently began pouring the wine. At the same time, internal energy unwound from the radiant wheel in his heart and raced straight to the palm holding the bottle.

HUM.

A heavy wave of qi filled the Dukang wine inside the jade bottle. Through the act of sharing a drink, the Radiant Demon Squad captain's power began testing his opponent.

Amid the atmosphere of Blue Crane Tower's highest floor, where a cool breeze drifted in, the world of supreme masters unfolded.

In the deathly silence, a low vibration swept through the autumn breeze.

At that instant, Eon Hwaryeon's arm trembled ever so slightly. The veins on the back of her cup-holding hand writhed.

The boy slowly parted his lips.

"A captain is serving you wine. Mind your drinking manners."