The fingertips of the Lightning Genius, captain of the Radiant Demon Squad, moved fluidly. Just before the waves of force from six sword strikes could tear through his robes, Jung Yeonshin's gesture raised a shower of steel blossoms. His five fingers repeatedly closed over his palm and opened again, regulating waves of attraction and emission. Gleaming sword fragments spread dreamlike to either side.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

Dull impacts rang out. Blood burst forth at the bidding of fingers moving as gracefully as though they were playing a zither. The six Worthy Heaven Squad masters jerked briefly, then froze in the very postures in which they had thrust their swords.

"Urgh."

"Mmph..."

They staggered, their eyes bloodshot.

They had not died on the spot. These were no weaklings to be swept away in a single use of a wide-area secret technique. Though theirs were orthodox martial arts, they had the practical bent characteristic of noble clans, and had wrapped their entire bodies in considerably sturdy protective force qi. They were not so feeble that the martial force of a hastily unleashed Blossoms Raining Across the Sky could kill them.

To the Alliance martial artists, however, the scene before them was astonishing enough. Gasps escaped the onlookers who had boldly followed Zhuge Cheonga into the clan's territory.

For the Radiant Demon Squad captain, it was the expected result. Thanks to Ak Surim, he had prevented them from unleashing their true ultimate technique. Their individual martial arts did not give them strength on par with the Divine Sword Squad; armed with a counter, he could break through.

"As to the gravity of this matter..."

Slowly lowering his right hand, Jung Yeonshin delivered his declaration.

"As a captain, I have no choice but to give the information I received today precedence over everything else. If my judgment proves mistaken, I will formally apologize to your clan. Stop barring my way. It is out of consideration for the Fan Dragon that I am showing restraint."

He spoke with Zhuge Hyeon, who had honed his fan arts to an astonishing degree, in mind, then resumed walking. Zhuge Cheonga hurried after him and cautiously spoke, leaving behind the clan warriors who could barely keep their feet and stared blankly at her and the Lightning Genius.

"Their injuries..."

"They've shielded even their blood vessels with protective force qi. They're properly trained martial artists. There's nothing to worry about."

"Oh."

His indifferent reply drew a dazed exclamation from her. Zhuge Cheonga could not properly gauge martial arts beyond the reach of her perception. This was different from making estimates based on wounds. The Radiant Demon Squad captain occupied an entirely different realm.

'The Worthy Heaven Squad is comparable to the Radiant Demon Squad,' Jung Yeonshin thought.

Such were the elites of a great faction. Their martial lineages merely differed in how they brought their power to bear. At their foundations, the noble clans' martial arts, accumulated over their long histories, were more solid than those of even some of the Thirteen skies.

Had they properly deployed their sword formation, they might have held Jung Yeonshin off. Senior Ak Surim's advice had made an enormous difference. Now he had to worry about time.

He looked at the warriors lined up ahead. They had charged from behind those struck by Formidable Wall and Blossoms Raining Across the Sky. There were six of them. Standing still as they honed the force of their swords, they seemed to have changed their formation.

Jung Yeonshin paid it no heed.

BOOM!

Infinite Blossom Hand shattered several weapons with both hands. He charged on without pause. Evading Swift Step was the perfect counter to the Worthy Heaven Squad's martial arts. With a supreme master already holding the advantage in compatibility, the Zhuge Clan elites had no hope of displaying their full abilities.

The peculiar circumstance of being at the Alliance also played a part. Important as the Martial Alliance was, they would not have brought their clan's entire strength here. The capabilities of a long-established faction—especially those of practitioners of sorcerous martial arts—were greatest at the home base where they had amassed their power.

Suddenly he thought of the Blue Qilin waiting at his destination. He also remembered that he had less than three years left to live. Disgust rose within him. A fundamental question etched itself into his mind.

'Am I truly angry for Namgoong Sejin's sake right now?'

That was only half the truth. The other half was merit points. The scope of Black rank was broader than anything before it. He had to compete with supreme masters of high standing, yet even Ak Surim and the Annihilation Squad captain, whose strength made worthy opponents difficult to find, had not reached purple robes. That was so despite the fact that every incident they stepped forward to resolve must have been extraordinary.

He could not even guess how much merit he needed to accumulate. Every time he felt how wide his Baihui point had grown, that prospect confronted him with fresh despair.

Right now, Jung Yeonshin was being angry in order to live. Guilt at the thought that he, too, was exploiting Namgoong Sejin made him clothe his hands and feet in fury.

To gain additional merit by inflicting grievous damage on the Zhuge Clan, a main pillar of the Alliance, the boy kept repeating inwardly:

'I am truly sorry. My motives are not pure.'

Zhuge Cheonga had said this was their only chance. His upper dantian's ability had verified the truth of her words. It was an opportunity. He could not let it pass.

"Check the Heaven trigram! Step into the correct positions!"

"He controls his qi waves at will! Prepare for impacts beyond the normal limits!"

"Strike!"

More than a dozen men and women in green martial robes radiated formidable qi waves. Their resolve not to let him advance any farther was palpable. Some had abandoned the Cloud-Soul Severance Formation entirely to hone the waves of force in their sword strikes. At this point, even Zhuge Cheonga began to find things difficult.

The Radiant Demon Squad captain's defense to front, rear, left, and right was no longer enough. Swords shone in the hands of those leaping overhead. Their Mobility Arts allowed no thought of retreat, as though landing a single blow were all that mattered. Treasured swords laden with powerful internal energy raced toward Jung Yeonshin, distorting the sunlight. The presence of clan masters wholly focused on their swordsmanship closed in like an iron wall.

Then Zhuge Cheonga's eyes widened. She was so startled that the presence of the onlookers crowding behind her vanished from her energy detection.

The boy's black robe fluttered softly. The instant he took one step, the Radiant Demon Squad captain blurred, as though his entire body had become wind. In that single step, he brushed past every sword. His response was one beat faster than all his enemies' strikes.

As the Worthy Heaven Squad masters' paths tangled, forcing them to collide with or evade one another, Jung Yeonshin leaped forward once more. Without even looking back, he smoothly aimed only his right hand behind him.

The weakness of Infinite Blossom Hand's Fourth Move applied only against masters of equal standing. Against lesser opponents, he had ample time to execute it.

The principles of the sorcerous formation blooming in his palm wove together the two streams of qi inherent in the Dharma-Surpassing Radiant Wheel Art. Blood Art and Dharma power collided like thunder. An explosion of Radiant River burst forth at once.

KABOOOOM!

It detonated seven paces away. Dust surged from the shattered ground, and the surrounding halls shook as though about to collapse. Those pursuing him from behind were swept up in the wave of force and bounced away like stones skipping over water. The tremendous blast overturned the quiet of every alley and still lingered in reverberations.

It was divine might, terrifyingly sublime. Evasive movement and an offensive palm form had become one, creating an unbelievable supreme master.

Zhuge Cheonga followed Jung Yeonshin, her eyelashes trembling. She had originally judged their chances of success at seventy percent. Now she raised that to ninety. How could someone her own age be this strong? Could it indeed have something to do with the desperation she had sensed in the Blue Qilin's wounds?

STEP.

Jung Yeonshin's black-clad back advanced indifferently. Whenever Zhuge Clan warriors appeared, he broke through with truly inspired prowess. Moving like the wind, he delivered blows like lightning. His martial might silenced even the onlookers. A master's martial arts stood out most clearly in battles of one against many.

"There!"

At one point Zhuge Cheonga cried out, pointing with a snow-white finger. A single, modestly attractive hall stood ahead. Off to its side, three Zhuge Clan warriors were racing toward it. They were closer than the two of them. Their objective seemed clear. They appeared to be racing Jung Yeonshin.

Once he opened that door, he would see the rival of his lifetime lying there like a Tang Clan test subject. He could not let them take him away. Nor could he allow him to be defiled.

Jung Yeonshin filled the fine meridians of his right hand with radiant wheel qi. His palm grew hot. Attraction and emission formulas crossed at three pressure points aligned through its center.

"Ah?!"

An odd cry escaped her. Without touching it, he pulled Zhuge Cheonga's entire scabbard free and hurled it with a gesture alone. Dust rose. The wave of force from Blossoms Raining Across the Sky, warped into an upward sweep, scraped across the ground.

WHOOSH!

An enormous amount of radiant wheel qi rode the emission wave. The white scabbard shot forward like a ray of light. Tearing through the air, it struck two men in the head in an instant, then slammed into the third's lower back as though to impale him.

THUUUD!

The dull impact was loud. It seemed to have dealt a powerful blow to their protective force qi and transmitted the shock into their bodies as well. A path opened between the three sprawling men. The Zhuge Clan had failed to defend against a supreme master's sudden surprise attack. Such was the majesty of a supreme master—enough to serve as a strategic weapon in a war between factions.

"Let's go."

Jung Yeonshin's voice sounded somehow melancholy. Zhuge Cheonga pursed her lips without realizing it, moistening her small lips with what little saliva she had. The sight was hard to believe. Her heart swelled.

Now she could be free of her father. She would overthrow his authoritarian oppression and change the clan according to her own wishes and her elder brother's. Noble clan though it was, theirs was a martial lineage of the righteous path. A just cause was a divine sword more powerful than anything else.

So she thought.

Suddenly, the sky darkened. Dusk fell early. Low clouds approached, drawn by some force. Was this real? The slowly fading sunlight seemed to herald the manifestation of an absolute being.

Jung Yeonshin abruptly looked to the side. A hall's blue-tiled roof swept gracefully upward from its rafters. On its highest point stood a man in white Confucian robes, aloof and proud.

"I heard you had ventured fearlessly into the young beast's cage time and again."

He spoke while looking down at Zhuge Cheonga. In his left hand he held a white-crane fan adorned with deep-blue tassels.

His snow-white robes suited his pale skin beautifully. His face was slender, his eyebrows dark. He had a scholar's air, yet looked far from frail. A strange transcendence enveloped his entire body. From the moment he entered their sight, the world seemed filled with him. Even the freely blowing wind suddenly felt slower.

"Clan Head!"

One of the pursuing Zhuge Clan masters cried out. The voice was almost a groan, as though its owner feared severe punishment. Their clan head was an absolute master whose martial might entitled him to speak of all beneath heaven. His presence felt entirely natural.

The current Zhuge clan head was known as Sleeping Dragon Reborn. It was not outstanding wisdom that had earned him the name of Zhuge Liang, the Martial Marquis. Rather than miraculous strategy, he possessed extraordinary perceptiveness. That made his appearance and bearing, worthy of comparison to Shu's Martial Marquis Zhuge, stand out all the more—along with peerless sorcerous martial arts said to command the wind and summon the rain.

He had been watching Zhuge Cheonga's peculiar movements. With the caution befitting a clan head, he had taken the repercussions of the Blue Qilin's corpse seriously. Even with important business to attend to, he had not taken his eyes off the Alliance. That was why he had descended upon this place at this moment. Mobility Arts with few equals beneath heaven had caught the young pair off guard.

His gaze shifted slowly toward Jung Yeonshin. It felt as though Mount Tai were moving.

"You must pay the price," said the absolute master holding the fan. "You should have been satisfied to take the Great Restoration Pill and withdraw."

"..."

"Your excessive greed has shortened your life."

Jung Yeonshin remained silent for a moment. For an instant, words failed him. What would Heon Wonchang have said? What about the Supreme Flame Dragon? Feeling his upper dantian's energy detection whisper that his chances of victory were faint, the young Radiant Demon Squad captain slowly parted his lips.

"... You ought to know shame. You're supposed to be the head of a clan."

"Hardly something I need hear from a vicious, lawless intruder."

The Zhuge clan head's lips slowly curved.

"I will send your head to the Desolate Fortress Master. If she flies here in a rare fit of anger, it will only hasten the Martial Alliance's unification. For the just cause belongs to my clan. Then the Alliance's strength will surpass the Desolate Fortress."

The calm declaration became a tangible reality with the sudden movement of his fan.

KABOOM!

A typhoon struck without warning. The cutting wind was as sharp as though it carried a divine sword. Jung Yeonshin could not draw his blade in time. He was too slow. Forcing the Dharma-Surpassing Radiant Wheel Art around both hands, he crossed them before him and endured the biting gale. He had no time to study the Zhuge clan head's movements. The man's circulation of internal energy was terrifyingly fast.

As his vision blurred, he felt pain in his forearms. Jets of blood were bursting out in places. To withstand a form of a divine technique, his protective force qi would have to reach the level of a divine technique as well. The structure of his current internal-energy barrier was weak. Taking that single attack, he understood it instinctively.

He could not close in.

He would need two or three more Jung Yeonshins to attempt a killing move. Without them, he would die here.

Soon.

KRRRASH!

A noise like a long strip of cloth tearing rang out. The black-robed boy was hurled backward. Yet the sight of him twisting in midair and barely recovering his balance was astonishing. What movement technique had he learned? And what was that sense of his? The whites of the Zhuge clan head's eyes flashed.

"As I thought."

Folding his fan with an elegant gesture, he spoke.

"You cannot be allowed to live."

It was the thought he had had upon seeing the Ming Cult's young cult leader from afar. He had not expected to think it again now. To one concerned with the balance of power throughout Murim, the boy's gifts were exceedingly dangerous. There was no knowing what sword path he might trace in the future.

Why had such a child not been born to the Zhuge Clan?

That boundless potential instilled wariness even in a peerless master.

Killing him here was the right choice. There must not be another Divine Sword Squad Leader.

'Still less another Desolate Fortress Master... '

He made up his mind. He would kill him, even if it meant making an outright enemy of the Desolate Fortress.

The Zhuge clan head's fan moved smoothly, tracing a transcendent afterimage.

WHOOOOOM!

From afar—

From very far away, the atmosphere began to thrum. The roar doubled with every passing instant. The moment he recognized that it came from behind, something resembling darkness drawn out into a long shape pierced every barrier of the sorcerous formations and flew toward him. Arriving like a beam of light, the air-rending presence plunged down beside Jung Yeonshin.

KABOOOOM!

Someone landed with a terrifying tremor. Earthquake-like reverberations spread in every direction. He could not begin to guess how far away the leap had begun. Black robes fluttered in qi waves rising like a tidal wave—not Jung Yeonshin's, but those of the girl who had just landed.

Her profile was familiar.

Jet-black hair cut short in defiance of propriety and convention. Qi waves flashed like lightning against cheeks translucent in the sunlight. The nose, like sculpted ivory, was familiar too. Unrestrained, colorless internal energy overflowed from her entire body, as though she had worn the Desolate Fortress's black robes from birth. Sleeves far too wide for her frame billowed like a celestial maiden's garments.

Ak Surim, the Desolate Divine Spear.

She turned her head slightly toward Jung Yeonshin and smiled brightly.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

There was more. From the side.

CRASH! CRASH! KABOOM!

Halls collapsed one after another. Each time an enormous figure smashed through a wall, the resulting shock wave was brutally powerful. He was a huge black-robed man with ears pointed like leaves. He charged forward, punching through, crushing, and bringing down entire walls. The domineering force beneath his feet sent smoke rising from every footprint. The violent movement of his core energy was generating heat itself.

"You—inferior—wretches!"

A roar erupted, resounding fiercely in all directions like a lion's roar. His voice was so explosive that it was impossible to guess how many years he had spent accumulating qi. The internal energy borne on his shout swept through the surroundings like a Thunderclap Bomb. Even door sills shattered of their own accord.

"Enemy intruders!"

"The character for Desolate! It's the Desolate Fortress!"

"Utmost urgency—an emergency! Defend with sword formations!"

The shouts came faintly from far away. There were others besides the girl and the man. Had those without peerless Mobility Arts entered through the main gate? Even they seemed to possess extraordinary martial might. Alliance warriors who could pass for powerful fighters anywhere in the martial world were badly flustered. These were opponents no ordinary preparations could meet.

The Desolate Fortress had, from the outset, already put cards second only to its strongest on the table. In preparation for any mishap, solely to protect its transcendent rising talent.

'This isn't a small force at all, is it?'

Even as he felt relief at escaping death, Jung Yeonshin was considerably bewildered. He simply did not show it on his face. Weren't they practically asking for war?