“Ohh...”

An exclamation escaped Xiahou Weizhen, almost a sigh. His massive torso leaned backward.

The master of the Forest-Treading Squad paid no attention to the book Jung Yeonshin had produced. Still kneeling on one knee, he kept his raised gaze fixed solely on the Desolate Fortress Master, as though the curve of her smiling lips were a sight rarely seen anywhere under heaven.

“...?”

Beside him, Ak Surim had raised her eyebrows slightly. Her jet-black eyes shifted from above to the side, looking between the fortress master and the Comprehensive Compendium for Breaking the Righteous Path. Her sharp, darting gaze seemed to be gauging the fortress master’s mood and the meaning of the words in the title.

Neither black-robed expert could conceal their surprise.

Silently holding the book, Jung Yeonshin grew puzzled. Just how rarely did the Desolate Fortress Master smile?

'She has smiled at me quite often since our very first meeting.'

The new captain of the Radiant Demon Squad soon put the question aside. There must be some other reason. Turning his attention away from his black-robed seniors as well, he simply lifted the compendium a little higher.

At that same moment, the book rose of its own accord.

It was a wondrous sight. Remote manipulation, they called it: a realm in which one could touch things without laying a hand on them.

Having cultivated the Dharma-Surpassing Radiant Wheel Art, Jung Yeonshin could now sense a distinctive wave of qi. Power flowing from the Desolate Fortress Master like a spring breeze had wrapped itself around the book.

Its feel was remarkably clear. It differed in nature from the finesse of Blossoms Raining Across the Sky. Far more natural than that, her core energy moved quite literally like her own hands and feet.

It had to be something akin to Jung Yeonshin’s full-body Burst Discharge manifesting in the domain of internal energy. Her ability to release and retrieve core energy was on another level.

He had witnessed this feat several times before, yet now it sent a fresh shiver through him. For her, there seemed to be no distinction between pressure points.

Had she cultivated her entire body into a single energy core? Her skill at controlling the core energy extended beyond her body was equally unfathomable.

It was as mysterious as a tree endowed with spiritual nature moving its own branches. Could she perform feats like Blossoms Raining Across the Sky or controlling a sword with qi without any special formula?

'The farther I advance, the higher and farther I can see.'

Jung Yeonshin reflected as he watched the Desolate Fortress Master merely skim the title on the book.

When he had worn white robes, she had seemed an august, absolute sovereign. Now he saw a peerless master deserving of admiration. Surely that was because his own perspective had risen so far since becoming captain of the Radiant Demon Squad.

Aware of his tremendous growth, he waited for her next words. He felt the radiant wheel pounding in time with his heart.

Anticipation mingled with anxiety. Perhaps sensing his feelings, the corners of the fortress master’s lips rose a fraction farther.

“Comprehensive Compendium for Breaking the Righteous Path.”

She parted her lips.

“Plainspoken, and audacious.”

Jung Yeonshin silently lowered his eyes.

For the first time, he regretted choosing the title so casually. His thoughts multiplied like dandelion seeds scattered on a gentle breeze.

Was it because his thoughts were growing more numerous along with his steadily growing limbs? That could not be the only reason. It was because the person before him was the Desolate Fortress Master.

His lifeline. His salvation.

The one person in all the world whose good opinion mattered most.

He had never imagined a day would come when he would hear her opinion of his naming sense. He had called it Breaking the Righteous Path because it contained counters to the orthodox martial arts of the righteous path.

Which part was audacious? It meant exactly what it said.

'Is “Comprehensive Compendium” strange?'

Jung Yeonshin considered it. It was not strange.

He weighed it in that brief instant. Breaking the Righteous Path, because these were counters to its martial arts; Comprehensive Compendium, because he had gathered insights into the martial arts of multiple sects into one volume.

He might have chosen the name carelessly, but surely it did not warrant being called audacious.

Just before he could sink any deeper into those thoughts, she spoke.

“I understand your contribution. I can surmise it without reading closely. Your refusal to choose a reward, too...”

The Desolate Fortress Master’s lips moved quietly.

“Is reasonable.”

She spoke with the compendium suspended above Jung Yeonshin’s head. The book drifting in midair lent the scene a dreamlike quality.

The Desolate Fortress Master did not bother asking what it was. Nor did she turn its pages.

She likely understood the new Radiant Demon Squad captain’s gifts more deeply than anyone else in the world.

She only smiled faintly. From the book’s title, she seemed to have inferred its contents and the events behind its creation. She showed no doubt about the quality of the work.

“I will inform the chief administrator. You deserve much.”

“What of that...?”

Jung Yeonshin asked cautiously. He meant the Fruit of the World Tree.

He had been unable to consume the fragment the Desolate Fortress Master had given him before. She had said his attainment was too low.

What about this time? Would things be different now that he had created the Dharma-Surpassing Radiant Wheel Art?

Struggling to suppress his anticipation, he met her gaze. He did not notice the beauty that attested to her peerless martial prowess. He simply stared into eyes like jewels fashioned from leaves.

He needed no other reward. His maternal grandfather now had Great Restoration Pills. His uncle would be fitted with a prosthetic arm, too.

If the reward was for Jung Yeonshin alone, the fruit she guarded could only be the first thing that came to mind.

'Even a single fragment.'

He needed to compose himself, but it was not easy. Even with the radiant wheel nestled within it, his heart beat hard.

The Desolate Fortress Master would be aware of it all. Her small smile gradually faded.

“Now that you breathe through a divine technique, you will understand.”

Her tone was soft and measured.

“You must cultivate essence, qi, and spirit evenly. I learned this from what happened with you before.”

She was speaking of the realm of Three Flowers Gather at the Crown. Only after unifying essence, qi, and spirit could he begin to consume the fruit.

It was a domain Jung Yeonshin had begun to grasp upon attaining black robes. Now, through her words, he understood it intuitively.

The World Tree’s sacred fruit affected body, core energy, and soul as one. A practitioner whose balance among them was uneven could not receive its effects.

Jung Yeonshin understood.

He was not greatly discouraged. If suppressing expectations to avoid being hurt were a martial art, he had reached Great Completion.

He had been that way since his days at the Jeong Clan Estate. Inwardly, the captain of the Radiant Demon Squad murmured as though untroubled: So that is how it is.

'I just have to overcome it through training.'

He accepted it as part of the process, a crossing on the road leading to the fruit. That was what unifying essence, qi, and spirit meant.

It was a state he had to achieve if he was to continue earning merit. He would inevitably pass through it on his way to wearing purple robes.

“Do not lose heart. You will reach it in time.”

The Desolate Fortress Master spoke slowly.

Her voice carried a peculiar transcendence. Her robes brushed the tree trunk rooted at the pinnacle of the world, cascading down in soft pale green.

RUSTLE.

“My praise is overdue.”

Extending her snow-white bare feet, the Desolate Fortress Master stepped down slowly and bent toward the captain of the Radiant Demon Squad, who knelt on his left knee.

Sunlight scattered around her translucent face. Her falling hair held the color of blades of grass, and an exhalation from her unfathomably profound divine breathing technique dispersed against Jung Yeonshin’s forehead.

“Well done.”

The brief words reached him with a crystalline resonance.

At the same time, warmth brushed his forehead. A hand slowly swept his hair upward, strand by strand.

Even its downward return was gentle and attentive. It was a very strange sensation. Though the motion was brief, each stroke up and down felt like an eternity.

The Desolate Fortress Master was stroking the new Radiant Demon Squad captain’s head.

As Ak Surim and Xiahou Weizhen raised their eyebrows high, Jung Yeonshin unconsciously closed his eyes. A dreamlike sensation flowed down from the crown of his head.

He had never experienced anything like it. By the time the warmth from his head reached his heart, it had turned to peace.

Fatigue he had not even realized he carried seemed to melt away. In an instant, he felt at ease.

The human heart was a curious thing. At times, it held powers more mysterious than martial arts.

“If you persevere, you will naturally reach that realm. There is no cause for sorrow.”

“... Yes, Fortress Master.”

* * *

The Comprehensive Compendium for Breaking the Righteous Path passed into the Desolate Fortress Master’s keeping. She said it would be stored at the highest level of the fortress’s Gold-Piercing Martial Repository, with purple- and black-robed experts given priority access.

[“There will be an internal announcement.”]

Those had been the Desolate Fortress Master’s words.

The Divine Sword deputy commander, the Forest-Treading Squad captain, and the Radiant Demon Squad captain left through the main gate in silence. Ak Surim and Xiahou Weizhen did not ask about the compendium.

It was the dignity of captains. Since the fortress master had spoken in person, they knew that announcement would be made ahead of anything else. It might well come as soon as tomorrow.

Jung Yeonshin was grateful. He could savor the warmth lingering in his head a little longer.

'My rewards will come through the Command Bureau... but I feel as though I have already received them all.'

The corners of the Radiant Demon Squad captain’s lips twitched slightly.

“Congratulations on your safe return.”

“Our respects to the captains.”

The guards offered martial salutes to the captains one after another. Jung Yeonshin alone returned them in kind.

Ak Surim and Xiahou Weizhen merely nodded. They seemed lost in thought.

Before they knew it, sunset had settled over one side of the inner citadel. The shadows of walls and people were cloaked in the orange evening light.

Warriors moved with discipline through the tranquil silence. It was a familiar scene. Dusk at the Desolate Fortress had always been like this.

“Someone from the Command Bureau came. They said I should go with you, Captain...”

A girl in blue martial robes greeted them. She was the eye-technique expert who had joined the Radiant Demon Squad at a single word from the Desolate Fortress Master.

Lady Ye was absent. Zhuge Cheonga explained with an impassive face that, as an Alliance envoy, she had gone straight to the Command Bureau under the guidance of the fortress’s scholars.

“I should call you Captain, then?”

“Yes.”

Nodding casually, Jung Yeonshin recalled a rumor he had often heard.

'That was fast.'

It concerned the efficiency of the Desolate Fortress’s highest authorities. They said the fortress master issued orders to the chief administrator without even rising from where she lay. Her sound transmissions reached from the top of the inner citadel all the way to the Command Bureau.

Chief Administrator Im Jinmyeong’s martial prowess was impressive as well. They said he never missed her voice.

That would be impossible without cultivating the Way of Perception to considerable depth.

Rumors abounded that his martial attainment rivaled that of the black robes. Like the captains, he would have cultivated essence, qi, and spirit evenly.

'I have a long way to go.'

Jung Yeonshin reflected.

There was much to do, even apart from having his maternal grandfather take the Great Restoration Pills.

Once he returned to the Radiant Demon Squad’s hall, he would have to devote himself to two tasks: taking its existing senior members as disciples to improve their skills, and filling the shortage of blue-robed experts.

While putting the squad’s internal affairs in order, he would also have to enter sparring matches. How effective would the Dharma-Surpassing Radiant Wheel Art and Sword Thunder, Ridge-Cleaving Form be against black-robed experts?

He set himself a private goal. Defeating two would be enough. For now, he had to be satisfied with that.

'How many captains are still here?'

The Desolate Fortress’s black robes were always fighting on the front lines. Experts who served as strategic weapons in wars between factions would hardly let their strength go to waste at headquarters.

The Command Bureau deployed them outside as much as possible, and more so lately. Poor harvests were ushering in troubled times.

Jung Yeonshin suddenly recalled Lady Ye’s words.

'She said she understood just how short-handed the fortress was.'

Doubts rose with the memory: the incomprehensible exchange between her and the fortress master, Lady Ye’s outrageous words and behavior, her familiar bearing, and even her habit of practicing Mobility Arts in ordinary moments.

'Could an Apostle of the Blood Flame Cult really pose as a strategist for the Martial Alliance? Even the Sword Star said nothing.'

Whatever the truth, the fortress master had admitted her. He should put aside premature suspicions.

For now, resolving to watch her would suffice. They were bound to cross paths again.

It happened then.

As the four of them walked, Xiahou Weizhen, captain of the Forest-Treading Squad, suddenly looked down at the new captain.

“The rumors were true. The fortress master favors you.”

“You give me more credit than I deserve.”

Jung Yeonshin answered calmly, finding the remark rather frivolous.

Xiahou Weizhen had said little all the way down the inner citadel’s stairs. Apparently he had been turning over what had happened above.

The same went for Ak Surim, the Desolate Divine Spear.

“No. The big fellow put it poorly, but the fortress master really did react differently. She has never shown that sort of affection even to her imperial disciples. Or to the captains. When I achieved Rejuvenation, she only smiled once, and that was that.”

She spoke almost in a chatter.

“She only said I had the makings of the next squad leader... I don’t know whether she meant it. Her tone was so ordinary.”

Xiahou Weizhen’s lips turned downward.

“The Divine Sword deputy commander cannot distinguish a ceremonial compliment from sincerity.”

He continued.

“Paltry clans will not rise to the Divine Sword Squad Leader’s rank a third time.”

His voice had its usual deep weight. With his enormous frame, it seemed to plunge down from above. There was a trace of anger in it as well.

His words made Jung Yeonshin realize anew that competition existed even among the captains.

“The same goes for you, Radiant Demon Squad captain. Do not grow presumptuous simply because the fortress master cherishes you. Your display at the Alliance was certainly stirring, but it falls far short of a reason for us to surrender our subordinates.”

The Forest-Treading Squad captain continued in something close to a growl.

“Fight and win. If you lack the skill, you must move us by some other means. Even that will not be easy. It would be quicker to impose your will through martial might.”

His archaic diction was forceful.

He was right. The Desolate Fortress’s black robes were supreme masters who roamed the world. That generally meant their experience was extraordinarily broad.

Ordinary means would hardly open their hearts. It would have to be settled through sparring. Jung Yeonshin agreed.

Then, all of a sudden, the captain of the Radiant Demon Squad gazed steadily at the Forest-Treading Squad captain’s legs.

“That looks like the footwork of the noble race.”

“Hmm?”

“I think you would feel lighter if you walked a little differently,” Jung Yeonshin said.