RUMBLE.

The strip of sunset light was cut off by the sliding stone door. Closing firmly with a heavy rumble, it seemed to tell the new captain of the Radiant Demon Squad to steel himself. That was how Jung Yeonshin took it. The rough door handle brushed his fingertips.

STEP.

He entered the pavilion's inner quarters. Ma Jin, head of the Desolate's Ma Clan, had arranged this place. His uncle had his hands full in every respect, being newly appointed to the position. They said the stronger a martial family's members were, the harder it was to maintain discipline. The Desolate's Ma Clan was prestigious enough to give the one-armed Ma Jin a difficult struggle.

Even the letter he had sent Jung Yeonshin conveyed his weariness. He had written that there was much he needed to prove. He had not even come to watch Jung Yeonshin's match against the Immortal Wood Spirit Lord, Cheon Soso.

'Couldn't come would be more accurate.'

Chung Myung's strike brought his earlier words to mind. He had said that the eyes of his mysterious clan could see into people's hearts to some degree. It was a widely known fact. The man Chung Myung had just subdued was undoubtedly a warrior of the Ma clan. There was only one reason he might have seemed suspicious.

'Ju Yeonjeong.'

Moving a purple-robed master was a matter on par with a major mission. Ma Jin had overextended himself at Jung Yeonshin's request, secretly moving Ma Yeonjeok elsewhere. It plainly exceeded a clan head's authority. If it became known, he would find it hard to escape responsibility.

'That might be what Ju Yeonjeong is after.'

That was what would happen unless they produced conspicuous results. Given the Desolate Fortress's established laws, ordinary results would not suffice. That was fine. Jung Yeonshin took this seriously, but did not consider it terribly difficult. He had the Movement Art and a Great Restoration Pill. He was certain he could restore vitality to his maternal grandfather's body. That was why he had not gone out of his way to ask the Desolate Fortress Master to act as his Dharma protector.

Before she was his teacher, she was a profoundly unapproachable being. Supreme was the right word. He could not picture asking her for help with something he and the Radiant Demon Squad could handle themselves. Facing Ju Yeonjeong would be a hundred times preferable. Such unilateral decisions were no longer childish recklessness. This was the discretion he exercised as Ma Yeonjeok's grandson and a captain of the Desolate Fortress.

With these thoughts in mind, he entered the room nearest the door. The first thing he saw was Ma Yeonjeok's face as he lay on a large bed. Emaciated, his eyes closed, he looked nothing like a peerless master. Even his once-lustrous, snow-white beard looked dry and coarse.

"Grandfather."

Jung Yeonshin whispered cautiously. No answer came. Only when he reached the head of the bed did Ma Yeonjeok's wrinkled eyelids tremble. They soon revealed unfocused eyes. The old man's gaze took in his grandson's handsome face. The way his eyes softened embedded itself in Jung Yeonshin's heart.

"You've... returned..."

Ma Yeonjeok's lips curved faintly. It was a loving smile. Jung Yeonshin felt the warmth of family he had longed for since childhood. That made it difficult for him to speak.

"I left you a Lesser Restoration Pill. Why did you not take it?"

He had learned about it from Ma Jin's letter. Shaolin's Lesser Restoration Pill was still being kept untouched. The letter had asked him to visit sometime and take it back. Upon learning that it was his grandson's mission reward, Ma Yeonjeok had adamantly refused to consume it.

—Yeonshin, I cannot overcome your grandfather's stubbornness.

Apparently, Ma Yeonjeok had threatened Ma Jin, saying he would disown him the instant he tried to force-feed it to him. Remembering his uncle's words, Jung Yeonshin's lips turned down slightly. Ma Yeonjeok's smile deepened.

"Was it not... the reward for your mission? How could I take that?"

"This grandson of yours wished you to."

"What did you... just say?"

Ma Yeonjeok's white eyebrows rose a little. He had reacted instantly to the words "this grandson of yours." His trembling eyelids made him look somewhat moved. Jung Yeonshin had never used the expression in his life. An awkwardness that tickled his mind rose all the way to the crown of his head. His face unwittingly stiffening, he immediately changed the subject.

"I came to see you about something else today."

"No, I asked what you said."

"I obtained a Great Restoration Pill at the Martial Alliance. I intend to restore your strength now, Grandfather."

The new Radiant Demon Squad captain spoke of a supreme treasure of Murim as casually as if it were a simple tonic. He deliberately regarded it that way. It had no greater use than this. Three Flowers Gather at the Crown was a realm he would certainly reach sooner or later, even within the short time allotted to him. There was no reason to place that ahead of his grandfather, who might breathe his last at any moment.

"I have heard much of your achievements. You made me truly proud. Yeonshin, your martial prowess is already at a level where you can vie for all under heaven. That Sword Fool, Hyeon Sobaek, is no ordinary old man..."

Ma Yeonjeok smiled faintly, his eyes still wide, calling the Sword Star the Sword Fool instead. Fool, as in foolishness. It was something only Ma Yeonjeok could say.

"At any rate, a Great Restoration Pill... I did wish for one once... in my foolish youth. Merit points aside, it was a spirit medicine you could not obtain because there simply weren't any available. But..."

Still smiling, the old man continued.

"You should be the one to take that as well. Is it not yours? I absolutely cannot consume it."

"Did you not save me from the Blood Flame Cult Leader? Had treatment come any later, you would have died. Please give me a chance to repay you. I am the captain of the Radiant Demon Squad now. I do not want to live in debt."

For once, Jung Yeonshin spoke at length. His level tone carried the single-minded conviction that this was what ought to be done.

Today would bring to fruition the reason he had gone out of his way to distinguish himself in the exclusionary Martial Alliance. In Ma Yeonjeok's Demon-Slaying Gentle Flowing Strike, he had felt a love only blood family could give. Seeing his grandfather hale again would be the true reward.

"I told you I cannot take it. This is a matter of propriety and principle."

"There is no such principle in this world."

He did not need to consume it himself. The merit points he would earn for restoring a purple-robed master's strength would be enough. That should allow him to catch up somewhat with the seniors who had gone ahead of him. If he had to consider the future, that much was sufficient.

But Ma Yeonjeok turned his gaze slightly aside. It was a stubborn refusal to engage.

"This old grandfather... has never properly been a grandfather to you. I cannot shamelessly accept such a thing. I shall have to go and give that brat Ma Jin a scolding. How dare he move these old bones... for something like this."

His words came haltingly, his wrinkled face pallid. Yet unmistakable anger lingered between his brows, directed at his son Ma Jin. Jung Yeonshin decided not to continue the argument. The way he made his opponent give up offered a glimpse of his grandfather's younger days. Had he driven his enemies mad in battle too? He had probably treated his comrades at the fortress in much the same way. Jung Yeonshin thought that he must not become like his grandfather. Slowly, he spoke.

"As you say, Grandfather, the Great Restoration Pill is mine. Since I intend to use it as I wish, I believe you have no grounds to interfere. I will handle this myself."

"..."

"I am opening it."

He took the wooden box containing the Great Restoration Pill from his robes. It was a red sandalwood box smaller than his palm. A subtle fragrance rose from it. Even sealed, it radiated a distinct, sacred presence. Spirit medicines made using the secret arts of noble-race monks were said to have profoundly mysterious effects. He had known that to be true ever since receiving it from Lady Ye of the Martial Alliance. This spirit medicine was unquestionably a treasure.

CLICK.

He lifted the lid of the wooden box, warmed by its time against his body. At once, the medicinal fragrance vanished. The white pill, compact as a pebble, seemed to be protecting its own medicinal energy. It had drawn its potency inward as though possessed of a spiritual nature. This was truly one of the mysteries of the martial world, just as he had heard since childhood.

But Ma Yeonjeok did not even glance at the Great Restoration Pill. The old man's eyes looked straight up at his grandson.

"I have told you I will not take it. Surely you do not mean to force it into my mouth...?"

Jung Yeonshin did not answer. He had already helped Mount Hua's Yoo Hyun absorb a Purple Radiance Pill, and that had been when he was still a white robe. Now, with his greater mastery of internal cultivation through the Dharma-Surpassing Radiant Wheel Art, things were different. He could use the same method as before, and do it even better.

In one smooth motion, Jung Yeonshin boldly took out Shaolin's Great Restoration Pill and swallowed it. It had neither scent nor taste. The spirit pill simply melted naturally down his throat. Its momentum was quiet yet extraordinary. It seemed it would reach his lower abdomen in an instant.

"Grandfather, please pardon this brief discourtesy."

Jung Yeonshin carefully pushed aside the silk quilt covering his grandfather. The old man's wide-eyed gaze hardened as he watched his grandson, likely because the latter's hand went straight to his lower dantian.

"Power transmission between bodies...!"

Ma Yeonjeok murmured it like a groan.

It was a secret technique for transferring energy to another person, one that entailed extreme physical exhaustion. That was fine. Jung Yeonshin, as he was now, would not suffer that side effect. Lightning Genius, captain of the Radiant Demon Squad, paid it no mind at all. There was something more urgent.

'It's fast.'

He had no time to examine his grandfather's expression.

This was different from the Purple Radiance Pill. The Great Restoration Pill melted into his entire body the instant he swallowed it. It felt as though a wildfire had erupted at the Stone Gate pressure point, where his lower dantian lay. Before he could even perform the greater circulation through the pressure points of his upper body, an immense surge of energy rose first.

HUMMMMM.

A low resonance arose from within him. His muscles felt hollow, as though they had become caverns. It was because an unprecedented energy was filling his meridians, lesser channels, and pressure points. The Great Restoration Pill's potency was immense.

He understood why Shaolin of Mount Song was called the greatest in the Central Plains. The Great Restoration Pill was its secret spirit medicine, said to take monks of many different clans decades to produce a single pill. It felt strange even to call the power spreading through his lesser channels medicinal energy. It felt clean, as though already refined. It was unbelievably pure, requiring scarcely any cycles of the Movement Art's energy circulation. Several heavy pulses throbbed below Jung Yeonshin's navel.

"You must use the Movement Art, not the Divine Art of United Splendor."

His energy did not waver even as he spoke while circulating it. That was both a property of the Movement Art, which refined internal energy through bodily movement, and the result of his innate control over internal energy. He drew the energy over. Transparent ripples spread from his fingertips where they rested on his grandfather's lower abdomen.

HUM.

If his grandfather resisted now, they would both risk qi deviation.

"Ah..."

Ma Yeonjeok closed his eyes with a faint sigh. Jung Yeonshin's lips lifted slightly.

This would be his second examination of a peerless purple-robed master's body. After the current Divine Sword Squad Leader came the former one. Jung Yeonshin's awareness settled into the purple-robed master's body, something akin to a universe. Merely observing it brought a flood of insights: how the muscles and lesser channels must have been arranged when they were strong, which pressure points and muscle groups his grandfather had chiefly used, what system of bodily movement those traces suggested, how his three energy cores were formed...

He stored away all that knowledge and began guiding the Great Restoration Pill's energy through his grandfather's meridian points, circulating it while silently repeating the essential formula of the martial art most needed at this moment.

'Mother...'

The intent of the Movement Art imbued the power entering Ma Yeonjeok's body. A daughter embraced her father. Suddenly, Ma Yeonjeok's eyebrows flashed black. For an instant, even the wrinkles around his eyes pulled taut. It was the first sign of an extraordinary change.

* * *

"I hear the Heavenly Squad requested reinforcements. They must be having quite a hard time."

"I heard. They say the Golden Wing Sect's momentum is alarming. Who knows what those madmen are plotting? At least the Tang Clan is cooperating with the Heavenly Squad, joining forces with them... There's talk that the Azure Heaven Squad Captain lost to the Golden Wing Sect leader. I wonder if he escaped with his life."

"Is the Suncheon Wing still out of contact? They say the messenger pigeons aren't returning."

"There isn't even a branch out in Xinjiang, so..."

"Isn't that a demonic land to begin with? It's also where the previous captain lost his manhood."

"Did you have to bring that up...?"

The Radiant Demon Squad's blue-robed experts were conversing. They remained relaxed as they surrounded the pavilion, their energy detection honed to a knife's edge. Most had more experience in the martial world than their captain, Jung Yeonshin. Their knowledge was far broader as well. That meant they were accustomed to relaxing without neglecting their duty.

"The heads of the great factions of the evil and unorthodox paths are more frightening. Rumor has it the Lord of Yeoryeong and the master of the Heaven-Subduing Sect are making the rounds of the Thirteen Skies. Those noble-clan bastards forming an Alliance must have made quite an impression."

"The Thirteen Skies forming an alliance? What a horrifying..."

"If that really happens, even our fortress won't be able to handle them."

"Come off it. Those evil and unorthodox bastards could never manage that."

"Either way, these are troubled times unlike any before. It must be the poor harvests. They say food is scarcer than silver now, so even the leaders of great factions have no choice but to grow bolder..."

It was then that a voice came from far beyond the main gate.

"You are right. Troubled times are coming."

It rang clear despite not being raised. The blue-robed experts had already sensed the approaching presence. Each turned without surprise.

It was a middle-aged woman in pitch-black court attire. The silk wrapped around her body had been dyed as black as ink. Elegance graced her slender face. The imperial Eight Methods of the Golden Immortal lent her an overwhelming presence, while the disposition in her eyes seemed to look down upon the world. Ju Yeonjeong of the Desolate's Ma Clan.

"And yet you sow division. Interfering in a family's affairs without knowing your place—have you no shame?"

Her red lips moved as she spoke.