The Radiant Demon Squad’s blue-robed experts frowned slightly.

“Frightening.”

“Looks like she brought every fighter she could muster. Lady Ju, I mean.”

“Does she mean to have it out, laws be damned?”

“Our captain gave her an excuse. Her side had no reason to hold back in the first place.”

Some thirty experts stood behind Ju Yeonjeong, bearing the refined presence peculiar to a distinguished clan. These martial artists had not taken the Desolate Fortress trial. They belonged not to the Divine Sword Squad, but to the Desolate’s Ma Clan’s own forces.

Their silk martial robes, in every imaginable color, scattered the sunset light in a dazzling display. Not one of them was ordinary. Their ages varied as well.

The young martial artists with ruddy complexions posed little threat to the Radiant Demon Squad. The problem lay with the middle-aged experts whose eyes flashed with colorless light.

Each regarded the squad with a weighty gaze. They were at the age when attainment in the Desolate’s Ma Clan’s Divine Art of United Splendor reached its peak. At the very least, they could be considered blue-robed caliber—and not ordinary blue robes, either.

The explosive power of the Ma clan’s martial arts was said to remain dangerous no matter how carefully one guarded against it. Their martial prowess would have been honed to a fearsome edge.

“She even brought the seasoned fighters. Our former captain has his work cut out for him.”

Chung Myung spoke with a smile from his perch on the pavilion roof. The wind enveloping his body belied his expression. A sharp, bitter gust scraped the blue tiles, fine scratches spreading endlessly in its wake.

SKRRRITCH.

The qi extending from his entire body was already as sharp as a refined force wave. It resembled the movement technique of Lightning Genius, captain of the Radiant Demon Squad.

A well-known story made the sight all the more intimidating: the Azure-Eyed Demonic Swordsman Chung Myung had taught his captain the movements of the noble race, and the captain had recreated them as martial formulas, turning them into a peerless art.

Many were waiting for that martial art to be made available at the fortress’s Gold-Piercing Martial Repository. They had been waiting since the captain’s duel with the Immortal Wood Spirit Lord. A spar between captains was a momentous event.

Many members of the Desolate’s Ma Clan had watched it, too. Quite a few now recognized what they were seeing.

“... They certainly resemble each other. No wonder rumors say he helped advance the Radiant Demon Squad captain’s attainment.”

“You only say that because you’re young. He came first, originally. He was once spoken of as the next captain.”

“You juniors would do well to remember this. That noble-race swordsman’s blade is renowned for its sharpness. You must not let down your guard.”

“I shall pit the Divine Sword of United Splendor against it.”

With the young and middle-aged experts at her back, Ju Yeonjeong assumed a stern expression.

“The venerable retired clan head should be resting at our house. You must cease shielding your former commander’s wrongdoing. This more than warrants referral to the Command Bureau. Today’s incident will not end with light disciplinary action, but if you withdraw now, I shall make a special allowance for leniency.”

“Do you even know why we’re here?” Chung Myung asked with an easy smile.

After a brief silence, Ju Yeonjeong spoke.

“... I hear your captain acquired a Great Restoration Pill. He seems intent on attempting something without going through the Medical Pavilion. It is exceedingly reckless. Both men could come to harm. You must make way—for your captain’s sake, if nothing else.”

“That’s a matter of trust. You have no right to question our captain’s abilities. For someone from a distinguished clan under this fortress, you seem to have little faith in a Desolate Fortress Black.”

“No one in this fortress underestimates Lightning Genius. Nor do I. Surely you all know that.”

“Then?”

“This concerns the well-being of a purple-robed master. Do you not understand that it is not for two Blacks to decide? However profound Lightning Genius’s learning, there is no guarantee the venerable retired clan head will improve. Rather than recklessly manipulating such immense energy, should we not entrust everything to the fortress’s Medical Pavilion?”

“Our captain warned us about that. Pointless interference, certainty born of ignorance—that sort of thing. Authoritarian people like you may be perceptive, but you’re trapped within your own limitations.”

“Speak plainly.”

Ju Yeonjeong’s voice was low. She sounded like a superior issuing an order, and perhaps because of her imperial birth, the manner came naturally to her.

Chung Myung’s heel dipped and lightly tapped beneath the roof’s edge.

“I’m saying there’s no reason to take the long way around. Not when it can clearly be finished quickly.”

Ju Yeonjeong offered no further reply. She merely turned her head slightly and gave a young martial artist a brief signal with her eyes.

“Go to the Command Bureau and report this affair in detail. Leave nothing out: the Radiant Demon Squad’s insolence, their unlawful assault on a warrior of our house, and the arbitrary actions of the clan head and their captain. Convey every last thing.”

“As you command,” replied the young man in green silk martial robes.

TAP!

He immediately employed his lightness skill and retraced their route.

None of the Radiant Demon Squad’s warriors tried to stop him. Apart from Chung Myung, all fifteen or so stood motionless, watching his departing back without concern. The hems of their blue robes, each worn in a different style, stirred lightly in the clear breeze.

Chung Myung was right. Their behavior bore witness to their trust in their captain.

Ju Yeonjeong’s eyes narrowed.

‘This is no ordinary matter,’ she thought.

Every Desolate Fortress warrior had been called a prodigy back home. Anyone who had cultivated an internal qi art to blue-robed caliber could safely be assumed not to be an utter fool.

She could tell that something unusual was happening today. Perhaps the captain’s guidance of core energy might even allow the retired clan head to move about again.

‘That cannot happen.’

Recovering his martial arts would be difficult. The Medical Pavilion’s physicians had already told her as much. Yet even his regaining the ability to move unaided would be a problem. A political tempest would inevitably sweep through the distinguished Desolate’s Ma Clan.

The faction Ju Yeonjeong had worked so hard to expand would be shaken. Such was the tremendous symbolic weight of the Indomitable Hero, Ma Yeonjeok.

She could not let this continue.

‘We cannot break through the Radiant Demon Squad head-on in a short time.’

She coolly assessed their strength. Most experts from the Desolate’s Ma Clan were already dispersed among the Divine Sword Squad’s seventeen squads. That was precisely why the clan received such substantial support and funding from the Command Bureau.

The people standing behind her now amounted to roughly half the minimum personnel needed to maintain the clan.

They were not a force with which she could confidently claim to overwhelm the blue-robed experts before her, even if the incident in Sichuan’s City of Master Artisans had weakened the Radiant Demon Squad.

It was one of the seventeen treasured swords that formed the Divine Sword Squad. Weakened or not, its underlying strength could not be dismissed.

She needed a stratagem.

“Quite a tangle of schemes you’ve got churning in there. No room for compromise, is there?”

Chung Myung sat with one knee raised on the roof, regarding Ju Yeonjeong with chillingly blue eyes.

They were the eyes of an exalted clan.

“How long will it take?”

He asked as though speaking to himself. The answer came from below.

“We should allow several two-hour watches at least. A Great Restoration Pill is no ordinary spirit medicine. If the captain is to dissolve it carefully with the Movement Art, we must give him plenty of time.”

It was Baek Miryeo’s sound transmission.

She was already stepping forward, her foot landing firmly. Jet-black currents of qi rose one by one from her soles, heralding the manifestation of her internal qi art.

With each step, another strand joined the uncanny black haze. Giving tangible form to core energy was an exceedingly rare attainment. It was a martial art whose origins anyone would struggle to identify. Eyes immediately turned toward her.

“Pure, ink-black qi waves... The Wave Swordswoman.”

“It looks just as the stories describe. Is it not like a demonic art?”

The Desolate’s Ma Clan warriors began to advance.

Ju Yeonjeong did not stop them. Standing proudly erect, hands clasped behind her back, she watched the Radiant Demon Squad’s experts.

“Do not hold back. Once he senses the commotion, their captain will open the door and come out himself,” she said impassively.

Inwardly, she hoped to disrupt Lightning Genius’s qi circulation. The waves generated by a clash between so many experts of such strength would be immense. The walls of that modest pavilion could never block them.

That was precisely what Ju Yeonjeong wanted.

“Cheap tricks,” Baek Miryeo muttered coldly.

Heavenly Demon Sacred Arts. Pale-Hand Demonic Art.

SHHHH...

Baek Miryeo’s hands turned as white as snow, stark against the jet-black currents now flowing over her entire body.

The Wave Swordswoman was not the only one readying herself.

“Keep the qi waves to a minimum. If you know a puncturing technique, strike as quietly as you can.”

“If you’re bad at Harmonizing Force, spare us your advice. You still haven’t grasped how softness can overcome hardness.”

“A sword that never misses would be perfect here. We should have brought Heon Wonchang.”

“Blazing yang qi, too. If only that Hwangbo layabout weren’t busy preparing for his Promotion Exam...”

One by one, the Radiant Demon Squad’s blue-robed experts drew their swords.

Then they stepped forward in silence.

* * *

The stone door engraved with a tree opened soundlessly.

Figures in jet-black robes slowly entered. Each differed in height and build, as did the faint qi waves they exuded.

Desolate Divine Spear Ak Surim, Forest-Treading Squad Captain Xiahou Weizhen, Blood-Preserving Squad Captain Jin Myeongjo, Immortal Wood Spirit Lord Cheon Soso, Law Enforcement Squad Captain Un Soyu...

Each was accompanied by a single expert in white or blue martial robes, a warrior serving as the captain’s escort.

They moved slowly to take their seats around a table so enormous it looked as though several whole logs had been joined together. Every chair was as large and ornate as the grand seat of a great faction’s sect leader.

The gray-white backrests reached nearly as high as Xiahou Weizhen’s head. There were eighteen chairs in all: places for the Divine Sword Squad Leader, the Divine Sword deputy commander, and the other sixteen captains.

The Hall of the Sword That Seeks Peace.

Captains filled the seats around the circular stone table. Their escort warriors stood beside the marble-carved chairs, every one of them impeccably composed.

Five Desolate Fortress Blacks had gathered.

HUMMM.

Their formidable internal powers resonated of their own accord, giving rise to a heavy pressure.

It was a gathering that seemed capable of facing anything under heaven. Though the qi waves had arisen naturally, the invisible pulses of power billowed thickly, almost as if they possessed tangible form.

The escort warriors’ breaths gradually lengthened. Without properly practicing their internal-energy breathing, they would struggle to endure this place.

“Where is the Radiant Demon Squad captain?” Xiahou Weizhen asked in a deep voice.

“Away on personal business.”

The answer came through the gap in the hall’s door.

Heavy footsteps rang out. A huge middle-aged man pushed the stone door wide and entered.

“You’re all here. I thought I might have to go hunt down the Forest-Treading Squad captain again.”

He was a burly man who wore his brown robes well. A thick black beard covered his chin, and his large eyes held a mixture of affection and exasperation as they swept over the captains.

“Dependable troublemakers, the lot of you,” he muttered.

It was Chief Administrator Im Jinmyeong.

Xiahou Weizhen grinned fiercely.

“Personal business? Is anything more important than a captains’ meeting?”

“A couple of things. You’ll learn soon enough, whether the outcome is good or bad.”

The chief administrator answered casually, then continued at a measured pace.

“I trust you know that the formation of the Martial Alliance has given our Command Bureau quite a headache, however profoundly indifferent you captains may be to our work.”

“Are you referring to the rumors that orthodox sects throughout the land—not merely the Alliance in Shaanxi—are forming and breaking alliances?”

The question came from a noble-race woman sitting perfectly straight. Ears as sharp as treasured swords rose above her hanging black hair. A composed expression suited her beautiful features. She was Law Enforcement Squad Captain Un Soyu.

The chief administrator smiled.

“Captain Un comes to my aid. Precisely. Those little gnats have discovered the strength of unity. Even sects that helped form the Alliance are withdrawing to seek their own paths to survival. It seems they were dissatisfied with the Sword Star’s rule.”

“So the fortress’s enemies have grown stronger? Arrows we used to snap one at a time are bundling themselves in fives and tens? What a nuisance.”

Ak Surim sounded disgruntled.

“As if that were anything new.”

Blood-Preserving Squad Captain Jin Myeongjo parted his crimson lips.

“You summoned us over that? Is there some special solution? All we can do is fight for our lives. Getting stabbed to death on some remote hillside in the process—that has always been the lot of us Desolate Fortress warriors.”

“A blood fiend in the making is as vulgar as ever. Do keep quiet a moment, so the chief administrator can get to the point.”

The noble-race Cheon Soso tossed out the remark casually.

It was a familiar scene.

The chief administrator sighed and reached inside his robes.

He smoothly drew a book from his breast. Slowly, the words on its cover came into view: Breaking White.