“What has Lightning Genius been doing?”

“He has remained secluded in the Radiant Demon Squad’s main hall, my lady.”

A man wearing a sword reported to Ju Yeonjeong, who occupied the seat of honor.

They were in the Desolate’s Ma Clan’s annex within the Desolate Fortress. A guest room that had originally been the inner chamber had been converted into an office on her orders.

“They said his internal injuries were severe. Would he accept some supreme healing medicine if I sent it?”

She was speaking to herself.

Ju Yeonjeong tapped her fingers on the desk, lost in thought. She paid no heed to the kneeling warrior, a trusted retainer who had served her since childhood.

She was of Imperial blood. She could call Lightning Genius of the Radiant Demon Squad lowborn. Or she once could have.

‘There are rumors that the fortress master has imparted internal martial arts to him.’

Circumstances had changed. There was an immense difference between instruction in a few forms and the transmission of a mental cultivation method.

Lightning Genius grew more valuable with each passing day. There was even talk that he had played a major part in destroying the Blood Flame Cult’s headquarters during his recent travels through the martial world.

His achievements defied belief. His age made them still more incredible.

“If I am to bring the entire Ma clan into my fold, I cannot cast Lightning Genius out. No matter how I consider it, I can see no way. I have pondered it for days on end... Is it the same for you?”

“... Yes, my lady.”

Her retainer answered. He was a swordsman whose presence had been tempered like steel. With martial prowess rivaling that of most blue-robed experts, he had weathered many political struggles alongside her.

Ju Yeonjeong brushed her fingertips across the desk and gently closed her eyes.

‘Lightning Genius. Is he someone I can bring into my fold?’

The Imperial family descended from Ming’s founding emperor was said to be unprecedented in size throughout the history of the Central Plains.

Emperor Hongwu Zhu Yuanzhang had twenty-six sons. Apart from those invested as crown prince and imperial grandson, all had taken wives and concubines. The Imperial kinsmen had multiplied without end.

By now, the members of the Ju clan whose family registers listed the founding emperor as an ancestor numbered well into the thousands.

Few had been granted titles such as imperial prince, grand princess, or commandery prince. With so many people of Imperial blood, even establishing oneself as a regional overlord was difficult.

Most lived on various estates near Beijing. Ju Yeonjeong’s father had been among them, possessing nothing but an impressive-sounding rank.

Ju Yeonjeong was at once exalted and insignificant. Since she was the daughter of neither an imperial prince nor a commandery prince, she could be neither an imperial princess nor a commandery princess.

So she had come to the Desolate Fortress. Upon hearing that the captain of the Radiant Demon Squad was impotent, she had married his cousin.

Her son’s talent had earned her the right to be called daughter-in-law by the former Divine Sword Squad Leader. That, too, was because the Radiant Demon Squad’s captain, the direct-line heir, was incapable of fathering children. She, in turn, had served Ma Yeonjeok with the utmost devotion.

“I told Lightning Genius. Now I will no longer be able to conceal my origins from the other factions. With the succession in jeopardy, that is just as well. Was this not why I kept it hidden—to reveal it at a time like this and weather a crisis?”

“Indeed, my lady.”

“But it is a stopgap. This boy, Lightning Genius, has both legitimacy and martial strength. He will plague Se-In until the day my son dies. Even without intending to.”

Sometimes speaking one’s thoughts aloud helped put them in order. She was not seeking her retainer’s opinion.

Without a title, she could not become a military power in her own right. Having understood her circumstances at an early age, she had longed for only one thing: proof of her identity and worth.

She had looked elsewhere for a way to become truly worthy of her Imperial blood. She intended to take hold of one of the treasured swords the Imperial house pointed at Murim. The Desolate Fortress was the arsenal; the Desolate’s Ma Clan was the sword.

She spoke.

“You said life-and-death duels against the Namgoong clan’s leadership had been brought up. I hear they will take the form of formal matches. Could Lightning Genius win through the fortress’s selection contest and be assigned to the mission?”

“It is difficult to gauge his prowess. He appears skilled enough to exchange twenty moves with me, but I am told he was not at full strength when I observed his presence the other day.”

“That agrees with my own impression. To be that formidable even with internal injuries... He is difficult to fathom indeed.”

“As for employing an assassin...”

“You will soon realize how absurd that suggestion is. Secretly assassinate the fortress master’s direct disciple...? Only a shortsighted martial brute would think of such a thing. Rather than make the divine sword of the Great Ming a lasting threat to me, I would do better to content myself with my lot.”

She gave an incredulous laugh.

“I cannot kill him or cast him out. That leaves only one course.”

“...”

“Let us gauge Lightning Genius’s capacity. How much goodwill will we need to show him?”

It was decided. She would become his patron instead.

Better to take him under her wing and control his conduct. Making an enemy of him would be an amateur’s approach.

He was a young talent who had caught the Desolate Fortress Master’s eye. She need only overwhelm him with support.

Her task was clear.

‘Let us see how much he can hold.’

How much wealth and manpower would it take to bring him into her grasp?

She dismissed her retainer and lay down on the bed. Her office also served as her bedchamber.

As the prospective mistress of the Desolate’s Ma Clan, she already oversaw a great many affairs, both internal and external.

‘I should visit him in person at daybreak.’

But she could not fall asleep. A peculiar sound reached her ears. For the first time in her life, the ambitious woman of a collateral Imperial line doubted her hearing.

“Yeonjeong!”

It was an extraordinary cry, in both volume and implication.

For a moment, Ju Yeonjeong wondered whether there was another Yeonjeong living nearby.

“Yeonjeong! Yeonjeong!”

The cries did not stop at one or two. They spread far and wide, as though determined to rouse the entire sprawling fortress from its slumber.

Despite the frivolous voice, its owner seemed to possess remarkably deep internal energy.

“What mad bastard...”

Coarse words slipped past her refined lips.

With a soft footfall, she stepped out, having thrown only a long robe over her nightclothes.

For all her talk of Imperial authority, she was already a true martial powerhouse in her own right.

Her family’s martial arts were the martial arts of the Imperial house. She had trained diligently in them since childhood. Even her honored father-in-law had praised her prowess.

“Who is that bastard?”

“Such insolence within the fortress...!”

“The Radiant Demon Squad? Is he truly from the Radiant Demon Squad?”

Outside, a spectacle was already unfolding. The place was in an uproar.

More than a dozen lower-ranking warriors were getting in one another’s way as they tried to catch a single white-robed fellow. Even then, they could not subdue him.

“Such impudence...”

“Should we not intervene at once?”

“Wait. People are beginning to watch.”

“He is right. It is one thing for the elders to support Lady Ju. But to disgrace our house by trading blows with a mere child? And here, of all places, within the fortress? Do not act rashly.”

The elders, divided into factions, did not move. Even the patrons of Ma Se-In and Ju Yeonjeong could not readily step forward.

The scuffling continued. It was not because the Ma clan’s warriors were incompetent. The problem was the nimble movements of the fellow whose hero’s headband fluttered about his brow.

His Mobility Arts, at least, had already surpassed white-robed rank. He moved with such silent fluidity that he might have learned an assassin’s secret technique.

“Lightning Genius?”

Ju Yeonjeong murmured as she spotted the boy standing off to one side.

The man and woman beside him were familiar as well. Chung Myung, the Azure-Eyed Demonic Swordsman, and Baek Miryeo, the Wave Swordswoman.

They were the Radiant Demon Squad’s vanguard, experts counted among the leading forces of the Divine Sword Squad’s seventeen squads.

Ju Yeonjeong’s delicate brows drew together.

“Where is Yeonjeong?”

The lowborn wretch’s loud cries were drawing a crowd. The Desolate Fortress was a cluster of numerous palace compounds, which meant an immense number of people lived there. A commotion in the middle of the night made for quite a spectacle.

‘Do they mean to make this public?’

Ju Yeonjeong had caught some inkling of their intentions. They seemed determined to blow the affair out of proportion, one way or another.

Lightning Genius and the Desolate’s Ma Clan. Delve into the circumstances, and it was the latter that would draw condemnation. Even cleverly distorting matters with lies would be difficult.

Members of the noble race, who could discern the truth, were everywhere in the fortress.

Her course was clear.

‘I must subdue him first.’

He had called for her personally. She had ample justification.

THUD!

Ju Yeonjeong immediately kicked off the ground. The internal energy gathered at the Yongquan points in her soles exploded.

The footwork of the Imperial martial art, Eight Methods of the Golden Immortal, carried her across the distance. With a thunderous report, a long, straight trail of dust rose behind her.

In an instant, she reached the fray.

The white-robed youth from the Radiant Demon Squad, who had been displaying such fluid movement, smiled with his eyes.

He was tall and handsome enough to make it a rather pleasing sight. Keeping her gaze fixed on him, Ju Yeonjeong spoke in a low murmur.

“Clear away.”

The Ma warriors withdrew in perfect order. Their movements were disciplined—the sort of military discipline that would shine in group combat.

Ju Yeonjeong immediately gathered internal energy into her right arm. It was a palm technique from Eight Methods of the Golden Immortal.

One of her twelve primary meridians, the Hand Yangming Large Intestine Meridian, running directly from her shoulder to her index finger, blazed to life.

In an instant, it brimmed with internal energy.

ROAR!

A stormlike wave of force gathered in her outstretched palm.

The martial art made extensive use of the meridians throughout her body. Despite the mighty core energy it raised, it was extraordinarily precise.

It was a blow that would kill a mere white robe who had insulted Imperial blood with a single strike.

Just then—

WHOOSH!

Blue robes filled her vision. Her eyes widened.

A boy with calm eyes had stepped into her path.

‘Lightning Genius?’

She had missed his approach. No one was to blame. His movement technique, so like the movements of the noble race, was supremely accomplished.

He was too close. Striking Lightning Genius now would ruin everything.

She desperately tried to draw her core energy back. In an instant, she stripped away a considerable portion of the force—enough that Lightning Genius could easily withstand the blow, if the rumors were true.

‘There.’

She could not withdraw all of it. A trace of internal energy remained.

To release and retrieve core energy completely the instant one willed it? That was a realm capable of contending with the Desolate Fortress’s black-robed warriors.

Her control of internal energy had yet to attain Three Flowers Gather at the Crown.

THWACK!

That was why the impact rang out so loudly. Her palm struck Lightning Genius in the solar plexus.

The cool texture of the Desolate Fortress’s blue martial robes pressed against her palm.

At that instant, Ju Yeonjeong’s eyes widened further.

The Imperial house’s Eight Methods of the Golden Immortal was said to temper every meridian in the body. It specialized in longevity, good health, and protection against surprise attacks.

It bestowed senses sharp enough to perceive an opponent’s qi and blood in full the moment a blow was exchanged. Its precise forms arose from those keen senses.

And so she felt it.

Core energy stirred in the solar plexus of Lightning Genius, Jung Yeonshin. It came from his Middle Dantian.

The internal energy circulating within him gently pressed the Bong-an point at the tip of his lung. It drew up blood without damaging the organ. The manipulation was astonishingly delicate despite its tremendous speed.

An unparalleled genius. He had been born with the perfect vessel for martial arts.

But Ju Yeonjeong could not marvel at him. In the instant she pulled her hand away, she felt blood rising through his windpipe.

He was about to cough up blood. He had deliberately induced it.

COUGH.

Blood sprayed from Jung Yeonshin’s mouth as he coughed.

Then he staggered and collapsed. To any observer, Ju Yeonjeong had plainly used excessive force.

Her eyebrows shot up.

“You brazen little...”

“Stay your hand.”

Baek Miryeo, the Wave Swordswoman, stepped forward as she spoke.

Pitch-black currents of qi wreathed her entire body. Their nature was chillingly bleak.

It was an internal qi art whose origins anyone would struggle to identify. Giving tangible form to core energy was no common accomplishment. Eyes immediately turned toward her.

“Demonic arts?”

“No. The qi waves are pure.”

“Do you not recognize the Wave Swordswoman?”

The voices belonged to the onlookers.

They had already lined up before the Desolate’s Ma Clan’s hall. All were martial artists of the Desolate Fortress. Dozens had come running at the sound of the commotion.

Another expert drew even more attention than Baek Miryeo.

It was Chung Myung, who had drawn his sword before the pitch-black qi waves could even spread.

A murky wind surged along the sword held low by the one-eyed, hooded member of the noble race. Though he had yet to swing it, a wave of force arose. It was an ominous sword wind.

He parted his lips.

“Step back.”

This was the Azure-Eyed Demonic Swordsman, a swordsman spoken of as a future contender for supremacy beneath heaven.

He had fully woven his race’s innate abilities into his martial arts. Among the Radiant Demon Squad’s experts, his renown was said to be second only to its captain’s.

“Have you two lost your minds? Think of the disciplinary action. That ‘Ju Yeonjeong of the Desolate’s Ma Clan’ over there will not let this pass.”

Standing beside them, Heon Wonchang rebuked his two seniors.

His expression belied his words. The distinctive energy of a practitioner of killing swordsmanship gleamed around him.

His internal energy, imbued with intent, created a presence like an evil spirit’s. He scarcely seemed human.

Anyone would have taken him for a warrior glaring at a comrade’s mortal enemy.

“The martial world’s morality has fallen into the dust!”

Easing his seniors back, Heon Wonchang stepped forward and spoke.

His voice boomed. He seemed to have poured his core energy into his vocal cords rather than his sword.

A voice like the Buddhist Lion’s Roar clawed through the air.

“Is this how you treat Lightning Genius of the Radiant Demon Squad, who has won glory on his missions? You lawless wretches know no shame! Are you not ashamed before your parents in heaven? Desolate’s Ma Clan! If any among you would debate chivalry with me, the great hero of Desolate Fortress, step forward!”

His control of core energy was remarkable: he eased off only when mentioning her parents.

All the while, his whole body radiated a powerful spirit.

Ju Yeonjeong glanced down and took a step back.

“Lightning Genius? The Radiant Demon Squad’s young talent?”

“I heard he was already suffering from internal injuries.”

The onlookers edged closer and craned their necks.

Lightning Genius’s figure, crouched on the ground with his head bowed low, was no disgraceful sight. The young expert had shown great courage in taking an advanced martial technique’s blow in his comrade’s place.

“My parents in heaven?”

Ju Yeonjeong repeated coldly.

“Are those of Imperial blood not exalted beings who look down upon their subjects from the heavens?”

Having replied with shameless composure, Heon Wonchang quickly knelt beside Jung Yeonshin’s head.

For several breaths, he appeared to examine the injury at his solar plexus. Then he propped up the boy’s upper body and began to lament at the top of his lungs.

“Oh, woe! Oh, woe is us!”

It was an astonishing spectacle.

Ju Yeonjeong lowered her hand. It was like watching the opera that had become all the rage in Beijing.

She had never imagined anything like this.