Today was the day. Jung Yeonshin waited for the full moon.

'I should get my body moving, too.'

He had rested enough. He had finished circulating his qi to heal and refine his body's interior. Today was the appointed day. It was time to bring the flow of core energy throughout his body into harmony with the movement of his muscles.

At daybreak, he had asked Chung Myung for an instructional spar. He had lost track of how many hours had passed.

Sunlight flooded the grounds behind the Radiant Demon Squad's quarters, enveloping the tall, handsome figure of the noble-race swordsman. His presence filled the quiet clearing with astonishing force.

Chung Myung, the azure-eyed demonic swordsman. No one in the Radiant Demon Squad wielded more sublime swordsmanship. Since the captain of the Radiant Demon Squad practiced saber techniques, Chung Myung was said to contend for the squad's strongest swordsman.

Some even said he had a claim to being the finest blue-robed warrior in the entire Desolate Fortress. That included the seasoned experts, meaning they ranked even the White Qilin beneath him.

CLANG!

Yeonshin caught Chung Myung's cleaving sword strike, delivered with his internal energy lowered to match Yeonshin's. A fierce gust battered his ears, almost clawing at them.

Chung Myung's mastery of Burst Discharge through swordsmanship was so profound that the sword force surging into Yeonshin's hilt made him question whether they were truly using the same amount of internal energy. The vibration alone amounted to a second strike.

It was no unfamiliar force. He knew it well. In truth, Jung Yeonshin was not one of those rising generation disciples who had never known defeat.

Whenever he stopped at the fortress between missions, he received the undivided attention of his powerful seniors: Ma Jin, Chung Myung, Baek Miryeo, and the other, older blue-robed warriors.

Martial training culminated in sparring. Practicing strikes alone meant nothing, so he went on missions only after completing the training his seniors offered him. Thus he grew accustomed to putting his martial learning into practice in actual combat. It was only natural.

In other words, losing spars was an everyday occurrence for him—at least within the Radiant Demon Squad back at the fortress. Was that why? Today, he was unusually careless.

'A small fragment.'

The sun was only now setting, yet his mind was already adrift. He had opened his Middle Dantian. An entire day of sparring should not have tired him.

Yet he could hardly concentrate on his usual routine. It felt as though his soul had drifted hazily above his body. Even while sparring, the core energy in his sword hand slackened. His focus had unraveled completely.

The price came at once.

SWISH!

A fierce rush of air swept over him in an instant. At the same time, a shock traveled through his blade. With a clang, the Desolate Sword flew from his hand. Had he not released it properly in that instant, his palm would have torn open.

"Our Lightning Genius isn't all here today," Chung Myung said with a grin.

"Weren't you trying to squeeze through the eye of a needle? And quickly, at that."

He lifted his sword and rested it on his shoulder. His smiling delivery made the words sting all the more. It was more frightening than a glare.

"You should allow yourself about three years to become Divine Sword Squad Leader. You'll need to spend about half your remaining years earning merit."

"Ah..."

A dazed exclamation escaped Jung Yeonshin, a rare occurrence. Today, he could hardly help it. But having requested this spar himself, he had no right to protest.

Chung Myung tapped the flat of the sword resting on his shoulder. A chilling blue light spread through his lone eye.

"More importantly, you'll have to take the position from its current holder. The present Divine Sword Squad Leader is still very much in his prime. I can't imagine him losing to anyone, whether a Lord of the Thirteen Skies or a leader of the Nine Great Sects. That's the sort of person our Lightning Genius has to defeat."

"I'm sorry. You're taking the trouble to teach me."

"Even reaching black robes will be a problem. Your command of internal energy has to reach an entirely different realm, and that's a matter of enlightenment rather than aptitude. Of course, martial talent certainly helps."

"..."

"Three Flowers Gather at the Crown. Five Qi Return to the Origin. Your mental intent enters a different world. I mentioned enlightenment, didn't I? That's hardly an exaggeration. Some old men go so far as to call it shedding your shell. You won't get there without keeping your head firmly on your shoulders."

His tone was light, as always. The substance was not. It held genuine concern. At this moment, he envisioned Jung Yeonshin's future more concretely than Yeonshin himself did.

Yeonshin felt ashamed, all the more because Chung Myung, alongside Heon Wonchang, had become one of his closest companions. The boy brought his hands together in a renewed martial salute.

"Thank you for your advice. All I ever do is receive your help."

"Enough with the excessive courtesy."

Chung Myung spoke as he sheathed his sword. The motion was fluid, a crescent of sword light tracing the blade's return to its scabbard.

"We should settle on who teaches you what now, shouldn't we? You have a clear goal, after all. I'll handle swordsmanship, and Miryeo can handle qi arts. Our captain is far too busy, so we'll leave him out of it. Hm? Why are you clasping your hands again? Stop saluting."

"... I don't think I've seen Senior Baek today."

"Miryeo? She's been busy lately. After hearing your story, she started organizing her internal martial arts. She's mastered an internal qi art as unusual as her origins. She needs to separate out things like the principles of circulating core energy so she can teach them to you. She should be finished by the time you return from the Namgoong clan, shouldn't she?"

"I'd like to hear your stories, too. Both of yours."

The mention of Baek Miryeo's origins reminded him. Jung Yeonshin knew nothing about the azure-eyed demonic swordsman or the wave swordswoman. His vision had been too narrow. Since joining, he had raced straight ahead, seeing only his own circumstances. He felt terribly sorry for it.

He did not even know Chung Myung's age. What sort of life had he led among his people before leaving to join the Radiant Demon Squad?

'No one in Radiant Demon Team One is ordinary.'

He did not know what Heon Wonchang had gone through before coming alone to enter the Desolate Fortress. Despite the killing swordsmanship he practiced, he gave the impression of someone who had grown up cherished. His hostility toward the great sects was peculiar, too.

The same was true of Baek Miryeo, an expert who occasionally revealed glimpses of an extraordinary divine technique. What story lay behind her core energy, which took tangible, ink-black form? All he had heard was that she had been rescued as a child during the mission that left Ma Jin, captain of the Radiant Demon Squad, a eunuch. He knew nothing more.

"Another time. There are debts and grudges tangled up in it, so I don't want to ramble about it now. You alone are enough of a headache."

Chung Myung grinned.

"You'll learn naturally. As you pass from blue robes to black and then purple, you will. The quality of the information available to you changes. From black robes onward, you're in a position to take a great deal of initiative."

"... Yes."

He nodded, though he was not convinced. It was time he got going.

The hour had come. A glance at one end of the roof ridge told him so. A white moon was rising over the dark gray roof. Was it the influence of the full moon? Today, it felt strangely distant.

Chung Myung turned slightly, following Jung Yeonshin's gaze.

"You should be heading to the fortress master. I'm dying to know what this is about myself. Off you go."

"Since the fortress master summoned you, I can't very well pry. How frustrating," he muttered without a smile.

"I'll be back!"

Jung Yeonshin answered loudly before he knew it. He was not even embarrassed now.

He passed Chung Myung at once, channeling core energy beneath his feet. He began to run, slowly at first, then gradually faster. He had been sparring all day. First, he needed to bathe and make himself presentable.

"Madam Jang! Please draw me a bath!"

He called out as he opened the door onto the hall's wooden floor and stepped inside. The request was for the maid.

The five senses of the noble race were extraordinarily keen. Would the Desolate fortress master not be keener still? Even among her own people, she was said to exist on an entirely different plane. He could not go to her smelling of sweat. He must not risk her changing her mind and making the small fragment even smaller.

"Lightning Genius? What's going on?"

"That was Jung Yeonshin shouting?"

Several Radiant Demon Squad seniors opened their doors and poked their heads out. For now, he could afford to ignore them. Jung Yeonshin went straight into his room, gathered a spare set of martial robes, and headed for the baths.

* * *

The night suffusing the air gently cradled the boy. It was dark and comforting.

At last.

Moonlight swelled. A pale halo surrounded the full moon. It smiled faintly.

Jung Yeonshin entered the fortress within the fortress: the Desolate fortress master's inner citadel, built of pure white marble.

The warriors guarding the gates merely greeted him with their eyes. No one stopped him. He walked silently over the cold marble. The high stairway felt especially long.

Even so, even so, it had an end. The moment he reached the top, the immense stone doors opened of their own accord.

As always, the far side stood wide open, without a wall. The pale glow of unusually bright moonlight poured freely through it.

Jung Yeonshin raised his eyes toward the thick tree trunk extending through the office. There stood the Desolate fortress master.

With her back to him, she stood upon a branch, bathing in the moonlight. Her long, lustrous, grass-green hair swayed.

He could not sense so much as a ripple of qi, yet she alone stood out with uncanny clarity. Her presence reached him with extraordinary vividness, more so at this moment than ever.

"You must have wondered, even knowing what the fragment was."

She did not turn at once. She seemed to be gazing at some distant vista. Beneath the soft lunar halo, only the voice of the Desolate fortress master reached him, her figure draped in green robes resembling court attire.

It seemed as though all the moonlight in the world was gathering around her. Jung Yeonshin suddenly understood. This was qi circulation. She was manipulating core energy. Hard as it was to believe, that was what she was doing.

The full moon, now radiant, breathed a mist of light. The hazy rays it exhaled bent from every direction to converge upon her.

'Even her fundamentals have reached the realm of miracles.'

The insight came as intuition. Jung Yeonshin was trembling before a realm he could not begin to fathom when she spoke.

"The Fruit of the World Tree. You surmised correctly."

She slowly turned. Though the moon was at her back, the first thing he saw was the light shimmering in her eyes. Her deep green gaze was unfathomable. It felt as though it naturally pressed down upon his very soul.

Every time he faced her, he experienced a sensation even the Blood Flame Cult Leader had never given him.

"Come here."

"I greet the fortress master."

Belatedly offering his respects, he stepped forward. He climbed onto the rough bark to stand opposite the Desolate fortress master. Jung Yeonshin straightened his back and faced her.

"Closer."

"Yes."

He silently obeyed. Less than a step now separated them. The supreme master's face, so white it was almost translucent, filled his vision.

Just as Jung Yeonshin bent to prostrate himself, the Desolate fortress master spoke.

"This is our first meeting since the evil cult's headquarters. There is something I must tell you first."

The boy awkwardly straightened and looked at her.

"You have my full attention."

"The leader of that evil cult may return."

"...!"

"He is a supernatural abomination. He restored his form from a single drop of blood, though I ended his life time and again."

Jung Yeonshin recalled the Blood Flame Cult Leader. He, too, had possessed a quality that seemed beyond the mortal world. Though he fell short of the Desolate fortress master's stature, he stood at the pinnacle of Blood Art and wielded transcendent regenerative abilities.

Then she reached out—was she about to stroke his head?—and spoke.

"I could not destroy him utterly. I had to turn back to see to you."

"I am deeply sorry."

He hastily bowed his head. He remembered the moment he had tried to face the Blood Flame Cult's Sixth Apostle with his body battered beyond recognition. He had thought the Desolate fortress master, who had vanished with the Blood Flame Cult Leader, had returned after slaying her enemy. She was telling him otherwise.

'Because of me?'

She had let one of the Lords of the Thirteen Skies escape to bring a single rising generation disciple called the Lightning Genius back alive and whole. It made no sense as a trade. Anyone would find it hard to believe.

"Sorry?"

Her crystalline voice rang out.

"It was my choice. You need only remain wary of that formidable enemy and strive to advance."

"..."

"More importantly..."

She paused. Such was her presence that he could distinctly feel her gaze lowering. Jung Yeonshin immediately lifted his bowed head. Several strands of his hair, grown longer during his recuperation, had come to rest upon the back of her hand.

"As a child, I made a dear friend of a leaf that fell from the world tree in the spring breeze. It has long since crumbled away."

The corners of the Desolate fortress master's mouth lifted slightly.

"Your hair feels much like it."

"Pardon?"

"You might consider growing it long once you become a master."

"Ah..."

When he unwittingly answered that he would, her lips formed a small, exquisite curve.

'To the fortress master, even blue-robed warriors aren't masters.'

But that was so perfectly natural that there was no reason to take issue with it. Jung Yeonshin reflected that this was the first time he had heard the fortress master joke. So she was a person after all. Perhaps he could hope for a slightly larger fragment.