“When he and I were still first-generation disciples. Back then, Nomon had one disciple he cherished in particular. Her name was Yu Seon, a second-generation disciple like you. Have you heard of her?”

“!”

Yu Pyo’s face flushed with shock.

“I remember. She was the Senior Sister who became a Plum Blossom Swordsman before any of our martial brothers and sisters. But I heard she lost her life in an accident on her very first assignment....”

It had been more than twenty-five years ago.

That day, several second-generation disciples of the Yu-line branch were descending the mountain for the first time to carry out a main-sect assignment.

When disciples who had honed their martial skill descended the mountain and took on their first task, disciples from the senior generation would accompany them.

The one who commanded them was Nomon.

“Nomon took Yu Seon, Yu Rang, and Yu Ga. The three of them, and headed for Hunan.”

“I know those names as well.”

Yu Rang and Yu Ga.

They were secular-family disciples.

After that assignment where Yu Seon lost her life, they left Mount Hua immediately, and Yu Pyo had heard that they had each returned to their own households and were now serving as military officers.

Come to think of it, it had been strange.

Both Yu Rang and Yu Ga had been known in the Yu-line as disciples outstanding in martial arts.

Yu Seon had been the most exceptional, but they too had been quite promising talents, and every single one of their martial brothers and sisters had believed without the slightest doubt that they would one day become pillars who would lead the Mount Hua Sect.

Yet they left Mount Hua all of a sudden.

Right after that assignment.

“The task given to them was to investigate a Black-Path gang that was disrupting the Hunan region. Do you know what that Black-Path gang was called?”

Yu Pyo swallowed dryly.

“...Was it not Black-Boat...?”

The infamous Black-Path power that rapidly seized control of Hunan with Ganghwa as its center.

“That’s right. They were unprecedentedly strong and cruel. But at the time that assignment was given to them, they were still just a small power.”

As far as was known then, they were barely a group of thirty men, if that.

Hunan was a region beyond the reach of major sects or great clans, so they had judged it to be a paltry gang that had sprung up through that gap.

“It wasn’t even a task that required a major battle, and Nomon, who was already regarded as Mount Hua’s foremost sword even then, was accompanying them.”

At that time, Nomon had not yet reached the Fire Realm, but his swordsmanship was already so formidable that his name was widely known across the martial world.

So much so that he was known as the strongest swordsman in the Mount Hua Sect, ahead of even the Sect Leader and Elders.

“No one imagined such a thing would happen. Who could have known? That the leader of that small Black-Path gang would be a master on par with the top ten experts of the age.”

****

The disciples who were descending Mount Hua for the first time in a very long while were excited.

All they wanted was to complete their task as quickly as possible and then look around the martial world that had changed so very much.

However.

“You all need to get a hold of yourselves. Did you come down here to play?”

Only Yu Seon did not relax her guard.

True to being the warrior who had become a Plum Blossom Swordsman before anyone else in the Yu-line, she prioritized the task given to her and did not loosen her vigilance.

“Senior Sister, being too stiff is the problem. This is our first assignment down from the mountain! The first assignment is, traditionally, for putting on appearances, you know.”

“That’s right. In truth, they’re just sending us down to take a look around the martial world.”

“Do you think the martial world is a joke? What are you going to do if you end up facing an enemy you can’t handle? If your skill falls short, you should at least keep your mind straight.”

Nomon found only that one disciple, the one who said the right thing, precious and lovable.

A disciple who understood ten things when taught one.

An outstanding talent who would surely carry on the lineage of Mount Hua with excellence after him.

“Yu Seon is right. In the martial world there are dangers everywhere you haven’t even imagined. So keep your minds taut and devote yourselves to the task.”

“...Yes, Martial Uncle.”

“Yes.”

Precisely because of that, Nomon did not realize it.

That when one’s affection for a disciple goes too far it becomes favoritism, and favoritism can give rise to jealousy.

“Martial Uncle Nomon only cares about Senior Sister Yu Seon.... Honestly, I’m sure Martial Uncle Nomon went wild having fun on his first assignment down the mountain too.”

“Senior Sister Yu Seon is Martial Uncle Nomon’s direct disciple from just before us. She’s not like us. Senior Sister Yu Seon follows everything Martial Uncle Nomon says to the letter, so how could he not like her?”

“Senior Brother, doesn’t it make you a bit curious, then?”

“Curious about what?”

“If a disciple who always listened so well to her teacher refuses to obey him, what kind of reaction Martial Uncle Nomon would show!”

“Well, I suppose. Martial Uncle has never scolded Senior Sister Yu Seon, so I am a little curious. But there’s no way Senior Sister would ever defy Martial Uncle’s words.”

“What if such a situation did happen?”

The two young warriors had no idea how serious the consequences of the little prank they were blithely about to commit would be.

“‘The assignment you’re given on your first descent from the mountain isn’t dangerous.’”

“‘The first descent is more about giving you a chance to look around the martial world than actually carrying out the task.’”

“‘The adults of Mount Hua don’t give dangerous tasks to young warriors.’”

The two young warriors had believed those words they had heard all their lives without question, and even before they arrived in Hunan they were already looking down on the power they would be facing.

“Senior Sister. Martial Uncle told us that if he sends up a red signal, we are to attack the enemy, and if he sends up a blue signal, we are to retreat at once.”

“Got it. Just in case, maintain a thorough perimeter watch.”

“Yes. You too, Senior Sister.”

The four of them concealed themselves along the path that Black-Boat would be passing.

They were going to observe for themselves how threatening a power this Black-Boat actually was and judge its weight.

Since things might be dangerous, Nomon stood in the foremost position.

Before long, a group of five or six men appeared.

Except for one or two, they were no more than second- or third-rate warriors.

Once Nomon confirmed that they had cloth bearing the emblem of Black-Boat tied around their heads, he sent a blue signal to the disciples following him.

At that moment, Yu Rang and Yu Ga sprang out and attacked the Black-Boat group.

CLANG- CLANG! CLANG!

As he watched the two juniors subdue the Black-Path men in an instant, Nomon frowned and turned around.

His disciple Yu Seon was nowhere to be seen.

“Where is Yu Seon?”

Once the brief skirmish was over, Nomon asked the two juniors.

The two exchanged wide-eyed looks, then answered with smiles on their faces.

“She probably had to rush off to the latrine.”

“Or maybe she went back to the lodgings ahead of us?”

“...What?”

Yu Seon? That child?

My disciple is not the sort to do that.

Something felt wrong, but as the two juniors said, he could not sense Yu Seon’s presence anywhere.

The three of them stayed there and waited for Yu Seon to return.

But even as the sun went down, she did not come back.

The three of them had no choice but to return to their lodgings.

And the problem only came to light the following morning.

Uneasy at Yu Seon’s continued absence even after morning came, the two of them confessed their wrongdoing.

“Martial Uncle.... The truth is, w-we... we told Senior Sister... the signals you taught us... the other way around....”

“Senior Sister saw the blue signal and... retreated at once....”

“What?”

Nomon scoured the entire mountain they had climbed the day before, searching for her the whole day.

But no matter how he tore up and down the mountain, he could not find the slightest trace of her.

On his way back to the lodgings, Nomon sought out Beggar’s (Network).

“Don’t, just don’t. The bastards of Black-Boat are truly vicious scum. If the rumors are to be believed, the Black-Boat Lord’s martial skill is something else. It’s the perfect setup to get yourself killed, rushing in without knowing anything.”

While Nomon and his party had been leaving Mount Hua and traveling to Hunan, the rumors about Black-Boat had changed greatly.

The danger posed by Black-Boat, and the Black-Boat Lord’s martial skill.

Even the scale of Black-Boat, which they had assumed to be nothing of note, had swollen to more than ten times what it had been.

Nomon immediately requested reinforcements from Mount Hua.

The Mount Hua Sect promptly sent warriors, and with Nomon at the fore, they fought against Black-Boat.

And Mount Hua finally found Yu Seon.

In the end, they discovered her as a corpse. The state of her body was so horrific it could not be put into words.

“Ahh... ahhh...!!”

Nomon clutched the disciple who had been found as a cold corpse and howled.

Around that time, with the Wudang Sect at the center, the ten greatest experts began taking the lead in the subjugation of Black-Boat.

The Mount Hua Sect judged that Nomon, their greatest combat power, was in no condition to fight, and pulled him back from the front.

And once they returned to Mount Hua, the whole story came to light.

Yu Rang and Yu Ga confessed why they had given Yu Seon the wrong signals, and what they had been thinking. They revealed everything.

“They killed Yu Seon! Out of some petty jealousy, they drove their own martial sister to her death!”

Perhaps they had thought of it as a light prank, but because of that incident, Yu Seon lost her life.

The Mount Hua Sect lost a tremendous talent who could have become one of its pillars, and Nomon lost the disciple he had cherished most.

“Expel the two of them. It’s no different from having committed murder! Even abolishing their dantians and casting them out is too lenient a punishment, is it not?”

Nomon strongly insisted that they be expelled.

He believed they were unworthy of being warriors.

Having driven their martial sister to her death, he thought, they were even more unworthy of calling themselves disciples of Mount Hua.

He argued that their dantians should be abolished at once so they could never again use the martial arts of Mount Hua, and that their names should be erased from Mount Hua’s rolls.

However.

“Yu Rang and Yu Ga are to descend the mountain immediately.”

They were not expelled.

****

WHOOOOOSH—

Yu Gang stepped forward, saber in hand, shielding Jinye and Jinyeong.

Yu Gang fixed an intense gaze on the steep slope leading up toward the mountain summit.

“Se–Senior....”

SSSSS...

A chill, eerie energy slowly swept through the surroundings.

It felt as if he could actually smell blood.

“You two, listen to me carefully.”

At last, a head began to appear on the sharply bending path.

“Both of you, go down right now and inform the Sect Leader.”

Yu Gang ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) tightened his grip on the saber as he stared at the owner of that gradually emerging, repulsive energy.

“That man... has arrived.”