Chapter 190: Perilous Road (1)

The Dragon-Phoenix Gathering was essentially an expanded version of the Ilji Gathering, a martial tournament open to the entire Central Plains.

At least, that was how Soyak understood it.

She had never attended the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering herself, so she was judging based on what Eun Jeong had told her, but...

The format was the same every year anyway.

The brackets were decided by drawing lots. Win your match, and you advanced to the next round.

One-on-one spars continued like that until the final match.

Whoever won that became the champion, so a certain amount of luck in the draw was inevitably involved.

But Soyak felt no tension at all.

Luck of the draw... honestly, it probably would not matter much who she faced.

And if the Namgung Household had any sense, they would not arrange for her to meet Namgung Seon too early.

They would want to avoid watching him suffer a crushing defeat right at the start.

Even if the news had not reached them yet, it would before she arrived.

Perhaps they already knew.

If they learned that Soyak had cut down the Flame-Saber Lord, who had reached the early stage of the Transformation Realm, in a single stroke...

They'll find some way to account for it when arranging the brackets.

Soyak slowly rose.

She had already finished packing the night before.

The dawn sun was rising beyond the wooden shutters.

One month.

There was no need to hurry.

She could take around fifteen days to make the trip and spend the remaining fifteen resting near the destination.

That would be more than enough to keep herself in peak condition.

She slung her packed belongings over her shoulder and left Flower-Haze Hall.

This was not another Roaming Pillar Journey.

Strictly speaking, she was going to stand on the grand stage of the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering and spread Mount Hua's name.

Though Soyak herself had other reasons.

That was why there were people waiting to see her off.

Only Myeonggon, Eunsong, Eun Jeong, and Cheonjeong, but...

Four was enough.

There was little meaning in having a crowd of people she had barely spoken to come out to bid her farewell.

“...Be careful.”

Cheonjeong was always worried about Soyak.

Even now, when she had reached heights he could hardly even look up to...

But Soyak did not dislike it.

It felt like affection.

After her parents died, she had been sold to the Gwak Household and lived there as a dependent.

Some might have called it a short time, but to the young Soyak it had been unbearably long.

And throughout all those years, she had never felt warmth from anyone.

“...Eldest Brother. You don't need to worry about me.”

“A senior brother is supposed to worry about his junior sister. Even if that junior sister becomes the number one martial artist under heaven.”

“...Thank you.”

Only then did Cheonjeong nod in satisfaction.

Apparently, he considered it simply the proper thing to do, regardless of who was stronger.

Someone treating her according to the basic decency one human being owed another...

For Soyak, that alone was enough.

“Soyak.”

“Yes, Master.”

“You killed one of the Demonic Cult's masters. Do not forget that their people are hidden throughout the Central Plains. Granted, I doubt any of them are loyal enough to the Flame-Saber Lord to avenge him out of affection, but you have at least given them an excuse. The excuse of revenge. Do you understand?”

“...I will keep that in mind.”

Eunsong looked genuinely worried.

The Demonic Cult routinely did things that defied ordinary common sense.

Soyak could hardly call it impossible for a bowl of noodles she ordered on the road to be laced with deadly poison.

So Eunsong took a small bundle from inside his robe and handed it to her.

“...What is this?”

“A silver rod and antidotes. Unless you encounter some exceptionally expensive and sophisticated poison concocted by the Tang Family, they should work against most things.”

Soyak accepted the bundle and opened it.

Inside lay a slender silver rod and three pellets wrapped in paper.

They could not neutralize poisons concocted by the Tang Family.

Put another way, they could neutralize virtually anything below that level.

There was no chance something like that was cheap or common.

Nor could people capable of making such medicine be easy to find.

“...Were these from the Medicine Sage?”

“Yes. He gave them to me a very long time ago, but I think you need them more now. I doubt the Medicine Sage will scold me too harshly. I am only using a gift he gave me to look after my disciple. How angry could he really be?”

“Would he... not?”

The Medicine Sage was difficult to read.

For some reason, Soyak could easily imagine him giving Eunsong quite a lecture.

Still, she could hardly refuse something her Master was placing directly into her hands for that reason.

More importantly... she truly did need it.

“...Then I will accept it gratefully.”

“Come back safely. It does not matter if you use all of them.”

Soyak slowly nodded.

Then Myeonggon and Eun Jeong looked at her.

Myeonggon spoke first.

“Are you disappointed your Great Grand Master didn't prepare anything for you?”

“Not at all... I wasn't expecting anything to begin with...”

“I was joking. Master Eun Jeong here says she didn't prepare anything either. What do you think about that?”

Soyak glanced toward Eun Jeong.

Then she shook her head.

“The same. I'm not being seen off because I expect to receive anything.”

“So Eunsong was right. You're no fun to tease. None at all.”

“...I'm sorry.”

“No need to apologize. Just come back safely. Don't give your Master, Master Eun Jeong, or your Eldest Brother any reason to worry.”

True to his words, all four of them were looking at Soyak.

Their eyes were still full of concern.

Soyak stared back at them for a moment, then sighed.

“...I'm not that weak.”

*****

Traveling alone was not as lonely as Soyak had expected.

She discovered that she was less prone to loneliness than she had thought.

Perhaps it was because of what she had experienced at the Gwak Household as a child.

Exhausting relationships were sometimes worse than having none at all.

“...I think I'm going the right way.”

It was not as though ordinary travelers could carry maps around.

Those were things used by the imperial army.

Or precious strategic assets kept by major sects.

Of course, Mount Hua was itself a major sect, but...

There was no chance they would simply lend Soyak a map to carry outside.

Taking one beyond the sect required the Sect Leader's permission.

More importantly, a map was hardly an absolute necessity.

With Soyak's Lightness Arts, even if she wandered a little, she could reach Mount Tianzhu as long as she kept the general direction straight.

And whenever she passed through a village along the way, she could simply ask the locals for directions.

She was wearing Mount Hua's martial uniform with its plum-blossom embroidery. People were unlikely to treat her too carelessly.

The farther she traveled from Mount Hua, however, the less attention that affiliation drew.

The friendly looks given to a young martial artist from Mount Hua, a local point of pride...

Gradually became the guarded looks people gave strangers and outsiders.

Soyak still looked like nothing more than a small, harmless girl in her teens.

But what hung at her waist was unmistakably a sword.

Everyone knew a sword was a weapon made to kill people.

Naturally, someone who openly carried one would not always receive kindly looks.

If she had been a huge, vicious-looking brute carrying some menacing weapon, people might simply have lowered their eyes and stayed out of her way.

But because Soyak looked so utterly harmless, they felt free to show their displeasure openly in their expressions and stares.

Soyak did not particularly care.

Not a single one of them was capable of threatening her.

The route Soyak chose took her through Henan.

One major reason was that Shaolin lay along the way.

For one thing, after what had happened before, Shaolin was certain to be friendly toward her.

And there were also... people there she had not seen in a long time.

Seol Yegang and Seol Yehwa.

Three years had passed during her closed-door training, which meant they should now be twenty-three and twenty, respectively.

Of course, Soyak was still younger than either of them...

But she was curious how they had changed and how they had been living.

More than anything, Shaolin was a place where she could relax her guard for a little while and rest without worry.

This was Shaolin, after all—the Shaolin of Mount Song in the north, matched only by Wudang in the south.

Demonic Cultists might lurk everywhere, but if there were places where they were least likely to be found, Shaolin and Wudang would be at the top of the list.

Even more so than Mount Hua.

And even if a Demonic Cultist hidden inside Shaolin somehow poisoned her food...

Soyak had a way to detect it in advance and prepare accordingly.

If she obtained clear evidence of attempted poisoning, the Abbot of Shaolin would probably seal the entire sect and interrogate every last person if that was what it took to find the culprit.

And Soyak was hardly the only one who knew that.

Any Demonic Cultist plotting “revenge” would know it as well.

Unless they wanted to endure a merciless internal purge carried out under the Abbot's fury, they would think twice before attempting anything.