The Namgung Clan’s tent was the second-tallest, right after the Sect Leader’s.

Which meant that if one simply focused, one could see what was happening between Eun Byeok’s tent and Eunsong’s tent.

Namgung Hyeong was drinking with Sect Leader Jeongyang and the foremost disciple Myungjeok.

Namgung Seon was not.

He was sitting still, straight-backed, staring at Eunsong’s tent.

And while he watched, by chance—pure chance—he happened to see it.

Cheonju going into Eunsong’s tent.

And Eunsong quietly stepping out of the tent.

“Well now, looks like things are about to get interesting.”

****

“Senior Brother, are you in?”

“That voice… Eunsong. What brings you here.”

The voice that answered was rough and cold.

It was because he had practically humiliated Eunsong when he rejected his unreasonable demand last time.

Eunsong let out a hearty chuckle and laid on the banter.

“Are you still upset about what happened back then?”

“…No.”

As if.

Eunsong quietly lowered his voice to a murmur.

“How could I just hand my disciple over. What would people outside say about me.”

“That sounds as if you’re saying you might hand her over if you have an excuse.”

“Would you care to step inside for a moment?”

Soon, there was the sound of someone rising from his seat.

Eun Byeok pulled open the back flap of the tent.

“What is it you want to say, Eunsong.”

“I understand how you feel, Senior Brother. Everyone wants a disciple with talent.”

“Ha, of course. What martial man doesn’t want to rise in the world.”

“I’m no different, am I.”

A light flashed in Eunsong’s eyes.

He hid his true face and smeared his voice with an easy, natural lie.

“When I looked at Cheonju just now, he seemed overflowing with talent.”

“You see it that way too?”

“Yes. In my eyes as well, he is a prodigy you won’t find twice.”

A smile tugged at Eun Byeok’s lips.

He disliked Eunsong, but he knew the man’s eye for talent was the real thing.

Eunsong smiled back at him.

He had decided he would kill the Sword Sovereign.

If he could not do it himself, he would use his disciple if he had to.

If he could not at least employ this level of scheming, how could he hope to do that.

If he could not hide one little intention and change the skin of his face,

how could he possibly set in motion a Heaven-Toppling design to bring down the sky.

“So then, Senior Brother, let’s make a trade.”

“A trade. What trade.”

“You’re aware that Soyak’s skill exceeds Cheonhwa’s, aren’t you?”

Eun Byeok bit his lower lip.

It stung his pride.

But it was the truth.

“…I know.”

“So if Cheonhwa can withstand three sword exchanges from Soyak… I’ll give Soyak to you.”

“That’s absurd. Her Sword Light will cut her sword apart.”

“I’ll forbid her from using Sword Light.”

Eun Byeok, who had been waving his hand dismissively, briefly stopped.

With that condition, he saw a glimmer of possibility.

But he could not jump into a bargain carelessly.

He had to understand what the other side wanted.

“Hah? And if she can’t withstand them, then what?”

“Then you give me both.”

Eun Byeok’s pupils trembled.

Eunsong was wearing a clearly greedy smile.

It was an offer fit for that expression.

“Both of them?”

“Yes. Both of them.”

Just going by the value hanging from their necks, it was a demand he could make.

Cheon Soyak…

At the mere age of fourteen, she was timber that had reached the realm of Apex.

In fact, she might have been even younger.

That brilliance had been something she’d shown the moment she arrived at Mount Hua.

It meant she had already possessed that level of skill before that.

How far was she from Transcendent Apex?

He did not know, but he had seen how easily she roused Sword Light.

She also bloomed Black Plum Blossoms with a maturity and scale that were complete.

A master standing at the wall of Apex.

And a wall was, by nature, a limit you could not guarantee to surpass even with a lifetime of effort.

But why was it.

It felt as if she would just as easily smash through the wall of Transcendent Apex and even the wall of the Transformation Realm.

Even if Eun Byeok’s eye was dull, when he faced talent closer to a monster than a human…

he could not help but feel that there was something different about her.

“…Fine. Let’s do it.”

Three exchanges.

That much, she could manage to endure.

He did not know that Cheon Soyak had mastered the Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword.

He did not know that she was the inheritor of an even higher divine masterpiece, the Falling Plum Elegy.

Since no one had ever cultivated Harmonization Scripture and bloomed plums, he could not even guess at its existence from those Black Plum Blossoms.

And so he made this misjudgment.

Blinded by greed.

“You understand there’s no backing out.”

“Fine. But if you so much as say anything different, I won’t let it go.”

“In that case, shall we have a witness?”

“A witness?”

At that moment, from the alley of tents, an old master stepped into view.

It was Elder Jeonggang.

“Having quite an entertaining conversation, I see.”

Eunsong bowed deeply and cupped his fists.

Eun Byeok did the same.

Even if he was not his own grandmaster, Elder Jeonggang stood in the same rank as the Sect Leader.

It meant they had to show the utmost courtesy.

“Would it do if I served as that witness?”

They did not dare say no.

Especially after they themselves had just said there must be no going back.

“W-well, if you would, I’d feel more at ease, but… how could we ask such a thing of you, Elder.”

Instinctively, he tried to pull his foot back.

Eun Byeok’s political sense was warning him.

That Jeonggang—that man—had most definitely not happened to pass by here “by chance.”

More than anything, the very idea of using disciples as stakes in a bet was outrageous.

Yet a senior elder was acknowledging it and even offering to stand as witness?

It felt wrong.

But the wager had already gone too far to retract.

“Now, now. It’s in matters like these that the witness must be clear. Isn’t that so.”

“Th-that is true, but…”

Eun Byeok shot a sidelong glance at Eunsong.

A look that said, Hurry up and stop this.

But Eunsong had no such intention.

He was the one who had called Elder Jeonggang here in the first place.

“It shames me to ask Elder to serve as witness for a matter as weighty as this…”

“He’s right, he’s right, this is…”

“but I boldly beg you to do so.”

Eun Byeok’s mouth opened and closed soundlessly.

Jeonggang instead smiled faintly and gripped both of their shoulders.

“The bond between master and disciple is close to the bond between father and child. Since you’ve staked it, it must be fulfilled without fail.”

“Yes. I will do so.”

“I… will do so as well…”

The blood drained from Eun Byeok’s face.

Then, seeing Eunsong’s smile, it turned the color of ash.

‘…You’re saying she won’t even hold out three exchanges?’

If he had not been confident of that, he would never have done this.

Now everything rested on Cheonhwa.

****

Meanwhile, in the tent after Eunsong left.

Cheonjeong had gotten up and was patting Cheonju on the shoulder.

“You must have been under a lot of strain.”

“The pain of Hair-Cutting and Marrow-Washing is no different from having your muscles ripped and your bones broken. I don’t know about myself, but Cheonhwa…”

“Yes. It must be a pain that’s hard to endure.”

Cheonju bowed his head deeply.

“…Not long ago, I had a fight with Cheonhwa.”

Soyak gave a small nod.

Because she had seen it herself.

“In the end, Cheonhwa couldn’t bear it anymore and told me to leave the sect with her and run away.”

“She must have been struggling a great deal.”

“Yes. But I stopped her.”

Cheongak furrowed his brow.

He probably didn’t understand.

“Why, Senior Brother? You could have.”

“You don’t know what our master feels toward Master Eunsong. It’s a truly vicious inferiority complex.”

“…So?”

“Do you think he’d accept it if we said we were leaving the sect? He’d tell us to obey if we don’t want our arms and legs crippled.”

He had a point.

This was the man who had even petitioned Myungjeok to subject them to Hair-Cutting and Marrow-Washing every month.

“Would he really go that far…”

Cheongu pinched his brow and let out a sigh.

“He’s the one who asked Grandmaster Myungjeok to do Hair-Cutting and Marrow-Washing on us every month, Cheongu.”

“But Senior Brother Cheonju, that must be hard on Grandmaster Myungjeok as well…”

“I don’t know either. Why he’s so obsessed with beating Master Eunsong…”

Soyak, who had been quietly listening, spoke up.

“If that is so, it may be even more dangerous if you leave Mount Hua.”

“…You’re right.”

“It would be a place where even Master Eunsong cannot protect you.”

She worked that small head of hers, thinking through possible methods.

Seeing that, Cheonju was overtaken by guilt.

That he had tormented, teased, and jabbed at a child like this from their very first meeting.

“…Do you hate me?”

“I do not.”

“Why not…”

The answer that flowed out of that small mouth was a masterpiece.

“Isn’t that just how everyone is in their teens?”

For a moment, Cheonju, Cheonjeong, Cheongak, and Cheongu were all left dumbstruck.

Did she realize she was the youngest one among them when she said that?

“…Soyak.”

“Yes, Head Senior.”

“You really do have a bit of an old soul in you.”

Soyak blinked instead of answering…

then simply scratched her own head.

“It must be because I worked as a maid for a long time.”

“As a maid?”

“Yes, Head Senior.”

Everyone turned their eyes toward this past of Soyak’s they were hearing about for the first time.

Soyak, before she had come to Mount Hua.

“After my household fell, a place called the Gwak Family bought me as a maid when I was small.”

“You’re still small now, Soyak.”

“I was even younger then, Head Senior.”

“…I see.”

Soyak calmly laid out an old story.

A story that was not long.

And she hid her real pain.

She did not speak of the fall of her household, its reasons, or the whole tale.

No one asked.

There was no one here so lacking in tact and character as to ask such a thing.

“While I was working there, Master happened to come by as a guest.”

“And then? What happened?”

“Nothing else really…”

She could not speak here of the Sword Sovereign’s life being the price.

Soyak naturally skipped over the middle.

“He told me he wanted me to come to Mount Hua, as his disciple.”

“So that’s how you came.”

“Yes.”

And just as that story was drawing to a close,

Eunsong opened the tent flap and stepped inside.

Chapter 30

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