Wudang Sacred Scriptures

Golden Sand Village was a quiet settlement on the Yangtze River, roughly six miles northeast of Martial Alliance headquarters.

A broad stretch of golden sand lay before the village, giving it its name.

At the far end of the beach stood a small rocky hill. Dragon King Hall sat atop its cliff, facing the Yangtze.

Kwak Yeon climbed the hill through the darkness.

He could sense no presence anywhere around it. That confirmed that whoever had summoned him did not mean him harm.

There was no reason to startle such a person, so Kwak approached Dragon King Hall at an unhurried pace.

After only a few steps, he stopped.

“...!”

A figure rose from the darkness like a ghost.

“Welcome, Taoist Kwak.”

“So it was you, Chief Protector Kang.”

It was none other than Kang Su, Chief Protector of Ghost Night Castle.

“That is correct.”

Seeing Kang Su address him with such careful respect, Kwak understood that he was grateful for the consideration Kwak had shown the Young Castle Lord.

“Chief Protector Kang, I had not seen you since Jiujiang Prefecture. I did not expect to encounter you here.”

“The Young Castle Lord ordered me not to show myself, so I followed from a great distance. In any case, I am grateful to you, Taoist Kwak.”

“What the Young Castle Lord intends may be necessary for me as well. That is why I acted.”

“Even so, you took the Young Castle Lord’s circumstances into account. For that, I am sincerely grateful.”

“Chief Protector Kang, let us leave the needless courtesies there.”

They were not close enough to exchange warm greetings. Kwak was urging him to get to the point.

“Because of my position, I cannot enter Martial Alliance headquarters. I had no choice but to commission the Hao Sect to send a brief message. I believed that, for Taoist Kwak, that much would be enough to ensure you came.”

Kwak nodded readily.

“It was wise to entrust the Hao Sect with no more than a simple errand.”

The Hao Sect stood between the orthodox and demonic paths. It could not be trusted completely. Kwak knew that, despite his being a benefactor to their sect, they had not hesitated to sell information about him.

Moreover, the Hao Sect’s senior figures were exceptionally skilled at judging the value of intelligence.

As befitted Ghost Night Castle’s Chief Protector, Kang Su had been cautious. He had sent an eight-character message containing only the bare minimum.

“In any case, I know you must be busy, Taoist Kwak. I apologize for summoning you so suddenly.”

“You would not have called without reason, so there is nothing to apologize for. More importantly, what urgent matter made you risk entering Martial Alliance territory?”

Golden Sand Village might have been some distance from Martial Alliance headquarters, but it still lay within territory patrolled by Martial Alliance warriors.

“As I followed you and the Young Castle Lord from afar, I happened to meet someone who insisted on seeing you, Taoist Kwak.”

“...?”

The statement came so abruptly that Kwak stared at Kang Su.

“I have spoken without explaining myself. Let me begin from the start.”

Kang Su spoke with quiet composure.

“I encountered that person in Aju County City. At the time, I had no way to enter the city through its heavy security. The Young Castle Lord had ordered me not to reveal myself, and there was no reason to force the matter. So I watched Aju County City from a mountainside outside the walls. Then a great commotion broke out.”

Kwak recalled the Acrobat Troupe assassins’ attack on the main street of Aju County City.

It had been a battle loud enough that even someone on the mountains outside the city could have seen its movements.

“I was not in a position to help at once, so I could only watch. Then I noticed someone throw something toward you, Taoist Kwak, before leaving the battlefield. That person headed directly northwest, so I came down the mountain at once. Even if they climbed over the wall to escape, I intended to pursue and capture them.”

As he listened, Kwak remembered Jin Cheongha’s account of the Hidden Moon Forest assassin.

Her testimony that the assassin had fled straight for the northwestern wall matched Kang Su’s words exactly.

“But when I reached the northwestern wall, I found that person outside the city, bleeding and collapsed. I had assumed they had escaped.”

“...?”

“The injuries were severe enough that I thought they were dead, but they were still barely breathing. I had gone there intending to kill them, so I was about to end their suffering. Then they suddenly asked for Taoist Kwak. They said there was something you absolutely had to know.”

“...?”

One baffling claim followed another. Kwak’s gaze filled with doubt.

“I do not know why they said such a thing to me.”

Kang Su shook his head at Kwak’s questioning look.

“At the time, I assumed they were simply saying whatever came to mind because they knew I was not a Martial Alliance warrior. Still, it sounded as though the information might be important to you, Taoist Kwak. So I brought them away from there.”

Having explained the circumstances, Kang Su glanced toward Dragon King Hall.

“That person is waiting inside. Please meet them yourself. I will remain here.”

“...?”

“They asked to be left alone with you.”

“Very well.”

Kwak nodded lightly and headed for Dragon King Hall.

CREAK.

The moment he opened the doors, the stench of rotting pus and blood struck him.

Beneath the dim flame of a lamp resting on the altar to the Dragon King, an old woman sat with her back against the altar.

Her entire upper body was wrapped in black cloth. Her face was covered in warts, and her right arm was missing.

Just as I thought. It is the assassin from Hidden Moon Forest.

*****

FLAP-FLAP!

A bat flew out from beneath the eaves of a vast hall and vanished into the night sky.

From the shadows beneath the eaves, Jin Cheongha watched the spot from which it had flown.

Just as she expected, she found a small gap where the ceiling met the wall.

For the Young Castle Lord of Ghost Night Castle, widening even the slightest crack was no difficult task.

She had learned a secret Ghost Night Castle art that combined an internal-striking method with a sound-muffling technique. With it, she could dismantle any stone wall without a sound, then restore it perfectly afterward.

Given an opening only the width of a palm, she could infiltrate anywhere using the Ghost-Seclusion Bone-Shrinking Divine Technique. The instant she found the crack left by the bat, the task was as good as done.

Of course, entering the hall did not mean there would be no complications. The ceiling of a great hall was packed with beams, partition walls, and tangled support braces.

To infiltrators, the space above such ceilings was a labyrinth. Yet it was also a place that offered the pleasure of finding one answer after another.

For infiltrators, getting close to the target hall was far more difficult.

And this was inside Martial Alliance headquarters’ inner fortress, which made the task harder still.

Even as Ghost Night Castle’s Young Castle Lord, Jin could barely manage to infiltrate two or three halls in a single night.

Every night brought tremendous drain on her inner power and growing physical exhaustion, yet she had found nothing.

After failing to uncover any clue to the Great Demon Prison even in the secret archives of Jadeite Pavilion the night before, Jin had concluded that the information was treated as a state secret known to only a handful of the Martial Alliance’s highest-ranking figures.

Considering that the Great Demon Prison held the great demons of the Demonic Eight Divisions, such secrecy was only natural.

Then, yesterday, Kwak had spoken as though he suspected Right Military Strategist Baek Ri-gi.

A possibility had taken root in Jin’s mind.

If Right Military Strategist Baek Ri-gi was a traitor within the Martial Alliance, then he must have been the one to leak the Great Demon Prison’s classified information.

That would explain how the hidden mastermind’s forces had recruited the traitors of Ghost Night Castle and breached the Great Demon Prison.

That was why Jin had risked infiltrating the Strategists’ Office and made her way to the Right Military Strategist’s hall.

As she recalled yesterday’s conversation, Kwak’s dark expression suddenly came to mind.

His mental state seemed badly shaken. Is he all right?

Jin immediately pushed the concern aside.

What am I thinking...?

This was the moment to give the task before her her full attention.

She had already spent half the night approaching the Right Military Strategist’s hall.

If I do not finish quickly and return, Hu Gae will surely find it strange.

Hoo...

Jin steadied her breathing. Once the footsteps of the patrol warriors had faded, she launched herself forward and slipped beneath the shadowed eaves from which the bat had emerged.

As she prepared to use Ghost Night Castle’s secret art to widen the gap, Jin flinched.

A crack wider than a palm had already split the stone wall.

An earlier infiltrator has been here!

Sure enough, when she pressed lightly against the stone wall, it slid inward along the crack and opened a hole.

WHOOSH!

Using the Ghost-Seclusion Bone-Shrinking Divine Technique, Jin slipped into the ceiling space of the Right Military Strategist’s hall as though she were seeping through the opening itself. She restored the stone wall to its original place, then sharpened her sight.

The tangled framework above the ceiling emerged faintly from the darkness.

And she found a route someone had used to move through it in secret.

The route had been concealed with bricks and support braces. Dust had even been scattered over it with painstaking care. But Jin Cheongha, the Young Castle Lord of Ghost Night Castle, whose specialty was infiltration, recognized it at once.

Someone with exceptional stealth has passed through here.

It had not happened long ago, either.

There really is something going on with the Right Military Strategist!

Jin was glad she had chosen the Right Military Strategist’s hall.

Then somewhere in here, there must be information about the Great Demon Prison.

For the moment, she decided to follow the route the earlier infiltrator had made. It would lead to a way inside the hall.

She moved carefully, taking every precaution not to leave a trace. Yet an unease suddenly gripped her.

The earlier infiltrator had made crossing this maze much easier. But what would happen if she encountered that person?

I have come this far. I cannot turn back now.

She could not abandon her search for information about the Great Demon Prison because of that possibility.

After some time, she found what appeared to be a passage leading into the hall, just as she had expected.

A faint draft rose from the floor.

The earlier infiltrator had laid a plank across the opening to hide it. The instant Jin reached for it, low murmurs drifted up from below.

Jin froze.

What? The Right Military Strategist’s staffers should all have returned to their quarters by now...

There should have been no one in the Right Military Strategist’s hall besides the fixed guards outside and the patrol warriors.

Who could still be in the Right Military Strategist’s hall at this hour?

Jin lay flat against the ceiling floor and pressed her ear to the narrow gap through which the air was flowing.

The murmurs became clear.

“...In any event, Hidden Shadow, please tell your lord that I regret things did not unfold as expected.”

“Your Excellency did everything you could. People do the work, but Heaven decides the outcome. How could this be Your Excellency’s fault?”

A chill ran down Jin’s spine.

She could not identify the speaker from the voice alone. But given the location—the Right Military Strategist’s hall—and the exalted address, there was little doubt that the first speaker was Right Military Strategist Baek Ri-gi.

What made Jin tense most of all was that the Right Military Strategist had called the other person Hidden Shadow.

Hidden Shadow. That person is the infiltrator who came before me!

Then Baek Ri-gi let out a low sigh.

“I wonder whether your lord will see it that way.”

“My lord will, without question. We are comrades bound together. There is no reason for anyone to place blame on another.”

“...”

“My lord asked me to tell you not to concern yourself with whether this matter succeeds or fails. What concerns them is whether this affair may bring difficulties upon Your Excellency. That man is exceptionally shrewd.”

“I am grateful for your lord’s concern, but there is no danger of that.”

“Your Excellency has always handled matters so that there are no lingering consequences. My lord believes this time will be no different. Even so, they asked me to warn you not to let down your guard.”

“Very well. But what does your lord intend to do about him?”

“Things have been noisy for some time, so my lord intends to leave him alone for now. If the commotion continues, that man may notice something.”

“When rain falls hard, the roads turn slick. That is wise as well.”

“For that reason, I will not come to see Your Excellency for some time.”

“Understood.”

Jin jolted.

She had been so absorbed in the shocking exchange that she had completely forgotten where she was.

Hidden Shadow was the infiltrator who had made this route.

Once the conversation ended, Hidden Shadow would naturally come this way.

Oh no.

Then a voice rose from below.

“Your Excellency, I will take my leave.”

Jin looked back along the route she had taken and felt as though the world had suddenly gone distant.

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