Wudang Sacred Scriptures

The face of the Special Blood Unit Commander twisted in horror. But he quickly regained his composure.

“I’ll admit your skill is impressive. But that doesn’t mean you’ll leave here alive.”
The Special Blood Unit Commander was not uttering empty words.
The members standing with him were all first-rate masters—elites of the Special Blood Unit. Moreover, they had long trained in a special coordinated formation.

“We’ll engage him with the Ultimate Annihilation Combined Assault Formation.”
At the commander’s order, the elite members of the Special Blood Unit spread out simultaneously, surrounding Kwak Yeon.
The front-line members charged in a full-on offensive. Through the openings they created, the second-line members would unleash fatal strikes. And finally, he, the peak-level master, would deliver the final blow—severing the opponent’s neck. That was how the Ultimate Annihilation Combined Assault Formation reached completion.

The Special Blood Unit Commander brimmed with confidence.
They had tested this formation in real combat, where even super-elite masters had failed to withstand it, regardless of the cost in lives among their own ten first-rate members.
“Advance!”

At the commander’s shout, five blades simultaneously rained down toward Kwak Yeon.
―Shiiik!
Though the five sword flashes traced different paths from different directions, the sound of slicing air rang as one.
It was proof they had deployed a perfect coordinated assault formation.

Five blades would cut down the opponent’s entire body all at once.
Unless one were an asura with three heads and six arms, there was no way to block five simultaneous strikes from five directions.
The Cave Daoist’s figure seemed to be torn to pieces amid the blue sword light.

Only then did the Cave Daoist draw the sword at his waist.
Though it was known that Wudang's sword techniques concealed the profound principle of post-movement initiation, this response was far too late.
‘Fool! You're too late—’

―KWA-RUNG!
Before the Special Blood Unit Commander could even finish his inward cry of triumph, a thunderous roar erupted.
―JJAANG!

A sharp shattering sound like an iron cauldron exploding burst forth, accompanied by a blinding flash.
As the flash faded like mist dispersing into the sky, bright-red chunks of flesh rained down.
―Hoodoodoodook!

The front-line members of the Special Blood Unit had been brutally slaughtered.
The commander was indeed shocked by the Cave Daoist’s explosive manifestation of Sword Qi and dazzling martial form.
The trajectory of the Cave Daoist’s sword was imperceptible to the eye. The white flash that seemed to consume the world defied comprehension.

‘Even so, the outcome won’t change.’
The sacrifice of the front line had opened an opportunity for the second line to strike.
Unable to retrieve his sword in time, the Cave Daoist’s body was already being touched—imperceptibly—by five approaching blades.
―Shuaaah!

The trails drawn in the air by the five blades had yet to fully vanish.
‘We did it!’
Yet even then, the Special Blood Unit Commander did not lower his guard.

He had to deliver the final stroke—to sever the man’s head—for the Ultimate Annihilation Combined Assault Formation to be complete.
Watching the five blades carve through the man’s form, the commander executed his body-flicker technique, Bowstring Shadow Flash.
―Shiiik!

Like an arrow loosed from a bow, the commander shot forward, following a path rehearsed countless times, and swung mercilessly at the Cave Daoist’s neck.
―Shuaaat!
A burst of frost-like Sword Qi surged toward the Cave Daoist’s throat.

―Shugak!
He slashed.
‘What…?’

He had clearly struck, yet felt no resistance.
It was as if he had sliced through an illusion.
“Body-Double Phantom?”

Only then did he realize—the instant he had aimed for the man’s neck, the figure had gone pale and indistinct.
He had simply been too fast to see the real form.
‘Then where…?’
Seeing the five remaining members shift their gazes upward, the Special Blood Unit Commander hastily lifted his head.

The Cave Daoist was descending from the sky.
‘He rose straight up into the air with the stance of a lone crane soaring to the heavens? How is that even possible? There was no preparatory movement at all…’
And then, the Cave Daoist vanished.

What remained was a massive sword that filled the heavens and came crashing down.
―PAAANG!
The upper bodies of the five remaining members, who could do nothing but stare blankly, were swept away by the storm of blades.

Only the commander managed to raise his sword and barely block it. But the iron blade shattered like glass—no, it crumbled into dust.
―Papapapak!
His sword disintegrated completely, and then his hand burst apart. His wrist, his shoulder followed in turn—only then did he feel pain.

But the pain lasted only a moment.
For his torso crumbled next.
The upper body of the Special Blood Unit Commander vanished without a trace. Only then did his lower half collapse, spurting blood.

―Tuk!
The commander and his men had been reduced to unrecognizable chunks of flesh, scattered in all directions.
Sacheolseung, head of the Heukcheon Faction, was so paralyzed he couldn’t even move.

His mind screamed at him to run.
But the extremity of fear had frozen his entire body.
As he saw the Cave Daoist approach, like a ghost rising from the earth, he knew—

The Heukcheon Faction would be annihilated today.
He had already been sentenced to death by that man—there was no point begging for mercy. He only hoped to escape this terror quickly.
And that wish came true.

For his head soon flew into the air.
―Thwoong!
Sacheolseung’s head rolled across the courtyard.

Kwak Yeon turned and looked at the scribe trembling in a corner of the courtyard, pale as death.
The scribe had wet himself with yellow urine.
“You the chief registrar?”

The scribe collapsed weakly.
“Yes… Please, just spare my life…”
Seeing no trace of martial arts training in the scribe, Kwak Yeon said,

“As chief registrar, you’re good at cleanup, aren’t you? I mean the victims, and the degrees of involvement.”
Life returned to the registrar’s eyes. Of course he understood what Kwak Yeon meant.
“Of course. I’ll make sure not a single detail is out of place, just as you direct, honored hero.”

The chief registrar was ready to do anything to survive. The man standing before him was death itself.
“I’ll hear whether you’ve done so from the Hao Clan. If you make me come back, you will pay the price for all your past transgressions.”
The registrar, now ghost-white, bowed his head repeatedly.

“You’ll never hear a word of complaint about me, honored hero!”
It was clear the eyes and ears of the Hao Clan, which thrived on gathering all the world’s intelligence, would soon turn to the destruction of the Heukcheon Faction.
Even the slightest misstep would reach them.

More than anything, there was no way to flee or hide from their attention—not for someone like him.
The registrar never wanted to see this harbinger of death again. And now he knew—this specter honored his promises without fail.
“I will live in repentance for my sins.”

Kwak Yeon, well aware that the human heart could change in an instant, paid no special mind to the man’s final pledge.
If the registrar kept his word and escaped Heaven’s net, that would be fine.
All that mattered now was that the man, steeped in terror, would do his utmost to clean up.

He wanted to prevent another massacre over unclaimed wealth left behind.
Kwak Yeon stripped the silk outer robe from the Heukcheon Faction Leader’s body and used his bloodstained sword tip to write four characters.
Grudge of Wudang.

“Hang this, along with his severed head, on the front gate.”
The registrar nodded madly.
“Yes, yes, I will.”

When he lifted his head again, the Cave Daoist was gone.
The faction members had all been crippled. The faction leader was dead.
The sudden eradication of the Heukcheon Faction, once a power in Jeongyang’s underworld and a part of the Cult of the Evil Way.

The grudge of Wudang!
The registrar stared at the severed head of Sacheolseung, eyes wide even in death, lying beside the robe that bore the four characters.
Faction leader… In the end, it was your greed that ruined us. You should’ve known your place—and never touched the Wudang Sect.

 
****
Danmok Clan’s Third Chief Registrar, Jinheung, was soaked in cold sweat as he approached.

They say the anger of someone who rarely shows it is the most terrifying.
But what of someone who has never once shown anger in their entire life?
Third Chief Registrar Jinheung confessed everything before the furious Danmok Inryong.

There was no longer any reason to hide it.
The matter was already ruined, and the Young Clan Lord had been beaten to a pulp in the process.
That alone was already hard to endure—but now the most senior elder of the clan was interrogating him, his gaze carrying the weight of full knowledge.

How did he find out?
In this situation, wondering such things was a luxury.
Truthfully, Third Chief Registrar Jinheung had opposed Young Clan Lord Danmok Cheong’s dealings with the Hao Clan’s Seo Myeonhori from the start. But the Young Lord’s stubbornness was too extreme to stop.

As the clan head’s only child, the Young Lord had been raised with the utmost care. The result was a man arrogant and high-handed, accustomed to getting his way through sheer force of will.
The entire Danmok Clan tiptoed around the Young Lord. So would a humble Third Chief Registrar’s warnings ever reach his ears?
“Chief Registrar Jin, you are not a military officer, but a registrar. Do only what I tell you, and stay in your place.”

So spoke Grand Elder Danmok Seong in a heavy voice after hearing the full story from Third Chief Registrar Jinheung.
“In other words,” he said, “the Young Lord of the great Danmok Clan acted as a broker to scrape up petty cash through backdoor dealings.”
Third Chief Registrar Jinheung was left speechless by the elder’s bluntness.

“Grand Elder, with all due respect, he is the Young Clan Lord of our house. That might not be the most appropriate way to describe it.”
The moment he said it, he realized his mistake.
He had just contradicted the Grand Elder’s words.

That he’d blurted it out in defense of the Young Lord showed that some reluctant affection must have taken root.
In any case, he braced himself for the elder’s furious rebuke.
But instead—

“You’re right.”
“Ah…”
“On second thought, my words were too gentle. You’re telling me he tarnished someone else’s reputation, then used it as leverage to beg for that petty Hwayeong Assembly chairmanship. Is that not so?”

“Uh…?”
“A mangy mutt licking shit-stained asses waiting for scraps.”
Jinheung was aghast.

He could hardly believe such words had come from Danmok Inryong’s mouth. Especially when they referred to the grandnephew he’d so dearly cherished.
Only now did Jinheung grasp the depth of the Grand Elder’s fury.
The man had snapped—completely, and beyond repair.

“To think the Cave Daoist of Mount Wudang stopped where he did—that was an ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) act of mercy!”
Danmok Seong let out a sigh as he recalled the face of his grandnephew, now bloated and blackened like a festering abscess.
And with that, a rage he could no longer suppress surged within him.

Children learn from watching their parents. And so a child’s faults ultimately stem from their upbringing.
As the Grand Elder Danmok Seong suddenly sprang to his feet, Third Chief Registrar Jinheung flinched in alarm.
“Grand Elder, the fault lies with me for having failed to guide the Young Lord properly. Please, forgive me. I will resign from my post as registrar immediately.”

He no longer had any attachment to the position. Though the title was Third Chief Registrar, in truth he had become little more than the Young Lord’s errand boy.
“…?”
Receiving no reply, Jinheung cautiously lifted his head—only to see that the Grand Elder had already walked far ahead.

That direction… the garden? Why would he… Ah!
Third Chief Registrar Jinheung assumed the Grand Elder had gone to cool his rage with a walk through the garden.