The reputation of Namgung Jin—a man so obsessed with martial arts that he treated women as if they were nothing—was something Myeong Heo had heard of often.
Curious about the woman who had managed to stir the heart of such a stone-cold man, Myeong Heo had asked his close friend, Hong Si-yeong, the Beggar Sect Leader, to look into her identity. He had made the request privately, not wanting to alert the disciples of the Wudang Sect.
That was how he had come to learn her identity and the events that had transpired at the Namgung Clan.
The woman, surprisingly, possessed healing abilities akin to those of the Golden Divine Healer from fifty years ago. It was said she had treated the warriors who had been struck down by the madmen of the Demonic Cult who had suddenly invaded the Namgung Clan.
The fact that madmen had infiltrated the Namgung Clan was highly significant. While he had known the Demonic Cult was slowly stirring, they had never before acted so brazenly in broad daylight.
Yet, Namgung Seonyul had handled the matter quietly. While he had surely informed the Murim Alliance, Myeong Heo had heard no rumors circulating regarding the Namgung Clan.
‘It seems he wants to keep it quiet because it involves someone from his own clan.’
Myeong Heo even knew that Namgung Hyuk, the younger brother of Namgung Seonyul, had become a madman after colluding with the Demonic Cult and periodically consuming Blood-Raising Elixirs. These were all facts the Beggar Sect Leader had provided.
As his thoughts reached that point, Myeong Heo’s complexion rapidly soured.
He turned his body, which had been standing as if frozen.
One step. He had only walked with the lightest of movements, yet Myeong Heo’s body had already reached the front of the Golden Hall located on Heavenly Pillar Peak.
That astonishing movement was something no one else could hope to emulate.
Myeong Heo opened the door to the Golden Hall slightly and stepped inside.
In the innermost part of the Golden Hall existed a secret room that only the Sect Leader could enter. Myeong Heo quietly stepped into the room, which he had protected with a barrier.
Because of that barrier, the room itself was invisible to the eyes of others. To them, it appeared as nothing more than a wall.
Before long, Myeong Heo’s silent footsteps came to a halt. He stood before a bed draped in pitch-black curtains.
As he pulled back the curtains, a figure lying on the bed was revealed.
It was a man who looked quite young.
The man lay without a single movement, his limbs turned pitch-black, making him appear like a corpse. However, his chest rose and fell repeatedly, as if he were a bellows.
The man was alive.
At least, for now.
But his breathing was so faint that it seemed it might cease at any moment.
Myeong Heo carefully took hold of the man’s hand, which felt like a withered tree branch. There was no warmth of a living person in that hand.
“Myeong-ah….”
The man’s name was Myeong.
He was a second-generation disciple of the Wudang Sect and a child Myeong Heo had cherished above all others. He had even personally bestowed his Taoist name upon him.
Myeong—meaning "no sound"—was taken from the idiom "neither flying nor singing," implying one who waits for the right time to accomplish a great task.
True to his name, Myeong was a remarkably virtuous child who was usually reticent and unassuming, yet always shone brightly when the situation demanded it.
A child who knew when to wait and when to step forward.
Possessing a keen eye, Myeong Heo had believed he was the very timber to lead the Wudang Sect after him.
But five years ago, Myeong had been kidnapped by Demonic Cultists. It had happened while he was descending Mount Wudang to tour Hubei.
Of course, Myeong was not so inept as to be easily kidnapped by the Demonic Cult.
However, it was said that they had held the lives of young children and bystanders nearby as hostages, forcing Myeong into helplessness.
As soon as Myeong Heo heard the news, he descended Mount Wudang to search for Myeong.
But the cunning Demonic Cultists led Myeong Heo on a wild goose chase for three years.
It was only after three years that Myeong Heo managed to locate one of the four Demonic Pavilions, and absurdly, that pavilion was located in Hubei.
In Hubei, where the Wudang Sect resided!
Was this what they meant by "it is darkest under the lamp"?
While lamenting his past self for failing to properly inspect Hubei, which lay right beneath his feet, Myeong Heo was also filled with rage toward the wicked Demonic Cult.
Yet, regardless of his regrets, he did not hesitate in his vengeance against the Cult.
Myeong Heo led all the masters of Wudang to annihilate the First Demonic Pavilion located in Hubei.
Myeong Heo had personally severed the head of the wicked Pavilion Master.
Under Myeong Heo’s overwhelming martial prowess, the Demonic Cultists, and even the First Demonic Pavilion Master himself, had trembled before him.
The Wudang disciples who were present at the scene recounted that Myeong Heo had displayed a martial prowess that day that shocked the heavens and shook the earth.
But Myeong, whom he had searched for so desperately, was nowhere to be found in the First Demonic Pavilion.
All he learned there was that the Rising Talents kidnapped five years ago were being held at the Demonic Cult’s Main Headquarters.
After that, Myeong Heo searched for Myeong and the Main Headquarters of the Demonic Cult once more.
But the Main Headquarters could not be found, no matter what.
Two years had passed since the annihilation of the First Demonic Pavilion.
Myeong Heo had finally come face-to-face with Myeong.
Myeong, who had become a madman.
Myeong Heo shed tears of blood as he looked at the boy, whose eyes were bloodshot and who could not even recognize him.
‘Myeong-ah…. Why can you not recognize me?’
Various memories of Myeong flashed before Myeong Heo’s eyes.
Myeong, who had followed him better than any other Taoist since he was a child thief. Myeong, who had loved whatever he did. The many moments when he had personally taught Myeong martial arts.
There were no memories he wished to discard. Myeong was his disciple, and furthermore, a child like a son to him.
In the end, Myeong Heo could not kill Myeong.
Instead, he staged a play to prevent chaos within the sect.
In front of everyone, he pretended to strike down with a powerful fist, making it appear as though Myeong had died.
Myeong Heo took the child and hid him deep within the Golden Hall.
No one, not within Wudang nor in the entire Murim, knew of this.
Not even the Beggar Sect Leader, who was privy to everything happening in the Jianghu, knew.
Myeong Heo had cast a Binding Formation to prevent Myeong from waking up and acting like a madman again.
However, the chances of Myeong, who had been left in tatters by his own attack, ever waking up were extremely low. He was barely clinging to life.
“How am I to return you to your former self?”
Since bringing Myeong here, Myeong Heo had been researching ways to restore a madman.
But it was impossible for him to discover a method that no one had been able to find even when madmen appeared fifty years ago.
Even now, as the greatest master under heaven, he was powerless.
Should he give up on everything like this? Just as he was lost in such deep sorrow—
As if by fate, he heard the talk of the Golden Divine Healer.
‘Could that young lady be able to heal our Myeong?’
The Golden Divine Healer had even cured the madness of Wi Jagang, the Heavenly Demon of fifty years ago.
If she truly possessed the same abilities as that Golden Divine Healer, she might be able to cure Myeong.
There was no harm in trying.
But to do so, he would have to confess the circumstance that he was hiding a disciple suffering from madness.
It was said that Namgung Seonyul had severed his brother Namgung Hyuk’s head without hesitation the moment he showed signs of madness.
If the fact that he was hiding Myeong were to reach the Golden Divine Healer, and furthermore, her companion Namgung Jin, in such a climate….
Namgung Seonyul would surely find out as well, and then the problem would grow beyond repair.
‘A difficult problem indeed.’
But Myeong Heo did not intend to give up.
A solution that might heal Myeong had appeared before him, and he could not overlook it. Even if it meant an irreversible disaster might occur.
“Myeong-ah, I will surely return you to who you were.”
Myeong Heo decided that, for now, he would permit Namgung Jin’s party to enter Wudang.
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