Chapter 1661
Wherever That Is (1)
"S-Sect Leader!"
Heo San-ja's face drained of color as he looked down from the pavilions crowning Heaven's Pillar Peak.
"T-That's…!"
His hand, hidden inside the wide sleeve of his robe, trembled uncontrollably.
Heaven's Pillar Peak was the highest summit of Mount Wudang—the place where the Wudang Sect stood like a fortress above the world. From here, the entire mountain range lay in clear view.
Gray cliffs washed with yellow.
Endless green pines.
White mist curling like breath.
A landscape that had not changed for centuries.
Yet now—
Beneath the evergreen canopy, an alien color pulsed.
Red.
A color Mount Wudang had never worn.
From the forested slopes, black smoke billowed upward like gathering storm clouds. The mountain that had always seemed eternal was being dyed, as if white silk were soaking in blood.
"F-Fire… It's arson!"
The elders beside him went pale.
No one spoke for a moment.
Who would dare set fire to Mount Wudang?
"What—what about the ambush?" someone shouted.
"Isn't it useless now? If everything burns, where do we hide?"
"We must withdraw immediately!"
"If we retreat—!"
The words died unspoken.
If the forest burned away—if the deep valleys, caves, and hidden paths vanished—then Mount Wudang would become nothing more than an ordinary mountain.
For martial artists, an ordinary mountain was no different from flat ground.
Panic spread openly now.
"Sect Leader! Say something! We have to stop it!"
"How? Carry water? Dig firebreaks?"
"We must try something!"
Heo San-ja didn't respond.
His eyes were fixed on the advancing flames.
After a long silence, his voice finally broke through, strained and hoarse.
"How… how could it spread this fast…?"
He hadn't failed to imagine arson entirely.
This was war.
Even among martial artists, fire had always been a weapon.
But this—
This speed, this scale —
It was beyond comprehension.
The fire wasn't advancing like a wave.
It wasn't flowing downhill.
Instead, red points bloomed where there should have been safety—behind lines, along ridges, deep inside forested slopes—until the flames linked together.
A ring of fire.
No gaps.
No escape.
It was as if a massive burning rope were tightening around Mount Wudang.
Heo San-ja felt his chest constrict.
Just like the flames were squeezing Wudang itself.
❀ ❀ ❀
"Burn it! Burn everything!"
A man wielding a massive broadsword roared until his voice cracked.
Men carrying flaming clubs ran frantically, ramming fire into dry trunks, fallen leaves—anything.
"Soak it with oil! If there's nothing left to burn, use your clothes!"
Whoosh!
A dry wind tore through the mountain.
The fire surged violently.
Men recoiled instinctively from the heat.
The broadsword wielder seized one by the collar.
"What are you doing? Why are you backing off? You see that patch? It's not burning yet!"
"T-The wind—!"
"The wind what? Afraid to burn?"
Crack!
The blade punched halfway into the man's back.
"Choose. Burn alive—or die by my sword."
"Eek!"
"Move!"
Terror did the rest.
Men charged into the inferno, coughing, choking, their skin blistering—because the sword behind them was more frightening than the fire ahead.
"Anyone who retreats dies! Burn it all! Leave nothing!"
Across the vast range of Mount Wudang, the same madness unfolded.
Some were swallowed whole by flames.
No one helped them.
Everyone knew that stopping meant death.
Smoke thickened, turning the world gray.
The most horrifying sight was not the fire—
But the people are forcing it forward.
"More! Burn the Taoist bastards alive!"
❀ ❀ ❀
Despair advanced with the flames.
Not crashing.
Not overwhelming.
But appearing where it should not exist.
"Sahyeong! Fire behind us!"
"What?"
Jin Wi turned.
Moments ago, the fire had been far ahead.
Now it was blooming behind them.
"How? It wasn't there—!"
"Retreat! We must retreat!"
"The ambush—!"
"If we stay, we die!"
Jin Wi froze.
He didn't understand.
He had lived in the mountains his entire life—but precisely because of that, he had never experienced a true wildfire.
Sudden ignition.
Shifting winds.
Fire appearing where logic said it shouldn't.
"S-Sahyeong!"
"Retreat! For now—retreat!"
He had no other choice.
Fire was not an enemy a swordsman could fight.
But—
"Move! Get out—!"
As Jin Wi rose from concealment, figures burst through the flames ahead.
War cries drowned the sound of burning wood.
"Fight!"
Jin Wi drew his Pine Crest Sword.
"Sahyeong! The fire—!"
"If we turn our backs, we die! Fight!"
Smoke clogged their lungs. Heat distorted vision.
They were Wudang swordsmen—three against twenty should not have been impossible.
But fear was eroding reason.
"Run!"
"No! We open a path, or we die!"
A blade lunged for Jin Mun's back.
Jin Wi intercepted—
And felt steel pierce his abdomen.
Crack!
"Ugh!"
Enemies emerged from the flames, bodies steaming.
With a final surge, Jin Wi decapitated three of them in a single arc.
"Sahyeong!"
As blades withdrew, he coughed—no blood. His internal energy had saved his organs.
But he was wounded.
'Retreat…'
Then—
More figures burst from the fire.
From every direction.
No front.
No back.
Only enemies.
"Stand your ground!"
But the roar of fire swallowed his voice.
Mount Wudang burned.
And with it, the certainty that this was a battlefield Wudang understood.