401.This time, we have to kill Zhu Yuanzhang.
"I'll stay only a few more days, then go down."
Song Yi-sul shook his head.
"No. Nothing has happened yet. You can stay longer."
"No. They're coming."
"…What did you say?"
"Tell them to send more Sahuseon (伺候船)."
"The ships aren't large."
"Which is why they'll disguise them as ordinary boats, but they'll be coming."
Sahuseon (伺候船): a small unarmed auxiliary craft attached to warships or armed vessels, used for reconnaissance and watchkeeping. Among combat vessels it is the smallest class, fast and nimble.
Song Yi-sul's gaze narrowed.
"Our side's preparations won't be simple either."
"We're gathering ships, and we're building new ones."
Park Seong-jin cut in low.
"This time, we have to kill Zhu Yuanzhang."
"Of course."
When the first news arrived, what spread from Park Seong-jin's hermitage was no more than,
"He had an awakening."
But as the words rolled down the mountain, they revealed another face.
"They say the color of the sky split."
"They say a golden shimmer hovered above the hermitage."
"They say qi burst, and even the grass bowed."
Those strange words finally reached deep into Jin Yuliang's main camp.
A courier, breathless, delivered his report.
"My lord… no— General."
"They say Captain Park Seong-jin has entered Hwagyeong."
The entire headquarters fell silent for an instant.
Jin Yuliang—his youthful face—slowly broke into a smile.
The corners of his mouth lifted, and his eyes lit up.
He sprang to his feet and slammed the table.
"Good!"
That single word shook the whole tent.
As the strategists looked to one another, Jin Yuliang continued, speaking fast.
"Heaven is giving us a chance!"
"If it's Hwagyeong—if it's to that extent!"
"This war is already mine!"
He strode roughly back and forth inside the command tent.
A pleased smile spread across his face, and within it was a dangerous exhilaration.
Yun Dam watched Jin Yuliang in silence.
This man could collapse.
A fine crack formed among the staff.
Some sighed inwardly.
Hwagyeong is a single person's realm.
It does not mean victory for an entire army.
Some swallowed thoughts they could not speak aloud.
At this rate, they might try to use that boy as nothing but a weapon.
And a few felt fear.
That smile was not the joy of victory.
It was a perilous hope.
Behind it comes an even greater collapse.
Yet no one opened their mouth.
Jin Yuliang had already stepped into certainty.
With long strides he stopped before his strategists.
"This war— we will never lose."
The words did not sound like an order.
They rang like a declaration.
"Park Seong-jin entering Hwagyeong is Heaven's will."
"It means we must go to the end."
Yun Dam spoke carefully.
"My lord. It's true that the presence of a Hwagyeong-class warrior on the battlefield can greatly shake the balance—"
Jin Yuliang waved his hand.
"Yun Dam. You don't know how many defeats and crises I've endured."
He looked up at the tent roof and spoke low.
"Now even Heaven follows my will."
His expression called to mind an emperor of a new dynasty.
The young commanders and warriors grew excited.
"Hwagyeong? The war is over! The Ming army will crumble!"
"Park Seong-jin opening that gate means our lord has touched the Mandate of Heaven!"
The simpler officers accepted Jin Yuliang's rapture as it was.
But the old veterans—those who saw reality—traded words only with their eyes.
The Mandate of Heaven is not decided by a single warrior's realm.
Myths like this blur judgment.
It is dangerous.
Yet even they did not speak it aloud.
When night came, Yun Dam remained alone, handling brush and ink as he recalled the day's scene.
"Hwagyeong is a sign."
"It is not a seal that guarantees victory."
He spoke in a low voice.
"The moment our lord believes himself the owner of the Mandate, ruin begins."
But he also knew another fact.
"If Park Seong-jin has entered Hwagyeong, one army can hold."
"Until the final great turning."
For a brief moment, Yun Dam's eyes glinted.
The stir of a new Mandate (天命).
The point where history begins to twist.
A current that hinted at the great battle of Paryang Lake and the fall of Zhu Yuanzhang.
The grain of nature changed,
and qi began to flow northward.
Song Yi-sul sat beside Park Seong-jin and examined his qi.
He kept his eyes closed far longer than usual.
What had changed was not awakening alone.
Song Yi-sul slowly opened his eyes and said quietly.
"Seong-jin. The qi of this mountain is different."
"How is it different?"
Song Yi-sul answered low.
"Look. The water-qi of Paryang Lake originally drains south. But now—
it is pouring from north to south. The flow has reversed."
Park Seong-jin's gaze wavered.
"The currents of Heaven and Earth settle themselves.
Right now, that place is moving."
It was an implication.
The great river of history was changing direction.
Park Seong-jin smiled faintly.
He did not need it explained in words.
He was already seeing it.
That night, Yun Dam met Jin Yuliang in private.
After long observing the heavens and the lay of mountains and rivers, he spoke in a low voice.
"My lord. The Mandate is moving."
At the word Mandate, Jin Yuliang's brow furrowed.
Heaven is never on one side alone.
"Toward where."
Yun Dam did not answer at once.
Even speaking felt as though it might disturb the workings of Heaven (天機).
"By what should have been, Zhu Yuanzhang had the momentum to rule Jiangnan for thirty years. But—"
Jin Yuliang swallowed.
He raised a hand and flipped the map upside down.
When east and west swapped places, the grain of the world looked different.
"The Mandate is running upstream (逆流)."
"That means—"
"It means the victor changes."
Jin Yuliang's chest sank deep.
Yun Dam added.
"The cause that set this current in motion is Captain Park Seong-jin."
Yun Dam unfolded once more the natal chart he had calculated long ago for Zhu Yuanzhang.
"Zhu Yuanzhang's chart was originally a flow that continues life."
Jin Yuliang spoke low.
"Of course. He, too, is a hero."
Yun Dam shook his head.
"That flow… is being cut, now."
"Why."
Yun Dam said it decisively.
"Heaven chooses the one who truly knows Mu (無)."
Then he added.
"Zhu Yuanzhang's death will be decided by martial force.
Not by armies or numbers—
but by one warrior."
Jin Yuliang's hand trembled.
Only one name rose in his mind.
Park Seong-jin.
The fighters of the Warrior Unit took turns each night patrolling near the hermitage.
One day, a fighter opened his eyes wide and said,
"…Captain Park Seong-jin's shadow looked like two."
"Two?"
"One was the human shadow we know."
"And the other—"
The words spread like rumor.