The base of the Heavens-Reach Mountains had become a sea of rags, rusted iron, and desperate eyes. While the Murim Alliance mobilized its million-man "Silver Vow" army, another kind of mobilization was occurring in the shadows of the Western peaks. Thousands of "3rd Rate" warriors, nameless orphans, and "unorthodox" practitioners—men and women who had been discarded by the Great Families as "martial trash"—had traveled through the Anhui wilderness to answer the Sovereign's Decree.
Among them stood Hyuk Musang. Once a servant for a minor branch of the Hebei-Peng family, he had been beaten and expelled for "stealing" a glance at a foundational manual. In the eyes of the Alliance, Musang was a non-entity, a commoner whose Dantian was too small to ever house more than a flicker of Ki.
"They say the Yun don't care about your surname," a scarred man whispered beside Musang. He was a former "Flower-Rank" spy of the Hao Clan who had been blinded in one eye by a Namgung master for a perceived insult. "They say if you have a heart, they'll give you the Heavens."
"The Heavens are a long way from the dirt, old man," Musang replied, clutching the handle of a chipped, nameless blade.
Suddenly, the heavy mountain mist parted.
It did not drift away with the wind; it dissolved in a perfect, geometric circle. Standing at the threshold of the valley was Yun Baek-Ho. He did not look like a conqueror. He wore the same simple white linen, looking more like a traveling scholar than the man who had crushed the Namgung heir. Beside him stood Elder Renge, her Wudang-style robes stripped of their sectarian insignias.
"Listen well," Baek-Ho's voice rang out, utilizing the Eternal Sound-Transmission stage of the Nature Realm. Every person in the valley felt the words vibrate in their very bones. "The Murim Alliance calls you trash. They say the Dao is a secret inheritance, a treasure to be hoarded by those born with silver spoons. They have spent five centuries building a wall of bloodlines to keep you in the dark."
The valley went silent.
"The Yun Clan does not recognize walls," Baek-Ho continued. "We do not care if your father was a beggar or if your mother was a tavern maid. We care only for your Martial Spirit. If you seek to be a pawn of a family, go East and join the Silver Vow. But if you seek to be a pillar of the Heavens, step forward."
Hyuk Musang was the first to move. He didn't run; he walked with the steady, measured pace of a man who had already died once and had nothing left to fear. As he crossed the threshold into the Yun territory, he felt the air change. The atmospheric Ki didn't just surround him; it seemed to greet him.
The Universal Core Synchronization
"You have no Dantian storage," Elder Renge said, looking at Musang with eyes that saw through his physical form. "The Hebei-Peng elders told you that you could never reach the Peak. They were right... by their laws."
She placed a hand on Musang's chest. "But the Yun do not use Dantians as jars. We use the body as a flute. We do not store the wind; we let it play through us."
This was the introduction of the Universal Core Synchronization. While traditional 3rd-rate trainees spent decades performing tedious breathing exercises to accumulate a drop of energy, the Yun disciples taught the "Forsaken" how to synchronize their internal rhythm with the world's frequency.
Under the guidance of the Yun elders, the "trash" warriors began the Pure Heaven Ki purification. They weren't taught complex sword forms or secret arts first. They were taught how to "empty the core," a phenomenon that allowed the world's energy to flow through their meridians without resistance.
In a single night of meditation, Hyuk Musang felt his internal stagnation break. The "small Dantian" the Peng masters had laughed at didn't grow; it vanished, replaced by a "Resonance Void" that allowed him to tap into the infinite atmospheric Ki.
The Birth of the Shadow Division
By the time the moon reached its zenith, the thousands of outcasts were no longer a disorganized mob. They were the foundation of the Shadow Division—the Unorthodox wing of the emerging Murim Federation.
They were warriors who knew the dark corners of the Central Plains better than any Namgung lord. They were the beggars, the spies, and the broken swordsmen who now held the power to strike back at the "Justice" that had oppressed them.
"You are no longer the forsaken," Baek-Ho said, looking over the transformed ranks. "You are the first seeds of the Murim Federation. When the Silver Vow arrives, show them the strength of those who have nothing to lose but their chains."
Hyuk Musang looked at his chipped blade. It no longer felt heavy. It hummed with a faint, golden light—the first manifestation of Sword Qi achieved in a fraction of the time any "Orthodox" genius could claim.
The Yun Clan had not just recruited an army; they had weaponized the very system of oppression the Alliance had built. The war was no longer just about territory; it was a revolution of the spirit.