The inn was quiet as Blue sat on the edge of his bed following his humiliating defeat. Gaze locked to the window where moonlight streamed through faded curtains. His hands rested open, callused palms twitching faintly with memory. What Blue didn't know, however, was that he wasn't truly alone.
Across the street, hidden atop the tiled roof of a tea shop, two shadows sat in silence.Elder Wu Cheng, robes still, hands folded. Tang Yeol beside him, arms crossed, eyes fixed on the window where the light flickered faintly from Blue's room."He's not the same as the boy from the bar," Wu Cheng murmured. Yeol's voice was low. "No. The weight's crushing him. He hasn't even begun to stand yet." They exchanged a glance...one not of pity, but quiet resolve. "Not yet," Wu Cheng said. "Let him crumble... for now."
So-Yeon...Commander of the Crimson Veil Corp. Matriarch of the Tang Clan. Alive. Standing on that platform like a ghost clothed in armor. The image was carved into him for now...the purple eyes, the weight of her words, and the cold dismissal burned more than My Gyeol's blade ever could. She hadn't seen him. Not truly. Not as Jiung. And the system...the system that damned blessed thing. He clenched his fists.
[SuppressionSuccessful. Tang Identity Protected.]
[You did the right thing.]
Had he? Was protecting his identity worth her eyes passing over him like he was no more than dust in the wind? His fingers trembled. He hadn't noticed how long he sat there until morning light crept across the floorboards. Outside, the world moved on. Inside Blue could barely breathe. Memories of their childhood trickled through him, each one a blade. Her hand clutching his when she was scared. Her pride the first day she learned her first form. And now...that same little girl stood beyond his reach, not even recognizing the brother who had died for her.
The streets were awake by the time he wandered outside, hood up, eyes lowered. He wasn't sure where he was going until he smelled roasted meat and heard laughter spilling from a bar he hadn't visited before.
Inside, martial artists were deep in their cups. One man at the center table bragged loudly to his friends while a faint shimmer of spirit energy flickered from a floating wolf shaped creature at his side. "That's right." the man slurred, "Tamed it myself in Thalorin. Spirit beasts there don't bow easy."
Blue froze mid-step. The name clawed something open in his mind.
Thalorin...Eve...Earth.
Blue stepped toward the table, both palms aggressively placed down, face inches away from that mans face. "Thalorin, you said?"
The man blinked, side eyed his buddies, "Yeah, what about it?"
"A girl," Blue said, voice low. "Purple hair. Eyes like dusk. From another world. Have you seen anyone like that in Thalorin?" You could cut the tension in the air with a butter knife.
The drunkard squinted. "Huh, I did hear that the High Druid of the Western grove took in a beauty with purple hair, that was over a year ago. She was a bit older than a kid, real quiet type. Heard she could speak to the forest."
Blue closed his eyes for a breath, turned away from the mans table and took a seat at the bar. Relief, sharp and overwhelming, cracked through the fog in his chest.
"She's okay," he whispered. "I miss you, Eve. I sure could use you by my side right about now."
He drank...too much in fact. Until the warmth in his gut dulled the ache in his head. The laughter faded behind the ringing in his ears. His body moved without him, legs carrying him through the streets as his thoughts blurred into one shape...So-Yeon's face. Eve's eyes. His siblings.
Blue stumbled through the city the rest of the day, only stopping for food and a drink to maintain his buzz. Before he knew it dusk had appeared. As Blue continued to stumble throughout Chengdu, right as darkness fell he had reached it. His childhood home. His thoughts, emotions, emptiness had led him here. That home though, was gone, overtaken by wind and weeds. No foundation remained, only earth flattened by time and neglect.
He stepped into the middle, eyes searching for something that wasn't there. His legs folded beneath him and he began practicing his forms. Slow. Measured. His body wouldn't follow along.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: Tang family techniques: LOCKED]
Damn it! Blue yelled. He sat in the lotus position this time. Just as his grandfather had taught. This was different, there was no peace inside Blue. No tranquility only pain, and this fucking system.
[Tang Lineage Detected. Poison Qi Flow: Interrupted]
[Current Status: Suppressed — For Host Safety]
His shoulders twitched. He grit his teeth and tried again. Again, the qi inside him pushed and twisted...but went nowhere. Like a storm bottled with no sky to escape into.
"Let me feel it!" he growled.
[Request Denied.]
He slammed his fist into the dirt. Then both hands. His breath turned ragged, tears mixing with sweat. "You took it from me. Everything Grandfather gave me...gone."
He forced himself upright but fell forward again...on all fours...fingers clawing at the earth. The scream that ripped out of him wasn't rage. It was mourning. It was everything he had buried. It was a scream so primal, it caused the birds to fly away, the leaves to shake. and even left two of Murim's strongest...stunned.
On the treetops, Yeol flinched. Wu Cheng slowly lowered his pipe. Wu Cheng looked over "That scream...it wasn't just grief. That sounded like someone who lost everything." Yeol's jaw tightened. "And maybe he has." They stood there for awhile in silence, the weight of the moment they just witnessed still heavy in the air.
The next morning, Blue walked as if sleep hadn't touched him in days. His body moved, but it was instinct, not direction. The streets blurred by. The sun rose unnoticed. Eventually, his steps took him to the graveyard on the outskirts. Overgrown and quiet. It was instinct. Memory. A pull only the heart could obey. He stopped before three stone markers.
Tang Yoryeon. Tang Jinhu. Tang Mira.
His grandfather. His father. His Mother.
The wind whispered through the reeds. Blue dropped to his knees. "I failed you. I couldn't protect them. I don't know where my other siblings are. So-Yeon didn't recognize me"
"If you are listening, if you can hear me. Guide me please." Blues voice cracked filled with regret and sorrow.
He sat in silence, head bowed, letting the weight of everything wash over him. Unaware of any presence behind him.
Wu Cheng and Tang Yeol stood about 100 meters away, both looking at each other and giving a nod of acceptance. Wu Cheng whispered "Now, he needs you now." Yeol acknowledge with a simple bow of his head.
Tang Yeol approached Blue, placed his hand on his shoulder. Blue felt it, nothing with intent to harm, rather warmth.
"Jiung?" A voice asked gently.
That name. He hadn't heard it in over twenty years. He turned slowly. Behind him stood a man with gray hair and tear-filled eyes, draped in purple robes trimmed in black.
Blue blinked and rubbed his eyes as he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Unc...Uncle..?"
Tang Yeol exhaled, emotion catching his throat. "It is you. You really are Jiung."
Blue's voice cracked. "But how...how did you know."
"The bar," Yeol said quietly. "When you dropped that bandit, I felt it, that poisonous qi is unmistakable...only the direct bloodline can learn the technique to wield that qi. We followed you after that. We heard you whisper grandfather Yoryeon's name in your room…And So-Yeon."
Wu Cheng stepped forward, folding his arms. "I arranged your fight against Mu Gyeol."
Blues eyes narrowed. "You set that up? Why would you put me through that embarrassment?"
Wu Cheng smirked. "Because, the man we saw in the bar could've handled Mu Gyeol easily. Care to explain what happened during that spar?"
Blue hesitated. Then:"the system…"
The two elders looked at each other in sharp recognition
"That damned system, it blocked my qi. Suppressed it. Everything Grandfather taught me...sealed. It didn't ask. It just decided for me."
Yeol's eyes darkened with understanding. "So that's what that scream was last night then huh?"
Blue looked at his uncle, eyes wider than ever before. "You...you saw that?"
Wu cheng nodded slowly. "Every second."
Blue bit down on his bottom lip. "At my weakest...and you still did nothing...said nothing."
Yeol knelt down beside him. "It was never weakness, Jiung. It was pain. We had to know if you could carry it." Blue looked down voice brittle. "I saw her. So-yeon. On that stage...strong, commanding. She didn't even flinch."
"Ahh, yes." Yeol smiled sadly. "So-Yeon. Let me tell you everything, my nephew. Come. Sit."
Blue sat back on his heels, listening.
"The day the gates opened I was out, inspecting the fields. The first thing I did was rush to your house. By the time I had got there...You...You were gone. So-Yeon was kneeling beside your body, sobbing, screaming your name over and over, begging for you to get up. Instinct kicked in, my only thought was to get her to safety. When we got back to the shattered Tang pavilion, I finally asked where the other siblings were."
Yeol's expression turned solemn. "She told me she had hid your siblings under the floorboards. I rushed back...but there was nothing. The bodies were gone. I thought they had been taken or worse."
He looked to the horizon, as if seeing ghosts in the mist. "But traces of them began to surface. Sightings. Names whispered in odd places. One by one I found them. All alive. All changed, for better or worse."
He turned back to blue.
"Your oldest brother Kwan… he joined the Namgumg corps. Fighting at the frontier. He is said to be a fearsome warrior capable of clearing some gates on his own."
"Ryul, he became an elite guard for Wudang. He's compassionate, yet stern. Serves at the forefront to protect all of Wudang's interests."
Yeol took a deep breath in, and a long slow breath out. "Your younest brother Haejin. I caught up with him once. He was so overcome with grief, he took refuge among the Demon Cult. They call him the Pale Flame."
Blue heart crumbles. His youngest had fallen to the Demon Cult. "Haejin...the youngest. The most gentle of them all..." "Wha...What about Seori?"
"Ah..Seori." Yeol's expression brightened. "She is the junior advisor at the martial alliance. Just under the head Advisor to the Alliance leader. She has a brilliant mind, the youngest advisor to ever work for any alliance in Murim. You should be proud."
Blue's breath left him all at once. "They're all alive…"
Yeol nodded. "Stronger now. In their own way. And So-Yeon...she bears the weight of all of it on her shoulders."
Yeol exhaled slowly, eyes lingering on the grave markers as if asking them for permission to continue. "So-Yeon… she's carried everything since that day. She rose from grief and was named the youngest general in Murim. Now she leads the Crimson Veil Corps and governs the Tang Clan. But the weight on her shoulders? It's heavier than anyone knows."
He turned toward Blue, voice grim. "The demon cult, the orthodox sects, even those within the alliance...are waiting. Smiling to her face while baring their teeth behind her back. Waiting for a single crack in her armor, a single misstep… and they'll devour everything the Tang Clan still holds."
Blue clenched his fists, trembling again, but this time with fury.
Wu Cheng stepped forward, arms still folded but his voice sharpened. "It's almost like there's something deeper...an invisible force pulling at all the threads behind the scenes. The world shifted too suddenly. The way these gates appeared, the unity, the timing…"
He looked down at Blue, his expression unreadable. "Maybe the system did you a favor, kid. That qi of yours... everyone would've recognized it. You wouldn't be doing yourself or So-Yeon any favors by being seen for what you really are."
Blue's brows furrowed. "So what? Just hide?"
"No," Wu Cheng replied calmly. "Build. Reclaim what's lost. Stand beside your sister not as a shadow, not as a burden... but as the foundation she can lean on when the wolves close in."
Yeol and Wu Cheng exchanged a brief glance. A silent understanding passed between them—an agreement previously made. Yeol spoke next. "Wu Cheng's son commands a corps within the alliance. The Silent Edge. They work in the shadows, completing missions behind closed doors, away from prying eyes. It's the perfect place to train, to grow stronger, and to hide your secrets."
"No one but the three of us and his son will know who you are," Yeol assured him. "To the world, you'll just be Blue." Wu Cheng's expression lightened for the first time. "And don't think this is a handout because you're this old dog's nephew." He smirked, voice gruff but almost teasing. "My son is trustworthy and ruthless. He doesn't waste time on those who don't deserve it."
He turned more serious. "You'll bleed. You'll suffer. But you'll grow. If you want to stand beside So-Yeon again... this is your first step."
Blue looked between the two of them. The graves. The sky. Then back at the path before him. His lips parted slowly.
"Then I'll do it."
"Good boy. Told you old man your nephew isn't as dumb as he looks." Wu Cheng laughed out loud as he grabbed his stomach. Yeol reached over and gave him a smack on the head. "I never said he's dumb!" "Shall we head out then?" Wu Cheng chuckled.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
The sun was dipping low by the time Blue reached the edge of the compound.
The Silent Edge wasn't marked by grand banners or ceremonial arches. It was tucked into the side of the Martial Alliance's northern mountain wall, framed by pine and shadow. The entrance was a narrow stone path lined with dull lanterns, their glow faint and steady.
Wu Cheng led him to the threshold but stopped short. "From here, you walk alone."
Blue gave a respectful nod, then turned toward the entrance. Just before he passed beneath the wooden arch, he caught movement ahead—a figure leaning against the gate post. A tall man with arms crossed, sword sheathed across his back. His gaze was sharp as a drawn blade, cutting through Blue with a single glance.
"You're the stray the old man sent me?" the man asked, voice low and unimpressed.
Blue didn't reply.
Wu Jin pushed off the post and walked forward until they stood eye to eye. His tone remained flat. "You look weak. And I don't train the weak unless they crawl through every inch of hell to change that."
Still, Blue said nothing.
"Hope you're ready to bleed, beggar."
Blue's eyes never left his. "I'm ready."
Wu Jin raised a brow, grunted, then stepped aside. "Then get in line."
Blue stepped forward. And as he passed under the final archway, into the stone courtyard of the Silent Edge, he whispered...not to anyone around him, but to the wind… to himself… and maybe, to his grandfather.
"I'll pick it all back up… when I'm strong enough to hold onto it."