“Too stiff,” So-Yeon called over her shoulder. “Flowing Steel isn’t about brute strength. It’s about dancing through death.”
Blue grunted as he landed hard on a crooked branch. “I’m not trying to dance, I’m trying not to die.”
So-Yeon rolled her eyes and leapt forward, her movement effortless. “And that’s why I’m better. I dance through death and make it beg to lead.”
Blue pushed off to catch up, his legs aching from the constant motion. “Pretty sure death would trip over your sarcasm.”
A grin tugged at her lips, but she didn’t respond. Instead, she vaulted high into the canopy, turned mid-air, and landed lightly beside him. She struck his ribs with the back of her hand—light enough not to break anything, sharp enough to make a point.
“Too slow again,” she said, smirking. “If you weren’t my brother, I’d have left you to the wolves.”
“You’re still threatening to stab me most of the time,” he muttered, rubbing his side.
“You still earned that stab,” she replied with no hesitation, but her voice was softer now. “But you’re learning. I see it.”
Blue gave her a sideways glance, catching the rare warmth in her tone. “So… am I allowed to be proud of that, or will that get me stabbed too?”
She laughed—light, almost musical—and for a moment the weight she always carried seemed to lift.
“You get one compliment per week. That was it. Don’t push it.”
They moved again. This time, Blue’s footwork matched hers more cleanly, his balance steadier, his blade more precise when they dropped on a group of lesser beasts below. So-Yeon watched from above, arms crossed.
“You strike like grandfather,” she said quietly when he rejoined her. “Still raw, but… it’s there.”
Blue nodded, chest rising and falling with each breath. “Thanks. Means a lot coming from the Matriarch of Tang.”
She paused, then reached over and flicked his forehead. “You’re still just my idiot older brother. Don't forget that.”
He smiled. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
They moved in unison, dashing along tree branches like wind given form — Flowing Steel at its finest. For two days now, Jiung had kept pace beside her, not as a student struggling to learn, but as a brother keeping up with his sister.
"You’re starting to look like someone who didn’t embarrass himself during the tryouts,” So-Yeon called over her shoulder.
Blue grinned, catching a low branch and vaulting off it. “And you’re starting to sound like someone who believes I’m Jiung.”
She scoffed but didn’t deny it. “Took you long enough to come home, hyung. Don’t expect me to start calling you oppa like those sappy Earth dramas.”
“Thank God,” Blue muttered. “I’d jump off a cliff.”
“Good idea.”
They both laughed... until So-Yeon’s laughter died.
She came to a sharp stop at the edge of a ridge, eyes narrowing. Below them, nestled in a rocky basin surrounded by trees, a red gate pulsed, eerie and wrong. Dozens of goblins were scattered around it, digging, snarling, patrolling like rabid dogs. Two hellhounds prowled near the gate’s edge, their eyes glowing faint orange as if drawn to its energy.
Blue’s breath caught. “That’s a gate?”
So-Yeon didn’t respond right away. Her eyes swept the scene with a veteran’s scrutiny.
“There’s no record of this one,” she murmured. “None of the scouts ever reported seeing it. And yet…”
She clenched her fists. “My team’s scouts were patrolling this sector over a week ago. Then — nothing. No messages. No bodies. Just silence.”
Blue reached for the flare stick tucked in his belt. “We should signal the others. Let Mu Jang and the rest know where we are.”
But So-Yeon’s hand closed around his wrist, stopping him. “No.”
“They’re looking for the scouts too. This will help us regroup.”
“And draw every goblin and hound in a mile’s radius to us.” She let go and pointed at the gate. “If the scouts are inside that thing, we can’t risk alerting the enemy outside or the ones waiting within.”
Blue frowned. “So… what? We just go in? That thing looks like death.”
“You’ve got a system,” she said, stepping forward. “Like the Earth hunters. You said it awakened when you came back, right?”
“Yeah. But I’ve never been in a gate before. I don’t even know how clearing one works.”
“Well,” she said, sliding her blade free. “Brother, today’s your first lesson. Let’s find out if you’ve learned anything in the last two days.”
Blue unsheathed his Jian, the blade humming with borrowed resonance. “We’re seriously going in alone?”
“We’ve been through worse,” So-Yeon smirked. “And you’ve got me.”
He glanced at the monsters below. “...Still feels like the worse part.”
She chuckled. “Try not to die, Jiung.”
“Ladies first.”
They leapt from the cliffside together, shadows flickering between branches and moonlight.
Blue landed first, blade drawn, sliding across a mossy slope and straight into the throat of a goblin. So-Yeon followed a heartbeat later, her twin daggers flashing. She weaved through the horde like smoke on the wind — cutting tendons, snapping joints, disarming them with grace and cruelty alike.
A hellhound lunged at Blue from the side. He ducked under its flaming maw and sent his Jian through its ribcage with a grunt. So-Yeon spun mid-air and kicked off the dying beast’s spine, using the momentum to drive her heel into the skull of a second hound that had pounced from the gate’s edge.
“You’re not bad,” she panted, flicking blood from her blades.
“You’re just finally seeing straight,” Blue muttered, parrying another goblin and snapping its wrist.
“You’re still too stiff with the turns,” she said, slicing her way through two more. “Flow with the terrain, not against it.”
“Bit busy being bitten.”
She laughed — sharp, real, and more alive than she had felt in years. “Then keep up, hyung.”
The remaining monsters scattered under the pressure of their combined assault, but So-Yeon didn’t stop. She pressed forward, never breaking stride, carving a path directly toward the gate’s pulsing red core.
When the last goblin fell with a gurgle, they stood alone before the rippling surface of the portal.
No words passed between them.
Blue took one breath. Then another.
“I hope I don’t puke in there.”
“You probably will,” she replied, wiping her blade clean.
Together, shoulder to shoulder, they stepped through the red gate — into whatever waited beyond.For two days, they’d seen nothing.
No monsters.
No tracks.
No camps.
No trace of the missing Tang scouts.
“Are we sure there was a scout team?” Ilho muttered, kicking at a fallen branch. “There’s not even a footprint.”
Mu Jang halted beside a tree and scanned the thinning brush. “We’ll head east,” he said. “Toward the route you three came from. If they looped around or chased something down, we might catch their trail.”
“It’s been two days,” Ryul added, rubbing the back of his neck. “Not a single message. I’m starting to think she’s holding Blue hostage.”
Jinhu cracked his knuckles with a smirk. “If she is, the Tang Clan’ll need a new matriarch when I’m done with her.”
“Brutes…” Sa Gwan sighed under his breath, but the smile playing on his lips betrayed his fondness for them. “I’m sure they’re fine. But we should look for them. If anything happened to Blue, Wu Jin might kill us before So-Yeon does.”
“Amitabha…” Hanjo murmured solemnly, touching his hands together. “Then let Buddha lead us east.”
The group continued through the forest until the trees gave way to a wide clearing nestled under the shadow of a jagged cliff. The sight that met them made their steps falter.
Dozens of goblins and hellhounds lay dead at the base of a red gate — their bodies torn, slashed, scorched. Blood pooled in the dirt. The portal behind them crackled and shimmered, its crimson glow pulsing like a heartbeat.
Ryul didn’t hesitate. He raised his arm and fired a flare into the sky — a vibrant red trail streaking into the clouds.
“That’ll let the others know we found a gate,” he said.
Jinhu crossed his arms, staring at the carnage. “Well, now we know where those two went.”
Ilho frowned. “But why would they go through that gate? It’s not reported. And what if they’re in danger?”
Ryul stepped forward. “Then we should follow them in.”
Mu Jang shook his head, eyes narrowing as he assessed the battlefield. “No. We don’t know what’s inside. And if they are in trouble, charging in half-blind won’t help anyone. We’d just add to the body count.”
Sa Gwan stepped past them, his face unreadable. “I’ll inform the elders myself. Stay here. Do not enter the gate.”
“But—”
“That’s an order,” he said calmly, silencing Ryul with a glance. “I’ll return by daybreak with Wu Jin, Elder Cheng, and Yeol.”
The wind shifted as he vanished into the trees. The others stood in silence, staring at the crackling red gate, wondering what kind of storm their friends had walked into.
Inside the gate, the world shifted. The moment Blue and So-Yeon stepped through, the air grew thick — damp and heavy, like it clung to their skin. Trees loomed tall and twisted above them, their branches gnarled and suffocating the sky. Mist curled around their ankles, veiling the forest floor in ghostly tendrils. Shadows danced between the trunks.
It was too quiet.
No birds. No wind.
Only the crunch of their feet on dead leaves and the slow beat of their breathing.
“I don’t like this,” Blue muttered, glancing over his shoulder.
So-Yeon said nothing, her eyes sharp as she scanned the path ahead.
Then —
Ping.
Blue’s system flickered to life.
[System Alert: Gate Analysis]
Dark Forest Gate Energy: 85% Saturation
Status: Critical Overload Imminent
Objective: Eliminate the source of corruption or locate and sever the anchor.
Blue froze mid-step.
“…So-Yeon,” he said quietly, “we might have a problem.”
She turned, noting the sudden seriousness in his expression.
He continued, “The system just warned me. The energy here is unstable — it’s close to overloading. It says either we defeat whatever’s causing it or find something called an ‘anchor.’”
She narrowed her eyes. “What happens if it overloads?”
“I don’t know. But I think we should leave.” He scanned the mist again. “We don’t even know what we’re up against. It’s not safe for just the two of us—”
“No,” So-Yeon snapped.
Her tone cut like a blade. The soft-spoken sister was gone — in her place stood the commander of the Crimson Veil.
“I’m not leaving,” she said, stepping past him, her voice cold and resolute. “Not until I find my scouts.”
“But—”
“They’ve been missing for over a week. If they’re in here… if even one of them is still alive…” She exhaled through her nose, controlling the rage simmering beneath her calm exterior. “Then I’m not walking out without them.”
Blue looked at her, the mist swirling between them. For a moment, he saw past her rank, her reputation. She wasn’t just the Tang Matriarch or the Crimson Commander. She was a leader who cared. A sister who refused to abandon her people.
He gave a slight nod. “Then we find them. Or whatever’s causing this.”
Their blades drawn, they pressed on into the heart of the mist, deeper into the cursed forest — unaware of what awaited in the darkness ahead.
The mist curled thick and low, clinging to So-Yeon’s ankles as she and Blue moved through the gate’s twisted forest. Shadows shifted between gnarled trees, and the silence was unnatural—too still, too watchful. Every step forward felt like walking into the lungs of a living creature, inhaling them whole.
For every monster that fell, the system pinged.
Gate Energy: 75%… 74.8%… 74.6%…
Blue exhaled heavily, his blade dripping with blood. "I think killing them reduces the gate’s power… but we’d have to kill thousands. We can’t shut this down alone."
The ground shook.
Branches snapped. Something heavy moved through the trees—and then it stepped into view.
An orc, twice the size of any they’d seen in the forest. Its skin was gray-black, veins glowing faintly with corrupted energy. Its eyes gleamed with knowing malice.
“Well, well…” the orc sneered, its voice low and gravelly. “Humans. I wonder if you taste as good as the others.”
So-Yeon didn’t hesitate. Her poison qi surged outward in a visible wave. Blue fell to one knee, coughing, the toxic qi searing his lungs.
So-Yeon screamed and lunged. Her twin swords flashed—and the orc’s arm dropped to the earth, cleanly severed. Its massive axe fell beside it with a thud.
The orc roared… and then laughed.
“Petty human,” it growled, unmoved. Its flesh writhed. A new arm began to regrow from the stump. “The gods have granted me strength beyond your imagination.”
Before it could raise its axe again, Blue charged in, planting his Jian into the orc’s eye. He hung from the hilt, feet pressed against its jaw for leverage. With a guttural cry, the orc grabbed him by the leg and hurled him like a ragdoll—slamming him against a tree with a bone-crunching crack.
“Jiung!” So-Yeon shouted, but the orc was already moving again.
“I won’t lose him again,” she growled, poison qi flaring again as she rushed the orc. “Not to something weaker than the one dressed in black…”
But her blades, though precise and brutal, did nothing lasting. The wounds sealed faster than she could inflict them. The orc grinned wider.
“Where are my scouts?” she screamed.
The orc patted its stomach, licking its cracked lips. “They served their purpose. As you and that boy shall.”
Rage boiled within her. She slashed at his neck, but the orc caught her strike and hurled his axe in a wide arc. The blade skimmed past her head, severing the hood of her robe and sending her to one knee. Her mind spiraled.
She had watched Jiung die once. She had lost her siblings. Her scouts. She had trained harder than anyone in Murim to become strong enough to protect those she loved. And now… again… she stood helpless.
Blue groaned.
A hand landed on her shoulder—steady, familiar. "We’ll do this together, sister," he said, eyes burning with quiet resolve. "You’re not alone anymore. Stop pretending you are. You don’t have to carry everything on your shoulders."
The moment held.
Then—two flashes.
One white, one purple. They cut through the fog like divine judgment.
The orc’s head snapped sideways—its neck now cleaved by two clean lines of sword energy. For a moment, it stood, confused… then collapsed, its head tumbling from its shoulders.
Silence.
From the trees stepped Wu Cheng and Tang Yeol, their blades still glowing faintly with inner energy.
“Are you two alright?” Yeol called out, eyes wide.
So-Yeon exhaled, still kneeling, sword trembling in her grip. Blue steadied her.
And for the first time since entering the gate, she let herself believe they might just make it out.