Chapter 41 - When the Moon Is Full, the Emperor Falls; The One Coming Slowly Becomes King

Fragments that appeared to be human bones had been embedded in the floor of the hold with exquisite precision, forming a four-character sentence like the blood writing on the deck. The gruesome sight was incomparably more brutal than what lay above, yet the neatness of the lettering was every bit as masterful.

"The Cheonroe Unit warriors standing watch at the West Heaven Guest Hall before dawn were the first to arrive here. According to their investigation, this bone script seems to have been written before the blood writing on deck. In other words, the intruder stripped the flesh from the Cheonpung Unit warriors' bones and did this here, then went up on deck to write in blood."

Namgung Hu offered this explanation to the astonished Namgung Il. After hearing him out, Namgung Il briefly prayed for his subordinates' souls, then spoke.

"... But why would the intruder go to all the trouble of sneaking in just to write this... no, to do such a thing? Surely he would have had his hands full just staying hidden."

"Well... I don't know either. Why go to such lengths to infiltrate the Namgung Clan, only to write something like this...?"

Combining the bone script in the hold with the blood writing on deck, in that order, produced the following eight-character message:

When the moon is full, the emperor falls. The one coming slowly becomes king.

When the moon waxes full, the emperor shall fall, and I, who move slowly, shall become king.

Namgung Hu and Namgung Il discussed those eight characters at length, then headed for the King's Hall as dawn slowly broke. This did not seem to be a matter they could resolve on their own authority.

(Revised) The Fifth Law of New Murim Online: Upon a Level Up, white light radiates from the body in every direction, and all wounds are healed. At the same time, every stat increases slightly. In other words, Strength increases, the body grows more agile, and Intelligence rises.

Addendum: This restoration encompasses not only wounds, but all lost body parts as well.

Death is frightening because none who have journeyed there have ever returned. To find oneself alone in an unknown place from which there is no return, without a map or even hearsay to guide the way, is terror itself.

- William Shakespeare, English literary master

"Hey, did you hear about what happened last night?"

"Oh, you haven't heard yet? Well, what happened was..."

The Namgung Clan estate was abuzz from early morning, all because of the three brilliant flashes of light that had enveloped it the night before.

Since ancient times, people had regarded the number three as sacred. One had long been associated with yang and two with yin. Since three was the sum of one and two, it was considered a perfect number in which yin and yang were in harmony. Moreover, the light that had enveloped the entire Namgung Clan estate the previous night had been so brilliant and gentle that it seemed capable of purifying the whole world.

Every warrior who had been on watch at the time, along with the few people who had still been awake, agreed that it had been no ordinary occurrence.

The Three Sacred Lights.

As the story passed from mouth to mouth, the three flashes acquired that grand and plausible-sounding name.

"About the Three Sacred Lights..."

Though it was still early and many had yet to wake, rumors of the Three Sacred Lights were spreading like wildfire.

["This is Heaven's blessing upon the coming marriage of Namgung Hye and Do Heo-ok!"]

No one knew who had first said it, but before breakfast, there was scarcely anyone in the clan who had not heard.

Indeed, the Three Sacred Lights had prompted the clan's leading figures and elders to assemble at the King's Hall that very morning. Yet their discussion was nowhere near as hopeful as the ordinary clan members and wedding guests imagined. What the Three Sacred Lights had heralded was not Heaven's blessing, but an omen of disaster: four characters in bone and four characters in blood.

As a matter of course, Patriarch Namgung Byeok occupied the chair atop the dais in the center of the King's Hall. Standing in rows to either side were the elders and the leaders of the Imperial Sword Unit, the Changgung Sword Unit, the Flying Swallow Sword Unit, the Muae Sword Unit, and the Lightning Sword Unit. Of those who should have been present, only Namgung Il, commander of the Cheonpung Unit, and Namgung Hu, commander of the Cheonroe Unit—the two who had first brought the news—were absent.

The grave expressions on every face made the seriousness of the discussion plain.

When the moon is full, the emperor falls. The one coming slowly becomes king.

Every word spoken here since early that morning had concerned those eight characters. At first, there had been some disagreement over their interpretation. By now, however, that dispute had ended.

When the moon is full, the emperor falls.

When the moon waxes full, the emperor shall fall.

It took little thought to see that this meant the downfall of the Namgung Clan. The clan had long called itself the House of Kings. Here, "the emperor" meant the Namgung Clan, while "the full moon" presumably referred to the wedding, which was to take place on the fifteenth day of the lunar month. There had been no room for debate on that point from the outset.

The differing interpretations concerned not the first four characters, written in bone, but the last four, written in blood.

The one coming slowly becomes king.

I, who move slowly, shall become king.

Those gathered had argued over just who this "I, who move slowly" might be, but they had ultimately reached a firm conclusion that was difficult to dispute. The heated debate now underway concerned what to do with the person identified by that phrase.

"As I have been saying all along, this is plainly an attempt to frame him!"

Namgung Jung, leader of the Changgung Sword Unit, spoke emphatically as he looked around the gathering. He was the only elder of the Namgung Clan who also commanded a sword unit, and his generational standing was as high as Namgung Byeok's. Naturally, his words carried considerable weight in a council such as this.

"The Saber Star has been with the clan for less than a year. That means he cannot yet wield any influence here. Even after he marries Hye, that will not change a great deal. Surely everyone present knows that better than anyone? To begin with, the young man called the Saber Star is not a Namgung. How, then, could someone like him possibly threaten the position of the Namgung Clan's patriarch?"

The Saber Star whom Namgung Jung spoke of was Do Heo-ok. His voice brimmed with conviction, as though no other possibility could exist. Several elders nodded in apparent agreement.

"You would suspect our future son-in-law solely on the strength of a grotesque message fashioned from the blood and bones of our warriors by the intruder who so viciously murdered them? The entire martial world would laugh at the Namgung Clan. What could a man about to become our son-in-law possibly lack that would drive him to plot such a thing? I simply cannot understand why the slander of a single wicked intruder has thrown the whole clan into such an uproar."

But Namgung In, leader of the Muae Sword Unit and a relatively young man compared with the elders, did not share their views. As soon as Namgung Jung appeared to have finished, he offered a rebuttal. Though a generation junior to Namgung Jung and the elders, Namgung In was a potential successor to the patriarch, supported by the younger warriors. Regardless of his generational standing, he therefore wielded considerable influence within the clan.

"I disagree. The intruder is indeed cruel, and he certainly entered our estate without permission. Nevertheless, I believe we must pay attention to the eight characters he left behind: 'When the moon is full, the emperor falls. The one coming slowly becomes king.'"

"Now listen, Muae Sword Unit Leader. Anyone can see that 'moving slowly' is a character-decomposition riddle pointing to Do Heo-ok's surname. The character Do combines the movement radical with the character meaning 'I.' Are you saying that such a transparent ploy by the intruder deserves our attention?"

Namgung Jung immediately interrupted him. Namgung In countered once more.

"That is precisely why I believe it deserves even closer attention. The intruder went to great lengths to enter the Namgung Clan estate 'in secret,' only to kill the Cheonpung Unit warriors 'for all to see' and carve eight characters of unmistakable meaning into the ship. That tells us his original purpose in infiltrating the estate was neither to kill someone nor to spy on us. And consider the three bursts of light he emitted as he left the sailing ship—the very thing the clan members are now calling the Three Sacred Lights. After finishing his work, he even sent an intense signal, as though inviting us to hurry over and see what he had done. Then he vanished again without a trace."

"So you are saying we should arrest Do Heo-ok on the strength of an intruder's unsubstantiated accusations? A bridegroom whose wedding is only days away? What will you do if it turns out he was framed? And if the martial world hears of it, how will you deal with the consequences? How will you ever face Hye again?"

"Whether we lose face before the world is a concern for later. Even if this is an attempt to frame him, I believe we should first take Do Heo-ok into custody. If there is even the slightest chance that the intruder's words are true, would that not be far more serious? Moreover, the intruder's actions were too audacious, and his abilities too exceptional, for us to dismiss this as mere slander. With apologies to the patriarch and the honored elders, who here could reproduce the light we witnessed before dawn? This is not a question of whether one has mastered the Divine Sun Art. Even if someone in the Namgung Clan had mastered it, I do not believe anyone here has the internal power to produce such intense light... Forgive me for saying so."

"You go too far—"

One of the elders was about to flare up at Namgung In's somewhat impertinent words, but Namgung Byeok raised a hand to stop him. Namgung In's words were provocative and blunt, but equally factual. Namgung Byeok knew this too, which was why he had cut the elder off.

Namgung In offered Namgung Byeok a brief fist-and-palm salute, then continued speaking.