“I believe I understand exactly what is happening here.”
The moment Grand Strategist Sima said those words, someone reacted at once.
“Hmm. Now that you mention it, from the very beginning.”
It was Immortal Master Taechong, commander of the Wudang Sect’s Northern Expedition. He looked straight at Mount Hua Sword Dragon Gam Woo-hyeon.
“Could it be that the Mount Hua Sword Dragon mistakenly assumed the unit he encountered was the Grand Young Master’s main unit?”
“What are you saying?!”
Gam Woo-hyeon threw off his blanket and sprang to his feet.
“Do you really think I wouldn’t recognize the War Department of the Luoyang Sword Clan?!”
Immortal Master Taechong’s mouth twisted into a smile that wasn’t quite a smile.
“I’m talking about the unit you claim you couldn’t even track after being taken prisoner, yes?”
At the deliberate provocation, the faces of the Mount Hua disciples in the tent flushed with anger and humiliation.
“Is there anyone else here who has met the Eulogist Scholar of the Sword Clan and lived to tell the tale?!” Gam Woo-hyeon shouted. “Several of my disciples were butchered by his relentless pursuit! And you’re saying I saw wrong?!”
His furious voice rang through the tent.
“I saw it clearly with my own two eyes! I saw the main unit personally led by the Grand Young Master himself!”
“Is that so?”
Wudang’s Immortal Master Taechong shrugged, as if genuinely puzzled by the outburst.
“If you say so, then it must be. I don’t know why you’re raising your voice.”
“Immortal Master Taechong.”
When the Sword Monarch, commander of the Huashan Sect’s Northern Expedition, took a heavy step forward, an elder from the Namgung Clan hurriedly raised a hand to block him.
“Enough…!”
He gestured toward Grand Strategist Sima. “Grand Strategist Sima said he understands what’s going on. Shouldn’t we hear him out first?”
As attention snapped back to him, Grand Strategist Sima didn’t waste time on preamble.
“From the very beginning.”
He looked toward Gam Woo-hyeon.
“The unit the Mount Hua Sword Dragon saw was never the Grand Young Master’s main unit.”
Hah!
Wudang’s Immortal Master Taechong scoffed loudly, as if making sure everyone heard it.
“Talking so big about seeing it clearly with his own two eyes. It seems Mount Hua has been slacking in their visual arts training.”
“Grand Strategist Sima…!”
The wronged Mount Hua Sword Dragon raised his voice again, but Grand Strategist Sima lifted a hand toward him in a quiet command to settle down.
“That doesn’t mean the unit the Mount Hua Sword Dragon saw wasn’t the Sword Clan’s War Department.”
Faces twisted with confusion.
“Grand Strategist Sima…!”
“What on earth does that mean…?”
Grand Strategist Sima explained with measured calm.
“There are no lies in the Mount Hua Sword Dragon’s testimony. Everyone, consider the scale of the Dread King’s southern garrison.”
“Indeed.”
When even Wudang had nothing immediate to counter with, Grand Strategist Sima nodded.
“If it wasn’t the Sword Clan’s War Department, a force of that magnitude could never have been annihilated in such a short period of time.”
“Then what was it?”
“Are you truly saying the Grand Young Master’s units are all capable of using space-compressing magic?”
At that, Immortal Master Taechong, standing amid Wudang’s personnel, let out a low groan.
“…I see.”
As gazes swung toward him, he clicked his tongue, speaking as if the answer had finally snapped into place.
“From the very beginning, the War Department executed their operation entirely on their own.”
“……”
Everyone present was a formidable figure. They grasped the implication instantly.
“You mean… the rest of the Grand Young Master’s main unit, excluding the War Department, headed straight for the Heilongjiang Province border from the start…?!”
“That is correct.”
Grand Strategist Sima nodded once.
“Undoubtedly. The true bulk of the Grand Young Master’s forces, the troops that should be called the main unit, were heading that way from the very beginning.”
The southern front against the Grand Young Master. The eastern front toward Heilongjiang, to meet the advancing Grand Taro of the Haedong Kingdom.
That assumed, obvious strategic layout shattered in an instant.
“No, what on earth is going on here…?”
“How are things turning out like this…?”
Shocked murmurs swelled through the tent.
“T-Then!”
An elder from the Huashan Sect raised his voice urgently to Grand Strategist Sima.
“Why did the Grand Young Master go out of his way to attack the Dread King’s garrison in the south?!”
Others piled on, questions firing one after another.
“And taking the risk of dividing his forces, no less?!”
“The Sword Clan’s War Department must account for nearly half the total troops we estimated the Grand Young Master could mobilize…?!”
The answer came from the Sword Monarch of Mount Hua, who had been stroking his beard.
“…I see.”
Receiving everyone’s gaze, he spoke with bitter clarity.
“Thanks to that, our entire force, which targeted the Grand Young Master from the start, marched all the way down here to the south, a place entirely unrelated to the Heilongjiang direction, didn’t we?”
“…?!”
He was right.
From the very beginning, what the Third Young Master’s allied camp wanted was a battle with the Grand Young Master. And while they were on the move, the Dread King’s southern garrison was attacked by the Sword Clan’s War Department.
Because of that, without a single shred of doubt, they had marched south, absolutely certain they were closing in on the Grand Young Master’s main unit.
“Moreover,” Immortal Master Taechong said, clicking his tongue, “because those War Department bastards vanished without a trace after annihilating the southern garrison—”
An elder from the Namgung Clan picked up the thought like a lament.
“We were hopelessly pinned down here until dawn…!”
This was it. The moment they experienced firsthand the Grand Young Master’s legendary intellect, something they’d only heard rumors about until now.
Hah…!
“My goodness…”
Sighs slipped out of the tent as naturally as breath.
“No, no, no…!”
The person who’d asked earlier shoved forward and shouted.
“Even so, the Grand Young Master also lost the War Department from his main force, didn’t he?!”
He turned to Grand Strategist Sima, voice thick with disbelief.
“The Dread King’s main unit split from us, but if the Grand Young Master split off from the War Department as well, what did he ultimately gain from all this?!”
Come to think of it, it was a fair question. Heads nodded, eyes returning to Grand Strategist Sima.
“That is…”
Grand Strategist Sima exhaled, then answered.
“Just as we can achieve our primary objective by capturing the Grand Young Master’s main unit, regardless of the Haedong Kingdom’s Grand Taro—”
“I see, I see!”
Immortal Master Taechong, realizing it a step faster, slapped his forehead and groaned.
The Sword Monarch of Mount Hua turned his head, expression stiffening.
“The Grand Young Master as well.”
Ignoring the interruption, Grand Strategist Sima finished, voice flat and final.
“Because if he can eliminate the Dread King and his main unit, he achieves his primary objective in this war.”
“…?!”
Blankness spread over faces around the tent.
“…This is a complete miscalculation.”
Immortal Master Taechong clicked his tongue, speaking toward the Wudang personnel beside him.
“I was absolutely certain that what the Grand Young Master wanted up until now was a protracted war…”
“No, that’s…! It couldn’t be helped, could it?!” a Wudang elder protested, as if pleading innocence. “He showed signs of securing long-term rations, and he even drew in the Grand Taro…!”
“Other than that, every single action the Grand Young Master took was preparation for a protracted war, wasn’t it…?!”
Grand Strategist Sima, among his tacticians, was also grimacing.
“Undoubtedly, I thought the reason the Grand Young Master drew in the Governors was to secure conscripts through them for a long-term war, but…”
On Mount Hua’s side, the Sword Monarch spoke to those around him, voice low.
“…Perhaps. Looking at the current situation, what the Grand Young Master was aiming for from the very beginning…”
His voice overlapped with Immortal Master Taechong’s and Grand Strategist Sima’s, the conclusion landing as if the tent itself had spoken.
“A short, decisive battle.”
Silence slammed down.
Even as seconds passed, only groans and muted sighs broke it.
“…But something is a bit strange.”
The Sword Monarch tilted his head, frowning.
“No matter how thoroughly they annihilated the Dread King’s garrisons in the south, and even if they struck the garrison near the Heilongjiang border first, the vast majority of the Dread King’s forces spread across the frontlines are still intact.”
“That’s true,” Immortal Master Taechong agreed. “If the Dread King’s main unit, which overwhelms them in numbers, can buy even a little time, the forces that disengaged from the frontlines can provide support easily—”
Right then—
“U-Urgent news…!”
A messenger burst in, breathless.
“The legions of the Northern Great General’s Department, which retreated from all frontlines, have launched a simultaneous advance!”
“……”
Yesterday at dawn, facing coordinated pressure from the Dread King’s forces, the Northern Great General’s legions had pulled off a successful retreat, made possible by the swift provision of food supplies from the Grand Young Master the day before.
And today—
“All legions have launched simultaneous attacks to retake the frontlines?”
“T-Then?!”
The Sword Monarch of Mount Hua clenched his jaw.
“Does the Grand Young Master intend to prevent the Dread King’s other legions from supporting his main unit…?”
Those who heard him couldn’t hide their sour expressions.
Even hearing the news, even establishing communication, was painfully difficult in this vast northern territory.
Yet the Grand Young Master was acting as if…
“…Doesn’t it seem like he’s looking down at a chessboard by himself, playing a game of chess?”
As if intricate gears were clicking into place, the Grand Young Master was demonstrating a strategy that bordered on the unbelievable.
Hah…
Someone muttered, stunned beyond sense.
“Using himself as bait, revealing his presence to lure us here, and intending to settle things with the Dread King in a single, all-or-nothing clash with a main unit that he himself isn’t even part of…?”
“That’s…”
“No matter how much he trusts his subordinates, that doesn’t make any sense, does it?”
“Is this a crazy idea only possible because he’s a fearless, immature youth…?”
At that moment—
“…Then relay it exactly like that.”
“Understood, Grand Strategist.”
Grand Strategist Sima, who had been issuing orders to his tacticians here and there, lifted his head and rejected the assumption.
“Perhaps that is not the case.”
“What do you mean by that…?”
Instead of answering immediately, Grand Strategist Sima turned to Namgung Du, chief of the Third Young Master’s external intelligence network in the North.
“Namgung Du.”
“…Yes, Grand Strategist Sima.”
Grand Strategist Sima spoke carefully, as if he’d caught a scent of something being withheld.
“Is there more information you haven’t reported because you judged its reliability to be too low?”
Namgung Du hesitated. The room erupted at him.
“What is it?!”
“You should report it first, shouldn’t you?!”
Rebukes rained down as if he were personally responsible for the entire disaster.
“That’s…”
With a long, strained breath, Namgung Du finally spoke, expression split between belief and doubt.
“Among those who launched the surprise attack on the Dread King’s garrison near the Heilongjiang border…”
Grand Strategist Sima cut in before he could flounder further.
“There were reports that Grand Young Master Yeon So-hyeon was spotted there as well, correct?”
Gasps burst across the tent.
“No, this time it’s the Heilongjiang border…?!”
“Didn’t they just say he was with the War Department in the south until recently?!”
“Then in the end, does that mean the Mount Hua Sword Dragon saw wrong?!”
“No, that’s…!”
As Gam Woo-hyeon started to panic, Grand Strategist Sima’s voice pinned the chaos in place.
“From the very beginning, it was strange that the Grand Young Master, who was supposedly in Shenyang, suddenly appeared in the south.”
Heads turned, drawn by the blunt certainty in his tone.
“If he appeared in both Shenyang and the south, then it wouldn’t be strange if he appeared at the Heilongjiang border as well.”
“How is that not strange—”
“He could be deceiving us with body doubles,” Grand Strategist Sima continued evenly, “or he may genuinely possess some inexplicable ability we are unaware of. However, what we must focus on is this.”
He stated it flatly, like a blade laid on a table.
“It makes no sense for him not to personally participate in the all-or-nothing clash he must wage against the Dread King’s main unit.”
That meant only one thing.
The Grand Young Master was there.
“It is not too late, even now…!”
Grand Strategist Sima’s voice thickened, gaining weight.
“We must head toward the Heilongjiang border at once and aim for the rear of the Grand Young Master’s main unit…!”
To catch the King named Yeon So-hyeon, who was trying to catch the King named the Dread King.
“Right…!” Immortal Master Taechong slapped his palm and shouted to his subordinates. “Immediately! Tell all disciples to prepare to move—”
He couldn’t finish.
“Enemies…!”
The shout came from outside the tent.
“Sword Clan War Department spotted at the front of our encampment…!”
“…Damn it.”
Immortal Master Taechong clicked his tongue.
“So they aren’t going to let us go to the Grand Young Master quietly…!”