Chapter 20: The Valley of the Three Heavens
Dawn crept over the Black Mist Valley like the breath of an old beast, slow and full of ancient secrets.
Mu-won stood on a rocky cliff with Yura at his side. The burning red map from the pendant still shimmered faintly in the air before fading. Below them stretched miles of wilderness—rivers like silver veins, forests dark as forgotten ink, and at the far edge of the horizon, a storm-swathed mountain.
That was where the Valley of the Three Heavens waited.
> "It'll take three days if we move fast," Yura said, tightening the straps on her blade.
> "Two," Mu-won replied. "If we don't rest."
Yura gave him a sidelong glance. "You still fight like you did in the past. But you don't yet walk like him."
He didn't answer.
Because she was right.
In this life, his body was still catching up to his soul.
---
They left the valley before the sun fully rose, taking hidden paths known only to assassins and ghosts.
On the first night, they camped beneath a cliff overhang. Mu-won used the time to study his blood qi patterns, trying to decipher why the pendant responded only at certain moments.
Yura watched him quietly, brushing a whetstone across her blade.
> "Do you remember the girl you saved in the burning village?" she asked suddenly.
Mu-won froze.
> A flash—her face. Soot-stained cheeks. Wide, terrified eyes. Holding her baby brother in her arms.
> "I do," he said softly. "Why?"
> "That was me."
---
Silence stretched between them.
> "You were the reason I joined your army," Yura continued. "You spared me when no one else would have. And I… followed you blindly ever since."
> "Then why turn on me?"
She looked away.
> "Because in the end… you weren't the only one betrayed."
---
The next day, they crossed a cursed river that whispered old names in the wind.
By the second night, they reached the mountain's base, where a circle of black monoliths rose like the teeth of some long-dead beast. Carvings covered every stone—ancient Murim script and celestial runes. Mu-won's pendant began to vibrate.
Yura pulled her cracked pendant free. It vibrated as well.
> "We're close," she said.
Mu-won stepped into the circle.
And the ground beneath him shifted.
---
Suddenly, a voice filled the air. Not speech—but echo.
> "He returns."
> "The fractured one."
> "The heir of war and silence."
Stone trembled. The monoliths lit with blue fire.
A massive gate rose from the earth at the center of the circle. Carved into its arch was a phrase in forgotten script.
Yura translated it aloud.
> "Only the broken may pass."
---
Mu-won stepped forward. His pendant pulsed again, and the gate responded.
But as it began to open, a third pulse shook the air—colder than his or Yura's.
Both turned instantly toward the treeline.
There stood a man.
He wore robes of gray silk, and on his chest hung a third pendant—gleaming, unbroken, perfect.
> "Took you long enough," he said.
His face was familiar.
Too familiar.
Mu-won's breath caught.
> "Baekrin."
The man smiled.
> "You kept me waiting... Supreme Commander."
---
To be continued....