WE HAVE MOVED! VISIT OUR NEW SITE! Ever since the crack of dawn, the Revitalization Inn had been bustling with activity. The escorts of the White Dragon Merchant Association hurried around preparing the luggage, loading the wagons, and hitching the horses to the wagons. After a brief rest, it was once again time for them to continue their journey to Yunnan. Meanwhile, the inn cooks had also prepared breakfast before dawn, and the waiters were currently busy carrying the food from the kitchen to the dining hall. After finishing the final checks for the wagon he was in charge of driving, Jin Mu-Won headed into the dining hall. Gong Jin-Sung and Yoon Seo-In were already there, so he approached them and greeted, “Good morning, you two sure are up early.” Gong Jin-Sung greeted him back, saying, "You’re up early too. We expect to be hitting the road without breaks for quite a few days and munching on dry rations on-the go, so eat well while you still can. Not long from now, we

WE HAVE MOVED! VISIT OUR NEW SITE! After Jin Mu-Won and Yong Mu-Sung had left, Mae Wol-Ryung appeared to be alone in the room. "Heuk-No [1] ," she said. A hidden door on one side of the room opened, revealing an old man dressed all in black. The old man's face was covered in ugly scars, giving him a terrifying appearance. This old man, whose name was Heuk-No, approached Mae Wol-Ryung and asked, "You called for me, Young Miss?" "Did you get a good look at Master Jin?" "Yes, I did." "What's your opinion on him?" Why aren't you reading this at northbladetl.com? "With my abilities, it’s difficult for me to judge him.” "Really?" "Young Miss, do you suspect that he’s someone special?" "Hmm, I don't know. Maybe." Mae Wol-Ryung sighed and took off her veil, revealing her dazzlingly beautiful face. It was a face that could only belong to a woman in her twenties, an ag

WE HAVE MOVED! VISIT OUR NEW SITE! Jin Mu-Won observed the house in front of him carefully, but no matter how hard he stared at it, it looked exactly the same as a typical commoner's residence in Sichuan. The only unusual thing about it is the small black flag hanging by the window. Is that some kind of sign? In fact, the black flag was so small, he wouldn't have noticed it if he didn't know that there was anything odd about this house beforehand. After knocking on the door, the two men waited for a while before a short, middle-aged man opened it and stuck his head outside. “What's up?” “I'm here to make a deal…” “You came to the wrong place. If you want to make a deal, you should go to a shop somewhere...” Why aren't you reading this at northbladetl.com? “I'm looking for something illuminated by the light of the black moon...” “Whatever it is you're looking for, I don't have it...” “The Black Moon Leader said that I could vis

Updates will be delayed while I migrate the blog to a new site. Take a look here: northbladetl.com “Heeheehee!” Kwak Moon-Jung hugged his new sword tightly and giggled like an idiot. “Do you like it that much?” “Yes!” Until now, Kwak Moon-Jung had only used cheap iron swords, so this was his first time owning a properly forged blade. He decided to name the sword Crimson Fang (赤牙), for its faint red glow that reminded one of a bloodied fang. “That’s a great name.” “Right? Heehee!” “Now that you have a good sword, you need to work extra hard to grow into a warrior who will not bring shame to your weapon.” “Yes, I will train as hard as I can! Thank you so much, Hyung! I may only be able to thank you with words right now, but I swear that I will work my ass off to become useful to you.” Why aren't you reading this at northbladetl.blogspot.com? “You’re welcome, and I’m looking forward to your future.” Kwak Moon-Jung’s resolve was clearly written on his face. He c

“What do you mean, a cursed sword?” asked Kwak Moon-Jung. The old blacksmith did not answer him. He simply stood still as if he was petrified. On the other hand, Jin Mu-Won looked at the old blacksmith curiously. I can’t believe he recognized that Snow Flower was a cursed sword in one glance… He must be really skilled and experienced to sense the faint traces of cursed energy that many other martial artists or craftsmen weren’t able to detect. Is it because he’s spent his entire life doing nothing but blacksmithing? When the old blacksmith recovered from his shock and glared fiercely at Jin Mu-Won, the young man calmly accepted his gaze and stared back coolly. Exasperated, the old blacksmith sighed and said, “Haa… I think we have a lot of talk about, but we shouldn’t do it here. Follow me.” The old blacksmith walked toward the back of the smithy. As Jin Mu-Won moved to follow him, he said to the still bewildered Kwak Moon-Jung, “Come on, let’s go.” Kwak Moon-Jung quickly chas

“So this is the Dujiangyan Irrigation System?” [1] The escorts buzzed with excitement as they admired the engineering marvel known as the Dujiangyan Irrigation System. Right in front of their eyes, the beautiful Min River, with its flashy myriad colors, was split into two by a man-made structure. Originally, as winter turned into spring, snowmelt from the nearby mountains would flow into the Min River and flood the nearby areas, causing great suffering to the people living there. To solve the problem, Lee Bing, a local official of Sichuan Province during the Qin Dynasty, together with his son Lee Rang, worked together to design and construct an irrigation system that would redirect the waters of the Min River and prevent flooding. All in all, more than ten thousand workers were mobilized for the construction which took eight whole years to complete. When the river stream, which was originally one, was divided into an outer river and an inner river, the waterway stabilized and the

CRACK! CLINK! Pieces of a broken sword were scattered across the ground. “Haa…” A man’s sigh of despair went unheard in the wind as he looked down at his broken sword. It was the Taoist from Kongtong Sect, Mu-Jin. “How did you... I even went so far as to use Sword Flux…” he muttered, puzzled. He hadn’t felt any chi surrounding Jin Mu-Won’s sword, and yet, his own Bamboo Blade was the one that was broken in half. This defied common sense. He lifted his head and glanced at the black sword resting against his neck. There was no doubting his defeat. “What happened? How did you break through my Sword Flux…?” “Sword Flux is simply a technique for emitting and condensing energy on the outside of one’s blade. What I did instead was increase the density of chi inside my blade.” “Did my sword break because of the difference in chi density?” Why aren't you reading this at northbladetl.blogspot.com? “From my point of view... Yes, it did.” “Is that so? I can't quite acce