Black Sheep had come to see Jeong, the Director of the Intelligence Division, in order to gauge his character through his reaction.

The new Director of the Intelligence Division, Jeong, heir of the Martial Ancestor Sect, was a dangerous man.

He had raided the Guizhou Merchant Guild’s trade caravan and seized the goods being transported to the Alliance of the Martial World?

It was a tremendous achievement, but if one thought about it a little differently, that was also something anyone could do as long as he had enough brute nerve.

By killing the trade caravan and establishing merit, what he really did was not prove his ability, but merely establish justification.

The true ability of Jeong, Director of the Intelligence Division, was not that kind of boldness or drive.

This bastard won over that difficult Yangcheon in a single stroke.

How he had won him over, he could not tell. What mattered was that with only one meeting he had drawn Yangcheon’s interest, and at the second meeting he had earned his trust.

Black Sheep himself had brought great wealth, women, and all kinds of treasures, and Yangcheon still regarded him with suspicion.

In a sense, that was only natural. Yangcheon did not see him as Black Sheep, but as a warrior from the Perverse Lust Cult.

So what makes you different?

But in that case, there was even less reason to trust Jeong so readily.

If anything, he was even more suspicious. The Martial Ancestor Sect had long since been annihilated, and it was a sect wrapped in mystery to begin with. There was no real way to prove his background at all.

And yet Yangcheon did not merely refrain from doubting this man. He favored him. That meant the man had done something Black Sheep himself had failed to do.

This bastard is dangerous. No matter what purpose he came here with, I need to know enough about him.

That was right. That was why he had come.

If this man’s disposition and ability were truly dangerous, then he would have to scrape together every scrap of information on him and send it to the Cult.

And yet he admitted it?

From the start, Black Sheep had never expected the man to admit it so easily.

That was only natural. To admit to this matter was no different from openly rebelling against Ink Dragon Manor.

“That’s an interesting expression.”

Yeon Hojeong’s smile was like the biting winter wind sweeping across a barren wilderness where not even a single blade of wild grass could grow.

“Why? Did you think it wasn’t me?”

“......”

“Come on, no way. A member of the Twelve Zodiac Gods wouldn’t come sniffing around the Director of the Intelligence Division without any evidence.”

“......”

“Hm? What’s with that face? Smile. I answered your little question with my own mouth, so why are you so stiff?”

Black Sheep glared at Yeon Hojeong with a rigid face, then finally spoke.

“Are you truly saying that you killed the Black Sheep Unit and Black Elder?”

“If you mean those idiots who specialized in crushing people with shabby wheel tactics that were about as far from boldness as possible, then yes. I wiped them out.”

“......!”

“And those sheep masks. Why not change them while you’re at it? I suppose they were meant to scare people, but now that I think back on it, they were far too crude.”

TSSSS.

Killing Intent rose from Black Sheep’s body.

“You bastard...”

“Why?”

“...?”

“So you found out everything you came to confirm, didn’t you? What more do you want?”

“Are you out of your mind?”

“Of course I’m in my right mind. Do you think a raving madman could earn the trust of Fighting King Yangcheon?”

Black Sheep’s eyes flashed.

Fighting King Yangcheon?

Not Deputy Lord Yang. Not Lord of the Manor.

Fighting King Yangcheon. The fresh wind of Ink Dragon Manor, the new Director of the Intelligence Division who was receiving Yangcheon’s trust all to himself, was speaking the name Fighting King Yangcheon as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

That astonishing remark threw Black Sheep badly off balance.

“If that wasn’t what you came to confirm...”

FWOOOOSH!

Flames flickered in Yeon Hojeong’s eyes.

The Killing Intent of flames, which he had been pressing down with all his might, finally boiled up. His eyes, red as though rubies had been set into them, gave off such heat that merely meeting them made it feel as though one’s whole body would burn away.

“Did you come here intending to confess that you’re still acting as a hound of the Perverse Lust Cult?”

“......!!”

He had already been shaken to begin with.

The expression that rose over his face, now pale blue with shock, might have been one he had never shown anyone before.

A face the usual Black Sheep would never show.

That was why it revealed the truth all the more clearly.

“You people have taken Yangcheon too lightly. If you were going to deceive him in earnest, you should have sent someone better than you. Did you seriously think a brute like you, all strength and no mind, could keep Yangcheon under watch?”

“......!”

“That’s why you’re still being played by him. No, with a head like yours, you probably didn’t even realize you were being played.”

Black Sheep’s face twisted visibly.

A man normally said to be calm and collected could not keep himself together at all in front of Yeon Hojeong.

“What exactly are you?”

“A descendant of the Martial Ancestor Sect.”

“How do you know the name of Perverse Lust?”

“Yangcheon told me.”

“......!”

“Of course, I already knew before he told me.”

“What?”

In that instant, Yeon Hojeong’s eyes flashed.

BANG!

The table flew straight at Black Sheep’s face.

He had struck and sent the table flying from less than half a palm away. For Black Sheep, who had been flustered the entire time, it was an ambush shocking enough to jolt him badly.

But Black Sheep was no ordinary master either. He was a Transcendent Peak master who had broken through the wall of martial arts. No matter how sudden the attack, there was no way he would simply stand there and take it.

KRAK!

He raised his elbow and split the center of the table as though cutting it with a blade. It was Dissecting Severance Grapple, a secret art of the Perverse Lust Cult.

At that moment—

HOOF!

......!!

Urgency flashed across Black Sheep’s face.

A large hand came straight through the split table and, as though it had been waiting there all along, aimed for his flank.

The timing was too perfect. It was as though the man had already anticipated that he would split the table with his elbow.

Hup!

RIIIIP!

He twisted his body with all his strength and barely avoided the strike aimed at his side. His beltline was caught in Yeon Hojeong’s hand and ripped long open.

This bastard’s insane—

In that instant, Black Sheep’s body jerked to a halt.

“Ghk!”

His clothing, hardened like iron plates, clamped down hard on his abdomen. The White Tiger Qi of the west, avatar of metal, had torn into Black Sheep’s upper garments and hardened the whole thing to the strength of steel.

It was a method he had never imagined. Hardening another person’s clothing to restrict movement? It was a technique so extraordinary that it would be difficult to find in the martial world of the Central Plains, let alone beyond the frontier.

Damn it!

Trying to retreat quickly only strangled him harder. Panicked, Black Sheep immediately chopped down with his hand blade against the clothing. He intended to cut through both the torn garment and Yeon Hojeong’s True Qi at once.

At that moment—

FLAP!

The clothing wrapped around his hand blade and fluttered. Yeon Hojeong had already withdrawn the White Tiger Qi and stepped directly in front of him.

He read it!

Black Sheep could hardly believe it.

What the hell is this bastard made of?!

It was one thing for him to instantly understand the weakness in the elbow strike of Dissecting Severance Grapple, the Organ-Severing Elbow Strike. But he had also read the timing of the Hand Seal Blade Chop.

That should have been impossible. Dissecting Severance Grapple was a martial art from beyond the frontier. It was a martial art no one of the Central Plains should have known.

THUNK!

“Urk!”

Black Sheep’s right knee slammed into the ground. Yeon Hojeong’s kicking technique had smashed into the outer side of his thigh.

SHRAAAAK!

Black Sheep’s right fist struck out with the back of the hand, aiming for Yeon Hojeong’s temple. It was a fast, lightning-swift blow, a killing strike that could cost a life if allowed through.

At that moment, Yeon Hojeong’s arm bent like a snake and coiled around Black Sheep’s fist and elbow.

CRACK.

“Ghk!”

It was a move aimed at reversing the joint. Cartilage tore and the joint shattered.

Damn—!

The horrific pain made it feel as though his entire right upper body had gone numb.

Even if he were treated, he would never be able to use that right arm again. Black Sheep’s eyes turned bloodshot.

KRAK!

“Guh!”

He had lost the initiative to the ambush. A rising knee strike folded Black Sheep’s upper body, and Yeon Hojeong’s two fists swung down like hammers onto the fully exposed back.

CRACK!

He could no longer endure it. Black Sheep screamed before he knew it.

Or at least, he thought he had.

......?!

Even while writhing in unbearable pain, Black Sheep felt a chill run down his spine at the precision of his opponent. The moment he shattered the bones with both fists, he struck a mute pressure point and prevented the scream from escaping.

Y-you bastard!

Urgency flooded Black Sheep’s face.

His collarbone and ribs had broken at the same time. His spine had not snapped, but the injury was severe enough that he would be unable to straighten his body for quite some time.

But his worry meant nothing.

With an indifferent expression, Yeon Hojeong kicked him in the abdomen.

THUUUNK!

Black Sheep vomited up a gush of blood.

FSSSS.

The True Qi that had packed every strand of muscle evaporated at a terrifying speed.

His dantian had been destroyed. It was a brutal kick that shattered not only the protective wall around the dantian, but the dantian itself.

The fight was over.

“Fun, isn’t it?”

TSSSSSSS.

Yeon Hojeong’s Killing Intent burrowed into every part of Black Sheep’s body.

Even now, he was still controlling that Killing Intent somehow. If his Vermilion Bird Qi had exploded, his Killing Intent would have pierced thick stone walls and spread throughout Ink Dragon Manor.

“I’ve seen your people’s barehanded martial arts more times than I can count. And Dissecting Severance Grapple, of all things... Organ-Severing Elbow Strike into Hand Seal Blade Chop? Isn’t that a bit too simple a combination?”

“......?!”

He could not even remember how many times he had analyzed the martial arts of the Three Fanatical Cults, and especially those used by the Perverse Lust Cult.

And now, there was not a single person in the martial world of this age who understood the secret arts of the Perverse Lust Cult better than Yeon Hojeong.

Not even counting Black Sheep himself.

“I was already thinking about it. I needed exactly one more bastard to become my sacrifice, and I didn’t expect it would be you. I’d been thinking of Fire Ape, that foul-tempered bitch.”

Yeon Hojeong smiled brightly.

“Thank you. For provoking me. It’s actually better that it was you. It makes the justification so much easier.”

He kicked Black Sheep in the jaw.

KRAK!

With his jawbone shattered, Black Sheep’s eyes rolled back. He blacked out on the spot.

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes narrowed.

“...I’m only stopping at this because my companions’ lives are in my hands. Count yourself lucky, you son of a bitch.”

Yeon Hojeong was no longer a master.

The Dark Emperor who had cast aside dignity and begun stepping into the mud. Having set down the restraint he had cultivated all this time, he was gradually returning to the meticulous and violent man he had once been.

Half a day later.

As Yeon Hojeong crossed the underground plaza, he heard several voices around him.

“Hm? Lady Fire Ape?”

“Not sure. I haven’t seen her.”

“She must’ve taken on some secret mission again.”

“Probably.”

“The members of the Twelve Zodiac Gods are always like that, aren’t they? Or maybe she’s resting in her quarters. She’s been really busy lately.”

Just as expected.

The Twelve Zodiac Gods obeyed only Yangcheon’s orders. Until Yangcheon issued a separate command, they neither involved themselves in the Manor’s affairs nor had the authority to do so.

Well, it doesn’t matter.

Yeon Hojeong intended to go straight to Yangcheon like this. He intended to tell him everything about Black Sheep’s identity.

Of course, he would not deliver it exactly as it had happened. Inside his clothes was a carefully folded letter, containing information he had manipulated over the past half day.

Yangcheon won’t kill him immediately either. He’ll lock him in the Brain Prison first and wait until he regains his senses.

That was why he had left Black Sheep in ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ that state.

So that for at least several days, he would be unable to regain consciousness.

And by the time he finally woke, Yangcheon would have already gone to meet Mo Yonggun.

From here on, it’s a race against time.

Then—

What?

Yeon Hojeong looked toward the entrance of Ink Dragon Hall with puzzled eyes.

The doors of Ink Dragon Hall were standing wide open. And through those doors, countless people were coming and going.

He stopped in place, and then soon spotted White Rat.

“Senior.”

White Rat’s face remained expressionless. But somehow, he seemed pressed for time.

“What happened?”

White Rat answered in a low voice.

“It’s bad.”

“......?”

“The Lord of the Manor has collapsed.”

“......!”