Two martial artists were having a sword fight in the street.

Baek Yoonjun felt a very familiar feeling.

For example, in Luoyang a while ago.

'I wonder if Sister Suhye is doing well.'

Recalling Cheon Suhye, whom he had saved, Baek Yoonjun hastily left the place before getting annoyingly entangled.

"Die! You Taoist bastard!"

"You die!! You dog of the military!"

When Baek Yoonjun hastily left the place, the two martial artists were still causing a sword fight.

A woman intervened between them, who were making a mess by breaking everything around them.

The woman swung her black sword, her long black hair and white robe fluttering.

Her sword passed between the martial artists as gracefully as a flower blooming.

Slice.

The martial artists' swords were instantly split in two.

The woman looked at the martial artists with a cold impression and quietly opened her mouth.

"Aren't you ashamed to have a sword fight in the marketplace?"

Although the woman's sword was as graceful as a plum blossom blooming, her voice was as cold as could be.

The martial artists got angry at such a woman.

"Plum Blossom Sword! Don't interfere!"

"How dare a mere wanderer interfere in the affairs of Zhongnan!!"

The woman slowly raised her sword without any agitation at the attitude of such martial artists.

"Where is the affair of Zhongnan that makes a mess in the marketplace? I don't care if you two have a sword fight or a life-and-death duel. But if you're going to do it, do it in a quiet place, not the marketplace."

"How dare you!!"

At the woman's words, the martial artists got angry and were about to draw their swords, but.

"If you do more, I will not show any mercy."

At the cold woman's words, they sheathed their swords.

"Just you wait!!"

"Zhongnan will not stand still!"

Then they stumbled and ran away.

As the martial artists disappeared, the woman sheathed her sword without a single change in expression and slowly turned her body.

At that moment, an emotion appeared on her face, which seemed as if it would not change a single bit, like a frost.

Something came into her eyes.

Although it was a back view, it was a sight she could never forget.

Although he was wearing a bamboo hat pulled down low, the long white hair and white robe visible below it.

The woman stretched out her hand as if possessed towards that back view.

'Could it be? No, it can't be!'

But that back view had disappeared like a mirage.

The woman stopped in her tracks.

With a look that could not hide her futility, as if her legs had lost their strength, she leaned against a wall and barely stood there.

'Older brother.'

With her head bowed low, she was barely holding back her sobs.

'Older brother is no longer here...'

The woman, Cheon Suhye, gritted her teeth.

Barely holding back the tears that were about to flow, she raised her head.

Although her face had looked as if the world had collapsed until just now, it had now returned to a face that was as cold as could be.

'I can't get weak. That way, Brother Baek, who sacrificed himself and gave me a new life, will also be able to rest in peace.'

Cheon Suhye slowly moved her feet with a face that was as cold as could be.

That step was as cold as her hardened heart.

Baek Yoonjun returned to the inn.

'But isn't it too quiet for an inn?'

Having returned, Baek Yoonjun finally realized that the inside of the inn was quiet.

'No matter how I look at it, it seems we're the only ones here.'

Baek Yoonjun carefully looked around and spread his senses.

'It's just our party, the chef, and the waiter?'

Becoming needlessly serious, Baek Yoonjun carefully approached Zhang Sanfeng, whose presence he felt closest.

Zhang Sanfeng was drinking alone in a corner of the inn.

Baek Yoonjun quietly spoke to him, who looked somewhat bitter. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"Brother Zhang. It seems we are the only ones in the inn."

"Well, since Zhongnan has rented out the entire inn, isn't that natural?"

The question was easily solved.

Baek Yoonjun became needlessly embarrassed.

"I was just joking."

Therefore, he spoke, hiding his embarrassed feelings as much as possible.

At that, Zhang Sanfeng looked at Baek Yoonjun seriously.

"Hah."

At the sight of him letting out a very serious sigh, Baek Yoonjun sweated coldly inside.

"What is it?"

"It's nothing. I was just surprised that Brother Baek also has a flaw."

"A flaw, you say?"

"The fact that you are not good at joking certainly suits Brother Baek."

For a very short moment, Baek Yoonjun looked at Zhang Sanfeng with a look of 'What is this human saying?' but soon accepted the situation.

'Although I've received a strange misunderstanding, since it doesn't seem to be a bad one, I can just let it slide.'

Baek Yoonjun decided to just let it slide.

It was a splendid homebody introvert-like attitude of letting things slide if he could, whatever he did.

"By the way, Brother Zhang, why are you drinking alone here?"

Baek Yoonjun, on top of that, attempted to change the subject.

"That's..."

Fortunately, Baek Yoonjun's intention succeeded, and Zhang Sanfeng downed a glass of wine and then continued to speak.

"I have a lot on my mind in many ways."

"Thoughts, you say?"

"First, would you like a drink? Brother Baek."

Baek Yoonjun received the glass that Zhang Sanfeng offered and downed it.

'It's bitter.'

Although Baek Yoonjun didn't know much about the taste of alcohol, he had a perception that a strong one was a good one.

"It's a good drink."

"Have another."

Seeing Baek Yoonjun down the drink, Zhang Sanfeng offered another glass.

'Did he want a drink? He's drinking a lot.'

Although Baek Yoonjun didn't know anything about social life, since he knew that if he received, he should give, he received the glass, downed it, and then offered.

"Brother Zhang, have a drink too."

And so, as the glasses were exchanged, Zhang Sanfeng quietly opened his mouth.

"The alliance leader that Brother Baek faced in Shaolin. He is my father."

"What?"

Baek Yoonjun almost spat out the drink he was drinking.

'Father? Father, you say? Now that I think about it, they do look a little alike.'

The glass that Baek Yoonjun was holding vibrated slightly.

'Could it be that he's going to rush at me, shouting, 'The enemy of my father!'? For now, it doesn't seem so, but.'

Baek Yoonjun sweated coldly inside.

"You don't have to mind that Brother Baek faced that person. I also faced him, prepared to either die or kill him."

Fortunately, it seemed Zhang Sanfeng did not mind that part much.

"I don't know if I've told you before, but that person committed an act that went against the heavenly principles of cutting down his close friend and bringing down the Baek family clan. Not only that, he is a heinous person who led the Shaolin disaster this time."

Although Zhang Sanfeng continued to speak quite firmly, for some reason, a bitter feeling was mixed in.

'It's heavy. Heavy.'

Looking at such a Zhang Sanfeng, Baek Yoonjun continuously downed his drink.

"I still can't understand that person's thoughts. But I do know that he cherished his family terribly. Although that family is now also in a state like a candle in the wind..."

Zhang Sanfeng trailed off with a bitter look and continuously downed the wine in his glass.

In that heavy atmosphere, Baek Yoonjun also just continuously brought the glass to his mouth.

'Should I offer some comfort?'

Since Baek Yoonjun had been cooped up in a room corner and a mountain corner for a long time, he had no talent for comfort.

'Let's see, comfort, comfort... for now, isn't the best comfort to say what that person wants to hear the most at that time?'

After worrying for a long time, Baek Yoonjun carefully brought up a word.

"If the family is in danger, wouldn't it be good if Brother Zhang lent a hand?"

"If they are annihilated, it is their own doing. That's why it's hard to easily let go of my lingering attachment, but I don't feel like lending a hand."

"I see."

Baek Yoonjun felt as if he would suffocate in the heavy atmosphere.

'I shouldn't have said anything!'

But since it was his own doing, he could not leave the place carelessly.

Since Zhang Sanfeng was also silently downing his drink as if his mouth were bitter, a silence flowed between the two for a while.

And so, time passed, and Zhang Sanfeng broke the silence first.

"Well, although there are worries about that person and the family, the bigger worry is..."

At his words, Baek Yoonjun was shocked inside.

'A bigger one is coming out here?!'

Although Baek Yoonjun frantically tried to think of an excuse to run away immediately.

"That I have come to this place as the representative of Diancang in place of Elder Hyunjun Hyun, whom that person cut down."

"That... didn't Brother Zhang completely cut ties with that person?"

"Can heavenly principles be cut just by cutting them? Fortunately, the brothers of Diancang do not blame me..."

As the story about Hyunjun Hyun came up, Baek Yoonjun also could not help but become solemn.

"How did Elder Hyunjun Hyun pass away?"

Recalling that Zhang Sanfeng had stood up to Namgung Jehyun until the end, Baek Yoonjun asked carefully.

At that, Zhang Sanfeng smiled bitterly.

"Brother Baek also knows, right? That person, while calling himself the Sword God, only shoots a bow."

"I know."

Although Baek Yoonjun didn't know the word 'Sword God', the image of Hyunjun Hyun, who had shot a bow while talking about a sword, was in his memory.

'Now that I think about it, it was absurd.'

As that absurd image came to mind, his solemn heart lightened a little, and his mood became a little lighter.

"No, why on earth does that elder keep mentioning a sword while shooting a bow? When he's not even going to draw it."

"He said it's because the elder got too much blood on his sword on the battlefield."

"The battlefield... you say?"

"Yes, so the elder said that the only time he would draw his sword again was when he was going to die."

At Zhang Sanfeng's answer, Baek Yoonjun could not help but become solemn again.

'No, why is the atmosphere getting heavy again there?!'

Although Baek Yoonjun was dying in the heavy atmosphere again, Zhang Sanfeng's words continued.

"This time, as if it were truly his place of death, Elder Hyunjun Hyun drew his sword."

In the heavy atmosphere, Zhang Sanfeng's words echoed quietly.

"That sword was a sword of extreme speed that I, with my low insight, could not dare to evaluate or even see."

Listening to his words, Baek Yoonjun silently downed the glass.

"It was a sword of extreme speed that reached the extreme, befitting the title of Sword God."

Since Baek Yoonjun had not seen it himself, he could not know what the final sword that Hyunjun Hyun had unleashed was like.

But at Zhang Sanfeng's confident tone, he predicted that it must not have been ordinary.

Baek Yoonjun unconsciously raised his glass.

"To the Sword God."

He slowly paid his respects to that great end.

"To him."

Zhang Sanfeng also slowly raised his glass like Baek Yoonjun.

And so, they quietly downed their glasses, paying their respects and condolences to the great end and sword strike of a man.

Baek Yoonjun and Zhang Sanfeng's drinking party went on for a long time.

Although Baek Yoonjun still just wanted to be cooped up in his room, because of the atmosphere, he could not leave the place.

And to that place, one more person joined.

"Master, me too, one glass."

Tang Yuhwa, who had returned, as soon as she found Baek Yoonjun, ran over and took a seat.

"Can you drink?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's nothing..."

For a moment, Baek Yoonjun looked at Tang Yuhwa's small physique and expressed his concern, but seeing the immediately fierce Tang Yuhwa, he swallowed his words.

'The kid is so small, so without realizing it...'

While having a very rude thought, Baek Yoonjun looked at Tang Yuhwa's face.

Although Tang Yuhwa usually guessed Baek Yoonjun's thoughts like a ghost, fortunately, it seemed she had not guessed his rude thought now.

"Have a glass."

"I will drink well."

Feeling needlessly embarrassed, Baek Yoonjun handed a glass to Tang Yuhwa and poured her a drink.

And so, as Tang Yuhwa joined, it became even harder for Baek Yoonjun to leave the drinking party.

'Let's just drink.'

Giving up, Baek Yoonjun downed his drink.

"Seeing Brother Baek's second disciple reminds me of Sowol."

And to such a Baek Yoonjun's ear, a familiar name was heard.

"Sowol?"

"The Heavenly Demon?"

At the same time as Baek Yoonjun asked back, Tang Yuhwa's words also popped out from the side.

Baek Yoonjun turned his gaze to Tang Yuhwa.

"The Heavenly Demon?"

"Baek Sowol said she was the Heavenly Demon."

At Tang Yuhwa's words, Baek Yoonjun's mouth gaped.

At the words 'Heavenly Demon', he couldn't think of what to say at all.

Since he had witnessed both Baek Sowol and Tang Yuhwa at that place, it couldn't be a different person with the same name.

'Sowol, that brat, hasn't her eighth-grade syndrome healed yet? No, seeing that she's calling herself the Heavenly Demon, hasn't it gotten worse?'

Baek Yoonjun covered his face.

He had become ashamed of his disciple's embarrassing behavior.

In the middle of that, a question came to Baek Yoonjun's mind.

"But how on earth did you and Sowol get to know each other?"

It was a natural question.

He wondered where on earth the two had met and gotten to know each other.

Since Baek Yoonjun had not particularly mentioned Baek Sowol when he was teaching Tang Yuhwa, he was even more curious.

Such a question from Baek Yoonjun was quickly solved.

"The one who kidnapped me was the Heavenly Demon."

Although the question was solved, an even deeper question popped out.

(End of Chapter)