A man in obviously expensive, fine silk, his whole body draped in glittering ornaments.

A middle-aged man with round eyes and thick, caterpillar-like brows.

“What business brings someone of your standing to me?”

The Merchant-Lord of the Silver Phoenix Merchant House, Jang Wigwan, chuckled—heh—and rubbed his clasped palms together.

“I can’t tell you how startled I was to hear the Pavilion Lord of the Greenscale Pavilion was asking for me.”

Jang Wigwan believed the person seated across from him to be the Pavilion Lord of the Greenscale Pavilion.

To draw out the suspicious Merchant-Lord, the Hao Sect Lord had told Jang Wigwan that Seolhwa’s party were the Pavilion Lord of Greenscale Pavilion.

“I’m sorry, but I’m not the Pavilion Lord.”

Jang Wigwan’s mouth tightened for an instant.

“I verified the Pavilion Lord’s seal.”

“I did receive the Pavilion Lord’s help.” 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

“...”

Jang Wigwan’s expression grew colder.

He sensed danger by instinct.

He had guards behind him, but he could tell they would be of little use.

He was angry at the Pavilion Lord of Greenscale Pavilion who had summoned him under false pretenses, but this was exactly when he needed to keep a cool head.

“What matter brings you to me?”

“I’ve heard you’re hiding So-and-so of the Beggar’s Union.”

“Pardon? So-and-so... from the Beggar’s Union? Are you saying his name is literally ‘So-and-so’?”

Jang Wigwan answered with perfect composure.

Anyone who wasn’t certain he was helping So-and-so might well have been fooled.

Tak—

Jang Wigwan looked at the item the man set on the table.

Gleaming so brightly it seized the eye at once—nothing less than a gold ingot.

“Will a single chest suffice?”

“E-excuse me?”

Jang Wigwan stared tensely at the man across from him.

He had expected someone might approach him to find So-and-so, but the money the man put forward far exceeded anything he had imagined.

“...I’m not sure I understand what you mean...”

An intrigued glint flickered in the man’s eyes as he looked at Jang Wigwan.

“I don’t know why you’re hiding So-and-so, but I’m looking for him to protect him.”

“...I—I have no idea who this So-and-so is...”

Tak—

Jang Wigwan flinched and looked down at the table.

Another gold ingot?

Surely not two chests?

Clutching his trembling hands to still them, he saw that what lay on the table was an ordinary stone.

A small stone, no longer than a finger.

Why a stone, out of nowhere?

“Show this to So-and-so. He’ll want to meet me.”

Jang Wigwan stared at the stone in silence for a moment.

“If you can bring me to him, the gold ingots are yours—payment for your help.”

“...!”

For a breathless instant, Jang Wigwan just stared blankly at the character carved on the stone’s upper face: 舞.

“How should I announce you?”

“Show him this and he’ll know. I’ll be waiting here.”

“...Very well.”

Jang Wigwan picked up the stone and slipped it inside his robe.

He rose and bowed at the waist to the man.

“I’ll bring word shortly.”

****

Huff—

Yu Gang charged straight at the masked men.

Three in total.

The instant two of them spotted Yu Gang, they fell into fighting stances; the remaining one chopped Chunpal at the neck to knock him out and heaved him over a shoulder.

Kang— kakakakang!

Yu Gang crashed into the two masked men.

The one who had tried to spirit Chunpal away didn’t get even three steps.

Swish— papapapak—!

Arrows came out of nowhere and thudded into the ground at his feet in a scatter.

“!”

Sensing a fast-approaching presence, the masked man snapped his head up.

A man was sprinting toward him from ahead.

“...”

He hesitated a moment, then flung Chunpal aside and drew a weapon from his robe.

He was about to meet the oncomer head-on when—

Whoosh— pppff-boom!

Something dropped before him and burst, billowing a pale smoke.

Coughing, batting the smoke aside and scrambling clear, he saw that a woman with a bow and a man who had thrown the smoke bomb already had Chunpal slung over a back and were fleeing.

“...!”

He started to give chase when—

Fwooosh—!

“!”

An oppressive aura made him spring backward in alarm.

At the same time, a great saber slammed—kwajik!—into the ground.

“Your opponent is me.”

It was the saber-wielding man who had clearly been tied up with his two comrades—yet now he was squarely in front of him.

The other two masked men came up beside the bewildered one.

The three exchanged quick looks. And then—

Shwek— shweeeek—!

All three masked men charged Yu Gang at once.

Yu Gang’s gaze dropped, cold and flat.

Kang—! kakakang!

Shwek— shweeeek—!!

An ugly, air-ripping sound scraped his ears.

Kakang—! kaang!

Parrying their attacks with his saber, Yu Gang studied their weapons.

The crescent-shaped blades had uneven, jagged edges.

That hair-raising sound, like not cutting air but tearing it, clearly came from those ragged edges.

Weapons made to shred skin on a graze and deal lethal wounds—merciless by design.

They were crafted with only one intent: to crush an opponent with brutality.

No consideration for care or respect for one’s foe—no regard for human dignity at all.

‘And these attacks...’

The masked men moved in an unfamiliar way.

He had seen and fought countless martial styles through the tournament, but he had never heard of anything this merciless.

Could these be called unorthodox martial artists?

‘Different.’

Hard to explain exactly how, but this wasn’t the Central Plains martial arts he knew.

Shwek— shweeeek— kaang—!

The masked men poured attacks at Yu Gang.

Not with any method or rule—simply, brutally.

They couldn’t afford to raise a clamor, so he couldn’t unleash full qi either.

Barely fending off the masked men’s strikes, Yu Gang checked for the auras of Tang Hojin and Golden Lotus Rain.

The two were just about to clear the wall.

‘With Chunpal, getting over that wall won’t be easy...’

At that instant—

Shweeeek—

He turned his head with a belated Ah— and the blade one masked man had swung was already at his very nose.

‘I have to duck...’

Instinctively, he flipped the hand gripping his saber, rapping the blade up with the butt while dropping his body—at the same moment—

Shweeeek— kaang!

A throwing knife came from somewhere and knocked aside the edge threatening Yu Gang.

Thanks to it, the blade only barely skimmed the tips of his hair and whistled through empty air.

What came next happened in a blink.

Tat—

Another masked figure appeared from nowhere—and cut with even more pitiless economy than the three from moments before.

Swish— seogeok—!

He severed the arm of the one swinging at Yu Gang, then took his neck in the same flowing motion.

Shweeeaak—!

Whirling through the air to evade another strike, he clipped the attacking hand of the one who had swung.

“Aaagh—!”

The pain-stricken death cry didn’t carry far.

Under the wide-open night sky, Yu Gang could only stare, dazed, at that graceful figure carving down foes.

Tak—

The mysterious masked figure touched down.

He flicked a glance at Yu Gang.

Under the bright moonlight, the eyes above the mask shone clear.

“...!”

Seolhwa.

The thought flashed through him and—

Tat—

She left one masked man alive and broke away. She was headed for Golden Lotus Rain and Tang Hojin, who were going over the wall.

“Wai—!”

Yu Gang tried to stop her, but the lone remaining masked man bolted the other way, and he couldn’t.

He looked toward the wall, hesitated a beat, then chose to chase the one fleeing in the opposite direction.

Meanwhile—

Tat— tadadat—

“Ah!”

“Wait—!”

Taat—!

The mysterious masked figure snatched Chunpal in a heartbeat and vaulted clean over the Greenscale Pavilion wall.

The ease with which the figure cleared the wall left Golden Lotus Rain and Tang Hojin slack-jawed.

Trading startled looks, the two hurriedly gave chase.

“No! Wait!”

Tat— tatatat—

The masked figure raced over Shijiazhuang’s rooftops above a city reveling in a lavish festival.

Down in the streets, children and grown-ups alike wore bright smiles as they enjoyed the festivities, and resplendent lights flooded the night thoroughfares.

Somewhere, a beautiful song drifted up.

Tat— tatatat— taat—

The masked figure gave the joyous, jubilant streets the briefest glance—and sped into the dark.

Only the sky lanterns, floating like little moons, lit the masked figure’s path through the night.

****

Hah— huff— hah...

Golden Lotus Rain gulped for breath.

Chasing the mysterious masked figure to avoid losing them had driven her flat-out, all the way to a quiet forest on the city’s outskirts.

Perhaps from the brutal pace, the masked figure finally stopped—only once they’d reached this lonely wood.

Still breathing hard, Golden ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) Lotus Rain drew and leveled her bow.

“Put him... down...”

Her eyes sharpened.

With her breath quickly steadied, her arrowhead pointed squarely at the masked figure’s heart.

Tak—!

Arriving late and breathing hard, Tang Hojin also drew a hidden weapon to his grip.

If it came to it, he would use paralysis poison to subdue the opponent.

“...”

The masked figure turned.

Golden Lotus Rain reset her aim.

“If you don’t put him down... I’ll shoot.”

The masked figure obediently set Chunpal on the ground.

With a flick of the eyes, Golden Lotus Rain checked that Chunpal was breathing, then fixed on the masked figure again.

She was about to ask who they were when, to her shock, the masked figure lifted both hands and removed the mask.

“!”

“...!”

When the revealed face registered, both their eyes went wide as lanterns.

“Namgoong Seolhwa...?”

Amazingly, the masked figure was Namgoong Seolhwa.

“Seolhwa...!”

Golden Lotus Rain lowered her arrow, slung her bow, and ran to her.

Tang Hojin came up as well.

“What is going on? Why are you—!?”

Seolhwa let out a small laugh at Golden Lotus Rain, who stared between her and Chunpal with startled eyes.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t have time to explain to you two. If I’d been even a little later, the thugs we ran into at the winehouse would have been on our tail.”

“That’s fine, but why are you here? We heard you went to Shanxi on the Alliance Lord’s orders.”

Half delight, half astonishment.

They were about to say they were after the same person when—

Tak—

“Commander!”

Yu Gang, who had followed the group, arrived last.

Slung over his shoulder hung the remaining masked man Seolhwa had left behind—limp and unconscious.