So-and-so’s eyes went wide as lanterns.

“Y-you...!”

He was not the only one shocked.

His disciple, Chunpal—

“H-how is this possible, Master? Aren’t those men the Sado Union? Why are the Sado Union...?!”

“I don’t know what’s what myself, so don’t ask...!”

Even Cheon Guiho and the Beggar’s Union elders—who had been so certain the Sado Union stood on their side—could not hide their alarm.

“What madness is this! This is not what we agreed to!”

Cheon Guiho shouted at the Shadowless Demon God.

But when the Sado Union guardians who held their blades against him raised them higher, he fell silent at once.

“I made no promises with you.”

The Shadowless Demon God turned toward Cheon Guiho.

At the chill gaze boring at him from behind the mask, Cheon Guiho involuntarily drew in breath.

“B-but...”

“I do not consort with those whose eyes are blind and ears are stopped.”

“...!”

“That’s right. The promise was with me, wasn’t it?”

The voice came suddenly from behind So-and-so.

Startled, both So-and-so and Chunpal turned.

There stood a veiled woman with her face hidden behind black silk, flanked by scores of masked fighters.

And not only behind So-and-so.

Masked men also emerged behind Cheon Guiho and the Beggar’s Union elders, instantly surrounding both the Sado Union and the Beggar’s Union. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Seolhwa lowered her gaze, reading the presences.

“At least a hundred.”

Perhaps more.

Far more than she had anticipated.

Mo-wol had prepared this trap with painstaking care to see her dead.

But—

“The Blood Lord is not here.”

None of them bore the crushing aura of true power.

“Only underlings, then?”

They might be hiding their strength, but at the very least, the Blood Lord was not among them.

****

Meanwhile, atop the cliff overlooking the ravine—

“What in the world is happening down there?”

Geum Ryeonbi, confusion plain on her face, asked Yu Gang and Tang Hojin.

Up to the point where Cheon Guiho and So-and-so met and spoke, all had gone as expected. But then the Sado Union had appeared, seemingly about to kill So-and-so—only to turn on Cheon Guiho.

That alone was chaos enough. Then, suddenly, still another group had shown itself.

“Chief. What do we do? Do we just sit and watch like this?”

“....”

Yu Gang’s own expression, as he watched the scene unfold, was no brighter.

“As Seolhwa said.”

A clash with the outsiders had become unavoidable.

It was what they had expected, but—

“There are too many...”

The Sado Union numbered no more than thirty.

But the outsiders—well over a hundred, by rough count.

Even with Seolhwa wearing the guise of the Shadowless Demon God, she could not possibly face a hundred alone.

At this rate, not only So-and-so and Chunpal but even the Sado Union warriors might be in danger.

“Do not interfere.”

“....”

Yu Gang clenched his fist.

“...We hold position for now.”

****

Mo-wol stepped out from among the masked fighters, speaking in her usual languid tone.

“How disappointing, Lord of the Sado Union. I thought we had more in common than this.”

Seolhwa gave a short laugh.

“You were mistaken. Seems I was the only one feeling stifled.”

“Did I not even offer you a precious gift?”

“Don’t lump me in with those idiot Malcodosa fools.”

“....”

Mo-wol’s face hardened in an instant, lips parting slightly in genuine surprise.

“You... how much do you know of us?”

“Who can say? What do you think?”

“...Then you must die here, after all.”

Mo-wol raised her hand, and the masked fighters moved forward.

They bore the same crescent-bladed weapons as the masked fighters Seolhwa had faced the night before at Cheongrin House.

[Poison. Deadly enough that a scratch could kill. Be careful.]

At Imugi’s warning, Seolhwa’s brows drew together.

Poisons of the Southern Barbarians—most were fatal to Central Plains martial artists.

Because the southern climate was so different, the very nature of their toxins differed; even those resistant to Central Plains poisons could not endure them.

“They’ve coated their weapons in poison. Be cautious.”

Shrring—

Having warned the guardians, Seolhwa drew her sword.

Dark energy rippled to life around her.

“If possible...”

I will take them all.

The one small mercy was ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) that the ravine was narrow—hundreds could not charge at once.

“Elder So-and-so.”

“Do not trouble yourself for me.”

“...Be careful.”

The air bristled on the edge of violence.

Whsssh—!

Mo-wol’s sleeve snapped like a whip as she flung her arm.

The masked fighters surged toward Seolhwa’s party.

“Ahhhhhh—!”

“■■■■!”

They screamed in an unintelligible tongue.

So-and-so, Cheon Guiho, and the Beggar’s Union elders—all unaware that these were outsiders—stared in shock.

“■■■!”

At the cry of the foremost fighters, they leapt.

Wham—!

Dark energy burst from Seolhwa, blasting out like a gale.

The front ranks went flying, and those behind faltered, slowed.

The Sado Union guardians seized the moment.

Cheon Guiho and the Beggar’s Union elders no longer mattered to them.

Clang! Ka-ka-ka-kang!

Seolhwa alone met the charge from the front. The Sado Union guardians struck at the masked fighters on the other side.

“Graaah!”

Slash—clash!

“Aaagh!”

Blood sprayed; the clash of blades filled the ravine.

Kang-kang! Ka-kang!

The masked fighters were many, but the narrow path kept them from swarming, and the Sado Union guardians outmatched them in skill.

And then—

“■■■!!”

Thwack!

“Guhh...!”

An arrow from nowhere pierced the shoulder of a masked fighter who had been striking at a guardian’s back.

The guardian took the opening and cut the man down.

Seolhwa, methodically cutting her way through, glanced toward the source of the arrows.

At the cliff’s edge.

Yu Gang, Geum Ryeonbi, and Tang Hojin stood there.

Thwip—thunk! Thud!

Rather than plunging into the battle, they lent support with arrows and throwing blades at critical moments.

“■■!! ■■■■!!”

One masked fighter pointed at Yu Gang’s group, shouting.

At once, several who had been held back by the narrow ground sprang up the cliff face.

“Chief. I think we’re in trouble...”

Seeing them scramble upward with furious speed, Geum Ryeonbi swallowed hard.

Behind her, Yu Gang drew his saber and planted himself before them.

“I will take these. Please focus on the melee.”

By rough count, ten masked fighters were climbing.

Had he not struggled against just three at Cheongrin House?

Geum Ryeonbi looked at him with worry.

But then—

Hummm—

From Yu Gang burst forth inner power blazing like solar fire.

At once he swung the saber, brimming with yang energy, at the climbers.

Whshh—KWA-RA-RA-RA-RAK—!

A colossal blade-force ripped down the cliffside toward the masked fighters.

“■■!!”

“■■■!!”

They flailed to dodge, but the sheer cliff left no room.

They could not leap higher than the saber-force, nor could they meet it.

KWA-RA-RAK—!

“Gyaaahhh!!”

“Aaaghhh!”

In screams of death, they were swept away in an instant.

Unlike the duel at Cheongrin House, this saber-strike showed no mercy.

Geum Ryeonbi stared at Yu Gang, face tightening despite herself.

After felling so many at once, he stood unshaken, eyes still fixed on the cliffside.

“...Pull yourself together. This is no game.”

Of course, she had known it was no game.

But this was real battle.

Life-and-death combat.

Show one opening, and it would not be a masked fighter dying—it would be her.

“....”

Dragging her gaze from Yu Gang, Geum Ryeonbi’s eyes grew sharper, more cautious.

Creak—

Her arrow nocked, aimed at the head of a masked fighter rushing So-and-so.

Thwip—thunk!

“Guhh....”

So-and-so, bashing away madly with his staff, and Cheon Guiho’s men, still in confusion, both turned to see the fighter fall, an arrow through his skull.

The torn mask revealed his face.

Not of the Central Plains.

Unfamiliar tongue, skin covered in strange markings.

Weapons unseen in the Central Plains, savage movements.

“Barbarians of the Southern Wilds.”

The Beggar’s Union men recognized them at once.

“....”

Staring at the markings revealed through the torn mask, So-and-so shouted at Cheon Guiho and the Beggar’s Union elders.

“So these are the ones you would entrust the Union to—mere Southern savages?!”

Blood sprayed, screams rang, as Cheon Guiho and the elders looked at him.

“Since when has the Beggar’s Union become the lackeys of those who covet the Central Plains? Would you hand it over to foreign barbarians because you’ve no other way to live?!”

So-and-so’s voice was filled with fury.

Weak though they were.

Wretched though their lot.

The Beggar’s Union had been a force that knew faith.

They would starve rather than steal, die rather than betray a brother, be humble but not base.

So it had been.

How had it come to this?

When had the one commandment of the forebears—revere righteousness—been lost?

“If you have eyes, then look! See clearly who slew our Lord—wake yourselves and see!”

Why had the Beggar’s Union cast aside faith?

“You...!”

So-and-so raged.

That rage turned to grief, to anguish, spilling down as tears, as sweat.

The hand gripping his staff bulged with veins, his whole body trembling.

He was ashamed—ashamed and guilty that he had failed to protect the Union.

“....”

So-and-so bowed his head.