Shaaak—!

With each step, a masked man dropped.

Shrrk—

Another step, another masked head flew.

Cutting her way forward, Seolhwa’s gaze fixed on one point alone—Mo-wol.

The owner of the Fourth Moon Medallion of the Blood Cult.

Shaaak—!

“Graaaah—!”

Mo-wol felt the Shadowless Demon God’s killing intent without a filter, as if it were a blade laid to her throat.

At that glacial stare boring into her, she unconsciously rubbed her own neck.

A fear swept her—any moment now, that sword carving through the Southern Wilds barbarians would shear her head clean off.

“Kill them! Now! If you can’t match her, then use your heads! I said swallow Bloodburst pills or whatever it takes!”

Retreating step by step, Mo-wol drove the Fourth Blood Lord’s underlings on.

But the Southern Wilds barbarians were no match for the Shadowless Demon God.

Like insects hurling themselves into a roaring flame.

Of the hundred-odd beasts the Fourth Blood Lord had hurled in, more than half were down already, and the Shadowless Demon God had closed to a mere ten paces.

As the choking, coiling killing intent squeezed in, Mo-wol’s eyes skittered, searching for someone—anyone.

Fweeee— fweeeeeee—

A strange piping rose from somewhere.

Seolhwa knit her brows and turned her head.

She steadied at once.

The Imoogi sealed her ears by force.

[It’s a sound art.]

‘!’

Sound arts—martial skill that attacks through sound.

As far as Seolhwa knew, only one in the Blood Cult used sound arts.

The owner of the Fifth Moon Medallion—Sound Moon. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

‘They brought Sound Moon too?’

“You didn’t seriously think I failed to anticipate this, did you?”

Mo-wol taunted, as if she had never lost her composure.

But if that flute was Sound Moon’s, there was no time to trade jabs.

Leaving the smirking Mo-wol behind, Seolhwa swept a rapid glance around.

Everyone except Seolhwa and the outsiders had their ears clamped in agony.

Among them, the Guardian Patrols with deeper internal strength were bleeding from their ears as they met the outsiders’ assault—but the tide had flipped.

Those Guardian Patrols who had been handling the outsiders with little trouble were now being driven back without mercy.

Losses mounted on the Sado Union’s side.

Huff— Shaaaak!

Seolhwa hurled a blade of force that felled the Southern Wilds barbarians mauling the Guardian Patrols, then swept her sword again to open a gap.

Into that sliver of time—

[Namgoong Seolhwa! A blade! Clash blades!]

Following the Imoogi, she hooked an outsider’s crescent blade off the ground with her foot.

Sword in one hand, the outsider’s weapon in the other, Seolhwa drove power into both and smashed them together with all her strength.

KAAAAAANG—

A needle-fine shatter-pitch rang through the ravine.

KAAAAAAANG—

The gorge that had amplified the flute now thrummed—whooom—whooom—with clashing steel.

She had shoved Sound Moon’s piping back.

In that moment while the flute’s cry was swallowed—

“Get a hold of yourselves!!!”

The Shadowless Demon God’s lion’s roar blasted across the gorge.

Her power-laden voice ricocheted from mountain to mountain, booming through the chasm in rolling echoes.

The Guardian Patrols and Beggar’s Union men convulsing in pain snapped to at once.

And before the echoes even faded—

KAAAAAANG—!!

Steel smashed again through the ravine.

To leave not even a sliver for Sound Moon’s notes to creep in.

KAANG—!! KAAAAANG—!!

The Guardian Patrols rallied and drove back into the outsiders.

The problem lay straight ahead—Seolhwa’s front, which she alone had been holding.

The outsiders flinched, cowed by the storming killing intent she radiated and the weight ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) of two blades in her hands—only for a heartbeat.

“What are you waiting for—kill her! Are you throwing away the only chance you’ve bought?!”

At Mo-wol’s scream, they charged Seolhwa anew.

KAAAAAANG—!!

At that powder-keg instant—

Sensing Seolhwa’s peril, Yu Gang kicked off the cliff to drop.

Fwooooosh— THU-UUUM—!!

Quicker by a beat, something massive slammed down between Seolhwa and the outsiders lunging at her.

That “something” was a man—a huge one.

A bald scalp gleamed even in the dark ravine; his garb was some odd thing between monk’s robe and not; savage cords of muscle bulged through cloth.

“...”

Recognizing the one who had suddenly filled her whole field of view, Seolhwa let out a breath of relief before she knew it.

“...Late, War King.”

“I come and still you carp.”

Whuff— thud!

The Green Forest War King tossed something down in front of her as if it were nothing.

A corpse with its neck snapped.

Its eyes had not even had time to close.

“Someone was toying with us with a filthy flute, so I brought him. Was he one of yours?”

What he had thrown was the Fifth Moon—the very Sound Moon who moments ago had been piping pain through everyone.

“Heh.”

A dry laugh escaped her.

The Fifth Moon was dead.

Just like that—spent to nothing.

“What if he had been mine?”

“I know he wasn’t.”

“Then why ask.”

“Because it’s pitiful—how weak you are, to bend under a flute.”

A twitch knotted Seolhwa’s brow beneath the mask.

“And you—did you come alone?”

When Seolhwa sent her letter to the Martial Alliance through Ryeong, she had told her to stop by the Green Forest on the way back.

With Alliance support cut off, the only help at hand was the Green Forest.

As luck had it, the War King was at Mount Wutai in Shanxi—close enough. It was the perfect ask.

“Wait. They’ll be here in a blink.”

Before he even finished, a rumble rose.

“Follow the Chief Hall Lord!!”

“Move! The last one in dies by my hand!”

“Out of the way! The Invincible Twin Poles is taking point!”

A hundred-odd Green Forest men poured in from both sides of the gorge.

Seolhwa’s brows dropped as she watched them jostle forward with weapons raised.

“What is that rabble?”

“What did you expect from bandits.”

“I told you to bring only your elite.”

The field was a narrow-necked ravine.

Numbers were never the point.

She had brought only the Sado Union’s Guardian Patrols for exactly that reason—and to spare needless deaths.

“Five of mine will take one of theirs.”

WAAAAH—!!

With a full-throated roar, Green Forest and masked men crashed together.

The masked ranks, suddenly encircled by the Green Forest’s surge, wavered and milled.

Cheng— che-che-cheng—!

“Die!”

Chaos swallowed the gorge in an instant.

Those who had held some order in their lines were all churned together, brawling knee-deep in mud.

Kang—! KAANG!

“■■■! ■■■■■!!”

Thud! Thwack!

“Uaaah!!”

Seolhwa ordered the Guardian Patrols not to waste the chance while the masked men’s attention was fixed on the Green Forest.

They obeyed, slipping among the bandits to cut down masked foes.

As the War King said, sheer pressure of numbers blunted the masked men’s momentum.

Seolhwa wound her grip on her sword and looked once more toward Mo-wol.

“Tell your men to watch for poison.”

“So there was poison.”

“I’ll trust you with the rear.”

Tap—

Leaving the foes in front of her to the War King, Seolhwa sprinted straight for Mo-wol.

“St—stop her! Now!! Stop that woman!!”

Hemmed in by the Green Forest’s rush, the escape paths closed, Mo-wol shrieked, half-mad.

Shaaak— Shrrrk—

Seolhwa carved down the masked men blocking her without a hint of mercy and pushed on.

More masked men surged at Mo-wol’s order—more blood sprayed beneath Seolhwa’s blade.

As the distance collapsed again, Mo-wol shoved through her own, bolting.

She even tore weapons from masked hands and slashed at Green Forest and masked men alike in a blind bid to break free.

“Mo-wol!!”

Seolhwa called her by the Blood Cult name only they knew.

“!”

Mo-wol froze and stared back at Seolhwa.

“H—how do you know... that name....”

Tap, fwoosh—

She was stunned for a heartbeat.

Seolhwa stamped and soared, vaulting over the last masks in her way, sword raised.

A black blade-shadow poured over Mo-wol’s sky.

She did not even manage to react. She only stared blankly up at the Shadowless Demon God’s edge racing for her.

For a breath, Seolhwa’s eyes beyond the mask and Mo-wol’s beyond the face veil met.

Shiiik—

At last Seolhwa’s sword ripped down for Mo-wol. But—

KAAAAANG—!!

A massive force flashed in from somewhere and slammed Seolhwa’s blade aside.

Whirrrr—

Wreathed in force aura, it struck her sword, wheeled short through the air, and curved back toward where it had flown from.

Like a living thing, it moved with eerie grace—a crescent weapon of the kind the outsiders used.

No—larger, with a rougher, crueler edge. A singular blade.

“...”

Mo-wol’s face veil split on the bias and fell away.

Her frozen, shocked face finally showed itself.

Tak—

Driven back by that strength, Seolhwa twisted in the air, bled off the shock, and landed.

Her gaze lifted past Mo-wol—toward a man walking with unhurried dignity through the melee-churned field behind her.

For an instant, Seolhwa’s expression loosened—slack, as if something had given way.

Her pupils trembled, fine and quick.

“War King...!”

Finishing the scrimmage with the masked men at his back, the Green Forest War King turned to the sound.

“Pull your men back. Now!!”

The Shadowless Demon God’s urgent cry pealed through the gorge.