The Eyes Flooded with Blood Qi Soon Melt Away

Once the turmoil on Mount Wudang was settled, Yu Gang returned to Shijiazhuang where Tang Hojin and Golden Lotus Rain were.

Having received an order to reflect, Seolhwa headed for Anhui, where the Namgoong Clan was.

Only—before entering reflection she had to set Sado Union affairs in order, so before returning to the main house she first went to Changsha in Hunan, where the Sado Union’s base was located.

“The Union Lord will dine!”

In terms of time alone, it had been nearly half a year since she last returned to the Sado Union.

Through branches scattered all across the Central Plains she had kept abreast of Sado Union news, but since returning to the Namgoong {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} Clan this was for all intents and purposes her first visit to the base.

“Long live the Sado Union Lord!”

“Long live the Shadowless Demon God!”

“Long live the Sado Union!!”

The Sado Union base was, in a word, festive.

After gathering the powers of the underworld under the name Sado Union, they had even brought Surochae and the Green Forest under its banner.

The pride of bearing the Sado Union name alone, and the respect its members felt toward the Union Lord who had accomplished such vast works, were truly immense.

“They say they prepared a banquet upon hearing you would return,” said the Hao Sect Lord to Seolhwa as she was just taking her seat.

Under the Mask of the Shadowless Demon God, Seolhwa’s brows lifted faintly.

“A banquet?”

“Yes. Now that even the Green Forest War King has become one of yours after Surochae, well—call it a celebration of that.”

The Hao Sect Lord chuckled, soft.

Behind that gentle smile was a mischief only she, who knew the Sado Union Lord’s identity, could show.

“...Was my opinion never in the running?”

“It is a rare occasion. The chiefs have all agreed to gather; it’s but a night of merriment—please join us.”

To have prepared so great a banquet for all of Sado Union and then ask her to take part—

She’d come only to say that, with everyone gathered after the Wudang affair, she would be hard to reach for a time.

As she wavered at the awkward bind, the Hao Sect Lord’s voice transmission brushed her ear.

— I heard you were ordered to reflect.

Seolhwa looked at the Hao Sect Lord.

— Before you begin, shouldn’t we also have time to cement ties with those newly come into the Sado Union?

“...”

After a moment’s thought, Seolhwa nodded with a small sigh.

As the Hao Sect Lord said, within a short span two vast forces—Surochae and the Green Forest—had submitted to the Sado Union.

The underworld chiefs who formed the Union’s backbone would be glad of their joining, yet also uneasy.

There needed to be at least one time to exchange words naturally.

“Very well. I’ll attend.”

The corners of the Hao Sect Lord’s lips curved.

Her smile looked, somehow, a little delighted.

“Please rest. I’ll come escort you.”

The Hao Sect Lord stepped out; from beyond the door came a cry—“We have the Union Lord’s leave!”—and a roar of cheers, “Waaaaaah!!”

She felt, somehow, that she’d been played.

But under the mask, Seolhwa’s lips had already softened into a faint smile.

****

That night, just as foretold, they held the largest banquet since the Sado Union’s founding.

Judging by how fully it had been planned, even chiefs from distant regions had attended and filled the seats.

Seated at the highest place of the grand hall, Seolhwa gazed down at those enjoying the feast.

In the former life, they had slipped beneath the Blood Cult and lived thirsting for blood—by now they would have lost their lives and vanished from the world.

Those very people were now gathered under the name Sado Union, laughing and talking and lifting their cups.

What had begun, at first, as nothing more than wanting to protect the Namgoong had, before she knew it, yielded a result that saved countless lives—only now did that land with weight.

“Thanks to you, I could meet my former master again.”

The one who approached Seolhwa with a wine bottle was the Green Forest War King.

Unlike when he had refused to abandon Shaolin’s identity and secluded himself in a hermitage, he was now mingling heartily among the underworld.

“A cup from me.”

“Gladly.”

Seolhwa accepted his cup.

“Your coming helped greatly.”

The Green Forest War King snorted a laugh.

“Well. If I wasn’t a hindrance, that’s relief enough.”

He meant the way he had brought more than a hundred Green Forest fighters and increased the number of jiangshi.

“Hardly. Because of you, many lives were saved. It was help enough.”

His hand, pouring wine, paused briefly.

Seolhwa glanced, puzzled, at the cup not yet filled.

The Green Forest War King wore an odd expression.

“You are...”

“?”

“At times, you seem like one of the orthodox.”

Under the mask, Seolhwa blinked.

One of the orthodox...

“Ha ha ha...”

She laughed without meaning to.

To some, she seemed underworld; to others, orthodox.

Was she not, then, quite a strange person?

“If that offended you, forgive me. As you know, from me it isn’t an insult.”

“Right. I’ll take the wine sweetly.”

When the Green Forest War King returned to his seat, the next to approach—surprisingly—was Surochae’s chief, Maeng Deungho.

“May I offer you a cup?”

Not expecting Maeng Deungho to come of his own accord, Seolhwa was silent for a moment, then held out her cup.

Maeng Deungho poured.

“I have a child I could not love more if I kept him in my eye.”

“...”

Come to think of it—was Soyak well?

The last she had seen of him, the boy had not only regained his health but, with an Indestructible Celestial Body, was driving himself at training without end.

Striving at martial cultivation, saying he would become the Namgoong Clan’s Division Lord of force.

Put a child like that in your eye and it would hurt quite a bit, she thought.

He’d grown. Quite a lot.

And yet...

She hadn’t expected him to bring up Soyak first.

Maeng Deungho might appear to be cooperating with Surochae, but in truth he was the Namgoong Clan’s spy.

His reports were still coming steadily; from that position, it would be best not to expose any weakness here.

“For that child, I could do anything.”

“...I see.”

“In that sense, I think rather well of you.”

“...”

Seolhwa’s eyes rounded.

Come to think of it, when had it started?

When the reports about the Sado Union and its Union Lord from Maeng Deungho had turned positive.

At first his reports had simply noted, flatly, what he had seen and heard; of late, they wrapped the Sado Union in good words.

As if he wanted to persuade someone that the Sado Union was by no means evil.

“Ha...”

Again, an involuntary small laugh escaped.

That Maeng Deungho—

She had not expected him to believe in the Sado Union Lord, rather than Namgoong Seolhwa, to this degree.

“...It’s an honor. I accept it gladly.”

Maeng Deungho dipped his head briefly and returned to his seat.

He did not seem to mix many words with others, but that didn’t mean he failed to join the mood.

He laughed at his subordinates’ antics and lifted his cup; the sight sat well.

And so, one by one—

The Hao Sect Lord, the Chief Strategist, the Staff Strategist, the Jade-Faced Master, and the underworld chiefs came by in turn.

At last, they came up.

Seeing the three approach with silly grins, Seolhwa could not help shaking her head with a laugh.

“You three needn’t go this far.”

“What a stingy thing to say! What kind of men are we!”

“...”

“Didn’t we, thanks to you, get a base we can actually call the Black Cloud Hall? All the more reason we should offer drink.”

Ilryong, Imoe, Sambong.

As lord and chiefs, they were making a fine success of the Black Cloud Hall, one of the Sado Union’s larger houses.

Thanks to them, when manpower was needed, they had become the stoutest base to deploy first.

“Please accept a cup, Union Lord!”

Ilryong poured first.

“...”

Imoe bowed his head and poured.

“Thanks to you saving our lives time and again, our lives might as well belong to you now, Union Lord.”

At Sambong’s last words as he poured, Seolhwa’s brow arched.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Eh?”

“That your lives hang on my hand.”

Sambong blinked.

Then—aha ha—he scratched the back of his neck.

“Back then, I mean. Didn’t you feed us Trace Venom, Union Lord? We truly thought we’d die overnight.”

Seolhwa knit her brows.

Trace Venom?

“I guessed you’d forgotten since you said nothing... A—anyway! I only wanted to say that now it doesn’t matter—at all—so...!”

“Ah, that.”

So it was what she’d fed them the first time they met, just to scare them.

“That wasn’t Trace Venom.” 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

“We really... eh...?”

Sambong blinked slowly.

“...Eh?”

“That was probably candied hawthorn.”

Seolhwa measured with her fingers about the size of her thumb’s first joint.

“Or were they grapes.”

So they’d believed it all this time.

Back then, when she’d fled with not a coin to her name, where would she have gotten Trace Venom?

Even in the Blood Cult, it was hard to come by.

“...”

Sambong’s mouth fell open.

Ilryong and Imoe, who had poured first and stepped back wearing gratified smiles, likewise gaped in shock.

Looking at the three, frozen, Seolhwa asked:

“Don’t tell me you’ve been loyal to me all this time because of that.”

And now that you know, you plan to betray me?

As she looked at them with that gaze, the three shook their heads in a panic, all at once.

“H—how could we?! We would never...!”

“Right? And you just said it doesn’t matter anymore.”

“...W—well. Yes...”

Now that... well...

Just saving our lives several times over is...

But, well, it’s a bit...

“Good.”

Smiling, Seolhwa tipped Sambong’s cup into her own wine gourd.

She had set it there because wearing a mask made drinking troublesome.

“I accept the wine with thanks.”

“...”

“And I expect you to keep working hard for the Sado Union.”

Beyond the mask, Seolhwa’s eyes curved into a bright crescent.

At that smile, the three, remembering the fear of that day four years ago, shivered without meaning to.