Tak— tatatat—

With Imoe slung across her back, Seolhwa charged straight into the heart of the arrow storm.

Black smoke rose from her blade like wavering heat-haze.

Chwachwachwachwachwak—!

As Seolhwa slashed in every direction, dozens of jet-black sword traces etched themselves around her.

For a brief instant, time seemed to halt.

Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwa-gwa-gwa—!!

Centered on Seolhwa, a cyclone of sword-wind howled outward.

Arrows caught in the surge were chopped into several pieces on the edge or shattered to splinters and blown away.

Tadatat—!

From the eye of that gale, Seolhwa ran.

The sword-wind swept ahead as if escorting her and Imoe, clearing the path for the two.

Tak—

“Union Lord!”

“Union Lord...!”

At last, the mouth of the gorge.

When she reached a place boxed in by rock on all sides—good cover for an ambush—two waiting members of the Guardian Patrols hurried over.

Seolhwa handed Imoe to them.

“Take him and treat him at once.”

“Yes. Understood.”

“And you, Union Lord...?”

Seolhwa turned her gaze back toward the gorge.

“I’ll finish this and follow.”

Tension flickered across the faces of the Guardian Patrols who had received Imoe.

Finish this.

What that meant was a life-and-death duel with the Flesh Curtain’s master, the Blood-Slaughter Demon—one counted among the Ten Great Masters of the Central Plains.

They did not doubt the Union Lord’s martial prowess; still, the standing of a Ten Great Master could not be taken lightly. They could not help but be tense.

“Go.”

After telling the two once more to withdraw, Seolhwa retraced her steps back the way she had come.

Tadadak—! Tadak—!

Footfalls pounded as the Guardian Patrols rushed off behind her.

When she stepped out from the high, overhanging shadow of the rocks and returned beneath the blistering sun, a lone figure was already standing across the gorge from her.

The master of the Flesh Curtain and Third Blood Lord of the Blood Cult—

The Blood-Slaughter Demon, Ak Jaryu.

“I heard your body was not right. Seeing you now, it seems that was not the case.”

Holding two crescent-curved swords, one in each hand, he was dressed head to toe in black, befitting the king of assassins.

“Did your closed-door cultivation bear fruit?”

The easy composure he had shown in Shanxi.

But the former courtesy was /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ gone, and a dark, blood-tinged aura, laden with killing intent, flickered around him.

“When I first saw you in those mountains, I thought we might become rather good acquaintances.”

“I’ve not liked you for a single moment.”

“A surprise. I put my own matters aside and spared you then, did I not?”

“You mean I spared you. I let you run with your tail between your legs.”

The Blood-Slaughter Demon’s mouth twisted into a thin, feral smile.

“With memories so at odds, perhaps you’re right—we would have done little but fight.”

“...”

Ssssss....

His aura thickened by degrees.

His eyes flashed a dark, clotted red.

“My apologies, but it seems neither of us will be leaving this gorge alive today.”

“I agree.”

Seolhwa leveled her sword upright.

Around her as well, black power began to gather, dense and tight.

“Even seeing it again, it’s a curious aura.”

The Blood-Slaughter Demon spoke in genuine admiration.

In the next instant his expression cooled.

From atop the cliff earlier, she seemed to have no qi at all.

Where, then, had she hidden that vast reservoir?

Shadowless Demon God...

Truly a woman worthy of her renown.

Tak—

In a blink, the Blood-Slaughter Demon crossed his blades and hacked down toward Seolhwa.

From his swords, a dark crimson blade of force flew a step ahead of him.

Kugugugugu... whoof—!

Bracing on her left foot, Seolhwa stabbed her sword straight down and pressed.

Along the path of her blade, a pitch-black edge of force arrowed toward the Blood-Slaughter Demon.

Kwaa-a-a-ang—!!

The two blade-energies collided, and the gorge shuddered.

As if an earthquake had struck, the whole chasm shook.

But before the tremors had even stilled—

Bang! Kwa-gwa-gwang! Kwakang!

Their swords met.

Clad in Force Aura, the clashing blades truly shook heaven and earth.

Kwa-gwa-gwa-kwang! Kwa-kwang!

The Blood-Slaughter Demon’s swords were peculiar.

Because the edges were curved, even when he swung along the same line, the strike would bite in from an unexpected angle.

Moreover, he changed the orientation of the curved edges at will mid-clash.

At times he bore down like a piling ram; at others, he caught Seolhwa’s sword in a hollowed curve to block and slipped his body inside.

Kagagagak—! Kagang!

Seolhwa knit her brows.

A nuisance.

Perhaps because she could not communicate directly with the Imoogi.

Though the Imoogi was lending her its power, there were fleeting instants when the flow lagged ever so slightly.

Only Seolhwa, who was wielding the blade, could feel it—but that hairbreadth misalignment grated on her nerves.

He hasn’t used Blood Qi yet.

As before, the Blood-Slaughter Demon did not lightly reveal his Blood Qi.

Whether he hid his affiliation with the Blood Cult, or whether he was confident he could win without it—she did not know.

If he does use it, things could turn dangerous.

Just then—

Kwaa-ang—!

Crossing his twin blades, the Blood-Slaughter Demon heaved and knocked Seolhwa’s sword aside.

Chwaaaak—

She raised her blade and caught his, but the sudden brute force drove her back three steps.

Tak—!

Expecting him to press at once, Seolhwa instead saw him open the distance and withdraw.

His expression was odd.

“So it’s true—your body suffered some issue in seclusion.”

Seolhwa frowned.

He’s sensed that my qi is unstable.

He was an assassin.

He would never miss a small change.

Only—

“What are you playing at?”

Even knowing her weak point, he did not move to exploit it; instead he ceded space and bought her time.

And he spoke aloud the very fact that he had noticed.

“Assassins, by nature, are craven and underhanded, are they not?”

Those who, taking advantage of an enemy’s unguarded moment, hid themselves in shadow to sever the breath from a throat.

Poison, infiltration, concealment—

Whatever it took to kill the enemy and live themselves—that was an assassin.

“You’re not acting like an assassin. Are you truly the master of the Flesh Curtain?”

“For so little, you question my fitness as its lord?”

Seolhwa pointed with her sword-tip at the arrow-splinters scattered across the ground.

“You rained down arrows, yet not a hint of venom on them.”

She raised the edge and pointed at the sky.

“And you called me out under the sun, in a place this wide.”

No shadows to hide in, no cloak of darkness to lull her guard.

And the gorge he had chosen was broad enough that even a master at Flowering could run wild without restraint.

“This doesn’t look like the design of someone whose aim is to kill me.”

A plan set by one whose aim was not to kill, but to cross blades.

“Am I wrong?”

The Blood-Slaughter Demon’s lip curled faintly.

“You know assassins well.”

“Why do you seek a head-on fight with me? A man like you could have avoided all this bother.”

Seolhwa knew the assassins’ way of war—she herself had once eclipsed the Blood-Slaughter Demon as an assassin.

Had she been master of the Flesh Curtain, she would never have opened a battle like this.

She would have used assassins adept in stealth and killing to pick off the Union’s heads in the dark, one by one, gnawing them down.

And when the Sado Union, bit by bit consumed, could no longer resist—only then would she have taken the Union Lord left standing alone.

There’s no way he doesn’t know this.

Why then choose a frontal clash with her?

“I...”

He had just opened his mouth to say something when—

Kugugung—!

Seolhwa glanced toward the cliff where he had stood earlier.

A commotion stirred there.

The Guardian Patrols had found the Blood-Slaughter Demon’s men and were engaging them.

“Uneasy?”

“?”

Seolhwa looked at him as if to ask what he meant.

“I’m asking if you fear your subordinates will be defeated.”

“Why would you think my men will lose?”

He lifted a shoulder.

“Without you, Shadowless Demon God, the Sado Union is a rabble.”

Seolhwa blinked.

A moment later, she let out a laugh before she knew it.

A rabble, is it.

“Is that what you think? From where I stand, that side looks already finished.”

“!”

As Seolhwa spoke, the Blood-Slaughter Demon sensed something and turned his eyes back to the cliff.

From that very spot where he had stood a short while ago, he felt a piercing gaze that seemed to bore straight through him.

Thump— thump! Thump! Kwoong—!

“Urk—!”

“Ungh...!”

One by one, the captured assassins dropped to their knees before the Guardian Patrols of the Sado Union.

They were the Flesh Curtain Lord’s personal troops, elite assassins of the Flesh Curtain—and they could not believe this overwhelming defeat.

The Guardian Patrols of the Sado Union are this strong...?

How is it that not a single one of us escaped?!

The instant they judged themselves to be losing the exchange, they had given the order to scatter and withdraw—yet when they came to their senses, every last one of them had been seized and brought to their knees.

Assassins who prided themselves on unmatched stealth and light-footwork—

Not a single one slipped the net.

What is that big one...?

The assassins’ eyes turned to the largest of the Guardian Patrols.

A mask hid his face, but there was a nameless pressure in the stance of the man standing with his hands clasped behind his back.

He was blocking the retreat.

Indeed, though the assassins had scattered and fled in all directions, that man was waiting along every route of escape.

How in the world...!

“Hm.”

Meanwhile, disguised among the Guardian Patrols, Namgoong Mucheon looked down into the gorge where the Blood-Slaughter Demon and Seolhwa were engaged in fierce combat.

Far off, he could see Seolhwa facing the Blood-Slaughter Demon.