“Honestly, I’m surprised. I didn’t expect you to recover this quickly.”

The Immortal Physician examined Seolhwa’s body and spoke with genuine admiration.

“There was no need for me to go searching for herbs after all. Had I known, I would have at least boiled you a nourishing tonic.”

“I was able to get better quickly because you were watching over me.”

The Immortal Physician shook her head firmly.

“I am a physician. Your ailment was not something I could cure.”

It was something Seolhwa had to break through and emerge from on her own.

All the Immortal Physician had truly done was keep watch so the girl’s body wouldn’t collapse in the meantime.

“How did you recover your memories so quickly? Was there some trigger?”

A bitter smile spread across Seolhwa’s lips.

A trigger.

“I nearly killed my father with my own hands.”

“!”

“If my memory had come back even a moment later, that’s surely what would have happened.”

Just like in her previous life, without even the time to beg forgiveness.

If her memory had returned just a little more slowly, what a horrific [N O V E L I G H T] sight would she have been forced to face?

The thought alone frightened her.

“I don’t believe I recovered my memories by my strength alone.”

Those who stayed by her and helped her so she could find them again.

Those who prayed for her recovery.

And the Immortal Physician, too, who rushed over the moment she heard the news.

“Thank you for not turning away.”

The Immortal Physician looked at Seolhwa.

Though she could not see, she seemed to gaze for a long time as if dissecting every feature of Seolhwa’s face.

“Now I understand why the Imoogi follows you.”

“?”

“Well done.”

The Immortal Physician lightly tapped Seolhwa’s head—tap, tap.

Then, affecting a deliberately stern tone, she said,

“Yet it’s too early to let your guard down. As I see it, your Blood Channels are unstable. I imagine you already know that.”

Seolhwa nodded.

“I know.”

“It may look fine now, but the foul energy could riot at any time. It would be best to bring your inner power under control as quickly as possible.”

“Yes. Understood.”

Just then—

There was a knock at the door, and beyond it came notice of the Hao Sect Lord’s visit.

When the Hao Sect Lord entered, he greeted Seolhwa and handed over a small scroll.

His expression was not good.

As Seolhwa unrolled the scroll, the Hao Sect Lord began speaking as if he’d been waiting for the cue.

“I investigated the Jade-Faced Master, just as you requested.”

“So my suspicion wasn’t wrong.”

The Hao Sect Lord nodded.

“You said there was a Staff Strategist from the Black Cloud Hall stationed at the stockade where you briefly stayed.”

Before returning to the Sado Union, Seolhwa had stayed for a short time at the Falling Moon Stockade.

The Staff Strategist who recognized the Shadowless Demon God there was the very person the Hao Sect Lord was referring to.

“It was the Jade-Faced Master who introduced that strategist to the Black Cloud Hall.”

Seolhwa’s brow furrowed, ever so slightly.

“From what I’ve learned, it seems that while he was in the Black Cloud Hall, he reported all of the Hall’s affairs to the Jade-Faced Master.”

The reason the assassins who kidnapped Imoe knew the Black Cloud Hall’s internal situation down to the last detail.

The reason the Hall’s structure and defense system posed no threat to them.

“They’ve been... laying the groundwork for a long time.”

“...It seems so.”

Seolhwa’s gaze sank low.

The Jade-Faced Master.

A man of the Orthodox side who drifted into the Black Path without fear, a Staff Strategist.

When he was on the verge of being killed by the underworld and someone from the Orthodox asked him why he had become a Black Path strategist, he answered like this:

“...Where else was I supposed to go? If there was a place—Black Path or Righteous Path—where I could fully exercise my ability, I didn’t care which it was.”

Seolhwa had not trusted him.

Knowing his ambition was as dark as any in the Black Path, she had never revealed the Sado Union Lord’s true identity from behind the mask.

She hadn’t killed him because he had committed no crime at the time, and keeping him close had also served the purpose of surveillance.

And yet—

“I raised a snake in my sleeve.”

The Jade-Faced Master’s greed had, in the end, killed Imoe.

What likely stoked his avarice was the Blood Cult.

Since her previous life, the Blood Cult would infiltrate a power, approach its weakest point, seize that person’s desire, and shake it.

The small crack thus formed would widen and spread until it brought the whole power down.

That was why, the moment she returned to the past, Seolhwa had cut away the Blood Cult’s sprouts hidden within the Orthodox forces.

She, more than anyone, knew the Blood Cult’s methods.

‘I overlooked that the Blood Cult would reach for the Sado Union.’

Saving the Jade-Faced Master—who would have died without a doubt in her previous life—had become that very crack.

‘This is my blunder.’

Then I must be the one to finish it.

Seolhwa rose to her feet.

It was the Immortal Physician who caught her by the arm.

“Have you already forgotten what I said?”

“I’m sorry. But in my present state, even if I sit and circulate, I won’t gain anything.”

“...!”

Startled, the Immortal Physician let go of her.

Just from touching the girl’s skin, a tingling sensation had run into her fingertips.

Killing intent.

A strong reek of blood was coming from somewhere.

With her keen nose, the Immortal Physician instantly realized it originated from Seolhwa.

“...Martial folk...”

She muttered in a disgruntled voice.

As Seolhwa started forward, she spoke to the Immortal Physician.

“Go to the Namgoong Clan. Now that the Blood Cult’s Interdiction has lifted, you can obtain what you wanted.”

Not long ago, the Immortal Physician had shown interest in Hidden Moon, who handled the jiangshi.

On the condition that she be allowed to meet him, she had been asked to treat Ouyang Do.

Until now, because of the Interdiction, there had been the risk Hidden Moon might die, making further questioning impossible, but the Interdiction was gone.

Matters concerning Trace Venom or the jiangshi—

She would be able to obtain all the information she sought.

“This is why I dislike martial folk! Do you know that?!”

“I know very well. Next time we meet, I’ll come to you in a state that won’t cause you worry.”

“Just don’t die!”

In the end, the Immortal Physician grumbled and left the room first.

No doubt she would go straight to the Namgoong Clan and meet Hidden Moon. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

“Will you be all right?”

After she left, the Hao Sect Lord asked in a worried tone.

The Immortal Physician’s anger to that degree meant Seolhwa’s body wasn’t in good condition; belatedly, concern had prompted the question.

“I’ll be fine.”

She knew well what it was the Immortal Physician feared.

As the Immortal Physician had said, the person who knew her current condition best was herself.

“She must be worried that the Blood Demon’s energy will surge stronger as time passes.”

If she wasn’t careful, the Blood Qi the Blood Demon had breathed into her could erode the Namgoong Clan’s power within her.

However—

“I still have the leeway to pull out and burn a wrongly driven stake.”

How could she focus on closed-door cultivation with a stake still lodged in place?

Seolhwa shed the Sado Union Lord’s long coat, kept only her black martial outfit on, and put on the mask she had set aside.

The Imoogi beside her slid up over her shoulder.

“Please go and return.”

The Hao Sect Lord bowed to Seolhwa.

By the time he looked up again, the Shadowless Demon God was already gone.

****

Taaang—!

“!”

The Jade-Faced Master jolted, his body trembling.

Where his fearful gaze fell, a wooden bar used to fix the window screen in place had toppled and was rolling across the floor.

Because the window was open, the wind-blown screen had likely knocked the bar over.

“Damn it... of all things...”

Muttering a low, coarse curse, the Jade-Faced Master hurriedly went back to packing.

“Stupid Flesh Curtain Lord.”

How long had it been since he’d tipped them off that the Shadowless Demon God was in a strange state, and yet only after she was fully recovered did they drag the Patrol Unit here!

‘I told them if they quietly disposed of the Sado Union Lord, victory would be assured!’

The idiot Flesh Curtain Lord had challenged the Sado Union Lord head-on.

Even if she was one of the Ten Great Masters and a master at the Flowering Realm, who takes the long way around the easy road like that?

In the end, he lost to the Shadowless Demon God, lost his life, and they lost the war besides.

‘Thanks to that, it’s my neck on the line.’

Since the Flesh Curtain abducted Imoe, it would only be a matter of time before they realized there was a traitor inside.

Imoe was a subordinate the Sado Union Lord cherished; she would hardly let it pass.

If anything, it was strange that things had been quiet until now.

‘If I’m going to run, this is the only chance.’

“Is something urgent pressing you?”

At that instant, the Jade-Faced Master froze mid-motion.

Cold sweat instantly soaked the back of his neck and down his spine.

He hastily schooled his face, then turned toward the source of the voice.

At the window, a black silhouette stood as if it had always been there.

“A—ah, my Lord...!”

The Sado Union Lord.

“What brings you to the quarters of a humble man at such a late hour...?”

“At such a late hour, you are making preparations to leave.”

The Sado Union Lord picked up a decorative piece set beside the window.

He turned the carved pattern this way and that, then simply let it drop to the floor.

A dull thud—; the sound of it shattering to pieces rang through the room.

The Jade-Faced Master swallowed dryly.

“Why are you flustered? Have I come somewhere I shouldn’t?”

“N—no, that’s not it... I was only startled. I did not expect your lordship to come. You have never come here before, so...”

Beyond the mask, a chill gaze slid to the luggage the Jade-Faced Master had been hastily packing.

By reflex, he stepped to block it from view and spoke.

“I—I was just on my way to pay my respects to you...! It seems I must briefly... return to my hometown...”

“Was the renown I handed you not enough?”

“...Pardon?”

“The seat I personally gave you—did it not suffice?”

“...”

Crunch.

The fragment of the shattered ornament beneath the Sado Union Lord’s foot ground once more.

To the Jade-Faced Master, that sound felt like hands twisting his neck.

“And so...”

He swallowed again and looked at the Sado Union Lord.

Beneath the shadow of the black mask, the eyes glinted red.

“Did you betray the Sado Union?”