It was not long after Seolhwa and Yu Gang left the Martial Alliance.

Keeping out of people’s sight, they took a little-used road, and the path was narrow.

Because of that, Yu Gang could only trail along, watching Seolhwa’s back as she rode ahead.

‘I wanted to ride side by side.’

To talk about the days past, to ask why she’d asked him to come with her.

To ask whether she was truly angry with him; judging by the Clan Lord and the Alliance Lord’s anger, whether he really had done something wrong.

No—none of that truly mattered.

Yu Gang simply wanted to see Seolhwa’s face.

He wanted to hear her voice.

Yet even with her right before his eyes, it felt as if they were in separate spaces, and he couldn’t speak with her; it was suffocating.

Perhaps Heaven took pity on his heart.

As they went on, the narrow lane slowly widened.

And at last, when the road grew broad enough for two horses to ride abreast—

Tak.

Seolhwa’s horse stopped.

Yu Gang, who’d been waiting for any chance to draw up alongside her, naturally reined in as well.

“?”

Why stop?

He wondered only for a moment.

“!”

Tat— SHRING—!

Yu Gang drew his sabre, kicked off his horse’s back, and sprang up.

He twisted in the air and landed straight in front of Seolhwa’s mount.

The keen edge he’d leveled was aimed squarely at someone’s nape.

“Who are you.”

Yu Gang stared at the figure who had somehow appeared and blocked their way.

A black mask. Black martial garb.

‘I didn’t catch a trace of him until he showed himself.’

Had he grown lax in vigilance?

No.

Even if his head had been full of Seolhwa, he had never once let his guard drop.

And yet he hadn’t read this man’s presence.

‘An assassin.’

And a skilled one at that.

“Hidden Moon.”

“!”

From behind came Seolhwa’s voice, as if calling to the masked man. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

She had recognized this assassin.

Even so, Yu Gang did not lower his blade.

He didn’t have to look back to know that Seolhwa, too, was wary of this man.

“It has been a while, Lady Namgoong.”

“...”

Seolhwa fixed Hidden Moon with a hard gaze.

Her last memory of him was the moment he shoved her, poisoned and dazed, off a cliff.

“Live, if you can, forgetting everything.”

“Please... recall nothing.”

Had those actions and those words been to save her—or to kill her?

He hadn’t dragged her back to the Blood Cult, but he had pushed her over a cliff. Should she call him benefactor, or enemy?

Until then he had addressed her scrupulously as Little Cult Lord; now, brazen as you please, he called her Lady Namgoong. Seolhwa asked:

“You were on me from the moment I left the Alliance, weren’t you?”

That he had trailed behind her.

“Yes.”

“How did you know I’d be leaving the Alliance grounds?”

“I was merely fortunate. I came hoping to see you, and by chance, I saw you ride out.”

Even for someone as adept at stealth as Hidden Moon, infiltrating the Martial Alliance was out of the question.

Nor could he have known in advance that she would leave the grounds, so this time it likely was truly a coincidence.

“Unless you’d simply been waiting until I emerged.”

“Had I done that, I would not have escaped the Blood Demon’s suspicion.”

“True.”

He was the Blood Demon’s closest aide; he could not be away long.

“So—what is it?”

“The Blood Lords have begun to move.”

Seolhwa’s brow knit.

The Blood Lords had begun to move.

That meant the Blood Lords meant to strike Central Plains in person.

“Fast.”

In her previous life, at this point in time the Blood Lords had still been occupied with swelling their own forces.

For those same Blood Lords to already be moving—

“By the Blood Demon’s order?”

“Yes. Upon hearing that the Alliance–Sado alliance had formed, he pressed the Blood Lords.”

“I see.”

As expected.

The current situation was the reverse of the previous life.

The strength of Central Plains had grown, and conversely the Blood Lords’ strength had waned.

Even the Hao Sect, which had been one of the Blood Cult’s principal intelligence arms in her past life, now stood under the Sado Union, so the Blood Cult’s spread was slower.

The Blood Demon had likely judged that at this rate, he wouldn’t even be able to kindle the Blood Cult Uprising.

“Before long, the Fifth Blood Lord will move.”

“...”

The Fifth Blood Lord—No Mun.

Former elder of Mount Hua, who had been defeated by Namgoong Mucheon at Mount Hua and fled.

“He won’t have power to draw on.”

“I could not learn that far. But he is certainly contriving something.”

“...All right.”

They had only just left, and already there was news that had to be passed on.

The Blood Lords moving was perilous news, but turning back from the journey to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult was not an option.

While Seolhwa weighed how to get word to the Martial Alliance, Hidden Moon—his report finished—looked at Yu Gang, who still held a sabre to his throat.

A man who, even while ignoring him completely to speak with her, had not taken his eyes off him for even a heartbeat.

“Someone as weak as you doesn’t belong at my lord’s side.”

Yu Gang’s brows drew together, faintly.

“Who decided she’s your lord.”

“Do not clutch at my lord’s ankles. I’ll kill you so you won’t even know you’re dead.”

Strength tightened in Yu Gang’s hand on the hilt—

“Hidden Moon. If you’ve said your piece, go.”

At Seolhwa’s words, Hidden Moon dipped his head to her [N O V E L I G H T] in the slightest of salutations, gave Yu Gang one last glance, and vanished in an instant.

Only when his presence had completely faded did Yu Gang lower his blade.

“He seemed like Blood Cult.”

“He is.”

“Shouldn’t we... go back? To the Martial Alliance.”

“We can’t.”

Yu Gang turned to Seolhwa.

Seated atop her horse, this was the first time that day he was facing her directly.

“Why are you taking me with you?”

“The ring you carry.”

“...”

“I found where that sigil comes from.”

Yu Gang’s expression darkened.

It was a reason he had not anticipated at all.

“Don’t tell me it’s... the Demonic Sect.”

“We won’t be certain until we go. You, and I.”

“....”

Yu Gang’s gaze fell.

As expected, Seolhwa grew uneasy.

‘It must have shocked him because it’s the Demonic Sect.’

Not a normal clan or sect, but the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

It was shock enough. Which was why she had not intended to drop it on him without preface like this.

‘I meant to tell him properly when there was room to breathe.’

But when asked, she could not hide it.

It would be better to change locales and explain it properly.

“Hey, first—”

“I at least thought you needed me.”

“?”

“It was the other way around.”

Yu Gang lifted his eyes to her again.

With a small smile, his face somehow looked a little sad, and Seolhwa’s eyes went round.

“You were doing me the favor of bringing me along.”

Shrring—

Yu Gang sheathed his sabre, walked past Seolhwa, and returned to his horse standing behind her.

Seolhwa, confused, stood blankly for a moment.

‘What?’

Why is he angry?

No—is he angry?

More than that, is he angry because the sigil is tied to the Demonic Sect?

“What are you doing? Let’s go.”

Only when Yu Gang urged her to move did Seolhwa turn her horse.

The road was plenty wide now for two horses to travel abreast, but for a long while Seolhwa and Yu Gang rode in single file.

Only the dagadak, the clopping of hooves, went on for a long time.

How much farther did they go like that?

Past a stretch of dense woods and brush, the sound of fast-running water reached them.

Around Wuhan, where the Martial Alliance was based, there were many rivers and lakes.

Seolhwa and Yu Gang intended to take a small ferry from a levee and ride it to Chongqing.

But before they even reached the place to board, another group barred their way.

Seeing Seolhwa dismount and approach them naturally to speak, it seemed they had arranged to meet.

As she exchanged a few words with them, Seolhwa suddenly looked back at Yu Gang.

He promptly dismounted and came over.

Seolhwa introduced one of the men in the group.

“This is the Hao Sect Lord.”

The man first cupped his fist with formal courtesy.

Yu Gang also cupped his fist in greeting and asked him:

“You look different than you did at the Alliance—I failed to recognize you.”

“I do not reveal my true face, even in ordinary times.”

“I see.”

Indeed, as the head of the largest intelligence network in Central Plains, concealing his identity was safest.

“More than that, this is a little unexpected.”

“?”

“It is the first time the Union Lord has personally introduced someone. You are the first, Commander of the Demon-Slaying Corps.”

Many had been around Seolhwa until now, but it was the first time she had directly introduced someone for face-to-face greetings like this.

For the Hao Sect Lord, who sought to hide his identity, it was all the more extraordinary.

“You must be someone special to the Union Lord.”

The Hao Sect Lord smiled faintly.

Yu Gang blinked, startled by the unexpected words, not knowing what to say.

“Hao Sect Lord.”

Seolhwa abruptly wedged herself between the two.

This time the Hao Sect Lord, too, looked at her in mild surprise.

“Ahem. What I asked you for...”

With his eyes curving like a drawn bow, the Hao Sect Lord handed over the bundle he was holding.

“I prepared it.”

Seolhwa quickly took the bundle and divided part of its contents to Yu Gang.

What she had asked of the Hao Sect Lord were Human-Skin Masks to hide their identities and threadbare clothes.

The two immediately changed clothes and put on the Human-Skin Masks.

“Um... Seolhwa.”

While the Hao Sect Lord helped smooth the edges where the Human-Skin Masks met skin, Yu Gang shuffled up to her, hesitant.

“Why is my... face like this...?”