A village not far from Gangdo.
A nameless village that could not even pay taxes and had never been incorporated into any administrative district.
And.
That village was crumbling away, just like that-nameless and without a trace.
Between burning huts strewn with corpses and wreckage.
Sang Gwan-hwi drew his sword and glared at the figure before him.
A black mask, black night-stalking attire.
Beneath the moonlight, only two eyes were revealed.
And even those held not a single shred of emotion.
Like the eyes of a stone Buddha. No-at least a stone Buddha's eyes hold compassion.
There, truly, nothing whatsoever could be read.
"You...what in the world are you."
The man simply stood.
'Are you an assassin sent by the Dark Net Rakshasa Path?"
Still, no answer came.
He was only shaking his sword against the ground, flicking away the blood from the blade that had just severed the adjutant's neck.
Swish, swish, swish, swish-
In an instant, Sword Patrol Corps members positioned themselves behind Sang Gwan-hwi.
Each had been despoiling the village in their own fashion, yet elite was elite regardless.
Twenty-nine.
All of them had drawn their swords before anyone realized. Their combined formidable killing intent and sharp energy quickly drove back the surrounding flames. A snow-white righteous energy overflowed throughout the entire village, as if ready to tear apart at any moment such a worthless Evil Path riffraff emitting not a single trace of power.
Thirty against one.
And those thirty were all Sword Patrol Corps members.
The elite of the elite of the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect, one of the strongest sects in the Orthodox Martial World.
Each individual, were they to step out into the Martial World, would be called transcendent first-rate.
Of course, Sang Gwan-hwi himself was a master at the Peak of Transcendence-both Corps Leader and one of the Vast Heaven Three Swords.
Even if the opponent had cut down Adjutant Imperial River Gang with a single sword stroke, they could not stand against these thirty.
The Imperial River Gang, too, had merely fallen victim to a cowardly ambush.
"Deploy the Vast Heaven Crane Wing Sword Formation."
Vast Heaven Crane Wing Sword Formation.
The Sword Patrol Corps' Fourth Group Sword Formation. A pinnacle sword formation designed for a multitude to surround a single person, deployable by a minimum of ten to a maximum of one hundred simultaneously.
Swish, swish, swish-
Like a crane spreading its wings wide, the warriors fanned out to the left and right in a sweeping arc.
While commanding, Sang Gwan-hwi continued to scan carefully for whether there might be others who had ambushed them. If there were more enemies, he intended to immediately transform the sword formation.
However, no other signs of presence were detected.
"Heh heh."
The rigid expression on his face loosened, and a naturally composed smile returned.
'We shall take our time learning your identity."
The crane, now fully spread, was entering the phase of encircling the man in a ring around him as its center.
Twenty-nine sharp Vast Heaven swords pointed toward a single point.
Twenty-nine killing-intent-laden Vast Heaven energies converged upon a single point.
And.
The moment Sang Gwan-hwi raised his sword in a bowstring-drawing stance and aimed it at the man-
Crrrrash-!
The entire sword formation blazed as a mass of energy enveloped the surrounding area.
The Vast Heaven Crane Wing Sword Formation was complete.
Even if this fellow were the Dark Net Rakshasa Path Leader himself, it no longer mattered. Trapped within a sword formation of this many Sword Patrol Corps elite?
Anyone-so long as they were human-would have no way of escaping.
"..."
Even so, the man did not budge so much as a hair.
He made no attempt to break through, nor to prevent the sword formation's completion.
He simply stood.
As if to say, 'Go ahead, deploy it.'
...What.
Sang Gwan-hwi's eyes narrowed.
Why is he so at ease?
Yet the conclusion was reached swiftly.
This is bluster. Nothing more than the typical hollow show of bravado from those who do not know the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect, those who have never faced it.
'Commence formation."
Sang Gwan-hwi gave the order.
"You may sever all his limbs, but do not kill him. I must capture that wretch and uncover who stands behind him."
He needed to verify firsthand whether that composed demeanor could still be maintained at that point.
Pop, pop, pop-!
Within the sword formation they themselves had deployed, the Sword Patrol Corps members moved in unison.
Hmmmmmmmmmm~
Twenty-nine sword energies moved as if they were a single organism.
Eight Waves Converge and Strike.
Eight blades simultaneously occupied all eight directions of the man and came pouring in.
At that moment.
The air changed.
Every member of the Sword Patrol Corps, Sang Gwan-hwi included, felt it.
The surrounding atmosphere suddenly grew heavy, as if they had entered water.
No-something stickier than water.
An energy blanketing the entire space.
An energy that pressed down even on the act of breathing.
As if...something like water made of energy had encroached upon all four directions.
They were clearly the ones who had encircled him, yet....
In an instant, the entire sword formation had instead become the man's domain.
They had been trapped within an absolute energy field they could never have known of the Super True Energy Field.
Just as the warriors' swords, now growing limp, were about to reach the man-
The man swung his sword.
Once.
Swoooong-
Something burst forth from the sword.
A whirlwind.
A storm of energy rotating around the sword as its center.
That energy itself was spinning in wild rotation.
The vortex of energy born from that rotation spread outward in all directions.
"Graaaagh!"
"Uaaah!"
"E-eek!"
Death cries erupting simultaneously.
Of the eight warriors who had extended their swords, six were blown away at once.
As bones bent and disassembled with grotesque sounds, blood rained down riding the storm.
Three of them were already dead before they even hit the ground.
Their entire bodies wrung and coiled like twisted laundry.
The other three managed to drop their swords and barely retreat backward, escaping with serious injuries at best. Though of course, they were equally removed from combat effectiveness.
Then what of the remaining two?
They were skewered neatly stacked upon the man's sword, like meat threaded on a skewer. With no struggling-merely twitching-it seemed their journey to the afterlife was confirmed before long.
'The one killed first, then three more cut down and two skewered, three combat-incapacitated-,'
The man began doing arithmetic.
"The total only comes to 6."
Progress: 6/31
'It seems I had been misunderstanding the meaning of the word 'defeat."
The man, Dong Bong-soo, swung his sword downward once more.
With that, the two half-corpses charged with fearsome sword energy flew into the three who had been groaning and crawling along the ground. The energy was so fierce that all five became one in a bloody pulp.
Progress: 9/31
They had become one, yet the number that increased was 3.
It was clear that merely being rendered combat-incapacitated was insufficient.
Defeat must go beyond combat-incapacitation
To Dong Bong-soo, these were numbers and statistics.
Above all, nothing more than an experiment.
On the other hand.
"...!"
Sang Gwan-hwi's face had gone pale. His already-fair complexion floated white to a degree that had no more color left to lose.
'Wh, what is that...!?'
Sword Rigidity?
No.
It was different from Sword Rigidity.
Sword Rigidity was extending energy outward like a blade, yet-
The rigid energy was 'rotating' around the sword as its center...
A form of martial arts he had never seen, never heard of, never even attempted.
Even so, Sang Gwan-hwi gritted his teeth and shouted.
"Do not retreat."
He breathed rigid energy into his sword.
Limitless Heavenly Bloom Sword.
The essence of the sword technique that had become his very epithet.
The blade shone brilliantly in silver.
I've never faced this before, but if he uses rigid energy then I have no choice but to counter with rigid energy as well.
His Heavenly Bloom Sword Rigidity radiated a piercing sharpness comparable to Dong Bong-soo's Rotation Sword Rigidity.
Indeed, a power worthy of being called one of the Vast Heaven Three Swords.
"Ha-!"
Sang Gwan-hwi leapt in.
Simultaneously, sixteen warriors came charging, layering a double encirclement around the opponent from all eight directions.
Seventeen swords poured toward Dong Bong-soo at the same time.
Dong Bong-soo moved as well.
No-should it be said he 'vanished?
Teleportation.
That was the only way to express it.
He could not be tracked by the five senses.
Yet he had not vanished completely.
Within Sang Gwan-hwi's energy sense, a faint afterimage could be felt. Energy is like that by nature. Not something seen, but something felt.
'Got him!'
A hazy flow of energy.
It was moving continuously and consistently in a single direction.
Inconceivably fast-yet its directionality was fixed.
Clang-!
Sang Gwan-hwi thrust his sword.
However.
Knowing wasn't what mattered.
Landing an attack didn't matter either.
Being fast seemed to matter more than all of that combined.
Dong Bong-soo's movement-folding space as he traversed it.
First, three meters; then one inch; then micrometers that could not be measured in the units of this place.
Swipe-swipe-swipe-
The sword swept past.
Three times.
Yet in the span of those three times, Dong Bong-soo folded the space between himself and his prey thousands of times as he moved.
Thwack-! Shwwwww...
Three people spewed blood simultaneously.
Necks were severed.
Chests were pierced.
Abdomens were split open.
The process of limbs being slaughtered all unfolded at the same time.
In an instant, corpses disintegrating dot by dot and scattering into the air.
Swoosh-!
Belatedly, Sang Gwan-hwi's sword slashed through empty air.
There, only Dong Bong-soo's afterimage remained.
Yet all of this had transpired in the blink of an eye.
In reality, a difference of a single sheet of paper.
Sang Gwan-hwi's Heavenly Bloom Sword Rigidity had sliced the very edge of Dong Bong-soo's fluttering hem.
Yet the weight of a single scrap of cloth and the weight of three Sword Patrol Corps members cut into five pieces were entirely different matters.
"..."
The wretch's movements were too precise, and the movements of his sword too accurate.
Every attack and defense fell within the wretch's predictions.
How he had done it was unclear, but this space had already been perfectly consumed by that fellow's domain.
Then it made sense that the sword formation was of no use whatsoever.
'Cunning wretch.'
It was clear that from the very start, he had set up a formation here with them as the target.
Using the village women as bait.
The wretch was certainly a master, yet he was not at a level Sang Gwan-hwi could not handle.
However, the current situation was unmistakably like a swarm of flies having stepped onto a spider's web woven by that wretch.
While remaining flies, no matter how much they thrash, their position will inevitably be exposed to the spider through the web's vibrations, and their movements will be constrained.
'Retreat!"
Sang Gwan-hwi shouted.
'Full retreat! Move! We go north!"
-Everyone scatter in all four directions, then gather at the very center of the forest to the south that we saw on our way here.
The first was a shout, the latter was Sound Transmission extended to all.
Whether it would work or not was a problem for later. If it could create confusion for that wretch, every measure had to be used.
This was not the time to be concerned with dignity.
Remaining as they were, total annihilation was a foregone conclusion.
The surviving Sword Patrol Corps members immediately dissolved the sword formation and began scattering in all directions.
Within only a few exchanges, fewer than twenty remained.
"Run!"
There was no time to think.
Sang Gwan-hwi deployed Walking on Grass and dashed forward, as if flying.
His once-white clothing was already dyed deep red, but there was no room to concern himself with such things.
The moment he broke free from the sticky, unpleasant domain of energy that had enveloped him, he looked back.
The man was still standing in the same spot.
Against the backdrop of the burning village.
Without moving.
'Hurry and follow.'
Just as you trapped us within your domain.
I too shall drag you into our domain and slaughter you.
After that, I shall fillet your flesh piece by piece and send it to the Dark Net Rakshasa Path.
Sang Gwan-hwi turned his gaze forward once more and devoted himself solely to escape.
It was the typical delusion of prey.
The delusion that somewhere outside the hunting grounds existed...
-x-X-x-
Jin Family.
A distinguished family that had continued for over three hundred years in the Central Capital region, counted among the foremost even among the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect's affiliated families.
Generation after generation, they had steadily produced direct disciples of the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect, and the warriors bearing the Jin surname currently active within the sect numbered twenty-seven alone.
Among them, two were Elders and three were at the rank of Division Leader.
Jin Mu-hyeok was born as the eldest grandson of such a family.
The eldest grandson of a distinguished family.
The moment he was born, his life was decided.
At age five, he took up a sword.
At age seven, he built his foundational internal energy.
At age ten, he entered the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect and was assigned to the Sword Patrol Corps.
On the day of the initiation ceremony.
His father and Family Head, Jin Ho-yeon, spoke.
-You are the eldest grandson of the Jin Family. Our family has been a pillar of the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect for three hundred years. Do not forget the weight of that.
That day, he personally received the family heirloom, the Evil-Warding Sword.
True to its name as a sword that wards off evil energy, Jin Mu-hyeok vowed to become a more righteous sword than anyone.
-With this sword, sever evil. Uphold the Orthodox Path. That is the mission of our family.
The Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect.
In a place that safeguarded righteousness and justice, he had cut down evil innumerable times and protected the good.
Purely.
Passionately.
Of course, there were minor incidents in the course of defending the greater cause.
Such as a few nearby villagers being sacrificed in the process of wiping out bandits.
Or small fires breaking out in the process of executing dangerous criminals of the Martial World.
Or carrying out executions based on intelligence alone even when evidence was insufficient.
Or, like today, bestowing small pleasures upon warriors whose bodies and minds were exhausted.
Yet those were, after all, trivial matters.
For the sake of upholding the greater cause, none of it posed any problem.
Because I, we, the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect, were special.
We were different.
Those who were special had the right to demand the small sacrifices of those who were not special, for the sake of a special greater cause.
An authority like a reward bestowed for having cut down evil again and again and again over hundreds of years.
Any warrior of the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect could rightfully enjoy that privilege in full.
So why am I?
Why does Jin Mu-hyeok?
Why does the Sword Patrol Corps of the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect?
Have to tremble in the middle of some backwater forest like this?
What is this...
He looked around.
The faces of his comrades were all deeply sunken with despair.
Pale and wretched, one might say.
Expressions he had never once seen since entering the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect.
'Why do we have to suffer this?'
We are the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect.
The greatest sect in the Orthodox Martial World.
The foremost among the Ten Great Sects.
Is it not natural that wherever we go, evil trembles and evil demons all hold their breath?
Just what manner of villain is hunting us in such a vile fashion?
Indeed.
This was not a battle.
Nor was it an engagement.
Simply a hunt.
We had become the prey.
It had been so from the start, but Jin Mu-hyeok was still feeling it even now.
The sensation of something surrounding them from all four directions.
More precisely, the feeling of being trapped in a spider's web formed of energy.
It was the same even now.
No-it had grown worse.
According to Sword Patrol Corps Leader Sang Gwan-hwi's words, it was because they were trapped within a 'formation. He had said it would be fine once they left the village. So everyone scattered and then regrouped at the southern forest of the village.
But it was not so.
The forest they arrived at was simply deep and dark.
Even moonlight seeped in only faintly, obscured by branches.
Only darkness breathed within this space.
Moss-covered rocks jutted here and there, and damp fallen leaves were crushed soggily underfoot.
A murky energy, whether fog or mist, had risen up to ankle height.
Over there, Corps Leader Sang Gwan-hwi stood with sword drawn, scanning all directions.
The Sword Patrol Corps warriors, himself included, pressed shoulder to shoulder and formed a circular formation.
Vast Heaven Thirty Secret Sword Formation.
The finest joint-strike sword formation of which the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect was proud.
A formation in which thirty people move as one body, constructing an iron wall of unified offense and defense.
One person handles three, three people handle nine, nine people handle the whole.
A structure that meshes together and turns like gears.
When one person attacks, two cover, when one blocks, three thrust.
An infinite cycle in which motion and stillness, attack and defense endlessly rotate.
The commander stands at the center, the core eight fan out in the Eight Trigrams formation around them, and the remainder form a triple ring beyond that.
The inner ring defends, the middle ring checks, the outer ring attacks.
A structure in which no matter where the enemy comes from, a minimum of nine swords can respond simultaneously.
However, now they could not fully fill those thirty.
Twelve. Even counting the Corps Leader, barely thirteen.
In the process of scattering, several more had already been lost.
*... The enemy is only one."
The Corps Leader spoke calmly.
Yet glancing over, the veins on the back of his hands were jutting out sharply.
'Do not panic. We are the Sword Patrol Corps of the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect."
Right.
We are the elite of the greatest sect in the Orthodox Martial World.
There is no way we could be bested by some unknown country savage.
...He wanted to believe that, but there were already severe fractures in that belief.
Because now the entire forest seemed to have become entirely that wretch's domain.
No matter where they moved.
No matter where they hid.
A heavy, sticky, glue-like energy clung and pressed down upon the heads of every Sword Patrol Corps member.
Even a single leaf rustling, that wretch would know.
Even a single breath leaking out, that wretch would sense it.
Even a single heartbeat seemed to be transmitted to that wretch.
Would it feel like this if one became a rabbit being chased by a tiger?
The tiger was slowly, composedly, driving them forward.
Sweat broke out across their entire bodies, goosebumps rose, and their teeth clattered involuntarily.
Thud-
He turned toward the direction of the sound.
With a hole blown through his forehead, Jo Baek was falling.
Jo Baek.
A colleague who had entered the sect the same year as Jin Mu-hyeok.
He was blunt and quiet, yet loyal.
Last winter, during a mission, when Jin Mu-hyeok had accidentally killed a civilian, he was the one who had kept his mouth shut.
The grateful fellow who had said, 'If elder brother did it, it must have been the right thing."
The light was fading from the eyes of the fellow bleeding from the hole pierced through his forehead.
It was not a hidden weapon or anything of the sort.
Just pure energy.
It was different again from the rotating sword energy he had seen at the village.
If that had been for close range, this was for long range.
An arrow made of light.
What kind of martial art is this?
He had never heard of it, never seen it.
A martial art that fires energy like an arrow.
That is too fast and accurate.
'D...amn."
Someone's despairing murmur.
Simultaneously.
'Everyone sprint full speed south!"
Corps Leader Sang Gwan-hwi shouted.
At that, the Sword Patrol Corps members all simultaneously began deploying their Lightness Arts.
Jin Mu-hyeok too dashed southward like mad, flying forward.
It felt as though his heart would burst.
It felt as though his Dantian would tear apart.
Even so, he could not stop.
He even burned his True Origin Energy and accelerated further.
Thud-thud-thud-
Even as they ran, the colorless and soundless assault continued.
Every time golden flashes flickered, one person after another fell with a scream.
One shot.
Two shots.
Three shots.
Precise.
Too precise.
While running.
Weaving between branches.
Even moving irregularly.
Not a single miss.
One shot, one person.
Without exception.
Crack-!
Jin Mu-hyeok looked to his side.
A comrade running alongside him.
Ma Hwi-yeon.
A senior brother who had helped Jin Mu-hyeok greatly in the early days of joining the corps.
He was the one who had retaught the fundamentals of sword technique, and also the one who had taught him the unspoken 'rules' of the Sword Patrol Corps.
The one who had told him, 'The Orthodox Martial World is like this by nature. If you live too purely, you become a fool.'
His throat had just been pierced through.
Hot, metallic blood spurted like a fountain and splattered onto Jin Mu-hyeok's left cheek.
Ma Hwi-yeon's eyes flew wide open.
An expression of disbelief.
An expression as if asking, 'Why me?
There was no time to answer.
Jin Mu-hyeok's lips convulsed.
Swallowing the nasal sounds that escaped, he ran faster.
He no longer looked behind or to the side.
'I must survive. I must survive. I alone must survive.'
Crack-!
Another one fell.
Gwak Chung.
He was a big, strong fellow.
During interrogations, Gwak Chung always led the way.
A fellow specialized in punching and kicking.
He had a remarkable talent for subduing resistant criminals.
A hole the size of a head had been punched through the fellow's back.
Heart or whatever else, his innards had vanished wholesale.
Gwak Chung pitched forward and couldn't even scream.
Only blood poured from his mouth.
Eyes wide open.
"Damn it!"
Jin Mu-hyeok ran.
He only ran.
He had to survive.
As the eldest grandson, he had to continue the Jin Family line.
That was his only thought.
Heaven would never forsake righteousness.
I am a righteous person.
I have been carrying out justice.
So heaven would never abandon me.
Clinging to that belief-.
Crack-
The back of his head was pierced.
At first, he did not know what it was.
As if boiling molten metal had been poured in, the back of his head was simply hot.
Seeing that half of his left field of vision had simply vanished, it seemed his left eye had disappeared.
It had not turned black-it had vanished.
A strange sensation as if his awareness itself had disappeared.
He looked at the world with his remaining right eye.
Because of blood spattered in droplets, something-whether his own blood or brain matter he could not
tell-trickled down his eyelid and fouled his vision.
His legs gave out.
His knees buckled.
He fell forward.
His face buried into the fallen leaves.
A wet, cold sensation.
I'm going to die.
Faintly, he had such a thought.
Even as he fell, his hearing remained intact, so he could clearly hear the voice of the villain who had
killed him.
'Twenty-five.'
A system window appeared.
A window visible only before Dong Bong-soo's eyes.
[Sub] Innocent Village
[Sudden]
[. Defeat the ruthless Sang Gwan-hwi and his associates of the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect.
Progress: 24/31]
'So at this level, they haven't been 'defeated' yet."
Dong Bong-soo looked down at the fallen warrior.
He still had breath left in him.
He raised his sword and drove it down.
Slice-
The world as seen through Jin Mu-hyeok's remaining single eye spun round and round.
He could see the sky.
He could see the branches.
And he could see his own body.
My neck has been severed.
Faintly, he had such a thought.
The scene of blood, innards, and brain matter flowing out from his own corpse fouling the ground.
The proud eldest grandson of the Jin Family.
The righteous sword of the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect.
Jin Mu-hyeok.
Those splendid backgrounds rolled meaninglessly in the dirt.
The final moment.
A single thought faintly brushing past.
... Was I'
Righteous?
Before he could arrive at an answer, the light vanished from his eyes.
Ding.
Progress: 25/31
It was an exceedingly 'righteous' end.
For he had been reborn as faithful nourishment for a new 'hero.'
-x-X-x-
Swish-
He flicked the sword down once toward the ground.
Warm blood still dripping, it scattered in a straight line across the disheveled fallen leaves.
Progress: 25/31
The severed head seemed to have something it wanted to ask, still rolling round and round, but he had no particular intention of answering.
The dead have no need of anything.
Still, his gaze naturally fell to the sword the collapsed corpse had been gripping.
[Spirit Eyes] reacting automatically.
Evil-Warding Sword
◆Grade: Rare
◆Category: Blade
◆Description: A family heirloom passed down through generations of the Jin Family.
◆Special Effect: When facing enemies of the Evil Demon type, increases all of the user's stats by 3%
*Only the highest increase among overlapping abilities is applied (cannot stack).
'Useful enough.'
He immediately put it into his inventory.
Then he promptly lifted his gaze, and-
Ding-
[Sub]Innocent Village
[Chain]: The world is always so overflowing with wronged people. Realistically, you cannot help all of them. But if you have begun helping, shouldn't the conclusion always be clean? Please don't be too late.
. Save the surviving villagers.
- Progress: 0/3
Reward: Hero History +1, Fame +5
Lumina's gentle mechanical chime rang out.
Dong Bong-soo's eyes moved slowly.
North.
The direction of the village.
The flames had not yet died down, but faint vital responses-four of them-were being caught within the Super True Energy Field between the corpses and the wreckage.
Alive. The responses weren't strong, but they were unmistakably alive.
South.
Click, alongside a mechanical sound audible only to him, the mini-map activated and visually displayed every corner and recess of the forest's interior.
One red dot-himself.
And several yellow dots blinking breathlessly, scattering southward and further down.
That would be a movement to regroup after fleeing further away.
"..."
Dong Bong-soo swept his gaze back and forth between south and north one more time.
Three villagers from the Chain Quest.
Six remaining targets from the Sudden Quest.
'Priority.'
A brief moment of deliberation.
His action was like a flash of lightning.
Which direction he moved-even the leaves of this forest could not tell, so swift was he.
***
When he emerged from the forest.
Sang Gwan-hwi was alive.
But only five had survived, himself included.
Most were limping, their entire bodies covered in wounds, and having burned through too much True Origin Energy, they were barely clinging to life.
Hah... hah...
He drew ragged breaths and looked back.
The darkness of the forest.
Within it, nothing could be seen.
Even that sticky energy from before the one that had wrapped around the entire forest like a spiderweb
-could no longer be felt.
'Have we shaken it?"
He couldn't be certain.
But there was no leisure to think at length.
They needed to survive first, which meant running again toward those city walls visible far in the hazy distance.
Gangdo.
Blasted Gangdo.
Once they got inside the walls, something would work out.
'Even if it's a backwater sect, it calls itself Hero Gate by name, doesn't it?"
If they encountered those people, there would be a way.
'At the very minimum, within the walls.
Even that monster of a man wouldn't be able to act recklessly.
4G
He had no idea where that thing had appeared from, or what sort of creature it was... but the unseen opponent had been an absolute master.
He must never engage in reckless mutual destruction against him. That would be exactly what that man wanted.
Sang Gwan-hwi raised his exhausted body, and immediately began running, leading the remaining four.
***
The Slash-and-burn Village was still burning.
The remains of the huts, leaving behind only their scorched frames, were sending up orange flames, and smoke swallowed the moonlight as it surged into the sky like a black pillar.
Among corpses scattered here and there, pools of blood formed small streams.
The nameless people of a nameless village lay dead, nameless.
Right in the middle of it all.
The corpse of an old man with a back bowed like a bow.
No-what had been one thing, now split into two.
Three women were wailing, clutching the remains of the village head, cleaved in half.
A middle-aged woman with a full bosom, covered in bruises and claw marks between the tears in her clothing.
A young woman whose red handprints around her slender waist had not yet faded.
A girl still young enough to be called a child, with clear marks from rope around her delicate ankles.
All three had redressed themselves, but that very fact-that they had needed to redress-said everything.
The older woman's wailing had already gone hoarse, barely producing sound. Only a cracked, nasal sob seeped out.
The older daughter was trembling violently, clutching her younger sister tightly in her arms, while the younger daughter gripped her father's severed hand and could only stare ahead with wide eyes.
How long had they been like that?
Rustle-
The sound of treading grass.
Light but unmistakable footsteps.
The older woman raised her head.
The older daughter instinctively shrank at the same moment.
In the direction their eyes were drawn, a man appeared.
White clothing.
Splattered with blood and blotched, but unmistakably the same garb as those villains from before.
"Ah."
A ripple passed through the women's eyes simultaneously.
Though it had happened once, it was a fear burned into their souls.
Was it beginning again?
Did they still not have enough?
The man-the Sword Patrol Corps member-staggered forward breathlessly, yet approached step by careful step.
He was someone who had scattered following Sang Gwan-hwi's earlier orders, then made a wide detour east instead of south, and circled back north to the village.
He hadn't particularly been moving with the women as his goal, but his gaze stopped precisely on them.
"Hah... hah..."
Ragged breath.
As the man glanced around to survey his surroundings, his eyes registered nothing.
No pursuer, no comrade, no enemy.
And so his murky pupils returned once more to the three women.
The women flinched, shot to their feet, and stumbled backward.
The man's lips curled as he swallowed dry spittle, parting slowly.
"Whew-."
Like a beast that has discovered its prey.
"Gotta eat something before I can shake off this fatigue..."
Before the man's words could even finish, the air split.
A single beam of light pierced through between his brow and the back of his skull.
Nothing more than a dry, colorless streak of light. And precisely because of that, without a single moment's hesitation-an accurate, clean blow.
The man froze, lips still parted in the shape of his unfinished words.
His knees buckled first, then slowly-thud.
He drove his face into the dirt.
The women swallowed their screams.
Three pairs of eyes turned to the direction beyond where the man had fallen.
Between the flames, beyond the smoke.
A man dressed in a black night robe stood there.
Moonlight illuminated only the two eyes above his mask.
Those colorless eyes were directed toward them.
The man slowly approached, and before long, a quiet voice flowed from beneath the mask.
'Are you alright?"
That was all.
The older woman looked up at the man's face for the first time.
A face hidden behind a mask.
But those two eyes.
No killing intent, no lust resided within them.
Simply a gaze of nothingness.
Slump-
The strength drained from the older woman's knees then and there as they bent, and the older daughter immediately followed.
The younger daughter had yet to release her father's hand, but her lips trembled faintly and barely, barely, she squeezed out sound.
"Thank...you..."
Even to words that could not complete themselves, Lumina responded kindly.
Ding-
Progress: 26/31
Those eyes of his-Dong Bong-soo's-moved slowly downward to confirm the additional system message as well.
Progress: 3/3
[You did not turn away from the innocent and succeeded in saving them.]
[But the root of this evil has yet to be resolved.]
Even though the quest had been completed, no reward log appeared.
'As expected, it's because it's a Chain Quest.
Since it had been derived from the main quest, it was being counted as incomplete until the original quest-[Innocent Village]-was resolved.
It had been something he'd been curious about, but the experiment was a success for now.
Dong Bong-soo immediately lifted his eyes.
Once again, south.
Five yellow dots marked on the mini-map were running straight toward the further south.
***
How long had it been since they left the forest and ran on.
The pursuit had been cut off.
That sticky energy that had been bearing down on all sides had not returned.
Furthermore, not a single beam of light had come flying since they escaped the forest.
'Is it over?'
He still could not be certain.
But it was a fact that the offensive had clearly stopped after that.
Had they left its territory.
Were they beyond its range.
Or had it given up on them.
He didn't know the reason.
Little by little.
Ever so little by little.
The tension drained from his stiffened shoulders.
The city walls of Gangdo began to appear under the moonlight as a silver line in the distance.
Still far away, but the single fact that it was visible-that they had closed enough distance to discern it with the naked eye-sent strength returning to his legs.
Vice-Leader Yeon Sang-gi was running right beside him.
Behind them, the remaining three were desperately following.
Five.
From thirty-one, five.
Sang Gwan-hwi gritted his teeth.
His fingertips were trembling, but he pressed them down into a fist.
Not yet.
Not yet.
'When I return, I will definitely find out that madman's true identity-
Just then.
Thwack-
The relief was a delusion.
A hole was punched through the forehead of the man running at the very rear.
A colorless, soundless streak of light.
'It hadn't stopped!"
The man had simply been waiting. Until the prey that had emerged from the forest had moved far enough into the wide-open plain. Until they had walked on their own two feet into the perfect hunting ground with nothing to hide behind.
Thwack-
A second.
The man whose chest was pierced crumpled without even managing a scream.
The third man looked at Sang Gwan-hwi with terror-stricken eyes.
Leader, was all his lips formed-but.
Thud-
His throat was punched through.
Cleanly.
As though a hole had been there from the very beginning.
And then.
The fourth beam of light came flying.
This time, aimed at Sang Gwan-hwi.
Sang Gwan-hwi's eyes narrowed.
He felt it.
A faint tearing of the air.
Something-too fast to call a hidden weapon, too alien to call an Energy Wave-was sensed as it came streaking toward the back of his head.
Swish-
He tilted only his upper body.
The minimum of movement.
The beam of light grazed his nape as it passed.
The skin between his neck and shoulder split along a single line, and a thin stream of blood ran down his spine.
The narrowest of margins.
'As expected... fast.'
No-fast was an understatement.
The exact same thing that had punched through his subordinates' foreheads and chests in the forest earlier. A projectile energy dedicated to long-range killing-different again from the rotating Sword Energy.
That he had been able to dodge that one shot was purely thanks to the one hidden ace he had kept concealed. A razor-thin evasion permitted by his Middle Sword Sense, honed and refined over decades.
But.
Yeon Sang-gi's eyes went wide.
"Leader?"
What he had just witnessed, Yeon Sang-gi likely could not understand.
Sang Gwan-hwi was undeniably a master who had reached the Pinnacle as one of the Vast Heaven Three Swords.
And so it could have been possible-to dodge an unseen assault without even looking back, using the minimum of movement, all while running.
But-but in that instant, the inner power that had slipped out unbeknownst...
"...It is nothing."
Sang Gwan-hwi said tersely.
It was not relief at having dodged that weighed down on him.
It was the awareness that it had been triggered.
This one evasion-dangerous enough to strip away the mask of the Heavenly Bloom Sword he had built up over many years, all in a single moment.
And so he ran faster.
But the fifth beam of light did not come.
Instead-a presence.
A heavy, sticky gaze sweeping across his back.
It was drawing closer. Slowly, without urgency.
As though it would catch him regardless.
Yeon Sang-gi, gasping as though his breath would give out, shouted.
"Leader! That thing is coming again!"
"I know."
Sang Gwan-hwi's voice was unexpectedly calm.
"I-I'll buy time here! Even if only the Leader can-!"
He was a loyal subordinate.
Also an old friend with whom he had spent more than ten years in the Sword Patrol Corps.
Someone who believed more deeply than anyone in the righteousness of the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect.
"Alright."
Sang Gwan-hwi stopped walking.
"You are correct."
Yeon Sang-gi also halted and drew his sword. His hands trembled, but his eyes alone were resolute.
"I, Vice-Leader Yeon Sang-gi, for the sake of the Heavenly Bloom Sword, am gladly-"
Ssshp-
It was not a sound.
It was the sound disappearing.
A silence that swallowed the wind, the insects, even his own breathing.
In the midst of that silence, Yeon Sang-gi felt something leave his throat.
It was warm.
It was wet.
He lowered his gaze.
A blade tip protruded from the front of his chest.
A sword that had entered from behind.
"Leader...?"
He tried to turn his head, but his body no longer obeyed.
Just before his knees gave way, a voice reached his ear.
"You've worked hard, Sang-gi.'
A voice smooth as silk, as it had always been.
"But it would be inconvenient if you were to remain alive."
Slump-
Yeon Sang-gi fell to his knees.
Toppled forward.
An expression of incomprehension set hard beneath the moonlight.
Swish-, Sang Gwan-hwi withdrew his sword and flicked the blood off once.
"Hahaha."
A laugh escaped him.
At first, low.
But soon his shoulders began to shake and uncontainable laughter burst freely forth.
"Hahahahahaha-!"
A laugh utterly ill-suited to this plain.
'To the very end, you-"
Sang Gwan-hwi raised his head.
Toward the gaze watching him from somewhere beyond the darkness.
*-have made this one into a villain."
At that moment.
The Middle Dantian.
Right at the center of his chest-that which he had sealed and concealed his entire life-began to stir, creeping open.
Twitch.
Twitch, twitch.
Like a snake long asleep uncoiling from its coil.
Hummmmmmmmm–
The air hummed.
An energy wholly unlike the pure white Vast Heaven Energy.
Dark, heavy, rank and rotten-smelling energy-began to rise from every inch of Sang Gwan-hwi's body.
Peerless Evil Energy.
The entire plain surrounding Gangdo began to be swallowed by that evil energy.
Grass blackened and withered.
Insects died.
As though even moonlight refused to touch him, darkness thickened around Sang Gwan-hwi at its center.
Only now revealed the true face of Heavenly Bloom Sword Sang Gwan-hwi.
One of the Vast Heaven Three Swords of the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect, the mightiest sect of the Orthodox Martial World, must absolutely never cultivate.
Nine Netherworld Heaven-Corroding Sword.
A sword that corrodes the heavens with the evil energy of the Nine Netherworldly Deaths.
The moment this became known to the world, Sang Gwan-hwi's existence within the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect would be finished.
Not just the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect-the entirety of the Orthodox Faction would come rushing to take his head. He might even become a Public Enemy of the Martial World.
And so he had endured. Even as his subordinates died one by one. Even as thirty-one became twenty, became ten, became five-he had gritted his teeth and endured with desperate, wretched patience.
But.
There were no more witnesses now.
Among allies.
'All of this is your fault."
Sang Gwan-hwi raised his sword.
The blade, drinking in evil energy, swallowed the moonlight and was dyed pitch black.
'Tonight, Gangdo is erased from the Martial World."
No witnesses would be left behind.
Not even a single blade of grass on this plain.
Beyond the darkness.
Two eyes above a mask gazed down at it all in silence.
"... "
No particular reaction.
Neither surprise nor wariness.
The other side, too, merely raised his sword slowly.
As though he had known from the very beginning.
No-
As though from the very beginning, this was what he had been trying to draw out.
-x-X-x-
Evil Energy was consuming the earth.
A dark, heavy, rancid-smelling energy was encroaching across the entire field, withering the grass, killing the insects, and erasing even the moonlight.
At the center of it all, Sang Gwan-hwi stood.
His pure white robe was already stained with all manner of blood, and within dozens of meters around him, a black Evil Energy mist covered and billowed like fog.
The mask of an elegant hypocrite had been stripped away.
Only the essence hidden for decades remained.
"How typical."
A voice devoid of emotion.
Not admiration, not surprise-the tone of one who had confirmed something.
Sang Gwan-hwi narrowed his eyes as he watched the masked figure emerge from the darkness.
"What is?"
'Humans who pretend to be more human."
Dong Bong-soo took a step forward.
Onto the field consumed by Evil Energy, without hesitation.
'The more human they pretend to be, the less human they turn out to be."
Of course, that expression 'human' applied to ordinary humans.
For things like that, this appearance was far more human.
That was the duality and essence of humanity.
Sssss-
The Evil Energy of Nine Netherworld Heaven-Corroding Sword swirled and recoiled at each point his foot touched. The Super True Energy Field was naturally pushing the Evil Energy back from around each step.
As if walking through water without getting one's clothes wet.
"Pushing back Evil Energy?"
For the first time, Sang Gwan-hwi furrowed his brow.
The Evil Energy had already dominated the entire field. No matter how strong one's internal energy, the moment one stepped inside, breathing should be cut off, meridians should twist, and internal power circulation should be disrupted that was the normal outcome.
Yet that fellow was strolling through it at leisure.
The only reason he could think of was one.
'As I suspected... You were from the Evil Path."
And withstanding his powerful energy so casually like that?
At this level, it wasn't a matter of expectation-he could be certain.
'A grunt of the Dark Net Rakshasa Path."
But that was a shallow guess, befitting one who had walked only the path of hypocrisy his entire life.
And it was of no concern to Dong Bong-soo regardless. Whether it was expectation, prediction, or certainty meant nothing to him.
Without a reply, he simply lifted the object he had obtained earlier.
Evil-Warding Sword
◆Special Effect:When facing enemies of the Evil Demon type, increases all of the user's stats by 3%
*Only the highest increase among overlapping abilities is applied (cannot stack).
◆ Condition Met: The current target's mana has been judged as Evil attribute and the effect is activating.
He ran his gaze swiftly along the blade.
It was far lighter than the Demon-Expelling Annihilation Wheel Sword, but the 3% difference was clear to his senses. The Evil-Warding Sword was trembling faintly in response to the Evil Energy's vibrations. As if telling him that what it needed to cut was right there.
"Aah, was it thanks to the Jin Family's heirloom?"
Sang Gwan-hwi's gaze rested on the sword as well.
"Unexpected. I had no idea the Evil-Warding Sword's efficacy was that great. I hadn't realized."
If I'd known, I would've killed that Jin... what was his name?
Well, whatever that Jin whatsisname was, I'd have killed him sooner and used him to raise the achievement of Nine Netherworld Heaven-Corroding Sword.
'Doesn't matter. This one's Nine Netherworld Heaven-Corroding Sword is not a martial art that can be overcome by some trivial treasure like that."
The corner of Sang Gwan-hwi's mouth twisted.
'Fine, fine. In that case-"
Kabooom-!
The Evil Energy expanded explosively.
The wicked energy of Nine Netherworld Heaven-Corroding Sword surged beyond the field, threatening to reach the forest and Gangdo he had escaped from earlier.
'For the first time, this body shall reveal its martial arts fully to the world."
Sang Gwan-hwi raised his sword.
From the jet-black blade, nine strands of Evil Energy writhed up like snakes.
Nine Netherworld Heaven-Corroding Sword, First Form.
Nether Rise Erosion.
"Consider it an honor. The fact that you are the first existence to be erased by this Nine Netherworld Heaven-Corroding Sword."
Clash-!
The clash happened in an instant.
The moment Sang Gwan-hwi kicked off the air, Walking on Grass imbued with Evil Energy cleaved the earth apart in the blink of an eye.
In an instant.
A distance of a dozen-plus meters vanished in a moment as the jet-black sword aimed for Dong Bong-soo's throat.
It was fast.
Dimensionally different from when he had fought using only Vast Heaven Energy before.
The moment his inner power was unleashed, Sang Gwan-hwi's movements changed in quality. With the wicked energy layered over an Orthodox sect's supreme technique, the trajectory became difficult to read in its entirety.
An internal power mixture of Righteous and Evil.
A combination of an honest heavy sword and a speed sword that prioritized change and feints.
That disharmony was, on the contrary, creating an unpredictable sword path.
Sword paths that had split into thousands upon thousands of branches converged into one before splitting again into thousands upon thousands, repeatedly surging forward.
However.
Clang-!
Dong Bong-soo's sword found Sang Gwan-hwi's blade precisely at the very moment the sword paths converged. The moment the Evil Energy made contact, the Evil-Warding Sword's blade emitted a faint glow of its own, cleaving the Evil Energy apart.
Using that repulsive force to step back a dozen-plus paces, Dong Bong-soo read the essence of his opponent's sword technique.
A form in which black Evil Energy hid within silver Sword Rigidity.
A sword technique with a suitable mixture of heavy, variable, feint, and speed.
One exchange.
That was enough to interpret the method of the enemy's martial arts.
Clang-! Clatter-clatter-clang-!
Metallic sounds burst in succession.
Sang Gwan-hwi poured it out in waves.
The nine strands of Evil Energy of Nether Rise Erosion coiled like snakes along the sword path, attempting to bite into every part of Dong Bong-soo's body.
The poison of Evil Energy.
Even without direct contact with the sword, the structure was such that the Evil Energy itself, merely touching skin, would paralyze meridians and gnaw away at internal power.
Any ordinary master at the peak would have collapsed within a few exchanges.
But Dong Bong-soo was not an ordinary master at the peak.
Strictly speaking, he was a being that couldn't be applied to the classification of 'peak' in the first place.
Clang-! Clang! Clang!
Even if the substantial Sword Rigidity could be resolved by clashing against another Sword Rigidity, the nine serpent-tongued strands of Evil Energy should have lacerated Dong Bong-soo countless times.
At minimum, they should have made contact.
But the Super True Energy Field was constantly deflecting the Evil Energy just a fraction before it reached him.
As if water repelled by oil, each time the Evil Energy touched the boundary of the Super True Energy Field, it slipped or was reflected.
"What! What is this!"
Veins stood out on Sang Gwan-hwi's forehead.
"Why won't it go in! Son of a-!"
The Evil Energy's infiltration was blocked. Even if the blade's tip made contact, the energy could not penetrate at all.
But what Sang Gwan-hwi didn't know was that this wasn't the end of it.
Even if his Evil Energy were to reach and touch Dong Bong-soo, it would be unable to cause any damage whatsoever.
Holeless Body.
In Dong Bong-soo's body, there were no such things as energy acupoints.
There was no pathway through which Evil Energy could infiltrate.
A body with no meridians to invade, no Dantian to gnaw away at, no acupoints to disrupt.
To Dong Bong-soo, the Evil Energy of Nine Netherworld Heaven-Corroding Sword was simply a single drop of sweat, a single drop of blood splattered on a sword.
Shing-!
Having shaken his sword and pushed Sang Gwan-hwi back dozens of paces, Dong Bong-soo returned the Evil-Warding Sword to his Inventory.
With the Evil-Warding Sword deactivated, the 3% stat correction disappeared. And he precisely measured and memorized the extent of that 3%.
It was worth memorizing since it was exactly the amount typically spoken of in the Martial World as the three-tenths to keep in reserve.
But to Sang Gwan-hwi's eyes, it could only appear as though his opponent had laid down his weapon.
"Dropping your weapon-!"
Whoosh-!
He charged immediately, unleashing Evil Energy ferociously.
But.
Click.
An instant later, a new weapon appeared in Dong Bong-soo's left hand.
No, should it be called a 'weapon.'
A cluster of light.
[Faith Arrow] condensed into a sword of light at the fingertips of his left hand.
He hadn't fired it yet.
He held it in his hand.
The moment the Evil Energy made contact, the light reacted.
Sssss-
The Evil Energy burned.
The light of the Holy Attribute, in the area where it contacted the Evil Energy, triggered a violent clashing reaction, vaporizing the black energy.
"...!"
For the first time, Sang Gwan-hwi was genuinely astonished.
An energy that 'burned' Evil Energy.
This was no simple righteous energy of the Orthodox Path like Vast Heaven Energy.
An energy that fundamentally rejected Evil was gathered in that man's hand.
Immortal.
He had heard of it.
The kind of energy that could be drawn out by mastering martial arts of the Immortal Daoist school to their extreme.
"You... just what are you...."
This question was the third time.
The first time, when they met in the village.
The second, while being pursued through the forest.
The third, now.
All three times, the answer was the same.
"....."
Silence.
Clang-!
Instead of silence, the sword answered.
Dong Bong-soo's sword formed of [Faith Arrow] shattered Heavenly Bloom Sword's sword path in a frontal clash.
Windless Sword Method.
A single strike with no sound, no wind, no excess.
But that one move severed every one of Sang Gwan-hwi's successive attacks-all at once.
The nine strands of Evil Energy created hundreds and thousands of variable strikes, feint strikes, and speed strikes, but to no avail.
Whether variable, feint, or speed, in the end the sword path was aiming at one intersection.
This was not a sword technique but geometry.
Calculating the single point where all trajectories meet and silently placing only the sword there-it was a simple kind of mathematics or structural engineering.
And on top of that, the energy carried a Holy Attribute-what more needed to be said.
"Urgh."
Sang Gwan-hwi kept stumbling backward.
'I, I am! This one is! One of the Vast Heaven Three Swords!"
Having unleashed even his inner power now, there was no retreating. He couldn't retreat.
Nine Netherworld Heaven-Corroding Sword, Third Form.
Sang Gwan-hwi's Middle Dantian pulsed.
Black energy enveloped the blade. Then in the blink of an eye, the blade itself melted away, and Rigid Energy formed from Evil Energy replaced the blade itself.
Not physical metal but a sword made of pure Evil Energy.
Sky-Eroding Ink Slash.
A jet-black single slash that erodes the heavens.
Whooooom-!
The atmosphere howled.
Jet-black Evil Energy condensed into a crescent moon shape and poured toward Dong Bong-soo.
This was not mere Rigid Energy.
A wave of Evil Energy that gnawed at space itself.
The nine poisons of the Underworld that corroded, eroded, and rotted everything they touched.
Just before that wave reached Dong Bong-soo.
Dong Bong-soo raised his left hand.
In that instant, the [Faith Arrow] that had been in the form of a sword immediately reverted to its original arrow form and was launched head-on.
Boom-!
Holy Light and Evil Energy collided directly.
Kabooooom-!
Violent explosion.
The sky tore as a shockwave of black and white intertwined spread in all directions.
The withered grass of the field evaporated roots and all.
Craaaaack-
The earth cracked like a spider's web had descended upon it.
Through those fissures, black energy and white light alternated flickering and clashed for a long while.
The result...
became apparent before long.
Ssssssssss–
The Holy Light burned into the Evil Energy and consumed it.
Slow, but certain.
Holy was gnawing away at Evil.
'This can't... this can't be."
Sang Gwan-hwi's face contorted.
Nine Netherworld Heaven-Corroding Sword's Sky-Eroding Ink Slash.
His full-power strike, capable of devouring even the heavens...was losing ground.
But Dong Bong-soo was not particularly satisfied with the result.
The outcome of the battle situation was already determined anyway.
Only the efficiency of the battle situation mattered now.
[Faith Arrow]Cooldown: 0.5 seconds
'I tried maintaining energy forcibly drawn out, but the power is rather poor relative to the internal power consumed.'
For now, he concluded there was no need to expend excessive effort to eliminate the cooldown.
Of course, confirming that there was the advantage of directly 'burning' and neutralizing the energy of Evil Demons was an important point.
-Holy burns and Evil Demons are extinguished.
A simple formula.
Combat is, in the end, a battle of data.
And also an experiment.
The process of forming a hypothesis, verifying it, and collecting data.
This test subject called Sang Gwan-hwi had provided quite good data.
The fact that he continued to cooperate with the experiment even after sensing the hopelessness made him an even better source.
Thud-
Before the remnants of the shockwave had even cleared, Sang Gwan-hwi leapt out.
Blood-red eyes so bloodshot they looked about to burst into bleeding at any moment.
On his face, not the slightest trace of refined elegance or any such flattering word could be found any longer.
"I'll kill you!"
The Evil Energy began to rampage.
From Sang Gwan-hwi's entire body, the black energy surged uncontrollably, as if it had lost control, pouring out madly.
A runaway tantamount to self-harm, forcing the Middle Dantian open beyond its limits.
Even his skin was being torn apart as a dark crimson energy oozed out in clumps.
It was likely the phenomenon occurring as his very body became a medium for the Evil Energy.
"Ha ha ha ha ha! This one, this one-in this kind of frontier outpost!"
The sword was unleashed madly.
Without form.
Without technique.
Simply raw violence laden with Evil Energy.
But a sword that had lost reason held no beauty, no threat.
There was nothing left worth calculating, nothing worth committing to memory.
Dong Bong-soo stepped aside by one pace.
Half a step. Minimum evasion.
The Absolute Evil Rigidity, unleashed in frenzy, grazed a single strand of Dong Bong-soo's hair.
In that instant.
The Demon-Expelling Annihilation Wheel Sword, manifested from Inventory before anyone noticed, moved.
Three Talents Sword Technique, Second Form.
Direct Strike at the Yellow Dragon.
A single, straight thrust.
The most primitive and efficient attack, stripped of all embellishment.
Slice-
The sword tip penetrated through the curtain of Evil Energy.
Like a curtain riddled with holes, the Nine Netherworld Heaven's Body Protection Rigid Energy, undone in an instant, receded, and Sang Gwan-hwi's forehead was exposed.
In that moment, Sang Gwan-hwi must have felt it too.
That his Evil Energy, his pride, the hidden trump card martial art he had kept concealed.
Before a single line of a thrust, was splitting like paper.
"...This."
His lips moved trying to say something, but
it could not be shaped into words.
Thud.
With a dull sound, the tip of the Demon-Expelling Annihilation Wheel Sword drove into the space between his eyes.
Sang Gwan-hwi's body stiffened and the Evil Energy that had been raised high began to collapse rapidly.
The jet-black energy that had consumed the field.
It vanished swiftly and naturally along with its owner's life force.
Sssssssssss–
The black mist cleared and the moonlight returned.
Pale moonlight illuminated the blood flowing from Sang Gwan-hwi's mouth with reasonable clarity.
Still wide-open pupils.
An expression that said he couldn't believe it.
No-was it an expression that said he couldn't accept it.
'This one..."
Dong Bong-soo twisted the sword.
Crack.
The sound of a skull splitting.
"Yes. You."
Shhk.
As the sword was drawn out, Sang Gwan-hwi's body fell forward.
Thud.
One of the Vast Heaven Three Swords lay stretched out across the withered grass of the field.
There was no particular feeling.
Simply waiting.
For Lumina's kind voice.
Ding-
[You did not turn away from helping the innocent. A reward is given.]
[+3]
Simultaneously.
[Your additional heroic actions advance Hero History further. A reward is given.]
[+1]
[Your name has become slightly more widely known throughout the world (Fame +5).]
[The world has become quite a bit more beautiful.]
[A bond with the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect has been formed. This bond may be an ill fate or a good fate. The direction of the bond depends entirely on your choices.]
Lumina's voice sounded in succession.
And then.
A strange and mysterious white light emanating from Dong Bong-soo's body.
It was Holy Light so intense it could purify even the filthy blood of the Sword Patrol Corps members.
The corners of Dong Bong-soo's eyes, visible outside the mask, curved softly.
Because the return of an old friend is always welcome.
While I wasn't looking, Murim Online had been steadily finding its own path too.
Though compared to the new friend, this old friend's score sheet had many chronic problems and needed to be checked personally.
It's not a difficult task-I'll check it later.
"...."
Dong Bong-soo standing alone on the field.
Only corpses and withered grass, the returned moonlight, and a night wind heavy with the smell of blood surrounded him.
Soon, as he always did, he began placing the bodies one by one into his Inventory.
Roughly thirty corpses of the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect's Sword Patrol Corps members. Among them, one was even that of a Corps Leader. Of course, there were more fragments scattered here and there, so some further effort was still needed.
Whether these things would be useful or not was still unknown, but there was plenty of potential for them to be.
Shortly after completing his routine, he extended the Super True Energy Field toward the vicinity of Slash-and-burn Village.
Three faint energies were moving.
-If you have begun helping, shouldn't the conclusion always be clean?
Before returning to Gangdo, this part also needed to be wrapped up in a manner befitting a 'hero. Tending to the body recovery together as well.
Hush-
As if nothing had happened, the field became completely silent again.
-x-X-x-
-x-X-x-
Two days already.
The mountain path showed no sign of ending.
Dong Mu-toe's stride was constant. An ambiguous speed-a little too fast to call walking, yet far too slow to call Lightness Arts.
Formation Taoists' Lightness Arts tended to be this way.
It was not the method of martial artists who drew up internal power to gain propulsion by pushing off grass or rocks. Instead, it was a style of reading the minute flow of Formation Energy running underfoot and borrowing it slightly to push the body forward. A kind of Formation Path-style footwork that glided along with the flow of the earth's energy channels.
The problem was that the earth's energy channels running through this mountain range were thoroughly uncooperative.
'Damn it, the energy channels are an absolute mess. Twisted every which way-reminds me of that guy, it really does."
'Go to Formation Tower. As quickly as possible."
That one sentence.
To think a single sentence could carry this much weight.
It wasn't that the moment he heard those words, his feet had started moving in one direction only. After that, he had exchanged quite a few more words with that fellow Kim Rae-won.
The decision to go to Formation Tower had also been his own. He would be able to ask that man more questions that way, and he had to make a trip to Formation Tower at least once in a while regardless.
But now that he thought about it, it hadn't been his own decision after all.
These were clearly his own legs, yet as if someone had laid a directed formation under the soles of his feet, his body was being drawn only toward the northwest.
He could clearly stop.
Resting was certainly possible.
Only changing direction was impossible.
How to put it?
As if somewhere ahead there existed a breathtakingly beautiful unsolved formation that had been yearning desperately for him alone to come and undo it-the idea of going any other way simply never entered his mind. Like a mantis infected by a horsehair worm seeking water.
He had tested it many times along the way.
For example, at a fork where the road split three ways, when he deliberately moved his foot eastward, he couldn't take more than a few steps before his feet naturally veered back toward the direction he had been 'compelled to go'all along.
Or when he deliberately took a midday nap he wouldn't normally seek, he would rise as if sleepwalking, and begin moving in a half-dreaming daze without even realizing it-these things repeated themselves.
'Go to Formation Tower. As quickly as possible.
It was clear these two commands were acting as constraints.
"It really is impressive."
He couldn't even begin to guess at the operating mechanism of what Kim Rae-won called a Vow, let alone its origin. A mechanism that controlled and bound an individual this perfectly without placing any psychological or physical restraint whatsoever.
What was the medium-was there even one? Was it transmitted through energy acupoints? Was it an intrusion through intention? Or some form of Immortal Art?
Rustle.
Dong Mu-toe pulled a folded bundle of papers from inside his robe.
Already twelve sheets filled to the brim on both sides. Notes scribbled here and there while walking.
Structural Deduction of the Vow
Every Formation Path diagram and formula he knew was tangled together in a disordered mess, but for now it was all meaningless conjecture-nothing more than indecipherable scrawl.
Dong Mu-toe shook his head with a sigh and opened directly to the last page.
A drawing with an Eight Trigrams diagram and a meridian map overlaid on top of each other, with arrow markings extending in every direction. And at the end of it all, everything converged into the word Faith?
"My connection with the world that believes in me."
That was the only thing Kim Rae-won had ever said about faith.
'What on earth does that even mean."
The connection between belief and the world.
If it were a religious concept, one could perhaps understand it.
But Dong Bong-soo was no man of religion. At least from what Dong Mu-toe had seen, that fellow didn't have the faintest shred of faith in him. He was, at his core, a being who could never have such a thing.
And yet.
'Faith, he says.'
Was he using others' belief as fuel in some manner?
'Then it would be a structure where the believing side supplies the fuel and the believed side receives
the propulsive force...?"
From the perspective of Formation Path, a classic reverse-flow structure.
Ordinarily, a formation consumed the caster's own energy to produce an effect. The caster supplies the energy, and the one who receives that power is also the caster-that is the standard structure. The same holds true for martial arts. Extending the principle further, that is the law of nature itself.
Who eats on behalf of someone else?
One eats, moves, and protects oneself in order to survive, in order to move, in order to protect oneself.
One can act for another's sake. But one cannot eat a meal in another's place-isn't that obvious?
And yet.
Kim Rae-won had clearly said it.
My connection with the world that believes in me.
In other words, this faith was drawing in the energy of others-the immaterial element called others' 'belief'-and converting it into the caster's own power.
"Insane."
His pace quickened.
When excited, his feet always sped up-an old habit of Dong Mu-toe's.
"This isn't a formation. It's not Immortal Arts either, and certainly not martial arts."
He had been thinking about it wrong from the start.
Trying to force something unknown into the framework of the world he knew-no wonder nothing fit.
Wasn't this a completely new dynamic, one that might not exist anywhere in the academic systems of the Central Plains, or perhaps even the Immortal Realm?
An unknown territory he had never encountered.
Ah.
Ahh.
Feeling the goosebumps rise on his skin, Dong Mu-toe continued scribbling on his paper even as his pace quickened.
And so, as he gradually drew closer to Formation Tower, his thoughts grew more defined.
He decided to execute the last resort one could attempt when something was utterly impossible to understand and likely always would be.
"Just..."
Unbearably reluctant, but-
'Believe. Let's try believing. That bastard-no, that guy, no! No! That sir..."
He would try having faith in Kim Rae-won. Try venerating him. Revering him.
From this moment on, he, Dong Mu-toe, had decided to believe in a god.
A god by the name of Kim Rae-won.
Perhaps then he might find the thread to unravel this curiosity.
To blaze a new path of truth, what was there he could not do?
If Kim Rae-won told him to eat shit, he would eat-
He'd eat it, god damn it!
***
It was once again around the time the sun sank and the sunset stained the sky a deep crimson that Dong Mu-toe's eyes finally took in a familiar sight.
The foothills of the Cloud Ridge mountain range.
Seen from a distance, mountain ranges folded like stacked sheets of paper extended in a northwest direction. Following that range considerably further up, one would reach the entrance to Formation Tower. Still a full day's journey away.
His legs ached.
The limits of a body that was no martial artist's, one might say.
Well, it was thanks to that very fact that he had become a Trigram Leader.
Because his body was weak, his mind had to grow strong.
Because his mind was strong, his Formation Path had to become exceptional.
Because his Formation Path was exceptional, it didn't matter that his body was weak.
A beautiful vicious cycle.
No-was it a virtuous cycle?
'Either way is fine."
Reaching the entrance to the Cloud Ridge mountain range meant the same thing as arriving at Formation Tower's Communication Post.
The Communication Post was the small-scale relay outpost of Formation Tower spread throughout the land.
It was a place where a dozen or so lower-ranking Formation Taoists stationed there collected commissions from each region and served as intermediaries relaying messages to the main headquarters of the Alliance Under Heaven Formation.
Soon enough, a respectable two-story wooden building came into view, with a flag bearing Formation Tower's emblem fluttering from its roof.
Dong Mu-toe made his way toward it.
Since the Vow wasn't reacting much, it seemed to have interpreted stopping at the Communication Post as a 'transit stop on the way to getting there faster.
A young Formation Taoist standing watch at the front looked up with a slight start as he spotted him.
"Oh?"
His eyes settled on Dong Mu-toe's robe.
More precisely, his gaze fixed on the color of the embroidery stitched into the robe.
Something that appeared to be silver yet wasn't quite.
"That..."
The young Formation Taoist was greatly flustered.
"Platinum?!"
Silver and platinum look similar at a glance.
But the depth of their luster is entirely different.
Silver is bright and cold. Platinum is heavy and weighty.
In Formation Tower, silver embroidery thread signified the Formation Master rank. Intermediate Formation Taoists.
Platinum, on the other hand-
'Tri-Trigram Leader?!"
Because a Trigram Leader had appeared so unexpectedly, the Watch Formation Taoist stood momentarily dazed before quickly rushing over.
'My apologies. My eyes are poor and I failed to recognize Your Honor the Trigram Leader..."
'Never mind that."
Dong Mu-toe waved his hand.
"Is there tea?"
'Pardon? Oh, yes! There is! If you go inside the Communication Post, I can brew it right away..."
"Give me that one you were drinking."
'What? That's the one I was drinking..."
Dong Mu-toe had already picked up the teacup resting on a nearby rock where the Watch Formation Taoist had been standing and drained it in one go.
As the lukewarm, faintly sweet tea wet his throat, his exhausted body was at least somewhat restored.
"Your name?"
"I am Ha Geun-yeong, Your Honor the Trigram Leader!"
'Good. Taoist Ha. I have some things to ask."
Dong Mu-toe set down the teacup and asked.
'The bidding over the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect and Dark Net Rakshasa Path matter is still in progress, isn't it?"
"Yes, yes! So I've been told. Apparently both sides submitted mobilization commissions to Formation Tower..."
'How is that going?"
'Th-that level of detail isn't something a low-ranking person like myself would know... Ah, come to think of it. Would you happen to be Trigram Leader Dong from the Fire Formation Division?"
'Yeah. Why do you ask all of a sudden?"
'Trigram Leader Eom Bi-ryeong was looking for you, Your Honor."
The hand holding the teacup paused very slightly.
'Eom Bi-ryeong was?"
'Yes. Trigram Leader Eom Bi-ryeong and Trigram Leader Myo Jin-heo came looking for you personally."
Myo Jin-heo too, looking for me?
Ah, those two want to work together on this matter.
"Where are they now?"
"They passed through here a few days ago."
"...Passed through?"
Dong Mu-toe, barely reining in legs that kept nudging him forward, had one eyebrow tip lift slightly
upward.
'Where did they go?"
'They said they were heading toward Gangdo. They mentioned the last place you had taken a commission was near Gangdo."
"... "
His own face reflected in the tea looked distorted.
'We've crossed paths.'
Eom Bi-ryeong had gone down toward Gangdo looking for him, while he was going up toward Formation Tower.
In terms of direction alone, they should have met somewhere in the middle-but it was not as if there was only one road. If their actual routes didn't coincide, meeting somewhere in this vast Central Plains would be quite difficult.
Hmm. Sae-mae would be able to backtrace my trail all the way to Hero Gate.
In that case, it was a hundred percent certainty that Eom Bi-ryeong and Kim Rae-won would come face to face.
'Guild Master Kim and Trigram Leader Eom.
And Myo Jin-heo was mixed in with them too.
That feeling-something was off.
Should he turn back?
His feet.
He tried experimentally stepping one foot in the direction of Gangdo, toward the southeast.
A sensation of his calf seizing up, and instantly his entire body wrenched.
As expected, this Vow of a thing would not permit a change of direction.
"...Could you send a message for me?"
"Yes, Your Honor the Trigram Leader! Of course! Right away through the Communication Corps--"
Ha Geun-yeong scrambled about bringing out paper and ink.
Dong Mu-toe lifted a brush for a moment, then hesitated, and the corner of his mouth curled slowly upward.
"Heh-never mind."
Dong Mu-toe quickly set the brush back down.
"The message is off."
'Pardon? But Your Honor the Trigram Leader...?"
"Heh heh heh."
"Your Honor the Trigram Leader?!"
"Ah, sorry, sorry. It's just-something very amusing is about to happen, I think. Heh heh heh heh."
Probably.
No-certainly.
Dong Mu-toe drained the last sip remaining in the teacup.
Clack
He set the cup down and rose to his feet.
'Thank you, Taoist Ha.'
"Not at all! Your Honor the Trigram Leader!"
Ha Geun-yeong scrambled to his feet as well.
"Is-is there anything else you need?"
"No."
Stepping out of the Communication Post, Dong Mu-toe glanced back once more.
The southeast direction-Gangdo, beyond the mountain ranges, invisible from here.
Even so, he gazed in that direction for a moment before turning his head away.
'Sorry, Sae-mae.'
Heh heh heh, let's meet again safely at Formation Tower.
You understand, don't you? This feeling that's so amusing I simply can't hold it in?
Stifling his chuckle, Dong Mu-toe turned his body and set off toward the northwest-in the direction of Formation Tower.
The Vow gave him a firm push from behind.