Jihan was sprinting through the darkness.
His heart pounded as though it would burst. Since becoming a martial artist, had he ever been this startled?
'What did I just see?'
In an instant, the Hyeolpung Sageom had fallen to that man. Because he had watched from afar, he could not tell exactly how they had been killed.
'Poison? A hidden weapon?'
He did not know how they had been killed, but it had happened in an instant.
But what truly made Jihan's heart pound like this was not because they had been killed.
'He definitely saw me.'
He had looked straight at Jihan in the darkness. It was no mistake. He had even waved his hand at him.
He was this far away. Hidden in such thick darkness.
How far had he run?
Jihan stopped and gasped for breath. In such a startled state, he had executed his lightness skill without regulating his breath properly. His qi and blood tangled, and he nearly suffered an internal injury. Truly, this was the first time such a thing had ever happened.
"Haa, haa."
The image of the young man smiling at him from atop the carriage resurfaced.
The ominous premonition had been correct.
'An opponent we should never have touched.'
Now he understood clearly why Songno had not sold the information.
'A big shot. One we cannot handle.'
He could now be certain that telling him to wash his hands of it and walk away had truly been advice for his own good.
But if he left the organization without permission, the organization would mobilize every means to track him down.
One might think the pursuing would stop after a few years, but that pursuit continued forever. The more wicked and despicable the organization, the more it never forgave betrayal.
Since he knew the art of tracking better than anyone, he would not be caught, but he would have to live his entire life being pursued and on edge.
Leaving was not as easy as it sounded.
Even if he left, he could not do so this abruptly. He had to leave only after thorough preparation.
That was why, for now, it was time to return and file a report.
How would Hwaryong Danju Cheon Daeung take the news of the Hyeolpung Sageom's death?
—The Hyeolpung Sageom are dead. They are opponents we should not touch.
The moment he uttered these words, the man might fly into a rage as though bereft of his limbs and kill him. He was the type to act without regard for consequence.
At this moment when his own side felt more troublesome than the enemy, Jihan recalled what Songno had said.
—If you cannot leave... then charge toward death.
It did not mean to die. Songno had spoken those words while showing him a kindness.
Would that death be a merciful one?
Standing alone beneath the dawn starlight, Jihan's worries deepened.
* * *
Cheon Daeung was pouring wine behind the hanging screen.
It was truly a rare sight to see him pouring wine for someone so politely. It meant that the person drinking with him now was someone of great importance.
Only after pouring the wine did he repeat the report he had heard moments ago.
"The Hyeolpung Sageom are dead?"
Jihan felt even greater fear at his unexcited voice.
"Yes. They are all dead."
From behind the hanging screen, Cheon Daeung spoke politely to his companion.
"Please drink and wait a moment."
One side of the screen was drawn aside, and Cheon Daeung walked out.
The refined man became a different person the moment he stepped outside the screen.
Cheon Daeung threw a punch at Jihan without warning.
Swish!
Bam!
The palm force that grazed past Jihan's face smashed the door to pieces. The martial artists standing guard outside the door were struck by a disaster out of nowhere.
"Who did you say is dead?"
Swhack! Crash!
Cheon Daeung smashed everything in sight. The person inside the screen and the person now were completely different.
He was this sort of person by nature, but the reason he had behaved politely inside the screen was out of courtesy toward that person.
Rather, his rampage outside seemed to emphasize his courtesy toward the person inside the screen.
Bam! Crash!
The ground around where Jihan stood was pulverized by the palm force, and the floor tiles were overturned. Debris flew at Jihan's body, but he did not dodge.
This Cheon Daeung was the type of human Jihan hated most.
One who revealed his anger through violence.
One who believed he could express his emotions to his heart's content because he was strong.
The saving grace was that this rage was not flying directly at Jihan.
Only after throwing such a tantrum did Cheon Daeung's anger subside.
"Whose doing is it? Was it the old man said to be with them? Or did that mysterious woman kill them?"
Jihan had clearly seen at least one thing. That it was the doing of that young man. That is, unless the other two had displayed their martial arts while lying down.
Jihan answered honestly.
"I could not see properly."
He had expected a furious order to fall, but instead, Cheon Daeung considered it normal.
"Yes, naturally."
He considered himself far weaker than the Hyeolpung Sageom. In fact, not only him, but many in the organization disliked and despised him. They treated him like a hunting dog that sniffed out scents.
There was a clear reason they disliked Jihan.
Most of the targets he tracked were people who had defected from within the organization. In other words, Jihan was the person who would chase after them if they tried to escape the organization.
"You were hiding far away like a coward, weren't you?"
"The Hyeolpung Sageom told me to step back, saying I would get in the way of the fight. That I would needlessly reveal my presence to the enemy."
It was a lie. After relaying their position, he had withdrawn far away on his own.
Because it was a surprise attack in the dead of night, the Hyeolpung Sageom had been confident. They were ones who believed that even if they fought in broad daylight, as long as all four gathered, they would lose to no one.
"Still, you must have seen something, haven't you?"
"The battle was decided in an instant, so I could not see anything."
Cheon Daeung grabbed Jihan by the collar.
"If you can't even tattle properly like this, what can you do besides sniffing out scents? Shall I cut off this nose of yours?"
To avoid that scornful gaze, Jihan lowered his head deeply.
Cheon Daeung threw him. Jihan tumbled to the floor. He could have arrested his fall with his movement technique, but had he done so, Cheon Daeung might truly have used a killing move.
Cheon Daeung turned toward the rear screen and spoke politely to the person beyond it.
"This matter must be handled by you, Elder."
The shadow inside the screen drank and then set down the wine cup.
"I shall."
Then the screen was drawn aside, and the one called Elder revealed himself. Upon confirming who it was, Jihan understood why that foul-tempered Cheon Daeung was showing him such courtesy.
"Guide them."
* * *
The carriage departed early the next morning.
Because Geom Mugeuk acted as though nothing had happened the night before, Taesu wondered if he had dreamed it all.
"By any chance, do you know who those attackers were yesterday?"
Geom Mugeuk nodded.
"I know."
"You know? Who were they?"
"Why are you curious about that now?"
"I feel like I should know who I helped bury."
That was not the reason. He was curious just what level of expert had been killed. Yesterday, he had been too surprised and disoriented to ask.
"The Hyeolpung Sageom."
Taesu was startled out of his wits for a moment, but soon he shook his head.
"Come on, don't joke around."
Four people had been killed, so he had definitely just picked the name of some four-member group of experts at random.
If you were going to joke, you should have attached a plausible name, but the Hyeolpung Sageom?
The Hyeolpung Sageom were renowned experts of the Demonic Path.
Just the martial artists they had killed were innumerable. Many of those they had killed were famous experts whose names alone were known.
Was that all? Like the experts of the Demonic Path they were, they were ones who had committed innumerable evil deeds.
They were the sort that if someone so much as uttered the name Hyeolpung Sageom while eating at an inn, the surroundings would fall silent in an instant.
They died without even swinging their swords properly? That was preposterous.
"I'm not that naive. I've rolled around in the martial world long enough. So stop teasing me and tell me who they were."
Geom Mugeuk drove the carriage without a word. He had not insisted they were the Hyeolpung Sageom. Therefore, it felt all the more real.
Recalling Geom Mugeuk's lightning-fast movements from yesterday, Taesu asked again in a trembling voice.
"Was it really the Hyeolpung Sageom?"
When Geom Mugeuk nodded, Taesu turned deathly pale.
Even when the battle for the Jangbyeondo broke out earlier, those chasing him had merely been nameless martial artists blinded by greed.
He just had to evade them with his lightness skill, with his Bone Compression Technique. He had no need to know their names, nor was he curious.
But now, names had finally started to emerge.
The Hyeolpung Sageom.
Those terrifying Hyeolpung Sageom he had only ever heard of in tales had pointed their swords at him and died right before his eyes.
Perhaps this was only the beginning of hearing astonishing names.
Having composed himself, Taesu looked at Geom Mugeuk. Had this person really killed the Hyeolpung Sageom?
"Did you kill them knowing who they were?"
"I didn't know when I killed them."
"Then how do you know now?"
"Because a report flew in this morning."
"To whom?"
"The Cheonma Escort Agency has an information network all over the Central Plains. They have a thousand horses—just how fast do you think they exchange messages?"
Taesu looked at him with eyes wondering whether he should believe this or not.
Geom Mugeuk took a sheet of paper from his breast pocket and handed it to him.
Taesu let out a shriek as he read the contents.
"Argh!"
It was because of another name written on the paper.
—The Hyeolpung Sageom have been active as the limbs of Hwaryong Danju Cheon Daeung of the Sawangmun.
"They belonged to the Sawangmun?"
Sawangmun.
It was a sect famous in the Demonic Path for being savage and infamous.
It had not originally been this notorious, but from a certain point, it began accepting those who had committed crimes and fled from the martial world, and the sect's power had changed.
It was a sect where so many evildoers had gathered that there was a saying: if you cause trouble in the martial world, run to the Sawangmun.
"We must hide. Now is not the time for this!"
Taesu was truly terrified. Every rumor about the Sawangmun was enough to make one grimace.
The fact that they killed people was not what mattered. What terrified everyone was how they killed. They killed people so cruelly. They were ones who had abandoned their humanity, and they used that terror to grow their sect even stronger.
He could remain this calm after provoking the Sawangmun?
"Give me the reins. I'll find us a place to hide."
Because Taesu was always accustomed to running and hiding, he thought he had to take charge.
The two people in the carriage and this Geom Mugeuk as well—why were they so peaceful when the name Sawangmun had come up?
"I'll teach you the Bone Compression Technique, so go back to Manhyeol Cave and hide in that hole."
He was serious; it was no joke. If it had been another sect, maybe not, but the Sawangmun was truly a sect swarming with evildoers.
"I might be able to go in, but could we really make our elders enter such a narrow place?"
"The opponent is the Sawangmun. They are not people that a mere escort agency can handle! If we hide somewhere for a few years, they will forget about the Jangbyeondo."
Geom Mugeuk smiled at Taesu. He and the Demon Lords did not have a few years to spare, or even a few days. You brat, we're busy people.
"What about your scent?"
"Ah!"
Taesu had forgotten for a moment. What they were being pursued for. Unless he cut off his hand, there was no escaping the Sawangmun's pursuit.
Geom Mugeuk mentioned one place.
"Shall we ask the Sadomaeng for help?"
Taesu made an incredulous face.
"Are you saying we should call in a tiger to chase away a wolf?"
"We're fighting poison with poison."
"No matter how vicious the Sawangmun are, don't arms bend inward? If the Sawangmun fall, the power of the Demonic Path weakens, so the Sadomaeng won't attack them."
"If a war breaks out with the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult or the Righteous Faction, would the Sawangmun really fight on the front lines? Not at all! They are the sort who would try to gain their own profit from that chaos. The current Sadomaeng will want to eliminate them. Even among evil, there must be minimum standards."
Even if Geom Mugeuk was exactly right about that.
"Even if the Sadomaeng stops them, would they simply leave the Jangbyeondo alone?"
"And if they don't?"
"Obviously they would take it. To keep the secret, they'll kill us all."
"They won't."
At his nonchalant answer, Taesu finally let out a sigh.
Could he really survive with Sawangmun after the treasure map? Did this calm truly come from composure and skill?
“If masters we can’t handle appear, hand me over.”
Of course, he wasn’t being sincere. He was testing Geom Mugeuk.
“Naturally, that’s what we should do.”
It was only natural, yet he felt strangely disappointed.
“But that won’t happen.”
“What?”
“Because there won’t be anyone we can’t handle.”
At those words, Taesu suddenly recalled what his father had once told him.
—Do not covet the treasure map! It is something we cannot handle.
Even if it was something he himself could not handle.
At least in this moment, he wanted to believe in that bluff of Geom Mugeuk’s.
Please, may you be able to handle it!
How long had they run like that?
An old man stood blocking the road.
Exuding an extraordinary presence, he was none other than the old man who had been drinking earlier with Cheon Daeung.
He stood there in a white robe with his snow-white beard fluttering, looking just like an immortal. From the outside, he seemed like someone who had transcended the secular world—but in truth, he was someone who had transcended it in a different sense.
Knowing that their opponent was Sawangmun, it was not difficult to guess who this old man was, dressed in robes with a swastika emblazoned on the chest.
“Wan’e Shanren!”
Taesu trembled from head to toe. Wan’e Shanren was an absolute master of the evil faction, a man who had committed every manner of atrocity.
There were countless rumors about him. Some said he was called Wan’e Shanren because he had killed ten thousand masters; others said the name came from his ten thousand evil deeds. And some claimed both were true.
‘No matter how skilled these people are, they can’t face Wan’e Shanren!’
Wan’e Shanren did not ask who had killed the Blood Wind Four Swords.
“Who has the treasure map?”
At that, Geom Mugeuk looked at Taesu without the slightest hesitation.
No, I know it’s true, but do you have to look at me that blatantly?
Taesu finally felt that the moment he could not handle had arrived. Though it had come far sooner than expected.
He understood why Geom Mugeuk would abandon him. Who could possibly handle Wan’e Shanren? His bluff ended here.
If things had come to this anyway—
With a solemn look in his eyes, Taesu spoke to Wan’e Shanren. He did not know himself why he felt this way.
“I have memorized the treasure map. Take me and let these people go. If you kill them, you will never learn the location of the treasure. Please, spare them!”
At Taesu, who had dared to set conditions for him, Wan’e Shanren gave a murderous smile.
Meanwhile, beside Taesu, a beaming smile appeared—one bright enough to offset all that chill.
“I think you just stole my heart.”