"Ughhh...!"
Not only his appearance, but even the clothes and the sword issued by the Gu Clan that Muyeon wore were identical.
"So this is the reason they've only been tailing me for a week."
For the past seven days and nights.
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I felt like I understood the reason why those guys of unknown identity had been following me without any reaction, just waiting for an opportunity.
Weren't they trying to figure out the person they were supposed to copy?
If their purpose was observation, it made some sense.
Not only the physical aspects.
They must have needed time to learn his unique way of speaking and facial expressions.
They must have been confident they wouldn't get caught.
Seeing the level I witnessed back then, I could tell it was a highly skilled tailing.
To the point where even at my level, I wouldn't have noticed unless I really concentrated.
Right before leaving Henan, during the time I was conversing with Paeng U-jin.
If I hadn't caught a hint of these guys then, I probably still wouldn't have noticed even now.
'So they proceeded because they thought they were prepared enough to start the job?'
Then, what I'm curious about here is why on earth they approached me in this way.
Was it to launch a surprise attack and kill me?
From my perspective, that didn't seem to be the reason.
From the point they started tailing me, and even at the point they proceeded with their job, they must have grasped my martial prowess to some extent.
If they could be subdued this easily, it seemed like there was another reason.
I slightly released the force I was using to cover his mouth.
"Gasp.... Gasp…!"
"Who are you."
"Young Master... why on earth are you doing this to me."
Crack.
"Ughhhhk!"
When I twisted one of his arms in a bizarre direction, the guy let out a scream.
Seeing his muscles suffering from the pain, as well as the characteristics he showed when screaming out.
"It seems you do feel pain?"
Unlike the guy I met at Shaolin, this one seemed to feel pain.
'Can he not regenerate?'
Back then, the guy showed an absurd ability, like turning his broken neck back into place.
Can this guy not do that?
'Or maybe he's still acting.'
Since I didn't know much about these guys, I had to observe what methods they were using.
"Y-Young Master. Please don't do this...!"
"If you're going to copy someone's appearance, you should have done it properly."
"What... do you mean?"
Shrring.
I drew the sword at the guy's waist.
It was a well-maintained sword that suited Muyeon's usual personality, but.
"Kid, didn't you know he changed his sword? I didn't think you'd be that clueless."
At my words, spoken with a hint of a smile, the guy's expression instantly stiffened.
Seeing that, I smirked and said.
"I was lying."
"...!"
"He said it was a shame to use the one I gave him, so he kept it hidden away."
I gave him a good sword and told him to use it a bit, but he hid it away as if he had received some family heirloom.
I wondered if he thought someone was going to snatch it from him.
'It seems like Gu Jeol-yeop has his eyes on it, though.'
The look in his eyes subtly gave off that feeling, but since there was nothing he could do about it, he must have just been swallowing his saliva.
Anyway, it was something I just casually threw out there.
Regardless, the guy was caught off guard for even a moment by my words, his expression giving him away.
Thanks to that, I was certain he was acting.
"Where are the other guys?"
a
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Perhaps because he truly didn't expect to be caught.
The guy rolled his eyes around.
Seeing this, it seemed he didn't know I had annihilated the guy at Shaolin.
Or, he was on a different side from that guy.
"Seven."
"...I"
"Exactly right? Your headcount."
When I stated the exact number I had figured out, the guy flinched.
'They don't seem to be from the Dark King's side.'
If it had been them in the first place, I wouldn't have noticed them with my qi sense.
And they'd have no reason to target me there.
'It seems certain he can't regenerate.'
Unlike the guy at Shaolin who couldn't use martial arts, didn't feel pain, and regenerated his shattered and torn body.
This guy, who seemed capable of using martial arts, appeared unable to do so.
'Then is it the difference between having qi and not having qi?'
That could be the case, but it wasn't the right situation to figure it out now.
That wasn't the important thing anyway.
I raised my qi sense as high as I could and spread it in all directions.
It consumed an enormous amount of inner qi, but thanks to having opened my middle dantian, it operated smoothly.
'It seems they aren't nearby.'
Not only could I not sense where the remaining four guys had gone.
But most importantly, I couldn't sense Muyeon's presence.
In this case, it meant the distance was too far to be caught by my qi sense.
Or.
'They're doing something to avoid being sensed.'
I was also considering the possibility that Muyeon had met some mishap at the hands of these guys.
But Muyeon wasn't an easy martial artist.
He was a first-rate martial artist on the verge of the Peak Realm, not some neighborhood dog.
I looked at the guy and asked.
"You're not going to talk?"
"How did you notice?"
Eventually, realizing his act wasn't working, the guy changed his expression and spoke.
Now it felt a bit more natural.
"I told you. It was obvious."
"That's impossible. There's no way a mere brat like you could have noticed this..."
"You have no intention of answering where you came from, do you?"
At my interruption, the corners of the guy's mouth twitched slightly upward.
It looked as if he was holding back a sneer.
"Kill me."
Hearing that, I twisted his neck without hesitation.
With the sound of bones twisting, his body fell limply to the ground.
[...Hmm?]
As I casually killed the guy, Old Man Shin showed a bewildered reaction.
He probably didn't expect me to actually kill him.
[Weren't you going to interrogate him?]
'I intended to.'
As soon as I felt he could feel pain, I thought I could extract information from him.
But this wasn't the situation to be wrestling with this guy.
I needed to find Muyeon's whereabouts first.
I had to find out what the remaining headcount of seven had scattered for.
Above all. Something suspicious had arisen.
I brought my hand to the fallen guy's body.
Using the Demonic Path Heaven Absorption Art, I absorbed the visible qi.
The guy's body started twitching.
"...Seo..."
"He's not dead."
As expected, he wasn't dead.
That was because the qi emanating from him told me he hadn't ended his life yet.
It told me he wasn't dead yet.
It seemed he couldn't easily turn his neck back to normal by himself like the guy back then.
Perhaps he was playing dead this time too, as he let out a sound, seemingly panicked by the sensation of his qi being drained.
"Feel like talking this time?"
"Eup... Rureup...."
Due to his twisted jaw, he couldn't nod, but it seemed like a rough affirmative.
I looked at the guy and said.
"Sorry, I don't give second chances in these situations."
As I finished speaking, all the qi in his body flowed into me.
With the qi gone, his body crumbled and disappeared just like last time.
This part was no different from the guy I met at Shaolin.
Only after confirming that much did I get up.
What remained were the martial uniform Muyeon was wearing, indicating his affiliation with the Gu Clan.
And the sword given only to the Gu Clan's Sword Squad.
I picked up the clothes left alone on the ground.
'The clothes aren't fake.'
This deep red martial uniform could only be obtained by those under the Gu Clan.
Since it was virtually no different from the clothes I was wearing right now, there was no way I could mistake it.
Leaving those questions behind, I leaped and covered the distance first.
I crossed the forest with my qi sense raised to the maximum. It was to return to the campsite first.
Moving at a slightly faster pace, I faintly caught a presence a little far from the campsite.
It was thanks to having expanded my qi sense.
However, it wasn't Muyeon's presence.
'Seems like Namgung Bi-a.'
The faintly felt thunder qi from afar was definitely Namgung Bi-a's.
The problem was that she wasn't alone.
As flames ignited with my increasingly urgent steps.
Heat began to swirl around my body.
Arriving with flames wrapped around my body as if piercing through the air.
It seemed a battle had already taken place, as the surrounding environment was in ruins.
In the center of it, Namgung Bi-a was grabbing someone by the neck.
"Ah."
From the moment I arrived here, or perhaps even before that, Namgung Bi-a had been looking my way.
As if she knew I would come.
I checked just in case, and thankfully, Namgung Bi-a wasn't a fake.
The fact that the surroundings were in ruins was one thing, but unlike me, it seemed Namgung Bi-a hadn't faced them alone, as there were others fallen in the corners.
"...What happened here?"
When I asked carefully, Namgung Bi-a calmly organized her sword and let go of the guy she was holding.
Even amidst that, judging by the intense qi she was emitting, I could tell it wouldn't be long before Namgung Bi-a reached the Peak Realm.
"A surprise attack."
Namgung Bi-a explained the situation with a brief word.
That was explanation enough.
"This."
As I slowly approached, Namgung Bi-a pointed downward with her hand.
In the direction she pointed was the guy Namgung Bi-a had been holding.
This time, he also had Muyeon's face.
As soon as I saw that, I tried to tell Namgung Bi-a that this wasn't Muyeon.
"That's not him."
Instead, Namgung Bi-a explained it to me first.
Her firm words made me the one who was surprised.
"How did you know...?"
At my words, Namgung Bi-a tilted her head and met my eyes.
As if asking with her eyes, 'Then how did you know?'
I could figure it out with the ability of the ghost artifact, but.
What about her?
"Are you hurt anywhere?"
Setting the questions aside, I asked about her condition first. At my words, Namgung Bi-a nodded.
The guys scattered around added up to four.
Namgung Bi-a, who must have faced at least four guys alone.
Her body was in the same state as when she slept in the carriage.
In other words, it meant they weren't that difficult to deal with.
'Does this mean they didn't send guys that strong?'
The purpose of deliberately creating this situation still didn't come to mind.
"This person isn't him."
Even in the meantime, Namgung Bi-a kept saying that the guy lying on the floor wasn't Muyeon.
I looked at her and said.
"I know he's not, so go back for now."
"...Alone?"
"Yeah, there's something left I need to check."
I had no idea how she could know it wasn't Muyeon.
For now, rather than asking about that, I needed to send her back to the campsite.
"Go protect Wi Seol-a."
"Ah."
When I brought up Wi Seol-a to Namgung Bi-a, whose expression had turned stubborn as if she didn't want to leave.
Namgung Bi-a immediately wrapped her body in thunder qi and hurried her steps.
Then she asked me, who was more urgent than usual.
"...Which way... do I go?"
"Straight ahead from where you're looking."
"Yeah."
In that moment, I realized once again that she was a severe directionally challenged person.
I thought she had improved since she seemed to find her way well lately.
Looking at it now, that didn't seem to be the case.
"...I'll be... back soon."
Namgung Bi-a left those words as if she was worried about me, but.
As soon as she left, I immediately got to work. This was the reason I deliberately used Wi Seol-a as an excuse to send Namgung Bi-a away.
Fortunately, it seemed I wouldn't have to go to the campsite.
[What are you trying to do?]
Old Man Shin asked me, but I didn't answer and first approached the other guy wearing Muyeon's mask, absorbing his qi and erasing him like before.
Then I approached the other three guys.
It seemed Namgung Bi-a had only subdued them, as they were still breathing. I used my inner qi to forcefully wake one of the unconscious guys.
"Gasp...!"
Before the suddenly conscious guy could even look around, I grabbed him tightly by the neck.
"I thought it was strange."
"Ack...!"
"Clothes aside, it wouldn't have been easy to get the sword."
Touching him directly and pouring inner qi in to examine the inside made it much clearer.
"Setting aside the guys who don't seem human, the qi felt subtly familiar."
I gradually drew up heat from the hand gripping his neck.
"Where do you belong?"
"K-Kill me...! You think I'd talk...!"
His body must have been in agony from growing hotter and hotter, but he only kept telling me to kill him.
Unlike the guys who changed masks and didn't consume qi, thus not dying.
The guy I was holding right now was a normal human.
Somewhere between second-rate and first-rate, perhaps.
Looking at the guy desperately begging to be killed, I spoke in a way that would be easier for him to understand.
"Is it the Third Sword Squad or the Second Sword Squad?"
"...!"
"Or perhaps the Fourth Sword Squad? It probably isn't the First Sword Squad."
At my words, the guy's pupils shook wildly.
The meaning of my words was simple.
This guy was from the Gu Clan.
It seemed he had hidden his qi, but the subtle sensation I felt from afar was like that.
And after observing his body by touching him directly, I was even more certain.
"What nonsense are you spouting...!"
The guy roughly denied it, unable to hide his trembling eyes.
I expected this from the start.
"Right. The first one usually doesn't talk."
It was a realization I had from countless tortures in my past life.
At times like this, there was a relatively easy method.
Huff.
"Huh, uh...?"
Perhaps feeling an unknown heat on his trapped neck, the guy let out a flustered sound.
Soon after, perhaps realizing the reason I was drawing up qi, his eyes widened.
"W-Wait!"
Fwoooosh!
"Kiaaaak!"
The flames erupting from my hand engulfed the guy and blazed fiercely.
It would have been tough to withstand even if he coated himself in inner qi, but burning while having his qi suppressed must have been excruciatingly painful.
Leaving that guy behind, I spoke to the ones holding their breath and hiding in the surroundings.
"Watched it well, didn't you? I have plenty of mouths to question. Think carefully."
At my words, a large presence was felt nearby.
It was the remaining two guys who had been watching, thinking they wouldn't be caught.
It seemed they were trying to flee.
Whoosh!
Before their feet could escape me, the Nine Flames Wheel Art, which began to spin crazily, created a massive spherical wall around the vicinity.
- Fwooooosh!
Thanks to regulating the flames, I moved my steps, leaving the guy still burning and unable to die.
There was no need to panic just because they were from the Gu Clan.
Perhaps because I thought it might rather create a justification from within.
I even felt at ease.
It wasn't something to find strange.
I had thought that fox-like old man would slowly make a move.
I just didn't know he would use such a trifling method.
"Ack!"
I subdued even the remaining one who tried to flee and hoisted him up.
'First Elder.'
The old man I suspected of orchestrating this.