Kuuuung—!
A tremor arose in the heavens.
*Crackle—!*
The internal energy that had been filling the surroundings was being overturned by something, its color fading.
Deep black.
An ominous blackness.
The internal energy I had spread in all directions to protect the academy disciples.
Was being devoured by something.
—Kwoaaaah!
"S-Save me!"
Screams rang out from all around.
I could feel that something had gone wrong.
I had been aware of the danger, as this was field training.
But this.
Was not screaming caused by demonic beasts.
Huuuuk—!
My internal energy swirled violently.
It wasn't particularly unusual for a martial artist's internal energy to mix with the air.
But the internal energy mixing now was permeated with a vicious aura.
The unique malice emitted by those of the Demonic Faction.
That internal energy surged in all directions as it mingled with the air.
The stench of blood seeped between the trees.
Beneath the sky dyed black, the light was too dark to see.
From that place.
Shwiiik—!
A flash stretched out.
The tip of a sword filled with killing intent flew toward an academy disciple who was trembling, unable to grasp the situation.
Only when the sword approached right before his nose did the academy disciple flinch and react.
But it was far too late.
The blade, filled with internal energy, flew toward the disciple's neck.
*Swish!*
Before long, blood spurted, drenching the trunk of a tree.
Just when I thought the academy disciple had lost his life like that.
"Hiiik!"
Surprisingly, the one who met death was not the academy disciple.
But an unidentified martial artist who had been launching a sneak attack.
As the academy disciple held his breath in surprise seeing someone killed right before his eyes.
Someone was flicking blood off their sword tip, looking around.
It was the gaze of someone checking if there were more enemies.
The woman who had been surveying the surroundings for a moment.
Turned her gaze to the one who had collapsed again and asked.
"Are you alright?"
"Y-Yes... I-I'm fine."
The academy disciple saw the woman's hair.
Her brown hair, with a faint golden tint.
Was stained with blood.
There was also a small trickle of blood flowing down her pure white cheek.
That appearance looked somehow bewitching.
Enough to draw the academy disciple's gaze even in this terrifying situation.
"If you go to the left, there should be an instructor there."
As if not minding such a gaze at all, the woman pointed in a direction with her fingertip and spoke.
As if telling him to hurry and flee that way.
At those words, the academy disciple came to his senses and raised his body.
And asked the woman.
"M-Milady... aren't you coming with me?"
It was not words spat out in fear.
Of course, having just been on the verge of death, that part was frightening.
But they were not words spoken from such a heart.
The academy disciple decided to think so himself.
The woman who saw that appearance merely glanced around with an expressionless face.
She did not answer.
"Just what... what on earth is happening right now?"
"Who knows."
The woman who left a short answer shook off the blood on her sword and exhaled.
The smell of blood was growing thicker.
Even so, she examined the one she had just killed with her own hands.
She had cut the vital point, so there would have been no pain.
She had already killed one more while moving, but.
She didn't feel much emotion.
This was the first time she had killed someone since learning the sword.
She had cut down a person with her own hands.
And even while looking at that trace.
The fact that she felt nothing at all.
"...I don't like it."
The woman had to feel disgust toward herself.
Because it meant she was definitely not in a normal state.
"Yes?"
"It's nothing. Move carefully. If you don't want to experience a situation like that again."
The woman said so and turned her back. The academy disciple hurriedly reached out to grab her shoulder at that sight, but.
...Hup.
[ garbled text ]
Before his hand could reach her shoulder, the woman turned back slightly and looked at the academy disciple.
Her eyes were so fierce that the academy disciple flinched and had to step back.
"T-That is, since it's dangerous for you too, wouldn't it be better to go together in the direction you pointed out?"
The academy disciple knew about the woman.
If one was a current disciple staying at the Divine Dragon Academy.
There was no way they wouldn't know about her.
She was one of the most famous figures in the entire academy. Even if one tried not to know, it was impossible.
One of the Three Venerables.
And the descendant of Sword Sovereign Wi Hyo-gun, called the World's Best Sword.
Her talent and strength were outstanding; it was certain she would make a name for herself before long.
At that woman's cold voice.
The academy disciple hesitated and stepped back.
"I don't need to."
Wi Seol-a finally turned her eyes and spoke.
"I have someone to find."
Immediately after leaving those words.
Wi Seol-a lightly moved her feet and leaped.
She hadn't jumped high.
Only high enough to see the surroundings properly.
'He's gone.'
Wi Seol-a, looking down in that state, had to furrow her brow.
Because the presence of Guyang Cheon, whom she had somehow been trying to follow, had disappeared.
'...What happened?'
It had been but an instant.
Not knowing what Jang Seon-yeon would do, she had tried to spread her senses from afar to check the situation.
The moment she had barely found him.
His presence had vanished in an instant.
Right after that.
A strange sign was felt in the internal energy spread around the surroundings.
It was an aura that sent chills down one's spine just by sensing it.
It would have been fortunate if she had only sensed the aura.
'An ambush?'
Unknown people had mixed in among the academy disciples and begun a massacre.
The stench of blood in the air was proof of that.
Wi Seol-a rolled her eyes this way and that, surveying the situation.
It was filled with the scent of blood.
For what reason they had attacked this place.
What their goal was.
There was too much to think about, but.
'...Where did he go.'
Wi Seol-a did not see those things as important.
To her, rather than such facts.
Guyang Cheon's safety was more important.
'As expected, I should have followed him from the start.'
She regretted it.
Even while watching where he was heading.
She regretted not following him despite that.
Wi Seol-a gritted her teeth inwardly and asked someone.
'...Did you know things would turn out like this?'
She asked inwardly, but.
There was no answer.
'Eonni.'
She called out to her, but still there was no answer.
The reason she hadn't gone to Guyang Cheon's side during this field training.
Was because the girl inside her had stopped her.
Saying that for his sake, she should stay still for now.
Wi Seol-a had asked why she had to do that.
But the only answer that came back was that it was for his sake.
In the end, even knowing that Jang Seon-yeon was approaching.
She had held back and only sensed his presence from afar.
But things had turned out like this.
'For his sake?'
How was this for his sake?
If something were to happen to Guyang Cheon.
Gripping tightly.
Wi Seol-a grasped her sword.
Fire entered her gentle-looking two eyes.
Her eyes turned sharp.
What had she learned the sword for?
If she lost him, it would lose all meaning.
'I have to find him.'
Wi Seol-a flew toward the place where she had last felt him.
It wasn't a very great distance.
Wi Seol-a, descending from the air, immediately increased her speed and advanced forward.
While moving, screams still rang out here and there, but.
Wi Seol-a did not change her steps.
'Where is he?'
Without rest, she moved her feet, seeking the direction.
His energy was unusually strong.
No matter how much he hid his presence.
Wi Seol-a could feel it.
Probably the highest place here.
Wi Seol-a raised her eyes and looked somewhere on the mountain.
Just as she was about to wrap internal energy around her feet and leap again.
*Thud.*
"...!"
Wi Seol-a staggered greatly, grabbed a nearby tree, and stopped her body.
Due to the intense pain felt inside her body.
Wi Seol-a bit her pretty lips tightly and took something out from her bosom.
...
!
.
.
It was the pouch the Divine Physician had given her in the past.
Wi Seol-a urgently opened the pouch, took out an inner pill, put it in her mouth, and swallowed.
*Gulp.*
'Why now of all times...!'
She gritted her teeth.
She felt the inner pill going down her throat and deep into her body.
But it didn't seem to spread its effects immediately, so she was in a somewhat urgent state.
She tried to muster her internal energy somehow.
But only the vibrations inside her body grew stronger, and she couldn't move easily.
"Haaack... hick."
Wiping the flowing sweat.
Wi Seol-a moved her feet again.
Rather than the pain currently coming to her.
Finding him was more important.
However, the problem was.
'It's dangerous.'
For the next few minutes, it would be difficult for Wi Seol-a to exert strength.
Because the surroundings were currently in a very dangerous state.
Her senses wouldn't move.
Unlike in the past when she could feel her surroundings and hide her presence.
Wi Seol-a, whose vessel was sealed, could not do so.
'...Damn it.'
Heat rose.
The medicinal effects were gradually spreading.
But her feet were tied in this urgent situation.
At that moment.
*Rustle.*
A sound came from the brush behind her.
Wi Seol-a raised her eyes wide and raised her sword.
Was it the same enemy as before?
They were unidentified people.
She had killed them by ambush, but they weren't weak.
First-rate warriors that many spoke of.
They were martial artists at a certain point.
Wi Seol-a sent her sword tip in the direction of the sound.
She focused her medicine-blurred eyes and barely came to her senses.
She just had to hold out for roughly a few minutes.
Somehow enduring...
"Where are you going in such a hurry? I was curious, and if possible, I had intended not to show myself."
"...Ah."
At the voice heard from beyond the brush.
Wi Seol-a's large eyes relaxed slightly.
Because it was a voice and manner of speaking she knew.
"Seeing your condition, it seems right for me to step forward."
The figure who pushed aside the brush and appeared before Wi Seol-a was.
Wearing a unique black martial uniform.
A young man with an expressionless face and hair tied roughly, an impressionistic look.
"Are you alright?"
One of the Six Dragons Three Peaks.
It was Jin Yi of the Turyongbi.
While the situation was rapidly changing.
"Uwaaaa...!"
Cheol Ji-seon was letting out screams repeatedly.
And no wonder. A grown man was flying through the air with his collar grabbed.
The fact that it was none other than himself was also a problem.
As if carrying a piece of luggage and running.
She carried him around without a care.
How could such a thing be possible?
No matter the difference in realm, it was absurd.
Moreover, the person grabbing Cheol Ji-seon's collar and running wildly was.
Namgung Bi-a, the Sword Dancer, whom he had met just before.
She was a slender woman on the outside, yet.
To be dragging Cheol Ji-seon around like a toy.
'S-Save me.'
In this absurd situation.
Cheol Ji-seon could only scream inwardly.
"M-Milady...! Please slow dowwwn...!"
Cheol Ji-seon spoke earnestly, but.
Namgung Bi-a did not even listen.
He rather wished she would just drop him and go.
—Where did he go?
Namgung Bi-a, who had suddenly appeared from somewhere and asked about Guyang Cheon's whereabouts.
Without even listening to Cheol Ji-seon's answer after asking.
She looked in a certain direction and then suddenly grabbed Cheol Ji-seon and started running.
As if in a hurry.
"Kwoah...!"
How fast that speed was.
It was hard to believe she was running while carrying a person.
He hadn't noticed because of monsters like Guyang Cheon or the Hidden Dragon around, but.
This woman called the Sword Dancer was also at an absurd level.
'...I haven't told her about Jin Ryong yet.'
She hadn't properly said who she was looking for, but.
Cheol Ji-seon knew that the person the Sword Dancer was looking for was Jin Ryong.
Occasionally, the look in the Sword Dancer's eyes when she was with Jin Ryong was completely different from others even in Cheol Ji-seon's view.
And even if not.
The fact that the two were engaged was already spreading within the Divine Dragon Academy.
How on earth with that fearsome Jin Ryong.
And how the Sword Dancer could be engaged to him was a mystery.
It didn't seem to be a forced engagement between families.
Seeing the Sword Dancer's unique attitude toward only Jin Ryong, how much the academy disciples had lamented.
In fact, the Sword Dancer probably held great weight among the reasons Jin Ryong was cursed at.
Beyond the number one beauty of Anhui.
It was heard in passing that she was called the world's greatest beauty.
As if she didn't care about others' gazes at all.
Someone had muttered upon seeing the Sword Dancer performing her sword dance alone.
Cheol Ji-seon admitted it too.
The women around Jin Ryong were indeed all outstanding in appearance.
But among them, the Sword Dancer and the Sword Sovereign's descendant were exceptionally so.
The problem was.
That now was not the time to be thinking of such appearances.
"M-Miladyyy...."
At the time he was worried whether the wind hitting his face might cut his skin.
Perhaps because she heard Cheol Ji-seon's pathetic voice.
The Sword Dancer suddenly let go of the collar she had been grabbing.
"Uh... wait."
Letting go was fine, but.
Since she suddenly let go while running at full speed.
Cheol Ji-seon was suddenly thrown by the momentum and had to roll on the ground.
"Kwoaak!"
Cheol Ji-seon rolled across the ground.
He barely managed to stop his body by colliding with a tree nearby.
"...Haa.... Haa... I'm alive."
Barely enduring his spinning head, Cheol Ji-seon raised his body.
Cheol Ji-seon thought the Sword Dancer might have accidentally let go of his collar.
If not, she had flung a person away like a piece of luggage.
'...Though I am luggage.'
The fear that he had nearly died just now.
The guilt of being dragged around by the Sword Dancer.
At a time when Cheol Ji-seon wasn't in his right mind.
He looked around for the Sword Dancer.
No matter what, she was the benefactor who had saved him from crisis.
And the whereabouts of Jin Ryong she was looking for.
Cheol Ji-seon knew them.
'Won't she kill me if I tell her?'
Such a thought had crossed his mind.
The face of the Sword Dancer earlier when she spoke of finding Jin Ryong, holding her sword.
Putting aside her beautiful appearance.
She had been so frightening.
Even so, Cheol Ji-seon intended to tell her.
He had committed an act after falling for Jang Seon-yeon's trickery.
Even though Jin Ryong had also said it was fine and told him to go ahead.
'...No matter how I think about it, this is wrong.'
In the end, the one who had committed the act was Cheol Ji-seon.
Just as Cheol Ji-seon began looking around to find Namgung Bi-a.
*Crackle—!*
A numbing lightning qi was felt from somewhere.
Cheol Ji-seon immediately realized this was the Sword Dancer's lightning qi.
Because he had known through information that she used it.
But.
The fact that she had released her lightning qi meant it was a dangerous situation, didn't it?
Hesitation formed at Cheol Ji-seon's feet at the thought that suddenly came to mind.
Shouldn't he go find an instructor right now?
He thought that for a moment.
But soon he raised his trembling feet again and headed in the direction where the lightning qi was felt.
How long had it been since he fell?
The direction where sound and energy were felt was farther than expected.
To think she had moved that far in that short time.
Cheol Ji-seon also raised his internal energy and moved his steps.
He also drew the sword tied at his waist with trembling hands.
Running toward where the energy was felt.
"...!"
Seeing the situation before his eyes, Cheol Ji-seon had to swallow a hollow breath.
"Oh dear."
The moment he heard the heavy voice.
"Another interloper has appeared."
Cheol Ji-seon staggered.
Because the internal energy contained in the voice was so overwhelming.
The one leaning his body against a rock in the distance was.
The Poison Peak of the Tang Clan.
And beside him, the one stanching the blood was the daughter of the Peng family.
And.
The Sword Dancer who had already spread her lightning qi around and drawn her sword.
Was blocking someone.
Dressed in neat dark silk clothes.
A middle-aged man with his hair braided up neatly.
Had strikingly pale skin.
And his pupils were glowing purple.
The moment Cheol Ji-seon saw him, he could feel it.
That this was not someone he could dare to face.
The man glanced at Cheol Ji-seon.
Then sent his gaze to the Sword Dancer before him as if uninterested.
"It's been a while. You and I have met before, haven't we?"
Kyu,,
Tension enveloped the Sword Dancer's face.
It meant he was someone she knew.
The man, as if displeased with such a reaction.
Frowned slightly and asked the Sword Dancer.
"Do you know me?"
At the man's question, the Sword Dancer nodded slightly.
"...I know."
"And yet you draw your sword."
A voice as if mocking.
"Am I laughable?"
" "
"If not, perhaps you look down on me because you remember the figure being beaten by the Infernal Ghost."
An unknown black energy spread out from the man's body.
"...This Dark Night Palace Lord."
At the middle-aged man's words.
Cheol Ji-seon fell to the ground with a thump.