A Righteous Faction Assembly.
When an incident great enough to shake the Martial Alliance—the very center of the orthodox factions—occurred.
It could be said to be a meeting convened to resolve it.
The Nine Sects and One Union that supported the Martial Alliance, and the Four Great Clans that could be called its pillars.
As well as the other renowned families widely spread around them.
And even the great merchant guilds that provided funds and revitalized cities.
The leaders of such tremendous groups—whose names alone were enough to make one’s jaw drop just hearing them in passing—
gathered in one place to discuss matters.
At the very least, they would talk about how to handle this incident.
At most.
They might even discuss whether the Martial Alliance would continue to exist.
In my view, this incident was certainly severe enough to warrant an assembly, so it would definitely be held.
If so, it was obvious that lofty figures would flock to Henan.
I didn’t know for certain whether it would be held in Henan, but I reckoned it would take place there.
Of course, just because the assembly was being held didn’t mean they were obligated to attend.
‘But would they really not come?’
It was a gathering where the core of the orthodox factions met to deliberate.
Whatever stories were exchanged there, the value would be immense.
And the very act of being present would serve as proof of one’s achievements and renown.
They were people who considered pride more important than life itself.
They would surely come.
Moreover, this incident concerned
‘the safety of their children….’
They would likely come if only to vent their anger. I roughly understood that much.
But what Murong Xiya had just said was completely incomprehensible.
“…What do you mean? You want to run away?”
Murong Xiya’s father. That is, the White Heaven Sword Lord, Murong Tai—patriarch of the Murong family.
He was a master who had once vied with Nangong Jin for the moniker of Sword King.
At the time, he was known as a martial artist of extraordinary skill, counted among the foremost swordsmen.
But after getting married and fathering Murong Xiya, he had fallen somewhat behind.
Regardless of martial prowess, he was clearly the head of the Murong family.
So if the assembly were held, he would certainly come.
‘So you’re telling me to run away?’
It was an incomprehensible statement.
What did her father coming here have to do with fleeing?
“What, is the Murong patriarch going to kill me or something?”
It was such a bizarre thing to say that I spat it out as a joke.
Then.
“Yes.”
“...”
She affirmed it.
What had she just said?
“W-what?”
The White Heaven Sword Lord might kill me?
When I asked with a deeply furrowed brow, Murong Xiya averted her gaze slightly and began to speak.
“…It’s a bit of an embarrassing story…”
Seeing her run a hand down her forearm, it seemed to be quite a humiliating tale.
“Father likes me… a bit too much.”
Murong Xiya spat out the words, her ears flushed completely red.
I had wondered what could be so embarrassing.
‘Everyone knows that already.’
It was so well-known that it hardly bore mentioning.
The Murong patriarch’s excessive devotion to his daughter was quite famous.
The reason he had fallen behind his generation’s peers.
And the reason the Murong family’s standing as a martial clan had shrunk the most among the Four Great Clans.
Could, in a sense, all be said to be because of Murong Xiya.
“So?”
That was that. It wasn’t reason enough to do anything to me.
“The relationship between the Young Master and myself… isn’t quite ordinary, is it?”
“Isn’t it? I think it’s fairly ordinary…”
“Please just be quiet for now.”
“…Y-yeah.”
I had to press my lips shut at her murderous tone.
Relationship.
Honestly speaking, it wasn’t a very ordinary one.
I periodically infused my heat energy into her according to a set schedule.
It was to treat her congenital illness.
Ever since learning that my heat energy could cure her Frozen Meridians Syndrome.
This relationship had continued for several years.
A constitution where cold energy gradually froze the flesh.
She barely suppressed it using her internal energy, but conversely, when she used her internal energy as a martial artist, the cold energy would burst forth.
Therefore, while my heat energy permeated her body and blocked the cold energy.
Murong Xiya was in a state of having completely suspended her martial training.
For several years, in fact.
It was a somewhat fatal problem for a martial artist.
Murong Xiya didn’t seem particularly bothered by it.
And the treatment was actually progressing well.
The heat energy I had administered every few days at first had gradually stretched to longer intervals.
Now, providing it about once a month was sufficient, so it was clearly effective.
‘Ah, is that the problem?’
Some strange man clinging to his precious daughter, giving and receiving heat energy.
It wouldn’t be strange for a doting father’s eyes to blaze with fury.
If there was something slightly odd.
“Didn’t we get permission for this from the start?”
“Huh?”
I meant that the matter of exchanging my heat energy for treatment had already been negotiated with the Murong family.
In fact, I had even received valuables of considerable worth and trading rights.
Elder-level figures of the Murong family had come to me as well.
Thanks to that arrangement, several of the Murong family’s merchant guilds had established themselves in the Shanxi region, and the streets had become significantly more bustling.
At this level, it couldn’t have proceeded without the Murong patriarch’s permission.
“…Well.”
I saw Murong Xiya lower her gaze after hearing my words.
What was that reaction?
“Hey… did you do something?”
“No, I didn’t really do anything.”
It was a rare sight.
For Murong Xiya to make excuses was incredibly uncommon.
She would find another breakthrough rather than make excuses.
And she wouldn’t create situations requiring excuses in the first place.
“…You know, Young Master.”
So that expression must have been extraordinarily rare.
At least, it was a face I hadn’t seen in my previous life.
“Speak.”
“I think people make mistakes sometimes in life.”
It was a reasonable statement, but also the least fitting words for Murong Xiya in the world.
Hearing that, I countered Murong Xiya.
“Someone once said, you should prepare so you don’t make mistakes in the first place. And if you can’t manage that, don’t start the matter at all.”
“Who said that? How can someone spout nothing but arrogance and selfishness…? Was it someone who received a strange education? People can make mistakes… Does he have no empathy whatsoever? How terrifying.”
“...”
As Murong Xiya frowned and spat out those words as if asking how someone could be like that.
I had to sigh inwardly.
For reference, those words were what Seolbong of my previous life had said to me.
I had heard them after making a mistake while hunting a demonic beast.
“So, what mistake did you make?”
What had she done to make someone say the White Heaven Sword Lord might kill me the moment he saw me?
Having heard my question, Murong Xiya hemmed and hawed for a bit.
Then finally opened her mouth with difficulty.
“You may not know, Young Master, but compared to the trade originally promised to our house… a bit more was finalized.”
“Hm?”
“For example, establishing a merchant guild in Shanxi was half-coerced. It did go through in the end, though.”
Indeed.
I didn’t know about the past, but Shanxi wasn’t a very active region these days.
With Anhui and Henan right nearby, the very choice of placing a merchant guild in Shanxi.
Was a loss for the Murong family.
When I saw that, I had thought it must mean the treatment was quite important.
But the reality was a bit different?
“It was probably something I said that caused the problem.”
“Hm?”
“Father… the Patriarch quite hated it. Entrusting my body to an outsider.”
“Well, I suppose…”
“He said he couldn’t stand by while such things happened to me, especially with someone who already has a fiancée. So I didn’t have much choice.”
Huh?
Something about those words sounded strange.
“So I told him. The Young Master has a fiancée, but in truth, his heart is already with me… and that he plans to break off the engagement later and become engaged to me.”
Huh?
“So I told him not to worry and asked if it wouldn’t be nice to treat you as a son-in-law in advance.”
“…What, what did you just say?”
“He seemed to find that acceptable, or something. He went along with my insistence. Isn’t that a relief? Things somehow worked out.”
Murong Xiya still wasn’t meeting my eyes as she spoke. She seemed fully aware of how absurd the words coming out of her mouth were.
In other words.
To the White Heaven Sword Lord, I was.
Someone who was engaged to the Nangong family, but whose heart belonged to Murong Xiya.
And who planned to break off the engagement soon and become engaged to the Murong family.
“How did the conversation… end up like that?”
It was a story that made my head spin just hearing it.
How on earth had things gotten to that point?
“I told you, didn’t I?”
When I pressed her in disbelief, Murong Xiya said to me.
“People make mistakes sometimes in life… don’t… they?”
Was that even something to be called an excuse?
I simply stared at her face without any reply to Murong Xiya’s words.
Sensing my gaze, Murong Xiya remained with her head deeply bowed.
The uncomfortable silence continued.
A smart person like Murong Xiya probably already knew what she had to say right now.
Yet the reason she didn’t say it was likely because her pride wouldn’t allow it.
A few more seconds passed.
Unable to endure the uncomfortable silence, Murong Xiya finally spat out the words.
“…I’m sorry.”
Hearing Murong Xiya’s words, I nodded my head slightly.
She had tried to build up her pride, but unless released like that, Murong Xiya would crumble faster than expected.
After all, Murong Xiya had likely piled up those earlier words because she had wanted to say that apology.
I wasn’t certain, but from the Murong Xiya I had known so far, that seemed to be the case.
‘So the situation is… in other words.’
From the White Heaven Sword Lord’s perspective.
I wasn’t the prospective son-in-law he had believed me to be.
My engagement to the Nangong family was still intact.
And I was entangled with Wei Xueya, Tang Xiaoye, and even his own daughter, Murong Xiya.
In such a situation, to think that I kept giving her heat energy while supposedly touching her body.
Oh…
‘This is worth killing over…?’
I had never fathered a child, so I couldn’t properly empathize.
But thinking about it from the White Heaven Sword Lord’s position.
He would have every reason to kill me.
He might not even be satisfied with cutting me into dust and burning me away.
‘…This is bad.’
This is really bad?
I roughly understood why Murong Xiya had suggested fleeing.
The biggest problem here was that I couldn’t run away.
Ah, on the contrary, maybe fleeing would be an even worse story for the White Heaven Sword Lord.
At a glance, it might look like an elopement, and then the White Heaven Sword Lord would…
“…?”
At the thought that flashed through my mind, I quickly turned to look at Murong Xiya.
Feeling my gaze again, Murong Xiya flinched briefly.
Seeing that, apparently Murong Xiya had caught on to what I was thinking.
“…You.”
“Ah, it’s hot. It really is hot today, Young Master.”
On a spring day still filled with the traces of winter.
For Murong Xiya, who harbored cold energy, to say it was hot.
It was truly a believable story.
“Ha.”
A hollow laugh escaped me.
It was a relief that things were like this now—if our relationship had been the same as in my previous life, I might have been constantly suffering because of Murong Xiya.
After muttering that, I suddenly looked up at the sky.
‘Whether it’s the White Heaven Sword Lord or the Righteous Faction Assembly… first, I need to do something about that.’
The black membrane filling the area around us.
I was planning to somehow carry on with my future schedule once I broke through it.
But I had no idea how to remove it.
‘When I underwent the Demonic Transformation, I think I managed to deal some damage.’
Compared to when I had used Crimson Heaven upon reaching the Flame Realm.
The martial technique I used after undergoing Demonic Transformation had left a small scratch.
But it quickly returned to its original form—a considerably troublesome power.
‘There has to be another way.’
Force seemed impossible; I needed to find a way to dispel it.
The one presumed to have cast it, the Black Dragon Sword, should be imprisoned somewhere right now.
Should I go find him?
“…Lord.”
‘If it’s still being maintained even while he’s in such a state, then even if I torture him…’
“Young Master…!”
“Huh?”
While I was busy contemplating what to do.
Murong Xiya grabbed my shoulder and shook me.
“What’s wrong?”
“Look, look over there.”
Wondering what was going on, I shifted my gaze to where Murong Xiya was pointing.
Then.
“…What?”
Riiiip—crackle—!
Where my gaze landed.
I could see something abnormal happening to the black membrane.
It was a completely different speed from when I had exerted my energy to destroy it.
Much faster.
Before long, I understood.
That the membrane was being erased.
********************
A dark space created behind the Divine Dragon Hall.
The dim space, where not a single ray of light entered, was truly alien.
It was neither underground.
Nor inside the building.
The black membrane that until moments ago had surrounded the sky above the Divine Dragon Hall.
The same substance was enclosing this area.
—Graaaah.
Inside.
There was a figure letting out only groans, barely clinging to consciousness.
It was the old man called the Black Dragon Sword.
“Huff… huff…”
Gone was the form of the monster that had spewed tentacles.
The old man had returned to his original body.
However, he could not move freely.
Though both his hands and feet were untied and loose.
The Black Dragon Sword looked somehow uncomfortable, as if bound by something.
And before him.
Someone who had been watching continuously approached and knelt down.
Having confirmed who had approached, the Black Dragon Sword ground his teeth and shouted.
“You… you…”
“I shall ask.”
Despite the thick killing intent emanating from the Black Dragon Sword, the man tossed out a question as if he didn’t care in the slightest.
“Who stands behind you?”
“You… you!! Amwaang!”
The voice filled with killing intent was especially deep and vast.
It was because emotions ran so deep.
But to the man.
No, to the Dark King, it was an exceptionally boring voice.
Having heard it far too often, it was a voice that no longer stirred any feeling.
Eyes deep and cold, devoid of any emotion.
Such was the gaze the Dark King directed at the Black Dragon Sword.
“I already know, but I ask for confirmation. I hope you will answer.”
“To betray me… You seem to have forgotten our deal…!”
The Dark King tilted his head at the Black Dragon Sword’s sneer.
Deal.
“I said I would never betray my client. Do you mock the Gold Seal…!”
At the Black Dragon Sword’s words, the Dark King rolled up his sleeve.
There remained the pattern that was the mark of the Gold Seal.
And around it, the skin could be seen slowly rotting.
A foul stench wafted.
Moreover, given the influence of the Gold Seal, the pain must have been unimaginable.
Yet the Dark King did not let out a single groan.
“Never betray the client…”
This was one of the reasons the All-Night Assassination Squad was famous.
They never failed a commission once accepted.
And the unspoken iron rule was that they did not betray their clients.
“What a laughable saying…”
The Dark King did not like that story very much.
“In the first place, the story didn’t spread because I killed them all. Your mind seems to be quite the flower garden, more than I thought.”
“…What…?”
“Moreover, I had no intention of listening to you from the very beginning.”
Slice.
Thud.
Even as he spoke, the Dark King drew his finger down his forearm.
In that instant, the arm bearing the Gold Seal’s pattern was severed and fell to the ground with a thud.
“You…”
“You seem to find it difficult to answer, so this time I shall ask something else.”
The Dark King wore the same expression, as if cutting off his own arm was nothing.
With such an expression, he questioned the Black Dragon Sword once more.
“The one behind you—is it the Master of the Grand Heaven?”
At the quietly asked words.
The Black Dragon Sword clenched his teeth with a grind.