At the Zi hour, when the moon rose palely.
As the sun that illuminated the world hid its face, the blue moonlight of the risen moon dyed the world with a faint glow.
Among the places being dyed as if intoxicated by the moonlight was a detached hall of the Bifeng Merchant Guild.
The moonlight, slipping through the slightly opened window, warmly wrapped around Tianhui, who was sitting in a lotus position on the bed.
It was then.
Srrrk—
Tianhui's closed eyes opened.
Perhaps because he opened them hastily.
His two pupils, containing internal energy that had not yet been fully gathered, shone more brilliantly than the pouring moonlight.
Then, his lips slowly parted.
"I thought they were quietly holding their breath..."
Undoing his lotus position, he rose to his feet.
Afterward, half-opening his eyes and tilting his head down, he looked toward the foothill.
The foothill submerged in darkness was quiet.
However, in his field of vision, the presence hidden within the quietness could be clearly seen.
A sinister and filthy presence.
He grabbed the sword he had laid lightly across the bed.
"They gathered on their own."
As if having no intention of hiding, Tianhui moved while staring at the gazes and killing intent directed this way.
The moment he lightly stomped his foot.
Tap.
In an instant, the scenery changed.
The walls of the room that had blocked all directions disappeared from his vision at some point, and instead, a foothill full of bushes and trees came into view.
For a moment, he advanced while surveying his surroundings, feeling the cool breeze brush against his cheek.
"...Tonight, the Bifeng Merchant Guild will be erased from the world."
"Yes, sir!"
He hurried his steps at the resounding shout.
He saw people densely gathered in the darkness. Whether to hide their bodies in the dark, those wearing pitch-black night clothes easily exceeded fifty even with a rough count.
'Fifty? Sixty? About that much.'
After simply counting their numbers.
Flash—
He revealed himself in front of them.
"What are you doing here?"
"...!"
At the shadow and words that suddenly appeared, Yinshui Cansha and the Shahun Squad reflexively widened the distance between each other and then surrounded Tianhui.
'Trained quite well, aren't they?'
Tianhui swept his gaze over those surrounding him and stopped at Yinshui Cansha, who was secretly hiding his aura among them.
The only one not wearing a mask.
He tried to hide it, but the atmosphere and momentum naturally exuding from his body could not escape his eyes.
As soon as he grasped that he was the leader based on the circumstances, he opened his mouth while looking at him.
"I asked what you're doing."
"..."
"Looks like it's hard to speak?"
He sneered at them.
But they did not react.
Whether maintaining composure despite the provocation, they neither laughed nor got angry.
But he knew.
That it was precisely these kinds of guys who had no room in their hearts, and whose composure shattered quickly.
He suddenly looked at one of them.
His pupils, the closest among those surrounding him, were looking at him full of tension and vigilance.
He raised his index finger and pointed at him.
At the sudden pointing, perhaps flustered, the moment his pupils shook slightly.
Thunk, a sound burst out.
In that fleeting moment, the man with a hole carved into his forehead in the shape of a plum blossom had his head tilted back with a bewildered expression, not knowing what on earth had happened.
Thud.
He fell backward.
For a moment, silence flowed.
It was a different silence from just before.
The surrounding air, which had been full of vigilance, had already sunk coldly.
It was then.
"So it was you."
The one presumed to be the leader stepped forward.
Tianhui met eyes with the two pupils visible between the mask.
"What? Were you just keeping your mouth shut? I thought you were mute."
A sneer that wasn't quite a sneer.
However, the leader, Yinshui Cansha, though startled by the technique just now, had not yet lost his composure to this extent.
"Did you kill my subordinates?"
"If you mean subordinates, aren't they those guys?"
Tianhui, who deliberately tilted his head, let out a chuckle and added.
"Ah! Were the bugs that sneaked into the Bifeng Merchant Guild also your subordinates? If it's those bugs, I did kill them all."
Yinshui Cansha's eyebrows raised.
The Shahun Squad was his pride, which had allowed him to take the position of the Xifang Lord among the Sifang Lords of Baigui Fortress.
But bugs?
His eyes, whose pride had been wounded, grew fierce.
However, he did not move rashly.
The finger wind glimpsed just now. That finger wind was by no means ordinary martial arts.
'Who is this guy?'
Seeing the Daoist robes he was wearing, Yinshui Cansha's eyes flashed.
'Plum blossom? Huashan Sect! Then the Plum Blossom Swordmasters staying at the Bifeng Merchant Guild? No, there was no such guy among the Plum Blossom Swordmasters. Then the young Daoist staying in the detached hall?'
Grasping Tianhui's identity in an instant, he opened his mouth as if probing.
"So you are a master of the Huashan Sect."
But that was a grave mistake.
Tianhui shot back at the words Yinshui Cansha had barely spat out after constantly racking his brain.
"And you are from Baigui Fortress."
"...!"
He glared at the words that suddenly struck him.
"Right. I thought so."
"...Were you probing?"
"I was almost certain."
Tianhui said with a smirk.
It was a question full of conviction from the beginning anyway. He had already figured it out since the assassins secretly sneaked in.
'Besides, the only ones who would target the Bifeng Merchant Guild right now are Baigui Fortress, who the Bawang Gate Master said was behind them.'
However, Yinshui Cansha, who did not know Tianhui's thoughts, had his already complicated head become even more complicated.
'How did he know we came from Baigui Fortress?'
Suddenly, one hypothesis came to mind.
'Don't tell me the Huashan Sect noticed Baigui Fortress' interference early on!'
Yinshui Cansha's eyes deepened.
As if untangling a tangled thread, all doubts were resolved in turn.
Soon, he frowned and said.
"You already knew that our fortress would attack the Bifeng Merchant Guild. So you expected that we would move again when the Bawang Gate's first plan failed, and even set a trap."
"Trap?"
At Yinshui Cansha, who was firmly misunderstanding, Tianhui made an absurd expression and said.
"Why would anyone set a trap for the likes of you?"
"Are you playing ignorant now?"
Yinshui Cansha did not believe him.
No, he had no intention of believing him.
"Then you must have thoroughly prepared the Bifeng Merchant Guild for the raid by now."
Tianhui shook his head.
'We're not on the same page.'
He was firmly deluded.
And he was completely convinced that that delusion was the truth.
"Think whatever you want."
Tianhui tossed the words out.
He couldn't be bothered to deal with him anymore.
However, whether Yinshui Cansha took those words as an affirmation, he glared and sent a sharp killing intent.
"But you and the Huashan Sect have made a mistake now."
Yinshui Cansha, who had been saying everything he wanted to say on his own, spread both his arms wide like wings.
As if that were a silent signal, the aura of the Shahun Squad began to change rapidly.
Their killing intent, slowly blooming and gradually encroaching in the heavy air.
Harboring his own killing intent just like the Shahun Squad members, he added.
"If you had run away, you would have at least saved your life, but to come into the tiger's den yourself."
However, Tianhui was indifferent.
This kind of killing intent didn't faze him at all.
Instead, out of curiosity, he looked at him and asked.
"But you talk quite a lot, you know?"
When Tianhui looked at him in wonder, thinking about how he could have kept holding back earlier despite being this talkative.
Srrrk—
Right on cue, the moonlight shone on Yinshui Cansha.
His face was not ordinary.
His left cheek was full of burn scars, and he had no hair.
However, that appearance was already overshadowed.
His strange appearance was overwhelmed by his eyes full of ghostly aura and his distorted expression.
In particular, the ghostly aura mixed with the blue moonlight brought a chill and blended into the air.
A moment later, his lips parted.
"Conceal your souls within the slaughter."
The moment those words ended.
Whoooosh!
The vicious killing intent swallowed the foothill, and the bodies of the Shahun Squad members gradually faded.
To be exact, their presence was buried by their massive killing intent that filled the foothill.
Soon, in the place where numerous people had disappeared, only Tianhui and Yinshui Cansha remained.
Smirk—
Yinshui Cansha smiled faintly.
Following that, his presence faded, and his figure melted into the darkness.
"Open your eyes wide and see clearly. The true appearance of the Shahun Squad..."
Even his voice gradually grew smaller and then scattered.
"..."
Silence flowed.
Tianhui looked around.
The sixty Shahun Squad members surrounding the area had disappeared, and soon even Yinshui Cansha, the last one remaining, hid his figure.
As if them surrounding him just now had been a passing dream.
But that was only when looking from the outside.
In his field of vision, it was completely visible.
The hearts beating despite holding their breath, killing their presence, and killing everything.
'Underwhelming.'
Tianhui, who was savoring the suddenly arrived stillness, recalled what Yinshui Cansha had said just now, and laughed without realizing it.
"So this is the true appearance of the Shahun Squad?"
It was a remark that made laughter leak out.
Among the guys who spoke of their 'true appearance' or 'true strength', he had never seen a single one who was properly capable.
Even those who challenged him or ambushed him.
Even the families he had personally annihilated.
Even those who hatched secret schemes to threaten and take his position.
They were all trivial and worthless.
And he was feeling it again right now. Even these guys who were surrounding him, convinced that they had perfectly deceived his five senses, were the same.
'All talk.'
"About sixty assassins, huh..."
Tianhui, who was scanning the surroundings, finally nodded as if he had remembered something.
"Then shall I demonstrate that?"
Tianhui's hand gripped the sword he had not drawn even once since his debut in the Jianghu.
Shring—
He revealed the pure white blade to the world.