"……Sir! Together……"
"Where……"
Cheonhwi withdrew his qi circulation at the commotion coming from outside and frowned.
"What's with all this noise?"
Just as he was about to undo his lotus position with an expression full of irritation.
"Fourth Martial Uncle!"
Right on cue, Jeokgeom's voice rang out.
"Elder Hyeondo has just……"
Bang!
Before Jeokgeom could even finish speaking, the door was thrown open violently, and a massive shadow stretched long across the room.
Speak of the tiger and it appears, they say.
As Hyeondo entered the door, his eyes met Cheonhwi's.
"Cheonhwi!"
He shouted at the top of his lungs and began running.
"Four Hundred Uncle?"
At the sound of his thumping footsteps rushing over, the moment Cheonhwi tried to get up from the bed.
Grip!
Hyeondo, who had come close, grabbed his shoulder and quickly scanned his entire body.
"Are you hurt anywhere?"
Cheonhwi furrowed his brow at the sudden inquiry.
"I'm perfectly fine."
"Phew, thank heavens."
Hyeondo swept a hand across his chest and smiled.
But that was brief; he completely changed his expression and carefully asked in a small voice.
"Is what was written in the letter sent to the main sect true?"
"Letter?"
He tilted his head at the word 'letter.'
Then he suddenly remembered something he had buried deep in his head and forgotten.
"Ah! That?"
He spoke, recalling when Go Gyeyoung had said he would send a letter to the Hwasan Sect.
"It's probably correct."
The moment he heard those words.
"White Ghost Castle……! Click, these bastards have bared their claws once again!"
Hyeondo glared and shouted.
As if getting angrier, his face grew even more fierce as he stomped his feet and yelled.
His already rough face contorting, an even more terrifying aura emanated from him when.
'Hm?'
Behind Hyeondo's back, someone catching Cheonhwi's gaze stood awkwardly at the threshold.
Not satisfied with wearing a blue-white Daoist robe, there was a middle-aged man with a pristine appearance wearing a Daoist crown on his head.
Looking at the middle-aged man whose attire seemed to scream 'I am a Daoist,' rationality returned to Hyeondo's eyes, which had been overturned with rage.
Then Hyeondo asked Cheonhwi, who was looking behind him rather than at himself.
"What is it?"
"Who is that person?"
At the question, Hyeondo made an 'ah' face and introduced the middle-aged man behind him.
"Ah, I'm late with the introductions. This is Ha Ujin, known in the martial world as the Flying Swallow Sword Lord."
"Flying Swallow Sword Lord?"
When Cheonhwi tilted his head, Hyeondo hastily added an explanation.
"A Daoist of the Jongnam Sect and a swordmaster widely known in the martial world."
Hyeondo's eyes grew considerably warmer.
Soon he shifted his gaze from Ha Ujin, looked at Cheonhwi, and opened his mouth.
"And he is your master's one and only inseparable friend."
Hyeondo gazed at Cheonhwi.
Those who knew that Ha Ujin and Hyeongang were close friends were extremely few even in the martial world.
Joy? Surprise? Or doubt?
As he waited to see what reaction would come.
"Ah, is that so?"
A completely different reaction popped out.
That was only natural—what did it matter whether he was his master's close friend or whatever.
He had never even seen his master.
'So what about it?'
When Cheonhwi looked at him with an expression asking if he had anything more to say, Hyeondo was flustered.
"Did you know they were close friends?"
"No."
"Then aren't you even curious……"
"Senior Daoist Hyeondo."
Ha Ujin interjected into the conversation.
He looked at Hyeondo, shaking his head, and spoke softly.
"Wouldn't it be better to sit down first and talk slowly?"
A short while later, Cheonhwi, Hyeondo, and Ha Ujin sat around the central table.
"I am Ha Ujin of the Jongnam Sect."
Cheonhwi looked at Ha Ujin as he once again revealed his sect and name.
He immediately grasped the hidden intent.
'Why is he beating around the bush?'
As a result of observing the behavior of Daoists while staying at the Hwasan Sect, he interpreted that greeting as meaning he too should introduce himself.
He spoke with a slightly annoyed expression.
"I'm Cheonhwi."
Ha Ujin's expression softened.
Then he looked at Cheonhwi with warm eyes and opened his mouth.
"I see. So you are Hyeongang's disciple."
Complex emotions were contained in his voice.
Though not widely known in the martial world, he and Hyeongang were old friends who had transcended the wall between their sects of Hwasan and Jongnam.
Competitors in good faith, and inseparable friends.
But on the day Hyeongang died, Ha Ujin could not carry out his revenge for his friend.
It was because the elders of the Jongnam Sect, who had fed and raised him, blocked him from going to take revenge on White Ghost Castle.
His friend was important, but so was his family.
Because of that, he gave up on revenge and returned to the Jongnam Sect, but the burden on his heart from that still weighed him down even now.
So he couldn't even bring himself to go back to the Hwasan Sect and had been desperately avoiding it.
'I never imagined I would see the child you took in like this.'
His eyes grew misty as he smiled bitterly.
In the past, Hyeongang had told him he brought an orphan from some village.
'I heard he was six years old when taken in as a disciple, and he's already grown this much.'
They say time flows relentlessly.
The six-year-old child he had heard about was gone, and only a fine young man stood before him.
'I should have gone to meet him a little sooner……'
As he was immersed in extraordinary sentiments.
'He's looking at me strangely.'
Cheonhwi was not pleased with the gaze he was facing.
It was then.
Clack.
Hyeondo, who had downed his tea in one go, revealed a serious expression and opened his mouth.
"Is it true that White Ghost Castle is behind the Hegemon Gate?"
"That's right."
Instantly Ha Ujin's eyes widened.
"White Ghost Castle is behind the Hegemon Gate……?"
But Hyeondo paid him no attention and continued the conversation.
"I want to hear about that in detail."
"In detail?"
Hyeondo nodded his head up and down.
"Haa, it's annoying but……. Alright."
About to refuse, he let out a sigh at Hyeondo's desperate expression and recounted the attack he experienced right after arriving at the Bipung Merchant Group.
"On the day I arrived at the Bipung Merchant Group……."
Hyeondo and Ha Ujin pricked up their ears and stored Cheonhwi's story in their heads.
About an hour or so passed like that.
The story was nearing its end.
"……That's how it happened."
When he concluded by saying he had killed them.
"How dare they touch our sect again."
Hyeondo's fists trembled violently.
"These bastards are determined to die!"
He exhaled fierce snorts, spitting out words a Daoist shouldn't even utter.
Likewise, Ha Ujin, who had been listening to the story, also frowned.
"So the Hegemon Gate was a sect established by White Ghost Castle to carry out their dark schemes."
His face hardened slightly.
Because White Ghost Castle had been quiet recently, not only he but the Jongnam Sect as well had let their guard down against them.
And all of that had been a smoke screen.
'To think they hid such a vile plan while evading our eyes.'
He shuddered at their viciousness.
For thirteen years, they had kept quiet, and the Hegemon Gate had pretended to have no connection to them.
So thoroughly that neither he nor anyone else had even considered that there could be a connection between the Hegemon Gate and White Ghost Castle.
The proof of that had been recent.
Hadn't the Silver Water Assassination, whom he had met a few days ago, taken an attitude that he had absolutely no relation to the Hegemon Gate?
"Even in that situation, they were putting up a smoke screen……!"
Suddenly Ha Ujin's eyes widened.
A question that had been making one side of his chest uncomfortable for the past few days was finally resolved.
"So that's why the Silver Water Assassination came right after the Hegemon Gate fell!"
"Silver Water Assassination?"
At those words, Hyeondo frowned.
The Silver Water Assassination was one of the Four Direction Lords of White Ghost Castle, a figure renowned far and wide, famous for the fact that whenever he appeared in the martial world, a storm of blood would surely blow nearby.
Hyeondo looked at Ha Ujin and asked.
"Did he come here?"
Ha Ujin nodded.
"I met him when I went to find the culprit behind the recently annihilated Hegemon Gate."
"To even send the Silver Water Assassination! They're determined to finish this with our sect!"
As Hyeondo gritted his teeth.
"Senior Daoist Hyeondo."
Ha Ujin spoke with a hardened face.
"The Bipung Merchant Group is in danger."
"Danger? What do you mean?"
"If the Lord of White Ghost Castle, who even sent the Silver Water Assassination, finds out that not only did their plan fail, but the Hegemon Gate was annihilated……"
He gulped as he spoke.
"They will send a stronger enemy."
"A stronger enemy you say……"
"The White Ghost Three Units might come to the Bipung Merchant Group."
"The White Ghost Three Units……"
Hyeondo groaned.
The White Ghost Three Units was a different story.
Hadn't the youngest martial brother and the Plum Blossom Swordsmen all perished together by the Annihilation Unit, which was once one of the Three Martial Units?
"Unit……?"
At that moment Cheonhwi interjected.
"If you mean those bastards who called themselves some unit, they did come the day before."
"What?"
"I-Is that true?"
Hyeondo and Ha Ujin, who reacted reflexively, thrust their faces toward Cheonhwi.
"Do you know their identity?"
"Do you know what kind of people they are?"
"Sal, something……. What was it again?"
Cheonhwi, who was thinking, furrowed his brow.
The more time dragged on, the more anxious Hyeondo and Ha Ujin became.
"Think carefully."
"Think slowly."
"Can you wait a bit?"
When Cheonhwi spat out words heavily laden with irritation, just as the two were about to pull back the faces they had pushed in.
"Ah!"
At Cheonhwi's reaction as if he had remembered something, the two immediately pricked up their ears.
"Was it the Soul Slaughter Unit? Or was it the Slaughter Fiend Unit? I don't remember exactly, but it was roughly a similar name."
The moment those words ended, the two simultaneously jumped up from their seats.
"S-Soul Slaughter Unit!"
"The Soul Slaughter Unit came!"
As the two's loud shouts threatened to burst his eardrums, Cheonhwi scowled.
"Though the Soul Slaughter Unit is unknown to the public, I heard that if they move, at least one sect gets annihilated……"
Ha Ujin murmured blankly.
The Soul Slaughter Unit was a force that even the Jongnam Sect could not easily dismiss if they faced them.
'But those guys came to the Bipung Merchant Group?'
Suddenly a question arose.
For the Soul Slaughter Unit, who brought annihilation, to have come, the Bipung Merchant Group was far too intact.
"Fortunately, they only came for reconnaissance……"
He felt a sense of incongruity as he spoke.
A contradiction existed in his words.
'No, that can't be. There hasn't been a single survivor among those who have seen the Soul Slaughter Unit until now……'
His gaze returned to Cheonhwi.
Judging by his nonchalant expression, he didn't seem to be lying.
'Then what happened?'
His thoughts deepened.
However, far from being resolved, the question only further complicated his head.
Eventually giving up on thinking, he asked Cheonhwi point-blank.
"……Did you meet the Soul Slaughter Unit?"
"Yes, I met them."
"Then they……"
"I dealt with them."
"Dealt with?"
When Ha Ujin looked bewildered as if he couldn't understand, Cheonhwi added directly so he could easily understand.
"I killed them."