“……!”
“……!”
Not only Ha Woo-jin, but even Hyun-do, who had been listening along, could not hide his astonishment.
However, the reasons for their shock were clearly different.
“How could the Salhondae...?”
Ha Woo-jin couldn't hide his surprise, but Hyun-do did not.
Of course, hearing that the Salhondae was defeated was surprising, but he accepted it.
‘It is entirely possible.’
An existence beyond comprehension, outside the norm.
That was Cheon-hwi.
Even he, who had reached the Cheonmu Realm, could not grasp what level of martial prowess Cheon-hwi had currently reached.
No matter how strong the Salhondae was, if Cheon-hwi stepped forward, it would unconditionally be a certain victory.
Then why was he shocked?
The reason spilled from his lips.
“...I never thought they would send the Salhondae.”
His whispering voice was deeply troubled.
The fact that Baekgwiseong was serious enough about destroying the Biphung Trading Company to send the Salhondae, known as the most secretive among the Three Great Units of Baekgwiseong, made his feelings complicated.
Baekgwiseong had set up Pawangmun as a shield and remained silent for years.
Yet now, by sending the Salhondae, they had directly broken their long silence.
Of course, as Ha Woo-jin had said, it could have been because the plan failed, compounded by Pawangmun making a move to annihilate them.
But even so, to send the Salhondae for a mere trading company?
Wasn't that an excessively disproportionate response?
‘What exactly is Baekgwiseong's goal?’
He recalled and sifted through the information he had accumulated over a long time in his mind.
How long was he lost in thought?
As expected, the first thing that came to mind was something related to his own sect.
‘Are they attacking the Biphung Trading Company to cut off the Huashan Sect's funding? Or...’
Hyun-do repeatedly pondered to find an answer to the arising doubts, but...
‘I don't know.’
As expected, he couldn't find the answer.
Soon, shaking his complicated head slightly, he ultimately sought help from Cheon-hwi, who was deeply involved in this incident.
“Do you know their purpose? Why Baekgwiseong went so far as to send the Salhondae to attack the Biphung Trading Company...”
“No.”
At the short answer, Hyun-do smiled bitterly.
Wasn't that an obvious answer?
“I asked in vain. They wouldn't have told us even if we asked.”
“That's not it.”
He, who had been spitting out words with a bitter expression, was momentarily flustered by Cheon-hwi's reply.
“D-Did you perhaps not ask them?”
“Why would I ask something like that?”
“Shouldn't you know what Baekgwiseong's purpose is?”
“Why is something like that important?”
Cheon-hwi smacked his lips with an expression of total incomprehension.
“The most important thing is that they tried to ambush the Biphung Trading Company.”
“...!”
Hyun-do looked at Cheon-hwi with a dazed expression, as if he had been smacked in the back of the head.
‘Have I lost my vengeful spirit over the years!’
Baekgwiseong and the Huashan Sect were enemies who could not live under the same sky.
Now that a justification had arisen, shouldn't they rather be rejoicing?
Yet he was questioning Baekgwiseong's purpose?
“Hahaha!”
Finishing his thought, he threw his head back and let out a hearty laugh.
‘What? Why is he laughing?’
As he blankly watched Hyun-do burst into laughter out of nowhere.
“Right. You're correct.”
Hyun-do said, crossing his arms.
“The most important thing is that those bastards attacked, isn't it?”
What was the point of complexly pondering Baekgwiseong's purpose?
The most important thing was the fact that Baekgwiseong had touched the Biphung Trading Company, wasn't it?
“If they touched the Biphung Trading Company protected by our sect, they must pay for their crimes. Ah, indeed they must.”
Along with his words, Hyun-do, with a cold glint in his eyes, glared at the location of Baekgwiseong.
At that moment.
“W-When did they ambush them?”
Ha Woo-jin, who had been watching their conversation unable to contain his anxiety, interjected.
He was in a considerably anxious state.
‘The Salhondae!’
His position was different from Hyun-do's.
As a Taoist of the Zhongnan Sect, his focus was on the fact that Baekgwiseong had moved, above all else.
Especially, the deployment of the Salhondae meant that Baekgwiseong was revealing the ambition they had hidden all this time.
‘I need to know what the situation is.’
Cheon-hwi opened his mouth as he looked at Ha Woo-jin, who couldn't hide his urgency.
“It wasn't an ambush.”
“What do you mean?”
“I killed them before that.”
Cheon-hwi spoke as if it was nothing, but Ha Woo-jin, hearing those words, couldn't accept them at face value.
“Did you perhaps notice the Salhondae's ambush beforehand?”
“Yes.”
Cheon-hwi replied with a face asking why he was questioning something so obvious.
The one flustered by that was Ha Woo-jin.
‘He noticed the presence of the Salhondae beforehand!’
Surprise dwelled in his two eyes, which contained the nonchalant-looking Cheon-hwi.
What was the reason they became so famous when no one had even seen the Salhondae directly?
It was because of the rumors circulating in the Yukhwangmun when the unorthodox sects that had crossed Baekgwiseong were annihilated without a sound or trace.
That Baekgwiseong possessed a Salhondae with such stealthy infiltration arts that no one could detect them.
The Salhondae was a combat unit that existed only as baseless rumors without a physical entity, but...
‘Then!’
Ha Woo-jin's eyes widened as he thought.
‘A few of the Salhondae must have been scouting for an ambush and got caught!’
Recalling one hypothesis, he stared at the Biphung Trading Company as if he understood.
‘That makes sense. If all of the Salhondae had come, the Biphung Trading Company couldn't possibly be fine.’
Ha Woo-jin began to misunderstand.
In a way, it was a natural thing.
Who would think that the entirety of Baekgwiseong's Salhondae was annihilated by a youth who hadn't even reached twenty years of age?
It was something to be dismissed as nonsense.
‘Then the Salhondae, excluding the scouting personnel, could come again.’
The misunderstanding deepened even further, but there was no one to correct his thoughts.
‘I'm worried about the future.’
Ha Woo-jin, who was staring at the Biphung Trading Company, shook his head before soon speaking with a determined expression as he looked at Cheon-hwi.
“If it wouldn't be a bother, could you stay at the Biphung Trading Company?”
“Pardon?”
Cheon-hwi, seeing Ha Woo-jin's resolute eyes, answered with an absurd expression.
“Shouldn't you ask the Head of the Trading Company about that?”
* * *
That night.
Cheon-hwi's mind, having returned to his room, was full of the Nakmaecheonuhwa he had unfolded earlier.
A feast of sword qi that spread in all directions.
The Nakmaecheonuhwa severed the breaths of those Salhondae bastards more beautifully and cruelly than he had thought.
‘As expected, martial arts must contain killing intent.’
Pearly white teeth were revealed between his lips.
Whether killing intent was contained or not.
For one who had reached the realm of Ipshin, that alone showed a huge difference.
Especially since he was the Cult Lord of the Cheonma Shin-gyo.
Because he had wielded Magong Jeolhak, which was full of demonic qi and killing intent focused on actual combat throughout his life, the difference was even greater for him than for others.
‘It has improved to some extent, but...’
He lifted the eyelids that covered his vision.
It was a dark room with the windows and doors closed, but it didn't hinder him at all.
The interior was visible as if it were broad daylight.
Since when was it?
Not only had his visual acuity (Anryeok) broken the boundary between night and day, but his field of vision looked bright as if it had always been that way.
A stinging flame ignited in his eyes.
Blue Gwihwa (Ghost Fire) blazed as if it would burn not only the room but even himself.
‘Not yet.’
Soon, his pupils, which were staring into the void, loosened slightly. No, he wasn't looking at the void, but at the past.
It was a man with a slender build, scattering pitch-black hair over both shoulders.
The man's two pupils were transparent.
They were so transparent and clear that his own appearance was breathing within them.
He spontaneously chuckled.
‘Was it to this extent?’
The man in front was himself.
To be exact, his past life self, Doko Guyeon, who was called the Jeoldaecheonma.
His overwhelming demonic qi and presence, and his two eyes as cold as a sheet of ice, seemed to pierce through everything about the observer.
‘Is this why everyone who faced me alone was afraid to look into my eyes?’
Facing him even in this illusory form, he could understand the feelings of those who had feared his past self.
He narrowed his eyes as he watched the illusory form, the figure of the Absolute Heavenly Demon, Doko Guyeon.
‘It will take time to reach that level.’
His current goal was his past life self.
But he was still lacking.
Swish—
As he closed his eyes once and opened them along with his thoughts, the figure of his past life scattered like dust as if waking from a dream.
He lightly moved his neck left and right.
Crack— Crack—
Perhaps because he had been sitting for a long time and was quite stiff, when the sound of bones cracking rang from his neck, he felt his body become considerably lighter.
“The most urgent thing for now is...”
He recalled the internal energy he had just examined.
Currently, the internal energy of the Maehwasingong was as insignificant as a drop in the ocean compared to the demonic qi he had built up over a long time.
On top of that, what about his physical body?
It was a mysterious and amazing physique capable of absorbing and emitting all internal energy, but it was still in a state of repeated growth.
‘It might take more time.’
If it were internal energy, there were many methods such as spiritual elixirs or inner cores.
But for the physical body, there was nothing he could do.
How could he go against the laws of nature?
‘Well, I have tried going against them.’
He shrugged his shoulders.
Wasn't he the one who had gone against life, the greatest law of nature?
“Hmm, if I finish growing quickly and just accumulate internal energy, it seems I can quickly catch up to my past realm.”
He was confident.
That was only natural; despite his unstable body and severely lacking internal energy, he had surpassed the Mugeuk Realm and reached the Cheonmu Realm with martial arts alone.
But what if growth is completed on top of that?
There was nothing easier in the world than walking a path one had already walked.
“In the end, time is the only answer.”
It was impossible to predict when it would be.
But what could he do?
That was the only solution.
He had to wait patiently until his current body finished growing.
“There's nothing I can do right now.”
He flopped down on the bed.
Then, a thought suddenly occurred to him, and a faint smile hung around his mouth.
“I want to try out the other techniques too, I wonder if any other bastards will come today?”