*Da-dak!*
Nearly seventy men suddenly appeared from all directions like bamboo shoots after rain on the hill overlooking the Bifeng Merchant Guild.
"What is this?"
"How could this be..."
Dressed entirely in white, the men frowned upon seeing dozens of rotting corpses on the cut bushes.
The corpses were all strange.
Not only was there no sign of resistance, but the hole in the crown of their heads was pierced straight down to their groins in a perfect line.
It was a wound as if a sword had been thrust down from above like a skewer.
At that moment, the group split in half.
*Swish—*
A man stepped out from between them.
He was a middle-aged man with a gentle impression, looking to be in his early to mid-thirties.
Except for his pitch-black hair, eyebrows, and pupils, the man was wrapped entirely in white cloth, exuding a unique atmosphere.
He was the sole disciple of the Baigui Castle Lord and the Southern Domain Lord, Xiao Baigui.
—Master. Did you call for me?
—Contact with the Shahun Squad has been severed.
—...!
—Take the Baigui Unit and go check what happened.
Xiao Baigui recalled the order given to him.
It was an order given directly to him by his master, no less.
Furthermore, being told to bring the Baigui Unit made him realize just how crucial this command was.
'...The Shahun Squad should have gathered here.'
Thanks to bringing and reading the letters Yinshui Cansha had sent before leaving, he was able to head to the location where the Shahun Squad was gathering.
But what was this?
The place was filled with corpses wearing black masks.
Xiao Baigui stepped forward with his left foot.
*Swish—*
His gait was bizarre.
Even though he was clearly taking step after step, not a single footstep could be heard, nor was there any sway.
Like a ghost without feet, he simply glided forward without making a sound.
If one were to see him in the middle of the night, they would think he was possessed by a ghost.
That was the movement technique once used by the Absolute Master of the Demonic Path who turned the murim upside down long ago, the Baigui Castle Lord—Baigui Yexing (White Ghost Night Walk).
*Tap.*
Xiao Baigui, who had instantly slipped between the corpses, knelt on one knee. He then removed the masks covering the corpses' faces.
"...This is!"
Xiao Baigui's eyes wavered.
The face of the corpse hidden beneath the mask was familiar.
No, it wasn't just familiar.
He was a man he frequently ran into within Baigui Castle.
"Was it the Shahun Squad?"
After confirming the identity of the corpses, his face filled with chilling fury.
His gentle impression instantly sharpened, and he emitted a tingling killing intent.
"Kuh!"
"S-Southern Domain Lord!"
Just as the subordinates around him turned pale with fright at his killing intent and fell to their knees—
"Withdraw your killing intent."
A stiff voice pressured him.
When he turned his head, a man between middle and old age stood there.
The man's face was stoic.
However, unlike his stiff expression, the eyes staring at him were terrifying.
He was the Eastern Domain Lord of Baigui Castle.
The strongest among the Four Domain Lords, Shouzhan Dujian (Hand Severing Solitary Sword).
With the eyes of a beast targeting its prey, Shouzhan Dujian looked Xiao Baigui up and down and parted his lips.
"Cool your head and think about why the Shahun Squad died here."
"...!"
Xiao Baigui's face subtly stiffened.
Blinded by rage, he had failed to properly grasp the situation.
"Thank you, Elder."
"No matter how astonishing the event, always keep your reason cold and objective."
At the man's advice, Xiao Baigui coldly calmed his eyes and turned his mind.
"It seems there is an expert in the Bifeng Merchant Guild who noticed the Shahun Squad's presence."
At Xiao Baigui's words after finishing his thought, the man nodded, then widened his eyes.
"That is not all."
The man's voice was as sunken as if it had fallen into the deep Changjiang.
"Whoever it is, there are no traces of them disposing of the corpses."
"...?!"
At those following words, Xiao Baigui and the Baigui Unit lined up behind him flinched.
The murim was a place full of grudges and debts.
Especially when it came to matters involving sects, it was a vicious place enough to make one's teeth chatter.
Therefore, if someone killed a person belonging to a sect in the murim, they would either sprinkle Huogusan to dissolve the corpses to prevent entanglement of grudges, or bury them in the ground.
Yet they left the corpses as they were?
It was an action that defied the common sense of the murim.
"Unless the opponent is a fool, they would have noticed the arrival of Baigui Castle to some extent. Yet they neglected the corpses. That means..."
The end of the man's voice trembled slightly.
"Either they are an absolute expert who doesn't even care about the likes of the Shahun Squad, or they intentionally left traces to call us out."
The voice he spat out was icy.
Whatever the reason, this unknown opponent was looking down on Baigui Castle.
"That means they might have already noticed our presence."
The man speaking turned his gaze.
His two eyes captured the Bifeng Merchant Guild, which had not yet finished its restoration.
*Sizzle—*
Heat rose from Yinshui Cansha's body, and the space distorted.
At that time, someone came running.
"L-Lord!"
"What is it..."
At the frantic voice, Xiao Baigui turned his head and froze in that posture.
There was a corpse with a smashed face.
Although the left side of the face was pierced to the point where its shape was unrecognizable, it was a face that could be fully identified as to who it was.
"...Yinshui Cansha?"
"What?"
Shouzhan Dujian reacted.
Standing side by side with Xiao Baigui before he knew it, he scanned Yinshui Cansha's corpse up and down, then his eyes widened in shock.
"These traces... Feileidao?!"
Shouzhan Dujian had a face of disbelief even after seeing the traces and speaking himself.
He simply couldn't understand it.
Feileidao was Yinshui Cansha's ultimate technique.
Yet to be struck down by Feileidao instead?
And it was the same for Xiao Baigui, who was staring intently at the corpse next to him.
At first glance, it looked like his head was simply smashed by a hidden weapon, but the unique burn-like wounds and the faintly remaining internal energy were definitely traces of Feileidao.
"Why was Yinshui Cansha hit by Feileidao?"
At Xiao Baigui's question-filled words, Shouzhan Dujian furrowed his brow and muttered.
"Did the opponent reflect Feileidao?"
The first thing that came to mind was a reflection.
"That is probably not it."
Xiao Baigui refuted that statement.
"These traces are far superior to the Feileidao Yinshui Cansha had shown in the past."
The traces of Feileidao left on Yinshui Cansha's corpse vastly transcended the level he had previously witnessed.
"If it's Yinshui Cansha, it's possible he had been hiding his true strength all this time."
"Even if that were the case, to reflect a Feileidao of this caliber, at the very least, a Sword Immortal (Jianxian) of the Wudang Sect would have to come."
"What are you trying to say?"
"The opponent must have been the one who used Feileidao."
At the very least, Xiao Baigui's reasoning was plausible.
Yinshui Cansha was a man with an unclear past.
It was possible that someone from his sect happened to be staying at the Bifeng Merchant Guild, met him, and clashed with him.
Of course, this too was an assumption.
How could one know what happened just by looking at the corpses?
The questions only deepened.
That was why Xiao Baigui added.
"Of course, it is just an assumption."
"I see."
Shouzhan Dujian bit his lip.
The opponents' traces were fully revealed on the corpses, but the more they looked, the deeper their questions became.
"To see so many traces and find out nothing. In the end, to find out, we must move directly."
Shouzhan Dujian turned his gaze.
The end of his gaze was directed to the place where all these questions connected into one.
It was none other than the Bifeng Merchant Guild.
* * *
"They're no different from those guys?"
At Cheonhwi's sudden words, Ha Woojin, who was watching from the side, tilted his head.
"What are you talking about?"
"No."
Cheonhwi feigned ignorance and looked at Ha Woojin, who had spoken to him right beside him.
It had already been seven days and nights since he personally met Go Gyeyoung and stayed at the Bifeng Merchant Guild.
Ha Woojin, who was awkward on the first day, had naturally melted into the Bifeng Merchant Guild without even realizing it.
Of course, there were still some awkward things.
One of them was the training Cheonhwi imposed on the Plum Blossom Swordsmen. Having witnessed Cheonhwi's training firsthand, he was terrified.
That was torture, not training.
It didn't stop there.
At every mealtime, rather than forbidding meat as a Daoist should, the priest was enjoying it, so his bewilderment was beyond words.
Flustered, he tried to give hints or help to lead Cheonhwi to the right path, but it was useless.
It was only natural.
How could something the Huashan Sect had struggled with for five years change in just seven days and nights?
Hyeondo also told him to give up, but he never did.
"You must prohibit killing. If you overlook even the life of this little ant..."
Ha Woojin clung closely to Cheonhwi's side and recited the teachings of Daoism.
Before he knew it, the roles of host and guest had been reversed.
He had originally come to the Bifeng Merchant Guild to uncover the heinous crimes of the Bawangmen, but he had already completely forgotten about it and was filled with the thought of reforming Cheonhwi.
And the person in question, Cheonhwi...
'Still, they'll be adequate as opponents.'
Ignoring Ha Woojin's words entirely, he scanned the panting Plum Blossom Swordsmen, as well as Jeokgeom and Seol Lan swinging their swords.
At the same time, he compared them to the people outside who exuded a stagnant and damp yin energy.
'Excluding the two giving off intense auras from those guys, these guys' individual martial prowess is slightly better.'
Thinking that, he moved his gaze.
Seeing Hyeondo doing mental cultivation and Ha Woojin continuously dragging out his explanations in his field of vision, he stroked his chin.
'If those two join in, it'll be adequate.'
Roughly estimating their worth, he nodded. If he stepped forward, he could easily deal with them, but he intentionally didn't.
'They need to build up experience, really.'
He had vaguely known that the Huashan Sect was weak, but while training the Plum Blossom Swordsmen, who were said to be the elite of the Huashan Sect, for fun, he felt it deeply.
'If I'm not here, the Huashan Sect will perish.'
It could be called an arrogant thought, but sadly, it was the truth.
Part of it was because the Huashan Sect was that weak, but Cheonhwi's power was also too outstanding.
'The Huashan Sect needs to get stronger so I can roam the murim comfortably.'
Although they were a righteous sect, life in the Huashan Sect quite suited his fancy.
There was no one who occasionally targeted his life or interfered with him, nor was there anyone who put poison in his food or tried to ambush him.
On top of that, there were no guys who fawned over him to his face while scheming behind his back, nor did they annoyingly demand anything from him.
How good was this life?
Compared to the days he spent as the Cult Lord of the Tianma Shengjiao in his past life, it was incredibly comfortable.
His thought was that to maintain his current lifestyle, the Huashan Sect had to be kept stronger than it was now.
'Around the level of the Tianma Shengjiao should be enough, right?'
It was an absurd thought.
The Tianma Shengjiao was the foremost single sect even in the murim, which boasted thousands of years of history.
Not to mention Shaolin, it was a place that no force among the Jiuzhou Bahuang could ever surpass even once.
Anyone who knew even a little about the murim would dismiss it as bullshit.
However, Cheonhwi was different from them.
'It needs to be at least that much.'
Because for someone who was the Cult Lord of the Tianma Shengjiao, that much was the standard.
"Hmm?"
At that moment, Cheonhwi stared toward the main building.
His two eyes, their focus blurred like tarnished silver, became dyed red as they were bathed in the sunset that showed off its final light of the day.
"Still, they came quickly this time."
His gaze, sharp as a repeatedly honed blade, targeted the necks of those who had secretly hidden their bodies in the brilliant sunset.
Watching them approach, Cheonhwi spoke to the fallen Plum Blossom Swordsmen.
"What are you doing? Get up already."
They had no reaction, like corpses.
Normally, he would have kicked them with his foot, but Cheonhwi didn't rush them anymore.
Instead, he added as if advising.
"If you're late to get up, it'll only be harder for you."
The moment those words ended.
*Boom!*
With a loud noise, the wall of the Bifeng Merchant Guild collapsed.
"W-What is it?!"
"What's going on?"
The Plum Blossom Swordsmen scrambled up in terror.
However, flames were already soaring from all directions of the Bifeng Merchant Guild.
*Whoosh!*
On top of that, perhaps because the wind was blowing, the speed at which the flames spread was fast.
"I told you. If you're late, it'll only be a hassle for you."
At Cheonhwi's words, the Plum Blossom Swordsmen recognized the situation that had arisen in an instant with blank faces.
"A-an attack?"
The Bifeng Merchant Guild, which had barely been restored, was instantly trapped by the fire demon once again.
"Kyaaah!"
"I-It's an attack!"
People were scared out of their wits by the event that occurred in an instant and burst outside.
*Tap, tap.*
At that time, about forty martial artists sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain from between the broken walls and blocked their retreat.
*Gasp!*
"P-Please save us!"
Just as the servants of the Bifeng Merchant Guild trembled with terrified faces looking at the martial artists exuding murderous intent.
*Thud— Thud—*
Footsteps were heard through the smoke, and Xiao Baigui appeared among the martial artists.
"Where are you rushing off to in such a hurry?"