[Be careful of Tang Hojin. The likelihood he’s of the Great Blood Cult is high. Especially beware of poison.]

The handwriting scrawled on the paper was hurried, yet it was unmistakably Seolhwa’s hand.

And yet Yu Gang could not believe it.

‘Young Lord Tang... a Great Blood Cult infiltrator...?’

...How? Why?

Tang Hojin was a member of the Demon-Slaying Corps.

Among the Corps, he was so capable at carrying out missions that he was entrusted with key assignments.

No—setting that aside, the Tang Hojin Yu Gang had seen until now was a martial man befitting a later-generation scion of a great clan, possessed of upright character and chivalrous spirit.

Though a young lord of one of the Five Great Clans, he was never arrogant, had no rough edges, and was of an easygoing temperament who got along with all martial people without friction.

At least the man he knew would never....

“...”

The tips of Yu Gang’s fingers holding the paper trembled, ssshhh, with a fine shake.

Foolishly, he had forgotten.

There is no such thing as “never.”

If anyone knew that truth well, it was Yu Gang.

The master he had trusted and served for so long had in fact been a Great Blood Cult infiltrator—there was no guarantee that Young Lord Tang was not different on the inside from how he appeared on the outside.

Yu Gang looked back toward the Fiends’ Forest.

The fiends that had been flocking at the Formation Boundary were no longer in sight, but a bleak energy was flowing out from within.

Yu Gang tucked Snow-Hawk into his bosom and tightened the cord.

“It’ll be stifling, but bear with it a little.”

Snow-Hawk, with only its head peeking from his chest, slowly blinked its eyes.

Yu Gang stroked Snow-Hawk’s head.

Then he once more sprang into the Fiends’ Forest.

TAK— TADAT— TAK—

The forest vista sped past around him.

****

Seolhwa waited in the Martial Alliance with an anxious heart for word to arrive.

Wuhan, where the Martial Alliance was located, lay on the eastern side of Hubei.

Even traveling as swiftly as possible by a Lightness Art, it would still take days to reach Sichuan or Qinghai.

Moreover, according to the information Silver Moon had given, the Blood Lords would move soon.

While keeping watch on their movements through the Hao branch, with Namgoong Mucheon absent she herself could not afford to leave the Martial Alliance as well.

The one saving grace was that the people in Qinghai and Sichuan were Ouyang Do and Namgoong Mucheon.

Seolhwa chose to trust the two of them and hold the Alliance.

How many days passed like that?

At last, the long-awaited word arrived.

The sender was Yu Gang.

[Seolhwa. We are in Shaanxi right now.]

At the opening line of the letter, Seolhwa faintly knit her brows.

‘Shaanxi?’

If it was Shaanxi, wasn’t that where the Mount Hua Sect and the Zhongnan Sect were?

Why was Yu Gang, who had been in Qinghai, saying he was in Shaanxi?

She hurried on, reading the rest of the letter’s contents.

[As you said, Tang Hojin was a man of the Great Blood Cult. By the time I received your letter through Snow-Hawk, he had already moved.]

****

GASP— HUFF—

Having received Seolhwa’s letter, Yu Gang was hastening back toward where Ouyang Do and the Kunlun warriors were, when at some point he stopped in his tracks.

‘The smell of blood.’

From a short distance away, the thick scent of blood wafted together with a faint fragrance he was smelling for the first time.

In that instant, Yu Gang recalled the note in Seolhwa’s letter to beware of poison.

Yu Gang looked around.

By chance a familiar plant was nearby.

It wasn’t a medicinal herb, but it was excellent at drawing out poisonous energy from the body and was often used in making antidotes.

Yu Gang plucked several leaves, put them in his mouth, and tore a bit of his sleeve to bind his mouth and nose.

If poison had spread in the air, this would at least allow for some measure of response.

RUSTLE—

Yu Gang carefully moved toward where the smell of blood had drifted from.

Drawing his sensory perception up as far as it would go, he read the presences around him and slowly advanced.

‘This area is the sector assigned to Miss Geum’s subjugation unit.’

The subjugation force had been divided into three in total.

Ouyang Do, Yu Gang, and the warriors of Kunlun were handling the center of the Fiends’ Forest.

Then Geum Lyeonbi and Tang Hojin each led half of the remaining Demon-Slaying Corps to take the outer flanks to either side of the central subjugation unit.

The direction Yu Gang headed was the sector assigned to the unit led by Geum Lyeonbi.

“...”

An uneasy sense wrapped his whole body.

The utter stillness with no sign of any presence only amplified Yu Gang’s anxiety.

And when at last he reached the source of the smell of blood—

“...!”

His heart dropped with a thud.

For a time, Yu Gang could not move, frozen in place.

“M-Miss Geum... Venerable Paeseon....”

All of them were dead.

Geum Lyeonbi, and every single member of the subjugation unit she led in the Demon-Slaying Corps.

It was a sight hard to believe.

It hardly felt like this moment was reality.

The people with whom, only a short while ago, he had been laughing and talking and sharing food lay strewn layer upon layer—a scene profoundly unreal.

THUMP. THUMP....

Yu Gang’s gaze turned to the brush around the corpses.

All the brush about was stained pitch-black and shriveled dry.

Though time had passed and the poison-qi had thinned, it was the mark of this area having been blanketed in a thick poison.

‘...Master.’

That the poison-qi had thinned meant the one who had spread the poison had already left this place.

TAK—

Without delay, Yu Gang sprinted off.

If this was Tang Hojin’s doing, then the next place he would head was the central subjugation unit led by Ouyang Do.

‘Please, please....’

May he not be late.

Please let me not be late...!

TADAT—!

****

As she read through the letter’s contents, Seolhwa’s expression darkened.

‘In the end....’

Tang Hojin had moved.

What she had feared had come to pass.

Geum Lyeonbi and half of the Demon-Slaying Corps were dead, and much of Yu Gang’s letter remained.

Seolhwa pressed her lips tight in unease and continued reading on.

[When I returned to Master, the warriors of the Kunlun Sect had already been annihilated, and Master alone was fighting a poison so thick the way ahead could not be seen. I still don’t know what poison Tang Hojin used. But it was an extreme poison hard for even Master to withstand.]

Ouyang Do Art.

Man-Yang Heavens-and-Earth...!

VMMMM—

Charging toward the poison fog, Yu Gang gripped the back of the saber blade and unfolded the saber art.

The saber art executed with the blunt spine of the blade linked in weighty succession and raised a fierce wind.

RRRRRUMBLE—!

The sun-light Force Aura sheathing the saber mercilessly hewed the surrounding trees and rapidly scattered the poison fog trapped among them.

As the mist began to clear, the solitary figure standing at its center came into view.

It was Ouyang Do.

Yu Gang once more unfolded a saber art to scatter every trace of lingering poison-qi in the air.

Ouyang Do Art.

Red Sun Saber Form!

VMMMMMM—

“Master!!”

After blowing away all the poison-qi, Yu Gang hurried to Ouyang Do.

Ouyang Do was standing his saber on edge, his gaze fixed on a single point.

A red run of blood trickled down from the corner of his lips.

“...It’s Tang Hojin. That bastard....”

“I know. First, slow your breathing.”

Yu Gang quickly checked Ouyang Do’s pulse.

‘Master’s Blood Channels are unstable.’

No—was it more accurate to say weakened?

Ouyang Do’s realm could rightly be called the very peak of the martial world.

Ordinary poison should not have taken hold. Then what on earth....

‘On the way, I stopped by my clan to fetch some precious tea leaves. I brewed tea for Elder Ouyang Do, and he was so pleased.’

Come to think of it, for several days before the fiend-clearing began, Tang Hojin had personally brewed tea for Ouyang Do.

He had not entrusted it to others, on the grounds that the Tang Clan had a special method for infusing tea leaves.

‘...It was poison.’

A colorless, odorless poison.

No—perhaps what he had administered via the tea had not been a lethal poison on its own.

But something given through the tea might have reacted with the poison mist to become deadly.

‘There’s no way Tang Hojin didn’t know Master’s realm.’

He would have known that ordinary poison could not hobble Ouyang Do.

Which means—

‘This poison is dangerous to Master.’

Yu Gang looked at Ouyang Do with anxious eyes.

Ouyang Do’s Blood Channels were in a highly unstable state. If he moved his inner power even a little too violently, his Blood Channels could rupture and he could spew blood from every orifice and die.

It was also why he could not himself disperse the mist.

The one saving point was that, the moment the poison mist had spread, he had apparently struck point-seals; fortunately, the speed at which the poison spread was slow.

SQUELCH—

“!”

Supporting Ouyang Do, Yu Gang turned toward the direction from which he sensed a presence.

It was Tang Hojin.

“You...!”

“How did you know to avoid it, Commander? I thought I had planned it perfectly.”

“...!”

“Ah, I suppose you didn’t know and avoid it. If you had, you wouldn’t have arrived late.”

At Tang Hojin’s demeanor—no different from usual—Yu Gang’s complexion darkened.

His tone was as casual as if exchanging trifles such as how breakfast had been.

Tang Hojin scratched his chin as he looked down at those who had died to the poison mist.

“How troublesome. To have to waste a poison I crafted with all my heart for Elder Ouyang Do like this.... An opportunity ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) like this doesn’t come easily.”

[Voice Transmission — Ouyang Do:] We must not let him escape here. He is dangerous.

Taking advantage of the instant Tang Hojin’s attention was drawn elsewhere, Yu Gang released his supporting hand from Ouyang Do and clenched his saber.

However—

“It is a shame, but it can’t be helped. The Commander alone is a handful, and if by some chance Elder Ouyang Do should decide to fight at the cost of his life, that would be vexing.”

Tang Hojin slightly raised both hands and stepped back.

He looked ready to flee at any moment, and Yu Gang raised his saber straight toward him.

“Don’t be ridiculous. You killed your comrades and even tried to kill my master. You think I’ll just let you go?”

“Knowing you would say so, I brought these people.”

Tang Hojin stretched a hand behind him.

The brush behind him rustled, rustled, then soon the figures of a dozen people emerged.

“!”

Yu Gang’s face was colored with shock.

Those who appeared were members of the Demon-Slaying Corps from the subjugation unit Tang Hojin had been leading.