"...Who the hell are you?" the Giant Spirit Keep Boss demanded, pushing himself up from the rock. His already massive body seemed to double in size and fill the entire area.

So big! Baek Suryong thought as he looked at the man. I think he's around the same size as Master Maeng?

Still, no matter how large, a boar could never compare to a tiger.

"I'm just a passing traveler," he answered politely, showing no sign of being intimidated. "I heard the scenery of Mount Heng's Zigai Peak was breathtaking, so I climbed up here to take a look."

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The Giant Spirit Keep Boss's eyebrows twitched like worms. "How dare you? Do you even know who I am?"

"Grr..." The massive beasts guarding his side bared their teeth and flourished their claws.

Baek Suryong shrugged nonchalantly. "I just came to see the view. Do I really need to know who was here before me?"

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"You beat my subordinate to a pulp and say you came to see the view?"

The Giant Spirit Keep Boss glanced at the unconscious subordinate at his feet. The man's teeth were shattered. He could probably eat nothing but porridge from now on.

"You bastard...!"

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The Giant Spirit Keep Boss released a faint killing intent, commanding his beasts to surround Baek Suryong and prepare to tear him apart.

Still, Baek Suryong remained composed. "Your subordinate attacked me first, so you should be grateful I didn't kill him," he complained. "Also, what are these animals doing here? Are you offering them to me for dinner tonight?"

"...What gives you the nerve to be so cocky?"

" Pfft! Well... What do you think?" Baek Suryong snickered, confident the Giant Spirit Keep Boss wouldn't attack him recklessly.

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The unorthodox sects' meeting is tomorrow. There's no way he'd carelessly attack an unknown opponent.

The Viridian Scholar had informed him that while the Giant Spirit Keep Boss had a ferocious and cruel nature, he was by no means a fool. The giant must surely be reeling after witnessing an unknown master fell one of his top experts without sustaining so much as a scratch.

The Tiger Pass Keep Boss, who's quietly observing off to the side, must feel the same.

KWAANG!

The bandits of the Giant Spirit Keep and the Tiger Pass Keep flinched in surprise. The Giant Spirit Keep Boss had punched the rock he was sitting on, shattering it.

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"Kekeke! It's been a while since I've seen someone with guts like you," he laughed. "Your courage is commendable, so I won't kill you on the spot. Go on, keep talking."

"......" Baek Suryong's jaw dropped in disbelief.

That's... such an obvious ploy to dig up information on me! If he was going to kill me, he would have just done so without the blabber. For someone who's supposedly not dumb, he's not very sharp.

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He sighed. It seemed that the only similarity the giant shared with Master Maeng was size. He was so lacking in everything else that comparing them was absurd.

A dumbass like this is aiming for the position of the Bandit King?

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He had to do his best to resist clicking his tongue in disdain.

"Didn't I tell you? I came to see the view, and while I'm at it, there's something I wanted to confirm with my own eyes," he said as diplomatically as he could.

"Hey. Let's stop sizing each other up," the Tiger Pass Keep Boss interjected, puffing smoke from his long pipe. Narrowing his eyes, he continued, "It's obvious you're no ordinary person. Where are you from? The Black Snake Alliance? The Valley of Evil? You can't be from the Mount Mo Sect..."

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To be honest, the Tiger Spirit Keep Boss didn't want a fight. The man in front of them was a master who had taken down two of their top experts singlehandedly. Since he wasn't muscular enough to be from the Viridian Forest, and his way of speaking was different from the typically rough bandits, he figured he must be from one of the other unorthodox sects.

Above all, the willow leaf dao hanging at the man's waist unnerved him.

I didn't hear the sound of a blade being swung just now.

A bladesman crushed experts from the Giant Spirit Keep and the Tiger Pass Keep without even drawing his blade?

That means he's even stronger when he does draw his blade... With that level of skill, it's impossible for rumors not to have spread, but I've never heard of him. Why? That blonde hair is so damn conspicuous...

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The man's blonde hair, which reached almost to his waist, rippled in the gentle breeze. The sight was mystical and overflowed with a wild charm.

Hmm? Blonde hair?

For some reason, the description of the Bandit King he heard from his father as a child came to mind.

"Where do you think I'm from?" Baek Suryong asked playfully, answering a question with another question.

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The Tiger Pass Keep Boss shook off his stray thoughts and rose to his feet. "It seems you don't want to answer."

He bent his back slightly, letting his abnormally long arms nearly touch the ground. He too was a tyrant who reigned over countless bandits, though less so than the Giant Spirit Keep Boss.

Baring his sharp fangs, he warned, "You seem to be acting arrogant, thinking we can't kill you recklessly, but you should know that it's more than possible for us to do to you exactly what you did to my subordinate."

The Giant Spirit Keep Boss clenched his fists and grinned. "That's right. If we beat this bastard to a pulp, his master will come looking for him, whoever that is. As long as we don't kill him, it's fine, right?"

He calculated that the consequences would be much lighter if he dealt with the opponent together with the Tiger Pass Keep Boss, no matter what faction he belonged to.

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The two Bosses exchanged glances, having reached an agreement, and they surrounded Baek Suryong from the front and back.

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A ferocious energy wave, sharp enough to sting the skin, radiated from them.

TSSSSH...

"You should've begged when I was offering mercy."

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"Fufufu! If you kneel even now, I'll end this with just a mild beating."

The other Giant Spirit and Tiger Pass Keep bandits formed a wide encirclement, leaving Baek Suryong no chance to escape.

"This is..." Baek Suryong's face hardened as he felt the energy waves from the two masters. Gritting his teeth, he looked up at the sky and muttered, "...Can't I just kill them all right here?"

"This bastard!" Enraged, the Giant Spirit Keep Boss raised his fist to swing it.

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"STOP!" a Lion's Roar rang out, imbued with powerful inner qi.

Everyone who had surrounded Baek Suryong immediately turned toward the source of the roar.

The two Bosses' expressions hardened as they spotted a familiar face.

"Viridian Scholar?"

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"How'd you get here?"

They glanced at the people who accompanied the Viridian Scholar. Jang Geol and Gu Gil guarded his left and right.

Behind them, bandits tied together with ropes limped along, supporting each other... because every single one of them had one broken leg.

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Killing intent flashed in the Giant Spirit Keep Boss's eyes. "Why the fuck are you guys here...!?"

I told them to hide well and wait, so why did they get caught by the Viridian Scholar?

He glared at his hairy subordinate, looking ready to tear him to pieces.

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"......" The hairy man didn't dare meet his gaze and lowered his head.

"Long time no see, both of you," the Viridian Scholar said, stopping at a reasonable distance away from the encirclement. "The man you're persecuting is a member of my Yama Keep. Stand down immediately."

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The two bandit bosses sneered, neither planning on doing as their rival said.

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"You're saying that guy's from the Yama Keep? I've never heard of him," the Giant Spirit Keep Boss said suspiciously.

The Viridian Scholar smiled coolly. "Since when were you two so interested in the members of the Yama Keep?"

"Damn geezer...!"

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"Wait a moment." The Tiger Pass Keep Boss stepped forward, stopping his ally. "Viridian Scholar, are you trying to start a war with us right now?"

The Viridian Scholar feigned ignorance. "A war? What on earth are you talking about?"

The Tiger Pass Keep Boss suppressed his boiling anger and pointed to his fallen subordinate. "This man you call your brother beat our brothers to a pulp. How are you going to compensate us? If you don't answer properly, we'll do the same to him."

The Viridian Scholar calmly clasped his hands behind his back. "Compensation? That's not the right word to use after a brother has been assaulted, is it?"

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Baek Suryong snickered inwardly. Among the three bandit bosses gathered here, the Viridian Scholar had the smallest and slimmest physique, yet his presence was unrivaled.

The Viridian Scholar rebuked sternly. "You're the ones who broke the promise to only bring three men. Surely you're not going to claim that the men behind me aren't your followers, are you?"

""......"" The two Bosses said nothing.

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All unorthodox sects participating in the meeting were permitted to bring a maximum of four people with them. All factions had agreed upon this rule. No one expected the rule to be followed, but getting caught was another matter.

Damn it. How much does he know?

If we don't do anything about this, our plan will fall apart...!

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The Bosses of the Giant Spirit Keep and the Tiger Pass Keep exchanged troubled glances.

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"By the way, are these men from the Giant Spirit Keep, or the Tiger Pass Keep?" he asked. "They wouldn't open their mouths no matter how much I asked, so I brought them here to confirm it myself."

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"...What?"

"......"

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The two bosses, especially the Giant Spirit Keep Boss, regarded the hairy bandit curiously. The man's face was covered in blood, a clear sign he had suffered a severe ordeal, yet he hadn't confessed to anything? Feeling a small surge of pride, his killing intent dulled a little.

The hairy man let out a small sigh of relief. The pressure on him was easing up.

The Viridian Scholar acted as if he hadn't noticed the subtle exchange. "Well, it doesn't really matter who they work for. As fellow members of the Viridian Forest, I'll release them and pretend I didn't see anything this one time. In return, how about you release the encirclement and return my man? After all, in the heat of the moment, my young friend succumbed to his youthful vigor and made a mistake. As fellow members of the Viridian Forest, we should rightfully cover for each other's mistakes, don't you agree?"

""......""

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The Viridian Scholar narrowed his eyes. "...Or do you truly wish to see blood spilled here?"

The Giant Spirit and Tiger Pass Keep Bosses exchanged telepathic messages for a moment and then nodded at each other. There was nothing to be gained from clashing with the Viridian Scholar here and now.

"Let him go," the Giant Spirit Keep Boss commanded.

The bandits dispersed, and Baek Suryong approached the Viridian Scholar.

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The Viridian Scholar instantly noticed that his senior brother didn't look his usual self. [Are you all right?] he asked worriedly.

Baek Suryong nodded grimly. [I've seen everything I wanted to see. Let's go back now.]

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[...Got it.] The Viridian Scholar looked at the two bosses. "Then, we shall meet at the assembly tomorrow."

He turned to leave, and Jang Geol, Gu Gil, and Baek Suryong followed him. The bandits they had dragged along stayed behind, looking on anxiously.

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Just as the tense atmosphere dissipated and everyone sighed in relief, though, the Giant Spirit Keep boss yelled, "Hey, brat! What's your name?"

Baek Suryong paused. His poorly suppressed anger threatened to erupt again.

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Did he just call me a 'brat'!?

He lost it.

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"Hey, boar," he snapped rudely, meeting the Giant Spirit Keep Boss's eyes.

"......" The Giant Spirit Keep Boss unconsciously gulped. Something about this young man's killing intent bothered him.

Baek Suryong warned, "Don't run your mouth so carelessly again. Only one person in the Viridian Forest is allowed to call me that."

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"Y-You arrogant bastard...!" The Giant Spirit Keep Boss's face flushed with rage, and he clenched his fists tightly.

In the end, however, he couldn't bring himself to attack.

"Hey! There's no point talking to a madman," the Tiger Pass Keep Boss chided.

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"......" The Giant Spirit Keep Boss fell silent. Even if the Tiger Pass Keep Boss hadn't tried to persuade him otherwise, could he really have gone through with the attack?

Baek Suryong sneered. "Maeng Ryonghwi."

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"...What?"

"That's my name."

With that, Baek Suryong spun around and descended Zigai Peak.

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He wanted to see with his own eyes what kind of men these people who claimed to have inherited even a fraction of Master Maeng's martial arts were. If they were the kind who could be reformed, he would have given them a chance, just as he had the Rehabilitation Sect guys.

Unfortunately, he had now concluded that they were beyond saving. For one, the stench of blood ingrained in them was nauseating.

More importantly, they were undoubtedly descendants of the traitors who sold Master Maeng to the Blood Cult.

Because if that weren't the case, there was no way they could have learned the Cult's demonic arts.

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Fuck these traitors. I will definitely avenge you, Master Maeng.