At Seolhwa’s request, the two children exchanged glances, an awkward look on their faces.

But when Seolhwa asked once more, the girl named Jin Yeong glanced at Jin Ye and finally opened her mouth.

‘They say Yu Gang sahyuk used to be a wandering child. One of those kids who did not even know who his parents were. He just happened to catch Elder No Mun’s eye one day and ended up being taken in. He’s young, but since he’s an elder’s disciple, he’s a first-generation disciple.’

‘How did he end up catching the attention of a Mount Hua elder?’

‘Apparently, Yu Gang sahyuk was using Mount Hua’s martial arts. When they asked him later, he said he wanted to learn martial arts so badly that he beat up a kid from the Mount Hua-affiliated martial hall and forced him to teach him.’

‘And Myeong was also a child wandering alone when one of our elders happened to see her and brought her to Mount Hua. Maybe it reminded him of his own childhood? Yu Gang sahyuk especially looks after Myeong. And Myeong is really attached to him too.’

Seolhwa recalled the excuse Yu Gang had given Meng Deungho back at Suro Stronghold.

She had thought it was a story he had made up to explain why he had internal energy techniques from the orthodox sects.

‘So it was true after all.’

No one ever knows what pain hides behind a cheerful façade.

Because he was always smiling and bright, she had assumed there was no darkness there. She had not realized such things had happened when he was young.

“Sorry, sorry! I’m super late, aren’t I?”

Seolhwa turned her head to look at Yu Gang running toward her from afar.

For some reason, as she looked at him, his form overlapped with the one from her previous life.

“Did I keep you waiting long? Where are the kids?”

“They had training. They left.”

“Ah... shoot.”

Yu Gang scratched the back of his head.

“Sorry. Myeong was a little upset. I had to calm her down... Oh, Myeong is—”

“I heard. From your disciples.”

“Really?”

“You really did steal martial arts from Mount Hua’s martial hall kids when you were little, huh?”

“W-What do you mean, steal? That’s not what happened! I was just... a bit curious... so...”

“How many people would go that far to learn martial arts? That in itself is talent.”

He had not learned from a proper master. At best, the one he forced must have been just another child.

Learning martial arts from such inadequate instruction was indeed proof of talent.

“I... Is that so?”

“The kid named Myeong—who brought her here?”

“Oh, Elder No Baek. He saw she looked hungry, so he gave her something to eat. After that, she kept following him around. That’s how he ended up bringing her here.”

“I see.”

No Baek.

Mount Hua’s Head of the Martial Hall and current acting Sect Leader.

There was only one reason Seolhwa was taking a particular interest in the girl named Myeong.

‘The Blood Cult is not above using children.’

She herself had been just five years old when she was taken by the cult.

She had been infused with blood qi by a Blood Demon, trained in blood techniques, and sent out on missions by the time she was ten.

Of course, there were even younger children thrown into missions.

‘She might be a liaison.’

Children without martial arts were, ironically, often easier to use to hide presence.

In her past life as well, those without martial arts were frequently used as messengers or to slip poison into the meals of martial artists.

‘The spies hiding in Mount Hua would need a way to contact one another too.’

It would be best to keep an eye on that child—and on No Baek, who brought her.

****

“It is an immense honor to have the great Heaven’s Bane Sword grace us with your presence.”

“No need for formalities.”

Namgoong Mucheon looked around at the assembled elders of Mount Hua.

There were some with whom he had once fought side by side during his youth as he roamed the world gaining fame. Others were fleeting acquaintances he had passed only briefly.

Still, among the elders of Mount Hua, there was not one face he did not recognize. At some point or another, their paths had crossed.

It was a reunion that was in equal parts pleasant and faintly bitter.

“You are all just the same as ever.”

At Namgoong Mucheon’s informal greeting, the stiff atmosphere eased, and faint smiles spread across the elders’ lips.

Such was the way of martial artists.

Even after long absence, they remembered the past and respected one another’s martial cultivation. Any reunion, no matter how late, was bound to be welcome.

Those who had shared deeper ties with Namgoong Mucheon responded as though they had been waiting for this moment.

“We have heard much about you, Sword Emperor sunbae-nim. I have long wished to meet you again.”

“You look well. Do you remember this junior of yours?”

Namgoong Mucheon was one of the ten greatest masters under heaven—and ranked among the top three.

Even before the joy of reunion, the elders' respect for him as a martial artist was overwhelming.

“Haha, of course I remember. No Il, you were always quick with your numbers. I see you finally seized the position of Head of the Finance Pavilion? No Seon, you have aged a lot since I last saw you. And No Hyeon...”

Namgoong Mucheon called their names one by one, exchanging familiar greetings.

In the blink of an eye, the atmosphere grew warm and convivial.

They asked about each other’s well-being, reminiscing casually over the years gone by.

After a while, Namgoong Mucheon addressed No Baek, Head of the Martial Hall and acting Sect Leader.

“To tell the truth, I came here today for another reason.”

No Baek met his gaze and answered.

“May I ask what that reason is?”

“I have heard that your Sect Leader is suffering from some inexplicable illness.”

For a moment, the entire room fell into silence, as if cold water had been poured over it. A flicker of caution passed through the elders' eyes.

No Baek answered after a brief pause.

“I am afraid I do not understand. Our Sect Leader is in closed-door cultivation.”

“A child disciple of Mount Hua told me otherwise. That your Sect Leader is locked away in seclusion, dying. Do you all know how that child ended up outside Mount Hua?”

Neither No Baek nor the other elders could answer.

It had indeed struck them as odd that Yu Gang had vanished without a trace overnight, but none had yet dared ask why he had left Mount Hua.

And now they were being told it was because he had learned of the Sect Leader’s condition?

“He said he had to find a divine physician.”

“...!”

“How worried must that boy have been to abandon the sect entirely, setting out alone in search of a divine physician whose whereabouts no one even knows?”

Namgoong Mucheon took a sip of the tea in front of him.

It had been Seolhwa who suggested they say that Yu Gang had left Mount Hua to seek a divine physician.

It was a way to preserve Yu Gang’s dignity while protecting the secret of the Sect Leader who had sent him, and also to create a reasonable excuse to request an audience with the supposedly seclusion-training Sect Leader.

It was a plausible explanation, which was why he had agreed to it—but lying was still something he found distasteful.

Sip.

“And so I came personally. I must see Okmaegeom with my own eyes. He may not be a divine physician, but I have brought with me one of the Namgoong Clan’s most skilled healers. Please arrange a meeting with Okmaegeom.”

The elders of Mount Hua exchanged uneasy glances.

If he truly was a physician from the Namgoong Clan, then surely his medical skills were exceptional. And with the support of the Heaven’s Bane Sword himself, perhaps they could finally uncover the root of the illness.

A long silence followed.

Namgoong Mucheon knew full well they were communicating via sound transmission.

He said nothing, quietly sipping his tea as he waited.

Finally, No Baek spoke.

“That is not a decision we are able to make.”

“...”

“We will bring it up with the Sect Leader.”

“Of course.”

“You must be weary from your long journey. Please rest for now. A meal has been prepared.”

Namgoong Mucheon gave a short nod.

****

In Mount Hua’s dining hall, a grand banquet had been laid out to welcome a rare guest.

It was the kind of extravagant table that seemed to proclaim Mount Hua’s status as one of the great sects of the Central Plains, even from atop a remote mountain peak.

Seated across the grand feast from one another were the Black Dragon Division of the Namgoong Clan and the first-generation disciples of Mount Hua.

The Commander of the Black Dragon Division surveyed the dishes with admiration.

“I had heard that Mount Hua values frugality and practices a more austere internal cultivation, relying primarily on vegetables. But it seems that is not always the case.”

Across from him, Yu Baek laughed heartily and replied.

“It would hardly be proper to neglect our guests. Though this may pale in comparison to the Namgoong Clan’s hospitality, I hope it proves to be a satisfying meal.”

“Pale in comparison? Certainly not. We are simply grateful for such a lavish reception.”

“There is no need for such flattery. Speak plainly, would you? What’s with all this posturing?”

The snide voice came from among the disciples of Mount Hua.

All eyes, including those of the Black Dragon Commander and Yu Baek, turned to a single person.

It was Yu Pyo, grumbling with a face full of displeasure.

Wearing a crooked smile, Yu Pyo looked directly at the Black Dragon Commander.

“Wasn’t that what you were saying the entire way here? That sects are just arrogant fools who think the world of themselves.”

The Commander’s expression turned to stone.

“When did I ever say such a thing?”

Yu Baek, clearly flustered, tried to rein Yu Pyo in.

“Yu Pyo, watch your tongue. This occasion is meant to foster unity between the Namgoong Clan and Mount Hua. Why stir conflict with such talk?”

“Unity? Did you say unity?”

Yu Pyo scoffed.

“How are sects like ours supposed to find ‘unity’ with such inferior rabble? The Namgoong Clan is only well-known because of the Heaven’s Bane Sword. Just because someone belongs to the same clan as the Sword Emperor does not make them an outstanding martial artist, does it?”

“Yu Pyo!”

“Is that not what all of you think? Is it not what you have always believed? That martial families are nothing more than power-hungry factions chasing profit, not true martial artists?”

A sharp, suffocating silence fell across the hall at Yu Pyo’s words. The atmosphere instantly turned icy.

A strange tension now hung between Namgoong and Mount Hua.

Namgoong Hyeok, Commander of the Black Dragon Division, let out a quiet sigh and sent a voice transmission.

—Must you go this far...?

Yu Pyo glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, that same crooked smile still on his lips.

—This is just how I usually am in the sect. Besides, is this not the ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ perfect way to stir a fight?