Mo Yong Yeonhwa greeted Mo Yonggun when he entered his quarters.

“Father!”

Shock colored Mo Yong Yeonhwa’s face. Her father’s clothes were torn in rough patches here and there. Anyone could tell he had come back from a fight.

“Are you all right? Don’t tell me that bastard Yeon Hojeong...?!”

“Yeonhwa.”

“Yes?”

“Go back to your quarters. I want to be alone.”

Mo Yong Yeonhwa’s face went pale just as she was about to ask what had happened.

WOOOONG. WOOOONG.

Mo Yonggun had been keeping his presence perfectly refined. But the instant he exchanged words with his daughter, ripples crossed the mind he had been controlling so carefully.

That disturbance of the heart soon shook even his ordered presence. Under the savage qi wave of the Thunderclap Art, Mo Yong Yeonhwa felt her breath catch.

She realized it at once.

Her father’s mood was worse than she had ever seen it.

“...I’ll come back tomorrow morning.”

“Very well.”

Mo Yong Yeonhwa carefully left the room.

A long while later—

BANG!

Mo Yonggun’s fist punched through the wall and sank deep into it.

He had reached a realm where his Inner Qi unconsciously protected his body. Naturally, his fist was unharmed, but his mind was anything but.

“...Three Fanatic Creeds?”

What in the world was that?

They had infiltrated the imperial palace and the authorities and were trying to overturn all under heaven? Ink Dragon Manor, too, had been founded because of one of those Three Creeds?

...And the power of those organizations was truly that great?

Mo Yonggun’s eyes grew bloodshot.

BANG! BANG!

The punches were rough, unlike him. Each time he drove out his fist, large holes burst open in the wall.

“Huff, huff.”

He was so furious even his breathing had turned ragged. For a master of the internal path on Mo Yonggun’s level to be unable to control even his breath meant the agitation of his heart was no ordinary thing.

But Mo Yonggun was still Mo Yonggun. Even amid unbearable passion and confusion, his unconscious mind was already trying to regain composure.

Why am I so angry?

Was this truly something to be so angry over?

He had not been insulted, nor had his bare face been exposed in every detail. If anything, if those words were true, he should have been thanking Yeon Hojeong.

Then why was he so angry? Why could he not suppress this indignation?

Is it simply because I was startled? Or because he knows something I do not? Or else...

In that instant, Mo Yonggun’s eyes flashed.

The reason he had been able to rise above his brothers and become Clan Lord was his outstanding talent, his terrifying decisiveness, and the cold-bloodedness that allowed him to cast aside even his own kin.

But even with all those many advantages, he could never have purged his brothers if he had not possessed an exceptional mind.

That exceptional mind swiftly retraced the past.

Yes. That bastard had not been looking at me.

Yeon Hojeong.

Mo Yonggun had destroyed the Ming Clan together with Yeon Hojeong. After that, they had clashed countless times, leaving wounds on each other.

And yet, there had been moments when he could not hide his puzzlement.

His main enemy was not me.

Yeon Hojeong had always sharpened his blade against him. But bringing him down had not been Yeon Hojeong’s final goal.

More precisely, that chillingly powerful momentum of his had not been only for the sake of bringing Mo Yonggun down. There had been many attempts to erase him politically as well, but the man had always been looking beyond that.

Mo Yonggun, keen as he was, had known it. But he had not acknowledged it.

I am the best.

Pride? Self-respect? Self-esteem? Any word would do.

If someone was his enemy, that person must never look elsewhere. That person must look only at him. The head of the Mo Yong Clan was not such an easy man that his enemies could afford to spare attention for anything else.

But Yeon Hojeong had been different.

Why? What had he been worrying about?

In the past, he had thought Yeon Hojeong was also chasing power, just as he was. He had thought the man acted that way to make his own clan the greatest in the martial world, and further, to seize all under heaven.

Was it said that a Buddha saw only Buddhas, while a pig saw only pigs? 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

At some point, even while looking at Yeon Hojeong, who was so utterly different from him, Mo Yonggun had concluded that the man was no different from himself.

“...In other words.”

Mo Yonggun’s face twisted into an indescribable expression.

“That bastard had room to spare even while dealing with me.”

If Yeon Hojeong’s words were true, then he had known about those Three Creeds for a very long time.

There was no way he would have told Mo Yonggun information he had learned only recently. He must have weighed it carefully ten times, no, a hundred times before telling him.

In other words, even though Yeon Hojeong’s ultimate goal had been to bring down the Three Creeds, he had not merely dealt with Mo Yonggun as well. He had even overturned the political landscape of the martial world.

“...!!”

Suddenly, Mo Yonggun felt goosebumps rise all over his body.

What kind of absurd monster is he...?!

He had handled two, three layers of work at once. He had gritted his teeth and endured all this time through things that would have been difficult to handle even one at a time.

It would be impossible for an ordinary person. Even a genius rare in history might not be capable of it. Yeon Wi and Je Gal Munho might have helped him, but from the very beginning, the one who had moved such giants was Yeon Hojeong.

Yeon Hojeong had been doing all of it.

He had watched everything, intervened in every situation, and brought every matter forward without failure.

“Ha ha ha.”

Mo Yonggun let out an empty laugh and sank down to the floor.

“...So that was it?”

Yeon Hojeong’s face rose in his mind.

Eyes filled with an experience far beyond a young man’s years. The ability to respond freely and precisely whenever circumstances changed.

And the wisdom of near-divine calculation, looking two moves, three moves ahead—so extraordinary that someone who did not know better might call it prophecy.

“He was not merely the only being capable of fighting me as an equal. He had already surpassed me?”

Mo Yonggun’s fist trembled.

He did not want to admit it. But if Yeon Hojeong’s words were true, then he had no choice but to admit it.

I must kill him.

Someone whispered from somewhere inside {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} his head.

I must kill him. He is a monster. If he is already like this now, how much greater will he be in five years? How much further will he grow in ten?

Cold sweat ran down his spine.

When he imagined Yeon Hojeong ten years from now, his vision seemed to darken. If that man survived ten years in this Asura field of a martial world, by then he would become a true monster impossible to catch even if the entire martial world attacked him together.

No, would it even take ten years? Considering his ability and talent, it seemed he could become that as soon as next year.

In that instant, someone else whispered inside his head.

No. He is someone I must kill someday, but not now. I must never provoke him now.

Why? At least for now, I am stronger than he is. Would it not be better to resolve myself and assassinate him?

As if he would have given me that information without considering even that?

Mo Yonggun closed his eyes.

“...This is absurd.”

Just how shocked must Mo Yonggun of all people have been, for him to waste time on such a ridiculous dilemma?

Mo Yonggun leaned his head against the wall.

There was no strength anywhere in his body. His mind, on the other hand, was growing terrifyingly cold.

There is no doubt. That bastard has known about those Three Fanatic Creeds for a very long time.

It was not a prediction, but a certainty.

For the briefest moment, he considered that it might be a lie. But he immediately dismissed the thought.

Neither he nor Yeon Hojeong was so small a vessel as to deceive the other with information of such gravity. This was an issue entirely separate from crossing lines or not crossing them.

Moreover, while fighting Yeon Hojeong, Mo Yonggun had read the sincerity and desperation in his qi.

No matter how exceptional a person was, one could not disguise a sincerity already revealed.

The fact that he opened his heart that completely before me means it has become difficult for him to hold out any longer.

The Three Creeds, Ink Dragon Manor, Mo Yonggun himself.

He had endured somehow while handling all of it, but now he had reached his limit. That was why he had come to Mo Yonggun and proposed that they first deal with their common enemy.

And Yeon Hojeong’s choice had been absolutely right.

Mo Yonggun would have done the same.

Once his thoughts reached that point, Yeon Hojeong’s face surfaced again.

The face of that beast, hiding impatience beneath composure.

“I dislike the Medical God Association as well. Though for reasons different from yours.”

“To you, the Martial Alliance is sacred ground. In the eyes of one who seeks to become the master of that sacred ground, those who dared to touch the Martial Alliance cannot possibly look pleasant.”

Mo Yonggun laughed despite himself.

“He must have been truly pressed. To think he would try to sound me out by bringing up the Medical God Association.”

His closed eyes slowly opened.

It felt as though light flickered before him. His head was heavy, like when he had suddenly stood up after spending an entire day squatting as a child.

Then—

SHHHK.

Mo Yonggun’s sensory perception caught countless presences.

People deliberately revealing themselves as if they had no intention of hiding. From Mo Yonggun’s perspective, their individual martial arts were so low he could snort at them, but among them were quite a few presences that could not be ignored.

The Beggars’ Union, is it?

Dozens from the Beggars’ Union had surrounded the area around his quarters. They were watching him in case he made any suspicious move.

Mo Yonggun did not react sharply. Yeon Hojeong had already told him about it, and he no longer had the strength to sharpen himself.

His gaze turned toward the window.

The moon was bright.

“It will be a long night.”

*****

Yeon Wi, Je Gal Munho, Mookbi, and Yeon Jipyeong greeted Yeon Hojeong when he returned to his quarters.

“Ugh! Brother?!”

Yeon Jipyeong approached with a worried face.

“Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.”

Anyone could see he was not fine. There was blood on the corner of his mouth, his hair was in disarray, and the neatly dressed clothes he wore were covered in cuts and torn marks here and there.

Je Gal Munho hurriedly asked, “Did you fight Mo Yonggun?”

“We crossed hands lightly. I wanted to confirm that man’s true intentions as well.”

“My friend, look at yourself. How is that merely crossing hands lightly?”

“If by some chance he truly did have ties to the Three Creeds, I had to take action on my own. I loosened up a bit after so long, both to warm my body and to read my opponent’s intent.”

It meant he had fought with the momentum to kill him if things went wrong. At that absurdly reckless nerve, Je Gal Munho clicked his tongue in disbelief.

“So.”

Yeon Wi asked in a grave tone.

“How did he seem to you?”

Yeon Hojeong shook his head.

“With a ninety-nine percent probability, Mo Yonggun did not know.”

“Mm.”

Yeon Wi nodded. He, too, had been certain that Mo Yonggun had not joined hands with the Three Creeds.

Je Gal Munho asked, “Are you sure?”

“Personally, I am certain, but there is always the one chance in ten thousand, isn’t there? That is why I said ninety-nine percent. Even if we work together going forward, we must not relax our vigilance.”

“Whew, I see.”

Je Gal Munho patted Yeon Hojeong’s shoulder.

“You worked hard. Truly, you have been through much.”

“Not at all. This much is nothing.”

Yeon Hojeong straightened his posture.

“First, I asked Hu Gae to attach watchers around the Mo Yong Clan’s quarters.”

“Well done.”

“And by noon tomorrow, please gather everyone who knows of the Three Creeds.”

“Noon tomorrow?”

Yeon Hojeong relayed the conversation he had shared with Mo Yonggun exactly as it had happened.

Je Gal Munho nodded.

“That sounds like him. Indeed, nothing would be as certain as seeing the faces of those who know.”

“I think you will also need to prepare the investigation records concerning the Three Creeds so far.”

“Mm.”

No matter how fiercely they had fought in the past, they were now comrades who had to join hands and execute a public enemy. Sharing information was essential.

Yeon Wi said, “Let us do so. We may not be able to resolve all the emotions of the past, but from the moment we form an alliance, neither side must hide anything from the other.”

“I think the same.”

After answering, Je Gal Munho shook his head and sighed.

“Even knowing that, the fact that he keeps bothering me shows he was truly extraordinary in another sense. There are not many people who can make me care this much.”

“That extraordinary ability must now be aimed at the Three Creeds. Let us think of it positively.”

“Yes. We must.”

After letting out a short sigh, Je Gal Munho cupped his fist.

“I will come to Warbreaker Pavilion tomorrow at noon. Rest well. And Commander Yeon, you truly worked hard.”

“Take care on your way back.”

“Yes. Ah! Before that.”

“Yes?”

Je Gal Munho’s eyes gleamed.

“If you do work together with Mo Yonggun, where do you intend to strike first?”

“We must strike the exposed place first to learn how they will react.”

“The bright place in midheaven first... Then it is the Divine Flame Cult after all.”

“Yes.”

Yeon Hojeong smiled.

“Once tomorrow’s meeting with Mo Yonggun is over, I will move immediately.”