"Die helplessly on the floor! Zhuge Hyun!"

Sima Woon's sword slowly pierced into Zhuge Hyun's chest.

Although Zhuge Hyun's expression contorted in pain for a moment, his lips immediately curled up crookedly.

"A guy like you wouldn't have handed over all the pieces of the Wu Hou's Eight Gates Formation Diagram..."

At Zhuge Hyun's muttering, Sima Woon flinched.

At that sight, Zhuge Hyun sneered at him even more.

"I don't even need to hear the answer to know."

"S-so! What can you do?!"

Although Sima Woon was flustered for a moment, he confirmed Zhuge Hyun's appearance, who was cornered with both arms injured, and his eyes widened.

Apart from his wide-open eyes, which were trying not to show any weakness, the tips of his fingers were trembling as if there were an earthquake.

Zhuge Hyun sneered at such a Sima Woon and stuck out his tongue.

At that sight, Sima Woon was naturally enraged.

"Are you mocking me!"

But that was not it.

A yellow talisman was stuck to Zhuge Hyun's tongue.

At the unexpected item, Sima Woon was flustered.

"You asked what I can do, right?"

Looking at that sight, Zhuge Hyun put his tongue back in halfway and then tore the talisman with his canine teeth.

"What?!"

Sima Woon fumbled and gripped his sword tightly.

At the same time, Zhuge Hyun spat the torn talisman towards Sima Woon.

"A worthless trick!!"

Sima Woon twisted his body in a fluster.

As a result, he was able to narrowly avoid the talisman that Zhuge Hyun had spat.

Confirming that the talisman had missed, Sima Woon immediately regained his composure.

"Is the struggle over?"

Having avoided the talisman, Sima Woon looked at Zhuge Hyun and his lips curled up to the fullest.

For some reason, Zhuge Hyun also had a similar expression to Sima Woon.

An appearance without any sense of crisis.

Thinking that it was a final struggle, Sima Woon took a step.

At that moment.

"Th-this?!"

His body was suddenly sucked into the floor.

"What is this?!"

Sima Woon's feet were submerged up to his ankles in a black pit.

A black pit like a bottomless pit was stickily swallowing Sima Woon, starting from his feet.

It was not a simple trap.

It was a vicious trump card of Zhuge Hyun, where the ground turned into a swamp and grabbed his ankles.

"Ugh, uwaaaaah!"

Sima Woon's death throes were sucked into the deep ground.

A moment later, the pit was filled, and what was left was only Sima Woon's clothes and belongings.

Zhuge Hyun brushed off his clothes, which were not stained with a single speck of dust, and smiled crookedly.

"A guy like you can be cooked in any way without even needing internal energy."

He picked up the pieces of the Wu Hou's Eight Gates Formation Diagram that had fallen on the floor.

"The moment you get drunk on power and empty your head, a Taoist becomes worse than a third-rate swindler. You foolish guy."

In addition to that, he took various miscellaneous books and other valuable items.

"Now, then, what should I do?"

Having taken everything he needed to take, Zhuge Hyun looked around.

From here and there, along with screams, traces of sorcery or formations being activated came into his eyes.

Since Zhuge Hyun knew the Wu Hou's Eight Gates Formation Diagram better than anyone in this life, he had already prepared defenses, and although there was no damage, he was in the process of turning the temporary base into a mess with minimal damage.

'Then, according to the original plan, I should get the pieces and get out.'

The original purpose was to obtain a part of the pieces of the Wu Hou's Eight Gates Formation Diagram that Sima Woon had smuggled out.

As for the rest, he was confident that he could find them at any time with just one piece.

Although he would have acted according to the plan normally, there was something that was bothering him.

'What should I do about my junior sister?'

If it were anything else, he could have thrown it away for the sake of the plan.

But he couldn't bring himself to abandon the disciple raised by his master, who was higher than the sky.

'Did I send her up for nothing?'

Zhuge Hyun had sent Baek Sowol up the mountain with various situations in mind.

The problem was that the current situation was flowing in a rather bad direction among the situations that Zhuge Hyun had expected.

Because of that, Zhuge Hyun was in quite a conflict.

At that time.

Whoosh.

A lukewarm wind brushed past Zhuge Hyun's cheek.

Zhuge Hyun's pupils dilated greatly, and his gaze was directed straight at Mount Song.

'As expected, you knew everything.'

Zhuge Hyun smiled bitterly.

'Was it natural? Since I can't catch up to him, who is higher than the sky, with my meager skills.'

And so, looking at Mount Song with eyes full of lingering attachment, he moved his feet to the opposite side.

'Since being scolded is scary.'

Zhuge Hyun smiled bitterly and then disappeared from that place.

In front of Baek Yoonjun, a different space from the grotto had been unfolding for some time.

At some point, time and space had become meaningless, and he had swung his sword, and now even the concept of swinging a sword was unnecessary.

Just nothingness and formlessness.

In a black space where up, down, left, and right could not be distinguished, Baek Yoonjun stood alone.

As time passed, Baek Yoonjun began to think a little from a state of nothingness and formlessness.

'This place is?'

A pitch-black space.

Although it was a hallucination that appeared whenever he had an accomplishment in martial arts, for some reason, it felt more vivid today.

'It's like space. It's probably not real, though.'

Although the unknown black space could have been flustering, Baek Yoonjun became rather calm.

'Since there are no people, my mind is so at ease.'

If he had his way, Baek Yoonjun felt that he could stay here forever, but he felt a presence.

'This feeling is.'

A familiar and familiar feeling.

The one and only thing that Baek Yoonjun could be proud of.

'Is it the Heart Sword?'

As Baek Yoonjun became conscious of it, the Heart Sword appeared in front of his eyes.

The Heart Sword, which he had always grasped by observing his mind-image, for some reason, seemed to exist vividly in front of his eyes now.

Although Baek Yoonjun himself felt that it was a hallucination.

'For a hallucination, it's vivid.'

Since he had never had a chance to see it so vividly in front of him, Baek Yoonjun openly and carefully scanned the Heart Sword.

'I've been feeling it all along, but it's really unstable.'

Having been aware of and using the Heart Sword, Baek Yoonjun had been feeling that the Heart Sword itself was in a constantly unstable state.

He carefully pondered why that was.

'Is it because I forcibly raised my realm with only death in a state where life was missing?'

Although Baek Yoonjun had inferred the reason on his own, he could not know the exact answer.

Since there were no martial artists who had reached the second-rate realm by his standards around him, and since he couldn't see any footprints on the path of martial arts that he thought was a hallucination, there was nowhere to find the answer.

A path that he had to walk alone.

Baek Yoonjun finished observing the unstable Heart Sword and stretched out his hand, lightly grasping it.

The feeling of grasping it was also different from how he usually grasped it.

It felt as if the Heart Sword itself was more clearly felt.

A sword that was very unstable and only showed death.

Although he was clearly holding it in his hand, for some reason, he felt a vast and empty, hollow feeling.

For some reason, Baek Yoonjun felt that that feeling was very familiar.

Vast and empty hollowness.

But in that hollowness, a strange comfort was felt.

A perfect blockage that was not disturbed by anyone.

A perfect isolation.

'This is... a corner of a room.'

The narrow corner of a room from his past life.

The Heart Sword was the 'disconnected space' itself that he had loved the most.

And at the same time, it was the space where he had died in his past life.

'Why? Is it because I was cooped up for a long time?'

Thinking so, Baek Yoonjun soon shook his head.

Because, including his past life and this life, he had been cooped up in the mountains for longer.

And so, Baek Yoonjun, who had been constantly raising questions.

'What? What is this unpleasant feeling?'

He opened his eyes at the sudden unpleasant feeling.

The place where he opened his eyes was not a pitch-black space, but the grotto of Shaolin where he had originally been.

Baek Yoonjun immediately turned his head towards the entrance.

A martial artist was entering the grotto through the entrance.

'It doesn't seem to be a martial monk of Shaolin.'

That martial artist arrived at the place where Baek Yoonjun was.

"Who are you?!"

As soon as he discovered Baek Yoonjun, he immediately pointed his sword at him.

Baek Yoonjun frowned at the martial artist's sword.

The bright red blood on the blade, which looked as if it had just been stained.

"What's with that blood?"

Instead of answering Baek Yoonjun's question, he asked his own question, and the martial artist's impression contorted greatly.

"What do you mean, what is it! It's the blood of a monk bastard!"

At those words, Baek Yoonjun moved his feet towards the martial artist without hesitation.

"Stop!"

The martial artist was on the verge of swinging his sword at such an appearance of Baek Yoonjun.

"It doesn't seem to be a monk or a beggar, and it doesn't seem to be a member of the alliance. Reveal your affiliation!"

Baek Yoonjun did not answer the martial artist's question.

Just in his head.

'It's a temple, so a sword is a bit much, right?'

He briefly caressed the Black Iron Night Sky and then stealthily lifted his foot.

"If you don't reveal it, I will cut...!!"

Although the martial artist was about to shout something.

Bba-eong!

"Daaaaak!!"

The martial artist flew through the entrance he had come in from, as if he had been hit by an iron horse running at full speed.

Looking at the martial artist who had flown away better than expected, Baek Yoonjun stealthily looked down at the foot he had just kicked the martial artist with.

'I haven't particularly trained in kicking techniques, but I guess just kicking hard is enough.'

Baek Yoonjun continued to move his feet and arrived at the entrance.

The entrance was a mess.

The martial artists, dressed in the same clothes as the martial artist Baek Yoonjun had just kicked away, were cutting down the monks and beggars with their weapons.

"Ugh... Benefactor Baek... when did you come out...?"

Baek Yoonjun turned his head to the place where a dying voice was heard.

There, Hyejin, the disciple of Shinseung, was leaning against the wall, bleeding profusely.

Baek Yoonjun did not answer and immediately checked Hyejin's body.

Perhaps because the blood on the sword of the martial artist he had kicked away was Hyejin's, his whole body was covered in cuts.

Realizing that Baek Yoonjun was checking his wounds, Hyejin smiled awkwardly.

"It's nothing."

"It's nothing. Stay still. I'll treat you."

Baek Yoonjun immediately began to treat Hyejin's wounds.

He disinfected the cut parts with the medicine he had and stitched up the wounds.

Since he was quite used to it, there was no hesitation at all.

And so, as Baek Yoonjun was taking care of Hyejin's wounds, a group of martial artists began to approach that way.

"There's a monk bastard over here!!"

"That pale-faced guy is also an accomplice!"

The martial artists swung their weapons at Baek Yoonjun and Hyejin without hesitation.

Without even turning his eyes, Baek Yoonjun brought one hand towards the martial artists.

'Annoying.'

Like when he used to use internal energy, Baek Yoonjun flicked his finger at the martial artists.

But since there was no internal energy, he failed to subdue them from a distance.

'Ah, I didn't have internal energy, right? But now, when I don't have internal energy, the feeling is quite different.'

As Baek Yoonjun was checking his condition at the strange sense of incongruity, a martial artist's sword was just about to reach Baek Yoonjun.

Without hesitation, Baek Yoonjun brought his finger to the sword.

Kwajik.

As soon as the sword touched his finger, cracks began to form around the touched part, and it shattered into pieces.

"Wh-what?!"

Baek Yoonjun moved the finger that had shattered the flustered martial artist's sword and brought it to that martial artist's forehead.

Then he flicked his finger downwards.

Kwang!

At the same time, the martial artist was slammed into the floor as if gravity had suddenly become dozens of times heavier.

At that sight, a silence fell on the noisy battlefield.

Everyone was at a loss for words at that incomprehensible sight.

Even Hyejin, who was being treated by Baek Yoonjun, was looking at Baek Yoonjun with his mouth open, having forgotten the pain of his flesh being stitched.

As if he did not mind such a situation at all, Baek Yoonjun quickly finished Hyejin's treatment.

"Since the treatment is over, please rest."

Having finished Hyejin's treatment, he turned his body.

A gaze with no particular emotion visible.

But the martial artist who met that gaze could not even let out a breath and just swallowed.

Baek Yoonjun scanned his surroundings and opened his mouth nonchalantly.

"Is it not common sense not to draw a sword in a temple?"

It was a word that was almost a mumble.

But no one there dared not to hear those words.

"It's a mess. A mess."

A secluded place on the battlefield inside Shaolin.

There, Zhuge Woohyun, who was using the alias Ha Woohyun, was surveying the battlefield.

What he saw was just a massacre.

'It's not fun.'

An unpleasant feeling filled Zhuge Woohyun's chest.

A sight of a massacre that was close to a violation.

'At that time, I didn't think much of it, but to think it would turn out as my foster father said.'

The situation was turning out similarly to what he had heard from Zhuge Hyun a few years ago.

Although it was an unpleasant memory just from hearing the words at that time, it was happening in front of his eyes.

Even Zhuge Woohyun, whose brain was pickled in fun, was not a murderer, so he could not watch the sight of numerous people dying with pleasure.

'If I had my way, I would run wild, regardless of internal energy or whatever, but...'

The reason Zhuge Woohyun was hiding his body and surveying the situation was because of Zhuge Hyun's instructions at that time.

If a situation arose and he was at the scene, he should not jump in rashly, but observe and remember the situation as much as possible.

Although fun was a priority for Zhuge Woohyun, since there was nothing particularly fun now, he was faithfully carrying out those words.

The first thing Zhuge Woohyun looked at was the main gate.

The Martial Alliance's leader, who seemed to be the strongest master here, and the young martial artist, Zhang Sanfeng, whose name was quite well-known now, had clashed.

In that process, an old martial artist whose name was renowned in the past, a beggar and a woman who had achieved considerable martial arts accomplishments at a young age, a small kid, and a strange gigolo-like guy who was skilled in sorcery and dressed like a waiter had also intervened.

Although each of them was competent, the result was a crushing defeat.

Zhuge Woohyun recalled that process and felt regret.

'If they had joined forces from the beginning and attacked the alliance leader, I think there would have been a chance.'

Except for one old martial artist, they were people who had achieved great accomplishments despite their young age.

'It's a past event. It can't be undone.'

Putting aside his regretful feelings, Zhuge Woohyun turned his gaze.

'Where is something fun...?'

In such a Zhuge Woohyun's eyes, something incomprehensible was happening.

Something was flying up into the sky as if a firecracker were being shot.

'A person?!' 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Looking closely, it was a person.

Dozens of people were flying up into the same sky and then falling.

'What on earth is this situation?'

It was like a firecracker made of people.

'Anyway!'

At the successive uninteresting and frowning situations, the life began to return to Zhuge Woohyun's eyes, which had been dying.

'It looks fun!'

Dopamine began to fill his head like crazy.

(End of Chapter)