Bi-sun's words might have seemed cold, but they were true. Even if Bi-sun and Jo-rim's martial arts were outstanding, they could not face all of these numerous enemies.

If Jin Sa-wol had been there, the situation would have been different. But unfortunately, Jin Sa-wol was not at the inn right now.

"How about we reduce their numbers?"

"We only catch the ones that come in."

Bi-sun said, meaning not to step forward first. Il-hu and Jo-rim just nodded without answering.

For now, they had to watch the situation at the inn. If they moved rashly, they could get into trouble.

Fwoosh!

A fire began to burn at the foot of the mountain. At first, several small fires rose, but as time passed, the flames grew larger.

As the smoke rose, Bi-sun ran with a face full of annoyance.

"Up."

Whoosh!

Bi-sun, moving through the trees like a flying squirrel, headed for the pavilion at the top of Namsan. Jo-rim and Il-hu followed behind him.

The three of them stood around the pavilion overlooking Poyang Lake and looked at the faint light. The owner of the light was Il-bi, who was waiting on the lake.

Jo-rim, who had climbed onto the roof of the pavilion, looked around the inn, not the lake.

Many buildings were on fire, and a noisy clamor of mixed screams and shouts was heard.

Bi-sun, who had walked out of the pavilion, looked around at Jo-rim and Il-hu and said, "Wait here. I'll go and see the situation."

With his words, his figure disappeared like smoke, and Jo-rim said to Il-hu, "While all these bastards were coming to the inn, the Hao Faction or the Hwahwaru didn't inform us. Do you think those bastards didn't know?"

"I don't know about that."

"The Ghost Hand Pavilion moved, so there's no way the Demonic Cult didn't know. If the Demonic Cult knew, there's no way the Hao Faction or the Hwahwaru didn't know."

A building was collapsing.

It was heartbreaking to see one's own home collapse.

"Is this the price for betrayal?"

Jo-rim asked herself, but she could not find an answer.

***

Fwoosh! Kukung! Thump!

The street full of shops was also engulfed in flames. A few had collapsed, and the remaining shops were also on fire.

Bi-sun appeared on a tree not far from there.

Bi-sun's expression was indifferent. Although his home was burning, there was no such thing as anger.

Rather, it was full of an ice-cold killing intent.

As he looked around, he saw Mae Cheong-pung.

Thwack!

Mae Cheong-pung kicked a fallen Martial Alliance warrior and then walked forward. He walked forward, cutting through the subordinates standing all around, with a willow-leaf saber dripping with blood in his hand.

In the center of a wide open space, about a dozen warriors of the Guguang branch were gathered.

They stood back to back and glared at the warriors of the Blood Killing Faction and the Ghost Hand Pavilion who had surrounded them.

"Heok! Heok! You fucking bastards."

"I'll kill one more and then die."

"Fight to the end."

Although their voices echoed low, Mae Cheong-pung just found it ridiculous. They were all going to die anyway.

"Kill them."

As Mae Cheong-pung's words fell, his subordinates from all directions rushed at the warriors of the Guguang branch.

In that instant, there was a black group that flew over the wall of the inn.

They attacked the warriors of the Blood Killing Faction and the Ghost Hand Pavilion without mercy.

As their fierce attack began, the warriors of the Blood Killing Faction and the Ghost Hand Pavilion fell into chaos.

"What!"

Mae Cheong-pung also cut off the neck of the masked person who had appeared in front of him and then retreated. Startled, he shouted urgently, "A new enemy! Fight!"

The one with the loudest voice was the leader.

A masked person with a strong prayer stood in front of Mae Cheong-pung. His eyes were full of killing intent. A tangible energy was rising from the sword he was holding like a haze.

He could tell at a glance that he was a master.

The problem was that there was not just one masked person operating sword energy.

"Kraaak!"

"You bastards!"

"Uwaaaak!"

Mae Cheong-pung, seeing his subordinates with their limbs and necks cut off by the sword energy, became tense, realizing they were not ordinary warriors.

"Who are you bastards?"

"You don't need to know."

The masked person, with his answer, raised his sword energy and attacked Mae Cheong-pung. It seemed like he was stabbing and cutting randomly, but there was a form in it.

Mae Cheong-pung also raised his saber energy and rushed at the masked person.

As the two became entangled, another masked person aimed for Mae Cheong-pung's back. From the left, one person also joined in.

As three masters began to attack Mae Cheong-pung at once, Mae Cheong-pung also began to be pushed back.

‘He is going to die. But who are they?'

Bi-sun, who was watching from afar, foresaw Mae Cheong-pung's death.

But his death was not important. The problem was the newly appeared masked people.

Their movements, which were pressing the Ghost Hand Pavilion and the Blood Killing Faction, seemed to be those of well-trained individuals.

Their own war did not end even when dawn came.

***

Did he have a bad dream?

Jin Sa-wol, who had woken up at dawn, touched his forehead and looked for water to drink. Yuk Seol-jeong, who was dozing in a chair, opened her eyes as she felt a presence.

She saw Jin Sa-wol drinking water, stood up, and approached.

"Your body is not yet well, so I told you to lie down as much as possible without moving."

Yuk Seol-jeong stretched out her hands and tried to grab Jin Sa-wol. Her action seemed as if she were trying to hold a child.

Jin Sa-wol sighed and lay down again.

It was more comfortable to lie down on his own than to be caught by Yuk Seol-jeong and forced to lie down.

Yuk Seol-jeong sat next to him and asked, "Am I uncomfortable for you? Because I'm a person you killed? When I think back to that time, it's still absurd. How did you have such a fast sword? I felt something caught in my throat, but haa... How does it feel to have the person you killed smiling brightly next to you like this?"

"You hold a grudge."

"I hold a lot of grudges. In fact, I still want to chew you up and eat you right now."

"I'm sleeping."

Jin Sa-wol ignored her and closed his eyes. But he couldn't fall asleep easily, so he opened his eyes again.

Yuk Seol-jeong was staring at his face.

"Did you have a bad dream?"

"In my dream, my teeth fell out."

At the words that his teeth fell out, Yuk Seol-jeong's expression hardened. It was a representative bad dream that everyone knew.

"I also died once after dreaming that my teeth fell out. To some dog-like bastard."

That was Jin Sa-wol.

"Find out about the inn for me."

"It's difficult now because it's night. I'll find out when morning comes."

At Yuk Seol-jeong's answer, Jin Sa-wol closed his eyes.

***

Jo Geom-ok was leaning against the window of the inn and looking at the dawn sky. Jin Sa-wol, who had left for the Demonic Cult, had heartlessly sent no news.

Jo Geom-ok took out a gold ruler from her sleeve, touched it, and thought of Jin Sa-wol. But the gold ruler did not become Jin Sa-wol. Her own actions seemed pathetic.

It seemed it would be much more comfortable to just wipe her sword.

"This is also a present."

He should have bought a pretty accessory instead of something like this.

A ring would have been nice, and a bracelet would have been fine too. A hairpin or a hair accessory would also have been good, but of all things, a gold ruler.

Although it was gold, for some reason, she felt like a guard holding a key.

"Snore! Pooh! Pooh! Grind! Mimi-ya..."

The noisy sleep-talking of Woo Jeong-bong, who was sleeping in the next room, stimulated Jo Geom-ok's nerves.

Jo Geom-ok entered the next room.

Thwack!

"Ack! Why did you hit me!"

"I'm just in a bad mood."

***

Several flashes were flickering.

With a loud clang! and a groan, Mae Cheong-pung was seen retreating.

"You cowardly bastards."

Mae Cheong-pung clutched his left arm, which had been deeply cut by a sword. Although blood was dripping, his killing intent was still there.

Bi-sun, who was watching from afar, thought that Mae Cheong-pung was surprisingly holding out for a long time.

Although he looked like he would die soon, he avoided or blocked the combined attack of the three with strange movements.

It was certain that he was a person who had learned a high-level martial art. And the three who were trying to subdue him were also certainly people with great martial arts.

Mae Cheong-pung's death was also a matter of time.

The dawn sky was gradually brightening. It meant that morning was coming, and that meant there was nowhere to hide.

Bi-sun had no choice but to head for the Geumwon again.

Whoosh!

As he stepped on the wreckage of the burned-down building and used his lightness skill, masked people followed. They were people with movements similar to his own.

Swish!

Pararak!

At the sound like paper falling, Bi-sun twisted his body. Leaf-shaped hidden weapons flew in.

Bi-sun jumped over the wall of the Geumwon.

Papat!

As soon as he landed on the ground, he ran again.

The black masked people who followed behind him were three. The three masked people lined up in a row and chased after Bi-sun.

Then, at some point, their bodies were cut in half.

Per-thwack!

Blood threads stretched long over the corpses that had fallen with blood.

Ping! Ping!

Jo-rim and Il-hu, pulling the Blood Threads, appeared. They quickly moved, following Bi-sun.

Jo-rim, wrapping the Blood Thread around her arm, asked, "What happened?"

"It's a third force. They're masked bastards, but their martial arts are high. The Martial Alliance warriors are all dead."

"Tsk!"

Jo-rim clicked her tongue and turned her head.

In that instant, her eyes widened.

At a distance of only five zhang, a person was standing and watching intently!

She couldn't even feel a presence of how and when he had appeared.

"Behind."

At Jo-rim's words, Bi-sun turned his head and saw a masked person jumping lightly. He had closed the distance of five zhang in one leap.

"Run."

Bi-sun said with a hardened expression and then threw all his remaining daggers.

The masked person stopped walking, extended his right hand towards the flying daggers, drew a circle, and snatched all the daggers.

His movements were so natural that he looked like a person standing in place.

Splash!

In the meantime, Jo-rim and Il-hu had jumped into the water, and Bi-sun also rose into the air and fell into Poyang Lake.

Boong!

Just then, a huge sound of something cutting through space was heard, and a dagger he had thrown was embedded in Bi-sun's shoulder.

Thwack!

Bi-sun, who had turned his head, could see the masked person walking to the lakeside and numerous masked people rushing behind him.

'A master.'

The masked person was not an opponent he could win against in a frontal confrontation.

"What are you doing!"

As Jo-rim shouted, Bi-sun cut through the water and headed for the boat.

Seeing the swimming Bi-sun, the masked person held out his hand to a subordinate next to him.

"Sword."

"Yes."

As the subordinate handed him a sword, the masked person threw it into the air with all his might.

Hwing!

The sword, due to the strong force, drew a circle, flew through the air, and then fell straight down.

Thwack!

The place where the sword fell was the back of Il-hu, who was at the very rear.

"Aaargh!"

"Hu-ya!"

"Hu!"

Jo-rim and Bi-sun, who were sinking into the water, grabbed Il-hu and swam to the boat.

Il-bi was startled and moved the boat, and Jo-rim and Bi-sun lifted Il-hu onto the boat.

Jo-rim and Bi-sun, who had gotten on the boat, stared blankly at the sword protruding from Il-hu's abdomen.

"Hurry up and start!"

As Jo-rim shouted, Il-bi, who had come to her senses, rowed.

In the meantime, Jo-rim tried to pull out the sword. But if she pulled it out, more blood would flow, so she couldn't pull it out rashly.

"How..."

Jo-rim was in a state of anxiety. She, who had never shown a disheveled appearance until now, was not so now.

As blood flowed from Il-hu's mouth, Jo-rim embraced her.

"Don't die. Not yet. We still have a lot to do."

(End of Chapter)