In an instant, the air over the Friendly Match Grounds turned frigid.

Stepping down from the platform, Maeng Deungho halted and looked toward the cluster of Martial Alliance warriors.

Peng Yeopmyeong, who had stood there stunned with embarrassment, belatedly shouted at the Alliance warriors.

“Who’s spouting nonsense!”

But before his words could even finish—

“Hmph! Barely saved your skin with a Lazy Donkey Roll! Do you people have no pride as martial men!”

This time a barbed voice cracked out from the black-path side.

Peng Yeopmyeong’s brow twitched and bent.

“Lazy Donkey Roll?”

A phrase that mocked someone for rolling on the ground in an unsightly way—like a lazy donkey—to evade.

There had been no moment in their match that merited such jeering, but he knew what they meant.

They were pointing at the way Peng Yeopmyeong had braced and dropped backward to avoid Maeng Deungho’s spear, and the way he’d twisted in midair to slip past the rebound.

How blind did one have to be to call that a Lazy Donkey Roll? Peng Yeopmyeong forced down the surge of anger boiling up inside.

“Didn’t the Alliance Lord work himself ragged even at the banquet to keep good terms with the Sado Union?”

He had mixed the chiefs’ seats even at the cost of drawing some elders’ displeasure, so they could build rapport.

The match had ended smoothly—if he lost his temper at a childish provocation, all that effort would go up in smoke.

“It was the subordinates’ mistake. Let it pass.”

So deciding, Peng Yeopmyeong went first to Maeng Deungho.

“Chief Hall Lord Maeng, my apologies. I’ll see my side is properly warned.”

“My apologies as well. Pay no mind to my men’s words.”

To avoid any seed of misunderstanding, they confirmed it to one another and continued down from the platform.

“Enough—return to your quarters! Any fool who runs his mouth will be severely punished!”

He thought the matter was being tidied up without incident.

“You filthy black-path brats!”

“!”

The same voice as before rang out again from within the crowd.

Not loud, but clear enough for everyone gathered on the grounds to hear.

“Who—!”

Just as Peng Yeopmyeong, furious, tried to single out the culprit—

“You glossy, preening white-path dogs! Do you want to die that badly!”

“I’ll rip that mouth of yours!”

Several Sado Union warriors could no longer hold back and rushed the Martial Alliance warriors nearest them.

The Friendly Match Grounds became a bedlam in a blink.

“Kill them! Filthy swine!”

“Fine by me! Today is your funeral!”

The unquenched embers flared swiftly into little tongues of fire.

“Stop! Stand down!”

Peng Yeopmyeong hurried to break up the fighters, but by himself he was helpless.

Already split into black and white, the warriors—full of mutual distrust and resentment—did not stop raging at each other.

“Stand down, I said! Chief Hall Lord Maeng! What are you doing! Pull your men back at once!”

Even if Peng Yeopmyeong restrained the Martial Alliance warriors, unless the Sado Union warriors stopped the brawl would not end.

But the Surochae Chief Hall Lord, Maeng Deungho, only stood behind his men and did not restrain them.

“Chief Hall Lord Maeng!”

At that moment—

[What do you think you are doing!]

A voice thundered across the grounds, resounding to the rafters.

It was Six Harmonies Voice Projection, said to be possible only for those who had reached the Flowering Realm.

At that beast-king roar that set every nerve tingling, the tangled mass of fighters froze as one.

Presently, as if on cue, all their gazes turned toward the entry of the grounds.

The Hao Sect Lord of the Sado Union and the Green Forest War King were stepping in, faces set like stone.

“I asked what you think you are doing!”

The pressure the Green Forest War King released stuffed the Friendly Match Grounds to brimming in an instant.

One of the Ten Great of the world.

A top-five powerhouse even within the Sado Union—no, said to be second only to the Sado Union Lord in sheer force. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

And the Sado Union’s real power, the Hao Sect Lord.

Under the wrath of those two, a Sado Union warrior blurted out in a panic,

“T-They insulted our Sado Union first—called us filthy black-path scum!”

Ah, hell.

Peng Yeopmyeong felt his head go swimmy.

“Is that true?”

At some point the Green Forest War King had come close and asked Peng Yeopmyeong and Tang Sangcheon.

Peng Yeopmyeong hurried to explain.

“That’s not it. There was only a small scuffle. This place is merely for a friendly match between me and the Chief Hall Lord—”

“I asked if it’s true that the Martial Alliance looked down on our Sado Union.”

“...!”

What was he supposed to say?

They had only wanted to trade a light friendly match.

How had things come to this?

Peng Yeopmyeong pressed a throbbing brow.

“...It is true. But it does not represent the will of the entire Martial Alliance. It was only one person’s voice...”

“Who.”

“...?”

“I asked who said such a thing.”

Peng Yeopmyeong could not go on.

He did not know who had sown the trouble—and even if he did, with the Green Forest War King’s killing aura like that, he felt as if the man would be slain on the spot if he named him.

“If you won’t say, I’ll take it as the will of the Martial Alliance.”

“That, it is not!”

“Is it not?”

Sliding between the Green Forest War King and Peng Yeopmyeong, the Hao Sect Lord spoke.

Peng Yeopmyeong looked at her, bewildered at her meaning.

“Filthy black path. Thieves who live by stealing what belongs to others. Pathetic wastrels. Isn’t that what you think the Sado Union is?”

“W-What are you...”

“No need to excuse yourselves—we have felt keenly what you think of us.”

Peng Yeopmyeong had no words.

When they had first proposed inviting the Sado Union, how had the elders behaved?

Hadn’t they called the Sado Union Lord the Alliance Lord’s granddaughter, then, even as they made the motion to invite them, looked down on them?

Hadn’t they gone around saying without hesitation that black-path folk could not be trusted?

There was not a single sentence of the Hao Sect Lord’s that was wrong; he knew it better than anyone, and his tongue locked.

“What about this, then?”

While that uneasy current flowed, Tang Sangcheon, who had remained off to the side, stepped forward.

“We are martial folk, are we not? And we stand now for the alliance between our Martial Alliance and the Sado Union. Let us trade friendly matches and clear this ‘misunderstanding.’”

“‘Misunderstanding,’ you say.”

A thin, bitter smile curved the Hao Sect Lord’s lips.

Tang Sangcheon looked back at her with a smiling face as well.

“If we win, it will have been a misunderstanding; if you win, it will be as you say.”

“Can you take ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) responsibility?”

“What is there we cannot take.”

“E-Elder Tang.”

Peng Yeopmyeong grabbed Tang Sangcheon’s arm in a panic.

“What is it, Clan Head Peng?”

“No matter that it’s a friendly match, it will only foment disorder and do us no good!”

“Then are you saying they should simply swallow their anger?”

Tang Sangcheon pointed at the Martial Alliance warriors who had been trading blows with the Sado Union moments earlier.

They had stopped fighting, but still bared a thick, hostile edge toward each other.

“I am not saying we should fight without end. There’s nothing to be gained by drawing more people here.”

Tang Sangcheon held up three fingers.

“Five bouts. Let victory and defeat be decided by five friendly matches. What say you?”

“Before that.”

The Green Forest War King took a step forward.

Huge to begin with, his approach doubled the oppression he radiated.

“If the Martial Alliance loses the friendly matches, you will admit you looked down on the Sado Union and issue a formal apology.”

“Of course.”

They had only meant to trade a friendly bout. In the end, it had rolled past the point of no return.

All that was left was to pray the matter did not grow any further.

To pray this did not drive the Martial Alliance and the Sado Union to the worst.

Peng Yeopmyeong closed his eyes and pressed his throbbing brow.

****

“A-Alliance Lord! It’s terrible, Alliance Lord!”

Someone pounded on the door of the Martial Alliance Lord’s quarters in a rush.

Namgoong Mucheon, already up and dressed after finishing his morning cultivation, opened the door—and a warrior, panting, cried out,

“A-at the Friendly Match Grounds, Sado Union warriors and Martial Alliance warriors h-have gotten into a quarrel...! They’re going to settle right and wrong by friendly matches...!”

For a heartbeat, Namgoong Mucheon’s face darkened.

“Who is at the grounds?”

“At first, Clan Head Peng and Elder Tang, but word just now is most of the elders are there! And on the Sado side, all except the Sado Union Lord...!”

“Was there no one who tried to stop those matches!”

“It’s that... the ones proposing the friendly matches are the high personages of the Martial Alliance and the Sado Union...”

“Who! Who proposed such matches!”

“E-Elder Tang.”

“!”

“And on the Sado side, the Green Forest War King and the Hao Sect Lord.”

The warrior bearing the news squeezed his eyes shut and bowed his head.

Tang Sangcheon, the Hao Sect Lord, and the Green Forest War King.

“Ha...! How could they...!”

Namgoong Mucheon was just as dumbfounded.

The very ones he trusted had stepped forward and made a mess.

They knew better than anyone that the Sado Union and the Martial Alliance needed to unite now of all times—how could they...!

“How could they make such a foolish choice...!”

Was this, too, because Seolhwa was not here?

Had the Sado Union been moving in the right direction only because Seolhwa was there?

Tak—

Namgoong Mucheon at once took up his sword.

“Lead the way!”

“Y-Yes!”

The two hurried toward the Friendly Match Grounds.

There, the fourth bout had just come to an end.