“I’ll step out first. Come when you’re ready.”

Gwancheon rose first and left the cave.

Yu Gang and Seolhwa looked at each other.

“I think I said something I shouldn’t.”

Yu Gang drew his brows down, an apologetic look on his face.

Seolhwa raised a hand before she knew it.

She was about to say it was fine and, without thinking, soothe him with a touch to the cheek—then stopped short, frozen mid-motion.

“Hm?”

Yu Gang tilted his head, looking at Seolhwa’s hand hovering right before his eyes.

“Why?”

He caught her hand in both of his.

Then stared up at her with bright, earnest eyes.

Ugh.

The discomfort of a heart slipping out of calm made Seolhwa scowl.

“Are you hurt somewhere?”

Seolhwa wrenched her hand free of Yu Gang’s grasp and turned her gaze aside.

It had been fine while they were run ragged dealing with demonic beasts these past few days.

Left alone together again, her heart thumped—thump, thump—noisily on cue.

Afraid he might hear it.

Every time this happened, not knowing how to look at him, Seolhwa chose to remove herself.

“I’ll go out too.”

“Ah—me too! I’m coming!”

Grabbing his pack, Yu Gang hurried after Seolhwa and slipped out of the cave.

But the two had to stop before they even stepped outside.

“...We’ve got company....”

Grrrrr—

Grrrr—

The cave’s mouth teemed with demonic beasts.

Dozens of red eyes, drowned in demonic energy, fixed on the two as they emerged.

An abnormally large pack of wolves.

“I didn’t sense them.”

More precisely, she only knew for sure once they reached the mouth.

Beasts had masked their presence—something even great masters could hardly do.

“Animal instinct?”

Predators instinctively erase their presence right before taking prey.

If not that, then the Array was at fault.

“Where is the Master?”

Seolhwa swept the surroundings.

Gwancheon’s presence was nowhere to be felt.

“Don’t tell me he’s already—”

“That won’t be it.”

From the past few days together, he was by no means weak.

His unstable Blood Channels were a major flaw, but when his state was steady, his senses were sharp and his strength matched his fame.

Not the sort to die easily.

More than that—

“This won’t be easy.”

Seolhwa’s gaze fixed on the wolf standing tall at the pack’s center.

With sleek, silver-glossed fur, it was eight times the size of the others—the alpha.

“A Numinous Being.”

No—“had been a Numinous Being” was more accurate.

Wherever it had dwelt, the qi it had amassed was considerable.

On top of that, it was adept at hiding its presence.

A presence that couldn’t be easily read would make it a troublesome foe.

“I’ll help. You take only the alpha.”

“Mm.”

Srrrng— sring—

Seolhwa and Yu Gang drew sword and saber, respectively.

Whether they sensed the pair’s battle posture or not, the wolves’ wariness deepened.

A taut line stretched a moment between the two and the wolves.

Grrrrraaa!!

The alpha bared its fangs and roared, and the wolves surged at them in unison.

At the same time—

Tak!

Yu Gang kicked off the ground and shot up.

Leaving the onrushing wolves behind, he arrowed straight for the alpha.

In an instant, Seolhwa stood ringed by a dozen wolves.

“...”

Her eyes flashed, sharp for a heartbeat—

Chwak— chwaaak—!

Yelp!

Yip!

The wolves that rushed almost simultaneously fell in order of proximity, cut down in a blink by her hand.

Without a change of expression, Seolhwa calmly dealt with the charging wolves.

Chwak—! Chwaaak!

Through the spray of blood she watched Yu Gang’s clash with the alpha.

Yu Gang was locked in a fierce standoff with the gigantic wolf, its fangs the size of his head bared.

But Seolhwa did not doubt he would defeat the alpha.

“Still, I should finish the rest quickly....”

Chaaaa—!

Six wolves remained for Seolhwa to handle.

Whining and skittering back, the six kept their distance, eyeing one another rather than charging.

Seolhwa flicked another glance toward Yu Gang and tightened her grip on her sword.

There was no time to waste here.

Tap—

She darted at the nearest wolf.

Chwaaak—!

Clang!

“One.”

Chwaaak—!

“Two.”

And the very moment she turned toward the third—

Kaaaarrrk—! Kaaark—!

Kaaaaaaarrrk—!

With a scream-like, razor cry, the sky blackened in an instant.

Kaaark—! Kaaaark—!

The sound was sheer violence.

At the crow calls that seemed to tear their eardrums, Seolhwa and Yu Gang clapped hands to their ears before they knew it.

“Crows?!”

What drifted overhead was a flock of pitch-black crows.

Judging by the strangely gleaming red eyes, they were crow-type demonic beasts.

“How troublesome.”

Crow beasts weren’t strong, but their sheer numbers were a headache.

That scream-like cry agitated the listener’s emotions, and the very sight of the black mass blanketing the sky pressed down on you.

And on top of that—

Kaaaark—!

Chwaaak—!

“They even dive in.”

Thud.

Seolhwa glanced at the carcass of ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) a crow that had dropped to the ground.

“Let’s hurry.”

Tap—

She went straight back to cutting down the wolf beasts.

Four wolves remained.

Chwak— chwaaak!

And the crows, striking at all hours without pause.

Flutter— chwaaak!

She was cleaving frantically at crows and wolves when—

Fwwip— fweeek—! fweeeek—!

Thwup—!

“!”

Three arrows, slicing the air, punched clean through the crows diving for Yu Gang.

Seolhwa turned her head toward where the arrows had come from.

A little ways off, up in a tree, Gwancheon was setting another arrow to the string.

Whsst— whiiist— whsst— whiist! whsst!

This time five arrows.

Shot in a single breath, every one of them skewered a crow in flight.

The striking thing was that—unlike when he cleared the cave of the bear beasts—these were ordinary arrows without qi infused.

Even so, they hit hard, and true.

Silently impressed, Seolhwa kept cutting down the beasts before her.

With Gwancheon’s join, the clearing of the beasts wrapped quickly.

“I climbed a tree to look around, and suddenly wolf beasts appeared. Packs are dangerous for me to handle, so I lay low and waited.”

Archers often climb trees to scout or to hide.

So that, too, wasn’t strange.

“I meant to wait it out till you finished, but then the crow beasts showed up. Looked a touch risky, so I did what I could.”

“Thanks to you, it ended smoothly. My thanks, Master.”

Yu Gang admired Gwancheon’s archery and offered thanks.

In truth, the crow beasts had dropped to Gwancheon’s arrows before they could even approach Yu Gang, so Yu Gang had faced only the wolf beasts.

“Then let’s hurry on. I’m sick of the sight of beasts.”

Seolhwa and Yu Gang agreed, and the three quickened their pace.

However weak the foe, if you kept running into them and getting held up, it wore you down.

Thanks to the hurry, the three reached the end of the Array before the sun went down.

Fortunately, they met no more beasts before they broke from the forest.

Huff—

“!”

They took a single step—and the air changed.

At the same time, a cold wind rushed at them from straight ahead.

The three stopped and looked back.

The forest, still wrapped in darkness, lay behind them.

“...At last....”

Gwancheon murmured low.

At last, they had cleared the beast-swarming range.

Flutter— a sound of wings.

Looking up at the red sky washed with sunset, they saw Seolmae gliding above their heads.

“Good thing we came.”

They had planned from the start to use the Martial Alliance’s force to hunt down the beasts.

But all they’d known was that there were beasts in this region; they’d had no idea about the Array or the animal jiangshi.

Thinking it fortunate that they’d gotten so much information this time, Seolhwa turned back to the other two.

“Our company ends here.”

They had reached the Hundred-Thousand Mountains; there would be no more threat of beasts.

From what Seolhwa had seen of Gwancheon, he would have no trouble moving alone from here.

As if he knew it, Gwancheon nodded with a deep smile.

“My thanks. Thanks to you two, I finally made it this far. Only....”

Gwancheon drew a great breath and looked around.

Perhaps because they were near the beast-teeming woods, there was nothing around.

“The sun’s going down. Looks like we’ll have to sleep rough one more night. Would you share the last night with me? I’ll treat you to something good.”

Gwancheon pulled something from his belt and gave it a shake.

A rabbit dangled from his hem—who knew when he’d caught it.

“I nabbed it the moment I saw it. It wasn’t a beast, so don’t worry.”

Gwancheon chuckled, heh-heh.

As he said, the sun was setting and they would have to camp nearby, so Yu Gang and Seolhwa accepted Gwancheon’s offer.

Gwancheon’s roasted rabbit was excellent.

They’d eaten nothing but dried jerky and rice balls through the woods; a fire-roasted, warm piece of meat was nothing short of splendid.

After supper, the three brewed tea and enjoyed a brief respite for the first time in a while.

Perhaps it was the warmth of the fire.

Perhaps the work of dealing with beasts had tired them out.

Chatting idly, Yu Gang began to nod off, then at some point slumped gently over beside Seolhwa and fell asleep.

Naturally catching Yu Gang’s cup before it spilled as he sagged, Seolhwa set his cup and hers side by side.

Then she rolled a cloth into a round and tucked it beneath his head, and looked to Gwancheon.

“Shall we have the proper talk now?”

Gwancheon’s lips, as he regarded Seolhwa, curved gently.

“Well now—seems I underestimated you. I thought it a rather potent sleeping poison.”