PWEEE—

High in the sky, a lone hawk circled.

Seolhwa and Seop Mugwang lifted their gazes to the blue.

“Snow-Hawk is here.”

“It is. I’ll step away for a moment.”

“Go.”

Leaving Seop Mugwang and Chor Yeon behind, Seolhwa led her horse toward a patch where the trees were not so dense.

When she stretched her arm up to the sky, Snow-Hawk soon descended and settled on her forearm.

Seolhwa untied the note fastened to Snow-Hawk’s leg and read it.

[Seolhwa, I’m still on Kunlun. As soon as Young Lord Tang and Miss Geum arrive, they say we’ll begin clearing the demonic beasts. I’ve got time, so for the first time in a while Master is watching my Ouyang School method.... Save me....]

“Ahaha!”

The words “save me” at the end of the letter were crooked, the look of something written by a trembling hand.

Thinking of Yu Gang half in tears as he wrote this, laughter burst out of her on its own.

‘Well, Elder Ouyang is not the sort to do anything by halves.’

Seolhwa herself had trained under him on Mount Song.

Back then she’d truly thought she might die.

He had a way of ordering the impossible as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

It made her realize anew that only by training to that extent could one reach the Realm of Heaven-Beyond-Heaven.

‘Still, the reason I could grow like this owes a great deal to Elder Ouyang and to Venerable Guangqian.’

Thanks to the two of them, her qi-sense had indeed grown sharp.

There had been no meaningless training.

Seolhwa took a small slip of paper and a brush from her bosom.

She set the paper on her palm and had just begun to write the word [Endure] when—

“!”

Seolhwa abruptly clenched her fist and crumpled the paper.

Thin smoke curled out through the fingers of her closed hand.

FLAP—

She sent the hawk winging back and returned the brush to her bosom; when she turned, Silver Moon was already standing there.

“So now you can’t even hide your presence anymore.”

Brushing her hands together, she shook off the ash and asked:

“How long are you going to keep popping up like this? If you’re going to do this, set up a contact.”

“That is dangerous. If trackers attach themselves, I can hide my own presence, but not that of a go-between.”

“In any case, this is good timing. I happened to have a favor to ask you.”

“A favor?”

“Your business first. What is it this time?”

“The rebellion was merely a prelude to weaken the imperial forces within the palace.”

Seolhwa faintly knit her brow.

“We stopped the rebellion.”

“As a result, the Imperial Army lost the Brocade Guard. The Beyond-the-Border forces know this as well.”

“...!”

Seolhwa’s face darkened.

Come to think of it, the Blood Cult had helped the rebels siphon off the Explosives.

The Blood Cult never moved unless it profited them.

‘I took it for granted the Explosives were the goal.’

Yet what she’d heard from her father through the Hao network was that those guarding the Explosives had been June, August, and October.

June, August, and October were killers of the Blood Demon, but not particularly powerful assets.

‘If the Explosives were truly the objective, they would have assigned Upper Moon or the Blood Lords.’

So the objective had not been the Explosives?

The real aim was....

“They propped up the rebels in order to weaken the Imperial Army’s strength...?”

Whether the rebellion succeeded or failed did not matter.

Whoever won, adding Explosives would enlarge the scale of the revolt and, in the end, throw the palace into turmoil.

And indeed, the palace at present was in no state to thoroughly prepare for an invasion from the Beyond-the-Border.

“The Blood Lords are on the move.”

Seolhwa’s brow twitched.

Last time it had been a warning that the Blood Lords would move; now it was that they were moving.

“Their forces are gathering to designated positions. This is a map marking those positions.”

Silver Moon handed Seolhwa a neatly folded sheet.

When she unfolded it, three red marks were drawn across various points of the Central Plains.

They pointed toward where North Sea Ice Palace and Southern Wilds Beast Palace lay, and toward Mount Hua.

“Why three?”

Had Fifth Blood Lord not yet marshaled his forces and thus was omitted?

“I could not obtain information on that Blood Lord.”

Seolhwa looked at Silver Moon in mild surprise.

Even he, who knew the Blood Cult’s internal affairs better than anyone, could not find it out?

“One thing is certain: he is moving. The Blood Demon has given the order.”

“...All right.”

Compared to the prior life, the Blood Cult’s strength had indeed waned.

Yet if they combined their power and struck at once, they were still a threat to the Central Plains.

‘So the timing of the Blood Cult Uprising is being pulled forward after all.’

In the prior life, commoners affiliated with the Blood Cult had attacked government offices, and the Blood Lords had moved in unison to annihilate the martial world’s forces—that had been the Blood Cult Uprising.

When it broke out then, the martial world had already lost more than half its strength.

It had been utter defeat for the Central Plains martial world.

‘But this life is different.’

No matter that the Blood Demon retained the memories of every life, the confrontation between the Blood Cult and the Central Plains martial world was decidedly more favorable this time.

The Uprising being pulled forward was not welcome news, but they were prepared, so she was at ease.

“Thank you for passing this on.”

Seolhwa tucked the map Silver Moon had given her into her bosom.

Knowing where they would strike, she intended to return to the Martial Alliance and draw up a plan.

“What did you wish to tell me?”

“Ah.”

Right.

Seolhwa fixed Silver Moon with a gaze gone one degree harder.

“Arrange a meeting with that woman.”

“Whom do you mean by ‘that woman’?”

“The woman who volunteered to play my maidservant when I returned to the Blood Cult.”

Realizing whom she meant, Silver Moon’s expression likewise hardened.

He, who ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) usually showed no emotion, let a rare unease slip as he spoke.

“She is dangerous. She is....”

“I know who she is. She’s the Blood Demon’s wife.”

“!”

Silver Moon’s eyes wavered.

Startled and confused, his gaze darted to and fro before he asked Seolhwa again.

“Why do you seek to meet her?”

“There is something I must say.”

“If you write it in a letter, I can—”

“No.”

Seolhwa’s gaze sank low.

The image rose of the woman who had been Yeon Hwi’s wife—

—of the woman who had taken her own life and died in a dark room.

“This is something I must say to that woman myself.”

Seolhwa’s resolve was firm.

Silver Moon still looked uneasy, but soon he let out a shallow sigh and nodded.

“Understood. I will try to arrange it.”

****

“What took you so long to get back? Did you go to the privy?”

“It’s rude to say such things to a lady.”

“Ungh....”

Seolhwa rejoined the two who had been waiting for her, and they set out again for the Martial Alliance.

Originally, she had planned to stop at the Alliance to escort the not-yet-fully-recovered Seop Mugwang, then return to the main house with Chor Yeon. It seemed, however, that going straight to the main house would not be possible.

“Chor Yeon.”

“Yes, my lady?”

“Would you be all right staying at the Martial Alliance for a while?”

Chor Yeon blinked.

“Can’t you go to the main house?”

“...It’s not that.... It just seems safer to be at the Alliance than at the main house for now.”

“Ah....”

It was not a lie.

Chor Yeon had always been a talent the Blood Cult eyed greedily.

Now that the Blood Cult was beginning to move in earnest, it was better for her to lie low somewhere as safe as possible.

“Do as she says. You won’t lose out by listening to this brat.”

“All right. I will.”

Thus the three rode for days, stopping at inns along the way, their destination the Martial Alliance.

At last, when they entered Hubei where Wuhan lay—

“Someone’s coming.”

“Yes.”

Seop Mugwang and Seolhwa reined in, sensing a presence racing toward them.

They watched the direction it approached from, tense against a possible ambush, as the presence drew near.

Moments later, several martial men burst out of the brush.

The source of the presence was Azure Dragon Division Lord Il Jirang of the Martial Alliance and his subordinates.

“Halt!”

Spotting Seop Mugwang, Il Jirang checked his men and came forward.

He saluted Seop Mugwang with clasped fists and spoke.

“We were on our way to pay our respects to the Chief Division Lord and Miss Namgoong.”

“To us? What if our paths had missed each other?”

“Strategist Zhuge told us you would likely be entering Hubei around now.”

“Hoh, that one’s like a ghost.”

Seolhwa, too, was inwardly impressed.

They had indeed stopped by a Hao branch on the way to catch up on news.

But how had they known they had come this far and sent people?

‘Extraordinary....’

“So then, why were you coming to find us? If we were left alone, we would go on our own.”

This time Il Jirang turned to Seolhwa and spoke.

“The Alliance Lord is waiting for you, Miss Namgoong. He said it is a matter of urgency—please come at once.”

“A matter of urgency?”

“I have not heard the details. Please entrust us with escorting the two of them, and go with all haste.”

Il Jirang and his warriors had been sent to take over escorting Seop Mugwang and Chor Yeon in Seolhwa’s stead.

Seolhwa looked back at Seop Mugwang.

He nodded, as if to say she should go quickly.

‘What is it?’

If he had gone so far as to send people and urge her to hurry, it truly was urgent.

Had Grandfather learned of the Blood Cult’s movements as well?

“I’ll go on ahead, Master.”

“Go. We’ll see you at the Alliance.”

“I’ll see you at the Alliance, my lady.”

TAT—

Passing her horse’s reins to Il Jirang, Seolhwa set off straight for the Martial Alliance.

After she departed, as he adjusted his grip on the reins, Il Jirang happened to glance at Seolhwa’s receding figure.

“...!”

In that instant, his eyes flared wide as lanterns.

She was racing through the air.