Dark-red qi crashed toward him from straight ahead.

In that instant, Yu Gang felt a far-off sensation, as if death were drawing right up before his eyes.

TAK—

By instinct, Yu Gang shoved away Yu Pyo, who had been supporting him.

SWEEEEEEESH-!

At that moment, a massive green qi surged toward the dark-red qi from Yu Gang’s right.

But Yu Gang’s gaze was not on that green qi, nor on the dark-red qi engulfing him.

It was fixed instead beyond that, on his master, rushing toward him in desperation—

On Ouyang Do.

“Mas... ter....”

“!!!”

He saw Ouyang Do shouting something.

But before that voice could even reach him—

THUD—

The dark-red qi slammed into Yu Gang’s chest.

Yu Gang’s body was flung back, and his field of vision was swallowed by darkness.

****

SCRRRAAPE—

Green qi that had appeared from nowhere sliced off O Blood Lord’s red left arm.

At the same time, Ouyang Do’s cleaving strike cut both of O Blood Lord’s legs below the shins.

SHRAAAAK-!

Having cut O Blood Lord’s legs, Ouyang Do immediately dropped back into stance.

Even with his arms and legs severed, his recovery was so fast that Ouyang Do moved in expectation that they would soon grow back.

But—

SHRAAAAK—

“!”

In that instant, the Blood Demon’s qi that had been pouring out of O Blood Lord’s body rushed out all at once through the red arm that had struck Yu Gang.

With his left arm and both legs severed, O Blood Lord’s body no longer regenerated, and he toppled and rolled across the ground with a strangely empty, powerless collapse.

The dark-red qi that had been whipping his body likewise dispersed in an instant as if fog were scattering.

THUD—

The remaining torso only came to a stop when it smacked into the thick trunk of a tree.

SPLAT—

“...”

Even after O Blood Lord lost consciousness, Ouyang Do did not let go of his tension.

For a short while that taut strain continued.

TAP—

Once he had confirmed that there was no movement at all, Ouyang Do immediately ran to Yu Gang.

Yu Gang, unconscious, was in Yu Pyo’s arms.

“Yu Gang! Gang!! Wake up! Gang!!”

Yu Pyo cried out, calling Yu Gang’s name, but Yu Gang gave no response at all.

At the sight of Yu Gang like that, Ouyang Do’s face darkened in an instant.

Yu Gang’s neck area was stained a deep violet, as if all the capillaries there had burst.

Ouyang Do recognized it.

It was the Blood Demon’s qi that had been eroding Nomon up until a short while ago.

“E-Elder! G-Gang! This, th-this, this is...!”

Yu Pyo’s hands flailed helplessly beside Yu Gang’s head.

He too had realized that the qi clinging to Yu Gang was the same qi he had felt from Nomon.

But what in the world was he supposed to do?

Was it something he could even touch lightly?

Unable to do this or that, Yu Pyo looked up at Ouyang Do.

WHOOSH—

Ouyang Do moved his saber in a flash.

Where his saber stopped, a man was suddenly standing.

“!”

Yu Pyo did not show it on his face, but he was so startled in that instant that his breath nearly stopped.

He had not sensed so much as a trace of the man’s presence until he was right at arm’s length.

“It is I, Elder.”

The man took off the deeply pulled-down bamboo hat and bowed his head toward Ouyang Do.

He was one of the Ten Masters of the world.

“This is Baekyeong.”

It was Baekyeong, White Shadow Gwancheon, Lord of No-Trace Unit of Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

With his bamboo hat removed, Baekyeong faced Ouyang Do.

“!”

Yu Pyo stared at him in shock.

Baekyeong? This man is that famous Divine Archer, Baekyeong!

Come to think of it, the qi that had suddenly cut off O Blood Lord’s arm just moments ago had been green.

Green was the color that symbolized Baekyeong’s qi.

But how could someone who vanished without a trace over ten years ago just appear like this and attack O Blood Lord?

No—more than that...

Why isn’t Elder Ouyang Do lowering his saber even after realizing he’s Baekyeong?

Yu Pyo looked back and forth between the two men, who still faced each other in a standoff.

Ouyang Do held his saber pointed at Baekyeong’s nape, his thin gaze fixed on him as if weighing something.

SSSS....

For a moment, suffocating, taut tension filled the air.

At last, Ouyang Do opened his mouth.

“You are not Baekyeong.”

“!”

“I may not have that deep a friendship with the man, but I am not so old that I can’t recognize his qi.”

“...”

“I will ask you once more. Who are you? Why did you attack that man?”

At Ouyang Do’s question, another short silence fell.

Baekyeong gave a sidelong glance toward the collapsed Yu Gang.

Then he let out a low breath and began tearing away the leather that had been concealing his true face.

As the Human-Skin Mask peeled away and his real face was revealed, Ouyang Do’s and Yu Pyo’s expressions hardened.

A long, hideous sword-scar ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ cut across his face.

It was a scar so deep one would wonder how he had even survived it, carving across his features.

“You are...”

“I am Sama Cheon. We’ve met.”

Ouyang Do knew the man.

The Heaven-Beyond-Heaven expert he had once run into by chance while in seclusion at Mount Hua.

They said a beast recognized another beast.

At the time, when the two of them had discovered each other, they had spent a long while simply gazing at one another as if probing.

Then, as if by mutual agreement, they had turned away.

There had been no reason to fight, and they had both decided there was nothing to gain by provoking the other.

But there was something Ouyang Do had not known.

At that time, Sama Cheon had sought him out in order to probe his Realm.

“Now that I’ve revealed my identity, put your saber away. Unless you feel like killing your own disciple.”

“...”

Ouyang Do’s expression tightened.

He too gave a brief glance toward Yu Gang.

Though Yu Gang breathed quietly as if asleep, the dark-violet qi that had stained his neck had already climbed up to the underside of his jaw.

The Blood Demon’s qi.

And Yu Gang had fallen unconscious from a cause they did not know.

“...Is there a way?”

“I will know better than you do.”

“...”

Ouyang Do finally lowered his saber.

It made him deeply uneasy to entrust his disciple to a man he could not fully trust, but Ouyang Do’s instincts were telling him—

There was nothing good to be gained by wasting time.

As Ouyang Do stepped aside, Sama Cheon immediately walked up to Yu Gang.

Without hesitation, he ripped open Yu Gang’s clothing with a tearing sound, and the state hidden under his clothes was laid bare.

“GASP.” Yu Pyo drew in a breath.

The dark-violet qi had spread not only over Yu Gang’s neck but also over his chest.

TAP- TATAP, TAP!

After checking Yu Gang’s condition, Sama Cheon rolled up his sleeves at once and began pressing along his Blood Channels.

As Yu Gang, who had his eyes closed as if in deep sleep, flinched and furrowed his brow, Ouyang Do also flinched and clenched his fists.

Once he finished pressing all the Blood Channels, Sama Cheon next took Yu Gang’s pulse and then pulled out needles from his robe and began inserting them into various points on Yu Gang’s body.

From time to time, his hand trembled, and he took deep breaths with the needle in his grip as he continued his acupuncture. Before long, beads of sweat began to form on his forehead.

After some time had passed like that—

Sama Cheon straightened his posture and, with trembling hands, took out a paper-wrapped cigarette from his robe and placed it between his lips.

When he rubbed the tip of the cigarette with his fingertips, a long thread of smoke soon rose from the end.

Smelling that smoke, Ouyang Do faintly furrowed his brow.

“...Paralyzing poisonous herb.”

“I have my reasons. Let it pass.”

“I did not say anything of it. More importantly, what is the boy’s condition?”

“For now, he’s passed the crisis. But his life is still in danger.”

At Sama Cheon’s words, Ouyang Do’s expression hardened.

Listening beside them, Yu Pyo also asked again, his face gone pale.

“His life is in danger? D-Do you mean he could die?”

“What else would it mean?”

Sama Cheon pointed at Yu Gang’s blackened chest.

“This is the Blood Demon’s qi. The Blood Demon deliberately shoved it into this kid’s body. All I did was slow the speed at which the qi is spreading. Whether he overcomes this qi or not is up to him.”

But who in the world could easily overcome the Blood Demon’s qi?

All he had really done was delay the time remaining. In truth, this child was as good as dead.

But Sama Cheon swallowed the rest of those words.

“It would be best to entrust him to the finest physician possible.”

“Namgoong has the Immortal Physician.”

RUSTLE—

At the sudden answer, all three of them turned their heads in the same direction.

None of them were surprised; they had already sensed the presence approaching.

The Sect Leader and elders of Mount Hua who had fled, the hall lords, the first-generation disciples, and even the Martial Alliance martial artists—

The one leading them all was none other than Alliance Lord Namgoong Mucheon.

Namgoong Mucheon looked down at Yu Gang, who lay with eyes closed as if asleep.

Complex emotion flickered in his gaze.

“This child...”

Just then—

The eyes of Namgoong Mucheon, Ouyang Do, and Sama Cheon all turned in the same direction.

It was the direction where O Blood Lord Nomon, whose arms and legs had been severed and hacked off just now, had fallen.

SHHH—

Nomon was staggering as he pushed his body upright.

But his condition posed not the slightest threat to those gathered, so everyone silently watched his movements as if by prior agreement.

“...Ugh....”

Using his remaining right arm to brace on the ground and a tree, Nomon barely managed to rise.

With his severed arm and legs still not regenerated, he remained with his knees pressed to the earth.

SHHH—

He lifted his head.

Those watching him couldn’t help but scrunch up their faces.

Black, rotting skin and marks everywhere as if chunks of flesh had been gouged out.

Eyes bloodshot, every vein burst, and a torn wound splitting his face.

There was hardly a single place one could call intact—aside from the right hand that had never been eroded by the qi from the beginning, Nomon’s appearance was utterly ruined.

Struggling to raise that ruined body, Nomon slowly rolled his bloodshot eyes and looked around.

The former brothers and disciples of Mount Hua.

The seniors of the martial world he had once respected.

And at last, his gaze settled on Yu Gang, lying among them.

“...”

SSEK— SSSEK—

He saw the needles lodged in Yu Gang’s body, and the dark-violet qi staining his chest and neck.

SSEK— SSSEK—

Panting through strained breaths, Nomon stared at it in silence.

Then, at last—

KAGAK....

“...!”

Nomon stretched out his right hand and picked up the sword that had fallen beside him.

Strength also surged for a moment into the hand that held Ouyang Do’s saber.

But in the next instant—

SHRAK-!

“...!”

“!”

Everyone, Ouyang Do included, was stunned.

Nomon had cut his own throat.

KA-GANG... THUD-!

The arm holding the sword lost its strength and dropped with a limp thud, and his body tilted and then collapsed where he knelt.

Before the eyes of the senior brothers and disciples of Mount Hua, whom he had hated so fiercely, he took his own life.

For some time, those who watched that scene could not speak.

For the death of the swordsman who had once been Mount Hua’s pride and was called Mount Hua’s foremost sword, it was a truly hollow and miserable end.

“...We should hurry and move this child to Namgoong.”

The one who broke the heavy silence was Namgoong Mucheon.

At his words, the Martial Alliance martial artists and Mount Hua Sect disciples began to move one by one, and soon the situation started to come under control.

“Are you the one from the Demonic side that Seolhwa mentioned?”

Sama Cheon, who had been checking Yu Gang’s state as he was being moved, turned to Namgoong Mucheon.

“That’s right.”

“Can you keep an eye on the boy’s condition while we’re on our way to Namgoong?”

Sama Cheon nodded.

Yu Gang was placed in a carriage by the martial artists of Namgoong Clan.

As Sama Cheon picked up his bamboo hat to follow after them—

CAAW- CAAAW- CAAAW—

Somewhere, the sound of crows crying rang out.

For a brief moment, Sama Cheon’s gaze turned toward the direction the sound came from.

Then he pulled the bamboo hat low over his face and quietly followed the group heading toward Namgoong Clan.