Several days from the Anhui Branch to Henan.

In that time, I cut my sleep to do the old man’s assignments, and I lived with my head in a vice.

For one reason.

I need an excuse.

The situation I would inevitably face once I reached Henan.

How did I become the Sword Saint’s successor— I had to craft an answer to that.

Naturally, I couldn’t brazenly say I can see ghosts... and besides—

One of them could be in this room.

Yoo Cheongil, the incident tangled with that damned old man’s death.

At this point I still didn’t know who was behind it.

Also—

The one who fed Cheon Eujin information.

The bastard who leaked that Yoo Cheongil’s beloved blade was in Henan.

Chances are high he’s among these people.

If so, I had to judge everyone here as an enemy.

I don’t know who’s an ally. I’m not even sure there are any allies at all.

In that situation, what I could say was limited.

So what to do? The fix was simple.

Lie from start to finish.

If they couldn’t be trusted, this was the only proper way to move.

For that, I spent days and nights splicing the story with the old man.

And the story we squeezed out was this—

“...You found a book inside a cave?”

“That’s right.”

In moments like this, don’t make it complicated. Pick the most common tale.

“When I was young, I once tumbled off a cliff. There was a cave inside that cliff I fell into.”

“In that place... you’re saying something that man left behind was there?”

“Exactly.”

It’s a story you hear anywhere. At death’s door, you stumble on a former master’s trace.

You receive his intent and martial arts and become his successor.

Absurd—yet nothing sells better than this.

But—

“Utter nonsense.”

One of the old men nearby pinched his brow and spoke to me.

“How could the traces of a former Sect Master be found in Liaoning of all places? I cannot believe it.”

A reasonable point and suspicion. True. The notion that his traces lay in Liaoning made no sense... but—

“Then how does it make sense that that saber was discovered in Anhui?”

I had my say as well.

Given that the great saber called Full Moon suddenly turned up in Anhui, no matter how senseless my claim, it wasn’t something they could just dismiss.

Along with that—

Four.

I watched for anyone nearby whose reaction rang off—averted eyes, a forced cough, anything faintly odd.

“Set the saber aside. Moonlight was found in Anhui, so the former Sect Master’s traces could be in Liaoning as well? You’re dragging in another matter to muddy the waters. What matters, Young Master Bang, is that your story makes no sense.”

At his words I looked at ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) him quietly and asked,

“What is your name?”

“...What?”

The old man’s whiskers trembled, put out by my question.

“I’d like to address you, but I don’t know your office or name, so I asked first. If that offends, I apologize.”

“...Hm. I am Seong Seok of the Mun line. I serve as an elder—”

“Ah, so you are the senior known as the Heaven’s Shadow Sword. My apologies that a junior failed to recognize a great senior.”

“Hm...”

The corners of the old man’s mouth lifted a hair. Being recognized pleased him.

Of course I’d recognize you. I memorized all the names even if I didn’t know the faces.

Before I set out, I memorized wholesale the names and epithets of the Blue Moon Sect’s elders and other high personages.

“Then, Elder Mun, what is the reason you cannot believe me?”

Perhaps because I had recognized him, the Heaven’s Shadow Sword’s voice felt a touch more lenient.

“The first and greatest reason is what I said—Liaoning has nothing to do with the former Sect Master. The second is...”

He hesitated, then added,

“By nature, he is not someone who would leave such a thing behind.”

Heads nodded around us.

“Oh...”

Even I had to admit, for a moment, it was persuasive. That old man didn’t seem the sort to leave something like that.

[ ...For some reason I feel profoundly screwed.]

Before the quick-witted vile spirit could blow his top, I spoke fast.

“If that is how you see it, Elder, it may well be so. I have never met him, so I cannot speak to his nature...”

There was a gaping hole in that logic, though.

“I did inherit his true transmission.”

“How would we—”

“My eyes and the internal art in my body are the proof.”

“...”

The Heaven’s Shadow Sword closed his mouth at that.

Yoo Cheongil had nothing to do with Liaoning? Yoo Cheongil’s temperament?

Even if they picked it apart and none of them could believe it—

In the end, I had only one thing to say.

“The book contained everything he left. The process for cultivating the Blue Moon Heart Art, and even the opening forms of the martial techniques you can unfold with it. Everything was written.”

“Huh.”

“Impossible...”

What if they still didn’t believe it. However unbelievable—my body was the proof.

At that point, I only needed to force it through.

I read it and learned it. You’re looking at it.

Are you saying my Moon Eyes are fake?

With that intent in my words, everyone around me fell silent.

Then—

“Then.”

The one person who had been quiet until now, the current Sect Master, the Moonlit Sword Cheon Seonghwa, spoke.

With his characteristically cool eyes on me, he asked,

“Where is that book now?”

Where is the book you found—right now.

The answer to that was also prearranged.

“I memorized it all and burned it per my master’s will.”

“...What!?”

“You burned something so precious!?”

So I destroyed it— and the reaction was fierce. A moment ago they were incensed because they couldn’t believe; now they were angry in a different way.

“No, how could you burn something so—”

“I cannot understand it.”

The mood cooled in an instant at the Sect Master’s interjection.

“I cannot understand it, nor can I readily believe it.”

In that firm yet even tone, I looked at the Moonlit Sword.

His eyes were looking straight into me.

Wow. Crushing.

I might puke.

Just being under his gaze made cold sweat rise. What was this pressure? It felt like my body would be seized bit by bit until I couldn’t breathe.

[You let your inner energy leak into the air. Get a hold of yourself.]

At the old man’s words, I finally recognized it.

Right. This is the atmospheric pressure a master scatters.

So foul and heavy.

I could feel, plain as day, the will to dominate the opponent somehow.

Damn it.

I glared and held on. I could not fold here.

Forcing myself, again and again, I clung to my wits and endured—

[Hah. You crazy brat.]

Yoo Cheongil let out a laugh, as if dumbfounded.

[You’re tanking this on willpower? In this respect you’re a tough one.]

What’s there I can’t tank.

I did feel like dying, but it was tolerable in its way.

“...What is it you cannot believe?”

Steadying my trembling voice, I asked, and a different glint came into the Moonlit Sword’s eyes.

Just then, I felt my body ease a fraction.

“If it was left only as a book, at best you gleaned a set of verses.”

“That’s right.”

“Were the verses and explanations within... by any chance, precise?”

An unexpected question. Even so, I didn’t hesitate.

“No. They were a mess. I’ve never seen anything that shoddy.”

[ ...This little—?]

Yoo Cheongil ground his teeth with a nasty sound, but thankfully the reaction in the room was good.

I thought perhaps my words had put a sliver of belief into them.

...If he agrees they were a mess, what kind of life has this old man lived?

The curiosity flickered up, but that wasn’t what mattered now.

“Then you mean we are to accept that, from those botched lines, you not only cultivated the internal art but also opened the Moon Eyes?”

Ah.

Only then, hearing the Moonlit Sword, did I grasp what stuck in this man’s craw.

[Tsk, tsk.]

The old man chuckled in that insufferable way. It put me in a foul mood.

The reason he laughed like that was simple.

He nailed it.

His guess had hit. That’s what it meant.

In fact, this was precisely what Yoo Cheongil had anticipated— and moreover—

“...And what is the problem with that?”

He had also given me the way through.

The problem—

“Because it is not something that should be so easily possible.”

—was whether that way would truly work.

Doubt sprouted; disbelief bred unease, but we’d already agreed. It was too late to think of something else.

I recalled it.

It’s nothing. Just make your face look as baffled as possible.

The plan Yoo Cheongil and I had put together.

...A baffled face?

Yes. As if you cannot understand a single damned word of the nonsense he’s spouting. That kind of face.

What kind is that.

You know, the one you pull so well. That’s your baseline expression anyway, so lean into it.

That’s an insult, right? You just insulted me, didn’t you?

It was a weird thing to say, but Yoo Cheongil’s eyes were dead serious.

So I decided to try it.

With the most baffled face I could muster—

“Pardon?”

I looked at the Moonlit Sword and said,

“...Why wouldn’t I be able to? Sect Master, are you unable to?”

The mood flipped in an instant.

You couldn’t hear a single breath. It was as if they were holding even that.

The unpleasant silence stretched on and on, and then—

“Hah.”

The Moonlit Sword suddenly burst out laughing.

“Hahahaha—!”

Loud, too.

“Ha... hahahahaha—!!”

He’s crazy. I think I’m screwed.

Am I going to die like this? It wasn’t a normal laugh. The tension ratcheted up by the heartbeat.

What do I do?

Did I provoke him? I can’t die like this, so is there a gap to bolt through? I was cautiously checking that when—

“...Ha... I see. If that is so, then it could be so.”

What is so? I wanted to ask, but I was too rattled to open my mouth.

Then—

“Very well... in that case, Young Master Bang...”

“Y-yes?”

The Moonlit Sword asked me,

“If you are so confident— can you prove it?”

“...Pardon?”

Suddenly? I thought he’d dig further; instead he jumped straight to prove it.

For a moment I was taken aback, but that didn’t mean I hadn’t prepared an answer.

“I do not know what sort of proof you desire...”

I drew a breath and met the Moonlit Sword’s eyes.

“If you wish, as much as you like.”

A smile touched the lips of the Moonlit Sword watching me.

What I felt in that smile was an indefinable chill.

That smile unsettled me, but I wasn’t overly worried.

Because—

I have a vile spirit on my side.

His temper is rotten, but in this lane he has methods I can use. So even when a situation like this pinned me, I didn’t have to worry.

[Hmm?]

Only—

[I’m not going to help.]

...What?

I did not see that coming.