The metallic stench filled the space, thick enough to choke on. Corpses—killed in a single blow—were strewn all over.

Blood slowly seeped into the wooden floor.

A grotesque, warped scene. In the middle of it, Yeo Hyeok’s expression had rotted to the core.

“...This is....”

Was it because the feast of corpses was disgusting? No. That wasn’t it. Yeo Hyeok was a martial artist too—one of the kind of people who could soar and rampage across the Central Plains.

There was no way someone like that couldn’t handle a sight like this.

This was purely—

‘Anger that Shaanxi is this ruined.’

Yeo Hyeok couldn’t help but wonder how HEAVEN-BREAKING PALACE spies had managed to burrow in this deep.

And on top of that—

“Talk—!”

That delayed fury was part of it too.

Yeo Hyeok suddenly seized the surviving man by the collar.

“Where did you send my senior brothers?”

“Ghhk....”

Rage blazed in Yeo Hyeok’s eyes.

“Talk!”

“Ghk—!”

Yeo Hyeok squeezed like he meant to kill, and the man writhed in pain.

“...Instructor. If you grab him like that, you won’t hear anything even if he tries to talk.”

“...Tch....”

I got it. He’d lost control. But at this rate, nobody was hearing anything.

At my remark, Yeo Hyeok finally loosened his grip.

“Cough...! Cough—!”

Maybe it had hurt that badly. The bastard hacked out a dry cough.

But then—

“...Damn righteous-faction bastards... heh... hehehe.”

He opened his mouth with eyes full of madness, and the sound of it was just... rotten.

“Even if I don’t know how you figured it out—”

SMACK—!

I didn’t listen. I slapped him first.

“Ghk!?”

“...Moon Knight...!?”

Yeo Hyeok’s eyes widened at what I did. The bastard’s head snapped sideways, and I spoke while staring at him.

“Only talk when you’re answering. Don’t make my ears ring.”

Then I stepped closer and met his gaze.

“What were you doing here?”

At the calm question, the man—cheek turning red—spoke.

“...Like I said earlier, I don’t feel like telling—”

“What’s HEAVEN-BREAKING PALACE’s goal?”

“I’m not saying that either—”

“I heard you kidnapped the Plum Blossom Swordsmen. Where did you take them?”

“.......”

I didn’t wait for answers. I just kept asking.

The bastard who’d sworn he wouldn’t talk looked confused by what I was doing.

“Moon Knight...?”

Yeo Hyeok reacted the same way, like he couldn’t understand me.

Didn’t matter.

“What the hell are you doing...?”

The man demanded. I heard it and smiled.

“Ah. Don’t worry about it. I’m not asking because I expect an answer.”

“What...?”

“Just remember it.”

Yeah. Just remember.

“What I asked. Remember it—every single word. Even if you’re not answering right now, you’ll have to someday.”

“...What are you talking about? No matter what tricks you try, I won’t answer...!”

“Do whatever you want.”

He wouldn’t answer? Fine. Let him.

I didn’t care.

“Instructor. Do whatever you want with the rest.”

“.......”

When I stepped aside, Yeo Hyeok moved. It looked like Yeo Hyeok was about to approach again and do something that was basically torture.

“Krhehehehe!!”

The bastard laughed the moment Yeo Hyeok came at him.

“Worms like you... you think you’re justice, don’t you...?”

Those greasy eyes were packed with disgusting desire. The kind of desire that made me want to look away.

“...Don’t act arrogant. You aren’t justice. You’re just filthy things that got lucky and stole the era—!”

Veins bulged on his neck as he shouted.

Then—

“You won’t be able to do anything. And you won’t get anything.”

TSSSSSS—!!

Black smoke began to rise from the man who’d been spitting out those words. Yeo Hyeok narrowed his eyes at it.

Like something was wrong.

“What are you doing!”

“Everything... for the heavens.” 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Yeo Hyeok tried to lunge—

“Ghhh...!!”

—but a foul stench burst out of the man along with a surge of energy.

TUK.

And his head dropped, just like that. Yeo Hyeok reached him around then.

Yeo Hyeok hurriedly pressed fingers to the man’s neck.

“...He’s dead.”

The man’s lifeline had already been severed.

“...Did he bite down on poison?”

Yeo Hyeok pried the dead man’s mouth open to check.

“.......”

Judging by that reaction, it didn’t look like poison.

While Yeo Hyeok checked the corpse from different angles, I stared with hardened eyes above the bastard’s head.

‘The Primordial Life Force itself got cut.’

Life force.

It had been forcibly severed, and that led straight to death.

‘...It’s like ignoring the spirit-sickness and dying on the spot.’

Cases where someone endured without “taking in” a god and died.

It looked similar.

Except—

‘This feels artificial.’

There was an unknown, unnatural wrongness baked into that entire process.

That death wasn’t poison.

Suicide? Was it really a choice the bastard made?

I didn’t know. Not just by looking.

So—

‘I’ll have to ask.’

If I didn’t know, I asked.

That was the plan.

[What, exactly, have you been trying to do this whole time?]

Yoo Cheongil asked, unable to understand me. I ignored him.

Then—

SSSSSHHH—!!

A flow of spirit-qi poured out of the dead man’s body, just like before.

It looked like the shape of a malicious ghost.

And not long after, it looked like it was about to erase itself too.

GRAB—!

I caught the thing in my hand just as it was about to vanish.

“...Huh?”

Yoo Cheongil’s voice went stupidly blank.

He was shocked I’d grabbed a ghost with my bare hand.

[Kid. You—?]

I looked away from that disbelieving stare. Now wasn’t the time to ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) answer an old man’s questions.

CLICK.

A sound came from inside me.

KIIIIIIING—!

When I loosened the bound ring, tiny gears began to turn.

So faint you could barely feel it.

The malicious ghost reacted, panicked, but I didn’t even glance over.

A moment later—

GUUOOOAAAAHHH—!!!

The bastard suddenly got sucked into me.

That slick, filthy sensation made me clamp down on my gag reflex. Damn. It had been a while—this was really impossible to stomach.

‘Ugh.’

I swallowed it back down.

“...Damn it... this... huh? Moon Knight. Are you all right?”

Yeo Hyeok—still staring blankly at the dead man—looked at me with worry. Probably because my expression had gotten awful.

“...I’m fine.”

“...I’m sorry. I should’ve stopped him from killing himself.”

Yeo Hyeok thought my expression was because of that.

“It’s not your fault, Instructor.”

How was anyone supposed to stop someone whose life force got severed like that?

It really wasn’t Yeo Hyeok’s fault.

And—

‘Either way, I got what I needed.’

The disgust squirmed inside me. I felt it settle fully into place, and I furrowed my brow.

THUD—!

A sound came from behind. I turned my head.

It was the Small Moon Unit Leader.

Back already.

With two severed heads in hand.

“Failed to capture them alive.”

His tone was laced with irritation. The look of it said the other side hadn’t had it any easier than we did.

‘We lost them.’

I frowned at the heads the Small Moon Unit Leader brought back.

Over there, the moment they died, they erased themselves—spirit-qi completely snuffed out.

“Good work.”

It couldn’t be helped. Two got away, but it didn’t matter.

‘I already secured one.’

I’d secured what mattered.

With that thought, I turned my back.

‘Plum Blossom Commander should be here soon.’

After showing this kind of mess, Mount Hua Sect wouldn’t take long to arrive.

And right as I thought it—

“...What happened here!”

Plum Blossom Commander landed in front of the inn.

Like he’d been waiting for the cue.

*****

The inn incident threw everything into chaos. How could it not?

Blood had swept through the inn, and dozens had died.

Worse, word spread that unorthodox types had infiltrated the inn while hiding identity.

And the story spread with it—that Mount Hua Sect’s Plum Blossom Upright Sword and the Moon Knight had handled it.

The fact this had happened in Shaanxi, where Mount Hua Sect kept the peace—

and the fact there’d almost been an ambush in broad daylight—

made the county’s previously warm atmosphere freeze over in an instant.

That night at Mount Hua Sect—

“...I... I don’t know anything...!”

A man shouted inside a prepared cell.

The child’s father—the one who’d tried the daytime ambush.

“You try an ambush and then claim you don’t know anything. Does that sound like something anyone would believe?”

“...B-But... but really...!”

The man insisted he was wronged.

“I can’t remember...! How could I do something like that to you heroes...?!”

The tone was desperate, and it even looked sincere.

We’d knocked the man out during the day, brought him in, and tried to begin interrogation, but it stayed like this.

Nobody trusted it. Who trusted a spy’s words that easily?

But—

‘What is this?’

I had to frown as I stared at him.

In a dark space, someone half-kneeled and reported to a superior.

“The inn was raided.”

At the flat report, the superior’s eyes rolled lazily.

There wasn’t a single light in the room, yet for some reason, those eyes alone were vivid.

“Hm.”

A low voice filled the small room.

“Inn. Where.”

“...One we placed in Shaanxi.”

“Shaanxi... Shaanxi means...”

The figure tilted the head slightly.

“That would be Strange Demon’s assignment.”

The speaker frowned, recalling that repulsive face.

“That’s right.”

“Something happened where that bastard is?”

A grin.

Yellow teeth lined up neatly as they showed.

“That doesn’t make sense. Did Jegal Jin step in?”

Even if the speaker hated Jegal Jin, there was one thing the speaker admitted—Jegal Jin had a brain.

Something happened where that kind of bastard was? Ridiculous.

“Then there are only two possibilities....”

CREEEEAK—

The man rose from a crouch.

With that massive frame, the room felt even smaller.

“Either someone showed up who’s strong enough to startle Strange Demon.”

Or—

“Strange Demon betrayed us.”

The man pictured the possibilities and chuckled.

Either way—

“I should go.”

It looked like something the man had to handle personally.

THUD—!

A rough sound echoed as the man stepped forward.

Hearing it, a subordinate asked,

“...Commander... then what about the Plum Blossoms we brought in?”

“Ah. That.”

The man answered,

“Dispose of them. We don’t need them anymore.”

We’d gotten all we needed. There was no reason to keep them.

“Understood.”

The subordinate lowered the head. The man started walking again.

On the way out, the man grabbed something waiting outside.

KUUUUK—!

A massive saber—worthy of that massive body—slung across the man’s back.

“Been a while since I’ve gone out.”

With a pleased expression, the man murmured,

“Everything... for the heavens.”

A habit-spoken line.

And so the man—

one of the Eight Demonic Ones,

the Grand Demon,

began moving toward Shaanxi with a purpose.

‘...There’s no aura.’

The HEAVEN-BREAKING PALACE aura that had wrapped around him was gone.

Like it had never been there.

*****