Someone had shown up in the vault?

At Yoo Cheongil’s words, my eyes widened.

Was there anyone who could even come here?

I swallowed dryly.

At the same time, I hurried to hide myself.

My eyes shifted.

I checked the escape routes.

There was one nearby.

Every vault had an exit, which meant I could leave whenever I wanted.

But—

Who is it?

For the moment, I chose to stay here.

WOOOOONG.

I wrapped energy around my body.

To erase my presence.

It was a method Yoo Cheongil had taught me before.

With my body wrapped in energy, I pressed myself flat against the wall.

The door is shut.

First of all, the vault I was in had its door closed.

The previous vault was the same.

As I confirmed that, I recalled something I had seen before.

He said there were signs that someone had intruded into the vault.

Yoo Cheongil’s snack vault.

Ridiculous as the name was, what it held inside had immense value.

The divine pill alone was proof enough.

Remembering that I had awakened Moon Eyes by absorbing it made that even clearer.

Back then, Yoo Cheongil had said—

someone had entered through the first entrance.

Someone who knew this vault existed.

Someone had come in and tried to search through it.

Could it be...

that person?

I held my breath.

I wanted to confirm it, but—

I can’t exactly open the vault door from here.

The vaults I had already passed through were sealed shut, so I could not open them.

Which meant all I could do was stand here with my presence suppressed.

Who is it?

I was curious.

Who exactly had wanted to search this vault?

And also—

if that person...

had anything to do with Yoo Cheongil’s death.

That was what I most wanted to know.

One of the things I had to deal with was finding whoever had been involved in Yoo Cheongil’s death.

It’d be nice if it were one of the people on the list.

The list I had drawn up after my earlier investigation.

If it was someone from that list, things would get a lot easier.

Sss.

I gradually lowered my breathing.

Wall after wall after wall separated us, so I doubted the sound of breathing would carry that far.

Still.

It was worth being careful.

This was Blue Moon Sect, after all.

A place crawling with monsters.

Other sects might be like that too, but Blue Moon Sect had an especially strong feel of it.

A place where the strong were measured only against the strong.

Since the sect master of Blue Moon Sect was always the strongest martial artist in the sect, it went without saying the others would be strong too.

So first I stay hidden...

Then I needed to identify whoever it was.

I slowly started moving.

My destination was the first vault.

Keeping my focus on hiding my aura, I advanced little by little.

Click.

Click.

The sound grew louder.

Which meant someone really was there.

The problem was—

The second door is closed.

The door leading from the first vault into the second was shut.

To go any farther, I would have to open it.

And since there’s someone on the other side, I can’t do that.

If I opened it carelessly, I would expose the fact that I was here.

The good thing is...

because the door was closed, there was a chance they didn’t know I had entered.

That part was fortunate.

But—

How the hell am I supposed to confirm who it is from here?

How was I supposed to identify whatever was on the other side of this wall?

That was the biggest problem.

Hm.

I thought it over.

How could I see?

While I was testing possibilities—

[If you cannot see with your eyes, try confirming it with energy.]

Yoo Cheongil offered a piece of advice.

...With energy?

What did he mean by that?

I thought on it for a moment.

Ah.

I felt like I got it.

Just in case, I put strength into my eyes.

Moon Eyes, which had already been active, shifted, and Moon Immortal Sword’s Path unfolded.

In that instant, something appeared beyond the wall where nothing had been visible before.

...This is.

It was energy in the shape of a human figure.

What the hell?

Was this possible?

I had never tried it before, so I had not known.

I thought it was just a technique for predicting an opponent’s attack path.

But this looked as though it let me grasp the energy itself.

The energy had taken on something like a human shape.

I focused and stared.

...That energy.

It was familiar.

No question about it.

It was the energy of Blue Moon Sect.

The same energy all the people of this sect possessed.

Which meant—

obviously, that person is from Blue Moon Sect.

That much I had expected.

If someone was coming and going through Yoo Cheongil’s vault, of course it would be someone from Blue Moon Sect.

Then.

The next question was who.

I had to figure that out, but—

...I can see the energy, but I can’t see the face.

I could not tell who it was.

Tsk.

What now?

I was still thinking when the energy suddenly began to move.

“...!”

It came closer to this wall.

Had I been noticed?

In that tense instant—

Tap tap tap.

The person who had come close knocked on the wall.

A faint sound followed.

It did not seem like they were knocking only here.

They moved around, tapping at different parts of the wall.

As if—

they were searching for the next entrance.

It was like they already knew there was another vault beyond this one and were trying to figure out how to get in.

After doing that for a while—

Swish.

Apparently failing to find a way, they turned around.

Then I saw them leave through the entrance they had used to come in.

Only after the energy had retreated far enough to vanish completely from view—

“Haa...”

was I finally able to let out the breath I had been holding.

“...That scared the shit out of me.”

When they came close, I really thought they knew something and were coming straight for this place.

But apparently that was not it.

Watching the person disappear into the distance, I narrowed my eyes.

...Why did they come?

I had already known that someone had been coming and going around this vault.

But it feels like they failed to find anything back then too.

I wanted to know why they had bothered to come back again.

Is it because of the Tyrant King?

The only major variable was the Tyrant King’s appearance.

If it was not that, then—

me.

My return.

That could be called a reason too.

If it was not even that, then the number of things I would have to consider grew too wide, so for now I had to focus on those two possibilities.

What connection would make this change lead someone back to the vault?

I needed to find the link.

Tsk...

Nothing came to mind immediately.

For now, I would have to be satisfied with what I had learned: someone had shown up, and that person was from Blue Moon Sect.

...If only I’d seen the face, it would’ve been perfect.

Just as I was thinking how annoying that was—

“Oh.”

[What is it?]

A method finally came to me.

Come to think of it, there had been a much easier way.

“...Couldn’t you have just gone through the wall and looked at their face, old man?”

Yoo Cheongil could have passed through the wall and seen who it was.

Shouldn’t that have solved it?

[Ah. True, huh?]

“...”

[Heh heh heh.]

The old man reacted like even he had not thought of it.

Goddammit.

...And there was such an easy answer.

There had been a simple method available—one only I could use—and I had not even realized it.

Thanks to that, I had wasted the chance.

If I check now...

I considered it for a moment, but—

No. The distance is already too great.

Time had passed while I was thinking.

At this point it would be meaningless.

“Tch...”

What a waste.

But I could not just stand here regretting it, so I got back to my feet.

“...Let’s get out first.”

I had to leave the vault.

If I came out around here, something could happen, so I would have to use a passage that led farther away.

*****

SCREEEK.

I climbed the ladder leading upward.

Even while doing that, I kept questioning Yoo Cheongil.

“Why do you think they came? What was the purpose?”

[Who knows. Maybe they came to see if there was anything else left to loot.]

“...For there to be anything left to loot, this place is way too empty, isn’t it?”

There could be more farther in, but only someone who knew the method could get there.

And from what I had seen, the intruder did not seem to know how to open the other chambers.

Still—

they do know there might be something more.

A suspicion, or maybe even certainty, that there was another space beyond this one.

That was what mattered.

And also—

when they got that information matters too.

If they had known from long ago, that was actually better.

But if they had learned it recently—

...then that means there’s another helper.

And not just any helper.

One who even knew information about the vault.

“Tsk.”

The situation was getting more complicated, and my head felt just as tangled.

At last, I climbed out of the ladder and emerged aboveground.

Light streamed in and covered my eyes.

The location was an empty set of quarters.

I could sense no presence nearby.

I had checked that in advance.

Creeeak.

I carefully shut the vault entrance, then stepped out of the quarters.

“Hoo.”

I let out a breath of relief.

I should stay away from the vault for a while.

Now that I knew someone had been coming and going around it, going there carelessly could turn into trouble.

For the time being, it was better to refrain from entering the vault.

Besides, I already got what I needed.

If the sword path inside the vault was my biggest opportunity right now, then I did not need to go back in.

I memorized it all anyway.

The angles of the sword path, the colors, the shapes.

Every bit of it was already in my head.

There was no need to keep going in and out of the vault.

I only came today to look at the armguard again.

There was no need to take a dangerous gamble now.

I decided I would not enter the vault again.

That seemed best.

Now the next thing to solve is the sword path.

I weighed the priorities in my head.

The sword path, or... tracking down that person?

The decision took only a moment.

First, the search.

If there had been a new disturbance, then I had to deal with that first.

Then first...

There just so happened to be something I could conveniently check this afternoon.

Maybe I should handle that first.

Thinking that, I started walking and said to Yoo Cheongil,

“So first—”

[Quiet.]

“...”

I stopped short.

Yoo Cheongil’s warning had cut me off.

[There are eyes on you.]

Someone was watching me.

That was the warning.

I opened my eyes wider and scanned the surroundings.

I could not feel anything.

Who is it?

Could it be the person who had entered the vault earlier?

I put strength into my eyes.

I activated Moon Immortal Sword’s Path again.

Using that, I swept the area around me, trying to catch a trace of energy.

And then—

“...!”

I found it.

Something was wavering to my left.

A strange energy signature.

It was not the energy of Blue Moon Sect.

I ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) stared directly at it.

Ah.

I thought I knew who it was.

There were not many people in Blue Moon Sect right now who did not carry the sect’s own energy.

And among them, there was only one person likely to be secretly watching me.

“...What is it?”

I asked while looking toward the place where the energy was flickering.

It felt like I might keep swallowing nervously, but I forced myself to hold steady.

At my words, the energy wavered slightly.

Still, the person did not step out.

Seeing that, I addressed him again.

“Was there something you needed?”

But this time, I called him more precisely.

The owner of the energy watching me.

It was—

“...Tyrant King.”

The moment I called him out, the energy in the undergrowth rippled, and a man in dark-colored clothes stepped from the brush.

“Well now.”

Tyrant King Muk Yeokseong.

“It seems I’ve been caught.”

It was him.