“Bow Ghost?”

At that rather sudden epithet, I could only stare in blank surprise.

Why is Bow Ghost coming up here?

Bow Ghost was one of the figures known as beings beyond heaven who had distinguished herself during the Orthodox-Demonic War.

As her epithet suggested, she was an archer, and because her aim and accuracy were said to be ghostlike, she had been given the epithet Bow Ghost.

And besides that...

She had been absurdly beautiful.

And I’d heard she was from the North Sea, not the Central Plains.

The North Sea, where snow was said to fall regardless of the season.

She was supposedly a martial artist from that foreign land.

I did not know how someone from the North Sea had ended up taking part in the Orthodox-Demonic War.

But she was someone who had played a tremendous role in the war. She had saved the strategist Thousand-Mile Divine Eye several times, and the number of demonic practitioners killed by her archery was said to be beyond counting.

Though she was from the North Sea, her contribution to the war had been so great that people used to call her a being beyond heaven.

“Why is Bow Ghost suddenly coming up...?”

Why had Cheon Hyein judged the Silver Moon Sword to be Bow Ghost’s spy?

“Bow Ghost aside, spy aside, what exactly do you mean?”

“Do you know much about Bow Ghost?”

“Not that much.”

A being beyond heaven.

A northerner.

An archer.

And—

the greatest beauty under heaven.

That she was a woman from the North Sea known to be the most beautiful of all.

That was all I knew.

“Is there something more important I should know than that?”

Was there some other crucial piece of information?

The moment I asked—

“...Then you don’t know the most important part.”

“The most important part?”

There was something like that?

As I stared at Cheon Hyein, wondering what she meant—

“Bow Ghost was on very bad terms with the Sword Saint, the former Sect Leader.”

“...What?”

On bad terms with the Sword Saint?

“More precisely—she was not on good terms with the Azure Moon Sect itself.”

“What does that mean?”

Bow Ghost was on bad terms with the Azure Moon Sect?

That was strange.

“What possible reason would someone like her have for being on bad terms with the Azure Moon Sect?”

What reason could a person from the North Sea possibly have to bear ill will toward the Azure Moon Sect?

“I don’t know that much either. But before Bow Ghost left for the North Sea, I do know what she said to the Azure Moon Sect.”

“What she said?”

“‘I will break your moon.’”

“......”

“That is... no different from declaring that she would destroy the Azure Moon Sect one day.”

That was true.

The entire Central Plains knew what the moon meant to the Azure Moon Sect, so saying she would break the moon was the same as saying—

I will destroy the Azure Moon Sect.

That must have been what she meant.

“...Bow Ghost really said that before leaving?”

“Yes. Before she vanished, she said it openly to the current Sect Leader.”

“...To the Moon Immortal Sword.”

That one of the beings beyond heaven had openly declared she would destroy the Azure Moon Sect—

That’s news to me.

I had no idea something like that had happened.

Of course I didn’t...

From the sound of it, it had happened internally. She called it a declaration, but it was the sort of matter the Azure Moon Sect would have kept quiet.

And not just anyone. It was one of the beings beyond heaven.

She was called a hero, even if she was from a foreign land.

If word spread that she had issued a declaration of war against the Azure Moon Sect—

it would be a loss either way.

Someone would inevitably dig into why the sect had turned against a hero, and no matter what came out of that, it would hurt them.

Which is probably why they kept it quiet inside the sect.

What mattered here was—

if it had been entirely Bow Ghost’s fault—

then the Azure Moon Sect would not have stayed still either.

But if things had remained this quiet—

then it means it wasn’t entirely Bow Ghost’s fault.

Which meant the Azure Moon Sect had done something wrong.

Or—

that damned old man had caused trouble again.

In other words, there was a very high chance Yucheon Gil had done something.

That was my conclusion.

And now—

“So.”

I needed to hear the rest.

“What connection is there between Bow Ghost and the Silver Moon Sword?”

Bow Ghost, who had apparently become an enemy of the Azure Moon Sect, and the Silver Moon Sword, the Moon Immortal Sword’s disciple.

“Why do you think he’s Bow Ghost’s spy?”

That, to me, was the most important part.

“......”

Cheon Hyein hesitated.

She looked like she was weighing whether she should say it or not.

Would you look at that.

There was no way I was going to fall for a trick like that.

With her personality, there’s no way she didn’t expect those questions from me.

Which means that attitude of hers—

was calculated.

She was trying to drag control of this conversation over to her side.

Seriously.

I had thought she was letting this pass quietly, but maybe I had underestimated Cheon Hyein too much.

Then...

What should I do?

Should I let it slide?

Should I hand the flow of the conversation over to her?

I considered it for a moment.

I don’t want to.

I had already disliked the fact that she forced her way in.

The more I thought about it, the less I wanted to go along with what she wanted.

“Looks like it’s something you’re reluctant to say.”

“It is... an important point.”

“Or do you need to go ask Elder Baekyeon first?”

“......”

She froze.

At my words, Cheon Hyein’s body went stiff.

Seeing that, I grinned.

“Ha.”

With that low sound, all expression vanished from her face.

Then she lifted her pale hand and ran it once over her own face.

“You really are irritating.”

Her expressionless eyes were filled with annoyance.

“Why? I was helping you speak carefully.”

“...Tch.”

The moment I mentioned Baekyeon, she bit down on her lip.

I know you and the Second Elder are closely connected.

That single line of meaning had cut off her flow.

“Since when did you know?”

“Come on.”

You could not just ask that so directly.

“I don’t know since when exactly, but there are too many eyes and ears around for me not to know.”

“......”

I threw her own words back at her once again.

Her expression twisted even more.

Interesting.

She always wore that mask so well in front of other people, but in front of me it cracked this easily.

Now then.

“Let’s hear why you came prepared.”

We needed to get to the real point now.

“What was that about the Silver Moon Sword and Bow Ghost?”

“......”

Cheon Hyein looked deeply displeased, but by now there was no point in wasting effort after she had already been exposed.

“Hoo....”

In the end, she let out a deep sigh once.

“...The Silver Moon Sword was not in the Azure Moon Sect for the last three years.”

“Yes, I heard that.”

“Do you know where he went?”

“How would I?”

It had not even been a year since I entered the Azure Moon Sect. There was no way I would know.

“He was given a specific mission by the Lesser Moon Unit and sent away on a long-term assignment. And that mission was...”

Cheon Hyein paused briefly, then said to me,

“...to investigate one of the Five Kings Under Heaven—the Death King.”

“......”

This time, the one who went still was not Cheon Hyein.

It was me.

...The Death King.

At the name, I could not help frowning.

Of all people, that bastard.

One of the Five Kings Under Heaven, and the one who appeared before people the least.

And on top of that—

an orthodox man who was closer to the unorthodox.

He was such an ominous and bizarre figure that even people of the orthodox faction avoided him.

And that was only natural.

Because—

he was known to worship ghosts.

The Death King worshiped ghosts and death.

That was the tale known throughout the Central Plains.

At root—his family background did indeed belong to an orthodox clan, and he himself was an orthodox martial artist, but his conduct and the stories told about him were so grotesque that calling him unorthodox would not have sounded strange.

And at the same time—

he was the one I wanted to get involved with the least.

Become my disciple.

That incident from my childhood came back to me.

Damn it.

Just thinking about how I nearly got dragged into it because of Mo Yong Yeongsun...

Mo Yong Yeongsun and her mother.

Because of that affair, I had once gotten entangled with the Death King.

That he worshiped ghosts. That he worshiped death.

I did not care about any of that.

He’s a shaman.

In my judgment, the Death King was a real shaman in a world full of fakes.

That was why I wanted even less to get involved with him.

The real could recognize the real.

No matter how well I hid myself, he had recognized me.

And because I had to brush that aside and get rid of it, I had ended up going through all kinds of hardship in that young body.

...The reason I ended up with a ring fastened around my heart was because of that man too.

And now Cheon Hyein was saying the Silver Moon Sword had gone to investigate the Death King?

“Why was he investigating him?”

“I don’t know that much. That is an extreme secret known only to the Sect Leader and the Silver Moon Sword.”

“Hm.”

That, I could accept.

Then—

“What does that have to do with the Death King and Bow Ghost?”

It felt like a completely absurd connection.

Just as I was thinking that there was no reason those two should be linked—

“The Death ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ King is Bow Ghost’s disciple.”

“...What?”

That was genuinely not something I had expected to hear.

“A disciple? Who— the Death King is Bow Ghost’s disciple?”

“That’s right.”

“...What kind of ridiculous nonsense is that?”

It was an absurd thing to hear, and there was no way around that.

“...The Death King is old enough as it is. And what could he possibly have learned from Bow Ghost?”

What could the Death King, who used an entirely different kind of power, possibly learn from an archer like Bow Ghost?

And besides—

...If I remember correctly, the Death King’s age...

was not all that different from the Tyrant’s.

Which meant—

he’s about the same age as one of the beings beyond heaven.

And yet he became her disciple?

No matter how I thought about it, it made no sense.

In response to my doubt, Cheon Hyein said,

“I can’t tell you more than that.”

In other words, she was refusing to give me that information.

Ridiculous.

“After coming all the way here, isn’t that a bit cheap?”

“That part is an important card.”

“So I’m supposed to have a conversation with someone who’s hiding cards?”

“...There’s still enough reason for you to at least hear me out, isn’t there?”

“Hm.”

I did not like it.

Still—

“Fine. Go on then.”

At the very least, I could listen.

“Let’s say the Death King really is Bow Ghost’s disciple. Then why do you suspect the Silver Moon Sword became a spy because of that?”

“...He spent three years on the Death King’s mountain. Do you know what that means?”

“I do not.”

“Most people who entered that mountain never returned. And even if they did return...”

“If they did?”

“They all came back insane. Not in their right minds.”

The mountain where the Death King resided.

Was she saying those who went there either never came back, or returned insane?

Hearing that, I suddenly remembered the state the Silver Moon Sword had been in.

That presence I felt then.

He had not seemed to possess any kind of divine sight, yet he had carried that strange sense of presence around him.

“At the same time, there were also recent reports that Bow Ghost had entered the Central Plains. They said that after appearing for the first time in over a decade, the place she moved to was the Death King’s mountain.”

“...Bow Ghost entered the Central Plains?”

The woman from the North Sea, who was said to have vanished after the Orthodox-Demonic War, had entered the Central Plains and gone to the Death King’s mountain?

“And then?”

“Right after that information came in, the Silver Moon Sword came down from the mountain and returned.”

“...And because that timing is strange, you think he might be a spy?”

“Because there were methods Bow Ghost used during the war.”

The methods Bow Ghost used during the war?

That meant nothing to me.

Still—

“And I take it you can’t reveal where that information came from either?”

In other words, where she had heard about Bow Ghost entering the Central Plains, and about the Death King.

“Of course not.”

Cheon Hyein nodded.

“Hm.”

I did not know whether that information was actually true.

It’s vague.

To conclude that the Silver Moon Sword was tied to Bow Ghost on that basis alone was far too much of a stretch.

Would Cheon Hyein not know that?

No way.

She must have known that too and still come to tell me.

Which meant—

“What do you want from me?”

Why had she come to find me in this situation?

If the Silver Moon Sword might be a spy, then what did she expect me to do about it?

When I asked what role I was supposed to play here—

“I want you to investigate with me.”

“Investigate?”

“Yes. I think you can do it.”

So what she meant was—

“You want me to help investigate whether the Silver Moon Sword is a spy or not...?”

“That’s right.”

Investigate a fellow member of the sect.

And not just anyone, but the Moon Immortal Sword’s disciple.

“No, what kind of—”

What kind of dogshit was that supposed to mean?

Just as I was about to say it—

“In return, if you help me, I’ll tell you the location of the vault the Sword Saint left behind.”

“......”

At Cheon Hyein’s words, I had to shut my mouth.

...The vault?

The vault she meant—

...could it be the one I already know about?

The vault beneath the Azure Moon Sect.

Was she talking about that?

If she was, I already knew it perfectly well.

Thinking that, I was about to tell her I did not need it.

But then—

Ah.

A thought flashed through my mind.

“...Is that true?”

A rather entertaining way to make use of Cheon Hyein had just occurred to me.