Right after the talk about the vault came up, we exchanged a few more words, and then Cheon Hyein withdrew.

—We’ll talk about the vault another time.

That was what happened right after she confirmed that it existed and let slip that she knew about it.

Cheon Hyein rose in a hurry, as if saying any further conversation could wait until later.

After sending off the oddly urgent-looking Cheon Hyein—

“Hm.”

Left alone, I tilted my head.

“The vault, huh.”

Truthfully, I had not expected her to bring up the vault at all.

Which was only natural.

Even if Cheon Hyein did know about it—

it should still be important information in its own right.

And not just any vault, but the Sword Saint’s vault.

The fact that she had uncovered that and then used it as bargaining material was strange.

And on top of that—

she must have considered the possibility that I already knew about it.

Cheon Hyein was not stupid.

If she knew I was the Sword Saint’s disciple, then she would have taken into account the possibility that I might already know the vault’s location too.

And even while knowing that, she still tried to deal with it.

What is she thinking?

That was the point where I found myself somewhat curious about her intentions.

Leave that aside for now...

Even setting the matter of the vault aside, the more important thing was—

the matter of the Silver Moon Sword and Bow Ghost.

I recalled what Cheon Hyein was suspicious of.

Could it really be true?

That the Silver Moon Sword was a spy for Bow Ghost and the Death King.

I did not really believe it.

If he were a spy, something about it still feels off.

Even the grounds she brought up were still just conjecture in the end.

There were too many strange points for me to simply accept it at face value.

To begin with—

Bow Ghost herself is strange too.

The fact that one of the beings beyond heaven had fallen out with the Azure Moon Sect.

And in that situation—

the Death King’s master is Bow Ghost.

That bizarre old man being the disciple of one of the beings beyond heaven too.

They’re entangled in a very strange way.

Creeeak.

Leaning back into the chair, I frowned.

Bow Ghost...

What kind of person was she?

I had never really thought about it before, which only made it feel stranger.

And of all times, now.

Yucheon Gil, the one person I could ask, was not here.

And in a situation like this, another being beyond heaven had to become a nuisance too.

What should I do?

I was thinking it over for a moment when—

“Ah.”

A thought struck me.

Right.

I did not have to ask only Yucheon Gil.

There were plenty of people around who would know about Bow Ghost.

Quite a few people from that same era were still active, after all.

The Sword Emperor, the Tyrant...

Or if not them—

that man.

Among the people active in the same age, there was exactly one person I could think of who was ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) favorably disposed toward me.

“Bow Ghost, you say?”

The Freak Demon.

That man dressed as a woman.

A demonic practitioner from the age when the beings beyond heaven were active, and the one who had served as the strategist of the Demonic Cult.

When I called for him and asked about Bow Ghost—

“...Why the hell is that mad bitch...?”

Hm?

The Freak Demon showed a reaction I had almost never seen.

He was usually a man whose expression revealed nothing, but the moment he heard Bow Ghost mentioned, his face broke.

“...Were you two not on good terms?”

It was a ridiculous question on its face.

He was a demonic practitioner. Of course his relationship with one of the beings beyond heaven would not have been good.

Still, that doesn’t explain it.

For the Freak Demon to react like that, there had to be something there.

“We were not on particularly good terms.”

“That would make sense.”

“...Maybe not with others. But Bow Ghost in particular is different.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you know how Bow Ghost operated during the war, O Heaven?”

“Not in much detail.”

That was true not only of Bow Ghost, but of the other beings beyond heaven as well.

The ones whose deeds were at least somewhat known were—

Yucheon Gil and the Tyrant, maybe.

That one had injured the Heavenly Demon.

That one had killed the Heavenly Demon directly.

That was the sort of story that got passed around.

But I did not really know what the others had done in exact terms.

I had never made any effort to find out, either.

“Bow Ghost is known as a master of assassination and sniping, but in truth that is not the case.”

“Then what?”

“Her true role was interrogator.”

“What?”

An interrogator?

That was the last thing I had expected.

...The greatest beauty under heaven was an interrogator?

I had never seen her, but a woman said to be breathtakingly beautiful—

and she had been someone who went around torturing demonic practitioners?

I can’t picture it.

It did not fit at all.

“If you say interrogation... then what kind of methods are we talking about?”

That people used torture in wartime was not strange.

In a world where good and evil blurred, torture itself was hardly impossible.

But how brutal did she have to be...

for the Freak Demon to loathe her this much?

“Is that why you avoid Bow Ghost?”

“That is not the whole reason... but if you met her even once, I imagine most people would react like this.”

“...Ah. Right.”

The Freak Demon’s reaction was too clear.

So someone really could look that disgusted.

He didn’t even react like this when I mentioned Yucheon Gil, the man who killed the Heavenly Demon with his own hands.

The fact that he hated Bow Ghost this much left a truly bitter taste.

...What kind of person is she?

One of the beings beyond heaven who had returned to the North Sea.

And now, apparently, she had entered the Central Plains.

Tch.

She sounded like a troublesome person.

Set aside the interrogator part. Why is someone like that tied up with the Death King— that old man?

He was already someone I did not want to think about.

And now there was a being beyond heaven tied to him too?

That made it worse.

If possible, I wanted to avoid getting tangled up with her at all costs.

My first impression of her was already ruined.

...Good.

I nodded.

I should not get involved with Bow Ghost.

Just as I settled on that conclusion—

“If possible, O Heaven, I also hope you will avoid getting involved with that bitch— no, with Bow Ghost.”

“Yes. I just decided the same thing.”

Absolutely do not get involved with her.

That was the resolve I made.

But—

something feels off.

The feeling was bad.

It was as if my soul itself was sounding an alarm.

That anxious sensation wrapped around my whole body.

This was the feeling I hated most.

Because, as always—

I feel like I’m going to get involved.

When I got a foreboding like this...

it tended to come true for no good reason.

*****

Night came.

There was not much to do during the day.

No training with the Sword Emperor. No lessons with the Lesser Moon Unit leader.

Even my sessions with the Poison Dragon had stopped.

That was because, under the Moon Immortal Sword’s orders, I had been granted a few days of rest.

Though I’m not sure this really counts as rest.

It would have been nice if I could have simply relaxed.

But I had one assignment hanging over my head now.

“Haa....”

I did not want to sleep.

Lying on the bed, all I could do was sigh.

It’s obvious enough...

If I slept, I would enter the dream-vision again.

I knew it instinctively.

I scratched at my cheek like a madman.

...What am I supposed to do?

I could not see any answer.

I had already experienced it once.

That thing was a complete monster.

More than the Yucheon Gil from age twenty, drenched in killing intent, I hated the current, snake-like Yucheon Gil even more.

It’s not just skill. Everything else is the problem.

That overwhelming feeling that I could never, ever defeat him—

that was the problem.

Damn it.

How many more times would I have to die this time?

How many repetitions would it take before I could win?

Though the one fortunate thing is...

that with each repetition, I had always managed to find some sort of method somehow.

“Haa....”

I let out another deep sigh.

Whatever this is supposed to be.

There had to be a reason for it.

Whether this was something Yucheon Gil had arranged, or something else entirely, it had always been the same.

There’s always something to gain from the dream-vision.

There was always something to be extracted from Yucheon Gil’s dream-visions.

That was what I chose to believe.

No matter how much I hated it, there had always been something to gain in the end.

So I decided to trust that one fact.

Slowly, I closed my eyes.

Let’s do this...

Feeling like I was walking up to the execution block, my consciousness gradually scattered.

SHHHHHK—!!!

*****

“......”

When I opened my eyes again, the same landscape as last time was spread out before me.

The grassland.

A grassland thick with the smell of blood.

Corpses strewn everywhere.

Moonlight shining down, and a lone rock.

And Yucheon Gil seated on top of it.

Everything was the same.

Nothing had changed at all.

At that, I clicked my tongue softly.

Right.

Let’s do it exactly the way I memorized last time.

Since I had already fought him once, I was not completely without information.

Clack.

I gripped the sword hilt.

Then I looked at Yucheon Gil, seated in the distance.

...At first...

He charged straight at me.

Just as I recalled that and settled into position—

“Hm.”

Yucheon Gil reacted after noticing me.

The moment I saw that, I tensed.

Focus.

I could not afford to miscalculate.

Nothing was different.

This time too, I had to seize what I wanted through repeated attempts, no matter how many it took.

Whether that number turned out to be thousands or tens of thousands.

That was how I steeled myself, my eyes burning with focus, when—

“Seeing you again.”

“...What?”

Yucheon Gil spoke, his blue eyes flashing.

As he spoke with the corner of his mouth curling upward, my whole body stiffened.

...What is this?

This was something I had never expected.

*****

WOOOOOOSH—!!!

Late at night, when the moon had been veiled by dark clouds and little light remained—

someone slowly opened her eyes within the deepening hush.

Pale sky-blue eyes shone through a thin face veil into the darkness.

The wind was blowing.

“The weather is poor.”

An old, scorched voice said that to the woman.

At the words, the woman turned to look at the hunchbacked old man beside her.

“Is it?”

At that low tone, the air sank.

“It seems like perfect weather to me.”

It was not bad.

Neither hot nor cold.

A kind of weather utterly different from the blade-like wind of the North Sea.

The woman liked that.

Yes.

She had loved this land.

Only—

that was no longer true.

“Disciple.”

At the blunt call, the hunchbacked old man responded again.

“Yes, Master.”

“The wind has changed.”

“......”

That could not have been a simple remark.

As the old man rolled his eyes, searching for the reason behind it—

“So the disciple of that vile thing is in this land, is he?”

“Ah....”

At the woman’s next words, the old man understood.

“That is correct.”

“They call him the Moon Hero, was it?”

Just the thought of that face was enough to make her insides turn.

The disciple of the enemy she wanted to rip apart.

That thing was crawling across this land.

“Vermin.”

Coldness gathered in the woman’s eyes.

SHHHHHH—!!

In an instant, freezing air swept across the entire mountain.

KIIIIIIIIING—

As the cold and the yin energy surged, the vengeful spirits that sustained the mountain cried out together.

In the midst of all that malice and killing intent—

“I suppose I should go have a look.”

The woman slowly rose to her feet.

Upon a land she had returned to for the first time in over a decade—

the master of the snowy wastes had begun to move.

For Bang Seongyeon, that could only mean something very bad.