A few days earlier.

Only after morning came did Gu Hyeonwoo finally leave the underground arena, then return home with an exhausted face.

He shoved the few million won—his life’s price, what was left after the arena’s infamous cut—into his pocket, and he tightened his wounds with bandages so his daughter wouldn’t catch the smell of blood.

Flinch.

When the front gate of the Way-Seeking Sword Gate came into view, Gu Hyeonwoo sensed someone else’s presence inside—someone who had no business being there.

“...Jiu!”

In that instant, Gu Hyeonwoo launched into his lightness technique at full force. His mind flooded with every ugly possibility.

SHWEEEAAAK!

He vaulted the wall in a blink and dropped into the yard—only to find Goggle Killer from the arena sitting on the wooden porch, waiting.

And next to him, his daughter, sitting neatly and eating ice cream while swinging her feet in the air.

“Dad!”

Gu Jiu beamed the moment she saw her father come home.

But Gu Hyeonwoo didn’t have the luxury of looking at that smile.

“Get away from my daughter right now—!”

The only reason Gu Hyeonwoo didn’t charge Kim Muhyuk immediately, overflowing with killing intent, was because of his daughter.

The thought that this man might take her hostage—or hurt her—nearly drove him insane.

Startled by a side of her father she’d never seen, Gu Jiu jumped up and shouted.

“Dad! This man isn’t bad!”

“Jiu, stay still! Dad will save you in a second!”

To Gu Hyeonwoo, his daughter was the only meaning left in his life.

If he lost her too, after his wife, the mind he’d barely kept together would collapse.

“...If you touch my daughter, you die.”

In Gu Hyeonwoo’s bloodshot eyes, vicious killing intent writhed as he hovered on the edge of losing reason.

That was when Kim Muhyuk removed his goggles and his mask, revealing his face.

Gu Hyeonwoo flinched once at how much younger the other man was than he’d expected, then again when the young man performed a formal fist-palm salute with full courtesy.

“I, Kim Muhyuk of the martial world’s later generation, formally greet Talbaek Sword senior.”

“...Kim Muhyuk?”

“Did you, by any chance, take this year’s official martial-artist license exam?”

Gu Hyeonwoo didn’t care how the world turned.

Even so, there’d been a recent incident so loud even his ears couldn’t miss it.

The revelation of the Sun and Moon Gate sect leader’s crimes during the martial-artist license exam, and the resulting crash in the Eight Great Sects’ authority.

Even in the underground arena lounge, those news clips had been played to death, and Gu Hyeonwoo could recall the name Kim Muhyuk from them.

A young rising star said to be capable of overturning the Korean martial world in the years to come...

“That’s you? No—more importantly, why are you with Jiu!”

In front of the agitated Gu Hyeonwoo, Kim Muhyuk maintained a calm posture.

“Senior. I know a way to fix Jiu’s severed meridian condition.”

“Get out. Now.”

Gu Hyeonwoo didn’t believe him.

For years, he’d searched in every way possible for a method to fix his daughter’s severed meridian condition.

With the desperation of grabbing at straw, there wasn’t a place he hadn’t gone or something he hadn’t done.

All of it had been useless, and everyone who’d confidently claimed they could cure it had been a con artist.

And on top of that, this bastard was a man who killed people like he was mocking them—for money. Of course he couldn’t trust him.

“What would I even gain by conning you? It’s obvious you’re broke because you’re paying off debt.”

Gu Hyeonwoo stared at Kim Muhyuk’s composed face.

He looked like a completely different person than the Goggle Killer who’d killed Hell Hound in the underground arena.

And...

—You’re not angry at me. You’re angry at yourself. You saw me and realized how stupid you were, how foolish it was, how you acted to keep that precious conviction of yours intact.

He also remembered the vow he’d made: if he could save his daughter, he’d do anything.

Saving her mattered more than any conviction.

“...You really can cure it? How?”

“I need a few miracle elixirs. I also need a skilled Therapist, and a spellcaster. For now, I’ll tell you only that much.”

It still sounded like a fantasy.

But... the feeling returned again—wanting to grab straw one more time.

After glaring at Kim Muhyuk for a moment, Gu Hyeonwoo looked back at his daughter.

“Jiu. Go to your room for a moment.”

“...Okay.”

After Gu Jiu went inside, reading the mood, Gu °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° Hyeonwoo asked Kim Muhyuk with a cold face.

“You’re not saying you’ll just fix it for free. What do you want?”

“The slaughter game of the one hundred swordsmen, a few days from now. In there—be on my side.”

“...So it’s money after all?”

Kim Muhyuk shook his head.

“There’s something I have to find. Of course I’ll take the prize money too. But I’ll cover the miracle elixirs Jiu needs, and her treatment costs.”

If he could cure his daughter, he didn’t need the prize money.

Gu Hyeonwoo nodded, then asked as if something had suddenly made him curious.

“Why me? You could’ve had other options.”

There were plenty of reasons.

Talbaek Sword Gu Hyeonwoo was one of the underground arena’s top sword masters.

And he was also the one who’d been chosen last by the sword in the Phantom Dream bloodbath. It was entirely possible his fate would tangle with Phantom Dream again this time.

And if his daughter’s life was on the line, Kim Muhyuk could calculate that he would never betray him.

But Kim Muhyuk answered like this.

“Because I like heroic swordsmen.”

At those words, Gu Hyeonwoo’s eyes shook.

But only for a moment—then he glared at Kim Muhyuk with savage eyes again.

“Keep your promise.”

And so, Kim Muhyuk succeeded in bringing the Talbaek Sword, who had been his enemy in his past life, onto the same side.

*****

The black-clad subordinate with the murky voice forced down his flustered rage.

“How dare... how dare...!”

All the subordinates he’d trusted were sprawled on the ground.

Elite martial artists of the Tamra Alliance, defeated by just two swordsmen.

By the one called Goggle Killer, and the one called the White-Masked Swordsman.

“Lowly trash that’s nothing but gambling-table entertainment...!”

He hadn’t heard that participants possessed martial arts this monstrous.

Now only he remained alive.

As the black-clad subordinate trembled, Kim Muhyuk and Gu Hyeonwoo closed in on him from front and back.

“S-stop! Do you know who you’ve just laid hands on?!”

The black-clad subordinate shouted fiercely with his sword drawn.

But his voice shook, unable to hide fear.

Then Gu Hyeonwoo stepped forward alone. It was consideration for Kim Muhyuk, who looked worn out.

“You rest. I’ll handle him.”

Blood stained Gu Hyeonwoo’s blade—he’d cut down no small number of enemies.

CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!

From the moment the fight began, Gu Hyeonwoo overwhelmed the leader of the black-clad men.

A relentless series of sword strikes, pressing the opponent back with an impassive face as the other man could only retreat and block.

The black-clad subordinate wasn’t weak. If this were the martial-artist license exam, he was skilled enough to aim for the pinnacle-expert test.

But he couldn’t become the match of the Talbaek Sword once Gu Hyeonwoo revealed his full ability.

Sharp, yet straight. The firmness of his sword path is above mine.

Kim Muhyuk watched Gu Hyeonwoo’s swordsmanship with ease.

If Oh Jungmin of Songwol Gate trained like hell for about five years, could he show a sword like that?

KRAAANG!

The moment the black-clad subordinate lost his grip on his sword and turned to run, Kim Muhyuk corrected himself.

“...It’d take ten.”

The fleeing black-clad subordinate had his leg cut by Gu Hyeonwoo’s blade aura and fell.

Dragging his leg as he tried to crawl away, he finally turned back as if he’d given up, laughing like a madman.

“Heh-heh-heh. You’re all going to die in here. You won’t get out of the cave—you’ll end up getting eaten by the monster and die!”

The moment the black-clad subordinate shoved a hand inside his clothes, about to press something—

THUD!

A thrown dagger from Kim Muhyuk pierced straight through the man’s palm.

“WRAAAAGH!”

The one who pressed a pressure point on the screaming man’s arm was Gu Hyeonwoo.

With an unhappy expression, he looked back at Kim Muhyuk.

“You don’t trust me?”

“Just in case. There could be something dangerous on him.”

As Kim Muhyuk said, there was a hidden-weapon-type bomb inside the man’s clothes.

A device that would scatter steel needles in every direction the moment it exploded.

“...You’ve done this a lot.”

Gu Hyeonwoo watched Kim Muhyuk stash the bomb into his pocket like it belonged to him, shove a gag into the black-clad subordinate’s mouth, then bind his arms and legs and hide him in a secluded corner.

Then he asked.

“Shouldn’t we wake him up and squeeze information out of him?”

“I was going to, at first. But the situation changed. I think the target’s not far.”

Following Kim Muhyuk’s gaze toward somewhere beyond the cave—

WOOOONG—!

A presence so horrific it couldn’t be put into words made Gu Hyeonwoo’s body shudder.

“...That gives me goosebumps. Is that connected to what you’re looking for?”

Kim Muhyuk stared into the darkness with a grim face, then turned to Gu Hyeonwoo and grinned.

“Now you want to back out?”

Maybe he thought it was a lousy joke, because Gu Hyeonwoo snorted and stepped forward.

“I’ll take point. Follow me. We’re going to finish this fast and go see Jiu.”

The two of them began running, chasing the traces of that ominous aura.

They smashed every camera and monitor they saw, and they cut down swordsmen and unknown black-clad men who blocked their path.

“If you hand over the identification tags, we’ll spare your—ghk!”

“Stop them!”

If Kim Muhyuk had been alone, it would never have been easy.

As if the epithet Talbaek Sword wasn’t something he’d earned for show, Gu Hyeonwoo unleashed swordsmanship he’d never had reason to use in the arena, carving them a path.

With that extra breathing room, Kim Muhyuk organized his thoughts.

Someone brought Phantom Dream here on purpose.

At first, he’d assumed someone bewitched by Phantom Dream had killed swordsmen one by one and had them processed as “missing.”

But no matter how thoroughly he searched the underground arena, he couldn’t find even a trace of Phantom Dream.

Then, a few days ago, he suspected the Fifth Tiger and the Blood Tiger Gang, who’d planned the slaughter match, might be behind it.

But that wasn’t it, either. None of the black-clad bodies had the distinctive tattoos of the Blood Tiger Gang.

In that moment, a name surfaced in his mind.

The Tamra Alliance was behind it.

Jeju Island’s largest martial-world organization.

A force with the power and authority to plot something on this scale, and a force capable of controlling a cursed sword that had reached sacred weapon status.

Then why, in his past life, had the incident known as the Phantom Dream bloodbath occurred?

They failed to control it in the end.

Based on his experience meeting the Namcheon Sword firsthand at AZURE SKY SWORD GATE, Kim Muhyuk made the inference.

A sacred weapon wasn’t something humans could handle easily.

Either earn the weapon’s acknowledgment, or seal its power instead.

Those were the only two options.

And right now... Phantom Dream is rampaging.

He could tell from the black-clad men’s panicked reactions.

WRAAAAGH!

Damn it! Recover it no matter what!

Call in the spellcasters outside!

The closer they got to the source of the aura, the more screams and shouting multiplied, and the thicker the stench of blood became. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

A moment later, the two arrived at the scene: dozens of swordsmen, drenched in blood, brawling in a chaotic melee.

“The sword! Give me that sword!”

“Heh-heh-heh-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

“Die! Die, all of you!”

No one was sane.

To claim a single sword, they stabbed, cut, even bit and tore with their teeth without hesitation.

“It’s mine! This sword is mine!”

The lucky one who got a grip on it swung wildly, trying to shake everyone off—but the others charged even as their arms and legs were severed, as if they didn’t care.

In seconds, ownership changed hands, the one holding it died, and ownership changed again—over and over.

Mixed into the frenzied scene were black-clad men sent to retrieve Phantom Dream.

“This is insane...”

“Wait.”

Kim Muhyuk restrained Gu Hyeonwoo, who was about to rush in.

If they got any closer, they could be affected by that madness too.

“Raise your internal energy and steady your mind. If we jump in right now, it’ll be hard for us to stay safe as well.”

“...Understood.”

Gu Hyeonwoo clenched his teeth, but he did as Kim Muhyuk said, taking deep breaths and controlling his mind.

While the two prepared to resist the cursed sword’s aura, the chaotic melee of dozens ended.

The final winner stood atop corpses piled like a hill and let out a beastlike growl.

Krrr...

A disheveled swordsman pouring red light from his eyes.

Blood dripped from his entire body, but the aura flowing from the sword cauterized his wounds in moments.

Recognizing who it was, Gu Hyeonwoo rumbled low.

“The Black Bandit Society’s leader. An unorthodox swordsman who made his name ten years before I did. Why is he here...?”

The situation couldn’t have been worse.

A seasoned pinnacle swordsman had a sacred weapon in his hand, and he was staring at them with a killing smile.

But neither Kim Muhyuk nor Gu Hyeonwoo backed down.

Kim Muhyuk glanced to the side and asked.

“...Aren’t you afraid?”

“What I’m truly afraid of is the despair of failing to protect my family.”

Kim Muhyuk gave a short laugh.

“I can’t argue with that.”

With the same thin smile, the two of them charged the enemy at the same time.