Gi Uhui’s eyes trembled.

HWARURURUK.

Yeon Hojeong’s presence was utterly still, like a windless lake.

But Gi Uhui could see it. The terrifying flames burning in his two eyes.

It was cold, like the weather of the North Sea, that distant land of mystery where all things under heaven and earth were said to be filled with transparent ice, and yet within that coldness, lava capable of burning the world was boiling.

Evil god.

It was evil. She could feel, intact, that destructive spiritual force she had sensed when she had seen Yeon Hojeong before.

No, it’s even worse than back then.

Evil energy that ordinary people could not feel. In truth, it was only something caught by the Spirit Eyes Gi Uhui had been born with, not actual energy of evil or anything of the sort.

But Gi Uhui could tell. Not as a martial artist, but as a physician, she sensed Yeon Hojeong’s qi.

He’s had an achievement in his martial arts!

Then Yeon Hojeong opened his mouth.

“Interesting.”

“Y-yes?!”

As Yeon Hojeong looked down at Hidden Shadow One, thick excitement colored his face.

“I’ve seen people from the Divine Flame Cult before, but I’ve never seen one of their masters. Even so, I could feel a distinct sense of foreignness from the nature of your Inner Qi.”

Yeon Hojeong turned his gaze toward Gi Uhui.

In that instant, Gi Uhui was seized by the urge to turn her head away. Yeon Hojeong’s eyes were terrifying enough to raise gooseflesh.

“That sense of foreignness was extremely similar to the foreignness of those bastards from the Perverse Lust Cult. That was how I could infer that you belonged to the Three Creeds. But...”

Yeon Hojeong turned his gaze back to Hidden Shadow One.

“This bastard is a little different.”

Flinch! Flinch!

Hidden Shadow One’s body kept jerking. Even though his mute point and paralysis point had been struck, he was resisting.

It was astonishing. Acupoint sealing performed by a master of Yeon Hojeong’s level was not something that could be undone with Inner Qi or brute strength. If anything, trying to force the points open could tear the blood channels and cause fatal damage.

And yet he was resisting. It was something a master of the internal path who had inherited the Central Plains’ martial line could not easily imagine.

A faint smile appeared around Yeon Hojeong’s mouth.

“You have clearly learned martial arts from the Three Creeds’ side... but your main foundation is Central Plains martial arts. More precisely, it seems to be based on Central Plains assassination arts.”

The ability to identify even the origin of one’s Inner Qi simply by reading the qi.

Once one reached the level of a grandmaster of the Dark Path, one came across martial arts that exceeded common sense. Among them, there were martial arts so reckless they beggared belief, and there were also many martial arts that left one no choice but to admire them even though they went beyond reason.

However, even with such peculiarities, once one had seen and felt thousands of kinds of martial arts, it became possible to divide them into categories.

Even if the qi wave was savage, if the True Qi was clear and pure, it was classified as an orthodox art. The Yeon Clan divine arts Yeon Hojeong had learned, of course, and the martial arts of the Nine Sects and One Union and the Six Great Clans were like that.

Even if the qi wave was calm, if the True Qi was extreme and its balance had collapsed, it was classified as a heretical art. The martial art of Pasareuk, the leader of the Corridor Band, whom he had once fought during the battle against the combined forces of Demon-Sweeping & Evil-Smiting, was like that.

What could be called the midpoint between orthodox arts and heretical arts was the Inner Qi heart method practiced by the majority of ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ the current martial world. They were martial arts that were suitably stable, made the qi pure if learned according to the proper method, and had clear strengths and weaknesses without being extreme.

Hongcheon Qi, which Yeon Hojeong’s master had taught him, was also Inner Qi between orthodoxy and heresy. In enlightenment, it fell behind orthodox arts, and in extreme power, it fell behind heretical arts, but its qi accumulation was fast. Other than that, it did not have any particular strength to speak of, but in exchange, it had no notable weakness either. In terms of balance, it was a martial art of remarkable completion.

Then what martial art had Hidden Shadow One learned?

It was the killing method of assassination arts.

And not the unique killing method of those beyond the frontier, either. It stank strongly of the Central Plains martial world’s own extremely secretive killing methods.

Yeon Hojeong could be certain. The martial art this bastard had learned was a Central Plains killing method.

And an ultimate killing method at that. The Central Plains had countless killing methods, but killing methods as secretive and nasty as the one this bastard had learned could be counted on one hand.

And Yeon Hojeong could see straight through the true identity of the killing method this bastard had learned.

“You have learned the Red Kind of Yin Fire as well, but your main force is the White Kind of Yin Cold. That is why you can be this stealthy.”

In that instant, Hidden Shadow One’s eyes shook as if an earthquake had struck.

Yin Fire, and Yin Cold.

“The Yin God I know is someone else. Are you something like a disciple?”

Yin God.

A mysterious killer who never revealed himself in the light, and whose face had been seen by fewer than five even among those who lived in the shadows.

To begin with, most people did not even know that a killer called the Yin God existed. Even the Beggars’ Union, which was said to be the greatest in intelligence, did not know of the Yin God’s existence.

But Yeon Hojeong had seen him. The being called the Yin God.

The greatest killer under heaven. He had seen the existence of that death god, who had trained the two great consummate arts of Yin Fire and Yin Cold to the extreme and could take a target’s life with a single light gesture of the hand.

Yeon Hojeong made a strange expression.

“What kind of fate is this? Since I came back, at the place where that Conqueror of Western Chu passed away, I once saw a third-rate warrior who had inherited the Yin God’s studies. That bastard was an idiot who had entered qi deviation without even understanding three-tenths of Yin Fire, but you’re a little different.”

Around the time he had entered Anhui with Yeon Jipyeong to attend the gathering of the younger generation.

At Choseong Pavilion in Hexian, Anhui Province, he had once burned alive a madman who had failed while learning the Red Kind of Yin Fire. His name had probably been Mabang, if he remembered right.

It had also been the place where he first met the Je Gal siblings. With that incident at the center, many connections had begun.

“Gi Uhui.”

“Y-yes?!”

“This bastard wasn’t born and raised in the Divine Flame Cult, was he?”

Gi Uhui swallowed without realizing it.

“That... I don’t know either.”

Shock appeared in Hidden Shadow One’s eyes.

How can this be?!

This young man who had sealed his paralysis point and mute point was clearly that master who had escorted the Saintess last time. The greatest of the younger generation under heaven, or something like that?

But that master and the Saintess were speaking naturally to each other. Even with him right in front of them.

And on top of that, the Divine Flame Cult?

Th-this bastard! Does he know about our Cult?!

No, setting that aside.

Saintess!

Could she have betrayed them? Had she really?

Then Yeon Hojeong spoke with a smile.

“Well, whether you were born and raised in the Divine Flame Cult or were recruited by those bastards, that has no meaning now.”

THRUST!

“Gghhh!”

A spine-chilling groan escaped Hidden Shadow One’s mouth.

His mute point had been released, but his paralysis point had been sealed even more strongly. This time, the power that had infiltrated through the paralysis point not only stirred up his entire body, but even sealed his qi sea.

The sealing of the qi sea, the neutralization of the dantian. It was as if an unbreakable shackle had been placed on him so that he could not operate Inner Qi at all.

“I was curious.”

A strange light poured from Yeon Hojeong’s eyes.

“If you can infiltrate all the way into the Martial Alliance’s inner district, then regardless of your actual skill, you seem to have absolute confidence in your stealth. In that case, when we went to escort Gi Uhui, it would have been normal for you to watch over her from somewhere unseen. But no matter how much I thought about it, I had no memory of seeing any fly buzzing around us.”

In truth, this was only possible because it was Yeon Hojeong.

He had realized at a glance that Gi Uhui was a pawn of the Three Creeds. No, at first, it had certainly been suspicion, but he had moved with near certainty.

Right after realizing it, he had opened his sensory perception at every moment to check whether there was a guard, an assassin, or a helper around her.

Was Hidden Shadow One’s stealth art perfect? Absolutely not.

It was at a remarkable level, but it was by no means perfect. If his killing method had been perfect, Yeon Hojeong would not have been able to ambush him like this.

In other words, Hidden Shadow One had not been beside Gi Uhui when she was being chased by the assassins sent by the Medical God Association.

What was the reason?

“As expected.”

The corner of Yeon Hojeong’s mouth curled upward.

“It wasn’t that you trusted us, and it wasn’t that you didn’t want to attach yourself to her. It’s clear you couldn’t guard her because of orders from above. Then why did that higher authority throw someone called the Saintess into a place of death?”

He had heard that the bloodline issue was complicated. And that many people of the Divine Flame Cult despised Gi Uhui as well.

But Gi Uhui was the Cult Leader’s daughter. No matter how deserving of contempt her existence might be, there was no way they would leave a precious bloodline to die without the Cult Leader’s permission.

In other words, the reason this guard bastard had been unable to help while Gi Uhui was being chased by assassins was pressure from above.

But now he has come again under orders from above to steal information.

He had a sense of it.

In the past, when the Central Plains martial world had been devastated by the Perverse Lust Cult’s rebellion, the Divine Flame Cult and Mad Blood Cult had not properly revealed themselves.

Because the Perverse Lust Cult alone was enough? Impossible.

The damage from the Perverse Lust Cult alone had been tremendous, but no matter how confident they were that it would be enough, the other two groups should have been deployed as well.

The beauty of war was to seize victory in the shortest time possible with overwhelming force. In other words, the Divine Flame Cult and the Mad Blood Cult should have swept across the Central Plains martial world together with the Perverse Lust Cult.

It wasn’t that they didn’t deploy them. They couldn’t.

Had there been circumstances within the Cult?

Not a chance. If they were weak enough to go to war without even that much preparation, we wouldn’t have struggled so much.

In other words, the Divine Flame Cult and Mad Blood Cult had not failed to help the Perverse Lust Cult.

They had been unable to help.

Why?

Whiing. Whiiiing.

Yeon Hojeong’s mind spun terrifyingly fast.

Amplifying thought. Comparing the situation of the past with the situation of the present, he pierced through even the enemy’s position and ideology.

“...The authorities.”

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes flashed like lightning.

“They were in charge of the imperial palace, the authorities’ side.”

“...!!”

He looked at Gi Uhui.

“Do you know how the Divine Flame Cult is trying to attack the Central Plains?”

“Yes?!”

He did not need to hear a separate answer. From Gi Uhui’s expression and eyes alone, Yeon Hojeong could tell.

She doesn’t know. Of course she wouldn’t.

While bringing Gi Uhui to the Alliance, he had spoken with her a great deal. At least as Yeon Hojeong saw it, Gi Uhui was not someone with the skill to deceive anyone.

Yeon Hojeong smiled as he looked down at Hidden Shadow One.

“Today is truly a lucky day. Not only did I gain a new enlightenment, but your single existence has allowed me to realize several facts.”

Chiiiiik.

White steam rose from Hidden Shadow One’s body.

It was the Yin Cold energy of the White Kind of Yin Cold. He had neutralized the dantian, yet the man was still emitting power. He could not tell by what principle that was possible.

Yeon Hojeong’s hand moved.

BOOOOOOM!

“Kagh!”

Hidden Shadow One, who had spat a handful of blood, finally lost consciousness. Since Yeon Hojeong had even shattered his dantian, operating power would now be impossible.

Seeing Yeon Hojeong’s savage move, Gi Uhui’s face went white.

“Hey, Physician Gi Uhui.”

“...?!”

Yeon Hojeong smiled as he looked at her.

Gi Uhui could swear it. Here was a face more frightening than any expression or presence she had ever seen. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Eyes more wicked than the Killing Intent emitted by her father, the Divine Flame Cult Leader.

“I hear you refused the right to serve as the Tang Clan Lord’s sponsor?”

“...!”

“Now that you’ve entered the Alliance, you should earn your keep with something besides medical arts. Who the hell do you think you are to refuse that? Hm?”

Gi Uhui’s hands trembled violently. The fear creeping up inside her was dragging her reason down into the abyss.

“Step forward as his sponsor. Understood?”

“Y-yes!”

“Then let’s go to the strategist’s office together right now. None of this bullshit double-spy nonsense. You should fly properly as a new wing of the Martial Alliance. Am I wrong?”

Yeon Hojeong smiled white.

“Fly high. Fly splendidly, and bring me my prey one by one. The prey who mistake themselves for hunters.”