-The evil villains of the world gather children to hold a blood sacrifice!

While Baek Sowol was captivated by the white-haired puppet, the shadow puppet show began.

On a thin cloth, the images of a monster-like puppet and a small child puppet were projected.

-Aaaah! Help me!

-That one looks quite delicious!

The person who seemed to be the father moved the puppets and made voices, and the person who seemed to be the son played an instrument, creating tension.

-The villains are strong and secretive, so who can stop them!

As the son sang while playing the instrument, the monster-like puppet moved by the father approached the child puppet as if to eat it.

-The gods of heaven and earth know all my evil deeds, so I have come to judge them myself!

-The White-Robed Sword Immortal, who has ascended and become an immortal, has personally descended from the sky and let out a thunderous roar at the villain!

The white-haired puppet and two other puppets descended from the sky on a cloud.

-The White-Robed Sword Immortal has descended upon the human world with his two subordinates!

-Where is the villain!

-Gung-gwi with a ten-foot bow!

-Villain, kneel!

-And as the Taegeuk Sword God descended upon the human world to punish the villains, the heavens and earth trembled, and the villains trembled in fear!

The performance gradually reached its climax, and the battle between the villain and the White-Robed Sword Immortal's party began.

-You villain! Taste my arrow!

-Gung-gwi's bow flies like a thunderbolt even from a thousand li away, and thousands of arrows were densely embedded in the villain's body!

-Do you think you can stop me with such arrows!

-But the villain had become a monster due to billions of evil deeds, so he was fine even after being hit by tens of thousands of arrows.

The villain, who had become like a hedgehog, rushed towards Gung-gwi.

-Leave this to me, Gung-gwi.

The Taegeuk Sword God blocked his path, and the phenomenon of the Taegeuk appeared in front of the Taegeuk Sword God, blocking the villain's path.

-You have all done well. Now leave it to me.

After that, the White-Robed Sword Immortal stood in front of the villain.

-As the White-Robed Sword Immortal's sword flashed towards the villain, an ink-black energy embroidered the sky and cut through the heavens and earth.

The White-Robed Sword Immortal swung his sword, the sky split, and the villain was cut in two.

After that, the play ended with the child's song and performance, and the child stepped forward.

"Thank you for enjoying the shadow puppet show.

This is something I actually experienced a few days ago, and because of this, I want to walk the path of a knight-errant like the great hero, the White-Robed Sword Immortal."

The child was a boy who looked a little younger than Baek Sowol, and although his physique was not very good, his gaze was intense.

"So, would you please add a little of your warm touch to my journey as a knight-errant?"

The child finished his words and performed a polite fist-and-palm salute towards the audience.

"In other words, he's asking for a viewing fee."

"Senior Brother, I don't think that's appropriate in this atmosphere."

Zhuge Hyun and Baek Sowol whispered as they looked at the child.

"It was quite worth watching, so won't a lot of money be collected?"

"You'll see when you see."

But only a few iron coins were collected, and not much money was collected.

Baek Sowol frowned at the sight.

"They enjoyed watching it, but they're stingy with giving."

"That's how life is."

Zhuge Hyun said so and put a silver coin into the wooden bucket.

"Thank you! Great hero!"

Zhuge Hyun gave a casual wave to the shadow puppet show father and son who were bowing their heads deeply and went inside the tavern.

'Senior Brother's spending is better than I thought, isn't it? Did he like the story?'

Baek Sowol also followed Zhuge Hyun into the tavern and sat across from where Zhuge Hyun had taken a seat.

Baek Sowol stared at Zhuge Hyun with a surprised face.

"What are you staring at?"

"Did you like the story?"

Zhuge Hyun smiled crookedly at Baek Sowol's question.

"How could I? With that ridiculous story."

"Then why the silver coin?"

"It's because it's a new story about Master after a long time."

"What? Master?"

"You don't even know Master's nickname? No. If it were him, he wouldn't have bothered to tell you."

"What? A nickname? And he wouldn't have bothered to tell me?"

Zhuge Hyun sighed at the sight of Baek Sowol, who looked like she didn't know anything.

But he didn't bother to explain. Zhuge Hyun thought that the fact that Baek Yoonjun hadn't explained must mean something.

It wasn't that Baek Sowol didn't understand all of Zhuge Hyun's story.

'A nickname means that from the story, the White-Robed Sword Immortal from the play earlier is Master, but wasn't Master rather slender, not muscular?'

It was just that her mind was frozen because of the discrepancy between the puppet from earlier and her master, so her thoughts were slow.

"The puppet from earlier and Master don't look alike at all, though?"

"That's how marketplace stories are. According to the story, Master should have ascended to immortality long ago, shouldn't he?"

"That's true."

"You can just assume that most marketplace stories are greatly exaggerated."

Zhuge Hyun answered Baek Sowol's words and turned his gaze to the waiter who was busily moving around.

"Hey, waiter!"

"Did you call, sir?"

"I'd like to order."

The waiter quickly approached Zhuge Hyun, and Zhuge Hyun skillfully ordered food.

And so, after the waiter left, a short while later.

"Your food is here! Enjoy your meal!"

A short while later, the food came out, and the two began to eat.

It was a proper meal for Baek Sowol after a long time since camping, but it didn't catch her eye.

'Master's matter is one thing, and the play from before is also bothering me.'

She understood Master's matter to some extent from Zhuge Hyun's words, but the matter of the shadow puppet show from earlier was bothering her.

As various thoughts swirled in her head, she naturally began to pick at her food, and Zhuge Hyun, who saw that, frowned.

"Why are you picking at your food instead of eating?"

"Ah, I'm sorry."

Only then did Baek Sowol realize that she was picking at her food and hurriedly corrected her posture.

"Is something bothering you?"

"I was just thinking about the time of the shadow puppet show earlier.

The people who were so enthusiastic when watching the play, but once it was over..."

The scene from earlier came to Baek Sowol's mind.

The people who were cheering when the play was being performed scattered with a subdued appearance, contrary to when it was over.

The performance fee also had only a few iron coins and was empty.

"You're worrying about something useless."

"Is it useless?"

"If you think about it a little, you'll know. When the play was on, they were immersed in the fantasy of a hero, and when it was over, they returned to reality."

"I see."

Baek Sowol was convinced by Zhuge Hyun's words.

'Come to think of it, I've seen similar things a lot.'

Because after hearing it, it was an emotion she had also experienced.

"How was the martial world that was passed down through old stories, not the actual martial world? Wasn't the martial world a place where knight-errants who practiced justice with martial arts lived in places that were hard for people to find?

But what about the martial world that has appeared now? Don't you think the reaction of a person who has realized that the current martial world is just a group entangled in interests would be similar to what just happened?"

Zhuge Hyun drank his wine continuously and badmouthed the martial world.

Baek Sowol, who had experienced something with the Namgung family, nodded her head in some agreement.

"Well, the current martial world itself doesn't only have bad effects. In a way, it also has good effects, and there are knight-errants similar to the stories. But what would be the biggest difference between the stories and the current martial world?"

"Uhm... wouldn't it be the mental state?"

"That's also right, but."

Zhuge Hyun drank the wine straight from the bottle without pouring it into a cup and continued.

"The biggest thing would be the existence of absolute evil. An absolute evil that is strong and seems to be immortal.

If such a being existed, even the current mediocre and lukewarm martial world would heat up and roll along similarly to the martial world in the stories. Because that is their justification."

Hearing those words, a certain group came to Baek Sowol's mind, and she immediately lowered her posture, lowered her voice, and carefully asked Zhuge Hyun.

"If it's that, isn't there the government?"

Zhuge Hyun chuckled at Baek Sowol's cautious action and flicked his finger.

Then a small energy wave spread around them, creating a barrier.

Baek Sowol couldn't be sure what phenomenon had occurred, but she felt that the space she was in and the external space had been cut off.

"Did you just separate this place from the outside?"

"It's called an energy barrier. Didn't I teach you something similar?"

The hellish days so far came to Baek Sowol's mind.

It seemed she had learned something similar.

Zhuge Hyun chuckled at the sight.

"Anyway, to continue the story of the government from before, it's true that the current government is not functioning properly, but it's difficult to see it as absolute evil.

Because that government exists, there is at least a minimum protective function. Although if you say this to someone who is about to starve to death, they would just scoff."

Baek Sowol did not have a good image of the government.

But it wasn't that she didn't agree with Zhuge Hyun's words.

And at the same time, a strong thought took root.

"Then what if there is a real absolute evil?"

"Then people who reveal their true nature will appear first."

Zhuge Hyun reached for the wine bottle again.

Quite a few wine bottles were rolling around in front of him.

"Among them, there would be real knight-errants."

Baek Sowol looked at the quite serious Zhuge Hyun and continued to voice her questions.

"Is it okay to think so simply?"

"Well, that's right. The world is not that simple. In reality, you can assume that there is neither absolute evil nor absolute good.

You can think that all humans have a dual nature, with the exception of only one person, Master."

"It's like the Taegeuk."

Zhuge Hyun quietly drank his wine at Baek Sowol's words.

Baek Sowol also had various thoughts, but since no words came out of her mouth, she just kept her mouth shut and picked at her food.

And so, for a while, the two of them quietly ate their food and drank their wine without a word.

It was then.

Crash!

"Owner! The protection fee hasn't been paid here?"

A group of ruffians came in, breaking the furniture.

"Tsk, martial world or whatever, ruffians like that always appear in any world."

Zhuge Hyun, who saw the ruffians, frowned and was about to get up from his seat.

It was then.

"How dare you harass the common people!"

People wearing blue martial arts uniforms rushed into the tavern.

Baek Sowol, who saw that, frowned.

"It's the Namgung family."

"Namgung? Why are the guys who should be in Anhui all the way here?"

Zhuge Hyun, who heard Baek Sowol's words, sat down again and drank his wine.

The aura of wanting to tear the ruffians from before to pieces was gone, and he looked as if he were watching a fire across the river.

And so, as the group of ruffians and the group of the Namgung family were confronting each other.

"Who dares to cause a disturbance in the territory of the Kunlun Sect!"

A group in black martial arts uniforms, dressed like Taoist priests, rushed into the tavern.

"Kunlun Sect?"

Zhuge Hyun frowned at the words Kunlun Sect.

Baek Sowol, who was sitting in front of him, tilted her head.

"Senior Brother, didn't you say that there are no particular groups in Kunlun?"

"I did."

"Then what is the Kunlun Sect?"

At Baek Sowol's words, Zhuge Hyun's expression gradually worsened.

"I don't know either."

"But you said Kunlun Sect..."

"What do you want me to say when I don't know what I don't know?"

"You said you were in Kunlun..."

"That was a long time ago."

Zhuge Hyun scanned the group who called themselves the Kunlun Sect with a face that looked like he would eat a person.

When Zhuge Hyun was there, Kunlun didn't particularly have matching clothes.

However, since most of them were people who had left the secular world and were training to become immortals, most of them wore simple and light clothes.

At that time, there was no concept of distinguishing between seniors and juniors, and they didn't interfere with each other, and when they got to know each other to some extent, there was a concept of calling each other 'Taoist friend' and using honorifics.

If there was one tacit rule in such a Kunlun, it was that those who left the Kunlun Mountains did not return.

Since quite some time had passed, Zhuge Hyun wondered if there was a problem with his memory and carefully tore through his mind and pulled out his memories, but there was no information about a group called the Kunlun Sect.

'I thought I had come down to the secular world quite a lot, but have I been cooped up in Mount Qingcheng for too long recently?'

He had some skeptical thoughts, but that thought didn't last long.

'No. No matter how long I've been away from Kunlun, the Taoist friends gathered in Kunlun itself are all people who have turned their backs on the secular world.

No matter how much time has passed, there's no way a sect would be established.'

As he thought so, a few people he had interacted with passed through Zhuge Hyun's mind.

'If a real group were to be established, it would be impossible without their consent.'

In Zhuge Hyun's mind, a few people whose training was at a similar level to his at the time came to mind.

People who, if even one of them came down, would not be inferior to be called a peerless master in the Central Plains.

'Which one of them is it?'

As they came to his mind, Zhuge Hyun could not sit still.

(End of Chapter)