Baek Yoonjun hesitated.

'When you think about it, it was a relationship where they had received some useless meddling and shared a drink.'

For him, this was something that couldn't even be called a connection.

Since dealing with people itself was difficult for him, it would have been more comfortable to just pretend not to know.

'If it weren't for this.'

Baek Yoonjun looked at the staff he had brought without realizing it.

It didn't look like something he had just picked up from somewhere, but something he had carved himself.

It fit Baek Yoonjun's body type perfectly, and although it was a short time, the surface was so meticulously polished that there were no rough spots.

Although it was useless meddling, it was a kindness without expecting anything in return.

For some reason, Baek Yoonjun could not turn away from this kindness without expecting anything in return.

'The reason I was cooped up in a corner of my room in my past life was because of a meaningless malice!'

Although they were opposite concepts, Baek Yoonjun felt that the essence of the two concepts was the same.

The next realm that Baek Yoonjun was looking at.

Perhaps he felt it was more the same because he was facing the realm of the opposite concepts of life and death.

'Both are things that must be repaid, so aren't they the same in a way?'

Having made up his mind, Baek Yoonjun first moved his feet to a secluded place.

There was no particular reason.

'There are so many people.'

Although he was able to wander around thanks to the effect of the bamboo hat, people were still burdensome.

Luoyang had many buildings, and the number of secluded places was just as many.

For that reason, he moved his feet to a secluded place without difficulty.

'Hmm?'

Having arrived at a secluded place, Baek Yoonjun felt that someone was heading to the same place as him.

'Is he trying to avoid people like me?'

Although Baek Yoonjun felt a brief sense of kinship.

'There's no way! He must be a human aiming for my back!'

Baek Yoonjun reflected on his complacent thoughts. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Baek Yoonjun, who was extremely tense, turned his head towards the group that was chasing him.

"What is your business?"

"Huh, you noticed?"

At that, the martial artists with rough impressions flocked towards Baek Yoonjun.

"You look suspicious, so we will conduct an inspection."

The martial artists approached Baek Yoonjun with confidence.

Baek Yoonjun thought about why he was suspicious.

Although quite a few people besides Baek Yoonjun were wearing bamboo hats, the white robe and black sword were even more common than the bamboo hat.

"My attire is common, isn't it?"

"Ahem! Where do you get off talking back to the heroes of the alliance!"

Baek Yoonjun realized that this situation was just a pointless quibble.

He guessed that there was a purpose to gain an unjust profit with a pointless quibble.

"Huh."

Baek Yoonjun's eyes became rough.

As he designated the opponent in front of him as an evil person, his heart became at ease.

Since evil people were not treated as people by Baek Yoonjun, the burden of dealing with people also did not apply.

He brought his hand to his sword.

At that moment.

'Why is that brat Hong Yungae coming to mind?'

The disciple who had naively said that he should give a chance to the evil person, the bandit.

Although it was a thought that Baek Yoonjun could not sympathize with at all, for some reason, it kept coming to his mind.

'No matter how I look at it, I seem stronger, so this much should be okay.'

For that reason, he decided to give a chance to the humans in front of him.

"Do you do this often?"

"I do not take questions during the exercise of the alliance's authority!"

"Have you killed many?"

"If it was just an exercise against foolish people like you, I have done it countless times!"

Baek Yoonjun carefully scanned the opponent in front of him.

A beast-like appearance looking at Baek Yoonjun as if he were prey.

Sreung.

Baek Yoonjun drew his sword.

And

Slice.

At the same time, the necks of the martial artists in front of him fell.

Having cut the necks of the martial artists, Baek Yoonjun immediately left the spot.

'To be chased by brats who are not even third-rate, my condition must be really bad.'

Baek Yoonjun reflected and continued to move.

What he was trying to do now was not to search for Tang Yuhwa, but to grasp Cheon Suhye's situation, so there was no need to walk the streets with difficulty.

'You said it was an alliance, right? The location?'

Regarding this, he thought simply without any complexity.

'For now, let's go to the big building.'

He moved quickly, riding the roofs and avoiding people's eyes, towards the largest building.

Having arrived at the big building, Baek Yoonjun checked the gate first.

[Martial Alliance]

'I've come to the right place.'

Having confirmed that his destination was correct, Baek Yoonjun scanned the building from a secluded place.

'It's so huge, it's a building where a king could live.'

Baek Yoonjun was momentarily overwhelmed by the size of the building.

Baek Yoonjun, who was staring blankly at the building, came to his senses and carefully spread his senses.

'...There are so many people!'

As the building was large, there were many people, and he felt like he was going to lose his mind.

'For now, the martial artists I see are all third-rate or lower, so let's not be nervous and take a look.'

Baek Yoonjun chided himself and spread his senses.

Baek Yoonjun, who was scanning the building with his senses, felt a large amount of energy from the highest floor of the tallest building among the buildings.

'What is it? Why is the energy so large? For now, it doesn't seem like a person...'

Baek Yoonjun was flustered by the heterogeneous energy he was feeling for the first time.

'For now, since I'm not going to run into it, let's ignore it.'

Although an ordinary person might have shown interest in the unknown, Baek Yoonjun, the homebody introvert, immediately chose to avoid it.

'If it's a prison, it would be in a low place, right?'

Baek Yoonjun gave up on searching the high places and searched the low places.

From the first floor to the basement.

And so, Baek Yoonjun, who was quickly scanning with his senses.

'Found it!'

Having found Cheon Suhye, Baek Yoonjun immediately moved his feet.

Having reflected on the previous situation, Baek Yoonjun arrived at a building, performing his lightness skill even more stealthily.

'Is there only one entrance?'

In that building, he found a staircase leading down to the basement.

At the staircase, as if it were natural, there was an armed martial artist.

'Although the realm of martial artists is low, can I go in secretly?'

Baek Yoonjun stiffly and yet stealthily set foot at the entrance leading down to the basement.

"Didn't something just pass by?"

"Did you doze off again?"

After safely entering the entrance, Baek Yoonjun flinched at the conversation of the martial artists he heard from behind.

'I wasn't caught, right?'

Continuously glancing back, Baek Yoonjun, who had gone further inside, was able to find a row of prisons.

'Wow, it's dark.'

Although it was not difficult to secure a field of vision just because it was dark, the dark environment itself was burdensome for the mentally and physically weak Baek Yoonjun.

'But I can't light a fire either.'

Therefore, although he would usually light a fire right away when it was dark, since he had come in secretly, he could not light a fire.

Suppressing his rising tension, Baek Yoonjun moved forward.

'There are no people?'

The prison was so empty that he wondered if it was even being used.

Feeling that it was even more gloomy because it was empty, Baek Yoonjun continued to move forward.

And so, as he was moving forward.

'A light?'

He found that one prison was bright.

Baek Yoonjun carefully approached the bright prison.

As he approached, he heard a voice, so Baek Yoonjun stopped his feet for now and listened to the sound.

"Wahaha! Female hero! You said you came from Hwaeum County in Shaanxi?"

"That's right! Brother!"

"I heard the plum blossoms in Mount Hua near Hwaeum County are so beautiful."

"The plum blossoms of Mount Hua are a masterpiece."

"But I heard it used to be a rocky mountain with no plum blossoms."

"When I was growing up, it was already full of plum blossoms, so I don't know about that."

The voices of Cheon Suhye and the two men she had been arguing with were heard.

'They're so friendly! Why is the atmosphere in the prison so good?'

With a dumbfounded heart, Baek Yoonjun stealthily looked into the prison.

"I thought the martial artists of the alliance would be scary, but I guess not."

"That's right. They even set up a drinking table in the prison to tell us to make up."

Inside the prison, three people were exchanging drinks in a friendly atmosphere.

'They're having a party! They're having a party!'

Baek Yoonjun felt like he had lost out from worrying.

"Huh? Doctor Baek? What are you doing here?"

Having forgotten to hide his presence because he was so dumbfounded, Baek Yoonjun was discovered by Cheon Suhye, who was looking outside the prison just in time.

"Oh, is that Doctor Baek?"

"Doctor Baek, come and have a drink too!"

The two men also, having discovered Baek Yoonjun, beckoned friendly.

Baek Yoonjun was just dumbfounded.

It was dumbfounding that they were having a drinking party in a prison, but it was so dumbfounding that he was about to disappear when they told him to come in.

"A drink? Are you telling me to go into the prison?"

"Ah, I'm sorry."

Looking at the humans in the prison who answered at the same time, Baek Yoonjun pressed his forehead.

"Since there seems to be nothing wrong, I'll be going."

"Could it be that you came because you were worried about me? I'm sorry for worrying you. Please go safely, Doctor Baek."

Baek Yoonjun immediately turned his feet.

He wanted to leave as soon as possible because of the embarrassment of having worried for nothing, which was added to his sense of futility.

'I lost out for worrying.'

Since it was a path he had passed once before, Baek Yoonjun, who had come out of the prison entrance smoothly, immediately got on a nearby roof.

Baek Yoonjun, who was attached to the roof as stealthily as possible, looked at the prison and then turned his gaze.

The highest place of the largest building.

The unknown huge energy felt from that place.

'It's definitely not a person.'

Even if he tried not to mind it, his gaze continued to go to the huge and heterogeneous energy he was feeling for the first time.

'I don't know what it is, but let's not get involved and get out of here quickly.'

The moment Baek Yoonjun took his eyes off that place and was about to move his feet.

Woong.

A huge, formless energy suddenly came at Baek Yoonjun quickly.

"What?!"

Startled, Baek Yoonjun retreated, but the huge energy coming at him was faster.

"Aaaaaaah!!"

Although Baek Yoonjun let out a scream like a third-rate villain, since his body had already disappeared from the world, there was no one to hear.

"What? Where is this?!"

Although Baek Yoonjun was a homebody introvert to the core, so even if he was panicking like crazy on the inside, it rarely showed on the outside.

But for now, he was showing extreme agitation even on the outside.

Nothing had changed in the surroundings.

But a clear heterogeneous energy.

It was a feeling as if only he were cut off from the world.

'Can I get out?'

While flustered, Baek Yoonjun spread his senses, mobilizing all his capabilities.

The judgment he made was.

'It's almost impossible.'

The judgment Baek Yoonjun had made was almost impossible.

Since it was 'almost', it meant there was a possibility.

'If only I could rise to the second-rate! No, if only I could even imitate it for a moment.'

Baek Yoonjun, who had been agonizing over the realm of the second-rate for a very short time.

'Come to think of it, I haven't been able to rise until now, so it doesn't make sense for me to suddenly rise now, right?'

Feeling his mood sink rapidly, he carefully observed his surroundings.

Although it was full of heterogeneous energy, it was not harming him.

Then it seemed there was no need to take a risk.

Baek Yoonjun carefully and continuously scanned his surroundings.

And he found the place where the most heterogeneous of that heterogeneous energy existed.

'The place where I felt a heterogeneous energy before I was caught up in this phenomenon.'

The largest and highest place among the buildings of the Martial Alliance.

The energy was flowing out from that place.

'It looks like a person...'

Although the energy was clearly that of a person, something was strange.

Although it was an energy like that of a person, the energy was too faint to have caused this heterogeneous phenomenon.

It was like the energy of an ordinary person who had never learned martial arts or anything like that.

Baek Yoonjun, in a very uneasy mood, had no choice but to move his feet to that place.

'It would be safer to try to make contact with something that has the energy of an ordinary person than to try to force myself to step into the realm of the second-rate.'

Unlike before, moving inside the Martial Alliance was very easy.

Because no one was moving.

'I can feel life.'

Although Baek Yoonjun was still reluctant to deal with people, his gaze went to the heterogeneous sight.

It seemed as if people were frozen.

'No. To be precise, they are moving at an extremely slow speed.'

Feeling a slight sense of comfort in this heterogeneous space, Baek Yoonjun headed for the highest place of the largest building.

Of course, he did not enter the building but went straight up and then entered through the window there.

The first thing that caught his eye there was a person who was moving very slowly, just like the people outside.

'He looks like Brother Namgung, no, Brother Zhang.'

Baek Yoonjun briefly looked at the middle-aged man who resembled Zhang Sanfeng and then immediately turned his gaze.

The being that exuded the heterogeneous energy that Baek Yoonjun had felt.

There was an object like a broken stone tablet, and a man was sitting in front of it.

A neat attire, a tidy beard, and a feather fan held in his hand.

Although he was a man he had never seen before, for some reason, Baek Yoonjun had a familiar feeling from the man.

'He resembles that person, Zhuge Hyun.'

For some reason, the man in front of him greatly resembled the current Zhuge Hyun that Baek Yoonjun knew.

-Welcome.

The man smiled benevolently and greeted Baek Yoonjun.

His words were heard similarly to the technique that Baek Yoonjun had created, where a voice echoed in his mind.

"Who are you?"

Wary of the man, Baek Yoonjun asked for his identity.

Since it could provoke the opponent's wariness, he did not put his hand on his sword.

The man, as if he did not mind Baek Yoonjun's attitude at all, still smiled benevolently and answered Baek Yoonjun's words.

-I am not a great person to be called anyone. I am just a ghost of the Wu Hou's Eight Gates Formation Diagram.

(End of Chapter)