Shadow Unit
Sak Muhun was dumbfounded.
His opponent meant to counter him with stealth techniques?
Against him—who had worked in the shadows for nine years?
If there was one advantage to joining the Shadow Unit, it was that the Martial Alliance had poured out the very best martial arts that he never could have even glimpsed before—without restraint.
Internal cultivation methods, sword techniques, lightfoot arts, and of course, stealth techniques.
The assassination arts he had mastered came from Jo Usun, the famed assassin once ranked among the top five in all history, known for his Blood-Killing Method of the Disguised Garb.
And now, before his eyes, someone dared to challenge him with mere stealth? He could only find it absurd.
Sak Muhun melted into the shadows, vanishing without a trace.
He intended to teach this fool—who dared confront him with stealth—what the real thing was.
But as he slid silently through the darkness, searching for his opponent's presence, he found nothing.
He could sense snakes, animals, the faintest of life signs—but not a single trace of a man.
Perhaps his opponent, too, had been trained as an assassin.
Sak Muhun moved even more quietly, his mind calculating.
"This might drag on. Have I already lost the woman after all?"
While Sak Muhun misjudged Seonu Jin's origins, the latter hadn't moved an inch from his starting position.
The reason Seonu Jin could remain undetected was because he had mastered the assassination art Heaven-Slaying Method of Muyeongsal (Invisible Kill), a technique once wielded a hundred years ago by one of the greatest assassins in history.
Moreover, the ultimate secret of the Flying Wind Lightfoot (Cheonpung Shinbeop) he'd learned from Bi Sa-yeong allowed him to merge with the wind itself.
Even so, compared to Sak Muhun—who was not only a peak master but had lived as a professional assassin for years—his stealth could not truly measure up.
In experience and realm, he was outmatched.
That was why, unlike Sak Muhun who prowled about searching, Seonu Jin stayed perfectly still, like a corpse.
Of course, this was far from the wisest choice.
If he stayed motionless, he couldn't locate Sak Muhun. And once Sak Muhun spotted him, the fight could end in an instant.
But Seonu Jin wasn't worried.
Because even if he didn't discover Sak Muhun—others would.
"I'm counting on you, pretties."
Having raised the Three-Colored Vipers, he knew: stealth techniques did not work on certain snakes.
For reasons unknown, snakes could always sense the presence of humans or animals, light or dark.
He didn't know it was because they detected body heat, but that didn't matter.
What mattered was that the Three-Colored Vipers he'd brought back from the Poisonous Forest had already begun to target the enemy.
Shhhht!
"!"
Sak Muhun started in alarm as snakes darted toward him like thrown daggers.
Stealth restricted sudden movements; he had nearly been bitten.
He barely dissolved his stealth and leapt aside to avoid the attack.
But that was only the beginning.
From every direction, snakes came flying at him.
Shhhht! Shhhht!
"Tch!"
He swung his sword, cleaving them apart.
Shhhk!
"Hissss!"
"Ssshhh!"
In the contest of stealth, he had lost.
He had failed to detect his opponent's position, while his opponent had forced him into the open.
But losing in stealth didn't mean losing the fight.
Sak Muhun sharpened his focus like a blade.
If his enemy was truly an assassin, he wouldn't waste this chance.
Sure enough—among the snakes came the hiss of thrown weapons.
"I've got you!"
He hurled himself toward the direction of the projectiles.
Unless equal in skill, the hidden weapons of one not yet at peak master realm posed no threat to him.
But he didn't realize it yet—
Whereas earlier he had instinctively dodged projectiles, now he was cutting them down with his sword.
Shhhk!
Clang! Clang-clang!
He slashed down all the incoming weapons like lightning.
And then he noticed—mixed among them were strange leather pouches.
Slice!
"!?"
His blade cut one apart.
From it spilled a flood of writhing insects.
Chrrrsshh!
"What?!"
It had been a perfect feint.
With his momentum at full speed and the distance so close, there was no way to evade.
He clenched his eyes shut and spun his body in a desperate whirl, flinging the crawling swarm away.
Thud-thud-thud!
Stinging pains erupted all across his face.
Panic seized him.
He clawed at his face, shaking off the insects. The pain alone told him something was very wrong.
When he looked at his hand, several insects still clung tight, biting and stinging with hooked fangs and tails.
They were venomous insects.
Seonu Jin had made them into hidden weapons after capturing them in the Poisonous Forest.
Sak Muhun swallowed hard.
Until now, it had been about completing the mission.
But now—his life itself was at stake.
A burning numbness spread rapidly across his face.
Shhhht!
More snakes darted at him.
But now, he dared not slash them—what if they carried more?
He had to dodge.
Yet he knew all too well.
Moving his body like this would only quicken the spread of the poison.
Even trying to suppress it with inner power was useless—he had been bitten in too many places.
If he blocked circulation to resist the poison, he'd be immobilized.
He was trapped.
Sak Muhun ground his teeth.
Time was running out.
He had to take an antidote or enter meditative healing immediately.
But to do that, he'd have to first get rid of both enemy and snakes.
Desperately, he swung his sword again, hacking down serpents.
And again, among them—more leather pouches flew.
Shhhht!
"Urgh!"
This time, half-prepared, he evaded before the swarm engulfed him.
But counterattacking in that direction was impossible.
His vision blurred.
Was it blindness—or swelling eyelids shutting out sight? He couldn't tell.
His whole face was numb.
He realized the limit was near.
Before his sight vanished entirely, before the poison consumed him—he had to escape.
He tensed, ready to flee—
Then Seonu Jin's voice rang out.
"Hey, did you know?"
He snapped toward the sound.
Through his fading vision, he caught sight of the man, standing on a tree branch.
Not too far. If he leapt now, his lightfoot should catch him.
"Who else do you think knows you're from the Martial Alliance? Just me? My squadmates? Or perhaps the Division Leader who handed you our schedules?"
At those words, a chill raced down Sak Muhun's spine.
He even knew about the meeting with the Division Leader? Could it be the Division Leader himself was the true traitor?
Then that seemingly useless, bumbling act—had it all been a disguise?
Shhhht!
Another snake came flying—he hastily cut it apart.
Shhhk!
Then Seonu Jin's voice came again, from a different place.
"I really wonder—what kind of heart could give an order to kill the soldiers who've sacrificed their lives to hold the frontlines against the Demonic Cult?"
Cold dread sank into him.
His senses had dulled so much he couldn't even track the man's movements anymore.
He thought that if things continued like this, he might not even be able to win in a direct clash.
He had to end it—now.
"How thoughtless must you be to follow such an order without question? Hm? What makes you any different from the Demonic Cult's fiends? The only difference I see is that the fiends eat only people—while you devour everything else as well!"
The man kept shifting his position as he spoke.
Just once. He only needed one opening.
At that moment, another snake flew at him.
And this time, the serpent clamped down on Sak Muhun's leg.
"Urgh!"
He groaned, collapsing to one knee.
As if he could no longer endure.
In that instant, Sak Muhun exposed himself completely.
But his mind, kneeling though his body was, had sharpened into a razor's edge.
The truth was—the place where the snake had bitten was padded with thick leather beneath his trousers. He had allowed it to bite, feigning weakness, waiting for the opponent to approach.
He didn't need much.
As long as the enemy stepped within three jang (yards)…
Then the man's voice came.
"Is this the end?"
And the figure finally began to advance.
Sak Muhun gauged the distance with his sharpest remaining sense—his ears.
Five jang.
Four jang.
Three jang!
Pahng!
With all his strength, he hurled himself forward.
He thrust with a desperate stab, driving the sword's azure aura like a spear straight into the man's chest.
Through his fading vision, he saw the blade pierce into the figure's torso.
Pook!
That's what it sounded like.
But it was only Sak Muhun's illusion.
What he stabbed was Seonu Jin's afterimage. The real Seonu Jin had already slipped aside, his black blade Mukrang flashing toward Sak Muhun's neck.
Shaak!
Seonu Jin had already anticipated this. From the moment he'd observed Sak Muhun's movement technique, he knew that at a distance of three jang, a desperate thrust would come.
So he had feigned stepping within that range, then unfolded the Thousand Winds Steps, letting the strike flow past like petals borne on the breeze.
No matter how mighty a peak master's strike, if it was perfectly anticipated and countered—especially by a master of movement arts like Seonu Jin—it could not prevail.
Seonu Jin brought his blade down on the man's neck without hesitation.
Even a peak master could not survive this.
Those swollen, blinded eyes could no longer even see him.
But the sword never finished its arc.
Clang!
"Would you hold a moment?"
A man in blue robes, middle-aged, appeared as if from thin air, blocking Seonu Jin's sword with his own.
Seonu Jin reeled in shock at the man's sudden appearance—like he had stepped out from the very air.
But he clenched his teeth.
He couldn't afford to gape.
He immediately raised his sword to counterattack.
"?!"
But it wouldn't move.
Mukrang seemed glued to the man's blade, as if bound.
It was the legendary technique known as Absorbing Force Lock (Heupjagyeol).
Seonu Jin couldn't even fathom the level of mastery required.
Then, from behind the middle-aged man, a voice called out.
"Seonu Gongja, this is my father."
He turned in surprise—Ha Cheongyeon stood there, smiling.
Seonu Jin stared at her blankly.
"…Your father?"
He looked back at the man in blue, who now regarded him with a satisfied smile.
Ha Cheongyeon, in truth, had already written to her father during her leave.
Unlike the letter she'd entrusted to Jegal Jigang, this one included something more.
She told him that if Jegal Jigang failed to deliver her message, it would mean the Martial Alliance itself was behind everything.
In other words, all this had been Ha Cheongyeon's way of testing Jegal Jigang.
She had also asked her father to come to the frontlines.
If she and her squad couldn't resolve things themselves, she would rely on his power.
For her father was a man who, though he might not fight the Blood Demon head-on, possessed the ability to render almost any dangerous situation safe.
So she hadn't told her comrades about him, and she had asked her father to simply watch from nearby unless things grew dire.
Now that everything had been resolved without his intervention, Ha Cheongyeon asked her father:
"How did I do?"
He nodded with a pleased smile.
"Splendidly. That was more than enough."
His words lacked a subject—what exactly had been splendid, and what exactly was enough.
Meanwhile, Ma Yugyeom had spent days in torment before finally reopening the box left to him by the Blood Demon.
Inside lay elixirs, poisons, and a thin manual.
Truthfully, he had already opened it on the very first day.
But unable to bring himself to swallow the elixirs or unfold the manual, he had closed it again.
Now, after several days, he looked once more.
He held the elixir in his hand, staring at it. Then, almost against his will, he opened the manual.
He had meant only to skim it.
But once he began, he could not close it.
His eyes were glued to the contents.
It contained no martial arts of the Demonic Cult.
Instead, it held miscellaneous techniques—notes the Blood Demon himself had selected and written down.
Feeling slightly less guilty that it wasn't Demonic Cult martial arts, Ma Yugyeom kept reading.
He thought, as long as I don't practice it, it should be fine.
The very first entry described a way to avoid qi deviation by using poisons when one's inner energy was unstable—exactly what Seonu Jin's group had once heard from Elder Seok Gyeongdal.
Ma Yugyeom had always wondered—why, despite relying on qi absorption for their cultivation, did the Demonic Cultists not fall to madness?
And so, he found himself reading intently.
He even checked the poisons stored in the box.
The second entry was about Qi Absorption Arts—absorbing another's essence to increase one's own cultivation.
The hallmark of the Demonic Cult.
Yet it wasn't as grand as the legendary Great Absorption Method.
There was no mention of absorbing inner energy just by touching someone. Instead, it described using it during intercourse, or by drinking blood.
Still—because of this very practicality—Ma Yugyeom could not help but take it seriously. Since the fall of Mount Jeomchang Sect, he had been plagued by the lack of elixirs to fuel his training.
The third entry drew his attention even more.
It was about Suggestion Arts.
Not mind-control like Soul-Seizing Arts, but leaving powerful suggestions in someone's mind—nudging them to act as if by their own will.
Because the target believed their actions entirely their own, it seemed even more useful.
Ma Yugyeom imagined—if he could plant such a suggestion in Sa Gunil, might the man, by his own will, decide to restore Mount Jeomchang Sect?
But then, Ma Yugyeom let out a hollow laugh.
What use would that be now?
And could he really bring himself to use this—even if it wasn't technically Demonic Cult martial arts?
He also read the warnings. Unless one had high mastery, it only worked when the target's mind was open—or utterly broken.
Which meant it would never work on someone like Sa Gunil.
But then, an errant thought crossed his mind.
What if he used it on her…?
He gave another bitter laugh.
He didn't even know where his thoughts were leading anymore.
He no longer knew what to live for—or how to live.
All he knew for certain was this: the old him, who had once devoted himself to restoring Mount Jeomchang Sect, could never return.
With a hollow smile that had become habit, Ma Yugyeom stared into empty space, his eyes vacant.