The Heavenly Sword Saint
The day Lady Cheongyeon's incident was resolved, the Sword Saint announced that he would stay with us for a while.
He explained that since his clan believed he had entered closed-door training before the Blood Alliance Summit, if he reappeared too soon, Jegal Jigang might grow suspicious.
But to me, it just sounded like the excuse of a doting father who didn't want to leave his daughter's side.
"You don't understand," he said. "In all my years, I've never seen a girl to match my Cheongyeon in wisdom, beauty, or martial talent. Jegal Seoyul may be skilled, yes—but next to Cheongyeon, she's nothing more than a firefly before the full moon."
The Sword Saint had cut into our conversation when Jegal Jigang's daughter was mentioned—the so-called Heavenly Sword Peak, Jegal Seoyul.
That Lady Cheongyeon's wisdom was extraordinary—everyone agreed.
But to say she surpassed Seoyul in both beauty and martial arts… that was a stretch.
"Ah, r-right."
When we smiled awkwardly and nodded, the Sword Saint thumped his chest in frustration.
"You don't believe me? Cheongyeon has not yet reached the peak realm simply because she has no interest in martial arts. Her curiosity has always been too broad. Since her teens, she's never trained with true dedication."
That didn't match what we had seen of her at the front lines, where she trained earnestly every day.
"Ah… yes."
"And that's not all. Right now her bangs hide her face, but her beauty is—"
"Father!"
Lady Cheongyeon suddenly appeared and shouted, startling him into silence.
"A-ah, Ch-Cheongyeon, I was only—"
She grabbed his arm and dragged him away.
"My father is wonderful in many ways, but sometimes his pride in me gets… excessive. Please forgive him."
A lovestruck fool of a Sword Saint… the image shattered the lofty legend in my mind.
Instead of a figure out of myth, he felt more like the old man next door.
Bi Sa-yeong muttered quietly:
"…I envy her."
And so did I.
All of us—myself, who had never known a father's warmth; Bi Sa-yeong, who had lost the master who'd raised her; Bae Jonggwan, whose father had died young; even Captain Seol Pung, who'd grown up in the mountains with only his grandfather—we were all starved for a father's affection.
To us, the sight of father and daughter openly cherishing one another stirred a deep longing.
But the Sword Saint didn't only show himself as a doting parent.
He was also thrilled to have met promising youths, and so he guided us one by one.
And when he had a sword in hand—ah, that was beyond imagination.
"Haap!"
Captain Seol Pung lunged, beast fists blazing, swinging with the power of a tiger's claw.
Bwooang!
But just as his strike came down, a single sword appeared before his arm—forcing him to freeze.
"!"
And in that instant of hesitation, the tip of the Sword Saint's blade was already at his throat.
"Urk!"
The Sword Saint smiled kindly.
"That makes ten times you've died already."
It had taken less than a quarter of a breath.
The mighty Captain Seol Pung looked like a child before him.
"Thank you, Master."
Bowing, Captain Seol Pung received his lesson.
"You are ready for the next stage. The wall before you is not of body, but of mind. Whatever troubles you, resolve it, and you will find the key.
"And your arts lean too much toward motion. That isn't bad, but movement without stillness becomes scattered. If you can master stillness within motion, you will surpass this wall—and perhaps the next."
Seol Pung's cultivation was already eighty years. The next wall was ninety. And beyond that, the transcendent barrier of one hundred years.
He spoke of it as though it were nothing. We were all struck dumb.
To receive the Sword Saint's teaching was worth years of training.
Snapping out of his daze, Seol Pung bowed again.
"Thank you! Thank you so much, Master!"
And he wasn't the only one.
The Sword Saint guided each of us in turn.
To me, he said:
"You are but a single step away from the peak realm. That step is the forging of Strong Qi (ganggi)."
That much I knew.
"But have you ever truly considered what ganggi is?"
"Eh? Isn't it condensed, hardened qi?"
"Most think so, yes. And so they try only to compress their qi tighter and tighter. But I do not believe that is ganggi. Qi is not ice—it is water. It flows freely, it takes any form. Tell me, how does water cut? Do you compress it until it turns solid?"
It sounded like a riddle.
But instinct told me—this was the most crucial question for my breakthrough.
Cut with water. Not with ice. With water.
How?
As I sank deep into thought, he simply smiled and moved on to the next person.
Nor did he limit his guidance to just our squad.
"If there are other young warriors who have reached the peak realm, bring them. If they wish, I will help them too. There are many to guide the first-class, but few who can teach the peak."
It was a chance to elevate the entire Thirteenth Division. Of course we agreed.
Our captain brought in Han Gyoseong, the Blue Wind Dragon of the Sword from Squad 1, and Sa Gunil, the Jeomchang Sword Dragon from Squad 2. Lady Na brought Tang Yeo-eun, the Tang Clan Sword Phoenix of Squad 3.
All swore secrecy and received the Sword Saint's guidance.
They were awestruck and overjoyed.
Only Squad 4's captain, Mayu-gyeom, did not.
It was I who went to fetch him, since I was the one he seemed to tolerate most.
Though even that felt strange—Mayu-gyeom, tolerating me.
But I never got to speak with him.
I found him sprawled out drunk—not even in his quarters, but in a corner of the training grounds.
"Drunk… in the middle of the day?"
The squad member who'd led me there gave a gloomy reply.
"He's been like this since yesterday. If you ask why, he just lashes out. If the vice-captain were here, she might talk to him, but… she's vanished too."
His words hit me like a bucket of ice water.
"What? Vice-Captain Mae Yeogyeong? Since when?!"
"Since last night. Honestly, she seemed exhausted lately… I figured she just needed time alone to think."
"I see!"
I cut him off and ran.
Mae Yeogyeong's missing? Around this time in my past life, she was killed by a blood ghost… Damn it! I was too focused on Lady Cheongyeon's affair, I ignored the two of them!
I sprinted off—then stopped, turned back, and demanded:
"Since when has Captain Mayu-gyeom been like this?" I asked.
"You mean the Captain? He only started drinking like this yesterday. But truth be told, he's been strange ever since the Blood Alliance Summit."
Since the Summit…
If that was true, then Mayu-gyeom's collapse wasn't entirely because of Lady Mae Yeogyeong.
Lady Cheongyeon's words suddenly came back to me.
That the Blood Demon might have whispered something to him.
But I still couldn't imagine it.
What could the Blood Demon have said to shatter someone as strong as Mayu-gyeom?
Could it have been something about Jeongajang, the one who led the Blood Demon into the Blood Cult, and the hidden secrets of Jeomchang Sect?
No—that would have taken far too long to explain in the short time they had.
And Mayu-gyeom didn't seem like someone who would be shaken so easily by mere history.
Then… could it have been about his father, Ma Won-il, the former sect leader? That he was alive? That he had been turned into the Blood Cult's puppet?
It was possible. I remembered how, in my previous life, the servants of the Seonwoo clan had been turned into puppets by the Black Blood Demon, Doodang.
The monster delighted in enslaving warriors and tormenting their families.
But no… rumor had it Ma Won-il had perished during the Blood War Tomb incident, buried beneath the mountain alongside countless others.
Could they have dug him out and made him into a puppet? Unlikely.
And even if it were true—would that alone have been enough to break Mayu-gyeom like this? I wasn't convinced.
My thoughts spiraled in confusion as I raced toward my squad. Then I shook my head hard, clearing it.
What mattered most right now was finding Lady Mae Yeogyeong.
If we were lucky, she might still be alive. But if she'd been missing since yesterday… chances were slim.
Back with my squad, I shouted:
"Vice-Captain Mae Yeogyeong of Squad Four has been missing since yesterday! I have a very bad feeling!"
My comrades had come to trust my instincts completely after everything we'd endured together.
Without hesitation, they began searching with me.
With the tracking expertise of Sak Muhun guiding us, it took less than a day to find her.
But she was already gone—drained of blood, her body shriveled like a corpse.
That same dawn, the very day I discovered Mae Yeogyeong's body, another squad member was drawn into danger.
Do Hee-yeong of Squad Five rose from her bed with a blank, dazed look, as if sleepwalking, and wandered outside.
The women sharing her room noticed her stir but only sighed.
She had been plagued by nightmares recently, waking in fright, or wandering outside in distress so often that they no longer thought it strange.
None realized she had left barefoot.
Do Hee-yeong walked straight out into the jungle, eyes clouded, muttering without pause.
"West… I must go west…"
She walked for a long while, past the Thirteenth Division camp, deep into the forest.
And then strange voices reached her ears, snapping her back to awareness.
"Kwahahaha! Brother, Lord Doodang was right again!"
"Indeed! He said if we waited until today, it would work out—and sure enough, Lord Black Blood Demon's ensorcellment is flawless!"
She froze in horror.
Before her stood Ji Mak and Gu Yojil, the surviving brothers of the Seven Freaks of the Double Scimitars, now known as the Two Freaks.
They leered at her.
"N-no… mmph!"
Before she could scream, they struck.
A mere second-class warrior like her was helpless before two peak masters.
They sealed her meridians instantly, leaving her paralyzed and weeping in terror.
Second Brother Gu Yojil licked his lips and said, "Shall we taste this one first, Brother?"
But Ji Mak snapped at him.
"Fool! Would you throw away gold for copper? The moment she vanishes, the whole plan collapses!"
"B-but only for a moment… I understand, Brother. Forgive me."
Rebuked, Gu Yojil lowered his head.
Ji Mak softened his tone.
"Girls like this, we can seize anytime. But bait to catch Tang Yeo-eun? That we cannot waste. And remember, Lord Doodang only granted us two Blood Puppets. Not a single one can be squandered."
"Yes, Brother."
They had lost five siblings trying to capture Tang Yeo-eun, and had sworn vengeance.
To them, the greatest revenge—and satisfaction—would be to claim her.
They had begged Doodang for aid, offering up their entire fortune.
And Doodang, traveling with the Blood Demon as his attendant during the Summit, had laid an enslaving suggestion upon Do Hee-yeong, the weakest-looking of the Thirteenth Division. He had also gifted the Two Freaks two Blood Puppets (hyeolgo)—living parasites of the Blood Cult's forbidden arts.
Now Ji Mak pulled a small vial from his robes, eyes gleaming with greed.
"Heheheh… at last, we'll put this to use."
He uncorked it carefully and forced Do Hee-yeong's mouth open, pouring its contents down her throat.
Helpless, she gagged as something soft and writhing slid down her gullet into her stomach.
Moments later, she lost consciousness.
The creature was a Blood Puppet, apex of the Blood Cult's soul-enslaving techniques.
Unlike ordinary enslavement arts, which could be broken with stronger, purer qi, a Blood Puppet could only be expelled by being torn from the body—and until then, it granted absolute control.
And the orthodox sects didn't even know such things existed.
Even if they did, they could never remove them.
Ji Mak, now marked as her master, released her meridians and asked:
"Which squad do you belong to?"
She answered blankly, "I… I am of Squad Five."
The brothers' faces fell.
Not Squad Three, not Tang Yeo-eun's.
They pressed urgently.
"Do you know Tang Yeo-eun well?"
She shook her head.
"No. Captain Tang speaks to no one often. The only person she sometimes confides in is Vice-Captain Myung Sa-hyeon."
The brothers exchanged a look.
"Then he's the one, Brother."
"Indeed. A shame to waste such a treasure on a man… but it can't be helped."
And so they began issuing their commands.
If their scheme was to succeed, it had to be carried out swiftly—before anyone discovered Do Hee-yeong had been enthralled.