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The person in charge of the construction was a man named Du Jong[1], famous for building good houses in Jinan.

“I didn’t expect Young Master Ma to come in person like this.”

Although he had dealt with tough laborers all his life, at this moment, he was nervous. He was anxious, wondering if we had come for revenge because he had canceled the contract.

“When I didn’t come in person, false rumors started circulating.”

Du Jong said in a fluster:

“I’m sorry. The people who work on construction sites live day by day. So if things don’t proceed according to schedule…”

Ma Jeongsu raised his hand to stop him.

“I didn’t come to hear excuses.”

At this cold remark, Du Jong closed his mouth. He was being cautious, given who he was dealing with and the fact that he had canceled the contract.

Ma Jeongsu raised the promissory notes.

“Here, twenty thousand taels as a deposit. I’ve added ten thousand more than the original deposit, so don’t get swept up in rumors anymore and focus on the construction.”

“Right now…”

He couldn’t bring himself to say it was difficult. Ma Jeongsu was glaring at him as if he would kill him. Du Jong sighed and said:

“I understand. I’ll do my best.”

He had decided that he had no choice but to postpone other ongoing projects, even if it meant taking a loss. He really didn’t want to, but he had no choice.

“Hahaha. You’ve thought well.”

“Let’s start by drawing up the contract.”

Du Jong called someone to bring the contract.

“Please wait a moment.”

He left his seat for a moment. He probably went to deposit the promissory notes at a nearby money exchange. Twenty thousand taels was a large sum, equivalent to one-fifth of the total construction cost.

Ma Jeongsu stamped his seal and signed. He looked much happier than when he had been reluctant to sign the contract with the Night Merchants earlier.

After a while, Du Jong returned. His expression was dark.

“You’re back?”

He looked at Ma Jeongsu and spoke carefully.

“There seems to have been some mistake.”

“What do you mean?”

“The promissory notes you gave… they’re fake.”

“What?”

Ma Jeongsu was startled. I also pretended to be surprised and shouted:

“That’s nonsense!”

Du Jong looked back and forth between me and Ma Jeongsu and asked carefully:

“Do you really not know about this?”

I shouted loudly:

“Who do you think this person is, to use fake promissory notes? Besides, would he commit something that would be discovered so quickly? This matter would greatly tarnish the honor of the Heavenly Blade Sect.”

Du Jong said with relief. He seemed to have been afraid that we might have brought fake notes to cause trouble out of anger for canceling the contract.

“I thought so too. Let’s go together and check.”

We followed Du Jong out.

We went to a nearby Continental Money Exchange and confirmed that the promissory notes were fake.

It was revealed that 18,000 taels were fake, except for 2,000 taels. Only the 2,000 taels I had placed on top, in case they checked, were real.

Ma Jeongsu berated Du Jong.

“You switched them, didn’t you?”

“Oh no! Absolutely not!”

Du Jong fell prostrate, begging for his life.

I said to Ma Jeongsu:

“How could he have known in advance to prepare fake notes?”

Then, a suspicious gaze flew towards me.

“Why are you looking at me like that? You’re not suspecting me, are you?”

I looked at Ma Jeongsu with an expression of complete innocence.

Soon, Ma Jeongsu withdrew his suspicion. My attitude was too confident for him to think I had switched them, and he probably thought I wouldn’t have come all the way to Jinan with him if it was something that would be so obviously discovered.

“Could those Night Merchant bastards have given us fakes?”

“That must be it.”

“For something that would be discovered so quickly? They dared to scam me?”

“It’s probably not just their doing. Didn’t you say other successors were interfering with your work?”

“Ah! That’s right. These bastards! They keep mocking me until the end!”

Ma Jeongsu thought that the one who killed Si-gon had colluded with the Night Merchants.

“Aaaaargh!”

He screamed, unable to contain his anger.

Fearing he might harm Du Jong’s family, I said to Ma Jeongsu:

“If we don’t handle this properly, we might end up having to pay back the full hundred thousand taels.”

“What?”

“You stamped your seal and signed the loan agreement, didn’t you? So we should quickly return and check the remaining notes first. If there was any mistake, we need to correct it.

***

We hurriedly returned to Yang Minor Faction.

We took the remaining notes from the safe to the money exchange to check, but all the notes were fake.

Ma Jeongsu smashed another desk and had a fit again.

“I will never forgive them. I won’t let a single Night Merchant in Shandong live!”

“Of course you shouldn’t.”

“I’ll call everyone who can help me from the main sect. To hell with the successor test!”

At the center of that anger was the thought that he had been disrespected.

I wanted to tell him.

This is karma. You’ve lived disrespecting others much more than this. Those disrespects have finally returned to you.

Of course, even if I told him, he probably wouldn’t accept it.

“Bring me alcohol! Alcohol!”

I brought him alcohol. I brought a lot.

“Where’s that bitch? Where is she?”

“I haven’t seen her today.”

“Hmph! That rat-like bitch! Hiding like a ghost.”

Ma Jeongsu gulped down the alcohol straight from the bottle.

I went outside, making an excuse to bring some food.

She was in the corridor. I had met her earlier when bringing the alcohol too.

“Why didn’t you tell him I was here?”

“Well… as you can see, Young Master Ma’s condition isn’t good.”

Gratitude flashed in the woman’s eyes.

There was no need to say thank you. Considering the great realization she had given me on the way to Jinan, this didn’t even count as repayment.

***

And that night.

The drunken Ma Jeongsu was walking somewhere.

He was heading towards Song Clan Manor. As his intoxication increased, he thought of Song Hwa-rin and began to feel the desire to violate her.

Once the lust started, it kept growing. Her beautiful image wouldn’t leave his mind, and the blood rushing to his lower body wouldn’t subside.

He finally decided to go through with it.

He couldn’t endure the anger and pressure he had been experiencing lately.

Added to that was a feeling of “let whatever happens, happen”. At this rate, it was clear he would fail in the successor selection. If he couldn’t become the successor anyway, he would either be killed by the new successor or live an even more miserable life.

In the end, he made a decision he shouldn’t have. Of course, he had a plan. Even if he was a descendant of the Heavenly Blade Sect, he couldn’t handle the consequences of violating the daughter of the Song Clan Manor leader.

He would wear a mask, break in, and violate her. He planned to use an aphrodisiac he always carried. It was a powder that could be sprinkled lightly while she slept.

He justified this dirty decision.

“Damn bitch! You said you’d make me regret it?”

He was using the grudge he held from her words on the way to Jinan as an excuse.

“Arrogant bitch! Let’s see how you act when you’re drugged!”

His footsteps quickened.

At that moment, someone was blocking the road.

“Who are you?”

Ma Jeongsu didn’t recognize the opponent.

Of course not.

I was waiting, wearing a new mask.

I spoke coldly towards him.

“In this martial world, there are things you shouldn’t touch.”

It meant my father, it meant Song Hwa-rin, it meant the Shandong martial world, and it also meant Du Jong who had to make the contract forcibly earlier. It meant all the people he had trampled on.

But he needed to understand it this way:

“No one has survived after touching the Night Merchants’ money.”

Because that woman would be watching from somewhere.

“You bastard! Not content with giving me fake notes, you come looking for me? You son of a bitch, you’ve really done it now!”

Ma Jeongsu exuded killing intent and drew his sword. He was certainly a master. For a 25-year-old kid drunk on alcohol and lust to emit such qi, it was admirable.

I could feel anew the potential of the Five Great Clans of the Central Plains.

But that wasn’t enough to face me.

I could have killed him faster, but I was conscious of the eyes watching.

Clang clang clang clang clang!

The fierce fight with him continued.

I didn’t use the Soul-Reaping Asura Sword Arts or the White Moon Sword Technique. I faced him without using any forms. I imitated the sword techniques mainly used by assassins among the enemies I had faced in my past life.

It was a form solely for killing the opponent, without any flashiness.

In an instant, over fifty exchanges passed.

Just when I thought this should be enough, I properly put power and speed into my sword.

The two swords crossed.

Ma Jeongsu’s sword stabbed the air, but my sword pierced his chest.

Thud!

“Urrrgh!”

He looked down at the sword piercing his chest with bulging eyes. The pain was secondary. He was overwhelmed with fear. He had only stabbed others, never having been stabbed himself.

“…What… is this?”

I cruelly twisted the sword.

“Aaaaargh!”

Ma Jeongsu screamed in pain.

“It hurts! Please! Stop!”

Tears flowed from his eyes. It would be nice if they were tears of repentance, but they were tears of pain and fear. Tears of resentment.

“Please… I don’t want to die like this.”

You don’t need to feel resentful. This is the price you deserve to pay.

You might want to say that.

How hard it was to be born as the child of a concubine in the Heavenly Blade Sect. That you became a monster to survive.

But so what? Not everyone becomes a monster because of their environment. It’s just an excuse. Blaming your evil deeds on the environment.

Swish.

My sword, quickly pulled out, stabbed his neck again.

Thud!

Ma Jeongsu spat blood from his neck.

Swish.

Thud!

Swish.

Thud!

I quickly stabbed him several times, pulling out the sword each time. He had already died after the second stab, but I stabbed him multiple times. This was the Night Merchants’ way, after all.

Ma Jeongsu fell with a thud like a bundle of straw. A pool of blood quickly formed.

As I retrieved my sword and turned around, sure enough, she was watching me from a distant tree.

Cold eyes. Sharp presence.

She was certainly strong. I thought she might even be stronger than Si-gon. But she didn’t rush at me. If she had intended to, she would have intervened when the fight with Ma Jeongsu broke out.

Looking at her, I warned coldly:

“If you touch us, you’ll certainly die.”

After leaving those words, I immediately left the place.

The woman didn’t chase after me.

As I had expected, she was thoroughly an observer. And I saw it. As she picked up Ma Jeongsu’s corpse under her arm, she smiled faintly.

I immediately returned to my room, changed clothes, and put on my original human skin mask.

Somehow, I had a feeling she would come to see me before leaving.

Sure enough, about an hour later, she came to find me.

Tok.

A small pebble flew in through the window.

When I opened the window, she was standing in the courtyard. She must have left the corpse somewhere outside the wall.

Was it because we were facing a farewell? Or was there another feeling?

She looked at me with a somewhat complicated expression.

I thought that I might be the first person she had ever had a private conversation with in her life.

She didn’t say she was leaving, nor did she mention that Ma Jeongsu was dead.

Instead, she said quietly:

“My name is… Number Seven.”

It was the moment her identity as a secret weapon of some organization was revealed.

It must not have been easy for her to say her name was Number Seven. Especially for a woman. But she probably doesn’t know any other name besides that one.

My heart felt heavy and ached.

But without showing such emotions, I smiled brightly and said:

“That’s a good name.”

Her name is Number Seven and her identity is unknown. My name, Gal Pyo, is also fake, and this face is fake too. Everything was uncertain, but my encounter with her was more impressive and intense than anything before.

Her lips moved. She was about to say something but then gave up. She turned around without even a word of farewell.

“Wait.”

She stopped in her tracks as she was walking away.

“Why were you looking at the pond so intently?”

She turned to look at me and asked:

“I heard that lotus flowers bloom from the mud. Is that true?”

What she had been looking at wasn’t the carp, nor the moon reflected in the pond, but the lotus flowers.

“That’s what I’ve heard.”

“So it really is true.”

A faint smile appeared on her lips. It was the most pleasant and comfortable face I had seen from her so far.

With that conversation, she disappeared into the darkness.

Will I ever meet her again?

It was impossible to know.

Even if I never see her again, I won’t be able to forget the name Number Seven.

I stood there for a while, looking up at the autumn moon filling the night sky.

At that moment, in the distance, Jeong Yeo bowed his head respectfully to me from in front of the annex door.

I smiled at him.

You’ve worked hard too, Faction Leader Jeong.

With this, the storm that started when Ma Jeongsu came down has ended.

I know. The likes of Ma Jeongsu are just a drizzle compared to the real typhoon that’s coming.

I need to become stronger.

Because I’ll have to face even stronger and more vicious opponents in the future.