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Two men entered the Wind Tavern. They were martial artists from the Alliance Protection Regiment, with Yang Cheong[1], the burly one with a kind face, and Myeong-do[2], the youthful one with good looks. They were loyal martial artists who were particularly devoted to Baek Pyo. They were truly Baek Pyo’s right-hand men.

They were the ones who tried the hardest to stop Baek Pyo when he was leaving, and he had to calm them down when they insisted on quitting along with him.

Baek Pyo looked at them and spoke as if scolding them.

“Leader? What if Leader Im hears this?”

Leader Im referred to Im Jung-tae[3], the former vice-leader who had become the new leader of the Alliance Protection Regiment.

Yang Cheong smiled and said,

“Leader Im also keeps talking about you. He says he misses you and often threatens to quit, saying he shouldn’t have taken the leadership position.”

Myeong-do nodded, confirming that Yang Cheong’s words were true.

Baek Pyo chuckled.

“That guy, really.”

During his time as the Alliance Protection Regiment leader, Baek Pyo was a respected leader among the group’s martial artists. Naturally, he had a good relationship with Im Jung-tae, who was the vice-leader at the time.

Not only Baek Pyo personally, but the Alliance Protection Regiment’s martial artists had an exceptionally strong bond. This was because the task of guarding the Alliance Leader was truly a difficult one.

It might seem like they were just casually chatting while guarding the gate, but the job of a guard was extremely challenging and difficult. Especially with the thought that the Alliance Leader’s life depended on them, the mental strain was several times greater than that of ordinary martial artists.

Baek Pyo smiled and said,

“Tell him it’s tough there, but it’s hell out here. Just say that even hardship is a blessing, and tell him to work hard.”

“Haha, he says he’ll drop by soon. You can tell him yourself.”

“Tell him he can take his time coming.”

After visiting once right after the tavern opened, Im Jung-tae hadn’t been able to find the time to come again.

But Baek Pyo wasn’t upset at all. He knew better than anyone how busy and demanding the position of Alliance Protection Regiment leader was. It was already grateful that he had come once at the beginning.

The two men brought their own alcohol and drank.

A moment later, when Baek Pyo brought some side dishes he had prepared, the two men spoke with serious expressions unlike their usual selves.

“Leader, we have something to tell you.”

Baek Pyo sat down in front of them, feeling tense inside.

“What is it?”

“We two, we want to quit.”

It was clear they weren’t joking.

“Why?”

“Well, the work is tough…”

That wouldn’t be the real reason. The work had always been tough since they first joined.

“And there’s no sense of fulfillment.”

This was the real reason.

Guard martial artists worked solely out of a sense of duty.

The pride of protecting someone. That’s what allowed them to work without sleep despite the low pay.

But they couldn’t find such worth in Ma Bong-gi.

They were trained to forget what they saw and heard. But how could they not have eyes and ears? While Ma Bong-gi was unsatisfactory on his own, they had also heard rumors that the Heavenly Blade Sect faction was causing disturbances all over the Central Plains.

Why should we protect such a person?

After struggling with this sense of doubt, they had finally made up their minds.

The two were particularly close to Baek Pyo, so they came to him first to convey their decision.

“Do you have any plans after leaving?”

When Baek Pyo asked, Yang Cheong grinned and said,

“Can’t we work as waiters here?”

Of course, it was a joke.

Myeong-do joined in on the joke.

“I’ll wash dishes in the kitchen.”

The two looked at each other and laughed heartily.

But Baek Pyo didn’t laugh.

When Baek Pyo looked at them seriously, the two stopped laughing.

Baek Pyo spoke quietly with a meaningful look.

“Do you really want to do it?”

The two were surprised and looked at each other. They could tell that Baek Pyo wasn’t talking about working at the tavern. There was no need for three people to work in such a small place. No, he wasn’t the kind of person who would suggest such work to them.

They didn’t ask what Baek Pyo was proposing.

Yang Cheong spoke without hesitation.

“We’ll do it.”

Myeong-do followed up,

“Just give us the order.”

Their eyes were still full of loyalty.

Baek Pyo smiled and said,

“This will probably be your last time as customers… Drink and enjoy yourselves to your heart’s content today.”

***

There are times when I think that I’m still a martial artist at heart after all.

I have such thoughts when evaluating women, and if I were to think about when a woman looks most beautiful, it would be right now.

Swish.

Song Hwa-rin’s sword flew towards my heart.

Of course, I’m not a pervert who finds women most beautiful when they’re trying to take my life.

What I mean is that I find women more beautiful when they’re displaying their martial arts.

And if it’s Song Hwa-rin, how much more so?

Those long, stretched legs, that slender waist, those perky breasts. That fantastic body and beautiful face.

Even if the Empress of Pleasure were to seduce me with her sensual nude body, it wouldn’t compare to her right now, gritting her teeth, drenched in sweat, thrusting her sword at me.

After dodging the incoming sword, I shouted,

“Once more, again!”

Song Hwa-rin began to display her swordsmanship again. The move she was performing now was exactly the counter-technique I had discovered.

She will face her master with this counter-technique.

“Again!”

“Once more!”

“Again!”

We repeated the same move dozens of times.

“You’ll be very nervous when it comes to the real thing. Nervousness leads to mistakes. The only way to prevent that is through practice.”

There’s no other way but to repeat until it becomes ingrained in the body. The human mind is very sensitive, and you never know what it might react to in the moment.

You might fall for an unexpected provocation from your opponent, or your mind might wander to an unexpected distraction.

But if the body remembers, it’s fine.

It’s okay if the body reacts, ignoring the mind. Even if your thoughts are doing suicidal things, it’s fine as long as your body reacts and survives.

I taught her rigorously.

Although I would be present when she faces her master, this wasn’t my battle. It was something she had to handle.

Once the move became ingrained in her body, I taught her one more thing.

“Even if your master counters the move and attacks, he will probably dodge.”

“Dodge?”

I nodded at her surprise.

“So you need to finish with a consecutive attack.”

I didn’t know whether Ho Yeon-nam was aware that there was a fatal flaw in the technique he taught. But with his level of skill, he would certainly be able to dodge.

“Just prepare for two reactions!”

The case where he knew and the case where he didn’t. I could predict how he would react.

Our training continued late into the night.

Around midnight, she was completely exhausted. This must have been the first time she had trained so hard.

I sat down next to her as she lay on the ground, panting.

“Good work.”

At my words, she looked up at the night sky and said,

“Somehow, it feels different from the training I’ve done until now.”

“That’s because your training until now has been confined within a frame.”

“Frame? What frame?”

She raised her body. Although she was full of fatigue, her eyes were clearer than ever. It was that state where a person’s mind becomes clearer when they’re extremely tired.

“It’s the frame your master created for you. A frame where your body and mind become satisfied when you train up to a certain point. A frame where it becomes difficult if you go beyond that. Do you know what else we call that?”

“What?”

“Limits.”

“Ah!”

“You’re feeling something new because you’ve surpassed that limit today. We often say we need to surpass our limits, but we don’t really know our own limits. We vaguely think that we should just try harder, right?”

She nodded at my words. That’s exactly what she must have thought.

“But limits don’t exist externally. It doesn’t mean there’s a line or rope somewhere that you need to cross.”

“Then where are they?”

“They’re within yourself. Your usual behavior, habits, thoughts. Those themselves are the limits. To break limits, you don’t just need to try harder, but the person themselves needs to change. It means your actions, thoughts, everything needs to change.”

“Ah!”

She fell into thought for a moment.

I gave her plenty of time to organize her thoughts. This is the most crucial moment for a martial artist.

This moment can sometimes become the time when a martial artist gains an insight that can completely change their life.

Eventually, she turned to me and said,

“I might not understand completely, but I think I get it a little.”

“That’s enough. You worked hard today. You were excellent.”

She smiled proudly, drenched in sweat.

“Keep practicing the move you learned today whenever you have time. We’ll be meeting your master in a few days.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

As I stood up, I added one last thing.

“Never forget. On that day, what you should trust is neither me nor your mind. It’s your body that remembers the training you’ve done.”

***

I immediately infiltrated the Shandong Night Merchants.

With my inner energy now almost reaching the ninth level, none of those guarding the Night Merchants could detect my movements.

I had a feeling that my connection with the Night Merchants wouldn’t end easily, and now I was getting entangled with them again.

Two people were conversing in the office of Ya-cheon, the leader of the Night Merchants.

They were Ya-cheon and his right-hand man, Gu-cheol. This was the same Gu-cheol who had killed Si-gon of the Heavenly Blade Sect earlier.

“Surely he’s not failing to come because he doesn’t know the way? That bastard must be looking down on us, thinking he’s from one of the Four Great Families of the Central Plains.”

The Night Merchants had asked the Ho Yeon Clan for help, and Ho Yeon-nam had come down. But even after arriving in Shandong, Ho Yeon-nam hadn’t come to see them.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s not like we’ve only dealt with the arrogance of those old fools from the orthodox sects once or twice.”

“But isn’t the situation different this time? We’re dealing with Yeom Hwa, the Slaughterer of the Heavenly Blade Sect.”

“Hmm.”

Ya-cheon’s groan conveyed his worry.

“I’m concerned they might have other intentions.”

“Other intentions?”

“I mean, what if they’re just dawdling around, intending to pocket the money? Didn’t we agree to pay them two hundred thousand taels to handle this matter?”

This was the amount the Ho Yeon Clan had demanded. They refused to get involved in this matter unless it was for this amount.

That wasn’t all. They had to pay another fifty thousand taels separately to the Jiangxi Night Merchants who had connected them with the Ho Yeon Clan. The Ho Yeon Clan was based in the Jiangxi area and had some sort of relationship with the Jiangxi Night Merchants. The Jiangxi Night Merchants had acted as a sort of matchmaker.

So the total amount of money involved was two hundred and fifty thousand taels.

It was incalculable how long it would take to earn that much money.

‘Still, it’s better than losing our lives.’

In this situation, Ho Yeon-nam, who was said to have come from the Ho Yeon Clan, hadn’t shown his face even after arriving in Shandong.

“We should have just handled this ourselves.”

Ya-cheon shook his head vigorously at Gu-cheol’s words.

“Your hidden weapons won’t work against an expert like Yeom Hwa!”

“If we all rush at him at once…”

“You’ll all die at once. Where is the Slaughterer now?”

“He’s staying at the Myeongsu Mansion with those called the Five Friends of the Heavenly Blade.”

“Are you keeping a close watch?”

“We’re watching him in double and triple layers. But there’s something I’m curious about.”

“What is it?”

“Why is that Slaughterer holed up in the Myeongsu Mansion? If he’s targeting us, why doesn’t he come here right away?”

Ya-cheon narrowed his eyes and said,

“Because he’s not here to assassinate me.”

“What?”

“He’s here to take revenge on me. He wants to let everyone know about this, not just in Shandong but throughout the Central Plains. The Slaughterer Yeom Hwa has come to destroy the Shandong Night Merchants, so watch closely. He’s gathering spectators and setting the stage. In the end, he wants to execute us publicly in front of everyone.”

Gu-cheol frowned at Ya-cheon’s words.

“But we didn’t even kill Ma Jeongsu, did we? I’ll go and explain.”

“Would they believe us? It’s already too late.”

When they killed Si-gon of the Heavenly Blade Sect, things had already become as complicated as they could get.

“I’ll take responsibility and eliminate him.”

“Stop talking nonsense and prepare to go out.”

“Where are you going?”

“To meet Ho Yeon-nam. If he won’t come to us, we should go to meet him.”

The only ones they could trust now were the Ho Yeon Clan. He needed to escape and somehow turn this fight into a battle between the Ho Yeon Clan and the Heavenly Blade Sect.

“Why do you think he’s dawdling? He probably wants us to give him something extra.”

Ya-cheon manipulated a few books on the bookshelf behind him in a specific order. The bookshelf opened, revealing a secret door.

He made Gu-cheol wait outside and entered.

A moment later, Ya-cheon came out again.

In his hand was a thick leather pouch. He tapped the pouch and said,

“That bastard! He might despise and dislike us, but he won’t dislike this!”

The two left the room.

A moment later, a carriage quietly left the Night Merchants’ quarters.

I was clinging to the wall of the building, watching this scene. The window next to me was the window of the room where Ya-cheon had been conversing.

I had overheard all their conversation and saw Ya-cheon go through the secret door to fetch the money.

There must be a safe or a secret storage inside. The fact that he went in there in front of Gu-cheol means that there must be a mechanism that only Ya-cheon can open.

After staring at the empty room for a moment, I turned my head.

What I need to focus on now is not the money, but their movements.

Money shouldn’t become the goal. As always, money should be the spoils that naturally follow when you achieve what you set out to do.

I leapt in the direction where the carriage had disappeared.

A guard on duty glanced up at the sky.

I, who had crossed the sky of the training ground like a bird, had already vanished from his sight.