All kinds of beautiful plants and flowers surrounded a large pond in a garden. In the center of the pond was an elegant pavilion.

A woman was sitting in the middle of the pavilion, staring blankly at the garden.

It was an artificial garden.

Although they tried to make it look as natural as possible, they couldn’t hide the touch of human hands.

“It’s well made, just like me.”

She too hadn’t learned martial arts naturally, nor had she built up her accomplishments. She was forcibly created by someone.

Of course, she willingly took advantage of that environment to improve her accomplishments. Without that experience, she wouldn’t be who she is today.

Her name was So Yeowol.

So Yeowol stared at the garden without moving, as if she were a stone statue.

She only moved when she felt someone approaching from behind.

Someone was walking on the bridge leading to the pavilion.

She was a beautiful middle-aged lady accompanied by four attendants.

The middle-aged lady, adorned with all kinds of fancy jewelry, suddenly stopped walking and looked at So Yeowol.

Her expression became fierce.

“Why are you here?”

Her voice was booming.

The look in her eyes as she looked at So Yeowol was full of hostility, as if she were looking at a sworn enemy.

So Yeowol was a little surprised by the unexpected appearance of the lady. But she soon returned to her original calm expression.

“Have you come out?”

“Have I come out? Do you think you have the right to speak to me like that?”

“There’s no reason I can’t.”

“What?”

At So Yeowol’s calm response, the lady’s eyebrows shot up to the sky, a look so full of hostility.

If looks could kill, So Yeowol would no longer be alive. That’s how much venom and murderous intent filled the lady’s gaze.

An ordinary person might have been intimidated by such a glare, but it wasn’t enough to shake So Yeowol’s heart.

So Yeowol calmly spoke as if unaffected.

“If you wish to rest here, I’ll step aside. So, please calm your anger.”

“You are truly insane, what right do you have to say that you will make concessions to me?”

“Your heart is filled with too much anger. It would be best to calm down. Mother!”

“Who’s your mother?”

The lady screamed angrily.

At her angry shout, the leaves rained down, and the fish that swam in the pond ducked into the rocks in alarm.

However, So Yeowol remained calm.

“I don’t want to call you mother either. But since it’s his command, what can I do? Please understand.”

“You must be quite skilled at flattery. You wicked girl!”

“Thanks to you.”

“What?”

“Thanks to you, I’ve become like this. That’s why I’m always grateful to you. I’m constantly thinking about how I can repay your kindness.”

“You, you?”

The lady’s face turned red.

So Yeowol looked at the lady with a cold smile on her lips.

In the past, the lady was so scary.

When she got angry, So Yeowol would cower, and when she raged, So Yeowol would be too scared to breathe. But after a long time, the lady’s anger seemed like nothing.

It might be because So Yeowol had grown, but she didn’t know if it was because the lady hadn’t changed at all.

She remained exactly the same as in So Yeowol’s memories. She hadn’t grown at all. That’s why she looked even more ridiculous.

The lady spoke to her escorts.

“What are you doing? Make that insolent girl kneel down quickly. I’ll punish her myself.”

At her command, the escorts looked at each other’s faces.

A troubled expression appeared on their faces.

It was clear they were hesitating.

However, they had to follow the lady’s orders.

As they approached So Yeowol, they spoke.

The leader of the attendants said,

“We have no choice but to do what we are ordered to do, so please understand.”

“Understand?”

“You know, we cannot disobey the command.”

For a moment, a sinister smile appeared on So Yeowol’s lips.

That eerie smile caused the leader’s body to freeze.

So Yeowol murmured,

“A dog obeys its master’s command, so I can’t say anything about that. But that doesn’t mean there’s no responsibility.”

“shit!”

Feeling the unusual atmosphere around So Yeowol, the leader of the attendants motioned to the others.

They rushed towards So Yeowol with all their might.

“Yah!”

“Chaa!”

Swords were drawn from their waists.

Four straight swords flew out, ready to slice through her entire body.

Until then, So Yeowol hadn’t moved. It seemed as if she had no intention of avoiding the attack.

She looked at the flying swords with half-closed eyes.

“Whoo!”

So Yeowol moved just before the swords touched her body.

Swoosh!

She raised her pale hand and waved it.

It looked carefree, as if she was chasing away a mosquito or a fly. But what happened next was not so peaceful.

Puff, puff, puff, puff!

With a faint sound, the attendants swinging their swords suddenly fell to the ground with their eyes rolled back.

There were no screams.

Like puppets with their strings cut, the attendants all collapsed to the floor at once, never to move again.

Barely visible to the naked eye, tiny silver needles were embedded in their foreheads.

The needles were as fine as cow hair.

The needles were extremely poisonous, and in an instant, the attendant’s complexions turned pale. It was a typical effect of poisoning.

“W-what?”

The lady was startled and retreated hesitantly.

She never expected that So Yeowol, whom she had so blatantly disregarded, would possess such a terrifying secret technique.

“Y-you?”

She stuttered, unable to properly finish her sentence.

So Yeowol glanced at the fallen men on the floor and approached the lady.

As So Yeowol advanced, the lady retreated.

So Yeowol’s smile grew colder.

Seeing that smile, the lady felt a sharp pain in her chest, as if she had been stabbed with a dagger.

So Yeowol opened her mouth.

“Mother! Oh, I know you don’t like to hear it, but there’s no other proper title, so please understand.”

“Shut up!

“I know you hate me for being a concubine’s daughter. But selling me into slavery right after my birth mother passed away was too much. Especially to a slave trader who sold me to the Blood Shadow Group, where I had to be raised as an assassin. Do you have any idea what I went through in that sunless underground dungeon?”

“How could I know that?”

“Thank you, Mother.”

“What?”

“Thanks to you, I was able to nurture my poison skills. I even gained this useful talent for killing people. That place was the perfect training ground for me to hone myself.”

The lady’s movement halted abruptly as she was pushed back by So Yeowol’s momentum. Her face was full of shame.

The fact that she was being pushed back by So Yeowol, whom she had belittled, made her feel humiliated.

The lady yelled angrily.

“Why didn’t you just die then? Or if you survived, why didn’t you hide somewhere out of my sight? Then we wouldn’t be so uncomfortable with each other!”

“I don’t know if you’re uncomfortable, but I’m not uncomfortable at all. You have no idea how happy I am to see your face again.”

“You wretched girl!”

“That’s the best compliment for me. Just wait, I’ll show you what a real wretch is like.”

“Shut up!”

The lady swung her hand towards So Yeowol’s cheek as if to shake off her fear, but her palm never made contact.

“Enough.”

A cold voice accompanied the lady’s halted action.

A cold sensation was felt around the lady’s neck.

A dagger was pressed against her throat.

The owner of the cold dagger was Song Cheonwoo.

He had silently appeared like a ghost behind the lady.

“You, you? How dare you…”

“Please mind your manners.”

Song Cheonwoo pressed the dagger closer.

The lady’s complexion turned pale.

“This wretched kid…”

“Feel free to insult me, but refrain from doing so to her. As you know, I’m a wretched man, so you never know what I might do.”

Song Cheonwoo’s tone was very polite. However, the meaning behind his words wasn’t so gentle.

Song Cheonwoo removed the dagger from the lady’s throat and approached So Yeowol.

The lady, with a humiliated expression, turned her body and left, staring at So Yeowol and Song Cheonwoo.

So Yeowol looked at the lady’s retreating figure with a cold gaze.

“Even though I would have found her eventually, she still came looking for trouble.”

The lady was the mistress of this vast estate.

Apart from the estate’s master, she wielded nearly absolute power. But that was only true up until a few years ago.

Until she was sold to a slave trader, So Yeowol had been nothing more than a powerless young girl. But now, after enduring years of hardship, she had become a sharp, well-honed blade.

She could have killed the lady at any moment if she wanted to. But she hadn’t, because she still had to be somewhat mindful of the estate’s master.

The man who had given her half of his blood.

He was the cold-blooded one who knew that she had been sold out by the noblewoman, and yet looked the other way.

Part of her wanted to rip his head off right now, but she had to admit she wasn’t capable of it yet.

That was the reason she had been enduring it.

So Yeowol looked at Song Cheonwoo.

His expression was noticeably hardened.

“Relax your face. It’s not a big deal… That woman is nothing now.”

“It’s not because of her.”

“Then why?”

“Pyo Wol!”

“Pyo Wol? Why him?”

“It seems like he’s in Guizhou Province.”

“Are you saying he escaped Sichuan province while evading our surveillance?”

So Yeowol’s voice naturally rose.

“It seems so.”

“Tell me for sure.”

“We’ve completely lost contact with the men we’ve placed along the roads in southern Sichuan.”

“Are you sure?”

“We haven’t had a regular report from them for days now.”

“Hmm!”

Only then did So Yeowol’s expression become serious.

It was the intelligence network that she had painstakingly built.

The lack of regular reports meant that something was seriously wrong. If there was even a single survivor, there would definitely be a report.

If there were no reports yet, it meant that the information network in southern Sichuan had completely collapsed.

Song Cheonwoo continued to speak.

“And there was a clash between absolute masters in Guizhou Province.”

“Absolute masters? Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. The downtown area of Yueqing were destroyed by their fight. It’s impossible without possessing the power of an absolute master.”

“So?”

“I think one of them might be Pyo Wol.”

“Why do you think so?”

“It’s a hunch.”

“A hunch…”

If someone else had said this, she would have doubted it. But knowing how sharp Song Cheonwoo’s intuition was, she couldn’t laugh it off.

“Yueqing’s downtown area was destroyed, you say?”

“That’s right.”

“Who’s close to Yueqing?”

“ManSlaughter is there.”

“Can he move?”

“Do you want to use him?”

“If we can…”

“I’ll try to find a way.”

“Hurry up!”

“Understood.”

Despite Song Cheonwoo’s response, So Yeowol did not relax her stern expression.

“Pyo Wol is coming, you say?”