Chapter 418: Chapter 418

A slack jaw.

Eyes wandering with nowhere to settle.

Hands hovering awkwardly in the air, unsure of what to do.

A heartbeat so violent it sounded as though the heart might leap out of the chest.

People the world over get blindsided for all sorts of reasons, but the reaction after being blindsided is largely the same.

And—

“Why so surprised?”

“……Hkh!”

This cookie-cutter reaction was always fresh, no matter how many times I saw it.

‘Exhilarating……!’

Even the question they managed to stammer out after a moment of shock was predictable.

“H-how?!!”

The degree of surprise varied from person to person.

But the pattern held: people tended to be far more rattled when they had been thoroughly convinced their cover was perfect.

‘To be fair, they did put in some effort.’

They had carefully selected Wudang disciples who had never once crossed paths with me, and dressed them meticulously in the Murim Alliance’s official scholar’s robe and guard warrior’s uniform.

On top of that—though I had no idea how they had managed it—even the carriage they had brought was the Murim Alliance’s official diplomatic carriage.

And yet.

“Sloppy.”

At that single word I tossed out, their eyes shook even more violently.

They had expected to see me panicking, caught in their trap.

But what could they do?

The ones who had been struck instead were the ones scrambling to figure out where they had slipped up, their faces flushing red with confusion.

Their heads had to be on the verge of exploding.

Even though discovering their cover was blown should have prompted them to move immediately to the next step—wasting not a single second would have maximized their chances of achieving their objective of abduction.

And yet they could not resist the question. Four eyes bored into my face.

Humans were creatures that could not endure unsatisfied curiosity.

“……S-since when?”

Since when, they asked. There was nothing else to say.

From the very first moment I laid eyes on them.

No matter how perfectly one concealed their identity, the memories of my past life would never fade.

I leaned casually against the window and shrugged.

“Why would I tell you that?”

“Th-that……”

An unexpected counter to an unexpected situation.

An attack so precise and refined that it left even those who had come to harm me looking like idiots.

‘This is exactly why I love blindsiding people.’

I stretched my arms out in a long yawn. Two pairs of eyes tracked my every movement.

FLINCH, FLINCH—

Each reached for the sword at his hip and the soft sword concealed at his waist, about to draw—then realized it was just a stretch and froze again.

“Hm? Why aren’t you drawing?”

Their faces went red as persimmons, embarrassed by their own overreaction.

At least they had enough shame as warriors for that, I supposed.

I glanced around the carriage.

“This is unexpected, actually. I assumed you’d take me to Wudang.”

In the process of extracting Dam Ak, I had gone toe-to-toe with the Fierce Tiger Unit.

No matter that the Mantongbu had issued the orders—there was no way Wudang would let this slide.

No, even if the sect’s leadership were willing to let it go, the disciples beneath them were not the sort to possess the magnanimity to simply move on.

“You’re obviously not taking me to the Murim Alliance, so…… hm, did you rent a manor somewhere around here?”

The warrior, who had recovered his wits first, growled belatedly.

“You have gone far over the line.”

The line, he said.

“What line?”

When I tilted my head with genuine curiosity, his face twisted even more savagely.

“Do you truly…… intend to play ignorant about what you have done?”

“What I’ve done?”

My voice rang out all the more brightly in contrast to the malice dripping from his.

“I simply followed orders from the Mantongbu. What exactly did I do wrong?”

“You have the gall to play innocent after what you did to the Fierce Tiger Unit?!”

A voice boiling with hatred from deep in his chest.

Judging by that level of fury, I was most certainly their enemy.

Right. So that was how it was.

“Hey.”

“……!”

“The fuck did I do wrong?”

What courtesy was there to observe between enemies?

“Wh-what?”

“I said what the fuck did I do wrong, you morons? If I’d actually done something wrong, go report it to the Execution Pavilion or the Inspection Office. You Martial Pavilion Captain bastards playing scholar dress-up and skulking around like scheming rats—is that really the look you’re going for?”

Their flushed faces finally drained to blue.

The warrior looked ready to draw his sword, unable to bear it any longer, while the scholar beside him—expression even more murderous—stepped in to block the blade.

“Wait. We can settle everything once we arrive.”

“But this bastard—!”

“Calm yourself.”

Having restrained the warrior, the scholar turned a frigid gaze on me.

“Everything will be resolved once we get there. No sense wasting energy now.”

“GRIND—”

The air inside the carriage was thick with razor-sharp tension and piercing stares.

I tossed out a joke to lighten the suffocating mood.

“Oh, the guys waiting for us aren’t acting too, are they? Because if they are, I might actually die of awkwardness.”

“CRACK—!”

“NNGH!”

Judging by the intensity of their reactions, the joke had landed beautifully.

***

The Hao Gate’s Wuhan Branch Chief had no memory of sleeping in recent days.

It was not insomnia brought on by problems or deep existential worries.

To be precise, it was not that he ‘could not’ sleep—he had simply chosen not to sleep a single wink.

Because he had seized an opportunity that might rewrite the history of the Wuhan branch—no, the entire Hao Gate.

The one who had provided that opportunity was none other than the Murim Alliance itself.

The Murim Alliance, which had exclusively received its intelligence from the Beggars’ Sect, had placed a request with the Hao Gate for the first time.

After flawlessly executing the first request, a second had arrived before the first was even wrapped up, leaving the branch chief with no time to sleep.

And the second request was no ordinary headache.

“What do you mean, Young Master Jin has arrived in Wuhan……?”

“Yes. It appears he has already entered the city.”

Jin So-un, whose vanished trail had robbed the branch chief of sleep, had suddenly appeared in Wuhan.

The branch chief bolted upright before he knew it.

“Tell me everything. In detail.”

“As you know, since Young Master Jin’s trail went cold, we have been tracking Wudang’s movements instead.”

“Right.”

“And…… they have done something strange.”

The informant immediately unrolled a map of the Hubei and Anhui region and pointed to specific locations.

“Wudang has rented these halls and inns in their entirety.”

The inns were located near the main road linking Eunhyeon to Maseong, Najeon, and Danpung.

“Hmm……”

Unless the entire sect had set out on a group excursion while Clear Water True Man sat in Inspection Office custody, this was an inexplicable phenomenon.

The branch chief tapped the table with his fingers, and his eyes widened suddenly.

“They are hiding something!”

“Yes. And there is this as well.”

As of the Hour of the Rooster yesterday, a large number of Wudang disciples stationed at the Murim Alliance had slipped out en masse.

The surveillance bell they had attached just in case had rung.

The pieces began clicking into place inside his head.

“……Has he already been abducted?”

“The probability is high.”

“Damn it!”

Their intent was transparent.

Things had grown too big for a quiet cleanup.

If they could intimidate Jin So-un—the most critical witness—into giving testimony favorable to their side, they would consider it a worthwhile trade no matter the cost.

The branch chief glared at the map, his blood running hot.

“Where?! Where are they holding their little conspiracy?!”

“The thing is…… they must have caught on to the surveillance, because they all vanished without a trace.”

One of the reasons the Hao Gate perpetually lagged behind the Beggars’ Sect: the absence of martial arts.

But there was no time for complaints.

The Hao Gate had to do what the Hao Gate could do.

“Send word to the Mantongbu immediately…… and to the Taeul Sect as well!”

“Understood.”

The tipping point—the first real chance to seize the upper hand—was right around the corner.

Fatigue crashed over him hard enough to make the back of his skull throb, but the branch chief absolutely could not afford to sleep.

***

WHINNY——

The carriage pulled to a stop.

The scholar and the warrior stepped out first, took positions on either side, and glared at me.

“Get out.”

Well, nothing left to hide at this point.

As I climbed down, the scholar and the warrior closed ranks in front of and behind me, then jerked their chins toward a manor.

“Get inside.”

Whether they believed my silence was due to nerves, or whether it was the arrival of their comrades that had emboldened them, they looked noticeably more smug than before.

Watching them, I could not suppress a sneer.

‘Were Wudang people always this stupid?’

The Wudang in my memories had been beings rivaling immortals.

They had never been on our side, and they had not always presented a flawless image.

But Wudang had always been, to me, an existence seated so high above that it seemed as unreachable as a dream.

And now, what was this?

“Move it!”

“……”

The warrior shoving my back and barking at me exuded not a shred of dignity or grandeur.

They had not even properly assessed their opponent’s level, yet they were already so certain of victory that they could barely contain their glee.

Perhaps it was just these few.

In the Great Righteous-Demonic War of my past life, countless Wudang members had become lonely ghosts for the sake of others.

Perhaps these individuals—still only at the Captain level—had been temporarily made foolish by their own skill, the backing of the Wudang name, and the privileges unavailable to others their age.

But that sliver of hope was shattered the moment I stepped through the manor gates.

“The accused will kneel.”

A grand riding ground blazing with torches as bright as midday.

In the center lay a mat that appeared reserved for me, and surrounding it, roughly a hundred Wudang disciples encircled the entire grounds.

I took in each face, one by one.

‘Nothing but Captains.’

Aside from the man barking orders at the center, the vast majority were Captains or men who had only just been promoted to Deputy Hall Master.

‘Coincidence?’

Too many people gathered for that.

It was also hard to believe that Wudang’s leadership was unaware of this many Captains assembling in one place.

Then there was only one conclusion.

‘They decided this would be enough.’

Probably more than enough.

They must have thought this was far more than needed to silence me and beat me into submission.

Moreover, even if this affair came to light, they could dismiss it as the reckless antics of hot-headed youths.

“I must have looked like quite the joke to you. Then again, maybe that’s only natural.”

As I murmured that small reflection, the face of the Hall Master who had given me the order turned scarlet.

“What are you doing?! Did you not hear me tell you to kneel?!”

“……”

The buzzing of an insect. I turned my gaze to the Hall Master, and the warrior and scholar, unable to stand it, kicked the backs of my knees and pressed down on them.

But—

“Huh?”

These were not knees so easily bent by such cheap tricks.

“KNEEL!!”

THWACK!

In response to a qi-infused kick, I returned the favor with the back of my hand.

CRACK!

In stark contrast to the thud of his kick against my knee, a gratifying smack rang out as several teeth sailed through the air.

I looked down. The Wudang disciple in the scholar’s garb was already rolling on the ground.

SHING!

The warrior who had kicked my other knee leaped back two paces and drew his sword, but a rabbit baring its teeth before a tiger was still just a rabbit.

I did not even spare him a glance and addressed the Hall Master.

“Have you forgotten that I went toe-to-toe with a Hall Master-level figure from the Qingcheng Sect?”

“……”

“Or are you saying Wudang is different from Qingcheng?”

The Hall Master chewed his lips raw.

“You…… still have not come to your senses.”

“Honestly, I don’t know what I did wrong. So—”

I looked at him and flashed my most politely pleasant smile.

“Could you tell me what exactly my crime is?”

At that, the Hall Master jumped at the opening as though he had been waiting.

“Your first crime is—”

And the instant his voice began to flow, I immediately smashed in the face of the warrior standing beside me.

CRACK!

The difference was unmistakable.

The Taeul True Scripture had never once betrayed my will before, but now it felt as though my true qi moved before my will even reached it.

Drawing up a handful of energy, less than half that amount actually stirred—yet the destructive force was double what it used to be.

Startled by the power of my blow, the Hall Master had already clamped his mouth shut.

I tilted my head at him.

“What are you waiting for? I told you to tell me what I did wrong.”

“Y-you insane bastard, how dare you—!”

SHING-SHING-SHING-SHING-SHING-SHING!

Swords were drawn all around me.

The shock of an unexpected reaction was written plainly on every face.

The Hall Master, who had not managed a proper answer to what I had done wrong, shrieked with his face crimson.

“Subdue him at once!”

“””Yes!”””

As the encirclement tightened, I instinctively moved to deploy the Twin Heaven Sword Formula, but—

“Hmm.”

Even that felt like a waste.

SHING—

The Red Radiance Sword gave off a crimson glow.

GROOOOOAN—

An eerie, sourceless moan filled the entire manor.

The Wudang disciples flinched, but charged onward in defiant fury.

I calmly assumed the Minor Heaven Sword Art’s Opening Stance and waited for them to come.