“Is this… a fake spiderweb?”
Jong-jeong Yak rose onto her tiptoes, her fingers grazing the gossamer threads clinging to the wall. To the naked eye, it appeared to be the work of nature, but the texture betrayed it; it was an elaborate fabrication spun from cotton.
“Does an ordinary manor require such detailed camouflage?”
A cold premonition spiked in her chest. Even if one were to overlook the existence of a secret passage, a standard household would never invest such painstaking effort into deception. Jong-jeong Yak hesitated at the threshold, her instincts screaming caution.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you coming?”
Neung Jo-un, oblivious to the atmosphere, wiped his nose and strode into the dark corridor without a shred of wariness.
Even after the disaster at the Superior River Escort Bureau, he still lacks caution.
With a heavy sigh, she followed him, as if dragged by an invisible chain.
Thump. Thump.
With every step they took, a heavy mechanical sound resonated from beneath the floorboards, triggering torches along the walls to flare into life, one by one.
At the end of the passage lay a stone chamber. As the light flooded the space, it revealed a warehouse storing a hoard of treasures. Yet, one object commanded their attention. Resting on a smoothly carved stone pedestal, encased under a transparent glass cover, sat a wooden box.
The container for the Violet Essence Elixirs.
“Found it.”
Neung Jo-un approached the pedestal, his expression tightening into one of belated caution. He pressed his ear to the floor, then lightly tapped the glass cover. A grimace twisted his face.
“Damn. There’s a mechanism.” He pointed to the pristine stone beneath the box and clicked his tongue. “It’s rigged. An alarm will likely trigger the moment the weight shifts.”
“Can you solve it?”
“I have to try.”
Click.
Neung Jo-un produced a small leather case from his robes, revealing an array of delicate tools designed for disarming traps.
“There is no need to disarm it.”
Bu Eunseol, who had been staring quietly into the empty air, shook his head. Before Neung Jo-un could protest, he shattered the tension, lifting the glass cover and snatching the wooden box in a single, fluid motion.
“Wait! What are you doing?!”
Neung Jo-un jumped back in alarm, bracing for arrows or poison, but the silence remained unbroken. The mechanism did not activate.
Creak.
When he pried open the lid, the box was empty.
“What is going on?” Jong-jeong Yak asked, her voice trembling.
Bu Eunseol looked up at the stone ceiling. “Was it a trap after all?”
“A trap?”
“It seems they knew you would track the Violet Essence Elixirs to the bitter end. They lured you to this manor intentionally.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
Bu Eunseol pointed a finger toward the ceiling. “Because a battle is raging above us.”
Jong-jeong Yak and Neung Jo-un exchanged glances of disbelief. They were deep underground, encased in stone. Could he truly hear the sounds of combat from the surface?
Tat-tat-tat-tat.
Without waiting for confirmation, Jong-jeong Yak and Neung Jo-un engaged their movement techniques, sprinting toward the exit. Bursting from the underground warehouse, they emerged into the courtyard to a nightmare.
Martial artists of the Martial Righteous Alliance were being dismantled by a swarm of unidentified assassins.
It was not a battle; it was a massacre.
The assassins numbered at least a hundred. They formed a tightening noose around the Alliance members, raining down hidden weapons and poison with ruthless efficiency. They were slaughtering the martial artists like rats trapped in a jar.
“You bastards!”
Enraged, Jong-jeong Yak and Neung Jo-un drew their swords. Screaming a war cry, they unleashed their sword arts against the encircling killers.
Clang!
But the result was horrifying. Moving with clockwork precision, the assassins parried their strikes without breaking formation.
They are different from the ones we fought before.
Jong-jeong Yak’s face drained of color. The killers hiding in the Song Clan Manor were on a completely different tier of power compared to the thugs at the Superior River Escort Bureau. Moreover, their numbers were overwhelming. If this continued, they would be butchered.
“Retreat! Retreat!”
Jong-jeong Yak fought tenaciously, her blade weaving a desperate defense to protect the rookie martial artists. These were fledglings who had only just completed their training; she would not let them die, even if she had to sacrifice herself.
But it was a delusion. Despite her desperate sword arts, the Alliance members fell one by one, helpless against the coordinated slaughter.
Is this the end?
Despair dyed her vision.
This case of the Violet Essence Elixirs was never a simple theft. She had uncovered evidence that someone high within the Martial Righteous Alliance had been embezzling spiritual elixirs for years. The probability that the culprit was a high-ranking official was near absolute.
Although she had secured approval to investigate—thanks to her status as a Law Enforcement Junior Commander and the backing of the Flower Secret Garden Master—she had been sabotaged at every turn. The team assigned to her was half-baked, composed of greenhorns.
They dug this trap to eliminate me from the start.
The realization struck her like a physical blow. This entire operation was an execution.
I just wanted to solve this case.
Her obsession wasn’t born of justice, but of a desperate hunger for success. Coming from a powerless family, she had swallowed indignity and contempt her entire life. Even after earning her rank, the disdain remained. She had believed that exposing the corruption of the high command would be her golden ticket, a way to ensure no one would ever look down on her again.
But it had ended here, in failure and blood.
Hiss!
Black fog erupted from the ground, spreading rapidly in all directions. Poison.
“Ugh.”
Holding her breath, she tried to carve a path through the encirclement, but the assassins clung to her like water ghosts, their defenses impenetrable. Her lungs burned. Her vision began to darken.
It’s over.
Strength left her hand. Her sword tip dipped.
Whoosh!
A fierce whirlwind suddenly exploded outward, blasting the poison fog into the sky. Simultaneously, a bizarre, heavy fist force radiated through the air, knocking the rushing assassins back more than ten jang.
“Hold on tight.”
A firm hand gripped her arm.
Pa-ang!
In that instant, she felt as though the wind would tear her mouth apart. The scenery blurred into streaks of color as they cut through the air with velocity that defied logic.
“Ah.”
When she finally opened her tightly squeezed eyes, the Song Clan Manor was gone. She was standing in the quiet of a secluded forest. Beside her, Bu Eunseol, his sword wrapped in bandages, released her arm and looked at her calmly.
“What happened?” she asked, bewildered.
“Since the assassins were spraying poison, I escaped immediately. There seemed to be no other way.”
Her mind went blank. Blowing the poison fog into the sky with a single breath? That was his doing? And the lightness skill that carried them out of the encirclement in a heartbeat… that was a feat beyond common sense.
“How can a mere High-Grade Wandering Vagrant…”
“My specialty is movement techniques.”
Still unable to regain her composure, Jong-jeong Yak looked around wildly. “What about Adjutant Neung?”
“He is fighting hard. But it won’t be easy. There are too many of them.”
“What did you say?!”
Unable to accept the absurdity, she jumped to her feet. “Why did you escape with only me? We must save him!”
“I told you. The object of my escort is you alone.”
“Because the contract is limited to me… you saved only me?”
“That is so.”
In truth, Bu Eunseol could have saved everyone. But to subdue over a hundred assassins simultaneously would require revealing his true martial prowess. If he fought as a supreme master, he would have to abandon his cover as a High-Grade Wandering Vagrant, which would ruin his plan to infiltrate the Martial Righteous Alliance through her.
After swift calculation, he had feigned a specialist movement technique to extract the primary target.
“We must save Adjutant Neung!”
“He is already done for.”
Jong-jeong Yak’s face turned ashen. Neung Jo-un was not just a subordinate; he was a friend, a colleague she had known since her induction.
“I cannot leave him behind.” She bit her lip until it bled, staring in the direction of the manor. “Even if I die, I will save him.”
“You mean to commit suicide?”
“Even if I die, I have to try!”
Bu Eunseol’s brows lifted slightly. Those driven by ambition usually clung to life and discarded loyalty when convenient. Yet, this woman was different. Her loyalty to her people ran deep.
It would be good to grasp clearly what kind of person she is.
Deciding to test her one last time, Bu Eunseol spoke. “Alright. Then I will retrieve the Violet Essence Elixirs for you.”
“How?”
“I said I was confident in my movement techniques. Taking advantage of the chaos, I can enter the Song Clan Manor and steal the pills secretly.”
“What about Adjutant Neung?”
Bu Eunseol paused, feigning caution. “I dislike risking danger to save him. Wait here a little. I will secure the pills.” He added a layer of cold indifference to his voice. “If you want to save him, do it yourself. I will wash my hands of that matter.”
“What?”
“I am a wandering vagrant who works for money. I don’t risk my life in vain for loyalty.”
If she were truly blinded by success, she would accept the offer. The pills were her ticket to promotion; Neung Jo-un was a liability.
“Of course, the Violet Essence Elixirs are important.” Jong-jeong Yak’s voice trembled, but her eyes were firm. “But to me, Adjutant Neung’s life is more important.”
She was placing a colleague’s life above her own ambition.
“There is nothing more important than one’s own life,” he countered.
“Even though your martial arts are strong, I know why you are working as a lowly vagrant.” She glared at him, her eyes filled with contempt. “Live the rest of your life shrinking your neck like a turtle!”
“You insist on throwing your life away?”
“Living cowardly like you, you might survive until sixty. But your remaining time will be painful and full of regret!”
Shouting sharply, Jong-jeong Yak turned and sprinted toward the manor without hesitation.
“Hmph.”
Watching her receding back, Bu Eunseol wore a strange smile. He had pegged her as a climber who would trample anything for success, but she was, surprisingly, a person of faith.
Ping!
Bu Eunseol flicked his finger.
Zip!
A soft, sticky finger wind brushed past Jong-jeong Yak’s Wind Mansion Acupoint. Instantly, she froze, paralyzed from the neck down.
“What are you doing?”
Rigid as a statue, she rolled her eyes frantically toward Bu Eunseol as he approached. “Why did you seal my acupoints?!”
“Stay here. I will bring him.”
“What?”
“Wait here while I save him. It will be more of a hindrance if you are there.”
“What nonsense is this? Release the acupoints quickly!”
Bu Eunseol sighed. “Since you say you give up on the pills, I have no choice but to save the man.”
“…”
“As I said, my movement technique is quite fast. But if you join, I cannot save him.”
The realization dawned on her. Bu Eunseol had moved them from the manor to the forest in a single breath. With speed like that… perhaps it was possible.
“If you go alone, can you really save Adjutant Neung? For sure?”
Her eyes were pleading. Bu Eunseol met her gaze with a void-like calmness.
“I can.”
It was a cold, heartless face, yet paradoxically, it radiated absolute stability.
If it is this person…
Logically, mere speed shouldn’t be enough to break an encirclement of a hundred assassins. But trust welled up in her heart. If this vagrant said he could do it, she believed him.
“Alright. Then I will wait here quietly. Release the acupoints.”
Seeing her gaze settle, Bu Eunseol nodded. “Good.”
Pat.
He fired a light finger wind, and sensation returned to her limbs. In the split second it took for her to blink, Bu Eunseol had vanished.
***
Inside the Song Clan Manor.
Corpses of the Alliance martial artists littered the ground. In the center of the carnage, the assassins forced the sole survivor, Neung Jo-un, to his knees. His acupoints were sealed.
“It’s a ghost’s work. We were told to catch her without fail.”
The leader of the assassins spoke with dismay. They had her trapped. How did a man in grey suddenly blast away the poison and vanish with her?
“Where did that woman go?” The leader aimed his sword at Neung Jo-un’s throat. “Speak, or you die.”
“You tracked our movements well until now, so why ask me?” Neung Jo-un, despite kneeling in the dirt, flashed defiant eyes. “So, you only planned the trap up to here. You had no plan for the aftermath.”
“If you grasp the situation, spill it quickly.”
The leader kicked Neung Jo-un’s face with full force.
Neung Jo-un collapsed, blood streaming from his nose and reopening the wounds across his dust-covered body. Yet, he raised his head again, his expression undimmed.
“Kill me.”
“What?”
“You are all dead meat anyway. How dare you brutally slaughter martial artists of the Alliance? Do you think you bastards can set foot in the Murim and live after doing this?”
“Huhu. The brat knows nothing.”
The leader leveled his poison sword at Neung Jo-un’s eye. “Even if we cut off the heads of hundreds of punks like you, there is no damage to us. Do you understand what that means?”
Neung Jo-un’s eyes wavered. The assassin’s confidence was not feigned. What sect on earth did not fear the retribution of the Martial Righteous Alliance?
“Well, since she escaped, she will try to return to the Alliance.” The leader raised his blade high. “We have no choice but to wait on the road and kill her there. As for you… just die.”
Just as the steel began its descent—
Creeeak.
The main gate of the manor groaned open.
Thump. Thump.
A man in grey clothes walked slowly through the breach.
It was Bu Eunseol.
“It’s that guy from earlier.”
The leader stared in confusion. Why would the man who escaped by a hair’s breadth dare to return? And alone?
“Where are the Violet Essence Elixirs?”
Bu Eunseol looked at the assassins with eyes full of boredom. “If you bring the pills, I will let you live.”
The assassins stared blankly for a moment before erupting into laughter.
“Bwahahaha!”
Neung Jo-un looked at Bu Eunseol with equal absurdity. Is he mad? If he saved the Junior Commander, he should be fleeing to the ends of the earth!
“Is the Junior Commander safe?” Neung Jo-un rasped.
Bu Eunseol offered a faint smile. Even on the verge of execution, the man worried about his superior first.
Loyal. Both of them.
“She is safe.”
“Then why did you come back?”
“She said I must save you even if it meant throwing away my life.”
Neung Jo-un was moved, but he shook his head violently. “So you came alone? To die together?”
“My movement technique is quite fast.”
Ping.
Bu Eunseol flicked his finger. A streak of air struck Neung Jo-un squarely on the Sleep Point.
“Uh?”
Neung Jo-un looked down at his chest, his mind failing to comprehend. Why strike my Sleep Point?
“Why…”
His eyes rolled back, and he collapsed, unconscious.
Bu Eunseol looked down at the fallen adjutant. The man was young, soaked in authority, arrogant, and inflexible. But he did not fear death, and he prioritized his comrades. For that alone, he was worth saving.
“I will give you one more chance,” Bu Eunseol said, turning to the assassins. “Hand over the pills, and I will let you live.”
“Crazy bastard.”
The leader scoffed and tapped his own chest. “The pills are right here. If you have the ability, try taking them.”
“I see.”
The leader’s tunic was bulging. Realizing the truth, Bu Eunseol sighed deeply.
“You had no intention of disposing of the pills from the start.” He nodded as the pieces fell into place. “The Violet Essence Elixirs were the payment that made you move. Isn’t that right?”
“…”
“And the theft itself was a trap to kill her.”
From the Superior River Escort Bureau to the Secret Market, and finally the Song Clan Manor. The tracking process had been absurdly simple because it was a trail of breadcrumbs. The theft was merely bait to lure Jong-jeong Yak out of the sanctuary of the Alliance.
“A guy we shouldn’t keep alive,” the leader muttered, signaling his subordinates.
Tzzt.
Over a hundred assassins drew a tightening circle around Bu Eunseol. They intended to seal off every avenue of escape.
But it was strange.
The wandering vagrant wasn’t running. He was watching them with the casual indifference of a spectator.
Ugh… ugh…
The expressions of the assassins began to distort. They were the ones surrounding him, yet suddenly, it felt as if a black reaper was breathing down their necks. Their limbs grew heavy.
It was the fear of death.
A primal terror, radiating from the man in grey, was locking their bodies in place.
“Since there is no time…”
Bu Eunseol looked at the assassins, a blood-red light igniting deep within his pupils.
“I will end this quickly.”