Geum-ju burst out of the secret passage and fled, unleashing her lightness skill in a desperate sprint. She tore through the slums, a district so poor there wasn’t a single lantern to be seen, and soon plunged into the impossibly complex back alleys of Luoyang’s commercial district.

Decades of rapid expansion and chaotic, unplanned development had turned the city’s alleyways into a veritable labyrinth. Tall buildings, at least four or five stories high, were packed together without an inch to spare, forming a great, man-made maze.

After passing through several alleys and turning just as many corners, she finally stopped. She wanted to run further, but her breath was coming in ragged, desperate gasps. At her normal level of internal energy, it was impossible to maintain her lightness skill for long.

The filthy alley wall, a surface she would normally have cursed at the mere sight of, now supported her exhausted body.

“Heok, heok…”

She clutched at her chest. The ‘countermeasure’ had certainly activated the moment her heart had been torn out. The effects of the great sorcery had surpassed even her own imagination.

The things I had to endure under that monstrous master to learn that art…

A sharp pain shot through her head. Her memories were a chaotic jumble.

How did I learn that? Sorcery? Me, learning sorcery?

Fragments of memories she had long forgotten flashed through her mind. The old man’s hand, stirring her insides with a playful attitude. His withered, liver-spotted hand. That bizarre, cackling laugh. Herself, screaming until her throat was torn raw. The excruciating pain.

She shook her head violently, rejecting the memories.

Running is all that matters right now.

The great sorcery had worked. It had temporarily elevated her to a higher realm. It had activated the Barrier upon her death. It had even restored her lost heart. It was an effect well worth the price of hundreds of lives and decades of her own lifespan. But now, she had no more tricks left to save her.

If he catches me this time, I’m really going to die…!

She shuddered as the image of the white mask surfaced in her mind. Having crossed blades with him, she now understood with a bone-deep certainty. He was a true monster. He was of the same ilk as her own master. A being who defied common sense, ignored reason, and broke all the laws of nature.

Even with her own power boosted to the realm of a master, that monster had toyed with her as if she were a child.

Yes. Toyed with.

No matter how she attacked, she could not land a meaningful blow. Of all the techniques he had displayed, there was not a single one she could comprehend. She just couldn’t understand. He had taken every one of her attacks head-on, and in the midst of it all, he had taken her fingers, one by one.

A phantom chill ran through her newly-grown fingers. Her restored heart throbbed with a dull, persistent ache that grew worse with each passing moment. It still felt as if the monster’s maw was chewing on it.

I have to run. I have to run.

Consumed by a creeping terror, she plunged deeper into the back alleys. The complex paths twisted and turned. She knew she could get a better view from the rooftops, but that would also expose her position. As long as she kept heading in the right general direction, she would eventually find her way out.

I grew up in the back alleys of Luoyang. There’s no way I can get lost in a place like this.

But for a moment, she felt a flicker of confusion.

No, I wasn’t from Luoyang. I was from a rural mountain village, wasn’t I…?

The headache returned, sharp and piercing. She remembered a hooked hand stirring inside her own mind. The pain in her heart intensified, as if the monster’s teeth were tearing at it anew.

I have to move…

She ran without thinking. At some point, she lost her shoes. She tripped and fell several times, and her clothes were now in tatters. And then, she realized she was completely and utterly lost.

Looking up through the narrow gaps between the buildings, all she could see was a sky thick with dark clouds. There were no landmarks, nothing to give her a sense of direction. She decided she had no choice but to risk climbing a building to get her bearings. Searching for an easily scalable wall, she turned another corner and found herself in a small, open plaza where several alleys converged.

“…The old monk who has attained the true law gnaws on the stump of a pine, The good official who strives for order tears and eats the pages of his books, The poet who has found his true voice devours the moonlight…”

The voice was that of a youth, clear and refined.

“…But I, who have achieved none of these, why is my own table so grandly overturned, that I feast upon the marrow of the people’s backs?”

In the center of the plaza stood a young man, reciting a poem with his back to her. Dressed in the simple, clean white robes of a scholar, he seemed harmless.

“Hey.”

The locals knew the paths best. She decided to ask him for directions.

“Hey, can’t you hear me?!”

The youth was looking down, lost in thought. She strode up to him and grabbed his shoulder.

“Hm?”

Her own eyebrows shot up in surprise. The face that turned to look at her was one she knew all too well.

“Well now, who is this? We met just the other day, did we not?”

“The Grand Young Master…?”

It was the swordless fool of the Sword Clan of Luoyang, Yeon So-hyeon. Though their last encounter had been anything but friendly, the sight of a familiar face brought a small measure of relief.

“What are you doing here at this hour… no, that’s none of my business.” His bodyguard wasn’t with him. She brushed her disheveled hair from her face. “Just tell me how to get to the main road.”

Yeon So-hyeon shrugged. “To meet like this must be fate. Why not tell me how you came to be in an alley like this?”

“What?”

Her face contorted in a snarl. The memory of her current predicament came rushing back: she was fleeing for her life, her hard-earned achievements stolen by an unknowable monster. A wave of suppressed fury boiled up inside her.

“What would a useless thing like you do with that information?!”

At her words, the Grand Young Master tilted his head with an expression of pure innocence. “Well, you see…”

His movement was, on the surface, perfectly natural. And yet, a chilling sense of wrongness crept up Geum-ju’s spine.

“…it’s just a little strange.”

His gestures, his expressions—they were somehow devoid of emotion. It was like watching a puppet in a street-side puppet show. Unnatural. Unsettling. The feeling of something inhuman mimicking a human. An act.

“After running so hard and so desperately,” his voice changed, “is this as far as you could get?”

“……!”

The blood drained from her face. The phantom pain in her fingers, in her heart, intensified.

“Who… who are you?!”

A deep shadow fell over the Grand Young Master’s face, or rather, the face of the thing that wore his visage.

“You know very well who I am, Se Yu-hwa.”

The voice was like boiling molten steel. Blue demonic flames ignited in its eyes. It smiled, and she saw a mouth packed with serrated teeth.

“Shall we make it twelve? Or should I start counting from one again?”

***

Se-ah and Jeong-ah walked through a passage in a vast, natural cave system. The caverns were a complex, spiderweb-like maze, but Jeong-ah moved with an unnerving confidence, never hesitating at a single fork in the path.

“This place is enormous, sister.”

“It is.”

They came to another split in the path, and Jeong-ah chose a direction without a moment’s thought.

“Now that the Black Bone Sect is gone, what will happen to all these buildings and this land?”

“Geum-jil will take it,” Se-ah said, a bitter smile on her lips. “Since Geum-ju was his adoptive daughter, he’ll claim ownership. That’s his business model. He uses his ‘daughters’ like pawns. If they bring him profit, he keeps them. If they become a liability, he discards them.”

If the Black Bone Sect had clashed with a more powerful faction, what would Geum-jil have done? He would have claimed that Geum-ju was a delusional woman who had merely called herself his daughter. But since the opponent was a single, unknown master? He would claim everything.

“…That’s despicable.”

The torch in Se-ah’s hand flickered, making the shadows on the cave walls dance. She realized then that her sister was walking ahead of her without a torch of her own. Se-ah herself, even with a light, had nearly slipped several times. But Jeong-ah walked as if on a polished corridor. It had to be related to her glowing, golden eyes. But when she had asked, her sister had simply said she didn’t know.

After a moment, Se-ah asked the question that had been burning in her mind. “You know, don’t you? The true identity of the master you serve.”

“Yes, of course.” The answer was immediate.

Se-ah was speechless for a moment. “…Aren’t you afraid?” It was a question that held many meanings.

For a time, only the sound of their footsteps echoed in the cave.

“…The day I left the entertainment house, I packed my things,” Jeong-ah began, her voice soft. “I carefully gathered every single one of my belongings. When I was done, it all fit into one small bundle.” She chuckled. “And it was filled with nothing but trinkets and memories.”

She twirled as she walked, and the fine silk dress Yeon So-hyeon had given her floated gracefully around her. “Ever since I entered the Sword Clan, I lived every day as if it were a battle.” The jeweled pin in her hair caught the torchlight and sparkled. “And after all that, in the end, I was still nothing.”

Se-ah could not find the words to reply.

“I was just a nameless weed, destined to be blown in whichever direction the wind blew.”

Jeong-ah’s steps came to a halt. Se-ah looked at her sister’s slender back.

“You ask if I’m afraid?” Jeong-ah said, turning her head slightly. She set down the bundle she had been carrying. “Of course I’m afraid.” Her tone was calm, matter-of-fact. “He is like a typhoon that comes in late summer to destroy everything. A being that a mere mortal like us cannot even begin to fathom. Just when you think you understand one thing about him, you find two more things hidden. When you find those two, four more are revealed.”

Her golden eyes seemed to shine with their own inner light.

“I do not serve him to rely on him or be protected by him.”

“…Then why?”

Just then, the echo of footsteps reached Se-ah’s ears. They were coming from the very direction Jeong-ah had been staring at.

“Heok, heok.”

The sound of ragged breathing and irregular, hurried steps. It sounds like someone is being chased…

Before she could finish the thought, a figure stumbled into the torchlight.

“You two…?!”

Leaning against the cave wall, panting heavily, the woman looked up. Se-ah gasped. Though her hair was a mess and she was covered in blood from head to toe, she recognized her instantly. Her eyes filled with a murderous light.

“You bitches…!” she snarled, like a wounded animal.

Jeong-ah paid her no mind, turning back to her sister to finish her thought.

“It is so that I can become like him.”

Se-ah asked reflexively, “What did you say?”

Jeong-ah gave her a reassuring smile. “The reason I serve my master.”

Her golden eyes flashed with a brilliant light.

“It is so that I, too, can become like him.”