Episode 55
The Grand Hall.
The Blood Sect’s Horse Lord, Jeo Ung-won, and his ten subordinates stood with disciplined bows after emerging from Yunnan Province.
“Jeo Ung-won pays respects to Elder Sa of the So-myeon Horse Troop!”
Before them sat a small, unimpressive old man on a grand dragon throne. His face was wrinkled and unattractive, with eyes slitted sharply like a snake’s.
He returned Jeo Ung-won’s greeting with a smile.
“You’ve traveled far. Has the Supreme One been well?”
“Yes, Elder! He only reminded us that the Blood Sect’s dominion is near and urged us to remain cautious at all times!”
“Hm. Yes, caution is key.”
The old man nodded at Jeo Ung-won’s words, then asked again.
“By the way, you haven’t done anything to attract unwanted attention on your way here, have you?”
Jeo Ung-won hesitated, his expression twitching slightly.
The warm smile on Elder Sa’s face vanished instantly.
“Why can’t you answer? Have you caused some trouble?!”
Suddenly, a fierce murderous aura radiated from the small man, filling the hall with an overwhelming tension that made their bodies tingle.
Jeo Ung-won hurriedly replied, “Before departure, we did bring along a few from the Flying Dragon Squad for some entertainment, but nothing happened on the way here! I swear, Elder!”
Elder Sa’s thin eyes narrowed further as he glared at them.
He was a legendary Horse Lord, known alongside the Bloodthirsty Horse Lord Ji Gwang-ok—who had been slain by Seol Poong and Sunwoo Jin during the Lone Forest incident—as a nightmare to the righteous factions during the Great Blood Battle.
“There’s a saying: when his smile disappears, a sea of blood follows.”
This was well-known not only among the righteous but also within the Blood Sect itself. In fact, many feared Elder Sa even more than the notoriously violent Ji Gwang-ok.
Seeing the smile vanish from Elder Sa’s face, Jeo Ung-won immediately dropped to the floor, bowing deeply.
“I have committed a grave sin! Horse Lord Elder! Please forgive us!”
His subordinates followed suit, bowing their heads and pleading in unison.
“Please forgive us! Horse Lord Elder!”
They trembled, unable to raise their heads, awaiting their punishment.
Incurring Elder Sa’s wrath could mean more than just death—it could be far worse. If truly enraged, it might have been better to take their own lives swiftly.
After a moment, Elder Sa’s voice softened somewhat.
“Alright. It wouldn’t be right to expect young brats to endure everything without relief.”
Hearing this, Jeo Ung-won let out an involuntary sigh of relief.
Still, he kept his head bowed, not daring to look up until Elder Sa spoke again.
“Raise your heads.”
Jeo Ung-won and his men all exclaimed together.
“Thank you, Horse Lord Elder!”
When they looked up, Elder Sa’s face was once again warm and smiling.
He said, “I’ve already captured some lovely young girls. I’ll soon tell you where and what to do. Before you leave, pick about ten and take them along for your enjoyment.”
Overwhelmed with gratitude, Jeo Ung-won and his men bowed their heads again, shouting.
“Thank you, Horse Lord Elder!”
Man Jong-im and the Twelfth Squad left first.
They had arranged a rendezvous method and emphasized twice, even thrice, the importance of staying completely under the radar.
With only the Eleventh Squad and us remaining, Bi Sa-young let out a deep sigh.
“If we ever have to transfer to the Twelfth Squad, I’d rather go to the Blood Demon and apply for a life-or-death duel.”
Everyone burst out laughing.
Je Won-young, the Swordmaster of the Pointed Blade, chuckled and said to me, “I, Je Won-young, owe a great debt to Sunwoo, the young hero. I shall repay it someday.”
I smiled back. “If you say that, it sounds like I deliberately sent Man Jong-im your way.”
“Wasn’t that the case?”
“…The weather is quite nice today, isn’t it?”
He was sharp.
We resumed our discussion.
I spoke first.
“In my opinion, the candidates are either the Jeong-hyup faction or the Yun family. Since Man Jong-im is investigating the Yun family, it would be better for us to look into the Jeong-hyup faction. Though… I do have some doubts about whether Man Jong-im can thoroughly investigate the Yun family.”
Everyone nodded at my words, and then Cheong-yeon So-jeo asked, “Is it because you think it’s not the Mountain Sword Sect? Their situation is the worst right now, isn’t it?”
Between the Yun family and the Mountain Sword Sect opposing the Jeong-hyup faction in Sichuan Province, the Mountain Sword Sect was reportedly on the brink of collapse.
But that alone wasn’t enough to be certain, so everyone looked at me with curious eyes.
“Of course, that’s part of it. But I also heard some information about the Mountain Sword Sect while I was with the Sunwoo family. I think we can exclude them from the candidates.”
Everyone except Cheong-yeon So-jeo exclaimed, “Ah!” and nodded in agreement.
To be honest, that was a lie.
I had no interest in other factions of Guizhou’s Eight Families while with the Sunwoo family.
What I did know for sure was the aftermath of the three-way conflict I witnessed after the front lines collapsed and I returned to the Sunwoo family in my past life.
“At that time, only two of the three remained.”
By then, everything had ended, and I only vaguely heard about clashes with the Jeong-hyup faction. I knew nothing else.
But one thing was certain: the Mountain Sword Sect no longer existed.
Only the Jeong-hyup faction and the Yun family remained intact.
“Looking back, it’s quite suspicious. After the conflict with the Jeong-hyup faction ended, nothing else changed except the Mountain Sword Sect was wiped out, and the Yun family took over their territory? Does that make sense?”
Judging by the Jeong-hyup faction’s current strength and momentum, they should have been able to advance into Guizhou Province easily.
So it was hard to imagine the Yun family alone holding off the Jeong-hyup faction’s advances.
“Based on the outcome alone, the Yun family definitely looks the most suspicious.”
Cheong-yeon So-jeo stared at me for a moment.
Naturally, she seemed to think my conviction was weakly supported.
But she soon nodded.
Though she couldn’t fully accept it, she was willing to let it slide since I said so.
I breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
I was grateful.
She asked, “So, between the Yun family and the Jeong-hyup faction, how do you plan to investigate them?”
Everyone who had been alternating their gaze between me and Cheong-yeon So-jeo now looked at me expectantly.
They seemed to think I’d come up with a clever plan.
Unfortunately, I had no sharp ideas this time.
It’s easier said than done to sneak into their strongholds and investigate—they’d be walking right into a trap.
The best we could do was inquire through the Hao Sect, but that risked alerting them that we were investigating.
The Hao Sect didn’t discriminate among clients.
I sighed and confessed, “Honestly, I’m not sure yet. No good ideas come to mind.”
People sighed in disappointment.
“Ahhh!”
Then Cheong-yeon So-jeo spoke up.
“If it’s hard to find them, why not lure them out to come to us?”
Everyone’s eyes lit up with hope again, myself included.
“How do you mean?”
“Show them what they want.”
“What they want?”
I wasn’t quite convinced.
What could they possibly want that would make them come out of hiding?
Seol Poong, unable to contain his curiosity, asked, “What is it that they want?”
Cheong-yeon So-jeo answered, “Assuming this is all planned, the strangest thing is why they attacked the Twelfth Squad, who should have been the most secretive.”
I suddenly replied, “Well…”
Then, struck by a sudden thought, I asked hurriedly, “So?”
She smiled faintly and nodded.
“Yes, show them that.”
“Ah.”
I nodded as if I understood, then frowned again.
“But to do that…”
She smiled brightly and asked, “Why? Do you think we’re not enough?”
I couldn’t bring myself to answer, but honestly, I thought so.
Just then, Bi Sa-young furrowed his brow sharply and shouted, “Hey! Don’t keep it between you two—translate it into human language! What the hell does that mean?!”
Everyone nodded in agreement, clearly frustrated.
I smiled and explained.
“When the Blood Demon wiped out the two squads of the Twelfth, there was one thing in common, right?”
But people frowned, unable to recall.
“Common? What? What was the common thing?”
Then Cheon Ju-eun So-jeo raised her hand eagerly.
“I know! I know! Only the bodies of women were left behind!”
Being a woman, she probably remembered the detail about the women best.
I smiled and nodded.
“Correct, So-jeo.”
She cheered like a child.
“Yay! I got it right!”
Then, suddenly realizing what it implied, her expression changed to ‘Oops!’ and she quieted down.
We all cleared our throats and pretended not to notice.
I continued immediately.
“It’s a common trait among the Blood Sect’s demonic beasts, but even in matters that require utmost secrecy, they can’t restrain themselves from lusting after women. That leads us to believe they must be insatiable lechers. So, Cheong-yeon Sojeo’s suggestion seems to be targeting exactly that weakness.”
After saying this, I looked at Cheong-yeon Sojeo, and she nodded in agreement.
“Exactly. If there’s a beauty so outstanding that word of her reaches their ears, I believe they won’t be able to resist and will come rushing out.”
At her words, the others finally understood and let out impressed murmurs.
“Ah!”
Just then, Jeom Chang-geomhyo Je Won-young, the leader of the Eleventh Unit, tilted his head in puzzlement and asked,
“But where would we find such a beauty? Ah! I don’t mean to disrespect the Sojeos here, but even so, for word to spread that far in Inhoe, which isn’t a frontline, she’d have to be one of the Ten Flowers of the Martial World…”
As he spoke, Cheong-yeon Sojeo suddenly raised her hand and slowly swept her bangs upward.
Her bangs lifted, and our eyes widened in unison.
Je Won-young was left speechless, stunned.
When she revealed her face, a dazzling radiance suddenly illuminated the world around us.
I couldn’t tell if I was standing above the clouds or on water, or whether this was reality or a dream.
Seeing her face for the first time was truly—
mystical.
Yes, mystical.
There was something about her beauty that couldn’t be captured by the word “beautiful” alone.
Her small lips, a deep crimson, sat beneath a perfectly sculpted nose, and above that, her eyes—like celestial jewels—shone brilliantly, one gleaming black, the other a shimmering blue.
Her unusual eyes might have seemed eerie, but because of her beauty, they appeared almost sacred.
Lately, I’d grown somewhat immune to beautiful women, having often seen Dang Yeoeun Sojeo’s stunning face…
But now I realized how utterly arrogant that belief had been.
As we stared blankly at her face, she looked straight at me and asked,
“Do you think this will be enough to lure out the demonic beasts?”
We had no choice but to nod vigorously.
The mountain sword sect in the Inhoe region, bordering Sichuan Province, was inevitably the first to clash with the Jeonghyeop faction as they pushed eastward toward Guizhou Province.
They had already fought twice against Jeonghyeop—and lost both times.
In the first battle, the mountain sword sect suffered the humiliation of retreating without even engaging, overwhelmed by Jeonghyeop’s massive forces.
When the mountain sword sect sent out about two hundred elite warriors, Jeonghyeop fielded over a thousand.
There was simply no way to stand against them.
The second defeat was even more disgraceful.
They had deceitfully proposed a truce to Jeonghyeop, only to ambush the envoys sent to negotiate—and ended up utterly crushed.
Among the casualties were one of the sect’s two peak masters and the entire two hundred-strong elite force.
It was the worst possible outcome, stripping them of both honor and practical strength.
So much so that among the ronin, the mountain sword sect was already considered a fallen clan.
As a result, the ronin recruitment office of the mountain sword sect was deserted these days.
No ronin would come to a sect whose defeat was a foregone conclusion.
No matter how much money was offered, life was more precious than gold.
Because of this, Wang Oh, the clerk in charge of recruiting ronin warriors for the mountain sword sect, sat dozing at his empty desk once again today.
Suddenly, Wang Oh felt the warm sunlight dimmed by something passing overhead.
He lifted his sleepy eyes and saw a massive shadow blocking the sun.
It was so enormous that he briefly wondered if a boulder had rolled in.
But when a deep voice rumbled from the shadow, Wang Oh snapped to attention.
“Is this the recruitment office? I’ve come at the invitation of Outer Commander Heo Jeon-sam.”
The figure was a giant of a man.
So huge that Wang Oh didn’t even notice the people standing behind him.
Looking up at the shadowed face, Wang Oh hurriedly asked,
“You’re here to sign a warrior contract? You said you were invited by Outer Commander Heo Jeon-sam?”
The giant nodded.
“Yes. We are the Five Eagles from Zhejiang Province, and this is our eldest, Bae Jong-gwan.”
Wang Oh, scrambling to jot down the names, paused and asked,
“Ah, yes! The Five Eagles? You mean…?”
Bae Jong-gwan nodded and stepped aside slightly.
“Yes. These are my siblings.”
Wang Oh’s gaze naturally shifted behind Bae Jong-gwan—and froze as if struck by lightning.
There stood five siblings: one burly man wielding a spear, and three stunningly beautiful women.
But Wang Oh’s eyes were fixed on just one of the women.
Though the others were beautiful, the third woman’s beauty was so astonishing that Wang Oh swore he had never seen anything like it, even in his dreams.