Chapter 53

“Hey there, winner.”

After parting ways with Hwa Eun-wol, Dan Woo-sung turned around as he was about to enter his lodgings.

An unfamiliar woman stood there, arms crossed, staring at him.

Dan Woo-sung instinctively scanned his surroundings. A fair number of masters were waiting at a slight distance.

Dan Wooseong looked back at the woman and said.

“Speak.”

As the woman closed the distance slightly, her face became visible under the soft moonlight.

She was a strangely beautiful woman.

The handsome man from the Central Plains and the stunningly beautiful woman with blue eyes appeared to be her parents.

The blue-eyed woman blurted out abruptly,

“I’ll be attending the Phoenix Pavilion Banquet tomorrow too.”

It was an unusual way of speaking. There was no introduction, no particular context. Danwooseong replied with a bewildered expression.

“Oh, really?”

Dan Wooseong assumed she had come after witnessing his victory.

The woman said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“I will win.”

Her tone suggested she was merely collecting the elixir she had left behind, so Dan Wooseong suddenly found himself admiring the woman’s figure revealed in the moonlight.

Not a man’s perspective, but a warrior’s perspective…

Her figure differed greatly from that of a Central Plains woman. Her chest, waist, hips, and even her leg length were superior.

As Danwooseong scanned her up and down, the woman scanned him up and down as well.

Dan Woosung said.

“I’ll congratulate you in advance.”

“Thank you.”

“Did you come to eat Seolsam?”

“No? I didn’t know it was Seolsam. I suppose it is Seolsam?”

“Yes.”

The woman said with a smile.

“My apologies for the late introduction. My name is Baekyak. I was deeply impressed by your martial arts and came to see you.”

Danwooseong looked into the eyes of the woman named Baekyak as he spoke.

“If you happen to win the Phoenix Grand Tournament tomorrow, did you plan to call for me?”

There was a time when the Dragon and the Phoenix clashed to determine the ultimate victor.

Baekyak replied.

“I was debating. Should I do it then, or wait for another chance? I couldn’t decide.”

So he came to meet me for now. Danwooseong hesitated briefly before making a simple decision.

“Let’s do it next time.”

Baekyak exhaled a sigh of relief.

“Alright. Where should we meet? And when?”

A man and woman who met at night kept having conversations like “Let’s do it in front of the lodging,” “Let’s do it next time,” and “When are we going to do it?” Passersby sighed. Someone scanned the scene up and down like a doctor examining a patient, then said to their friend:

“Wow… I’m jealous.”

“Keep it down.”

“Why?”

“Kang Ho-in…”

Danwooseong waited for people to pass, then looked at the women’s bodyguards waiting in the alley and nearby and said.

“If you’re my enemy, I don’t mind fighting you now. All of them too.”

Baekyak replied with a startled expression.

“That’s impossible.”

Dan Woo-sung retorted.

“If not, then let’s just meet later. I have a long way to go.”

Baekyak stared at Danwooseong. The phrase “the road ahead is long” sounded less like he was leaving home and more like he had work to do, so he didn’t press for an explanation.

Baekyak said.

“Understood. I’ll be going. It was good to meet you.”

As Baekyak walked alone through the night streets, the guards waiting nearby quietly followed behind him. Suddenly, a man turned his head slightly and glanced at Danwooseong for a moment.

As Danwooseong ascended to his lodgings, he thought.

This woman, Baekyak, possessed a high level of innocence. An aura of someone who hadn’t been deeply entangled with the world, perhaps.

And when it comes to martial arts prowess…

He seemed strong enough to gather all the female participants of the Phoenix Grand Gathering and wipe them out.

What about Dan Woo-sung?

The same applied to him. If Dan Wooseong were to gather all the finalists and fight them with all his might, he could tear them all to shreds.

There was no reason for such men and women to fight to determine superiority now.

Unless they were enemies, that is.

If Baekyak’s martial arts and influence were on their side, the scales of justice were already tipped in their favor, leaving no reason to interfere.

Upon entering the room, Dan Wooseong thought Baekyak must be either family of the Three Gods, who were close to being the greatest under heaven in their era, or a descendant of the previous greatest under heaven.

He was a formidable opponent beyond explanation.

Dan Woo-sung watched the moonlight seeping into the dimly lit room and let out a small sigh.

He had merely met a rare beauty, yet he felt uneasy. How could he explain this? After pondering, Dan Woo-sung defined his state of mind thus:

Because she wasn’t my woman.

And it felt even more so because now was not the time to meet women.

That was his conclusion.

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“Are you awake? It’s Baek Han-kyung.”

The afternoon after drinking, Baek Han-gyeong came to visit Dan Woo-seong. After Dan Woo-seong opened the door, he said.

“Come in.”

Baek Han-gyeong spoke as soon as he entered Dan Woo-seong’s quarters.

“Baek Ryeon lost to Hwa Eun-seol, and Hwa Eun-seol forfeited to the winner. Lim Un-hye of the Cheongseong Sect also lost in vain. In the finals, a young lady named Bi Yeo-rang was defeated. Have you heard of the alias or name Baek Yak?”

“I met her briefly yesterday. I was heading in after having a drink when she was waiting ahead.”

“Hmm. So you met the winner beforehand… Did you discover her true identity?”

Dan Wuseong shook his head.

“I didn’t ask, as she didn’t reveal it. There were masters around her—whether subordinates or bodyguards, I couldn’t tell—but they were all highly skilled.”

Baek Han-gyeong said.

“What use is gender distinction in the martial world? If one’s martial prowess alone were strong, that might be acceptable, but her beauty rivaled even Miss Baekri or Miss Hwa. There’s much talk about her true identity. It seems the Emperor’s Assembly and other sects were also shocked. The Alliance Leader found it curious and asked whether she would compete in the Dragon and Phoenix Tournament next time. The young lady said it would be postponed. I came to see if you might know her.”

. She said she’d decide next time. I came to see if you two might know each other.”

Baek Han-gyeong, who had been briefly looking around the lodging, asked.

“You were already planning to leave?”

Dan Woo-sung nodded.

“The Mighty Ones are present at the Galactic Headquarters, so delaying is difficult. I plan to briefly stop by Guwhasan, where my younger brother resides, on the way back, so I must depart immediately.”

Since he planned to move swiftly, he couldn’t take Cheolmyeongho with him.

This single journey to the martial world had yielded much.

He had forged new relationships with Hua Eun-wol, Baek Han-gyeong, and the Martial Arts Alliance leader. Thanks to the Baeknyeonjeonghwasam, he had attained the level of Baekjeonsipdan Gong and gained immunity to poison, and he had even acquired the rare Kwon Gap.

But he couldn’t just abandon the merchant group and stay at the Martial Arts Alliance.

Dan Wuseong briefly met with Cheolmyeongho and the Hwa siblings before heading straight for Gu Huashan.

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Thud! Thud! Thud!

Not far from Gu Huashan, in a quiet inn, a man was surrounded by drunken third-rate martial artists, taking blow after blow to the head. One of them brandished a knife, threatening him.

“That look on your face since earlier… looks like you’ve seen it all, huh?”

It looked like a quarrel had started.

But the man being hit truly showed no expression. He looked like a man devoid of emotion.

Occasionally, his expressionless face would dart its head this way and that to avoid a flying insect, or he would stare at the noodles in front of him. His expression and gaze showed he hadn’t even noticed the sword in the first place.

Who could possibly know this man’s true feelings?

He was a man who thought the lives of those who struck others were no better than these insects.

Whether he was waiting for someone or not, there were two bowls of noodles. He kept his mouth shut, his expression and gaze suggesting he simply accepted being beaten.

The drunkard bellowed.

“This guy’s completely insane, isn’t he?”

This time, he was struck hard enough to make a thud, but the man simply stared back at his noodles with an unruffled expression, smoothing his disheveled hair. As the situation unfolded like this, the mood of the attackers turned cold.

‘He really is crazy.’

‘Looks like we picked the wrong guy.’

At that moment, a man entered the inn with a startled expression. He glanced at the youngest son waiting for his noodles, then glared at the violent men and said,

“Youngest, did you get hit?”

The man who had been beaten for a long time finally spoke.

“Yes. You told me not to cause trouble. Not to fight recklessly.”

“So you got beaten up for that?”

“Yes. Brother, eat your noodles. They’ll get cold.”

The man called “Brother” let out a deep sigh, shot a quick glare at the ones who’d hit him, then sat down.

“Does that mean you just take it?”

“I should take it. It doesn’t even hurt.”

Then the two men ate their noodles in silence.

The inn had grown truly quiet. Some had already moved their seats when the thugs were causing trouble.

The men who had picked a fight and beaten someone up had returned to their seats once the group appeared. Still feeling uneasy, they glanced sideways at the men eating noodles before whispering.

“Let’s go. This feels off.”

“We’ve got all this booze left and you want to leave?”

“Let’s get out of here, you crazy bastard.”

The three turned back to look, and the other two were still slurping noodles.

The three quietly got up, paid the bill, and slipped out of the inn, avoiding the noodle-eating men.

Then the man spoke to the youngest while eating with his chopsticks.

“It was the Black Clan. Kill them and come back.”

The youngest asked.

“Is that okay during a mission?”

“I’ll take responsibility. Go.”

“Understood. What about the body?”

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll move as soon as you get back.”

“Yes, I’ll be back.”

The youngest pulled three chopsticks from the chopstick holder, clutched them, and stepped outside the inn.

As the youngest set out to kill the black-clad men, the man inside the inn turned his head to the side. He glanced toward the now-quiet inner kitchen before rising to his feet.

The youngest, running while clutching three chopsticks in his hand, called out to the three people walking ahead.

“Hey there.”

The three men turned around with a sense of foreboding, but no one was there. In that instant, two chopsticks plunged into the crowns of two men’s heads with a thud as the youngest brother descended.

One man fled in terror. The youngest withdrew the chopsticks from his hand, glared at them with a serious expression, then pointed at his target with his left hand and said.

“Can you dodge? Can’t you dodge? Can you dodge?”

The youngest, who had been muttering, shouted.

“Get out of the way!”

Simultaneously, he flung his chopsticks. With a sharp clang, the flying chopsticks pierced the fleeing man’s back of the head and continued flying for a while longer. The fleeing man collapsed forward.

The youngest looked around at the bodies and said.

“Ah, he couldn’t dodge that. Why is the Black Path like this? This isn’t right. Is the White Path stronger?”

Unlike when he was getting hit, he was a man who talked to himself a lot.

“Ah, this can’t be right.”

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Danwooseong, who had been heading toward Guwhasan, discovered three bodies. All had knives strapped to their waists. Two had died in place, while one man appeared to have been killed while fleeing.

They all appeared to have died by chopsticks.

Walking along the road, he spotted a quiet inn. It was a small inn that sold alcohol and food to peddlers carrying bundles up and down the hill.

On a whim, I entered the inn to find not a single guest inside.

When the men with swords were dead, he hadn’t thought much of it. But when he entered the kitchen, an old man who seemed to be the innkeeper was sitting against the wall, his neck broken.

‘Was this really necessary?’

Danwooseong studied the old man’s expression, then closed his wide-open eyes.

Danwooseong, his expression darkening, stepped out of the inn and listened quietly to the surrounding sounds, searching for any traces left by the bandits.

‘Did black-clad men fight each other?’

He dismissed that thought. Two men had stood side by side and died together. The man who discovered them fled and was killed. Yet he had managed to escape quite a distance. Martial arts skill couldn’t be so erratic.

That meant they had toyed with their opponent before killing them.

Finding no traces nearby, Danwooseong moved using his lightness skill. The conclusion forming in his mind pushed his lightness skill’s speed even higher.

‘It’s demonic cultivation.’

ⓒ Yoo Jin-seong