Meanwhile.
The warriors watching Ja-pil's reaction began to stir.
"What happened? Why did the Captain suddenly collapse?"
"Did he trip over something?"
"Captain, quit joking around and get up! You need to finish the match!"
But.
"Ugh— BLEEEGH—!"
When they saw Ja-pil retch and empty his stomach, the warriors recoiled in shock.
"What in the......?!"
"The Captain got taken down?!"
"N-no way!"
A sensation like the entire world was spinning.
"Ngghhh......"
Ja-pil tried to stand, but collapsed again immediately.
There was not an ounce of strength left in his body.
"Bitter, is it?"
Un-hyeok looked down at Ja-pil.
"You must resent me."
Ja-pil bit his lip hard.
'Damn right I do. I resent you, Young Sect Leader. More than you can possibly imagine!'
The Poison Demon Sect — everything Ja-pil had.
How could he not despise the man who had ruined it?
"I'm sorry."
......What?
For a moment, Ja-pil doubted his own ears.
The coward who had spent his whole life running away — apologizing?
"I'll take responsibility and set things right. So......"
Un-hyeok seized Ja-pil by the hair.
"First, let's get this beating over with."
......Huh?
CRACK—!
Ja-pil's face was slammed straight into the ground, and his vision blurred.
"Gkh......!"
A couple of teeth flew from his mouth.
But Un-hyeok's hands showed no mercy.
CRACK!
CRACK!
CRACK!
Blood sprayed in every direction. Ja-pil thrashed, but it was useless.
"Ngh...... nngh......"
His body had already gone limp from passing out, twitching feebly.
Yet Un-hyeok did not stop.
The smiles had long vanished from the watching warriors' faces.
"I-isn't that going too far?"
"Someone stop him! He's going to kill the man!"
But who would step in?
Not a single mouse was brave enough to bell the cat.
As the warriors exchanged uneasy glances.
Someone grabbed Un-hyeok's arm.
"Br-Brother."
"......Won."
"P-please, that's enough. The match...... the match is over."
Even Mu-won — this time, even he found his own brother terrifying.
Un-hyeok glanced once at the bloodied pulp that was Neung Ja-pil, then turned his head to look at the warriors.
Every last one of them flinched.
Every eye slid away from his gaze.
They looked like whimpering curs with their tails tucked between their legs.
'The pecking order's been established.'
Un-hyeok wiped the blood from his face and rose to his feet.
"Hey, you there."
"Y-yes......? Me?"
"Name and rank."
"Th-that's......"
"Spit it out!!"
When Un-hyeok raised his voice, the warrior snapped to attention like a rod had been shoved down his spine.
"I-Ink Shadow Unit member, Gwak Jeong!!"
"Right, Gwak Jeong."
Un-hyeok crooked his finger, and Jeong scrambled over.
"Y-you called?"
"Take Captain Neung to the infirmary. Right now."
"Huh?"
"What are you standing there gawking for? Leave him like this and he'll end up crippled for life. You going to just watch?"
"Ah......"
Only then did Gwak Jeong come to his senses.
"As you command!"
When Jeong hoisted Ja-pil onto his back, Un-hyeok waved him off.
After that, Un-hyeok stood before them all.
Just then, Mu-won stepped in.
"Brother, wait! Your arm......"
The cloth hastily wrapped around his wounded arm was already soaked through with blood.
"Please, go to the infirmary! If you don't get treatment, you'll have permanent damage."
"It's fine."
In a series of rapid strikes, Un-hyeok sealed several acupoints to stop the bleeding.
"I've done the basics."
"Huh......? No, when did you even learn acupoint sealing...... wait, that's not the point! The cut goes all the way to the bone! A makeshift fix isn't going to cut it!"
"Don't be dramatic. Won, a scratch like this heals with spit."
In truth, during his past missions, Un-hyeok had suffered wounds far worse than this more times than he could count.
Compared to those, this barely qualified as an injury.
"Wh— Brother, where are you going?!"
Un-hyeok walked past Mu-won and stood before them all.
"Listen up, everyone!!"
The warriors tensed at Un-hyeok's shout.
"I don't know how you've been living your lives in the Poison Demon Sect until now. But you'd do well to forget all of it. Because from here on out, everything changes!"
"......"
"I will overhaul every last one of your rotten attitudes. Anyone with complaints — step forward now!"
The future was obviously going to be grueling.
As if anyone wouldn't have complaints.
But they all kept those thoughts locked firmly inside their heads.
Not a single person dared voice them aloud.
'Captain Neung talked back and ended up like that. You'd have to be out of your mind to mouth off to the Young Sect Leader now.'
'Stick my neck out and I'll end up in the same sorry state. Obviously.'
'Lord have mercy. The good times are over.'
Only after seeing their crestfallen faces did Un-hyeok nod in satisfaction.
"Then I'll take that as unanimous agreement. Now, what are you all standing around for?"
Grinning like a demon, Un-hyeok barked his command.
"Foreheads on the ground. All of you."
***
Meanwhile.
Ryeon-hwi arrived at the training grounds in the blink of an eye, moving at tremendous speed.
'......It's strangely quiet. Don't tell me Hyeok already lost to Ja-pil and got carried to the infirmary?'
Ryeon-hwi had never imagined Un-hyeok could win.
No one would have.
After all, Ja-pil was the strongest warrior the Poison Demon Sect had.
Anxiety mounting, Ryeon-hwi threw the door open with a CRASH—!
"Hyeok, is Hyeok all right?!"
But the sight that greeted him.
"Huh......?"
Warriors groaning as they held themselves in headstands against the ground.
Several had already given out and collapsed in heaps.
Then came a thundering rebuke.
"It hasn't even been half a quarter-hour and you're slacking off already?!"
Ryeon-hwi blinked, staring at some unidentifiable young man.
'Who on earth is that youth, whipping our warriors into shape?'
Then the young man turned his head and said.
"Father?"
"......?"
"What brings you here?"
Father?
Ryeon-hwi had only two sons.
Could it be......?
"Are you...... are you truly Hyeok?"
"Yes."
Ryeon-hwi's eyes went wide as lanterns.
'This can't be!'
His looks went beyond those of the prettiest pleasure house scion — his appearance was striking enough to leave one speechless.
The epithet Jade-Faced Young Master would not have been wasted on him.
Ryeon-hwi could hardly believe it at first, but.
'Then again, looking closely...... he does resemble me in my younger days.'
Ryeon-hwi recalled his own past, when he had stolen the hearts of countless women in the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
Then his eye caught Un-hyeok's arm.
"Hyeok, your arm!"
"Ah, this? It's nothing......"
Before Un-hyeok could finish, Ryeon-hwi snatched his arm.
Peeling back the cloth revealed a wound more serious than expected.
He had very nearly lost the entire arm.
The kind of wound no wooden sword could ever inflict.
Ryeon-hwi asked.
"Was this match fought not with wooden swords, but with live steel?"
"Yes."
His heart dropped.
Ryeon-hwi's voice rose sharply.
"What possessed you to do something so recklessly Tangerous?!"
He had come within a hair's breadth of living the rest of his life with one arm.
"Had it been Won, I would not have worried so greatly."
Mu-won had trained in martial arts consistently since childhood.
He at least possessed the skill to protect himself.
But.
"Hyeok, you have never once trained in martial arts in your life! What made you think you could challenge Captain Neung?!"
"Because it was a fight that, as a martial artist, I could never run from."
"......"
There must have been circumstances — and if Ja-pil had truly disrespected Un-hyeok, his mettle was commendable.
But that did not make it praiseworthy.
"You are right. A martial artist will inevitably face a moment where they must stake their life. And they may die for it. But what you showed today was nothing more than......"
Ryeon-hwi spoke firmly.
"Recklessness and bravado."
"......"
"Hyeok. Remember this."
Ryeon-hwi placed his hand on Un-hyeok's shoulder.
"Your life is not something to be spent lightly."
In that moment, Un-hyeok felt an emotion he could not name.
He had been taken in as the Sichuan Tang Clan's hound.
Death was of no consequence; if he survived, he was simply hurled into the next deathtrap. That had been Un-hyeok's fate.
The entire world had wished for his death.
'This is the first time. Someone worrying about me.'
A ticklish sensation around his heart.
Feeling something unfamiliar, Un-hyeok lowered his head.
"Under...... stood. I'll engrave it on my heart."
Only then did relief show on Ryeon-hwi's face.
"Good. That's enough. That aside."
Ryeon-hwi looked around.
No matter where he looked, one person was conspicuously absent.
"Where is Captain Neung?"
That was when it happened.
"Young Sect Leaderrr!"
A booming voice accompanied the violent opening of the training ground gates.
All eyes turned to the entrance.
"Hff...... hff......"
The Black Slaughter Sect's master, Go Gu, face beet-red, was dragging two people in by their collars.
Ryeon-hwi narrowed his brow.
One of them was beaten beyond recognition, but it was unmistakably Ja-pil.
'Why is Ja-pil in that state?'
Then Go Gu stomped right up to Un-hyeok and flung the two men to the ground.
"Oooowww...... augh......!"
Gwak Jeong clutched his back in pain.
Ja-pil lay sprawled out, still unconscious.
"......What is the meaning of this outrage?"
Ryeon-hwi's words went ignored.
Go Gu glared solely at Un-hyeok.
"Young Sect Leader, do you know who I am?"
Thanks to So-ye's intelligence, Un-hyeok recognized him at once.
"The master of the Black Slaughter Sect, are you not? But what on earth has made you this angry?"
Go Gu's face twisted in fury.
"Are you playing dumb? You turned one of my Black Slaughter Sect's warriors into a bloody pulp!"
For a moment, Ryeon-hwi thought he had misheard.
Un-hyeok had done that to Ja-pil?
While Ryeon-hwi stood bewildered, Un-hyeok rebutted Go Gu without yielding an inch.
"You are mistaken, Black Slaughter Sect Master."
"......What?"
"Captain Neung's transfer to the Black Slaughter Sect does not take effect until tomorrow. Strictly speaking, he remains a warrior of the Poison Demon Sect as of today."
"......"
"And Captain Neung said as much himself: since he was leaving anyway, he might as well voice every grievance he had been holding back."
Then Un-hyeok turned to Ryeon-hwi.
"He was to become an outsider by tomorrow regardless. And so I chose to make a painful example of Captain Neung — who dared defy me — in order to restore discipline among our warriors."
"My word......"
"I know better than anyone how much Captain Neung devoted to the Poison Demon Sect. It was with tears in my heart that I struck him down — a painful reckoning for the greater good."
So that was why the warriors were all pressing their foreheads to the ground.
Now Ryeon-hwi understood.
'They're all terrified of Hyeok.'
He had made Ja-pil the example, punishing one to warn a hundred.
Un-hyeok continued.
"And through this, there is a larger goal I wish to achieve."
"Speak."
"My goal is for the Poison Demon Sect to reclaim the standing it once held. To that end, I intend to come to the training grounds daily — to train myself while also drilling the warriors."
"My word......"
Ryeon-hwi could scarcely believe it.
He truly wondered if the young man before him was his son.
'Just days ago, he was drowning in drink and women, fleeing reality. How could he think like this...... they say a boy changes if you don't see him for even a few days. Has he already grown this much?'
Pride filled Ryeon-hwi's eyes as he looked at Un-hyeok.
But Go Gu was another matter entirely.
Furious to his core, he erupted.
"Even so! You've reduced a man who'll be my warrior tomorrow to this state?! I won't let this sta—!"
In that instant, the fine hairs on Go Gu's neck stood on end.
The sensation of invisible hands seizing his throat.
When he slowly turned his head, Ryeon-hwi was radiating a quiet, lethal aura.
"I believe I told you earlier, Sect Master Go."
Ryeon-hwi spoke with an ice-cold face.
"Do not cross the line."
"B-but......!"
"I have no interest in excuses. You've conveyed your regards well enough. Now kindly take your leave."
A clear order of expulsion.
Infuriatingly, Go Gu was far below Ryeon-hwi in ability.
The reality that he had no choice but to comply made his fists tremble.
"......Poison Demon Sect Leader. The Black Slaughter Sect will not forget this."
"Do as you please."
Ryeon-hwi's expression was markedly brighter than before.
How long had it been since he had gotten one over on Go Gu thanks to his own child?
It felt as though a century's worth of indigestion had cleared in an instant.
But Ryeon-hwi sensed an opportunity he could not let pass.
'When will a chance like this come again?'
Ryeon-hwi spun around and stopped Go Gu in his tracks as he was about to leave.
"Oh, Sect Master Go. You asked me earlier."
"......?"
"Who would be entering the Demon Cultivation Grotto. Allow me to correct myself."
For years, he had endured Go Gu's incessant bragging about his son until his ears bled.
A gentleman's revenge was never too late, even after ten years.
Ryeon-hwi's eyes gleamed.
'You picked the wrong day. You think only your son is something special? My son is exceptional too.'
He placed his hand on Un-hyeok's shoulder.
"You would do well to remember Hyeok's face."
Go Gu's cheeks quivered.
Ryeon-hwi squared his shoulders for the first time in a very long while.
"Your son will be facing him in the Demon Cultivation Grotto."