That night.
"......"
By around the middle of the Hai hour—roughly ten in the evening—Yul Hwi's quarters on the Moon Vein's side maintained a stillness steeped in endless silence.
Outside, the talk was still buzzing about the over one hundred fierce bouts fought today, and above all else, about the second son of the Taewon Yul Family, whose divine prowess had stood head and shoulders above the rest in an overwhelmingly singular display.
"I would prefer he comes by tonight or tomorrow at the latest."
Yet the man at the very center of that enormous tempest had firmly turned away even the visiting elders and the leech-like Baek Seol, savoring his solitude alone.
"I can't very well put off a summons from the Moon Master, after all."
All for the sole purpose of receiving a visit from that last opponent—the swordsman who bore the surname Yi.
'He will come. Without question.'
This was less a conclusion of reason and more a certainty born of instinct.
The instinct of the assassin once called the strongest and most wicked Reaper—who had personally carried out over one thousand killings across his previous and current lives combined.
'That was no ordinary grudge driven by fury.'
The unmistakable murderous intent he had failed to notice when they first stood face-to-face on the arena.
The emotion that had gradually settled over his opponent's pupils while the man was being helplessly savaged by his dagger was not something that had sprung up on the spur of the moment, simply because he was being dragged toward a powerless defeat.
It had been a feeling eerily similar to what he had seen in those who had lost blood relatives to his hand during his days as Annihilation.
"That makes no sense."
And that was precisely why he found it even harder to comprehend.
The people this body had assassinated amounted to the Blossom Sword Dragon Myeong-u, Fallen Petals on Flowing Water Baek Yeong, and roughly ten Plum Blossom Swordsmen he had ambushed to aid the Moon Vein's elders in Taewon. That was the sum of it.
This was the very first time he had set foot in the land of Gangso, across both lives combined.
Which only made the uneasy, nagging feeling all the more real.
'It's always better for one's well-being to shake things like this off as quickly as possible.'
Ignorance of the unknown did not beget fear alone.
It could also return as an acutely painful price at the most unexpected of moments—like a hidden blade at one's back.
Just as he had been betrayed in his final moments of his previous life by the Phantom Slaughter Sect, which had fallen into Number One's grasp.
One experience of that helpless, wretched sort was more than enough.
"So hurry up and come. That's the only way I can move on to the next step with any peace of mind."
He had been sitting in silence on the chair beside his bed for a full half-hour, creeping toward a full hour—
When at last, around the middle of the Zi hour—midnight—even the faintest ambient noise from beyond the compound walls had vanished entirely.
"......He's here."
A familiar aura, piercing and sharp, aimed squarely at him from beyond the wall outside, set his entire body on alert.
Having personally carved the man's flesh like scoring knife-marks into raw meat, there was no possibility of mistaking the distinctive texture of his qi.
"Then let's hear what his story is."
With an unhurried gesture, Yul Hwi tucked the dagger he had left on the table back into his breast and began walking slowly toward the outside, a chilling smile drawn across his face.
The haughty, impudent arrogance of the genius he had resolved to project firmly within the Sun and Moon Gate—
Worn over his face like a mask.
***
He had briefly considered the possibility that the man might go all-out with his Blazing Yang Qi Arts and charge at him in a life-or-death frenzy.
But the man surnamed Yi was not that reckless a fool.
The instant Yul Hwi approached the compound wall, the man took the lead in a particular direction, heading toward the most desolate and secluded corner within the vast grounds of the Sun and Moon Gate.
As if he were someone who had every intention of committing murder and destroying the evidence in secret.
'That suits me just fine.'
He had not particularly intended to leave the man alive, anyway.
Earlier in the evening, both sides had sealed their true arts and fought an elaborate performance, little more than a theatrical bout.
But in the fight about to unfold, they would inevitably have to bring out the full extent of their power.
In particular, even Yul Hwi himself did not have the luxury of restraining his Extreme Yin Qi against an opponent pouring out Blazing Yang Qi Arts in earnest.
Given the mature and seasoned sword forms the man had displayed earlier, his mastery of the Blazing Yang Qi Arts—his true art—was almost certainly deeper and more extensive than what he had shown.
Above all, Yul Hwi had yet to learn a single proper Yin-Cold Qi Art and was merely channeling his Extreme Yin Qi through his killing arts. He was not about to hold naive expectations of an easy victory.
Amid these many thoughts, he followed at a leisurely pace for a full quarter of an hour.
At the end of a trek that was long if one called it long and short if one called it short, the two men once again stood facing each other in the heart of a bamboo grove thick on all sides with towering green stalks.
"You really are a master, aren't you? I was rather proud of the even job I did scoring those cuts, yet here you are, looking perfectly fine."
"......"
"What's the reason for calling me out to this gloomy bamboo grove in the dead of night? Don't tell me you're unable to accept the result of the bout you lost earlier?"
To provoke the man, who merely radiated a silently smoldering light from his eyes, Yul Hwi raised his chin slightly and tossed out barb after mocking barb.
"I wonder if you're aware. That I have already awakened my Extreme Yin Qi on my own and reached a level where I wield it freely."
"......"
"So unless you want to freeze to death in the middle of this secluded bamboo grove, answer my questions properly. Why did you call me out?"
"A whelp who was merely lucky enough to be born with the Nine Yin Severed Meridians—some heaven-sent stroke of fortune—and he runs his mouth so freely."
His carefully crafted provocations had not been in vain, it seemed. At last, the man who had been rigid as a mute began to speak.
"Just as you toyed with me in that bout earlier, I merely played along with your pathetic little game."
"Oh...... drenched head to toe in blood, one-sidedly beaten, and yet you say that? A weakling with no shame."
"Say whatever you like. You will burn alive in this place tonight."
'As I thought. He never intended to hide the fact that he's learned the Blazing Yang Qi Arts.'
It was certain the man intended to kill and destroy all evidence.
And that only deepened his suspicion further.
"Before you kill me, let me at least hear the reason. Why do you want to kill me—someone you've never once met? Did the old monsters of the Sun Vein put you up to this?"
"Insolent wretch. They are not people the likes of you may speak of so carelessly."
"That's for me to decide. I could kill every last one of those backroom geezers who scheme up filthy plots like this, even right now."
"......You are a man who does not deserve a clean death."
"Just answer the question."
"Hmph! Why should I? To someone I'm about to kill?"
The man grew uncooperative, deeply offended by the remarks insulting the Sun Vein's leadership, but Yul Hwi already had a surefire countermeasure for this as well.
"Because if you don't, I'll simply vanish from this spot."
"...What?"
"Do you truly think the likes of you could catch me in this dense bamboo grove in the dead of night, if I decided to flee in earnest?"
"You...!"
"So shut up and answer what I ask while I'm still willing to play along, trash."
"Kgh!"
Relentless contempt, delivered as though addressing someone far beneath him, accompanied by brazen verbal abuse.
Yet the man, who had already experienced Yul Hwi's uncanny evasion and stealth during the bout, could no longer simply act as he pleased.
And so, as if confessing against his will, the underlying circumstances came spilling out.
"Do you remember the Martial Vein warrior who died with a palm-sized nail driven into his eye?"
"......Don't tell me?"
The night the Taewon Yul Family was attacked.
Two men had blocked the path in front of his quarters as he hurried to flee the compound.
Among them, the one he had killed in an improvised ambush using a hinge fixture torn from a window—that image suddenly flashed through Yul Hwi's mind.
"That worthless fool was my one and only younger brother."
"Ha. This is somewhat unexpected."
A creature so trivial and insignificant that it had barely registered in his memory.
A kill that had left him with roughly the same impression as stepping on an earthworm by the roadside—who could have guessed it would produce a consequence like this, at this very moment?
But the surprises did not end there.
"And the Sun Vein's Fire Force Unit Captain, who, because of you, ultimately met his heroic end at the hands of those Martial Alliance scum back in Taewon."
"......?"
"He was my father. Mine and my dead brother's."
"......"
The story about his brother was still within the bounds of what one could reasonably accept.
"Your father was killed by the Martial Alliance. Why in the world are you blaming me for that?"
"Shut up! If you had just let yourself be captured by the Infernal King Unit that night five years ago, the gate would never have forged this kind of enmity with the Martial Alliance! And neither my father nor my brother would have died so wretchedly!"
"......So you're just insane. The Martial Alliance is right there with people who are actually your enemies, but you don't have the guts to go after them, so you're taking your frustrations out on me instead—is that it?"
What a pathetic bastard.
"?! Y-you...!"
At that small afterthought, which had slipped out loaded with genuine feeling, the fury the man had been crushing down all day long erupted like a volcano.
"I'll kill you! I will give you a death so agonizing that you'll regret ever having been born! I, Yi Gok—!"
"Ah...... right, that was your name. It simply refused to stick in my head."
Smirk.
"I suppose I was unconsciously refusing to commit it to memory, on account of what a hopeless imbecile you are."
"You—!"
Every last detail of the man's rambling story had been heard. All that remained was to kill him cleanly and be done with it.
Facing his opponent, whose entire body now radiated a blistering heat, Yul Hwi casually tacked on one final curiosity.
"But how did someone who's already received Blazing Yang Qi Arts from the Sun Vein manage to enter the Vein Entry Trials? Did those sly old foxes of the Sun Vein grease the palms of a Martial Vein examiner?"
"Grrrgh! Shut up! All you need to do is shut your mouth and die here!"
'So he won't give up that part.'
Even blinded by such excessive rage, the man stubbornly guarded the most critical secret—an impressive display of discipline.
'The road ahead won't be easy.'
It seemed that seizing the Moon Vein and eventually extending his grip over the Sun Vein as well would entail rather exhausting days to come.
"Krahaaaat!"
WHOOSH!
At that very moment, a massive blade of flaming sword qi erupted from Yi Gok's sword and blew every idle thought from Yul Hwi's mind without a trace.
From here on, he too needed to focus with every fiber of his being.
'Blazing Yang Qi Arts.'
Facing them in direct combat was a first, across both lives.
'But in the end, the fact that the wielder is human doesn't change.'
Not a single flicker of fear resided in Yul Hwi's eyes.
It was true that he was ignorant of the unknown quantity that was the Blazing Yang Qi Arts.
But the unassailable axiom—that humans, no matter what weapons they wielded, were ultimately creatures whose breath ceased once a blade found the neck or heart—had long since been carved deep and firm into his soul.
"Let me show you what an assassin's fight looks like."
Amid the crackling flames consuming the bamboo overhead on all sides, amid the acrid smoke and Yi Gok's maddened screams—
Whoosh.
Having murmured a notice that would never be heard, Yul Hwi's form vanished—as if by some trick of the imagination—behind the gray curtain of smoke.