By Zephyria 
It would have worked on anyone else, but unfortunately, his opponent was Seong Mu-yeon, who knew all too well about his fledgling days.
‘When did that little instructor grow up like this…’
Far from feeling fear, his nose tingled with a swell of pride. Even though he hadn’t raised him himself, he somehow felt a sense of boastful satisfaction.
Unaware of Seong Mu-yeon’s inner thoughts, Gang Woong seemed to think this was enough and didn’t press further, brushing past him. He then carefully observed the campsite through the tree trunks.
“It’s almost over. It should be safe to join them now. Let’s go.”
When he entered the campsite with Gang Woong, Baek Ryeo-il was standing tall in the middle of a pool of red blood. Drops of blood clinging to the hem of his martial uniform fell, spreading ripples across the still surface.
That figure resembled a Divine General who had descended from heaven to vanquish evil spirits.
Baek Ryeo-il’s black pupils rolled, tracking the newly appeared presence. An oppressive aura flowed from Baek Ryeo-il’s entire body, still not free from the lingering intensity of the life-or-death battle he had just been engaged in.
Seong Mu-yeon, who received that gaze head-on in the open space, unconsciously stopped in his tracks.
Facing the ‘real thing,’ he viscerally understood that the Gang Woong from moments ago was truly nothing but a cub.
Even Owl slowed his steps, unable to approach Baek Ryeo-il easily.
“Are these all of them?”
However, Gang Woong approached without hesitation, as if familiar with him. Seong Mu-yeon instinctively flinched his hand with the thought that he should stop Gang Woong. Baek Ryeo-il reacted immediately even to that small movement.
Dangerously flickering eyes fixed on Seong Mu-yeon.
The moment sweat seeped into his palms, the bloodlust boiling in those black eyes slowly subsided.
“Casualties?”
When Baek Ryeo-il asked Gang Woong that, he had completely suppressed his fighting spirit and returned to his usual self.
“None. Ah, I found this letter on one of the fleeing men, but it’s written in code, so I can’t read it… By the way, where is Young Master Peng?”
The blazing flames had died down, replaced by a deep darkness.
“He went chasing after the ones who ran away.”
Baek Ryeo-il sheathed his sword and gestured with his chin toward one direction.
“P-please spare me! I have committed a mortal sin!”
Sure enough, Peng Do-hwan appeared, dragging a struggling person along. It was that Demonic human who had gotten them into this predicament. When the tide turned, he had fled into the forest, and Peng Do-hwan had caught him and dragged him into the open.
“That’s good! We need to keep at least one alive to decipher the code…”
“I told you earlier.”
Peng Do-hwan’s icy voice was clearly audible even from a distance.
“P-please spare…!”
Without a chance to stop him, Peng Do-hwan’s greatsword struck the Demonic human’s neck.
“Your turn is last.”
“…we could.”
The Demonic human’s head rolled through the pool of blood, and Gang Woong sighed faintly, pressing his forehead.
“……”
At that moment, Seong Mu-yeon realized.
Baek Ryeo-il and Peng Do-hwan…
Both of them are not normal.
Unfortunately, while traces of hostages remained in the campsite, Yak Seon and the villagers were nowhere to be seen.
“…What do we do now?”
Gang Woong muttered blankly.
“Since there are no bodies, it seems they moved the hostages elsewhere, but there’s no one left to ask.”
Every single demonic cultist in the campsite had perished without exception and was growing coldly stiff.
The two people who had actually wrecked the entire campsite were acting perfectly calm, as if it wasn’t their business.
“A few ran away, but it’s too late to chase them now.”
Peng Do-hwan shrugged his shoulders, and Baek Ryeo-il silently wiped his blood-stained sword roughly on his clothes and put it away at his waist.
“Then for tonight…”
Seeing Gang Woong looking around as if searching for a place to spend the night, Seong Mu-yeon was horrified.
‘He wants to spend the night in a place littered with corpses?!’
“Is there a village nearby…? Or perhaps we should return to Medicinal Herb Village, rest, and think it over…”
Even Owl, who was practically a man of nature, seemed to think this wasn’t right. When he suggested it, the three men stared blankly at each other before finally nodding in agreement.
“There’s a fairly large village nearby. We can head there.”
Peng Do-hwan, who had been staying in this area recently while hunting down the Demonic Cult, explained that he knew the geography well and took the lead to guide them.
As they crossed through the forest, they soon found a babbling stream. At Peng Do-hwan’s suggestion to roughly wash their blood-stained bodies before going, Baek Ryeo-il frowned.
“We can wash when we get there.”
“If we enter the village looking like this, everyone will be shocked and faint!”
“I’ve always done it that way, and no one ever fainted.”
“They probably fainted standing up because you’re too terrifying!”
…At least Peng Do-hwan has common sense.
Seong Mu-yeon nodded vigorously in agreement with his opinion. Both Baek Ryeo-il and Peng Do-hwan were stained all over with dark red blood, looking like yakshas who had crawled up from hell.
“The water is cool, Master.”
Gang Woong was already smiling brightly with his feet dipped in the stream water.
“What a bother.”
In the end, Baek Ryeo-il, unable to withstand the surrounding pestering, roughly washed off the blood. Setting off again, they soon found a village and headed straight for an inn.
“Innkeeper! Bring us whatever you can serve the fastest here!”
Washing up at the stream had been a good choice. Thanks to that, they could have a meal as soon as they arrived at the inn. Otherwise, they would have had to wait for bathwater to be drawn while clutching their hungry stomachs.
“Huh? Aren’t you two young heroes eating?”
The group had taken seats on the first floor, but as Owl and Seong Mu-yeon quietly slipped away, Peng Do-hwan asked.
“We’ll eat separately… Then, please enjoy your meal. Let’s go, youngest…”
Seong Mu-yeon tried hard to ignore the piercing gazes and entered the room he had secured in advance.
As soon as Seong Mu-yeon entered the room and closed the door, he threw off his mask and collapsed onto the bed.
Too much had happened today.
He was too exhausted.
Owl touched his blood point again to restore his voice, but he didn’t even have the energy to speak.
“I’ll have food brought to the room, so we’ll eat here… What do you want to eat?”
“Anything is fine for me…”
He blinked his eyes closed and open, and before he knew it, steaming somyeon noodles were before him. As soon as Seong Mu-yeon smelled the food, he ravenously filled his stomach against the onslaught of hunger.
“You eat well…”
Owl sat at a nearby table and watched him eat. Seeing this little guy acting like this made him feel as if he were a real big brother, and a smile naturally flowed out.
“Would you like a bite, brother?”
“…Try not to speak in the room if possible, and don’t take off your mask either. Martial artists have sharp senses and might notice at any time.”
“…Yes.”
Only after filling his stomach and then washing up in the bathwater that arrived afterward did Seong Mu-yeon fall into deep thought with a serious expression.
“The Great One should be safe… What do you think, brother? For what purpose did those bastards take the Great One? Will she be alright?”
“Well… She’s not someone to be easily defeated, so there’s no need to worry too much… But if she’s in a situation where she can’t escape of her own will, then the one in big trouble isn’t the Great One, but you, youngest…”
“I-I see.”
Seong Mu-yeon also didn’t think at all that Yak Seon would be easily defeated by someone like the Poison Freak. However, Seong Mu-yeon was in a position where he couldn’t just wait for her to return.
“That coded letter the little instructor had… Can you decipher it?”
“Maybe? Three years ago, I knew all the code systems used within the Demonic Cult, so I could have said confidently, but that code is used by the Divine Demon Sect commanded by the Third Young Master, right? I can’t be sure. I think I’d need to see it directly.”
“I see… For now, get a good rest tonight.”
Seong Mu-yeon, who had been barely holding onto his flickering consciousness, fell fast asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.
Owl blew out the candle and moved the chair beside the bed.
In the quiet silence and darkness, he watched over Seong Mu-yeon as he slept. Until the stars set and the moon tilted.
Owl, who had remained motionless like a stone statue, finally stirred his body smoothly as the dim dawn light began to brighten.
Owl placed a badger-shaped mask over the sleeping Seong Mu-yeon’s face and left the room.
Crossing the silent corridor where everyone slept, he went down to the first floor, where the cook was rubbing his bleary eyes and lighting the fire in the hearth.
Owl borrowed a small brazier from him and headed to the backyard he had scouted earlier. The small backyard, surrounded by high walls and fruit trees, was a perfect space for handling secret matters.
He placed a medicine pot on the brazier and lit the fire. It was a daily task, so his hands were skilled. Like other medicinal herbs, Seong Mu-yeon’s medicine in particular had to be simmered for a long time at a specific temperature to expect sufficient efficacy.
How long had he been fanning the brazier with all his heart and soul?
“What kind of medicine is that?”
A voice came from above his head out of nowhere. It was none other than Baek Ryeo-il, sitting tilted in the fork of a tree trunk, looking down at him.