By Zephyria 
Body Displacement?!
When one’s martial arts reach a high level, their movements become so fast that the eye cannot keep up, making it appear as if they vanished and reappeared in an instant. That was precisely what Body Displacement was.
Gang Woong could not believe what he had just witnessed. Was that seemingly ordinary servant truly a Master who had reached the realm of Body Displacement? He had heard stories that some ancient Masters who had reached the Enlightenment Realm showed no outward traces of having practiced martial arts. But why would such a Master volunteer to serve as Yak Seon’s servant?
Suddenly, Gang Woong realized he had had a similar experience.
‘…Young Master Seong Mu-yeon was like that too.’
Seong Mu-yeon also didn’t look like a martial artist at all. He even appeared smaller and more frail than an average person, yet it turned out he was a formidable Master.
If he hadn’t practiced External Arts deeply, it wouldn’t be entirely incomprehensible that it didn’t show on the surface. Even when the Mount Hua Elder personally injected inner force to diagnose him, he couldn’t determine Seong Mu-yeon’s level of martial arts. Thinking back, it might have been because he suffered from Meridian Disorder.
‘Then does that mean Young Hero Badger is also a patient with Meridian Disorder, or at least a Master on par with my Master?’
However, he was too different from Baek Ryeo-il. The aura emanating from his entire body and the sheer strength of his physique were on a different dimension.
If so, there was only one conclusion.
Badger, like Seong Mu-yeon, was a patient with Meridian Disorder.
Gang Woong reached that conclusion. While not entirely correct, it was the best judgment he could make given his narrow perspective due to his youth.
“Hieek!!”
The thug who had thrown the medicine pot turned pale as a ghost upon seeing the object leave his hand only to appear in Badger’s hand in the blink of an eye, as if he had teleported.
No matter how ignorant a person was, as long as they lived in the Central Plains, it was impossible not to recognize a martial world Master. The gang of thugs, who had previously felt that the sinister rumors circulating in the martial world were someone else’s problem, were now terrified as a real martial artist appeared before them.
Moreover, like naive puppies, they had dared to attempt robbery against a Master of the martial world.
“Aaaagh!”
“We’re sorry!”
The thugs turned deathly pale and fled for their lives.
Badger let them run away. Instead, with exhausted, limp steps, he began to gather the medicinal herbs scattered on the ground into his arms.
“….”
Gang Woong stared blankly at the back of the figure, which looked almost pitiful.
Badger didn’t seem to have noticed his presence yet. Thanks to the proximity of the market, the presence of numerous people hid him.
Just then, sensing someone approaching, Gang Woong quickly hid his body and presence completely behind the wall. Owl appeared in the alley.
“Badger, are you okay…”
As Owl appeared, Badger—who was much taller and older—slumped down on the ground as if all the strength had left his body, looking like a child who had finally found their lost parents.
“I’m hurt…”
He shook his head from side to side.
It was a gesture mixed with spoiled whining, whether he was pretending to be weak or was actually startled.
“No, not you… I mean those kids from before. Were they hurt?”
“….”
Gang Woong barely managed to suppress a burst of laughter. Come to think of it, he couldn’t remember the last time he had felt such a lighthearted mood.
Why did this mysterious, secret servant of Yak Seon feel so familiar?
‘….’
Suddenly, as Gang Woong stared in the direction the thugs had fled, the smile vanished from his face, replaced by a terrifyingly cold aura.
He quietly leaped forward to chase the thugs. Badger had let them go, but Gang Woong had no such intention.
He had learned many things while traveling the Martial world with his Master. One of them was that those who touch me or my allies must pay the price.
Even if they seemed to have retreated in total defeat now, no one knows how a person’s inner thoughts flow. They might gather a pack and try to counterattack later, so he had to give them a clear warning.
Gang Woong made almost no sound as he leaped from roof to roof, running as if grazing the ridges.
The thugs couldn’t get far and were soon captured in Gang Woong’s sight.
“This is crazy. I didn’t know he was a martial artist.”
They were gathered at the entrance of a secluded alley, stamping their feet in anxiety.
“I told you we shouldn’t do it!”
“When did you? You were the one giggling the most!”
“Ah, I don’t know! We’re screwed.”
“What if he’s chasing us?”
One of the thugs looked around with frightened eyes and spotted Gang Woong standing loftily atop the roof’s ridge.
“Aaaagh!”
“Run!”
The face of the Swordsman looking down at them, with a sword hanging at his waist, was coldly sunken. To anyone, he was clearly an associate of that strange Badger mask from earlier.
The thugs ran until their feet sweated.
However, they could not beat the light body skill of Gang Woong, who pursued them by leaping across rooftops.
‘I should scare them enough.’
Gang Woong chased them, narrowing the gap to drive them into extreme terror. As intended, the terrified thugs’ movements became increasingly erratic. When they bumped shoulders with comrades running beside them, they pushed them away just to save themselves, or stepped over fallen comrades… it was a pathetic sight to behold.
The chase continued for a while. Eventually, the thugs were cornered in a dead-end alley.
A black gate, taller than a man, and a long stretching wall blocked their path. Unable to open and enter someone else’s gate, the thugs were like rats in a trap.
‘This should be enough of a warning.’
Just as Gang Woong was about to jump down from the roof to properly deal with them, he paused.
The leader, acting impulsively in desperation, suddenly opened the black gate and leaped inside.
“B-Brother!”
The remaining thugs seemed bewildered for a moment but soon followed the leader inside.
‘Could that be his house?’
In the manor surrounded by black walls, the protruding pavilions were all black, as if scorched by charcoal, regardless of what wood was used. A gloomy energy lingered, making it feel as though no one lived there, leading him to think it was an abandoned house.
“W-what are you doing coming in here! This is… that house! The Black Manor!”
“We have to survive first!”
“They say ghosts come out and take people away!”
Ghosts…
As expected, the thugs were not the owners of the pavilions.
“What ghosts! People only say that because it’s been abandoned for so long!”
“But considering the history of this manor, it’s plausible that ghosts would appear! I heard that after the owner’s family died one by one in unfair circumstances, crying sounds are heard every night. The persimmon tree grandma next door heard it herself!”
One of the thugs wailed.
“And haven’t you heard the stories about young, healthy men continuously disappearing around here? They say the ghosts of the manor lord and his family, who felt wronged by their unfulfilled lives, drag living people underground to play with them for comfort!”
“Stop talking nonsense! Let’s just run. If we go out the opposite gate, the market is right there, so we can shake that guy off.”
They moved further into the manor. Gang Woong hesitated for a moment. For some reason, he felt uncomfortable stepping foot in that place.
‘It’s… it’s not because of ghosts.’
A chilly energy lingered inside the manor, as if the sun didn’t reach it.
While he hesitated, the thugs steadily moved deeper into the manor, growing further from the main gate. During this, they encountered a massive pavilion. After confirming that Gang Woong was no longer following, the thugs stood before the door for a moment, seemingly debating whether to enter. Because the pavilion was so enormous, they would have to take a long detour if they didn’t pass through it.
‘It’s a bit much to enter someone else’s house without permission…’
Thinking that he had scared them enough and they would never approach again, Gang Woong decided to turn back.
But then, an anomaly occurred.
The door of the pavilion, which was thought to be empty, opened, and a pale hand shot out from within. It then snatched one of the thugs.
In an instant, one of the thugs was dragged inside.
“…!”
In that moment, the hair on Gang Woong’s entire body stood on end. It was the moment the chilling rumors he had just heard became truth.
The pale hand proceeded to drag the remaining, frozen thugs inside one by one, and in an instant, the manor became empty again.
“….”
It took a long time for Gang Woong to regain his composure.
That was not a ghost.
The energy he felt briefly when the door opened was not the yin energy of a ghost, but Demonic Energy.
He must report this to his Master immediately.
It was a case of catching a mouse by stepping backward, but regardless, it seemed he had discovered the purpose of their visit to Lanzhou—the place where the Demonic Cult was hiding.