By Zephyria 
They exchanged glances as if perplexed, then leisurely descended the stairs.
“Ack! Aaaagh! I’m dying! Stop! Someone! Stop him!”
Owl was mercilessly raining down blows with both fists on the fallen Poison Freak.
With his arms and upper body bound, Poison Freak could neither resist nor dodge, taking every hit fully and letting out shrill screams.
It seemed Owl had chased after him quickly when Poison Freak rolled down for this very purpose.
Thwack, thwack, thwack, thwack!
“Aaaagh! My nose, my nose! Ack!”
Blood burst from Poison Freak’s nose, but Owl did not stop.
“Oh, hmm? Ooh.”
Seong Mu-yeon let out continuous exclamations of admiration. Judging by the sound of the impacts, quite a heavy force was loaded into those fists. Owl was small and slow, but his strength was second to none.
After some time had passed.
“Shouldn’t we stop him?”
Seong Mu-yeon, who was starting to get bored, looked back. The Hwasan Sect martial artists were merely watching with their arms crossed.
“No, well… how much could it possibly hurt when such a small child is hitting him?”
One martial artist scratched his cheek. The others nodded in vague agreement.
“No! It really hurts! Aaaagh! Help me! Ack!”
“Stop exaggerating.”
Poison Freak screamed piteously, but the reaction from the Hwasan Sect was ice-cold.
He and the Hwasan Sect had a long history of ill will. Ma Jin-cheon, who was like their spiritual pillar, had once been brought to the brink of death by Poison Freak and barely managed to return alive.
They had finally gotten their hands on the enemy they had been longing for, but because Ma Jin-cheon, the actual victim, had negotiated with him, they were in a position where they couldn’t touch a single hair on his head. Being able to vent like this made their twisted insides feel a bit relieved.
The Hwasan Sect had no intention of stopping him, and Owl showed no signs of fatigue; if left alone, he looked poised to keep hitting him all night.
“Stop it. He’ll die at this rate.”
Eventually, Seong Mu-yeon stepped in. He grabbed Owl by the armpits and lifted him up. Even though his body was floating in the air, Owl continued to swing his fists up and down like an automatic reflex. He seemed to have reached a state of near-trance.
“Brother! Wake up!”
Seong Mu-yeon shook him vigorously back and forth.
“Ah…”
Only then did Owl regain his senses.
“Put me down…”
“Yes, sir.”
As soon as his feet touched the ground, Owl straightened his disheveled clothes and returned to his usual calm demeanor.
“Why did you take Yakseon Daein…?”
Owl asked again. Having been severely beaten once, Poison Freak answered promptly this time.
“I, I really don’t know! It’s true that I kidnapped her, but following the Third Young Master was entirely that woman’s own will! The Third Young Master didn’t bind her or put guards on her! She came on her own!”
“That can’t be.”
“What do you mean it can’t be! Why would I lie about something like this! The Third Young Master even gave her time to contact her servants, but she refused!”
“…”
Owl became quiet, as if shocked.
A moment later, when the Hwasan Sect martial artists grabbed his arms to escort him away, Poison Freak—finally escaping the clutches of the crazy servant—even shed tears of emotion.
“Do not believe a word that fellow says. He’s just spouting whatever comes to mind.”
“…”
He seemed to have forgotten that he had even intended to take Seong Mu-yeon. All the way back to the conference hall, Owl stared silently at the ground, lost in thought.
Just as they reached the top floor where the conference hall was located, someone rushed up the stairs. His face was pale, and he looked utterly devastated, as if his soul had left his body. He immediately brushed past Seong Mu-yeon and Owl, kicked open the doors to the conference hall, and shouted.
“T-there is a great problem!”
“What is it?”
Ma Jin-cheon stood up abruptly at the ominous reaction.
“I-it’s the Demonic Cult! They are rapidly approaching Lanzhou!”
“…What?”
Ma Jin-cheon muttered with a stunned expression. Simultaneously, violent reactions erupted inside the conference hall.
“The Demonic Cult!”
“They say the tiger comes when you speak of it, and that proverb is true indeed!”
“Those dogs! We must not let them set a single foot inside the city gates!”
The agitated people poured out of the conference hall. As the entrance became crowded, some leaped from the windows and others jumped over the railings. As dozens of Masters moved all at once, fueled by competitive spirit, the building seemed to shake.
“Brother! Brother!”
In the sudden chaos, Seong Mu-yeon lost hold of Owl. People surged forward. He was repeatedly pushed down the stairs.
Neither Baek Ryeo-il nor Seomun Yuha were in sight. Jegal Yeom-gang had long since bolted the moment he heard the words ‘Demonic Cult.’
Before the conference hall vanished completely from view, Seong Mu-yeon locked eyes with Owl, who was standing amidst the confusion. Owl waved his hand as if telling him to leave him behind.
Soon, Owl disappeared from sight. Seong Mu-yeon felt an unknown, ominous premonition coming from him. It felt as though Owl had made some kind of decision.
Seong Mu-yeon wanted to go back to Owl, but he soon gave up. It was not easy to push back against the crowd of people.
‘There will be time to talk separately later.’
He headed toward the place where the Demonic Cult had appeared.
Before long, he could see Hwasan disciples utilizing their movement techniques ahead. Ma Jin-cheon was at the very front.
“Is the group approaching the Divine Demon Sect or the Old Demon Sect? What is the scale?”
Ma Jin-cheon was with a member of the Haoh Gate who had delivered the news.
“I-I’m not entirely sure… It’s a significant number… When our disciples obtained the information, they said it was around several hundred people.”
“How could you not know they were this close when such a large number was moving?!”
When someone eavesdropping on their conversation raised their voice, the Haoh Gate member flushed with anger.
“There are almost no Great Sects in Gansu or Qinghai. The Kunlun Sect is the only one in Qinghai, and there are none at all in Gansu. Because of that, the number of Haoh Gate branches is significantly smaller compared to the south. We’re lucky to have this much!”
No one countered that statement.
“If they are the Old Demon Sect, there is room for negotiation. Although the Black Shadow Unit suddenly vanished after the battle, we have experience fighting alongside them. However, if they are the Divine Demon Sect…”
Ma Jin-cheon let out a low groan and swallowed the rest of his sentence, but Seong Mu-yeon understood what he meant.
If it was the Divine Demon Sect, they had no chance of winning. Negotiation would not work with the Third Young Master. They would have come to collect payment for the devastation of the Demon Subjugation Valley, a key stronghold of the Divine Demon Sect.
“But… the possibility of it being the Old Demon Sect is not very high. If it were, the Kunlun Sect would have stopped them the moment they left the lands of Xinjiang and notified the martial alliance.”
Someone else offered a skeptical opinion. It wasn’t particularly wrong. A solemn atmosphere lingered for a moment.
“Whether it is the Old Demon Sect or the Divine Demon Sect, they shall not cross the city gates before my life ends,” Baek Ryeo-il said. His voice was flat, but a powerful will could be felt within it.
“Right!”
“The martial alliance will take care of the aftermath!”
However, a moment later, as they passed through a dense forest and reached a wide clearing, they all came to a halt, their expressions turning stunned.
“They said several hundred…”
“How can this be? It’s more than ten times that!”
“T-this can’t be.”
As if to lure them in, thousands of demonic cultists, making no effort to hide their presence, stood packed tightly in the opposite clearing.
A vivid Demonic Energy lingered in the area, enough to make one’s skin prickle.
“…”
Ma Jin-cheon’s complexion sank into a dark gloom. Thousands of demonic cultists… If they were all elites, it was a force capable of massacring not just Lanzhou, but the entirety of Gansu Province.
Yet, the orthodox sect members gathered here numbered barely a hundred.
“Master of the Flowing Cloud Sword, so are they the Old Demon Sect or the Divine Demon Sect?!”
“…”
Ma Jin-cheon was also trying to distinguish them.
But regardless, both were the Demonic Cult. It wasn’t easy to tell just by the energy they emitted. Furthermore, the giant of a man standing at the front was a face he had never seen before.
The giant man was staring this way with an arrogant posture and a confident smile. Ma Jin-cheon eventually let out a faint sigh and turned around. It was to ask Seong Mu-yeon for help.
“Young Master Seong Mu-yeon, I ask for your assistance.”
However, as if he had already recognized the giant man, Seong Mu-yeon wore a strange expression—a rare mix of bewilderment and fear.
Because their family history was so complicated, it was impossible to tell from his expression alone whether the man was an enemy or an ally.
Seong Mu-yeon walked forward blankly. Baek Ryeo-il extended his arm, lightly blocking him from going further.
“It has been a long time… Seong Mu-yeon, no, my youngest.”
“Eldest Brother…”
The giant man who had stormed in leading thousands of demonic cultists was none other than the Cult Leader’s eldest son, Ilgongja Seong Mu-cheon.