SSSSSSS.

The area went cold at the Little Azure Sword’s crazed words.

‘What did he just say?’

The Heaven of our cult. What that meant was only one thing.

The Heavenly Demon.

A calamity sent down by Heaven.

The leader called the god and center of the Demon Cult.

The existence said to have brought a storm of blood to the Central Plains by starting the Heavenly Demon War, and the only martial artist ever claimed to have been able to cross blades evenly with Yoo Cheongil, the greatest of all time.

With a single gesture of his hand, sea and sky split apart.

It was even said that when he set his foot down, heaven and earth shook—people’s image of the Heavenly Demon descending upon the Central Plains was bizarre, and terrifying.

‘Of course.’

It wasn’t just anything—he was the one who started a war.

How many died because of what he did, and how many more were sacrificed?

There were endless stories going around that if Yoo Cheongil hadn’t existed, the Central Plains really would have been wiped out.

‘And he brings that up with his own mouth?’

A bloodline of a prestigious Orthodox family.

No—one of the Five Great Clans, the Namgung Clan, a prestigious sword family, and its bloodline mentioned the Heavenly Demon.

While everyone froze at that fact—

“I... I....”

CREEEAK...

The Little Azure Sword moved like he was staggering.

“I revere... the place... our Heaven created....”

Then his hand trembled, and the sword edge he was holding slowly shifted.

“Our wrathful Heaven... will finally punish you....”

Watching that, I narrowed my eyes.

‘No way.’

That motion—my skin-crawling guess at what he was about to do snapped into place.

“Tremble in anticipation. The day our Heaven descends will come!”

SWISH—!!

The Little Azure Sword tried to drive the sword straight into his own neck.

That moment—

CLANG—! CLATTER—!

Before the tip could touch, the Little Azure Sword’s blade shattered, and the broken tip rolled across the floor.

When his attempt failed, the Little Azure Sword stared at someone with gleaming eyes.

The one who stopped the suicide was none other than the Commander of the Guards.

The Commander of the Guards who’d been guarding me moved and smashed his blade apart.

“How dare you... the great work...!”

Before the Little Azure Sword could spit out whatever he was trying to say—

WHACK—!

The Commander of the Guards struck the back of his neck.

“Ghk.”

The Little Azure Sword lost consciousness and collapsed onto the blood-soaked floor.

The Little Azure Sword, knocked out. The Commander of the Guards looked down at him and spoke.

“Namgung Clan’s Namgung Seong. Suspected Demon Cult remnant. I will transfer him to Main Alliance Headquarters for interrogation.”

After delivering that blunt, flat statement, he gestured at him.

Then—

WHOOOSH—!

Namgung Seong’s body on the floor slowly lifted into the air.

“Air-Lifting...!!”

Someone blurted out what the Commander [N O V E L I G H T] of the Guards was using.

Air-Lifting. With power that normally could barely lift objects, he was lifting a human being.

Then he tossed him toward the entrance like he was throwing him away.

“Move!”

As if they’d been waiting, Martial Alliance staff members appeared. It seemed they’d already received the report.

Then the people who’d rushed in flinched when they saw the Commander of the Guards inside.

“C-Commander of the Guards, we greet you.”

“I subdued him. Take him.”

“Yes!”

The Alliance staff immediately clapped restraints onto the Little Azure Sword and hauled him away.

DRIP. DRIP. DRIP.

In the blood that kept flowing where he’d fallen, I had to take in the situation with a deep frown.

Then, as the Commander of the Guards approached me, I asked.

“Can I ask you one thing?”

“Speak.”

“Why didn’t you stop it?”

At my question, the Commander of the Guards looked down at me.

“Stop what?”

“That situation. You could’ve stopped it.”

When the Little Azure Sword started swinging his blade, it was the Commander of the Guards who’d sent me a voice transmission.

Which meant—

‘He was in a position where he could’ve stopped it.’

Before the Little Azure Sword caused any of this, the Commander of the Guards could’ve stopped it.

Even now, that was obvious. He stopped the Little Azure Sword from stabbing his own neck—he could’ve done it whenever he wanted.

“...Why didn’t you stop it?”

Why didn’t the Commander of the Guards step in.

To that question—

“The order I received was to guard and monitor you. This was not included in the order.”

So he didn’t step in because of that? Even while people were dying?

“Then why did you step in just now?”

Then why stop the Little Azure Sword from dying?

Even to that, the Commander of the Guards answered without a flicker.

“Words regarding the Demon Cult were exchanged. For the sake of the Alliance, interrogation is required.”

“...”

He stopped it because it threatened the Martial Alliance.

Hearing that, I understood.

‘This place isn’t exactly what you’d call Orthodox, either.’

It wasn’t a place smeared purely in justice.

I’d known that long ago, but it hit me again.

As always—

the world people lived in was all the same.

Even more so, fucking shit like this.

*****

I heard what had happened.

They said it really happened out of nowhere.

The Little Azure Sword came down to the first floor and swung his sword, just like that.

A strike close to an ambush.

Because of that, one inn worker and two martial artists died.

He severed their necks so cleanly that recovery was impossible.

Everyone was shocked by something so sudden.

Orthodox.

And this happened inside Henan.

On top of that, it was a bloodline of one of the Five Great Clans.

That kind of person going on a stabbing spree. And beyond that—

‘He mentioned the Demon Cult.’

He mentioned the Demon Cult. The stabbing spree alone was already insane.

He said the name of something already wiped out—something people were afraid to even put in their mouths.

So Henan got loud in an instant.

Namgung Clan’s Little Azure Sword is a Demon Cult remnant.

He killed people while talking about the Heavenly Demon coming.

A chain of impossibilities. Was there anything more shocking than this?

And the problem was—

‘At this point, the whole Namgung Clan becomes a problem.’

The Namgung Clan. A direct-blood relative caused this. If he’d only gone berserk, maybe—no, he put the Demon Cult in his mouth.

That was the problem.

He was locked up now and being interrogated, but once the Little Azure Sword turned out like that—

‘Thunder Dragon, obviously.’

Not just Thunder Dragon in Henan,

even the Namgung Clan itself in Anhui would become a problem.

‘The Alliance’s already moving.’

They would’ve contacted the clan, of course. If it got worse, they would’ve sent forces to the Namgung Clan.

‘Then does the Sword King move too?’

The Sword King, the Namgung Clan Head—if it was like this, he had to move.

‘What the hell is this?’

Why did the Little Azure Sword suddenly become like that?

The influence of a malicious ghost? Even if it was, it felt wrong.

‘You can’t just call it a malicious ghost. The things he said were weird.’

The Heaven of our cult, and all that.

What was that?

‘That isn’t the influence of a malicious ghost.’

There was a high chance it was the influence of something else.

I lifted my head and looked at Yoo Cheongil.

“...Do you know what it is?”

[.......]

I asked, but no answer came. Yoo Cheongil kept frowning like he was deep in thought.

“Old man. Answer me.”

[.......]

“You look like you know something. Say it already.”

When I pressed him a few more times, Yoo Cheongil finally reacted, late.

[It’s the influence of demonic energy.]

“Demonic energy?”

[Yeah. Those tainted by demonic energy usually lose their minds and end up like that. That one seems to have been affected, too.]

“...If it’s demonic energy.”

I knew about it. The energy used by Demon Cult martial artists.

Demonic humans, they called them—something different from normal inner power, or so I’d heard.

‘That makes him like that?’

The Little Azure Sword, like he’d been swallowed by madness and lost who he was.

And even the malicious ghosts clinging to him grew into a bigger form.

‘Is that demonic energy’s influence?’

It could affect ghosts, too, not just humans?

‘...If that’s true.’

Then why did demonic energy suddenly affect the Little Azure Sword?

‘No way.’

One bastard flashed through my mind.

‘Baek Cheonin.’

Baek Cheonin—the one Yoo Cheongil said was Demon Cult.

I couldn’t help thinking he’d done something.

‘If it isn’t that, I’ve got nothing else.’

Demon Cult.

Bastards who should’ve been wiped clean by Yoo Cheongil and the Orthodox factions.

‘What’s the goal?’

What the hell did they come back for?

‘At this point, I can’t keep it “reasonable.”’

If the Little Azure Sword really ended up like that because of Baek Cheonin.

‘Then I can’t just sit back.’

I couldn’t stay still anymore.

Just like I was moving—

‘They’re moving too.’

It meant the Demon Cult was moving something in Henan, too.

*****

A day after the Little Azure Sword incident.

Just like I expected, the rumor had already spread across all of Henan.

“I heard the Little Azure Sword went on a stabbing spree at an inn.”

“Ah, I heard too. They say he cut off heads...?”

“...How terrifying. How could someone like that possibly...?”

Wherever I went, the talk was the same.

“So, you see, it’s....”

“...What? Just now... the D—”

“Hey! Don’t put it in your mouth...!”

The Demon Cult. The Little Azure Sword was a Demon Cult remnant, and he mentioned the Heavenly Demon’s revival with his own mouth.

Just that alone made people’s reactions violent and quiet at the same time.

Half the people acted like you shouldn’t even say it.

Half trembled with anxiety and demanded the Martial Alliance respond.

While that kept going on—

“This is ridiculous. Demon Cult out of nowhere? There’s a limit to how stupid something can be.”

Inside the waiting room the Alliance had set up. Black-Grand Saber clicked his tongue hard as he spoke.

“Little Azure Sword. He was a fucking idiot, sure, but he didn’t look like he had the guts for that kind of thing.”

An objective evaluation. Black-Grand Saber’s evaluation of the Little Azure Sword wasn’t much different from what he’d said about Tang Cheon-il.

“Whatever. As long as I can fight, that’s all I need. Right?”

At Black-Grand Saber’s words, the person next to him—Sword Phoenix—answered with silence.

I looked at them, then glanced to the side.

Do Hyeong. Do Hyeong had his eyes closed.

And I was sitting in the Martial Alliance waiting room, killing time.

With a sour expression as a bonus.

‘We’re doing this...?’

The Dragon-Phoenix Gathering kept going. That fact made me feel ridiculous.

‘...With something like this blowing up, shouldn’t we pause?’

It wasn’t just anything—it involved the Demon Cult.

The Little Azure Sword’s incident wasn’t small, and he was currently imprisoned by the Martial Alliance and being interrogated.

And even then, the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering didn’t stop.

What intention did the Martial Alliance have, pushing this through?

I questioned it, but the answer was simple.

‘To draw attention?’

If it got big, then you had to pull people’s eyes somewhere. And there wasn’t much that could scatter attention like the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering.

They were just going to force it forward.

‘...Seriously.’

Would this even work? I couldn’t help doubting it.

“Hey, Little Sword Saint.”

At the voice, I lifted my head. It was Black-Grand Saber.

“You feeling any better?”

“My body?”

“Yesterday you looked kinda bad. I’m asking if you’re okay.”

Black-Grand Saber really did have good instincts. Looks like he noticed me dying from soreness yesterday.

“I’m fine. But I don’t think you should be worrying about me.”

Who was worrying about who—Black-Grand Saber’s body wasn’t exactly fine, either.

After his match with Tang Cheon-il, he had bandages wrapped all over him.

“This? Hey. It looks cool. Don’t worry, yeah? This won’t be a problem.”

“...”

What do you mean you were worried. I’m the one desperately hoping it becomes a problem.

“Haa....”

I let out a sigh and looked away.

Black-Grand Saber wasn’t important to me right now.

In times like this, even more so.

I shifted my gaze to the youth sitting in the corner.

Baek Cheonin.

When I looked at him, he looked back at me.

Then—

he grinned and waved. Always the same reaction. So I reacted the same way, too, but—

“...”

Somehow, he felt different from before.

A lot.

‘Seriously.’

Is this bastard really behind it?

While that thought ran through my head—

“First fighters, come forward.”

An Alliance staff member came in and guided us.

The moment I heard that, the two inside stood up.

Sword Phoenix Yuyeon and Miracle Sword Baek Cheonin.

The first match was those two.