The people Hae-rak had mentioned all carried a similar smell. The scent of blood and rusted iron—sharp, metallic, unpleasant. It smelled like blood, and at the same time like old coins. From child to old man their faces were all different, yet their scent was exactly the same. Sohwa looked at the stall owner and the young customer in front of him, then asked,“They all look so different, so how did you recognize them?”Those mocked as “foot-wipers” by Hae-rak probably hadn’t proudly gone and shown him the human-skin masks she’d made.He leaned closer and whispered in her ear.“Look carefully at their clothes. The dyed colors differ, but the fabric itself is unusually dense. The warp and weft threads overlap—it’s a woven cloth from a famous textile shop in Shaanxi.”He was a man with a keen interest in clothing, but it seemed he also had a habit of inspecting others’ garments too closely.Suddenly, he sighed.“It must be their first time traveling the Central Plains. They must’ve bought all their subordinates’ clothes from the same shop. From the shop owner’s perspective, it was a big order, so they must’ve been grateful and used their proudest fabric, changing only the colors. Naturally, those fools have no eye for such things, so they just picked them up and wore them.”Hae-rak clicked his tongue.“If you don’t understand Central Plains culture, no matter how you change your disguise or your masks, it’s pointless. They’re not family, so how could they all wear clothing made from the same fabric, as if matched on purpose? Of course people will suspect something.”Sohwa had been about to point out that ordinary people don’t look closely enough to notice the weave of a cloth, but to him it must have been too obvious—he even shook his head in pity.“A lenient personality becomes poison at times. No—since poison’s a good word to you, let’s call it a byproduct instead.”“……”Sohwa gave up on replying.Soon the two of them left the busy street and entered the road leading to the headquarters. Sohwa thought it had been right to seek Hae-rak out that first day. If she hadn’t received his warning, she would’ve simply taken those people’s scent as the smell of ordinary unorthodox wanderers. Being able to recognize the enemy first was a huge advantage. Whatever form they took, if they approached her within the headquarters, she’d notice it.'The story I heard by the river seems useful after all…'Sohwa brushed the silk envelope hidden in her sleeve. Inside was the talisman paper on which Namgung Hyun had calculated her date of birth through his calendrical method. She had originally planned to use it to test Hae-rak, but decided to postpone that plan.Hae-rak had told her that the Blood Demon was connected to time. But he hadn’t said a word about Namgung Hyun.'Either he doesn’t know that Namgung Hyun is connected to time, or he’s hiding it.'Hae-rak seemed to explain things about the Blood Cult well enough, but at the same time he knew how to conceal information. He’d said he met a foot-wiper in Guangdong, yet said nothing about Oseoksan. He must have asked about it, surely. If he had learned nothing, he would’ve said so—but he acted as if Oseoksan had been erased from his memory entirely.For someone who staged such a vivid performance to explain the Blood Demon’s past, this carelessness didn’t fit him. Now that she had realized Oseoksan had a mind-altering property, Sohwa couldn’t simply dismiss Hae-rak’s suspicious attitude.Could it be that he planned to use Oseoksan himself?He hid Oseoksan from her, so it would be foolish of him to reveal Namgung Hyun’s secret. She herself didn’t yet fully understand that secret; she couldn’t allow such a valuable clue to be used by someone from the Blood Cult.Suddenly Hae-rak exhaled with a wistful sigh.“Such a pity.”“What is?”“My personal physician finally came into my territory, and I couldn’t even treat her properly.”“I’ll be back before the duel tournament ends anyway. There’s still something I need to ask you.”“What is it? What do you plan to ask?”“Later.”“You’re doing this on purpose to make me die of curiosity, aren’t you?”“Try not to die.”“…Oh, making jokes now? The liquor from Hubei must really be strong, huh?”Letting their playful exchange pass, they walked toward the Martial Alliance headquarters. With light words and subtle distance, the two concealed their true intentions from each other.***“Young Lady, I’d like to quit.”Han-won spoke in a calm voice.“Before I even find the Blood Cult bastard who tried to kill me, I’ll die from my heart giving out. I still have tasks to fulfill, so please let me go.”“The Clan Head assigned you as my guard, and as you know, I have no authority to defy his orders.”Sohwa took off her outer robe and looked at Han-won standing by the window.“Besides, if your mission is to find that petty bastard, then the name Black Tiger Unit would be wasted on you.”“Young Lady, you don’t understand—those low-level rats are always harder to find. If their names are known or their martial power’s strong, they stand out somehow, but those guys are as common as grains of sand in the Yangtze. They’re hard to tell apart. Maybe one of the corpses we found over the last three years was one of them.”Han-won, who had been talking to himself, suddenly stiffened.“What if one of them really was? Don’t tell me I accidentally completed my mission already?”“…I’m tired, so take your nonsense back to your own room.”“How can a guard go sleep in their own room?”“You said you’re not guarding anymore.”“It was just a figure of speech. How could someone like me disobey an order from the Clan Head?”Sohwa stared at him in silence.“…I just wanted to sound tough for once. I thought if I said I’d quit, you might stop saying things like ‘wait one shichen,’ or ‘I’ll be back before midnight.’”He truly looked worn out, dark circles beneath his eyes. Sharing the same pavilion as the Clan Head probably made him even more nervous than usual, fearing discovery. Sohwa felt a twinge of guilt.“There won’t be any more outings until the duel tournament’s over, so relax.”“Really?”“…No, wait. I might go out for a day or so.”“…You’re teasing me, aren’t you?”“No, I’m just scatterbrained.”As Sohwa removed her hair ornaments, she felt an unfamiliar touch. It was the Baekgeumgak hairpin Hae-rak had pinned into her hair. Sohwa wrapped the pin in a piece of cloth and said, “I’m going to sleep now, so either go get some rest or stay there—do as you like.”“I’ll stay here.”“Aren’t you tired? You haven’t even recovered from the travel fatigue.”Sohwa naturally took one of the boxes piled on the table and opened it. Inside were about twenty pills.“Take one. It’ll relieve your fatigue.”“Do you think I’m stupid?”Han-won glared at her with all three eyes wide open.“Back on the night we crossed from Hubei to Sichuan, you said the exact same thing—that it was for fatigue—and I ate it and passed out. Just thinking about it still makes me dizzy. How can you use the exact same trick, word for word?”“……”Sohwa closed the box and shut the window.Then Han-won’s mocking voice came from outside.“Don’t get any dangerous ideas. Get a good night’s sleep. You’ll need your energy to come up with some brilliant scheme to fool me again tomorrow.”At his words from outside, Sohwa let out a faint, dry laugh. She didn’t need any brilliant scheme to fool Han-won. But it was true she’d underestimated him, so she quietly changed into her night robe.She sat at the table and wrote a short letter. Before leaving Sichuan, she had sent a warning about Oseoksan to Anhui, but there was no way to know if it had been received.'I heard his secluded training already ended.'The Namgung Little Clan Head hadn’t come to the duel tournament, having gone out on branch business in Anhui. She didn’t know the details, but seeing how he’d gone out immediately after finishing his training, he must have prepared well before entering seclusion.Sohwa had considered sending Han-won out of the Tang estate to deliver the letter, but gave up that thought. As Han-won said, she’d been through ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) too much today and couldn’t think straight. The Blood Cult was already after her, and she’d thought of sending Han-won away? What a reckless idea.As she wondered if something was wrong with her head, Sohwa narrowed her eyes. She suddenly remembered scolding Hae-rak for not eating properly.'No… it can’t be. If Oseoksan had entered my body, I would have noticed it.'Feeling her anxiety grow worse, she hurried to finish the letter.Then she went up to the third floor.She approached the birdcage where the carrier hawk was resting and stroked the falcon lying next to it. The hawk raised one wing as if telling her to keep going. Shaking her head at its behavior, Sohwa scratched a few more feathers to please the bird before placing the letter into the bamboo tube. Then she took out a small piece of cloth and let the hawk smell it.“It’s the same request as before. Go to the Anhui Branch. If you can, give it to whoever smells like this.”It had already been three years, so the scent was likely gone, but she still held a faint hope. She had sent letters this way before.The hawk opened its eyes halfway and glared at her. The look screamed annoyance, but the carrier hawk rose to its feet, spread its wings, and in an instant shot up into the sky.Watching the bird disappear into the darkness, Sohwa wished her unease would prove wrong.***In a mountain stronghold thick with old trees, the air was heavy with the stench of blood. The posts had been erected less than a year ago, yet already those thick beams had snapped and lay scattered across the ground. Namgung’s warriors were searching the wreckage, overturning what was left of the mountain hideout as if looking for something. Their faces, lit by red torches, were tense.Creaaak.The sound came from somewhere, and as if on cue, Namgung’s men all rushed toward it. When they opened the small building that seemed to be a storehouse, they sighed in relief.“Why did you rush ahead without us?” one man complained, pulling down his mask. The one receiving the complaint smiled as he opened the stacked crates.“What need is there for you to tire yourselves?”Namgung Jin, the Namgung Little Clan Head and an old friend, answered lazily. The warrior’s eyes narrowed—those weren’t words of concern but of mockery.To find the bandits who had attacked the Guangdong trading convoy, they had raided over ten mountain strongholds.“Raided” meaning, of course, they had to fight their way in; there’s no such thing as a bandit chief who kindly lets you inspect his treasury. Every time, the Little Clan Head brushed off being turned away and went in alone to inspect the vaults—just as he was doing now.Whatever he had learned in two years of seclusion, the man who had already been a monster returned an even greater one. Though the others had trained hard as well, the gap between them now was immeasurable.The Namgung warriors moved the bodies of the bandits strewn at the doorway and assisted Namgung Jin. Knowing what their master sought, they eagerly rummaged through the boxes, searching for minerals.“Ah? Isn’t this zishiying—amethyst?”One warrior rummaging in a corner held up a mineral the size of a finger. Even under the dim torchlight, it shone with a clear light. Namgung Jin approached, glanced into the box, and drew out a similar stone from his robe. It too was amethyst.“Seems like it.”Frowning, Namgung Jin stirred the box with his sheathed sword and sighed.“There’s a lot.”The accompanying warriors fell silent. Amethyst was said to be a dangerous mineral—not individually, but when five or more were combined in certain proportions, it could cloud a person’s mind. And here, a whole chest of it was piled high, so no one spoke.The goods looted from this stronghold had originally belonged to a convoy bound for Anhui. A quick-witted warrior sighed.“I’ll fetch the wagon.”From raiding several hideouts, they had learned that there were always good wagons to be found—since the bandits used them to haul the plunder, they tended to keep the best ones.Just as they were ready to move on, a strange sound came from the window.Flap, flap.Then something even stranger appeared—a hawk, struggling to squeeze through the narrow lattice window.Namgung Jin recognized the bird and let out a short laugh as he approached the wall.“Move aside.”Pushing the bird gently back, he broke a slat to widen the opening. One of the warriors beside him widened his eyes.“Wait, isn’t that the same messenger hawk from before?”It was the same bird that had come to the Anhui Branch earlier—the clever one that had pecked at others’ hands and insisted on giving its note directly to the Little Clan Head.As Namgung Jin took the note and read it, another warrior fetched a water pouch and offered it to the hawk. The bird dipped its beak and drank noisily. The man clicked his tongue in disbelief.“Is this creature a spirit beast? How did it even know to come here? This isn’t Anhui.”“Don’t be ridiculous. If it were a spirit beast, it wouldn’t humbly play the role of a messenger hawk.”Chided by his companion, the warrior fell silent. Just then, the hawk lifted its head, and for a fleeting moment, there was deep dejection in its animal eyes. Namgung Jin smiled faintly.“Seems its master has heaven’s blessing.”When he finished reading, Namgung Jin tucked the note into his robe and looked up. Just then, another warrior arrived with a wagon. Namgung Jin shook his head.“We’re burning all the amethyst here.”“Sir?”“We have a long journey ahead, so we need to lighten the load. Grind them all to powder and burn them.”At those firm words, one warrior furrowed his brow and pulled down his mask.“Where are we going? I thought we were to send the amethyst to the branch?”“Something more urgent has come up. Can’t be helped.”Namgung Jin thrust his hand into the chest and crushed several stones. With each crack, purple dust fluttered into the air.“We’re heading to Hubei.”“What? Hubei?” one warrior yelped.Namgung Jin’s lips curved crookedly.“You all look exhausted. Rest while you can. Somehow, you seem weaker than before my seclusion.”At those teasing words, the warriors, flustered, forgot to ask why and instead crowded to help him crush the amethyst.“No, sir, you should rest first! Didn’t you work the hardest tearing down this hideout alone?”With everyone competing to smash the stones, purple dust filled the warehouse.Watching them with obvious disdain, the hawk gave a short screech and flew away toward its master.

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