Stop.

Once he had made up his mind, there was no need to hesitate.

When Gyo-ha flung the door open, Yeon-gyo panicked.

“Uh, where are you going?”

“A night stroll?”

Why did that come out as a question.

Yeon-gyo blinked, but Gyo-ha was already gone.

Startled, she ran out after him, yet there was no sign of Gyo-ha.

“Uh, huh?”

She looked around in all directions, but could not see him.

He had vanished like smoke.

Yeon-gyo could only blink with a lost expression.

By then, Gyo-ha had already left the village.

Sniff, sniff.

The scent still lingered.

Tracking them was not hard. As he followed the trail, Gyo-ha swung his fist through empty air.

Pung!

The air burst apart.

“My strength is the same.”

He jumped on the spot and his body felt light.

The pain of his injuries remained, but there was nothing else wrong.

The same was true for his internal energy. Yet what was this sense of loss?

All he knew was that the fog had taken something from him.

The feeling of disgust would not fade.

Gyo-ha glanced toward where the fog lay, then scratched his head.

For now, this business came first.

Gyo-ha leaped into the darkness.

The men of the Radiant Gang clinked cups in the inn.

It was called an inn, but it was no different from their base.

The owner also owed them money. Even though he had paid far more interest than he had borrowed, he could not escape the debt.

“Just like you said, Big Bro. Ah, Gang Leader.”

“You should have seen that woman’s face.”

“Yeah. I was nervous when I heard she was from the Putuo Sect, but she is nothing special.”

“That nickname Sword Queen must be something people made up, right?”

As the men laughed and chattered, the one who seemed to be the boss set his cup down with a thud.

“Watch your mouths. She may look that soft, but she’s of the Murim.”

The noisy tavern fell silent.

“Baldies are different from the Horse-face Taoist lot, but remember they are still people from Murim. Do exactly what I told you. Do not get cocky and mess up.”

“…Yes.”

The underlings nodded. Their heads were bowed, but more than a few faces were full of displeasure. The gang leader shook his head as he looked at them.

‘Idiots. This is why country bumpkins are hopeless.’

You could not look down on someone just because they bowed their head.

The gang leader knew what Murim people were.

He sighed and spoke.

“She is a woman who will leave soon anyway. Once those bitches are gone, we can run wild as much as we want.”

The Putuo Sect’s fame was impressive, but they were people who never left their island.

“So you really are scum.”

“…!”

At the sudden voice, the black-path men turned their heads.

At some point a large man had taken a seat among them.

“Who the hell are you!”

With angry shouts, the black-path thugs raised their weapons.

Only then did the man rise to his feet.

The startled thugs relaxed when they took in the shabby cloth wrapped around his body and his simple, honest face.

On top of that, he no longer had his iron shackle.

“You bastard. How did you get in here?”

“That guy. Is he not the one? The one who supposedly washed up from the sea.”

In such a remote place, an outsider was rare.

He had not washed up from the sea, but anyone who did not know the truth would think so.

It was more reasonable than the idea that he had fallen out of the sky.

“I do not know where you drifted in from, but if you are a patient, then stay put like one.”

“W-wait.”

The gang leader opened his mouth, but one of the black-path men had already smacked Gyo-ha’s shoulder.

Gyo-ha did not budge.

“Oh? So you’ve done some fighting before?”

Gyo-ha’s lips curled up.

“You hit me.”

“What…”

There was no need to hesitate now.

Before the thug could react, Gyo-ha’s fist sank into him.

Puk!

The black-path man collapsed.

“You bastard!”

“How dare you!”

The thugs raised their weapons.

“Stop! I said sto—”

The gang leader shouted in a hurry, but the thugs were already charging Gyo-ha.

They were sent flying back faster than they had rushed in.

By the time the black-path men realized something was wrong, it was already too late.

Kwaang!

The wall crumbled and their bodies bounced off it.

Gyo-ha rolled his shoulder as if it felt a bit stiff.

“It really is hard to hold back.”

Without Tang Ho’s poison, he had to be careful on his own.

If he slipped, he might kill them by accident.

He muttered to himself, yet to the black-path men it sounded like thunder.

Only then did they grasp what Gyo-ha was.

A real person of the Murim.

Not some wandering warrior.

The gang leader had warned them many times, but they had not thought much of it.

It was because they had never actually seen a true martial artist.

Now they understood why their boss had said what he did.

Meanwhile, Gyo-ha, who had just loosened up, looked at the black-path men.

“Not coming?”

Or should I go to you?

The thugs shuddered under his gaze.

The gang leader was among them.

‘This is why I told you to stop.’

The gang leader resented his subordinates more than he did Gyo-ha.

Just as Gyo-ha was about to move again.

A shadow vaulted over the window and came in.

“Stop, Young Master.”

A gentle yet firm voice.

It was Yeon-gyeong. Gyo-ha stopped and turned to her.

Only then did the remaining black-path men rush over to Yeon-gyeong.

“M-monk! Please help us!”

“That demon, that demon is trying to kill us!”

They clung behind Yeon-gyeong as if they had forgotten how they had snickered at her earlier.

To Gyo-ha, it was absurd.

Yet Yeon-gyeong did not so much as glance at them and looked only at Gyo-ha.

“I have heard from Yeon-gyo why you stepped in, Young Master. But please stop here.”

“They are bad people.”

“…I know. That still does not make it right to harm them.”

At her words, Gyo-ha folded his arms.

It was a fresh shock. It was not hypocrisy.

Yeon-gyeong truly believed what she was saying.

“If you leave them alone, the villagers will get hurt. They said they would torment the villagers once you, Big Sis Nun, is gone.”

“T-that is a lie!”

The gang leader spoke in a hurry, but the expressions on the thugs’ faces told the truth.

At Gyo-ha’s words, Yeon-gyeong bit her lip.

“…Even so, it is the same. They have not yet harmed the villagers. We cannot punish them only because they harbor wicked intentions.”

She meant they could not punish them for something that had not yet happened.

Gyo-ha nodded. Yeon-gyeong was not wrong.

You could not punish people over drunken bragging alone.

But.

“Ah, for the record, they attacked me first.”

“Pardon?”

At the unexpected line, Yeon-gyeong blinked.

“I only, hmm, what was it called. Ah, self-defense. I had no choice but to fight to protect myself. There were a lot of them.”

The black-path men listening wanted to scream what kind of bullshit that was.

But Yeon-gyeong propped her chin in her hand and sank into thought, as if she found it reasonable.

Seeing that, the gang leader beat his chest.

“How could the likes of us possibly beat someone from the Murim!”

“…That is true. Even so, this is going too far.”

If anyone else had said that, Gyo-ha would have ignored it, but this was Yeon-gyeong.

She had quietly listened even when she herself was insulted.

‘She is the one who helped me too.’

Gyo-ha scratched his cheek.

If they had committed crimes worthy of death, he would have pushed ahead regardless.

But they were not at that level.

So he could compromise to a point.

“Then I will only break one arm each. That way they will not be able to bully the villagers. And they will give back the money they took. That should be fine, right?”

At his question, Yeon-gyeong blinked.

It was a proposal she had not expected.

“That will not do! How can you torment innocent commoners like this!”

The gang leader’s cry decided it. Yeon-gyeong’s fine brows drew together.

She too could now guess what sort of nature they had.

They were the ones tormenting the innocent commoners.

“…I think that much is acceptable.”

She quietly stepped aside. The black-path men’s faces went pale.

“This is insane.”

“I-I am getting out of here!”

The thugs sprinted toward the inn’s door.

Just as Gyo-ha was about to move, Yeon-gyeong acted.

Kwaang!

The entrance collapsed.

Yeon-gyeong stood with her palm extended.

Demon-Subduing, Buddha-Gazing.

It was a palm art of the Putuo Sect.

Gyo-ha let out a short sound of admiration.

With eyes that were gentle yet unyielding, she spoke.

“This is your karma. Accept it.”

There was no trace of the indecision from before.

Only then did the black-path men realize why their leader had stressed the line they must not cross.

The person before them was also of the Murim.

Common sense did not apply.

Unlike them, Gyo-ha did not hide his amazement.

He was faintly beginning to understand what his master Yun Heo had talked about.

‘Those Horse-face brats are all slick tongues and nothing else. Those baldies are stubborn mules you cannot talk to.’

Taoists learn how to go along with the world.

That is why they are free and flexible.

So they do not try to bottle up their emotions.

They let them flow as they will.

Monks train a mind that does not waver.

The Buddha did not teach only mercy.

It looked like compassion on the surface, but underneath it was harder than anything.

Nodding, Gyo-ha did what he had to do.

He broke the arms of the men in front of him.

Crack, crack.

“Gyaaah!”

“S-spare me!”

Some lost their reason and rushed at Gyo-ha, but they were subdued far too easily.

At last it was the gang leader’s turn.

He hurriedly opened his mouth.

“The money! I will give the money back! If you hurt me, you will never find it!”

Gyo-ha tilted his head.

He was not killing him, just breaking an arm.

His mouth would still work just fine.

The other man had simply forgotten that fact because of fear.

There was no need for Gyo-ha to point it out.

“M-me! I know! I know where it is!”

When he turned his head, a woman was raising her hand.

“Granddaughter!”

“You…!”

The innkeeper couple grabbed her in surprise, but the woman shook off their hands.

Her hands and feet trembled with fear.

Yet her eyes as she glared at the gang leader were full of hatred.

“I saw where he put the money.”

“You dare, you little… guh!”

He could not finish. Gyo-ha had twisted his arm.

It broke worse than the others.

It would not heal in a year or two.

Yet a boss was still a boss.

Unlike the other thugs, he did not faint or pass out screaming, and managed to speak.

“Urgh! The Taeho Gang! That money is tribute for the Taeho Gang! If it goes missing, not only me but you lot will not be safe either!”

At the gang leader’s words, Gyo-ha looked at Yeon-gyeong.

At his look that asked if she had heard of them, Yeon-gyeong shook her head.

The Putuo Sect was ignorant of the secular world to begin with.

Unlike other temples, they did not even receive worshippers. Yet it was hard to see them as an ordinary sect either.

There were warrior-monks like Yeon-gyeong and Yeon-gyo who inherited the sect’s martial legacy.

However, the ones who supported the Putuo Sect were women who could not return to the mundane world.

Women who had been dragged off to war and come back.

Women who had been kidnapped by pirates and rescued.

Women who had been sold and then escaped.

It was no different from a refuge for those whose hometowns were gone or who could no longer go back.

That was why they did not take in pilgrims.

So it was only natural that they knew little of the Murim.

This time, Gyo-ha looked to the innkeeper’s family.

But they also shook their heads. They were country folk who ran a roadside inn.

It was nothing strange that they did not know.

Gyo-ha’s gaze returned to the gang leader.

Seeing the disappointed look on his face, the gang leader flared up.

“They are one of the Three Gates of Jiangsu! And not only that, the Taeho Gang belongs to the Evil Heaven Alliance!”

Only then did the people’s expressions change.

Even people scraping by in the countryside knew the name of the Evil Heaven Alliance.