We’ll Take This One.

In the end, Gyo-ha took out the money the gang leader had been hiding.

It went without saying that Yeon-gyeong was shocked by the sheer amount.

And Gyo-ha shared a portion of it with the innkeeper couple as well.

It was because the inn had been wrecked.

The amount didn’t just cover the repair costs, it was enough to open a brand-new inn.

The black-path men might have had their arms broken, but there was no telling when they might come for revenge.

All the more since they were connected to the Evil Heaven Alliance, it was best that they leave.

Watching the cart piled high with money and the inn family leaving, Yeon-gyeong seemed lost in thought.

It was because she knew the money in that cart had been wrung from other people’s lifeblood.

“Do you regret it? Should we go stop them now?”

But Yeon-gyeong shook her head.

“No matter how wicked they are, they should be given a chance.”

“And if they cause trouble again?”

“…Then I will settle it with my own hands.”

Yeon-gyeong gently stroked her sword.

Gyo-ha watched her for a moment, then nodded.

He did not believe this incident would make them behave.

But they would be more cautious than before.

That was enough.

“Still, those people from the Lake Tai Gang people worry me. They might harm the villagers.”

“Ah, if it is that, you do not need to worry.”

At Gyo-ha’s words, Yeon-gyeong turned to him with a puzzled look.

Smiling, Gyo-ha raised his arm.

“I will go and take care of it.”

“You will go alone? It is dangerous.”

“It’s fine. I have to look for the Beggar Sect anyway.”

“Ah…”

At his words, Yeon-gyeong was relieved. She assumed Gyo-ha would be moving together with the Beggar Sect.

But it was a misunderstanding.

They had said there was Xiangzhou on the way to Lake Lake Tai.

In Xiangzhou there was a local Beggar Sect branch.

He only meant to stop by and deliver news to his companions.

Since he had to go that way anyway, he intended to settle this matter along the way.

And so the two of them headed back to the village.

“Damn it.”

Leaving the inn, the gang leader spat out a curse.

There were still subordinates left inside the inn, but he had no room to care about them.

He considered going after the innkeeper’s family, then immediately changed his mind.

He did not have that kind of leeway now.

Go search for them in the village?

It would be no different from suicide.

‘Staying here is suicide too.’

He had no idea when the Taeho Gang would show up. They appeared without warning.

The tribute money he was supposed to deliver to them had been taken, but he had not lost all of it.

‘I have been skimming some off the top for times like this.’

Obviously, he did not trust his subordinates.

He was a third-rate martial artist himself.

He could go somewhere else and start over as much as he liked.

Just as he began to move, his surroundings seemed to darken.

When he lifted his head, a rough-looking man was staring down at him.

The gang leader moved at once.

“Y-you have come, Lord!”

He threw himself flat on the ground. Even with his face pressed down, his dismay was plain.

But his mind was racing.

“And where were you going?”

“T-to report to the Gang, sir.”

Naturally he did not mean his own Black Sea Gang.

He meant the Taeho Gang the man was from.

Displeasure rose on the man’s face. That was only natural.

The Taeho Gang was not some place where a mere black-path thug could go knocking on the door.

Sensing that mood, the gang leader hurriedly spoke.

“They sent a martial artist from the Putuo Sect!”

“…Ho.”

At those words, the man’s gaze changed.

Even with his head down, the gang leader could hear it in his voice.

It was a good sign.

Riding that momentum, he continued.

“Her companion was a martial artist as well. I thought maybe the Murim Alliance asked the Putuo Sect for help…”

As he spoke, he risked lifting his head a little.

Sure enough, the man’s face had grown grave.

The gang leader had also heard about the outsider who had washed up in the village.

There was a good chance he had nothing to do with the Murim Alliance.

But what did that matter?

It was not as if this man would go around asking every villager.

Of course, the one sent to collect tribute from black-path thugs was not likely to have a grand rank.

But the gang leader knew how arrogant Murim people could be.

Just as he expected, the man nodded.

“They might have sent someone from the Nine Great Sects. If the Putuo Sect joins the Murim Alliance, they can keep the Zhuge Family in Xiangzhou in check.”

After freely drawing his own conclusions, the man smiled in satisfaction.

“S-so I thought we should report to the Gang first.”

“…A good decision. You are quite quick-witted for a worm.”

Though he was insulted, the gang leader bowed with an even broader smile.

“Thank you, sir!”

“By the way, why are you moving yourself instead of sending a subordinate?”

As expected, he did not let that slide.

But the gang leader had anticipated this as well.

“My subordinates are badly injured, and I thought this was an important matter, so I took it on myself.”

At his words, the man nodded.

“True. You are someone who understands the weight of things.”

Fortunately, he did not seem to doubt him.

But another problem remained.

“So where is this round’s tribute money?”

“T-that…”

The gang leader bowed his head again.

“I am sorry!”

“Sorry?”

The man’s expression twisted.

“Are you saying you actually lost our money?”

It was money the leader had squeezed out of the villagers’ lifeblood, but to this man it was already theirs.

“The opponent was too strong, I had no choice…”

“No choice? Your neck looks quite intact for someone who had no choice.”

He was asking why the leader had not staked his life to protect it.

It also meant the tribute was more important than the leader’s life.

The gang leader swallowed his curses and acted fast.

“One of my men talked…! Please kill me!”

He smashed his forehead against the ground.

Once, twice.

He kept slamming his head down.

Watching him with indifferent eyes, the man only spoke when blood splattered onto his shoes.

“Enough.”

“No. Someone like me should die!”

“I told you to stop.”

“…Yes.”

Only then did the gang leader stop. The man’s anger had also cooled somewhat.

“And what happened to that subordinate?”

“I slit his throat myself.”

That was a lie as well, but how would the man know?

He only cast his gaze once in the direction of the inn.

If he had taken a closer look at the leader, he would have noticed there were no such traces, but he did not seem inclined to.

“Where are they now?”

“They should be in the village by now. I will guide you!”

“…No.”

The man waved his hand.

“Then, what about them?”

“That is none of your concern.”

“M-my apologies.”

The leader bowed his head again, but he had already seen through the man.

‘This bastard is scared.’

He did not want to move on his own. He told the leader to risk his life to protect the money, but his own life seemed precious enough.

A stream of curses surged up inside him, but he did not let it show.

“I’ll come back. Continue to keep your eyes on them.”

With that, the man left.

The gang leader kept his head bowed even after he was gone, only raising it after quite some time.

He knew how persistent unorthodox sects could be.

The man might pretend to leave and then test him.

The leader furtively checked his surroundings, then let out a sigh.

“Keep my eyes on them, my ass.”

He had seen that dopey-looking guy and the pretty nun move with his own eyes.

Not everybody in Murim was like that.

Those were what people called masters.

“I am never coming near this place again.”

Gak, ptoo.

Spitting on the ground, the gang leader ran away without looking back.

A horse raced along the main road.

The rider was a man from the Taeho Gang.

The place he was hurrying toward was not the Taeho Gang’s base in Jiangsu Province.

Soheng.

It was one of the cities famous for its liquor.

There, the Evil Heaven Alliance had a branch office. And warriors from the Taeho Gang were currently at the Soheng branch.

They were not low-ranked men like him.

They were the Taeho Gang’s proud strike force.

The Red Flame Unit had come to Soheng.

It was to keep the Zhuge Family, one of the Five Great Clans, in check.

Of course, as a branch of the Evil Heaven Alliance, there were excellent martial artists there.

But warriors specialized in mounted combat were rare.

Riding from Soheng to Xiangzhou, where the Zhuge Family was, took only a day on horseback.

Naturally, that was not the only reason he had come straight to Soheng.

It was because their opponent was the Putuo Sect, which belonged to the Buddhists.

So by cutting down on sleep and riding for several days, the man finally reached the Evil Heaven Alliance’s Soheng branch.

“The Putuo Sect, huh…”

The branch chief of the Evil Heaven Alliance stroked his chin in interest.

“I did not see that coming. If they really side with the Murim Alliance, things will get troublesome.”

“You mean the Sword Queen, sir?”

At his aide’s question, the branch chief nodded.

“I have been curious anyway. This works out nicely.”

It was not the branch chief who spoke next. A middle-aged man sitting in front of them laughed savagely.

He had a vicious face.

Even the way he sat was slouched and lazy, and his saber lay tossed aside.

He looked more like a bandit than a martial artist.

“They say the former Sword Queen was something amazing, right? What was it again?”

“The Ten Sovereigns of the Inner Seas.”

“Right, that. Same as the current Twelve Heavens.”

They were once the ten most renowned martial artists under heaven.

The surprising thing was that she had reached that rank without even being active in Murim.

“And judging by the time frame, it is more likely the one before the last rather than the last generation.”

“Last generation, the one before that, whatever. It’s ancient history. They say that bitch cut down more than ten thousand pirates on her own, right?”

That was when the name of the Putuo Sect became known across the Central Plains.

A female expert who appeared out of nowhere.

She wiped out the pirates who had been rampaging at the time and saved the common folk.

Sword Edge.

It was the title given to the Putuo Sect’s most outstanding swordswoman in each generation.

The Putuo Sect’s guardian.

But after that, Sword Edge was replaced with Sword Queen.

“There are only stories. No one has actually fought her. Sword Queen, just because she killed some pirates.”

Besides, times have changed.

Right after the war with the Blood Sect ended, the Murim had clashed with the Demon Cult.

You could not compare today’s martial artists to those from back then.

“Then we of the Red Flame Unit will take this one. We brought this matter in anyway, so that is fine, right?”

“In that case, we can only be grateful.”

The branch chief nodded.

“Good.”

The man, Wild Gale Blade, rose to his feet with a feral grin.

The branch chief watched him calmly.

Even if the Taeho Gang belonged to the Evil Heaven Alliance, they could not move the Red Flame Unit lightly.

The Red Flame Unit was not a direct unit under the Alliance.

And they were not the type to obediently work just because they were ordered.

The branch chief knew why Wild Gale Blade was stepping forward.

He made a fuss about wanting to test the Sword Queen’s skill, but his true aim lay elsewhere.

‘I recall him saying that he liked nuns.’

It was a peculiar taste. The chief knew that while they stayed here, he had led his unit to raid nearby temples.

The Putuo Sect had not only warrior-nuns but many ordinary nuns as well.

Some of them were no doubt courtesans who had fled from pleasure houses.

Beautiful nuns.

For Wild Gale Blade, that was something he could not endure.

His eyes had been gleaming with lechery the whole time he spoke.

The branch chief did not consider it a bad thing.

A man being a lecher was hardly a flaw.

You saw far worse when dealing with unorthodox martial artists.

If anything, someone who laid his desires bare was easier to use.

“Branch Chief, is it alright to send just them?”

His aide asked with concern.

A martial artist on Wild Gale Blade’s level was hard to find even within the province.

Right now, he was among the top twenty even in this Zhejiang Province.

His skill was undoubtedly great, but not irreplaceable.

On the scale of the whole world, he was small fry.

The branch chief did not think the Putuo Sect had combat power on par with the Red Flame Unit.

But a whole unit that excelled at mounted combat was rare.

Wild Gale Blade and his men had come from the bandits of Liaoning.

They were a bandit band that used martial arts.

The Taeho Gang had been able to cross Lake Taeho and become masters of southern Jiangsu Province thanks to them.

They still had plenty of value to exploit.

“Put in a request to the guest retainers. It is time they earned their keep too.”

The Evil Heaven Alliance branch also had a few hidden blades of its own.