Explain Yourself.

Gyo-ha decided to head for the Murim Alliance.

He hesitated a bit since it meant going out of his way, but he was willing to put up with that much hassle.

Any martial artist who walked the righteous path wanted to work in the Murim Alliance.

But that was not the reason Gyo-ha was going.

‘Even if I don’t get to see the Murim Alliance Leader, there will be plenty of strong martial artists, right?’

It was the center of the Orthodox Murim.

Surely one or two of them would be willing to spar with him.

That alone was reason enough to go.

After parting ways with Ah-ryeong, Gyo-ha left the Namgung Clan together with Namgung Hyeok.

Namgung Hyeok’s luggage was simple, unbecoming of a young master from a prestigious clan.

Since he was traveling with Gyo-ha, he couldn’t even bring a horse and only carried a single bundle.

When he opened it, all it contained was jerky and dried grains to eat, a blanket to cover himself with when sleeping outdoors, and a pouch of money.

He didn’t even have the usual escort.

“Aren’t you at war with the Evil Heaven Alliance?”

The Five Great Clans were the backbone of the Murim Alliance.

It would not have been strange for them to be targeted.

“Going in a large group only draws more attention. Besides, with me and you together, what use are escorts? Any enemy the two of us cannot defeat isn’t someone they can stop either.”

Since it was true, Gyo-ha nodded.

They could buy them time to escape, but neither Gyo-ha nor Namgung Hyeok were the sort to do that.

They would step forward and fight instead.

Gyo-ha asked no more questions and started running.

Namgung Hyeok followed after Gyo-ha, and small iron weights were attached to his arms and legs.

He had taken Gyo-ha’s advice.

And in that way, the two of them left Hefei.

Unlike Gyo-ha, Namgung Hyeok was not used to sleeping outdoors.

But he didn’t complain and tried to learn.

Thanks to that, as time went by, he started to look reasonably competent.

It wasn’t just camping.

Gyo-ha was used to training even while traveling.

He would sometimes walk on his hands, and sometimes run using only his toes instead of the soles of his feet.

It was a sight anyone else would have called bizarre.

However, Namgung Hyeok tried to imitate everything Gyo-ha did.

‘Brother really never rests even for a moment!’

He came to understand Gyo-ha’s strength.

His dantian was incomplete, so he put in more effort than others.

That was what Namgung Hyeok believed.

Of course, he was mistaken.

They were habits formed simply to survive.

But the result was the same.

Traveling like that, before long he threw away his cumbersome outer garments and went bare-chested.

His once pale skin also began to take on a brown hue.

He was gradually starting to resemble Gyo-ha.

It was by no means an easy thing.

When his training sessions ended, Namgung Hyeok would swallow a pill.

It was the Body-Nourishing Pill that the Namgung Clan gave their young children when they trained their bodies.

It was an elixir that aided the body’s rest rather than internal energy.

They had the children take it so their bodies would not be damaged when their internal energy was still lacking.

Once they were able to circulate and regulate their qi, they stopped using it.

What Namgung Hyeok was taking was a modified version of that Body-Nourishing Pill, personally improved by the Medicine Hall Chief.

‘Brother doesn’t circulate his qi.’

His physical strength must lie there.

In truth, due to his constitution, he could not circulate his qi at all, but Namgung Hyeok didn’t know that.

That was why he had asked the Medicine Hall Chief.

However, it was not without effect.

It was not widely known, but Shaolin also used this method when cultivating external arts.

It was training that cultivated the body’s resilience and regenerative power itself, rather than qi circulation.

Its effect didn’t end there.

‘My internal energy reacted.’

When his body reached its limits, his internal energy stirred even though he had not circulated it.

He had been so surprised at that moment.

It was faint, but it had definitely moved.

It had not been his intention, but thanks to that, Namgung Hyeok gained certainty.

‘This is all thanks to Brother.’

Martial artists did not casually reveal their training methods.

It was because they could expose their weaknesses, and because in Murim, there were no eternal friends or enemies.

Yet Gyo-ha was training out in the open for him to see.

‘He must be doing it for my sake.’

Namgung Hyeok nodded to himself. He had even bestowed his secret training methods.

Because of that, he came to look at Gyo-ha with eyes full of respect.

“Brother, thank you.”

“Oh, this deer? It’s nothing.”

When Gyo-ha waved it off casually while pointing at the deer he had hunted, Namgung Hyeok smiled.

‘He must not want to put any burden on me.’

With respect in his eyes, Namgung Hyeok clasped his fist in salute.

Watching him, Gyo-ha tilted his head.

‘Hmm, I don’t really get it, but if he’s happy, that’s fine.’

Even Gyo-ha could see how much he had been growing lately.

The phrase ‘remarkable progress’ suited him well.

He felt that if they fought again later, they would have a really fun match.

He was holding himself back for that.

He knew that if they fought now, he would get used to the changing Namgung Hyeok too quickly.

Gyo-ha had now learned what patience was.

‘Ah, I want to fight.’

Gyo-ha smacked his lips as he looked at Namgung Hyeok.

And so the two of them looked at each other while harboring different thoughts.

A small hut stood deep in the mountains.

Young novice nuns were gathered close together, watching something.

The object of their affection was a small baby animal.

It looked like neither a dog nor a fox.

At the novice nuns’ gestures, it rolled over as if ticklish.

“Wow.”

“So cute.”

It was so adorable that the novice nuns’ cheeks turned rosy.

At that moment, the bushes behind the hut rustled.

The novice nuns flinched and quickly got to their feet.

But the baby fox only tilted its head.

“Go on, hurry and hide.”

One novice nun gestured toward the baby fox.

Normally, the baby fox would have smartly hidden itself, but this time it rubbed its body on the ground and showed off.

Unable to stand it, one novice nun tried to push the baby fox under the hut, but it leapt over her hands and ran toward the bushes.

“Wait!”

“No!”

Small screams burst from the novice nuns’ mouths.

At the same time, someone pushed through the bushes and appeared.

The baby fox hopped up into the person’s arms. And when the novice nuns realized who it was, they let out sighs of relief.

“Sago¹…”

A sigh of relief.

But soon they began to watch her expression.

The person who had appeared was a beautiful Buddhist nun.

She fixed the young novice nuns with a stern gaze.

“You came here again?”

“…”

The novice nuns clamped their mouths shut.

The nun’s gaze grew sharper.

“So-jeong samae is looking for you.”

“Ah.”

Cries of dismay burst from the novice nuns.

“It’s already time…”

“…Is So-jeong sago very angry?”

The nun answered with a nod instead of words.

At that, the novice nuns’ faces clouded over. She felt sorry for them, but there was nothing she could do.

It had been their choice.

“If you understand, hurry along.”

“Yes.”

The novice nuns dashed out in a group, and the nun let out a sigh as she watched them go.

These days, they came here whenever their training was done.

“…Looks like I really do have to send you away now.”

When she picked up the baby fox, it tilted its head cutely.

It was impossible not to find it lovable.

“Tch, and they dare call you a yokai.”

The nun thought of a certain young man.

His words had bothered her deep down, but months had passed without anything strange happening.

He was surely just a fraud.

But she couldn’t let her guard down. She could no longer hide it.

The adults had also started to notice that something was off.

They were only turning a blind eye because matters at the main temple kept them busy.

‘And you’ve grown a lot too.’

It was truly time to send it away.

The nun looked at the baby fox with a bitter expression.

As it was licking the nun’s hand, the baby fox suddenly shuddered as if sensing something.

“Hye-ah?”

The baby fox’s body was rigid and trembling.

Was it hurt somewhere?

Worry rose on the nun’s face.

But she soon realized that was not it.

Pasak.

Something was approaching.

A huge shadow was clearly visible even beyond the bushes.

The nun set the baby fox down and reached for the sword at her waist.

Soon the shadow drew closer and revealed itself.

It was a gigantic wolf.

A wolf as big as a temple hall.

It was even larger than a tiger.

The wolf looked down at the nun with arrogant eyes.

It was no ordinary wolf.

It was something that had taken on the form of a wolf.

The nun realized that instinctively.

There were large wounds on the wolf’s face and back, and they only made it look more ferocious.

When she set the baby fox down, it hid itself behind the nun’s feet.

The baby fox shook uncontrollably.

The sight of it was pitiful.

The nun drew her sword.

‘That’s right, it’s only big. In the end, it’s just a beast.’

She took her stance.

Perhaps reading the nun’s intent, the wolf’s gaze changed.

Its eyes said she was laughable.

The wolf soon opened its mouth.

Was it about to call its pack?

The nun tensed up, but what came next defied her common sense.

[Awooooooo!]

A long howl.

Along with it, flames erupted from the wolf’s body.

Huge flames were greedily devouring everything.

They spread so fast that there was no time to do anything.

They swallowed up the mountain in an instant.

At the center of it all was a single wolf.

A gigantic wolf clad in flames.

It was a beast that seemed fit only to appear in myths.

However, unlike the embers spreading outward, the flames on the wolf itself were gradually dying down.

In front of it, Buddhist nuns stood with difficulty.

They were the nuns of the Emei Sect.

The dying wolf lifted its head.

More precisely, toward the baby fox among the nuns.

Soon the wolf’s gaze turned to the nuns.

The corners of its mouth rose.

It seemed to be mocking the nuns.

Do you even know what the being you are harboring is?

It had the form of a beast, but intelligence shone in its eyes.

And soon the wolf’s eyes closed.

Even though they had repelled the wolf, the nuns of the Emei Sect wore dark expressions.

The damage was far too great for them to feel the joy of victory.

Soon the nun at the front turned her head.

“So-yeong.”

The nun spoke her name coldly.

At that, the young nun who had been sitting and catching her breath flinched.

Her monk’s robes were charred black, and there was not a single uninjured spot on her body.

You could tell how fierce her battle had been.

Her wounds were worse than anyone else’s there.

Yet the nun looking at her had a frigid gaze.

“Explain yourself.”

The gaze of the nun, Gyeong-ye, was directed at the baby fox.

The creature named Hye-ah.

“Why is the one we told you to return to nature still inside the temple grounds?”

It was obvious what the dead wolf had come chasing.

From the very start, it had headed straight for where Hye-ah was. Hye-ah trembled in fear.

And the large marks on the dead wolf’s face and back.

Those were not made by the nuns of the Emei Sect.

They were from Hye-ah’s mother.

In that case, the reason the wolf had targeted Hye-ah was also clear.

So-yeong could not bring herself to open her mouth.

Then the third-generation disciples behind her spoke up.

“Sago came here at our request…”

“No. The juniors are not at fault. We were the ones…”

“Silence. I am speaking to So-yeong.”

At Gyeong-ye’s words, the second- and third-generation disciples trembled.

Gyeong-ye’s eyebrows rose, and she was about to lash out when Elder Nun Hyeong-un stepped forward.

“Let us first take the disciples and leave this place.”

The mountain fire was still spreading.

Staying here like this was dangerous.

Even now, burned pinecones were being shot like shells.

If there was one relief, it was that rain had begun to fall little by little.

Judging from the gathering dark clouds, it would not stop for some time, and the embers would surely die down.

But.

Elder Nun Hyeong-un looked back.

At the temple halls burning behind them.

The place where she had lived her whole life was disappearing.

Even once the flames were extinguished, the Emei Sect would not be able to return.

“…Amitabha.”

It was a small relief that no one had died.

It was because they had practiced evacuations due to the war with the Evil Heaven Alliance.

If not for that, the damage would have been even greater.

‘So this is what they mean when they say life is like the old man of the frontier and his horse.’

She had never imagined it would prove helpful in this way.

But her chest tightened when she thought of having to convey the news to the Sect Leader and the disciples who were currently at the Murim Alliance.