As the Black Dragon Sword was pulled free, a spray of blood painted the cave floor.

But I could not stop here.

Gun Cheonji had quickly corrected his stance and was about to counterattack.

This was why I hated experienced bastards.

I did not miss the timing and charged at Gun Cheonji.

SLASH!

I swung the Black Dragon Sword without giving him even a moment's opening, and two more wounds appeared on Gun Cheonji's body.

"You cowardly cur!"

A Zhongnan disciple fighting my junior disciples spat a curse, but I ignored him and unleashed the Ten Thousand Transformations Invincible Fist.

PAPAPAPAPAPAPAK!

He had been wounded before he knew it, and even taken by surprise.

So there was no way he could block all those dozens of fist shadows.

WHOOSH!

THUD!

His body floated up and slammed into the wall.

When I glanced toward Zhongnan's middle-aged man, he seemed wary of me joining in and began increasing his speed.

His plan was to eliminate even one more person before I joined them.

But that was the wrong decision.

That was a rule that only worked in peaceful times.

I rushed straight at Gun Cheonji and deliberately controlled my strength as I swung the Black Dragon Sword.

BOOM!

RUMBLE.

Sword Qi exploded and swept just barely over Gun Cheonji's head.

On a battlefield, when a comrade is being held hostage, the side that gets scared and backs off first is always at a disadvantage.

So what I was saying was, go ahead and take the bait.

I once again fired materialized Sword Qi at Gun Cheonji.

The fallen Gun Cheonji barely raised his sword and deflected the Sword Qi.

BOOM!

RUMBLE.

The Sword Qi, its direction twisted, struck the cave wall and spat a heap of dirt over Gun Cheonji.

I glanced at the middle-aged man and gave a slight jerk of my chin.

As expected.

"Insane!"

The middle-aged man, who had been about to swing his sword at my junior disciples, left his position at lightning speed.

CLANG!

And as if I had been waiting for it, I fired Sword Qi at the middle-aged man.

"Eek!"

Perhaps he had not expected me to suddenly turn, because the middle-aged man hurriedly launched palm force to disperse it.

BOOM!

Because he failed to properly deflect the Sword Qi, blood flowed from his hand, but somehow or other, the middle-aged man managed to stand in front of Gun Cheonji.

Gun Cheonji lifted his pain-twisted face and looked at the middle-aged man.

I returned exactly what he had said to me.

"Do you have the luxury to worry about someone else?"

Man, it really did look painful.

"You crazy bastard!"

The middle-aged man ground his teeth.

When I turned my head slightly, Saryeon was examining the wounded Eunho, and in the meantime, Geumpyo and Dongryong had taken positions at my left and right.

With this, we had completely gained the advantage over our opponents.

As Geumpyo and Dongryong stood on either side of me and prepared to form the White Tiger Sword Array, confusion filled the middle-aged man's eyes.

He had no idea what condition Gun Cheonji was in, and he did not know what he should do, so his mind must have been in chaos.

On top of that, he himself had been wounded before he knew it.

"Ahem..."

At that moment, when the fallen Gun Cheonji let out a groan, the middle-aged man hurriedly shouted.

"Cheonji, are you all right?"

"... Urgh."

When it was obvious he was racking his brain in a situation where he could neither do this nor that, I spoke.

"How about we each withdraw here?"

"... Huh?"

"I held back, so the wounds won't be deep. If he is treated right away, there should be no problem with him taking up a sword again."

"You dare toy with Zhongnan!"

The middle-aged man's face turned like that of a murderous fiend.

As expected, a tiger's pride was wounded by even a small injury.

"Are you saying it would be better to bury your bones here?"

But even a tiger had to properly judge its opponent at times.

Because what it had thought were a rabbit's teeth could sometimes be a viper's fangs.

"If you wish."

CLANG!

I instantly drew the Black Dragon Sword and brought it down toward his neck.

He also paled and raised his sword to block.

Instead of pulling back my sword and swinging again, I raised my internal energy as I was and began pushing him back, blade and all.

"I'll grant it."

If you wanted to make an opponent feel fear, you had to show them something overwhelming.

SPURT—

Blood sprayed from the middle-aged man's wounded hand, and his eyes grew as round as a rabbit's.

"... What kind of internal energy is this!"

I liked it.

After all the hell I had gone through to gather this internal energy, he ought to show me at least that kind of expression.

SCREEEECH!

The sword blade pushed toward the middle-aged man in an instant and was about to touch his body.

Then he flattened his blade and began pushing against my sword with both hands.

But unless this man was an expert in external arts, there was no way for him to overwhelm me in a contest of internal energy.

GRRRRIND!

With the sound of scraping metal, the Black Dragon Sword touched his neck and made a wound.

"S-Stop..."

Gun Cheonji caught the middle-aged man's ankle with a dying voice.

"Senior Brother, stop..."

"Cheonji!"

"Did you not see it too, Senior Brother? That bastard is... dangerous."

Gun Cheonji turned his gaze to me and asked.

"Will you... keep your promise?"

"I have never failed to keep a promise."

"How can I trust you? When you even hide your face..."

That was true.

But what were you going to do if you did not trust me?

SCREEEECH!

When I once again pushed the Black Dragon Sword forward, Gun Cheonji's face crumpled violently.

"F-Fine. I understand."

I slowly drew my sword away.

The middle-aged man still had not abandoned his stance.

Hm, look at this.

"Does Zhongnan intend to break its promise?"

"...!"

At my sharp shout, Gun Cheonji yelled toward the middle-aged man.

"Senior Brother!"

The middle-aged man looked back and forth between me and Gun Cheonji for a long while before finally sheathing his sword.

Then he immediately helped Gun Cheonji up.

"Cheonji, are you all right?"

"I-I'm all right. Ah, ahh, d-don't grab there."

As the two of them tangled together and were about to leave the cave...

I blocked their path.

"... What is it? Do you still have business with us?"

I looked at the Zhongnan disciple with contempt for trying not to do the obvious and said,

"You should leave your swords behind."

"..."

"And while you're at it, leave what you have in your pouches too."

Ah, was this the first time something like this had happened to a Zhongnan disciple?

* * *

"Are you all right?"

At my question, Eunho looked at me with a complicated gaze.

"In the middle of all that, you thought of picking their pockets?"

His expression was hard to see because of the mask, but I could tell his gaze was extremely disrespectful.

"Seeing as your mouth is still alive, it seems you are all right."

As expected, children grew best when they got rolled around a bit.

The boy answered in a calm voice too.

"I think it will be a little difficult to swing a sword."

"That's fine. I never expected swordsmanship from you in the first place."

"Pardon? What does that mean? ... Eldest Senior Brother? Wait, answer me. Eldest Senior Brother! Hey! Answer...!"

I sealed the mute acupoint of the noisy Eunho and searched for medicinal pills among the baggage the Zhongnan disciples had left behind.

If they were disciples of the Nine Sects and One Gang or the Five Great Noble Clans, it was only natural for them to carry emergency medicine.

As for wound medicine, Sama Jeong's would be better, but Vitality Pills were another story.

After breaking off a small piece of a Vitality Pill and tasting it, I put it in Eunho's mouth and applied the wound medicine...

Wait, did this brat just say "hey" to me?

PRESS.

"Mmph! Mmph! Mmmmmph! Mmph!"

Though the pain must have been severe, Eunho endured it quite well.

He was certainly a smart fellow, so he must have known that if he made noise, our location could quickly be exposed.

"Senior Brother, is it all right to just smear it on like that?"

"Isn't Eunho enduring it well?"

"... I don't think he's enduring it by choice."

"Do not look down on Eunho. Eunho is a smart child."

"Mmmmmmmmmph—!"

After roughly finishing the first aid, Geumpyo and Dongryong lifted Eunho up and supported him.

"Senior Brother."

When I turned my head, Saryeon was looking at me with somehow cold eyes.

"Why... didn't you help our side?"

Ah, perhaps it was still something Saryeon was not used to.

I said calmly,

"Because that was the right thing to do."

"... What does that mean!"

"Because in that situation, that was the right choice. That is all."

"..."

This was not a matter she could accept just because I explained it.

On a battlefield, there was no method for everyone to survive while also considering each person's feelings.

Even if they could not understand, as long as they survived, that was enough.

That was why, even though I knew what Saryeon might think, I deliberately did not add any explanation.

Because it was not something she could accept just because I explained it.

Trying to understand it was ultimately the same as saying that one day, it would be hard to follow.

"... Is that all you have to say?"

"Yes."

Saryeon bit her lip hard, then soon let out a sigh.

It seemed she thought this was not something to argue about right now.

Soon, as if trying to change the mood, Saryeon shifted the topic to Eunho's arm.

"When on earth did you learn this? This isn't the skill of someone who's only done it once or twice."

"..."

Ah, now that I thought about it, I learned this after the Orthodox-Demonic Great War.

"... I wandered the mountains a lot, didn't I? I just ended up learning it along the way."

"Even so, isn't the bleeding stopping too quickly?"

Honestly, she was too sharp.

When escaping an awkward situation, diverting attention was always best.

I warmly curled up the corners of my mouth and raised a hand.

"It's because Eunho wasn't hurt too badly. It is fortunate it was only this much. Eunho."

"Mmmmmph—!"

When I roughly patted Eunho's head as he looked at me as if I were his mortal enemy, the topic quickly turned to Gun Cheonji and his party, who had fled.

"By the way, is it all right to just let them go?"

She was probably worried they would chase us again.

"As I said, Zhongnan must not see blood here."

"No, what I mean is, shouldn't we at least have tied them up or something?"

"Hooh, our Saryeon has become a proper person of Jianghu. Since we cannot see blood, you suggest burying them alive."

"No! When did I ever say that!"

Saryeon shuddered as if the thought alone gave her goosebumps.

"Do not worry. It will take them a long time to return to the main force and explain the situation, and they will not go out of their way to chase us."

"Why not?"

"Because Cheondong Cave is already packed with other people."

What Zhongnan had done wrong was that all the Zhongnan people who should have been outside were inside Cheondong Cave.

I understood they were worried that a lay disciple might obtain the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk, but because of that, their defenses outside had weakened.

On top of that, even the third entrance had been broken through, and would the Xi'an warriors who knew people had already entered really stay still?

The three entrances were probably in utter chaos right now.

In the midst of that, what ripple effect would there be if word spread that they had been attacked?

They probably had not even properly identified the intruders inside yet.

"What if they still chase us?"

"Then we simply make it so they cannot."

There had been no other particular reason we had been forced to choose this path in the first place.

The Great Yang Palm stretching out from my hand struck the ceiling we had passed beneath.

RUMBLE—

CRASH, CRASH.

Because of the falling rocks and the heaps of earth the ceiling spat down, the cave was quickly blocked.

"If we block this place, they will have to go a long way around to reach where we are headed."

The reason I had gone through the trouble of breaking through this place.

It was because this path was the fastest route to obtain the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk.

We had taken one step closer to the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk.

* * *

We passed through the cave where Gun Cheonji had been and sealed several caves.

With this, in order to head toward the place where the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk would appear, people would have to go a long way around.

After passing through several caves like that, we did not encounter any Zhongnan disciples.

"There are no Zhongnan people on this side?"

"They all must have gone out to block the people who came through the third entrance."

Saryeon nodded.

Moreover, this place was in the northeastern direction, which was considered the outskirts even within Cheondong Cave.

Considering that the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk that had appeared so far had emerged in the southwestern direction of Cheondong Cave, the surveillance here had no choice but to be a little loose.

Perhaps because of that, as we followed the cave deeper for some time, the number of torches Zhongnan had set up gradually decreased, until places without torches began appearing one by one.

We each held a torch and continued walking inward.

"Wait..."

At my signal, my junior disciples stopped abruptly and hid the torches behind a stone outcrop.

The light shone to some extent, but it did not leak into the other caves.

"Hurry up! Outsiders are coming in!"

"What are you talking about! We were blocking the entrance!"

"That's what lay disciples are like!"

Around the time the footsteps of the Zhongnan Sect disciples running off while spitting curses gradually grew distant, we slowly rose again.

It seemed the martial artists who had flowed in were doing their jobs well.

Zhongnan was also in a dire situation.

With outsiders entering right when the time for the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk to appear was drawing near, they had no choice but to be impatient.

"But Senior Brother, if we're trying to find the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk, shouldn't we split up too?"

At Geumpyo's question, I shook my head.

"The place where the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk will appear is fixed."

"Pardon?"

"The energy of the Five-Spirit Vein repeats in an order where, when one side declines, another side fills. Since the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk appeared three times on one side over the past years, the place where it will appear next is the opposite side."

Of course, this was only a theory written in the Record of Ten Thousand Herbs, and the place I was going to was the exact location written in the Jianghu Spiritual Elixir Record.

It was a cave not especially large compared to the caves we had passed so far.

"Put out the torches."

"Pardon? Is it Zhongnan again?"

"No. It is time to put out the fire now."

'Zhongnan didn't know this, so they lost a full twenty percent of the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk.'

When we put out the fire, the surroundings filled with darkness without a single inch of light.

Then, not long after...

"... Huh?"

"Ah!!"

"Mmmmmph— mmmmmph—."

As if embers had caught on the ceiling, it slowly began to turn red.

The red energy that slowly began spreading soon started shining so brightly that torches could not compare, and the chamber that had been dark as pitch could now let us see one another's faces as if it were broad daylight.

"What is this!"

As bright light entered eyes that had adapted to the darkness, everyone frowned and squeezed their eyes shut.

I took out a water flask and approached the very center.

On a bluntly protruding part that resembled the roots of a tree, a yellow warmth had condensed like dew.

I quickly took out a vessel and caught the falling yellow dew inside.

DRIP—

Each time a drop of dew fell, a strange fragrance spread through the area.

"Senior Brother, that is..."

Geumpyo could not close his mouth in admiration.

I looked at him and nodded.

The object Zhongnan so desperately desired, and the Beggars' Sect could not quite give up on and was constantly watching for a chance to seize.

"Yes. It is the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk."