The man walking alone through Cheondong Cave stopped.

"Hssss... Haaah."

After letting out the breath he had drawn in deeply, the man shuddered.

"What killing intent..."

It was a pity he had not killed Dam Jungho, but his mission had never been to assassinate some important figure in the first place.

He had missed a small pleasure he might have had along the way, but thanks to that, he had seen another pleasure, so it was not that great a loss.

"To think such a being existed in the Central Plains. Khehehehe."

The moment he saw him, he had forgotten his original mission and an urge to kill had surged up in him blindly.

The fact that the Grotesque Transformation Demonic Art, which never emerged on its own unless the opponent was no ordinary foe, had come bursting out was proof enough that this was someone who could give him pleasure.

He had always thought such things.

That it would be nice if he one day had the chance to kill Yong So-ah, Little Buddha, or the White-Handed Divine Maiden.

'But to think there was another being this entertaining.'

He seemed a little lacking compared to them, but he was a being the man coveted even more.

SLURP.

Rough, crude killing intent.

The moment he saw that primal will that sought only to chew through the opponent's flesh and strip the meat from his bones, he realized it.

The bastard was a beast.

And a monster like himself, at that.

Not one of the countless flowers raised in the Central Plains, but a wild beast roaring across that vast earth, the kind not easily seen even in the Divine Cult.

How could one who reeked of that foul Daoist sect give off such rough, savage energy?

"Ahh, what a shame. Truly."

He understood why Lord Little Demon had taken more interest in him than in Yong So-ah.

'Should I just kill him now?'

The man looked back the way he had come, then soon shook his head.

The bastard was a good one who had smashed Je Geumhak's skull for him. It would not be bad to give him one chance to live.

That was certainly true, and yet...

"Ugh... My excitement just won't die down."

Unlike his reason, his body had transformed in accordance with his desire, so his gait was awkward.

Once desire had risen like this, it did not easily subside. He needed to release it somehow...

"Who are you!"

"How dare you intrude on Zhongnan's event!"

"Do you have a death wish?"

Just then, three warriors surrounded the man.

They wore Zhongnan martial robes and carried swords.

The man put on a somewhat flustered expression.

He had been too excited, and had not even thought to hide himself.

"Oh dear... I had decided not to leave any traces in Cheondong Cave..."

Since three people had already seen him, his chance to leave secretly had vanished.

"Ah! If I eat them all, there won't be any traces!"

A thin, feeble laugh leaked out.

At the man's words, the Zhongnan disciples looked dumbfounded and released their killing intent.

"He's insane!"

"Do you truly wish to die?"

"What are you all doing! Subdue him."

The man's face twisted at the surging killing intent.

Not because they dared release killing intent before him, but because their level was so low that it killed his interest completely.

"What is this, child's play?"

CRACK— CRACKLE—

The sound of bones twisting came from his hands and arms as their shape began to change.

"W-What is..."

"S-Sorcery!!"

At the sudden change, the Zhongnan disciples' eyes flew wide.

"Look closely. This isn't some trivial trash like sorcery."

The man wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth and spoke.

"It is the Demonic Path."

The Zhongnan disciples despaired at the horrific sight, something they had never seen in either the next world or this one.

After securing the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk, we started moving again.

Now that we had obtained the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk, our plan was to take advantage of the confusion as originally planned, blend in with the outsiders, and leave the cave.

But the number of outsiders who had entered Cheondong Cave was smaller than I had expected.

When I quietly mingled among them and listened in,

I was able to hear about things we had not known until now.

'They blocked the entrance?'

I had wondered why there were so few people compared to what I had expected, and apparently Zhongnan had blocked the entrance.

They had collapsed two of the entrances and joined them into one, then stationed disciples before it so no one could enter or leave.

Why were they moving so drastically?

The warrior continued.

"From what I hear, Zhongnan knew when the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk would appear."

"... Then do they think it has already appeared?"

"Seeing as Zhongnan still isn't leaving even though the time has passed... they must think one of us has it."

My junior disciples glanced around at the people with stiff faces.

Fortunately, none of the warriors seemed to suspect our group.

The shape of our water canteens was not much different from the ones they carried, either.

"Still, they wouldn't... use lethal techniques, would they?"

The warrior's voice crept low.

Then it trembled slightly, as if he was uneasy.

"Lethal techniques? ... Ahem. What kind of ridiculous t-trick would that be! If they used lethal techniques here, what do they think would happen to Zhongnan's name!"

"R-Right! No matter how much it is Zhongnan, they can't go that far, can they?"

The man who had spoken worked hard to seek agreement, trying to quell his anxiety, but...

"If everyone dies here, no one outside will know anything."

At someone's casually tossed remark, silence suddenly descended.

They had managed to enter somehow, but now the fact that they had stepped into a tiger's jaws struck them anew to the bone.

"A-As if we'll just sit still!"

"That's right! If they act this arbitrarily, we won't just stand by either!"

Then a question was thrown out.

"Then who will stand at the front?"

"Hm?"

"Even if we act as a group, someone has to stand at the front. I'm asking who will do that."

Because he kept picking holes in their words, the warriors' gazes sharpened.

"What the fuck, why have you been saying nothing but that it can't be done? Do you want to die here?"

The warrior who had been picking holes chuckled despite the pressure around him.

"Take a good look around. See if there are any disciples of prestigious sects here besides riffraff like us."

When Geumpyo's body twitched, Eunho pressed down firmly and restrained him.

Pride in one's sect was all well and good, but one had to know when to step forward and when not to.

'And strictly speaking, we aren't quite prestigious...'

As he said, the outsiders who had entered this place were all wandering warriors, or else people who had gathered in twos and threes but had no affiliation.

"At the very least, after you die, is there anyone who can stand against Zhongnan just to find your bodies? In front of them when they insist they know nothing of what happened inside in the first place?"

"... Kgh."

As if struck where it hurt, the warrior shut his mouth and turned his head away with a jerk.

When silence settled after that conversation, I led my junior disciples away from the group.

Once we had put some distance between us, Saryeon cautiously asked me,

"Senior Brother... what in the world happened?"

I was rather curious myself.

Why had Zhongnan suddenly started moving so drastically?

There were two possible reasons I could guess.

The first was that, as someone had said earlier, they had predicted the time when the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk would appear.

Even if outsiders had entered, they would not have withdrawn their disciples from places where the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk was likely to appear.

Just as Gun Cheonji and the Hall Leader had not moved from one cave.

'But it didn't appear.'

Even though the expected time had passed, the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk had not appeared, and no disciple had discovered it either, so Zhongnan may naturally have concluded that an outsider had taken it.

The second was that Dam Jungho was unconscious.

Since the Big Dipper swordsman Zhongnan had deployed had not appeared again, perhaps they thought something had happened.

Or else.

'... Did that son of a bitch cause some kind of trouble?'

Fuck, his eyes really hadn't looked sane...

Just from the way he had tried to bury Dam Jungho without the slightest hesitation, he did not seem like the sort of bastard who would get through things without causing an incident.

Still, for him to have caused trouble, the time was too short.

Besides, no matter how much of a demonic practitioner bastard he was with nothing but murder in his head, if he had any thoughts at all, he would not do something like that.

To put it bluntly, weren't they also in a position where they could not reveal their identities right now?

"Will... Zhongnan really take such ruthless measures?"

There was no way to know that.

Only Zhongnan would know just how ruthlessly Zhongnan had steeled itself.

What mattered was that the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk was too precious to give up on simply because their planned work had gone wrong.

If they placed on a scale the disgrace of having killed the wandering warriors who entered Cheondong Cave and the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk,

the scale would surely tilt toward the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk.

And from the moment they blocked the entrance, Zhongnan seemed to have already prepared itself to some degree.

'In the end, I have to scrap the first plan.'

The plan to gather a great many outsiders, create a chaotic situation, and leave again through the entrance had fallen apart.

Then Eunho spoke to me.

"Eldest Senior Brother. What if we hide instead?"

"Hm?"

"Like when we obtained the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk, if we block a few caves, hide inside, and kill our presence, it should be difficult for them to find us."

As expected, he was a quick thinker.

But that would not work now.

"It's a good idea, but they already have a complete map as well, so we would be found eventually."

"Then what do we do?"

"What are you worried about?"

"Pardon?"

I looked at my junior disciples and curled up the corner of my mouth.

"We simply leave the same way we came in."

Shouldn't one prepare up to three plans in the first place?

Why live so rigidly, you ask?

Well, it isn't as if I wanted to either...

'In my life, things have never once gone according to the first plan.'

What I'm saying is, I'm an expert at finding ways to survive.

"What happened inside?"

Cheol Sunjik looked with puzzled eyes at the long robe Cheol Hyeonjik held out.

Cheol Hyeonjik let out a small sigh and placed the long robe in his younger brother's hands.

"Your martial robes are dirty. The sun has come up too, so some of your wounds are showing."

"Ah..."

Only then did Cheol Sunjik grasp his own state, accept the long robe, and put it on.

'That was a little dangerous.'

Because he had been near the entrance, he had immediately noticed the first entrance collapsing.

Since he knew what Zhongnan was plotting, he was no longer in a position to carry out the task Jin Sowoon had asked of him.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Cheol Sunjik quickly came out of Cheondong Cave.

Still, he had stalled for as much time as he had promised.

He had done all he could, surely.

'Since I couldn't understand it, I had no idea what I was supposed to do.'

He had asked him to erase their traces.

And what he had said along with that was,

'Collect the iron balls??'

As expected, he was an unpredictable man.

Since Cheol Sunjik did not understand, he did not know what he should do either.

But even if Jin Sowoon claimed he had broken their promise and refused to give him the promised ten percent, it would not be much of a loss.

He had thought from the start that there was no way the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk would fall into his own hands.

More than anything, he had entered for another reason.

"... Did you see what you wanted to see?"

He raised his head and examined his elder brother's face.

The redness had subsided, but the flesh still bulged out in the shape of a palm print.

So many people were watching.

He should have at least pressed a cold stone to it.

He deliberately turned his gaze away from his brother's face.

"Who knows. Since Zhongnan has blocked the entrance like this... I don't know what will happen."

After the third entrance was opened, even the Zhongnan disciples who had been waiting in Xi'an had swarmed near Cheondong Cave.

Zhongnan immediately sealed two entrances and left only the smallest entrance.

Cheol Sunjik's gaze turned toward Zhongnan's people.

Between the Squad Captain and Hall Leader-class personnel stood two middle-aged men in sharp relief.

The presence of those two was clearer than that of anyone else from the Zhongnan Sect.

'Two Big Dipper swordsmen...'

Unlike the young Big Dipper swordsman he had stopped, these were men whose level he could not even gauge.

In a way, they were the strongest experts currently here.

The intent behind the two of them staying outside instead of entering Cheondong Cave was clear.

They would absolutely catch the one who had the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk.

'Are they willing to silence everyone by killing them?'

Then heaven and earth shook once again.

RUMBLE.

And Cheol Sunjik instantly realized it.

Something was surely about to happen again.

This time, Zhongnan's people seemed to realize it as well, and without delay, they began running madly toward the source of the tremor.

"S-Sunjik!"

Cheol Sunjik chased after the Zhongnan personnel so quickly that the long robe his brother had given him fluttered behind him.

And at that moment.

KABOOOOM!

With a massive explosion, part of the mountain's edge vomited out rocks and heaps of earth.

A collapse in the same form as before.

A helpless laugh slipped out of Cheol Sunjik despite himself.

"It's him! It's the bastard who made the third entrance!"

"Zhongnan disciples, go catch him!"

"Go!"

Before the dust raised by another massive hole could even settle, Zhongnan disciples were sucked madly into the hole.

But.

RUMBLE.

Heaven and earth shook again, and once more, palm force burst out.

Perhaps a few of them had tried to endure the palm force, because they were spat back out of the hole with broken fingers.

"He has remarkable inner force."

"Indeed. To think he has this much inner force..."

The Big Dipper swordsmen, who had murmured in admiration, blocked the cave entrance.

Cheol Sunjik swallowed without realizing it.

Had Jin Sowoon truly obtained the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk?

No, putting that aside, could he, trying to escape, really defeat Big Dipper swordsmen?

Then.

"Let's gooooooo!"

As a roar echoed from inside the cave, something black shot out of the cave.

"Do you think you can drive us out with mere stones like these?!"

"You must have looked down on us quite a bit... Hm?"

The Big Dipper swordsmen tried to cleave what appeared to be rocks in a single stroke with their Sword Qi-clad blades, but.

CLANG! CLANG!

"W-What is this!"

Far from being cut in a single stroke, the unexpected weight flustered them.

At that moment, five black figures shot out of the cave like arrows.

"Ha..."

The Big Dipper swordsmen were so busy knocking away the countless heavy things flying toward them that they could not block the five people hiding among them.

The Big Dipper swordsmen gave up on dealing with the unidentified objects (?) and tried to thrust their swords at the five people.

Then, from the hand of the one at the very rear, another thunderous roar erupted.

... Along with a delinquent-sounding voice.

"Eat this, you bastards!"

RUMBLE!

KABABABABABOOM!

When a palm force far smaller than before, yet still packing no small destructive power, shot out, the Big Dipper swordsmen had no choice but to raise both arms instantly to protect themselves.

———.

Thus, that storm-like moment passed.

And when they finally raised their heads.

"...!"

The five people had vanished without a trace.

"Ha, what kind of movement technique is that..."

"What in the world..."

The Big Dipper swordsmen, struck from behind in absurd fashion, dropped their swords with hollow expressions.

And Cheol Sunjik had taken in that entire sight.

'They really... They really succeeded.'

He had to try and try again with all his might to hold back what surged up in his chest.

But then.