Chapter 499

Unhwi remained silent for a long while.

Chief Seong studied him. Unhwi’s expression seemed unchanged, but Chief Seong knew better.

He had spent too long at this man’s side.

It had not remained unchanged.

It had hardened.

Something in Unhwi’s eyes was different.

They were cold.

Not with their usual coldness. His usual coldness was like water—something that flowed. But now, it was ice. Something still. Eyes in which something had frozen solid.

“Chief Seong.”

“...Yes, Young Master.”

“Is your wrist all right?”

“...It is.”

“Wonyang.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Are you injured?”

“My back struck the wall, but it is nothing serious.”

“Your wrist?”

“...”

“It seems you tried to hide it, but I can see.”

Wonyang lowered her head deeply.

Unhwi looked at Ju Soa.

“Ju Soa.”

“...Yes?”

“Show me your neck.”

Ju Soa flinched.

“Come on... When a woman covers something up, there’s always a reason. Do you really have to see it?”

Unhwi merely looked at her in silence. His gaze was resolute, and once Ju Soa realized there was no hiding it from him, she let out a deep sigh.

“You’re a ghost... A real ghost.”

With that, Ju Soa slowly lowered her collar.

There was a mark on her neck.

The mark of a single index finger.

It was small, but the skin around it had turned dark blue. A bruise caused by energy. Proof that internal energy had penetrated beneath the skin.

Ju Soa seemed somewhat embarrassed.

Not because something shameful had been exposed, but because it was quite literally an injury that had nearly killed her.

The fact that she had no wounds anywhere else, only that single mark on her neck, meant she had been completely subdued. It was proof that her life had clearly been in her opponent’s hands.

In other words.

Proof of helplessness.

Ju Soa was not embarrassed as a woman.

She was embarrassed as a martial artist.

Unhwi stared at it for a long while, thinking, before speaking quietly.

“Cover it.”

Ju Soa raised her collar.

Unhwi rose from his seat.

He walked to the window.

He looked outside.

The sun was setting.

“The Heaven-Law Platform.”

He murmured.

“Seventh Seat. Ninth Seat. Twelfth Seat.”

Chief Seong asked him,

“Young Master, what exactly is the Heaven-Law Platform? I have never heard of such an organization in all my life.”

Unhwi did not turn around.

“Would you like a brief explanation, or a long one?”

Chief Seong wanted to ask for the long explanation, but this was not the atmosphere for it.

“...I would prefer the short one.”

As requested, Unhwi explained briefly.

“There is an organization called Heaven Beyond Heaven. The Heaven-Law Platform belongs to it, and even in my previous life, I never heard of them.”

“...What?”

“But I think I have a rough idea why I never did.”

Unhwi spoke softly.

“They keep crossing the line.”

It must have been the same in my previous life.

Unhwi did not know the entire history of Heaven Beyond Heaven.

But he knew of the problems, great and small, that had occurred throughout the martial world.

The Heaven-Law Platform must have been involved in some of them.

And those incidents would not have reflected the Heavenly Wayfarer’s intentions. The Heaven-Law Platform and the Current-State Pavilion—

Those two organizations must have taken the lead.

That was likely why they had fallen, and in the process, the Heavenly Wayfarer must eventually have stained his hands with blood.

The picture was becoming clear.

The unilateral actions those two organizations should have committed in the future were now being directed at Unhwi. It was not so much that the timing had been brought forward.

Those destined to cause trouble had simply caused trouble.

“They make it impossible to let matters pass, even when I want to. I am beginning to find it amusing.”

Unhwi’s voice was exceedingly calm.

But Chief Seong found that calmness even more frightening.

He knew.

When this man was truly angry, he did not shout. His voice did not rise.

It grew lower.

It sank.

That was how he sounded now.

“Chief Seong.”

“Yes.”

“Will you guard Blood Spirit Hall until tomorrow morning?”

“...Pardon?”

“I expect to return around noon if I am delayed, or by evening if I am delayed further. I leave it to you.”

“...Where are you going?”

Unhwi turned his head.

“Vice Leader Yu Cheong.”

Everyone drew in a sharp breath.

“I am going to meet him.”

The second-highest authority in the Blood Heaven Sect.

And Unhwi’s enemy.

They could not understand.

Why would he go to meet Yu Cheong?

Unhwi did not bother explaining.

He merely spoke quietly.

“We might as well share a meal.”

“...Yes.”

***

That night.

Unhwi left Blood Spirit Hall.

The night wind was cold.

Night within the Blood Heaven Sect.

Torches burned here and there. Guards were making their rounds. Whenever Unhwi passed, they offered fist salutes.

Unhwi merely nodded and continued on.

His destination was Black Moon Pavilion, the Vice Leader’s residence.

It stood at the northernmost edge of the headquarters, high above the surrounding grounds. The staircase leading to it was long.

Unhwi climbed the steps.

Slowly.

He arrived before Black Moon Pavilion.

Two guards stood there.

“I have come to see the Vice Leader.”

The two guards looked at each other.

“At this hour...?”

They looked back at Unhwi. He spoke curtly.

“Must I explain myself as well?”

“...No. Would you wait a moment?”

The situation was somewhat ambiguous, but formally speaking, Unhwi and Yu Cheong held equal rank.

In the end, one guard entered using lightness arts.

He returned before long and spoke urgently.

“He says you may enter.”

Unhwi nodded and went inside.

Within Black Moon Pavilion.

It was spacious.

As befitted the Vice Leader’s residence, it possessed a formal dignity. Bookshelves covered the walls, and a broad table stood at the center. Incense was burning.

Agarwood.

A subtle fragrance.

Yu Cheong sat before the table.

He was reading a book.

Even when Unhwi entered, he did not lift his eyes from it.

For a long while.

At last, he closed the book.

He looked at Unhwi.

Yu Cheong.

Vice Leader of the Blood Heaven Sect.

A martial artist at the pinnacle.

His eyes were deep. Eyes from which no emotion could be read.

A faint smile rested at the corner of his lips, but it was impossible to tell whether it expressed goodwill or contempt.

Yu Cheong spoke.

“The night is deep.”

“Forgive me for calling at such a late hour.”

“...Hmm... Will you sit?”

Unhwi sat across from him.

Yu Cheong poured tea.

Two cups.

He placed one before Unhwi.

Unhwi raised the cup.

He drank.

Yu Cheong drank as well.

He set down his cup.

Silence passed between them.

Yu Cheong did not speak first.

Unhwi did not hurry.

He took another sip.

He set down the cup.

At last, he spoke.

“Vice Leader.”

“Speak.”

“You intend to kill me.”

The air within Black Moon Pavilion changed.

Yu Cheong’s hand stopped above his teacup.

His brow furrowed.

Ever so slightly.

He looked at Unhwi.

Unhwi remained composed. His expression was as though he had merely commented on the weather.

Yu Cheong opened his mouth.

“...You truly are quite different from other men.”

“Am I?”

“I believe that a man who lacks nerve lives a meaningless life, but your nerve exceeds anything I imagined, Blood Heaven Arbiter.”

“I merely stated the truth.”

“If it is the truth, was it wise for you to sit here?”

“Perhaps not.”

Unhwi continued.

“That is why there is one more thing I wished to tell you.”

“Let me hear—”

“I also intend to kill you.”

Black Moon Pavilion fell silent.

Absolute silence.

Only the incense smoke continued to rise.

Yu Cheong’s eyes changed. His smile vanished. Something stirred within those deep eyes—too profound to call killing intent, too cold to call interest.

“Ha.”

It was closer to an exhaled breath than laughter.

This was the first time these two men had sat directly across from one another and spoken of taking each other’s lives.

It was nothing like their previous meeting at the Heaven’s Will Alliance.

Not once since becoming Blood Heaven Arbiter had Unhwi met the Vice Leader alone.

There was no possibility that either man was unaware of what the other desired.

And Unhwi had voiced it outright at their first private meeting?

This was a declaration of where they stood.

“Did you care deeply for Yang Seoljin?”

“I did.”

“I cared more deeply for the Snow Palace.”

“...”

“Unfortunately, the grudge between us is one that can be resolved only when one of us dies. Do you agree?”

“I do.”

They had already traveled too far apart.

There could be no joining hands now.

Only the death of one could settle the grudges and ties between them.

As men.

And as martial artists.

Such was the path these two men walked as martial artists.

“However, for a martial artist at Unity of Heaven and Man to say such a thing to one at the pinnacle...”

Yu Cheong paused and looked at Unhwi before continuing.

“Is that courage, or recklessness?”

“Neither.”

“Then what?”

“Courtesy.”

Yu Cheong’s eyes shifted slightly.

“Courtesy.”

“To tell the man you intend to kill that you intend to kill him is the courtesy of a martial artist.”

“...”

“We both already know the other’s intentions, but I believe there ought to have been at least one occasion when we spoke them aloud. Do you not agree?”

Yu Cheong raised his teacup.

He took a sip.

He set it down.

“You truly are an interesting man.”

“You flatter me.”

“It is not flattery.”

Yu Cheong leaned back.

“I believe I understand a little why the Primordial One values you.”

“...”

“But valuing you and protecting you are two different matters.”

Unhwi nodded.

“I know.”

“The Primordial One sows seeds in a field and waters them, but he does not pull the weeds.”

Unhwi gave a faint chuckle.

“An interesting comparison.”

“It is not a comparison. It is the truth.”

“Do we not still have yet to learn whether what grows in that field is a crop or a weed?”

Yu Cheong’s eyes narrowed.

“The Primordial One planted it, so it must be a crop.”

“Being planted does not make it a crop. It becomes one only after taking root.”

“...”

“I did not understand at first, but in the end, were you not also planted by the Primordial One?”

Yu Cheong’s expression stiffened ever so slightly.

The remark had struck home.

Yu Cheong, too, was someone the Heavenly Wayfarer had placed in the position of Vice Leader. A member of Heaven Beyond Heaven planted within the Blood Heaven Sect. In the broadest sense, Yu Cheong was also something growing in the Heavenly Wayfarer’s field.

Just as Unhwi had been appointed Blood Heaven Arbiter.

There was absolutely no difference.

The being above both men was the Heavenly Wayfarer.

Events were unfolding according to his intentions, but even the player could not control every movement of every stone.

Unhwi continued.

“It is absurd for things planted in the same field to call each other weeds.”

The corner of Yu Cheong’s mouth rose.

It was not a smile.

There was an edge to it.

“The same field, you say?”

“Yes. The same field.”

“If it is the same field, then we must have drunk the same water.”

Yu Cheong looked at Unhwi.

“For things raised on the same water, we seem to be growing in very different directions.”

“If the roots differ, then it is only natural that the direction differs.”

“The roots differ?”

“Yes. Your roots do not reach the Blood Heaven Sect.”

The air froze.

A flash of light passed through Yu Cheong’s eyes.