As the sun slowly tilted, painting the sky with a reddish hue, Kang Yoon lay on the guest bed, pondering how he could drive out Yeong Un-ja. Meanwhile, No Hui-bang was expecting a visitor in the guest room, to some extent.

“Welcome, Dae Hyeop of the Unjeol clan. I am No Hui-bang, responsible for the opening.”

“Hmm, it’s been a while.”

“…Do you remember me?”

No Hui-bang spoke with a surprised expression, but Yeong Un-ja nodded nonchalantly.

“I remember that Seon-dae Bangju evaluated you quite favorably. He said that you may not become the best martial artist, but you could become the best Bangju.”

“I’m embarrassed.”

As a master with a fair amount of etiquette, No Hui-bang couldn’t help but feel shy hearing such words from a master of a higher rank.

In the meantime, Yeong Un-ja looked around and noticed that there were two women in the room.

“Nice to meet you for the first time, Dae Hyeop of the Unjeol clan. I am Hwangbo Hyo-seon of the Muryeongmaeng.”

“I am Ami’s Mong-a.”

“Hmm… Are there three of you following behind?”

Yeong Un-ja had already guessed that fact, but the air became tense for a moment.

Although the women were not a threat to Yeong Un-ja, following behind without asking for permission was likely to be an unpleasant experience.

As the atmosphere froze for a moment, No Hui-bang stepped forward.

“I’m sorry for not asking for permission first, Dae Hyeop. I didn’t expect you to be traveling with Kang So-hyeong…”

“Oh, that’s okay. It’s ridiculous to ask for permission to follow someone secretly.”

Yeong Un-ja waved her hand nonchalantly, but soon resumed a serious expression.

“But following behind means that you also felt the need to confirm that friend, right?”

“…Then you too? It seems that it wasn’t originally a destined relationship.”

“I wonder who raised such a monster. No one can guess.”

“Monster… What do you mean?”

No Hui-bang spoke with a puzzled expression.

“Is Kang So-hyeong a master that you would evaluate so highly? Even if you consider his age…”

Kang Yoon was undoubtedly a master who could be counted among the top in the later stages. His martial arts had developed far beyond when he became a Guryong, and he could easily match the middle-aged peak masters.

According to the testimony of Hwa Un-cheon, who was a Fahrenheit scholar, he was undoubtedly superior to himself, so he would be at least a peak intermediate level.

However, it was common in the martial arts world for at least one master of that level to appear in a generation. For example, there was Hwangbo Kang of the Hwangbo clan or Namgung Hak of the young Namgung clan.

“To call that level a monster…”

“Dae Hyeop, you know that his background is the same as the Do-mun’s, right?”

“Yes, Dae Hyeop.”

“But if you could see how pure his background is, you would surely give him the same evaluation.”

“Yes…?”

“Our Do-mun, like our Konyun, creates backgrounds with the training method to overcome the limit of slow progress. You know that, right?”

“Yes, Dae Hyeop. Ah… Could it be?!”

No Hui-bang’s eyes widened.

Generally, the backgrounds of the Do-mun or Bulmun were not only horrifically slow to grow, but their purity was comparable to other Simbeop.

If they reached the peak with their pure background, they could face any martial arts without blinking an eye, and their power was even stronger than that of ordinary backgrounds.

“But that’s an old story.”

No matter how much of a genius one was, if their background accumulated slowly, they could not fully exert the power of martial arts.

In the end, the Do-mun or Bulmun had to make a choice. They could pursue martial arts, but they could not ignore the fact that they were lagging behind in practical power.

They chose to quickly create a background with the training method or take medicine.

The latter case allowed them to maintain the purity of their Do-mun’s inner strength, but there was inevitably some deficiency, and they could not give precious medicine to just anyone. It was only possible for a disciple who was highly regarded by the major factions.

However, Yeong Un-ja’s words strongly suggested that Kang Yoon had not taken either of these two methods, and that was confirmed as a fact in her subsequent words.

“I don’t know if he trained his inner strength from his mother’s womb without taking medicine, or if he used some other method, but he undoubtedly did. His inner strength is incredibly pure and powerful for his age…”

Gulp.

“He must have learned from a considerable master. Even if I hear that he becomes the best in the world in about 30 years, I will not be surprised.”

The three women momentarily held their breath. For those who were in Kangho, the weight of the words “the best in the world” was not light.

Although they were often called the Three Supreme Beings among the top-notch masters, and no one denied that Hyeolma Yi Ja-seong was the strongest among them.

It’s just that they don’t explicitly recognize him as the best in the world because he’s a wicked color horse.

On the other hand, it also means that the weight of that name is not light enough to recognize a color horse as the best in the world.

“Wait, color horse…?”

Hwangbo Hyo-sun remembered being forced by the Ma-gyo group under the pretext of treating a addicted mage.

“I’ll give you a lot, a lot…! Accept my semen…!”

She forcibly suppressed even the sensation of being drenched in fiery water and tried to erase it from her memory, shaking her head.

“Surely… no, it can’t be…”

If he was a disciple of a blood demon, he would have surpassed the blood demon’s progress and learned terrifying magic. Not such a pure inner strength.

Suppressing the thought that suddenly came to mind, Hwangbo Hyo-sun raised another question.

“But Dae Hyeop, the prince has never mentioned anything like that to me.”

“It’s a subtle difference. It’s a very small difference that can only be noticed when one reaches the highest level of internal strength, regardless of the level of martial arts.”

At Yeong Un-ja’s words that if there had been a sword sect in the Hwa-san faction, they would have surely recognized it, No Hui-bang nodded his head.

“I see… Then, Dae-hyeop, were you traveling with him to determine whether he would become a pillar of the future faction or a person who would sink Kangho?”

“…Hm? Not at all. I was just curious about what he was up to, so I followed him.”

“So… did the prince contact you?”

“Bi-yeon is taking care of it. If I’m not there, he’ll be fine on his own, so I’m going ahead.”

From the way he spoke, it seemed that there had been similar incidents several times before, and the respect for the hard-working master in the hearts of the three women was melting away like snow in early spring.

Whether they knew it or not, Yeong Un-ja looked back at the women.

“I think I’ve said everything I need to say. I have no intention of asking you to follow me in the future…”

“…”

“The truth is, I came here to see if you could help me.”

“Help… what do you mean?”

No Hui-bang, who was thinking about finding out about the whereabouts of the addicted mage Gon-ryun, who was probably heading to Seo-an by now, was taken aback by the unexpected words.

He was just accompanying the man and had no idea what kind of help he could need.

“I think he was aware of my presence while traveling with that friend of his.”

“Yes, I saw.”

Glug.

“He seems to be proficient in a very advanced inner strength, but he’s trying not to show it. So I tried to fight him, but I couldn’t beat him.”

“Yes…?”

No Hui-bang felt perplexed.

Although it was happening secretly in Kangho, it was generally considered rude to try to explore the martial arts of other factions.

Moreover, he couldn’t think of anything to say in front of her, who was not even from the same faction. So it was understandable that No Hui-bang showed a momentary expression of confusion.

“Isn’t there anything sharp? Something that he knows but still falls for…”

When No Hui-bang first learned that the old man was Yeong Un-ja, he suspected that he would not be traveling with Kang Yoon in the true sense of the word.

If he was a master of the fifth level, there was no way he wouldn’t know that they were following him, but Kang Yoon didn’t seem to have noticed their presence at all.

In other words, Yeong Un-ja had not informed Kang Yoon of their existence, which meant that he was wary of Kang Yoon, No Hui-bang thought.

“He’s a really strange guy. If I say that I can give him an opportunity to receive my teachings, people will flock to him like clouds…”

But when No Hui-bang realized that Yeong Un-ja’s eyes were full of curiosity rather than caution, he had no choice but to mechanically agree with the old man’s words.

While Yeong Un-ja was away, I called Jumso-i and asked if there was a branch of the Ungasangdan in the vicinity.

Ungasangdan had a lot of illegally acquired capital and had so far had a small number of branches to avoid attracting the attention of the factions or the government.

However, I heard that they were expanding here and there, so I was lucky that my hope that there might be a branch even in this quite large village did not go awry.

‘I have to give up on driving those old men away for now.’

No Hui-bang couldn’t think of any way to drive them away. It would be safer to send a message to get rid of anyone who possessed magic.

“Do you mean the Ungasangdan…? I’m sorry, but to whom should I deliver the message?”

But as soon as I arrived at the branch, I was once again at a loss. Even if I showed the jade tablet I received from Yeongho-kyeong, the receptionist couldn’t recognize it.

Originally, I thought that when she gave me this, she would naturally go all the way to the top of the faction to show it. I was foolish to expect that someone in a branch in a slightly larger village would recognize it.

“Can I meet the branch manager?”

“What is the matter? I would appreciate it if you could tell me your business…”

I asked if I could meet the branch manager, but when I suddenly changed my mind about the matter, the receptionist began to look at me with a wary eye.

But to tell the truth, there were so many problems that it was difficult to speak the truth. As a late-stage member of the faction, the fact that I was contacting the leader of the magic faction was too low-level to reveal.

But I didn’t even know a name that could be used as a substitute.

“It seems a little difficult to tell you. I’ll just say that I have something to show you.”

“…Could you wait a moment?”

The receptionist slowly stood up and began to take a few steps back, her steps so slow that I was about to yawn.

‘If you’re going to go, go quickly… Wait, hold on?’

“Just a moment…!”

Crack.

Rustle rustle rustle.

As soon as I realized that the receptionist was wary of me, there was a sudden approach, and warriors appeared from all directions.

As most of them were second-rate warriors, with only a few first-rate ones, they posed no threat to me, but I focused on the sudden approach.

‘A master?’

If they attacked me organically with this many reinforcements, it could be quite troublesome.

“Ino-om! How dare you… No, what are you trying to do in our faction!”

“Hey, you…”

“Stop talking and come at me!”

As if to cut through the heat, a subtle energy flew towards me, but I used my qi to disperse it, and the opponent momentarily staggered, but immediately aimed a sword energy at my lower body.

“This guy!”

But I swept the opponent’s leg with a technique, and the sword energy, which had lost more than half of its momentum, missed its target and cut through the air.

“Isn’t this Yeonghwan Daehyeop!”

“My name is Hyung-wan! No, how did you…”

Yeonghwan, no, Hyung-wan, who continued to attack without giving up, stopped for a moment and then widened his eyes when he saw my face.

“Oh, no… it’s you…!”

Well, I’m grateful that he recognized me, but he doesn’t have to be so surprised.

Still, even if I didn’t explicitly say that I was a disciple of the Blood Demon, wouldn’t it be obvious? I looked at Hyung-wan, who was speechless with amazement, and thought that things might work out a little better.