The pervert tried to talk the girl down nicely.

“Miss, he’s not your average lunatic. Please stop.”

The girl glared at me while snapping back at him.

“I told you to stay out of it.”

I took a moment to study the Left Guardian’s expression. Even now, his eyes were tracing over the girl’s curves.

I had to admit—I was a little impressed by his mental fortitude.

This guy’s the real deal. A true pervert.

The girl said to me,

“You weren’t fighting seriously earlier, were you? Neither was I. Show me your real skills.”

Still with arms folded, I replied,

“You must come from a noble background—seems like you’ve never been properly beaten. I’ll give you a brand-new experience today.”

The fact that I gave her a forehead flick meant I could’ve crushed her skull, but held back.

The girl infused energy into the whip she had dangling and replied,

“Threats like that don’t work on me.”

Her hand moved, and the whip traced an arc through the air before landing on my head.

BANG!

Too lazy to dodge, I simply caught it with my left hand.

Snap!

The girl scowled and yanked it back with her other hand, instantly making the whip taut.

I infused Flame Energy into my grip and pulled the whip using external power.

The girl was dragged toward me, skidding along the ground—then suddenly leapt into the air and came flying at me with a fierce burst.

“…!”

In midair, the fiery-tempered girl struck out with her palm.

The moment I saw the fire in her eyes, I responded with Flame Energy in kind.

Thwack!

Still gripping the whip with my left hand, I poured Waning Moon Ice Energy into it. At the same time, I unleashed a surge of Flame Energy with my right. I glanced at the Left Guardian, who was observing the situation.

I knew he wouldn’t ambush me, but the habit of watching my surroundings ran deep.

I finally looked at the girl’s face again.

She looked like she was dying of injustice, her face reddening more and more as she tried to summon her internal energy.

The Left Guardian butted in again.

“Hick, don’t kill her. Miss, you too—this is the last warning. Your teacher and his opponent are already fighting over the Moon Orchid issue down below.”

I watched the red hue take over the girl’s eyes.

Hm?

Seems she’d learned a demonic art.

Old martial techniques often manifest through color.

Golden hues for Buddhist sects, blue and red (mainly blue) for Daoist ones.

But the demonic path? Their colors are all over the place.

Dark like black, ominous like blood-red, or murky like gray.

The red that filled her eyes was the blood-red type.

Not just her eyes—the whip she held began to take on that same crimson glow, and her outstretched hand was now wrapped in blood-tinged energy.

I gave her a cold glare and scoffed.

Blood Demon Palace, huh?

Just then, the Left Guardian spoke, sounding like he finally recognized the style.

“Master, ease up. She’s probably from Blood Night Palace. Even injuring her could start a war. Yi Zaha! You can’t kill her!”

I looked at him sideways.

“Shut it. I’ll handle this.”

I split the Heavenly Pearl’s power between sun and moon techniques to keep things balanced. The Flame Energy was stronger, but even the Waning Moon Ice Energy was more than enough to torment this brat.

I scorched her twisted blood-red energy with Flame Energy and injected persistent Waning Moon Ice Energy through the whip.

Eventually, blood began to stream from her nose.

I smiled at the sight.

Then another stream joined it, dripping from the other nostril.

Chuckling, I said,

“Ah, a runny-nosed brat. Look at that snot. Sticky and disgusting. Should’ve let you blow your nose before fighting. Or maybe picked it before climbing the peak?”

“Shut up.”

She glared at me, her pride wounded beyond repair.

Even knowing she belonged to a demonic faction, I couldn’t understand her mindset. A forehead flick meant I spared her even though I could’ve killed her.

“Listen, I’m not some servant who grovels at your feet.”

I combined internal and external power—flame and ice—and crushed her to the ground.

Her knees slammed against the earth so hard it was like the ground might crack.

I forced her to kneel, then asked,

“Yield?”

She replied,

“Never.”

“Good.”

I nodded in respect to her spirit, then crossed her arms by force, threw her off balance, grabbed her by the collar, and hurled her off the peak with a burst of internal energy.

Whiiiiiish—! The girl flew through the air. Her scream stretched out, clearly falling fast.

The Left Guardian shouted in rage.

“You crazy bastard!”

I called out—infusing my voice with energy—to the woman in red who was still fighting the Sword Demon.

“Hey, Palace Lord. That disciple or whatever of yours is falling right now.”

Just then, the Left Guardian’s body wavered, then launched off the cliff.

“Miss!”

Mouth slightly open, I walked to the edge and looked down.

“Wow… now that’s some insanity.”

A girl with her level of skill isn’t going to die from a fall like that. She could release energy midair to cushion the impact, and if she used light-footwork techniques with it, she’d land just fine.

And the woman in red fighting below surely heard my voice.

As expected, the red figure darted at incredible speed, racing to catch the falling girl. The Left Guardian, midair, reached his hand toward her as well.

Was this love? Or a psychological ploy laying the groundwork for future conquest?

I placed a hand above my brow and watched the situation unfold below.

“Let’s see…”

The woman in red soared upward, snatched the girl mid-fall, and the Left Guardian spun in the air before blasting his palms downward to land with a noisy impact.

The Sword Demon strolled over at a relaxed pace from a short distance away.

Then, suddenly, the mood shifted—icy and tense—as the three of them looked up at me simultaneously.

“……!”

Standing at the peak, I addressed all three.

“If we’re not here to kill each other, let’s all dial it down.”

“……”

The Left Guardian exploded with curses.

“You little shit, you think you get to say that? You hick bastard!”

The woman in red turned to the girl.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes.”

Looking to the Sword Demon, she said,

“You stopped attacking and got my disciple back. I owe you. Let’s forget about the Moon Orchid and call it even.”

The Sword Demon replied in a calm voice.

“Let’s do that.”

Then the woman in red looked up at me again.

“But who the hell is that guy?”

“The head of a group called Haomun.”

“May I kill him?”

The Sword Demon snorted and replied,

“No need for that.”

“Why not?”

“He’s an enemy of the Cult Leader. And the enemy of my enemy is my ally. Go easy on him. Besides, knowing his character, I doubt he attacked the Little Palace Lord first.”

The woman in red asked her disciple,

“Did you attack him first?”

“Yes.”

“And what’s with your forehead?”

“I got flicked.”

“Did you go at him again after that?”

“Yes.”

The woman finally sighed, like she understood now.

“Immature. Totally immature.”

She looked to the Sword Demon with an apologetic tone.

“She’s never been out in Jianghu, so she doesn’t know how the world works. I hope you’ll understand.”

The Sword Demon nodded.

“Don’t mention it.”

Then the woman looked back up at me.

“I won’t kill you. Come down. But since you flicked the Little Palace Lord’s forehead, you’ll have to settle that debt before you go.”

The Sword Demon chuckled and said,

“Senior.”

“What?”

“Take a closer look. That man staring down at us doesn’t know the meaning of the word moderation. Either way, let’s wrap it up for today. He’ll be a valuable ally when we go up against the Cult Leader, so no need to press him. My disciple even shit himself fighting that guy.”

The Left Guardian spoke up, looking horrified.

“Master?!”

The Sword Demon replied with his usual deadpan expression.

“No?”

“…No, sir. I shat myself before the fight because of poison.”

The woman in red and the girl both looked wildly flustered, clearly struggling to process that statement.

The Sword Demon turned to me and said,

“Master, come down and at least greet them properly.”

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

I extended one foot into the open air—then dropped straight down. Skimming the cliff wall as I descended, I kicked off the rock at the last moment, twisted in the air, and landed smoothly on my feet.

Ten out of ten!

With my hands behind my back, I walked up and spoke to the woman in red.

“I am Yi Zaha, master of Haomun.”

She replied,

“Spouting your name like that—bastard.”

Then she looked over at the Left Guardian and asked,

“And you?”

He clasped his hands in a martial salute and answered,

“Palace Lord, I am Mong Yeon of the Wind and Cloud Dream Clan.”

She nodded slightly.

“So there are still decent folk left in the righteous path. One day, I’ll help you settle today’s business.”

The Left Guardian gave a faint smile and replied,

“Think nothing of it. I only did what needed to be done.”

She nodded again.

“Then let’s call it even.”

“….”

Arms crossed, I started chuckling because the whole conversation was absurd.

The Left Guardian turned to me.

“What the hell are you snickering about?”

With a dead-serious expression, I replied,

“Maybe you need to shit yourself one more time to learn how to talk properly, you little bastard.”

He shot back,

“Can we please stop talking about shit?”

The Sword Demon, trying to mediate, stepped in.

“This is Palace Lord Eo So-ryeong of the Blood Night Palace. Her husband was killed by the Cult Leader in her younger days.”

The Palace Lord snapped,

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

“I was friends with your husband.”

The Sword Demon then turned to the girl who was still wiping blood from her nose.

“I’ve never seen you before.”

She bowed to him and said,

“Sir, I’m Gyo Yeong.”

The Sword Demon looked surprised and replied,

“Ah, right. You’ve grown so much I didn’t recognize you.”

A strange silence fell over the group.

Now that we were finally speaking like human beings, things felt even more awkward.

The Blood Night Palace Lord asked the Sword Demon,

“What do you plan to do about the Cult Leader?”

He replied,

“I expect Lord Im and the Cult Leader will eventually clash. If it’s a personal fight, I’ll stay out of it. But if it becomes a clash of factions, I’ll support the Alliance, since ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ they’ll be at a disadvantage. What about you?”

She replied,

“For me, we simply can’t live under the same sky. But I can’t help the Alliance.”

“That’s a narrow-minded stance.”

“Why?”

“Because once the Alliance falls, whether it’s the Blood Night Palace or some hermit in the mountains, everyone will die by the Cult Leader’s hand. And by then, it’ll be too late.”

When she said nothing, the Sword Demon asked,

“So, will you let us visit your palace? Or shall we part ways here?”

She answered,

“Because of the Cult Leader, outsiders are currently forbidden entry. Let’s just have a meal nearby and go our separate ways.”

“Sounds good.”

It struck me then—even those from the demonic path still ate food. As we walked together, I casually said to her,

“Palace Lord, I’m planning to take out the assassins of Saryugok. Help me out.”

She ignored me and asked the Sword Demon,

“Is this guy insane?”

He sighed.

“I’m not entirely sure myself.”

The Left Guardian, walking beside us, answered her question directly.

“He is. Just look—he literally threw your disciple off a cliff. Completely nuts.”

The Palace Lord asked him,

“Then why are you following him?”

“Beats me.”

I decided to be honest and shared my thoughts with them.

“I feel like I’m the only normal one here. Not sure what kind of crap you people are spewing.”

A chorus of voices rose instantly—male and female alike.

“Shut up.”

“Shut it.”

“Shut your mouth.”

I blinked and glanced over at the Sword Demon. He calmly avoided my gaze.

The Palace Lord spoke again in a displeased tone.

“And what would I gain from helping you with that business?”

“A gain?”

I stopped walking, turned to her, and said,

“You have a grudge against the Cult Leader, same as me, even if our reasons are different. So why are you talking about gains?”

“What the hell are you saying?”

“The reality is, all of us—myself included—are weaker than the Cult Leader right now. Thinking you can get revenge with martial arts alone is pure arrogance. The odds aren’t in our favor. So then what can we actually compete with? We have to outlast him with how we live.

“The Cult Leader sees the weak as worms. So I created a sect that stands with the weak. I kill assassins, clean up the dark path, one step at a time. I fight him by doing the things he won’t do. You think you’ll stand a chance against him while luring martial artists with bait like Jang Bo-do?

“If you want revenge, do it right. If you hate someone, hate them properly. Palace Lord, do you understand what I’m saying?”

I stared at her with a smirk still on my face.

“Dreaming of avenging your husband with such a half-hearted attitude—it’s laughable. Are you going to get revenge or not?”

I barreled ahead with pure nonsense.

The logic in my words didn’t fully line up, but who gives a damn?

If the Blood Night Palace ends up helping me…

That’s a win for me, period.

The kind of man who scolds others for chasing benefits—

—while shamelessly grabbing his own?

That’s who I am.