The moment Bing Ye's fourth step touched the ground.
"Kim Rae-won. The Sect Leader of the Hero's Sect, remember it."
The world changed.
The ice beneath her feet spread in a circle, then rushed across the ground.
It wasn't a straight line toward Dong Bongsu.
It spread in all directions.
A tsunami of cold qi that seemed to swallow space itself.
There was no structure like a formation.
The Thunderclap Absolute Sealing Circle had Formation Ropes, and the Mountain Formation Division's Suppression Formation had fixed points.
A pattern existed, so it could be analyzed.
This was different.
There was no pattern.
It was the type to just push forward with the pure output of internal energy.
'Is she aiming for a war of attrition?'
He raised the density of the Super True Qi Field.
The frost at the boundary was pushed back.
But new frost filled the place where it was pushed back.
It was like two waters pushing against each other at their boundary without mixing.
The soil inside the Super True Qi Field remained dry, but the outside was already covered in white.
On the bark of the giant tree he had leaned against, frost spread and peeled off, over and over.
Crunch-.
Bing Ye took another step.
The frost wall grew another layer thicker.
A strain from the cold qi was applied across the entire area where the Super True Qi Field was spread.
Nevertheless, Dong Bongsu did not move an inch.
He was just, measuring.
The moonlight converging on Bing Ye.
Just what was the upper limit of the cold qi that a woman could emit?
To the Heavenly Yin Sect's training system that sublimes yin qi into internal energy, one had to add the Yin-Cold Qi she devoured from the moonlight.
If it were day, the story might have been different, but now it was the middle of the night.
How much of a buff was that woman getting from the moon in the sky?
Shing-.
A jet-black longsword formed in Dong Bongsu's right hand.
The Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword.
Even though he held a weapon, he just stood there.
The density of the cold qi continued to skyrocket.
As if diving deeper underwater, the resistance of the air changed noticeably.
With every breath, frost formed inside his lungs.
The cold qi emanating from Bing Ye's entire body condensed like a shield.
A frost wall so intense that it forbade any approach was structurally encroaching upon an area of about thirty zhang.
"..."
Even as thick frost piled up layer by layer all over his body, Dong Bongsu merely watched Bing Ye with an emotionless gaze.
But.
Whoo-.
In the very instant that Bing Ye's ice-cold breath embroidered the night sky.
He returned the Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword to his inventory.
Bing Ye's eyes narrowed immediately.
The series of actions, drawing a sword and then returning it, would be uninterpretable within her logic.
A weapon appearing and disappearing would be strange, but more than that....
Why!?
The question would flash through her mind.
That brief moment was enough.
Crack-crack-crack-crack-!
In that instant, Dong Bongsu withdrew the Super True Qi Field completely.
He withdrew the energy of the Super True Qi Field that had been spread in all directions and focused it on a single point.
Directly in front of Bing Ye, exactly in the center of the space where she was maintaining her cold qi to its limit.
Localized maximization.
Woong-.
A small but distinct vibration cut through the air.
As the density of the Super True Qi Field converged on one point, Bing Ye's cold qi was pushed back from that point.
Until now, even when pushed back, it had been refilled.
But this time was different.
There was no time to refill it.
As the Yin-Cold Qi poured out like a waterfall in all directions, it had been pushing against, the very control over the cold qi to be poured into that one point was torn apart.
"Kuh-!"
For the first time, Bing Ye's steps were pushed back.
It was only half a step, but for her, it was the first retreat.
Of course, Dong Bongsu did not miss that opening.
Click-.
Faith Arrow.
It was light.
Not qi.
It was not yin qi, yang qi, immortal qi, or evil qi; something else formed in Dong Bongsu's right hand.
Its shape was an arrow.
But its texture did not belong to any martial art of this world.
Shhweee-.
The arrow flew toward Bing Ye's cold qi barrier, which had already become as loose as it could be.
Pyuk-.
The arrow of light pierced Bing Ye's shoulder.
Her clothes tore, and blood welled up and trickled down her skin, and frost formed over the wound.
It was a hemostasis technique unique to the secret practitioners of the Heavenly Yin Sect, forming ice to seal the wound.
And.
Where the arrow had passed, the frost was disappearing.
It wasn't melting from the heat.
It vanished as if being purified, like fog lifting.
"...Why?"
Bing Ye's pupils trembled.
It wasn't because the energy of the attack was peculiar.
Clearly, that was not normal qi.
Not internal energy, not true qi, not yin qi, not yang qi.
Even mobilizing all the principles of the Heavenly Yin Sect, she couldn't explain the identity of what had just hit her.
But that wasn't very important.
What was important now....
...Was that her shoulder had been pierced.
And that... he could have killed her if he had intended to.
Bing Ye understood this precisely.
For she was a secret practitioner who had trained for over a decade with her life on the line.
She took another step back.
The corners of Dong Bongsu's mouth lifted slightly.
It wasn't Kim Rae-won's smile.
It was Dong Bongsu's smile.
Of course, no one would know the difference.
He could kill her, but he wouldn't.
It was a simple principle.
The path of the fateful grudge with her was fundamentally different from the one with Sang Gwanhwi.
A relationship cannot bloom from a corpse.
'I've shown enough.'
Next is talking.
Just then.
"...What is all this commotion? Why are you brawling with someone from the Heavenly Yin Sect under the moonlight?"
It was Yan Bilyeong.
She had been in the middle of her night training and had sensed the ice spreading on the formation ropes of the boundary formation, and had rushed over immediately.
As a Trigram Master of the Formation Tower, she could discern the characteristics of the world's energies.
She immediately noticed that the Yin Cold Ice Qi spreading now was that of the Heavenly Yin Sect, an Esoteric Sect of the Seven Great Demonic Sects.
Tap-.
As she landed on the southwestern wall, what entered her eyes was the sight of the entire area outside the compound frozen solid.
Frost on the giant trees, ice on the walls, the ground white.
In the middle of it all stood Sect Leader Kim Rae-won, and an unidentified woman was leaking cold qi.
That woman, Bing Ye's gaze slowly moved to Yan Bilyeong.
"A Formation Master? Hooo-, and a Trigram Master at that...."
Dong Bongsu deepened Kim Rae-won's smile by another layer and glanced at Yan Bilyeong.
"Trigram Master Yan, isn't the night wind a bit harsh?"
Yan Bilyeong looked around at the frozen scenery.
"This isn't a night wind, this is deep winter. What in the world is this?"
"It seems we have a guest knocking at our door late at night."
He turned his head toward Bing Ye.
"Let's stop pointing swords at each other here."
Bing Ye did not answer.
She looked once at the wound on her shoulder, then at Kim Rae-won, then at Yan Bilyeong.
Just the Sect Leader of the Hero's Sect was already difficult to handle.
But to face a Trigram Master of the Formation Tower as well?
There was no benefit in continuing the battle.
A long silence.
"...I understand."
It was a judgment made as a secret practitioner.
Since her opponent also did not wish to continue the fight, there was no need to throw her life away.
"What do you want?"
Dong Bongsu, no, Kim Rae-won opened his mouth.
"What are you talking about? That's what I want to ask."
"...."
"Ah, well, I guess I get it. You came looking for Cheol So-ah, right?"
"...That's right."
Kim Rae-won brushed off the frost that had formed under his ear and said.
"I killed Cheol So-ah."
"Why?"
Kim Rae-won answered without a moment's hesitation.
"Because she did things deserving of death."
"What kind of things deserving of death are you talking about?"
"She committed evils wicked enough to die for."
Bing Ye's eyes narrowed.
"If the Seventh Dharma Maiden's actions were in accordance with our sect's orders, then whatever she did is our sect's business."
"Haha. Is that so? Then how about you listen to what I have to say?"
With a deep sneer, Kim Rae-won slowly approached Bing Ye.
"You know well that Cheol So-ah lived in this walled city as the Young Mistress of the Iron God Gang, right?"
Bing Ye's brow twitched minutely.
Of course, she knew.
That the Seventh Dharma Maiden's origin was as the Young Mistress of some external faction.
"Now then, if you know what the Iron God Gang did, you'll quickly grasp what kind of person that Young Mistress was."
His voice, as Kim Rae-won, was calm.
Not anger, not accusation.
A list of facts.
"They extorted protection tax from merchants, and set up collectors on every street to suck them dry. I suppose that's common enough in a lawless city to turn a blind eye to."
A beat of pause.
"The problem lies beyond that."
A pigsty where they raised man-eating pigs.
Those who couldn't repay their debts, those who were thorns in their side, they threw them in there alive.
Slave trading.
They captured and sold people from the villages around the River Capital.
They didn't discriminate between women or children.
Debt collection.
They didn't just take money; if you couldn't pay, they took your family.
"I know your Heavenly Yin Sect belongs to the Seven Great Demonic Sects. I have no intention of picking a fight just because an Unorthodox Faction acts like one."
Kim Rae-won looked directly into Bing Ye's eyes.
"But isn't there a line that shouldn't be crossed?"
Bing Ye's cold qi contracted minutely.
Not an expansion of anger, but a contraction of shock.
"Even Unorthodox Factions have lines they keep, don't they? Feeding people to man-eating pigs is beyond that line, isn't it? The Heavenly Yin Sect should know that its Seventh Dharma Maiden was standing beyond that line."
Bing Ye did not answer.
"If you demand that I leave someone who is beyond that line alone in this River Capital-."
Kim Rae-won hammered the point home.
"I will consider the Heavenly Yin Sect to have crossed the line as well."
Bing Ye was still silent.
But in her mind, she was picturing Cheol So-ah's face.
The seventh Dharma Maiden.
A child whose Spiritual Root was so outstanding that the Sect Master himself had called her name.
In the sect, that child was just an intelligent and cold practitioner.
But... if everything she had just heard was true, it was also a clear fact that she could never protect her.
No matter if they were an Unorthodox Faction.
"...Proof."
"Ask any merchant in this walled city. Ask them how this place has changed since the Iron God Gang was destroyed."
Bing Ye recalled what she had felt upon entering this city.
Someone had changed the city's principle.
At that time, she had felt it in a purely martial sense.
But if it wasn't a simple change in energy, but the very foundation of the city being overturned.
It was proof of how rotten it had been before.
Kim Rae-won continued.
"I have Cheol So-ah's body. I've collected it and am keeping it safe."
Bing Ye's cold qi wavered.
But she held it in.
"...Where?"
"In a safe place."
Kim Rae-won said no more.
"And the source of the resonance you've been chasing, that jade pendant, is also here."
For the first time, Bing Ye's eyes widened.
That jade pendant, whose resonance pattern had changed.
She had already confirmed that someone other than a Dharma Maiden was holding it, but she hadn't expected this man to mention it directly.
"I'm willing to return it. Both the body and the jade pendant."
"...There must be conditions."
"Three."
Kim Rae-won held up three fingers.
"One. The Heavenly Yin Sect will not make an enemy of the Hero's Sect."
He folded his index finger.
"Two. For the time being, you will not spread what you saw here today."
He folded his middle finger.
"Three."
He folded his ring finger.
"Three…."
Kim Rae-won wiggled his ring finger a few times, then grinned and scratched his forehead with it.
"Ah, sorry. It was two things, two. Haha."
"...."
"Anyway, neither of the two are unreasonable demands."
Bing Ye was silent.
The Sect Master's order was to investigate the death of the Seventh Dharma Maiden.
Retrieving the body and understanding the situation was the closest response to that order.
It had already been confirmed that she could not defeat this man in battle.
It was all too clear that even adding the nine sect members would not change the outcome.
And.
If what Cheol So-ah had done was true, then the body was not the only thing she needed to report to the Sect Master.
"...I will check the body first."
"Tomorrow."
Kim Rae-won cut her off firmly.
"Instead, stay here tonight. You and all your people."
A long silence passed.
The cold qi was slowly receding.
Following Bing Ye's will, the deep winter that had covered the River Capital was slowly melting away.
"Fine."
Bing Ye turned around.
In the direction where her nine sect members were waiting.
Watching her back, Yan Bilyeong opened her mouth.
"Is it all over?"
"What is?"
"The conflict between the Hero's Sect and the Heavenly Yin Sect."
"I suppose so?"
Yan Bilyeong looked at him with a face of complete disbelief.
"I mean, what does this booger-sized sect have that Dongmun Mutoe, the Heavenly Yin Sect, and even the Vast Heaven Infinite Sword Sect are all flocking to it?"
"Ah, yes. I apologize for being booger-sized."
"Yeah, yeah, feel as sorry as you want. What's the deal with you and this place?"
Dong Bongsu didn't answer and just wrapped his arms around his shoulders, watching Bing Ye's back until it disappeared into the darkness.
"I don't know."
"What?"
"Ah, have I not told you yet?"
"Told me what?"
"I have no memory."
"What!?"
"So stop asking me questions like that."
And then he slowly began to walk toward the Hero's Sect.
He could hear Yan Bilyeong's muttering behind him, but Kim Rae-won's smile had already vanished.
It didn't peel away piece by piece; it was simply gone.
Doo-woong.
After a resounding mechanical tone, Lumina's clear voice struck his ears.
[You have resolved the issue with the Heavenly Yin Sect party. A reward is given.]
[+3]
[The world has become quite a bit more beautiful.]
[A relationship with the Heavenly Yin Sect has been formed.]
[Bing Ye is feeling a slight bit of favor toward you.]
[A relationship that started with a grudge can sometimes turn into a good one.]
[Because Faith has the power to dilute even grudges at times.]
Hero History: 51
[Your Hero History has reached 50, and your Hero Rank has been upgraded.]
[You are now a ★★First-Rate.]
― You've worked hard. You are listening to our request well. You are our last hope. Please continue to save this world as you are now.
▣ Hero Rank
☆ Nameless (0~9)
★ Rising Star (10~49)
★★ First-Rate (50~99) ← Current
[You have achieved ★★, so a reward is granted.]
[All Stats +5]
[The trait『Faith Weight』has been unlocked.]
『Faith Weight』
A hero's words carry weight.
The more people who believe in you, the more invisible weight is added to every word you say.
Sincere words can sway another's heart, and a truthful promise can become stronger than an oath.
: Influence in conversations, persuasions, and intimidations increases in proportion to the number and depth of Trust relationships.
≪Unlockable Skills≫
• Faith Judgment Lv.1
└ Required History: 50 (51/50) 『Y/N』
• Hero's Blessing Lv.1
└ Required History: 50 (51/50) 『Y/N』
He had evolved.
He had evolved to the point where he could choose evolution without killing when necessary.
Dong Bongsu walked along the still-icy path, checked the system window a little more, and then closed it.
There was no rush.
He could choose anytime.
"I mean, how can a person with no memory be so strong?"
"Excuse me?"
"Hey, there's a person here. Hello?"
Dong Bongsu returned to his room just like that.
Tomorrow, no, it was already today.
"Hello?"
Today would be very busy, so it was time to end the day.