Thunk—CRASH! CLANG—!

“...Urgh!”

Which part was more shocking?

That he had been preparing to spar with a warrior of the Namgoong Clan, only for a young lady to step forward instead?

Or that he now found himself completely overwhelmed by that very girl?

Not even calling it one-sided could do it justice.

BOOM—!

The sword of the girl—who could not be older than a second-generation disciple—was heavier and faster than any of those he had faced among his own martial brothers.

He was barely managing to block her attacks.

No—was she deliberately attacking in a way he could manage to block?

“Ghk...!”

CLANG—! CLANG!

Seolhwa poured down her strikes on Yu Son as if pressing him into the ground.

She cornered him from every direction, leaving no room to anticipate her attack paths.

‘If he has trained in blood arts, then the moment he senses a threat to his life, his blood energy will leak out instinctively.’

Even if only for the briefest instant, Seolhwa was confident she would catch it.

Blood energy—she had handled it so extensively in her past life that she had grown weary of it.

BANG! BOOM!

Though it was sword striking sword, the explosive force was nothing like the previous sparring match.

Each clash carried the same devastating impact as the final blow traded between Yu Baek and Namgoong Hyeok—and it continued without end.

Even Namgoong Hyeok of the Black Dragon Division clenched his fist unconsciously at the sheer force.

Cold sweat trickled down his back without him realizing it.

‘The young lady... was she truly this strong...?’

He had known that Seolhwa had reached the Peak Realm. Still, he had assumed it was merely the lower plateau of it.

But what he saw now—this was the power of someone approaching the boundary between Peak and Transcendent Peak.

‘But her age...’

The scene was hard to believe even as he watched it. He stood dazed, eyes fixed on the match—and the expressions of the Mount Hua disciples opposite him were no different.

All of them stood with their mouths agape, unable to mask their shock.

‘T-This is... impossible...’

Yu Baek, the Sect Leader’s successor, could not even close his jaw.

When he first saw that the Namgoong Clan had sent a young lady out to fight, he had been somewhat offended.

Did the Namgoong Clan think so little of Mount Hua that they could send a child to represent them in a match where ten of their finest warriors had been promised?

He had just begun to revise his opinion favorably after his bout with Namgoong Hyeok—only to have it fall right back down.

And now—

BOOM—!

This overwhelming power... What even was this?

‘To have achieved this level at that age—I have never heard of such a thing.’

Even Elder No Mun, hailed as Mount Hua’s greatest sword, had reached Peak Realm well past the prime of youth.

‘This... cannot be real.’

Yu Son was considered one of the strongest among the first-generation disciples—one of Mount Hua’s most treasured Plum Blossom Sword Hands!

Yet he was being crushed completely.

Whirr—

‘She’s going to strike down!’

Yu Son angled his blade horizontally to deflect the incoming diagonal slash.

It was the first time he had been able to read her sword path.

If only this once—he could deflect and counterattack—

Whoosh—

“!!”

In that moment, a blade appeared right in front of his eyes.

A sword that had clearly been moving diagonally had, in a blink, pierced into his defenses.

‘I cannot block this—’

Yu Son instinctively clenched his eyes shut.

Closing one’s eyes mid-combat was unthinkable—but when death appeared before his face, instinct took over.

He braced for the blow—but the pain never came.

When he hesitantly opened his eyes, the Namgoong Clan’s young lady was already a few steps away, offering a respectful fist salute.

“It was a good match.”

Yu Son simply blinked in bewilderment.

“....”

Seolhwa bowed politely toward Yu Son, then stepped down from the sparring platform. Behind her, he collapsed onto the floor with a thud.

“....”

Her expression, once turned away, immediately cooled.

‘It is not Yu Son.’

Even when his life was clearly in danger, not a trace of blood energy had emerged. He was not of the Blood Cult.

However—

‘...There was someone far more pathetic among them.’

The infiltrator from the Blood Cult was more careless than she had expected.

It was Yu Son she had cornered, but one of the disciples below the platform—perhaps out of sheer tension—had briefly leaked blood energy.

It had been suppressed again almost instantly, but Seolhwa had not missed it.

She flicked a glance in that direction.

A first-generation disciple.

She had found one.

****

As agreed, the sparring matches concluded without determining victors.

No one was wounded, no one was knocked down—it was a peaceful exchange.

But after the matches had ended, the two factions’ moods were completely different.

All because of the second match, the one Seolhwa had taken part in.

What that young girl had shown had left such a powerful impression that, even though several matches followed, no one could truly focus.

‘It feels like I lost.’

In truth, his bout with the Black Dragon Commander had been a victory.

But no one remembered it.

Since Yu Baek and Namgoong Hyeok had withdrawn their swords before the match had fully unfolded, no outsiders could say who had been stronger.

But the second match?

There had been no winner or loser declared, so the agreement had not technically been broken.

However, it had been one-sided—overwhelming.

Even those standing beneath the sparring platform had felt crushed by the sheer pressure of the girl’s strikes.

It was a force so powerful that even those unfamiliar with martial arts could feel it.

Just recalling that moment made one's hands tremble.

If that was how he felt—

‘...They all look like they’ve seen death.’

The disciples of Mount Hua had lost all spirit.

They were people who had spent their whole lives training together, competing, encouraging one another—striving to grow stronger.

As disciples of the most prestigious sword sect in the Central Plains, they had surely held a certain pride.

And yet they had been overwhelmed by a girl who barely looked ten years old. How deeply must their confidence have been shattered?

‘That child’s strength is not something we can covet.’

Excessive desire only leads to misfortune.

There are times when letting go of envy and learning to accept is the true path of a Daoist.

‘That child is heaven beyond heaven .’

Yu Baek fully acknowledged Seolhwa’s martial skill.

She was a child at least twenty years his junior, but he chose to be grateful for having witnessed such rare talent beneath the same sky.

Meanwhile, Seolhwa looked calmly upon the first-generation disciples.

From observing the spar, she had been able to identify two more who had leaked blood energy.

‘That makes three among the first-generation disciples.’

There could be others who had not yet revealed themselves, so she ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) could not say she had found them all—but it was not a bad result.

‘What about over there...’

The massive bursts of energy that had intermittently surged from the distant peaks were now gone.

That meant the Mount Hua elders' screening was complete.

‘Now all that remains is for the poison sample to be perfected.’

Everything was progressing according to plan.

Since the moment she had set out for Mount Hua, the Blood Cult had likely been watching her.

But judging by their lack of movement, it seemed they had yet to realize anything.

‘As long as I can lure Mount Hua’s disciples outside under the pretense of herb-gathering...’

Then the massacre of her past life could be prevented.

Mount Hua’s survival—and the weakening of the Five Blood Lords—would surely be the first step in changing the future.

****

The cry of a cuckoo rang out across Mount Hua in the dead of night.

A cool wind made the mountain’s night feel even lonelier.

On her way to deliver a mid-mission report, Seolhwa paused and looked out at Mount Hua’s courtyard.

Suddenly, she remembered the mass of graves that had once filled that courtyard.

Perhaps it had been the sheer shock of seeing them for the first time—back in her past life, when all she had lived for was to fight against the Namgoong Clan.

That vast, empty yard now felt strangely unfamiliar.

As though something that ought to be there had vanished.

But no—perhaps it was the opposite.

And perhaps it was this version of Mount Hua—the one standing peacefully before her—that was what she was meant to protect.

The faint echoes of the second-generation disciples’ laughter, which had surrounded her only moments ago, seemed to linger at the edge of her ears.

She could see them again—those graves being filled, that man tamping down the soil of each one.

“....”

Tap.

Seolhwa quickened her pace.

Only the cuckoo’s call echoed faintly in the spot where she had just stood, like the echo of a vanishing afterimage.

****

“A problem has arisen.”

Namgoong Mucheon’s face was set in grim lines as he spoke.

He circulated his internal energy to shut all the open windows and sealed the room with a sound barrier.

“Are you aware of the sparring match I had with the elders today?”

Seolhwa nodded.

“As I said, I personally examined their bodies while exchanging blows with each one. And...”

Namgoong Mucheon’s brow twitched faintly.

“Every single one of them showed signs of hypnosis.”

“...!”

Seolhwa’s eyes widened.

“Every single one? Without exception?”

“Yes.”

“....”

She had assumed that, since the Sect Leader had been hypnotized, a fair number of elders would also be affected—but she had not expected all of them.

“This is beyond what we can handle. Should we consider requesting reinforcements from somewhere nearby?”

The nearest option would be Shaolin.

But—

“No. We cannot trust them. If we make a wrong move, things could worsen.”

Was it not likely that even Shaolin had already been infiltrated by the Blood Cult?

Why else would they keep quiet about having provided the Great Restorative Pill, despite it being meant to help Mount Hua?

“What about the Master of the Martial Hall?”

“He has already arrived and is stationed at the branch manor. But even Mu Gang will not be enough. At the very least, we need another full martial force to stand on equal footing.”

Seolhwa fell deep into thought.

A full martial force. A division...

‘Maybe...’

It was then.

Namgoong Mucheon raised a finger to his lips, dispelling the sound barrier.

A moment later, someone knocked on the door in a hurry.

“Clan Head! It is Hyeok!”

It was Namgoong Hyeok of the Black Dragon Division.

“You must come at once! One of the Mount Hua children—something has happened to them...!”