“Was the greeting too light? Then it’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”

Danmokbi’s face scrunched. They had briefly met in the northern forest along with Yeon, but how could he forget that face? He was the one openly coveting Yeon then.

“Why are you here?”

The problem was how he was in Danmok’s house. With so many warriors around, not being noticed by anyone and being here was enough to guess his skills.

As if to tease the tense Danmokbi, Hyuljunghyeok chuckled and said,

“Hey, don’t call me a guy. I’m now the leader of the blood sect. You should call me Leader.”

Crazy.

With just one word, he didn’t want to talk to the guy anymore. Danmokbi reached out to Hyuljunghyeok.

“Give Yeon to me.”

At first, he thought she was dead, slumped, but on closer inspection, he saw her chest rising and falling.

Hyuljunghyeok glanced at Yeon’s face and then teased Danmokbi with a playful smile.

“I don’t want to.”

It was when Danmokbi gritted his teeth. Hyuljunghyeok spilled out an unsolicited story.

“It’s just my good luck. I impulsively came to catch this woman, but she was lying down as if telling me to take her. Not accepting such a gift right away is not human.”

‘Sleeping incense.’

He quickly realized what had happened from those words.

It was Danmoksu who had fed the sleeping incense to Jegalyeon. He must have planned the outrageous act.

‘But why did that guy show up here?’

Was everything, including the guy’s appearance, designed by Danmoksu? Danmokbi’s face grew cold.

‘The truth is, I’ll catch him and find the answer.’

Something like black smoke rose from Danmokbi’s body. Danmokbi spoke in a voice filled with a very different aura than before.

“Give Yeon back.”

Anyone else would have frozen at the aura, but Hyuljunghyeok’s face broadened into a dark smile.

He provocatively hugged Yeon deeper into his arms and said,

“This woman is now mine.”

At those words, the suppressed aura burst out of Danmokbi’s body.

“Oh my.”

Hyuljunghyeok’s mouth twisted up. He looked at Danmokbi with a bright smile.

“This is troublesome.”

His hair began to flicker red from the ends. He pushed the slumped Yeon aside and said,

“Black Wind, take this woman and retreat more than three horse lengths.”
Suddenly, a man dressed in black appeared from what seemed like an empty space, accepting the offering.

Hyuljunghyeok, who had been holding the offering, loosened both his hands and moved his neck side to side. The sound of bones clicking together resonated eerily.

“It’s been a while since my blood has boiled.”

His pupils narrowed like those of a beast. Danmokbi, instead of answering, grasped the sword he had at his waist.

He had to quickly cut that guy down and retrieve the offering.

(This is a time separator.)

The one who first noticed the accident in the river was none other than Jegalmin. Bathing in the hot spring, Jegalmin felt a strong clash of energy and immediately ran outside, wearing only a thin layer of clothing.

Similarly, among the people who ran out was Namgunglyeo.

“What on earth is happening?”

“Has there been an accident?”

“What?”

As if Namgunglyeo would know. She had been eagerly eating a meal served in her room. But she felt a familiar energy and ran outside.

Her face hardened as she mumbled,

“This is the first time I’ve seen him reveal his energy like this. Something must have happened.”

It was a malicious feeling that she hadn’t felt since she had caught and killed the enemy in Shin Mountain. Namgunglyeo was about to run towards the feeling, but she quickly wrapped the cloth she was wearing around Jegalmin.

“The water is dripping. Use this as a towel for now.”

“……?!”

Only then did Jegalmin realize she was standing in front of her peer in something no different from underwear. Her face turned bright red.

‘How did I end up like this?’

However, the situation seemed too urgent to dress properly now. Jegalmin just closed her loose robe and hurriedly ran after Namgunglyeo.

And they discovered a man in black clothes running away with the drooping offering.

“Who are you!”

Who would have thought they would run into a kidnapper taking away his little sister?

It seemed clear that the blackclothed man was up to no good, as he immediately threw a smoke bomb and began to flee.

But the cloudy mist was not enough to fool Jegalmin and Namgunglyeo.

“Where, taking my sister and running away!”

Jegalmin instinctively reached for the sword at her waist but realized she didn’t have it since she had just come from the hot spring.

‘Damn it. I was too relieved coming to Danmok Temple.’

She sighed softly, only to have Namgunglyeo step in front of her, swinging her wide, clothwrapped arm.

The dark spell thrown by the man cut through the fog and was redirected by Namgunglyeo’s swinging cloth, heading back to the thrower.

“Ugh!”

A scream confirmed a hit. Jegalmin turned pale.

“What if our offering gets hit!”

“Oh.”

Namgunglyeo made a sound as if she just realized something, then asked with a bright face,

“Then how should we chase that man?”

Was she always like this?

Jegalmin felt a headache coming on, realizing anew the nature of Namgunglyeo.

She also had a grim premonition that she would be taking care of this thoughtless, impulsive woman in the future.