No Traces Left Behind
The Cheondo Gate of Sichuan.
A mere thirty years ago, it was nothing more than a reasonably well-known martial academy.
However, it had grown rapidly by recruiting wandering martial artists from both the Orthodox and Unorthodox paths who had lost their places in the world.
Many had looked upon Cheondo Gate's recruitment with mockery and concern.
After all, the Orthodox and Unorthodox paths were like oil and water; they could never truly mix.
Yet, Kwak Yoo had sneered at those concerns and risen to his current position.
Matian Blade Kwak Yoo.
An absolute master bordering on the Transformation Realm, he was a powerhouse who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the various heroes of Sichuan.
However, because his temperament was incredibly cruel and merciless, he had amassed many enemies.
This was a source of constant anxiety for Kwak Yoo, who wished for the lineage of Cheondo Gate to endure long into the future.
Normally, one would seek harmony with their neighbors under such circumstances, but Kwak Yoo preferred to simply erase anything that annoyed him.
"Tsk."
Kwak Yoo clicked his tongue, tossing the letter he had finished reading into the fire.
The message sent by Yoon Ji-gang moments ago had left him highly displeased.
"A Demonic Spirit..."
There was no one in the current Jianghu who did not know that name.
"Has Macheon returned?"
Was the peace earned after that long, grueling war destined to last a mere year?
Yet, looking at it from another perspective, this was a massive opportunity for Cheondo Gate.
"If I play this right, our standing will rise even further."
A smile crept onto his lips at the thought of reporting this to the Sichuan Alliance to elevate Cheondo Gate's value.
But the smile quickly vanished.
"Still, it bothers me."
The existence of Yoo Sung weighed strangely on his mind.
Just as Yoon Ji-gang had said, there were too many suspicious things about the boy.
Even when Yoo Sung was a child, Kwak Yoo had kept an eye on him.
And now, that same boy had returned after ten years of wandering the Jianghu.
"Simply surviving in the harsh Jianghu is proof enough of his worth. The connections he might have forged out there are also a problem."
Given the boy's fiercely independent, stubborn nature, he likely hadn't made many friends.
If anything, he probably had more enemies.
If it were only Kwak Yoo's own anxiety, he might have dismissed it as overthinking. But even Yoon Ji-gang had stated that Yoo Sung was a thorn in his side.
Among the Five Masters of Cheondo, Yoon Ji-gang possessed the sharpest intuition.
That keen instinct was precisely why Kwak Yoo had recruited the otherwise rigid man to be one of his five chief lieutenants.
"If left alive, he will undoubtedly bring ruin upon us. I believe it is only right to eliminate him before he becomes an uncontrollable wildfire."
Yoon Ji-gang, a man more cautious and conscious of public perception than anyone, had openly declared his hostility.
This meant Kwak Yoo could no longer afford to just sit back and watch Yoo Sung.
"The stage is set. But why on earth is he taking Dogan Mabu with him?"
Just when Kwak Yoo was hesitating to make a move without a proper excuse, Yoo Sung had handed him the perfect pretext on a silver platter.
Rumors that Pagun, the chief of the Baekrang Bandits, was a demonic human had already spread like wildfire across Sichuan.
It was only natural to suspect that Dogan Mabu, a notorious figure from that very same bandit clan, might also be a demonic human.
"We will use him to pick a fight, and then kill Yoo Sung under the guise of an accidental slip."
It was a natural, familiar method.
Yet, a strange unease lingered in his heart.
"Tsk! Since when did I become so calculating and hesitant?"
Even to himself, he felt different from his younger days.
Perhaps it was because he now had things to protect.
"It seems I need to remind the world why they call me the Matian Blade."
It was time to reclaim his forgotten, ruthless self—using Yoo Sung and the Heavenly Sword Academy as his sacrifices.
"They should be arriving soon."
At Yoo Sung's murmur, Ho-sung looked puzzled, but Dogan Mabu understood his meaning immediately.
"By now, even the Iron Flower and Iron Sword won't be able to interfere."
The three of them were currently on their way back to the Heavenly Sword Academy.
After parting ways with the Iron Flower and Iron Sword, Yoo Sung had intentionally traveled at a leisurely pace, using Dogan Mabu as bait.
Ho-sung had worried that traveling with Dogan Mabu would invite trouble, but trouble was exactly what Yoo Sung wanted.
"Didn't you say you wanted to gain some real combat experience?"
Yoo Sung's smirk left Ho-sung utterly speechless.
Realizing too late that the "combat experience" he had asked for was arriving in the worst way possible, Ho-sung sighed and threw himself into what were essentially life-or-death training sessions.
Thanks to that, Ho-sung had managed to accumulate a decent amount of practical combat experience.
However, the specific pursuers Yoo Sung was waiting for had yet to show themselves.
"Are they more cautious than I thought?"
"He is the most patient of the Five Masters of Cheondo," Dogan Mabu remarked.
"The Five Masters of Cheondo?"
At Yoo Sung's question, Ho-sung quickly chimed in.
"They are the five commanders of Cheondo Gate, Master. They're Kwak Yoo's closest confidants, and all of them are masters who walk the line between the Orthodox and Unorthodox paths."
"Masters who walk the line, huh? It seems they've firmly chosen their direction."
Originally, Cheondo Gate had been classified as an Orthodox sect, even if their methods were brutal.
However, after Kwak Yoo ascended to the position of Sect Leader, they seemed to have completely shifted their alignment to the gray area between Orthodox and Unorthodox.
Then again, the established Orthodox sects in Sichuan were still far too powerful for a newcomer to carve out a fresh piece of territory.
Even if the Orthodox faction's strength had waned due to the war with Macheon, there was no way a minor player like Cheondo Gate could squeeze in.
In the end, it was much easier to seize territory from the Unorthodox sects than the Orthodox ones.
Yet, fully crossing over to the Unorthodox path carried its own risks, leaving them with no choice but to straddle the line.
In fact, after the war with Macheon ended, many sects had begun claiming to walk this middle path.
Some even crossed over from Orthodox to Unorthodox entirely.
The Hong Clan of Sichuan, once a proud Orthodox family, had withdrawn from the Sichuan Alliance and now acted as the leaders of the Sichuan Unorthodox faction.
It was an era where the boundaries between Orthodox and Unorthodox were blurring, and everyone was desperately scrambling to expand their own influence.
Yoo Sung, too, had no intention of letting the Heavenly Sword Academy lean too heavily toward either side.
His family shared his sentiment.
"Once this current shifts, many things will change. The old Orthodox and Unorthodox paths will vanish, and a new era of righteousness and heresy will emerge."
Whether that change would be for the better, no one could yet say.
Step, step.
"They're here."
Along with unfamiliar presences, a group of martial artists materialized before Yoo Sung.
As expected, they were the warriors of Cheondo Gate.
At their head stood Yoon Ji-gang, leisurely sizing up the three of them.
"It seems the Iron Flower and Iron Sword are as cold-hearted as the rumors say."
"There's no reason for them to escort us all the way home, is there?"
At Yoo Sung's reply, the smile on Yoon Ji-gang's face widened.
"But the situation has changed, hasn't it? You openly recruited an Unorthodox master right in front of me."
And not just any Unorthodox master, but the notorious Dogan Mabu.
Even Cheondo Gate had once coveted him; he was far too skilled to be dismissed as a mere bandit.
If we cannot have him, we destroy him. That is the law of Cheondo Gate.
Yoon Ji-gang's sharp gaze swept over Yoo Sung, Dogan Mabu, and Ho-sung.
"Will you hand over Dogan Mabu quietly? Or..."
"Does Cheondo Gate only fight with its mouth? If you want something, take it by force."
The moment Yoo Sung's indifferent words left his mouth, the Cheondo Gate warriors lunged forward.
"Don't kill them," Yoon Ji-gang commanded.
With his order, the Cheondo Gate warriors let out a collective battle cry.
Whoosh!
Dogan Mabu's heavy carriage whip tore through the air with a savage roar.
"Aaargh!"
"Kehh!"
In an instant, two Cheondo Gate disciples lost their lives.
As expected of a former bandit chief who had once ruled over a branch of the Baekrang Bandits, Dogan Mabu showed absolutely no mercy.
"If you want to take me, you'd better be prepared to pay with your lives."
Despite his low warning, the Cheondo Gate disciples did not waver.
They had come prepared to suffer casualties from the very beginning.
Surprisingly, they were holding their ground remarkably well against a Transcendental master like Dogan Mabu.
This was largely because the internal injuries Dogan Mabu had sustained while escaping the Baekrang Bandits were severe.
Drip.
Tsk!
Dogan Mabu clicked his tongue inwardly, wiping a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth.
His gaze shifted, searching for Ho-sung.
"He fights better than I expected."
At first, Ho-sung had made numerous mistakes due to his lack of experience.
But as time passed, he rapidly corrected his flaws.
Even now, he was holding his own quite well against the Cheondo Gate disciples.
However...
"This won't last long."
Ultimately, numbers would always overwhelm individual skill.
Dogan Mabu let out a heavy sigh, channeling a massive surge of internal energy into the hand gripping his whip.
BOOM!
"..."
"W-What was that?"
The explosion was far more violent than anyone had anticipated, causing Dogan Mabu and Ho-sung to freeze mid-motion.
The Cheondo Gate warriors did the same.
They all turned their heads toward the source of the blast, only to behold a scene far more gruesome than they could have ever imagined.
And standing right at the center of it all, with an utterly indifferent gaze, was Yoo Sung.
"That... monster."
A cold shiver ran down Dogan Mabu's spine at the sheer intensity of the murderous intent swirling around Yoo Sung.
What on earth is that kid's true identity?
Amidst the rising dread, Yoo Sung and Yoon Ji-gang's eyes locked.
"Agh!"
"S-Spare..."
With desperate screams, the Cheondo Gate disciples collapsed one after another.
Yoo Sung's swordplay was merciless and terrifyingly efficient.
Every single swing of his blade claimed the life of one or two warriors.
His strikes were so cold and precise that those who fell never stood back up.
"If you came here to kill, you should have been prepared to die."
With an indifferent voice and cold eyes, Yoo Sung's sword sliced through the air.
Slash.
Thud, roll.
More Cheondo Gate disciples fell, their severed heads rolling on the dirt.
Slowly, a suffocating blanket of terror and dread began to spread among the survivors.
Watching this unfold, Yoon Ji-gang's expression turned grim.
"You bastard!"
Unable to watch his men get slaughtered any longer, Yoon Ji-gang lunged at Yoo Sung.
He believed that if he stepped in personally, he could easily suppress the boy in an instant.
But he realized all too late how grave of a mistake that was.
CRACK!
With a sickening sound, Yoon Ji-gang's dantian shattered.
"Y-You crazy...!"
Yoo Sung indifferently withdrew his sword from the man's ruptured lower abdomen.
In a desperate panic, Yoon Ji-gang poured the last remnants of his internal energy into a strike aimed at Yoo Sung's neck, but—
Slash.
Yoo Sung's blade was faster, severing his arm cleanly at the shoulder.
Staring at his own arm lying on the ground, Yoon Ji-gang stumbled backward, coughing up a torrent of blood.
"Y-You monster..."
Yoon Ji-gang could not believe the reality before his eyes.
The elite warriors of Cheondo Gate he had brought with him were all dead by Yoo Sung's hand.
Because they had used Dogan Mabu as their pretext, the martial power of the men he brought was by no means weak.
Yet, every single one of them had perished.
Faced with this unbelievable nightmare, Yoon Ji-gang's eyes shook violently.
Meanwhile, Yoo Sung's sword continued to slice through the air, systematically cutting down the remaining Cheondo Gate disciples.
Faced with this overwhelming, terrifying martial prowess, Yoon Ji-gang felt a sudden wave of relief.
If Young had come with me, the future of Cheondo Gate would have been completely severed here.
Perhaps it was a stroke of luck.
He had managed to convince Kwak Young, who had desperately wanted to tag along, and forced him to turn back.
His decision to harshly scold Kwak Young, who had lingered reluctantly before leaving, had ultimately proven to be his best move.
If Kwak Young had accompanied him, Cheondo Gate's lineage would have ended right here.
Swish.
Yoo Sung's indifferent eyes locked onto Yoon Ji-gang.
Overwhelmed by that gaze, Yoon Ji-gang found himself completely paralyzed.
"Are you sure about this? If you kill him, there will be no turning back with Cheondo Gate," Dogan Mabu warned.
Ho-sung silently agreed with the sentiment.
"And who said we killed him?"
At Yoo Sung's indifferent question, both Dogan Mabu and Ho-sung fell silent.
"They never met us."
The current Jianghu was an era of warring heroes.
An era where established powerhouses and rising forces clashed for dominance, hunting down demonic humans, and framing others as demonic humans to justify their own ends.
The deaths of these men would be treated no differently.
"Leaving them alive only invites disaster."
If there was one lesson Yoo Sung had learned during his ten years of wandering the Jianghu, it was to never leave an enemy alive.
Those who were spared almost always made the exact same mistake again.
For the sake of the Heavenly Sword Academy, which still had a long way to go, the death of Yoon Ji-gang—one of the Five Masters of Cheondo—would be highly significant.
"If they can't even find the bodies, they'll hesitate to make a move."
Even if they had suspicions, without physical proof, Cheondo Gate would not be able to rashly attack the Heavenly Sword Academy.
"Hehehe... Foolish brat. You don't know our Sect Leader at all. He will use my death to bring ruin upon your entire clan."
The Kwak Yoo that Yoon Ji-gang knew was a man who would fabricate a pretext out of thin air just to destroy the Heavenly Sword Academy.
"That is for me to worry about."
With Yoo Sung's indifferent reply, Yoon Ji-gang's head was cleanly severed from his shoulders.
It was a pathetic end for a man hailed as one of the Five Masters of Cheondo, tasked with carrying the future of Cheondo Gate.
"Kill the rest and bury them."
At the merciless command, Ho-sung and Dogan Mabu clicked their tongues inwardly but quickly moved to comply.
Watching them, Yoo Sung smiled with quiet satisfaction.
With one of the Five Masters dead, the blow to Cheondo Gate won't be light.
Cheondo Gate's aggressive expansion had relied heavily on Kwak Yoo's personal strength and the power of the Five Masters.
In particular, Yoon Ji-gang's vast network and diplomatic skills had been a major pillar of their operations. His sudden demise would undoubtedly throw Cheondo Gate into chaos.
As long as this buys us a little time, that's enough.
Catching a glimpse of the smile playing on Yoo Sung's lips, Ho-sung and Dogan Mabu shuddered involuntarily.
To them, his smile looked exactly like that of the Grim Reaper.