Chapter 347
Yu Cheong-rim gritted his teeth at Baek Un-saeng's sharp rebuke.
'Will I really get caught?'
Just as he was about to unleash the Great Lightning Shadow without even looking back—
"Deploy the Heaven-and-Earth Net!"
Before he knew it, Baek Un-saeng had already commanded his warriors to block all escape routes, surrounding him completely.
Yu Cheong-rim, who had been about to leap into mid-air to flee, halted his movement technique.
He stared at the tightly constructed encirclement and sank into thought for a brief moment.
'I can't shake off pursuit like this. With a hundred pairs of eyes wide open, I can't use the Thousand Changes Art or the Earth Escape Art.'
Both techniques required the pursuers' attention to be diverted elsewhere.
Attempting to disguise himself or burrow underground right under their watchful eyes would make it impossible to escape.
'Should I just drop the disguise and reveal my true identity?'
Yu Cheong-rim, who had been wrapping his head in cloth, shook his head immediately.
'Even if I reveal myself, won't they still drag me away?'
Explaining the situation wouldn't matter—they'd still haul him in for interrogation.
And what if they discovered he was the Thousand-Face Divine Thief?
With the crime of stealing the Joyful Buddha Statue hanging over him, he'd end up locked in the Martial Alliance's prison without a doubt.
"Just use your movement technique and come to the third-floor VIP room of the Heaven-Restraining Pavilion. Now."
Just then, So Ok-rim's Thousand-Li Sound Transmission reached him from afar.
Yu Cheong-rim's mouth fell open as he stared at the distant brothel's pavilion barely visible on the horizon.
'She sent a voice transmission all the way from there to here?'
His surprise lasted only a moment. A thought flashed through his mind, and his eyes gleamed.
'Of course. She knows exactly why I'm called the Thousand-Face Divine Thief.'
Instead of breaking through the encirclement with his movement technique, what if he took a wide detour and dashed straight into that massive brothel?
The Martial Alliance would assume he was still inside and surround the place, thoroughly searching every courtesan and guest.
But So Ok-rim had mentioned being in the third-floor VIP room—she must have reserved it for three people in advance.
So even if the Martial Alliance's warriors conducted an inspection, they wouldn't find anything suspicious.
'Meticulous. But... this is actually an opportunity.'
Confirming that So Ok-rim was still far away, Yu Cheong-rim nodded as if he had made up his mind about something.
Then, he pulled out a small cylindrical object from his sleeve.
"Keheheh. Hahahahaha!"
He deliberately let out a sinister laugh in a grotesque voice.
Piiing!
At the same time, a red light shot out from the cylinder, soaring high into the sky.
Boom! Crackle-crackle!
The light, now high above, burst into a dazzling display of fireworks.
"Hmph. A signal flare, is it?"
Just as Baek Un-saeng snorted and lowered his head—
"Wha—?"
He couldn't believe his own eyes.
In that brief moment, the Black-White Witch standing before him had vanished.
"Where did she go?!"
"We also lost sight of her in an instant..."
His subordinates shook their heads with awkward expressions.
The moment the brilliant fireworks erupted into the sky, all hundred warriors had instinctively looked up.
Yu Cheong-rim had stolen that split-second distraction to unleash the Great Lightning Shadow and disappear in the blink of an eye.
"After her!"
Furious, Baek Un-saeng roared as he watched the trail of Yu Cheong-rim's vanishing figure like a gust of wind.
"Hurry!"
Yu Cheong-rim sprinted out of the village in one breath, heading straight for a secluded forest.
'I might as well leave Shandong entirely.'
If he got any deeper involved in the hunt for the Black-White Witch, even a hundred lives wouldn't be enough.
Besides, with the Martial Alliance's branch now on his tail... under these circumstances, it was better to leave Shandong altogether and go into hiding.
Whoooosh!
Tracing a white streak across the night sky with the Great Lightning Shadow, Yu Cheong-rim soon left Pyeongdo behind.
After running for a meal's time—
He had pushed himself so hard that his internal energy felt unstable, as if his dantian might tear apart.
The cotton and rubber padding stuffed inside his clothes were drenched in sweat, and his movements gradually grew sluggish.
"This should be far enough."
Diving deep into the forest, Yu Cheong-rim swiftly employed the Earth Escape Art, then activated the Turtle Breath Grand Art.
The Martial Alliance's pursuit was frightening, but what terrified him more was So Ok-rim.
But if he stayed underground like this, using the Turtle Breath Grand Art for three or four days—
No matter how formidable her martial arts were, she wouldn't be able to find him and would eventually give up.
Crunch... crunch...
Yet, not long after, the sound of footsteps echoed through the deep forest.
'Did they already track me here?'
Yu Cheong-rim shook his head.
That couldn't be.
After setting off the flare, he had poured all his energy into sprinting southeast in one go.
Even if So Ok-rim had sensed something amiss and chased after him, there should have been a significant gap in time.
How on earth had she tracked him here so quickly?
'No... that's not her.'
Judging by the vibrations transmitted through the ground, the person making those footsteps weighed about eighty pounds—far less than So Ok-rim's estimated 240 pounds.
Swish. Swish.
But something was strange.
The footsteps were circling in a wide arc around the exact spot where Yu Cheong-rim lay hidden.
'What the hell?'
Unease prickled down his spine.
Why were they orbiting the patch of earth where he'd buried himself?
'I've been made.'
His instincts screamed that his concealment had been compromised. Once discovered underground, maintaining the Turtle Breath Grand Art would be pointless.
'Time to bolt.'
Yu Cheong-rim ceased the technique and began slowly gathering his Internal Power, preparing to burst free with the Earth Escape Art at the first opportunity.
Whoosh—
Without warning, the ground where he hid yawned open like the maw of a living creature, exposing the moonlit sky above.
'How—?!'
As a stunned Yu Cheong-rim jerked his head up, his vision filled with twin crimson pupils—drenched in what looked like fresh blood—peering through a curtain of white hair.
The Black-White Witch.
Those ever-shifting, indistinct features now loomed inches from his face, her gaze locking onto his.
"Aah...ahh—!"
Terror flooded Yu Cheong-rim's mind once more. Simultaneously, droplets of blood began welling from the corners of his eyes.
Agony. Dread.
Every conceivable variety of human suffering and horror seeped into him through those staring eyes until his tear ducts overflowed with bloody tears.
"Ugh...nngh..."
He couldn't comprehend it.
Why slaughter others so effortlessly yet pursue him relentlessly to drain his blood?
Overwhelmed, Yu Cheong-rim raised a hand to smash the top of his own head—
Thwick!
A peculiar sound hissed past his ear. Blinking through blurred vision, he saw a sharp fang embedded in his neck.
The Black-White Witch had pierced his carotid artery to draw blood.
'This wretched world...I wouldn't care if I died here and now.'
As Yu Cheong-rim closed his eyes in surrender—
"There she is!"
A hundred shadows descended from the night sky, landing in concentric rings around them.
Baek Un-saeng and the Martial Alliance's elite forces had arrived.
"Two Black-White Witches?"
After prolonged scrutiny, Baek Un-saeng's jaw slackened upon recognizing Yu Cheong-rim's face beneath the wig.
"You...!"
Only now did he realize they'd been chasing not the infamous Witch, but the Thousand-Face Divine Thief who'd looted the Alliance branch's treasures.
"Thousand-Face Divine Thief! So you've been impersonating the Black-White Witch all along!"
"Save...me—"
Yu Cheong-rim struggled to form words, but the Witch's oppressive energy left his mind reeling and facial muscles contorted beyond control.
Oblivious to his distress, Baek Un-saeng allowed himself a thin smile.
"Two rabbits with one arrow."
Not only the treasure-stealing Thousand-Face Divine Thief Yu Cheong-rim, but also the Black-White Witch whose very name terrorized Murim—both within his grasp simultaneously.
"That Witch's martial arts are formidable! Deploy the Evil-Warding Sword Formation!"
At his command, the hundred warriors moved with dizzying precision. These weren't just the Shandong Branch's finest—they'd mastered the Alliance's ultimate anti-demon formation.
This Sword Formation could not only trap foes through esoteric techniques, but also combine all participants' Internal Power for devastating strikes. It synthesized the best aspects of Shaolin's Heart-Binding Bell and Wudang's Seven Stars Solitary Sword Formation—a perfect weapon against Great Demons.
Thud. Thud.
Yet the Black-White Witch strode directly into the formation's epicenter.
Baek Un-saeng's expression twisted in confusion.
Even a child could sense the overwhelming power condensed within this formation, embodying the Martial Alliance's tactical philosophy. Its victims were said to be incapable of escape once caught.
So why walk willingly into the lion's den?
What scheme was this?
"Strike!"
Though his thoughts raced, Baek Un-saeng's decision came swift.
KA-BOOM!
A hundred warriors unleashed the formation's power simultaneously. The shockwave toppled ancient trees and shattered boulders, as if heaven itself had opened its maw to swallow the world whole.
"It's over."
Baek Un-saeng smiled faintly as he gazed at the rising cloud of dust.
At this level of destructive force, not even the Black-White Witch—no, not anyone—could have withstood it.
Whoosh.
A breeze swept past, and the smile on Baek Un-saeng's lips vanished.
An utterly unbelievable sight unfolded before him.
The Black-White Witch stood unharmed,
Thud. Thump.
And with dull, heavy sounds, the hundred elite warriors began collapsing one by one, blood streaming from their heads.
"How is this...?"
Only then did Baek Un-saeng regain his senses and survey his surroundings.
The devastation he had witnessed—the trees stripped bare, the shattered boulders—none of it had happened. Not a single leaf had been plucked, not a single rock broken.
Then what in the world had that storm of sword energy been? That gale that had surged into the heavens, tearing everything apart?
'Was I possessed by a ghost?'
Baek Un-saeng rubbed his eyes.
Had the soaring sword aura and the raging winds been nothing but an illusion?
Even now, the scene remained vivid in his mind, and the breeze brushing against his cheek still stung as if it had been real.
"How can an illusion feel this real?"
His gaze fell upon the fallen warriors.
Their skulls were all shattered, and their right hands were drenched in blood.
A hundred highly trained warriors had, astonishingly, smashed the crowns of their own heads.
"Could it be...?"
A thought flashed through Baek Un-saeng's mind.
A grandmaster of the Unorthodox Path, one capable of not only conjuring vivid hallucinations with a mere glance but also manipulating the very spirit and mind of their victims.
The name of that legendary master surfaced in his thoughts.
"You are—"
Before he could murmur the words, the Black-White Witch stood towering before him.
He wanted to flee, but his body had stiffened like stone, refusing to move.
"Stop your muttering."
In a low voice, she slowly extended a finger and pressed it against his neck.
Thump.
In an instant, Baek Un-saeng's head fell to the ground.
He was the leader of the Murim Alliance's Shandong Branch, a master who had reached the pinnacle of martial arts.
And yet, she had severed his head with a single finger?
From a distance, Yu Cheong-rim watched in horror and disbelief.
How in the world had the Black-White Witch shattered the skulls of a hundred warriors at once?
With power like this, she could reign unchallenged across the martial world. If she wished, she could even command armies and become the leader of a mighty faction.
So why... why did she choose to suck blood and become an enemy of the Murim?
Swish.
Then, the Black-White Witch turned her head.
Slowly, she began walking toward Yu Cheong-rim, who stood trembling.
'I have to move.'
But the moment their eyes met, his limbs turned rigid as boulders, and his mind went blank.
It wasn't fear.
There was a mysterious power in the Black-White Witch's eyes—one that dominated both body and mind the instant their gazes locked.
"Why... why do you so relentlessly crave my blood?"
The Black-White Witch answered shortly.
"The Human-Shaped Snow Ginseng."
In that moment, Yu Cheong-rim understood everything.
Three years ago, he had stolen and consumed the legendary Human-Shaped Snow Ginseng, which the wealthy Jinan merchant Hwa Mun-seong had purchased for ten million gold.
—What? It's nothing special.
He had eaten it expecting miraculous effects, only to feel nothing.
But apparently, the spiritual energy of the elixir had remained in his blood... and the Black-White Witch had sensed it, relentlessly pursuing him to drink it.
'This is my punishment for stealing.'
Just as Yu Cheong-rim, his soul already half-seized by the Black-White Witch, instinctively tilted his neck—
Shiiing!
A clear sword resonance rang out, followed by the sensation of razor-sharp sword qi pouring forth.
The Black-White Witch, who had been about to drink his blood, instantly retreated.
Shrrrk!
A claw-like slash of sword energy gouged the earth before a white figure descended from the sky, landing in front of Yu Cheong-rim.
"Are you alright?"
A clear yet subdued voice reached his ears as a warm energy spread from behind him.
Before he knew it, a woman in white had approached, infusing him with true qi.
"Ghk—"
The black mist that had risen before his eyes dissipated, and Yu Cheong-rim's vision gradually cleared.
At the same time, the figure of a woman came into view—her features seemingly veiled in moonlight, her treasured sword dyed white up to its hilt.
"Who... are you?"
"I came from the Sword Pavilion."
The woman in white was none other than A-yeon, the successor of the Sword Pavilion.
Upon hearing rumors in Pyeongdo that the Black-White Witch had appeared again, she had immediately set out into the martial world.
And while tracking the Black-White Witch's movements, she heard that warriors from the Murim Alliance's Shandong Branch were pursuing her.
A-yeon changed her target and followed the Shandong warriors' trail, eventually discovering the Black-White Witch, who was drawing blood from Yu Cheong-rim.
'The Sword Pavilion... Why did they come?'
Even as A-yeon infused True Qi into him, Yu Cheong-rim's mind had not fully returned.
His vision remained blurred as if drunk, and a dizzying sensation persisted.
"Strange. You haven't suffered internal injuries."
A-yeon withdrew her hand from his major acupoint and pulled out a small pill from her robes, offering it to Yu Cheong-rim.
"This is the Sword Pavilion's Sweet Dew Clarity-Granting Pill. It will help clear your mind."
Then she turned away and spoke softly.
"Once you recover, leave quickly."
Shring—
Drawing her treasured sword, A-yeon stepped toward the Black-White Witch and spoke in a cold voice.
"Black-White Witch. For decades, you have wrought havoc upon the martial world and harmed the innocent."
"I can no longer stand by and watch your evil deeds. This Lady shall mete out Heaven's punishment upon you."
"Huhu."
A smile curled on the Black-White Witch's lips.
At the same time, as if plucking a zither string, she flicked her fingers lightly—and an immense Internal Power surged toward A-yeon from both sides.
BOOM!
A-yeon leapt into the air just in time as the opposing forces collided, erupting in a deafening explosion.
"What an unusual martial art."
Landing back on the ground, she immediately unleashed the Sword Pavilion's sword techniques.
Sssshhh— CRACK!
As her white-dyed treasured sword carved through the air, a gentle wind abruptly transformed into a deafening roar that threatened to rupture eardrums.
Elegant Dream Sword.
The Sword Pavilion's techniques aimed for the pinnacle of Stillness, turning defense into offense.
A-yeon had long immersed herself in the Sword Dao, yet she had yet to break through the wall of the Transcendent Realm.
But when she had gone to Demon Hall to gather intelligence on the Five Poisons Sect, a wager with Bu Eun-seol had forced her to face the masters of the Death Shadow War Unit.
Though she hadn't broken through to the Transcendent Realm, the fierce battles against Death Shadow War Unit's leaders had granted her profound enlightenment—finally allowing her to complete the Elegant Dream Sword.
Sssht! CRACK!
Yet despite unleashing the Elegant Dream Sword in rapid succession, none of her strikes reached the Black-White Witch.
'Her martial arts are extraordinary.'
A-yeon surmised that the Black-White Witch's skills had reached the Extreme Heaven Realm, so she channeled her Internal Power to its limit.
'But with the Elegant Dream Sword, I should be able to match her.'
And then, she unleashed the ultimate form of the Elegant Dream Sword—the Lingering Sound Around the Beam.
CRACK!
With the Sound of Breaking Air, six streaks of Sword Qi shot toward the Black-White Witch.
Thuk! Thuk! Thuk!
But something bizarre happened.
Instead of piercing the Black-White Witch's body, the six streaks of Sword Qi began circling around her like a whirlwind.
Sssht! Sssht!
This was the Lingering Sound Around the Beam, the pinnacle technique of the Elegant Dream Sword.
True to its name, like a beautiful song lingering in one's ears—
It deployed razor-sharp Sword Qi around the enemy, blocking counterattacks and subduing them in an instant.
"Huhu."
Yet something even stranger occurred.
The Black-White Witch passed through A-yeon's Sword Qi as effortlessly as a ghost.
Sssht!
Unfazed, A-yeon unleashed the Lingering Sound Around the Beam again, pouring Sword Qi around the Black-White Witch.
But it was useless.
The Black-White Witch ignored her attacks entirely, strolling forward as if on a leisurely walk.
'How is this possible?'
A-yeon was deeply shaken.
She had ventured into the martial world alone to deal with the Black-White Witch, hoping to test her greatly improved swordsmanship.
Yet despite the grueling effort she had poured into mastering her techniques, she couldn't even halt the Black-White Witch's steps?
"Snap... out of it!"
Yu Cheong-rim, still panting heavily from where he sat, suddenly shouted.
Even after taking the Sweet Dew Clarity-Granting Pill, his mind hadn't fully cleared.
But watching A-yeon's battle from the outside, he finally grasped the secret behind the Black-White Witch's martial arts.
"It's not... in front of you!"
Yu Cheong-rim yelled.
The Black-White Witch wasn't walking toward A-yeon from the front—she was approaching from the side.
Yet A-yeon, as if deaf, continued swinging her sword with desperate focus.
Worse, the pupils of her eyes were losing focus.
Thuk!
Blood sprayed from A-yeon's body as she swung her sword with vacant eyes.
The Black-White Witch had already struck—using a sharp Finger Wind to wound her neck.
Drip... drip...
Clear blood shimmered under the moonlight as it trickled down her neckline.
And as the Black-White Witch stared at the blood, a sinister light flickered in her eyes.
"Ooh..."
As if inhaling a fragrant scent, she took a deep breath of the Blood Scent and murmured in a low voice—
"A woman with true yang."
But something was wrong.
Upon smelling A-yeon's blood, the Black-White Witch—who had just been laughing in a woman's voice—suddenly spoke in a grotesque, masculine tone.