After checking the parchment, the Sword Demon speaks in a gentle tone.
“A map?”
The woman smiles.
“The Moon Pill Flower is a flower that blooms and dies at will. I notice that there are times when it refuses to bloom for ten years. Shouldn’t people be there to soothe the boredom during that gap? I need to replenish the servants for the main base. However, if you’ve managed to come here, you aren’t that useless.”
“What’s the difference between you and the Cult leader, then?”
“Are you saying that people living in Kangho must be treated humanely? If the Moon Pill Flower bloomed here and I was a weak woman, everyone would come and attack me. A man that holds the name of the Sword Demon is spewing shit. Are you suffering from something? So much bullshit.”
The woman looks at the cultivating disciple and then at me.
“Now then, you know that the flowers are under my care. How will you repay me? Let’s hear it.”
The Sword Demon looks at me.
It seems like he’s at a loss for words.
I then tell her.
“What do you even want? The Moon Pill Flower is a flower that blooms on its own. If you were going to take it, you needed to have taken it long before. Your argument is bizarre. Moreover, seeing that you are holding a map, you seem to think of this as bait to catch strong men. So now you want to rip us off?”
As soon as I say those words, she looks surprised.
“How brazen. Sword Demon, who is this person?”
To which he replies.
“Ask him yourself. He is right in front of you. I haven’t fully figured out who he is either.”
She looks shocked as she turns to look at me.
“Who are you?”
I have always been rude, so I frequently get into trouble. If I somehow mention that I am the leader of the Low Down Sect, it’ll probably just give her a good reason to get mad and attack my base.
“I am a person who not long ago was working in a guest inn…”
The woman ignores my words and then asks the Sword Demon.
“Who is the one cultivating?”
To which he replies.
“My disciple.”
“The one to inherit the Bright Sword?”
“No.”
“Thank you then. Between your disciple and this absurd bastard, I will take one of the two as payment. They will work as servants and then eventually be released. They are both quite skilled for their age, so I will be able to put them to good use. This should be a solution?”
The Sword Demon then says.
“That will be difficult.”
“Reason being?”
“My disciple still has a lot to learn, so I need him with me. Not to mention that if you take him, you’ll end up in an all-out war with the Mong family.”
“How surprising. How is it that the Mong family would end up as my opponent? So is this man a young master from the orthodox side?”
The Sword Demon shakes his head.
“No, but he’ll not be a servant for you.”
“Reason?”
“It is because he is already an independent man. Anyways, it is true that I took flowers that belonged to you. I will search around Kangho for things of equal value and send them to you. I am a man who keeps his word, so please settle for this.”
I look at the two of them with my arms crossed.
Even though they are both from the Demonic Cult, their way of speaking is gentle.
The woman laughs.
“It has been a long time since I heard someone say this to me, and it’s making my mood drop. You fought with the great sahyung and managed to achieve something, so it seems you forgot who I am. I think it will make me feel better if I take a look at your disciple’s skills.”
The Sword Demon smiles.
“I could say the same thing. Have you forgotten who I am?”
The woman nods her head.
“I know who you are. Why did the handsome Sword Demon run away after a fight with the leader? You, who was more arrogant than anyone else, experienced defeat, right?”
The Sword Demon nods.
“Such is the strength of the leader. Just like a young master who ran from home, I had no choice but to do the same. We met with similar opponents and are just recalling old memories.”
The woman responds right away.
“Let’s go.”
The woman walks to the end of the peak and moves.
The Sword Demon looks at me and says.
“Leader, please.”
I nod.
“Come back safe.”
I cross my arms as I watch him move. Anyway, it isn’t surprising that fighting is the best thing to do when you are angry.
I am curious about the fight, but the Sword Demon’s request means I simply fold my hands and remain sitting.
And sigh as I guard this idiot.
What a person gets to do in life is truly a mystery.
After a while, I hear a roar from below that doesn’t concern me much. The Sword Demon is someone even the Demonic Cult leader couldn’t kill. It is my conclusion, then, that the woman is unlikely to be able to kill him either.
With this in my head, I begin to think about the flower…
Let’s think about why the woman didn’t appear in my past life.
What reason can there be?
She must have been killed by someone.
In that case, there must also be a high chance that the Demonic Cult leader died as well.
That is how precious the Heavenly Pearl is.
It seems that it is an object the cult was reluctant to create. The leader must have also infused it with demonic qi after touching it.
Kill and replace, and repeat.
No matter how strong this woman, who calls herself a Palace Leader, was, if the cult leader wanted to find her, she wouldn’t be able to hide or avoid her fate. Inevitably she would have ended up dead from either a broken neck or having all of the qi in her dantian drained out.
Another roar sounds from below.
I look at the disciple, whose face is dripping with sweat.
This is why people stay far away from Kangho.
Anxiety or even a twist in the emotions during cultivation can result in death or cause serious qi deviation.
I then tell the idiot.
“You master will not lose the fight. Stay calm and finish it unless you want to be scolded later.”
Hearing that, he gulps down his anxiousness and begins to calm down.
The sound of a roar continues to echo from below. I fold my hands again and turn my head.
‘Who?’
Has my opponent arrived?
After a few moments, a woman dressed similarly to a man arrives at the peak. Her clothes have more white on them than on average.
I came to the conclusion that she is still young.
‘She isn’t normal either.’
A woman with a frown on her face approaches the flower, takes a deep breath, turns to me, and asks.
“Did you two take them?”
As I sigh, she asks.
“Are you deaf?”
I begin to dig into my ear with a finger.
“Phew.”
I never touched a woman who didn’t learn martial arts.
Then what does this mean?
A woman who has mastered martial arts means she has trained a lot. It feels like where this woman came from also has many women.
And since she is a woman, I ask her politely.
“You seem to be a disciple of that woman who came here first. If you don’t want the bright red dirt with that mouth, keep your eyes open and be careful with your words. If you don’t know about the world, you’ll get taught through the most horrible forehead flick.”
“…”
The woman continues to look at me, and she walks closer. She then looks at me with cold eyes and asks.
“What is a forehead flick?”
“It is more absurd that you don’t even know that. I cannot tell you.”
“Why?’
“Because it isn’t something one learns by asking.”
The woman smiles.
I see her expression and think that it is probably fake. It is an expression that says she will attack, and, unsurprisingly, her hand moves toward me.
When she tries to grab my wrist, I naturally avoid it by simply turning my wrist and switching her hand to the other side.
Her movements are smooth, so I accept that she is a good disciple for her master.
Kwaang!
She quickly takes six or seven steps back.
Oddly enough, I am pushed back slightly, which causes me to fall down on my butt. It looks like my feet were pushed as I didn’t have balance. It doesn’t feel nice as I get up, patting my butt.
“Are you ready for the flick?”
She asks me.
“How old are you?”
Again, this kind of question.
She means to ask for my age, but the meaning behind it is to compare our age and say that the elder has a better understanding.
I look at her face and respond.
“I am at an age where I know everything.”
She looks at me wide-eyed as if she is being mocked.
“What do you even know?”
“I know about the flick. A village wench who doesn’t even know that doesn’t get to ask.”
She immediately changes her stance, pushes off the ground, and moves with her sword to attack me.
I accept her attack and think.
‘At this point, that bastard will end up dying from Qi Deviation.’
He’ll go insane since two masters are fighting beside him.
I make my first move to ensure this woman stays right with me. The woman is also constantly changing the technique she uses to flow between defense and direct attacks with her hand.
I counter her palm technique with my fist.
It looks strong, but I know how to overcome and counter it.
She instantly changes her attack to a kick that is aimed at my left cheek.
I block it with my left hand and counter with an attack to her chest.
She is startled and immediately moves to defend her chest as I switch to using the Waning Moon technique.
Tak.
It is a technique I made when I knew that the opponents I might encounter were likely stronger than me.
But since this woman is skilled, it doesn’t work correctly.
I kick her on the ankle and, as her body begins to wobble, catch her by the collar and infuse her with ice qi.
She attempts to counter it, but the expression on her face contorts once the ice begins to seep in.
Moreover, the first place I touched her was on her neck.
I then hold her as I say.
“A flick.”
I flick my fingers directly on her forehead, and she collapses with the sound of something cracking.
After glaring at her, I speak to the cultivating idiot.
“Are you going to do it all day? What did you even learn? Do you plan to do anything? Do it in moderation, asshole.”
Am I being careless?
The woman I thought had fainted suddenly pushes up from the ground with one hand and withdraws seven feet as she gets back up.
She continues to stroke her forehead as she glares at me.
“…”
Looking at the red spot on her forehead, I say.
“What will you do? Figure out what that is.”
For a moment, I have a feeling that my voice sounds a bit evil. It’s not me who’s weird, but it’s that woman. She then asks.
“… that is a forehead flick?”
It is hard to get used to how she speaks…
The disciple next to me begins to cross his hands and lowers them right to his dantian before exhaling a long breath.
“Uh…”
After finishing his cultivation, he opens his eyes.
Without even a word of thanks to the great me, he gets up, looks at the woman, and says.
“You thug, don’t hit a woman recklessly.”
I fold my arms and turn my head to look at him.
“… you do say the right things.”
“Shut up!”
He yells at me and then says to the woman.
“I apologize to you.”
He then gets up, wipes his bottom, and bows to her.
“I am Mong Rang of the Mong family. May I know who you are, Miss?”
I look between him and the woman with a puzzled expression.
“You stay out of it.”
“What?”
The woman stretches her neck to both sides and makes a squeaking sound.
In the middle of this, I am surprised that this idiot is trying to look good to a woman from the opposing side.
Those from the Unorthodox side who run after chaos are weird, but these people are beyond that.
Whenever I see such things, I feel like I should move to the Orthodox side.
It is because I feel like a normal person compared to these idiots from the Demonic Cult.
In the middle of this, she pulls a band tied around her waist like a girdle and flicks it, turning it into a whip.
The woman then asks.
“Are you ready to be beaten?”
Meanwhile, a long beam of qi flies out from the Bright Sword from below.
The laugh of a woman who is like a virgin ghost begins to echo over the whole of the Great Red Mountain.
I sigh.
‘Wonderful. Wonderful.’
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