A lavish manor.

An even more lavish room.

But without a single light burning, all that lavishness was dead.

In the darkness, a figure sat slumped in a chair, tipping back a wine jug.

Gok Cheonmu, Clan Head of the Tyrant Blade Gok Clan, wore an unusual expression — or rather, no expression at all. Fury, taken far enough, had a way of producing a strange calm.

He was lost in thought, trying to decide what to do with this anger.

Bang!

The door flew open. Head Steward Gu Wonho stepped inside.

Gok Cheonmu, just reaching for the jug again, set it back down.

He looked at Gu Wonho in silence.

Gu Wonho stumbled over his words as he rushed to speak.

“Th-there’s a problem!! Cloud Ridge Village has been attacked!!”

Click.

Gok Cheonmu’s teeth ground together.

He had already heard that the Four Black Dragons and Seo Woojin had returned. And he had known before they even came back that the mission had failed. If it had succeeded, a report would have reached him long before now.

But he hadn’t anticipated they would find Cloud Ridge Village this quickly.

‘The Soaring Wind Cho Clan hasn’t moved. Neither has the Dark Alliance’s Military Advisor’s Hall. Did the Woon Clan move directly? Or……’

He shook his head.

Whatever the case — one of the bases where his trained killers were stationed had been struck.

“Casualties?”

Gu Wonho hesitated at the question.

When Gok Cheonmu’s eyes pressed him with killing intent, he finally answered with reluctance.

“Th-that is…… everyone. No survivors, apparently. It, it seems the Four Black Dragons moved directly.”

Bang! CRACK!

The fury broke loose at last.

The table he struck split cleanly in two — as though to illustrate exactly how great the rage was.

“That insufferable woman……”

Had he underestimated her?

No. The failure of the mission itself was the first problem.

It had been a cleanly focused assignment — target only Seo Woojin.

He had never even intended to kill the Four Black Dragons. That was simply beyond what he was sending. All they had to do was buy time — pin the Four Black Dragons down, and let the Cloud Ridge Village elites reach Seo Woojin. That was all.

A simple enough job.

The result was not a failure. It was annihilation.

Had the Four Black Dragons surpassed his calculations?

Or had Seo Woojin’s martial ability been stronger than he assumed?

“So he didn’t waste his years at the Murim Alliance after all.”

Right.

He hadn’t underestimated the others — but Seo Woojin alone, he had dismissed. His age. The environment he had grown up in. His appearance. He had judged the man too hastily on too little.

“Damn it.”

While still brooding over the failure and cursing under his breath——

“My lord…… I apologize for the timing. But someone has arrived from the Alliance. The Military Advisor has called a meeting…… They say Young Lord Seo will be hosting it himself.”

Listening to Gu Wonho’s trembling voice, Gok Cheonmu rubbed his face.

“Haah…… How convenient. A slap right on cue.”

He rose from his seat and strode to the wall.

He lifted the broadsword hanging there.

Gu Wonho stared — and visibly startled.

“C-Clan Head!”

Naturally, weapons were to be surrendered at the entrance before stepping into the main hall.

But the look in Gok Cheonmu’s eyes right now suggested he was liable to do something drastic.

Gu Wonho moved to stop him——

And couldn’t say a word. He could only step back.

Those eyes. Cold in a way that raised every hair on his body.

Gok Cheonmu walked past him and issued his order.

“The families of the Cloud Ridge men we were holding as leverage — dispose of them all. They’re useless now. Ah. Any children under ten — send them to the Valley of Ten Thousand Deaths.”

Gu Wonho stood there, body trembling faintly, and could do nothing but nod.

Long after Gok Cheonmu had left the room.

[These are the physical descriptions of the Seven Family heads. Memorize them.]

Keeping Woon Seorin’s words in mind——

Seo Woojin surveyed the faces assembled in the meeting hall.

The profiles had been detailed enough that he could identify most of them at a glance.

‘So the factions really are divided.’

Some greeted him with courteous bows — but more than half treated him as though he weren’t there.

Who was close with whom. Who had bad blood with whom. It was all legible at a glance.

‘What a mess.’

He hadn’t had a high opinion of the Dark Path to begin with — but it was still an organization that stood shoulder to shoulder with the Murim Alliance. To see something this embarrassing from it——

The admiration the Four Black Dragons had inspired was quietly beginning to fade.

[They’ll look like a rabble. But remember — give them a common enemy and they change.]

Seo Woojin exhaled quietly.

Woon Seorin was right. Now was not the time to be looking down on them. How he handled today would shape what came next.

‘I have to get through this. That’s where the opportunities begin.’

Revenge was a problem for later.

For now — he had to survive here.

He was steadying himself with that resolve when——

BOOM!

The doors of the main hall exploded inward.

Thud.

The warrior standing guard at the entrance crumpled to the floor.

A moment later, a large man walked in, carrying a broadsword that matched his frame.

Seo Woojin watched him through half-lidded eyes.

[Gok Cheonmu of the Tyrant Blade Gok Clan. The one to watch most carefully. Brutal — but not stupid. He only ever stirs up exactly as much trouble as he can handle. He’ll probably come at you the most aggressively tomorrow.]

He recognized him instantly.

With “brutal” so aptly personified, how could he not.

“Clan Head Gok!! What do you think you’re doing?!”

Woon Seorin, standing beside Seo Woojin, erupted.

Gok Cheonmu scoffed and rested the broadsword on his shoulder.

“Why so alarmed? This is the young master’s own meeting — hosted directly by the Alliance Lord’s son. We’re here to make proper introductions with the Seven Family heads. I simply thought I’d dress for the occasion.”

“……Clan Head Gok. Don’t cross the line.”

Woon Seorin’s cold warning.

The corner of Gok Cheonmu’s mouth curled upward.

“I’m curious. What happens when I do?”

Thud.

Gok Cheonmu took one step forward.

“Please, take a seat.”

Seo Woojin stepped in.

At Seo Woojin’s composed expression, Gok Cheonmu’s smile deepened.

“Heh heh. The Alliance Lord’s son indeed. There’s some nerve to you. You look soft as a scholar on the outside — but there’s something there.”

Thud. Thud.

Gok Cheonmu advanced with heavy, deliberate steps, radiating the intent to attack at any moment.

Thud!

Seo Woojin’s expression didn’t change.

It was difficult to tell whether he simply couldn’t feel Gok Cheonmu’s killing intent — or whether he was holding himself steady in spite of it.

Gok Cheonmu scoffed again and dropped into an empty seat.

Only then did Seo Woojin turn his gaze to those assembled.

“Is everyone here?”

Woon Seorin glanced at Gok Cheonmu before answering.

“The Clan Head of the Black Sword Cheon Clan has entered closed-door training. In his stead, the young clan head has attended.”

At Woon Seorin’s introduction, a young man who appeared to be around Seo Woojin’s age rose from his seat. He folded his hands in a formal salute toward Seo Woojin and introduced himself.

“My name is Cheon Doyun.”

“Of course. A pleasure. I’m Seo Woojin.”

At Seo Woojin’s courteous reply, Cheon Doyun’s eyes flickered with brief surprise. He quickly composed his expression and returned to his seat — but muffled laughter drifted from various corners of the room.

The loudest, naturally, was Gok Cheonmu.

“Heh heh. Quite the sight. The Murim Alliance upbringing shows from every angle, doesn’t it.”

The words had clearly reached him. Seo Woojin passed over them without a glance.

“I’m grateful to you all for coming despite your busy schedules. The first reason I asked you here is certainly to make proper introductions — but there’s something more pressing we need to address, isn’t there?”

Woon Seorin, who had been listening quietly beside him, whipped her head toward him.

This was not what they had agreed on.

“The future of the Dark Alliance. Or more precisely — shouldn’t we be discussing what is to be done about the Dark Alliance’s unstable future?”

The air in the meeting hall went cold.

Frost may as well have been settling over the room.

Woon Seorin was appalled.

What on earth is he saying——!!

She wanted to clap a hand over his mouth right then and there.

But as if in mockery of her, he continued.

“There is much to be done immediately. We must find whoever killed the Dark Alliance Lord — my father. And we need to restore contact with the Murim Alliance. The Murim Alliance is almost certainly watching us right now. Trouble has a way of breaking out when things are at their most chaotic. So we need to reassure them. Ah, and first of all——”

Woon Seorin got her wish.

Not through her own hand — but through Gok Cheonmu’s.

“Unbelievable.”

Seo Woojin turned toward the quiet voice.

“Is something wrong?”

Gok Cheonmu shook his head with a hollow laugh — the laugh of a man genuinely at a loss.

“Ha. Wrong? You said wrong?”

“Yes. Is it not an entirely ‘reasonable’ set of concerns to raise?”

At Seo Woojin’s unruffled face, Gok Cheonmu let out a slow breath.

“Haah……”

Slide. THUD!!

He drove the tip of his broadsword into the floor and rested both hands on the pommel, leaning his weight forward.

“How little must you think of us, to say something like that so casually.”

He looked one step away from swinging the blade directly at Seo Woojin. If killing intent alone could draw blood, Seo Woojin would have been in pieces by now.

“That is too hasty.”

The Clan Head of the Blood Fist Dan Clan stepped in at a measured moment.

Seo Woojin tilted his head as though genuinely puzzled.

“Hasty? In what way?”

“There is exactly one reason the young master occupies that seat today — because you are the Alliance Lord’s son. But that does not grant you the standing to speak of our futures or the Dark Alliance’s.”

Thud!

Before the Dan Clan head had even finished, another man slammed the table.

“And that’s not the half of it! It isn’t merely a matter of standing — the young master owes us an explanation first!”

The Clan Head of the Full Spear Yeom Clan.

“An explanation?”

“Do you have any idea how long you’ve been in Hangzhou? All that time, not a single appearance — sealed inside your quarters — and then you summon us out of nowhere, and this is the first thing out of your mouth? The Dark Alliance’s future? Ha. I’ll be plain about it. I am not in a good mood right now.”

He wasn’t putting killing intent on open display the way Gok Cheonmu was — but he made no effort to conceal the steady, building anger underneath.

Then Gok Cheonmu pressed in again.

“I happen to have some information. Apparently the young master went on a little trip recently. Left Hangzhou, I’m told? Would I be permitted to ask where you went?”

With that, Gok Cheonmu had revealed himself as someone who knew about Seo Woojin’s absence from Hangzhou.

He had weighed that exposure and decided it was worth it — to press him.

Seo Woojin didn’t answer.

Gok Cheonmu’s smile deepened.

The scar across his face seemed to dance, savoring what it saw.

“You seem to be having trouble reading the room — so let me be clear. The young master’s position is exceedingly ambiguous. The Dark Alliance’s heir, raised by the Murim Alliance……. Heh heh. Even the lowest-ranked Dark Path warrior wouldn’t swallow that easily. And on top of that, the first thing you did upon arriving in Hangzhou was slip away in secret.”

The harder Gok Cheonmu pressed——

The colder the gazes of the other Family heads became.

“So tell me. Does it seem ‘reasonable’ to you that we keep the young master in that seat? Heh heh. In my opinion, I should drag you out of that chair right now and interrogate you on the spot. Find out exactly what secret orders you received from the Murim Alliance Lord.”

His register had shifted — from formal address to something far more contemptuous.

For Gok Cheonmu, this was a powerful strike.

Yes, it had exposed the fact that he knew about Seo Woojin’s departure — but there was nothing to be done about that. Without proof that he had sent the assassins, nothing could be used against him.

Even Woon Seorin, who would ordinarily have stepped in by now, was holding her silence.

So this is how you become the common enemy.

Woon Seorin’s warning echoed in his ears. But he had already committed.

With the pressure of the Dark Alliance’s inner circle bearing down on him from every side, Seo Woojin’s expression did something unexpected.

He smiled.

“You’re smiling?”

Gok Cheonmu’s question.

“Can’t help it. I expected this — but I didn’t expect it to be quite this pathetic.”

His smile only deepened.

(End of Chapter 11)