She had lost her mind.

That was the only explanation for what was happening right now.

Seo Woojin stared at Woon Seorin with a blank expression for a long moment. Then he let out a hollow laugh.

“Haha……. I’m sorry. I think I must be more stressed than I thought. I’m suddenly hearing nonsense……”

He stuck a finger in his ear and pretended he’d misheard. Woon Seorin simply repeated herself in an even clearer voice.

“You heard correctly. You need to become the Dark Alliance Lord.”

Click.

At this point, frustration was beginning to boil inside him. She had just exposed him as a fraud — and she was still saying this. Unless she thought him a complete fool, there was no way she’d be saying something like this.

Seo Woojin’s expression hardened. He lowered his voice.

“And why exactly should I? Isn’t that a bit shameless? Since my identity is out in the open anyway — let me be blunt. Does it look like I’m here by my own will?”

Woon Seorin nodded, her expression perfectly composed.

“I know. You’re not here by any intention of your own. It was most likely our side’s mistake.”

“That’s right! I’ve been wrongfully——! Wait——?”

He had been gearing up to vent — and her easy admission completely pulled the rug out from under him.

A complete stranger had shown up claiming to be the Young Alliance Lord. Anyone would have been suspicious in that situation — so why was she so certain?

The confusion must have shown plainly on his face, because Woon Seorin provided the answer.

“Simple. You walked straight into a basic trap. Anyone with an agenda would have done their homework. It’s not easy information to get — but it’s not impossible either.”

Admiration flickered briefly in Seo Woojin’s eyes.

Oh. One question. Two answers at once — both authenticity and intent.

She had already suspected him of being a fake when she asked it. If he had answered correctly, she’d have simply moved on to another question. And if he kept answering correctly all the way to the end — would that have been enough?

Looking at her eyes, he doubted she would have let it go regardless. That much obsession — that much relentless calculation — was plain to read in her gaze.

It was her. She’s the one who figured out my escape route.

Now he understood why Bae Seokjin had found him so much sooner than expected.

Seo Woojin swallowed dryly. This felt more suffocating than when he had first come face to face with the Four Black Dragons outside the examination grounds.

Still, he kept his composure as best he could and spoke.

“Good. I’m glad you understand my situation. As you said — I’m the one who got hurt by your side’s mistake. I’m not asking for compensation. I simply want to leave quietly.”

A perfectly reasonable and natural request.

Woon Seorin shook her head without a moment’s hesitation.

“As I said — I need you.”

“Are you seriously telling me to become the Dark Alliance Lord?”

“For now, you’ll need to play the role of Young Alliance Lord.”

“Do you genuinely think that makes any sense?”

“Nothing is impossible. What matters is whether the will is there.”

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about. I was dragged here out of nowhere, and you tell me ‘I need you’ — do you really think that’s going to make the will appear?”

Thud.

Woon Seorin set her teacup down on the table. Her eyes found his — indifferent, cold, the kind of gaze that sent a chill crawling down his spine.

Even so, Seo Woojin didn’t look away.

A tense, wordless moment stretched between them. Woon Seorin spoke first.

“Interesting.”

Seo Woojin’s brow furrowed.

“What is?”

Woon Seorin tilted her chin up and looked him over.

“I’ve heard every report about you. You gave the Four Black Dragons quite the runaround, didn’t you? Even after hearing that Murim Alliance warriors were approaching, you escaped by charging straight at them. You must not have been certain — you weren’t sure whether those warriors would actually protect you. And you were probably worried about what would happen if the Four Black Dragons started throwing around words like ‘Young Alliance Lord’ in front of them.”

Seo Woojin’s eyes wavered.

This woman hadn’t even been there — and yet she was reading his thoughts perfectly.

“To make a call like that in such a disorienting situation — that takes a cold head. But your behavior today in the Hangzhou market was harder to understand. I expected you to stay hidden at all costs. Instead, you stepped out openly to rescue a woman. At first glance, it almost seems reckless.”

“What exactly are you trying to do right now.”

There was quiet anger in Seo Woojin’s low voice. Woon Seorin just smiled — cold and thin.

“Hehe. I’m trying to help you cool your head. More precisely — to remind you where exactly you’re standing right now.”

“……!!”

“Does it look like I’m asking you a favor?”

Her voice was cold as a winter gale.

Seo Woojin couldn’t find words.

“Go ahead and refuse. Then you’ll be thrown straight into the Dark Alliance’s dungeons on charges of impersonating the Young Alliance Lord. Unjust? Hehe. And who exactly do you think will listen to your grievances? You’ll spend days — weeks — under interrogation. Who sent you. Where the real Young Alliance Lord is. They’ll wring every last answer out of you.”

Woon Seorin lifted her teacup and savored the aroma.

“You’ll never smell tea again. The only thing filling your senses will be the scent of blood. And you’ll spend whatever time remains waiting to die.”

Slide. Thud.

She pushed the teacup across the table toward Seo Woojin.

“Choose. Drink the tea I’m offering — or fall into hell.”

This was the absolute worst.

Nausea churned inside him. The malice radiating off these people fanned the smoldering flame deep in his chest into a roar.

As expected.

Grandfather’s words were never wrong.

Dark Path scum.

Every last one of them.

Woon Seorin’s intent had worked exactly as she planned. The rage had made Seo Woojin’s mind colder than it had ever been.

He picked up the teacup she had pushed toward him. A faint smile crossed his lips.

“I have conditions.”

Woon Seorin let out a quiet sigh.

“As I said, this isn’t a request——”

“But when you think about it.”

“……?”

“Isn’t it strange? You’re doing something this dangerous — propping up a fake Young Alliance Lord — and you’re proposing it to someone whose identity you don’t even know? Wouldn’t it be far easier to control someone you actually trust?”

Seo Woojin gave a small laugh and shook his head.

“Hehe. There must be a reason you can’t do that. No — actually, you probably never expected a fake to show up in the first place. So when your original plan fell apart — when the real one didn’t come — you had no choice but to take the next best option. Am I wrong?”

“What are you trying to say?”

This time it was Woon Seorin asking the question he had thrown at her earlier. Seo Woojin tilted his chin and met her gaze with a smile that mirrored hers.

“If I threw this teacup away — yes, I’d fall into hell. But you’d be in serious trouble too. Making a demand this enormous from someone whose identity you don’t even know — that tells me you’re just as desperate. Desperate for me, specifically.”

The ease in Woon Seorin’s expression slowly solidified.

Seo Woojin smirked and gave the teacup a small swirl.

“So rather than a one-sided threat — let’s make a deal. Agree to my conditions, and you get a piece you can actually work with. Isn’t that better for both of us?”

Woon Seorin stared at him without a word. Her expression gave nothing away.

A moment passed. Then a quiet sigh slipped through her lips.

“Haah. Fine. Let me at least hear what these conditions are.”

Seo Woojin shrugged as if it were nothing.

“I need to step out for a bit.”

“What?”

“My grandfather — the one who raised me — passed away not long ago. This terrible excuse for a grandson couldn’t even grieve properly because the Murim Alliance examination was right around the corner — so he had to leave home before the sorrow could fully settle in. And then he got dragged here. If I agree to your proposal, who knows when I’ll ever be able to go back? So before things start in earnest — I want to pay my respects to him.”

For the first time, a genuine expression crossed Woon Seorin’s face.

Even she hadn’t anticipated a request this unexpected.

She shook her head.

“The trust between us isn’t thick enough for me to grant that.”

He might simply run. That was a perfectly reasonable concern.

Which is why he added something she couldn’t refuse.

“You can attach the Four Black Dragons as my escort.”

Woon Seorin’s brow drew together.

She was probably calculating it right now — the odds of him slipping past the Four Black Dragons.

And those odds would be vanishingly low.

Just as Seo Woojin had predicted, something affirmative came from her lips.

“Where is your home?”

“Not far. A small village on the outskirts of Anhui Province.”

“Haah. I can’t give you much time. You’ve already been absent for seven days — the Seven Families will have things to say.”

Seo Woojin nodded.

“I understand. Fifteen days. Just give me fifteen days.”

Dissatisfaction settled in Woon Seorin’s eyes.

But she nodded, albeit reluctantly.

“I sincerely hope this turns out to be the deal you say it is.”

If you try anything foolish, I’ll show you something worse than hell.

That was what her eyes said.

Seo Woojin held the faint smile on his lips——

Raised the teacup to his mouth and drained it in one go.

Thud!

He set the cup down on the table.

“I promise you — this will be good for us both.”

As his smile deepened——

Woon Seorin’s eyes filled with distrust.

[There’s a reason Woon Seorin brought up the Alliance Lord’s son — a son no one even remembers.]

Gok Cheonmu, Clan Head of the Tyrant Blade Gok Clan, was turning over the words of Cho Igyeom, Clan Head of the Soaring Wind Cho Clan.

[He may have spent more years among the Murim Alliance than with us — but when it comes to legitimacy, there is no one who comes close. Think about it. The Alliance Lord’s biological son. The Black Dragon Woon Clan. What do you suppose it means when those two come together?]

The Dark Path had always been a gathering of free spirits. They didn’t place the same weight on legitimacy as those of the righteous path.

Legitimacy versus profit — put the two side by side and nine out of ten would choose profit.

[But the legitimacy of the Alliance Lord’s son combined with the prestige of the Black Dragon Woon Clan — a clan that has been rooted in Zhejiang for generations. When those two come together, the story changes entirely. And the Woon Clan currently holds the trade routes in their hands as well.]

The moment he had heard that, a chill had run down his spine. Only then had he understood what Cho Igyeom had been selling.

“Despicable snakes.”

CRACK! Clang!

The wine cup in his grip shattered under his fingers. Blood welled from his palm, but he paid it no mind.

[Clan Head Woon wants two things at once — justification and dominance. He’ll use the Murim Alliance as his excuse to install the Alliance Lord’s son as the new Alliance Lord, then stand behind that throne and use the position to hold the Cheon Clan — and the rest of you — in check.]

What if the Alliance Lord’s son had his own agenda? What if he had truly come here under the Murim Alliance Lord’s orders?

The Black Dragon Woon Clan surely knew that possibility. And yet they were proceeding anyway — which meant they were confident they could bring him firmly to the Woon Clan’s side.

“Hmph. As if I’d sit back and watch.”

But for the moment, there was nothing he could do.

The Clan Head of the Black Sword Cheon Clan — the Woon Clan’s greatest rival — had entered closed-door training. The Dark Alliance Lord’s son, returned to Hangzhou, had stayed locked in his quarters without showing his face. The Woon Clan, too, had made no obvious moves.

He had Cho Igyeom’s intelligence — but no concrete evidence. Nothing he could use to apply political pressure. So he was stuck, unable to act or step back. All he could do was borrow the Soaring Wind Cho Clan’s eyes and watch from a distance.

And so the wait stretched on — shapeless and dreary, with no end in sight.

“My lord. It’s me.”

Gok Cheonmu shook the blood from his hand and answered.

“Come in.”

The man who entered was thoroughly unremarkable. Average height, average build — a face so nondescript it wouldn’t stick in anyone’s memory.

Gu Wonho — head steward of the Tyrant Blade Gok Clan and Gok Cheonmu’s most trusted confidant — spotted the injury the moment he stepped inside and produced a clean cloth. Gok Cheonmu snatched it from him.

“What is it. I told you I wasn’t seeing anyone for a while.”

Gu Wonho gave a faint smile and bowed his head.

“My apologies. But the situation is urgent — I had no choice but to disturb you.”

Gok Cheonmu wrapped the cloth around his hand, his tone curt.

“Urgent. What’s urgent. Did the Alliance Lord’s son have some kind of fit?”

“Something like that.”

Gok Cheonmu paused.

“What?”

“Just in from the Cho Clan’s side. Seo Woojin — who hadn’t left his quarters this entire time — suddenly appeared in the market. Wiped out a group of men attempting to abduct a woman. Then brought straight back by Bae Seokjin.”

“Ha! Quite the hero! Couldn’t help but show off that Murim Alliance upbringing! Must have been itching to play the wandering knight!”

Gok Cheonmu’s mockery didn’t slow Gu Wonho at all.

“The urgent part is what comes next. Seo Woojin — having just finished a private meeting with the Military Advisor — has left Hangzhou with the Four Black Dragons.”

Thud!

The shock sent Gok Cheonmu shoving his chair back and surging to his feet.

“What?! Is that certain?”

“Without question. The Cho Clan sent the same report.”

The corner of Gok Cheonmu’s mouth curved upward.

“The order I gave previously——”

“I had it prepared before coming here. The signal should arrive soon.”

A small laugh slipped out of Gok Cheonmu — and then erupted into a full roar.

“Heh. Heh heh heh. BWAHAHAHAHA!”

From the moment he had heard Cho Igyeom’s information——

He had thought of only one thing.

Destroy the Woon Clan’s plan.

And there was one way to do it. The easiest way.

Remove the most important piece from their scheme.

And now——

The tedious wait was over.

(End of Chapter 4)