[Gok Taejun's return... keep quiet about it. Until I allow it...]

Back then,

he hadn't understood what Seo Woojin said at the very end.

But watching Cheon Doyun hold forth now, he could guess.

Gok Cheonmu had been sitting with his eyes closed. He opened them slowly.

And looked at Seo Woojin.

Was it chance?

As luck would have it, his eyes met Seo Woojin's.

He read the meaning in that look, and his face twisted.

'Insolent greenhorn.'

It galled him.

He wanted to draw his saber and go for the bastard right then.

He even regretted not taking a limb off him back at the Gok Clan.

Without turning his head, Gok Cheonmu shifted his eyes to Cheon Doyun.

Cheon Doyun, gloating, certain he'd won.

'Fool.'

Cheon Doyun's dagger was a keen one.

It could certainly have wounded Seo Woojin.

But he'd been so busy watching his enemy that he never looked at his allies.

He had no idea that keen dagger was cutting his own side too.

Gok Cheonmu looked at Seo Woojin again.

This time Seo Woojin wasn't looking at him. He was saying something to Cheon Doyun.

'Damn it.'

The curse slipped out on its own.

Any other time, he'd have snorted and paid it no mind.

If it put his enemy in a bind, he'd have thrown the deal away without a second thought.

But.

'There's no telling what else that loathsome bastard has ready.'

Cheon Doyun was walking into a pit of his own making,

and there was no rule that said Gok Cheonmu couldn't do the same.

'Above all, this has already spread across all of Hangzhou. And with Cheon Doyun spouting it as fact, it'll spread across all of Zhejiang soon enough.'

At best, it was an embarrassment.

At worst, it was a stain on the Gok Clan's name.

'I won't have that.'

Gok Taejun could fail.

But the Gok Clan could never fail.

The same went for the Cheon Clan.

Cheon Doyun could fail, but a failure of the Cheon Clan could never be allowed.

So.

This failure had to belong…