Fortunately, the campfire was still burning, not yet extinguished. Woo picked up one of the firewood logs that had caught fire. The muzzles of the three wolves that had rushed at the horse were soaked in blood. The loyal horse that had been carrying Woo’s load trembled violently before collapsing in a heap.

“Damn it…!” The situation was grim. He was alone, and wolves always hunted in packs. The three in front of him might not be the only ones, and even those three surely wouldn’t be satisfied with just one horse. Woo held the burning log as if gripping a sword, traces of rudimentary swordsmanship training evident in his stance.

For the moment, two of the wolves were too preoccupied feasting on the horse, but the third seemed intrigued, turning its bloodied snout toward Woo when it noticed him moving. It scraped its paw against the ground, ready to pounce, but seemed wary of the flame in Woo’s hand, keeping its distance for now.

“Growl!” Another one! Sensing movement behind him, Woo quickly turned around and struck a wolf lunging at him with the burning log. If not for some retained instincts or experience, he would have had his throat ripped open. Another wolf, on the other side of the fire, perhaps aiming to avenge its companion, charged at Woo. He managed to fend off the second attack as well.

“Whimper… Whine…” Barely deflecting the wolves’ assault, Woo felt cold sweat trickling down his face. He could mimic the reflexes of his prime, but his current body was far too frail to truly follow through. His inner energy had completely dissipated, and his unsteady legs made this fight even more arduous.

“Sniff! Snarl!” Perhaps they were satiated from feasting on the horse, or maybe they felt threatened by the repeated failures in overpowering him. The two remaining wolves, which had been clinging to the dead horse, began to move in, slowly forming a tight encirclement. Joining them was the first wolf that had been knocked over earlier. Woo swung the burning log wildly, gritting his teeth and glaring fiercely, trying not to lose his composure. He couldn’t afford to die here. Not here.

The third wave of attacks began. This time, it was a coordinated effort. One wolf would attack first, immediately followed by another. Woo managed to strike one with the flaming log and kicked the belly of the next one with his foot. He nearly lost his balance and fell to the ground but barely managed to steady himself.

“Damn it, damn this cursed leg!” The four wolves, realizing that Woo was not as formidable an opponent as he seemed, began closing in tighter.

Woo stood with his back to the campfire, wielding a log to prevent the wolves from getting any closer, doing his best to cover as many weak spots in the defense as possible. His plan wasn’t to kill them all, but at least to set one of them ablaze.

Perhaps sensing their prey’s desperation, the wolves didn’t immediately attack, but there was an increasingly menacing edge to their howls. The scent of the horse’s blood must have spread widely, potentially attracting not only this pack of wolves but other wild beasts as well.

This was truly a perilous situation, a crisis within a crisis. Cold sweat trickled down his face due to tension, and Woo, unwilling to let even his blurred vision become a liability, kept his eyes wide open.

With a resounding howl, two wolves revealed themselves. Six of them, six wolves! Without any significant internal power to rely on, it was impossible to keep all of them in check. Encouraged by the reinforcements joining their pack, the four wolves surrounding Woo leaped at him simultaneously.

The notion that Dan Woo-hyo, the Grand Lord of White Virtue Palace, would meet his end by being mauled to death by a pack of wolves on a remote mountain was laughable. And yet, the irony wasn’t lost on him—he suddenly realized, on the brink of death, that the title and position he had cast aside ten years ago were in truth integral to his very being.

“Kyaaaa! Kyahhh!”

At that moment, timely assistance arrived.

“You insolent creatures. Having tasted flesh was enough for you, yet you dare covet a human?”

Under the cold moonlight stood Ye Kang-oh, the Third Disciple of the Black Sky Clan, wielding his blade. Kang-oh let out a sigh of relief, grateful that he had arrived in time to aid Woo. Though he had ordered his shadow scouts to follow Woo, he hadn’t anticipated the sudden reappearance of the wolves he had driven away moments earlier while climbing the mountain.

For the past few days, Kang-oh had returned to the heart of the Black Sky Clan to meet his master, the Black Sky Lord, Ye Jin-rang. Even when he left Woo’s side, his uneasiness hadn’t subsided, and Kang-oh had rushed as quickly as possible using his martial arts skills to reach the Black Sky Clan.

As soon as Kang-oh appeared at the Black Sky Clan, Seo Mun-geumryeong, who was the First Overseer, came out to greet him.

“Third Disciple,” said the elegant elderly woman.

Kang-oh nodded at her polite address. The fact that Seo Mun-geumryeong, a close confidante of Ye Jin-rang, had come to receive him meant that Ye Jin-rang was certainly aware of the incident Kang-oh had caused with the Third Overseer. Taking a calm breath, Kang-oh spoke.

“Lead me to the Black Sky Lord.”

Seo Mun-geumryeong guided Kang-oh. As expected, Ye Jin-rang was in his usual quarters. However, it seemed the surrounding area had been cleared out beforehand, as there was almost no sign of other people.

“You’ve come,” said Ye Jin-rang warmly as he welcomed Kang-oh. Seo Mun-geumryeong, bowing her head as though she had already received instructions, withdrew from the vicinity to give them privacy.

Kang-oh hesitated, unsure of how to bring up the topic, and then his eyes met with Ye Jin-rang’s. Was it just his imagination? Somehow, Ye Jin-rang seemed uneasy, as if he was gauging Kang-oh’s reaction.

“I heard the story from the Third Overseer.”

In the end, it was Ye Jin-rang who spoke first.

Kang-oh carefully chose his words.

“Disciple, as permitted by Master, conducted investigations and uncovered an unbelievable truth.”

“Speak,” Ye Jin-rang said, his face calm. However, his inner thoughts were far from at ease.

“It was about one of the personal servants being continually abused by one of the overseers managing Black Sky’s internal affairs.”

Indeed, the Third Overseer was not someone who would easily speak up. Ye Jin-rang wanted to grit his teeth but held back. However, Kang-oh’s words were far from over.

“It’s something that has been ongoing for eight years. Testimonies were obtained from other servants who shared the same living quarters. Thus, I met with the Third Overseer to investigate further.”

“You have a methodical approach in everything,” Ye Jin-rang remarked, outwardly appreciating his disciple’s thoroughness. Yet he felt uneasy, knowing where Kang-oh’s investigation might lead. Ye Jin-rang had merely delayed the problem by removing Woo, but Kang-oh had found him, and now Ye Jin-rang’s actions were being exposed.

“The overseer claimed that his cruelty was carried out with Master’s tacit approval. Disciple wishes to confirm this directly with Master.”

“Do you believe the words of the Third Overseer?” Ye Jin-rang questioned.

“Although they may be mere servants, I cannot ignore it if Master has continued to overlook the injustices dealt toward them,” Kang-oh replied firmly.

There was nothing within Black Sky Clan’s operations that Ye Jin-rang did not know. After all, it was Ye Jin-rang himself who had established Black Sky Clan by gathering scattered martial sects and demonic cultists. It was impossible for him to be unaware of what occurred right under his nose. In fact, hadn’t he given Kang-oh the authority to investigate, while secretly ordering the Third Overseer to get rid of Woo?

“Would you hold me accountable for a matter involving a mere servant?” Ye Jin-rang feigned intimidation.

Kang-oh bowed his head. “Master, please help me continue to revere you.”

It was no less than a veiled threat. Ye Jin-rang chuckled lightly, half in disbelief. He was stunned that Kang-oh would confront him over such a seemingly trivial matter. It sent chills down his spine to see that the indifferent disciple had clearly seen through Woo’s plight. Surely, this must have been some cruel twist of fate. In the end, was everything destined to come full circle?

“There are circumstances you are unaware of,” Ye Jin-rang said, tightly shutting his eyes.

“Then I must learn of them,” Kang-oh insisted, showing no sign of backing down.

Yes, perhaps it was better to let him think that this only involved those directly connected to him.

Although Kang-oh had conducted a thorough investigation, he would only know of Woo as someone who appeared in the Black Sky Clan eight years ago. It had taken Woo two years to return from the brink of death. Back then, it had been an urgent matter of barely clinging to life, but in hindsight, perhaps that had been a blessing. After a long silence, Ye Jin-rang finally spoke.

“Woo… is the son of my sworn enemy.”

The hatred dripping from each and every syllable was something Kang-oh had never witnessed in Ye Jin-rang before. It was anger that had simmered for a long time. It felt like Ye Jin-rang even despised the ground Woo walked on and the breaths he exhaled. Even if the man had killed Ye Jin-rang’s parents, Kang-oh hadn’t imagined his master would chew out his name with such bloodshot eyes. It was as though the hatred wasn’t directed at the result of vengeance itself but something much deeper.

“In that case, don’t let him live like this. Kill him,” Kang-oh responded without hesitation. His words didn’t stem from taking his master’s grudge lightly—far from it. It was precisely because he placed importance on his master’s vengeance that he believed it was better to sever it cleanly. Allowing the man to live and subjecting him to prolonged suffering seemed more cruel than ending it swiftly in one stroke.

Kang-oh was a martial artist. He knew that humans were capable of bearing both goodwill and hatred. Even those who were morally upright could be executed if they were enemies of the Black Sky Clan.

But this… this was different.

Bringing someone into their fold only to subject them to continuous abuse, and then turning a blind eye to it—Ye Jin-rang’s silence, in truth, wasn’t just permission; it was complicit encouragement. There was no way Ye Jin-rang was unaware of the cruelty inflicted by the overseers who had gone unchecked.

If Ye Jin-rang truly hated the boy so much simply because he was the son of his enemy, as he claimed, then Ye Jin-rang wouldn’t be able to ignore Woo entirely. He would obsessively watch his every move to ensure he suffered as much misery as possible.

And yet, Kang-oh felt that even in the world of martial arts, often defined by its morally ambiguous and ruthless “dark path,” this was excessive. This treatment was no form of revenge befitting the Grand Master of the Black Sky Clan. This was simply… not something the person Kang-oh viewed as his master would do.

“But at the same time, he is also the son of my savior,” Ye Jin-rang said.

“…”

Kang-oh fell silent. At last, the reason for Ye Jin-rang’s conflicting emotions, the origin of Woo’s torment, became clear. He could neither avenge his grudge nor repay the debt of gratitude. Typically, martial artists treated a grudge as a ledger, with one act of kindness canceling out one act of hatred. But Ye Jin-rang was unable to do so. The unparalleled hatred intertwined with helpless frustration seeping from Ye Jin-rang was far from the Ye Jin-rang Kang-oh knew.

Was Ye Jin-rang not someone who lived the freest and most untamed life of anyone? The pinnacle of the demonic path, the Black Sky Lord, Ye Jin-rang. A man who, at the peak of his power, stood side by side with the Lord of the White Virtue Palace and drove out the Blood Cult.

A man who then gathered the remnants of the unorthodox and demonic factions to form the Black Sky Clan—a man said to have surpassed the limits of human capability. How could such a person now find himself shackled by uncontrollable emotions, unable to make a single move?

“I will not ask you to understand my anger. But… I do feel sorry for letting you see this human side of your master.” Ye Jin-rang raised a hand and rubbed his temples, looking troubled. “I won’t make excuses for my petty actions. But from now on, I will not lay a hand on that man.”

“…”