"Ah!"
"The Murim Alliance seems to have orchestrated this whole affair with some plan for that child, but from what I can see, no one will be able to do anything to her. Unless the Two Divinities or that unknown force hiding in the shadows makes a move."
"..."
"However, there's one more thing that concerns me..."
The old man withdrew his gaze from the shadow. Then he looked up at the moon and continued speaking.
"New Star. That star that had been covering that child. That's what concerns me. That star, which I thought its duty was to shield Yeong-ha until she grew up, has instead grown stronger at this point when the child entered the Martial World."
In truth, what he was looking up at wasn't the moon, but a single star hiding beside it, barely visible.
Certainly, two years ago it had lost its light and was declining, but at some point it recovered its light and now was radiating its colorless, transparent light quite strongly.
An ordinary person wouldn't have been able to see it because of the moonlight, but the old man's eyesight pierced through it precisely.
"I truly don't understand what's going on here."
The old man, Hall of Gathering Evil Palace Lord Kong Na-chu, stood there for a long while gazing at the New Star.
The 'Extreme Yin Star of Heavenly Calamity' had already hidden behind the moon and was completely invisible.
And soon.
The New Star would follow behind it and disappear behind the moon.
'When that happens, will those two clash again...?'
It could be, or it might not be.
They could coexist peacefully.
Or they could fight.
Until one of them disappears....
***
The third repetition of today.
Without fail, 'it' entered inside Nangnang Tavern.
It.
Yes. It was definitely an existence that had to be described that way.
A person, yet also something that wasn't a person.
Something different from that thing that had sunk inside her body and chattered endlessly.
Yeon Yeong-ha scanned over its eyes, just as she had done on the second loop of today. As expected, nothing could be seen.
'Indeed, is it not human?'
If it were human, there was no way it wouldn't be readable to her eyes.
Yeon Yeong-ha clasped both hands together with her elbows resting on the table, and gently laid her small face on top of them.
Though her head wasn't heavy, her hands trembled slightly. It must be because the Heavenly Calamity Energy latent deep inside her heart, down below, was trying to burst out.
That person, Dong Guang-chuan, entered the tavern just as he had on the first and second loop of today, then looked up above the entrance. He must have noticed without fail that Old Uncle was hiding there. She didn't know how that was possible. That's why he was an even more incomprehensible existence. That person was…
Dong Guang-chuan wandered around the inside of the tavern with the waiter, then his eyes met hers.
Hoot.
She smiled.
Was it because she was so glad to see him? It was the first time in her life she'd seen such an existence. No, more precisely, this was their third meeting. But in another sense, it was also like meeting for the first time. Perhaps they would meet on 'another today' as well.
Swish.
She stood up and approached Dong Guang-chuan. Then she repeated the words she'd said when meeting him on the first and second loop, changing them only slightly.
"Even though this is the third time we're meeting, you make me incredibly nervous every time. You."
"..."
Third time. Only those words had changed; everything else was identical down to the last syllable.
"Nice to meet you. I've already said this twice, but I don't think you'll remember, so I'll say it again—please remember my name this time."
Twice. Again, everything was the same as the second loop except for those words.
"Yeon Yeong-ha. My name is Yeon Yeong-ha."
This too was the same. She was teaching him her name for the third time.
His eyes sank emptily. Then he completely closed off his inner self. And with that, he was reborn as an existence that seemed present yet absent.
He was already like that originally, but now he became even more unreadable.
"What are you?"
He spoke as scheduled.
It was interesting. Usually everything becomes boring when repeated several times, but dealing with this man was fascinating. It was so fun that she wanted to keep watching and talking to him.
But it was also dangerous. Not knowing must be something like that. Though she'd never experienced it even once, she thought it was probably so.
[Kill. Kill them all.]
The Heavenly Calamity Energy inside her, having sensed the other's existence, was screaming madly trying to burst out, but she couldn't act rashly.
'Hold it in. You can't cause trouble just anywhere, anytime.'
Without answering his words, she brushed past him and walked outside Nangnang Tavern. Since she'd already learned his name on the second loop, there was no need to forcefully advertise that she knew his name.
When she looked up, the same moon she'd seen over the past three days—also one day—was rising. It was very blue. Not that it mattered anyway.
She tightly clenched her trembling hands and slowly took a step. In the direction away from Dong Guang-chuan. If she stayed here any longer, the Heavenly Calamity Energy seemed like it would run wild.
"Old Uncle."
As if responding to her words, the greatly elongated shadow rippled.
"Deploy the entire Kill Shadow Group to kill that person."
The shadow that heard her words wavered again.
"You'll only send ten from the Kill Shadow Group? No. Send them all."
"..."
"Why? I've already sent them twice, and they all got devoured. That's why."
"..."
"Hm? Worried the Murim Alliance will find out? It doesn't matter. Anyway, they already know the Hall of Gathering Evil sent someone here. They just don't know that person is me. As long as I don't move directly, that Murim Alliance Leader can never know."
"..."
"Anyway, the Central Plains is my playground starting from this very moment. Yunnan was too cramped. From now on, I need to play to my heart's content. I even found an interesting toy."
Finishing her incomprehensible muttering to herself, she mixed into the crowd of bustling people and disappeared. Her shadow, lengthened by the moonlight, also hurriedly followed behind her and hid in the darkness.
***
After she disappeared.
Dong Guang-chuan, or rather Dong Bong-soo, also came outside Nangnang Tavern. The voice of the waiter who had been following him around kindly babbling this and that changed to grumbling, but it still wasn't his concern.
He was just mulling over the words the woman named Yeon Yeong-ha had said.
'She said she'd already met me twice, and this meeting was the third time.'
What could that mean?
And.
What was it? That thing?
It wasn't the 'event mob' he'd expected. But it was certainly a monster that stimulated his interest far more than that.
The Central Plains seemed to be a far more interesting place than he'd thought. A hunting ground where more prey than he'd expected ran wild.
Perhaps there were even terrifying monsters prowling about that might hunt him in reverse.
'Perhaps one of them is already thinking of me as prey and targeting me.'
If I saw myself....
Need it be said? I would have lost sleep discovering the ultimate prey. Probably she would be the same.
Thud.
Having thought that far, Dong Bong-soo took one step south to return to the Murim Alliance.
"..."
It was the point when the liveliness of the street meeting the peak season was slowly dying down. The Hour of the Pig was ending and the Hour of the Rat (11:00 PM to 1:00 AM) of the next day was approaching.
"Heh heh heh."
Suddenly, Dong Bong-soo chuckled lowly.
He felt a sense of incongruity from the entire street. Though he'd never experienced it, he instinctively knew why.
A faint and unpleasant Energy Sense pervading the entire street. Terribly low-grade killing intent. However, killing intent was killing intent. Dozens of such things clumping together and pressing down on him made his skin tingle slightly.
"Have I become prey? Sent by Yeon Yeong-ha, no doubt."
It was 100%. There was no need to think 'already.' It was the natural course of action. However, if it were him, he would have come out personally, so only that point was different.
In any case, being prey wasn't necessarily an entirely bad feeling. The stabbing touch of killing intent felt refreshingly invigorating, like a full-body massage.
Though it was a bit disappointing.
"If you're going to send them, you should have sent more delicious ones."
Spirit Eyes was quiet. Anticlimactically so. If they were at that level, they would hardly help with experience points.
One, two, three, four....
He counted the number of faintly felt killing intents.
Forty-three.
Forty-three trashy killing intents were hidden in every corner of the street. Walls, ground, roofs were radiating hostility toward him.
Probably the moment he tried to leave the street, their attack would begin.
Dong Bong-soo stopped walking completely.
It wasn't because he was afraid of fighting or anything. The fight itself was the problem. There were too many eyes here. Moreover, it was impossible to eliminate all those eyes.
Though New Murim Online was filled with blood and death, that blood had to be accompanied by justification. Death without justification brings resentment and hatred.
The justification given or to be given to him now was at best being ambushed by enemies. He had no justification to freely kill those homeless Murim people sprawled out sleeping over there or people enjoying a night outing.
The 'fake hero' he would have to wear for a while from now on must never slaughter innocent people—by the common standards of this place.
But he couldn't avoid fighting either. Moreover, showing everything wasn't a wise choice either.
After thinking a bit more, Dong Bong-soo made a decision. Anyway, those killing intents Yeon Yeong-ha sent were a tasting, a probing.
He just needed to show a glimpse.
However, that glimpse would be short and intense, so next time she came to probe, she might be too scared to even taste.