Yeop Bihwa had been narrow since she was young.
It went without saying that her figure was slender and swift, but so were her shoulders, her voice, and the footprints she left when she walked.
Even the sword she used.
The Falling Flower Flying Leaf Needle.
A sword uniquely thin and long in the Murim.
So much so that it was even named 'Needle'.
In particular, her relationships with people were even more narrow.
Her parents had left her as a newborn at the gates of the Vast Heaven Infinite Sword Sect.
Thus, what she could call family never existed from the start.
Even among her master and fellow disciples, there was little that could be called interaction.
She only spoke when necessary, and even those necessary words were short.
The problem was that the sword of Vast Heaven was not meant to be narrow.
The sword principle of the Vast Heaven Infinite Sword Sect lies in breadth.
One person's sword covers the opening of the person next to them, and the person next to them covers another.
Fundamentally, they pursued a sword art that could form a formation, a sword formation.
That was one of the reasons why Vast Heaven reigned as the strongest sword sect in the Murim.
Yeop Bihwa's sword, her martial arts, temperamentally did not allow anyone by her side.
She trained her martial arts by only looking ahead, cutting, and advancing.
Her master scolded her and tried to correct her, but the more he did, the narrower and more constricted her sword path and martial arts became.
But strangely, the more it became so, the stronger she grew.
A sword that was strong but not harmonious.
A 'wench' who could not be harmonious.
A master of eccentric and stubborn sword arts.
She continued to grow stronger, and the stronger she became, the narrower her world grew.
Perhaps because of this, or thanks to it, Vast Heaven did not cast her out.
Instead, they did not deeply accept her either.
A sword that could not enter the formation had no choice but to stand outside it.
Yeop Bihwa naturally took on Vast Heaven's external affairs.
Tasks to be done alone.
Problems to be solved alone.
She went forth into the Murim under the name of Vast Heaven, but there was never anyone standing beside her.
If you were to ask if she was dissatisfied, the answer would be no. She had never had anyone beside her in the first place, so their absence was natural.
Thus, whenever there was an order from Vast Heaven, she would set out into the Murim alone and swing her sword without rest.
She single-handedly struck the Night Bandit Fortress in the Nanha area.
Naturally, after everything was over, she stood alone.
There was a time she tracked Nine Paths King Pung Sa-geol near the Northern Yan border for three months.
His method of escape was so bizarre that he earned the infamous name for seeming to scatter in nine directions, causing incidents and accidents.
The entire nearby Orthodox Faction had given up, and Vast Heaven had sent a subjugation team three times, all returning empty-handed.
Yeop Bihwa chased such a man for three whole months.
The day she found him, she drew her sword once, and it ended in one stroke.
There was also a time she went around and wiped out the three halls of the Red Snake Union.
The lowest rungs of human trafficking and poison distribution had taken root in three places along the Nanha basin.
They were people who even gathered and trafficked children.
For several months, the blood on her clothes never had a chance to dry.
Having traveled alone for so long, a name naturally came to be attached to her.
Whether she wanted it or not.
When you cut down a person, rumors spread.
Rumors create a name, and a name in the Murim becomes a title.
The Iron-Faced Lady.
A disposition that does not bend once a direction is set.
The Murim called it an iron face.
She didn't particularly like the 'Lady' part, but with 'Iron-Faced' preceding it, it wasn't too bad.
Then, a strange order was given.
It was a very easy command: to participate in the Orthodox Assembly Gathering and enhance the sect's honor.
A place where the martial artists of the Ten Great Sects of the Orthodox Faction gathered to compete.
For Yeop Bihwa, it was not much different from cutting people down.
All she had to do was cut down each person who stood before her.
The only difference was whether to kill them or not.
Strike them down one by one.
And repeat.
However...
At that gathering, which she thought was the easiest of all the orders she had ever received, she suffered her first defeat.
—Your sword is good.
Although it was the finals, she had lost to a young man in strange attire.
She had never heard his name, seen his face, or witnessed such clothing before.
A man who said he was from a sect she had never heard of, called 'High School'.
—I'm Kim Rae-won.
Monster.
That was another nickname he acquired, for having a peculiar sword that could never have come from Vast Heaven.
Just like that man, Kim Rae-won.
—Last time I saw, there was another fellow called 'Monster'. If you count you, me, and that guy... then we're the Three Monsters, huh?
She did not answer.
It wasn't that she was ignoring him; she just didn't want to reply.
Not only had she lost to someone her age, but she also disliked the young man's chatter.
The Three Monsters.
It was a title close to a derogatory nickname that they had acquired somehow, but the three of them became quite close naturally and spent years together.
The only person who had widened her exceedingly narrow relationships, Kim Rae-won.
Now, a person presumed to be that Kim Rae-won stood before her after several years.
With a completely different face.
"Kim Rae-won...?"
No, in the first place, he might not be that Kim Rae-won at all.
She would have to confirm it now.
The man was smiling.
He stood with his back to the morning sun pouring in from inside the gate.
Because of the backlight, only his silhouette was visible at first.
The width of his shoulders, his stance, the habit of slightly tilting his head.
They were things that overlapped with the Kim Rae-won in her memory.
But his smile was different.
There was warmth in Kim Rae-won's smile.
In this man's smile... there was even more warmth.
There was no answer from him.
He was still just smiling.
Yeop Bihwa took another step inside.
As the backlight cleared, the man's face was revealed.
Mid-twenties.
If he were Kim Rae-won, he should have been over forty.
"Who are you?"
It was a voice similar in tone to Kim Rae-won's.
But what it contained was different.
It was the voice of someone who did not recognize her.
Yeop Bihwa's eyes narrowed.
"...You do not know who I am?"
"Should I?"
"I asked if you do not know."
"You must be the Iron-Faced Lady of the Three Monsters."
He was not wrong.
But if he were Kim Rae-won, he would not have answered that way.
He would have called her by her name, not her title.
Yeop Bihwa's gaze traveled down from the man's face to his feet and back up.
"Your face is different from the one I remember."
"..."
"It must be one of two things. You have recovered your original body, or—"
Her fingers rested on the hilt of her sword.
One by one.
In sequence.
"You are a follower of a different Karma Root."
"..."
The man's smile deepened.
"I must confirm."
"Confirm what?"
Instead of answering, Yeop Bihwa gripped the hilt of her sword tightly.
"Whether you are real or not."
Just then, a commotion was heard from behind.
The sound of many footsteps.
One of them approached quickly.
"Sect Leader!"
A man dressed in Vast Heaven's martial robe was running towards the main gate.
Yeop Bihwa's eyes briefly flickered toward him.
Jin Hagyeong.
It was a face she knew.
"Stop. The matter of your residing here instead of returning, despite being able to move, will be dealt with after I have checked this man."
As expected, Jin Hagyeong, who received her autumn-frost-like gaze and stern warning, stopped in his tracks.
Any disciple of the Vast Heaven Infinite Sword Sect knew just how unparalleled her status was.
Yeop Bihwa's gaze returned to the man, Kim Rae-won.
"Did you do this knowing you might become an enemy of Vast Heaven?"
"What did I do?"
Yeop Bihwa's cold eyes swept over Jin Hagyeong and the other Vast Heaven branch members who had followed him before returning.
"Are you planning to feign ignorance?"
"No, what did I do and what am I feigning ignorance about, huh?"
"..."
"Those who needed help came to me—"
A deep smile still hung on Kim Rae-won's sly face.
"And I simply helped."
And right after he said that, the smile vanished from his face.
"If that means becoming an enemy of Vast Heaven and feigning ignorance, then fine."
"..."
"I won't stop you."
"What do you mean?"
"What do I mean?"
Kim Rae-won took a step to the side and stood in front of Jin Hagyeong.
"If you want to die, come at me anytime. I'll kill you all. Whether it's Vast Heaven or Vast Heaven's, grandpa."
The strength in Yeop Bihwa's hand gripping the sword hilt loosened slightly.
That... what should she call it?
It was something Kim Rae-won would so typically say.
Taking in the weak and, because of that, making an enemy of the stronger.
Kim Rae-won was always like that.
And so, he was always hurt.
Yet, he always performed righteous deeds again and put himself in danger again.
"Why... why do you go to such lengths?"
"Didn't you see when you came in here?"
"..."
"A hero ought to be that way. That's what a hero is, and—"
A grin, the smile that had been erased, reappeared on his face.
"That's how one can become strong."
—Why do you cling to righteousness so much?
—It's simple. That's what a hero is, and that's... the only way someone like me can become strong.
It was the same.
The way he spoke, his logic, and even that smile.
Taking in the weak and baring his teeth at the strong.
The insane logic that this was what a hero was, and this was the path to becoming stronger, which did not fit this rotten Murim world at all.
"Those words."
"Hm?"
"Those words you just said... where did you pick them up?"
"That's funny."
"..."
"I may have no memory, but I don't think such classy lines are common in this Murim."
This part was similar, too.
Kim Rae-won, the Kim Rae-won of the past, had also often mocked the Murim in that manner.
"You have no memory?"
"Yeah. I don't."
A direct answer.
It was impossible to tell if it was true or false.
"Are you being sincere?"
"If not sincere, what, you think I'd be telling a lie?"
Yeop Bihwa's mouth closed.
There was nothing more to ask.
No, there was nothing she could find out by asking.
Words could be fabricated, and memories could be lost.
But a sword cannot tell a lie.
Yeop Bihwa's hand gripped the hilt of her sword.
No, it wasn't that she gripped it.
The sword had already begun its movement toward the target.
There was no sound.
It did not part the wind.
The moment the Falling Flower Flying Leaf Needle slipped from its sheath, the air slid away instead of splitting.
A straight line.
Yeop Bihwa's sword was always a straight line.
Towards Dong Bongsu's neck, a single line.
As she thrust, Yeop Bihwa was already calculating the next move.
The straight line of the One-Line Sword Art was simple, yet fast.
If the first move was blocked, she would push straight in without bending the sword in a Swift Forward Thrust.
If he dodged, she would pull back half a beat faster and stab the empty space in a Preemptive Forward Thrust.
If he was foolish enough to block the sword, she just had to twist and cut his wrist.
Whatever his response, the next move was ready.
However...
There was no response.
He did not dodge, block, or retreat.
Just before the tip of the sword touched his neck, the man's hand came up.
A bare hand.
Over the blade, imbued with the aura of the One-Line Sword, an unprotected palm rested.
Clang.
The Falling Flower Flying Leaf Needle stopped.
The sword, which had been wildly stirring the air, was now stuck in it.
All the prepared follow-up moves lost their light.
She could not bend it.
She could not twist it.
It could not be pulled back.
It was as if the palm on the sword had not just caught the sword, but had erased its very path.
Yeop Bihwa's calculations regarding her sword path, sword moves, and sword forms came to a halt.
Only then did she look up to see the man's face, still wearing a smile.
"You've prepared to die, haven't you?"