3 Hours Later...
Five shadows landed lightly in front of the cave, shattering the silence of the damp forest. They wore gray, unmarked clothing, their faces covered with cloth, but the Qi radiating from their bodies indicated that they were no ordinary soldiers. They were a professional scout unit.
Yoe Choin stepped out of the cave's darkness, lugging a Black Iron Heavy Sword that made the sound of metal scraping against stone, a sound that usually signaled the beginning of heavy construction work.
"Only five people have come for a surprise inspection?"
Choe asked flatly, his blue eyes flashing with blueprints, scanning each opponent.
"You have good weight distribution for scouts, but your lateral protection is zero."
The scout leader was stunned. Moen Kang Yo's usually angry voice now sounded like a clever man giving a technical assessment.
"So you're still alive, trashy Young Master. We came to make sure you, the useless one, stay buried here."
"Interesting."
Choe smiled faintly.
"Before we start dismantling, tell me. Who sent you? The Demon Empress, or is there someone else trying to interfere in my affairs?"
"A corpse doesn't need the name of the person who commissioned it,"
said one of the men, signaling for a siege.
"Ah, so you choose to keep it a secret?"
Choin sighed, raising his heavy sword to the ready.
"Then I'll have to use brute force to open it."
Two trackers charged from two o'clock and ten o'clock. Choin didn't back down. With his newly attained third-level Structure Realm, he felt his body's stability like a solid reinforced concrete pillar.
"Eternal Night Storm Sweep!"
Choin spun around. The black sword slashed through the air with massive centrifugal force. Instead of cutting, it struck like a giant sledgehammer. The first two trackers were thrown aside, their ribs shattered by the pressure their Qi couldn't withstand.
"Foreman! Use the fourth technique! Don't let that one escape!"
Moen Kang Yo shouted in his inner space.
Choin shot forward, ignoring the laws of inertia around him.
"Space-Penetrating Demonic Stab!"
The blunt tip of the sword struck the third tracker's dantian before he could unleash his secret weapon. The tracker's energy burst instantly, like a water pipe bursting from excessive pressure.
In just five minutes, four trackers were down. Their leader tried to retreat, but Choin was already in front of him, the tip of his black sword pressed against his neck.
"I'll ask you one last time. Who sent you? Was it Elder Gong?"
Choin asked. He didn't yet know what Elder Gong had actually done, but that name was the only temporary foreman of the sect he knew from Kang Yo's memories.
The tracker simply spat at Choin, refusing to divulge his boss's name. Without hesitation, Choin applied the final pressure.
"This project doesn't need an uncooperative witness."
Yoe Choin beheaded the leader with a straight face and no remorse whatsoever. After a moment of silence returned, Choin wiped his bloodless but energy-dust-covered sword.
"Foreman, do one thing,"
Moen Kang Yo said in an unfamiliarly serious tone.
"Take the small knife at their waist. Mark a 'ya' mark on the skin of their arm or neck."
Choi frowned.
"What's the point? This isn't standard OSH procedure."
"That's my mark. In this world, every demon has a presence mark. If anyone finds this body, they'll know that Moen Kang Yo has completed his 'job.' Consider it my 'Inspection Completed' mark."
Choi chuckled softly.
"A 'Done' mark, huh? Okay, Boss Demon. We'll follow your local tradition."
With the precision of an architect, he etched a sharp "ya" character into the skin of his enemies—a visual message that would send shivers down anyone's spine.
Choin stood on the edge of the cliff, gazing out over the valley where the Evernight Gate lay.
"Next target: Sect Headquarters,"
Choin said, shouldering his heavy sword.
"Kang Yo, you said this sect is in ruins. As the foreman who will lead this sect in the future, I cannot allow our family's assets to be neglected. We will return to 'renovate' the sect's strength from scratch."
"Destroy anyone who stands in our way,"
Kang Yo replied ambitiously.
They began their descent. Yoe Choin was unaware that the sect he had considered merely physically "dead" was actually being eaten away by a corrupt termite named Elder Gong. However, his foreman's instincts had already detected something amiss in the verbal reports and data from Kang Yo's memories.
Unbeknownst to them, inside the disorganized sect, a woman named Han So-Wol is staring at a stack of empty ledgers, waiting for someone crazy enough to clean up the mess.
A major audit is about to begin.