The heavy iron deadbolt slammed shut, sealing the two inner disciples outside. The servant shed fell back into absolute, suffocating darkness. For a few agonizing seconds, the only sound was the howling mountain wind and the quiet, terrified sobbing of the laborer who had been kicked in the ribs. The sickly-sweet, metallic stench of the fresh blood the disciples had buried beneath the floorboards hung heavily in the damp air. They had planted the forged Demonic Cult orders. They had planted the blood-soaked leather. Master Yoon was dead, and Nam Gyu-Jin was about to point his finger at this exact room to take the fall. I didn't wait. I pushed myself out of the pitch-black corner, biting my lower lip until the skin broke and hot blood flooded my mouth. The pain in my fractured left collarbone was a blinding, white-hot spike that threatened to sever my consciousness entirely. I for

The freezing mountain rain felt like a thousand tiny needles driving into my bruised skin. I slammed my wet straw sandals against the slick cobblestones, skidding to a violent halt. The momentum sent a horrific, grinding shockwave directly through my fractured left collarbone. I bit down on my tongue, trapping the agonizing groan in my throat, and tasted the hot, metallic tang of fresh blood. The towering white stone of the western wall loomed in the thick grey fog directly ahead. Thirty feet away was the rusted iron drainage grate. My escape. But the path was entirely blocked. Seo Kang-Hyun, the Righteous Sword of the Orthodox Alliance, stood in the center of the narrow alley. He didn't look like a man who had rushed here in a panic. His dark blue travel cloak hung heavy and soaked with rainwater, completely still. His posture was perfectly upright, anchored to the stone like an ancient mountain pin

The rain didn't just fall; it felt like it was trying to erase me from the world. Every drop that hit my skin was a freezing reminder of how close I was to the edge. Seo Kang-Hyun stood in the mud, his longsword balanced perfectly in his grip. The steel hummed with a subtle, lethal vibration, his Peak-stage Qi shivering the air around the blade. He wasn't a monster like Nam Gyu-Jin. He was a man of the law, a man of the Alliance, and right now, his law said I was a murderer. My vision pulsed with the blinding blue glare of the system. [Choice Triggered][Fight: Karma -200 | Surrender: 90% Death Risk] If I fought, I was everything they wanted me to be. I would be the "demonic spy" who killed an official, the one who stole the archives, the one whose death would justify the purge of every independent clan in the southern provinces. I would be the catalyst for th