“Did you hear? Miss Yeo Il-ye has become the leader of the Ten Prodigies.”

“She defeated Hyeok Gi-rin, right? That’s impressive. Hyeok Gi-rin is one of the top post-mastery experts in this world, isn’t he?”

Honestly, that thought crossed my mind.

Was Miss Yeo Il-ye really trying to kill me by giving me the Gratitude Plaque?

She must have already seen that I would be tortured and die at the hands of the Outcasts in this Outcast Inn.

The martial artists’ obsession with realization is as intense as a bald man’s obsession with hair and a middle-aged man’s obsession with virility.

Before the topic of realization, the reason of martial artists becomes more insignificant than paper.

What even is realization? A mirage that you can’t catch no matter how hard you try. In reality, going mad over realization might not be abnormal but normal among martial artists.

Out of millions of groups, heaven has decreed only one true realization.

Because of this, martial artists go to extreme lengths to achieve realization. It’s normal to get a scalp massage under a waterfall, sprinkle wealth, and sever ties with the mundane, while some even abandon their well-shaped wives and rabbit-like daughters, disappearing like lunatics. Their obsession with martial realization can only be expressed with the words irrational madness.

Yeah, it’s that madness that completely wrecked my daily life.

“Senior Ho! Oh no, are you really going to start the morning with just a bowl of noodles? Here, have some dumplings with me!”

“Here! Add one spiced meat platter!”

“What’s with this… just leave it alone.”

“Oh no! How can a guy start the morning so weakly? How can you expect inspiration with that?”

“We’re just purely worried about your head, no, your well-being.”

Two guys with ‘give me realization’ written on their foreheads are looking at me with sparkly eyes, making my appetite dive.

The whale sword Yeo Jin-sang and the Half-Moon Blade Jeong Sam could be considered my peers. At a similar time and similar age, we became Sacheon Outcasts and built a bond. In fact, they are the two who know Ho Cheon-an best here at this Outcast Inn.

“Come on, what’s wrong with you two?! Didn’t we start this together as Outcasts? What is this nonsense!”

The news circulating in this Outcast Inn is basically that I’m either the last hidden expert who lost his martial art or a celestial being reading the heavenly secrets, whatever sounds fancy. Some are saying I’m a time traveler from the future, others that I was a sword god in my past life, and some claim I’m possessed by the spirit of a legendary bard. Please, someone organize these character setups and distribute them. Don’t keep them to yourselves, you bastards!

There was a reason why the Outcasts were going wild.

Since Miss Yeo Il-ye stormed out of the Outcast Inn, she has been wreaking havoc across Sacheon, exuding her prestige as a Peak Expert.

It’s funny to think of calling a Peak Expert ordinary, but anyway, this once “ordinary” Peak Expert Yeo Il-ye has been smashing through Peak and Peak Stage experts day after day. With each display, there’s a certainty in the Outcasts’ faces: “That guy has the realization pocket!”

I guess there’s a chance something might fall my way, so the number of Outcasts watching my every move has snowballed.

Even if I sneeze, they go, “Oh!” If I pick up chopsticks, they go, “Who would have thought!” It’s driving me crazy.

Above all, the problem was what happened last night. After being tormented by stress-induced insomnia, I felt something was weird and looked under my bed, only to lock eyes with a hiding guy. He must have been lurking there, afraid I’d spill something in my half-asleep state, and I was completely creeped out. What on earth was I going to do about this?

After a sleepless night, sitting down for a gloomy breakfast, these guys are making a scene for some reason.

“Sigh, how many requests have we done together… Let me teach you a trick. Stand up.”

The two of them stood up, eyes filled with anticipation.

“Turn around.”

“Turn…?”

Wondering something was amiss, Yeo Jin-sang’s voice trailed off, but this is Ho Cheon-an, the master of gambling techniques. There’s no way those two top-notch idiots can escape my fiery hellmouth.

Setting the serious atmosphere, I deepened my voice.

“Ah, if you want to achieve realization, you must first have qualifications. I’ll teach you some exercises to clear your mind. First, raise both hands high.”

“Ah, got it.”

“Stretch all the way down to your waist…”

As they were striking a heroic pose with their whole bodies, I kicked their butts. Caught completely off guard, the two fell and rolled on the ground, hugging their behinds.

“Realization, my foot. You two should not be doing this.”

“You scoundrel, don’t you dare mess with me! Pay back the money you owe right now!”

“Do you really think you can act this stingy to a peer? Don’t you know you’ll face divine punishment?!”

“Puhehehe!”

Is it said that loving your peers is equivalent to loving your country? Seeing my two peers rolling on the floor in joy makes me happy too. Who cares if they are a bit dim and gullible? It’s all about sticking together with peers, isn’t it?

Crash.

Hearing someone fall, I looked over to see a few Outcasts pairing up in heroic poses and kicking each other’s butts.

No way… are they copying me?

Seriously?

Watching the guy who got kicked standing, looking at the one who kicked him as he poses for a kick, left me dazed.

At a loss for words, I blankly stared as the Outcasts got kicked or did the kicking, and once they caught my gaze, they exchanged awkward expressions and slowly vanished.

I could no longer laugh.

I thought to myself, letting my peers’ craziness wash over me.

This really needs a plan.

* *

When you think of information organizations in the Martial World, you think of Gaebang and Haomun.

However, the widely known information organizations are only possible because they have means to protect themselves. But there are limits to an organization’s capabilities. The fact that Gaebang and Haomun protect themselves with martial skills and numbers means they haven’t completely specialized in information.

In a world where it’s hard to be called the number one just with information alone, how dare those mutts claim to be the number one information organization? It’s laughable.

Using the moonlight as a lamp, a woman in a mask read a report.

Yeo Il-ye’s movements were shaking Sacheon right now. Though she’s part of the Ten Prodigies, being included in that group alone is a sign she hasn’t fully matured. These rookies rely on the reputation of their sect. Lacking her own name, she has to fill that gap with the power of the sect.

That’s why Yeo Il-ye has suddenly risen to Peak Stage, becoming a true celestial being of the martial arts world. Even though she’s young, she has surpassed the post-mastery experts and beat the formidable Peak Expert Hyeok Gi-rin; now, she is actively tracking her past.

Has she decided to stop torturing the innocent Outcasts?

“A storm of blood will sweep through Sacheon,” she mused.

After her family burned down, she found her way into the arms of the Jeomchang Faction through a friend.

Anyone who had knocked on the door of the Nine Great Sects would have surely scratched their heads here.

It’s no easy task to enter the Nine Great Sects. A mere child from a destroyed mountain villa magically finds her way to the Nine Great Sects led by a ‘friend’?

The Yeo-ga Mountain Villa was a wealthy sect of considerable influence.

Those who ‘coincidentally’ seized an opportunity, were ‘accidentally’ hired as Outcasts, ‘spontaneously’ burned the villa to the ground with all its warriors, and then vanished ‘without a trace’—what are they doing now with that immense wealth?

Would those meticulous criminals just sit on that massive fortune? It would make sense to assume they’ve found themselves some comfy positions.

A few individuals flashed through the woman’s mind. Even if only those individuals she had in mind were involved, the blood storm would indeed sweep through Sacheon.

However, the mundane act of revenge wasn’t what captured the woman’s interest.

What intrigued her wasn’t Miss Yeo Il-ye… but rather, a certain Outcast.

Essentially, Sacheon Outcasts wear black ribs, conceal their faces, and resolve requests anonymously without revealing their names. But is it really possible to completely erase one’s traces while living as a human? Perfectly hiding a person’s whereabouts would be impossible without help from multiple others, but living like a human while leaving no footprints is quite frankly unattainable.

As someone who could possibly be called the best information organization stealer in the world, it wasn’t particularly difficult for her to extract the personal information of the Outcast.

“Ho Cheon-an.”

The Heavenly Lord sent three heavenly beasts in forms of a tiger, a dragon, and a bear to aid humanity and awaken potential. But, the three heavenly beasts, neglecting humans and being lazy, provoked the Lord’s rage. Thinking their arrogant nature had seeped into their bones, the Lord plucked out their eyes as punishment and turned them into precious wards for humans.

The dragon-eyed guardian peered into humans’ skills and martial arts.

The bear-eyed guardian perceived the limits of the human body.

And the tiger-eyed guardian, the one who could see the soul and the realization engraved within it—Ho Cheon-an.

The woman didn’t particularly believe that the treasure named Ho Cheon-an existed in this world.

However, the fact that the Outcast named ‘Ho Cheon-an’ provided the principles of martial wisdom, propelling the once Peak Expert Yeo Il-ye to Peak Stage, is exceedingly significant, isn’t it?

‘I’m curious.’

Is this Ho Cheon-an truly the one with the abilities of Ho Cheon-an? Or does he possess some similar extraordinary powers? Or is it merely an elaborate play of the heavens born out of mere coincidences?

Her curiosity burned like wildfire.

As someone who deals in information, the urge to uncover this truth felt akin to how one man feels before a captivating beauty. She licked her lips, parched with longing.

They say curiosity killed the cat.

As always, she willingly decided to become that cat.