Inside the main hall of Cheonwoohoe,Lee Dohyun and Chairman Jang Samgo of Hwanggeumhoe sat across from each other,a quiet tension hanging between them—not of conflict, but of calculation.
"How do we hit Sapa where it hurts?" Dohyun asked.
This wasn't about blades or body counts.This was a different kind of war—economic, surgical, and merciless.
Jang sipped his tea, watching the steam curl.
"Their power flows through coin," he said slowly."Dozens of minor merchants, decentralized—but their coordination lies with a few key trading heads.Cut the flow at the source… and the structure crumbles."
Dohyun nodded.
"I know how this game works.Block the liquidity. Seize their distribution.We don't outfight them—we outbid them."
Jang considered for a beat, then smiled coldly.
"We acquire exclusive contracts with their major suppliers.Then we drain the flow from the bottom up.Once they can't fulfill orders… trust collapses. Then credit."
"And if we pose as third-party agents," Dohyun added,"we gain deniability. Let them fall—without even seeing our face."
Outside the room, preparations began.
Hwanggeumhoe's agents fanned out,setting up proxy deals, quietly taking over Sapa's supply chains.The marketplace began to shift. Prices fluctuated. Inventory vanished.
Chunhyang, working deep inside Sapa's network, handed Dohyun a list.
"These are their major transactional nodes—money movers, cargo points, and silent partners.Disrupt them, and we bottleneck their economy."
Dohyun studied the list with cold clarity.
"We hit here. And here.No more bloodshed—just balance sheets.This is how we take Sapa apart."
Weeks passed.
Sapa's merchants began to flounder.Deals fell through. Inventory disappeared.Their influence shrank—quietly, devastatingly.
At a Cheonwoohoe strategy meeting, Dohyun stood before the inner circle.
"We won't confront them head-on.There's no need."
"We take their gold, not their lives.We shift the market until their hands are empty."
"Victory will be written not in scars…but in silence."
Sapa had been fractured.Their pride? Still intact.Their purse? Not for long.
And in the silence that followed,Cheonwoohoe and Hwanggeumhoe began to build something far more dangerous than swords:
Control.
****
Chapter : The Exposure of Illicit Gains
After the economic blow dealt by Cheonwoohoe and Hwanggeumhoe,Sapa's major merchant lords struck back—not with ledgers, but with blades.
They unleashed hired enforcers, targeting intermediaries aligned with Cheonwoohoe.Violence, not negotiation, would reclaim their crumbling authority.
But Cheonwoohoe was ready.
Baek Wolhui, veiled in a false identity, stepped into the battlefield.
Her goal was not just defense.It was revelation.
"This isn't about swordsmanship," she told her team."It's about exposing their corruption.Once this is over, the truth comes out."
With her hand-picked disciples at her side, she led a covert operation—guarding merchant targets, intercepting raids,and preparing to publicly dismantle the myth of Sapa's clean money.
Then came the real fight.
A high-ranking enforcer from Sapa, cloaked in black, cut through the air like thunder.
Baek Wolhui met his first strike head-on, blade singing in the wind.
His strength was overwhelming.But Wolhui didn't need to overpower him.
She only needed to outthink him.
"Don't mistake martial arts for justice," the enforcer sneered."You can't cut down profit with philosophy."
Wolhui's blade arced like silk, deflecting.
"Illegitimate power never lasts.And neither will you."
He came again—spinning, lunging.She pivoted low, slipping past his strikes, eyes calm.
She found the pattern.Speed and strength were his currency.But his technique was predictable.
She baited him—and when his foot faltered,she struck.
A flick of steel behind the shoulder.A twist.He staggered.
Wolhui pressed forward, blade dancing like memory.
He rallied, slamming his sword downward in a blast of raw force.
The shockwave forced them both back.
His voice cracked.
"What are you afraid of? Feel my power!"
But she had already seen his weakness.
She rotated her wrist, slicing past his guard,and with surgical calm, pierced his side.
He gasped.
His eyes—no longer just angry—now uncertain.
"You're strong," he muttered. "But—"
He couldn't finish.
Because she wasn't done.
Her next strike went not for flesh—but for truth.
In one clean motion, she tore from his robes a scroll of hidden ledgers—names, bribes, falsified documents, and forged trade licenses.
Wolhui smiled faintly.
"This is what your strength was hiding."
The crowd, silent until now, erupted in shock.
Disciples, merchants, even rival traders—witnessed the downfall of one of Sapa's golden pillars.
The man dropped to his knees.
Not from pain—but from exposure.
Baek Wolhui had done more than win a duel.
She had demolished a lie.
She walked away, calm as always.
Behind her, the shattered merchant was carried off.
His crime now public.His reputation gone.
Later, in the Cheonwoohoe war room, reports flooded in.
Sapa's merchant authority was collapsing—not from blade or flame,but from truth laid bare.
"We don't need to fight them head-on," Dohyun said quietly."Let the rot destroy itself.We just have to show the world where to look."
Wolhui had proven that strategy, morality, and precision could bring down empires—even ones built on gold.
***
Chapter : The Clash Begins
Outside the Cheonwoohoe stronghold, a standoff ignited beneath the sun-drenched sky.
Baek Wolhui stood poised, her expression calm.Before her, a group of Sapa warriors—former comrades—burned with fury.
"You're no longer one of us, Baek Wolhui!" one shouted.
They had come not merely for vengeance,but for retribution—against a traitor,against the woman who had once walked beside them,now standing with their enemy.
Another stepped forward, eyes narrowed with disdain.
"You can mask your name.But that body of yours… there's only one Baek Wolhui with that poise."
She gave a soft chuckle, tilting her head.
"Admiring my figure?Perhaps that's why you keep losing."
Her voice, laced with biting elegance, only fanned the flames of their humiliation.
One charged with a roar, sword gleaming.
Wolhui met him—not with brute strength,but with grace sharpened into lethality.
Their blades clashed, sending sparks flying.Her sword flowed like water—unpredictable, untouchable.She danced between his blows, guiding his momentum into air.
"You can't buy legitimacy with gold," she whispered between movements."And power born of corruption crumbles fastest."
Just as the Sapa warriors regrouped for a coordinated strike—Han Soyeon and Cheong Unjin arrived.
Soyeon's blade traced arcs of light, fast and fluid.Her voice rang out.
"If you wanted a real challenge,you should've faced me first."
Cheong Unjin struck with raw, disciplined force.Fists and feet blurred, pinning their enemies' steps.
Then came Lee Dohyun.
The moment he stepped into view, the Sapa warriors stilled.Whispers passed between them.
"It's him. The Black Cloud Blade."
Dohyun drew his sword.
But this was no ordinary blade—it was the Ego's Blade, forged in principle,imbued with devastating elemental power.
One warrior charged. Dohyun stood unmoved.
"Black Flame Seal," he intoned.
Fire surged from his blade, engulfing the attacker.The man howled, retreating as scorched air roared around him.
Another rushed in.
"Lightning Slash!"
Crackling volts danced from Dohyun's blade,clashing with steel in a blinding burst.Speed and precision overwhelmed raw strength.
Then—Acceleration.
A spell.A surge of magic.
Dohyun vanished and reappeared mid-strike,his blade landing with impossible speed.
"You're too slow," he said coldly.
His opponent stumbled, overwhelmed by flame, by lightning, by momentum itself.
"This ends now."
Dohyun unleashed one final blow—a blaze of fire consuming the Sapa warrior whole.
The enemy fell, burned and broken.The silence afterward was deafening.
Baek Wolhui approached, smiling.
"Well done, Dohyun.You've shown them what Cheonwoohoe truly is."
More warriors stepped forward, fueled by pride and vengeance.But then—Cheonwoohoe's trainees began to emerge, one by one.And then more.
United. Ready. Unafraid.
The Sapa fighters faltered.
They had come for retribution—but found themselves facing something far more dangerous:
Unity.
Dohyun lowered his sword.
"Our strength isn't in power alone.It's in trust. In one another."
The enemy leader gritted his teeth.
"You've won today…But this is not the end."
Dohyun nodded once.
"No. It's only the beginning."
The Sapa warriors withdrew.
And behind them,Cheonwoohoe stood—stronger than ever.
Wolhui turned to Soyeon and Unjin,the three of them exchanging a glance of unspoken pride.
"Today," Wolhui said,"we didn't just win a fight.We showed them what it means to fight together."
Dohyun looked over his people—warriors, disciples, friends.
"Let this be the standard.Not brute force.But strength forged in unity."
And with that, Cheonwoohoe took another step—not just toward victory,but toward becoming the future of Murim itself.