They did not return to the outer barracks.
Mu-Hyuk led Yoo Seol-Ah away from familiar paths, cutting through maintenance corridors and abandoned storage routes that most disciples never learned existed. These passages were remnants of an older Azure Sun Sect, built when paranoia outweighed pride and survival mattered more than appearance. Over the years, they had been forgotten.
The system had not forgotten.
[Hidden Route Identified]
[Risk Level: Low]
They stopped beneath a collapsed watchtower, its upper levels long since sealed after a structural failure. The place was damp, dark, and reeked of neglect. No one patrolled here. No one even remembered it.
"This is where we stay," Mu-Hyuk said.
Yoo Seol-Ah looked around, uncertainty flashing across her face. "Here? If someone finds us—"
"They won't," he replied calmly. "And if they do, they won't leave."
She fell silent.
That answer was not reassurance. It was fact.
Mu-Hyuk sat against the cold stone and closed his eyes. The moment he did, translucent screens unfolded across his vision.
[Tyrant Frame Status: Stabilizing]
[Accumulated Combat Data Processing]
[Recommendation: System Calibration]
Information poured through him — feedback from every movement, every strike, every life removed. His artificial meridian network adjusted itself autonomously, reinforcing stress points and eliminating inefficiencies. This was not cultivation as Murim understood it. There were no bottlenecks, no enlightenment phases, no wasted decades.
Only results.
Yoo Seol-Ah watched him carefully as faint patterns of light traced beneath his skin, then faded. She had treated qi deviation before. This was nothing like that.
"What you're using," she said slowly, "it isn't orthodox. Elders would call it demonic."
Mu-Hyuk opened his eyes.
"They called me trash too."
That ended the discussion.
Hunger arrived before exhaustion.
Mu-Hyuk stood and retrieved a small storage pouch from one of the fallen guards, tossing it to Yoo Seol-Ah. Inside were dried rations and a low-grade recovery pill.
"You eat first," he said.
She hesitated. "What about you?"
"I don't need it yet."
[Tyrant Frame Passive: Reduced Nutritional Dependence]
She didn't argue. She knew better now.
As she ate, Mu-Hyuk's gaze drifted toward the inner sect, where higher concentrations of qi shimmered faintly even from this distance. Elders. Inner disciples. Power that still believed itself untouchable.
[Target Density Increasing]
[Recommended Action: Gradual Internal Erosion]
He smiled faintly.
Not with satisfaction.
With anticipation.
Yoo Seol-Ah finished eating and wiped her hands on her robes. "If we stay," she said quietly, "they'll keep purging. More people will end up in that pit."
Mu-Hyuk stood.
"Yes."
She looked at him sharply. "Then shouldn't we—"
"We shouldn't save them," he interrupted, voice flat. "Not yet."
Her breath caught.
"They chose to survive by pretending not to see," he continued. "That makes them resources, not allies."
The words were cold, but not cruel. They were the language of someone who had already accepted how this world worked.
[Mental Alignment: Host Resolve Confirmed]
[Dominator Authority Growth: Stable]
Mu-Hyuk turned back toward the sect lights.
"They threw away trash to protect their structure," he said. "I'm going to show them the cost of that decision."
Yoo Seol-Ah did not answer.
But she did not leave.
And somewhere within the sleeping Azure Sun Sect, the first invisible fractures continued to spread.