Sima Young was smiling broadly
She seemed to be smiling brightly, but her heavy breathing told me how exhausted she was.
Her body was covered with cuts and slashes all over. Again, it seemed unreasonable to go against the best disciples of such a person, much less all alone against twenty.
It was tough, yet admirable. And she had managed to accomplish the task asked of her.
-I really thought we were going to be done today
‘Short Sword, can you even die?’
As I relaxed, I slumped to the floor.
Tuk!
“Kuak!
With my body back to normal, the after-effects of the body enhancement techniques began to kick in, and my body was wracked with tormenting pain.
Honestly, this wouldn’t be hurting so bad for those who had the required body constitution.
“Young Master!”
Sima Young came over to support me. Looking at her when fighting gave me glimpses of the monster she had become under her father, but now she was back to being the super innocent one.
I really know nothing about this girl.
“Oh my…”
And I heard another groaning voice, Cho Sung-won, who was limping from behind.
‘His calf is cut.’
Seeing that he too had many wounds, he wasn’t in his best condition either. If the fight had gone even a bit longer then we were ready to make this place our graves.
“Did you take down Na Yuk-hyung?”
Cho Sung-won looked shocked. It is natural for him to react like this.
In a way, the man I had just fought right now was from the same time as the South Heavenly Swordsman, and a thug. Defeating such a person in our current state was nothing short of a miracle.
“I was lucky.”
To be honest, I had closed the gap as much as I could, yet there was still a gap between our strengths.
I knew that he was a lot better than me, and was able to understand and counter any variables I tried to create.
‘If I had no innate qi…’
I wouldn’t have been able to break him down.
Watching the vision over and over again I saw how the man was defeated by the South Heavenly Swordsman.
That monster was amused that I had figured out a way in those quick moments in the fight. If I had deviated a little from what I had seen, I would have died.
‘Is this luck?’
I was glad to have survived.
“Thank you, miss.”
I thanked Sima Young. At my thanks, she twirled her hair which stuck out, and smiled wildly.
Was she feeling shy?
“Ahm.”
Cho Sung-won who noticed it coughed at me. His face looked like he wanted something back.
“Right. You did well.”
With that, he smiled and chuckled. Even thinking about it made the situation funny.
Such unfamiliar and dangerous fights and what they needed in return were compliments.
And he changed the topic,
“Everyone will be surprised when they find out that Na Yuk-hyung is dead. Isn’t he someone who was known to be as strong as our Elders?”
I shook my head as he was making a fuss over this. Surely the man was good, but this time I was sure of something.
I wasn’t sure how he ranked twenty years back, but right now, with the monsters around, he wasn’t a match for them.
‘Maybe only the First Sword of Mount Hyeong.’
It had been a while, but I had sparred with that man once. And Na Yuk-hyung was just a tiny bit superior to that man.
-Just how strong is that crazy old man?
‘Except for the 12 monsters who are known to be above the level of humans, I think these ones are all like beginners.’
-I agree.
As Iron Sword agreed, I felt confident as I knew he had been with the South Heavenly Swordsman for a long time and had fought against the strong.
Cho Sung-won was puzzled so I said,
“No, don’t say such none… kuak!”
Throb!
My shoulder began to hurt as I talked. Seeing my shoulder looking droopy, Cho Sung-won approached me,
“Your shoulder is dislocated, I need to put it back in, will you be fine?”
“… you know how to do that?”
“This is basic.”
Well, this man must have learned the essentials of martial arts considering he was from the Beggar’s Union.
At least when it came to the human body, he had a better understanding them me, so I nodded as he grabbed my elbow and shoulder and said,
“This will hurt. One… two… three!”
He pulled my moved shoulder to the inside.
‘Ugh!’
Suddenly a sound came from my mouth, a groan. I had my bone put back once before too, but the pain was never easy to get used to.
“Are you ok?”
“…”
It was strange.
I tried to tell him that I was alright, but it was so painful that I couldn’t respond to him right away. I was only able to open my mouth after the pain had subsided.
I told them both,
“Phew, we need to dispose of the bodies and then move to a safe place to heal.”
The middle of the forest road being covered in dead bodies would only create problems, so hiding them was the right choice.
We didn’t have the luxury to handle any more people after this, so we would need to hide the bodies and then ourselves before we could heal our bodies back to normal.
“Ugh.”
I tried to get myself up, but my affected body constantly collapsed with my muscles visibly twitching.
“Deputy commander, take a break. We will dispose of the bodies.”
Sima Young advised me to wait.
I felt sorry, as both of them didn’t look to be in a good condition either, but I had to cultivate my qi, so I would be able to move a little more and not burden them further.
“Thank you.”
“Ah. Why bother with thanks between you and me!”
‘…?!’
You and me?
When I looked at her wondering what she was talking about, she got excited as she ran for the corpses.
I thought she was excited, but she looked fine? She surely was an unpredictable one.
“Phew.”
I had to cultivate to some extent, but staying here for too long was dangerous.
I sat down and began to cultivate. As if my heart was on fire, warm energy spread through as my innate qi was being cultivated.
‘Uh?’
But then something changed.
After being able to make it flow in one direction, it stopped near the middle dantian.
I knew that innate qi would grow a little more when a person was put in a life or death situation, but this was a bit surprising.
‘Is this like growing as much as I suffered?’
This was really a unique one.
I wasn’t sure because it was a qi that had its concept built around the life of a person, and was needed for someone to live.
It was nice, but I had to hurry. And I did the same thing twice.
-…
‘…?!’
I opened my eyes. The sound of metal was approaching fast.
There was one, but I couldn’t tell if it was multiple people or just one with different weapons.
‘Kuak.’
The opponent seems to be moving and hearing this sound meant that there were weapons.
Seeing that he was also coming from Mangok-ri, he must be a warrior but I couldn’t tell if this one was good or not.
I groaned standing up despite barely being able to do it,
“Everyone!”
Sima Young and Cho Sung-won who were moving the corpses turned to me,
“Stop for a moment and walk away. Someone is coming…”
“Deputy commander!’
At that moment. Sima Young suddenly moved to me and I could tell why she acted like this. The sound was still approaching but someone else had arrived sooner than it.
Swish
And a sword was drawn.
Chak!
With the clash, my body was pushed back and when I turned my head, a middle-aged man with an angry face was standing behind me.
This was my first time seeing him, and by looking at the long whip I could guess who he was.
The disciple of Na Yuk-hyung. I heard that he had two treasured disciples and I thought they were dead, but maybe I was wrong.
‘Ha… for real.’
There was one problem after another.
“You bastards. How dare you do harm to my teacher!”
This man looked enraged. It wasn’t known who he was. But I knew that the two disciples of the man were known to be skilled and now we couldn’t handle him.
When I looked at Sima Young, her hands were shaking.
‘Ah…’
She had also overexerted herself. We hadn’t yet become accustomed to dealing with people stronger than us.
So there was no way any of us had strength saved up.
“Damn it!”
A harsh sound came from the mouth of Cho Sung-won.
A group of 20 people running behind this man followed.
‘They were divided into two groups.’
Seeing this, I could make a clear guess. Na Yuk-hyung and his subordinates didn’t know about the secret passage, but they just predicted where we would come from and divided them into two groups.
They probably were in another place and came here. What do we do now?
The middle-aged man who appeared to be the leader shouted,
“I will relieve my teacher’s resentment which is suffering here by cutting you into five!”
The eyes of the disciples showed clear anger and were staring at us. He noticed at once that we were all in bad shape.
So, they could talk as such.
If not, would they be reckless with those who were strong enough to kill their teacher and his group?
Sh!
I put my hand on my sheath. It cannot be.
There was no way the enemies appeared when we were in the best conditions and looking at my trembling muscles he smiled,
“Can you even wield the sword properly with that body… Uh?”
And he stopped talking and looked somewhere with frowning eyes. It was towards the forest path we were heading down.
I turned to see something that was running very fast toward us. What an amazing body was it to run like that. Who was it?
“Stop them!”
The fat man who came close shouted. Seeing this, the disciple shouted,
“Eh. Pig. If you don’t want to lose your life, do not interfere with the events of Murim and get lost”
Despite the warning, the fat man tumbled and approached us. As the fat man came, Sima Young tried to point her sword at the man to keep him at bay.
But then the unexpected things came from the fat man’s mouth,
“Ha, you people, how dare you leave, and then cause trouble for me! Did you kill that man? Hahahah!”
Loud laughter. And my eyes widened as I heard this.
‘This man…’
On the other hand, the disciple looked like he wanted to kill the man,
“Kill my teacher? How dare this pig!”
Chak!
The guy moved for the fat one. The whip with enough momentum to drown anything. But then the fat man just grabbed it.
Pak!
The disciple was stunned at what looked like the most ridiculous thing. But then it was a short-lived shock and he tried to retrieve it.
Pak!
“Kuak!”
The body of the disciple who was trying to retrieve the whip got dragged away to the side.
The startled guy tried to spread his feet apart and attack him.
Tak!
“Kuak!”
The fat man waited for the moment he would come and grabbed his arm and then the fat man broke it. Still, he was a warrior who was supposed to be strong and this fat man was supposed to be a nobody.
Grab!
The fat man grabbed him by the neck making the disciple even more shocked,
“Kuak… kuak… Just… who are… you…”
“Are you aiming for my disciple?”
“Disciple?”
It was then. Changes began to occur in the fat man.
Crack!
The skeleton which looked like the actual body began to relocate by itself and grew. This was a phenomenon that happened when the body was shifting.
As the body grew bigger, his upper body clothes began to get torn.
‘…!?’
The eyes of the disciple were shocked. What he thought of as flesh were muscles.
Even the subordinates of the disciples who were all buffed up were shocked at this. A large muscular man ripped off his skin from behind his ears.
The face which showed itself was Hae Ack-chun the Ghastly Monster.
‘…!!’
“Ghat… Ghastly… Monster!”
The disciple’s face turned pale.
“It is too late to even know.”
Grab!
Hae Ack-chun grabbed the man’s head with his large hands and as if removing a cap from a bottle, he pulled it from the body.
Crack!
“Kuaaak!”
In the end, the disciple who dreamt of getting revenge was feeling something terrifying.
“Damn it!”
“runnnn!”
The crowd, all startled by the death, tried to escape. But in front of them came masked men. Warriors of the Blood Sect
“W-what is this…”
Flustered people were trying to move when Hae Ack-chun ordered the people,
“Huh! Kill them.”
“Yes!”
As soon as the order fell, the masked men began to ravage them and Hae Ack-chun who gave the order looked me up and down as he said,
“You had a hard time after leaving the house. You. Hehe.”
For the first time, this laughter felt so pleasant.
The early morning of the next day
A shabby manor to the northeast of Seokmun province.
Another hideout of the Blood Sect. The twins, Song Jwa-baek and Song Woo-hyun, and Deputy Commander Ha Mun-chan and Lee Gyu were walking to the entrance of the manor.
Song Jwa-baek was excited as he spoke to the deputy commander.
“He probably hasn’t come yet.”
It was Song Jwa-baek who won the right to participate in the tournament in just three days’ time. He naturally assumed that So Wonhui was late.
This time, he was sure that his teacher would praise him.
“Who are you?”
The gatekeepers of the manor blocked the entrance. Song Jwa-baek pointed his hand to the blue belt that he was wearing around the waist and pulled out a plaque.
Shh!
The gatekeeper quietly bowed and moved to the side,
“Please enter.”
The gatekeepers parted and the gate was opened.
Song Jwa-baek who was about to enter the gate stopped and asked,
“Deputy So Wonhui hasn’t come yet? Well, he should have come…”
“He has arrived.”
“What?’
Song Jwa-baek’s smiling expression hardened and the gatekeeper spoke trying to hold the excitement in a whispering voice,
“There is a riot in the parish right now.”
“Why, why?”
“Deputy So Wonhui and the member who returned have taken down Na Yuk-hyung.”
‘…!!!’
Upon hearing this, the face of Song Jwa-baek turned pale.
