The cold air feels pleasant under the moonlight.
As soon as I sense that the muscular man with the axe is coming for me, my smile vanishes.
‘Should I torture him to find out where master Baek Wei is? Or should it be a clean kill?’
My logic is all wrong. In a fight, there won’t be any time to contemplate such worries. Of course, if the opponent is skilled, the answer is to kill them with all my might.
I always have a habit of imagining things like this.
Wouldn’t master Baek Wei capture the warriors of other sects to torture and experiment on them, and then accept them as disciples and teach them?
Being a disciple is kind of a gift though.
In reality, it would be more correct to see them as a living experiment.
The reason I am making such a guess?
It is because the characteristics of the martial arts used by the fisherman, the woodcutter, and the coachmen have nothing in common.
The age, the footwork, weaponry, and even the air around them feel different.
At that moment, I was thrilled to see the face of the person who I had no previous connection with, no reason and no clear recognition.
‘Master Baek Wei…?’
Suddenly, I have a thought.
Did I already meet this guy?
Of course, it is just a thought, which isn’t very likely now.
Actually, even in my previous life, the guy was always ranked higher in the Murim’s watch out list compared to me, Pervert Demon, and Ghost Demon.
Never got hurt by anyone.
Even when I was being chased by all sorts of obstacles, that guy must have been active everywhere.
First of all, the skills of his disciples are all too high.
The reason why the coachman got vainly defeated was because Pervert Demon was strong and a bit too perverted that she didn’t get to show her skills.
Of course, my words played a part. On the other hand, the other two and the Butcher were strong.
At that moment, I could sense an axe flying towards the back of my head. And so, as soon as I turn, I block the weapon.
Kang!
At the same time, I use Crazy Demon Blade technique, but…
The woodcutter swings his hatchet with a movement closely identical to the image of the Butcher I went against, and it gets perfectly blocked.
I ask the guy as I block his attack.
“Since when did you get caught by Master Baek Wei?”
“….”
He doesn’t answer.
I see a few openings in the guy’s movements, but I don’t fight back. That is because the openings I can spot easily are never really true openings.
It was the same with Butcher, and with this guy too.
They have amazing external skills, so I recklessly move ahead. And in the aftermath, I get a bit anxious that I might get caught in his attack and get torn to pieces.
Sometimes, it feels like my brilliant imagination is holding me back.
But I am cautious this time and now I am able to figure out his quirks.
If the Butcher was the type to abandon his defenses to go purely on the offense, then the woodcutter is the type to wait for the moment an opponent counters to rip the opponent apart.
It is a fight which depends on one lethal hit, so I have to be extra careful. Suddenly, I hear the voice of Pervert Demon who is watching.
“Be careful now. It seems like he has better self-defense techniques. A one hit fight.”
As he speaks, the fisherman adds on,
“Disciple, the Low-Down Sect Leader figured out your characteristics. Keep calm now.”
“Yes.”
A situation in which Pervert Demon, the fisherman and I all were able to read the situation.
As anticipated by everyone, the woodcutter swishes and swashes his hatchet in an attempt to grab me and each time I feel a tingle run down my spine.
‘Will I die if I get caught?’
This guy is big enough to crush down an adult man with one hand. It is revealed that he is hoping to catch me.
I smile looking at them and brandish the butcher knife in my hand and the woodcutter follows.
“Do not laugh.”
“I confirm.”
I deliberately move away from the field of vision of the fisherman. It is because at some point it feels like that guy will throw in his fishing rod.
After getting enough distance…
I prepared for a one-shot fight.
Somehow, if I manage to apply the Waning Moon Ice technique to the bare hands of the woodcutter, I feel like my whole hand will be crushed if caught, so I decide to refrain from using that method. Unlike when I fought with Butcher, I erase each and every technique I’m able to use.
Palm technique, Ice technique, Sword Wind, Sword Qi, White Flame and more
I forget everything.
The powerful attacks are what takes time. And unfolding them right away would only make them less effective. I exclude all of my usual tricks, and come to the conclusion that the only one that stands a chance is the Iron Wall Defense technique. And just like when I fought against Ghost Demon,
After a long fight, I feel good on one side.
“Nice.”
I am an ideal opponent for the woodcutter. Specifically, I am accustomed to the sword technique of the Butcher and so was he. Since the Butcher is his sahyung, he was able to block all of my Crazy Demon Blade technique.
And without hesitation I throw the Butcher knife towards his face.
Swish!
As soon as I pull out the wooden sword from my waist, the Waning Moon Ice Technique is infused.
The woodcutter interjects the Butcher knife that flew for his face and takes down the cold arts I infused in it and grabs the sword with his left hand.
After I unfold Sword Shield, I infuse it with ice arts in front of me like a large shield. I hold the sword at him, ready for him if he comes breaking the shield.
In an instant, the woodcutter appears as expected and shatters the Sword Shield. He grabs the blade of the wooden sword with his bare hand and then strikes his hatchet down on me.
I aim for an opening and catch his wrist with my left hand.
Tak!
He then suddenly begins to inhale like he is getting ready to perform a technique and he spreads his arms left and right, releasing a wave of qi. The ground around him hollows out and even the pile of stones around begin to get swept away.
Puak!
I infuse ice qi into the wooden sword and my left hand, but the woodcutter dispels them with just a single self-defense move. He seems to be using the Evil Way Martial Arts which works for a short time.
Because I have been pretending to be weak, I retreat in a staggering form even at the slightest hit. However, he doesn’t lose sight of the sword even while moving midair. For a moment, I thought he would give up the defense and charge.
It reminds me of the various discussions I had with Ghost Demon. I remember something and push it into the thin wooden sword that senior gave me.
Elder Heo’s and the Ghost Demon’s serious expressions overlap as I remember our conversations about the sword.
Time is going to be tight.
It felt like a moment was turning into eternity.
The wild beast, which is running at me, looks like a beast of the mountain with a storm around his body. Born as an incredibly strong beast since birth, he has the appearance of a beast that caught the hunter.
While keeping an eye on the beast, like a person waiting for death, I look at the blade being infused with the Shadow Moon Martial Arts.
It is very nice to see this here.
I even laugh.
I can’t kill the woodcutter with this, so my head and my dantian begin to work. And in an instant, a dangerous combination of Yin and Yang wraps itself around my wooden sword.
Fortunately, the sword turns red, and I swing it at the woodcutter. The smiling expression of the woodcutter holding the blade of the wooden sword with his big hand is impressive.
In an instant, his hand gets caught along the path of my sword and his expression changes. He holds out his right hand which was covering my face.
But when the big palm covered my face, Purple Cloud Enhanced Sword erupted from my wooden sword.
I hear a ‘Puak’ sound and then step back.
“….”
I can’t see it clearly because his palm was still blocking my vision, but I was already covered in his blood. And the corpse of his, which was cut diagonally, falls to the ground and there is no blood. Just the slash of a sword mark. As if he had been cut by a thick sword, the part of his body that came in contact with the sword had completely disappeared.
Looking back after the blood stopped, I see the fisherman, the coachman, the two demons, and the escort.
I wipe the blood from my eyes with the palm of my hand and say as I walk,
“Did I win?”
As I smile happily, I can feel the blood running down my face.
I look at the guest house and say,
“I defeated him and am here. This is the first time I have seen a strong woodcutter. Right?”
No one responds to me. Even if Pervert Demon and Ghost Demon ignore my words, the others shouldn’t.
“Escort, am I wrong?”
“Right.”
I look at Pervert Demon and Ghost Demon. The reason I came out second to fight and killed the woodcutter is because I had to. And now when the Three Demons take down the fisherman, my plan will be perfect.
I smile looking at Pervert Demon and Ghost Demon.
“This can be fed to a passing dog.”
In an instant, I turn my head and look at the fisherman. He snatches the coachman who is there seated and begins to run using footwork. In my shock, I take a couple steps, but the fisherman is already enveloped in darkness.
“…”
Master Yukhap tells me,
“Must have expected something like this. Such an evil one. To sacrifice the naïve woodcutter and run away like this confirming he is powerless. He wouldn’t have been confident in the three-on-one.”
I nod and tell him,
“Is this a win or a loss?”
To which he gives a simple answer.
“From the start, we were planning to catch master Baek Wei from this.”
Suddenly, Pervert Demon sighs and gazes into the darkness before speaking.
“… I head home this way and will bring clothes and weapons. I will come back after telling master.”
I ask Pervert Demon who heads for darkness.
“What?”
He answers,
“Come to think of it, I think the inn is more comfortable.”
“Damned…”
I say to Pervert Demon buried in darkness.
“Vegetable dumplings on the way.”
“I get it.”
In front of the guest house, I take my shirt off and wipe away the blood on my face and hands.
Yukhap tells me,
“Sect Leader, if I fought, I would have struggled. You did well.”
“It was nothing. Let us go in.”
After taking a deep breath, I look at the sign of the guest house.
“An inn with the smell of blood.”
The escort answers.
“Right.”
I take out a pouch from my jacket and then take out coins and hand them to the escort.
“Go and get some drinks.”
The escort asks me the same thing that Cha Sung-tae did.
“Snacks?”
“Buy the snacks you like. A lot.”
“I understand.”
I enter the inn with Yukhap and sit down at a table and take a short break. Master Yukhap, who sat across from me, let out a long sigh.
“I don’t know how this Baek Wei is, but he has such kinds of disciples.”
I keep quiet about things I’m unsure of. After thinking about something for a while, Yukhap says,
“I will clean the quarters we were given and bring in the swords of sahyungs and come back. Are we drinking?”
“Why do you keep coming here? Just rest in the inn.”
Master Yukhap stands up and answers with a calm expression.
“I cannot do that. Rest you know.”
Once again, Yukhap passes out in the guest house, and I am up alone.
The Butcher died, and so did the Woodcutter. The servants of the young lord died, the poor people caught by the Butcher died, and I was alone feeling thrilled.
A warm atmosphere for the souls who gave the smell of blood to this place to linger around.
I try to see with my eyes, but I see nothing.
I imagine the shape of a person in the empty seat of the table in the inn.
Clothes, face, expression, the tone of voice, form of martial arts, thoughts of the previous life….
In an instant, the man in my intuition and imagination is sitting there.
Teacher Baek Wei.
The man who drove Moyong Baek, the Poison Demon, to the brink of burn out in just a couple of conversations.
