Chapter 19: 36

It was a nightmare.

Seeing Pyo-wol, Jeonghwa and Yong Seol-ran realized how powerful and deadly a single assassin can be.

Pyo-wol completely broke the limits of being an assassin and attacked the Emei sect’s disciples.

He thoroughly took advantage of the weaknesses of the disciples. Pyo-wol did not reveal himself, and moved using the darkness and chaos as his shield.

When the firecrackers he stole from someone else were set off, the Emei sect’s disciples could not come to their senses any more.

They said that they would quickly come to their senses and rectify the situation, but in Pyo-wol’s eyes, they were full of openings. 

Pyo-wol did not miss the opening they provided. He never stayed in one place for too long. He was constantly on the move, looking for the next target. 

He took advantage of everything that was available. 

He would sometimes kill his opponents with his bare hands, while sometimes he would kill them with a weapon he had recently taken away. 

However, not all of the disciples of the Emei sect remained helpless.

“Die!”

“You bastard assassin! If I die, I’ll take you along with me!”

As they lost many of their companions in an instant, the disciples of Emei crazily wielded their swords. They swung their swords wildly as if they were injected with something.

Pyo-wol was not dull enough to be hit by a sword swung blindly. However, as he moved more vigorously in trying to avoid their swords, his stamina was rapidly consumed.

‘Huff! Heuh!’ 

His heart was beating violently as if it was about to explode.

Pyo-wol suppressed the harsh breathing that was about to leak out of his mouth and looked at Jeonghwa.

He didn’t think that he could kill all of the Emei disciples anyway. From the beginning, his targets were only the leaders of the Emei which included Jeonghwa.

His method of confusing and dispersing the Emei disciples was only his pre-work.

Pyo-wol slowly moved forward.

Like a cat, he completely killed the sound of his footsteps, and erased his presence. 

As he thoroughly assimilated with the darkness, he carefully approached Jeonghwa.

Jeonghwa’s entire body was on alert, but she still failed to notice Pyo-wol’s approach.

Pyo-wol did not know exactly what position Jeonghwa held in the Emei sect. However, seeing that she was in charge of all the Emei warriors who came here, he soon realized that she was a very important figure.

If he can kill her, the Emei sect’s Guhwasata will also take a major hit.

It was a pity that Guhwasata herself did not come, but he had to be satisfied with this for now.

‘I must finish it at once.’

The longer the time he would take, the more disadvantageous it was for Pyo-wol. 

He was taking advantage of the favorable environmental conditions to gain an upper hand, but he did not know how fast the situation would change if the warriors of the Qingcheng sect would join the fight.

So before that happens, he had to quickly kill Jeonghwa.

Pyo-wol concentrated his qi on the tips of his ten fingers.

He could have used a weapon that had fallen on the floor, but the one he was most familiar with was his bare hands.

Ciiiit!

Pyo-wol unleashed his Seventy-Two Sword Wave towards Jeonghwa.

He unknowingly unfolded the martial arts he was most familiar with.

“No—”

Just before Pyo-wol’s attack hit her body, Jeonghwa suddenly deflected the attack with lightning speed. Her instincts as a martial artist warned her of the incoming danger.

She was one of the Emei sect’s great disciples. With her martial arts and senses that she had trained for decades, she sensed Pyo-wol’s surprised attacks. 

Chhuhaha!

Her chowry1, which was injected with internal energy, was a terrifying weapon.

Jeonghwa unleashed the Emei sect’s arcane sword attack with vigor. Even the darkness seemed to tremble with fear due to its immense power. 

But Pyo-wol was indifferent.

He knew that if he chose to fight at this moment, he would inevitably get hurt.

But he wasn’t afraid to get hurt.

In this hellish place, he was wounded hundreds of times, and he would recover again and again.

No matter how many times the pain he felt was repeated, his heart became stronger than steel.

He won’t die. 

No matter how badly injured he is, he will persevere and stand up again. So he had no fear of getting hurt.

If he could kill an enemy even if he got hurt, the person who would end up having the last laugh would be Pyo-wol.

Cwahak!

Jeonghwa’s chowry passed by and grazed his left shoulder. 

His flesh was ripped off, and the muscles were torn like rags. Blood poured down like a waterfall, and a dizzying pain took over his mind, but he didn’t stop attacking.

Pyo-wol exploded everything he had with a single breath.

“ARGH!”

Jeonghwa dropped her weapon and let out a desperate scream. She covered her right eye with her hand and shuddered. Dark red blood gushed out on both of her right eye and fingers.

The attack of Pyo-wol stole Jeonghwa’s right eye.

Pyo-wol suddenly looked at his left side. 

A long sword was stuck in his side.

It was the longsword of Yong Seol-ran. 

At the moment when Pyo-wol attacked Jeonghwa, Yong Seol-ran unleashes the Emei sect’s arcane swordsmanship, Thirteen Jade Swords [옥허십삼겁(玉虚十三剑)] to save her.

Pyo-wol, who was focused on attacking Jeonghwa, was unable to stop the Yong Seol-ran’s attack.

If only he hadn’t received Yong Seol-ran’s attack on his side, he would have been able to kill Jeonghwa with this single move.

Yong Seol-ran grabbed a torch that had fallen nearby and blocked the way in front of Jeonghwa. Pyo-wol pulled out the sword that was stuck in his side and opened his mouth.

“You managed to block my attack.”

“I was lucky.”

“Luck?”

“I just attacked by instinct.”

“You have great instincts.”

“I hear that often.”

The tone of the two people was so casual that if people whom they didn’t know saw them, they would have mistakenly thought it was a conversation between lovers. 

But the reality was different.

Pyo-wol needed time to stop his bleeding, and Yong Seol-ran, who had lost her weapon, needed time to regain her composure.

Yong Seol-ran looked at Pyo-wol’s wounds and said,

“Why don’t you just surrender?”

“Surrender?”

“What else can you do with a body like that? It would be better for you to surrender.”

“If I surrender, will you spare me?”

“That…”

“See? You’re not going to spare me. If you wanted me alive in the first place, you wouldn’t have done something like this, would you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Killing me.”

At Pyo-wol’s words who seemed to know everything, Yong Seol-ran was at a loss for words.

‘Was there someone like this?’

It is said that dragons appear in Jianghu, but she really did not know that there would be such a person in a group of assassins. 

“How much do you know?”

“That the Abbess of the Nine Calamities was behind all of this.”

“It’s ridiculous how you’re amazing. Someone like you could have become my Master’s disciple.”

“Even if I’m reborn, I would refuse. I don’t have the heart to join a sect like that. I’d rather bite my tongue and die than to become a disciple of that devil.”

“I don’t like Master nor do I want this to happen either.”

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“But you’re still following her?”

“She saved my life. So I’ve been blessed.”

“Is that the only reason you follow her?”

“You killed Junior Brother Woo. Him and I were supposed to get married.”

“So I killed your fiance? I’m sorry.”

“I have no regrets, because I didn’t want to marry him either.”

“You’re no different from the woman named Guhwasata. Doing the same things!”

“If I don’t, then I will not be able to survive in this tough world.”

To some extent, Yong Seol-ran regained her calm expression. It was the same with Pyo-wol. 

He roughly stopped the bleeding from the wound on his side. If he moved violently, his wounds would open again, but he can withstand an attack at least once.

At that time, Jeonghwa said,

“What nonsense are you talking about? Come on, subdue that assassin!”

Jeonghwa, who lost one eye to Pyo-wol, lost all of her reason. 

At Jeonghwa’s cry, Yong Seol-ran did her stance. A powerful energy flowed from Yong Seol-ran’s whole body.

Pyo-wol felt her strength through his skin.

So far, he has gained the upper hand because he had used the darkness and familiar terrain as his weapon. But he wasn’t sure if he would be able to defeat Yong Seol-ran if he confronted her head-on.

Knowing this fact, Yong Seol-ran also intentionally released a powerful energy to press Pyo-wol.

Pyo-wol quietly took a step back.

Because of the momentum that was expressed, he did not find it necessary for him to face the opponent head-on. 

Pyo-wol was an assassin.

Assassins do not hesitate to do anything cowardly to kill their enemies.

It would be foolish for him not to use the most effective means of killing the enemy.

A torch can temporarily illuminate the surroundings, but it cannot dispel the darkness forever.

Pyo-wol was hiding himself in the dark and was planning to take advantage of the opening. But his wish did not come true.

Shuack!

It was because suddenly a sharp sword flew through the darkness.

“Kuagh!”

He had no time to dodge. 

Pyo-wol stopped the sword by concentrating all his energy on his weaker right arm as quickly as possible.

Bang!

With a deafening sound, Pyo-wol’s body bounced back.

Pyo-wol flew as nearly a dozen meters or so before crashing into the wall.

His appearance looked truly miserable.

His right arm, which had blocked the sword, was torn to the extent that his bones were exposed. He also had large wounds on his chest and right side.

No matter how tenacious Pyo-wol was, it was impossible for him to move with such wounds.

“Heuff!”

Pyo-wol took in a rough breath.

Both of his eyes were stained red, its blood vessels bursting all over. Blood was also pouring down from his nose and mouth.

The pain came over as if his whole body had been crushed by a boulder. 

Pyo-wol did not scream, and waited for the  pain to subside.

Sueuk!

At that moment, someone appeared from the darkness.

The owner of the pair of eyes that glowed in the dark was Mu Jeong-jin.

In Mu Jeong-jin’s hand was the sword from which he had just thrown before. His sword was a weapon that only the elders of the Qingcheng sect could wield.

The person who was most perplexed by the appearance of Mu Jeong-jin was Jeonghwa. Even while she was distracted from the pain of losing one of her eyes, Jeonghwa thought that Pyo-wol should not be left this way. 

“Die!”

She grabbed her sword and ran towards Pyo-wol. 

Her intention was to kill Pyo-wol immediately to shut his mouth. However, her attack was blocked by Mu Jeong-jin.

“Back off.”

As Mu Jeong-jin lightly swung his hand, a powerful wind rose and pushed Jeonghwa away.

Jeonghwa vomited blood and shouted.

“Mu Jeong-jin, kill him! If you keep him alive, you don’t know what kind of tricks he will use.”

“It’s something I can take care of.”

In response to Mu Jeong-jin’s cold reply, Jeonghwa tightly closed the rest of her eyes.

Mu Jeong-jin approached Pyo-wol, who was sitting while leaning against the wall. He then knelt down on one knee.

He looked into Pyo-wol’s eyes and opened his mouth,

“So it’s you. The one who killed Woo Gunsang… Why? Why did you kill him?”

“Because I’m… an assassin”

“Even an assassin must have the ability to judge right from wrong.”

“K…Keugh! I was brought here at the age of fourteen. I was raised as an assassin before I even had the mindset to judge right from wrong.”

“You mean you didn’t have a choice?”

“Hngg! There’s no way someone who was not raised as an assassin would have something like that.”

“You don’t see any room for rebirth.”

Mu Jeong-jin was taken aback by Pyo-wol’s eyes which were full of poison.

He had met countless warriors and taught a lot of them martial arts, but no one had eyes as venomous as Pyo-wol.

His eyes could never have been taught. 

It must have been born naturally. 

‘If I had taught him myself, he would have been a great man.’

He suddenly felt that it was a shame.

How could someone with such a talent be raised as an assassin and soon be eliminated? But he had no desire to spare him. Pyo-wol assassinated Woo Gunsang. He also wounded and killed numerous warriors in the process of escaping from the inescapable net. 

It was difficult even for Mu Jeong-jin to cover his sin.

Suddenly, Mu Jeong-jin pulled out a letter from his arms.

Pyo-wol recognized at a glance that the letter in his hand was a request he found at Lim Sayeol’s residence.

“So you found it.”

“You knew it right away. Then you must know who the client is.”

“I have a guess.”

“Who is it?”

“It’s the same person you’re suspecting.”

Pyo-wol looked at the disciples of the Emei sect while revealing his white teeth. Mu Jeong-jin’s gaze also turned to the Emei sect. 

The moment she saw Pyo-wol’s smile, Jeonghwa felt goosebumps all over her body.

‘All these circumstances were induced by that demon—!’

It was by no means a coincidence that, among the numerous sects that made up the inescapable net, only the Qingcheng and the Emei sect entered the underground cave. 

That’s what Pyo-wol had intended.

He created division by tying the sect who requested the assassination and the sect targeted for the assassination into one place.

“HAHAHAHA—!”

Pyo-wol’s mad laugh echoed in the dark basement.

Editor’s Notes

Hope you enjoyed reading! Let me know what you think of the chapter in the comments or by reacting with an emoji/emoticon~ (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Since we’re starting to get caught up with the manhwa (ch25), the schedule of free chapter releases will change. Instead of everyday, it will now be every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Chowry. Korean term is Buljin or 불진은.  This is also known as a fly flapper or whisk.  It is a symbol of Buddhahood used by meditators to shake off the delusions of the mind. It is called Buljin (拂塵) because it blows away the dust of defilements. It is said that it was originally a tool used by monks to repel mosquitoes in India, where there are many mosquitoes.

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