Chapter 22: 22

Pyo-wol and the children checked the condition of their bodies while hiding in the ground.

Ordinary people would go crazy or terrified when they saw that they were hiding in the ground without a single light, but the children felt more at ease.

They were more accustomed to darkness than light. They can rest more comfortably when they are in a dark space like this.

In fact, Pyo-wol slept comfortably while hiding. Thanks to it, he was in excellent shape.

An ordinary person would not be able to feel the passage of time if they were in the dark like this, but Pyo-wol knew exactly how much time had passed.

Using his intuition, less than a day must have passed.

‘Afternoon?’

A light of suspicion appeared on his face.

It was around evening when they got here yesterday. A day has passed, and now it will be noon. If they were going to execute a sneak attack, they should have done so last night.

Because the best way to hide assassins was during the night.

An assassination in broad daylight was bound to be a great burden on the assassin. Even for an assassin with excellent stealth skills, it was not easy to completely hide during the day, and it required several times the effort compared to at night.

‘Then are we going to do it tonight?’

He thought that might be the case.

It was not a big deal for the children to hide and not move for a day or two.

Still, he felt strangely reluctant. 

The children together with the Fourth Sword and other assassins were all spread out hiding their presence. It should be normal for the area to be this quiet. However, Pyo-wol felt that something was off. 

He could feel something ominous.

Even in the underground cavity, many children died whenever he felt this way. 

That was then.

Puuc!

Suddenly a spear pierced through the ground where he had been hiding.

Pyo-wol avoided the spear by twisting his body. But not everyone was so lucky.

“Keugh!”

A scream erupted from the mouth of the child hiding right next to him.

There was a long spear stuck in his chest.

Pyo-wol shouted as he kicked out the dirt.

“It’s an attack!”

The children ran out of their hiding place as soon as his cry rang out. The first thing they saw when they came out was a group of soldiers armed with swords and spears.

They encircled the hillside where Pyo-wol and the children were hiding.

“W-What?”

“What’s going on?”

The children, who did not understand the situation, have a bewildered expression. In the meantime, a soldier pulled out a spear that had been stabbed into the floor. A body of a child who had been stabbed to death came out. 

“It was true. Assassins were hiding here.”

He muttered as he swung his spear and tossed the body of the dead child in the distance.

“How dare you assassins hide around Qingcheng Mountain? You must not value your lives.”

The man with the spear is named Yoo Jin-ok.

He came from the Qingcheng sect, and was a military man who ran the Jinseong Military Academy.

Yoo Jin-ok pointed at the children with a spear and shouted.

“They have come to attack the Qingcheng sect. Don’t miss a single one and kill them all!”

“Yes, sir!”

The soldiers who were besieging the hillside rushed towards the children all at once.

“What happened? Why are they…”

“Disperse! We’ll regroup once we get out of the encirclement.”

When the children could not properly judge on what to do, So Yeowol gave the order.

At that moment, the children who came to their senses scattered all over the place.

‘We’re at a disadvantage!’

Pyo-wol also ran away and checked the situation. It was not known exactly how many soldiers were besieging the place.

There were only about a hundred people that were visible. If they include the people in hiding, it could have been several times more.

Yoo Jin-ok was a man who was unusually good with a spear. That is why the soldiers of Yoo Jin-ok were also excellent at using the spears. Against assassins who mainly use a short dagger as their main weapon, the spear posed a challenge. 

Another bigger problem was that their hideout is exposed and there is nowhere for them to hide.

Assassins showed their greatest power when they utilized the darkness when they attacked. This face-to-face confrontation in broad daylight was inevitably disadvantageous to the children.

“Euk!”

“Kargh!”

The children were not able to respond quickly to the situation and thus were beaten by the soldiers until they collapsed.  The children who died couldn’t even close their eyes properly because they could not react in time. 

The soldiers also rushed to Pyo-wol.

Shhhhhh!

Their spears went flying towards Pyo-wol from a distance. Pyo-wol’s body shook for a moment before he approached through the narrow gap in between the two soldiers. 

“Heup!”

“What?”

The soldiers, who did not know that Pyo-wol would approach them like this, looked surprised.

Quaddok!

Pyo-wol grabbed the man who was closest to him and snapped his head to the side. The man’s neck was broken with a horrific bursting sound before dying. 

“He killed one!”

“Die!”

The soldiers, who had unexpectedly lost one of their comrades, hurriedly swung their spears and attacked Pyo-wol. However, Pyo-wol had already kicked off the dead man and flew into the forest.

Pyo-wol had no intention of confronting the soldiers head on here.

Breaking through the siege was an urgent task.

Looking sideways while flying, he saw So Yeowol and several other children breaking through the siege and escaping.

Pyo-wol increased his speed. 

“Find them!”

“Do not miss a single one!”

Those who surrounded the children were not just the soldiers of Jinseong Military. There were also many warriors who used different kinds of martials arts. 

They continue to attack the children mercilessly. The children did their best to break through the unexpected siege. Still, more children died than those who implemented the siege.

“Lord, I don’t want to die—”

“What did we do wrong?”

Tears flowed from the eyes of the wounded and dying children.

They didn’t do anything wrong. At least after going out into the world. 

They felt aggrieved and indignant with the way they’re going to die. 

“Those assassins dare to cross the prestigious Qingcheng sect! That alone is enough reason for all of you to die!”

“There is no place for an assassin to set foot on this land!”

Madness was visible on the faces of the soldiers who killed children. They slaughtered them mercilessly.

Pyo-wol climbed up the tree to gain height. Then he hopped from one tree to another like a squirrel while simultaneously avoiding the attacks of the soldiers. 

A few soldiers who discovered Pyo-wol even tried to climb up the tree, but could not keep up with his pace.

‘We must move quickly to a safe place.’

Phat!

Pyo-wol finally broke through the encirclement.

He gained quite a few injuries in the process, but nothing fatal. Pyo-wol ignored the pain he felt throughout his body.

The important thing now was to get away from here. 

Pyo-wol thought as he ran as fast as he could.

‘What happened?’

They obviously moved in secret. On the way to the mountain, they never met a single person. So, their tracks weren’t supposed to be exposed.

Pyo-wol remembered Yoo Jin-ok’s words.

“It was true. Assassins were hiding here.”

He clearly said so.

This meant that the group of soldiers attacked after receiving information that Pyo-wol and the children were hiding here.

Someone leaked information beforehand.

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‘Who leaked the information?’

Except for Pyo-wol, the children did not know who the assassination target was.

They haven’t had any contact with anyone since they came out to the outside world. In other words, there was no possibility that the children had leaked information.

Then there were two cases left.

‘It was leaked from the Blood Phantom Corps, or the person who commissioned the assassination leaked the information on purpose.’

Pyo-wol bit his lip.

Psh!

At that moment, a sharp cracking sound rang out. 

Pyo-wol almost instinctively twisted his body and kicked himself out of where he was staying. 

Peuck!

At that moment, a flurry of spears was stuck at the location where he was just a moment ago.

Someone made a surprise attack. 

“This way!”

The man who threw the rain of weapons shouted loudly. Then the soldiers who were nearby came rushing in.

“Catch him!”

“Each assassin has to be caught!”

The warriors chased after Pyo-wol like hunting dogs.

Pyo-wol flew away from them.

Although the momentum of the warriors was fierce, there was nothing that could not be fought if they made up their mind. In his heart, Pyo-wol wanted to fight too.

But if he fights here, he will eventually get caught.

He didn’t even know how many enemies there were, so he could not afford to waste time in a place like this.

Pyo-wol ran like crazy. He thought he would have shaken them off by this time, but soldiers suddenly came out of nowhere and attacked him.

‘Is this the Net of Heaven (天羅之網)?’

Pyo-wol found it outrageous. 

One day, the desire to catch assassins is spreading, no matter how ignorant Pyo-Wol is, how absurd the current situation is.

He knew it wasn’t.

‘Come to think of it, I don’t see the Fourth Sword and his subordinates.’

Even in the midst of a surprise attack, Pyo-wol had a clear grasp of everything around him. With what he has seen in his environment, the Fourth Sword and other assassins was clearly missing. 

‘I’m sure they retreated before we were ambushed.’

It was clear that they knew in advance that the soldiers would attack. So they went and left them out ahead of time.

‘I don’t know what the reason is, but the client must have changed his mind, and it became a situation where he can’t afford leaking it out. So he’s trying to destroy the evidence. It will be difficult for him if we succeed in infiltration or if it turns out that we are related to them.’

Pyo-wol bit his lip.

Whatever the reason, it was clear that they had been abandoned.

It was foolish to expect the help of the Blood Phantom Corps. 

He had to get out of here on his own.

Pyo-wol looked closely at the surrounding terrain while running at full force.

The place he was running was a vast plain with nowhere to hide. He was driven to such an unfavorable place because he was frantically pursued by the soldiers. 

The warriors intentionally pushed Pyo-wol and the children toward the plains. Because this was the most unfavorable environment for assassins.

There was not a single place where he could hide. But Pyo-wol did not give up.

There is no such thing as perfection in the world.

No matter how unfavorable the circumstances were, there was bound to be an opportunity for reversal.

At that moment, a faint sound of water reached Pyo-wol’s ear.

‘There’s a river.’

There was nothing more to think about.

Pyo-wol ran in the direction of the river.

Peuck!

“Ah!”

At that moment, Pyo-wol’s body shook violently.

Suddenly, a long object was lodged in his shoulder.

It was an arrow.

Someone had shot an arrow at Pyo-wol.

Pyo-wol almost fell forward. But he clenched his teeth and got up and ran.

There was no time to check who shot the arrow. At this moment, he had to run a little more.

Puff peuck!

Arrows were shot in succession towards Pyo-wol. 

“Shit!”

The man who shot an arrow at Pyo-wol made a face of regret.

Jongnisan of Gwimyeon Palace (鬼面弓 Ghost Face Bow) was the name of the warrior. He was a warrior who learned archery, which is rare in Jianghu. He was a master of archery, capable of hitting the head of a sparrow even from a hundred steps away.

Three children have already been killed by his arrows.

Opportunities to hunt humans openly like this were rare.

“You must be caught by me.”

He spread out his senses and pursued Pyo-wol. The fact that he fired four arrows and only one shot had hit its target hurt his self-esteem.

He ran along the trail Pyo-wol left on the ground. 

A master of archery was also a master of light engineering. And he had a knack for tracking.

For him, tracking the traces of Pyo-wol was an easy task.

Moreover, the arrow he had shot was lodged in Pyo-wol’s shoulder. The blood he had shed had dripped on the floor. Given that the trace was so visible, if he dared to miss it then he is not qualified to be a hunter.

He also had to abandon his nickname “Ghost Face Bow”.

He operated the Cheongheook Simgong (青虚玉心功 Qingxu Jade Heart Exercise). The Qingxu Jade Heart Exercise had the ability to maximize his senses. There was no better cultivation technique for an archer who used a bow as a weapon. 

So far, no man has been able to escape from his Qingxu Jade Heart Exercise. 

Jongnisan thought it would be the same this time as well.

That was then.

The soldiers who were chasing the children from afar suddenly pointed their fingers at him and shouted something.

They were too far away for him to hear their voices.

‘What are they saying now?’

Jongnisan saw them pointing their fingers at his back. 

The eyes of Jongnisan opened wide as he unwittingly turned his head to follow the direction where their fingers were pointing,

Because someone was following him like a ghost behind his back.

It was Pyo-wol that Jongnisan was pursuing.

“What? You…”

Hooked!

At that moment, Pyo-wol poked his throat with his finger.

Pyo-wol’s fingers dig into Jongnisan’s neck as if digging into tofu.

“Kuagh!”

Jongnisan vomited blood.

He looked at Pyo-Wol with a look of disbelief.

It was obviously him who was chasing Pyo-wol. He was on the lookout using the Qingxu Jade Heart Exercise, but he couldn’t understand how Pyo-wol came back from behind him.

“Ugh! Uh, how?”

Pyo-wol couldn’t afford to answer his question.

Because his situation was also quite unreasonable. He had to perform both the Thunder-Splitting and Turtle Breathing technique at the same time. There were a lot of loopholes because it was done in a hurry. 

If Jongnisan were a little bit more vigilant, he would definitely have found Pyo-wol. But Jongnisan was too careless. He committed the mistake of tracking only the bloodstains that Pyo-wol deliberately left. So Pyo-wol managed to trick Jongnisan’s senses. 

The price of his carelessness was death.

The sight of him being killed was clearly visible to the eyes of the people who looked at it from a distance.

Because Jongnisan was a master of tracking and archery, he had to be killed first. Knowing how dangerous these two combinations are, Pyo-wol had no choice but to gamble with his life.

The other soldiers continue to be right on his tracks. 

Pyo-wol escaped by jumping into the river. 

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