Chapter 34: 34

The first place Pyo-wol visited after entering the underground cave was the residence of So Yeowol and the others.

There was food still left in their dwelling.

In his way of escaping here, Pyo-wol had never eaten properly even for a single moment. And because of that, he was very hungry.

Pyo-wol found and ate the food the children used to treasure.

Thud! Thud!

The sound of warriors descending using the ropes into the underground cave was heard over and over again.

To them it was a light landing, but in Pyo-wol’s ears it was as loud as thunder.

As a rule of thumb, it seemed that more than a hundred martial artists had entered the underground cave. Still, Pyo-wol did not care and ate the food.

It didn’t matter how many people came in here. What really mattered for him was to quickly satisfy his hunger and replenish his stamina. 

Pyo-wol ate until he was full.

When his hunger dissipated, he seemed to be alive. 

“Huu…!”

Pyo-wol sighed and got up. 

For a moment, he found his head spinning. He lost too much blood. Without a clear destination, he would never have been able to survive. It was only because of his strong will that he managed to reach this area. 

This was the place where he spent a total of seven years. He even memorized the location of every stone and stalactite that existed here. 

It was no accident that he came here.

The martial artists of the Qingcheng and Emei sect were able to follow him all the way here. All of this is what Pyo-wol intended. 

He purposely brought them here.

“Look around here.”

“Be careful everyone.”

The voices of the warriors were heard from not far away.

They whispered quietly to others, but they couldn’t fool Pyo-wol’s ears.

Pyo-wol quietly hid in the dark.

Shortly thereafter, the warriors of the Emei sect appeared.

They moved in groups of five.

The sight of them moving little by little, illuminating the surroundings with the torch they held in their hand, was too cautious. 

“Look here. There are signs of food.”

One of the disciples noticed the traces where Pyo-wol was staying and shouted.

“It’s clear he’s not far away. Be careful everyone.”

“He’s an assassin. Remain vigilant because we will never know when he’s going to attack.”

They looked around with all their senses sharpened. However, there was a limit to the field of vision that a torch could secure.

It was impossible to tell what was out of the range of the torch immediately.

No matter how trained they were as martial artists, the pitch black darkness was enough to frighten them.

The darkness stimulated their imaginations.

They struggled to maintain their composure. Their sinister imagination slowly engulfed their minds like a plague.

“Shit!”

One of the martial artists clicked his tongue as he struggled to drive away the anxiety.

‘Kuhk!’

His eyes widened at the sudden pain in his neck.

Something sharp was squeezing his neck.

He tried to scream, but his breath was choked and no sound came out. He could see the backs of his colleagues right in front of him. 

He reached out and tried to grab his colleague’s shoulders. But at that moment, his body was pulled up into the air like a radish.

His colleagues ahead of him did not notice his disappearance at all.

It was Pyo-wol who caught the martial artist. 

In his hand was the Cheonjamsa thread.

The martial artist, whose neck was wrapped around using the Cheonjamsa thread, had already stopped breathing.

After hiding the body of the martial artist, Pyo-wol calmly followed the rest of the warriors who were ahead.

As if they were their colleagues.

The warriors who were leading the way did not notice that their comrades had already been replaced.

Pyo-wol breathed like them, walked like them, and assimilated with them.

As Pyo-wol sneaked in, none of the warriors of Emei noticed it.

“There…”

The warrior, who was walking right in front of him, unexpectedly turned his head, as if he had something to say, and then opened his eyes wide.

It was because an unfamiliar face, not a colleague, was following him.

“Who—?”

Puuck!

The warrior couldn’t finish his words.

It was because Pyo-wol stabbed his neck with the sword he had taken from the first warrior he had killed previously. 

“What?”

The warriors, who noticed Pyo-wol’s existence belatedly, looked back. But all they could see was the appearance of one of their colleagues falling down with blood dripping from his neck.

Pyo-wol was nowhere to be seen.

He disappeared into the dark in an instant.

“Bastard!”

They recklessly swung their swords towards the darkness. But nothing was being caught by their swords. 

“Kurgh!”

The one leading the group dropped his torch with a maddening scream. Pyo-wol, who had returned imperceptibly, broke his breath. 

A light of horror appeared on the faces of the martial artists who had lost three of their companions in an instant.

They did not know how they could have lost their colleagues like that so fast. 

“Heop!”

Again, a scream bursted out. 

Another warrior lost his life because of Pyo-wol’s attack.

The last warrior who was left alone shouted,

“Come out! You cowardly assassin! Don’t just hide in the dark!”

Unable to overcome his fear, he swung his sword wildly.

This was to prevent Pyo-wol from approaching by hiding in the dark.

His sword ripped through the air like a madman’s sword dance.

Pyo-wol watched him in the dark. It was pathetic to see the man swinging his sword while leaning on the torch that had fallen on the floor.

“Come out! Come out!”

He repeatedly shouted. 

The man looked like he was going crazy.

He had to see to attack or defend, but because of the thick darkness, he couldn’t tell if someone was right next to him.  The torch that had fallen to the floor was slowly extinguishing, losing its flame.

“Oh, no!”

A light of despair appeared on the man’s face.

That dim torch was his lifeline. Even a fool knew what would happen if the light disappeared. 

But his screams couldn’t stop the torches from going out.

Pssst!

Finally, the torch was completely extinguished.

Thud! Thud!

At that moment, footsteps were heard.

It was the sound of Pyo-wol’s footsteps.

He now didn’t try to hide his presence. 

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Still, the remaining warrior did not know where Pyo-wol was located.

The sound of footsteps bounced on the wall and echoed in all directions.

Being able to adapt to the darkness, Pyo-wol was the perfect hunter.

On the outside, he was in a position of being hunted given the inescapable net, but now the situation has completely changed.

“Insignificant assassin bastard— Huff! Houck!”

The warrior let out a rough breath.

Just by briefly swinging his sword, he was exhausted. He swung it with all his might rather than controlling his power because of the extreme fear.

The man blinked. 

Sweat got into his eyes.

The warrior, who was rubbing his eyes with his sleeve, suddenly opened  his eyes wide.

An unfamiliar face appeared in front of him.

Like a ghost, Pyo-wol appeared so suddenly.

A pair of eyes with no emotion were staring straight into his eyes. 

‘Snake?’

The warrior was reminded of a snake as he stared into Pyo-wolf’s eyes. He couldn’t move as if he was under a spell. All he had to do was raise his sword and stab him, but his body didn’t listen.

He was overwhelmed by the existence of Pyo-wol

‘Keuk– no!’

Sueuk!

Instantly, he felt a warm feeling spread into his stomach.

An eerie, burning pain spread from his lower abdomen to his entire body.

The sword of Pyo-wol was immeasurably lodged in his stomach.

“Gurreuk!”

The warrior was unable to move and foam began to rise from his mouth. 

Pyo-wol looked at the collapsed warrior in front of him, 

“You may rule the outside world, but the owner of this place is me.”

I will show you from now on.

Who the owner of this place is. 

There’s nothing you can do. 

* * *

“Bastard!”

Qing Ming1 lit the ground with his torch, looking for traces of Pyo-wol. However, no footprints were left anywhere on the floor.

It was near impossible to track someone’s footprints in such a dark place. More than two hundred people had entered the underground cave. 

In their search for Pyo-wol, the traces they left behind were scattered and overlapped with his traces. In such an environment, it was almost impossible to find a Pyo-wol just by looking at the footprints.

‘This is dangerous! This is his domain.’

Before coming here, Pyo-wol was nothing more than a prey that was being chased. 

No matter how ferocious his claws were, he could not withstand hundreds or thousands of trained warriors. He showed his wits at the moment of crisis as he broke through the inescapable net with unexpected strength, but that was all.

There was a limit to what one could do alone, and it was impossible to block thousands of trained warriors. 

But here it was different.

This was the domain of Pyo-wol. 

He felt it from the moment he entered the underground cavity.

That his smell is there.

Staying only for a day or two could not make his scent this strong.

‘This is his domain. He must have spent at least a few years here.’

He had goosebumps all over his body. The fact that he had them lured to this place even as he was desperately trying to escape made him shiver.

It’s not just about running away from danger and going to the place you think is the safest.

‘He has a clear sense of purpose… He must have planned to rest here as his base.”

Could he have done this by himself?

If it was simply running away and escaping, he could do the same. ​​However, he will not dare to lure many martial artists who were tracking him in such a critical moment.

He would rather have them all killed before proceeding to hide in secret.

However, instead of removing his pursuers, Pyo-wol, on the contrary, dragged them all into a location which he knew best.

‘He’s really going to do it. He intends to go out fighting until the end in an environment he is most familiar with.’

The more he thought about the assassin, the more frightened he became.

Having a high-ranking martial art was not the problem.

Those who were simply strong in martial arts were widespread in Jianghu. 

If you look at the Qingcheng sect right now, there will be dozens of masters who can overwhelm Pyo-wol. But none of them were as insistent and patient as Pyo-wol.

Qing Ming thought that there might be more victims than he expected.

‘I have to catch him. If I catch him, my reputation in the Qingcheng sect will rise up even more.’

He strengthened his resolve. 

His nickname as Sword-Crazed Blood Wolf, [검혈랑(剣血狼)] was not for nothing.

Pyo-wol might be mad, but he was crazy too. And in terms of madness, he was second to none.

“All of you, follow closely behind me from now on. We will move in pairs. You should also always check each other’s positions. If we show even a small gap, he will dig in without mercy.”

“Yes!”

“Understood!”

The disciples of the Qingcheng sect  responded with a firm expression.

Their faces were full of tension.

In terms of numbers and martial skills, they were at an advantage, but the pitch-black space that did not receive a single point of light from the outside weakened their minds. 

Qing Ming also knew that. But he had no way around it. 

This is because humans instinctively feel fear of unknown spaces or existence that cannot be seen with the naked eye.

‘No matter how much we have to sacrifice, we have no choice but to catch the assassin as much as possible.’

It was when Qing Ming was determined and moved cautiously.

Chunkyung!

Suddenly, a fine metal sound resounded from beneath his feet.

The complexion of Qing Ming changed completely.

“It’s a trap! Everyone, dodge!”

Pupupuk!

At that moment, arrows came pouring from both sides of the wall.

“Kuargh!”

“Shit!”

The warriors of the Qingcheng sect unsheathed their swords and tore through the darkness as they tried to block the onslaught of arrows.

As the martial artists of the prestigious Qingcheng sect, they deflected most of the arrows that poured down like rain. Only a few soldiers were seriously wounded in the process, but fortunately no one was killed.

But they were not relieved.

The arrow attack was only the beginning.

Gigiging!

The sound of an engine moving echoed ominously and various traps were activated.

“Everyone watch out!”

Qing Ming swung his sword and shouted. 

But he didn’t know. 

These traps were only just the beginning.

This hellish institution, which the children had challenged and bled for seven years, was being activated yet again by Pyo-wol.

Editor’s Notes

Hope everyone had fun reading this chapter! ♡

Qing Ming was previously translated as Cheong Myeong. But after seeing the manhwa version, I’ve decided to change it for consistency and to avoid confusion for the readers. I’ll also be making the necessary changes with the previous chapters.

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