Chapter 160: Drawn
Read more at Nineheavens.org
Na Rae-hyang’s eyes wavered imperceptibly.
‘…!’
Upon seeing Seop Pyo, who had revealed himself by beheading Seok Mo-pil through a high-level hidden approach and concealed movement technique.
Did she recognize his face?
But the wavering in her gaze soon quietly disappeared.
“Sob, sob sob…”
In the space filled with heavy silence, only the sound of Cui Lan’s sobbing struck everyone’s ears.
Seop Pyo soon let out a low voice.
“Lan-ah… Are you alright?”
“Sob… Master… Sob sob… I succeeded… In my revenge.”
When Cui Lan spoke haltingly through her sobs, Seop Pyo glanced at Gyeon Mi’s corpse lying on the floor over there.
‘Haah, so she met Dancing Saber Mandarin Duck here. The origin of why that young one had to hold a sword in her hand… Has finally paid the price.’
Something hot surged into his chest.
Meanwhile.
Seup Yeo held his breath and gulped down his dry saliva.
‘A hidden technique where he hides as if perfectly blending with the surroundings and then kills his target in a surprise attack…’
A feeling of fear and tension difficult to put into words mingled in his chest.
Seok Mo-pil was a competent swordsman.
Leading with sword techniques like shadows swaying drunkenly, he was a famous wanderer of the Hubei region who had recently even earned the alias of Drunken Shadow Sword.
Yet that unfamiliar old man had cleanly severed Seok Mo-pil’s neck without revealing even a hint of presence and without even wielding a weapon.
Had he swung the edge of his hand like a blade?
Anyway, one thing was certain: he was a master of unfathomable martial prowess.
Being called One Sword Without Mercy for his brutally merciless techniques – yet against that unknown old man, he felt he couldn’t even dare mention his own alias.
The world’s evaluation that he was comparable to the elite masters of prestigious great sects felt newly embarrassing.
It was a natural thought.
Because Seup Yeo himself was incapable of killing Seok Mo-pil with just a single surprise strike.
Tang Mu-gae also couldn’t hide his bewilderment.
‘Damn… This is going wrong!’
Black Rope Wondrous Lady Na Rae-hyang alone was already a threatening existence he couldn’t easily handle.
But.
On top of that, with an old man presumed to be an incomprehensible powerhouse suddenly barging in, he couldn’t readily decide how to handle this situation.
The feeling of his entire body’s skin contracting.
It reminded him of how he felt three or four years ago when he faced Netherworld Sword Fork Jeo Gyeom, a powerhouse of this Hunan region.
No.
A tension several times greater than that was swirling in his chest.
GRIP.
His hand on the axe handle clenched tight.
‘Should I just watch for an opening and run? It would look pathetic but… The situation is too unfavorable to face those two.’
With only Seup Yeo by his side, fleeing first would be the best course of action.
At that moment, Na Rae-hyang spoke while scattering her cold gaze.
“If you two are confident, go ahead and try to run.”
At that, Tang Mu-gae flinched and his expression darkened.
‘DAMN…!’
His thinking immediately changed.
Right.
Honestly, it was too much to shake off a peak master in the Five Elegants of Jiangxi class with just lightfoot techniques.
Immediately after.
HWIK-
Na Rae-hyang quickly threw something toward Seop Pyo.
GRAB.
What Seop Pyo caught was the sword Cui Lan had been carrying.
“Would you look after that child’s body for a moment?”
When Na Rae-hyang answered with a silent nod, Seop Pyo operated his vast internal energy.
KUUU…
Along with the flow of air becoming heavy like a boulder.
CRACK, CRACK CRACK, CRACK-
The ground Seop Pyo stood on with both feet cried out painfully and cracked chaotically like a spider’s web.
-I never thought I would take up the sword again because of the likes of you.
Six-Direction Telepathic Voice.
An exquisite technique of bursting forth a voice amplified by internal energy, making it impossible to pinpoint its direction.
A terrifying killing intent stormed through.
Having already cleanly severed one person’s head, he had broken his vow of seclusion.
There was no longer any reason to hold back his innate killing techniques or show mercy in his strikes.
If he had known things would turn out this way, he should have taken up the sword much sooner.
Back when he exchanged blows with that unidentified young swordsman who appeared wearing a black mask.
He had been an admirable opponent.
He had been a standout.
A young powerhouse for whom praise like genius or prodigy wasn’t at all excessive – someone whose talent surpassed even his own when he earned the fearsome alias of Head-Severing Yama.
At minimum, if the opponent had that level of strength, it would have been worth breaking his vow of seclusion… But these two were below that level.
Moreover.
Since they were a faction that had tried to harm his only disciple Cui Lan, who was like his own child, the fighting spirit and killing intent unique to assassins that he had suppressed for long years had exploded.
-This is killing swordwork I’m unfolding after thirty years.
Seop Pyo rang out Six-Direction Telepathic Voice again and vanished while rapidly absorbing the color of his surroundings.
Not to be outdone, Tang Mu-gae and Seup Yeo drew their internal energy to the perfected level.
But.
Nothing registered on their maximized energy sense.
From the start, Seop Pyo’s deliberately executed perfected-level hidden movement technique was difficult for the two’s energy sense to grasp.
-Know this before you die. This old man’s alias is Head-Severing Yama. Now I shall send you before the true King of Hell.
Simultaneously, the expressions of both wanderers changed completely.
‘…!’
The previous generation martial world’s greatest assassin, who had written the mythology of the assassin’s path and then suddenly vanished.
It was shocking.
To think what Cui Lan said was true.
Seup Yeo, rendering the alias One Sword Without Mercy colorless, got scared first and in the end chose to flee.
PAPAK-
He ran down the forest path without looking back.
At that moment, a blade dropped from above his head.
SHUKAAK!
A sharp sound followed by a dull sound.
PUBUK!
His left arm was severed, spraying crimson blood.
“KUHAAAAK!”
The instant Seup Yeo screamed.
PUPUK!
A sharp sword tip stabbed into his mouth.
Death.
Fresh blood and brain matter poured out from the sword that pierced through the back of his skull.
BUUUNG-!
Tang Mu-gae had somehow approached the left and was swinging his iron axe fiercely.
However.
Seop Pyo had vanished like lightning through his hidden movement technique, and only poor Seup Yeo’s body was bisected.
CHEOLPUDUK-!
The corpse with its waist cut fell to the ground.
Tang Mu-gae rolled his dark eyes and focused all his nerves on detecting his opponent’s presence.
Suddenly.
HWAK-
Seop Pyo suddenly appeared from the left side of space and thrust his sword straight out.
Tang Mu-gae felt that presence and killing intent and swept his iron axe across.
BUUUUUNG-!
But the image of Seop Pyo thrusting his sword distorted under the iron axe and faded thinly.
It was an illusion.
‘…!’
It was strange.
He had definitely sensed the approaching presence and killing intent.
Seop Pyo soon appeared and vanished unpredictably from all directions – front, back, left, right – and each time Tang Mu-gae’s axe swings only vainly cut wind.
‘GURK, WHAT IS THIS…!’
The presence and killing intent were all sensed, but when he actually slashed it was an illusion.
Fear gradually grew.
This was like fighting a ghost with no physical body.
Na Rae-hyang watched that and was inwardly greatly impressed.
‘What tremendous skill.’
What Seop Pyo was currently executing in conjunction with the perfected-level hidden movement technique was another art: the Void Expanse Afterimage Technique.
It wasn’t simply a method of creating duplicates or phantoms – it was a unique secret art that made the opponent momentarily feel presence and killing intent to confuse them.
This consumed a lot of energy.
However, in exchange, it threw the target into helplessness and instilled extreme fear.
Before Seop Pyo’s terrifying skill of repeatedly appearing and vanishing with hidden movement and afterimage techniques, Tang Mu-gae felt as if he had fallen into an inescapable swamp.
“Huff… Huff…!”
Rough breaths kept bursting from his mouth.
He was exhausted.
Also.
He was terrified.
His visibly trembling hands told him that.
At that moment, Seop Pyo, who had suddenly multiplied into more than ten figures, surrounded the panting Tang Mu-gae and spun round and round.
Presence and killing intent everywhere.
He couldn’t tell which was real and which was fake.
“UGH… D-DAAAAMN…!”
The instant Tang Mu-gae, seized by fear, howled as if having a fit, a cold voice drilled into his ears.
“Right, I wanted to hear that howl.”
Startled, Tang Mu-gae’s heart lurched at the blade energy that had somehow crept up on his rear.
In one instant.
CHYUHAAK-!
With the sound of flesh and bone being split, Tang Mu-gae was bisected in a straight line from his groin to his head, blood spraying everywhere.
THUD…
Then Seop Pyo, lowering his sword, walked toward where Cui Lan and Na Rae-hyang stood.
“As you can see, I’ve pressed her blood points to reduce bleeding.”
Na Rae-hyang said this while holding out a small pill.
“Take her home, wash her clean, then feed her this. It’s a pill that prevents wounds from festering.”
When Seop Pyo took it in hand, Cui Lan spoke tearfully.
“Sob… Earlier… I was so… Grateful.”
Then she looked at Seop Pyo and bowed her head.
“I’m sorry. Master… Sob… Because of me… You’ve bloodied your hands again…”
“You poor thing… It’s alright. I just followed my heart. If not me, who else would protect you?”
Thus Seop Pyo soothed her in a gentle voice, then quietly gazed at Na Rae-hyang’s face.
“By the way, do you know this old man? I heard what you said earlier.”
He meant her words that the fact Cui Lan was the Head-Severing Yama’s disciple had saved her life.
“Yes, you’ve… Aged a lot. But some of that old face remains, so I recognized you immediately.”
“Who on earth…?”
“The eight-year-old child who commissioned your last killing before you retired – do you remember? You avenged my parents’ death back then.”
“What! You… Are you Rae-hyang?”
“Yes, Elder. I’ve grown up so much before you knew it that you wouldn’t recognize me, right? I’m already thirty-eight years old.”
“This can’t be, to see you again in a place like this!”
“It was unexpected for me too.”
Na Rae-hyang brushed back her hair near her ear and smiled gently.
“Ah… How wondrous. That tiny thing has grown into a proper martial arts master…”
“Respecting you, Elder, who punished only evildoers, I ultimately became a martial artist, and now I make a name as a strange female master of the unorthodox faction while secretly hunting down and punishing bad people like them. I helped that child earlier because I immediately recognized she was your disciple. In other words, I believed that if she was a disciple you had taken in, she absolutely couldn’t be a bad child.”
“Hmm, so that was it.”
“By the way… Will you take up the sword again from now on?”
When Na Rae-hyang casually asked, Seop Pyo pondered something briefly, then wore a faint smile.
“Haha, I’m thinking I might try wielding the sword again as a martial artist, not as an assassin.”
“Pardon?”
“If it’s White Peak Sword Sect… I think it wouldn’t be bad to belong to it once.”
In an instant, Na Rae-hyang tilted her head and expressed her puzzlement.
“Pardon? Elder, of all the many places, why there of all things…”
“There’s a reason. Now, this story seems like it will get long – for now, let’s move locations.”
Seop Pyo, carrying Cui Lan on his back, headed toward Jianwen Mountain visible in the distance together with Na Rae-hyang, whom he was meeting again after a full thirty years.
* * *
The Mountain Patriarch Hall in the north of White Peak Sword Sect.
Cheol Ryu-heun, seated before a square desk, slightly furrowed his brow.
‘Hmm…’
Because while performing free Energy Circulation, a strange feeling kept attacking him – as if his whole body had become a feather and was floating.
He tried hard to suppress it, but it wasn’t as easy as he hoped.
It was strange.
Had something abnormal occurred in his body due to the steep achievements in a short time?
Even so, it didn’t feel like something bad.
In a flash.
SHUASHUASHUASHUA…
A great beam of light burst from Cheol Ryu-heun’s head and shot up toward the sky.
Immediately after.
Along with a feeling of his whole body floating up into the void, an indescribably languid sensation visited him.
‘This is…!’
Cheol Ryu-heun finally realized.
Feathered Ascension to Immortality.
The ultimate realm of seeking the Way that Ascending Heaven Sword Dragon had once achieved – shedding the shackles of the mortal world and, as if sprouting wings, ascending to the heavens to become an immortal.
The enlightenment of discarding one’s physical body of this life and reaching the realm of immortals – that meant the end of life in this world, which meant death.
A light of dismay appeared in Cheol Ryu-heun’s pupils.
‘URGH, SO SUDDENLY LIKE THIS…!’
Was it because of going to the Forbidden Zone of Mount Heng Sect and absorbing a large amount of pure celestial energy?
Suddenly, the surroundings turned pure white.
-This is not a place for you to come!
From somewhere high up, whether it was the heavens or elsewhere, a sound resembling a majestic thundering voice echoed in his ears.
At that moment, Cheol Ryu-heun saw.
A truly massive palm pressing down on the great beam of light shooting from his head.
It was a mystical phenomenon.
Following that.
-KWAKWANG…!
With a soundless formless explosion, his body shook greatly, and the beam of light from his head and that massive palm vanished as if it had never been.
‘UGH… WHAT IS THIS NOW?’
Cheol Ryu-heun, slumped on the desk, soon jerked his head up.
The white space had already transformed back into his original office.
He quickly looked up at the ceiling.
It was intact.
Had the massive palm been an illusion?
Lowering his head again, he unconsciously glanced at the mirror placed beside him.
Just then.
‘…!’
Cheol Ryu-heun’s expression changed drastically.
The reason was singular.
Because he saw that his own pupils in the mirror were dyed with a red radiance.
Extremely red.
A crimson deeper than flame.
A mixture of bright and dark sensations.
In an instant, a thought flashed through his mind, and a thrilling shiver coursed through his body.
‘Is this the divine power from when I was the Divine Martial Sword!’