Chapter 71: The Grim Reaper
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Divine Wind’s fierce sprint.
It felt like an untimely storm was sweeping through this mountain foot.
Indeed.
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD- THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-!
Due to the fierce wind sound and pressure accompanied by heavy vibrations, countless fallen leaves shot high into the sky and cloud-like dust covered the vegetation.
It was a terrifying gallop that far exceeded the limits of speed a horse could achieve.
Thus, Divine Wind raced like a ray of light, passed the point where Ximen Yue and Nu-heum were hidden, and became a small dot disappearing beyond the forest path.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud…
The sound that had receded in an instant.
It was but a moment.
However.
Ximen Yue had clearly seen the appearance and attire of the person holding the reins.
The two people positioned at the rear also wore outfits with the same pattern, differing only in color.
‘White Peak Sword Sect…!’
Ximen Yue quietly rose to his feet and cast his gaze toward the direction where the horse had vanished.
The back he had just seen was similar to the back he had briefly glimpsed when his carriage roof had been torn off before.
Though the attire was quite different.
At that moment, Nu-heum exclaimed quietly with a startled expression.
“Young Master, I clearly saw the face of the rider who just passed! It’s him from that time!”
At that, a faint smile formed at the corner of the masked Ximen Yue’s mouth.
‘Indeed…’
To think the rumor was actually true.
The spirit creature’s owner was White Peak Sword Sect’s direct disciple Cheol Ryu-heun.
No.
He had now become Sect Master.
The mountain peak pattern embroidered with white thread on black fabric, that distinctive martial attire clearly indicated his status.
Nu-heum spoke with shining eyes.
“It’s most likely Cheol Ryu-heun.”
“Yes, the physical description wasn’t false information.”
When Ximen Yue nodded, Nu-heum furrowed his brow slightly.
“Hmm, but something seems a bit suspicious. Why he suddenly appeared near Youyang… I have a slightly uneasy feeling.”
“He probably has some connection with the Thousand Snake Gang.”
“Could it be… He has the same goal as us?”
“We can’t know yet. Let’s go confirm now.”
“Yes. Still, he probably isn’t after the Ghost Shadow Sword Technique. Coveting sword arts whose essence and profound use are completely different in texture from his own sect’s White Peak Sword Scripture? Wouldn’t that be something strange that can’t be understood by common sense?”
“That’s true.”
“In the first place, there’s no way the White Peak Sword Sect side could have obtained information that the Thousand Snake Gang possesses it…”
While Nu-heum wore a rather bewildered expression, Ximen Yue was calm without emotional disturbance.
“Refrain from hasty predictions. He’s not an existence that could become a variable, but we must be careful in all things.”
“Ah, yes. Understood.”
“Somehow… I have a premonition that Cheol Ryu-heun’s appearance might not be unrelated to White Snake Head Sword, who has recently stopped external activities.”
“…!”
“Don’t concern yourself. It’s just a vague premonition.”
Having muttered that, Ximen Yue wore an even deeper smile.
‘If Venom Viper Sword really has the Ghost Shadow Sword Technique in his possession… This is a situation where I might obtain everything I want today.’
Indeed.
Both the secret manual and the spirit creature.
Things were flowing interestingly.
If he could obtain the Ghost Shadow Sword Technique here and also take Cheol Ryu-heun’s horse, wouldn’t it literally be killing two birds with one stone?
Of course, there was only one way to realize that.
Killing to silence.
Geum Ja-jeom, Cheol Ryu-heun and the like were opponents he could easily kill with his own hands.
Therefore, he intended to observe the series of situations and immediately spring into action once he was certain it was an opportunity.
“Let’s hurry and follow.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
Immediately after, Ximen Yue and Nu-heum hid their bodies in the dense brush and began covert movement using footwork.
Swish-swish, swish-swish-swish-
* * *
The quick footsteps of the Thousand Snake Gang party advancing along the forest path.
But suddenly.
‘Hmm?’
Geum Ja-jeom at the front hesitated in his steps and turned his head backward.
What was the reason?
Along with him, the elite swordsmen under him all turned their gazes to the rear.
“What’s the matter?”
At one swordsman’s question, Geum Ja-jeom tilted his head and murmured as if reciting.
“Hmm, how should I put it. I just have a strange feeling…”
But before those words could even finish.
Thud-thud-thud-thud, thud-thud-thud-thud-thud…
A heavy trembling reaching each of their soles.
Following that, a faint vibration rose from far away along with thick red dust, rapidly approaching where Geum Ja-jeom and company were standing.
‘No, that’s…!’
Everyone suddenly realized.
That it was the presence of a fine horse galloping powerfully.
Geum Ja-jeom’s expression completely changed.
‘Could it be…!’
Pupils creating transparent ripples.
The rest of the personnel also flinched, their expressions hardening.
Indeed.
It wasn’t unfamiliar.
It was a sound and vibration they had experienced before.
In an instant.
WHOOOOSH-
A fierce wind sound and pressure savagely rushed in, and a sizeable shadow suddenly appeared from beyond the forest path, charging toward them.
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD- THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-!
It was a terrifying speed that felt like their long robe hems would be torn apart from the flapping.
“Get out of the way!”
Simultaneously with Geum Ja-jeom’s shout, his party parted left and right like waves.
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD- CRASH-CRASH-CRASH, CRASH-CRASH-CRASH-CRASH-!
The man and horse that had approached in ambush passed quickly through the middle, then ground to a halt as if blocking the path ahead.
Swoosh, swoosh-swoosh…
Dust scattering in the wind.
In the somewhat hazy field of vision, the form of the rider gripping the reins was revealed.
“Ack!”
One of the Thousand Snake Gang party let out a sharp cry of shock with a startled face.
He wasn’t the only one.
All of them, including Geum Ja-jeom, captured the rider’s appearance in their dark brown pupils with a look of utter terror.
Silence.
Below where dust thinly scattered in the air, the person holding the horse reins let out an emotionless voice.
“What, do I look like the grim reaper?”
A youth of about twenty seated on the saddle with an indifferent expression, wearing martial attire with an embroidered mountain peak pattern.
A person whose emotions couldn’t be read, nor even intangible aura – one couldn’t even tell if he was really a martial artist who had learned martial arts.
‘Cheol Ryu-heun…!’
The Thousand Snake Gang party couldn’t move a muscle, as if they had truly met the grim reaper and their entire bodies had frozen.
Why had he suddenly appeared here?
The incomprehensible question seeping into their minds – but what invaded their hearts before that was fear.
GULP-
The sound of each swallowing dryly was loud.
Just then.
Fwip, fwi-fwip-
Elder Yeop Hwon and Chief Supervisor Hyeop Mu-geuk dismounted with nimble movements and took positions on either side of Divine Wind at appropriate intervals.
Geum Ja-jeom, in a daze from the unexpected encounter, only grew more puzzled upon seeing those two.
‘Even White Mountain Sword Excellence and White Flash Sword Tiger…?’
Suddenly, an uneasy premonition jabbed at his mind.
Cheol Ryu-heun’s emotionless voice reached his ears again.
“Not going to greet me?”
It was completely the attitude of a superior.
Geum Ja-jeom flinched and hurriedly clasped his hands together respectfully, showing proper courtesy as if addressing someone above him.
“Ah… Yes. Se-Sect Master Cheol.”
At that, the dozen or so swordsmen also showed clasped-hand salutes.
Their pride was hurt.
However, what mattered right now wasn’t their dignity.
They had to hurry and figure out the circumstances or purpose behind Cheol Ryu-heun’s party’s unexpected appearance.
Reading the room, Geum Ja-jeom muttered internally.
‘It’s a bit strange, but it doesn’t seem like he knows anything… Phew… Let’s maintain composure as much as possible. If things go wrong, the secret meeting location could be discovered.’
Having barely steadied his heart, he asked suggestively.
“Sect Master Cheol, I never expected to see you here. What brings you to this place? This road doesn’t lead toward Youyang…”
Cheol Ryu-heun stared at his face blankly, then tossed out in a disinterested voice.
“What brings me, I came to disband that alliance thing or whatever.”
“…!”
The moment the faces of Geum Ja-jeom and his subordinate swordsmen went deathly pale, Cheol Ryu-heun gestured with his chin and spoke again.
“Anyway, idiots with bad heads can’t take advantage of a chance for reflection even if you give them one. You dare try to attack our Sect again?”
Damn, he came knowing everything!
The Thousand Snake Gang party’s hearts sank with that thought.
A crisis sharply escalating.
They didn’t know how on earth he had figured out the secret plan, but one thing was certain… This place might become their grave.
Geum Ja-jeom’s hands trembled uncontrollably.
‘How did he…!’
He felt as if his thoughts had stopped.
If it were any ordinary opponent, he might think of somehow doing something, but having already experienced Cheol Ryu-heun’s transcendent martial prowess firsthand, he couldn’t muster the courage at all.
Just meeting his gaze made all the blood in his body feel like it was turning ice cold.
The only thing he could do right now was tremble in fear.
The rest of the personnel were the same.
Cold sweat streamed down and their two legs shook.
It was a natural reaction.
They had all followed White Snake Head Sword Gul Ma-hun when he invaded White Peak Sword Sect before and witnessed that terrible end with their own eyes.
Step.
When Cheol Ryu-heun stepped onto the dirt ground, Geum Ja-jeom immediately bent at the waist and begged for forgiveness.
“Se-Se-Sect Master Cheol! I-I was wrong…”
But without finishing his stammering words, his body SLAMMED into a tree to the side.
“Aaargh!”
Geum Ja-jeom let out an agonized cry while leaning against it.
It was because he had been deeply stabbed in the shoulder and, pushed by his opponent’s charge, was ruthlessly slammed into it.
Drip drip…
The clothes he had carefully ironed for the secret meeting were quickly stained with crimson fresh blood.
The same spot he had been stabbed before was stabbed again.
It wasn’t even the opponent’s sword.
What Cheol Ryu-heun held in his right hand was none other than the sword Geum Ja-jeom had been carrying.
No one had seen it.
When he had snatched the sword hanging at Geum Ja-jeom’s waist.
The blade tip that had pierced through the left shoulder was embedded into the tree behind his back.
“Guh… Haah…”
Blue veins crawled up Geum Ja-jeom’s forehead like leeches, writhing and attesting to that terrible pain.
But then.
Flick.
When Cheol Ryu-heun slightly twisted the sword hilt in his grip, Geum Ja-jeom’s contorted face became even more hideous.
“Aaargh, aaaaargh!”
A piercing wail echoing through the forest.
The Thousand Snake Gang party, seeing that, felt dizzy from the fear and despair overwhelming them again.
The will to fight to the death? Fighting spirit?
A martial artist’s last desperate struggle?
No, such things were no longer in their hearts.
Only the primal instinct of wanting to live was circling around.
Meanwhile, Hyeop Mu-geuk and Yeop Hwon were marveling internally.
What kind of essence did such movement have?
Normally, there would be some preliminary motion or energy circulation process, but Cheol Ryu-heun’s movement just seemed to naturally move fast on its own.
Unless he explosively burst out vital energy from the Yongquan points on both soles, such speed should be impossible… Could he be moving by emitting massive vital energy from one side of his body?
If that were really true, it was an absurd ability.
Soon, Cheol Ryu-heun moved his left hand to firmly grab Geum Ja-jeom’s hair.
“Did you think something would change if you got help from the Dark Hall?”
Geum Ja-jeom, in his agony, heard those words and felt as if his heart was being squeezed tight.
‘Urk… So he came intending to finish things this time!’
Those words just now seemed to mean he could easily handle even Netherworld Sword Fork Jeo Gyeom, a master of the level right below the Five Supreme Martial Experts of Hunan.
He was newly terrified.
Now that he was being struck down again like this, regret flooded in.
“Haah… Please… Fo-For… Forgive…”
Terrified Geum Ja-jeom moved his lips, desperately begging for mercy.
But Cheol Ryu-heun, acting as if he hadn’t heard, pulled out the sword lodged in the opponent’s left shoulder with a squelch and turned around.
“Drop them.”
A command in an indifferent tone.
What his gaze rested on was the Thousand Snake Gang party.
The dozen or so swordsmen, without needing to be told first or second, unfastened the swords at their waists, placed them on the ground, and knelt to express unconditional submission.
Suddenly.
THUNK-!
Simultaneously with a gruesome sound.
“Aaaargh!”
A scream was spat from Geum Ja-jeom’s mouth once again.
This time, his right wrist center had been stabbed through to the bone.
It wasn’t the end.
THUNK-!
Following the right wrist, even the left wrist suffered a difficult-to-recover piercing wound.
“AAAAAAARGH!”
Severing of sinew, bone, and energy meridians.
For someone called a swordsman, these were parts that should absolutely never be damaged.
It was a merciless punishment that effectively put an end to Geum Ja-jeom’s life as a martial world member.
When Cheol Ryu-heun tightened the strength in his grip-
SNAP!
The blade embedded in the left wrist broke cleanly in half with a short metallic ring.
“Aaargh… Aaaargh…!”
Collapsed on the ground, Geum Ja-jeom thrashed about wildly, unable to even pull out the blades piercing through his wrists front and back.
“Shut up already.”
Cheol Ryu-heun, with those gruff words, swung his right foot to strike his face hard.
CRACK-!
A brain-rattling impact.
Thus, Geum Ja-jeom lost consciousness and went limp like a wet rag.
Cheol Ryu-heun carelessly tossed aside the broken sword and glanced at the forest path beyond.
“Now shall I go see the face of that fellow Jeo Gyeom?”