Chapter 178: Chapter 178

Zhuge Un, who was facing Wu Gok-jin, wore a fishy smile. He had let Zhuge Yeon, who could be called his objective, escape. Only now could he fight with a slightly easier mind.

With those thoughts, he caught his breath and pointed his sword.

“From what I have heard, the Zhuge Family’s martial arts are the lowest among the Eight Great Families, but that does not seem to be true.”

“I was lucky, and I have improved my skills quite a bit lately.”

Wu Gok-jin could not help but feel despondent as he looked at his fallen subordinates. He thought he had moved while staying on guard, but the problem was that he had let his guard down, perhaps because he held the Zhuge Family’s martial arts in low esteem.

His few subordinates had collapsed in an instant.

Only two remained at most.

However, Zhuge Un was not safe either.

Wu Gok-jin’s swordplay was strong enough to be compared to Ma Jang-gang. In such a situation, since two subordinates who appeared to be considerable experts remained, Zhuge Un’s fate was also not far off.

“But it seems that luck will not last long… What do you think?”

“Who knows if my luck will end here… or if it will still continue?”

Zhuge Un squeezed his sword, forcing a smile.

His internal energy was severely lacking.

He had let Zhuge Yeon escape while blocking Wu Gok-jin, and he had spent a considerable amount of internal energy cutting down the remaining subordinates. At this rate, he felt he would not be able to hold out for even half a quarter of an hour.

‘If it were one-on-one, I feel like I could manage somehow…’

He entertained such an absurd thought.

He really wouldn’t lose, but as long as his opponent wasn’t a fool, there was no way they would accept that. Moreover, even if they clutched, he could never win with the internal energy he currently possessed.

“You went through a lot of trouble to run far away. Now, hand over your neck.”

Wu Gok-jin crept forward, narrowing the distance.

His single sentence weighed heavily on Zhuge Un’s chest.

With Wu Gok-jin in the center, his two subordinates took positions on his left and right, pointing their swords. A sharp killing intent rushed in as if piercing his entire body.

Clang!

In an instant, he deflected the sword flying from the right.

Due to the strong force, Zhuge Un staggered backward. It was a tremendous strength that made the arm holding the sword tremble violently. Even though he could have lost his sword at any moment, he managed to hold on to it.

However, the rushing momentum only grew fiercer.

Clang-clang-clang!

“Ugh!”

The coordination of the three was extremely fast.

As if they had trained for a joint attack, they were skilled at hitting and retreating, and they dug in while accurately piercing the opponent’s gaps.

When he blocked an attack, another attack would fly from elsewhere, and when he avoided it, they would pierce that vulnerability and enter.

Slash!

His shoulder was slashed.

The wound was not deep, but blood splattered.

Before the pain could even fade, blades flying from all directions aimed at his entire body. Zhuge Un noticed something and quickly retreated.

Slash-slash-slash-slash!

“Argh!”

However, it was impossible to avoid all the blades.

The swords of the three mercilessly slashed Zhuge Un.

Fortunately, because of his instantaneous retreat, the cuts were not deep.

Yet, at this rate, he might die from blood loss.

“Haa, haa…”

Zhuge Un let his body go limp and caught his breath.

If he had hesitated even a little, his entire body would have been torn apart and he would have collapsed to the ground.

“As expected of someone who served as the Chief of Staff of the Martial Alliance, you have this level of sense. I was going to tear you to shreds.”

“Haha, I was surprised too. I really thought I was going to die…”

Zhuge Un laughed awkwardly while checking the cut areas one by one. He had survived by a paper-thin margin. He wondered if this was what it meant to escape from the jaws of death, and it was also surprising that he was still breathing.

“Looking at it like this, it seems I also had some talent for martial arts. I thought I had none until now.”

“Isn’t it just an obsession with life?”

“hahaha, is that so?”

Zhuge Un firmly gripped his sword.

‘Now, what should I do?’

His body was already no different from a wreck.

His internal energy was also hitting rock bottom, and in fact, even standing while holding his sword was quite difficult.

Unlike him, his opponents were still full of energy, so it seemed unavoidable that his head would roll right here.

Thinking like that, the first thing that came to his mind was his daughter’s face.

Come to think of it, that child.

Hadn’t he failed to care for her properly because she had been following Namgung Cheon around since childhood?

He wondered if that was the reason why her personality grew up somewhat crooked.

As it became time to die, all kinds of strange thoughts came to mind.

He smiled bitterly, feeling a belated regret that he should have treated her better if he had known this would happen.

Zhuge Un vowed that if he survived this place, he would live looking only at Zhuge Yeon.

“You don’t even have the strength to hold a sword, do you?”

At that moment, Wu Gok-jin grasped Zhuge Un’s state at once.

Trembling legs.

Shoulders slumped in exhaustion.

He could guess that holding a sword at best was the absolute limit of what he could do.

Even his eyes were dying, so even if left alone like this, his breath seemed about to go out soon.

But that was unacceptable.

Because of Zhuge Un, he had to spend days being chased by bounty hunters. He couldn’t even properly embrace the girl he liked.

Trembling at the Martial Alliance, he had to hide his appearance, and thus spent nearly ten years.

With Zhuge Un, who had created such a situation, right in front of him, killing him easily was preposterous.

He would cut off his limbs and tongue, shove him into a pigsty, and have his intestines eaten alive.

Whether it was pleasant just to think about it, Wu Gok-jin’s smile did not fade.

Controlling his soaring killing intent, he caught his breath.

“I’ll cut off the limbs first.”

Saying those words, Wu Gok-jin looked at the face of the subordinate next to him. The subordinate nodded and slowly approached Zhuge Un.

The moment he raised his sword and swung it to cut off the arm.

Slash!

His gaze, which had been fixed on Zhuge Un, slowly climbed toward the sky.

A sky that he could not reach even if he stretched out his hand appeared, and then it spun around, showing the figure of Wu Gok-jin standing behind.

“…?”

The subordinate expressed doubt.

At the same time, with a thud, a brief pain was felt, and by looking at his own body with blood spurting from the neck, the man’s consciousness cut off.

“You bastards!”

Thundering!

The shout that rang out was truly grand.

At that single word, everyone present froze and could not move.

The moment they heard the cry filled with killing intent, they tasted a terrible sensation as if their bodies were being hacked to pieces.

Wu Gok-jin and the remaining subordinate stumbled back.

They could not understand at all what had happened.

Before they knew it, an old man appeared between Zhuge Un and them.

An existence standing blankly with pure white hair fluttering.

A person who pressured all directions just by standing, and gave a sense of weight as if crushed by Mount Tai just by being looked at.

“Ah…!”

A small gasp escaped Zhuge Un’s mouth.

At the same time, the faces of Wu Gok-jin and the subordinate turned pale.

Where in the world would there be a martial artist who did not know that face?

The one who had ascended to the highest seat of power in the orthodox Martial World.

The strongest martial artist of the orthodox Martial World, in name and reality.

Sword Emperor.

Fluttering his pure white hair and long robe, holding a sword with his only hand, his figure felt a power that made one bow one’s head just by looking at him.

“Th… That can’t be…”

Wu Gok-jin denied this reality right now.

It was absolutely impossible.

Surely… didn’t they say he was dead?

Ever since the new Martial Alliance Leader, Murong Hyeok-mun, was appointed, the Sword Emperor’s death was as good as an established fact. That was because he had never revealed himself even once after that.

He did not appear even when the Namgung Family fell, and he did not show himself anywhere even when the invasion of the unorthodox path occurred.

Thus, many people were convinced of his death.

But why on earth was he in a place like this?

Wu Gok-jin could not understand this reality.

And that was the same for Zhuge Un as well.

“Al… Alliance Le… Leader?”

Flutter-flutter!

His long robe fluttered violently in the fiercely blowing wind. The Sword Emperor’s expression, looking at the opponent with a firm face, was reminiscent of the appearance seen in childhood.

Although he lacked an arm, he had become even more powerful.

Because he could not erase that feeling, he involuntarily gulped.

“W… Why… is the Alliance Leader in a place like this…”

Zhuge Un spoke while looking up at the Sword Emperor with a trembling gaze. However, no answer came, and the Sword Emperor’s cold gaze did not leave Wu Gok-jin and his subordinate’s side.

It was scary.

It was terrifying.

Everyone present in this place would have the same common thought.

None other than the Sword Emperor was before their eyes.

Since his momentum was even piercing the sky, who could possibly stand and endure it?

Wu Gok-jin shrank back.

He had to run.

He had to escape immediately.

Drawing a blade against the Sword Emperor was simply a suicidal act.

“Wu Gok-jin… Surely that was your name?”

His name leaked out of the mouth of the Sword Emperor, who narrowed his eyes.

At that moment, Wu Gok-jin realized he could not escape.

Was there any way he could in the first place?

The opponent was that Sword Emperor.

Unless the person before his eyes was a fake, it was impossible to even run away with Wu Gok-jin’s skill level.

That was precisely the weight that the name Sword Emperor carried.

Wu Gok-jin’s lips trembled violently.

“To meet the Sword Emperor in a place like this… I wonder what the reason is.”

“…It must be that your fate has run out.”

At Namgung Cheon’s single sentence, Wu Gok-jin broke into a cold sweat.

The words he had spoken to Zhuge Un just a moment ago came right back to him.

How on earth did things turn out like this?

Annoyance flared up at the incredibly absurd situation.

“Do you have no intention of letting us go like this?”

“Do you think I will let you go?”

Namgung Cheon gritted his teeth.

Just by glancing at Zhuge Un, he could tell what his condition was.

Blaming himself for not coming a little sooner, he put more strength into the hand holding the sword.

“You won’t let us go easily, will you? Then, with only one arm…”

“Leave your neck behind and go.”

“If I leave my neck, I cannot go, though?”

Namgung Cheon burst out laughing.

Was he trying to crack jokes right now?

The more he thought about it, the more insolent the fellow was. Squeezing his sword, he swung it in a wide horizontal slash. In an instant, a fierce wind rushed in and heavily wrapped around the surroundings.

Soon, the moment the wind stopped, Wu Gok-jin and his subordinate could no longer move.

Drip-

Blood flowed from their mouths.

They did not know what on earth had happened, but one thing was certain.

They were cut.

“Da… Damn it… Cough…!”

The bodies of the two split in half and slowly separated.

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