Chapter 61: Darkness Under the Lamp (5)
Chapter 60 – Darkness Under the Lamp (5)
The killing intent that had reached his neck now threatened to pierce his lungs.
Namgung Cheon glanced over the four experts in turn and continued speaking.
“What a mess this place is. A guest came to visit, but the host is rolling around naked on the bed in broad daylight, and these pathetic fools are pointing their swords at me. Will business really go well like this? Do you want me to assign a server to you as well?”
As the words burst out without hesitation, he felt refreshed.
The human pig beyond the bead curtain chuckled and waved his hand, ordering the guards.
“Step back.”
“Society Leader.”
“Step back.”
As the firm voice followed, the four experts retreated a couple of steps.
Namgung Cheon raised his eyebrows high and demanded.
“You bastards. Do you call that stepping back? Back up more before I kick your ankles.”
“…!”
The guards glared at Namgung Cheon as if they would strike him dead this instant.
However, because the shadow beyond the bead curtain told them to back up more again, they had no choice but to retreat another five or six steps.
When the Society Leader motioned, two of the naked women stood up, went to the side of the bead curtain, and pulled the cord.
With that, the bead curtain slid open to both sides.
‘Ah, fuck, my eyes…’
As the bead curtain parted, a massive lump of flesh appeared before his eyes, a sight that was truly hard to look at.
“Are you shameless because you’re a pig, after all?”
Namgung Cheon sneered openly, but the Society Leader got out of bed without a word and trudged to one side.
Unable to stand the way the man was acting bold, he made sure to add one more comment.
“If you have such a tiny weight, shouldn’t you cover it up out of embarrassment?”
Perhaps it had worked a bit this time, because the Society Leader, who was lightly draping a light robe over himself, paused.
“Tiny weight?”
“Well, it means a very small weight. Your body is so bloated, but down there… tsk tsk.”
As Namgung Cheon clicked his tongue with a look of utmost pity, a vein throbbed slightly on the Society Leader’s forehead.
However, he soon composed himself with a veteran attitude and turned around.
“So, which master are you?”
When Namgung Cheon glanced out of the corner of his eye at the naked women, the Society Leader cackled.
“No need to mind them. They’re just bitches who can’t hear or speak anyway.”
“Did you do that?”
“What? Making them unable to hear or speak?”
“Yes.”
“That’s right. I fed them poison to make them permanently disabled. Hehehe. So, rest assured.”
Namgung Cheon let out a dry laugh.
Honestly, he had debated a bit while coming all the way here.
Whether to steal the chicken, or buy the eggs.
But with this, his debate was over.
The naked women were roughly Namgung Cheon’s age.
‘In other words, he did such a thing to children the age of my son.’
Was this the heart of a parent who had a child?
In his past life, he wouldn’t have cared less either way.
But now, he shuddered at such cruelty.
Namgung Cheon muttered as if to himself.
“As I thought, stealing the chicken was the right choice rather than buying the eggs.”
“Huh? What is that supposed to mean?”
The pig-like Society Leader furrowed his brow deeply and trudged over.
Namgung Cheon gestured with his chin to the chair opposite him.
“Now, come and sit down. Since a guest has arrived, you should play the host.”
The Society Leader stopped dead in his tracks and knit his brows slightly.
It seemed he could tolerate it no longer.
He stared silently at Namgung Cheon and asked.
“So, just how grand of a thing did you bring?”
“This.”
Swoosh!
As Namgung Cheon pulled the black cloth, the Emerald Silk Sword rose into the air, spun rapidly, and then dropped onto the table with a thud.
The pig-like Society Leader’s eyes sharpened.
“Is that the Emerald Silk Sword?”
“You recognize it. How about it? With this, you can give me something decent, right?”
“Of course. However… I must verify if it is genuine.”
Did he really have the ability to handle something like the Emerald Silk Sword without difficulty?
Even though he must have known that the Emerald Silk Sword was a treasure of the Namgung Clan, the Society Leader did not seem to care much.
Namgung Cheon nodded.
“I figured as much. Feel free to verify it.”
“And what is it you want?”
“Your life.”
“…”
A brief silence fell, and the first to react was the personal guard who appeared like a ghost from behind the Society Leader.
The strongest person after the Society Leader!
The energy surging from his dantian moved rapidly along his meridians, then flew from his fingertips riding a throwing dagger.
Namgung Cheon quickly drew the Emerald Silk Sword and deflected the throwing dagger.
Clang!
Thud!
“Ack!”
The deflected throwing dagger pierced the throat of the guard standing on the left, and simultaneously upon drawing, the Emerald Silk Sword slashed the throat of the guard on the right.
Slash!
Spurt!
It truly happened in the blink of an eye.
Taking down two just like that!
Tap, whoosh!
As Namgung Cheon quickly vaulted over the table with a hand on it, saber qi flew from two directions at once.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
In an instant, Namgung Cheon executed Qi-Controlling Divine Wind, and his body flew as if springing away through the subtle principle of the Golden Carp Overturning a Thousand Waves.
Bang!
If Paeng Su-hyeok had seen this sight right now, he would have been too dumbfounded to even close his mouth.
To use another family’s heirloom martial arts so casually.
At any rate, while moving like a flash of light, Namgung Cheon simultaneously threw the Emerald Silk Sword from his hand.
Whoosh!
Thwack!
Flying like an arrow, the Emerald Silk Sword pierced and embedded itself straight into the Society Leader’s forehead.
Thud!
The Society Leader fell over like a stiff log.
Because it had truly happened in an instant, the entire situation felt like a lie.
The two guards who had slashed the air with their saber qi froze like stone as they watched, and the two close guards who had been rushing toward Namgung Cheon became like blocks of wood with their eyes wide open.
A guard’s purpose was always only one.
To protect their master.
However, since they had just lost the master they were supposed to protect, their minds could only be in chaos.
Namgung Cheon, passing by the two stiffly standing peak experts, walked straight toward the dead Society Leader.
Sprawled out spread-eagle, the Society Leader’s light robe had come undone, exposing his manhood completely.
“Even looking closely, it really is a tiny weight, this bastard.”
Namgung Cheon muttered indifferently, stepped on the Society Leader’s neck, and pulled out the Emerald Silk Sword.
“By now you must have realized it was a real sword. In exchange, I will gladly take your life.”
Drip… drip…!
The sound of blood dripping from the tip of the sword.
Soon after, the screaming voices of the women on the bed echoed.
They might not be able to speak, but they could still scream, it seemed.
Now, the four guards surrounded Namgung Cheon, emitting a thick killing intent.
Namgung Cheon looked around at them and sighed.
“I hate group fights. I fought so disgustingly much in my youth that now I just want to deal with one at a time. Since you bastards just lost your master, you have no reason to attack me either. But if you insist on throwing away your lives, I have no choice.”
“Shut up!”
Dash!
Did it not work after all?
The four guards lunged at him simultaneously.
Namgung Cheon slipped into the embrace of the one whose qi circulation was the slowest. Watching the energy surging from the opponent’s dantian move along the meridians toward his right hand, he accurately stabbed the abdomen with the Emerald Silk Sword.
Thud!
Structurally, based on the flow of internal energy, it was the most vulnerable spot to defend.
“Ack!”
As he grabbed and twisted the head of the blood-spitting guard to turn him around, three swords and sabers poured down.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
“Argh!”
The guard, whose entire body was hacked to pieces, looked at his comrades with resentful eyes, and then collapsed.
In that brief instant,
Swish!
As Namgung Cheon swung his sword horizontally, the guards retreated far back.
“You crazy bastard!”
One of the guards spat out curses and threw two more throwing daggers.
Clang! Clang!
Having foreseen the flow of their internal energy, Namgung Cheon swung the Emerald Silk Sword upward to deflect the throwing daggers; one grazed and tore open the eye of another guard, while the other embedded itself in the thigh of yet another guard.
“Argh!”
“Aaah!”
Namgung Cheon smirked and dashed toward the guard who had thrown the daggers.
Dash!
“What are you going to do, since you keep stabbing your own comrades?”
“You… son of a…!”
Thud!
Staring at the flow of internal energy again, he struck the guard’s most vulnerable chin with the pommel of his sword.
The guard stumbled backward before he could even finish his sentence.
In a split second, Namgung Cheon followed closely, pulled a throwing dagger from the guard’s robes, and quickly stabbed his stomach, chest, and throat.
Stab! Stab! Stab!
“Ack!”
The guard widened his eyes in disbelief.
‘How is he this fast…!’
Truly, Namgung Cheon was too fast to counter.
Thud!
Falling straight to his knees, the guard coughed up mouthfuls of blood and barely managed to ask.
“Who… are you…?”
“The Grim Reaper.”
Slash!
The Emerald Silk Sword swept horizontally, and the guard’s head soared into the air, spraying blood.
Now, only two wounded remained.
The guard with the throwing dagger embedded in his thigh lunged with a shout.
However, he must have known too.
His own death.
Whoosh! Thud!
A throwing dagger that flew from Namgung Cheon’s hand in the blink of an eye pierced the guard’s throat.
Clatter!
Unable to overcome his rushing momentum, the fellow rolled for quite a distance. Namgung Cheon gently nudged away the head of the guy that had slid all the way to his feet.
Now, only one warrior remained.
The guard whose eye was injured held his sword out in front, focusing all his attention on his hearing.
“When a sword loses its purpose, it also loses its direction. So, once your master croaked, you should have gone on your way. Why did you stand around like that?”
“You bastard!”
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The warrior swung his sword three times in succession.
However, when it was hard to follow Namgung Cheon’s movements even with intact eyes, there was no way an attack would connect when he could not see.
“Do you happen to have a family?”
At Namgung Cheon’s voice, the guard flinched and shook his head.
“That’s a relief, at least.”
Namgung Cheon muttered coldly, and then sliced with the Emerald Silk Sword diagonally in a single moment.
Slash!
“Urgh!”
It was then.
“Society Leader! Are you alri…!”
The door burst open and a middle-aged man rushed in, only to widen his eyes.
His jaw dropped as he watched the guard whose upper body was split diagonally right before his eyes.
Thud!
As the guard collapsed, Namgung Cheon swung the Emerald Silk Sword to shake off the blood, walked over to a chair, and sat down with a thud.
Namgung Cheon looked at the middle-aged man and asked.
“Who?”
The middle-aged man glared intensely as he replied.
“I am the Vice Leader. Do you know what the hell you have just done?”
“I do. But do you know what I will do from now on?”
“…!”
“I’m thirsty, do you have any water to drink?”
“You have touched the Obscurity Society. All unorthodox martial artists will try to capture and kill you.”
“Do you even know who I am?”
“I will know soon enough.”
“Then you will die.”
“Why on earth did you do this? Were you sent by the Martial Alliance?”
“Not really. Oh, by the way, I asked if there is water, you bastard.”
“No, you crazy bastard.”
“No, why is there not even water to drink here? What kind of place is this?”
“Crazy bastard.”
“Well, since I’m thirsty, I won’t make this long.”
“…?”
Namgung Cheon organized his thoughts and brought out the method he had used on the guys from the Ghost King Stronghold again.
“There was a king. But a general of an enemy nation invaded and killed the king. So, who is the king of that country now?”
“The king’s… son?”
Hmm…? This isn’t it…
“Did that pig bastard have a son?”
“No.”
“Then again. A king with no son was killed by his archrival. So, who is the king now?”
“What kind of absolute bullshit is that!”
Dash!
In that moment, the Vice Leader let out a shout and lunged.
Namgung Cheon let out a sigh.
This didn’t work.
There were really no bastards like those from the Ghost King Stronghold.