Chapter 172: Chapter 172
That night, Cheon-hwi descended Mount Hua and was running towards the west.
‘The Flying Heaven Footwork is truly good. The consumption of internal energy is also small.’
Was it because he had previously run from Pyeongni County to the Mount Hua Sect using the Flying Heaven Footwork?
He was faster than usual.
That was not all.
He had not rested for two shi-chen already, but there was no fatigue.
Rather, his body was incredibly light.
Even though he unfolded a lightfoot technique that easily accumulated fatigue, the pleasant wind made him feel good.
He raised his head and looked at the sky.
The brilliantly floating full moon illuminated the darkness, shining gently.
“It’s a good night to see blood.”
A chilling smile formed around his mouth.
At the same time, the internal energy loaded into his feet became stronger, and the scenery was pushed away rapidly.
* * *
“Who are you…….”
Cheon-hwi kicked the gate guard martial artist in front of him as if it was bothersome.
Kwaaang!
People rushed out at the explosion sound.
Their appearances were diverse.
A few were neatly dressed in martial attire, but most were dead drunk, unable to even wear their clothes properly.
Cheon-hwi wrinkled the bridge of his nose.
It was because the strong scent of liquor tickled his nose.
Turning his head, liquor bottles were rolling around everywhere, and leftover food was placed on the floor.
“What is this? Did you throw a drinking banquet? These guys have it good.”
At Cheon-hwi’s words, the intoxicated people came to their senses and jumped up.
“Who are you?!”
“How dare you, do you know where this is!”
“Can’t you tell by looking? I’m an enemy.”
Cheon-hwi let out a sneer.
At the same time, he raised his head.
Cheon-hwi’s gaze turned toward the man who had been looking down from the second-floor window of the pavilion since earlier.
The man with a bushy beard had a strictly different momentum from the people in the manor.
“Are you the Evil Ghost Gang Leader?”
“How dare you speak to the Gang Leader……!”
Thanks to the words of the man who voluntarily acknowledged his identity, Cheon-hwi drew his sword and parted his lips.
“Our kid owed you a debt.”
With his words, Cheon-hwi swung his sword.
Kwaaaang!
Along with a dizzying roar, a transparent sword qi flew towards the Evil Ghost Gang Leader on the second floor at a fearsome speed.
“……!”
At that intense sword qi, the Evil Ghost Gang Leader hurriedly lifted the axes he had left next to him.
Hwaaak!
Urgently drawing up his internal energy, he swung his two axes in a cross shape towards the sword qi that flew in while destroying the window.
It was the defensive technique he was confident in, the Twin Snakes Churning Axes.
The crossing axes collided with the sword qi.
Gigigigik…
An unpleasant sound erupted.
‘S-Such sword qi…….’
The Evil Ghost Gang Leader was dumbfounded.
Far from bouncing off, the sword qi was gradually gnawing at him.
And the Twin Snakes Churning Axes was being pushed back by that momentum.
“U, Uuugh!”
He clenched his teeth.
He clenched so hard that he could taste the metallic tang of blood in his mouth.
But he could not stop.
It was because he intuited that if he stopped, the sword qi right in front of him would cleave him in half.
“Uahap!”
He struck the sword qi upward with a shout.
Kwazijik!
The soaring sword qi smashed the ceiling, and debris fell everywhere.
“Haa, haa.”
Having barely struck away the sword qi, he exhaled roughly and staggered.
Although he defended, his reserve strength had completely drained away from the impact.
He looked ahead with a trembling gaze.
The second-floor window was already shattered, and the ceiling was gone, revealing the night sky.
Under the starlight and the solitary full moon.
A young man was standing arrogantly in the center of the manor, looking up.
The moment their eyes met.
Ssaaak…
A chill ran down his spine.
It was a youthful face.
But he felt it.
The fact that he looked young or was strong was not the problem.
He could read the true essence cast within that youthful, handsome face.
Something wearing the mask of a human.
That was definitely something inhuman.
“What will you do if you get scared already?”
Cheon-hwi looked coldly at the frozen Evil Ghost Gang Leader and the surroundings with emotionless eyes.
As his gaze touched them, they trembled as if they had wet themselves.
“It’s only the beginning.”
Cheon-hwi walked while letting his sword droop down.
A pace neither slow nor fast.
Step… Step…
The sound of footsteps spread evenly.
However, with every sound, the sound of everyone’s hearts grew even louder.
Jureureuk…
They could not move at all.
No, their instincts must have known.
That the moment they moved now, their necks would be severed.
They quietly held their breath.
Hoping that person would just pass by without doing anything.
Step… Step…
As the sound of footsteps continued to spread, their faces distorted without realizing it due to the terrible tension dominating their bodies.
For a moment as a suffocating silence flowed.
Tak.
Cheon-hwi’s steps stopped.
It was below the window where the Evil Ghost Gang Leader was.
When Cheon-hwi stopped walking, the sound of exhaling breaths could be heard from here and there.
It was only twenty steps.
However, those twenty steps felt like an eternity to them.
As Cheon-hwi slowly raised his head.
“K-Kill that bastard! Kill him right now!”
The Evil Ghost Gang Leader shouted in terror.
However, despite his shout, no one moved. No, they could not move.
Cheon-hwi scanned the Evil Ghost Gang members and twisted his lips.
“If you’re coming, come.”
As his chilling voice spread everywhere.
“Uaaaak!”
Those who were prematurely terrified ran away.
In an instant, only Cheon-hwi was left in the manor.
“Your subordinates have no loyalty.”
The Evil Ghost Gang Leader’s face turned pale.
The energy carried in that voice just now made even him want to run away.
‘W-What kind of murderous intent is this…….’
Swallowing dry saliva, he tightly gripped his weapons, the Blood Twin Axes, in his two hands as if to break them.
The familiar sensation of the Blood Twin Axes was felt in his hands, but far from feeling relieved, it felt as if his fear was soaring up.
He shook his head vigorously.
It was too obvious what would happen if he was consumed by fear in this situation right now.
Soon, before having more complicated thoughts, he infused internal energy into the Blood Twin Axes.
A faint astral qi settled on the axes.
“Haaap!”
He spat out a rough shout.
That was the Lion’s Roar containing his resolve and his will to chase away the fear.
Uuuuung…
As the axes began to cry from the internal energy he completely spat out, he swung them roughly.
The skin of his palms gripping the Blood Twin Axes could not handle the speed and tore.
The wounds stung, but he did not stop.
“Dieee!”
With a roar, he unfolded the Twin Dragons Churning Axes with all his strength again.
In an instant, a sharp wave of qi erupted from his Blood Twin Axes with the illusion of red snakes appearing.
Sswaeaek…
Two snakes crossed as if to split Cheon-hwi’s crown in the manor.
Watching the snakes flying in with their jaws open, Cheon-hwi raised his sword.
“First, the Martial Training Pavilion Lord’s share.”
Seugeok!
Blood soared into the sky.
Kung…
The arm holding the axe fell to the ground belatedly and convulsed finely.
“M-My arm! Uaaaaak!”
The Evil Ghost Gang Leader let out a scream at the terrible agony felt from his arm.
“One isn’t enough, you see.”
An indifferent voice burrowed into his ears as his saliva-covered mouth opened wide.
Before he knew when he had come to the second floor, Cheon-hwi was looking down.
A chilling glint in his eyes shone.
It was transparent because it contained no emotion, but because of that, it was terrifying.
“I should take two.”
Cheon-hwi, who spoke in a monotonous voice, erupted a terrible murderous intent. The Evil Ghost Gang Leader, who was thrashing in agony, lost his words.
No, his mind went completely blank.
Cheon-hwi’s sword was lifted.
The sword tip passed by the Evil Ghost Gang Leader’s eyes and headed for his right thigh.
“N-No…….”
“Yes.”
Cheon-hwi slashed the thigh.
“Kkeuaaaak!”
The Evil Ghost Gang Leader thrashed about.
However, Cheon-hwi silently looked down at him running wild and twisted his lips open.
“Now, is what’s left Jeok-geom’s share.”
Cheon-hwi sheathed his sword.
And slowly lifted his foot.
Ppagak!
Following that, he stepped on the abdomen of the Evil Ghost Gang Leader running wild on the floor as if crushing it.
The sole of the foot laden with internal energy shook his lower dantian violently, then shattered the vessel.
“Kuheok!”
Vomit and blood erupted from his mouth.
Soon, unable to endure the excessive agony, he fainted in that state.
“You can’t die peacefully like this.”
Cheon-hwi loaded internal energy into his toes and stopped the flowing blood.
Looking at him who was trembling and still breathing, he scanned the surroundings.
“I don’t see the female expert and the peak experts that Jeok-geom mentioned.”
It was a strange thing.
The joint operation of Mount Hua and Zhongnan was not much different from the current surprise attack.
But at that time, they were already waiting for the attack, and now they were nowhere to be seen as if they had fled.
‘It seems someone leaked the information.’
Cheon-hwi’s eyes became fierce.
‘I don’t know who it is, but if I find out…….’
A cold smile hovered around his mouth.
After a moment, he raised his head.
Looking at the full moon still floating in the night sky, Cheon-hwi unfolded the Flying Heaven Footwork.
“First, shall I return before it’s late.”
* * *
Shaanxi was in the midst of an uproar.
The story that two places of the Nine Great Sects and One Gang, the Zhongnan Sect and the Mount Hua Sect, carried out a joint operation and were defeated spread at an astonishing speed.
Most of the people who first heard this rumor dismissed it as a false rumor.
However, when the Zhongnan Sect and the Mount Hua Sect maintained their silence without refuting it, they realized the rumor was true.
Everyone’s attention was focused on Shaanxi.
Mount Hua and Zhongnan, which had raised their prestige by exterminating the White Ghost Castle, failed to deal with an unnamed evil sect.
There could be no better prey for the gossips of Jianghu than this.
They, who loved to exaggerate rumors, soon separately named and praised the four evil sects where Zhongnan and Mount Hua were defeated.
Under the name of the Four Supreme Powers of Sinju.
However, before the name of the Four Supreme Powers of Sinju was widely known, another rumor was spreading widely.
‘The Evil Ghost Gang Leader became a cripple!’
A few people could not believe it.
Because the Evil Ghost Gang was precisely one of those Four Supreme Powers of Sinju.
On top of that, who was the Evil Ghost Gang Leader.
He was the expert who had recently defeated the Flowing Cloud Swordsman and the Plum Blossom Swordsman of the Mount Hua Sect.
Recently, because he handled two axes like a ghost, he was even about to be given the title of Twin Ghost Axes.
To think that such a person was a cripple.
However, before they could even harbor doubts, the rumor proved to be true.
Because the Twin Ghost Axes was seen receiving treatment from a physician without one leg and one arm.
“S-Senior Brother Jeok-geom. Did you hear? They say the Evil Ghost Gang Leader became a cripple.”
“I heard it too.”
Jeok-geom answered with a complex expression.
It was because while it served him right that his sworn enemy, the Evil Ghost Gang Leader, ended up like that, a doubt arose.
“Who in the world did that?”
Seol Ran’s question was precisely that.
The Evil Ghost Gang Leader he personally experienced showed amazing skills.
It would be difficult if it wasn’t an ordinary expert.
‘Could it be!’
For a moment, his gaze headed toward Cheon-hwi, who was taking the luck-gathering breathing technique on the peak.
But soon he shook his head.
‘That can’t be.’
It took at least three days to go from Mount Hua to the Evil Ghost Gang and back.
‘No matter if it’s Martial Uncle, it would be impossible to go and come back in the middle of the night.’
Meanwhile, Cheon-hwi, who was taking the luck-gathering breathing technique, smiled while recalling the events of last night.
‘Now I feel somewhat refreshed.’
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