Chapter 35: Chapter 35
The time of Jashi when the moon rose brightly.
As the sun that had illuminated the world hid its appearance, the blue moonlight of the rising moon began to faintly dye the world in its stead.
Among the places being dyed as if intoxicated by the moonlight, an annex of the Flying Wind Merchant Guild was included.
The moonlight that squeezed in through the gap of the slightly open window warmly enveloped Cheon-hwi, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed.
It was then.
Seureureuk…
Cheon-hwi’s closed eyes opened.
Was it because he opened his eyes urgently?
His two pupils, containing internal energy that had not yet been properly reined in, shone even more brilliantly than the pouring moonlight.
Following that, his lips slowly opened.
“I thought you were quietly holding your breath…”
Releasing his cross-legged position, he raised his body.
After that, half-opening his eyes and tilting his head, he looked at the wild mountain.
The wild mountain submerged in darkness was silent.
However, in his vision, the presences hidden within the silence were clearly visible.
Wicked and dirty presences.
He grabbed the sword he had lightly left resting on the bed.
“They gathered on their own.”
As if he had no thought of hiding it, Cheon-hwi moved while staring at the gazes and killing intent directed toward this place.
The moment he lightly stomped his foot.
Tak.
The scenery changed in an instant.
The walls of the room that had blocked all directions disappeared from his vision at some point, and instead, the wild mountain filled with bushes and trees entered.
Feeling the cool wind brushing his cheeks, he looked around and advanced for a moment.
“…Tonight, the Flying Wind Merchant Guild will be erased from the world.”
“Your orders!”
At the resounding shout, he hurried his steps.
Those densely gathered in the darkness came into view. Whether it was to hide their bodies in the darkness, those wearing pitch-black night clothes easily exceeded fifty even with a rough count.
‘Fifty? Sixty? About that many.’
After simply counting the numbers.
Hwik…
He revealed his appearance in front of them.
“What are you doing here?”
“…!”
At the suddenly appearing shadow and words, Silver-Hand Beheader and the Soul-Slaying Squad reflexively widened the distance between each other and then surrounded Cheon-hwi.
‘They are quite well trained, aren’t they?’
Cheon-hwi scanned those who were surrounding him and stopped his gaze on Silver-Hand Beheader, who was secretly hiding his momentum among them.
The only person not wearing a mask.
He hid it as best he could, but the atmosphere and momentum naturally oozing from his body could not escape his eyes.
As soon as he grasped from the circumstances that he was the leader, he looked at him and opened his mouth.
“I asked what are you doing?”
“…”
“Looks like it’s difficult for you to say?”
He mocked as he looked at them.
However, they did not react.
Whether they were maintaining their composure even at the provocation, they neither laughed nor flared up.
However, he knew.
That guys like these were exactly the ones who had no leeway in their hearts, and whose composure would break quickly.
Suddenly, he stared at one guy.
The pupils of the one closest among those surrounding him were looking at him, filled with tension and vigilance.
He lifted his index finger and pointed at him.
Whether he was flustered by the sudden pointing, the moment his pupils slightly shook.
A puk sound burst out.
In a brief moment, the man whose forehead had a hole pierced with a plum blossom pattern engraved in it threw his head back with a bewildered expression, not knowing what on earth had happened.
Kung.
He collapsed backward.
For a moment, silence flowed.
It was a silence different from just before.
The surrounding air, which had been full of vigilance, had somehow sunk coldly.
It was then.
“It was you.”
The person presumed to be the leader stepped forward.
Cheon-hwi met eyes with the two pupils visible through the mask.
“What? Were you just keeping your mouth shut? I thought you were mute.”
A mockery that wasn’t quite a mockery.
However, the leader, Silver-Hand Beheader, although surprised by the previous strike, did not have his composure shaken by this much yet.
“Did you kill my subordinates?”
“If you mean your subordinates, isn’t it those guys?”
Cheon-hwi, who purposely tilted his head, let out a smirk and added his words.
“Ah! Were the bugs that sneaked into the Flying Wind Merchant Guild also your subordinates? If you mean those bugs, I did kill them all.”
Silver-Hand Beheader’s eyebrows shot up.
The Soul-Slaying Squad was his pride that had allowed him to snag the position of the Western Lord among the Four Directional Lords of the White Ghost Castle.
But bugs?
Having his pride wounded, his gaze grew fierce.
However, he did not move hastily.
The finger wind seen briefly just before. That finger wind was by no means an ordinary martial art.
‘Who is this guy?’
Seeing the Daoist robe he wore, Silver-Hand Beheader’s eyes flashed.
‘Plum blossom? Mount Hua Sect! If so, the Plum Blossom Swordsman staying at the Flying Wind Merchant Guild? No, there was no such guy among the Plum Blossom Swordsmen. If so, the young Daoist staying in the annex?’
Having grasped Cheon-hwi’s identity in an instant, he opened his mouth as if to feel him out.
“So you were an expert of the Mount Hua Sect.”
However, that was a bitter mistake.
Cheon-hwi retorted to the words that Silver-Hand Beheader, who had been constantly racking his brain, had barely spat out.
“And you are from the White Ghost Castle.”
“…!”
He glared his two eyes at the words that came in suddenly.
“That’s right. I thought that would be the case.”
“…Did you feel me out?”
“It was almost a certainty.”
Cheon-hwi smiled and said.
It was a question filled with certainty from the beginning anyway. Since he had already figured it out when the assassins had secretly sneaked in.
‘Besides, the only ones who would aim for the Flying Wind Merchant Guild right now is the White Ghost Castle, which the Supreme King Sect Leader said was behind them.’
However, Silver-Hand Beheader, not knowing such thoughts of Cheon-hwi, had his already complicated head become even more complicated.
‘How did he know we came from the White Ghost Castle?’
Suddenly, an assumption came to mind.
‘Could it be that the Mount Hua Sect had noticed early on that the White Ghost Castle was interfering!’
Silver-Hand Beheader’s eyes deepened.
All his questions were resolved one after another, like a tangled ball of thread unraveling.
Soon, he frowned and said.
“Did you already figure out that our castle would strike the Flying Wind Merchant Guild? So the moment the Supreme King Sect’s initial plan failed, you expected us to move again and even set a trap.”
“Trap?”
At Silver-Hand Beheader, who was deeply misunderstanding, Cheon-hwi made a dumbfounded expression and said.
“Why would I set a trap for the likes of you.”
“Are you pretending not to know now?”
Silver-Hand Beheader did not believe it.
No, he had no intention of believing it.
“Then you must have also prepared thoroughly in the Flying Wind Merchant Guild against the raid right now.”
Cheon-hwi shook his head from side to side.
‘We can’t communicate.’
He was firmly mistaken.
And he was completely certain that his delusion was the truth.
“Think whatever you like.”
Cheon-hwi casually tossed his words.
It was annoying to deal with him any longer.
However, Silver-Hand Beheader, as if taking those words as an affirmation, glared sideways and sent a sharp killing intent.
“However, right now, you and the Mount Hua Sect have made a mistake.”
Silver-Hand Beheader, who was saying everything on his own, spread both his hands wide like wings.
As if that was some kind of unspoken signal, the momentum of the Soul-Slaying Squad began to change rapidly.
Their killing intent creeping up and gradually encroaching within the heavy air.
Harboring his own killing intent just like the members of the Soul-Slaying Squad, he added his words.
“If you had run away, you would have at least preserved your body, but to come directly to the tiger’s den.”
However, Cheon-hwi was indifferent.
This kind of killing intent didn’t even leave a scratch.
Instead, out of curiosity, he looked at him and asked.
“By the way, you talk quite a lot?”
When Cheon-hwi was looking at him in wonder as to how he had been holding it in earlier when he talked this much.
Seureureuk…
Just in time, the moonlight shone on Silver-Hand Beheader.
His face was not ordinary.
His left cheek was full of burn scars, and he had no hair.
However, that appearance soon fell out of sight.
His pupils filled with a ghostly aura that overwhelmed his unfamiliar appearance, and his distorted expression.
In particular, the ghostly aura mixed with the blue moonlight, bringing a chill that blended into the air.
A moment later, his lips opened.
“Hide the soul within the kill.”
The moment those words ended.
Hwaaak!
A terrible killing intent swallowed the wild mountain, and the bodies of the Soul-Slaying Squad members gradually blurred.
To be precise, their presences were buried by their massive killing intent that filled the wild mountain.
Soon, in the place where numerous people had disappeared, only the two of them, Cheon-hwi and Silver-Hand Beheader, remained.
Ssiik…
Silver-Hand Beheader formed a faint smile.
Following that, his presence blurred, and his figure seeped into the darkness.
“Open your two eyes wide and look clearly. The true appearance of the Soul-Slaying Squad…”
Even his voice gradually grew smaller and soon scattered.
“…”
Silence flowed.
Cheon-hwi looked around.
The sixty Soul-Slaying Squad members who had surrounded him disappeared, and soon even the last remaining Silver-Hand Beheader hid his appearance.
As if their surrounding him just before was a fleeting dream.
However, that was only when looking from the outside.
In his vision, it was clearly visible.
The beating hearts despite having killed their breaths, killed their presences, and killed everything.
‘How boring.’
Cheon-hwi, who was enjoying the sudden silence, recalled the words Silver-Hand Beheader had said just before, and smiled without realizing it.
“So this is the true appearance of the Soul-Slaying Squad?”
It was a remark leaking with laughter.
He had never seen a single proper guy among those who talked about a ‘true appearance’ or ‘true skill’.
Whether it was the guys who defied him, or launched a surprise attack.
Or the clan he had personally exterminated.
Even the guys who had plotted dark schemes to vigilantly threaten and take his position.
They were all insignificant and not worth a look.
And right now, he was feeling that again. Even these guys surrounding him, who were certain they had perfectly deceived his five senses, were the same.
‘Only their mouths are alive.’
“About sixty assassins…”
Cheon-hwi, who was looking around, nodded as if he had just remembered something.
“Then should I unfold that?”
Cheon-hwi’s hand gripped the sword he had never drawn once since venturing into the Jianghu.
Seureureung…
He revealed the pure white sword body to the world.
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