Chapter 36: Chapter 36
Hwiii…
A cool wind swept across the wild mountain.
In the quiet forest overgrown with bushes and trees, a handsome young man stood holding a sword.
Whenever the wind blew, the bizarre black and red Daoist robe worn by the handsome young man fluttered, and the red plum blossom patterns mixed with the blue moonlight, emitting a dreamy color.
Seu-euk…
The handsome young man, Cheon-hwi, lightly gripped the White Lotus Sword he had drawn for the first time since his appearance in the murim.
In an instant, the surrounding air shook.
No, it was the fluctuating emotions of the Soul Slaying Squad members, who were hiding in the darkness and surrounding him, flowing through the air.
Sharply edged vigilance.
Thick murderous intent filled with confidence.
And even the anxious feeling of not knowing what would happen from now on.
Their complex feelings and emotions, both positive and negative, were transmitted to him through the air.
‘Right. This is it.’
The corners of Cheon-hwi’s eyes, holding the sword, curved up.
He liked this feeling right now.
The cool and cold sensation felt in his palm gripping the sword.
And the thick murderous intent directed at him now and the sharply tense atmosphere elevated him, who had been steeped in peace.
But soon he erased his smile.
And he quickly scanned his surroundings.
‘A total of fifty-seven.’
After grasping all the presences of the secretly hidden Soul Slaying Squad members, he raised his internal energy.
Then, the internal energy of the Plum Blossom Divine Art, which had been tightly clumped in his lower dantian, manifested, and a transparent airflow was created, wrapping around him.
The materialized power was soon transferred to his hand, and eventually touched the sword body.
Internal energy that no one else but him could see began to permeate into the beautiful sword body reflecting the moonlight.
Seu-eu-eu…
The momentum slowly spread out like smoke.
“……!”
The bodies of the Soul Slaying Squad members, who had been holding their breath waiting for Cheon-hwi to show an opening, stiffened.
The Hidden Hand Executioner was also the same.
His face, which had been blankly watching the series of actions Cheon-hwi took, slightly hardened.
He didn’t know the reason.
Even though he was just watching, there was a sense of pressure felt.
It was crushing their bodies as if it were a preordained providence from the beginning.
When they couldn’t even move a single finger.
Seu-euk…
Cheon-hwi moved his eyes and looked into the empty air.
Towards the one hidden in the pitch-black darkness.
‘Don’t tell me… me right now?’
For a moment, the Hidden Hand Executioner’s eyes wavered.
The stealth art he was unfolding right now, the Ghost Breath Manifestation Art, was what had elevated the Hidden Hand Executioner, who used to be a mere assassin, to a master of the murim, and to his current position.
But now, the Ghost Breath Manifestation Art was broken.
And by a mere young Daoist at that.
‘He is a dangerous guy!’
He quickly sent a sound transmission to the Soul Slaying Squad.
『Kill that guy.』
When his command through sound transmission reached them, the atmosphere of the Soul Slaying Squad completely changed.
Those who had been scattered in all directions exuding sharp momentum looked as if they had finished all preparations to attack now.
It was then.
Seu-euk…
Cheon-hwi raised his sword and pointed upwards.
He didn’t swing it though.
He merely silently pointed at the sky swallowed by darkness, at the moon hanging brilliantly.
However, that changed the atmosphere.
Cheon-hwi’s eye light flashed.
Just when the pitch-black pupils fallen into the abyss like a bottomless pit were about to swallow even the darkness.
Seu-euk…
The sword was swung.
Hwa-a-a-ak!
A massive power surged into the sky.
Afterward, the moment the Soul Slaying Squad crumpled their faces at the fiercely raging storm of power.
“……?!”
They fell into shock.
High in the sky, an uncountable number of sword shapes existed in the air.
While emitting a blood-red light.
The red radiance spreading out with the swords at the center brought about the illusion that plum blossoms had bloomed in the empty air.
Perhaps because it was a sense of heterogeneity that something that should never exist in this world existed, the red sword shadows were beautiful yet eerie as they harmonized with the moonlight.
“How is it? Isn’t it quite beautiful?”
At that time, Cheon-hwi’s voice flowed in.
While the Soul Slaying Squad even forgot to attack Cheon-hwi and were blankly staring at the sword shadows above their heads.
‘What are you all doing! Get a grip!’
The Hidden Hand Executioner, who was the first to regain his senses, urgently sent a sound transmission to the Soul Slaying Squad.
『These guys……!』
However, his sound transmission didn’t reach the Soul Slaying Squad, who had already lost their minds, at all.
Kka-deuk!
The Hidden Hand Executioner, grinding his teeth, eventually couldn’t endure it any longer and let out his real voice.
“It’s an Evil Art. Get a grip!”
Perhaps having regained their senses at the voice laden with internal energy, vitality flowed into the eyes of the Soul Slaying Squad.
As soon as the Hidden Hand Executioner grasped that brief change, he sent a stronger sound transmission.
『Do not act rashly!』
The stiffened Soul Slaying Squad nodded their heads.
The Hidden Hand Executioner, who was looking at the Soul Slaying Squad that had returned to their original calm state, once again completely erased his presence.
『Attack when you see an opening.』
The Hidden Hand Executioner earnestly requested while flowing a sound transmission to every single member of the Soul Slaying Squad.
Following that, when he was about to lead the Soul Slaying Squad and move to target Cheon-hwi’s opening.
“An Evil Art? Well, think as you please.”
Cheon-hwi spoke as if it was no big deal.
Rather, he thought it was amusing.
The White Ghost Castle was an Unorthodox Faction, yet the situation was amusing since they were calling it an Evil Art.
“Then, I wonder what kind of Evil Art that sword shadow is? A dream? Or an illusion? If not that, what else was there.”
The Soul Slaying Squad reacted to the teasing tone.
“Then I will show it to you so you can easily find out.”
While watching that, he added to what he was saying.
“Look closely.”
With the words, he slashed the sword down.
The Fifth Form of the Seven Absolutes Plum Blossom Sword.
Falling Plum Heavenly Rain Flower.
Huu-woong!
The sword shadows floating high in the sky fell.
It was an enchanting spectacle as if flowers were falling like rain from the night sky.
A captivating appearance that caught the eye.
However, the result was disastrous.
The first sword shadow that fell in the blink of an eye touched the Thirteenth Soul’s head.
Peok!
Blood and brains splattered.
“……!”
The nearby Soul Slaying Squad members, who were covered in the soggy brains and blood, glared their eyes.
Along with that, they raised their heads.
The sword shadows were plugging down onto the heads of themselves, who were hiding their presences.
Only then did they realize that the number of sword shadows perfectly matched their own numbers.
‘O-Our locations were exposed!’
In an instant, they had a premonition of death.
Soon, the terrified ones put strength into the soles of their feet without anyone having the chance to speak.
That was the instinct they had forgotten while living as members of the Soul Slaying Squad.
The instinct to live.
However, the already fallen sword shadows had arrived at the crowns of their heads.
Peok! Peok! Peok! Peok!
The cheerful sounds like watermelons bursting echoed simultaneously.
However, there was not a single scream.
Because all of them had lost their lives in a single breath.
Cheon-hwi, who was watching their corpses that had been hiding their appearances in the darkness be revealed one by one, opened his mouth.
“This much is quite decent.”
He evaluated the effectiveness of the Falling Plum Heavenly Rain Flower.
The Falling Plum Heavenly Rain Flower, which was the extreme of the Illusion Sword, flowed power to bloom the illusion swords called sword shadows, and mercilessly severed the opponents’ lives.
‘As expected, the true might is revealed only when martial arts are unfolded for the sake of killing.’
Cheon-hwi smiled in satisfaction.
It was his first time unfolding the Falling Plum Heavenly Rain Flower, no, the Seven Absolutes Plum Blossom Sword itself in order to kill opponents.
And he liked the result.
“Isn’t it the same from your perspective?”
Cheon-hwi’s gaze moved to the side.
At that moment, the pitch-black darkness seemed to sway, and soon split in half.
“Keok!”
Through the darkness, the Hidden Hand Executioner, whose entire body was covered in blood, revealed his appearance. Whether it was painful to breathe, he grabbed his chest with his hand and flopped down on his knees.
At the time Cheon-hwi was speaking while looking at him.
Flinch…
The Hidden Hand Executioner’s back heaved once.
“U-we-ek… “
Having vomited the blood that was inside him, he grabbed his chest with a haggard appearance.
‘W-What on earth was that just now…….’
His head was dizzy.
Was it because he saw a fragment of a sword form that faintly deviated from the realm of understanding?
Even his breath was choked.
‘Is there such a wide-range martial art? And perfectly grasping the locations of the Soul Slaying Squad that had killed their presences and killing them by matching exactly…….’
He repeatedly pondered in his thoughts.
But it was useless.
Two things seen in the sword form he just unfolded were realms of incomprehension.
In the end, there was only one way to know.
Raising his head with a swoosh, he glared at Cheon-hwi and smacked his lips.
“W-Who are you?”
Cheon-hwi smirked while looking down at him with a pale complexion.
“Who am I, didn’t you just call me a Daoist of the Mount Hua Sect a moment ago?”
“No…… That can’t be. You are not a Daoist of the Mount Hua Sect.”
The Hidden Hand Executioner immediately shook his head.
How could one called a Daoist of the Mount Hua Sect show such a cruel sword form and harbor such a smile amidst the corpses!
“There’s no way someone who shows such cruel hands is a Daoist of the Mount Hua Sect…….”
“If you can’t believe it, then don’t.”
Cheon-hwi spoke as if it was no big deal.
Whether he denied it or whatever, he had no interest.
While doing so, he nodded his head briefly, and smiled while glaring at the Hidden Hand Executioner’s sleeve.
“What are you hesitating for?”
“……!”
The Hidden Hand Executioner’s two eyes widened.
At Cheon-hwi’s expression and tone that seemed as if he knew exactly what he was going to do, the Hidden Hand Executioner tightly bit his lips.
Pa-at!
The sleeve fluttered.
Following that, he poured out all of his still remaining internal energy, and made it collide on both sides centering around the flying blade.
Ppa-ji-jik…
The moment the lightning qi wrapped around the flying blade.
Pu-syuk!
The flying blade was shot like lightning.
The Hidden Hand Executioner shone his eyes.
What he just unfolded was the Flying Lightning Blade, an absolute martial art that had made him the Western Branch Lord of the White Ghost Castle even though he was an assassin.
‘No matter how much of an absolute master you are, you cannot avoid heavy injuries at the very least!’
When the Hidden Hand Executioner was talking big.
‘Hoo, it’s a novel internal energy operation?’
Cheon-hwi stared at the flying blade that had come right under his nose, and paid attention to the internal energy operation the Hidden Hand Executioner showed just before.
‘Dividing internal energy into two streams?’
It was a quite interesting method.
In an instant, a smile spread across his mouth.
‘Even this guy unfolds a martial art I don’t know like this, so how many martial arts I don’t know must there be in the present world.’
Feeling elated just by the thought, he lightly snatched the flying blade flying towards him.
Deob-sseok…
The Hidden Hand Executioner fell on his bottom.
“……H-How did you stop the Flying Lightning Blade!”
“Is the martial art’s name Flying Lightning Blade?”
Cheon-hwi looked down at him, who was drooling with his mouth wide open, and then spread his palm wide and looked at the snatched flying blade.
The flying blade was glowing red as if it had been heated in a fire several times.
“Aha, so you collided internal energy and shot out the flying blade through it.”
Cheon-hwi, who grasped the internal energy operation method of the Flying Lightning Blade, immediately loaded his internal energy.
Ppa-ji-jik…
Sparks popping out from the flying blade.
“……!”
The Hidden Hand Executioner, who was watching that sight, widened his eyes to the point where they seemed to pop out.
It was the sparks he had barely created only after devoting ten years of time.
However, a person who didn’t even know the Flying Lightning Blade, a person who had merely seen it once, created the sparks at once.
“Y-You are…….”
“Like this, right?”
Cheon-hwi threw the flying blade with his words.
Puk!
The flying blade shot like a flash of light pierced through the Hidden Hand Executioner’s head, and then got stuck in the ground.
“Is this the F-Flying Lightning Blade……?”
The Hidden Hand Executioner mumbled at the might of the Flying Lightning Blade that was on a different level from what he unfolded, and his vision gradually darkened.
Soon his soul escaped his physical body.
Teol-sseok…
The physical body left with only its shell collapsed.
Cheon-hwi stared at the Hidden Hand Executioner’s corpse with intriguing eyes and smiled.
“As expected, one must come out to the murim.”
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