chapter 293

Even with Eyes, Unable to Recognize a Person (3)

“Die!”

One of the attackers rushed towards Lee Gwak, and swung his sword at him

Thud!

“Ugh!”

But with a crashing sound, he was hurled back at twice the speed he had charged.

The attacker convulsed, foaming at the mouth, and then lost consciousness.

Lee Gwak passed by the fallen man without a second glance.

He didn’t even draw the blade he was holding.

For such opponents, his leaf hand blade was more than enough.

Lee Gwak suddenly looked back.

Lee Cheong, alongside the other vagrants, was fending off the attackers with commendable skill. Being exceptionally agile and quick-witted, he was taking good care of himself.

It seemed there was no need to worry about Lee Cheong.

Lee Gwak quickened his pace.

As he approached, the man and woman standing on the hill reacted.

The reaction of the masked man was particularly sharp.

“Hmph! So you have eyes to see, after all!!”

A sharp aura emanated from his entire body.

The aura was so piercing that even the woman next to him flinched. Yet her reaction wasn’t directed at the man’s aura.

Her gaze was locked on Lee Gwak as he drew closer.

Behind her mask, the woman’s eyes trembled. She had recognized Lee Gwak.

Why are you here?

She unconsciously bit her lip. That’s how shocked she was by the appearance of Lee Gwak.

In contrast, the man beside her had no idea who Lee Gwak was. Instead, he recklessly launched an attack.

Swish!

The sword hanging from his waist was drawn like lightning.

Until now, countless martial artists had lost their lives to his quick sword before they even realized it.

He thought it would be the same this time.

Already, his sword had reached Lee Gwak’s throat.

Clang!

At that moment, a sound that shouldn’t have been heard rang out.

Simultaneously, his sword, which was about to pierce Lee Gwak’s throat, bounced upward. Lee Gwak had deflected it with his sheathed blade.

“Not bad…”

A twisted smile formed at the corner of the man’s mouth.

His opponent’s reaction was impressive, but it wasn’t beyond his calculations.

It wasn’t the first time an opponent had surprised him with such a response. But they all fell eventually.

No one had survived more than three moves of his Poison Hand Demon Sword. He believed it would be no different this time.

Whoosh!

The blade, knocked away, curved gracefully through the air and aimed once more at Lee Gwak’s vital points. True to the name Poison Hand Demon Sword, his swordsmanship was vicious beyond measure.

Every moment, every second was lethal, and all his moves persistently targeted the opponent’s vital points.

The man’s sword moved toward Lee Gwak’s throat like a venomous snake.

Clang!

Yet again, a metallic ring shattered the air.

The man’s eyes widened in disbelief.

His sword, which was aiming for Lee Gwak’s neck, was blocked by Lee Gwak’s blade.

He hadn’t even unsheathed it. Lee Gwak had blocked the man’s attack with just the scabbard of his blade. The resulting shock sent a numbing pain through the man’s arm and shoulder.

Lee Gwak didn’t miss that opening.

Using the Revolving Steps, he closed in on the man’s chest. Startled, the man hastily tried to defend, but he was too slow to match Lee Gwak’s movements.

Crunch!

“Ugh!”

Lee Gwak’s leaf hand blade struck the man’s chest.

His collarbone and part of his ribcage shattered as the man spat out blood. The black mask was instantly dyed red with his blood.

“Chief Jang!”

The woman caught the collapsing man with one arm while extending her other hand towards Lee Gwak.  A powerful wave of qi surged towards him.

At that moment, Lee Gwak waved his hand as if swatting a fly.

Thud!

The woman’s eyes widened.

She had infused her palm strike with eight levels of internal energy. At this level, it could pulverize an ordinary rock in an instant. But Lee Gwak had extinguished her palm qi just by waving his hand.

Overwhelmed by Lee Gwak’s unimaginable prowess, the woman felt momentarily dizzy.

‘This can’t be!’

Ssst!

At that moment, a sharp sound of something slicing through the air echoed.

The woman felt as if all the hairs on her body stood on end, and she instinctively closed her eyes.

She anticipated her death.

But she didn’t feel any pain.

Instead, she felt a sense of emptiness on her face.

She slowly opened her eyes to find that the mask covering her face had been cut away and was gone. Yet, not a single scratch was on her face.

It was a terrifyingly precise display of bladesmanship.

The woman looked at Lee Gwak with a resigned expression.

Had she known he was here, she would never have come with such limited forces. That’s how formidable a warrior Lee Gwak was.

Unlike her companions, she was aware of his fearsome reputation.

The woman appeared to be in her early to mid-thirties, with a voluptuous figure and eyes brimming with sensuality. Though she was tense now, a single smile from her would captivate most men.

At that moment, Lee Gwak sheathed his blade and spoke.

“It’s been a long time.”

“You… remember me?”

“How could I not? You were the first person that brother Jin-Hwi introduced me to.”

“Haah!”

The woman let out a sigh.

Her face showed a mixture of emotions.

She was too embarrassed to look directly at Lee Gwak.

“Why are you here? Branch Chief Su-Wol.”

The woman’s name was Su-Wol.

Long ago, Lee Gwak had been dispatched as an outer hall squad leader of the Jade Heaven Alliance to the Myriad Merchant Troupe. At that time, he had visited the black market with Ki Jin-Hwi.

Back then, the branch chief of the black market was Su-Wol.

Because she seemed to have known Ki Jin-Hwi for a long time, Lee Gwak remembered her face clearly.

“Why are you here? What about the black market?”

“Hoo! It’s because of you, Brother Lee.”

“What do you mean?”

“Because of you, the White Light Sect suffered a huge blow and was eventually destroyed by the Jade Heaven Alliance.”

“What does that have to do with the black market?”

“The black market was run by the Black Merchants of White Light Sect. With the force that protected the black market gone, we had no choice but to seek survival on our own.”

“Then, does that mean the Black Merchants are still operational?”

“They’re not fully functional. Since their source of funds is cut off.”

“So you tried to secure funding by attacking the Unsan Escort Agency? To steal the gold bars?”

“That’s right.”

Su-Wol answered honestly.

In this situation, she couldn’t deceive him even if she wanted to. She judged that being honest was better at times like this.

“The gold bars that the Unsan Escort Agency is transporting belong to the Myriad Merchant Troupe. The Myriad Merchant Troupe is sending funds to the Nine Dragons Clan.”

“Why doesn’t the Myriad Merchant Troupe transport it themselves?”

“Because of the surveillance by the Jade Heaven Alliance. If they transport it directly, it’s easy to get caught in their surveillance network, so they use the Unsan Escort Agency. To maintain secrecy, they deliberately chose a medium-sized agency like the Unsan Escort Agency. It’s less noticeable than a large escort agency.”

“The black merchants exploited that loophole?”

“That’s right. We considered all the variables, but we didn’t expect that you, Master Lee,would be here. Sigh!”

Su-Wol let out a small sigh.

She had an expression of complete resignation.

If the opponent were someone else, she might have tried to resist, but since it was Lee Gwak, she couldn’t even dare.

The reason the White Light Sect collapsed was because it clashed with the man before her.

There was no way a mere branch chief like herself could handle someone who had destroyed the White Light Sect, which was like an umbrella to the Black Merchants.

The man she was supporting was a top martial artist within the Black Merchants, yet he couldn’t withstand even a single moment against Lee Gwak.

Even if she focused all her forces on him, victory was uncertain.

Their forces were sufficient to seize the gold, but woefully inadequate to confront Lee Gwak alone.

Such was the overwhelming might of the man before her.

Lee Gwak said, “Take your subordinates and withdraw.”

“You’re not going to kill me?”

“If I did, Brother Jin-hwi would be saddened.”

He recalled meeting Su-wol with Ki Jin-hwi long ago. He couldn’t forget the look in Ki Jin-hwi’s eyes as he gazed at her.

A mix of regret and affection.

Though they parted years ago, it was clear Ki Jin-hwi hadn’t forgotten her.

Su-wol asked, “Is Brother doing well?”

“I don’t think this is the time to discuss it. It’s a long story.”

At his reply, Su-wol bit her lip gently.

“I will come to visit quietly later.”

Phew.. Phew

She let out a long whistle.

Immediately, the attackers who had been battling the escorts of the Unsan Escort Agency withdrew like receding tides.

“What the…?”

“Are we… alive?”

The escort guards and vagrants, who had been fiercely fighting, looked bewildered.

The battle had been turning against them. They were barely holding on, and had it continued, they would have been defeated. They had braced themselves for death but never expected the enemy to retreat on their own.

“Hah! Hah!”

“Ugh!”

As the enemies fully retreated, the survivors collapsed to the ground, their legs giving out.

But not everyone was like that.

Head guard Go Chang-seon and Seol Cheon-bok looked at Lee Gwak with puzzled expressions. It was Lee Gwak who had fought the enemy leaders.

They hadn’t seen clearly due to the intense battle, but they knew he had taken down one of the two leaders and seemed to have conversed with the other.

They weren’t sure if the enemies withdrew because of something he said, but one thing was clear.

Lee Gwak was a far greater master than they had imagined.

Seol Cheon-bok muttered, “He wasn’t a wolf but a tiger.”

Lee Gwak was returning.

Everyone else was drenched in sweat or blood, but he didn’t even appear out of breath.

“Father!”

Lee Cheong ran to him and hugged him.

Lifting him up, Lee Gwak asked, “Are you hurt?”

“No.”

He shook his head.

Many had died or been injured, but like his father, Lee Cheong didn’t have a single scratch.

Thanks to his nimbleness, Lee Cheong had skillfully evaded the enemies’ attacks. That alone was praise worthy.

Lee Gwak patted Lee Cheong gently on the back, commending him.

“Well done.”

“Are you hurt, Father?”

“I’m fine.”

“That’s a relief.”

Only then did Lee Cheong breathe a sigh of relief.

He hadn’t truly believed that this level of force could harm Lee Gwak, but some part of him had still worried.

Just as Lee Gwak always worried about Lee Chung, Lee Chung always worried about his father’s well-being.

Lee Gwak, holding Lee Cheong, returned to where the Unsan Escort Agency was.

The situation of the Unsan Escort Agency was disastrous.

Twenty people, including escort guards and vagrants, had lost their lives, and the survivors all had varying degrees of injuries.

Those who were relatively unscathed were Nam Woo-Chang and Nam Jin-woon, who had been riding in the carriage.

Leader Go Chang-Seon was also heavily injured and was bleeding.

All the wounds he had received were from fighting to protect Nam Woo-Chang and his nephew.

Go Chang-Seon approached Lee Gwak.

“Thank you! Thanks to you, we survived.”

“No, I just did what I had to do.”

“Hmm! May I ask you one thing?”

“Please, go ahead.”

As soon as Lee Gwak gave his permission, Go Chang-seon glared at him with wide eyes. His eyes were already bloodshot.

“Why didn’t you kill her? With your level of martial prowess, you could have easily killed her.”

“……”

“Even if you let the others escape, you should have at least killed her. Why didn’t you?”

“If I had done that, your casualties would have been greater.”

“Even so, you should have killed her.”

“Leader!”

“If it were me… If I had your level of martial prowess, I would have killed her on the spot and come to rescue the escorts. That’s the reason we hired you, isn’t it?”

“……”

Lee Gwak did not answer.

He knew why Go Chang-seon was acting this way.

Right now, Go Chang-seon needed someone to blame.

“Answer me.”

Only his voice echoed across the gruesome battlefield.