The sun had set, and darkness fell on the place where the Nine Shadows Sect was staying.

Yeo Tae-ryang went to bed early.

Contrary to its shabby exterior, the inside of the military tent was incredibly ornate.

A huge bed covered in sheepskin was laid out, and a huge white tiger skin was draped along the wall like an ornament.

On the sheepskin bed, Yeo Tae-ryang lay naked. But he was not alone.

Each of his arms cradled a naked woman.

Their recent lovemaking left a heated atmosphere lingering within the tent.

Yeo Tae-ryang raised his upper body and sat up.

The women who had made love to him were fast asleep.

He had been relentlessly passionate, exhausting them

His sexual prowess was so outstanding that a single woman could not suffice. Hence, he always entertained two or three women at the same time.

Suddenly his gaze was drawn to a box sitting on the side of the tent.

“Hmm!”

Although he had enough to operate the Nine Shadows Sect for a while, it was insufficient to satiate him.

“Well, I should be content with this much for now.”

Regardless, since he had received the advance payment, he would faithfully carry out the commission.

At least until now, he had never once disappointed a client.

That’s when it happened.

Grrr!

Suddenly, the leopards outside the tent let out a cry.

In an instant, Yeo Tae-ryang reached out and hoisted the large axe that had been resting under his bed.

Growl! Whine!

A soft cry of the leopards resounded.

These were the leopards he had raised himself.

He had never heard such cries from them before.

It was clear that something unusual was happening.

“What’s going on?”

He was about to hastily step outside when someone entered the tent.

His entrance was so fluid that Yeo Tae-ryang initially mistook him for his own subordinate. But whoever entered the tent was not one of his men.

At least, there was no man among his subordinates with such pale skin and an effeminate aura.

To him, who valued manliness, such an effeminate man was nothing but an object of contempt.

He would never take such a man under his command, and even if he did, he could never forget them.

“Who are you?”

“Nine Shadow Sect’s master, Yeo Tae-ryang! Am I correct?”

“I asked who you are.”

“Pyo Wol!”

“Pyo Wol?”

Yeo Tae-ryang scowled.

It was a name he had heard somewhere, but he couldn’t recall it easily.

At that moment, someone helped answer Yeo Tae-ryang’s question.

Following naturally behind Pyo Wol was Sal-no. He spoke as he looked at Yeo Tae-ryang.

“People in Kangho call him the ‘Reaper’.”

“The Reaper?”

Yeo Tae-ryang’s eyes widened.

The shock the nickname ‘Reaper’ brought was enormous.

“Why is the Reaper here?”

“You should consider it an honor. The Supreme one doesn’t visit often.”

“Answer me first. Why did the Reaper come here? We have no ties or debts between us.”

Yeo Tae-ryang tightened his grip on the axe handle.

Pyo Wol looked at a chest in one corner of the tent.

The lid was open, revealing the silver ingots inside.

Pyo Wol spoke.

“Did you accept a commision from the Golden Heavenly Hall?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Would you listen if I told you to cancel the commission?”

“What kind of nonsense is….”

Yeo Tae-ryang wore an incredulous expression.

Once a commission was accepted, it was an unspoken rule of this world not to cancel it, even in the face of death.

No matter who the opponent was, even if it was the Reaper himself, he couldn’t order the Nine Shadows Sect to cancel the commission.

Above all, he was not afraid of Pyo Wol.

He knew that even if he was called the Reaper, he couldn’t escape the category of assassin.

“A lowly assassin’s braggart has a lot to say. I don’t know how you got in here, but I will sever your head with my own hands. That would make a nice gift for the Heavenly Martial Sect.

“So, it’s not a request from the Golden Heavenly Hall but the Heavenly Martial Sect you’ve accepted.”

“That is….”

“Are you doing the groundwork to make Jang Mugak a hero?”

At Pyo Wol’s words, Yeo Tae-ryang felt chills run down his spine.

He was taken aback by Pyo Wol’s intuition – how he pieced together the truth from the silver ingots and a few words.

“shit!”

In the end, Yeo Tae-ryang bellowed and swung his axe.

Whoosh!

His axe emitted an intense light.

It had created a blast.

The massive blast exploded directly onto Pyo Wol.

Boom!

With an explosion, the tent shook as if there was an earthquake.

Where Pyo Wol stood, a giant pit had formed. But there was no trace of Pyo Wol anywhere.

“What the?”

Swish!

At that moment, something descended from above.

Landing quietly like a weightless leaf, the figure that landed on Yeo Tae-ryang’s axe was none other than Pyo Wol.

“You?”

Yeo Tae-ryang clenched his teeth.

Despite standing on his axe, Pyo Wol seemed weightless.

It was as if a ghost was standing there, not a human.

It was the first time he had felt this way, which made him all the more nervous and frightened.

‘Is he a human? Is he really one of us?’

He clenched his teeth.

The pressure in Pyo Wol’s eyes as he stood on his axe and looked down at him was indescribable.

His heart pounded as if it were broken, racing madly.

“Aargh!”

To shake off his fear, Yeo Tae-ryang swung his axe violently once again. In response, Pyo Wol jumped back nimbly.

Yeo Tae-ryang charged at Pyo Wol like a raging bull.

Pyo Wol’s gaze on him had sunk deep.

He had realized that no words could persuade Yeo Tae-ryang now.

The Nine Shadows Sect was not a pure assassin’s guild. Therefore, he had intended to leave them some leeway. But knowing that they had already accepted a mission from the Heavenly Martial Sect, he couldn’t just let it go.

Especially if the Heavenly Martial Sect found out that he had been here, they would undoubtedly be on their guard.

So it was better to eliminate them now.

From the tips of Pyo Wol’s fingers, a qi thread silently spread out, starting to permeate the entire area.

Unaware of this, Yeo Tae-ryang attacked Pyo Wol with all his might.

He was desperate in his own way.

If he didn’t kill Pyo Wol now, he knew he would die. But there was something strange about it.

Despite the commotion he was causing, no one came running.

Even the women lying on the bed could not wake up.

‘Could they have already been subdued?’

He couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed his subordinates being subdued, even if he had been preoccupied with the women.

There was nothing he could say, even if it meant losing his life.

But that didn’t mean he wanted to die.

“shit!”

Turning his fear into anger, he summoned strength.

It was the moment when he swung his axe with all his might. Suddenly!

Thud

Suddenly, his body froze mid-motion.

He felt as if something had grabbed him, but Yeo Tae-ryang paid no attention and swung the axe all the way through.

Slish!

“Arghhh!”

It was Yeo Tae-ryang who swung the axe, but it was also him who screamed in agony.

His arm, holding the axe, was severed at the elbow. A stream of blood flowing from the severed area.

The hand that had been holding the axe was flung far away.

Yeo Tae-ryang , unaware of what had happened to him, merely gaped.

He could not understand why his perfectly fine arm had been severed.

Pyo Wol stood still in his spot.

It was as if he hadn’t even lifted a finger.

“What, what witchcraft did you use? You bastard!”

In his irrational rage, Yeo Tae-ryang charged.

At that moment, he felt a fiery pain in his waist and chest.

Slish!

A creepy slicing sound accompanied the severing of his waist and chest.

Yeo Tae-ryang collapsed to the ground, his momentum undiminished. By the time he hit the ground, his body had already been cut into three pieces.

“Whew!”

Sal-no unconsciously gasped in awe.

His eyes could see the faint threads of Qi. They stretched around Pyo Wol like a spider’s web.

Like a spider spreading its web and waiting for its prey, Pyo Wol had spread the qi thread around himself.

Unknowingly, Yeo Tae-ryang had lunged headlong at Pyo Wol, only to be sliced by the threads.

It was the Spider’s Silver Web, a supreme technique of the Way of the Hungry Ghost.

Sal-no had seen Pyo Wol execute the Spider Silver Web for the first time.

Even Sal-no, who had spent a long time in the world of assassins, witnessed this technique for the first time in his life.

If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn’t have believed that such a technique existed.

Even more shocking was the fact that Pyo Wol had developed this technique all by himself, without any assistance.

‘I was right. He is indeed the only person who can unify the world of assassins,’

Sal-no forced down his excitement.

Now was not the time to be thrilled.

It was time to quietly slip out from the Nine Shadows Sect.

Although they had suppressed the nearby martial artists, by now the martial artists in the distant tents would have noticed the anomaly and would have rushed over.

Sal-no cautiously said,

“Let’s leave now, grandmaster!”

“Hmm!”

Nodding, Pyo Wol stepped outside the camp.

It was not long after the two of them had slipped out of the Nine Shadows Sect that the urgent sound of a bell rang out through the area.

“The, the sect leader has been assassinated.”

“Find the beast.”

“Block the exits.”

But by the time they had begun to shout, Pyo Wol and Sal-no had already left.
＊＊＊
“What do you mean by that?”

A beautiful woman, resembling an ice flower, looked questioningly at the man standing before her.

The mustached man cautiously spoke again.

“All the Assassin Guilds we’ve tried to contact have stopped communicating.

“All the guilds have cut off contact?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I’m sorry. We’re still investigating the reasons.”

At the man’s response, the woman furrowed her delicate brow, making him even more apologetic.

The woman’s name was Namgung Seol

She was the second daughter of the leader of the Thousand Kingdom School, Namgung
Yugeom, and a lady known by the nickname ‘Thousand Year Fox’.

Despite the Kangho Great War having broken out, she had chosen to stay at Lake Poyang rather than return to her sect, the Thousand Kingdom School.

The reason Namgung Seol stayed at Poyang Lake was simple.

It was for her lover, Lee Geom-Han.

She saw a great opportunity in the Kangho Great War, which was sparked by the conflict between the Gold and Silver Halls.

Heroes tend to emerge in times of chaos, like the present.

Just hearing secondhand information from a safe place, she couldn’t understand the exact situation.

Despite the risks, she needed to stay at Poyang Lake to directly observe the unfolding events.

That was the reason Namgung Seol was here.

Namgung Seol had tried to place orders with a few assassin guilds.

There was no better place than an assassin’s guild for utilitarian purposes, to use and discard as needed. So, she had instructed her confidants to entrap these guilds. But for some unknown reason, all the guilds she had contacted had cut off communication.

“What is happening?”

Namgung Seol didn’t believe in coincidences.

If something happened, there had to be a reasonable cause for it.

The current situation was the same.

The fact that all the Assassin guilds she had contacted had cut off communication was no coincidence.

It was evident that some power, unbeknownst to her, was at play.

“What is it? What is happened is happening? Could that man have made a move?”

The face of Pyo Wol sprang to her mind.