Chapter 124: Dragon Scale Squad (2)
The hidden weapons thrown as a greeting by the person who broke through the door and leaped out flew in, drawing different orbits. Each one aimed at a vital point, so they could not be disregarded.
It was a skill comparable to the Sichuan Tang Clan experts I saw during the Tang Clan’s internal rebellion.
Meanwhile, the person who dug into the blind spot rushed in, flashing a murderous blade.
It felt as if multiple enemies were attacking.
‘Protect my body with the divine power of metal… No, if it’s the Heavenly Demon Kalpaless Hand, in one go…!’
A countermeasure instantly popped into my head.
‘This bastard… is fast!!’
My judgment was not slow, but the opponent was even faster.
All the methods good for responding were deleted, and I dealt with it with the means I could move right away.
“Tsk!”
Master Zhang Sanfeng’s listening force and Master Heavenly Demon’s synesthesia were already active.
The Wudang Tai Chi Chuan, which was most familiar to my body, protected my body and absorbed the attacks.
Tadang! Ting!
Blocking and deflecting.
Pik! Tuduk!
Avoiding and bouncing off.
Meanwhile, a strike came reaching out, aiming for the gap that inevitably arose after my hands and feet moved to deflect the hidden weapons.
Swish!!
At the end of the sound that was chilling just to hear,
Jjeong!!
My body hung a heavy tone like a scale.
“Elbow?”
“Where are you slicing, you bastard!”
An elbow that could turn shortly cleared the gap and protected my body.
At the same time, I struck in quick succession, pushing the opponent.
It was an attack coated even with the divine power of metal, which I had not been able to raise in the first clash.
Tadang! Teong!
The elbow wrapped in the divine power of metal struck back at the blade.
The opponent, flustered by the situation where he couldn’t slice the elbow and was instead bounced back, barely blocked the subsequent knee attack by crossing both arms, but had to take five steps back.
However.
Tat!
The guy who had been pushed back lightly stepped on the ground and then charged in instantly.
‘Are you a grasshopper!’
He is fast. His body looks incredibly light.
Yet, he also possessed sharpness.
‘But now I am also in full condition.’
I blocked the strike of the guy running nimbly head-on.
Kang!
With my left hand wearing Master Heavenly Demon’s gauntlet, I struck and deflected the sword face of the sword swung by the opponent.
Like this, I shake the sword to break the balance, and devour…
‘…Uh?’
My listening force and synesthesia read the guy’s next move.
‘If he did that, he would end up breaking his own sword?’
The guy who held swords in both hands sliced once again over the sword that had just been blocked and held by me.
It meant he had struck his own sword.
“Shit!!”
Jjeojeong! Pa-gak!!
The guy’s sword shattered and the fragments scattered.
I had to block it with all my might.
Since the situation was so urgent, I even pulled a portion of the Heavenly Demon Kalpaless Hand’s power and spread it around.
Under the power of the Heavenly Demon Kalpaless Hand which dominated space itself, the scattering sword fragments fell to the floor in patters, unable to exert any force like fish caught in a net.
[How immature.]
[Ho! Ho!]
‘I know! I know!’
Inside my head, the masters’ scolding was in full swing.
The responses were too immature.
Taking the opponent’s attack with the elbow at the end while maintaining defense was closer to Shaolin Fist than Wudang Fist.
It meant it was makeshift.
It was the same in the second clash.
What the opponent showed was certainly an unconventional method, but that was all. If I had dealt with it cleanly based on what I read through listening force, I wouldn’t have been pushed back so ridiculously.
Although it was said to be due to lack of experience and depleted stamina that I was not in full condition, it was the result of immaturity, so I deserved to be scolded.
‘Damn it.’
Thinking that I would be pestered for a while along with the dizzying moment just now, my vision turned pitch black.
“Should I step in?”
Perhaps finding it a bit unstable, even Yi Hwa, who was watching speechlessly, tried to intervene.
“No, it’s fine.”
I dismissed Yi Hwa’s suggestion.
Meanwhile, on one hand, I observed the opponent deeply.
‘Where is this person from?’
A martial artist does not handle their weapon carelessly.
The martial arts of martial artists who use internal energy basically branched out from martial ways aimed at self-cultivation.
In such martial ways, a weapon is like another self. If it had its roots in general martial arts, handling a weapon in that manner could absolutely never happen.
A martial art created from beginning to end for the purpose of killing people, not as a means to advance to a higher realm.
One who uses a weapon as a means for murder.
‘An unorthodox assassin?’
The first thing that came to mind was that side.
However.
“He didn’t die. How bothersome.”
Throwing away the sword whose blade was gone, he expressed annoyance.
“Overtime is a shitty job, but when night and day get flipped, it’s tiring. It would have been good if you croaked with this.”
At the same time, the words he spoke were very familiar.
The words that the clerks at the government office where my grandfather used to work kept on their lips.
If not for the things I experienced just now, I might have empathized with him.
Somehow, the assumption I first came up with about him being an unorthodox assassin blurs.
‘No way…’
“Please croak this time. That would be comfortable for both of us…”
The guy who was drawing two swords somewhat shorter than the ones he swung earlier from his waist suddenly trailed off.
“…Uh?”
The guy, frozen stiff, was staring at my face.
Wondering why, I touched my cheek, and it seemed a fragment I couldn’t catch had scratched my mask, as a sharply cut piece of the mask fluttered.
Through the gap, a part of my face was revealed.
The opponent asked in a very cautious tone.
“Excuse me… By any chance, is your surname… Yeon?”
“What if it is?”
“…I am fucked, shit…”
The opponent, whose face distorted, put the swords he had just drawn back into their sheaths.
The man who was fidgeting like someone who had committed the worst mistake in history soon let out a deep sigh.
“Excuse me… well… first… first of all. What should I say…”
“…”
“Please spare me.”
Suddenly, the opponent to fight disappeared.
***
“I am Gwan Jung-yeon, the squad leader of Team A of the Dragon Scale Squad.”
At the place where they moved to have a conversation, the opponent revealed his affiliation and name.
The problem was that it was a place I had never heard of.
“Dragon Scale Squad?”
“Ah? Ah, if you don’t know it, it’s a good place to keep it that way. It’s also a place that has nothing good to be known for. I wondered if you came under Lord Yeon’s instruction, but it seems it wasn’t. Hahaha…”
The man who introduced himself as Gwan Jung-yeon smiled awkwardly and scratched the back of his head. With behavior that felt somewhat foolish, his expression was that of a simple neighborhood older brother.
A figure like a killing machine born solely to kill people could not be found anywhere.
“Lord Yeon? Instruction?”
“…Pardon? Ah, uh… I mean… Hahaha…”
He tried to laugh it off in embarrassment, but without being swept away by it, I stared at him intently.
“…I’m fucked, seriously.”
It seemed to be a speech habit he often used when making mistakes.
Anyway, synthesizing his slip of the tongue, I could know one thing for sure.
“Are you someone who eats the state’s green?”
“That is so. Yes, well. It is that side. Ah, dear…”
Speaking sparsely, it seemed this person also found this situation considerably embarrassing.
Taking advantage of the gap shaken by the embarrassing situation, I mentioned one thing I had to check.
“Do you have a connection with my grandfather?”
“I do not think that part is something I can decide and speak on at my rank.”
It seemed to be a sensitive question.
The moment he heard this question, the simple-mindedness seen in Gwan Jung-yeon disappeared.
The hesitant or trailing tone disappeared, and he became like a killing machine, answering flatly.
However, that attitude alone became the answer to the question I asked.
“It seems you have already answered it.”
“Ah…”
He began to trail off again.
A strong sense of having made a mistake was visible on his face.
I thought I could pry out a few more things by asking.
“I am sorry, but I will not take any more questions. If you have anything you are curious about, ask through other channels. That will be good for the young hero too.”
However, deciding that there would be a problem if the conversation grew any longer, the opponent cut off the dialogue flatly.
The attitude he showed just now felt like drawing a sword.
It seemed further questions would be meaningless.
“At any rate, I am sorry for starting with slicing right off the bat. We also haven’t been in our right minds lately since we’ve been running around slicing here and there. I cannot know what the higher-ups are thinking. Well, if they say slice, we slice, that is our job, and a sword has no need to do things like thinking… Haha!”
It was a speech mixed with apology and excuse.
However, hearing those words instead made my spine chill.
‘A sword has no need to do things like thinking?’
If an instruction drops, they kill anyone.
These people are those kinds of people.
The place where they gather is that place called the Dragon Scale Squad.
‘As expected, my grandfather did not simply retire to the countryside.’
Putting together this person’s words to understand, it seemed some fierce disputes also existed among them.
The existences referred to as the higher-ups just now. Perhaps they also talk about officials who eat the state’s green.
‘An inner struggle among officials exists?’
Considering the origin of the word pandemonium, inner struggles inside the palace or disputes among officials are said to be daily occurrences, but the situation I heard from this person feels like a level that crossed the general line.
‘Should I dig into this?’
The problem is the case where things grow needlessly big because I touched it wrongly. Since it is not a case where grandfather reached out first like the matter in Sichuan, it is very uncomfortable to intervene.
Still, for now, it seems I should at least know the situation.
This was because there was no case as unsightly as ruining a matter by intervening without knowing anything.
“Ah, right.”
While I was organizing my thoughts in my own way like that, Gwan Jung-yeon clapped his hands as if he recalled something.
“The reason you sought out that insect Jo Chung-won is because of this, right?”
“Jo Chung-won?”
“That constable fellow.”
Yes. The constable whose tail I had first tracked by making Yi Hwa do it.
Mentioning the government’s minion who seemed to be related to Jong In-geol, Gwan Jung-yeon offered a hand-stained booklet.
“Take it. After checking the contents, it wasn’t the object I had to find. I don’t know about you, young hero. Hehehe.”
Gwan Jung-yeon, who was handing over the booklet, wore a strange smile.
Whether as a token of apology or to request keeping today’s events a secret, Gwan Jung-yeon, who handed over the booklet as if it were a bribe, stealthily backed away and disappeared into the darkness.
I immediately scanned the contents inside the booklet.
“As expected.”
The contents of the booklet were close to an account book. Among the details of the money received by that constable named Jo Chung-won, the names and details of the Jungshin Merchant Group and Jong In-geol were written.
However, between the details, personal thoughts were written.
Should I say it felt like a diary as well as an account book.
Even while taking the money, sentences worrying and thinking about whether it was okay to take this money existed in between.
It meant it was a booklet containing more comprehensive information, rather than just simple details of giving and receiving money.
“Hmm?”
Inside such a booklet, I discovered an unexpected name written.
“Defeng Yin Clan?”
Yin Si-hoo, the bad relationship of the Wudang Sect.
That guy’s family was putting its name in this booklet.