Chapter 105: Chapter 105
Ha In-seong’s laughter continued for a long time.
Cheon Woo-jin and the bandits looked steadily at him.
When everyone looked at him creating an uncomfortable silence, one might take the hint and stop, but Ha In-seong was not a man who cared about such things.
By the time Ha In-seong had laughed his fill and stopped, bandits under the Green King’s command had already blocked their retreat completely and surrounded the two.
Green King Jo Woo-gwang spoke.
“Who are you?”
He was endlessly pondering whether to kill Cheon Woo-jin or not. Since he was a bastard who dared commit such a slaughter against the Green Forest, he rightfully deserved to die.
If he destroyed the evidence after killing him, even the Martial Alliance would not seek an uncomfortable relationship with the Green Forest over a mere low-ranking member.
But if there were masters in the vicinity, or if by any chance the fellow fled alive and became evidence, the story would change.
The Righteous Path values justice and justification. If an alliance member returned injured at the hands of the Green Forest bandits, the Martial Alliance would have to draw its swords and mete out punishment whether it liked it or not. Otherwise, the Martial Alliance would lose its reason for existence.
Therefore, he was cautious.
In case the person brought by that monster fellow Cheon Woo-jin was another monster. Or in case he was a fellow connected to monsters.
Seeing him speak and act as he pleased rather than watching his step before three hundred bandits, it seemed he had something to rely on.
As Ha In-seong contemplated, the Green King asked again.
“You had better answer carefully. Because that bastard beside you right now is the enemy of the Green Forest. And this place is the main stronghold of the Green Forest.”
“Aha.”
Ha In-seong nodded his head. He could not match the Green King. However, Ha In-seong was a person who was born knowing no fear.
The contemplation was short and the answer was swift.
“I am the head manager of the Woojin Escort Agency. Pleased to meet you.”
Having spoken thus, Ha In-seong burst into laughter again.
Not only the bandits, but even Cheon Woo-jin looked at Ha In-seong as if dumbfounded.
Whistle!
Out of nowhere, a sharp sound of breaking the air was heard. Looking at the sky, a single falcon was circling above Tianshui Stronghold.
At that sight, Green King Jo Woo-gwang smiled. It was no ordinary falcon. It was a spiritual creature raised by the Green Forest for generations. Circling so widely was a signal that it was safe.
“It seems you truly came as just the two of you. Fearless indeed.”
Jo Woo-gwang’s tone changed at once. He confirmed that even if he killed the bastards, as long as he destroyed the evidence with certainty, they would be safe.
Jo Woo-gwang reached his hand into the air. Then a burly bandit handed a giant axe to him.
“Wow, you lift something bigger than your own body quite well. As expected, the Green King is different.”
Ha In-seong marveled. Because Jo Woo-gwang’s build was so small, an axe that was originally large looked twice as big.
Soon, the three hundred or so bandits gathered in the vast mountain stronghold unleashed their momentum all at once. Individual martial prowess was markedly low compared to the scale of the organization.
For in the end, mountain bandits were fundamentally an organization created by commoners who struggled to make a living picking up pickaxes, clubs, and the like. Formally trained martial artists did not become bandits in the first place.
However, they could not be simply disregarded.
Just as the history of the Green Forest was long, those called geniuses occasionally appeared. Just like the current Green King.
Geniuses developed the martial arts of the Green Forest. Although not on the level of prestigious martial clans’ martial arts, they were sufficient to make even commoners into martial artists above a certain standard, at least if practiced steadily.
The killing intent poured out at once by some three hundred martial artists was truly heavy. A martial artist of a low realm might not even endure that energy, getting crushed like a bug with their body bursting apart.
In fact, Ha In-seong felt his breathing quicken slightly. But he never showed it outwardly. He knew from watching his father that a battle of momentum was crucial for a martial artist.
‘Because nine out of ten give up before even fighting.’
The rough, yaksha-like atmosphere of the Lord of the Black Overlord Castle possessed something that overwhelmed people. Because Ha In-seong had grown up watching this since childhood, he could pretend to be nonchalant even under such energy.
Looking at the bandits tightening their encirclement, Ha In-seong asked.
“Agency Head, what will you do?”
Ha In-seong asked while imitating the tone of an escort agency’s head manager.
Cheon Woo-jin had already taken out the Crane Feather Fan.
“A misunderstanding seems to have arisen, so we should resolve it through conversation.”
“It’s not a situation for talking, though?”
“Still, we must.”
Ha In-seong understood and nodded his head. In order to talk with the Green King, they had to deal with his subordinates first.
As long as Cheon Woo-jin’s will was firm, Ha In-seong also had no reason to hesitate.
Slash!
At the same time Ha In-seong drew his pitch-black straight saber, he severed the neck of the bandit in front of him. A luster like dark clouds faintly lingered on the blood-soaked blade. Even at a glance, one could tell it was a masterwork saber.
Cheon Woo-jin looked at Ha In-seong with new eyes. The smiling, chattering, and playful expression could not be found.
At least for the moment he gripped his saber, he was a solemn martial artist.
“I will take the flanks and rear. You deal with the bastards in front and the Green King. To be honest, I’m not confident.”
Ha In-seong’s tone also returned to normal.
In any case, the Green King was a master who had ascended to the Realm Beyond the Heavens like his father, the Lord of the Black Overlord Castle. Even if Ha In-seong was an overwhelming genius among his peers, he could not face him.
Cheon Woo-jin took such a Ha In-seong into his eyes for a moment.
A moderate tension lingered on his pitch-black saber blade. Yet far from fearing his opponent, he looked down leisurely as if hunting.
Somehow, the thought occurred that Master Black Elder’s youth must have been just like this.
Seeing their comrade’s death before their eyes, the bandits became outraged. Although they had lived their entire lives stealing and snatching from others, they could not tolerate others coming to their own home and causing a rampage.
Soon, about fifteen bandits rushed toward Ha In-seong, who had killed their comrade. In their hands were all sorts of weapons, from spears, clubs, hand axes, to even pickaxes.
In an instant, the light in Ha In-seong’s eyes gleamed.
The movements of the charging bandits felt sluggish.
Although it was merely a fleeting instant, the judgment of whom to cut first and whom to kill later was made.
Following the virtual path of combat drawn before his eyes, Ha In-seong took footwork steps and swung his straight saber. Parrying past the foremost bandit, he slashed across the chests of the two bastards behind him in a straight line.
The moment the bastards beside them felt bewilderment, Ha In-seong’s straight saber accelerated and stabbed deeply into their chests.
In an instant, he cut down four bandits. But Ha In-seong did not weaken or slow down in the slightest.
He merely moved aloofly and decisively, like a wolf running across the plains in the dead of night.
A bandit whose thigh was shallowly cut let out a groan.
“Gah!”
At the same time, Ha In-seong’s saber plunged into his open mouth. It penetrated right through the back of the bandit’s head. Because he was a martial artist of relatively higher realm, rather than forcing a one-hit kill, he had chosen an efficient method.
This was also included in the virtual path of combat visible only to Ha In-seong’s eyes.
But because the straight saber had penetrated too deeply, pulling it out again or slicing through as it was seemed difficult. The seasoned bandits did not miss that opening. The remaining ten bandits charged at the same time.
In an instant, Ha In-seong let go of his saber.
At that, the flustered bandits stopped abruptly.
It was too late. The palm force Ha In-seong poured out to the left and right shattered the heads of another four.
Next, he drew out the straight saber lodged in the bandit and swung it once again. The pitch-black blade moved as if dancing through the air.
It drew dazzling movements like meteors in the night sky, and along the trajectory where the straight saber passed, the bandits’ blood invariably splattered.
Having slaughtered about fifteen bandits in an instant, Ha In-seong exhaled a short breath.
“Ha, I’ve killed fifteen now, right?”
The standard of the bandits was not entirely low. In a one-on-one duel, they would not last a single exchange, but a number exceeding three hundred was burdensome even for Ha In-seong.
At the same time, he looked forward to it. In this situation, he felt he would be able to see Cheon Woo-jin’s martial might starkly.
It was around that exact time that an explosive sound he had never heard in his life rang out.
Boom-rumble-crash!
Ha In-seong was startled and looked toward the direction of the explosive sound. An utterly surreal spectacle was unfolding.
The wind was visible to the eyes. A subtle white luster was clearly displaying the flow of the wind.
That beautiful gust of wind swept through the bandits. Those touched by the gust spewed blood as if cut by the sharpest treasured sword in the world.
One person, five, ten, twenty, forty…
Ha In-seong gave up counting.
Somehow he felt sheepish. He had thought himself quite cool after killing fifteen or so people in an instant, but a bizarre spectacle had unfolded beside him.
Soon the gust scattered into the air. With the sound of wind that had fiercely battered the ears gone, an eerie silence ensued.
Upon checking the condition of the fallen bandits, Ha In-seong was even more astonished. There was not a single dead person. Surprisingly, only the tendons of one ankle and one wrist were precisely severed.
“What is this?”
Such words came out spontaneously.
Could a human handle a gust of wind formed by dozens, hundreds of streams of wind so delicately?
Ha In-seong found it hard to believe even after seeing it with his own eyes. The thought occurred that perhaps Cheon Woo-jin was not human, but the God of Wind descended from heaven.
Cheon Woo-jin let the Crane Feather Fan hang down while looking at the spectacle he had created. Sparing the bandits’ lives was White Elder’s benevolence, and depriving them of their limbs was Black Elder’s mercilessness.
The thought occurred that it was increasingly difficult to find his direction between his two masters’ ideologies.
Cheon Woo-jin looked at Green King Jo Woo-gwang.
Meeting his eyes, the Green King shuddered.
How many masters had he faced until he was called a master of the Realm Beyond the Heavens? He had even killed the previous Green King just to ascend to the position of Supreme Chief.
Even Jo Woo-gwang, such a thoroughly battle-hardened martial artist, could not help but stiffen his body at the sight before him.
Suddenly, a memory of what he had heard in the past came to mind.
– There is an old fellow who drives around razor-sharp winds. If you face him, do not even breathe and prostrate flat on the ground. Without fail. Absolutely.
These were words the previous Green King had said to him before Jo Woo-gwang revealed his ambition to become the Green King.
With a grave face, Jo Woo-gwang looked at Cheon Woo-jin.
‘He isn’t an old man, though…’
Did he undergo Return to Youth?
He could not possibly believe there were more than two such masters in the world.
Cheon Woo-jin strode steadily toward him.
Jo Woo-gwang did not even feel the will to fight. It was not a matter of how strong his opponent was. He too was a man who had killed countless masters stronger than himself in his life to rise to this position.
But facing Cheon Woo-jin’s pupils, he felt overwhelmed. To the extent that he had the illusion of being prey standing before a tiger.
‘If I fight, I die.’
His instinct as a martial artist warned him powerfully.
Jo Woo-gwang trusted his gut.
“…I will do it. Conversation.”
Jo Woo-gwang strove to ignore the crumpled faces of a few combative subordinates. It was humiliating, but better than dying.
Cheon Woo-jin nodded his head. Master White Elder said the Green Forest bandits were surprisingly people who could be reasoned with, and it was true.
As expected, his masters’ words were rarely wrong.
Cheon Woo-jin put away the Crane Feather Fan. Soon walking right up to the Green King, he spoke in a calm tone.
“I would like you to hand over the Spirit Green Pill.”
“…”
The Green King swallowed down the curses threatening to burst out with superhuman patience. The Spirit Green Pill was the greatest treasure boasted by the Green Forest.
Yet why the hell was he talking in a tone as if asking to pick up some wine left at a tavern?
“Ahem, that is a bit difficult.”
“Why?”
“…”
Even having to explain the reason was absurd. But most martial world masters had high mental fortitude. Jo Woo-gwang explained the value of the Spirit Green Pill while controlling his emotions.
Having heard the explanation, Cheon Woo-jin spoke calmly.
“Indeed. It was worth coming here. Now give it to me.”
“…”
The Green King glanced once at his axe placed beside him.
At that, Cheon Woo-jin took out the Crane Feather Fan. The Green King immediately withdrew his gaze from the axe.
At the end of a brief silence, Cheon Woo-jin spoke.
“Of course, I have no intention of taking it for free either. Since my masters told me never to blindly covet what belongs to others.”
“Fuck! Are those words that should come out of the mouth of a bastard who charged in out of nowhere and slaughtered our boys! You dog-like demonic head bastard!”
Unable to hold back, the Green King spat out curses.
Having done so, he wore an expression intuiting his own death.
Of course, regardless of that or not, Cheon Woo-jin calmly continued speaking.
“Instead, I will give you this.”
What Cheon Woo-jin handed over was a pitch-black pill smaller than the Spirit Green Pill. Seeing this, the Green King’s expression grew serious. The aura it exuded was truly bleak and ominous beyond measure.
Since it was not an ordinary item at first glance, he asked cautiously.
“Just what is this?”
“Well. I do not know its name. I picked it up myself.”
Rage surged.
“Hey, how can you trade something picked up off the roadside with the Spirit Green Pill…”
“However, the Dark Emperor’s disciples will love it.”
In an instant, silence befell the vast mountain stronghold. When a name that should never be uttered was called nonchalantly, no one could make even the sound of breathing.
“D-Dark Em…”
Even the Green King was lost for words.
Regardless of that or not, Cheon Woo-jin placed the elixir obtained from the Demon Physician’s corpse into the Green King’s hand. Because Dark Heavens Qi was densely concentrated in it, the disciples of the Dark Emperor would love it immensely.
Of course, it was a useless item to Cheon Woo-jin. The Dark Heavens Qi gathered in his dantian was already beyond the level of being influenced by such a spirit medicine, nor could he give it to those around him.
If someone who had not practiced the Dark Heavens Art recklessly ingested such a thing, they would die within half an incense stick while bleeding from their seven orifices.
“Now then, give me the Spirit Green Pill.”
The Green King’s head spun rapidly. He had an acquaintance with one of the Dark Emperor’s disciples. It was none other than the Sword Demon, who was said to be able to cut anything in the world.
If he could offer this elixir as a gift to him and earn goodwill? Or if he could ask a favor even once…
‘This might not be a bad deal.’
It was true that the Spirit Green Pill was a heaven-blessed treasure, but the value of the Sword Demon’s name was never inferior to it. If he truly took a liking to it, he would be holding the sharpest sword under heaven in his hands.
The Green King, whose thoughts reached that point, soon handed the Spirit Green Pill over to Cheon Woo-jin.
Cheon Woo-jin, who pocketed it in his chest, added a remark.
“Now all affairs between us have been settled.”
“…”
Right, let us say the exchange of the Spirit Green Pill and this bizarre elixir was mutually equal. Then what about Heungsan Stronghold that you slaughtered? What about those bastards whose arms and legs you crippled?
Such thoughts arose, but in the end the Green King could not utter them.
“…Let us do so. I will forget the affair of Heungsan Stronghold and what happened today.”
Cheon Woo-jin nodded his head with satisfaction. Thinking carefully, Young Hero Song had been with him when subjugating Heungsan Stronghold. He had worried that they might harm Young Hero Song or the Anhui Song Clan under the pretext of various matters.
“What, how anticlimactic.”
Ha In-seong said so while sheathing his straight saber. In truth, though he said that, the martial prowess displayed by Cheon Woo-jin’s entire body still lingered as an aftertaste.
* * *
Cheon Woo-jin walked wordlessly with Ha In-seong.
That silence was not particularly uncomfortable. It was because they had shared quite a lot of conversation and even fought together.
Of course, that was Cheon Woo-jin’s thought, and Ha In-seong was different.
‘Hmm, he’s a bit difficult.’
After witnessing that surreal martial prowess, playing pranks like before had somehow become difficult. Ha In-seong did not know. Having never felt it in his entire life, that the emotion was fear.
Having walked for how long while harboring different thoughts like that?
Cheon Woo-jin suddenly stopped his steps.
“Huh, why?”
Ha In-seong asked pretending to be composed. But without even an answer, Cheon Woo-jin was looking toward the direction where Tianshui Stronghold was situated with a grave expression.
Just around the time he became puzzled.
Ha In-seong’s face also hardened stiffly.
Soon, a stream of wind blew from the direction of Tianshui Stronghold.
The wind harbored a truly dense scent of blood.