Chapter 28: Chapter 28
“What?”
The Heavenly Tiger Squad Leader’s eyebrows twitched. His gaze slowly turned toward Cheon Woo-jin.
At that, everyone looked at Cheon Woo-jin.
Since the focus had suddenly concentrated on him, Cheon Woo-jin scratched his head. Because he did not consider it a particularly great matter, the situation was somewhat burdensome.
However, the Heavenly Tiger Squad Leader’s expression was more serious than ever.
“Report in detail.”
The Heavenly Tiger Squad Leader had many things he wished to ask, but thought it would not be late even if he asked after listening to the report.
Soon, Cheon Woo-jin began his report.
“Squad Leader.”
Of course, not to the Heavenly Tiger Squad Leader, but to the Black Tortoise Squad Leader.
Somehow, the Heavenly Tiger Squad Leader flinched, and Cheol Ji-ak’s expression was also peculiar, perhaps because such a situation was awkward for him.
It was because, while the Heavenly Tiger Squad and Black Tortoise Squad were carrying out a joint mission, he had not imagined in the least that a situation would come where a Black Tortoise Squad member resolved everything and he received the report.
Cheon Woo-jin’s report was calm. He merely spoke the facts as they were, without the slightest addition or subtraction.
However, as the report progressed, the eyes of not only the Heavenly Tiger Squad Leader and Cheol Ji-ak, but everyone except Song Yi-yeon, grew wide.
Soon, after the report ended, Cheol Ji-ak took a deep breath and spoke.
“So to summarize…”
“Yes.”
“You did not know who he was, but because he attacked, you smashed his head?”
Cheon Woo-jin nodded calmly.
At that, the Heavenly Tiger Squad Leader, who had been listening to the report alongside him, stepped forward.
“The bastard is the Third-Grade Public Enemy, the Black Wolf Hand.”
The eyes of the Heavenly Tiger Squad members widened as if they would pop out.
Third-Grade Public Enemy. Those judged dangerous enough to exert a malignant influence on this vast world single-handedly were called Public Enemies by the Martial Alliance.
The lowest grade was Third Grade, above that were Second Grade and First Grade, and at the highest rank existed Special-Grade Public Enemies.
Though called the lowest grade, those recognized as Public Enemies by the Martial Alliance were all beings who could be called disasters by their mere existence.
In particular, the Black Wolf Hand possessed methods that were bizarre and hideous, placing him on the fairly dangerous side even among Third-Grade Public Enemies.
Shura Demon Lord, a disciple of the Dark Emperor whose head Cheon Woo-jin had previously smashed, was called a Second-Grade Public Enemy during his prime.
Considering that he had easily toyed with the Western Sky Society, a fairly large unorthodox faction, despite suffering from Severed Meridians Disorder where he could not unleash even a tenth of his original strength, the weight carried by the name of Public Enemy was by no means light.
Namgung Jin looked at Cheon Woo-jin with vacant eyes.
“A Public Enemy, all by yourself…”
Unwittingly, words escaped from his mouth. That was just how immense the shock was to Namgung Jin. He had lived his entire life regarding himself as the best among his peers, yet he had encountered a monster with whom even a sense of rivalry could not arise.
According to his father’s words, in the martial world originally, eccentric talents were countless.
Whether his own thoughts had truly been arrogant, Namgung Jin could only be utterly confused.
‘Did Father also reach that seat while facing walls like this countless times in his youth?’
Of course not. From the time his father was called the world’s foremost rising star until he earned the moniker of Sword King. In that entire process, an out-of-scale existence named Cheon Woo-jin did not exist.
Just around the time when Namgung Jin’s mind was turning pitch-black from an inexplicable sense of desolation.
“Heavenly Tiger Squad Leader, it seems it is about time you tell us the mission.”
The voice of Black Tortoise Squad Leader Cheol Ji-ak sank low. The youngsters who had just entered the Black Tortoise Squad had almost met with disaster. As a squad leader, he needed to grasp just what on earth was happening.
“If you cannot speak of it, the Black Tortoise Squad will withdraw from the mission.”
Confirming the intervention of none other than the Black Wolf Hand. He was the subordinate of the Lust Demon, a disciple of the Dark Emperor and a Second-Grade Public Enemy. He felt this was not a mission to be undertaken with a light heart.
Soon, the Heavenly Tiger Squad Leader let out a deep sigh and spoke toward Cheon Woo-jin.
“The mission has been changed.”
“Is that so.”
Cheon Woo-jin could not tell why the Heavenly Tiger Squad Leader was speaking to him, but answered for now.
The Heavenly Tiger Squad Leader’s words continued.
“Originally, our mission was to search the tomb of the Giant Stone Monster. Assessing the situation, recovering his corpse as well.”
“Th-The Giant Stone Monster died?!”
One of the Heavenly Tiger Squad members opened his eyes wide.
The Giant Stone Monster was one of the Dark Emperor’s numerous disciples, a Great Demonic Head corresponding to a First-Grade Public Enemy alongside the Sword Demon and Iron Blood Sorrowful Demon.
“However, the situation has changed. It seems circumstances have been discovered where information leaked from the Alliance.”
In fact, it had also been confirmed that the Lust Demon was targeting the Giant Stone Monster’s tomb. The Heavenly Tiger Squad Leader let out a long sigh.
“Orders have been handed down to halt the search mission, and to assess and survey the surroundings of the tomb until support from the Alliance arrives. Clashing is strictly forbidden.”
The Lust Demon was a Second-Grade Public Enemy. Besides that, it was uncertain what other bastards might intervene in this incident. The tomb of the Giant Stone Monster possessed that degree of value.
‘Perhaps the Demonic Cult or First-Grade Public Enemies might intervene.’
Their goal was obvious. Just like the Martial Alliance, it was to recover the corpse of the Giant Stone Monster. His skin, having trained external martial arts to the extreme, boasted the efficacy of a spiritual beast’s iron armor.
Ordinary sabers and swords could not inflict even a scratch, and poison and internal qi could not dare penetrate it.
It truly held value worthy of being called a treasure.
‘Just who on earth killed such a monster…’
Around the time the Heavenly Tiger Squad Leader fell into thought, Cheon Woo-jin was also recalling the distant past. When he had asked his two masters who the strongest person in the world was, a common name emerged from their mouths.
– Likely the Dark Emperor.
– If the Dark Emperor is human, that would be so.
Soon, his two masters reached the conclusion that the Dark Emperor had transcended the category of human. Afterwards, when debating who was the strongest among those worthy of being called human, the name of the Giant Stone Monster was also called out.
– The strongest can only be known by competing. However, from the perspective of survival of the fittest, one could say that Giant Stone Monster bastard is the strongest.
At Master Black Elder’s words, Master White Elder also nodded for once without refuting.
The Giant Stone Monster had grown excessively sturdy as the external martial art he cultivated was added to his innate peculiar constitution. He was said to be a man whom neither Black Elder, White Elder, nor even the Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Cult could easily cut down.
– Of course, there is one more bastard who can cut him down, but since that bastard is weaker than the Giant Stone Monster in the first place, we set him aside.
However, hearing that his temperament was not atrocious for a disciple of the Dark Emperor, he had maintained a not-so-bad relationship even with Master Black Elder.
Of course, not bad to Black Elder meant to the extent that he would not smash his head just by meeting his eyes.
If so, who on earth killed the Giant Stone Monster? Or perhaps he died due to a chronic illness like Shura Demon Lord. In any case, it was a question that could only be affirmed after verifying the corpse in person.
“Clashing is strictly forbidden. Understood?”
Cheon Woo-jin woke from his thoughts. It was because the Heavenly Tiger Squad Leader was emphasizing it once more while looking straight at him.
The Heavenly Tiger Squad Leader considered that the greatest variable in this mission was neither the leak of information nor the intervention of the Dark Emperor’s disciples, but Cheon Woo-jin.
His martial prowess exceeded common sense. He knew he was strong originally, but it far exceeded expectations.
‘He killed the Black Wolf Hand and has no injuries whatsoever.’
In other words, it meant he stood at a realm far above him. He had never heard of or seen such a thing. The merits this youngest member of the Black Tortoise Squad had accumulated alone were already not inferior to ordinary aged experts.
He had killed Shura Demon Lord, a disciple of the Dark Emperor, and annihilated the Western Sky Society, one of the pillars of the western unorthodox world. The eldest son of the Gu Clan who kept Cheon Woo-jin in check had become a cripple, and in his first mission, he had killed the Third-Grade Public Enemy, the Black Wolf Hand.
All of this was what a rookie who had just entered the Martial Alliance had accomplished in a fleeting moment. With the Alliance Leader’s discernment, he would certainly have grasped Cheon Woo-jin’s martial prowess during the interview process.
‘Just what was the Alliance Leader thinking when he took in such a bastard as a rookie?’
An out-of-scale existence always stirs up a storm. Keeping a man of martial prowess that even ordinary squad leaders could not aspire to as a mere combat squad rookie would cause great chaos.
Of course, with his mind, he could not fathom the Alliance Leader’s intentions.
At the Heavenly Tiger Squad Leader’s warning, Cheon Woo-jin nodded his head and asked.
“What if the other side attacks first?”
“That will not happen. Because we will not approach the tomb and merely stop at surveying the surroundings. Our mission is to lay the groundwork so that the experts dispatched from the Alliance can approach the location more easily.”
“If there are considerable experts among those targeting the tomb, even if the distance is far, we will be discovered.”
The Heavenly Tiger Squad Leader nodded his head. It was a reasonable statement. Though the probability was slim, if an expert of the level of a First-Grade Public Enemy appeared, no matter how far away, one would not be able to hide their presence.
However, the answer was predetermined.
“We flee.”
“Understood.”
Cheon Woo-jin also merely nodded.
Because in fact, it did not really matter anyway.
* * *
After a bout of disturbance passed, all members of both combat squads assembled.
Everyone wore grim expressions.
Three vacancies had occurred in the Heavenly Tiger Squad. The corpse of one of them had been discovered naked in a dark back alley of the marketplace.
He had suffered at the hands of the Lust Demon’s subordinate. The two whose whereabouts were unknown would also have become hostages or guides, remaining with the Lust Demon.
The Heavenly Tiger Squad Leader grew anxious, but all the more so, he judged the situation cool-headedly. In the first place, had he been a man who acted ahead on emotion, he would not have even risen to that position.
“Everyone, you have properly grasped the mission, right?”
At the answers heard simultaneously, the Heavenly Tiger Squad Leader gave a short nod.
“We head straight for Ji’an, Jiangxi Province. It is a simple mission where we occupy the crossroads, assess the nearby situation, and once the Alliance’s reinforcements arrive, report the situation and pull out.”
The words were simple. But the fact that the experts gathering there were at least the Lust Demon was not simple.
Knowing this, everyone wore tense expressions.
Suddenly tilting his head, Cheon Woo-jin raised his hand. At that, everyone’s gaze gathered simultaneously.
“What is it?”
The Heavenly Tiger Squad Leader’s eyebrows twitched. Already in his heart, Cheon Woo-jin was a person of interest.
Cheon Woo-jin spoke.
“Is the Giant Stone Monster’s tomb in Ji’an?”
“Precisely, Mount Jinggang in Ji’an. Originally, it is said that the Giant Stone Monster’s safe house was located there. According to the Martial Alliance’s intelligence, that is.”
“Mmm.”
Cheon Woo-jin tilted his head repeatedly.
Mount Jinggang was a mountain located not so far from Mount Baiyun, where he had stayed with his two masters.
The disciples of the Dark Emperor without exception feared Master Black Elder. Moreover, building a safe house in Jiangxi Province where even Master White Elder resided together?
It was a situation that was hard to understand.
“Why is that?”
“Is there no possibility that the Alliance’s intelligence is mistaken?”
“What?”
The Heavenly Tiger Squad Leader’s brow furrowed. No matter how high his martial prowess was, for a mere squad member to doubt the Alliance’s intelligence network was an irreverent act.
The Heavenly Tiger Squad Leader shook his head firmly.
“That will not happen. If you have no further questions, we depart.”
Having spoken so, the Heavenly Tiger Squad Leader turned around and moved forward. Cheon Woo-jin merely looked at his back, harboring unresolved doubts in his mind for a moment.
* * *
Mount Jinggang, Ji’an, Jiangxi Province.
In that place where the mountain terrain was steep with many cliffs so that even famous herb diggers avoided it, two men and one woman stood side by side looking as if they were out for a stroll.
A large burial mound was dug up, and gold, silver, treasures, and martial arts secret manuals bearing the traces of time were strewn carelessly on the ground.
However, as if uninterested in such things, they were only staring at the coffin placed beneath their feet.
In the opened coffin, a giant corpse lay neatly, with his chest wide open as if torn by a beast.
A woman with reddish eyes who exuded a bewitching atmosphere pressed gently on her temple as if she had a headache.
“Just who killed Senior Martial Brother Giant Stone Monster?”
“Senior Martial Brother Black Elder died, and now even Junior Martial Brothers Shura Demon Lord and Giant Stone Monster…”
An old man with a quite benevolent face let out a deep sigh with a worried expression.
A young man who had been watching the two people’s moods spoke.
“Lust Demon. I heard the Giant Stone Monster’s skin was harder than Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron, but was it all empty rumors?”
Faint demonic qi lingered over his entire body. Having intended to return to the Heavenly Demon Cult, he had rushed over immediately upon hearing the rumor that the Giant Stone Monster’s tomb had been discovered.
He had not expected to meet two disciples of the Dark Emperor, but fortunately, they were not people of atrocious temperaments.
The woman turned around and spoke.
“If you cannot believe it, verify it for yourself.”
“Ahem, if you permit it, Lust Demon…”
The hand of the man approaching the Giant Stone Monster’s corpse was dyed in an instant with ominous purple demonic qi.
Mara Divine Bird Art. One of the highest martial arts of the Heavenly Demon Cult, it was a martial art permitted only to the Seven Great Families.
Ma Cheong-seok, an elder of the Ma Clan, thrust a palm directly toward the Giant Stone Monster’s corpse. Soon, three streaks of demonic qi as sharp as bird talons surged toward the corpse.
Boom!
A tremendous explosive sound erupted and the coffin boards shattered into pieces.
The thick dust settled, and…
Ma Cheong-seok’s eyes went wide.
“Oh, my word…”
It was a strike imbued with half of his internal energy, but remarkably, the Giant Stone Monster’s corpse was in a state of not being damaged in the slightest.
While it was astonishing that it was so sturdy even though it was an already dead body, on the other hand, he was exceedingly curious as to which expert had torn apart such a Giant Stone Monster’s skin like a sheet of paper.
Just as the three of them were racking their brains for a long time across the Giant Stone Monster’s corpse.
“Oh my, there are guests who arrived first.”
A man draped in fur made of black fox hair over his shoulders walked up with heavy footsteps. Had it not been for a long laceration crossing his face diagonally, he was a man who would have been considered quite dignified in appearance.
Seeing him, the three people frowned.
In particular, the Lust Demon spoke in utter distaste.
“Muk Si-rang. Even you have come? Just who is spreading the information around…”
“Haha, that is how it turned out.”
Ascending the hill and resting a hand squarely on his waist, Muk Si-rang looked at the three people’s menacing momentum and burst into a soft chuckle.
“It seems I have made a futile trip. It will be difficult for me to bypass the three distinguished persons here and take that treasure.”
“It would be difficult even if your leader came, not to mention you.”
Ma Cheong-seok, elder of the Demonic Cult, sneered. At that sight, the laughter vanished from Muk Si-rang’s face.
“If Lord Black Overlord Castle had come in person, an accident would have happened, an accident.”
Muk Si-rang was a man who served the foremost of the Unorthodox Path, the Lord of the Black Overlord Castle, at his closest side. As wild-dog-like vicious energy arose from his entire body, Ma Cheong-seok harbored a peculiar smile.
“The problem is that the Castle Lord did not come in person.”
“Aha, that is true.”
Readily nodding his head, Muk Si-rang waved his hand toward the three people.
“Then I shall return without wasting time needlessly. I wish you three a smooth agreement.”
The Lust Demon waved her hand as if chasing away a bug. She fundamentally disliked the Lord of the Black Overlord Castle. Because when the Lord of the Black Overlord Castle was an unknown figure, she had dared to toy with him and caught a glimpse of the threshold of death.
Turning away without lingering regrets, Muk Si-rang let out a peculiar smile.
‘Things are turning out interestingly.’
In the process of climbing the mountain, he had discovered the combat squads of the Martial Alliance. Remarkably, there was a familiar face, none other than Black Elder’s disciple.
Because Black Elder and the Lord of the Black Overlord Castle had quite a close relationship, he had memories of visiting his safe house together from time to time in the distant past.
‘To think that tiny little monster has grown so ripe in the meantime.’
Was his name Cheon Woo-jin?
Perhaps if that bastard and the three youngsters up there confronted each other, an exceedingly interesting thing would occur.
Fundamentally, Black Elder beat and killed the disciples of the Dark Emperor on sight, and it was a commonplace matter for a disciple to inherit the master’s will.
Suddenly halting his steps, Muk Si-rang turned around. At that, the three people looked at him with somewhat wary postures. Even if Muk Si-rang looked easy on the surface, he was a man who had risen to the number three position in the Black Overlord Castle. They also could by no means treat him lightly.
Grinning broadly, Muk Si-rang spoke.
“There were Martial Alliance bastards down there. You had better flee before it is too late.”
Of course, Muk Si-rang knew. That they did not fear the Martial Alliance in the slightest.
However, he was puzzled.
Fundamentally, information was valuable only when it was confidential. Believing it to be valuable information and climbing the mountain, there were nominal disciples of the Dark Emperor, an elder of the Demonic Cult, combat squads of the Martial Alliance, and himself belonging to the Black Overlord Castle.
Truly, all those who made quite a name for themselves in the martial world were gathered here. Even if information were sloppy, it could not be this sloppy.
Muk Si-rang reached a conclusion in an instant.
‘Someone made us gather here intentionally.’
There were few people in the entire world who would pull off such a scheme.
Several figures emerged in Muk Si-rang’s mind. Soon, his steps heading toward the Black Overlord Castle grew a bit faster.
‘I must tell the Castle Lord quickly.’