Chapter 67: Chapter 67
Living in the martial world.
It was akin to living with blind blades surrounding one on all sides.
Martial artists generally had fiery temperaments. They had strong pride, and possessed no hesitation when it came to exerting violence.
The Righteous Path drew their swords if there was even the slightest justification, the Unorthodox Path swung their fists even without justification, and the Demonic Path killed people without any reason.
It was merely a difference of degree; living in the world of those who took violence as their profession meant it would not be strange whenever or however one died.
Walking down the street, they fought and killed because they disliked the way someone looked at them; eating a meal, they fought because the neighboring table was noisy; they fought for grand reasons, and they killed for trivial ones.
Surviving for over a dozen years in such a world meant one was either a person who could bend their pride at any moment, or someone whose wits and judgment were exceedingly swift.
Regrettably, the Shadowless Divine Thief’s subordinates were also like that.
The sickly-looking young man bent his pride well. He realized that the martial prowess of the young man who had seized the Shadowless Divine Thief was by no means inferior to theirs.
The copper-skinned woman carrying an ax on her back had quick wits and judgment. She discerned that even if all three joined forces in a combined attack, he was not an easy man to deal with.
In that manner, the two subordinates who had accompanied the Shadowless Divine Thief as his escort retreated their steps little by little.
“Hey, you insect-like bastards!”
Noticing this, the Shadowless Divine Thief’s roar of rage stretched out long like taffy. However, the two subordinates had already made their judgment.
Because the martial arts of the three, including the Shadowless Divine Thief, blended together quite well, they could even put up a fight against a martial artist of the Sword King’s caliber if they launched a surprise attack.
Of course, being able to put up a fight did not mean their chances of victory were high. However, in a situation where they were discovered, a surprise attack became meaningless.
The young man’s poison arts could not exert their proper strength, and the probability of the woman’s powerful yet slow ax reaching the enemy diminished.
“You have good subordinates.”
Cheon Woo-jin said simply.
Veins bulged on the Shadowless Divine Thief’s temples.
“Fine. You want to talk? Let us move to another location.”
Realizing that neither fleeing nor fighting was possible, the Shadowless Divine Thief relaxed his body. There was no way he could handle an opponent alone whom even the three of them combined would struggle against.
Cheon Woo-jin nodded. Because this was someone else’s private property, it was not a good place to shed blood.
As Cheon Woo-jin moved his steps while gripping the Shadowless Divine Thief’s wrist, the martial artists surrounding them approached.
“Wh-who are you, sir?”
“That person is an intruder into our World Manor. Therefore, we…”
For escort warriors, it was a natural choice. There was nothing more incompetent than not knowing who had attacked or who had taken the culprit away.
Cheon Woo-jin nodded, then gave a brief answer.
“I am Cheon Woo-jin of the Martial Alliance’s Black Tortoise Squad. The Manor Lord may discuss the aftermath directly with the Alliance Leader.”
“…”
Disbelief colored the warriors’ faces.
At a single glance, he was exceedingly strong. Furthermore, his methods were by no means gentle, and rather than a rising star of the Righteous Path, he somehow looked more like a freely wandering rogue warrior.
However, no one dared open their mouth to refute him.
A young man dragging the intruder by the wrist. His expression appeared thoroughly languid, but they had an intuition that whoever bothered that man would meet an unpleasant end.
In this manner, Cheon Woo-jin leisurely walked down the path cleared by the escort warriors.
The World Manor Lord, who rushed out belatedly, shouted to seize the two of them, but regrettably, no martial artist moved recklessly.
* * *
An empty lot not very far from the World Manor.
Because the night was still deep, there was no one passing by.
Nor was it a residential area, so there was no chance of voices leaking out.
Having checked the surroundings like that, the Shadowless Divine Thief cut straight to the chase and asked.
“…Just what on earth is your identity?”
To the Shadowless Divine Thief’s senses, Cheon Woo-jin’s martial prowess seemed comparable to those masters of the Heavens Beyond Heavens whose monikers bore titles like Emperor, King, or God.
It was something incomprehensible by common sense. How could that young fellow have attained such martial prowess?
‘Could he have undergone Reversion to Youth?’
It was a reasonable suspicion. Throughout the history of the martial world, instances of a past master undergoing Reversion to Youth and reappearing in the martial world were more frequent than the emergence of an unprecedented genius of that magnitude.
Although both were exceedingly rare occurrences, of course.
Cheon Woo-jin pondered briefly what to answer before speaking nonchalantly.
“Martial Alliance Black Tortoise Squad…”
“Are you joking! Why on earth would the Lord of the Black Overlord Castle assist a mere low-ranking martial artist of the Martial Alliance! Are you telling me to believe that?”
The Shadowless Divine Thief was a quick-witted man. He had headed to the World Manor upon receiving a commission from the Black Overlord Castle. And in that place, he had encountered the martial artist who had been tenaciously chasing him.
What were the odds of all this being a coincidence? The Black Overlord Castle had driven him into a trap.
Even at the Shadowless Divine Thief’s furious shout, Cheon Woo-jin merely looked at him with a dry gaze.
“…”
Meeting that gaze, the Shadowless Divine Thief realized.
He was someone who would not be swayed no matter what words were uttered. Furthermore, his martial prowess was monstrously strong. Moreover, words would not get through to him, and in the end, only one of them would be able to leave this vacant lot.
Having made up his mind, the Shadowless Divine Thief nodded. He had confidence in his speed.
‘I will feed him information bit by bit to make him lower his guard, then kill him in a single strike.’
It was the most rational choice.
Soon, the Shadowless Divine Thief’s words followed.
“Fine. I will do as you wish. Just why are you pursuing me so persistently?”
Even while posing such a question, the Shadowless Divine Thief’s mind spun busily. If he was a fellow who had chased him all the way here, he definitely had a brain. He would likely suspect someone was behind this. Surely he would throw that most important question first.
Inside the Shadowless Divine Thief’s head, the entire conversation several moves ahead was already being designed. Making an opponent lower their guard through dialogue was the virtue of a fine thief.
‘Now, come at me.’
Around the time the Shadowless Divine Thief steeled his resolve.
Cheon Woo-jin’s ensuing action was completely different from his expectations.
Thwack.
Wordlessly, Cheon Woo-jin gripped the Shadowless Divine Thief’s shoulder.
“Wh-what…”
The Shadowless Divine Thief unwittingly showed a flustered expression.
Looking at him with a dry, emotionless gaze, Cheon Woo-jin spoke in a low voice.
“Those are not eyes that will speak the truth.”
“…”
Without asking or questioning, Cheon Woo-jin thrust the thumb of the hand gripping the shoulder straight inward.
Crunch.
Cheon Woo-jin’s thumb gouged deeply into the area beneath his collarbone. Blood trickled down Cheon Woo-jin’s wrist and dripped onto the ground.
“Kaaargh…”
The Shadowless Divine Thief clenched his molars and let out a groan.
There were several areas that humans could never temper through training, representative of which were the testicles, eyeballs, and the tender flesh beneath the collarbone.
The finger dug so deeply that it felt as though it would pierce right through his back if pushed just a bit further. At least, that was how it felt to the Shadowless Divine Thief.
“I-I’ll talk! I’ll tell you anything, so…!”
Screaming, the Shadowless Divine Thief met Cheon Woo-jin’s eyes and choked on his words.
It was not the gaze of someone who wanted to ask questions. He was merely carrying out torture without much thought.
Born and raised in the Unorthodox Path, the Shadowless Divine Thief could tell by intuition.
One who did not torture when extracting information was a novice.
From ancient times, making someone beg for their life with their own mouth was not novice work, but neither was it the work of a master. A true master of torture was one who made words begging for death spill from their mouth.
Martial artists of the Unorthodox Path were adept at various tortures. Cheon Woo-jin was the disciple of one who had reached the absolute zenith among such Unorthodox practitioners.
After peering into the Shadowless Divine Thief’s eyes as if observing him for a moment, Cheon Woo-jin exhaled a soft sigh.
“It will take some time.”
* * *
Before they knew it, dawn had broken.
The dirt ground of the vacant lot was stained red with blood.
Beneath the Shadowless Divine Thief’s feet, the ground was soaked with spilled drool and tears.
There was no focus in his eyes. He merely stared blankly into empty air as though he had become an idiot.
Begging him to just kill him instead was also something that had happened a double-hour ago.
He no longer had any inclination to say anything. Whenever he attempted to bite his tongue to commit suicide, the fellow’s hand unfailingly seized his jaw.
“Haha…”
The Shadowless Divine Thief let out a laugh through half-closed eyes. It was because Elder Zhuge Seong suddenly came to mind.
‘You sly viper of a bastard. You are finished too.’
It was not directed at Cheon Woo-jin. Rather, it was spoken toward Elder Zhuge Seong, who had made this monstrous kid his enemy.
The Shadowless Divine Thief had operated in the martial world for over several decades. Naturally, he had seen all manner of martial artists.
The most terrifying type was neither someone with strong martial arts, nor someone with vast wealth, nor a venomous person, nor someone with formidable authority.
‘Those with zero waste in their actions.’
They clearly knew what they had to do, and had no hesitation in executing it. Furthermore, their abilities backed it up.
While others fretted over untangling a knotted skein of thread, such fellows simply drew a blade and severed it.
Even the Shadowless Divine Thief, who had seen and experienced countless martial artists, knew only a few of that type. Yet every single one of them was a figure of the Heavens Beyond Heavens whose influence spanned the entire martial world in the present or past era.
Laughably, this wet-behind-the-ears kid was also like that. Zhuge Seong had provoked such a person. So how could he not laugh?
As the Shadowless Divine Thief continually chuckled, Cheon Woo-jin felt the time had come to ask questions.
“Divine Thief.”
“…”
The Shadowless Divine Thief looked at Cheon Woo-jin. By this point, he was even curious. Just why on earth was this fellow going this far?
Soon, Cheon Woo-jin continued his words.
“Return the treasure map.”
“…What?”
“You stole it, didn’t you? Since a thief was caught while fleeing with stolen goods, returning it is only natural duty.”
The Shadowless Divine Thief nodded his head.
It was truly a reasonable statement.
Yet laughter kept spilling out. Coming from the mouth of a fellow who seemed like he would care nothing for reason, righteous words unexpectedly emerged, which was truly hilarious.
The Divine Thief, smirking like that, spoke.
“I don’t have it. It has already left my hands.”
Cheon Woo-jin nodded. The Shadowless Divine Thief’s eyes were by no means those of someone speaking falsehoods.
Moreover, it was something he had anticipated to some degree.
Nonetheless, Cheon Woo-jin posed the same question again.
“Hand over the treasure map.”
“Do you think it’s a lie? I said it already left my hands…”
Tap. Cheon Woo-jin lightly rested his dark iron staff atop the Shadowless Divine Thief’s head.
“It’s inside here, isn’t it?”
The Shadowless Divine Thief’s words cut off sharply.
Because the fellow controlled his strength, the weight of the iron staff was hardly felt. However, the chilly sensation peculiar to the metal felt as though it was telling him it could crush his skull at any moment.
“There is no way a thief who prides himself on ruling the heavens would have handed over the treasure map obediently.”
He would have memorized all the information with his eyes and mind before giving it away.
The Shadowless Divine Thief swallowed hard.
Ah, I will never be able to escape the palm of this fellow’s hand.
He realized. It was no longer a question of martial prowess.
The young monster before his eyes was a man born above everyone else’s heads from the start. There were individuals like that from birth.
The leaders of colossal organizations like the Heavenly Demon Cult, Martial Alliance, and Black Overlord Castle. Those possessing the temperament of Grandmasters like the Wolf King, the Bow Demon, the Sword King, the White Flower Sword Immortal, and Black Elder.
From the Son of Heaven who was the pinnacle of a nation, to the Dark Emperor, the deepest and most fearsome name under the heavens…
Such people could not be judged by ordinary common sense. That monster looking at him with a dry gaze before him was precisely such a person.
The Shadowless Divine Thief took out the Heaven-Shaking Thunder from his bosom and flung it to the ground. It was an item he had prepared as his final strike.
The fastest hidden weapon under heaven, and a miraculous weapon capable of blowing a hole through the body of an apex master if used properly even by a third-rate martial artist.
If the Shadowless Divine Thief, who had attained the pinnacle of speed, used it, it could exert terrifying might.
‘Yet before this fellow, it would be a meaningless endeavor.’
The miraculous weapon was an artifact of eternal renown, but what meaning could it have before someone who did not even need such things?
The Shadowless Divine Thief drew a map on the dirt ground with his finger. It was a region called Jiulong County, located in Sichuan Province.
Sichuan featured rugged mountain terrain with numerous sheer cliffs, and just as many basins surrounded on all sides by elevated lands.
Because of that, there were many villages used as fortresses from ancient times, and among them, Jiulong County in particular was an uninhabited place whose basin was extraordinarily deep, and whose surrounding cliffs were so steep they seemed to touch the sky.
No one resided there, and no one came and went. The only ones who could look down upon the basin of Jiulong County were the immortals above the clouds. It was truly a location worthy of harboring the secret cave of the Three Eccentrics of the Righteous Path.
Cheon Woo-jin nodded.
“We communicate well.”
The Shadowless Divine Thief nearly let out a curse for a moment, but endured it with superhuman strength. That was because that dark iron staff had been swaying as if in contemplation since earlier.
The Shadowless Divine Thief racked his brain to survive.
By now, Elder Zhuge Seong would have deciphered the treasure map as well.
If he did not move quickly, this monster would have the treasure stolen by that cunning viper.
“If you intend to claim the secret cave, you must go quickly. From ancient times, treasure makes people’s hearts grow impatient.”
“Only thieves like you would be like that.”
“…”
The Shadowless Divine Thief closed his mouth. He had words to make an excuse, but lacked the will.
However, Cheon Woo-jin also knew the Divine Thief’s words had reason. Those who moved their feet to steal items were not the only thieves. Regrettably, there were many thieves in the current martial world, which was the shared theory of his two masters.
The Shadowless Divine Thief had said that implying it would be too late if he took the time to kill him, but in truth, it held little significance to Cheon Woo-jin.
Because a single second was more than enough to kill the already-subdued Divine Thief.
However, he had no particular desire to kill him.
The reason was truly simple.
It was because Master Black Elder, despite cursing the Shadowless Divine Thief, had not killed him. Had he set his mind to it, it was something fully within his power.
“Why he kept you alive is something I will have to see.”
“You are right.”
The Shadowless Divine Thief did not know what Cheon Woo-jin was talking about, but since it seemed he was sparing his life for now, he simply agreed.
Cheon Woo-jin looked at the Shadowless Divine Thief with an unenthusiastic gaze, then grabbed his ankle.
The Shadowless Divine Thief was terrified.
“N-no. Please, anything but the ankle…”
All he possessed was his lightness art. Losing his feet was equivalent to losing everything in the world.
However, Cheon Woo-jin merely looked at him as if asking what nonsense he was babbling, then struck his acupoints. From the tips of his toes, the Shadowless Divine Thief’s body slowly began to stiffen, until he ultimately turned like a block of wood and lay upon the ground.
‘I’m fortunate to have been caught by a young monster.’
The Shadowless Divine Thief thought so. Had he been caught by a fully grown monster, his ankle or throat would have been sliced in a single breath.
To a martial artist of the caliber of the Shadowless Divine Thief, unsealing acupoints was no big deal. Of course, because the opponent’s martial prowess was high, it would take quite some time, but regardless, it was not impossible.
Gazing at Cheon Woo-jin’s receding back while letting out a sneer, the Shadowless Divine Thief suddenly spoke.
“The mastermind is Elder Zhuge Seong. That bastard ordered me to steal the treasure map.”
Cheon Woo-jin looked back with a dry gaze.
A situation where the name of a Zhuge Clan figure had popped out out of nowhere.
Only now did the situation fall into place.
He already knew the clan’s circumstances after hearing about them from Vice Squad Leader Zhuge Rin. It seemed this man named Zhuge Seong intended to completely block the vice squad leader’s future path using this opportunity.
A single question arose.
‘Then why the squad leader?’
He might have merely suffered by being lumped together out of bad luck while they targeted Vice Squad Leader Zhuge Rin. However, somehow it felt unnatural.
After pondering briefly, Cheon Woo-jin nodded.
“I will find out once I confirm it.”
In the first place, it was not certain whether the Shadowless Divine Thief’s words were true. However, there was no need to question further. After all, the secret cave would hold all the answers.
In the spot Cheon Woo-jin had left, the Shadowless Divine Thief chuckled repeatedly while straining to unseal his acupoints.
‘Hehehe, you dog-like bastard. Dragging me into an affair entangled with such a monster? You take a taste of this too.’
The explosion thrown by the Shadowless Divine Thief, an explosion of a scale that would shake heaven and earth at that, was flying straight toward Zhuge Seong.
How could laughter not burst forth?
“He, hehehe…”
It was at that moment.
Suddenly, a shadow fell over his face.
Simultaneously, a stench that pierced the nostrils drifted over.
“Beggars?”
The problem was that they were not ordinary beggars.
They held clubs in their hands, and were fellows with several white knots hanging at their waists.
In other words, they were masters of the Beggars’ Sect.
“Vice Hall Master, what might this fellow be?”
No Un-sang, who had formed a pursuit team and was chasing traces of the fugitive Cheon Woo-jin, stared blankly at the Shadowless Divine Thief. Before anyone knew it, dozens of beggars filled the empty lot.
“Who knows. What is certain is that a stench is vibrating…”
The Shadowless Divine Thief wanted to retort that the stench was coming from their own bodies, but realizing the opponent was a Vice Hall Master of the Martial Alliance and an executive of the Beggars’ Sect, he held his tongue.
After thinking deeply for quite a while, Vice Hall Master No Un-sang suddenly nodded heartily and spoke.
“Good. First, beat him and take him along. My nose has never been wrong.”
No Un-sang was certain. This fellow was an evil person.
Naturally, there was basis as well.
The Heaven-Shaking Thunder fallen on the ground was unmistakably an exotic weapon strictly forbidden by the Martial Alliance. Moreover, despite clearly having suffered severely at someone’s hands, he showed no joy at seeing Martial Alliance members.
Decisively, as an executive of the Beggars’ Sect, he had identified all experts of this caliber, yet this was a face he had never seen before.
Several experts who concealed their faces came to mind. Every single one of them was an evil person, and among them was the Shadowless Divine Thief.
Although they were currently pursuing a fugitive, there was no way they could leave such a fellow behind. If they beat him tender and sent him to the Alliance, the Hall Master would discover his identity.
“Wait, hold on…”
The Shadowless Divine Thief was dumbfounded. How could a fellow who called himself a Vice Hall Master of the Martial Alliance beat a person without asking or questioning?
Come to think of it, that monstrous kid had also claimed to be a Martial Alliance member; just how had that place changed since Bukli Cheon became the Alliance Leader?
What was even more absurd was that despite the Vice Hall Master’s unreasonable order, his subordinates readily nodded and approached holding their clubs.
“I-I am…”
Before the Shadowless Divine Thief could say anything, a beggar’s club struck his mouth. He wanted to scream, but another beggar had already struck his mute acupoint.
And then, they beat him soundly. Originally, the way of the Beggars’ Sect was like this. As long as it was certain someone was an evil person, pointlessly asking and interrogating did not suit their hearty temperaments.
Was it said that from ancient times, all streams return to the same source? The highly developed methods of the Beggars’ Sect were indistinguishable from those of Black Elder.
While his subordinates were diligently swinging their clubs, Vice Hall Master No Un-sang held a roll of worry-forgetting herb in the corner of his mouth and stared into the distance.
“Cheon Woo-jin, you punk. I will definitely catch you.”
At the familiar name, the Shadowless Divine Thief struggled frantically to signal recognition, but the rain of clubs only grew more violent.