Chapter 80: Wooden Dice Game (4)
Chui looked at the Spear Ghosts dancing joyfully on the wooden dice board.
‘You guys are of no use now, so return.’
The Spear Ghosts who had been rolling the dice instead of Chui until now retreated with sullen expressions.
Chui raised his head.
“Hohohohohohoho- yes, you are right. Mmm, you are right. You don’t know until you throw the dice. What will come out. Life is indeed like that. Hmm?”
Dog Butcher Gyeon Sul was laughing as if he was dying of amusement.
Eventually, two wooden dice rose high into the air.
“If the sum of two dice is one or more, I win. Now, let’s see. what kind of hand comes out.”
Everyone, including Dog Butcher, was looking at the air where the dice were thrown.
At that very moment when no one was looking this way, Chui finally drew the blade he had hidden inside his breast.
…Clank!
A dark red blade shot out from inside the skirt of his loose breast.
A graceful curve leading directly from the hilt to the metal collar and then to the blade, without even a handguard.
Chui sliced Dog Butcher’s throat just as he held the hilt.
Slash-
A single long red line made of blood traversed the air.
“……?”
A chill felt by instinctive sense and intuition dragged Dog Butcher’s chin down, which had been directed upward.
…Clang!
Dog Butcher hurriedly threw his head back and raised the blade of the Dog-Head Guillotine to block Chui’s blade.
However, because Chui’s blade had already sliced the skin of his throat and penetrated slightly, seeing blood could not be avoided.
Splat!
An immense amount of blood sprayed out from the slightly cut skin, coloring the wooden dice board red.
“Kyaaaah!”
The courtesans screamed from the surroundings.
The Hundred-Heads hurriedly stood up from their seats and drew their swords, but.
“Uh-uh. No cutting in.”
Another courtesan raised an axe blade and blocked the path of the Hundred-Heads.
Thud-
A single rough and crude hand axe was struck down, splitting the floor long.
“Anyone who wants to cross this line, come in. But you won’t be able to cross with both legs intact.”
Pig Butcher Jeok-hyang. She spoke, shaking her hair after washing off the makeup covering her face with takju.
Meanwhile, Dog Butcher did not yet properly understand the current situation.
“……? ……? ……?”
Dog Butcher retreated backward while holding his neck.
A fountain of blood was still spraying from his neck.
Eventually, Dog Butcher’s eyes narrowed.
He looked back and forth between Chui in front of him and Jeok-hyang behind.
“What are you guys. Were you assassins? No, looking closely, aren’t you Junior Sister Hae? Since when did you transfer to an assassin?”
“Shut up. We came to burn the grains and weapons here.”
“No, honey. If you are angry, you should talk, why do you barge in and commit bad behavior without warning?”
“Tiger Butcher, is that bastard someone with whom conversation works?”
“Did you have business with the tiger? But why did you come to the Dog Fortress and make this mess instead of going to the Tiger Fortress?”
“Grains and weapons go to the Tiger Fortress through the Dog Fortress. Therefore, before striking the Tiger Fortress, we must strike the Dog Fortress first to cut off the supply line. Isn’t that common sense?”
“Oh. You thought Tiger Butcher and I were in league. Well…… looking only at the situation, it could be so.”
Hearing Jeok-hyang’s words, Dog Butcher smiled.
He wrapped his neck tightly with a cloth that was nearby.
Tightly……
He choked it so tightly that his face turned blue.
As the white cloth was about to turn red, the hemostasis ended soon.
“Phew. I thought I was choked to death. What kind of shame would it be to be choked to death by one’s own hand.”
Dog Butcher raised the bloody Dog-Head Guillotine and hung it on his shoulder.
His eyes were now fixed toward Chui, not Jeok-hyang.
“Well, now that we have seen blood, I suppose neither side needs an explanation.”
“…….”
“If you tried to kill someone, you should pay the proper price, right?”
Chui did not say anything special.
He merely turned his head and asked Jeok-hyang.
“If we catch this guy, is the next the Tiger Butcher?”
“The possibility is high. If we cross just a few mountain peaks from here, it is the Tiger Fortress.”
“I see. It would be better to process quickly.”
Chui spoke indifferently.
At that, Dog Butcher’s smile grew even deeper.
“A cheeky kid. You seem to handle a blade pretty well…… shall we see if you do other things well besides surprise attacks?”
Dog Butcher picked up the Dog-Head Guillotine and swung it.
The huge blade fell down at a terrifying speed.
Clang!
Chui’s blade and Dog Butcher’s Dog-Head Guillotine clashed, producing countless sparks.
A dozen bouts exchanged while blinking once, and during that time, Dog Butcher’s expression completely changed.
“What is this. This is not a child?”
“…….”
“……What are you?”
Every single strike is heavy.
The ripple of internal force spreading at the contact point of blade and blade was telling him.
That the opponent’s internal force was by no means shallow compared to his own.
Besides…… what on earth is that strange blade that, far from being pushed by the blade of the Dog-Head Guillotine, is rather pushing the Dog-Head Guillotine back?
A dark red blade below a dark red hilt, and the chain hanging at the end is seen entering the enemy’s breast.
‘Did he tie it to his waist for fear of losing the blade?’
Dog Butcher did not think much of it.
At that very moment.
Clatter!
The blade held in Chui’s hand suddenly shot out.
“……!”
Dog Butcher was startled to see the blade passing by the tip of his nose.
But that was not the end.
Clatter! Click! Clank!
The blade extending from Chui’s hand seemed to double, and then instantly tripled.
Plum Blossom Ghost Spear. This strange spear, which is segmented into a total of four pieces, finally revealed its full appearance.
“Crazy!”
Dog Butcher was astonished.
No matter where he fled, no matter how far he distanced himself, the spear blade kept lunging right before his nose.
Whoosh! Click! Clang! Clatter! …Clank!
Chui pursued Dog Butcher continuously, using a single Plum Blossom Ghost Spear as a sword, a flail, a three-section staff, and a spear.
Slice!
The blade of the Plum Blossom Ghost Spear swept over the wooden dice board.
The pieces on the board were all sliced into two pieces.
“Damn it! What kind of weapon is that!?”
Dog Butcher swung the Dog-Head Guillotine diligently even while blocking the blood spilling from his neck.
But Chui was relentless and thorough.
If Dog Butcher tried to widen the distance, he responded with the spear, and if he narrowed the distance, he responded with the blade.
That was not all.
Thud, thud, thud-
Chui was throwing a handful of iron caltrops wherever Dog Butcher tried to step.
“Uh?”
The moment Dog Butcher pulled his foot back, he felt a sting in the sole of his foot.
One of the caltrops’ thorns had pierced the sole of his foot and stuck out of his instep.
The moment Dog Butcher stopped after stepping on the caltrops, Chui immediately assembled the spear and pursued.
Swish- swish- swish!
Dog Butcher gradually began to sweat cold sweat at the spear tip extending like a venomous snake.
Whoosh-
The moment Dog Butcher ducked his head to avoid the spear tip.
Thwack!
An iron hammer hidden in Chui’s other sleeve struck Dog Butcher’s head.
‘Crazy bastard! How many weapons are there!?’
Dog Butcher twisted his head with instinctive sense to avoid the hammer.
However, he could not avoid having part of his scalp torn and his entire brain shaken.
…Clink!
As soon as Chui achieved a successful hit, he immediately discarded the hammer and grabbed the spear with both hands.
The spear thrust its head like a venomous snake, aiming at Dog Butcher’s eyes, throat, heart, lungs, liver, groin, and thighs.
“Get lost!”
Dog Butcher shouted loudly even while coughing up blood.
The heavy Dog-Head Guillotine blade swung and deflected Chui’s spear blade.
Clang!
But the spear was not pushed back and rather bounced the Dog-Head Guillotine back.
‘What kind of strength is this……’
Dog Butcher gritted his teeth.
Chui’s internal force transmitted from the clash just now.
It was ringing as if it would crush his wrist bones.
That was natural, because Chui had been doing his best since he first ambushed Dog Butcher.
‘Strength is overflowing. The internal force is also not cut off.’
After killing the Hegemon Society Leader Do Mak-saeng and making him into a spear ghost, Chui’s realm had risen to the third level of the Towering Vessel stage at once.
‘It is good that the spear is also usable.’
Furthermore, he had remodeled the weapon into the shape he used in his past life.
In many ways, it was a board where he could not lose.
Clang!
Chui’s spear was moving much faster and more powerfully than when he tested it in the bamboo forest last time.
As if it did not exert full strength against trivial bamboo, and would show off its real skill only when meeting an opponent worthy of an opponent, the Plum Blossom Ghost Spear ran wild in that manner.
“……! ……! ……!”
Chui kept advancing forward, and Dog Butcher kept retreating backward.
Usually, Dog Butcher used a somewhat unfamiliar weapon called Dog-Head Guillotine to bring embarrassment to the opponent.
But right now, meeting and fighting with an even more unfamiliar and deformed weapon, he finally realized.
How embarrassed and desperate those who had died by his hand so far must have been.
“Damn it!”
Dog Butcher retreated with limping steps.
And holding the handle of the Dog-Head Guillotine with both hands, he brought it down in a straight line.
At the same time, Chui also threw his final winning move.
…Clank! Clatter!
The Plum Blossom Ghost Spear, which transformed into a single long spear, extends at a tremendous speed.
The moment the Dog-Head Guillotine falling from above and the spear blade shooting in a straight line interlocked.
Crack!
The wall and floor of the cave split, producing a terrifying roar.
“…….”
“…….”
The courtesans buried their faces on the floor while wrapping their heads, and the water bandits watched the scene blankly without even thinking of cutting in.
“…….”
“…….”
Chui and Dog Butcher also looked at each other.
Chui’s spear was stopped right in front of Dog Butcher’s Adam’s apple.
Dog Butcher’s Dog-Head Guillotine is seen completely blocked by Chui’s shaft.
Eventually, Chui spoke.
“The match is decided.”
Then Dog Butcher replied in a cold tone.
“Why didn’t you kill me?”
“I already won, so why bother.”
“Bullshit.”
Dog Butcher smiled, revealing his teeth.
In his eyes, which had only been languid, a sharp killing intent was now flashing.
“I have not lost until I die. You know?”
“Concede to the match. Gyeon Sul.”
“If you want to make me concede, kill me.”
Dog Butcher thrust his neck toward Chui’s spear.
…Squelch!
As the spear tip penetrated his Adam’s apple, blood flowed out again from the red-stained cloth.
It was a momentum as if he would not acknowledge defeat before dying.
But Chui was still calm.
“Didn’t you say to do it fairly and strictly?”
“……?”
“The Wooden Dice Game, I mean.”
Simultaneously with those words, Chui gestured downward with his chin.
Dog Butcher lowered his gaze, wondering what he meant.
There was the wooden dice board there.
“……!”
The two dice Dog Butcher had thrown at the very end.
They are seen stopped on the board.
It was impossible to know what numbers were revealed on the top face of the dice.
Because the spear blade Chui lunged at the end had exquisitely shaved off the top faces of the two dice.
Therefore, only a smooth wooden face existed on top of the two dice, and no number was revealed.
Neither one, nor two, nor three, nor four, nor five, nor six, but zero.
Zero and zero. A total of zero.
Dog Butcher’s piece had one space left to the finish line, but eventually could not move.
Chui’s spear also stopped right before Dog Butcher’s Adam’s apple and did not move.
A brief silence flowed in that state.
“…….”
“…….”
Eventually.
“……Pfft!”
Dog Butcher’s mouth opened first.
He burst into laughter and nodded.
“In its own way, you are right.”
He dropped the Dog-Head Guillotine he was holding onto the floor.
And he pushed away Chui’s spear that came up to his chin with his hand as if it were bothersome.
“Okay. What do you want?”
Chui spoke.
“Everything.”
Before the other water bandits could say anything, Dog Butcher replied.
“Go ahead.”
Unrivaled Spear Ghost