Chapter 207: Arrival (5)

Soyak silently looked from one man standing beside the sliding door to the other.

They were the ones sweating.

And understandably so. They truly could not sense anything from Soyak.

They knew what had been discussed inside, so they also knew exactly who the girl before them was.

And facing a Transformation Realm master who was not particularly well-disposed toward them...

That was terror itself.

Soyak stared at the sweating men for a few more seconds, then simply started walking.

She heard them collapse behind her after she passed, but paid it little mind.

No one obstructed her on the way to the restaurant entrance.

A Mount Hua martial artist who had gone into a private chamber with the Namgung Household's heir.

People knew how to read the room.

Rumors that Soyak had cut down the Flame-Saber Lord in a single stroke had already spread as far as Qianshan.

They could not be certain that the small, delicate girl before them was really the rumored "Cheon Soyak," but they could certainly make an educated guess.

The moment Soyak emerged from the passage leading to the private chambers, the entire room fell quiet.

All the more so because she had come out alone, without the Namgung Household's heir.

"...She came out by herself?"

"What's about to happen?"

"Is this... about the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering?"

People murmured quietly among themselves.

Soyak gave no answer and showed no sign that she had heard them.

She simply crossed the restaurant as quickly as she could.

A place like this had never suited her to begin with.

Partly because she was a Daoist of Mount Hua.

And even as a child, before any of this, she had never been close to liquor or music.

Once she finally left the restaurant, the noisy bustle of the marketplace greeted her.

Only then did Soyak let out a long breath.

This was much more comfortable.

Inside had felt, somehow, entirely like Namgung territory.

There might not have been anyone in that private chamber capable of harming her...

But it was hardly a place where she could relax when, if things went wrong, she might have to risk everything and overturn the entire situation.

Soyak walked slowly, putting more and more distance between herself and the restaurant.

Then she headed toward a quiet street on the outskirts of Qianshan.

In a crowd, it was difficult to find someone tailing you.

But once you entered a quiet, deserted street with few people around, that changed.

From that point on, a pursuer had nowhere to hide.

Among countless people, perhaps even the senses of a Transformation Realm master could be fooled.

Not on an empty street without another soul in sight.

Soyak walked until she reached a lonely stretch where there was not even a dumpling shop around, then stopped.

Her hand settled calmly over the Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge at her waist.

"...Wouldn't it be better if you stopped following me and left?"

Her voice was low.

Only then did the presences that had been following her covertly abandon their concealment and emerge.

Familiar black clothes and masks.

Four Night-Heaven Wanderers.

Soyak did not even turn around.

Partly because dealing with those four hardly required it...

And partly because she still had no intention of killing them.

"I'll pretend I didn't see you. Report that you lost me and go back."

"...We can't do that!"

The sound of a sword being drawn followed.

Soyak sighed and drew the Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge from her waist.

Then she slowly turned.

One man was already upon her, suppressing his footsteps and using Lightness Arts to launch a surprise attack, the tip of his blade directly before her eyes.

Clang—!

And that was all.

The next instant, the black sword in his hands snapped in half and spun into the air.

Severed by the Sword Force dwelling within the Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge.

"Are you trying to kill yourself?"

Soyak narrowed her eyes.

They were assassins who had already been exposed.

Continuing with the kill after that was no longer resolve.

It was suicide.

There was no chance they were unaware of something so obvious even to her.

So Soyak showed no mercy.

Her next stroke drew a beautiful horizontal line through the air.

And the three men behind him watched their companion's head slip lightly from his shoulders.

Thud.

Roll...

Then, splash.

The head struck the ground first, followed by the body.

Not a single drop of blood remained on the Sword Force she had raised with that violent surge of internal energy.

"I don't particularly want to kill the rest of you. Leave now, and go back."

The remaining three stood frozen.

Certain death.

They had seen certain death in the path traced by the longsword clenched in that small, delicate hand.

Their instincts screamed at them to run.

"...Y-you'll really let us live?"

"If you withdraw now."

The stench of blood filled her nose.

It came from the corpse she had just made.

Soyak slowly drew the thick scent deep into her lungs.

The internal energy still racing through her entire body from raising Sword Force absorbed the lingering traces of fierce killing intent.

But Soyak was not swept away by the impulses of the Heavenly Killing Star.

A person was defined not by the star they were born under, but by the life they had lived.

Soyak had never forgotten the days she had lived.

They were her guideposts.

She flicked her sword once through the air.

Like snuffing out a candle, the Sword Force curling around the Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge disappeared.

Then she slowly returned the blade to its sheath.

Shrrrng...

Click.

The sound of the scabbard taking the blade back in.

But at the end of it came their killing intent.

Once a sword had been sheathed, drawing it again naturally took time.

The three exchanged glances.

Then they charged Soyak from three different directions.

Had they ever crossed hands with a Transformation Realm master even once, they would never have made such a foolish choice.

Each of them stood either at the very end of Apex or the early stage of Transcendent Apex.

Against a martial artist of comparable level, their coordinated assault might have felt "perfectly simultaneous."

To Soyak...

It was nothing more than a clumsy sequence of attacks.

The Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge emerged from its sheath once again.

Soyak knocked aside the treacherous sword thrust from the early-stage Transcendent Apex assassin on the far left.

It was a treasured sword wreathed in Sword Qi, forged from Blacksteel at the very least.

Thanks to that, while the impact tore open his grip and left his hand bleeding, the blade itself escaped being cut apart.

And in that instant, the other two mistakenly believed their attacks would land.

Soyak's left hand moved.

The hand holding the scabbard.

Compared to the metal sword, the wooden scabbard was far less durable.

If she poured internal energy into it the way she did the Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge and tried to raise Sword Force, it would simply burst apart.

True, it had been reinforced here and there with the same material as the Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge's blade...

But that was all.

And the other two were only Apex masters who could not even manifest Sword Qi.

Soyak precisely controlled the internal energy flowing into her left hand.

Then she swung the scabbard.

Clang—!

One man's sword was swept aside, while the other's was caught and tangled off its line.

Soyak was not stupid enough to compete in raw strength with grown men.

The Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge in her right hand snaked forward in an instant and slashed through the Transcendent Apex assassin's wrist.

The cut went deep through tendons and veins, nearly severing the wrist halfway through.

Which meant he dropped his sword.

Soyak lightly caught the fallen blade with the tip of her own sword, turned it, and drove it into another man's neck.

The last man took the end of her scabbard directly in the solar plexus and collapsed, unable to breathe.

There had been no need to use a single form from the Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword or Falling Plum Elegy.

By simply tangling and unraveling their sword paths, Soyak had dismantled the assassins' attacks before they even realized what was happening.

"Ugh... hhk, haaah...!"

"Grrrgh..."

The man whose wrist had been cut went pale from the amount of blood pouring out.

The one with a sword buried halfway into his neck was already dying, blood streaming from the wound as wet, bloody gurgles bubbled from his throat.

Only the man struck in the solar plexus by the scabbard remained relatively unharmed, sprawled on the ground and desperately dragging air into his lungs.

"Y-you won't... get anything... out of me..."

"I already know who you are. I know who you belong to. There is nothing I want to ask you."

Soyak spoke quietly.

Between the early stage of Transcendent Apex and the very end of Apex.

Soyak assessed the level of the assassins the Namgung Household had assigned to her.

Assassins of this level could not do anything to her in the first place.

Besides, Soyak had already fought Night-Heaven Hall assassins before.

She had broken them before.

Hadn't even the Dark Emperor, the very pinnacle of their ranks, ultimately fallen with her in mutual destruction?

So...

The Namgung Household had not truly sent these people to kill Soyak.

They had merely wanted to test her.

To see whether that "rumor" which had drifted all the way from Shaanxi to Qianshan was actually true.

Of course, if the rumor turned out to be false and Soyak happened to get caught up in the attempt and die, that would have suited them just fine.

And even if that did not happen, she was still a Transformation Realm master who had stepped into their territory.

Tracking her location and monitoring her movements was something she could understand.

If they did not get caught.

Yes.

If they did not get caught.