Chapter 54: North Venerates Shaolin (4)

“I knew it’d come to this, Gisan Gwang. You strutted around so proud, calling yourself Namgung’s swordmaster—kehehehe....”

A hunched man was nudging Gisan Gwang’s corpse with the toe of his foot.

Flies were already swarming over the body.

It looked like at least a couple shichen had passed.

Now it was nothing more than a corpse drained pale, even the blood long gone.

“If you’re an assassin, live like an assassin. If you’re a swordmaster, live like a swordmaster. If you don’t, you end up like this.”

His eyes were filled with blazing killing intent, shining like lamplight.

His nose had been broken over and over, bent crooked this way and that.

And his mouth—someone had jammed a blade in and dragged it to the left, leaving his left cheek fully stitched up.

He was the head who ruled and led Namgung’s shadow group.

A disciple of the Dark Sovereign, the legend from a generation ago.

The Night-Heaven Hall Lord—Extreme-Night Single Sword, Byeoksa Gok.

A long, curved sword made of dark iron was strapped to his back.

Black iron and dark iron were similar in nature, but their color differed.

And dark iron was rarely used.

Because of Byeoksa Gok.

How many heads had he cut down in the dead of night, without anyone ever knowing.

He was sixty.

He had learned covert execution from the age of fifteen, and practiced it ever since—forty-five years now.

It had already been forty years since he’d earned the sobriquet Extreme-Night Single Sword.

So rumors in the Central Plains could only spread.

That anyone carrying a dark-iron sword was someone who wanted to kill without sound or trace.

Someone who admired Extreme-Night Single Sword Byeoksa Gok—someone who dreamed of murder.

That dark-iron curved sword on his back was his beloved weapon.

And the Ten Thousand Ghosts Descend to Heaven Sword he wielded with it was his life art.

A supreme Assassin Organization technique—one in which you couldn’t even hear the blade cut through the air.

An attack executed in perfect silence and pitch-black darkness.

Extreme-Night Full-Shadow Steps, refined past completion into an extreme state, could deceive even the eyes of a Transcendent Apex master to a fair degree.

And if it was an ambush...

He had killed even a Transformation Realm master before.

“This is why I said I wouldn’t take Namgung warriors into Night-Heaven Hall.”

Tsk, tsk—he clicked his tongue.

It was always like this.

They tried to show off their petty skill as if they were still swordmasters, and died for it.

That beloved Sky-Vault Unfettered Sword of theirs—they couldn’t even use it because it would expose who they were.

“Even if I teach them the Killing Soul Sword, they train Sky-Vault Unfettered Sword like they’re possessed. It makes me want to die—die, I swear.”

Ten Thousand Ghosts Descend to Heaven Sword was something you could learn only after completing the Killing Soul Sword.

If they got that far, they wouldn’t be pushed back even in pure swordsmanship.

But teaching a martial artist who had already learned something deeply an art of completely different nature was absurd to begin with.

Still, Namgung Hyeong had been firm.

He said you couldn’t trust some stray thing from who-knew-where.

That it had to be chosen from among Namgung’s own warriors.

The recruitment rate was good, sure.

A shadow sword protecting the Clan Lord and the Clan Lord’s household.

How could that not drip with style?

But that loyalty and attachment to Namgung was the problem.

They looked down on the Assassin Organization martial arts he taught and didn’t train them.

So even after reaching Transcendent Apex, they died while using a Killing Soul Sword they hadn’t fully mastered.

“And now—ha... they tell me to clean this up.”

Namgung Hyeong’s insight wasn’t deep.

But he was a man who knew his own shallowness.

So he laid traps—two, three layers.

Sending Gisan Gwang, and then dispatching Night-Heaven Guests from Night-Heaven Hall along with him—that was proof.

“All of you. Come out.”

At his single command, people sprang from the brush one after another.

Night-Heaven Guests.

More precisely—an elite few who had completely discarded Namgung martial arts and devoted everything to Assassin Organization arts.

So devoted that when his orders and the Clan Lord’s orders collided—

They would follow his.

*****

People were gathered beneath Mount Song.

Something must have happened.

The monks were clustered together, as if they were waiting for them.

“Looks like the Flame-Saber Lord arrived first.”

Gong-eop said with an easy smile.

Only then did Soyak and Cheongak understand the situation.

They had returned Shaolin’s disciple alive—of course Shaolin would wait for them.

The bigger the gate, the more thorough they were with both gratitude and revenge.

Gong-eop was placing his steps carefully.

The bleeding had stopped.

The internal injuries were controlled to a certain extent.

In this situation, hurried, violent movement would only be poison.

“...Head Senior will be okay, right?”

But Soyak could only worry.

Cheonjeong had willingly thrown his life away to give her an opening.

She didn’t want to lose anyone anymore.

“His life will not be in danger. Nor his martial arts. Don’t worry, young patron.”

“...Thank you.”

“You asked that already. If the great hero says he’s fine, stop asking already...”

Cheongak patted Soyak’s back, trying to soothe her.

She nodded quietly, but...

In another couple shichen, she would probably ask again.

As they drew closer to Mount Song, the monks’ faces came into view.

Seeing Gong-eop carrying someone, the monks approached.

Then they pressed their palms together and greeted him.

“Namo Amitabha. Your disciple Seon-geung returned safely.”

“Namo Amitabha. I discovered the three young Mount Hua patrons who had been traveling with the Flame-Saber Lord patron and was bringing them here. Thank you for coming out to assist, Abbot.”

Master Gwanggyeong.

Shaolin’s Abbot.

When Soyak and Cheongak greeted with clasped fists, Master Gwanggyeong waved a hand.

“Thanks to you, Shaolin did not lose a young disciple. But more than that—he looks badly injured...”

“After the Flame-Saber Lord left, an assassin struck them.”

Among the monks, the Flame-Saber Lord’s eyebrows twisted.

That meant he had been played.

“Say that again. Who struck whom?”

“An assassin of the Assassin Organization, Flame-Saber Lord patron. It seems someone used a scheme to ensure you could not protect these young Mount Hua disciples.”

“Hah! They even harmed Shaolin’s disciple to do it? So that’s the Assassin Organization, is it...”

He frowned, as if it was beyond belief.

“So you saved the children, Master?”

“No.”

“...Then don’t tell me.”

“Yes. These children faced the assassin attacking them and won. The assassin is dead.”

The monks began to murmur.

The Assassin Organization did not send assassins into the world unless they had reached at least Apex.

And their ambushes were cunning, treacherous, and fast—hard to block at the same realm.

Meaning you needed, at minimum, a Transcendent Apex master to respond to and stop such an ambush.

“So those young patrons survived an Assassin Organization ambush—and fought back to win?”

“I heard a rumor recently. That an unmatched talent appeared at Mount Hua.”

“They say she defeated Namgung’s young clan lord.”

Then Flame-Saber Lord Ak Jupae stepped forward and spoke.

Looking down at Soyak.

“Explain what happened.”

“That assassin... did not ambush us.”

“What?”

“Strangely, he walked out of the brush and attacked us head-on...”

Again, the Shaolin monks began to murmur.

Even the Flame-Saber Lord was briefly thrown into confusion.

Assassins attacking from the front?

It was hard to believe.

“...And so Head Senior Cheonjeong threw himself in and created an opening.”

“I see. I’m sorry I could not be there.”

“No.”

Soyak lowered her head.

Owing Ak Jupae a debt of life?

She hated it.

Of course, if she could choose a world where he was there and Cheonjeong didn’t get hurt, she would choose that.

...But even so, she couldn’t help the feeling.

“This is no time for it. Hurry and bring the injured patron inside.”

The brief commotion only settled once Master Gwanggyeong stepped in.

Gong-eop, still carrying the unconscious Cheonjeong, began climbing Mount Song.

Slowly, one step at a time.

So Cheonjeong’s wounded body would not shake.

*****

Of the Five Great Peaks of the Central Plains, the Western Peak.

A place famed for a spectacle of jagged cliffs and strange stones—Mount Hua.

And the highest point there was South Peak.

A peak standing tall to the south.

On the rocky foothills beneath it, Jeongyang stood.

With his successor, Myunggon—and Myunggon’s disciple, Eun Byeok.

“Look. There.”

Beneath South Peak, a massive cave-mouth gaped open.

It was not a natural cave.

The walls and ceiling were smooth, as if a craftsman had carved them with a chisel.

A steep slope that continued downward, abrupt yet unwavering.

“Master, that place is...”

“Be quiet, Eun Byeok. It is exactly what you think.”

Eun Byeok’s face went pale.

Before a place like this, even he was nothing but a disciple.

To begin with, it wasn’t a place a mere Second Generation disciple could even set foot.

He was allowed to accompany them only because he was the disciple of Myunggon, the Head Disciple and future Sect Leader.

“Let’s go down.”

Jeongyang led the way first.

He took only one step into the cave—

And a vast, dense demonic energy stabbed into his skin.

Each breath strangled his lungs and windpipe.

“Khhh...”

“Are you all right, Master?”

“I’m fine. Myunggon and Eun Byeok—raise the Primordial Clear-Heart Method and enter.”

Jeongyang immediately raised the internal power of Purple Mist Divine Power.

An internal method that, once mastered, made Purple Mist True Energy flow through every martial technique.

Above all, it possessed power suited to resisting demonic energy.

Primordial Clear-Heart Method’s internal power was also pure, so it could resist demonic energy.

But Eun Byeok would not endure.

Jeongyang began drawing up a full measure of internal power from his core.

From the body of the dignified elder, a purple radiance spread.

Like a sunset sky’s afterglow.

“...Now, come in.”

Only then could Myunggon and Eun Byeok set foot inside the cave.