The moment I opened the gambling house door and stepped outside, sunlight streamed down, and hidden weapons flew in with that light.
Shhk! Shhk! Shhk! Shhk!
I lightly batted away the incoming hidden weapons with my Black Demon Sword. Thanks to the Divine Eye Technique, my eyes were not dazzled even when looking directly at the sun.
The heads of the assassins on the opposite roof who had thrown the hidden weapons burst in rapid succession.
The palm of Geukak Soma, extended toward them.
His unique martial art, the Demonic Extremity Berserk Palm, had been unleashed.
The moment his outstretched palm folded, and his index finger pointed at something.
Finger wind shot out from his finger like light.
Fwing! Thud!
Another assassin who had been flying over the roof to charge at us fell, a hole drilled through his chest.
It was his other unique martial art, the Blood Calamity Finger.
He had risen to the position of Demonic Lord with that palm and that finger.
I believe the nickname "Extreme Evil" was also influenced by these two martial arts. The sight of enemies' heads and bodies bursting with dull thuds, and holes being blown through them, was far more gruesome than being pierced by a sword.
This was the first time I'd seen his martial arts properly since we left the sect together. I know better than anyone how terrifying these two arts are. When he starts rampaging like a madman, hell itself unfolds from his fingertips.
Geukak Soma's finger slowly turned toward me. A tension flowed from the tip of his finger, as if he were about to unleash the Blood Calamity Finger at any moment. Dodging the Blood Calamity Finger at such close range would not be easy.
The next moment!
Fwing! Thud!
The Blood Calamity Finger grazed past my face and pierced through the forehead of a masked figure charging from behind.
I did not move an inch.
"Not moving just now was harder than dodging."
"Is that so?"
"You have to suppress the reflex to dodge, which is actually more difficult than dodging itself. For an expert like the Second Young Lord, even more so. So it was you who killed Seophon Majon after all."
Flash.
This time, my Black Demon Sword split the air. A strand of sword qi shot from my blade, brushing past Geukak Soma's face before cleaving through the torso of the masked figure rushing at him from behind.
"I did not kill Seophon Majon. Just how long will you keep asking?"
"I won't ask anymore. Because I'm certain now."
There was no leisure to answer "no" amid another assassin's charge. My sword qi and the Blood Calamity Finger pierced through yet another assassin's body.
"There are many enemies."
"Let's go."
Geukak Soma and I walked together. At this moment, I was feeling a slight excitement within. Was Geukak Soma the only one suppressing the urge to cut loose?
The Wind God Steps, the Heavenly Demon Guardian Divine Art, and the Soaring Sword Technique that had reached the Eleventh Star. I, too, had been forcibly suppressing the desire to unleash my strength.
If my opponents were assassins trying to kill me, I could display my martial arts without any hesitation.
As we walked down the alley, four masked figures leaped over the wall and attacked all four of us simultaneously.
I cut down the man trying to stab me with movements three times faster than his and looked back. I had no interest in watching Geukak Soma or Cheongmyeon fight. I only had eyes for Ian's battle.
She was only slower than me, but she dealt with the enemy the same way I did. The mistakes that might have followed such blood-soaked training did not manifest.
She dodged the incoming sword as if brushing past her shoulder and cut him down with a single stroke.
Shhk!
The assassin collapsed on the spot, his jawbone sliced clean through.
She was neither flustered nor tense.
You're doing well, Ian.
We emerged from the alley onto the main road where a carriage was waiting.
As if completely unaware of the ambush in the alley, people were each busy with their own affairs.
A yawning shop owner. A clerk arranging goods before him. An old woman sweeping the road with a broom. A child running past her. An old man sitting by the roadside. Across from them, a middle-aged peddler hawking with a display stand. A man and woman who looked like a married couple quarreling. A woman hurling abuse from an upstairs window while looking down, and a man standing below with his head hung low.
An ordinary moment of daily life unfolded like a painting.
At the very moment when we, too, were naturally becoming part of the painting—
an inexplicable sense of unease and crisis surged in my heart, and the Heavenly Demon Guardian Divine Art activated.
"Watch out!"
In that very moment as I was warning them, the attack began.
Every single one of those we had seen was an assassin.
Shhk! Shhik!
The man and woman who had been quarreling with the peddler wielded daggers and rushed at me. Executing a perfect pincer maneuver, the man aimed for my left, the woman for my right. My eyes could even see the thick, lethal poison smeared on the blue gleaming blades.
The Black Demon Sword quickly and accurately cut down its mark.
As I cut from the man's shoulder to his chest, the woman's dagger grazed past my ear.
Judging by their swift movements, they were undoubtedly among the Black Kill's finest assassins, yet my eyes could even see her eyelashes trembling.
Feeling the Black Demon Sword flying at her from an unseen angle, her eyelashes trembled even faster. In the moment she thought to react—srrk!
As I cut through her waist and turned around, Geukak Soma was facing the peddler.
What the peddler, who had been carrying a display stand, threw at him was poison powder.
As Geukak Soma waved his hand, the poison powder returned to the peddler who had thrown it. Covered in poison, the peddler shrieked and rolled across the ground.
At the same time, the woman who had been throwing hidden weapons from upstairs died pierced by the Blood Calamity Finger, and the man sending sword qi from below was blown to pieces by the Demonic Extremity Berserk Palm.
Neither had I been merely spectating. While knocking away the hidden weapons the woman had thrown in all directions, I simultaneously neutralized the sword qi the man had launched with my own sword qi. Geukak Soma and I had, in effect, executed a perfect combined offensive.
The child among the assassins rushed at Ian.
Cut him down, Ian! That one is no child!
He only had the appearance of a child; in reality, he was a grown adult of advanced years.
Fortunately, Ian was not as soft-hearted as I had feared.
The moment she twisted her body to evade the child's attack and calmly cut him down, the old man sitting by the roadside had already charged in and was stabbing a dagger toward her face. It was a dagger coated with poison that would kill with even a scrape.
Even in that life-or-death moment, I only watched. Hoping Ian would block it herself, I didn't launch any sword qi.
Thrust!
The old man's dagger stopped before Ian's eye as she bent her waist backward. Meanwhile, Ian's sword was lodged in the old man's heart. She had finished off the old man by a hair's breadth. It was thanks to her plump yet flexible waist.
I was more startled than she was, but not helping had been the right decision in the end. This one experience would make her grow more than years of training.
While she dealt with the two, Cheongmyeon had dispatched the shop owner and clerk. In the process, had Geukak Soma not killed the old woman sweeping with a broom using the Blood Calamity Finger, Cheongmyeon would have died by her hand.
One could find the reason Cheongmyeon had devoted his entire life to Geukak Soma in that very sight.
All of this occurred simultaneously in the span of a single breath.
It was only because Geukak Soma's and my skills were so outstanding that we had passed through unscathed; their ambush, designed as a perfect combined offensive that wouldn't interfere with each other's movements, was truly terrifying.
Ian spoke with a sigh, her face flushed.
"Ah, I killed a child and an old person too."
It was said half in jest, but it still eased her mind.
"He's a child older than you, and how many do you think that one killed before becoming an old man?"
"My mind was put at ease in an instant."
After easing her mind, I entered a nearby shop.
The merchant who had originally done business there was collapsed in a corner, his acupoints sealed. While we had been in the gambling house, they had orchestrated this entire murderous scheme.
And the reason the assassins hadn't killed the merchants was to avoid the smell of blood. Otherwise, they would have all been exterminated to the last.
The very moment I was turning around after unsealing the merchant's acupoints and blood points—
Shhk.
An attack flew in from behind.
Srrk!
I turned like lightning and cut the neck of the man I had just unsealed. The man collapsed, astonished at my reaction speed. He was another assassin prepared for when the assassination outside failed.
This ambush was truly unexpected and dangerous. Had it been anyone but me, they would have fallen for it.
The real merchant was collapsed in an inner room, his blood points and demon points sealed. I unsealed him and left the shop.
I went around the surrounding houses one by one and unsealed the original owners who had been held captive there.
Because I already knew there might be assassins mixed among them, another assassin disguised as one of them lost his life to my sword without even managing to swing his blade once.
When I finished unsealing the person at the last shop and came outside, another assassin was being blown apart by Geukak Soma's Demonic Extremity Berserk Palm.
It was an assassin hiding in a box in front of a building that Geukak Soma was passing by.
Even though the outside had already been cleared and the chances of a successful assassination were slim, they were ones who would attack unconditionally when the appointed time came.
Thoroughly trained, they revealed themselves and attacked even while knowing they would die. They were not humans but beings raised as killing tools with fear eliminated.
"I will fetch the carriage."
Cheongmyeon walked to get the carriage across the street.
Geukak Soma spoke to me.
"If they put up a commission fee of a million nyang for assassins, the one behind this must be no ordinary fellow."
"Yes. By our main sect's standards, it would be someone of Demonic Lord rank. Right now they're using blades from the outside to avoid getting caught, but if the main figure is revealed, experts of a caliber we cannot handle may emerge."
Geukak Soma's eyes shone with the desire for victory. Among the Eight Demonic Lords, he was second to none in belligerence. The stronger the enemy, the more he burned.
It was right as we were having this conversation.
Swoosh! Srrk!
A streak of sword qi cut through the passenger section of the carriage.
The one who had launched the sword qi was Ian. Sensing an assassin hiding behind the carriage targeting Cheongmyeon as he sat in the driver's seat, Ian had sent out the sword qi.
Inside the diagonally cut passenger compartment, the assassin lay fallen, sliced apart.
Cheongmyeon got down from the carriage. Even if it had been an assassin who had concealed his presence perfectly, failing to detect him was an obvious mistake.
Cheongmyeon bowed his head deeply to Ian. Ian, too, bowed her head to him.
Well done, Ian. Having someone like Cheongmyeon owe you his life was a good thing.
Seeing Ian's flushed face grow even redder with excitement, I spoke playfully.
"You might be the first to break Soma-nim's carriage."
At my words, Ian started in surprise and then hurriedly bowed her head to Geukak Soma.
"I apologize!"
Geukak Soma indulged my joke.
"That carriage was very expensive."
Ian quickly replied.
"I will compensate."
"How?"
"I will buy the same carriage with my monthly salary."
"It would take several years' worth of your salary, wouldn't it?"
Then Ian, pondering for a moment, spoke in a desperate voice.
"Please lower the price!"
In that instant, Geukak Soma burst out laughing. I had made him laugh many times before, but this was the biggest laugh yet.
"Ugly as you are, you have a talent for being funny."
Though she had been called ugly outright, Ian didn't show any sign of displeasure.
"If you lower it more, I'll be even funnier for you!"
Then Cheongmyeon came over and said in a low voice.
"I will add my monthly salary to that as well."
This time, I laughed. Knowing Cheongmyeon wasn't the type to say such things, laughter came out naturally.
After relieving the tension like that, Geukak Soma gave an order to Cheongmyeon.
"Mobilize all available clandestine networks and find out where the Black Kill Lord is hiding."
"Yes!"
Then I spoke to Cheongmyeon.
"Use the Tongcheongak contact network. Given the gravity of the matter, I'm certain Strategist Sama will understand."
It was Tongcheongak that had sent information regarding the Black Kill earlier. If it was the Sama Gunsa I knew, he would have already given permission for us to use the information.
"Understood."
"And take Ian with you."
"I shall."
Separate from the life debt, it was because I wanted to let her properly experience various things through this opportunity.
"You have to pay for breaking the carriage, right?"
"Yes. I will go and return, Young Master."
Ian left that place following Cheongmyeon.
I calculated the damages incurred by the merchants today and gave them some money before returning.
"A show of generosity for appearances?"
"It is generosity, but who am I showing it to? To Soma-nim? To someone it would never work on?"
"To those merchants. Or perhaps to yourself."
I nodded as if conceding and spoke calmly.
"Perhaps. But so what if it's for show or not? What's important to those people is whether they receive compensation or not."
"You really are persistently pretending to be kind."
"Even living while pretending to be kind like this, my sword is stained with blood again today."
Geukak Soma didn't answer at all.
I slowly walked over and untied the horses tied to the broken carriage.
"The weather is nice, so shall we ride horses until the next village?"
"Very well."
I mounted a horse first, and Geukak Soma mounted one as well. Leading the remaining horses one by one, we began to move slowly.
When we didn't gallop even after going quite a distance, Geukak Soma asked me.
"Aren't we too relaxed?"
I looked up at the clear sky and said.
"What do we have to be busy about? It's always the side that failed that's in a hurry."