The women had not fought because the anger that had built up inside them had exploded. A single energy had shaken their very nature.
Soaksim.
Geugak Soma’s unique demonic energy, which awakened humanity’s primal violence.
When exposed to Soaksim, one’s heart began to pound and one felt the urge to kill someone. In fact, if someone with weak internal energy was strongly exposed to Soaksim, they might even stab the person beside them to death.
But assassins were people who controlled their emotions better than anyone. Even with the same internal energy and skill, they were far less affected than ordinary martial artists. The way they endured and revealed their anger and violence was also subtly different.
Exposed to Soaksim, the women could not escape the keen eyes of Geugak Soma, whose understanding of evil was deeper than anyone’s.
Third Gyo recognized the man who had taken off his bamboo hat. Yes, this was a man fully qualified to remain at ease before twenty of them.
“Geugak Soma.”
She already knew that the man guarding the mistress of Cheonhwaru was Geugak Soma. What she had not known was that today, when the seats for the finals stage were being assigned, he would make the first move like this.
She did not know about Soaksim, but at the very least, she could be certain of one thing. Geugak Soma had used some special method to pick them out from among the women.
Geugak Soma looked at a chair a short distance away. It meant for her to come and sit.
It was a situation where she had to hear what he intended to say. Third Gyo walked over and sat down.
The remaining assassins spread out to the left and right with Third Gyo at the center. They took positions from which they could immediately launch a joint attack if a fight broke out. But Geugak Soma did not seem to care at all.
‘Seeing him up close…’
She could properly see Geugak Soma’s eyes behind the veil. She had glimpsed him during the main tournament, but this was the first time she had seen him this close.
Before meeting Geugak Soma this time, she had misunderstood him.
She had thought Geugak Soma must look so evil that it would be hard to face him, or that he must have hideous scars or burns. That was why he wore a mask, she had assumed.
‘To think he was this handsome.’
She could tell just from his eyes and forehead. He was truly a handsome man.
‘Perhaps his nose or mouth is hideous.’
In any case, his first impression made her curious about his real face.
Geugak Soma asked her,
“Do you have the authority to decide right now?”
Geugak Soma was asking whether she had to move only as her organization had instructed her, or whether she could make some decision on her own.
“What if I do?”
“Tell your subordinates not to take their own lives.”
She had expected the words that followed to be something like, “Because I will kill them brutally myself!”—words meant to break their spirit.
But Geugak Soma’s next words were completely unexpected.
“I did not come to kill you.”
Third Gyo stared silently at Geugak Soma. She was confused because it did not seem to be a lie. He had found all of them, yet he was saying he would not kill them? Geugak Soma, of all people?
Third Gyo answered in a low voice.
“We do not commit suicide.”
As if that was enough, Geugak Soma nodded.
Third Gyo slowly rose from her seat. He was probably trying to confuse them with the claim that he had not come to kill them, weakening their will to fight.
Riiip.
When she tore the lower part of her palace dress in a long line, her thigh was revealed. A dagger was tucked into the leather strap wrapped around it. Drawing the dagger, Third Gyo said to the other assassins,
“We must kill him at all costs. There is no way Geugak Soma will spare us.”
The assassins all drew their weapons at once.
Some women drew hidden daggers like Third Gyo, while others wound sharp fishing lines around both hands and pulled them taut. One woman drew a flexible sword that had been disguised as a belt.
When an ornamental pendant was taken apart, small hidden weapons came out, and there was even a woman who pulled out a hairpin. Blue-edged hidden weapons emerged from inside a bracelet as well.
Twenty beautiful women each drew the concealed weapons they had hidden. It was not a sight one could easily see, even after living a lifetime as a martial artist.
Geugak Soma, who had risen from his seat, put his hand into his robes. Not knowing what would come out, all the assassins tensed.
What emerged in Geugak Soma’s hand was his mask.
The mask covered his face, and the veil he had been wearing slipped down as softly as a falling flower.
Now what covered Geugak Soma’s face was not a veil, but a white mask.
Third Gyo and the assassins grew tense. It was the first time they were seeing with their own eyes the white mask of Geugak Soma, which they had only heard of in rumors.
The feeling he gave off when wearing the veil and when wearing the mask was different. Until just a moment ago, she had thought, How can his eyes be so handsome? But when those eyes entered beneath the mask, the impression changed completely.
Those unfamiliar, chilling eyes smiled from within the mask. Looking at twenty assassins who had drawn their unique weapons, he smiled.
There was yet another pressure added to that.
Geugak Soma had drawn a ten-thousand-year cold iron dagger.
As far as Third Gyo knew.
‘I thought Geugak Soma used finger winds and palm techniques?’
That was why she had intended to fight this battle while being careful of finger and palm techniques. But he was drawing a dagger?
The pressure that dagger gave off was completely different when held in Geugak Soma’s hand than when held in someone else’s.
Normally, Third Gyo would have said this before a fight.
Even if it’s you, you won’t be able to face all of us.
But before Geugak Soma’s overwhelming presence, Third Gyo had this thought.
‘I should have grabbed those women by the hair and gone out with them earlier.’
She could tell that her subordinates were feeling the same intimidation. Having greater numbers did not necessarily mean they had an advantage.
Fundamentally, assassins moved alone or under a thoroughly prepared plan. Right now, they had no plan whatsoever, and naturally, there had never been a time when twenty of them had launched a joint attack together.
Still, there was one thing she could hope for.
“If each person inflicts just one wound, the twentieth person will walk out of here.”
In a situation where their momentum had been suppressed, those words would be more helpful than vaguely saying they could win. If they fought to the death, someone could survive. That someone could be you.
As befitted a leader, Third Gyo was the first to launch herself toward Geugak Soma.
Swish! Swiiish! Swish!
Third Gyo’s dagger sliced through the air in rapid succession. Every strike flew only toward Geugak Soma’s vital points.
It was an attack that anticipated many things. How she would respond if he blocked or dodged, how she would unfold the next move, and how she would react if he counterattacked and knocked the dagger from her hand.
But she had not expected Geugak Soma’s movements to be this fast.
She could not even tell how Geugak Soma had avoided her attack. In that flashing instant, Geugak Soma brushed past her. He was so fast that she did not even have time to raise her protective qi.
She felt something skim past her neck.
Slice.
‘Damn it! I’ve been cut!’
Just as she despaired, thinking her neck would split open and spray blood,
she did not fall.
‘Why?’
She checked her own neck. A little blood stained her hand. It was only the blood that had beaded on her neck.
She quickly reflected her neck in her dagger.
A single line of blood drawn across her neck. He had not cut deeply, only skimmed it ever so slightly.
‘Was it a mistake?’
But it was not a mistake.
Eleventh Gyo and Twentieth Gyo, who next exchanged a move with Geugak Soma, were also standing a short distance away, each touching her own neck.
They too had received attacks that would have killed them if the cuts had been just a little deeper, yet they stood there with only faint lines of blood drawn on them.
‘If he had meant to kill us, we would be dead.’
Only then could Third Gyo objectively see the way Geugak Soma fought.
She had thought his attacks struck because he was simply fast.
That was not it. Geugak Soma’s attacks were tracing trajectories she could never have imagined. Even if they could handle that speed, they would never be able to block those peculiar attacks.
The hidden weapons thrown by Nineteenth Gyo were all deflected by Geugak Soma’s dagger, and Sixteenth Gyo and Thirteenth Gyo, who faltered while dodging the ricocheting weapons, had their necks cut one after another.
‘How can he do that?’
What was astonishing was that regardless of the opponent’s level of skill, the location and depth of the wound were the same.
It was a realm far more difficult than simply cutting their necks and killing them all.
If we leave twenty wounds on him, we can survive?
Hearing those words, how laughable must Geugak Soma have found them? They could not leave even a single wound on Geugak Soma.
And not all the assassins submitted to this overwhelming difference in skill.
Slice!
Nineteenth Gyo, whose neck had already been cut once, launched herself forward to attack again. Though she knew he had spared her, she had launched another surprise attack.
Whoosh.
Of course, it did not work. Geugak Soma lightly avoided Nineteenth Gyo’s ambush, grabbed her by the neck, and slammed her into the floor.
Bang!
Just as Nineteenth Gyo, driven into the floor, was about to charge in again,
“!”
Nineteenth Gyo saw the eyes inside the mask looking down at her.
Goosebumps rose all over her body. She had never feared death, but this was not a matter of life and death.
Death was not frightening, but those eyes were. The fear that if she wronged this person, she might suffer pain worse than death—Geugak Soma’s gaze stirred a primal terror.
Geugak Soma left her as she was, looked at Third Gyo, and asked,
“You said you wouldn’t take your own lives, didn’t you?”
The words also implied that if they acted like this, he would kill them all.
Third Gyo could say nothing.
In the midst of that, this time Seventh Gyo was ambushing Geugak Soma.
Swish!
But when her dagger cut through empty air, what returned was a line of blood drawn across her neck.
When she too tried to charge again, ignoring Geugak Soma’s earlier warning,
Third Gyo launched herself forward and grabbed her wrist.
Third Gyo looked at Seventh Gyo and shook her head. She knew Seventh Gyo’s temperament was no ordinary thing, but if she did not stop her, she would die a dog’s death. If they provoked Geugak Soma’s temper the wrong way, he might kill them all.
Thus, a single wind called Geugak Soma blew through Gaingyo.
What the wind left behind was a single line of blood.
Silence flowed through the hall.
The women looked at the bloodlines drawn across one another’s necks with disbelieving eyes.
Third Gyo could tell.
If Geugak Soma had truly meant to kill them, this would not have been a fight, but a massacre.
‘He’s this strong?’
She had long known that Demon Venerables were terrifying, but she had not known his skill was to this extent.
If this had been Geugak Soma before Geom Mugeuk’s regression, he would not have produced such an overwhelming result. Many women would have died, and this place would have become a sea of blood.
But compared to then, Geugak Soma’s internal energy and martial realm had both risen. On top of that were the experiences of several desperate life-and-death battles that had brought him to the brink of death. And added to that was the Sohyang Secret Art he had newly mastered.
Geugak Soma slowly walked back and sat in the seat where he had been sitting.
“Now, all of you sit.”
Third Gyo let out a sigh and sat down. She made her subordinates sit as well.
“Everyone, sit.”
Now the remaining assassins also sat in their own seats.
Then, as if he had been waiting, the door opened and a masked Mumyeongaek entered.
Mumyeongaek went around one by one and sealed the mute and paralysis acupoints of the women seated there.
At that moment, one assassin launched a surprise attack in an attempt to take Mumyeongaek hostage. It was Seventh Gyo, who earlier had tried to rush at Geugak Soma before being stopped by Third Gyo.
The next instant.
Crack!
Seventh Gyo, struck in the chest, was sent flying.
Mumyeongaek had evaded her ambush and struck her hard with his elbow in the same motion. She collapsed to the floor and coughed up blood, but she did not die.
This Mumyeongaek, who had remained alone to assist Geugak Soma, possessed the strongest martial arts among the ten Mumyeongaek who had come this time. That was why the surprise attack did not work.
Mumyeongaek sealed the mute and paralysis acupoints of the fallen woman, then set her upright again. With her head hanging low, unconscious, no one stepped forward anymore.
In that way, the mute and paralysis acupoints of all twenty assassins were completely sealed.
‘Not everyone has been captured yet.’
The remaining assassins would be able to help Cha Iran and complete the original plan.
Just as Third Gyo clung to that final thread of hope, the sound of a carriage arriving came from outside.
When Mumyeongaek opened the door of the guest hall, the carriage that had arrived outside came into view. Hidden weapons were embedded in it like the quills of a hedgehog, and it had been attacked so severely that it was astonishing it still maintained its shape, with holes and broken sections everywhere.
Third Gyo’s eyes trembled as she looked at the carriage.
‘Surely not?’
The carriage door opened, and Seventeenth Gyo, Fifth Gyo, and Eighth Gyo got out. Seeing that even they had been captured and brought here, Third Gyo was greatly shocked.
‘How did they find them too?’
On the other hand, as Seventeenth Gyo entered the guest hall, she saw the figures of her comrades. She did not see Geugak Soma standing by the window or Mumyeongaek standing behind the door.
Instead, seeing her comrades sitting unharmed in their seats, she inwardly cheered. Third Gyo was there, and she could see Seventh Gyo as well. Their number was as many as twenty.
‘I’m saved!’
At the same time, a worry for the Mumyeongaek following behind her brushed through Seventeenth Gyo’s mind.
‘You saved me, but…’
She would not be able to save him. The number seventeen was not a number that could decide such great matters.
‘You are going to die.’