Silver Dragon Chronicles Episode 33
‘What?’
Hyeolgwi watched Jehwa’s group from afar with an uneasy expression.
Ranked fifth in the Blood Cult, she was currently carrying out orders to monitor Jehwa’s group.
Naturally, her martial prowess surpassed that of the Young Cult Leader, Hyeol Mayeong.
Yet despite that, she had merely been given orders to monitor Jehwa.
It was odd, but she simply followed orders.
Thus, she observed them while maintaining a considerable distance from the group.
They hadn’t arrived here long ago.
But she didn’t like the constant feeling of unease.
She told herself there was no way he could find her at this distance, yet for some reason, her anxiety kept growing.
“Hoo.”
In that moment, as Hyeolgwi took a deep breath to shake off her unease, her face stiffened. She had met its eyes.
‘I-impossible!’
To think he could find her at this distance!
Thinking so, Hyeolgwi immediately tried to leap away from that spot. No, she tried to.
Kwagagagang!
“……!”
With a shocked expression, Hyeolgwi looked at Jehwa, who had appeared before her and was scattering qi.
She had never dreamed he could close such an enormous distance in an instant.
“Found you!”
When Jehwa spoke with a bright expression, she snorted.
“Hmph! How did you find me?”
“Huh? You’re a girl?”
Surprisingly, it was Jehwa who was bewildered that Hyeolgwi was a woman.
And Hyeolgwi furrowed her brow at Jehwa’s words, lowering her stance and growling.
“Are you looking down on me because I’m a woman?”
She was wearing a mask and clothes that made it difficult to tell whether she was a man or a woman, but her voice was clearly that of a woman.
She was a woman called Hyeolgwi, strong enough to rank within the top ten of all those he had seen until now, and since it was his first time seeing a woman among the strong, Jehwa couldn’t help but find it somewhat fascinating.
“Heh…….”
As Jehwa looked Hyeolgwi up and down with an amazed expression, Hyeolgwi’s face contorted, and she drew two daggers from within her clothes.
Strangely, the daggers each possessed a dark red hue, inducing a sense of unease in anyone who saw them, and Jehwa too realized these were no ordinary daggers, tilting his head.
Swish—
Just as Jehwa was looking at the daggers with a fascinated expression, Hyeolgwi’s presence vanished.
“……!”
And startled, Jehwa leaped away from where he stood.
“Wow! I didn’t feel anything at all!”
Jehwa shouted with a surprised expression.
Currently, he could smell the unique scent of the Blood Cult in his nose, but strangely, hers was somewhat better than the others.
But it wasn’t to the point that he couldn’t feel it at all; yet in an instant, the woman before him had erased even that scent.
‘He dodged? This? She completely erased her presence and even her energy…….’
Seeing Jehwa dodge her attack so easily, Hyeolgwi’s eyes wavered for a moment.
“Alright, this time I’m coming at you.”
‘Ghk! He’s toying with me!’
Seeing Jehwa grin as he spoke, Hyeolgwi’s expression flared with anger. At the same time, she infused each of her daggers with internal energy, creating qi.
Narrowing his eyes at the sight, Jehwa swiftly charged at Hyeolgwi.
Kwagagagagang!
“Ghk!”
Hyeolgwi’s eyes widened at the destructive attack that devastated the surroundings in an instant, and she immediately retreated from close quarters.
She had never dreamed that she, ranked fifth in the current Blood Cult, would be pushed back so futilely.
Of course, the gap in skill between her and the fourth rank was like heaven and earth, but even so, it remained unchanged that she possessed the fifth greatest martial prowess among the current generation of experts, excluding the seniors of the previous generation.
Hyeolgwi charged at Jehwa with thick killing intent in her eyes, raising her daggers.
Kwagagagagagang!
Puhuk!
Jehwa’s qi-clad fist and her two daggers clashed, and in that instant, Hyeolgwi found an opening and plunged a dagger into his side.
And as Hyeolgwi smiled deeply watching that…….
“Aaaagh! That hurts!
“……. W-what!”
Kwagang!
“Kuek!”
She screamed. Moreover, she had to look on in horror as Jehwa swung a fist laden with tremendous internal energy directly at her.
“Kuek! Keol! Ooh……. Uwaaaak!”
Internal injuries from a single blow, Hyeolgwi looked at Jehwa with trembling eyes.
“That hurts!”
Jehwa was merely annoyed, his face twisted in pain.
Hyeolgwi felt her blood run cold throughout her entire body.
Just what was this boy? Where had he appeared from, and why did he possess such monstrous strength?
Her all-out attack…… had only been enough to annoy him?
The face of Hyeolgwi, who had never known fear, began to slowly suffuse with terror.
Grab!
“Ugh!”
“Die!”
Bwoong! Kwadeuk! Kwagagak!
“Kuek!”
Hyeolgwi, who had worn a fearful expression, flinched and trembled when Jehwa grabbed her by the collar and muttered in a voice brimming with killing intent.
Moments later, Hyeolgwi’s body was sent flying into the trees of the forest.
Having thrown her into the dense trees with immense force, Jehwa approached Hyeolgwi slowly, his eyes gleaming dangerously.
Hyeolgwi shuddered as her eyes met Jehwa’s.
‘J-just what…….’
Could she really survive the hands of this boy who was not only destructive but cruel?
She wasn’t afraid of death. What she feared was the boy right before her eyes…….
Stomp!
“Heuk!”
Hyeolgwi looked at Jehwa with trembling eyes. At that moment, she groaned as Jehwa stepped on her back. And as the powerful pressure from his foot gradually increased, it became difficult to breathe.
Peoak!
“Kuek!”
Just as she was suffocating in pain, she felt a tremendous impact in her abdomen, and she knew her body was floating in the air.
Kudangtang!
Hyeolgwi rolled helplessly on the ground.
Her body twitching was a pitiful sight, but Jehwa paid it no mind and simply approached her slowly.
‘I’m going to die…….’
Her finishing attack had become the trigger that ignited the temper of that demonic, ferocious being, and as a result, she was now dying a miserable death.
In that moment, a cliff came into Hyeolgwi’s sight. So she bit her lip tightly and threw her body toward it before Jehwa could reach her.
“……!”
Surprised by the unexpected sight, Jehwa’s eyes widened, but Hyeolgwi had already fallen off the cliff long ago.
“Did she die?”
Frowning as he looked down at the cliff, Jehwa muttered before turning around and speaking.
“Well, whatever……. If I meet her next time, I’ll just kill her.”
***
“Am I……. alive?”
“Since you’re alive, isn’t that why you can say that?”
Hyeolgwi, who had been muttering blankly at the sky, flinched at the clear voice from beside her and tried to spring up from where she lay.
“Ah!”
But groaning at the pain of her entire body tearing apart, she curled up, and at that sight, the owner of the clear voice, a young girl, smiled and spoke.
“You’re sturdy. Normally, someone would die from such an attack……. I watched you two fight; you were pretty strong, weren’t you?”
Hyeolgwi looked at the girl, who wore a mischievous, playful smile.
Her entire body told her that the girl before her eyes was the same species as the boy she had just fought.
Though she was smiling so brightly, it was as if Hyeolgwi could see a terrifying, ferocious devil residing within.
“Huh? Your face is pale? Are you scared of me? Oh my, making a scared expression at such a pretty person……. That’s too much. I’m hurt.”
The girl smiled broadly with a face that showed she wasn’t hurt at all, and Hyeolgwi cautiously opened her mouth.
“Who……. are you?”
“Me?”
At Hyeolgwi’s question, the girl opened her eyes wide and giggled.
“Well……. who am I? Your savior, more or less?”
The girl, who had been smiling like that, smirked at Hyeolgwi, who was looking at her with a guarded expression.
“Don’t be on guard. If I had wanted to kill you, I would have done so already.”
At the girl’s words, Hyeolgwi’s expression turned furious, and she raised her killing intent.
It was true that the girl before her was formidable, but was she as formidable as that boy? Besides, she could die at any moment.
The girl laughed brightly at Hyeolgwi, who was unleashing killing intent toward her.
“For someone who couldn’t even handle one little brat and was flustered, you’d rush at me?”
The girl looked down at Hyeolgwi with an amused expression. Seeing such a girl, Hyeolgwi’s face was dyed with shock.
Brat? Who? That boy just now?
Regardless of whether Hyeolgwi wore a shocked expression or not, the girl simply narrowed her eyes and delighted in the situation.
“Interesting……. I was very bored, you see.”
The girl snickered as if amused.
***
Jehwa’s group used lightness arts and arrived at the Sichuan Stone Lodge.
There was no one in the group who was lacking in martial arts.
Jehwa was already a being who had transcended human standards, and neither I Seolhye nor Sa Wollin were people with weak martial arts. They possessed skills that could be ranked at the top among the younger generation experts.
Having arrived at the lodge, they began to talk about what lay ahead.
“For now, there are four great martial factions in Sichuan. Three are Cheongseon and Emei, two of the Orthodox Nine Sects and One Union, and one is the Sichuan Tang Family, one of the Orthodox Five Great Families. Finally, there’s the Demonic Sword Gate of the Unorthodox faction.”
The Demonic Sword Gate was the unorthodox faction’s greatest sword sect, a sword faction that used swordsmanship that moved like a serpent.
Sa Wollin continued to relay to Jehwa the information she had received from the demonic spirits.
“The places where the Blood Cult’s spies are located are the Sichuan Tang Family and the Demonic Sword Gate, but the place we need to go is the Sichuan Tang Family.”
“Why?”
Jehwa asked, tilting his head.
“Because the Black Serpent Greatsword Ma Taeak is at the Demonic Sword Gate.”
“Ma Taeak?”
Jehwa tilted his head again, and I Seolhye opened her eyes wide and spoke.
“You mean Ma Taeak, one of the Three Unrivaled Under Heaven?”
“Yes. Ma Taeak started slaughtering the Blood Cult’s spies some time ago.”
Sa Wollin nodded at I Seolhye’s words.
Ma Taeak was a martial artist on par with Un Wonnam.
One of the three strongest people in the world (excluding Jehwa), his sword was not only immensely variable but also ferocious.
“If he’s one of the Three Unrivaled Under Heaven, then he’s as strong as Grandpa Un Wonnam, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Then let’s go to the Sichuan Tang Family.”