Chapter 114. Only After Sobering Up

I faced off against a farmer, a fisherman, a pack peddler, a woodcutter, a hunter, a Daoist, a shirtless bastard, a swordsman, an ugly bastard, a bastard with a sickle, a scholar who looked like he’d be bad at studying, and a petty-looking bastard.

I asked,

“Is living ordinary lives the dream of assassins?”

The clothes of the bastards surrounding me were plain and everyday.

Still, just in case…….

They might have come to compete with me at skipping stones, so I asked anyway.

“Anyone want to skip stones? No?”

The Daoist bastard had been checking the portrait description he pulled from his robes, but upon hearing me, he put it back in.

I met the Daoist bastard’s eyes and nodded.

“That’s me. Yep, that’s me.”

They stood still while surrounding me.

Judging by the circumstances, they must have traced my movements after I left the Black Cat Gang for Mount Myogae. Someone must have followed me as far as Mount Myogae, confirmed that the Murim Alliance was there, and been startled. Strangely enough, they hadn’t attacked when I was with the Sword Demon, but now that I was returning alone, they seemed to have swarmed in like this.

In any case, these bastards looked as though they were waiting for someone.

While I waited with them, I tried striking up a conversation.

“Can’t even laugh. Useless sons of bitches who don’t even know how to skip stones.”

Bastards with no composure and no humanity were usually like this.

That was why they were assassins.

Suddenly, I pointed at the closest bastard with my finger and said,

“But you…….”

The Wood Rooster Finger Wind I fired just like that rang out with a thwack, and the bastard whose forehead had been pierced through fell after his head snapped back.

Thud…….

One Reed Crossing didn’t know my abilities.

Even if they had known, over the past fifty-odd days, while I cultivated the Moon Shadow Heartless Art, the sum of my internal energy had increased yet again. It had not merely increased; the combination of yin and yang was in a state more harmonious than before. The power of the Wood Rooster I had used before and the Wood Rooster now were different in quality.

I looked at the corpse with a hole pierced through it by that Wood Rooster Finger Wind and said,

“Anyway, why isn’t your leader showing up? Tell him to hurry over.”

No sooner had I finished speaking than the encirclement split left and right at the rear, and an old man holding a staff walked in. The old man, who looked like a human made entirely of wrinkles, appeared to be over eighty no matter how generously I tried to judge his age.

I met the old man’s eyes.

“Old sir, you must have had a hard time coming all this way.”

The old man said in a hoarse voice,

“Sect Leader of Haomun, if you want to live, prepare your wealth. Today, we will only feed you the drug and withdraw. There will be no other negotiation.”

“Old bastard, you don’t even know how to negotiate. There’s no talking to you. If you fight me here, won’t One Reed Crossing be dismantled? I don’t know where your confidence comes from with these assorted assassins.”

The old man said,

“Liefu (Hunter).”

“Yes.”

“Kill him.”

The bastard called Liefu openly pulled a hidden weapon from his robes and threw it at me. When I dodged with a tilt of my head, Liefu leaped forward in a single step, drew a blade from his waist, and thrust it straight out.

Originally, the distance between Liefu and me had been about three zhang (nine meters).

When Liefu’s blade, which had closed the distance in an instant with one step-leap, drew close before my eyes, I executed a sword-drawing technique with Black Cat Fang.

Shweeeng!

I cut diagonally from Liefu’s left armpit to his right shoulder.

Splash!

Perhaps my sword draw had been fast, because he died without any particular scream. I flicked the blood on Black Cat Fang to the ground, then sheathed it again.

“Next.”

The old man had arranged the assassins like a king on a chessboard and was playing a battle of moves against me.

Was his intent to expend his subordinates and settle the match in a single instant?

I didn’t think it was an especially good method.

Still, the hierarchy of One Reed Crossing seemed truly strict, which was impressive.

The old man sank into thought for a moment, then opened his mouth.

“Qiaofu (Woodcutter).”

“Yes.”

“You face him carefully.”

Unlike Liefu, the bastard called Qiaofu was large, perhaps because he had trained in external arts. The strapping man, who looked as though he could fell a massive tree with just a few swings of his axe, approached me while dragging a great axe along the ground.

As soon as I saw his gaze, his stance, and the muscles tempered by external arts, I realized he was an assassin aiming for mutual destruction.

He would use a method where he gave up part of his body and, at the same time, cut off his opponent’s breath with a single strike.

Closing the distance, Qiaofu charged while gripping the enormous axe. It looked like a reckless attack, but he had the momentum of someone who would take most attacks with the body he had trained through protective arts, then bisect his foe with the axe.

The problem was that while I dealt with this bastard, any of the other assassins from One Reed Crossing could launch a surprise attack.

‘It wasn’t such a bad strategy after all.’

My counterattack had to be as short and fast as possible.

First, with the finger technique of the Waning Moon Ice Art, I precisely struck the center of Qiaofu’s left palm as it arrived before him.

Tap……!

Because of the ice art, the axe came flying at a markedly slower speed. I avoided it roughly, then used the ice art’s finger technique, the Waning Moon Finger Technique, to tap Qiaofu’s upper body two more times.

Tadak!

A bizarre sound burst from Qiaofu’s mouth.

“Ghk…….”

Qiaofu looked at me while frozen stiff.

Glaring around me, I took out the Flash Dagger, stabbed it into Qiaofu’s throat, and pulled it back out.

Thunk!

This time, the sound of a pig having its throat cut spread briefly across the lakeside.

I said to the old man,

“Old sir, it seems you’re trying to confirm my methods first by killing off your subordinates. But this kind of wheel battle is pointless. Stop this and have everyone attack.”

The old man replied,

“So Yi Jaha uses ice arts as well. His weapons are limited to a sword and a dagger. He likely has no hidden weapons. Keep that in mind. No matter what, cut off at least one thing from him. Before all of you die, Yi Jaha will die as well.”

The assassins watching me answered in unison.

“Yes.”

“…….”

Since assassins usually trained mainly in stealth, waiting, and surprise attacks, did he judge that fighting in concert would be disadvantageous? While I still did not fully understand the old man’s intent in sending them one by one, his orders continued.

“Luobangke, Leng Lian.”

“Yes.”

“Attack together.”

The scholar bastard drew his sword, and the bastard holding the sickle also stepped out of the group and approached. While the two of them slowly came closer, I asked the old man,

“Old sir, just have everyone attack.”

The old man grinned.

“Shut your mouth.”

Suddenly, I quickly scanned the bastards participating in the encirclement. Thinking that perhaps the old man might not be the leader of One Reed Crossing, I met Luobangke and Leng Lian’s attack.

I drew the Heukmyoa and roughly fended off the two assassins' attacks, then wrapped Yeomhwahyang around the blade at close range.

Fwoooosh!

The heat of Yeomhwahyang clung to the bodies and weapons of Nakbanggaek and Naenggyeom like plum blossoms scattering independent of the blade's trajectory, sizzling as it burned.

The moment I saw them flustered, I unfurled the Flame Realm Great Hand Seal with my left palm, sending Nakbanggaek and Naenggyeom flying backward.

Kwaaaaaang!

As the two assassins' bodies shot out in a straight line.

I channeled Wood-element ki into the Heukmyoa and slashed horizontally.

A straight, linear blade of sword qi flew toward the assassins forming the encirclement.

Schwiiiiick!

Their responses to the sword qi were varied.

Then, a particularly ordinary-looking farmer dissipated the sword qi with the internal force of one hand.

The old innkeeper had swung his cane to deflect the sword qi in the midst of it all.

I launched the sword qi and checked simultaneously; the one with deeper internal energy than the old innkeeper was the farmer in shabby clothes.

I fixed my gaze on the farmer and spoke.

"So you're the one in charge here. You've been watching like a rat from the very beginning."

When I cackled with laughter, the assassins all fell silent at once.

"…."

It was quite the subtle battle of wills.

The old innkeeper had probably intended to send out that farmer next. Wouldn't that have been the moment when everyone rushed me all at once?

I asked the farmer.

"Busted. What are you going to do now?"

Even the old innkeeper, who had been giving orders, looked at the farmer with his mouth shut, seemingly bewildered.

Only then did the farmer open his mouth with a faint smile.

"You…."

The instant his stuck-shut lips parted, I surged into the air with a One-Step Push, closing the distance at the fastest speed I'd ever shown—one I had almost never used before—and unleashed the Foot Sword Technique.

If it came to this, who was the more assassin-like assassin?

Me.

The farmer dared not choose to counterattack and retreated. As I unfolded the Swift Sword, I read the farmer's eyes and movements as he dodged the blade quite nimbly, then aimed the simplest downward slash at the crown of his head.

Clearly, the Ilwidogang held numerical superiority.

The farmer wrapped both hands in internal force and caught the Heukmyoa's blade between his palms.

Clack!

At the same time, the farmer spoke.

"Strike."

I wrapped my left hand in Janwol Binggong and seized the farmer's wrist. Spinning my body, I pressed his Jianjing point with the Wood-element Finger Technique, then faced the assassins with my back pressed against the farmer's.

"The Haomunju hides his prowess…… I do."

It was time to check the might of the Moonshadow Heartless Art. I left the Heukmyoa with the farmer for a moment, filled my footwork with Tugye's energy, maintained Janwol Binggong in both palms, and charged.

Next, I struck the fisherman, the pack peddler, the taoist, the shirtless man, the swordsman, the ugly one, the one with the sickle, the scholar who looked like he couldn't study, and the narrow-minded-looking one with Janwol Binggong using only finger techniques, then rushed the flustered old innkeeper and exchanged over ten moves with him.

But at the lakeside, I finally grabbed the old innkeeper's arm with the Xixing Dafa, pulled him in, and pummeled his upper body repeatedly with the Residual Moon Finger Technique.

Now all the assassins who had interfered with my skipping stones had been struck by the Ice Art.

Was it that the Moonshadow Heartless Art was in no way inferior in power to the Left Emissary's Ice Art?

Or was the combination of Tugye's movement and the Ice Art simply that devastating?

I snatched the Heukmyoa back from the farmer and then injected the Cold Moon Finger Technique into his body in rapid succession.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

I then approached the stiffened assassins and kept thrusting the Cold Moon Finger Technique into them, one and all.

The faces of the gradually stiffening assassins grew pale.

Their lips were turning purple.

I walked around, continuously using the Cold Moon Finger Technique on the stiff, statue-like figures, observing and studying the assassins' expressions, breathing, and changing complexions.

Feeling that the surroundings had grown too quiet, I spoke to the assassins.

"You are test subjects for the Ice Art I recently mastered. It might be a bit agonizing, but since you're assassins, there's no need to resent me."

Only then did I go to the lakeside, pick up a flat pebble, and skip it across the water.

The flat pebble flew in an arc, bouncing across the surface of the lake and streaking into the distance.

Back when I was a kid, making it bounce about thirty times was a record, but now it flew until it was out of sight, continuously grazing the water's surface as it vanished into the distance.

"Wow…… this is why you gotta learn martial arts."

This time, I infused the flat pebble with Ice Art before throwing it.

It was truly a spectacular sight.

Wherever the cold pebble touched, thin ice formed like a white stepping-stone bridge before gradually shrinking away.

I suddenly remembered the stiffened assassins and splashed water at them with my hands.

With splish, splosh, splish sounds, the lake water flew through the air and drenched the assassins.

The assassins, struck by the Ice Art and drenched in lake water, began to tremble all over.

It seemed that though they were hit by the finger techniques, they couldn't help the surface of their bodies from shaking.

Since I hadn't sealed their pain acupoints, groans of anguish leaked out from here and there.

I asked the assassins.

"Cold?"

"…."

I suddenly thought that the old innkeeper and the farmer seemed more detestable than the others. If you're going to fight, you should all rush in together to finish it, yet they used their subordinates like pieces on a chessboard…….

I cut the throats of the old innkeeper and the farmer with flash daggers.

As I looked around at the assassins, bloodied flash daggers in hand, their eyes were all fixed on me despite being frozen solid.

I spoke to them.

"I won't kill you easily. One of you will lead me to your main base today. I've hardened my heart because I'm annoyed. Let's camp by the lake with me tonight. I'll prepare a campfire soon, so wait a bit even if you're bored. If you run, I'll chase you. For your information, even if you were unhurt, you're slower than me."

I studied the assassins' expressions, then to be more thorough, I fairly struck each of them once more with the Residual Moon Finger Technique.

Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!

When I glanced at the pack peddler's face, it seemed he had been crying. Tear tracks were frozen on his face.

I met eyes with the pack peddler and asked.

"You cried? Why is a grown man crying? Tsk, not a single one of you pitiful assassin bastards is begging for your life even though your mouths are hanging open. Impressive. Truly impressive. Let's see who wins today, you or me."

After the cold, I planned to launch a hunger attack.

"I'll explain today's camping schedule. You'll be hit by the Ice Art all night, and you'll occasionally receive a dousing and water torture. I plan to light a campfire, catch a goose, and eat it. If you're going to die, just die on your own."

I busily ran around to torture the assassins with cold water.

I had to catch a goose and gather campfire materials.

I couldn't hide my excitement at the first camping trip in a long time.

Then, suddenly, I realized what state I was in.

“Huh?”

.

.

.

Only after I sobered up did I remember that I had been drunk. Shaking my head, I set out to look for the goose.

“Wow, I’m only sobering up now.”