Chapter 49
Chapter 49
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: Chapter 5: Special Abilities (7)
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Ominous premonitions never miss the mark.
In the end, he asked Hwang Po-gwae.
“Should we call it quits too? The math doesn’t add up.”
“Are you a martial artist of the jianghu who doesn’t even know the code of the warrior? You’re nothing but riffraff!”
Instead, it was Hwang Po-gwae who looked utterly baffled. A subtle undercurrent of anger laced his voice.
“What’s the warrior’s code? That’s rich coming from a monster in a mask. Besides, I’m just a humble liquor merchant by trade. Riffraff isn’t even an insult.”
Gyeong Nambang truly seemed ready to end the fight.
As he listened to Gyeong Nambang, Hwang Po-gwae grew genuinely furious.
“You’re impossible to reason with! White Bone Witch! Stop playing around and kill all those Peng bastards. You scum! You’re next! That pathetic Shanxi Five Masters will become the Four Masters starting today.”
No sooner had Hwang Po-gwae finished speaking than he swung his crimson spear.
“I said the numbers don’t work!”
Boom!
But he couldn’t just let the spear tip aimed at his heart strike unblocked. Gyeong Nambang bellowed as he clenched his fist again, deflecting Hwang Po-gwae’s crimson spear. In this way, Gyeong Nambang became a single point of uncertainty. Though the fierce battle resumed, he looked like the type who would bolt alone at the first opportunity. If Gyeong Nambang deserted as well, they really could die. Hwang Po-gwae openly despised the five masters of Shanxi and even belittled the prestige of the Six Great Clans. There was no doubt he would unleash killing blows against the Heaven-Destroying Squad without hesitation.
‘I was thoroughly underestimated.’
His judgment was critical at this moment.
Jung Gwang, as deputy commander of the Heaven-Destroying Squad, had to make a decision.
Plan for the future, or die gloriously.
‘No more.’
The Heaven-Destroying Squad was a combat unit.
To suffer this much mockery and then turn tail would make them the lowest of the Peng Clan for real.
Death had never been frightening to begin with.
Only bringing shame to the clan was.
“Do not look down on the Hebei Peng Clan.”
Jung Gwang unleashed the Red Star Sword Formation.
Fighting spirit and killing intent converged on the White Bone Witch. She laughed.
“Hohoho. There it is. Putting on airs and invoking your clan’s name!”
The White Bone Witch swayed her hips seductively as she stepped toward Seol and Hyang.
“Spouting such solemn words like that—aren’t you embarrassed? Do they make all the kids in your family sit together for lessons like that?”
She forced them into a corner with no other choice.
If they fled scheming for the future after hearing such words, they wouldn’t keep their sanity amid the blaze of inner fury.
“Charge!”
Jung Gwang roared, gripping his sword hilt fiercely.
It was the moment he kicked off the ground ferociously.
Slash!
A sharp whoosh sliced through the darkness.
Thud.
Then came the sound of flesh hitting the ground.
Jung Gwang and the White Bone Witch both froze for an instant.
“Exactly.”
The voice from the darkness was calm and gentle.
One of the skull masks at the very rear had collapsed.
The next fell without a sound.
As the White Bone Witch hurriedly turned her head toward the voice to gauge the position, another skull mask on the opposite side tumbled to the ground.
“Looks like spouting those words outright is embarrassing after all. I think so too.”
No one knew when he had appeared.
A shadow stood with his back turned, before the corpse of the skull mask.
His hair gleamed red in the moonlight. His face was hidden from view.
“Who are you?”
The White Bone Witch called out to him but couldn’t muster her usual coquettishness.
He was the one who had slain two skull masks in an instant.
The red-haired man with his back turned did not answer right away.
He prodded the skull mask with the tip of his red blade, then squatted down and snatched it up. He turned the mask this way and that before slapping it over his face.
“What are you—”
“Assassination is my main trade, after all…”
He rose to his feet.
The red hair was surely a wig.
Now, his turned face was the shape of a skull.
Instead of approaching, he retreated into the shadows between the trees.
“I’m not the sort who can reveal his identity.”
Even the red hair became a shadow, vanishing completely into the darkness.
The White Bone Witch was flustered.
The newcomer’s appearance and actions were entirely unexpected.
And in that moment before she could recover her wits, sounds of flesh tearing and bones crunching pierced the darkness.
Slash! Crunch!
This time, it came from the pillar where the supports had collapsed.
One of the skull masks facing off against Gyu-tae crumbled away. The red blade had carved open the skull’s throat, shattering its collarbone and ribs.
Fresh blood sprayed in all directions. A brutal strike. Instant death.
Jung Gwang was greatly shocked.
The other Heaven-Destroying Squad warriors were the same.
They knew who he was.
His appearance and actions matched exactly what they had heard and seen.
‘Danmun!’
The espionage squad was beneath his feet. At least in terms of martial arts, that was certain.
Peng Danmun of the espionage squad had been famous as a martial genius from the start.
But that didn’t mean he possessed the skill to overwhelm the Heaven-Destroying Squad. That’s what they had thought.
Yet he had killed three skull-masked warriors in a flash.
If anything, it was the difference between covert arts and overt force.
The Heaven-Destroying Squad had fought head-on under pressure in dire straits, while Danmun struck at moments of carelessness and shock with ambushes, killing them.
He understood it in his head, but the scene unfolding before his eyes was pure shock.
Ignoring everyone’s stares, Danmun casually swung his blade to shake off the blood. His skull face turned toward the White Bone Witch. The dripping blade tip followed.
The White Bone Witch raised her voice.
“You’ve donned the true face, so Bone Ghosts, submit and heed the command of the Essence!”
The White Bone Witch shrieked her command sharply.
“Drop the sword!”
Even amid it, the curves of her body swayed seductively.
Demonic aura billowed out, filling the surroundings. It was a demonic power unleashed through voice and gesture. The control that a higher mask could exert over lower ones dwelled within it. The wavering skull masks all straightened like obedient soldiers receiving orders.
Of course, Danmun was the exception.
“Fascinating.”
He did not lower the blade pointed at the White Bone Witch.
The blade tip didn’t twitch.
Yet he seemed to feel some coercive force, tilting his head in admiration.
“So it’s not just for hiding the face!”
Danmun didn’t seem normal.
He had already rampaged in the midst of jianghu folk multiple times with his red hair and bare face.
Hiding his face with a mask held little meaning. If he wanted to conceal his identity, he should have removed the red wig instead of donning a mask.
However, he had his own calculations.
In defining someone’s identity, actions often matter more than faces.
To avoid being recognized as Peng Clan, he simply acted unlike one.
That’s why he stole a mask and donned it, revealing his strangeness. No one seeing Danmun now would think him a swordsman of the Hebei Peng Clan. The White Bone Witch before him was proof. She was curious about his identity and thoroughly flustered.
One line flashed through Jung Gwang’s mind.
The Heavenly Prodigies design the battle, the Five Heroes execute it, and Danmun upends it.
A passage from an espionage squad report.
The problem was that the outcomes didn’t always end well. No need to look far. The massive melee sparked by the duel between Dongpungneung and Hwang Ryeo-man was a prime example.
This moment was the same.
At the very least, he had upended it.
They could only hope the result turned out differently this time.
Danmun took a step, then another toward the White Bone Witch. Blood droplets fell drip by drip from the red blade tip.
The White Bone Witch grew even more flustered.
“Stop right there!”
She flung her hand behind her back.
Like when she had drawn the white bone club, it vanished as if by magic.
She raised both hands above her head, then trailed her fingertips down her white neck before forming a flower-shaped mudra at her chest, half-exposed from the fierce battle.
“Bone Ghosts cannot defy the demonic life of the Essence!”
She had dropped the coquettish tone, yet it remained seductive.
Enchantment was the core of every spell the White Bone Witch wielded.
Though it was a full-fledged sorcery, even that failed against Danmun.
Clang!
Danmun stomped forward and brought down his red blade. Right above the White Bone Witch’s head. She desperately threw herself aside.
An impossible question burst forth.
“Why?”
Danmun’s answer was spectacular.
“Because big-breasted women aren’t my type.”
His tone had changed too.
The courtesy had vanished from his once silk-smooth voice. The words themselves as well. So it no longer sounded calm. Danmun himself was fully aware.
“This mask is fun. Does it draw out the essence from the heart’s depths?”
He halted his steps and tapped the mask with his left fingers as he spoke.
It wasn’t a question seeking an answer from the White Bone Witch.
He charged at the White Bone Witch again.
The White Bone Witch had to accept that she couldn’t control her foe with the mask’s sorcery. Instead of seductive gestures, she drew her white bone club.
Clang!
It was more a sword strike than a staff blow.
Without any form, the downward chop sent the White Bone Witch’s body flying back a zhang.
The masked Danmun did not pursue the White Bone Witch.
He turned sideways and lunged at the skull masks holding Seol and Hyang.
Clang! Slash!
This time, the skull masks didn’t fall easily.
Blood gushed from one’s chest under the merciless slash, but it wasn’t fatal. Two skull masks dodged Danmun’s blade with eerie, fluid movements.
“What are you doing?”
Danmun’s skull face turned toward Jung Gwang.
Jung Gwang snapped to attention.
He straightened his posture and charged toward Seol and Hyang.
“Don’t let them have it!”
The White Bone Witch no longer spoke softly. She blocked Jung Gwang’s path with ghostly agility.
Danmun kicked off the ground again.
But not toward the White Bone Witch, nor the skull masks.
He struck the earth, twisted his body sharply, and shot off like an arrow to one side.
Whoosh! Screech!
The wind roared fiercely.
Defying all expectations.
The tip of his blade was aimed at the back of Hwang Po-gwae, locked in combat.
“What the—!”
Clang!
Hwang Po-gwae was indeed a master.
Even with his guard completely down and the blade thrust into his blind spot from behind, his counter was flawless. The crimson spear whipped around behind him with exquisite precision, blocking Danmun’s ambush.
Gyeong Nambang didn’t miss the opening he seized in that moment. Good thing he wasn’t some upright hero. He advanced another step and unleashed a Fenyang Iron Fist strike like a thunderbolt.
Boom!
Hwang Po-gwae desperately spun the spear shaft to block Gyeong Nambang’s blow.
Danmun exploited that gap.
Slash! Spurt!
Hwang Po-gwae’s side split open long.
Fresh blood spurted out.