Chapter 60
Chapter 60
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 60
Chapter Title: Chapter 6: Espionage Squad (6)
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“Captain.”
“Don’t speak. I’m fine.”
“Captain, the fiends... they were waiting for us here.”
“I said I’m fine. Enough.”
“Captain!”
Pffft! Blood spurted from his mouth.
It was truly the end now. He was crossing the threshold of death.
“Huff, huff. Captain, it wasn’t predicted tactics. They knew we were coming. Ryu Hang’s side is in danger too. Captain, there’s a spy. In the Espionage Squad... there’s a traitor.”
He grabbed Oho’s shoulder.
His grip was feeble. His fingers barely clung to the fabric of Oho’s clothes.
“Got it. I’ll find them.”
“That’s not it, Captain.”
Huff, huff. He gasped for breath.
His eyes were already clouded. He probably couldn’t even make out Oho’s face clearly.
“Don’t look for them. Leave it alone. Don’t even report it to the Conference Emissary.”
His voice grew faint.
Oho leaned in close, pressing his ear near.
This was the analysis from a rigorously trained Espionage Squad agent on the brink of death.
He couldn’t take it lightly.
“As my life ebbed away, I thought it over deeply. That was all I could manage. Huff, huff. Why didn’t they kill me? Why expose their identity? It’ll cause conflict.”
The strength in the hand gripping his shoulder faded.
His arm dropped limply.
Yet, as if driven by a final sense of duty, he didn’t stop speaking.
“It’s a fire across the river. Captain, take the boat later.”
Fire across the river.
Wait and watch.
That was the operation name.
Gather, analyze, devise.
He had fulfilled his mission completely.
“Captain.”
“Enough. You can rest now.”
“An honor... to serve...”
Finally, his voice cut off. His heart followed soon after.
Oho stayed by his side, forgetting even to breathe, watching his last moments.
Soon, Oho rose to his feet.
There was no time to mourn.
The fallen agent Paeng Eon had said Ryu Hang was in danger too.
Eon had always made the right calls, earning unwavering trust. Oho had no intention of dismissing his words lightly.
He lifted his head, taking in the terrain.
No time to even recover the body. To send people, he’d need to describe the location precisely. Oho kicked off the ground. His heart raced toward Ryu Hang. Everything was going wrong.
* * *
Cheon Wi quickly scanned his surroundings.
He’d sensed the tails following him once he entered the main street.
This was the moment they’d planned to catch him.
He shook them off effortlessly by darting through a few alleys. Even in broad daylight, his body felt light. He instinctively knew it was thanks to the blood from the black-clad woman.
The power surging from his heart circulated through his blood vessels.
Its path differed subtly from the qi meridians used to accumulate inner energy. In terms of yin and yang, it leaned toward yin energy. His clan’s secret Heaven-Earth Heart Method ultimately pursued harmony of yin and yang, but the accumulation and operation of inner energy emphasized yang energy supply.
From the start, he’d struggled with it.
The Qian Formula simply didn’t suit him.
His qi sense was faster than any child’s, yet he showed no progress in qi circulation exercises. It felt like seeing something clearly but unable to grasp it with his hands.
The Kun Formula was somewhat better.
At least with yin energy, he could achieve qi entry.
His one-breath qi circulation amount—that is, the qi he could generate in a single breath—surpassed a ten-year practitioner and approached twenty years. It meant his qi sense was genius-level.
The problem lay in his dantian.
His dantian was like an open palm. Even if he poured water into it, it wouldn’t hold like a bowl. Neither Qian nor Kun worked. Whatever he tried to contain slipped through his fingers. Only a bit of moisture remained on his palm, drying up quickly. His accumulation efficiency was abysmally low.
Thus, Cheon Wi couldn’t build inner energy.
Even forced accumulation yielded negligible results.
His power was therefore limited to one-breath circulation.
He fought with just a single breath, a handful of energy. Layering drawn-out inner force for immense power was impossible.
So he was weak.
He lacked a martial artist’s superhuman strength.
In truth, the principle behind a inner energy master’s divine strength was simple: using dantian-accumulated true qi to amplify muscles. Heart methods merely enabled this.
Various techniques arose from operation formulas and accumulation capacity, but heart method application focused on converting heaven and earth’s abundant outer qi into inner qi, producing superhuman muscle power and speed beyond human limits.
The blood’s power differed.
No conversion process.
Her power became his the instant he drank it. It didn’t accumulate; it flowed. No need to draw it out—it directly enhanced his muscles.
All rivers return to one.
At the pinnacle of inner heart methods, natural power entered the body without breath control, filling even the fine vessels completely. Qi flowed freely without formulas, enabling limitless power use.
It felt like skipping intermediate steps to achieve fine vessel penetration. Of course, it was infinitesimally weaker than infinite natural qi and had limits, but it was undeniably similar.
In conclusion, he was a bit stronger.
Even facing direct sunlight, his body didn’t sag. That alone felt like overcoming a lifelong curse.
Tap!
He passed through a dank alley onto a clean main road.
He hadn’t walked far when new tails latched on immediately.
He didn’t turn to look.
He opened his senses.
Amid the bustling crowd crossing the street, he distinguished alien presences. Three were emitting faint killing intent as they pursued him.
‘Three.’
Not as clear as in the cave.
Visually, it was like a blur. Sunlight seemed to interfere with clear perception. Still, the number was certain. More focus could reveal their temperaments and builds.
‘These aren’t needed.’
Rough types.
All three had large builds. Likely underlings from a hired fixer gang.
Cheon Wi quickened his pace.
Taiyuan Prefecture had been their territory for a while. He knew every alley’s shadowed walls and side paths like the back of his hand.
Whoosh.
Cheon Wi’s form vanished in an instant.
He knew without seeing.
He sensed their confusion as if watching from the side.
His body blurred like sinking into shadows, reappearing after crossing one alley. Cheon Wi hadn’t realized it, but his movements resembled the black woman in the cave. They also mimicked the Espionage Squad’s ultimate lightness skill, Shadow March Phantom Step.
Cheon Wi crossed Taiyuan from south to north, then north to west.
He walked the streets for no small amount of time.
By now, even the Espionage Squad would have spotted him. But he wouldn’t meet them.
At the cloth shop, he’d tied a red band on his left arm with the Hero Bond. It was the Espionage Squad’s secret code: ignore and don’t approach. As long as it was on, they treated him as nonexistent. Officially, he wasn’t Espionage Squad anymore.
‘Found one.’
After circling for a while.
Finally, he spotted a suitable target.
One of the two now following him. They’d started chasing almost simultaneously, but from different groups. Pure coincidence.
One was from the black-robed literati pursuers.
Once accustomed, he could even tell their weapons.
Thin paedo sword. He smelled iron. Or was it blood?
This one was from the Qi Sect.
A group with strict personnel management. They’d check immediately for missing or absent members.
Impossible, then.
He needed someone whose disappearance wouldn’t draw attention.
‘Unstable qi, thick killing intent.’
Mixed with blood scent was a foul stench.
A brothel regular. That pleased him too.
Self-loathing and disgust birthed malice stinking from his core.
His senses kept expanding.
Yesterday’s Cheon Wi differed from today’s.
Things once vague or uncertain now felt tangible and clear.
‘Can kill this one.’
Trash.
Multiple murders, numerous crimes.
Chasing Cheon Wi wasn’t faction duty. No sense of mission meant lax caution and sloppy moves.
Money.
Some say information isn’t gathered—it’s bought.
He couldn’t fully agree, but it was sometimes efficient.
In major melees like yesterday, any group could temporarily lack manpower. That’s when money flowed. Even third-rate wanderers with good eyes could identify people easily.
Likely, dozens of descriptions related to last night’s incident flooded the city.
Cheon Wi was just one.
Of course major Five Stronghold figures, giants like White Sword Heavenly Demon or Shaanxi Divine Hero, ambiguous Shaolin monks—everyone’s position and actions were valuable intel.
Numerous bounties in various forms hung over many heads.
And Cheon Wi’s was almost certainly a bounty.
Bring the head, get paid.
All pursuers so far harbored killing intent. Many wanted him dead. Anyone could. Even Dongpungneung, who’d shared cordial yet deadly talk, might decide overnight to kill him. Taihang Guild, Blue Spear Society too. Cheon Wi knew their faction envoys and had revealed it.
Had he vanished, fine—but returning to Taiyuan made safe escape suspicious.
Thus, Cheon Wi meticulously selected his target.
‘Similar build. This one.’
Decided.
Cheon Wi turned.
Thud! Flutter!
His clothes whistled through the air.
Had to eliminate one first. His form shot vertically before the crowd.
Ooooh!
People gasped in surprise, clutching heads and ducking. Some tumbled over.
His body kicked off the wall and dropped sharply.
Below was a warrior in black literati robes.
The man drew his paedo.
Cling! Shiiik!
The swing’s whoosh was sharp.
Cheon Wi twisted lightly midair.
Not human movement. Beast-like.
The blade sliced emptily through air, disappointingly futile.
Thunk, splat!
Landing, Cheon Wi crouched low as if anticipating the next move.
The hastily recovered blade missed again.
“Haat!”
The man yelled a groan-like kiai, thrusting his paedo.
Even without intent to dodge, his body reacted automatically.
The blade grazed where his right arm once was. The black-robed literati’s formidable sword skill now seemed laughably slow.