Secret Branch Infiltration Operation 2
Shin Gi-woon waited a long while after every trace of presence had faded. Now that their intrusion had been discovered, caution was everything. This was enemy territory.
Security would only grow tighter. A single wrong judgment could mean the death of every last one of them.
I was going to split into teams, but there's no point anymore. We stick together or we die.
If even one of them was spotted, it was over. There was a reason people said an assassination only counted as a success if there were no witnesses left behind.
Shin Gi-woon made the call — all five would move as one. No one argued. Without any real means of communication, splitting up would cost them far more than it was worth.
Let's go.
He eased the door open and swept the surroundings. Expanding his senses to their absolute limit, he found no presence nearby.
He took the first step out, and the rest of the group followed him from the warehouse. Now the question was where to go.
Fortunately, their guide was still circling inside his head.
I'll lead you to the underground dungeon.
Ryu-jin made an excellent guide. He'd assumed she wouldn't know the detailed layout — but she rattled it off without a hitch.
With every spare body pulled upstairs to deal with the intruders, Shin Gi-woon's group reached the dungeon entrance in short order.
The real problem started now.
A Peak-level martial artist…!
The Kunlun Sect fighter barring the dungeon entrance radiated Peak-level internal energy.
They managed to stay hidden just outside the range of his senses, but getting into the dungeon meant a clash was inevitable.
This isn't something So-hyang's arrows can settle.
Bi So-hyang had reached First-Class, but instantly killing a Peak-level expert was close to impossible. They would have to fight.
Se-hwa. Can you take him?
Don't worry about it.
Part of him wanted to step forward himself. But who knew what waited inside the dungeon? He couldn't peel off from the group this early.
Se-hwa was a Peak-level martial artist in her own right. Leaving it to her was the best option.
We're storming the dungeon. First we free the unit commander, then we cut every prisoner loose and sow chaos. We use that opening to get out.
Most martial artists locked in a dungeon had seals placed on their internal energy. But that didn't make them useless.
This was the dungeon of a Kunlun secret branch. Experts who could still tear a man apart with external arts alone would be packed in here. Free them, and opportunity would follow.
I'm counting on you, Se-hwa.
Leave it to me.
Footsteps rang out, unhurried and deliberate.
Se-hwa walked straight up to the dungeon gatekeeper as if she belonged there. A gleam lit the man's eyes.
"State your affiliation!"
"…"
"If you won't speak, I will attack!"
"Go ahead."
BANG!
Se-hwa kicked off the ground first. The gatekeeper tore his sword free, and Shin Gi-woon roared.
"Charge!"
"…!"
WHOOSH!
Bi So-hyang loosed a single arrow. The gatekeeper's focus shattered; he staggered — and Se-hwa's blade, already in motion, drove for his head.
"Damn it!"
He barely managed to catch her sword. In that same instant, Shin Gi-woon's entire group poured down into the underground dungeon.
There had been no other choice. A heartbeat's hesitation and the man would have been split clean in half.
"So you're the intruders! You think a little girl like you can stop me?!"
"Why not?"
A crimson aura began to surge along Se-hwa's blade, thick with the sinister weight of demonic arts.
"You're going to die here."
"A Demonic Cult bitch! Fine — come at me!"
The gatekeeper recognized the energy wreathing her sword. The dense, oppressive chill of demonic cultivation. And Se-hwa's eyes, dyed a deep red — anyone could see she was a full-fledged demonic practitioner.
Meanwhile, the group that had stormed the dungeon—
"W-who are you?!"
"Shut up and get lost!!"
Ma Ra-jin led the charge, swinging that massive fist of his. The sheer force of him — smashing through everything in his path without a second thought — was more than enough to put the fear of death into the dungeon guards. Bi So-hyang and Sama Yul flanking him only made it worse.
Thanks to that, Shin Gi-woon could hang back, watch their rear, and simply follow.
THUD!
They cut down every guard they met and drove toward the lowest floor. Common sense said the unit commander of the Man-byeon-chu-hon-dae wouldn't be sitting near the entrance.
They had been descending for some time when they found him — a man sitting on the stairs to the bottommost level, a sword at his side.
The moment Shin Gi-woon saw him, he took the White Fang Spear in hand. The man was a Transcendent expert.
"What business do black-hearted little demon heads have in a place like this?"
"There's someone we need to save."
"You're still young, so I'll offer a word of advice. Cross this line, and you will not like what follows."
SCRAPE.
The old man dragged his scabbard across the floor, carving a clean line. A perfect warning. No one here was going to heed it.
Not in this group.
"Heh heh. That eager to drink the cup of punishment, are you?"
"Everyone — I'll take him. Watch for an opening and get down those stairs."
"You?"
Shin Gi-woon didn't bother answering further. Here, he was the only one who could hold a Transcendent expert alone.
Winning was out of the question. Ignoring the man meant total annihilation.
"Oh-ho."
The old man's eyes narrowed. He'd clocked that Shin Gi-woon was no ordinary fighter. The boy didn't look old enough, yet he had already reached Peak.
Left alone, he would become a serious threat to Kunlun's future. Having decided as much, the old man drew his sword.
"Come, little demon head."
"Scatter! Watch for openings and drop into the dungeon together!"
"You think I'll simply allow that?"
The old man swept his blade — and the form of a blue dragon crashed down over Shin Gi-woon's group. The supreme sword art of the Kunlun Sect.
"Ugh!"
The others managed to dodge. Shin Gi-woon alone had to take the strike head-on.
He'd looked extraordinary from the first glance. To open with the Great Void Dragon-Slaying Sword Art of all things.
Must be an elder of serious seniority. And he was just sitting in a dungeon?
No one in their right mind would plant themselves in the middle of a prison like this. Shin Gi-woon scrambled through everything he knew.
Kunlun. Information from his past life, dug up and sorted at speed. He found the answer.
"The Kunlun Mad Sword?"
"H-how do you know that name?"
"Don't get distracted!"
BOOM!
An opening. Shin Gi-woon lunged and drove the spear forward. Caught off guard by a name he never expected to hear, the old man threw up a defensive blade in a hurry.
A golden chance. Shin Gi-woon pushed himself past the limit, determined to overwhelm him.
HUMMM!
"Demonic energy!"
"Now! Go!"
He'd meant to keep the demonic energy sealed. The situation left him no choice — he had to go all out.
The Kunlun Mad Sword reeled at the sight of a boy handling demonic energy with such ease. Shin Gi-woon drove into the gap that created, bought the time he needed, and every last one of his comrades made it down into the depths of the dungeon.
CLANG!
Shin Gi-woon slammed the Kunlun Mad Sword's blade aside, stepped across the line the old man had drawn, and turned to face him.
"Cross this line and you die, old man."
"Keuk — kahahahaha!"
The Kunlun Mad Sword threw his head back and roared with laughter. To have his own words thrown straight back at him. This brat kept finding new ways to surprise him.
"Boy. Have you no thought of defecting to Kunlun, even now?"
"You of all people should know how rotten the Orthodox factions are."
"So you'll purify them with blood? You believe the Demonic Cult has a righteous cause?"
"I don't think the side that gets to decide what's righteous is always the good one. The Martial Alliance isn't moving for some noble cause either, is it?"
"…Young as you are, you seem to know a great deal."
The light in the Kunlun Mad Sword's eyes settled. What little curiosity and playfulness had been there vanished.
From here on, it would be the true face of a Transcendent expert.
Shin Gi-woon adjusted his grip on the spear. The Kunlun Mad Sword had to die here — for everyone's safety, if nothing else.
"Playtime is over. You truly have no intention of surrendering?"
"Ignoring an old horse-nose's rambling is half the fun."
"…!"
Horse-nose.
A slur for Taoist types — and the fouler a Taoist's temper, the harder it landed.
It hit the Kunlun Mad Sword dead center. The way he shook said everything.
"You… are throwing away your last chance to live."
"Look at this, you hypocrite bastard. The second I stop suiting your taste, you drop 'boy' and switch to 'you' — who'd buy that act?"
"If you keep running your mouth—!"
"Horse-nose Taoist sir. You talk an awful lot — sure you're the Kunlun Mad Sword and not the Kunlun Tongue Sword? I'm getting sleepy."
"You!"
BOOOOOOM!
The Kunlun Mad Sword drove a true step into the floor and startled even himself. He had been so furious he'd forgotten where he was standing.
"There's actually a dumbass who uses a true step inside a dungeon."
"Damn it!"
The whole prison began to shudder. If Shin Gi-woon hadn't cut the force of that step mid-strike, they would have been buried alive.
The Kunlun Mad Sword knew it too. Shame flooded his face a deep red.
"No more holding back, brat."
"Yes, yes. Now that your ear flaps are settling, please shut up."
"This bastard!"
The Kunlun Mad Sword launched himself. At last he was done talking and ready to fight properly.
Welcome news. The Great Void Dragon-Slaying Sword Art had rattled him at first glance — but he had memories. Memories of a duel with the Kunlun Sect's own master, who had used that same art.
HUMMMM!!
"W-what—!"
He read the sword path and cut the form off mid-technique. The Kunlun Mad Sword reeled at something he had never experienced in his life — and Shin Gi-woon drove the spear for his throat.
WHOOSH!
Of course the old man didn't go down easily. He bent at the waist, slipped the spear, and in the same motion loaded his palm with internal energy and drove a left palm strike forward.
WHOOOM!
Shin Gi-woon tilted his head and let the strike pass. The Kunlun Mad Sword had already recovered his stance, and a vicious blade came screaming for his right arm. Shin Gi-woon did not dodge.
The power that came simply from holding the White Fang Spear. He released a wave of cold through ice arts.
The Kunlun Mad Sword's blade trembled — just a fraction — and Shin Gi-woon took it.
"Hmph!"
He gathered the internal energy of the Battle Demon Divine Art into his empty left fist and swung.
BANG!
"…You use ice arts as well?"
"It just happened."
"Heaven-sent talent."
He forced the Kunlun Mad Sword back a step. Watching him wield ice arts on top of everything else put a fresh gleam in the old man's eyes.
Interest again. Time for another shove.
"Horse-nose old man. Is that all you've got?"
"Playtime is truly over."
RUMBLE.
As the Transcendent expert began pouring out internal energy in earnest, the air itself started to vibrate. A real fight was about to break loose.
That much was certain.
"Come at me!"
Shin Gi-woon's eyes lit up.