Chapter 127: Sichuan Murder Sect-1
Chapter 127: Sichuan Murder Sect-1
It was around noon when Jeon Seok-jil, a top-grade assassin of the Sacheonsalmun—the self-proclaimed number one assassin sect of Sichuan Province—and the one who held the position of Third Kill among the Chilsal, received the commission.
"The target is... the Flying Sky Black Wolf, Seonwoo Jin?"
At his question, the courier who had come from the Sacheonsalmun bowed his head and answered.
"Yes. He is the third son of the Guizhou Seonwoo Clan, once rumored to be the shame of the Seonwoo family and closer to a pig than a martial artist. However, after joining the Flying Dragon Squad early this year, he recently made a name for himself by killing Heuksalpyo Dong Paegyeong, a peak-level expert of the Heuksangbang, one of the Guizhou Eight Families' Ha Clan."
Jeon Seok-jil frowned and asked again.
"He killed a peak-level expert? Surely you're not telling me that this Seonwoo Jin is also a peak-level expert?"
"Well... that is correct. According to the client's intelligence, he is estimated to possess at least seventy years of internal energy, placing him at the peak level."
In an instant, Jeon Seok-jil's eyes shifted into a viper-like glare filled with killing intent as he asked again.
"...So, he's a peak-level expert with over seventy years of internal energy, and you accepted a commission to kill someone like that?"
Jeon Seok-jil's gaze was gradually turning colorless, like glass beads devoid of any emotion.
It was as if he were looking at a doll's eyes.
But the courier knew.
He knew that this sight—emitting no killing intent, showing no emotion on his face whatsoever—was precisely how Jeon Seok-jil looked right before he killed someone.
The courier hastily bowed his head low and urgently shouted.
It was a quick response he could make because he had anticipated Jeon Seok-jil would react this way.
"It was the sect leader's order! He said to attach the Fifth Kill and Sixth Kill to you, and to use as many personnel as needed—just give it a try! He said it was a commission we absolutely could not refuse! And if it truly proved beyond our ability, he even permitted you to withdraw! He said he would even summon Chilsal...!"
Only after hearing those words did emotion return to Jeon Seok-jil's eyes.
The color of that emotion was interest.
"Hmm, no personnel limit, and they'll attach the Fifth Kill and Sixth Kill. If that's not enough, even Chilsal? The sect leader must be in quite a hurry."
Only after seeing Jeon Seok-jil muttering in that manner could the courier breathe a sigh of relief inwardly.
Jeon Seok-jil suddenly asked again.
"So, the target's location and the execution site?"
The courier bowed his head and answered.
"He departed from the Sichuan Tang Family in Chengdu this morning and is currently heading toward the Seonwoo Clan in Guiyang, Guizhou Province. Since he is said to be a master of movement techniques, we expect he will pass through this area by tomorrow morning. However, he may be faster than that, so the message was to prepare in advance."
Jeon Seok-jil nodded leisurely as if he understood.
"Understood. Report to me once his precise location is confirmed."
But contact came to Jeon Seok-jil again far sooner than expected.
Not even half a shichen had passed before the courier came running back to him in a fluster and shouted.
"It seems you must prepare immediately! The swift scouts lost track of his trail! They said his speed was so great they simply could not keep up, and it seems he is moving at high speed, anticipating an ambush! So if he maintains that speed, the message was that he will pass through this region by this evening!"
At those words, Jeon Seok-jil asked in disbelief.
"What? He'll travel from Chengdu to this inner reach here in half a day? Are you saying he's some kind of bird that flies through the sky? And it's not even that he's coming—he might come? We can't even pinpoint his exact location, so what exactly are we supposed to do? Are you telling us to go find a fortune-teller to divine his whereabouts?"
The courier hesitantly bowed his head and answered.
"That is... they only said to do our best, and that we would not be blamed even if we failed..."
Jeon Seok-jil let out a hollow laugh at that, then sank into thought for a moment.
'We can't find him. Then... there's no choice but to make him come to us. Since they said he's a hyeopgaek, we have no option but to target that aspect.'
Having made up his mind, Jeon Seok-jil quickly spoke.
"Gather the personnel. As many as possible. Also, get the Fifth Kill and Sixth Kill ready."
"Yes! Understood!"
***
The method Jeon Seok-jil came up with was to attack innocent people.
Jeon Seok-jil's thinking was that if this Seonwoo Jin was racing from Chengdu toward Guiyang along the shortest route, he would inevitably pass through the official road, and since he was said to be a hyeopgaek, if they attacked those traveling the official road, he would surely intervene.
Of course, if this Seonwoo Jin took a route other than the official road, or if he simply chose not to concern himself even after seeing innocent people being attacked, it was a method that could only end in failure.
Jeon Seok-jil was certainly aware that such a possibility was more than plausible.
'It's entirely possible. Most of these so-called hyeopgaek are nothing but hypocrites, after all.'
But there was no other way.
If even after doing all this he still couldn't encounter the man, then Jeon Seok-jil figured there truly was nothing to be done.
And so, by this evening, Jeon Seok-jil already had the assassins of the Sacheonsalmun carry out their third caravan raid.
Because of that, the official road was now shaking with the stench of blood and screams of agony.
"Aaaagh! My arm! P-please, spare me, I beg you!"
"Uwaaagh! My eyes! My eyes!"
"N-no! We'll give you all the goods! Please, just our lives!"
"My daughter is still a young child! Please, at least spare this child!"
Puhwaak!
"Aaaagh!"
"No! My child!"
"Save me!"
The caravan, ambushed by some forty masked assassins, was filled entirely with agonized screams and voices begging for mercy.
It was because of Jeon Seok-jil's orders to kill the people as cruelly and as slowly as possible.
Following his orders, the assassins cut off the caravan people's limbs, eyes, noses, and lips one by one, tormenting them slowly, and the people died wailing wretchedly, pleading only for their lives.
But the eyes of the assassins killing them were utterly emotionless, as if they were merely handling repetitive tasks.
Jeon Seok-jil, hidden in one corner, watched the spectacle with an equally expressionless face.
'This caravan is nearly settled as well.'
Most of the caravan people had already breathed their last.
It seemed he would have to find another target now.
In the end, this raid too appeared to have been a meaningless slaughter.
But he was not particularly disappointed.
He had only started early on the off chance, after all; he had never expected that Seonwoo Jin would appear already.
'If he appears here already, then he truly wouldn't be a man but a bird.'
Jeon Seok-jil's estimate was that he would pass through at the earliest tonight, and if late, not until tomorrow morning.
But if that was the case, it meant they would have to keep doing this all through the night—and if worse came to worst, even until tomorrow morning.
Slowly, painfully killing innocent people like this.
The fact of it should have been loathsome, but Jeon Seok-jil had not a single thought about that.
Patience was one of the foremost virtues an assassin had to cultivate.
There was no way Jeon Seok-jil—the Third Kill, the third-highest ranking member of the Sacheonsalmun, no ordinary assassin—would expend even a sliver of emotion on something like that.
Without the slightest hint of irritation, he simply waited in silence until the caravan people were completely annihilated.
It was then.
"Stop!"
Along with a clear, resonant voice that rang out from somewhere, someone shot in like a shooting star.
It was a speed that truly resembled a beam of light—a remarkable movement technique the likes of which Jeon Seok-jil, who had considerable confidence in his own movement skills, had never seen before.
So much so that he could not even make out the other's face.
Shuhaak!
'!'
The moment Jeon Seok-jil registered his arrival, the man had already become a streak of light and swept past the dozen or so assassins.
A pale violet sword glow, leaving only afterimages, was trailing behind him like a comet's tail.
A beat later, blood burst forth from the assassins' bodies as if exploding.
Puhwaak!
The sight of crimson jets of blood simultaneously spurting into the air, almost as if deliberately choreographed, was nothing short of spectacular.
Gulp!
Jeon Seok-jil, still in hiding, swallowed his saliva involuntarily.
It was because in his entire career as an assassin, he had never once seen a swordsman that fast.
'Is that... even possible?'
He could not believe it.
The ordinary assassins Jeon Seok-jil had brought numbered some forty men, and half of them were already wandering souls.
All in the span of just a few breaths after he had registered the swordsman's appearance.
Against the pale violet sword glow that filled the space like an illusion, not a single assassin could even attempt a counterattack.
It was then that one assassin shouted urgently.
"All of you, rush him at once!"
Among the assassins present, he was the one with the highest rank.
At his command, all the remaining assassins threw themselves at the man in unison.
They surrounded him from every direction like a curtain of people.
Shweeeik!
Shaaak!
Twenty sword glows, without a single martial shout, stabbed at him from all sides.
Then Jeon Seok-jil could see it clearly.
The young swordsman, likely Seonwoo Jin, standing still in that spot with a faint smile on his lips.
He was murmuring something.
Jeon Seok-jil, having learned lip-reading, could silently mouth the words he spoke.
'Emptiness is Form?'
The next moment.
Hwaaaak!
From him as the center, dozens, hundreds of swords split like illusions and shot out in all directions.
It looked as if a sun spewing pale purple light had appeared upon the whole world.
Puhwaaaak!
It was over in a single instant.
All of the assassins charging at him collapsed dead on the spot, covered in blood.
It was a quiet slaughter, with no screams, not even the sound of clashing blades.
Jeon Seok-jil, who had been watching it all, stood with his mouth agape and couldn't close it.
And in that moment, Seonwoo Jin was already standing before the assassin who had issued the command.
He asked the assassin, whose face was frozen with horror.
"You didn't even loot the goods, yet you commit slaughter like this. What sort of bastards are you?"
At that, the assassin, who had hastily collected himself, gritted his teeth and asked Seonwoo Jin.
"Are you Seonwoo Jin?"
At those words, Seonwoo Jin's eyes flickered.
"...So your actions were targeting me, is that it?"
But there was no answer.
Before Seonwoo Jin had even finished speaking, the man merely lunged like lightning and brought his sword down.
Shiiiing!
"!"
No, he had attempted to bring it down.
It was just that his arm was severed before the sword could descend.
Puhwak!
Seonwoo Jin, having simply sliced off the arm the assassin had raised above his head, sealed the man's acupoints and asked again.
Tap!
"I'll ask again. Who are you?"
At that, the assassin glanced sidelong at the blood spurting from his severed arm and retorted with a sneering expression.
"Keuk, heh heh heh. Well, is there any reason I should tell you that?"
Even with both arms cut off and his acupoints sealed, the assassin's eyes were not those of a man who had given up.
Rather, it was a look of triumph, as if he was watching his opponent walk right into a trap.
And he was not the only one watching Seonwoo Jin with triumphant eyes—the same was true for Jeon Seok-jil, who observed the scene while remaining hidden.
Though this man called Seonwoo Jin was an astonishing master, he was still young, and thus seemed to lack experience.
To give a killer so much time like this.
From where he watched, Jeon Seok-jil could see the Sixth Killer, Do Dan-mu, preparing his ambush.
Jeon Seok-jil shouted inwardly.
'Go, Sixth Killer!'
Among the Seven Killers of the Sichuan Assassination Gate, the Sixth Killer, Do Dan-mu, was a dwarf whose body had stopped growing due to a rare disease.
His specialties in assassination were acting as a child and concealment techniques to hide himself behind another's body.
And that was why Do Dan-mu was currently pressed flush against the back of the assassin standing before Seonwoo Jin.
Because Do Dan-mu had the physique of a child, it was utterly impossible to notice him from the front.
So, unless he had killed him from the very start, the moment Seonwoo Jin had left him alive and tried to converse, he was no different from a fly caught in the Sixth Killer's web.
Just as the Sixth Killer was pressing his hidden weapon case against the assassin's back and preparing to fire, the assassin asked Seonwoo Jin again.
"Uheuheu, why don't you tell me? If I tell you, will you spare my life? If not, there's no particular reason for me to tell you..."
As he said that and smiled sinisterly, the assassin secretly crushed the poison sac in his mouth.
As the acrid liquid spread, the assassin planned to spit it at Seonwoo Jin when he spoke next.
'Your mistake was not sealing my mute acupoint, you bastard.'
Of course, he wouldn't be able to kill a master of Seonwoo Jin's level with that alone.
But it didn't matter.
Because as he spat it and distracted the opponent, the Sixth Killer Do Dan-mu, from behind him, would ambush the man.
The man could never detect that ambush.
It was while the assassin was thinking such thoughts and watching for an opening in Seonwoo Jin.
Suddenly, Seonwoo Jin gave a scoff and asked.
"Is that so? Then should I just ask the guy behind you?"
"!"
In that instant, the assassin realized Seonwoo Jin knew of the Sixth Killer's existence.
So it was just as he tried to spit the poison.
The Sixth Killer, whose reaction was faster, fired his hidden weapon case first.
Pusheuk!
"Keok!"
From the pain of the projectile piercing through his own heart, the assassin could not properly spit the poison.
So, with the black liquid dribbling from his mouth, his fading eyes watched.
They watched Seonwoo Jin lightly deflect, as if he had known all along, the hidden weapon that had ripped through the assassin's chest and flew at him like a ray of light.
And then, watched his sword pierce straight through and skewer the assassin's chest.
Puuuk!
"!"
Through the faint trembling felt at his back, the assassin knew.
The sword that had pierced his own chest had apparently skewered the Sixth Killer as well.
In the end, that man named Seonwoo Jin had completely grasped their strategy from the very beginning.
It was a complete failure.
Watching the situation unfold, Jeon Seok-jil swallowed hard.
Cold sweat was running down his body.
He simply could not comprehend how, in the world, his opponent had detected the Sixth Killer's presence.
To his eyes, it had been a perfect setup.
Indeed, a peak-level master with over seventy years of internal energy was no easy opponent.
But Jeon Seok-jil was not disappointed.
For the Fifth Killer and himself still remained.
No matter how much of a master he was, if it was the Fifth Killer, so skilled in disguise and poison, he believed he could surely create an opening.
'Though he's not a particularly likeable fellow, the Fifth Killer already has a record of dealing with over ten peak masters. Since the opponent is a young fellow still lacking in experience, there is a very good chance.'
For the moment, after dealing with all the visible assassins, Seonwoo Jin looked around at his surroundings.
The scene inside was horrific.
Everyone who appeared to be from the trade caravan had been slaughtered in ghastly ways, or lay dying with their limbs severed.
"Uuuu..."
"S-save me..."
"Uheuheuheuk!"
Groans filled the area from all sides.
That all this was simply to lure him out ground his teeth once more.
Seonwoo Jin meticulously examined the area, but could barely find anyone he could save.
Rather, the vast majority were people for whom he could only hope to ease their suffering by cutting short their breaths.
So, gritting his teeth, he pressed the death acupoints of those writhing in agony to put them out of their misery, and was gathering the few survivors to one side.
When suddenly, he heard a faint voice.
"Y-young man... please save me."
It was the voice of an old man who seemed nearly dead.
When Seonwoo Jin looked toward the sound, he saw an elder pinned beneath the wreckage of a collapsed cargo cart.
His body had been obscured by the cargo, so it seemed he was lucky enough not to have been attacked by the assassins.
Seonwoo Jin threw himself toward the spot in a hurry to save him.
Watching this, the Fifth Killer Naeng Ji-dan, his face an expression of being crushed and dying under the cargo, watched Seonwoo Jin approach.
Unaware that he was heading to his death, the man was rushing toward him.
He smiled inwardly.
'Uheuheuheu, come on over, won't you?'
The specialty of the Fifth Killer Naeng Ji-dan was disguise and poison techniques.
Since he had never been particularly outstanding in concealment or projectile arts from childhood, he had enjoyed using the method of disguising himself as an old man or a woman, approaching near his target, and assassinating them with poison.
So, right after attacking the trade caravan, he had intentionally toppled a cargo cart and lain in wait beneath the goods.
It was in case Seonwoo Jin approached, so he could ambush the man while pretending to be a member of the caravan.
And that waiting was now just about to bear fruit.
'Now... come on over.'
Naeng Ji-dan prepared to use the odorless poison of the Odokmun, purchased for a high price.
Not completely colorless and odorless like the Tang Family's formless poison, but a supreme poison that was almost scentless and earth-colored, making it difficult to distinguish from common dust.
Naeng Ji-dan intended to secretly scatter this poison when Seonwoo Jin cleared away the crates.
Because if it mixed in with the dust kicked up while moving the boxes, he would never notice it.
'At last I get to use this expensive fellow. Farewell, you young peak-master bastard.'
Seonwoo Jin rushed over and cleared the cargo covering Naeng Ji-dan's body.
"Are you alright, elder?"
In the meantime, Naeng Ji-dan, who had already consumed the antidote, sprayed the odorless poison into the air.
He could see with his own eyes the faint earth-colored poison slowly spreading among the dust and entering Seonwoo Jin's nose.
He cheered inwardly.
'It's done! It's over!'
Naeng Ji-dan now very slowly began to raise his body like a dying old man, and prepared to flee.
For he had to escape before Seonwoo Jin, realizing he'd been poisoned, attacked him.