Chapter 246: What They Desire Most-2
Chapter 246: What They Desire Most-2
Seonwoo Jin had spent three days conserving time as he taught Jin So-eun three things.
They were the art of stealth, the Mind's Eye, and the Brawling Technique.
Since she had already promised to do anything he asked, Jin So-eun had learned them very diligently.
But in one corner of her mind, she had thought:
'Why is he teaching me these things?'
The Three Illusions Step he had taught her before had a very easy-to-understand reason: for someone with weak strength to avoid being pushed back by an opponent, she had to surpass them in speed.
But...
'Isn't the Brawling Technique a bit too much for someone like me who uses the staff technique? And the art of stealth, which is a technique of assassins?'
It had been difficult for Jin So-eun to understand, but as was her nature, she had diligently learned them anyway.
However, no matter how much of a genius she was, three days was too short a time.
It was, of course, impossible to produce any results in the Brawling Technique and the art of stealth, which were not her specialties, in such a short time.
She had only achieved results to a certain degree in the Mind's Eye, which was not a technique that utilized the body.
And at this very moment.
Jin So-eun was feeling it keenly—the reason Seonwoo Jin had taught her those things.
Buaaaaaang!
Ting-ting-ting-ting-ting!
She spun her staff to block the throwing weapons pouring in from the front, shielding herself as if with a circular shield.
Then she immediately turned the spinning staff backward and struck down the assassins who were thrusting their narrow-tipped swords at her.
Puh-puh-peong!
The moment the staff, imbued with Energetic Force, lightly crushed the enemies' heads, Jin So-eun immediately stepped on the Three Illusions Step, swiftly repositioned, and then stomped hard on the ground beneath her feet.
Puh-uh-eok!
Then, with the sensation of something bursting, blood seeped up from within the earth.
It was an assassin who had been hiding underground.
She had felt a slight sense earlier that they had been driving her toward one side, and it seemed this was the reason.
It was that moment.
Suddenly, throwing weapons poured in from all directions.
Shwaaaack! Hwiririririk! Shiiiiik!
From steel arrows of tremendous speed to throwing weapons that curved in as they spun, the entire area was blackened with hidden projectiles.
"Hup!"
Without a hint of hesitation, Jin So-eun whirled her staff around her body and simultaneously spun her own body.
Hwiriririririk!
Ting-ting-ting-ting-ting!
The shield, solid as an iron wall created by the spinning staff, deflected all the projectiles.
It was a sight as if a divine beast with a will of its own was protecting her entire body.
It was a splendid spectacle of wonderfully defending against an incredibly threatening attack, but for Jin So-eun, it was a situation that had already repeated dozens of times throughout the day of fighting.
So it meant that the fact that they were doing that again likely meant they had some other intention.
And Jin So-eun was able to grasp exactly what it was.
'Six in the ground ahead!'
She had pinpointed the positions of the assassins who were in stealth underground using the Mind's Eye.
At that moment.
Puhwaaaak!
The earth burst up, and six assassins shot out like snakes hidden in burrows.
It was to target her lower body while her staff was blocking the projectiles.
Unfortunately for them, however, her lower body was not the least bit open.
"Hwoo-up!"
The instant they sprang out of the ground, Jin So-eun had already moved right in front of them using the Three Illusions Step.
"!"
"!"
In the vision of those who had burst from the ground, Jin So-eun's foot was visible, having drawn close right before their eyes.
Puh-puh-puk!
With the Three Illusionary Kicks—powerful kicks linked to the Three Illusions Step—three heads burst simultaneously.
She had perfectly mastered the Three Illusionary Kicks, which she had not been able to succeed at despite three days of training from Seonwoo Jin, in a single day of combat.
But there was no time to rejoice.
Because the narrow-tipped swords of the remaining three assassins were stabbing at her legs like lightning.
Shwiiiik!
Puuuuk!
The moment their swords were about to pierce her leg accurately, a light of rapturous delight rose in the three assassins' eyes.
They had succeeded in their attack, exploiting the gaps created as she blocked projectiles with her staff and dispatched three ambushers with kicks.
But the moment their swords pierced through her leg, the assassins could not help but be horrified.
"?!"
"?!"
Because they felt no sensation at all of their swords stabbing into something.
Seureureuk!
The next moment, her form vanished as if being erased.
The assassins realized only then.
'An afterimage?!'
Simultaneously, Jin So-eun's staff swept past their heads.
Puh-puh-puk!
After creating an afterimage with the Three Illusions Step, she had moved to their rear.
"Haa, haa, haa!"
Jin So-eun exhaled ragged breaths.
Then, without even sparing a glance at the three assassins whose heads had been shattered, she turned her head and surveyed the assassins who were encircling her and targeting her from a distance.
It was loathsome.
The sun had risen while she fought those who had ambushed her at night, and yet they persisted even after the sun that had set had risen once more.
She killed, and killed, and killed, yet their numbers did not decrease at all.
Watching them crawl out from wherever they came from, it was exactly like looking at cockroaches.
Moreover, the problem wasn't solely their numbers.
"Haa, haa, haa."
Exhaling ragged breaths with a body as heavy as if soaked in water, Jin So-eun thought:
'I'm too tired. I feel like I'm going to collapse. No, I just want to collapse already.'
She felt her body was already in a state of its limit.
Her breath rose right up to her chin, and her head was already in a dazed state.
If this continued, it seemed like it wouldn't be strange for her to break down at any moment.
'Come to think of it, I think I had the same thought a moment ago. No, wasn't it around sunset yesterday, not a moment ago?'
It didn't matter.
The concept of time had long since disappeared, and it had been even longer since Seonwoo Jin had disappeared.
It was then.
As the stream of her consciousness suddenly touched upon Seonwoo Jin, Jin So-eun's dazed eyes momentarily became clear.
Then, grinding her teeth in her heart, she shouted his name.
'Seonu Gongja!'
She was now feeling keenly the reason he had taught her things like the Brawling Technique and the art of stealth.
Even if she couldn't use the art of stealth herself, she had been able to face them up to now because she knew how it was used, and it was because she had to use her entire body, not just her staff, to kill them as they swarmed in like cockroaches.
The Mind's Eye went without saying.
So this time as well, Seonwoo Jin's foresight could not help but be admirable.
He had predicted that the Blood Rain Union would ambush them and prepared her in advance.
She might have been admiring him even up to now.
If only he hadn't sneaked away all by himself, that is.
A day before now, Seonwoo Jin, who had split time to intensively teach Jin So-eun three things, had looked off into the distance as if he had suddenly sensed something.
And he had smiled faintly as he spoke to Jin So-eun.
'I wish you luck in battle, Jin Sojeo.'
'...Yes?'
At that moment, the assassins of the Blood Rain Union had ambushed them.
Shwaaaack!
Hwiriririririk!
Jin So-eun frantically blocked the flying projectiles and struck dead the assassins who came at her.
Then she suddenly realized.
That Seonwoo Jin was nowhere to be seen beside her.
That he had at some point vanished as if perfectly camouflaged.
Jin So-eun couldn't help but be shocked.
'He took off by himself, leaving me all alone?'
But Jin So-eun wanted to trust him.
So for about two hours afterward, she had tried to believe, with a sliver of hope, that there was no way he would do that.
But by the time the number of assassins she had killed reached triple digits, she had no choice but to acknowledge it.
That she had been abandoned by him.
"Seon-woo Jiiiiiiin!"
Grinding her teeth in rage, Jin So-eun charged at the assassins who were beginning to swarm in again, her eyes having sharpened once more.
Her staff, filled with fury, was spinning fiercely like a Dragon Whirlwind.
***
At the hour when Jin So-eun was smashing through the ambush of the Blood Rain Union assassins, an old man with white hair stood before a cave halfway up the mountain that overlooked her location.
He suddenly frowned and asked quietly,
"Is it true that there are seven who used the Earth Shield?"
Then, a single black-clothed masked figure kneeling behind the old man appeared soundlessly like a ghost and answered.
"Until moments ago, there were eighteen of them preparing."
At that answer, the old man asked again with a stiff expression.
"They would have been. Then why are there only seven?"
The black-clothed masked figure on his knees bowed his head even deeper and answered.
"I, I apologize. That is...."
The white-haired old man with the clear and clean impression, Mak Jong-gi, the Bloody Rain Guest and lord of the Blood Rain Union, muttered as if to himself when his subordinate could not answer.
"The moment we initiated the ambush, the one called Inparang immediately vanished from the scene. What remained was only that girl from the Jin Family Stronghold named Jin So-eun. Yet that child, who at first seemed as if she would die at any moment, gradually grew stronger and is now enduring the attacks of our elites for over a full day. And the attacks we had properly prepared have strangely been reduced in scale. What do you think this means?"
At his question, the subordinate paused to think for a moment before answering.
"...I believe it means that the child Jin So-eun is growing stronger using our attacks as fodder."
That was an undeniable fact.
But Blood Rain Guest Mak Jong-gi shook his head at his subordinate's answer.
"You are only half right. To be precise, it seems that the child called Inparang is the one making Jin So-eun grow. Using us to do it, and even adjusting things appropriately whenever he feels our attacks are excessive."
"Sir?!"
The subordinate snapped his head up in shock at Mak Jong-gi's words.
It was because those words sounded as if they were moving entirely within the palm of Inparang's hand.
But he soon shook his head inwardly.
The idea that someone was appropriately adjusting and exploiting the attacks of the world's greatest assassin group—no matter how rare a prodigy Inparang was said to be, it could only be an excessive speculation.
The subordinate carefully refuted Mak Jong-gi's statement.
"But Union Lord, is Inparang not a mere whelp barely in his twenties? He is neither one of the Fifteen Absolute Masters nor even one of the Thirty-Six Stars of the World—how could someone like him possibly pull off such a thing?"
But Mak Jong-gi did not answer him.
He was already muttering to himself as if his own conclusion were an established fact.
"None of the assassins I have on the field managed to detect his traces. That likely means his stealth technique far surpasses that of our assassins. Perhaps, in stealth technique alone, he should be considered on par with Am Hyeol-hyang."
The subordinate listening to those words grew even more bewildered.
It was because the name Am Hyeol-hyang—the sole assassin among the Thirty-Six Stars of the World—held an immensely significant meaning for the assassins of the Blood Rain Lotus.
The Blood Rain Lotus was, in name and reality, the world's greatest assassin group.
Yet despite being the world's greatest assassin group, they had always suffered from a sense of inferiority for never having produced the world's greatest assassin.
So to them, Am Hyeol-hyang was a name that always represented the goal itself.
The goal of every assassin of the Blood Rain Lotus was to surpass Am Hyeol-hyang, and thus everyone in the Blood Rain Lotus had ceaselessly strived until now to achieve that goal.
Yet now, their Union Lord, Blood Rain Guest Mak Jong-gi, was saying that Inparang's stealth technique might be on the level of Am Hyeol-hyang.
That whelp Inparang, still barely in his twenties.
For the assassins of the Blood Rain Lotus, it was an utterly unacceptable notion.
But whether he accepted it or not hardly mattered.
In the end, the decision rested with Blood Rain Guest Mak Jong-gi.
Mak Jong-gi finally turned to his subordinate and spoke.
"Authorize the use of the explosive bombs. And... prepare Samno."
At his command, the subordinate swallowed hard and questioned back.
"Y-you mean the Three Elders?"
The Three Elders of Blood Rain.
They were the supreme masters of the Blood Rain Lotus, individuals Blood Rain Guest Mak Jong-gi had long prepared for the purpose of capturing Am Hyeol-hyang.
All of them were transcendent peak masters—Ilno Chakhwaseup in stealth technique, Ino Gokmussang in throwing weapon arts, and Samno Nusantu in poison arts—each having reached the transcendent peak realm in their respective fields.
But the important part was not that they were transcendent peak masters.
What truly mattered was that even after reaching the transcendent peak realm, they had endlessly honed and refined only their respective specialties.
With Am Hyeol-hyang as their target, they had advanced only their singular specialties up to this point.
Thus, they had now reached a state where each could pride themselves on surpassing Am Hyeol-hyang, at least within their own domains.
So what Blood Rain Guest Mak Jong-gi was saying now was that he would deploy them—the Blood Rain Lotus's mightiest assassins—for the sole purpose of capturing a single Inparang.
To his startled subordinate who had questioned back, Mak Jong-gi said this:
"If the bastard is on Am Hyeol-hyang's level, then we simply prepare a blade capable of catching Am Hyeol-hyang. Do you not think so?"
At those words, the subordinate finally bowed his head.
Though he could not agree with the claim that Inparang was on Am Hyeol-hyang's level, continuing to play the role of fostering Jin So-eun's growth like this was not an option.
"I obey your command! I will relay the order to the Three Elders at once!"
***
Swaeaeaeaek! Hwiririririk!
She swung her staff, deflecting the endlessly flying throwing weapons.
Buaaaaang! Ti-ti-ti-ti-ting!
After one volley, she seized the brief gap when the throwing weapons paused and charged toward the enemies.
Buaaaaang! Peo-peo-peo-peok!
Around Jin So-eun, corpses with crushed heads toppled to the ground.
They would be replenished anyway, but she still had to keep thinning their numbers.
Jin So-eun performed all these actions mechanically, with a dazed mind.
She was not even certain whether this was reality or if she was dreaming.
It was then.
Something different from before began flying toward Jin So-eun.
Swaeaeaeaek!
They were small spherical objects that looked like black balls.
But to Jin So-eun's eyes right now, that distinction could not possibly be registered.
She simply intended to swing her staff and deflect them as she had done with everything else so far.
At that moment, a voice suddenly reached her ears.
- You must not break those, young lady! Dodge far away!
Instantly, her mind snapped alert.
Jin So-eun hurriedly deployed the Three Illusions Step and distanced herself from them.
Swiiiiik!
That was the moment.
The black spheres that struck the ground where she had been standing erupted in explosions.
Kwaaaaaang!
Kwaaaaaang!
Kwaaaaaang!
The explosions were not of such a large scale, but had she struck them with her staff and set them off, she would certainly have taken damage.
Jin So-eun's mind suddenly cleared as if doused with cold water.
'...Gunpowder?!'
Having been bombarded by cannon fire at the Jin Family Estate not long ago, she had also come to know a certain amount about gunpowder and cannons.
She had thought it was only used when launching cannonballs, but apparently they could also be thrown in such small forms.
But there was no time to observe and analyze.
More black spheres were flying at her again.
This time, throwing weapons were mixed in between them as well.
Swaeaeaeaek!
"Damn!"
Jin So-eun panicked.
She could not block this.
It was obvious that if she tried to rotate her staff and deflect the throwing weapons as she had until now, she would end up detonating those explosive bombs along with them.
"Ee-ik!"
Clenching her teeth, Jin So-eun hurled her body with all her might.
She had decided to dodge the throwing weapons and explosive bombs as much as possible.
Pabak!
Fortunately, her movement technique, which she had diligently trained in the Three Illusions Step, had advanced by leaps and bounds compared to before.
Explosions continued to erupt behind Jin So-eun as she escaped the range of the throwing weapons and bombs in an instant.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang!
"Aaaargh!"
Jin So-eun felt like dying.
Until now, she had only needed to spin her staff in place, but now she had to run with desperate, death-defying effort.
It was more miraculous that she still had any stamina left to run at all.
"Haah! Haah! Haah!"
But she could not keep this up.
Because at this rate, she would truly collapse in just a short while.
While running to dodge the pouring explosive bombs and throwing weapons, Jin So-eun suddenly extended her staff toward a bomb flying along her trajectory.
Tuuuk!
But the explosive bomb did not detonate.
It was because her staff had softly yielded backward, catching it like a plush blanket.
It was an astonishing result achieved through the softness of the Nature Staff, which moved like a living creature, and the qi barrier formed by her internal energy.
'It worked!'
Having succeeded in catching the explosive bomb, Jin So-eun now looked toward the assassin who had thrown it at her.
It was time for revenge.
"Hyaaap!"
Buaaaaang!
The staff swung out with exhilarating force, sending the explosive bomb flying toward the assassin.
Its speed was incomparably faster than when it had first flown at her.
Kwaaaaaang!
"Kuwaaaaak!"
A direct hit.
The impact of the explosive bomb must have been immense, for even the assassins of the Blood Rain Lotus, who generally made no sound, could not endure it and screamed in agony.
Jin So-eun hurled herself forward again and shouted.
"How do you like the taste?!"
It was not perfect, but it seemed she had found yet another solution.
If she sent the enemies' explosive bombs flying back at them at the right moments, would that not allow her to reduce their numbers even faster?
Having recalled a solution and regained a slight margin of composure, a thought suddenly crossed Jin So-eun's mind about the voice that had warned her of the explosive bombs earlier.
'Now that I think about it, that voice earlier was definitely....'
It was then.
As she ran forward, the ground suddenly erupted before her.
Hwaaaaak!
"!"
Jin So-eun was horrified and had no choice but to stop in her tracks.
Because what surged up from the earth was a gigantic steel net.
As the steel net that had burst forth ahead unfurled completely, it came crashing down upon her, blackening the sky above.
Moreover, Jin So-eun's eyes could spot black spheres attached throughout the links of the steel net.
Explosive bombs.
They had even attached explosive bombs to the net.
If she hooked it with her staff and swung it like before, she would have no choice but to endure all those explosions right before her eyes.
At that moment, the surrounding assassins began showering throwing weapons.
Swaeaeaeaek! Hwiririririk!
Throwing weapons flying in from all directions, and a steel net covering the front and the sky above.
This time, there was truly no place to evade in sight.
It was the end.