Chapter 167
Chapter 167
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 167
Chapter Title: Shadows of the Rats
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Hyeok Mulin's sudden appearance made Sangmyeong stare at him with wide eyes.
At the same moment, a deathly silence fell over the entire inn.
In that tense atmosphere, Hyeok Mulin, who had extended a cup toward the front, finally spoke.
"Looks like you're not drinking."
He withdrew the cup and downed it alone before adding,
"Smart thinking. About time to start taking care of your health."
After emptying his cup and setting it down,
Drag!
People throughout the inn leaped to their feet, each gripping their weapons.
Just as they leaned forward, ready to charge at Hyeok Mulin—
Swish.
Sangmyeong raised a hand, halting their advance.
"Hold."
They froze at his icy command, then soon settled back into their seats.
No one uttered a word; they simply fixed their gazes on Hyeok Mulin.
Yet Hyeok Mulin, the sole focus of their burning stares, casually refilled his cup without a care.
Watching him, Sangmyeong slowly opened his mouth.
"What brings a guest of the main text down here?"
"The shadows of rats under the moonlight keep getting in my eyes."
Sangmyeong glared at Hyeok Mulin with cold eyes at the contemptuous reply.
Its meaning was crystal clear.
Thus, Sangmyeong posed a more direct question.
"Why is an outsider meddling in the main text's affairs? Did that bastard Sangseo promise you vast wealth and glory?"
Wealth and glory.
As if a minor sect like Mount Hua, not even a fraction of the Divine Cult's scale, could offer such things.
"My purpose here vanished, so I'm just reclaiming it."
He had come to meet the sect leader, only for the man to slip away like smoke. Nothing more, nothing less.
"Heh heh... Bad timing, it seems."
Sangmyeong mulled over Hyeok Mulin's words, then placed both hands on the table, propping his chin on them.
Gazing intently at Hyeok Mulin, he made a bold offer.
"In that case, why not join us? I'll arrange your meeting with the sect leader, just as you wanted."
"...!"
"...!"
Everyone, including Cheonggangpyo seated beside him, turned to Sangmyeong in shock.
But Sangmyeong ignored their stares, keeping his eyes on Hyeok Mulin. Soon, a low voice replied.
"Joining the Four Black Alliance..."
"You already know who we are, then."
Sangmyeong nodded and continued.
"No need to drag this out, then. If we wrap this up smoothly, I'll carve out a place for you in the Four Black Alliance. A position where no one dares belittle you."
"Interesting."
Hyeok Mulin smirked.
A position immune to disdain.
Even handing over the Four Black Alliance Lord's seat wouldn't satisfy him.
The alliance's Grand Overseer hadn't even listened to the Ten Demonic Apostles' pleas, yet this nobody presumed to offer a seat.
Still a century too early.
"Rejected."
And there was another reason.
What Hyeok Mulin sought wasn't the captured Volcanic Sword Immortal, but a meeting with Mount Hua's sect leader.
"Sigh. I see."
Sangmyeong let out a regretful sigh at the refusal.
"I opened a path for your future, yet you stubbornly refuse."
Sangmyeong lifted the cup before him and gulped down its contents.
Then he asked Hyeok Mulin,
"Did you come alone?"
"Alone."
"I see."
Creak.
Sangmyeong rose from his seat.
Cheonggangpyo followed suit behind him.
Turning his back, Sangmyeong walked toward the entrance with steady steps.
Along the way, he murmured in a chilling voice,
"Deal with him."
A man with bold resolve and sharp judgment—useful enough to turn to his side.
Sangmyeong had offered his best to sway him.
But he wouldn't budge.
What choice was there?
Regrettable, but he had to die.
Swish—
The people stood, eyes locked on Hyeok Mulin.
As they formed a encirclement and drew their weapons to charge—
Rumble—
A tyrannical killing intent erupted from Hyeok Mulin's entire body.
The inn filled with his aura, and people's eyes rolled back, whites showing. They convulsed with bizarre movements, foam bubbling at their mouths.
Gurk—
Gag—
Unable to speak, they collapsed one by one, faces twisted in agony.
Sangmyeong, halted by the overwhelming pressure enveloping him, turned back, trembling but otherwise intact.
'Such tyrannical killing intent...!'
His gaze swept the inn.
Nearly all had fainted from his intent alone.
Only one in ten elites remained standing.
Even they clung desperately to chairs or pillars, eyes bloodshot, barely holding on.
Sangmyeong ground his teeth and bellowed at them.
"What are you waiting for? Charge!"
At his command, they bit their tongues to snap out of the pain.
The next instant, they exploded their inner energy, kicked off the ground, and surged toward Hyeok Mulin.
Hyeok Mulin pressed his cup firmly against the table.
Crack.
The cup shattered under the pressure.
In the same motion, he flung the shards in all directions.
"Gah!"
The shards embedded into the brows, hearts, dantians, and throats of attackers from all sides.
Those charging at him crumpled before closing in.
Hyeok Mulin sat calmly amid the sprawled corpses and fainted bodies.
Sangmyeong glared at him and spoke.
"As rumored, you've got some skill."
Sangmyeong slowly drew his sword.
Raising it toward Hyeok Mulin, he declared,
"Draw your sword. I'll handle you myself."
At this level of skill, taking him alive was impossible.
With things as they were, he had to end it here.
"Sword?"
Hyeok Mulin glanced him up and down with half-lidded eyes, then said in a subdued voice,
"You look woefully inadequate to face my sword."
"...What?"
Wrinkle formed between Sangmyeong's brows.
A swordsman refusing to draw against him.
Only two possibilities: supreme confidence, or utter contempt.
Whichever it was, neither sat well with Sangmyeong.
"You're misjudging your own level."
Time to show him the truth.
Gripping his sword, Sangmyeong advanced slowly.
Upon entering range, he unveiled pale blue sword qi and unleashed the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Technique.
This foe's killing intent demanded no complacency.
From the start, Sangmyeong bloomed plum blossoms at his sword tip, unleashing myriad variations.
But—
"...!"
Sangmyeong's pupils dilated.
Why won't it connect?
Half the technique had passed, yet Hyeok Mulin evaded every strike with ease.
Not one attack landed.
Cheonggangpyo, watching from afar, hardened his expression.
'This isn't good.'
He began edging backward.
The fight wasn't over, but the failure of even one strike from the technique filled him with dread.
He turned and fled through the entrance.
"...".
Hyeok Mulin glanced at the fleeing man, then refocused ahead.
Sangmyeong, facing him, wore an expression of utter disbelief.
A lifetime's swordsmanship from Mount Hua.
He might not win, but never had it failed to even graze. The shock was immense.
His final form passed without a single hit.
But despair lasted only a moment.
The battle wasn't over; he steeled himself again.
With the technique blocked, his options dwindled sharply.
'This is all I have.'
Sangmyeong decided.
His supreme ultimate technique: Severing Flower Scorching Heaven Sword.
Grip.
Blue sword light flared at Sangmyeong's hand.
As it slashed obliquely through the air, overwhelming sword qi erupted like a volcano.
Splitting the inn's ceiling, it veered toward Hyeok Mulin.
But Hyeok Mulin merely regarded Sangmyeong with cold eyes.
'Pathetic.'
A traitor to Mount Hua clinging to its sword arts in his hour of peril.
What a contradictory sight.
A desperate move, but Hyeok Mulin's response remained the same.
"Still no need for my sword."
Boom!
Hyeok Mulin's palm met the technique head-on.
From his hand shot Breaking Bow Thunder Strike Palm.
Like thunder, it shattered Sangmyeong's sword and struck his chest.
Cough!
Sangmyeong spat blood and looked down.
A gaping hole pierced where his heart should be.
Staring blankly, he slowly raised his head.
Meeting Hyeok Mulin's eyes with blood-filled ones, his lips moved.
But before words formed, he collapsed wordlessly.
Only the pool of blood from his body cradled him.
"...".
Hyeok Mulin glanced down, then turned away.
Passing through the devastated inn, he stepped outside.
In the stormy night with pouring rain and vanished moonlight,
the streets lay empty. Activating Divine Demon Eyes, Hyeok Mulin spotted a blue glow on the ground.
Sangseo's powder trail, left while pursuing the fleeing Cheonggangpyo.
"Westward."
Confirming the direction, Hyeok Mulin strode forward.
Splash, splash.
Torrential rain poured amid rumbling thunder.
In such weather, Cheonggangpyo raced down the pitch-black road, barely visible.
A few people on the street spotted him and called out curiously.
"Branch leader?"
"Are you alright?"
"What's going on this late at night...?"
"It's dangerous; get inside."
Normally, he'd respond kindly to each, but not now.
Ignoring them completely, Cheonggangpyo fled.
His face ashen, he escaped the village.
'Where the hell did that monster come from?'
His prepared warriors crushed effortlessly, even toying with a Mount Hua elder.
Cheonggangpyo had only watched briefly, but knew Sangmyeong had no chance.
So he ran.
Only he and Sangmyeong knew the sect leader's location; he had to escape.
"Everything was going perfectly...!"
They'd spirited away the sect leader undetected.
Just needed to relocate him leisurely, but now some bastard ruined it all.
The world felt cruel anew as he scowled up Mount Hua.
But his path veered not toward the sect, but a sheer, pathless slope.
Navigating the treacherous incline and base, he halted at a spot.
Glancing around, he headed to a small cave entrance nearby.
Flicker.
Entering without hesitation, he lit a hidden candle at the mouth.
With light, he traversed the narrow, damp passage.
At its end: an iron-barred space holding an unconscious old man chained and slumped.
His identity was obvious.
Mount Hua Sect's leader.
The Volcanic Sword Immortal, Baek Hyeon-gyeong.
The center of all chaos in Huayeon County lay before him.
Gulp.
He'd seen him during the kidnapping, but with Sangmyeong then.
Hadn't visited since, so facing him alone was a first.
True to his ancient master reputation, his mere presence exuded intimidation.
"...Should be fine."
But poisoned and powerless now, Cheonggangpyo pushed aside fear to move him.
As he reached for the lock—
Step. Step.
Footsteps and presence echoed from behind. His hand froze.
Turning slowly, two figures entered his view.
The last two he wanted to see now.
Hyeok Mulin and Sangseo.
"Thanks for the guidance."
Hyeok Mulin praised Cheonggangpyo's efforts in leading them straight to the sect leader's hideout.
The last flicker of hope drained from Cheonggangpyo's pallid face.