Chapter 91
Chapter 91
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 91
Chapter Title: Only the Leader Remains
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Thud. Thud.
Stepping forward, Yi Bi-ja crossed the flowing silence and headed toward Mok Yang-il.
"Y-You... great hero!"
He arrived beside Mok Yang-il, who had collapsed to the ground, gazing up at him with moved eyes as if beholding a golden lifeline descending from the heavens, and opened his mouth.
"What did I tell you? That I'd help if you faced a crisis."
Mok Yang-il couldn't believe those words, nor had he ever imagined Yi Bi-ja would appear here of all places.
It was only natural.
Yi Bi-ja was extremely individualistic, and no one had ever seen him intervene in someone else's fight.
So he'd assumed it was just a formal promise, nothing more.
"I thought I was seeing things!"
The man before his eyes was truly Yi Bi-ja.
At the same moment he spotted Yi Bi-ja, a long crease formed on Amseokdae's forehead.
"You..."
Frowning at the arrival of this troublesome figure, he continued.
"I heard your subordinates were chasing you, but I never thought you'd be hiding nearby. My oversight."
At those words, Mok Yang-il's pupils dilated.
Come to think of it, Yi Bi-ja had clashed with the Dominion Overlord Society for some unknown reason.
It suddenly occurred to him that his appearance here might not be mere coincidence.
But Yi Bi-ja looked at him without any particular emotion and said,
"Enough talk. Come at me."
"You're butting in?"
"I made a promise before."
Yi Bi-ja and Amseokdae's gazes clashed sharply in midair.
As the atmosphere teetered on the brink of battle, Mok Yang-il tried to stand.
"I'll help too... urk!"
But he couldn't rise, clutching his side and letting out a pained groan.
The wound carved into his ribs was quite deep, blood soaking through his palm.
Yi Bi-ja glanced down at him and said,
"Just watch from there."
"You saved me from peril—how could I just stand by and..."
"In that state, you'd be a hindrance, not help."
Stung by the sharp words, Mok Yang-il sighed and slumped back down.
"Understood. Go on ahead."
Yi Bi-ja moved away from him, circling to the side.
Throughout, his eyes remained fixed on Amseokdae.
And his opponent waited no longer.
Whoosh!
Amseokdae charged forward rapidly, closing in on him.
Yi Bi-ja retreated, firing arrows in rapid succession.
He dodged, dodged again, and failed to dodge.
An arrow lodged in Amseokdae's thigh. He gritted his teeth and pressed on, but the exquisitely placed wound clearly slowed him down.
Even at full power, he hadn't been confident in catching Yi Bi-ja; now, with his mobility crippled, he was like prey trapped in a cage.
Yi Bi-ja circled him relentlessly, hunting him like a wild boar.
One to the forearm, one to the hip, one to the collarbone.
He somehow defended his vital points, but he couldn't stop arrows from riddling his body.
Defeat loomed thick, no escape in sight.
As a deep shadow fell under Amseokdae's eyes, a tongue-click came from behind.
"...Tch."
Yeorae, revealing his irritation, spoke in a voice laced with disdain.
"Incompetent fool. If your task burdens you, say the word anytime. This monk will empty those worries clean away."
At the blatant threat, Amseokdae's back shuddered.
Pressed by both foe and ally, he had only one option left.
A thick green haze rose from Amseokdae's entire body.
Witnessing the use of innate true energy, Yi Bi-ja said with a hardened face,
"Gambling your life in a single fight—you must be mad."
"Better than dying right now, no?"
"Burning that much energy will kill you soon anyway. What's the point?"
"..."
Amseokdae gave no reply.
Instead, he charged forward.
Infusing his movement technique with true energy, he surged ahead at a speed incomparable to before.
Watching this, Yeorae gave a faint nod and turned his gaze elsewhere.
But his eyebrows suddenly furrowed sharply like mountain ridges.
"That side's more urgent now."
Sagallyeon was being utterly overwhelmed by Hyeok Mulin.
Sagallyeon with her longsword, Hyeok Mulin with his shortsword.
The difference in weapon length was stark, yet she found no opening against him.
Sagallyeon unleashed the Kun Dao Sect's unique absolute art, Crimson Luan Fifteen Forms, trying to flit through the air like a butterfly.
But every time Hyeok Mulin swung his shortsword in a light arc, her path was blocked.
"Damn it!"
Her opponent wasn't even using any special technique—just swinging his shortsword—yet her secret move was effortlessly countered.
It felt like facing an impenetrable shield.
She was the attacker, yet an oppressive pressure made it hard to even breathe.
As she scrambled for a way out, a voice came from behind.
"Lady Sa. This monk will assist you."
With Yeorae approaching her, she finally caught her breath.
Relieved at the thought of a two-on-one pincer attack, Sagallyeon exhaled.
Glancing briefly at Yeorae behind her, she caught his eye signal in that split second.
Nodding, she thrust her sword long and deep.
The Crimson Luan Heart-Drawing Blade aimed straight for Hyeok Mulin's heart.
But.
"...!"
It never even connected from the start.
Hyeok Mulin had already closed in, blocking the blade tip with his scabbard.
Stunned by this unprecedented situation, she twisted her lips in a sneer.
With his attention on her now, Yeorae wouldn't miss that opening...
Whoosh!
In an instant, Hyeok Mulin leaped backward.
"...?"
Puzzled by the move, Sagallyeon felt a foreign sensation and looked down.
A hand had pierced through her chest from behind, right at the center.
Yeorae had ambushed from her blind spot, but failed.
At the sight, Sagallyeon slowly turned her head with blank eyes.
'Why...?'
Her gaze held both question and resentment, but Yeorae offered no answer.
"Failed, huh."
He merely muttered to himself.
Pulling his hand out with a squelch, Yeorae showed no emotion.
A precept-breaking monk who treated human lives cheaper than ants.
This was truly the face of a mad monk, a sinner, and a public enemy of the martial world.
With her last breath gone, Sagallyeon crumpled to the ground, a cold corpse.
Blood still poured thickly from her chest.
Hyeok Mulin glanced down at her, then turned his eyes to Yeorae.
"In the end, this monk must face you."
Yeorae stepped before Hyeok Mulin.
His exposed upper body revealed massive muscles.
His forearms were as thick as an average woman's torso, his neck as broad as his face—truly the build of a powerhouse.
Without a word, he launched into combat.
Boom boom boom boom!
Yeorae's palms exploded toward him.
He didn't entertain the notion of defeat even in his dreams.
From watching him fight Sagallyeon, he seemed skilled with blades, but that was it.
As one who specialized in external arts, he was confident he was the strongest here—save for their leader—without internal energy.
But.
'What the hell is this?'
As exchanges dragged on, Yeorae's eyes wavered.
His naturally stoic face hid it from most, but his expression was rapidly hardening.
'How does he keep slipping away!'
A mere touch, even a graze, should snap his waist in half—yet he evaded like an eel every time.
Frustrated beyond endurance, Yeorae unleashed Mountain-Breaking Palm.
A destructive technique that could shatter even a massive mountain if it touched his palm.
Yet it meshed strangely with Hyeok Mulin's hand.
The entangled hands flowed in midair, and the palm strike fizzled into nothing.
"You bastard, how...!"
Roaring in fury, Yeorae suddenly sensed a primal danger.
This feeling—he'd experienced it once in his life.
Right before ambushing and killing the Shaolin Abbot, when their eyes met.
And now, the same sensation from this kid?
Impossible. Shaking his head, Yeorae denied it.
'No choice. Have to use it.'
Still, he had to admit the opponent was formidable.
Thus, the technique he'd prepared to use on the Shaolin Abbot but never got the chance for after being spotted.
He resolved to deploy Nine Kills Blood-Waste Meridian-Breaking Palm.
A palm art that simultaneously struck the nine most lethal acupoints, utterly destroying the nine vital meridians.
Revealing his hidden ultimate, Yeorae's lip curled.
Though he'd broken precepts in bloodlust and been excommunicated, his pride in Shaolin remained.
External arts and honed palm techniques were invincible—that belief had let him kill countless with these hands.
But right then.
"...What?"
His convictions shattered.
Hyeok Mulin had only performed two shortsword motions.
A downward slash and a lateral deflection.
Yet the result was shocking.
Nine Kills Blood-Waste Meridian-Breaking Palm dissipated. Yeorae's extended palm thudded to the ground.
Frozen in his casting stance, Yeorae stared at his severed hand.
'Ah.'
Was I... wrong all along?
Then what was all that for, with Shaolin...
His thoughts ended there.
His bisected torso followed his hand to the ground.
Looking down at the dead Yeorae, Hyeok Mulin turned to his dulled shortsword.
"Impressive physique."
Slicing those muscles had been harder than cutting tempered steel.
Without his usual external training, the blade wouldn't have pierced.
Discarding the chipped shortsword, Hyeok Mulin glanced sideways.
The battle there seemed to be reaching its end too.
"Sp-Spare me!"
Amseokdae had burned most of his innate true energy, but it still fell short against Yi Bi-ja.
The skill gap was too vast to bridge with mere internal energy.
Discarding his sword at last, Amseokdae begged pathetically as death loomed.
"Spare me, and I'll become your subordinate, obey your every command..."
But Yi Bi-ja didn't even let him finish, simply shooting an arrow to end him.
Amseokdae's body tilted backward, arrow in his throat.
Hyeok Mulin approached and said,
"You could've at least heard his last words."
"No interest in the sweet talk of a traitor who's betrayed once already."
Finishing the fight, Yi Bi-ja silently retrieved his arrows from the corpse.
Mok Yang-il approached, expressing his gratitude.
"I never dreamed you'd help—thank you!"
Yi Bi-ja brushed it off indifferently, as if it were nothing.
Hyeok Mulin watched him briefly before asking,
"What brings you here?"
Too many coincidences to call it chance.
He'd been hunted by the Dominion Overlord Society before, even helped them when they clashed.
"..."
After a moment's silence, Yi Bi-ja spoke.
"I came to assassinate their leader."
"The leader...!"
"But I failed, and now they're hunting me."
Mok Yang-il's eyes widened; this was news to him too.
A brief silence fell, then he spoke again.
"You're here to kill the leader too, right?"
They hadn't planned that far at first.
Just to ask about Gwang's whereabouts, but they'd already clashed with the Dominion Overlord Society four times by accident.
Coexisting with them here was near impossible.
So as he said, Hyeok Mulin intended to settle things cleanly.
After asking about Gwang first, of course.
"Something like that."
"How about a temporary alliance?"
He extended his hand in proposal. Mok Yang-il looked to Hyeok Mulin.
Hyeok Mulin nodded and clasped it.
"Agreed."
"Good."
With the pact sealed, Yi Bi-ja smiled for the first time.
Slowly turning his head, he said,
"Anyway, only one remains now."
The south.
Idly positioned at its base.
"Just the leader."