Chapter 121
Chapter 121
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 121
Chapter Title: The Scoundrel of Namgung
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‘At this rate, we'll be annihilated.’
As Gwak Cheon, trembling and covered in a cold sweat, surveyed the battlefield,
*Whoosh!*
an assassin, a dwarf who had suddenly emerged from the Pae-do-mun ranks, was bringing a handaxe down on his spine.
“Kuh!”
Gwak Cheon snapped to his senses and swiftly blocked the handaxe.
*Clang!*
Sparks flew in the air, and Gwak Cheon's eyes widened as he parried the attack.
Not only was the force behind the handaxe beyond imagination, but a stream of internal energy had also rocked his meridians.
"Wae-sal… the Master of Eum-sa-gok."
Gwak Cheon recognized the assassin with the handaxe at a glance as Wae-sal, the master of Eum-sa-gok.
"Heheheh, you're pathetic!"
Wae-sal, casually twirling his handaxe, let out a sinister laugh.
"Now, die!"
*Swish!*
In the blink of an eye, Wae-sal closed the distance and swung his handaxe, aiming to split Gwak Cheon's skull.
*Clang, clang, clang, clang!*
Gwak Cheon raised his sword and repeatedly blocked the attacks, but he couldn't handle the sheer power behind the handaxe and was forced to retreat, stumbling backward.
‘For an assassin to have such advanced martial arts...’
Despair flickered in Gwak Cheon's eyes.
Assassins, who specialized in surprise attacks, were typically weak in direct confrontations. However, Wae-sal was not only a master of assassination techniques but also possessed martial skills so formidable they were impossible to withstand.
*Slash!*
Spotting an opening, Wae-sal's handaxe sliced across Gwak Cheon's shoulder.
A searing pain erupted from his shoulder as blood spurted out.
"Not a chance!"
Snapping back to his senses, Gwak Cheon gritted his teeth and unleashed his swordsmanship.
If even he fell to Wae-sal, the tide of battle would turn irreversibly against them.
"Aaargh!"
All the while, the Jin-cheon-mun disciples around them were collapsing one by one.
Gwak Cheon quickly scanned his surroundings and clenched his jaw. They had already lost more than half of Jin-cheon-mun's front courtyard.
Moreover, the Ji-geom-dae were forming a final line of defense, protecting the sect master, Wang In-hwa, who was in seclusion due to his injuries.
‘We can't hold out any longer.’
With their formation already broken, the best option was to fall back and join the Ji-geom-dan in the rear to mount a resistance.
“Retreat!”
At Gwak Cheon's cry, the Jin-cheon-mun disciples began to pull back as if they had been waiting for the order.
Fear was etched on the faces of the blood-soaked disciples as they retreated.
"It's over."
Watching from a distance, the master of Pae-do-mun, Gwan Dok-gun, wore a sinister smile.
The Cheon-geom-dan, Jin-cheon-mun's greatest strength, was retreating.
A few of Jin-cheon-mun's more skilled masters stepped forward to cover the retreat, but the battle was already lost.
"It's been a long fight."
Gwan Dok-gun muttered to himself, almost sighing.
It had been over a decade since they began their standoff with Jin-cheon-mun for control of Sangyang.
Ordinarily, Pae-do-mun would never have been able to defeat Jin-cheon-mun, which had been rooted in Sangyang for generations.
‘Heaven must be on our side.’
Gwan Dok-gun glanced at the masked man standing beside him.
He knew neither his identity nor his name.
The man had appeared before him out of nowhere a few months ago, offering to help him win the power struggle against Jin-cheon-mun.
At first, Gwan Dok-gun had scoffed.
But when the masked man presented him with a bank note for a million nyang and told him to hire all of Eum-sa-gok's assassins, he quickly changed his tune.
—*What do you want from me?*
There was no such thing as a free lunch in this world.
Knowing this all too well, the sight of the million-nyang note only made Gwan Dok-gun more wary.
But the masked man had only said one short phrase.
—*Are you in or not?*
Gwan Dok-gun tilted his head and asked.
—*Do you have a grudge against Jin-cheon-mun?*
Instead of answering, the masked man said something completely different.
—*I hear the Jin-cheon-mun master, Wang In-hwa, is in seclusion because an old internal injury has resurfaced. Now would be the perfect time to strike.*
Gwan Dok-gun couldn't understand it at all.
*Who was this masked man? Why did he want Jin-cheon-mun to fall? Where did all that money come from...?*
As countless questions chased each other through his mind, Gwan Dok-gun could only stand there, dazed.
—*If you don't want to, then forget it.*
As the masked man reached for the bank note, Gwan Dok-gun came to his senses.
One must seize an opportunity when it presents itself. That was his life's philosophy.
—*Are you sure there's nothing else you want?*
—*Nothing.*
At that answer, Gwan Dok-gun picked up the bank note without hesitation.
And with the support of Eum-sa-gok, he had launched a full-scale invasion of Jin-cheon-mun.
"Now, all that's left is to deal with those rats."
Gwan Dok-gun smiled warmly and looked at the masked man.
"Thanks to you, my benefactor, my lifelong wish is coming true."
And just as he was about to make some more friendly conversation,
—*Aaargh!*
Suddenly, a series of desperate screams echoed from the rear of the Pae-do-mun formation.
"What's going on?"
At Gwan Dok-gun's question, a subordinate beside him answered urgently.
"The In-geom-dan has returned!"
"What?"
Gwan Dok-gun hurriedly looked toward the rear.
There, warriors in Jin-cheon-mun attire and ronin were attacking the Pae-do-mun disciples.
It was the In-geom-dan and the ronin band, led by Mun Gwang.
"How did they get here?"
Gwan Dok-gun blinked, his face a mask of disbelief.
He had seen with his own two eyes the powerful formation and traps that the Eum-sa-gok assassins had set up at Ung-ga Mountain Manor to deal with the In-geom-dan.
And those formations and traps were of a level that the In-geom-dan or the ronin could never have broken through on their own.
Yet here they were, back and unharmed?
"Don't let a single one escape!"
Under Mun Gwang's command, the In-geom-dan and the ronin band began to cut down the Pae-do-mun disciples.
Having achieved a great victory against the assassins at Ung-ga Mountain Manor, the morale of the In-geom-dan and the ronin was at its peak.
Moreover, the Pae-do-mun disciples had just let their guard down, thinking they had broken through Jin-cheon-mun's defenses.
Thus, caught off guard by the sudden attack on their rear, they were thrown into disarray.
"Commander Mun!"
Gwak Cheon, spotting Mun Gwang directing the battle from the rear, shouted to his men.
"Aid the In-geom-dan!"
—*Waaaaah!*
With a great roar, the fierce battle resumed in an instant.
"Those bastards!"
Watching the scene unfold, Gwan Dok-gun let out a furious roar.
If they had pushed just a little harder, they could have taken the Jin-cheon-mun master's head and forced them into complete submission.
But with the completely unexpected arrival of the In-geom-dan and the ronin, the tide of battle had once again become unpredictable.
"Clear an escape route!"
As the Pae-do-mun's lines were pushed back, the assassins began to fight desperately.
To save their own skins, they were even sacrificing their allies from Pae-do-mun without a second thought.
"These human butchers?"
The ronin fighting at the forefront of their band cursed when they saw the assassins using the bodies of the dead as shields.
"If you have any humanity, leave the dead alone!"
But the Eum-sa-gok assassins paid him no mind, continuing to use the corpses.
"They're stronger than the assassins at Ung-ga Mountain Manor."
At Heuk-pyo's words, who was circling the battlefield and throwing hidden weapons, Namgung Un's eyes flashed.
"So these guys are their main force!"
*Shhhk!*
Meanwhile, the Eum-sa-gok assassins changed their tactics.
They began killing not only the Jin-cheon-mun disciples but also the Pae-do-mun members to create an escape route.
"Both of you, step back."
Watching this, Bu Eun-seol stepped forward and threw a punch.
*Gooooooh.*
With a sound like the air being sucked into a single point, the assassins who had been rampaging across the battlefield were sent flying, reduced to bloody pulps.
"What in the world is that fist technique?"
The assassins hiding among the Pae-do-mun disciples backed away, their faces filled with terror.
The range of the fist's power unleashed by Bu Eun-seol was so vast that they couldn't escape it no matter how hard they tried.
"That bastard!"
As Bu Eun-seol slaughtered the assassins, Wae-sal, the master of Eum-sa-gok, reappeared, launching himself off a Pae-do-mun disciple's shoulder.
"I'll have to kill you first to open a path."
When Wae-sal appeared, Bu Eun-seol spoke to Namgung Un, who was behind him.
"You face him."
"Me?"
Bu Eun-seol nodded with an utterly serious expression.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
A direct, daylight confrontation with an assassin skilled not only in stealth but also in high-level martial arts.
Even a master who had roamed the martial world for decades would find such an experience rare. If he could survive this fight, he would gain an immeasurable benefit.
‘I see.’
Namgung Un understood.
This battle with Wae-sal. It was a gift from Bu Eun-seol.
"Alright!"
Namgung Un rushed forward and, without hesitation, unleashed the Azure Sky Flying Swallow Sword against Wae-sal.
As the lightning-fast sword forms enveloped the world around them, Wae-sal's eyes widened.
"The Namgung Clan?"
Realizing the young man before him was from the Namgung Clan, Wae-sal's expression relaxed into a confident smile.
"Heheheh. A young master from a noble clan, are you?"
Parrying Namgung Un's sword forms one by one with his handaxe, he wore a self-assured smile.
"You should know that martial arts and murder are two different things."
It was no exaggeration to say that those from prestigious clans had been revered their entire lives.
Such an environment only fueled their youthful vigor, making them all look down on the martial world and maintain an arrogant disposition.
"I'll take your head quickly."
Wae-sal was confident.
No matter how skilled Namgung Un was, he couldn't possibly defeat someone as battle-hardened as himself.
"...?"
But after a dozen or so exchanges, Wae-sal's expression slowly filled with bewilderment.
The reason less skilled assassins could gain the upper hand against orthodox masters was simple.
They used the petty and dirty tricks that their opponents would never stoop to.
But Namgung Un was the complete opposite.
To dodge a hidden weapon, he would stick his butt in the air and fly backward; to avoid a killing blow, he would roll on the ground like a madman.
When cornered, he would even grab a handful of dirt from the ground and throw it, and in close quarters, wouldn't he also spit?
Wae-sal's jaw dropped in disbelief.
‘This guy... is from the Namgung Clan?’
The Namgung Clan, known as the renowned house of the sword, was famous for its strict internal code of conduct.
Yet here was a direct descendant, brazenly using tricks that would make even assassins shake their heads in disbelief?
‘But his swordsmanship is the real deal.’
The sword art unfolding before him was unmistakably the Azure Sky Flying Swallow Sword, a technique only direct descendants of the Namgung Clan could learn.
Just as Wae-sal, losing his focus, barely dodged the Azure Sky Flying Swallow Sword,
*Ptooey!*
Namgung Un, who had closed in quickly, suddenly spat a glob of phlegm.
And by a stroke of extremely bad luck, a part of that byproduct landed on Wae-sal's cheek.
"..."
Wae-sal wiped the phlegm off with his sleeve, a vein popping on his forehead.
"The Namgung Clan is doomed! To produce a scoundrel like you!"
It was an insult that would have made any other descendant of a noble clan see red, but Namgung Un didn't get angry. Instead, he laughed heartily.
"You're pretty stupid for an assassin. Only figuring out who I am now."
At that, something clicked for Wae-sal, and his eyes flashed.
"Are you Namgung Un, the scoundrel of the Namgung Clan?"
Deflecting Wae-sal's attack, Namgung Un smiled leisurely.
"Now that you know, you can offer up your neck!"