Chapter 255
Chapter 255
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 255
Chapter Title: A Rival's Resolve
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“Lord, what is that?”
As the two men asked, their eyes wide,
“It's nothing.”
Bu Eun-seol waved his hand with a grave expression.
“You may go.”
Seeing Bu Eun-seol's solemn expression, Won Se-mun and Jo Nam-cheon sensed that something major had happened.
But Bu Eun-seol's gaze was so severe and sharp that they didn't ask any further.
“Then, we'll take our leave.”
After the two men left, Bu Eun-seol, with a heavy expression, took out the envelope again.
He focused the senses of the Beastly Way to their peak and placed his fingers on the surface of the envelope.
He could then feel the shapes of faintly engraved characters.
‘He poured out his sharp internal energy like thread to engrave it on the envelope.’
The sender of this envelope knew that Bu Eun-seol had reached the pinnacle of the Beastly Way and had delivered the letter secretly in this manner.
—Bu Eun-seol. I want to fight you one last time.
“Seok U-haeng…”
Surprisingly, the envelope was from Seok U-haeng. And an even more astonishing message followed.
—Now that I've killed Yong Jeok-bi, the Twelve Zodiacs will be annihilated by the Geuk-sal-mil-gak anyway.
‘Seok U-haeng… was the grand leader of the Twelve Zodiacs.’
It was astounding.
No matter how great Seok U-haeng's abilities were, the Twelve Zodiacs were a collective of underworld sects passed down through generations.
How could he have seized control and become their leader in such a short time?
‘So that's why Yong Jeok-bi died.’
Yong Jeok-bi, whose mission as the successor was to annihilate the Twelve Zodiacs.
He must have immediately sought out the grand leader, the head of the Twelve Zodiacs.
After all, if you cut off the head, the rest of the body is easy to handle.
But he could never have predicted that the grand leader was Seok U-haeng, who had mastered the ultimate assassination arts of the Geuk-sal-mil-gak.
In the end, his head was taken by Seok U-haeng, who saw through all of the Geuk-sal-mil-gak's techniques.
*Click.*
Bu Eun-seol rose from his seat and looked up at the distant sky with a grave expression.
It wasn't just anyone; the successor himself had been murdered…
The Geuk-sal-mil-gak would surely dispatch their most elite masters to wipe out the Twelve Zodiacs immediately.
And if he didn't leave now, Bu Eun-seol would never meet Seok U-haeng again in this lifetime.
“Seok U-haeng…”
From Bu Eun-seol's perspective, there was no need to take such a risk and accept Seok U-haeng's challenge.
But he had sent the hidden weapon of the Sa-hyang with the envelope.
That meant he knew Bu Eun-seol was trying to catch the tail of the Sa-hyang.
“Are you saying you're connected to them?”
Lost in deep thought, Bu Eun-seol slowly turned. He then picked up the Muk-geom, which was set aside.
*Clack.*
After strapping the Muk-geom to his back, Bu Eun-seol took a deep breath.
In the end, he was going to accept the duel proposed by Seok U-haeng.
* * *
The Twelve Zodiacs.
They were a group of fixers who handled all sorts of dirty work, primarily for the financial and business worlds.
Because of this, they often clashed with the demonic sects, and the Demonic Alliance had long considered the Twelve Zodiacs a thorn in their side.
However, due to their nature as a cell-based organization without a clear leader or structure, they couldn't be easily eradicated.
But Seok U-haeng, in order to develop the Twelve Zodiacs, had created a structure and developed it like any other faction.
As a result, the location of their main base was exposed, leading to Yong Jeok-bi's pursuit…
In the end, developing the Twelve Zodiacs had become an act of tightening the noose around their own necks.
“A brilliant idea.”
Bu Eun-seol was standing in a massive waterway located in Gangnam.
Seok U-haeng had been hiding in this gloomy, dark underground waterway, directing the Twelve Zodiacs from here.
“A place like this could hold out for quite a while, even against an army of tens of thousands.”
This deep underground waterway was so dark and damp that even beggars wouldn't come here, and its interior was a complex maze.
Even if the Geuk-sal-mil-gak's grand army were to attack, they could hold out for a considerable time by setting traps and using hit-and-run tactics.
*Step, step.*
As he ventured deep into the maze-like waterway that branched in all directions, a wide, open space finally came into view.
And there, a shadow that had become one with the darkness stood tall.
He wore tight-fitting black clothes on a lean, muscular frame.
From a distance, he looked like an evil spirit merged with the darkness.
It was Seok U-haeng.
“Your aura has changed beyond recognition.”
Bu Eun-seol voiced his first impression.
At the Jang-geom Mountain Manor, Seok U-haeng had the typical appearance of a young assassin, brimming with spirit and confidence.
But now, he exuded the air of a battle-hardened veteran who had weathered all the storms of the world.
*Thud, thud.*
Seok U-haeng slowly walked out from the darkness.
Then, with a series of soft *flicker* sounds, the surroundings became as bright as day.
A mechanism had been installed, embedding expensive night-luminescent pearls densely across the ceiling and walls.
“You've come.”
Seok U-haeng's appearance, now revealed, had changed bizarrely.
His eyes were sunken and gloomy. And the skin on his face was covered in a scaly, keratinous layer, like that of a reptile.
The once proud and handsome assassin was gone, replaced by a monster from another world.
“Hm.”
Bu Eun-seol, who had been staring intently at Seok U-haeng's face, nodded.
“You've obtained the legacy of the Cheon-sa-gyo.”
The bizarre symptoms on Seok U-haeng's face.
They were a phenomenon that appeared when one mastered the evil art of the Cheon-sa-gyo, the Cheon-sa-yu-ma-gong, to its extreme.
“It was with the Twelve Zodiacs.”
Seok U-haeng said calmly.
“The martial art I searched so desperately for.”
He hadn't obtained the Cheon-sa-gyo's martial arts by chance.
He had wandered in search of a secret art that could maximize his assassination techniques and discovered that it was kept by the Twelve Zodiacs.
And he had settled here to claim it.
“I heard that if you learn it, you can no longer embrace a woman.”
Assassins enjoy embracing women as much as they do holding a wine cup.
The same would be true for Seok U-haeng, an assassin to the bone.
The Cheon-sa-yu-ma-gong was the pinnacle of heinous evil arts, containing the essence of sorcery that could turn the body into a weapon.
However, the moment one learned it, they would become sexually impotent, as if they had mastered a vicious poison art.
“Women?”
But Seok U-haeng instead let out a sneer.
“How can something like embracing a woman compare to a blood-boiling match with a worthy rival?”
Judging by his answer, it seemed Seok U-haeng had unhesitatingly given up his masculinity to learn the Cheon-sa-yu-ma-gong for the sake of his battle with Bu Eun-seol.
“Where did you get the Sa-hyang's hidden weapon?”
Bu Eun-seol's voice was tight, as if a frustrating lump was stuck in his throat.
“How did you know I was pursuing the Sa-hyang?”
“Heh heh heh.”
Shaking his head, Seok U-haeng replied softly with a smile.
“I'll tell you if you defeat me.”
“Did you have to go this far?”
Bu Eun-seol's voice was laden with many emotions.
With Seok U-haeng's ability and talent, there was no need to become an enemy of the Geuk-sal-mil-gak.
He could have quietly left the martial world, or even established a small assassin's sect and become a local hegemon.
But he didn't.
He infiltrated the Twelve Zodiacs, learned a heinous evil art, and killed Yong Jeok-bi, becoming a fugitive with no place in the martial world.
All just to fight Bu Eun-seol.
He had made this choice to face a rival who was growing stronger by the day.
“Bu Eun-seol.”
As if he had seen through Bu Eun-seol's thoughts, Seok U-haeng spoke in a low voice.
“Until now, I had prided myself on never lacking in martial arts, talent... or anything else, compared to anyone.”
“...”
“But after meeting you, all that pride was shattered.”
Biting his lip, Seok U-haeng shook his head.
“Still, on Hell Island, there was a glimmer of hope. But when I saw you at the Jang-geom Mountain Manor, you had become a completely different person.”
His eyes seemed to burn hotter and hotter, and his voice grew more passionate.
“Since that day, my life's goal changed. To defeating you, and only you.”
It was a desperate desire for victory, a terrible pride.
But upon hearing those words, Bu Eun-seol's gaze turned cold and distant.
As if he were listening to a story that had nothing to do with him.
“Isn't that the life of a warrior?”
After a long silence, Bu Eun-seol spoke.
“Once you have a goal, you run toward it with everything you have.”
In truth, he too had lived a life not so different from Seok U-haeng's.
Ever since he decided to find and kill the culprit, he had lived solely to achieve that goal.
Nothing else mattered, and he cared for nothing else.
Just like Seok U-haeng now.
“Yong Jeok-bi. To have defeated him, your martial arts must have improved greatly.”
Normally, the conversation would have ended there for Bu Eun-seol.
But he spoke once more.
“Yong Jeok-bi lost because he knew me too well.”
Seok U-haeng smiled.
“The past me, that is.”
Yong Jeok-bi is the orthodox successor of the Geuk-sal-mil-gak.
He would have thoroughly investigated not only Seok U-haeng's level of martial arts, which could threaten his position, but also his disposition, wit, and everything else.
“He was even confident of victory knowing that I had obtained the martial arts of the Cheon-sa-gyo.”
Seok U-haeng said calmly.
“And for that, his name was added to the list of the dead.”
But there was one thing Yong Jeok-bi could not have predicted even in his dreams.
That after meeting Bu Eun-seol, Seok U-haeng had changed completely.
That he had sacrificed everything he had, just to become stronger.
“Why don't I see any of the Twelve Zodiacs' members?”
“Even if I gathered them, how could they stand against the Geuk-sal-mil-gak? The moment I killed Yong Jeok-bi, I immediately disbanded them.”
Seok U-haeng smiled bitterly and shook his head.
“Though they'll surely be hunted down no matter where they hide.”
As Bu Eun-seol nodded, Seok U-haeng smiled.
“We've talked too long.”
And he looked down at his own two hands.
It was as if the past days of training, where he had risked his life, were engraved there.
“The Geuk-sal-mil-gak's grand army will soon storm this place.”
And he looked straight at Bu Eun-seol and said.
“Shall we begin now?”
*Rumble.*
With a low mechanical sound, the night-luminescent pearls illuminating the waterway vanished.
As darkness once again consumed the area, Bu Eun-seol gripped the hilt of his Muk-geom.
At the same time, Seok U-haeng drew a short assassin's sword from his back.
*Shing.*
As the low ring of a sword echoed through the underground waterway, the two martial geniuses moved at the same time.
*Fwoosh!*
As a green light flashed, Bu Eun-seol felt a chill on the back of his neck.
It was an attack without a trace or a hint.
Why are the killing arts used by assassins called secret techniques?
Because most of those techniques are so covert that one cannot even perceive how they were executed.
From that perspective, Seok U-haeng's secret assassination techniques had reached the highest level.
They were so stealthy and swift that even Bu Eun-seol couldn't detect them.
*Fwaat!*
The green light flashed again, and the fabric on both of Bu Eun-seol's shoulders was torn.
*Whoosh!*
In that instant, Bu Eun-seol's figure blurred.
He was trying to catch up to Seok U-haeng, who was moving rapidly, using the darkened waterway as his cover.
*Flash!*
Finally spotting his trail, Bu Eun-seol unleashed his sword technique.
The move was not exquisite, but it was so fast that it left no room for thought.
*Thwack!*
Seok U-haeng, who had dodged Bu Eun-seol's swift sword with all his might, launched three consecutive strikes.
*Flick! Flick! Flick!*
The sword techniques he unleashed were soundless and silent, and his moves had no openings.
*CRACK!*
The moment their swords were about to clash, as if thunder and lightning struck simultaneously, Bu Eun-seol's sword form changed.
At the same time, a purple radiance shot toward the tip of Seok U-haeng's throat.
The ultimate swift killing sword, the Peerless Lightning Thunder Form, had been unleashed.
*Pssh.*
But with the sound of air escaping, Seok U-haeng was already moving out of the range of the Peerless Lightning Thunder Form.
Simultaneously, eight streams of sword energy rained down from above Bu Eun-seol's head.
Some sword forms were heavy, while others were fast and fierce.
‘He's improved tremendously.’
Bu Eun-seol couldn't help but be impressed.
All the powerful enemies he had faced so far had fought him based on the superiority of their martial techniques and experience.
But Seok U-haeng, the assassin, was instead overwhelming Bu Eun-seol using a refined and profound sword technique.
Going so far as to abandon his own strengths.
—Even among the Sip-ma-jeon-in, you have a worthy rival.
This is what Seok U-haeng had wanted to say.
Although his talent had blossomed later than Bu Eun-seol's, he too was a peerless genius of martial arts.
After witnessing Bu Eun-seol's incredible martial prowess at the Jang-geom Mountain Manor, he had developed his skills at a frightening pace.
To the point where he could fight Bu Eun-seol on equal footing with true swordsmanship, not just his secret assassination techniques.
*Clang!*
As the Muk-geom and the assassin's sword clashed, sparks flew in the darkness.
*Screech.*
But Seok U-haeng, unable to match him in internal energy, was instantly pushed back.
“Ptui.”
He spat out a mouthful of blood.
It was only a single clash, but the powerful Ban-geuk True Energy had already penetrated his meridians.
“Good.”
A faint green light began to flow from Seok U-haeng's body as he crouched low.
At the same time, an ominous energy emanating from his body seemed to fill the entire waterway.
“...!”
Sensing something, Bu Eun-seol instantly launched himself into the air and twisted his body.
*Swish!*
Then, with a delayed sound of something slicing through the air, the ground where Bu Eun-seol had been standing was sharply gouged.
It was as if another Seok U-haeng had appeared and attacked him from behind.
‘The Cheon-sa-yu-ma-gong…’
Swallowing his surprise, Bu Eun-seol narrowed his eyes.
‘He's combined that martial art with the assassination arts of the Geuk-sal-mil-gak.’