Chapter 59
Chapter 59
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: One Hour
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The assassins’ momentum showed no signs of letting up.
As if they knew no fear, they pressed Bu Eun-seol, trampling over the bodies of their fallen comrades.
‘This is not good.’
Bu Eun-seol bit his lip as he watched Wumun Hwang, who was at the forefront unleashing palm strikes.
The cause of death for the assassins struck by his palm force was gradually changing.
The bodies, which had previously shown no external wounds, now began to bear the marks of being struck by something blunt, of being utterly crushed.
Wumun Hwang had resorted to using ferocious palm strikes again, shattering the bones and sinews of his attackers.
‘He’s being pushed to his limit.’
Using a subtle palm force was far more difficult and required more delicate internal energy control than unleashing a fierce one.
Moreover, he had excessively widened the range of his palm techniques to protect So-ok. At this rate, even Wumun Hwang was headed for self-destruction.
‘More are coming.’
Bu Eun-seol, who had been gazing at the night sky, spoke to So-ok.
“Do not move a single step from this spot.”
The moment he finished speaking, his body blurred and shot into the air.
*Fwish, fwish, fwish!*
A flash of sword light glinted in the darkness, swiftly striking the vitals of the killers swooping down toward the ground.
It was a sword of slaughter, combining two martial arts: the Cheon-pae-do-geuk-se to break their stances and the practical sword techniques he had learned from Sa-u.
He couldn't merge the two arts just yet, but by using Je-un's Art of the Divided Mind, he could execute them simultaneously.
“Aaargh!”
As if their swords moving on their own weren't enough, a lethal blade now pierced them, and the assassins’ screams were endless.
*Shhhk!*
Having cut down all the attacking assassins in mid-air, Bu Eun-seol sheathed his longsword with a click.
*Drip. Drip.*
Then, crimson blood began to rain down upon Bu Eun-seol and So-ok’s heads.
“Take Ok… and get out of here first.”
Just then, Wumun Hwang, who had pushed back a wave of assassins with a series of palm strikes, spoke to Bu Eun-seol.
“I will hold them off alone. You must escape this place.”
“It’s useless.”
Bu Eun-seol shook his head.
“They’ve likely already deployed a large force and established a wide encirclement. It’s better to fight together here than to split our strength.”
“In about one hour, the experts from our headquarters will arrive.”
*Kwaang!*
Wumun Hwang said, once again blasting back the assassins with a fierce palm strike.
“We just need to hold out until then. So… I’m entrusting Ok to you.”
An expression of deep regret was etched on his face.
He hadn’t listened to Bu Eun-seol, overconfident in his own strength. As a result, he had plunged them into unavoidable danger.
*Tsssss.*
In that time, the massive estate had been completely filled with an inky blackness.
Assassins clad in black were pouring in like an endless swarm of insects.
“Understood.”
“No. I can’t leave my uncle here alone…”
Bu Eun-seol cut So-ok off sharply.
“He is being pushed to his limit because he has widened the range of his palm strikes to protect you, young lady.”
“For me…”
“That’s right. But if he is alone, he will be able to protect himself, no matter how many assassins there are.”
“Heheheh. You understand well.”
Wumun Hwang chuckled, then drew upon his internal energy and unleashed a powerful palm strike.
*Krrrr-rumble!*
With a sound like thunder, the front line of the charging assassins was instantly thrown into disarray.
“I will open a path! Go now!”
Bu Eun-seol nodded and quickly swept So-ok into his arms.
Seeing this, Wumun Hwang spoke with an earnest expression.
“Please… take care of Ok.”
*Whoooosh.*
Instead of answering, Bu Eun-seol focused his internal energy to its peak.
As he crouched to launch his movement technique, an unprecedentedly powerful wave of energy emanated from his body.
He was suppressing the mystical footwork inherent in Geuk-sok-mu-yeong, gathering his true energy to dash forward with extreme speed.
*Kra-kooooom!*
The sound of a thunderclap echoed in all directions.
Like a falling meteor drawing a white arc across the sky, Bu Eun-seol, holding So-ok, sliced through the night air like a beam of light.
“Get them!”
Spotting Bu Eun-seol’s shadow cutting across the night sky, the assassins began their pursuit.
‘One hour…’
As Bu Eun-seol ran, splitting the very wind, a blade-like glint shone in his eyes.
‘To hold out for one hour against such a large force… there’s only one place.’
Biting his lip, Bu Eun-seol doubled his energy output.
After escaping the Dang estate with a gale-like movement technique, Bu Eun-seol passed through the marketplace and entered a deserted alley.
*Thud.*
The place where Bu Eun-seol finally stopped.
It was none other than the Hoehyeon Old Bookstore.
“Welcome…”
Sang-ryang, who had been sitting leisurely at a table inside the bookstore, gaped at the sight of Bu Eun-seol and So-ok, both covered in blood.
“What in the world happened for you to be in such a state…”
Bu Eun-seol set So-ok down, pointed toward the back, and said.
“Guide her to the hidden room.”
“Her?”
Sang-ryang jumped back in shock upon seeing So-ok’s blood-soaked form.
“Uh, uhhh.”
Seeing Sang-ryang stagger back in alarm, Bu Eun-seol took So-ok’s hand himself and led her toward the bookshelf in the back where the hidden room was located.
*Koo-koong.*
He manipulated a book on the shelf, and the thick wall flipped over, revealing the secret chamber.
“Huh?”
Just then, Ma-un, who was coming out of the hidden room, spotted Bu Eun-seol and was about to speak.
“What brings you here at this hour… Ugh!”
He too saw So-ok’s face and recoiled as if he’d been punched in the gut, his mouth agape.
“There’s no time.”
Bu Eun-seol looked at Sang-ryang and Ma-un and said.
“You two, circle the bookstore and kill any assassins approaching this way.”
“Assassins?”
“Yes. Their numbers are so great that our defenses will be breached, but it will buy us some time.”
“What is going on? What in the world…”
“A large group of assassins has come to kill her, and they have surrounded the entire area.”
“What?”
As Sang-ryang shouted, Bu Eun-seol spoke.
“I was told reinforcements will arrive in one hour. Hold out until then. The two of you should be more than capable.”
From the moment he arrived in Yueyang, Bu Eun-seol had suspected that the two were considerable masters.
“Where did these assassins come from? What is their scale? How have they set up their encirclement?”
When Ma-un demanded detailed information, Bu Eun-seol replied.
“You don’t seem to grasp the situation. Didn’t I tell you your necks are on the line in this matter?”
Bu Eun-seol looked down at Sang-ryang and Ma-un and spoke forcefully.
“Since your necks are on the line, I’m telling you to risk your lives.”
The situation was now perfectly clear.
At Bu Eun-seol’s words, Sang-ryang’s eyes flashed.
“Let’s go, brother!”
As if his hidden heroic spirit had awakened, he pulled out the Judge’s Brush hidden in his robes and cried out gallantly.
“Just as he said, we must preserve our own necks, shouldn’t we? Hahahat!”
“Well, very well!”
Ma-un also retrieved two scythes with gleaming blue blades from the armory inside the secret chamber.
“It’s been a while since my Death Scythes have had a good drink of blood.”
“Oh, and young lady. My apologies for the late greeting.”
Just then, Sang-ryang bowed deeply to So-ok and said.
“My name is Sang-ryang, and I am in charge of the Yueyang branch. You may not know us, young lady, but we have known of you for a long time…”
“I remember. The two of you were known by the title, the Gong Clan Twin Demons.”
At So-ok’s words, Sang-ryang grinned broadly and clasped his hands.
“You remember us.”
Glancing furtively at Bu Eun-seol, Sang-ryang clasped his hands toward So-ok again and said.
“It may be presumptuous of me to say… but if this matter is handled well, we would be grateful if you would look upon us favorably.”
“What do you mean…”
“We made a bit of a mistake and were demoted from the Demonic Palace to this place… Hehe.”
As Sang-ryang rubbed his hands together ingratiatingly, So-ok smiled and nodded.
“I see. I will try to speak to my father.”
“Really? Thank you!”
Hearing her answer, Sang-ryang and Ma-un looked at each other as if all their problems had been solved.
“Young lady, please take shelter here for a while!”
Their morale soaring, the two men clasped their hands and bowed their heads.
“We will fortify this place and take care of all incoming assassins!”
Then, with a gale-like movement technique, they soared into the night sky.
Watching their retreating figures, Bu Eun-seol gave a slight nod.
‘So they were the Gong Clan Twin Demons.’
The Gong Clan Twin Demons, Gong Sang-ryang and Gong Ma-un.
The two who had once dominated the Yanggwang martial world held the high position of Branch Leader in the Demonic Palace.
But a few years ago in Guilin, they got into a dispute with a group from the Orthodox Faction and beat them to death on the spot. As it turned out, those men were spies on an important mission for the Demonic Palace.
For that crime, they were stripped of their positions and were about to be imprisoned in the Demonic Palace’s Bottomless Prison.
However, when members of the Gusandae’s Yueyang branch kept dying one after another, the Demonic Palace put them in charge of the Yueyang branch, allowing them to serve out their sentence that way.
*Fwoosh.*
Just then, the sound of dozens of people cutting through the air could be heard from a distance.
It was undoubtedly the assassins who had found traces of Bu Eun-seol and So-ok, now heading this way.
“If things go wrong, this will be our grave.”
Even in a life-or-death situation, So-ok managed a faint smile and a joke.
“Save such words for when you’re about to die.”
Bu Eun-seol wiped the blood from his head and face and turned around.
“Hurry inside.”
“About that…”
Just then, So-ok took a step closer, looking at Bu Eun-seol’s face.
“Is that Master Ho’s real face?”
The Face-Altering Bone-Shifting Art was a secret technique that consumed about ten percent of one’s energy.
As he used all his strength in the continuous battle, Bu Eun-seol’s hidden, true face had been revealed.
“It is.”
Bu Eun-seol nodded as if he had no choice.
Though stained with blood and sweat, his skin was very fair, and his eyes were long and noble like a phoenix’s.
It was as if a mystical dragon frolicking among the clouds had descended to the mortal realm in human form.
“Hurry and go inside. And do not come out until I open the door.”
As Bu Eun-seol tried to close the door, So-ok, coming to her senses, hesitated and stepped forward.
“Actually, my surname isn’t So… it’s Dan.”
Her cheeks blushing, she spoke in a whisper.
“My real name is Dan So-ok. I wonder if Master Ho will remember my name.”
‘Dan So-ok…’
For a moment, Bu Eun-seol’s eyes wavered.
There was only one person in the martial world with the name Dan So-ok.
The treasured jewel of the Head of the Demonic Assembly, who oversaw the Demonic Palace’s forces, and the tragic genius who couldn’t practice martial arts due to the heavenly punishment of Severed Yin Meridians.
Despite this, her intellect was so brilliant that the Hall of Elders had supposedly marked her as the next successor of the Demonic Palace. That could only be Dan So-ok.
“So you were the daughter of the Head of the Demonic Assembly.”
Even with one of the most powerful figures in the Demonic Palace standing before him, Bu Eun-seol’s gaze remained impassive.
“Please go inside.”
“You didn’t answer me.”
Bu Eun-seol nodded as if he had no choice.
“I will remember it.”
“Then please tell me Master Ho’s name as well.”
“Later.”
“I could die in here, you know.”
A look of longing appeared in her eyes.
“I want to know Master Ho’s real name before I die.”
Looking into her intensely shining eyes, Bu Eun-seol couldn't think of a suitable reply.
“You will not die.”
Averting her gaze, Bu Eun-seol took hold of the secret door.
“I will tell you when this is all over.”
“Really?”
He had said it casually, but So-ok—no, Dan So-ok—was overjoyed.
*Kooong. Crack!*
After closing the door to the hidden room, Bu Eun-seol destroyed the mechanism that operated the bookshelf.
This way, unless she opened the door from the inside, it would be extremely difficult for the assassins to enter the secret chamber.
*Fssst-fssst-fssst.*
At that moment, a strange sound echoed through the bookstore.
It was a bizarre noise, like thousands of insects scattering in all directions.
‘They’re through.’
Although Sang-ryang and Ma-un had been circling the bookstore like madmen, dealing with the assassins, they ultimately couldn't stop the human wave assault.
*Shing.*
Gazing into the empty space, Bu Eun-seol drew the longsword from his waist.
There was no need to draw upon the Way of the Beast to sense the enemies’ presence. The bookstore was already saturated with the killing intent radiating from the assassins.
“If you run now, you can live.”
An assassin’s sinister voice echoed from the darkness.
“You look young. There’s no need to throw your life away.”
*Sararak.*
With a sound like a cluster of insects dispersing, the hidden figures revealed themselves all at once.
It was as if hundreds of pitch-black demons had risen from hell to surround him.
It was a situation that would strike fear into the heart of even the most courageous martial artist.
“How amusing.”
Unfortunately for them, their opponent was Bu Eun-seol.
A man who savored the death of others daily, for whom the emotion of fear had long since withered away…
“Are you afraid of me?”
“What did you say?”
“An assassin only opens his mouth in one situation.”
“And what is that?”
The corners of Bu Eun-seol’s mouth lifted as he spoke coldly.
“When he cannot guarantee victory.”
As if struck by the truth, the assassin’s eyes wavered for a moment.
Just as he said, Bu Eun-seol’s aura was far from ordinary, so he had subtly encouraged him to flee.
“You’re quite confident.”
*Shhhk.*
The assassins simultaneously drew their pitch-black swords.
“We will erase you. Even the very trace that you existed in this world.”
*Chwa-rararak!*
With a low vibration, the ground trembled, and the books on the shelves around Bu Eun-seol began to scatter.
The assassins had already formed a special formation and were pouring immense pressure upon him.
Wordlessly, Bu Eun-seol raised his longsword, and a bloody light bloomed in his eyes.
One hour.
At last, the life-or-death battle to last one hour had begun.