The Heavenly Demon Copies Martial Arts - 121
A single drop of sweat traced the edge of the third brother’s beard and fell.
“Tsk.”
For seventeen years I had lived in the Jianghu, relying on nothing but my own strength.
My martial skill had reached the fully mastered first-rate level.
Wherever I went, I could lift my head because I possessed real ability.
Here in the Jianghu I walked the dark path with my two younger brothers who matched me in skill and earned a fearsome reputation.
It was difficult to find even a single martial artist whose level surpassed ours.
Even if someone higher existed, once the three of us brothers struck together as a coordinated team, the stronger one would only meet a miserable end.
I had lived without shame.
Until now I had lived without fear and without restraint.
I lived without expecting tomorrow.
When money ran short I took jobs.
Paid bounties that guaranteed my life brought decent earnings every time I completed one.
In places without people I stole and robbed to cover living expenses.
I harassed women, killed righteous-path men who dared to intervene, defiled their women, and every single day gorged myself on wine and meat.
Even when I lacked the money to pay, a single glare from me would make ordinary people tremble and flee.
Whenever my earnings were generous, I would drag the top courtesan of the capital between my arms and host a feast the emperor could not have matched.
Although I missed the chance to chase the rules of the noble families whose skin is white and pure, I had never been questioned by anyone at the bottom of the world.
‘Big Brother Sajun, there’s that Ju family that hired us last time, right? This time the bounty is enormous.’
The second brother, Dokgo Jin, pulled out a single job notice and stuck it on the table.
From that moment everything began.
I started with a light heart.
A reward posted as “a head of a man suspected to be from the Blood Cult in exchange for a fortune in gold” was enough to stir greed in their eyes.
I never believed the Blood Cult rumor.
Sometimes terrified clients added made-up details just to make the job worth the risk.
The men who took the job simply stayed silent about the exaggerated story and quietly pocketed the extra pay.
I figured the same would happen this time.
That was why I had signed up for the Assassin Squad without hesitation after a single cup of wine and a tightened belt.
Just as I had lived all my life.
“H-Hyung… this feels off.”
The third brother, the roughest and most reckless of the three, gripped his iron club tighter and retreated a step.
“That’s not normal! That’s not normal!”
In front of us blood mist was erupting.
People tangled and screamed in a chaotic mess, and in the center of that blood fog a black shadow danced as it howled.
The first brother, Dokgo Sajun, clenched his teeth and muttered.
“Avoiding all the attacks while controlling the entire battlefield…”
His face had turned deathly pale.
“I thought it was just nonsense from some old fox’s story.”
His technique is like a shadow dancing with the souls of the living and the dead, twirling madly as though two arms are swinging at the fire.
—Thud.
The head of Baekcheongjin of the Seven Demons of the Heavenly Demon Cult, the Swordless Seven Demons, exploded beneath my foot at the exact moment the entire Assassin Squad charged.
They had already known.
What was happening now had long since exceeded the level of a mere job.
Now they wanted me dead even to survive.
—Flash!
All vision was cut off.
Panting breaths filled every corner.
Clothing sleeves fluttered as various weapons—swords, axes, daggers—flashed in the light.
The sound of footsteps soaked into my ears.
Eyes crossed.
“Fall back!”
I tilted my head only to dodge the dagger descending straight at my face.
I raised my foot to avoid the axe chopping at my ankle.
I used the tilting weight of my body to dodge the spear thrust from the side.
While turning to the side I slipped between the gaps of the crowd.
—Drip.
Red afterimages trailed behind my body like spilled red paint in water.
“What kind of monstrosity is this!”
The Assassin Squad recoiled in shock.
All the attacks pouring from the air only swept empty space.
“You ghost bastard! Die!”
—Baaang! Baawoong!
One of the Squad swung a massive blade wildly.
I retreated and barely dodged by a paper’s width.
When I spotted the Squad member blocking the rear exit I stopped.
“Got you!”
The massive blade came down toward my neck with full force.
—Flutter.
I threw off my cloak.
My hand in the seven-species spider-silk gauntlet shot out.
—Kaaaaang!!!
The clear sound rang out and shook the earth.
The Squad member who had swung the blade opened his eyes wide and stammered.
“A single strike with full power… not a sword but a blade.”
—Ziiing…
The trembling blade was blocked by a single fingertip and stopped.
“Just one finger to block it?”
“With this.”
From my black pupils a faint red light began to seep.
“The promise is over.”
“—!”
Before everyone could scream at what the words meant—
—Flutter.
Black clothing sleeves fluttered.
—Waduk.
The head of the Squad member holding the blade spun and fell.
I began to leap at a madness speed between shadows and shadows.
The movements of the Baekryeon Eight Demons were like a shadow dancing wildly, as if the flesh and the ghost spirit were coming and going.
The shadow jumping beside me suddenly twisted its direction.
In front of it stood a Squad member with an axe.
“S-Someone—!”
At the same moment both arms were yanked off and the axe snatched away.
The axe swung.
The man was sliced.
His head split and his body was crushed.
When I raised my sword to block, the axe shattered my arm along with the blade and even half my torso before it stopped.
Blood mist began to erupt.
“This… this bastard! Kill me!”
The Squad member holding the blade swung it in terror.
—Drip.
I circled around to the back of another Squad member and grabbed his neck, pushing forward.
“No!!”
—Paaak!
Crushing his clavicle from the brutal swing, he died instantly.
“Eh, eh…!”
Before the panicked Squad member could even retrieve his blade I lunged.
I grabbed his wrist.
—Waduk.
—Kuaaaak!!
My grip crushed his wrist and he screamed.
I snatched the blade.
From my pocket I pulled a gray bead.
The bead and I threw it at the Squad member’s face.
—Kwaaang!
—Aaak!
Now covered in blood the Squad member writhed.
“What! I can’t see anything!”
“Smoke grenade! Smoke grenade!”
The thick smoke filled every corner.
—Kwadududu!
Three standing Squad members’ chests were instantly pierced by the blade and yanked out.
One beat later, as if realizing something forgotten, blood spurted from their crushed hearts.
—Drip.
Before the blood could fall I again leaped into the shadow beside me.
Only the faint red light fluttering with the red afterimage remained where I had passed.
—Piipipit!
I lightly flicked my fist.
—Pepeng!! Pepopeng!
Four heads exploded in one strike and flew away.
I pulled one of the bodies behind me for cover and turned.
—Peobuk!
Three daggers aimed at my nape stabbed into the headless body and shook.
“Don’t forget there is Dokgo Sajun of the Three Black Snake Ghost!”
With sword qi condensing on the blade a waterfall of attacks poured down.
“And the second brother Dokgo Jin!”
“Yeah, this time I’ll kill the Blood Cult and announce my name to the world in addition to killing my hyungs!”
On the side Dokgo Jin charged forward raising his dagger.
Behind him a burly man with an iron club followed and also rushed.
Behind them the remaining Assassin Squad members tangled together like dark clouds chasing a torch in the darkness.
“Looks like even you have reached the peak! Still, it doesn’t matter!”
The second Dokgo Jin shouted while swinging his dagger.
“Even if you are a top-tier expert who says your skills are strong, you still die at our hands… five fingers…!”
—Jauwoong!
Simultaneously the first-rate Blood Sect technique Hyeol-yeong-mu-hwan-sin-sul activated and the ground split apart.
At the end of my body rising in a burning manner a knee plunged deep into Dokgo Jin’s face.
“D-Do brother!”
The first brother Dokgo Sajun screamed.
“Kuaaaak!”
His face crushed and Dokgo Jin dropped the dagger.
I swept his legs like sweeping a reed.
Two of Dokgo Jin’s legs snapped like reeds.
I grabbed the falling dagger.
I swung it like lightning to his collarbone.
Dokgo Jin’s two arms dangled like broken neck dolls.
I grabbed those arms and retreated.
“Uwaa! Uwaaak!!”
Dokgo Jin struggled screaming.
The Squad members, eyes rolling, tried to charge.
The first Dokgo Sajun rolled his eyes and shouted.
“This bastard! My brother is captured!”
The Squad members hesitated.
Dokgo Sajun, excited, roared like a whale.
“Don’t come! If you dare to interfere and my brother dies you’ll all die…!”
—Whirlick.
I caught the spinning dagger.
Dokgo Jin’s eyes widened—
—Pupuup!
Instantly his wrist and femoral artery were severed and crushed.
—Pit! Pipit!
Both eyes were also sliced and Dokgo Jin lost his sight.
“Uwaaak!”
—Whiik!
A dagger containing the subtle Plum Blossom Spinning Dagger was thrown.
—Jjeoong!
The third brother’s head, still dazed, exploded in one strike.
“This… this bastard!”
The last remaining first brother of the Three Black Snake Ghost trembled.
“No one like you… even in the dark path…!”
—Chereok.
He discovered me standing in front with the dispersing red afterimage.
In my hand was the iron club the third brother had been holding.
“Wait—!”
—Kwa-jik!
Dokgo Sajun died instantly with blood frothing.
Behind him everything became one-sided execution.
They were all torn apart and killed.
“Thi… this…! I-I surrender!”
One of the remaining Assassin Squad members pulled out a signal flare from his bosom.
My body stopped.
“…!”
The distance was long.
I couldn’t stop it.
The man’s hand tightened in the grip of the Assassin Squad member as if he were about to fire the signal flare any moment.
‘Tsk.’
My breath stopped.
My black pupils, which had been endlessly calm and composed, suddenly sharpened like razor-sharp ice.
“Hmm. Surrender is troublesome.”
Eun Seollyeong, leaning against the wall, loosened her crossed arms.
She stood up.
She had been about to intervene.
At that moment—
—Kwoong.
The flow of air stopped.
And black lightning filled every eye.
It was an endlessly fierce and terrifying black lightning.
Instantly all sound disappeared.
“Ku… kuoak… eoak…”
The Assassin Squad member who had lost an arm writhed with foam in his mouth.
“M-Master… how… how could a person… a person move that fast…”
In front of him stood me wrapped in dispersing black lightning.
In my hand was the arm of the Assassin Squad member who had dropped the torn signal flare.
—Thud.
Eun Seollyeong leaned weakly against the wall.
Her bandaged hand, trembling while pressed against the wall, shook.
If there had been no wall she would surely have fallen.
“Ah… no.”
Her voice trembled.
On the face of the Hwasan Sect Guardian there had always been only coldness and weariness.
No matter who she looked at, she had always looked away disinterestedly.
She had spoken as if to some vague thing beyond the person, not even looking at the person.
But now her silver eyes, the eyes of the Specter of the Battlefield, were shaking madly in terror.
“I-It’s impossible… this can’t be. He must be dead… he must have died.”
Her trembling red lips quivered as she barely spoke.
“How could the symbol of the Blood Cult Guardian, the black lightning, be on that man…!”