Chapter 35
Chapter 35
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: The True Face of the Killing Soul Squad
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The moon had risen brilliantly in the dead of night.
Once the sun that illuminated the world had set, the blue moonlight took its place, gently dyeing the land in its glow.
Among the places bathed in that intoxicating moonlight was one of the annex buildings of the Bipeung Merchant Guild.
The moonlight slipping through the slightly open window warmly enveloped Cheonhwi, who sat cross-legged on the bed.
That was when it happened.
Srrrrk—
Cheonhwi's closed eyes snapped open.
Perhaps because he had opened them so abruptly.
His pupils, still brimming with unrefined inner energy, shone more brilliantly than the moonlight pouring down.
Then, his lips slowly parted.
"So you were holding your breath quietly..."
He unfolded his legs and rose to his feet.
Half-lidded eyes tilted his head as he gazed toward the wild mountain.
The mountain, shrouded in darkness, was silent.
But in his vision, the presences hidden within that silence stood out clearly.
Sinister, filthy presences.
He picked up the sword draped lightly over the bed.
"Gathered on your own, huh."
Without any intent to hide, he moved forward while staring down the gazes and killing intent directed at this place.
The moment he lightly tapped his foot.
Tak.
The scenery changed in an instant.
The walls that had blocked his view in all directions vanished from sight, replaced by the wild mountain thick with bushes and trees.
He advanced, scanning his surroundings while feeling the cool breeze brush his cheek, for just a moment.
"...Tonight, the Bipeung Merchant Guild will be erased from the world."
"For glory!"
He quickened his steps at the booming shout.
In the darkness, he saw them densely packed. To blend into the shadows, they wore pitch-black night clothes—easily over fifty, even at a rough count.
'Fifty? Sixty? About that many.'
After a quick headcount.
Whisk—
He appeared right in front of them.
"What are you doing here?"
"...!"
At the sudden shadow and voice, Eunsu Chamsal and the Killing Soul Squad instinctively widened the distance between each other before encircling Cheonhwi.
'Pretty well-trained, huh?'
Cheonhwi swept his gaze over those surrounding him, pausing on Eunsu Chamsal, who subtly concealed his presence among them.
The only one not wearing a mask.
He might have been hiding it, but the atmosphere and aura leaking from his body couldn't escape Cheonhwi's eyes.
The moment he immediately pegged him as the leader from the situation, he opened his mouth while staring at him.
"What are you doing, I asked?"
"......"
"Too hard to speak?"
He sneered at them.
But they showed no reaction.
Whether maintaining their composure despite the provocation, they neither laughed nor flared up in anger.
But he knew.
Guys like this lacked mental leeway and shattered first.
Suddenly, he glanced at one of them.
Among the encirclement, the closest one's eyes were filled with tension and wariness as he stared back.
Cheonhwi pointed his index finger at him.
At the sudden finger-pointing, the man's pupils shook slightly in fluster.
Puk—a sound burst forth.
In that split second, a hole engraved with a plum blossom pattern pierced the man's forehead. With a dazed expression, utterly clueless about what had just happened, his head snapped back.
Kung.
He toppled backward.
Silence fell for a moment.
It was a different silence from before.
The air, thick with vigilance, had sunk into an icy chill.
That was when it happened.
"So it was you."
The presumed leader stepped forward.
Cheonhwi met the two eyes visible through the mask.
"What? You were just keeping your mouth shut? I thought you were a mute."
Sarcasm that wasn't quite sarcasm.
But the leader, Eunsu Chamsal, though startled by the previous event, hadn't lost his composure yet.
"Did you kill my subordinates?"
"If you're talking subordinates, aren't those your guys?"
Deliberately cocking his head, Cheonhwi let out a smirk and added,
"Ah! You mean the bugs who infiltrated the Bipeung Merchant Guild? If it's those bugs, yeah, I killed them all."
Eunsu Chamsal's eyebrows shot up.
The Killing Soul Squad was his pride—the force that had secured him the position of Western Leader among White Ghost Castle's Four Directions Leaders.
And bugs?
His eyes turned feral, pride wounded.
But he didn't move rashly.
The finger wind he'd glimpsed earlier wasn't ordinary martial arts.
'Who the hell is this guy?'
Seeing the Taoist robes he wore, Eunsu Chamsal's eyes gleamed.
'Plum blossoms? Mount Hua Sect! Then one of the Plum Blossom Sword Guards staying at the Bipeung Merchant Guild? No, none of them were like this. Then the young Taoist in the annex?'
Having instantly grasped Cheonhwi's identity, he probed with a question.
"A Mount Hua Sect expert, I see."
But that was a fatal mistake.
Cheonhwi shot back at the words Eunsu Chamsal had finally spat out after racking his brain.
"And you're White Ghost Castle."
"...!"
His eyes bulged at the abrupt words.
"Spot on. Figured as much."
"...You were probing?"
"Pretty damn certain."
Cheonhwi smirked as he spoke.
It had been a question laced with confidence from the start. He'd already clocked them when the assassins had sneaked in.
'Plus, the only ones targeting the Bipeung Merchant Guild right now, claiming the Overlord Gate Leader as their backer, are White Ghost Castle.'
But unaware of Cheonhwi's thoughts, Eunsu Chamsal's already muddled mind grew even more tangled.
'How does he know we're from White Ghost Castle?'
A sudden hypothesis flashed in his mind.
'No way the Mount Hua Sect detected White Ghost Castle's involvement from the very beginning!'
Eunsu Chamsal's eyes deepened.
Like a knotted thread unraveling, every doubt fell into place one by one.
Soon, he scowled and said,
"So you already knew our castle would strike the Bipeung Merchant Guild. That's why, the moment the Overlord Gate's initial plan failed, you anticipated we'd move again and even set a trap."
"Trap?"
Facing Eunsu Chamsal's rock-solid misunderstanding, Cheonhwi made an incredulous face as he replied,
"Like I'd dig a trap for trash like you."
"Pretending you don't know now?"
Eunsu Chamsal refused to believe it.
No, he had no intention of believing.
"Then the Bipeung Merchant Guild must be fully prepared for an assault right now."
Cheonhwi shook his head.
'Words aren't getting through.'
He was thoroughly deluded.
And utterly convinced his delusion was truth.
"Think whatever you want."
Cheonhwi tossed out the words.
He was too annoyed to bother anymore.
But Eunsu Chamsal interpreted it as confirmation, glaring as he unleashed sharp killing intent.
"But you and Mount Hua just made a grave mistake."
Having finished his monologue, Eunsu Chamsal spread his arms wide like wings.
As if it were a silent signal, the Killing Soul Squad's aura began to shift dramatically.
In the thickening air, their killing intent crept forth, gradually overtaking everything.
Like his squad members, he too harbored his own killing intent as he continued,
"If you'd fled, you might've saved your skin. But to walk into the tiger's den yourself..."
Yet Cheonhwi remained utterly bored.
Killing intent like this didn't even tickle.
Instead, his curiosity piqued as he looked at the man and asked,
"By the way, you sure talk a lot?"
As Cheonhwi stared in wonder at how he'd held back earlier despite all the chatter.
Srrrrk—
Just then, the moonlight illuminated Eunsu Chamsal.
His face was anything but ordinary.
His left cheek was covered in burn scars, and he had no hair.
But that appearance no longer registered.
His eyes brimmed with ghostly energy that overwhelmed his unfamiliar features, twisted in a grimace.
Especially that ghostly energy—it mingled with the blue moonlight, chilling the air.
A moment later, his lips parted.
"Hide the soul within the kill."
The moment the words ended.
Hwaaak!
Vicious killing intent devoured the wild mountain, and the Killing Soul Squad members' forms grew hazy.
To be precise, their presences were buried in the massive killing intent filling the mountain.
Soon, in the places where countless people had vanished, only Cheonhwi and Eunsu Chamsal remained.
Siiik—
Eunsu Chamsal wore a faint smile.
Then his presence blurred, his figure melting into the darkness.
"Keep your eyes wide open and watch closely. The true form of the Killing Soul Squad..."
Even his voice faded smaller and smaller before scattering away.
"......"
Silence flowed.
Cheonhwi looked around.
The sixty Killing Soul Squad members who had surrounded him were gone, and finally, even the last one, Eunsu Chamsal, had vanished.
As if their encirclement moments ago had been a fleeting dream.
But that was only on the surface.
His vision saw it clearly.
The hearts still pounding away, even as they stifled their breaths, presences, and everything else.
'Boring.'
Savoring the sudden quiet that had descended, Cheonhwi recalled Eunsu Chamsal's words from earlier and chuckled despite himself.
"So this is the true form of the Killing Soul Squad?"
Laughter leaked from his words.
He'd never once seen a decent guy who spouted lines like 'true form' or 'true power.'
Not the ones who'd opposed him.
Not the ones who'd ambushed him.
Not even the clans he'd wiped out personally.
Nor the schemers who'd plotted in the shadows to usurp his position.
All of them—pathetic, insignificant nothings.
And now he felt it again. Even these fools, convinced they'd perfectly fooled his senses while encircling him, were no different.
'All talk.'
"Sixty assassins or so..."
As Cheonhwi scanned his surroundings, something occurred to him, and he nodded.
"Then shall we unfold that?"
Cheonhwi's hand gripped the sword he hadn't drawn once since entering the jianghu.
Srrrrng—
He revealed its pristine white blade to the world.