The Sound of the Hammer Rings for Whom?
The sound of the hammer rang for whom? The bandaged man hurriedly scanned the Enforcement Hall’s notice board. Cheong was on the taller side, and those who had undergone Body Reconstruction naturally possessed long limbs. When she lifted the wrist she was gripping all the way up, the old man’s corpse dangled half a chi off the ground, swaying back and forth. It was a scene so horrifying it sent chills down the spine twice over.
First, because a formidable enemy who had just suppressed a late-stage Transcendent stood right before their eyes. Second, because the Enforcement Hall’s notice board officer was dead, and the thought of the future consequences made frost crawl down their backs. It was the very definition of one disaster piling atop another.
“This one is Dan Un-sak, Sect Leader of the Namyun Sect. Just who are you people to commit such barbaric acts?”
Dan Un-sak tried to keep his voice from trembling, but a slight vibrato like a singer’s technique slipped through anyway.
“Why would I bother giving my name just to clean up some trash? The one who finds it annoying is the one who cleans it up.”
“Ugh……”
Dan Un-sak let out a heavy groan. If one were to translate their conversation into proper Murim-speak, it would go like this:
As a fifth-year Murim inhabitant, Cheong had not only learned to interpret such exchanges but had become fluent in the language of Murim itself. She had even mastered its creative application.
“However, it’s not like there’s zero chance of saving him. Hand over the old man Ban’s grandson.”
From the side, Jegal Ihyeon inwardly marveled. As expected of Big Sis! Even while demanding the boy, she never once said she would back off! By phrasing it as a “possibility,” she was clearly running one of her signature scams—‘if not, too bad’! At this point, Jegal Ihyeon understood roughly eighty percent of the person known as Cheong.
Once she decided to mess someone up, she was a persistent and underhanded hero who would use any means—words, blades, poison, or fire—until the situation turned against her. She had no concept of face whatsoever, yet somehow still seemed righteous. It was the perfect description.
“Kuk. You call him trash, but in the end, aren’t you people also after old man Ban?”
“Rescuing a grandson looks far better and is much easier to brag about than kidnapping one. Where are you even trying to take this? Are you seriously comparing a dish that’s been rotting for fifteen days with a freshly prepared feast? Do you think everything edible counts as food?”
“No matter how you dress it up, your ugly greed to claim the world’s greatest swordsmith remains the same—”
“Enough. Hand over old man Ban’s grandson. You weaklings can’t even say ‘yes sir, here you go’ and just hand him over when asked. Why is your tongue so long?”
“That is……”
At that moment, Jegal Ihyeon leaned toward what he assumed was the area of Cheong’s ear behind the veil and whispered.
“Big Sis, it seems they probably cannot hand over old man Ban’s grandson. That Enforcement officer mentioned an evil medicinal decoction, so perhaps……”
The rumor that lepers ate children had originally been nothing more than a false accusation born of disgust. However, rumors were the most vicious creatures in the world. They shook the hearts of desperate people and made them believe the lie as truth. And leprosy was a disease so horrific that rotting flesh fell off while one was still alive—it was called a heavenly punishment.
Cheong’s eyes lost their luster and turned into a cold, inorganic texture. A faint violet glow leaked from the eyeholes behind her veil. It was the ominous starlight of malevolence—the kind that made people instinctively realize at first glance that it was something extremely harmful and terrible.
“I should have just set the whole place on fire earlier.”
“I agree.”
Cheong casually dropped the corpse of the old great demon and readjusted her grip on the Wolgwang-geom with her right hand. It wasn’t that she couldn’t use her left, but a sword simply felt more natural in her right hand. It fit perfectly.
“I see you’re covering your face, so you must be the boss of the Namyun Sect? People of the Jianghu say that among those who hide their faces, none have a decent-looking mug.”
Everyone present stared at Cheong with strange eyes. But Cheong was a confident beauty; she had nothing to be ashamed of.
“I’ll have to climb up high and show the whole world just how hideous you look. Eating people because you have nothing else to eat? You fucking—”
“Wait! It’s a misunderstanding! There’s been a misunderstanding!”
Dan Un-sak shouted desperately. Cheong tilted her head at an odd angle.
“Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding?”
“Those horrifying rumors about medicinal decoctions or whatever—they are not true! Who would believe such nonsense!”
“Not a rumor? But that dead sheriff—”
“Big Sis, it’s Enforcement officer. Still, sheriff has a nice ring to it. Somehow it makes my heart feel warm……”
“Whatever. That Enforcement officer said you people brewed and drank some tonic.”
Then Dan Un-sak spoke in a truly aggrieved voice. It really was aggrieved.
“We sold that old fart Ban’s grandson to the Black Market! We stopped that superstitious, ineffective prescription a long time ago!”
“So you did try it? No more questions!”
Cheong stomped the ground and shot forward like an arrow. The sword energy that now formed the shape of a massive single blade completely enveloped the Wolgwang-geom, leaving behind a thick sunset-colored trail.
“Hah, damn it! What are you doing! Attack!”
Dan Un-sak shouted as he drew his sword. A faint starlight shimmered along the blade. At late-stage Transcendent level, even if it wasn’t fully compressed, he was still proficient with Sword Gang. Sword Qi and Sword Gang could not be compared. However, piercing through Cheong’s absurd output with a less-compressed Sword Gang from a Transcendent master was no easy task.
Cheong pressed her momentum, unleashing a continuous barrage of strikes. When the storm came, it was like the wind and forest of the Wind-Forest-Fire-Mountain style. The latter half of the 108 Asura Swords—Ten Thousand One Thousand Strikes. Countless afterimages accompanied wild, instinct-driven rapid slashes that mercilessly swept through every direction—above, below, left, and right—without discrimination.
Dan Un-sak, who had been continuously retreating while parrying the strikes, thought to himself. Somehow, it was manageable. The ominous violet glow flickering in her eyes was incredibly eerie, and the single mass of sword energy she unleashed was bizarre and unheard of—but since she wasn’t using Sword Gang, this was apparently what happened when a Peak expert mindlessly piled up inner energy.
“Damn it! I’ve been tricked! This bitch isn’t a master at all!”
“What are you talking about? This body is a master.”
“What are you all doing! Charge her right now!”
Dan Un-sak yelled, but the sect members instead hesitated and stepped backward. To those without discerning eyes, Cheong’s ferocious sword energy looked a hundred times more dangerous than their leader’s faint Sword Gang. The first-class experts and a few Peak martial artists glanced at the group standing guard behind Cheong. After all, since the Blood Lotus Sword Demon was dead, they assumed there must be a master among them or someone with equivalent skills.
Therefore, it was better to watch the duel between the leaders. If their leader gained the upper hand, they would rush in and quickly turn the tide. If their leader fell, surrendering would be wiser. From the beginning, the one thing all sects belonging to the Evil Faction emphasized most was the chivalry of righteousness. It was precisely because they lacked righteousness that they hammered the concept into their ears until calluses formed.
“You worthless bastards!”
Dan Un-sak ground his teeth. In the end, he would have to handle it himself. No matter how vast his inner energy was, could he really not defeat a mere Peak-level woman?
Dan Un-sak deliberately put on a troubled expression and began retreating step by step, acting as if he were being pushed into a defensive position. Then, the moment their swords crossed, his eyes flashed. He drew a sharp sword path through the gap in Cheong’s extended arm and stabbed inward.
It was one of the finest moves in Dan Un-sak’s life, a strike containing the essence of striking after the opponent. In his momentarily accelerated thoughts, within a world that had slowed down accordingly, the woman raised her arm to block the sword’s trajectory. In the slowly flowing world, the corners of Dan Un-sak’s mouth slowly drew a long arc.
What a stupid bitch. Did she really think human flesh could block Sword Gang?
Finally, Dan Un-sak’s Sword Gang touched the woman’s slightly raised forearm. In a time that had nearly come to a stop, he could see the Sword Gang seeping into her white skin. The moment Dan Un-sak believed without a doubt that her lovely forearm would be severed cleanly—
A powerful shock slammed into his grip! It felt like striking a lump of iron. The skin of his hand screamed, and a dull pain surged through every joint in his bones.
“How……”
Right on cue, Cheong’s right arm, which had left its post, returned. Realizing there was no way to avoid the slash aimed at his waist, Dan Un-sak completely relaxed his legs and threw himself backward. Cheong’s blade barely grazed the tip of his nose, drawing a crescent moon.
Dan Un-sak felt relief as he accepted the impact against his back, then immediately rolled his body powerfully. It was the Naryeotagon—a type of light footwork whose name meant “lazy donkey rolling over.” It was simply a technique of rolling around on the ground. Martial artists who valued face as much as their lives all agreed they would rather die than disgracefully roll on the floor, yet not a single one chose death over rolling when their life was truly on the line. And then they would go on about Han Xin and crawling between someone’s legs. It was Han Xin’s great sin that had given them an excuse they would milk for over a thousand years.
Cheong stomped her foot. The rough pressure of the Heavenly Demon Dominion Step crushed the surroundings. The advantage of the Heavenly Demon Dominion Step was that the energy gathered at the soles of the feet, so one didn’t have to see that disgusting eye-filled True Heavenly Demon Energy. It meant she could use it roughly without worrying about being noticed.
Dan Un-sak, who had barely rolled a few times, groaned under the suddenly doubled pressure. Immediately after, a clear ding—the sound of a temple bell from the Yeorae Shinjang—rang out, and blood spurted violently from the thigh of the man lying flat on his back.
“Aaaargh!”
Dan Un-sak clutched his thigh and screamed for dear life. The inner thigh was unexpectedly one of the fatal vital points. One of the body’s thickest blood vessels passed through unprotected by muscle. With his femoral artery ruptured, an uncontrollable massive hemorrhage occurred below Dan Un-sak’s pelvis.
Still, as befitting a master, he dug into the wound and clamped the vessel shut with his fingers. Whether it was the technique of Samme Jinhwa or not, white smoke rose along with a savory smell. He had stopped the bleeding, but he had lost one leg.
A Transcendent missing one leg could be easily handled by any Peak martial artist other than Seomun Cheong. Cheong grinned as she looked down at Dan Un-sak.
“The sin of failing to recognize a master—death penalty.”
In truth, it was an absurd thing to say. The difference in their comprehension of the sword was vast. Even in that chaotic barrage, hadn’t Dan Un-sak found an opening and launched a fatal counterattack? If it weren’t for the Sosu Magong’s near-indestructible body—or rather, since it was only at Peak level and thus a bit weaker, if it hadn’t been the plated or silver indestructible version—both her forearm and torso would have been neatly severed. If not for the Heavenly Demon Dominion Step, he would have jumped up and charged again. If not for the Yeorae Shinjang, how could she have burst his thigh from a distance?
However, it was only natural for a martial artist to hide one or two secret techniques. Cheong simply hid quite a few more than others. In professional terms, if you didn’t know, you deserved to get hit. It was a precious truth passed down from the dawn of humanity.
And from ancient times, what a loser should do once victory and defeat had been decided was already set in stone.
“S-spare me. I will give you anything you want, so please……”
“I already told you what I want. Old man Ban’s grandson. Can you bring him right now?”
“Please give me time. Since he was sold to the Black Market, if we make inquiries, we should be able to find……”
“Hmm. Opening! This is for my arm!”
Cheong scratched her chin, naturally lowering her hand, then suddenly thrust her arm forward. Ding!Crunch! Blood exploded, and the area below Dan Un-sak’s elbow fell off cleanly, rolling on the ground along with his sword.
“Aaaargh! Why! Why!”
“Your eyes were rolling around suspiciously. Your posture was wrong from the start. If you want to live, you should know how to rub your palms together like a fly. Why were you gripping your sword so tightly that your knuckles turned white?”
In reality, there was a technique called Pa-geom. It involved violently pouring true energy into the blade to shatter it. If done poorly, it would only ruin one’s own weapon. However, a properly trained Pa-geom was like a grand general’s cannon—thousands of sharp fragments infused with abundant true energy would be fired outward.
Cheong had simply found it suspicious, but in truth, it had been Dan Un-sak’s final hidden technique. Cheong’s fights had always relied on her senses and cunning, so she was extremely sensitive to such things.