Uh, How Did You Know?
"Sect Leader! Sect Leader!"
"What?"
At the sight of his subordinate sprinting up from the rear, gasping for breath, Chu Yeongjo, leader of the Black-Brown Sect, furrowed his brow.
"Well... it's the Vice Sect Leader, sir. At some point, he's disappeared from sight."
"He's been looking dissatisfied since earlier, so I suppose that's why he's lagging behind. Maybe I should have just left him behind."
The only person within the Black-Brown Sect whom Chu Yeongjo acknowledged and treated as a human being was Vice Sect Leader Ham Jincheol. Because Ham Jincheol was the only other Peak Realm master in the sect besides himself, making him useful to have around.
He had issued a full mobilization order, yet for some reason Ham Jincheol had been running his mouth since earlier. Chu Yeongjo had considered excluding him, but it would have been an insult, and with all his subordinates watching, he had simply ignored it. If he wasn't careful, he might be seen as deferring to a mere Vice Sect Leader like Ham Jincheol, couldn't he?
In the world of the unorthodox sects, being underestimated meant being devoured, so Chu Yeongjo always strove to leave not a single opening for exploitation.
"Enough. He'll show up on his own. If he's late to the destination as well, he'll be punished severely. You, return to your position."
"Y-yes, sir."
As he watched his subordinate hurry back, Chu Yeongjo turned his head back, wondering whether he had just projected enough dignity—only to witness an unbelievable sight.
"Gah... gack..."
One of his subordinates was collapsing, choking on his own blood, a coin lodged in his throat.
Just a few steps ahead—his loyal, First-Class Realm subordinate who had been standing there perfectly fine moments ago. Yet Chu Yeongjo hadn't sensed even the slightest hint of the attack. Where it had flown from, who had thrown it—he had no idea whatsoever.
And lodged in the man's throat was a small coin. Not a sharp dagger or throwing star or any other hidden weapon.
He felt goosebumps crawl up his spine, but true to his station as the head of a sect that ruled an entire region, his panic was brief and his judgment swift.
"Everyone, battle positions! There's an ambush!"
At his urgent command, he watched all his men draw their weapons in unison, but he couldn't stop the cold sweat from running down his back.
What if that coin had flown at me instead? Could I have dodged it?
He had no confidence. He hadn't even noticed a subordinate right beside him being attacked—how could he possibly guarantee he could dodge it?
That meant the ambusher was at least his equal or above—in other words, a master of mid Peak Realm or higher.
That damned bastard had an ally. I should have realized something was off.
He'd heard that the ones who hit the Azure Serpent Society were nothing more than a young man and woman of First-Class Realm. No wonder they'd been able to rampage so arrogantly, with someone of this caliber watching their backs.
"Which elder might you be? I am Chu Yeongjo, leader of the Black-Brown Sect."
His subordinates, too, unable to hide their terrified gazes, began to cautiously gather around Chu Yeongjo.
In this pitch-black, densely wooded forest, if they were ambushed by an opponent stronger than themselves and skilled in assassination, numerical superiority meant nothing. What good were hundreds of subordinates? They couldn't sense and block a coin like the one just now, one that even he himself had failed to detect.
So he had to somehow draw the enemy out. Only then could he talk or fight from a position of advantage. If the opponent would only show themselves, then even if they were stronger than him, he could use his men as arrow fodder to create an opening.
When no answer came from the forest, Chu Yeongjo began to provoke the enemy's pride.
"You seem to be an orthodox sect elder. Why would you hide and attack so cowardly, like some lowly assassin? Are you not ashamed before your master and your sect?"
Those words reached So Yul's ears clearly as well—she who had suppressed her presence and spread her concealment art—but they dealt her no blow whatsoever. For one thing, So Yul was no orthodox sect elder. For another, she had once been a lowly assassin herself. And she felt no shame before her master and sectmates whatsoever.
Her master and sectmates were the ones who had taught her the assassin's trade. How could she be ashamed of it? If anything, she would have been praised for a job well done.
So instead of answering, she flicked another one of the coins she'd been toying with.
Thwack—
"Gahk..."
As another subordinate collapsed, writhing with a coin lodged in his throat, flames ignited in Chu Yeongjo's eyes.
"You... you damned rat! Everyone, full speed, out of the forest!"
The words had barely left his mouth before Chu Yeongjo launched himself like a beast of prey. His subordinates scrambled to follow, but they couldn't keep up with the lightfoot technique of a Peak Realm master at full power.
His base speed was fast enough, but the real problem came when obstacles appeared—tree stumps, branches, rocks in a forest where visibility was limited by darkness. Chu Yeongjo could see and dodge and run even in this darkness, but his subordinates could not. Some tripped over obstacles and fell behind.
Of course, the right thing would have been for Chu Yeongjo to encourage his men, watch over them, and move together in formation. But even he had, at some point, begun to feel terror at the presence of this unknown assassin, and the thought of looking after his men never crossed his mind. No—if anything, he desperately hoped the assassin's attention would be consumed by his scattered, chaotic subordinates, so that he himself would be missed.
And so, as that disorderly mob of fleeing men stampeded out of the forest, So Yul trailed behind them like a ghost. The Black-Brown Sect warriors were making such a racket scrambling away that there was no particular need to mask her presence. She could simply stick to the very last one and slice their throats, one by one.
"Gahk—"
Another Black-Brown Sect warrior rolled across the ground.
By now, terror of the coins flying in from some unseen place had spread through the entire group. The choking rattle of a comrade's breath cutting off right behind them, the heavy thud of something collapsing—but not a single Black-Brown Sect warrior turned to look. They were terrified that if they so much as made eye contact with that Killing Demon, they would be the next target. Like madmen, they didn't dare glance back, running at full speed and nothing else.
The quarter hour it took to escape the forest had never felt so long.
"Hah... hah..."
The last Black-Brown Sect warrior to stumble out of the forest, panting heavily, hurriedly pressed himself next to the Sect Leader who had arrived well before him.
Creak.
Chu Yeongjo, who had been the first out of the forest and had waited for his men, ground his teeth as he crushed his fist shut.
Once the last subordinate had joined them, no further presence could be felt from the forest. But the number of men gathered beside him now was a mere half of those who had set out. Sixty elite warriors, and in the span of a single quarter hour, half of them had been cut down.
And it seemed the assassin had cunningly selected only his First-Class subordinates to kill—every man gathered beside him now was Second-Class or below. They were truly a rabble now.
"You damned bastard! Come out here, now!"
Having lost half his sect's fighting force in an instant, Chu Yeongjo screamed in unreasoning fury.
The enemy couldn't possibly be a Supreme Peak master. If they were, they would have targeted him from the start. No elder of a major sect would appear in some backwater like this, and even if one did, they would never stoop to such cowardly ambush tactics. At most, the enemy was his equal, or perhaps slightly below—and someone specialized exclusively in assassination. Since they had no chance in a direct confrontation, they were clearly hiding and pulling these tricks.
Convinced that fighting in this wide-open space with numerical superiority meant certain victory, Chu Yeongjo bellowed at the top of his lungs.
"Come out!! Come out right now, you rat bastard! I'll carve off your limbs and feed them to the pigs!"
Then, sure enough, one side of the forest rustled, and a slender figure staggered into view.
Revealed in the moonlight was a beautiful woman, her beauty undimmed despite being drenched head to toe in blood.
"S-sob... please... help me..."
Her delicate body looked ready to collapse at any moment, clad in suggestive clothing that showed off every curve, big eyes brimming with tears about to fall.
The Black-Brown Sect subordinates unconsciously swallowed and started to move, but stopped at Chu Yeongjo's sharp command.
"Halt!"
"Sob... sob... My lord. Some monster in that forest... he... he... please, help me..."
"You... you damned bitch. So it was you? The one who killed my men? This lowly whore killed my men?"
Though she was covered in blood, the woman's body bore not a single wound, and her eyes held not fear but something else entirely. Having confirmed this, Chu Yeongjo roared furiously.
Watching Chu Yeongjo tremble with rage, So Yul abruptly stopped her sobbing. She straightened her staggering steps, dusted off her clothes, and even stretched luxuriously. Then, blooming a snow-white smile across her blood-smeared face, she murmured.
"Huh? How did you know? I was sure it would work on you."
"A mere early Peak Realm bitch dares act insolent before me! Did you think I couldn't recognize your level of skill?"
"Huh? You could tell that? Impressive!"
Vice Sect Leader Ham Jincheol hadn't been able to detect So Yul's martial prowess, so she had approached him the same way, concealing her energy. But Chu Yeongjo, one level above Ham Jincheol, had managed to see through her. To be clear, he hadn't recognized her Transformation Realm attainment—only the early Peak Realm level she was presenting.
When So Yul had met Cho Jawoon, she'd seen him recognize her true level, and had assumed these people would be roughly the same. So she had concealed herself a bit more thoroughly as she approached—but unfortunately, she'd been caught.
The hand gripping Chu Yeongjo's saber trembled violently.
"Have you no minimal pride as a warrior? You call yourself orthodox, yet not only do you ambush weaker opponents, you parade around in a courtesan's clothes?"
Chu Yeongjo was furious, but at the same time, confused. Such martial arts and such behavior simply couldn't be reconciled with the orthodox sects.
"You're actually thinking rather orthodox-like for an unorthodox sect member, aren't you? How about converting?"
"What...?"
"An unorthodox thug calling ambushes cowardly. And fussing over clothes—you sound exactly like the orthodox sects I know."
The truth was, So Yul had been trained as an assassin from childhood, so she felt no resistance whatsoever to any of it. A kill was a kill no matter how it was done. Just because you were more skilled, did you really need to fight fair and square? This way was easier, wasn't it?
She'd also learned something from killing Jang Mubok. Dressed like this, the enemy let their guard down. These narrow-minded Central Plains people never even considered that a lowly courtesan might have learned martial arts. So she'd deliberately chosen similar clothes, knowing full well Cho Jawoon would disapprove. The effectiveness had been proven once again just now, with Ham Jincheol's absurdly anticlimactic death.
And besides, she'd disguised herself as a beggar before. Was there any reason she couldn't wear a courtesan's clothes? It was thinking befitting a Demonic Cult native who valued nothing but efficiency.
Watching So Yul snicker, Chu Yeongjo was enraged beyond measure that she had dared compare him to the orthodox sects.
"You... you bitch. Don't even think about dying cleanly. I don't know how you came to master such martial arts at your age, but I'll cut off your limbs, distribute them to my men, and finally throw you into a pigsty so you can neither live nor die."
"Oh my~ how scary. Is it because you're a pig yourself? You keep obsessing over pigs. Enough nonsense—come at me."
At So Yul's insolent attitude, beckoning with her finger to the very end, Chu Yeongjo's eyes rolled back and he lunged at her. His original plan to coordinate attacks with his subordinates had long since been wiped from his mind, erased by the fury of being toyed with by someone weaker than himself.
Chu Yeongjo charging in, unleashing the Single Radiance Saber Technique of his Lone Gate Saber Method at full power—bloodshot eyes, ragged breath bursting from his mouth—looked exactly like a massive wild boar.
Watching Chu Yeongjo, riddled with openings from his rage, So Yul started to finish this simply—then hesitated. Suddenly, she sensed a familiar energy signature from somewhere not far away.
"Ah, honestly. Why did you come? You should have stayed guarding the village."
Having confirmed that no Black-Brown Sect members had come anywhere near the village, Cho Jawoon had rushed over, intending to intervene immediately if So Yul found herself in danger. And honestly, it was only natural. As a senior of the martial world, how could he not intervene when a junior of mere early Peak Realm was facing two Peak Realm masters and over a hundred men?
However, stepping in from the very beginning might wound So Yul's pride, so he had positioned himself at a distance close enough to intervene immediately if anything went wrong—but far enough not to be detected by So Yul or the Black-Brown Sect. Of course, So Yul had detected him without fail.
"What are you muttering about, you bitch!"
"Oh, nothing. Just that you might get to live a few more seconds."
Before the words had even finished, the saber came crashing down with ferocious force. So Yul simply twisted her body and evaded it. She felt a chill from the blade that passed by with barely a sheet of paper's distance.
At that composed movement, Chu Yeongjo's eyes warped slightly, and then, gritting his teeth, he drew up even more internal energy.
"Haaap!"
A powerful upward slash, from lower left to upper right. The saber energy tore through the wind and descended like a storm in an instant. Within the saber energy that obscured everything, So Yul slipped out toward the flank with butterfly-light movements, as if she had predicted it all in advance.
Chu Yeongjo, as if he had even anticipated that, carried the momentum of his rotation into a full spin and struck savagely once more at So Yul's midsection. So Yul, executing the Iron Bridge technique, bent her waist smoothly backward, and in the next instant, the tip of the saber swept over her face, grazing the hair blown by the wind.
So Yul's eyes traced a beautiful arc.
"Ooh, not bad, for the likes of you."
"Shut your mouth!!"
The saber thrust in fast from the front once more, but this time So Yul moved first. Twisting her body, she dodged the saber with minimal movement and closed in tight. Her palm struck precisely at Chu Yeongjo's wrist gripping the saber.
Crack—
With the sound of breaking bone, the impact bared his upper body wide open. So Yul didn't miss that instant opening—her knee shot up like lightning and drove squarely into Chu Yeongjo's flank.
"Kgh!"
Struck squarely in the side, Chu Yeongjo's breath caught for an instant as he staggered backward. At the sight of So Yul slipping like a loach through all his attacks and instead exploiting his openings, a blood-red killing intent erupted from Chu Yeongjo's eyes.
"This bitch... dares!"
In that instant, his energy twisted as if exploding. Internal force surged up from the ground through his body, and the saber in his hand began to stain crimson. Chu Yeongjo's staggering stance righted itself in an instant. The aura pouring from him was completely different from before. It was the pressure of a man squeezing out everything mid Peak Realm had to give.
Along with that wildly surging aura, the saber cleaved through the air, descending from above as if to split the world in two.
BOOM!—
A thunderous explosion erupted, enough to bring down a mountain, and the hard ground spider-webbed with cracks and caved in deep.
But a strike poured out with all one's strength carried equally great recoil, and it was only natural that numerous openings appeared before and after the attack. So Yul, like a single streak of wind, evaded the descending saber and bored into Chu Yeongjo's vitals once more. His openings had already been calculated.
This time, unlike before, So Yul's hand held a dagger radiating a terrifying killing intent. Without hesitation, without wasted force, the dagger shot out at lightning speed and drove straight into Chu Yeongjo's heart.
Shunk—
Chu Yeongjo's face contorted in disbelief as he looked back and forth between So Yul boring into his chest and the dagger embedded in his heart.
"You... dam...ned... bitch..."
He had wanted to leave those words—that if not for the wrist she'd struck earlier, his last attack would have succeeded—but in the end, he couldn't finish and collapsed right there.
Kind-hearted So Yul understood what he meant and kindly answered him.
"Wouldn't have mattered even if you'd been fine."