Chapter 50
"Here! A travel pass!"
Dang Yulin yanked a smoke bomb from her robes and hurled it without hesitation.
BOOM—!
As the bomb burst, a thick white cloud began to spread around them.
The smoke bombs specially made by the Dang Clan were far more effective than the average sort.
"Smoke! Everyone, be careful!"
The masked men immediately raised their weapons and went on alert.
This was very different from what Dang Yulin had done up until now.
Not only had she openly appeared before her enemies, she’d even gone and detonated a smoke bomb with no real killing power, just to heighten their vigilance for no reason.
It was the exact opposite of her usual tactics, which had always relied on hiding first and striking hard before they could react.
But there was no helping it.
She had taken down quite a few masked men on her way here, so by now they had almost certainly noticed something was off.
In fact, they had already entered a state of caution after seeing their comrades stationed below Chilseongsan get taken out.
You could tell from the fact that they had gathered ten men in one place from the start.
It wasn’t easy to ambush enemies like that.
So there was only one thing to do.
Use that heightened vigilance against them.
When people became fanatically fixated on something, they always developed blind spots elsewhere.
Dang Yulin curled one corner of her mouth into a grin.
Guguguk—!
She bent low like a drawn bow, concentrating her internal energy into the Yongcheon acupoints in her knees and the soles of her feet.
"Everyone, gather toward the sound of my voice! Form up!"
From within the smoke, she could hear one of the masked men shouting.
There.
Dang Yulin turned toward the voice, and a glint flashed in her eyes.
TOOT—!
She straightened her knees and shot high into the air.
It was a function of the Dang Clan's movement art, Dark Cloud Body Method.
In an instant, Dang Yulin soared out of the smoke and skimmed across the top of it.
Flap—!
Her sleeves fluttered in the wind.
She cut through the air until she reached the chosen spot, then tucked both hands into her sleeves.
Her eyes were fixed on the place where the masked men had clustered together, supposedly in formation.
That was a mistake.
The masked men had gathered to avoid being picked off one by one in the smoke, but that was exactly what she’d wanted.
When people were blinded by smoke or darkness, they instinctively stayed alert to the front, back, left, and right.
Because they were fighting an opponent, they watched for attacks from the directions a person would normally strike from.
That was the right thing to do against an ordinary foe.
But her opponents were not ordinary.
Dang Yulin looked down from midair.
The masked men were huddled together nicely, making themselves easy to sweep away at once.
The more they watch front, back, left, and right, the more vulnerable they become above and below.
That was because human beings were fundamentally not built to keep constant guard against attacks from directly above or below.
Dang Yulin’s scheme landed exactly as intended. She drew up a surge of internal energy from her dantian and flung both hands out from her sleeves with force.
Chase-Soul Flying Serpent Blades
Falling-Tooth Hundred Waterfall
Flap—! Papapapap—!!
The wide sleeves burst open, and a storm of hidden weapons poured out all at once.
"Aaaagh!"
"Up there! The flying blades are falling from above!"
The masked men screamed as the hidden weapons rained down on their heads without warning.
As blades and needles struck their bodies, one thought flashed through their minds.
To unleash throwing weapons in every direction like that...
Could it be the Dang Clan’s signature technique, Myriad Heavenly Rain!?
Ask anyone who had never personally met a member of the Dang Clan about the Sichuan Dang Clan, and they would almost always say two things.
One was poison, and the other was Myriad Heavenly Rain.
Wow! You know Myriad Heavenly Rain! It’s really strong!
Even if people didn’t know the actual names of the Dang Clan’s martial arts, Myriad Heavenly Rain was famous enough to be remembered by everyone as one of their signature techniques.
But the move Dang Yulin had unleashed was not Myriad Heavenly Rain, as anyone could tell from its name alone.
To begin with, she didn’t have the skill or internal energy to use Myriad Heavenly Rain in the first place.
Falling-Tooth Hundred Waterfall was a move that could be called a watered-down version of a watered-down version of Myriad Heavenly Rain.
The number of thrown weapons, the range, and the power were all lacking in every respect compared to the real thing, but it was more than enough for the masked men.
They had gathered together and narrowed the attack area for her!
More than a hundred hidden weapons descended on them like a torrential downpour.
A highly developed martial art was like science, and Falling-Tooth Hundred Waterfall raining down from above was much like an aerial bombardment.
Papapak—!
"Ghh... aah... wha—?"
"Huh?"
One by one, the masked men who had been screaming or collapsing from the hidden weapons stuck in their bodies tilted their heads in confusion.
They patted themselves down awkwardly.
"I'm... alive?"
"I-I am too."
Blades and needles had been sticking into them all over the place, but none of them had died.
More had missed than hit.
Of course, those unlucky enough to be struck in vital spots like the crown of the head died instantly, but there were only three of those.
Seven survived.
Whoosh— thud.
After unleashing her rain of hidden weapons, Dang Yulin landed lightly on the ground.
"Uh, huh?"
Seeing that, Dang Yulin made a flustered noise.
She had clearly unleashed the technique properly...?
Why was Myriad Heavenly Rain so famous?
Because, though no one said it out loud, everyone knew it boasted the lowest success rate in existence right alongside Heaven-Net Earth-Drag.
—Deploy Heaven-Net Earth-Drag and exterminate them! (Can’t kill them, can’t catch them)
—Take this! Myriad Heavenly Rain! (Can’t kill them)
Even with nearly ten thousand hidden weapons, Myriad Heavenly Rain had a horrifyingly poor kill rate.
Because of that, people whispered that Myriad Heavenly Rain was basically a water cannon, but they never said it openly.
Those foul mouths that spread such wicked talk had already died of mysterious poisoning anyway.
Remember this.
The Dang Clan never forgets not only kindness and enmity, but even the slander that tries to cut into their pride.
...
...
"Hmph! Everything is going exactly according to my plan."
After a brief, awkward silence in which everyone seemed to be pretending nothing strange had happened, Dang Yulin spoke up.
"Everyone’s injured now, so the rest is basically cold consommé soup!"
She crossed her arms proudly, acting as though everything had gone perfectly.
No wonder the others never trained Falling-Tooth Hundred Waterfall that much.
The elders had been right to tell her to train poison arts or some other hidden weapon technique instead.
"Don’t be scared! She’s already thrown out that many hidden weapons! She won’t have any left!"
Pulling the blades from their bodies, one of the masked men shouted.
Damn it. I shouldn’t have used it at all.
Dang Yulin clicked her tongue inwardly.
Just as he said, she had used up all the hidden weapons she’d been carrying with that move.
The trouble was that she hadn’t come here expecting a real battle, so she hadn’t brought nearly enough to begin with.
"...So, you’re really going to charge me? Really? If I were you, I wouldn’t."
The masked men wore expressions that said she was about to die, yet Dang Yulin’s face showed not the slightest trace of panic.
Was her courage just inversely proportional to her height?
"You little bitch... now that the tables have turned against you, your tongue sure is long."
"Nope. I’m not at all disadvantaged. The losers here are you."
The masked men snorted, taking her words as bravado.
"Let’s see if you can still talk once you’re skewered on this spear after running out of hidden weapons!"
One of the masked men charged and thrust his spear at Dang Yulin.
Hiss—!
Just as the spearpoint was about to pierce her left arm, her right hand shot out.
Tap!
Like a writhing snake, the hand darted into the gap and seized the spear shaft in one smooth motion.
It was the Dang Clan grappling art, Dual-Shadow Venom Hand.
It was especially brilliant in close-quarters combat.
"Wha...!"
As her right hand clamped down on the shaft like a snake biting its prey, her left hand slipped in to cut off his breath.
Her small left palm pressed against the man’s chest.
Wooooong—!
A green glow rippled from her left hand.
Enemy Lotus Venom Palm
Shiiiiik—!
"G-Ghhaaaah!?"
The masked man let out a scream.
The pain lanced through his chest so violently that he let go of the spear and staggered back.
"Damn it..! What the hell is this...!"
He stared down at his chest in shock.
The fabric had melted away in the shape of Dang Yulin’s palm, and a lotus-like mark was branded into the skin beneath.
No, looking closer, it wasn’t a flower at all, but a palm imprint.
"Ku... cough...!"
Once he realized that, blood began to pour from the masked man’s eyes, nose, and mouth.
"N-no way... E-Enemy Lotus... poi... son... khk..."
As the masked man collapsed, the others shouted in unison.
"Sichuan Dang Family!"
"The Dang Clan!"
In the martial world, if someone with green hair used hidden weapons and poison, there was no other explanation.
"It’s Dang Clan, not Dang Family."
"That little round-head is from the Sichuan Dang Clan!?"
At Dang Yulin’s correction, they all suffered the same shock for the nth time, just as their fallen comrades had before them.
Those isolationist, mysterious freaks were here... why...
No, wait. Does that mean we’ve been fighting a member of the Sichuan Dang Clan this whole time?
"Throw it!"
Before they could even make sense of the situation, the round-head—no, Dang Yulin—screeched.
And then something came flying toward her from somewhere.
She had definitely used up all her hidden weapons.
She had.
Which meant it wasn’t from her.
Dang Yulin reached out and caught it.
It was a bundle neatly tied together with flying blades.
Thanks, Hayoung!
Dang Yulin silently thanked her eternal helper as she gripped the blades.
That light, cold sensation.
She had about five minutes.
"W-Wait! First, kill that bitch—"
The masked men, belatedly regaining their senses, tried to rush Dang Yulin now that she had replenished her hidden weapons, but—
"Too late!"
Chase-Soul Flying Serpent Blades
Branching Snake Release
Fwish-fwish-fwish—!
The flying blades fanned out in all directions and pierced the masked men between the brows.
"I told you. I’m not at all disadvantaged."
Why wouldn’t people believe her when she spoke?
"You worthless amateurs."
Dang Yulin stuck out her tongue at the masked men, who clearly lacked faith.
* * *
"U-Um... how is your sister?"
Dang Seorin, who had been watching the battle from a slight distance, asked Hayoung.
"Fortunately, she is unharmed. She has defeated all the enemies."
Hayoung, who had been poised to launch herself toward the front line, straightened her posture as she replied.
Swish—
The thigh wrapped in a white garter belt disappeared beneath her black skirt.
If any black-haired man had seen that, he would have slapped his forehead and let out a sigh of regret.
With a little outside help, Dang Yulin had won a ten-on-one fight.
If she’d brought a little more in the way of hidden weapons and poison, she wouldn’t have needed even that much help.
"Next, we move—"
Just as Hayoung was about to follow Dang Yulin as she moved ahead, a shadow fell over her head.
"!?"
She quickly shifted her footing and shot forward.
Tap-tat-tat!
After opening the distance, Hayoung was finally able to see the owner of that shadow.
It was a giant at least one and a half heads taller than her.
My mistake.
She had been so focused on watching over Miss Dang Yulin that she had failed to notice him approaching this closely.
The giant, whose gaze held deep and quiet emotion, looked down at Hayoung in silence.
"Was it you?"
He spoke in a low, heavy voice.
"......"
Hayoung’s hand moved to the whip at her waist.
Flick—!
The moment her fingers closed around the handle, she lashed it out.
The whip sliced through the air with a sharp crack and flew toward the man’s neck—
Grab.
—but he caught it with ease.
"....!"
Still gripping the whip, he continued what he had been saying.
"You were the one who killed my men."
Twitch—
Veins bulging over the back of his hand, Baek Dupil—the chief of Baekmun Express, Phantom-Grasping Shura—asked the question.
His voice rumbled like that of a beast.