Chapter 443: Salhon, Have You Heard of Scorching Poison?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 443: Salhon, Have You Heard of Scorching Poison?
Splaaaaat!
An immense spray of blood erupted from Salhon’s body, which had been twisted beyond recognition.
Kang Ha-yoon could only stare at the scene with a dazed expression. She was utterly lost, mesmerized by the unrealistic sight of a person being killed with a mere flick of a wrist.
She was a master herself, one who was already looking toward the Transcendent Realm. Yet, even for her, killing someone with a simple gesture was impossible. She couldn't help but be stunned; a divine technique that defied the very laws of nature had just unfolded before her eyes.
"Young Master Jang... what on earth... is this?"
Kang Ha-yoon spoke slowly, her face still blank. She clearly intended to ask what was happening.
"Shhhhh."
Sun-woo placed a finger to his lips and let out a soft breath.
"..........."
Seeing this, Kang Ha-yoon quickly shut her mouth. She slowly raised her gaze to look at Sun-woo.
Sun-woo had his eyes closed. He held his hands open wide near his ears, as if trying to listen more intently.
After some time had passed...
Flash!
Sun-woo’s eyes snapped open. He immediately swung his fist toward a tree ahead.
Whooooosh!
A fierce gale rose and surged forward. He had unleashed a blast of Fist Wind.
Thwack!
"Gah!"
Thud!
A moment later, a short scream rang out. A man fell from the tree and slammed into the ground.
Salhon?!
The moment she saw him, Kang Ha-yoon knew. She could sense that the man struck by Sun-woo’s Fist Wind was indeed Salhon.
"H-how..."
Salhon managed to push himself up, his voice trembling. He was consumed by the question of how Sun-woo had found him.
He had been waiting for the perfect opportunity, suppressing every ounce of his murderous aura. How could he have been discovered so easily? It was incomprehensible.
"I heard your breathing," Sun-woo replied calmly.
"That’s... impossible!"
Salhon denied it instantly. It made no sense. He had maintained a significant distance, and he used a specialized breathing technique to make his breath so faint it should have been buried under the chirping of insects. How could anyone pick up on such a sound?
"And body-swapping makes sense to you?"
Sun-woo looked at him with an incredulous expression. From his perspective, the idea of someone jumping between bodies was far more nonsensical than having hearing sharp enough to catch a faint breath. Why was a man performing such unrealistic feats acting so surprised?
"I made my breathing blend in with everything else!"
"I heard it all. The wind, the insects—every bit of it."
"...You monster."
"Let’s get our facts straight. Anyone looking at us would say you’re the monster."
Sun-woo spoke as if he found the accusation absurd. Who was calling whom a monster? This guy was the least human-like being he’d ever met.
"It seems I cannot leave things as they are," Salhon said, his tone turning cold and steady. He realized that, at this rate, he wouldn't be able to lay a single finger on the boy.
"Why? You going to surrender?" Sun-woo asked with a mocking smirk. "Too bad for you, though. I have no intention of accepting a surrender."
"Hmph! Do you think I would surrender just because there is a gap in our strength?"
Salhon scoffed. He was a legend—a legendary assassin whose impact was great enough to change the very course of Murim history. How could someone like him surrender to a green brat?
"I shall plunge you into a nightmare of assassin’s terror."
Salhon bared his teeth in a murderous grin.
"All talk," Sun-woo remarked flatly. He figured the man was just blustering. With such a massive gap in their levels, what could he possibly do?
"Heh heh heh... Whether it is talk or not, see for yourself!"
With those words, Salhon lunged at Sun-woo. He moved with incredible speed.
Sun-woo raised his hand again, intending to twist the man's body apart just as he had done before.
"Hm?"
Suddenly, a strange sense of dissonance rose from the ground.
Grab!
A pair of arms suddenly burst from the earth and snatched Sun-woo by both ankles.
"What the—?"
Caught off guard, Sun-woo momentarily faltered. What kind of trick was this? He looked down and saw arms protruding from the dirt, gripping his legs tight.
"Die!"
Swish!
Salhon’s thin sword lunged toward Sun-woo, aiming straight for his throat.
"Twist."
Sun-woo didn't panic; he simply willed the trajectory of the blade to warp. The thin sword veered away from his neck and plunged into the ground instead.
Boom!
Squeltch!
The blade buried itself in the earth, followed by the sickening sound of tearing flesh.
"Aaaaaagh!"
At that exact moment, Salhon let out a scream of agony, as if he himself had been stabbed.
Thump!
Sun-woo followed up with a kick straight to Salhon’s jaw.
Crack!
Salhon’s neck snapped back at an unnatural angle, and he died instantly.
"That actually startled me."
Sun-woo exhaled, trying to calm his racing heart. He hadn't expected two of them to pop out at once. He realized that if he had still been at the Upper Stage of the Transcendent Realm, he might have been in real trouble. Salhon’s body-swapping technique was truly formidable.
Sun-woo closed his eyes again. He pushed his hearing to its absolute limit, searching for the next breath. He wanted to crush the assassin before another ambush could happen.
A multitude of sounds flooded his ears: Kang Ha-yoon’s breathing, the wind, the rustling leaves, the insects... and then, a faint, rhythmic breath.
"There you are!"
Sun-woo unleashed another blast of Fist Wind.
Whoosh!
The sound had come from a tree behind him.
Crack!
The Fist Wind hit its mark, followed by the sound of something shattering.
Slide...
Something began to fall. Sun-woo focused his eyesight on the descending object. It was a man—a man with a bright, beaming smile on his face.
Wait.
A sense of unease washed over Sun-woo. Why was the man dying with such a happy expression?
The answer came almost immediately. An immense radiance began to pour out of the falling corpse, carrying with it a searing, unbearable heat.
...An explosion!
Sun-woo realized it instantly. That light was the precursor to a massive blast.
BOOOOOOOOM!
With a deafening roar, flames and a shockwave completely engulfed Sun-woo, Kang Ha-yoon, and the entire surrounding area. It happened in the blink of an eye. The forest was consumed by a massive inferno, and acrid smoke filled the air.
*
The fire was spreading uncontrollably through the forest, raging with terrifying momentum.
"Heh... heh heh... heh..."
Watching from a distance, Salhon burst into laughter. He felt a surge of triumph, believing his plan had succeeded.
"No matter who you are, you couldn't have survived that!"
Salhon was certain. Even if it was Jang Sun-woo, a man possessing transcendental power, there was no way he could survive. Those were Thunderbolt Bombs—weapons known to kill even Super-Peak masters with a single charge. And he had detonated twelve of them at once. Even if Jang Sun-woo’s grandfather showed up, he wouldn't have survived that power.
Furthermore, a hellish fire was now swirling around the entire mountain. Even if he had somehow survived the initial blast, he would surely die from asphyxiation or burns.
"Heh heh heh..."
He had lost most of the bodies he had hidden due to the explosion, but he didn't care. In exchange, he had killed a master of the Transcendent Realm with his own hands.
Just as he was basking in the glory of his own assassination skills...
Twitch.
A chill ran down Salhon’s spine, as if thousands of ants were crawling over his skin.
What is this?
Sensing an inexplicable wrongness, he quickly turned his head. He saw the flames, which should have been raging, beginning to clear.
"W-what!?"
Salhon gasped in shock. How could a raging inferno dissipate so easily? A forest fire was a natural disaster that human strength usually couldn't touch. Once it started, everything became fuel; unless a flood occurred, it was impossible to suppress.
Yet, the flames were receding. And they were doing so at an incredible speed. What kind of sorcery was this?
Whoosh!
Fwoooom!
As he stood there doubting his own eyes, a massive pillar of fire suddenly erupted from the distance and surged toward him.
"Aaaaaaaagh!"
Enveloped in flames, Salhon screamed. The searing pain was beyond anything he had ever felt.
"Dammit! Dammit all!"
Salhon desperately circulated his internal energy, trying to blow the fire off his body.
Crackle!
But it was useless. The flames seemed to use his internal energy as fuel, burning even more fiercely.
I should just die.
Salhon thought. He wanted to end it right there to escape the agony. Just as he raised his hand to pierce his own throat...
Swish!
Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap!
A sudden gust of wind struck his body in several places.
Stiff.
His entire body froze. His pressure points had been struck.
ARGHHHHHHHHH!
Unable to even take his own life, Salhon screamed internally. The pain was unbearable.
"I should have just done this from the start."
A familiar voice drifted into his ear. Still burning, Salhon rolled his eyes toward the source of the voice.
There he was. Jang Sun-woo was walking toward him, his clothes without so much as a single scratch.
Salhon’s eyes filled with pure horror. He was stunned to see Sun-woo completely unharmed. The boy had clearly been caught in the center of the Thunderbolt Bomb explosion. How could he appear like this, without a single wound?
"Nice try. I didn't expect you to detonate the Thunderbolt Bombs like that," Sun-woo said, sounding almost impressed. "Of course, it didn't work."
Sun-woo flashed a playful, mocking smile. He looked down at Salhon with eyes full of contempt. Meeting that gaze, Salhon’s pupils shook uncontrollably. A primal fear of this transcendental being took hold of him.
Step. Step.
Sun-woo walked toward Salhon slowly, with an air of leisure.
Step. Step.
To Salhon, the sound of those footsteps was more terrifying than the pain of his body burning.
Reaching Salhon, Sun-woo slowly reached out his hand. He began to draw in the flames that were consuming the assassin's body.
Whoosh!
The gathered fire swirled around Sun-woo for a moment before vanishing into thin air, as if it had never existed.
"Now then, what should I do with you?" Sun-woo asked with a smile.
"..............."
Salhon couldn't say a word. His mute pressure point had been struck, keeping his mouth sealed.
"Oh, right. I struck your pressure points, didn't I?"
Sun-woo spoke playfully, as if he had just remembered. Then, he slowly reached his hand into Salhon’s mouth.
Crunch. Crack. Snap.
He began to pull out Salhon’s teeth, one by one.
Crunch. Crack. Snap.
Starting from the front teeth, then the canines, all the way to the molars. Salhon’s eyes bulged in agony, but Sun-woo didn't care.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
Once all the teeth were gone, Sun-woo tapped Salhon’s body rapidly. The mute pressure point was released.
"There. Now you can talk. What should I do with you?"
"Kih me (Kill me)!"
"What was that?"
"Kih... hih... ho (Kill me)!"
"I can't understand a word you're saying."
Sun-woo looked troubled. He had pulled out the teeth to prevent the man from biting his tongue or using poison to commit suicide, but it seemed he might have gone a bit too far.
"I'll just do whatever I want, then."
Hummmmmmm.
Sun-woo began to gather the poisonous Qi dormant in his body. He started to rapidly mix and refine the gathered toxins. They merged and separated countless times.
After some time, Sun-woo finally produced the poison he wanted.
"Salhon, have you ever heard of Scorching Poison?"
Sun-woo smiled thinly at the toothless Salhon.
Shiver.
A chill ran down Salhon’s spine at the sight of that smile. Sun-woo slowly extended his hand. His palm began to flush, turning a deep, glowing red. It looked like molten fire.
Sun-woo slowly placed his red, flame-like Poison Palm onto Salhon’s chest.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
Salhon screamed. It was a sound of pure, unadulterated misery.