Chapter 304: The Jegal Family (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 304: The Jegal Family (6)
Flick.
After flicking the blood from my sword and sheathing it, I scanned my surroundings.
‘What a mess.’
The garden, once a delightful sight with its harmonious bloom of roses and peonies, was now defiled with blood and pieces of corpses.
Still, the Jegal family wasn't so poor that they couldn't afford to landscape a new garden, so there was no need for me to worry about it.
I returned to Jegal Hyang and dispelled the barrier around her.
“Hyun-woo!”
Jegal Hyang rushed out and immediately grabbed my hands, her eyes scanning my body from head to toe.
The way she meticulously checked for any injuries was quite cute.
“Are you hurt anywhere?! The assassins’ hidden weapons are coated in deadly poison, so you should take an antidote first…”
“Miss Jegal.”
I gently wrapped my hands around her trembling ones.
“I’m perfectly fine. Please, calm yourself first.”
“Huh…?”
Jegal Hyang was twenty-three this year—not exactly a young age.
“Why… why am I like this…?”
But she wasn't old enough to be unfazed by a scene splattered with fresh blood and bisected corpses.
I pulled her into an embrace.
“I’ve taken care of all the assassins, so you don’t have to worry. And even if something else happens, I’ll be here to protect you.”
After comforting her for a while, I confirmed she had calmed down and started to pull away.
The situation didn't allow for us to linger.
Grip.
But Jegal Hyang grabbed the collar of my clothes, her eyes, glistening with unshed tears, fixed on me.
“…C-Could you hold me for just a little longer?”
A dry laugh escaped me at her transparent plea.
“I’d love to, but don’t you think we need to clean up this mess first?”
This wasn't just any place; assassins had attacked the manor of Jegal Hyang, a direct descendant of the family head.
Tonight, the Jegal family was going to be turned upside down.
Jegal Hyang, seeming to grasp the gravity of the situation, didn't insist any further.
Instead, she watched me with an expression dripping with reluctance. I patted her head and looked up at the night sky, still thick with dark clouds.
Dozens of assassins had invaded and utterly ruined the garden, yet not a single person had come to investigate.
It was a situation that defied common sense. I focused on the alien energy I had been sensing for a while now.
‘A Gimun Jinbeop formation?’
I was so dumbfounded I couldn't even speak.
Not only had they brazenly infiltrated the Jegal family estate—the very masters of formations and sorcery—but they had also set up a Gimun Jinbeop around the manor of a direct family member.
They were truly out of their minds, just as you’d expect from assassins.
“Miss Jegal, would you mind stepping back for a moment?”
“Ah, yes!”
Typically, the best way to escape a formation is to pass through the Life Gate.
But no formation master would be foolish enough to place the Life Gate in an easily discoverable location.
Of course, with Jegal Hyang, a direct descendant of the Jegal family, here, it would have been possible to escape the formation with a little time.
But I had no intention of waiting.
Whaam!
A golden radiance enveloped my body as an immense amount of internal energy coursed through me.
Beneath the night sky, where the moonlight was hidden by dark clouds, I alone became a sun, illuminating the surroundings.
Formless Step: Break.
—!!!
The moment I stomped down with all my might, the entire area shook, and the environment surrounding us began to distort.
It was as if space itself was shattering.
Crash!
Finally, with the sound of something breaking, the alien energy that had enveloped the manor completely vanished.
I quietly looked up at the sky.
A brightly shining moon revealed itself in a now cloudless night sky.
Perhaps due to the shock of the formation breaking, a commotion began to stir from all corners of the estate.
‘This should be enough for them to figure it out.’
Taking advantage of the confusion, I stored the corpse of the last assassin I dealt with into my inventory.
I killed all the assassins; I deserved to at least claim the spoils.
Before long, I could feel the martial artists of the Jegal family, including the family head, rushing this way.
Their killing intent was so palpable, it seemed tonight was going to be an exceptionally long one.
*
As Kang Hyun-woo had predicted, the Jegal family was thrown into an uproar.
It was an unprecedented event for the main family, not a branch family, to have been infiltrated by assassins.
Moreover, a direct descendant, Jegal Hyang, had been attacked, and the assassins had even managed to set up a formation within the family grounds.
It was an absolutely unforgivable humiliation.
The bigger problem was that no one had noticed a thing until a guest of the family resolved the situation.
It would have been one thing if the person who resolved this incident was an elder from the Five Great Families or the Nine Great Sects. But the fact that it was Kang Hyun-woo, a mere rising star, was a deep wound to the pride of the Jegal family.
And that anger was directed squarely at the surviving assassins.
Sizzle—
“Guaaaargh!!”
“Aaaack!!”
“Guh…?!”
Intense interrogations continued throughout the night in the dungeons of the Jegal estate.
But the assassins’ lips remained tightly sealed.
Meanwhile, a meeting was convened to address the incident, and the elders of the family, including the head, began to gather one by one in the Sleeping Dragon Hall.
Even the Grand Elders, who had been living in seclusion, made an appearance.
The impact of this attack was beyond imagination.
In the grim atmosphere, some held their tongues while others unleashed their fury.
As the night deepened, Kang Hyun-woo was already on his way back to his quarters.
As an outsider, he couldn't participate in the family meeting.
It didn't make much sense to hold a meeting without the very person who had resolved the crisis, but Jegal Hyeon had sworn on the family's honor to provide a fitting reward, so Kang Hyun-woo had no reason to complain.
Chewing on an elixir pill he had received from the Medical Hall, Kang Hyun-woo headed for the annex where Cheon Yeo-hwa was staying.
‘Why is this pill so chewy and sweet? It’s like eating a rice cake.’
Regretting not getting a few more, Kang Hyun-woo gave a light nod to the maid in charge of the annex.
When he opened the door and entered the room, Cheon Yeo-hwa was waiting for him, sitting on the edge of the bed with a smile.
Perhaps because it was late, her attire was exceedingly light.
“You reek of blood.”
“…Should I go wash up?”
“No, this is quite nice in its own way.”
Pat, pat.
Cheon Yeo-hwa patted the spot next to her.
I walked over and sat down beside her without a word.
“It’s noisy outside. Did something happen?”
“Ah, that.”
I explained the assassins’ attack to Cheon Yeo-hwa.
I wasn't particularly skilled at explaining things, but she understood perfectly.
“Assassins in the Jegal family estate…? That should be impossible, even for the Dark Emperor.”
“Want to see this?”
Thud.
I took the assassin’s corpse out of my inventory.
The floor got dirty with blood, but it didn't really matter. Tam would lick it all up anyway.
I pulled off the man’s mask.
Surprisingly, the face underneath was utterly ordinary. He looked so plain you would believe it if someone said he was a commoner, not an assassin.
“Hmm… Is this the assassin you spoke of? He hardly looks like a Transcendent master.”
“…He may look a bit shabby, but he was a Transcendent master. He used Aura.”
However, it seemed he had raised his realm through some unorthodox means, as his actual skills were rather mediocre.
At best, he was on par with a master who had perfected the Transcendent Realm.
“…As far as I know, there are only two assassin groups in the Central Plains capable of employing Transcendent masters. One is Salmak, and the other is Ghost Valley (Yuryeonggok).”
“Ghost Valley?”
It was a name I’d never heard before.
Cheon Yeo-hwa shrugged and examined the corpse.
“I, too, know little about Ghost Valley. They are that shrouded in mystery. Everyone knows the master of Salmak is the Dark Emperor, but no one knows who the master of Ghost Valley is.”
Ghost Valley (Yuryeonggok).
According to Cheon Yeo-hwa, it was a group of assassins called Ghosts that had maintained its legacy for over two hundred years.
In the Black Path, where it was common for factions to be wiped out overnight, they had a very long history. It was said that one of the Three Sovereigns was once assassinated at the hands of the Ghost Valley Master.
She added that even highly skilled masters found it extremely difficult to detect the presence of Ghost Valley assassins, and nothing was known about their leadership.
‘Difficult to detect their presence… It seems they were from Ghost Valley after all.’
After hearing her explanation, I summoned the Heaven-Shattering Demonic Sword.
Normally, identifying an assassin is incredibly difficult.
They often attempt suicide at the drop of a hat, and in some cases, they are even bound by a seal.
But for me, who could read memories, it didn't matter whether the assassin killed himself or not.
“Lick up the blood on the floor, too.”
Kiiiiieeeek!!
Tam shot out from the Heaven-Shattering Demonic Sword, let out a bizarre cry, and swallowed the assassin’s corpse in one gulp.
The smacking sounds were a bit grating, but seeing it diligently lick up all the blood as ordered was also a little cute.
Ptui.
A moment later, it spat out the corpse, which had been sucked dry down to the bone marrow.
I put the mummified corpse back into my inventory.
I could just burn it later.
‘This is… barely a snack.’
After filtering out the miscellaneous and impure energy, what remained was no bigger than a grain of millet.
Then again, it would be strange if an assassin’s internal energy were pure.
However, the fragmented memories I read from him contained some satisfying information.
“Yeo-hwa.”
“What is it?”
“He says this guy was the Ghost Valley Master.”
“…What?”
His name was Neung Cheonseong, the 17th Master of Ghost Valley.
Even after seeing his memories, I found it hard to believe. His internal energy and achievements were barely at the threshold of the transcendent realm.
And a guy like that was the leader of one of the two great assassin groups in the Central Plains, alongside Salmak?
It was absurd, but as I calmly retraced his memories, I began to understand why.
Ghost Valley had been on a slow path to decline for over a hundred years, and now, there were fewer than a hundred assassins belonging to the group.
The memories were cut off, so I couldn't learn the full story, but I did find out that Ghost Valley had mobilized eighty percent of its forces for this attack.
At this rate, they would probably self-destruct if left alone.
‘I don’t need to worry about Ghost Valley anymore.’
What was more important was the information about Ghost Valley’s martial arts.
Amazingly, the Ghost Valley Master’s memories contained complete information about their techniques.
‘This is a first. Should I consider myself lucky?’
There were two martial arts in total. One was the Ghost Divine Art, passed down only to the Ghost Valley Master, and the other was the Soul-Snatching Heavenly Killing Darts, the technique that had pierced my barrier.
Like the Soul-Snatching Heavenly Killing Darts, the Ghost Divine Art was also a technique I had experienced firsthand.
The Ghost Valley Master’s ghost-like movements, his undetectable presence even when right in front of me, and the strange aura that seemed devoid of life.
The Ghost Divine Art was a technique that aimed to erase all traces of one's existence, starting with scent and presence, to ultimately become a ghost itself.
Of course, I had the Phantom Shifter magic that allowed me to turn invisible, but it was actually a very unstable spell.
A master skilled at reading presence would see through it quickly, and it consumed a significant amount of magic power.
But if I used Phantom Shifter and the Ghost Divine Art simultaneously, I might be able to become completely invisible.
Though I’d probably still be picked up by things like thermal sensors.
Anyway, the Soul-Snatching Heavenly Killing Darts was a hidden weapon technique that involved infusing Aura into a dagger.
Though it looked like an ordinary dagger, its power was that of one wreathed in Aura, capable of piercing through most Protective Auras.
Both were prime martial arts.
If I had my way, I would have started learning them immediately, but I had something else to do first.
I bid Cheon Yeo-hwa farewell, left the annex, and recalled the conversation I had with the Ghost Valley Master during our fight.
—So, why are you targeting Miss Jegal?
—I do not know. An assassin simply receives a request and carries it out. We must not know the reason, nor should we try to.
“Heh.”
A short, humorless laugh escaped me.
The man who claimed he shouldn't know the reason turned out to know far too much.
‘I didn't intend to get involved in another family's affairs, but…’
Thump.
I leaped onto a pavilion and crossed the rooftops, heading for the Sleeping Dragon Hall.
One wrong move and I could get trapped in a formation and become a lost child, but right now, the magic talisman Jegal Hyeon had given me was tied to my wrist.
With this, I wouldn't be affected by the Jegal family's formations.
Using the bright moonlight as my guide, I quickly arrived at the Sleeping Dragon Hall.