The Sly Old Fox
'What a shame. If this world had something like gasoline, I would have doused the whole place and burned it to the ground first...'
Bukjin clicked his tongue in disappointment. Occasionally, a few stray adventurers or guards would stumble toward the palace, but they were all cut down by Bukjin before they could even scream.
An hour passed.
Bukjin continued to shout provocations while hacking away at any enemies in sight until his blade grew dull, yet no one emerged from the palace.
'Did they all tuck tail and run?'
Bukjin was slightly taken aback.
'No, it doesn't make sense for it to be completely empty.'
He had already swept through every other sector of the fortress. Aside from the Fourth and Fifth Alliance Leaders, who had fallen to his underhanded tricks, and the Second Alliance Leader, whom he had crushed in a head-on fight, there were still three leaders remaining.
Yet, not one of them had shown their face. They had to be inside the palace. Bukjin had already captured and interrogated several guards to confirm this. According to them, the leaders spent almost all their time within the palace walls.
'So why aren't they coming out?'
Standing before the massive palace gates, Bukjin pondered his next move. He decided to stick with his specialty: chemical warfare.
Bukjin pulled out every last bit of Thousand-Fragrance Triple-Smile Powder and Dragon-Blood Insecticide he had left and scattered them toward the palace. Then, he scavenged the surrounding area for firewood and flammable debris, piling it all in front of the gates before setting it ablaze.
As the fire roared to life, thick, acrid smoke began to billow, carried by the wind directly into the palace interior.
"Dammit, let's see how long you bastards can hold out in there."
Bukjin had no intention of charging through the front door blindly. If there were traps or an ambush waiting just inside, he’d be jumping straight into a spider's web.
"Fine! If you won't come out, I'll finish cleaning up the outside first."
Gripping his sword, Bukjin began to prowl the city once more. Whenever he encountered anyone still breathing—whether they were trying to flee or were paralyzed by his poisons—he executed them without mercy.
One strike to the head, one to the heart.
He moved with cold, mechanical efficiency, ensuring not a single soul was left alive.
Another hour passed.
The Stone Fortress, once a den of the most vicious adventurers, was now a silent tomb. It had become a city of the dead. Whether by poison or by his blade, every inhabitant had been systematically eliminated by Bukjin.
He had truly reaped the benefits of the poisons the Ten-Thousand Poison Ancestor had spent a lifetime researching. Many of the wicked adventurers had died before Bukjin even reached them, allowing him to clear the fortress with surprising ease.
When Bukjin returned to the central palace gates, the fire he had built had long since died down. The massive stone doors were scorched black.
"Is it really possible there's no one inside?"
After a moment of deliberation, Bukjin used a series of skills to restore his stamina.
Healing Circle (Su-hwan)
Stamina and vitality are being restored.
He then popped two Ten-Thousand Poison Warding Pills into his mouth and gripped his sword tightly. He stepped into the palace.
Despite the risks, he had to see this through. Part of it was his desire to eliminate every last enemy, but a larger part was the lure of the treasures the Great Alliance Leader surely had stashed away.
'The Great Alliance Leader is the final boss of this zone. He's gotta be loaded, right? If I can just take him down, I'll be rich.'
The interior of the palace was eerily quiet.
As he pushed through the first set of doors, he found the corpses of adventurers. Their bodies were half-charred from the fire he had set, but it appeared they had already succumbed to the poison before the flames reached them. Bukjin didn't hesitate. One strike to the head, one to the heart.
After confirming the kills, he pressed on.
The palace was vast and silent. He passed through three more sets of doors, finding more poisoned corpses littering the floor each time.
Finally, Bukjin opened the fourth and final door.
He entered a grand hall that resembled a massive council chamber. Several more bodies were scattered about, and judging by their fine attire, they weren't low-ranking members. They had died bleeding from their eyes, noses, mouths, and ears—the unmistakable signs of lethal poisoning.
Looking further in, Bukjin saw a flight of about twenty stairs leading up to a finely carved throne. A cold, motionless figure was slumped over the seat.
It was the burly old man Bukjin had seen in the plaza the night before. His face was contorted in a grimace of agony, his body completely still.
"Huh?"
Bukjin was genuinely shocked.
'They're all dead? I haven't even broken a sweat yet... Did the poison really get all of them?'
The outcome was far more anticlimactic than he had expected.
'Was it the poison I put in the water? Or the smoke I blew through the front door? ...The Great Alliance Leader died this easily? This is embarrassing! Where's the challenge?'
Bukjin climbed the stairs and approached the Great Alliance Leader's body to get a closer look.
At that moment, the world shifted.
The "corpse" of the Great Alliance Leader, which had been stiff and devoid of life, suddenly snapped its eyes open. As if possessed by a vengeful spirit, he lunged upward with lightning speed, thrusting both palms toward Bukjin's chest.
The impact was devastating.
BOOM!
The terrifying force of the palm strike hit Bukjin squarely in the chest, and his body disintegrated into ash instantly. The residual force of the strike continued forward, slamming into the heavy doors of the grand hall and making the entire structure shudder.
"Hahaha! Haha... wait, what?"
The Great Alliance Leader's manic laughter cut short. Something was wrong.
There was no blood. No shattered bone. No feeling of impact against flesh. There wasn't even any recoil from the strike.
'What happened?' The leader's brow furrowed.
"You sly old fox. I knew you were playing dead."
Bukjin's voice echoed through the hall. The startled Great Alliance Leader spun around to see a boy—identical to the one he thought he had just vaporized—stepping out from behind the grand hall's doors.
It was the real Bukjin.
"You've got a lot of nerve, you old geezer! Have you no conscience? How could you use such a wicked, underhanded trick to ambush a handsome, dignified, and cultured youth like me!"
Bukjin shouted his accusations at the top of his lungs. He had suspected a trap from the moment he entered the hall.
The Great Alliance Leader had suppressed his presence so thoroughly to maintain his ruse that he hadn't been able to sense the artificial nature of Bukjin's clone. He had unleashed his full power on a mere illusion, exposing his survival in the process.
The leader slowly regained his composure. Sitting back down on his stone throne, he glared at Bukjin with eyes full of murderous intent.
"You cunning brat! Who are you? Why have you made an enemy of our Bukhuang Mountain Adventurer Alliance?"
The Great Alliance Leader thanked the heavens that he had seen Jin Myeong-shin off the night before. He never could have imagined such a catastrophe would strike the fortress in a single night. By the time he realized something was wrong, the city was already a graveyard, and his remaining men were dying of poison.
The damage was irreversible. Even he had been affected by the toxins. In one night, the Bukhuang Mountain Adventurer Alliance had been virtually annihilated.
He couldn't understand who this enemy was or why they were using such cruel and poisonous methods. He had assumed he was being besieged by a massive, organized force. Believing escape was impossible, he had opted to play dead and wait for a chance to strike the enemy commander.
He had used the most deceptive tactic in his arsenal, only to be outmaneuvered by a teenager.
Bukjin, standing by the door, snorted.
"You're the one who messed with me first," Bukjin shouted. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth!"
The Great Alliance Leader let out a cold sneer.
"A mere insect like you dares to lecture me? Call out your comrades and whatever master is hiding behind you! A true hero settles matters face-to-face!"
"Hero, my ass!" Bukjin spat back. "Your sins reach the heavens, and your filth stains the world! You're lower than dog shit! To me, you're just a Boss Mob that needs to be sacrificed for my gear and items!"
The Great Alliance Leader stared at Bukjin as if he were speaking gibberish. He couldn't understand a word the boy was saying. But it didn't matter.
Whoosh!
The leader blurred from his throne. He moved with incredible speed, closing the distance to Bukjin in an instant and unleashing a palm strike. A massive wave of pressure surged toward Bukjin.
Bukjin used his Fragrance-Shattering Jade Step to dodge the brunt of the force. However, the leader was relentless. The moment his feet touched the ground, he pivoted and lunged again, striking Bukjin's left shoulder.
CRACK!
The sound of bone splintering echoed through the hall as Bukjin was sent flying, slamming hard into the stone doors. Half of his shoulder blade felt like it had been pulverized. Agony flared through his body.
"You thought you could face me with such pathetic skill?" the Great Alliance Leader mocked, looking down at Bukjin with pure contempt.
"I was about to say the same to you!"
Bukjin gritted his teeth and activated his healing skill in rapid succession.
Healing Circle (Su-hwan)
The wound on his shoulder began to knit back together at a visible rate.
"You sly old fox! Today, I'm going to wipe you and your entire house off the map!"
"Die, you vermin," the leader said flatly, lunging forward once more with a palm strike as fast as a lightning bolt.
Watching the old man approach, Bukjin's eyes burned with fury. He roared, "Cold Reverse Water... Die!"
Bukjin unleashed the most powerful killing move in his repertoire. The phantom of a massive tidal wave appeared in the air, accompanied by the deafening roar of crashing surf.
The ultimate killing move of the Jesujeon Sword Technique.