How Dare You Stab Me
Before anyone could blink, Yeop Pung was standing in front of Oh Gang. He looked down at the man with eyes gone cold and still, the way one might look down at a worm.
"Y-Yeop Pung!"
Oh Gang's whole body shook with fear. Yeop Pung had become something far more terrifying than he had been six years before. Those golden irises carried a pressure that felt like standing before a god.
"Y-Yeop Pung, what do you think you're doing? This is the Cheonun Sect! You can't just run wild here—"
Without a word, Yeop Pung lifted his foot and drove it into Oh Gang's face. There was a wet, brutal crunch. Oh Gang's nose shattered. Teeth sprayed in every direction. His face was a ruin of blood and snot, too grotesque to look at. He flew backward, hit the ground, and went out cold.
It was exactly as Yeop Pung had promised. Even if Oh Gang woke and summoned his courage a hundred times over, he would never again dare to stand in Yeop Pung's presence.
Having dropped Oh Gang with a single blow, Yeop Pung turned his gaze on the only one still conscious. Wang Maeng was rigid with terror, like a mouse before a cat. He forgot even the agony of his broken arm, dropped to his knees, and begged.
"Brother Yeop, I was wrong! Please—forgive me just this once. I'll never show my face in front of you again…"
Yeop Pung walked toward him, unhurried. There was not a trace of pity in his eyes.
You were wrong? You've already done things that can never be undone. Coming here to beg for forgiveness now is worthless.
"No! No!"
Wang Maeng's scream cracked with terror.
While Yeop Pung alone was crushing the three of them, a shadow peeled itself from behind a half-collapsed wall among the shabby palaces.
Jin Ung was an assassin counted among the finest even in the underworld of Great Jin. From his waist he drew a dagger of bizarre shape. The weapon was called Jimhyeol—a large, oddly formed blade that gleamed with a dark, venomous green. Even at a glance, it was obvious the edge had been painted with lethal poison.
Jin Ung was already a master of the 6th Meridian Mysterious Realm, a single step from opening his Spirit Sea and ascending to the Spirit Realm. In the past few years alone, Jimhyeol had claimed the lives of more than a hundred experts—and no small number of them had already stepped into the Spirit Sea.
He was a master not only of assassination techniques that left no room for carelessness, but of stealth and escape arts as well. That was how he had come and gone on Mount Tianyun as if it were his own backyard, slipping all the way to Nagun Peak without a soul the wiser.
Watching Yeop Pung put down Oh Gang's party with that arrogant ease, Jin Ung's eyes flashed cold.
"That brat's got some skill. If he'd been in our underworld, he might've carved out a name for himself. Pity. The Ki Clan put a thousand taels of gold on your head. Yeop Pung—if you want someone to blame, blame yourself for touching people you shouldn't have."
He had reached Nagun Peak the night before. For a man of his caliber, concealing himself in a remote hollow on the mountainside had been nothing. He had spent the night in hiding, mapping the terrain around him.
When the commotion started the next morning, he had climbed to the summit—and found an opportunity waiting, gift-wrapped. By his measure, not a single person on Nagun Peak was worth taking seriously. And Yeop Pung was alone. He would not let this chance slip through his fingers.
As it happened, Yeop Pung was coming toward Wang Maeng from a distance, completely unaware that Jin Ung existed. Less than three hundred meters lay between them. For Jin Ung, that was more than enough to drive Jimhyeol through Yeop Pung's heart.
There was no more need to hesitate. Jin Ung shifted his grip on Jimhyeol. Every muscle in his body drew taut as a coiled leopard; he loaded his legs, ready to kick off the wall—and in that instant, a faint breath sounded beside him.
Hn?
Jin Ung turned his head. A large golden-furred dog was staring straight at him.
Shit!
He nearly jumped out of his own skin.
What kind of dog is that? How long has it been sitting there? A veteran assassin who runs the underworld, spotted by a mutt—how humiliating is that?
"Die!"
Jin Ung flung Jimhyeol without a second thought. From the hand of a 6th Meridian Mysterious Realm expert, the dagger left with a piercing shriek of torn air, a streak of green light, and flew at the dog's throat like a striking viper.
He regretted it at once. He had seen the look on the dog's face.
A sneer. Yes—a sneer. That dog was laughing at him. A cold, contemptuous laugh.
Then a merciless forepaw came in, far faster than the blade. Before Jin Ung could even react, it smashed across his face.
"Damn it—!"
He went flying without a shred of resistance. A thunderous crash—and the wall he had been hiding behind exploded into rubble. Jin Ung tumbled through the air several times and slammed wretchedly into the ground.
What was that?
Up on the platform, Yeop Pung and Wang Maeng stared, bewildered.
Some guy just came flying out of nowhere over there? And he looks pretty strong… Wait. Why would an expert like that make an entrance like that?
A resonant howl rolled across the peak. Then a large golden dog vaulted over what was left of the wall.
The dagger was in its mouth. Clamping the hilt in its teeth, it charged the fallen man, pinned Jin Ung's shoulders under both forepaws, and stared down at him with ice-cold eyes.
Bone?
Yeop Pung narrowed his eyes and took in the scene.
Martial Grand-Uncle must have been worried about me and sent Bone along in secret. Looking at this, it's a blessing he did. Without Bone, that man with the suspicious dagger would have been a real threat. He seems so blunt on the surface—but he's a man of deep feeling.
Warmth spread through Yeop Pung's chest. The killing intent rolling off his body eased.
Jin Ung was the opposite. Bone's gaze froze him to the marrow; he lay trembling against the dirt, too terrified to move. His shoulders might as well have been pinned by two mountains.
What is that dog? How does it produce power like that? I'm a master of the 6th Meridian Mysterious Realm—and I've been put down by a mutt!
Bone looked down at him, cold and unblinking. Drool dripped from the jaws that still held the dagger. The message in that stare could not have been clearer.
"Wh-what the hell are you?"
Jin Ung had never in his life seen a dog this terrifying. An ominous aura bled from those almost-speaking eyes.
"You—get off me right now!"
He wrenched his legs with everything he had. A poison-coated blade sprang from the toe of his shoe and shot toward Bone's leg.
It was already too late.
A wet, slicing sound. Bone had already drawn Jimhyeol across Jin Ung's throat. Then he rocked back and flipped through a full somersault, landing with immaculate grace. Not a single drop of blood had touched that golden coat.
Human blood is filthy… I'd rather have that old coot's drool.
Yeop Pung and Wang Maeng could only stare, stunned by the sheer brutality of it.
Back in the hut, Beom Undae was sweating cold, his nerves wound tight.
What on earth is going on out there? It's one Yeop Pung. Why won't the screaming and the crashing stop? Don't tell me Oh Gang actually lost to him? No. I have to go check.
A sharp flick landed on his forehead.
"You little brat! What're you standing there gawking for? Can't even fetch my wine properly!"
Maeng Chang-haeng scowled at him, thoroughly displeased.
"These damn kids… the old one never gave me this kind of grief!"
"Yes—it's my fault!"
Beom Undae was burning up inside. This was no time to bicker with Maeng Chang-haeng. He bent at the waist.
"I'll go back and check at once. If the wine Peak Master is looking for isn't there, I'll fetch it immediately…"
"Wait—"
Maeng Chang-haeng slapped his knee.
"Ah, I remember now! Last time I said I was sick of plum wine and told him to switch it to Bamboo-Leaf Green! Let's see here—hahaha! Here it is!"
This old geezer!
Beom Undae was speechless.
"Then I'll take my leave."
"Where d'you think you're going? After all that trouble, you ought to have a drink before you go."
Maeng Chang-haeng waggled the bottle of Bamboo-Leaf Green and offered Beom Undae a distinctly kind smile.
"Trying to leave without drinking?"
"This disciple still has important business. I'll be going now."
"Hey… hey. You're really not gonna drink?"
Beom Undae spun and bolted without a backward glance. Maeng Chang-haeng watched that frantic retreating figure, popped the cork, and took a long, noisy swallow. A sly, knowing smile crept across his face.
What in the world happened out there?
Beom Undae ran like a madman, hard enough to leave his hair a wreck.
By his original estimate, Oh Gang alone should have crushed Yeop Pung—a mere 1-Vein Profound Realm—without breaking a sweat. But the noises just now had been far too loud, and unease had taken root.
Don't tell me that Yeop Pung actually held them off? Hmph. Doesn't matter. The moment I arrive, even if he's grown three arms and six legs, he's a dead man…
What—what is this?
A few minutes later, Beom Undae burst into the clearing on the rear slope—and the sight that met him nearly dropped his jaw to the dirt.
According to the plan, Yeop Pung should have been on the ground by now, being trampled into the dust. Instead he stood there at his ease. At his feet, Oh Gang and Sa Ryang lay as still as the dead. The only one still moving was Wang Maeng, dragging a ruined arm, pleading with Yeop Pung to spare his life. It was a spectacle.
Beside them, a man in black convulsed on the ground, white foam bubbling from his mouth, both arms pawing weakly at the air. One look was enough: deadly poison, and he was clinging to life by a thread.
The golden-furred dog that had been tearing into meat in the courtyard was now squatting off to the side, gazing up at the sky with an expression of lonely boredom. The air around him seemed to sigh, Invincibility… how terribly lonely it is.
Th-this… how did this happen?
Beom Undae stood there, dazed, as if his brain had shut down completely.