Monopolizing Fortunes (154)
Monopolizing Fortunes (154)
He wanted to speak calmly, but he couldn't help the tremor in his voice. Jeon Ho-jin's small eyes narrowed further.
"If I've held back this long, the Society Leader won't scold me for killing you lot."
Shing—.
The Blood Spirit Three Swords standing behind Jeon Ho-jin drew their swords. The Revenge Society was an armed group, but rank wasn't decided by martial prowess alone.
In any organization, those weak in martial arts could still rise to high positions, and no matter how strong someone was, there were those who remained only in the role of a sword.
The Blood Spirit Three Swords were like that. Their martial arts far outstripped Jeon Ho-jin's, rivaling the Three Saints of Hwangdae, the senior hall masters.
They had been eight years old when they were abducted into the Revenge Society. From then on, for thirteen years, they had learned nothing but martial arts.
Three hundred children had been taken at the time, and the Blood Spirit Three Swords had been the standouts among them.
If not for a man named Bae Cheong-dong, they never would have ended up on this path in the first place.
And yet Bae Cheong-dong himself was absent, and only Bae Cheong-dong's shadow stood blocking the path they were supposed to leave by.
Jeon Ho-jin stepped backward and spoke.
"Kill them all."
There were no questions. He didn't even ask whether Jang Yeon-seon, the only person from the Hwangdae Merchant Company whose face showed no fear, had to die too.
Once an order was given, the Blood Spirit Three Swords could kill even a newborn. That was how they had been raised, and they had grown up splendidly.
"W-wait just a moment!"
Jang Bu-ok hastily intervened. He'd put his life on the line to show some nerve, but he didn't actually want to lose the life he'd wagered.
He could clearly tell the threat wasn't going to end as a mere threat.
"We'll go! We'll go right now!"
Jeon Ho-jin's voice was cold as he answered.
"Everything has its time. Just as missing breakfast today means you can never eat it again, your chance to live has already flown away."
At that moment, a voice belonging to someone who hadn't been in the hall cut in.
"If any of you so much as moves one step from there, you'll miss today's lunch forever."
Jang Yeon-seon reacted first.
"Master!"
Do Tong-dal was standing there with three others, though no one had seen when he'd appeared. Jang Yeon-seon dashed over at once, leaped, and threw herself into Do Tong-dal's arms.
"Why are you so late!"
At the glad complaint, Do Tong-dal stroked Jang Yeon-seon's head.
"I had a lot to take care of. Still, it doesn't look like I was too late, does it?"
"No. You made it just in the nick of time. Hehe!"
The moment Do Tong-dal appeared, relief spread across the faces of the Hwangdae Merchant Company people who had been steeped in fear.
Before anyone knew it, Do Tong-dal had become the largest and most reliable shield for the Hwangdae Merchant Company.
Jang Yeon-seon whispered into Do Tong-dal's ear.
"The people who came with you are 'them,' right?"
Jang Yeon-seon had recognized Namgung Seol-rin, Won Dae-yeon, and Jang Yu-seom despite their disguises.
Do Tong-dal nodded with a smile on his lips, and his gaze shifted to Jeon Ho-jin and the Blood Spirit Three Swords.
The smile still hung at the corners of his mouth. But that smile was giving off something colder than killing intent.
"So you're the ones from the Revenge Society."
"Are you Bae Cheong-dong?"
He'd heard the man's martial arts were considerable, but he looked barely in his mid-twenties. The Blood Spirit Three Swords were proof that martial arts didn't scale with age.
But the Blood Spirit Three Swords were prodigies who defied the passage of time, and they had lived through a special kind of life.
Unless one was a disciple or descendant of a prestigious martial family, reaching the level of a first-rate master at a young age was nearly impossible.
'He's first-rate at best.'
At that level, he wouldn't last three exchanges against even one of the Blood Spirit Three Swords.
Having reached his conclusion, Jeon Ho-jin spoke.
"You're not part of the Revenge Society yet, so you can't come with us."
There was no order to exclude Bae Cheong-dong, but this much was within his authority.
"I don't consider myself part of the Revenge Society either, so we're of the same mind. If you don't want to go together, you can just go back."
The young brat's speech was far too casual, and it grated on him. That rudeness alone was reason enough to kill him, but with the Hwangdae Merchant Company at stake, he decided to endure it once.
"You wait here. There might be word for you."
Jang Yeon-seon stepped forward at once.
"If my master doesn't go, then no one from the Hwangdae Merchant Company will follow you!"
Jeon Ho-jin disliked children, and he disliked impudent children even more.
"Do I look like someone who'll go easy on you because you're a child?"
"Do you look like someone our master would go easy on because you're Revenge Society?"
Jeon Ho-jin was dumbfounded. How high could the martial arts of a young man in his mid-twenties possibly be?
Seeing how much faith they put in a greenhorn, no matter how great a merchant he was, he was still just a merchant who knew nothing of martial arts.
"So if that bastard doesn't go, you won't go? Then I'll just turn him into a corpse and drag him along."
Jang Yeon-seon let out a scoff.
"You're walking the same road as the ones who died after underestimating my master."
Do Tong-dal asked.
"How do you know that?"
"Do I have to see it to know? One look and you can size it up."
At any rate, the kid was far too clever. Jeon Ho-jin didn't like it and clicked his tongue.
"Best to kill him quickly and get moving. You Hwangdae people can take his corpse."
It was as good as an order to kill, so the Blood Spirit Three Swords stepped forward. Do Tong-dal could tell at a glance that they weren't mere underlings of Jeon Ho-jin.
All of them were stronger than Jeon Ho-jin, and the gap was clear. Even if Do Tong-dal fought, there was no guarantee he could subdue them easily.
"I'll fight."
The person who suddenly stepped forward was Won Dae-yeon. He enjoyed sparring, but he wasn't the type to stubbornly insist on fighting without reason.
So Won Dae-yeon suddenly stepping up was strange. What was stranger was that Namgung Seol-rin and Jang Yu-seom said nothing.
Those two, who would grab each other by the collar fighting over who got to face a strong opponent.
"We could just each take one."
"There's something I want to test."
Won Dae-yeon had carried out Do Tong-dal's orders thoroughly while never neglecting his training.
Now that he'd found the lost portion of the Invincible Inch-Heaven Sword, there was no time to be idle.
He threw himself into training as fiercely as when he'd first learned martial arts—no, far more fiercely than that. With Jang Yu-seom and Namgung Seol-rin, both mad for martial arts, around, the Invincible Inch-Heaven Sword's progress could only be swift.
And not long ago, he had shattered one of the walls blocking his path. Won Dae-yeon wanted to confirm just how wide the stride he'd taken was.
Of course, he'd gotten some sense of it through sparring with the other two, but real combat and sparring were as different as a real rice cake and a painted one.
Namgung Seol-rin and Jang Yu-seom had silently stepped aside precisely because they had an inkling of Won Dae-yeon's achievement.
Won Dae-yeon faced the Blood Spirit Three Swords with a dagger in each hand, each blade about one ja long.
"Crazy bastard. He dares fight the Blood Spirit Three Swords alone? They say the world is wide and full of lunatics. Let's finish this quickly and go."
The Blood Spirit Three Swords slowly drew their swords. Unlike Jeon Ho-jin, who dismissed Won Dae-yeon, tension was plain in the Blood Spirit Three Swords' bearing.
They say a master recognizes a master, but when the gap is too great, one becomes blind to it.
Unlike Jeon Ho-jin, the Blood Spirit Three Swords were masters skilled enough to feel Won Dae-yeon's strength.
Do Tong-dal whispered to Namgung Seol-rin.
"Will he be all right? I know Won Dae-yeon is strong, but those three look like quite the masters too."
"Do you know how strong Won Dae-yeon is?"
"I know even the Ten Great Masters find him troublesome."
"Not something that abstract."
"Is there a way to explain strength so it's visible to the eye?"
"If you don't know, watch now. Won Dae-yeon's strength will be plain to see."
The moment Namgung Seol-rin finished speaking, the Blood Spirit Three Swords moved. They were fast enough to startle Do Tong-dal.
Their swords aimed at Won Dae-yeon's neck, chest, and legs simultaneously. They had covered high, middle, and low, so Won Dae-yeon's only option was to retreat.
Do Tong-dal's expectation was no different.
But instead, Won Dae-yeon leaped into the three swords. He arched his back to evade the sword aimed at his neck, and deflected the attacks on his chest and legs with his two daggers.
The man with the daggers had slipped inside their guard, so the Blood Spirit Three Swords hastily retreated.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
Won Dae-yeon's daggers weren't slow enough to let them escape, and each of them took wounds to the waist and thigh.
Had they been even slightly less skilled, their sides would have split open and the arteries in their legs would have been severed.
Fortunately, only flesh had been cut. Won Dae-yeon spoke to the Blood Spirit Three Swords.
"If this is all you've got, I'm disappointed."
After completing thirteen years of training, the Blood Spirit Three Swords had never disappointed anyone. And now, when the first person they disappointed was an enemy, their pride was wounded enough that they could die from it.
"Kill him."
The Fire Sword, whose nose was pointed enough to use as a needle, charged first. The Ice Sword and Lightning Sword followed close behind.
When people train together for many years, they naturally learn the techniques of combined assault.
They aimed for high, middle, and low as before, but this time they were also prepared for Won Dae-yeon's aggressive advance.
Won Dae-yeon didn't use the same method. He leaped back. It was the most commonsense movement, but because they'd been hit before, the Blood Spirit Three Swords' movements were slightly delayed.
Won Dae-yeon exploited that opening. He retreated to just outside the reach of their swords, then charged again—his movement was lightning itself.
The Blood Spirit Three Swords had experienced thousands of sparring matches that were as good as real combat, and their share of actual battles was not small either.
But they had never seen a master who moved like Won Dae-yeon. No matter how instinctively their combined assault unfolded, perfection was impossible in a situation like this.
When the two swords attacking Won Dae-yeon lightly collided, a small gap opened.
Won Dae-yeon deflected the sword aimed squarely at his chest and slipped into that small gap.
Clack!
The dagger that had pushed aside two swords now went for the Ice Sword's waist.
"Hup!"
The Ice Sword let out a burst of air and retreated while swinging his sword, but he couldn't shake Won Dae-yeon off.
Slash!
The dagger that left a wound on his thigh now went for his neck. He barely managed to knock the sword aside, but before he knew it, a line of blood had been drawn across his lower abdomen.
Fortunately, the Fire Sword and Lightning Sword attacked Won Dae-yeon without delay and kept him from being sent down the road to the underworld.
But he had only pulled his foot back from death's threshold for the moment; the danger hadn't disappeared.
The Blood Spirit Three Swords' swords, swung with desperate force, were deflected far too easily. Won Dae-yeon alone overwhelmed the strength of men who had tempered their Internal Energy with all manner of elixirs.
'Where did a master like this come from!'
Their confidence that the three of them could defeat even one of the Ten Great Masters of the martial world plummeted into the abyss of a greenhorn's foolishness.
Jeon Ho-jin was just as shocked as the Blood Spirit Three Swords. In some ways, he was the most shocked of all.
He knew the Blood Spirit Three Swords' martial arts better than anyone. With those three, they could turn an ordinary sect into a sea of blood.
And yet they were being pushed back one-sidedly by someone who wasn't even one of the Ten Great Masters and whose origins were unknown.
If even one more of those people had stepped forward, the fight would already be over.
'They say the martial world is wide and eccentrics are as numerous as grains of sand!'
The adage of the martial world seemed to be proving itself absolutely true.
'What do I do?'
The movements of the four fighters were too fast for even Jeon Ho-jin to see clearly. He could only make out that the Blood Spirit Three Swords were being pushed back.
If the Blood Spirit Three Swords died here, his own life would inevitably fly away as well. He had to keep them alive somehow.
"Stop the fight!"
He raised his voice, but it had no effect on the battle whatsoever. In the meantime, the Lightning Sword and Fire Sword took new wounds to the shoulder and back.
Droplets of blood sent flying by their violent movements struck Jeon Ho-jin's cheek. Struck as if by a hammer, Jeon Ho-jin flinched and stepped back, then looked at Bae Cheong-dong.
Bae Cheong-dong stood with his arms crossed, looking at ease. Well, there was no need to feel anxious while watching a fight where his own side's victory was clear.
Jeon Ho-jin sidled over toward Bae Cheong-dong. Bae Cheong-dong merely glanced at Jeon Ho-jin approaching and said nothing.
It was clearly a slight, but he didn't even feel offended, because the desperate one here was himself.
"Um... Protector Bae."
"Don't come closer."
Jeon Ho-jin stopped with a flinch at a distance where an outstretched arm could reach him.
"Why...?"
"Have you forgotten we're enemies?"
"Enemies? Aren't we family, eating from the same pot in the Revenge Society?"
Just then, a groan of "Ugh!" came from the Ice Sword. A considerable amount of blood flowed out between the fingers clutching his stomach.
It was the heaviest blow of all the wounds he'd taken so far. Jeon Ho-jin grew urgent.
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