Chapter 204
Chapter 204: Makeup and Cosmetic Surgery (3)
Jin Family.
A distinguished family that had continued for over three hundred years in the Central Capital region, counted among the foremost even among the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect's affiliated families.
Generation after generation, they had steadily produced direct disciples of the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect, and the warriors bearing the Jin surname currently active within the sect numbered twenty-seven alone.
Among them, two were Elders and three were at the rank of Division Leader.
Jin Mu-hyeok was born as the eldest grandson of such a family.
The eldest grandson of a distinguished family.
The moment he was born, his life was decided.
At age five, he took up a sword.
At age seven, he built his foundational internal energy.
At age ten, he entered the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect and was assigned to the Sword Patrol Corps.
On the day of the initiation ceremony.
His father and Family Head, Jin Ho-yeon, spoke.
—You are the eldest grandson of the Jin Family. Our family has been a pillar of the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect for three hundred years. Do not forget the weight of that.
That day, he personally received the family heirloom, the Evil-Warding Sword.
True to its name as a sword that wards off evil energy, Jin Mu-hyeok vowed to become a more righteous sword than anyone.
—With this sword, sever evil. Uphold the Orthodox Path. That is the mission of our family.
The Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect.
In a place that safeguarded righteousness and justice, he had cut down evil innumerable times and protected the good.
Purely.
Passionately.
Of course, there were minor incidents in the course of defending the greater cause.
Such as a few nearby villagers being sacrificed in the process of wiping out bandits.
Or small fires breaking out in the process of executing dangerous criminals of the Martial World.
Or carrying out executions based on intelligence alone even when evidence was insufficient.
Or, like today, bestowing small pleasures upon warriors whose bodies and minds were exhausted.
Yet those were, after all, trivial matters.
For the sake of upholding the greater cause, none of it posed any problem.
Because I, we, the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect, were special.
We were different.
Those who were special had the right to demand the small sacrifices of those who were not special, for the sake of a special greater cause.
An authority like a reward bestowed for having cut down evil again and again and again over hundreds of years.
Any warrior of the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect could rightfully enjoy that privilege in full.
So why am I?
Why does Jin Mu-hyeok?
Why does the Sword Patrol Corps of the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect?
Have to tremble in the middle of some backwater forest like this?
What is this......
He looked around.
The faces of his comrades were all deeply sunken with despair.
Pale and wretched, one might say.
Expressions he had never once seen since entering the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect.
'Why do we have to suffer this?'
We are the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect.
The greatest sect in the Orthodox Martial World.
The foremost among the Ten Great Sects.
Is it not natural that wherever we go, evil trembles and evil demons all hold their breath?
Just what manner of villain is hunting us in such a vile fashion?
Indeed.
This was not a battle.
Nor was it an engagement.
Simply a hunt.
We had become the prey.
It had been so from the start, but Jin Mu-hyeok was still feeling it even now.
The sensation of something surrounding them from all four directions.
More precisely, the feeling of being trapped in a spider's web formed of energy.
It was the same even now.
No—it had grown worse.
According to Sword Patrol Corps Leader Sang Gwan-hwi's words, it was because they were trapped within a 'formation.' He had said it would be fine once they left the village. So everyone scattered and then regrouped at the southern forest of the village.
But it was not so.
The forest they arrived at was simply deep and dark.
Even moonlight seeped in only faintly, obscured by branches.
Only darkness breathed within this space.
Moss-covered rocks jutted here and there, and damp fallen leaves were crushed soggily underfoot.
A murky energy, whether fog or mist, had risen up to ankle height.
Over there, Corps Leader Sang Gwan-hwi stood with sword drawn, scanning all directions.
The Sword Patrol Corps warriors, himself included, pressed shoulder to shoulder and formed a circular formation.
Vast Heaven Thirty Secret Sword Formation.
The finest joint-strike sword formation of which the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect was proud.
A formation in which thirty people move as one body, constructing an iron wall of unified offense and defense.
One person handles three, three people handle nine, nine people handle the whole.
A structure that meshes together and turns like gears.
When one person attacks, two cover; when one blocks, three thrust.
An infinite cycle in which motion and stillness, attack and defense endlessly rotate.
The commander stands at the center, the core eight fan out in the Eight Trigrams formation around them, and the remainder form a triple ring beyond that.
The inner ring defends, the middle ring checks, the outer ring attacks.
A structure in which no matter where the enemy comes from, a minimum of nine swords can respond simultaneously.
However, now they could not fully fill those thirty.
Twelve. Even counting the Corps Leader, barely thirteen.
In the process of scattering, several more had already been lost.
"......The enemy is only one."
The Corps Leader spoke calmly.
Yet glancing over, the veins on the back of his hands were jutting out sharply.
"Do not panic. We are the Sword Patrol Corps of the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect."
Right.
We are the elite of the greatest sect in the Orthodox Martial World.
There is no way we could be bested by some unknown country savage.
......He wanted to believe that, but there were already severe fractures in that belief.
Because now the entire forest seemed to have become entirely that wretch's domain.
No matter where they moved.
No matter where they hid.
A heavy, sticky, glue-like energy clung and pressed down upon the heads of every Sword Patrol Corps member.
Even a single leaf rustling, that wretch would know.
Even a single breath leaking out, that wretch would sense it.
Even a single heartbeat seemed to be transmitted to that wretch.
Would it feel like this if one became a rabbit being chased by a tiger?
The tiger was slowly, composedly, driving them forward.
Sweat broke out across their entire bodies, goosebumps rose, and their teeth clattered involuntarily.
Thud—
He turned toward the direction of the sound.
With a hole blown through his forehead, Jo Baek was falling.
Jo Baek.
A colleague who had entered the sect the same year as Jin Mu-hyeok.
He was blunt and quiet, yet loyal.
Last winter, during a mission, when Jin Mu-hyeok had accidentally killed a civilian, he was the one who had kept his mouth shut.
The grateful fellow who had said, 'If elder brother did it, it must have been the right thing.'
The light was fading from the eyes of the fellow bleeding from the hole pierced through his forehead.
It was not a hidden weapon or anything of the sort.
Just pure energy.
It was different again from the rotating sword energy he had seen at the village.
If that had been for close range, this was for long range.
An arrow made of light.
What kind of martial art is this?
He had never heard of it, never seen it.
A martial art that fires energy like an arrow.
That is too fast and accurate.
"D......amn."
Someone's despairing murmur.
Simultaneously.
"Everyone sprint full speed south!"
Corps Leader Sang Gwan-hwi shouted.
At that, the Sword Patrol Corps members all simultaneously began deploying their Lightness Arts.
Jin Mu-hyeok too dashed southward like mad, flying forward.
It felt as though his heart would burst.
It felt as though his Dantian would tear apart.
Even so, he could not stop.
He even burned his True Origin Energy and accelerated further.
Thud— thud— thud—
Even as they ran, the colorless and soundless assault continued.
Every time golden flashes flickered, one person after another fell with a scream.
One shot.
Two shots.
Three shots.
Precise.
Too precise.
While running.
Weaving between branches.
Even moving irregularly.
Not a single miss.
One shot, one person.
Without exception.
Crack—!
Jin Mu-hyeok looked to his side.
A comrade running alongside him.
Ma Hwi-yeon.
A senior brother who had helped Jin Mu-hyeok greatly in the early days of joining the corps.
He was the one who had retaught the fundamentals of sword technique, and also the one who had taught him the unspoken 'rules' of the Sword Patrol Corps.
The one who had told him, 'The Orthodox Martial World is like this by nature. If you live too purely, you become a fool.'
His throat had just been pierced through.
Hot, metallic blood spurted like a fountain and splattered onto Jin Mu-hyeok's left cheek.
Ma Hwi-yeon's eyes flew wide open.
An expression of disbelief.
An expression as if asking, 'Why me?'
There was no time to answer.
Jin Mu-hyeok's lips convulsed.
Swallowing the nasal sounds that escaped, he ran faster.
He no longer looked behind or to the side.
'I must survive. I must survive. I alone must survive.'
Crack—!
Another one fell.
Gwak Chung.
He was a big, strong fellow.
During interrogations, Gwak Chung always led the way.
A fellow specialized in punching and kicking.
He had a remarkable talent for subduing resistant criminals.
A hole the size of a head had been punched through the fellow's back.
Heart or whatever else, his innards had vanished wholesale.
Gwak Chung pitched forward and couldn't even scream.
Only blood poured from his mouth.
Eyes wide open.
"Damn it!"
Jin Mu-hyeok ran.
He only ran.
He had to survive.
As the eldest grandson, he had to continue the Jin Family line.
That was his only thought.
Heaven would never forsake righteousness.
I am a righteous person.
I have been carrying out justice.
So heaven would never abandon me.
Clinging to that belief—.
Crack—
The back of his head was pierced.
At first, he did not know what it was.
As if boiling molten metal had been poured in, the back of his head was simply hot.
Seeing that half of his left field of vision had simply vanished, it seemed his left eye had disappeared.
It had not turned black—it had vanished.
A strange sensation as if his awareness itself had disappeared.
He looked at the world with his remaining right eye.
Because of blood spattered in droplets, something—whether his own blood or brain matter he could not tell—trickled down his eyelid and fouled his vision.
His legs gave out.
His knees buckled.
He fell forward.
His face buried into the fallen leaves.
A wet, cold sensation.
I'm going to die.
Faintly, he had such a thought.
Even as he fell, his hearing remained intact, so he could clearly hear the voice of the villain who had killed him.
"Twenty-five."
A system window appeared.
A window visible only before Dong Bong-soo's eyes.
【Sub】 Innocent Village
【Sudden】
․ Defeat the ruthless Sang Gwan-hwi and his associates of the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect.
├─ Progress: 24/31
"So at this level, they haven't been 'defeated' yet."
Dong Bong-soo looked down at the fallen warrior.
He still had breath left in him.
He raised his sword and drove it down.
Slice—
The world as seen through Jin Mu-hyeok's remaining single eye spun round and round.
He could see the sky.
He could see the branches.
And he could see his own body.
My neck has been severed.
Faintly, he had such a thought.
The scene of blood, innards, and brain matter flowing out from his own corpse fouling the ground.
The proud eldest grandson of the Jin Family.
The righteous sword of the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect.
Jin Mu-hyeok.
Those splendid backgrounds rolled meaninglessly in the dirt.
The final moment.
A single thought faintly brushing past.
'......Was I.'
Righteous?
Before he could arrive at an answer, the light vanished from his eyes.
Ding.
Progress: 25/31
It was an exceedingly 'righteous' end.
For he had been reborn as faithful nourishment for a new 'hero.'