The Six Daggers' Misunderstanding
Young, yet he carries the unmistakable aura of a high-level expert… And he’s handsome, too?
The momentary tension of wondering whether an assassin had infiltrated vanished as my mood suddenly soured.
Then, the moment I confirmed the intruder’s face, a sense of familiarity hit me.
That guy… Isn’t he Tang Chiyeol of the Amryong-dae?
A prodigy who had reached the Baekdok Shingong before turning thirty. The clan leader had discovered him while inspecting a village ravaged by Green Forest bandits during his Jianghu days, brought him back to the Tang Clan, taken him as a direct disciple, and personally taught him martial arts.
After completing his training at Tanggidae at age eighteen, he immediately joined the Inryong-dan—one of the clan’s five major martial forces—and was dispatched straight to the Murim Alliance, where he racked up an impressive list of achievements.
Yukdo Birang—Six Daggers. The nickname came from the time he killed the infamous Bloodthirsty Blade Fiend near Luoyang by planting six throwing daggers in the man’s body. It also marked Tang Chiyeol’s official entry into the absolute peak realm.
He could have stayed with the Murim Alliance, but out of loyalty to my father, he returned to the Tang Clan and entered the Amryong-dae, the leader’s personal guard unit, where he had been operating ever since.
He’s someone with extraordinary loyalty toward my father.
You could even say he practically views Tang Munseong as his real father. Which was exactly why he despised me—the good-for-nothing third son who used to run wild.
He was once my dream, too.
Back then, he had been the very goal I aspired to.
An absolute peak expert who achieved the Baekdok Shingong at the young age of twenty-eight. To a young me, he was nothing short of an idol.
Outstanding looks, outstanding skill, but his personality was a little… sharp. Stubborn, maybe. If something didn’t sit right with him, he charged straight in, which naturally earned him more enemies than friends.
But is this the same Tang Chiyeol here to assassinate me?
The odds seemed extremely low. He hated the branch families almost as much as the clan leader did.
Before his dispatch to the Murim Alliance, Tang Chiyeol had been part of the Inryong-dan. Because of his constant clashes with the branch families, they kept throwing him into dangerous missions that were basically death sentences.
After he somehow survived them all, my father sent him to the Murim Alliance despite his affiliation with the Inryong-dan. It was an unusual move, considering he wasn’t even part of the Pungcheon-dan, which usually handled external missions and reconnaissance.
Would someone like that accept Eon Jungmi’s orders and come to kill me?
The possibility was slim, but in my previous life I had seen common sense betrayed too many times to dismiss it. I recalled all the smiling faces that had stabbed me in the back while saying things like We’re family~ We’re friends~ It’s me, after all~, and prepared myself for the worst-case scenario.
Dispatching an Amryong-dae member as a watcher? But the watcher reveals himself directly?
This part made it hard for me to fully trust Tang Chiyeol.
First, my father has no reason to send him here. And if this really is a mission… his mission execution ability is absolute garbage.
I was still debating whether to bolt when our eyes met.
“Damn it!”
I’d hoped I was seeing things, but his gaze kept tracking me. There was no doubt anymore.
Did I underestimate an absolute peak expert’s senses too much?
Swish!
In the next instant, Tang Chiyeol vanished from my sight. A split second later, the back of my neck stung.
…Disgustingly fast.
I made a mental note to factor in absolute peak sensory range for future positioning and was about to flee when—
“Tang Sanlong.”
The chilling call came out of nowhere. I quietly slipped my hand into my sleeve.
Killing intent? Been a while.
Facing a sensation I knew all too well from my previous life, I steadied my breathing.
I have zero intention of dying easily.
I had escaped that spider cave on my own strength, and I had survived far worse threats in my past life. This was nothing.
“You son of a—”
Shish!
I spun and hurled the obsidian hidden weapon I’d kept hidden in my sleeve at him.
“Haa…”
Tang Chiyeol looked at me with the same expression that said I was still pathetic.
“This kind of trash…”
Since I had thrown it with pure physical strength and no internal energy, he swatted it aside with a casual gesture. The obsidian clattered uselessly to the ground. But that wasn’t what I was aiming for.
“Hup!”
Clack!
I yanked the cord hidden beneath the grass. A log trap sprang to life. A crude but massive wedge made of thick logs burst out from the side, hurtling straight toward him.
“These petty tricks!”
My internal-energy-less hidden weapon could be batted away, but a giant log was no joke—even for an absolute peak expert to take head-on.
The Amryong-dae’s advanced fist art, Amryong Shibsagwon, unfolds. True to its dark dragon name, the strikes are silent, rapid, and terrifyingly destructive.
The impact was incredible. In a mere instant, he had drawn up his internal energy and unleashed it.
“Huu…”
Amid the shattered logs, Tang Chiyeol slipped his hand into his sleeve again. My sharp dynamic vision caught every detail.
“Shit!”
That stance was the most basic throwing posture in the entire Tang Clan—the starting position for both flying daggers and hidden weapons. Every single one of our clan’s projectile arts began from that exact form.
Same stance, but every Tang Clan member used different techniques and weapons. Tang Chiyeol preferred flying daggers over hidden weapons.
True to its dark dragon name, the flying dagger streaks forward with elegant ferocity.
Only a single dagger, yet its graceful, razor-sharp trajectory was almost hypnotic.
“Ugh!”
Thud!
I dove behind a rock I had scouted earlier. The impact that followed was anything but ordinary.
Nine needle-thin daggers scream in from nine different angles at once.
Focus!
Even with my dynamic vision, the trajectories were nearly impossible to track.
Focus! Focus!
Then, suddenly, I spotted the gap. My long-trained body reacted on instinct.
I strike the incoming daggers, deflecting their paths and creating an opening.
Clang!
I launched myself into the empty space.
“Hmm.”
My body was completely exposed. As Tang Chiyeol’s face flickered with faint regret, I twisted mid-air, using the centrifugal force to unleash my strongest technique.
The simplified high-efficiency dagger technique created by my father. I’ve modified it to fit my own style.
“…Ilseombi?”
But it was slightly different from the version he knew.
This… I’d better dodge.
Unlike the earlier restraining throw, this one carried proper internal energy. Blocking it head-on would require real effort.
No need to get hurt for nothing.
Tang Chiyeol lightly used his footwork to evade.
I only meant to punish him a little for the annoying trap, but this is getting interesting.
The days spent watching over me had been boring. Today, however, Tang Chiyeol looked like he was actually enjoying himself.
Too bad. If it had been just a little faster… it might have reached me…
As he evaluated my technique, he suddenly sensed something wrong.
Because I had already closed the distance.
“Huh?”
“Take this, you bastard!”
“Damn it!”
Tang Chiyeol instantly realized what I was doing.
“Catch!”
I flung a handful of finely ground lime powder straight into his face. I had prepared it carefully in case of assassins. The Chuhon Shimpyo had been nothing but a feint to force him into the perfect position.
Got him!
I knew he would dodge the Chuhon Shimpyo, so I had guided him exactly where I wanted him, moved first, and waited with the powder ready.
“Son of a—!”
True to his Tang Clan blood, he didn’t panic even after taking the lime powder directly. He immediately retreated while responding.
While he was temporarily blinded, I sprinted for the escape route I had prepared earlier.
Even if he tracks my general position with his senses, he won’t be able to move recklessly while he can’t see.
No matter how strong an absolute peak expert he was, leaping from a high place with no vision was pure suicide.
Just like my father said—Chuhon Shimpyo really isn’t meant for use against people.
It takes time to prepare, and the trajectory is too honest. It’s not ideal for hitting a moving target.
Still, mixing it with other techniques should make it usable.
Until I learned Ilseombi, combining it with other hidden weapons or dagger arts would probably work fine.
It’s all good.
I let go of my lingering attachment to the Chuhon Shimpyo and decided to be satisfied with the results.
I’ve only just broken out of third-rate. Escaping safely from an absolute peak expert is already a huge win.
I had only recently stepped into the Shipdok Shingong. Entering it made one second-rate, mastering it made one first-rate. Reaching Baekdok Shingong granted absolute peak, and completing Cheondok Shingong elevated one to transcendental peak.
I was a fresh second-rate who had just entered the Shipdok Shingong. Making an absolute peak expert flinch and escaping safely was no small feat.
“First, grab what I need!”
I collected the supplies I had hidden outside my shelter and began moving at full speed.
No matter how superior Tang Chiyeol’s light footwork was, in a dense jungle like Guya-rim it wouldn’t be fully effective.
Just running is better.
Unless he knew the legendary Chosangbi technique, of course. With my opened great veins and properly trained stamina, I tore through Guya-rim at terrifying speed.
Tang Chiyeol wiped the lime powder from his eyes with oil, staring at me as I fled into the distance with a dumbfounded expression.
“Why is he running? Does he think I’m an assassin?”
…Well, it wasn’t as if only one or two people in the Tang Clan wanted me dead. Plus, considering what I had done right before coming here, it was perfectly understandable that he would misunderstand.
A real watcher wouldn’t have revealed himself so openly, either.
“I came looking because I hadn’t seen him all day and ended up getting hit with this.”
Tang Chiyeol examined the spot where our brief clash had taken place.
“I didn’t use my full power, but… his response was pretty good.”
His improvisation and preparation were both solid.
“Is this really the Tang Sanlong I knew?”
When Tang Chiyeol had returned after years away at the Murim Alliance, the Sanlong he saw had been the one drowning in inferiority and acting like a degenerate, not someone who made any real effort. So this was even more surprising.
“I’ll have to clear up the misunderstanding soon. Being treated as that old fox’s lackey…”
He had suffered plenty at the hands of Tang Woo and Eon Jungmi back in the Inryong-dan. Being seen as their underling was far from pleasant.
“That aside… even for Eon Jungmi, sending an assassin all the way out here should be difficult…”
Tang Chiyeol pondered for a moment before his expression turned stony.
“No. If it’s that woman, she’s perfectly capable of doing something that insane. She’s the type who would sell the entire Tang Clan to the Demonic Cult if it was for her son.”
Now that both I and Tang Chiyeol had fled into Guya-rim, Tang Woo’s rage was probably boiling over. The chances that he would support her plan were high.
There was even a possibility they had decided to use this opportunity to eliminate us both.
Tang Chiyeol knew Eon Jungmi just as well as I did.
“Sigh…”
No matter where you went in Tang Clan territory, the influence of the branch families could always be felt.
“Even if the clan leader works this hard, is there ultimately a limit?”
Both the clan leader and the Amryong-dae had struggled to break free of the branch families’ influence, yet no visible change had come. It felt like throwing eggs at a solid wall.
With a heavy, frustrated heart, Tang Chiyeol stood atop a tall tree with his hands clasped behind his back, quietly gazing at the thick canopy of Guya-rim that blocked the sky from view.
“Ah! Damn it! That bastard Tang Sanlong.”
But the stinging in his eyes from the lime powder quickly forced a curse from his lips.