The Thousand-Year Spider
"Cough!"
It wasn't a simple strike. My insides felt slightly rattled from the impact.
He was a first-rate expert. Even if he couldn't wield sword qi, he possessed power on par with those who could.
Mumeong stood at the tail end of the first-rate realm, staring toward the absolute peak.
"You bastard!"
I'd taken a slight internal injury, but it wasn't fatal, so I hurled a punch at Mumeong, who had closed in.
"Hmph!"
Mumeong ducked his head to dodge.
But I'd anticipated it and drove my knee upward.
"Heh!"
"Tsk!"
Thud!
Mumeong slapped my knee away with his palm as it flew toward his face and shoved it back. The moment he saw my attack blocked, I retreated immediately. I began bouncing lightly in place, settling into a strange stance. Mumeong adjusted his posture when he saw it.
"An unusual martial art. Far too efficient."
It was a concise style that carried nothing but the pure will to shatter the opponent.
Yet it was excessively linear. Against an armed foe, it showed far too many openings.
"Jab... Tsk!"
"Hmph."
I nearly lost my wrist trying to throw a jab. No matter how practical mixed martial arts might be, it fell short against a weapon.
The distance feels massive.
He held nothing but a single sword, yet the man seemed impossibly far away. I had no idea how masters of bare-handed techniques fought people like this.
"Just die quietly."
True to an assassin's blade, every movement was economical and merciless, aimed solely at taking my life.
As if defense didn't exist, Mumeong's Black Killing Sword Technique lashed out with a single purpose.
"Urgh!"
Slash! Slash!
I twisted away from vital points by a hair each time, but I couldn't avoid every wound.
"Huff... Huff..."
As blood flowed, I felt my stamina draining away.
"Haaap!"
"Keuk!"
Mumeong used his charging speed to drive a kick into me. I took it square in the gut and tumbled across the ground.
"W-wait!"
"Huu... Let's end this."
"Let's talk for a moment."
Mumeong clearly had zero interest in conversation. He kept closing the distance.
"I'll add more to your commission fee."
"Where did all that earlier bravado go? Besides, the payment I receive for this job isn't money. It's not something the likes of you could ever provide."
So he gets paid in goods instead of cash.
Despite his groveling appearance, I remained calmer than expected. In fact, I was waiting for him to come even closer.
Just a little more... to a distance where even a first-rate expert would struggle to react...
I fiddled with my wrist. Mumeong approached, sword raised.
"Die!"
The moment Mumeong thrust his blade toward my heart—
"Eat shit."
Bang!
A poison bullet fired at point-blank range.
He'd prepared some defense against toxins since he was dealing with the Tang clan, but the poison I'd loaded into that shot was anything but ordinary. It was refined from venom taken from the heart of Guya-rim.
"Cough! Keugh!"
Mumeong swallowed an antidote pill with lightning speed. Still, suppressing a toxin that had already spread so fast took time. And since it only suppressed rather than fully neutralized the poison, he had to be extremely careful with his internal energy.
"Hap!"
"Tricks like this won't change your fate!"
"What a tenacious bastard."
I opened the distance again and flung more hidden weapons. Even poisoned, Mumeong reacted instantly, forcing me to change tactics on the fly.
The antidote will kick in soon.
Once that happened, things would get truly dangerous. I recalled my final plan.
No other choice.
It was something I'd thought of but desperately didn't want to use. Still, when your life is on the line, there's nothing you won't do. You pick the option with even slightly better odds.
I sprinted through Guya-rim so fast my legs became a blur.
"Uwaaaaah!"
Fury blazing across his face, Mumeong chased after me like a predator.
"Hmph!"
When I fled into an even darker part of the swamp, he followed without the slightest hesitation.
"You won't escape."
And so Mumeong entered the depths of Guya-rim alongside me.
"Cough... Keuk... Cough!"
"Who the hell are you?"
"Cough!"
The assassin who'd come with Mumeong had a hole punched through his lung by Tang Chiyeol and could barely speak.
"Damn it."
The man's martial arts were better than expected. Tang Chiyeol hadn't been able to subdue him cleanly.
"Keuk!"
Watching the assassin vomit blood, Tang Chiyeol spoke with the irritated expression that served as his default face.
"If you wanted to kill Sanlong while avoiding me, you should've sent someone stronger."
No matter how weak Sanlong was—to the point a third-rate sword could kill him—this still felt wrong.
"I'm right here... Huh?"
Then Tang Chiyeol sensed something off. Now that he thought about it, the assassin had revealed his presence far too obviously.
...Wait.
On top of that, it seemed the man had been trying to buy time rather than truly fight. He'd kept a fixed distance, probing and retreating in a repeating pattern.
"Ha?"
Only then did Tang Chiyeol realize he was now quite far from Sanlong's hiding spot. He finally understood the bastard's true aim.
"So there's another one besides you."
"Cough... Kk... Hehehe..."
The nameless man died with a final laugh. Tang Chiyeol's face hardened at the sight.
"Damn it."
He moved with terrifying speed.
"Is this the best you could come up with? Not running anymore?"
"Huff... Huff... Looks like holding your breath is hard. Why don't you breathe properly... Huff... Huff..."
My lungs burned so badly I worried they might burst before anything else. Mumeong tried to hide it, but his breathing had grown noticeably ragged.
The hellish environment of Guya-rim combined with my desperate flight had created this situation.
"Huu..."
As Mumeong caught his breath, I spoke slowly, like an actor on stage.
"Isn't it perfect?"
Mumeong's expression twisted strangely.
"What?"
"The timing, the humidity, the temperature. Everything is ideal, isn't it?"
"Did your head suddenly start hurting?"
"It won't hurt much."
Thinking I was preparing something again, Mumeong raised his sword before I could act. The distance was still fairly large, but the terrain offered few obstacles, so he closed the gap rapidly.
"Die..."
He moved as if he would pierce my heart at any second—then suddenly began trembling like he was having a seizure.
"Kk... Kkl! What the hell did you do...?"
"I didn't do anything. Same for me."
Thud.
Both of us collapsed to the ground like felled logs at the same time. As expected, surviving one dose of Heuk-shi-bong's paralyzing poison didn't grant full immunity.
Still, it's less severe than before.
Last time I could barely move a finger. This time my body responded, at least somewhat.
"You... You!"
"Don't get so worked up. Anger makes the poison circulate faster."
Even after taking the antidote pill, the toxin was this strong. Mumeong was slowly understanding why Guya-rim was feared.
"Is this your plan?"
Staggering upright, Mumeong quickly sealed his own pressure points. He wouldn't be able to use one arm for a while, but it would slow the poison's spread.
He had stopped underestimating me.
"Without that antidote pill, I would've been finished. I admit it. You're more assassin than an assassin."
"Is that a compliment?"
"Yes. So die now. Your plan has failed."
"I don't think so."
I forced myself up, leaned against a rock, and smiled. Mumeong clearly wondered where my confidence came from. That was when the sky suddenly darkened.
"...This is?"
A chill ran down his spine. When he turned, Mumeong doubted his own eyes.
"What the...?"
A colossal spider nearly twice the size of a cow slowly emerged from the shadows.
"Earth Lord...?"
Facing a spiritual beast he'd only heard about in books, stories, and from his seniors, Mumeong nearly dropped his sword in terror.
A hundred years? No—at least a thousand.
Yes. It was the Thousand-Year Spider.
"Ha!"
Mumeong realized my true intention and let out a hollow laugh.
"Even if it's not by my hand, you're dead anyway."
"Long or short, you have to compare to know."
I sprinkled powder over myself to weaken my scent. While Mumeong kept the Thousand-Year Spider busy, it probably wouldn't notice me.
"Die well."
Having quickly neutralized the second dose of Heuk-shi-bong poison, I started grabbing for what I needed. Mumeong turned to face the Thousand-Year Spider.
"...I got completely played."
Yet he had no intention of dying easily, just as I'd predicted.
"Haap!"
He moved his sword. One arm was disabled by the paralyzing poison, so he couldn't use full power, but Mumeong's blade still carried the weight of long, bitter training. The tip didn't waver even a fraction.
Kyarrrrak!
The Thousand-Year Spider's cry was something he'd never heard before. Mumeong charged in and slashed at its leg.
Clang!
The carapace was so hard his hand went numb and he nearly lost his grip. A sharp leg immediately stabbed toward him. He leaped upward to dodge, then used the falling momentum to strike downward.
Clang!
It left only a tiny scratch. No real damage. Still, Mumeong kept moving, attacking from every angle.
Kieeeeek!
Slash!
The spider suddenly shot a web skyward, climbed it like lightning, and vanished. Running from Mumeong? Of course not.
Shweeeak!
Tearing through the air, the spider swung down on its web at terrifying speed.
"Argh!"
He dodged by a hair, but it changed direction instantly and charged again.
"Damn it!"
Boom!
The impact felt like colliding with a massive boulder. Mumeong rolled across the ground.
"Cough!"
He vomited blood and collapsed. One strike had left him drenched in it.
"Keuk... Keugh!"
Maybe it wanted to drag him fresh to its nest—there was no follow-up attack.
"Haa... So I've become the prey?"
He'd come to hunt me but ended up as prey for the Thousand-Year Spider. In this absurd situation, Mumeong nearly laughed despite himself.
"Huu... I can't just let myself get caught. I'll make you regret not finishing me off."
He released his sealed pressure points, gripped his sword, and took a firm stance.
"Hup!"
He drew up his internal energy at full speed. The poison spread with it, but Mumeong endured with an assassin's tenacity, teeth clenched tight.
The Thousand-Year Spider sensed the threat and grew cautious. As a spiritual beast, it was sensitive to natural energies and recognized the unusual power swirling inside Mumeong.
Realizing it couldn't take him alive, it charged with all eight legs while Mumeong gathered his energy.
"Die!"
Squelch!
Its claw—sharp as a famous sword—pierced straight through his abdomen.
"Cough!"
The poison raging through his body and the agony in his gut nearly made him black out, but Mumeong clung to consciousness and raised every last bit of his internal energy.
"Ha!"
Suddenly power erupted throughout his body like a broken fountain. Only at death's door had he finally shattered the frustrating wall of the first-rate realm.
"Hahaha!"
Vwoooong!
With a hollow laugh, Mumeong poured all that power into his sword. The blade trembled violently, as if struggling to contain the dark energy.
"Haaap!"
Kieeeeeeek!
Slash!
Brilliant sword qi severed two of the Thousand-Year Spider's legs and carved a deep, long wound across its body.