Chapter 191
Chapter 191
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 191
>Chapter Title: Nancheon Society (3)
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Amid the assault from the Nancheon Society Leader's eyeballs that sent his hygiene obsession skyrocketing.
- Hurry up and cut it off!!! The air's rotting away!!
"Fuck."
Il-mok spat a curse and unleashed his lightness skill, charging straight at the bastard.
Screeeeech!
A single sword strike blending the essences of Single Soul Flash and Soul-Separating Sword rocketed toward the Nancheon Society Leader with extreme speed.
Slash!
Unfortunately, Il-mok's blade ended up slicing through empty air.
As expected of the head of an unorthodox faction, the Nancheon Society Leader shamelessly rolled across the floor in a Rolling Escape technique.
And in the midst of it, he managed to snatch up his twin swords.
But Il-mok didn't panic.
The cult viewed Rolling Escape as no disgrace either, and more importantly, the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword wasn't a technique aimed at instant kills in a single blow.
Il-mok relentlessly swung his sword at the Nancheon Society Leader Maeng Gak, who had hastily flung himself away.
True to its name of soul-stealing, Il-mok's chain attack flowed without interruption.
It feigned a swift straight thrust only to suddenly veer into an illusory blade path, or while flying in a straight line, its sword qi bizarrely curved to target acupoints.
Amid that dizzying barrage, the Nancheon Society Leader swung his twin swords alternately to barely block Il-mok's blade.
Clang! Clang!!
When that failed, he flung himself away again and rolled across the floor, narrowly avoiding slashes to his vitals.
Having lost the initiative to a surprise attack and starting the fight off-balance from rolling on the ground, Maeng Gak had no chance to counter.
He could only barely dodge lethal wounds, but in just a few seconds, his body was covered in countless cuts.
But put another way, that meant Il-mok had failed to kill the Nancheon Society Leader with his ambush.
"Protect the Leader!!"
"Kill him!!"
The three remaining guards Il-mok had ignored charged in, taking positions on his left, right, and rear.
"Tch."
Il-mok clicked his tongue lightly, withdrawing his sword from Maeng Gak and unleashing lightness skill to his left.
"Haat!"
The guard charging from the left thrust his spear with a shout, and Il-mok countered with his own thrust.
Clang!
A strange metallic ring echoed out. The guard's face twisted.
His spear bounced aside from an inexplicable rebound force.
Clang!
Incredibly, the deflected spear clashed with the sword swung by his comrade, producing another metallic clash.
Il-mok had effortlessly neutralized the guard's attack and was already deep inside his defenses.
Crunch!
The sword that had deflected the spear pierced the guard's heart.
The remaining two guards each fell in a single exchange, their throats and hearts run through by Il-mok's blade.
"Intruder!!"
"Everyone up!!"
Shouts, screams, and clanging metal began echoing from all directions.
"I don't know where you came from, you mongrel, but today marks your funeral."
Above all, the Nancheon Society Leader Maeng Gak had regained his stance and steadied his breathing.
Il-mok sighed as he took in the sight of those eyes gleaming with murderous intent and sword qi steadily emanating from his twin blades in a chilling display.
"You bought plenty of time while your underlings died. Why not at least put some clothes on first?"
The Nancheon Society Leader was still buck naked.
"What, no shame 'cause you're bald?"
Il-mok squinted as if his eyes were rotting, prompting Maeng Gak's forehead to twitch.
"Is that something a sneaky bastard who ambushes in the dead of night should say?!"
Maeng Gak bellowed in rage, his eyes bloodshot, as the sword qi rippling along his twin blades began to condense.
* * *
"Die!!"
As the Nancheon Society thugs caught wind of the raid and started pouring out from all sides.
"Heh heh heh. You dare come to a place like this?"
"Looks like you came crawling to this old man's lap."
The ones approaching Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a leered with lecherous eyes, spewing vulgar filth.
Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a wore a mask just like Il-mok and Dam Bin, but her figure revealed by her night clothes made her womanhood obvious.
The problem was that the mask made her age impossible to gauge.
Not that these human traffickers from the unorthodox paths would care even if they knew she was only fifteen.
But Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a showed no fear or shame at their vulgar words.
Originally, Il-mok had planned to exclude her from this operation.
It was a mission to exterminate vermin, one that couldn't avoid killing.
As a modern man, Il-mok argued it was too heavy a burden for a mere fifteen-year-old girl, but sadly, his view was overruled.
This was a medieval world, and their group was the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, dedicated to purging evil with martial prowess.
Dam Bin, Jin Ha-yeon, and the others couldn't agree with Il-mok's stance, and above all, Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a insisted on joining.
The girl who had innocently smiled and followed him since childhood. Even now, mature in looks and speech, she still acted innocently, craving his praise.
That was Il-mok's image of Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a, but no such innocent girl existed here.
Crunch!
In an instant, Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a had closed in on the black道 thug spewing vulgarity, her red nails piercing his heart.
His heart pumped wildly, spraying a fountain of blood that dyed her face red, yet.
Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a merely stared at the remaining one with an impassive face.
"Death to those who disturb Big Brother."
"What the...?"
He muttered in stunned confusion at her incomprehensible words, but he couldn't finish.
Her nails were already embedded in his throat.
* * *
Jin Ha-yeon turned her head away from the blood-soaked girl who had begun massacring the black道 thugs.
'...Babysitting duty.'
Unlike Dam Bin and Il-mok, who moved independently as the strongest martial artists, she was traveling with two others.
"Ahahaha! That's right, come at me more! I'll dazzle you with this body's flashy skills as a gift for your trip to the afterlife!"
And the other one was such an attention hog that, now that the surprise was blown, he was bellowing at the top of his lungs while hurling hidden weapons.
"Shut your mouth and fight properly, Young Master Baek Cheon."
Fitting her babysitting role, she nagged him before letting out a light sigh.
It couldn't be helped. This was a raid without knowing the Nancheon Society Leader's exact location.
They had split up to prevent casualties among those who might stumble upon him by chance.
True to her Bare Hand Demon Art cultivation, she quickly cleared her stray thoughts, pressed her palms together, and drew up the frigid qi stored in her dantian.
Her stance looked so defenseless that the men terrified of Baek Cheon and Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a swarmed toward her in a pack.
The moment the black道 thugs closed in.
Jin Ha-yeon parted her pressed palms and spun once, swinging her hands in a dance-like motion.
The frigid qi, endlessly condensed as it flowed between her joined palms, burst free from its seal and spread in all directions following her dancing hands.
Crack.
Everyone approaching her froze in place. Eyes bulging in agony from the intense pain wracking their bodies.
Jin Ha-yeon gazed at them indifferently with cold eyes, swinging her palms repeatedly.
Thud!
With each dull thud, their bodies burst apart.
Not so much human flesh exploding as inanimate objects shattering. Like pounding frozen meat.
She dispatched over a dozen black道 thugs in an instant, then continued swinging her hands wrapped in frigid qi.
Those struck by her palms had their organs freeze solid and died.
And so Jin Ha-yeon, alongside Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a and Baek Cheon, continued purging the villains leading human trafficking in Gansu Province for a time.
Clang!!
For the first time, opponents appeared who could block them.
"You crazy bitches dare invade this place?!"
"Heh heh heh. The damages you've caused tonight will be paid back with those bodies."
They were men wielding sword, saber, and spear, their weapons rippling with sharp auras.
* * *
As the Nancheon Society riffraff bellowed and scrambled through the vast manor amid the sudden raid.
Slash!
"!?"
The body of the comrade running ahead suddenly split apart in a bizarre sight, widening the eyes of the man following behind.
Thanks to the blood spraying from his comrade's body, the man belatedly realized the cause of death.
"A thr...ead?"
The black thread, bound by acupoint-sealing qi, revealed itself under the moonlight reflected in the blood.
But realizing the murder weapon changed nothing for the man.
"You're quick on the uptake for your skill level."
A sweet woman's voice reached him as a strange stinging pain, like an insect bite, bloomed in his throat.
Lowering his eyes at the odd sensation, he saw the black thread already piercing his neck.
After that, she toyed with black道 thugs like a spider hunting with its web, time and again.
As one woman dashed forward with several men using lightness skill toward somewhere.
Slash!
Without fail, they tangled in Dam Bin's web, their limbs and throats severed.
"Hup!"
Clang!
Only the woman alone managed to block Dam Bin's thread with her sword.
Moreover, reading the thread's movement, she located Dam Bin's hiding spot and swung her blade.
Screeeeech!
Dam Bin lightly dodged the incoming sword qi and opened her mouth with a faint smile.
"Judging by your skill, you must be the Vice Leader."
"And who the hell are you?"
To the Vice Leader's sharp question, Dam Bin replied.
"Merely a servant attending a great one."
"How dare a whore like you invade this place."
As if to demonstrate the poise of experience, Dam Bin kept her faint smile despite the insult.
"And you, Vice Leader—why do you sell fellow women as prostitutes?"
"Pathetic. Don't you know the world is survival of the fittest? The strong devour the weak. Gender has nothing to do with it."
Dam Bin's smile deepened at the Vice Leader's confident retort.
"Then you won't mind."
"Mind what?"
The moment the Vice Leader asked in confusion.
"If I claim your life."
With Dam Bin's words, countless black threads scattered into the air.
While conversing with the Vice Leader until now, Dam Bin had secretly strewn black threads everywhere.
"Despicable!"
The startled Vice Leader raised her sword in haste, sword qi whirling around her blade.
As rumored, she was at the peak of peak realm, effortlessly forming a sword barrier.
The black threads touching her sword barrier were sliced apart like straw.
But even more threads than she'd cut continued flying toward her.
Slash!
Slash!
The Vice Leader swung her sword ceaselessly, now coated in sword silk, slashing threads or blocking with her barrier repeatedly—like truly reaping a spider's web with her blade.
Why was that?
Clearly, Dam Bin's threads were being severed all too easily by the Vice Leader's sword dance, yet it looked like a butterfly thrashing futilely in a spider's web.
And the moment the Vice Leader swung again to cleave a bundle of threads.
Crunch.
A slender black thread, launched along Dam Bin's extended right index finger, pierced the Vice Leader's heart.
Feeling the pain belatedly, the Vice Leader looked down at the thread through her heart.
"Cough...."
Coughing up blood-mixed phlegm, she pleaded desperately.
"P-please... spare me...."
But what returned was a cold sneer.
Snicker.
Just like the one she'd worn toward the women being sold off.