52. Time for the Hunt (5)
One of the nine black shadows shouted.
"There it is!"
At that moment, all nine black shadows vanished.
Even long after they had disappeared, Sim Miho held her breath, not daring to move.
Then, from the distance, a wolf's howl echoed through the night.
Awooooo!
Only then did Sim Miho finally exhale.
Today had been a nonstop parade of shocks. She couldn't help thinking that this was the world of the jianghu.
Suddenly, the Hebei Paeng Family felt like little more than a frog in a well.
And she herself was that frog.
Then what about my lord?
No matter how hard Sim Miho pondered, she couldn't find an answer.
As time passed, she broke into a run toward the camp.
What if her lord faced off against those nine assassins?
The outcome was obvious.
She had to return to camp and call for help.
That's when she remembered the note Han Bin had sent her.
Pulling it from her bosom and unfolding it, Sim Miho's eyes widened.
The note laid out everything that had already happened—and everything yet to come—in crystal-clear detail.
Han Bin slipped away, leaving just enough traces behind to guide them.
When he reappeared, he cast a faint shadow as he ran.
It was past midnight now, and the pale moonlight stretched his shadow all the way to the end of the mountainside.
With that long shadow trailing behind him, Han Bin walked toward the clearing.
Glancing around, he spotted the rock and placed the prepared item on top.
Covered with cloth, it looked just like a human face.
Once everything was set, Han Bin concealed his presence and waited for the assassins.
How much time passed?
Nine black shadows entered his field of vision.
Han Bin observed them carefully.
Two at the Peak realm, the rest First Rate.
The problem was that one of those Peak experts was on the verge of Super Peak.
A Peak upper-grade assassin?
For a regular martial artist, that put her in Super Peak territory.
Well, cultivation didn't matter.
He had someone else handling the assassins anyway.
Han Bin waited for them to approach the rock.
Rustle.
Rustle.
As the sound of their footsteps through the grass echoed around the clearing, someone shouted.
"There it is!"
The assassins drew their swords in unison.
Shing! Shing!
The sharpness was so keen it seemed it could slice the grass leaves themselves.
As they drew closer to the rock, Han Bin drew the dagger strapped to his leg.
One, two...
Gauging the distance between them and the rock, he unleashed a new stance from the Yongrin Sword Art.
Baekbal Baekjung.
Instead of surging from his dantian, the energy of the Dragon Scale swirled through his entire body to his fingertips. Han Bin hurled the dagger.
Whoosh!
The dagger cut through the air toward the rock.
The super-elite assassin barked.
"Ambush!"
Everyone swung their swords toward the incoming dagger.
Bathed in moonlight, it slithered toward them like a silver serpent.
Not particularly fast.
Han Bin tilted his head.
That speed should have been easy enough to deflect.
And sure enough, the super-elite assassin batted it away.
Clang!
But instead of falling, Han Bin's dagger traced a bizarre trajectory straight toward its target.
As if linked to the object by internal energy.
A faint smile tugged at Han Bin's lips.
Now he saw it—this stance was worth a full year of cultivation.
The target wasn't the super-elite assassin, who outranked him. It was the object on the rock.
In other words, Baekbal Baekjung meant unerring accuracy against weaker foes.
The dagger buried itself in the object on the rock.
Boom!
"Everyone, take cover!"
At the super-elite assassin's cry, the others dropped flat.
Her eyelids twitched.
The dagger's trajectory screamed trap.
This super-elite assassin was known as Blood Flower within Heukcheon.
She was only eighteen.
Only Heukcheon's master knew her true age and face.
Her mission was simple: eliminate the Hebei Paeng Family's youngest, derisively called their biggest coward.
Chopping off that coward's head should be as easy as wringing a chicken's neck.
In truth, she'd taken the job mostly as an excuse to visit Hebei Province.
Finish quick, get some new clothes tailored, enjoy the famous inns' cuisine.
But somehow, things had gone sideways.
The two assassins sent first to take the coward's head vanished, sending back only a top-level alert.
Tracking their trail had led to this sudden ambush.
Now, a barrage of hidden weapons was surely about to erupt from where the dagger had lodged.
Blood Flower figured a third of them would be injured.
But as she lay prone, she tilted her head.
No screams from her subordinates.
Instead, she wrinkled her nose.
"What is that smell?"
Rising, Blood Flower scanned the area.
No explosion, no hidden weapons anywhere.
Just a strange stench assaulting her nostrils.
One of her men rushed up.
"Leader, something's off."
"Report."
"There's blood on my back. It seems like..."
"Pig's blood."
"Yes. No idea why it's splattered everywhere."
"Eyes sharp, everyone! Form up!"
Blood Flower raised her sword and shouted. The assassins scattered to the four cardinal directions, forming ranks.
She issued orders.
"We pull out—fast."
Then an unpleasant sound pierced her ears.
Awooooo!
A wolf's howl, unmistakably.
Only then did Blood Flower grit her teeth, realizing this was Absol Valley—infested with ash-gray wolves.
Regaining her composure, she commanded her men.
"Back out slowly. No engaging the wolves."
"..."
Her subordinates responded with silent clasped fists.
But they barely took a few steps before halting.
Wolves had them surrounded thick as thieves.
Not just in front.
Dozens of eyes gleamed in the moonlight behind them too.
A chill ran down their spines.
One wolf lunged at Blood Flower, cleaving the dawn air.
Awooooo!
She slashed in response.
Slash!
The wolf's head hit the dirt.
Thud.
It was the opening salvo—not of man versus wolf, but dogfight.
Watching the dogfight from afar, Han Bin pulled a pouch from his satchel.
It held dried radish.
Planted in Cheonsu Manor's extreme yang energy, these were spirit herbs that boosted internal energy.
But oddly, they did little for Han Bin.
Probably because the Yongrin Sword Art's power capped his actual cultivation.
Still, he chewed them habitually whenever he had time.
Munching on the dried radish, Han Bin watched the brawl like a spectator across the river.
"Wonder what would've happened if they'd clashed head-on."
He shuddered slightly.
That assassin he'd pegged as Peak upper-grade? She was closer to the pinnacle—nearly Super Peak.
Just one thin wall from transcendence.
If he'd tangled with them?
He'd be shredded to jerky before he could sip his tea.
After watching a while, Han Bin checked his sleeve again.
Thump-thump.
Confirming the scent, he sighed in relief.
"Phew."
The blood he'd doused the Heukcheon assassins with was a mix of pig's blood and honey.
If plain pig's blood lured Absol Valley wolves, they wouldn't need this many men.
Drawing from past-life memories, Han Bin had concocted the perfect bait for these wolves and slathered it on them.
A secret even the hunters probably didn't know.
If they did, they wouldn't have mobilized so many for the extermination.
The assassins were firmly in Buddha's—er, Han Bin's—palm.
As his smile deepened...
The wolves suddenly hesitated and backed off.
What the?
Han Bin narrowed his eyes.
A wolf-wall of corpses towered before the assassins.
Fleeing because their own kind fell? Not Absol Valley wolves.
These wolves bolted only from overwhelming power.
Overwhelming power?
As Han Bin puzzled over it...
Yelp! Yap!
The wolves split and retreated.
An unprecedented sight.
Odder still—they weren't eyeing the assassins.
Han Bin's gaze followed theirs.
Maybe Heukcheon's master in person?
Made sense in the moment.
But then he shuddered again.
He sensed an unnatural presence.
Not the assassins'—demonic energy.
Scanning by moonlight, Han Bin saw nothing amiss.
Then...
His eyes widened.
The rock in the moonlight was... moving. Slowly.
Not just any rock—a red one.
As Han Bin stared at the bizarre crimson boulder...
It shook and rose on four legs.
He held his breath.
The "rock" was a blood-red beast.
Han Bin scraped pine resin from a nearby tree.
Nothing beat it for masking scent.
Smearing it on himself, he observed the beast.
House-sized, it was a blood-red wolf.
The beast let out a howl.
Awooooo!
Internal energy boomed like a lion's roar.
A magical beast, plain and simple.
Han Bin recalled nagging mysteries from both lives.
Past life: Over twenty warriors dead in an Absol Valley wolf hunt.
This life: Wolves raiding villages.
All because of that blood-red wolf.
From memory, he dredged up its identity.
House-sized, fur red as blood.
Those eerie eyes.
He'd heard of it somewhere.
In a flash, the name hit him.
"Heavenly Mountain Blood Wolf!"
The magical beast said to haunt Xinjiang's holiest peak, Heavenly Mountain.
Why is a Heavenly Mountain Blood Wolf here?
Shock faded fast. Han Bin's eyes narrowed.
He spotted flickering points across its blood-red body.
And if it was a Heavenly Mountain Blood Wolf?
It had an inner core!
Han Bin now housed two powers: the Yongrin Sword Art's energy and his actual cultivation.
The Dragon Scale power sat at ten years, stagnant.
His real dantian? Around ten years too.
So?
An inner core might expand the Yongrin Sword Art.
But could he take it down?
Han Bin shoved doubts aside.
I have to get that thing!
Plus, he had the Yonghyeol Divine Art mnemonic for Quick Sword Chaos Demon.
It all felt fated for him.
Clenching his fist, Han Bin turned.
No way he could solo it.
Eggs against a boulder wasn't courage—it was folly.
Rough math: One Super Peak warrior and five Peak experts minimum.
Eyeing the Heavenly Mountain Blood Wolf, Han Bin smirked.
A plan formed.
Yi yi zhi yi—pit barbarians against barbarians.
Nothing fancy.
Just swapping the assassins' foes from Absol Valley wolves... to the Heavenly Mountain Blood Wolf.
Then, far off, another "rock" stirred and rose.