A Night Drunk on Blood
“Is anyone there?! Is there no one out there?! The liquor's gone! Bring me more to drink!”
As one of the Five Great Clans and the very bedrock of Hebei, the Hebei Paeng Family Compound held undeniable sway over the region. Yet tonight, as on any other night, the clan Lord's third son—the universally acknowledged scourge of Hebei, Paeng Cho-jin—was throwing yet another drunken tantrum. The retainers and servants assigned to him endured sheer misery under his worsening tyranny. Because he was the Family Head's own flesh and blood, none dared lay a finger on him, while the Lord himself turned a blind eye despite knowing full well how vicious his son had become. Attending the Third Young Master was a living hell, and those condemned to his service wished desperately for a demotion to anywhere else.
“Dammit! We can't even slaughter that little brat? What a disgrace to the clan!”
Swigging straight from the bottle, Paeng Cho-jin spat a venomous curse. He had made a lewd scene toward a woman at an inn earlier that day, only to receive a harsh thrashing from Jin Yeong. In his own distorted recollection, he had merely been offering a gentlemanly courtship; in reality, the terrified woman had recoiled in utter disgust and tried to flee. Mistaking her desperate resistance for coy teasing, Paeng Cho-jin had reached out to molest her, only for Jin Yeong to intervene like an apparition, seizing his right wrist and cracking the bone. Though his guards had rushed in, they proved woefully outmatched against the vastly superior swordsman. Only by mobilizing the overwhelming authority and numbers of the clan had they managed to corner Jin Yeong and lock him in the holding cells.
The infuriating problem was that they could not simply execute the pest. Executing a roaming disciple of the Jongnam Sect would irreparably shatter their relations. Though Jongnam’s stature had waned following the raid a year ago, the Hebei Paeng Family was likewise bleeding influence under the ominous shadow of the World of Chaos Palace. The Family Head had indulged his son's whining only halfway; recognizing the delicate boundary, he had no intention of severing ties with Jongnam for the sake of his worthless third son.
Paeng Cho-jin, however, harbored nothing but bitter resentment toward his father. Spoiled by countless indulgences, he was thoroughly drunk on illusory power, convinced that his father had betrayed and abandoned him over a petty matter.
“What are you bastards doing?! Didn’t I tell you to bring me more wine at once!”
Brooding in drunken fury, Paeng Cho-jin bellowed again, this time infusing his voice with inner energy so the terrified servants and maidservants would tremble in their boots. Just as he began pondering which maid to drag into his bed tonight, an icy voice cut through the air.
“Call all you like, no one’s coming. They’re all having very pleasant dreams right now.”
“Wh-who the hell are you?!”
The eerie voice echoed within the bedchamber. Though melodious and distinctly female, the figure draped entirely in night-black garments was unmistakably sinister. Paeng Cho-jin realized instinctively that she was an assassin. The fact that she had concealed herself completely beyond his sensory perception proved she was an expert far beyond his caliber. Desperate to prove he was not terrified, he glared through trembling eyes and snarled.
“You wench! Do you have any idea whose quarters you dare intrude upon?!”
“You think I came without knowing? The Third Young Master of the Hebei Paeng Family, the undisputed scourge of Hebei, a pig who does nothing but waste grain, a vile insect driven wild by skirts, and a third-rate scoundrel without an ounce of skill. That’s who you are.”
“How dare a bitch like you insult me...! Are you trying to make an enemy of the entire Paeng clan?!”
“And so what if I am? Right now, the only person holding the power of life and death over you is me.”
Rumble.
Ryeong’s eyes glinted cold. Before her murderous momentum, Paeng Cho-jin shrank back instinctively. A mere first-rate martial artist enduring the raw pressure of a master in the Transformation Realm was an impossibility from the start. Terror gripped him so violently that hiccups seized his throat. Only now did he grasp that his pedigree was utterly meaningless in this room—a realization that came far, far too late.
Ryeong had already cast a barrier of qi around the perimeter to seal all sound within. Unless someone broke through the poison permeating the courtyard, no reinforcements would come to his rescue. In truth, he had none to rely on anyway. Miserable though his retainers were, Ryeong had not used the crude poisons of common cutthroats. It would take at least four hours for those who had succumbed to slumber to awaken. In the meantime, she was free to toss him about and play with him however she saw fit.
After all, as long as she didn't kill him, wasn't that enough?
“You’ve had quite a good time hiding behind the Paeng name all these years, haven't you? Now it's time to reap every bit of your karma.”
“A-aaargh! Dieee!”
The terrified scoundrel’s desperate last resort was a reckless, blind charge—the exact reaction Ryeong had been waiting for. When a cornered dog lunged with genuine intent to kill, her self-imposed restraint against killing naturally lifted.
Shhhk!
“Aaaargh! My arm! My arrrm! Th-this can't be happeninggg!”
“Must you drag out your words so long? Just how pathetically did you live your life to whimper like that—‘th-this can't be happeninnng, my arrrm!’?”
Ryeong glanced at the reflection of her eyes in the blade of the Evil-Slaying Dagger. Stained with blood or consumed by madness, they gleamed with a deep crimson hue. For the first time in ages, she felt the intoxicating rush of being an assassin.
Right. This is the kind of creature I've always been.
She craved primal pleasure. Though she had taken lives for gold, at her core, Ryeong possessed not the slightest aversion to killing. Perhaps it was because her master had walked the Demonic Path, but she far preferred guiding a life to its final period over granting half-hearted mercy. In the Jianghu, the weak were trampled beneath the boots of the strong. Paeng Cho-jin had masqueraded as a predator under the protection of his clan; now, it was his turn to look upon himself from the wretched perspective of prey.
Yet Ryeong’s fleeting amusement was cut short.
Crash!
A ferocious blade of saber qi cleaved through the air from an unseen angle, bearing down on her shoulder. Without missing a beat, Ryeong coated the Evil-Slaying Dagger in gangqi and deflected the trajectory.
Slash!
“Aaaaaaaargh!”
The deflected saber light struck Paeng Cho-jin squarely where he cowered, severing both his legs without warning. Amidst the swirling dust of shattered stone, a familiar face stepped into view.
“The Saber King, is it?”
“You wench... How dare you reduce my son to such a state! Do you seek death?”
“Hate to break it to you, but his legs came off because of your saber qi. Technically, you're the one who butchered your own son. Don’t you feel a shred of guilt?”
“Spare me your sophistry. I came to discipline him myself, but I never expected an uninvited guest.”
“Discipline him, you say? In that case—”
Spuuurt!
As if mocking the Saber King to his face, a flash of sword qi lopped Paeng Cho-jin’s head clean off. Having witnessed his son’s execution mere inches away, the Saber King, Paeng U-gang, erupted in an explosive tempest of inner energy that surged in all directions.
At the same time, Ryeong broke into a demonic smile.
She had intended to dispose of Paeng Cho-jin quietly and slip away, yet here she was, squaring off against the Family Head himself. The tingling crackle of lightning-infused energy grazing her skin stirred an exhilarating competitive fire in her chest.
Bzzzzzt.
Shrouding herself in Azure Dragon Lightning Qi, she gripped the Evil-Slaying Dagger alongside a short knife. She refrained from drawing the Red Cloud Divine Sword, as brandishing it risked exposing her identity. Fortunately, even while coiled as a bracelet, it supplied her with an inexhaustible stream of internal energy, allowing her to unleash the Four Divine Beasts Sword and its accompanying arts without the slightest hindrance.
Meanwhile, Paeng U-gang struggled to swallow down his mounting fury.
I spoiled him too much, and this is what it brought. I came to teach him a proper lesson, yet I never imagined I would lose him like this. Cho-jin, my son...
Paeng U-gang closed his eyes and bowed his head in grief. It was the only tribute he could offer the boy who had been his son. But closing one's eyes was a fatal mistake when facing a killer like Ryeong.
“What?!”
“You shouldn’t let your attention wander in the middle of a fight.”
Closing the gap in a heartbeat, Ryeong thrust her left palm forward. Sensing the lethal lightning qi gathered in her palm, Paeng U-gang urgently raised his blade with the Thunderbolt Saber Art to parry the strike. Yet that was precisely what Ryeong had anticipated. The instant her left palm drove forward, she plunged three throwing daggers held in her right hand deep into his thigh.
“You treacherous wench—such cowardly tricks!”
“Do you really think it makes sense to lecture an assassin on fair play?”
“Attack! Slaughter her!”
“Hm?”
Just as a sneer curved Ryeong’s lips, the Third Young Master’s pavilion collapsed with a thunderous roar. From the surrounding shadows, dozens of elite Paeng warriors brandished their sabers and surged toward her in unison. When on earth had they prepared such an adorable little ambush? Should she praise them for the effort?
“Amateurish.”
Fwoooosh!
Ryeong summoned both Azure Dragon Lightning Qi and Vermilion Bird Fire Qi, releasing them in a devastating burst of power. Rolling waves of lightning and flame roared outward, reducing the charging Paeng warriors to fine ash in an instant.
In terms of raw internal energy, she had long since surpassed the peak of her former life as Cheonsal. Having refined the Ghost Command King's authentic qi into her lower and middle dantians while purging its foul deathly essence, the ceiling of her internal reserves had doubled in depth.
Paeng U-gang could not believe the miracle—or horror—unfolding before his eyes. Thirty elite warriors had charged at once, only to be obliterated by a mere outward release of internal energy.
And she wields both lightning and fire qi simultaneously?!
Just who on earth is this woman?!
A cold sweat began trickling down Paeng U-gang’s spine.