Chapter 19
Because of the stake driven into his thigh, every time he put strength into his leg, the muscle fibers felt as though they were being torn sideways.
His left arm was nowhere to be seen, and he could no longer see out of his right eye.
But Ga Un-seong stood upright, sword in hand.
He did not fear death.
He only wanted to strike down even one of them, to console the spirits of his comrades. He wanted revenge.
But his body would no longer move. The only sensation remaining was the grip of his fingers around the sword hilt.
"Impressive."
Among the five masked men surrounding Ga Un-seong, the one who appeared to be the leader stepped forward.
"To still be standing on two feet in that condition."
"You bastards."
When Ga Un-seong opened his mouth, bloody foam trickled out.
"I'll make every last one of you... companions on the road to the underworld!"
"I hope it comes to that."
The masked man nodded and drew the black sword from his back.
"As a sign of respect, I will kill you in a single stroke."
Ga Un-seong calmly raised his right arm.
Even after enduring countless attacks, he had risen again and again like a roly-poly toy.
It was not because his martial arts or stamina were exceptional, but solely because of his single-minded determination to have revenge.
Swish!
The masked man's black sword split the air and sharply pierced toward Ga Un-seong's heart.
Thud.
With a dull sound, Ga Un-seong dropped to his knees without even a scream.
"What a tenacious bastard."
Just as the masked man pulled his sword from the heart and shook his head,
Step, step.
Low footsteps echoed across the ground.
Turning his head, there was a shadow walking calmly toward him, an iron sword held in his left hand. It was Bu Eun-seol.
"That sword..."
The masked man's eyes widened as he looked at Bu Eun-seol's back as he approached.
Because strapped to Bu Eun-seol's back was a black sword—the kind worn by trainees who had entered the martial arts hall of the Extreme Killing Secret Pavilion.
"Why are you carrying a black sword?"
At the masked man's question, Bu Eun-seol replied flatly.
"Because it seemed useful."
At the unexpected answer, the masked man's gaze turned cold.
The direction Bu Eun-seol had come from was where three of his comrades had been lying in ambush. And since he was holding their swords, further conversation was unnecessary.
Flash!
In that instant, a streak of light burst from Bu Eun-seol's right hand.
The martial arts of assassins was mostly one-strike-kill sword techniques or saber techniques. Bu Eun-seol had struck first, quickly, to prevent them from launching a preemptive attack.
"Aaagh!"
The masked man standing at Bu Eun-seol's flank clutched his throat and let out a harrowing scream.
His carotid artery had been severed in a single stroke by the fast sword.
"Attack him!"
The remaining four masked men swiftly drew their black swords and attacked Bu Eun-seol.
Whik, whik, whik!
Sharp sword techniques, like a violent downpour, rained down upon Bu Eun-seol's body.
But Bu Eun-seol's body predicted the incoming sword trajectories and flattened itself against the ground.
"Ah!"
At the sight, cries of shock burst from the masked men's lips.
The Death Shooting Blood Style they had unleashed was a one-strike-kill sword technique that targeted the enemy's vital points with full power.
But when Bu Eun-seol nonchalantly dropped flat to the ground, their full-power sword strokes missed entirely.
Shiik!
Bu Eun-seol's body rose like lightning, and his iron sword writhed like a living snake.
"Urgh!"
Yet another masked man had his heart pierced through by Bu Eun-seol's iron sword.
He had consecutively executed the sixth stroke of the Fire Rain Thirteen Forms, Comparing Long and Short, and the seventh stroke of the Fire Rain Thunder-Splitting Sword, Wooden Man Stone Heart.
"What kind of sword technique is this!"
The masked men were utterly horrified.
An iron sword that should stand straight, bending freely at will and piercing vital points?
Tremble.
Then the tip of the sword quivered, and Bu Eun-seol's technique shifted once more.
At the same time, without fail, a harrowing scream rang out.
"Aaagh!"
The fast sword that had thrust straight forward suddenly drew a circle and slashed open a masked man's side.
"Th-that bastard is the Sword Ghost!"
When the iron sword split the air, the touch of a death god unfailingly followed.
The two masked men, gripped by terror, deployed their movement techniques and scattered left and right.
Whirrick!
Watching them, Bu Eun-seol hurled the black sword from his back like a flying dagger.
Thud.
The black sword, light in weight and short in length, flew straight and lodged itself in the back of the masked man who had been running to the right.
But the masked man retreating to the left kept running.
'I survived!'
The masked man, who had been fleeing while rejoicing inwardly, suddenly spotted a black shadow standing far off in the distance.
It was Ga Un-seong, who had collapsed after being stabbed in the heart.
'How is that bastard...?'
His heart had definitely been pierced, so how could he have risen to his feet again?
'No way.'
The masked man suddenly recalled the knowledge of the human body he had learned in the Upper-Level Hall of the Extreme Killing Secret Pavilion.
'His heart is in a different position.'
If one were to draw a center line down a person's body, the heart's position is not on the left but close to the center line.
However, there are occasionally those whose hearts are positioned slightly differently from ordinary people.
"I'll kill you again!"
The fleeing masked man unleashed his sword technique, pouring all of his pent-up resentment into it.
He poured all the rage and helplessness he had suffered at Bu Eun-seol's hands onto Ga Un-seong.
But there was something the masked man had failed to consider... Ga Un-seong no longer cared about his life in the slightest.
"Die!"
Ignoring the sword piercing his heart, Ga Un-seong charged straight into the masked man's body and drove his iron sword in.
Thud.
The masked man's eyes fixed on empty air, his heart pierced through by the iron sword.
He died on the spot without even having time to scream.
"Finally, revenge..."
Ga Un-seong, who had been staring down at his trembling hands, slumped to the ground as well.
"...I've done it."
Having suffered countless fatal wounds, his body should have already been dead.
But his persistence to achieve revenge had been holding his soul to his physical body.
"I did it..."
Before Ga Un-seong's line of sight, as he smiled in satisfaction, a faint shadow appeared.
It was Bu Eun-seol.
"Is it good?"
"What did you..."
"Did you not just say you had taken your revenge?"
Bu Eun-seol asked with an utterly serious expression.
"I am curious what it feels like to complete a revenge."
"The feeling..."
Ga Un-seong brought a strange smile to his mouth.
The emotions in his eyes were tangled like a skein of thread, a mixture of many feelings that could not be expressed in a single word.
Thud.
In the end, unable to continue his words, he died with his eyes still open.
"..."
Bu Eun-seol stared endlessly at Ga Un-seong's face, whose breath had ceased.
Was it because the assassins who had brutally murdered his crew were all dead now?
Ga Un-seong's eyes, which had taken his last breath, were firmly closed, and his complicated smile seemed to have changed into one of relief.
'Will I be able to smile like that too?'
Bu Eun-seol, who had been staring blankly into the air, shook his head violently.
'Now is not the time to indulge in such sentiments!'
The Third Trial of kill-or-be-killed had already begun, and the entire island had become hell.
Bu Eun-seol, who had been standing tall with an empty gaze, took a deep breath and slipped out of the forest.
Whiiiiish.
After Bu Eun-seol left, a gray fog suddenly rolled into the empty clearing.
The gray fog, pouring in from all directions, gradually gathered into one place and took on a human form.
"So that fellow is the one."
A low voice echoed from within the fog that had formed into a human shape.
"Using the basic sword techniques of the Fire Rain Sword Sect, which cannot be used at all in real battle, to cut down the assassins of the Extreme Killing Secret Pavilion... is it."
The voice flowing from the fog was thick with intense curiosity and interest.
"Since he has gone as far as the Upper-Level Hall, his final trump card will ultimately be the first form of the Fire Rain Sword..."
Before one knew it, the voice in the fog was deeply tinged with regret.
"They say he has learned the Way of the Beast, but I see no traces of deeply cultivated martial arts."
Though he was said to possess outstanding talent, this island had many exceptional prodigies who were no less than Bu Eun-seol.
They had all systematically trained in martial arts since childhood, and had built bodies capable of easily learning Supreme-grade Absolute Arts.
Above all, they had hidden claws that could surely finish off an opponent in the most desperate of moments.
"With that degree of skill, he cannot survive on this Hell Island."
The low voice gradually faded until it was barely audible, then vanished without a trace.
At the same time, even the fog that had gathered in human form completely disappeared, as if melting like snow.
The Third Trial was a war of attrition.
Some ambushed their enemies with powerful martial arts, while others concealed their bodies using exceptional stealth techniques.
Some increased their numbers by gathering comrades, while others built factions that followed them through outstanding leadership and command.
From that perspective, Bu Eun-seol was in a highly disadvantageous situation.
Those who travel alone become prey for those who have formed groups. There are no allies and no enemies—only enemies trying to kill you, whom you must cut down.
But Bu Eun-seol did not care.
The enemy he had to face was far stronger than all the trainees on Hell Island combined.
If he could not overcome a trial of this level, then even if he survived this place, he would not be able to kill that man.
"Haa. Haa."
Bu Eun-seol's body was covered in blood.
The moment he emerged from the forest, four boys wearing whips as thin as sheets of paper had ambushed him.
They were trainees who had mastered the White Horse Temple's White Horse Nine Abyss Whip Technique.
Swaak. BANG!
They had surrounded Bu Eun-seol, repeatedly extending and retracting their thirty-foot White Horse Whips at will.
It was the White Horse Temple's unique battle formation, the Blue Scale Golden Snake Formation.
Ping! BANG!
Every time dozens of White Horse Whips lashed down, the sound of breaking air and explosive booms rang out simultaneously.
Bu Eun-seol dodged the dozens of White Horse Whips pouring down like rain with astonishing reflexes and attempted a counterattack.
Saak!
He pierced through the whip shadows and slashed the wrist of one swinging a White Horse Whip.
Ting!
Bu Eun-seol's eyebrows shot up toward the sky.
The iron sword had only cut through the sleeve; it had failed to sever the wrist. All of them had transparent White Horse Whips wrapped around their wrists and major joints.
"It's the Fire Rain Sword!"
One of the boys swinging a White Horse Whip recognized Bu Eun-seol's sword technique and let out an exclamation.
"We must use Spirit Snake Seeks the Dark and give him no chance to use his sword!"
As time passed, the whip shadows grew denser, and Bu Eun-seol's martial uniform became stained with blood.
But his two legs remained stable, and the light in his eyes burned even hotter.
Ping!
One of the four White Horse Whips, moving as nimbly as a snake, coiled around Bu Eun-seol's iron sword.
'It's done!'
The boy who had seized the iron sword with his White Horse Whip cheered inwardly.
Swordsmen who have trained in sword techniques consider having their weapon taken from them a disgrace.
Not only that, but since the White Horse Whip had coiled around the sword, it had not only dealt a psychological blow but could also turn this fight into a contest of internal energy.
"No!"
The eyes of the boy who had been cheering filled with bewilderment.
Tuk.
Bu Eun-seol had thrown away the sword he was holding without the slightest hesitation.
Shing.
And then Bu Eun-seol drew the black sword strapped to his back and resumed his sword technique.
He had never once considered himself a martial artist, nor had he ever staked his pride on a mere weapon.
"Ghk."
The boys, seeing this, were greatly flustered, and their movements in unleashing their techniques slowed slightly without their realizing it.
Flash!
The moment the offensive of the White Horse Whips, which had been pouring down like a rainstorm, slowed for an instant, Bu Eun-seol did not miss the opportunity.
Swae swae swae swish!
Alternating between the Quick Sword Form and the Linked Ring Sword Form, he drove them back, then swiftly escaped the range of the Blue Scale Golden Snake Formation.
"..."
Even after breaking out of the formation, Bu Eun-seol did not flee. He stood holding the black sword, taking a stance.
The boys, staring at him as he gripped his sword covered in blood, felt a shudder run through them.
—This bastard... is strong.
It was Bu Eun-seol who was taking more and more wounds as time went on.
Yet the boys felt a pressure, as if an invisible hand was slowly tightening around their throats.
"What are you so afraid of!"
One boy gripping a White Horse Whip shouted at his comrades.
"Have you forgotten what the leader said! He said if we activate the Blue Scale Golden Snake Formation, no one can defeat us!"
'Leader?'
Bu Eun-seol, who had been standing still, furrowed both brows.
Did that mean there was a separate leader commanding these four boys?
"Fine! Let's do this!"
The boys, their courage restored, began swinging their White Horse Whips again.
Whirr ryu ryu.
The transparent White Horse Whips emitted a golden radiance, and dozens of snake shadows seemed to flash.
They were about to activate the Blue Scale Golden Snake Formation once more.
"...!"
At that moment, the movements of the boys swinging the White Horse Whips stopped.
Rat-a-tat-tat.
From somewhere, the sound of a great many people approaching this way could be heard.