Chapter 24
"Ho-oh."
The first group to arrive consisted entirely of boys carrying great blades.
After that, groups bearing all manner of weapons arrived one after another.
'So it was him.'
Bu Eun-seol, who had been observing the factions split off in every direction, narrowed his eyes.
At a glance, he was a boy with features so delicate one could mistake him for a demure girl.
But his body was as solid as if woven from steel, and his expression was utterly composed, showing not a trace of worry or concern.
It was the very boy who had come to Bu Eun-seol's cave and proposed forming a group.
'He must think I wouldn't recognize him.'
The profession of an undertaker is one that examines the body even more than the face.
No matter how much he wore a mask and loose-fitting clothes, Bu Eun-seol remembered the masked man's physique as if he could see through the clothing.
And among the group, that beautiful boy perfectly matched the physique of the masked man he had memorized back then.
"Does staring at rice make it cook itself into a meal?"
Among the group, a boy carrying a long saber spoke irritably.
"Instead of watching each other like this, let's just kill those two first."
"I agree."
As one of the group nodded at that,
"That bastard is Bu Eun-seol."
Suddenly, a boy carrying an iron sword on his back pointed at Bu Eun-seol and shouted.
"He's the one who learned Langya Pavilion's Way of the Beast. He's considerably strong."
At that, a girl holding a White Horse Whip pointed at Seo Jin-ha and let out a snicker.
"Oh my, those two seem to have already formed a group, don't they?"
Then a boy with crescent-moon eyes standing empty-handed pointed at Seo Jin-ha.
"That one is Seo Jin-ha. He's not someone to underestimate. His sword art is considerable, and he's even the type to have investigated the other trainees beforehand."
The group knew Seo Jin-ha's personal information in detail as well.
"Since those two have joined forces, this will be quite a difficult hunt."
At that moment, a boy with abnormally developed forearms kneaded his fists.
"Rather than wasting time on this talk, how about we attack simultaneously?"
At those words, Bu Eun-seol and Seo Jin-ha naturally pressed their backs together and lowered their stances.
No matter how strong the two of them were, facing twenty powerful opponents all at once would be difficult.
"..."
"...!"
Bu Eun-seol and Seo Jin-ha looked at each other simultaneously.
When their gazes met, they nodded lightly, as if their minds were in perfect accord.
"Full Drunken Acid!"
Suddenly Seo Jin-ha shouted, scattering a small powder from a leather pouch in all directions as he dashed forward.
"Full Drunken Acid from the Hell Blood Citadel?"
The group, utterly alarmed, each covered their mouths.
For Full Drunken Acid of the Hell Blood Citadel was a rare poison said to render a person completely drunk from ingesting even a single grain.
Tap-tap-tap.
In that interval, Bu Eun-seol and Seo Jin-ha escaped through the forest.
But then, a girl who had been staring at the powder fallen on the ground cried out.
"This isn't Full Drunken Acid—it's the antidote for Scorpion-Tail Poison!"
At her shout, the others wore dumbfounded expressions.
"Damn it! Where did he get that leather pouch? We were completely fooled!"
"Catch them, quickly!"
The group swiftly pursued Bu Eun-seol.
Meanwhile, Bu Eun-seol and Seo Jin-ha, having escaped the forest, were running toward a single destination as if they had made a promise.
That place was none other than the direction of Stone Mountain, which the trainees had used as their dwelling.
For if they entered a narrow cave, they could prevent the others from attacking all at once.
'However.'
Seo Jin-ha bit his lip.
Most caves had large entrances and spacious interiors, making them unsuitable for holding off multiple enemies.
'We need to find a suitable cave and get inside right away.'
The one thing Seo Jin-ha had not paid attention to was precisely the trainees' dwellings.
If he had observed such places too closely, he could have been marked as a troublesome stone from the very beginning.
"I know one."
Bu Eun-seol, having grasped Seo Jin-ha's inner thoughts, spoke.
"The cave I was in not only has a narrow entrance, but there's a long passageway inside. That place will do."
Bu Eun-seol's cave was a natural fortress that multiple enemies could not easily enter.
"What pathetic lightness skill!"
Before they knew it, a boy who had come charging with a wild gale at his back was closely pursuing Seo Jin-ha from behind.
"Did you want to show off your lightness skill?"
At that moment, Seo Jin-ha spun his body around and unleashed a flash of cold light.
Flash!
With a brilliant burst of light, blood sprayed from the boy's neck.
'Fire Rain Thunder-Splitting Sword.'
Seo Jin-ha, just like Bu Eun-seol, had transformed the Fire Rain Thunder-Splitting Sword into a practical combat form.
Whizz!
At that moment, a streak of light shot toward Seo Jin-ha's back.
'There's a hidden weapon that can fly this far?'
Seo Jin-ha was horrified, but it was already too late to dodge the projectile fired from behind.
Clang!
Before the hidden weapon could pierce his back, a loud metallic sound rang out.
Bu Eun-seol, moving like lightning, had deflected the projectile with his black sword.
"Don't let your guard down just because you killed an enemy."
"Mm."
Having nothing to say, Seo Jin-ha nodded and began running again.
Whoosh.
Just as Bu Eun-seol and Seo Jin-ha arrived side by side near Stone Mountain,
suddenly a wind blew in from the distant sky, and a sensation as if the surroundings were growing dim washed over them.
'No way!'
In that instant, Bu Eun-seol felt an unbearably vile intuition.
Sure enough,
Hiiiiii!
A strange sound began to echo from all directions.
In the end, even the vicinity of Stone Mountain had become a restricted zone.
"Damn it! The moment we ran this way, they made this a restricted zone!"
Seo Jin-ha stopped running with a dismayed expression.
Ssssss.
Then, from the ground in front of the distant Stone Mountain, something like a heat haze rose up, and several shadows took shape one by one.
They were Killing Ghosts clad in gray killing outfits.
"Damn it!"
Seo Jin-ha, having stopped in his tracks, shouted with a look of utter dismay.
Stone Mountain was right before his eyes, yet they couldn't enter it!
"If we're going to fight anyway, this isn't so bad."
"What?"
At that moment, Bu Eun-seol's eyes flashed as he spoke.
"The Killing Ghosts can't move outside their designated zone. In other words, the line where they're standing is the boundary."
Seo Jin-ha's eyes widened.
The place where the Killing Ghosts stood was the restricted zone.
In short, if they stood with their backs to that place, it would be the same as standing in a cave with a blocked rear.
"But we can't pick them off one by one... so it's no different, is it."
At Seo Jin-ha's words, Bu Eun-seol replied calmly.
"We'll have to see whether it's long or short."
Whirr. Whoosh.
Meanwhile, the groups that had been pursuing Bu Eun-seol arrived one after another.
"You've caused us needless trouble."
One boy among the first group to arrive looked at the Killing Ghosts behind them and wore a cruel smile.
"Now there's nowhere left to run. Heh heh heh."
Then a broad-shouldered boy shouted in a loud voice.
"No need to drag this out—let's attack all at once!"
Shing, shring.
At the same time, Bu Eun-seol and Seo Jin-ha drew their black sword and iron sword.
With the Killing Ghosts at their backs, they intended to clash with their enemies at full power.
'So this is the final act.'
Bu Eun-seol, feeling that the end was finally approaching, flashed a blood-red light and said:
"Come."
A fight of two against nineteen.
It was a bloodbath so gruesome one could not watch with open eyes, and every single moment was a split second that decided life or death.
Whirrick.
When the Poison Technique and hidden weapons of the Hell Blood Citadel flew at their faces, the Bloodflame Blade Art that could split Mount Tai came crashing down from behind.
When they dodged and blocked with all their might, the Fire Rain Sword flew in, and through the gaps came the White Horse Whip Art and the Evil Spirit Spear.
Drip, drip, drip.
From the bodies of Bu Eun-seol and Seo Jin-ha, covered in wounds large and small, crimson blood flowed ceaselessly.
"Damn it."
Seo Jin-ha, raising his sword to mid-level, gasped for breath.
Several of the group weren't even actively attacking. They looked as though they intended to leisurely cook their prey.
"So I die here."
With a spit, Seo Jin-ha spat out the blood that had risen to his mouth and bared his teeth.
"I have no regrets anyway. I poured out everything I had."
'No regrets?'
Bu Eun-seol slowly looked down at his own two arms.
There, he seemed to see the warm touch of his grandfather, Bu Jan-yang. But soon those arms transformed into two arms, gruesomely severed.
"I..."
From Bu Eun-seol's eyes, as he gripped the black sword, flames erupted like an active volcano.
"I cannot die in a place like this!"
Swiish. Whoosh!
At that moment, the Bloodflame Blade and the White Horse Whip flew in from Bu Eun-seol's left and right.
The speed and coordination of the two attacks were so exquisite that even the Beast Path's reflexes could not possibly evade them.
'No!'
In that instant, a light that seemed to swallow everything flowed from Bu Eun-seol's eyes.
Flash!
At the same time, black lightning flared from the Black Sword, and fountains of blood erupted from the necks of the two people on his left and right.
"Uwaaak!"
The screams of the two boys who met sudden death were so harrowing they chilled the bone.
Cheon Un-gwang's Killing Sword, the Peerless Thunderbolt, said to rival the Fire Rain Sword, had been reproduced once again.
"That bastard!"
"What kind of sword technique is that?!"
"Kill him first, quickly!"
Along with voices thick with bewilderment and rage, three figures suddenly burst from the crowd and attacked Bu Eun-seol.
"We'll handle him!"
They were the ones with the finest combined attack skills among the group.
Chwak! Ping! Fwoosh!
The Fire Rain Sword, the Bloodflame Blade, and the Evil Spirit Spear poured down with the force of Thunderous Weight of Ten Thousand Jun.
A curtain of light like the ribs of a fan sealed off Bu Eun-seol's front, left, and right. They boasted an exquisite combined attack, as if they had been coordinating for decades.
"...!"
Bu Eun-seol's eyes widened like a child seeing something new.
In truth, he had never learned the martial arts or the strength to block such a combined attack.
Hwiik.
Finally, the three weapons turned into the claws of a grim reaper and were about to seize Bu Eun-seol's throat, when—
Slow creak.
The Black Sword in his hand began to move on its own.
As death approached, the Beast Path's instincts and rising memories led Bu Eun-seol to yet another realm.
—Have you not already learned this old man's sword art?
Back then, Bu Eun-seol had been beaten by a single sword art for fifteen days without a moment's rest.
By Sa-u's Practical Combat Sword Art—Sa-u, the master of the Secret Arts Hall of Langya Pavilion, who had reached the pinnacle of Practical Combat Martial Arts.
Clang, clang! Tang!
A clear sound rang out as Bu Eun-seol's Black Sword struck the tips of the three pouring weapons.
Sa-u's Practical Combat Sword Art was being reproduced in Bu Eun-seol's hands.
"..."
As Bu Eun-seol's sword art poured forth, the three boys who had launched the attack wore expressions as if they had just had a nightmare.
It was a sword art of Transcendental Technique that could not be blocked no matter how much strength they poured in, no matter what martial arts they had learned.
Swish, kung.
There was not even a scream.
The three who had attacked collapsed to the ground, like snowmen melting away.
"Bu Eun-seol!"
At that moment, Seo Jin-ha's shout rang out.
A boy had stealthily approached Bu Eun-seol and struck him in the chest.
"Kuk."
Bu Eun-seol instinctively raised the Black Sword and took a defensive stance.
Crash!
But the Black Sword, touched by the single fist, shattered like glass, and—
Boom!
With a thunderous sound, Bu Eun-seol was sent flying backward like a cannonball.
Tuk, tuk.
Bu Eun-seol, collapsed on the ground, slowly raised his body even as blood trickled from his mouth.
All his strength was gone, and even his soul seemed to have melted away. His vision was growing dim, but Bu Eun-seol rose like a roly-poly toy.
"Bu Eun-seol! Run, quickly!"
Seo Jin-ha, watching him, shouted urgently.
"The Killing Ghosts are right behind you!"
Bu Eun-seol, pushed back by the single fist, had collapsed precisely beneath the spot where the Killing Ghosts were standing.
Flash!
In that instant, a sharp glare burst from the Killing Ghosts' eyes.
No matter how fatally wounded the injured party was, there were no exceptions once they entered the restricted zone.
Step, step.
A Killing Ghost slowly approached and extended a sharp hand toward Bu Eun-seol.
Jiiiing!
At that moment, a great gong sound shook Hell Island.
At the same time, a shout like a lion's roar shook the heavens.
"Stooooop!"
As the earth-shaking bellow rang out, the Killing Ghost's hand, slicing through the air, stopped dead.
Trickle.
Blood streamed from Bu Eun-seol's neck.
Even though the hand had not touched him, the sharp energy had split his skin.
A silence like death settled over the empty air.
Fwoosh.
Like a bird that had flinched and then taken flight, a figure descended below Stone Mountain with a graceful movement technique.
"That's enough!"
It was none other than the Chief Instructor, Hyeokryeon Eung.