Dotting the Dragon's Eyes
Mount Bangsan was normally a low, peaceful peak, possessing a quiet beauty that seemed spacious enough to embrace all things.
Clang!
Splurt!
But now, it had become a mountain of death, choked by the clash of steel and the heavy scent of blood.
"They're dogs of Sadocheon! Kill them all!"
"Damn it! Hold them back!"
It was only natural, as the Tongseong Branch of the Martial Alliance clashed head-on with the Geumseong-dae, the elite blades of the Geumhwang Merchant Group.
Due to Jang Bo-heum's sudden ambush, the Martial Alliance warriors had mistaken the Geumhwang Merchant Group's forces for Sadocheon troops trying to protect Jeok-un.
Watching the chaotic melee unfold, Jeok-un's thoughts were...
Hmm. Beautiful.
He was deeply satisfied.
His plan was falling into place, piece by piece, without a single error.
Was this how a master painter felt upon completing a masterpiece?
The ambushed Martial Alliance, and the retaliating Geumseong-dae.
In a chaotic brawl where two massive combat units were tangled together, trying to clarify the facts, find the culprit, and clear up the misunderstanding was...
Utterly impossible.
Causing an incident was difficult, but once it began, it snowballed like an avalanche.
In a bloody struggle where men slaughtered one another, washing blood with blood, who could possibly realize that Jeok-un was the mastermind behind it all?
Moreover, the one who should have been the first to question the situation and uncover the truth...
"Kill them! Kill every last one of them!"
...was Dang Maeng, the branch leader, and he was currently running wild. It made clarification even more impossible.
Having lost an eye and an arm, Dang Maeng had lost his mind to fury and was rampaging blindly.
Watching him, Jeok-un curled his lips.
The Martial Alliance and the Geumhwang Merchant Group. Watching these eyesores get screwed over at the same time is incredibly satisfying.
It was a flawless execution of killing with a borrowed knife.
In truth, he feared neither the Martial Alliance nor the Geumhwang Merchant Group.
But dealing with them one by one was tedious and troublesome, so he had devised this brilliant scheme to make them destroy each other.
The moment I turned Dang Maeng into a half-cripple, this plan was guaranteed to succeed.
Had the Tongseong branch leader kept his composure and tried to remain calm like the leader of the Geumseong-dae, this plan might have crumbled.
But Dang Maeng was not that kind of man, and so Jeok-un's strategy succeeded spectacularly.
Jeok-un smirked as he looked at the visibly panicked Geumseong-dae leader.
This will put the Geumhwang Merchant Group in a very awkward position later.
As evidenced by their ties to the Jegal Family, the Geumhwang Merchant Group maintained a close relationship with the Martial Alliance.
For such a merchant group to slaughter members of the Martial Alliance was no small matter.
Once the battle ended, the Martial Alliance would send an investigative team to ascertain the facts. They would inevitably discover that the Alliance and the Geumseong-dae had slaughtered each other.
When that happened, the Geumhwang Merchant Group would be backed into a corner.
Of course, this alone won't cause them to sever ties completely, but...
Even if the relationship between the Martial Alliance and the Geumhwang Merchant Group merely grew strained, it would still be a significant harvest.
Because that strained relationship would ultimately decide the fate of the Geumhwang Merchant Group.
Under normal circumstances, the Martial Alliance would intervene immediately the moment the Geumhwang Merchant Group was attacked.
But once their relationship soured, the Alliance would hesitate, even if only for a brief moment.
And that brief moment will be more than enough.
In that split second, he could erase the Geumhwang Merchant Group from the face of the Central Plains.
So just wait a little longer, Gold Sovereign.
Jeok-un thought of the hideously old monster of the Geumhwang Merchant Group, who had conspired with Do Ye-cheon to kill him.
He would show him what it meant to point a blade at him.
He would make him regret it until his death—no, even in the afterlife.
"Now, shall we dot the dragon's eyes?"
Jeok-un muttered to himself and kicked off the ground.
Swish!
Leaping up in a single bound, Jeok-un headed straight for the center of the battlefield.
He plunged right into the heart of the chaotic melee.
"Aaargh!"
A warrior of Sadocheon—no, in reality, a warrior of the Geumseong-dae—screamed in his death throes.
Splurt!
Ignorant of this fact, Dang Maeng sneered coldly as he violently ripped out his twin flying daggers.
Stepping over the corpse that collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, Dang Maeng roared.
"Never retreat! Anyone who takes a step back will die by my hand first!"
Dang Maeng's shout reverberated through the surroundings.
Ordering his subordinates forward, Dang Maeng pursued Jeok-un, who was slipping away like an eel.
He continuously showered the area with hidden weapons and unleashed his poison arts until the toxic energy in his body ran dry. It was then.
An unidentified voice spoke to Dang Maeng via sound transmission.
Naturally, Dang Maeng ignored the message and pressed on with his assault.
But another desperate transmission reached him.
Clang!
At that moment, a figure blocked the Poison Dagger Yama's path.
As evident by his ability to easily block the Poison Dagger Yama's lethal strike, the warrior was none other than the leader of the Geumseong-dae.
"Shut up!"
Clash! Clash!
But Dang Maeng had no intention of listening. He swung a flying dagger viciously.
Since he had lost an arm to Jeok-un, he could only wield one of his twin daggers, but its momentum was not to be underestimated.
The force behind it was still formidable.
Slash!
Yet, the Geumseong-dae leader did not give up.
He did not launch a single counterattack against Dang Maeng, choosing instead to continuously speak to him.
"What kind of trick is this, you unorthodox insect?!"
"Hmph, nonsense!"
Dang Maeng snorted. The Geumseong-dae leader felt like his chest was going to burst from frustration.
However, Dang Maeng held the key to resolving this situation.
Suppressing his anger, the leader tried to persuade Dang Maeng by mentioning their common enemy once more.
"What...?"
They say no tree can withstand ten chops of an axe.
Under the Geumseong-dae leader's persistent persuasion, Dang Maeng finally began to doubt.
...They aren't dogs of Sadocheon?
Seeing Dang Maeng show a rational response for the first time, the Geumseong-dae leader let out a sigh of relief and opened his mouth.
"—Kegh!"
"!!"
But...
Before the Geumseong-dae leader could finish his sentence, a pained groan escaped his lips.
Like a ghost, Jeok-un had suddenly materialized behind the Geumseong-dae leader.
"Now, now. Where do you think you're going, trying to spoil the fun?"
"You...!"
It was the very Jeok-un they had been searching for amidst the chaos.
He had approached without a sound and pressed his palm against the Geumseong-dae leader's back.
He had injected his internal force.
While Dang Maeng stood frozen in shock.
"Gurgle... urgh..."
The Geumseong-dae leader began to foam at the mouth with dark red blood.
His reaction was a textbook symptom of poisoning.
That poison was undoubtedly—
"Dang Maeng, I shared a bit of the poison you donated to me. How is it?"
"...?!"
It was the toxic energy of the Poison Source Blood Flow Art that he had used against Jeok-un.
"Argh..."
Blood began to pour from the Geumseong-dae leader's seven orifices.
Indeed. Jeok-un had kept the toxic energy of the Poison Source Blood Flow Art that had seeped through his earlobe during the previous battle, rather than neutralizing it, and had just injected it into the Geumseong-dae leader's body.
Naturally, the Geumseong-dae leader possessed neither the ability to detoxify nor control the poison like Jeok-un.
Thud!
He collapsed, dead, like a puppet with its strings cut.
"You bastard...!"
"Poison Dagger Yama! How dare you kill my subordinate! I will not let you get away with this!"
The moment Dang Maeng opened his mouth, Jeok-un shouted first.
Then, he charged at Dang Maeng like a madman.
Your role is finished now.
It was time to dispose of Dang Maeng.
Jeok-un's aura shifted completely.
Clash! Clash! Clash!
In the blink of an eye, dozens of exchanges took place.
Dang Maeng had intended to shout and stop his subordinates' fighting, but he quickly changed his plan.
Killing this bastard comes first!
Dang Maeng unleashed a torrent of killing intent, pouring his attacks onto Jeok-un.
He did not underestimate his opponent in the slightest.
He unleashed all the power he had accumulated to reach the peak of the Transformation Realm.
There was only one reason he cast aside his pride.
Having lost an eye and an arm, this was the absolute worst-case scenario for a warrior of the Sichuan Dang Family who relied on poison and hidden weapons.
Even so, he was confident in his victory.
However...
What?!
The bewilderment Dang Maeng felt was immense.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
"Ugh!"
The boy who had struggled to block his attacks earlier was now parrying and evading them with effortless ease.
Looking at this, Dang Maeng finally realized.
...He was hiding his strength?
Shockingly, his opponent had been holding back.
Cold sweat trickled down his back.
The movements of the boy, who dodged every single one of his attacks, were by no means inferior to his own.
This guy... his mastery of the Transformation Realm is not just mature.
No, it wasn't just a matter of not being inferior. He was stronger.
At the very moment he was forced to accept a truth he desperately wished to deny—
Squulch!
With a sickening sound of tearing flesh, Dang Maeng's waist folded in half.
"Kegh...!"
A terrible sensation of weakness washed over him as all his energy scattered.
Dang Maeng fell to his knees. Deeply embedded in his abdomen was the white blade of Wol-ha.
The point of entry was three inches above his navel.
"Aaaaargh!"
It was his dantian.
As Dang Maeng writhed in the agonizing, indescribable pain of his shattered dantian, a voice whispered.
"Thank you."
It was Jeok-un.
"Things went smoothly because you were even stupider than I anticipated."
"Ke- Ke- Kegh?!"
Shlick!
Jeok-un smiled coldly as he drew Wol-ha from the dantian, leaving him with one final remark.
"Go on ahead and wait. Your brother will join you soon."
With those words, he leaped away.
Dang Maeng's eyes trembled violently as he watched Jeok-un recede.
On the verge of death, Dang Maeng realized with absolute clarity.
The greatest obstacle to the Sichuan Dang Family and its patriarch...
...was none other than that man.
Brother...
Dang Maeng desperately wanted to convey this truth.
But he couldn't.
For pitch-black darkness was already consuming his vision.
It's about to blow.
Jeok-un thought as he scanned the chaotic battlefield for his target.
His gaze landed on Dang Maeng's corpse.
Hummm...
The poison of the Sichuan Dang Family was deeply intertwined with death.
For a warrior of the Sichuan Dang Family would weaponize even their own demise.
Those who practiced the Poison Source Blood Flow Art possessed a unique trait.
Immediately before or after death, if a practitioner of the Blood Flow Art did not receive proper treatment from a member of the Dang Family...
Rumble...
...their corpse would swell up as if about to burst, turning into a flesh-and-blood thunder bomb.
Found him.
In this critical moment, Jeok-un spotted the target he had been searching for.
"Ugh! Argh!"
Swish!
Jeok-un threw himself toward Jang Bo-heum, who was currently trading blows with Moyong Geon.
"Hieek?!"
"Time to go."
Jeok-un said, grabbing him by the scruff of his neck.
"Ack! Wait...!"
Jang Bo-heum let out a raspy wheeze as his neck was seized, but Jeok-un paid no heed to his subordinate's plight. He gathered energy in his feet and launched himself into the air.
Whoosh!
The moment Jeok-un's figure vanished like a gust of wind—
BOOM!
Dang Maeng's corpse exploded, sending a massive shockwave sweeping across the battlefield.