Chapter 73
Chapter 73
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 73
Chapter Title: I Wish to Leave
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Wolhyang did not move hastily. There was no major issue if she lost Namgung Urin now. Even if she lost him, he would eventually return to the Namgung Family, and she could simply pick up his trail from there.
The signs of people dwindled. And in a place with no other human traces, there were footprints.
“This way.”
Wolhyang ventured deeper. It was an area with many abandoned houses. Tense, she extended her senses to their limit.
Wolhyang stopped in her tracks.
She judged that further pursuit was meaningless.
But, in that moment.
“Shit! I’ve been had.”
That was right. Wolhyang should never have come this far. It was nothing less than a trap set by Namgung Urin.
Namgung Urin appeared behind Wolhyang.
“Smarter than I thought.”
Wolhyang slowly turned to face Namgung Urin.
“I’m still alive because I’m smart.”
Namgung Urin focused on Wolhyang’s face, but he couldn’t see it clearly.
It was night. And she wore a veil.
“Why are you following me? Are you an assassin?”
It wasn’t espionage. The killing intent she was emitting spoke for itself.
“You knew, yet you let me follow you? Since when did you know?”
“From the beginning.”
“The beginning? Today?”
Namgung Urin shook his head.
“No. Since you were on the back mountain of the Namgung estate, watching me intently.”
Wolhyang’s brow furrowed slightly before smoothing out again.
“…No way. That’s a lie. You’re just guessing, right?”
It made no sense.
Concealing one’s presence is fundamental for an assassin, and Wolhyang was exceptional at it. Moreover, she had observed Namgung Urin from a great distance, just in case…
He knew of her existence?
What utter bullshit.
It wasn’t as if the Young Lord of the Namgung Family had reached the absolute realm.
Right.
It was bullshit even a dog would ignore.
“You don’t have to believe me if you don’t want to. But don’t think about running. I have no intention of killing you.”
Wolhyang had been planning to find an opportunity to escape. The thought of killing the Namgung Young Lord was already out of the question.
Wolhyang’s lips curled into a smirk.
“Did I hear you wrong? You talk as if you’re going to let me live.”
“Yes. I want to let you live. No, I must let you live.”
“…Why? No. What does that mean? I’d appreciate it if you’d speak plainly.”
*Shing.*
Instead of answering, Namgung Urin, who had just said he would spare her, drew his sword.
What the hell did that bastard mean by ‘sparing her’?
Was he trying to torture her with false hope?
Or did he really mean to let her live?
His actions suggested he had no intention of sparing her. Someone who planned to let another live would have no reason to draw their sword.
‘Indeed.’
Wanting to spare someone who tried to kill you. It was absurd.
Sensing her impending death, Wolhyang gritted her teeth. But she didn’t panic. She was an assassin who always lived with death at her throat.
In other words, this was nothing new.
“It seems you have a hobby of toying with death, Young Lord of Namgung. That’s a sick hobby. I’ve never seen a decent person with a hobby like that. To think the Young Lord of Namgung would have such a twisted pastime. Were the rumors spreading through Anhui just for show?”
“Don’t worry. I’m doing this because there’s something I want to show you. Oh, and something I want to confirm.”
He had been uncertain since seeing her on the back mountain of the Namgung estate. She was too far away for him to be sure. But when Wolhyang extended her senses to detect his presence, he became certain.
He knew the source of Wolhyang’s internal energy.
Of course, it reeked of an assassin’s art, but that was just a shell, a facade of killing intent. Beneath it was a grand and pure internal energy, filled with a fiery passion for the azure sky and a sincere heart for the martial world.
There was no way Namgung Urin wouldn’t recognize such an energy.
In conclusion, Wolhyang was a member of the Namgung Family.
Otherwise, how could the assassin before him have mastered the Azure Sky Emperor Divine Art?
The Azure Sky Emperor Divine Art was the Namgung Family’s supreme internal energy art, bestowed only upon the direct line or members of the Azure Sky Sword Brigade.
So, the Azure Sky Emperor Divine Art had leaked out and someone had learned it?
Well, it was not impossible. Such things could happen.
But, to use the Azure Sky Emperor Divine Art in front of the Namgung Young Lord?
That was no different from suicide.
Although he couldn’t understand why someone who had learned the art would try to kill the Namgung Young Lord.
That’s why Namgung Urin wanted to be more certain.
“…What?”
“Do you not know me?”
“…I know you. Do you want to boast about your identity in front of me?”
“You should know that’s not it, shouldn’t you?”
“…Then?”
“I wasn’t asking if you know who I am.”
“What kind of bullshit are you spouting?”
“You and I know each other. Take off that veil, and I’ll confirm it.”
“Tch. I don’t know you, so how could you know me? I’ve heard all sorts of nonsense today.”
Now, Wolhyang also drew her sword.
Namgung Urin tilted his head.
His assumption could be wrong.
But it was certain that the assassin before him had learned the Azure Sky Emperor Divine Art.
Or was it? Could there be an art in the martial world similar to it?
Ah.
Questions led to more questions.
The martial world was truly an unknowable place. Just when you think you understand it.
“Should I come to you, or will you come to me?”
“You drew your sword first.”
“But you were the one following me.”
“If you’re offering me the first move, I see no reason to refuse.”
*Thwack!*
To not miss the fleeting moment, Wolhyang kicked off the ground the instant she finished speaking.
Her hope that this one move would end it all was so great it could reach the heavens.
*Clang!*
Namgung Urin effortlessly blocked Wolhyang’s sword, which thrust forward like an awl.
It was a sword style unique to assassins. The assassin’s sword, which permitted no momentary mistake and seized every fleeting instant.
A sword that relied solely on speed.
“This isn’t enough. Wouldn’t it be better to show me everything you have?”
“Shit.”
Her expectations hadn’t been high. But she never imagined he would block it with such ease.
Wolhyang was falling into a pit of despair. Unless the Young Lord of the Namgung Family truly spared her, there was no way for her to get out of here alive.
Right, there was only one thing Wolhyang could do now. Unfold everything she had until the moment of her death, and then close her eyes.
To die not as an assassin, but as a martial artist.
She decided to forget her comrades, forget herself, and focus solely on the sword.
Wolhyang began to unleash the sword art ingrained in her body.
‘As I thought.’
The sword art Wolhyang was unleashing was the Namgung Family’s Thirteen Thunderclap Flashes. At this point, there seemed to be no need for further words.
The assassin before him was from the Namgung Family.
Wolhyang charged toward Namgung Urin. Namgung Urin dismantled her Thirteen Thunderclap Flashes one by one with the Great Harmony Sword Art.
As the forms exchanged increased, Wolhyang felt her heart tighten, and her eyes widened continuously.
“…!”
Wolhyang’s Thirteen Thunderclap Flashes were ineffective against Namgung Urin. It wasn’t a sword art that could be so easily broken.
It had never happened before.
And then Wolhyang saw it.
The sword art that was so easily dismantling her own.
“…How…”
“Did you see it?”
Wolhyang nodded unknowingly. Because she had seen it.
“What do you think?”
“…You, wh-who are you?!”
“Oh dear. You’re flustered. Even though you know who I am.”
That was right.
Wolhyang was extremely flustered. Because the Young Lord of the Namgung Family was using a sword art that she herself knew.
“Instead of asking who I am, wouldn’t it be quicker to ask yourself who you are?”
“…I, I am…”
Wolhyang’s eyes trembled uncontrollably.
“…I, I am… I am…”
She had been Wolhyang for six years. Before that, even she didn’t know who she was. No one knew.
Wolhyang’s life began six years ago when she opened her eyes in the Black Moon Sect. She had no parents. Sowol of the Black Moon Sect had told her she’d found Wolhyang collapsed on the street and carried her back…
She had no memories from before that.
Namgung Urin spoke for the wavering Wolhyang.
“You are of the Namgung Family.”
“…Namgung Family… I am…”
“Your internal energy, your sword art, they all say it. Everything that comes from your body belongs to the Namgung. They are things that cannot be used unless you are of the Namgung.”
“Aah.”
A headache washed over her. It felt like her head would split open.
Namgung Urin spoke again.
“Remove your veil. I will tell you who you are.”
Namgung Urin sensed it. The woman before him had lost her memories.
Amidst the splitting headache, Wolhyang kept repeating the words.
Namgung…
Namgung Family…
As she did, the headache only intensified.
Wolhyang finally threw off her veil. It was partly because Namgung Urin had urged her, but the desire to rip off the veil covering her face due to the head-splitting pain also played a part.
Namgung Urin flinched in surprise. His eyes widened. He had expected and was even certain that she was from the Namgung Family.
But Wolhyang’s face was beyond his imagination.
The unveiled Wolhyang was.
“…Hwa…”
She was Namgung Hwa, the one who had carried Namgung Urin on her back more than his own mother since he was three.
Namgung Hwa had always accepted the sharp-tongued, ill-mannered Namgung Urin with a smile, seeming to enjoy it. Even when he said he didn’t want to be carried, she insisted on carrying him on her back.
And she always said.
‘Young Master, your personality is very similar to mine. That’s why I like you so much.’
so she would say.
Because Namgung Hwa, too, had been lonely since childhood due to her personality.
She had even chosen loneliness for herself. Rather than socializing, Namgung Hwa always devoted herself to training. And she left a record that would remain in the history of the Namgung Family.
The youngest member of the Azure Sky Sword Brigade, Namgung Hwa.
She had been chosen for the Azure Sky Sword Brigade at the tender age of twenty. From then on, Namgung Hwa became famous. It was said she possessed talent rivaling that of the Namgung Family Head at the time, Namgung Hyeok.
Namgung Hwa was famous by the moniker ‘Death by Namgung Hwa.’ It meant that to be bitten by her was to die. For that reason, she was also sometimes called the ‘Viper of Namgung.’
That very woman had now appeared before Namgung Urin. Someone who should not have been able to appear had appeared.
Someone who had died in the War of Orthodox and Demonic Factions had appeared before his eyes.
“…Hwa. Don’t you know who I am?”
Wolhyang couldn’t even lift her head due to the headache.
“Aaaargh!”
The pain was growing worse and worse.
In the end, Wolhyang—no, Namgung Hwa—was writhing on the ground, clutching her head as if it would shatter.
“Hwa! Are you okay!?”
“Aaaargh!”
And with a final, agonized scream, Namgung Hwa fainted.