You Can Do That?
Ahn Eun-chae's jaw trembled with shock and grief.
Yet Yi-yeok and Yeogwi remained utterly composed.
"A master of the Harmonization Blood Realm, hm? A thousand nyang won't come close. You'll need to pay ten thousand."
At Yeogwi's cheeky pronouncement, Ahn Ryeong's eyebrows twitched.
"Hey, old man," Yi-yeok picked up where she left off. "You've got two choices. Die, or run. Once this young lady reaches Jinseong, our contract is fulfilled. How about you stop glaring at what comes after?"
Ahn Ryeong fixed a frigid stare on the pair. Blood qi surged up from both his hands and wreathed his sword.
BOOM!
With a detonation like a thunderbolt striking the earth, Ahn Ryeong drew his blade.
"My choice is to kill every last one of you here."
Yeogwi burst out laughing.
"Wonderful! It's been ages since anyone declared they'd kill us to our faces like that!"
A vein writhed along Ahn Ryeong's arm. It bulged like the veins of a leaf, pulsing as it seeped into the blade. Crimson patterns etched themselves across the sword.
It was the Blood Spirit.
A warrior who reached the Harmonization Blood Realm could awaken a Blood Spirit—one that could inhabit a weapon to amplify its attacks, or infuse clothing to grant formidable defense.
A Blood Spirit of this caliber couldn't even begin to compare to Suseonja's, but in the mortal world, its bearer would rightly be hailed as a peerless master.
Ahn Ryeong took a single step. In an instant his body shot forward like an arrow, whipping up a furious gale. He was a savage beast hurling itself at its prey.
Yi-yeok and Yeogwi dodged with lightning speed. Yeogwi shouted at Ahn Eun-chae, who was still dazed from the shock.
"Hey, what's it going to be? A thousand nyang won't cut it. Promise ten thousand and I'll save your life!"
Ahn Ryeong's face twisted savagely.
"How dare you!"
He whirled and brought his sword down toward Ahn Eun-chae, seated in the ox cart. The blood-red sword light flashed like a rainbow.
The next moment, Ahn Ryeong was staring at his own empty hand.
He recoiled in disbelief. A chill crept up his back, and when he pressed a hand to it, his fingers came away slick and wet. Blood.
Yi-yeok was already standing there, holding his sword.
"You…!"
Ahn Ryeong couldn't begin to fathom how such a thing was possible.
Yeogwi shouted.
"You're a thief, remember? You don't get to kill people! Killing is my job!"
Ignoring her outburst, Yi-yeok studied the sword in his hand.
Inside the blade, the Blood Spirit writhed as though alive. In moments it slid free of the steel, coiling around Yi-yeok's hand before seeping into his body.
The Hidden Soul Divine Marrow Art possessed the uncanny ability to steal what belonged to heaven and what belonged to earth alike.
At this very moment, Yi-yeok was using it to steal his opponent's Blood Spirit and fuse it with his own.
"Impossible!"
Ahn Ryeong was reeling.
The Blood Spirit was practically part of one's own flesh. In all his long years, he had never once heard of a man absorbing another's.
"Well, well," Yi-yeok murmured. "Your martial arts really are something, old man. They weren't made just for thieving after all."
Ahn Ryeong's fists clenched with fury.
KRRRUMBLE!
With a massive roar, the ground split apart.
Dragging things out would only hurt him. He must not let himself be bewitched by the man's strange sorcery. Finish the fight first—then unravel whatever trickery this was.
WHAM!
The air itself turned into a storm, crashing down on Yi-yeok with savage force.
He had been briefly rattled by a technique he'd never seen or heard of, but Ahn Ryeong was brimming with absolute confidence. He might not be one of the Sect, but he was a master who had honed his martial arts for decades. How could he possibly lose to some green boy?
His full-power strike landed like the blow of a ferocious tiger. He had lost his weapon, but a single punch from his fist could easily kill any martial artist below the Harmonization Blood Realm.
Yeogwi watched with gleaming eyes. Every fiber of her being ached to leap in and attack, but she had no intention of moving an inch until her fee of ten thousand nyang was promised.
The next moment, Yi-yeok vanished.
He permeated the wind like a ghost and fell upon Ahn Ryeong. In the blink of an eye, droplets of blood scattered through the air like a passing drizzle.
Gritting his teeth, Ahn Ryeong swung his fist.
BOOM!
His fist-wind razed everything within a dozen paces.
Yi-yeok emerged from afar, unhurried and seemingly without a scratch on him.
At some point, Ahn Ryeong's clothes had been shredded into rags, and wounds laced his entire body like a spider's web. By fortune he still wore the mantle of his Blood Spirit, or they would have been far deeper.
"Quick and nimble, I'll grant you," Ahn Ryeong ground out through his teeth. "But no flimsy little blade can pierce a Blood Spirit. One blow from my fist will send you across the river to the underworld."
Yi-yeok shook his head.
"Old man, leave while you still can. Unlike that turtle-faced bastard, I don't go around killing people. Fighting just isn't my thing. Life's meant to be enjoyed, you know? Why waste it spilling blood?"
As though Ahn Ryeong hadn't heard a word of the sermon, he drew in an enormous breath. His chest swelled, veins bulging up through his skin, until his entire body was sheathed in the Blood Spirit.
KUWOONG!
Ahn Ryeong charged at Yi-yeok, leaving only an afterimage behind. His speed was several times greater than before.
CRASH!
The ox cart shattered to splinters. The poor tethered ox was reduced to shreds of meat.
Yi-yeok had already carried Ahn Eun-chae a long way off and set her down.
Ahn Ryeong glared at him through bloodshot eyes.
Yi-yeok closed the distance again in the space of a blink, pivoted on the balls of his feet to slip past the punch, and vanished once more.
For the first time, unease flickered in Ahn Ryeong's gaze. The boy was barely more than a child. How could he move that fast?
Before he could even order his thoughts, Yi-yeok appeared before him again—and at the same instant, a searing pain tore through his chest.
The Yojiyu's blade was buried in Ahn Ryeong's heart, tangled thick with writhing veins. It defied all reason. A body shielded by a Blood Spirit, skewered by a blade so slender?
The pulsing veins streamed through the Yojiyu and into Yi-yeok's body. He was stealing Ahn Ryeong's Blood Spirit even now.
Yi-yeok smiled, cold and clear, feeling his own Blood Spirit surge violently within him. It had only just awakened, yet it was growing at a furious rate, as though flooded with a torrent of rich nourishment.
Ahn Ryeong stared at him with eyes wide with terror.
This man… could absorb a Blood Spirit directly!
The moment Ahn Ryeong scraped together his last ounce of strength to resist, a beast's roar rang out that turned his marrow to ice.
A blood-red shadow engulfed Yi-yeok. The shadow, coiled into the shape of a colossal serpent, yawned its jaws wide and swallowed Ahn Ryeong whole.