Chapter 119
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 119
Chapter Title: Knocking on the Door of the Underworld!
‘Damn it!’
My mind snapped back, and I urgently deployed the Skynet's Divine Sense, adding Divine Shadowless Movement to it.
Then, the moment Skynet's Divine Sense located the Lord of the Northern Underworld, Divine Shadowless Movement would transport me behind him.
The first page of the martial arts manual described Divine Shadowless Movement as the 'greatest movement art of all time,' stating that there was no attack it couldn't evade and no opponent it couldn't catch.
Swoosh...
As I felt the Rainbow Zenith brush past my right, I became a streak of light and floated upward.
The martial art to counter the Rainbow Zenith is the third stance of the Heaven-Severing Divine Sword, Heaven Severance.
Swoosh...
Diagonally below me, about twenty feet away, I saw the Lord of the Northern Underworld in the pose of having just swung his sword.
The Lord of the Northern Underworld didn't know I was behind him. He was likely just realizing that his Rainbow Zenith had failed.
I fixed my eyes on the target and unleashed my sword.
The Fire Dragon Sword, powered by one hundred and eighty years of internal energy, executed Heaven Severance.
Tzzt!
The sound of the Supreme Ultimate Fast Arts is very simple. It's not loud; its characteristic is a faint sound, barely audible.
The reason I poured all one hundred and eighty years of my energy into it was to not underestimate my opponent.
Even as I unleashed the Supreme Ultimate Fast Sword's Heaven Severance with all my might, I held nothing back.
A predator doesn't hunt for sport. It only plays after its prey has been subdued.
The Lord of the Northern Underworld seemed to flinch, then his form blurred and vanished.
‘He dodged Heaven Severance?’
But where the Lord of the Northern Underworld had been, an arm now hung in the air.
It was his left arm, severed from the shoulder.
The Lord of the Northern Underworld had dodged swiftly, but like a lizard, he'd lost his left arm.
It meant that no matter how exceptional his movement art was, it couldn't escape the combination of the greatest movement art of all time, Divine Shadowless Movement, and Heaven Severance.
He had vanished, but I didn't try to find him, nor was I worried. I reconnected Divine Shadowless Movement to the Skynet's Divine Sense.
But the Lord of the Northern Underworld could not be detected anywhere.
‘He disappeared?’
To be undetectable even by the Skynet's Divine Sense meant the Lord of the Northern Underworld had used a concealment art.
Such arts have a blind spot: you cannot attack while concealed. To attack, one must reveal oneself.
However, I wasn't idle enough to wait for that, and I had an incredible technique to break his concealment.
The Way of Heaven and Earth.
A technique that allows one to hide anywhere among all of creation between heaven and earth, and to find even a soul hidden within the wind.
-Master the Way of Heaven and Earth, and you can mock even the grim reapers.-
After reading that line on the first page in the Martial Alliance's main armory, I had chosen the Way of Heaven and Earth without hesitation.
I could see the black-clad, masked men who had been swimming in the river now climbing onto the great ship.
I deployed the seventh of the eighteen ways of the Way of Heaven and Earth: the Secret Way of Swarming Shadows.
The energy of the Secret Way of Swarming Shadows spread out rapidly from me like ripples, but it was neither visible nor palpable. Only I could feel and see it.
Right after deploying it, I let out a dry laugh. I found the Lord of the Northern Underworld standing stock-still just ten feet in front of me.
He had wrapped his body in the pitch-black curtain of the night; I wouldn't have found him without using the Way of Heaven and Earth.
I didn't know the name of his concealment art, but I could tell how it worked.
He had cut a piece of the night sky's darkness to cover himself. It was a technique that could be used by someone with over one hundred and twenty years of internal energy.
The Lord of the Northern Underworld had used this curtain of darkness to hide his form and stealthily approach within ten feet of me.
He calculated that if he dropped the curtain and attacked simultaneously from that distance, I would be defeated.
But he would never have dreamed that I had already found him with the Way of Heaven and Earth.
I could have simply attacked him from ten feet away, but that would be dull. I wanted to surprise him.
The moment I unleashed the third way, the Ghostly Shadow of the Night, my form instantly vanished. It was a secret art far superior to the one he had used.
Because I, who had been ten feet in front of him, suddenly disappeared, the Lord of the Northern Underworld looked around in surprise.
Something even more surprising happened next. I quickly stripped away the curtain of night he had wrapped around himself.
He felt something was slightly off, but he had no idea his cloak of darkness had been removed.
Standing behind him, I whispered quietly at the back of his head.
"Are you looking for me?"
"Ah!"
As he startled, I quickly used my unique pressure point technique to seal his paralysis and mute points.
"Ugh!"
I set the Lord of the Northern Underworld down on the deck of the Flying Dragon and flew back to the large ship to kill the remaining black-clad men.
While I was fighting the assassins from the Northern Underworld, Go Un-hyo used the Peerless Phoenix Jade Tablet to cure the poison affecting everyone on the Flying Dragon, including Ja-un.
Fortunately, no one died from the poison. Even for the ordinary people like Ha Mong-un and Chae Gwang, who knew no martial arts, Go Un-hyo couldn't be sure if they were alive or dead, so he simply placed the Peerless Phoenix Jade Tablet in their mouths, and they all revived.
While they washed up and changed into fresh clothes, I decided to interrogate the Lord of the Northern Underworld.
The Lord of the Northern Underworld, his left arm severed at the shoulder, was made to sit on the deck.
I placed a chair in front of him, sat down, and first removed his mask.
The face of a rugged man in his mid-forties, with a short, coarse black beard, was revealed.
I released his mute point.
"Are you the Lord of the Northern Underworld?"
"..."
The Lord of the Northern Underworld kept his mouth firmly shut and glared at me.
"You don't have to answer. I'm not that curious anyway."
I stood up.
"I'll take you to Dong-ro Prefecture and hand you over to the Martial Alliance."
The Lord of the Northern Underworld's expression changed.
"Hmph! If you grant my request, I'll answer your questions."
The man spoke in a gravelly voice. It was obvious what would happen if the Lord of the Northern Underworld was handed over to the Martial Alliance alive.
First, he would have to be punished for hundreds, perhaps even more, of contract killings.
That would be his primary crime, and under interrogation, other offenses would spill out one after another. When it came to punishment, his single body would not be enough to atone for it all.
"You're not in a position to be making requests."
"Don't hand me over to the Martial Alliance. Give me a clean death."
"I'll decide based on your cooperation."
As I expected, this man was indeed the Lord of the Northern Underworld.
He said that initially, Nu Jin-sang, the Zhejiang Branch Lord of the Demonic Emperor's Grand Union, had hired the Northern Underworld to kill me.
The fee was a hundred silver taels. Nu Jin-sang had valued my head at a mere hundred silver taels.
It was such a trivial contract that the Lord had instructed his Vice Lord to handle it.
So, at first, he thought sending a few assassins from the Northern Underworld would be enough to resolve it simply.
But in the end, that trivial hundred-tael contract became their downfall, leading to the annihilation of the entire Northern Underworld.
When I asked why they hadn't abandoned the contract midway, the Lord of the Northern Underworld replied that an assassin organization's lifeblood is its credibility, so they couldn't.
Truly an admirable professional spirit.
"Doesn't the Northern Underworld have mercenaries too?"
"This time, I brought all our assassins and mercenaries."
"How many?"
"Two hundred and fifty."
The Lord of the Northern Underworld looked at me with a sorrowful expression.
"Over four hundred members of the Northern Underworld were annihilated by a single man, the Fire Dragon Sword."
I gave a cold smile.
"That's why you should choose your contracts based on the target."
I've really grown. To think I'm saying things like this.
In any case, over four hundred members of the Northern Underworld had all died by my hand.
Now, only one last question remained.
"Who taught you the Rainbow Zenith?"
The Lord of the Northern Underworld's eyes widened in surprise.
"You recognized the Rainbow Zenith?"
I said nonchalantly.
"The Fifth Demonic Emperor of the Demonic Emperor's Grand Union used it."
"I see. You're the one who killed him."
A man of his stature would certainly know that I had killed the Fifth Demonic Emperor.
"Who taught you?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Because I'll have to fight them."
Unaware of my ultimate goal, the Lord of the Northern Underworld's face contorted.
"Do you have a grudge against my master?"
"How can I have a grudge when I don't even know who your master is?"
The Lord of the Northern Underworld frowned.
"Whatever your reason, my master has passed away."
"How many disciples learned the Rainbow Zenith from your master?"
"You ask too many questions."
"In return, I'll give you a painless death."
The Lord of the Northern Underworld looked at me for a moment before speaking calmly.
"There were five of us martial brothers."
"Was the Fifth Demonic Emperor one of them?"
"He was the third martial brother."
He explained about the five martial brothers.
"By the way, where did you start tailing me from?"
"From Dong-ro Prefecture."
Since the Northern Underworld assassins had been watching me constantly, waiting for a chance to kill me, it wasn't surprising.
"Do assassins use poison?"
I asked because I wasn't sure if assassins used poison, but to him, it sounded like a reprimand.
The Lord of the Northern Underworld's face reddened with shame.
"The target was too formidable. We had no choice."
To me, those words sounded like a compliment, and I felt pleased.
Facing death, the Lord of the Northern Underworld let out a strange laugh.
"Since you promised a painless death, I'll tell you one thing."
"Speak."
"Congratulations."
The way the Lord of the Northern Underworld was smirking annoyed me.
"Do you want to die painfully?"
"Hehehe! Is that the only way you can threaten me?"
I felt a strange twist in my gut, and an ominous thought arose.
"Is there something to congratulate me about?"
"You have finally knocked on the door of the Underworld."
"The Underworld?"
Before my mind could even comprehend what the Underworld was, goosebumps reflexively covered my entire body.
The Lord of the Northern Underworld saw my expression and laughed as if he found it amusing.
"Hahaha! Congratulations! You'll be following me soon enough! I'll save a good spot for you!"
Honestly, from the moment I heard the word 'Underworld,' I was a bit dazed.
"Why would the Underworld... me..."
"Hahahaha! That's why you should have been more careful about who you killed!"
"Was there someone from the Underworld among the people I killed?"
"Ahahaha! This is so amusing! Fire Dragon Sword! Won't you just kill me now?"
I glared at the Lord of the Northern Underworld, thinking about how I could make him talk.
However, it seemed unlikely that I would get anything more out of the mockingly smiling man.
I struck the Lord of the Northern Underworld's death point, killing him instantly, then cut off his head and threw the body into the river.
With his death, the Northern Underworld was completely annihilated.
And I had become a target of the Underworld.
The Lord of the Northern Underworld kept the fact that he was from the Underworld a secret until the moment he died.
I don't know how he became a member of the Underworld, but by killing him, I became their target.
He had made himself a sacrifice.
The man who said an assassin organization's lifeblood is credibility was an excellent assassin who lived by that motto to the very end.
* * *
Forty days after leaving Dong-ro Prefecture, I returned.
I didn't stop by to see Ju Won-ik at the King of Jinling's residence in Nanjing. I wasn't in the mood.
On the third level below the deck of the Flying Dragon, there is a special room in a corner.
When I commissioned the ship, I had asked for a secret space to be built, and it's on the third level below deck.
It looks like a dead end in the hallway, but if you press a round, knot-like part on the wall, a door opens inward.
Inside, I placed the two iron chests I had brought from the Nu Family Manor in Yueyang—no, from the Un-hyo Manor.
Then, I took one gold bar and a few jewels.