The Blade That Shatters Fear
The world froze in an instant.
It had been that way ever since Wall Gyeom’s blade shattered and Dan Hyunwoo appeared.
He didn’t know why.
All he knew was the cold sweat soaking his body, the chill that seeped into his bones.
Yes.
This was a feeling akin to terror.
The creeping dread forcibly dragged his body temperature down, and a slow tremor began to spread through him.
Wall Gyeom swallowed dryly, forced the shaking to stop, and turned his gaze toward Dan Hyunwoo.
‘This bastard…’
The thick blade he had taken such pride in had been destroyed in a single strike.
It wasn’t that he had never experienced something like this before, but never had his weapon shattered so easily.
His lips, chewed raw, pressed into a thin line.
The blood dripping down his chest soaked the ground near his feet, reminding him to stay alert.
‘I never thought I’d have to use this.’
Wall Gyeom reached out and accepted another blade from one of the Black Wind Blood Squad members he had prepared in advance.
The —the Mad Tyrant Blade.
One of Hebei’s Twenty Great Blades, a weapon that had drunk countless lives, now revealed its razor-sharp edge.
The moment Wall Gyeom drew the blade, the Black Wind Blood Squad formed their battle formation.
At its center stood Gwang Cheonhyeol, tense yet grinning with madness, his eyes burning with the thirst for revenge.
In the heavy silence, a taut tension weighed down the air.
Wall Gyeom spoke.
“When it comes to killing and being killed, there’s no need for long speeches.”
“Good. I’m glad you didn’t ask who I am.”
Dan Hyunwoo answered calmly, the faintest trace of a smile on his lips.
Wall Gyeom gave Gwang Cheonhyeol a meaningful glance.
Bang—!
Wall Gyeom and Gwang Cheonhyeol.
Together with the Black Wind Blood Squad, they raised their weapons and charged toward Dan Hyunwoo, stepping into the path of slaughter.
Their eyes gleamed with bloodlust.
Whoooosh!
A hundred swords descended on Dan Hyunwoo all at once.
Behind them, fifty more assassins who had yet to draw their blades waited in reserve.
‘No matter how strong he is… this is the end.’
Gwang Cheonhyeol curled his lips like a demon.
At least until the flash of light danced wildly before his eyes and blood began to spray.
Shraaaak! Shraaaak!
In a single instant—before he could even finish the thought—the edge of Dan Hyunwoo’s sword carved through the Black Wind Blood Squad, shattering them apart.
Yes.
He shattered them.
Far beyond mere cutting, like a being who had transcended humanity, toying with insects.
“……!?”
Every time his blade swept through the air, every time an invisible sword trail reflected the light and left its mark—
“Kuaaaaagh!”
“Keuheeeuk!”
“Uaaaaaagh!”
Limbs were severed, and the corpses of the Black Wind Blood Squad—screaming until the very end—piled up in layers.
Even as they watched from the front, Wall Gyeom and Gwang Cheonhyeol could do nothing but stare.
Because there was nothing they could do.
Even these men who had lived their lives steeped in slaughter could only watch in disbelief as their elite squad was turned into chunks of meat, unable to even perceive the blade that sliced through the tiniest fraction of a second.
They had no choice but to watch.
It was simply too fast.
In the blink of an eye, half of the Black Wind Blood Squad had vanished.
“What kind of speed is this…? This is insane. Is he even human?”
Gwang Cheonhyeol muttered without realizing it.
His parted lips had turned deathly pale. He gripped his sword hilt with trembling hands.
Meanwhile, Dan Hyunwoo’s blade only grew faster.
The sword he had thought impossibly swift now surpassed even divine speed as it butchered the Black Wind Blood Squad.
Flying flesh. Shattering bones. Screams.
Standing at the center of this hellish scene, he simply swung his sword with a calm, expressionless face devoid of any amusement.
The assassins watching from behind began to stir in panic almost immediately.
“I’ve never heard of a monster like him!”
“This isn’t worth the pay! Even ten lives wouldn’t be enough!”
Someone shouted.
And they were right.
That thing was no longer human.
“Run!”
At a single word, the fifty assassins hired by Cho Ho-seon all turned and sprinted toward the main gate of the manor.
But Dan Hyunwoo simply watched them flee in silence.
His face remained indifferent, as if he had no intention of chasing them.
Wall Gyeom and Gwang Cheonhyeol found that strange. The fleeing assassins let out deep sighs of relief.
That was when it happened.
Thud!
With a pressure so heavy it felt like it would tear their flesh apart, a woman appeared beside the main gate.
Hwa Yuhwa stood blocking the entrance. In a cold voice, she spoke to the fleeing assassins.
“Did I ever give you permission to leave?”
“……!?”
“If you came here to kill, you don’t get to leave until either you die or your target dies. Isn’t that the way of assassins?”
“Damn it! Move, you crazy bitch!”
The assassins charged at her without stopping, unleashing hidden weapons, swords, and needles.
In an instant, Hwa Yuhwa’s hair shot upward, whipping wildly in the air, and her pupils began to shrink to pinpricks.
She spoke softly, yet her voice was utterly terrifying.
“It seems you didn’t know I received permission to kill you all. Assassins are targets for extermination. There is no need to show mercy.”
Hwa Yuhwa slipped her slender hand into her sleeve, then flicked it open toward the air.
Just as she always did when facing assassins.
From her fingertips, large needles tore through the air with a sharp whistle.
They flew at an unbelievable speed and embedded themselves in the assassins’ vital points.
No—they didn’t embed.
They pierced straight through.
Leaving massive holes in their bodies.
From those gaping wounds spilled hearts, five viscera and six bowels, lungs—organs of every kind.
‘What kind of inner energy…?’
Half the assassins stared at the holes in their own bodies with wide eyes before vomiting blood and collapsing.
Their eyes remained open in disbelief even in death.
Half of the fifty were dead just like that.
Srrrng.
Hwa Yuhwa drew her sword and tilted her head slightly.
She looked at the remaining half with her tiny pupils curved into crescent moons.
That smile could not have looked more cruel.
Blocking their path, butchering those who tried to flee, then raising her sword with a beautiful, radiant smile—it was more horrifying than any other sight.
“If I let you go, our captain will be upset.”
“……”
“And if I let you escape, you’ll just go somewhere else and kill more people, won’t you?”
“She’s insane… She really is the Madwoman…”
“I hear that a lot.”
Bang—!
Hwa Yuhwa’s sword danced as she unleashed her sword art in a dazzling display.
They say the Plum Blossom Sword Technique carries the scent of plum blossoms, but this art was in a league of its own.
Yet that scent soon turned into the thick stench of blood.
“Keuk!”
“Kuaaaak!”
The world was brutally covered in red flowers.
The scattered, fluttering blood bloomed like flowers—then quickly withered.
The blood-flowers soaking the ground soon covered their corpses and slowly faded beneath them.
Along with their lives.
Yu Sucheon watched the blood blossoms Hwa Yuhwa created and swallowed dryly. Even as he did, he felt his body tremble lightly.
‘I knew she was strong, but… this strong?’
He had been gauging her skill while watching her teach martial arts to Eun Hyeongyeom.
But that had been pure arrogance.
Just as one could not contain the ocean in a small bowl, her martial prowess could not be measured by the likes of Yu Sucheon.
‘Damn it. Just what kind of life do you have to live to reach that level?’
Even as those thoughts crossed his mind, the blood flowers continued to bloom.
He watched the horrifying yet awe-inspiring scene with goosebumps rising on his skin—until he suddenly felt Song Wolun, who had been standing behind him, grab his arm tightly.
‘What the hell is wrong with this idiot now?’
When he turned his head, Song Wolun’s face was completely blank, lost in a daze.
It was obvious both to Yu Sucheon and to Song Wolun himself.
Song Wolun was slowly piecing together why Dan Hyunwoo had felt both strangely familiar and uncomfortably familiar.
‘Th-this can’t be…!’
The back of Dan Hyunwoo as he protected him.
That reliable, broad back looked familiar.
No—it was a back he knew very well.
Eight years ago, in a remote mountain village of slash-and-burn farmers, when it wasn’t just the fields but the people and their homes that were burning—he had seen that exact back.
The back that had cut down bandits and shielded him from the spraying blood.
‘Th-this person… he’s the one from back then…!’
At the time, he had been in so much pain that he tried to forget the memory.
But now it was crystal clear.
The person with that back had saved him. That sword and those martial arts had rekindled the dying embers of his life.
He had studied desperately, passed the county magistrate exam, and become a magistrate—all so he could follow that back.
He had chased after him without even knowing his name or face, remembering only that back.
It was that same silhouette.
Thump. Thump.
Without realizing it, he struck his own chest.
Yes.
It was that man.
It was truly him.
Tears welled up and flowed down his blood-stained cheeks, dripping to the ground.
“So the young master has saved my life… twice…”
The flowing tears soaked his face.
The emotions he had held back for so long, the person he had searched everywhere for—he wept endlessly at the sight of him.
Clang! Kaang!
The moment Song Wolun realized he had reunited with the man who had become the guiding light of his life—
A sudden silence fell over the battlefield once more.
“……”
“……”
Only one-third of the Black Wind Blood Squad remained, having retreated backward.
Wall Gyeom, Gwang Cheonhyeol, and Dan Hyunwoo stared at one another in silence.
The only sound was the soft plop… plop… of blood droplets falling from Dan Hyunwoo’s sword.
The silence stretched on.
Wall Gyeom and Gwang Cheonhyeol stood at the center of the reforming Black Wind Blood Squad.
The tension was so thick that even the slightest breeze seemed capable of restarting the fight.
They didn’t take their eyes off each other, observing every tiny twitch of muscle.
Dan Hyunwoo spoke.
“Wall Gyeom, the Demon of Ghostly Slaughter, and Gwang Cheonhyeol, leader of the Black Wind Blood Squad?”
“……!?”
They had never introduced themselves. How could he know their names?
Why were those names coming from this man’s mouth?
They lived in the dark underbelly of the world. While their names were known, few knew their faces.
Yet this man asked without a shred of doubt, his voice firm.
“How do you know us?”
“It was recorded.”
“Re…corded? What record are you talking about?”
Dan Hyunwoo slowly raised his sword and answered in a flat voice.
“The Imperial Palace’s Kill List.”
“Wh… what?”
His voice had been quiet, so only Wall Gyeom and Gwang Cheonhyeol—standing close—heard it.
But those words struck their hearts like a hammer.
‘The Imperial Palace’s Kill List? Does something like that even exist? And even if it does, how does this bastard know about it?’
A spine-chilling sensation crawled across their skin.
And then it hit them.
Fear. A tension so suffocating it felt like they were being strangled.
Yes.
This man was the one who drew red lines through names on the Imperial Palace’s Kill List.
“You bastard!”
Gwang Cheonhyeol and Wall Gyeom stepped forward at the same time, closing the distance in an instant with disciplined footwork despite their agitation.
Whiiiing!
Wall Gyeom’s Mad Tyrant Blade swung toward Dan Hyunwoo’s head.
At the same time, Gwang Cheonhyeol’s sword aimed for his waist.
‘He can’t block this! No matter if he’s the Imperial Palace’s dog!’
He might be able to block a sword.
But if he focused on stopping the much heavier blade, Gwang Cheonhyeol’s sword would have to be stopped with nothing but flesh! Wall Gyeom smiled.
But then—
Clack.
His trembling eyes refused to accept reality.
Dan Hyunwoo had caught the blade with his left hand.
No—not with his hand. With just two fingers.
And then—
Crack!
With only two fingers, he shattered the blade into pieces.
The fragments scattered and clattered loudly as they hit the ground.
Wall Gyeom stared at the scene with an expression of utter disbelief.
Shraaak!
In that same instant, Dan Hyunwoo’s sword sliced through both Gwang Cheonhyeol’s blade and his body.
“Keuk… You damn bastard…”
His staggering body collapsed to the ground. A short stream of blood flowed from his mouth.
With hollow eyes still filled with unfulfilled vengeance, Gwang Cheonhyeol breathed his last.
“Son of a bitch…”
Wall Gyeom’s face was one of utter despair.
Above it, Dan Hyunwoo’s sword drew a line.
Wall Gyeom, who had sensed the streak of light, murmured.
“I shouldn’t have taken this job…”
Crack—!
Wall Gyeom’s body split in two.
His blood-soaked form collapsed onto the shattered remains of his Mad Tyrant Blade.
The blade once called one of Hebei’s Twenty Great Blades was dyed red.
Along with its owner.
Dan Hyunwoo turned to Hwa Yuhwa and said,
“Draw red lines through the rest of them.”
“Our captain really shouldn’t be doing this kind of dirty work… Tsk.”
Hwa Yuhwa walked toward the remaining thirty or so members of the Black Wind Blood Squad.
Their faces turned deathly pale with terror at the approach of a single woman.
Leaving them to her, Dan Hyunwoo unleashed his movement technique in an instant.
At a speed so fast that even Yu Sucheon and Song Wolun were shocked, Dan Hyunwoo’s hand grabbed the back of a man’s neck in the corner of the manor.
Seeing the man who had tried to flee and been caught, Song Wolun shouted,
“Cho Ho-seon! You bastard! You were going to run the moment things turned against you!”
“Kuk!”
Cho Ho-seon’s face burned red with rage at the failure of his plan, yet he trembled in terror at Dan Hyunwoo.
His earlier composure and mad laughter had completely vanished.
Dan Hyunwoo tightened his grip on the man’s neck.
“You must have a lot to spit out before you die.”
The manor was thick with the scent of blood.
The only sounds were those of Hwa Yuhwa finishing off the remnants of the Black Wind Blood Squad. The battle was coming to an end.
All except for one man—Cho Ho-seon—who had something far more painful than death waiting for him.