Chapter 67
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 67
Chapter Title: Annihilation of the Ronin Horde
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Yeonhae Merchant Guild's Guild Leader, Yeon Ja-ryeong, had regained his composure.
Even he, who had cultivated demonic arts like the ronin arrayed in formation before him, was aware that he was gradually growing strange himself.
But what did it matter?
Thud thud!
A martial artist speaks with martial arts, with power.
A few minor irregularities were more than acceptable, and the ronin losing their reason posed no issue at all.
On the contrary, with distracting thoughts discarded and only ingrained techniques remaining, the ronin had become excellent spears for Yeon Ja-ryeong—utterly fearless even of death.
And now, the tip of his spear was aimed at the opponent who had recently been making a name for himself.
'A mere late-stage junior, after all.'
Unlike the martial artists he had targeted before, who could be manipulated through righteousness and propriety, this was no chase. With the foe cornered against a cliff, human wave tactics had no equal in the end.
"Mosan Sect, was it?"
Seo Mun-ha growled coldly, stepping over the ronin in front of him.
He recalled the Daoist filled with the righteous spirit of his clan brother.
"Do you have ties to Mosan?"
Perfect, thought Yeon Ja-ryeong, his smile deepening.
There was nothing easier to handle than a martial artist swayed by emotions.
"It was a relatively recent incident."
He spoke mockingly, as if to provoke his foe.
He began abstractly, then delved into the gruesome details of the fate that had befallen Mosan Sect's Daoists.
As if deliberately grating on the listener's nerves.
Clang!
Seo Mun-ha shattered the spear tip lunging inches from him, yanking it as if pulling it toward himself amid the cackling ronin behind.
His arm, drawn fully back, then whipped forward in a straight line, adding momentum.
Crunch.
The ronin's abdomen caved in deeply as he lost his balance.
Having struck with a single fist, Seo Mun-ha shoved the staggering ronin back toward his comrades and seamlessly engaged the remaining three.
Even if they were failed products, the hallmarks of demonic arts remained.
Their large and small movements were far from upright stances, targeting vital points with ruthless precision.
Individually, their skills were a mess, but their internal energy couldn't be underestimated.
Scree!
The ronin, leading with their internal energy, were well aware of their strengths and weaknesses.
"Six at the Peak Realm, and..."
Seo Mun-ha dodged their emotionless assaults and suddenly gave up counting.
They'd gathered quite a number.
Starting from fifty, he'd whittled them down considerably, but it still seemed well over a hundred—barely different from the start.
Whoosh!
Suddenly kicking off the ground, Seo Mun-ha leaped back.
Boom!
The ronin swords arriving late crashed into innocent terrain and foliage, venting their fury. In that brief silence, Seo Mun-ha's frustrated voice echoed out.
"This won't do."
There was even a hint of annoyance in it.
"Already... giving up?"
The elite experts clashing directly with him couldn't shake their doubts, while the watching ronin jeered without exception.
"I've changed my mind."
Seo Mun-ha readjusted his grip on his sword.
It wasn't just his thoughts that had changed.
"Changed about what?"
Yeon Ja-ryeong frowned in question, but Seo Mun-ha struck first.
The moment the query fell, he thrust his sword.
Thud.
A faint breeze stirred. Along with the ronin's head rolling limply away.
"......"
Not just the victim—no one could react.
"I'll kill you all."
Before they could even collect themselves.
As if slipping into perfectly tailored clothes, Seo Mun-ha recalled the Black Wind Squad precedent and steeled his resolve.
Shh.
A lavish trail of blood stretched before his advancing feet.
"I don't care who you insult or where."
Listening silently to their garbled voices was rotting his ears.
It was ridiculous yet repulsive.
Pathetic alone, yet tearing at martial artists like a pack of jackals.
"But I owe Mosan Sect a drink."
Yeon Ja-ryeong's provocation had worked perfectly. Peak Realm ronin, roused late, swung their blades at him buoyed by that flimsy confidence.
Seo Mun-ha countered concisely.
The crude battlefield lost its smiles in an instant.
Splat!
Yeon Ja-ryeong's gradually stiffening expression said it all.
'That...'
He himself was a Peak Realm elite who had reached this stage.
Though lacking in combat experience, reading battles by sensing clashing energies wasn't hard.
Even so, he clenched his fist unconsciously. Cold sweat trickled down his spine.
Words like "overwhelming" couldn't capture Seo Mun-ha's prowess.
It was like a dull play, as if scripted.
His spears and halberds, utterly toyed with by a single late-stage junior, began breaking one by one.
'Doesn't that bastard ever tire?'
Seo Mun-ha seized a ronin he'd drawn into his range and struck from behind.
Slash.
His concise sword path grazed the ronin's windpipe.
Gush.
Fresh red blood soaked the ground wetly, and Seo Mun-ha nudged the ronin's drooping head with his foot.
With his sword tip.
Stab!
The two pierced ronin slumped shoulder to shoulder.
That made thirty-two.
Kill, kill, and kill again.
Far from mere slashing and stabbing, Seo Mun-ha's hands endlessly drew screams, transforming the ferocious ronin into scattered autumn leaves.
"Argh!"
His effortless skill showed no fixed forms like stances.
A longsword flashing precisely where needed.
The crude blades had no time to dry of blood.
"What are you just standing around for?!"
Growing impatient, Yeon Ja-ryeong shoved the ronin from behind.
Those gleaming with light were arrows.
A hail of arrows would fell even him before long.
"The Vice Leader and elites are engaging him."
Only the Vice Leader of the Hidden Assassins Squad and Yeon Ja-ryeong remained among the elites.
"Doesn't matter!"
A truly foolish choice.
Pushed from behind, the ronin loosed arrows and hurled swords and spears.
Whoosh—!
Like disarmed soldiers stripping themselves bare, but the thick volley's momentum was formidable.
Thud thud thud!
Seo Mun-ha, weaving through the battlefield, kicked the Hidden Assassins Vice Leader high.
Splat splat splat!
The suddenly skewered middle-aged man became a shield, protecting nothing more than the Flying Dragon.
Shh.
Seo Mun-ha strolled leisurely through the downpour.
Walking in the rain, yet untouched by it.
'Northern Guard Divine Cavalry Art...'
A measure of his inner power granted wings to his legs, and soon Seo Mun-ha crossed the dwindling ronin horde.
'That young one's inner power is that profound?'
Yeon Ja-ryeong marveled purely.
Facing nearly a hundred ronin without flinching or retreating an inch.
Thud.
At last, the rain stopped.
Yeon Ja-ryeong, staring blankly, followed Seo Mun-ha's gaze.
"Got you!"
As Seo Mun-ha looked up, a vast shadow fell over him.
A iron ball linked by chains.
Boom!
A massive iron orb.
"......Did we get him?"
Yeon Ja-ryeong's rising inflection betrayed his uncertainty.
Whoosh.
As expected, no.
Seo Mun-ha extended his arm unscathed.
The instant the iron ball plummeted toward his head, he'd shifted aside, palm pressing its blunt surface before releasing.
Thud!
Stomping the trailing ronin's head shattered his skull, burying the over-muscled lump deep into the earth.
"......Mountain Shattering Heavenly Spirit Sword."
Seo Mun-ha mercilessly cut down the defenseless ronin.
It didn't take long for no one to remain standing on two feet in the battlefield.
"Ha, ha."
Yeon Ja-ryeong slumped powerlessly, exhaling hollow gasps.
He was the last.
His inner power offered some resistance left, but his will was gone.
He wasn't a martial artist. Not even a ronin.
Reduced to a powerless merchant, he mustered only firm resolve.
"Kill me."
He offered no excuses like inevitability or lack of regrets.
"Very well."
Not without lingering attachments.
Having dwelled in the martial world, he'd envisioned his end before—and it wasn't much different from now.
Fwoosh!
Seo Mun-ha shook off the sticky blood and turned away.
Clop clop.
His loyal steed approached unhesitatingly, as if sensing its master's well-being, announcing the end.
"I'm fine."
Seo Mun-ha patted the praiseworthy beast's head.
At the same time, an untimely question arose.
In place of the subsiding ripples.
'Wars end by striking the general or achieving the objective. Then, for martial artists?'
How does one fully settle the grudges among martial artists?
By crushing their will or uprooting their lives entirely, like drying up the seed?
Shelving the enemy commander momentarily with that doubt tucked in a corner of his mind, he surveyed the limbs—not the head—and their fates.
Step.
This might be meaningless karma accumulation.
Foolish perhaps, but Seo Mun-ha could comprehend the Merchant Guild's choice and even pity it.
Thus, intending to strike only key leaders, he conversely spared one.
Thud.
Yeon Ja-ryeong collapsed a beat late, losing consciousness.
"Gasp!"
He fell precisely then.
As if knowing the cleanup woes, a familiar shadow appeared, mouth agape like a ragged hole.
Seo Mun-ha explained first, before complaints could spill.
"It's done."
With full confidence and certainty.
A moment later.
Before sunset, Seo Mun-ha, relieved of one burden, jested lightly.
"Thanks to you, I survived. Didn't expect to see you this soon."
U Hak-bong stared incredulously at his utterly assured demeanor.
The two men who had pledged brotherhood.
The beggar's garb and the swelled ranks could be explained later.
First, entrusting cleanup, Seo Mun-ha turned from the slope.
"You really killed them all? Alone?"
With persistently astonished U Hak-bong at his side, Seo Mun-ha shook his head.
"I intended to."
As U Hak-bong had seen, one remained: Yeonhae Merchant Guild's Yeon Ja-ryeong.
"He might help track the missing late-stage juniors."
U Hak-bong nodded dazedly.
The ronin corpses' blood hadn't cooled, yet Seo Mun-ha remained calmly composed despite the battle.
"Senior Brother U!"
Someone awaited them right on cue.
"Ah, is this young hero the one you mentioned before...?"
Not apart long, but U Hak-bong wasn't alone.
Beggars awaited as planned at the spot, flaunting their filthy attire and sweat in droves.
"Talk later. Sun's setting—handle it swiftly."
U Hak-bong jerked a thumb backward.
"Eugh, us?"
"Their screams were no joke!"
"Then should I?"
The Beggar Sect's three elite disciples whined.
"Swift-footed Pyeong-ah, notify the magistrate. Goseo-hyeon has undertakers—Ju-ah, commission them."
"......"
"This friend'll pay. Leave four to guard the Guild Leader, preserve the rest of the scene."
"......"
"Move."
The Beggar Sect disciples turned with wails.
Demonic cultists or not, they had no desire to sink to inhuman levels, and orthodox martial artists never left foes for beasts, regardless.
"Anything else?"
Seo Mun-ha shrugged.
The impeccable handling only heightened U Hak-bong's curiosity about him, but the situation pressed urgently.
"Time's short—my conclusion first."
The blood stench clinging to his black uniform wouldn't dry soon.
'Maybe for the best.'
Easier to wash once thoroughly than dribbling two or three times.
At the fork, Seo Mun-ha and U Hak-bong parted ways.
Tongchang Branch, Mugum County.
A host of late-stage juniors, Ha Eun-ye included, awaited at Seo Mun-ha's destination.