Chapter 74
Chapter 74
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 74
Chapter Title: Quarterfinal Limits and Syndicate Absorption
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Unfortunately, Unwoo Guild's limit was the quarterfinals.
After winning the round of 16, they faced Iron Army Guild in the quarterfinals.
True to their reputation as one of Korea's longstanding top four guilds, they completely overwhelmed Unwoo Guild's regular members.
Having lost all their regular members, the Jang-gwi repeatedly held out against Iron Army Guild before crumbling, until they were ultimately forced to concede defeat to the guild master who stepped forward—Iron Fist.
No matter how much they had trained in the Enemy Demon-Slaying Technique, an A-Rank was a league apart.
Moreover, Iron Fist—a veteran A-Rank who had held his position for years—lived up to his title as leader of one of the top four guilds by smashing the Jang-gwi single-handedly.
It was a regrettable result of dropping out in the quarterfinals, but when you considered that Unwoo Guild had been outside the top 100 cutoff line, it was an absurdly high achievement.
The bitter taste of defeat didn't linger long.
The regular members, Jang-gwi included, comforted one another and broke into smiles.
Their growth was only just beginning, after all.
Just proving they had potential against Iron Army Guild was enough to fill them with immense pride in the Enemy Demon-Slaying Technique.
"I heard you lost. Still, quarterfinals is impressive."
"Next time will be different. We only lost because we've barely mastered half the technique. We'll turn all ten of us into Jang-gwi and claim victory in the next battle round."
Their tremendous potential had turned Jin-cheol into a guild master brimming with confidence.
He had evolved from the head of a puny guild scraping by outside the cutoff line into a titan standing on the cusp of the top four.
Yong-un flashed a satisfied smile at the sight of Jin-cheol steeling his resolve once more despite the defeat, then glanced over at Myung-su.
"We took care of the Yasal Society leader."
"So you ultimately succeeded."
Jin-cheol knew full well what the Yasal Society meant to Yong-un, and his face lit up with a beaming smile.
But the smile faded quickly. The mere fact that Myung-su had come with him was enough for Jin-cheol to guess the next question.
"You want to hold a meeting on how to handle the Yasal Society."
"Exactly. Jin-cheol knows Myung-su here was one of their assassins. So you two put your heads together and figure out the best approach."
Jin-cheol smiled at Yong-un's words.
Myung-su's eyes widened as he asked,
"You already have a plan in mind?"
"Yes, mine's set. Whether it's effective, though—that's for Ilgwi-hon to confirm."
"What is it?"
"We absorb the Yasal Society."
Jin-cheol was declaring they would swallow the Yasal Society whole.
An organization that had put down roots in Korea far earlier than Unwoo Guild.
Myung-su couldn't help letting out a small gasp of admiration at Jin-cheol's nonchalant ambition to devour such a group.
"Impressive."
"Your reaction tells me you were leaning that way too."
"Yes, spot on. The Yasal Society vanishing overnight would cause massive issues across Korea."
"Same here. And their capital and intel network will be a huge boon for whatever the Supreme One has planned ahead."
Their views aligned perfectly.
They turned to Yong-un.
"Absorbing the Yasal Society seems like the way to go."
"Best to bring it under Master's command."
Yong-un drummed his fingers on the table where he sat and said,
"Can we afford to take on that infamous name?"
With its leader gone, the Yasal Society was chaos adrift in limbo.
Yet Yong-un possessed both the power to quell that chaos and the ace up his sleeve in Myung-su to bend it to his will.
Devouring it posed no problem in itself—but the Yasal Society's notoriety was sky-high.
Even on a national level, it was such an evil cabal that hunter management agencies mobilized to carve it out.
Jin-cheol smiled and shook his head at Yong-un's concern.
"Why take on even that?"
"Then how exactly do you plan to swallow them?"
"No need to eat the skin when you're eating grapes."
Yong-un cocked his head at Jin-cheol's words.
Jin-cheol wrote "Yasal Society" on the table, then wiped it clean with his hand.
"Just swallow the pulp. Erase the infamy along with the Yasal Society name. Revive it under a new banner in the Supreme One's service."
"But their assassins..."
"Skin's peeled off, so slap on a new one. New name, new methods."
Myung-su turned to Jin-cheol with a grave expression.
"How would we pull that off?"
"Beats me. No one knows the assassin life better than the assassins themselves."
"Ah..."
Myung-su sank into thought over Jin-cheol's weighty yet casual advice.
His expression, however, wasn't displeased.
"Feasible?"
Myung-su nodded at Yong-un's question, still deep in contemplation.
"I know their system inside out. It... seems possible."
A smile crept across Myung-su's lips.
Jin-cheol grinned in kind.
Yong-un surveyed them both, then rose from his seat.
"Then make it happen. Jin-cheol, give Myung-su your full support—don't brush off his help."
"Yes, Supreme One."
"Myung-su, with your Ghost Slayer Annihilation Path at hand, assign as many Yasal assassins to Jin-cheol as you can manage. Possible?"
"Yes, Master. Entirely."
With that, the verdict on the Yasal Society was settled.
Now came the time to devour it.
Yong-un looked down at Myung-su.
"You'll need their elite assassins. What's your plan?"
"I was just about to ask for your help, Master."
"What do I need to do?"
"The supreme spirit sorcerer who served only the leader. We have to find that woman."
Yong-un chuckled softly and nodded.
"Hold on. I'll fetch her now."
Before the leader died.
Yong-un had used a soul-enslavement technique to drag every secret only the leader knew into the light.
Among them, he recalled the girl with crimson eyes who exuded a serene air beneath her half-rabbit mask.
'Supreme Spirit Sorcerer.'
Special existences cultivated through a spirit sorcerer who had been the inaugural Yasal Society leader's comrade.
They had inherited that first spirit sorcerer's power, molding spirit sorcerers to his exact specifications.
Every spirit sorcerer paired with an elite assassin was her handiwork.
From the leader's memories, Yong-un raided the Yasal Society's headquarters.
"So it wasn't the leader sustaining the Yasal Society all this time... but the spirit sorcerers."
Upon arriving at the headquarters from the leader's recollections, Yong-un gazed at the bizarre patterns sprawled across the entire estate as he drew forth his demonic qi.
The ancient tiled-roof house, the flowers encircling the patterns—everything that appeared crudely made brimmed with purpose, forming an incomprehensibly vast formation.
"To think a place like this flew under the radar for so long."
The unique patterns interconnected to weave a colossal formation rivaling Mount Seorak in scale.
A meticulous construct that warped qi flows and relayed the presence of any intruder to someone specific.
Crackle.
The assassins, sensing Yong-un's intrusion, swarmed to encircle him.
Standing before the entrance to the headquarters was an assassin clutching a pair of crescent-curved blades.
The sole elite assassin among the elites who never budged from her post.
Wood Killer.
Wood Killer existed solely to safeguard the supreme spirit sorcerer.
Thus, she possessed the ability to neutralize any intruder who breached this place.
Her skill lay precisely in manipulating each of these intricate formations.
The curved blades poised to strike began moving with slow, trailing afterimages.
Immediately, the qi currents around Yong-un twisted wildly, scrambling his vision into chaos.
"Illusion formations woven in as well?"
With so many formations jumbled in disarray, pinpointing them all was impossible.
Yong-un smiled at the superb illusion work and jabbed his index finger into its heart.
Clang!
His casual gesture instantly fractured the churning illusion.
The moment it shattered, Wood Killer's curved blade hovered right before his eyes.
An exquisite strike unavoidable even if one saw through the illusion.
Thud.
But she'd picked the wrong foe.
With fingers splayed wide, the verdant-tinged curved blade settled into Yong-un's palm.
Whirr.
The blade, whipping through the air at blinding speed, ground to a halt against his fingers.
Thwack!
Yong-un's foot then slammed into Wood Killer's gut.
She doubled over like a shrimp, expelling a gust that whipped her mask.
Despite the force launching her into the air, Wood Killer snapped her head up to glare at him.
She twitched her fingers, activating another formation.
"Even a Heavenly Gravity Formation... The Zhuge clan would have been awestruck."
Gravity doubled, the very sky bearing down on Yong-un with crushing weight.
The charging assassins—specialists in formations like Wood Killer—scattered just before it triggered.
A Heavenly Gravity Formation so potent not even beasts could rise against it.
Yet Yong-un strolled through it as lightly as on a leisurely walk.
"Destroying the formation would be a shame. This place is mine now."
Flash.
Seeing it futile, Wood Killer halted the Heavenly Gravity to prepare her next assault.
She crossed her index and middle fingers, summoning verdant energy.
It was then.
Thud.
"Gah!"
Yong-un—over fifty meters distant—folded space like paper and seized Wood Killer's throat.
Her eyes blazed with shock.
Yong-un hoisted her up and hurled her back toward his original position.
Boom! Roll, roll, tumble.
She crashed hard into the ground and tumbled away.
Their positions had fully reversed.
Yong-un now stood at the door to headquarters, while Wood Killer lay sprawled at the entrance threshold.
"Block him!"
Sensing peril, the assassins sprang into action without awaiting orders.
With Wood Killer unable to command, protecting their top priority—the supreme spirit sorcerer—came first.
They rushed Yong-un, ready to lay down their lives, hurling daggers and thrusting short blades to slay him.
At that moment, the sealed headquarters door flew wide open.
"Everyone, stop."
A sharp, high-pitched woman's voice rang out.
Yong-un turned from the assassins to peer at the entrance.
"Are you the supreme spirit sorcerer?"
The woman with the half-rabbit mask and crimson eyes.
The supreme spirit sorcerer had revealed herself.
Spirit sorcerers were beings who awakened skills by harnessing shadows.
At their core always stood the supreme spirit sorcerer, the Rabbit Mask.
As their matriarch, she was privy to every scrap of intel shared through shadows.
And she had confirmed Yong-un's presence.
"Any further fighting is pointless. We've lost."
An overwhelming might reminiscent of the inaugural Yasal Society leader.
Even the first spirit sorcerer's domain, brimming with formations, couldn't bar him—so the Rabbit Mask, supreme spirit sorcerer, declared defeat.
"Guh... grrr..."
Though the brainwashing had lifted, Wood Killer strained to lift her immobilized head in a bid to protect her charge.
"Rest now. It's over."
Only at the Rabbit Mask's words did Wood Killer finally slacken and lose consciousness.
"Defeat at Jinhab Valley means defeat for the entire Yasal Society. All assassins, lay down your weapons."
The other assassins knelt one by one at her command, dropping their arms.
Once all were disarmed, the Rabbit Mask offered Yong-un's stoic face a faint smile.
"What now? Planning to dismantle the Yasal Society?"
She remained utterly composed despite the loss, as if she'd long foreseen this day.
Yong-un seized the half-rabbit mask and yanked it free.
A stunningly beautiful face emerged—one so captivating it might have elevated the Plum Blossom Five Beauties to Seven in the martial world.
But Yong-un betrayed no reaction as he laid a hand on the supreme spirit sorcerer's shoulder.
"Your name?"
"Choi Mu-hee."
"Mu-hee... It suits you."
The supreme spirit sorcerer Mu-hee bowed her head.
"The Yasal Society won't be dismantled."
Mu-hee betrayed her first flicker of confusion.
"Not... dismantle it?"
"One of my subordinates suggested a better way."
He tightened his grip on her shoulder.
Mu-hee bit her lip against the pain, glaring up at him with furrowed brows.
"The verdict on the Yasal Society gets handed down there."
With that, Yong-un and Mu-hee vanished from the spot.
"In-incredible."
Myung-su gasped in awe at the sight of Yong-un returning to Unwoo Guild's office with Mu-hee in tow.
He knew better than most the supreme spirit sorcerer's capabilities, having been a Yasal Society assassin himself.
"You breached Jinhab Valley... and it took less than five minutes."
Mu-hee responded to Myung-su's admiration with calm composure.
Jin-cheol stared at her answer in disbelief.
"Not... the enemy? You're talking like one of us."
"I was. Not anymore."
Mu-hee raised both arms to signal her surrender.
"But this is unexpected. I figured you'd dismantle us."
She knew what she'd done to Yong-un and the depth of his grudge—she'd assumed as much.
Disbandment, not dissolution.
As Mu-hee tilted her head in puzzlement, Myung-su rose from the sofa.
"It will be disbanded. The Yasal Society name vanishes."
"Then why bring me here?"
"The Yasal Society sheds its name and gets absorbed."
Absorbed?
A choice more humiliating than outright dissolution twisted Mu-hee's features into a scowl.
"You think that'll fly?"
"The alternatives would be far graver."
Myung-su glanced at Yong-un.
The silently listening Yong-un unleashed his signature crimson demonic qi, his eyes glowing bloodred.
"My original choice was to slaughter every last Yasal member. My subordinates talked me out of it."
"Y-you're serious?"
The Yasal Society numbered in the hundreds.
Killing them all meant massacring hundreds outright.
"What's to stop me? Isn't it only natural for a victorious general to claim the spoils of war?"
Yet Yong-un's gaze and the sheer power on display made it abundantly clear he could—and would.
Mu-hee went blank for a moment before snapping back to herself.
Then, abruptly, she began retching.
"Urk... blegh."
"Wha...?"
Myung-su's face twisted in confusion at Mu-hee's sudden behavior.
But only for an instant.
She thrust out a hand to halt Myung-su's approach, then nodded frantically while trembling all over.
"I-I believe you! I believe it! I'll h-help. P-please hold him back."
What in the world had just happened?
Trembling in terror, Mu-hee suddenly clutched at Myung-su, pledging her aid.
The bewilderment passed in a flash.
Yong-un reined in his crimson demonic qi and smirked.
"Entertaining. You lot handle it from here. I'm off."
He handed the still-shuddering Mu-hee off to his subordinates and strode out of the office.