Chapter 157
Chapter 157
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 157
Chapter Title: Yangyang
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Assassins of the Flesh Net are rigorously trained never to open their mouths during a mission. Even the highest-ranking killers who have surpassed the wall of peak realm are no exception. They all underwent the same training in the past.
However, an injustice and bewilderment far beyond expectations can pry open even the heavy mouths of assassins.
The leader of the Flesh Net assassins, Black Cicada, shouted.
"You bastard! Weren't you the one just now saying we should join forces for revenge against the Taiyi Sword Sect's lord?"
A rare outburst from an assassin.
But Priest Hyeon-gong grimaced in disgust.
"How could a Daoist of the Wudang Sect conspire with filthy assassins? What an utterly repulsive notion."
"You little shit, you were the one who first sent a transmission..."
"Hah!"
Priest Hyeon-gong snorted, cutting off Black Cicada's words.
The longer the opponent's claim drags on, the longer the explanation must be, and the longer the explanation, the more it loses persuasiveness— an eternal truth.
Instead, Priest Hyeon-gong issued a threat.
"If you're going to sow discord, at least pick the right timing. Here's a fool trying to stir trouble right after we've crossed swords."
It was a bit embarrassing to call it "crossing swords," but since no one had seen Priest Hyeon-gong's blade pierce the opponent's back, he could stand tall.
After laying out his claim, Priest Hyeon-gong winked at Namgung Myeong.
Namgung Myeong grew confused.
'He wasn't moving with the assassins—he was pursuing them?'
Thinking back, Priest Hyeon-gong had been keeping some distance from the assassins. It was a subtle gap that made it hard to see them as one group.
Moreover, Priest Hyeon-gong's story was far more convincing than the assassins'. A Wudang Daoist joining hands with the Flesh Net? Absurd.
He had even followed from Shangshen Village to Yangyang to help Dang Mujin and his group with their revenge.
'I must have misunderstood.'
Dang Mujin also found the situation a bit odd.
Maybe the Flesh Net assassin was truly that indignant.
But that didn't mean he thought Priest Hyeon-gong was in league with them. Hadn't Priest Hyeon-gong already taken down one assassin?
Even conceding that Priest Hyeon-gong had sent a transmission to the assassins, it made sense to see it as a ploy to deceive them. Betraying Dang Mujin's group and siding with assassins in such a short time, only to betray them again? Nonsense.
While Dang Mujin and Namgung Myeong sorted their thoughts, Priest Hyeon-gong shouted loudly.
"Stop dawdling and move!"
"Got it!"
He had briefly misunderstood Priest Hyeon-gong, but the task remained the same: pierce the assassins' hearts and sever their necks.
Dang Mujin and his group strode toward the assassins. With their situation suddenly reversed, tension was evident in the assassins' eyes peeking from beneath their masks.
There were three assassins standing.
The leader with an ordinary build. A slender, tall one. And one smaller than average, with small hands and feet. The last assassin was almost certainly a woman.
Of course, the assassins' gender meant nothing to Dang Mujin. Man or woman, he would kill them all.
Dang Mujin reached into his bosom for a needle but changed his mind.
He recalled Three-Eyed Buddha's advice: use poison arts as sparingly as possible.
He would kill the assassins anyway, so they could witness his poison arts without issue, but the problem was Priest Hyeon-gong.
Priest Hyeon-gong was an ally, but unlike Namgung Myeong or Hong Geolgae, he wasn't under the Dang Family Clinic's protection.
Once this was over, he would return to Wudang Sect and surely report what he had seen.
Dang Mujin clicked his tongue. Tsk.
'No choice. I'll have to fight the old man's way.'
Fight centered on the sword, amplifying its effect with poison or disrupting the opponent's nerves.
Dang Mujin recalled the ghost doctor's repeated words.
Stances are for fools. Unleash your full power in the first technique.
Right. The first technique is always the most important.
Dang Mujin's right shoulder slowly rose, then shot forward without warning.
The sword, lightly dangling, thrust straight at the leader assassin's heart.
At the same moment, the small assassin thrust her sword at Dang Mujin.
The tips of their swords clashed, twisting both blades' trajectories simultaneously.
'Countering a thrust with a thrust?'
A method requiring exceptional courage and skill, and one with no reason to choose unless there was intent behind it.
A foreboding instinct.
Dang Mujin cast aside his pride, kicked off the ground with all his might, and leaped backward.
In the next instant, the opponent's sword tip grazed his throat and withdrew. Had he not retreated, it would surely have pierced his neck.
The small assassin narrowed her eyes in dissatisfaction. She had aimed to settle it in the first exchange, just like Dang Mujin.
With the same mindset and similar techniques, the gap in achievement was clear.
'That one's above me with the sword.'
A chill ran down his spine. But Dang Mujin relished the sensation. Facing someone half a step ahead always brought enlightenment.
'Still, combat is combat. Time to even the odds.'
Dang Mujin raised his left index finger, gently stroking the flat of his blade. A dark liquid flowed down, coating it.
"Will your sword pierce my heart first? Or will mine graze your flesh? Let's find out."
Dang Mujin smiled, and tension flickered in the assassin's eyes.
*
While Dang Mujin tangled with one assassin, the remaining two were hard-pressed blocking Namgung Myeong and Priest Hyeon-gong's sword strikes.
And as if by prior agreement, the two assassins seized opportunities to target Hong Geolgae. To break through, always aim for the weakest link.
Moreover, Hong Geolgae wielded a crude bamboo staff. A weapon that seemed it could snap in two with a light swing. The assassins didn't need lengthy communication to pick their target.
But Hong Geolgae wasn't a fool. Anticipating the attack, he barely managed to fend off the assassins' strikes.
"Where do you think you're going!"
The bamboo staff from Red-Faced Old Beggar deflected the assassin's sword without a scratch.
Instead, when the sword's edge chipped against the staff, the assassins hesitated.
Seizing the opening, Hong Geolgae rooted his lower body and slowly rotated his arms, unleashing the Anti-Dragon Eighteen Palms.
The ensuing bursts of energy were so threatening that even assassins superior to Hong Geolgae couldn't ignore them.
Seeing this, Priest Hyeon-gong was impressed.
'Anti-Dragon Eighteen Palms! As expected. He's rear guard material.'
Mastering ascending arts without surpassing the peak realm's wall is no easy feat.
Priest Hyeon-gong raised his evaluation of Hong Geolgae.
'His skill isn't six-and-a-half points—it's seven. Plenty of potential.'
Even the seemingly weak link Hong Geolgae proved solidly capable, so the assassins seemed to reach a decision. Lips moved beneath their masks as they transmitted to each other.
In the next moment, the two assassins excluding the leader acted strangely. They paused briefly, then their internal energy surged explosively.
Priest Hyeon-gong immediately grasped the situation.
"They're using True Origin Qi!"
Their blood flow reversed as well— their eyes burst with blood vessels, whites turning red. Thick veins bulged on their arms.
Using True Origin Qi alone guaranteed death, and with reversed blood flow, they'd collapse on their own after holding out briefly. They had at most one or two incense sticks' worth of life left.
But they chose this extreme measure because it packed sufficient power.
The two assassins' onslaughts turned ferociously savage compared to before.
"Damn it!"
Dang Mujin nearly lost grip of his sword blocking one. Not just fast—the raw power felt like swinging an iron club.
Worse, the opponent's internal energy flowed into Dang Mujin along the clashing blades. A first since consuming the Great Return Pill for vast internal energy.
The sword that flashed above his shoulder in a blink targeted his throat, digging under his chin.
The sword he desperately deflected returned without yielding an inch, aiming for vitals again.
Dang Mujin barely parried while swept in strange exhilaration. Just a bit more. Just a bit more. He muttered to himself.
The young physician of a small clan had become a man standing on the sword's edge for martial growth.
Hong Geolgae outright withdrew from the fight, falling back.
He yearned to surpass the peak realm's wall against strong foes, but with his current ability, he couldn't even endure one exchange against such attacks.
As precarious defense continued, the assassins switched roles.
The two using True Origin Qi turned simultaneously to target Priest Hyeon-gong, leaving their leader alone to face Dang Mujin and Namgung Myeong's assaults.
Dang Mujin read their intent.
'Kill Hyeon-gong blocking the retreat alone and let the leader escape.'
Anxiety gripped Dang Mujin. He had to finish the assassins before Priest Hyeon-gong fell.
But the leader's position wasn't won by chance— without True Origin Qi, his skill far outstripped his subordinates'. Even Dang Mujin and Namgung Myeong's combined assault couldn't easily break through.
Black Cicada was merely an assassin, but also a warrior who had long surpassed the peak realm's entry.
Namgung Myeong muttered.
"Don't rush. Time's on our side."
"We're fine, but Hyeon-gong's in danger!"
"It's okay. No one's better at surviving while protecting themselves."
Dang Mujin glanced at Priest Hyeon-gong.
His earlier display had been somewhat disappointing.
Touted as the top late-generation talent, yet his sword sharpness wasn't much beyond Dang Mujin's. Thus, Dang Mujin figured Namgung Myeong led him by two or three moves.
But now on the defensive, Priest Hyeon-gong revealed his true face.
Dang Mujin unwittingly halted his attack to watch Priest Hyeon-gong's sword.
Numerical disadvantage. Speed. Power. Internal energy gap.
None mattered to Priest Hyeon-gong now.
He swung his single sword, bending the opponents' straight paths.
He deftly deflected blades laden with greater internal energy, binding and slowing their swift strikes.
The two assassins' swords barely nicked his garments, never touching flesh.
A shield blocking all— the epitome opposite Point Spear Sect's Four-Directional Sword Technique, which pierced everything.
Priest Hyeon-gong's form, blocking and redirecting every assault, exuded a stability unlike Three-Eyed Buddha's external arts.
Namgung Myeong swung his sword and murmured.
"Wudang Sect's influence will grow even more. In time, they might claim the title of world's greatest sword sect."
Dang Mujin agreed.
Murim sects had a chronic issue.
Even after finding talented individuals and training them for decades, they crumbled against superior masters.
Point Spear Sect's decline, once vying for supremacy, stemmed from that— core experts dying off, shaking the foundation.
But Wudang Sect was different.
They mastered sword arts to survive encounters with masters two or three levels above. Geniuses who would perish elsewhere endured, carrying on Wudang's history and arts.
Yet even Priest Hyeon-gong's stable swordsmanship had flaws.
For instance, excelling at holding ground but struggling to catch fleeing foes.
The assassin leader, blocking Namgung Myeong's strikes, spotted an opening and leaped over his two subordinates and Priest Hyeon-gong's head, fleeing swiftly.
To save himself, he exposed the backs of his two men exploding their latent power.
Dang Mujin and Namgung Myeong's swords struck the openings unerringly into the two assassins' backs, but they seemed insensate to pain, swinging relentlessly to block.
"Just die already!"
Dang Mujin eyed the fleeing leader.
He had to catch him now, but no way to shake off the two berserk assassins.
Dang Mujin couldn't fathom why the subordinates sacrificed so for him. Just another black path assassin.
*
The fight's end came soon.
The two assassins exhausted their True Origin Qi and suffered deep sword wounds multiple times. They slowed, then collapsed. Dead before a final blow— an anticlimactic end.
Dang Mujin squatted, inspecting the corpses. Reversed blood flow burst vessels, bruising everywhere; hearts shredded to rags.
Including the one Priest Hyeon-gong pierced at the start, three bodies, one escapee.
Dang Mujin gazed at the dead assassins, then slashed, severing their heads.
Hearts stilled, no gushing blood. Decapitated bodies convulsed, spewing.
Priest Hyeon-gong grimaced.
"No need to mutilate corpses like that. Respect the dead."
"If it were an ordinary duel, maybe. But this is revenge."
"Even revenge has limits."
"I carried my master's body through snow for a month. You can't know how much I anticipated this."
Dang Mujin spoke, thrusting again to shred the three hearts. The sensation on his fingertips was peculiar.
Hong Geolgae asked.
"Shall we bury them?"
"No. Let the wild dogs devour them."
Dang Mujin left the three bodies and walked on.
Priest Hyeon-gong felt uneasy about the remains but couldn't step up to bury them.
"Shame the escapee got away. He was definitely the leader."
Dang Mujin muttered regretfully, and Namgung Myeong changed the subject.
"Where do you think he's headed?"
"No idea. But wherever he hides, I'll find and kill him."
"What now? Follow late, or...?"
"No. Finish business here first. Sweep the remaining Flesh Net remnants at Jin Manor."
As Dang Mujin turned back toward Yangyang, Priest Hyeon-gong's expression turned gravely serious in a new way.
He racked his brain desperately.
'The assassins will still be at Jin Manor.'
They'd seen Dang Mujin's group flee, no reason to abandon base yet. Exposed, they'd relocate eventually, but not tonight.
'Only assassins left at Jin Manor?'
Uncertain. Taiyi Sword Sect disciples might be gathered nearby. They knew Dang Mujin's target was Flesh Net.
Thus, heading to Jin Manor with Dang Mujin risked encountering Taiyi Sword Sect disciples.
And meeting them would put Priest Hyeon-gong in dire straits.
'Might mistake me for a traitor.'
He could join Dang Mujin to wipe out Taiyi Sword Sect.
But that would earn strange looks from the group.
Situation clarified.
'Best avoid Taiyi Sword Sect altogether.'
Priest Hyeon-gong edged back and asked Dang Mujin.
"Might clearing Jin Manor be dangerous?"
"No. Just small fry left—shouldn't be hard. Why?"
"Then I'll gather clues on the escapee and rejoin. Wudang excels at tracking too."
Of course, Wudang taught no such tracking.
But outsiders couldn't know that.
"Sure, whatever."
Dang Mujin nodded without suspicion.