An Eye for an Eye
Tang Jongui could see Tang Cheonwi as well.
“He’s not the one I knew.”
A dangerous aura rolled off Tang Cheonwi. This was killing intent—refined to the absolute extreme. The kind of presence only the most elite, rigorously trained assassins ever possessed.
“Eek!”
The moment Yu Miryeong laid eyes on him, she recoiled in pure terror, trembling as if she had just seen a ghost.
“Lord of Yuhongak, please save us! The Young Master—the Young Master is trying to kill us!”
She had watched how Tang Cheonwi slaughtered Dan Seung and the entire Danjuk Clan. He was a young killing ghost. That chilling smile he wore while taking lives—there was no mistaking it. He was enjoying himself.
“Ugh…”
“Damn it! There’s nowhere left to run!”
Every last member of the Cheongpung Clan was paralyzed with fear. Not a single one of them stood with any courage left.
Tang Jongui shot a glance at his First Squad Leader, Tang Sangrip. At once, a dozen Yuhongak assassins stepped forward.
“Kill him.”
The instant Tang Sangrip’s order fell, the Yuhongak assassins charged Tang Cheonwi. They unleashed the footwork Yuhongak prided itself on—Remnant Soul Drift Steps—to scramble his vision.
[Why don’t you just neutralize them right away?]
Tang Cheonwi answered Hwancheonjihwan in a voice bright with excitement.
[I can’t kill those bastards in such a simple way. Why do you think I came back to this moment?]
Yuhongak had been the starting point of everything. He intended to cut each of their throats with his own hands. An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth.
Whoosh!
Tang Cheonwi vanished.
“……!?”
Tang Jongui’s eyes flew wide. Even he had lost track of the movement.
“One first.”
Thud!
Tang Cheonwi’s hand punched straight through a Yuhongak assassin’s chest. He then flung the body roughly aside.
Crash!
The man was already dead before he even hit the wall.
Sssss—
Tang Cheonwi disappeared again. In the blink of an eye he reappeared beside the next target. Dark, sticky energy gathered in his palm—a palm technique.
Thud!
The head exploded. The ownerless torso crumpled lifelessly to the ground.
“Two.”
Once more Tang Cheonwi’s form vanished.
“Stop attacking and form a defensive formation!”
The Second Squad Leader roared. The moment they clustered together…
“How kind of you to make this easier for me.”
He burst out of the very center of their formation, both palms already charged.
Boom!
He detonated the twin palms straight into the floor. The shockwave was so violent that pupils shook. Chunks of flesh sprayed in every direction—all that remained of the Yuhongak assassins who had formed the defensive line. In less than half a second, the entire Second Squad had been wiped out.
“If you keep standing there stunned, you’re next.”
Tang Sangrip felt a cold shiver race down the back of his neck.
“H-how… when did you—!”
Tang Cheonwi was already right behind him. He hadn’t even been able to react.
“Your turn isn’t yet.”
The moment that voice finished, a scream rang out a short distance away.
“Guh!”
Every time someone blinked, another Yuhongak assassin died.
“L-Lord!”
His skill defied all common sense. Worse still, the martial arts Tang Cheonwi was using did not seem to belong to the Tang Clan. No one had ever seen techniques this stealthy and this lethally efficient.
Tang Jongui thought exactly the same thing.
“You bastard! You’ve learned demonic arts! How dare a trueborn heir of the Tang Clan soil himself with demonic arts!”
Crunch!
Tang Cheonwi snapped another Yuhongak assassin’s neck and laughed.
“Heh. So you call this demonic arts? If the Founder heard that, he’d be wailing in the underworld.”
[Damn it. I only gave you the formulas, and you’re already performing them this perfectly?]
The martial arts Tang Cheonwi was using belonged to the Dark Blood True Scripture—the arts of the Poison Sage, the founding ancestor of the Tang Clan. The very root of the clan’s poison techniques.
The palm art was the Poison Blood Heaven Palm.
The fist art was the Blood Destruction Fist.
The footwork was the Blood Shadow Ghost Dance.
The finger art was the Dark Shadow Finger.
Every last one of them had vanished from the Tang Clan long ago.
[Our master is a genius among geniuses! That’s why Hwancheon-i was sulking so hard.]
[Can’t you shut up?]
[Again! You’re not supposed to say mean things!]
While the two artifacts bickered, Tang Cheonwi sent every remaining Yuhongak assassin and every member of the Cheongpung Clan to the underworld. Only three people were left: Tang Jongui, Tang Sangrip, and Yu Miryeong.
“N-no! I… I don’t want to die…!”
Yu Miryeong clutched her disheveled hair and sobbed. Her trousers had soaked through completely. Terror had shattered her mind. Tang Jongui and Tang Sangrip were no better.
“Th-this can’t be! How can a mere fifteen-year-old…!”
“L-Lord! We have to run! That thing is a monster!”
Step. Step.
Tang Cheonwi did not even bother using the Blood Shadow Ghost Dance, his footwork and lightness skill. He simply walked toward Yu Miryeong, one deliberate step at a time.
“D-don’t come near meee!”
As he approached, Yu Miryeong screamed. She was a prisoner of pure fear—no longer the martial artist once known as Cheongpungyeohyeop.
“Even if you’ve lost your mind, it doesn’t hide what you’ve done.”
Yu Miryeong had been a villainess of legend. She had drained the pure blood essence of children from the Tang Clan’s collateral branches to preserve her youth. When Yuhyeon discovered the truth he had punished her, but because she had once served the clan he only sealed her dantian and spared her life. With Guju’s help those bastards later restored their dantians. Nursing a grudge, she had joined the plot that killed Yuhyeon.
“N-noooo!”
Tang Cheonwi drove a Blood-Healing Needle straight into her skull.
“……Ghk!”
A final, dying scream. The long needle pierced clean through her head and embedded itself in the wall behind her. After ending Yu Miryeong with almost casual ease, he turned around.
“You’ve waited long enough.”
Tang Cheonwi wore a smile colder than death as he faced Tang Jongui and Tang Sangrip.
Rumble!
The abandoned temple collapsed in a thunderous roar. The ground caved in, leaving a massive crater. Everyone watching broke out in cold sweat. They had come within a hair’s breadth of being buried alive along with that false All-Poison Peak.
“If not for Young Master Tang, we would all be dead men right now…”
“Thank you, Young Master Tang.”
“Thank you for opening our eyes when greed had blinded us.”
Unorthodox, orthodox, wandering swordsmen—every martial artist present poured gratitude toward Tang Yuhyeon.
“I only did what I had to.”
Their voices barely reached his ears. All of his attention was fixed on his older brother, Tang Cheonwi. He couldn’t keep still, fidgeting with restless energy.
Then it happened. From the collapsed crater a mound of earth suddenly erupted.
“Puh!”
A cough sounded.
“Damn it. One step later and I would’ve been done for.”
A boy walked out of the dust cloud. It was Tang Cheonwi.
“Hyung-nim!”
Tang Yuhyeon cried out in a bright voice. Tang Cheonwi saw his little brother as well.
“Any injuries?”
The first words out of his mouth were worry for his brother.
“I’m fine.”
Hwancheonjihwan snorted.
[Worry about me—I nearly died. That kid? You turned him into a monster. Ordinary blades won’t even scratch him.]
He had taken the Black Dragon Gold Pill, and Tang Cheonwi had personally melted it with Tyrant Blood Poison Qi. With the Yin Spirit Ice Fox at his side, yin energy was gathering into him on its own. A poison body and diamond-hard flesh. If he grew any further, even a Transcendence master would struggle to leave a single mark on Tang Yuhyeon’s body. That was how tough he had become.
“As long as you’re not hurt, that’s enough.”
“Hyung-nim, you…”
Tang Yuhyeon trailed off. Moisture gathered in his clear, round eyes. His brother’s body was drenched in blood—he looked like he had just walked out of a slaughterhouse.
“Ah. It’s not my blood.”
The blood had come from absorbing the Bright Soul Clear Poison, mixed with the blood of the Cheongang, Danjuk, Cheongpung, and Yuhongak assassins. Seeing his brother about to cry, Tang Cheonwi quickly changed the subject.
“Right—I’ve got something for you.”
He held out a small wooden case.
“What… is this?”
“A gift. Open it.”
At his brother’s words Tang Yuhyeon opened the case. Inside lay several long needles. He looked up at Tang Cheonwi.
“Needles? Don’t tell me—!”
“They’re the Blood-Healing Needles.”
“Are they real?”
“Do they look fake?”
“The profound energy they give off makes them seem real, but…”
“They suit you. Use them well from now on.”
Tang Yuhyeon closed the case and held it back out.
“You went through so much trouble to get them. Why give them to me? You should keep them, Hyung-nim.”
Thump!
A fist dropped lightly onto Tang Yuhyeon’s head.
“Ow!”
“Kyuu?”
The Yin Spirit Ice Fox poked its head out of Yuhyeon’s robes and tilted its head, as if wondering whether a fight was starting.
“When your brother gives you something, you say thank you and take it.”
“But…”
“Those needles don’t suit me. If I use the Blood-Healing Needles, I’ll only use them to kill people.”
Hadn’t he just used one of them to kill a Yuhongak assassin? Truly a divine weapon worthy of being recorded in the Map of Sealing Ten Thousand Weapons—a weapon whose nature changed according to its wielder’s will. In Tang Cheonwi’s hands it had become nothing but a pure killing tool.
“Unlike me, you’ll use these needles to save lives. That’s why it’s right for you to have them.”
If he used them, the divine weapon would turn into a demonic one. Far better for Yuhyeon to wield them.
“I haven’t given Hyung-nim anything in return…”
When the boy made a guilty face, Tang Cheonwi ruffled his hair.
“Just stay healthy and live a long life. That’s enough.”
“Blood… What is that?”
The memory of ending his own brother’s life with his own hands never left his mind. Every time he looked at Yuhyeon the scene rose up again. Anxiety and guilt only made him care for the boy more carefully.
“Let’s head back to the clan.”
“But Hyung-nim…”
“If you’re about to give the Blood-Healing Needles back, you’re getting scolded.”
“It’s not that… Who is that person?”
A corpse lay nearby—more accurately, a man whose life was barely clinging on, his body so ruined that his original form was unrecognizable.
“No one you need to worry about.”
If he told his little brother that this wreck of a man was their youngest aunt’s husband, the boy would be horrified. Better to gloss over it.
“Ildo.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Keep him breathing until we reach the clan.”
“Who is he?”
He told Tang Ildo the truth.
[Tang Jongui.]
“What?!”
Tang Ildo nearly shouted in pure shock.
[If Yuhyeon finds out his identity on the way back, you’re dead.]
[The Lady of Yuhongak is going to go berserk.]
[That would be perfect for me.]
[What exactly are you aiming for, Young Master?]
[The ones behind my youngest aunt.]
Tang Cheonwi was aiming for “them”—the ones who had slowly destroyed the Sichuan Tang Clan from the shadows. He only waited for those madmen called Guju to crawl out into the open.
I won’t fall before I cut those bastards’ throats myself.
Tang Ildo tried to send something more through sound transmission, but Cheonwi ignored it. There was no need to answer. Instead he walked over to Jegal Gyeong.
“The Sichuan Branch Assembly and the All-Poison Peak business are finished, so we will take our leave.”
“We’ve finished our business as well. I suppose this is where we part ways.”
“Then we will meet again. Yuhyeon, let’s go.”
“Yes, Hyung-nim!”
The composed Tang Yuhyeon turned into a child again the moment he stood before Tang Cheonwi. Of course he did not forget his manners before leaving.
“Everyone, please travel safely.”
After exchanging a cupped-fist salute with the Jegal uncle and nephew and the other martial artists, Tang Yuhyeon followed after his brother.
Watching their retreating figures, Jegal Gyeong murmured softly.
“I gained far more from this journey than I expected.”
Jegal Gwang agreed.
“If I want to keep up with Cheonwi, I’ll have to train even harder.”
“Harder won’t be enough. You’ll have to train like you’re dying just to see the tip of his toes.”
Listening nearby, Jegal Rin made a surprised face.
“Uncle, this is the first time I’ve ever heard you praise someone twice in a row, isn’t it?”
“Even your grandfather would have been astonished if he had seen it.”
Tang Cheonwi possessed that level of ability. The sense of dissonance they had felt throughout the entire journey had been a warning signal—a recognition of the tyrannical aura that clung to him.