The Assassin
Assassin.
Muyoung and I chased the assassin at full speed.
His movement technique was so exquisite that the distance between us refused to close.
When we finally reached a deserted street, the assassin suddenly spun to face us.
Clang!
The moment Muyoung thrust his sword, sparks exploded and the assassin’s body was hurled backward in a chaotic tumble.
“Dodge!”
I shouted in alarm.
While blocking Muyoung’s blade, the assassin had drawn a hidden weapon with his free hand and was driving it straight toward Muyoung’s heart.
“Ugh!”
Muyoung twisted away desperately and barely avoided a fatal strike.
Even so, the front of his uniform tore open, revealing a thin line of blood.
“…Who the hell are you?”
I moved swiftly to cut off his escape route.
The assassin glanced at me from the corner of his eye and gave a cold, mocking smile.
“Ju Woo-jin of the Ju family. Correct?”
“…Yes. Now tell me who you are.”
“The man who will kill you. Nothing more. What use is a name?”
I gave him mine, didn’t I?
The assassin spoke only what he wished, then lunged at me.
His sword traced countless illusory changes, dazzling the eye.
It was a flashy style packed with the classic tricks of phantom swordplay.
“Hah. For an assassin’s blade, that’s awfully showy.”
Of course, I wasn’t about to fall for such nonsense.
Black King Advance Strike Body.
I slipped through every strike and drove straight into his guard. Phantom swordplay relies on countless feints to seize attention. Those illusions carry no real power. All I had to do was close the distance.
Slash!
A spray of blood flicked from my shoulder.
I ignored it and pressed deeper.
Simple footwork shrank the gap until our hands could touch.
The instant I reached for his collar—
Flash!
Light burst before my eyes.
A dagger shot upward, grazing the underside of my chin.
The bastard wielded both hands with equal mastery.
Had I not jerked my head back, the blade would have pierced straight through my face.
“Fast. Better than you look.”
The assassin’s voice was low and chilling, like a man who had forgotten how to speak.
Clang!
Muyoung’s sword descended at once.
The Exploding Thunder Thirteen Sword Technique—one of the Se family’s foundational arts—unleashed in rapid succession.
The assassin deflected every blow, then flipped backward through the air to regain distance.
“……”
I watched him closely.
This man… I know him.
In my previous life I had crossed paths with countless assassins.
Those who became the Demonic Cult’s blades had slaughtered orthodox masters without end.
I had been one of their targets.
Who was he again?
Of all times, my memory failed me now, in this critical moment.
“Are you one of Sa-an Gwi-gun’s dogs?”
“……”
“Or should I say Sa-an Gwi-je?”
The assassin’s face stiffened at the name.
Sa-an Gwi-je.
A title used only inside the Demonic Cult.
The fact that I knew it clearly rattled him.
Thud!
When he remained silent, I stamped the ground.
I circulated my energy in a full revolution, flooding my body with power, then awakened the Dragon Heaven True Qi.
Like a dragon that had slumbered for ages finally stretching awake, majestic energy surged outward and drenched the air in demonic qi.
The assassin flinched. His brow twisted violently beneath the mask. Though I couldn’t see his full expression, the reaction told me everything.
“Still refusing to speak?”
I shot forward.
Using the Wall Flow Divine Step instead of the more aggressive Strong Wind Shattering Moon Step, I closed in smoothly.
I had no intention of letting this assassin escape.
Clang! Boom!
I accelerated my fists.
Each strike was met by the assassin twisting his blade or evading, neutralizing most of my forms.
“No choice, then.”
He tugged his mask higher and assumed a new stance.
The moment I saw it, I recognized him.
“Sun-Moon Twin Assassins.”
Handling both hands with such freedom—he was unmistakably the Sun Assassin.
“Now I see why our lord demanded your head. You are dangerous.”
“So it really is Sa-an Gwi-gun.”
He must have been desperate to send these two.
Or perhaps this was a ploy to buy time for his escape.
“Incidentally, Moon Assassin. Where is your brother?”
The pair always operated together.
Yet no matter how I searched, I sensed no trace of the second killer.
“I am enough to deal with you.”
“Is that so?”
I stepped into the Strong Wind Shattering Moon Step.
Blade-like winds howled as I seized the Sun Assassin’s wrist and wrenched it.
The instant I made contact, the lethal essence of the Black King Advance Strike Body erupted.
Crack!
Third form—Heart Killing Strike.
But I wasn’t finished.
“Hoo.”
Only after reaching the Peak realm had I become able to use this.
“Vibrating Force.”
A technique that released an explosive wave of energy.
It could only be employed after attaining the Peak realm, for it required not merely internal energy but the ability to project power outward.
Of course, such limitations had never applied to me.
“Keuk!”
The Sun Assassin was blasted backward.
“Bring out your brother.”
From the start, these two could never defeat me alone.
The younger brother, the Moon Assassin, was vastly superior to the elder.
Knowing that, he had still come by himself?
It was obviously a lie.
“Heh heh.”
The Sun Assassin smirked and spat a mouthful of blood.
“Too late.”
He glared at me.
“You should not have followed me.”
“What?”
“Because you will now witness the deaths of those you left behind. Heh heh heh.”
At those words, a figure emerged from the rear.
Another masked killer wearing the same garb as the Sun Assassin.
The moment I looked, my blood ran cold.
“Danhee. Dana.”
And even the old herbalist.
All three were in the Moon Assassin’s grasp, being dragged forward.
“A diversion.”
“Of course. We must prepare for every possibility.”
They were ruthlessly thorough.
I had realized it far too late.
I should have grown suspicious the moment I noticed one was missing.
“Kneel obediently. If you die, these three will live.”
“……”
The Sun Assassin’s demand left me speechless.
Instead, I walked toward him even more slowly.
“How interesting. Nothing has changed at all.”
Exactly as I remembered from my previous life.
The Sun-Moon Twin Assassins behaved in the same foolish way.
They always made the wrong choice.
Even if it dragged everyone into hell.
BOOM!
Light exploded outward.
A colossal dragon took shape, then rose into the sky as though ascending to heaven.
“Ugh!”
The twin assassins crossed their arms, desperately trying to deflect the crushing force.
It was futile.
The risen dragon devoured anything that dared oppose it.
“This… this kind of energy…!”
I moved before he could finish.
Swish!
My foot left no trace on the ground.
White Dragon Soaring the Skies.
The Ju family’s supreme movement technique, modeled after a white dragon roaming the heavens.
Its perfect balance of offense and defense, and its footwork alone, rivaled anything from the Five Great Families.
Grab.
I tore through their protective energy and drove a fist packed with power into the Moon Assassin’s jaw.
Crunch!
His jawbone shattered completely.
Shattered, not merely broken. There would be no repairing it.
In fact, he would never have the chance.
“You all die here.”
Boom! Bang!
My fists rained down without pause.
The Moon Assassin’s face was pulverized.
“If you’re an assassin, you should have stayed hidden in the shadows. Why step into the light?”
I sneered at them.
They clearly hadn’t expected my strength to reach this level.
Thud.
I ended the Moon Assassin’s life.
His body twitched once, then lay still.
“B-brother…!”
The Sun Assassin’s expression was grotesque.
Lips bitten bloody, he glared at me with eyes full of murderous rage.
Having watched his own sibling beaten to death, his anguish was understandable.
Yet it was also laughable.
“An assassin feeling grief? How touching.”
A worm that had taken countless lives now mourned his own blood?
“Return to the family.”
I spoke to Danhee once more.
She nodded and immediately fled toward the family compound with the others.
“You did the one thing I despise most.”
“……”
I walked slowly toward the Sun Assassin.
Experiences from my previous life—things I never wished to repeat.
“Pointing a blade at the throats of my people.”
Bang!
Before the words had fully left my mouth, I charged.
He was already frozen in place.
The death of his brother and the overwhelming gap in power had robbed him of all strength.
Crack!
With a sickening crunch of bone, the Sun Assassin’s body collapsed.
I had shattered every rib. Avoiding the spray of blood, I turned away.
It could be called cruel.
Orthodox martial artists would surely say so.
‘The opponent had already lost the will to fight. Wasn’t that excessive?’
Heh. Foolish idiots.
After trying to kill each other moments earlier, they still spout such naïve nonsense.
Tsk. No wonder they couldn’t stop the Demonic Cult and were wiped out.
“Let’s go, Muyoung.”
“Yes, young master.”
Having buried the Sun-Moon Twin Assassins in the span of a few breaths, I headed back to the family.
* * *
When we returned, Danhee and the others were gathered in my quarters.
It must have been their first such experience; both Danhee and Dana were still trying to calm their racing hearts.
“So many enemies at such a young age. Tsk tsk.”
The old herbalist calmly nibbled on medicinal herbs and joked in his relaxed manner.
“They were assassins. Most likely…”
“Connected to this young master and his mother, yes?”
“Correct.”
“What will you do now? It seems I’ve become deeply entangled in this mess as well.”
“Do not leave the compound for the time being. This place is safer than the outside.”
The herbalist pouted but eventually nodded.
I closed the door behind him and sat alone in my room.
It’s different.
This wasn’t Sa-an Gwi-gun’s usual style.
He did not send assassins so recklessly.
The fact that he had done so now meant…
“Is he desperate? Or buying time?”
Time to flee.
Or some other urgent matter.
Whatever the reason, the important point was that this alone could pin down my attention.
“So that’s how you want to play.”
The corner of my mouth curled upward.
No matter what he plotted, I would not let it succeed.
“The assassins will keep coming.”
If my guess was right, he would continue sending killers to distract me.
The moment my focus remained entirely on them, the seeds he had planted would release their poison all at once.
It was predictable. I could prepare for it.
Yet why did I feel this growing unease?
Something kept nagging at me, refusing to let me feel at ease.
The variable came from a completely unexpected direction.
“Young master!”
Another servant came running, voice urgent.
“Mother was ambushed while returning to the family!”
Ah, damn it.
So this was it.
Suddenly, a memory from my previous life flashed through my mind.