Chapter 29
Swish!
The Blood Poison Group executive arrived at a forest quite far from where Peng Seo-jin was first ambushed, after using his lightfoot skill for some time following his contact with the Golden Manor.
A dense forest with few signs of human presence.
"Phew."
As he caught his breath after running for so long, he suddenly perked up his ears.
He could tell. A battle was taking place not too far away.
Soon, a sinister smile spread across his lips.
"Still resisting, are we? Quite the stubborn one. But it won't matter, he won't last past today. Tsk tsk."
Just then,
"I wonder. Might that not be your fate instead?"
Startled by the sudden unfamiliar voice behind him, the Blood Poison Group executive leapt away like a spring.
Then he looked back at where he had just been standing.
But there was nothing there.
"You're looking the wrong way."
Again, a voice from behind him.
The executive reached for his sword.
He intended to draw it while turning to strike down his enemy in one motion.
But,
Thud.
He couldn't draw his sword.
The other person's hand had stopped him first.
"Eek!"
For a moment, the executive's face was filled with bewilderment.
But before he could open his mouth to say anything, his throat was caught in the other person's grasp.
"Gak! Gaaak!"
He saw.
The eyes of the one gripping his neck.
They were like the eyes of a beast.
The man instinctively knew. That his opponent was an extremely dangerous individual.
And before he could even think of how to escape the current situation,
Crack.
His neck was twisted at an odd angle.
Just like that, the Blood Poison Group executive died on the spot.
Pitter-patter. Pitter-patter.
Peng Seo-jin was traversing the dark forest using his lightfoot skill.
His speed was incomparably slower than his usual lightfoot pace.
This was likely due to the injuries he had sustained and the blood he had lost as a result.
He had just escaped with all his might after realizing the cave where he had been hiding was surrounded.
Swish! Swish!
Swords came flying at him with vicious intent as he ran.
"Ugh."
Though he had lost enough blood to make his consciousness hazy for a moment, Peng Seo-jin desperately avoided those attacks and swung his blade towards the direction the swords had come from.
Slash!
"Argh!"
No small number of enemies fell to the ground from Peng Seo-jin's blade.
But Peng Seo-jin knew clearly.
The fact that there were still twice as many enemies remaining as the ones he had cut down.
It was an utterly desperate situation, but he couldn't give up easily.
The moment he gave up, everything would be over.
So he absolutely would not give up.
He would somehow survive and return.
Peng Seo-jin never let go of the thread of life, even in a situation like this.
But soon, as he reached a dead end in the forest, a cliff edge, and found himself trapped in the enemy's encirclement once again, his expression grew uncontrollably worse.
Huff. Huff.
With his back to the cliff, Peng Seo-jin glared fiercely into the darkness once more.
Soon, the enemies began to reveal themselves one by one from the darkness.
As if there was no longer any need to hide.
"Why don't you just give up now?"
"You must have lived your whole life in luxury, why cling so strongly to life?"
"Indeed. Tsk tsk."
The Blood Poison Group members sneered as they looked at Peng Seo-jin's wretched state.
From Peng Seo-jin's perspective, he had no leisure to deal with such mockery one by one.
Drip. Drip.
Black blood kept falling from his arm without stopping.
He might struggle to the end, but his injuries were far too severe. And he had even been poisoned on top of that.
Time was not on his side.
"Enough of this pointless resistance."
The Blood Poison Group leader with the pale complexion spoke from behind.
"Kill him now."
"Yes!"
At his single command, over eighty warriors moved to strike Peng Seo-jin simultaneously.
But then,
Rustle.
Someone suddenly appeared there.
Judging by his appearance, he too was a member of the Blood Poison Group.
"You're late."
Moreover, the pattern on his mask indicated he was the subordinate sent to the Golden Manor.
"Well? Did you speak with them successfully?"
The Blood Poison Group leader addressed him, but he gave no answer and slowly began to approach Peng Seo-jin, passing by the leader.
"W-What? Don't come any closer! Ah!"
Peng Seo-jin stepped back for a moment and tried to swing his blade.
But the man who had just appeared blocked that blade far too easily.
As Peng Seo-jin tried to follow up with another attack, the man spoke:
"I'm not your enemy. I've come to save you."
"What?"
"Calm down for now. Unless you want to become one-armed, that is."
The man was, of course, Yeo Un-hwi.
Appearing in a Blood Poison Group member's disguise with a mask on, he grabbed Peng Seo-jin's wounded arm while the latter was still bewildered.
"Ugh!"
After groaning from the pain of his wound being grabbed, a golden energy soon flowed from Yeo Un-hwi's hand and seeped into Peng Seo-jin's wound.
Sssss.
Why was it? Though it was an unknown power, for some reason it felt comfortable, and even the pain seemed to gradually subside.
"Sit down for a moment."
"You... what are you?"
The leader opened his mouth.
That was not his subordinate.
He could tell that much just from the strange thing he had just done.
"You! Didn't you hear the leader asking who you are?!"
One of the assassins shouted fiercely.
But Yeo Un-hwi didn't spare him even a glance, slowly looking over each of the assassins filling the area.
"Quite a crowd gathered here. Well... it's a miracle you've held out this long."
He felt like applauding Peng Seo-jin's tenacity and mental fortitude for fighting to the end with such injuries.
The assassin who had been thoroughly ignored by Yeo Un-hwi glared with bloodshot eyes.
"You...! Do you want to die?!"
He charged at Yeo Un-hwi, swinging his sword fiercely.
Yeo Un-hwi extended his fist, intercepting the swinging sword and smashing it into the assassin's head.
Splat!
With a sound like a watermelon bursting, the headless body of the assassin collapsed to the ground.
Like a puppet with its strings cut.
Seeing this, everyone present unconsciously gripped their swords tighter.
This was no ordinary man. But no matter how skilled, he was alone.
So even if he struggled...
It was then.
"Hah, this is quite annoying."
Yeo Un-hwi's eyes grew utterly cold.
It certainly wasn't pleasant to see someone he considered family in such a state.
As Yeo Un-hwi's eyes grew cold, the space around them rippled, and everyone present felt their breath catch.
Urgh.
What was this pressure?
How could the aura emitted by a single person be so terrifying?
Was this really an aura that a human could emit?
"Hmph! He's still just one man!"
Though equally startled, the Blood Poison Group leader, supposedly their boss, ground his teeth and shouted loudly.
His voice gave courage to the Blood Poison Group members.
That's right. Their numbers were nearly a hundred.
Though they had lost quite a few comrades to Peng Seo-jin, they still numbered over eighty.
It made no sense that they couldn't handle a single man.
As that thought sank in, their fear completely disappeared.
"Kill him!"
"Everyone attack at once!"
"Uoooh!"
Swish. Swish!
The attack began.
They too were all masters.
Moreover, their combined attack had been honed over a long period, so at a glance it seemed there was absolutely no way to escape.
Just then, Yeo Un-hwi's eyes flashed.
\[Blade Wind\]
As he swung the blade he had pulled back slightly, an unbelievable sight unfolded before their eyes.
Whoosh.
Crash!
Boom!
A vortex arose before their eyes and soon swallowed up all the assassins who had been attacking in unison.
"Aaaaargh!"
"S-Save meee!"
Soon the blade wind became a blood-soaked vortex of blood.
A rain of blood fell around them.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Soon dozens of corpses fell to the ground.
An utterly horrific, truly hellish scene.
The Blood Poison Group leader's eyes were trembling violently.
A phenomenon that occurred from just a single swing of the blade.
He didn't know whether to call that martial arts, or what else to call it.
That's how much what he had just seen was utterly incomprehensible.
Even Peng Seo-jin, who had been severely injured but whose pain had noticeably decreased thanks to the power Yeo Un-hwi had infused, wore an equally shocked expression.
Peng Seo-jin, of all people, knew how strong each of those assassins was, how formidable opponents they were.
It had taken all he had to cut down just a few of them, even at the cost of injuries.
Yet seeing those same opponents suffer near-total annihilation from a single attack, how could he not be shocked?
He had never even imagined such a thing was possible.
This unknown man was truly an incredible master.
Perhaps even comparable to the Twelve Venerables of the World, he thought.
What level of attainment was needed to make such a thing possible?
It was almost like a natural disaster.
He didn't know.
How much this single experience would stimulate and nourish his martial arts achievements in the future.
He was simply dumbfounded.
Peng Seo-jin was having a valuable experience that completely shattered his conception of martial arts at the moment of his life's greatest crisis.
But unlike him, the leader was having the worst experience of his life, his flesh trembling and aching.
He too was a master who had reached a considerable level of ascension.
He was not unaware of what the impossible sight unfolding before his eyes meant.
He was not even a fraction of this unknown man's match.
Just what kind of relationship did this man and the Hebei Peng Family, and that Peng Seo-jin have?
What kind of relationship could it be for such an impossibly skilled master to suddenly appear before him?
Could it be the Blade Emperor?
No. As far as he knew, the Blade Emperor was much older.
Moreover, the fact that the relationship between the Hebei Peng Family and the Blade Emperor was extremely bad was too well-known.
So it couldn't be 'him'.
Anyway, he couldn't properly understand anything right now.
And at this rate, it was clear that he too would lose his life just like his subordinates.
So he needed another way.
"W-Wait. Let's not do this, why don't we talk for a moment..."
Boom!
Suddenly, an enormous explosion rang out and dust rose thickly.
That wasn't Yeo Un-hwi's doing.
Soon the dust settled, and what came into view was the sight of the Blood Poison Group leader dangling, his neck caught in someone's hand as he died.
"Gak, gaaak!"
Crack.
His neck was twisted at an odd angle.
It was something that even surprised Yeo Un-hwi.
What on earth... That leader must have been quite a master too.
"So it was you bastards."
A familiar voice was heard.
Haha.
Finally, Peng Mugang, the head of the Peng Family, had just arrived.
With tremendous killing intent.
Swish.
Peng Mugang's eyes turned towards Yeo Un-hwi.
And,
Boom!
Yeo Un-hwi was pushed back by Peng Mugang's fist.
"You insolent fools. I'll teach you exactly what happens when you mess with the Peng Family, so prepare yourselves."
Soon, an incredible energy burst forth from Peng Mugang's body like an explosion.
Peng Mugang was clearly under some serious misunderstanding.
Ha. This was troublesome...
For a moment, Yeo Un-hwi's face beneath the mask grew awkward.