“It’s not him.”
Kang Jung-ryang, a Daoist of the Kongtong Sect, shook his head as he carefully examined the fallen middle-aged man.
“There is no way the Ten Demonic Successor who killed my junior brother Pyeong couldn’t even block my Single Sword that Severs Mountains.”
Clang!
Suddenly, the screech of metal rang out from the opposite entrance.
A young man was there, attempting to slip out of the manor unnoticed. Blocking his path were Daoists dressed in blue robes.
They were the Daoists of the Zhongnan Sect.
Clash, clang, clash!
The young man drew his sword and attacked the Zhongnan Daoists. Every time weapons clashed in a dizzying flurry, hot steam rose from the young man’s body. Yet, his face remained devoid of a single drop of sweat, as if he were wearing a human skin mask.
“The Killing Sword Stance of the Extreme Assassination Pavilion. That man is the Ten Demonic Successor.”
Kang Jung-ryang shouted to the disciples of the Kongtong Sect.
“Help them attack the Ten Demonic Successor!”
Whoosh.
At his command, the Kongtong Daoists rushed forward in a swarm, joining the attack on the young man.
Hiss!
As the Kongtong and Zhongnan Daoists surrounded him from front and back, the young man thrust both hands out forcefully.
Thwip-thwip-thwip!
Simultaneously, a cloud of poison mist sprayed out along with ox-hair needles, thinner than human hair. However, the Daoists seemed prepared for both poison and hidden weapons, covering their noses and mouths with cloths soaked in antidote.
Ting, ting, ting!
Deflecting all the ox-hair needles, the Daoists of Kongtong and Zhongnan began to pressure the man. Their swordsmanship was uniformly excellent, and they maintained a profound formation.
Slash!
Eventually, a sword grazed his shoulder, and the man hastily retreated.
“Zhongnan and Kongtong, is it?”
As the man muttered with a look of dismay, Han Seong, who had been watching from behind, stepped forward.
“Are you the Ten Demonic Successor?”
“I am.”
The young man lightly brushed his face with his sleeve, and his ordinary features transformed into a cold, ruthless visage.
It was Seok Woo-haeng, the Ten Demonic Successor of the Extreme Assassination Pavilion.
“You set a deliberate trap to catch me.”
At Seok Woo-haeng’s words, Han Seong smiled coldly. “Of course. An assassin of the Extreme Assassination Pavilion wouldn’t miss such a golden opportunity.”
A limited space called Long Sword Manor, and a target called a Master of the Great Righteousness. Moreover, due to the Golden Basin Hand Washing ceremony, the manor was bustling with figures from various sects…
To a skilled assassin, this was an opportunity not to be missed.
“Did you kill my junior brother Yeo?”
At that moment, a middle-aged man with the bearing of a transcendent immortal walked out from the group of Zhongnan disciples, his robe fluttering.
It was Du Ak, the third of the Zhongnan Seven Swords.
“Answer me.”
Seok Woo-haeng smirked as he looked at Du Ak’s hardened expression. “What does it matter who killed him?”
“What did you say?”
“After all, you and I are nothing but chess pieces placed on a board.” Thrusting his Killing Sword forward, he spoke calmly, ”Let’s see this through to the end.”
Han Seong, eyeing Seok Woo-haeng’s torn shoulder, spoke icily, “Your confidence is excessive. Do you really think you can face all these experts here alone?”
“…”
“You were arrogant.”
Han Seong looked at Seok Woo-haeng with still eyes.
“Of course, you must have expected a trap here. And you were likely confident you could easily break through it.”
He gave a low scoff.
“But you never anticipated that not only the experts of this manor but also those of Zhongnan and Kongtong would surround you, did you?”
“Heh heh heh.”
Seok Woo-haeng, who had been listening silently, suddenly burst into laughter. “Hahahaha! I was arrogant?” Seok Woo-haeng looked at Han Seong, Kang Jung-ryang, and Du Ak in turn, speaking slowly. “My Pavilion never taught me anything like arrogance. And I already anticipated that the lackeys of Zhongnan or Kongtong would be waiting here.”
“What?”
“How long do you intend to keep flapping your gums?”
Raising his Killing Sword, Seok Woo-haeng curled his lips coldly.
“I’m starting to get bored.”
At that, veins bulged simultaneously on the foreheads of Han Seong, Kang Jung-ryang, and Du Ak.
“Open the formation!”
With the shout, the warriors of Zhongnan, Kongtong, and Long Sword Manor all launched their attacks at Seok Woo-haeng.
From the left and right flanks came the warriors of Zhongnan and Kongtong. From the front, the warriors of Long Sword Manor wielded their gleaming blue swords. No matter how skilled Seok Woo-haeng was, he surely could not withstand such an assault. Yet, a relaxed smile played on his lips.
“If I die, you won’t be able to kill Han Seong either!”
In the midst of swinging his sword, Seok Woo-haeng shouted an incomprehensible cry into the empty air.
“When on earth are you going to act!”
Whoosh.
Suddenly, a silent, formless palm force poured down from behind the warriors. The force was so soft that it felt like mist descending.
“Aaaagh!”
When the warriors turned their heads, a man wearing a gray robe was moving like a ghost behind them, breaking their formation.
“That palm technique is?”
Watching the scene, Han Seong’s eyes flashed.
Unlike standard palm techniques that project force to strike, the gray-robed man’s palm force spread like mist. And those hit by it collapsed, vomiting blood.
“Man-Exterminating Palm?”
Han Seong, watching the silent, traceless palm force spread, shouted loudly, ”It’s the Ten Demonic Successor of the Annihilating Seals Palace!”
The gray figure that had suddenly appeared was indeed Myo Cheon-woo, the Ten Demonic Successor of the Annihilating Seals Palace.
“Seok Woo-haeng!” Myo Cheon-woo shouted calmly as he unleashed his stealthy yet rapidly spreading palm force. “As promised, I will take Han Seong’s head!”
Seok Woo-haeng had anticipated a trap at Long Sword Manor. Before infiltrating, he had contacted Myo Cheon-woo, one of the surviving Ten Demonic Successors. He promised to yield Han Seong to him in exchange for joining forces to fight the hidden experts of each sect.
—‘Why make such a disadvantageous offer to me?’
When Myo Cheon-woo asked at the time, Seok Woo-haeng answered immediately.
—‘Zhongnan and Kongtong are relentlessly pursuing me. If I don’t deal with them now, my future movements will be severely restricted.’
—‘Why me? If you want to join forces, Bu Eunseol… that guy would be the right person.’
—‘Bu Eunseol…’
Seok Woo-haeng spoke coldly with burning eyes.
—‘He is merely a competitor I must eventually take down!’
After some deliberation, Myo Cheon-woo accepted the proposal. He had no ambition to become the successor of the Demonic Palace. He simply wished to survive and win this forced battle. And when the experts of Zhongnan and Kongtong appeared, he began to help Seok Woo-haeng deal with them as promised.
Paaah!
Myo Cheon-woo mowed down the warriors of Long Sword Manor like sheaves of straw. He deployed movement techniques like a gale, launching palm strikes at the Daoists of Kongtong and Zhongnan as well.
His Man-Exterminating Palm had already surpassed the Realm of Overturning Heavens and reached the Realm of Blood Heavens. The moment the palm force struck, sharp internal energy burrowed into the body, tearing qi vessels and destroying internal organs.
“Ugh!”
“Aagh!”
The formations of the Zhongnan and Kongtong Daoists were all focused on Seok Woo-haeng. But with Myo Cheon-woo suddenly appearing and pouring out Man-Exterminating Palms from the outside, their ranks were crumbling helplessly.
“I will stop him!”
Seeing the formation on the verge of collapse, Han Seong stepped forward to face Myo Cheon-woo.
Schwing!
Drawing his sword immediately, Han Seong unleashed Long Sword Manor’s supreme technique, the Flowing Dragon Sword Art.
After a dozen exchanges, the sword qi of the Flowing Dragon Sword began to fade, and the mist-like Man-Exterminating Palm force was coiling around Han Seong’s body. The Flowing Dragon Sword Art were utterly insufficient against the Man-Exterminating Palm.
“Help Seong-ie!”
At Han Yeong-baek’s shout, Han Seong yelled back quickly.
“Don’t worry, Father! I can handle this guy alone!”
“Hmm.”
Han Yeong-baek groaned, seeing through Han Seong’s bravado.
Long Sword Manor could be called a prestigious sword sect, but it had not produced an outstanding swordsman for a long time. Thus, contrary to what was widely known in the Murim, its reputation was not high. Han Seong intended to use this opportunity to defeat a Ten Demonic Successor single-handedly and greatly boost the name of Long Sword Manor.
“Take this!”
Pushed on the defensive, Han Seong changed his sword technique with a spirited shout.
Bewilderment crossed the face of Myo Cheon-woo, who had been unleashing a flurry of palm strikes. What Han Seong displayed was not the Flowing Dragon Sword Art, but the Emei Sect’s Swift Echo Cloud-Severing Sword.
“The Young Lord of Long Sword Manor has become a disciple of the Emei Sect?”
Despite Myo Cheon-woo’s sneer, Han Seong silently deployed the Swift Echo Cloud-Severing Sword.
The instructors of the Martial Righteous Alliance had focused on teaching the essence of the Emei Sect’s Swift Echo Cloud-Severing Sword to him, the Young Lord of Long Sword Manor. This was because the Flowing Dragon Sword Art he had practiced since childhood—the pinnacle of Cloud Sword techniques that violently twist the direction of sword qi—were very similar to the Emei Sect’s style.
“Haap!”
As Han Seong unleashed the Swift Echo Cloud-Severing Sword, Myo Cheon-woo was pushed onto the defensive in an instant.
Slash, slash, slash!
The sword moves were aimed at the neck and chest, but the sword qi poured in from the left flank and waist. Unable to predict the direction of the attacks at all, Myo Cheon-woo was forced to retreat while firing off palm strikes.
“That is the Cloud Sword of the Emei Sect…”
Murim warriors watching from afar let out exclamations.
The Cloud Sword was similar to the Flowing Sword of the Zhongnan Sect, yet completely different. If the Flowing Sword was like wind deflecting all force, the Cloud Sword was like a cloud that vanished and suddenly reappeared.
“If that’s the case…”
A purple light rose in the eyes of Myo Cheon-woo, who had been consistently on the defensive.
“If I cannot predict the direction, I simply need to strike first!”
Myo Cheon-woo, who had been defending all this time, unleashed the Man-Exterminating Palm again. The palm force, initially spreading like mist, stopped in mid-air as if frozen, holding its power.
He was applying Eternal Extermination Piercing Heart, one of the ultimate techniques of the Man-Exterminating Palm, to counter the moves of the Cloud Sword.
Clang! Paah!
Vanishing palm shadows and sword shadows swirled and reappeared, dazzling the eyes of onlookers. The palm force of the Man-Exterminating Palm and the Swift Echo Cloud-Severing Sword were truly evenly matched, a battle between a dragon and a tiger.
The exchange of moves continued relentlessly, but a victor did not easily emerge.
“Aaaagh!”
“Ugh!”
Screams rang out from an unexpected direction.
In the meantime, Seok Woo-haeng was eliminating the warriors of Zhongnan and Kongtong one by one.
“This bastard!”
The Daoists of Zhongnan and Kongtong were greatly flustered.
They were all highly skilled Daoists, and the abilities of Du Ak, one of the Zhongnan Seven Swords, and Kang Jung-ryang of Kongtong approached the Transcendence Realm. Yet, far from dealing with Seok Woo-haeng, they couldn’t understand why they were being pushed back.
“How could guys who only learned martial arts in a Daoist temple handle the skills of my Pavilion?”
The Extreme Assassination Pavilion not only specialized in killing arts designed solely for taking human life, but their true martial arts were also not inferior to other Ten Demonic Sects.
As he properly utilized various poisons and hidden weapons while deploying his martial arts, he was overwhelming them despite being outnumbered.
“Help them!”
Han Yeong-baek shouted, but the majority of Long Sword Manor’s warriors had already fallen.
“We cannot catch just those two with these numbers?!”
Han Yeong-baek clenched his fists.
His son, a Master of the Great Righteousness, the warriors of Long Sword Manor, and the help of Zhongnan and Kongtong—yet they were being pushed back!
Perhaps it was natural.
The Ten Demonic Successors were battle-hardened veterans who had survived countless chaotic battles starting from Hell Island. Unless one was at the level of a Master of the Great Righteousness, it was hard to find experts capable of endangering them.
“Kuaagh!”
With a short scream, Daoists of Zhongnan and Kongtong fell again, spraying blood. Now, only Kang Jung-ryang, Du Ak, and five Daoists from each sect remained.
“My Lord Han. We will lend a hand!”
At that moment, dozens of Murim warriors among the guests drew their swords and spoke to Han Yeong-baek.
“Since they seem outnumbered by themselves, we will help too!”
The Murim warriors who had come as guests to Long Sword Manor numbered at least three hundred. If all of them stepped forward, even the grandfather of a Ten Demonic Successor couldn’t stop them.
“So they aren’t coming after all.”
Just as Han Yeong-baek muttered an incomprehensible monologue and nodded as if resigned…
“Ugh.”
Suddenly, the Murim warriors began to retch.
“Blargh!”
Once the retching started, even the previously fine warriors began to vomit.
“There’s poison in the food!”
Someone shouted.
All the food served so far had been laced with poison.