CHAPTER: Chapter 41
=========================================
“Stay close behind me. There are more of them than I expected.”
No sooner had Uncheon’s chilling warning been uttered than black shadows surged forward.
They were the assassins of the Poison Fang Hall, secretly raised by the Serpent-Scorpion Mo Clan.
These were not warriors who fought with honor in open combat.
They were a professional band of assassins who erased their footsteps, concealed their breath, and killed with poison and coordinated attacks.
While their individual martial prowess might not match the official forces of the Twelve Guardian Clans, the story changed the moment they completed an encirclement on a forest path like this.
Moreover, the tips of their lightless swords were coated with a virulent poison that could rot flesh with a mere scratch.
Baek Ri-hyeon’s face turned deathly pale.
“Let’s retreat to the Inner Archives for now! Elder Cheon-gyeon is there!”
Baek Ri-hyeon shouted, his face ashen, but Uncheon did not take a single step back.
They were surrounded by venomous blades, leaving no room for a careless retreat.
“If you show them your back, you’ll be the first to die.”
Uncheon’s reply was cold.
There was no time to escape.
In that case, he would first reduce their numbers.
Uncheon’s hand seemed to brush past his waist.
Papapapak―!
A flash of light erupted.
What shot from Uncheon’s hand were the throwing daggers he had received as a gift from Yajin.
The ultimate technique of the Shadowless Assassination Sect, the Soul-Severing Daggers.
“Dodge!”
A scream of horror tore through the forest’s silence.
“Wh-what!”
Puk! Puk! Puk!
The three assassins leading the charge collapsed simultaneously.
“Keuk!”
“Kuhuk…!”
The black shadows, who had been leaping from all directions with their poisoned swords raised, crumpled and fell like puppets with their strings cut.
The glabella, the philtrum, and the heart.
The Soul-Severing Daggers had precisely pierced only the assassins’ vital points.
A divine speed that left no time to defend or evade.
The assassins who crashed to the ground did not rise again.
It was an instant death.
Strangely, no blood flowed from where the daggers were embedded.
The internal energy from Uncheon imbued in the daggers.
The Yin-Cold Energy had frozen the blood.
“Wh-what is this…”
“J-just now?”
“What… what just happened?”
The intelligence report had clearly stated that he suffered from Severed Meridians, his body empty of internal energy.
That he was only skilled in pugilism and footwork.
Yet, with just a few throwing daggers, he had dispatched three assassins, each nearing the level of a first-rate warrior, in an instant.
As their comrades fell in a flash, the momentum of the following assassins faltered.
“Keuk…!”
The leader of the Poison Fang Hall barely managed to raise his sword and parry an incoming dagger, but the heavy impact transmitted through the blade forced him back several steps.
His hand throbbed as if it would shatter.
“Don’t stop! Maintain the encirclement!”
The leader’s pupils trembled violently as he gritted his teeth.
‘Throwing daggers? How can a man with no internal energy…!’
But Uncheon did not miss the momentary hesitation of the assassins.
Sssreung―.
With a cool metallic sound, the saber he had never once drawn finally left its scabbard.
Uncheon’s form blurred as he used the Shadowless Step to weave into the assassins’ midst.
“Block him!”
The assassins hastily raised their swords to defend.
But Uncheon’s saber, as if mocking their expectations, carved a bizarre trajectory as it struck.
Swaaak―!
Space itself seemed to be severed each time Uncheon’s saber flashed.
Wherever the blade passed, flesh and blood froze together in its wake.
The leader’s eyes widened as if they would tear at the bizarre and terrifying sight.
This was different from the information he had painstakingly acquired with a hefty sum.
“What! I was told he was a pugilist who used kicks and iron pellets!”
This man was no mere pugilist.
Uncheon’s saber flashed once more.
Swaaak―!
Frost formed wherever the blade passed, and flesh and blood froze solid.
Cold sweat trickled down the leader’s spine.
‘What… what in the world is this saber art?’
It was not domineering like the saber arts of the Demonic Cult, nor was it righteous like those of the Righteous Path.
It was excessively savage, excessively cold.
A terrifyingly swift saber that seemed capable of cleaving even the soul.
To the leader’s eyes, it was simply an unidentifiable blade.
The forbidden art of Kunlun, the Soul-Chasing Saber.
The Yin-Cold Energy of the Supreme Ice Heart Art had been layered upon a saber art already thick with killing intent.
The result was the creation of a sharp and chillingly swift saber.
‘I chose well, indeed.’
The large man watching Uncheon’s performance twisted his lips into a smirk beneath his mask.
‘That’s the man to bet on!’
Just then, the leader glared at the large man beside him, his eyes bloodshot.
“You rat-like bastard! Was all the information you sold me for a high price fake? You led us into a trap!”
At that, Ma Chung let out a sneer from under his mask.
“I didn’t know either… that the whelp was this skilled…”
His voice was a strange mix of profound bewilderment and bizarre elation.
The leader’s blood boiled at his attitude.
This was the Poison Fang Hall, equipped with poison, hidden weapons, and coordinated attacks.
He had believed they could take down even a peak master.
But things had gone wrong from the very first exchange.
The hidden weapons, the saber, the internal energy—none of it matched the intelligence.
“Y-you bastard! Do you think you can get away with an answer like that! I’ll kill you with my own hands…!”
But before he could finish his sentence, the tide of battle shifted dramatically.
“Kuaaack!”
“Leader! The formation has collapsed!”
The assassins of the Poison Fang Hall were falling like autumn leaves.
Cold sweat ran down the leader’s back.
‘This is bad. At this rate, we’ll be annihilated.’
A single thought flashed through the leader’s mind like lightning.
‘I, at least, must survive.’
It didn’t matter if the others died.
Assassins were expendable by nature, trained not to leave any trace of the Serpent-Scorpion Mo Clan.
But he was a direct blood relative of the Serpent-Scorpion Mo Clan.
If he were captured, the entire clan would suffer a blow.
‘This isn’t for my own sake! It is all for the main family…!’
The leader steeled his heart and shouted.
“Cut him down with the resolve to perish together! One strike is all it takes!”
The command was absolute.
The assassins, resolved to die, raised their poisoned swords and charged at Uncheon.
Seizing the moment Uncheon’s attention was on them, the leader launched himself away without a backward glance.
‘I’m sorry. Die for the Serpent-Scorpion Mo Clan!’
He was just about to hide himself in the forest when—
Kwang―!
A sudden impact struck his side.
“Keuk!”
The leader screamed and rolled on the ground.
When he managed to lift his head, he saw that the one blocking his path was none other than the large man.
“You… you bastard, not only was your information wrong, but what the hell are you doing now!”
At the leader’s shout, the man slowly tore off his mask.
The face revealed was that of Instructor Ma Chung, a cynical sneer on his lips.
“Did you really think that I, Ma Chung, would fall for such a snake’s tongue?”
Ma Chung growled, planting his thick thighs firmly.
‘I, Ma Chung, who witnessed that monster’s talent closer than anyone else?’
That whelp, Uncheon, was too massive and attractive an investment to be sold off for a few silver nyang.
“You… you bastard, a betrayal!”
“Betrayal? Get your words straight. I was never on your side to begin with.”
Ma Chung smirked viciously.
“I bet on him from the very beginning.”
“You bastard…! You’d side with him even after suffering the humiliation of an instructor having his name tag taken by a cadet!”
“Humiliation?”
Ma Chung unleashed a Blood Wind Kick.
“I was furious, yes. But I wasn’t blinded by it.”
Ma Chung let out a short laugh and rushed toward the leader.
The Blood Wind Kick exploded, completely cutting off the leader’s escape route.
“Leader! Your orders…! The encirclement is being breached!”
Each time the leader threw a punch, Ma Chung’s shoulder and side burst open.
Ma Chung had no intention of winning from the start.
If he couldn’t block, he took the hit, and even after being hit, he used his arms to lock down the escape route.
All he had to do was hold him down.
“You bastard! Stop being a nuisance!”
The leader swung his fists in frustration, but Ma Chung clung to him tenaciously, willing to trade flesh for bone as he absorbed the blows with his body.
“Is this all the Serpent-Scorpion Mo Clan’s fist is worth? It seems inferior to my kicks.”
He even added a taunt.
Ma Chung provoked him, buying time.
The Poison Fang Hall’s leader, on the other hand, was growing desperate.
The occasional stifled groans he heard…
It was the sound of the assassins he had personally raised dying.
Trained not to scream even in the face of death.
‘My Poison Fang Hall…! An organization that can assassinate even a peak master!’
The leader felt no attachment to the deaths of the assassins themselves.
After all, assassins were raised to be used in such a way.
The only problem was that despite the assassins’ encirclement collapsing, he had yet to escape.
Uncheon did not miss the change in his demeanor.
“Foolish mongrels. Abandoned hunting dogs, charging in without even realizing they’ve been abandoned.”
Seogeok.
Uncheon’s cold rebuke cut cut through the air as he sliced off the arm of an approaching assassin.
“What does that mean…?!”
“Look at the man who sent you in. If he had any intention of taking responsibility, he wouldn’t have attacked wearing a mask in the first place.”
“What…! Th-that can’t be!”
Uncheon’s words planted a seed of doubt in the assassins’ hearts.
When they glanced back, they saw the pathetic sight of their leader, caught by Ma Chung while trying to flee.
A commander who had driven them into a deathtrap, now trying to save his own skin.
For a moment, the assassins’ movements faltered.
“You see your leader trying to escape and still can’t figure it out? If you willingly lay down your weapons now and confess everything, I will spare your lives.”
“How can we trust your words!” an assassin retorted, screaming.
Uncheon flicked the blood from his saber and shrugged.
“You don’t have to. After all, the one who knows the most isn’t you, but your fleeing leader over there.”
Those words were sharper than a dagger.
A declaration that they were, in the end, nothing but expendable pawns.
Uncheon held up two fingers.
“Just two.”
“……!”
“That’s all I need. Just enough men to cross-reference that leader’s testimony. There’s no reason to keep the rest alive.”
In that instant, a strange rift spread among the assassins.
Some gritted their teeth and tightened their grip on their swords, while others looked back with wavering eyes.
“Don’t be fooled! If you fall for his words, we’ll all die!”
One of the assassins screamed and charged.
Shhk.
Uncheon's saber flashed once, and the man's neck twisted limply.
Thunk.
Almost simultaneously, another man gritted his teeth, pulled a poison needle from his robes, and tried to shove it under his own tongue.
“You madman…!”
Baek Ri-hyeon reflexively threw his Judge's Brush, the tip of the shaft piercing the back of the man's hand.
The poison needle fell to the ground.
The complexions of the remaining assassins turned deathly pale at the sight.
If they fought to the end, they would die.
Even suicide was not an easy option.
And they had no leader to follow.
Only then.
Clang!
One of them finally dropped his sword.
“I… I’d rather confess and live than be discarded as an expendable pawn…!”
“You stupid—!”
The assassin next to him immediately lunged forward, spewing curses, but Uncheon’s throwing dagger pierced his throat first.
Thwack!
Silence.
Then, a second sword fell.
Clink.
Clang.
There were those who gritted their teeth to the end,
those whose eyes darted about, searching for a way to survive,
and those who finally bowed their heads.
But the rift that had spread among the assassins could no longer be mended.
The encirclement of the Poison Fang Hall had collapsed before their swords did.
Uncheon watched the scene impassively, then called out to the stunned Baek Ri-hyeon.
“Baek Ri-hyeon.”
“Uh… huh? I mean, yes?”
Baek Ri-hyeon was in a daze.
He was overwhelmed by the sight of Uncheon—whom he had only known as a patient with Severed Meridians—slaughtering assassins and commanding the situation.
“What are you doing? Strike their pressure points and completely subdue them.”
“Ah… I understand… sir!”
Baek Ri-hyeon hastily drew his Judge's Brush and rushed toward the assassins.
Meanwhile, the leader, who had been occupied by Ma Chung and forced to watch the entire spectacle, had bloodshot eyes.
“You… you bastards! I ordered you to fight to the death, and you surrender instead?!”
His rage and impatience reaching their peak, he aimed for an opening in Ma Chung, who was clinging to him, and unleashed a heavy palm strike with all his might.
Paaang!
“Keuk! Ptooey!”
Ma Chung, having suffered an internal injury, spat out a mouthful of blood.
Seizing the opportunity, the leader threw Ma Chung off and launched himself into the forest.
‘I have to live! I have to get back alive and inform the clan…!’
It was at that moment, just as he was about to plunge into the darkness with a sense of relief.
A hand, imbued with a chilling killing intent, shot out from the shadows.
Grab.
Something exuding a cold killing intent was pressed against the leader's throat.
“That's far enough.”
A low, dry voice.
Blood trickled from the gash on his neck.
Before the leader could even resist, a tremendous amount of internal energy struck his carotid artery.
“Gack…!”
Unable to even scream, the leader fainted and collapsed.
Ma Chung approached, clutching his chest and panting heavily.
“Damn it, if you were a step slower, we would have lost him.”
The figure who emerged from the darkness was Senior Instructor Yajin, dressed in jet-black martial robes.
He nudged the fallen leader with his foot like a piece of luggage and smirked at Ma Chung.
“Can't do anything right, even when I serve it up on a platter for you?”
“Hmph… That whelp Uncheon will recognize my contribution!”
Ma Chung fumed in frustration, but his expression quickly changed as he called out triumphantly to Uncheon.
“Uncheon! Over here!”
Uncheon slowly approached them.
Ma Chung, despite his internal injury, paid it no mind, busy boasting of his achievement.
“Hey, Uncheon, you realize my contribution in holding down the leader was significant, don't you?”
Uncheon nodded as he sheathed his blood-stained saber.
“Of course. Thanks to you holding him down, Instructor, things went smoothly.”
Just then, the man with his foot on the fallen leader interjected with a feigned look of solemnity.
“Huhu… But don't forget that I was the one who ultimately captured the leader, hmm? If not for the skills of the Shadowless Assassination Sect, he would have escaped.”
Uncheon's gaze shifted to the man.
“I see. Senior Instructor Yajin.”
Standing beside Ma Chung was none other than Senior Instructor Yajin.
The two instructors eyed each other warily as they looked at Uncheon.
Watching them, Uncheon gave a bitter smile inwardly.
‘…I set two traps. The problem is they worked too well.’
The Serpent-Scorpion Mo Clan, unknowingly digging their own grave, had tried to bribe Instructor Ma Chung.
Thanks to that, Uncheon was able to easily plant a spy on the inside and grasp the situation in advance.
All that remained now was to punish the masterminds behind this incident.
Uncheon's gaze fixed on the unconscious leader.
“Let us go to the Director of the Demonic Academy's office together.”
Ma Chung and Yajin glanced at each other in confusion, but Uncheon's expression was full of conviction.
“We will make this man kneel before the Director of the Demonic Academy, and we will strike the Serpent-Scorpion Mo Clan.”
Uncheon's eyes grew cold.
“With the sword known as the Inspectorate.”
Author |
Chusang (秋霜)
Publisher |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Editor-in-Chief |
Editorial Department
Published by |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. - Dream Books
Address |
7th Floor, Gwangseong Building, 28 Bongeunsa-ro 114-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea
UCI |
G720:N+A063-20260306113
Blog |
blog.naver.com/dreambookss
Twitter (X) |
@dreambookss
Submissions |
[email protected]
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. - Dream Books.
0 Comments