Chapter 07 - An Act of Vengeance (2)
Guyangpo, the Master of the Black Way Guild.
He was on edge, having been settling the tribute payments he owed to his superior organization.
And there was a man taunting the already irritable Guyangpo.
A bodyguard from the Jo family. The man who always protected Jo Tae-beom.
“So you failed, I hear?”
“……”
Guyangpo’s lips tightened at the bodyguard’s words.
The tribute problem was already a headache, and now things had gotten even more complicated.
The Jo family bodyguard wore a perpetually annoyed expression.
“The family head is furious. As is our young master.”
“……”
“Disguise the Black Way Guild members as the Green Forest Bandits and attack the Howling Tiger Escort Agency. Kill all the escorts to crush the agency’s prestige, and the Black Way Guild will take care of the stolen goods. On top of that, a handsome reward from our Jo family. What a profitable venture that would have been, wouldn’t it?”
“……”
“And you couldn’t even manage that, leading to this mess? Tsk. That’s why you’re barely scraping together the tribute to pay the Sado-ryeon. What if the Debt Collector Demon himself comes down? What will you do then?”
Guyangpo could not retort to the bodyguard’s taunts.
It was strange.
He had a perfect grasp of the Howling Tiger Escort Agency escorts’ martial skill level.
He had sent more than enough men to annihilate them, so why had his side been wiped out instead?
Not a single member of the Black Way Guild had returned alive, so there was no way of knowing what had happened.
Finally, Guyangpo snapped in frustration.
“We will succeed next time. I’ll send the Four Masters of the Black Way.”
“You should have sent them from the start, shouldn’t you?”
“How was I to know this would happen? In the first place, the Jo family gave us faulty information about the Howling Tiger escorts’ skill level. That’s also to blame.”
“You’re blaming us for this? Ha, ridiculous.”
The bodyguard scoffed.
Then, he leaned his upper body forward and spoke in a solemn tone.
“There must be no mistakes this time.”
“I understand.”
“The Howling Tiger Escort Agency’s current mission must fail. Only then will Hojung Gate be cornered financially. That’s the only way they’ll accept our young master’s marriage proposal.”
“I said I get it.”
“Our young master will only be satisfied when he sees that proud wench, Ho Yeyang, forced to sell her body, broken by poverty. Do you understand?”
“Ah, how many times do you have to say it!”
The bodyguard and Guyangpo bickered back and forth.
Just then.
*Cra-ash!*
A deafening crash echoed from down the hall.
“……?”
“What was that?”
Guyangpo and the bodyguard shot to their feet at the same time.
In that instant.
*Thud-*
Something rolled into the private chamber.
*Roll, roll, roll…*
It was four heads.
The Four Masters of the Black Way. The greatest experts of the guild.
Excluding Guyangpo himself, the four strongest martial artists of the Black Way Guild had just rolled in as nothing more than severed heads.
* * *
Starting from the main gate, Chui had killed exactly forty-four men by the time he reached the inner courtyard.
He used no other weapon.
The horse’s thigh bone in his hand was all he had.
*Crack-*
A human skull that met the horse’s femur.
*Crunch-*
It crumbled like a grain of sand.
Just then.
“Who dares cause this commotion?”
Four men blocked Chui’s path.
A red-faced man, a scarred man, a one-eyed man, and a bearded man.
Their martial skill was somewhere between third- and second-rate.
Chui quickly identified them.
“You’re the Four Masters of the Black Way, right?”
“You insolent little… Huk!?”
One of the Four Masters swallowed his words before he could finish.
Chui had suddenly lifted his foot and kicked the red-faced man squarely in the groin.
“Kuaaargh!?”
Both his testicles burst in succession.
As the red-faced man collapsed, clutching his groin, the man with the scar on his face charged.
Chui immediately shot his fingers out and poked the scarred man’s eyes.
“Aaargh! Shit!”
As the scarred man staggered back, clutching his eyes, the one-eyed man and the bearded man leaped over his head.
Chui threw the bone into the one-eyed man’s blind spot and simultaneously retreated to dodge the bearded man’s sword.
*Thwack!*
Struck in the head by the horse bone flying like a spinning wheel, the one-eyed man crashed to the floor.
Brain matter trickled out in droplets from his slightly crushed temple.
At the same time, Chui kicked a ceramic vase in the hallway.
*Shatter!*
The middle of the vase exploded, sending sharp fragments flying into the air.
…*Shk-shk-shk-shk!*
The sharp fragments stained the face of the red-faced man, who was clutching his groin with one hand, an even deeper shade of red.
“Kuaaaaaaaargh!”
As the red-faced man faltered, Chui picked up the horse bone from the floor and smashed it into his face.
*Thump-*
The blood-soaked face caved in, twisted into a grotesque shape.
Eyeballs and teeth flew out in different directions.
“What… What the hell is this guy? Who fights so strangely?”
The bearded man’s mouth fell open in disbelief.
Even in the Black Way, where all manner of outlandish fighting techniques ran rampant, there was no one who fought so ruthlessly.
At least, not that he knew of.
Just then.
“Uwaaaaaaaah!”
The enraged scarred man charged forward.
*Swoosh-*
He swung his sword, but the narrow hallway prevented the blade from completing its arc.
Chui ducked under the sword, then shot his head up and bit off the scarred man’s ear.
*Rip!*
Blood gushed forth as the ear was torn away.
“Huak!?”
As the scarred man staggered back, clutching his ear, he lost his footing.
*Shunk!*
Chui picked up a shard of the vase and drove it deep into the scarred man’s torn ear canal.
*Thud!*
With the scarred man also on the floor, only the bearded man remained.
“Uh, uwaaah…”
The bearded man stumbled backward.
Chui walked toward him.
*Chew, chew… crunch- crunch-*
Chui spat the chewed-off ear onto the floor.
His demeanor was so leisurely he looked as if he were out for a stroll.
“You, you bastard!”
The bearded man drew his long sword and swung it at Chui.
However,
Chui dodged the blade with far too much ease and slipped into the opening at the bearded man’s side.
*Cra-ack!*
A bone broke a bone.
The bearded man realized that not only were all his ribs broken, but they had also pierced his lungs.
He dropped his sword.
Clutching his side, he leaned against the wall and collapsed.
“Huk… huk… What are you? Who sent you?”
“The blacksmith.”
“What?”
The bearded man’s brow furrowed in confusion.
But Chui offered no further answer.
He simply drew back the horse bone in his hand.
*Cra-ack!*
With a great swing, he shattered the wall and the bearded man’s lower jaw at the same time.
“The Four Masters of the Black Way. Finished.”
Chui picked up a sword.
He then began to sever the heads from the fallen corpses.
Sometimes, a person’s body can be a good means of conveying one’s intentions.
Especially to an opponent with whom words are useless.
Chui cut off the heads of the Four Masters and twisted their hair together into a knot.
Then, he walked with quick steps down the blood-reddened hallway, heading deeper inside.
‘Hmm. Should I have come after my weapon was finished?’
But that would have meant waiting a whole day.
It was better to warm up in the meantime.
‘That way, I can visit the Jo family right after.’
Chui cracked his neck from side to side and came to a stop.
*Thud- roll, roll, roll…*
He rolled the four heads in, one after another.
They were all in such a sorry state that they didn’t roll properly, but perhaps that would convey his meaning all the better.
And then.
“Ahem- Keuhum!”
A reaction came quickly from within the hall.
The Jo family bodyguard walked out.
“I am affiliated with the Orthodox Jo family and have no connection to this filthy Unorthodox Faction rabble of the Black Way. I merely came today to negotiate a few matters.”
He gave Chui a slight bow.
“It seems you are a hero who has come to subjugate these wicked men of the Black Way. Shall I lend a hand?”
“……”
Chui did not answer.
Instead.
“Ptooff-”
He bit his lip to draw blood, then spat it at the bodyguard.
“Ugh!?”
The man was struck in the eye by the blood Chui spat and staggered back in surprise.
“What is the meaning of this! I am with the Jo family, not the Black Way… Kuaaaaaaaaaargh!?”
The bodyguard stopped mid-sentence and began to frantically rub his eyes.
Chui recalled the words of the Blood Demon from the past.
‘One who has mastered this art is called a ‘Tempering Stage’.Your blood transforms into deadly poison to most martial artists. It has the property of burning and drying up the internal energy of others, which is not one’s own.’
Currently, Chui’s Changwi-ching was still at the Gulgak stage, and only at the first level at that.
He still had a long way to go to reach the Iol stage.
‘Still, it has some effect.’
Seeing the bodyguard before him rubbing his eyes and thrashing about, it seemed to be quite effective.
It might not be a deadly poison, but it was likely on the level of having extremely spicy chili powder scattered in his eyes.
…*Shing!*
The bodyguard drew the sword from his waist.
A slash far faster and sharper than those of the Four Masters rushed forth.
The way his internal energy condensed into a faint, gaseous form revealed him to be a warrior of at least second-rate skill.
*Cra-ack!*
The wall touched by the bodyguard’s sword split like tofu.
The current of internal energy, spinning at high speed along the blade, had sliced through the wall.
*Crash-crash-crash-crash!*
One side of the wall came crumbling down.
But Chui, completely unfazed, raised the horse bone.
The energy he had kept hidden behind his breath erupted without restraint.
*Ssssssssssssss…*
A crimson haze began to creep out from the small holes on the surface of the horse bone.
The resentful spirits of those he had beaten to death on his way into the Black Way Guild gathered ominously at the tip of the blood-drenched bone.
[Save me…]
[I don’t want to die…]
[It hurts… I’m cold…]
[Sob, sob, sob, sob, sob, sob…]
Finally, the faces of the Four Masters of the Black Way, now turned into Changwi, appeared, circling Chui’s body and weeping tears of blood.
The Jo family bodyguard, who managed to open his eyes just enough to see it, was horrified.
“De-demonic arts!?”
This was no crude artifice of the Unorthodox Faction, but the symbol of a genuine public enemy of the martial world.
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