“Huh?!”

“Hm? What’s wrong?”

“Hehe, it’s nothing, sir. My back just prickled for a second.”

“Haha, did a bug bite you?”

“Maybe.”

Yeon Jipyeong rubbed his back—more precisely, just under the nape of his neck.

What was that? Was it really a bug?

It had felt like something sharp had stabbed straight in.

It bothered him, but he decided to ignore it. This wasn’t the time to worry about a bug bite.

“Hm, time to take it out, I suppose.”

SSSSSSSH!

As the heated blade met the cold mountain wind, its red-hot surface slowly darkened.

Yeon Jipyeong’s mouth fell open.

“Th-that’s amazing.”

The old man burst out laughing.

“Haven’t you seen it several times already?”

“Still! Ugh, it’s hot.”

“Stand back.”

The old man plunged the glowing sword into a huge water jar.

SSSSSSSSSSHH! 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

In an instant, gray-white steam spread out over the whole area.

The heat and humidity were enormous. The water that had filled the jar boiled over in a heartbeat.

“Haha, just one more round of hammering and we should be done.”

“Wow.”

“Is it really that fascinating?”

“Yes! It’s incredibly fascinating. I want to make one myself someday.”

It was a fairly presumptuous remark, but the old man just laughed heartily. Yeon Jipyeong’s bold voice was full of innocence. That was what had captured the old man’s heart.

“If you’re serious about stepping onto the path of a true artisan, come find me anytime. I’ll polish your basics.”

“Hehe, I don’t think that’ll be possible.”

“Hahahaha!”

“Anyway, this really is incredible. I had no idea you had to put in this much work just to make a single sword.”

The old man spoke in a cheerful tone.

“In this world, whatever the work, if you don’t pour your heart into it, it’s hard to get a good result. Isn’t that true of martial arts as well?”

“It is.”

“So treat it well. This will be your companion, standing with you against the rough storms of the world.”

“Of course! I still can’t believe it, that I’m really allowed to receive your sword. I’m so young, too.”

“Tch! You brat, just as artisans must not fuss over age, so too must martial men never judge by age. If you have the qualifications to hold a sword, then you hold it. You are more than qualified to receive my sword.”

“Heehee.”

“It’s a sword made from fine iron with not a speck of impurity. How much you cherish it will determine how powerful it becomes.”

“......”

“Hm? What’s wrong?”

“......”

“Pyeong?”

Yeon Jipyeong turned his head, his eyes deep as he stared toward the peak of the mountain across from them.

Inwardly, the old man was surprised.

In those clear, deep eyes, a faint sword-aura shimmered. It was a look Yeon Jipyeong had never shown before.

Truly the eyes of a swordsman.

A moment later, Yeon Jipyeong turned his head back.

“I’m sorry. I must have sensed wrong.”

“Hahahaha.”

“What’s next? I want to see the next step already!”

“We hammer it once more. This should be the last.”

THANG! TTAANG!

The sound of the hammer striking steel rang out, bright and clear.

That sound was so grand it could almost have been the war drums of a battlefield.

****

FWOOMPH!

With a single swing of Mad Dragon (Axe), two killers’ torsos were ripped in half and flung away.

BOOM!

He didn’t bother retrieving Mad Dragon (Axe) right away. Leaving the swing as it was, he smashed the head of a killer who had fallen far to the left with a single left-handed punch.

One axe-blow, one punch—three killers lost their lives.

TWUUUUNG!

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes gleamed.

The moment they lost three men, the killers in the front ranks fell back. They were reorganizing their formation.

Not bad.

Killers, forming a battle formation?

Anyone familiar with the martial world would have scoffed, but a killers’ formation attack was dangerous in a different sense than that of a regular combat unit.

Because of temperament.

PAPAPAPAPAK!

It was like sparks were flying in empty air.

Damn...

The killers were advancing in a horizontal line formation.

Their speed in itself wasn’t anything special, but the problem lay with the forces behind them.

Assassins were as good at smothering their killing intent as they were at exaggerating it. They amplified and suppressed, condensed and released it at will.

Two hundred professional killers, each spewing out chaotic killing intent in their own way, blurred the field of view to the point of dizziness.

Yeon Hojeong’s expression turned cold as ice.

At this level, you could call them top elites.

In the past, he’d clashed with a group called Azure Wolf Shadows, sent by the Ming Clan.

But they’d been half-baked.

People praised them as professional killers, but their strength began with shaking their opponent’s mind.

That, too, was a formidable power, yet their strength was never focused into a single whole. They were all over the place, so as long as you maintained an unshakable mind and prepared an efficient strategy, they were easy to handle.

These men were different.

PAPAPAPAPANG!

The killers lined up in the rear loosed their hidden weapons in volleys that traced parabolic arcs as they fell.

Each one was no bigger than a fingernail. But their number easily exceeded several hundred.

Yeon Hojeong stamped out a single, powerful step.

KWAANG!

The fallen leaves on the ground billowed up into the air. The forward horizontal line of killers wavered ever so slightly.

PHAAAAT!

Charging in with White Tiger Lording Step, Yeon Hojeong immediately unleashed Beast-King Nine Thunder Stances.

WHUUM! THUD!

Two dodged, but three did not. A crimson spray of blood painted the air.

Just then, Yeon Hojeong saw the killers in front raise long tubes to their mouths.

PAPAPAPAPAK!

Dozens of poisoned needles shot toward Yeon Hojeong.

FWANG!

It was easy to evade now that he had polished his body method. Soaring high into the air, Yeon Hojeong locked onto the killers lined up in the rear.

There are a lot.

The difference between seeing them from afar and up close was substantial.

The massed assassins glared at him as they each drew a weapon. It was a sight chilling enough to freeze one’s guts.

Unbelievable...

Who the hell had sent these killers? Where were they from?

He threw all such questions away.

Facing the killers’ group attack art, the Siege-Slaughter Formation, Yeon Hojeong felt the instincts of the Dark Emperor buried deep in his chest stir awake.

FWAAAAANG!

Yeon Hojeong’s body plummeted at a tremendous speed.

It was the method of Thousand-Cattie Drop. A high-level qi technique that used internal force to multiply weight.

Amazingly, the place Yeon Hojeong landed was behind the forward horizontal line.

Right in the middle of the assassins.

KWAANG!

The hulking figure who’d dropped to the ground with a giant axe unleashed a storm of savage blows.

PUH-PUH-PUH-PUK!

The ten-odd killers standing around Yeon Hojeong were shredded and blown away.

The power was tremendous.

On top of the martial arts he’d polished as Yeon Hojeong himself, he’d even awakened the killing intent of the Dark Emperor. Whether it was a one-on-one duel or a chaotic melee against many, there was no one who could stop him now.

“AAAH!”

THUD! THUD!

Mad Dragon (Axe), weighing over eighty catties, swept back and forth, tearing the killers’ bodies apart like rags.

WUUUUUUNG!

Blue Jade Wave True Qi fortified his body, and the arts of White Tiger, Great Emperor of the West, swept through the killers.

It was such a rapid, powerful chain of attacks that the killers were being destroyed in a one-sided slaughter after having their openings pierced. In just a brief span of time, no fewer than forty-plus men ended up dead.

PAPAPAPAK!

Of course, the killers didn’t just stand there and take it.

For all that the target named Yeon Hojeong possessed strength far beyond imagination, in the end he was still nothing more than a beast trapped in a pen.

The killers each swung their weapons.

SWEEEESH!

Attacks came flying from front, rear, left, and right—every direction.

There wasn’t a single spot open to dodge to. If he tried to escape into the air, the killers waiting for exactly ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) that moment would riddle him with hidden weapons the instant he leapt.

Interesting.

Mad Dragon (Axe) in his right hand, left fist clenched, White Tiger Qi packed itself densely into both.

BUUUUUNG! JZZZZZZT!

The shockwave of his spinning, rampaging fist-force knocked most of the killers’ attacks off-course.

FWSH! SLASH!

Several sword wounds carved themselves into Yeon Hojeong’s body as well.

They weren’t deep, but the problem was the poison on the blades. Killers always smeared poison on every weapon. Expensive absolute poisons were out of reach, but paralysis poison was something they would always apply as a matter of course.

The assassins’ eyes flashed with killing light.

They had him.

One wound was all it took. The potent paralysis poison would dull his movements.

They did not doubt it for a second.

KWAANG!

Red fire-qi erupted into a terrifying wave of force.

Yeon Hojeong’s figure, wrapped in crimson aura, suddenly moved with lightning speed.

PUPUPUK! KWA-AANG!

It was the thunderous charge of Heaven-Slaying. Vermilion Bird Qi flared, and the extreme-speed Blood Wing Sweeps the Heavens blew away one entire pillar of the formation.

SHRAAAAK!

Chunks of flesh burst again and again, and a net of blood that painted the sky looked almost unreal.

The killers’ attacks managed to wound Yeon Hojeong’s body several more times, but he showed no sign of tiring. No—if anything, his movements grew more elastic with every passing moment.

At that moment, one of the killers standing in the rear shouted out.

“Scatter!”

PHAAAAT!

The killers split apart at frightening speed.

They abandoned the Siege-Slaughter Formation and focused on retreat first. The opponent’s skill was far too exceptional to kill him off in a chaotic melee.

“Huff!”

Yeon Hojeong, panting harshly, looked like a general who had survived, alone on horseback, after piercing through a great army. Throwing knives were stuck all over his body, and he’d taken over a dozen sword wounds.

FWOOOOOSH!

Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, Yeon Hojeong exhaled killing intent. The wave of force it created resembled a massive dragon-fist gale.

The killers’ commander, Sa Geuk, clicked his tongue in disbelief.

What the hell is that thing so strong?!

This wasn’t particularly advantageous terrain, either. If anything, Yeon Hojeong had charged into the very middle of the killers and opted for a frontal clash—yet in that short span, he had lost no fewer than seventy-some men.

The spectacle was so shocking that even for him, the order to scatter had come late. That was how deeply impressed he’d been by Yeon Hojeong’s martial arts.

And they told us to deploy a Siege-Slaughter Formation against a monster like that? Completely insane.

As Sa Geuk ground his teeth inwardly, Yeon Hojeong opened his mouth.

“I don’t expect you to answer honestly, but I should at least ask. Ptooey.”

Spitting out blood-mixed saliva, Yeon Hojeong glared at Sa Geuk with murder in his eyes.

Sa Geuk flinched.

“Who hired you?”

It was a startling question.

He’d heard plenty of things like “Who are you?”, “Where are you from?”, “Why are you trying to kill me?”, but this was the first time someone had asked him who had commissioned them.

For Yeon Hojeong, this sort of thing must be commonplace. In other words, he was a master of anti-assassin warfare who had gone through situations like this countless times.

Sa Geuk opened his mouth.

“The woman who was with you—where did she go?”

“What are you going to do with that information?”

“...Right, I suppose it doesn’t matter.”

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes flashed.

So it was me, just as I thought.

All they needed was him.

He’d suspected as much, but this was the moment he confirmed he was the true target.

Wait for me, Mookbi.

Mookbi was nowhere near as far away as Sa Geuk assumed.

You wait until I give the signal. You stay hidden, thoroughly.

When facing a Siege-Slaughter Formation, a frontal breakthrough was a reckless act.

But he had chosen that recklessness, driven by the sense of wrongness pricking at the back of his mind.

Just then, Sa Geuk’s eyes flashed.

At the same time, Yeon Hojeong’s fist whipped back.

FWOOMPH!

A white fist-strike shot out like a gust of wind and blew a killer’s head clean off. It was the one who had tried to shoot a poisoned needle into Yeon Hojeong’s exposed back.

Sa Geuk swallowed a curse.

Goddamn it, there was no mention of him being this strong!

His martial arts, his senses, his combat technique—he was a monster, outstanding in every field.

This won’t work. We’ll have to pull back, watch how things develop, and go for a night-time assassination.

All they had to do was kill him in the end, did they not? They’d been asked to deploy a Siege-Slaughter Formation, sure, but with things this far gone there was no helping it.

Sa Geuk raised his hand and shouted.

“Fall back to the foot of the mountain! We’ll attack again at—”

FWOOMPH!

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes gleamed.

Sa Geuk’s gaze went hazy and he collapsed where he stood. A neat, round hole had opened in his chest.

“If you heard the terms of the commission, you should follow them. The money’s already been paid in full.”

Behind the killers in the rear ranks—

A blurred shadow was strolling forward at an unhurried pace.

Right. Him.

He hadn’t had time to sit down and draw up any grand tactics, but this was why he’d thrown himself into a frontal clash, using his own body as bait.

“But... well, I suppose it’s too much to ask now.”

Yeon Hojeong asked,

“Was it you?”

The middle-aged man, Meng Yi, nodded.

“Yes. Me.”