Chapter 182

The black shadow slid back as if he had anticipated Ak Chusan’s attack. Because of this, Ak Chusan’s attack struck nothing but air.

The moment he faced the black shadow, Ak Chusan felt as if ice water was rushing through his veins.

He couldn’t see the man’s face, as it was covered by a scarf, but the two exposed eyes were enough to send a chill down Ak Chusan’s spine.

He had never seen eyes so perfectly still, yet devoid of any emotion.

Ak Chusan gathered his Internal Power and opened his mouth.

“Who are you? Who dares to interfere in the affairs of Juk Hae-jang?”

“Pyo Wol!”

“Pyo Wol?”

Ak Chusan furrowed his brow.

It was a name he had never heard before.

He knew many of the renowned martial artists in Jianghu, but this was the first time he had heard the name Pyo Wol.

That meant he was not an established martial artist, but a new one. So he asked.

“Are you new to Jianghu?”

“Is that important? You ask pointless questions.”

“Then what is important?”

“Your life!”

“You speak as if my life is yours to command.”

A muscle in Ak Chusan’s jaw twitched. Pyo Wol’s words had wounded his pride.

Pyo Wol watched Ak Chusan’s reaction in silence.

He was certainly formidable.

He seemed to be the strongest martial artist Pyo Wol had met since leaving Sichuan Province. Yet, the reason he felt no fear was because his benchmark was the absolute martial artist, Pung-jon.

Pung-jon was the strongest being Pyo Wol had ever met.

Naturally, his standards were set at Pung-jon’s level.

Ak Chusan was strong. But compared to Pung-jon, he was lacking in many ways. Naturally, he was far from enough to make Pyo Wol feel a sense of crisis.

With his eyes still fixed on Ak Chusan, Pyo Wol spoke to Soma.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m not okay! It hurts a lot!”

Soma replied, his face scrunched up in a deep frown.

He had pretended to be quite mature when talking to Mok Ga-hye, but with Pyo Wol’s appearance, his true feelings burst out in a wave of relief.

In truth, the injuries inflicted by Ak Chusan were quite severe.

If left untreated, Soma’s life would be in danger.

Pyo Wol said to Mok Ga-hye.

“Take Soma and go.”

“But…”

“My companions will be waiting outside the Forest of the Dead. Take him to them.”

“I understand.”

Mok Ga-hye reluctantly nodded.

The moment she took Soma in her arms and began to move, Ak Chusan took a slight step.

It was precisely in the direction Mok Ga-hye intended to go.

His intention was clear.

He would not let Mok Ga-hye and Soma leave so easily. But in the next moment, Ak Chusan had to doubt his own eyes.

Pyo Wol was suddenly standing between him and Mok Ga-hye.

He had moved and blocked the threat before Ak Chusan could even perceive it.

Mok Ga-hye gave Pyo Wol a slight nod of thanks and started walking. The fear she had felt towards Ak Chusan was no longer on her face.

Because she trusted Pyo Wol, she could turn her back and walk away with confidence.

The Gongpo Sword was still in her hand, but Ak Chusan didn’t dare try to snatch it. It was impossible to ignore Pyo Wol and approach her.

Twitch!

The corner of Ak Chusan’s eye twitched uncontrollably.

He found the current situation hard to accept.

In his entire life roaming Jianghu, he had never experienced a situation like this. To him, the current situation was an unbearable humiliation.

Ak Chusan raised his Lion Sword and pointed it at Pyo Wol.

“I admit that you are strong. I have never seen anyone like you in my entire life.”

He praised Pyo Wol sincerely.

Now he knew for sure.

That Pyo Wol had been painting a bigger picture from the beginning, aiming for this very situation.

On his way here, he had seen the gruesome sight of several corpses hanging from trees.

Ordinary martial artists would never desecrate the bodies of the dead like that. It was a ruthless act befitting the unorthodox sects.

But its effect was undeniable.

It had instilled a powerful sense of fear in the martial artists who had entered the Forest of the Dead.

By displaying such unimaginable cruelty from the start, he had shaken the hearts of the martial artists from the two manors.

With their spirits weakened, they couldn’t withstand the successive shocks and horrors, and scattered like grains of sand.

The martial artists of Juk Hae-jang, with their long history, had a strong sense of unity and did not scatter so easily, but the martial artists of the Heavenly Eunuch Clan, which had a shallow history and had grown in size through Hwa Yu-cheon’s methods, could not handle the fear and all fled.

At first, he thought it was a coincidence, but looking at the circumstantial evidence, all of this was part of the picture Pyo Wol had painted.

He didn’t know how big a picture Pyo Wol had painted, but so far, everything was proceeding according to his design.

“But you made a big mistake. Do you know what that is?”

“…”

“It’s that you brazenly revealed yourself before me. If you had continued to hide and scheme like a rat, I would have had a hard time finding you. But for you to come out on your own like this… You overestimated yourself. Now, you will pay the price.”

“You talk too much.”

At Pyo Wol’s single remark, cutting him off, Ak Chusan’s face contorted like a demon’s.

Pyo Wol pulled down the scarf that had been covering his face.

Seeing his true face, Ak Chusan forgot his anger and for a moment, wore a look of admiration.

His face alone was enough to devour All Under Heaven. But he soon came to his senses and glared at Pyo Wol.

Pyo Wol approached him and continued.

“Talking a lot means you’re scared.”

“Are you saying that I am scared? Speak sense, you bastard!”

“Then you should just attack. Why are you rambling on and on?”

“You bastard!”

At Pyo Wol’s repeated provocations, Ak Chusan’s anger exploded.

He was originally a cunning martial artist.

He appeared to be a magnanimous man, but he had a sinister inner nature and was quick with his calculations. It had been a long time since he had lost his composure like this.

With nothing left to hold back, he unleashed the Lion Overlord Way with all his might.

Fwoosh!

A tremendous Blade Wave flew towards Pyo Wol.

Pyo Wol used his Serpentine Steps to evade the Blade Wave.

The Blade Wave that passed him cleanly cut down a huge tree.

A Blade Wave was a Qi Wave emitted through a blade.

The essence was the same, but as it was refined through the weapon of a blade, it possessed several times the destructive power and sharpness.

The power of a Blade Wave unleashed by a martial artist like Ak Chusan was no less than Blade Energy. In fact, in terms of efficiency, it was better than Blade Energy.

This was because it produced power comparable to Blade Energy with less Internal Power.

Shhhk! Shhhk!

Blade Waves flew towards Pyo Wol in succession.

Pyo Wol used his Serpentine Steps to move forward, dodging all the Blade Waves.

Ak Chusan thought his movements closely resembled a snake.

‘A snake is finished once you chop off its head.’

Ak Chusan gave up on his meaningless attacks and charged forward. He intended to clash directly with Pyo Wol and take his head.

Pyo Wol came into his sight.

He was closing the distance rapidly, slithering in like a snake.

Something felt off.

Like a piece of food stuck between his teeth.

But he couldn’t figure out what it was.

In the end, Ak Chusan decided to think about it after he had cut off Pyo Wol’s head.

“Chaaat!”

The Ultimate Techniques of the Lion Overlord Way were unleashed one after another.

Shwish-shwish-shhhk!

The air was filled with the Blade Shadows of the Lion Sword.

Powerful Blade Energy swept through the area, sending blades of grass soaring into the sky and causing leaves to rain down from the trees.

Ak Chusan’s Lion Overlord Way was a martial art destructive enough to be classified as one of the best in Jianghu.

Moreover, Ak Chusan had achieved Complete mastery of the Lion Overlord Way and was unleashing it with all his might. There were not many Experts in Jianghu who could face such an Ak Chusan head-on and gain the upper hand.

BOOM!

A huge crater, reminiscent of a pond, was gouged into the earth where the Blade Energy struck.

It was truly a terrifying power.

But Ak Chusan’s attacks, far from hitting Pyo Wol, couldn’t even graze him.

Pyo Wol used his Serpentine Steps to dodge Ak Chusan’s Blade Energy, but he himself did not launch any attacks.

This image of Pyo Wol infuriated Ak Chusan even more.

“Are you looking down on me?”

Fwoosh!

He became even more enraged and attacked Pyo Wol fiercely.

Faced with a storm of blade strikes, even Pyo Wol could not keep dodging forever.

Pyo Wol unleashed Black Lightning.

Black Lightning pushed his physical reactions to their peak. The human body’s reactions operate on electrical signals, that is, Lightning power. Black Lightning controlled this Lightning power to increase the body’s reaction speed, surpassing human limits.

With Black Lightning as his foundation, Pyo Wol had reached the state of Strike Second Win First, the ability to subdue an opponent by moving later.

The nerves throughout his body stood on end like taut strings in the black lightning, and his reaction to external stimuli became several times faster. Along with it, his thoughts accelerated.

A vast amount of information flowed in through his senses.

Ak Chusan’s breathing, the movement of his pupils, the twitch of his muscles as he moved his blade, the direction and depth of his toes—a flood of information poured in.

Pyo Wol’s accelerated mind instantly sorted and refined this flood of information that an ordinary person could never handle.

Based on the information thus obtained, Pyo Wol predicted and reacted to Ak Chusan’s next move.

Shhht!

By a hair’s breadth, Ak Chusan’s blade grazed past Pyo Wol’s cheek.

If his reaction had been even slightly slower, his head would have been split in two, but Pyo Wol’s expression showed no trace of wavering.

The same situation repeated itself several more times.

It felt like if he just swung the blade a little more to the left, he could cut off Pyo Wol’s neck, but he missed by a hair’s breadth.

Shwaak!

Ak Chusan’s blade stopped right in front of Pyo Wol’s nose.

Ak Chusan was using his Footwork to advance, his arm outstretched. In contrast, Pyo Wol was retreating backward at the same speed as Ak Chusan. That was why it looked as if Ak Chusan’s blade had stopped right in front of Pyo Wol’s nose.

“You bastard!”

Enraged, Ak Chusan focused his Internal Power at the tip of his blade.

The Blade Energy then shot out, aiming for Pyo Wol’s head. Only then did Pyo Wol duck his head to the side to avoid the Blade Energy.

Ak Chusan was about to go mad.

No matter how much he attacked or unleashed his Ultimate Techniques, Pyo Wol would dodge by a razor-thin margin.

It felt like he could reach him if he just stretched his hand a little further, but Pyo Wol would not allow that small gap.

Even though he was right in front of him, Pyo Wol was like a Mirage.

Ak Chusan had fought countless martial artists and navigated many an Asura Field, but this was the first time he had ever had such an experience. That made him even more terrified.

But he couldn’t back down now. Whether he lived or died, he had to attack even more fiercely.

Shwaaaak!

Pyo Wol felt a tingling sensation all over his body.

That was how threatening Ak Chusan’s attacks were. But he dodged every single one of them by a hair’s breadth.

It would have been impossible without the acceleration of his thoughts.

Unaware that he was moving exactly as Pyo Wol intended, Ak Chusan continued to attack fiercely.

It was the Devil’s Hell.

It was Pyo Wol’s unique way of fighting, creating the illusion that the target was just within reach, making them use all their strength.

Ak Chusan had already fallen into the antlion’s pit.

At its center was Pyo Wol.

Ak Chusan’s entire body was drenched in sweat, and he was breathless.

He still had Internal Power left, but his stamina felt completely drained.

This was the very moment Pyo Wol had been aiming for.

“Keub!”

Just as Ak Chusan’s breathing grew ragged, in that fleeting moment of exchanging breaths.

Pyo Wol broke from his defensive posture and lunged forward.

“Don’t even think about it.”

Ak Chusan retracted the blade he had thrust forward to defend his chest. But Pyo Wol’s movement was faster than his defense.

BANG!

With a loud explosion, Ak Chusan’s body was thrown backward.

He clutched his chest with his hand.

Pyo Wol’s strike had landed.

It was Jade Destruction, which concentrated power into a single point to deliver a powerful blow.

Although Ak Chusan had focused his Internal Power on his chest, preventing it from being completely shattered, it was enough to break his bones and cause internal shock.

The pain of the broken bones was one thing, but his insides were shaken up, and he couldn’t breathe properly.

Pyo Wol did not miss this opening and pressed in.

He was like a venomous snake that never lets go once it has bitten its prey.

Infinitely tenacious, and cruel.

The Ghostly Rain daggers, which had been hidden at his waist, were now in both his hands.

Shhh! Shhh-shhht!

The two Ghostly Rain daggers, like the fangs of a viper, repeatedly gouged Ak Chusan’s entire body.

Puk-puk-puk-puk!

The sound of a skewer piercing meat echoed repeatedly.

It was a far cry from the Assassin’s essential virtue of One Strike Certain Kill, but Pyo Wol was still inflicting meaningful damage on his enemy.

“Keuk!”

Ak Chusan’s face turned deathly pale from the continuous pain.

‘I’ll die at this rate.’

He felt the crisis of death.

He had already been stabbed in five or six places, and blood was pouring out of the wounds.

If he wasted any more time, he would surely bleed to death.

Ak Chusan unleashed the Ultimate Technique of the Lion Overlord Way that he had been saving until the very end.

“Iyaaat!”

At that moment, something fine wrapped around his neck.

Ak Chusan, his mind focused only on the Ghostly Rain, did not notice it.

The object that wrapped around his neck was the Soul Restraining Thread. Pyo Wol had, at some point, put away one of the Ghostly Rain daggers and deployed the Soul Restraining Thread.

Slice!

The Soul Restraining Thread dug straight into Ak Chusan’s neck.