Chapter 264
Chapter 264
Pyo Wol looked around.
He had somehow managed to escape the island in the gorge, but everything he could see was mountains. There were no roads, no houses in sight. Naturally, there were no signposts either.
It was his first time in this place, so even getting his bearings was not easy. But Pyo Wol did not panic.
He had been through this kind of training until he was sick of it.
The easiest method was to go back up the river. Since he had come down along the river, if he went back up against the current, he would eventually reach Runan.
The problem was that the winding path would be much longer than a straight one.
It was an inefficient method, but there was no other alternative.
For now, the best he could do was to follow the river upstream and hope for a main road to appear.
Pyo Wol walked along the river, thinking about the Ghost Dance Unit and Mok Han-seong.
‘They were a frighteningly efficient group. More vicious than assassins, and with impeccable discipline.’
They had even followed their orders to retreat without a word of complaint, knowing that their Captain, Mok Han-seong, would die.
Even in that process, they were meticulous, leaving no evidence behind.
In the end, all Pyo Wol had found out was that their name was the Ghost Dance Unit and that they had secured an item called the Demonic Transformation Pill from Snow Blade Sword Manor.
Pyo Wol recalled the movements of the Ghost Dance Unit.
He was reviewing their movements and martial arts, devising an effective way to counter them.
It would have been different if he had annihilated them completely, but more than half of their members had escaped alive and unharmed. They would never forget the grudge they held against Pyo Wol and would one day seek revenge.
He had to prepare for that time.
Pyo Wol thought that the Ghost Dance Unit was part of the Nine Dragons.
‘Nine Dragons Assassination Guild.’
When the Ghost Dance Unit received the Demonic Transformation Pill at the river, they had mentioned the word Deathshroud. Adding the word Nine Dragons to that made it the Nine Dragons Assassination Guild.
Pyo Wol believed that the Nine Dragons Assassination Guild was their real name.
He had only just found out their name.
There was still a long way to go.
The point of contact with the Nine Dragons Assassination Guild was Lee Yul.
While lying low at Snow Blade Sword Manor’s, Pyo Wol had investigated Lee Yul from various angles.
He had blended in with people to gather information about him and had killed assassins to unsettle him.
By shaking things up endlessly like that, he had managed to expose the Ghost Dance Unit.
Lee Yul was an incongruous figure in many ways.
The time he came to the forefront of Snow Blade Sword Manor coincided with the time Jin Geum-woo was tracking the Nine Dragons Assassination Guild. And when Jin Geum-woo sent a letter to Pyo Wol saying he had found a clue, Snow Blade Sword Manor returned to Runan.
Immediately after that, Jin Geum-woo, Won Gayoung, and others lost their lives.
In terms of timing and the flow of events, Lee Yul had no choice but to be a prime suspect.
Although he didn’t know Lee Yul’s exact identity, he was clearly a part of the Nine Dragons Assassination Guild.
His mission was undoubtedly to eliminate Jin Geum-woo, who was tracking the Nine Dragons Assassination Guild, and to annihilate the Jin Clan to completely remove any future trouble.
The question was how much weight Lee Yul carried within the Nine Dragons Assassination Guild.
Whether he was the head, the body, or merely the tail was something he had to find out for himself.
Pyo Wol organized the tasks he had to do one by one.
He calmly assessed the current situation and decided which tasks to prioritize.
As he walked while thinking, a wooden bridge suddenly appeared before him. The bridge had been built where the river narrowed.
The appearance of a bridge was proof that a main road existed.
Pyo Wol stepped onto the bridge.
Just as he thought, a fairly wide main road stretched out on both sides of the bridge.
Without a second thought, Pyo Wol entered the main road.
Getting his bearings was not difficult. He just had to choose the direction that led upstream.
Pyo Wol walked along the main road.
By the time the sun set, he was finally able to reach a small village.
Fortunately, a shabby Inn was open for business in the village.
Pyo Wol entered the Inn without hesitation.
“Welcome.”
The innkeeper, with a warm impression, greeted Pyo Wol.
Pyo Wol asked.
“Do you have a room?”
“Of course. Shall I prepare it with a meal?”
“Mm!”
“If you sit and wait for a moment, I will bring you your meal. And after your meal, I will guide you to your room.”
The innkeeper was very kind.
Pyo Wol nodded and sat down at an empty table.
As expected of an inn operating in a small village, everything was shabby.
Creak!
Just then, the door opened and more customers entered.
The newcomers were a group of four men and one woman.
A thick layer of dust had settled on their shoulders, as if they had traveled a long way.
“I think we can rest here for today, Young Master!”
One of the men spoke as he looked around the inside of the Inn.
“It seems this is the only Inn in the village anyway.”
“I apologize.”
“No need to apologize. Who would have thought there wouldn’t be a proper city on the way here? Still, it’s better than sleeping outdoors, so let’s rest here.”
The one who answered was a young man.
His sun-tanned, copper-colored skin, exceptionally black hair, and dark eyebrows were impressive.
He was wearing a Wind Cloak made from the skin of a Gyo Fish, and he seemed to smell of the sea.
Beside the man, a woman of similar age stood quietly in attendance.
The woman’s eyes were half-lowered, staring only at the floor. She had a very beautiful appearance, but she seemed to have little interest in the outside world.
Like the man, the woman also seemed to carry the scent of the sea.
The young man looked around the Inn and spotted Pyo Wol.
“Ho! There was a guest here before us.”
He immediately approached the table where Pyo Wol was sitting.
“This must be fate. Won’t you join us?”
Without waiting for Pyo Wol’s reply, he plopped down on the chair opposite him.
When Pyo Wol looked at him, he grinned and introduced himself.
“My name is Dokgo Hwang. And you are?”
“Pyo Wol!”
“A fine name. Are you from around here?”
“No!”
“Is that so? A pity. This is our first time here, so we had many things we wanted to ask.”
Arrogance was ingrained in Dokgo Hwang’s voice.
Not only his voice, but his gaze and gestures were also naturally imbued with the habit of looking down on others.
Dokgo Hwang called to the woman and pointed to the seat next to him with his hand.
“So-so, you sit here too.”
“I will stand behind you. I’m more comfortable that way.”
“It’s because I’m uncomfortable. You can leave the guarding to the Three Swords of the Southern Sea, so you sit next to me.”
“Understood.”
In the end, the woman called So-so sat down next to Dokgo Hwang.
Dokgo Hwang introduced her to Pyo Wol.
“This is Eom So-so. My escort.”
“Escort?”
“Don’t approach her carelessly just because she’s beautiful. Her sword skills are truly terrifying. Even I sometimes get so scared my knees give out.”
Dokgo Hwang joked with a laugh, while Eom So-so said not a word and just looked at Pyo Wol.
A faint blue Qi swirled in Eom So-so’s eyes. They were eyes that reminded one of the blue sea.
Dokgo Hwang laughed as he looked at her.
“Hehe! Why, are you interested in this fellow? Then again, if you saw that face and weren’t interested, you couldn’t be called a woman.”
Pyo Wol was not using his Disguise Technique and was showing his real face.
Eom So-so denied Dokgo Hwang’s words.
“It’s not like that.”
“Aww! It doesn’t matter anyway. If I were a woman, I’d want to be held by that fellow too.”
“Please don’t say such useless things.”
“Ah, ah! I get it. Damn! You’re scaring me to death.”
Dokgo Hwang threw up his arms and feigned being scared. Still, Eom So-so’s expression remained unchanged.
Dokgo Hwang clicked his tongue and looked at Pyo Wol.
“Tsk! She’s no fun. Please understand. She’s famous for being taciturn back in our hometown.”
“…”
“By the way, where are you headed? You don’t seem to be from around here.”
“Runan.”
“Runan? Oh! Coincidentally, our destination is the same.”
“Jin Clan or Snow Blade Sword Manor?”
“What? Ah! Are you asking which side I’m on? I don’t plan on taking any side.”
“Then why are you going?”
“Isn’t watching others fight to the bloody end the most entertaining thing in the world? I also have some business nearby, so I’m going for both reasons.”
Dokgo Hwang grinned.
His attitude and voice were completely uninhibited.
“So why are you going to Runan?”
“I know someone there.”
“It seems you have an acquaintance. Snow Blade Sword Manor, or Jin Clan?”
This time, Dokgo Hwang asked.
Pyo Wol answered honestly.
“Jin Clan!”
“Ho! So you have a connection with the Jin Clan. This is getting more and more interesting.”
“What’s so interesting?”
“Didn’t I say? Watching others fight is the best, so now that a party involved is right in front of me, I can watch with even more interest, can’t I? I’ll be rooting for the Jin Clan’s victory. Huhu!”
Dokgo Hwang chuckled to himself.
It was a rather strange sight.
There were clearly five people in the group, but only Dokgo Hwang spoke and laughed. The others just watched him silently, not saying a word.
In particular, the three men standing in attendance behind Dokgo Hwang kept their mouths tightly shut, only remaining vigilant of their surroundings.
Dokgo Hwang had called them the Three Swords of the Southern Sea.
An Alias often contains a lot of information.
An Alias was created by combining words that best represented a person’s characteristics.
They wouldn’t be called the Three Swords of the Southern Sea for no reason.
It was highly likely that they were active in the South Sea.
The smell of the sea emanating from Dokgo Hwang and Eom So-so confirmed Pyo Wol’s speculation.
An unusual aura, the key phrase “South Sea,” and a confidence as if they had spent their entire lives looking down on the world from above.
There was a place where these three things combined exquisitely.
‘The Swordless Union?’
The hegemon of the South Sea, based in Hainan Island.
A super-powerful faction classified as one of the Three Hegemons, along with Dragon Sky Valley and the Thousand Water Society.
Dokgo Hwang was undoubtedly a member of the Swordless Union. But Pyo Wol did not make the mistake of voicing his speculation.
Dokgo Hwang said.
“Would you like to have a drink with me?”
“I don’t drink. But I don’t mind a meal.”
“Huhu! That would be good too. If this is fate, then it’s fate. We should at least share a meal to build some rapport, shouldn’t we?”
Dokgo Hwang’s smile deepened.
Eom So-so let out a faint sigh as she watched him. But soon, she looked at Pyo Wol with cold eyes.
‘This man. I can’t read his inner thoughts at all.’
Eom So-so had a special ability.
She was skilled at reading people’s inner thoughts.
She had an excellent ability to deduce and infer a person’s thoughts through their gaze, gestures, and minor habits.
She was the epitome of extraordinary observational skills, but those who didn’t know feared her ability.
That was why her Alias was the Sea Demoness.
It was an Alias that didn’t suit a beautiful woman at all, but Eom So-so had never once been dissatisfied with it.
Because no matter what others chattered about, her essence would not change.
Above all, Eom So-so enjoyed observing others and figuring out their inner thoughts.
In the harsh Jianghu, having a weapon that others did not possess was a great advantage.
The benefits gained by preparing in advance by grasping the opponent’s inner thoughts were enormous.
Because of that, she made a special effort to grasp the inner thoughts of people she met for the first time.
It was the same when she first saw Pyo Wol.
Eom So-so was not bewitched by his beauty, which was more beautiful than a woman’s. Instead, she tried to grasp his thoughts by observing his gestures and gaze. But so far, she had not found out a single thing.
All she could see was pitch-black darkness; she couldn’t read what he was thinking at all.
Rather, Pyo Wol’s gaze on her made her feel as if she had been stripped naked and thrown into a snowfield.
It felt as if her entire being was being read through and through.
This was the first time she had experienced such a thing, so she could not hide her bewilderment.
It was then.
Dokgo Hwang lightly tapped her shoulder and said.
“Relax. What are you so afraid of?”
“When did I say I was nervous?”
“I can see you’re all tensed up.”
“I am not.”
“Ah, ah! I get it, so stop glaring at our friend and let’s eat. Do you think food will go down with a look like that?”
Only then did Eom So-so realize her mistake.
She had been so focused on Pyo Wol that she hadn’t even noticed that a lavish meal had been set out.
The table was filled with delicious-looking food.
Dokgo Hwang brought his chopsticks to the Shuizhu yu and said.
“Let’s see how delicious the fish from the mainland is.”
He picked up a mouthful of white fish flesh with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth.
“Well, it’s edible. Go on, you try some too. The cooking skills here aren’t completely terrible.”
The way he devoured the food greedily was reminiscent of the tyrant of the sea, the Gyo Fish.
A ferocious beast that rushes in from hundreds of li away, smelling even the faintest scent of blood.
‘Did this one also smell the Troubled Times in Runan?’
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Namhae Sam-geom >> three swords of the southern sea