Chapter 111

Lee Soha, Ximen Pyeong, and Won Gayoung could all be called the greatest talents in Jianghu. They had shown promise from a young age and were the object of many people’s envy.

And yet, they were looking at Jin Geum-woo with eyes full of admiration.

It wasn’t just because Jin Geum-woo’s fame was outstanding, or because his Martial Arts were superior.

There was something about Jin Geum-woo that drew people’s gazes.

‘Is it light?’

Pyo Wol thought that Jin Geum-woo was shining.

It wasn’t that Jin Geum-woo was actually emitting light or had a halo around him, but he possessed an intangible something that made people unable to take their eyes off him.

It was what made them look only at Jin Geum-woo.

‘How frightening!’

Pyo Wol’s eyes turned sharp.

It wasn’t Jin Geum-woo’s Martial Arts that were frightening.

If it were just a matter of Martial Arts, Pyo Wol thought he was in no way inferior to Jin Geum-woo. If he used the Assassin’s Killing Method, which was his very identity, he was confident he could carry out an Assassination.

But even if he died and came back to life, he would never be able to gather people with such a brilliant light.

He was Pyo Wol, born on the surface but raised underground.

A deep darkness dwelled within him.

His way of thinking, his perspective on the world, even his behavior were all stained with darkness.

His actions—slyly hiding himself and endlessly observing—were not something a person with a normal way of thinking could do.

In contrast, Jin Geum-woo was gathering people around him with his innate brightness and presence.

Pyo Wol wondered how a person could possess such confidence and presence. So he quietly concealed his own presence and watched Jin Geum-woo.

“I’m the last one, it seems.”

Just then, another talent joined them.

He was a man with a distinctly different atmosphere from those who had gathered so far.

He wore the light attire of a scholar, a Heroic Headband tying his hair back tightly, and an Ancient Sword at his waist.

He looked to be in his mid-to-late twenties, and his strangely tranquil aura was impressive.

If Jin Geum-woo was the blazing sun, this man was like the moon, shining coldly in the night sky.

“You’re here!”

“Sowoon Hyung-nim!”

Jin Geum-woo and Ximen Pyeong recognized him and approached.

“Geum-woo, Pyeong!”

The man smiled at them.

A man who held the coldness of the moonlight, which was why his Alias was also the White Moon Sword.

White Moon Sword Neung Sowoon.

He, too, was a member of the Golden Sky Society.

He was the one Jin Geum-woo trusted and relied on the most.

With his unique composure and outstanding judgment, he assisted Jin Geum-woo and helped lead the Golden Sky Society.

“You’ve come as expected.”

“Wow! Sowoon Orabeoni.”

Won Gayoung and Lee Soha also greeted Neung Sowoon warmly.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you all.”

“Sowoon Orabeoni, you came last, so you’re buying dinner.”

“Alright! I’ll buy dinner, so order whatever you want.”

“Hoho! Sowoon Orabeoni is the best, as always.”

Lee Soha gave a thumbs-up.

Neung Sowoon smiled as he looked at her.

“By the way, have you seen Yu Daehyeop?”

“We met him a little while ago.”

“Really?”

“Yes! Thankfully, he was safe. I was so relieved.”

“That’s a real relief.”

Lee Soha nodded at Neung Sowoon’s reply.

As if she had so much to say, she chattered on and on to Neung Sowoon.

With Neung Sowoon’s arrival, everyone was now gathered.

Once the group was all seated, the Waiter and even the owner came out to serve the specialty dishes of the Four Seas Pavilion.

Jin Geum-woo, who had been silently looking at the food, suddenly lifted his head and stared intently at one spot.

Won Gayoung looked at Jin Geum-woo with a puzzled expression and asked.

“What’s wrong?”

“I feel someone’s gaze…”

“Everyone in the Inn is looking at us. It must be one of them, right?”

“Is that so?”

Jin Geum-woo nodded and withdrew his gaze. But the glint of suspicion in his eyes did not disappear.

‘No! It was definitely a different kind of gaze.’

It felt so chillingly cold and refined that it seemed to still tingle on his skin.

It was a gaze he could never feel from the people currently inside the Inn.

‘Someone is here.’

＊＊＊

Pyo Wol left the Four Seas Pavilion and walked away quietly.

He felt that if he stayed in the Four Seas Pavilion any longer, he would be detected by Jin Geum-woo’s senses, so he had left at an opportune moment.

‘Jin Geum-woo, the Golden Sky Society…’

It was unlikely they had come to Chengdu for a leisurely tour with nothing better to do.

In the first place, their sphere of activity and Chengdu were too far apart for there to be any connection.

There was a high probability that they had come here with a clear purpose.

He had to first find out their purpose for coming to Chengdu.

‘They will find out.’

Pyo Wol thought of Su-hyang and Go Chonggwan.

They were capable people.

Perhaps they had already discovered the reason for their arrival.

All Pyo Wol had to do now was live as usual and wait for the information they would bring.

After confirming that no one was around, Pyo Wol brushed a hand over his face. And his face changed.

He was now a man with the ordinary features one could see anywhere.

Slightly slanted eyes and a low nose.

Seven or eight out of ten people on the street had such looks.

Because of this, no one gave Pyo Wol a second glance.

After walking for a long time, Pyo Wol arrived at a slaughterhouse on the outskirts of Chengdu.

All the cows and pigs that entered Chengdu were butchered here.

Even before he entered the slaughterhouse, the foul stench of blood wafted over him. But Pyo Wol walked on calmly without even frowning.

“You’re here?”

An old butcher greeted Pyo Wol.

His deeply etched wrinkles, unable to withstand the flow of time, and his sallow skin were striking.

Pyo Wol gave the butcher a slight bow. The old butcher then grinned, revealing his yellowed teeth.

“You’re never late, not even once.”

“There’s no reason to be.”

“There’s quite a lot of work today. Will you be alright?”

“I’m fine. Today is the last day, after all.”

“The last? You’re quitting?”

“Yes!”

“Hah!”

At Pyo Wol’s short reply, the old butcher looked disappointed. But it was only for a moment; he soon nodded.

“I see. If that’s what you want, I can’t stop you. I’ll settle your pay, including today’s work, when you leave.”

“Yes!”

“Go on inside.”

Pyo Wol bowed his head slightly and entered the slaughterhouse.

Inside the slaughterhouse, ten cows to be butchered today were locked in a pen.

As if they knew this was their last day, the cows’ large eyes were filled with tears.

Pyo Wol looked at the cows in silence.

The cows, too, looked back at Pyo Wol with their gentle eyes.

For the past few months, Pyo Wol had come to the slaughterhouse every single day without fail to butcher cows.

The fate of the cows was already decided anyway.

Their destiny was to be killed by the old butcher and supplied to the people of Chengdu.

The cows’ deaths were inevitable.

Pyo Wol had volunteered to do the old butcher’s work for him.

At the time, the old butcher had scoffed at Pyo Wol.

Killing a cow was not as easy as it seemed.

It wasn’t something that could be done simply by relying on strength.

There was a way to killing a cow.

A cow that suffered extreme pain would have poor quality meat.

It had to be killed instantly and without pain to prevent the meat from being damaged and to preserve its best flavor.

Killing a large cow in a single blow was not an easy task, even for a skilled butcher.

Killing it without pain was even harder.

The old butcher himself had only mastered the method of killing without pain after decades of butchering cows.

It was a job everyone looked down on and avoided, but someone had to do it, and the old butcher had been doing it for decades.

He couldn’t help but laugh at how Pyo Wol had offered to do such a difficult and arduous job.

“A day, two at most, I’d say?”

Enduring the deep-seated stench of blood in the slaughterhouse had nothing to do with having a strong stomach. For a person with a normal mind, even lasting one or two Shichen was a struggle.

The old butcher thought Pyo Wol wouldn’t last more than two days. But contrary to his expectations, Pyo Wol came to the slaughterhouse every day. And he killed cows.

At first, Pyo Wol also struggled.

Since he had perfected the Assassin’s Killing Method to some extent, he thought killing a cow would be easy. But it didn’t take long for him to realize his assumption was a mistake.

Even though he had killed them in a single strike with his Killing Method, the cows felt extreme pain and thrashed about.

Because of this, the quality of the meat from the cows Pyo Wol butchered dropped significantly.

The old butcher scolded Pyo Wol harshly.

“It’s not about being strong. It’s not about cutting with technique either. You have to know how to console the cow.”

At first, he didn’t know what that meant.

Consoling a mere animal, a cow? Would a cow even understand his feelings if he did? Pyo Wol couldn’t understand.

But as the days of killing cows went on, he began to understand what the old butcher’s words meant.

Pyo Wol had entered the slaughterhouse with the Killing Intent to kill the cows at all costs. He didn’t show his Killing Intent outwardly, but the cows, facing death, sensed his Killing Intent like ghosts and were terrified from the start.

He had to erase the Killing Intent deeply ingrained in his body.

He couldn’t even think about killing.

He had to thoroughly erase his Killing Intent and kill unconsciously.

So that the cow wouldn’t even be aware of the fact that it was dying.

One, two, the carcasses of cows piled up.

The cows Pyo Wol killed were butchered into smaller pieces and supplied to Chengdu.

The customers who had initially complained about the poor quality began to seek out the cows butchered by Pyo Wol.

The old butcher also acknowledged Pyo Wol.

“You’re a natural. You have slaughter in your hands. No one can beat a natural.”

Pyo Wol explored life and death through the cows.

The bodies of cows and humans were very different.

From the structure to the location of the organs, nothing was the same. But through persistent research, Pyo Wol discovered the existence of a previously unknown vital point.

The Life-Death Blood Point.

A vital point that separates life and death.

If this point was struck, any living being would lose its life in an instant.

But the location of the Life-Death Blood Point was not fixed.

It moved a little bit every day.

Sometimes it was located near the heart, and other times it settled in the ankle.

Through constant research, Pyo Wol realized that there was a certain rule to the movement of the Life-Death Blood Point. And today was the final day to prove if his hypothesis was correct.

Pyo Wol led a cow out of the pen.

As if it knew its fate, the cow had a resigned look on its face.

Pyo Wol briefly stroked the cow’s head.

“I’m sorry.”

With a short apology, Pyo Wol’s finger tapped a point on the cow’s shoulder. In that instant, the cow’s massive body collapsed powerlessly.

There was no pain, no cry.

The cow died peacefully.

As if it had lived out its natural lifespan.

Pyo Wol killed the rest of the cows one by one.

All ten of them died peacefully without letting out a single cry.

The time it took to kill all the cows was no more than a quarter of an hour.

Pyo Wol silently looked at the cows that had died by his hand, then went outside.

When he came out, the old butcher shot up in surprise.

“Are you done already?”

When Pyo Wol nodded silently, the old butcher shook his head.

“Good heavens! You are…”

It would have taken him at least half a Shichen to kill ten cows. But Pyo Wol had finished it all in a quarter of an hour, so he couldn’t help but be surprised.

Peeking inside, the old butcher was even more shocked.

There were no external wounds on the cows.

He couldn’t figure out how on earth Pyo Wol had taken the cows’ lives.

“You… were a truly frightening person.”

“I have learned much during my time here.”

“Hah!”

The old butcher sighed and took out money from his pocket.

After receiving the money, Pyo Wol bid his final farewell to the old butcher and walked out of the slaughterhouse.

The old butcher watched Pyo Wol’s receding back with frightened eyes.

A Reaper has come and gone.”