Chapter 12

Hearing Gok Su-chang’s scream, Il-geom approached.

He looked down with cold eyes at Gok Su-chang, who was writhing on the ground, clutching his broken wrist.

Il-geom’s gaze soon turned to Pyo Wol.

“Did you do this?”

“Yes!”

Swish!

A sharp, cutting sound echoed in that instant.

Just as Pyo Wol perceived something flicker before his eyes, the sword Il-geom had drawn was already at his throat.

Pyo Wol’s shoulders trembled.

Even with his Eye Power, he had failed to capture the moment Il-geom drew his sword.

It was a terrifyingly fast Swift Sword.

It was from Il-geom that Pyo Wol first learned a human could draw and swing a sword so quickly.

It was a rude awakening.

As he adapted to the darkness, Pyo Wol had subconsciously begun to think of himself as someone quite remarkable.

It was because he alone could see what the other children could not, and he had developed the ability to think one step ahead of them.

Il-geom’s Swift Sword shattered Pyo Wol’s arrogance to pieces.

He realized that the sky was high and the world was full of extraordinary people.

Pyo Wol did not know what position Il-geom held in the Jianghu. However, he knew enough to understand that beings like Assassins were not treated as human in the Jianghu.

The true Experts of the Jianghu were said to be able to shatter large rocks with a single swing of their hand. No matter how highly he rated him, Il-geom did not seem to have reached such a level. But even so, if Il-geom put his mind to it, he could kill Pyo Wol as easily as crushing an ant.

The sword now touching his neck proved that fact.

Cold sweat trickled down Pyo Wol’s back.

Il-geom put pressure on the sword at Pyo Wol’s neck.

At the cold sensation digging into his skin, Pyo Wol unknowingly clenched his fists.

That emotionless gaze was terrifyingly frightening.

‘Am I going to die?’

For the first time, Pyo Wol thought of the word ‘death’.

In that moment, Il-geom appeared to him as a Reaper.

A god of death who held the power of life and death over him.

Pyo Wol bit his lip until it bled.

‘Was it a mistake?’

He had thought that even if he injured Gok Su-chang, they would not punish him. Their actions up to this point had suggested as much.

He had judged that all they wanted were useful tools, and that the lives or well-being of the children were not particularly important, which was why he had taken such a bold risk.

‘No, I don’t know yet.’

Pyo Wol tried hard to maintain a composed expression. He judged that showing any anxiety might instead disappoint Il-geom and cause him to swing his sword.

The pressure of the sword on his neck grew stronger. At this rate, the blade would soon pierce his skin and push through his muscles.

Drip!

Blood trickled from Pyo Wol’s lips.

The pressure from the sword had traveled down his neck and damaged his internal organs.

It was then.

The pressure on his neck vanished as if it were a lie.

Il-geom had already sheathed his sword.

As he put the sword back into its scabbard, he said,

“An Assassin leaves no trace under any circumstances. Breaking a wrist like this and leaving a trace is no different from telling the enemy about your Martial Arts and identity.”

“……. ”

“Keep that in mind. You must never leave a trace.”

Pyo Wol could not easily decide how to answer. So he remained silent. He knew that sometimes, silence was more effective than a dozen words.

As if pleased with Pyo Wol’s reaction, Il-geom said no more and turned away.

For a moment, Pyo Wol almost let out the breath he had been holding.

‘No, not yet. I can’t let my guard down.’

Fortunately, Il-geom had let it slide, but he didn’t know what kind of reaction he would get if he showed a relaxed appearance.

Pyo Wol kept his nerves on edge for a long time.

＊＊＊

Gok Su-chang eventually died.

The underground cavern was a place where it was difficult to survive even when maintaining peak physical condition.

The other children did not leave Gok Su-chang alone, who couldn’t use his strength properly with a broken arm. Just as Gok Su-chang had done to Pyo Wol, the other children targeted Gok Su-chang under the pretext of Training.

He managed to endure the first one or two times with sheer grit, but the situation was not lenient enough for him to endure with an injured body.

In the end, Gok Su-chang could not withstand the other children’s attacks and died.

Gok Su-chang’s death served as a warning to many of the children.

They learned the lesson that while it was fine to attack other children, getting injured would only lead to being torn apart in turn.

Pyo Wol also watched clearly as Gok Su-chang died.

Although it wasn’t outwardly visible, Il-geom’s attack had inflicted a severe internal injury on him. Because of it, Pyo Wol had to suffer for several days as if he were dying.

Every time he took a deep breath, he felt a tearing pain in his lungs. Because of this, Pyo Wol couldn’t even breathe properly.

Unable to breathe properly, his energy naturally weakened. Yet, Pyo Wol never once made a pained expression or showed any sign of difficulty.

He endured and endured with all his might.

As he persevered so arduously, his internal injuries began to heal little by little, and now he had made a complete recovery.

Through this series of events, Pyo Wol realized it once again.

In this hellish place, the only one he could trust was himself. And that he had to become stronger.

His chances of getting out of this place alive would be higher only if he could at least handle Il-geom’s Swift Sword.

Pyo Wol bit his lip.

The goal was clearly set, but the problem was how to reach it.

Even with his Eye Power, which had been trained in the underground, he could not see how Il-geom drew and swung his sword.

Instead, the cold sensation of the blade on his neck was clearly imprinted on him.

‘I have to perceive and react faster. Otherwise, I’ll never be able to escape his grasp.’

Pyo Wol looked down at the Thunderclap Mind Method in his hands.

It was the only weapon he currently possessed.

He had to find a way within the Thunderclap Mind Method.

He didn’t even glance at the Poison Dragon Mind Method.

Pyo Wol focused solely on the Thunderclap Mind Method, digging into it like a madman.

And so, time flowed on.

The Training became even more grueling.

The instructors pushed the children to their limits.

There were children who died of suffocation while learning the Breath Concealment Art, and others who lost their lives by misusing poison.

The children always had to fight against death.

The instructors paid special attention to teaching the children how to use swords, sabers, and other weapons.

The Martial Arts they taught were killing arts that pursued extreme efficiency. There was no way such Martial Arts would possess any depth.

If you didn’t kill the opponent in a single strike, you would be the one to die.

Therefore, they had to bet everything on the first strike.

The children’s personalities became even colder and rougher. Their eyes were like those of wild beasts, always filled with Killing intent.

The instructors pushed the children again.

“You must not reveal your Killing intent. Dull your gaze. Never express your Killing intent.”

It was by no means an easy task for children already full of Killing intent to suppress it again. But they had to. If they failed, the instructors would relentlessly and harshly drive them on.

In this process, many more children died.

Now, only about thirty-five children remained. There was no telling how many more of them would die.

A sense of camaraderie formed among the surviving children. Although they didn’t completely trust each other, a sense of fellowship as comrades had been created.

＊＊＊

A masked instructor scanned his surroundings with sharp eyes.

Though he was simply called an instructor by the children now, his original name was Gu Yeok-pyeong.

Gu Yeok-pyeong was one of the most renowned Assassins in the Bloody Shadows Guild.

He possessed such great skill that over thirty figures from the Jianghu had lost their lives at his hands.

Gu Yeok-pyeong was particularly skilled in Stealth Skill and the Breath Concealment Art.

His sense for waiting for the optimal moment for Assassination, killing his presence for days on end using Stealth and the Breath Concealment Art, was second to none.

But he had retired.

It was because he had sustained a major injury in the process of killing his final Assassination target, the Monk Cheongpyeong, Go Han-wi.

It was such a severe wound that his knee was almost completely severed. Fortunately, he was able to save his knee, but it took several years to recover from the injury.

Even after the wound healed, it was impossible to regain his former abilities. In the end, he retired from the front lines and took on the mission of teaching the children.

He was a man accustomed to seeing the blood of others.

At first, he had started killing out of necessity to survive, but eventually, he became accustomed to the act of seeing blood and carried out Assassinations of his own will.

Such a man was now confined to a narrow, cage-like underground cavern, teaching children.

He had no sense of mission to raise his juniors. It was a job he did out of necessity since he could no longer carry out Assassinations.

Naturally, anger simmered in his heart.

He suppressed it well at first, but as time went on, it began to erupt to the surface little by little.

Gu Yeok-pyeong knew that the bad feeling sprouting in his heart was anger.

The unwillingness to admit that he had been pushed aside to become a has-been, combined with his jealousy towards the children, was manifesting in the form of anger.

Gu Yeok-pyeong did not bother to hide his anger.

This place was thoroughly sealed off anyway.

Only food was delivered through the baskets they had ridden in on, but no one else ever entered.

No matter what he did here, the outside world had no way of knowing, and those who could be called the actual leaders, like Il-geom, didn’t care.

All they were interested in was raising the children to be strong; they didn’t care how many died.

Because of that, he treated the children even more harshly.

He scanned his surroundings with sharp eyes.

It was now time to practice the Breath Concealment Art and Stealth Skill.

First, they used Stealth Skill to hide their bodies, then they employed the Breath Concealment Art to hide their presence.

The essence of the Breath Concealment Art was to slow the heartbeat as much as possible to artificially suspend vital activities. Naturally, the body temperature would drop, making one seem like a dead person.

They were not dead, but they entered a state similar to a dead person.

Once the Breath Concealment Art was deployed, an average Martial Artist would never be able to detect them. But Gu Yeok-pyeong was different.

As he himself had mastered the Breath Concealment Art, he had learned his own ways of detecting it.

Even the seemingly perfect Breath Concealment Art had one flaw.

It gave off a sense of incongruity that was hard to explain in words.

This sense of incongruity was especially strong where life force was abundant.

Since it forcibly made the human body similar to a dead state, it was inevitable that in a place full of life, the incongruous parts would stand out.

That was why, even when performing the same Breath Concealment Art, one performed by an inexperienced person was bound to be noticeable.

Stab!

Gu Yeok-pyeong suddenly stabbed the ground with his knife.

“Keok!”

Someone screamed and shot up.

It was a child who had been hiding using the Breath Concealment Art. Gu Yeok-pyeong’s knife was embedded in his shoulder.

“If I were the enemy, you would already be dead.”

“Keuk!”

The child gritted his teeth, unable to even make an excuse.

A look of resentment was evident on his face.

He was angry that he had been discovered so easily, even though he had clearly done his best to perform the Breath Concealment Art.

Gu Yeok-pyeong passed by the child and searched for his next prey.

Stab!

Every time he stabbed somewhere with his knife, children who were using the Breath Concealment Art would pop out, injured.

There were five children hiding in the area he was in charge of. He had found four of them.

Now, only the last one remained.

“Hmph!”

Gu Yeok-pyeong scanned his surroundings with a sharp gaze.

He believed he could find the last one soon. Although his leg was disabled, his keen eye and Qi Sense had developed even further.

He mobilized all his abilities to find the last remaining child. But as time passed, no trace of the child could be found anywhere.

‘Don’t tell me he’s not here?’

For the first time since coming to the underground cavern, he fully opened all his senses. But nowhere could he find a trace of the last child.

No matter where he looked nearby, there was no place that felt out of place.

‘What in the…?’

For the first time, a look of bewilderment appeared on his face.

It was possible not to find someone if their Breath Concealment Art was at its peak. But he couldn’t believe that the children here had already reached the same level as him.

He once again carefully scanned the surroundings.

It wasn’t a cursory glance, but a full mobilization of all his senses to find any place that felt incongruous. However, no matter how hard he tried, there was no longer any place that felt out of place.

‘Did he hide somewhere else?’

In the end, he began to suspect that the last child was not here. But he knew better than anyone that such a thing could not happen.

The children were aware that only death awaited those who broke the rules. He couldn’t imagine that any of the children would break the rules and leave this place.

Gu Yeok-pyeong wandered around several times, searching for the last remaining child. But in the end, he could not find him.

Finally, he gave up the search and opened his mouth.

“I can’t find you, so come out now.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the ground right next to where he was standing stirred.

‘To think he was hiding right beside me.’

Gu Yeok-pyeong was horrified.

The fact that he had been unable to find him even though he was right next to him filled him with fear.

At last, the child who had hidden his presence with the Breath Concealment Art until the very end revealed himself.

His appearance, silently dusting off his body as if he had just returned from a walk, was enough to send a chill down Gu Yeok-pyeong’s spine.

The child’s face, having not seen sunlight for the past few years, was snow-white. Even though he was covered in dust, his pale complexion could not be hidden. That made him feel even more eerie.

Gu Yeok-pyeong unknowingly called out the child’s name.

“Pyo Wol!”

There was no longer any trace of childishness on his face.

The six years had turned him into a full-fledged young man.