Chapter 23

Pyo Wol entrusted his body to the current.

There had always been a shortage of water in the underground cavern, so he hadn’t been able to learn water arts separately. But he knew the general principles of water arts.

Pyo Wol relaxed his body as much as possible and circulated the Thunder-Splitting Heart Art.

Jumping into the water didn’t mean he had shaken off their pursuit. He didn’t know what dangers lurked, so he had to raise his body’s condition even while resting for a moment.

Fortunately, Pyo Wol was very skilled at this kind of thing. No matter how urgent the situation, Pyo Wol’s greatest strength was not losing his reason, making cool-headed judgments, and doing what needed to be done first.

What Pyo Wol considered the greatest advantage of the Thunder-Splitting Heart Art was its ability to accelerate his thoughts.

It allowed him to think, judge, and decide one step ahead of others.

Thanks to that, Pyo Wol could always stay one step ahead of the other children. For now, it was only a one-step difference, but as time passed, the gap would widen significantly.

If only he could survive for now.

Now was the time to focus everything on survival.

‘First, I need to join the other children.’

He didn’t know how many had survived, but he had to meet the survivors first. He needed to meet them and gather the information they had figured out. Only then could he grasp the big picture the unknown enemy was drawing.

“Hoo!”

Once his stamina had recovered to some extent, Pyo Wol came out of the water.

If he had his way, he would have wanted to hide in a cave where no one could find him and light a bonfire. But finding such a terrain in a wide-open plain was impossible.

For now, Pyo Wol focused on finding traces of the survivors.

For seven years, the children had been in extreme conflict or aimed for each other’s lives. But at times, they also cooperated, forming their own kind of bond.

They had created a code to communicate without the instructors’ knowledge. To an outsider, it would look like meaningless scribbles, but it contained a short language that only they could recognize.

The children had ostracized Pyo Wol and not taught him the code. The children were either jealous or afraid of Pyo Wol.

To them, Pyo Wol was a foreign entity, like oil that couldn’t mix with water. Although a few children, including So Yeowol, had shown him favor, most of them were reluctant to be around Pyo Wol.

Even though the children hadn’t taught him, Pyo Wol, with his unique powers of observation, had noticed the existence of the code and even deciphered its system. But he didn’t bother to pretend he knew the code. He had no intention of mixing with the children.

However, the situation had changed.

Regardless of personal feelings, he had to meet the children now.

Pyo Wol thought from the children’s perspective.

‘The shortest escape route, a place with many spots to hide, a place with few people.’

Assuming there was no other information, they were highly likely to move based on these three conditions. Because that was how they had been trained.

“Search thoroughly.”

“He must be hiding around here.”

He could hear the voices of martial artists from a distance.

He had drifted quite far along the river, but the encirclement was still solid.

Pyo Wol used the Breath Concealment Art and Stealth Skill simultaneously to pass between the searching martial artists. His movements were so secretive and natural that the martial artists didn’t notice Pyo Wol was nearby.

Pyo Wol paid attention to the martial artists’ attire.

There were four martial artists, and each wore different clothes.

Martial artists belonging to a sect had a strong tendency to wear uniform clothing. This was to establish the sect’s unique identity through their attire.

The fact that the four had different clothes meant that their affiliated sects were all different.

The martial artists Pyo Wol had encountered before his escape also had different attire.

‘At least seven sects are involved. Just to kill some young assassins…’

It was a situation that didn’t make sense by common standards.

Pyo Wol thought someone must be orchestrating the current situation.

It was highly likely to be the one who had commissioned the assassination.

The problem was who had commissioned the assassination.

To find out the truth hidden behind this incident, he had to find the client. If he couldn’t, he might be chased for the rest of his life.

Pyo Wol moved, searching for the optimal environment for the children to hide. And before long, he was able to find a small scribble carved under a rock. It was a code left by one of the children.

‘Two hundred Zhang to the north.’

Pyo Wol moved to the location indicated by the code.

He moved stealthily, suppressing his presence as much as possible. It was a situation where he didn’t know who might be where.

The moment his tracks were exposed by a single mistake, he would be pursued by numerous martial artists.

Because of this, it took him more than half a shichen to arrive at a distance he could normally cover in a quarter of an hour.

When he arrived at the place with such difficulty, the owner of the code was not there. They had left only the code and moved somewhere else.

Pyo Wol examined the code.

‘Four hundred Zhang to the northeast.’

Pyo Wol frowned.

More than the fact that he had to move a long distance again with difficulty, the traces left on the ground bothered him.

Traces of black droplets, left here and there.

Pyo Wol knew well what that meant.

‘Are they injured?’

He didn’t know who the owner of the code was, but they were clearly wounded.

It would be nice if it were a light wound, but unfortunately, judging by the amount of blood left on the ground, that was highly unlikely.

Pyo Wol moved stealthily again.

He encountered searching martial artists several times along the way. Fortunately, he discovered and hid before they could find him.

They were tirelessly tracking the children’s whereabouts.

They were no different from a pack of excited hunting dogs.

“They’re definitely around here.”

“Search every last one.”

Pyo Wol’s face darkened as he confirmed their appearance. It was because they were wearing clothes he hadn’t seen before.

One more had been added to the existing seven sects. The problem was that he couldn’t even guess how many more sects he didn’t know about had been added like this.

‘This is the worst.’

They were spreading a huge net and combing the ground from the bottom up.

They had literally cast a Celestial Net.

At this rate, he would eventually be caught in the net.

He had to find the owner of the code before that.

Pyo Wol overcame the crisis of being discovered several times and finally arrived at the final destination.

Shik!

What awaited him upon arrival was someone’s ambush. But Pyo Wol dodged the ambush by a hair’s breadth.

The one who had ambushed him without a sound, like a cat, was a beautiful girl. Pyo Wol recognized her identity at once.

“Yi-min!”

The girl was Yi-min.

“It was you, Pyo Wol!”

Yi-min’s face lit up. But Pyo Wol’s expression as he looked at her was not so bright. It was because he saw that Yi-min’s side was stained red.

He could tell at a glance that she had suffered a serious wound.

As expected, the bloodstains on the ground were hers.

“You fool… What about the others?”

“Most of them are dead.”

“Yeowol and Cheonwoo too?”

“I don’t know what happened. We were scattered all over the place…”

So Yeowol and Song Cheonwoo had stayed behind to fight to the end to save even one more child. They had clung to the attackers like fighting dogs.

That was the last she remembered of them.

Yi-min had been severely injured in the process of escaping.

The only reason she was still alive was that she had made full use of an assassin’s strengths.

By hiding and using deceptive tactics like leaving false trails, she had fled to this place. But in return, she had received such a large wound and was now dying.

Pyo Wol let out a low sigh.

“Hoo!”

“Still, I’m glad I got to meet you.”

Yi-min forced a smile.

Her complexion was pale. There was no color in her face; she had lost too much blood.

Although Pyo Wol had no medical knowledge, he could tell that it was too late to save her.

Anyone could see that Yi-min had crossed the line between life and death and was already on the other side.

Pyo Wol sat down next to Yi-min and said.

“Unless a miracle happens, you will die soon.”

“I know.”

Yi-min answered calmly.

“You’re so composed. Don’t you want to live?”

“I want to live. Can you save me?”

“No!”

“That’s why I’ve given up. I already know the state of my body.”

“Hoo!”

“You don’t have to feel sorry. When you think about it, we’re nothing to each other.”

“That’s true.”

“Still, I’m glad. I don’t have to die alone, lonely and desolate. You’ll watch over me, right?”

“Yes!”

Pyo Wol nodded.

Yi-min stared intently at Pyo Wol.

Numerous emotions were etched on her pale face.

“Pyo Wol!”

“Speak!”

“I hope you survive.”

“I’ll try.”

“I hope you survive and get revenge on them just the same.”

“……”

“It’s so unfair! That I have to die like this when all I did was try to survive. It’s miserable that someone whose face I don’t even know controls my destiny. I hope they feel the same way I do. This miserable feeling of being trampled by an irresistible force…”

Yi-min spoke calmly, but Pyo Wol could feel the sob contained in her voice.

In the underground cavern, she had fought more fiercely than anyone to survive.

The reason she hadn’t despaired in a world where hope didn’t exist was because she believed that something would change once she got to the outside world.

That belief was the driving force that had allowed her to endure until now. But that belief had been shattered to pieces, and only despair was gnawing at her heart.

In her eyes, which had shone brightly even in the darkness, no hope or light could be found.

She had lost the will to live.

She no longer had the strength to move forward.

Saving her was impossible. But he didn’t want to send her off in despair like this.

Pyo Wol opened his mouth.

“Yi-min!”

“You don’t have to comfort me. Dying by your side isn’t so bad.”

“It’s because of Gun-sang.”

“What?”

At the unexpected answer, Yi-min made a puzzled expression. But Pyo Wol continued, regardless of her reaction.

“The target we were supposed to assassinate was a man named Gun-sang. He’s likely a disciple of the Qingcheng Sect. The large mountain in front of the wilderness where we were hiding is Mount Qingcheng. The hall complex in the underground cavern was probably a scaled-down version of the Qingcheng Sect’s Daoist Temple. If you go into the Qingcheng Sect, there will probably be an identical hall complex.”

He was speaking to Yi-min, but he was also speaking to himself.

“I don’t know the reason, but someone commissioned the Bloody Shadows Guild to kill Gun-sang of the Qingcheng Sect. And they invested a whole seven years into it. It must be that cautious of a commission. If it went wrong, there’s a high chance they would be harmed, so they must have put in so much effort over such a long time. That’s how cautious the client is. It’s unlikely such a person would insist on only one method. They probably proceeded with two, or even three or more methods at the same time to get the optimal result for themselves. Things probably didn’t go as they thought. So they must have told the Bloody Shadows Guild to proceed with the commission. But right before the assassination, something advantageous must have happened for them. They probably got the result they wanted. With the situation like this, there was no longer a need to assassinate.”

Yi-min listened intently to Pyo Wol’s words.

Her consciousness was constantly fading, but Pyo Wol’s words sounded strangely clear.

“If the assassination succeeded when they had already achieved the desired result, it would actually be a loss for them. So they canceled the commission. But then they must have started to worry that if we were around, the fact that they were involved might one day be known to the world. So they deliberately leaked our tracks to the sects related to the Qingcheng Sect. They used the Borrow a Knife to Kill Strategy, killing with the enemy’s hands.”

“So that’s… what it was.”

Yi-min weakly nodded her head.

Her consciousness was fading more and more. Still, she tried to listen carefully to Pyo Wol’s words until the end.

“The client is someone Gun-sang of the Qingcheng Sect knows. To go so far as to invest seven years into a commission shows that they are a very persistent and tenacious person. I think he, or she, is someone who feels an inferiority complex towards the Qingcheng Sect, or a sense of crisis.”

She no longer had the strength to even open her mouth.

Yi-min weakly watched Pyo Wol speak.

“He must have tremendous power and wealth. Enough to afford the enormous funds needed to kidnap and raise orphans from all over Jianghu. How many such people are there in Sichuan Province? I’ll be able to find them soon enough. If I can just survive this.”

Even as her consciousness faded, Yi-min thought Pyo Wol was terrifying.

To her and the other children, Pyo Wol was a demon, hell itself.

They had never once surpassed Pyo Wol.

On the surface, they seemed equal, but in reality, she and the other children were constantly subservient to the existence that was Pyo Wol.

Suddenly, she felt pity for those who had made an enemy of this Pyo Wol.

“For him, it must have been the gamble of a lifetime. And his gamble succeeded brilliantly. It would be even more perfect if he eliminated all of us. I can’t bear to see that happen. How can I just watch as the one who turned seven years of my life into darkness and toyed with my destiny does well? When I’ve become a monster who can’t even feel emotions like this. I’m just going to watch the one who made me like this laugh gleefully? I can’t do that.”

“I thought… you would. If it was you…”

At Yi-min’s reply, Pyo Wol turned his head to look at her.

Yi-min smiled at him.

Her eyes were strangely clear.

“Call my name.”

“Yi-min!”

“My real name…”

“Seol-min!”

“Thank you! I wanted… to hear it from you.”

“Seol… min.”

“……”

Yi-min did not answer.

She did not move.

Pyo Wol realized that she was dead.

Just as a candle at the end of its life burns brightest at the last moment, Yi-min too had used her last strength to hear her real name.

Even though her breath had stopped, Yi-min was beautiful.

She no longer wore a pained expression.

Pyo Wol silently looked at Yi-min’s face. The faint thread of fate that had connected him to her had snapped.

It was then.

“This way. The blood trail continues this way.”

“Everyone, come this way.”

The voices of the martial artists who had followed Yi-min’s trail could be heard.

It was time to leave.

Pyo Wol gently laid Yi-min down and whispered.

“I don’t know who drew this shitty picture, but I’m going to erase it all. So watch. Watch what I do…”