Chapter 249

“What a mess.”

Hong Yushin muttered, looking at the streets of Runan.

The first news he heard upon entering Runan was about the incident that had occurred at the Jin Clan overnight.

“So, the damn monks of the Shaolin Temple attacked the Reaper of Chengdu? They’re insane!”

He wasn’t saying this out of ignorance of the Shaolin Temple’s power.

No matter how strong Pyo Wol was, he couldn’t bring down the Shaolin Temple by himself. That was an absolute, unchangeable fact. But if Pyo Wol set his mind to it, he could inflict great damage.

Pyo Wol was an assassin.

And an assassin who had reached a rare realm at that.

He was most powerful when he struck from the shadows, rather than in a direct confrontation. If he thoroughly concealed himself and launched a surprise attack, even the high monks of the Shaolin Temple would be in danger.

If he had been a Shaolin monk, he would never have attacked Pyo Wol so recklessly.

Pyo Wol was the kind of being who, if not finished off with a single, decisive blow, would bring endless repercussions. If they had known even a little about Pyo Wol, they would not have attacked so hastily.

The Shaolin Temple’s actions were too rash.

In a moment of hot-bloodedness, they had made too great an enemy.

“The Shaolin Temple made an enemy of Pyo Wol, so it’s their job to deal with it. There’s no reason for me to worry about them. That’s not the problem.”

Until now, Hong Yushin and the Hao Clan had kept Pyo Wol’s identity tightly under wraps.

Because of that, martial artists outside of the major sects, which had their own decent information networks, didn’t even know of Pyo Wol’s existence.

As Pyo Wol left Sichuan Province and became active, his name slowly became known, but that too was limited to certain regions. It was by no means known to everyone in All Under Heaven.

But when he arrived in Runan today, he found everyone talking about the assassin who had stayed at the Jin Clan.

“I heard he assassinated Monk Seong-un of the Shaolin Temple?”

“They say he’s a truly vicious man. He’s already infamous as a Killing Star in Sichuan Province.”

“An assassin with such a pretty face. Ugh! How scary.”

The events that took place inside the Jin Clan had already spread all over the streets.

And that wasn’t all.

Pyo Wol’s appearance and his identity as an assassin had also been revealed.

This was by no means a natural occurrence.

It was clear that some unseen force was at work.

‘Someone is intentionally spreading rumors to isolate him.’

With this, Pyo Wol’s identity was revealed to the entire world, and his freedom of movement would inevitably be extremely restricted.

The one who spread Pyo Wol’s identity far and wide must have been aiming for that effect. But there was something they had failed to consider.

It was that Pyo Wol was more accustomed than anyone to hiding his face and identity.

Although there was no concrete evidence, there was a strong suspicion that Pyo Wol had operated under various other identities in Chengdu.

If he couldn’t operate with his original face, he could just change his face and disguise himself with a new identity.

The Pyo Wol he knew was not so attached to operating with his real face. In fact, he even considered his beautiful face a nuisance. He might even think that this situation had turned out for the better.

Hong Yushin suddenly looked around.

Many people were gathered in small groups, chatting, and a number of people were also seen coming and going alone on the streets.

Any one of them could be Pyo Wol.

Just imagining it sent a chill down his spine.

‘With a rash judgment, the Shaolin Temple has turned the most troublesome person in All Under Heaven into an enemy.’

Hong Yushin couldn’t know how Pyo Wol would respond. But he was certain that he would absolutely not sit back and take it.

Pyo Wol was always like that.

In his fights with the Qingcheng Sect and the Emei Sect.

In the war with the Small Thunder Sound Temple.

No matter how colossal the enemy sect was, he never backed down.

He would use any means necessary to make them pay a fitting price.

As a result, Qingcheng and Emei became closed-off, and the Small Thunder Sound Temple was annihilated.

Pyo Wol was not a simple assassin.

He was something more than an assassin.

“The question is, who spread his identity… Could it be Snow Blade Sword Manor?”

The only one who stood to gain the most by isolating Pyo Wol was Snow Blade Sword Manor.

The Jin Clan’s power was now greatly weakened, and the Shaolin Temple had lost its justification to intervene in the fight between Snow Blade Sword Manor and the Jin Clan.

“Seol Gang-yeon, the Manor Lord of Snow Blade Sword Manor, is not cunning enough to use a scheme like this.”

The Hao Clan had identified Seol Gang-yeon as a coarse, rugged type of man.

He was the type to push through with force to get what he wanted, not the type to use troublesome, multi-layered schemes.

His son, Seol Gwangho, was the same.

He was said to be even simpler than his father.

“In that case, it’s highly likely to be the Steward, Lee Yul.”

Lee Yul was a very mysterious person.

He had joined Snow Blade Sword Manor one day, as if he had fallen from the sky.

With his joining as a turning point, Snow Blade Sword Manor’s influence grew explosively, and it came to possess power comparable to the Jin Clan.

No matter what anyone said, the core of Snow Blade Sword Manor was Lee Yul.

The problem was that almost nothing was known about Lee Yul.

No, it would be fair to say there was nothing at all.

His activities before joining Snow Blade Sword Manor, his sect of origin, the martial arts he learned—not a single thing was known.

As soon as the Hao Clan became aware of his existence, they mobilized all their resources to investigate him but found nothing.

The fact that even the information network of the Hao Clan, which spanned All Under Heaven, could not find anything meant that Lee Yul was hiding his identity that perfectly.

“A man like that is satisfied with being a mere Steward of Snow Blade Sword Manor? That can’t be. He must be after something.”

Hong Yushin felt a strong sense of crisis.

The flow of the air in Runan made him feel that way.

＊＊＊

Although it was late in the evening, quite a few people were wandering the streets.

A significant number of them were martial artists carrying weapons, and the sight of ordinary people was almost nonexistent. As the atmosphere in Runan grew hostile, they refrained from going out at night.

The ones who mainly stayed in the inns of Runan were also martial artists.

In every inn, more than half of the guests were martial artists.

At every table, martial artists gathered in small groups, chattering about the current situation in Runan. They talked, spitting as they spoke, about what they knew.

Because of this, the inside of the inn was extremely noisy.

Everyone spoke as if they knew some great piece of information, but there was nothing new, just a rehash of what was already known.

Amidst all the noise, there was one man who was quiet by himself. He was a man with an ordinary face that could be seen anywhere on the street.

On his table were placed plain noodles and stir-fried pork. He hadn’t taken a single bite and was just staring out the window.

A young man standing alone in the middle of the street came into his view.

A man with soft facial lines and a natural smiling expression in his eyes even when standing still.

He wasn’t handsome enough to be eye-catching, but he clearly had a memorable appearance. That was why he still remained in his memory.

‘Hong Yushin.’

The man sitting alone and looking out the window was none other than Pyo Wol.

By changing the color of his Dark Dragon Robe and slightly altering his aura and face, his appearance had changed completely.

Although there were numerous people inside the inn, no one gave Pyo Wol a second glance. Thanks to that, Pyo Wol could watch the people coming and going on the street without interruption. That was when he spotted Hong Yushin.

Hong Yushin didn’t move for a long time, as if lost in deep thought.

The fact that Hong Yushin had come was proof that the Hao Clan was also closely monitoring this situation. The matter had become too big for a branch chief to handle, so he, the Surveillance Chief, had stepped in.

Hong Yushin muttered something, unaware that Pyo Wol was watching him.

‘The Hundred Wraith Union, the Black Cloud Corps, Namgung Wol of the Thousand Water Society, the Sword Venerable Han Yu-cheon, the Shaolin Temple. And even the Hao Clan…’

Snow Blade Sword Manor and the Jin Clan were fighting at the forefront, but that was only the superficial appearance of things.

So many martial artists and sects were entangled in the fight between the two clans. At this point, it had surpassed the level of a simple regional power struggle.

The Shaolin Temple and Han Yu-cheon would likely take a wait-and-see approach for the time being, but if the fight intensified, it was highly probable that they too would inevitably get involved.

There was no telling how many more sects and martial artists would be swept up in this fight. If things went wrong, not just Runan but the entire Henan Province could be engulfed in the flames of a great war.

Pyo Wol didn’t care how big the war became or how many people died.

The problem was that Lee Yul had dragged him into this war.

The very fact that information about him had spread widely in Runan was his handiwork. He had made the Shaolin Temple harbor animosity toward Pyo Wol.

He was the type to eliminate his enemies by using others, without getting a single drop of blood on his own hands.

This type was very tricky to deal with, so one had to be cautious.

Even someone like Pyo Wol had no choice but to be careful. That was why he had hidden his appearance.

Fortunately, Pyo Wol had the skill to change his face, and thanks to that, he could stay comfortably in Runan without leaving.

Pyo Wol recalled his fight with Seong-am.

He had used all ten strands of Ghostly Rain and all ten threads of the Soul Restraining Thread.

After receiving and drinking the pine nut wine from Daoist Master Ilgeom, a great change had occurred inside his body.

His internal power had not dramatically increased, nor had he gained any special enlightenment, but the harmony of his qi was achieved, allowing him to wield it as he willed.

There was an incomparable difference between using three or four Soul Restraining Threads and using all ten.

Now, Pyo Wol could wield the Soul Restraining Thread with a skillfulness bordering on artistry, something he wouldn’t have dared to even attempt before.

Furthermore, he had gained the inspiration to advance further.

For a martial artist, inspiration was as important as enlightenment.

Pyo Wol believed that the greatest asset for a martial artist was imagination.

The moment you place limits on yourself, growth stops and stagnates.

The limit becomes a wall, a challenge to be faced for a lifetime.

A characteristic of such people is that they do not imagine for themselves, but learn martial arts exactly as they are taught.

Fortunately, Pyo Wol had not been taught martial arts by anyone.

Everything he had learned, he had realized through his own power.

He did not place limits on his imagination.

He never thought things like, this won’t work for this reason, or that won’t work because of that problem.

When he gained some inspiration, he let his imagination run wild without limits and strove with all his might to realize what he had imagined.

It was the same now.

The moment he confirmed that he could use all ten threads of the Soul Restraining Thread, dozens, hundreds of ways to utilize it came to mind.

Pyo Wol let his imagination explode freely.

In the meantime, Hong Yushin had disappeared somewhere and was no longer in sight. But it didn’t matter.

If he put his mind to it, he could find someone like Hong Yushin anytime. More important was to steadily expand his imagination now and find the right path.

Pyo Wol imagined, and imagined again.

During that time, he did not move a muscle, as if he had become a stone statue.

He moved again only after a long time had passed.

“Hoo!”

“What were you thinking about so deeply that you didn’t even know I was here?”

The moment he let out a faint sigh, a woman’s voice was heard right beside him. But Pyo Wol, without a hint of surprise, turned his head to look at the woman.

She was a woman he had never seen before in his life.

Like Pyo Wol’s current appearance, she had an ordinary face. But she was by no means an ordinary woman.

“Hong Ye-seol!”

“You recognized me at once, as expected. Doesn’t this make us a match made in heaven? Since I recognized you at once too.”

The woman smiling at Pyo Wol was none other than Hong Ye-seol.

Just as Pyo Wol had changed his face, she too was staying in Runan with a different face.

It was a disguise, not a technique of moving the facial muscles themselves like Pyo Wol’s, so the sophistication was far inferior. But unless one had an exceptionally keen eye, it was nearly impossible to see through her disguise.

Pyo Wol wondered how she had recognized him, then wrinkled his nose. He sniffed his own wrist.

“You sprinkled the Thousand-Mile Tracking Incense on my body too.”

“Hoho! You’ve noticed now.”

Hong Ye-seol burst into a charming laugh.

Getting one over on Pyo Wol was incredibly satisfying.

When Pyo Wol burned the Devil Subduing Energy Art, she had secretly applied a different kind of Thousand-Mile Tracking Incense to him.

Just as a cunning rabbit prepares several exits, she too had prepared several types of Thousand-Mile Tracking Incense.

Each Thousand-Mile Tracking Incense had a different scent and concentration.

The concentration of the Tracking Incense applied to the Devil Subduing Energy Art was the strongest, and the one on Pyo Wol’s body was the weakest.

Pyo Wol’s nose had grown accustomed to the concentration of the Tracking Incense on the Devil Subduing Energy Art, so he couldn’t smell the much weaker scent.

All of it was part of Hong Ye-seol’s meticulous calculation.

“You’re amazing too. To think you wouldn’t leave Runan even after what happened at the Jin Clan.”

“There’s no reason to leave.”

“I thought so. You’re not the type to let others get the better of you.”

“You talk as if you know me well.”

“It’s a woman’s psychology to want to know every single move of a man she’s interested in.”

“I don’t welcome it.”

“I’m very interested in you. What about you?”

Hong Ye-seol stared intently at Pyo Wol.

A strange heat flickered in her eyes.