Chapter 251

Shiiik!

A strange light emanated from Amgwi’s body.

The light, blooming like a meteor, flew straight toward Pyo Wol.

Pyo Wol executed the Serpentine Steps, moving to the side.

Thwack!

At that moment, a long object struck the spot where Pyo Wol had been.

It was a strange weapon, a Chain Sickle, with a sharply honed sickle attached to a chain as thick as a child’s finger.

The Chain Sickle was a weapon primarily used by assassins from Dong-yeong, across the sea.

Amgwi was from Dong-yeong and had crossed over to Jianghu with his father at the age of five. He had learned his family’s martial art, the Chain Sickle Art, and was able to join the Hundred Wraith Union.

Chwa-reureuk!

At Amgwi’s gesture, the Chain Sickle terrifyingly sliced through the darkness.

The sickle at the end of the chain was made of black iron, its strength and sharpness beyond description.

Seogeogeok!

Everything caught by the sickle was sliced apart.

A large tree, a stone wall. And even the darkness was torn to shreds.

Amgwi was a master of the Chain Sickle Art.

He had combined it with various martial arts learned in Jianghu to pioneer his own unique domain.

Amgwi unleashed all the Chain Sickle Art he had honed until now.

A fearsome killing intent flickered in his eyes.

‘Now that it’s come to this, I must kill him.’

Pyo Wol had figured out the environment for using the Code Language with just a single glance. With a brain like his, deciphering the Code Language would not be a difficult task.

If Pyo Wol were to fully grasp the Hundred Wraith Union’s information system, the repercussions would be endless.

He had to kill Pyo Wol before that happened.

Swaeaek!

The Chain Sickle terrifyingly cut through the night air. But it did not touch Pyo Wol’s body.

Pyo Wol was like a ghost.

Even when cornered with no apparent escape, by the time Amgwi came to his senses, Pyo Wol had slipped away and vanished.

Even with Amgwi’s Eye Power, he couldn’t fully capture Pyo Wol’s movements.

Amgwi’s entire body was soon drenched in sweat, yet he had not managed to inflict a single wound on Pyo Wol.

“Iyaaaah!”

Finally, Amgwi broke an assassin’s taboo.

He let out a kiai as he attacked Pyo Wol.

That was how mentally cornered Amgwi was.

Until now, it was Amgwi who had been constantly attacking. Pyo Wol had only been dodging.

At first, he thought Pyo Wol was on the defensive because he was cornered. But Pyo Wol was neither cornered nor merely defending.

He was observing.

The Chain Sickle that Amgwi used had similarities to his own martial arts.

Pyo Wol attached the Ghostly Rain to the Soul Restraining Thread and used it freely. Although the material and type of weapon were different, the application and utility were similar.

Chwa-reureuk!

Every time Amgwi swung his hand, the chain uncoiled. Its length reached a full five Zhang.

Amgwi freely wielded the five-Zhang-long chain, controlling the sickle. Pyo Wol received quite a bit of inspiration from Amgwi’s movements.

It wasn’t a matter of the level of their martial arts.

It was a difference in experience and accumulated essential techniques.

Pyo Wol’s martial arts were something he had realized and built up on his own.

They were unconventional, but in turn, they lacked depth in certain areas.

On the other hand, Amgwi’s family had been active as assassins in Dong-yeong for generations. Over that long period, they had perfected their own Secret Transmission.

That was Amgwi’s Chain Sickle Art.

Pyo Wol was absorbing his Chain Sickle Art as his own. Unaware of this fact, Amgwi unleashed his Chain Sickle Art with all his might.

At some point, the look in Pyo Wol’s eyes changed.

No new Technique Forms were coming out, and the Chain Sickle Art had become familiar to his eyes.

As soon as he judged there was nothing more to gain, Pyo Wol’s movements changed.

Shiiit!

The Ghostly Rain shot out from his hand.

“This kind of…”

Amgwi’s eyes, which had been deflecting the Ghostly Rain with his Chain Sickle, widened as if they would tear.

The deflected Ghostly Rain had swerved in mid-air and attacked him again. Only then did he notice the Soul Restraining Thread connected to the Ghostly Rain.

‘Is that even possible?’

More than anything, it was astonishing that he could turn his qi into a thread and use it like a chain. At the same time, he felt fear.

Because he used a Chain Sickle as a weapon, he knew how difficult that was. He wouldn’t dare attempt it himself, nor could he even grasp how it could be done.

Pyo Wol was using such a skill as if it were nothing.

Shiiit!

With a chilling sound of something cutting through the air, the Ghostly Rain flew at him.

The biggest difference from the Chain Sickle Art he wielded was that the Soul Restraining Thread attached to the Ghostly Rain was almost impossible to identify with the naked eye. Because of that, predicting the trajectory of the Ghostly Rain was nearly impossible.

In the end, he had no choice but to rely on his instincts to strike the Ghostly Rain away.

Kakakang!

The Chain Sickle and the Ghostly Rain repeatedly clashed in mid-air.

Amgwi swung the Chain Sickle with all his might.

His breath was caught at the tip of his chin, and his face was flushed red. His stamina had now reached its limit.

But he couldn’t stop.

The moment he stopped the Chain Sickle, that venomous Ghostly Rain would cut his throat.

To live, he had to swing the Chain Sickle with all his might.

It was then.

In his field of vision, he saw two Ghostly Rains piercing through the darkness and rising up.

‘My god!’

For a moment, a look of despair crossed his face.

Just dealing with two Ghostly Rains had already exhausted all his stamina, and now two more had been added.

Amgwi didn’t know.

The fact that the Ghostly Rains Pyo Wol could use were not limited to just four.

With just four Ghostly Rains, Amgwi felt extreme terror, and that fear made his movements sluggish.

His sluggish movements exposed openings all over, and Pyo Wol dug into his openings like a viper.

Puk! Puuk!

The Ghostly Rains embedded themselves in both his shoulders.

In extreme pain, Amgwi’s eyes shot wide open.

At that moment, the other two Ghostly Rains buried themselves deep in his abdomen and thigh.

Jeolgeo-reong!

The Chain Sickle he was holding fell powerlessly to the ground.

“Keuk!”

In the end, Amgwi couldn’t bear the pain and vomited blood and a groan at the same time.

Red blood soaked his chin and chest.

Pyo Wol retrieved the Ghostly Rains and approached him.

Amgwi glared at Pyo Wol with eyes full of Poison Qi.

“Heuu! You will learn nothing from me.”

Amgwi was more than accustomed to torture and physical pain. He had no intention of ever succumbing, no matter what means Pyo Wol employed. But Pyo Wol’s reply was not what he expected.

“I have no intention of finding anything out.”

“What?”

“You’ve already told me a lot. To wish for more would be greedy.”

“What are you…?”

“Hong Ye-seol contact with risk factor. Caution required.”

“How?”

In an instant, Amgwi’s pupils shook violently as if an earthquake had struck.

He had thought Pyo Wol might decipher the Code Language someday, but he couldn’t believe he had figured it out just by looking at it.

“How in the world did you figure it out?”

“The systems of Code Languages are mostly similar. Once you know the principle, interpreting it isn’t that difficult.”

“That can’t be…”

It was an absurd story.

If deciphering Code Language was that easy, countless assassins wouldn’t go through the trouble of learning and using it.

The existence of Pyo Wol himself was just absurd.

‘They called us to deal with a man like this?’

For the first time, Amgwi resented and cursed Lee Yul, who had commissioned them.

‘I should have known when Hong Ye-seol said she was giving up the mission…’

He regretted taking on the mission, but it was already too late.

Amgwi had to decide.

Whether to die at Pyo Wol’s hands, or to choose death himself.

His decision was the latter.

“You will never kill me. My death is something only I can decide.”

A Flying Dagger shot out from Amgwi’s sleeve.

He slashed his own abdomen with the Flying Dagger.

It was seppuku, the method used by assassins and warriors from Dong-yeong when they chose to die themselves.

The Flying Dagger sliced a long horizontal gash across his abdomen.

His intestines spilled out from the gaping wound.

In that state, Amgwi laughed.

“Hehe! H…how is it? This is my pride…”

“Idiot!”

Pyo Wol dismissed him with a single word.

Amgwi might have thought of taking his own life as a matter of pride, but Pyo Wol didn’t think much of pride.

Life was more important than pride.

You had to be alive to get revenge, and to have pride. When you die, everything ends.

There was no point in preserving one’s pride in death.

There was no value in Amgwi’s death.

It was just a meaningless, dog’s death.

Pyo Wol turned his back on Amgwi’s corpse.

He didn’t think he could get any more information from Amgwi anyway.

Pyo Wol’s steps headed toward the wall where Amgwi had left the Code Language just a moment ago.

Pyo Wol carefully examined the wall.

As a result, he was able to find many other Code Languages that seemed to have been left by other assassins.

As Pyo Wol had expected, this place was a communication hub for assassins.

In particular, the assassins of the Hundred Wraith Union exchanged information here.

This method of information exchange was something even the assassins of the Bloody Shadows Guild had not thought of. That’s why it felt even more novel.

Since it was a method even Pyo Wol, a fellow assassin, was seeing for the first time, it was natural that ordinary people or other martial artists of Jianghu would be even less likely to recognize it. Perhaps because of that, the assassins who had carved their Code Language here had left behind quite a lot of information.

They might have thought it was nothing special and left it, but to Pyo Wol, each piece was precious information.

One of the things Pyo Wol did best was fitting such pieces together to restore the big picture.

‘Black Tiger, Ice Kill, Amgwi, Red Lotus Four Ghosts… Hong Ye-seol is out of this one, I see.’

As Hong Ye-seol had said, she seemed to have been excluded from this mission. But he could identify the other figures.

Black Tiger, Ice Kill, and the Red Lotus Four Ghosts, a total of six assassins, had entered Runan.

Amgwi reported to Ice Kill, and Ice Kill reported to Black Tiger. This meant the final decision-maker was Black Tiger.

The Red Lotus Four Ghosts seemed to be moving separately. He hadn’t yet seen any Code Language under their names.

It seemed he had now obtained all the information he could from this place.

It was when Pyo Wol was about to take his eyes off the wall.

“Who goes there?”

A sharp voice suddenly came from behind him.

When Pyo Wol turned his head to look, he saw a woman adorned in gold from head to toe.

A beautiful woman wearing a splendid garment embroidered with gold thread and adorned with gold accessories.

She was none other than Geum Siyeon, the daughter of the Geumsan Manor Lord, Geum Shinchung.

Geum Siyeon’s eyes, looking at Pyo Wol, were full of vigilance.

And for good reason, as the place Pyo Wol was looking at was the wall of a Manor near the Golden Mountain Manor.

To make matters worse, nearby lay the corpse of Amgwi, dead with his intestines spilled out.

It was only natural for Geum Siyeon and her subordinates to be on guard.

She and her subordinates were on their way to Snow Blade Sword Manor to collect a payment.

Snow Blade Sword Manor had used a loan certificate from the Golden Mountain Manor to pressure Jin Clan, and Namgung Wol, unable to watch any longer, had paid the debt on his behalf.

Geum Siyeon was on her way to collect that payment. Naturally, since she was bringing back a large sum of money, she was accompanied by the elites of the Golden Mountain Manor.

“How dare you commit murder near the Golden Mountain Manor. Reveal your identity.”

“And who might you be?”

“Ha! You don’t know this Geum Siyeon? You must not be from Runan.”

“Geum Siyeon? Golden Mountain Manor?”

“That’s right. I am Geum Siyeon of the Golden Mountain Manor.”

Geum Siyeon shouted arrogantly.

In Runan, her Alias was the Golden Fairy.

She was that fanatically obsessed with gold, and she had more than enough ability to protect the gold she fanatically collected.

Pyo Wol silently looked at Geum Siyeon.

Geum Siyeon found Pyo Wol’s gaze unsettling.

She felt as if he was reading all her inner thoughts.

Other than her father, Geum Shinchung, Pyo Wol was the first person to make her feel this way.

Geum Siyeon instinctively felt that Pyo Wol was no ordinary person.

“If you do not reveal your identity, I will subdue you and escort you to my family’s estate. No, on second thought, since we’re on our way to Snow Blade Sword Manor, it would be better to take you there. Reveal your identity willingly while I’m asking nicely.”

“I decline.”

At Pyo Wol’s answer, Geum Siyeon snorted.

“Hmph! Do you think you can choose as you please? What are you all doing? Subdue him at once.”

“As you command!”

The martial artists of the Golden Mountain Manor answered and rushed toward Pyo Wol.

At that moment, a good idea popped into Pyo Wol’s head.

Unfortunately for Geum Siyeon, that idea was not a very good one for her.