Chapter 26

The first thing Pyo Wol did was to survey the terrain around Mount Qingcheng.

All assassinations begin with understanding the surrounding topography as if it were the palm of one’s hand. This was to identify the best infiltration and retreat paths in advance.

Surprisingly, many assassins tended to overlook this part. It was because preparation consumed a great deal of time and required strong patience. However, the more skilled an assassin, the more time they invested in these fundamental aspects.

In that respect, Pyo Wol was born with the nature of an assassin.

He never let his guard down for a single moment and had a habit of constantly observing his surroundings.

This habit of noticing even the smallest changes was a great help in his growth as an assassin.

Although this was his first time in a real battle, he assessed his surroundings as skillfully as an assassin who had carried out countless killings.

Mount Qingcheng itself was like a natural fortress.

The name Qingcheng, meaning “Blue Castle,” was given because the long line of peaks resembled a blue fortress wall.

The sect protected by this blue fortress was the Qingcheng Sect.

Because the mountain terrain was so rugged, securing infiltration and escape routes was not easy.

Numerous Daoist Temples existed throughout Mount Qingcheng.

All of them were members of the Qingcheng Sect.

They usually lived separately, but if a crisis befell the Qingcheng Sect, they would move as one body.

It was safe to say that the true power of the Qingcheng Sect lay in the Daoist Temples scattered across Mount Qingcheng.

Successfully carrying out a killing was difficult, but escaping safely afterward was even harder.

Furthermore, the Qingcheng Sect was currently enjoying its greatest golden age in decades. After the annihilation of the Tang Clan, no sect within Sichuan Province could stand against the Qingcheng Sect.

As such, the security on Mount Qingcheng was ironclad.

It was nearly impossible to grasp the entire security network in a single day.

It would have been more beneficial for Pyo Wol to give up, go into stealth, and secretly slip out of Sichuan Province when the encirclement was lifted.

Pyo Wol knew this fact as well.

But his nature and instincts refused to retreat with his tail between his legs.

The client had kidnapped him against his will, turned him into an assassin, and then discarded him at a whim.

He wanted no more of his fate being swayed by others.

If he backed down now, he would never be able to carve out his own destiny with his own will.

Above all, Pyo Wol wanted to ruin the picture his client, who had so arbitrarily wielded his fate, had painted.

He didn’t know why, but the client had called off the assassination and tried to kill and silence the children by attacking them.

He had tried to bury the very fact that he had raised children to carry out a secret assassination.

There could only be one reason.

The situation had changed.

It was clear that his relationship with the assassination target had changed, making it a situation where he could not kill him.

There was no way to know the detailed circumstances, but it was certain that the assassination target must not die.

That was the reason Pyo Wol was challenging a near-impossible killing.

After surveying Mount Qingcheng, Pyo Wol came to one conclusion.

‘Unless one is a martial artist of the Qingcheng Sect, it is impossible to enter the sect’s interior.’

Pyo Wol hid in a place with a view of the Qingcheng Sect’s entrance and observed the people coming and going.

As befitting the number one sect in Sichuan, countless people visited the Qingcheng Sect every day. There were sects related to the Jianghu, and there were trading companies that supplied goods.

The entirety of Sichuan Province was in an uproar over the search for the assassins who had tried to raid the Qingcheng Sect, but the sect itself was spending its days in peace.

It was the sect’s way of showing its giant-like stature, unshaken by such trivial matters.

Merchants or outside martial artists were excluded from his list of targets.

To move freely within the Qingcheng Sect, one had to be a martial artist of the sect.

Pyo Wol’s eyes gleamed.

It was because Dojin, who had just left the Qingcheng Sect, had caught his eye.

He was only about fifteen or sixteen years old.

He looked to be about four or five years younger than Pyo Wol.

He gave a bright smile to the martial artists guarding the main gate and came out alone. His detailed identity was unknown, but judging by his attitude toward the Qingcheng Sect’s martial artists, he was definitely a disciple of the Qingcheng Sect.

Pyo Wol secretly followed him.

Dojin, not even imagining that someone was secretly tailing him, hummed a tune as he walked.

Dojin was a third-generation disciple of the Qingcheng Sect.

Although Dojin was the youngest of the third-generation disciples, he was quite talented and had a friendly nature, receiving much love from many.

He was now on his way to a nearby Daoist Temple to receive medicinal herbs under his master’s orders.

His master belonged to the Qingcheng Sect’s Medicinal Kitchen Hall.

Naturally, Dojin also belonged to the Medicinal Kitchen Hall, following his master and learning from the menial tasks. One of those tasks was to collect the medicinal herbs gathered from the nearby Daoist Temples.

“Starting with the closest Daoist Temple… Gack!”

Dojin, who had been muttering to himself, suddenly grabbed his neck.

Something had suddenly tightened around it.

It was not far from the Qingcheng Sect. If he just screamed, the martial artists of the Qingcheng Sect would come running immediately. But Dojin could not manage to scream.

Whump!

The noose tightening his neck abruptly pulled his body into the air.

Dojin’s body was thrown onto a tree branch.

“Who…”

Stab!

Just as Dojin was about to shout, a sharply honed tree branch pierced his thigh.

‘Aaargh!’

Dojin screamed at the top of his lungs. But his scream could not escape his mouth. The one who had stabbed his thigh with the branch was clamping his mouth shut with a firm hand.

It was Pyo Wol.

The moment he saw Pyo Wol’s eyes, Dojin froze.

There in front of him were eyes he had never once seen in the Qingcheng Sect.

They were eyes that could not be described with simple expressions like “cold” or “devoid of emotion.”

The faint crimson light in his eyes was reminiscent of a snake.

Dojin was so overwhelmed by Pyo Wol’s gaze that he couldn’t move a muscle.

He felt he now understood the heart of a mouse before a snake.

Right now, Dojin was the mouse.

And Pyo Wol was a venomous snake, full of a terrifying poison that could end his life.

Even though his acupoints weren’t sealed, Dojin couldn’t move. The very presence of Pyo Wol overwhelmed him.

Pyo Wol, still covering Dojin’s mouth, spoke.

“Are you a disciple of the Qingcheng Sect? If so, nod your head.”

Dojin hurriedly nodded.

“I’m going to take my hand away, so answer my questions. You’d better not think about shouting for help. I’ll cut your throat faster than they can run here.”

Dojin nodded his head once more.

As he felt Pyo Wol’s hand relax, Dojin, forgetting his promise, tried to shout loudly.

Stab!

A fiery pain shot through his shoulder.

Pyo Wol had clamped his mouth shut again and driven another branch into him.

The sight of a thin branch, as slender as a child’s finger, piercing his shoulder was truly terrifying.

‘Ugh!’

Dojin’s eyes trembled.

Pyo Wol’s eyes, which were already frightening, seemed to have become even more so.

He felt that if he screamed, Pyo Wol would really kill him. So he desperately suppressed his scream.

Only then did Dojin realize.

The man in front of him could kill him at any time. And in a way he could never have imagined.

If the branch stuck in his shoulder had been stuck in his neck, he would have been a dead man.

A yellow liquid flowed down his trousers.

He had wet himself in extreme fear.

Pyo Wol released the hand covering his mouth and said,

“If you scream one more time, you won’t be able to see the world with your two eyes ever again.”

“Yes!”

Dojin replied respectfully.

“Name?”

“It’s Dojin.”

“Status?”

“I am a third-generation disciple of the Qingcheng Sect.”

“Is that all?”

“I… I belong to the Medicinal Kitchen Hall.”

“What does the Medicinal Kitchen Hall do?”

“That place is…”

Dojin spilled everything he knew.

He was not in his right mind due to fear.

He wasn’t a second-generation disciple, just a mere third-generation disciple. And a novice who had just gone through his initiation at that.

There was no way he would have the resolve to face death.

To live, he confessed everything he knew.

Pyo Wol scraped out every piece of information he could get from him.

“One last question. What kind of person is Gun-sang?”

“D-don’t tell me you mean the Lone Star of Qingcheng, Martial Uncle Gun-sang?”

“Lone Star of Qingcheng?”

Pyo Wol furrowed his brow.

The alias itself felt anything but ordinary.

“Martial Uncle Gun-sang is the greatest prodigy the Qingcheng Sect has ever produced. At a young age, he has already mastered most of the Qingcheng Sect’s special techniques and reached a high level. The previous generation’s experts of the Qingcheng Sect are said to be taking an interest and teaching him directly.”

Dojin told him everything he knew.

To summarize his words, Gun-sang was the son of the Qingcheng Sect’s Second-in-Command, Wu Jin-pyeong, a prodigy with absolute talent.

His talent was so outstanding that all the previous generation’s experts of the Qingcheng Sect doted on him, to the point of passing down their martial arts to him.

Thanks to his formidable talent, despite being only ten years older than Dojin, he became a first-generation disciple and was receiving high expectations as the one who would bring greater prosperity to the Qingcheng Sect.

‘This is the worst.’

Judging by the seven years invested in carrying out the assassination, he had thought the target was a formidable being, but he hadn’t known he was so great as to receive all the expectations of the Qingcheng Sect.

‘No, is it to be expected? He must be that great for them to invest seven years.’

He couldn’t know the details of his opponent’s martial arts level, but to have earned the alias Lone Star of Qingcheng, he was clearly a great expert.

He even thought about just giving up. But it was too late to back down now.

If they found out Dojin was missing, they would surely pursue him.

Retreating with no gains would be just as dangerous.

Pyo Wol had no choice.

Dojin said,

“I-I’ve told you everything I know, so please spare me.”

Tears like chicken droppings trickled down from his eyes.

Pyo Wol briefly caressed his face with his hand. Dojin trembled at the eerie sensation.

At that moment, Pyo Wol struck his Paralysis Blood Point.

Dojin’s body stiffened like a stone statue.

Unless someone released him, he wouldn’t be able to move for about a day.

Pyo Wol began to touch Dojin’s face, standing beside him. Among the items he had received from the Bloody Shadows Guild were makeup tools.

He mixed lime, glutinous rice, and honey, applied it here and there on his face, and put on makeup of a color similar to his skin tone. His face then became roughly similar to Dojin’s.

‘Gasp!’

Dojin was horrified to see Pyo Wol’s face, which had become similar to his own.

If one looked closely, one could see incongruous parts, but at a glance, it was hard to tell them apart.

In fact, the best method would have been to peel off Dojin’s facial skin and make a human-skin mask. But the process of making a human-skin mask was very complicated and time-consuming, so it couldn’t be used right away.

It was much more efficient to apply makeup, even if it was crude. Of course, the probability of being discovered was higher, but for Pyo Wol, who had no time, it was the best method.

The reason Pyo Wol had touched Dojin’s face was to check his facial muscles.

Pyo Wol took off Dojin’s clothes and put them on himself.

He couldn’t check in a mirror, but it looked plausible.

Pyo Wol left Dojin behind and headed for the main gate of the Qingcheng Sect.

His gait was similar to Dojin’s.

Not only his face, but his body shape, gait, and atmosphere also resembled Dojin’s.

The martial artists guarding the main gate of the Qingcheng Sect spotted Pyo Wol and spoke to him.

“Oh, it’s Dojin. Why are you back so soon?”

“I forgot something.”

“You silly boy! So forgetful.”

“Hehe!”

Pyo Wol scratched his head with an awkward expression. The martial artist guarding the gate chuckled and cleared the way for him.

He didn’t even suspect that the Do-dong in front of him was not Dojin. That’s how identical Pyo Wol was to Dojin.

Pyo Wol passed through the main gate nonchalantly.

Once through the main gate, the Qingcheng Sect revealed its true form.

The sight of countless halls packed tightly together boasted an immense majesty. Nevertheless, the reason Pyo Wol was not overwhelmed was that he had experienced a similar scene before.

The hall complex that existed in the underground cavern was similar to this.

But it was similar yet different. First of all, the scale was vastly different. Halls he had not seen in the underground cavern were built here and there. Still, the core had not changed.

It was a place he had been in for seven long years.

He could find his destination even with his eyes closed.

Pyo Wol walked as nonchalantly as if it were his own home.

He already knew where the security was tight and where it was lax. He deliberately walked only through places where security was lax.

Countless people passed by him, but not a single one suspected Pyo Wol.

If they had looked at his face closely, they would have found something strange, but because Pyo Wol acted so naturally, no one thought it was odd.

Occasionally, when someone acknowledged him, Pyo Wol would greet them nonchalantly and pass by.

‘Is that it?’

Pyo Wol finally arrived near his destination.

Bright Moon Hall.

It was Gun-sang’s residence.