Chapter 30

People often thought of assassins as working alone. But that was a great misconception.

For an assassin to carry out an assassination, they had to go through many steps.

First, there had to be a channel to receive requests, and people to gather information. There also had to be people to scout out the assassin’s infiltration and escape routes.

For a single assassin to make a move, a minimum of four people were needed. And that was the absolute minimum.

On average, to carry out a single assassination, more than ten people had to work organically to provide support.

That was why assassin groups like the Bloody Shadows Guild had been able to thrive until now.

For nearly two hundred years, the Jianghu had endured great wars like the Great Blood War and the Great Demonic War. Assassin groups like the Bloody Shadows Guild took advantage of the chaos in the Jianghu to expand their power.

Through the two great wars, assassin groups became increasingly professional and systematic.

If the Bloody Shadows Guild were intact, Pyo Wol would have been able to receive systematic support. But Pyo Wol did not think the Bloody Shadows Guild was intact.

The client was meticulous and cruel. There was no way such a person would leave loose ends.

He had to handle both the assassination and the escape all by himself.

And with an injured body, at that.

The escape route Pyo Wol chose was the Min River.

The Min River was a massive river that flowed behind Mount Qingcheng and cut through the Sichuan Basin.

The richness of the Sichuan Basin was thanks to the sediment carried downstream by the Min River and three other great rivers.

Four rivers, which was how Sichuan got its name. The four rivers were connected through numerous tributaries, linking the entire Sichuan Province like a spider’s web.

That was why Pyo Wol had chosen the Min River as his escape route.

Conversely, the martial artists of the Qingcheng Sect also knew this, so they had set up a security net on the escape routes leading to the Min River.

“Die!”

The martial artists who found Pyo Wol attacked.

Pyo Wol chose to evade rather than confront them head-on. He took a wide detour and ran towards the Min River.

In the distance, a field of reeds came into view.

Once he hid his body in the reed field and entered the Min River, his pursuers would not be able to find him easily.

“Not a chance.”

But before Pyo Wol could enter the reed field, a large axe came flying.

Kwang!

A great axe, as thick as a man’s torso, exploded on the spot where Pyo Wol had just been.

If Pyo Wol had been even a little late in dodging, he would have been minced like fish paste.

Blood Dragon Hunter Jo Pyeong-gwang.

He was an expert said to have no match when he held a single axe.

As soon as he heard the news that Woo Gun-sang had been assassinated by an assassin, he grabbed his axe and rushed here.

Upon spotting Pyo Wol, he swung his axe with all his might.

“How dare a mere assassin assassinate the Lone Star of Qingcheng. I will judge you and offer you as a sacrifice on the altar of Mount Qingcheng.”

He was genuinely enraged.

He had no particular relationship with Gun-sang, but the fact that a young talent who carried the future of the Qingcheng Sect had met such a futile end at the hands of a mere assassin infuriated him.

And he was not the only one.

Most of the martial artists who had responded to the Qingcheng Sect’s call and formed the Celestial Net felt a similar emotion.

Hwoong, hwoong!

The massive axe flew with a menacing force.

Pyo Wol did not dare to block the axe and dodged. Then, something invisible flew towards Pyo Wol’s vital points.

Pyo Wol ducked almost instinctively. The invisible something grazed his hair and back.

A clump of his hair was cut off, and his clothes were torn, revealing his bare skin.

‘A fishing line?’

What had attacked Pyo Wol was a fishing line so fine it was indistinguishable to the naked eye.

The owner of the fishing line was an old man in his sixties, dressed as a fisherman.

The old man’s identity was the Minjiang Fisherman, So Tae-myeong.

So Tae-myeong’s weapon was a fishing rod called the Dragon Rod Form. The rod itself was ordinary, but the fishing line was made of a special material called Cheonjamsa.

Cheonjamsa was so thin it was almost invisible, and its sharpness was second to no famous sword.

Jo Pyeong-gwang and So Tae-myeong were old friends.

One attacked from close range with an axe, while the other attacked from a distance with a fishing rod.

Their combined attack was truly perfect.

Pyo Wol realized that he could not enter the Min River without defeating these two.

Pyo Wol charged straight at So Tae-myeong.

“Hmph! Not a chance. How dare a lowly assassin…”

Hwiririk!

So Tae-myeong snorted and retrieved the Dragon Rod Form. The fishing line returned, aiming for the back of Pyo Wol’s head.

The hook attached to the fishing line was so sharp that once caught, it was impossible to escape.

Pyo Wol knew this as well.

Yet he charged forward without batting an eye.

Their years of martial arts training were different, and their levels were far apart. Yet the reason Pyo Wol charged head-on was because he had an intuition that if not now, the opportunity would not come again.

Pyo Wol’s nerves were on edge.

His senses of sight, smell, and hearing expanded beyond their limits, and he could feel the vibrations in the air.

The movement of the fishing line, sharply cutting through the air, was drawn vividly in his mind.

Pyo Wol reached out his hand.

The fishing line was caught between his thumb and index finger.

Paeng!

“Foolish bastard!”

At that moment, So Tae-myeong pulled the fishing rod with all his might.

His fishing line was made of Cheonjamsa. When infused with internal energy, it became sharper than any famous sword.

It could slice through human flesh in an instant, like gutting a fish.

So Tae-myeong had no doubt that he would cut off Pyo Wol’s hand. But Pyo Wol’s thumb and index finger, which held the fishing line, were unharmed.

“What?”

So Tae-myeong’s eyes widened in surprise.

Something that was impossible by his common sense had just happened.

Pyo Wol’s internal energy could not possibly match the depth of So Tae-myeong’s. Moreover, with the addition of the Cheonjamsa material, his fingers should have been severed.

The reason his fingers were fine was that he had focused all his internal energy into the two fingers holding the Cheonjamsa.

It was a matter of efficiency, so to speak.

The depth or vastness of his internal energy naturally could not follow that of the old expert. But its delicate control was a different story.

Pyo Wol possessed senses more sensitive than anyone else.

As he struggled to survive in the darkness, his senses had naturally expanded. Those expanded senses were so sensitive that an ordinary person could not even dare to imagine it.

When So Tae-myeong pulled the fishing line, he moved closer by that much, and when he swung it, he was dragged along like a scarecrow.

Pyo Wol was like a ghost hanging from a fishing line.

He had killed numerous martial artists with the Dragon Rod Form until now, but this was the first time he had encountered such a case.

“You bastard!”

Unable to watch any longer, Jo Pyeong-gwang attacked Pyo Wol’s waist with his axe.

At that moment, Pyo Wol let go of the fishing line he was holding and shot forward.

His figure, stretching out like a flash of lightning, instantly closed in on So Tae-myeong’s chest.

“Not a chance.”

So Tae-myeong hastily tried to block Pyo Wol’s attack with the handle of the Dragon Rod Form. But before the handle could reach, Pyo Wol gently pushed it away with his palm.

In an instant, So Tae-myeong’s body lost its balance. Not missing that opening, the blade of Pyo Wol’s hand dug into his throat like it was tofu.

He had unleashed the Seventy-Two Cutting Waves with the blade of his hand.

After hearing So Yeowol’s advice, Pyo Wol had focused on his Hand Art. And he had been able to achieve some results.

He had become able to infuse Qi into his fingers and hand-blade as he willed.

The result was right before his eyes.

The blade of Pyo Wol’s hand had severed So Tae-myeong’s windpipe, and So Tae-myeong collapsed, spraying blood.

“Tae-myeong!”

The Blood Dragon Hunter Jo Pyeong-gwang’s scream-like voice echoed across the Min River. He had never imagined he would lose his friend so futilely right before his eyes.

Pyo Wol ignored Jo Pyeong-gwang.

He had no time to deal with Jo Pyeong-gwang now.

He picked up So Tae-myeong’s Dragon Rod Form and threw himself into the Min River.

Splash!

In an instant, his figure disappeared into the river.

“You bastard!”

Jo Pyeong-gwang’s desperate cry echoed across the Min River.

“He jumped into the river.”

“Hurry and chase him!”

The martial artists who had joined late jumped into the river after Pyo Wol.

Jo Pyeong-gwang held his dead friend’s body and screamed in despair.

“You bastard! I will never forgive you.”

The Qingcheng Sect organized a pursuit party of a hundred men and set out to track Pyo Wol. That didn’t mean the other martial artists were sitting idle. They were in close contact with martial artists from other sects, coordinating the Celestial Net.

The person leading the Qingcheng Sect’s pursuit party was Mujeong Jin-in and his disciple, Cheong-myeong.

If Mujeong Jin-in was the number one martial artist of Qingcheng, Cheong-myeong possessed by far the most outstanding martial prowess among the first-generation disciples.

He wasn’t well-known, overshadowed by Gun-sang’s brilliant talent, but his martial arts skills were among the top three of the first-generation disciples.

Besides martial arts, Cheong-myeong had another talent: he was skilled at hunting.

Before his initiation into the Qingcheng Sect, he had lived with his father, who was a hunter. Since he had been with his father from the moment he learned to walk, he had inherited his father’s skills completely.

His ability to understand, track, and hunt animals was at a level that even seasoned hunters could not match. Thanks to that talent, he had caught Mujeong Jin-in’s eye early on and was able to become his disciple.

Knowing Cheong-myeong’s talent, Mujeong Jin-in put him at the forefront of the pursuit of Pyo Wol.

Cheong-myeong examined the tracks left on the ground and opened his mouth.

“He’s an incredible bastard. For someone being chased, he’s bold and fearless.”

“If he weren’t, he wouldn’t have dared to assassinate Gun-sang. Can you track him?”

“Of course.”

Cheong-myeong answered in a confident voice.

It had been over a decade since he had last hunted, but his senses remained sharp.

Rather than worrying about not being able to track him, he was actually excited by the hunt after such a long time.

‘Now that Gun-sang is dead, this is the perfect opportunity.’

Cheong-myeong was a man of great ambition. However, the positions of Gun-sang and his Senior Martial Brother, Cheong-yeop, were so solid that it was not easy for him to express his ambition.

Gun-sang, in particular, was younger than him but received all the love of the Elders for his superior talent.

His Senior Martial Brother, Cheong-yeop, received the full support of the first and second-generation disciples for his outstanding martial arts and gentle personality.

Because those two shared the love of the entire Qingcheng Sect, there was no room for him to squeeze in. So Cheong-myeong had given up to some extent. But then, an opportunity came out of nowhere.

Cheong-myeong had no intention of letting this sudden opportunity slip away.

“Let’s go! We must hurry and catch the bastard to console Gun-sang’s spirit.”

“Yes!”

Cheong-myeong ran ahead.

He tracked Pyo Wol, recalling the memories of when he used to hunt with his father.

Traces were left where Pyo Wol had passed.

He preferred to slip away as secretly as possible, and he acted that way. But it was nearly impossible to escape the Celestial Net, spread like a spider’s web throughout Sichuan Province, without leaving any trace.

Pyo Wol had fought several battles and escaped by using his wits, but he left traces each time.

Cheong-myeong found the traces Pyo Wol left behind like a ghost.

“The bastard turned here.”

“Where does this lead?”

“It leads to Danba. If we go further west from Danba, we’ll reach the highlands.”

“What a cunning bastard. The others died trying to escape outside of Sichuan Province, but he’s escaping deeper into Sichuan.”

“Yes! If his destination is indeed the highlands, we must catch him before he arrives. The mountains there are so rugged and deep that if he decides to go into hiding, we will never be able to find him.”

Mujeong Jin-in nodded at Cheong-myeong’s concern.

The land of Sichuan was fundamentally a basin.

The vast plains, which provided enough grain for hundreds of thousands, even millions, of people to live comfortably, were protected by a chain of mountains that seemed to pierce the sky like a folding screen.

Among them, the western highlands were famous for their rugged and dense mountain terrain. It was so dark even in broad daylight that it was notorious for first-timers getting lost, wandering for days, and eventually starving to death.

Mujeong Jin-in gave an order to another disciple.

“Inform the sects that make up the Celestial Net. The bastard’s destination is the western highlands, so tell them to concentrate their forces there. Especially tell the sects in that area to be fully prepared.”

“Yes! I will relay the message.”

The disciple replied and lowered a large box he was carrying on his back.

Inside the box were dozens of well-trained carrier pigeons.

The disciple took out a few of them and released them.

The carrier pigeons flew in all directions, with letters containing Mujeong Jin-in’s orders tied to their legs.

It was when the Qingcheng Sect martial artists were about to move again after a short rest.

Suddenly, a red hawk appeared in the sky.

After circling the sky for a moment, the red hawk shot down like an arrow and landed on the arm of the disciple who handled the Letter Hawk.

The disciple hurriedly passed the letter tied to the Letter Hawk’s ankle to Mujeong Jin-in.

“It is a letter from the Emei Sect.”

“The Emei Sect?”

Mujeong Jin-in quickly read the letter.

“Why did the Emei Sect send a letter, Master?”

“They say they will also participate in the Celestial Net.”

“The Emei Sect? What could be their intention…”

Cheong-myeong frowned.

That was how poor his perception of the Emei Sect was.

Mujeong Jin-in crumpled the letter and said,

“Their intentions don’t matter. What’s important is that we have more cards to play. We will definitely catch that bastard and make him taste the pains of hell.”