Chapter 373

“Keuk!”

“Kuk!”

Screams erupted one after another.

The Soul Restraining Thread had pierced the martial artists’ foreheads.

Shushushuk!

At the same time, a sharp sound of something cutting through the air echoed in the underground cavern.

It was the sound of the Ghostly Rain parting the darkness.

“Aargh!”

“S-Save me……”

Desperate screams rang out one after another.

Yoo Soo-hwan’s eyes trembled.

“My god!”

He was a Swordsman who had mastered the sword.

From the moment he first held a sword in his hand, he had always fought fair and square.

He believed that was how a Swordsman should be.

He especially thought that martial artists aiming for high achievements should not resort to unorthodox methods.

His thinking was flexible, but when it came to Martial Arts, he was stubborn.

He had been taught that this was the path of a Swordsman who had mastered the sword, and he too believed it.

But the moment he saw Pyo Wol’s Martial Arts, he felt the values he had held until now being shaken to their very core.

“Is that how an assassin fights?”

“Not all assassins are like that. Only Pyo Wol, that demon, can fight like that.”

So Gyeoksan, who was leaning on Hong Yushin, refuted Yoo Soo-hwan’s words.

“A demon?”

“Yes! A demon! He’s always been like that. He always liked to mock others from a high place like that.”

So Gyeoksan’s face was full of jealousy as he watched the battlefield.

Although he had sworn to pledge his loyalty if only he were set free, his competitive spirit toward Pyo Wol had not completely disappeared.

The sight of Pyo Wol reaping the souls of his opponents with ten strands of the Soul Restraining Thread and ending their lives with the Ghostly Rain was that of the Reaper himself.

The darkness amplified his abilities, and Pyo Wol was using the darkness to harvest the lives of his enemies.

It was a scene like a well-orchestrated play.

If he had performed like that, the audience would have cursed both the theater troupe and him.

Pyo Wol was elevating the Killing Method of an assassin to the level of art.

“He’s insane!”

Hong Yushin shook his head.

The blazing hatred and Poison Qi melted away like snow the moment he saw the martial artists of the Jade of No Regret being slaughtered by Pyo Wol.

That was how pitiful they looked.

“The Eight Constellations? Fuck that! If that man targets them in the dark, not even the Eight Constellations would be safe.”

He shook his head with a fed-up expression.

He knew Pyo Wol was formidable, and he was aware that his Killing Method was so great that no other assassin in All Under Heaven could follow it.

But hearing about it through a piece of paper and seeing it with his own eyes were different.

The goosebumps on his skin wouldn’t go away.

Slice! Swish!

The sound of flesh being torn apart echoed in the darkness.

Gu Jahwang also stopped his Lion’s Roar.

He knew that it was useless to perform the Lion’s Roar any longer.

Anger and fear coexisted on his face.

Pyo Wol was like a Mirage, unreachable no matter how hard he tried.

He had used every method he knew to catch him, but it was useless.

Neither the Lion’s Roar nor his powerful fists worked on him.

“I said stop.”

Kwaang!

He unleashed an Ultimate Technique again, but it only shattered an innocent stalactite, not even reaching Pyo Wol’s shadow.

Something white flickered in the darkness of the ceiling.

It was a thread so faint that only a martial artist who had reached Gu Jahwang’s level could see it.

Even then, it moved so fast that one would often miss it if they didn’t focus their mind.

Pukpukpuk!

In an instant, the demonic thread had taken the lives of more than half of his subordinates.

Only half of them were left alive.

And even they were cowering with their tails between their legs like frightened dogs.

“Ugh!”

“My god!”

A surge of anger welled up inside him as he saw his terrified subordinates.

They were not men who would be so easily frightened.

They were veterans who had followed him through numerous battlefields.

Although they were not known in Jianghu because they had been active in the Outer Regions, they were Experts who could secure a position in any Jianghu sect if they were to officially debut.

Watching them tremble in fear all at once was extremely painful for him.

It was even more infuriating to think that all of this was because of one person, Pyo Wol.

He had only heard the name Pyo Wol; he truly had no idea he would be such a formidable assassin.

He thought of the martial artist who had not yet arrived here.

‘Slayer of Ten Thousand! What the hell are you doing?’

The only one who had a chance of catching Pyo Wol was the Slayer of Ten Thousand, one of the Eight Constellations. He had sent a letter requesting support, but for some reason, there was no news from him.

“Damn it!”

Gu Jahwang gritted his teeth.

At this point, it was meaningless to wait for support from the Slayer of Ten Thousand.

By the time he arrived, everyone would surely have been annihilated.

In the end, he himself had to solve all these problems.

Rip! Rip!

Gu Jahwang tore off all his cumbersome clothes. Then, a body trained like steel was revealed.

The trapezius muscles on his shoulders bulged like a mountain range, and his arms, clad in fist guards, swelled as if they would burst.

He operated his Secret Transmitted Technique, the Vajra Blood Demon Art, to its extreme.

Once unleashed, the aftereffects were so severe that he would have to lie down for several months. So it was a technique he did not use unless it was a life-or-death situation.

Gu Jahwang muttered.

“Since it’s come to this, let’s burn it all down.”

His gaze was not that of someone who craved life.

He took a step with the kind of gaze that only one who has resolved to die can have.

“Kuaaak!”

“Keck!”

Even at that moment, his subordinates were dying.

He could see Pyo Wol’s intention.

It was clear that he intended to inflict extreme despair upon him by annihilating his subordinates first.

He was a man so cruel it made one’s teeth chatter.

But he himself was second to none when it came to cruelty.

He did not despair or become frustrated at the deaths of his subordinates.

“I’ll show you! Who the real madman is.”

Kwang!

He kicked a barrel stacked next to the barracks.

The barrel shattered to pieces, and a thick liquid gushed out. What flowed out of the barrel was oil.

It had been stockpiled in abundance for lighting torches or cooking food.

Next to the barracks, twenty barrels filled with oil were stacked.

Gu Jahwang smashed all those oil barrels.

The oil instantly spread throughout the entire underground cavern.

Gu Jahwang threw a torch onto the oil.

Fwoooosh!

In an instant, a tremendous flame shot up to the ceiling.

The flames spread along the oil throughout the entire underground cavern.

Crimson flames and black smoke filled the inside of the underground cavern, and a formidable heat pressed in as if it would melt the cave walls.

The first to be affected were Gu Jahwang’s subordinates near the flames, who inhaled the black smoke.

The highly toxic smoke, containing formidable heat, instantly melted their lungs. They collapsed without even being able to scream.

A few quick-witted ones hastily retreated to avoid the flames, but the entire underground cavern was already engulfed in fire.

No matter where they fled, they could not escape the flames and smoke.

Although his subordinates were dying because of the fire he had set, Gu Jahwang didn’t even spare them a glance.

Hong Yushin and Yoo Soo-hwan, who saw the scene, were horrified.

“Crazy!”

“Does he mean for us all to die together?”

They were three hundred Zhang underground.

Although maze-like caves were bored in all directions, the only place for air to escape was a single vertical shaft.

To pour oil and set a fire in such a terrain.

It could only mean that he wanted everyone to die together.

In fact, Gu Jahwang had set the fire with that very resolve.

It was clear that if time passed like this, only his subordinates would die. In that case, it was better to set a fire with the intention of everyone dying together.

There was one more effect to be gained by setting the fire like this.

It was that he could completely block off Pyo Wol’s hiding places.

No matter how great Pyo Wol’s Stealth Skill was, he couldn’t hide forever in such intense heat and flames.

As he was human, it was clear that he would not be able to withstand the heat and would pop out.

It was just as hot for Gu Jahwang. But he believed in his Internal Energy and his body.

He created a Qi Shield to block the heat and smoke.

Since his Internal Energy was not infinite, he couldn’t hold on like this forever. But the same was true for his opponent.

He couldn’t find Pyo Wol hidden in the darkness with his abilities, but he was confident he wouldn’t lose a battle of patience and Internal Energy.

Even in the blazing flames, he glared and looked ahead.

It was then.

Ssssk!

A black figure descended into the middle of the blazing sea of fire.

It was right where the barracks had been. There were many flammable things, so the heat was even more intense.

Pyo Wol stood in the middle of the fiery hell, looking at Gu Jahwang as if he couldn’t feel the heat at all.

Even in the crimson flames, not even a flush appeared on his snow-white face.

His still-pale face looked like a real Reaper.

He hadn’t come out to escape the flames.

If he had intended to avoid the heat, he would have taken refuge in a cave where the flames had not yet spread.

The reason Pyo Wol revealed himself was because Gu Jahwang had blocked his own Retreat Path and challenged him to a direct confrontation.

Gu Jahwang had probably challenged him because he thought he had a chance of winning, but Pyo Wol intended to make him realize what a huge miscalculation that was.

Pyo Wol took a step toward Gu Jahwang. Then, the flames split to the left and right. It was as if the flames had a will of their own and were avoiding Pyo Wol.

There was no way fire could have a real will.

It was a phenomenon created by Pyo Wol’s formidable Internal Energy.

The Dark Dragon Robe fluttered in the tremendous heat and shimmering air.

The fluttering black Dark Dragon Robe looked as if a bat had spread its wings wide.

Clack!

Gu Jahwang’s teeth chattered.

His body reacted first without him even realizing it.

‘Was he this strong?’

His opponent was not some mere assassin who just hid and ambushed.

He was something else wearing the mask of an assassin.

Gu Jahwang had wandered through numerous battlefields and faced just as many Experts, but he had never seen a martial artist like Pyo Wol.

This was the first time in his life he had felt this dirty feeling of his mind and body shrinking just by looking at someone.

“Haaaap!”

To shake off his fear, Gu Jahwang let out a Lion’s Roar.

The flames blazed even more fiercely at the Lion’s Roar that swept through the underground.

Gu Jahwang kicked off the ground and rushed toward Pyo Wol.

His body, which had perfected the Vajra Blood Demon Art, was no different from an indestructible Vajra body.

His hard body, trained to the extreme, was his weapon.

When speed was added to his rock-like body, there was nothing he couldn’t destroy.

Like a bison charging at its opponent with its whole body, Gu Jahwang tried to ram Pyo Wol with all his might.

Even while watching Gu Jahwang charge at him with a terrifying momentum, Pyo Wol did not avoid him.

Rather, he ran toward Gu Jahwang to meet him.

“How foolish. To dare to clash with me head-on.”

Gu Jahwang cried out in delight.

He thought that while an ambush was one thing, he would be much more advantageous in a direct confrontation.

‘I’ll crush you into minced meat.’

Just before colliding with Pyo Wol, his body began to rotate.

Starting from his ankles, his waist turned, and his shoulders followed.

It was the Spinning Silk Force, a technique that maximized destructive power by momentarily rotating the torso like a top.

The two men clashed.

“……”

In that moment, Gu Jahwang realized something was wrong.

He felt no repulsive force from Pyo Wol’s body, which should have been sent flying by his Spinning Silk Force.

Instead, Pyo Wol’s form vanished like a Mirage.

‘An illusion? Then where is he?’

Gu Jahwang’s eyes widened.

An illusion that completely deceived his senses?

It was an impossible thing.

His senses were not that sloppy. But such a thing had actually happened.

Pyo Wol had unfolded the Devil Shadow Illusion Guard and completely deceived his senses.

It was then.

Sssk!

He felt an unfamiliar touch on both his shoulders.

When he turned his head to look, he saw unfamiliar feet.

Pyo Wol had landed on his shoulders.

Gu Jahwang tried to swing his fist to strike Pyo Wol who had landed on his shoulders. But at that moment, he felt a strange sensation on his neck.

‘A Qi Thread?’

Gu Jahwang realized that it was the thread of Qi that had snatched his subordinates.

He tensed his neck and shouted.

“Do you think you can harm me with just that?”

Thud!

In an instant, his head separated from his body and flew through the air.

What Pyo Wol had unleashed was not the Soul Restraining Thread, but the Silken Serpent Strong Energy.

The thread of death made of Gang Qi had severed his flesh and bone.