Chapter 395

Gwan Musu could not answer.

To his question, Pyo Wol answered with his actions.

By displaying his martial prowess, he had shown all under heaven that there was no reason for him to resort to ambushes.

There was no clearer proof than this.

Gwan Musu’s lips twitched several times. But in the end, his voice could not squeeze its way out.

“Keuk!”

He hung his head, only letting out ragged breaths.

Only then did Pyo Wol’s gaze turn to the other martial artists he had felled.

None of them were dead, but they were so horribly broken that death might have been a better fate.

Pyo Wol approached the man he had struck down last.

“Eugh!”

The man looked at Pyo Wol, his face filled with terror.

He wanted to run, but whatever Pyo Wol had done, he couldn’t move an inch.

Ssk!

At that moment, Pyo Wol drew the Ghostly Rain from his waist.

“D-Don’t come any closer!”

The man shouted desperately, but he could not stop Pyo Wol from approaching.

The man quickly looked around.

There were still many people around.

But the atmosphere was very different from before.

The madness that had heated Poyang Lake just moments ago was gone, and in its place, a suffocating silence had taken over the street.

The eyes of the people looking at Pyo Wol were filled with fear. They watched him, hardly daring to breathe loudly.

It was no longer an atmosphere where a few words and the act of throwing a stone could incite mob violence.

The countless people on the street were crushed by the aura of Pyo Wol alone.

Gulp!

It was so quiet that the sound of someone swallowing dryly seemed as loud as thunder.

In that state, Pyo Wol opened his mouth.

“It’s people like you who are the problem.”

“W-What?”

“You incite people, and when it comes to the critical moment, you always slink to the back.”

“It’s a mis…understanding. I can explain everything.”

“Then explain. In a way I can understand.”

“Well…”

The man desperately racked his brain. But his mind had gone white, and he couldn’t think of anything.

Pyo Wol knelt on one knee to meet his gaze.

“I’m listening. Speak!”

“W-Well… that is…”

“Why can’t you explain? You were chattering so well just now, even throwing stones…”

“Heeuk! I-I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. I have no intention of accepting it.”

Pyo Wol lightly drew the Ghostly Rain across the back of the man’s hand.

The man shuddered at the feeling of cold metal grazing his skin. He, too, was a martial artist who had learned martial arts.

He wasn’t a renowned Expert in Jianghu, but he prided himself on being quite resolute. That was why he had been able to do such a thing.

He had thought that if the worst came to pass, he could certainly get himself out. But now he was keenly feeling how foolish that thought had been.

There was nothing he could do.

Puk!

Pyo Wol suddenly plunged the Ghostly Rain into the back of his hand.

The man’s face contorted in pain. But he was not even given the freedom to scream.

Before his eyes, Pyo Wol was slightly shaking his head.

It felt as if he meant he would kill him if he screamed.

The man desperately held back the scream that was about to burst out.

For a moment, a smile touched Pyo Wol’s lips.

Seeing him as if he were praising him for a job well done, the man was convinced his guess was correct.

Puk!

The Ghostly Rain pierced the back of his other hand.

‘Kkeueueu!’

The man clenched his teeth and held back a scream.

The fear that Pyo Wol would take his life if he let out even the slightest groan dominated him.

Pyo Wol took out another Ghostly Rain.

The Ghostly Rain hovered around his heart.

“Eueueu!”

The man’s body trembled as if he were having a seizure.

His body was reacting on its own to the fear of death.

Foam seeped from his lips.

The man was truly on the verge of going mad.

The unbearable terror had made him so.

The reality of not even being able to scream freely drove his mind further into a corner.

Snap!

At that moment, something inside his head broke.

“Eheheh!”

Suddenly, his expression slackened, and he let out a strange laugh.

The focus in his eyes had completely vanished.

“Is he mad?”

“He’s lost his mind.”

The people nearby recognized the man’s state at a glance.

He had gone mad, unable to overcome the extreme terror.

Pyo Wol retrieved the Ghostly Rain daggers embedded in the man’s hands.

“Eheheh!”

The man rubbed his blood-soaked hands on his face and continued to burst into laughter.

The sight of the properly mad man made the people on the street even more terrified.

Among them, the one trembling most in terror was Gwan Musu, who had so spiritedly attacked Pyo Wol.

He forgot even the thought of avenging the Seven Sages Scholar and stared blankly at Pyo Wol.

Only then did he regret not listening to the pleas of the Seven Sages Scholar’s disciples.

The man before his eyes had not obtained his grand alias through sheer luck.

He possessed the resolute character and skill to match it.

“Rea…per.”

The audacious alias felt as if it were only natural.

＊＊＊

“It’s over.”

Namgung Seol muttered.

She had watched the situation unfold from beginning to end.

She saw Gwan Musu, upon seeing the corpse of the Seven Sages Scholar, seek out Pyo Wol as if in a fit, and the crowd of heroes follow behind him.

Namgung Seol knew well how terrifying mob psychology was.

Individuals who were insignificant and weak on their own would lose all fear when they banded together, expressing a hatred bordering on madness.

Sometimes, such madness could even devour a first-rate expert of Jianghu.

Frankly, Namgung Seol had thought Pyo Wol would be somewhat affected by the madness.

No matter how much he was called the Reaper in Jianghu, she hadn’t thought he could quell the madness emitted by so many people.

The moment Pyo Wol succumbed to Gwan Musu’s pressure and made excuses, his authority would surely have been tarnished.

A crack would have appeared in the perfect image he had maintained until now. That alone would have been a great blow to Pyo Wol.

On the other hand, if he had mercilessly taken Gwan Musu’s life, he would have incurred the public wrath of Jianghu.

Even if Pyo Wol himself didn’t care, it would undoubtedly be a huge loss when considering his future moves.

Namgung Seol had planned to appear and offer help when Pyo Wol was at a loss, or when he was faced with a situation where he had to make an extreme choice.

She had intended to pull him to their side by placing him in her debt. But contrary to her calculations, Pyo Wol broke through the crisis on his own, without anyone’s help.

He hadn’t just overcome the crisis.

By completely controlling the situation, he had further solidified his own status.

Now, Pyo Wol had become an existence that could not be so easily touched.

It was an unwelcome situation for Namgung Seol.

She did not want Pyo Wol’s presence to grow any larger than this. Besides her, there were quite a few people in Jianghu who felt the same. And most of them were people with great ambitions.

Those with great ambitions do not welcome someone like Pyo Wol, who had suddenly popped out of nowhere.

The more a heterogeneous being like Pyo Wol gained fame, the narrower the scope of their own movement technique became.

Even Namgung Seol herself had no choice but to modify her plans at Poyang Lake to some extent because of the sudden appearance of Pyo Wol.

‘It won’t affect the grand scheme of things, but it’s true that he’s on my mind.’

Namgung Seol’s gaze on Pyo Wol grew even colder.

Still, it wasn’t as if there were no gains at all.

Thanks to Gwan Musu and the heroes stirring things up, she had come to clearly understand Pyo Wol’s disposition.

‘A man who must be eliminated if he stands on the opposite side.’

What was frightening about Pyo Wol was not just his martial arts.

More frightening than his martial arts was his mind.

Despite being given no information, Pyo Wol’s mind, which instinctively grasped the core of the problem and resolved it in the most advantageous way for himself, was truly something to be feared.

Although he didn’t seem to have the power to read the grand picture and grasp the tide of the times like she did, his momentary flashes of wit were enough to make her feel a sense of caution.

‘So that kind of man is attached to Wol?’

Now she understood Namgung Wol’s confidence to some extent.

Pyo Wol was a sharp flying dagger.

Its edge was honed so chillingly that it could cut a throat without a sound.

Possessing such a flying dagger was no different from having an extra life.

“Hmph!”

Namgung Seol stared intently at Pyo Wol.

It was then.

As if sensing her gaze, Pyo Wol turned his head and looked straight at her.

Their gazes met in mid-air.

A distance of several dozen zhang existed between them, but strangely, they could see each other’s eyes with clarity.

They soon discovered a commonality.

It was that they never revealed their inner thoughts.

Not even through their eyes, the so-called windows to the soul.

They thoroughly concealed their own inner thoughts and possessed an excellent talent for reading the minds of others. That was why they felt a sense of repulsion towards each other and erected barriers in their hearts.

They looked at each other for a while.

The one who turned her head first was Namgung Seol.

As she quietly stepped back, a martial artist approached her side. And he whispered something.

In an instant, a curve formed on Namgung Seol’s lips.

She nodded her head and replied.

“I understand. Tell them I’ll be there soon.”

“Yes!”

The martial artist made a fist-palm salute and disappeared.

Left alone, Namgung Seol once again looked toward where Pyo Wol had been. But his figure was nowhere to be seen, having disappeared at some point.

“Hmph!”

Namgung Seol let out a strange smile.

＊＊＊

There are people who instinctively evoke a sense of repulsion.

A person whom your emotions reject from the moment you see them, despite having no connection to you whatsoever.

To Pyo Wol, Namgung Seol was such a person.

It was only their second meeting.

And he had only seen her from afar. Yet, the reason he felt a repulsion so strong it could give him hives was perhaps because he smelled a scent similar to his own on her.

He had a premonition that he would continue to clash with Namgung Seol in the future.

Pyo Wol returned to the Southern Sky Inn.

The inn was a mess.

Many of its furnishings had been broken when Gwan Musu had let out his Lion’s Roar.

The inn owner and the waiter were diligently cleaning, but it was too much for them. Ever since Pyo Wol had stayed here, trouble had not ceased at the Southern Sky Inn. Perhaps because of that, the face of the Southern Sky Inn’s owner was filled with fatigue as he looked at Pyo Wol.

He was too scared of Pyo Wol to say anything, but his expression clearly said he wished he would just leave.

The Southern Sky Inn’s fame had risen with Pyo Wol’s stay, but conversely, there were many instances of damage.

When people like Gwan Musu came barging in and caused a ruckus, the inn owner had no way to stop them. But he was too afraid of Pyo Wol to ask him to leave the Southern Sky Inn.

In the end, the owner of the Southern Sky Inn could only look at Pyo Wol with the most pitiful expression he could muster.

Pyo Wol was not so shameless as to stay put after receiving such a look.

“I’ll move my lodgings today.”

“Pardon? You don’t have to do that…”

Pyo Wol threw a small wallet filled with silver taels to the inn owner, whose words trailed off.

“That should be enough to repair the broken inn.”

“Th-Thank you.”

The inn owner was moved as he received the wallet. But his eyes, as he looked at Pyo Wol, were still filled with fear.

He hadn’t become the public enemy of Jianghu, but a comparable level of fear had taken root in people’s hearts.