Chapter 442

“Chilling.”

Ju Pyodu muttered, looking at Pyo Wol’s face.

He had pulled the hood of his Wind Cloak down, but he could still feel Pyo Wol’s cold, sunken gaze.

A gaze filled with madness would have been less frightening, but the eyes, devoid of any excitement, sent a chill down his spine.

Although he now worked as an Escort Chief for the Silver River Escort Agency, he was a Martial Artist seasoned on the battlefield.

He had been through countless harsh situations and navigated many deadly ones. But he could say with certainty that his heart had never pounded as fiercely as it did at this very moment.

As Pyo Wol drew closer, his face became clearer.

An otherworldly, ethereal face, so pale it seemed unreal.

Had they met anywhere else, it was a beautiful face that could have been mistaken for a woman’s. But in Ju Pyodu’s eyes, it looked more terrifying than any fiendish demon.

With that beautiful face, he had killed countless people.

Among those who died by his hand, few were less skilled than himself.

He was a man who truly suited the Alias of Reaper.

Shuuuu!

A single Silver Thread shot out from his hand.

It was a thread so fine it was almost invisible to the naked eye.

‘Is that the Reaper’s Signature Technique?’

He knew that Pyo Wol used the Soul Restraining Thread as his main weapon. Many of his comrades had already lost their lives to Pyo Wol’s Soul Restraining Thread.

It was Pyo Wol’s unique Special Technique, condensing Sword Qi or Blade Energy into a thin thread. He didn’t know how it was possible, but Pyo Wol used a skill unimaginable to ordinary people as if it were nothing.

Whir!

The Silver Thread wrapped around his body.

Still, Ju Pyodu did not resist.

At the flick of Pyo Wol’s finger, his body lifted into the air and was pulled along.

Kwadangtang!

His body tumbled roughly before Pyo Wol.

Pyo Wol raised his foot and stomped hard on his chest.

For a moment, his breath caught, and his mouth fell open.

Pyo Wol, still pinning Ju Pyodu down, opened his mouth.

“Where are you moving the scriptures? Are you really taking them to New Moon Manor?”

“Kekek! What are you going to do with that information?”

Ju Pyodu let out a dark laugh and tightly gripped Pyo Wol’s foot on his chest.

The moment Pyo Wol’s brow furrowed, something burst from Ju Pyodu’s chest.

Poong!

Black smoke instantly scattered, enveloping both Pyo Wol and Ju Pyodu.

“Kuaaaargh!”

The moment the smoke touched his body, Ju Pyodu let out a desperate scream.

The black smoke that had engulfed them was a poison mist.

It was a potent poison Ju Pyodu had obtained from the natives when he was active in the Western Regions. When the poison mist touched the body, the flesh would melt away, and the bones would crumble in an instant.

One would die while vividly feeling a pain that was humanly unbearable throughout their entire body.

Ju Pyodu had used the poison on his enemies several times. So he knew how incredibly effective it was.

After returning to Jianghu, he had kept it hidden as his trump card.

He carried it with him for the purpose of taking his enemy down with him in a worst-case scenario he couldn’t handle.

Amidst the pain of his flesh and bones melting, Ju Pyodu shouted.

“We’re going together, Reaper!”

In an instant, the flesh of his face rotted away, exposing the tissue beneath. Yet, he glared, his eyes wide open, and held tightly onto Pyo Wol’s ankle.

The longer he held on, the more the poison mist would seep into Pyo Wol’s body.

It was then.

Suddenly, a snake with a horn on its head poked its head out from Pyo Wol’s robes.

In his agony, Ju Pyodu thought he was hallucinating.

The snake flicked its tongue, as if tasting the poison mist, then opened its mouth wide. And it sucked in the poison mist.

Jwaaaak!

The poison mist was sucked into its mouth with a terrifying force, unbelievable for such a small snake.

The poison mist that had covered Pyo Wol vanished into the snake’s mouth in an instant.

Ju Pyodu’s body trembled, his eyes wide with shock.

“In, insane… How can a mere creature…”

The small snake flicked its tongue as if satisfied with the poison mist, then retreated back into Pyo Wol’s robes.

The snake was Ghost Fang.

To Ghost Fang, poison was a delicacy.

The rarer the poison, the more of a delicacy it felt.

“What… in… the… world…”

Those were Ju Pyodu’s last words to the world.

His body instantly melted away, becoming a pool of blood.

Pyo Wol averted his gaze from Ju Pyodu and looked at the river.

In the brief moment his ankle had been caught by Ju Pyodu, the boat had moved even farther away.

An ordinary person would have lost heart and given up by now, but Pyo Wol was different.

He had no intention of ever giving up the chase.

Even if it meant tracking them for over a thousand li.

Pyo Wol’s pursuit continued.

＊＊＊

In the middle of the ruined Snow Cloud Stronghold stood Guian.

The sight of the completely burned-down Snow Cloud Stronghold was desolate beyond words.

To make matters worse, a heavy rain had fallen, leaving the Snow Cloud Stronghold even more tragically destroyed.

Guian had collected the bodies of all the people who had lived in the Snow Cloud Stronghold.

He took special care in burying the bodies of Yu Gicheon and Woo Jang-rak.

Guian muttered to himself in the middle of the Snow Cloud Stronghold.

“Why did he go to such lengths? To risk something like this for mere scriptures…”

It was something Guian couldn’t comprehend with his common sense.

No matter how precious the Buddhist scriptures from the Western Regions were, they were still just scriptures.

They weren’t Martial Arts Manuals with hidden Martial Arts, so unless it was a Buddhist sect like the Shaolin Temple, they wouldn’t be valued highly.

“Did he really do this just to donate them to a temple?”

Guian shook his head.

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t accept it.

There was clearly another reason hidden.

Guian carefully examined the inside of the Snow Cloud Stronghold.

Everything had been burned, and nothing remained, but Guian did not give up.

As he sifted through the charred debris, his body became covered in soot. Still, Guian steadfastly searched the wreckage.

“Huh?”

Guian’s eyes lit up as he pushed aside the debris.

An underground space hidden beneath the wreckage had been revealed.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Guian entered the underground area.

Unlike the completely burned ground level, the underground space was only scorched black near the entrance, while the inside was intact.

“So this was the place.”

Guian realized this was where the scriptures had been kept.

Papers with commentaries interpreting the scriptures were posted on the walls.

One side of a bookshelf was empty, which must have been where the Original Buddhist Scriptures were shelved.

Whenever Yu Gicheon had time, he would come here, open the scriptures, and interpret them in his own way.

Like many successful people, he too wanted to leave behind a meaningful legacy. The annotated version of the Original Buddhist Scripture was just that.

So whenever he had time, he would come down here and interpret the scriptures bit by bit.

Fortunately, the people from Shaolin Temple were late in coming to collect the scriptures, so he could interpret them at a more leisurely pace.

Guian carefully examined the contents of Yu Gicheon’s interpretations.

As he looked for a while, a strange light flickered in his eyes.

It wasn’t a passage interpreting the scriptures, but a personal reflection written by Yu Gicheon.

[As I read the scriptures, I felt the fire in my heart subside. No matter how full of madness a person is, their mind will naturally be purified by reading these scriptures.]

‘Purification of madness?’

Guian muttered, rubbing his chin with his hand.

He could have just ignored it, but strangely, it bothered him.

“Could it be that the scriptures were needed to control someone’s madness?”

It was just a guess for now.

Guian felt the need to investigate a little more closely.

He came outside, trying to sort out his complicated thoughts.

It was then.

Fwip!

With a fierce flapping of wings, a Letter Hawk flew onto his forearm.

It was the same Letter Hawk he had sent to Pyo Wol.

Tied to the Letter Hawk’s leg was a letter from Pyo Wol.

After reading the entire letter, Guian muttered.

“The ones my brother is tracking are more likely to have the Original Buddhist Scripture. In that case, it would be better to send Eun-yo and Yeon-san to where my brother is.”

Guian immediately returned to Red Pine Manor and began writing a letter to send to Eun-yo and Do Yeon-san.

After tying the note to its leg, he whispered to the Letter Hawk.

“You know Eun-yo, right? You’re going to Eun-yo.”

The Letter Hawk moved its head up and down as if it understood his words.

Guian sent the Letter Hawk flying.

After circling above Red Pine Manor for a moment, the Letter Hawk flew toward the southern sky at a terrifying speed.

Though left alone, Guian had no time to rest.

“I’ll have to cooperate with the Hao Clan on this one.”

Once he left Sichuan Province, Guian’s information network would lose its power.

Now was the time when he needed the Hao Clan’s strength.

＊＊＊

Pyo Wol raced through a nameless mountain.

A river does not flow in a straight line. It might detour around a mountain or meander back and forth across a vast plain.

The mountain Pyo Wol was currently running through was such a place.

The boat carrying the Silver River Escort Agency’s Martial Artists was circling the mountain Pyo Wol was currently traversing.

It was an environment where he could no longer run along the riverbank as before. So Pyo Wol chose to cut across the mountain.

He had already been running for a full day without rest.

He couldn’t afford to take a break.

If he rested for even a moment, the boat would disappear from his sight.

A river never flows in a single stream.

Tributaries appear, and it connects to smaller rivers.

If it disappeared into another tributary while out of sight, finding it again would be a distant prospect.

Because of this, Pyo Wol had no choice but to run without rest.

No matter how profound Pyo Wol’s Martial Arts were, running for a whole day without rest was not easy. But Pyo Wol ran on without a single change in his expression.

Pat!

As he broke through the undergrowth, a wide-open space appeared as if by magic.

The boat carrying the Silver River Escort Agency’s Martial Artists was entering the river channel that cut across the open space.

For a moment, a strange light flickered in Pyo Wol’s eyes.

In the distance, he could see a section where the river narrowed.

‘This is the last chance.’

No matter how good his stamina was, he couldn’t just chase a boat for days on end. As he was human, he too would eventually reach his limit.

He had to catch up before he reached his limit.

The narrowing section of the river visible in the distance was his only chance to get on the boat.

Pyo Wol drew upon his Internal Power and unleashed his Lightness Art.

The sandy beach ended, and a field of reeds blocked his path.

Pyo Wol simply ran on top of the reed leaves.

He was performing the Grass Glider.

Pyo Wol had never learned any special Lightness Art before. But as he sprinted with all his might to chase the boat, he had naturally mastered it.

Papat!

The reeds bent gracefully. But not a single reed broke. It was because Pyo Wol had exquisitely controlled his power.

As if they had seen Pyo Wol performing the Grass Glider, people on the boat’s deck could be seen moving about busily.

Pyo Wol increased his speed.

The boat was now entering the area where the river narrowed.

He had to catch up before it passed through.

“Haat!”

Pyo Wol let out a sharp cry, kicked off the last reed leaf, and soared into the air.

When he reached the peak of his jump, Pyo Wol executed the Bow Body Spring Shadow.

His waist bent like a bow, and then, using the elasticity, he shot forward like an arrow. But there was still a considerable distance to the boat.

At that moment, Pyo Wol unleashed his Soul Restraining Thread.

Whir!

The Soul Restraining Thread wrapped around the mast.

When Pyo Wol yanked his arm, his body flew toward the boat.

“That bastard!”

“Stop him!”

The Martial Artists who saw Pyo Wol flying toward them were startled and drew their swords.

They unleashed their Special Techniques toward Pyo Wol as he landed on the deck.

The entire deck was covered in sword shadows.

Shwishwishwik!

Dozens of sword shadows slashed Pyo Wol to pieces.

“We got him.”

“We caught him.”

The Martial Artists who had attacked Pyo Wol wore expressions of ecstasy.

It seemed as if Pyo Wol had been torn into dozens of pieces by their swords.

But the next moment, a look of horror appeared on their faces.

Pyo Wol’s mangled body had vanished from before their eyes.

“Wha, what?”

“A Phantom?”

Ssssk!

At that moment, Pyo Wol landed silently behind them.