That Difficult Thing? I Pull It Off

A sudden chill ran down my back, so I ducked. The meteor hammer came hurtling in from above while the chain sickle rushed wildly at me from the right.

I kicked off the ground and sprang into the air, avoiding the chains as they advanced like a pair of serpents.

Using the fleeting moment I’d bought with that dodge, I poured internal energy into the Nameless Sword at my waist and unleashed One Flash the instant I drew it.

The long streak of gray sword qi carved through the ceiling and floor as it flew forward……only to be stopped by the swords thrust out by men appearing from all directions.

Naturally, the sword-wielding men were the Gang Leaders under the Black Serpent Gate. The flush of alcohol had already vanished from their faces, leaving them with their usual complexions.

As the standoff continued for a moment……the Black Serpent Gate Master’s vile laughter came from somewhere in the distance.

“……The Bloodland Assassin Guild was taking so damn long that I decided to make my move first. I never imagined they’d already failed. That was my mistake.”

I crossed my arms and graciously agreed with him.

“Now that I look at you, you’re surprisingly good at judging yourself objectively. Looks like you tried using that head of yours, only to make a stupid-ass mistake like this. You pathetic piece of trash. Hahahaha.”
“……”
“What’s with the glare……? Fix that look in your eyes before I turn you into snake liquor.”

As my provocations came at him like a storm, the Black Serpent Gate Master’s expression twisted.

A breath later, the Gang Leaders exchanged glances and charged at me with fierce momentum.

Shwaaaaaang!

The instant I saw the Gang Leaders shoot toward me like arrows, I took one step back and swung my sword twice, unleashing sword qi in the shape of a cross.

The middle-aged Gang Leaders barely avoided the sword qi, then came charging from both the left and right with their swords poised to thrust.

They were fairly good at coordinated attacks. I’d felt something similar when fighting the Heavy Serpent and Long Serpent Gang Leaders, and now it seemed these Gang Leaders had all learned a reasonably advanced method of fighting together.

They weren’t at the level of third-rate Black Path martial artists. Where the hell had bastards like these learned martial arts that were so far above their station?

Truthfully, I could have simply beaten the hell out of all of them, but I couldn’t do that so easily.
The fact that the wooden doors had been replaced with iron meant this entire main hall was already one enormous mechanical formation, and there was no telling what other traps might be hidden inside.

So for now, I planned to pretend I was being pushed back while fighting and work my way out of the main hall.

I reflexively darted my eyes around to check the Gang Leaders’ positions, then slipped inside the guard of the Insect Serpent Gang Leader, who was charging at me the slowest, and swung my sword horizontally.

Shiiiiing!

The startled Insect Serpent Gang Leader instinctively leaned backward. At that exact moment, I thrust out my right palm and unleashed palm force into his abdomen.

As expected, the Insect Serpent Gang Leader couldn’t withstand the palm force. He flew away like a bee and embedded himself in the wall like a butterfly. Of course, I had no idea what a butterfly embedded in a wall was supposed to look like.

Mindful of traps that could spring out from anywhere, I continued blocking the Gang Leaders’ swords while retreating.

I wondered what the Black Serpent Gate Master was doing through all this and glanced over. The bastard was watching us with a smug grin, apparently having the time of his life.

Suddenly, a silver longsword came dangerously close to my face.

“You bastard……you’re looking away?”

Our dear Gang Leader seemed quite angry. And when someone was angry, it was only proper to apologize.

“Sorry, you son of a bitch. Happy now? Come at me.”
“You bastard!”

Puaak!

The instant the Dragon Serpent Gang Leader let his emotions make his movements too wide, I sprang into the air with my sword in hand, spun my body once, and cut through both his neck and the neck of the Gang Leader behind him.

The instant their heads fell, red blood erupted like waterfalls. In the blink of an eye, the number of dead bastards had risen to three.

While the Gang Leaders were shaken, I needed to take out at least one more.

The instant I landed, I grabbed the head of the Gang Leader to my right and hurled him straight toward the iron doors with all my strength.

Before he had any chance to react, the Gang Leader’s body smashed horribly against the solid iron doors……. There were now more Gang Leaders in the next world than there were still breathing.

Covered in blood like an evil rakshasa, I slowly looked over the faces of the remaining Gang Leaders.

They were still pointing their swords at me, but there was no longer any fighting spirit in their expressions.

Truthfully, besides verbal sparring, I possessed all sorts of ultimate techniques I could unleash with my tongue, such as sowing discord, threats, lies, and plenty more besides.

The Gang Leaders’ morale was dropping before my very eyes, so now was the perfect time to use one of those techniques: sowing discord.

Falling morale was best shaken even harder. I pointed at the Black Serpent Gate Master, who was watching everything like a king who had sent his soldiers onto the battlefield.

“……Black Serpent Gate Master. What the hell is this bullshit? Stop sending your subordinates to their deaths and fight me one-on-one in a life-and-death duel. If you’re a real man, that’s what you should do. What meaning is there in all these pointless deaths?”

I didn’t feel the slightest sympathy over the Gang Leaders’ deaths, but that didn’t mean the Black Serpent Gate Master had the right to use them as sword fodder.

When I pressed him for an answer, one of the Gang Leaders cautiously addressed the now-serious Black Serpent Gate Master.

“……What are you going to do?”

It was phrased as a question, but the meaning underneath sounded more like a request for him to fight me one-on-one.

The Black Serpent Gate Master’s smug grin had vanished entirely. He glared at me with a face darker than ever and let out a heavy sigh.

“……Shut up. You bastards are in the way.”
“Sect Master?”

Puaaaak! Puak!

Suddenly, the Black Serpent Gate Master spun his body. Pitch-black chains shot from both arms with a rattle and swept toward the three surviving Gang Leaders.

It was difficult to believe even though I was watching it with my own eyes.

The meteor hammer flew out and smashed apart the heads of two Gang Leaders, while the chain sickle pierced straight through the last man’s chest before he could even understand what was happening.

Once every Gang Leader had met a gruesome death in his own way, the main hall held a sea of blood, fountains of blood, pools of blood. And standing like demons amid that blood-soaked hell were the Black Serpent Gate Master and me.

“What a fucking lunatic.”

Seeing him now, the Black Serpent Gate Master was quite the madman and villain himself.

How many Sect Masters could slaughter the subordinates who trusted and followed them without even the slightest hesitation?

A bastard like this was simply an idiot. An idiot drunk on his own arrogance, acting as though he were something special. And as usual, the evil deeds of an idiot were more than enough to stir my anger.

Shwaaaaaaaaaak!

The Black Serpent Gate Master swung his arms fiercely once more. The meteor hammer and chain sickle shot out like a gale, bounced off the walls, then changed direction again and again as they came for my neck.

But I wasn’t some pushover idiot.

I calmly tracked the positions of both chains, and the instant they bounced off the walls again, I predicted where they would go next and swung my sword at the exact angle.

Chaaaaaang!

The two chains struck by the Nameless Sword were slammed down onto the floor.

Truthfully, there weren’t many experts in the Kangho who used chains. They were simply far too difficult to master compared to other weapons.

Naturally, the rarity of martial artists who used chains also meant there were few established ways to counter them.

That was also why facing a chain-wielding expert was so damn difficult. Most people simply weren’t accustomed to fighting one.

‘And that difficult thing? I pull it off.’

Of course, that didn’t apply to me. In my previous life, I’d already fought chain-wielding experts so many times I was sick of them.

My body already remembered how to defeat chains with a sword.

As I gripped my sword again, the meteor hammer and chain sickle once more traced twisting curves before suddenly straightening and rushing toward me.

Holding my sword vertically, I faced the barrage of chains.

Was it just my imagination that the chains flying in from different directions looked like black serpents, tightening their coils as they closed in on me?

Either way, I smiled through my anger and brought the Nameless Sword straight down.

I’d failed to finish even Gongson Han’s stir-fried bok choy, and now I was fighting without having eaten a proper meal here either. Hunger and irritation came surging over me all over again.

‘Ah, damn it.’

Was I irritated because I was hungry, or hungry because I was irritated?

Either way, the two great desires known as sleep and appetite were more than enough to produce the emotion called anger.

With desire and emotion all mixed together, I swung my sword……then spun all the way around and knocked aside the black chain sickle flying in from behind with my left palm.

Thud!

My palm force knocked the chain sickle quite a distance away, but even then there was no time to rest.

Whenever I knocked away the chain sickle, the meteor hammer came flying in before I could counterattack. Whenever I deflected the meteor hammer, the chain sickle surged viciously upward with every intention of cutting off my head.

The two chains kept coming at me with a subtle delay between them, keeping my hands and feet rather busy.

Suddenly, the Black Serpent Gate Master’s hand movements shifted ever so slightly, and this time the meteor hammer and chain sickle came at me simultaneously along bizarre trajectories.

Shwaaaaaaaaang!

I leapt low into the air and sent a sword wind forward, then pushed off the ground the instant I landed and retreated.

‘Goddamned bastard, seriously…….’

The curse slipped out before I knew it.

In the end, I chose strategic evasion over attacking.

I rolled toward a corner of the main hall to avoid the chain sickle, hurled pieces of the shattered table like hidden weapons to block the Black Serpent Gate Master’s vision, and flung several empty plates to create distance. In short, I shamelessly ran around while watching how things developed.

When I continued doing nothing but running away, the Black Serpent Gate Master let out a low chuckle.

“……Sect Master, this is awfully pathetic compared to all that boasting. Is running away part of your plan too?”

I knocked aside the meteor hammer and chain sickle, which came at me along twisting paths like rolling waves, with a single sword strike and shamelessly replied.

“That’s right. This is all strategic retreat. Not that a bastard who only knows how to send his subordinates to their deaths would understand. You stupid snake bastard with a skull that probably rings nice and clear when you hit it.”
“……That’s more like it. I’ll make sure to repay you for all that trash talk today.”

The two chains came flying at me with an even more vicious momentum.

I ran around the main hall as though making a full circuit of it, and whenever a chill ran down my back, I turned and unleashed One Flash.

As expected, the gray sword qi never even reached the Black Serpent Gate Master’s face before the long chain sickle tore it apart.

At that moment, something clicked near the corners of the main hall’s ceiling, and several long steel needles shot out from every direction like arrows.

Shwaak! Kang!

In that fleeting instant, I used the principles of the Iron Sword to spread the sword force wrapped around the Nameless Sword in every direction, forming a defensive barrier.

As the gray sword curtain spread through the center of the main hall and easily blocked the flying blades, a curse escaped me.

“……You really went and filled a perfectly good main hall with every kind of bullshit imaginable. What did this nice place ever do to deserve that?”

When I looked up, I saw holes bored into every elaborate decoration along the ceiling. I’d thought the decorations were excessively flashy, but apparently they’d been part of the mechanisms from the very beginning.

My deduction had proven correct once again. I’d been fighting cautiously because I suspected there were hidden traps, and sure enough, this shitty place was full of them.

At that moment, the floor split open to either side with a heavy clunk.

‘What the hell…….’

Utterly dumbfounded, I leapt into the air, landed on a section of intact floor, then immediately sprang back up again when the meteor hammer and chain sickle gave me their enthusiastic welcome.

Until a moment ago, the only things coming at me had been the meteor hammer and chain sickle. Now the situation was a little different.

Now I had to deal simultaneously with steel needles flying from all over the ceiling, poisoned daggers, floor traps, hunger, drowsiness, and plenty more besides, so I was getting a little irritated.

If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve eaten a proper meal before coming.

People always repeated the same regrets.

I used the shattered table as a foothold and launched myself upward, then turned and swung my sword, attempting a combination attack of sword wind and sword qi.

Sword wind and sword qi were different.

Unlike sword qi, which carried the clear offensive purpose of cutting an opponent’s body apart, sword wind was meant to obscure their vision, disrupt them, and create confusion.

All sorts of hidden weapons struck by the relatively wide-ranging sword wind fell from the air, but the sword qi failed to break through the two chains and scattered apart.

Suddenly, the walls to my left and right split open, and this time, to my disbelief, several flaming arrows shot toward me at gale-like speed.

Shwaaaaaang!

I dodged the flaming arrows on my right with a jerk of my head, then rapidly swung the Nameless Sword up, down, left, and right to knock away every flaming arrow from the left before roaring at the Black Serpent Gate Master.

“You scared the shit out of me, you bastard. You’re not just devious-looking. Everything you do is devious too. How the hell is even the way you fight perverted? Creepy.”

Sometimes after spouting something outrageous, even I was surprised by my own tongue. At this point, maybe the flaming arrows had landed on my mouth instead of the walls.

Well, if not, whatever.