Chapter 66

The Three Calamities Sword Technique has three forms.

The first form, Heavenly Thunder, is, simply put, an obscenely powerful and fast slash.

The second form, Raging Wind, is a technique that unleashes a volley of sword winds.

If Heavenly Thunder is a one-on-one form, Raging Wind is meant for facing many opponents at once.

And the third form, Yin Fire.

I had never used the Yin Fire Sword since regression.

No — to be precise, it’s not that I didn’t use it; I couldn’t use it.

Strictly speaking, the Yin Fire Sword isn’t so much a sword technique as a method of qi cultivation.

It emits internal qi outward and dominates the surrounding space.

The expelled qi follows the nature of the user’s dantian; in my case, it took the form of mist.

Across past lives that mist had taken different shapes — sometimes a blood mist, sometimes a clinging fog.

The Yin Fire Sword had three constraints.

Because it expels qi to seize space, it consumes internal qi voraciously; with only a scrap of qi, it’s nearly impossible to deploy.

That’s why I couldn’t unfold the Yin Fire Sword until now — regression had drained nearly all my internal qi.

After taking the spiritual pill, I barely reached the level necessary to unfold the Yin Fire Sword.

Thanks, that bastard.

The next drawback of the Yin Fire Sword is that it requires time.

At higher levels one could discharge and reclaim qi instantly, but in my state that was impossible; I needed time — time to draw the enemies in.

And it only mattered if the enemies entered the Yin Fire Sword’s domain; while the Yin Fire was deployed, normal movement was impossible.

So I evacuated the manor’s retainers and ordered the External Protection Troops to hold at a distance.

I remained alone in the sprawling manor. That allowed me to lure the Golden Claw members, including that bastard, here.

Internal qi, time, and space — everything had to align for the Yin Fire Sword, the third form of the Three Calamities, to display its true power.

So what ability does a properly prepared Yin Fire Sword exert?

Exactly this.

The mist began to writhe.

It writhed like a coiling dragon, like a serpent thrashing beyond the fog.

The mist surrounding the Lonely Claw Troops began to move as if alive.

They realized something was wrong at once.

“Draw your weapons!”

Un Ji-kang wasn’t the only one who noticed the anomaly.

The Golden Claw members sensed it too and drew their Golden Claws.

“What the hell is this…?”

A moving mist — something none had seen or heard of.

Un Ji-kang looked at Yeon Mujin.

Yeon Mujin remained where he’d been, sword drawn and apparently defenseless.

“It’s a sorcery he cast on us! Attack the Captain of the External Protection Troops!”

There were many strange sorceries in the martial world.

The best way to deal with sorcery is to avoid it altogether; if afflicted, the next best option is to quickly find and eliminate the sorcerer.

Two Golden Claw members surged toward Yeon Mujin, swinging their claws.

Yeon Mujin didn’t respond — he simply watched.

Then.

Whoosh!

The Golden Claw members’ garments began to ignite at the seams.

“Aaaah!”

Panicked, they cried out and backed away.

“What’s happening!”

“There’s suddenly fire at our collars…”

An inexplicable flame opened a gap.

At that instant Yeon Mujin vanished into the mist.

Un Ji-kang’s brow narrowed.

‘Fire?’

That can’t be.

The mist was so thick — how could there suddenly be fire?

Only then did he suspect the true nature of the surrounding mist.

“It’s fire qi!”

“Huh?”

“He’s emitting fire energy — the entire mist is the fire qi he’s dispersed!”

Yeon Mujin hadn’t lied.

Yin Fire.

It was, as the name implied, a Yin — cold — fused with fire.

Un Ji-kang felt goosebumps crawl along his forearm.

Fire qi powerful enough to dominate such a wide area — what kind of sorcery could make this possible?

“Cheon Mok!”

“Yes, captain.”

“Call the members outside. From the outside, we must push the fire qi outward.”

Eon Cheon-mok sent a telepathic qi-message to the Golden Claw members as ordered.

But no one answered his call — they were only about ten meters away at most, and yet…

“They… are not responding.”

“Damn!”

To make matters worse, the surrounding mist was slowly burning their collars.

Like a fine rain soaking fabric, the cold flames slid in and consumed them.

“Everyone, perform the Golden Claw Wind technique!”

At Un Ji-kang’s order, the Golden Claw members executed the Golden Claw Wind in unison.

A massive gust began to form around them.

“The mist is receding!”

Un Ji-kang’s assessment was correct.

Within a radius of about one meter, the mist could no longer approach.

The Golden Claw members intensified their techniques.

“It’s a battle of internal qi. One enemy against five of us — if we hold, we win.”

A faint smile of victory curved Un Ji-kang’s lips.

But there was one thing they had overlooked.

From the start, Yeon Mujin hadn’t been targeting them.

“Commander, the mist is clearing!”

From the Lonely Claw Troops’ perspective, the mist thinned.

The gap in the mist widened.

From a gap of one meter to two, three… until the outside of the mist was visible as a pale haze.

Un Ji-kang let out a low laugh.

“Hahaha! You think you can face me with such crude sorcery?”

Then, in an instant, the mist lifted completely.

Yeon Mujin stood rooted in his original spot, staring at Un Ji-kang.

Un Ji-kang shouted triumphantly.

“Captain of the External Protection Troops, you may have prepared a trick, but it’s useless. Now accept your death meekly.”

Yeon Mujin looked visibly tired.

He said.

“Ji-kang… you still don’t understand the situation, do you?”

“What?”

“Look around yourself.”

Only then did the acrid smell of death crawl into Un Ji-kang’s nostrils.

There were corpses there.

The Golden Claw members watching from outside hadn’t failed to reply.

They simply couldn’t.

Eleven charred corpses greeted them around the cleared area.

“Un Gi-chang, Do Hyeok-gon, Gal Hyun-woo, Un Seog-yun, Un Gi-heon…”

Someone murmured in a dazed voice.

Un Ji-kang stared at his subordinates’ bodies as if stunned.

Each had been his loyal subordinate and family member — people who would one day help resurrect that bastard.

His life, his family, the blades he’d honed for decades — everything.

Un Ji-kang looked at Yeon Mujin and asked.

“Was this your doing?”

He spoke in a flat, emotionless tone.

But the Golden Claw members sensed that Un Ji-kang’s anger teetered on the edge of eruption.

Yet Yeon Mujin answered in the same flat tone as before.

“Of course it’s my doing. I burned eleven Golden Claw members in one move. I am a god of martial arts. How is that — are you afraid?”

The brazen tone sounded almost mocking.

Clang!

A blade sprang from Un Ji-kang’s sleeve.

It was the short blade — the symbol of the Lonely Claw Troops’ leader and Un Ji-kang’s notorious signature weapon.

His weapon finally revealed itself.

With an impassive face, Un Ji-kang looked at Yeon Mujin and said.

“My claw blade has never missed a target. I’ll chew you up piece by piece, you bastard.”

With those words, Un Ji-kang fully revealed his fury.

The smiling commander of Solitary Cloud Manor, who had been standing back, barked orders to the Lonely Claw Troops; the hidden mastermind lurking in the shadows was gone.

Only the bloodthirsty, vengeance-driven demon — the Red Ghost Un Ji-kang — remained.

And Yeon Mujin’s response was.

Heh heh heh.

Yeon Mujin laughed at him.

“…You laugh?”

His sorcery had ended — along with the deaths of eleven Golden Claw members.

He knew how to wield a blade, but he couldn’t possibly match me.

And yet Yeon Mujin was laughing.

Why on earth was he laughing?

“You bastard.”

Yeon Mujin called to him.

The voice sounded oddly familiar.

“How fitting. Same here. Whenever I drew my sword, I always killed someone. So then…”

Yeon Mujin drew out his words and lifted his sword.

“Let’s kill each other and see who survives.”

As those words fell, warriors appeared, stepping over the Golden Claw bodies.

Nine warriors from the External Protection Troops — those the Golden Claw had been searching for — stomped through the cold dawn dew, weapons in hand, shouting.

“External Protection Troops! Protect the captain!”

“Yes!”

Yang Gwan-wol’s shout was followed by Seo Nak-il’s cry.

“Let’s die and kill together!”

“Die and kill with us!”

“Kill the External Protection Troops. I’ll take on their captain.”

“Yes!”

At Un Ji-kang’s command, four Golden Claw members split off.

These four were the elite members trusted most by Un Ji-kang.

It was four versus nine, but they could not afford to lose.

As the Golden Claw members spread out, movement began among the External Protection Troops as well.

“On the left, the tallest two are Wei Gon-chan and Yu Se-gwang!”

“Yes!”

“On the right there’s a man with a scarred face. Warrior Ha and Chu Myung-won will take him!”

“Yes, deputy captain!”

“The third is the ugliest. Baek Yun-sang, Pyo Kang-hyeok — that’s your target!”

“Understood, deputy captain!”

The External Protection Troops scattered in perfect order, as if each already had an assigned opponent.

The Golden Claw members were puzzled.

‘Do they know us?’

That was impossible. Flying Swallow Manor couldn’t possibly have intel on Solitary Cloud Manor’s elite forces.

—Don’t be unsettled, the enemy is nothing more than Flying Swallow Manor.

Eon Cheon-mok sent a telepathic message to the Golden Claw members.

The enemy is at most Flying Swallow Manor’s External Protection Troops.

They were the dregs of dregs he’d never considered true rivals.

—Kill them all within one turn and return to the commander. Finish them as quickly as possible.

And Eon Cheon-mok’s plan shattered the moment the first clash occurred.

Clang!

The sounds of weapons colliding between the Golden Claw and the External Protection Troops rang out at once.

Cries erupted in the wake.

“Next is the left! Se-gwang, you go in!”

“Yes!”

Wei Gon-chan used the staff in his right hand to block a Golden Claw operative and thrust the other end to the left.

By sheer coincidence, it closed the opponent’s opening.

Chaeng!

The Golden Claw operative fighting Wei Gon-chan was thrown off.

‘What is this? A coincidence?’

It wasn’t a coincidence. The same thing was happening to the other three.

“Cover the rear!”

“Aim for the left chest!”

“This one’s lower body is weak!”

Shouts from the External Protection Troops erupted in succession.

The four elite Golden Claw members.

It was a situation that penetrated their forms, openings, and weaknesses before they could even fight.

Could they simply chalk up this inexplicable situation — incomprehensible to their minds — as mere coincidence?

“Aah!”

A scream erupted before even three moves had passed.

It wasn’t from an External Protection Troop member; it was from one of the Golden Claw members.

Eon Cheon-mok couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

The blade-wielders and spear-bearers blocking his way — Yang Gwan-wol and Seo Nak-il — even…

‘Laughing? Laughing in the face of the Lonely Claw Troops’ elite?’

“Remember the Captain’s words clearly! Everyone! These bastards are nothing!”

“Yes! Deputy captain!”