The Unforgivable Ones (2)

“Should I say I’m glad to see you again?”

Neung Je-gang said as he looked at So-hee.

“Hohoho! Glad to see me again? And you can still say that after seeing the Eastern Depot Director dead?”

“Do you not realize that because of what you did, the Chancellor is finished? Now he will become the ringleader of the entire affair and die for it. And of course, the idea of Taepyeong Church being formally recognized will end as nothing but a futile delusion.”

“Hhk! How did you know that name…?”

“Would you believe me if I told you I was right there that day when the Chancellor’s faction ministers gathered and met you? I heard it there. That the Necromancer Cult was the Taepyeong Church. The place where I wrung information out of you was the very building you were always staying in. And yet you hounded only the ministers in some ridiculous direction.”

In that instant, flames flickered in the Chancellor’s eyes as he stared at So-hee.

“It all went to ruin because of you. This wasn’t what I wanted.”

“Shut up. I’m regretting ever joining hands with a loudmouth like you too, so don’t get on my nerves.”

So-hee shot the Chancellor a chilling glare, then turned her head toward the four burly men.

“All you have to do is kill that one. Be careful. Hwang Dong-ryeong’s First, Second, and Third Branch Masters—and all their men—died by that bastard’s hand.”

“Do not worry. Are you comparing our Hyeonok Territory to Hwang Dong-ryeong?”

“Hohohoho! No. How could that be? Still, it’s the Church’s business, so I’m only telling you to do your utmost.”

After saying that, So-hee held onto the Chancellor and went down from the pavilion, heading for the building where she had been staying.

“Are you running away?”

Neung Je-gang shouted after her.

“Hohoho! If you survive there, I’ll acknowledge you—but you’re not someone worthy of making me run away yet. Hohoho!”

“Do you know Hwangbo Chu?”

Halt.

So-hee, who had looked as if she did not care in the least about an Eastern Depot attack, suddenly stopped. Her laughter vanished.

She turned back toward Neung Je-gang and asked in a rush.

“How do you know my senior brother?”

“So he was your senior brother? He was a man too good to rot within the Necromancer Cult.”

“What happened to him?”

“Isn’t it obvious, seeing that I’m alive? While you were killing the Director, I was fighting him.”

“Are you saying he died?”

“I buried him together with his sword.”

“You bastard!”

So-hee had meant to leave the handling to the four burly men and withdraw with the Chancellor, but at the name Hwangbo Chu, she completely lost her reason.

“I’ll kill you.”

The hem of the clothes she wore convulsed and snapped upright.

Whish—whish—whish.

Every time she swung her arms, blade-like wind rose and swept over Neung Je-gang.

Puaaak!

Her attack shattered to pieces against Neung Je-gang’s counterstrike, which began with a tearing shockwave that ripped the air apart.

“That isn’t the end, you bastard!”

Neung Je-gang’s gaze snapped around. A single long, silvery line claimed the air and flew in, razor-sharp. It seemed to be made of Heaven-Silk Fiber as well, billowing in midair and repeatedly stabbing with a sharp thrusting motion.

“Uhahaha! I’m here too.”

At last, the four burly men joined the fight. From the hand of the one wielding a massive saber, the blade shot out.

Paaat!

The distance was short, and the saber’s flight was dazzlingly fast.

“Sword-control?”

Neung Je-gang was startled. After seeing the Black Cloud Demon’s sword-control, he was seeing sword-control once again.

Neung Je-gang could do no more than evade without counterattacking.

But he did not simply evade. The place he threw himself toward was So-hee’s side.

He grabbed the stiffened hem of So-hee’s clothes and hurled her toward the path of the burly man’s flying saber.

“Damn!”

The burly man panicked and snatched at it. The flying saber changed direction as if something had yanked it, and it lost power.

The burly man, who had almost killed So-hee, let out a relieved breath. He flung both hands up into the air. The saber that seemed about to drop to the ground rose back into the air.

“Take this!”

Thud.

The burly man kicked the saber.

Shiiiik.

The saber shot toward Neung Je-gang’s legs.

Neung Je-gang flung himself toward So-hee again.

“You bastard!”

Jjajajajak!

A crackling sound like lightning came from So-hee’s two hands. Her sharp hems fluttered as several strands of Heaven-Silk Fiber burst forth toward Neung Je-gang as he rushed in.

Sasak.

Neung Je-gang dipped his body forward, slipped past So-hee’s attack, and swung around to the side.

Chiiik.

At that moment, the massive saber flew toward So-hee again.

“Ah—!”

The burly man cried out in shock, but would it be any less so for So-hee?

“Aah!”

Screeech.

So-hee barely sprang away to avoid it, and the saber tore a long rip through her skirt as it circled in the air and returned to the burly man’s hand.

In that opening, Neung Je-gang found a little breathing room. With the massive saber flying all over the air, he had been so startled, thinking it was sword-control.

“Hmph. Now that I look, it’s a trick.”

It was not sword-control at all—just a weapon made to move by being threaded on an even thinner line than Heaven-Silk Fiber.

“A trick, you bastard? This is called the Silk Sword Technique.”

At the word “trick,” the burly man with the massive saber, looking furious, hurled it once more.

“If it’s thread, I’ve got some too.”

Neung Je-gang pulled Heaven-Silk Fiber from inside his robe in that moment. Though he had to keep tying it in the middle to use it, it was Heaven-Silk Fiber all the same.

“I’ll erase that bastard myself!”

It was So-hee. She was no longer agitated. She had surrendered to a momentary rage upon hearing of Hwangbo Chu’s death, but she quickly regained her cool reason.

Still, she did not want to entrust Neung Je-gang’s life to anyone else.

“Let’s do it together. This time, let’s both be careful.”

The burly man with the massive saber faced So-hee across Neung Je-gang. So-hee’s sleeves turned stiff.

This time the burly man gripped the massive saber with both hands and aimed it at Neung Je-gang. Perhaps because he had nearly injured So-hee twice, he did not seem inclined to throw it again.

But that was unknowable. That bizarre weapon could be thrown at any time, at any moment.

So-hee and the burly man closed the distance toward Neung Je-gang, one step at a time.

Neung Je-gang put the Heaven-Silk Fiber away again. If So-hee and the burly man did not attack using it, he had no need to use it either.

Srrk.

The Mindless Sword slid just slightly out of its scabbard. After being badly handled by Hwangbo Chu, Neung Je-gang intended to avoid using the Zhu Rong Great-Heaven Sword if possible. Even so, no matter the fight, one must give one’s utmost—power gathered into the hand that lightly gripped the hilt.

In that state, Neung Je-gang waited for their attack.

Ssssk.

At last, So-hee attacked first. She slid in as if gliding over the ground and slashed both sleeves fiercely in crisscrossing lines.

At the same time, the burly man with the massive saber moved as well. In a posture that cleaved in two, he smashed down toward Neung Je-gang’s back as if to carve him into pieces.

Papapapat!

Sharp force poured from So-hee’s sleeves, surging as if to mince Neung Je-gang’s body. In that instant, something like a hazy mist rose from Neung Je-gang’s body.

“Ugh! A protective qi aura.”

The cry burst from the other three burly men watching.

Ttadang-ttang.

Neung Je-gang’s body suddenly sprang back as if he had teleported. The force So-hee had sent flying from the front bounced off the hazy qi barrier and flew away.

Tap.

“Aah!”

The burly man with the massive saber sensed something going wrong the moment Neung Je-gang sprang backward. He let go of the saber and threw a heavy punch toward Neung Je-gang’s back.

Because Neung Je-gang had stuck too close to him, the massive saber became an obstruction instead.

Ppeopeong.

His fist struck Neung Je-gang’s qi barrier. The punch was so powerful that Neung Je-gang’s body almost sprang forward again.

Spat.

That was the moment. Neung Je-gang rotated his body and swung the Mindless Sword. The fast-blade art of Heartless Severance unfolded.

Chwaaak!

“Uwaaak!”

The burly man staggered backward. Blood ran in a thin stream down his chest.

But he did not die. He was bleeding, yet normally Neung Je-gang’s strike should have split him apart.

“Was it Iron-Cloth Robe?”

Neung Je-gang muttered.

At his words, the burly man bristled.

“No, you bastard! It’s Luohan Qigong. How dare you compare my Luohan Qigong to something like Iron-Cloth Robe.”

“Whether it’s Iron-Cloth Robe or Luohan Qigong, dying next time is the same.”

Neung Je-gang let the Mindless Sword hang toward the ground. Along the blade, the blood that had clung while slicing the burly man’s flesh dripped little by little.

He had survived only because the attack had been pure swordplay—if Neung Je-gang had even used blade qi, even someone trained in Luohan Qigong would have had no way to live.

“Hey! Friends—help me!”

The burly man shouted toward the other three. It seemed he no longer had confidence in beating Neung Je-gang alone.

“No helping it. We can’t let a comrade die.”

“Yeah, even though we told you to throw away that thread nonsense and properly train your martial arts… tsk tsk tsk!”

The three burly men grumbled as they moved, taking positions to surround Neung Je-gang in a tightening encirclement.

“Why don’t you rest a bit, Lord?”

One of them said to So-hee.

“Fine.”

So-hee knew that even if she intervened, she would only hinder the four of them from passing their joint examination.

As she withdrew to one side and took her place, the Chancellor staggered over to stand beside her. Seeing Eastern Depot agents gathered at the entrance to the Inner Court, he had no choice but to cling to So-hee’s side to avoid being seized.

Neung Je-gang examined the three men closely with sharp eyes. On the left, a man stepped forward with both hands hidden in his sleeves. That kind of opponent was dangerous—since one could not tell what weapon he held, one could not afford even a moment’s carelessness.

In front stood the familiar burly man holding the massive saber. And on the right stood a burly man holding a pointed iron mace.

Neung Je-gang could not see it, but the burly man behind him had fingernails grown long and sharp like a bird’s beak. A bluish sheen at the tips made it seem he had coated them with extreme poison.

“You little bastard really are something. Even while inside the encirclement of four of us, you didn’t waver at all.”

“That’s why we said we had to catch and kill him.”

“How about it? Do you have no intention of devoting yourself to our Church? If you’re that capable, you could be promised a very high position within it.”

Of the four burly men, everyone except the one behind him talked an awful lot.

“Heh heh heh! Is the Necromancer Cult really such a great place, sending people like you out to die?”

“What?”

At Neung Je-gang’s words, they bristled.

“Enough meaningless wordplay—how about you come at me now?”

“Hahaha! Fine, fine. You’ve got nerve for someone who erased Hwang Dong-ryeong alone. But this is your end.”

Pahak.

It was that very instant. Neung Je-gang’s body suddenly sprang forward. A short, white flash blazed from the Mindless Sword—an intensely strong, brilliant light.

“W-what?! Why are you picking on me?!”

The burly man with the massive saber jumped. His eyes bulged at Neung Je-gang’s unexpected ambush.

But his response was fast and crisp. He bent his body backward as far as he could. It was the most effective reaction against Neung Je-gang’s swift sword.

Even so, he was a little late again. The skin of his forehead split slightly, and blood trickled down.

“Uaaagh!”

It was not fatal, but it was terrifying enough to feel like death. If he had moved even a little later, the cut to his forehead would have split his skull.

But his misfortune was not over yet. Neung Je-gang’s figure had closed in again, right before him. From the Mindless Sword rose a full span of calm, white sword radiance.

The attack from the burly man behind Neung Je-gang began at that very moment. He lightly tapped his instep and shot forward. The fingers of both hands seemed to lengthen by a full chi in an instant. Those blue-glinting nails flew toward Neung Je-gang’s back.

Neung Je-gang spun his body. Regrettably, it seemed he would have to let the saber man keep his life for now. Ten fingers drove into Neung Je-gang’s chest as he turned.

Neung Je-gang suddenly thrust out his left hand to meet those ten fingers. That hand was clenched into a tight fist.

At the same time, the Mindless Sword extended toward the burly man on the right. Before the sword could even reach him, the left fist and the ten fingers collided.

Udu-du-deok.

The burly man’s expression changed. He had thought Neung Je-gang was a madman for bringing a fist to his fingers, but the situation twisted in a completely different direction—his fingers were breaking.

Ureureureung.

The fist’s power did not stop there. A hazy current wrapped the fist, then shot straight forward with a thunderous roar.

With all his fingers broken, the clawed burly man had no way to stop it. He hurriedly brought both arms together in front of himself to protect his body.

Kwaang.

An explosive boom rang out.

“Kraaaak!”

His body flew away, its front almost entirely crushed beyond recognition.

“Jeong Yong!”

The saber man called his name as he caught the flying body, but there was no chance of life returning.

“Uraaagh, you bastard!”

The massive saber was hurled again with savage force.

Neung Je-gang stepped back several paces. With that heavy saber flying through the air, it was difficult to deal with. He could bat it aside with his sword, but since it was controlled by thread, touching it risked it bending at a completely unexpected angle and sweeping back in.

Moreover, the burly man on the left—who had remained still until now—began to move as well.

Papapapat!

From his hidden hand, eight lines of “earth wind” suddenly shot out. Silvery earth wind like ropes made of silver—those eight streams aimed for Neung Je-gang’s vital points across his entire body and shot in fast.

That was not all. The burly man holding the iron mace began his attack too.

Wiiiiiing.

The iron mace spun ferociously as it flew toward Neung Je-gang’s head—so violent a rotation that even a graze looked like it would tear away half a skull.