Blue-and-Red Twin Swords (2)

Beon Sacheong, the Serpent-Bending Swordsman and an elder of the Sucheon Association, was a pinnacle master who had surpassed seventy years of internal energy, the association’s third-highest-ranking figure, and the lord of the Outer Hall.

When he emerged after hearing the commotion, the sight that entered his eyes was Cha Hojung, captain of the Ferocious Bear Unit, losing consciousness and collapsing like a puppet.

“H-how can this be?!”

It was an utterly bewildering sight, but his response was swift.

He immediately issued an order to the guard who had followed him.

“Go at once and deploy the Ferocious Lion Unit and the Ferocious Wolf Unit! Immediately! And report this to the Association Leader at once!”

Then he drew his sword and approached the man and woman.

Numerous Outer Hall warriors had drawn their swords and were surrounding them, but now that the Ferocious Bear Unit had been destroyed by only two people, they did not seem likely to be of much help.

Beon Sacheong shouted.

“Who are you, and how dare you run rampant within our Sucheon Association?!”

The pale man and woman, wrapped entirely in blue and red, looked at Beon Sacheong with expressionless faces.

The man in blue spoke first.

“We are the Blue-and-Red Twin Swords! Where is Mak Ujeon, Sichuan’s greatest villain?!”

His sharp voice made it difficult to guess his age.

Beon Sacheong scowled fiercely and shouted.

“What nonsense are you spouting about the Association Leader?! How dare you call our Association Leader Sichuan’s greatest villain!”

At that moment, the man and woman burst into laughter.

“Kihahahahaha!”

“Ohohohohoho!”

Their strange laughter harmonized unnaturally and shook the very soul.

At that dreadful sound, the gathered warriors staggered and groaned.

Even Beon Sacheong could not endure it and frowned. The man in blue stopped laughing and spoke to him.

“You know very well why that bastard is Sichuan’s greatest villain, do you not?”

Beon Sacheong’s expression immediately stiffened.

Then he hurriedly shouted.

“Nonsense! What are you all doing?! Strike them down at once!”

The warriors who received his order charged toward the man and woman.

Beon Sacheong also pointed his sword at them and watched for an opportunity to attack.

“Haaaaap!”

“Die!”

“Huaaaaaap!”

Waves of swords surged in from every direction.

The man and woman once again clasped hands and began rotating like the Taiji symbol.

Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!

“Kheooogh!”

“Kuaaaagh!”

“Kuhugh!”

It was like a tornado.

A tornado that flung away everything that rushed toward it.

The red-and-blue Taiji-shaped tornado grew faster and faster as time passed.

Beon Sacheong’s expression became grave as he watched.

He had intended to attack when an opening appeared, but in that state, it seemed there would be no opening at all.

“You bastards!”

Unable to watch any longer, Beon Sacheong finally raised his sword and launched himself toward them.

“Huaaaaaap!”

With a shout, his sword scattered brilliant light and divided into several paths as it stabbed toward the man and woman.

Each path curved like a nimble serpent rather than traveling in a straight line—the supple sword form that had earned him the title Serpent-Bending Swordsman.

However, at that moment, the actions of the two people, who had seemed as though they would continue rotating forever, also changed.

The woman in red hurled the man in blue forward as though throwing him.

Whoosh!

The man shot forward and thrust his sword like a beam of light.

It was a sword form that disregarded defense, almost as though he intended mutual destruction.

Beon Sacheong flinched and had no choice but to switch to defense.

He had never expected his opponent to attack so recklessly.

“W-what?!”

However, the moment he swung his sword to knock away the opponent’s strike, Beon Sacheong realized his blade had cut through empty air.

He shouted with a horrified expression.

“A phantom sword?!”

The sword strike that had appeared suicidal was a deception.

At that same moment, the woman in red, who had switched places with the man, descended upon him.

Three sharp streams of sword qi.

It was a lightning-fast surprise attack aimed at his blind spot.

“Keugh!”

Beon Sacheong kicked off the ground with all his strength.

Completely caught in the enemy’s rhythm, he intended to retreat first.

However, when he moved backward, the woman in red truly hurled the man this time as though throwing a concealed weapon.

His momentum was as fierce as a launched projectile.

At that moment, Beon Sacheong’s back struck the wall of the pavilion behind him.

Thud!

He could retreat no farther.

“Damn it!”

The man came flying toward the pale-faced Beon Sacheong like a concealed weapon, sword in hand.

Unable to evade any longer, Beon Sacheong clenched his teeth and focused on the man’s sword.

Now that he knew the enemy also used phantom swordplay, he had to block the attack with utmost caution.

However, strangely, the man did not swing his sword.

He merely continued flying directly toward him.

When the man still did not move his sword even at the last moment, Beon Sacheong’s eyes widened as he realized he had been focusing only on the blade.

“W-what?!”

The next moment, the blue-clad man slammed bodily into Beon Sacheong.

BOOM!

“Kheooooogh!”

It looked like a frog being crushed beneath a stone.

Beon Sacheong’s body, completely caved in, smashed through the pavilion wall and buried itself inside.

The wall where he disappeared had been blasted open as though struck by a cannon.

A moment later, one entire side of the pavilion collapsed as its wall and support pillars broke apart.

Rumble!

By then, the man in blue had already returned to the woman in red.

He stood comfortably beside her as though nothing had happened.

Although only two people were devastating the Sucheon Association, their pale faces had not changed in the slightest. The warriors now stared at them with terror-filled expressions and could not bring themselves to charge.

At that moment, the woman in red, Tang Yeo-eun beneath a human-skin mask, sent Seonu Jin, the man in blue, a voice transmission.

—Did we not agree that we would avoid killing anyone?

When they had decided to attack the Sucheon Association head-on, Seonu Jin had said that since they did not know who was involved in the incident, they should at least refrain from killing.

That was why they had fought most opponents with unarmed techniques without even drawing their swords.

Yet this time, Seonu Jin had not merely killed the old man who appeared to be an elder—he had slaughtered him so brutally that his body was practically destroyed.

Tang Yeo-eun was asking why.

Seonu Jin answered through voice transmission as well.

—That man did not seem innocent. When we called Mak Ujeon a villain, the others reacted with bewilderment, but that man flinched and hurriedly tried to silence us.

—Ah, I see.

Tang Yeo-eun once again marveled at Seonu Jin’s scheming mind.

She had assumed that repeatedly calling Mak Ujeon Sichuan’s greatest villain was merely part of their act as eccentric martial artists, but there had been such meaning behind it.

The longer she watched him from beside him, the more extraordinary he seemed.

Seonu Jin asked Tang Yeo-eun.

—Miss Tang, is doing this difficult for you?

Tang Yeo-eun’s cheerful voice reached him.

—It is so much fun! So this is why there are so many eccentrics among martial artists! Thank you so much for letting me experience this, Young Master!

Hearing how completely delighted Tang Yeo-eun sounded, Seonu Jin smiled wryly inwardly.

For someone who had always lived while suppressing herself, this must have felt like an exhilarating adventure.

In contrast to the expressionless eccentric he portrayed outwardly, Seonu Jin had not relaxed his vigilance for even a moment.

It was extremely important to stay within certain boundaries during this incident—the boundary that kept them from danger and the boundary that prevented their identities from being exposed.

He had no mental room to enjoy himself, but hearing Tang Yeo-eun’s joyful voice still filled him with satisfaction.

Being able to bring happiness to Tang Yeo-eun, who had always lived trapped within her wounded inner child, was also deeply rewarding for Seonu Jin.

It also felt strange to be performing a Yin-Yang Combined Assault Art together with her.

This Yin-Yang Combined Assault Art was a martial art he had read in the Seonu Clan’s martial repository and thought might be entertaining to use with someone someday.

‘To be precise, I had hoped that I might meet Miss Na again and use it with her.’

Yet now he had reached a point where he had to put his feelings for Na Seoyu in order, while the person with whom he was actually using the Yin-Yang Combined Assault Art was Tang Yeo-eun, someone he had never imagined.

Life truly was unpredictable.

Just then, Seonu Jin saw new figures surging toward them from ahead.

Judging by their uniform clothing, they appeared to be two combat units consisting of roughly a hundred martial artists.

Seonu Jin cleared his throat and once again prepared to alter his voice.

The voice-altering technique was a miscellaneous art he had obtained from the Hao Clan this time.

“I no longer wish to waste effort on small fry! Where is Mak Ujeon, Sichuan’s greatest villain?!”

As his sharp voice rang out, the men who appeared to be the captains of the two combat units shouted furiously.

“What nonsense is this?! Why would our Association Leader be Sichuan’s greatest villain?!”

Seonu Jin carefully observed whether their reaction was bewilderment or anger, then sent Tang Yeo-eun a voice transmission.

—Two! Three!

The two burst into laughter simultaneously.

“Kihahahahaha!”

“Ohohohohoho!”

Their familiar chilling laughter resonated with each other and spread throughout the entire area.

It was a sinister sound that forced those with weak internal energy to stagger while covering their ears.

Before attacking the Sucheon Association, the technique Seonu Jin and Tang Yeo-eun had practiced most, aside from the Yin-Yang Combined Assault Art, was the Ghost-Weighting Laugh.

The Ghost-Weighting Laugh was a sound art that amplified its effect through harmony. As long as the tones matched precisely, its destructive power increased with the number of people performing it.

It was also one of the martial arts Seonu Jin had memorized from the Seonu Clan’s martial repository.

After breaking the enemies’ momentum with their laughter, Seonu Jin spoke again in his sharp voice.

“Pitiful fools! You are blind, unable to recognize Sichuan’s greatest villain even when he stands before you! We have no business with idiots like you! Bring Mak Ujeon out at once!”

The captains of the two combat units ground their teeth and shouted.

“Silence! Ferocious Lion Unit! Attack them!”

“Ferocious Wolf Unit! Charge!”

The instant their orders fell, over a hundred martial artists charged toward the pair.

They looked overwhelming, like waves surging toward a sandcastle.

However, what they charged toward was no sandcastle.

Only the violently rising red-and-blue tornado awaited them.

Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble!

“Kuaaaaagh!”

“Uaaaaagh!”

“Kyaaaaagh!”

The charging martial artists were flung away even faster than they had approached.

Nearby pavilions caught in the tornado also collapsed once again.

At that moment, he finally appeared.

Mak Ujeon, leader of the Sucheon Association and the strongest martial artist in southern Sichuan Province, who stood on the threshold of the Supreme Realm.

“H-how could this happen?”

Mak Ujeon looked around the area with a devastated gaze.

Martial artists lay scattered everywhere, groaning.

Pavilions had collapsed as though struck by cannon fire.

As he surveyed the scene, Mak Ujeon regretted that he had once wondered whether he would truly need to intervene personally.

Even though it had been a surprise attack, he had never imagined that only two people could devastate the place to this extent.

Rage surged to the top of Mak Ujeon’s head, and he immediately launched himself toward them.

“You bastaaaaards!”

Swoooosh!

Mak Ujeon’s sword, radiating a brilliant green sword aura, slashed toward the tornado that had been hurling warriors away.

It was an overwhelmingly powerful sword strike that seemed capable of splitting them in half together with the very space around them.

Slaaaash!

When his sword cleaved through the air, the tornado actually split apart.

With a single sword stroke, Mak Ujeon had dismantled the combined assault of the two eccentrics that had ground down countless warriors.

The surrounding martial artists burst into cheers at his overwhelming strength.

“Waaaaah!”

“As expected of the Association Leader!”

“As expected of the Rising-Heaven Swordsman! He is southern Sichuan’s greatest master!”

However, Mak Ujeon himself did not look particularly pleased despite displaying such power.

The man and woman who had separated to either side were already reuniting several jang in front of him.

They had not separated because of Mak Ujeon’s sword, but because Seonu Jin had detected his arrival in advance and chosen to move.

Seonu Jin spoke in his sharp voice.

“You have finally appeared, Mak Ujeon, Sichuan’s greatest villain!”

Mak Ujeon’s eyes twitched as he shouted.

“You call me Sichuan’s greatest villain?! What nonsense are you spouting, invader?!”

When he shouted in apparent fury, Seonu Jin gave a cold smile visible even through the human-skin mask and asked.

“After sacrificing so many lives for your selfish desires, do you still deny that you are Sichuan’s greatest villain? You are truly shameless beyond measure.”

Mak Ujeon’s face visibly stiffened for an instant.

However, it lasted only a moment.

Mak Ujeon immediately clenched his teeth and charged toward them, shouting as though he had no intention of prolonging the exchange.

“Nonsense!”

His attack carried an even more violent momentum than his first strike—a blow into which he had poured his full strength.

His power, equal to that of Hwa Yeong-bin, the Red-Rain Divine Sword, or Seol Pung, was indeed astonishing.

However, Seonu Jin did not panic in the slightest.

As though he had already predicted it, he merely threw something at the ground before Mak Ujeon’s charge.

Boom!

The object exploded the moment it struck the ground.

As black smoke billowed outward like a cloud, the startled Mak Ujeon hurriedly held his breath and retreated.

He thought it might be a poison bomb.

However, contrary to his concerns, it was merely a smoke bomb.

And when the smoke cleared, all Mak Ujeon saw was the empty space where the two eccentrics had vanished without a trace.

Unable to contain his boiling rage, Mak Ujeon roared.

“You bastaaaaards!”

He could not allow them to escape after being toyed with without accomplishing anything, especially after the meaningful words spoken by the blue-clad eccentric.

“Chase them immediately! Capture them by any means necessary! Do not let them escape!”

Faced with Mak Ujeon’s rage as he raged furiously, the Sucheon Association’s warriors hurriedly formed pursuit groups and followed the eccentrics.

However, the eccentrics’ trail vanished completely within the nearby forest.

Moreover, when the sky rapidly darkened after sunset, continuing the pursuit became impossible.

It was as though the pair had mocked them until the very end.