Sichuan Assassin Sect (1)

Jeon Seokjil, an elite assassin of the Sichuan Assassin Sect—which prided itself on being the foremost assassin sect in Sichuan Province—and holder of the Third Killer position among the Seven Killers, heard of the commission around noon.

“The target is… Seonu Jin, the Flying-Heaven Black Wolf?”

At his question, the messenger from the Sichuan Assassin Sect bowed and answered.

“Yes. He is the third son of the Seonu Clan of Guizhou. He was once rumored to be the disgrace of the Seonu Clan, closer to a pig than a martial artist. However, after joining the Flying Dragon Unit at the beginning of this year, he recently began making a name for himself by killing Dong Paegyeong, the Black Killing Dart, a Pinnacle Realm master of the Black Manor, one of the Eight Houses of Guizhou.”

Jeon Seokjil frowned and asked again.

“He killed a Pinnacle Realm master? Surely you are not saying this Seonu Jin is also a Pinnacle Realm master?”

“That… is correct. According to the client’s information, he is estimated to possess at least seventy years of internal energy and to have reached the Pinnacle Realm.”

Jeon Seokjil’s eyes instantly transformed into the murderous gaze of a venomous serpent as he asked again.

“…So you accepted a commission to kill a Pinnacle Realm master with at least seventy years of internal energy?”

Jeon Seokjil’s eyes gradually became colorless and devoid of all emotion, like glass beads.

They resembled the eyes of a doll.

However, the messenger knew.

That appearance, without a trace of killing intent released outwardly or any emotion visible on his face, was precisely how Jeon Seokjil looked immediately before killing someone.

The messenger hurriedly bowed deeply and shouted.

He had anticipated Jeon Seokjil’s reaction, allowing him to respond quickly.

“It was the Sect Master’s order! He said he would assign the Fifth and Sixth Killers to you, and that you could use as many people as necessary, so you should at least attempt it! He also said it was a commission we absolutely could not refuse! And if the difference in strength proves truly insurmountable, he granted you permission to withdraw! He said he would even summon the Seventh Killer….”

Only after hearing those words did emotion return to Jeon Seokjil’s eyes.

That emotion was interest.

“Hmm. No limit on personnel, and he will assign the Fifth and Sixth Killers. Even the Seventh if necessary? The Sect Master must be desperate.”

Only after seeing Jeon Seokjil mutter that could the messenger inwardly sigh in relief.

Jeon Seokjil suddenly asked again.

“So where is the target, and where will we carry out the attack?”

The messenger bowed and answered.

“He departed from the Sichuan Tang Clan in Chengdu this morning and is currently heading toward the Seonu Clan in Guiyang, Guizhou Province. They say he is a master of movement arts, so we expect him to pass through this area tomorrow morning. However, he may be faster than that, so the message was to prepare in advance.”

Jeon Seokjil nodded leisurely in understanding.

“Understood. Report once his precise location is confirmed.”

However, Jeon Seokjil received another message far sooner than expected.

Before even half an hour had passed, the messenger hurriedly ran back to him and shouted.

“It appears you must prepare immediately! The scouts lost track of him! They said he was moving too fast for them to catch up at all. It seems he anticipated an attack and is traveling at great speed! The message said that if he maintains that pace, he will pass through this region before tonight!”

Jeon Seokjil asked in disbelief.

“What? He is going to travel from Chengdu to Neijiang in half a day? Are you saying he is some bird flying through the heavens? Moreover, you are not even saying that he will come, merely that he might. That means you do not know his exact location, so what exactly are we supposed to do? Consult a fortune-teller and divine where he is?”

The messenger hesitantly lowered his head and answered.

“Well… they only said they would not blame you even if you failed, so please do your best….”

Jeon Seokjil gave an incredulous laugh and sank into thought.

‘We cannot find him. Then… we will have no choice but to make him come to us. They said he is chivalrous, so we must exploit that.’

Having made his decision, Jeon Seokjil quickly spoke.

“Gather our people. As many as possible. And prepare the Fifth and Sixth Killers.”

“Yes! Understood!”

The method Jeon Seokjil devised was to attack innocent people.

If the man called Seonu Jin was taking the shortest route from Chengdu to Guiyang, he would have to travel along the official road. Since he was supposedly chivalrous, Jeon Seokjil believed that if they attacked travelers on that road, he would eventually intervene.

Of course, the plan would inevitably fail if Seonu Jin took a different route or saw innocent people being attacked and chose not to interfere.

Jeon Seokjil fully acknowledged that possibility.

‘That could certainly happen. Most so-called chivalrous heroes are nothing but hypocrites.’

However, there was no other method.

Jeon Seokjil believed that if they still failed to encounter him after doing this, then it truly could not be helped.

Therefore, by that evening, Jeon Seokjil had already ordered the assassins of the Sichuan Assassin Sect to attack their third merchant caravan.

Because of that, the official road now reeked of blood and resounded with screams.

“Aaaargh! My arm! P-Please, spare me!”

“Aaaagh! My eye! My eye!”

“N-No! We will give you all our goods! Please, only spare our lives!”

“My daughter is still a child! Please, spare at least her!”

Splurt!

“Aaaagh!”

“No! My child!”

“Save me!”

The merchant caravan, attacked by more than forty masked assassins, was filled with agonized screams and pleas for mercy.

It was because Jeon Seokjil had ordered them to kill the people as cruelly and slowly as possible.

Following his instructions, the assassins slowly tormented the merchants by cutting away their limbs, eyes, noses, and mouths one by one. The victims wailed desperately for their lives before dying.

However, the eyes of the assassins killing them remained emotionless, as though they were merely carrying out repetitive work.

Jeon Seokjil remained concealed in one corner, watching the scene with an equally expressionless face.

‘This caravan is nearly dealt with as well.’

Most of the caravan members had already died.

It seemed they would soon need to find another target.

Ultimately, this attack also appeared to have been a meaningless massacre.

However, he was not particularly disappointed.

They had merely begun early as a precaution, and he had not expected the man called Seonu Jin to appear already.

‘If he showed up here this soon, he truly could be called a bird rather than a human.’

According to Jeon Seokjil’s estimate, Seonu Jin would pass through at the earliest late that night, or by the following morning at the latest.

However, that meant they might have to continue doing this all night, perhaps even until the next morning.

They would have to keep slowly and painfully killing innocent people.

The thought might have disgusted anyone else, but Jeon Seokjil felt nothing about it.

Patience was one of the first virtues an assassin had to learn.

There was no possibility that Jeon Seokjil, the Third Killer and third-ranking figure of the Sichuan Assassin Sect, would expend even the slightest emotion on such a thing.

Without showing any irritation, he merely waited quietly until the merchant caravan had been completely annihilated.

That was when it happened.

“Stop!”

Along with a clear voice that echoed from somewhere, someone flew in like a meteor.

His speed was truly like a ray of light. Even Jeon Seokjil, who possessed considerable confidence in his movement art, had never witnessed such an astonishing technique.

He could not even make out the newcomer’s face.

Swoosh!

‘!’

The instant Jeon Seokjil registered his arrival, the newcomer had already become a streak of light and swept between more than ten assassins.

Pale-violet sword light left behind only afterimages, forming a meteor-like tail behind him.

A moment later, blood erupted from the assassins’ bodies.

Splurt!

As though deliberately coordinated, crimson streams of blood simultaneously shot into the air like fountains.

The sight was almost magnificent.

Gulp!

Still concealed, Jeon Seokjil unconsciously swallowed.

In his entire life as an assassin, he had never seen such a fast swordsman.

‘Is that… even possible?’

He could not believe it.

Jeon Seokjil had brought more than forty ordinary assassins, yet half of them had already become wandering ghosts.

It had happened in the span of only a few breaths after they recognized that the swordsman had appeared.

Faced with the pale-violet sword light that filled the space like an illusion, not one assassin could even attempt to counterattack.

At that moment, one assassin urgently shouted.

“Attack him all at once!”

He held the highest position among the assassins currently at the scene.

At his command, every remaining assassin launched themselves toward the man simultaneously.

They surrounded him from every direction like a human curtain.

Whoosh!

Slash!

Twenty streaks of sword light, accompanied by no battle cries, stabbed toward him from every direction.

Jeon Seokjil clearly witnessed what happened next.

The young swordsman, who was probably Seonu Jin, remained standing in place and smiled faintly.

He muttered something.

Because Jeon Seokjil had learned lip-reading, he could repeat the words inwardly from the shape of the man’s lips.

‘Emptiness Becomes Form?’

The next instant—

Whoosh!

Dozens, then hundreds of swords appeared to divide from him like illusions and shot in every direction.

It looked as though a sun radiating pale-violet light across the entire world had appeared.

Splurrrrrt!

It lasted only an instant.

Every assassin who had rushed toward him dropped dead on the spot, their bodies drenched in blood.

It was a silent massacre without screams or even the sound of clashing blades.

Jeon Seokjil watched with his mouth hanging open, unable to close it.

At that moment, Seonu Jin had somehow already appeared before the assassin who had issued the command.

He asked the astonished assassin,

“You slaughtered them like this without even stealing their goods. What are you people?”

The assassin snapped back to his senses, gritted his teeth, and asked Seonu Jin,

“Are you Seonu Jin?”

Seonu Jin’s eyes twitched.

“…You did all this to target me?”

However, there was no answer.

Before Seonu Jin even finished speaking, the assassin charged like lightning and swung his sword downward.

Whoosh!

“!”

No, he attempted to swing it downward.

His arm was simply severed before the sword could descend.

Splurt!

After effortlessly cutting off the assassin’s raised arm, Seonu Jin immediately sealed his acupoints and asked again.

Tap!

“I will ask again. Who are you?”

The assassin glanced at the blood pouring from his severed arm and responded with a mocking expression.

“Urgh, hehehe. Why should I tell you that?”

Despite losing both arms and having his acupoints sealed, the assassin’s eyes did not resemble those of someone who had given up.

Instead, they gleamed triumphantly, as though Seonu Jin had walked perfectly into a trap.

Jeon Seokjil, who remained concealed and observed the scene, wore the same triumphant gaze.

The man called Seonu Jin was an astonishing expert, but perhaps because of his youth, he still lacked experience.

To give an assassin that much time—

Jeon Seokjil could see the Sixth Killer, Do Danmu, preparing his attack nearby.

Jeon Seokjil shouted inwardly.

‘Go, Sixth Killer!’

Do Danmu, the Sixth Killer among the Sichuan Assassin Sect’s Seven Killers, was a dwarf whose body had never grown because of a rare disease.

His assassination specialties were pretending to be a child and concealing himself behind another person’s body.

At that moment, Do Danmu was pressed tightly against the back of the assassin standing before Seonu Jin.

Because Do Danmu had the build of a child, he could not be noticed at all when viewed from the front.

Unless Seonu Jin had killed the assassin immediately, the moment he kept him alive and attempted to speak with him, he had effectively fallen into the Sixth Killer’s trap.

As the Sixth Killer placed a hidden-weapon launcher against the assassin’s back and prepared to fire, the assassin asked Seonu Jin again.

“Hehehe. Tell me, then. If I tell you, will you spare me? Otherwise, I have no reason to….”

As he spoke with a sinister smile, the assassin secretly bit down on the poison pouch inside his mouth.

A bitter liquid immediately spread through it. When he spoke his next words, he intended to spit the poison at Seonu Jin.

‘Your mistake was failing to seal my mute acupoint.’

Of course, that alone would not be enough to kill an expert like Seonu Jin.

However, it did not matter.

While he spat the poison and distracted his opponent, the Sixth Killer, Do Danmu, would attack from behind him.

There was no possibility that Seonu Jin would notice that attack.

Just as the assassin waited for an opening, Seonu Jin suddenly gave a faint laugh and asked,

“Really? Then should I ask the man behind you?”

“!”

At that instant, the assassin realized that Seonu Jin knew of the Sixth Killer’s presence.

He immediately attempted to spit out the poison.

However, the Sixth Killer reacted even faster and fired his hidden-weapon launcher first.

Pshk!

“Ghk!”

The assassin could not properly spit out the poison because of the agony caused by the hidden weapon piercing through his heart.

Black liquid merely dribbled from his mouth as he watched through fading eyes.

Seonu Jin effortlessly diverted the hidden weapon that had torn through his chest and shot toward him like a beam of light, as though he had known it was coming.

Then Seonu Jin thrust his sword straight through the assassin’s chest.

Thrust!

“!”

From the faint trembling behind him, the assassin understood.

The sword that had pierced his chest appeared to have impaled the Sixth Killer as well.

The man called Seonu Jin had completely seen through them from the very beginning.

It was a perfect failure.

Jeon Seokjil swallowed as he watched the situation unfold.

Cold sweat flowed down his body.

He could not understand how Seonu Jin had noticed the Sixth Killer’s presence.

To his eyes, the situation had been perfect.

As expected, a Pinnacle Realm master with more than seventy years of internal energy was not an opponent to be underestimated.

However, Jeon Seokjil was not discouraged.

The Fifth Killer and he himself still remained.

No matter how great an expert Seonu Jin was, Jeon Seokjil believed that the Fifth Killer, who excelled at disguises and poison, would certainly create an opening.

‘I do not particularly like him, but the Fifth Killer has already eliminated more than ten Pinnacle Realm masters. Since the target is still young and lacks experience, there should be more than enough possibility.’

After dealing with every assassin visible to him, Seonu Jin looked around.

The scene was horrifying.

The people who appeared to belong to the merchant caravan had all been brutally murdered or were dying with their limbs severed.

“Uuuugh.”

“S-Save me.”

“Sob, sob….”

Groans filled every direction.

Learning that all of this had been done merely to lure him in made Seonu Jin grind his teeth anew.

He carefully examined the scene but could find almost no one who could be saved.

Most were people whose suffering would be better ended by taking their lives immediately.

Therefore, after gritting his teeth and pressing the death acupoints of those in agony to end their lives, he gathered the few survivors in one place.

At that moment, he suddenly heard a faint voice.

“Y-Young man, please save me.”

It was the voice of an old man who sounded close to death.

When Seonu Jin looked toward the source of the sound, he saw an elderly man trapped beneath collapsed cargo beside a shattered transport wagon.

Because the cargo had concealed his body, he appeared to have fortunately escaped the assassins.

Seonu Jin hurriedly launched himself toward him to perform a rescue.

The Fifth Killer, Naeng Jidan, watched the approaching Seonu Jin while maintaining the expression of an old man dying beneath the cargo.

The man hurried toward him without realizing he was approaching his grave.

Naeng Jidan laughed inwardly.

‘Hehehe. Come closer.’

The Fifth Killer Naeng Jidan specialized in disguises and poison arts.

Since childhood, he had never been particularly skilled in concealment or hidden weapons, so he had preferred disguising himself as an old man or woman, approaching his target, and assassinating them with poison.

Therefore, immediately after attacking the merchant caravan, he had deliberately overturned a transport wagon and waited beneath the cargo.

He intended to pretend to be a caravan member and ambush Seonu Jin if he approached.

His patience was now about to bear fruit.

‘Come. Hurry closer.’

Naeng Jidan prepared to use the Odok Sect’s odorless poison, which he had purchased at great expense.

It was not perfectly colorless and odorless like the Tang Clan’s Formless Poison, but it had almost no scent, and its earth-colored appearance made it difficult to distinguish from dust.

Naeng Jidan intended to secretly release the poison when Seonu Jin moved the boxes.

Mixed with the dust raised as he shifted the cargo, it would be impossible to detect.

‘I finally have a chance to use this expensive thing. Farewell, young Pinnacle Realm master.’

Seonu Jin hurried over and moved the cargo covering Naeng Jidan.

“Are you all right, Elder?”

Naeng Jidan, who had already taken the antidote, released the odorless poison into the air.

Naeng Jidan could see the earth-colored poison slowly spreading through the dust and entering Seonu Jin’s nose.

He cheered inwardly.

‘It worked! It is over!’

Naeng Jidan slowly began raising his body like a dying old man while preparing to flee.

He would need to escape before Seonu Jin realized he had been poisoned and attacked him.