Chapter 120

“W-what did he just say?”
“I think he said something like ‘in the name of Heaven Rebelling.’”
“If it’s that slogan, then could it be the Heav- mmph.”

The horse-mask man covered the mouth of a nearby masked bidder. It was a name that did no good to speak out loud.

“Just stay quiet and watch.”

At that moment, an explosive Cold Qi surged out from Lord Yong. In an instant, the space around him was dyed in a white cold wave.

“Urgh.”

As the chill spread, the masked bidders instinctively raised both hands. At the very least, they were trying to cover their faces.
Some of them even stumbled backward, afraid they would die if it touched them.

Drrrk, drrrk.
Without giving anyone a moment to breathe, Lord Yong unleashed palm strike after palm strike of ice arts.
Each time he did, a bizarre sound rang out as though even the air itself were freezing.

“Where did Seventh Young Lord go?”
“He’s behind that vortex!”

There were only two things the masked bidders could see.
The white vortex created by the ice arts, and Lord Yong himself, savagely attacking as if he intended to allow not even the slightest variable.

The masked bidders all fell silent.
It was because they instinctively felt Baek Su-gyeong could not possibly come out unharmed from that attack.
For all they knew, he might already have died from the first strike.

“Huh. So quickly…”

The horse-mask man let out a sigh.
A newcomer had appeared in the auction hall, only for it to turn out to be the Seventh Young Lord.
He had always been interested in him, so he had planned to speak to him after the auction ended, but an ugly incident had broken out instead.

‘This is going to get complicated.’

To think they had ended up witnessing the Heaven Rebelling Society trying to assassinate a Little Demon.
There was no telling what kind of fallout this would bring.
Who would have thought Lord Yong belonged to the Heaven Rebelling Society?

“What are the Golden Resonance Vault warriors doing? Why are they just watching?”

One masked bidder muttered in an anxious voice.

“Aren’t we going to be in danger too at this rate?”
“L-Let’s get out of here first.”

Just as the unrest was spreading.

Chiiiiik-
The sound of ice melting was heard.
At the center of the vortex, the place that should have been frozen over, steam was rising.

Lord Yong’s strikes stopped.
At the same time, his face hardened.

Pat!
Baek Su-gyeong sprang out from the center of the icy vortex.

“It’s Seventh Young Lord!”

Holding a dagger, Baek Su-gyeong charged at Lord Yong with dazzling speed.
Lord Yong instinctively threw out a fist. He meant to wrap it in internal energy and knock Baek Su-gyeong away along with the dagger.
But.

Pusheok!

“?!”

The result was not what he intended.
The dagger pierced through both his internal energy and his fist at the same time.
Yanking it free and swinging it again, Baek Su-gyeong said quietly,

“This is a rather special dagger.”

‘It worked.’

I rejoiced inwardly.
Ice arts were martial arts that handled Cold Qi.
They lacked the destructive force to kill an opponent in a single blow, but they carried a lethality that seeped into the meridians and froze the opponent from the inside out.
For that reason, those who faced a master of ice arts often found their movements gradually slowing until their whole body froze and they died.
Even if they survived, the cold that had entered their meridians was not easily removed, leaving them in prolonged agony.

-Fear the cold that cannot be blocked more than the blade that can.

That saying existed for a reason.
But I was comparatively free from the effects of ice arts.
That was because I had consumed the Ice-Spirit Cold-Soul Grass, which possessed extreme Yin Qi.
Lord Yong’s ice arts were of a high level.
But even that level of ice arts was nowhere near enough to overcome the cold resistance I had gained from the Ice-Spirit Cold-Soul Grass.

“Hup.”

Blood streamed from Lord Yong’s fist.
Even in that state, he avoided the follow-up attacks.
Proof that he was a skilled master.
But the eyes visible behind the Azure Dragon mask had frozen colder than ice.

Whirik!
Lord Yong’s wide sleeve tried to wrap around the cold-iron dagger. It looked like it would be taken, so I immediately pulled the dagger back.
Taking advantage of that gap, Lord Yong quickly retreated several steps.

“So the Seventh Young Lord had such a surprising specialty.”
“It’s still too early for admiration.”
“It isn’t admiration. It’s confirmation.”

Lord Yong let out a low sneer, and his gaze settled back into calm.
The bearing of an experienced master.

“If ice arts won’t work on you.”

Lord Yong’s ice arts spread toward the floor of the auction stage.

“Then I’ll make them work.”

Cold Qi poured down like a waterfall and froze the floor in an instant.
In no time, even beneath my feet it turned into a vast sheet of ice.

‘So he’s got internal energy to spare?’

No, more than that, it was probably his resolve to kill me right here.
As of today, I had now made fools of the Heaven Rebelling Society twice.

“You won’t be able to move even a single step as you please.”

Lord Yong said confidently.
It seemed he saw me as a rat caught in a trap.
I wanted to show him that wasn’t the case, but regrettably, I didn’t currently have the ability to move freely across the ice.

Thud!
The instant I slipped slightly and my stance broke, I was struck.
The cold couldn’t affect me, but I had no means of harmlessly dispersing the force of the blow as well.

‘He really does know how to fight.’

I let out a bitter smile and worked my mind.
In terms of raw strength, I was clearly at a disadvantage, so I had to find a way out.
Even while I did, Lord Yong was relentless.
He moved freely and kept pressing me.
Pat, pat!
Several more attacks grazed my body.
I barely avoided any fatal blows, but I couldn’t say how much longer that would last.

“Let’s see you endure to the end!”

Pang!
I barely blocked the next attack with the cold-iron dagger.
The force sent me sliding backward.
Then something struck my back.
It was a banner pole marking this place as the Golden Resonance Vault auction hall.

‘Wait, this?’

A solution came to mind in an instant.
If I used this banner pole, I could nullify Lord Yong’s ice-floor strategy.
At a glance, the banner pole seemed to be about one jang long.
Without hesitation, I slashed twice with the cold-iron dagger, once high and once low.
The pole was split into two pieces, each a meter and a half long.
I caught the upper falling section with my left hand.
Then I swung it at the charging Lord Yong.
Lord Yong casually flicked the back of his hand. The banner pole, frozen by Cold Qi, shattered into pieces.
Pakak!

“Did you think something like that could stop me?”

As if.
The shattered pieces of the pole scattered all over the ice.
That gave me the minimum friction I needed to move freely.
I pulled out the remaining section of the pole embedded in the stage and moved while stepping on the fragments.

“So you’re using petty tricks. Do you think that means you can move however you want now?”

He was right.
Thanks to the banner fragments, I could move to some degree, but Lord Yong still held the advantage.
What was more, he used palm force to send the fragments flying far away.
It was fair to call it a crisis.
But.

‘I’ve got plenty of combat experience too.’

I tightened my grip on the pole in my left hand.

“I can see straight through your plan!”

Could he really?
I didn’t swing the pole.
If anything, I drove the pole straight down into the ice.
Koong!
Using the rebound, my body shot upward.
Then I gripped the dagger in reverse and drove it downward vertically.
Lord Yong chose not to meet it head-on and dodged.
He had judged he couldn’t take the force head-on, and his movement was far faster than my falling speed.
But from the start, Lord Yong hadn’t been my true target.

Kwaddeuk!
The dagger pierced through the ice and embedded itself in the auction stage.
The ice cracked apart like a spiderweb.

“Why the dagger?”

Lord Yong spoke in confusion.
I explosively drew up Chaotic Demonic Qi and stepped on the dagger.
Because the dagger was firmly embedded, there was no risk of slipping.
I pushed off the dagger with the sole of my foot and shot forward.
Paat!
Palm force came flying toward my face at high speed, but I bent my waist back as far as I could.
The instant the attack grazed past, I tightened my core, snapped my upper body back up, and rushed Lord Yong.

“……!”

Lord Yong’s eyes widened.
I poured all the strength in my lower body into driving my knee into his side.
Ppagrak!
The sound of ribs breaking.

“Kuhuk!”

Lord Yong spat out a gush of blood.
I didn’t stop there and poured out powerful fist strikes without holding back.
Lord Yong’s body shook like an aspen tree.
When I drove the final blow into his solar plexus, Lord Yong finally collapsed.
Blood streaming heavily, he dropped to his knees on the floor.
The fight was over.

Looking down at Lord Yong, I said,

“What was it you said earlier? That I’m the successor acknowledged by the Heavenly Demon? Completely wrong.”

A small laugh slipped out.

“You don’t even know what kind of person my master is. I’m a long way from something like that.”
“Khut. Not… the successor, you say? Kkekeke.”

A mocking laugh burst out.
A fistful of blood spilled out with it.
It seemed a broken rib had pierced his lung.

“Of course you’d want to hide it like that. But we know what the Heavenly Demon desires. Kugh!”
“Know my ass.”

I clicked my tongue and looked toward Im Yeon.
From the start of the battle, she had been fighting Lord Yong’s guard.
Why was it?
Something was off.
Her usual refined sword forms were nowhere to be seen, and she was using only simple, straight sword strikes.
She was clearly being swayed by some emotion.

‘The Heaven Rebelling Society.’

That name must have meant something to Im Yeon.

‘At this point, I need to step in.’

I had meant not to ask unless she brought it up herself, but with no knowing how much more we’d be entangled with the Heaven Rebelling Society from here on.
To prevent something unfortunate from happening, it seemed I would have to ask about the cause.
Tsupat-
At that moment, blood spurted from Im Yeon’s shoulder.

‘I need to help her.’

I was about to move immediately, but Lord Yong spoke again.

“Kuhk… Seventh Young Lord, no matter how much you struggle… Kkekeke!”

Lord Yong, panting and bleeding, suddenly laughed like a fanatic.

“The day that person returns, all of you will be destroyed.”
“That person, huh. Sorry, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

Because thanks to my past life, I had a pretty good idea who that person was.
Lord Yong opened his mouth again.
He tried to say something, but no sound came from him.

In that instant, I felt a chilling killing intent.
I quickly shifted a step aside with my footwork.
Something passed through the place where I had been standing and cleanly cut through Lord Yong’s neck.
Puhwak!
Blood sprayed all over me.
And an instant later, Lord Yong’s guard, who had been pressing Im Yeon, lost his head in exactly the same way.

‘This is…’

Silence fell over the auction hall with Lord Yong’s sudden death.
A man wearing a plain black mask with no markings slowly walked toward the auction stage.
It was Gu Cheong-won.