The White Wolf (4)

Yong Su, who effectively served as the lead of the Second-Class Ghost Gate masters Ha Suk-heon had brought, was dumbfounded.

‘This is insane!’

Jjeong!

A blade he had snapped out to catch an opening was knocked away at an even faster speed.

Every joint, from wrist to elbow to shoulder, creaked. How could a hurried defensive move kick back like this?

‘Where did a master like this come from!’

He was a man known by the chilling epithet Drink-Death Blade. In a head-on fight, in a joint assault, in an assassination, once he drew his blade, he never let an enemy live. That was why he bore the name.

But today, he thought this might be the day that epithet lost its way and came to take its owner’s life.

A blade that grew by drinking death. In the end, the last death it drank could only be his.

Jjeojeojeojeong!

A brutal flame rose from Han Cheol-sang’s blade.

They were not sparks, but real flames. The more he fought, the more the Red Lotus Divine Fire Art blazed, driving the blade’s power to its limit.

Pu-hwaak!

Another Ghost General-class master died. The blade smashed through arm, collarbone, and sternum in order, and severed even the heart meridians.

Blood that should have sprayed like a fountain barely came. The wound, scorched by Yang energy, temporarily sealed off the bleeding.

“Hook! Hook!”

Han Cheol-sang’s breathing grew a little rough.

The fight slipped into a brief lull. With one of the masters who formed the core of their defense dead, they naturally pulled back to widen distance.

Now, the Second-Class Ghost Gate had ten Demon Generals and twenty Ghost Generals left. Among the Demon Generals, only two Peak Realm masters remained, including Yong Su.

It was truly terrifying martial arts. Considering that Seol Hong-baek, before refining the Tianshan Art, had been classified as Demon General class based on the standards of the wanted posters, Han Cheol-sang had killed three masters at the level Seol Hong-baek used to be, while facing all these opponents.

‘Who is he?’

Yong Su swallowed without meaning to.

‘At this level… it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call him a Peak Realm master of the Nine Great Sects.’

He had actually seen a Jongnam Sect elder use martial arts with his own eyes.

Han Cheol-sang’s martial arts now were not lacking even compared to that Jongnam elder. In sheer offensive power, you could even say they were beyond.

‘Not only did he not get pushed back against forty-five masters, he killed twelve of them? Is that even possible?!’

The ten Demon Generals known for poison and hidden weapons, high-risk types, hadn’t been able to fully join the fight, so in practice it was like he had faced thirty-five alone. But whether forty-five or thirty-five, it was still monstrous.

Yong Su asked carefully.

“May I ask your name?”

They had been hacking at each other to the death, but at this point, he needed to know who he was.

As far as Yong Su knew, to display Nine Sects elder-level might in your thirties, you had to be a genius from the Nine Sects, Five Families.

Of course, there were once-in-an-age geniuses around his age who were already close to Nine Sects sect-leader level, the Twin Dragons and Three Phoenixes. But they were in a class of their own. They were future Martial Gods born with talent on the level of the greatest masters of the age.

This opponent wasn’t Twin Dragons and Three Phoenixes level, but below that, he was a monster with few geniuses comparable.

“None of your business.”

Han Cheol-sang’s answer was cold.

He could have stalled a bit and recovered his breath. But he judged that keeping this momentum mattered more than regulating his breathing.

“You’re not planning to back off just because you know who I am, are you?”

Of course they couldn’t. Everyone in the Second-Class Ghost Gate was already poisoned by some unknown toxin. Even if they abandoned Ha Suk-heon and ran, they were dead men.

Yong Su frowned.

“We go by rotation.”

The ten Demon Generals who hadn’t truly joined the fight until now stepped to the front.

Most of them were skilled in poison and hidden weapons. Types specialized in ambushes rather than head-on clashes. It wouldn’t be wrong to call them half assassins. That was also why they hadn’t properly joined this battle and had only kept him in check.

Their eyes, men more famous for crimes than martial arts, gleamed like beasts.

Yong Su muttered softly.

“It’s not time to drink my life yet.”

Han Cheol-sang grinned.

Seeing that grin, Yong Su roared.

“Start!”

Yong Su, Hang Eon, the remaining Demon General-class master, and all the Ghost Generals pulled back to create distance.

It was then.

Buuung!

The sound of something heavy flying in.

Jin-hyeon flew in, skimming past Han Cheol-sang’s shoulder, and swung the iron sword without mercy.

Peobeobeobeok!

There was no time to stop it. With One-Sword Severing the Soul, Cross Soul-Slash, and then One-Sword Severing the Soul again, eight Demon Generals at the front died on the spot.

As Yong Su tried to jump in, startled, Jin-hyeon’s hand unfolded Serpent-Shark Hand.

Udeudeuk!

Jin-hyeon dragged the Demon General whose neck he’d snapped and raised him like a shield, then cut the carotid with the iron sword.

Pu-hwaak!

Heavenly Wolf Rouse Qi was packed into the torn carotid. Blood that would have burst out anyway surged up violently, as if squeezed out.

So much blood spilled that it briefly blocked everyone’s view. It was only an instant, but the sudden blood mist left everyone flustered.

As he tossed the shriveled corpse away, Jin-hyeon stomped the ground hard.

Hook!

He vanished without a trace, and appeared at the right of Yong Su’s rear. Startled, Yong Su spun and swung a single slash.

Pu-hwaak!

Ten Steps, Certain Death, a technique that pierced a single point to kill in an instant, unfolded as a slashing execution form.

Yong Su’s right arm flew off entirely. He meant to take his head, but Yong Su’s sensing was better than expected, so it ended as an arm severed.

Woooooong!!

Heavenly Wolf Qi heaved violently.

Was it enraged that it didn’t kill a lesser man in one blow? As if it had spirit, the violent Heavenly Wolf Qi poured strength into Jin-hyeon’s limbs.

A kick carrying that oppressive momentum whipped out like lightning.

Kwaang!

Without even screaming, Yong Su flew straight and crashed to the ground about fifteen meters away.

He couldn’t get back up. The kick, packed with the fierce power of Heavenly Wolf Qi, crushed his sternum with the weight of an iron pillar and burst his organs.

It was a horrific death.

Then, the last surviving Demon General besides Hang Eon burst a black pouch.

“You bastards! Die, all of you!”

Pueong!

Poison mist spilled from the not-very-large pouch and instantly covered a radius of about three meters.

Hwareureureuk!

Han Cheol-sang drove the Red Lotus Divine Fire Art to its extreme and burned the poison.

Wiiing!

The spreading poison moved strangely with the wind and was sucked toward Jin-hyeon.

It was Heavenly Wolf Engage Qi. A qi art technique that seized energy or airflow, something you could use as soon as you entered the Heavenly Wolf True Art, yet Jin-hyeon’s overflowing internal energy drew in not only the poison mist but even some of the blood mist that had been spreading and fading.

They moved as one. Han Cheol-sang’s left palm lashed out like lightning.

Peong!

The gathered poison burned away entirely in palm force packed with Fire Qi.

It happened in the blink of an eye. Panicking, the Demon General tried to pull out another poison.

Peoeok!

It was a single slash made even more horrific because it held no explosive force.

Split vertically from the top of the head down to mid-throat by Han Cheol-sang’s strike, the Demon General nodded once, then collapsed.

“…”

Hang Eon’s eyes shook as if an earthquake had struck.

His thinking couldn’t keep up with what he saw. The swordsman’s martial arts, leaping in out of nowhere and scorching allies to ash, were too uncanny and violent to believe even seeing them.

‘W-what is this?!’

He was a master. A master with plenty of real combat experience.

But masters were still people. If you were too shocked, your body stiffened and your mind flew away.

Hang Eon’s end, never having become a true master, was miserable.

Peoeok!

The iron sword carved through his spine, pierced organs, even punched through the dantian, then withdrew.

Hang Eon collapsed right there. He had only avoided instant death. Unable to even make a sound, he fell and could only wait for death.

“Ugh.”

A Ghost General let out a groan.

Ha Suk-heon’s corpse in the distance, Yong Su’s corpse, and even Hang Eon.

One enemy was already too much, yet another master like that appeared. They wouldn’t avoid annihilation.

“R-run!”

One line from someone’s mouth.

With Ha Suk-heon dead, poison or whatever didn’t matter. Their heads would fly before they could even take an antidote.

Then Jin-hyeon and Han Cheol-sang moved like lightning.

Pababababak!

Around the scattering sword shadows, an invisible storm began to whirl.

Jin-hyeon’s sword, having found its path in a single enlightenment, grew far more practiced the moment he unfolded it again.

Under the sword wind riding the wind, the Ghost Generals covered their faces and staggered. In no time, faint cuts appeared all over their bodies.

He couldn’t deliver lethal hits while covering such a wide range. But threat alone was enough. Jin-hyeon raised Heavenly Wolf Qi to its limit and unfolded the Wind Sword (風劍) again.

Buaa-aaang!

With a sound beyond eerie, hundreds of sword winds smaller than fingernails swirled.

Kwareung!

They matched perfectly. Even seeing Jin-hyeon’s Wind Sword for the first time, Han Cheol-sang moved as if he’d been waiting, packing the Fire Qi of the Red Lotus Divine Fire Art into the Heaven-Shattering Saber technique.

Peopeopung! Hwareureureuk!

With Heaven-Shattering Saber, Severing Peak, four Ghost Generals were split apart. Then the storm of flames that followed shredded the remaining Ghost Generals’ bodies horribly.

“Kyaaah!”

Their screams were so vicious that the masters fighting assassins under Gong Cheong’s order, and the ten masters watching from behind, all turned their eyes this way.

Fwhooom!

It was a terrifying sight.

Heavy snow was whitening the world, yet in the middle of the outer court, wounded men were engulfed in flames, staggering and running in all directions.

Their movements, running and shrieking madly, slowed. Then one by one, they began to fall.

“!!”

Shock settled on everyone’s faces.

Jin-hyeon steadied his internal energy with a light deep breath, then tapped Han Cheol-sang’s blade with his iron sword.

The sound of blade and sword meeting was small, but no one in the outer court failed to hear it.

Jin-hyeon asked evenly.

“How’s your body?”

“I want to get a good night’s sleep.”

Incomplete though it was, the Red Lotus Divine Fire Art was a martial art that from the start put a severe strain on the body. That was why Han Cheol-sang had hidden his power until now.

“Sorry, but it’s not time to sleep yet.”

“Don’t worry. I regulated it in the middle of it.”

If Yong Su heard that in death, he would have been horrified.

If he had truly unfolded the Red Lotus Divine Fire Art to the extreme, he would have produced even stronger attacks, but exhausted much faster. A truly fire-like martial art. It burned everything in a moment, then went out as soon as there was nothing left to burn.

By contrast, Jin-hyeon was still vigorous. The internal energy drain was significant, but his body, completed through the Soul-Refining Art, had gained tremendous stamina from the extreme Heavenly Wolf Qi, and he had even opened the Ren and Du meridians to gain a massive amount of internal energy.

More than that, he had come to tie off a twisted knot.

Even if both arms flew off, he couldn’t collapse.

“Let’s finish off the twigs too.”

“There are ten thick logs among those twigs as well.”

“You’ve got good sense. If needed, set it on fire again with sword wind like just now.”

“That’s why my legs are shaking right now.”

“Your voice still sounds alive. Let’s go.”

Paaaaang!

Jin-hyeon surged forward, and in no time, he leapt over the assassins and the forty-odd fighters and flew toward Gong Cheong.

Han Cheol-sang snorted.

Whether it was rage or whatever, he thought the man was overflowing with energy.

“The flower of youth is blooming.”

If a middle-aged man over forty heard it, he’d clutch the back of his neck. And with that, Han Cheol-sang also plunged into the battlefield.