The Annihilation Of A Clan (1)

There were many kinds of battles in the world, but broadly speaking, they could be divided into two types.

Battles where one had to buy time, and battles that had to be decided in a short period.

This battle taking place in the marketplace of Ziyang County well past midnight today forced both sides into a swift decision.

Papapang!

The Divine Fist Squad pugilists who leaped out in front of Ha Gye-gun thrust their fists out with force.

It was an honest attack with no hint of tactics at all. But that attack was strong. At the very least, it boasted an intensity on a completely different level from Black Bamboo Fort’s combat units.

And Jin-hyeon’s sword, moving on an entirely different level from even them, rendered every attack meaningless.

Peopeopeopeong!

With a single swing, he crushed more than twenty fist winds.

Lee Hoe could not hide his shock.

‘How?!’

If he had crushed them with chained attacks invisible to the eye, Lee Hoe could have understood it. But it had been a single sword. With one slashing strike, all those fist winds had vanished as if washed away.

It was the majesty of One Sword Cuts a Hundred, the half-form of Cross Soul-Slash. Once Heavenly Wolf True Qi dwelled in a simple horizontal slash, it produced power of extreme hardness that devoured even the Divine Fist Squad charging in with hard force.

Whoosh!

Jin-hyeon’s body, already charging quickly, vanished in an instant.

Where he appeared was between the first and second rows at the front.

Buuuuung! Puhwaak!

With another rotation, One Sword Cuts a Hundred split the torsos of more than ten men in half. It did not even seem as though he had used that much force, yet no one could block that sword.

“S-Stop him!”

“Kill him!”

The courage of the pugilists charging forward while stepping over their dead comrades was certainly exceptional.

Jin-hyeon twisted his upper body diagonally.

Puk! Puk! Puk! Puk! Puk!

The Indestructible Sword plunged in as if he were thrusting a long cudgel, tearing into the chests of five men. The movement looked as if he had launched only one thrust, but with a change of his wrist, the sword strike multiplied into five.

It was like an arrow set on a bowstring drawn to its limit had been fired explosively. The strength with which he handled that heavy greatsword as lightly as a wooden sword was dazzling.

Jjeojeojeojeong!

His speed in switching to defense after a killing move was also lightning-fast. Without even needing to use Tenfold Prison Wall, he turned his body with the broad face of his sword raised, and the pugilists’ attacks all bounced away.

The pugilists’ faces filled with panic.

His left hand reached the end of the Indestructible Sword’s hilt, which he had been holding only with his right hand.

Flash! Peobeobeobeok!

Under the sword lines drawn not only forward, backward, left, and right, but even diagonally, another dozen or so pugilists were cut apart and collapsed.

It was a speed impossible to believe from someone wielding a heavy sword. He showed sword speed far faster than most masters of the quick sword. On top of that, the Heavenly Wolf True Qi’s extreme destructive power combined with the heavy sword’s weight to create a one-strike killing method that could split even steel.

Puhwaaaak!

An unstoppable advance.

He thrust and tore through them with the heavy blade, severing bones and organs, and in between, he used every kind of killing method from the Ten-Finger Soul-Slaughter Art with his left hand. In an instant, more than forty Divine Fist Squad members lost their lives.

It was truly fitting to call it irresistible momentum. It was a feast of destructive martial arts unlike anything even the Divine Fist Squad, which annihilated enemies with strength, had ever seen.

“Eek!”

Paaang!

He saw an opening and thrust out his fist, but before he knew it, Jin-hyeon had avoided that fist and sent another squad member’s head flying.

Lee Hoe’s face turned pale.

Unlike the squad members, he was a fist artist skilled in soft fist as well. On top of that, he was fast, and used a fist art so adept at killing people that it could be called assassination fist.

And yet his opponent avoided it easily, as if it were only natural. All while in the middle of a melee, no less.

‘He’s on a different level!’

Speed, destructive power, internal strength, killing intent.

Since he was a master, it was only natural that he surpassed them in every area.

But the truly frightening thing about Jin-hyeon was that he had leaped into the middle of an enemy formation where a single mistake could mean death, and with exquisite movement, he was steadily bringing down the pugilists one by one.

It was movement impossible for even a high-level master if they were not used to battle. No, even if they were used to battle, if they were too tense or too relaxed, they would already have taken several blows.

Hwaaaak!

Even more remarkable was his momentum.

The numerically superior group was gradually being swallowed by the momentum of a single white-haired swordsman.

The pugilists’ faces turned pale.

They were faces unbefitting the Divine Fist Squad, forged through combat. That was how terrifying the killing intent Jin-hyeon emitted was.

‘They’re being pushed back by momentum. When has the Divine Fist Squad ever been like this?’

The pugilists, who had experienced hell under a Squad Leader more frightening than any enemy, had nothing to fear.

But a master even that Squad Leader could not match was slicing their comrades apart in an instant with that huge blade, so there was no way they would not feel fear.

This was not a fight. It was a one-sided massacre. It was a battle where they would obviously die if they attacked, so how could they not be afraid?

Bang!

At that moment, with a powerful stomp, a heavy palm force pushed in.

Peoeok! Teooooong!

The palm force smashed the back of the head of the pugilist blocking Jin-hyeon’s vision, grazed Jin-hyeon’s shoulder, wandered through the air, and vanished.

The one who had emitted that palm force was Ha Gye-gun.

“What are you doing?! You stupid bastards, what do you think will happen if you just charge straight ahead against a master?!”

That was the Divine Fist Squad’s tactic. No matter who the opponent was, they pushed in honestly with strength.

And that was exactly why, when they faced an opponent they could not handle, they had no choice but to collapse this easily.

“Scatter!”

Pababak!

Watching the pugilists hurriedly retreat left and right, Jin-hyeon raised the Indestructible Sword above his head.

Ha Gye-gun growled low.

“You truly are remarkable! At your age, how could you…”

Flash!

A cross-shaped sword strike poured toward Ha Gye-gun. It was Cross Soul-Slash of the War-Sword Three Arts.

Ha Gye-gun cursed viciously inwardly and hurriedly used Jade Immortal Seal. As an internal heavy-hand method, its circulation of internal strength was smooth and elastic, making it perfectly suited to blocking edged weapons as well.

But.

Bang! Peoeok!

“Krrgh!”

Ha Gye-gun’s body slid back and only stopped after crashing into the pugilists.

‘This is insane!’

Among the elders, his martial arts were the weakest, but his achievement in Iron Qi Art was the greatest. Since there were many eyes watching, he couldn’t draw on the Corpse-Stiffening Art, but with Iron Qi Art alone, he boasted a body nearly impervious to blades.

And yet he had suffered a serious cut on his palm, as if even the Jade Immortal Seal raised to its peak had failed to dissolve the force. If not for the Iron Qi Art, that strike would have blown away his palm, torn open his sternum, and left him hovering at death’s door.

“Charge in!”

He had just told them to fall back, and now he was telling them to charge in again.

But it was an elder’s order. The pugilists who had scattered in all directions each brought out their decisive techniques and attacked Jin-hyeon.

And at that moment.

Whoosh!

Jin-hyeon stepped back with Heavenly Evasion Steps, took Lee Hoe’s flank, and seized the nape of his neck.

“Keuk!”

Lee Hoe instinctively tried to twist his body and thrust out his fist, but in that instant, he felt his body go numb.

The pressure tightening from the back of his neck was tremendous. In an instant, his face turned blue and his limbs stiffened.

The dark sky turned pure white.

Lee Hoe felt death closing in.

‘No!’

Peoeok!

The Indestructible Sword cruelly stabbed into his back and burst out after piercing straight through Lee Hoe’s spine, heart, lungs, and sternum.

“!!”

The pugilists about to rush in gulped without realizing it.

With murderous blue aura spilling from him, Jin-hyeon held the Vice Unit Leader by the neck and glared back over his shoulder, his eyes like a wild beast’s.

They were the eyes of a cruel, tenacious beast that seemed as if it would chase them down no matter how many days they fled, catch them in the end, and bite the back of their necks to kill them.

“What are you doing?!”

Ha Gye-gun shouted as he hurriedly bound his blood-soaked hand with cloth.

“Kill him! Kill him!”

“Uaaaaah!”

As the pugilists charged while screaming a sound that could have been either shriek or battle cry, intense qi waves burst from their bodies.

They were charging toward death while embracing fear. Since they rushed in without resolving that fear, their bodies tensed, and the qi waves they released grew stronger than necessary.

In Jin-hyeon’s eyes, their forms were full of openings.

‘This is why you need to meet the right leader.’

Anyone with real battle experience would have ordered a retreat by now. They had even suffered a surprise attack from the courtesan house, so they should have considered the possibility that other forces were hidden as well.

But in Ha Gye-gun’s head, there was only Jin-hyeon.

Because his presence was far too great, and what he had done was far too impressive.

And because he had even wounded an elder of the Cheongyang Association, Ha Gye-gun could not retreat.

And that judgment of his decided the battle on Manguwi Street’s Third Street.

Puhwaaaak!

The Heavenly Wolf Rouse Qi vibrating through the blade exploded and called forth a bloody wind across the street.

Their vision turned red in an instant. The pugilists’ complexions went pale.

And Jin-hyeon, taking advantage of that opening, used Heavenly Evasion Steps from a low stance.

Flash! Flash! Tududududuk.

The heads of more than ten men in the vanguard were cut cleanly off and fell.

The loose blue energy that had wrapped around Jin-hyeon’s body like mist as he passed through the vanguard at tremendous speed turned deep blue.

Peobeobeobeobeok!

It was a chained series of two-handed sword slashes. Using Heavenly Wolf True Qi raised to the limit, he simply swung quickly and decisively without any sword form, and the pugilists’ limbs were severed.

Haaa.

White breath poured from Jin-hyeon’s mouth.

Hup.

The moment he held his breath, Ten Steps, Certain Death unfolded.

Flash! Peok!

He advanced, piercing through the bodies of three pugilists near the courtesan house as if skewering them.

“Uaaap!”

Bang!

As Jin-hyeon shook the pugilists away with a shout, Ha Gye-gun flew through the air and unleashed a chained technique of Jade Wave Divine Fist, Jade Immortal Seal, and Rock-Crushing Five Palms.

It was a powerful attack that would shatter the bones of even a master several levels higher if they failed to block it properly. It was indeed martial arts worthy of an elder of the Cheongyang Association, the foremost faction of Sichuan.

Jin-hyeon’s left hand shot out like lightning.

With Heavenly Wolf Engage Qi pushed to the extreme, he gathered the fist wind and palm force together, then tilted his arm to the left.

The act of tilting it itself took great strength. That meant the explosive-force technique Ha Gye-gun had gathered and released was that strong and heavy.

Kwakwa-kwaang!

As soon as he changed the flow of the explosive force with Heavenly Wolf Engage Qi, he burst the gathered energy with Heavenly Wolf Unbind Qi. Five or six pugilists nearby were swept up in the explosive force, spat blood, and collapsed.

Tuoong! Seogeok!

Ha Gye-gun instinctively kicked off the courtesan house wall and twisted his body, but the Indestructible Sword swung even faster and cut across his side.

Burning pain and a chilling sense of danger narrowed Ha Gye-gun’s vision to the extreme.

‘We can’t win!’

There were not even twenty surviving Divine Fist Squad members left.

In something truly unbelievable, the Divine Fist Squad, elites of the Cheongyang Association, had collapsed at the hands of this mad white-haired sword ghost.

Even if the opponent were a master stronger than himself, Ha Gye-gun had been confident he could somehow win if they fought together. But with the subordinates who should have fought with him reduced to this state, there was almost no chance of a reversal.

‘Those dog-like bastards! How can they all be this stupid?!’

If they had cut in at the right places and disrupted Jin-hyeon’s martial forms, even Jin-hyeon would not have been able to defeat the pugilists this quickly.

But Ha Gye-gun could not think of his own mistakes. Like incompetent defeated generals so often did, he thought this situation had been caused by the poor quality of his subordinates.

And seeing Ha Gye-gun like that, Jin-hyeon felt somewhat relieved.

Ha Suk-heon was somewhat better, but seeing Ha Jun and Ha Gye-gun, it seemed he would be able to deal with the Cheongyang Association more easily than expected.

Pabababak!

Ha Gye-gun rolled across the ground, rose, and immediately threw himself toward the entrance he had come through. He was fleeing, abandoning the surviving pugilists.

A powerful explosion erupted beneath Jin-hyeon’s feet.

Paaaaang!

Jin-hyeon flew like a gale, caught up to Ha Gye-gun, and stabbed him in the side.

“Krrgh!”

The Indestructible Sword stabbed in, then pulled free. Ha Gye-gun endured the pain and ran again.

A moment later.

Puhwaaaak!

The North Wind sword force that had burrowed into his organs ground up all his viscera.

Ha Gye-gun collapsed in terrible agony.

And he never rose again.