Chapter 174 : Jaseung, Starts the Fight

Chapter 174: Jaseung, Starts the Fight

Lee Jaseung devoted himself to securing control of the Murim Alliance from within. As many young and upright figures were appointed, a new wind blew through the Alliance.

He met them one by one and forged a new bond between lord and vassal. When he resolved to approach them in earnest, many showed favor and swore loyalty.

Even so, he did not try to change everything at once. Since he had appointed new people, he sought stability by promoting capable veterans as well.

To dispel the impression that he was too young and therefore unreliable, he made active use of Sa Jo-pyeong and Yeo Beom. On top of that, the Demonic Cult and the backing forces showed no movement, so he could focus solely on internal Alliance affairs.

Amid those busy days, Lee Jaseung met Cheon Myeongin in a hidden place.

“Here is this month’s Revival Pill.”

Cheon Myeongin accepted the medicine that Lee Jaseung held out.

“Thanks.”

He took the pill on the spot. That showed how much he trusted Lee Jaseung.

“Mountain disappeared. Do you know anything about his whereabouts?”

“We are searching as well.”

“Did you know he had been serving as the head cook in the Alliance’s inner hall?”

Cheon Myeongin’s eyes widened as he asked again.

“Is that true?”

“It is.”

“He really is a remarkable man. If I had known, I would have taken care of him during the last cleanup.”

“Be careful. He is no ordinary opponent.”

“Thanks.”

“Think nothing of it. But I do have one question.”

“What is it?”

“Why did you ask to meet here?”

They were speaking in a remote place quite far from the Murim Alliance. A lone empty hut stood in the middle of the forest, and that was where they had arranged to meet.

“I looked for a place without prying eyes, and this is what I found. Why? Is there a problem?”

“No.”

“Let us go then.”

Cheon Myeongin stepped outside first.

Lee Jaseung watched his back with an unusual look in his eyes.

Cheon Myeongin, who had walked out across the field, stopped and spoke as if something had just occurred to him.

“Ah, there is one more reason actually.”

He turned slightly and spoke in a cold voice.

“Because it is the perfect place to kill you.”

Before the words finished, warriors stepped out from behind the surrounding trees.

They were elite masters from the backing forces who served Mountain. Fire and White Flower, Yin and Yang, Bird and Beast, Iron and Sea, Void and Pine. More than half of the absolute core of the backing forces had gathered.

Their numbers had shrunk because many masters had died in the recent Demonic Cult attack, but even this group alone was formidable.

They were masters Mountain had been forced to mobilize under Yao Hong’s pressure.

They were not alone. Behind them stood thirty more figures in black masks.

Each of those thirty was also a master of Peak Ream, second only to the elites up front. If Fire and White Flower’s group was the first wave, these were the second.

Even they would have been an overwhelming force, yet figures from another side stepped into view.

At their center stood the Elder Demon Lord.

His presence overwhelmed everyone gathered there.

Beside him stood the Four Demon Lords who followed him. It was said that if the four attacked together, even the Elder Demon Lord would not be easy to face. They were absolute masters of the Demonic Cult.

Everyone fixed their gaze on Lee Jaseung. The pressure was immense, but Lee Jaseung remained calm. Even back in the hut he had sensed the gathering auras outside and had known this meeting was a trap.

Lately he had moved without bodyguards. He had assigned all escorts to Baek Seolyoung.

At his current realm, any situation he could not resolve himself would not be solved by escorts. Their presence would only add needless sacrifice.

Lee Jaseung looked at Cheon Myeongin and spoke.

“I no longer offer you any indulgence.”

This was the moment he cut away the last shred of sentiment he had allowed because of Yim Sayeon.

“I expected that. But it does not matter, since you are going to die here anyway.”

“You need Revival Pills as well to live.”

“If you die, I was promised a one year Revival Pill. The Demonic Cult was far more generous than the Black Way Alliance.”

He was mocking the way Revival Pill had been supplied to him one month at a time.

“And what if I don’t die? Will they still give a one year supply?”

When Lee Jaseung asked, Cheon Myeongin glanced around.

There stood the Demonic Cult’s Vice Leader, the Four Demon Lords whose combined assault could match him, ten masters at Transcendent Peak Realm, and thirty Peak Realm masters.

“I know very well that you are strong. But not strong enough to handle all of us. Farewell.”

As he turned away, Lee Jaseung spoke in an icy voice.

“There are three reasons I will not kill you here. The first is your relationship with your mother. The second is that you plotted this to strike when I was alone.”

If he had tried to seize Baek Seolyoung as a hostage while she was with him, he would have killed Cheon Myeongin here regardless of any bond with Yim Sayeon.

But Cheon Myeongin had aimed only at him alone.

Cheon Myeongin asked with a curious look.

“What is the third?”

“I meant to hunt them all down one by one, but since you gathered them neatly in one place, I am grateful.”

Cheon Myeongin’s expression turned absurd, then he burst out laughing.

“Hahahaha. I understand, I do. Things are bad enough that you must boast like that, yes.”

Leaving Lee Jaseung behind, Cheon Myeongin departed.

‘Even if your skill reaches above the heavens, it all ends here for you.’

No trace of apology touched his mind. In the end, theirs had always been a relationship of mutual deception and use.

Once he was gone, the Elder Demon Lord finally spoke.

“Brat, did you really destroy the Eternal Life Buddha?”

Lee Jaseung gave a faint laugh and answered.

“Why ask? From the way you brought a pack of dogs, you already seem to believe it, no?”

Everyone’s faces hardened all at once. The warriors of the backing forces, called a pack of dogs, bore killing intent as one.

The Elder Demon Lord grinned and spoke to them.

“All right, you pack of dogs. That young brat swallowed not only the Black Way Alliance, but the Murim Alliance. If you cannot bite properly, you all go in the pot. Hahaha.”

At that, thirty of the backing force masters who had been standing in the rear stepped forward. Ringing him in, they carried an aura that was anything but ordinary.

They were not common masters scattered through Jianghu. In this secret organization, they had spent years assassinating people. They were professional killers. When an order came, they killed everyone, women and children alike.

“Huup.”

As if inhaling the air, Lee Jaseung drew in the killing intent they exuded.

That killing will an opponent emits before a fight always made the chest tremble. Lee Jaseung always enjoyed that pleasant tension.

Slowly, he drew his Asura.

Today’s battle would not be easy.

The enemy numbers were meaningless. Victory and defeat depended on how completely one focused on the fight.

He only needed to trust his effort, his experience, and his instincts.

It began with one question. Whom to kill first?

As the corner of Lee Jaseung’s mouth curled in a cold smile, the fight began.

In a flash of light he was already upon the warriors closing from the left.

Thud! Thud!

Two men spewed blood and fell. A man nearby lunged with his sword.

Slash.

Asura split the air and took his head. The cut was clean and precise.

“Oh! Not bad huh?”

The Elder Demon Lord licked his lips with an excited look. His body reacted at the sight of Lee Jaseung’s movements. It was the response one felt when meeting a worthy foe.

“Kill him by working together!”

Having lost three in an instant, the rest charged at once.

Twisting his body, Lee Jaseung slipped through the rain of attacks from every side.

He seized an opening and drove into their ranks.

Swish! Thud!

Another man flipped backward and fell.

Attacks poured in again. He evaded in bursts, then struck without warning.

Each time he attacked, an enemy dropped without fail.

In truth, Lee Jaseung could have ended them faster.

But he dispatched them only at a speed that the onlookers could still follow.

He did it to lull them into complacency.

At this speed, even Fire and the other nine elites could follow his movements clearly. They watched with the mindset that if it were them, they would respond like this and like that.

Lee Jaseung was certain.

Those from the Demonic Cult had no interest in the lives of the backing forces. They wanted to use them to drain his inner Qi.

Even the backing force warriors themselves cared little for their comrades’ lives. They did not move as one unified body. They were a secret band hired and used as mercenaries, and that was a fatal limitation.

Lee Jaseung used that fact to the fullest.

If the enemy had been a cohesive unit, this fight would have been several times harder.

Thud! Thud!

They fell one by one in a steady rhythm. He evaded all attacks by hairbreadths.

More than once the men clicked their tongues at how close they had come.

But Lee Jaseung did not get caught. Instead, he cut down over twenty men.

The ten who remained were terrified. There was a gulf between watching and fighting.

They could plainly track his movement with their eyes, yet they never caught him. It clearly looked like something they could avoid, yet they were struck and fell, a situation that defied understanding.

They looked back with frightened eyes, seeking help, but no one moved.

When the lips are gone, the teeth grow cold, yet they simply stood by and watched.

They thought of the words, “Perhaps.”

Perhaps his skill was far beyond what they had imagined.

Perhaps they should step in now and help?

Perhaps…

Yet no one stepped forward. It remained only a “perhaps.”

After a few dozen more exchanges, the first thirty masters lay fallen.

Standing alone among the corpses, Lee Jaseung looked over the survivors.

The ten named elites probably were thinking that they could still take him down themselves, and the Elder Demon Lord likely thought that he could defeat someone of that level with little effort.

Indeed, the Elder Demon Lord was thinking exactly that.

‘How did he break Eternal Life Buddha with that level of skill? Did those bastards trick us?’

The Four Demon Lords, next strongest after him, thought much the same. They judged that they could handle him alone.

Of the ten named elites, the first to step forward was Fire, the one with the quickest temper.

Kwooooosh!

Fire unleashed a surge of force and attacked Lee Jaseung. It was far faster and more powerful than anything the earlier men had shown.

Lee Jaseung slipped past the force and charged at Fire.

Shaaak!

As if waiting for that moment, Fire’s sword lanced toward Lee Jaseung’s heart.

In that instant, Lee Jaseung’s speed increased. It surpassed the speed with which he had cut down the thirty before.

Whooosh. Slice.

They crossed, and the sounds of wind and cleaved flesh spread together.

“Gasp!”

“Oh no!”

That was the general reaction. Only Iron failed to react that way.

Having severed Fire’s neck with a single stroke, Lee Jaseung rushed straight on and drove Asura into Iron’s heart. No one had expected him to launch a sudden follow-up like that.

Startled, Iron smashed out a fist. It was a brutal strike, but Lee Jaseung was still faster. He skimmed past by a hair and drove his dagger into Iron’s flank again and again.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Screams erupted one after another.

Mortally wounded, Iron twisted his body and punched again. With his power and speed now drastically reduced, he could not catch Lee Jaseung.

Thump!

At the fourth thrust, Asura pierced his heart.

He spewed blood and collapsed backward. Fire and Iron died in succession in the span of a blink.

The backing force elites turned ashen. Given the strength of those two, it should have been impossible.

What truly frightened them was not that Lee Jaseung had grown faster and stronger than before.

It was his demeanor.

He was calm. Too calm. He did not waste emotion. He did not fling anger, killing intent, or crude curses at his enemies. He simply felled them one after another with the composure of a man plowing a field or felling a tree.

More frightening still, he gave them no time to think deeply.

Having dispatched the two, Lee Jaseung sprang again. His target was White Flower, the woman Fire had loved.

Lee Jaseung did not go easy on her because she was a woman.

Shrrrrk!

Her signature whip laced the air sharper than any sword, stitching patterns across the sky.

But that was all.

Unless Lee Jaseung allowed himself to be struck, that dazzling, splendid technique amounted to nothing more than an empty spectacle.

Slaaash!

Asura split her chest.

She spurted blood and crumpled where she stood.

Lee Jaseung wiped the spatter from his face with a smooth motion.

At that sight, the remaining warriors felt a chill of dread.

He looked down at Asura, its edge dripping blood.

Whether the situation left no choice but to kill, or whether the foe was a villain who had to die, cutting down a person was still a brutal task.

Perhaps because of that, the blade seemed to ask him a question.

On this path of slaughter where you kill and are killed, can you keep from losing yourself?

Lee Jaseung’s gaze, reflected in the blade, grew deep.

How could anyone be certain, when this path demanded wading through a field of blood like this?

At that moment, another face rose in the dagger and overlapped his own.

Baek Seolyoung was smiling brightly.

Thinking of her, Lee Jaseung smiled without meaning to.

The onlookers flinched. A man smiling faintly at a blood-soaked dagger while drenched in gore was a terrifying sight.

Even though Lee Jaseung now moved much faster than at the start, the Elder Demon Lord stayed relaxed.

“That one is truly insane huh?”

One of the Four Demon Lords replied respectfully to the Elder Demon Lord.

“What can you expect from an Unorthodox cur? They live thinking that’s a cool thing to do.”

Hearing that, Lee Jaseung smiled again.

He adjusted his grip on Asura. Now the blade he let hang reflected only the bodies strewn around him.

The real fight began now.