Chapter 126 : Chapter 126

Chapter 126. Ambush (1)

After bidding farewell to Brother Sama and the prodigies, we left Anui.

“Let’s resume our training in earnest.”

Although I had trained consistently while with the prodigies, I felt a slight sense of regret as I had to match their pace.

I also mimicked the techniques of the Life and Death Blood Steps, just as when I had performed the half-baked Flying on Water.

In addition to the movement art, energy surged out through my Surging Fountain Acupoint.

Boom! Boom!!

With each step, the ground exploded, and my body shot forward like an arrow.

After running for some time, I turned back to see my companions had become mere dots in the distance.

From then on, I wielded my sword while waiting for them.

“Haaah. Whoo.”

After concentrating my mind to its limits, I slowly swung the Restoring Name Sword.

In response, the sword qi gathered on the Restoring Name Sword spread out gently.

For how long had I been drawing the Moonlight in the air with sword qi?

Just as a gentle pain shot through my head, the sword qi scattered.

“Whoo.”

It wasn’t that my concentration was broken by the headache.

It was because if my head were to explode during training, as the Tang Clan bastard said, there would be no death more pathetic.

But with consistent training, my head would gradually get used to it.

Shaking off my impatience, I once again swung the Restoring Name Sword.

Unlike when performing the Moonlight Coiling Sword, a series of powerful sword strikes followed one after another.

It was the Heavenly Wind Sword Art, whose forms and principles I had been consistently memorizing.

Since I hadn't started training it long ago, the flow broke from time to time.

When the flow broke after a series of strikes had built up considerable power, I would sometimes suffer internal injuries.

Whenever the flow broke like that, I thought of Hyeok Ilso.

Although he was a man I had already killed, there was much to learn from him. At least when it came to martial arts.

I wielded my sword, recalling the sight of him mixing the Life and Death Blood Steps, the Heavenly Wind Sword Art, and even the Shadowless Blood Flash Sword.

“As expected, trash only becomes useful to the world after death.”

With such thoughts.

As I trained with my sword alone like that, my companions would eventually draw near.

At those times, I would also watch over their training.

The second technique mimicking the Life and death Blood steps, the Absorption Art, I had not yet begun to train.

Releasing qi was a relatively easy technique, but the Absorption Art felt too early to attempt yet.

I planned to start training it along with the five forms of the Sun Moon Infinite Sword once I became proficient enough to perfectly execute the Moonlight Coiling Sword.

***

Around the time the sun was setting, we arrived at a village with a small dock.

To cross over to our destination, Zhejiang, it was faster to cross Poyang Lake by boat than to take the long land route around it.

After finding the dock where a few rowboats were moored, I asked a boatman there.

“Excuse me, can we cross Poyang Lake now?”

The old boatman shook his head.

“To cross this large lake takes at least three shichen. The sun will set soon, and if we cross now, we might become water ghosts.”

I asked other boatmen just in case, but they all shook their heads.

In the meantime, the sky was gradually growing dark.

“Then what about departing at dawn tomorrow?”

“If it’s departing at dawn, that’s more than possible.”

In the end, we arranged for a boat to depart at dawn the next day and headed to a nearby inn.

After spending the night at the inn, early the next morning, we had a simple breakfast that we had requested in advance and left the inn.

On the way to the dock, the Tang Clan bastard muttered with a peculiar expression.

“Hmm. The fog seems to be quite thick.”

Whether it was because we were near a large lake or because it was dawn, a watery mist had settled, blurring our vision.

Even including my past life experiences, it seemed to be the first time I had ever seen such a thick fog.

It felt as if I were treading a high mountain path rather than flat ground.

“Is Poyang Lake usually this foggy?”

I shook my head at my junior sister’s question.

I had passed through this place several times in my past life, but this was the first time I had seen such a thick fog.

“Won’t it be difficult for the boat to depart if the fog is this thick?”

“Let’s go and see first. If the boat doesn’t depart, we’ll just travel by land.”

“Haaah. I thought I could travel a bit comfortably for once.”

The Tang Clan bastard grumbled in disappointment.

He was a petty person, as expected.

I had hoped the fog would gradually thin as the sun rose and it got a little warmer, but instead, it only grew thicker with time.

By the time we reached the vicinity of the dock, it was now so foggy that I couldn't even see my companions right next to me.

“It seems we’ll have to just go back. Just in case, let’s all hold onto each other’s clothes.”

Right after muttering that, I realized something was strange.

My vision was almost completely obscured, so I tried to grasp my companions' positions by their presence.

But even though they were right next to me, their presence was faint.

The lack of vision and the presence were clearly separate issues.

I quickly drew the Restoring Name Sword and shouted.

“It’s a formation! Stand back-to-back and be on your guard!”

The moment my companions moved hastily at my shout, a dagger, approaching without a trace of presence, flew toward my neck.

I quickly twisted my upper body to dodge it, and the dagger grazed past the nape of my neck.

I swung the Restoring Name Sword in the direction the dagger had come from.

Swish!!

A very faint cutting sound, as if something was being sliced, flowed out.

Beyond the white fog that filled the surroundings, a faint splash of red blood appeared and then vanished.

Yet, no groan was heard.

Hastily stopping the bleeding on my nape, which had been very lightly grazed, I shouted.

“It’s coated with poison, so be careful!”

At the same time, small sounds came from my side and behind me.

Clang!

“I, I almost got hit in the eye.”

“Keuk. Dammit.”

“I’m sorry, Senior Brother.”

I stood back-to-back with my companions. I examined their situation through the thick fog.

It seemed Nam Geon had quickly closed his eyes to avoid the surprise attack.

My junior sister was only grazed very lightly on her forearm. The Tang Clan bastard, though not seriously injured, was bleeding quite a bit.

As if his pride was hurt, the Tang Clan bastard gritted his teeth and said.

“Whoo. Don’t worry. A poison of this level is nothing to me.”

My junior sister also seemed to be staunching the bleeding from her slight cut and expelling the poison.

While I was checking on my companions, this time, small hidden weapons like needles flew in from all directions.

Because of the dense mist that filled the area, I could only realize their existence when the hidden weapons were right in front of my nose.

“Ge-get behind me!”

Nam Geon wildly moved his arms and legs to protect my junior sister and the Tang Clan bastard.

I, too, swung the Restoring Name Sword wide, forming a sword screen.

The sound of metal clashing rang out repeatedly from all directions.

“It seems they are properly trained assassins.”

I could tell just by the way they fought.

One peculiar thing was that they were even utilizing a formation.

Formation and assassins. The combination of these two seemingly fitting yet unfitting words brought the name of a certain group to mind.

“I was wondering how I should find them.”

Red Moon Falling Flowers.

The strongest and worst group of assassins in the Jianghu, led by the Killing Demon, one of the future Seven Evils.

Thanks to a peerless master who survived their attack, such a rumor had circulated in the Jianghu.

The reason Red Moon Falling Flowers had succeeded in their assassinations without leaving any traces was because they utilized formations.

But unfortunately, that master lost his life a few days after spreading the rumor.

Whether it was because he had spread their secret, or because his subordinates had failed in their mission, the leader of Red Moon Falling Flowers, the Killing Demon, personally stepped forward and killed him.

Perhaps to spread the infamy of Red Moon Falling Flowers, the Killing Demon would commit a peculiar act unbecoming of an assassin.

After disposing of the target, he would always leave the character for ‘Flower’ on the neck of the beheaded corpse.

In other words, it was only after the Killing Demon had killed someone that one would know he had acted.

Other than that, there were no other traces that could identify the Killing Demon.

Only the rumor that the Killing Demon was a woman circulated.

A story told by gossips.

According to the rumor, which you could believe or not, a request was made to Red Moon Falling Flowers to kill the Lecher.

The Killing Demon personally took on the task but failed to kill the Lecher.

However, the Lecher also spared the Killing Demon and let him go.

This was because the Killing Demon was a woman.

It was a rumor of that sort, and it was quite a plausible one.

Unlike my junior sister now, the Lecher at that time was a madwoman who killed any man without a second thought.

As I recalled the master who was killed by that Killing Demon, my anger suddenly flared up again.

That master, too, was a man who had made a name for himself as a chivalrous hero.

Assassins were human butchers who hunted people for money without any personal grudges.

Among those who commissioned killings with money, there were some with pitiful stories, but the majority were trash.

In the end, it meant that most of those hunted by the damn Red Moon Falling Flowers were chivalrous heroes who opposed the Underworld.

Suddenly, the conversation I had with Brother Sama two days ago came to mind.

Brother Sama would continue to nurture chivalrous heroes in the future.

But what if those trashy Red Moon Falling Flowers bastards hunted down all those aspiring chivalrous heroes?

I could never let that happen.

“I’ll clean you all up.”

Because I’m a mysophobe.

I will become the janitor who cleans up irredeemable trash in advance, and I will be the henchman of Yama who throws the demons hiding in the human world into the bottomless pit of hell.

Even as I recalled that resolve, hidden weapons continued to fly from beyond the thick fog.

Clang!

Was a formation truly a formation?

It wasn't just about obscuring vision.

I couldn't feel the presences around me, and at some point, my hearing also became dull.

I could barely hear the voices of my companions right next to me, and I could hardly feel their presence.

As if mimicking the Lion's Roar of Shaolin that I had only heard of in rumors, I infused my internal energy and shouted at the top of my lungs.

“Hold your positions! Don’t move too much, you might cut a comrade!”

As I shouted, another hidden weapon flew in.

Clang!

I continued to form a sword screen to block them, but the situation was not good.

The sword screen was a technique that consumed a lot of internal energy. I couldn't keep forming it forever.

But if I were to protect only myself, that foolish Tang Clan bastard would likely get injured again like before.

“Whoo.”

I calmed my breathing, pushing away my impatience and anxiety.

I withdrew the sword screen and focused my mind.

A very subtle presence that could only be felt when it came right up to me.

Clang!

I chased that presence and swung the Restoring Name Sword here and there.

For a moment, I shook off all distracting thoughts and focused only on the sword.

At some point, the second eye opened.

Beyond the fog that painted everything white, a sight of whitish skeins of thread moving back and forth came into view.

It was the energy flowing through the assassins' bodies.

But what felt even more bizarre was the flow of natural qi.

It was completely different from the flow of natural qi I had seen so far.

The skeins of qi that filled the surroundings were moving unnaturally.

The only problem was that I was a complete amateur when it came to formations.

Even looking at the flow of those skeins, I couldn't tell what this formation was, or where its life and death gates were.

But I couldn't just give up because I didn't know.

I had to figure out the rule by which the unnatural flow of qi was connected.

Clang!

As I was deflecting the hidden weapons flying from all directions and observing the flow of qi, a sneer escaped my lips without me realizing it.

“What a fool.”

It was a self-deprecating sneer.

I hadn't figured out the rule of the formation.

I had just realized there was no need to.

I promptly sent a sound transmission to my companions.

- I'm going to break the formation, so the three of you stay back-to-back and hold on.

I couldn't see my companions as they were hidden by the fog, but thanks to the second eye, it wasn't difficult to send a sound transmission to their ears.

After leaving a warning-slash-request to my companions, I launched myself using my movement art.

I wasn't moving in a straight line.

Nor had I figured out the identity of the formation.

Fwoosh.

What I had observed was something else.

It was the assassins moving about freely within the formation.

Swish!

The paths they took were, of course, the life gates.