Chapter 127 Sichuan Assassin Sect – Part 1

Chapter 127: Sichuan Assassin Sect – Part 1

It was around noon when Zhen Shizhi, the third of the Seven Assassins and a top-tier assassin of Sichuan’s Dead River Assassin Sect—which prided itself as the finest assassin sect in Sichuan Province—received the request.

“The target… is Xianyu Jin, the Heavenly Black Wolf?”

The messenger from Sichuan Assassins bowed his head in response to his question.

“Yes, he was the third son of the Xianwu Clan of Guizhou—a disgrace to the clan, rumored to be more pig than warrior. But after joining the Flying Dragon Corps early this year, he recently made a name for himself by slaying Hei Shangfang’s supreme master, Dong Paijing, one of the Eight Great Masters of Guizhou.”

At those words, Jeon Seok-ji frowned and asked back.

“He killed a peak master? Surely you’re not implying that Xian Wu Jin himself is a peak master?”

“Well… yes. According to the client’s information, he’s estimated to be a peak master with at least seventy years of cultivation.”

Then, in an instant, Jeon Seok-ji’s eyes transformed into the venomous gaze of a snake, and he asked again.

“…So you’re telling me you accepted a request to kill a master whose internal energy cultivation surpasses seventy years?”

Jeon Seok-jil’s gaze gradually turned colorless, like glass, devoid of any emotion.

It was like looking into the eyes of a doll.

But the messenger knew.

That expression, devoid of any outwardly released killing intent or visible emotion on his face, was precisely Jeon Seok-jil’s look just before he killed someone.

The messenger urgently bowed his head low and shouted frantically.

It was a swift response made possible because I anticipated Jeon Seok-ji would react that way.

“It was Lord Moonju’s order! He said to assign the fifth and sixth guards, use as many men as needed, and just give it a try! He also said it was an order impossible to refuse! And if it truly proved too much, he permitted us to retreat! He even said he’d call in the seventh guard…”

Only after hearing those words did emotion return to Jeon Seok-ji’s eyes.

The color of that emotion was interest.

“Hmm, no personnel limits, and he’ll attach the Fifth and Sixth Sages. If that’s not enough, even the Seventh Sage? The Lord must have been in a real hurry.”

Only after seeing Jeon Seok-jil muttering to himself like that could the messenger finally breathe a sigh of relief inwardly.

Jeon Seok-ji suddenly asked again.

“So, the target’s location and the execution site?”

The messenger bowed his head and replied.

“They say they departed from Sichuan’s Shichuan Hall this morning and are heading toward Xianwu Street in Guiyang, Guizhou Province. Since they’re said to be masters of the Divine Law, we expect them to pass through here tomorrow morning. However, they also relayed a message to prepare in advance, as they might arrive sooner than that.”

At his words, Jeon Seok-ji nodded calmly, as if understanding.

“Got it. I’ll report once the exact location is confirmed.”

But the next contact from Jeon Seok-jil came much sooner than expected.

Before half an hour had passed, the messenger rushed back to him, shouting urgently.

“You need to prepare immediately! The birds lost his trail! They said his speed was too fast to keep up with. It seems he anticipated an attack and is moving swiftly! They relayed that if he maintains that pace, he’ll pass through this area by tonight!”

Jeon Seok-ji asked in disbelief.

“What? He says he can get from the capital to here in Naegang in half a day? Does he think he’s some kind of flying bird? And it’s not even a definite ‘he’s coming,’ but just ‘he might be able to come’? We don’t even know his exact location. So what exactly does he expect us to do? Does he want us to consult a fortune-teller to find him?”

The messenger hesitated, bowing his head as he replied.

“Well… he just said not to blame him if it fails, just to do our best…”

At that, Jeon Seok-jil let out a hollow laugh, as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, and fell into thought for a moment.

‘I can’t find the bastard. Then… I’ll just have to make him come to me. Since he called himself a swordsman, I’ll have to target that aspect.’

Having made up his mind, Jeon Seok-jil spoke quickly.

“Gather men. As many as possible. And prepare the O-sal and Yuk-sal.”

“Yes! Understood!”

***

The method Jeon Seok-jil devised was to attack innocent people.

Jeon Seok-jil reasoned that if a man named Seon Woo-jin were racing toward his exile destination via the shortest route from the capital, he would inevitably pass through the Guan Pass. And since he was said to be a rogue, wouldn’t he inevitably get involved if he started ambushing travelers on the pass?

Of course, this plan could only fail if Seon Woo-jin took a different route than the Guandu Pass, or if he saw innocent people being attacked and chose to ignore it.

Jeon Seok-jil, of course, considered that possibility entirely plausible.

‘It’s entirely possible. Most so-called knights-errant are nothing but hypocrites.’

But there was no other way.

If he still couldn’t find the bastard after doing all this, then there was truly nothing else he could do—that was Jeon Seok-jil’s thinking.

Therefore, Jeon Seok-jil had already ordered the assassins of the Ssacheon Sect to attack the caravan for the third time this evening.

Because of this, the Guan Pass was now filled with the stench of blood and the echoes of screams.

“Aaah! My arm! S-save me, please!”

“Aaargh! My eye! My eye!”

“No, no! I’ll give you everything! Just spare my life!”

“My daughter is still a child! Just this child, please!”

POW!

“Aaargh!”

“No! My child!”

“Save me!”

The caravan, ambushed by over forty masked assassins, was filled with agonized screams and voices begging for mercy.

This was due to Jeon Seok-jil’s order to kill people as cruelly and slowly as possible.

The assassins followed his orders, slowly torturing the caravan members by cutting off their limbs, eyes, noses, and mouths one by one. The victims wailed pitifully, begging for their lives, before dying.

Yet the eyes of the executioners killing them were emotionless, as if merely processing routine tasks.

Jeon Seok-jil watched the scene unfold from a corner, his face equally expressionless.

‘This merchant caravan is almost finished too.’

Most of the caravan members were now dead.

It seemed he would have to find another target now.

In the end, this raid too had been a meaningless massacre.

But he wasn’t particularly disappointed.

He had started early just in case, never expecting that Sunwoojin would show up so soon.

‘If he showed up here already, he’d be more like a bird than a man.’

By Jeon Seok-ji’s estimation, it would likely pass by tonight at the earliest, or perhaps not until tomorrow morning at the latest.

But that meant we’d have to keep doing this all night long, or even until tomorrow morning if it got bad.

Killing innocent people like this, slowly and painfully.

Though that fact should have been utterly repulsive, Jeon Seok-jil had no thoughts about it whatsoever.

Patience is one of the virtues assassins must master first.

As the third-ranked assassin of the Four Heavenly Assassins, not just any assassin, Jeon Seok-ji had no reason to waste even a shred of emotion on such things.

He waited quietly without the slightest sign of irritation until the merchants were completely wiped out.

That was when it happened.

“Stop!”

A clear voice rang out from somewhere, and someone flew in like a shooting star.

It was a speed like a beam of light, a stunning technique even Jeon Seok-jil, who was quite confident in his own skills, had never seen before.

He couldn’t even make out the opponent’s face.

Shwaaah!

‘!’

The instant Jeon Seok-ji recognized his arrival, he had already become a streak of light, darting past a dozen assassins.

A lingering purple-black sword light trailed behind him like a shooting star.

Then, a beat later, blood erupted from the assassins’ bodies like explosions.

Puhwaak!

As if deliberately choreographed, crimson streams of blood simultaneously spurted into the air like fountains, creating a scene that was nothing short of spectacular.

Gulp!

Hidden in the shadows, Jeon Seok-jil found himself involuntarily swallowing hard.

In all his years as an assassin, he had never witnessed such a swift strike.

‘Is that… even possible?’

He couldn’t believe it.

The ordinary assassins Jeon Seok-ji brought numbered over forty, half of whom were already dead.

This happened within mere breaths of recognizing the swordsman’s presence.

Filling the space like an illusion, the violet-hued sword light left the assassins unable to even attempt a counterattack.

Then, one assassin cried out urgently.

“All of you, attack at once!”

He was the highest-ranking assassin present at the scene.

At his command, all the remaining assassins simultaneously lunged toward the man.

It was as if a curtain of humanity had descended upon him from all sides.

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Shwaaah!

Twenty sword lights, without a single battle cry, stabbed at him from all directions.

Then, Jeon Seok-jil could clearly witness it.

Probably the young swordsman Seon Woo-jin standing still in that spot, smiling faintly.

He was muttering something.

Having mastered lip-reading, Jeon Seok-jil could silently repeat the words he spoke.

‘Form is emptiness?’

The next moment.

Whoosh!

Dozens, hundreds of swords split apart like illusions around him, shooting out in all directions.

It was as if a sun had appeared, radiating a pale purple light across the entire world.

Puuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

It was but a single instant.

The assassins closing in on him all fell lifeless to the ground, covered in blood.

It was a silent massacre—not a single scream, not even the clang of swords.

Jeon Seok-jil, who had been watching, stood with his mouth agape, unable to close it.

And in that instant, Seon Woo-jin was already standing before the assassin who had given the order.

He asked the assassin, who looked utterly horrified.

“You didn’t even loot anything, yet you carry out massacres like this? What kind of people are you?”

The assassin, snapping back to his senses, gritted his teeth and demanded of Seonwoojin.

“Are you Seonwoo Jin?”

At those words, Seonwoo Jin’s eyes flickered.

“…So this was an attack meant for me?”

But there was no answer.

Before Seonwoo Jin could even finish his question, the man lunged like lightning and swung his sword down.

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

“!”

No, he had tried to strike down.

But his arm was severed before the blade could even fall.

POW!

Seon Woo-jin swiftly severed the assassin’s arm raised above his head, immediately sealed his pressure points, and asked again.

Thud!

“I’ll ask again. Who are you?”

The assassin glanced at the blood spurting from his severed arm and retorted with a sneer.

“Kkuk, hehehe, well, why should I tell you that?”

Even with both arms severed and acupoints sealed, the assassin’s gaze held no trace of surrender.

Rather, it was a look of satisfaction, as if he knew they had walked right into his trap.

And Jeon Seok-jil, who had been watching the scene from hiding, was also staring at Seon Woo-jin with a look of satisfaction.

Seon Woo-jin was indeed a remarkable master, but being young, he still seemed to lack experience.

To give the assassin that much time…

Jeon Seok-jil, watching from the side, saw the Six-Armed Sword Danmu preparing to strike.

Jeon Seok-jil shouted inwardly.

‘Go, Yuksal!’

Dotanmu, the Sixth Assassin of the Four Heavenly Assassins, was a dwarf whose body had stopped growing due to a rare disease.

His assassination specialty was pretending to be a child and the stealth technique of hiding behind another person’s body.

Thus, Dodaenmu was now clinging tightly to the back of the assassin standing before Seonwoojin.

Because Doh Dan-mu had the physique of a child, he was completely undetectable when viewed from the front.

Thus, unless he had been killed outright from the start, the moment Seonwoo Jin attempted dialogue while sparing him, he was no different from being caught in a trap set by a six-year-old.

As Yuksali aimed the dagger at the assassin’s back, preparing to strike, the assassin asked Seonwoojin again.

“Heh heh heh, tell me, won’t you? If I tell you, will you spare my life? If not, then there’s no reason for me to tell you…”

With that, the assassin grinned maliciously and secretly bit into the poison sac hidden in his mouth.

A pungent liquid spread rapidly. The assassin intended to spit it at Seonwoojin when he spoke next.

‘It’s your mistake for not sealing the vital point.’

Of course, it would be impossible to kill someone as skilled as Seon Woo-jin.

But it didn’t matter.

While distracting the enemy by unleashing that, the six-armed Dothanmu would strike the enemy from behind.

The enemy would never sense that attack coming.

It was at that moment, as the assassin thought this and waited for Seonwoo Jin’s opening,

Suddenly, Seonwoo Jin chuckled and asked.

“Oh? Then should I ask the guy behind you?”

“!”

In that instant, the assassin realized Seonwoo Jin knew about the existence of the sixth sense.

So it was just about to spit out the poison.

Yuksal, quicker to react, fired the ink sac first.

Pssst!

“Guh!”

The assassin couldn’t spit venom properly, overcome by the pain of the dagger piercing his heart and flying through the air.

So, with black liquid dripping from his mouth, he watched with blurring eyes.

He watched as Seonwoo Jin casually brushed aside the dart that had pierced his chest and flown away like a ray of light, as if he had known it would come.

And then, without hesitation, thrust his sword through his own chest.

Thud!

“!”

The assassin could tell by the faint tremor he felt in his back.

The sword piercing his chest had apparently gone right through his flesh.

In the end, that man, Seon Woo-jin, had understood them completely from the very beginning.

It was a complete failure.

Jeon Seok-jil watched the situation unfold and swallowed hard.

Cold sweat was running down his body.

He couldn’t fathom how he had possibly detected the presence of the sixth sense.

To his own eyes, the situation had seemed perfect.

Indeed, a peak master with over seventy years of cultivation was no ordinary opponent.

But Jeon Seok-jil was not disappointed.

Ossal and himself were still left.

He believed that even a master like O-sal, skilled in disguise and poison, could surely find an opening.

‘He’s not exactly my favorite guy, but Oh-sal has already taken down over ten peak masters. He’s still young and inexperienced, so he definitely has potential.’

Seon Woo-jin first dealt with all the visible assassins before surveying the surroundings.

The scene inside was horrific.

The people visible above were all either brutally murdered or dying with limbs severed.

“Ugh.”

“S-save me.”

“Waaah!”

Moans filled the air.

The realization that all this had been to lure him in made his teeth grind anew.

Seon Woo-jin scanned the room meticulously, but found almost no one he could save.

Most were people who needed their suffering ended by taking their lives now.

So, gritting his teeth, he pressed the blood vessels of those writhing in agony to end their suffering. He was gathering the few who could be saved to one side when…

Suddenly, a faint voice reached him.

“Hey, young man, save me.”

It was the voice of an old man who sounded as if he were nearly dying.

Seon Woo-jin looked toward the source of the sound and saw an old man pinned beneath a collapsed cart that had been carrying cargo.

His body was hidden by the cargo, which seemed to have been his lucky break, sparing him from the attackers.

Seon Woo-jin rushed over to rescue him.

Then, Ohsal Naengjidan, his face contorted as if dying beneath the cargo, looked up at Seonwoo Jin approaching.

Unaware he was approaching his death, the man hurried toward him.

He chuckled inwardly.

‘Hehehehe, come on then.’

O-sal Nangjidan’s specialties were disguise and poison techniques.

Having never excelled at stealth or assassination techniques since childhood, he preferred to disguise himself as an old man or woman, approach his target, and kill them with poison.

Therefore, immediately after attacking the caravan, he deliberately toppled a freight wagon and lay in wait, concealed beneath the cargo.

His plan was to ambush Sunwoo Jin if he approached, pretending to be one of the caravan members.

And that wait was now about to bear fruit.

‘Come on, come on.’

Nang Jidan prepared to use the odorless poison he had purchased at great expense from the Odoomun.

Though not as perfectly colorless and odorless as the Tang Sect’s intangible poison, it is nearly scentless and earth-toned, blending seamlessly with dust—a supreme venom.

Nangjidan had planned to secretly sprinkle that poison when Seonwoojin cleared away the box.

After all, if it mixed with the dust while clearing the box, it would be impossible to detect.

‘Finally, I get to use this expensive stuff. Farewell, you young peak master.’

Seonwoo Jin hurried over and cleared away the items covering Nangjidan.

“Are you alright, sir?”

Meanwhile, Leng Jidan, who had already ingested the antidote, released an odorless poison into the air.

Through the dust particles, the earth-colored, odorless poison slowly spread, entering Seonwoojin’s nose—a sight clearly visible to Nangjidan.

He cheered inwardly.

‘It’s done! It’s over!’

Nangjidan now slowly rose like a dying old man, preparing to flee.

He had to escape before Sunwoo Jin, realizing he was poisoned, could attack.