Chapter 249 Blood Lotus

Chapter 249: Blood Lotus

“You fool!”

Watching Jin So-eun’s fight from mid-mountain, Blood Lotus Sect’s head disciple, Mak Jong-gi, let out an angry shout.

He couldn’t believe that Gokmusang, one of the Three Elders, was being defeated by such a young girl.

How on earth could that happen?

Those trained as Daeam Hyeolhyang weapons, defeated and killed by that child? Is that child some kind of master at the level of Hyeolhyang? One of the Thirty-Six Heavenly Masters?

Mak Jong-gi suddenly shouted in a loud voice.

“That can’t be true!”

Of course, it was undeniable that Jin So-eun possessed extraordinary skill for her age.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to withstand the combined assault of the Blood Lotus assassins until now.

But that was only relative to her age.

He couldn’t sense anything overwhelming about her, like the Thirty-Six Heavenly Masters possessed.

But such an outcome? As a fan, I simply couldn’t accept it.

He continued to vent his rage.

“And what’s more! What the hell were Ilno and Samno doing while Ino ended up like this?! Why the hell weren’t they doing anything?!”

That was when it happened.

A voice suddenly answered from behind him.

“They’re already dead.”

Mak Jong-gi was so startled his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

Because the voice had come from a place where his subordinate had been hiding just moments ago—a place he had never heard a sound from before.

“!”

Thud!

He lunged forward hastily and spun around.

Then, one could see a young man in white standing behind him, arms crossed, smiling.

Upon seeing his face, Mak Jong-gi shouted in a horrified voice.

“You… you?!”

Mak Jong-gi couldn’t believe his eyes.

It was none other than In Parang, Seon Woo-jin.

But that made no sense.

How on earth had he ended up here?

As if reading his mind, Seonwoojin spoke.

“The old man who uses that poison told me. That you were here.”

“What? What did you say?!”

If he was referring to an old man who used poison, he must have meant Blood-Cultivating Three-Old Man Nusan-tu.

But there was no way he would reveal his own location.

Even if tortured, as a member of the Blood-Stained Three Elders, he wouldn’t divulge information to the enemy.

“That kind of lie! Don’t make me laugh!”

Mak Jong-gi, standing at the cliff’s edge, shouted desperately.

Yet deep within his screaming mind, a thick doubt was rising.

‘But if he didn’t say anything, how did that bastard get here? Could it be… did he really betray us?’

If that were true, it couldn’t be anything but serious.

It wasn’t that the Blood Alliance’s top fighter had died; it was that he had joined the enemy and betrayed them.

But Mak Jong-gi decided to put that matter aside for now.

‘Not only is that bastard here, but I sense no presence of his subordinates nearby. He must have killed them all in the meantime.’

That was astonishing.

Even if he had been focused on fighting Ino, it meant that he, a top-tier assassin, hadn’t detected the enemy killing his subordinates while closing in to this distance.

To Mak Jong-gi, the truth that fact revealed had only one possible answer.

‘He must have come while killing his subordinates in stealth. That this was possible means his concealment technique was truly at the level of a Dark Cave Master!’

Sighing inwardly, Makjonggi suddenly glanced at the cliff directly behind his feet.

Just one more step back and he would have fallen into the abyss below.

But Mak Jong-gi did not fear it.

Because that was what he desired.

The cliff was incredibly high, but at least it seemed better than fighting that bastard right now.

Moreover, weren’t his own men also lying in ambush down below?

Having made up his mind, Mak Jong-gi spat out the words toward Seon Woo-jin.

“Don’t think the Blood Union’s true strength is merely this.”

Without waiting for Seon Woo-jin’s reply, he immediately leaped off the cliff.

Whoosh!

Mak Jong-gi’s body, weighted down by the heavy iron ball, accelerated at a terrifying speed.

Yet even so, he remained vigilant, focusing his attention on the cliff above.

He expected the enemy to either follow him or attack from above.

But looking up at the cliff, Seon Woo-jin was not following him down.

He simply stood there with his arms crossed, staring down at himself.

He seemed to be muttering something, but he wasn’t taking any action against him.

‘Is he letting his guard down?’

It was a bit strange for a guy like him to let his guard down.

But if he was going to let it slide, as a last resort, it couldn’t have been more welcome.

By the time he thought that far, the ground below the cliff had already closed in right before his eyes.

Makjonggi hurriedly lightened his body with his lightness technique, then spun to sharply reduce his descent speed.

Then, before he knew it, his body—now significantly lighter than its volume—slowed sharply as it encountered air resistance, finally allowing him to set foot below the cliff.

Thud!

The lightness technique he had just demonstrated was truly astonishing.

However, the sheer height of the cliff meant the impact he took upon landing was by no means small.

Upon hitting the ground, he immediately bent his knees and rolled forward to absorb the shock.

But he couldn’t.

Someone was standing right where he landed.

“Gah!”

Mak Jong-gi grimaced and let out a groan.

He hadn’t managed to execute a proper breakfall, so the full impact of the fall was transmitted directly to his legs.

It felt like his legs and waist were being twisted in agony.

But Mak Jong-gi had no time to dwell on it.

As if they had been waiting for him to fall, those surrounding him—all five men who appeared to be swordsmen—were surrounded by countless corpses.

They were all the corpses of the Blood Lotus’s assassins, his subordinates.

Mak Jong-gi frantically scanned his surroundings.

He didn’t know who they were, but seeing them kill his men made it clear they were his enemies.

“Who are you?!”

Mak Jong-gi demanded of them.

His intent was less to hear their answer than to draw their attention and create an opening.

But the five men seemed utterly indifferent to his words.

They merely raised their swords expressionlessly, aiming them at him.

‘Wrong.’

Makjonggi instinctively knew words wouldn’t sway them.

It seemed he would have to force his way through.

Glancing up suddenly, he saw Seon Woo-jin standing on the cliff far above, arms crossed, looking down at him.

His heart began to race.

I couldn’t waste any more time here.

I had to get out of here before he came down.

‘Looks like I’ll have to break through. Fortunately, these guys seem to be at most peak level, so even if there are five of them…’

Without waiting any longer, Mak Jong-gi scattered daggers in all directions.

Whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Then he charged toward the woman among the five.

He planned to break through as quickly as possible toward the woman who seemed the weakest.

Mak Jong-gi’s signature poisonous weapon, the transparent glass sword, stabbed toward the woman, Yook Hap-geom-su Unyeong, as if to pierce her body.

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Then, Eun-young took a quick step back.

It seemed he preferred retreating rather than defending his position.

Makjonggi cheered inwardly.

‘Perfect!’

If that woman was backing down, there was no need to keep attacking.

He could simply slip away through that opening.

But it was at that very moment.

As Unyeong retreated, two other swords thrust in from either side of Makjonggi.

It was a natural, seamless combination strike, like gears turning.

“!”

Seon Woo-jin watched Mak Jong-gi’s movements from the cliff, arms folded.

Suddenly, Mokrang spoke to him.

– To think so many assassins have reached the pinnacle of their craft—no wonder they boast of being the world’s finest assassin group.

Seon Woo-jin smiled wryly and agreed.

‘Quite so. But now, they’re no longer the world’s greatest assassin group—they’ve become the world’s greatest assassin group that once was.’

Mak Jong-gi was undoubtedly a supreme martial artist.

But perhaps because he was an assassin, he didn’t seem to possess the same close-combat prowess as typical supreme masters.

Therefore, there was no way his abilities could withstand the Demon Slayer Sixfold Sword Technique.

Thud!

Below the cliff, Makjonggi’s back was pierced by two swords.

The outcome was decided in an instant.

Then, seeing his head cleanly severed by Unyeong’s sword, Seonwoojin suddenly raised his head to watch Jin So-eun’s battle far away.

There, Jin So-eun, transformed beyond recognition from the day before, was slaughtering the assassins of the Blood Lotus.

The assassins now looked almost pitiful.

Seon Woo-jin suddenly said to Mok Rang.

‘Young Lady Jin’s growth is truly remarkable. Perhaps this time, the Jin family might finally produce the world’s greatest martial artist.’

Then Mokrang smiled and replied.

– How could one possibly predict what a chick hatched from an egg will grow into? And above all, how fitting is it for you, the one destined to carry on my lineage, to speak such words?

At those words, Seonwoo Jin gave a bitter smile and retorted.

‘It hasn’t been decided yet whether I can carry it on, has it? And… there are still many mountains to climb.’

Suddenly, he cast his gaze far into the distance, where a faint blue horizon was just visible beyond the forest.

That place was Shantou in Guangdong Province, the easternmost port in Guangdong bordering Fujian Province.

That is Fujian Province, home to the South Sea Demon Realm’s stronghold, the Great South Island.

Therefore, boarding a ship from there would be the quickest way to reach Daenamdo.

And naturally, all others monitoring Sun Woo-jin’s movements would be aware of this fact as well.

The Haenam Demon Sword Jin Taedo, the Hyeongsan Sect—all of them.

Sun Woo-jin murmured suddenly.

“Jin Taedo, the Demon Sword of Haenam. I suppose I’ll finally meet him.”

Now, the revenge plot for Inparang was also hurtling toward its final act.

***

A moment earlier.

Without being able to do anything, Samno Nusan-tu of the Blood-Stained Trio was captured after being struck by Sunwoo-jin’s pressure-point technique and dragged to a remote location to be interrogated by Sunwoo-jin.

Seonwoojin immediately unleashed the Ten Stages of Bone-Crushing and Flesh-Tearing Technique upon him.

Then, pain like his entire body’s bones and muscles were being torn apart engulfed him.

“Uuuuuugh!”

As Nusan-tu’s entire body trembled violently from the horrific agony,

Seonwoojin suddenly asked him.

“You lot are probably the strongest force in the Blood Lotus. If you’ve come this far, does that mean the Blood Lotus leader is nearby?”

Despite his agony, Nusan-tu snorted derisively at the question.

To torture oneself with such agony in an attempt to extract information was nothing short of absurd.

How could the Blood Alliance’s assassin, especially one targeting the Three Elders themselves, have thought such a thing? How much did they underestimate us?

Moreover, while he claimed to be torturing him for information, he seemed to have forgotten even to release the pressure points to allow him to speak.

He was clearly a greenhorn who had never even attempted torture before.

But just as Nusan-tu was thinking this…

Seon Woo-jin suddenly nodded as if he understood.

“Hmm, so that’s how it was. Then where is he now?”

Nusan-tu was stunned, even as the pain began to cloud his mind.

He hadn’t said a word, so what on earth had he heard to make him say something like that?

But Seon Woo-jin’s actions were unhesitating.

After scanning the surrounding terrain, he asked this:

“He’s probably somewhere he can watch this area… Up on that mountain?”

The mountain Seonwoojin pointed to with his finger was on the opposite side from where the Blood Lotus Sect was located.

But Nusan-tu showed no reaction whatsoever.

No affirmation, no denial, no reaction at all.

But then Seon Woo-jin said this again.

“Hmm, not that one, huh? Then that one? Ah, not that one either? Then that one?”

Nusan-tu was beginning to wonder if this guy had lost his mind.

But at that moment, Seon Woo-jin said this.

“Then is it over there? Ah, it was over there.”

The place he pointed to as he said that was precisely the mountain where the Blood Lotus Sect was located.

Nusan-tu gasped in horror, even amidst his pain.

Moreover, Seon Woo-jin’s questioning continued unabated.

“Somewhere on that mountain? The summit? Ah, no. Then midway? Huh, midway. Could it be that cave over there?”

Nusan-tu saw him smile faintly as if he’d heard the answer he wanted after asking that question, and only then did he sense something.

‘This, this guy… Could he be reading my mind…?’

Technically, Mokrang had confirmed Nusan-tu’s reaction to whether the question was right or wrong, but to him, that was the only way he could interpret it.

And by the time he realized it, it was already too late.

Because he was undergoing bone-setting surgery, he had no time to dwell on it deeply.

‘I shouldn’t have let his question trigger any thoughts…!’

That was what Nusan-tu was thinking.

Sunwoojin pressed down on his blood vessel without hesitation.

It was the moment Nusan-tu, the third of the Blood-Sucking Trio—the strongest force of the Blood-Sucking Alliance—lost his life in a hollow instant.