Chapter 42 Shadow Realm – Part 3

Chapter 42: Shadow Realm – Part 3

Sak Muhyun was utterly dumbfounded.

Was he seriously trying to oppose him with stealth techniques now?

For someone who had operated in the shadows for a full nine years?

If there was one thing Sak Muhyun truly appreciated about joining the Shadow Alliance, it was that the Martial Alliance generously imparted the highest martial arts techniques—ones he could only dream of seeing before.

Internal cultivation techniques, sword techniques, footwork techniques, and even stealth techniques were no exception.

The assassin’s technique he had mastered was the secret art of Pien Fu Xue Sha, Zhao Wusong, who ranked among the top five assassins of the previous generation.

But for someone to dare confront him, who had mastered that very art, using stealth techniques? It was utterly ridiculous.

Sak Muhyun melted into the shadows, concealing his form.

He intended to teach this fool, who dared challenge him with stealth, a final lesson on what was real.

But as he slowly moved through the shadows, trying to gauge his opponent’s position, Sak Muheun found himself slightly flustered by the fact that he couldn’t detect the slightest trace of the other’s presence.

He could sense the presence of snakes or other animals, but nowhere did he detect the presence of a human.

It seemed the enemy was also a former assassin.

Sak Muhun moved even more stealthily as he thought.

‘Looks like this fight might drag on a bit. Did she really let him slip away?’

While Sakmuhun misjudged Seonwoojin’s background, Seonwoojin remained perfectly still, not moving an inch from her original spot.

The reason Seonwoojin remained undetected by Sakmuhyun was because the assassin’s technique he had mastered was the Heavenly Assassin Technique of Muyeong, one of the most renowned assassins a hundred years ago.

Additionally, the profound essence of the Heavenly Wind Divine Technique he learned from Bi Sayeong allowed him to become one with the wind.

Even so, his concealment skills couldn’t surpass those of Sak Muheun, a master at the peak of his art who had been a professional assassin.

Experience and mastery simply couldn’t be matched.

Well aware of this, Seon Woo-jin, unlike Sak Moo-heun who was searching for him, remained completely still, motionless as if dead, staying put.

Of course, this was by no means a wise strategy.

Staying completely still meant he couldn’t locate Sak Muheun, and the moment Sak Muheun discovered him, the fight could be over.

But Seon Woo-jin wasn’t worried at all.

He believed that even if he didn’t find them, other things would find him.

‘I’m counting on you, my beauties.’

Having raised the Samchae Sisa for some time, Seonwoo Jin knew.

Certain types of snakes were impervious to concealment techniques.

Strangely enough, the snakes always pinpointed the exact location of people or animals, whether there was light or not.

He couldn’t know it was because they sensed the body heat of living creatures, but that didn’t really matter.

What mattered was that the three-colored snakes he’d gone all the way to the poison forest to catch were now starting to target their prey.

Sssshhh!

“!”

Sak Muhyun could only gasp in shock at the snakes’ sudden attack, darting like arrows.

While using his stealth technique, sudden movement was difficult, and he nearly got bitten by the snakes.

He barely managed to break his concealment and leap out of the way, evading the snakes’ attack.

But that was only the beginning.

Snakes began launching themselves at him from all directions, as if they had appeared out of nowhere.

Sssss! Sssss!

“Tch!”

Sakmuhyun swung his sword, slicing the incoming snakes in two.

Shwaaak!

“Sssshhh!”

“Shh!”

In the stealth battle as assassins, it seemed he had lost. He hadn’t been able to pinpoint his opponent’s position, while his opponent had forced him into the open.

But losing at stealth didn’t mean losing the fight.

Sak Muhyun sharpened his mind like a blade.

If the enemy was indeed an assassin, they wouldn’t let this opportunity slip.

He would surely strike at this very moment.

And in that instant, he caught sight of the hidden dagger, the Pahongseong, mingled among the flying snakes.

“Got it!”

Sak Muhyun lunged toward the direction the hidden weapon came from.

He wasn’t afraid of a projectile fired by an opponent who hadn’t even reached their peak yet, unless they were on the same level.

But he hadn’t realized it yet.

That while he had been reacting by dodging the projectiles his opponent threw earlier, he had somehow begun striking them all down with his sword as they flew toward him.

Shwaaah!

Clang! Clang clang!

As he darted through the air like a ray of light, slicing through every projectile his opponent hurled with his sword, Sakmuhun suddenly realized strange leather pouches were mixed among them.

Swoosh!

“!?”

His sword instinctively sliced through the pouch, splitting it in two.

Then, dozens of insects poured out from inside.

Swish!

“Ugh?!”

It was a completely unexpected move.

He was already lunging forward at full speed, leaving no time to dodge.

The distance had already closed too much. Sak Muhyun could only shut his eyes tight and twist his body to fling the swarming insects away.

Thud-thud-thud!

A stinging pain pricked various spots on his face.

Sak Muhun had to quickly brush his face to shake off the insects. The fact that he felt that stinging pain itself was not good.

He abandoned attacking the enemy, hastily landing on the ground, and immediately began brushing his face and body.

But when he opened his eyes and looked down, several insects were still clinging to his hands, their teeth or tails embedded, refusing to let go.

They were poisonous insects.

They were the poisonous insects Seonwoo-jin had captured in the Poison Forest to make his poison darts.

Sak Muhyun swallowed hard.

Until now, it had been a matter of whether he could complete the mission or not. But now, it was becoming a matter of life and death.

A burning pain spread steadily across his entire face, numbing it.

Sssshhh!

Even the snakes kept flying in.

He could no longer bring himself to slash at them and instead began dodging them by leaping out of the way.

He couldn’t be certain what else might be mixed in with the snakes and flying at him next.

But even he already knew.

That moving his body like this only made the poison spread faster.

Even if he tried to suppress the poison with his internal energy, too many areas had already been bitten.

If he restricted his blood flow here to suppress the poison, he wouldn’t even be able to move.

He was trapped on all sides.

Sak Muhyun gritted his teeth.

There was no time.

He had to either take the antidote as quickly as possible or enter qigong breathing…

But to do that, he had to deal with the enemy and the snakes first.

In the end, Sak Muheun began slashing at the flying snakes with his sword once more.

He had to kill every single snake, no matter what.

And sure enough, he had to slash through several leather pouches flying among the snakes as well.

Swish!

“Ugh!”

This time, having prepared somewhat, he managed to leap away before the insects could cover him.

But attacking the direction it had been thrown from was impossible.

His vision was growing dim.

He couldn’t tell if his vision was fading because he was losing his sight or because his eyelids were swollen shut.

His entire face was numb.

Sakmuhun realized his limit was approaching.

He had to escape to safety before his vision vanished completely and the poison spread throughout his body.

Just as he was about to launch himself away,

Suddenly, Seonwoojin’s voice reached him.

“You know that, right?”

He hurriedly looked toward the source of the voice, wary.

Through his fading vision, he could make out the creature’s position.

He was up in a tree, not particularly close.

Even if I leapt immediately, his agility would likely allow him to evade easily.

“Who else knows you came from the blind? Just me? Or my team members? Or perhaps the unit leader who briefed you on our duty status?”

His words sent a chill down Sak Muhun’s spine.

He even knew about the unit leader? Could that unit leader really be the mastermind behind this?

Then that seemingly incompetent act back then was all an act?

Shhiiik!

He swiftly sliced a snake that had darted in.

Swoosh!

Then, Seon Woo-jin’s voice suddenly came from a different location.

“I’m genuinely curious. What kind of mindset would lead someone to sacrifice their own life to issue an order to kill the worker blocking the blood cult on the front lines?”

It sent a chill down his spine.

His senses had dulled to the point where he hadn’t even detected the man’s movement.

He realized that if he stayed like this, he might not even win in a direct confrontation.

He had to end this now, somehow.

“And what kind of thoughtless bastard could just follow that order? Right? What exactly makes you different from the Blood Cult’s demons? Do demons only eat people, or do you eat other things too?”

The creature kept shifting its position as it spoke.

If only I could catch him for just one moment.

At that moment, another snake flew toward him.

And that snake bit down hard on Sak Muheun’s leg.

“Ugh!”

He groaned and dropped to his knees.

As if he could endure no longer.

Thus, Sakmuhun completely exposed his weakness.

But the mind of the kneeling Sakmuhun was now razor-sharp.

In truth, the snake had bitten the inner thigh, where thick leather was lined inside the trousers—a deliberate act to expose the vulnerability.

Then he waited for the enemy to approach.

It didn’t need much.

If he would only approach within three steps…

Then the enemy’s voice came.

“Is this the end?”

Then the bastard finally began to approach.

I gauged the distance with my ears, my most intact sense right now.

Five paces.

Four meters.

And three paces!

Bang!

I threw myself forward with all my might.

Then he thrust a desperate stab into the enemy’s chest.

A blue blade energy shot straight out like a spear, piercing through the monster’s chest and emerging from the other side, faintly visible to his eyes.

Thud!

He thought he heard that sound.

But that was merely Sak Muheun’s illusion.

What Sak Muheun had stabbed was Sunwoojin’s afterimage. Sunwoojin’s sword, Mukrang, had already dodged the thrust and was now flying toward his neck.

Shwaaak!

Having seen his footwork earlier, Seonwoojin had anticipated a thrust with full force coming from about three zhang away.

So, feigning an advance within three zhang, he deployed the Heavenly Wind Step, smoothly parrying the thrust like a petal blown by the wind.

No matter how formidable the attack of a peak master, it was futile against an opponent who had perfectly anticipated and prepared for it, especially a master of footwork like Seon Woo-jin.

Seonwoo Jin struck his neck without hesitation.

Even for a peak master, it was now over.

His swollen eyes seemed unable to see him anymore.

But Seon Woo-jin’s sword did not swing all the way through.

Clang!

“Would you wait a moment?”

A middle-aged man in blue had suddenly appeared and blocked Seonwoojin’s sword with his own.

Seon Woo-jin was stunned by the man’s sudden appearance, as if he had materialized out of thin air.

But he immediately gritted his teeth.

He couldn’t just stand there in shock.

He immediately raised his sword upward, preparing to attack.

“?!

But he couldn’t.

The Moolang Sword seemed to stick fast to the middle-aged man’s blade, refusing to budge.

It seemed to be the legendary Suction Seal technique I’d only heard about.

He couldn’t even begin to guess how skilled this man was.

Then, a voice came from behind the middle-aged man.

“Young Master Sunwoo, that’s my father.”

Startled, he looked up to see Hae Cheong-yeon standing behind him, smiling as she watched.

Seonwoo Jin stared blankly at her and asked.

“…You say he’s my father?”

Looking back at the middle-aged man in blue, he too was looking at Seonwoo Jin and smiling contentedly.

***

Hae Cheong-yeon had actually already sent a letter to her father during her vacation period.

Unlike the letter entrusted to Zhuge Zhijiang, this one even contained this message:

He would ask her to deliver the letter to Zhuge Zhijiang, and if he failed to deliver it, she would imply that the Martial Arts Alliance was behind all of this.

In other words, this entire affair had been orchestrated by Hae Cheong-yeon to test Zhuge Zhijiang.

Furthermore, Hae Cheong-yeon had even requested his father to come to the front lines.

This was to call upon his father’s strength should she and her team members be unable to resolve the situation themselves.

Her father possessed the ability to render any dangerous situation completely safe, as long as it didn’t involve a direct confrontation with the Blood Demon.

Therefore, she initially kept her father’s existence secret from her comrades and had only asked him to watch from a distance until danger became imminent.

And now that she had finally resolved everything without relying on her father’s power, Hae Cheong-yeon asked him.

“What did you think?”

He nodded with a satisfied smile.

“Very well done. That’s quite sufficient.”

It was a statement missing its subject—what was excellent, what was sufficient.

***

After days of deliberation, Mayu Gyeom finally reopened the box left behind by the Blood Demon.

Inside were elixirs, poison pills, and a thin manual.

He had actually opened the box on the very first day he received it.

But he hadn’t been able to bring himself to take the elixir or unfold the scroll, so he had closed it again. Now, several days later, he opened it once more.

Holding the elixir in his hand and staring at it for a moment, he soon unfolded the secret manual.

He intended only to glance through it briefly before closing it again.

But once he opened the scroll, he couldn’t bring himself to close it again.

He couldn’t tear his eyes away from its contents.

The secret manual did not contain the martial arts techniques of the Blood Cult.

What was written there were all miscellaneous arts, personally selected and recorded by the Blood Demon himself.

Though he felt a slight pang of guilt that it wasn’t the Blood Sect’s martial arts, Mayu Gyeom continued reading its contents.

He reasoned that as long as he didn’t practice them, it wouldn’t matter.

But the very first technique described in the manual was precisely what Sun Woo-jin and his companions had heard from the old man Seok Gyeong-dal: how to avoid falling into demonic possession by using poisonous energy when one’s internal energy was impure.

Mayu Gyeom had also been curious about this.

Why the Blood Sect disciples, despite obtaining most of their internal energy through absorption, did not fall victim to demonic possession.

Thus, without realizing it, he found himself intensely focused on reading the secret manual.

Then he checked the poison dart enclosed in the box.

The second section detailed the Absorption Technique.

A method of enhancing internal energy by absorbing human vital energy.

It was precisely the practice that symbolized the Blood Cult in the eyes of the world.

However, the Absorbing Essence Technique described there was surprisingly not as grand as the legendary Absorbing Spirit Supreme Technique.

It didn’t describe methods like absorbing an opponent’s inner energy simply by touching them with a palm. Instead, it seemed to be used during intercourse with a woman or by sucking the opponent’s blood.

But precisely because of that, Mayu Gyeom couldn’t help but scrutinize the contents. Since the fall of the Jianchang Sect, he’d been struggling to cultivate his inner energy without access to elixirs.

The third item described caught his eye even more.

It was a method of suggestion.

Unlike soul-capturing techniques, it couldn’t directly control the target, but it could implant a powerful suggestion, ultimately making the target act as desired.

Unlike soul-capturing techniques, this method seemed even more useful because it made the target believe they were acting entirely of their own free will.

Mayu Gyeom found himself unconsciously recalling how to use this technique.

If he could use this to suggest something to Sagunil, might Sagunil then declare of his own volition that he would revive the Pointing Finger Sect?

But as Mayu Gyeom contemplated this, he soon let out a hollow laugh and shook his head.

What good would that do now?

And even if this wasn’t a technique of the Blood Sect, was it even conceivable for him to use it?

Furthermore, reading the precautions, it stated that at a low level of skill, success was only possible when the target’s mind was open or completely shattered.

So it wouldn’t work on Sagunil anyway.

Then, suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind.

What if he could use this on her…

Then he laughed again, a laugh of utter absurdity.

He had no idea where he was heading.

He didn’t know what he should live for, or how he should live from now on.

The only certainty was that returning to his former self, devoted to reviving the Jianchang Sect, seemed impossible.

With the hollow laugh that had become his habit lately, Mayu Gyeom stared blankly into the void with an empty gaze.