Chapter 105

“Hahu Gon is dead?”

“Yes, I’ll relay what I gathered from the survivors. The Black Dragon Sect and the Blue Robe Sect joined forces under one man, and that man killed Lord Ha Hoo with a single strike. After killing him, he reportedly said something like the Jipya Myeong wasn’t much to worry about either.”

Upon receiving the report, Sang Ye-pung, leader of the Cheolsi Dan (Iron Jackal Corps) of the Jipyamyeong, clutched his jaw.

“In one blow…”

Sangyeop-pung Danju pinpointed the core of the report. Though the report contained many details, the only words Sangyeop-pung paid attention to were that the leader had been killed in a single blow.

Sangyeop-pung asked.

“Did the entire White-clad Corps go?”

“Yes.”

“The leader was killed in one blow, yet if any survived, it means only the chiefs were singled out for death. Order all the leaders to assemble here immediately.”

The chiefs to be summoned were the direct-command hundred-man unit led by Sangyeop-pung, the unit leader.

“Understood. Should I tell them to bring troops as well?”

“No, just tell them to come alone.”

“Yes.”

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At the gathering of the Daejus, Sangyeop-pung Danju spoke.

“I’ve never fought Xiahou Kun myself, so I ask: among you, is there a great general capable of killing Xiahou Kun with a single strike?”

The grand masters exchanged glances. They were already aware of the situation, as rumors of Ha Hoo-gon’s death had spread during their journey.

“There is no man among the Grand Masters who can kill Ha Hoo-gon with a single strike. Ha Hoo-gon is in his sixth year as a Grand Master. Even among all the Grand Masters of the Jipya Myeong, he ranks among the top in terms of seniority alone.”

The other Grand Masters offered similar answers.

“It would be difficult with a single strike.”

“I’ve fought him before. He’s not the kind of man who can be killed in a single blow.”

“I don’t know who killed Ha Hoo-gon, but wouldn’t we need to go up to the Danju level to even stand a chance against them?”

The Black Path factions were, by their very nature, conglomerations of smaller and larger groups that had merged or been absorbed, so they often didn’t know each other’s true capabilities. This was especially true for factions like the Jipyamyeong, which had numerous subordinate organizations.

The Sangyeop-pung leader spoke.

“Understood. Then this won’t end at the chiefs’ level. I’ll report this to the higher-ups.”

Danju reporting to higher-ups meant conveying it to the Jipyamyeong leadership. Sangyeop-pung sent the chiefs back without saying another word. Sangyeop-pung could have mobilized three to four hundred black-clad men himself, but after questioning the chiefs, he judged it a meaningless operation.

Chief Sangyeopung’s detailed report was transmitted to the Jipyamyeong via the messenger.

It included an assassination plan proposed by Chief Sang Yeop-pung.

The operation consisted of three phases.

The first strike would be carried out by assassins dispatched by the Jipyameng.

The second strike would involve Sangyeop-pung himself and the senior leaders personally taking action.

The third ambush required the participation of guests.

Though ‘guest’ literally means visitor, a guest of the Jipyamyeong was the guest of the Jipyamyeong leader. That is, they were elite underworld masters treated as guests by the leader. These were top-tier underworld masters who, while not formally affiliated with the Jipyamyeong, were constantly courted for membership.

Most also lived lavish lives funded by the wealth provided by the Jipyameng leader.

The operation itself was ruthless.

Sangyeop-pung explicitly marked the execution date and time, detailing precisely why it must be done this way.

「······I’ve asked many brothers, but there’s no master around capable of killing Hao Goun in a single strike, let alone Sang Yeop-pung himself. Therefore, I believe this is the correct way to proceed to kill the man who mocked the Jipya Myeong. Since he provoked us directly while concealing his identity, he’s likely a skilled fighter not well-known in the martial world. If possible, I’d like to receive the guest’s support. Sang Yeop-pung, Leader of the Iron Sword Sect.”

He was truly a thorough man.

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One night, after the collapsed wall of the Black Dragon Hall had been restored.

Baekyak and Danwooseong were still staying at the Myeongryongdang residence. The two lay side by side, not yet asleep.

Suddenly, Dan Wooseong turned his body and looked at Baekyak’s face. Startled, Baekyak retorted.

“Not tonight.”

“No? What do you mean?”

Dan Wooseong hadn’t even considered it, so he could only ask like this. And it wasn’t just today; the two of them still hadn’t shared a bed as man and woman.

The residence of the Moksryongdang was quite spacious, so he simply didn’t want to be far away. Anyway, when Danwooseong burst out laughing upon grasping the subtle meaning behind the words “it won’t work today,” Baekyak closed his eyes without saying a word.

Somehow, Baekyak seemed more self-conscious than Danwooseong.

At a time when a surprise attack from the House of the Blind could come at any moment, having their first night together in a place like this was also ill-timed.

For both of them, simply being together was enough for now.

Danwooseong stayed in the room right next door, and he would occasionally come in like this, talk for a long while, or lie down side by side and sleep before leaving.

In any case, since the two often shared a room, both Myeongryongdang and Cheonguidang regarded them as a young married couple.

When both of them fell silent for a moment, the surroundings grew quiet.

After a long while, Dan Woosung, still unable to sleep, said,

“It won’t work tonight.”

At his words, Baekyak quietly opened his eyes and gazed at the ceiling.

“……”

Baekyak’s martial arts skills were high, but he lacked the experience of being ambushed while sleeping somewhere, unlike Danwooseong. As if trying to regain his senses, Baekyak scanned the surrounding energy before speaking.

“The night air seems to be rippling.”

It was an unusual way to put it, but Dan Wooseong understood immediately. It meant he sensed something, yet it made no sound at all.

“Yeah. Must be pretty skilled.”

Baekyak asked.

“If this continues, every Black Path member staying here will die. Are you planning to let it happen?”

Dan Wooseong stood up, drank the water on the table, and replied while putting on his gauntlets.

“I’ve never watched over their fates. Even now, they could strike at any moment to escape. If they truly wanted to leave the underworld, someone would have fled long ago. If they don’t flee and have nowhere to go, then they too belong to the underworld. If they choose to live in the underworld, I won’t concern myself with their lives or deaths.”

Dan Woo-sung approached Baek Yak, who was still lying down, and extended his hand. Baek Yak stretched out both arms.

Dan Woosung lifted the sleepy Baekyak from the bedding and placed the clothes beside it.

“Change your clothes.”

“Yes.”

Dan Wooseong exited Baekyak’s room first and walked down the quiet corridor. Upon reaching the main hall, one of Myeongryongdang’s subordinates was dozing off.

Dan Woo-seong tapped the man’s shoulder as he passed.

“A guest has arrived.”

The man startled awake and replied.

“Huh? Ah, understood.”

The man asked, still half-asleep.

“But what kind of guest at this hour?”

Dan Woo-sung said as he stepped outside the main hall.

“An assassin.”

Dan Woosung, who had moved first, walked across the wide inner courtyard, then turned back to look up at the roof of the Myeongryongdang building.

Nothing was visible, yet Danwooseong’s eyes sensed a life force rising like heat haze from the rooftops. It wasn’t just the roofs. Beyond the walls, too, a restless energy and a silence forced into being filled the air.

A night of gathering.

It was a night that truly deserved the name ‘Gathered Night’.

Danwooseong deliberately greeted the Jipyamaeng assassins in a calm tone.

“Welcome. Jipyamyeong.”

Lights flickered on throughout the Moolryongdang building. Since men from both Moolryongdang and Cheonguidang had already suffered significant casualties in the previous battle, none were startled by this ambush. Instead, the air thickened with the black-clad warriors’ characteristic venom. Black warriors rarely awaken through collective resolve; most react most strongly to the deaths of their comrades.

While Dan Woo-seong stood alone and isolated in the inner courtyard, the assassins on the roof, believing the ambush had been discovered, rose to their feet.

The figure was clad entirely in black robes, making it appear as if darkness itself had surged onto the rooftop. Immediately afterward, assassins who had been lying in wait climbed onto the wall, having just killed the guards patrolling below.

In an instant, the entire Myeongnyongdang seemed enveloped in a sticky darkness.

Danwooseong stared at the swarm of assassins closing in, black as night.

Suddenly, he wondered what their signal to attack was. He intended to kill the one who gave the signal first.

Dan Wooseong searched for where the assassins’ eyes were fixed and looked up at the main gate.

A man whose large frame made the assassin’s black uniform look ill-fitting stood with his arms crossed, glaring at Danwooseong.

He was the leader of the assassins, and his bulging muscles visible beneath the black robe suggested he must have trained in external martial arts.

Even to Danwooseong’s trained eye, he was clearly a master.

The burly man in black uncrossed his arms and pointed at Dan Wooseong. The moment his finger pointed, the entire group of black-clad assassins swung their right hands. Thin steel needles shot out from their sleeves, launching from the roof and walls like shattered moonlight, streaking toward Dan Wooseong.

The attack was deadly silent, perhaps because it came from the water spirits.

Amidst this, Danwooseong leapt into the air, moving as if to charge at the giant.

The steel darts landed precisely where Dan Wooseong had been standing, embedding themselves in a perfect circle.

Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!

The direction and point of impact of the steel needles were predetermined by those who had set them, carrying the meaning of a pass. But Dan Wooseong’s movement was faster than the speed at which the needles arrived, rendering it meaningless.

To make the assassins’ follow-up attacks difficult, it was easier to stick close to the leader right in front of me. My plan was to kill the leader first and then deal with the rest of the assassins.

As Danwooseong flew toward him, the enemy leader drew a black rod shorter than a long sword from his waist and swung it. Knowing that an unknown man had killed the leader with a single strike, he couldn’t afford to be careless. He swung the black rod, controlling its distance, but when Danwooseong tried to grab it barehanded, he unleashed his martial energy as the left-hand leader.

CRASH!

As Dan Woosung parried, the assassin, pushed back by the shockwave, moved swiftly backward, pushing off the ground with his left foot.

‘A deaconess, huh…’

Amidst this, a massive thunderbolt flew toward them.

A man named Lee Ho-mun, the leader of the black-clad men, infused his black staff with energy and struck the thunderbolt.

In an instant, a thunderous roar erupted, as if lightning had struck the entire area, sending Lee Ho-mun’s figure flying backward a considerable distance.

Fortunately, the thunderbolt had been shattered by the black staff.

As the thunder energy surged into the black staff, Lee Ho-mun unleashed a wave of energy throughout his body, completely shaking off the thunder energy that had been seeping into him unpleasantly, like water soaking in.

Then, troops from the Blue Hall and the Black Dragon Hall poured out from the main hall and the rear courtyard. Their plan to kill Danwoo-seong with a combined attack had come to nothing.

The man in black drew another black dagger from his waist, crossed the two daggers in a cross, and then glared at Danwooseong.

‘Far stronger than the reports suggested.’

Danwooseong approached and said.

“Do assassins use dual-bladed weapons?”

Knowing his opponent was a master, Dan Wooseong, unlike when he killed Ha Hoon, immediately summoned the power of the Ten Thousand Battles, Ten Thousand Victories technique and extended his hand.

The white silk threads extending from Danwooseong’s hand fluttered as they shot toward the man in black. Lee Homun, too, was experienced enough to judge that escaping from this place today would be difficult.

‘Pour it out.’

Lee Ho-mun struck the incoming white sand with his left palm, then wrapped his qi around his right palm and unleashed it upon Dan Woo-sung. Lee Ho-mun intended to exhaust his opponent’s internal energy if he couldn’t kill him outright, then complete his mission.

Meanwhile, Lee Ho-mun’s gaze unconsciously drifted toward the roof of the Black Dragon Hall.

The moment a woman in white robes soared into the air, everyone on the roof froze solid in the blink of an eye.

‘Ah…!’

Was he dreaming?

Or was it a hallucination?

‘Demon Arts?’

Lee Ho-moon violently unleashed the sword energy he had raised with his twin peaks, then lifted his gaze upward, tracking Dan Woo-sung’s movements. Believing the opportunity might not come again, Lee Ho-moon brought his twin peaks together in front of him and unleashed the Black Dragon Stance, a signature move worthy of his name.

Lee Ho-mun had learned martial arts through the harshness of real combat and entered the realm of internal energy later than most. While rich in experience with combat and real-world responses, he showed a certain clumsiness when entering the domain of masters skilled in manipulating energy.

Above all, unlike the White Path’s techniques, the form he took when unleashing his energy was also rough. Because of this, the rough shape of the energy he created and used alone was said by those around him to resemble a black dragon.

Two black dragons, stretching out from the twin peaks, enveloped the Danwu Star.

When the immense qi he had unleashed engulfed Danwoo Star, obscuring his vision, Yi Homun was startled by his own reaction.

‘Did I succeed?’

Just as he himself felt puzzled, the massive jaws of the black dragon shattered into pieces. A white serpent burst forth, coiling around Yi Ho-mun’s weapon.

Compared to his own Black Dragon, the White Snake was truly pitiful.

Lee Ho-mun grimaced as he endured, channeling energy into the twin peaks, while lightning energy coiled around his entire body.

Far away, Danwooseong was pouring out thunder energy while watching him. Even then, his posture felt truly dignified.

‘How enviable. But is this how I die?’

He had come prepared to die, yet he couldn’t fathom why everything now felt so utterly futile.

At that moment, Danwooseong studied Lee Homoon’s gaze and asked.

“Do you regret living as a black-clad assassin?”

Lee Ho-mun replied.

“No regrets.”

His face was hidden behind a mask, so his expression was unseen, but to Danwooseong’s eyes, he was clearly a man, leaving them no choice but to exchange a few words. Yet if there was no regret, there was nothing more to say.

The thin white snake that Lee Ho-mun was desperately trying to block suddenly swelled to the size of a white dragon. With a deafening roar, it swallowed Lee Ho-mun whole and swept past. First, Lee Ho-mun’s clothes were torn to shreds. Then, blood floated up like a cloud before disintegrating and vanishing, leaving no trace of a human form behind. Finally, two staffs, bereft of their master, fell to the ground.