“Corps Leader, what is that?”
As the two men widened their eyes and asked,
“It’s nothing.” Bu Eunseol waved his hand with a serious expression. “You may go now.”
Seeing Bu Eunseol’s grave expression, Won Semun and Jo Namcheon instinctively sensed that something major had occurred. But because Bu Eunseol’s gaze was so serious and sharp, they didn’t ask further.
“Then, we’ll take our leave.” Once the two had departed, Bu Eunseol took out the envelope again with a heavy expression.
Drawing up the full power of his Beast Way senses, he placed his fingers on the envelope’s surface.
Then, he felt the faint shapes of engraved letters.
‘He poured sharp inner energy like threads to engrave it on the envelope.’ The sender of this envelope knew that Bu Eunseol had reached the pinnacle of the Beast Way and thus had transmitted the secret message in this covert manner.
—Bu Eunseol. I want to duel you one last time.
“Seok Woohaeng….”
Surprisingly, this envelope had been sent by Seok Woohaeng. And even more astonishing content followed.
—In any case, since I’ve slain Yong Jeokbi, the Twelve Earths will be utterly annihilated by the Extreme Slaughter Sect.
‘So Seok Woohaeng…. was the Chief of the Twelve Earths.’
It was astonishing.
No matter how exceptional Seok Woohaeng’s abilities were, the Twelve Earths was an aggregation of longstanding underworld sects. To seize control of it in such a short time and become its head?
‘That’s why Yong Jeokbi died.’ Yong Jeokbi, who had chosen to exterminate the Twelve Earths as his successor mission.
He must have swiftly located the Twelve Earths’ head, the Chief.
After all, sever the head, and the body is easy to handle. But he could never have predicted that the Chief was Seok Woohaeng, who had mastered the Extreme Slaughter Sect’s supreme assassination arts. In the end, he had his head severed by Seok Woohaeng, who saw through every move of the Extreme Slaughter Sect.
Click.
Rising from his seat, Bu Eunseol looked up at the distant sky with a serious expression.
Not just anyone, but a successor had been assassinated…
The Extreme Slaughter Sect would surely immediately deploy their elite experts to sweep away the Twelve Earths. And if he didn’t depart right away, Bu Eunseol would never meet Seok Woohaeng again in this lifetime.
“Seok Woohaeng….” From Bu Eunseol’s position, there was no need to take on the risk and accept Seok Woohaeng’s challenge.
But he had sent Sahyang’s hidden weapon in the envelope.
That meant he knew Bu Eunseol was pursuing Sahyang’s tail.
“Are you connected to them?” Deep in thought, Bu Eunseol slowly turned his body. And he picked up the Black Blade placed to one side.
Click.
Strapping the Black Blade to his back, Bu Eunseol took a deep breath.
In the end, he intended to accept the duel Seok Woohaeng had proposed.
***
The Twelve Earths.
It was a collective of stragglers who handled all the dirty work of the financial and merchant worlds.
Thus, they constantly clashed with demonic sect forces, and Majeon had long viewed the Twelve Earths as a thorn in their side. However, due to its patchwork nature without a unified head or system, it couldn’t be easily eradicated. But Seok Woohaeng had developed the Twelve Earths like any ordinary faction, creating a structure and advancing it.
As a result, their main base was exposed, and drew Yong Jeokbi’s pursuit…
In the end, developing the Twelve Earths had become an act of tightening the noose around his own neck.
“Quite an ingenious idea.” The place where Bu Eunseol stood was a massive canal located in Jiangnan.
Seok Woohaeng had operated the Twelve Earths while hiding in this gloomy, dark underground canal.
“At this scale, even an army of tens of thousands would struggle to breach it.”
This deep underground canal was so dark and damp that even beggars avoided it, and its interior was a labyrinthine maze. Even if the Extreme Slaughter Sect’s forces came charging in, with proper traps and hit-and-run tactics, they could hold out for quite some time.
Step step.
As he ventured deep into the maze-like branching underground canal, a wide open space finally came into view. And there, a shadow merged with darkness, stood tall.
A sturdy build without an ounce of excess fat, clad in clinging black attire. From afar, it resembled a malevolent spirit merged with the shadows.
It was Seok Woohaeng.
“You’ve changed beyond recognition.” Bu Eunseol voiced his first impression.
At the Janggeom Mountain Manor, Seok Woohaeng had the appearance of a typical young assassin brimming with vigor and confidence. But now, he exuded the aura of a battle-hardened veteran who had weathered all the world’s storms.
Step step.
Seok Woohaeng slowly emerged from the darkness.
Then, with popping sounds, the surroundings brightened like midday. He had installed mechanisms embedding expensive night pearls densely across the ceiling and walls.
“You’ve come.” Seok Woohaeng, now revealed, had undergone a grotesque transformation in appearance.
His eyes were darkly sunken. And his facial skin was covered in scale-like features, like that of a reptile. The valiant and handsome assassin was gone, replaced by a monster from another realm.
“Hmm.” Bu Eunseol, staring intently at Seok Woohaeng’s face, nodded.
“You’ve obtained the Heavenly Evil Sect’s Ghostly Essence.”
The bizarre symptoms manifesting on Seok Woohaeng’s face. They appeared when one cultivated to the extreme the Heavenly Evil Sect’s evil art, the Heavenly Evil Phantom Demon Art.
“It was in the Twelve Earths.” Seok Woohaeng said calmly. “The martial art you sought so desperately.”
He hadn’t obtained the Heavenly Evil Sect’s martial arts by chance. He had wandered in search of a secret art that could maximize assassination techniques, and discovered it stored in the Twelve Earths. And to claim it, he had settled here.
“I heard that mastering it prevents embracing women.”
Assassins love embracing women as much as they do gripping wine cups.
That applied to Seok Woohaeng, who was an assassin to his bones. The Heavenly Evil Phantom Demon Art was the pinnacle of heinous evil arts, containing the essence of sorcery techniques that weaponized the body. However, the moment one mastered it, like cultivating an extreme vicious poison art, it rendered one impotent.
“Women?” But Seok Woohaeng sneered instead. “How can embracing a woman compare to a duel with a blood-boiling rival?”
From his response, it seemed Seok Woohaeng had unhesitatingly forsaken his manhood to master the Heavenly Evil Phantom Demon Art for his battle with Bu Eunseol.
“Where did you get Sahyang’s hidden weapon?” Bu Eunseol’s voice was choked, as if a lump tightly blocked his throat. “How did you know I was pursuing Sahyang?”
“Heh heh heh.” Shaking his head, Seok Woohaeng smiled faintly and replied softly. “I’ll tell you if you defeat me.”
“Is this necessary?” Bu Eunseol’s voice held many emotions.
With Seok Woohaeng’s abilities and talents, there was no need to antagonize the Extreme Slaughter Sect. He could have quietly left the martial world, or established a small assassination sect and become a local overlord.
But he hadn’t.
He had infiltrated the Twelve Earths, mastered a heinous evil art, and killed Yong Jeokbi, becoming a fugitive with no place in the martial world.
All for the sake of dueling Bu Eunseol.
To face a rival who advanced day by day, he had made this choice.
“Bu Eunseol.” As if piercing his inner thoughts, Seok Woohaeng said in a low voice. “Until now, I’ve prided myself that in martial arts or talent… I lacked nothing compared to anyone.”
“….”
“But after meeting you, all that pride shattered.” Biting his lip, Seok Woohaeng shook his head. “Even on Hell Island, there was a glimmer of hope. But at the Janggeom Mountain Manor, you were an entirely different person.” Gradually, his eyes burned hotter, and his voice turned passionate.
“From that day, my life’s goal changed. To solely surpass you.”
It was a desperate thirst for victory, a tenacious pride.
But upon hearing those words, Bu Eunseol’s gaze sank coldly.
As if listening to a story unrelated to himself.
“Isn’t that the way of a martial artist?” After a long silence, Bu Eunseol finally spoke. “When a goal arises, one charges toward it relentlessly.”
In truth, he had lived a life not much different from Seok Woohaeng’s.
Since resolving to find and kill the fiend who murdered his grandfather, he had lived solely for that purpose. Nothing else entered his eyes, and he cared for nothing else.
Just like Seok Woohaeng now.
“Yong Jeokbi. To defeat him means your martial arts have grown considerably.” Normally, Bu Eunseol’s conversation would end there.
But Woohaeng spoke once more.
“Yong Jeokbi lost because he knew me too well.” Seok Woohaeng smiled. “The me from the past, that is.”
Yong Jeokbi was the legitimate successor of the Extreme Slaughter Sect.
He would have thoroughly investigated not only Seok Woohaeng’s martial level, which threatened his position, but also his tendencies, ingenuity, and everything else.
“He even knew I’d obtained the Heavenly Evil Sect’s martial arts and still boasted of victory.” Seok Woohaeng said calmly. “And that’s why his name descended to the underworld.”
But there was one fact Yong Jeokbi couldn’t have predicted even in his dreams.
That after meeting Bu Eunseol, Seok Woohaeng had completely changed. That he had sacrificed everything he had, root and stem, solely to grow stronger.
“Why aren’t the Twelve Earths’ members visible?”
“Even if I gathered them, how could they oppose the Extreme Slaughter Sect? The moment I killed Yong Jeokbi, I immediately disbanded them.” Seok Woohaeng smiled bitterly and shook his head. “In any case, they’d be hunted down no matter where they hid.”
As Bu Eunseol nodded, Seok Woohaeng smiled.
“I’ve talked too much.” And he looked down at his own hands.
They seemed etched with the days of life-risking martial cultivation.
“Soon, the Extreme Slaughter Sect’s forces will storm this place.” Then, looking straight at Bu Eunseol, he said. “Shall we begin now?”
Thud.
With a low mechanical sound, the night pearls illuminating the canal vanished.
As darkness once again flooded the surroundings, Bu Eunseol gripped the hilt of his Black Blade. At that, Seok Woohaeng drew a short assassin sword from behind his back.
Shing.
The low sword cry echoed through the underground canal, and the two martial prodigies moved simultaneously.
Pop!
With a flash of green light, Bu Eunseol felt a chill at the back of his neck. It was an attack utterly without trace or warning.
Why are assassins’ killing arts called secret techniques? Because most of them are so covert that one can’t even discern how they were executed. In that regard, Seok Woohaeng’s assassin secret arts had reached the highest realm.
Even Bu Eunseol hadn’t sensed it—such subtlety and speed.
Whoosh!
Green light flashed again, tearing the fabric at Bu Eunseol’s shoulders.
Sizzle!
In an instant, Bu Eunseol’s form blurred. He was trying to catch up to Seok Woohaeng, who swiftly moved using the darkened canal as cover.
Flash!
Finally spotting his trace, Bu Eunseol unleashed his sword technique. Though the form wasn’t particularly ingenious, it was so swift that no thought was possible.
Thud!
Seok Woohaeng, evading Bu Eunseol’s swift sword with full effort, countered with three consecutive strikes.
Pop pop pop!
The sword technique he poured out was silent and flawless, with no gaps in its forms.
Rumble!
The moment sword met sword, it was as if thunder and lightning struck simultaneously, and Bu Eunseol’s sword strike changed. At the same time, a purple gleam pierced toward Seok Woohaeng’s throat.
The ultra-swift sword, Unmatched Thunderbolt, had been deployed.
Pfft.
But with a deflating sound, Seok Woohaeng was already escaping the Unmatched Thunderbolt’s momentum. Simultaneously, eight sword energies poured down from above Bu Eunseol’s head.
Some strikes were heavy, others fast and fierce.
‘He’s progressed tremendously.’ Bu Eunseol couldn’t hold back his admiration.
The strong foes he had faced until now had opposed him based on superiority in martial techniques and experience. But the assassin Seok Woohaeng instead overwhelmed Bu Eunseol with refined and profound sword arts. Discarding his own strengths in the process.
—Even among the Ten Demon Warriors, you have a rival.
That was what Seok Woohaeng wanted to say.
Though he had awakened his talents later than Bu Eunseol, he too was a once-in-a-generation martial prodigy. After witnessing Bu Eunseol’s immense prowess at the Janggeom Mountain Manor, he had advanced his martial arts at a frightening pace. To fight Bu Eunseol on equal footing with pure sword arts, not relying on assassin secrets.
Clang!
As the Black Blade clashed with the assassin sword, sparks flew in the darkness.
Sizzle.
But Seok Woohaeng, unable to match his inner power, was instantly pushed back.
“Tch.” He spat blood from his mouth.
It was a single clash, but the mighty Ban-geuk Energy had invaded his meridians.
“Good.” Crouching low, a faint green light emanated from Seok Woohaeng’s body. At the same time, the ominous energy flowing from his body seemed to fill the canal’s interior.
“….!” Sensing something, Bu Eunseol leaped into the air and twisted his body in an instant.
Whoosh!
Then, belated air-cutting sounds poured in, and the ground where Bu Eunseol had stood was sharply indented. It was as if another Seok Woohaeng had appeared to attack from behind.
‘The Heavenly Evil Phantom Demon Art….’
Swallowing his surprise, Bu Eunseol narrowed his eyes.
‘He’s combined that martial art with the Extreme Slaughter Sect’s assassination arts.’
