Chapter 78. The Cold Glint of a Well-Polished Sword (25)

The Silver Moon Discs flew through the air with incredible speed and destructive power! Four assassins were decapitated before the discs returned to Ma-Ra’s hands.

As soon as she caught them, Ma-Ra threw the Silver Moon Discs again at the assassins running toward her.

Just like before, a fountain of blood spewed through the air.

The assassins were unable to dodge or block the Silver Moon Discs; the moment they saw the discs glint in the dim light, they had already been sentenced to death. Although the strength and speed of the discs were not as great as when the Savage Twin Moon Monster used them, Ma-Ra was far superior in technique.

Each through their means, Woo-Moon and Ma-Ra quickly dealt with all thirty assassins.

“That’s pretty impressive, Ma-Ra! It’s almost as if those Silver Moon Discs were yours to begin with.”

“They are.”

“Huh?”

“Originally Formless Veil weapons.”

“Oh! Really?”

“Savage Twin Moon Monster stole ten years ago.”

“I see.”

The Silver Moon Discs had always been Ma-Ra’s favorite weapon. It was only because the Formless Veil had been eradicated and she was unable to take them with her that she hadn’t used them lately. As luck would have it, however, she had somehow managed to retrieve the set that the Savage Twin Moon Monster had stolen a long time back.

“Alright then! All we have left is the biggest mole!”

“Mole?”

As Ma-Ra was confused by Woo-Moon’s sentence, the ground before Woo-Moon cracked open and a man in long robes rose along with the dirt. At the same time, seventy-two hidden weapons flew toward Woo-Moon at once.

Swoosh!

Woo-Moon decided to take advantage of the wide sleeves of his robe. He waved his left hand, and the sleeve billowed in the air and wrapped around the hidden weapons.

It was subduing strength with softness.

His thin, weak sleeve wrapped gently over the hidden weapons, dispersing the force as it caught all of them in the blink of an eye.

However, the hidden assassin completely ignored the lost hidden weapons, as if they had no business with him. He was busy thrusting a long, awl-like blade at Woo-Moon.

Screech!

The awl cut through the air as it pierced Woo-Moon’s neck.

‘It worked!’

The assassin, the Tower Master of the Assassin Tower, Bloody Cry Sword, smiled, thinking that his target had died. However, he was startled as he watched Woo-Moon’s figure dissipate before him.

“Illusive Shift.”

The moment Bloody Cry Sword realized his opponent was someone who could use Illusive Shift to the point where even

he

was fooled was the moment he realized that money had blinded him.

‘I should have looked into it more closely before accepting the request.’

However, regret was an emotion that always came too late.

Woo-Moon appeared behind the assassin and put a sword to his throat.

“Who hired you? Do you want to take this chance to come clean?”

‘Does he think I’m going to throw away my dignity? Please, have some respect for a professional.’

The Bloody Cry Sword tried to kill himself by pushing himself forward into Woo-Moon’s blade.

“Tsk tsk!”

Woo-Moon quickly pushed his sword away before grabbing the assassin again. However, that split second was more than enough. The Bloody Cry Sword bit down on the poison pill hidden inside his tooth before Woo-Moon could secure his jaw.

“

Cough!

”

He instantly turned blue and collapsed.

“

Tsk

. I had a lot to ask him, too. Well, it’s fine, we still have someone else we can talk to.”

Woo-Moon immediately disappeared and reappeared next to a nearby tree. The next second, he stabbed through its trunk.

Do-Gun, who had been hiding on the other side with bated breath, felt the sword pierce his back and jumped forward, walking out into the open with both hands raised.

“Wait! If you kill me, you’ll never find out where your parents are.”

His words hit Woo-Moon like a bolt of lightning.

“What do you mean? What happened to my parents?”

“Hehe.

Ahem.

Well, a lot of things should be happening to them by now.”

Do-Gun couldn’t have done any of this alone. Thus, Woo-Moon knew it was Hye-Ryeong who had created the current situation.

But why had she suddenly made such an extreme decision? What caused her to go past the point of no return?

Woo-Moon mused for a moment before realizing the answer and looked over at Do-Gun.

“So she found out that we know about what she and her sister did.”

“Hehehe. Just as smart as expected. But do you really have the time to care about that right now?”

Woo-Moon roughly grabbed him by the collar and growled, “If something happens to my parents, I’ll slaughter you all. Where are my parents? Talk.”

“Ah ah ah, wait a minute. Be a little gentler. You’ll never find out where your parents are if you stay acting so rough. Moreover, your parents won’t be safe if something happens to me. So, calm down a little, okay?”

Fire seemed to come out of Woo-Moon’s eyes as he watched Do-Gun relax and joke sarcastically.

“If you don’t tell me right now, you’re going to die.”

“Would you really risk that?”

“Try. Me.”

From the bloodlust dripping off each of Woo-Moon’s words, Do-Gun was beginning to feel as though Woo-Moon might actually kill him on the spot. Overwhelmed by the conviction Woo-Moon had, Do-Gun stopped teasing him and just forced a smile, pretending to be calm.

“Ha... hahaha. How scary of you. Fine, I’ll tell you. But you have to promise me you won’t kill me here.”

“Fine, I promise.”

It was only after Do-Gun got Woo-Moon’s promise that he informed him of the shrine where Dae-Woong and Jin-Jin were fighting for their lives.

Initially, Woo-Moon thought to cut off Do-Gun’s arms and legs and leave as soon as he found out the location. However, he held himself back as he remembered Do-Gun’s threat—that if anything happened to him, Woo-Moon’s parents wouldn’t be safe either.

Woo-Moon turned and bolted to the shrine with Ma-Ra and Eun-Ah following behind him.

Watching them go, Do-Gun straightened his clothes, dusting off his collar. He muttered to himself, “So, this is the end of our relationship, Song Woo-Moon. Have a safe trip—to the afterlife.”

Woo-Moon drove all of the qi he could muster into his movement technique, leaving Eun-Ah unable to keep up. Although Ma-Ra could at least barely follow along due to her sizable qi reserves, Eun-Ah fell further and further behind due to her short legs.

“So it was here!” Woo-Moon said, arriving at the forest shrine.

Ma-Ra arrived soon after, her face even paler than normal. Her heart had almost given out from trying to keep up with Woo-Moon’s impossible speed.

Woo-Moon was like the wind as he rushed down the stairs.

He couldn’t help but feel impatient. What if he was too late? What if something had already happened to his parents?!

Just thinking about the possibility made his heart pound and head throb. An unimaginable wave of rage and sorrow overwhelmed him.

‘If... if! If something happens to my parents, I won’t let anyone go. Even if I have to drown the whole world in blood, I’ll kill every single person who might be even the slightest bit involved.’

Finally reaching the end of the stairs, Woo-Moon kicked down the door and entered the chamber.

Standing inside the seemingly modest stone chamber, all he could see was red as the walls and ceiling were all covered in blood.

“Gasp... gasp... Y-you monster-like bastard.”

Beom-Hoon gasped for breath, covered in blood. The fact that an expert like him, who had become a master of qi cultivation a long time ago, was so out of breath was proof that he had used his qi to the limit.

Only two people stood in the stone chamber.

The Invincible Forged Squadron commander, Baek Beom-Hoon, and Woo-Moon’s middle-aged father, Dae-Woong.

Both Dae-Woong and Beom-Hoon failed to notice Woo-Moon’s arrival. The two had descended into a bloody brawl that had lasted for so long that neither could see anything but the other, much less sense whatever else was going on around them.

The sight of his father covered in blood and with swords pierced into his body made Woo-Moon feel as though he would vomit blood. Behind his father, he saw his mother, Jin-Jin, lying against the wall, also with serious injuries.

“W-Woo-Moon...”

Nodding once to his mother, Woo-Moon walked toward Dae-Woong and Beom-Hoon.

The two had been engaged in a fierce battle inside the stone chamber until now. At first, Beom-Hoon had thought that he would be able to easily subdue Dae-Woong, thinking that the man was nothing but a rampaging wild boar.

However, he found himself struggling greatly against the massive man, whose physical strength and stamina seemed completely unaffected by the blades stuck in his body.

It was only after both sides had been pushed to the absolute limit that Beom-Hoon was finally able to find an opening to win. Of course, he had only been able to find this opening thanks to the sacrifices of all of his subordinates.

“It’s over. You probably are so exhausted by now that you can’t even move a finger,” he said before approaching Dae-Woong for the final blow.

As he walked forward, he noticed someone blocking his path.

This person didn’t look like Song Dae-Woong.

No, it was Song Woo-Moon.

“You?!”

Beom-Hoon’s vision suddenly filled with red. He could feel an intense pain radiating from his face—the pain of losing both eyes to one slash of a sword.

“AGH!!!!!”

That wasn’t all. The next moment, Woo-Moon kicked him in the stomach and destroyed his dantian.

“Gasp... Gasp...”

Beom-Hoon felt a sense of loss and pain that shattered his very being as he crawled on the floor, pain wracking his eyes as a fear of the darkness encroached over him.

Woo-Moon looked over at Dae-Woong.

Dae-Woong’s eyes, which had glazed over in rage and were unfocused, returned to normal when he saw his son in front of him.

“Woo-Moon! My son...!!!”

Dae-Woong’s eyes bulged as tears began to flow down his cheeks.

“Your mother, my love... Jin-Jin... she...!”

He still thought that Jin-Jin had died.

“I... I haven’t kicked the bucket just yet, honey....” a woman’s feeble voice said.

Dae-Woong hurriedly turned around, and sure enough, he saw Jin-Jin looking up at him, lips pouting in a cute and annoyed expression in spite of her grave injuries.

“Honey!”

Dae-Woong ran over and held his wife’s hand. Woo-Moon, whose eyes had been red from earlier, began to shed tears as Ma-Ra watched over them silently.

Rumble! Boom!!!

However, right at that moment, a black iron door suddenly came down from above, blocking the only exit.

***

In the shrine where Woo-Moon and his family were, behind a well-hidden door, a set of stairs led to another secret room. There, Ju-Ryeong was sitting down, looking pensive, as though she was waiting for something.

Suddenly, a man dressed in white appeared in front of Ju-Ryeong, walking in with hurried steps.

“Mu Heon! How did things go?”

“It’s a pity, but things have gone sideways. Song Dae-Woong’s martial skills were stronger than expected. Moreover, I just saw Song Woo-Moon go inside, so it might be difficult for us to resolve the matter secretly.

“Damn it! We can’t let this happen. I’ll just have to take action myself.” Ju-Ryeong said.

However, Mu Heon shook his head.

“If Lady Hye-Ryeong was here, that might have been possible. But you cannot handle it yourself, Lady Ju-Ryeong. There’s no other choice.”

Mu Heon moved over to what looked like a lever controlling some kind of mechanism. Realizing what he intended, Ju-Ryeong shouted at him.

“What are you doing? Stop!”

Seeing Mu Heon ignore her and grab the lever, Ju-Ryeong actually drew her sword and swung at him.

Clang!

Mu Heon let go of the lever and used the leaf fan in his other hand to block Ju-Ryeong’s sword. However, he had already pulled the lever all the way down.

Rumble!!!

The sound of the door of the underground chamber closing could be heard all the way where they were.

Ju-Ryeong’s face turned pale.

“You, you asshole! Members of our family are still in there!” she yelled, referring to the members of the Invincible Forged Squadron.

Tens of their family members had already died for this plan. And now, the man before her was sentencing even more to their deaths?

It was only natural that Ju-Ryeong was enraged by Mu Heon’s actions. On the other hand, Mu Heon’s smiling face seemed to grow colder, and his gaze changed.

“They all died at Song Dae-Woong’s hands anyway, so there’s no need for us to worry about them,” he said.

However, he was lying through his teeth. Possibly because Dae-Woong still held on to a sliver of reasoning even after going insane, or because the Invincible Forged Squadron had their own qualms about killing their own family, there were more people seriously injured than dead.

“How do you expect me to believe anything you say? Also, my sister is becoming more and more strange because of you!”

A hint of bloodlust rose in Mu Heon’s eyes for a moment before disappearing quickly.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Rather, that Song Woo-Moon or whatever may find a way to escape if we keep wasting time. We have to bury them. That is the only way we can kill them all cleanly.”

Mu Heon moved to grab yet another lever, but this time, Ju-Ryeong ran forward and blocked his path.

“You bastard! I won’t let you do whatever you want anymore!”

***

"What the hell!”

Seeing the door suddenly close, Woo-Moon quickly rushed forward and swung his sword imbued with sword qi.

Clang!!

Sparks flew, but surprisingly, rather than being split in half or blasted away, the door only had a long and shallow gash.

"How is this...!”

Woo-Moon continued to attack the door. However, his strikes seemed useless.

“Woo-Moon, stop wasting your energy. Let’s try to find another way.”

Hearing his mother’s words, Woo-Moon calmed down and nodded.

Then, suddenly, there was a huge explosion. The smell of gunpowder filled the air, and the entire chamber shook.

At that moment, Woo-Moon realized what the enemies were trying to do.

“Damn it!”

He hurriedly wrapped his arm around Ma-Ra's waist and dashed to his parents.

Rumble!

Just as he expected, the ceiling and walls began to collapse.

The stone chamber was deep underground, and Woo-Moon didn’t know how much earth and stones would be above them.

‘You have to figure out a way. You have to do something, Song Woo-Moon! This is the only way you, Father, Mother, and Ma-Ra can survive! You have to think of a way to save everyone! Think! Find a technique in the Forbidden Divine Art that can save us!’