“Damn!”
CLANG—!
Yeoguk’s response was remarkable. His sword knocked aside the hidden weapon hurtling toward him at terrifying speed.
Of the Nine Sects, Kunlun lay farthest from the Central Plains. Though counted among the sacred grounds of Daoist martial arts, its disciplines followed a different path from those of Wudang, which were considered the orthodox standard of the Central Plains.
Where Wudang’s sword was gentle, Kunlun’s was grave and imposing. Forged amid cold, rugged terrain, the Kunlun sword never hesitated to crush even the fiercest attack head-on.
After deflecting the hidden weapon, Yeoguk stepped through the Cloud Dragon Steps and swung his sword once more.
SHRAAAK!
The extending blade sent one assassin’s head flying, while the sword wind drawn back with it split another assassin’s abdomen wide open.
It was a brutal technique, wholly unlike what one might expect from a Daoist sword art. This was a killing sword so deeply ingrained in his bones that, in a moment of crisis, a practical combat technique emerged on its own.
CLAAANG!
He exquisitely knocked aside a narrow-bladed sword, then drove his opponent back with the lofty Cloud Crane Palm.
The assassin he sent flying was instantly shredded into dozens of pieces.
Yeoguk’s eyes widened.
It was not his attack that had done it. The airborne assassin had been killed by his own comrades. Anticipating Yeoguk’s follow-up strike, they had immediately eliminated an obstacle that might get in their way.
“You vicious bastards!”
CLANG! CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
Yeoguk killed several assassins through sheer reflex, but that was the end of it. More than ten assassins who had grasped the extent of his abilities widened the distance and began showering him with hidden weapons.
Yeoguk deployed the Great Void Sword to knock the projectiles aside and attempted to counterattack several times, but each time the assassins retreated like ghosts. They were acutely sensitive to his Killing Intent.
These bastards.
Yeoguk’s eyes trembled faintly.
They really are different.
The Evil-Smiting Corps was a special unit capable of achieving results beyond its apparent ability when deployed in real combat. The reason was simple: in battle, they used any means necessary.
The same was true of this band of assassins.
If anything, they went even further than the Evil-Smiting Corps. The Evil-Smiting Corps would risk their lives for a mission, but they would never harm their comrades. The thought had never even occurred to them.
These assassins were different. To preserve their overall fighting strength, they tore their own comrades apart with something resembling a steel net, and not the slightest hesitation could be seen in their actions.
Demons!
That was what they were. Demons.
One did not have to practice a demonic art to become one. Men who treated human lives—even the lives of their own comrades—as worthless deserved to be called demons as well.
The problem was that the attacks of those demons were far too threatening.
Their attacks are one thing, but...
FLAP!
A hidden weapon shot in from the front, pierced his sleeve, and dropped to the ground. The cloth around the hole was slightly damp.
Poison. They had coated the hidden weapon with poison.
This was not something he could dismiss as a cheap trick. These men would do anything to kill their targets. If necessary, they could lurk in filth for days on end, waiting for an opportunity.
Poison, hidden weapons, nets, narrow-bladed swords... They certainly live up to the name of assassins.
FWIP!
Yeoguk’s face hardened.
A hidden weapon that had arrived without warning grazed his shoulder.
HISSS!
He immediately circulated his Inner Qi and forced out the poison. Had he been even a fraction of a second slower, he might have lost the use of one arm for some time.
Forget everything else—when did they get so close?!
Had Mookbi not reacted first, he might have allowed them to approach within thirty feet. If they had entered that range, either he or Okcheong would undoubtedly have died.
Damn it!
At that moment—
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!
Yeoguk’s eyes shook.
Seven invisible arrows obliterated the heads of all seven assassins he had been fighting.
Yeoguk turned.
Mookbi was already racing through the air at terrifying speed, a single wooden arrow nocked to the Red Lotus Bow.
THUD!
One assassin struck by Mookbi’s foot flew far away and tumbled across the ground with three of his comrades.
Mookbi released the string.
THUUUD!
The single wooden arrow pierced straight through the upper bodies of all four assassins rolling across the ground.
Its penetrating power was horrifying. It was not even an iron arrow, yet one short wooden shaft had skewered four highly trained assassins.
An archer normally achieved maximum effectiveness by maintaining distance or firing from concealment. That was precisely what made archers so fearsome.
Mookbi was different.
Few people in the entire Central Plains could handle a bow as well as she could. Moreover, she possessed a versatile movement art and explosive footwork every bit as extraordinary as her seemingly divine archery.
Whether fighting at close range or from a distance, she displayed almost the same devastating power. That alone proved the excellence of her real-combat experience.
And that was not all.
RATTLE-RATTLE-RATTLE!
A massive steel net descended over Mookbi’s head. They had judged her to be the most dangerous enemy present.
Yeoguk shouted.
“Deputy Commander! Watch—!”
Mookbi’s eyes blazed.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Four arrows struck the net’s four corners and exploded, slowing its descent.
The speed of her shots defied imagination. She had fired faster than a master of the swift sword could perform a sword-drawing technique.
Mookbi immediately unleashed the Dragon Flight Sequence.
BOOOOM!
She drove a powerful palm strike into the center of the net, sending it spinning rapidly back into the sky.
The assassins’ steel net was not merely designed to capture its target. Its entire surface bristled with tiny, razor-sharp barbs. Once caught in it, even a master under heaven would be reduced to a bloody mess.
Mookbi had recognized its danger immediately and simply blasted it away.
But there was a problem.
SNAP.
She had moved so quickly that the strap securing the quiver to her belt broke, sending it tumbling to the ground. She could still fire a Formless Shot, but her hand was already reaching instinctively toward where the quiver had been.
At that moment, an assassin fired a poisoned needle at her.
It was a fatal instant.
Mookbi snatched a long object dangling from her waist and drew the bowstring.
BOOOOM!
The thick projectile shot forward in a straight line, pulverizing the poisoned needle and blowing away the assassin’s entire upper body before burying itself in the ground.
THUD!
Mookbi landed swiftly and pulled the object from the earth.
It was a short spear—the same weapon she had used to devastate Ink Dragon Manor’s special-operations unit when she summoned the Evil-Smiting Corps to escape the manor in the past.
It was an astonishing application. The string of the Red Lotus Bow might have been crafted from a divine treasure, but few would ever conceive of nocking a short spear and firing it from the bow.
Much less in such a perilous instant.
“Deputy Commander! Behind you!”
Mookbi’s eyes flashed.
The short spear in her hand traced a crescent through the air.
SHRAAAK!
A torrent of blood erupted from the assassin’s throat.
Mookbi made no effort to avoid it.
“......!!”
The battle briefly reached a lull.
No matter how thoroughly the assassins had killed their emotions, even they could not readily launch another attack in the face of Mookbi’s overwhelming martial prowess.
Yeoguk swallowed without realizing it.
With a red bow in one hand and a short spear in the other, Mookbi surveyed the enemies surrounding her. The sheer force of her presence was overwhelming.
Half her face and most of her upper body were drenched in enemy blood, yet her sharply defined eyes radiated an icy force. She possessed more than enough majesty to dominate the battlefield as a woman commander.
One warrior against ten thousand...
The bow. The spear. Even unarmed combat.
By now, she had truly become an invincible commander capable of seemingly anything. The woman who had once wandered without knowing what path she should follow was becoming an empress of the battlefield, inspiring awe in ally and enemy alike.
Mookbi shouted.
“Okcheong!”
CLAAAAANG!
Okcheong had been perfectly defending against the assassins’ attacks with the Taiji Wisdom Sword. He deployed Cloud-Ladder Ascent and moved to Mookbi’s side.
“Go to the Supreme Commander! Yeoguk and I will handle this!”
“Understood.”
THUD!
Okcheong raced toward the building, which had now been reduced entirely to ruins.
He knew Mookbi was not worried about Yeon Hojeong. In some ways, Yeon Hojeong was more terrifying than the three of them combined.
The problem was Sima Hyeon. As the Yin God’s eldest disciple, his abilities were undoubtedly formidable, but if he died, even by the slimmest chance, the situation would become far too dangerous.
Once Okcheong had disappeared, Mookbi drew a deep breath.
BOOM!
The assassins flinched at her powerful stamping step and turned toward her.
Mookbi raised the bow and short spear into a crossed middle guard, then spoke in a chilling voice.
“We should finish what we started. Come at me.”
*****
The assassins poured down like rain through the shattered ceiling.
Within an instant divided into even finer instants, Sima Hyeon read every single look in their eyes.
These men...?!
Sima Hyeon’s face hardened.
The Dark Blade Band!
Of the countless assassination organizations created by the current Yin God, three were feared above all others.
The Dark Blade Band was one of them.
What made the Dark Blade Band so fearsome was not merely the skill of its members, but the very nature of the organization itself.
It had been created to assassinate assassins.
Its targets were not ordinary martial artists, politicians, or wealthy magnates, but fellow assassins.
An organization of assassins trained to eliminate other assassins. It went without saying that every one of its members was a first-rate expert.
BANG!
Sima Hyeon swiftly retreated and shouted.
“To the rear, for now—!”
At that moment—
Mad Dragon swept upward from below in a vast arc, unleashing a monstrous storm.
RUMBLE—BOOOOM!!
An enormous explosion thundered through the building as more than ten assassins who had surged inside were torn apart and sent flying like scraps of cloth.
Sima Hyeon’s eyes widened.
What?!
It was incomprehensible that such a heavy axe could move so quickly, but its power—and the result—were even more astonishing.
He had killed ten assassins of the Dark Blade Band in a single blow?
Even though they had taken him by surprise?
BOOOOM!
A small explosion erupted at the building’s entrance, followed by a cloud of murky white smoke.
Poison smoke.
The assassins had sealed off their escape route.
Yeon Hojeong clicked his tongue.
“Why haven’t your tricks changed at all since my day?”
He stamped down powerfully.
BOOM!
The entire wall of the building shook, and a terrifying qi wave erupted.
ROOOOAR!
It sounded as though a savage beast were roaring from somewhere far away.
The White Tiger Art had manifested through White Tiger Qi.
“Hey, eldest disciple.”
Sima Hyeon stared at Yeon Hojeong with trembling eyes.
Yeon Hojeong raised Mad Dragon with both hands.
“I’ll make us a path. You cover our rear.”
“W-What...?”
“Hup!”
BOOOOOM!
Yeon Hojeong smashed through the building’s wall with the Tiger King’s Crushing Blow and charged outside, breaking away from the assassins.
Sima Hyeon’s face twisted.
Of all things, Yeon Hojeong had told him to cover their rear where every assassin of the Dark Blade Band could see him?
......Damn it!
FWEEEE!
Sima Hyeon deflected a hidden weapon fired at Yeon Hojeong with palm force, then hurriedly followed behind him.
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