novelraw Chapter 118 : Intrusion (1)
Chapter 118 : Intrusion (1)
Chapter 118: Intrusion (1)
“Uwaah! I can’t do this, I can’t!”
The man’s scream resounded loudly, echoing through the layers of overlapping mountains.
Assassin Nameless was sprawled flat on the ground.
“How can we leave Sichuan and just keep moving for days and nights without rest! Isn’t this way too much?!”
Nameless complained as if he was about to die from unfairness.
And, of course, the target of his grievance was Sewoon standing right in front of him.
There he goes again.
Sewoon only frowned slightly without a shred of sympathy.
But truthfully, Nameless wasn’t entirely wrong.
After concluding negotiations with the Nine Heavens Immortal Maiden, Sewoon had left only a single letter for Tang Muyeol before immediately departing from the Tang Clan.
He set out at once for Yunnan, where the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace was located.
This time, unlike before, he took only one person along—Nameless.
‘I must finish this within half a month. Speed is the priority.’
That was why he had cut down his entourage to the extreme—solely for the sake of speed.
From the moment he left the Tang Clan grounds, Sewoon no longer hid his true strength and unleashed his movement arts at full power.
He maintained a speed like that of a fierce gale, cutting straight across treacherous terrain by the shortest possible routes.
The problem was that he hadn’t allowed even a single moment of rest.
‘Seriously, how can that guy still be human!’
Because of that, Nameless felt like dying.
For assassins, who often had to chase enemies or flee from them, mastering movement arts was essential.
Nameless possessed movement arts befitting the heir of the Gate of Assassins.
Not just moderately skilled—there were barely a handful among the Ten Great Experts of the world who could boast superior movement arts to his.
But the madman before him was on an entirely different level.
At the very least, he should be given time to circulate his qi properly.
Yet Sewoon had dismissed every request with the excuse of being pressed for time, pushing them through a grueling forced march for several days.
When Nameless showed no sign of ending his strike, Sewoon spoke in a cold voice.
“Do you want me to really leave you behind?”
“Ha! Fine, go ahead, abandon me, you heartless master without blood or tears.”
When Sewoon turned away without the slightest hesitation, Nameless cried out with a miserable face.
“Wait, but seriously, we need to rest! I’m only hanging on because it’s me. Anyone else would’ve already suffered Qi Deviation, collapsed by that rock, and be trembling on the ground!”
“So you’re saying you’re fine then?”
“How the hell did you twist my words into that?!”
Step. Step. Step.
Sewoon walked on without even looking back.
That damn master. That cursed master.
A string of curses and insults flew toward Sewoon’s back, all with Nameless’ name tacked onto them as colorful titles.
Haa… this won’t do.
Swoosh.
Finally, Sewoon stopped in his tracks and let out a long sigh.
“Fine. We’ll rest for just half a shichen. No more than that.”
“Oh, yes! Finally!”
At Sewoon’s permission, Nameless let out a cheer.
Then he immediately sat down to calm the chaotic energy inside his body that had been thrown into disarray over the past days.
A bit of color returned to his worn-out face.
Soon after regaining some composure, Nameless opened his eyes again.
And what he saw was Sewoon, still surveying the terrain around them without taking even a moment’s rest.
Good grief, he won’t even stand in the shade.
Ever since they had crossed out of Sichuan into Yunnan, the weather had been unbearably hot and stifling.
It felt like being inside a steamer. Even breathing wasn’t easy.
Yet, unlike Nameless, Sewoon didn’t even have a single drop of sweat rolling down his forehead.
‘……No matter how I look at it, you seem more monstrous than that so-called Blood Demon.’
With that thought, Nameless suddenly asked Sewoon about a lingering doubt.
“But Master, what exactly do you plan to do when we get to the Beast Palace?”
“What do you mean, what?”
“I mean that Burning Flame thing, or whatever it’s called. If it’s on par with Fiery Flame Purity or Myriad Thunder Pearl, then it must be an artifact the Beast Palace treasures immensely. How is a master with no ties whatsoever to the Beast Palace going to get it?”
But does the Beast Palace really have such an artifact in the first place?
Nameless desperately wanted to ask that fundamental question, but held it back and asked indirectly instead.
Sewoon looked at him with half-lidded eyes and said.
“You’ll probably blab and leak information to the enemy.”
“Come on, then just tell me a little, enough to get a taste.”
Nameless readily admitted the possibility that he might leak information.
Even after regression, his shamelessness was unchanged.
Sewoon smirked and continued.
“Do you know what Beast Palace and the Demonic Cult have in common?”
“The Demonic Cult?”
Nameless tilted his head, then answered.
“Hmm, let’s see… maybe that they’re both full of lunatics?”
“Well, that’s true, but it’s not the answer.”
The Southern Barbarian Beast Palace lay deep within Mount Ailao of Yunnan, a place that could be called the remotest of remote corners in the martial world.
Unlike other forces of the Outer Regions, who openly showed their ambition of invading the Central Plains, the Beast Palace locked its gates like an iron fortress and lived in seclusion.
They only stepped into the martial world when someone dared to touch one of their brethren, and every time they did, they left behind bold marks in martial history.
‘They never stopped until their enemy was utterly crushed, body and soul.’
Not so much martial artists as war-mad warriors or berserkers—the word ‘savage’ suited them more than ‘martial man’.
That was the true identity of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace.
Then Sewoon spoke.
“Survival of the Strong.”
“……!”
“The Demonic Cult and the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace—only these two in the martial world are sustained by that single law.”
The law of survival of the strong.
Only the strong survived, while the weak perished.
Only the strong monopolized everything.
And this time, Sewoon’s plan to resolve everything was based on nothing else but that law.
After a break that ended in the blink of an eye, Sewoon once again pressed forward at full speed.
The mountains grew steeper, and poisonous snakes and venomous insects squirmed at their feet and before their eyes—a sure sign that they were drawing close to their destination.
‘At this pace, in half a day we’ll reach the entrance of Mount Ailao.’
For the common folk of Yunnan, Mount Ailao was the forbidden land of forbidden lands.
Its rolling ridges stretched on for over a hundred li, blanketed with grotesque, ancient trees whose ages could not be guessed.
And that wasn’t all. Throughout the mountain lay marshes filled with deadly poison, and cliffs where one misstep would send you plummeting a thousand feet to your death.
But none of those were the true reason the place was forbidden.
The biggest reason the common folk had cut off their steps was because.
‘The main palace of the Beast Palace was located there.’
The Southern Barbarian Beast Palace was an extremely closed-off sect.
No, in truth, it was closer to a small nation than a sect.
The warriors of the Beast Palace followed their Palace Master as though he were truly their king, and they lived in groups across all of Mount Ailao, which surrounded the main palace like city walls.
They believed themselves to be family tied by blood, true brothers to one another.
Which meant, for Sewoon, who had to secretly infiltrate among them, this was the worst possible condition.
‘As expected, the best method is the one I’ve already thought of.’
Of course, Sewoon had already prepared a strategy to blend in naturally while coming here.
His eyes half-opened again.
‘If I just sacrifice one person, I can slip in easily…….’
At that moment, Sewoon fixed his gaze squarely on the back of Nameless’ head.
Suddenly, Nameless shivered as if struck with chills.
Then, blinking nervously, he hurriedly scanned his surroundings.
Tch, sharp little bastard.
Sewoon clicked his tongue in annoyance.
Clang!
Kraaaah!
“!!”
“……!”
Suddenly, the sharp sound of blades clashed with booming war cries.
Wooong!
Kwaaaar!
Resonance of fierce qi and explosive blasts erupted one after another.
In that instant, Sewoon and Nameless exchanged glances.
Those were unmistakable sounds of battle.
Pabat!
Both of them pushed off with their footwork at the same time, darting forward like arrows.
The scenery around them flashed past as the sounds of cold steel grew ever closer to their ears.
Soon, Sewoon’s eyes caught sight of two groups locked in fierce combat.
“You vile and dishonorable wretches!”
“Today we’ll end it with you!”
On one side were Taoists wearing martial robes and Nan-hua headscarves, wielding cold, gleaming swords.
“Hmph! Arrogant Taoist bastards!”
“I’ll shatter every bone in your body into pieces!”
On the other side were men with hulking, muscular builds clad in garments of beast hide, looking every bit like bandits.
I can guess what’s going on here.
Hidden in the dense thickets, Sewoon observed inwardly.
One of the Taoists was someone from his memory before regression.
Eyes stretched sharp like a weasel’s, pallid skin.
His bony, emaciated frame instead evoked the image of a finely honed blade.
“Stay alert, all of you! Anyone who dares defile the honor of Diancang will first fall to my sword!”
“Yes, First Senior Brother!!”
It was none other than Yoon Gil, disciple of the Sword Sovereign Sa Il and the Sect Leader of the Diancang Sect.
One of the Nine Dragons Four Phoenixes of that era, and a top-tier Young Successor, said to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Sword Dragon Namgung Baek.
But in Sewoon’s memory, what remained clearer was something else.
—Demonic Craftsman Tang Sewoon! In the name of the Anti-Blood Alliance, I will cut you down!
He had remained as a dogged maniac of vengeance, unleashing the ferocious Sword Sovereign Arts upon him.
Before regression, if the Demonic Alliance had the Bodyguard Do Yecheon, known as the Heaven-Slaying Sword Ghost, who guarded the Lord of the Sleepless Fortress—
Then the Anti-Blood Alliance had Yoon Gil, the Soul-Stealing Sun Shooter, who protected the Sword Queen.
After Sword Sovereign Sa Il had met a tragic end at the hands of the Poison Demon, Yoon Gil led the surviving members of Diancang, who had been ruined by the Blood Cult, to join the Anti-Blood Alliance. From then on, he slew countless demonic practitioners of the Blood Cult.
“You stay here.”
“Huh? You’re telling me not to join the fight? Seriously?”
“Tch, don’t make me repeat myself.”
“Sniff… finally, you’ve come to your senses. Thank you, Master.”
A glow of emotion filled Nameless’ eyes.
Ignoring that gaze, Sewoon swiftly pulled an Human-Skin Mask over his face.
Because of that, Nameless failed to see the corner of Sewoon’s lips curl upward.
‘Don’t worry. You’ll suffer something even worse later.’
Pabat!
At the same time, Sewoon burst out of the thickets with a powerful leap.
“I will aid you!”
Kwagaga!
He exuded a fierce surge of qi from his entire body.
He did it deliberately, to announce his presence on the battlefield.
“First Senior Brother! Reinforcements at the rear!”
“Support has come—!”
The Taoists of the Diancang Sect, who first spotted Sewoon, shouted joyfully.
Though his attire was worn and tattered, anyone could see it was Central Plains clothing, and his speech was Central Plains as well.
Sewoon dashed forward like a bolt of lightning.
“Thank you, cou—urk?!”
Thud!
In the next instant, a Taoist warrior of the Diancang Sect was sent flying with the crisp impact of a fist slamming into meat.
‘Sorry, but this time I’m not on your side.’
Then Sewoon turned toward the bandit-like men—
No, the warriors of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace—
And let out a resounding lion’s roar.
“Warriors of the Beast Palace! Your brother has returned!”