Swordless Demonic Path

Chapter 44 : When Green Plants Dance in the Spring Breeze

In Jin Sa-wol's eyes, he saw a spider sitting near the Jianjing acupoint. What was peculiar was that a human face was drawn on the spider's abdomen.

'Human-Faced Spider.'

Jin Sa-wol's expression hardened. It was a tattoo that could not be easily seen.

"How can the master of Hwahwaru become the branch master of the Hao Mun?"

"Hwahwaru can become the branch master of the Hao Mun or a Flower Ghost when it comes out into the martial world. Where you stand is not important. What you do is important."

Jo-rim smiled with her eyes and drank wine.

Jin Sa-wol could understand why this place was so awkward and uncomfortable.

'She's planning to kill me.'

Jin Sa-wol could guess the reason why Jo-rim had revealed her identity.

If she wasn't planning to kill him, there was no reason to reveal her identity.

It seemed she was enjoying herself, with him, who would turn into a corpse, in front of her.

"Oh my? We have a guest."

At Jo-rim's words, Jin Sa-wol nodded.

It was something he already knew. These assassins were all people who had been chasing him.

Whoosh! Shwaak!

Five black shadows fell quickly from the dark ceiling. But Jin Sa-wol and Jo-rim did not even flinch.

There was no need to.

Ting! T-ding!

The sound of a string being plucked and a rustle! The faint sound of paper being torn echoed from the ceiling at the same time.

In that instant, the bodies of two of the five who were falling were cut like tofu and fell in pieces.

Thump! Splat! Swaaa!

With a pile of corpses, blood rained down.

Jo-rim and Jin Sa-wol, who were covered in blood, just looked at each other's faces. The remaining three were hanging from the ceiling like fruit.

A bitter sneer filled Jo-rim's lips.

Although pieces of corpses, separated into a dozen or so chunks of meat, were all around her, Jo-rim was smiling.

A strange, gloomy, and blood-scented room.

It was a sight that would be hard to endure even for a martial artist with a lot of experience in the martial world.

Drip! Drip!

Red blood fell from the ceiling like rain. It was because of the dozens of threads that filled the ceiling.

The threads, which were entangled like a spider's web, had a sharpness like a sharp blade.

It was a steel thread of the same material as the Blood-Cutting Silk used in Ghost Spirit Valley.

During the day, you had to look closely to see it, and at night, it was a colorless, transparent thread that you couldn't even see, filling the area around the room.

Jo-rim was a spider that had spun a web and was waiting for its prey.

Since Jin Sa-wol knew that the room was full of Blood-Cutting Silk, he had not entered the room directly, but had walked in from outside.

Drip!

A drop of blood fell on Jin Sa-wol's forehead.

It was a drop of blood that had rolled down a thread.

Jin Sa-wol's eyes glanced at the ceiling. He saw three corpses and several layers of red threads.

Jin Sa-wol looked at Jo-rim. She smiled with her eyes and drank the wine cup with a drop of blood in it.

'A monster.'

A thought brushed past Jin Sa-wol's mind.

Jo-rim seemed to be waiting for Jin Sa-wol to be shaken, showing an eye-smile. But Jin Sa-wol did not even flinch.

When his eyes turned to the ceiling, he had tried to release poison, but even that was not easy.

Jo-rim discovered the smile hanging on Jin Sa-wol's lips.

In this atmosphere, Jin Sa-wol was smiling faintly. It was as if he were enjoying this situation.

'...A ghost.'

It was a thought that brushed past Jo-rim's mind.

But the two were having the same thought.

Whoosh!

A wine bottle floated in the air. That wine bottle appeared in front of Jin Sa-wol's eyes and blocked his view.

The moment he was in a state where he couldn't see anything, Jin Sa-wol's figure, hook! turned into black smoke and disappeared.

Papapat!

Two daggers passed the wine bottle and flew towards Jo-rim's chest and neck.

The moment the daggers appeared as Jin Sa-wol's figure disappeared, Jo-rim's eyes widened.

Thwack-thwack!

With a dull sound, the daggers that Jin Sa-wol had thrown were embedded in the wall.

Jo-rim was already not there.

Only the clothes Jo-rim had been wearing were hanging on the wall with the daggers, but she was nowhere to be found.

Drip! Drip!

The drops of blood were still falling from the air, and only a thick smell of blood lingered in the room.

Jin Sa-wol was also nowhere to be found.

Not even a single ant could be seen around the room, which was only lit by a lamp.

If either of them made a sound first, they would die immediately.

When the deep silence became unbearably heavy, a faint sound was heard from the north forest.

Rustle!

The moment the sound of rustling through the grass echoed, a dozen or so silver flashes passed through that place.

Thwack-thwack!

Trees were cut, and leaves fluttered with the wind. But Jo-rim and Jin Sa-wol were not there.

Clank!

The moment the sound of opening a drawer echoed from the room, the forest shook. From there, a black sphere shot up and then disappeared into the ground again. It was Jo-rim.

She realized that she had been caught in a very simple lure.

Jin Sa-wol, who had taken out a secret letter from the drawer, sat in front of the wine table where he had originally been sitting.

Although it was a place full of dead bodies, Jin Sa-wol's expression showed no change.

He looked like a person who was used to such a place.

Sitting in front of the lamp, Jin Sa-wol read the secret letter and drank wine.

-The Martial Alliance Leader is scheduled to retire. The Wudang Sect and the Namgung family will engage in a secret struggle for the position of the next Alliance Leader, so observe the Namgung family and report. The top priority is the Namgung family.

Jin Sa-wol folded the secret letter and said.

"The target wasn't me, but the Namgung family."

As Jin Sa-wol's words lingered in the room, a black sphere shot up from where Jo-rim had been sitting and then soon turned into a naked person.

The sight of the skin, which had been black, returning to its original color was quite impressive, but Jin Sa-wol didn't even give it a glance.

He already knew about the Hwahwa Art of Hwahwaru. Some had said it was beautiful, but that was because of the woman's naked body.

Jo-rim sat in front of Jin Sa-wol in a naked state.

Jin Sa-wol folded the secret letter, held it out to Jo-rim, and said.

"I can kill you, but I won't. I think I can take at least those fine limbs with me."

"You've got guts. Hoho!"

Jo-rim laughed lightly as if it were interesting.

She soon stopped laughing and nodded.

"I'll praise you for stealing my gaze. On top of that..."

Jo-rim's eyes turned to the corpses.

"You also killed the assassins of the Blood Curtain without lifting a finger, using the strategy of killing with a borrowed sword."

Jo-rim asked Jin Sa-wol, who had an indifferent face.

"What did you do with Ha So-eun and Son Ae-hwa?"

"I killed them."

At the words that he had killed them, Jo-rim seemed to understand. With Jin Sa-wol's skills, those two would have been had without even being able to use their strength properly.

Jin Sa-wol asked, "Is there a need to kill Ha Mae-sang?"

When Jin Sa-wol asked, a strange smile spread across Jo-rim's lips. Jo-rim rested her chin on her hand and stared at Jin Sa-wol.

"He has to die for you to come and find me."

Seeing Jo-rim's smile, Jin Sa-wol knew that there was nothing to answer. It meant that if he needed information from the Hao Mun, he should come to her.

"Come often. I'll treat you well."

At Jo-rim's greeting, Jin Sa-wol stood up without a word and went outside.

Jo-rim watched Jin Sa-wol leave, then stood up and grabbed the outer garment hanging on the wall.

Two daggers caught her eye. They were the ones Jin Sa-wol had thrown.

She took out the daggers and put on the clothes.

"Huh?"

Jo-rim, at the different weight of the clothes, looked inside her sleeve. The poison and antidote that should have been there were gone.

"I'll have to go."

Jo-rim laughed lightly as if it were interesting.

"Why did you just let him go?"

A man in black was standing in front of the door. He, with his bamboo hat pressed down, had no expression.

Jo-rim's expression turned cold.

"If we do it now, it's mutual destruction. We'll both die."

At Jo-rim's answer, the man in the bamboo hat bowed his head and then went outside. Jo-rim looked around the room, sighed, and shook her head.

"When am I going to clean all this up? Haa..."

* * *

The inside of the house was full of pitch-black darkness. In the place where a deep silence and a desolate wind lingered, a faint tremor occurred.

"Ugh!"

Thump!

A man in black, wearing a black mask, fell from the ceiling.

Blood flowed from the forehead of the masked man who had fallen to the floor.

"Huh?"

"Keok!"

As a masked man wearing the same attire collapsed between the walls, another one fell from the ceiling.

Thud!

Three corpses lay side by side on the floor. Blood flowed from their foreheads.

They had been killed instantly with one sword strike.

Thump!

Another masked man fell to the ground. Jin Sa-wol appeared in front of him and stepped on his chest.

"Keuuuk!"

Jin Sa-wol, holding a sword, looked at the masked man's eyes. The eyes, full of fear, shook greatly.

"How did you know my house?"

"The branch of the Martial Alliance told me."

"Yun Deok?"

"Yes."

The eyes of the masked man who had told the truth were smiling. It showed a will that he could not die alone.

Jin Sa-wol, who had heard the masked man's answer, stabbed his sword into his forehead without any lingering attachment.

Jin Sa-wol pulled out the blood-stained sword and then washed his body in the well. After that, he changed into black clothes.

"I'm busy."

Jin Sa-wol grumbled and disappeared into the night sky full of darkness.

It was a day that felt long.

* * *

"Keuu-eum."

Yun Deok, who was sleeping, opened his eyes as he was thirsty and sat up. He picked up the water jug he had placed at his bedside, drank water, and then let out a deep sigh.

"Hoo... I had an unlucky dream."

Yun Deok recalled the memory of being beaten like a dog by his father when he was young. That memory sometimes appeared as a dream.

And the day he had that dream was an unlucky day, so he refrained from going out.

His father, who had been a loafer in the neighborhood, would show off his strength whenever he drank. Since he was strong, no one in the neighborhood touched him, so he was a person who had nothing to fear.

But one day, he had gotten drunk in a large village, caused a disturbance, and showed off his strength as he had done in the neighborhood, and had been stabbed to death. After that, Yun Deok had grown up under a single mother.

The reason he had entered Azure Sword Sect was to lessen the burden on his suffering mother.

Although he was successful and living well now, his heart felt heavy when he thought of his deceased mother.

"Ugh!"

It wasn't just heavy, but his chest really felt heavy.

"Keuk!"

His throat felt like it was burning, and his face turned red. It was not easy to breathe. Something was strange.

"What on earth is this..."

He wanted to shout, but he couldn't put strength in his throat.

"It's good. It's a shame it's not an instant kill, but it's usable."

A low voice was heard, and only then did Yun Deok, who was surprised, turn his head. He saw a man in black standing in front of the door.

"You! How are you here...?"

Yun Deok, who recognized Jin Sa-wol, opened his eyes wide. He had to recall how he had entered this room, but that was not important right now.

His own body, which was poisoned, was the priority.

Jin Sa-wol had entered the room while Yun Deok was sleeping and had put a poison pill in the jug. Yun Deok had drunk the water in which the poison pill had dissolved.

Jin Sa-wol approached Yun Deok, showed him a small white gourd bottle, and said.

"The antidote is in here. If you answer my questions properly, I will give you the antidote."

At Jin Sa-wol's words, Yun Deok nodded, clutching his chest with a pained expression.

"Did you instigate Shinsuichae to kill Hyun Jin?"

"I don't know."

Yun Deok answered in a hoarse voice. Since it was an expected answer, Jin Sa-wol moved his sword without a word.

Thwack!

A sword was embedded in Yun Deok's forehead. Yun Deok was blankly looking at Jin Sa-wol with wide eyes.

Jin Sa-wol pulled out the sword and took in Yun Deok, who was lying on the bed, with his eyes. He had just tried the poison once to see its effect.

In fact, there was nothing to hear from Yun Deok's mouth.

He was not curious about whether he had tried to kill Hyun Jin or whether he disliked him.

What was important was the fact that he had tried to kill him.

(End of Chapter)