novelraw Chapter 90 : Chapter 90
Chapter 90 : Chapter 90
Chapter 90 - Before the Blood Runs Cold
20 years ago.
In the Beggars' Union, before the Flying Beggar, there was a man called the Mad Laughing Shoulder Steps.
A man whose laughter was so eccentric that he seemed like a madman. And a nickname given because his gait was as fast as his laughter.
Mad Laughing Shoulder Steps was the nickname of the young Gwangyo.
“Hehehehehe……”
Just like Ji Seok-gi, the Gwangyo of the past had mainly carried out missions related to reconnaissance.
Like Ji Seok-gi, he had three knots, but he too was not of a character to be in charge of a single branch.
‘The region where Gwangyo goes as a branch leader makes even a beggar lose his appetite.’
This was not a rumor from the marketplace, but a saying that circulated within the Beggars' Union itself.
Missions related to spying were not bad for Gwangyo either.
He thought it was more comfortable to act alone than to deal with frustrating people.
However.
At this very moment, he seemed to desperately need a colleague.
“Hehehehehe……”
“Brother. This bastard is laughing.”
A tall man with long hair looked to his side.
The man the man called brother had pale skin and a particularly long tongue, giving him the impression of a snake.
“They call him the Mad Laughing Shoulder Steps, and it's certainly no empty name. To be laughing even when your limbs are broken and you're poisoned……”
As the snake-like man said, Gwangyo’s condition was such that it would not be strange if he died right away.
His four limbs were all broken and twisted in different directions as if he had been tortured, and his whole body was bruised and swollen from being hit by poison during a battle.
He seemed like he would die soon even if left alone, but the two brothers seemed to have no intention of doing so.
“If you're a beggar, you should just pick up and eat discarded food like a beggar. Why did you come all the way to Tibet? Don't hold out any longer and tell me. Which branch sent you.”
The sight of him lying on the floor with broken limbs, struggling, was utterly miserable.
But even in that state, Gwangyo’s laughter did not stop.
“Hehehehe…… what are you going to do with the branch? Are you planning to take my hole-ridden underwear?”
After answering, Gwangyo spat out a bowlful of blood.
The snake man slightly stepped aside, lest the blood splatter on him.
“We can't kill all the beggars in the world…… so we'll just have to cleanly eliminate one branch. If you tell me your affiliation, I'll spare you. Otherwise……”
The slender fingertips of the snake man moved towards one of Gwangyo’s eyes.
It was very clear what Gwangyo would lose if he did not answer.
“Hehe, hahahahaha!”
Gwangyo laughed.
Like a madman.
It was not clear whether it was his original personality, or whether he couldn't bear it without going mad.
In any case, it was a sight that perfectly suited the character for ‘madness.’
“If you're not going to eat it after you gouge out my eyeball, put it in my mouth! I haven't had anything soft to eat lately! Hahahaha!”
“I will gladly do so.”
It was when the snake man licked his lips and was about to put strength into his fingertips.
Sssssssss…….
From somewhere.
A very faint sound of wind was heard.
“?”
A gentle breeze in this forest was not particularly a big deal.
However, to Yo Seoldam, the top master of the Green Snake Hall who used poison, one of the breezes sounded particularly strange.
“Brother?”
“Shh.”
His younger brother, Yo Seoljeok, looked at him with puzzled eyes, but Yo Seoldam remained sitting still with one knee bent.
Ssssss!
A single gentle breeze.
The sound that could barely be heard if one strained their ears was gradually getting louder.
From the direction opposite to where they were standing.
“Something is coming from that way……!”
Yo Seoldam bared his fangs and glared in one direction.
It was not certain yet, but someone was approaching this place.
At a truly unbelievably tremendous speed, as if it were the speed of the wind.
“Brother. What's coming?”
Yo Seoljeok inadvertently took a step in the direction he pointed.
Yo Seoldam was greatly surprised and shouted.
“What are you doing! Come over here quickly!!”
“What on earth are you doing that for……”
Kwakwakwakwakwakwakwa!
“?!”
Who would have thought that would be the last words of his younger brother, Yo Seoljeok.
The sound of the wind, which had become as fierce as a waterfall, turned into a single ray of light and pierced through Yo Seoljeok’s heart.
Peooook!
The thrust was so powerful that a sound as if being hit by a fist echoed.
However, a bluish sword blade sticking out from behind Yo Seoljeok’s back clearly indicated that the attack a moment ago was swordsmanship.
“Keuk……!?”
Even as blood streamed down, Yo Seoljeok had a stupid expression on his face.
Something flashed from that direction, and in the time it took to blink, a sword blade flew and lodged itself in him.
It was a quick sword that was hard to believe even after seeing it, no, impossible to see.
“Jeok!!”
Yo Seoldam hissed like a beast and swung the tip of one hand.
Soon, three thin whips flew from his hand towards the attacker.
“Oops.”
The man pulled out his sword and lightly stepped back.
But surprisingly, the once-unleashed whips changed their trajectory and pursued the man.
“Ho?”
A faint smile appeared on the man’s face.
Then he swung the sword he was holding from bottom to top.
Seogeok!
“Keek!”
With a terrible scream, the whips that fell to the ground twitched.
What Yo Seoldam had swung was not actually a whip, but a type of snake called Vine Iron Snake.
No matter how experienced a master was, they couldn't help but be surprised to see a snake that changed its path and flew at them.
But the man’s reaction was only a sneer full of ridicule.
Eudeudeuk.
Yo Seoldam ground his teeth as if to break them and ran to his younger brother, Yo Seoljeok.
However, there was no way there would be focus in the wide-open eyes of Yo Seoljeok, who had been pierced through the heart.
He could feel his brother’s body growing cold at his fingertips in real time.
Yo Seoldam let out a desperate cry at the unexpected attack.
“Kuaaaaaak! You bastard!”
Meanwhile, Gwangyo, lying on the ground, managed to lift only his head and watch this whole situation.
‘An incredible swordsmanship……!’
It was a fantastic quick sword, so much so that he resented his vision blurring with poison.
Until Yo Seoldam said something was strange, Gwangyo had not noticed the man’s approach.
Although he was injured, Gwangyo’s main mission was reconnaissance and spying.
There was no way he would fail to notice a being approaching with this much momentum.
‘Why……?’
There were two main reasons Gwangyo thought of.
Either his senses were completely broken.
Or if not that.
He had closed an absurdly long distance in an instant.
“Well now? There's a living corpse here.”
The man’s impression was nothing special.
Although he had a slightly sharp impression, he was neither handsome nor ugly, just an average face.
But the expression on his face was filled with absolute confidence.
Arrogant confidence, as if saying that no one could follow his sword.
“Who are you, mister? Looking at the knots, you seem to be a beggar from the Beggars' Union.”
“Hehehehe…… my name is Gwangyo.”
“Gwangyo? Seeing you laugh, you seem to still be able to live. Sir Gwangyo. I will return before your blood runs cold, so please wait a moment.”
The man made a promise like someone from a legend and then turned his back.
If the Sect Leader had been watching this, he would have pointed his finger and reprimanded him.
There were laws and etiquette in the world of Murim.
It was necessary to choose one's words carefully, especially when meeting for the first time.
Furthermore, weren't both of them affiliated with the Nine Sects One Union?
However, between the man and Gwangyo, a conversation that seemed to have thrown etiquette to the dogs went on, and on the other hand, it felt incredibly natural.
“Be careful. No matter how fast you are, you won't be able to withstand being covered in poison.”
Gwangyo was a master of palm techniques.
However, he had been poisoned even without directly touching Yo Seoldam’s skin.
The poison had infiltrated his body just from the shockwave of the palm energy and poison clashing.
“That kind of worry is for losers.”
The man smirked and walked in front of Yo Seoldam.
In his anger at losing his younger brother, his already snake-like face turned into that of a viper.
“Who are you!”
“Do I have to tell that to a guy who's about to die?”
Although the man did not mention it directly, Gwangyo felt like he now knew the man’s identity.
The dark navy martial arts uniform and the wing pattern on the sword hilt.
Above all, the dazzling quick sword he had never seen before in his life.
“The World's Fastest Sword…….”
A nickname that had recently spread throughout Jianghu leaked from Gwangyo’s mouth.
‘I thought it was just a groundless rumor…….’
Because the Diancang Sect had not been active externally, Gwangyo had thought that people were just making a fuss.
But after confirming the swordsmanship of the World's Fastest Sword with his own eyes, Gwangyo had to change his mind.
The fellow’s skills are real.
This person will soon become a candidate for the best swordsman in the world.
“Die!”
With a sorrowful and venomous cry, Yo Seoldam extended both his arms.
At the same time, dozens of thin strands shot out from under his sleeves towards Biyoung.
“That's……!”
Even Gwangyo, who always had a mad laugh on his face, had the smile washed away from his lips.
The secret technique that had allowed Yo Seoldam to become the top master of the Green Snake Hall.
A decisive move that he hadn't even shown when fighting Gwangyo was now rushing towards Biyoung.
Shashashashak!
The light was so white and thin that it was like looking at the sun through a fine mesh.
It was when the man was taking a stance to cut the thin lines.
Peobeobeong!
“?!”
Just before the man could draw his sword, the white thin lines exploded on their own.
By the time a look of puzzlement appeared in the man’s eyes, a handful of blood burst out from the exploded thin lines.
Violent Death Blood Mist.
The thin white thread was also a form of snake, and the bloody mist they created as they exploded was a fatal killing move that completely surrounded the opponent.
“This is……!”
Gwangyo regretted not having given the man a heads-up.
It might have been different if he had kept his distance from the start, but there was no way to avoid all of the bloody mist formed at such a close range.
“Damn it…….”
However, the man’s face, which he thought would be full of dismay, seemed to be filled with only a different emotion.
‘He's…… annoyed?!’
In a situation where he was bound to be covered in poison, could such an expression come out?
It was just when that thought was flashing through Gwangyo’s mind.
Bwoooong……!
At first, he thought it was the sound of a mountain bee’s wings.
But that sound was not from a bee, but from the man’s sword.
A sword that had been pushed to the extreme with sword aura and had finally taken on a jet-black color.
Neither Gwangyo nor Yo Seoldam had any experience to know that it was the Vacuum Sword.
Shuaaaak!
The man’s body rotated greatly once.
His sword also followed, rotating once and forming a fearsome current.
The rotating current swallowed everything around it like a whirlwind.
The surrounding grass and tree branches, and even the surrounding wind, were swept into the current created by the man and swirled.
“!”
The Violent Death Blood Mist that Yo Seoldam had shot out was no exception.
The gruesome red mist was helplessly sucked into the man’s current.
Chwaaak!
The man’s sword, which had rotated once, extended in one direction.
Everything in the surroundings that had been swept into the current began to race along the direction of the sword blade.
Towards Yo Seoldam’s chest, the surrounding objects, the clumped poison, and the sword aura contained in the Vacuum Sword flew as one.
Shooting Rotation Reversing Shift.
It was one of the few counterattack techniques of the Sun-Shooting Sword Art.
“Iik!”
Yo Seoldam convulsively swung his sleeves and poured out all sorts of poisons.
But none of them could block the sword aura sent by the man.
Far from blocking it, they were just combined into one lump and added to its force.
‘What kind of ghostly harmony is this!’
At its powerful and astounding might, Yo Seoldam’s long tongue hardened.
Peoeok!
And soon, a sound similar to his brother’s end echoed from Yo Seoldam’s chest.
Teolseok.
With his tongue lolling out, Yo Seoldam’s body slowly crumbled.
Ironically, his brother’s corpse lay beneath his falling body.
“Aigoo. Anyway, those guys who use poison are just annoying.”
The man grumbled as he looked at the two brothers’ corpses.
His expression was as if to say, I avoid you because you're dirty, not because I'm scared.
Then, as if he had just remembered, he trotted over to Gwangyo.
“Sir Gwangyo! As promised, I have returned before your blood ran cold!”
“……You crazy bastard.”
Gwangyo of the Mad Laughing Shoulder Steps.
He had been called a crazy bastard many times, but this was the first time in his life that he had said such a thing to someone else.