The Genius Youngest Disciple of the Wudang Sect

Chapter 58

First kill.

When most people kill for the first time, they suffer a great mental shock.

Especially for those who have lived like flowers in a greenhouse, the shock can be even greater.

Just like our senior brothers.

"Everyone, come here. Hurry."

"......"

I first moved my senior brothers a little away from the battlefield.

"Sit in the shade over there. Your muscles might be surprised from the sudden movement, or you might have been hit by a sword somewhere and not felt it because you were excited. Check carefully to see if you have any injuries."

The senior brothers all sat in the shade, unable to answer my words and just staring blankly.

Their minds must be complicated.

In Taoism and Buddhism, they say that the reason for learning martial arts is to cultivate the body and mind.

In Taoism, to become an immortal by training in martial arts, and in Buddhism, to become a Buddha and enter nirvana.

To be honest, I think such things are hypocrisy.

Because I think that martial arts itself is for fighting and killing opponents.

The reason I came to have this thought is probably because I was born into a third-rate family, thrown into the martial world from a young age, and had to struggle to learn martial arts and fight enemies to survive.

Although they entered Wudang at a young age and learned martial arts, it might be natural for my senior brothers, who were not taught that learning martial arts could eventually mean killing someone.

"The guilt of killing someone, the doubt of whether you learned martial arts for this... I know well that such feelings are dominating your minds right now. But, there's something you have to do first after a fight is over. It's more important than anything else."

When I said this much, my senior brothers' attention finally focused.

I approached them and picked up Senior Brother Uncheol's sword, which was closest to me.

I don't know how many people he had cut and stabbed, but dark red bloodstains were drying on the sword.

"You can come to your senses later. And it's good to rest enough after a fight is over. But..."

I took out a spare piece of clothing from my satchel, tore it, and made a cloth.

And I carefully wiped Senior Brother Uncheol's sword from the bottom to the top.

The blood had dried a little, so I had to put some strength into wiping it, but it still came off well.

"Always make it a habit to clean your sword first. If the blood clots, it won't go into the scabbard properly, and even if it goes into the scabbard well before it dries, if it dries inside, it won't come out well. It may seem like nothing, but at a really important time, it might become awkward to use your sword, and that awkwardness will take your life."

I threw the sword back to Senior Brother Uncheol and threw the cloth to the rest of the senior brothers, and the senior brothers, who seemed like they wouldn't do anything, began to wipe their swords carefully.

That's better.

If you're given something to do and focus on it, things like guilt and what not are bound to fade.

Although the best medicine is time.

"Keep wiping. I'll be back in a moment."

I left my senior brothers and came to the place where the fight had just taken place.

Because when a fight happens, you have to clean up the place and check if there is any useful information.

And I also had to check if the person I had knocked out at the end was okay.

Because if he came to his senses and ran away, it would be useless to have caught him.

Originally, I should have taken my senior brothers to check the scene and taught them how to clean up after a fight.

But if they came to a scene full of corpses in that state of mind, there's a high possibility that they wouldn't be able to come to their senses even more, so it's more comfortable for me to come alone this time.

"He's sleeping well."

I first found the fainted mysterious man and pulled him to one side.

And I climbed a tree, found a thick vine, and tied him tightly to a thick tree.

Since I had knocked this guy out for sure, I could comfortably tell my senior brothers not to chase after the rest.

Because now that I had no choice but to kill the leader, the information the subordinates have will all be the same.

And I counted how many other bodies there were.

"One, two, three... eight, nine."

There were a total of nine bodies lying on the scene, including the leader.

Since I had taken care of four, my senior brothers had taken down five.

Judging from the traces of death, Senior Brother Uncheol had killed two, and the other senior brothers had each killed one.

Everyone's traces are surprisingly clean.

Even Senior Brother Unmi, who I was worried about because his martial arts skills were the weakest, had aimed for the vital points, albeit clumsily, and killed the enemy in one blow.

Because he had trained so hard usually, his true skills came out instinctively even in a real battle.

"At this rate, they won't die helplessly somewhere."

I gathered the corpses scattered here and there into one place, laid them out neatly, and then examined their belongings.

Although the dead tell no tales, there's more to know than you think.

Of course, I won't be able to know exactly why these guys attacked us, but I can roughly find out who they are, what kind of martial arts they use, and so on.

"They all use swords, but... they haven't even formed basic muscles, and only useless muscles are swollen. They've been neglecting their usual training and swinging their swords recklessly."

Most martial artists tend to ignore regular strength training.

Because they think that training muscles through strength training is useless.

They think that it's more beneficial to swing a sword even once more in the time they would spend lifting heavy things and doing bodyweight exercises.

Thinking that their bodies will adapt and grow as they continue to swing their swords anyway.

But, that's a delusion.

The human body is not a doll. All muscles and muscles are complexly connected, and one part of the body affects another.

You have to train all your muscles evenly to have a resilient and strong body.

"It's a level that's ambiguous to even call an Unorthodox Faction. They're no different from back-alley thugs."

Although the leader's internal energy was more outstanding than I had thought, it's a level that can be caught up with in three or four years if you enter a proper sect.

"The level is also just right for attacking the youngest disciples of a sect. They were really aiming for us."

If my senior brothers were ordinary Wudang disciples who hadn't met me, they would have surely met their deaths here.

Although they could have fought quite evenly with the subordinates, they wouldn't have been able to handle that leader.

"This is why I've never heard of my senior brothers' names before."

I thought I knew quite a lot of Wudang Sect Taoists because I was close to Un Gwang, but this was the reason why I had never heard of my senior brothers' Taoist names.

Because my senior brothers who hadn't been trained by me would have died here.

"Damn it. There's nothing to have."

Unfortunately, there were no clues to be obtained from the leader.

It would have been great if he had kindly been carrying a request letter.

I put my disappointment behind me and approached the man who was still unconscious and tapped his cheek.

"Wake up. I told you to stop sleeping and wake up."

Around the time the tapping was turning into slapping.

"Umm..."

The man finally let out a groan and slowly opened his eyes.

Perhaps because of the shock he received when he fainted, or perhaps because of the slapping just now, he frowned at the throbbing headache.

He unconsciously raised his hand to his head, but what can you do? I had tied him up tightly.

"Are you awake now?"

"Huh...?"

Perhaps because he came to his senses at my voice, he was startled, looked at me once, looked around, and then looked at me again.

"Nine of you, including your leader, are dead. Five ran away."

"Ah..."

"So I'm thinking now. Should I kill you, or should I let you live."

"P-Please spare me!"

"But as you know, I can't just let you go, can I? If you give me information that's worth your life, I'll let you live."

"Information...?"

"Isn't it obvious? Who you are, why you tried to kill us, and who ordered you to kill us!"

As I spoke, I got excited without realizing it and raised my voice at the end.

The man, looking at my expression, couldn't answer, and then, when I had calmed down a little, he hurriedly opened his mouth.

"Young hero! Ah, no. Great hero. I can tell you everything else, but I don't think I can tell you who ordered us to harm you, great heroes."

"Why? Is it some ridiculous loyalty, or some unwritten rule of the industry?"

"No! If I knew, I would have told you right away. I don't know, that's why. Who the client is."

"You don't know the client?"

"Yes. I know it was an anonymous request. And even then, our leader knows the details, and a low-ranking person like me just did as I was told."

I was so dumbfounded by the man's answer that I let out a hollow laugh.

"Anonymous? You just go around killing people without even knowing who ordered it?"

"It's because of the money, the money. They didn't tell us who it was, but the amount of money enclosed with the request letter sent by mail was too large."

"How much was it?"

"I know it was two hundred silver taels."

"Two hundred taels?"

I was honestly a little surprised.

Considering that two silver taels are enough for an ordinary commoner's family to live on for a year, and that the monthly salary of a private soldier, who is known to receive a relatively large amount of money, is half a silver tael, you can guess how great the value is.

"That two hundred taels is a down payment, and if we carry out the request properly, they will send another two hundred taels."

"So my head is worth four hundred silver taels?"

"Yes. That's why the guild master sent us here without even finding out who the client was."

I was lost in thought for a moment.

I don't know what kind of bastard it is, but the person who ordered us to be killed seems to be very rich.

To think that he could spend that much money just to kill newcomers who had just come out to the martial world for the first time from the Wudang Sect.

'If you're going to spend money, why not spend it on some proper guys? Why did you give that much money to guys of this level?'

This is also a question. If it were me, if I was going to spend four hundred silver taels anyway, I would have entrusted it to a more proper assassin sect or Unorthodox Faction.

Even the assassin sects that are said to be flying high, like the Cheonsalmun or the Salmak, will kill anyone for a hundred silver taels.

'Well, I can find that out later.'

I finished my thoughts and looked at the man who was looking at me with desperate eyes and said, "You. What's your name?"

"Me?"

"Then is there someone else I'm talking to here? Are you not going to get a grip?"

"Jo, Jong-su. Yeo Jong-su."

"Yes. Jong-su. What's the name of your sect? If you've formed a group like this, you must have a name, right?"

"It's the Geoungbang. It's near Banghyeon."

"Geoung? You named it like a mountain bandit. How many of you are there in total? The ones who came here weren't all of you, right?"

At my question, Yeo Jong-su rolled his eyes.

He's thinking about how much he should say.

I mercilessly hit the man's head.

"Ugh!"

"Don't think about racking your brain. If you keep doing that, I'll keep becoming a bad person. If you don't cooperate properly, you might end up in a situation where you can't even save your life after spilling all the information you know."

"Th-Then if I really cooperate with you with all my heart, will you spare my life?"

"Yes. I promise."

"I understand! I'll tell you everything."

I clicked my tongue inside.

He has no loyalty, no conviction.

It just seems that his own life is the most important.

Well, that's why he would join an Unorthodox Faction and go around harming others.

"Our Geoungbang has a total of forty-one members, and it is composed of three squads: the left squad, the right squad, and the central squad."

"Forty-one members? The number is larger than I thought. That person who died over there must be one of the three captains."

"That's right. We are the left squad. The left squad has fifteen, the right squad has fifteen. And the guild master's direct squad has a total of ten members."

Including the man who is tied up now, ten have fallen, which means that there are thirty-one left, including the guild master.

Of course, that's assuming that the five who ran away returned safely.

"Who is your guild master?"

"If I say the guild master's identity, I will really die. Didn't you promise to spare me?"

"It's not like that guy has superpowers, so how would he know what you're saying here? I won't say I heard it from you, so hurry up and tell me."

"Great hero, please...!"

I frowned and squatted in front of him.

And I looked him straight in the eye and said, "Let's not make me say it twice. Do you still not understand what's going on? If you talk, you might die from that guy, or you might not, but if you don't talk, you'll die from me right now. Do you understand?"

"Heup...! Yes, yes, great hero."

"If you don't answer my question one more time, it's really the end. There's no second time."

Perhaps because of the killing intent I had shot with the sincere intention of killing him, he immediately became obedient.

(End of Chapter)