Emperor Namgung Mu of the Thousand Years - Chapter 43

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#043

 

When I returned to the silver mine, it was completely night.

 

I enter without hesitation.

 

Though the assassin guild is divided into three factions, within them there are countless different colors and factions again.

 

The assassin guild is largely divided into three factions. This is because the characteristics of each faction are so distinct that even the assassins themselves tacitly agree to it. This means that the commonalities among those divided by this classification method are so great that even they can see it.

 

‘How long has it been since I directly confronted the Eclipsenight faction.’

 

Whitenight, which handles one-on-one contract killings, overwhelmingly travels alone, and Darknight, which kills through nighttime ambushes, travels alone or in groups of four at most.

 

But Eclipsenight forms groups of at least eight or more to move, as they construct environments and devices, intimidating and killing targets through various compositions.

 

Assassins are definitely inferior versions compared to martial artists.

 

Though assassins and martial artists both use swords and killing as tools, martial artists still belong to the righteous side with honor and pride as their foundation, while assassins have none of that.

 

In other words, for hypocritical martial artists, assassins are truly mouth-watering, disposable tools that scratch their itchy spots.

 

This time is no different.

 

The position of the reed tubes from earlier, and the poisons that still haven’t been identified.

 

Moreover, the traces of people I definitely couldn’t find despite deliberately detecting with skilled eyes in this field.

 

Decisively, that strange, dirty and vulgar feeling combined with unnecessarily professional and thoroughly meticulous completion – this disgusting coexistence and déjà vu is definitely the work of those who make their living in this field.

 

Absolutely not cheap Green Forest or Black Dao bastards.

 

-Whoosh…!

 

I light a torch and enter the tunnel.

 

The reason I did all this.

 

Eclipsenight definitely can’t match Darknight, let alone Whitenight, in direct confrontation.

 

But the reason they’re not seen as an inferior lower faction but as an equal faction means there are advantages and reasons that can’t be overlooked.

 

When they decide to hide, you can’t find them.

 

Even if you succeed in finding them, the opportunity cost consumed is so enormously great that the number of possibilities becomes completely meaningless.

 

If even one escapes, the resulting variables will spread infinitely like an escaped rat giving birth to more offspring, and with no clear picture of the entire enemy situation, handling it that way wasn’t my style either.

 

Going to each hiding spot one by one as I initially thought – there must be a central hideout where they’re hiding, and if even I can think of it, there’s no way they couldn’t think of it too.

 

The conclusion is one.

 

To wipe them out completely while maintaining this potato vine I caught with difficulty until the end, keeping the vine unbroken and pulling out every single potato without leaving any in the ground, I need to make them come find me first.

 

Then how?

 

How do I make them come looking for me?

 

I don’t know if everything will go according to my plan until the end, but fastening that first button is all too easy.

 

I just need to look weak.

 

-Step.

 

As I go in, I hesitate about once every five steps.

 

I add the behavior of fidgeting while holding the torch. I deliberately look around nervously.

 

If I don’t know where the enemy is or how they’re watching me anyway, I should just not think about methods and move under the premise that the enemy is observing me from the beginning.

 

There’s something my master earnestly taught me.

 

Remember that people are lakes, and for those lakes, the mind is an absolute, unhideable ripple, a wave.

 

No matter how confidently you try to speak, if your mind is broken, your actions and words already carry the wave of drained strength.

 

Conversely, no matter how clumsily you try to act, if your mind isn’t broken, those clumsy-looking actions and words carry an unignorable silent wave.

 

And people, being the same animals, notice this like ghosts without any education. Because we’re the same water bags, the same lakes.

 

-Step.

 

That’s why now is important.

 

Same when I ran away earlier.

 

It’s not about mimicking the exterior.

 

It’s about mimicking the mind and values of the target I want to appear as, and then the actions naturally follow.

 

-Step.

 

In the distance, I can see the torch I dropped before, dimly almost completely extinguished on the ground.

 

That must be the end.

 

That place where I came before, where I discovered the reed tubes and half-destroyed them.

 

If I can’t meet anyone before reaching the half-collapsed tunnel, the timid guy I’m currently acting as has no choice but to retreat.

 

It wouldn’t make sense for a cowardly, weak underling to stubbornly push further into a tunnel that’s been devastatingly destroyed and where the situation hasn’t even been resolved yet.

 

Then this plan fails.

 

About eighty steps left.

 

Actually, I thought they’d attack much sooner than this.

 

What’s this.

 

Am I wrong in my thinking?

 

No. It’s accurate. All of this is definitely Eclipsenight.

 

They must be observing me a bit more, that’s why they haven’t shown themselves yet.

 

-Step.

 

I am now a coward, an underling of the Sichuan Tang Family, a powerless and sickly being buried in menial work.

 

Such a me is interfering with your work.

 

Earlier, wasn’t my face covered with a scarf and wearing fine clothes that made it awkward to actively step forward and kill?

 

But look now.

 

Already annoying, and how nerve-wracking is this laborer approaching?

 

-Step.

 

Less than fifty steps remain to the torch.

 

Still, only darkness is visible in the tunnel.

 

-Step.

 

I must succeed at this.

 

Though I acted nonchalant and confident, the current me has no assets or foundation in this Martial Arts World.

 

I need to lead this to success so that the head of the Sichuan Tang Family will finally see me as someone worth dealing with, and based on that, I can take the first step toward everything I’ve planned.

 

Failing here would be troublesome.

 

That would mean the absolutely unavoidable direct confrontation with my last third nemesis that I absolutely, absolutely cannot fail.

 

Then my heart would die.

 

I couldn’t move forward.

 

-Step.

 

Thirty steps.

 

Now I can see the remnants of the pine cone that’s almost burned out, flickering on the ground.

 

Come out.

 

Hurry.

 

Unless they approach first, I can’t find all the Eclipsenight members who’ve decided to hide.

 

If I go just a little further like this, I’ll have no choice but to pretend to belatedly discover the collapsed tunnel and torch, look around with a fearful expression, then turn back and leave.

 

-Step.

 

Now ten steps…!

 

If I take just one more step, I can no longer pretend not to see the torch on the ground.

 

What are you doing?

 

What are you bastards doing…!

 

Come.

 

Come and bite me.

 

Why are you dawdling, you bastards, bite me right now…!

 

“Damn it, what kind of day is today, why do these fly bastards keep swarming around?”

 

From within the flickering shadows of the torch, three men emerged.

 

In their hands were hammers and chisels, as if they had been cleaning up the area for a while.

 

“Ah.”

 

My expression showing bewilderment.

 

“No, if they died from poison like that, why don’t these Sacheon Party bastards stop sending people and quit making things so tiresome? I’ve got a mountain of work to do because of you, and I got chewed out by the higher-ups to clean you up and get back here.”

 

“Earlier, someone who looked like a spy messed up all our devices…”

 

Then they threw down their tools and drew daggers from their waists, gesturing toward me.

 

“Hey kid. From the looks of it, you seem like a low-ranking disciple of the Tang Family, but don’t resent us. What, did you crawl all the way here thinking there’d be something to eat?”

 

“Obviously, that fancy spy who ran away earlier must have ordered him to scout around. Let’s kill this one. He doesn’t even look worth chasing away.”

 

Then the leader looked at his companions on either side, then at me with a mocking expression.

 

“Haha, you heard that, right? You really have the worst luck. Of all times to catch our attention, it had to be when we’re busy and irritated. We don’t have time to waste on trash like you, so let’s finish this quick-”

 

-Bang!

 

The opponent’s face, caught in my hand, was smashed against the cliff wall.

 

Blood spattering everywhere.

 

Flickering torches.

 

“…!”

 

The remaining two Eclipsenight members stared in shock.

 

Beyond the torchlight, I growled with bloodshot eyes.

 

“Why are you so fucking late, you bastards.”

 

-Crash!!!

 

The leading Eclipsenight member’s head shattered and spun around from my punch.

 

I chased after the opponent falling backward. I drove my knee into his side. My knee dug in, crushing his ribs. Before his scream could even ring out, I struck the face of the crouching opponent, snapping his neck like a top and killing him instantly.

 

“What… what the!”

 

“This bastard, his movements!”

 

The remaining two opponents also drew their daggers and charged at me.

 

They were ready to hack me to pieces.

 

I dodged the first dagger and wrapped around the opponent’s arm. I pulled him in, making him collide with the wrist of the other guy rushing from the opposite side.

 

“Gaaaah!!”

 

Both the stabbed opponent and the one who stabbed hesitated for their respective reasons.

 

I didn’t miss that moment.

 

I leaped up like lightning and brought my elbow down on the crown of the assassin who had stabbed his own ally.

 

“Gurgle…!”

 

He died instantly. As I landed on the ground, I swept my leg like a whip across the floor, and the last assassin got caught in it and tumbled through the air like a paper doll.

 

The tumbling assassin struggled to get up. With his opposite hand, he gripped a dagger while his pierced wrist bled, spitting out curses.

 

“You bastard, do you know who we-!”

 

-Crash!

 

My fist slammed into his mouth.

 

My ankle whipped up to catch the dagger flying through the air and drove it into the opponent’s side.

 

I grabbed the collar of the guy whose eyes were about to roll back.

 

Then I slapped his cheek.

 

“Don’t I know who you are? You’re Eclipsenight faction. I don’t care about the specific group name.”

 

“…!”

 

He didn’t ask how I knew that.

 

Look at him, acting like some assassin and not saying a word.

 

But rather, his belated panicked expression and his attempt to cover it up clearly showed that my answer was correct more than anything else.

 

“And.”

 

I growled at the last surviving assassin whose collar I was gripping.

 

“Do I need to know the identity of assassin bastards who come at me with blades?”

 

“…!”

 

“How many of you are there? Where are the rest? Your methods are straightforward and stupid-looking, so you guys are low-ranking too, right? There must be others somewhere deeper inside from here. Where? And who? If it’s Eclipsenight faction in Sichuan, there are three groups that come to mind – is it those Wol Ak O Seong bastards after all?”

 

“You…”

 

The assassin panted and muttered through glistening blood.

 

“I’ve memorized your face… We will definitely… get revenge for today no matter where you are.”

 

“…”

 

“Acting like you know everything with bits and pieces you picked up somewhere… You’re interrogating me, I see. Huff huff… The world of assassins is vast and infinite… You think what you know is everything? That delusion-”

 

“Yeah. I think it is everything, you bastard.”

 

-Smack!

 

My trained palm whipped across his cheek.

 

“Ugh…!”

 

“Won’t talk? Should I find them myself?”

 

“Pfft, huff… huff…! Bluffing…! Don’t… do it. It won’t work anyway. If we want to hide, if we want to run away, from that moment on, absolutely no one can find or catch us.”

 

“…Is that so?”

 

“Keh… keke. That’s right. So hurry up and choose.”

 

The assassin’s eyes gleamed as he shouted.

 

“Either kill me instead of this useless interrogation, or focus so that your grip holding my collar doesn’t loosen even for a moment…! The instant it gets even slightly loose, I’ll disappear in a flash-”

 

What was shoved into his mouth was a red bottle.

 

“Bite down on this.”

 

“Uh… mmph?!”

 

-Crash!

 

My fist struck his jaw upward, bottle and all, while it was in the assassin’s mouth.

 

The small bottle shattered, and fragments spread throughout the assassin’s mouth along with its contents.

 

“Gaaaah!”

 

“There, done. You arrogant bastard.”

 

“Keh… ah… agh…?”

 

In hellish pain, the assassin who had been clutching his mangled mouth looked at me.

 

Blood was dripping from his mouth and side.

 

I glared at such an assassin.

 

“Go ahead and try running away, you lowly assassin bastard. How dare you say what to a warrior? That you can’t be caught? Didn’t you see my martial prowess just now? With this level of skill difference between us, you provoke me saying I can’t catch you?”

 

I openly stepped back two paces.

 

“Try running to your superiors. I’ll catch you again before that. And I’ll beat you to death like your colleagues who went first. Try it. Think I can’t do it?”

 

“…”

 

The crackling sound of torches echoed through the narrow tunnel.

 

Below that, the shadows of two figures facing each other swayed and danced.

 

-Chuckle.

 

The assassin dripped red blood from the corner of his mouth and muttered quietly.

 

“Warrior. You’re the same after all. Your arrogance and pride in your abilities has made you let go of the last lifeline you could have had…”

 

“What?”

 

“From today onward! You will live your entire life in fear of this darkness, along with your wife and children!”

 

With those words,

 

-Whoosh…!

 

Like dandelion seeds scattering in the wind, the assassin melted away and disappeared into the darkness.

 

Only a pool of blood remained where he had been.

 

“…Wife and children my ass. Damn bastard talking to someone who has no marriage or family…”

 

There wasn’t a trace of panic on my face left behind.

 

The excitement from earlier was gone like a lie, and only ice-cold composure lingered.

 

I picked up the nearly extinguished torch from the ground.

 

I gathered it together with the torch I had originally been carrying.

 

Finally, I looked around.

 

Blood splattered everywhere.

 

That blood was seeping into the ground due to the earthen nature of the tunnel floor.

 

Beside them lay two corpses that had fallen dead.

 

And I swung my hand.

 

-Crack.

 

The moment I crushed and shattered the torch, what came was pitch-black darkness so deep that even waving your hand in front of your face wouldn’t be visible.

 

In that darkness, I muttered quietly.

 

“As expected, what the Sichuan Tang Family made is on a different level from the crude stuff I handled during my days as Salsoo.”

 

-Whooom….

 

Beyond the darkness, one of the countless tunnels that spread like a spider’s web.

 

It was as if luminous pearls had been crushed and scattered.

 

On the dirt floor, bloodstains left here and there were emitting a bluish light.

 

Phantom Illumination Shadow Night.

 

The traces of hazy light that reacted with blood continued in a straight line toward somewhere in the darkness.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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